Hey everyone!!! This is the 9th installment!!! Thank you for the reviews, again! (Although I have to grudgingly say this…Why did I get less than the previous chapters…sniff…sniff…:D PLS? U guys… puppy dog pout…:D)

Sorry, again, that this is like, REALLY late (ducks behind crate dodging rotten beyond hope tomatoes), but…as you know from before…ski trip…and I would like MORE reviews…you know…GAWD!!! I had ANOTHER test on Monday!!! Guess what, it was a MATH test!!! (which btw, I did not study at all for, and still got an awesome 93!!!)

So, like last time, I'm asking you for more reviews…you know, to motivate me to succeed…LOLLOL:D

Now, the disclaimer: WHAT THE BEEP DO YOU THINK? IF I WERE MASASHI, I'D BE HURRYING UP AND WRITING NARUTO SHIPPUUDEN 390!!! NOT WASTING TIME ON FANFICTIONS!!!

Anyway, on with the story:D

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With that, Tenten plunged the glowing end (Duh) of her bo staff directly onto her sister's chest, crushing her lungs as she did so. Her sister gasped and made a strangled sound from her throat. She flew back many metres and left a trail in the dirt. Her chest was glowing green, and it was starting to spread rapidly around her body.

'Fare thee well, sister, and I hope to see you some time, perhaps in the afterlife.'

Tenten was crying so hard by now that she was shaking pitifully.

'Ten…Ten…' was the last thing her sister said before darkness overwhelmed her forever.

Tenten dropped her bo staff and it clattered on the ground loudly. In pure grief, she collapsed to the ground on her knees and cried, watching her sister. Gaara just watched with pity.

Suddenly, Tenten felt arms wrap around her and pull her close. She willingly accepted the embrace and turned around, gripping the fabric of his shirt firmly and crying into his chest. She didn't need to look to know that it was Neji.

Slowly, he picked her up bridal style as he got up from his crouched position, kissing her forehead as he did so. Just after that, Tenten went limp in his arms, her jutsu having worn her out.

'Come on, Gaara, we need to report to the daimyo, her father.'

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'What the…where am I? Where's Neji, and Gaara?!'

Tenten sat up, and looked at her surroundings. She nearly fainted from shock. She was in a very comfortable bed, in a very beautiful bedroom.

It was her bedroom, from almost a year ago.

She felt like screaming.

And she did.

After calming herself down, finding that she was still in her battle gear, she made sure that no one had heard. She found her supplies dumped on the ground carelessly. Cursing, she made sure everything was there, and left her room. She had to find Neji and Gaara fast!

She proceeded down the familiar hallways easily, remembering them quite well. She paused for a bit, and managed to locate Neji's and Gaara's chakra and she followed it. To her dismay, she realized she was heading for her father's meeting hall.

Suddenly, she heard footsteps. Hurriedly, she jumped on to the ceiling and held her breath, waiting for the guards to pass. Afterwards, she jumped down and ran as fast as she could to her doom…her father.

She found the doors, and after quietly knocking out the guards, she eavesdropped for a little bit. Her partners would obviously know that she was outside, seeing as they were ninja as well. She debated on how she would make her entrance. She smirked, she had the perfect plan.

With that, she kicked the door open with magnificent strength, causing the wood to splinter dramatically. It exploded in many directions and a huge dust cloud rose.

The first thing she saw when the dust cleared, were the smirking faces of Neji and Gaara, who were in a respectful kneeling position on the floor. She swiveled her head to the left, and saw her father looking at her aghast.

'It's about time you got here, Tenten,' Neji said smirking.

'T-t-t-Tenten! What are you doing here?!' her father exclaimed.

She whipped her head round and stared wide eyed at her teammates.

'Y-you mean he didn't know I was here?! Aw man! I could have snuck up on him!'

Gaara snickered.

'Well, I predicted you would barge right in. By the way, perfect timing,' Neji said.

All the while, the daimyo was gaping aghast, astounded by the situation. After rearranging his countenance, he coughed loudly.

'What is the meaning of this?!'

'She is the third member of our team,' Gaara coolly stated.

'Nani?! NANI?! I thought when you said that your third member would be catching up with you, he would be COMING THE NEXT DAY! I DID NOT EXPECT THERE TO BE MY DAUGHTER WITH YOU, MUCH LESS AS A KUNOICHI!'

'Tsunade-sama sends whoever is free. Since Tenten is a regular Jounin kunoichi, just like us shinobi, she was sent on this mission for no particular reason whatsoever, apart from the fact that she could easily navigate us through this country,' Neji explained, amused that someone could get so angry so fast.

'Well, I never! You are too rude! Guards! Take them away! I do not wish them to be in my sight any longer!'

At that, all three of them smirked.

'Tenten, you may do the honours,' Gaara prodded. Neji actually grinned.

With that, she whipped out a few senbon and threw them in quick succession all at the guards' legs and arms, puncturing exact pressure points causing them all to crumple to the ground uselessly. Her father stared in shock, mouth agape.

Tenten turned around, smiling evilly at her father.

'Kombanwa to you, O-tou-sama,' she spat, emphasizing the 'otousama' part.

'You disrespectful child! How dare you speak to me like that when you directly disobeyed my orders all those months ago, and after you mock me by becoming a KUNOICHI?!' he started.

Tenten opened her mouth, presumably to throw some cocky comment back, but he cut her off before she could say anything.

'You know what? You are an ungrateful child! You stuck up, insolent little girl!'

Tenten's eyes starting tearing up from anger, not sadness. She clenched her fists, shaking emotionally. She was in no state, after what she had just gone through with her sister, to take this kind of taunting and stress. Neji started standing up in anger at her father as well.

'You disrespectful, annoying kid!'

Tenten's nails dug into her skin causing it to bleed. You could hear the drops dripping down onto the floor.

'You were just like your mother! Strong willed, stubborn, and a BITCH!'

Before she knew it, tears streamed down her face. Neji was already glaring his death glare at her father.

She started to run for him, obviously to bash him up, but Neji stopped her a few feet away from him. He held her back, causing her to struggle. The daimyo's personal guards were already next to him, alert.

Neji gave Gaara a signal, telling him to be alert. He stared back in understanding.

'Let go of me, damn it! I want a go at him!'

'Tenten! Calm down!' Neji started. He then muttered so only she could here, 'No matter who he is, he is still our client and we have to treat him with respect.'

'It's always like that isn't it?!' Tenten shrieked. Neji smiled grimly.

'But that does not mean he had the right to call you that,' Neji stated coldly, barely concealing his rage.

With that, he let go of Tenten who thankfully stayed in place. He whipped around, his hair sweeping behind him, to face the daimyo. The guards tensed with their hands at their swords.

'Shoyo Fuji-sama,' Neji began in the coldest voice Tenten had ever heard him use. He continued, intensifying his glare as he went, 'your ex-daughter is somebody of great caliber, and should never be treated as badly as you have treated her. I myself have seen her at her best, and she is truly amazing, unlike you!' He spat the last bit. The daimyo's face was getting redder with rage every second.

'She should be praised for her wonderful strength and courage, and not put down! I would be extremely surprised to say the least, had any other son or daughter of yours not defied you, like BOTH yours did!' Neji finished triumphantly, a gleam in his eye.

'What do you mean, both?!' The daimyo questioned angrily, confused about how Neji knew about his second daughter.

'Oh…that's right, we forgot to mention. I apologize deeply,' Neji said immensely sarcastically.

'We killed off your second daughter, because she was working for the culprit in this case,' Neji stated calmly, and smirked at the last part, watching as the daimyo's face contorted in surprise, shock and horror.

Tenten was too busy glaring, rooted to her spot, and crying from anger AND sadness now.

With that, Neji stepped forward a couple of steps, so now he was about a meter away from the daimyo. He heard the swooshing sound of the guards drawing their swords, but before they could do anything, he had punched the daimyo right in the jaw.

The next few actions were all a blur. Neji ducked under the swipes of the guards and rolled forward, avoiding other guards who had suddenly lunged at him from nowhere.

He grabbed Tenten and jumped across the huge hall to where Gaara was already standing. Together, they leaped out of the window, their last image of the chaos under them being the daimyo sprawled on the floor, still dazed, and the guards swarming, trying to get after them.

'Gaara! Hurry!' Neji yelled frantically. He was carrying Tenten bridal style. She was too hurt and angry to bother to protest.

'Wakkateru!'

They jumped as fast as they could through the trees, adding chakra to their legs making them go twice as fast as their normal speed.

Ninja guards were tailing them quite expertly. Cursing, Gaara and Neji both sped up till their muscles were straining at their limits. It was actually more efficient to carry Tenten because she lacked the stamina they possessed. She just stared somewhat glumly at the blurry scenery passing them by.

They both slowed down after noticing that they had successfully thrown the guards off their trail by concealing their chakra. They had lost them about an hour ago, meaning that they had definitely crossed the border of the country. Since they had been going too fast to care about anything, they hadn't really payed attention to whether or not they had crossed the small bridge yet.

Just before collapsing on the ground from fatigue, Neji swept his already-activated-as-had-been-for-the-past-few-hours Byakugan eyes and noted that they had indeed crossed the border, so they were safe.

He shut them, and went in to a deep slumber alongside Tenten who had already gone back to sleep (since she was still fatigued from her jutsu) and a few meters away from Gaara who was already wiped out.

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Tenten stirred and looked around her. It was obviously morning, judging by the light streaming through the canopy. Neji and Gaara were already up, sitting by a fire. She stretched and made her way to where they were and joined them.

'Hey, Tenten…did you sleep well?' Gaara greeted tiredly.

Neji just solemnly looked up from his previous thinking position. He had dark circles under his eyes, as if he had woken up at night and stayed up. Gaara, as usual, had probably just slept for a short while.

'Hai…domo…' Tenten muttered for she was still groggy.

'Here, have this…'Neji mumbled, handing her a roasted fish.

Gaara had caught a few fish from a stream nearby.

'Arigato…'

They continued eating in silence.

They were all just contemplating the previous night's events.

'Ano…Tenten, did you expect your sister to you know…' Gaara asked. He was only asking because they needed a little bit of information to put in their mission report. Neji understood this.

Tenten started shaking, and she let her unbound hair cover her face so they couldn't see her tears.

'O-of course not!' she spluttered as the first few tears fell, and she turned around and ran into the forest, dropping the piece of wood that had previously been skewering her roasted fish.

Gaara sighed. He had a feeling that this would happen.

'Gaara…maybe we should have waited before asking her…'

'Hn.'

Neji got up and left Gaara to do his own thinking. He followed Tenten's trail and found her sitting on a rock, crying silently. He could see, quite visibly, that she was trying to control herself, but obviously failing. One of the things that he had taught her when in training was that shinobi never showed any emotion. She was usually pretty good at it…but…

'Tenten.'

She, obviously startled, sat upright and looked at Neji. She had been so engrossed in her own thoughts that she hadn't even noticed him come. Also the fact that her hair hid anything from view helped in that.

'N-neji…'

This time she stared sullenly at the ground, embarrassed that Neji had seen her this vulnerable.

Suddenly, she felt someone sit down on the rock beside her. Surprised, again, she whipped her head around to meet the unwavering gaze of a pitying Neji. She was shocked. She had never really seen him so concerned before.

Her lip quivered again, and more tears slid down her pale cheeks. She turned away, ashamed.

And slowly, Neji wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his chest, drawing her close to him from behind. He lay back on the tree trunk behind the big, flat rock, and pulled Tenten along with him so that she was sitting between his legs, with her head resting on his shoulder.

She immediately turned around so she was crouched, her knees flat on the ground, her face into his shoulder, unlike how it had been before, with it resting on it. Neji pulled her closer still, unsure of what else to do. He patted her back awkwardly, until her silent sobs that racked her body ceased.

'Arigato, Neji,' she whispered, her arms now hugging his neck.

Neji was brought back to reality with those words. He was actually daydreaming while subconsciously twirling a few locks of her soft hair between his thumb and forefinger.

'Of course, Tenten.'

They left it at that. Neji didn't feel the need to bring up the subject again, so they didn't.

They met Gaara who had cleaned up their camp for them, and they left, their packs on their backs.

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'TENTEN! YOU'RE BACK FROM YOUR MISSION!'

She was glomped by Sakura and Ino. Shikamaru and Sasuke stood back, standing around stupidly like idiots.

'H-hai…it t-took y-you long e-enough,' Hinata stumbled awkwardly. 'Konnichiwa, Neji-nii-san, Gaara-san.'

'Hinata-sama, Shikamaru, Sasuke.' Neji acknowleged all their presences.

'Neji,' Gaara whispered, 'We need to report to Naruto.'

'Hai.'

'Tenten, come on, Naruto might get cranky if we don't report to him as soon as we come back.'

'Hinata, Ino, Sakura! I'll see you guys later!' Tenten yelled out as she walked away with Neji and Gaara.

'So, why were they all there?' Gaara asked.

'Oh, they all just came back from a different mission, to assassinate some random missing nin. It was just a two day mission and they got back just a little before us,' Tenten explained.

'So ka…' Gaara muttered.

They continued in silence to the Hokage building. Neji and Gaara both tensed, awaiting the unwanted loud and annoying shrill happy greeting of the Rokudaime, who would presumably be eating ramen.

They knocked on the door, waiting to be called in.

'Come in!' Naruto yelled.

And so they entered.

Both the guys grimaced as they saw Naruto's eyes widen like dinner plates. And also as his smile turned into a huge grin. They braced themselves.

'NEEEEJJJIIIIII! GAAAAAAARRRRAAAAAA! TEEEEENNNTEEEEEEN! LONG TIIIME NO SEEEEEEEEEEEE!'

With that, the whole village of Konoha collapsed from the strength of his words.

No just joking. Neji and Gaara's hair was frozen backwards and Tenten was on the floor, fallen anime style.

Nope, still joking. They just covered their ears.

'Naruto! Nice to see you too!' Tenten cheerfully said, once she had recovered.

They discussed the mission reports and they parted ways. Gaara still had time to stay. His siblings were coming over and he would return with them once their business with Naruto was completed.

They went home and relaxed, and cleaned themselves up from their grueling and painstaking mission.

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A couple of weeks passed and the usual happened. Training, catching up with other shinobi of their age…It was now the first week of April. Surprisingly, nothing much had happened to either Neji or Tenten on April Fools' Day, since all the pranks were aimed at Naruto.

But now, Sakura was leading Tenten to the Hokage's office because it was urgent. Neji had not been invited, but he was trailing along anyway, following them surreptitiously.

Neji waited outside and counted on his super-ninja hearing skills to aid him. He was on the ceiling. Finding an air vent, (the one where Naruto always fell out of) he crawled so he was directly above the Hokage's office. He silently activated his Byakugan so he could see the proceedings underneath him.

He had to stifle a gasp. Inside the room was Tenten's father, mother and some other girl who looked slightly younger than Tenten. Neji could barely catch the gist of the words, but he could hear Tenten being immensely shocked.

'…Fuki?!...' Tenten said.

Tenten ran and hugged the other girl who hugged her back.

'…successor…no one remaining…I need you…come back…heir…' her father said.

'WHAT do you MEAN, no OTHER successor?!' this time it was Tenten's mom.

Neji realized that they had yet to inform her of her other daughter's death.

'…was killed…with rogue daimyo…' this time it was Naruto trying to calm her down. She had burst into tears.

'…inviting both of you…come back…with us to Tie Hua…'

Neji was so shocked! He was offering her to go back with him?!

He had had enough. He pushed open the opening of the vent and landed neatly on the ground in the centre of the room.

'Neji?!' Tenten asked, really surprised.

Her father's face turned red with rage for a second, and then calmed down.

'Tenten, care to tell me why this man, who punched me in the face during the mission, is here?' Her father coolly said.

Naruto burst out laughing, but was silenced immediately with one look from Sakura.

'I was listening, out of concern for your daughter,' Neji coldly stated.

Tenten's mother turned around to look at him, a gleam of awe in her eyes.

'And I do not wish for her to go back with you to your country,' Neji continued.

Tenten's eyes widened. She had to decide between Fuki or Neji.

'Tenten! Please come back!'

'Tenten. Don't go.' Neji firmly stated, but there was a hint of agony in his eyes.

Naruto and Sakura just watched from the sidelines, pitying the whole bunch of people, apart from the daimyo, obviously.

'Tenten, just so you know, I will not be going anyway,' her mother inputted.

'Mother?! You're not going?!' Tenten asked with disbelief.

She was about to say more, but she was cut off by Fuki.

'Tenten, please come back? I have missed you so much!'

She whipped her head around.

'Tenten, Konoha needs you. You are a successful kunoichi here. Please stay,' Neji continued. This was as close as it got to begging.

Tenten kept looking from Fuki to Neji, both of whose eyes were filled with pleading.

Who had been her best friend all this while?

Fuki.

Who needs her most now?

Fuki.

But what about her mother?

She was doing fine without her all these years.

Sakura? Ino? Hinata?

They're less important than Fuki whose been her friend since she was 5.

Being a kunoichi?

She never was one in the first place.

…what about, Neji?!

He'll get over it.

--

This was the argument going on in her head.

Looking, down, as tears sprang into her eyes, clouding her vision, she whispered, 'Gomenasai…Neji-kun…'

Neji's eyes widened in shock.

Fuki grinned and ran over to hug her. Tenten didn't make any move to hug her back. She was too numb to care.

Sakura and Naruto just watched wide eyed as the daimyo just smirked. It was plainly clear that he seemed to enjoy watching his 'insolent bitch' of a daughter suffer.

'Demo…Tenten…' Neji protested weakly.

'Tenten, be ready in an hour. Just pack your things and come to Konoha's north gate,' her father stated quite inconsiderately.

'Gomen! Neji, Gomen!'

With that, she ran out of the room sadly. If she had chosen to go back, why was she feeling so sad?

Neji chased after her, but she ignored him as she packed her things. Giving up, he stared at her as she pushed past him and made her way to the gate, still crying.

He ran behind her, ignoring the stares of the civilians. He ran, and caught up to her, and yet he made no move to stop her.

He just watched as he got onto a wooden carriage along with her dad and her friend. She didn't even look back once.

He watched till the carriage was a mere speck on the horizon on the dirt trail.

He collapsed onto his knees, still watching, till it was gone.

Slowly he walked back the same way they had come. The people gave him odd stares.

Suddenly, a young kid who Neji recognized as one whose parents were indeed staring at him weirdly ran up to him.

'Ano, Hyuuga-sama?' the kid politely asked, recognizing the Hyuuga eyes.

Neji, still in his numb stupor, barely registered that a kid was standing in front of him tugging on his Hyuuga robes.

'Your girlfriend dropped her kunai,' the kid innocently stated, handing over Tenten's favourite kunai.

Just that comment made tears slide down Neji's pale cheeks. Just two tears, but tears nonetheless.

He walked, ignoring the looks of the people, and made his way back home, fingering the kunai, tracing his fingers over the blue gems encrusted in the hilt, deep in thought.

He passed Shikamaru on his way, but made no move to greet him. This put Shikamaru in deep thought as well.

Was the stone cold, black hearted Neji Hyuuga, wallowing in self pity?

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Meh…sorry if that chapter's depressing…don't worry, things will work out fine in the end…

Anyway, I still apologize for the late update. And I'm in a bad mood right now since my parents are arguing over some random shit about an email or smth or other…God, don't they realize that I'm concentrating REALLY HARD on my 'homework?' LOL.

Anyway, REVIEW!

Tenjichan- :D :D :D XD XD XD