Disclaimer: blahblah, what IS a disclaimer. Well, my disclaimer is that I don't own any of these characters except for Aki and the other characters I will reveal later on. The other Jinchūriki. I don't own the manga either, well not all of it… I guess I sort of have them but not really. Well here is the next chapter. Please read and review! Lights… Camera… ACTION!
: x :
A mass of black birds followed the shriek. It was a frightening screech, it started low at first, not that loud but as it got louder the sound lay rooted in Lee's ear. He was on his 359th lap, but was unable to finish because he was certain that it was one of his comrades that screamed. He ruled out Neji, which only left Tenten, the girl of the team, most likely the weakest. Lee prayed to the lords above to keep her safe until either him or Neji got there.
And there was a stroke of luck after all. Neji had come right before Itatchi let the blade fall onto Tenten. Tenten lay there, she looked peaceful, but in her mind, there was a movie tormenting her. She had convulsions every once in a while. Neji had jumped in front of her unconscious body, determined to protect his team mates.
"Hello Hyuuga Neji. We were hoping you would come." Itatchi did his little smirking thing. Neji frowned, he's up to something. Slowly reaching into his shorts' pocket, he brought out the little flute that the person lying behind him had made for their team. Putting the flute to his mouth he played a little song that only he could hear, he closed his eyes to let the tune run through his mind. It was a sad song. It depicted the wars of each country and how many died and sacrificed themselves for others. But when the song ended, it was happy and joyful because in the end there was peace everywhere, no fighting, and everyone got to live happily with each other.
"Oh. How sad. You're using a broken instrument, what do you want to do? Put us to sleep?" Deidara laughed at his own joke. Neji opened his eyes. He was still facing downwards, so when he looked up he looked evil. His eyes were shaded in, but since they were white, they reflected the bright rays of the sun. (AN: Hey I found out that Hyuuga means in the sun. So Hyuuga Neji means "Screw in the sun?" And Hyuuga Aki means "Autumn in the sun." Interesting… I shall stroke my fake, long beard. Hmmm.)
"Neji! Tenten!" Lee had just jumped out of the forest yelling their names, "He landed gracefully beside Neji, "Are you alright?" He looked around and found Tenten lying in the grass; he immediately fell to his knees, "What happened to Tenten-chan?" Lee took Tenten's hand to look for a pulse, "She has a pulse, but it's weakening by the second!" Neji was still staring ahead.
"Finally." Itatchi straightened up from his slouching position. He was calmly watching them converse, leaning on a tree. "Okay, Deidara, we better do this fast."
Lee frowned, do what fast? He suddenly felt very tense around Neji, he looked at him and found that he wasn't there anymore. He was hanging from the air, his eyes were closed and blood was dribbling down his chin. The person holding Neji threw him beside Tenten and smiled, "I'm a step ahead of you Itatchi my boy."
Lee was surprised, this person, had put out Konoha's strongest genin in less than two seconds flat. If Neji couldn't it, there was no possible way that Lee could do anything better. Lee brought his arms up and clenched them tightly into fists. What are you talking about Lee? You work so hard, harder than that bastard. You can do it! Then maybe Sakura will love you. Eyes bursting into flames he became his competitive state.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" He yelled his battle cry and went to try and attack Itatchi. "Leaf Spinning Wind!" He leapt at Itatchi, however, Itatchi merely raised his hand and stopped the kick. Hastily twisting Lee's foot until it was almost backwards, Itatchi sighed. Lee keeled over in pain.
"Sorry thick brows." Itatchi raised one of his feet and stomped hard onto Lee's back. Lee fell over and didn't move again.
Applause came from Deidara, "What a wonderful of finishing off your foe." He said all that in a sarcastic tone.
"We are not here to play around. Hurry, pick this one up." Itatchi kicked his foot at the motionless Neji. He performed the 'bird' hand sign and both he and Deidara disappeared in a flash, Itatchi in a swirl of leaves, and Deidara in a cloud of dust.
: x :
Aki could feel her hands again. She was still in her cold dark cell, she couldn't do anything even is she wanted to. The pinkish barrier around her almost drained her of all her energy. She felt so tired. Her arm appeared to be broken, but again she couldn't do anything. Placing her arm gingerly on her stomach she stretched out her legs. Amazingly, Itatchi had made the barrier so that it stretched to her every move, but every time she had got up on her feet, that indistinguishable force pulled her back down to her knees or butt. So Aki learned her lesson and sat down. Carefully she lifted her arm, it seared with pain from her hand to her shoulder. She cringed and felt hot tears forming in her eyes. She placed her arm on the floor and lifted her knees up. Resting her chin on the tops of her knees felt comfortable. She felt safe in her little area, but she still felt troubled. She lifted her bad arm slowly and rested it on top of her knees. Looking down, she noticed that she was back in her normal clothes, her kimono must of gone back to her room where it was last before it was on her body. She sat there quietly in the corner of the room staring into the darkness that was created by her legs.
The creaking of the main entrance reached her still sensitive ears. Footsteps of this person revealed that he or she was carrying a heavy load. Aki kept her head down desperate to remain unnoticed. Casting a quick glance at the door, she saw that the person was Itatchi. He was carrying two people, their heads were down so she couldn't see them. Deidara followed soon after carrying someone else. Aki put her head down again.
She heard the door on her cell open; there were a few thumps that followed afterwards, probably them dumping the three bodies inside. She heard Itatchi and Deidara stomp up the stairs to a better place than this.
"Where are we?" A familiar voice sounded.
"I don't know, is he awake yet?" Another voice, a more feminine one came across Aki's mind.
She peeked a little. Two backs were facing her, one of the backs was clad in a light pink shirt, and the other was all green. She lifted her head a little more and recognized them to be Rock Lee and Tenten, her former team mates. They had not noticed her, just like she wanted. There was another person though, it was Neji, he was on the floor facing down. He looked pretty scratched up when she saw him. She put her head down again, they think I'm dead. I know better than to scare them.
"Neji? There were some footsteps, it was Tenten talking, "Wake up Neji."
"Yes, I think we might need your byakuugan." Lee was surveying his surroundings. It took a while before he noticed the glowing pink orb in the corner of the small, cramped room. "Tenten? Uh.. come here." Tenten did as she was told, leaving a bewildered Neji lying on the floor. Lee whispered quietly, yet Aki still heard, "Tenten, what is that?"
"I don't know."
"I-it's a person." Neji stammered, he was up nowbu and his byakuugan was activated and he was looking straight through the pink barrier. Lee came up and knocked on the barrier, he quickly retreated when a slight bolt of light stuck his fingers.
"Hey! That thing just shocked me."
"It's a chakra barrier." Tenten spoke with some wisdom, "Only the person that conjured it can get through. I wonder who is in there."
Aki looked up, apparently they could not see her. She tried to speak but found that the barrier also absorbed her power of speech. Crap.
"I see you're all awake now. Well, I believe you've already met the person inside this barrier. I'll take it out. Say hello." The pink barrier dispersed slowly and Aki was revealed in the corner all scrunched up and frightened. "Don't worry, I just want you guys to have a reunion, or should I say family reunion." Some dull shuriken flew out of his hands and struck Lee and Tenten on the head. They fell easily enough, like bags of lead into the ocean. Neji watched in a delirious state, he slowly turned his head back to Itatchi, looking confused. "Oh?" Itatchi put on a surprised face, "Hiashi didn't tell you? Well then I will. You guys are twins, long lost twins. Ahah." He laughed maliciously, "WE separated you guys when you were around four years old." Itatchi left the cell and closed the door behind him, "Please feel free to talk amongst yourselves and to make-up for the thirteen years you two were apart." Itatchi sighed, "Need some help remembering?" He went over to Neji who was just staring and put two fingers to his forehead. "Ahh, I see, a chakra shield. Your father put one of those there to protect you from remembering you ever had a sister. Smart, smart. Well, let me destroy it for you." He took some of his chakra and forced it into Neji's head. Neji gasped.
Flash! There were two kids playing in the sand, one was a girl, the other a boy. They were laughing. Flash! There was a boy looking around, Neji took a while to realize that that boy was him. He climbed a tree to hide from this girl that was playing with him. He had jumped and scared her. She was crying, "Nii-san." He bent down to say sorry and then they both strolled off. Flash! They were in their bedrooms playing with puzzles and little figurines, laughing again. Flash! There was a shrill scream and he found himself running with his father towards it. He saw there was a little girl pinned to the tree with shuriken. He remembered the feeling of protection when he jumped to protect her from the enemies. This was his sister. Flash! He found himself facing his cousin, Hinata, and wishing her a Happy 3rd Birthday. Flash! A blazing pain appeared on his forehead. The room he was in was illuminated by a soft green light. Flash! He was in his room and this person came in and took him from his bed. When he was outside he found his sister staring back at him. He was back on the ground now, but his sister wasn't. He remembered the last cry, "FATHER!" Flash! He was talking with his father, Hizashi. Hizashi was telling him to stay alive. Flash! He was looking at the lifeless form of his father lying with a cloth over his face. Neji found himself crying silent tears and then bawling. Flash! He found himself all alone in the world; the world that hated him.
Neji collapsed on Itatchi and was left lying on the floor, shocked with all the memories he had just gotten back. "You can help you sister remember everything." Itatchi flashed his fake grin and then left.
The two were silent for a while. Aki tried getting up unsuccessfully, she was still badly hurt from all the temple business and what not. She struggled over and over again until she finally got to her knees. She crawled over slowly to Tenten and Lee and saw that they had wounds on their heads. Aki put her good hand on each of their heads. When she lifted her hand, a sparkling print was left over the wound.
Mumbling softly, the blood somehow ran backwards into the wound and the wound closed up behind it. Tenten and Lee stirred. Aki fell backwards, healing wasn't what she did very often and at the state she was in, it took a lot of energy. She sat there for a while resisting the temptation to just lie back and go to sleep. After, she crawled slowly to Neji. He was still weak and was barely awake. She passed her good hand over his whole body and it also left shimmering trails, the glitter fell on Neji's body and coated it. Aki then formed an odd hand sign where her left pointer finger was touching her right middle finger and her right pointer touching her left middle finger. The pinky, and the ring finger were folded up and her thumbs were located in the middle of her two pointer fingers. Again, she mumbled a few words and Neji got up looking scared. Aki dropped again, and this time, she lay there not really feeling anything.
Tenten and Lee were already better. Neji was up and awake walking around the cell thinking about what he had just heard. Aki propped herself unsteadily on one of her arms, her good one obviously. She was shaking while getting up to sit cross legged. Coughing slightly, she was able to get on her feet with support from Tenten.
"Aki! We thought you had died!" Tenten exclaimed somewhat happily.
"My hologram died, not me. Though I can feel everything my hologram feels and that temple was really heavy." Aki touched her legs gingerly and winced in pain.
"Ah. I see. That's going to take sometime to heal you know." Tenten said with concern, "Are you okay to walk by yourself."
"Yeah. I'm out of that barrier."
"How long were you in there?" Lee asked, he was sitting in the middle of the whole cell, in the lotus position. It seemed like he was meditating.
"I was here since I was four, if that's what you mean."
"No, I mean when did that red-eyed person put that barrier around you?"
"Oh, about..." Aki thought for a while, "Three hours ago. I don't know. I was out cold. They beat me pretty badly when they found out I used my time shifting powers."
Aki conjured up some wind to pick herself up; it felt good to use her powers again. She then commanded the rock below their feet to crack a bit and let some dirt come through. Then with her powers over wood, she created a small cotton plant seed, making it grow faster with her time powers. She them used her water skills to clean the cotton and make it into a soft cloth. With her normal telekinesis powers, she wrapped cloth around her broken arm. She repeated this process to heal her bones in her legs. All of that took less than ten minutes.
Lee and Tenten watched in awe.
"If you're so powerful, why can't you just get out of here?" Lee asked smartly.
"This dungeon is in the middle of this castle. There are rooms below us, above us, and on either side of us. Even if I could shift everything in here, I would still end up being caught. I tried doing that when I was six."
Lee nodded in complete confusion.
"You guys like my home?"
"Er.."
"I would have thought so." Aki closed her eyes and focused her powers into making a better room. Everything dissolved and was replaced by other things. The rock below their feet dissolved into a nice, soft carpet, the walls dissolved into nice plaster walls with colorful wallpaper. The mat at the corner of the room dissolved and changed into three feather beds and the little candles that lit the cell dissolved into beautiful crystal chandeliers. Everything was beautiful, except for the area Aki stood on. There was still stone at her feet and everything she passed turned back into what it was before. She sat down on the floor, "Gee. I have to practice."
Tenten jumped onto one of the beds and bounced. "I don't think you do, these are so comfortable!" Neji just stood there leaning on the wall.
Aki turned on him, "Why are you so uncomfortable?"
"Because he said we were twins." Tenten and Lee's mouths dropped almost literally to the ground. They surveyed the two, commenting on how they do sort of look a like. Neji looked angry but didn't tell them off.
"Hmm. Sort of missed that part, but it is a little weird." Aki said joyfully, she chuckled merrily to herself. "You must be a bad brother. I'm glad I didn't grow up with you."
"Yes, he's bad alright, nearly killing his cousin and all." Lee remarked absentmindedly.
"Lee… shut up." Neji said quietly, "I don't have a grudge against the main family anymore."
Sure you don't.
"You eyes are telling me that you don't believe me." Neji took off his forehead protector, "I don't care anymore, really, and I don't."
"So you were the one." Aki said softly.
"What one?"
"You're the one that told the Hyuuga story to that blonde kid."
"Yes that was me." Neji looked down, "I lost though, I can't believe I lost to Naruto."
"So you aren't a Chuunin? Haha! I'm a Jonin."
Neji frowned.
"Father, was he really killed by the main family?"
"No." Neji sighed, "He died of his own will." He tied the head protector back to cover the cursed seal.
"What about mother?"
"According to all those memories that Itatchi let me have, she died after you were born."
"So you really are my brother?" Aki asked in bewilderment.
"I guess so; I'm older than you though."
Aki backed away slowly, her eyes were wide. "They said you… they said that they knew… you were supposed to be dead. The Bijū…" Aki stopped backing up and her eyes started to flame. "We have to get out of here."