Allegiance

Written by Aralain

Disclaimer: The world is not mine… just the plot and the original characters

Kiyoshi awoke to Hamaki's humming and let out a small irritated noise before opening her eyes and glaring at him. "Oh, you're awake. We have an appointment," he said.

"With?" she asked.

"The kazekage. Temari woke up by the way," he added.

"How long was I out?" she frowned, sitting up slowly and placing a hand to her groggy head.

"About two days. Lee checked in on you. He came with Nara Shikamaru who is currently working with Kankuro on reforming a more powerful front along the borders," Hamaki said.

"That's my job," she said, quickly rising to her feet.

"Yes well, apparently you and Gai are to be the direct mode of communications between the Kazekage and the Hokage. Your presence will be needed in Suna for a while to come. No border runs for you."

"I'm supposed to be getting married," she mumbled.

"I heard… from Lee of all people, shouting about the virtues of young love," Hamaki snapped.

"I didn't think you'd want to know," Kiyoshi lied with a shrug, looking around the room. She collected a spare shinobi uniform she had in the closet and quickly headed for the bathroom.

"The Kazekage is waiting," Hamaki said.

"Hamaki-taicho I haven't been able to shower in a week. I don't believe the Kazekage will mind my taking a human moment or two," she told him with a scowl.

"You have an hour," he said, walking from the room. She nodded to herself, quickly setting about cleaning herself from all the dirt and grime of the last few days.

Hamaki went back into the main room of the building. "We have two hours," Tenten corrected. He shrugged uncaringly.

Hamaki set about making some breakfast, humming to himself as he went. He was an odd shinobi but anyone who'd been around as long as him was going to have his own bag of crazy that he carried around with him most of the time. Neji and Tenten simply waited patiently for Kiyoshi to shower and dress. The scent of food was bound to bring her soon and it was starting to smell very good. Apparently Hamaki was an accomplished cook as well as a top-notch assassin and team leader. How he was unmarried was the subject of much contemplation on Tenten's part.

Neji sat straighter, glancing at the door moments before a knock was heard. "Enter," Hamaki said, lazily.

"Is Kiyoshi-san ready?" a Suna shinobi asked.

"We were told she was not required until noon," Hamaki said.

"So she is here?" the nervous-looking shinobi asked. Neji activated his sharingan just in time to realize what was happening. He grabbed Tenten around the waist and pulled her away, crashing through the window and out of the building.

Hamaki barely had time to turn, but as he did he shouted "CHAKRA CUSHION!" before the shinobi activated the exploding tags that covered her entire body beneath her shinobi gear. The explosion was so great it rocked the building, blasting it apart.

Ringing filled Neji's ears as he climbed to his hands and knees, trying to shake off the explosion in case there was anything more to accompany it. He looked around blearily, noticing the number of Suna shinobi quickly growing as they swarmed in to help. He glanced down at Tenten who seemed dazed but all right. He quickly moved off of her, pulling her to her feet. Next he sought the other two. He pulled Hamaki from a pile of rubble with a simple yank. He had a few broken bones, but was nonetheless alive, wheezing slightly and holding his ribs. A medic was at his side short order and Neji turned away.

"Kiyoshi!" Neji called, but his voice sounded muffled to his still ringing ears. When he came upon her she was unconscious and unmoving. He could see her heart beating with his byakuugan but it was buried under so much rock that it was hard to distinguish the rate, rhythm, or quality. Her face was visible however and it was covered with blood.

Neji started moving rubble to get to her, but was stopped by the green blur that was his former teammate. Neji was pushed back and told to stay still while Lee swiftly extracted her from underneath the rubble, lifting large pieces of earth without breaking a sweat. She was only in partial uniform. She wore no shirt to cover her pale, bloodied skin though she'd had already wrapped her chest not that that was anywhere near his highest priority. She looked terrible. Her whole body was covered in blood. She'd been hit by large pieces of shrapnel, but none to critical areas. The large amount of blood on her face was from a deep cut on her forehead. Lee went to move her, but a voice shouted for him to stop. It was one of the medical ninja from the village. "Please do not touch her," she said.

Lee nodded, looking down at his unconscious friend as the medic came forward kneeling next to her. "What kind of explosion was it?" the Suna medic asked him.

"I was not close enough to recognize the source, Yoshi-chan," Lee said, looking to Neji.

"She was wearing a suit of exploding tags, the shinobi," he said. "She was in the other room though," Neji said.

"Perfect," the medic muttered sarcastically. She turned to the shinobi gathering behind her. "Someone tell the Kazekage that Ambassador-san is down, I'm not sure the extent of the damage," she said with a frown.

"Tell the Gaara-sama that Kiyoshi-san is down and NOT tell him exactly how bad she is? Do you want him to lose his mind?" a shinobi behind Neji shouted incredulously, but another shinobi had already left to carry the message. "Stop! Stop!" he shouted, chasing after the other shinobi. Another joined him in chasing the messenger down.

Suddenly Kiyoshi started coughing, blood bubbling at her lips, her eyes shooting open. She sat up, gasping for breath. The medic tried to hold her still but the Konoha kunoichi accidentally hit her away a bit to hard, sending her across the rubble quite a ways, nearly injuring her, but one of the Suna Shinobi onlookers caught hold of her, keeping her from being harmed.

"Damn, dammit, damn," Kiyoshi cursed over and over, groaning in pain. She shook her head, clearly dazed still from the blast and the wound to her head. She looked down at her legs, a large piece of wood sticking out of her right shin and what appeared to be a demolished shuriken buried into the flesh of her right thigh. Her right arm was motionless at her side, a deep laceration having cut through her upper-arm. Her ribs were badly bruised already and she had deep scratches across her stomach from being buried it appeared

"Lee-kun," she greeted, opening her arms to him. He quickly dropped down to his knees beside her, embracing her warmly, but carefully as he was well aware of her injuries. Neji was staggered to see it. Lee was definitely overly-comfortable with people, but she hadn't hesitated "S-sorry to see you under such circumstances Lee-kun. Is everyone else unharmed?" she asked, shuddering.

"Hamaki took a good brunt of it, but it would appear the exploding tags were tasked with a target as the blast carried in your direction," Lee told her, cradling the side of her face with his large hand. "You are lucky you are not dead my friend."

"And we know who is well known for directing the flow of their exploding tags for targets," she said, shivering. "All they needed was to ensure I was close," she muttered. "I need you to remove these, Lee-kun and we need to hurry," she told him, nodding to her legs. She took off her Lee's headband without hesitation, grasping a large wooden object nearby and quickly tying his headband high up on her thigh then twisting the metal symbol hard with a hiss of pain until the bleeding ceased.

"You are certain you do not want…" Lee glanced to the medic.

"I don't need to be able to use them Lee, but I need to look whole, as uninjured as possible," she said seriously. "If you do not feel up to the task," she said, goading him expertly. Neji had only ever seen Kakashi do that quite so easily with Gai. Her eyes flickered to the medic who was making her way back to them.

"Of course I will help my most sweet and determined teammate!" he exclaimed, rushing forward and grabbing for the wooden shrapnel pinning her right shin.

"Stop!" the medic shouted, but he was not listening to her.

"One at a time, Lee-kun and you need to hurry. Please hurry," she said seriously. He nodded yanking it out without hesitation or difficulty. She screamed at the horrible pain then quickly moved to heal the wound, bleeding contained by the makeshift tourniquet. The medic joined her. She was shocked at the barbaric way the ambassador was dealing with her wounds. Neji didn't know what they were doing, but he knelt beside her as well, hands lighting green in a moment. He pressed them to a few of her more minor injuries. This was definitely more Suna style though, Neji had to say. Rip them out and heal them up, pretty simple… expedient but certain to scar.

"Ready?" Lee asked as he moved on to the next.

"Roru, come here!" Kiyoshi instructed, catching sight of a familiar face apparently despite her dizziness. He moved forward quickly.

"Can't we return to the hospital?" the first medic asked as Kiyoshi instructed the Roru to clear the blood from her face and heal the wound. Apparently he was a medical shinobi as well. Neji tried to focus on Kiyoshi, who was demanding treatment when only two days before she'd flat out refused even an ounce of chakra from him. He didn't know that had changed, but clearly this was important, putting her back together and quickly too. The urgency in the shinobi around him made that clear.

"I'd rather Gaara-sama didn't see me like this, Hana," she said, giving the first medic a serious look. Hana paled slightly, but nodded. Now Neji saw the root of the urgency. It did not slow him though.

"All of us would rather Gaara never saw you wounded again," Hamaki said from nearby, a dark look in his eyes, glancing at an older Suna shinobi with meaning. He nodded in agreement. Neji wondered what that was about. He looked to Tenten who shrugged. Lee was of course clueless to the comment.

"Hurry up Lee," Kiyoshi said. He winced as he reached into her wound, extracting the small, demolished hunk of metal and dropping it to the side. She bit down on a scream of pain, nearly passing out, but Hamaki walked up to her, grabbing her face and shaking her gently. She focused on the medic's healing technique: watching and analyzing it, to keep her from passing out.

"You will need a transfusion after this, Ambassador-sama" Hana muttered. Kiyoshi glanced up at Neji. Most people in Suna, in the world really, had the wrong blood type for Hyuuga, as the majority of Hyuuga were A+. Neji simply nodded.

The thigh was trickier to repair, but soon it was reduced to a nasty red line that would no doubt scar. "Move me," she ordered, staring seriously at Hamaki. He grabbed hold of her, jerking her up and jumping a good distance away before settling her again. Lee and the medics followed, but Neji stood, confused at the extent of their ruse.

Neji stood up as Gaara landed, the Kazekage's impact making a huge indent in the rubble. "Everyone is alive?" he asked, looking around and taking in the group.

"Hai, Kiyoshi took a few hits though," Hamaki nodded to him with a nonchalant tone. "It's really not her week."

"I'm fine Kazekage-sama," she said, using her most formal way of addressing him and hoping it would force him to maintain his calm.

Gaara did not miss a thing though, his eyes taking her in then flickering to where Neji stood and to the projectiles that had been removed from her. When he looked back at her, he was clearly focused on the blood smeared across her skin and on her hands, taking note of even the smallest marks on her, anger rising in him quickly. His patience with these attacks was done. "Estuko!" he said loudly. Kiyoshi cringed, but nodded for the medics to keep working. An ANBU dropped in front of him. Kiyoshi whispered to Hana to hurry up with her arm, nodding for Roru to aid her. The other small splinters that riddled her body wouldn't keep her down, but she'd like to be able to at least move her arm even if it wasn't much.

Her attention began to waver again, her mind losing grasp of where she was and what was happening. Hamaki grabbed her face again. "Hyuuga Kiyoshi," he said sharply. "You need to stay awake."

"I want to know why a Suna Shinobi would be after Kiyoshi?" Neji asked, standing. His eyes narrowed at Gaara, but the kazekage hardly even noticed his distrust so lost was he in his own fury.

"She has been the front-runner against the rogue bands for nearly a year," Hamaki said simply. "She and Temari down would really hurt the coordination on the defensive front of the village in the event of a full-scale attack. With the added benefit of an angry and unfocused Kazekage, they would be setting up the perfect move against Suna."

"You think the rogues are in alliance with the mist?" Kiyoshi asked palely.

"I think it's time to plan that defense," Hamaki replied. Gaara tensed, looking in the direction of the Mist.

"Remind me to move the village after this," Gaara said, holding out his left hand to Kiyoshi who took it, finding her feet with difficulty. He started walking towards the Kazekage Building. Hamaki pulled Kiyoshi's uninjured arm over his shoulders wrapping an arm around her waist and leading her forward. The two trailed behind the Kazekage steeled for the task at hand and leaving the three Konoha shinobi behind them very confused, but ready for a fight.

"Would Gaara-sama be unfocused because his sister was harmed or Kiyoshi-san?" Tenten asked the question Neji was too proud to speak aloud. The two medics looked at Tenten for a moment but said nothing. They both walked after the ambassador and hokage without a word, a group of Suna shinobi coming to take over the site leaving the Konoha shinobi to ponder over that one.

"We shouldn't be here," Kiyoshi whispered.

"That's the fourth time you've said that Kiyoshi," Hamaki said with a long-suffering look as he laid out a sleeping mat for her, laying out his own right beside hers.

"How am I supposed to protect him if he keeps doing reckless things like bringing foreign shinobi into his family home," she hissed after carefully looking around to ensure none of their teammates were near enough to hear. Her face was badly bruised and cuts lined her cheek from the gash above down the entire side of her neck. Her arm was wrapped up and cradled in a sling. Her leg on the same side was wrapped both at the thigh and the knee in crisp white bandages. Her lower leg was also splinted as she'd flat-out refused a cast. Her borrowed Suna garb covered the rest of her injuries.

"If you don't spread it around that this is his family home and they won't know where he lives. I thought Neji-sama's safety was your top priority anyhow," Hamaki muttered.

"Well they're a danger to each other!" she exclaimed, wincing as her head gave a sharp pang of protest both to the effort of the exclamation and to the sound.

"Gaara-sama doesn't know yet and what about Neji?"

"Neji-sama could not care less… but he does not know," Kiyoshi sighed, leaning against the wall with a wince. Hamaki glanced at her with a frown for a moment.

"So will you relax? You're raising my blood pressure," he told her. Kiyoshi looked around the room exhausted and in pain. She had respectfully declined the majority of the pain medications, accepting only a mild herbal tea designed by the late Chiyo-sama to numb the pain of minor injuries.

"Hamaki-senpai, what is going on? Why the hell would mist want to attack Suna? The Mizukage has all but eradicated the hatred from the last regime and Mist and Sand fought together as brothers in the Great War," Kiyoshi whispered. Hamaki shrugged.

"Sometimes, things just happen. Some villages don't think they're doing their job unless there is conflict," Hamaki told her.

"Well, maybe next time someone could direct the rogues on our borders towards the Mist," she spat angrily. There was a long silence from her captain and Kiyoshi slowly began to realize her mistake, paling. She waited for his rebuke, which was sure to come.

"Not our borders Kiyoshi…" Hamaki reminded her softly. Kiyoshi turned away quickly, limping slowly towards the window and looking out over the village. She placed a hand to her stomach, blinking back the tears that were fighting to make their way to the surface. "They are the borders of the Wind Country."

"Hai," she said. Her voice was faint, so faint that she didn't even trust herself to offer a small apology. She bit her lip, swallowing hard and trying to control her emotions.

"Kiyoshi, you know you can talk to me about this, about anything," Hamaki said. "Still, I need you to keep your head about you."

"I'm fine taicho," she said, placing her unslung hand on the window frame and looking at the wood with concentration. She ran her finger down it and inspecting each minuscule crack closely, cracks almost invisible to the untrained eye. She felt like that sometimes… like she was broken, but no one could see it… unless they knew her well enough to look. Hamaki was one of two men who could do that to her. She turned sharply.

"I'll go collect some more essentials," she said. Hamaki watched her go limping in pain, bruised to hell, but hardly slowing down. Dressed in traditional Suna kunoichi clothes, she looked so painfully alike to a Suna shinobi. The only exception was the blue headband across her forehead, the headband with a Konoha Symbol engraved in its plate.

He knew his kunoichi was hurting and he wished he could help her, but she had to pay attention, had to focus on the mission at hand. He brought her because he was her right hand and he needed her to be that right now. He needed her to be strong even if it hurt, even if it tore her to pieces inside.

He would try to put her back together the best he could when the got back to Konoha. He would do his best to protect her, even through her marriage to the Hyuuga. He didn't like the man, but he knew he didn't know him well enough to judge him. He did know that Kiyoshi loved someone else and that was a disadvantage to Neji from the start.

A part of him almost felt bad for the young man and then he realized what he was thinking. He realized that Neji was going to marry Hyuuga Kiyoshi and simply because of that he was one of the luckiest men alive. Kami help that man if he ever hurt her. Hamaki would kill him in cold blood, to hell with the consequences. Neji may be some sort of prodigy, but Hamaki had been a prodigy in his day and he knew every assassination technique in the book.

Thank you for reading. Sorry to anyone who here earlier and saw my ridiculous notes. Wine+me+alreadywrittenstories=poor life choices ;-)