Chapter Ten: Closure

Lightning flickered outside the window followed by a rolling peal of thunder. Tenten shivered and moved closer to Neji. It was colder in the changing air pressure. The electric lights wavered and held, but new shadows seemed to dance about the battle-scarred room.

Tomui was breathing heavily from where he had been bound and thrown to the floor. Lee stood close at hand, ready to respond if the occasion warranted it.

"Where's Nazuki?" Tenten asked quietly.

Tomui glared at her and kept up his silence.

"You better answer her questions," Neji said harshly, "or I will start asking them."

"I'm not afraid of you," Tomui spat.

Tenten sighed. "Did you idiots remember my scrolls?"

"Neji did," Lee said. Neji masked his surprise at the blatant lie. He could think of no reason for Lee to lie, but now was not the time to address it. Neji simply fetched the scrolls off his back and handed them to her.

She selected the largest and thickest of the two and unrolled it slowly. She was in no rush and it felt dramatic. Tenten bit her thumb and dragged it across the paper in a long, bloody line. The empty air above the scroll was replaced with a large variety of disturbing and deadly weapons.

"Take your pick," Tenten said coldly.

"You have no humanity!"

"And you locked me in a closet for a week, so go ahead, Tomui; take your pick."

Tomui eyed the weaponry and something inside him broke. "I'll talk."

"Bummer. I missed my violent weapons. Hey, Neji, can we go mime-hunting later?"

"No."

Tenten pouted. "Fine."

"Ahem," Neji coughed.

"Right," Tenten said and turned back to Tomui again. "Where is Nazuki?"

"Go down to the basement and move the large crates by the furnace. You'll find a secret passage. Nazuki-sama is at the end." Tomui glared through his entire speech.

"And what was Nazuki planning to do with Kuma's power?"

"I don't know."

"You see this mace—"

"I don't know!" Tomui shouted desperately. "Ren knew, but Nazuki-sama never told me!"

"How disappointing," Tenten said. "Well, that about settles it. What shall we do with him?" She looked at Neji nervously, afraid that he was going to fall into a homicidal rage, but he looked back at her calmly.

"If you two can take on Nazuki, my friends, I will keep watch here," Lee said brightly. Neji gazed at Tenten. "Can we defeat him or do we need Lee?"

Tenten nodded; confidence surged within her. "We can do it."

The basement was cold. Tenten shivered and rubbed her arms vigorously, envying the warm jacket wrapped around Neji's shoulders. Together they pushed aside the large crates that Tomui had spoken of and gazed down the passage it revealed. It was a long, narrow hallway that twisted and turned so that Neji and Tenten could not see the end even if it hadn't been completely pitch black inside.

"Got one of those glowy things with you?" Tenten asked.

"You mean a glow stick?"

"Yeah, a glowy thing."

"A glow stick."

"Don't make me kill you."

Neji rolled his eyes. He had missed their pointless arguments. He reached into his bag and withdrew a plain, barely transparent rod as long as his forearm. He held it lengthwise between his two hands and snapped the rod. It did not bend or break, but rather crackled brilliant before returning to its original shape, now glowing with a greenish hue.

Sakura had explained the chemistry of the glow sticks at one point, but he had immediately forgotten, confident in Lee's ability to memorize everything Haruno Sakura said should the information ever prove vital. "Shall we?" Neji asked, gesturing down the tunnel.

"After you," Tenten replied, privately admitting to herself that some of her reasoning to wanting to walk behind Neji was that he happened to look very good from the back and walking in front of him she wouldn't be able to see anything.

Neji shrugged and started down the passage, secretly disappointed that he would not achieve the view of Tenten that Tenten would of himself.

The darkness halted time. Minutes, seconds, hours—they were all irrelevant. They did not speak as they walked down the seemingly endless passage. They listened to the other breath, fighting back urges it wasn't the right time for.

Neji glanced back at Tenten her eyes glittering strangely in the greenish light of the glow stick. Somehow he found it beautiful. He felt his breath stick resolutely in his throat and he swallowed profusely in an effort to clear it. Words struggled past the tip of his tongue. "Tenten," he uttered roughly." He cleared his throat loudly. "Tenten," he repeated more fluidly.

Tenten looked at him expectantly and Neji felt his courage waning. "Yes?"

"Tenten I—" he began.

"Wait a minute, Neji," she said, oblivious as to what she was interrupting which was odd since Tenten was normally far more perceptive (In retrospect she would blame it on being locked in a closet for a week). "I see the light at the end of the tunnel," she said, laughing slightly at the old cliché. "Stay away from the light, Neji," she teased.

He laughed quietly with her, feeling broken.

Nazuki looked up briefly from his-her book. For a moment he-she had heard a noise coming from the floor below. But that would be impossible. The only way in was through the secret passage which only he-she used. Nazuki rose from behind a desk. Something was not right and Nazuki planned to uncover exactly what.

Tenten and Neji crawled tentatively into a dimly lit room. Their speed was standard procedure when entering unknown territory regardless of the bizarre content of the room. In one corner was what had probably once been a very neat and orderly desk until it had succumbed to its current sloppy state covered in boxes and old newspaper clippings.

More curious than the desk, however, was the stack of wooden shipping crates all labeled with the destination: TO KONOHA. It appeared that Nazuki was a thief as well as a kidnapper. Neji strode toward the crates and as quietly as the task allowed, which was admitted not very quiet at all, pried one of the open. Uselessly, Tenten shushed him and glanced worriedly at the stairs on the far end of the room.

The creaking of wood and nails ceased and Tenten looked back at Neji. "What is it?" she whispered.

"Chakra amplification metal," Neji replied softly.

"What?" she said, giving her brain more time to put two and two together. And when it clicked she gasped. "That's what Nazuki is planning! He was going to put Kuma's chakra into the metal and probably raise an army of chakra-wielders."

Hollow clapping echoed behind them as Nazuki entered. Tenten stiffened and turned, seething with hate. "I'm impressed. Congratulations," Nazuki said in that disturbing, fluty voice.

"Nazuki," Tenten growled, mostly for Neji's benefit.

"And you know my name? My, you are bright."

"Why wouldn't I know your name?" Tenten asked slyly. "You only had me locked in a closet for a week."

Nazuki was visibly surprised. "You," the androgyne sputtered then realization dawned on Nazuki too quick for comfort. "Ah, a decoy. I should have known."

"You underestimated Kuma," Tenten replied.

"I did," Nazuki admitted. "That explains the personality."

Neji coughed to cover up an inappropriate laugh, but Tenten knew and glared at him anyway.

"So what now? You're going to fight me and bring me to justice?" Nazuki asked, laughing coldly. There was no warmth in the strange, whimsical gaze.

It was Tenten's turn to smirk. "Well, the villain hardly ever goes out quietly."

"Then who am I to break tradition?"

Tenten stiffened, waiting for Nazuki's attack. With all her watchfulness, she was still flung backward into the open crate of chakra metal. He winced in pain as the ragged edges of the raw metal tore at her skin. She blinked her eyes rapidly, confused and vaguely aware of the thunderous roar bursting out of Neji as he hurled toward Nazuki. Tenten struggled to get out of the box before any of the metal dug deeper into her skin than it already had.

She more or less fell off the box, thudding loudly on the floor. Quickly, Tenten pulled fragment of metal from her body. How had Nazuki surprised her liked that? It was obvious that Nazuki had wind natured chakra and had been manipulating the element into an attack, but how had Nazuki accomplished such a difficult feat without and hand seals or even words to concentrate the chakra?

Nazuki didn't have a soft voice. It was a voice that was immediately distinguishably, but Tenten hadn't heard him utter a single word. She glanced down at herself. She was scratched and bleeding all over. Her back ached from her rough landing. All this was in addition to the aches and pain of abduction.

Tenten steeled herself. She could fight. This was nothing, she told herself. Besides, Neji needed her. He was holding his own marvelously against Nazuki who had drawn a long, snake-like blade that glimmered even in the insubstantial light. But Neji looked tired, like her hadn't slept properly in days. Vaguely, she could detect a difference in his step. He was slower.

Her scrolls unrolled swiftly before her and Tenten bit her thumb to draw blood. A puff of smoke burst from the long red line she drew and in its place was a staff. The wood was dark and gleamed brighter than Nazuki's sword. Tenten spun the staff about herself experimentally, testing the weight and her strength.

She could not repress the grin that spread across her face. The simple weapon felt powerful in her hands. Tenten rushed in spinning the staff to build up momentum. Neji was not typically one to be distracted, and even if he was it was not for very long. But Nazuki was fast. All it took was a split second for Neji to lose focus and glance at the flurry of movement coming from behind him. Neji did not know how he had missed Nazuki's movements. Where had the forward thrust of the blade come from?

Neji's knees buckled. Nazuki's sword was embedded in his side. Neji gripped the blade in both hands as he went down and pulled himself off the sword, ignoring the cuts that had been made on his palms. The blood seemed trivial to him and he attempted to stand. Why was Tenten screaming his name? He was perfectly okay. He would be standing any minute…now…or perhaps not.

Things seemed to move twice as slow as Neji watched Nazuki swing his blade back. Nazuki was preparing for the death blow. Neji braced himself knowing he could not move in time. He blinked and in the next instant he realized he was not dead after all. Tenten had arrived in front of him, her wooden staff blocking the death blow.

"Tenten," he whispered, clutching a hand to his bloody side. He fingers quickly became scarlet. Neji gazed up at her. There was a fire in her eyes that he had never seen before.

Nazuki and Tenten drew their weapons back and struck again. The clamor of wood on steel reverberated slowly through Neji's skull out of time with that his eyes told him was a battle of speed and agility. He was falling down, his blood spilling everywhere.

Neji saw Tenten's mouth open wide and only a few seconds later did he know it was a cry of triumph. She had broken Nazuki's grip and the glimmering sword had gone flying far out of reach.

A snarl escaped Nazuki, the only remotely normal sound Tenten had ever heard leave the villain. She braced herself and swung the staff down in a powerful arc, reversing directions on a dime as Nazuki dodged.

She made contact and swept Nazuki facedown to the floor. Tenten sprang on Nazuki, twisting the androgyne's arms until she heard a satisfying crack. Nazuki's arms were broken. Tenten pulled a rope from her bag and tied Nazuki's legs together savagely. The leader was screaming in pain, but she didn't care. Neji was fading.

"Tenten," he gasped again, looking up at her wet eyes. She was kneeling next to him, pulling his hands from the bloody wound.

"Shh," she replied softly. "Don't talk." Tenten cleaned his wound methodically, whispering a warning when she was pouring on the antiseptic. He winced briefly only to relax a second later as Tenten applied the only healing jutsu she knew. It was enough to stop the bleeding.

Clarity returned to Neji now that he was no longer bleeding out. He blinked up at Tenten who looked grim and was coated with a thin layer of his own blood. Irrationally he reached out and took her hand. The bandages she had been unrolling fell to the floor. "Neji, I'm not done yet."

"This is important," he said weakly. Neji pulled her closer so that her face was only inches from his. She could barely feel his shallow breathing on her skin.

"What?"

"I missed you."

"I missed you too."

"A lot."

"I know."

"Because I love you."

Tenten's throat stuck and could only make a strangled noise in response.

"Tenten?" Neji asked worriedly, stroking her cheek. Tears spilled down her face. "I can't reach up to kiss you," he said. "Won't you come down here?"

With Neji gently pulling her down, she came. Neji forgot about his wound and tried to shift Tenten on top of him. Her elbow dug into his side. He cried out and they broke apart roughly.

Tenten leapt back. Her tears were gone and she smiled down at him. Neji was swearing like a sailor. She sighed and picked up the bandages that had started to roll away across the floor.

"Hold still."

Author's Note: So here's the deal. If you want a sequel and a little more fluffiness continue on towards the epilogue. If you're sick of me and my story, well thanks for reading and I bear no ill will. It's been a great ride and I'd life to take a minute to thank those of you who have been reviewing every time I post: Ogro, KNO, Rin the Useless Girl, loves-emo-guys-with-hair, Ceridwen Inari, and Kyra-Mitsu. You guys have been great and I love you all (but not in a creepy way, so don't worry). And to everyone else who took the time to read and review, I thank you. It's been great.