06-15-2007, 12:44 AM
In The Space Between Heartbeats
A Naruto Fanfiction
Post III
“I can’t see anything,” Neji said suddenly, and Lee glanced over at him, hearing the underlying frustration in his voice. It was the first time his teammate had admitted that they had been following nothing but instinct for the last twenty-four hours.
They were high in the mountains, surrounded by sheer gray rock and clinging mists, and it had been drizzling for the last hour. Sodden and without a visible trail, they had been making a crisscross pattern up the mountainside, relying on Neji’s Byakugan to notice anything out of place, any sign that Tenten or Hinata had passed that way. So far, they had found nothing but the remains of a small mudslide and downed trees that had been flooded out. The mountain streams were swollen with rainwater and, even now, Lee could hear the waterfalls crashing loudly up ahead.
For every hour that had passed with Tenten and Hinata missing, Neji had grown a bit more stressed, more tightly coiled. He said nothing, but Lee could almost feel the strain. With his clan anxious for the return of their heir and the disappearance of his childhood partner, Neji was under a great deal of personal pressure to find the two kunoichi. That they hadn’t yet been able to was wearing on them both.
Lee jumped to the top of a large, flat rock, straightening his knees to get a better look at the area they were in. “The rain has washed away any signs they might have left,” he said, voicing the obvious. He brushed damp locks of black hair from his eyes and peered northwards, still hopeful despite the knowledge that Tenten would have left few signs to begin with. They had not even come upon the remains of those traps Tenten was so fond of setting, the kind meant to “discourage” followers with makibishi and shuriken.
“Tsunade-sama should have sent a team earlier,” Neji said flatly, turning his head to scan the area again and so missing Lee’s vaguely surprised look. It was unlike the Hyuuga to criticize the Godaime. Lee let it pass though, under the excuse that Neji’s youthful fiber had been dimmed by what seemed to be a dismal situation, indeed.
“It looks like the rocks open into a valley up ahead,” Lee commented, knowing Neji would have already seen it. He bent down and tightened the weights on his legs in preparation to speed ahead. (Spandex and rain water were a rather slippery and uncomfortable combination.) If there was shelter in the valley, perhaps the girls had stopped to wait out the worst of the rain and had—
“They’re not there, Lee.”
Lee paused, fingers resting against the cold stone beneath him. They he rose slowly, fingers curling one by one into fists, his spine straight. He looked Neji right in the eye and finally addressed the thing that had been weighing them down ever since he had fetched his teammate from the Hyuuga compound.
“Tenten didn’t kidnap Hinata,” he said fiercely. Anger forced him to shut his mouth after that, however, and he watched the Hyuuga’s eyes narrow at the implied accusation.
|