Yasuo and Kaemon couldn't help but be worried at the sound of the screams that were coming from the room where they were holding Rai down to try and remove the seal that had sealed Amarante back up.

They had initially tried removing the seal about thirty minutes ago and Rai hadn't stopped screaming. Kaemon and Yasuo had been called in to put more restraints on her. It seemed that in the time that Rai and Ran had been connected, their spirits were fusing and becoming one being with two minds. This meant Rai was getting some access to Ran's demon strength, even without having access to Ran herself. This meant more restraints to keep Rai from hurting herself by trying to escape the hurt she was going through.

But then there was the other issue of the fact that Konoha was under attack at the moment. Orochimaru was currently attacking Konoha with both Sand and Sound forces. Most of the hospital had been evacuated but they couldn't move Rai, not without taking the bed with them and that just wasn't feasible. So they had to wait for someone to be able to help, keep nothing from attacking her, and listen to her scream.

The two of them had been placed there with several other guards that had accompanied the two members of the Elder Council that had come to see Rai/Ran fight. The Elders had been taken to safety and half their guard had been left behind to watch over Rai.

Kaemon had heard rumors that Rai's brother was involved with Orochimaru through a man named Yukushi. Ran had discovered him during the prelims going by the name Kabuto. He was the last name that had been associated with Towa before all signs of Towa disappeared. It was well known that Orochimaru was looking to discover a way of obtaining immortal life. Could he have figured out the secret of the Kohana blood and thought Towa had what it took? According to pictures found around Rai's home, Towa had green eyes, which meant he ended up with almost no Kohana blood at all. Rai hadn't known about the blue eyes before Mokuba told her so they hoped that meant Towa didn't either. But if Orochimaru found out, would he start looking for Rai?

There was also the matter of the sound team that had placed this new seal on Rai. They had to have known how Ran's and Rai's relationship worked and figured out a way to get Ran out of the way. That meant someone had been watching them.

"Any change?"

Kaemon and Yasuo looked up at the sound of a voice they didn't recognize. The ninja walking towards them was dressed entirely in black and had most of his face covered with only bright green eyes showing. A Konoha headband was wrapped around his forehead.

"Identify yourself," Yasuo insisted. He had orders to not let anyone through the door in to Rai's room without the Elder's permission.

"Tamaki, Konoha jounin." The male gestured to his headband. "Her sensei asked me to check up on the progress with her seal."

"Which sensei? She has several." Two of which were already in the room with her. The Kohana rep was working with his knowledge of seals to try and lessen her pain. The other, Hiroki who posed as their sensei during the exams had come as a guard for the Elders. He was posted inside the room.

"Maito Gai."

Kaemon had no problems releasing the breath of flames he had been storing up at the ninja in front of him. He wasn't surprised when the man dodged backwards. "Maito Gai has not been informed of his genin's situation in several months. He has not been informed of the new development. Who are you, really?" he asked.

You could see the grin behind the cloth. The nin slowly pulled off the extra cloth, revealing dark brown hair and a familiar face. "I just wanted to come and check on my little sister. Is that so bad?" he asked, feigning innocence.

"What do you want with her?" Yasuo called out. He held a couple kunai in each hand, ready to throw at a moment's notice.

Towa managed to put on a very disturbing smile, which made Kaemon think about all the times Ran had said that they needed to make mental health testing mandatory for ninjas. "I have a friend who is very interested in what she can do. I promised I would bring her to meet him."

"Never." Several seals and both of the Kusabana ninja released a flurry of bladed sakura petals. When the flurry died down, the man was gone other than a Konoha headband sitting on the floor in the middle of the hallway. "Stay here," Kaemon ordered, "and keep an eye out for him."

"Will do. I'll cast a genjutsu on the entire hallway while you're inside." Yasuo started up the complicated set of seals for one of his favorite genjutsus. It would mask the hallway and not allow others to see him or the door to Rai's room, but it would also give all who entered the hallway who were not welcome the idea that this wasn't where they were supposed to be, that they were supposed to be somewhere else.

"Got it. I'll knock before I come out." Kaemon headed in to the room where Rai still lay screaming, though a gag had been placed in her mouth, muffling the sound some. Tears flooded down her cheeks. It was a wonder she hadn't passed out yet. There was blood dripping from her mouth and the raven-haired nin looked towards Mokuba.

"She was trying to bite her tongue and I tried to stop her. She bit me instead. That's why she's gagged now, not because of the screaming." He held up his hand, showing where it was bandaged.

"Any progress?"

"The only thing that I can discern was that someone did not want us removing it. See this marking?" He pointed out some new scribbles that had shown up in middle of the seal. "It's reminiscent of a curse seal, something we Kohanas don't deal much in. I want to call in a Hyuuga to try and get a better look at it. But they seem to be very busy." He looked out the window on the other side of Rai's bed.

A good chunk of Konoha was destroyed. Fires had burst out in multiple places but it was starting to look like it was coming to an end.

"Hopefully. I know I don't want to see her in pain. Also, we just had a visitor outside."

"What?" Several voices rang in the room.

Kaemon nodded. "Her brother, Towa. He said that he had a friend that was interested in what she could do and that he was supposed to take her to him. We can only assume Orochimaru."

"Bastard!" Mokuba hissed. "We knew that he would find out the Kohana secret at some point, but we were hoping to have some advanced notice at least." He looked back at the screaming girl.

"Can't you do anything for her?" he asked, placing a hand to her forehead. She was burning up and sweating.

Mokuba shook his head. "We tried. She has about one-hundred milligrams of morphine in her system. We also tried knocking her out with ketamine. She barely even blinked." He rubbed his forehead like he was warding off a headache. "I need someone that works in curse seals."

"Meaning, you need a Hyuuga," Kaemon clarified, now understanding what he meant earlier.

The Kohana shrugged. "They're the only ones available here in Konoha."

There was a banging on the door all of a sudden. Kaemon immediately slipped out in the hallway, coming face to face with a familiar person. "Neji, what are you doing here?"

"Where is she?" he asked.

"Do you know where your uncle is?" the dark-haired jounin countered. "It is absolutely necessary that I find him."

"What do you want with him?" Neji's hands balled in to fists. "And where is Rai? I was told she came back."

Their conversation was interrupted with an abrupt increase in the volume of the screams coming from the hospital room behind them.

"She got the gag out," Kaemon clarified. He banged in to the room with Yasuo and the Hyuuga hot on his heels.

Mokuba had his hand shoved in the girl's mouth, preventing her from biting her tongue. "I don't know why she keeps trying. She would heal before she bled enough to even be a concern."

"She's looking for a way to divert the pain," Yasuo answered, moving in from the door. "If she can concentrate on a different pain, then the other one wouldn't be in the forefront of her mind."

"No," Neji interrupted. "She's looking for something to bite down on." Reaching in to his ninja pouch, he pulled out a piece of a smooth, slightly squishy material, a several centimeters in length. "One time when Lee broke his leg, she made him bite down on something while she reset the bone so he didn't break his teeth. Open her mouth."

Between Mokuba and the Hyuuga, they managed to get the almost plastic piece between her teeth. Rai still screamed, but instead of trying to bite down on her tongue to save her teeth, she bit down on the material. Hopefully, this would save Mokuba's hand. The guy had deep bite marks now on both hands.

"Why do you need to find my uncle?" Neji asked. He couldn't seem to take his eyes away from the girl tied down on the bed.

Mokuba sighed as he cleaned the bite wound on his hand. "The sound kid in her first match placed a seal on her, locking Amarante away. When we tried to remove the new seal, this happened." He gestured towards where Rai was pulling at her bonds and screaming through gritted teeth. "You would never guess she has morphine and ketamine in her system. And this happened." He lifted the edge of the corset and revealed the rest of the seal on her stomach. It glowed a sick green color, reminding the Hyuuga of something he had grown up with.

"A curse seal."

"Yes," Mokuba nodded, "and I don't know how to fix it. The Kohana's are good with seals, but not curse seals. We only created the basis for them, never put them in to action."

Neji stared for a second more. "I will find my uncle. He is the one that placed the seal on me." With that, the young Hyuuga headed out of the room.

"You think he can do it?" Yasuo asked, leaning against the wall behind the door.

Kaemon shrugged. "He's our only hope right now."

Time passed sluggishly. The nin watched as the fighting died down outside and eventually came to a stop. It wasn't long after the last jutsu was cast when there was banging again on the hospital room door.

Every guard in the room tensed up, both Kaemon and Yasuo pulling out kunai before they opened the door. Two Hyuugas rushed in, Neji and his uncle Hiashi. The two new males stopped at the side of the bed, the older Hyuuga immediately asking questions of the Kohana rep.

"How long has she been like this?"

"About six hours."

"How did you activate it?"

"I tried the standard unsealing technique. We had no knowledge that it was a curse seal."

"Do we know why she hasn't passed out from the pain?"

"No. We gave her morphine and ketamine but it had no effect. Your nephew gave us the idea of the bite guard to protect her teeth. "

"Why is she restrained so heavily?" Neji broke in, noticing that she was double cuffed on all extremities and another band across her ribs, holding her down. A single cuff each should have held down a full grown male ninja.

"She was thrashing with the pain, and since her spirit and Ran's have been fusing during this whole process, she has access to Ran's demon blood."

The Hyuugas looked up sharply at Mokuba. "Demon blood?"

The Kohana had the decency to look embarrassed. "Things are not good for kunoichi in Kusabana. They tend to be bullied and harassed, the men forcing them to quit. Rai is the first female nin that they have even semi-approved of, enough so that she was made a chuunin after today's fights. Ran didn't have it so lucky. She was a hot tempered girl with an attitude to match. She was top of her class in taijutsu and could even take down some jounins when she was still a genin. But her first chuunin exam, she was passed over for the promotion in favor of another genin, a male, even though she had out-scored him in every category except genjutsu." Mokuba looked past the Hyuugas at Hiroki, who was staring at the floor. "That evening after the results were posted, Ran went looking for something to make her stronger and more noticeable. She found a doctor named Yakushi, the father of Orichimaru's right hand man. He helped her find a demon to make a contract with. By giving up her soul, she would gain massive strength and enhanced features to give her the edge she believed she needed. She became half demon; some even say immortal like the demon itself. It took a while for Kusabana to find out. She was a jounin by the time the truth was revealed. That's when she had her spirit sealed inside Rai, who was barely even a few months old at the time."

"So that time in the forest, when Sasuke had first woken up and he had changed. Ran had changed too. Her eyes were gold and let out this scream that sounded like a hawk," Neji remembered. He took the cloth that was left on the bedside table and used it to remove the sweat from the girl's brow.

Rai managed to peel her eyes open even with the pain at the gentle touch. "N-Neji-san," she managed to gasp out between groans and cries. It was the first thing she had said since this ordeal had started.

"I will do my best to help her," Hiashi promised.

Using a kunai, the older Hyuuga slit open a finger to begin drawing symbols on the girl's abdomen, circling the glowing curse seal. Symbol after symbol was drawn, extending on to the bed around the seal. Rai seemed to understand something important was happening and seemed to be keeping as still as she could, given the circumstances.

Time was dragging again as they watched Hiashi work. Then, he started to perform hand seals; dozens of them. Then he slammed his palm in to Rai's stomach.

Rai screamed her loudest yet as she bit down on the bite guard. Her hands balled in to fists and she pulled as hard as she could against the restraints, the guards hearing them creak and groan. Then, it was all over. She collapsed, gasping but quietly, as if any noise hurt her throat (which it probably did). Her eyes slowly opened and closed, but her slightless gaze stayed focused on the ceiling.

When Kaemon and Yasuo moved forward to look at her abdomen, they were pleased to the see the curse seal was gone.

Carefully, Neji and Mokuba pulled the bite guard out of her mouth and released the multitude of restraints, revealing that she had rubbed her arms and legs raw, despite the padding, and there would be some major bruising with how hard she pulled against them. There would also be some bruising from the band across her ribs.

I couldn't help but just try and breath as the pain finally stopped. It had hurt so badly, as if I was being torn apart from the inside. The pain didn't even allow to escape in to unconsciousness as I wanted to; something was forcing me to stay present.

Ran-san? I called, hopeful.

Rai! Shit! What the fuck happened to us?

I gave a faint smile. "She's here," I breathed. You were sealed away, but they got you back.

I felt a gentle hand brush sweaty bangs away from my eyes. "Rai?" a familiar voice called.

I turned my head to the side slightly, so Neji would know that I heard him. "I'm so tired," I breathed. My throat was killing me and my body felt like it had been pummeled over and over.

"Rest," another voice said calmly. Kaemon.

I gave them a faint smile and closed my eyes again, drifting off almost immediately.

"Thank you for your help," Mokuba said as he bowed deeply to the head of the Hyuuga clan. "The Kohana owe you a great debt."

Hiashi nodded, not about to refuse a debt from a powerful clan. "We can discuss this debt another time. For now, let us let Kohana-chan rest." He turned to his nephew. "Will you sit with her? Let me know when she wakes."

The genin nodded, "Of course, Uncle." He watched his uncle leave along with most of the guards. As he pulled up a chair to the bedside of his estranged teammate, he noticed only Kaemon and Yasuo were left.

"You're looking well for someone who just got their ass kicked this morning," Yasuo pointed out as he tossed a warm blanket over the sleeping nin. He sat down on the edge of the bed after, watching the younger male. "Naruto really pulled one over on you."

Neji shook his head slightly as he turned his gaze back to Rai. "He taught me something I should have known long ago." He gently brushed the hair out of her eyes, not surprised when she didn't even twitch. "It makes me regret how I have treated some people."

"Is Rai one of those people?" Kaemon asked, sliding down to sit on the floor on the wall behind Yasuo.

He nodded sadly. "Then when I saw her like that, I was worried that I was too late to apologize." He turned back to the Kusabana nin as he remembered something. "There was something that Ran-san said. She had lied to me, saying that Rai was disappearing due to her influence. She said she told me that because she wanted me to realize what I would lose if I kept pushing Rai away. But then she added that Rai was too stubborn to give up on me and that she had waited this long. But she didn't say what Rai was waiting for. Do you know?"

Yasuo raised an eyebrow before looking back at his partner. Kaemon simply looked unamused with the whole situation. "How old are you?" the blonde asked.

"Fifteen." He didn't understand what his age had to do with anything.

"And she's fourteen. You both are too young to get involved in grown-up stuff."

Neji narrowed his eyes at the pair. "Neither of you are much older than I am."

Yasuo laughed. "You learn a lot more about that love shit in Kusabana, simply because of the fact that it doesn't exist over there. No one gets married for love over there. It's all arranged marriages and shit." He shrugged. "I guess that's why everyone talks about it over there."

"You see it more in the older clans here too," Neji commented, wondering when the topic had switched to love.

"Kaemon over there has been betrothed since he was your age," Yasuo explained, ignoring the glare that his partner was giving him. "After this mission, he's going back to get married."

Kaemon sighed. "At least your family is not pushing you in to this," he grumbled. "They believe the match would be good for raising the family status. But then, Kohanas are one of the top clans in Kusabana."

"You're marrying a Kohana?" Neji asked. Without realizing, he moved to grab Rai's hand: a distinctly protective motion.

"Relax. Her name is Moriko. She's Mokuba's sister, actually. That's how we convinced him to come out here to check on Rai." Yasuo grinned at the Hyuuga. "You could always talk to your uncle. The Kohana clan could arrange a marriage between you and Rai in return for saving her."

Neji opened his mouth to protest but nothing came out. Closing it and narrowing his eyes in thought, he stared at the girl on the bed next to him.

That's when it clicked, everything Ran said, how the topic switched to love and marriage. Rai loved him. Even after everything he had done, had said to her, and put her through; she loved him.

"Hey Kaemon, I think he understands now," Yasuo whispered loudly to his partner.

The dark-haired nin scoffed. "About time."