A/n: Hello, hello! Sorry these two chapters are late...I was lazy yesterday... Well...hope you like the chapter!

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Chapter 9: For the Head of Clan

Neither knew where he was. He was almost invisible but for the spurts of faded blue seen through the trees.

"Damn," Tenten cursed under her breath, "he's too fast. I can't...sense him."

A ringing of sinister laughter came from the trees. Neji followed it. "Of course you can't, Tenten," Imoshinai's voice was moving in circles around them at an unbelievable pace, "just like three weeks ago. You couldn't sense me then, either, could yo-"

Tenten relaxed a bit. The plan had worked. Immediately after Imoshinai had jumped to the safety of the trees, both Neji and Tenten knew that the only way they could touch him was for him to give away his position. And what better way than the old decoy trick, where one teammate poses as bate and the other attacks unnoticed?

Neji jumped back from the trees he had disappeared into, holding a body. He dropped it. "Genjutsu," he spat.

A mist began to engulf the area. Neji and Tenten stood back to back, ready for anything. Imshinai's voice rang from the trees once more, this time, not a clone. "Well, I guess I underestimated you two, ne? No matter, you can neither sense nor see me. I am invisible. By the way, what's your boyfriend's name over there, Tenten? He's sure faster than you, kunoichi." He laughed.

Tenten jumped into a nearby tree, leaving Neji alone in the clearing with nothing but his Byakugan. "Ready?" she called out, immediately moving to another branch a few feet away, and activating her limit to the fullest of her ability. She could sense Neji doing the same in the clearing below. "And now, Imoshinai, come at me. I've grown, and I want to show you, you lying bastard," Tenten thought.

Suddenly, a cry came from Neji's direction. His aura dropped significantly. "Neji!" Tenten jumped down from her tree, making her way to a weakening chakra reading.

She was actually met not with a dying teammate, but with a struggling Imoshinai, held up by his throat by Neji. "You got too close, Imoshinai. Don't ever underestimate your opponent," Neji seemed to enunciate 'ever' slightly more than was necessary, "and by the way, its Neji." His hand closed tighter around the aura manipulator's throat. Imoshinai could feel the blood flow stopping slowly. It was the end of the line for him. "Damn! How could this happen? What did I do wrong? Everyone trusted me...did they not?" his thoughts swirled in his head, becoming the only thing he could hear. Because of this, he did not hear Tenten call out to Neji.

"Neji, stop," she stated as calmly as she could, "we need him to prove my innocence. He needs to confess. Now let him go." The prodigy's white eyes widened slightly, but he complied, knowing what was best. Imoshinia's limp body dropped to the ground, as he struggled to bring new air to his screaming lungs.

Tenten waited until he was breathing again and then picked him up roughly by the collar of his shirt. "Did you kill your mother, Imoshinai?" she asked bluntly. The fog had all but disappeared by now, and the after noon sun shone on her completely serious face. The boy looked up.

"What the hell gave you that idea?" he spat, shrugging Tenten off his collar, "I didn't do anything, haven't even been to the complex since I left to find you. I'm a missing nin, remember? Even if I had managed to get back in, one of the many visitors there would see me. Then my family's reputation would be ruined, and then, it wouldn't matter whether or not I became the Head."

"You...didn't kill her?" Neji stated, puzzlement evident in his voice to those who could catch it.

"No," said Imoshinai, now standing on his own, "but I bet I know who did."

"Who?" asked Tenten, still as puzzled as Neji was. "But Imoshinai had a motive: his mother sent him away to find me... What on earth is going on here?"

"Kanroku," Imoshinai stated darkly, "he hates us, always has. Thinks we're always trying to claw our way to the top of this clan when we're already there. He knows that the Reiki clan agreed to the marriage without any bribery from her clan. My mother once told him off for pestering me when I was young, and from then on, he has hated both of us with a passion. Multiple death threats have come in for both of us. The worst part is that around the other clan members, he loves us. His facade is just disgusting at the dinner table, always trying to be the most wonderful uncle in the world." Imoshinai stared in the direction of his house, Tenten looked at Neji, and Neji stared at the ground below his feet, in concentration. Imoshinai spoke again after the brief pause, "You know the reason he trained you in the bloodline limit?"

Tenten shrugged. "Because I'm part of the clan, and I should have a right to know."

Imoshinai's bitter laughter caused Neji to look up in curiosity. "No, Tenten. Don't be so naive. He wanted you to beat me in a match. He trained me, but left out the more important parts of the training. This left me struggling to find it on my own. He told everyone how horrible I was with the training and even asked my father if he could stop training me. That was it, and I just quit. But...my grandmother, she taught me the correct way, in secret, so Kanroku wouldn't know."

Tenten stared at her cousin. With every word he spoke, the malice he had once given off seemed to disappear. He was just a lost teenager trying to hurtle every obstacle that came in his way. He was trying to prove to the clan that he was worth something..."Kind of like Neji..." Tenten thought.

"Then we should go see Kanroku," said Neji, obviously troubled by this new twist.

"Yeah," Tenten nodded. There was no doubt in her mind that the boy in front of her was not lying. With that, the three set off in silence through the trees toward the clan grounds.

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"Eimie-chan," said a seated, tired Kanroku, "we have visitors." They were in a quiet part of the complex, one that no one ever went to. Therefore, the location was the perfect place to execute the plans.

"Who?" asked Eimie quietly, mixing the liquids in her vials until they turned completely clear. She then dipped needles into the concoction, being careful to keep the handled part of the needle clean.

Kanroku's face became thoughtful. "We don't have to go find her, as she has come to us...but with a few more in tow. Meddlesome kunoichi," he muttered as he picked up one of the needles that Eimie had finished dipping into their blend of chemicals. "I won't be but a minute." Kanroku stepped outside. "Now then, little Tenten, where are you hiding...Ah, there," he thought, sensing Tenten and the other two hiding in the bushes not far off to his right. Slowly, he closed his eyes and picked out Tenten with his outstanding senses. Then, with a quick flick of his wrist, eyes still closed, he flung the needle with deadly accuracy at her head. "She'll die just like her aunt-in-law."

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From the bushes, they couldn't see his face, but he wasn't facing them. From nowhere came a needle aimed straight for Tenten. "Damn!" thought Neji, "So he knew where we were...I should have been expecting that. Why didn't I?"

Tenten fell over as Imoshinai tripped her up to move her out of the way of the deadly needle. It barely grazed her arm. "Thanks, Imoshi-" she started. Suddenly, her eyes widened and unfocused and her face paled. The weapons mistress fell back into a slump on the forest floor.

"Tenten!" Neji called out. Kanroku already knew they were there, and there was no use in hiding anymore. She didn't answer.

Kanroku called out from the deck he was still standing on. "My needle was covered with a deadly poison. It seeks out the brain cells in a human before anything else. By not letting it hit her head, you just prolonged her death, child. Now, she has to die the hard way, feeling the poison overtake her consciousness, and then her mind, her thoughts. Eimie-chan is a wonderful chemist, ne?" He laughed.

Tenten squealed in horror at something only she could see, the poison slowly making its way around her brain. Neji looked at her in frustration. "She's going to die if I don't do something!"

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A/n: Short chapter, I know...but the next one is longer. Oh, and I was thinking I wanted to change the title of this chapter...so if you guys have any ideas, tell me...! Ok, now onto chapter 10! Woot!