The building the Frost Daimyo had given them was a two-story administrative hall on the eastern edge of the village, stone foundation, wooden upper floor, a sloped roof designed to shed the snow that never stopped falling in this country. It had been a tax collection office before they arrived. Now it was a forward operating base, and the maps pinned to the walls showed patrol routes instead of trade ledgers.
Samui stood at the central table with her arms crossed.
"Report."
The chunin across from her shifted his weight. He was young, maybe nineteen, and the cold of this place had gotten into his face that made him look older.
"Border team hasn't checked in. They were due back six hours ago."
"Six hours." Samui's voice did not change. "That's two missed windows."
"Yes, Captain."
C was leaning against the far wall with his eyes closed. He did not look like he was paying attention but he was paying more attention than anyone else in the room.
"I've been sensing since the first missed window," C said without opening his eyes. "Their chakra signatures are gone. All six."
The room went quiet.
"Gone as in suppressed?" Samui asked.
"Gone as in killed."
Atsui was sitting on a crate near the door with his katana across his knees. His leg was bouncing. It had been bouncing for the last hour.
"So they're dead," Atsui said. "That's pretty messed up. Someone wiped out a six-man team and we're just sitting here?"
"We're assessing." Samui did not look at her brother.
"We've been assessing for an hour! We should be out there finding whoever did this and returning the favor! That's what's hot!"
"Atsui." One word. The temperature of it was the opposite of his name.
He stopped bouncing his leg.
Samui turned back to C. "Range?"
"If they're moving toward us, they could be within my sensing range within the next few hours. Could be sooner. Could already be close. Without knowing what we're dealing with, I can't narrow it further."
Samui's fingers tapped the edge of the table once. Twice.
"Konoha's the only village with reason to push back right now. Sand just surrendered. Stone is too far away. Mist is across the sea."
"Leaf dogs," C said.
"The question is what Konoha sent." Samui looked at the map. "They're depleted. Their Hokage is dead. Their ranks were thinned in the invasion. Whatever they sent to the border shouldn't be their best."
"Shouldn't be," C agreed. "But a six-man team doesn't just vanish."
"Captain." The chunin who had delivered the report was still standing at attention. "Orders?"
Samui considered. "Assemble a four-man scouting party. Find whatever's left of the border team and report back. Do not engage. I want-"
C's eyes snapped open.
"Something big is coming! Above us! Everyone spread out! NOW!"
Most of them vanished from their previous positions.
Something enormous crashed through the roof.
The sound arrived after the debris. A massive shape, metal, humanoid, taller than a man, punched through the wooden upper floor and the stone foundation beneath it in a single continuous drop. Its surface was covered in paper tags. Dozens of them. Every inch of exposed metal had been plastered with explosive seals, and the tags were already burning.
Three Cloud chunin who had been on the second floor were caught in the initial breach. The metal doll's weight crushed through the flooring beneath them before they could leap clear, carrying them down with it in a shower of splintered wood and shattered stone.
The doll hit the ground floor.
The tags detonated.
The explosion blew the building apart from the inside. The walls buckled outward. The roof collapsed inward. Fire and concussive force tore through every room simultaneously, shredding the maps on the walls, the crates of supplies, the bodies of the two chunin who had been standing too close to the point of impact. The shockwave sent a ring of snow and debris expanding outward from the structure in a flat circle that flattened the nearest trees and left a smoking crater where the tax collection office had been.
Two figures burst through the smoke.
Lee came through what was left of the eastern wall with his nunchaku already spinning, the enormously heavy bars whistling in tight arcs at his sides. His eyes were sharp. His body was low. He was ready.
Tenten came through beside him. The veins along her neck and arms standing out. The First Gate was open. In her hands, a three-section staff whipped in a continuous figure-eight pattern, each segment flowing into the next with a speed that the Gate's power amplified beyond what her normal strength could produce. The weapon was a blur of connected steel.
They scanned the wreckage.
Five dead. The three from the upper floor and the two near the impact point. The rest had scattered.
Samui was already on her feet in the snow outside the building's eastern wall, having exited through the window the instant C had shouted. Her tanto was in her hand. Her breath came out in a thin white stream. She was not panicking. She was thinking.
C landed beside her. His hands were shaking, but not from the cold.
"It's him."
"Who."
"The one from the Chunin Exams." C's eyes were fixed on the green figure emerging from the smoke. "The extreme taijutsu specialist. Rock Lee."
Samui's jaw tightened.
"Rock Lee. Taijutsu only. Cannot use ninjutsu or genjutsu. Eight Inner Gates user. Supposedly killed the Sand jinchuriki in the preliminaries. Defeated the Last Uchiha in the finals before the invasion hit." C was running through the intelligence files in his head.
"And the girl?"
C paused. Focused. Read her chakra.
"Unknown. No file."
"So, a nobody."
"She's not the threat." C shook his head. "He is."
C's brow soon creased. "His chakra reserves are massive. I've sensed several jonin with less. For a fourteen-year-old who can't use ninjutsu, it's... I don't know what it is."
Samui would include it in her report. If they survived this encounter.
"Captain!" Atsui slid to a stop beside them, his katana drawn, fire already licking along the blade's edge. His eyes were bright. His grin was the grin of a sixteen-year-old who had just watched something crash through a roof and thought that's hot instead of we should run. "Let me take them! These guys are way too hot to just let walk out of here! I can handle-"
"No."
"But Captain-"
"No, Atsui."
"One of them is just some girl with a stick! And the other one is younger than me! I can-"
"The one who's younger than you has the potential to threaten kages with his fists." Samui's voice cut through his enthusiasm with the sound of a door closing.
Atsui's katana hand lowered by a fraction.
"We don't have the numbers," Samui continued. "Not for him. Not here. Not today."
Through the settling dust of the collapsed building, two figures emerged into the snow.
Lee walked out through where the eastern wall had been, stepping over debris and bodies. His nunchaku were spinning in his hands. His ears were working, catching every heartbeat and word in the vicinity.
Tenten walked out beside him. The three-section staff rested across her shoulders now, the First Gate still opened. Her eyes were moving across the treeline.
The remaining Cloud shinobi were running.
"We're retreating!" Samui called out. Her voice carried across the wreckage and the snow and the five Cloud chunin who were already scrambling for the treeline. "All units, fall back to the Land of Lightning! Now!"
"Captain..." one of the fleeing chunin started.
"Move!"
Atsui's teeth were clenched. His sword arm was shaking. Not from fear. From the effort of not charging forward.
"We'll see them again," Samui told him, quiet enough that only he and C could hear. "This isn't over. But we pick the ground next time, not them."
Atsui sheathed his sword with a sharp motion that sent a hiss of steam into the cold air where the heated blade met the scabbard.
"Fine." His jaw was tight. "But next time, I'm not running."
Samui turned.
C turned with her.
Atsui turned last, and his eyes stayed on Lee for three full seconds before his body followed the rest of him into the treeline.
Samui's voice carried one last time as her squad vanished into the snow and the pines.
"Rock Lee. Konoha's Green Savage Devil." She said it like she was reading it off a file. "Cool. Very cool."
Then they were gone.
Host: Rock Lee
Age: 14
Rank: Experienced Genin
Skills: Taijutsu A (9,741/1,000,000), Ninjutsu F (0.410/10), Genjutsu F (0.410/10), Shurikenjutsu C (4,300/10,000), Chakra Control B (27,300/100,000), Nunchaku Mastery B (13,500/100,000), Eight Gates B (8,679/100,000), Bojutsu C (5,723/10,000), Chain Mastery C (5,149/10,000), Muscle Mimicry B (0/100,000), Teaching C (987/10,000), Drunken Fist C (849/10,000), Inspire D (50/1,000), Tonfa Mastery F (0/10)
Unique Skills: Body Supremacy Jutsu, Chakra Enhanced Strength, Strengthened Chakra Network, Regeneration Ability, Increased Chakra Reserves
Equipment: Customized Weights, Might Suit, Shinobi Tools, Small flask of special medicine, Tonfas
Lee and Tenten stood in the ruins of the building and listened to the forest go quiet around them.
Lee's ears tracked the retreating Cloud forces for another two minutes before he was satisfied.
"They're gone. Moving northeast. Fast."
Tenten let the First Gate close. She rolled her shoulders and let out a long breath.
"They ran from us."
"They ran from us!" Lee's grin was enormous.
"Well." Tenten planted the three-section staff in the snow and leaned on it. "They ran from you. I don't think anyone even looked at me."
"That is not true!"
"Lee. That blonde kid called me 'some girl with a stick.' I heard him."
"He also wanted to fight us and his captain told him no! That means she considered you a threat as well!"
"She considered you a threat. I was just... there." Tenten's mouth twisted. "Nobody knows who I am."
"They will." Lee's voice was certain. "After today, they know there were two of us. And the next time they see you, they will remember you as a girl capable of fighting next to Rock Lee!"
Tenten looked at him.
"You're the main attraction, huh?" She chuckled.
"For now!"
She laughed harder.
"Those old fossils are going to have to eat their words." Tenten picked up the staff and collapsed it into its carry form. "I didn't hold you back. I didn't slow you down. We walked in, blew up a building, and the enemy ran."
"You were amazing, Tenten. I knew you would be."
"Stop. I'm going to get a big head."
"You deserve a big head today!"
"Shut up and let's go Lee."
They turned south and began the run back to Konoha. Lee was talking the entire way. About the mission. About the explosion. About the look on the Cloud shinobi's faces. About how Guy-sensei would react when he heard.
Tenten told him to shut up twice while smiling. It did not work either time.
…
"Excellent work, both of you." Homura adjusted his glasses.
The briefing room was the same one they had stood in two days ago. Homura and Koharu sat behind the same table. But there was a third figure present this time, standing in the corner rather than sitting, his single visible eye fixed on the two genin.
Danzo Shimura.
Lee did not know much about him. An elder. A war hawk, some called him. He had bandages covering his right arm and half his face. He said nothing as Homura spoke. He watched.
"The Cloud forces in the Land of Frost have been confirmed retreating toward Lightning Country," Koharu said. "Your suppression was effective. More than effective. According to the reports we've been able to intercept, they recognized you from the Chunin Exams and withdrew immediately."
"They called me Konoha's Green Savage Devil!" Lee could not keep the excitement out of his voice even in an official debriefing. "I don't know who came up with that but it's kind of cool even though it's also definitely not the title I came up with."
"It's a good sign," Homura said. "It means your reputation is growing. That's exactly the kind of deterrent we need right now."
Danzo's eye moved from Lee to Tenten.
Lee. The boy was a carbon copy of his sensei. The enthusiasm, the loyalty, the absolute transparency of character. He could already hear Guy's voice coming out of this child's mouth. ROOT had no use for someone whose every thought was written on his face, whose commitment to the village was loud and public and impossible to redirect toward shadow operations. Lee would sooner die than do many of the necessary things ROOT required of its operatives.
Useless.
The girl, then. Tenten. No clan name. No family of note. Weapons specialist. Opened the First Gate, which meant Guy had been training her in the same forbidden arts he had taught Lee. She was talented. She was clearly driven, hungry for recognition, aware that she lived in the shadow of teammates who outshone her. That kind of hunger could be useful in the right hands.
But no. Her loyalty to her teammates was the same breed as Lee's. She would not betray them for ROOT. She would not operate in darkness while they operated in light. And unlike the Hyuga boy, she had no anger to exploit, no systemic injustice to leverage, no cage to offer escape from.
Neither of them was suitable.
But he had chosen correctly with Neji. The Hyuga boy was already proving his worth through the missions. A branch family prodigy with the main family's techniques and a decade of fury to fuel him. That was the kind of material ROOT was built from.
Might Guy, though. Danzo allowed himself a moment of something that was almost respect. Three students. All of them were incredibly capable. All of them grew at a rate that outpaced their peers. The man was a buffoon and a sentimentalist, but he was producing admirable shinobi.
A shame his personality was not more suitable. A man like Guy running ROOT's training program would have produced operatives that could reshape the elemental nations.
"Unfortunately," Homura said, pulling Danzo's attention back to the room, "I'm afraid we can't give you a break just yet. You've only just returned, but we have another mission that requires capable hands. Are you willing?"
"Yes, sir!" Lee saluted.
Tenten nodded.
"Good." Koharu opened a scroll on the table. "The Land of Water's Daimyo has been visiting Konoha for the Chunin Exams. Despite the invasion extending his stay, he is now ready to return to his capital. You will be escorting him."
"The Daimyo's safety is paramount." Danzo spoke for the first time. "Not a hair on his head is to be touched. Showing the Water Daimyo that Konoha's shinobi, even at a time like this, can still be counted on and trusted is essential. Do you understand?"
"Yes, sir!" Lee nodded.
"Understood," Tenten said.
"Will it be the two of us again?" Lee asked.
Koharu smiled. "I'm glad you brought that up. You'll be meeting your mission captain at the village gates. Special Jonin Aoba Yamashiro. He will be in charge of this escort."
Lee blinked. "Aoba Yamashiro?"
"I'm not familiar with that name either," Tenten said.
"He's a trusted special jonin," Koharu said. "Skilled in a wide range of techniques. You'll be in good hands."
"Team Guy on the road!" Lee's face lit up. "Well, half of Team Guy. Without Guy-sensei or Neji-kun. But the spirit is there!"
"When is the spirit not there with you around?" Tenten glanced at him with a small smile.
"Thank you, Tenten!"
"I wasn't complimenting you."
Homura slid two envelopes across the table. A-rank pay. Tenten took it for them and split it between the both of them.
"Rock Lee. Tenten. You are dismissed. Report to the village gates within the hour."
"Yes, sir!"
They left the briefing room together. Lee rushed back home to restock on supplies, feed his pet snake, and freshen up. Tenten headed to her own place to do the same.
An hour. Then they were back on the road.