A/n: Okie dokie, here's chapter 8 of the story. This one's also kind of long. Enjoy!
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Chapter 8: Preparation
"Rei-chan, you really are learning faster than the brat did, you know," said Kanroku. Training had begun a week ago, and she was learning faster than any other student he had ever had. "Okay, let's try it with the mist again, shall we?"
"The mist...?" Tenten said, dazed. It was peaceful, learning how to erase yourself. Tenten was making the most of her time, learning each technique for controlling her chakra reading well. "Oh, the mist! Yeah," she nodded.
Kanroku chuckled, "Still getting woozy from the technique? Don't worry. You'll get used to it over time. Here's the mist." His hands flew through numerous signs, and suddenly, the entire training area was filled with an unearthly and strangely terrifying mist. It was dense, so dense, in fact, that Kanroku, standing just five feet from Tenten, couldn't see her when he finished summoning the mist. "Alright," he called out, "erase yourself."
Tenten did as she was told. She concentrated on the scene, looking down on it from third person, as she had done a week ago in the courtyard, and imagined herself fading from it. "Wow, this is a cool bloodline trait! I think I'm going to like playing with this...and it'll also help during sparring with Neji. He can't hit me if he can't sense me, now can he?"
"Rei-chan, you're not concentrating. I can still sense you clearly," Kanroku called into the mist in Tenten's direction.
Tenten concentrated even harder, forcing her mind to stop wandering.
"Much better," Kanroku called again. He turned to Neji, who was standing off to the side on the porch, arms crossed, face stoic. "You want to try and sense her?" he asked.
"Hn," came the reply, as Neji stepped into the training area, into the foreboding mist. It was a strange mist, like it was daring you to enter, to try your luck. But once Neji stepped into the mist, he couldn't turn back. The porch had disappeared from view. "Alright, all I have to do is find her...this may be harder than I thought. She's gotten very good at this ability, put in a lot of effort too. For the past week, she has just fallen into bed without even undoing her hair. Its only natural that she's this good by now. Kanroku has been pushing her hard lately. I expected nothing le-" Neji spun around as a familiar aura came in from behind, and his teammate came into viewing distance, which was about three feet.
"You could sense me?" she asked, confused as to why her technique wasn't working as well as it usually did.
"This bloodline trait doesn't work as well with people who know your chakra. At just the slightest sign if it, they can sense you. That is, unless you can completely hide your reading, completely erase all of your aura," said Kanroku, coming near the two. He dispelled the mist with a wave of his hand. "You know, I think you have almost 90 control over this ability already. You certainly caught on quicker than that Imoshinai brat, I'll tell you that. The only thing left you need to do to master this is to fully erase yourself so that not even Arachi-san here can sense you."
"And that, I'm assuming, is the hardest part of the training?" asked Tenten.
"It was for me," her mentor shrugged, "and I left it out of Imoshinai's training, so if you can master it, you'll have an advantage over him."
Tenten was silent. Was she planning on fighting Imoshinai? On gaining back her pride? "It doesn't matter...does it? Is that the reason he's teaching me? To fight the thorn in his side? But why wouldn't he fight Imoshinai himself...? No," Tenten thought, "he must be teaching me this for my own good, not his own...after all, what uncle exploits his niece's talent? But then again...what uncle hates his own nephew...?" She shook her head free of the thoughts.
"Shall we eat lunch, then?" said Neji, noting her countenance.
"That sounds appropriate, I would say," Kanroku said, starting towards the kitchen.
Tenten and Neji followed, and the rest of the day was spent idly walking around the Village with a large number of the Reiki family as guides.
That night, Tenten slept with the thought of finally having a family, a real home. Well, not that Konoha wasn't her real home, but she had always felt slightly detached from it. There was a certain hole in her life there that she had attempted to fill with training and Team Gai. She failed. It came to the point, actually, where she had just accepted the fact that she would forever feel that hole there, and she ignored it, or at least did her best to cope with it. It was like erasing that need. But now that it was here...it felt almost like a dream...like she was living the life she had envied from afar. "Is this...how Neji feels? I mean, the guy doesn't act like he needs his family. Hell, he's probably tried to kill them more than once. Well, that was special. No, he has a family, filled that hole. He has Hinata and Hiashi. Oh and Hanabi, too...Yeah, he's always had a family...I guess he never knew how good he had it..." And with that, she drifted off to sleep.
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"She - she's dead!" Eimie screamed from the doorway of the clan mistress' room.
"Wha...?" said Tenten, slowly getting up from her slumber in her own room, which was quite some ways from Kisaki's room. It was way too early to be screaming like this. "Who's dead?"
"It's Kisaki-san, isn't it?" said another clan member from the crowd that was gathering in the courtyard.
Eimie nodded silently. The new morning sun was being manipulated in the heavy fog that still coated the grounds. The light was not yet bright enough to pierce the dense weather that the Village had grown famous for controlling.
Tenten opened her door slowly to the sight of about thirty family members, turned away from her, crowded around the hallway opposite her room. Eimie was standing on the deck, her face contorted into pure and utterly undeniable shock. Neji was apparently up and about as he was standing at the very back of the crowd, nearer to Tenten, arms crossed, face stoic as usual.
He turned around. "We need to find Imoshinai now."
Tenten stared at him. "Why now?"
"Because he just killed his mother."
"Eimie-chan didn't say that," said Tenten, curious as to why Neji was jumping to conclusions. The crowd facing Eimie was reeling with theories as to who killed the late Head's wife. Imshinai's name came up, and it was almost unanimous; he was the killer.
"Do you believe me now?" asked Neji, a smugness in his voice just barely noticeable.
Tenten scowled. "Fine, I'll go get dressed." And they both turned, Neji back to face the extremely haggled looking Eimie, and Tenten back to the room to look for a set of clean clothes. She slid the door closed behind her.
Neji watched the scene before him with mild interest. It wasn't everyday that you were handed the privilege of watching a high ranking clan bicker amongst itself.
Suddenly, a young girl quietly walked up to the stoic Hyuuga, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she spoke, "Mmm, what's going on...? Was there a meeting today?" The stuffed animal in her hands began to drop as she put her hands down. She was still in her nightdress, her strikingly familiar hair tied back in a drooping pony tail at the base of her neck.
"She looks exactly like Tenten! Am I still asleep? What is up with this clan?" Neji thought, slightly taken aback by the mini Tenten standing before him. "...Yes, there was a meeting. It just," Neji paused, trying to think of a believable lie to tell the child, "got slightly out of hand."
"Why are they talking about nii-san? Did he do something wrong...?" The child hugged the toy in her small hands tightly. Worry graced her features. "I hope he doesn't get into trouble..."
Neji crouched down to her level. Curiosity was getting the best of him. "What's your name?"
The young girl looked at him. She didn't flinch at his white-eyed stare. "Reiki Sora. What is yours?"
"Neji." He disregarded his pseudonym for the young girl.
The girl smiled, her eyes still sleepy, and looked toward the crowd. "Neji nii-san, are you here with Rei onee-san?"
Before Neji could answer, an old woman came up. She was short, just reaching twice Sora's height. "Sora-chan, are you annoying this young man here?" She turned to Neji, "I'm sorry. Sora is quite the curious one, ne? Oh! Excuse me for not introducing myself. I am Reiki Heisei. You are here with that girl?" She pointed to the door sliding open behind Neji just as Tenten walked out, clad in an unusual outfit.
Neji turned around, thinking he would see Tenten in one of her usual Chinese tops with cargo pants, but now, he received a bit of a surprise. "...Yes."
"Ah, wonderfu- dear," Heisei addressed Tenten, "what are you doing with that on...? There are no fights happening, are there?"
"Ma'am," said Tenten, "there will be." She was dead serious, and Neji was surprised. Tenten never seemed to be serious of her own accord. A pale, light blue robe that came to her knees was tied loosely at her waist with a bright red sash. A fishnet undershirt showed from beneath the robe. The sash was long, almost reaching the ground where her feet were bare save for wrappings that came up mid-calf.
"You are searching for Imoshinai, yes?" Heisei said quietly, so as not to disturb the dispersing crowd. "I can't stop you, but I will say this: don't kill him, as many of the clan members believe it was you who killed Kisaki. You need him to prove your innocence, dear."
Tenten nodded. "Thank you. I will keep that in mind." And with that, she motioned to Neji, and they started toward the front gate, being careful to stay as silent and unnoticeable as possible. Well, as much as they could going toward the main gate of the complex.
Heisei and Sora watched them leave by the gate. "Auntie, I like them...but...are they going to hurt Imoshi nii-san...?" Sora asked her great aunt.
"No, dear," answered Heisei, "they're going to bring him back." But she knew that something would go down in the woods, something very unpleasant for everyone. With that, she turned around and went inside, Sora at her heals.
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"Neji, I sense him," said an extremely focused Tenten, as they both bounded through the woods beyond the Reiki grounds.
"Me too. He must not have activated his ability. But if we can sense him, he can sense us too. So, be careful." The two Jounins rushed forward into a clearing with a small tent. Near the tent was a fire, and near the fire was Imoshinai.
He stood. "Welcome, Tenten, to my humble abode," Imoshinai sneered.
"Imoshinai, I want a rematch," said Tenten, her confidence faltering just barely enough for Neji's perceptive eyes to catch.
"Fine. But why now?" he said.
"Because its not fair to your mother. Her death shouldn't have happened, Imoshinai."
"My-my mother!" He was clearly shocked.
Now Neji spoke up. "Don't act stupid."
This pushed Imoshinai off the deep end. "I'll bet it was you two, wasn't it! You killed her! How dare you lay a finger on her, you scum! She was part of the clan, was that it? And your mother wasn't?" he screamed toward Tenten. She took a small step back, her eyes wide, mind trying to process what she was hearing. "He didn't do it! Oh my god, he didn't do it! Neji was wrong again...! What is going o-"
"Tenten!" Neji yelled just in time for her to snap back to reality and hastily dodge a head on attach from Imoshinai.
"Fine!" the furious teen yelled toward Neji, "I'll fight you, too! Hell, both of you at once couldn't lay a finger on me! Now die, you murderers." And with that, he activated his bloodline limit and leapt into the trees, leaving Neji and Tenten in a wide open clearing, with no idea where the enemy went.
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A/n: Hehe...cliffhanger! Fun for authors, not fun for readers! lol Anyway, hope you enjoyed, and the next chapters will be out on the 21st or 22nd. Thanks for reading!
