This story is set within the manga time line, during the time skip. Hence, Naruto and Sasuke are not around. That makes Neji, Tenten and Lee around 15 in this story. Neji is a recently promoted jounin with both Tenten and Lee as chuunin. Obviously, this is a Team Gai centric story, with emphasis on Neji and Tenten. Enjoy!

Flash

"Are you sure those are the only options, Hokage-sama?" asked an incredibly pacified Gai.

"Yes. The medic-nins and I have gone over all the test results multiple times," the powerful woman responded. "He has three weeks to decide. By then the damage will be irreversible."

Tenten listened from her spot at Neji's bedside. Sure, he'll decide... If he lives though the shock.

Lee was sobbing into her shoulder, but the weapon's mistress paid him no attention. Gai walked solemnly over to the unoccupied side of Neji's hospital bed with a frown that didn't seem to fit his face. "As your leader, I feel responsible for this."

"Oh Gai-sensei!" Lee leaped over Neji and landed in Gai's arms, tears still streaming down his face. "You are at no fault for this! If you must blame someone, blame me!" Lee struck a dramatic pose and began crying even harder, choking on his own sobs.

"My youthful Lee!" Gai gathered Lee in his embrace with sparkling eyes. "We should not blame one another! No, this is a time for team togetherness! We must all stick together for Neji's sake!"

"Honestly," Tenten said as she finally spoke up, "I think he would prefer that you both stop being so loud while he's trying to sleep." She would have glared at them for their childish antics, but she didn't have the energy. Besides, it's just their way of dealing with the situation, she reminded herself. "Lee, I thought you were supposed to be examined for further head trauma?"

He slapped his hands to the sides of his face in a more dramatic gesture than normal. "Alas, you are correct Tenten! In my worry for poor Neji I have disregarded my health! For Neji's sake I shall assure a clean bill of health!" declared Lee as he sprung at the door.

"Ah, my young Lee! I shall accompany you in your excursion!" Gai bounded out behind him, leaving Tenten alone in the room with the sleeping Neji.

Yeah, just leave me to tell him the news, she thought, but knew it was best this way. Hearing it from them would just make him angrier.

Tenten sighed and buried her face in her hands. But the question is, how do I tell him? He'll be crushed...

2 days earlier -

"Ah, my youthful team! With the fire of adventure burning brightly beneath our feet, we shall set out on our mission!" Gai announced in his normal way, with one of his favorite poses and a flash from his sparkling teeth.

"Yes, Gai-sensei! We shall accomplish our mission with speed and precision!" Lee replied as he mirrored his role model's pose. Tenten could practically see the sunset they were pretending was behind them.

"Can we just leave?" Neji asked irritably, crossing his arms.

Tenten just smiled and shrugged. "Why not let them have their fun?" she asked, rearranging the large scroll supported on her back. "It's not like they're hurting anyone."

He frowned. "But they just might be killing me a little on the inside."

Tenten giggled, even though Neji wasn't trying to be funny. He just ignored her.

"So! Let us see what we shall be doing on this fine day!" Gai pulled out a scroll from nowhere, considering Neji and Tenten couldn't figure out where the pockets on their sensei's hideous jumpsuit were hidden. "Ah! Our mission is to hunt through the forest on the north-eastern border of the Fire country and retrieve an important scroll lost during a mission!"

"How could that even happen?" Tenten questioned.

"It seems as though the ones who were to deliver the scroll to the Hokage were ambushed! They returned with major injuries, but no scroll!" Gai explained as he tossed the mission note aside. "We have been given our task! We must make haste and retrieve this important information!"

A couple hours later the group found themselves at the edge of an expansive forest. "So, Gai-sensei, in which area was the scroll dropped?" Tenten asked, scanning the horizon for the other edge of the forest. It seemed to never end.

"I have absolutely no idea!" Gai said with another pose.

All three of them fell to the ground.

"You mean... We have to search the ENTIRE forest?" Neji exclaimed. Gai just kept smiling. "This forest is so large even the Byakugan wouldn't be able to easily find the scroll..."

"Then we shall have to look by hand! What an adventure!" Lee jumped up and posed with Gai once again.

Neji and Tenten just starred.

"We shall split into two groups! The youthful energy between Lee and myself shall aid us in our search together!" Gai said as Lee started crying.

"Oh Gai-sensei! You have chosen to come with me?"

Gai grinned and grabbed Lee by the shoulders. "Of course! You and I shall make quick work of the east side of the forest!" Suddenly the older jounin had appeared between Neji and Tenten, wrapping an arm around each of them. "You both shall surely be able to search the west side! With Neji's impeccable vision and Tenten's eye for traps, you shall be expedient! Keep in touch with the radio, Neji!"

Gai was replaced by a puff of smoke as he appeared next to Lee once again, leaving Neji and Tenten uncomfortably close to one another. "We shall meet," he told them as he pointed at the sun hanging high in the sky, "back here at night fall, if not before! Dismissed!" Both he and Lee sprinted to the east, leaving a trail of dust in their wake.

"What was Hokage-sama thinking when she sent us on this mission?" Neji complained as he and Tenten walking calmly into the forest. "Those two are too overly excited to find anything."

"Well, we'll just have to trust them to look thoroughly enough," she replied, looking around. "But I don't like this place. It feels like... I don't know... like there's someone else here."

Neji raised an eyebrow. "It is a rather large forest, Tenten. Others are bound to be here."

A frown creased her smooth face. "I suppose..."

The Hyuuga genius turned. "Byakugan!" he said as the veins bulged near his temples. He started scanning the section of the forest, leaving Tenten to watch him.

His eyes are fascinating, she thought. It still amazes me that he can see chakra patterns and mold attacks for any person. Truly incredible. Neji signaled that there was nothing within his range, so they moved on with Tenten in front looking for traps and Neji watching her back.

Four and a half hours later, Tenten leaned against a tree trunk. "Where in the world did they lose this thing?"

Neji, looking frustrated, stood beside her. "I don't know, but it's almost sunset." He quietly activated the small radio in his ear. "Gai? Have you and Lee found anything?"

He was silent. Tenten took a deep breath of the forest air. He's my teammate, Tenten told herself. So why have I been nervous all day? I'm sure Neji could notice, even without the Byakugan. Every time he touched me today I would flinch! I'm a ninja, damn it! That shouldn't happen! She rubbed her hands together against the suddenly chilly night air. But that might have to do with the fact that this forest has been sending me bad vibes all day. The weapons mistress watched him blow a piece of hair from his face as he waited for Gai to answer the radio and felt her cheeks become warm against the cool breeze. Okay, maybe not entirely...

"Tenten." She was snapped quickly out of her thoughts by Neji's command.

"Yeah? How are Lee and Gai-sensei?" she responded.

He frowned at her. "He's not answering the radio, causing me to believe something is wrong."

Without another word, both of them soared into the trees and headed east.

When they arrived they found that Lee was unconscious near a tree, bleeding profusely from a gash somewhere beneath his bowl-like hair style. Gai was fighting off four strange shinobi at once, looking exhausted.

Tenten was about to leap out into the fray, but Neji grabbed her shoulder. Ignoring the way her skin tingled under his hand, she looked at his face. "What?"

He quietly activated his bloodline limit and scanned the area. "The ninja with the red scarf has the scroll in the pack on his hip."

She understood. "I'll get it, get Lee out of there and continue an assault from a distance."

He nodded and they both hopped into the fight.

"Ah!" Gai exclaimed, his expression brightening instantly. "I see now we shall have a more even fight!"

Tenten immediately went after the one with the scroll. Considering that she was a master of long distance attacking, Tenten thought herself to be fairly good at hand-to-hand combat. Within minutes she had the enemy, whom she discovered was a sound nin, pinned to the ground with his hands clasped behind his back. I think I accidentally broke one of his arms, she mused as she quickly ripped open his bag and pocketed the scroll. Oh well. The sound nin was out cold with a hard elbow to the temple. I'm sure the Konoha interrogators would love to talk to this guy.

With her part of the mission completed, she risked a quick glance to her left. One of the enemy ninjas was unconscious, his limp body lying in wood chips that used to be a tree. Gai was beating on the largest one, who's body seemed able to deflect most of his physical attacks. Neji had his Byakugan activated and was preparing for an attack, the veins on his temples pulsing.

Resisting the urge to jump into the fight, she made her way over to Lee and tossed him over her shoulder. Using all her strength, Tenten hopped into the tree that she and Neji previously occupied and sat her teammate against the trunk. It doesn't look that bad, she thought as she lifted his sleek hair back to examine the gash, but enough to knock him out cold.

After making sure Lee wouldn't fall out of the tree, she checked to make sure the scroll was still in her pocket. She quickly pulled it out. It looks like an average scroll... I wonder what this important information is, anyway? Tenten put it away and pulled the massive scroll off her back.

With a flick of her wrist, the large cylinder started unraveling in her arms. Tenten quickly twisted and spun the scroll around her, summoning her specialty weapons. After another quick motion, she determined her targets. "Neji! Gai-sensei!" she called out. Wordlessly the two jumped out of the way and allowed the hundreds of projectiles to hit the sound nins.

Suddenly Gai's eyes became wide. "Neji! Move away from the targets!" he exclaimed as he bolted toward his student and fellow jounin.

"What?" Neji turned toward Gai.

Before he could push Neji out of the way, the large sound nin grinned and exploded with an incredible flash. Tenten covered herself and Lee with her scroll to attempt to protect them. She didn't need to look at the aftermath to figure out what had happened. The large one wasn't even a live human... It was a dead body, being manipulated like a puppet and installed with a bomb! The other sound nins are either dead or long gone...

She sat her scroll near the still unconscious Lee and hopped out of the tree. The large puppet-like ninja was no more and the other sound nin were gone, just as she had predicted. "Neji! Gai-sensei!" she exclaimed as she darted over to where Gai was bent over the Hyuuga. "Gai-sensei, are you all right?"

He looked up to her and gave her a halfhearted grin. "Yes, our dear flower, I'm fine. Luckily the puppet did not explode into large chunks and just disappeared. An investigation into the origins of this puppetry will need to be executed immediately, not many have this kind of skill..." He seemed to think for a moment before turning his attention back to his female student. "You and Lee?"

"We're both fine. But..." Her dark eyes drifted to Neji. He was on his back with his eyelids scrunched together, his face lighting up with fever.

"I'm afraid he was too close when the explosion occurred. With his Byakugan activated, the flash was just too much for him to take in at once. Hopefully it didn't damage his eyesight permanently..." Gai's expression was hard for Tenten to read as he scooped Neji up and settled him on his back. "Can you handle carrying Lee back, young Tenten?"

"Of course," she responded, hopping into the tree to fetch Lee and her scroll.

"Then we need to get these two back for treatment, quickly."

"Alright..."

- end flash back

Tenten had her head resting against her palms, large brown eyes closed. Suddenly she opened her eyes, looking alert. Neji's sheets had moved beneath her elbows.

"N... Neji?" she whispered, hoping he wasn't awake just yet. I still don't know how I'll tell him...

"Tenten." His voice came out softly, causing Tenten's heart to skip a beat. "Why are my eyes covered with bandages?"

Right to the point, as usual. The small mannerism caused her to grin, despite the sinking feeling in her stomach.

"I... errr..."

"Tenten, please get to the point," he said steadily, and she could hear the underlying pleading tone.

She felt the prick of a tear in the corner of her eye. This is breaking my heart...

"Neji... do you remember the mission? The large ninja that Gai was fighting?"

"Yes."

She gulped. "Well, it was really a puppet implanted with a bomb. The explosion... there was a huge flash. Neji, the Hokage says that you might be permanently blind."