Sorry for the long wait, and I knoooowww I'm being REAAALLLYY mean to all the characters right now (hugs Neji in apology TT) butbutbut...well...you'll see...

I got many comments about "IS THIS GONNA BE THE END OF THE FIC! NOOOO! (insert scream here)" and just to tell you now, I ain't the person to leave things hanging at the end of a fic...(winks)

Chapter 17: Day of Reckoning

Time had passed.

Years took their toll, changing little and altering a lot, but yet…some things stayed exactly the same.

But after that day, after that incident, the thing that remained most cruelly lacking was the special vivacity a certain Hyuuga had for life, only to be replaced by a dead, empty blankness which seemingly infested his soul, spreading throughout his whole entire body until he was practically drowning in nothingness.

Flashback

"You know you shouldn't have done that." Tenten said lightly as she ran fingers through Neji's silken black hair. The Hyuuga remained silent, eyes staring blankly into nothingness, not even noting the blatant comment the girl had made about his attack on Hiashi.

"Really, those who disobey Hiashi will have to face the consequences." She continued. Opalescent eyes lowered to half-mast as Neji absently made a moue of perfunctory agreement. He felt Tenten shift behind him, as well as a faint tug on his hair.

"Oh rats, I think I got something tangled…" the brunette murmured as she tried to free fingers from the grasp of Neji's locks.

Something long dormant suddenly stirred in his heart, then seeped its way into his veins like wax through a mold. Heat came alive in his eyes and swirled its way into the pupils, filling them with a white, searing light that seemed to set his irises on fire. Every muscle, sinew, tendon, and ligament suddenly tensed to the point of snapping in his body as memories once more flooded his mind with nostalgic images, images of a certain blonde that used to stroke slender fingers through his hair with a dreamy, blissful expression of joy and wonder carved so transparently on his foxlike features…..

In a violent jerk, Neji whirled and ripped his hair from Tenten's surprised hands, eyes blazing with a swirling cocktail of fury, livid desolation, and bitterness.

"You will not EVER touch my hair again." He hissed. Tenten reeled back, stunned and terrified at the Hyuuga towering over her.

Neji's jaw worked furiously as he struggled to say something else, eyes glittering with unshed anguish and frustration, but he abruptly turned away, staring with great torment into a deep void of nothingness. Slim fingers found a knife lying nearby, and in one great, sweeping, and utterly shocking motion, the Hyuuga closed his eyes and cleanly severed his mane of raven hair with one slice of the serrated blade.

Tenten reeled backwards, stunned, as Neji's thick tresses fell limply to the ground in a sweeping rain of black. The Hyuuga knelt and, with a mournful but utterly determined air, silently gathered up the flaccid strands, slipping out of the room without so much as a word to the shell-shocked brunette on the floor. Tenten watched him go in a mixture of torment and astonishment, eyes riveted to the close-cropped hair that stood up in odd, rough-edged angles.

He walked up to his room, ignoring the twin glances of amazement from both Hiashi and Hizashi, as well as various gasps and mutters from random scientists. Closing the door, Neji reached into his dresser drawer, fumbling for a slim white box. Opening the case, he stared blankly at the single strand of pure, gold-spun yellow that lay serenely in the deep velvet lining, then neatly folded and twisted his hair and tenderly laid it next to the strand, closing it with a definitive snap. A ghost of a smile flickered across his lips, and for a moment, the fire long burnt out flared up again in his eyes as he fondly caressed the ivory casket. It burned brightly, ever so brightly as memories flooded his brain once more, but slowly died and lay dormant as Neji turned away, answering to the summons of his creator.

And it wasn't until seven years later that the sparks ignited once more, calling the depths of his soul out of their pitch-dark cavern.

End Flashback

They were engaged, were Tenten and Neji. Hiashi had obviously thought that his two creations were a good match, and so requested that they wed. Neji showed no sign of resisting, so engaged they became, and Tenten bounced around the laboratory proudly flaunting a sparkling diamond ring to anyone willing to pay attention. Neji didn't particularly care, and sometimes even displaying a cordial contentment that was more out of formality than anything else, but when he was alone, the limitless pools of white in his eyes would fade to a dark, ominous grey, and he would spend hours just lying on his bed, reliving moments of long, long ago.

Several times Tenten had come into his room during the night, dressed in nothing but a revealingly sheer nightgown. She would slide herself onto his bed and whisper sweet nothings into his ear, running fingers lightly over his shoulders and chest as she did so. Neji let her, though he paid her no heed even when she boldly caressed his chin-length hair, entangling her hands in his overhanging bangs. He let her undress him, let her kiss him to her content, but when they were both free of clothing and lying on the bed, Tenten straddling his hips, he wouldn't, or couldn't commence with the actual lovemaking, for he was never excited around the girl. He just…wasn't motivated, despite Tenten's repeated efforts of trying to rouse carnal provocation from him. At first, Tenten was sorely disappointed, often dissolving into tears at his side, complaining bitterly about how they were supposed to be a couple, but after a while when her grievances continuously fell on deaf ears, she gave up, and now seemed content with just kissing the Hyuuga until she fell asleep at his side.

Neji himself went along with whatever she administered to him, but found no pleasure in the acts. His kisses were absent and distant, his mind floating elsewhere, oblivious the strokes and ministrations Tenten performed on his body. Surprisingly she never went below his waist, despite his lack of resistance. Neji highly suspected that were she to provoke even a minute response from him, she'd have him on the bound and sated on the bed, but since he never provided even an ounce of attention to her, he'd successfully managed to keep her off of his virginity for a while. That was, until they were married, during which she would probably sneak something akin to aphrodisiac into his drink and….the Hyuuga winced, thinking of the consequences. He'd deal with that when the time came, most definitely he would.

It was during one cloudy morning when Hizashi padded softly to Neji's door, rapping gently on the frame. When no response came, the older Hyuuga frowned, puzzled. It wasn't like Neji to stay asleep this late, but then again, the particularly tempestuous storm last night didn't do wonders for enticing any sort of rest. That storm….heavy brows came together in a thoughtful scowl as Hizashi thought over the events of the preceding night. There was a strange, vibrant energy interlaced within the storm, energy of raw and pulsing magnitude that seemed strangely familiar yet inexplicably indeterminate, despite any efforts on his part. Perhaps it signaled a day of reckoning.

Hizashi sighed and turned his attention once more to the door, rapping more tartly this time with a curt "Neji, it's time to get up". When his call was met with yet another wave of silence, the older Hyuuga heaved a wearied breath and summoned up Byakugan, trying to peer into the contents of the room.

He jerked backwards and nearly fell at the pain in his eyes which shot straight to his forehead.

What…what was this? A strange sort of barrier had erected itself in Neji's room. The energy was Neji's, no doubt about that; Hizashi could detect the signature of energy surging within the walls, but as to how Neji had learned to construct such a force field was beyond him. Neji really was a prodigy to be able to enact such a thing, Hizashi thought with a wry twist of his lips, though he'd never seen any trace of motivation whatsoever in the young Hyuuga. The only way to get past the barrier was by ramming a huge amount of energy into the caging of energy, which required a little more strength than he was equipped with…Hizashi turned and silently slipped down the hallway, alerting Tenten who was currently at work in the lab.

The duo stood staring at the door to Neji's bedroom. At Hizashi's nod, Tenten slammed shoulders into the door, effectively cracking the hinges and breaking it down. The barrier fell away, only to reveal a startling sight in the middle of the room.

"Hizashi-san…"

Never before in his life had Hizashi seen such a sight. Neji was kneeling in the middle of the room, his eyes more alive than ever before in the seven years since the incident, but...spread like threads of silk across the entirety of the room, entangling in the carpet and spilling almost languorously across the room was…

"Neji! Your hair!"

And indeed it was.

Gone were the close-cropped locks that crowned the Hyuuga's regal head. Neji looked exactly as he did seven years ago, his long, dark tresses pooling like water throughout the room, although his hair had grown to such a length that it had spread throughout the whole room, entangling furniture and carpets alike in its dark, midnight grasp. With a flicker of a glance at Hizashi that told him she'd handle the situation, Tenten started forwards and began to pile up the hair, rolling it neatly into a ball which she deposited at Neji's side.

"What do you think caused this?" She asked him urgently. Neji arched a lean, sculpted shoulder.

"I do not know. When I woke up in the morning and went to change my clothes, my scalp started to itch and suddenly….my hair started growing….I tried to cut it, but it grew too fast…" He trailed off thoughtfully. Locating a pair of scissors, Tenten set to work at his hair with a sigh, only to be waved off by the Hyuuga.

With a look at his eyes, Tenten nearly choked, almost swallowing her tongue. The glimmer so unique to the Hyuuga was back, and, if possible, burning even brightly than before. It stripped away the years so that Neji looked vibrant and young, his smile genuine and his body pulsing with vivacity and the will to live, so unlike the closed-off recluse Tenten had known for seven years. A truly broad, almost foolish grin had stretched itself over his face, and the radiance the Hyuuga projected was positively dazzling, so much that Tenten almost felt the need to shield her eyes from the brilliant Hyuuga.

"Neji…what happened?"

Gently plucking the scissors from her fingers, Neji shook back his hair with an old, familiar gesture.

"I think I'd like my hair to be knee-length, thank you."

Deftly snipping at the locks, the Hyuuga carefully trimmed the edge of his locks, depositing the rolled-up bundle of excess tresses underneath a nearby table. He swung back and spun around elatedly, marveling in the nostalgic weight of his hair upon his back.

The casket…

Eyes flashed in excitement as Neji barreled through to his room, wrenching open the drawer that contained the white box. Fingers trembled, fumbled with the clock, inserted the key, opened the box, and there…there, so marvelously carved…the mane of hair he'd sheared off seven years ago was still intact, only this time the yellow strand was wrapped around them and quivering with a latent energy that demanded to be released.

"What are you doing?" Tenten asked suddenly from behind him.

Neji whirled and slammed the casket closed, pasting what he hoped was a furtive smile on his face.

"Nothing, really. Just checking to see if my valuables were still intact." He remarked breezily. Tenten frowned, trying to see behind Neji's back.

"Are you sure? Since when do you have valuables?"

It was at that moment that the casket trembled and expelled a force that swept Neji's hand away with a burning thrust. The strand of yellow rose in the air, trembled for a second, then shot straight to Tenten's surprised countenance, quickly fixating itself in her scalp and becoming a lock of brilliant wheat-bronze hair. The girl spun back, clutching her head with a scream as a white-hot energy engulfed her body, and then….Neji grasped the nearest object that would support his weight as he gazed upon the awesome phenomenon.

Tenten's normally chocolate-brown eyes were a startling shade of clear azure-blue.

A faint thread of air expelled itself from the Hyuuga's lungs as the girl slowly stood, an all-too-familiar smirk smeared like grease all over her face. Tenten was the same…she had the same features, the same clothing, but…the way she was walking…that walk was too knowing, that smile…was too….

Too…

Lips twisted in a devious smirk.

"Hello again, Neji-kun."

Utterly stunned, the Hyuuga stepped backwards, astonishment naked in his opalescent eyes. The truth was almost too good to believe, but oh he so desperately wanted to believe it…the words slipped almost involuntarily out of his mouth.

"Naruto!"

A/N: Due to some sort of error on the page, I couldn't put line breaks where I wanted them to be (curses the comp TT) so I apologize if the "Flashback" and "End Flashback" seem too abrupt.