-xXx- The Revenant Scroll -xXx-

(Act I, Scene VII: Wilt thou dance with the devil?)

A cool draft wafting across her face slowly brought Tenten from a deep sleep. Groggily lifting her head from the silken pillow, she squinted in the bright crimson haze shining through the thick velvet curtains moving slowly with the breeze. For a moment she simply sat there and frowned thoughtfully, glancing around the room. It was Neji's, she knew that much, but she had no memory of coming here. As she pulled off the covers and rolled off the bed, she touched the hem of her white dress and frowned harder.

"Neji?" she called, rubbing her eyes and approaching the wide glass door barely visible behind the curtains.

"Out here."

Tenten pushed the curtains aside and shivered, wrapping her bare arms around her, her bare feet smarting at the sudden chill of the stone balcony as she ventured out. "Neji, I'm going to ask you something odd..."

From his leaning position against the thick stone railing, Neji looked at her. It might have been a trick of the light, the sun dazzling her vision as it shone off the pure white snow, but she almost thought she could see a guarded blankness fall over his eyes. "Neji, why am I here?"

"What do you mean?" He crossed his arms and resumed his impassive study of the castle grounds.

"The last thing I remember is preparing for the ball with the servant girls." Tenten wrapped her arms tighter around her as the wind scattered a few flakes of snow and moved forward to stand beside him.

"That is odd." One shoulder rose and fell in a disinterested shrug. "The feast was uneventful. We returned here to examine blueprints of the keep. You fell asleep."

"Then why can't I remember anything?" With a yawn, she pushed off the railing and turned to head back into the room.

"I went and retrieved your equipment from your room," he mentioned without turning. "Don't take too long; I want to see if there have been any more murders since last night."

"Okay, okay. Can't we eat first?" Ignoring his snort of derision, she pushed the curtains aside and reentered the room. Padding across the soft carpet, she pulled her clothes and weapons from the pile set neatly beside the door and moved into the bathroom. As she ran the water in the old-fashioned sink and stripped off her dress and soiled underwear, she glanced into the mirror and froze. Tilting her head in puzzlement, she studied a splotch of bruise against her neck. Pressing two fingers to it gently, her eyes narrowed. She had no memory of receiving such a wound like this, either. Her lips twitched uncomfortably as she felt her blood pulse beneath her fingertips as she glanced down at the dress, discarded in a corner of the bathroom. For some inexplicable reason, the mere sight of the delicate silk filled her with revulsion.

Disregarding the feeling, she cupped her hands under the warm water and splashed her face, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Dressing before the mirror, she adjusted the clasp over her breast and winced at a tender soreness. Her lips twisted again, and she leaned against the sink to look herself in the eye and study herself carefully. "What can't you remember?" she asked herself softly. Resolving to more thoroughly interrogate Neji, she shut of the water with her wrist and dried her hands on a nearby towel.

"Tenten, get out here!"

She jumped at his harsh whisper and hurriedly slipped on her shoes. "What?" Skidding against the stone, she stopped short as he clapped his hand over her mouth and pointed.

"Look," he murmured in her ear, jerking his chin. Far below, a black-robed figure was slowly making his way across the courtyard.

Tenten tilted her head to the side and frowned. "Is it just me, or..."

"No footprints," he finished, planting both hands on the rail and staring harder, analyzing the figure's stride and sure movements as it walked. He sucked in a breath and in response to Tenten's questioning glance growled, "It's the daimyo."

"How do you–"

"I saw him last night." Without looking at her, his gaze sharpened, barely disguised rage dancing behind his normally impassive eyes. "That's the way he walks."

"Neji..." Concerned, Tenten laid a hand on his arm and frowned at him. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"I think he's our murderer."

"That's ridiculous. He's the one who hired us."

"I know that," he all but snarled, finally turning to face her. "But I saw him–" Literally biting his tongue, he spun to watch the figure disappear into the trees surrounding the keep.

"Saw him what?"

He could feel her brown eyes staring into him, huge brown orbs filled with suspicions and questions. "I saw him..." Gritting his teeth, Neji clenched his fists and activated his Byakugan to observe the wire-frame silhouette of Ichiru's form continue to walk. "I saw him with the fangs of a vampire about the bite... someone." He tore his gaze from her and planted both hands on the balcony as the black-robed figure disappeared into the trees surrounding the keep and pushed off, landing easily on his hands and feet in the snow below.

Removing her fingers from their instinctive position over her mouth, she leapt down to join him. "What... but..."

"You said it yourself– the supernatural seemed to be involved." His Byakugan eyes never wavered. "I'm going after him." Breaking into a run, he jumped into the snow-covered treetops and ran along the branches, Tenten following.

As they ran, the chilled morning air caressing their faces, Tenten could feel her heart pounding in the old familiar thrill of the chase. This was simple, this was easy. The logistics of what they would do upon catching their client were pushed to the back of the mind. There were no politics involved in the hunt. She sprung off a branch, scattering snow to the ground. This was to be a shinobi. This was how–

Wordlessly, Neji held up one hand and she landed abruptly on a branch behind him. "He's meeting with... something. No, fighting."

"As our client, shouldn't we–?"

"No."

She flinched at his harshness. "But the mission–"

"No." His voice was firm. "We'll approach cautiously and observe. That's all." Neji continued forward slowly. "It looks like the same creature we fought the day before yesterday."

"Really?" As they neared, the unearthly shriek of the blood monster could be heard reverberating through the air. In an unconscious act of security, Tenten pulled a kunai from her shuriken holster and gripped it tightly in one hand. "Did we ever find out what that was?"

Neji shook his head and pressed a finger to his lips, slowing to a stop. Visible before them through the needles of the evergreen trees stood the black-robed figure, standing completely at ease before a mass of blood undulating slowly back and forth like a cobra.

Resting a hand on his shoulder for support, Tenten leaned over him and peered through the branches for a closer look. "I thought you said they were fighting," she murmured in his ear.

"They were."

On the ground in front of the figure's feet lay a scroll, open and smoking softly. Its grey tendrils of smoke drifted upward in eerie synchronicity with the swaying of the creature before it, its inky symbols covering the paper shifting and flowing as if alive themselves.

Pressing forward further, Tenten inadvertently brushed another branch, sending a pile of snow cascading to the ground. As the slushy mass impacted, several things happened at once.

The scroll snapped shut as if closed by invisible hands, and the blood monster lunged forward. "Daimyo-dono!" Tenten yelled, leaping ahead to slice through it with her kunai and letting it splatter in equal halves on either side of the cloaked figure.

"Dammit!" Neji swore and jumped to stand beside her, his attention torn from the monster coagulating together as the figure began to flee. "Stop!" Dashing ahead, he fell into his stance and readied his hands as the figure skidded to a halt.

"Ah, shinobi-sama, we meet again," Ichiru's smooth voice flowed from beneath the mask, only slightly muffled by the cloth. "A pity we cannot engage in fierce combat, but I detest it so. Farewell."

Neji leapt back with a hoarse cry of shock as wings burst from the daimyo's shoulder blades, wings so black as to make his cloak seem grey in comparison. With a mellow chuckle, Ichiru drifted into the air, swooping to snatch the scroll from the ground. Tenten screamed as he brushed past her and hurled her kunai by reflex. Whirling to avoid her attack, Ichiru only laughed.

"Ah, Tenten-san, you are truly a wondrous sight!" he called as the blood creature took advantage of her sudden inattention and engulfed her feet.

"You bastard!" Fumbling for shuriken, Neji lined up on the blood monster then changed his mind, hurling the shuriken at Ichiru. "Tenten, hold on!"

With another contemptuous laugh, Ichiru dove to avoid the weapons as Tenten's horrified scream pierced the wood. The blood flowed up her body beneath her clothes, paralyzing every muscle it touched. Shooting her arms up to keep them from being frozen she shrieked, "Neji!"

A guttural yell burst from his lungs, and Neji leapt up against a tree, focusing his Chakra to hang perpendicular to the ground. Inhaling deeply, he expelled it in a rush and flew into the air, latching onto one of Ichiru's leathery black wings as he flew by.

Ichiru shrieked, a sound eerily similar to the cry of the blood creature. Like before, he began to dissipate into grey smoke. "Damn you," he spat.

Neji only grinned as he began to plummet, reaching for the only material thing still floating in the air.

The scroll.

Ichiru shrieked again and grabbed for it, but Neji snatched it from his immaterial grasp and flung it to the ground. "Tenten!"

The majority of her body paralyzed by the sickening creep of the viscous fluid, she glanced up and managed to catch the falling scroll. Ripping it open with the desperation born of absolute terror, her eyes fell upon the symbols, and they began to move.

Ichiru hissed and disappeared. Neji hit the ground with a thud and curled up reflexively, gasping for breath. Forcing his body to move, he froze at the sight before him.

A low hum was building in the air, reverberating through his entire body like someone had plucked at the strings of his heart as if it were a harp. Tenten held the scroll in both hands, eyes staring at it but her blank gaze saw nothing. Her mouth moved as gibberish spilled from her lips, a low chant only building the strange energy in the air, melting the snow beneath her feet. Beneath her clothes the blood monster vibrated as her vocal cords forced past its strange paralytic attack around her neck. The air itself was growing heavy from the energy, a Chakra of a strange flavor using Tenten's own energy as a conduit to the world. Neji could feel it on his lungs and eyeballs as if his organs would burst from the pressure, but he didn't close his eyes, focusing his Byakugan in an attempt to understand.

Shimmering ebony waves of Chakra pulsed from her body in time with the low chant slowly building to a crescendo. Screaming the final syllable, she flung the scroll to the ground in a motion guided by instinct. Her cry mingled with the shriek of the blood creature, and it exploded, splattering her body with the blood.

As the scroll hit the ground, it curled up by itself, and she fell to her knees, gasping for breath. Blood soaked through her clothes, covering every centimeter of her body where the monster had been, crimson dripping onto the slushy snow beneath her.

"Tenten!" Neji forced himself over and crawled to her, shakily raising himself to her level as his heart thudded painfully in his ears, trying to adjust to the suddenly empty air. "Tenten, are you alright? What happened?"

Blankly, she shook her head, eyes falling upon the scroll lying in the mush. She stood shakily and ventured over, kneeling to pick it up from the ground.

"Tenten, put that down!"

She jerked back at his command and instinctively pulled it close. "Why should I?"

"Do you have any idea what just happened?" Neji pulled himself to his feet and moved closer to her. "Tenten, as soon as you opened that your Chakra was beginning to merge with someone– or something– else's."

"Nonsense. It's just a weapon." Her fingers closed over the paper possessively as she stared at him. "It will be useful if we encounter any more of those monsters."

"Tenten, that weapon could kill you." Neji reached out to take it, but she stepped back and shook her head.

"Weapons don't kill people, Neji. People kill people." In utter seriousness, she slipped the scroll into her hip pouch. "Come on, let's go hunt down that monster." She gestured for him to lead, and as he turned his back, he felt a strange whisper of ebony.

He spun on his heel, dread rising in his throat.

Tenten was gone.

End Act I–

A/N: You guys have no idea how excited I am to start work on Act II.... well, my reviewers might have some idea, because I've told most of them so in my replies. XD I wrote everything but the last few paragraphs of this chapter in my notebook during Wellness class... you might be able to tell from the style; it's not as wordy because my hands don't move as fast as my thoughts and I end up losing detail as I rush to keep a scene flowing. That, and I'm just plain lazy and don't like to put the effort into moving the pen whenever I change my mind about every other word! I haven't done strictly notebook-writing in a long time... It's kind of an odd feeling.

Again, apologies for the long wait. As I told my reviewers, I'm utterly swamped at the moment... I could just upload crap, but I wouldn't do that to you guys. If you're going to put the effort into reading this, I'm sure as hell going to keep trying to produce quality work... or at least what I think is quality.

Thanks to my 10(!) reviewers: Under a Rain Cloud, Nothingbutblue, JanuaryFriend, C.A.M.E.O.1 and Only, sophia666, weaponmistressbunny, MercilessRuby, iAtRI, jadedsiren, and .debi.09.. Thanks so much; you guys keep me writing!