Ch.10.: An Avenger's Call

The next day the second part of the exams began. The day was pretty nice, but the mood was tense. Training grounds 44 was only a place Neji had heard about once that she had overheard some Hyugas having way too much fun with a sake bottle. One had dared his fellow jounin to spend the night in the forest of Death and the man had promptly declined it.

They had to fill in a form so in case they died, Konoha held none of the responsibilities. Whereas she had expected something like that, having the paper in her hands made the whole ordeal more real. Neji signed her name and, along with her team, they collected their scroll. An earth one. They were assigned gate 41 which luckily wasn't the farthest away.

At two o'clock, the chunin guard in their gate unlocked it, standing there. At 2:30 pm, he retired from their gate, opening the door. Only a blur was seen before they were already deep in the forest.

Their team, at a great speed, ran through the treetops.

"Don't get so hasty, Lee. It has only begun." Neji commented.

"I know but, I can't stay still when thinking of the strong enemies that await us." Was his heated response. Neji scoffed lightly though it held no bite.

"Hot-blooded fool."

The girl found them a cave semi-hidden by bushes to spend the night in and they proceeded to find some food as the first thing on their list.

"Lee, you fish something, I'll hunt something more and Neji, you look for some berries, okay?" Tenten said as he twirled a kunai between his fingers. Neji had never liked being ordered around but complied.

They had cooked all the meat when the sun was still high and far away from their cave. Once it was all cooked, they drank enough water and filled their bottles before grabbing everything and returning to their hiding spot just before the last rays of sun disappeared. Several screams had been heard but none of them were too close nor familiar to them.

"Tomorrow, early morning we begin." Neji said as they dined in complete darkness inside the cave.

The rabbit they had earlier cooked was cold by now but the berries she had collected made the meal closer to complete and more bearable.

Neji did the first watch, with her Byakugan active for five minutes with a 10-minute span of rest. She was not aware of the time but about three hours later she woke Tenten up. The girl, once her teammate had taken his position, laid where he previously had and fell into a deep slumber.

Tenten repeated the process giving his position to Lee at about 2:00 in the morning and then, occupying the spot his bushy-browed teammate had left behind as he also fell into a dreamless sleep.

The morning coolness licked the girl's uncovered skin, and she inwardly cursed the fact that she wore short sleeves and shorts. It was enough to wake her up. She slightly shook Tenten's shoulder, and the boy groggily propped himself up with a groan. It was at that moment when Lee decided to make an apparition.

"Oh, my youthful teammates, I was about to wake you up." He declared cheerily.

The sky was still dark when they lifted their temporary camp and, once they left no traces of their stay there, reunited to discuss what to do next.

"We were able to secure food and water during the first 12 hours and right now there should be a ton of teams resting." If her calculations were correct, it would be about 5 or 6 in the morning and each of them had a good four-hour sleep. "As planned, we will use this time to our advantage. We will separate and scout the area." Her teammates listened intently. "However, whether you see another team or not…" the girl stood up and embedded a kunai in the dirt before them. "Come back here. Got it?"

Tenten straightened himself from the tree he was leaning in. "Okay" Lee made a military salute from his crouching position before speaking. "Roger."

The three of them stood up and Neji raised her bandaged arm

"Yosh," the girl said. "Break!"

Neji made her way to a clearing. It was already early morning, and she had found a team. Her eyes narrowed as she approached, kunai in hand.

"Stop hiding and come out." she commanded.

Behind those bushes hurried whispers were interchanged between the trio.

"But we hid as fast as possible." Ino said incredulously.

"Geez, a troublesome woman found us." Shikamaru groaned as Ino scoffed.

"Plan 1 –Hide and avoid trouble-, failed! Now that this happened, we have to execute Plan 2.1."

"What? Really?"

"N-no, Ino, please…not 2.1." was Shikamaru's stuttering response.

"What, you have a problem with that? It will work for sure." The girl assured them.

They ran out of the bushes and took their positions.

"Oh my! How lucky of us to find here last's year number one rookie, Hyuga Neji-sama, here!" Ino squeaked.

"C-can I have your autograph?" Shikamaru added embarrassed.

"Oh" Neji sighed as she began turning around. "It's just you three."

Ino gave Shikamaru a look and he actually looked as he wanted to cry. He stepped in front, untied his hair and swung it by his side.

"I-I've always wanted to see you once…"

"Begone."

Shikamaru sighed relieved, red from the humiliation. However, Ino did not take it that well.'How dare that bitch not pay attention to my acting, or even daring to turn Shika down like that! Agh, now I'm angry! Kuso!'she began pumping her fists towards Neji's back, but the Hyuga was having none of it.

"You're raising your fists towards me. Does that mean you want to fight?" her icy voice asked, still giving them her back.

The blonde fangirl straightened looking afraid but managing to get the words out.

"N-no, not at all…"

"Then begone," she ordered, glaring at them through narrowed eyes. "Even if I take the scroll from cowards like you, I'll just become the laughingstock of the village."

Without wasting another second, they returned to their hiding spot behind the bushes. Their action made Neji scoff at them.

"They're like cockroaches."

Her scanning of the area continued as she barely used the Byakugan, storing her chakra for the rest of the day. Her round continued until the time to rendezvous came.

Neji arrived and only had to wait a minute or less before Tenten did.

"Huh? Lee's not here?" the boy asked looking at his surroundings for the green-clad boy. Neji shook her head, her furrows deep.

"He's late, that Lee…" Tenten sighed. "Something's wrong. He's always on time." The boy pointed out before glancing at his teammate. "Maybe he encountered an enemy…Did he?!"

Neji's closed eyes opened before letting out a soft chuckle.

"That's not possible." Were her words accompanied by a smile. That caught Tenten kind off guard. The fact that Neji was confident on Lee's abilities to some degree whereas most of the time the girl did not show it, that is. "Anyways," she added with a frown. "let's look for Lee."

"Okay."

Both gennin ran at great speed, following Lee's trace of chakra with Neji's Byakugan and worried expressions on their faces.

It did not take her too long to spot Lee's unconscious form, laying on the ground in front of the pink-haired girl who's chakras reserves were almost gone.

"Neji, what do you see?"

"Something bad, Tenten we gotta hurry up."

With her bloodline limit activated she could see the previous third rate gennin that had recurred to ass-kissing to save their assess. Their jutsus, she noted with interest, were good but not as good as their teamwork. Still, they were full of flaws. Her attention focused on the still forms behind Sakura and Lee. The first one was the blond whose unconscious state was most likely due to chakra depletion. The other one, however, she recognized perfectly well. Sasuke's chakra was flaring strangely, a chakra foreign to his body was flowing freely through it.

They made it on time to hear the bandaged sound nin saying.

"-blood from her mouth, it looks like that if we kill Kin, that girl will die too."

"Would you kill your own teammate?" the pineapple-haired boy asked incredulously.

"If we have to, yes." The other one answered, a wicked glint in his eyes. He raised his hand towards the lying form of their teammate, who according to what Neji had gathered, was possessed by the blonde fangirl.

The lazy boy struggled, trying to think of something before groaning "This is over"

The remaining sound shinobi prepared to finish them off.

"Close, you almost had us." One spoke.

"You let your guard down." The other one added.

"How disgusting."

Everyone on the clearing looked up to see Neji and Tenten, standing atop a tree branch. The look on the girl's face was one of anger.

"You bucolic nonentities think you're all that, just because your sonic powers…" her icy words sounded clear and cold throughout the now silent clearing. "Were strong enough to whump these novices!"

"What?" the now enraged bandaged nin said, narrowing his eyes.

"Lee!" Tenten suddenly exclaimed by her side once he spotted their fallen teammate. Neji had only seen him through her Byakugan, so once she spotted him in his disarrayed state, anger bubbled inside her.

"It looks like he screwed up." the girl hissed.

"You guys just keep coming out like roaches!"

"That bobbed haired kid is in our team" Neji's calm voice began, the anger of them calling them roaches and having left Lee like that slowly overpowering her. "Looks like you went overboard with him!" she yelled, her Byakugan activating on its own.

Everybody stared in awe and fear at the sight of the pultruding veins around her eyes. "If you're going to continue to fight, we will fight with everything we have."

Her hand already was on a hand seal, preparing to jump down and avenge Lee. Tenten also was ready with kunai in hand until she felt something. Her Byakugan deactivated and her eyes widened before Tenten noticed her sudden stiffened posture and dropped his kunai. Through her Byakugan she could see the strange chakra flowing with more intensity than before through the Uchiha's body.

"What is it, Neji?" the boy asked worriedly.

The other nin, completely unaware of that, spoke.

"If you don't like what we're doing stop showing off and come down here!"

"No," she forced herself to smirk on that situation. "It seems there's no need for me to do that."

In front of three teams a tough demeanor was essential, a clear message of 'do-not-mess-with-me' but even then, it was turning out to be a bit difficult to keep her façade in that situation. Especially if Tenten showed enough for both of them. Lee, a person who she had grown to consider as close as a friend was gravely injured and, the other who, at some point, she had como to consider a brother, was laying on the ground, a dangerous chakra engulfing him.

The rest of the nins seemed to suddenly notice the powerful chakra emanating from Sasuke and their faces actually showed a mix of apprehension and fear.

The powerful chakra surrounded Sasuke with more intensity than before as he slowly stood up, arms hanging limply in front of him, like a ragged doll. The chakra was powerful enough to send its malicious waves, making everyone feel it.

"Sakura." Sasuke spoke.

Tenten's eyes were big and were waiting with anticipation for his next move. It was like a deadly animal, enhancing and sending chills down your spine but one couldn't just tear their gazes apart.

Under her emotionless mask, however, her mind was rushing, analyzing the whole situation.'What has happened to you, Sasuke?'

"Sakura." Sasuke called again, earning a soft gasp from the beaten-up girl.

"Who did that to you?" was his question. Even if with his voice it was more than evident the hate he felt at that moment, the chakra played its part, conveying the Uchiha's feelings through malicious waves as it made its wicked pattern visible on Sasuke's flesh.

"Sasuke-kun…your body…" the disarrayed girl noted.

The Uchiha's attention changed to his own hand as he stared at it with surprise.

"Don't worry. More importantly, I can feel the power surging inside me…I am feeling good right now."

"What is that, Neji." Tenten whispered by her side, his gaze still stuck to what laid under them.

"…I…do not know, Tenten." Was her mumbled reply.'Snap out of it, Uchiha!'

"He gave it to me." Sasuke said, the Sound nin voicing her thoughts.

"Who?"

"I finally understand now, I'm an avenger." And those three words were enough for Neji to widen her eyes if only slightly.

Those words snapped something inside her and all the memories came more vividly to her. "You will live and train and…do what you must. Make them pay. Take revenge." Were the words she had uttered to Sasuke the first time they had met. Two lonely orphans that had met by fate's will accompanied by bitter words bonded them.

Of course, the bond would later change to one of true friendship, but the beginning of all had been that. Her convictions were in the same place they had been when she had met him 3 years ago, her plans on making the Main Branch pay still embedded in her skull but she had never meant for him to recur to forbidden methods. The reason they had trained for two years was with the initial objective to achieve their goals through their strength alone and, to say she was disappointed in Sasuke for recurring to whoever had granted that, was an understatement.

"I must obtain power no matter what, even if I must let the devil take hold of my body." Was the end of his rant.'How could you have fallen this low?'

"Now say it, Sakura. Who the hell hurt you?!"

The fallen kunoichi kept her mouth shut, but who spoke was the Sound nin with a smirk on his face.

"I did!"

The other gennin must have sensed the danger since the one holding the girl's body urged his team to hide.'Smart boy.'

"Shouldn't we go down and grab Lee?" Tenten asked her, his worried gaze falling over Lee' still form.

"No, if we were to interfere his attention would focus on us and-" her explanation was interrupted by a blast on the clearing. The cocky sound nin was expelling a great gust of wind from his hands with a devastating force. The force was so strong that it nearly threw them off the branch and she had to cover her face with her arms. Once it was over, the girl quickly activated her Byakugan but found that the targets of the attack were nowhere near the vicinity, instead Sasuke was behind the guy.

With one powerful strike, Sasuke sent the guy flying till the other side of the clearing, the fallen genin laying on the floor, a shocked expression painted all over his face.

The Uchiha, showing no mercy, threw a jutsu of fire but once the sound nin dissipated it, shuriken came flying towards him instead of the fireballs. The distraction was enough for Sasuke to pin the nin to the floor, holding him by his arms.

Sasuke's mouth contorted into a wicked smirk as he placed his foot on the nin's back, still holding the arms in place.

Realization dawned on Neji as she realized what he was going to do.

"You seem to be proud of your arms." Sasuke began, pressing his foot harder against the man's back.

"Stop it!" the man begged.

Sasuke pressed harder, and harder until…SNAP!

The sickening sound of bones cracking echoed through the clearing.

And that was when she knew she had lost him.

Neji woke up finding herself on a hospital bed. Her whole body was aching, but all came to her.'A mission…too much blood loss, I…lost consciousness?'

"Oh, Hyuga-san, good to see you up, I was just going to check up on you." Shizune said smiling as she walked through the door.

"H…how long was I out?" Neji asked, her voice crooked due to her dry throat.

"A good three days. It seems you had chakra depletion apart from the blood loss, and a concussion on your head. Your cousin told me you had been on a mission with her some days ago and had not had enough rest." The medic nin reproached her. "You are ready to leave this afternoon after I make run some tests. Also, you'll be given a week to rest up well so we can have you on top form again."

Neji nodded in understanding.

"Thanks, Shizune-dono."

"Oh, no need to be so formal, Neji-san, though you're welcome." The black-haired chuckled before adding on a more serious note. "Also…do you have recurrent nightmares?"

Neji got a bit taken aback by the question but answered anyways.

"No, I don't. Why?"

"Oh, well, it's only that during your stay here you kept wriggling and seemed to not be having pleasant dreams." Shizune commented before grabbing her clipping board and granting the Hyuga a last smile. "Well, anyways a nurse shall come and release you in a few minutes, see you and rest well during this week off."

Neji nodded her head and offered a smile of her own before Shizune exited the room closing the door behind her.

The Hyuga was left pondering. She remembered a bit of what she had been dreaming. Those weren't dreams, they were memories.

Memories of the first time she had met the now rogue Uchiha, their last time talking and some memories of her team and the chunin exams. Since their first meeting, almost seven years had passed by, she noted.

Not two seconds later a blur of green came rushing in her direction.

"Neji!" Lee held her in a tight embrace, tears sliding down his cheeks.

"L-lee…I…can't…!"Neji struggled to free herself from the bone-crushing embrace as she fought to breathe.

"Lee, you brute, let her go! She can barely breathe." Tenten exclaimed from the door.

At this, Lee quickly freed her with a gasp of shock.

"Oh, my youthful rival, I am so sorry!" the hyper boy exclaimed. Neji had to swallow a wince since the rest of her bandaged body was still bruised and sore.

"Glad to see you're alright." Tenten said as he walked towards her.

"It was nothing serious, just chakra depletion." Neji told him.

"Yeah, I know. And blood loss, a head concussion and sleep deprivation." Tenten added with a knowing smirk as Neji glared at him. "It was these two knuckleheads who were worried sick." The boy said with a laugh.

"Two?"

"Neji!" Another blur launched at her, but Tenten stopped him in time.

"Can't you two stay put?" Tenten groaned.

Tamaki had stayed as chunin at his 18 years.

"Hehe, sorry." Both boys apologized sheepishly, rubbing the nape of their necks.

"Oh, Tamaki, one of your teammates came looking for you. Apparently, they needed your help with one of the reconstructions." Tenten suddenly informed, taking the paper where the direction was written down from his pocket and handing it to the boy.

"I had almost forgotten! See you later guys, get well Neji!" the boy said before rushing outside.

Neji shook her head in amusement.

"How are the reparations going?" Neji asked.

"Oh, still going, still going. Lord Danzo still isn't back." Tenten said.

"Hn."

"I swear he's a slave driver! During his first days as Hokage he kept sending us on missions without rest plus the help reparations. Now he leaves and the person he leaves in charge is way worse!" her teammate grumbled. "No wonder you had sleep deprivation."

Neji let out a small grunt but kept quiet.

"Now, on a more serious note." Tenten said, all the playful traces leaving his face as he leaned over her, his mouth mere inches from her ear. "There are rumors that a falcon came yesterday to Konoha, informing of Danzo-sama's death."

At this Neji's brows furrowed.

"And it said Sasuke was responsible for it."