Disclaimer: I don't own the usual characters.

A.N.: Hmm, well what can I say about this story: I was really inspired by Riza A.'s After Effect and her use of moods and chilly atmospheres to create a scary story. I had already known where I wanted the prologue of Part 2 to start, but her story really kind of challenged me to see if I could even write scary. I mean, I've attempted action, drama, angst, and comedy, but horror? I didn't know if I had it in me. Honestly, I still don't think that I do, but maybe we can consider this to be a valiant effort at something resembling scary. Really, I'd love to hear what you all think about it.

On a side note, I was considering breaking Part 2 into it's own story, because I know really long multi-chapter stories are kind of daunting to read. (And for those of you who write as well, you know the more people who read and review the better it is.) So let me know if I should do that, if you could., I'd really appreciate your opinions. Well, without further delay, please enjoy and remember to review!

PART 2 (PROLOGUE)

What they tell you in the academy is that you have to keep emotions on the inside, no matter what the situation. During the mission you are to become as hard as stone. What they don't tell you is that afterwards, when you're allowed to have those emotions again, if you can't leave the mission on the battlefield then you can go insane.

In the beginning there was nothing. In this nothing there was a sense of peace. The tranquility of emptiness is where Hyuuga Neji took refuge. He came to exist in it, floating within it, and if only it would stay that way, then maybe he could get some rest.

Beep. Beep.

The low drone of beeping seemed muffled as it hummed through Neji's existence. The sound helped fill the void and tugged at his consciousness, pulling him from the coma of nothingness. There are things that he is seeing now, and he wishes he didn't. And it doesn't matter whether he's a Hyuuga or not, because when he closes his eyes he can see them staring back.

When you wish you could go to sleep in your dreams, it's never a good thing.

The eyes watching him intently belong to faces of people he knows all too well. Neji stands there, in the center of his mind, and is surrounded by the judgmental ghosts of his past. The ghosts of the fallen hate him, and Neji can understand their feelings. Their hate is a translation of the guilt he feels. The agony is almost unbearable to his soul.

"Why didn't you save me?"

The phrase is a whisper that slides past everyone's lips. It's said in rounds like the chorus of a song. The words said by many begin to overlap and intertwine; they mingle together untill they become indistinguishable, and yet the meaning of those words are clear: Neji had failed them. While the faces of the dead never look sad, their eyes have the definite glare of an accusation.

How many times he'd seen these ghost and apologized profusely to themn, Neji couldn't count. No matter how many times the Hyuuga begged them to go away, his pleas always fell onf deaf ears. They always wanted more, they wanted the one thing that was stolen from them: life. They always blamed Neji for losing it. These were the ghosts of the people Neji couldn't save while on missions, and their numbers never seemed to stop growing. Neji was a prisoner of his own mind, surrounded by the packed crowd of dead people.

Hands craving life shot out from the crowd. They reached towards him, grabbing him, ripping away at whatever they grasped. His shirt was torn asunder, and his skin broke when their greedy hands clasped around it and pulled. As he fought to make his way through them, he could feel his blood trickling down his arms, and back. His skin cried blood from the long gashes torn in it

Through the pain, his guilt melts together with his boiling rage. "Get away from me! You're dead! You're all dead!"

It's then that he spots a new face in the crowd. Their eyes lock, and the fear solidifies into a realization; Hyuuga Neji had lead another person to death. Suddenly the crowd is no more, and on this plane there exists only those two people. Morikage Hiro, the illusion specialist chuunin, stood just across from Neji. The boy had been Neji's subordinate on the last mission and gotten mortally wounded. Before his fate was sealed he was sent away with both Tenten and the team's medical ninja, Akiko. Neji final memory of the boy was of the gapping wound in his chest, and the wheezing sound of his breathing as a result of his punctured lung.

Now the boy is before Neji, skin bleached white. The only color truly seen is the vibrant red life gushing out of his chest. The echoes from that battle resound in Neji's head, and familiar words drift in the air through the space between them. "Hyuuga-san?" Those words were the prayer for life from a dying man. Neji had failed the boy; letting him get pulled into battle, and out of the planned formation.

"Hyuuga-san?"

His name was called again, even though the ghost's mouth remains still. Neji can't help but remember the scene: the chuunin laid on the ground, repeating his name. What the wounded boy was really asking though, was for Neji, the team lead, to give an order that would fix this situation. What he was really wanting to hear was Neji saying that everything would be alright.

Neji squeezed his eyes closed and tried with all of his might to forget. If only he could just forget everything that happened in that last mission, he thinks to himself, then maybe this nightmare would be over. The voice of the boy in front of him grows faint, and when Neji begins to open his eyes he can see the chuunin begin to fade away.

"Neji."

The voice that came from behind him was quiet and soft. When he turned to face the source, he saw Tenten in the distance. Tenten. And then it all comes rushing back to him. On the last mission he'd surprised her with a confession. When face to face with death he'd seen the spark of his existence flicker and in that moment he'd realized what was important to him, and more importantly, who. The next time he saw her, he didn't let the chance pass him by.

"I like you a lot Tenten; you're very special to me." The words he spoke then he heard now, only this time, there was something more. "Don't worry, I won't let him forget. I won't let you fade away too."

Directly behind Tenten was a looming figure, as if her shadow had taken shape. Delicately, arms circled around Tenten's figure as she was embraced, and the pitch colored eyes of the man who haunted Neji became immediately apparent. Tenten looked oblivious to the actions taken to her, and stared innocently back at a Neji.

"Get away from her you bastard!" The anger Neji felt was quickly becoming uncontrollable. The hatred he felt towards this man was visible along the ridge of his white knuckled fists. For uncountable nights, this man of darkness had tormented Neji's dreams, and played with Neji's mind. Now his presence was threatening to infect the one thing that the Hyuuga held dear. Neji was just starting to understand how much Tenten meant to him, and he wasn't going to let her go without a fight. With hands raised ready to attack, Neji was off in a flash, sprinting at the man.

The obsidian-eyed man leaned his head in, resting it on her right shoulder while continuing to speak, "I won't let him hurt you."

Neji had no intention of harming a hair on Tenten's head, let alone hurting her out right; the lies this man was saying to Tenten were unforgivable to the Hyuuga. The wicked smile that played on the man's face only further infuriated Neji as he dashed towards the pair.

Neji felt the need to inflict tremendous pain to this nightmarish man. The silver-eyed man had endured much himself and was ready to dish it out two fold, but as he got in range of the stranger, Neji noticed that he was still mostly hidden by Tenten's figure; it was as if he was using Tenten like a shield. But none of that mattered; Neji was a genius and all of his attacks were executed with precision. Neji felt confident that he could effectively attack without even touching Tenten.

Hyuuga Neji dropped down into the famous Sixty-four Hands of Hakke stance, and readied himself. Anything in his divinity field had no chance of surviving. In the blink of an eye, as if time slowed down, Neji was on the attack, his hands already compensating for Tenten's body as his fingers traced arcs in the air to land divine strikes on the target behind her.

The dance of the Hyuuga specific move had started, and Neji felt that this would be another time he would savor each and every hit as he started the count.

"One-"

The hand that shot out from over Tenten's left shoulder caught him off guard, and since he was in the middle of attacking, there was little he could do to defend against it. As the fist closed in on Neji's face, he braced himself for the blunt contact and prepared himself to be able to continue the sixty-four strikes. But something was different now, and time seemed to come to a crawl as Neji analyzed the counter attack.

Neji had fought so many different ninjas' taijutsu techniques, and he'd thought he'd seen them all, but this was unique. He watched as part of the incoming fist loosened, and how both pointer and middle fingers extended out; it was almost reminiscent of the Hyuuga's own divine strikes, but there was no primary tenketsu spot that these fingers could reach, or at least not where they were currently heading. Instantly, the sickening truth of the attack's intent became known, and all a wide-eyed Neji could do was watch it happen.

Two fingers of the nightmare man pierced into and curled around Neji's right eye.

Neji could feel the slight tug, and noticed as his vision was cut in half once the optic nerve was pinched in two. Once his eye was fully extracted, he watched with his one good eye as it as was rolled between the nightmare man's fingers. The shock of it all was still registering in Neji's mind when the pain and agony overcame him.

"AUGH!"

Neji dropped to the floor and clutched the empty socket as he screamed endlessly.

"I'll protect you." The dark eyed man whispered intimately to Tenten's ear while marveling at the small silver dotted orb in his left hand. "I'll protect you while we get to know each other very well."

Neji was becoming aware of the beeping again, the same beeping that brought him into this miserable existence was beating loud and fast, each noisy tone was quickly chased by another. For the moment that noise helped him come to his senses rather than drown in the pain. He laid on the ground on his stomach, and couldn't bring himself to open his eye lids to see what was happening around him. It was the fear of how the sensation would feel, and how that feeling would again make him realize that one of his eyes was missing.

Voices swam around in Neji's head, and while some were familiar, when filtered through the pain none of them made any sense.

"Oh my god, his heart is about to burst..."

"What's happening? Is he going to be okay?! Neji?!"

"He's going into SVT at over 200 beats per minute."

With all of his training and years of repressing his emotions, his painful past, and his burning desire to protect Tenten from this horrible man, Neji regained a small amount of composure. His voice was ragged from screaming, as if each word he uttered was first cut with rocks. "Who the hell are you anyways?" Absent in Neji's tone was the energy and anger that had caused him to rush in and attack.

"Neji?! NEJI!"

"Get her out of here!"

"Oh? Are you finally willing to truly acknowledge me? Very well then, you may call me Jirou." Footsteps could be heard growing near as Neji continued to mentally block the pain; they seemed to echo in this hollow place in his mind.

"Put the pads on him. Set the level to low; we're trying to get a rhythm for his heart, not jump start it."

"Jirou..." While it was hard to think clearly, Neji couldn't recall knowing a person named Jirou. He'd never been on a mission with a person of that name, and what's more, he never let anyone named 'Jiro' die.

"And I have a gift for you..."

As the sound of steps stopped before his body on the ground, Neji's instinctively opened his eyes to see what horrible thing this man would do next. He was horrified to see another hand reaching again for his eye socket; the fear of what this man was capable grew unabated. Neji was shocked and sickened as he felt warm and wet flesh push into the empty cavity in his head. From the first moment of pressure on his empty eye lid, he had used all of his self-control to not throw up, however it didn't keep the bile taste out of his mouth.

The "gift" fit perfectly in the gap where his right eye had been, but before Neji could hope that he'd at least been given his eye back, he saw something in the distance by Tenten's feet. A small white eye lay there with a silver dot of an iris. His eye was looking back at him, and to his horror, when Neji looked up, he noticed that Jiro was now missing his right eye.

"CLEAR!"

Electrical shocks pulsed through Neji's body to set the pace for his racing heart in an effort to keep it from exploding.