A/N: And so, a chapter of my life comes to a close.  With this, my twenty-eighth offering to this story, I have successfully come to a conclusion.  Perhaps, if I get a good amount of responses, I will be motivated to write an epilogue and maybe even tackle a sequel.  But, you'll have to let me know if there is life for these characters after Possession.  Thank you for sticking through everything with me, and maybe in the near future we'll meet again through another story I've authored or maybe I'll be reading one of your stories.  So if you can, get in contact with me, I'd love to hear from you, got nothing else to get me through my days.  And with that I end my note and send you on to the rest of this chapter.

Chapter 28

The man sipped from his bowl.  "I am surprised you managed to make it this far though.  Others have tried before you, to free themselves of Haruka's curse, but have failed miserably." He smiled briefly before shoving another spoonful of the hot liquid into his mouth.  "For you to find the strength to make it this far then you must have ignored all of the other failures who told you that there was no hope.  It's a dreadful future to have, knowing that the only way to be free is to die." He placed his spoon down on the table.  "My apologies, I have been rude to you, my honored guests.  If you are hungry, then I have made enough soup for all of you to eat from it."

"Did you know we were coming?"

"Iie." He shook his head.  "I didn't know that you would come, but I always knew someone would come." He sighed.  "I was told to protect this information for the day when Haruka's descendants would need it.  You see, my ancestor was her first fiancé, the one who could not find the strength to share her curse.  In his old age, he realized his folly, and wrote everything down in these scrolls before he completely forgot.  He wanted to reconcile to her, but she had died long before, so he swore that one day he'd repay her." He brought the spoon to his mouth once more.  "My name is Raito, Hiyama Raito.  My ancestor's name was Masahiro.  He was very much in love with Haruka, and the day it happened, he was on his way to announce the date of their wedding to her.  However, when he finally saw her, she was swearing away her body to the Phoenix.  He tried to stop her before the seal was completed, but he couldn't get close to her in time.  From his writings he says that her entire body burned so much so that if he had gotten even one step closer he would've been burnt to a crisp.  There was nothing he could do, except stand there and wait for the flames to die away.  When it finally did, she was lying there, completely naked, but alive."

Lee sat down with a bowl of soup.  "But, why did he break their engagement?"

"Masahiro was not a very strong or confident man, but his family had a lot of resources.  Even though she offered him a chance to share her strength, he turned her down because he was terrified that she no longer needed him.  And of course, she didn't."

"What happened next?" TenTen questioned.

"He went to her parents and formally broke of the engagement.  A few days later, Haruka disappeared.  Her only explanation for leaving was that a letter that said simply, 'I don't want to kill you.'  Their families assumed that she went to Konoha as it was only logical for someone who wanted to be a ninja so badly.  But after hearing Masahiro's story of why they had parted ways, they decided it would be best if they forgot that she had ever existed to them." He looked down at the bowl.  "Twenty years later, on a visit to Konoha to beg the services of their ninja, Masahiro heard of the birth of a Fire Clan in their town.  It was a fledgling clan, no more than thirty clan members, but it was rumored to be powerful nonetheless.  While he was there he saw her, beautiful and youthful as ever, but with a husband and three children.  They locked eyes and it was enough for him to realize that she wanted nothing to do with him."

"He had no cause to be surprised." Gai replied.  "He had already broken her heart."

"Ah." Raito agreed.  "So she found men and women ambitious enough to share her curse, and built a clan among them.  Then she chose one of them to be her husband and to continue her own line."

Neji cleared his throat.  He was growing bored.  "I don't care about her history.  I'm not a part of this family.  All I want to know is how we must free ourselves."

Raito stared the boy down.  "You can't be free."

"But you said there was a way!" TenTen protested.

He shook his head.  "All I said was that you hadn't failed yet."

"You dare to string us along?" Neji was on the verge of being irate.

"There is no way to be completely free.  The phoenix made a promise to Haruka, and the eternal bird is not one to renege on its promises.  It will not stop protecting you, but if you have the strength of spirit, you can return it to its own body."

TenTen clenched her fists.  "How can we do that?"

He looked up at them seriously.  "Are you the only ones left?"

She shook her head.  "My brother, Kojiro is still alive."

"You are mistaken child, my servant is dead."

Lee looked at the pale face of his companion.  "What's wrong?"

"K-K-Kojiro…" She wavered on her feet and then sank to her knees

Lee got even more agitated.  "What's the matter?"

"Her brother's dead." Neji replied.  "He succumbed to his injuries."

"I thought you could heal yourselves."

"He didn't want to live."

Raito stroked his chin.  "Perhaps it is a good thing that he no longer lives."

"WHAT?" TenTen's brown eyes seemed to go as black as coals.

"The ritual can only be performed if all of the members of the Fire Clan are present." He placed his empty bowl on the table and then walked over to the front door.  "It's only necessary for the two of you to come with me." He looked at Gai and Lee.  "No matter what you hear, do not interrupt us."

The two males nodded.

TenTen and Neji followed Raito outside and then watched as he sealed the door shut.

"It's best if you two don't stand too close together.  When the phoenix leaves your bodies it will be like a miniature explosion.  The last thing you want is to kill your partner while freeing yourself." Raito procured a paintbrush and a small can of red paint from one of his pockets and then knelt down, creating a design completely from memory.  "It works best if you are silent."

TenTen squeezed her eyes shut.  They would never truly be free, but their minds would be their own, and when they had children one day, they would never have to suffer the fate of the possessed, the fate of the Phoenix.  What felt like ten minutes passed and then she felt a blade being pressed into her palm.

"What happens next depends on how much you believe in yourselves.  The Phoenix's fire has replaced the blood in your veins, so you have to drain yourselves of it." Raito paused.  "If you have trust in my knowledge, you will stab yourselves in the heart and then bleed away all of the Phoenix's essence."

"You want us to die at our own hands?" Neji questioned.  "You can't be serious." He turned to leave, and then found that he was forced to stand in place.

"I'm sorry, but I can't allow you to leave.  I must honor Masahiro's promise to Haruka."

Neji clenched his hand around the knife.

"I hope you're not thinking of killing me." Raito said.  "If you do, then who would stop the bleeding once it starts?"

"Bastard."

"You came to me, I didn't come to you."

TenTen turned the blade towards her chest.  "It's better to die than to be cursed, right?"

"TENTEN!" Neji screamed.  "Don't you dare listen to him!"

"There's no way to know if we don't try."

His voice softened.  "It's just like killing yourself.  Please, don't."

"The only choice we have for freedom is to die, at least this way, there's an alternative."

"The Phoenix entered Haruka's blood.  It was her life-force, it sustained her, it healed her, and it passed down to her children through her blood at their births.  Unfortunately, it stole thirty years from her life.  She was barely forty when she died, because it drained her energy from her body completely.  If you don't do this, that will be your fate.  If you even have children, you won't live to see them grow up.  But Konoha won't stand for that, someone there will probably kill you before you even make it that far."

TenTen stared down at the knife in her hands.  She had always felt the Phoenix's presence in her heart.  That was what it twisted when it wanted to get its own way.  Raito was not lying to her.  "Neji, it's going to be okay, just do what he says."

The boy gritted his teeth.  "TenTen…"

"Don't think about it.  Just do it." She inhaled deeply and then thrust the blade as far into her chest as she could push it.  Even though she didn't want to, she screamed at the top of her lungs.  The pain was nearly unbearable, not only from the wound she had inflicted on herself, but there was a deeper pain, one that seemed as though it was tearing away at her very soul.  It forced her eyes open, made her stare down at the wound, despite the fact that all she wanted to do was to look away.  She lifted her hand slowly, and jerked the knife out, sending molten fire spewing from her cut. 

She stared at the fire in horror, her deceased brother's words echoing in her head.

"I bet you don't even know that you're not human anymore. You don't have an identity dear sister. You're just the Phoenix's fire in human skin."

She groaned.  "Neji, please don't resist.  It's okay, I can feel it leaving."

"You're feeling your life slip away."

She shook her head.  "No, I can sense the Phoenix leaving, can't you?"

Neji rotated the knife in his bandaged hands.  He was not one for self-injury, he'd prefer to find some other way out before he had to resort to this, but he also would not let TenTen suffer needlessly alone.  He removed his thick jacket.  For this to work, he would have to pierce the skin just to the left or the right of his heart and miss his arteries completely.  He tested the blade against the surface of his skin and then pressing his hands towards his chest, pierced the skin swiftly.  He jiggled the knife free and then howled at the top of his lungs as he could feel a part of himself rupture.  Out of some unexplainable reflex, he covered his wound with his fingers.  He felt the scorching heat of the same molten liquid that always oozed out of his cuts and sealed them, but this time, it made no effort to heal him, it just continued to flow.  As he stood there clutching at his wound, he felt the high temperature and the thickness of the liquid began to lessen.  He eventually stopped smelling searing flesh and he knew then that what he was beginning to feel was blood.  Before he could cry out to Raito he felt a strip of cloth being wound tightly around his chest.

TenTen gasped in awe, her wound already bandaged.  The fire that had leaked out to them was drawn together and was beginning to form the magnificent bird that she herself had only released twice.  The bird that had saved her life, and then tried to control it.  The flames settled together and died down, leaving a giant bird, perhaps three times her height, with red-orange plumage and an air of wisdom around it.

It cocked its head and stared at her and without opening its beak she could hear its voice in her head.  "You freed me.  The last of Haruka's children."

"It was my only option.  I don't want to forfeit my life."

It nodded.  "Despite my beliefs, you and Neji are noble.  You will do well together."

"Arigatou."

The bird lifted its wing and pointed it at Neji and spoke directly into his brain.  "See."

A burst of fire shot from its wing and torched the bandages around his eyes.  The ashes fell away, revealing his white eyes, the legacy of his family.  For him though, his vision was blurry at best, and was largely taken up by an enormous moving red-orange blur. 

"It'll be a while before you can see perfectly, but healing you is my gift to you for freeing me, and breaking my cycle of possession."

"We didn't like being possessed too much anyway." TenTen smiled at the bird.

Raito stared at the Phoenix.  "You haven't left them completely, have you?"

The bird seemed to shake its head.  "I would never break my promise to Haruka.  She never intended to hurt me or her family.  Had my bitterness not gotten the best of me, perhaps we could have lived in symbiosis."

"We should go now."

"Ah.  I have a home to return to as well." With that, the giant bird flapped its wings, creating a powerful wind that threatened to blow its observers away.

Lee and Gai opened the door of the house and ran out just in time to watch the Phoenix fly away.

"WOW!" Lee shouted.  "That's a beautiful creature, is it really okay to just let it go?"

"Yes." His sensei replied.  "The phoenix does not really desire to hurt anyone.  It just lashes out to protect itself."

Freed from her bonds, TenTen stumbled over to Neji and wrapped her arms around him.  "I'm tired, can we go home?"

He looked over to Gai for assurance and then lifted his hand and patted her head fondly.  "Yes TenTen, we can go home."