Chapter 38 - Neji

"How are you feeling?" Neji asked, handing over a glass of water to Karui, who was still sitting in the seal. She had dark circles under her eyes and hadn't slept in over two days.

"I'm fine." She said, smiling. "I can still go for a while yet. Is today that day, or should we wait until tomorrow?"

"We're going today. I want to be on the move for at least a day before A finds out. We need to get to the southern coast, there we can take a ship back to Hi no Kuni. With A between us and Hi no Kuni, it's too dangerous to pass overland through Shimo no Kuni." Neji explained, sitting down across from her on the floor.

"How much longer do we have before we start?" Karui asked, looking up at him with excitement and nervousness.

"About ten minutes. Are you prepared? We can go with my original plan, if you've changed your mind."

Karui thought for a moment before hardening her face. "I'm ready. Let's do it."

Karui and Neji both stood up and Neji pulled out a kunai from his side pouch. He sighed before looking at her with a hint of concern. "Alright, here I go."

Neji acted fast, targeting several spots on her body and making enough cuts to cause her to bleed enough to look like she was extremely wounded, without actually causing lethal damage. She'd be fine as long as everything went according to plan and Neji was able to bandage her in time.

Neji attached two sealing tags to her body, hidden under her clothes and one on his own. He watched as she limped to the main room of their house, leaving a trail of blood on the ground. She collapsed in the center of the room, groaning a bit from her exhaustion and wounds.

Neji bent down and kissed her on the forehead, before walking back into the side room. He opened the coffin and stepped inside, closing the lid. He was left in utter darkness, channeling chakra into his hands and activating his byakugan to watch over the surroundings.

Karui activated a henge, turning herself into a bloody version of Neji that looked like he was dying. There was enough blood to make it convincing, and her henge was perfect. He'd let her study his body in order to make sure that she had everything right. They'd practiced this henge many times, as one mistake could cost them everything.

It wasn't long before they heard a shout from outside the house. "Come on brat, it's time for training!" It was the voice of Yugito, the jinchūriki that was in charge of the both of them. She came at the exact same time every day, and Neji was thankful that Yugito stuck to a strict schedule; it made his job so much easier.

Upon hearing no response, Yugito frowned. This wasn't like the boy at all; he was usually punctual. "Oi, brat! Get your ass out here!" She yelled again.

A minute went by and Yugito furrowed her brow. Sighing, she walked up to the house and opened the door. She saw Neji laying on the ground in a pool of his own blood. "What happened!?" She rushed over to him, checking his pulse. If he died on her watch, she'd get a bad scolding from A.

Karui went to whisper something to her as Yugito helped her off the floor, throwing one of Karui's arms around her shoulder. "I'm.. I'm sorry.."

"Sorry..?" Yugito looked at Neji in confusion. "Sorry for wh-" Her voice was cut off as the Neji in her arms suddenly looked fine. He had a fierce look in his eyes and she felt his palm connect straight into her chest, followed quickly by a second.

"Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four palms!" Neji shouted, following up with two more palm strikes before Yugito could respond. She was pushed back a step, eyes wide. Neji had used the sealing tag on his chest, and one of the tags on Karui's chest to switch locations with her. Karui was now in the coffin, and Neji, who had been preparing to use the eight trigrams, was attacking Yugito.

Yugito tried to channel her chakra and make distance between them, but the pain from having her tenketsu forcibly closed made it difficult. With each of Neji's attacks coming faster than the previous set, she had no way to effectively fight back. The surprise attack had caught her off guard. No one else should have been in the house, Karui had left with A to go to Konohagakure.

"Y-you s-scum!" Yugito shouted, as she took the last strikes of the eight trigrams. "You.. I'll make you wish you were dead.." She forcibly activated the bijū's chakra, forcing open her sealed tenketsu and growing long claws from her hands, but what surprised her was the look of satisfaction on Neji's face as she did so.

'Something's not right..' She realized just a second too late that Neji had slipped a tag on her as he had attacked.

"Uchū Kōkan!" Neji said, forming a hand seal. The tag activated and the tags on both Karui and Yugito activated, switching their locations. Karui collapsed to the floor, but Neji couldn't worry about her for the moment. He had already appeared in front of the coffin that Yugito was now inside of.

He heard a shout of surprise coming from within, and placed a palm on the coffin lid, forcing chakra into the seals. "Hitsugi Kusari!" Neji shouted. The seals that were carved into the coffin and chains began to light up, and Yugito could feel the bijū's chakra being drained from her body, forced to help power the seals within the coffin. There was a rattling sound as the chains wrapped around the coffin, clinking into place.

"What are you doing!?" Yugito cried out in pain, feeling her body seize up. She tried to fight back, to force open the lid of the coffin, but it wouldn't budge and her movements were becoming sluggish. Her chakra wasn't responding to her own will anymore, and she was left in darkness except for the slight red glow of the seals that surrounded her. "Let.. me.. out.." She groaned out before her body froze up completely. She was trapped; unable to move an inch except for her eyes that stared in horror.

Neji stepped back and watched for a moment. He had been unable to test the seal before now as it required too much chakra to activate. He relied on the supply of chakra from the bijū, and had to force her to activate it before he transferred her into the coffin. It was lucky that she had such control over her bijū and relied on its power so much. Another jinchūriki might not have been able to force open the seals on the tenketsu.

Seeing that the seal seemed to be stable, Neji rushed back to Karui's side. She had lost a lot of blood and he quickly began to bandage her wounds. He had to make sure she didn't lose consciousness.

"Hang in there, Karui!" Neji said to her, slapping her cheek a bit to wake her up as her eyes started to close. He stripped her, wrapping bandages around the cuts on her body before picking her up and carrying her to the bed.

Neji and Yugito's training sessions usually lasted several hours, so they had some spare time before someone came looking for Yugito, but they couldn't afford to wait long.

"I'm.. I'm fine.." Karui said, grimacing a bit. Her head felt woozy, but she bit her tongue, forcing herself to wake up. Neji grabbed new clothes for her and helped her get dressed. Karui was too anxious and excited about their plan working out to feel embarrassed.

He let her rest for a bit as he started placing explosive tags in hidden locations around the house. He was working fast and running out of time, but he wanted to make sure that whoever came looking for them would get a nasty surprise.

When he finished placing the tags, he went back to the coffin. He placed a sealing tag on the outside of it that was designed to lessen the weight. He and Karui slipped into long, hooded black cloaks, before he turned the coffin around. Crouching down, he slipped his arms through straps that were attached to the back of it, and stood up, carrying it on his back. Even with his weight dampening seal, it was still heavy for him.

"Can you walk?" Neji asked, looking at Karui in concern.

She just grimaced and shook her head. She was so tired and had to focus all her attention on just not passing out. Neji nodded, and picked her up into his arms. He grunted a bit from the additional weight and steadied himself for a moment, getting used to it.

"We have to move. I'll carry you out, just focus on staying awake. We need to be long gone from here before anyone starts looking for us."

Karui nodded weakly, grabbing onto his robes. "Let's go.."

Neji walked out the door, closing it behind him. He took one last look at the secluded cliff that had been his home for almost ten years, before taking off in a southern direction. He'd have to rely on his byakugan to avoid patrols from this point out. He wasn't familiar with the terrain outside of his cliff, but Karui gave him directions as he ran.

Neji smiled in grim satisfaction. His plan had finally paid off, and they were one step closer to freedom. He was one step closer to returning home. 'I'm coming otousan! I'll see you soon Hinata! Wait for just a bit longer!'

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Killer B was currently sitting in a conference room with C and Darui. The two of them had been assigned by A to watch over Killer B and prevent him from doing anything stupid in A's absence. They were supposed to be discussing distribution of the goods that would soon be coming in from Otogakure, but Yugito had yet to arrive.

"Yo! I feel like something is wrong, Yugito ain't arrived yet. She shouldn't be taking this long!" Killer B rapped out, causing Darui and C to sigh.

"She probably just got wrapped up with teaching that Konohagakure brat something." Darui said nonchalantly. He shrugged, leaning back in his chair and causing C to give him an exasperated look.

"That's not like Yugito. She's usually extremely punctual." C pointed out, frowning.

"That brat might be a useful tool, but she wouldn't be late, fool, ya fool!" Killer B said, standing up. "Let's check it out, see what this is all about. Don't make me shout; something's wrong, ain't no doubt!"

Darui and C grimaced at his poor rapping skill, but stood up nonetheless. "Fine.. let's go see what's up." Darui sighed again.

The three of them left the conference room and headed towards Neji's cliff at a rapid pace. It took a few minutes to arrive, even at their speed, and when they got there they knew something wasn't right.

"I don't sense anyone nearby." C said, furrowing his brow. "Yugito should know that he's not allowed to leave the cliff. There's no way, she'd take him away from here."

"You two check what's around, I'll check the house, and tell you what I found!" Killer B ordered as Darui and C nodded, taking off in two different directions. They didn't get far at all however, when they heard a massive explosion coming from the direction they just left.

Both of them instantly retreated back towards the house as fast as possible. When they arrived, they were shocked at what they saw. A massive burning crater was centered where the house used to be, and Killer B was lying in the middle of it, surrounded by a protective layer of red chakra.

"Lord Jinchūriki!" C called out, rushing to his side. Killer B had burn marks and cuts across his entire body and his clothes were shredded into rags. He was still conscious, and was trying to push himself up to his knees.

"I got caught off guard.. Let myself get charred.." Killer B chuckled despite the circumstances, but he had a dangerous look in his eyes. "Find out where they went.. Send shinobi to catch their scent.. I want that brat to lament.."

Darui let out a sigh of relief; If B was feeling well enough to rap, he was going to be just fine. "I'm sorry. We should've been more careful." He apologized, helping B up to his feet, slinging his arm around his shoulder.

C grit his teeth. "I'll send a team of hunting-nin out, they can't have gone far. Yugito might already be on his trail, there's no way she'd let him hurt her. Darui, get Lord jinchūriki to the hospital."

"Right." Darui nodded, headed in a different direction than C.

C grimaced as he ran. If anyone other than B had entered that house, they'd have been blown to smithereens. Even B could've died if he hadn't activated the bijū's chakra cloak at the last second. If he'd have been prepared for the blast, he would've been fine, but it had caught him off guard.

'We'll send a team. That kid doesn't know the terrain and can't have gone far. It's likely that Yugito is already on the way back with him. We'll make him pay for this.." C thought, narrowing his eyes.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Neji raced through the mountain cliffs as he headed south, following one of the many rivers that flowed out to the sea. He'd have to make it to the coast and get on a ship before the hunter-nins caught up to him. He looked at the sun's position in the sky and pushed himself to run a bit faster. It was about time for them to realize Yugito hadn't returned to the village, so they'd figure out something was wrong soon. With any luck, his traps would have taken out whoever came looking for Yugito, buying him more time.

They'd been running for close to four hours now, and Neji looked down at the girl in his arms. She'd been updating him with directions less frequently and knew he didn't have much longer until she fell unconscious.

"Hang in there Karui, just a few more hours!" He gripped her a bit tighter, shaking her shoulder, trying to keep her awake.

"Mhmm.. 'm fine.." She mumbled out. She just had to stay awake until the planned time. Her clone knew what to do when the time came, and then she'd be able to sleep. She wanted to sleep so, so badly.

Neji continued on, still scanning the surrounding area with his byakugan. He'd already had to avoid several patrols, causing them to have to deviate from their route, and in some cases, hide for a few minutes.

Neji's eyes suddenly narrowed and he took refuge behind a rock, quickly drawing a seal on the ground to mask their chakra. He wobbled a bit from how much chakra he had expended so far today. The amount he spent to seal Yugito had not been small. He wouldn't be able to use this trick much longer.

A few seconds later, he watched as a team of two Kumo-nin arrived in the area. They looked around, with one of them snorting in impatience.

"I'm telling you, I sensed two chakra signatures in this direction!" One of them said, standing on a ledge and trying to focus his senses.

"Look around! Do you see anyone here? We're the only ones around for miles!" The impatient shinobi complained.

His partner frowned. The chakra signals had definitely disappeared in this location. Had he been mistaken? He looked around at the craggy mountain sides, there were too many potential hiding spots and they'd be here for hours if they wanted to do a complete search.

Neji did his best to calm his breathing and heart rate. 'Come on.. Move on.. No one's here.. Move on!' He thought to himself, willing them to give up the search. Either way, he'd have to wait a few minutes after they'd left to make sure that they didn't sense him as soon as he left his seal, but the longer they stayed here to search, the closer the hunter-nin would get.

"Maybe you're right.." The sensor shinobi sighed. It was strange though, he wasn't usually wrong about these things. It was quite likely someone was hiding in the area, but they were due back at the outpost for a shift change in an hour.

"Of course I'm right! Come on, let's get out of here. I just want a meal and sleep, we've been out here since last night."

His partner frowned. Something didn't feel right, but he relented. "Fine, let's go. We'll log the area and mention it to our replacements."

They both took off, heading east towards the outpost responsible for the area. Neji let out the breath he had been holding and adjusted his grip on Karui. They'd wait here for about ten minutes before heading out again.

Time felt like it was passing at a crawl. Neji picked himself off the ground, where he was sitting and struck out at a fast pace, still heading south. According to Karui, there was a small village on the coast that had trade routes to Hi no Kuni and Mizu no Kuni.

As he ran along the mountain sides, minutes turned to hours, and he could see the light starting to dim, signaling the setting of the sun. "Not much longer Karui! We should be at the village in a couple of hours. Your clone should be about to act. As soon as you feel the connection break, you can sleep!"

"Mn.." Karui nodded into his chest. 'A, you bastard.' She thought to herself. 'I hope you enjoy our present..'

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

A's team were currently passing through the land of frost at a fast pace. They were making good time, and should arrive in Hi no Kuni three days from now. He was just listening in amusement as the team behind him talked amongst themselves.

"So? When should we be planning the wedding for?" A blond woman asked, smirking.

"What are you talking about?" Karui asked, looking at her in surprise.

"For you and that Konoha kid! I heard from Yugito-san that you two were getting awfully close, and from what I saw the other day when I came to pick you up.." She trailed off mysteriously, causing the other members of the group to perk up in interest.

"His name is Neji! A-and, it's t-too early to think about m-marriage!" Karui shouted, flustered at the topic.

"Ohh, Neji-kun, huh?" Samui teased, still smirking. She wasn't usually this talkative, but she did enjoy teasing Karui from time to time.

"Oi, leave her alone Samui-oneesan!" A boy with chin length blond hair laughed. "Can't you see she's embarrassed?"

"Karui-chan, there's nothing to emb- Karui-chan?" Another genin shinobi that had dark skin, and short, spiky white hair asked, looking back at Karui that had stopped suddenly. She was standing on the frost covered ground, looking up at the sky.

"Hm? Karui, what's wrong?" A stopped, turning around to look at the girl. Samui and her brother Atsui stood next to her with inquisitive expressions on their face.

"It seems it's time." Karui said to herself thoughtfully. She was watching the sun's position in the sky.

"Time? What are you talking about?" Samui asked her, furrowing her brow.

"Hey, A.. I just wanted to tell you.. Thank you." Karui said, suddenly looking at the Raikage with a sardonic smile.

A's eyes widened as Karui reached into her pouch. "Samui! Atsui! Watch ou-" His words were cut off as Karui exploded into a ball of fire, having activated the explosive tags in her pouch. A covered his face with an arm and grimaced, rage filling his eyes.

Omoi, the spiky haired genin, watched from a distance as the explosion happened. "Atsui-san! Samui-sensei!" He called out in a panic, letting the lollipop he had been sucking on fall out of his mouth.

A watched as the smoke cleared, showing the devastation of the area. He could see bloody chunks, charred from the explosion surrounding the area. Samui was about ten meters away, holding what remained of her right arm. She had jumped back in time, but her brother hadn't been so lucky.

"Atsui!" She screamed, looking for her brother. She couldn't find him anywhere, and fell to her knees. He was dead.

"Damn it!" A yelled, punching a massive hole into the ground. "That treacherous bitch!" He looked at the crater, there had been a split second, right after the explosion that he caught her chakra signature suddenly vanishing. "It was a clone!"

Samui was kneeling on the ground, a look of shock on her face. "Atsui? Atsui..?" She blinked, not believing what she was seeing.

A was by her side in a second, with a murderous look on his face. He began bandaging the stump of her arm, gritting his teeth in anger. "Fuck Orochimaru's plans, we're returning. I'll have that bitch's head!"

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Neji felt Karui shudder in his arms and he looked down. She was smiling up at him in victory. "It's.. done.. 'm goin.. sleep.." She muttered tiredly.

"Good job. Leave the rest to me." Neji said, letting a tired smile show on his face. He came to a stop for a moment on a cliff overlooking the ocean below. There was a small village on the coast in front of them that had several ships lined up by the docks.

He jumped off the cliff he was standing on and started to run towards the village, continuing on his way. He had to make sure to get on a ship to Konoha as soon as possible.

It wasn't long before he arrived in the village. Quite a few heads turned to gaze at him curiously as he walked through the streets. A boy in a long black cloak and hood, carrying an unconscious girl, and a coffin on his back, wasn't exactly something these ordinary villagers saw every day.

Neji's eyes were extremely tired and beginning to hurt, but he kept his byakugan up, constantly on the lookout for any Kumo-nin that were in the village. He knew there would be some, but he was determined to get on a ship before his presence was spotted by them.

"Are there any ships docked that are accepting passengers to Hi no Kuni?" Neji asked a dock worker, walking up to him.

'A.. a shinobi.. and a dangerous one by the looks of it..' The dock worker gulped, looking at the giant coffin on the boy's back, and his pure white eyes within the depths of his cloak's hood. "T-ther's one.." He croaked out, pointing at a ship in the distance.

"Thank you." Neji nodded to the man, taking off towards the ship. He arrived next to the ship a few seconds later and walked up to a sailor that was holding a clipboard.

"I want to purchase passage for two people. I heard you're traveling to Hi no Kuni." Neji told the man. "We'll pay extra if you let us board now, no questions asked."

"We don't want any trouble." The sailor said, shaking his head. "If we're caught carrying fugitives, we'll be imprisoned or worse."

Neji pulled a large pouch of Ryō out of his robe and tossed it to the man. "We won't make any trouble. That's enough to pay for passage for several dozen people. If we leave as soon as possible, I'll double it." Karui had saved up all her money for this, and Neji didn't have any problems spending it all if it meant leaving even only a few minutes earlier.

The man gulped feeling the weight of the pouch in his hands. It was as the boy said, making this much Ryō was extremely tempting, and if it was doubled.. "Fine, get below deck. I'll hurry the crew up. We'll set out in an hour."

"Thank you. I'll give you the other half as soon as we're out at sea." Neji told him, bowing his head slightly in thanks.

He boarded the ship immediately and disappeared below deck. He still kept his byakugan on, focused on the merchant sailor he had just paid. If he saw him do anything suspicious, he'd make an escape right away.

Neji was thankful however when he saw the man do exactly as he promised. The crew finished loading the ship an hour later, deciding to abandon several crates that weren't necessary. It seemed that the captain of the ship had decided Neji's promised payment was worth leaving being whatever goods were in those crates. Neji finally began to relax as he heard the creaking of the ship, and saw them begin to leave the docks.

It would be about a week before they arrived at the eastern shore of Hi no Kuni. He sat the coffin down next to Karui, and walked out to find the captain as soon as the shore couldn't be seen in the distance.

The captain, a grubby man with beady eyes and a sharp smile, grabbed at the bag Neji handed him. "Pleasure doing business with you sir!" He said, rubbing the pouch greedily. "Please be assured we'll arrive at our destination as soon as possible!"

"Good." Neji nodded to him. "Don't disturb us if it isn't necessary. We have enough food and water for our journey."

"Of course, of course!" The man chuckled knowingly. "It's an honor to be of service to a respectable shinobi such as yourself! Leave everything to me!"

Neji turned around and walked back below deck. He had heard about these types of people before; the kind that would forsake anything for coin. He didn't trust the captain, but he had no other choice.

Arriving back at his quarters, Neji sat down on the edge of the straw bed next to Karui, who was sound asleep. He pulled off her hood and tucked her hair behind her ear. Her wounds would have to heal naturally, and she'd no doubt be left with several scars. They had done it though; they had escaped!