A/n: Here's chapter 7! Its rather long...but...hope you enjoy anyway!
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Chapter 7: Meetings
The next day was set to search the village for Imoshinai. The two shinobi split up to cover more ground. Neji found the Reiki Clan grounds and asked to speak to a representative there, after finding Tenten.
"Neji, see that symbol on their shirts?" Tenten whispered, "That's the one Imoshinai had on...Tsunade said he was part of this clan, right? Then, why was he all the way out in Konoha? To get me? I have nothing to do with this family."
The representative came out. "Hello, my name is Eimie. What can the Reiki Clan do for you today?" She was extremely cheerful, like the rest of the grounds. Suddenly, before the pair could respond, a huge chakra reading was felt blowing throughout the complex. Both Neji and Tenten flinched with the urge to move into a battle position, but kept still for the representative, who didn't seem to notice. "Oh, don't mind that," she mentioned after seeing the newcomers recoil slightly, "They're just practicing. Its nothing to worry about. Here, let's move away from the training grounds."
She led them away from the main gate of the complex into an office. The room was clean and spacious, the signs of a wealthy household. "Why are these people living in luxury when the rest of the town isn't?" Tenten wondered, "But, we're on the complete opposite side of town...so I guess that would make a difference." She shifted uncomfortably.
"Please, sit, won't you?" Eimie asked cheerfully, her long dark brown hair swishing softly as they sat. After all, this might take a while. "Now then, what can we do for you?"
Neji spoke. "There is someone in your clan who attacked us in Konoha. We were sent to negotiate peace terms and punishment."
The representative gave a slight gasp, her cheery face faltering. "It must have been..." she mumbled quietly. "I'm so sorry. Could you tell us his name...or what he looked like?"
Neji narrowed his eyes. "She knows something. She doesn't even know who we are and yet she's believing us? There's a forehead protector, so she is a ninja. No ninja is this naive. Yes, she must know something more."
Tenten gave the description she had given Tsunade.
"Oh, this is bad...his name is Imoshinai," Eimie offered, "He...he ran away because well...his father died just a few weeks ago, the head of clan. And at the funeral, his mother thought he wasn't fit to be the next head. She...she told him that there was another child, that his father had an older child, one that was not legally part of the family, if you know what I mean. She told him that the only way she would allow him to be the head was if he found that child. So, he left." Eimie grimaced, remembering the tense funeral. "You see, his father went on a solo mission to another country, and, according to the rumor, he had an affair with another kunoichi and ended up begetting another child. This all happened about two months before his wedding," she explained. "Here, I - the clan is very sorry for his actions. Um...we're about to start dinner, would you care to join us? Its the least we can do for all your troubles. And you can lodge here as well. I bet the street merchants and rouges have tried to mug you already. This village, even though it doesn't seem like it here, is dying. There's no sense of morals anymore."
Tenten and Neji both nodded slightly, getting up from their sitting positions in the chairs.
"Alright, follow me," said Eimie, her genial face back on again. The three ninjas made their way to the huge dining hall via the numerous halls and rooms. Along the way, they received many curious stares from children and elderly alike.
"Uh...Eimie," Tenten wondered aloud, "why is everyone staring at us? Don't you guys ever get visitors? I mean, you are very politically active here, aren't you?"
The guide responded, "Oh, well, you see, we rarely every see the visitors. Usually they meet in the office. Actually, that's why we put the den so close to the front of the complex. So that the rest of the complex wouldn't be disturbed with the frequent visitors."
"Oh," Tenten replied as they began sitting down for dinner.
"Yeah, our frequent visitors, the ones who get to know the entire complex, get used to the stares. No one around here is used to 'normal' auras and chakra readings. I guess its in their blood to scrutinize everything that gives off chakra," Eimie shrugged, "Don't let it get to you. They're just curious."
As the rest of the family sat down for the evening meal, Neji realized why the complex was so big. There were over twenty people sitting at the table now, and still more coming. The last seats filled up quickly and a few more stragglers came by, not finding a seat. So, someone would drag in a seat from the other room and squeeze it in somewhere. All in all, there were slightly over thirty people sitting at one long table. "Good lord! This is bigger than even the dinners at my complex... Don't they stagger it?" Neji thought. It certainly was a large family, and all of them seemed to be fiddling with their chakra flows all throughout dinner, which was surprisingly quiet for the large number of people at the table. With thirty different auras all changing every second, Neji couldn't help but feel nauseated. It was overwhelming. He looked at Tenten. She seemed distressed, but as was always with her, she could hide it from the untrained eye.
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After dinner, Eimie asked a maid to get a guest bedroom ready for the two Jounins.
"We would like to pay our respects to the late Head, if you don't mind," Tenten stated, once they had left the dinner table.
Eimie seemed a little surprised at this, but complied with the request. "Of course, right this way," she said. After leading them past more closed doors and through more hallways than a maze, they came to a solemn looking room with prayer strips hanging from the door. The room was a corner room in Eastern part of the building, so at the other end of the open hallway, the setting sun was clearly visible. "He always liked to start the day with the sunrise, said that there was really nothing like it in any other part of the complex," Eimie explained after seeing Tenten marvel at the view. They entered the dark room.
It was his bedroom. They hadn't moved him yet from his position of death, as Eimie had explained. He had died in his sleep. His heart had stopped sometime during the night, and he had gone peacefully, without any pain. Neji and Tenten bowed before the coffin, side by side, as Eimie waited by the door, looking calmly at the pair. As Tenten came up from her bow, so did Neji. She stared at him out of the corner of her eyes, not wanting Eimie to know that Neji was scrutinizing the deceased head with Byakugan. He had apparently found something of interest as his eyes were slightly troubled and wide. "Just as I suspected, but who? And why? What is going on here?" Neji wondered as he deactivated his Byakugan and began to stand.
"Thank you," he said to Eimie, just as the door opened and another older woman stepping in. She stopped.
"Why, Eimie-chan, I didn't know we had visitors...from Konoha," the woman said in a quiet but sickeningly familiar voice. She sounded like Imoshinai. Almost exactly.
"Reiki-san, this is...Oh dear! I didn't ask your names. Oh please forgive me! It was so rude of me..." she slapped her forehead, realization and shame written on her face.
"Oh!" Tenten hadn't even noticed, "Don't worry about it. My name is Rei. And this," - she motioned to Neji - "is Arachi." It wouldn't be a good idea to be going around being called by different names in one town. Plus, she didn't fully trust this new woman.
"Well, Rei-san, Arachi-san, if you will excuse me," said Eimie, bowing, "I believe that Kanroku-san is calling. I should be going now. Reiki-san, if it is no bother to you, would you show these two their room?"
"Of course, Eimie-chan. Don't worry about us," said the woman.
"Thank you!" Eimie nearly ran over the others walking outside in the hallway in her haste.
"That was odd," Neji thought.
"Well I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Reiki Kisaki. I am the late Head's wife."
"I'm so sorry about his untimely death," Tenten immediately offered, although the woman didn't look too melancholic.
"Well," she sighed, "everyone has to die sometime, right?"
"And you thought his time should be now?" Neji suddenly put in. Tenten understood now. Poison. Neji had seen poison in the old man.
"What?" Kisaki gasped. Her make up lined eyes widened and her tinted lips parted in astonishment.
"You poisoned him, didn't you?" Neji answered her state of shock with only the kind of placidity he could achieve.
"What-what gave you that idea?" Kisaki seemed genuinely baffled but not innocent.
Still, Tenten began to doubt Neji's assumption. "What's her motive, Neji? Why would she do it?" Tenten thought.
Kisaki spoke again, her initial bout of stupor gone, "I assure you I didn't do it, but...it was bound to happen. He was a cheater and a liar. Someone was bound to want to get even with the bastard."
Neji stared coldly at her. "I can understand why you would want to kill him after what he did," he stated calmly, referring to the affair, "but not admitting it is the sign of a coward. If you truly hated the man that much, you would have told the entire complex by now."
"I would have told them only if I had done it, Arachi-san. But, alas, you have the wrong avenger here. I didn't kill him, only disgraced him at his funeral," Kisaki said, pointing out the flaw in Neji's theory, "Now if you two will excuse me..."
"Fine," Neji said, devoid of emotion. "What? Why wasn't it her? Everyone else on the complex loves this man. She is the only one who doesn't, so why wouldn't she kill him? After all, she didn't look too sad coming in...almost...giddy. There is something more here." As he and Tenten left the suddenly chilly room, they could've sworn they heard a small snicker.
Outside, a man was waiting just to the left of the door. His silhouette was dark against the rising moon in the background. He looked up. "Ah, you are done? Good. Well my friends, my name is Kanroku. I am the identical twin bother of that poor deceased man in there." Neither Neji nor Tenten knew what exactly to make of this man. He was smiling even after explaining his close relationship with the Head. His tinted light blue kimono and navy hakama seemed incongruous for the occasion of visiting his dead twin. He wore his Mist Village protector as a belt, and the Reiki Clan symbol was sewn onto the upper right arm of his kimono. "Is that snake of a woman still in there?" he suddenly asked, his smile gone from his mustached face, "God, when I get my hands on her throa-oops! Terribly dense of me to go about insulting my sister-in-law, ne? Well, its not like anyone on the complex really cares for her. You see, her clan arranged the marriage between her and my brother. It was meant to raise their status among the other clans of Kirigakure. Our clan agreed to let in that horrible woman, and when she had a son...well, the rest of the clan was overjoyed that there would be a powerful heir. But not me, ha! No, I knew she was plotting something with that brat of hers," Kanroku explained, clearly hating the woman with everything he had.
"Planning what exactly?" asked Tenten.
"Well," said Kanroku, surprised that the young kuniochi hadn't understood what he had been alluring to, "to get her son to be the clan leader of course. Why else would she kill my brother."
"But she sent her son away and he became a missing nin," Neji cut in, not liking the man's attitude toward his own flesh and blood.
"I don't know what exactly goes on in that brain of hers," shrugged Kanroku, "if you can call it a brain, but I think she was trying to prove something. That she was better than his illicit lover or something. Well, here's what I think: any woman would be a better clan member and wife than her!"
"Well, that still doesn't make her son Head, does it?" asked Neji.
"No, but she has enough political power that if that brat came back, she would be able to make him Head. And the rest of the clan would follow along. They wouldn't care." Kanroku now peered at Tenten, a look of curiosity plastered onto his features. "Eimie-chan said that the brat had the wrong person...but...I think otherwise. You look strikingly like my brother," he stated, now only inches from her face.
Tenten backed up. "I - I what?"
Neji watched on with interest but stayed cautious. "If that man tries anything with Tenten, I'll... Wait, he has a point. Kanroku said he was identical, and I don't know why I didn't notice this before, but Tenten looks very similar to him... Could it be? Has she finally found her family?"
"You must be the child," said Kanroku, confident in his ability to recognize him own flesh and blood, "I wonder why Eimie-chan said otherwise...maybe we should get her eyes checked..."
Tenten's eyes were almost as big as the plate she was eating on just an hour before. "You...don't really mean that...do you? I mean, I never...I...You really think so? You're sure...that...I-I'm...your...niece?" Her legs seemed to turn to jelly under her and she wobbled precariously, leaning on the wall behind her for support.
"Positive," said Kanroku nodding, giving her much needed space.
"Well..." Tenten didn't know what to say. She had found her family, her home. She had found the life she had always thought lost to her. "I...am meeting my uncle. The word sounds so foreign...like it was never meant to grace my lips, like...I-"
Her thoughts were cut off. "Come now, its not that unbelievable, is it? Ok, you want more proof," he laughed after seeing the stunned face of the teen before him, "Then, I'll give you some." Kanroku began to walk down the hallway. "Come," he said, turning slightly, "My brother went to Konohagakure for his mission. It was an information gathering mission on the Fourth Hokage. He was to stay there for a year. During that year, his marriage was arranged, and he...well, let's say he was up to his own doings there, ne?" Kanroku chuckled. "When he came back, he was terribly ashamed and told me about it. I offered to take his place in the wedding, but he refused, you see. He was always a man of honor after that mission... Anyway, he described her for me, the kunoichi, I mean. She dark hair, darker than he had ever seen, he said, because everyone here has lighter hair, but for a few. And he said she had a beautiful smile, like an angel's. He said he had never seen anyone with a smile like hers. He never did tell me her name, said it wouldn't be right, wouldn't be fair to her. What a guy, ne?"
Tenten still didn't know what to say. There wasn't any proof besides her appearance that she was his niece. As much as she hated to admit it, even to herself, she desperately wanted a complete family, a constant in her life, besides Neji. "One day, he'll get himself killed on a mission, and then...and then, I won't have anything...but - but I'm a strong girl. I have gotten along fine until now without a family, haven't I? I pay my own bills, do my own laundry, clean my own house...flat, whatever. This guy still hasn't convinced me."
The look on her face must have given it away because Kanroku let out an exasperated sigh, turned around and stopped. They were in the courtyard. "Fine, here's the ultimate proof. Do exactly as I say, okay?" Tenten nodded, curious. "Okay, I want you to become invisible. Pretend that you're completely invisible, like no one can see you at all."
Tenten looked incredulously at him. "You want me to do what?"
"You heard me," said a smiling Kanroku, "Try it."
"Okay..." said Tenten closing her eyes. She had played around with the idea when she was younger. It had always seemed like something that would be fun. But now, she was eighteen and completely above such childish wishes, therefore making her feel absolutely stupid trying to become invisible. Nevertheless, if it was proof that she was or wasn't of this clan, then she would at least try. "Invisible, like...erasing myself from the scene...like fading away into oblivion..." She imagined the positions Neji and Kanroku were in, Neji eyeing her with curiosity tinting his face, Kanroku staring at her intensely, and then, she imagined herself fading away...it was peaceful until she felt someone touch her arm. Tenten opened her eyes to see Neji's hand barely but still touching her arm in concern. "Nej- uh...Arachi?"
"Your chakra reading...it just...disappeared. Rei, you are part of this clan," he said, using her fake name. The words felt like a brick had been chucked at her head, but had disintegrated right before it hit her. She stared.
"This isn't funny Arachi. Come on, we should head home, or go find an inn...or..." she stopped when she saw the look on Neji's face. It supported his statement earlier. She was part of this clan. The bloodline was in her.
Tenten couldn't speak. She was too stunned, too numb. Numb with what, she couldn't say, but nonetheless, numb. Like her mind had stopped, just canceled everything and stopped. She just stood there, Neji's hand still lingering on her arm, Kanroku standing opposite them with a slight smile on his face.
"Now, do you believe me?" he asked.
Tenten nodded dumbly as Neji's hand fell back to his side, and his face became impassive again.
"Good, then would you like me to show you how to control your aura? Bloodline training? If you feel no ties to this family, this would be a good way to start..."
Tenten looked at Neji. He shrugged and her interpretation called that a yes. She looked to Kanroku. "Alright."
"Good, good. Now, its late already, and I'm sure you both are tired from your journey. So, I'll show you to your room and then we can start tomorrow. Both of you will stay during the training?" he asked, looking at Neji.
Neji nodded.
"Wonderful!" exclaimed Kanroku, "Really, this is amazing. I never thought I would ever see you...after all the explanation my brother went through to tell me what your mother looked like, I can see why he fell in love with her just by looking at you..."
Tenten blushed.
"Well, let's get you to your room, shall we?" said a once-again cheerful Kanroku, and he set off across the courtyard, the moonlight making him, in his light kimono, seem like a ghost floating along the garden's edge. Neji and Tenten followed.
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He was just about to fall asleep when Tenten spoke. "Neji, we're in a mess here."
He turned around, eyeing her. "Hn..."
Tenten took it as her cue to continue. "I mean, when we first embarked, we didn't expect to find my family, did we? Its all so...surreal, like a dream. Any minute now, I'll wake up in my room back in Konoha and...and I'll get up and go to training. It will be just like any other day, and this will all be a dream, maybe even a nightmare."
"She's thinking out loud. After all the events of the day, she chooses now to think aloud...Well, she has every right to, I suppose. What with finding her family, and then learning her mother is unknown and her father is dead...I guess I'd be surprised if she didn't voice her opinion now..." Neji thought. "Tenten, you have finally found your family. All those times when I asked you why you talked to me, and you said there was no one else, and now there is," Neji said. He didn't mean to silence her...no, on the contrary he expected some haughty remark about how he wasn't exactly a social butterfly either. But she simply looked at him, hurt evident in her eyes.
"If you wanted me to keep quiet, you could have just told me," she said shifting into a more comfortable position in her futon, and turning away from him.
"Tenten, I didn't mean it like that...I just wanted you to realize that these people are really your family. When you were younger, you used to look at Sakura and Ino, and envy them for their families, and now...now, you have one too. I just wanted to point out that... - Tenten?" Neji was baffled, both at himself and at Tenten. At himself for remembering when Tenten had first confided in him and what it was, and at Tenten because she was shaking. He slowly leaned on his hands from his futon to see her face. "She's not crying again, is she?"
A snicker was the only warning of what came next for Neji. Just as he was getting close enough to see her face, his long hair trailing down to her hunched shoulder, she pulled her arm out from under her and while sweeping it across the mattress, literally sweeping Neji off his hands, she turned her body out of the way of his falling torso. Moments later, Neji landed with a soft thud right where Tenten's shoulder had been.
"Wow, you sure fell for that one, Neji," Tenten giggled from her position just north of his face-down head.
"Tenten," Neji said coldly, raising himself slowly from his strange position across two futons.
"What?" Tenten said, smiling. She had just pranked the - no, the Hyuuga Neji, and she was pretty damn proud of it. She was so elated at just the thought of her beating Neji at something, that she never saw him pull the futon out from under her already dangerously balanced body. She landed flat on her back on the hard wooden floor with a slightly louder thud than Neji's fall, but she was sure it hurt a hell of a lot more than his. "Damnit, Neji!" she cursed a little louder than she intended.
"Hush, or you'll wake the complex," he said with an infamous smirk, dropping her futon and returning to his.
"Oh, shut up," she muttered, pulling herself back onto her futon, and then replacing the covers over herself.
"Goodnight, Neji," Tenten said quietly ten minutes later, not expecting a reply back.
To her extreme surprise, she heard a quiet 'goodnight' issue from behind her, where Neji lay on his futon, turned away as well. She smiled to herself and let sleep reign over her.
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A/n: If anything didn't make sense during this chapter, tell me... There are a lot of discoveries here and, I would like to make sure that everyone knows what's going on. So, if you do understand the story so far, click the purple arrow button thingy below this and read chapter 8. Hope you like the story!
