Loud clangs of metal and hard thuds of impact against skin were the sounds that had pulled the weapon goddess from her dazed dreams, clouded with irrelevant thoughts still clinging to the edges of the girl’s consciousness. It took a moment for her to reorient herself, to remember their situation: the squad of enemies that had been trailing them since they left the Rain-nin compound, the pilfered scroll stored in with her other things, their successful escape the previous night, and the inexperience of the other squad members. The sight of Shino crashing through the brush under the force of a thousand senbon needles raining down on him quickly cleared all the fog that was clogging up her mind. They were under attack, and like a true kunoichi of her stature, Tenten's first instincts had the brunette reaching for her weapons.
“Captain!” she called out with concern, wondering just how long he had been battling while she had been carelessly sleeping away the morning.
Sending out a spray of senbon needles to drive back the enemy's attacks, at least temporarily, Tenten ran to Shino's side, stooping down and holding out a gloved hand for him to take. She saw him hesitate for a moment out the corner of her eye while he paused to regard the girl's offered hand. But a line of kunai just off-center from slicing through the tendons of the bug master's leg had the young Aburame quickly accepting her help as he pulled himself up. Once on his feet, he wasted little time launching a counterattack, the buzz of the insect tamer's kakai bugs already filling Tenten's ears. Within no time, the wall was up and she was preparing her attack. But the enemy had the advantage of having the element of surprise, made clear when the kunoichi heard the telltale sounds indicating the Rain-nin's planned ambushes on the rest of their squad.
"How did they get her so fast?" she inquired, pulling open a scroll that was particularly filled with throwing knives.
"While we were resting," Shino stated simply, making all the implications he needed with those four words.
With a simple gesture of his fingers, he opened up a space in the insect wall for Tenten to make her move, watching in calmed observance much like before while the sharp-edged blades sliced through the air towards their opposition, explosive tags attached to the smooth handles. A flash of light filtered in through the space in between the bugs and an eruption of greyish clouds from the explosion puffed up around them, serving as adequate cover for their movements. Tenten only glanced back once to make sure that the young Aburame was following her before rushing back towards the nearby bushes. There would be no cover for them if they remained so close to the riverbank. But when she stopped to catch her breath, the younger shinobi was nowhere in sight.
Shino, where are you? the steel mistress thought with concern, What are you up to?
The dull buzzing in her ear told Tenten that he was still nearby, just laying in wait for the right moment. But to do what? The kunoichi trusted Shino in his effective planning abilities even in the most dire of situations; he had proven himself a good leader on several occasions when the two had been assigned to a mission together. Still, there was so much uncertainty on the battlefield, especially when taking into consideration the inexperience of their team. And sometimes, it was possible for even someone like the young Aburame to make mistakes and bad judgments, though rare as they may be.
“I just have to make sure whatever he’s planning goes well,” Tenten muttered to herself, “He’ll take advantage of my offensive abilities and his defensive abilities, I’m sure.”
That thought in mind, the weapon goddess formulated her own plan of attack. There had been no time for Shino to tell her the how many surrounded them, nor what capabilities they possessed. The young Chuunins of their squad would be of little help as well, scattered in the forest as they were from each other. She could only rely on her previous knowledge of the Rain-nin’s jutsus and hope that would be sufficient enough to at least subdue them. Shino had mentioned the possibility that the enemy shinobi had traveled on through the night while their squad had stopped to rest and regroup. That would be a great advantage for the Leaf squad as it would mean that the agents from the Rain Village would be low on energy. But there was also the untold likelihood of soldier pills coming into play as well. So many unknown variables that Tenten had to consider in the all too familiar setting. And yet she could not stop the smirk that slowly formed on her lips at the thought.
Pulling out a rolled parchment lined with green trim, she summoned a collection of chained sickles and netting before pulling out a stack of explosive tags from her arsenal. The protocols of the mission had required Tenten to leave her giant scroll at home for more stealth capabilities, and forced her to rely on the number of weapons her smaller ones provided. Though not as impressive by appearance, they were not to be underestimated. The chained sickles alone would not hold the enemies for long, but it would take them a while to struggle through the tightly woven netting, attached with a small amount of her own chakra. She fastened those together with the explosive tags to ensure that the trap would be effective for a great amount of distance in order to cause maximum damage. The only problem with that plan was that Tenten could have no way of getting the enemy shinobis cluster together in the appointed area where her trap would be most effective.
A familiar flicker of chakra signaled her to Shino’s presence nearby, little slivers of kakai bugs already appearing on the edges of the small clearing. He was making his move, which surprisingly seemed to coincide with her own plans as Tenten spotted several shinobis of the Rain Village appear, fleeing from the insect tamer’s attacks. Setting the timer on the tags, the kunoichi waited for the right moment in which to set her trap. But just as she was preparing for the moment, the steel mistress felt an arm slip around her neck with a jerk. She was pulled against the foe’s chest in an instant, struggling to pull the limb off of her windpipe as her impulsively-made weapon dropped and rolled across the forest floor.
Blunted nails scraped and scratched at the skin of the shinobi’s arm as he pulled the kunoichi to her feet, dragging her struggling body out into the clearing where Shino could see. The clearing went silent and still the moment she felt his eyes lock on her through his tinted shades, the Aburame’s army of beetles hovering dangerously over the other agents of the Rain Village. It was a stale-mate, each side holding a trump card for the other to consider before continuing this battle. But Tenten’s mind was still on the unstable ball of explosive tags laying innocently on the ground, quickly scanning around the immediately area until her eyes fell upon the discarded trap. In the next instance, she glanced at Shino through his glasses, trusting, hoping and praying that he had seen what she had been looking at and understood the young kunoichi’s wordless plan. A guarded nod indicated that he did.
In an instant, Tenten had shoved the heel of her palm into the shinobi’s chin, throwing his head back and loosening his grasp on her with the point-blank blow. The move also attracted the attention of the others gathered around them, allowing Shino to grab the forgotten trap she had made. Grabbing her assailant’s arm, she flung him around in his dazed state, sending him crashing into the nearest person. Out the corner of her eye, the kunoichi spotted the young Aburame’s shadow flitting down to grab a hold of her toy just as another Rain-nin made to pull it out of his grasp. And then she heard the soft rip from one of the explosive pieces of parchment.
“Tags!” Tenten shouted to her commanding officer, her only word of warning before she dived behind a nearby tree for cover.
There was no time to warn him any further, there was no time to ensure he would escape the trap in time. She would merely have to trust that he was still on the top of his game, even after all the brutal battling he had already done. A moment later, there was blinding flash followed by a loud boom, and a hot rush of air as the explosives ignited with the firepower of the hundred plus tags that she had fixed around the chained sickles. She felt rather than heard the spinning blades hit the objects around them, feeling one stray sickle whiz by over her head until it embedded itself into a tree trunk with a dull thunk. Whoever was not killed by the explosion, would more than likely have fallen victim to the flying weapons of steel.
“Shino,” Tenten whispered to herself, hoping beyond hope that her captain had found cover in time.
Risking a glance and trusting to the silence that had befallen the forest area, she peered out from behind the tree and quickly assessed the situation. Blood littered the grass, pink streaks wavered and disappeared down the river. There was no sign of movement from anyone; no sign of life. She left her heart quicken as she surveyed the bodies, feeling a mixture of relief and panic when Shino was not among them.
“Where is he?” the kunoichi inquired breathlessly to no one in particular.
It was only by chance that she heard the soft splash over the rush of the river, recognizing the familiar bulk of his jacket as Shino’s unmoving body floated just above the surface of the water. Laying facedown and making no effort to fight the current, she watched for only a moment while his body was swept away before Tenten made to run after him along the riverbank. Whether he be dead or unconscious, the kunoichi would at least make an attempt to save him. Brown eyes darted from the raging rapids to the strip of land that stretched out before her, maneuvering around any object that got in her way while keeping a visual contact on the Aburame’s floating form. Only when the crop of his hair disappeared under the current did she think to dive in after him.
The water was ice cold to the touch, nearly knocking the wind from her lungs as she was submerged into the chilling rapids. But all that idle prattling was forgotten as the steel mistress kicked her way towards Shino’s lifeless form while it drifted down the river, floating as if he were suspended in space. Reaching out, stretching her hand out to him, Tenten felt the tip of her fingers brush against the cloth of his jacket, and she feared he would slip away before she would have a chance to save him, to return the favor he had given her the previous day. But whether by some miracle or simply by pure luck, the current pushed her closer and she was able to grab a fist-full of fabric, instantly breaking through the water to fill her lungs with some much needed air.
With all the strength that was left to her, Tenten pulled the young shinobi to shore, weakly dragging Shino’s body to a dry patch in the sun, far away from the speeding rapids. She only took a moment to catch her breath, already yanking at the zipper of his jacket to check the young man’s vitals. An ear pressed to his clothed chest, she listened for any signs of life. The kunoichi was more than glad to hear his faint heartbeat…but Shino was not breathing.
“Alright, Shino,” the weapon goddess mumbled, shaking hands slipping off his trademark shades as they moved to tilt his head back and open his mouth, “Don’t die on me.”
They had taught them how to perform CPR back at the Academy, just as a precautionary thought in the curriculum of their training. And Gai-sensei had made it a priority for his students to retain the basics of their education with an annual recap of what they should know. But even so, Tenten never had any need to practice such skills, and it was difficult to know if she was doing it correctly when a stuffed target dummy had been their drowned victim.
Wiping away a bead of sweat and lingering droplets of water from her forehead, she carefully pinched the air passages of his nose and leaned down to breath out a steady stream of air into his mouth. Pausing, Tenten listened and felt for any signs of life and felt nothing. No breathing. Another few puffs and another pause to check his heartbeat as well as his breathing. Still there was nothing. And his pulse was fading fast.
“Come on,” came her soft plea, “You’re tougher than this.”
Clasping her fists together like she had been taught, Tenten firmly pushed down on the shinobi’s chest three times, right over his heart, before continuing with the CPR. Seconds passed like hours, and the kunoichi felt as if her head would explode from the lack of response. She was getting tired and her hopes were beginning to fall as well when finally…Shino began to cough up the water that had gotten into his lungs.
“Shino,” Tenten sighed in between her exhausted pants, leaning back onto her haunches to give him room to breathe in what she supposed was much needed air, “Welcome back.”
“…What…?” A damp hand came up to press against his throat, feeling the stinging rawness as fits of coughing wracked through his body. He looked to her to fill in the missing details of his clouded memory, trusting the kunoichi to know the meaning behind his unfinished sentence. In answer, she merely nodded to the river and let him fill in the blanks for himself.
“You never woke up the next watch did, you?” she asked instead.
A pause, followed by a hesitant nod was her answer.
“And you let me sleep through the rest of ours…after…” Now it was her turn to pause as the weapon goddess considered how exactly to address the matter of what happened the night before and what happened afterwards; his question, her response, and what it all would mean for the both of them.
“Yes,” Shino replied, saving her from having to complete that train of thought, “I did.”
“…You know, Shino, for someone as smart as you are, you’re an idiot.”
And with that, she impulsively moved in to wrap her arms around his neck, appreciative that he was alive. There was no thought placed in her action, the kunoichi simply let her body move as it would. She felt his body tense under her embrace, his chakra signature spiking in alarm before settling in his usual uncomfortable silence. But after a time, Tenten could not help but smile as she felt him relax, if only a little.
“…Perhaps I can live with that.”
