Hey! Sorry that it's been so long!

Hope you guys like it, and I'm glad to say that this only took me like...five hours to do! Talk about having ABSOLUTELY NO LIFE! Woot WOOT!

Okay, i'll stop talking now, and let you guys get to the chapter!

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Chapter 9

Dreams haunt my sleep

and I find that I cannot fight them.

The days are so long, and yet

I wish for them to be longer.

So long as I don't have to face the dreams.

They are images, flashing, burning,

and I do not heed their features.

There are people, but their faces

are blurs, I do not care for them.

Except for one.

It is a boy, standing alone.

All I can distinguish are his eyes.

I reach for him, but he is turning.

Away from me, and I am falling.

Into those eyes of his.

Aiko's head snapped up at the sound of footsteps outside of her door, and she hurriedly closed the small leather-bound journal, throwing it and the pen she had been using under her pillow. The movements were so practiced that it seemed almost commonplace. The small silver brush given to her by Master rested by her knee, and she took it up, brushing through her damp hair with steady strokes. The upper half of her hair, still wet from her shower, was a dark bronze in color, a sharp contrast to the ends, which were drying into bright blonde waves.

The door clicked open, and Master stepped silently into the room. Aiko inwardly sighed at the beauty of his appearance, and quickly bent into a kneeling position, her brush dropping to the ground in her haste. His chakra pulsed through the room, as it usually did, and she basked in the warm security of the strength behind the sound of his deep breathing. There was the sound of footsteps crossing the stone floor, and she felt Master's hands on her shoulders.

"Rise, Aiko," his voice filled the silence, soft and stern, and she let out a sigh of contentment as she let her gaze flicker up to meet his eyes. She was expecting to see the crimson Sharingan eyes that Master usually kept activated, but was met with strangely familiar eyes that were blank and indecipherable. They were the wrong shape, and the emotion hidden behind the eyes was slightly off, but the color…the color was indisputably familiar.

Suddenly, a flash of something uncomfortable in her gut–

"Choose your path…"

–and then she blinked, and the feeling disappeared as quickly as it had come. She stared up at the dark haired man, who was still touching her shoulders.

"I have another mission for you, my dear," Master murmured, and Aiko felt her head nodding in automatic agreement. "Come to the main hall in half an hour, and I will give you the details."

Aiko nodded once more, and Master placed a small pat on her head before disappearing from the room. The girl moved quickly and began packing the supplies necessary for a mission, but something made her stop. There was a strange feeling…what was it? Her vocabulary was limited when it came to describing her emotions, and so she gave up after a moment.

The kunoichi turned, and stared at the pillow that held her journal. Aiko moved and retrieved the notebook, flipping past the numerous filled pages until she found the one she had been working on.

She would do anything and everything to aid Master in his quest to rid the world of evil. It was he who had saved her from the horrid Konoha ninja…the ones who had taken her memory.

But it did not matter anymore, who she had been in the past.

She was Aiko now – she pushed aside the unease that filled her at the mention of that name – and nothing else was important. She lived only to serve Master, and nothing else would dare cloud her thoughts. That's what she was supposed to believe, and that's what she thought a majority of the time.

And yet…

Aiko kept this journal a secret from Master, for reasons that she still couldn't discern. She didn't know why, but she had the worst feeling that if he found out, he would take it away from her forever.

She couldn't lose that.

Aiko had found the journal nearly a month ago, and had found that whenever she stared at the empty lines…the words just rose forth like a wave and wrote themselves onto the page. They were random and unpredictable, sometimes as little as a single word and sometimes pages upon pages of franticly scribbled poems.

She found a strange sort of freedom to writing in her journal, speaking through poetry where as ordinary prose proved ineffectual in expressing her sometimes conflicted thoughts.

For some reason, the idea of losing this useless bit of leather and paper terrified her. No…that wasn't right. It wasn't the journal itself that was important…it was the secrets it held.

Aiko stared at the empty line under her words, thinking hard, and then scribbling down two simple words. She stared at them, and then nodded slightly to herself. Yes, that was right.

With that, she tucked the book away once more, and resumed packing without a second thought.

Onyx eyes.

Hinata Hyuuga knew that this was the most risky thing she could have ever imagined doing. It was crazy, suicidal almost, and yet it was the most logical plan of action. It wouldn't be that difficult; her plan was flawless, but fear still gripped at her as the seconds ticked into minutes. Never before had her emotions so fervently tugged at either side of her conscience.

Should she remain in the shadows, the undeniably safer and more comfortable path that Hinata was accustomed to taking, and help her village recuperate?

Or should she throw all caution to the wind, as Naruto would do if he were here, and take impulsive and necessary action?

She knelt in the small tent that served as a make-shift kitchen, making dinner for herself and Neji – the rest of the family had retired much earlier in the night, seeing as the shinobi were required to stay up much later – and the key component to her plan was hidden in her jacket pocket, enclosed in a seemingly harmless container of rice. The construction was running more efficiently than anyone could have hoped, and already small houses and shops were sprouting up. As a result, most still resided in tents, but traders and farmers were able to provide supplies for the shinobi as well as the civilians.

Neji was going on a mission to retrieve Naruto, and kill Sasuke Uchiha. She had been awake when Neji received the scroll in the early hours of yesterday morning, and in a blaze of unaccustomed defiance, she used her kekkei genkai to see through the walls separating their rooms and quickly read the mission details. He was with Sakura Haruno and

Retrieve the Jinchuuriki, and eliminate the perpetrator.

The team was scheduled to leave tomorrow morning, at the crack of dawn.

Now, Hinata didn't need to be a genius to be able to deduce that if Sakura was on the team, killing Sasuke wouldn't come close to being fulfilled. And Hinata didn't blame the pink-haired kunoichi.

Hinata refused to believe that someone as strong as Naruto would be so easily overwhelmed by Sasuke. Sasuke was frightening, but he wasn't a bad person. Naruto must've gone with the Uchiha for good reason…and Hinata stubbornly refused to believe otherwise, no matter what Neji said.

Her best guess – assisted by years of learning to melt into the background and gather information, while at the same time deducing hidden motives by examining that information – was that they were going to confront the ones who had taken Hikari. The girl was close to both Naruto and Sasuke, and so it was only logical that they'd want to go after her.

Hinata knew that once Sakura heard the truth – the real truth, and not the falsehoods the new Hokage was spewing – she would order the team to assist Sasuke and Naruto in their quest. Hinata was almost sure of it.

And Neji hated Hikari.

So it was settled.

Neji wouldn't be going on that mission, if Hinata had anything to say about it.

The pale-eyed girl straightened, and steadily removed the rice from her pocket, and opened the lid. There, resting lightly atop the cooked rice, lay a small vial of clear liquid that was both odorless and tasteless. Hinata had anonymously ordered it from the apothecary yesterday afternoon, and with some careful hypothetical questioning, learned that the amount in the vial would leave the recipient with violent effects of food poisoning for at least two days.

There would be no reason to go to the hospital, because Neji would automatically assume that the illness stemmed from the fish that Hinata must have lacked skill in preparing properly. No one went to the hospital for food poisoning – in a shinobi village, to needlessly take up the time of the medics who were constantly being bombarded by more serious maladies because of a simple stomachache was considered to be a sign of weakness. And Neji would sooner dye his hair green than admit weakness.

A small pang of guilt erupted at the thought of taking advantage of her cousin, who had sat by her side the entire time while a medic healed her stab wound, who had carried her back to the medical tents once she had been stabilized…who had held held her hand when a medic had been forced to stitch her up without any painkillers – seeing as they were so low on supplies as it was.

But she would fret about that later. There were more pressing matters at hand.

Hinata opened the vial with a small pop, and without another moments hesitation poured the contents on the cooked surface of the medium sized fillet of salmon that was cut into small strips. She even put a few drops on the cooked carrots and asparagus neatly grouped on the corner of the rectangular plate. Her own plate of rice and noodles – she wasn't in the mood for salmon, she would say if he bothered to ask – was beside the sink, and once Hinata had finished stashing the vial away in the waste-bin, she stood up and picked up both dishes. She exited the cooking tent, and walked toward the circle of tents that the Hyuuga clan shinobi lived in. The non-shinobi clan members had large tents within the protective circle of shinobi tents, so as to protect anyone from reaching them without first alerting the Hyuuga shinobi.

Hinata ducked into one of the tents, and found that Neji was sitting – thankfully for her – alone, reading a scroll. She smiled softly when he looked up at her, and carefully knelt to the ground beside the table.

The young man nodded silently in greeting, his eyes returning to the intricate workings of the ninjutsu scroll. Hinata fought to keep her hands from shaking as she lowered his dish onto the tabletop, settling down on the ground and picking up her own chopsticks.

"I h-hope you enjoy your salmon, Neji-onissan. I've n-never tried th-this recipe before, so I'm hoping that I-I cooked it correctly…"

Neji nodded his head to her. "Do not doubt your skills, Hinata-sama. I am sure that the meal is cooked perfectly."

Hinata was silenced by his reassurance, and she did not dare stare as Neji lifted a slice of salmon to his lips. She kept her eyes on her plate, delicately putting small clumps of rice in her mouth, her mind so distracted that she could barely taste the rich curry she had added for flavor. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Neji chewing complacently, and it was only when he swallowed that she allowed herself to breathe again.

Her pale eyes glanced over at her cousin, and she watched with a strange sense of satisfaction. Neji continued to eat as if nothing was amiss, and gave her a small nod of satisfaction when he caught her looking at him. He thought she was nervous about how it tasted…oh how misguided he was. It filled Hinata with both guilt and pride.

Guilt that she was shamelessly betraying Neji's trust…and pride that she, the weakest link of the Hyuuga clan, had managed to best the great prodigy that was Neji Hyuuga. It really was too bad that she could never take credit for the momentous feat.

Neji ate silently, and Hinata turned back to her meal with a small smile.

It would all work out.

Now all there was to do was to write a letter to her father telling him of a mission that had been assigned to her rather suddenly – she would make up something about patrolling the surrounding land with a few other shinobi – that would leave her absent for a few days.

By the time anyone discovered her lie, Hinata would be far away from Konohagakure, and out of the reach of everyone within it.

The young kunoichi growled to herself as she shouldered her sparse belongings, waving a brief hand-sign at the noisy tent. Sharing a tent with Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno was not the best idea on Tenten's part. The two couldn't go five minutes without insulting each other, which led to a good-natured, but still deafening exchange of words and sometimes pillows. It had been three days, and Tenten had finally had enough.

The night air was cool on her skin, making her shiver slightly, as it was such a sudden and welcoming change from the stuffy tent. The stars were especially bright, and she closed her eyes as she let the smell of the cold air fill her senses. She knew of only one other person that she would be comfortable staying with, and that was Neji Hyuuga. No one else appreciated the act of silence the way that he did, and she knew that he wouldn't refuse once she explained her situation.

She branched out her chakra, and quickly located the familiar pulse that belonged to Neji, and made her way toward it. A small tent made itself known to her, and she tapped the wooden post holding it up before entering.

Tenten set her bag down, smiling as she saw Hinata and Neji sitting quietly at the table, eating dinner. Neji nodded to her, picking up a few pieces of carrot and placing them in his mouth. Hinata was eating her meal in equal silence, and she gave Tenten a tentative wave. Tenten was going to greet her, but she caught sight of Neji's dish, which looked especially delicious, she automatically danced over to where he sat, reaching over his shoulder to snag a piece of salmon.

Normally, this would have induced a sharp scolding from the Hyuuga, but, strangely, this time his reaction was different. He did nothing, merely moving aside so she would have easier access.

Rather than wasting brain cells in contemplating Neji's mental state, she merely shrugged and plopped herself down next to the Hyuuga. The girl was so focused on eating her piece of fish that she didn't notice the slight jerk of Hinata's hands, or the widening of the Hyuuga girl's eyes as she slowly sank back into her former position.

Tenten ate another piece, and grinned. "This is really good, Hinata-chan! Remind me to get the recipe from you…"

"Mm…" Hinata hummed in affirmation, her eyes lowered to her plate as she slowly resumed eating. Tenten frowned at the guilty slump to Hinata's shoulders, and glanced at Neji.

"Is something wrong, Hinata-chan?"

Hinata flinched, and she forced a smile on her face as she softly replied, "Oh, I-I was just r-regretting not ma-making enough salmon for you as w-well, Tenten-chan."

"Tenten eats enough as it is, Hinata-sama. Do not feel obliged to feel that you need to provide for her," Neji stated firmly. Luckily for him, Tenten was thick-skinned enough to take his comment in stride.

She knew that he wasn't saying it to insinuate that she was fat or anything, he was just stating a fact: Tenten never missed a meal, and wasn't so concerned with calories and all that crap that she would starve herself. Tenten didn't need a diet to feel good about herself; she knew that she was in top condition, with little to no excess body fat to fret about.

"Anyway, Neji, I came to ask if I could stay in your tent for a while. Sakura and Ino are kinda infuriating, and I don't think I can stand another minute in that hellhole they call a tent. So…is that okay?"

Neji nodded curtly, and Tenten inwardly beamed. Hinata smiled, and waited until Tenten and Neji had finished the plate of salmon and vegetables before picking up both dishes and bowing to both of them before leaving the tent to go clean the dishes.

An hour or so later, Tenten was lying in her sleeping bag, staring up at the ceiling of the tent and finding sleep to be eluding her. No matter how hard she tried, her mind just wouldn't drift off into unconsciousness.

For some inexplicable reason, her mind was locked on Hikari, and the month in which she had taught Tenten how to recover from the genjutsu Hikari had placed on her early on. Tenten wasn't sure that she would ever fully recover from the image she had seen, but she couldn't deny that she probably would have had a much easier time with it had she not abandoned the prospect just three lessons in.

"Just…separate yourself," Hikari murmured, and Tenten cracked an eye open from her position beside the blonde. Both kunoichi were cross-legged on the grassy hill beside the lake, and Tenten saw Neji sitting in the shade of the nearby tree, watching them with wary eyes.

"Okay, I don't understand…" Tenten admitted, and Hikari's eyes opened slowly.

"Alright, how so?"

"How do you "separate"? You're not telling me how, you're just telling me to do it!" Tenten snapped, a little more forcefully than she had intended – even though Tenten had proclaimed them "friends", she was still a bit hostile. Hikari would need to earn Tenten's friendship and respect, and until then, Tenten would keep her distance.

Hikari took Tenten's accusation without so much as a frown." I can't tell you exactly how to do it…the method of separating your mental and physical form is something that you have to figure out for yourself. Meditation is a common method, which is what we're doing right now. You have to think of yourself as two different beings. Just…push between them and find that separation. Does that make any sense?" the girl said, smiling nervously, showing Tenten some of the insecurity that had been hiding behind the professional façade.

Tenten frowned. "Not really. You sound as though you've had a lot of practice…"

"Yeah, I guess I have," the blonde replied, her blue-gray eyes staring out at the lake that reflected the bleak gray color of the cloudy sky.

"Where did you come from, exactly?"

Hikari flinched, and shook her head. "I'd rather not talk about it."

"But why?" Tenten pressed, as was natural for her. She never was one to take anything at face value; it just wasn't in her nature.

"Because…it's not important." Hikari seemed to withdraw into herself, and Tenten stared at her for a moment before her irritation overwhelmed her reasonable side. Really, Hikari didn't have to be so secretive about it. She was being purposefully vague, and if Tenten didn't like anything, it was when people withheld important information for no apparent reason.

The weapons specialist stood abruptly, and scowled. "Y'know, I don't remember electing you as the arbiter of what's important and what's not. Get over yourself, won't you?"

With that, Tenten stormed off, leaving Hikari alone by the lake. Neji followed her, and Tenten glanced back to see Hikari still sitting just before rounding the corner of the nearest building.

Her long blonde hair came forward to shield her face from view as she leaned forward to brush her fingers atop the glassy surface of the lake.

Tenten rolled over on her side, and whispered into the silence. "Neji? You awake?"

There was silence, and then a quiet reply, "Yes. What is it?"

Tenten strained to see Neji in the dimness of the tent, and she finally gave up and slipped out of her sleeping bag, making her way to where he was on the other side of the tent. Tenten knew that he was somewhere on the other side, but the tent was so dark that she could barely see her own two hands, much less a person on the ground.

She reached out her hands to feel for him once she made the perilous journey around the table, and squeaked in surprise when she felt two strong hands gripping her shoulders. She whirled around, and relaxed when she recognized the chakra signature to be Neji's. He must be using the Byakugan to see in the dark, Tenten mused as Neji led them effortlessly back to his sleeping bag. She allowed him to help her sit, and listened as he seated himself beside her.

His voice was deep as he whispered, "Is something wrong?"

Tenten shook her head, and then realized that the motion was useless. "No, not really. I was just thinking…since Sasuke came from Sound, and that's where he found Hikari…then Hikari must have lived in Sound."

Neji seemed confused. "Yes…and?"

"That's why she wouldn't tell me where she was from…and that's…that's where she learned that genjutsu," Tenten trailed off, and suddenly gasped. "Oh God! Neji, no wonder she used that genjutsu on me! Being in Sound…it's a completely different situation…"

"Tenten, just because she was in Sound–"

Tenten shook her head. "It all makes sense! That's why she was here in the first place, to get away from Sound! Oh, I feel so bad…I was so awful to her…"

Neji's voice was cold. "She does not deserve your pity."

Tenten laughed quietly into the silence, leaning her head against her hand. "I know that you hate her just because she's from Sound, but just try and imagine what it was like–"

"You think I dislike Hikari because she's from Sound?" Neji's question was sudden and sharp; his tone wasn't bitter or cold, instead genuinely curious. Tenten frowned, her hands folding as she rested her elbows on her crossed knees.

"Well…yeah! Why else would you hate her?" Before Neji could respond, Tenten remembered an earlier night with Ino and Sakura, and another giggle erupted from her chest. "Oh, Ino and Sakura were going on and on about how your attitude toward Hikari is all because of your "undying affection toward me"…now that made me laugh! I mean, imagine, us…together! They must be desperate for gossip if they're pulling that card!"

Tenten was unable to continue, and fell back onto the blanket, trying hard to stifle her snorts of laughter. She was so consumed by her amusement that she didn't notice how Neji stiffened, his breath hitching just slightly in trepidation. But by the time she had regained her composure, Neji had become calm once more, and Tenten grinned into the darkness.

"How…ridiculous…" Neji's voice was strangely detached, and Tenten brushed it off as him trying not to let his amusement reach his face. Tenten knew that the idea was ludicrous at best, and it roused another giggle from her.

"I know, right?" Tenten yawned, weariness hitting her in a wave. "Alright, I'm going to bed. Thanks for listening to me ramble, Neji."

Neji didn't respond, instead helping her get to her feet, and silently leading her back to her bedroll.