Chapter 3

Hello! It's me again! Apparently Deidara has a very deep voice in the anime. I shed a tear in thanks… speaking of Deidara, one of my friends is going to A-kon (An anime convention) as Deidara, and I'm going as Sasori. And that, my friends, was a very roundabout way of getting to my main point: What happens when you get crazy ass ideas for fanfics at one in the morning:

Akatsuki does "Anastasia"! Ain't that just on crack? Pure, uncut, one-in-the-morning crack. And I'm talking about the cartoon movie. With the talking bat. With Sasori as Anastasia and Deidara as Dimitri and Orochimaru as Rasputin and Kabuto as Bartok. Oh, and, mainly cause it sounds so creepy to call him "baa-chan"… Itachi as the grandmother… yeah. Wow… now that I think about it… there aren't any girls in Akatsuki (Well, we really dunno about Deidara) are there? Oh well… Not gonna rant. Okay, people, R & R!

All the scrolls devoted to the Byakugan, "Subject M", and the history of the Uchiha clan were starting to make sense. It was impossible for one person to have one Sharingan and one Byakugan. Unless…

Unless one eye didn't belong to her. He thought of the floating eye and shuddered. She carefully tucked her hair behind her ears to reveal both eyes, Sharingan blazing, veins around the Byakugan popping.

He shifted into Jyuuken fighting stance and was amazed to see her assume the same stance. He extended his arm, and she parried his hit with the exact same sweep of the arm. He broke her parry and struck at her vitals. She twisted and dodged, simultaneously sweeping her feet, trying to trip him. As he moved, she tried to strike his vitals.

He dodged, but, noting that he was being pushed, decided to end it quickly. He caught her eye, and then said yelled "Hakke Rokujuyon Sho!"

Impossibly, at the very same moment the words left his mouth, she said the exact same thing. Every single strike they made was synchronized, and every hit parried the other. As they struck the last blow, the force of their chakra threw both of them backwards.

The explosion turned off his Byakugan. As the dust cleared, he saw Subject M looking up. She had a mangekyo.

There was a flash of red, and then everything went black and white.

Sitting at a table… smiles… sunshine… someone cooking breakfast… darker… nightfall… blood everywhere… "MAYA! GET D-!"… slice of a kunai on flesh… "You won't touch my child while I still live"… "Die, Onee-chan"… Blindness… it's better to forget… "Maya-hime"… "Have you seen your eyes?"… "Grow stronger, to serve him"… "Aki-kun!"… "Kill him. Obtain the mangekyo."… red leaves…

The illusion fell away. Neji shook his head and tried to clear his thoughts. As all the thoughts had flashed across his mind, he had simultaneously experienced his left eye being cut out. Subject M was no longer standing. She must have fainted after using the mangekyo. Things were starting to come together.

She must have been an experiment… he walked towards her. Part of him said that he had to kill her… but he remembered Tsunade's orders. He sighed and reluctantly dropped to both knees by her side.

Ino yawned. She'd been having bad dreams lately. She'd been out of it when she'd practiced with Chouji and Asuma and opted to skip the after-training barbeque. Something had been bugging her all day. She felt like things were about to change.

Her afternoon was free, but she didn't feel like doing anything. Currently, she was sitting on her couch, listlessly thumbing through a magazine. She reached for her cup of tea. As she blindly felt around for it on the table, she accidentally knocked it off.

"Crap!" she said, hastily running to the kitchen for a paper towel. She was out. Damn. She threw open her front door and banged on her neighbor's.

The door opened. "What is it, Ino-pig?" Sakura asked. They had been living next door to each other for a year now, ever since Sakura had declared herself, once and for all, an independent woman who was sick of her mother's nagging. Ino had just gotten a place of her own in a new apartment building, and the two ended up being neighbors.

"I'm out of paper towels. Do you have any?" she asked in a rushed voice. Sakura rolled her eyes and handed her a roll of paper towels.

"You owe me"

"Hai, hai. I know, big forehead girl!" Ino replied. They used their old nicknames for each other fondly and out of habit.

Ino cleaned up the spill. Sakura, who had followed Ino back to her apartment, was watching, amused. "Klutz"

"Shut up!" Ino said. She picked up the cup, which had broken neatly in half. As she did so, she cut her finger.

"That's a bad omen" Sakura said. Then she looked at the clock hanging over the sink. "Ne, don't you have a date with Shikamaru?"

Ino whipped around to look at the clock. "Oh f-" she ran into her bedroom, skidding as she turned a corner. She ripped off her normal clothes, put on a nice dress, and looked over her hair and makeup.

As she sped past Sakura and out the door she yelled "See-ya-lock-up-please!"

"Ino!"

Neji reached out to Subject M. He jerked his hand back. There was a puppy attached to it. It was currently biting his hand, and it hurt. He recognized it vaguely from a book on dog breeding that Hinata's teammate had left at the Hyuuga compound and he'd read on a rainy, mission-free day- a Shiba Inu. But he'd seen it somewhere else.

"I'm not trying to hurt her, stupid dog." He said roughly. It growled. He gently pried its jaws away from his hand, where an indented bloody half-circle remained. It growled again. He moved it off her chest and picked her up. The dog followed him, though still growling.

He went back to the room with the eye. He sighed and put it in his near-empty weapons pouch. With all this, it was going to take another hour to get back to Konoha.

The clouds that had been so beautiful that morning were now collapsing in upon themselves, pouring down upon Konoha. Ino was walking home through it, having forgotten her umbrella at the restaurant. She reached her apartment building, but couldn't bring herself to go inside. She stood in the deluge, shivering, because in it no one could tell that she was crying.

She must have stood there for half an hour before Sakura, newspaper held over her head, came up to her.

"Ino, you're soaked!" Sakura exclaimed. Then she noticed how red her best friend's eyes were. "What happened?"

Sakura guided her up the stairs into Ino's apartment. She got a hot bath running and gave Ino a towel.

"Jeez, you'll be lucky to get a cold. Good thing there was an emergency at the hospital, if I had been here I wouldn't have seen you."

Ino still wasn't talking. She got in the bath. She got out and put on her favorite blue bathrobe, the one that usually made her feel at peace with the world. It wasn't working. She drank the tea that Sakura handed her.

"Ino, what happened?" Sakura asked for the fiftieth time.

"Shikamaru broke off our engagement." Ino said blankly. Sakura looked shocked.

"Oh, Ino… I'm sorry…" Sakura immediately got out the stash of emergency chocolate. She handed a chocolate bar to Ino, who accepted it mutely.

"Heh… he knocked Temari up…" Ino added. Sakura handed her more chocolate. Ino shoved it in her mouth. Then she started crying.

"Ino… it'll be okay." Sakura tried to think of something to make her feel better and failed. The two friends sat in silence for a very long time.

He'd gotten out of the castle just in time to catch the rain. Perfect. The dog growled at him again. Just then he realized that he had seen this particular dog before- in the pictures. He adjusted Subject M's weight in his arms.

The dog followed him all the way back, growling and snapping at his heels. Through the rain. While Neji was carrying someone a third of his height and half his weight. In other words, Neji was not a happy ninja.

He got in about nine. There weren't many people out, and he made his way to the Hokage's office without incident. She was shifting through her enormous pile of paperwork, somewhat irritably. As he walked into her office, she took a long swig of sake.

"Mission successful, Hokage-sama." He said simply.

"Who is that, Neji?" She asked.

"An experiment, Godaime-sama" he replied. She rolled her eyes. "What happened to her? And what's with the dog?"

"She's an experiment, as I said. To see what would happen to someone with a Byakugan and a Sharingan. I believe the dog belongs to her"

"Shizune!" Tsunade yelled.

"Hai! Ma'am, have you seen Kotetsu and Izumo? I can't find them" Shizune sprinted into the room, making Neji wonder briefly how many times she'd injured her ankles because of her choice in footwear.

He took a look with his Byakugan "They're in the third floor closet. You shouldn't disturb them" Neji said, blushing slightly.

"That's beside the point. I'll take a look at the girl, Shizune, you take care of Neji." Tsunade said, relieving Neji of his burden. Shizune started on the dog bite. The damn puppy, little hellion that it was, immediately snuggled up to her.

"Exhaustion… dehydration… blindness in her left eye…" Tsunade murmured.

"She's blind in her Byakugan?" Neji asked. "But she can use it"

"She can probably only see out of it when it's activated. Her right eye has suffered some damage as well… I can fix that eye, but… I don't think I can do anything about her left eye." A green glow enveloped Tsunade's hand. "She should wake up sometime in the next few hours. We're going to the hospital. You can fill me in on the details of your mission there."

"Hai, Hokage-sama"

Ino was no longer as freaked out as she had been, and she had progressed to the anger that was quite a bit more like her. She was still depressed, but now she was angry on top of it. Sakura listened sympathetically as she started to rant.

"It was so agonizing! It was in the fanciest restaurant in town, which is now completely ruined for me! Damnit! Grr! I could just- agh!" Ino waved her spoon around and continued to dig into the chocolate ice cream Sakura had bullied Naruto into making a run to the store for (he lived around the block).

"Well, at least the lazy bastard is being mature for once and…" Ino stopped and her eyes brimmed over. "Damnit!"

The girl was asleep in a hospital bed and Tsunade was thumbing through the information. Neji, for one, was glad that the dog was tied up in the rain. Served it right.

"Nm… this is horrible…" Tsunade murmured. She took out a file and flipped through it. "Thought so…"

"Did you find something interesting?" Neji asked.

"Her name is Uchiha Maya. When the Uchihas were massacred, her body was never found. There was a body that was presumed to be hers, but it was unidentifiable. Later it was found that it was the body of a missing child from a town a few miles away. She was four years old. Her parents were Uchiha Taki, a lieutenant of the Konoha Keimu Butai and Uchiha Yumi, a former ANBU captain, who quit to raise her daughter. They were on the same team. I personally stitched up Taki after a nasty mission."

"Uchiha Yumi… that name sounds familiar…" Neji said.

"Yeah, guess you'd know about that, huh? Old enough. Yumi was a great Ninja. Strong, beautiful, a genius. She was conceived out of wedlock, but her parents married pretty early on. Funny, Fugaku had a thing for begetting prodigies." Tsunade shrugged. "Anyways, she got married at seventeen, and had Maya a few years later. But Yumi was famous for leading a mission that helped end the Kumo-Konoha war."

There was an uneasy silence as they both thought about Sasuke and how he had deserted the village.

"Sasuke was her uncle. Damn. He might have stayed if he knew there was another survivor." Tsunade whistled softly.

"Wait- she's his mei? His niece?" Neji asked, surprised.

"Well, yeah. I just said that didn't I?" Tsunade snapped.

"Konnichiwa, Godaime-sama, Neji" they turned to see Hiashi in walking towards them. He gave a polite bow.

"Well, hello Hiashi." Tsunade said, attempting at a pleasant voice. The Hyuugas got on her nerves.

"Is the girl in there?" Hiashi asked. Tsunade nodded curtly.

"Yes, but I don't see-" Tsunade started

Hiashi cut her off. "I have a request from the Hyuuga family." He handed her a scroll. She read it.

"Neji, please go in Maya's room. I need to discuss this privately." Tsunade told him, eyes narrowed.

He did as he was told and went to sit by the hospital bed. He could hear parts of the conversation through the sliding door.

"… citizen of Konoha! Absolutely unacceptable."

"…Orochimaru… can't trust her…"

"She was a child! She was abducted and experimented on!"

"… with all due respect… spy… you know how both of the other Uchiha survivors turned out… danger to the village"

"… Danger to the Hyuuga pride!… harmless… twelve years old"

"…insult the Hyuugas will not stand for! … others have killed at twelve before…"

Neji tried to ignore the conversation. He looked outside at the rain. It was still pouring. In the bed, Maya shifted. He saw the gleam of her eyes, one white and one inky black. She sat up.

"Where am I?" she asked, clearly panicked. "Neji-san? How did I get here?"

"You don't remember?" he asked. The girl was about to go into hysterics.

"I don't. How do I know you? I know your name, but I don't remember… all I remember clearly is blood…"

"Calm down. You're back in Konoha. In the hospital."

"What about Okaa-san and Otto-san! They were bleeding! They were hurt!" she said.

"Maya, please calm down. Try to remember. You were in Oto." Neji was at a loss of what to tell her.

She clutched her head. He looked guilty. "I remember… a little… why can't I see out of my left eye? This has all happened before…"

"Maya, it's okay. Just try to calm down and we'll figure everything out." He said.

"Where's Akeko?" she asked.

"Who?" Neji asked, a shiver running down his spine. The name meant "Bloody child"

"My dog. Akekonoha (red leaf)" Maya said.

"He's outside" Outside the door, voices were raised.

"NEEDS TO BE ELIMINATED!"

"I AM HOKAGE! I CAN DECIDE FOR MYSELF! IF I HAVE TO FIGHT AND DIE FOR THE VILLAGE, I WILL! I OWN UP FOR MY MISTAKES!" Tsunade was shouting.

"Very well, I will take my leave. Good evening." Footsteps grew fainter and the door slid open. Tsunade walked in.

"Well, that could have gone over better… Hello Maya-chan. Glad to see you're awake again." She smiled.

"Hokage-sama, for some reason, she doesn't remember past… past… the incident with Itachi" Neji whispered.

"It's a very common response to trauma." Tsunade whispered in reply. Then, more loudly, she said "Maya-chan, I'm going to do something so you remember things better, okay? Don't be afraid. It won't hurt" a green glow from Tsunade's hand bathed Maya's head in emerald light. Maya winced a little. "There, all better. You'll be fine after some rest." She turned to Neji. "Am I right in assuming Maya is in danger, because of the Hyuuga family's edict?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama" Neji said. People who the Hyuuga family wanted dead usually turned up that way sooner rather than later.

"Okay. Then here's what I want you to do"

Ino went to answer the door. She guessed that it was Sakura again, even though Ino had insisted her friend go home. She swung it open, already saying "Sakura, I don't need you I'm- oh…" Ino looked at Neji.

"What do you want?" she said rudely.

"May we come in? Please?" Neji said, his teeth already on edge. Damn but the woman was irritating.

"We?" Ino looked and saw Maya. "Whoa"

"We weren't followed. Can we come in now or not?" Neji snapped.

"Yeah. Come on in." Ino said, swinging the door wide open.

"Maya, say hello" Neji said, removing his shoes. Maya bowed.

"Hello. Thank you" she said, and took off her sandals. Akeko barked.

"Oh no. I'm sorry, I can't have pets in my apartment. It's part of the lease contract." Ino said, eying the puppy, who had jumped up on the couch and was burying its head in the cushions.

"Look, the Hokage assigned you a mission" Neji said, ignoring her anti-dog comments.

"Why me?" Ino asked.

"Because its well known that we hate each other on principle. We bicker on sight" he said. He pointed to Maya, who was standing by the door, eyes downcast. "The Hyuugas want her dead. The Hokage wants you to take care of her until she can figure out a safer place for her. No one can know about this. Not even Sakura. Maya's presence here must be completely undetected."

"Okay, here, why don't you sit down." Ino said. "Look, I'm horrible with kids, and… why? Why do they want her dead?"

Neji took a deep breath and started to explain. He told her about his mission, skipping over his fight with his father. Maya played with Akeko and tried to pretend that she wasn't hanging off every word.

"So that's it. Could you please take her in for a couple of days? She won't be any trouble. I can't make any promises for the dog. And the Hokage will provide you with money for her care." Neji finished. Ino sighed.

"Okay. Here, let me escort you to the door." Ino said. He nodded.

"Arigauto, Ino-san" He put his hand on Maya's head. "Be good, Maya-chan"

"Hai, Neji-san" Maya bowed to him.

As he was headed out the door, Neji asked Ino "Oh, how is your Fiancé?"

Ino looked angry, then sad. "We aren't engaged anymore. He broke it off."

"Sumisen, Ino-san. I didn't know" he said, before shutting the door behind him. Ino sighed, her feelings rising to the surface again.

"Okay, kiddo. I'm Ino. If you want to ask me anything, you can. Here, I bet you're hungry." Ino started digging through the fridge. She ended up giving Maya a bowl of leftover ice cream.

Maya ate it slowly. "Okay, I guess you can sleep in the guest bedroom. I'll go make it up for you" Ino smiled. "You can have anything in the fridge, but if it runs out, write it on the grocery list on the freezer. You can use the pink towels and bathrobe, and I'll loan you clothes if you need them. The bathroom is the second door on the left, and my bedroom is the first. Yours is the third. This is the kitchen and living room, and off the kitchen is the dining room. I think that's it"

Maya mumbled something. "What?"

"Why did you take me in? You don't even know me. I don't think Neji-san likes me either." Maya looked down.

"Maya-chan, that's just the way he is. Don't worry about it." Ino patted her on the head. Ah well, this could be a good thing. A distraction. But how she was supposed to keep Sakura from finding out… it made her head hurt to think about it. "And I don't mind having you"

"Arigauto" Maya ducked her head.

Ino smiled. "Here, knowing Mister-No–Manners, he probably let you get wet. You can take a hot bath, 'kay?"

"Hai, Ino-san" Maya replied.

End of chapter three! Yay for Kingdom Hearts 2. Not that I've actually gotten to even touch it. glares at sister.

R & R!