Hello all, sorry about the Chapter taking so long. Due to school, updates will happen less frequently than you (the reader) and I (the writer) would like. Not to say that I am not working on it, just between everything I am finding it hard to have enough time to work on it. Things will probably get better in a few weeks... (hopefully).
Also, some of you may notice that a certain StarryFaith has been leaving less than pleasing comments on PYCK. Please don't get mad at her, she's just addled. She's my best friend, and unfortunately doesn't quite understand the wonderfulness that is anime and manga. And I mentioned OTPs and she immediately thought it would be fun to taunt people... suffice to say I apologise deeply for her behaviour. Of course I'm sure if you wanted to flame her she'd be more than happy to let you and laugh in the background. And I know she won't likely read much farther in my story, so I doubt she'll read that I called her addled, so please don't mention that to her. Or PYCK might never get finished...
OH!! AND BEFORE I FORGET. I WAS VERY DISAPPOINTED WITH THE LACK OF RESPONSES TO MY CHALLENGE THE LAST CHAPTER!! GO BACK AND LOOK AT IT AND PLEASE DO IT. IT TAKES LITERALLY A COUPLE SECONDS. AND IT HELPS ME WRITE JUST A LITTLE BIT BETTER.
I think that's about all I can say. Except that with Chapter 14 this will officially be my longest amount of chapters and most reviewed story. So thank you all very much. Enjoy!
An hour later Tenten woke up, and couldn't seem to fall back to sleep. Quietly she climbed out of the bed, and smiled when she realised that Lee was still asleep, he could probably sleep through anything.
She padded her way down to the Common Room, where Neji was most likely. She found him seated at a table, while all around him the chairs were put away. The staff, an elderly couple had already cleaned up for the night.
"Neji?" She spoke softly, and he turned to face her quickly, his eyes hardening until he realised it was her. Even though he recognised her, his eyes did not lose the wary look in them. "Neji, I'm sorry…" She began.
"You've said that before," Neji interrupted harshly.
"'Romantic relationships between teammates are discouraged,'" she quoted, feeling her heart sink. "We aren't supposed to be doing this, especially on a mission. I promised I'd stay as long as you needed…"
She was cut off by the urgency of his lips. She heard the chair clatter to the ground behind him, but pushed it out of her mind. When Neji pulled back she sighed. "But this is wrong, Neji… this is just so wrong. This is so complicated… I love you and you love me, but we can't be together except for in secret." She pressed herself into his chest, burying her face in her hands.
"Tenten," she felt rather than heard him rumble her name. "I'm sorry. It's just… lately you seem so distant, like you're leaving me."
"I'm right here, Neji… I've always been," she couldn't bring herself to tell him that she might not always be.
He kissed her fiercely then let her go reluctantly. "Go back to sleep, I'll wake you for your shift."
As she fell back into bed she noticed that Lee was still asleep. With a smile she climbed in beside him, and quickly fell asleep.
It had been a hard two weeks of travel, and it was beginning to tell. Even Lee who usually had boundless energy was quite often exhausted. They'd run into no major difficulties although there had been a few run-ins with some Earth-nin, which luckily had not come to combat although insults had been traded.
It was only last week that Tenten had started wearing her cloak to deal with the cool days, Neji and Lee had teased her for the first few days, but had soon followed suite. This far north, the days were much cooler than they were used to. Konoha, being in the Land of Fire was usually very warm. Everyone agreed that Konoha had only three climates, warm, hot and even hotter.
They'd stopped in one of the many small towns that dotted the Land of Earth for directions, only to find that a storm was expected further north. Lee suggested that they spend the night in the town.
"It wouldn't help any," Neji protested. "The longer we delay, the less likely we'll make it back to Konoha before spring."
"Besides we should be able to deal with a storm if it should come, the locals said that there were a lot of caves along the way that we could shelter in. It's better to cover as much distance as we can," Tenten added.
Reluctantly Lee agreed and the three of them set off. They'd been travelling maybe an hour when Tenten pointed out the dark purple clouds looming a little ways away.
"I think we should find some shelter, it looks like a storm to me. The townspeople mentioned it was quite common for hailstones to be as big as your first here. Neji, do you see any caves?" Tenten asked. Lee looked up at the clouds with a worried glance.
"There's one, a few miles north of here, we can make it if we run," Neji replied shouldering his pack more comfortably so he could run. The three of them took off, running as fast as they dared to and hoping that they wouldn't trip on any stray rocks, if they were to sprain or break anything it would only slow them down.
"It's right there!" Lee pointed out the cave that Neji had been guiding them to. They ran faster, hoping to make it to safety before it started hailing. "Here comes the hail!" Lee yelled.
Tenten barely managed to smother the scream in her throat as she clutched at her shoulder. A chunk of hail had hit her, and it stung like crazy. Without even thinking about it, Neji came to her side and flipped his cloak over her protectively.
They made it, but just barely. From inside the cave she watched as chunks of ice, larger than her head smashed themselves to bits on the rocks outside. "That was close," she breathed. Lee and Neji just nodded.
"I better look at your shoulder," Neji said once they had recovered their breath. Tenten's forehead was dewed with sweat and she looked paler than normal.
"I'm fine," Tenten pulled out of his reach. "It's just a bruise."
"You should let Neji-kun tend you," Lee advised. "I'll set up the tent."
Slightly embarrassed Tenten tried to push her shirt far enough to reveal the bruise but the neck of the shirt wouldn't allow it. With trembling fingers she took off her shirt, now she was bare from the waist up except for the bandages across her chest.
As Neji gently probed the bruise she winced. "I don't think anything's broken," he said at last. "We'll put some salve on it and wrap it. That's about the best we can do." Quickly she pulled on her shirt, biting her tongue when the cloth rubbed over the bruise.
"How long do you think this unyouthful storm will last?" Lee inquired once they had finished setting up the tent.
"Well… as long as it doesn't become a snowstorm or a blizzard, we should be able to leave tomorrow," Tenten said. "Still if it's hailing, there's a good chance we'll get more storms the farther up we go. If we run into a blizzard… well it's safe to say that we'll have a very slim chance of getting back home."
It began to get colder and unconsciously Tenten was shivering so violently that Neji was half-afraid she might fall over. The cold seemed to hit her more harshly, probably because she was smaller and therefore had less body heat. Shinobi were trained to deal with extremes but after all they were still human and their bodies could only be forced so far.
"A—are we k—k—keeping w—watch t—tonight?" Tenten managed to say through her chattering teeth.
"No, it's highly unlikely anyone will brave the storm to get here. The traps will do for tonight," Neji replied. "We may as well go to sleep and wait the storm out."
"Okay, Neji-kun!" Lee said enthusiastically and headed into the tent. Tenten followed him instantly, eager to get into her bedroll as quickly as possible. It was slightly warmer in the tent although not by much.
Everyone quickly settled down into their respective bedrolls and tried to sleep. He could still hear the small chattering of teeth that came from Tenten, and the rustle of sheets that meant she was still shivering.
Lee was already asleep, but with his continued presence in the tent Neji could not simply allow her to crawl into his sleeping bag with him to keep her warm. With a sigh he ruffled through his pack and threw a couple extra blankets over top of her.
As Neji climbed back into his bedroll, Lee's voice broke the silence. Maybe he had only been feigning sleep after all. "There's something going on between you and her, isn't there?" Lee questioned sleepily.
"Hn," Neji said. Neither denying nor agreeing, still Lee went on as if he'd answered yes.
"I don't know what," Lee confessed. "And I won't tell anyone. Just if you hurt her… I'll beat you, genius or not." There was determination in his voice, more than he'd ever heard before. With that the taijutsu specialist drifted off into slumber.
"I can't promise not to hurt her, just by being with me I've hurt her. There are some promises you can't keep."
Another four weeks passed, filled with rough travelling through the mountains of the Land of Earth. Much to their joy they'd been able to leave that morning, because the storm had blown over sometime during the night.
Tenten's bruise faded away during those weeks of travelling. Neji insisted on checking on her bruise each night as if he were personally responsible for it. Now that it was gone they no longer had an excuse for those short unguarded minutes together.
The weeks melded into a steady pace and they ran into no further difficulties after the storm, though there was frost every morning when they woke up. The threat of snow that the frost brought with it pushed them to travel all that much faster.
One morning they passed the mountain known as Kita, the mountain furthest north in the Land of Earth. It was the last 'actual' mountain that they would pass; still this mountain sheltered the only pass that would let them get to the Town of Notori where they were supposed to meet their contact.
Upon seeing Mount Kita, their spirits were uplifted it signified that their mission was almost done. The three of them slowly entered the pass, a bit more wary than usual as the pass was a perfect place for an ambush to happen.
It was just past noon when they ran into another group of shinobi, a large gathering of Earth-nin who purposely blocked the pass. "Look what we have here, three little Leaf-nin," A tall, fat man commented to his fellows. "You aren't lost or something, right?" The man sneered. "Last I checked, Konoha was further south."
"We're on a mission from the Hokage," Lee announced.
"Ooh look it here, you've got a girl with you. Obviously it ain't an important mission if the Hokage sends a kunoichi on the trip. Why don't you head back home then kiddies?"
"I happen to be the Weapons Mistress of Konoha," Tenten sniffed. "Besides we kunoichi work harder than you men ever do. After all you're not the ones who get sent out on seduction missions."
The man guffawed loudly. "It seems to me that you men here have too much woman to handle."
"We have forms from Iwagakure giving us permission to pass through," Neji continued, ignoring the interruption.
"Let me see them," the man laughed.
Reluctantly Neji handed over the form, watching as the man examined it. "Bah, that's a shame…" The man grumbled. The man handed the sheet back to Neji. "Hmm… still. This here is our land, foreigners don't pass through here or we…" The man dragged his finger across his neck. "If you get my meaning," as his lips curled at the edges.
"Perhaps you could be… persuaded to think otherwise?" Neji casually tossed a pouch of coins in his hands.
"Depends on how much, we're open to negotiation."
"Does this sound good?" Neji waved a handful of bills in front of himself. When the man reached for it with greedy eyes, Neji pulled the bills out of reach. "Is this enough to get us there, and back?"
"Sure…" the man said, grabbing for the bills. Neji handed the money over, but not without a look of contempt on his face.
Once they were out of earshot, Tenten growled. "Stupid, stupid men!" Then as abruptly she continued, "Still it's a good thing that Tsunade-sama gave us that money for bribes, isn't it?"
"Hn," Neji responded.
"Excuse me," Tenten began politely to a stranger. "Would you happen to know where I could find Minoru Yamada…"
"Sorry, never heard of him," The man interrupted and walked off. This was not the first time this had happened to her, no one seemed to know where to find this Yamada-san! They'd braved hailstorms only to find that the man they needed to deliver their message to was nowhere to be found.
"Maybe we're just not looking in the right places…" she sighed to her teammates as they stood a distance off. This was the second day of searching and the town was admittedly rather small. It shouldn't have been that hard to find the man.
"Where should we look, Tenten-san?" Lee asked.
"I don't know," Tenten exclaimed. "All I know is that this man is damned impossible to find. Are you sure his name is Minoru Yamada?"
"It's written plain as day on the mission assignment…" Neji responded tiredly, this was not the first time she'd asked. But he understood even he was frustrated by their inability to find the man.
They trumped grumpily to a different inn that night, worn out by their searching. This inn was of the same quality as the other inn. Though the common room was larger, but not by much. The man at the desk glanced up; his face lined with age and the harsh weather.
The man glanced them over and then addressed Neji, "I'm terribly sorry, sir. I only have one room left, I just rented out the second room to Yamada-san."
"Yamada-san?" Tenten perked up. "Minoru Yamada-san?"
"Yes…" the innkeeper appeared puzzled. "Do you know Yamada-san?"
"We were looking for him to pass on a business proposition," Neji smoothly covered. "Not on our behalf but on our master's," Neji added when he caught the questioning look from the innkeeper.
The innkeeper handed Neji the key to their room although not without a certain amount of reluctance, still money was money. After dropping their stuff off in the room, Tenten eyed the two remaining doors.
"Behind one of those doors is Yamada-san…" she muttered. "I wonder which one?"
The door on the left opened abruptly and a distinguished man exited. He looked wealthy, and he seemed awkward in this setting. He seemed more suited to a noble lifestyle. He brushed past them and was about to descend the stairs when Lee called out.
"Excuse me!" Lee said loudly, "Might you be Yamada-san?"
The man seemed to take a second look at them, and noticed their forehead protectors. 'Not here…' the man mouthed, then spoke out loud. "I'm sorry you must be mistaken, there is no Yamada-san here."
"I'm terribly sorry," Neji apologised. "We merely mistook you for someone we knew."
The man continued downstairs and vanished from sight. Why would the man not want the message now? The only reason she could think of, would be that it was a matter of intelligence and spies, but that would have been in the mission description… unless of course the legendary Tsunade-sama was drunk that day…
With a sigh she downed her glass of water, drinking on missions was like inviting something bad to happen. The meal was passable, though she'd had better. Yamada-san returned as they were eating and briefly stopped to talk with the innkeeper.
She couldn't see much of it from where she was seated, but she saw him lightly bump into Neji on his way through the common room. "Watch it, kid!" Yamada-san said roughly and shoved Neji.
As Lee helped his teammate up off the floor, inwardly Tenten bristled at the way the man had treated Neji. Neji paid for their meal and the three of them went upstairs. Neji politely knocked on the door to Yamada-san's room.
Yamada-san opened the door and quietly shooed them in. He cautiously threw a glance about his room and then began to talk. "My apologies earlier, I'm almost constantly being followed. I'm Minoru Yamada. You do have the scroll?"
"We do," Neji replied. "And why would you be followed?"
"Well the Tsuchikage thinks that I am receiving and delivering intelligence reports to spies from Konohagakure… which I am. If the Tsuchikage were to find out… well my life is forfeit. Which is why I'd like for you to deliver a message to the Hokage for me…"
Neji handed the scroll over to the nervous man, and received a different document in return. With that unnoticed exchange of documents, Team Gai was now free to return home… if only they could make it before winter closed the mountain passes back to Konoha.