Day 1

"Gai-sensei, I think it's time that we return to Konoha. We can assemble a team specialized in tracking when we get there. They'll be better suited to find Neji than we are." Tenten told her sensei after they had all spent a sleepless night.

The three remaining members of Team Gai had used the prior afternoon and the entire night to continue their search for their missing camarade in the nearby villages. They weren't able to find a single clue as to his whereabouts. Only one member of Team Gai was able to track down people, and unfortunately he was the one they were looking for.

"I suppose we have no choice. We want to find him as soon as possible, and our chances of doing so on our own are... Minimal. Neji can take care of himself for a couple days." Though Gai sounded certain, he had a troubled look on his face that matched his students'.

"Sensei, why would they have taken him?" Lee asked.

"I don't know, Lee. I just don't know."

"How fast can we make it back to the village, sensei?" Tenten asked.

"Tomorrow morning at best." He replied. His tone had lost it's usual bubblyness towards midnight. Lee towards two in the morning.

"Then what are we waiting for?"

With Lee's words spoken, the three began to make the long distance back to Konoha with their hearts heavy and their minds full of questions without answers.

OoOoO

A padded floor, padded walls, a large metal door with a crack at the bottom that let in a stream of light into the otherwise dark room. Those were the first things his eyes took in as he awoke from what he felt had been a long slumber. The room was big enough for only one person, and Neji was that one person.

He took in his own position, trying to take in everything. There was alertness in his eyes, and he couldn't hold back the sense of fear building within him. He was seated, his back against the wall, and his arms were pinned above his head. Chains attached to the wall were linked to the handcuffs keeping his hands up in such an awkward manner. He pulled on the chains, seeing if he could pull it out of the wall. He couldn't.

Trying to send chakra into his hands to give him extra strength was what made him panic. He was unable to do it. He turned as best as he could and tried to look at the handcuffs, but couldn't see them well with such little light. He activated his bloodline limit for merely a moment and was able to see the problem.

The handcuffs absorbed any chakra that were meant to go into his hands.

Taking deep breaths, he turned so that he was kneeling in front of the wall, his hands in front of his face. Although he couldn't see, he could feel. The handcuffs were thick and heavy, and he touched the area where the chains met the wall. There was a small key hole, but he couldn't pick it, and the chains were too wedged in for him to remove them. Attempting to do so would waste his strength, and he needed to keep as much of that as he could.

Giving up, he returned to his sitting position. There was nothing he could do but wait.

He closed his eyes and leaned his head back so it rested against the wall. Memories of his fight coming back to him.

Team Gai had been separated by the Amegakure ninja.

He'd been fighting four of them and had noticed another ninja up in one of the trees. Neji knew he was the leader of the attack simply by the way he was watching the fight. His eyes followed the movements of Team Gai while searching for the princess. He wasn't able to watch him the entire time, having to keep his attention on his enemies.

But he did see him signal to one of his camarades. Said camarade had gone to his leader, had spoken to him, and had gone on to repeat whatever it was his leader had told him to some of his other teammates. In the blink of an eye he was surrounded by almost a dozen shinobi. All of them ex-Amegakure nins.

He had been outnumbered and outpowered. He was strong, but even he could be brought down when faced with such a large number of high ranked enemies.

Somewhere along the way he had been knocked out.

Neji had no idea where he was, or why he was there, but he felt fear. The situation clearly wasn't in his favour. He didn't know what time it was, but he knew he was beginning to grow hungry. With nothing else to do, he began to count. And it was nearing the seven thousand mark that the door to the room was finally opened.

He cringed as light illuminated him and the walls. The light was hurting his eyes. Peaking out from under his eyelashes, he made out the figure of a man in the doorway. He couldn't recognize him.

"Here's some food. I'll feed it to you if you promise to behave." The man grinned smugly, "If you don't, I suppose you can just go hungry."

Neji said nothing and merely watched the man approach him.

"Here's how things are going to work. You get food once a day, as well as a toilet break. Misbehave and those privileges will be taken from you. If you're good, in a couple days I can loosen up those chains and let you eat on your own. Sound good to you?"

When the man stood in front of him, Neji chose to answer his question. With action. He kicked out his foot, landing a solid blow to the man's stomach. The force of the hit sent him flying back. The plate in his hand smashed into the wall, its contents splattering on the ground, although it managed not to break thanks to the padding. The man hit the hallway wall outside of the small room Neji was in.

He staggered to get his balance, and he glared at Neji, "I guess you'll be making this more difficult than it ought to be. Sorry to say this kid, but bad behaviour isn't going to get you out of here. It'll only make this place hell for you." The man grabbed the door and hesitated before closing it. He had a grin on his face, one that promised pain, "Ryo will deal with you tomorrow. Maybe then you'll learn how to behave."

Neji went back to counting.

AN: Hello! Thank you for the positive feedback! I would just like to mention that this story has no pairings. Besides that...I hope you liked it!

Thank you for reading!
-MewMew