140 -=How unfortunate=-

In the middle of a forest, you could see teams 9 and 7 protecting a merchant caravan

while team 7 had a second purpose in being here, team 9 was a mess

Guy was looking horrible, as he barely slept because of his worry for Lee

Tenten... was forgotten by everyone around her... I really wonder if she is not part of a Tetsuya clan or something...

and Neji... he was really not there

or to be more specific, he was lost in thoughts

he just did not want to see Naruto or Sasuke, for diferent reasons, and thus he kept distracting himself with his thoughts

which easily become his greatest mistake, as he had to be pushed by Guy to avoid a shuriken attack that would have hit his head

*Swish* *Swish* *Swish* *Swish*

*tak* *tak* *tak* *tak*

*Cling* *cling* *clang*

dozens of shurikens then got shot at them, but most got evaded, and the ones aimed at the caravan got easily dealt with by Kakashi

Since he alone was enough to defend the caravan, the rest of team 7 started to deal with the bandits surroundimg them immediately

Neji recomposed himself and immediately activated his byakugan, then he quickly found one of the bandits and rushed him down

that bandit was scared, he saw those devilish white eyes (people love to say Byakugan is creepy) and saw the 'angry with a glint of insanity' look that Neji had, scaring him even further

The man tried to run, but Neji was faster, he tried to fight, but Neji was stronger

avoiding a punch to the face, Neji quickly used his gentle fist to block the tenketsu on the arm of the bandit, making him lose focus because of suddenly losing the movements of his arm

taking advantage of that, Neji used a move not fit of his gentle fist... a punch

a straightforward punch to the face, but using a bit of chakra and that was enough to knock the guy down

'Fuuuu... that felt good...' He thought

his clan was strict in using gentle fist, but the soft and deadly blows of that style did little in regards of appeasing anger

he looked back only to see 3 Narutos on top of at least 10 bandits, jumping on them while screaming

Sasuke, surrounded by 5 bandits, who in an instant fell down as blood shot from their bodies in different places as he looked like he didn't even move, only kept his hand on his sword

and the girl he didn't recognize (Luna) standing still as enemies just dropped down with burns and cuts all over them without her even moving

(He doesn't know how the Kurama kekkei genkai works)

'...what...the...?' He could only look stunned

In the time it took him to beat one opponent... each of the members of team 7 defeated at least 5 times more than him, and they didn't have a scratch on them!

'How can that b-' His thoughts got interrupted as he was pushed once again, this time by Tenten, avoiding taking a kunai to the face

He looked back, and saw 3 ninjas on the ground, hit by a multitude of throwing weapons, and Tenten fighting 2 more bandits, probably the ones who almost got him while he was distracted

while Tenten is hated by Kishimoto, and often forgotten about because of that, she is a very skilled ninja

and while she can hardly fight someone of her level or above, she can easily wipe the floor with those unprepared ninjas

seeing she was about to beat those 2 as well, Neji went to look for another opponent...

it's just that... nobody came (Ay, references)

He looked around, and found no one... team 7 had dealt with most of them, Kakashi protected the caravan, and Guy easily beat the stronger enemies, which were just chunnin level, leaving only the two guys Tenten was fightimg for last

*slash* *Thud*

And right on cue, he heard the sound of the last enemy falling down

"Well done everyone" Kakashi said as he made some hand signs and summoned his dogs, probably to send a message to the hokage, so she could send someone to get those bandits they captured

because in the ninja world, information is key to everything, and maybe those guys had some kind of information

"Neji, are you alright?" Guy approached Neji, his lack af awareness, which was his strongest point before, left him worried

"...I... I am fine... I think I'm just tired..." Neji made up some excuse, before he went to the river close by to wash his face

Guy was worried about him, but if he didn't want to talk about it... he couldn't force him to...

At the river

*Splash*

"Fuck!"

*Splash*

"Fuck!"

*SPLASH*

"FUCK!!"

Neji could be seen aggressively throwing water on his own face and cursing

while he was distracted before, he almost got hit by some weakilings... twice at that

he was fuming, he just wanted to do a mission to deal with his stress

'But why? WHY?

WHY DO THESE PEOPLE KEEP SHOWING BETTER RESULTS THAN ME?

WHY CAN'T I EVEN DEAL WITH SOME WEAKLINGS NOW?

WHY?! WHY?! WRYYYY-'

He screamed in his mind

ever since his talk with Kaede all that time ago, he has been getting more and more arrogant, he didn't go back to his earlier beliefs, but his arrogance came back twice as strong

He knew he wasn't as strong as Naruto or Sasuke

He absolutely hated to admit it, but he knew he wasn't

but... he did less than Tenten and that other girl that is supposed to be team 7 weakest link!

(Boy, if only you knew how wrong you are...)

'WHAT THE ACTUAL...' His thoughts got interrupted as he saw a silhouette in the water, looking up he saw

'A little girl?' He asked himself confused

and indeed it was a strange sight, especially if you took the winter clothes the girl was wearing into account... a black overcoat and a checkered scarf covering her mouth

her green eyes stared at Neji coldly, he felt weird to feel pressure since she didn't even do anything

"Who are you?" He finnaly asked the girl, her red hair fluttering in the wind, and her white bunny ears twiched as he spoke, though he only saw them as some weird

decorative headband maybe

instead of answering him, she lifted her right arm, pointing her palm in his direction

Neji's mind immediately flares every survival instinct he had, making him activate his dojutsu, and move away as fast as he could, though it was barely fast enough, as he only managed to move his head out of the way of an ice spike that appeared seemingly out of nowhere

Neji jumped back with cold sweat flowing down his back like a river, some of it even froze by the weirdly low temperature of the air around the ice spike (To instamtly freeze liquids not in direct contact... that's cold)

"Hiw annoying... I missed" The girl said in such a plain manner that looked like she didn't just try to kill Neji

"I wanted to deal with this idiot quickly so I could deal with that hateful bastard already... Can I leave him to you?" She asked looking behind Neji

*Step*

*Step*

*Step*

Hearing the footsteps approachin him, he at first though someone came to check on him, but their calm pace made him change his mind immediately

Looking back (RIP Byakugan's 360° vision, huh?) his mind froze for a second, because im front of him stood

"...Lee?"