Running around, dodging trees, jumping over obstacles.

This whole trip felt more like a high-speed chase, rather than a simple walk to... wherever they were going. TenTen sure hoped she wasn't the only one who has lost her sense of direction, that would be really embarrassing.

On the other hand, someone better has had remembered it, or they wouldn't even be able to go back!

The sound of heavy breathing easily drowned the remainders of the not yet frightened critters' noises, which robbed the forest of it's whole forest-y ambience. Not that she cared, she was more concerned with running and remembering the basic breathing exercises she was once taught.

'Into the abdomen, and out with pressure' was the rule of thumb hammered into their brain over and over again. It came to her almost automatically.

'Man, my legs are getting heavy'

She wondered if, maybe, she was carrying the biggest load. She was the one in the rear, Neji was running alongside Lee now, and both of them were only a few steps away from their teacher, barely visible in the brush.

She now realized why he was wearing green.

Her legs felt like stones, only they hurt her constantly. She was nearing her limit, she has never run so far in her entire life. Jumping was getting more difficult, she almost tripped over a rock. Her eyes were getting blurry, some parts of her surrounding were getting indistinguishable.

For example the the big, green tree she was currently headed for...?!

She immediately tried to slow down, but such momentum wasn't easily stopped. The came ever closer, and even stretched out its branches! Her heart was pumping like mad, and why were her two teammates just standing there?!

Standing sure seemed like a good idea now, a break even better, a rest almost divine.

She stopped, instantly bent over and took in big gulps of air. When she caught her breathing and reduced it to simple panting she looked up into the smiling face of her green teacher.

"You need to work on your stamina." Nothing more than a grumble, only audible to her.

"ALL RIGHT! WE'RE ALL HERE! SET UP CAMP, I WILL COME BACK LATER!" Nothing less than a yell, only audible to... probably the whole forest.

He left again, without any other word or instruction.

"Water!" was the only thing she managed to shout out and, at the moment, the only thing on the girls mind.

She saw something bright moving at the edge of her vision and a had a canteen held in front of her face moments later.

"Take it. Didn't you bring your own?" There was clearly a strain to mask his exhaustion.

She opened up the canteen, drank to her content and responded. "I did, but it's in my backpack." Despite her panting, she still managed to take another sip and returned the bottle to her teammate; Neji, as she just now realized.. "Thank you!"

He took it back, nodded and turned around to check on Lee, who hasn't really caught his breath either but struggled to set up the tent regardless.

'Phew'

He had no idea how to do it.

"You're doing it wrong" was the unneeded affirmation to that.

"You're right. Can you help me, Neji?"

"Wait, I'll go fetch the other tarpaulin." and so Lee did just what he was told; wait for him without moving much of a muscle.

Meanwhile, he managed to catch his breath. 'I need to be a better runner! I must train more!'

Neji came back with the second tarpaulin and spread it out next to the first one. "We need ten small sticks and one about this size." To demonstrate, he spread his arms for about two feet.

"Oh, right! We'll use the ten as tent pegs, right? And the big one as..."

-"as the pole, yes."

"Good! I'll go look for some!" and the energetic boy jogged away.

After a sigh, Neji looked over to TenTen, still rooted to the ground.

"TenTen, have you heard?" His raised voice struck her out of her stupor.

"Y-Yeah! Should I go look for some sticks, too?"

"Yes, but you better look for some firewood."

"Alright, I'll hurry!" and she was off as well.

So Neji was alone, only the shuffling of his teammates stumbling around and the neverending chirps of the birds to disturb him. He strolled over to the tents, sat down and buried his face in his hands to dispel the oncoming headache; unfortunately without real success.

He made two quick hand seals and activated his bloodline.

Guy took out a notepad and pen from his knife pouch relaxedly. He wasn't in the least worried to be found in his vantage point all the way up here in a tree bordering on the clearing his aspirants have set up camp.

On the front it read 'TenTen', right under that was written 'Girl – handle carefully'.

His gaze turned skywards and he started reminiscing on the past with a sigh. 'Hmm.'

The first team he trained started out as a disaster. He had no clue of decency, no idea of privacy; but what could you expect from a man trained for war, fully counted on to die somewhere at the front, like so many others. When he pushed through and missions became scarce, he was forced upon his first team of Genin, a bit younger than the children he was entrusted with.

But, well.. not to digress too far, if someone was to learn from past's mistakes, it's Guy!

So he eagerly flipped open the notepad and started writing.

'Needs intensive stamina training, can't keep up.'

'Loses focus when stressed, need to confront.'

'Submissive to (rational) orders'

'Dressed inappropriately, need to suggest better.'

He really had no idea what a skirt had to do in a ninja's wardrobe, but he was looking forward working on her!

The next notepad he took out read 'Neji'.

'Leader-type'

'Cool headed'

'In surprisingly good shape'

'Prone to headaches (?)'

Almost all of it were positive attributes, a real prodigy he got himself there. He hoped Neji was willing to learn anyway.

The third notepad was "Lee"'s.

'Has been working on himself'

'Energetic'

'Submissive to (rational) orders'

'Very willing'

Eager and compliant, perfect to teach!

He put the notepads away, and looked down to the clearing. Nothing much has changed, two of the tree were still scrubbing wood, the third was sitting still and looked around.

So he just needed to wait now.

"Welcome to this weeks council meeting. Let's get through today's items ASAP, my wife is bugging me again. Is everybody here?" Shikaku Nara let his eyes swipe over the ranks. "Seems that way. Any authorized observers without voting rights here?" His eyes instantly went to the row in the back to confirm his suspicion. After an obligatory sigh, he addressed the man. "Danzou. Any reasons for being here.... again?"

"I have a right to be here. I deserver to know what's going on. I need to keep the village strong! I have no idea what devil possessed you when you banished me from the council, and I seek to ex-" He was silenced by a shadow creeping over his mouth. A clever variation of the Nara clan's Neck Bind Technique.

"We can remove you from this room whenever-" The shock of two flashes whizzing by the handicapped man and a third ninja – because anyone using chakra to break jutsus should be called a ninja – silenced him as well.

The two other ninja – because anyone using chakra to move that fast should be called a ninja – made a beeline to the aggressor. They passed unharmed by the villages clan heads, just as startled as the head of the meeting. Both came ever closer, nothing seemingly able to stop them and unsheathed their swords to deliver incredibly amounts of pain to whoever stood on the wrong end of it. Both raised their weapon simultaneously, drawing closer to striking distance every tiniest fracture of a second. Their heavy boots made the typical running sound of a ninja boot, all resonances coming at the same time.

For Shikaku, there was nothing but the masked figures in front of him an the clunks of their boots, he couldn't think of a way to defend himself, so he just raised his arms for a futile attempt to block the incoming doom.

He was getting ready for the pain, the slash – he practically anticipated it.

Clunk

Metal met metal.

The swords were stopped by some ANBU, probably guards of the Hokage. He didn't even know those were in the room, only sparsely thought of the possibility of it. But that didn't matter now, the two other ANBU-wannabes were of a more pressing concern to him.

Or weren't. Both were subdued by the enormous Choza, his former comrade, with two expanded palms. 'He always was one to save his friends.'

Danzou spoke up again to dissolve the chaos. "With this, I'm proud to officially present my Root, the elite soldiers trained by myself. Even though their first appearance was a bit..." He looked over to Choza, then to where he suspected the Hokage's guards have disappeared to, "less glorious than I hoped, it still left a mark on you."

He took a step forward, the one who disrupted the Neck Bind before, followed every move.

"Each one of my soldiers is of greater quality than anything the Hokage's ANBU can muster. Th-"

"A bold claim..." A murmur was enough to interrupt him.

Danzou's eye was fixated on the source of it, they settled on the village's leader like a hawk. "Ah, Sarutobi. It was you who demanded my abolition of the council, right? Well, I think this may have changed things. As the head of the Root organization, I now hold enough influence and power to hold a proper position in this council."

"This is not mine to decide." The wrinkled old man's now tired eyes swept to the head of the council, Shikaku Nara. "I suggest you remove this unauthorized guest and his subordinates right now. I also suggest to make this event a subject of next weeks meeting."

Shikaku was still visibly troubled by the impending attack. He simply nodded while breathing heavily and addressed Danzou directly. "I wish you to leave."

"This is outrageous! I will not have this! I demand the right to speak in front of you!"

"The right was not granted. - I wish you to leave"

"You have no reasons for this! After my presentation of power, I deserve to-"

"I wish you to leave."

Danzou knew, the third time was interminable. If he didn't leave now, the ANBU reserves would be called and he would be killed on sight.

"Well then, I am leaving. But mark my words, this whole thing will have consequences."

He left, the two captive Root-ninja somehow managed to free themselves of the heavy grip (and apparently without any major problems!) and strolled after their leader.

They waited until he was gone, no trace of him left, not even his heavy footsteps audible to them.

After the harrumph of the Hyuuga clan head, Shikaku resumed the meeting.

Neji thoroughly scouted the area. One of the positive things about having the Byakugan was that there wasn't a necessity to move around to scout, something his aching legs welcomed dearly.

To sum up, he found a river flowing by gently, just a small walk away from here and also loads of animal dens. If they were to hunt, they would have problems not stumbling over some rabbit's hole, and getting a buck from the calm herd nearby shouldn't prove to difficult either. The woods were, apart from that, pretty much normal. He couldn't make even the slightest guess as to why Guy chose such a place.

The closing form of Lee took him off his musings, so he got up to inspect his sticks and set up the tent.

"Neji! I found the perfect tent pegs!"

"Show them." He stretched his hand out and Lee gave them up willingly. After a moment, Neji simply nodded.

"Yes, this will work nicely. Did you bring a pole as well?"

"A what? OH! A pole? Sorry, forgot that." The sheepish reply almost brought back his headache. He closed his eyes and put his thumb and index finger on the bridge of his nose.

"Didn't I tell you to bring that too?"

"Well yeah.. kinda.. I got it! I will hurry twice as much and bring you one!" The always so very eager boy turned around and jogged into the direction he came from.

A moment later, just enough of a moment to wonder about the girl on his team and consider using his eyes again to look for her, Lee returned to Neji.

"This is the perfect pole, right?" He held the long stick dangerously close to the other boy's eyes, so he could inspect it better!

"Yeah, yeah. This will do." Neji was already losing his patience. Putting up with his menace would require quite a bit of adapting, hopefully on both sides.

"We will need to wait for TenTen to return with the firewood. I don't want to ram unhardened wood into the ground."

"Oh, I get it! We will hold the pegs over the fire to make them better!"

"Yes, exactly. Wait a second, I will look for TenTen." Two familiar seals later, veins and arteries were clearly visible near his eyes.

"Woah" was a comment by Lee Neji hardly noticed. After a bit of searching, Neji located their lost comrade, stumbling through the underwoods.

"Stay here, look for stones. I'll go get her." and without further ado, the spotter took of into the direction of the spotted. Whatever Lee shouted, he ignored.

Guy wasn't really impressed by the performance of his female pupil. When he noticed she didn't come back in a appropriate time frame, he went looking for her, which proved to be easy. The girl didn't conceal her footprints in the least, something he ought to add to his notepad.

When he found her she was carrying a big pile of wood, probably the firewood, around, clearly enough to get the team through the night.

She wasn't heading back to their camp site, though. He decided to let her wander a bit, but when she didn't go back on her own, he would do... something he had yet to think of.

After a while he felt another source of chakra approaching, something he could clearly specify as a Hyuuga's. He was sure it was Neji, coming to fetch her.

He was right. Neji closed in on the unsuspecting girl, who was still too distracted by her surroundings to really take notice of the boy, so Neji announced himself.

"TenTen" was the only warning he uttered when he came closer. The clearly surprised female dropped the wood, spun around, threw a hardly aimed kunai into the perpetrators general direction and held a second one in front of her in a basic defensive stance.

Not long after the thrown knife lodged itself into a tree, she realized it was only Neji.

"Oh, it's you. Hey, sorry I didn't come back, but I-"

"What are you doing? Are you trying to kill me?" There was a bit of aggression in his voice, but the omnipresent passivity of the stereotypical Hyuuga persisted.

"No, of course not! That was just some.. reflex, you know?"

"A reflex? You almost threw knife into my eye because of a reflex? What were you doing here to begin with?"

"Err, well, like I wanted to tell you, before you cut me off, jackass, I wanted to look around a bit."

"Didn't I tell you to simply bring firewood?"

"Yeah, but who are you to order me around anyway?"

"I'm the most suitable to lead this cell in the absence of our teacher."

"This 'cell'? We aren't even proper ninja yet, you know that!"

"That doesn't matter. If I give you an order, you will follow it. Bringing firewood was the most logical thing to do."

"Oh, yeah, some cozy campfire is more important than knowing where the f*ck we are, right? Geez, man.."

"I already did some scouting."

"You did?"

"Yes, I used my bloodline limit to look around. I will report my findings back at the camp." He looked to the sticks on the ground. "Is that the firewood?"

"Err, yes. Yes it is."

"Seems alright." He turned around, dislodged the kunai in the tree and passed it back to her. "Let's go back to the camp."

On their way back, TenTen felt more and more uncomfortable in their silence, so she decided to break it.

"Hey, look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to attack you."

"I accept you apology. No harm done." How he always managed to keep his tone so monotonous, TenTen didn't know. Probably was some kind of family secret, like their fancy taijutsu form.

"But, I mean, you can't just order me around, you know? It's not like-"

"Let's talk about it with Lee, I am sure he has something to say about this as well."

The indignation was clearly visible on TenTen's face, which Neji could still see with his activated bloodline limit. He hadn't turned it off to not lose the way to their camp, but spying on his teammates reaction was an added bonus.

"We're almost there." was all the affirmation needed.

When both returned to the clearing with their not erected tent, the first thing TenTen noticed was Lee in front of a little wall of stones, all varying in their sizes, from rubble to solid rocks. She frowned in confusion.

"We will only need the bigger ones, Lee." The self-proclaimed leader went over to his male teammate and took some of the bigger stones. "We will now lay a simple circle to prevent a wildfire. TenTen, take out your pot and bottle. I will go get some water." He finished the circle with Lee's help and expected to get a bottle and a pot, but only received a cold stare.

"We will talk after we set up. Lee, go get some dry grass from over there and lay it inside the circle."

"I'm on my way!"

"TenTen, I need the bottle and the pot."

She reluctantly went over to her backpack and unpacked her stuff, gave it to Neji and watched him take off without saying anything.

"That guy's impossible, don't you think?"

Lee looked up from his very mindtaxing activity of putting grass into a circle and responded. "Who, Neji?"

"Of course Neji! Who does he think he is, ordering us around. I mean, c'mon! He isn't better than us or anything!"

"I like him. He is smart and strong, and what he says makes sense. Well, to me at least. Do you have problems with him?"

"You like him? But he just told you to put some f*cking grass into a f*cking circle of stones! He belittles you!"

"It has to be done, and there is no reason why I shouldn't do it."

"But he could just as well...."

"What? He is the only one right now who knows where to get water."

"That's what I mean! He doesn't even tell us anything!"

"He doesn't really have to, has he? What difference does it make if you, he, of I take the water?"

"Oh, man! Are you serious?"

Lee stood up now. "I'm always serious! I will prove my worth!" His ambition gleamed in his round eyes.

"Ugh!" was the unspectacular end to their argument, and TenTen turned around to take a look at the sticks Lee brought.

'Curious, curious.'

Guy pondered on his vantage point.

'So, when should I drop the bomb?'

AN: chapter three, done! Review me, and I will explode into a veil of creativity. Reviews are like my muses' breakfast.

Hope you enjoy my scribblings so far.