NejiTen Oneshots And Drabbles

Airless

It was an unusual mission. First of all, this was not the type of assignment that Team Gai specialized in. Theirs was not a group known for its delicacy; Neji's enhanced abilities with both his Byakugan and the Kaiten made it difficult for him to stay conspicuous. Tenten's expertise was in offense, with her weapons mastery. And Lee…Lee, though good at being quiet when duty required him to, was most certainly not good at being quiet for long.

And the Godaime had insisted that this mission required near-silence.

Rain threatened the skies with gray clouds that darkened by the minute. The sun had long been lost to the gloomy day and would be setting in an hour. Neji had estimated that they had exactly three hours before it was too dark to properly carry out the mission. With that kind of time limit, they had to be fast as well as…

Imperceptible. That was the word that Tsunade-sama had used when outlining the mission for Tenten. She had used the same word to describe their orders to Neji and Lee. Both had responded with similar dubiousness, although Lee had been expectedly more vocal about it.

As for Neji, he had done has he always did. Accepted it and made plans to make it work. Tenten always wished for the same confidence he had.

Maybe if she had it, she would have seen the way Neji had watched her worry – with narrowed silver eyes and clenched fists. With the look a man who did not like seeing his partner doubt herself.

The woman reputed as Tsunade-hime and honored as the Fifth Hokage currently looked every bit like both a princess and a leader. From behind the expansive cherry-wood desk that her four predecessors had worked at in their time, she looked over an array of information; thick leather books containing records meant only for her eyes, files straight from Shizune, data gathered by Anbu. Scarlet fingernails marked her reading place while the ends of blond hair gently caressed papers as it spilled over the surface, near her healing hands.

Tenten waited patiently until at last eyes as brown as hers, gleaming with focus abnormal for this woman, rose from the ink-lined pages to regard the young kunoichi. "Thank you for coming so swiftly. In payment, I won't beat around the bush with you, Tenten."

The Chinese girl smiled gratefully. "That's all I ever want from people," she replied honestly.

"Well, what I want from you is something I wish I didn't. I need you and your team to leave within the next thirty minutes for the Land of Grass. I expect you're surprised."

Tenten blinked. She wasn't surprised so much as curious. "Konoha just haven't had much to do with them before, right?"

"Precisely." Tsunade leaned forward and steepled her fingers together, balancing her weight on her elbows. "And from what I've heard from the Jounin who were present at your first Chuunin exam, they don't have the nicest villagers there. Though I have made many requests to their daimyos that Konoha scholars be allowed access to certain parts of the country for data-gathering purposes, they have so far been completely uncooperative. So I've resorted to sending shinobi, despite myself."

Tenten nodded, but she had served this person long enough that she knew better than to think that Tsunade's fascination with the Land of Grass rested only in scholars' records. Or that she felt the least bit remorseful for it. "What interests you, Tsunade-sama?"

Tsunade's red lips spread in a knowing smile, then parted as amused sound floated up from her chest. The blue diamond on her forehead seemed to tremble as the Godaime laughed. "I can see I can't trick you. I do have an interest, Tenten." She grew serious again as she saw the thoughtfulness bloom in the younger woman's face. "Because of our limited contact with the Land of Grass, we know very little about their trademark jutsu, aside from the fact that it has to do with flora and plant life. It is know that many vaccines and other medicines used today were first discovered through the use of herbs by Grass-nin.