All the reviews are wonderful, guys. ^_^ You all know how rewarding it is for a writer when people actively say they like a story. As some of you have been told, GWTW has been planned and, currently, will update one per week, usually on Mondays. I am in no way tying myself to that schedule, however. Updates might be early or late, depending on my inspiration and schedule. For example, this week, the update was late.

Now, on to the next chapter.

Disclaimer: As always, I do not own the characters and universe of Naruto.

Chapter Three – Unexpected Circumstances

It was an ambush.

The three Konoha shinobi groaned as their tired, battered forms hit the leafy forest ground, the wind knocked out of them. Tenten was the first to recover as tshe was the least fatigued out of the three, rolling onto her back and throwing three kunai in the surrounding trees. She didn't hope to hit their attackers, only perhaps keep them off them for a few more precious seconds while her teammates recovered. Several feet away, Lee recovered his senses and twisted his body out of the way just in time to evade a chain that had shot out of the trees, a blade attached to the end of it.

"There!" Tenten yelled, on her knees now. As she rose, she let loose a hail of senbon, aiming for the direction the weapon had appeared from.

"Tenten!" she suddenly heard Neji cry and the sound of swishing fabric reached her ears. Instinctively, she fell to one knee as they'd practiced, seeing Neji's chakra dome appear around them as he skidded to a halt beside her and, using his momentum, shielded her with the Kaiten from what must have been a shower of rocks. As he pulled out of the spin, she rose and stood back to back with him, Lee joining them. The three shinobi held a kunai at the ready, their eyes scanning the trees around them. The explosion had taken out several trees, leaving them in a makeshift clearing scattered with semi-burnt chunks of wood. Tenten wasn't sure if her teammates had been injured; there had been no time to check. She could feel her shoulder burning wildly from where a large splinter of wood had entered it but, apart from that, she could only count some shallow wounds and small bruises, perhaps a light burn on her cheeks. Beside her, she could feel lee shaking, perhaps from his previous injuries, perhaps from fresh ones. Neji she could tell wasn't shaking, but she was surprised to hear him pant. Until she realized that she, too, was having trouble catching her breath.

"How many?" Lee asked in a quiet voice, arms raised in a ready fighting position.

"Four." He answered, his voice breathless. It suddenly struck Tenten that he must have been using his Byakugan and perhaps that was straining him. After all, out of the three of them, he had expended the most chakra. She wasn't sure if he'd recovered enough for this fight. She wasn't sure for any of them. "They bear the headband of the Sound. One at two o' clock, two at six and one at eight."

"Yosh! Let us complete our mission!" lee exclaimed, leaving his two teammates and running at insane speed towards the enemy at two o clock.

"Lee!" Tenten called as the earth in front of him rose, but the taijutsu- expert simply used it as a foothold to launch himself into the trees.

"Watch it!" Neji hissed as the ground beneath their feet suddenly cracked open. The two ninja leaped out of the way in time, Tenten having to avoid the chained weapon again. With a cry, she leaped into the air, twisting and twirling as she called upon her summoning scrolls, whirling her favorite kusarigama. She avoided the blade again, leaping on top of the chain and running along its length towards her opponent. The chain under her sandaled feet sudden fell slack and she leaped off, taking to the branches to face her opponent.

The kunoichi found herself faced with two women of approximately twenty years of age, so alike they could have been siblings. They both had long, sandy hair tied back in a ponytail and dark brown eyes. More importantly, both wore an enraged snarl on their lips.

As Tenten swung her weapon of choice, one countered it with another chain, holding her in place, while the other drew back and formed seals. Shit. Tenten thought as she barely leaped out of the way in time to avoid getting crushed as another tree fell over, right where she had been standing. She drew several kunai and threw them with force at her opponents. She noticed that, whil the sister bearing the chain used her weapon to parry the kunai aimed at her, her sister had to dodge. A weapons user and a ninjutsu user.She concluded, a slight smile touching her lips. Bending her knees, she leaped into the air once more, blocking the chain with a kunai and twisting, her scrolls twirling around her.

"Rising Twin Dragons!" she proclaimed, a large number of summoned kunai, sendon and shuriken thrown at the two kunoichi. She sent only a few weapons at the weapons mistress, only enough to force her to have to parry. The bulk of her arsenal she kept for the ninjutsu expert, who had to dodge frantically. Several weapons grazed her and two senbon and a shuriken found their mark, wounding her, but not terminally.

At least, that's what it seemed. Because the senbon had been poisoned.

Tenten watched with grim accordance as the senbon that had landed near her heart was yanked out, a shriek released from the woman. She began to form seals, but was unable to complete her jutsu as her limbs began to lock in paralysis. Tenten drew her katana and lunged for her, but had to draw back as she kunoichi's sister ran to her defense, kicking Tenten out of the way. The bun-haired Konoha ninja moaned as her enemy's boot connected with her back, where she'd been slashed only the previous night. Overcome with pain, she fell towards the forest floor, hearing two screams above her head. Vaguely, the sound of 'Air Palm!" reached her ears and strong arms caught her before she could hit the ground.

She winced as Neji set her on her feet, only glancing at her. "You OK?"

"Yes." The battlefield didn't allow for more communication than that.

"I managed to get them by surprise. It seems the one wielding the chained weapon is out, but the other one is still alive." He told her, his lavender eyes unblinking. The veins around them had bulged out, but they seemed to be throbbing, as if it was taking far more than usual to sustain the Byakugan. Both their panting had gotten far worse, Tenten noted automatically, and he was bleeding from the stabs in his back again. From the warm trickle against her back, she might have broken her stitches, too.

"Wait!" Neji said suddenly, eyes narrowing. At the same time, the dust under their feet rose into a choking cloud, blocking their vision. |

A smokescreen.Tenten realized, her eyes watering and she had to cover her mouth. She coughed involuntarily and, apparently, it was the only thing her opponent needed.

"Down!"Neji suddenly yelled right in her ear and, unable to think, she did as he commanded, gasping as the rapid spin of his chakra cleared the air and shielded her from the incoming kunai. With a snarl, the Hyuuga leaped off the ground and into the trees, leaving her crouched amidst the leaves.

Apparently, their attacker hadn't counted on the Byakugan. As Neji appeared in front of her, thistle eyes flashing in anger, she lost her footing as she tried to back away. It was all Neji needed. The young man landed in front of her and spread his arms and legs, tilting slightly forwards in his familiar stance. His eyes met the surprised ones of the kunoichi before him before he struck, faster than a snake.

"Eight Triagrams, sixty four palms!" he called as nimble fingers struck the woman's body, sealing off the chakra points in her body closest to her vital organs. The enemy was propelled into a tree behind her from the momentum of the hit, leaving an imprint in the tree bark. "Juuken!" Neji snarled, slamming his palm against the kunoichi's chest, making blood spurt out of her mouth and his opponent drop dead at his feet.

The Hyuuga stood for a moment, his limbs shaking. One quick survey with his Byakugan showed that no more fighting was going on and, in relief, he deactivated his Byakugan, feeling how his eyes were burning from his use of the bloodlimit. As he dropped down to Tenten, he stumbled out of chakra depletion, having rarely felt so entirely spent. His wounds ached and, during his fight with his own opponent, he'd acquired a fresh cut across his chest.

Tenten didn't seem to be much better off. From the way she was still crouched on the floor, she was exhausted and could barely move. Now that the adrenaline from the fight had worn off, both of them felt how tired they really were. The burns on their faces from the explosion stung.

"Here. Let me." Neji said, pulling Tenten to her feet and motioning to the wood splinter in her shoulder.

"Lets find Lee first." She disagreed, straightening without his help. Like him, she was panting and wanted nothing more than to sit down, rest and tend to her injuries, but her worry for her teammate came first. Neji nodded in agreement and the two ran towards the direction Lee had gone in despite the heavy mantle of fatigue weighing down on their shoulders.

When they reached the fresh clearing, there was no sign of their green-clad teammate. Starting to worry, the two hurried through, looking for him here and there. As they entered the trees on the other side, they soon came across the last Stone-nin lying in a small crater in the ground. From the angle his head was in, Tenten surmised that his neck had snapped on impact.

Neji hardly spared the enemy shinobi a glance as he pressed forwards, his eyes only looking for his teammate.

Several paces ahead, they found him.

"Lee!" Tenten screeched as she saw her teammate lying against a tree, his head slumped forwards. She was frozen in place for a moment, her amber eyes wide and disbelieving as she could only stare at him, at their teammate, lying so still.

Neji was frozen for a moment as well, but her shriek broke the spell. His foot digging into the ground, he shot forwards and was at his side in seconds, checking with trembling hands for a pulse. He wasn't surprised when he didn't find one, however. As he approached, he saw the way Lee's eyes stared blankly into his lap, saw the blood still trickling from the slash in his throat.

The Hyuuga fell to his knees in front of his teammate, his hand limp against the young man's neck, still slightly warm, with cool blood running down his fingers. His pale eyes were wide and shocked, staring at his friend and comrade disbelievingly. Behind him, Tenten's mouth had dropped open subconsciously, her expression mirroring Neji's.

Neither moved.

Author's Note:That was a bit less dramatic than planned, but I thought you might be tired with the constant battle scenes. I promise this is the last one for the duration of this fanfiction, not counting any spars that might occur later on.

This is where the plot reallystarts to unfurl.

As always, reviews are more than welcome and I hope you have enjoyed the story so far. ^_^

Look forward to the next chapter, Unbearable Anguish! ( 6 – 13 – 11)