Disclaimer: Ok I don't own any of the Naruto characters. There I said it now leave me alone!
FISHY DREAMS
I gritted my teeth in frustration with Gai-sensei, how could that old fool forget such a powerful opponent!? As I scanned the newly formed lake for signs of our blue enemy, my mind wandered back to the events that had gotten us into this mess.
Tsunade-sama had given us orders to go and reinforce Team Kakashi. On our way to Sunagakure we were intercepted by Kakashi's summons, Pakkun. He informed us that we were the closest, at the moment, to Akatsuki's hideout and the objective of our mission, the kidnapped Kazekage, Gaara.
On our way to the hideout we were attacked by an Akatsuki member. This blue-skinned fish-man claims to have met our sensei before, but if it isn't Hatake Kakashi or "Youth" related our sensei has a tendency to forget it.
"Tenten-san, look out!"
I snapped out of my reverie at Lee's call and dodged the Akatsuki's monstrous sword just in time. Having past me he continued on to attack Gai-sensei with a laugh that sent shivers up my spine.
"Get a hold of yourself, Tenten. Just because your sensei's gone senile doesn't mean you have to, Stay Focused!" I muttered to myself as my gaze shifted from the focused but slightly confused face of my sensei to the miffed face of the blue Akatsuki member. I found myself feeling strangely sorry for the guy. It obviously bothered him his last encounter with Gai-Sensei didn't seem to have left any imprint behind on the man. It probably hurt his male pride that most guys are so sensitive about.
I shook my head to clear those thought's from my mind, which seemed to be very easily distracted today. Whoa girl, back up! He's the enemy, remember? You have to either chase him off or kill him, neither of which was looking to likely right now. No time for sympathy.
While his attentions, and attacks, were focused on Gai-sensei, I quickly unraveled one of my scrolls and in a poof of smoke, sent several windmill shuriken spinning toward his unguarded back. I silently cheered as every one of them struck dead on. My great marksmanship generates a silly pride of its own, in myself.
My heart sunk to my stomach, however, when my, supposedly, solid target turned into water and soaked Gai-sensei. He sputtered for a moment, then went to searching frantically for the enemy. We all scanned the battle field twice with no luck, slippery little fish-man, no? On the third pass my teammates quickly turned their eyes toward me.
"Tenten!" Gai-sensei cried and everyone rushed in my direction, but by the time I realized what was going on, the wire was already wrapped tightly around my neck. As I felt the skin break and a few trickles of blood run down my neck and on to my shirt, I cursed my foolishness. In my surprise I had dropped the scroll I was holding and it was now sinking to the bottom of this lake. The only scroll I had left was still strapped to my back and out of my reach in this situation. My teammates slowed to a stop; there wasn't much else they could do.
"You're a pesky little mouse, aren't you, now?" He calmly whispered in my ear. I didn't try to lift my arms to loosen the wire, I knew that any such movement would result in my severed head floating to the bottom of the lake to join my lost scroll.
Unless…….. No, it would never work! I wouldn't be able to escape in time! Only….. I didn't see any other choices at the moment, so I decided.
Luckily while I had been thinking, he had been taunting Gai-sensei with cracks about his intelligence that I knew were flying wayover my sensei's head. So using several one handed signs I had practiced that looked like normal nervous jerks of my hand, I formed the seals that would release one of my ultimate jutsus. Of course Neji's eyes saw what I was planning and as I released the final seal, his eyes widened.
"No Tenten, don't!"
At Neji's call the last scroll on my back began to glow a bright blue. The fish-man released me and jumped backward, but it was too late. My scroll exploded and sent me flying among a cloud of newly released weapons. I felt several kunai graze me, but nothing vital or serious. Just then, though, I heard a rumbling followed by a blast of water that sent me sky high.
I cursed as I fell back Earthward, a group of my exploding tags must have gone off underwater. More explosions followed, though none as severe. My slight concern turned to cold terror as I continued to fall toward a dark hole that was quickly sucking up the surrounding water. The explosions must have opened a hole to some sort of underground cave or something.
I was already past the lake level we had been fighting at only three minutes earlier. Using rocks that had been tossed up in the explosions, I tried to jump back up to my teammates, who currently had their hands full trying not to get sucked into the vortex I had accidentally created. Then just as I lifted up off the first rock I felt something wrap around my ankle and drag me back down. It was the Akatsuki. He had somehow managed to avoid my surprise jutsu relatively unharmed, but was now caught in the resulting whirlpool.
I kicked him in the face with my free foot, but it did nothing except make him laugh. He cocked a grin at me and yelled above the noise of the rushing waters all around us as we passed the edge of the hole and into darkness.
"Sorry mousey, but if I'm going down I'm taking you and your troublesome weapons with me." Well that was great, but in case he hadn't noticed I didn't have any more weapons on me.
I felt something hit the back of my head and I saw a new blackness, one that not only filled my already light deprived eyes, but my mind as well. And I knew no more.
I felt warm arms wrap around me and pull me out of the cold and the wet. I didn't have enough energy to open my eyes, yet. So I just lay there and shivered until something damp, but warm and soft fell over me. I managed to crack my eyes open enough to see a dark figure leaning over a few sticks and trying to coax a fire from the few embers just barely hanging on to the wet wood. I felt my lids begin to grow heavy and tried to croak out a thank you to my savior, but I don't know if any sound even came out. Then the darkness claimed me once again.
Warmth, and a smell, like the ocean at night, were the first things that greeted me as I swam to the surface of conscieceness. Next I saw the figure sitting beside a nicely burning fire. I tried to lift myself into a sitting position, before realizing my hands and feet were tied, and not with normal ropes either, but chakra ropes. These were the kind of ropes the Anbu black ops used to haul in A and S-rank criminals; you can't break out of them, but must be released from them.
Suddenly it all came crashing back to me. The battle. The explosions. Being dragged down here by the figure by the fire…. Akatsuki! And yet, why the hell would an S-class criminal like him even bother to save an enemy ninja like me?
He turned toward me at the sound of my shuffling. Damn and I thought I'd been quiet about it, too!
"So you finally awake, aye mousey?" he asked as he grinned crookedly at me and my heart skipped a beat.
Viola! This started out as a one-shot but I decided to divide it up into two parts. Please R&R