a/n: Sorry for the delay, everyone. And thank you SO much for all the lovely reviews and support – it really means a lot ^^ To the silent lurkers: thank you for taking the time to read as well! I am trying to update all my stories at least once a month so I also wanted to thank everyone for bearing with me; I am trying my hardest to get updates out in a timely fashion, I promise! That being said, a word of warning: this fic is going to take some time to develop. I want to do this right so Tenten won't be trusting Sasuke (and vice versa) any time soon. BUT I hope that you'll all stick around and that you'll enjoy the ride.

On a side note: there's been quite a lot of interest in making this either a NejiTen or having a love triangle with the three of them. I want to stress that this is first and foremost a story about Sasuke and Tenten, so sorry NejiTen fans – if you're looking for some NejiTen love head over to my profile, I've got plenty of those, haha - But, rest assured that there will be some interaction for them … Neji is a big part of Tenten's life, after all. Though there's no reason that a little triangle can't be introduced … Let me know what you think and I'll see what I can work out!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Chapter 4

Dawn.

Though the night had been sleepless, the rosy glow on the horizon came far too quickly for Tenten's liking. Pale fingers of light streaked across the sky; she could see it shining dimly through the cracks in the stone walls, near the ceiling. She sat huddled on the bed hugging her knees tightly to her chest despite the ache in her hip. The light relentlessly reached for her; she was as powerless against it as she was against the Uchiha.

After Sasuke had left her the previous night Tenten had spent a few fruitless hours combing over every inch of her damp cell; looking for anything and everything that might give her an edge. She'd almost succeeded in convincing herself that he was bluffing too – that she wasn't linked to him in some crazy blood-binding jutsu. Logically, it made no sense; she'd never heard of anything like it. The truth was, she'd decided as she tested the door for any weakness, he'd cast a genjutsu and because she'd been disoriented she hadn't been able to identify the trick.

It even worked for a while.

As she'd searched for a means of escape, hatching one insane plot after another, she'd truly come to believe that she wasn't that vulnerable; that she wasn't so under Sasuke's power that she'd never felt more helpless in her life. Then had come the stabbing pain in her head, the stitch in her side – she was fit; a stitch like that could only mean over-exertion – and the blood welling, crimson-red and so reminiscent of Sharingan eyes, in her hands from the cuts that magically appeared on her palms. And her eyes had been opened to the truth.

Reality had come crashing back; Uchiha Sasuke was many things – a traitor and a murderer at the least - but though she'd never known him all that well, she'd never pegged him for a liar. Genjutsu was not his favored means of attack and he was much too straight-forward to try and mess with her mind … of that much she was instinctively sure. If he wanted something, he demanded it – took it – without compunction or remorse, irrespective of who he hurt in the process. If he said something, chances were that it was true … he wouldn't waste time filling her head with lies.

He had no reason to lie to her.

The blood had dripped from her injuries, staining the floor and speaking volumes more that any argument she could make, so Tenten had finally succumbed to the inevitable. She'd crawled onto the bed, nursing her suddenly aching body and curled into a ball with her back to the wall, to await morning and whatever fresh torture it would bring.

Sasuke strode down the stone-lined hallway towards his prisoner's room – or was she a guest now? It was all becoming a bit muddled in his head. For most of his life he'd viewed the world in black and white; there was the epitome of evil (Itachi) and the corresponding level of good (his dead family) and everything in between was inconsequential. He didn't quite know what to do with Tenten now that he had her here; he hadn't thought much past getting the initial few steps executed. The last time he'd truly been part of a team was back in Konoha – an experience he tried his utmost to forget. Taka had never been a team, a family, to him – they were tools. He was the master and they were the servants; there was no equality. And they'd accepted the state of affairs without qualm. He'd often wondered why … eventually concluding that things must be very different in other hidden villages and their years in Orochimaru's clutches probably hadn't done much to reverse their worldviews.

But Tenten was different.

He instinctively understood that. She wouldn't be a Sakura – easily bent to his will because of infatuation or love or whatever she wanted to call it; she wouldn't be a Naruto, someone to clash violently with, she was far too subtle for that. She also wouldn't be anything like anyone he'd met on his travels; used to taking command from whomever proved him or herself the strongest, under threat of death. She'd been on a team with a prodigy … chances were she wouldn't be overawed by a display of raw power. She'd been on a team with those strange green-clad shinobi … so chances were even better that she'd learned early on to compartmentalize and distance herself from her situation … therefore it wouldn't be much use to try and intimidate her into submission with the proof of how hopeless her situation was.

Sasuke frowned, his pacing slowing somewhat as he unconsciously stuck his hands in his pockets and stared at the floor, thoughtfully examining his next angle of attack.

If he was honest, the one he could most compare her to was Kakashi … an unknown quantity for the most part … still too emotionally invested in things like bonds, and friends, and villages and loyalty, of course … but nonetheless capable of great composure and ruthless action. Her weeks in the woods had proved that; she was level-headed – she wouldn't fall for any of his tricks, not again. The grimace that pulled at his lips had less to do with the pain in his palms – relics of a solo training session taken too far the night before - as he clenched his fingers in his pockets, than with the trapped feeling that came from being linked to another person again.

There was really only one way to approach the situation with Tenten; he'd known that all along though he couldn't help but instinctively shy away from the course he'd set for himself. He would have to try to gain her respect – treat her with respect, for her skills at the very least – or she would never be useful to him at all.

The door he sought loomed out of the darker shadows in the hallway and Sasuke took a moment longer to stare at the wood with distaste. He did not like working with anyone, not at this late stage in the game, but with the situation in Konoha being what it was … chances were zero of his getting anywhere near his goal without being stopped. He had less than no desire to repeat the outcome of the Five Kage Summit. Even with Tenten in the equation the possibility of success was slim, to say the least. But she was the best bet he had and he had to make it work. His mouth thinned in grim determination as he reached for the door, jaw set resolutely. He would make it work, regardless of one small female and what her opinions of him might be.

The door creaked open, rusty hinges protesting loudly, but there was no flurry of movement inside the darkened cell. Warily, Sasuke stepped over the threshold; he'd expected another attempt at attack at the very least. Instead, there was dead silence. The Sharingan swirled red through the darkness, almost against his will, and suddenly he could see her as clearly as if it was high noon.

She huddled in the far corner of the bed, back pressed against the wall, arms tightly wound around her bare legs, her head resting on her knees as she faced away from the door. She must have known he was there, she didn't appear to be asleep but she made no move to acknowledge his presence. Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he took in the blood smeared in a mess of half-handprints and blotches on the pale skin below her knees; the dried flecks on the sheets and the droplets on the floor.

What on earth had happened here? He was sure he hadn't left anything that she could possibly have used as a weapon behind the night before. The sudden stinging in his palms – he'd clenched his fingers too tightly again – reminded him of the night before …

He'd left the kunoichi to her own devices, limited as they were, feeling decidedly off balance. The attacks were more frequent these days; the ghosts much more vociferous. Memory and reality often blurred into a single incomprehensible whole that he couldn't make heads or tails of. Dealing with Tenten after the episode while fetching her food had left him edgy and restless. He'd gone to the room he'd always used for training here; somewhat surprised to find it exactly as he'd left it what seemed like millennia ago.

The weapons had been welcome; the feel of the blade in his hands, the way it bit deeply into wood and stone, had been the stabilizing activity he needed. He was a ninja. He had been born to a ninja clan – and Sasuke had long ago made peace with the fact that there was no sense in the world, not unless he had a weapon in his hands. He didn't know why but the kunoichi unsettled him; the way she stared at him – almost blankly, though she couldn't quite hide the anger and resentment – as if she could see right through him; as if he didn't have any substance, nothing of note for her to see.

It shouldn't have mattered; he didn't care what she thought of him but somehow it did … probably because the last female face he'd seen before confronting her was his mother's – in his memories. But his mother had never looked at him as if he didn't matter, as if he was inconsequential. Tenten's gaze had clearly told him that he was on the same level as any of the low-life scum she regularly faced in her line of work. Sasuke wasn't used to being disregarded; his name commanded more respect than that … but somehow he had known that he was less Uchiha and more Sasuke to this unknown kunoichi than he'd ever been to anyone before.

Now, seeing the damage on her pale skin – blood, bruises and tears – he realized, with a startling frisson of unease, his plans weren't working as they were meant to at all. The blood-binding jutsu should only be activated if he was feeling threatened; if he was truly in danger. It had taken a great deal of concentration and imagination to make it work the night he'd branded her – even then he hadn't been sure it would be enough to pretend; hadn't known if there would be any conclusive result to show the disoriented kunoichi.

The only reason for her to have been injured after his session last night was if he had been feeling threatened.

Sasuke scowled; he certainly didn't recall feeling anything but vaguely uneasy after the way her eyes had pierced through him. He wasn't that easily intimidated after all, but the proof was like a slap in the face. Her blood had been spilt though the jutsu hadn't been meant to activate so easily. Had he underestimated the strength of the bond? Did it bite deeply enough into their bodies that any minor discomfort on his part would be transferred to her? Orochimaru hadn't had time to refine this particular jutsu … it had still been in the testing stages when Sasuke had killed him. If Kabuto had tried to fine-tune it since, Sasuke had no way of knowing … but if Tenten was going to bruise every time he so much as stubbed his toe …

"Get up," he ordered the still-unmoving girl on the bed.

Tenten slowly lifted her head. Her hair had come loose from its usual confinement in twin buns and spilled in a tangled, half-fastened mess over her face and her shoulders. She looked suddenly very young and Sasuke couldn't help but envy her that innocence.

The accusation and anger simmering beneath the blankness she valiantly tried to cloak herself in, wakened far more in him than it had any right to. She had no right to try and make him feel guilty – she was no different than any other tool he could have collected. Just because she came from Konoha … the mere fact that she did call it home should have been enough to ensure hatred.

Anger made his voice harsher than usual but he had no way of controlling it. Maybe he had been alone with only memories for company for too long; maybe their stay at the Sound base should be extended slightly … he needed time to figure out exactly how to control this damn jutsu, anyway …

"I told you – we begin at dawn," Sasuke bit the words off, piece by clipped piece, fighting for control over his suddenly wayward emotions. He needed to sleep quite desperately, if his control had become this tenuous, but even that would have to wait.

He strode quickly from the room; hating the way it was closing in on him, the pressure of the mass of stone and earth above him threatening to cut off the air supply to his brain. The door remained open and that disassociated part of his mind that never really disconnected waited patiently, if somewhat curiously, to see if she would follow.

The wooden hilt felt disturbingly alien in her hands. After so much time spent half-naked, the clothes Sasuke had returned to her felt restrictive but the bulk of her discomfort came from the piece of wood she held loosely in her right hand. It wasn't her weapon and Tenten hated using any weapons but her own. To most shinobi a kunai was a kunai and a shuriken was a shuriken … interchangeable and replaceable, but Tenten knew better. She instinctively understood that each piece of razor-sharp steel she handled claimed a small shard of her soul – so she protected and respected her weapons to the best of her ability.

Using this sword, even if it was only a wooden practice katana, had her grimacing in distaste. It was like holding a piece of Sasuke himself … she didn't want to be within touching distance of any part of him but much less a piece of his blackened soul.

Truthfully, she was confused as hell. She still had no idea what he could possibly want from her – and she was increasingly becoming aware of the unstable chakra that exuded from the Uchiha. He wasn't stable, of that much she was sure now, and she couldn't help the fleeting stab of pity the realization brought. No human being should suffer what Sasuke had suffered; no matter who they were or what they'd done … no one deserved what had happened to him. It was her greatest failing, according to Neji at least, her capacity for empathy. But Neji didn't understand, he never would – he was too black and white to ever be able to see individual situations and how they affected people; to him there was merely duty and honor gained by doing what was expected of you to the best of your ability. For a bleak, empty moment Tenten simply stood staring at the toy in her hands as if she'd never seen a katana before.

She would never see Neji again.

Never feel the glow of silent pride whenever she'd managed to coax an amused smirk out of him, never know the rush of accomplishment on the rare occasion that she bested him in a spar.

Lee … Gai-sensei … their silly antics that she would never witness again, never scold them about again; suddenly she was sorry she hadn't joined in more often …

Ami … what would her sister be like when she was grown?

Tenten squeezed her eyes shut against the tears; she would not show Sasuke how affected she was; wouldn't allow him to see the pain, and the fear, and suffocation she was feeling being trapped in this hell-hole. She wouldn't give him that satisfaction.

Her team, her family, would never know what had happened to her – but she was determined to do her best to make them proud. To die with her head held high, unafraid of her enemy.

She raised her eyes to meet the crimson irises that had been trained unblinkingly on her since he'd led her to this room, handed her a practice katana and moved to the other side of the wide expanse. She refused to back down because of his Sharingan, either.

"What do you want, Uchiha?" she called across to him, her voice echoing, sounding both remote and steely.

He moved gracefully into a kata stance, a panther – all sleek, smooth movement as his muscles obeyed him to perfection. Neji had that same preternatural grace of a born fighter; her eyes narrowed and her gaze turned calculating; if she could beat Neji then there was a chance she could beat the Uchiha, too. She would just have to be very, very careful and play her cards exactly right. Because, one way or the other, she had no intention of spending another night shut up in that cell …

"Show me what you can do, kunoichi," he called back, smooth and emotionless.

She shook her head quickly to rid it of her previous thoughts – she could still sense the barely leashed chaos that roared and fought to be free beneath the calm, expressionless veneer he presented but she couldn't allow pity to distract her from the facts. The fact was that Uchiha Sasuke was a dangerous enemy. Unhinged or not, it made no difference … if she wasn't careful he would snap her like a twig; and she had more pride than that.

Her movements were jerkier than his had been as she also moved into her battle stance, raising the katana, eyes darting everywhere as she plotted the terrain she would have to work with. Her palms stung as the rough wood of the handle dug into the barely-closed wounds but Tenten ignored the pain; focused instead on more important things.

"You were bluffing last night, Uchiha, and we both know it. You wouldn't off yourself just to kill me if I don't play along. Who am I to you, after all? You wouldn't sacrifice your precious vendetta for me." She waited quietly and was rewarded by the slight tensing of his muscles.

God, he's fast. It was the last coherent thought Tenten had.

She'd barely blinked and he was suddenly behind her. She never even had a chance to mount any kind of defence. His fingers lashed out, precisely hitting the nerve at the nape of her neck and blackness descended as she crumpled to the floor.

Her head was threatening to split open, like an over-ripe melon in the summer. Tenten wrinkled her nose, though she kept her eyes closed in deference to her aching head, as she tried to come to grips with her surroundings. The last thing she remembered was challenging the Uchiha …

The disappointment was almost crippling; she had been so sure. Sure that her torture would end, that she wouldn't live to see another day, after taunting him like that. She hadn't read him wrong, hadn't misjudged the turmoil of his thoughts and emotions. Chakra never lied; he couldn't have faked it, most likely he never even realized she'd picked up on it. He kept his chakra so carefully suppressed … but Tenten was an expert summoner, her scrolls had seen to that. As such, she'd had to learn be very exact when it came to identifying chakra; she wasn't a sensory-type but she was a lot more attuned to chakra, especially in shinobi, than the average ninja.

She could feel the barely suppressed murderous rage in his heart. Her words had been calculated to snap his thin thread of patience with her – she'd been so sure he would kill her.

Involuntary tears pooled beneath her still closed eyes; clearly whatever plans he had for her were important enough that he keep her alive at any cost. She slowly forced her eyes to open, blinking away the droplets that clung to her lashes, swallowed the lump in her throat and warily looked around for the Uchiha. Carefully she reached out and placed her palms flat on the cold, stone floor and pushed herself into a sitting position. Her head whirled and she winced, swallowed frantically against the rising nausea and quickly rose to her knees; ducking her head to help the black spots appearing in front of her vision to dissipate.

For the first time in her life she felt true hatred.

It flared, white-hot and corrosive in her heart, eating away at the last vestiges of her old self she had still been hanging on to.

Hazel brown eyes, filled with vengeance, met crimson and Sasuke smirked in satisfaction.

Finally, she was beginning to fight back.

He straightened from his position leaning against a fat, crumbling column opposite the crouching kunoichi and reached for his sword.

"Again."

The command, though spoken quietly, reached her clearly because she immediately pushed herself to her feet, swaying only slightly as she glanced around for her weapon.

Sasuke waited patiently for her to retrieve her practice katana and get into position before he moved, clearly signalling his intent to attack because she still seemed a bit unsteady on her feet, and, today, their very first session, he would allow her some leeway.

"I trust you can do better than before."

The hours melted into one another until Tenten wasn't sure if weeks or merely days had passed. Sasuke pushed her harder than Neji ever had; further than Gai-sensei ever dreamed. Instinctively, Tenten knew that asking for a rest was pointless, so she pressed through the fatigue, suppressed the tears of frustration and exhaustion, and refused to give in. Nicks and slowly weeping cuts decorated her fair skin in criss-cross patterns, bruises bloomed deep purple before tapering away into various shades of yellow and she was surprised she could still move most days.

They worked for hours on end; dawn to dusk; interspersed with only short breaks for eating. She assumed that Sasuke must go out hunting for their food while she slept at night but by the time he walked her back to her cell she was so bone-weary that she couldn't summon any interest in pursuing what might be her only window for escape. Slowly, her body adapted, her muscles became stronger than ever before and her injuries started to heal as she became more and more adept at avoiding his attacks. He was always careful to ensure that they fought only using weapons and she was never allowed to handle anything sharper than the wooden practice katana she'd come to think of as hers – a fact Tenten hated to admit she was grateful for. The extra bruises she earned whenever she'd managed to get under his guard were far better than the wounds steel could inflict, after all.

It was the only concession he made. Kusanagi flashed and whirled – his abominable, ungodly speed wasn't held in check in favor of her slower movements but Tenten was nothing if not adaptable. Growing up with Neji, she'd soon learned to plan – to pay attention and identify any and all weak spots and to fight using whatever advantages she could gain from that. The problem was that, so far, she hadn't been able to find any chink in Sasuke's armor and, unlike Neji, he didn't hold back. Every day was a battle for her life; every time they entered the wide, stone-walled room they used for sparring, her adrenaline started pumping, her heart raced to an unhealthy pace, and she could focus on nothing but the instinct for survival that burned as brightly as ever.

The first few sessions had been frightening in their intensity. At the end of it, when she curled into a weeping, bloody mess on the cold floor and waited – prayed – for death, all she could see was the crimson irises whirling; all she could hear was his mercilessly cold voice as he demanded more, belittled her skills with a blade, and forced her ever onward.

She'd never thought she could hate someone as much as she hated Uchiha Sasuke. His proximity, her captivity, was slowly wearing away at everything that made her Tenten and she could do nothing to prevent it. When she saw the dark shadows beneath his eyes that spoke of sleepless, tormented nights; when she felt his overwhelming chakra signature pulsing with emotions, she no longer felt pity. Instead she felt savage satisfaction and, on those days, she pushed harder and faster than she'd thought she was capable of; trying to add just a little more misery to his existence.

The air was thick with dust from stone that had crumbled beneath powerful blows, and Tenten stood panting, peering carefully through the cloud to try and pin-point her enemy's position. Her lungs ached with the effort of drawing in breath, she was sure a couple of ribs had been cracked moments before when he'd appeared out of nowhere and slammed the flat of his blade against her back.

"Enough."

Sasuke's voice echoed eerily through the cavernous room and Tenten froze in surprise, breathing shallowly in deference to her aching ribs. Automatically, her sword arm dropped as she waited for further orders. Even this strange little twist had become common; she no longer hated herself for responding instinctively to his commands. As the days had passed she'd come to accept the facts: she was stuck. And until she could find a way out of this situation it was in her best interest to simply accept his authority.

The dust clung to the spiky black hair that framed midnight eyes as Sasuke appeared out of the gloom; even without the Sharingan his eyes seemed to pierce through to the bone when he gave her a cursory once over.

"Those ribs need to be strapped."

Disapproval was laced subtly through the words – to anyone else it would have been inaudible but in the time they'd spent together Tenten had become adept at reading the Uchiha. Grimly she acknowledged that it wasn't really all that different from trying to understand Neji; Sasuke rarely said anything that didn't strictly need to be said, and even then she had to listen carefully to identify what he really meant beneath the monotone he employed. The censure was there this time; the implication that she was a failure for having gotten her ribs cracked, and the unfairness of it all welled up inside her until she felt she would explode if she didn't find an outlet for the frustration.

Sasuke walked carefully around her, dark eyes sweeping her from head to toe, and she struggled to stand up straight. The whisper of Kusanagi being sheathed was the only sound in the room for a long moment before he inclined his head slightly; a clear order for her to follow.

The pain was manageable but Tenten was hard pressed to keep up with his punishing pace through the long hallways back to her cell. Distantly she wondered if this was part of the training; if he deliberately inflicted pain to see how she could handle it, if he was readying her for greater pain to come …

Once inside she couldn't keep from sinking gratefully down onto the bed, one hand pressed against her middle as she winced and tried to keep from showing too obviously how much pain the movement had caused. The door slammed shut behind him and she closed her eyes in relief; she was getting used to him but there was no denying that his chakra was smothering – raw power, thinly veiled and pulsing with darkness … Tenten shuddered.

The door opened again, slowly this time, and her eyes flew wide, spine automatically straightening as she glared at the Uchiha. The glare faltered the moment she became aware of the armful of bandages, and bowl of steaming water he was carrying.

"Turn," he ordered brusquely, kicking the door shut behind him.

Wide hazel eyes stared at him in disbelief as Tenten gradually processed his intentions. He could clearly see the moment it clicked; her eyes squeezed shut, her throat constricting as she swallowed repeatedly and shook her head vigorously from side to side.

She was different from any of his previous teammates but sometimes the way she reacted reminded him of the fact that, deep down, Tenten was really just a girl. A little young and naïve – because, he suspected, the Hyuuga at least had always tried to shelter her from the worst the world had to offer. But, through their two week stay at the base and the torturous training programme he'd embarked upon, he'd thought that most of the childishness had been beaten out of her. Weapons were only as good as their masters, after all, and he needed one shaped to suit him exactly. She had to be hard, fast and sharp – nothing less would do.

The reminder that she wasn't just the weapon he'd begun to see her as, was annoying.

At his glare she subsided, though her eyes darted nervously around the room as if searching for a way to escape and Sasuke bit his tongue to keep the curse exploding in his mind from escaping his lips. He was barely hanging on to his sanity, being back in this place, fighting through the claustrophobia day in and day out and this girl insisted on making it as hard as possible for him. She didn't have to like him, she didn't even have to trust him – but she had to obey … otherwise all the time spent carefully honing her had been wasted.

Instinctively he understood that it wasn't a sense of modesty that propelled her denial of his assistance but rather an aversion to having him so close – he could live with that. What he couldn't live with was a broken weapon. He carefully placed the steaming bowl onto the bed, and forced himself to appear calm.

"You can't do it yourself," he bit off, careful to keep his tone even.

For a long moment she remained frozen on the bed before her head bowed in defeat. Dark, dishevelled curls fell forward, hiding her expression, as she carefully turned so her back faced Sasuke and her hands went to the hooks on her shirt.

Neji stared at his uncle with impotent rage flickering in his heart.

"I forbid it, Neji. Your teammates are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. You are needed here." Hyuuga Hiashi turned back to the scroll he had been reading prior to his nephew's interruption with such a ridiculous request.

"The Hokage ordered it," Neji replied, trying to keep the bite from his voice.

Hiashi coughed, "And the Hokage's word can no longer supercede the clan head's. I'm sorry, nephew, but that is my final word."

The younger Hyuuga whirled in a tightly contained circle and stalked from his uncle's office, thoughts spinning a million miles an hour as he discarded one option after another.

Finally, he drew to a halt at the front door of the main house and a grim smile pulled at the corners of his mouth; if his uncle wouldn't allow him to leave full-time then he simply had to find a way to work around that – and for that he would need Kiba.

Determination shining from his pearlescent gaze Neji quietly slipped through the door and turned in the direction of the Hokage's temporary office; his uncle could think and say whatever he wanted.

The fact was he knew Tenten was in trouble – after all the years he instinctively sensed when she'd landed herself in a situation she couldn't handle. And every instinct he possessed was screaming at him that Tenten was in over her head. There was no way that she wouldn't at least have tried to come back to him; of that he was certain.

So, he would find her. And proceed to utterly destroy whoever had kept her from him.

a/n: I hope you liked it ^^ … how will Tenten deal with the subtle shift in her and Sasuke's relationship? How will Sasuke react to it and what does he have in store for her? Will Neji's plan work and will he find Tenten before it's too late? Let me know what you thought, please!