"Karasu, is that you?" called a gray-cloaked and hooded figure, sitting awkwardly on the ground. Her mask was of a deer, with a leaf village symbol at the top. She hoped for, more than anything, that the person to whom she was calling would hear and answer her.

A white-cloaked figure stopped in his tracks and looked around, revealing the mask of a black, beakless bird with the leaf village symbol carved on the top. Several others in black cloaks stopped and turned as well. Each of their masks were different, and all of them had their hoods up.

"Ayame!" breathed the man in the white cloak, seeing her on the ground and recognizing her mask at a glance. "Thank god! When they said that you had gone missing…"

"Don't get too friendly just yet," warned a female voice from somewhere among the black-cloaked figures. "Someone may have captured her and be using her clothes to set a trap for us."

"Remove your mask, Ayame," said an older male voice from among the black-cloaks.

The gray-cloaked woman did as she was told, taking off her mask and lowered her hood, revealing a young brown-haired woman of twenty with several small ponytails wreathing the top of her head. Her hair flowed out of them in a kind of continuous fountain, stopping only when it reached her shoulders. It was a look that her male friend, by the code name Karasu, had come to like even more than the old look of double-buns at the top of her head.

"Tenten," said the man in the white cloak.

The woman smiled, as he took off his mask and a lock of long black hair fell out of his cloak into plain sight. As he lowered his hood as well, it was plain to see that he was in his early twenties as well. Wasting no time, he immediately swept towards her, only stopping when he was kneeling on the ground and she was in his arms.

"So, you came to find me after all, Neji," said the woman in the gray cloak who went by the name of Tenten.

"I would not leave you here," he said simply.

"Karasu," said the female voice from earlier, "we should leave. If we are found here, it could be trouble. Especially since you are both currently revealed."

"In a moment, Kaze," said Neji.

As he released Tenten, he surveyed her for signs of injury, then finding none, looked straight at her.

"Are you hurt?" he asked.

"There's something wrong with my ankle. I think I may have sprained it," she said, gesturing to her right ankle.

He looked down, gently lifting the material of her cloak away from the ankle. She flinched as he did so. He could immediately see that it was discolored and swollen. Her skin had turned a kind of bluish color around the ankle. Activating his clan's sight technique, he could see that her chakra was bouncing off of the area in an abnormal fashion, but by the way it laid, the bones seemed to be all right.

"I think you're right," he said. "How did this happen?"

"I was jumping between trees with the group and my foot got caught between branches. I was stuck and they didn't notice that I wasn't with them anymore, so they left me before I could tell them to stop and wait. So, I jumped down here with my other foot to keep out of sight of everything else until they came back to find me," said Tenten.

"This ANBU thing isn't working out in your favor, is it?" Neji said in a low voice, licking his thumb and wiping some dried blood off her cheek where a branch had brushed by and cut it.

"I suppose not," said Tenten.

"Last year it was a bunch of poison darts, the year before that, third degree burns from an exploding kunai. You never catch a break, do you? But at least, this time it wasn't an enemy ninja," said Neji.

"Yes," said Tenten. "But this time, you weren't there to rescue me immediately either. I don't like this separate divisions thing, Neji."

"You know its only temporary," he said.

She nodded, "I know, but I miss you."

Neji stared at her for a moment, not responding to her remark. Then, rising to his feet, he let out a slow sigh, "Kaze's right. Its time to go."

With that, he put his mask back on and his hood back up. Knowing that her intimate moment with Neji was over, Tenten put her mask and hood on as well. Neji reached down to her and pulled her, with some difficulty, onto his back. It would be at least two slow days of trekking back to the village, and day one was just beginning.

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A/N: Karasu – means "raven"

Ayame – means "iris" (type of flower)

Kaze – means "wind"

Hope you liked it so far. More later! Bye all!