FicWad

TenTen ran as fast as she could next to her teammates. Lee was ahead of her and Neji, being able to go faster. Neji called for him to fall back with them, but he wasn't listening. The smoke rising from the ground up ahead was preventing him from doing what his teammates said. The smoke was rising from a village not far away. They'd spent the last couple days there, guarding the daimyo. They'd only left for a minute to escort the daimyo to another village where other ninja were waiting to protect him. All they had left to do was pick up their things and go. But now everything had changed. Something terrible had happened. Right now they only hoped that the people were okay. Even Neji had gotten to know them a bit while they were there and had become attached to them all.

As TenTen approached the burning village she saw Lee standing there, not moving. She could tell Neji had noticed the normally cheerful boy's odd behavior too. She stopped next to Lee and her mouth dropped open. All the people of the town had been slaughtered. There was blood everywhere and people just lied in the streets with huge gashes in them. Men, women, children, it didn't matter. They killed them all without caring who they were killing. TenTen had never seen such violence before in her life. Sure, she'd seen dead people, but this was different. An entire village had been slaughtered for no apparent reason. Now, she could see tears forming in Lee's eyes, but neither she nor Neji made any sign that they'd noticed it. They understood completely. TenTen had to consciously keep herself from crying as well. She almost let a tear escape, but her thoughts were quickly interrupted by a loud cry. Before she could even move Lee was gone to find the noise.

Neji signaled to her to follow, but quietly. The person responsible for this massacre could still be there. TenTen and Neji ran quickly, but quietly in the direction Lee had gone. It wasn't hard to track him; the crying was excruciatingly loud.
Neji and TenTen entered a house where the sound was coming from and saw him holding the Daimyo's one year old son in his arms. Somehow the boy had survived the massacre, though how, she didn't know.

Neji was the only one of them that was able to think clearly. He immediately began assessing the situation.

"TenTen, check for and more survivors and attend to them. If you find anyone that can walk, make sure they get as far away from here as possible. Lee, take the kid and run. I don't know how they didn't kill him before but as soon as they figure out their mistake, they'll be back for him. Iwaki village will be the safest place. Take him there," Neji said with a voice so emotionless that TenTen couldn't tell whether he'd been affected by the scene before them.
TenTen frowned and said, "Neji-"

"I'll search for whoever did this," Neji said, cutting off the objection that was coming.

Neji always gave himself the most dangerous part of the mission. Most people would think it was because he thought that he was the only person strong enough for it, but TenTen knew better. That wasn't the reason at all. No, Neji didn't want anyone else to get hurt. If anyone was going to be injured, it would be him. Of course, he would deny it if TenTen had ever brought it up. He was too proud to ever admit caring that much about his teammates. He'd rather be seen as emotionless than be seen as what he perceived as weak.

Soon, the sound of Neji's voice brought her out of her thought and back into the real world.

"We'll meet in Iwaki village. Now go!"

Neji and Lee disappeared, leaving TenTen alone to search the village for survivors. And search she did. She searched all through the village, checking every single person for a pulse. It took her hours of painstakingly checking the ruins of every home and all that resulted in was a bloodstained mission uniform, along with blood pretty much covering the rest of her body as well. She reeked of death to the point she wanted to vomit. But, she had a job to complete. She had to find out if anyone else had survived.

After checking the last body in the whole village, TenTen sighed. She couldn't risk burying them all now. Whoever did this could still be nearby. It pained her to leave the people lying out like that, but she had no choice. She had to go. Neji or Lee might need her help. They were her first priority, always would be.

TenTen left the village in a hurry, heading straight for Iwaki village. It would take her about an hour to get there if she went full speed. But, she was too tired for full speed. At the rate she was able to go, it would take about two and a half hours to arrive. This wasn't a good thing by far. The sun was already setting and soon it would be dark. She couldn't stop though. It was much more dangerous to stay there than to keep running in the dark even though she was running out of chakra.

Dashing across tree limbs, the brunette kept an eye out for any signs of anyone nearby. She really wished Neji was there at that moment with his byakugan; or Lee with his incredible speed. But, she was on her own right now and would have to make do with what she could. Unfortunately, because of how much chakra she'd used that day, she wouldn't be able to defend herself very well against a strong opponent.

After about forty-five minutes of running, TenTen heard a rustle of some leaves and skidded to a stop. She reached for the giant weapon scroll on her back and pulled it out very slowly, keeping all her senses on high alert for any sign of the enemy. As she reached to unseal a katana from her scroll, there were suddenly at least five enemy ninja rushing her all at once. 'Shit...' she thought, realizing that she must have fallen into a trap. In a flash he had her katana out, fighting off the enemies. Unfortunately, there were just too many of them for her to take in her tired state. She managed to kill two of them, but a blow came out of seemingly nowhere when she had her back turned and she was sent flying forward straight into a tree.

A loud crack resounded through the area as her body smashed against the tree, breaking several of her bones for sure. She fell down to the ground with a thump and struggled to pull herself up, barely able to keep herself from passing out. 'I can't give up. If I do I'm a goner.' She managed to get herself standing most of the way when she heard a shout. Expecting to be attacked by her opponents once more, TenTen held her arms up to her face to shield herself. She heard a serious of shouts from the enemies once more, but no attacks on her ever came.

After a moment, the barely conscious TenTen moved her arms from in front of her face to catch a glimpse of a hopeful sight. There was Neji, destroying the last enemy. TenTen opened her mouth to call out to him but felt herself getting weaker. That was when she realized that she's been cut in the side badly during her fight. She was losing a lot of blood, and fast. "Neji.....' she managed to say at a tone that was barely a whisper. Her eyesight was fuzzy as she fell to her knees and desperately tried not to pass out.

TenTen suddenly felt herself being held up by something else and she tried to focus her eyes on what it was. She was too weak to see, but knew immediately once the voice hit her ears.

"TenTen! TenTen, hold on."

It was Neji's voice. She tried to reach out to him but couldn't. She fell forward, her head resting on the Neji's chest. He must have been kneeling in front of her, she realized. She felt a hand grab her waist where she was cut to try to stop the bleeding. Another hand was under her legs and she felt herself lifted into the air.

"It's going to be okay TenTen. Just hold on," was the last thing she heard before she lost consciousness completely, her body going limp in her teammate's arms.