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Not what I expected in a partner (StickyFun/Kaeliss)

T

Tentacle_Lover

Supernova
Joined
Mar 9, 2009
Neji Hyuuga sighed as he leaned against the huge entrance gates of the leaf village, eyes closed as he stood deep in thought, however even that didn't stop him being aware of everyone who passed him by. His senses were sharp thanks to his intensive training. He refused to rely entirely on his Byakugan, he wanted his other senses to be just as sharp. Anyone who knew about him would make his eyes their target after all, attempt to blind him under the impression it would make him useless......well he would just have to have a surprise waiting for them.
The 17 year old boy couldn't help but smirk slightly to himself...maybe he was a little cocky sometimes but....well....he'd earned that right.

Right now however, he was waiting for his partner for his latest mission. The rest of his team was temporarily unavailable for a variety of reasons, but Neji's skills were needed for this particular mission. However, it also called for rather specialist skills which Neji knew next to nothing about, the medical arts. Whilst he was an incredibly able fighter, Neji was most certainly no medic. He could barely treat small cuts, let alone major injuries like broken bones or internal bleeding.
Whilst he hadn't been told the name of his partner, it hadn't been too hard to figure out who it was. A medical specialist who still undertook field missions that were dangerous enough to require Neji's presence? There was only one person it could possibly be.... "Sakura Haruno...." Neji opened his eyes slowly, glancing around as he continued to await the arrival of the girl, completely certain that it was indeed her that he was waiting for.
 
Sakura Haruno was a little tetchy right now, well “a little” was an understatement but from a casual observer point of view that was the most accurate depiction since most of her rage was boiling inside her through the strange little avatar of her most inner personality, a lot of mental equivalent of fragile furnishings were throwed all around her mind for a pure stress relief intent she would assure you.
The source of stress was obviously her two male teammates, Sasuke Uchiha a traitor on the run from Konoha in search of revenge and Naruto Uzumaki Konoha’s most unpredictable ninja, the fact the first broke her heart and she broke the heart of the latter was just the start in describing how complicated the whole thing was.
“SHANNAROOOO!” cried her inner self “Why does my love life have to be a total mess … oh guys, maybe I’ll have better try out with girls”, suddenly the image of her best friend Ino Yamanaka flashed over “or maybe … no”.
She combed her short cutted pink hair and took a big breathe straightening her back “Focus Sakura, you are going to start a mission right now, the whole thing can wait once you are back” she said to herself fastening her walking speed, her partner for this mission was waiting for her and she doesn’t want to make him waiting more.

She was a bit surprise to found the Hyuuga’s prodigy waiting for her, he and her have had almost any interaction in the past despite the friendship she has with one of his teammate, Konoha’s proud green beast Rock Lee, so she put up her most formal smile “Good morning Nejis-san, hope I’ vent make you wait too much”.
 
When he heard the voice, Neji couldn't help but smile just slightly to himself....he had been right after all, it was indeed Sakura after all...well, he could certainly think of worse partners to be stuck with. Besides, this would be a welcome change. No Lee and Gai constantly babbling and competing with each other over the most trivial of things, and no TenTen constantly complaining to him because he was the only one who would listen. At least with a highly trained medical ninja....well....maybe at least he'd get some intelligent conversaion on the journey....the long journey. To get to where there mission was to be carried out would be at least a week or two of travelling, taking them outside of the Fire Country altogether.

"Good morning....don't worry, I haven't been waiting for too long. I was early anyway, I suppose it's something of a habit" Well at least he was the exact opposite of Sakura's usual team mates. Naruto and Sasuke were always just on time, whilst Kakashi....well....the day he was on time was the day Naruto ran out of energy. "Well then, are you fully prepared?" As Neji stood up, Sakura would be able to notice the large backpack that he had with him, clearly prepared for a long journey. "Or do you need to get some supplies first? We're going to be gone for quite some time, and whilst we should be stopping occasionally in a town or village, we may not always be able to get the supplies we might need"
 
“No, I should have packed everything necessary, obviously my medical provision are just a logical extrapolation and so there is a probability they could be insufficient … but you are not injury prone like Naruto nor deplete your chakra fast as Kakashi-sensei … so I could manage any potential resupply using herbal concoction.” she said, pouting a little while rechecking in her mind everything she put in her backpack “So far I can said I’m ready to go, if you are comfortable with it.” despite being no more than a year older than Sakura, Neji was already a Jonin and de facto the mission leader, so any final tactical evaluation has to be done by him.

He was strange in a way, being to him alone, she was used to see him, Lee, Ten Ten and Maito Guy as a whole indivisible entity, just like when they come to help her team rescuing the Kazekage.
She felt a bit sad, in a way thing were changing every day more … maybe she need to cope with that and start to change herself too, like Lee always said “stronger than my yesterday self”, It never was more true … and “He is quite a looker too … so I don’t mind the eye candy” noted her inner self.
 
"I see....well then, it's good to know you're prepared" Neji grabbed his bag, hoisting it over his shoulders and turning towards the gate. "Well then, shall we get going? I understand you haven't been fully briefed on the mission, so I should fill in the gaps as we go" The teenage Hyuuga began to walk, moving against the flow of people walking into the village, mostly traders coming for a short while to buy and sell before moving on again. "We've got a long journey ahead of us....we're heading out of the Fire Country....right out to a non-ninja country altogether actually. The people are aware of us but they rarely see any, so we might draw a little bit of attention"

He glanced over his shoulder at Sakura, slowing a little to walk beside her rather than just ahead of her. For a brief inward moment he had to admit she was a lot nicer to look at than TenTen....that shimmering pink hair, not tied up in those god awful buns...but the serious boy quickly pushed such thoughts aside, focusing back on the mission. "Anyway, once we arrive we're to scout the area initially, we've been hired to investigate organised crime in the area which is threatening to spread into the fire country. If we find any evidence of such activity, we're to put a stop to it before it spreads"
 
It was not an easy mission but in a way was a so much welcome distraction from all their chase for Akatsuki, “I see … so basically we are taking a preemptive maneuver” He match his pace with her so they were walking side by side, he was tall perhaps just an inch or two short for being a whole foot more taller than her, maybe a bit more than Sasuke himself, he move with a definite elegance, surely coming from his Juken training … in a way it was pleasant to watch him walk.
“Well I’m bit used to attract attention, it come with the territory when you work with Naruto, but is it safe to let them know we are ninja? If our presence is so unusual is not so illogical to think that some of our target will suspect we are there for them and act according”.
Another fun thing, talking about tactics, more than often the usual plan of action of Naruto end in a forward charge until he met a sufficiently impervious obstruction, then he get up and strike at it harder.
She was not supposed to enjoying her missions but she can’t stop a thin smile to come up on her lips, maybe nothing wrong will come up by liking this one a little; her inner self almost give her a thumb up.
 
"Well we likely wont be able to hide the fact that we're ninja, my eyes alone will be something of a giveaway. But that can quite easily work to our advantage. If they suddenly know they're being watched, that they don't have the time they thought they had, they'll have to move quickly. When people like that move quickly, they get careless, make mistakes, and that makes them easier to find. Of course it's also possible that nothing is going on and the intelligence we've received is completely false, in which case this will be nothing much more than a vacation" Neji slowly shook his head, clearly not too fond of the idea of a vacation....he hated just sitting around doing nothing, he needed to do something otherwise his skills would dull. "But as I said, it's going to be quite the trip to get there, a week or two depending on our pace"
 
She had still some doubt, but in the end Neji had a point, well if anything go wrong she know a trick or two about how improvise. Looking at Neji stride she could tell he was eager for action, like most gifted individual he must be experiencing the perpetual need to prove himself. “You know Neji-san, I’m not Lee but I can move really fast, so we can keep a pretty good pace if you want”.
She look him in the eye while saying so, they were indeed unique with their lack of a visible iris, they were just a pale shade away from being totally white something not easy to hide.
 
"Is that so?" Neji started to walk a little faster, before breaking into a gentle jog. Certainly not a sprint, but enough to get them moving at a quick, comfortable pace. "Have you ever travelled so far from the village before? I know much of your time training with the Hokage must have been within or quite close to the village" He glanced over at Sakura and caught her examining his eyes, the thing everyone was always drawn to not just with him, but with any Hyuuga. ".....Before you ask, I see perfectly normally when my Byakugan is not active. My eyes may look differently, but they function just the same under normal circumstances"
 
She blush a bit surprised by his reaction even if she doesn’t know why. “Ah … umh … Neji-san I do know how dōjutsu works, and I received a detailed lecture on Byakungan by Kasashi-sensei when I witnessed your fight in our first chunin exam.” That peculiar fight wasn’t an pleasant memory, she was even a bit scared by Neji’s ruthless against his cousin, hopefully thing got a bit better after the match against her peculiar blonde teammate or so Lee told her.
Yet this was a sensible topic and she tried to change the subject “Well is true that I’ve spent most of the time inside the village, but I’ve traveled outside sometimes, since my first C Ranked mission”.
 
"I see.....the way you were looking at my eyes...it's the way everyone looks when they're about to ask about them. I've grown annoyed of such questions so I try to pre-empt them if I can..." He looked away, back ahead of them to the path they were following. "How far outside of the village have you travelled? Gai-sensei always tries to find us missions that will take us as far away as possible.....he says he likes the journeys....though I think he just wants an oppertunity to compete with Lee and Kakashi...." Neji frowned and shook his head. "I can't understand how a grown man can act so childishly"
 
She giggle a little thinking of her perpetually bored sensei trying to ignore Maito Gai overzealous need to prove that -the flame of his youth burn stronger than ever-, “Well you know sometimes I wonder if ninjas develop some kind of psychological quirk in order to cope to the stress of our occupational hazard, in a way Gai-sensei oddities are more tamed if compared to other ...”.
She thought about the Akatsuki member she fought so fa, Sasori of the Red Sand and his obsession to puppet and … to her ex-teamate and his obsession with revenge “... sometimes even healthier.” she added with a hint of bittersweet.
“Ah … and regarding tour first question I’ve travel to the land of the wave once and in some other place but that are related to S-class missions so I can’t talk much about there”, she added fiddling a bit with a strand of hair.
 
"You might have a point....but still....I'd rather not turn out like Gai-sensei......I'd much rather keep a firm grasp on my sanity..." He chuckled and shook his head as they moved, the sun rising in the sky and just making things a little hotter as they moved. "I'm sure I'll be fine, I've been raised for this kind of life, prepared for it more or less since the day I was born..." It was rare for Neji to talk openly about his past, he hadn't done it much since that fight with Naruto several years ago during the Chuunin exams...and even then he had barely scratched the surface.
"I see....so you have been quite far. Still, this should be a little different being a completely non-ninja country....they rarely see people like us...." Neji reached up to wipe his brow. "Even I've never quite gone this far from the village before"
 
“I hope so.” she said with a smile, “green really doesn’t fit you at all and spandex even more so”, her inner self tried to figure him in a green spandex but the sight was so much hilarious she had to use a lot of restrain to don’t start laughing hard.
She felt a bit more relaxed and a lot less stressed, Neji was more affable and so she was starting to being a bit less formal, “Tsunade-shishou always told me to value any first experience since life become boring really fast, in the rare times she show her true age”.
 
Neji couldn't help but allow the mental image of himself in an outfit like Gai's.....and it sent a shiver through his spine. "Ugh....don't even joke about that....wearing an outfit like that would be like a nightmare...." He shook his head quickly, attempting vainly to dismiss the image from his head. Talking with Sakura like this....it felt rather natural...it certainly made the journey a lot easier. He had found someone who could speak with him at his level, someone with some focus and intelligence. He didn't have anything against his team mates but...well.....they weren't the best of company. "Oh? It's rather unusual to hear something like that come from the Hokage. To be honest....I've heard she's somewhat immature most of the time.....but I suppose you spend more time with her in private than anybody else does"
 
“Well that is not entirely true, Shizune-san spends with her a lot more time than me but indeed I’ve seen some sides of her than not everyone see. She can be a really stern teacher when she want, I can assure you that being under her tutelage was far from being an easy task. Not that I can blame her, being a medic ninja come with some severe responsibility.”
She pause a moment to better adjust her backpack weight on her shoulders “Yet just I told before, lot of Ninja come with peculiar façade, in order to cope with … what we are, if you think about it give the whole underneath the underneath thing a whole new meaning.”
She turn to look back at him “You know Neji, is a pity we haven’t had much mission together, is really hard to have some intellectual discussion with Naruto.”
 
Despite what Sakura said, it was difficult to imagine Tsunade as anything other than the loud drunk she typically portrayed herself to be, but then again perhaps that was simply a sign that she was able to put on that act so well that nobody would think to consider her any differently....perhaps that was exactly what Tsunade wanted....it was no secret she hadn't been the most eager candidate for Hokage after all. "Hm? Yes....I can imagine an intellectual discussion with Naruto wouldn't consist of very much he could truly understand....it's much the same attempting to speak with Lee....he's always trying to compete even when there's nothing to compete over. Whilst TenTen...she just tends to lose her focus too easily, get distracted...." He sighed and shook his head as they moved deeper into the trees, the path becoming a little less worn. "It doesn't look like many people come this way, no surprise, there isn't much in this direction. Even like this it's going to take a few days to get to a little village where we can stop for supplies"
 
“Well Lee can be a nice guy, just not the kind of guy to talk about the last book you read … unless Gai start writing some kind of personal training guide and yet I don’t think I’ll ever read it.”, She giggled “Yet you should give Ten Ten more credit, at least she was more ninja oriented in her objective than me when I start … I had to take it hard to grow up some of my delusion ...”, damn she was being a bit melancholic again, better change the subject.
“Look like we are out for some night under the stars, unless you can grow a wood house like commander Yamato.”
 
"I can't imagine Gai-sensei having the patience or the attention span to actually sit down and write any kind of guide....he'd be more likely to go around and train people personally....at least then he wouldn't be sitting around doing nothing" He glanced over as she mentioned TenTen, though before he could respond he picked up the changing tone in her voice, followed by a quick change of subject....perhaps it was better to cease discussing the past at this point and move on. "Hm....I'm afraid not, I simply brought a small sleeping bag. There wasn't even room for a tent given the amount of supplies we'd need to be carrying for a long trip. Fortunately the entire trip wont be the same. If we time things right then we'll be arriving at a few villages to stay in overnight"
 
“You know … there are some rumours that even Naruto manage to write something, so right now I will not be surprised if Gai-sensei manage to write something too … that doesn’t mean that I won’t be amused … or maybe scared … or even traumatized, umh effectively is not an easy scenario”.
So looked like there is a possibility they spent the night outdoor, this doesn’t trouble her at all, the weather was good.
“Ah well I’m not scared by a night out, so I don’t think we will be worried if we miss a village in our schedule”.
 
"Naruto a writer? I find that somewhat difficult to believe...can he even sit still long enough to write something? Then again....I suppose spending so much time with Jiraiya...." Neji had heard about the books Jiraiya had written, though he had never read any of them himself. Still....he'd always meant to getting around to getting one of them....even if just to see what all the fuss was about with their popularity. "Well, it's good to know you're not scared of a night in the open. Though I suppose most people like us are used to it by now....most missions tend to involve camping out at least for one night..." He smiled slightly as the sun began to set on the horizon, they had been travelling for longer than he thought. "We should probably look for a good spot to camp out, it's starting to get late"
 
“Don’t ask me how this is possible, I’ve chose to not investigate too much into this rumour, there are some thing that a normal and sensible mind is not mean to discover”, She looked at the sun going down, definitely this was not a mission involving some other ninja activity otherwise they should have already face an ambush or two just like in her first “C” mission.
“Yep, indeed … did you have a map so we can check the outskirts?”.
 
"Yes, I've got maps of the area around here and the town that we're heading to, though I didn't have enough room to carry detailed maps of the entire route. All I have for most of the journey is a somewhat more basic map of the country" Neji slowly came to a stop in a small clearing, setting his bag down and opening it up, carefully pulling out a rolled up scroll. "Here, this should be enough for us to navigate our way there in the fastest manner" He set it down on the ground and opened it up slowly. "It looks like there's a river not too far from here, so we should be able to refill our drinking water there. I suggest we set up camp near the riverbank"
 
“First rules of survival, secure water and food” nodded Sakura looking at Neji scroll, and matter-of-fact statement apart a river would mean a chance for freshen up even if this make her a bit edgy since she had to eventually trust Neji discretion, which is no easy with a person able to see on almost 360° degree radius with a telescopic precision and you have some “equipment” you don’t want him to be aware of, yet so far Neji was no less than a gentleman and there is no reason to doubt that he will keep behaving as a member of a proud and honourable clan.
“Sound fine with me, we can camp there”.
 
"Indeed, a fresh water river likely means animals nearby aswell in order to hunt for something to eat, or at the very least some fruit trees" Neji studied the map for a few more moments, then rolled it up and placed it bag into his bag, quickly slinging it back over his shoulder. "Let's go, I'd like to make camp before it gets too dark" Whilst the darkness didn't really affect Neji, with his Byakugan activated he could see even in complete darkness, he didn't like to use it for such petty reasons. He had been given a great gift...and a great curse...abusing it would be an insult to his ancestors. "Once we arrive, I can gather food if you'd prefer to set up the camp"
 
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