Neji ran out into the morning light at the edge of Konoha. The fastest way to get to the Hidden Stream, without his absence being noticed, was to fly. He could make it in less than half a day, and easily make it back by sunset. But doing that required him to summon one of the two eagle brothers, which required alot of chakra.

He bit his thumb and ran his other fingers across it, concentrating hard on properly releasing his chakra as his hand plunged earthwards. There was a puff of smoke and he found himself atop the head of the Eagle Brother Kazaashi, pure white and albino and known for his speed and intelligence. This would work out well.

Neji silently grabbed two strong ropes that acted as reins for controlling the albino eagle. Giving a slight jerk, he lifted off the ground. He had nly done this once before, and with the other brother, and still did not quite understand how to control it.

"Where to, Neji?" rasped the summon suddenly, noticing his difficulty. Neji gave up and sat back.

"The Hidden Stream, as fast as you can move, Kazaashi," he said. The eagle circled once, getting his bearings, before heading northeast towards the Stream. The wind bouyed him up from underneath, lifting them high into the air and ruffling the oddly white feathers. The eagle's eyes, both pink, scanned below him before he really took off, darting with incredible speed for such a large animal.

Neji held on tight as he watched the trees pass quickly below him, eventually growing less concentrated before disappearing completely, even faster than he had thought they would. They were replaced with a familiar setting, wide grasslands scattered with large grey boulders that reached high into the air.

After only three hours of travelling, Neji saw the Hidden Stream approaching fast, nestled at the bottom of it's shallow valley with the small stream running through it. He grabbed control of the summon again, preparing to land, but was stopped by a voice from below, to his left.

"Is that you Neji? What are you doing here?"

Neji faltered in mid-flight before spinning around, taking the eagle with him and landing it on one of the larger rocks. It's talons dug deep into the stone as Neji jumped down beside it, resting a hand on it's leg and peeking out at none other that Iyasu.

He was sitting with his legs dangling over the edge of a boulder, a backpack resting beside him, on the exact same rock in the exact same pose as when they had first met. The only difference now was his clothes. He wore a loose, light blue chuunin vest that hung open to reveal a medium blue sleeveless shirt with light blue flames curling up from the bottom edge. He wore black short pants and the exposed parts of his legs were covered in bandages. His short, brown hair was once again blowing messily into his face under the Stream head protector which he wore bandana style. He stared out at Neji with black eyes and Neji noticed they were watering, he had been crying.

But Iyasu wiped his eyes quickly, standing up. "Why are you here? The mission has been over for awhile Neji, if you haven't noticed," he muttered sarcasticly, not smiling. He looked almost angry, Neji had apperently come at the wrong time.

Neji actually considered to just turn around and leave, he knew for a man to cry it had to be something particularly painful. But he remembered Metsuki on the verge of death with all of the machines beeping around her and decided to stay.

"Iyasu, I wanted to ask you a favour."

Iyasu stared silently back at him, waiting for the rest.

"Metsuki had a bad attack, and I wanted to know if you could help her out a bit." He phrased it as lightly as possible, but got no response from Iyasu, nothing but silence.

"I cannot use my bloodline as freely as you can, Neji. Let the Hokage deal with it, her skill is as good as mine, or better."

Neji felt anger boiling up inside of him again, he would not give up. "Let me rephrase that, Iyasu," he hissed. Iyasu turned back to him, his look of anger now gone and replaced by his normal expression.

"Metsuki is lying in a hospital bed in critical care for long term residents. She probably has over fifty medical ninja looking after her, and yet her condition is getting worse," Neji went on as he noticed Iyasu's face still bore no emotion.

"She is in a coma and had five days to start recovering, or else she'll die. She is internally bleeding, has a number of broken bones, and a high temperature and bloodpressure. Her breathing and heartbeat are both shallow and irregular and right now... she is probably getting that spinal tap. They've already preformed heart surgery on her and removed part of her stomach. And the Hokage doesn't have enough time to take care of her 24-7, if she would even live that long."

There was silence as Neji finished, and Iyasu's face was still the same as he stared off into space. He turned to fully face Neji.

"Why are you doing this for her? It's certainly not out of sympathy. Do you love her?"

Neji faltered, before composing himself. "No."

"Then why should I go? If she is not that important to you than why don't you just let her die?"

Neji fought against his anger, willing himself not to rip Iyasu to shreds. "Because it's not right for someone to suffer like this. You wouldn't know unless you saw what kind of condition she is in.... Please just do this one thing."

Iyasu laughed inwardly, he was going to toy with the Leaf-nin's mind one more time before going. "Only if you admit it."

Neji paused, knowing what was coming, but trying to avoid it. "Admit what?"

Iyasu snorted. "Admit it. Say that you love Metsuki. C'mon, I know you want to," he said, finally grinning.

Neji ground his teeth, he really wanted to hurt this man right now. But he knew it was the only way to get him to come, so he decided that just saying a few emotionless words would not be too hard to do. "I..."

He was wrong, the second word caught in his throat. He couldn't force it out. He felt his face burning, but continued. The sun was beginning to fall.

"I... I love Metsuki. Now let's go," he said. His cheeks were burning bright red and he knew it. Iyasu hopped down from his boulder, grinning, and shouldered his backpack, heading over to Neji's summon and climbing up onto it's shoulders.

"Really? I never knew," he said sarcastically. Neji looked as if he were about to kill him, and his face was red either from embarassment or anger, Iyasu couldn't tell.

"First, let me tell the Mizukage that I'll be gone for awhile, just drop me in the middle of the village, it'll only take a minute."

Neji complied, silently fuming at the Stream-nin. He landed on the building at the center of the village, the one in which the stream passed directly underneath it. Iyasu jumped down and entered through a door on the roof while Neji waited impatiently above.

There was suddenly the sound of raised voices, yelling at eachother from below. A moment later, Iyasu appeared with a flushed face. He silently borded the albino eagle, and Neji took off without question. The sun would have set by the time they reached Konoha.

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Neji landed the eagle in the forest, and dragged Iyasu along with him towards the hospital as it vanished in a puff of smoke. The sun has just set and a low glow was still visible on the horizen. As they dashed through the streets, Neji almost ran over Sasuke.

"There you are! I was looking for you earlier, Metsuki's condition just got worse. They finished a spinal tap and then her seal broke again, they had her hooked up to six blood transfusions at once while they tried to seal it. She lost more blood each time... Why is Iyasu here?"

" It got worse?" said Neji, avoiding Sasuke's question. He rushed past him in the direction of the hospital, followed by Iyasu. He pushed quickly through the double doors and rushed up to the front desk. The nurse was not there. The hospital seemed quiet except for a group of doctors speaking quietly in the corner.

"I don't have time for this," muttered Neji. He traced his footsteps towards the room where he had visited Metsuki before, finally coming across the restricted zone. He was not prepared for the sight that greeted him.

As he and Iyasu pushed past the double doors, they found the halls crowded with medical-nin. The floor outside of the operating room was covered in blood, which was smudged with footprints as it dribbled towards none other than Metsuki's room. The medical-nin were calling out orders to eachother as they rushed in and out of her room.

"I hope that's not her room, is it?" asked Iyasu. Neji pushed through the crowd and turned into her room, greeted by blinding white light and the shadows of many medical-nin. The two chuunin forced their way into the room and Iyasu got his first view of Metsuki.

Most of the wires that had been previously running through her body were laying bloody and discarded on the floor. There were, as Sasuke had said, six or more blood transfusions entering her arms. On top of that, the bed, floor and her own body were covered in blood which the medical-nin had apperently been trying to stop. Metsuki was still unconcious, and her breathing mask was splattered with blood.

"Holy shit! What the hell are you doing, you idiots! You'll kill her! Get the hell out of here!" yelled Iyasu, eyes wide.

"Iyasu-"

"You too Neji! And don't let anyone in until I come out, got it? Now go!" Neji quickly followed the other medical-nin out the door as he caught a last glimpse of Iyasu, almost dripping in blue-green chakra. Iyasu slammed the door as the hallway outside reigned dead silence.

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Nine figures stood atop a nearby building, one of them crouching low and looking towards the hospital with white eyes.

"The Stream-nin they brought on the mission is taking care of her now, we shouldn't interfere, Metsuki-sama would get angry again," said Zenji, standing and rejoining the other Akatsuki.

Houtan shifted slightly. "I suppose we can leave it, he is a very talented ninja."

The nine shapes vanished in puffs of smoke, but from the shadows on a nearby rooftop stood a single figure wearing a jounin vest and had a toothpick bobbing up and down thoughtfully in his mouth. Genma had heard the whole conversation.

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Iyasu sighed and stepped slowly out of the room. It had taken three full days, but he had finally managed to almost fully revive Metsuki. She now lay asleep in her hospital bed, her vital signs steady. He found Neji in the lobby, asleep in one of the uncomfortable chairs and poked him weakly, he didn't have much energy left.

Neji was instantly awake and he stood quickly, almost knocking over poor Iyasu.

"Are you done yet? Is she alright?... You don't look very healthy," he added as an afterthought. It was true. Iyasu had no colour whatsoever, he was completely white, and he was breathing shallowly, straining each breath. His hands were covered in blood, although he had somehow avoided getting any on his blue shirt. He shook his head.

"I'll be fine in a few days. Metsuki is asleep right now, but she should wake up in a day or two. I'm gonna go find a hotel to stay in..."

Neji watched as a blood covered Iyasu moved slowly away from him, looking as dejected as when he had found him. He sighed, as much as he hated the chuunin, he knew he had saved Metsuki and he owed him for that.

"Hey, Iyasu. You can stay at the Hyuuga house, we have a large guestroom with an extra bed that you can use. Just wait here for a moment, I'm going to go see Metsuki."

He saw Iyasu collapse into a chair and fall asleep without a word as he moved towards Metsuki's room. He pushed past the double doors, noticing the number of medical-nin had thinned, and made his way towards Metsuki's room.

She was asleep in her bed, the sheets had been changed, and most of the machines had been removed, the only ones remaining were the blood transfusions, only two now, and the heart moniter, which was beeping strongly and steadily. He sat down in the chair by her bed.

Most of her bandages had been removed, and she now wore a loose, white hospital shirt. Her chest rose and fell slowly and her face was much more relaxed. Neji reached forward and took up her left hand, wrapping his around it and noticing how cold it felt.

He leaned forward and pressed his lips onto her forehead, gently pushing her hair away from her face. He stood up and left the room, back to the lobby where Iyasu was still passed out in the chair. Neji gently shook his shoulder, jarring him from his sleep. Iyasu stood, eyes half closed, and followed him outside, towards the Hyuuga Estate.

Once there, Neji led him to his room silently, where he passed out again, falling across the bed messily. Neji returned to his own room, where he usually only went to sleep. Which was exactly what he was going to do, since he had spent the last few days sleeping in a lobby chair. As he slumped down on top of his covers, he squeezed his eyes shut, concealing his white orbs behind his eyelids as he slowly fell asleep.