Chapter 37: Weight of the World

The flames died and Katana became aware of a gentle pressure resting on her arm, coaxing her back into consciousness. Light gently filtered through the tree leaves high above, and Katana blinked rapidly to clear the haze of sleep from her vision. Wincing as she turned her head, she looked over at Hinata whose hand was lightly pressing on her arm.

"Are you okay?" Hinata gently whispered, assisting Katana to sit up against a tree.

"Don't worry about me," Katana murmured, glancing down at her wrist. It was heavily bandaged where she had bit it, her sleeve stained with blood despite the fact that she had pulled it back when she summoned the lava wyrm. "How long was I out for?"

"Since yesterday," Yutaka said loudly. "I had no idea a girl could sleep so heavily."

"That's because I was unconscious, dumbass," Katana growled. "You try draining your chakra to nothing and let's see how you fare."

"I don't have chakra," Yutaka said with a grin, chuckling to himself.

"Anyway," Kiba said dismissively, glaring at the Daimyo's son. "That was some jutsu. But you shouldn't use up your chakra so recklessly."

"You don't need to lecture me, Kiba," Katana hissed, trying to keep the bitterness out of her voice. "I'm fully aware of the effects of exhausting one's chakra and I'm not proud to say that I've experienced some of the worst. But I thank you for your concern and, of course, not leaving me stranded when I was unconscious."

"Who would do that to a comrade?" Kiba said with an entirely puzzled expression. "You've had a really tough life as a shinobi, haven't you?"

"You have no idea," Katana muttered with a rueful smirk. She weakly rose to her feet and brushed herself off. "We should move on. We've wasted time and the shinobi who are stationed at the boarder of the Wind Country will be waiting for us."

They set off as fast as Yutaka could go without complaining too unbearably. They spoke little as they traveled, Katana leading the group with her thoughts elsewhere. She tugged at her ripped sweater absently as she picked her way between tree roots and brush littering the forest floor. Her pace was quick, but she had come to be able to tune out the annoying whine of the Daimyo's son as they traversed the land. Her thoughts still swarmed in her skull, clouding the world around her and she hardly paid any attention to the four people plodding down the path behind her. Night finally rolled in and they set up camp and Katana divvied up the watches.

She had taken last watch, making sure all the others were fast asleep and had no chance of waking and disturbing her. Satisfied that the others were soundly asleep by the faint intensity of their chakra flares and Yutaka's snoring, Katana pulled the scroll Hinata had given her from her waist pouch. Opening it soundlessly, Katana leaned closer to the dim fire that they kept burning all night, the flickering flames providing just enough light for her to see the neatly written words on the paper.

Katana,

There are many things we need to discuss, but this is not the best way to communicate in the event that this is intercepted before it reaches you. We must meet privately late at night so the risk of being discovered is low. Contact me in some way as soon as you can. And I should warn you, what we need to discuss may not be to your liking.

There was nothing more and the message wasn't signed, but Katana's stomach began churning. Setting her jaw, Katana reached into her waist pouch again and retrieved a pencil that she always kept for any situation that may arise. She leaned the scroll against the ground and scribbled a message even shorter than Neji's in the space beneath his words.

She sunk her teeth into her thumb, wiping the blood on her palm and using the slightest amount of chakra, summoned a dragon. It was the smallest and youngest dragon in her summoning contract and it let out a squawk as it shook itself from the smoke. It looked up, cocking its small head and walking up to her on its thin legs. It was a biped, its front limbs bonded with its leathery wings like those of a bat that were twice the size of its slim body. It let out a quiet warble and swished its tail back and forth with excitement at being summoned.

"I need you to deliver something for me, Little One," Katana murmured quietly as to not wake the others. "Turn around and don't make so much noise." The dragon gave an unhappy whine and turned its back to Katana, folding its wings tightly against its sides. Katana wiped the blood from her thumb onto the forefinger of her right hand and painted a seal onto the small dragon's back. It squeaked and shifted, making a noise equivalent it a giggle. "Stop moving; you'll make me draw it wrong." Ceasing its squirming momentarily, Katana finished the seal and formed a hand sign. She picked up the scroll and pressed her first two fingers onto the seal, watching it disappear with a puff of smoke from her hand. "Now go to Konohagakure and give that to Neji Hyuuga. Make sure no one sees you. Got it, Little One?"

The dragon trilled in affirmation and opened its wings, standing proudly and giving the kunoichi a playful tap with its tail. Turning on its clawed feet, the dragon beat its wings violently and sprung into the air. Shooting off into the sky, the dragon soon became a black blot against the starry sky before vanishing over the treetops. Kiba muttered in his sleep and his eyes flickered, grumbling something about "strange dreams and funky noises". Katana sighed and knew she had done all she could at the time and resigned herself to watching the silent night, wondering what the secret meeting could possibly have in store for her.

Dawn was breaking and Neji had already woken to prepare himself for the day's training with his team. He had returned to endure the ridiculous training methods with Team Gai to take his thoughts off of the predicament his clan had placed him in. He walked towards the door of his room, already annoyed by what his sensei had planned, when a scratching at his window made him turn back around. He could never have expected the type of creature to be scrabbling at his window.

The small dragon was struggling to remain aloft on the widow sill, its clawed feet slipping as it stretched its wings to scratch at the pane. It clumsily fell from the sill and gave an angry chatter from the bushes on the ground. Neji opened the window and looked down at the dragon's crumpled form as it failed to untangle itself from the bushes. Neji extended his hand and released the dragon from a branch and it hastily fluttered up to the window, holding itself firmly to try and keep its pride intact.

"Has Katana sent you?" Neji inquired softly, aware that anyone could be listening; his uncle still refused to remove the supervisors from outside his room. The dragon squawked and turned its back, exposing the seal painted along its spine. Neji rested his first two fingers onto the middle of the seal and made a hand seal with the other hand. His scroll appeared in a puff of smoke and he quickly opened it to read the brief message Katana had replied with.

Neji,

Meet me at two in the morning in three days' time in a training field. I think you'll know which one.

Neji looked at the dragon and inwardly sighed as the small reptile seemed to shrug its shoulders. It turned to the window and gave a farewell snort and leaped into the air, beating its wings rapidly to stay airborne. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Neji placed the scroll in a drawer and left his room for training, making sure to throw the supervisor that attempted to follow him a contemptuous glare.

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The darkness clung to everything like an ebony cloak sticking to all matter. Neji slipped silently between the trees as he crept towards the lone clearing in the specific training field where he had first met Katana. He had easily eluded the supervisor posted outside his room by leaving a doppelganger, the normal, shadowy kind Academy students learned to conjure. The intensity of its chakra flare was nearly the same as his when he slept, so it would hopefully fool the guard into thinking that Neji remained in the room.

The clearing was unoccupied and he stood stock-still at the very edge, waiting for any movement to give away the presence of any other person. The faintest chakra flare seemed to radiate from a tree on the opposite side of the clearing, but his Byakugan revealed nothing when he scanned the foliage. He took a step forward and there was a soft thump in front of him, the grass crushed beneath invisible feet. The footsteps were silent but the bending grass revealed the position of the approaching person.

"You have no idea how happy I am to see you," a voice murmured as the footsteps continued to grow closer.

"Do you realize that I can't see you?" Neji said with a hint of mockery.

"I thought it would be better this way."

"It's not. Drop your kekkei genkai. I want to talk face to face." He felt his stomach twist in anxiousness for what he had to do.

The air became hazy and Katana materialized in front of the Hyuuga, not wearing her sweater or her leaf headband. She looked up at him with large eyes widened with nervousness and anticipation. She took a step forward but Neji held up his hand, halting her in mid stride.

"What's wrong?"

"I can't stay long and I don't want to waste any time. This is an important matter."

"I understand that." Katana cast her gaze downward and sunk her teeth into her lower lip. "I didn't know whether to be more nervous before or after I read your scroll. I was anticipating something different when I first received it, but now I'm anticipating what you're going to say."

"Then stop interrupting me and let me speak." Neji could see she was caught off guard by the harshness in his voice. He sighed to calmed himself and looked her in the eye solidly, trapping her in his gaze and forcing her to keep eye contact. "This can't go on."

"What are you—?"

"Do you remember a while back when I said I would try to fix you?"

Katana blinked in surprise and frowned slightly. "That was so long ago. What does that have to do with anything?"

"I don't think you understood the true meaning of my words." Neji turned away and stared down at his hands. "You most likely thought that I was trying to heal you from what had happened with the dragons, correct? That wasn't the case. In truth, I was trying to stop you from being so emotional."

Katana stared at him and gently shook her head. "No, you couldn't have. You're lying. You did no such thing to try to stop my emotions. I don't know where—"

"I had thought you were okay after you returned, but I was wrong," Neji snapped, returning his glare to her. "Not even I could change you. I was thinking over what you had said the day I told you we couldn't see each other. Were you serious about everything you said?"

"I'm a very good liar, but I would never lie to you. I meant everything I said that day. And you're wrong. You have changed me."

Neji's glare hardened and his expression became one of mild contempt. "You're more foolish than I thought possible for a jounin. Your strength is the only thing that allows you to achieve that rank."

"Really? And how is that?" Katana's own expression began to burn with anger and she balled her hands into fists.

"Look at yourself. You were once the ideal shinobi if you told me correctly. You told me you were once a drone with no emotions that would carry out any order. Now you're a soft, emotional fool clinging to feelings that all shinobi should eradicate."

"You're one to talk," Katana snapped, her anger building. "You said yourself that you started to have feelings for me."

"And I see how wrong I was." Neji saw Katana's anger melt into wide-eyed shock and nearly felt a pang of guilt. "In the events that have occurred, it seems I was the one who was fixed even if you were unaware and in the dark. You brought out emotions in me, and I want more that anything to be who I was before all of this occurred."

"Well, I don't," Katana said quietly, the anger and power drained from her voice. "I don't want to be that emotionless monster I once was. I won't be held down by who I used to be. She's nothing to me."

"Then let me give you a piece of advice." Neji took a step closer to Katana and she stared at him with a suddenly cold glare. "If you love me then let go of me. I will be safer for the both of us."

"Safer? You mean it's safer for you. All it will do is tear me apart. You know that!"

"No. If you stop clinging to me, maybe you can stop playing the victim to your emotions. It will be safer."

"How can you say that?" Katana dropped her cold glare and rested it on the ground, closing her eyes tightly. "Don't you remember all that we've been through? How can you forget everything that we had? Can't you see all the good it has done us?" Katana jerked her head up to look at him, tears beginning to glisten in her eyes. "You'll certainly be safe, but you'll be safe in the dark and unable to see anything. You protect yourself now, but what happens when you want to return someone else's love? What will you do? You'll be blind and helpless and unable to do anything."

"What gives you the right to make assumptions about me?"

"What gives you the right to say I'm a fool? You told me it was human behavior to have emotions and that they couldn't be denied!"

"I simply told you what you needed to hear."

Katana stared at him and the silence stretched between them, pulling them farther apart by the second. Katana turned and hung her head, releasing the tension in her hands and fighting desperately against her tears.

"Don't you see what I mean?" Neji breathed coldly. "There is the slightest disturbance and you cry like a child."

"You're lying," Katana whispered as she balled her hands into fists again, disregarding his last statement. "You have to be. Why, after everything, would you suddenly say these things?" She looked up at him pleadingly. "Just tell me that this is a façade. Tell me that you're just trying to protect yourself and I'll go along with it. No one will ever know."

Neji turned around and set his jaw, needing to compose himself. He had no idea that she would be so resilient and hopeful. "I don't know what to tell you, Katana."

"Tell me the truth."

"I can't do that. I know you don't believe me, but you have to accept reality and be willing to face it."

"Look me in the eyes and say that," Katana dared, her voice tight and strained as she tried to keep it from wavering.

"Please, just—"

"No, I won't do anything. I don't believe you and I won't believe you." Katana stepped up to him and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Why are you doing this, Neji? I just want to know the real reason."

He looked into her eyes and saw her gaze was hard, no longer pleading or upset or angry. She knew him too well to be entirely swayed by his words. He would have to try a different method if he wanted to sway her into believing him. He began to speak again when he sensed something rapidly approaching. Katana sensed it too and stiffened, whirling around to try and pinpoint which direction it was coming from. Neji activated his Byakugan and scanned the area, fear momentarily gripping him.

"It's my clan," he said quietly. "They must have discovered by absence and have come searching for me. They have no doubt found you as well. They've surrounded us entirely."

"There's only one thing we can do," Katana said as calmly as she could. She turned to Neji and began weaving hand seals. She set her hands on his shoulders, pressing his back into a tree and wrapped her arms around his neck, looking up at him with a half smirk. "Brings back memories, doesn't it?"

The air became clouded and hazy as Katana enveloped them in her chakra cloak, shielding them from the eyes of the other approaching Hyuugas. Neji felt her head rest against his chest and he wrapped his arms around her reluctantly. But Katana felt how tightly he was holding her to him and knew that her speculations were correct; Neji's words had held little truth. She could hear his heart beating and stifled a smirk at the fact that he was a frightened as she was despite the emotionless mask obscuring his features.

"Wha—? What happened?"

There were eight Hyuugas in total and they all began rapidly scanning the clearing, unable to decipher when their prey had hidden.

"They were here! We saw them! Where could they have gone to? We had them surrounded!"

"Stop panicking," another Hyuuga growled, scanning the clearing intently with his white eyes. "We know they are here. We saw them disappear. They can't hide forever."

"But how can we not see them?" the first Hyuuga whined. He looked younger than the rest and was clearly not as composed.

"It's quite simple, actually," a third Hyuuga spoke up. "That girl is using her kekkei genkai, obviously. Don't you remember how we were told that it makes her and anyone close enough to her invisible? And we can't detect it because the chakra cancels out."

Katana's breath hitched as she turned ever so slightly to glance at the Hyuuga out of the corner of her eye. How could he know that? That information is strictly guarded! The only one who knows that is Neji—

"So how are we going to find them?" the first Hyuuga questioned, clearly getting on the others' nerves.

"Your voice isn't helping matters," the third Hyuuga snapped. "We were informed that, despite being invisible, the girl is still tangible. All we have to do is sweep the area until we touch something that shouldn't be there. And, because it seems that the girl is hiding Neji along with her, she won't be able to move without risking exposing them. I was told that the chakra cloak is difficult to maintain when trying to shield two people. See how simple it is?"

Katana stared up at Neji, horrified and shocked. He was the only one outside of her clan who knew such information about her kekkei genkai besides Anko. He wouldn't betray me, would he? But there's no other way that they could have such information otherwise. But— Katana couldn't find any way to contradict herself. She tightened her arms around Neji's neck, pressing herself closer to him. She couldn't bare the thought that Neji had betrayed her. But if he had, she realized, then he could have possibly been telling the truth before. It would have been him that had given his clan the information about my clan and caused them to forbid our interaction. Could he have really done that? But why?

The Hyuugas were beginning to fan out, extending their hands and sweeping at the empty air. One was slowly getting closer, oblivious to his closeness to his targets and taking his time making sure not to miss any space between them. Katana was positive that he could hear the rapid thudding of her heart as he approached, Neji's heartbeat no fainter in her ear. It all came down to this moment, and Katana struggled to form a plan but was unsuccessful in finding more than one option. She looked up at Neji and set her jaw, breathing two words for only him to hear.

"Trust me." Katana forcefully wrenched herself from Neji's arms and pushed him toward the trees outside the clearing. "RUN, NEJI!" she cried as she threw herself at the other Hyuugas. She buried her fist into the nearest one's jaw, hearing a satisfying crack and watching him crumple to the ground. Springing towards another, her battle became for difficult as the other seven were alerted. Dodging palm thrusts, Katana lashed out with her leg, catching one Hyuuga in the stomach and taking hold of the wrist of another that tried to attack her. She brought her knee into his chest and threw his limp body at another Hyuuga and turned to face the other four when a firm hand struck her shoulder.

Gasping in shock, Katana felt an icy wave flood her system and realization hit her. It was the first time she had been hit with a full powered Jyuuken strike and she staggered backwards, clutching her shoulder. The Hyuuga's face warped in a cold smile and Katana's heart skipped a beat. His hair was darker because of the dim light of the moon, but, in the daylight, it would have no doubt been sandy brown. She looked at the others and noticed that two others had light hair.

"Surprising, isn't it?" the sandy hair Hyuuga said icily. "You didn't think that we could have such features, correct?"

"Is this some kind of joke?" Katana breathed, shrinking back.

"It's no joke. There are many branch families in the Hyuuga Clan and certain ones have different appearances. We were told that you were vulnerable to a particular trait among Hyuugas and it is quite obviously correct."

"Who told you so much about me and my clan?" Katana snarled, anger seething fiercer than her fear. "How can you know so much?"

"That's our business," another Hyuuga growled, coming to stand beside his companion. "All you need to know is that our source is very reliable."

Katana lunged forward at the group adjacent to her when she was grabbed from behind and thrown into a tree. The Hyuuga she had thought she had disabled by throwing another into him was still functioning and held her by her collar.

"You have a particularly thick skull, don't you?" he said with mockery. "It seems it's going to take more than just a warning to tell you how serious we are about protecting ourselves and those among us."

"Try me," Katana snapped and smashed her fist into his stomach. Although one arm was useless, her other worked just fine. Running toward the other Hyuugas, she drew a kunai and dove into the one who had struck her. Slashing with her kunai, she caught him on the arm as he moved to block, blood pouring from the gash. Another Hyuuga joined the fight, but was quickly disabled with a back kick to the side of the head. The last two lowered into Jyuuken stances, gazes hard as the finally knew that they were going to need to make an effort.

"Just walk away now," the one Hyuuga growled. "We'll spare you this time."

"I highly doubt that," Katana snarled. "You're all of Branch Families so your Jyuuken can only have minimal power. You won't be able to beat me. I should be the one saying I will spare you."

One of the Hyuugas rushed forward with his arm reared back. Katana easily evaded his attack and swept his legs out from under him, darting over his sprawled body. She turned to the other Hyuuga and felt something rest on her back as she rushed forward. She moved quickly before the chakra could be forced into her system. Rolling forward, she jumped into the air and flipped backwards, landing behind him and slicing her kunai across his back. She turned to the last who remained and he took several steps back.

"If you want to run, I'll let you go," Katana said angrily, throwing her kunai down. "I'm not the monster you think I am. I only attacked you because you provoked me, so you can't say my actions were unjustified. Go and take the others."

"You know this won't help you," the Hyuuga said in a shaking voice as he attempted to remain firm. "Neji is going to be severely punished for this. You can count on that. And there's nothing you can do to help him."

Katana took a step forward and the he backed away. Setting her jaw, Katana turned and walked out of the clearing. She could hear the Hyuuga shuffling around the clearing as she departed, her thoughts racing. She walked through the village back to Anko's apartment, feeling a heavy weight slowly pressing down on her shoulders. She couldn't be sure if Neji had been telling the truth or if he had betrayed her, but the leaden burden seemed to be slowly crushing her. Like the weight of the world, Katana thought as she slunk into her room and curled up on the futon. Unsure of the future, Katana slipped into a restless sleep and could only hope that Neji would forgive her if he was indeed punished. Her nightmares taunted her, warping the situations as usual and obscuring reality. In the end, Katana submitted to the confusion and let the dreamscape world alter her perspective, only hoping that she would be able to sort the situations when she woke.

Author Note: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NEJI!!!!! July 3rd is a special day XD Sorry for making everyone wait and I know this isn't the happiest thing to go with a birthday, but oh well. I've been so confuddled with situations that I haven't had the inspiration to write. I'm not too satisfied with how it turned out, but I wanted to get a chapter out today. I discovered how to reply to reviews (I know I sound like a noob) so I'll probably be doing that from now on. And that foreboding I mentioned in last chapter wasn't supposed to pertain to this chapter, just so you know. It may play a part later in the story, but then again, maybe not. And I was bored one day so I watched the episodes when Naruto fought Neji during the Chunin Exams because I had only seen clips of it, and I noticed that Neji always referred to them as "Branch Families" and several cameo Hyuugas had short light hair. I just assumed that they were part of a different Branch Family, so ya. That's just to clear up some confusion. So, give me your thoughts if you want. I own nothing (this includes chapter titles because I'm weird like that and like to make connections) just the usual. Happy 4th of July eve!!(you said "eve" before the day of the special event if anyone didn't understand...it's an inside joke) Peace out.

-cagedbird361