On the Previous Chapter

With that being said Gai left the two "lovers" to their own devises, he decided not to get in their way of "hot" and "passionate" love, as he so eloquently likes to put it. Afterwards he jumps to the windowsill and before leaving he turns around to look at them again. His eyes become a pair of never ending rivers of water as he looks upon the sunset, waves crashing against each other in a scene that only seems to follow him around, straight out of a comic book…

He knew what happened… Neji knew all too well what just happened. For a brief moment he visualized what Gai probably would have said (while cursing the gods that were laughing at his expense for actually having no problem guessing Gai's extreme and incongruous thoughts)

Neji imagined Gai giving his boisterously loud guffaws a good workout while saying (or more like screaming) something completely outrageous like:

"This display of hot and PASSIONATE love has proven that I always knew these two shared a flame that BURNS as one! HAW-HAW! Now that they share ONE flame, Tenten will now bloom into a beautiful flower of SPRINGTIME! And my once-uncaring student NEJI will finally begin to sprout into a strong TREE whose shade will make his blooming flower the most beautiful of ALL! With Lee in their team and me as their sensei, Team Ten will now be UNSTOPPABLE!! HAW-HAW!! Now my hip and cool rival's team will eat their DUST! Yah hear that Kakashi?!…AH, Young days are EXPLOSIVE!! HAW-HAW-HAW!!"

Somewhere in the distance

"ACHOO"

Kakashi stopped reading his X-rated book to covers his nose before going into a sneezing fit. That's right boys and girls, it has been recently found that the reason Kakashi always wears that mask of his is not only to conceal his face but to prevent him from catching a cold. Those missions with Hayate seriously taught him that the common cold was nothing to joke about. If the ladies thought the mask made him sexy and mysterious, then that's a plus too. Besides, he thinks that masks are cool, but he isn't going to tell anyone that!

People, he thought, have to be smart enough to look "underneath the consealed" to understand such a profound logic on masks. Which is why Kakashi promised Shikamaru not to tell anyone about the plushy he keeps in his closet and sleeps with every night, which looks oddly similar to Temari, if Shikamaru doesn't speak a word about his "profound-mask-logic" to anyone.

Lets just say that Shikamaru kept the secret ever since.

"Kakashi-sensei, you okay? Naruto asks.

"Yeah…" Kakashi says with a stoic face, he then thinks, 'Someone's talking about me, its probably a cute girl swooning about my cool mask my and ability to see underneath the underneath, yes adorable lady, swoon all you want" He then goes back to his reading.

Back to Neji's room

Neji figured that after Gai makes his idiotic speech, it would probably be followed by his shoes hitting the windowsill next to Neji and then while hearing the waves clash off against each other in a moments of "love, passion, and the showing ofburning youth" As Gai loves to mention over and over again. Gai would disappear into the sunset in a river of "manly" tears.

Apparently, now the gods that were mocking him now started to roll on the floor, tears spilling from their eyes in their endless… mockery.

Neji got up from his bed slowly making sure he didn't step on any glass due to Gai, being a complete health hazard to everyone around him, break through his window... twice!!! So Neji started to feel around for his closet so he could change from his ripped off clothes…

(At this point Neji decided to forget the whole incident and thinks of it as a non-existing experience. If Tenten so much as whispers a word about it to anyone or makes the slightest comment about it, or tries to do something to him like that again he will personally see to it that her remaining days as a kunoichi are numbered and painful, she can think of herself as slightly abnormal, but at the present point of hysteria Neji could kill the Hokage and not care. He swears on the mocking gods above him that he will not be humiliated like this again, his morals towards hitting women be damned. Besides, he thought, Tenten is no woman, but a she-beast sent from hell bent to put him in a state of hysteria, and she's doing a really good job. To the point that Neji is starting to blame her for his unfortunate blindness)

…Quickly changing those thoughts around, Neji felt his surroundings touching everything like a blind man does looking for Tenten's body. It was lying on the floor and he did the sensible action of picking her unconscious body and walking (more like stumbling) around the room until he hit his bed and laid her down. He thought that even though she might be a she-beast there would be no satisfaction on physically hurting her if she was unconscious. Neji decided to treat her "normally" (as normal as a Hyuuga like Neji might treat the opposite sex) that is until she mentions something about "the-incident-that-never-happened" even the smallest thing. He was justified to punish her, he thought.

If anyone were to come in his room they would just think Tenten to be very strange and well…sick. Seriously, Neji thought, who lays on another person's bed… topless? Only sick person would, that's who.

"Yes that will work!"

As Neji walked (more like stumbled and tripped)cautiously down the hall, he found a conveniently located cane for him to use for his now adventurous journey of the blind. He emerged from the house relatively unscathed (relatively being key word here) into the outside world where he was once able to enjoy the optical pleasure of seeing everything that lay before him plus enjoying the simple things with the help of his Hyuuga bloodline limit.

By now Neji felt much like the caged bird being released into the outside world; while happily taking its wings and flapping them to take flight for the first time toward freedom that is out of the cage… but it finds that its legs are chained tightly connecting him to the cage. Cruel fate has played the poor bird a fool, making it think it was free, when in reality it was still as bound as always, even more so then before.

Neji could no longer enjoy the views of the land set before him. So he then begins to walk aimlessly around with his walking cane hoping beyond hope to find a familiar voice that can shine even the smallest ray of hope to help with his condition. After several minutes of wandering aimlessly, he hears a familiar voice. Not necessarily lifesaving but more soothing than the crazy happenings of the day with the voices of Gai, Lee, and Tenten as its starring role.

Even with the nervous stutter and polite speech pattern, Neji was forever thankful to know that Hinata-sama's voice was headed towards him. Maybe the mocking gods were taking the slightest feeling of pity towards him.

"HINATA-SAMA!!" Neji called loudly actually thankful for her existence (afterwards he justified himself for thinking such a thing on his state of hysteria).

Hinata hurried with concern to her "Neji-nii-san" as she tends to call him, and asked what was wrong with him to be screaming in happiness, to her noless. After a few minutes of explaining the situation on Neji's part to Hinata, while strategically leaving the "incident-that-never-happened" because since it didn't happen she didn't need to know about it. He then asked her to do him a huge favor and in some way he would repay it…

(Neji pays his debts even if it is to the main house… He might have lost his eyesight, Neji thought, but there's no way he would lose his dignity as well)

…Hinata asked what would the favor be, she deliberately didn't decline his offer to pay her back since she knew all about male Hyuuga egotism. All the while she was giggling hysterically with laughter, but was easily hid, Hinata didn't want to face the wrath of a hysterically blind Neji.

The thing was that she heard Neji's scream from his room, a lot of people heard it actually. She was ordered by her father to see what would make someone like Neji scream like that. And she did… when she reached his room, the door was slightly ajar, she wanted to say something but just then Lee was smacked to the wall with inhumane strength. She then decided to keep her mouth shut wanting to know what would happen next. After Gai left with Lee in his shoulders, she was going to say something but then heard Tenten's high-pitched singsong voice.

Lets just say that what she saw next disturbed her, but for some strange ungodly reason she couldn't turn her eyes away. She was blushing fifty different shades of vermillion while the whole thing happened. She asked herself a very important question a spectator would ask,

'Why does Neji-nii-san look so scared? Why can't he push her away?'

She got more and more confused when she heard him scream, she quickly activate her Byakugan to see what was wrong, and she noticed Neji's eye muscles were being strained far too much for a normal Hyuuga. After that she saw him touching his surroundings in a strange way. She noticed that his arm movements and the way he stumbled and tripped with every step he took oddly familiar. She then remember walking an old blind man to the market doing the same arm movements and foot steps as well before she went to his aid.

She gasped silently and activated her Byakugan and focused on his eyes, in the state she saw Neji in, she knew he wouldn't notice the Byakugan being activated. She noticed that the chakra that is supposed to be more abundant around his eye area because of the Byakugan was non-existent. She checked every other part of his body and the chakra circulating on his body wasn't normal as well. She concluded that the missing chakra on his eyes was instead spread out towards his arm and leg muscles, and since the Byakugan requires an strong concentration of chakra around the eye area this would explaining the sudden bout of inhumane strength. In other words the chakra that wasn't on Neji's eyes was divided to his arms and legs giving him something close to superhuman strength.

Hinata gulped silently when she also noticed a small amount of excess chakra that wasn't being used on Neji's eyes was concentrated on an specific part of his brain. Her father taught her about the functions of the brain and what sections of the brain controlled what. Her father explained to her that to fully understand the Byakugan and to use it at its fullest potential a Hyuuga not only needs to know Jyuuken but to know about the enemy's psyche. That way she could use psychological warfare and not even need to use Jyuuken, the enemy would destroy itself with her own mind.

She understood what that meant being on the receiving end of Neji's psychological attack on the Chuunin exam. Hinata saw that the section where the emotions are held had a bit of overabundance of chakra explain his hysterical and out of character nature. Her father explained that important organs, such as the brain even if they had a small amount of excessive chakra the results would be immense. So having even a small amount of excess chakra in the brain… especially in the delicate section of the emotions would make Neji a ticking time bomb of superhuman strength. Anything can trigger it, and since Neji at the moment is emotionally unbalanced he's more susceptible to anger and hysteria, it's a wonder Neji didn't seriously harm Tenten.

Hinata understands that since Neji's emotions are more sensitive then usual, and his state of panic, he didn't notice her following him in a safe distance. She noticed Neji getting angrier and angrier so before he would start throwing a tantrum, she called to him; seeing his reaction, she played stupid while inwardly sighing in relief for not being in the receiving end of his anger. She easily guessed that Neji's anger was for Tenten.

Be that as it may, Hinata recalled the scene and inwardly giggled while her face started to turn into an adorable shade of red. She composed herself before Neji noticed; she was thinking all of this as Neji was explaining his proposition.

In summary Neji wanted a temporary seeing "escort" because he couldn't see very well. Even thought he knew that Hinata was of the Main House, as Neji so eloquently put it, and that it wasn't in the place of the next Hyuuga leader to be doing a job beneath her status, he said that he didn't know where to turn to. And he repeated that he would repay her kindness in any way or form.

Hinata was surprised with the request, but then again she thought, his psyche is unbalanced, so such out of character behavior is expected. She hoped she would regret it later, but thought against it and agreed full heartedly. Since it didn't seem that his eyesight would be returning any time soon.

After some time of helping Neji navigate around town and pointing out important things for Neji's future reference. She had been thinking that Neji was always mean to her simply for being in the Main House, she knew that deep inside of him his feelings of insecurity and jealousy were the reason behind his actions and she being the kind Hinata, forgave him. But that doesn't mean she couldn't execute her well-deserved revenge. She understood that messing with this Neji would be almost suicidal, but since she was now his "escort" she could get away with it. She knew that Neji needed her, no matter what she did. For one thing his ego was strained enough asking her for help, but asking help from someone else is simply not in Neji's train of though.

Hinata giggled at the thought she could now get revenge on her cousin. Of course she wasn't as cold hearted to do anything extreme, because she understood the situation and all. But that didn't mean she couldn't have some "light" hearted fun seeing what kind of trouble Neji can get himself into in this state.

"Hinata-sama are you listening to me?" Neji started to swing his arms in the air, and then he panic.

"Hinata-sama where are you? Don't leave me here!"

Hinata had suddenly woke up from her musings and responded quickly

"I'm here Neji-nii-san, sorry about that. I was just trying to think how we could figur- DUCK!" Neji without question frantically threw himself to the floor

"What was that Hinata-sama?!" Neji asked in wonder of what he had dodged from. Hinata hurried replied with the first thing that came to mind

"Nothing!" Hinata said

"I didn't want you to "duck" I just saw a really pretty duck out on the river...which for some odd reason I decided to scream out"

Hinata said sheepishly, and Neji having no choice, he believed her. Hinata smiled and realized she had a long day ahead of her… a very long and a very interesting day