Chapter 3: Light

The sky was an intense blue, flecked with the barest smudges of clouds that drifted lazily over the Hokage tower. It was near noon, sunlight glancing off the lacquered ceramic tiles on the roof, briefly illuminating their earthy, terracotta colour in a shimmering white haze. The last traces of moisture from the previous weeks of rain were finally evaporating from the walls, leaving streaks of residue and dust clinging to the peculiar combination of brick and bamboo in the heat.

It was a beautiful day: hot, humid, but the glorious sunshine was muted in the shaded windows of the Hokage's office on the top floor of the tower. The office was cool and dark, the bare, clean lines of the scant pieces of furniture drenched in shadow, air dusty and still between the odd trinkets that were littered across the room. Tsunade leaned back in her customary seat by the desk, figure a sharp silhouette emblazoned against the window despite the faintness of the light. Her eyes were closed, elegantly tapered fingers lightly resting against her temples. When she spoke her voice was low, quiet, but faintly dangerous. "You didn't follow her."

The man by the door shifted, moving from the shadows into a small square of light before her desk. "I couldn't."

Abruptly her eyes snapped open and she stared at the Hyuuga, one corner of her generous red mouth lifted in a sneer. "Couldn't? Couldn't? Anbu - a Hyuuga prodigy no less - unable to track down a missing-nin?"

"It would have attracted too much attention. I could not risk alerting Orochimaru."

"Neji." Tsunade snapped her fingers impatiently. "Quit playing dumb. Orochimaru evidently was alerted, or he wouldn't have sent her after you to begin with."

Neji frowned, hands fisting behind his back as he looked away from her accusing gaze. "She... did not know I was the operative who was to meet Miyake Akio."

"How does that justify anything?" Tsunade hissed at him, leaning forwards to rest her elbows on the desk. "You know your duty well enough, Neji. You knew you had to follow her. Kill her, if the situation demanded. She should be here in front of me, right now!"

"I..." Neji began, but he didn't have no explanation, no defence, and so he closed his mouth again, eyes still kept on the ground. Pride meant nothing right now; looking at his Hokage would have meant making a choice he had managed to avoid until now.

Tsunade watched him in frustrated silence, fingers clenched, nails digging into her palms. Of course she knew why he had let her go; secretly Tsunade hurt for them, her own losses reverberating in their pain. She, too, had been left behind once... ...But this was wartime, and she had come too close to losing her best shinobi to what – love? What these kids thought was love? She remembered Tenten. A bright girl, ambitious, brilliant with weapons. Tsunade supposed that it was partly her own fault that she had turned traitor– she had misjudged the girl's affection for Anko, had been too cruel perhaps.

"I'm going to have to send a team after her," she informed him briskly, taking a sheet of note paper and jotting down names. "Nara Shikamaru, Inuzuka Kiba. Yamanaka Ino." She glanced up at the Hyuuga coldly. "Hopefully they'll do a better job than you did. You've disappointed me, Neji. You know how low on shinobi I'm at right now."

"You're sending Nara after her?" Neji abruptly looked up, eyes betraying his anger and shock despite the otherwise emotionless set of his face. "To retrieve her? Or to kill her?"

Tsunade met his gaze firmly. "To kill."

"Is there no chance of a reprieve?"

"No."

"Why?" Neji demanded harshly, ignoring the fact that he was completely overstepping the boundaries of status and position. "You knew her, Tsunade-sama, she served under you. Why can't you-"

"Because she is a missing-nin, and by Konohan law she is to be punished accordingly! She murdered a Konoha kunoichi and she would have murdered you!" Tsunade exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air in frustration, but Neji only shook his head.

"Tsunade-sama, please reconsider. Tenten is not a traitor at heart. She can be convinced to return. " Neji's clipped, professional tone was growing increasingly agitated.

"No."

"Then send me."

Tsunade started. "What?"

Neji rested both hands on her desk, leaning down to face his Hokage. "Send me instead to go after Tenten."

"You?" She frowned.

"Only me."

"Impossible,"she snapped at him. "You know I can't let you go by yourself. She is to be killed, Neji. You can't save her anymore."

"I know."

"What makes you think I will trust you with her?" Tsunade continued angrily, long blonde trails of hair shaking loose from her ponytail. "You've already let her escape once. You might let her go another time. Besides, as the best shinobi at my current disposal, you have many other more important missions waiting for you to- "

"Please, Tsunade-sama," Neji insisted quietly. "Let me go."

Tsunade glared at him. This time Neji returned it defiantly, traces of the infamous Hyuuga pride surfacing from the silvery depths: pride and something more, something hard and unrelenting and cold.

She knew she would let him go. Call it retribution, call it sympathy or empathy - she owed Tenten this, at least. Tsunade sighed, her entire frame sagging a little as if under the weight of all the dead grief and pressure. "If I send you, will you –"

"Kill her?" Neji finished the question for her smoothly. "... ...Yes."

"You tricked me!" A fuuma shuriken spun violently past the silver-haired man, barely missing his ear before ricocheting off the scattered boulders behind him. The intense sunlight bearing down on them transformed the metal into a blinding, hot streak of white. Kabuto smiled thinly, calmly taking off his glasses and wiping them against the bottom of his shirt.

"Trick you? Now whatever could have made you think that?"

"Don't fuck around with me! You knew he was going to be there!" Tenten accused him heatedly.

They were standing in the low, grassy plains on the outskirts of Kyotamura, one of the small shanty towns that bordered the West of Tea Country. The midday sun beat down mercilessly upon them, harsh light reflecting painfully off every surface until Tenten had to squint, eyes stinging and blurring with tears. The day was stiflingly hot, cooled only by the slight breeze sifting through the long grass. Low lying plains stretched to the horizon in every direction, littered with the occasional scattering of boulders and the gnarled stump of a long dead tree; the sky was an enormous expanse of white-blue above them. Tenten had run through the night, hurtling through bustling streets and solitary alleyways to make her way out of Kyotamura, knowing fully well that Orochimaru's subordinate would be waiting for her here.

"And what if I did?" Kabuto retorted coolly, sliding the thin frames back over the bridge of his nose. "I clearly stated that your mission would include the killing of two Konoha shinobi, did I not?"

Tenten watched him furiously, chest heaving as she barely restrained herself from launching another volley of steel at the unruffled man before her. "Yes, but -"

"You have failed, Tenten," Kabuto cut her off patronizingly. "I had expected more from you."

"Why him? You...you know that I – I -" Tenten stuttered, stumbling over her words agitatedly. "I just – I can't kill him. You know that. Not him."

"Why not?" Kabuto's smiled widened, showing a glimpse of even white teeth. "I understand he used to be a...comrade...of yours, but since you have turned your back on Konoha, I don't see why you should have any qualms about killing him."

"I can't. I won't."

"What about Anko? Don't you wish for her to be revived?" Kabuto raised an eyebrow, taunting.

Tenten stiffened. "Perhaps she is better left dead," she muttered bitterly. "I wish for her revival, yes...but not like this."

"You've already killed one kunoichi. Might as well kill the Hyuuga. Just him - and then Orochimaru-sama will revive her."

"No. I've changed my mind. I won't do it anymore," Tenten told him half-heartedly, turning away. Accepting the offer from Orochimaru had been wrong from the start. She could still stop now, run away again, go back to taking private missions here and there.

"What makes you think Orochimaru will let you go this easily?" Kabuto's tone had suddenly taken on a commanding, dangerous quality. Tenten did not bother looking back.

"He can kill me if you want. Hell, you can kill me. Or you can try to," she muttered. "I don't care."

"Oh, we won't hurt you. Of course we won't." Now she could even hear the smirk in his voice; she stiffened, suddenly, truly afraid for the first time during the meeting. Kabuto continued. "In fact, Orochimaru will revive Anko whether or not you kill the Hyuuga."

"What?" she snapped nervously, twisting back to glare at him with an awkward jerk of her hips, heels digging into the soft earth. "What are you talking about?"

"Well." Kabuto was smiling again, the soft, almost gentle slant of his lips a stark contrast to the ice in his voice. "Ever since our dear Sasuke was taken away from us, Orochimaru-sama has been desperately searching for a new vessel, as you may well know. Unfortunately –" he tilted his head, his glasses catching and reflecting the sunlight so brightly his eyes were hidden from view. " – there were no suitable bodies around for his use, and he has had to make do with a string of rather weak containers for the last few years." A significant pause. "It's been two and a half years since he entered his most recent vessel."

The hidden implications in his words hit Tenten so forcefully she nearly bent double with shock. "No. No. You can't mean –"

"Orochimaru-sama is planning to revive Anko and use her body, yes. I knew you'd understand. Clever girl."

"He can't do that!" she cried out, horrified.

"Why not?" Kabuto shrugged. "Gender is not an important factor in the making of a good vessel, Tenten. Anko was a strong shinobi. She will do for a good while."

"No, he can't. I won't let him," Tenten told him raggedly. Her blood pounded in her veins, each pulse sending hot, searing flashes of pain through her body. Despite her words, however, she knew there was nothing she could do. She had no idea where Orochimaru was keeping Anko's corpse and there would be no way to find it in time.

Kabuto merely smirked. "Alright."

"...Alright?" Tenten echoed hollowly.

"Orochimaru-sama will revive Anko - but take another vessel - if you agree to assassinate Hyuuga Neji."

Tenten suddenly felt weak on her knees. She was lost in a sea of unbearable light with choices, choices, too many choices looming ahead and threatening to overwhelm her. "Why me?" she asked weakly, almost pleadingly. "Why Neji?"

"It's simply strategic to rid Tsunade of her most powerful fighter. The easiest way to do that, logically, would be through you – his vulnerability," Kabuto told her matter-of-factly, as if he was stating the obvious. Tenten recoiled, horrified.

"I can't."

"Then Orochimaru takes Anko." Kabuto's voice hardened. "Think carefully now, Tenten. You are no longer a kunoichi of Konoha. Why should you remain loyal to Tsunade, after all that she has done to betray you?"

"But it's Neji..."

"Oh, please. Don't tell me you still dream about - young love? Romance?" Kabuto sneered, taking on a sickly sweet tone. "How can you bear to be so weak, Tenten? Either you kill the Hyuuga, or Anko –"

"Stop!" Tenten slammed her palms against her ears, refusing to listen any longer. Her eyes were squeezed shut and she was choking, pressure building hard and sharp at the back of her throat. "Just...stop. I'll do it. Tell Orochimaru I'll do it."

Then she fled, a lone figure running through a haze of blinding light.