Okay, I have to apologize for being late with the chapter. I honestly lost my motivation for this fic for some reason and couldn't find it. Damn thing was being stubborn. Anyhoo, I'm back now and I refuse to give up on this story! I still have so many ideas for it. I guess getting them to flow properly was my problem. Anyway, here's Chapter 3. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Naruto and all related characters are the property of Kishimoto Masashi-sama. No copyright infringement is intended and no profit is made from this fic.

TenTen inwardly sighed to herself as she thought of her predicament. A few days had passed since her arrival in the village, and she was currently on a mission as a member of Team Gai after three years. Everything seemed to be going rather well for the four-man team, but that all went to hell really quick. The Konoha shinobi had run into the rogue Kirigakure nin they were to pursue, and the weapons mistress couldn't have been happier to see the enemy. She wanted nothing more than to take care of these nukenin.

All of that changed when her, Lee, and Neji were trapped in a water prison by three of the rogue ninja; Gai was getting ready to fight the leader. TenTen hated the fact that she and her teammates had been careless enough to be ensnared by this trap. It didn't help that since she wasn't prepared for it, her oxygen supply was quickly depleting. She looked at Neji and Lee, and she saw that they actually looked fine inside of their respective water prisons. Damn it, why did she have to look weak in front of them? She never felt the urge to kill as strongly as she did now.

Neji was watching the fight between Gai and the leader of the group of rogue Kiri nin. Evidently, his name was Hoshigaki Kisame and he'd fought with Gai at least twice before. However, Gai couldn't remember for the life of him who this guy was. Neji's eye twitched; Gai was such a forgetful man sometimes. As the Hyuuga prodigy looked at his teammates that were imprisoned, he noticed that TenTen appeared to be struggling with air. The kunoichi was trying her hardest not to show that she was beginning to fade, but Neji knew better. Activating his Byakugan, Neji prepared himself to execute Hakke Rokujuu Yonshou. He incapacitated the man holding him captive rather quickly, and hurried to free his teammates. Lee was the first he freed, and the younger version of Gai appeared to be just fine. After freeing TenTen, the brunette collapsed. Neji grabbed her before she could hit the ground and looked at her with worried eyes.

"Are you okay TenTen?" asked Neji.

"Yeah…" said TenTen as she breathed heavily. "Thanks."

The two stared at each other for what seemed to be a long time, but Lee's voice cut through the trance they fell into. They turned their attention to the fight that was occurring between Gai and Kisame. Gai had already opened 5 of the 8 Gates, but Kisame was proving to be quite the handful. As a result, Gai opened the 6th Gate and used Asa Kujaku. The barrage of punches dealt by Gai was enough to end the fight. Kisame was on the brink of death, and using his sword Samehada, he killed himself since he refused to be imprisoned.

"Mission… complete," said Gai before he passed out.

"Gai-sensei!" yelled Lee as he went to pick up his teacher.

Neji was still holding on to TenTen, unaware that his hold was now around her waist. TenTen coughed hesitantly.

"Um, Neji? You can let go now," said TenTen with a small blush.

The faintest pink dusted the Hyuuga prodigy's cheeks as he realized his hold on the kunoichi was rather intimate. He quickly let the weapons mistress go, and the Konoha shinobi began their trek back to their village.

Unbeknownst to them, a pair of onyx eyes were following their movements. The well hidden man watched the Konoha nin intently, and was mildly impressed that the team was able to take care of such a dangerous S-Class criminal.

"The time is coming quicker than I expected," said the man.

He disappeared further into the forest, leaving no trace of him even being there to begin with.

Somewhere near Earth Country, Yakuushi Kabuto was walking through one of Orochimaru's many hideouts. The snake sannin decided that their group would stay at this particular base for a while before moving on to the next one. The gray haired man walked into Orochimaru's semi-dark room to check on him.

"How is Sasuke?" asked Orochimaru as he looked at his bespectacled right hand man.

"Everything is fine with Uchiha, Orochimaru-sama," replied Kabuto as he fixed his glasses.

"Excellent. I will be ready to transfer bodies soon, and the Sharingan will finally be mine!" exclaimed Orochimaru. His golden snake like eyes glowed in the dim light as he smiled maniacally.

After getting Gai to Konoha Hospital and handing in their mission report, Neji and TenTen were walking through the village side by side. The weapons mistress couldn't understand why her stomach was feeling funny. Being alone with Neji couldn't be the case right? Shaking it off as eating some weird plants during the mission, TenTen ignored the fluttering of her stomach.

Neji was trying his hardest to concentrate on walking while keeping his hands to himself. He still felt embarrassed about the way he held TenTen during the mission, but it felt so right. It was like TenTen was made to be by his side, and damn it he couldn't deny himself the pleasure of having her much longer! The Hyuuga prodigy knew he had to tell her how he felt, but as everyone in the Konoha 11 knew, he was a man of very few words. Neji knew he had to think of something though; it wasn't like he could just bludgeon her over the head with a rock and drag her away. Though that image did bring a smirk to his pale lips…

"Hello? Earth to Neji!" said TenTen.

Blinking his silvery eyes owlishly, he looked at the woman walking next to him.

"Jeez, what is it with you zoning out whenever we walk?" asked TenTen. "Am I boring or something?"

"No, no," said Neji quickly. Great, now how could he fix this without giving anything away?

TenTen stared at her best friend expectantly. Was he getting sick or something?

"I was just thinking," said Neji.

"About…?" prodded TenTen.

"You know what? I'm hungry, let's go eat," said Neji quickly and began walking toward one of the many restaurants in the village.

"What… hey! No fair Neji!" said TenTen as she chased after the brunet. "You didn't answer my question!"

The Hyuuga prodigy only smirked as he continued walking.

Meanwhile, in the unforgiving deserts that marked Wind Country, a red haired young man was standing atop one of the walls separating Sunagakure no Sato from the harsh sandstorms raging mere meters away. Sabaku no Gaara, Godaime Kazekage, allowed a rare small smile to form on his lips as the wind swept through is hair, revealing his kanji tattoo of the word 'love'. Jade eyes stared out into the desert, seeing sand as far as the eye could see. Turning around, he looked at the village he was chosen to lead. It was such an unexpected turn of events, especially after everything that happened with the Chuunin Exams a few years back. It wasn't an unwelcome change by any means, but sometimes the redhead wondered if this was all a dream. Looking up at the full moon shining down on his village, Gaara was the epitome of calm and serene.

The peaceful atmosphere was shattered when an explosion came from within the village.

Morning dawned on Konoha as it did everyday, and TenTen welcome the sunshine with open arms. After getting ready for the day and eating a quick breakfast, the kunoichi was heading out the door when an ANBU stopped her.

"Hokage-sama has requested your presence," said the rat-masked ANBU.

After he disappeared in a puff of smoke, TenTen made her way to Hokage Tower.

Neji was in Tsunade's office with the usual stoic calm. Lee was in the room as well, as hyper as ever. The door to the office opened and Neji's eyes immediately took in TenTen's form once she was fully inside the room. Such beauty was so hard to find…

"Hyuuga?" called out Tsunade.

Neji's eyes snapped to the Hokage's honey colored ones. He coughed lightly and tried to hide a blush.

"Now, I've called the three of you here as reinforcements," said Tsunade. "Team Kakashi is already in Suna and they've requested backup."

"Suna?" queried TenTen. "What's going on Tsunade-sama?"

"Kazekage Gaara was kidnapped last night," said Tsunade.

"B-But that's impossible!" exclaimed TenTen. "G-Gaara can't! He's…"

The brunette's voice wavered as she thought of the redhead. He couldn't be, he just couldn't!

After getting herself under control, and beginning her journey to Suna with her teammates, TenTen's eyes hardened as the events from a few minutes ago went through her mind again.

"Some of the eye witnesses said that a man that made clay explosives was fighting Gaara," said Tsunade. "According to their intel, his name is Deidara, a rogue nin from Iwagakure. They say he created a bomb large enough to destroy the entire village and Gaara used most of his chakra to create a shield to protect them all. With Gaara weakened, another rogue nin from Suna, Sasori of the Red Sand, poisoned Gaara. The two of them took off with Gaara on a flying clay bird."

Tsunade folded her hands on top of her desk and rested her chin upon them. She eyed the three of them as they took in the information.

"Sending the three of you will be beneficial, especially Neji with his Byakugan," said Tsunade. "You three are to head to Suna and help Team Kakashi in any way possible. Is that clear?"

"Hai!" came the simultaneous response.

"You are to leave immediately. Dismissed!"

"TenTen, it will still take 3 days to get to Suna even at your current speed," said Neji.

"We don't have that much time!" yelled TenTen. "We need to save Gaara!"

Even though this was a dire situation, Neji couldn't help the bout of jealousy he felt. Why was Gaara so important to her anyway?

"Why are you in such a rush TenTen?" asked Lee. "Your youth is shining brightly, but this is unusual for you."

TenTen glared at her bushy-browed teammate, and Lee flinched. Her chocolate colored eyes softened as she realized what she was doing.

"Sorry Lee," said TenTen with a sigh. "It's just that… during the three years I was gone, I spent most of my time in Suna training with Temari. Gaara helped from time to time, and we became friends.

"It was hard to get Gaara to talk to me at first," said TenTen with a nostalgic smile. "He's so introverted, but I eventually got him to open up to me a little. He's actually a really good person and he helped me out with my long range training a lot. I owe him so much."

Lee and Neji saw that the smile never left TenTen's face, and it made Neji's jealousy grow. Did she harbor feelings for Gaara?

"You think very highly of him TenTen," said Lee. "Are there possible romantic feelings between the two of you?"

TenTen laughed. Hard.

"Are you kidding?" said TenTen after getting her laughter under control. "Gaara and Matsuri are together, didn't you know that? Gaara's just a little brother to me, like Naruto is."

Neji's jealousy subsided after that comment. Even though he wasn't sure if TenTen had affections for him, the Hyuuga prodigy felt safe in the knowledge that the brunette wasn't in love with someone else.

Two days later, the Team Gai trio arrived in Sunagakure. Sakura looked rather haggard even though she was glad to see her three friends.

"Sakura, what's going on?" asked TenTen.

"Kankurou was poisoned," said Sakura. "He tried to go after the kidnappers alone. It was a fatal dosage, and if I hadn't arrived in time and created an antidote, he would've died."

"So we have to be careful around the Suna nukenin," concluded Neji.

"Exactly," said the pinkette.

"Stubborn bastard," said Temari angrily as she burst through the door. "I told Kankurou not to go alone! That idiot!"

"Temari-chan," called TenTen with worried eyes.

Teal eyes looked up and saw her closest friend.

"TenTen! You're here to help too? That's great," sighed Temari. "We need all the help we can get. Especially with Kankurou out."

"Has there been any leads on where they could be?" asked Neji.

"No," replied Temari. "We've had multiple search parties sent out, and there hasn't been a single clue as to where they're hiding."

Kakashi and an angry looking Naruto walked into the room with the other five shinobi.

"Naruto?" asked TenTen warily.

Blue eyes met her brown ones, and she saw that his eyes were darkened and had slits for pupils. That definitely wasn't a good sign as she learned in the past.

"Nee-chan," greeted Naruto with a slight growl to his voice.

The weapons mistress could've sworn his eyes flashed red, but she hoped it was just her imagination. Apparently Naruto was just as upset, if not more, about the situation.

As the group of ninja sat in the room trying to figure out their next move, the door burst open.

"Temari-sama! A report from one of the search parties arrived!" yelled a female Chuunin.

"Well, don't just stand there, tell me!" snapped Temari.

"Y-Yes! Matsuri's team believes they may have found the kidnappers' hideout!" she said.

"What's their location?" asked Temari quickly.

"About 8 hours north-northwest," answered the Chuunin.

Temari turned to the other occupants of the room with determination shining in her teal eyes. They all nodded simultaneously.

Time to rescue Gaara.

Alright, if my Naruto Shippuuden chronology is correct, Gaara's kidnapping happened before the Kisame/Gai fight. I forget. Anyhoo, if it is out of order, it's like that on purpose. Remember, this is an AU canon thingy. Asa Kujaku is the Japanese name of Gai's Morning Peacock attack and Iwagakure is the Hidden Stone Village for those who didn't know. This feels like a crappy chapter to me, but I hope you all enjoyed it. Drop a review letting me know. I promise to reply this time. See you next update (which hopefully won't take as long as this one).

KuroiOokami89