A/N: Surprise! Double release this month, meaning there will be a chapter to look forward to next week as well, to help things along. Enjoy - and drop me a line, concrit is always welcome. I feel like I'm developing the sensibility and pacing of many a fantasy author, will try to work on this... (Sept 27 2014)

Syndicate

By Tanya Lilac

Chapter Seventeen – Damage Control

December 26, 06:45 The Star.

Tenten found herself waking up early again the next day, and decided to head up to the pool. As she stretched, she watched the city wake, lights turning off one by one, then in waves as the sun rose higher in the sky. She allowed her mind to wander as she dived into the water and lost herself in the rhythm of her strokes. There were many ways the dinner last night could have ended – but they had agreed that they had to set up some pretext for the two of them to spend time together. As bad as it looked, Miyako was apparently leaving the humble bartender, Sugimura Takeshi to spend more time with the enigmatic Hyuuga Neji.

Tenten pulled herself back into the present as she touched the wall for the last time. As she surfaced, breathing heavily from exertion – she had pushed herself harder than she had realised – she noticed someone was watching her from one of the deck chairs set up along the window. She wiped water off her face, and her eyes focused on the form of Okuchi Shinji. He was fully dressed in a black shirt and trousers – so he had not come to swim, then.

"Do you always pay this much attention to patrons of your hotel?" she asked, making her way over to the ladder.

"You're as sharp as Kazu said. I always thought he was making up that story about you hypothetically refusing to go out with him."

"Then apparently he didn't realise the point of the exercise," Miyako sighed, pulling herself up out of the pool. Shinji stood and handed her a towel. "What do I owe this pleasure, Okuchi-san? Several, in fact, if you include the suite."

"A little bird tells me that you're unemployed," he began. "And technically homeless."

"I should find that bird," Miyako muttered darkly, thinking of Neji. "Those are, unfortunately, facts."

"Well, I have a friend who is in need of a PA to help him organise his affairs," Shinji said.

Miyako sighed. "If this friend is Saito Kazuma and he actually needs help to sort out his little black book, the answer is no."

Shinji chuckled. "Ah, he probably does need someone to sort out that telephone book. But no, I meant I need one for myself. That's where the whole accommodation thing comes in, you know?"

Miyako zipped up her jacket, keeping the towel around her shoulders. "I'll think about it. I can't say that I haven't had other job offers," she added, remembering the photographer who had given her a business card.

"Maybe I should put more work into persuading you. This is something a lot of women would jump at."

Miyako gave him a once over and smirked. "You and your friends seem to have very high opinions of yourselves."

"You can't say you didn't look," Shinji said, his arms spread as he followed her back to the elevator. Her feet were still wet and they squeaked comically in her plastic slippers. "Think of it as a favour for Hitomi."

"I don't think you have the right to ask for that on her behalf," Miyako said. "If she asked me, I suppose I would have an obligation." She paused as he pressed the button for her. "I suppose I might owe you something for organising an upgrade I didn't actually ask for or need, but …"

"But?"

"Are you sure it doesn't have something to do with the other Hyuuga?" Miyako asked slyly. "You two seem to be very friendly."

The doors opened and they stepped into the lift.

"And you seem to be paying a lot of attention to a man you just met."

"We're not friendly enough that you can talk to me like this," Miyako said, arching an eyebrow. "I don't think this is any of your business." The elevator stopped and they both stepped out onto the floor that she was staying on.

"It might be my business if I've got money riding on it."

Miyako stared at him, speechless for a few moments. "You bet money on me?" she said, her voice ringing through the corridor. Shinji placed a hand on her shoulder to placate her and she stepped away. "Who the hell do you think you are?"

"Maybe we should continue this conversation elsewhere," he said, looking around. He took out a key from his pocket and led them towards her room, and she followed sullenly.

"It just happened," Shinji said, as the door closed behind them. "We were talking and it just came up because Neji was bragging that he could sleep with anyone."

"You bet money that I would sleep with him?" Miyako echoed. "Do you think this is some kind of game? This is my life you're playing with, my relationships –"

"It's not personal; I think it's about Hiro feeling some kind of satisfaction about knocking Sugimura down a couple of notches."

"That is personal! He was my boyfriend and I broke up with him because –"

"Because?" Shinji pushed.

Miyako stopped. "Did you come over here to double check things as a referee?" She asked, eyeing him with hostility. "Because if you did, I will … hurt you." She finished feebly, unable to come up with a realistically 'normal' threat. How did women normally threaten men? Tenten supposed that they didn't, not like this.

Shinji laughed. "I don't doubt that. I came to ask how you were finding things, and ask if you were in need of any work."

"I've answered your questions," she said firmly. "And I was doing quite well until I saw you. Please leave."

"I know … this is difficult to take, but the offer still stands. My personal assistant just filed for compassionate leave – something happened in her home town so she's headed back to Saga, I think it was, for the next couple of months. So if you're interested in some part time work, give me a call."

Miyako merely walked over to the door and held it open for him.

"Enjoy your stay," he said formally, and bowed before leaving the suite. Tenten let the door fall shut behind him and headed for the bath, giving herself time to mull things over. This was not going to plan.

December 26, 10:45. Hitomi's apartment.

"I can't believe how … productive you've been," Hitomi remarked over a cappuccino. They were having a hangover-cure-brunch, something Hitomi was in dire need of, since they had hit up the bar at Shinji's hotel the previous night, after Tenten had gone up to her room. The only thing she had told him was that she would call him tomorrow; a message tapped in Morse code on his arm as she stood up to say goodbye. Tenten had been close enough that Neji could smell the scent of her perfume – some concoction of apples and vanilla.

"I told you it wouldn't be a challenge. It looks like I'll be quite comfortable the next time we play credit card roulette."

"I'm surprised Shinji's been so helpful," Hitomi continued. "Have you promised him something?"

Neji kept his face a mask but in truth, he was also grateful for Shinji's help. Of course, Tenten had willingly placed herself in his sphere of influence by choosing to stay at his hotel, but Shinji had let him into the suite to take a look around as they were planting low-power listening devices, giving him time to slip the signal dampener in the drawers by the door. In return, he had made sure that Tenten would be sitting with her back to their table as they snuck into the restaurant well into the second course. He had felt guilty betraying her trust – he had not missed the dark look she shot him as she spotted the partition in the restaurant – but it was a fine line he walked, one that she would appreciate.

He was saved from having to answer when his phone began to ring. It was a private number, but he knew exactly who it was. Neji answered as he was putting on shoes and called the lift. Hitomi remarked sarcastically that she had never seen anyone so eager to get a phone call.

"Hello?"

"You'd better be with someone right now because this is not going to be pretty." It was Tenten.

"I'm doing fine, how are you?"

"You placed bets on me?" she shouted, and he was fairly sure Hitomi heard from across the room. "I should have known something was suspicious when I was upgraded to a suite here! You weren't at the restaurant by coincidence, were you?"

"No …" Neji 'admitted'. "No I was not." The elevator was taking a long time to arrive. How many stops did it need in a building with thirteen floors? Apparently him being chewed out over the phone was part of some greater plan Tenten had, so he had to play along. "But that doesn't matter, does it?"

"That doesn't matter? I broke up with my boyfriend because of what you did! You were the one who pushed all this onto me!"

"Well it seems to me like you were just looking for a way out of your boring relationship. I mean, I don't blame you – it might be a hereditary problem because his sister's husband is definitely cheating on her, since she found the gift he had saved for his mistress in that closet we got very … intimate in."

Stunned silence. "Who are you to presume you know anything about me?!"

The elevator doors finally opened and Neji was surprised to see Shinji. They made eye contact, and Shinji smirked ever so slightly before brushing past him. So much for having his help.

"Hey, Okuchi," Neji called out, and Tenten fell silent once more. "Did you drop by The Star this morning?"

"Yeah, I was just checking out the pool," Shinji said casually, taking off his shoes. "I saw Inoue, too."

"This is all his fault," Tenten growled.

"Oh, I see," Neji said. "I'll catch you later, then."

December 26, 11:06. Hoshimaya Kissaten, Chuo, Aoba ward, Sendai.

The entire area was bustling, end of year sales colliding with some event at the Puchi-mon centre saw hassled looking parents with over excited children making their way around the station's many department stores. Tenten was waiting for him in an old fashioned café looking out over the station front.

Neji slid into the booth opposite her and she handed him a menu. With one look at him she slumped onto the table, and pressed her forehead against her crossed arms. "This is horrendous. How do we not have our own base?"

He didn't say anything about how she had gotten herself kicked out of the safe house. "You could always book a room in a new hotel."

"Ah, I forgot about love hotels," Tenten sighed. "Anyway." She sat up and looked at him. "This mess. You actually bet that you could break up my cover relationship? Is that why you forced me to stay in the closet with you?" Neji, she found out, had a strange ability to look both ashamed and proud at the same time. She pursed her lips. "Okay. And then you bet that you would be able to sleep with me, something Shinji is clearly trying to get in the way of. That's why you invited me over, right?"

"I had no involvement in the side pot, but that is pretext for inviting you over. I didn't expect you to call me out yesterday."

She sighed. "And now I'm angry at you."

"You, or your cover?"

"Both," she said simply. "Why didn't you just refuse? You knew the whole time you were going to be my partner."

"I can't do things by halves," he replied. The waiter came around to take his order – a black coffee, since he'd just finished eating. Tenten's omelette arrived shortly after. "It's out of character. Tests come in all forms – you know how hard it is to gain someone's trust."

She sighed. "Well you should think of something that could constitute damage control while we're out today."

Neji's façade dropped quite quickly; something she could only appreciate. "You already contacted Suzuki?" He was their stray lead – the man from the Christmas party.

"No, but I did some research. Suzuki's family is a minor stakeholder in Okuchi's hotel. Their family supplies some of the local produce for their traditional cooking dishes."

"What happened to his girlfriend?"

"Rina? She committed suicide on the morning of Christmas Eve. Suzuki seemed to make it sound like it came out of the blue, but Okuchi and Hitomi were more concerned about whether or not the drug was still in her system when she died."

"I remember, I was there," Neji reminded her.

"Then explain to me what the hell it is that your cousin is capable of? Because we have quite a number of things to set straight on this messed up record we have."

"This is not a precise mechanism," Neji said, placing a hand over his eyes. "I believe it's something she can turn on and off – or so she has stipulated, and she is limited by the number of people within a certain radius. In terms of what she can actually do, simply put, she is a mind reader. Not only that, she is capable of coercing people to a degree and projecting images into someone's mind. Combined with the powers of perception we as a family tend to be gifted with, she makes a formidable opponent."

Tenten paled. "And you've been living with her?!"

"She can't read the minds of family members, nor can she coerce them; she can only force images into their mind. Which is no small feat," Neji said, shaking his head. "Be careful around her."

She groaned, more upset about the complexity it added to the situation as opposed to questioning the fact that there were such things as psychics. The reality that Neji was the one telling her these things also meant that he hadn't been able to find a rational way to explain the situation, either, so she wasn't about to waste her time trying. "Isn't there something I can do to block her?"

"I have no idea. So long as you are nothing but Miyako around her, you'll be fine."

"Back to Suzuki … His number was in Okuchi's phone," Tenten said. "Should we take the childhood friend route?"

"Ah, people are coming in for the funeral," Neji stroked his chin. "Good thinking."

The waiter returned with Neji's coffee and Tenten continued to pick at her omelette.

"So I have a question for you now," Neji said. "What is it with you and Yori Daichi? He was the one who persuaded you to come back down stairs the other night."

Tenten sighed, and he wracked his brain trying to remember where he had heard that before. He met her eyes and he knew instantly what it was. "I don't believe it. He's your friend from the orphanage?"

"And he recognised me," she said. "I never thought that he would but … I don't think he knows anything about Lucia."

"Don't let your personal feelings cloud your judgement. We don't know anything about any of these people other than what's on the public record." He sighed. "You can't base your instincts on memories of your thirteen year old self. You couldn't have anticipated back then what you've become."

It was a hard truth to swallow, and Tenten sat back for a few moments, absorbed in her thoughts. Daichi had changed, but she refused to believe that she didn't know what he was really like. "There are some other things..." Tenten began.

"But I'm guessing they're significant." Neji eyed her as he took a sip of coffee, and she pushed her spoon around her plate.

"I owe Hyuuga Hitomi a favour." Tenten sighed. "And I guess knowing how she pushed me into it by saying that I could prove 'useful' to her … I'm guessing she's not going to ask me to go grab her some cigarettes or something." She was still surprised at how easily she had been led into this situation. In hindsight, perhaps it wasn't so hard to predict. Hitomi had probably known her true intentions the second she had offered the dress.

"And you're planning on honouring it if she asks? And the other thing?"

"Shinji has offered me a temporary job as his personal assistant," Tenten sighed. "It is true, I do need some form of employment and we've already seen that he at least has access to Lucia."

"Why don't you take the job? You know it's a good opportunity, one that we might be looking for."

Tenten sighed. "Sometimes … I wish this was a more straightforward drug case."

"You're 'wishing', now? Sounds like complaining to me."

She shot him a glare that could cut glass. "Beating up sleazy drug dealers in back alleys in Tokyo was more productive than dancing around this circle of rich kids, for one."

"Is that where you got that bullet graze?" Neji asked dryly. "Trading guns and bulletproof vests for champagne and cocktail dresses would be a welcome change for some."

"Not for me, and you know that." Her eyes slid off him. "That's how it's always been for me, since … the first time."

Neji sighed. "I shouldn't have to lecture you about this, but this was the job given to you by Tsunade and through her, Konoha. She wouldn't have picked you if she didn't think you could complete it." She was silent and sullen. "Come on, let's go see what Suzuki is up to."

December 26, 12:49. Suzuki household. Sendai.

With the help of a number of social networking websites, they had built up a fairly consistent profile of Rina, Suzuki's girlfriend, and constructed a persona for Tenten – one of Rina's friends from a school she had briefly transferred to for a few years in Nara.

Tenten called the number that she had gotten from Shinji's phone, saying she had gotten it from Rina a few weeks ago because she had been planning on coming up to Sendai to visit for New Year celebrations. He was shaken but still accepted her request to meet up and talk. He gave her his parent's home address and said to meet him there in half an hour. Since Neji was coming along, he bought a pair of contacts and some glasses to hide behind and changed into more casual clothes.

They were welcomed at the door by his mother, Suzuki Misa, a woman well into her fifties.

"You're here for Ryo-kun?" she asked, and beckoned them in from the cold. They were shown to the kitchen where a gas heater was running, and Tenten and Neji looked at each other before shedding their coats and jackets. She poured coffee for them and asked them to wait a few more moments for Ryo to come down. As the seconds ticked by and they sipped their coffee, she asked them who they were and where they had come from.

"I'm Rina… Nakagawa-san's friend from Nara. I'm Honda Saki," Tenten said. "We um … came up for the funeral and … just wanted to see how Suzuki-kun was doing."

"Rina-chan was such a bright girl…" Misa sighed. "It's a shame we all have to meet under such dark circumstances."

The kitchen door opened and Suzuki Ryo, the young man from the party, shuffled into the room, looking dishevelled with dark circles under his eyes. They stood and introduced themselves, and Misa left them with a few mandarins to eat. Once she had retreated from the tense atmosphere in the kitchen, Ryo sat down heavily at the table and began to pick at the skin of a mandarin without making any apparent effort to eat it.

As Tenten tried to make conversation with him, Neji observed the man's behaviour – he wasn't nervous or on edge, he was just … dull. He hadn't shaved, and he was wearing clothes it looked like he had slept in. He was a totally different person compared to the one they had seen at the party –and he knew Hitomi was to blame for it; this was not a simple case of 'grief'.

"You're not going to lose your soul…"

"Do you have anything of Rina's?" Tenten was asking. That was the obvious signal – and Neji opened the copying program on his phone, which was beginning to search for nearby devices.

"Ah … yeah, I'm just hanging on to her phone … just in case anyone calls. So far it's only been her parents since … they were contacted by the police already, but they didn't have any other way of contacting any of her friends."

The program began copying data across from the phone, presumably in Ryo's pocket. Tenten began spinning fantastical tales of elementary school to distract him and Neji kept an eye on his phone, playing the part of a slightly bored outsider. By this point, Ryo had completely peeled the whole mandarin and was hard at work peeling the loose fibres from the skin.

It was the longest two minutes of Tenten's life, apparently, because she was struggling to finish her sentences in front of an inattentive audience. Tough crowd. Neji cleared his throat to signal the file transfer was complete, and double checked the contents of the transfer to see if it really was from Rina's phone. He excused himself, claiming he needed a cigarette, and left the two of them in the kitchen as he went out the front door, already reading the contents of the phone.

"Have you seen Touya-san?" Tenten asked, feeling more relaxed now that Neji was out of the room. There was always a chance that Ryo could get a closer glimpse of Neji's eyes, or that even the pair combination would remind him of Hitomi and Shinji, which would close him off.

"Rina's older brother? No, he's arriving tomorrow. He's taking the shinkansen up from Nagoya." At this point, he leaned forward, pressing his hand over his eyes. "I don't think I can face him. I couldn't even look her father in the eye."

Tenten was sympathetic. "It wasn't your fault!"

"No it was!" He said sharply.

"You can't say that, it just happened…" Tenten said, leaning over towards him.

"No, no, I know it was my fault. I … did something. I just don't remember. There was something here, but now it's gone," he said, groaning and pressing his hand against the side of his head. "She was fired from her job four days before Christmas Eve and then that night … we were drinking?"

"Don't force it," Tenten said soothingly. "It'll come to you. Deep breaths. It's there. Close your eyes first."

Ryo did as she instructed and began to breathe deeply.

"It's okay," Tenten said, placing a hand on his wrist. "It's fine. Just keep your eyes closed, and keep breathing, just like that. I'm going to show you something that might help you relax. Is that okay?"

"Um … sure."

Tenten took out a one hundred yen coin from her pocket and held it so it caught the light.

"I want you to look at this coin, and answer some questions for me. Don't think about it too much – just keep paying attention to this coin. Just relax." She waited as his eyes grew unfocussed, his fingers finally falling away from the mandarin. "What is your name?"

"Suzuki Ryo."

"How old are you?"

"Twenty six."

"What do you do for a living?"

"I help my parents manage the orchards."

"Where were you yesterday?"

"Here."

"Where were you on Christmas Eve?"

"I … I was at my apartment, and when I woke up …" he trailed off, frowning.

Tenten put her hand on his wrist. "It's okay, we don't have to talk about that. What did you do that night?"

"I … I went to the police station to write a statement … and then I … I was at a house." He continued, regaining clarity.

"Very good. Think about this house, what is it like?"

"I don't know. It's big. Someone important is having a party there. Someone I know is there."

"Okay, what else is there?"

"A small room … like a study room. The kind of room you see in foreign movies."

"Is there anyone in that room?"

"There … are two people. I think I know them, but I don't see their faces. We're fighting about something."

He was beginning to tremble and Tenten knew she was close to the incident. "Is it about Rina?"

"Yes. They say … I can't hear what they're saying," he said, frowning again. "I … I can't see the room anymore. It's gone. I don't …"

Tenten did not change her voice, or show any kind of signal. "That's okay, that's fine. Don't worry about it. Now, I want you to think about Rina's face. Not the last time you saw her, but before that. When you were both happy."

The tension in his face eased, and he stopped shaking his leg beneath the table.

"Breathe," Tenten continued. "Good. Keep that image there, and remember how you feel about her. That will give you strength to deal with the days to come. Now, I'm going to count backwards from ten, and when I click my fingers, you are going to feel refreshed, and you are going to eat a mandarin."

Suzuki Ryo blinked to find 'Saki' chattering away about some teacher she'd had in high school and looked down at the neatly segmented mandarin in front of him. Without knowing why, he began to eat it, and thought of Rina. Not the pale one, covered with a sheet as paramedics carried her out of his apartment on a stretcher; the one that had haunted his dreams these past few days, but the one who had laughed and glowed when he told her he loved her.

"Are you okay, Suzuki-san?" Tenten stopped talking to ask him, and he nodded, mid chew. He saw her off at the door a few minutes later, and she made a show of ducking back into the house to get her phone, which she had left on the table. Neji was outside and used the opportunity to ask if he knew someone called 'Lucia'.

Ryo blinked at him, completely confused. "No, I don't think I do."

"Pity, I thought we were mutual acquaintances," Neji said smoothly. Tenten was taking her time putting her boots back on. "Do you have any advice, then? We came up here to check things out because I might be getting transferred here soon. Is there anyone or anything we should watch out for?"

Ryo's face darkened. "Don't get close to the famous Hyuuga in this city. I haven't met her before, but people say, behind closed doors, she controls the entire city's elite." There was a tense moment as Neji knew that if they kept looking at each other, he would be made as a Hyuuga, or at least having strange eyes which were enough to put anyone on edge – and this man was as tense as it got upon mentioning Hitomi. Tenten had figured the same thing, and pat Ryo on the shoulder to break his gaze.

"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me, Suzuki-kun."

"I trust I will see you tomorrow."

The funeral she wasn't invited to.

"Of course." Tenten lied.

After they got into the taxi, Neji sighed and took out his contact lenses. "Those classes with Kurenai proved useful, then?" he asked in Mandarin.

Tenten nodded. After Yuuhi Kurenai, a senior field officer, had announced she and Sarutobi Asuma – Ino's former teacher – were expecting a child, she had been pretty much banned from all field situations including mentoring cadets. She had taken the analyst job they'd given her as well as teaching profiling classes in the Academy, which was open to all agents. Kurenai had been a profiler and a mentalist; she was skilled at reading people and creating elaborate covers and distractions to the point where people called her 'the Illusionist'. Kurenai had gone over the basics in persuasion and reading body language, and how to use even the smallest visual cues that could give away hints about people's pasts. Later, she had taught private classes for older field agents on the kinds of techniques Tenten had just used on Ryo.

"Memories are easily corruptible," Tenten said quietly, in the same language. "But that memory he has of being at the estate that night was … almost collapsing as he recalled it, which is impossible – he sounded like he had a firm grasp of what he was recalling at first. Kurenai talked about memory blocks that came from drugs, or things that people just normally forget in their day to day lives, but this was just something else. It looked like it was actually causing him pain to remember it – he kept touching the side of his head that … she had been touching. Do you think it's possible that she can erase memories?"

"That could explain things. Either way, it sounds like he's got nothing else to offer," Neji said, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"What did you find on her phone?"

"Nothing that we don't already know – there were some angsty memos that don't make sense – about how Lucia is embodied in a child, a woman and a crone all at once. The only thing she says that adds to our understanding is that it makes her remember things she has 'locked away'." He passed her his phone and she scrolled through the notes.

"Interesting. It seems like she took a lot in a short amount of time, so maybe there's a secondary effect that comes after the initial high?"

"Do you think she died from an overdose?" Neji asked.

"The news said it was blood loss, but we shouldn't rule out the possibility. We still don't know enough."

"We know that Hitomi and her friends are involved," Neji reminded her.

Tenten sighed. "We're coming back to this? Yes, they are involved, in that they're most likely dealing. Or at least Shinji's dealing and Hitomi knows a lot about Lucia. We can't even rule the others out. So we keep asking. And you need to keep working on gaining their trust."

"There is an easy answer."

"I don't think you sleeping with me proves anything," Tenten said dryly, though the look she gave him was weary. "You work on your side and I'll work on mine."

"You mean Daichi?"

"We'll see," Tenten said, thinking about the prospect of working for Shinji. If something seemed too good to be true, it usually was. But she couldn't pass this up. Nor could she appear too eager. She sighed. "Maybe you should work on your relationship with Hitomi."

Neji gave her a look that brooked no argument, and Tenten relented and passed his phone back to him. They rode back into the city in silence, and the taxi dropped them off at Hitomi's penthouse. Tenten looked up at the building.

"So … this is the lair?"

Neji smirked. "It's not that scary. Do you want to come up?"

"Maybe that's not the best idea. I'll save that … for New Years," Miyako said bashfully, slipping back into character. "Thank you … for today. I had fun."

He reached for her hand. "Come on, surely you can do better than that."

Miyako grew shy and shook her head. "Don't embarrass me," she said, pouting, her hands behind her back.

"So you say," Neji said softly, and stepped towards her. Her eyes widened as she looked up at him, and she bit her lip. "But really …"

"Hmm?"

"You know how much I love it when you bite your lip."

"You never to-"

He interrupted her with a kiss, as he always did, and Miyako drew away quickly, as she always did, with a light smile on her lips and a spark in her eyes.

"That's not fair," she said, pushing him away.

"Since when have I ever played fair?" Neji asked. "You should know this by now."

She stilled, and the smile left her face. "I should know a lot of things by now, it would seem. Call me later," Tenten said, turning and waving down a taxi.

"When can I see you again?" he asked, when the door opened and the driver looked out at them. Miyako turned back and smiled at Neji again.

"The answer is the same. Call me later, and maybe I'll let you know." She was about to get into the taxi, when Neji stopped her, drawing her in for another kiss as he slipped a long, slender box into her hand.

"What's this?" she asked.

"Damage control," he whispered, his lips turning up into one of those rare, true smiles he seemed to save for her – all the cheesy grins and showy laughs were for cameras, but these smiles belonged to her. Miyako swatted him playfully and finally got into the taxi, telling the driver to take her back to The Star.

Once Neji was out of view, Tenten opened the box to find it contained a pendant – a, black teardrop-shaped stone hanging on a fine silver chain, its bottom half encased in ornate silver filigree. When had he bought this? Or had he been hanging onto it the whole time? Tenten inspected it closely and realised the chain was not silver but surgical steel. Chosen for its strength, then. On the end of the necklace extender was a small 'D' stamped on a tiny plate. If this was a gift for Dragon, there would be another use for this. Rolling the pendant through her fingers, she twisted the bottom half, and the pendant came loose, revealing a slender roll of paper in the hollow.

"How the prodigy loves his games," Tenten murmured to herself as she unrolled the piece of paper, and twisted the bottom half of the necklace back in place.

I thought this might come in handy, the note read, in Neji's handwriting. He can't be the only one to give you gifts.

Tenten raised an eyebrow, and her hand went to touch the crystal apple pendant hanging from her neck, tucked beneath her clothes. Perhaps it was time to change the chain. Perhaps it was time for a lot of things to change.