My Belated Apology - Hyuga Neji x OC Fanfiction

Chapter 21

A/N: I drew a manga cover for Shiyuki （＾ν＾）

3rd Person's POV

Guy approaches Kisame with a robust kick. He takes the chance to separate the Akatsuki from his sword.
"Now!!"
All four of his students jump from above, aiming at Kisame. Without delay, he creates four Water Clones to confront his enemies.

"Aqua Prison!!"
Kisame seizes the chance and imprisons the team on water.
"At this rate, I'll..." Shiyuki complains in her mind. Her current condition doesn't allow her to stay under water too long, or else she'll die running out of breath. Her teammates are not better than her.
"Lee! Neji! Shiyuki! Tenten!!"
"I'm surprised, you were more resourceful than I thought, you brats." The Akatsuki smirks. "Now, without getting in the way, I can take you out!"

Kisame spreads his hand to get the Samehada flying up from underwater.
"This great blade, 'Samehada' acknowledges none but me."
Guy takes a nunchaku out of his backpack. He is ready for the personal fight with Kisame.
"Shall we begin?!"

They go on a fight that can set the Thames on fire. The water bursts continuously. With a monstrous punch, Kisame sends Guy sinking underwater.
"Don't think that'll repay the debt just yet. Water Style: Five Sharks Feeding Frenzy!!"
Surrounded by five evil sharks, Guy has no choice but open the Eight Inner Gates.
"Sixth, View Gate: Open!!"

With a drastic power, Guy beats all the sharks and jumps up to the water surface at once. At the same moment, Neji breaks through the water prison and rescues his teammates. As soon as Shiyuki is released, she falls to her knees. She coughs and heals herself at the same time. She glances at her side to see that Lee is panting, and Neji is helping Tenten up.

'So you didn't choose me, huh. Right, you hate me after all. Ok then.' Shiyuki bears in her mind. She closes her eyes and continues healing herself. Now, she's even more determined in eliminating all of her feelings for him. From now on, Neji and Shiyuki will be nothing more than mere teammates.

Over there, Neji glances at his crush suffering from coughing. Something squeezes his heart. But she can heal herself, so she'll be ok, won't she? As a result, he chose to help Tenten instead, since she can't help herself like Shiyuki.

"That posture...!" Out of the blue, Lee yells.
Guy sends a speedy kick to Kisame's face, making him fly away.
"That's..."
"Yeah, it's over."
"Morning peacock!!"
Thousands of fiery punches attack Kisame. He crashes to the water surface.
The team gets close to the loser to realize that he's no longer Kisame anymore.

***

Team Guy arrive at the place they need to reach.
"Gaara is inside these rocks." Pakkun informs.
Neji activates his Byakugan.
"How does it look, Neji?" Tenten asks.
"What is that..?" He doesn't answer.
"Neji, what's happening inside the cave?" Lee is impatient.
Shiyuki doesn't say anything. She just looks at Neji, waiting for an explanation. She doesn't want to talk to him.

"Words can't explain."
Guy tries giving the rock a punch. The rock is still in one piece, as it has a barrier protecting it. Seeing that attacking is useless, Lee worries.
"What should we do?"
"First, we have to break the barrier." Guy answers.
"How do we do that?"
"That's a 'Five Seal Barrier'." Someone raises his voice.

The team turn their heads back to see that team Kakashi have arrived.
"You're late, Kakashi."
"Well, we ran into a bit of trouble on the way."
"Naruto-kun, Sakura-san!"
"Who's that old lady?"
"Ah, an adviser from the Sand."
"Right, let's go for it, Kakashi!"
"Alright."

***

"This particular 'Five Seal Barrier' is created by tokens with 'kin' written on them placed in 5 different places in the viciting. The 'kin' token you see in front of you, and the other tokens are in 4 different places. To remove the barrier, all of them must be detached." Kakashi explains.
"So where are they?" Naruto looks around.

Neji activates his Byakugan to search for the 4 other tokens.
"Found them." He informs. "On the top of a rock about 500m northeast of here. On the trunk of a tree, on a river bank, 350m southeast. On a wall of rock about 650m northwest. Inside a grove about 800m southwest."

"Right! If it's that range, we'll use these radios. While we're taking Neji's directions, we can keep in communication and we'll find the locations of the tokens!" Guy takes out several radios from his backpack and gives them to his team and Kakashi. "Shiyuki, you handle the token here."
"Yes sir!" Shiyuki puts on her radio.
"Speed-wise, my team is faster. The frequency is 174. Wait for our message."
"It's up to you."
"Team Guy! Let's go with the full power of youth!! Scatter!"

Immediately, the team disappear, except for Shiyuki. She jumps to the token on the rock.
"Right, everyone, remove the tokens!!" Guy's voice rises.
Shiyuki peels the token and announces.
"Sakura, right now!"
"OK!"
Right at the moment Sakura gives the rock a powerful punch, Shiyuki jumps off from it. She nods, expressing that they should enter the cave. No, it's not that easy. Something is rising from underwater. It turns out to be another Shiyuki.

"Everyone!" She calls.
"Yeah, here too." Neji replies.
"What the hell is this?"
"Perhaps it's the enemy's trap." Lee guesses.
"Indeed. It seems like even if the barrier is disabled, a trap activates to prevent the enemy's entry." Guy analysis.
"Going this far to carefully secure the barrier, these are some people." Neji comments.
Shiyuki makes a sign that she will handle her clone, so that team Kakashi can go on.