Author's Notes: Wow, I must say I adore this fandom. Everyone who has reviewed has been so kind. You have no idea how much I appreciate it. So a hug to everyone because I feel mushy.

And a few answers to some reviewer questions:
SxStrngSamurai13: Tenten learns the name "Hizaki" from Ishin-san at the beginning of the last chapter, although he doesn't give her the first name. When Neji says Nanabi was seeing a guy named Mikuro, Tenten thought it might have been the Hizaki's youngest son, the one Nanabi was engaged to since she never heard his first name. Instead, Neji tells her that it's a different man altogether and that his name is Tenma Mikuro. Nanabi's fiancée is Hizaki Kei, which you meet at the end. Hope that clears that up. Whew! I was afraid I'd made a horrible mistake somewhere. :)

A special thanks to Dragon Man 180 for making me laugh myself silly with your line "I pity the idiot who makes a move on Tenten while Neji isn't around to save the guy from a kunai in the nards." ROTHFLMAO.

And teamgaifan, there's a fuuma shuriken in this one just for you. ;)

FYI: Kage Shuriken no Justu Shadow Shuriken Technique

Tilting At Windmills
Chapter Three

The road to the Tenma house was little more than a beaten path. The manor itself seemed to lay a little to the south of the village, alone and isolated and surrounded by tall, branching trees. Tenten still hadn't managed to catch a glimpse of the actual house but she was sure they must be getting close, especially since she got more and more tense as they continued, her fingers itching to hold the kunai in her waist pouch. She wasn't sure what was making her so anxious but she could tell that Neji felt it too, his gray-white eyes scanning the canopy above them more than usual.

They managed to continue on under the tension until Tenten felt herself actually come to a stop, shaking with the desire to move but unable to.

"N..Neji…"

He moved in front of her, so close she could have reached out and leaned against him if she wanted to. He was watching the trees again, his brows drawn together as he concentrated. They must be near the Tenma estate by now. What was this feeling that prevented them from progressing?

At his side, Neji's fingers moved and Tenten read them as they produced words. We're being watched. She nodded, knowing he could see the motion despite the fact she was behind him, and then stiffened as the familiar hiss of steel through air caught her ears.

A hurricane of steel needles came flying at them without warning, barely rustling the leaves they passed. In well synchronized moves born from years of training together, Tenten crouched down, hands against the ground and one knee bent. Above her, Neji spun.

"Kaiten!"

It was something she never got used to, being inside the whirlwind of Neji's chakra. They had only discovered it was possible for her to be within it a few years ago when Neji was forced to protect her unconscious body during the Chuunin exams. For the seconds it took him to complete it, she was breathing inside a void, a silent world of silver and green.

The needles were spun back on their thrower with little effort.

Neji came to a stop, looking upwards. "Tenten!"

She grinned at his command. "Alright!" With a surge of strength, she jumped upwards, twisting in midair so that she could watch the ground as she flew. An impression of movement caught her eyes and she flung shuriken at it, following close behind her weapons.

A Rain-nin was waiting for her in the trees.

She landed in front of him, smirking. "Weapons are useless against me," she told him as he showed her the needles between his fingers.

"They are only a warning," he said calmly. "I do not wish to fight you unless you insist on continuing. Please turn back."

She was not dissuaded. "We've come for Nanabi. Her family is worried. If you don't want to fight, then you should let us pass. We're not going to hurt anyone."

He shook his head as if the situation was unfortunate. "I'm afraid that's not possible. I have my mission, as you have yours." He slipped into a battle stance. "Shall we begin then?"

"As you wish," she sighed, and proceed to back flip off the branch, free falling as the Rain-nin followed, his movements almost too fast to be seen. He reached the ground before her, something she had counted on, and she drew out a scroll, opening and letting it unroll with a flick of her wrist, graceful calligraphy wrapping around her as she pivoted in midair.

With the soft scream of descending steel, she flung weapons at him with perfect accuracy, making him backtrack in order to escape being hit. He was forced to step into the trees for cover and she slapped the falling scroll one more time, her fingers curling around the axis of a fuuma shuriken before she descended as well, crouched in the empty road with total confidence.

As planned, Neji had disappeared, headed towards the Tenma house for reconnaissance, leaving her to deal with the single Rain-nin. For some reason he had seemed reluctant to allow her to fight alone. She would have said he might even have been worried except that that was a word she had never connected to Neji. At least, not in relation to herself. She had sent him on his way, of course, telling him she could very well take care of herself if they ran into trouble. Their mission was to find Nanabi and they couldn't do that if they were stopped from reaching the Tenma manor.

She straightened, raising the fuuma shuriken in front of her face, gazing through the fanned blades to where her opponent was hidden.

"You're not going to win here," she told him, and watched as another flurry of senbon came her way. She twisted the fuuma shuriken, sending it rotating into a blur and it spun the slender needles away, some of them embedding themselves into the ground where they hissed as they ate at the vegetation. She blinked.

Poison?

Without using her hands, she back flipped into the brushes to regroup, watching for any sign of movement from across the road. One hand patted her pockets, searching for antidote when she realized it was all still in her pack back in their room. She snorted softly.

Well, she'd just have to not get hit then.

Folding the fangs of the fuuma shurken together, she made a single long weapon and stabbed it into the ground while reaching for a kunai and slipping it between her teeth. She then hefted the compacted windmill shuriken into her hands and decided to get it all over with.

She somersaulted into the road, lifting the shuriken as he attacked her physically, realizing his needles could not be used at a distance, not with her. He stabbed at her with a kunai and as his arm came within reach, she flipped the fuuma shuriken, sending it's blades cascading out in a circle to catch his wrist, slicing deeply into it before he realized his mistake.

He jumped backwards, strangely silent despite the fact that he had just received a critical cut along the veins in his wrist. He was moving backwards, away from her, probably to take cover again and revise his strategy. Tenten didn't let him.

She followed by throwing the fuuma shuriken after him and dropping her kunai into her free hand, her voice echoing off the trees.

"Kage Shuriken no Jutsu!"

He deflected the first fuuma shurken with his kunai. The second hit him square in the back and his eyes widened in surprise as he fell slowly to his knees, panting. It was not a killing move and so she stayed where she was, watching as he fell forward into the dirt, the shadow windmill rising from his body like some dark cross.

When she was sure he was unconscious, she stepped forward and immediately staggered. Dizzy, she reached out to the nearest tree, her vision doubling briefly until there were two of him, two windmills, and two senbon in her shins as she looked down.

She laughed shortly, amazed. She hadn't even felt it hit her.

Sliding down against the tree trunk, she fumbled the needle out of her leg, using her kunai to deepen the wound, her poisoned blood spilling onto the ground. It wasn't enough, of course, but it would buy her some time until Neji returned and they could get the antidote.

Leaning her head back, she looked up at the sunlight filtering in through the canopy and sighed.

He wasn't going to be happy with her.

Neji had seen many things in his life, but never anything as disconcerting as the scene that awaited him when he arrived back at the road. He approached cautiously, his Byakugan activated in case Tenten and the Rain-nin were still fighting. They were not. Instead, what he saw made him inhale sharply as he sped through the trees like wind, descending from them to suddenly appear at her side.

Yards away, a bloody fuuma shuriken lay on its side, the Rain-nin nowhere to be seen.

"Tenten…" he said with quiet intensity, kneeling by her and letting his eyes fall on the still bleeding cut on her leg. His expression tightened at the amount of blood she had lost. Cursing, he shook her shoulder gently, watching her dark eyes flutter open from the half-doze she had been occupying. She smiled when she realized who he was.

"Neji, did you find Nanabi?"

He scoffed. "Never mind that. What happened? Your poisoned." Without waiting for her to respond, he took out a roll of bandages, wrapping her leg to stop the bleeding. It had been quick thinking to let the poison drain out but if she lost anymore blood, it could be very dangerous.

She winced at his ministrations but replied steadily. "I didn't feel him hit me." Her eyes went to her shuriken in the road. "I didn't see him leave either. I…feel pretty horrible."

Neji snorted but said nothing as he helped her stand. She wobbled, trembling on only one leg, her hand gripping his shirt as he put an arm around her shoulders to steady her. He frowned as his eyes picked up her laboring heart rate and shallow breathing.

"Tch, you're lucky, you know that?" He bent down, put an arm under her legs and lifted her easily, eliciting a sound of surprise from her as she hung on to his neck. "He could have killed you just sitting there."

"Sorry," she murmured against his chest and he paused, breathing in to calm himself. He hadn't meant to make her apologize, he just… Whenever she got hurt, he…

"You wounded him," he said after a moment, tightening his hold on her. "That will slow him down for awhile, perhaps enough for us to catch him." He released his Byakugan, the strain leaving his voice. "You did well."

"Neji," she whispered, dark eyes shimmering up at him as if she had seen something in him even he did not know about. He swallowed and avoided looking at her. Instead, he took off towards town, flying from tree limb to tree limb, impeded not at all by Tenten's weight.

By the time they reached their employer's house, however, Tenten was shivering, a sign of blood loss, and Neji was tired. Too tired even for manners as he kicked open the front door, startling the servants and Ishin who looked up, surprised. At the moment, he didn't care that he was a guest in the man's house or that he had just barged in.

At that moment, he was Hyuuga Neji and he was not in a good mood.

"She's been poisoned," he said shortly, striding past them and towards the bedroom where he knew Tenten kept a variety of antidotes in her pack. He heard Ishin give orders to his servants for them to bring a first aid kit and to assist the two ninja with whatever they needed. Neji ignored him, hurrying into the guest room and laying Tenten down on the mattress as easily as possible so as not to quicken the poison's circulation.

"It's… not that bad," she said, between chattering teeth and spasms of pain. He grit his own teeth and crossed to their packs, taking out vials of antidote. One he held up briefly to the light before sitting next to her, propping her up enough so she could swallow.

Pulling the cork out, he brought the vial to her lips. "Drink," he ordered, and supported her as she did so, easing her clenched jaw with two fingers so she could open her mouth enough.

And he sat there, Tenten's head in his lap as the antidote did its work, her fingers reaching out to his and holding them tightly, convulsively. Neji returned her grip with equal strength, silently willing her to recover quickly.

When Ishin appeared in the doorway minutes later, watching the two of them worriedly, Neji looked up, his face and voice emotionless.

"I found your daughter."

To be continued…