Disclaimer: I own nothing but the characters I've created and those that I may create and the plot.

A/N: Thank you very much for all those who participated in my survey. It was really helpful with my math project.

Chapter 11

It was several days after Queen Reiko's funeral and Tenten busied herself with finding clues on who had poisoned her mother. She knew that it had to be someone in the palace as outsiders would have a hard time to getting inside the palace. She knew that the people that worked in the kitchen were suspects as they were the ones with access to the food that would be brought to the queen. Tenten knew that her father kept a record of the people that worked for them. Her father would put down when they had begun working for them and in the case of those who had decided to quit, the day they quit. So Tenten asked her father for the records which he gave her without much questions knowing what his daughter was up to. Hayate also helped out as much as he could. Kaori had decided to stay longer and helped Tenten with finding her older sister's killer.

All the ninjas (sans the ones that came from Konoha and Suna) went back to their respective villages. The Kazekage and the Hokage had decided that they would stay for a little bit longer; of course the teenagers were more than happy as they would be able to spend more time with Tenten. However, most of the time Tenten would be inside the library, the office or in the Prayer Room and when they asked her about it she would just reply that she had something to take care of. When she was not in those rooms most of the time she was taking care of her siblings and would sometimes space out. They also noticed how Hayate was the same as his twin, whenever he passed by he would always look like he was deep in thought.

That night Neji had decided to get a little training done. When he arrived at the training grounds that Tenten had showed him several days back he saw her there in her usual ninja attire. She stopped her training and faced him.

"I haven't been able to take to you today. Sorry I've been very busy," Tenten said.

"Busy with what exactly?" Neji asked her.

"Some things I need to do for my father," Tenten replied.

"I see," Neji said.

"Would you like to have a spar with me?" Tenten asked smiling at Neji.

"Sure," Neji said. He went several spaces away from Tenten and got into his battle stance. They counted down from three and once it reached zero both of them began attacking. Tenten rained weapons down at Neji but he easily blocked those with his Kaiten. He then began attacking Tenten with Jyukens but as Tenten had been Neji's sparring partner for a long time she dodged them easily. Both of them did not know how much time passed but after a long time they stopped. Tenten went to collect all the weapons that she had used.

"I should probably get to sleep and so should you," Tenten said after making sure that she had left none of her weapons.

"We should," Neji said.

"Good night," Tenten said to Neji walking towards him and giving him a quick peck on the lips.

"I'll walk you to your room," Neji said as Tenten was walking away.

"There's no need I'll be fine. You should get to your own room and get some sleep," Tenten said.

"I want to walk you to your room," Neji said. Knowing Neji's stubborn attitude Tenten decided to just let him walk her to her room so that they would not have to stay out too long.

"Alright," she said. Neji went over to her and they began walking to Tenten's room.

Once they reached her room. Neji gave her a quick kiss and said, "Good night."

"Good night," Tenten said with a smile and she went into her room.

~~~~~Several Hours Later~~~~~

Tenten was awoken by a scream. Quickly putting the robe over her sleeping garments Tenten opened her door and saw that Hayate whose room was next to hers was also coming out of his room. Nodding to each other they made their way to Akiko's room which was where the scream had come from no doubt it was Akiko that had screamed. As they ran Tenten into Akiko's room, which was only three doors across from her own room, noticed that it was still dark and believed that it might still be very early in the morning. In Akiko's room they saw their little sister up against the wall with a man holding a dagger over her. Berating herself for not bringing a weapon Tenten quickly formed a barrier over her sister just as the man was bringing the dagger down. The dagger bounced back and out of the man's hands. Hayate quickly ran over to the man and used a spell to bind him. Tenten went over to her little sister just as her father, several guards, and some of the ninja arrived at the doorway. Akiko was sobbing and as soon as Tenten reached her Akiko wrapped her arms around her elder sister. Kneeling down and hugging her sister back Tenten whispered comforting words to her. She could hear her father ordering the guards to take the man away into the dungeons and to watch over him. He then went over to Akiko who was with Tenten.

"What happened Akiko?" the king asked his daughter softly.

"I *hic* was having a *hic* hard time *hic* sleeping and so *hic* I decided I wanted to *hic* go to *hic* Tenten-nee-sama's room *hic* and then *hic* as I was *hic* walking to the door *hic* that man came behind me. *hic* Then I screamed *hic* and ran away," Akiko said in between hiccupping sobs.

"Shh, it's okay now. You're going to be safe elder sister's here," Tenten said.

"Don't worry Akiko, that man won't be bothering you anymore," King Tatsuo said to his second daughter. He then ordered the guards to go and check on the other children. Bowing the guards left.

"Why don't we get you some tea so that you can calm down and then we'll go to sleep in my room?" Tenten asked her sister. Akiko merely nodded still crying. Excusing themselves from their father and the others Tenten and Akiko made their way to the kitchen to get some tea. As Akiko was sipping tea Hayate approached Tenten.

"How is she?" Hayate asked.

"She's shaken by what happened. Are the other children alright?" Tenten said.

"Yeah, nothing happened to them," Hayate replied.

"That's good. Do you think the person behind this is the same person who killed mother," Tenten said saying the second part in a whisper.

"Most likely, I think it would be best if the children sleeps with us until we can make sure it's safe," Hayate said.

"Alright. I'll take care of the girls are you fine with taking care of the boys?" Tenten said.

"Yeah," Hayate said. Once Akiko was done with her tea they made their way to the sleeping chambers. Tenten went to Megumi's room to pick her up and had one of the guards carry Megumi's crib into her room. Hayate did the same with Takumi. The sleeping chambers were relatively empty now but there were guards that were situated outside of Tenten and Hayate's rooms to make sure that the princes and princesses were safe. Akiko managed to fall asleep again but Tenten couldn't and so until dawn Tenten stayed awake watching over her little sisters. She had a feeling that something bad was about to happen soon.

A/N: How did you guys like this chapter? Sorry that the update took a while. I just had three projects to finish, finals to study for, and my laptop charger decided to break again. I'll be going on vacation so I probably won't be able to update for a month. However, I'll try to get a chapter in before I leave but I still have to packing to do and I have two other stories but right now I have already updated one of my stories so I only have one more left.

Please don't forget to leave a review. Reviews give me motivation.