"That's it, Lee! Climb… Climb towards your success!"
"YES, SENSEI"
Two people could be seen climbing a sky-high rock mountain. They looked the same and even wore the same attire. Both had bowl cuts as well as bushy brows. If someone had to guess, they would say both are father and son.
{Image here}
It was none other than Rock Lee and Might Guy. Rock Lee took the lead in climbing while Might Guy chased him from below. They both looked like they were enjoying it despite all the injuries they had on their fingers.
"FASTER, LEE, GO FASTER!"
"YES, SENSEI"
They were really like two peas in the same pod. All they had in mind was training. However, it was not without results. Might Guy was the best Taijutsu user, while Rock Lee was also reaching that goal. Bandages that covered both his hands attested to the work he put in for that goal.
Another two people were watching their antiques below the rock mountain. The one with a pair of byakugan was Neji, and the other was Tenten, who had two Chinese-style hair buns.
{Image here}
While the Might Guy and Rock Lee duo were practicing, Tenten was in another world. A dreamy smile could be seen on her face. She was constantly touching her lips, thinking about something. Well, there is no need to guess what that something was.
Seeing her behavior, Neji was baffled. It was true that Tenten was a cheerful and hardworking teammate. But her smile had become more frequent over the last two months. He was really curious to know what it was.
"Tenten…..Tenten…."
Neji called for her. Seeing no reply, he waved his hand in front of her face, making her come back to reality. Realizing Neji had seen her silly smile, she tried to cover her face with the giant scroll she always carries.
'Idiot Naruto,' she thought.
"Why were you smiling? Did anything happen in the last two months?"
Hearing this question, her face became flustered.
"Ah..Yes..No…"
"I mean no."
She stuttered, trying to answer the question. Neji looked at her in amusement at her behavior.
"I thought we were friends," Neji told with his usual serious face. "You don't have to tell me."
Tenten panicked, as she always valued her relationships and took them seriously. So on the spur of the moment, some words escaped her mouth.
"It-it's because of someone.....,"
Realizing what she said, Tenten quickly covered her mouth. Her voice might have been a tad too high, as it was also heard by Might Guy.
It hadn't been more than a few seconds since she said that, but she could see her sensei running toward her with an enthusiastic look. Knowing what was going to happen, Tenten glared at Neji angrily. To Which Neji responded like he didn't see that.
"What do we have here? Is it the YOUTH that I smell?"
"I fully support you, my dear student."
Might Guy said with a thumbs up along with his iconic shiny smile. Meanwhile, Tenten was trying to find a hole to hide in.
Then he came closer to Tenten.
"Won't you tell your sensei who the lucky guy is?"
"Nooooo. Not telling."
Tenten yelled, hiding behind her giant scroll.
"OH, YOUTH"
"I still remember how I experienced my first love when I was your age. IT WAS WONDERFUL."
At this point, Tenten could only listen to her sensei's ramblings with a weak smile. Her mouth twitched, seeing Rock Lee take notes on everything that guy sensei said.
'Arrrrr, Nejiiiiiii'
She was determined to punish Neji as soon as she escaped her sensei. Still, she couldn't help but be flustered by the inquiries made by guy sensei from time to time.
After what seemed like an eternity for her, Guy finally finished giving her advice as he went on to climb the mountain with Rock Lee, who carefully placed his notebook in his pocket. She let out a dry chuckle upon seeing Lee's actions.
Finally, she walked up to Neji, who was still pretending he had nothing to do with it.
"Fight me!!"
Tenten said while placing the large scroll on her back as she assumed an attacking position.
"With pleasure, In return you have to tell that guy's name if I win. Deal?" Neji replied.
This made her stop a little. She knew it would be challenging, maybe even impossible, for her to defeat Neji with his byakugan. But she was determined to win. She believed that she may have a chance with all her training in these years.
"I agree," Tenten said as she threw an exploding tag in the direction of Neji.
"It seems that you are so eager to defeat me. Aren't you?" He said while avoiding the exploding tag skillfully.
Tenten didn't pay him any attention as she threw another set of tags targeting his legs to disorient him. Seeing what Tenten was trying to do, Neji quickly took cover behind the trees, avoiding the tags.
*Boom* *Boom* *Boom*
Then Neji started to close the gap between him and Tenten as he took cover from the surrounding trees. Tenten knew that if she let Neji get close, she would have a hard time dealing with him. By chance, if he used the gentle fist technique on her, she would definitely be incapacitated.
She was well aware of how effective the byakugan could be in controlling the battlefield because it can render someone's chakra useless, effectively putting them out of action.
She then took out several kunai with thin wires fixed to their ends and threw them in Naji's general direction.
"Take this"
*Whoosh* *Whoosh* *Whoosh*
Just when Neji thought they had missed, the kunai reversed direction and started chasing after him.
'Sh*t'
It effectively cut out all his escape routes. This was a new method that Tenten was experimenting with. Its name was Manipulated Shuriken Technique.
This technique basically allowed her to manipulate the direction of weapons in the air using the wires attached to them. For ordinary people, the wires were barely noticeable. However, Tenten knew that with Neji's byakugan, he would quickly see through the chakra path.
Her assumption came true, and Neji stopped in his tracks and started severing only the strings rather than deflecting the kunai.
"*Tsk*" Tenten clicked her tongue, seeing her attack easily neutralized
"No, No you don't."
Neji said just as he finished with the last string and started running at breakneck speed toward her, not giving her any chance to throw any projectiles.
Not having any choice, Tenten summoned her metal fan to deflect his high-speed palms.
Neji didn't make it easy for Tenten to defend as he repeatedly hit on the metal fan, which was blocking his hits.
*Clang* *Clang* *Clang*
The metal fan was breaking down gradually, leaving Tenten without any cover. She clearly knew that she had lost this match. As a last resort, she only had the idea of detonating her explosive talismans. Since this was just a spar, she didn't use them as she didn't want to hurt Neji or herself by mistake.
"You lose," Neji said as he aimed his fingers at her throat through the broken fan.
Tenten sat on the ground, dejectedly accepting her loss. But the following words of Neji surprised her.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I saw how you avoided the exploding talismans at close range. Just for now, I'll consider it a draw. But not next time."
Neji said as he smiled a little and gave Tenten a hand.
"Thank you, Neji," Tenten said as she took his hand and got up from the ground.
As this exchange was happening, Might Guy and Rock Lee also observed them attentively. Lee was watching to get some experience while Might Guy watching to intervene if something went wrong.
"See Lee, how hard they train."
"Yes, Sensei"
"Do you want to be the last?"
"No, I don't, Guy sensei."
"Then go climb the mountain up and down 50 times. No, make it 100 times." Then Might Guy yelled. "RIGHT NOW!!"
"YES, SENSEI"
Rock Lee started his climbing training again as Might Guy joined him, saying encouraging words they only understood.
"LET YOUR YOUTH EXPLODE!!"
While the teacher-student duo was training, Neji and Tenten went towards the shade to get some rest. Since Tenten was quite tired from the fight, she just leaned on a tree, keeping her scroll near her.
<Tenten's Pov>
Today was a really tiring day. Not only I slipped up and almost told about Naruto to Neji, I even lost to Neji. So disgraceful.
Though I'm glad that Neji didn't pursue the matter. Honestly, I know that Neji could've defeated me more quickly if he was serious, but I am still quite happy that I can pressure him that much.
Well, it's all thanks to Naruto. I was thankful that he asked me to try out fuinjutsu and bikijutsu. At first, I just did it for the sake of it. But I really liked them, as they were really suited for me.
In any case, I wonder how Naruto is doing.
<Pov End>
Unknowingly, the changes made by Naruto affected the team of Tenten. In the previous timeline, although Tenten was a team member, her capabilities were not on par with Lee and Neji. But now, due to constant training with Naruto, she has significantly improved. Strong enough to pressure a Byakugan user.
A feat she couldn't have done in the past timeline. Due to her strength, now even Neji accepts her as someone of equal talent. He undoubtedly knows that without the byakugan, it wouldn't be easy to defeat her without taking lethal damage.
If she continued to improve her techniques along with Naruto's constant chakra injections, there is no doubt that she would become a fearsome weapon user in the future.