Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto!
Thank you for the reviews, they really do mean a lot to me. :D
A/N: I've read it over a few times, but I haven't slept in 4 days (tonight looks like number 5)... insomnia... anyway I'm planning something for x-mas so I probably won't update this one until after that, but you'll all be happy to know, I have almost everything plotted out already so it should start moving a lot faster now XD
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LETS TALK
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"We need to talk." Neji firmly asserted as he stood in front of his girlfriend's older brother.
The two of them were hardly on friendly terms. In fact, ever since the first day they had met, neither of them had been particularly fond of the other. But one thing Neji had always known about the older man, was that beneath the teasing, goofy facade he put on, Koudo was a serious and dedicated shinobi. Another thing Neji knew, was the the older man loved Tenten and would do anything to protect her and make her happy. Anything, including lie to her.
Unlike most people, who believed Koudo and Tenten had been orphaned as young children -shortly after the bun-haired girl's birth- Neji was one of the few who was privy to the truth. The kunoichi her self had told him that she had a mother. A woman who had abandoned them shortly after Tenten had been born, leaving them to be raised by a bed-ridden paternal grandmother. Though in reality it had been eight-year-old Koudo who had been left to raise them.
In the weapons mistresses mind, her mother had been a woman who had been forced to leave her side, for reasons nobody knew. After their most reason mission, however, Neji believed he might know. And he had a sneaking suspicion, especially after remembering the worried look on his face before team Gai took off on their mission, that Koudo might know something as well.
"Talk?" the former ANBU seriously replied. He held a look of apprehension in his eyes, but there was curiosity as well, as if he anticipated the seriousness with which Neji was there to speak with him about. "Don't tell me you're going to ask me for her hand," the older man momentarily fell back into his teasing persona. "Because I absolutely refuse to-"
"Mother." Neji uncharacteristically cut the older man off, having no desire to play their usual game of cat and mouse. He didn't particularly feel like being toyed with at the moment.
"Are you calling me mommy?" Koudo smirked, but there was a hint of nervousness in his tone that betrayed his unease. He knew. Deep down, he knew what came next. "You saw her?" he asked, after a moment's silence. His voice was low and cautious, as if he feared the word itself; feared the ears that might hear it.
Neji remained silent, but nodded in response.
This was what they needed to talk about. About the woman Team Gai had observed for two weeks. The woman who dressed in heavily layered clothing. The woman whose face was always covered, but which Neji, with his byakugan eyes, could clearly see. The woman he had spend fourteen days observing. Whom he had not wanted to believe was who he thought. The woman whose face he had searched over and over, wishing he didn't see the same face he knew and loved in hers.
"The Merchant of Death." Koudo chillingly stated. It wasn't a question, he knew exactly who Neji was talking about. "You know?" he asked, turning to watch the Hyuga's expression, as if questioning just how much the younger man might be aware of.
"She was a spy," Neji replied.
Though it was still only a theory in his mind, the Hyuga had pieced together a rough idea of what it all meant. A woman who came from a foreign land and had married a high ranking Leaf Shinobi. A woman who had abandoned her children, shortly after the mysterious death of her husband. A woman who later showed up, the apparent leader of a group of arms dealers.
There was little room for doubt.
"Yeah." Koudo nodded. His jaw tensed with anger, as he stood staring at the dirt at his feet. "She killed our father," he furiously added, as if explaining to the Hyuga his sudden rage. "She used him," he added. His fists were clenched as tightly as his jaw; the knuckles turning white with anger.
"She resembles Tenten," Neji stated. There was a silent question in his words. A question he had long wondered. Why was it, if Koudo loved his sister so much, he had abandoned her years ago, spending no more than a few days a year with his beloved Tennie-chan.
"Tenten resembles her," Koudo corrected, solemnly nodding, as if replying to Neji's unasked question. Telling him that despite his love for the bun-haired girl, the fact that she looked so much like the woman he hated, had driven him away. Had pushed him towards the farthest corners of the known world to keep only the image of the child he knew in his heart, and not allow it to be replaced by the face of the woman Tenten had grown into; the same face as their mothers.
"But she's not her," Neji replied, staring straight into the older man's eyes, unwavering in determination to get that important fact through to the former ANBU.
The two remained in silence for what seemed like an eternity, but was more likely no more than a few minutes. Finally, Koudo nodded, and gestured, with a nod of his head, for Neji to follow him. They walked, quietly through the village streets, moving further and further away from the main streets, away from where anyone who might know them could come upon them and their conversation. At last, they arrived in a secluded part of the forest. Koudo took a seat on a boulder, near a running river. The spot, of course, was chosen specifically for the fact that the running water would serve to deafen their words to foreign ears.
"Does she know?" Koudo asked, once he had taken a seat. For a brief moment, Neji was certain he saw a glimmer of despair in the older shinobi's eyes, but it was quickly hidden. "Did she see her?"
"She saw her." Neji confirmed, nodding his head as he moved over towards a fallen log in front of Koudo's rock and took a seat. "But she doesn't know," he quickly added, knowing that that was what the other man was really asking.
"Good." Koudo nodded slowly, relieved to hear it. "She has this fantasy..." he slowly began, sounding somewhat choked up. It wasn't clear if it was because of the fantasy itself, or the fact that he knew it wasn't true. "Tenten thinks..."
"I know." Neji cut him off. He was well aware of the fantasy the kunoichi had concocted about her mother. He also knew that it probably wasn't true. At least, he'd always suspected it since first hearing the story. And after seeing the familiar looking woman fourteen days earlier, Neji was certain that now he knew...
"I never wanted her to find out." Koudo sighed, leaning his head back as he did. He continued to sigh for a while longer, then stopped and sat back upright. "She was never supposed to go to the Land of Iron!" he adamantly asserted.
At this, the Hyuga's curiosity was peeked. He had come to Koudo with the intent of getting as much information out of him, as well as to inform the older man of what he had become aware of. Neji wasn't sure how much Koudo was willing to tell him, but he had been hopeful, given that they both held a common interest in protecting the bun-haired girl, that Koudo would be willing to share what he knew.
"What do you mean?" the white-eyed prodigy asked. "Does Lady Tsunade know?" he questioned, assuming that was the only possible way Koudo could so confidently believe in his words.
"No," the former ANBU shook his head. "She knows some, but not all."
He then went on to clarify that while the Hokage had long since been aware of the fact that Koudo and Tenten's mother lived, she didn't not know the circumstances behind that fact. Tsunade knew that Koudo had specialized in information gathering, despite having a greater aptitude for assassination, because he wanted to search for his mother. No one, however, knew that Koudo had found his mother before going into the Intel department, and had only left his position in the assassins sector once he had already found out what kind of woman his mother had been. He had been searching her out with the hope of one day finding an opening to take advantage of and take his revenge. He also worked to keep tabs on her, and prevent Tenten from ever running into the woman, not that Tenten would really recognize her since she never really met their mother except for immediately after her birth, and of course she'd never remember that. All this, however, the Hokage knew nothing about. The only thing Koudo had ever told her was that their mother was alive, living somewhere in Iron Country, and he had requested that Tenten never be sent on a mission there. A promise, which Tsunade had made to him, and, until recently, had always kept.
"Wouldn't it be wise to just tell her?" Neji asked, referring to the Hokage and not Tenten, of course; though in the back of his mind, the Hyuga did wonder if whether protecting the kunoichi at the expense of lying to her was such a good idea.
Koudo eyed the younger man for a moment, seemingly contemplating what the prodigy was proposing. "You know what the best kind of secret is, Hyuga?"
At his question, Neji shook his head in response. He had no idea what the best kind of secret was, or what the older man was even getting at.
"The best kind of secret is the kind where only one person knows the privileged information." Koudo paused, waiting for his words to sink in before he continued. "The second best kind of secret, is the kind where only two people know the privileged information," he paused again, waiting to see that the younger man understood him. "The third best... doesn't exist." Koudo paused longer this time, allowing for his words to hang in the air, waiting to see if the Hyuga could grasp what he was being told. "When more than two people know a secret, it's no longer a secret. In no time at all, what was meant to be kept hidden, will come to be heard by the exact person it should never have reached."
"In other words," Neji began, attempting to sum up what it was the other shinobi was trying to tell him. "You kept it from everyone else so that Tenten would never know."
"Exactly." Koudo nodded, but then he stopped. The small smile that had crept up on his face at seeing that the young prodigy wasn't called a genius just for show, and had actually understood what he had been arguing, disappeared. In it's place, a stern, yet slightly pained, expression marred his usually cheerful face. "Well... that and..." the former ANBU nervously cleared his throat before continuing. "Our father was a good man. A good shinobi. He didn't deserve what he got. And he most certainly does not deserve to have his reputation tarnished by that woman."
And that was it. The end of their discussion. Having said what little he was willing to share, and gotten what he needed, the former ANBU stood from his boulder and stared down at the younger man still sitting on the rock, contemplating what he now knew. "Can I trust this will stay between us?"
Neji looked up at the other shinobi. For a moment he considered saying that would not be a part of the older man's deception. But then realized, he already was. "Yes."
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TBC...
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