A/n: Hi! thanks for the review...I had the anonymous review thingy turned off by accident...oops...but now its on! So...this takes place during the same morning as the last chapter. Sorry its so short, but the later chapters are longer. Ok...enjoy!

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Chapter 3: The Other Side of the Morning

Something was wrong. Neji could just feel it. He looked over at the clock hanging on the bare walls of his room; 5:19 a.m. Actually, he had awoken rather abruptly just a few minutes ago and simply hadn't been able to get back to sleep. Usually, he could control how long and when he slept down to the minute, and he was quite sure that he tried sleeping longer, but just couldn't. So, reluctantly, he sat up.

Suddenly, a faint explosion echoed throughout the still morning air. It was coming in the direction of Tenten's flat, and that was what made Neji fully wake up. "Well," he reasoned, "she lives in a crowded part of town, so it could have been one of the many ramen stores near there, opening up for the few freaks who will come in for ramen in the morning." An image of a devastated looking Naruto standing in front of a burning Ichiraku came to his mind. Neji shook the thought away and began his daily morning routine.

After leaving the compound, Neji started for the part of town he was sure the explosion had come from. Searching through most of the back allies and finding nothing, Neji made his way to Tenten's apartment. Sure enough, a small crowd of people was gathered in front the building. A gaping hole was visible on the second floor of the building, and what appeared to be water was streaming down in a soft trickle from the bottom of the hole. "...that's Tenten's place..." Neji concentrated chakra into his legs and made a quick bound up to the hole.

He immediately grasped the situation and yelled down for one of the onlookers to get the medic team. He wasn't about to move the oddly positioned Tenten, lest she have some sort of spinal injury. He turned back to the scene before him: a completely shattered mirror, a cracked sink with water leaking from the slightly askew faucet, and an unconscious kunoichi laying in a shallow pool of her own blood trickling from a gash on the side of her head and other numerous cuts, all probably from the broken glass. There were eight kunai lying on the counter, as if she hadn't even tried to fight the person that had done this to her or had not attacked at all. But what seemed strange to Neji, still with a stoic face as the medics arrived, was that there was no sign that someone was here other than her, no foreign aura or chakra trail. With the damage as it was, he was sure that she couldn't have done this to herself...could she? No no, Tenten was a genuinely happy person. She would never do this to herself. The only option left was that someone did it to her. Someone was here besides Tenten and attacked her, and Neji intended to find out who at all costs.

As he made his way to the hospital, Neji silently thanked his conscience for not letting him get back to sleep.

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A/n: Ok...hope that was interesting...I will upload two chapters at a time for this story, so...here's the other one in the pair. Thanks for reading!