Author's note: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. I simply borrow them to use in my own sick, twisted fantasies. ^^ –Nira

Chapter Twelve

((Yoruko's P.O.V.))

I couldn't take it anymore. I needed to be with Neiji, no matter what it took. The physical and emotional need to be with him was so strong that I couldn't hide or ignore it anymore. I jumped up from my bed and made my way to Pein-sama's room. I knocked on his door without hesitation and when he called for me to come in I got on one knee and bowed my head to him in submission.

"Leader-sama, please allow me to go to Konoha. I have some unfinished business to take care of," I begged, trying not to sound as desperate as I felt.

"How do I know you're not going to run away and betray us?"

"My reason for going has absolutely nothing to do with Akatsuki so there's no need for me to bring it up to begin with. You can send someone with me if it would make you feel better. I don't care. Do whatever you have to to reassure yourself, but I have to get out of here and go to Konoha if I'm going to keep my sanity."

It was silent for a while as he thought about it. "I'll give you four days. Use them wisely and don't betray my trust. If you're not back by the end of the fourth day or you're followed, consider yourself a walking corpse."

"Harsh, but understandable. My loyalty to Akatsuki will not falter, I swear on my life. Thank you, Leader-sama."

Without another word to or from anyone, I packed a light back with snacks and a water bottle and left at top speed reaching Konoha a day and a half later. I stripped myself of my clouded cloak, stuffing it into my bag and snuck into the city making my way to Neiji's house through the back roads and shadows. When I got there he was leaving with a heavy pack as if he was ready to be gone on a journey for a while so I decided to race ahead of him and wait outside the city gates. It seemed to take him forever to get there but when he was in sight, I threw a kunai at him to catch his attention. He was instantly on guard and activated his Byakugan, glaring at me and ready to fight.

"Calm down, Neiji, it's just me. I'm not here to fight you. The kunai was only to catch your attention," I said, jumping down from my perch in a tree.

"Why are you here?" he asked very slightly softening his expression but still not relaxing his fighting stance.

"I got permission to leave for a few days. Are you on a mission?"

"Does it matter?"

"Well, yeah… If you are I'll have come here for nothing."

"Why are you here?" he asked again and my heart sank since he still hadn't relaxed. He didn't trust me anymore.

"I just wanted to talk to you… to ask you a few questions, really, but I can guess the majority of the answers by how cold you're being…" I frowned. "I'm sorry I bothered you… Good luck on your mission."

I turned to leave but Neiji reached out for me and called for me to wait. "What did you want to talk about and ask?"

"I just wanted to know how you're doing. I know I shouldn't ask since it's really none of my business anymore, but… are you and Tenten dating now? Is she nice to you? Are you happy?"

He was silent as he stared at me, his expression apathetic and I grinned and let out a bitter chuckle, shaking my head. "It's pathetic, really… I'm pathetic… I've woken up every morning or throughout the night, crying because I had a dream about you and couldn't get you out of my head. With everything I do, you're always there in my mind to the point where I can't even function sometimes. I don't want to eat or shower or even leave my room… I'm miserable.

"I know I told Tenten to make you hate me and to confess her love for you, but the thought of you being with someone else or hating me tears me apart… It's been so lonely without you, Neiji. Every night I cry because I just want to be in your arms with you whispering that everything's going to be okay because you're there to protect me like you used to… I can't stand to be away from you like this and I know I have no right to say any of this since I left willingly, but I miss you so much that it physically hurts me, Neiji…" I explained, slowly falling to my knees and hugging myself as if to hold myself together as my body trembled and tears ran down my face, dripping off of my chin and nose.

It was silent for a while aside from my quiet sniffling and slight sobs until I heard Neiji walk toward me and crouch down in front of me. His warm hand brushed a strand of hair behind my ear, cupping my face in his palm and his lips pressed against mine. It was soft and gentle but also passionate and fierce. My arms slowly unfolded from around me and snaked around his neck as I kissed back, tangling my fingers into his luscious silken hair. He slowly stood up, pulling me up and closer to him, his arm wrapped tightly around my waist and his other hand gently holding the back of my head.

I didn't want him to ever let me go. The tears kept coming despite my mental efforts to stop them and I didn't think they'd stop until I was able to express how deep and strong my feelings for him were in a way that words could never even come near describing well enough to get the point across. I loved him. There was no other way of describing this insatiable need to have him around. I never wanted to be parted from him again but I'd made a promise to Akatsuki and I never break a promise. Instead, our time together would have to be perfect and memorable somehow.

As if reading my mind, Neiji picked me up as if we were newlyweds walking through the threshold of our new home and carried me to the lake we'd gone to talk before, staring deep into my eyes the whole time while I caressed his cheek and occasionally pulled him into a tender kiss. When we'd gotten to the lake he laid me down in the grass and rested his head on my chest above my heart with a sigh, listening to my heart beat. He gently ran his fingertips over my thigh to my hip and up my stomach and I could feel a trail of fire where his skin had come into contact with mine, sending my heart into a fluttering frenzy and my breathing into shallow confusion. Neiji grinned and lifted his head to kiss my chest and look me in the eye.

"Neiji…" I breathed, caressing his cheek and pulling him into a sultry kiss.

His movements were slow and gentle, his eyes always asking if it was okay for his hands and lips to wander. I let go, giving myself to him completely. I was his girl in every way and I wanted him to know it. Whatever he wanted to do with me, I was more than willing to allow it and when our bodies were entangled in a slow, rhythmic dance, I was in heaven. It was like our bodies had melded together and become one and the same and our souls had drifted off to somewhere higher and better than anything we could ever encounter here in the material world. We'd consecrated our love into an unspoken vow and claimed each other for ourselves. I loved him and he loved me and nothing would ever change that.

After our love making I laid my head in the crook of his shoulder and had my hand above his heart, feeling his heart beat slow down to a normal, steady pace. His arm was wrapped around me and his other hand held mine above his heart and it wasn't long until he was snoring slightly. I wormed my way out of his protective arms so as not to wake him up, took a quick dip in the lake, got dressed and knelt beside him, watching his calm, peaceful slumbering face. I left a note in the shape of a shuriken in his hand, gently kissed his lips and left. I made clones and traps to throw off any would-be followers and ran back to Akatsuki headquarters. Almost as soon as I got back, Pein-sama walked to meet me and asked why I was back so soon and what I'd written on the note. I assumed that he'd sent someone to spy on me otherwise he wouldn't have known about the note. At the very least whoever it was had gotten a good show.

"It was only a love note and if I'd stayed any longer I would have broken my promise to Akatsuki. I never break my promises, no matter if I'd actually wanted to make the promise or not," I explained as I slumped past him toward my room where I locked myself in and fell onto my bed.

I cried myself to sleep. I was physically exhausted, but emotionally, I was distraught. I missed him already and spending even that little bit of time with him could have proved to be a worse idea than I'd originally thought.

((Neiji's P.O.V.))

I woke up a while later but I didn't feel Yoruko's warm, steady breathing on my chest or the shape of her body in my arms. There was something in my hand so when I looked at it, a lump formed in my throat. It was a note folded into a shuriken and when I opened and read Yoruko's neat handwriting, my chest felt constricted and tears stung at my eyes.

"Damn it, Yoruko…" I sniffled, setting the note down on my pile of clothes before walking to the lake to go for a quick swim.

When I'd finished and gotten dressed, I walked back home and unpacked everything that I'd brought with me to go on my trip to find her. I fell onto my bed and laid there, staring at the note. It was simple and only had two sentences scrawled on the page, "I love you. Wait for me."

"I'll wait for you… I'll always wait for you… I promise," I muttered.

How could I not wait for her? I loved her more than anything.

The next day I was wandering around Konoha as if nothing had happened and tried to play off that I hadn't declared to everyone that I was going on a journey, but everyone saw straight through me, especially Tenten.

"What are you doing back so soon?" Tenten asked.

"I decided not to go… she'd made it clear that she didn't want me following her so I wasn't going to follow her…" I explained with a shallow grin.

"Neiji-kun, you don't have to lie to me. What really happened?"

I paused for a moment smiling faintly as the events of the night before replayed in my head. "She came back…" I said. "… but she left again before I'd woken up, leaving a note in my hand."

"What did it say?"

I took the note out of my pocket and handed it to her. She was silent for a moment and I could see her struggling. Despite everything, Tenten still loved me, too, and I knew it was hard for her to talk with me about Yoruko. She was always the one to start the conversations, though, and she was the only one who knew everything about what was going on so she was the only one that I could talk with about her.

"Why do you look so depressed? This is a good thing, right? You should be happy," she half smiled. "She risked her life just so she could come see and check up on you."

"I don't want her to have to risk her life. I was supposed to be her protector. It's counterproductive."

"At least she thinks about you a lot and wants to see you. You should really try to think more positively, Neiji-kun. It makes things a lot easier to deal with… anyway, I have to go. I'll see you around."

She waved good-bye and ran off and I continued to wander, passing by Naruto, Kiba and Shikamaru at the park. They called my name and waved me over so I decided to join them.

"Neiji-kun, I haven't seen Yoruko around for a while. Do you know where she went?" Naruto asked.

"She's not here. She went back to Sunagakure," I lied.

"What?! Why?! I thought you guys were dating! What happened?!"

"Wait, you were dating Yoruko? Since when?!" Kiba inquired in disbelief.

"Since Naruto's party," I stated.

"So what happened? Why'd she leave?" Naruto asked.

She left because she loves you…

"I don't know. It was some kind of emergency or something. She didn't say… She's just been gone for a couple weeks and finally came back for a little bit yesterday."

"And she didn't say 'hi' to everyone? She must have been in a rush. How long was she here?" Naruto asked.

"Just for a few hours…"

"And she was with you the whole time? What did you do, kidnap her so she couldn't say hi to anyone else? Talk about being stingy, Neiji," Kiba chuckled.

"Is that what you call it? Stinginess?" I thought aloud with a sigh and looked up at the clouds rolling by overhead.

"Neiji, can I talk to you about something for a minute?" Shikamaru asked so I agreed and we started walking away, waving good-bye to the other two. When we'd gotten away, Shikamaru spoke up. "You've been lying since you came over. What really happened to Yoruko?"

"It's a huge secret. You can't tell anyone. Absolutely nobody else hears about this, got it?" I demanded.

"Alright, alright, nobody else will know. I promise, jeez."

"She joined Akatsuki."

"What?! Are you serious?!"

"They'd been after her for a long time and she kept finding ways to avoid them but she decided to quit running and join them. She thought that if she did it would cause fewer problems for the village so that her friends wouldn't have to risk their lives to protect her from them," I explained with a sigh.

"Well it makes sense… It was a very noble thought…" Shikamaru said lacing his fingers together behind his head. "So she really did come back and spend her time here with you yesterday?"

"Yeah…"

"I wouldn't call that stinginess… you're just in love. There's nothing wrong with that… Women are bothersome sometimes. Something always seems to remind you of them somehow, and it seems like you can never stop thinking about them… But she came back for you. That's incredible, to me… that she'd risk her life for just a few hours with the one she loves, no matter how tedious it is…"

"Yeah… She asked me to wait for her…" I half smiled.

"Are you going to?"

"I love her… of course I'm going to wait for her."

"You wouldn't happen to be talking about our little sister, now would you, Neiji-kun?" Toshia's icy cold voice asked from behind me.

"I'll see you later, Neiji. This seems like it's going to get really personal so I'll leave you to it," Shikamaru waved nervously as he started walking away.

"She came back?" Shigure asked, worried.

"Yeah… she was here for a few hours yesterday," I replied.

"And she didn't come say hi to us and you didn't tell us?" Toshia growled.

"We'd been kind of busy and she left before I even had a chance to say good-bye. How was I supposed to tell anyone when she was already probably long gone?" I blushed.

"Busy?" Toshia's glare was accusing and icy as he thought about what I could have meant and it only hardened as the realization dawned on him. I didn't reply or say anything else to get myself into any more trouble, though.

"I see… her feelings for you are stronger than I thought if she only came back to see you…" Shigure half smiled with a sigh.

"I'm surprised she's so open with you… She used to be a lot more withdrawn when she was around guys…" Toshia sighed. "Yoruko's special to me… If you break her heart, I'll kill you. She's already gone through enough shit in her life and she doesn't need any more pain, got it?" I could feel in the malicious glare that he was staring me down with that he meant it. He would kill me in a heartbeat if I ever hurt Yoruko.

"By the way you're talking about Yoruko, Toshia-san, I'd say that you're in love with her…" I glanced suspiciously at him.

"What if I said I am? What would you do about it, Neiji-kun?" he scoffed bitterly.

"Nothing. I can't stop you from having feelings for her… I just wonder how long you've hidden it from her."

"I've always loved Yoruko… It's hard not to, but I also don't let just anyone get as close to her as you are. Like I said, Yoruko's special… I'll do whatever it takes never to see her shattered and broken again…"