Chapter 10

The past two days of traveling for TenTen had been…tense. Despite being an unwilling traveler on an inevitable journey toward her certain doom, TenTen was actually quite proud of herself. She had neither experienced a nervous break down nor wounded her "guardian", but considering that her bangle prevented her from hurting him in the first place…TenTen was glad her sanity was preserved.

Over the past two days the dragon had garnered TenTen's very grudging respect. He had taken in stride her hostility, physical weakness (she was still recovering from poisoning, but almost back to her regular physical fitness), and mistrust.

She believed Kingyo-san! She did! She believed that Kingyo-san was the representative of his clan, and that the clan had made her their slave (the bangle left no room for doubt). TenTen just didn't believe that his clan truly wished to help her.

If the whole ruse wasn't a charade, then the clan would change their mind later. Tradition couldn't be broken. TenTen's blood cursed her to suffer the hatred and ire of dragons. Whoever this clan was they would change their mind about her. And then she'd be dead.

It was a pity though. If Kingyo-san hadn't been her own personal angel of death or a dragon, TenTen might have permitted herself to get along with him.

Pausing midstep, TenTen admired the massive cavern she and Kingyo-san were passing through. They had been traveling through the bowels of the earth the past two days; this was the first time TenTen could see in the without aide of a dragonspell. Nearly a mile overhead, sunlight trickled in illuminating the cavern and its features: the huge bowl structure of the walls, and the black waters of an underground river.

Off the starboard side of the highway in the cavern connecting to the river was the large underground lake. Shaped and fashioned statues towered out of the lake, grey giants paying tribute to an era long since past. The brief beams of sunlight streaming down in broken rays highlighted the weathered helm and claw of the warriors of old guarding the lake and whatever territory lay beyond from invaders.

Unlike civvy highways, the cavern's highway did not come with guard rails, and the highway itself was carved out of the very stone of the cavern, she suspected, and loomed many stories over the lake coming abreast with heads of the statues. TenTen, despite the marvelous view, edged closer to the middle of the highway. What little life remained for TenTen was greatly valued. Logically, she knew she would not survive the towering fall from the hallway toward the non-existent ground merged with the dark abyss on her left.

For the first time that day, Kingyo-san spoke to TenTen.

"We will follow the path ahead to our final destination." Kingyo-san said.

"My grave," TenTen drawled.

"No, and you possess a diminutive vocabulary."

"Ooh, the big bad dragon's a walking thesaurus and can use big words in a sentence," TenTen taunted. There she went again being unreasonable.

Kingyo-san stopped in his tracks. TenTen immediately stopped and moved her arms over her vital organs. Maybe she shouldn't have said that last sentence or baited the dragon at all.

Stupid TenTen. Survival Technique #7: make yourself inconspicuous! Survival Technique #9: Don't taunt your enemy!

TenTen warily peered at Kingyo-san who had gone stock still.

"Ah, Kingyo-san." TenTen trailed off as Kingyo-san stiffened at the sound of her voice.

"Be quiet."

Instantly TenTen's mouth snapped shut while her eyes widened as a mixed sense of shock and anger flooded her. Oh, no he didn't.

Kingyo-san trumped whatever outrage she had planned when he continued, "Calm down, and actually use your seven years of ranger training."

A calming air swept over TenTen assuaging her anger and burying her rising alarm and panic as her body unwilling began to submit to his commands. Cool logic and analytical skills buried beneath TenTen's raging emotions rose to the surface restoring her reason.

Of course, logically, an angry ally is one more prone to take rash actions.

"You do realize," TenTen said to Kingyo-san as she assessed her surroundings, "you didn't have to forcibly calm me to quell my climbing anger."

"Would you have listened to me, if I had asked you?" Kingyo-san replied.

"Probably not," TenTen admitted, "but it all depends on how you phrase these things."

The rigid coil of tension in Kingyo-san's back released. The trepidation in TenTen's gut wound even tighter at the change in her warden. His stance had shifted, and Kingyo-san seemed more dangerous now at ease then he had tense. Now as he fell into a hauntingly familiar battle stance, TenTen came to a sudden revelation.

"You're a Hyuuga, aren't you?" TenTen murmured, her voice purposely carrying to reach only Kingyo-san's ears.

TenTen's impressive view of the back of Kingyo-san's head did not change. When it became clear, Kingyo-san wasn't answering her, TenTen, now with some new foundation on how to treat this being she was bound to, took Kingyo-san's advice and focused on the matter at hand.

In reality his order to remain calm kept down the surging tide of emotions that came with the revelation. In short if in control of herself and in her normal undisturbed environment, TenTen would have reacted well aka calmly. Only she wasn't in her regular undisturbed environment. Her world had been severely disturbed. The only comparison she could come up with would be that her would was being turned upside down and shaken continuously. In such a world, TenTen would have freaked at this new information, if she was in control of herself.

But she isn't in control of herself, now is she?

"How many, and what are they?" she asked quietly. Beneath her the first sounds of their pursuers reached her ears.

TenTen scowled. She had been expecting enemies at some point, another reason for the stress during the past two days.

Ambushing a target while the target is out in the open is simple logic and battle tactics.

The tactic worked too. Away from their main bastion, a person was only as good as their environment, skill, preparedness, and weapons. Ambushes being ambushes took targets off guard and by surprise.

The past two weeks had taught TenTen to be especially wary of travel. She had experienced enough ambushes in the past two weeks, but she could honestly admit that the reality of assassins coming to kill her while she was traveling did not surprise her in the least. And by the looks of it, her "guardian" wasn't surprised either.

"They are the by-products of what happens when the Wild and Civilization's evils combine. There are five." Kingyo-san said while turning his head at such an angle that TenTen could catch a glimpse of his face. The bulging veins surrounding his eyes brought about another sound mental reprimand. Had she truly been so blind to not recognize this? How had this escaped her?

Unseen by TenTen, but not by the farsighted Hyuuga, their pursuers crawled out of the very rocks and crags of the earth, and began to scale the side of the highway.

"Ranger-san, I apologize in advance, but it is no longer safe for you to remain here," Kingyo-san stated calmly.

TenTen started out of her mental reverie to realize the proximity and space between the two was closing rapidly. Before TenTen could register moving for a counter attack or even thought about questioning Kingyo-san on his strange and frightening statement, she found herself seized by the arm and waist, drawn back, and flung off the right side of the highway into open space.

The only thoughts she could manage to summon could be summarized with one frantic, panic induced word as she hurtled toward the black surface of the underground lake.

Help!

A/N: I'm ALIVE! Yes, check my profile. I have only 5 days, 3 projects, and an essay until christmas break comes. WAHOO! Almost out of the terror of school.