A/N: crying I feel so bad about this whole thing.  I've been gone for a whole month, agonizing over what to do next, and this is all I have to offer you, this short in between chapter, and to top it all off, I have to start my summer job tomorrow, so now I may not even have the time to update once a week.  The whole thing is disgusting, however, at least you have this to tide you over, I guess…

Chapter 9

Futility was the word of the day, and perhaps, the understatement of the year.  Ever since he'd awoken to find himself locked in this chakra constricting cage, he'd been sitting in a corner going over plan after plan, scheme after scheme, devising ways to free himself and had come up with nothing.  Meanwhile, his captors seemed content to watch him agonize over escaping and to watch him silently seethe as they showed him more and more videotape of this 'Fuyuki' who had stolen his life.

The first few hours he'd been here he'd thought only of escaping to return to his wife and killing the impostor, but the more hours he watched the more creative the hypothetical tortures and killings became, involving more and more people.  In fact, he'd even had delusions of taking down whatever the name of the Kenji and Ryoji's criminal organization was single-handedly.  Of course, those delusions had been shattered quite quickly.  The building he was in seemed to serve as a base of some sort and by his count at least fifty individual ninjas had passed in and out of here in the last three days.

Kenji and Ryoji weren't on Neji torture watch today, from what he'd gathered by eavesdropping there had been two Konoha shinobi wandering around the area where he'd been ambushed, and the two men had gone out to ensure that no foul play was suspected.  His new guard was a thin, short mousy little man that he surmised he could easily overpower should the situation arise.  However, the chance of that situation actually arising was slim to none.

"Ahh…" Great, the idiot noticed he was awake.  The small man wandered over to his cage, smiling down at him.  "Well, well, well…" he glanced at Neji's headband.  "Come to think of it, other than saying you were from Konoha, Kenji and Ryoji never said anything about what type of ninja you were." He eyed Neji's face.  "You're still a kid, so I'd say, what?  Chuunin at the most."

"ANBU," Neji corrected.

"Ah…" he nodded like it made perfect sense.  "I trust you know all about Fuyuki."

"I've been informed," Neji didn't know why he was humoring the man, usually he just stayed silent when he was being interrogated.

"Well, tell you what, we're not going to force you to watch that video today.  In fact, you're probably better off not knowing what Fuyuki plans to do in that body of yours."

"Oh, and what does he plan to do?"

His captor smiled widely, as if he knew a secret no one else knew, "A little of this, a little of that, nothing for you to concern yourself with." He squeezed a tiny ball that he'd been hiding in his palm, "Of course, should you ever return to Konoha your reputation would be forever ruined."

Neji turned away from the man, convinced he had nothing useful left to say.

"Of course, it would be for the best should you just join us, seeing as your village will probably want to lynch you anyway.  Such a shame for Konoha, losing another genius clan member to a life of crime."

"Why would I ever join you?"

The man laughed, "Spend a little more time here and marinate on the situation you've found yourself in."

"Hmm…" Neji appeared to be thinking it over.  "That is one option," his bandaged arm shot out and grasped the man around the neck.  "But it appears I favor another option.  Open this cage."

"I'm not afraid of some kid who can't even use chakra."

"Oh?" Neji glared at his captor-turned-captive, feeling the veins that went along with Byakugan stretching across his face.  "What makes you think I can't use chakra?"

"Impossible!" He shouted.  "You should be unconscious by now!"

"It makes no difference to me whether you open the cage or I kill you and retrieve the key from your dead body.  Either way, this is the last moment I'll be spending locked away."

He gulped as Neji's grip tightened around his neck.  "Wait!  Wait!" A key appeared in his hands and then fell from his sweaty fingers to the ground.  He shrugged, "Oops!  Now if you'd just put me down I'll be happy to get that for you."

"No need." The young ANBU jerked the man towards him, smacking his head on the bars.  His body went limp on impact and Neji cast him aside easily.  Neji released Byakugan and sighed as the jolts of electricity running through his body ceased.  He wouldn't have been able to handle getting shocked for much longer.

Neji knelt down and stretched his hand out through the bars, exploring cautiously until his fingers bumped against the keys.  He managed to grasp an end of the metal object with his finger and dragged the item towards him.  Smiling in victory he stood up and unlocked the cage, stepping out into freedom.  Neji picked up the idiot and flung him into the cage, locking him in.

He shook his head briefly at the absurdity of the whole situation.  His keen mind had been unable to concoct a plan that would free him, but having an idiot for a jailer did the trick.  Anyway, he had no more time to dwell on such trivial matters.  He had twin brothers to kill and then had to move on to Konoha to stop this Fuyuki from doing whatever evils he intended to do in his body.  He was perfectly content with handing Fuyuki over to the proper authorities, but if he'd laid one errant finger on his wife, all the gods in Heaven and on Earth would not be able to save his soul.