Before I begin this chapter, I would like you all to know that I have very recently been hit upside the head by one of my readers, Murg, who flatly told me I was being an idiot and under powering the determination of an enslaved Harry Potter.

After some consideration, I have realized that he is right. Though Harry won't be crazy powerful in this fic (I'm thinking he'll always have more spiritual power than physical power, merely because he is a wizard as well), he will try to train in ninja techniques in secret. Currently, his life's goal is to escape the Hyuuga, and since they haven't stamped the Caged Bird seal on him yet, he is rarin' to get out of the Hyuuga complex.

Thank you Murg, I will try my very best to include your statements in my story. In fact, I'm dedicating this entire chapter to you, I hope you like it, and if not, please tell me and I'll fix it.

Some people have asked about why I would add the 'Ieyasu Hyuuga' bit. Mostly, that was a paper trail for any Boy-Who-Lived searches that the wizarding world might conduct. Some people would also point out that Harry was kidnapped, why doesn't Dumbledore stop it? Technically, before the law, Dumbeldore practically sold him into marital slavery. By law, Harry belongs to the Hyuuga, he has no power to make Hiashi or Harry do anything.

Onward!

Harry sat stonily in his bed, something these people called a futon, and stared at the far wall, his eyes unfocused.

He hated this place.

In the few short days that he had been here, the Hyuuga had turned him against them so thoroughly; he doubted he could ever see them as anything but wardens to this pristine prison.

Especially Neji. Harry gritted his teeth at the wave of anger and humiliation that threatened to wash over him. Neji had treated him like dirt, and had easily disabled him without even trying. The feeling of helplessness that had plagued him since the incident still burned in his throat.

FLASHBACK…

Harry followed the long haired boy, gazing at him curiously. He had been Harry's first human contact in this place, and hadn't seemed overtly arrogant. He had introduced himself stiffly to Harry as Neji, and had beckoned Harry follow him down the twisting hallways, hallways Harry had begun to recognize himself.

"Neji, where are we going?" Harry asked, deciding to abandon his pathetic pretense, a surefire defense mechanism against Uncle Vernon.

"The courtyard." Neji's reply was short and aggressive and the walk shortly descended to an uncomfortable silence.

After a few minutes of walking, Neji slid open a wooden door, revealing, for the first time, true sunlight. The packed dirt courtyard was awash with it, sunshine and warmth playing across the ground like gold coins. The courtyard was surrounded on three sides by the main building of the Hyuuga house, the third was open to a large garden, koi fish splashing in pools bridged by red ornamental bridges and rock gardens arranged in complicated patterns. A group of carefully tended trees brushed up against as large white stone wall that Harry supposed surrounded the entire complex, a large wooden gate set in the stone and guarded by two tall Hyuuga, one male, the other female. Other Hyuuga bustled around the edges of the courtyard, avoiding the center and continuing onto their business.

To Harry's horror, Neji seemed to ignore the general path of the people and walked straight into the center of the courtyard.

"Neji!" Harry hissed, looking furtively around at the people who were giving them a wide birth. "I don't think we're supposed to stand there."

"They aren't." Neji clarified, turning to face Harry. "But we are."

Neji's cold eyes bored into Harry's own, causing him to gulp in fear. "I don't trust you."

Harry blinked. "O...kay?"

Neji closed his eyes, his face relaxing into a medative pose. "I think you were a mistake of fate." Neji's eyes snapped open and glared at Harry. "Fate works about you, changing and manipulating the people around you, I may hate the Main Branch," Neji's face became harder. "but I do my duty. I think you are fated to start the downfall of this clan."

"I haven't done anything!" Harry shouted, starting to get angry. "I haven't even had a conversation with anyone in this family, if you can call it that!" Neji stiffened.

"What do you mean?" His tone was closed and gaurded.

"Some in-laws you are!" Harry shouted, his voice ringing around the empty courtyard. "Always belittling me, calling me stupid, branding each other like animals-"

Neji's face closed with cold determinations as he rushed Harry, throwing a jab at his shoulder. Harry twisted away, Neji only barely brushing his skin. His shoulder automatically drooped, the touch of the Hyuuga relaxing the muscle beyond use. "What are you doing!?"

Neji didn't answer, he merely smashed his heel into Harry's abdomen.

Spittle flying from his mouth, Harry flew back, landing on his back and rolling a few feet. Wearily getting on his feet, Harry looked around for help, only to find the courtyard deserted.

Harry opened his mouth to apologize for whatever he had done, but was interrupted by a palm strike to the gut. With a cry of pain, Harry sank down to one knee, gritting his teeth as he began to cough, red staining the inside of his teeth and the ground in front of him.

"Why, why are you doing this?" Harry choked out between his shaky gasps of air that turned into a yelp of pain as Neji casually kicked his ribs, sending him onto his back.

Neji cruelly yanked on Harry's black hair, hauling his ear close to his mouth. "You are fated to marry Hinata-sama, and you are fated to become a Hyuuga." Harry could feel the sneer in his voice. "You say we are branded like cattle, animals to serve the Main Branch family, and you're right, unfortunatly, you'll be in the same boat soon enough."

Harry snorted. "Why would I want to be one of you? And what mark?"

Neji, arrogance in his voice, grabbed Harry's throat, hoisting him up to eye level. "A seal, fool, a seal that makes you a virtual slave of the Main house, of Hiashi, and of your new wife and sister-in-law, that is your fate, a fate you share with over three fourths of the Hyuuga."

Harry jerked back as if burned, ignoring the hand clenched tight around his windpipe as best as he could.

"I will never." Harry spit, putting as much venom as he could in the words. "I will escape, or die trying." Harry was like a wounded, cornered animal, his face feral. With a snarl, he surged forward and slammed his head into Neji's, forgetting, for a moment the metal plate attached to his opponent's headgear.

Neji dropped the unconscious Harry in disdain, kicking the figure once before signaling two other Branch members to tow Harry back to his room/cell.

Neji turned his back on his former adversary, striding away to his quarters to pack for his team's mission, his mind slightly worried by the venom and pure animal desperation he had showed

…END

Rage burned in Harry's body at the mere thought of the arrogant boy. Harry hadn't seen him since then, which was probably good for his own health, seeing as the last time he had attacked Neji, he knocked himself out.

Shaking the dark thoughts from his mind, Harry's mind perused the week he had been here, stopping here or there at a particularly important event. Most of the early week had composed of days spent in his small, if comfortable, room. Or cell, if you looked at it that way. Sometimes he had been let out for small tours in the huge mansion, other times, a guard would merely let him stretch his legs in the hallway outside his room. However, since Neji's little talk with him, he had been moved to bigger accommodations, on with the basic niceties of comfort, such as a bed, a sink, a toilet. With this leisure, Harry got larger spaces of time outside of his room, almost being able to roam freely around the house.

Then there had been the one time he had seen his betrothed, a concept he was barely coming to terms with.

FLASHBACK…

Harry sighed as he slumped against the courtyard wall, basking in the sunshine. Only two days ago, Neji had beaten him into the dirt barely twelve feet from his current position; the notion didn't disturb him as it usually would, however. He was outside for his own pleasure of the first time (even thought his was flanked by two distant Hyuuga guards) and he wasn't going to waste a single second of it.

Across the courtyard, an anomaly entered the serene beehive like aura of the complex courtyard. The persons arrival sent tremors down the metaphorical web until even Harry, ever oblivious, had to notice where the Main house Hyuuga were looking with such disdain, while the Branch house with admiration.

It was a small, thin, slender girl, her hair, so dark it looked blue, with white eyes, smiling gently and conversing with one of the gate guards. Her eyes were crinkled into a smile and her tinkling laugh trickled over the low murmur of the people who had begun to move on.

Harry turned to one of his guards, being sure it was a Branch member, and curiously tilted his head.

"Who is that?" Harry asked, even as he turned back to stare at the girl. A white overcoat with the Hyuuga crest was stitched onto the shoulder and a pair of sandals and pants much like his own was her uniform, a plated headband with the same little leaf symbol, as all of the people with them had, was slung around her neck.

"That is Hinata-sama." The guard said, his eyes shining with respect as he watched the girl interact freely with the guards. "She is your betrothed, Gai-jin."

Harry dumbly nodded, watching Hinata as she walked across the courtyard, puzzled as her smile was replaced by a timid expression of fear and anxiety, her forefingers began to nervously fidget, pressing them together as she approached the entrance to the Main family wings.

"Why did she…" Harry waved his arm in the general direction of the guards. "Then get all nervous?"

"Her family does not think highly of Hinata-sama." The guard said darkly, Harry nodded, but kept the guards reaction tucked away for later analizing.

…END

Harry sighed as he stared at his ceiling, moonbeams playing across his face through his new window. Then he sat bold upright. The window!

Carefully, Harry eased over to the window and slowly undid the latch, sliding the window open to the outside. He recognized the place even in near total darkness. His window opened, and it opened onto the courtyard.

Harry smiled and he carefully closed and locked his window, his spirits picking up as he began to furiously plan for his escape.

The moon was full and yellow as it looked down on the courtyard of the Hyuuga complex, its mellow shine coloring liquid drops of rain as they pattered down softly and gently. Water dripped off of the tiled roofs of the white house's that sheltered the sleeping clan, water that covered the soft sounds of running.

A figure quickly darted from tree to tree, making sure to tread carefully as to not leave his tracks in the mud. A pair of green eyes, darted left and right, making sure that the guards, guards he knew were too arrogant to think anyone would dare sneak into the Hyuuga Clan, had stayed in their places.

In the far back of the Hyuuga gardens, there was a tree that grew over the edge of the complex wall, a strong oak tree that Harry had tested and could hold his weight.

Slowly, Harry peered around the trunk of his tree again, making sure the guards were looking the other way before easing away from his hiding place and making his way further into the shadow of the forest, finding his way to the base of his escape route.

Taking a deep breath, Harry hoisted himself up the tree, praying that the Hyuuga wouldn't hear the unnatural shifting of leaves from this part of the garden. Shimmying along the thick branch that stretched over the thick wall, Harry took a deep breath of clean air, steadying his nerves. Wiping sweaty palms on his clothes (which he regretted, because his hands were now covered with the wood ash he used to darken his clothes) Harry attempted to move farther along the branch, only to stop when he heard the branch crack a little.

Eyes wide, Harry attempted to move back, only for the tree branch to make the same sound of protest. Looking down, Harry saw that the branch was only a about six feet above the top of the wall, if he could drop onto it, then hop to the ground, he would be able to get out of this prison.

Carefully, Harry eased himself of the branch until he was only handing by his hands, his feet dangling inches from the foot wide wall of the Hyuuga clan. Taking a deep breath, he dropped.

Then all hell broke loose.

As soon as Harry's feet touched the top of the wall, black markings spread from his bare feet, and a loud, obnoxious alarm began to blare from inside the complex.

Panicked, Harry jumped off of the top of the wall into the tall grass. Quickly, Harry assessed his position, his eyes narrowed through the goggles he had stolen. This section of the wall was nestled up against the outskirts of a forest, shelter.

Hurriedly, Harry sprinted into the woods, ducking branches and jumping over fallen trees. Far behind he could hear the distant sounds of pursuit, noise that was gaining fast.

Desperate, Harry frantically looked around for shelter, his eyes flicking from place to place, dismissing them all because of obviousness and size. Finally, with the noise about only a hundred yards off and closing, Harry scampered up a tree, hoisting himself up and wedging himself into one of the forks. Snapping a bough and holding it in front of him the leaves shielding his body, Harry held his breath in anxiety, training his eyes onto the figure that had just walked into the clearing…

Neji focused his Byakugan eyes as he walked into the center of the clearing, maintaining the façade that suggested that he didn't know exactly where the Gai-jin was.

Neji almost snorted. No one could hide from a Hyuuga.

Neji continued on through the clearing, and then doubled back until he had a clear view of the Gai-jin. Neji's eyes narrowed as the black haired boy got rid of his covered and shimmied down the tree.

'He didn't even bother checking for a trailing shinobi.' Neji thought, disgusted at the other boy's lack of basic field knowledge, even if he was a civilian. 'Even Acadamy students know better than that.'

Neji purposefully snapped a twig as he stepped back into the clearing, alerting the Gai-jin to his obvious presence. Smiling at the desperation on the Gai-jins face, Neji stepped forward, causing the boy to scramble backwards.

"Halt." Neji said, his tones as frigid and cold as his eyes.

Harry felt his hackles rise and he snarled back at Neji, causing the older boy to smirk.

"I suppose it is too much to ask for you to behave like a civilized human." Neji baited, and he was rewarded with another snarl.

"Like you would know!" Harry barked back, his eyes hateful behind his goggles. "They keep you caged like a dog, and they expect to do the same to me!"

Inhuman bloodlust burned in the pit of Neji's stomach and, in a burst of speed, he was behind Harry, delivering a punishing kidney strike that sent him flying face first into the nearby tree. Neji's sensitive ears heard the smash of the goggles lens as it impacted the tree, shattering it.

Groaning, Harry peeled himself off of the tree, almost falling to his knees at the pain that flared through his twitching and contracting back muscle. The goggles had broken on the left eye, causing blood to drip slowly from the shards to pool in the unbroken frame of the eyeware.

"Figures." Harry baited, his breath coming out in short gasps, the movement of his mouth sending drops of blood spattering onto the ground. "You couldn't face me like a man, you had to stab me in the back."

Neji stood there, staring at Harry, silently shaking in rage. His arms trembled as he attempted to stop himself from delivering a fatal blow.

"What?" Harry said mockingly, sending Neji a measured look. "Scared?"

Like a dam, the anger burst forth, flowing into Neji's arm and guiding it to the fatal path that sent his palm into Harry's chest.

Harry froze as the chakra speared into his heart, and for one frozen moment, he saw Neji. The older boy's face was frozen in a picture of rage, anguish, fear, and shame. Then Harry smiled, blood flowing down his chin, dripping onto the forest floor, and Neji knew.

Harry was never going to submit to the Hyuuga. Neji had played right into his trap. He had meant it when he said he would escape, or die trying.

Neji growled at the motionless body of Harry before sending another jerk of chakra to Harry's heart, attempting to kick start the organ into life. For one horrifying moment, Neji thought he had failed and he would have to explain to Hiashi why his groom was dead (which would probably be the last thing Neji ever did) then Harry jerked into life, even though his breathing was gasping and shallow.

"If I have to deal with this curse," Neji said, hoisting Harry onto his shoulder. "So do you."

So, what do you think?

I've taken Murg's suggestion to heart and am going to have a much angrier, moodier, more powerful Harry Potter, much like he was when he was fifteen.

Toodles.