Harbinger

by tigerowl

Naruto's friendship with his teammates Gaara and Haku is put to the test as they prepare to deal with the threat of the Akatsuki. The secrets Jiraiya has kept come to a head, and Naruto must shoulder the responsibility of protecting much more than the Leaf Village. Continuation of Forlorn. AU NaruHina, GaaSaku, NejiTen, ObiRin, OCs *Taoism, Self-Indulgent World Building, longfic

51. Yin

Chapter 51- Yin

Chapter Soundtrack: "Nujabes - Hikari yon/san/ni Instrumental Remix" by TK-AR

Naruto was not especially fond of wearing the turban, but the sunglasses he could get used to. It was a ham-fisted disguise that probably wouldn't fool the eagle-eyed tattlers in Suna, though Gaara was being very strict about staying "low-key," explaining it thusly, "I've already told my advisory council I sent you back to Konoha."

"What'd you do that for?"

"Because we know some among them are dishonest at best, treasonous at worst. I need to keep you with me for now. If an informant for the Akatsuki noticed you were still in Suna and reported on it…I believe the word havoc describes what we can expect." Gaara was seated at a desk, highlighting each line of dodgy accounting on a balance sheet that the village council referred to at meetings. When councilmen weren't bullshitting with their words, they'd try to do it through numbers.

This was the building his Black Ops teams were headquartered in. It felt safer to coop Naruto up in one of the compact, ultra-modern rooms here than fritter above ground near the Administrative Building. The unidentified mole of the Akatsuki may have sighted Naruto otherwise.

Thankfully, his friend was making the most of it. Naruto had pushed together two long folding tables and unwound a technical Sealing scroll end to end. It was the kind of reading that would give even Gaara vertigo, but somehow Naruto was able to decipher most of the formula twaddle within it. Though it took him a while, and he had to stop to mark parchment sections with sticky notes, Naruto dipped back into the studies he'd begun under Jiraiya. Sporadically, he blurted out his concerns.

"What if—?" Naruto removed his convenience store sunglasses to wipe a smudge off of them, "No one recognizes me BUT a Sensor-type notices my chakra and reports me to the mole?"

"Down here they can't. There are sensory-deprivation barriers set up. And that's why I put a suppression tag on you when we go outside. Shush now, I've nearly found a discrepancy." In pencil, Gaara circled a set of assets that screamed fabricated.

"Okay." Naruto could live with that. He paused to slurp his cup noodle lunch, pacing in front of a complicated section of Sealing matrices. The structure looked gratuitous and could only be formed by prong-seals transmitted by the user's fingertips. It was not a skill he had completely mastered.

"Is it true that I look tanner?"

Gaara looked up from his work, annoyed.

"That Zeriko lady said I look like a baked custard tart." Naruto added. He tossed his empty noodle cup in the corner trash bin.

"You are a custard tart." Gaara confirmed, "Pass me that calculator."

"What? Is your village rich now?" All smiles, Naruto did as he was told and stole a peak at wild numbers on the sheet.

"That's what they want me and everyone else to think as they misallocate funding." Gaara flipped the old tape calculator on and began punching numbers like a cross-eyed bank teller.

Naruto returned to the wonky Sealing scroll section and then proceeded to stare at his fingertips. For a moment's rest, Gaara glanced up and was not sure why his friend was squinting at his fingers but it was most likely a harmless effort.

"Your brother came back with his team from Tide yesterday. When do you think Ero-sensei will be back?"

"I don't know. Kankuro is twice as quick as Sensei and he had less distance to cover."

"Do you think your sister is okay?"

"She's fine."

Silence prevailed again, punctuated by the buzz of overhead fluorescent lights. Gaara ripped a furling tape from the calculator and reviewed it, puffing angrily, then wound up to pitch the curled paper in a sad arc before it fell to the floor.

"Temper, temper…" Naruto scolded his friend. He patted a sticky note to his finger and stuck his own Hiraishin formula to it. Now if only he could visualize a complex prong-seal as depicted in the text and make it manifest the same way. It couldn't be so different.

"What are you doing?" Gaara grunted. He meant the weird hand stuff.

"Sealing studies."

"You are playing with sticky notes."

"I'm trying to figure out prong-seals, you grouch! Gosh. I told you to EAT LUNCH." Naruto barked, "You're so pissy and you said we'd only work for two hours."

"I have to re-do the tape." Gaara admitted, deflating.

"Just go slowly and you won't mess it up."

"I wouldn't have to double-check the accounting if they weren't a bunch of liars abusing our budget."

Naruto nodded, "I know, I know. They suck."

"Just you wait. You'll have to deal with this too, eventually." Gaara warned. He punched the number 5317 into the calculator, ripped the tape, and delivered it via sand granules to his friend on the other side of the room. Naruto read the paper upside-down: LIES.

"Chill, Gaara."

"I am." He cleared his throat, "Chill."

The assertion seemed about as fraudulent as the balance sheet in front of Gaara. Naruto poked his head out of the office door to shout down the corridor, "Can anyone get the Kazekage some lunch—?"

Said village leader hissed between gritted teeth, "Naruto."

"He's hangry." Naruto could not make true eye contact with the pint-sized, masked Black Ops agent who peeked curiously around the corner, not with his garish sunglasses on. So he improvised with a two-fingered hand motion, pointing from his face to the recipient's: I see you. You got this? The agent nodded to him and disappeared.

"Do not distract Black Ops units here. They have work to do— they don't run errands for me." Gaara grumbled as he started his calculations over, "That's what Kankuro is for."

"Actually, that's not what he's for. I'm gonna tell him you said that."

"Don't tell him."

"I'm totally telling him."

Gaara pointed to the asset line he stopped on to save his place and wondered aloud, "Is it possible to strangle someone with printer tape?"

"Probably not, but if you kill me with your sand Baa-chan will turn you into printer tape."

"She would."

Naruto took the sticky note with his Hiraishin formula attached and patted it onto Gaara's back. He then returned to his work at the table and attempted to manifest a prong-seal on the tip of his index finger. A long, silent block of time passed at the end of which Gaara ripped a new tape from the calculator and proclaimed, "I knew we didn't have that municipal account on the books. It never even came across my desk for approval. No one bothered to bid for it. The Tea Country probably has it! Whoever did this bookkeeping had better chase that account down for those funds or they are cactus mulch."

"Damn right." Naruto assessed as he continued staring at his finger.

He scrawled some notes on the sheet, marked it in red ink, attached the tape, and shoved the pile back into an accordion folder. Gaara then folded his arms on the desktop and laid his head down. There was new correspondence from the Raikage suggesting a meeting between himself, the Kazekage, and the Tsuchikage. Gaara intended to politely reply that any sort of meeting without the Hokage present would be highly inappropriate, but thanks anyway.

Across the room, the blue shimmer of a prong-seal sparked on Naruto's fingertip. He flashed across the room to Gaara's seat and displayed his handiwork right in his friend's face, "Look! Look! The composition is dogshit and backwards but look at it!"

"I can see you did it, Naruto. Most Sealing analysts can't manifest those seals even after a year of training."

"Looks like shit." Though highly critical of his own work, Naruto was laughing triumphantly.

"Shhhh." Gaara buried his head in his arms to deal with the onset of a headache. Perhaps a quick nap would set him right before tackling more work?

Naruto was more closely examining the scroll laid across tabletops, trying to reconfigure the form of the seal on his finger. The pictogram slowly, painstakingly, was molded into what was under figure 1.B in the text. Meanwhile, the Black Ops agent that Naruto had pestered popped up with a tray of meat buns and grilled vegetables, setting it down in front of Gaara, "Here you are, Kazekage-sama."

"Oh." Gaara raised his head, "Thank you, Wamu."

"Please don't work too hard, sir. May I ask who this is with you?" Wamu glanced toward Naruto, whose frown lines were intense as he concentrated.

"That is my good friend, Uzumaki Naruto of Hidden Leaf." Gaara informed him as he sat up to eat, "Under penalty of death you may not tell anyone of his identity, understood?"

"Understood, Kazekage-sama." Unruffled, Wamu nodded and then exited the room, making the same goofball gesture that Naruto had given him earlier. The subtle display of a playful personality in a young Black Ops agent very nearly made Naruto blast through the ceiling with joy.

Gaara offered Naruto a meat bun on the condition he not tell Kankuro that he was an errand-running type, but Naruto refused. "I didn't want to share with you anyway." Gaara decided as he stuffed his face.

It took Naruto forty minutes to get the form and balance correct for his single prong-seal, but he ended up with a textbook perfect pictogram, glowing brightly. Naruto marched around the perimeter of the room like a gloating champion as Gaara ignored him in favor of writing a polite letter to other Kages. He'd cleaned his lunch plate and guzzled the juice can that came with it.

Eventually, Naruto took a seat and tried to expand the feat to two-pronged seals. The light in his hand blinked out. He wrinkled his nose in aggravation, "Shoot, I had it. I guess the balance gets tricky the more seals you use…"

The noncommittal grunt that came from Gaara as he composed his letter indicated he wasn't actually listening. In an effort to find something else to do, Naruto wound up his technical scroll, tucked it in his belt, and then crossed back to Gaara. He poked his friend's left arm, "It's this one, right?"

"Which one?" Gaara kept working to not lose his train of thought.

He did not protest or react when Naruto pressed a hand flat to his upper arm and seared chakra into him, searching for the binding seal that held Shukaku. It flushed visibly in response to the contact, and Naruto drew close to examine it, "This seal lock isn't as complex as mine. Does it leak?"

"Not as badly as it used to." He was working on his closing remarks.

"It's had some work done. Don't worry, I won't futz with it." Naruto lifted his friend's arm, "Can he still influence you a lot?"

"No, and I've been sleeping properly since I was a child. Shukaku and I still talk frequently."

"Yeah, you told me about that. This has an Elephant Seal with two prongs attached. I guess the balance is good enough, but how can you really know until you try it?" Naruto mumbled to himself.

Gaara signed his correspondence and then rolled up the scroll, "I am grateful that Sandaime-sama and Sensei took it upon themselves to help me with my seal. It gave me a chance to live normally, and also to learn more about Shukaku."

"It's so weird to hear you talk about your Tailed-Beast like everything is cool." Naruto folded his arms.

"Everything is fine between us." Gaara confirmed, pushing his seat back and scooping up his expandable folder, "We understand each other now." He led Naruto out into the corridor and added, "I have two committee meetings this afternoon, so you can keep studying at my house while I'm gone."

"You're gonna stick a suppression tag on me so no one can sense me, and you still expect me to study? That's tough to do with a tag on."

"I don't mean practice actual jutsu, I mean just read." Gaara clarified.

"Just read..." Naruto repeated, "You really won't let me shadow you at your meetings?"

"Have you looked in a mirror?" Gaara panned the idea, "Absolutely not."

"I look like your average Chunin in Suna."

"You look like the idiot someone's village put up Missing posters for."

They briefly paused to scrap, spinning, wrestling, and bashing each other into plaster walls like juvenile delinquents until a Black Ops lieutenant commander worriedly stepped out of her office and asked, "Is everything alright out here? I know you needed to use our facilities today, Kazekage-sama…but it's been rather noisy…"

"He called me an idiot." Naruto was grousing as he and his friend calmed down. He allowed Gaara to place a medium-strength suppression tag hung on a string around his neck. "I'm not an idiot— I can form a prong-seal and I'm not even a Sealing analyst. I'm not even in the Sealing Corps yet!"

"Hush." Gaara said.

"Wow!" The lieutenant chirped, "Not bad, kid."

"…not an idiot…just outgoing and outspoken…" Naruto muttered his way up the steps of the building to the ground level as Gaara followed after him.

The lieutenant glanced to her left where Wamu, her newest Black Ops recruit, was watching. He pointed his v-shaped fingers from his masked face to hers.

---

After a bearable de-briefing with Suna's Jounin Council, Kankuro returned home with the expectation he'd crash on the couch and sleep, then maybe order takeout later. The last few weeks had drained him of his usual enthusiasm to be productive or cook.

Instead, he passed the threshold of the mansion and froze as the door shut behind him. The sitting area had two long technical scrolls open across the floor, parallel to each other as if they had been compared. There were hundreds of yellow and green sticky notes on the scrolls, the floor, the wall, on the ceiling fan's blades. Kankuro cupped his hand and called out, "If this is a robbery you fucked up already-!"

"Nah, it's me!" A shout from the adjacent kitchen.

Kankuro shucked his shoes off and sighed. Only Naruto. How long did Gaara intend to keep him? It looked like a schoolkid's bag went supernova all over the room.

He made his way to the kitchen and freaked out a bit harder, seeing that various bottles of oil, sauces, and spices had been lined up in descending order along the counter. If Kankuro's cooking equipment was not in its designated place, any spices mishandled, or bottle caps abused, the latent OCD reaction kicked in. Kankuro quickly barged into Naruto's space with his hands waving, "What are you doing? Aren't you supposed to be studying like a good, non-disruptive house guest? This is my cooking zone, bro."

"Yeah, I know, it's just I needed a change and I don't want to be a useless shut-in whose disguise is too weird to walk around outside." Naruto indicated a binder of hand-written recipes, "So I thought I'd make a marinade I found in here."

"That's my recipe book." Kankuro's tone softened.

"It's awesome."

"I know."

"There was meat and lettuce in the refrigerator so I just thought I'd prepare stuff for ssambap since everyone eats it…then no one would have to come home and do anything."

"Huh." He calmed down considerably, "That's very thoughtful of you, Naruto. How's it coming?"

"I think it's right-?"

Kankuro dipped a spoon in the mixture and tested it on his tongue, "Okay. I realize now that I have underestimated your cooking ability. Go ahead and put the meat in that. We'll let it marinate for a few hours."

"I did good?"

"You did good."

Buoyantly, Naruto puttered around until he found a zip bag and the fillets of beef. He did as instructed while Kankuro ordered his precious cooking paraphernalia. He mixed a few dips while he was at it. Forget ordering out. Making a meal was easier when he had an assistant. Naruto was high-quality company too, as it so happened.

"So do you mind explaining why the hell our living room looks like a bookstore exploded?"

"Gaara only wants me studying here today. My disguise isn't very Suna-ish and he makes me wear this suppression tag."

"Lemme see that thing." Kankuro frowned at the sealing tag, "Yikes, that's heavy duty. How are you not passing out?"

"Nine-Tailed Fox?" Naruto shrugged.

"Oh yeah. I forget sometimes." Kankuro stirred a rich brown sauce, "You can go out if you want, don't let Gaara's worries hold you back. No one will feel your chakra with that thing on. And if you can still use a Transformation technique, just do that if you're bored."

"I can probably use a jutsu for a little while…"

"Great, because I need you to run to the store for ingredients." Kankuro jotted down items on scrap paper, "Get me a bag of bellflower roots, spinach, two cucumbers, the biggest eggplant you can find and some fresh shrimp. Those'll be expensive but I can pay you back and clean them myself."

"Uh. I don't know…"

"Don't make me go back out there. I need fifteen minutes to crash on my couch— I've earned it."

"If I get kidnapped then it's kinda on you." Naruto warned him.

"Guess so." Kankuro agreed as he clapped the note into Naruto's hand, "How much money have you got?"

A pause to check his frog wallet, "4,500 Ryo."

"Eh, that's more than enough. Be back quick or I might worry." He joked and moved to fix himself cold tea.

With his note in hand, Naruto supposed his life would not be in supreme jeopardy if he took a discreet trip down the end of the road to the market. He didn't bother to clean up his study materials and strode past them for the door, set out, and on the front cobbled walkway of the property he stopped in his tracks as a familiar sensation overcame him.

Naruto-kun!

"Hinata!" He hugged himself ecstatically, "Do you miss me? I'm sorry, I'll be home soon! I've just gotta do some stuff—"

Shh, not all at once. Can you give me a moment? Her smile tugged at his lips, There's something I want to share with you. Just a small something…

"A small something?" Naruto scratched his head, "Like what?"

When he settled down, he slipped into a portion of her awareness, though not thoroughly enough to see and hear. But he could taste. Naruto batted his lips when he realized he knew the flavor. He knew it better than anything since he had dined on it for over 15 years faithfully. Hinata was eating ramen.

"Oh my god, how are you this good to me?" He whimpered.

She was laughing and blowing on hot noodles.

"How can you concentrate to be with me and eat at the same time?"

It's not so hard! I am stopping for lunch before my next guard detail mission. Security has been heightened in the village since yesterday.

"You don't say?"

Yes, an intruder killed several of our ninja in the night and hurt Kakashi-sensei.

"What?!"

He'll be alright. Everyone is on edge, though. We are not quite sure how someone was able to infiltrate the village like that.

Naruto rubbed his fists, "If he tries it again while I'm there I'll squash him into pulp."

Now, now. That's why all of our teams are working so hard. There's no need to trouble yourself. He could still taste Hinata slurping ramen noodles in between her comments.

"Man, that hits the spot…they don't have ramen out here that compares…oh." Naruto was struck by an idea, "I was going to buy some stuff! Do you have a second to…if you want to see what I see?"

Ah, yes! That'd be nice. I haven't been within Suna's walls before. Hinata paused her meal to flip her senses into Naruto fully.

And to really play up the subtlety, Naruto transformed into Hinata's likeness with an approximated lavender outfit, and then put on the pair of rinky-dink sunglasses he'd been wearing to be incognito. He marched gleefully away from the house and proceeded down the street.

Why do you need to look like me?

"It's just for fun. Variety is the spice of life."

And sunglasses too?

"Don't you like them?"

Umm… She didn't answer that. At least they were good for blocking UV radiation.

"Check it out, Hinata! This is near the center of Suna, and that was Gaara's house back there. If you head a few blocks that way there's the hospital…and over there's the Administrative Building." He pointed east, "The Academy's over there. Shops and museums…"

Hinata took in the sights, Ohh, look at that little dog!

"I tried petting that one the other day but he was all yippy and bitey. His owner's a grumpy landlady."

What a shame.

"See that? That's the restaurant where Gaara likes to eat gizzards."

He eats-?

"Chicken gizzards. I know! Gross."

Naruto-kun…Her tone lilted with slight pain, I wanted to ask you…why you haven't come home yet? Gaara-kun doesn't plan to keep you forever, does he?

"No, no, no, of course he doesn't!"

It's just…I don't understand. Fujita-kun said you were promoted to Chunin Rank and that Gaara-kun decided to keep you behind. He said that after the Akatsuki's attack on Shiogakure, he didn't want you to go anywhere…

Somehow, even though it felt like his heart might stop, Naruto kept marching with the flow of traffic down the street. He wondered if she could feel the butterflies in his stomach. She could probably sense the beads of sweat gathering on the back of his neck… Why? Why was she asking him this? If she were blindfolded and told to throw for the center bullseye of a target with a dart, could she strike the truth about him just as easily?

I just…wanted to know…

"Gaara's actually showing me some of the ropes of his job, and letting me borrow study resources." Naruto bent the truth for convenience's sake, "I want to join the Sealing Corps in Konoha when I get home."

Really?! Her pitch rose in a squeak.

"Yeah, really! I even practiced prong-seals today."

That's great! I don't even know what that is!

"I'll show you later. But also…" Naruto admitted quietly, "Gaara was worried. Since several teams from Sand and Tide were lost after the Akatsuki attack, he didn't want me getting mixed up in it…we're waiting for Ero-sensei to get back to Suna. Then I can travel again— you know, we've got to use the buddy system!"

Yes, the buddy system. Sato-kun swears by it. She agreed, Where did Gama-sennin go?

"Uh…just doing some covert spy stuff. I'm not really supposed to talk about it…" Naruto had to let some of it slip, "But we think the Akatsuki is the reason why Hidden Mist is so messed up. He's trying to set up a military attaché down there to get things under control."

Hinata's silent, static tizzy in his head resounded. She then said, I didn't know Gama-sennin did such dangerous things!

"Ero-sensei's not doing it alone. He has help."

Who in the world would be willing to go there?

He bit his lip, "Haku."

Haku-kun went?!

"He's, like, psycho-brave. And he's no stranger to that area. Uh. You know— missions and stuff."

Does Tsunade-sama—?

"Let's not be loose-lipped with this, alright? It's supposed to be top secret. I'm sure Ero-sensei will tell Baa-chan everything she needs to know about it."

Yes, that's true. I won't say anything, Naruto-kun.

"I know you won't."

Did he seem even a little scared? Haku-kun?

Naruto thought before answering carefully, "I think…he's more scared of what might happen if he didn't go. How bad things might get if the Akatsuki start terrorizing other villages and innocent people…how it could snowball and overwhelm us. Those things scare me too. That's why we can't sit back and suggest someone else go in our place. It has to be us."

The weight of those words plunged them back into quiet contemplation as Naruto neared the end of the road, weaving through the dispersing crowds of the indoor market. Hinata did not share her thoughts, but instead wondered if she was over-reaching with her hypothesis: that Haku was not just spying on the Akatsuki because Jiraiya wanted to gain ground in a dangerous location. Haku might have agreed to do it because he cared for and wanted to protect Naruto, and Naruto was quite possibly a jinchuriki. At least she was reasonably sure. If she brought this up while her boyfriend strolled into the supermarket, he might not have reacted well to her guess, whether or not she guessed correctly. It could wait until he returned to Hidden Leaf.

What shall we do first when you come home? Hinata asked. She continued with her lunch as she retreated from his senses in Suna.

"Oh, it's a date! If you've got nothing else going on, we should go out somewhere!" He tried keeping his voice down as he navigated towards the produce section.

Yes, I can't wait! There is a restaurant where Neji-nissan and Onee-san always go. They serve cold soba for dipping and I think you will like it.

"Pft! Sure. Heh heh! I forgot he's dating Tenten and he goes on dates and stuff!" Naruto pressed the back of his hand to his mouth, trying not to laugh out loud.

He isn't so different from everyone else, Naruto-kun. Oh! And Neji-niisan was officially promoted to Jounin Rank two days ago.

Astounded, Naruto careened into an aisle endcap of canned macadamia nuts, toppling part of the display. "Whaaaaaat?" He hissed under his breath as he frantically cleaned up. A few other shoppers took pity on the clumsy "cute girl" and helped her stack the containers again.

He had to pass a practical test and get the endorsement of other Jounin before Tsunade-sama decided to promote him. Niisan will be staying with his team, but sometimes he can take solo missions or help other squads as needed.

Naruto scampered over toward produce shelves, examining eggplants and remembering that Kankuro had specified the biggest eggplant he could find. He also kept his voice down to complain, "How can Neji move up that fast? I can still wipe the floor with him!"

He was given several recommendation letters from senior ninja. I was given a recommendation letter too!

"WOO!" Revved-up with excitement, Naruto raised a behemoth eggplant above his head while he cheered.

A passerby snickered at Naruto, "Hey girl, is that more action than you get in a month?"

"Shut your goddamn face you bottom-feeder! I can appreciate a good sale, so stuff your innuendos up your ass!" Wielding Hinata's likeness, Naruto's brief tirade made the ratty-looking shopper scuttle away, "That's right! Crawl back into your basement hideout and read an etiquette manual!"

Naruto-kun—!

"I'll break his fucking nose, I swear…" Puffing, Naruto stomped a short distance to collect cucumbers and sprouts, "-Talkin' to you like that! Well, to me. But whatever! Thinks he can score points by mouthing off to women. I wanna see him talk shit when his mom's around!"

Shh! Naruto, you're talking to yourself...

"Muttering angrily in public isn't so unusual here." Naruto defended and then laughed softly, "Gaara does it a lot."

…I see. It's alright now. You sure did make him sorry! She highly approved, Is there anything else you need to shop for?

"Just some shrimp…hey wait! So you got a recommendation! Are you going to take a test?" Naruto circled back on the subject as he dropped bellflower roots into his basket.

Not anytime soon.

"Why not?"

My letter was…misplaced. At home. It's fine. And also, my elders want everyone in the clan to exercise a bit more caution for now.

"Caution? Is it because of that attack recently?" He moved towards the seafood displays.

I don't think it involves that. There is an organization in Konoha called the Root Foundation…and it has been monitoring the Hyuga clan since the Chunin Exam.

Naruto kept his voice to a whisper, "The Root Foundation. What do they do?"

Those are Black Ops units controlled by a Security Director and the Hokage has little to no control over that division.

"Security? Your clan isn't up to no good!" There was a memory that pricked at him, though, "You don't think at your final Tournament battle, when I shared my jutsu with you…if that would concern anyone?"

No one has said much about it since! But I do know that it was noticed. What I could do with the Misago Byakugan… It slowly dawned on Hinata, I didn't think…it was about me. Why should it be?

"Maybe it is." Naruto was feeling edgy again. At the counter, he ordered fresh shrimp when it was his turn and thanked the salesman afterward.

Naruto, if that organization had any concerns why wouldn't they just speak to me? I could explain things…

"Hinata, I don't know if they're actually concerned. No one else can do what you can." He dared forecast a less pleasant possibility, "When there are shinobi with unique powers in a village…and higher-ups or a Kage aren't sure they can control them…they'll do questionable things to contain 'an asset,' or Gaara said something close to that once." At the checkout line, Naruto added, quietly, "So yeah. If this is about you, and not all of your clan, then be extra careful."

Okay. Her appetite had faltered and so a third of her noodle bowl went untouched.

"Cheer up. I'll be home soon." Naruto reminded her, "You know how to look after yourself. And Neji's not going to let this slip past him either, obviously."

No, he won't. She was sure that her cousin was not going to abide by Root's unjustified surveillance.

Naruto wrapped up the payment process and marched out with plastic shopping bags, "When I get home, we'll go to that restaurant you mentioned and we can eat that dipping soba if you want. Or get one of everything! Celebrate. And then, you know, find a quiet spot somewhere…"

…I have a few spots in mind.

"Oh, you do?" He felt his cheeks get hot.

I've thought about it. Ah, I have to be getting to my post now, Naruto-kun! Can I visit you again later?

"Sure! I'll just be doing some cooking and studying this evening." Two visits in one day? He was indeed a spoiled man.

Good! I'll try to catch you when you're in the bathtub again.

"Oh, uh…each resident only gets one wash per day in Hidden Sand…"

Did you take a bath already?

"No."

Then it's a date. She was no longer compelled to conceal her mischievous side, Or I'll visit you while I take a bath.

If Naruto had been wearing a blood pressure cuff, the gauge would have exploded and popped off his arm, "Y-You shouldn't be doing things like that, you know. Clearly you're taking advantage of your mind-hop power—"

But I only do these things with you. Hinata reminded him before the link started to fade, And Naruto, you never said you didn't want me to…

He was safely back at the Kazekage's residence, unaccompanied by his girlfriend's consciousness. She already knew it, but Naruto just had to admit it to himself as he stepped inside and shed his disguise: Hinata was right. He was never going to say he didn't want her to.

---

It was an early autumn day in Konoha when Lee noticed that Tenten was staring into space. She had given up mid-way through a series of low pu bu stretches and sat on the grassy ground, losing all enthusiasm for Wushu basics. As Lee was a creature devoted to his fitness routines, he continued his stretches while watching his dear friend muse catatonically at the forest surrounding their training field.

Gai-sensei had said he would be back after checking on Kakashi-sensei at the hospital. So no, she was not anxious over his return. Likewise, Grandpa Wong Leung had been quite pleasant at breakfast and overjoyed about Tenten's improving Hanwen conversational skills. So she wasn't troubled over that either.

Lee took several toe-fist-kicks in her direction and stopped beside her, "How long has it been?"

"About 22 hours. Am I being a baby about this?" Tenten sighed.

"I do not think you are. It is natural for you to miss Neji."

"I'm acting weird."

"No. To fret about his first solo assignment as a Jounin seems reasonable to me." Lee dropped into a low pu bu extension again, "Hokage-sama has been handing out many missions over the last few days, so it's important that he do his fair share."

Tenten flopped flat to her back, "How long is our security detail today?"

"Six hours. Post 2 in the west ward."

"And we're reporting there in—?"

"Twenty minutes." He glanced at a digital watch clipped to a gear bag nearby.

"Ugh. I'm sorry that I can't seem to find my personality today, Lee. My stomach acid situation is not good."

"Your personality is definitely intact, Tenten!" Lee planted his hands flat on the ground, leaning forward to brace himself and tuck his legs in, "Grandpa's breakfasts can be harsh on the stomach."

She sat up and was fascinated by Lee's dexterous Crow Pose, "Whoa, where'd you learn to do that?"

"Sarutobi Kakima-san is a friend of Grandpa's and she invited us to her yoga classes."

"Are they free?"

"For the trial period."

"Oh, what the heck. I want to try it out too." She attempted the pose but could not raise her feet up without falling sideways. "Maybe Hideyasu will sign up for that class with me…"

Since the pose was a bit beyond Tenten's current flexibility, Lee assisted with getting her into a hand stand which she held until Gai returned. He marveled at his pair of upside-down students. Inspired by their hard work, Gai also assumed a hand stand to give his announcement, "Lee! Tenten! Our gift was a success. Kakashi appreciated it very much."

Tenten craned her head up, "Really? A set of resistance bands and a men's multi-vitamin made him happy?"

"Very much so."

She could hardly believe it.

"And the get well soon card?" Lee was dying to know. He had filled it with energy and health-boosting wishes.

"I read it aloud to Kakashi, which also pleased him." Gai confirmed.

Now that Tenten could just not believe. They held their positions and Tenten briefly wondered what Neji would think if he could see his team now. While her boyfriend was away, Tenten was slowly being converted into another whacky fitness disciple.

"Take your guarding post seriously and be prepared to report for rigorous training tomorrow." Gai advised them chipperly, "I expect Neji will be joining us."

Again, Tenten was not so sure about that. They flipped back to their feet and parted from their Sensei. While on the way to the west side of the village, Tenten considered how there was no concrete indication that Neji would return on time. Truthfully, she had no reason to complain. Before he'd set out the day prior, she spent the morning in bed at her flat, getting delicious attention from him. She could still feel him on her skin.

Worrying felt the same as saying she did not have confidence that Neji could handle this new responsibility, so Tenten had been curtailing the fluttery unease in her chest as much as humanly possible. He could handle it. Neji would not have been promoted otherwise. He had not in the least been concerned yesterday morning while he'd been all over her. His was a challenge of freeing up his schedule so he could fill it with quality time and bedroom tumbles, now that he'd figured out how much he enjoyed them. Logical, she conceded. Neji had said he wanted this mission not just because the Hokage's forces were stretched thin, but because he paid upfront for building permits and was just about broke for the time being. Many approvals were still pending. Tenten sighed at the thought of Neji's decisiveness. Wong Leung and Lee still had no idea what they were planning.

At the west ward post, they relieved the previous pair of on-duty Chunin that dropped out the camouflaged lookout in tall trees, thanking them for their hard work. Lee and Tenten leapt up into perch and settled in. There was space enough for Lee to practice minor stretches, keeping his eyes set on the viewing space between leaves. Tenten paid attention for about an hour before intermittent conversation lulled, and she retreated into her thoughts again.

Lately, there was a surprising amount of nostalgia gnawing on her. Between her independent work at the Weapon Shop, gradual integration with the Hyuga clan, Chunin-level assignments, and occasional alone time with Neji, she'd catch herself wondering what her life would be like if none of this had happened. Better said, if her parents were still alive and anchoring her. Would she have made any of the same choices that led her here? Would her mother or father have objected? Would they have made things easier and more attainable?

She had sort of mentioned this sentiment in passing to Neji about a week ago, "I wonder…what my Dad would have thought of you…"

He tilted his head to regard her and the out-of-the-blue comment.

"What I mean is— I don't think he'd dislike you. I just wonder what he'd talk about or how he'd try to relate to my boyfriend." Tenten explained quickly, "He could be either incredibly friendly and cosmopolitan…or just silent and watchful when meeting new people. Never mean or standoffish, though. It was hard to know how he'd be in social situations when I was a kid. Dad was a mystery."

"I think…" Neji shut his eyes and smiled, "We would have a lot to talk about."

"How do you figure?"

"Around your flat, his journals and books are everywhere. If you read some of them…you'd know that he had a hard time befriending people his age. Much like I do. That he was only able to fully relax around his teammates, which I can also relate to. And that he knew my father to some extent." Neji reassured her, "A person who is so important to you is not someone who could ever be a stranger to me."

Tenten's heart pounded. Ohh yes, somewhere a small voice in her head sang, she'd chosen well.

But Neji had made a good point. If she wanted to know more, her father had left behind ample material for her to browse and learn about him. And so, the past few days she had spent toting around her father's old leather-bound journal, which had entries dating back to childish scrawl in Hanzi waggled over the first pages. Over time, the writing evolved into the kanji used in the Fire Country. Between her daily tasks Tenten could get some reading done.

Since Lee had no objection to Tenten reading while on watch at their sleepy post, she opened up to a page she had marked.

Apparently, her father Takaharu's experience in transferring to Konoha's Academy as a young child had been an even mix of joyful rollicking and enduring bullies. Right away, his aptitude for Ninjutsu and strategy had gotten him noticed by students and teachers alike. Takaharu had been advanced to a grade level above what he had entered, thus parting him from three other immigrant students he'd come to Konoha with. In turn, Takaharu's shyness had made it more difficult to connect to older, envious students who questioned such a promotion. The three Sasagainu friends he had left behind grew more distant, two eventually dropped out of shinobi studies altogether, and the last, Chinatsu, seemed to have a much easier time assimilating into Hidden Leaf's cultural identity.

Tenten noted that many entries at this time longingly recalled Takaharu's mother, Ziyi, who had been killed en route to the Fire Country. Though the details were sparse, he had witnessed his mother fight pursuers with help from her family and Leaf escorts. She had also died in his defense before Biao, Tenten's paternal grandfather, could reach them. Her father could not have been more than six years old at the time. Takaharu had been a highly respectful and subservient child to his lonely father once they had settled in Leaf, but that was a typical dynamic in Han families.

Biao's insistence that his son learn from everywhere had yielded interesting results. He consumed poetry and literature whenever school texts were not required reading. Takaharu's natural talent for Fire Tao Arts made channeling chakra for Ninjutsu a much simpler task. After school, he would linger around the game tables in the Han Ethnic Quarter where retired ANBU played shogi. He would fetch snacks or clean store fronts there, sometimes. And sometimes when he won a game, an oldster would teach him a jutsu as a reward. They often did so merely to satisfy their own curiosity about a shy, shrewd prodigy who liked to hang with old folks.

Before long, Takaharu's unusually advanced catalog of techniques was a talking point for many Sensei at the Academy. Many wanted to prohibit what they deemed "reckless" studies. Some wanted to forbid the use of Tao Arts, though Takaharu's application of them was no more effective than a common Supplementary Jutsu.

At the very least, an end was put to his visits at the Ethnic Quarter. He was encouraged to spend more time with classmates, which he did to the best of his ability. At the time, Takaharu also asked his father why Tao Arts were a skill independent of ninja skills.

"Because the Tao is a part of this earth and reality, and Ninjutsu invaded the earth." Biao said.

Tenten looked up and over at Lee, frowning at the back of his head in puzzlement. How could Ninjutsu be considered an invasion? It was the foundation of all that shinobi knew!

"Our people are born with an imbalance in the Tao— too sensitive. Too saturated with Yin." The quote read, "To resist it, our ancestor gave us a Fire Nature: The light always inside of us that we can share. So Ninshu has helped us in some ways, and that is why we dedicate ourselves as ninja."

Ninshu. Huh. That was an antiquated blanket term. Tenten scratched her chin. Yin was darkness. Half of the natural balance in all chakra. It was the negative, passive, and female nature in energy. The logographic character itself read "the shady side of the mountain." And so she determined that her clansmen were oriented inextricably with this Yin energy, and therefore aligned themselves with Fire Natures in their ninja professions to stabilize it. To gather more Yang. Light.

She flipped the page. Her father's close childhood friend had been a boy named Kasigi Kizo, a run-of-the-mill troublemaker, average Academy student, and smiley socializer who recognized Takaharu's warm heart and intelligence right away. They were inseparable in and out of class. Takaharu came out of his shell more during his first school year, discreetly keeping an eye on Chinatsu in the grade below. His troubles started in the second year, in which Uchiha Fugaku heard a rumor that there was a junior student more skilled in Fire Release techniques than him. This rumor did not sit well among trainees from the Uchiha clan and they sought to set the record straight. Takaharu was cornered after school on several occasions. Tenten cringed.

Her father wrote that the beatings were just a part of learning how to fit in. He'd never wanted to stand out in the first place. As per his father Biao's warning about "back-alley fights," Takaharu was made to swear he would never raise a hand against anyone from his new village. And so her father did not fight back. He also refused to show off Fire Release skills even when the angry gaggle of students demanded it and taunted him. It was not until the day that Kizo could no longer ignore his friend's black eyes and bruises that he threw himself at the bullies, fed-up, punches flailing. Once his friend was tackled to the ground and hurt, Takaharu decided to fight back.

The end of the page noted that Fugaku began to take the rumor quite a bit more seriously after that day. Takaharu had even earned a bit of respect from the senior student, who thought it was noble of him only to fight on behalf of a comrade. It made his natural strength and talent "all the more valuable" since Takaharu "had a good reason to use it." A few months later, Takaharu and Kizo passed the Graduation Exam and were thankfully assigned to a Genin team together. The third slot of the team was filled by Sarutobi Seibi, a quick-witted fellow who made comebacks just as sharp as Kizo's jokes. Takaharu noted that some of his happiest days were those spent under the tutelage of their Jounin Sensei, Mitarashi Isogo. He flourished beside his teammates and made many more friends.

And before she really noticed the passage of time, Tenten glanced up to see the sun had sunk lower in the sky. Their watch would be over soon.

"Lee?"

"Yes, Tenten?" Somehow he was still fresh and attentive.

"When Grandpa talks to you about the Tao, does he ever mention Yin and Yang?"

"Oh yes!"

"What does he say about it?" Tenten asked as she marked her page.

"Many things. All kinds of principles of balance. It is a foundational concept for determining Elemental Chakra Natures as well."

"Does he ever talk about or…does he know if people can be more of one or the other?"

"Discerning that quality is a very subtle skill. However, Grandpa tries to make educated guesses based on clues!" Lee recalled, "He says I am perfectly balanced. That is not so common. Most people are close to a 1:1 ratio of light and dark, though it can vary. Some energy disparities are more extreme and are considered special cases."

Tenten muttered, "I might be a special case."

"Grandpa says you are."

"Mostly Yin? Like, maybe not even a speck of Yang anywhere?"

"He might've mentioned that. But it was only a guess!"

Tenten sighed and rested her cheek in her palm, staring out of the lookout. Wong Leung had a lot of insight, it turned out.

"Grandpa says that Neji is imbalanced in favor of Yang, but it is a slight surplus. That is supposed to explain his irritability." Lee stated matter-of-factly with a finger raised.

It sounded like an oversimplification to Tenten, but she could not rule out the assessment. That evening, Chouji and Shikamaru turned up to relieve them of their watch. Tenten bade her teammate goodnight as their paths forked north and east, and she continued her journey uptown towards the Hyuga estate. There was an odd swirling feeling tucked in her ribs. An uneasiness. There were parts of her father, parts of both of her parents, and herself that she had been oblivious to. As though she had never bothered to get to know herself, or had been robbed of the opportunity.

At the estate she changed clothes in her tiny box of a bedroom and ventured past Fujita's room down the way. The door was open so she poked her face inside, "Hey! What are you grinning about?"

Fujita looked up suddenly from what was obviously a letter, "Uh. My friend writes for a…satirical magazine."

That was a good save but it was still untrue, "That's from your girl in Waterfall, isn't it?"

"…yeah." He slouched from his seat on the floor atop a zabuton cushion.

Tenten smiled at him, "Does she actually write for a magazine?"

"Fū submits her joke articles, but nothing's been published so far." Fujita rolled up his correspondence, "We're just pen pals."

She leaned on the doorframe and folded her arms, "Don't sound so forlorn like you're a star-crossed lover or something…"

"I'm not!" His cheeks puffed, "It's just…she recently came back from a mission to the Hidden Star Village and told me about it. Said she wants to see the Hidden Leaf Village too…but the Hokage isn't entertaining any requests from Hidden Waterfall right now."

"Well, Tsunade-sama is up to her eyeballs in security threats. Can you blame her?"

"No, of course not. It's that…if I put in a request to see Fū it'd just get denied."

"Right. Because you need to have a good reason to travel to Takigakure. The leader of that village isn't going to let a rando mingle with their jinchuriki at a time like this. Both of our villages are on edge."

"I know. But if we formalized an agreement like the one we have with Suna, we could look out for one another!"

Tenten was amused, "Maybe. Have you ever acted as an envoy before to try to persuade foreign counselors?"

"…no…"

"Me neither. We're not exactly suited for that kind of job."

"But I want to—!"

"I know, I know. Come on. We don't want to keep Mom and Dad from dinner." Tenten took a backwards step out of the room.

Fujita hopped up from the floor and followed after her down the corridor. He was quite pleased that Tenten was comfortable enough to refer to her adoptive parents so informally. And the evening meal was a cordial affair, particularly since Kayato led off with the tale of organizing costume work for a film depicting the legendary Sanada Ten Braves. Her outfit designs from the Chunin Exam had gotten noticed by a studio executive.

"Wouldn't be the first time!" Hideyasu noted merrily as he worked around bones in a fish fillet.

Fujita poured tea for his mother, "That's great, Mom. Will you have to travel for work?"

"I might. We'll see what kind of contract they send me." Kayato sighed, "But with there being a lot of rogue ninja activity, I'm not so eager to set foot outside of Hidden Leaf right now."

Her husband echoed the sentiment as he nodded and chewed.

"Every twelve to eighteen hours we've been on watch duty." Tenten was referring to herself and Fujita, "But soon Hokage-sama will have to end the security alert. The intruder that snuck in is long gone by now. I don't think they'd double back with there being such much presence on by-pass routes and vulnerable areas. We're turning a blind eye to everything else while in this state."

"Which most certainly is a problem." Hideyasu gestured with his chopsticks, "But the Hokage thinks it is better to defend our own vulnerabilities and outsource external missions to allies like Suna. If any teams from Sand were here as sentinels, this breach would be a grave concern to Suna's counselors. They might think the Kazekage were showing favoritism if he allocated a large portion of his own forces to protect Konoha. The idea is that we should be able to defend ourselves." He took another bite of food, "But Tao Arts have proven to be a unique threat."

"Very few people can use them." Tenten reminded him.

"Even one is enough to stymie several Jounin who can't stop a Tao Art. We can't be overconfident." He held out a plate of spicy eggplant in sauce to his adoptive daughter, "Have you tried this? You're gonna love it."

She gave it a try and was impressed with the dish.

"…hey, Dad?" Fujita was popping mushrooms into his mouth one by one, a bit timid about addressing his father.

"Yes, Fujita."

"What would it take to suggest a formal alliance with a smaller village?" He asked.

"About what it took for Shiogakure to get an alliance with us: a lot of money and trade deals."

"But who pitches the idea?"

"Silver-tongued business people." Hideyasu chuckled.

"Well, it's something I've been thinking about."

Hideyasu exchanged a boggled look with his wife. Tenten sat by and ate, not driven to interrupt her adoptive brother in his mousy quest.

"I think now is a great time to reach out to Takigakure to fortify our defenses against the Akatsuki." Fujita sat a bit straighter, "And I think Kitano-sama is a better businessman than I am, so I want to ask him to help me set up an assembly with Waterfall's leader and advisory council. The Taketori clan would assist us with this sort of thing, right?"

"Whoa, well, first of all…" Hideyasu set his drink down after a sip, "You need authorization from the Hokage to approach another village, which is also reviewed by our village's advisory council. Then they get to decide which emissaries are sent to Waterfall, but since it was your idea I'm reasonably sure they'd send you and our Taketori vassals."

"So, you think maybe it could happen?"

"I don't know!" His father was smiling widely, "But it'd be cool if my kid organized an alliance."

"We already have a good track record with Hidden Waterfall." Tenten backed the claim up, "So even if there isn't a lucrative trade deal attached to it, the additional defenses might be a selling point."

Hideyasu and Kayato tittered proudly.

Fujita steeled his resolve, "How do I submit my request to the Hokage and her council?"

"In a very nice looking entreaty on letterhead parchment. I'll have Arisu-san go over it with you to spiff it up." Hideyasu offered, "Then we'll see what happens. I'll also give Magan-sama the heads up about your idea. I'm sure he'd be happy to work with us and give this project to Kitano."

"Thank you, Dad!"

The two flashed goofball smiles at each other while Kayato shook her head, always tickled by their antics. When the meal wound down and Hideyasu agreed to play a few rounds of Koi-Koi with Fujita on the porch, Kayato had a suspicious, motherly eye trained on Tenten as they retreated further into the house, "Seems to me like you don't want to chat and watch me work on embroidery."

"It's not that…I just…haven't been feeling right today." Tenten motioned at her ribcage where the slogging feeling persisted.

Kayato pressed the back of her hand to Tenten's forehead and cheeks, cool to the touch, "You aren't sick— maybe out of sorts, is that it?" She rubbed the girl's back, "Because you miss Neji."

"Nah, it's not really that either." She was handling Neji's absence rather well.

"Oh! I won't tell him you didn't miss him." Kayato laughed softly, "Get some sleep then. You'll have another long day tomorrow."

"Most likely."

"If there's anything you ever want to talk about, I've got a keen set of ears." She gave Tenten a warm squeeze before proceeding towards her work room, "Goodnight, dear."

"Goodnight." Tenten stopped at her bedroom door and watched the wonderful woman disappear down the corridor. Even though she could never get her own mother back, Kayato was a wellspring of love and wisdom Tenten hoped to one day deserve.

There was no need to flip the light switch on. Tenten sealed the door, redressed in sleep clothes, and wrestled a futon out of a cupboard to lay it flat on the floor. Her body felt like lead as she sunk onto the bedding, still cognizant of the internal twinge that had plagued her for most of the day. With her eyes shut, the dimness was calm and cloying. Everything under her fingertips felt unusually plush. Silk pajamas had been a luxurious gift from Kayato, but they hadn't yet kissed her skin like this— on a night she'd been so dog-tired.

Her thoughts circled the drain: Softness. Letterhead. Spicy Eggplant. Red leaves on trees. What was Neji doing? A weapon order was due next week. Her stomach swirling. Her dad's beautiful handwriting. Hand stands. Hand stands.

Sleep was deep and voluminous, a shade of green so dark it was nearly black like the ocean bottom, swaying with strands of deep sea kelp. Tenten could drown in it, but she held still in the pitch and breathed it in. After all, the dark wanted her there. They were made of the same thing.

Fingers touched her forehead so she cracked an eye open, though she couldn't see much.

"I'm here."

Oh yeah. Apparently he was here. You know, "he," Her brain was jogged, The very important one. Her eyes cooperated a bit more. Tenten blinked up in the dimness at Neji as he leaned over to examine her, as if her choice to opt for an early bedtime and not wait up for him was most peculiar. Whatever time it was, she knew it was later at night. He sat on the edge of the futon and waited for some sort of response.

A soft, cracking coo sound escaped her before she could form words, "It's still soft."

"What is?"

"Everything."

Judging by Neji's facial expression, he was happy to see her and amused by her sleep-delirious communication.

Tenten asked in a croak, "Am I awake?"

"In some capacity, you are. I wanted you to know that I'm here."

"Back from your mission. It went well?"

"It went well."

"Hmm." She scrunched her eyes, "Lee made me do hand stands."

"Ah." He hummed. It was almost a chuckle. Neji bent down to kiss her; she was slow and clumsy under his mouth.

Tenten grunted in appreciation. There was no way she could stay awake, but all the same it was great to know Neji was home safe. His kisses definitely tasted like someone who'd been away for a while and missed her. That was nice.

He sat up again and said, "I'll clean up and sleep. Don't leave for training without me, in the morning."

"Don't you want to take the morning off?"

"No. I'm not that tired."

"I am." As if it were not plain to see how worn she was.

"In the morning, usual time." It was a gentle command. Quiet like a night breeze, Neji left the room and shut the door.

Then she was back in the heavy dark. A fraction of an hour passed before her sleep became less restful, and Tenten woke to find her face pressed into the polished hardwood floor. She raised her head slowly to glance around.

Somehow, she'd rolled off of her wide futon and ended up near the wall of the room— it was no typical distance for a snoozing individual to cover. Tenten slept still as a board most nights. She rubbed a spot of drool from her lip and crawled back onto her futon, unconcerned with the random relocation. She slipped back into the dense slumber.

The midnight of her mind pooled and dripped over objects unseen, a tenuous chiaroscuro. It was an interesting, shaded dreamscape. Then, the top of her head tapped something. She was barely awake. It was hard for Tenten to move her sluggish limbs. She raised her hand to examine the object behind her head, feeling cool, flat metal. When she stretched her legs, she could feel the wood paneling of a wall beneath her bare feet.

'This is weird.' A blip of a thought. The dimensions of her room weren't like this. Though she was living in a shoebox habitation, it wasn't this bad. Had the walls closed in? It didn't feel like she had dreamt it. She'd just rolled over again to get comfortable, and then the room no longer felt right. She patted her hand again on the unknown surface behind her. 'What's this thing? Feels like a bucket or a…I don't know. Must be big. This wasn't here before…'

It was still pitch dark when she opened her eyes, as to be expected of late night. Though, wasn't there a window in her room? Not much good came of trying to move her leaden body, and since there seemed to be no life-threatening peril, Tenten shut her eyes again to drift to sleep. Maybe it was a nutty dream caused by that eggplant dish at dinner time?

A door slid aside with a clack, which was slightly jarring, but she stayed bunched in a ball because comfort levels were peaking.

"Tenten."

Oh great. That voice didn't sound pleased. She wriggled back to consciousness as best she could, blearily looking up the faint light of the hallway on her left, where Neji's silhouette blocked the doorway.

"What are you doing?"

"Sleeping." Why did she have to explain herself?

Something in his voice was sharp with alarm. Come to think of it, it didn't feel like her futon was under her anymore. She was back on hardwood. It helped that Neji bent down to scoop her up and quickly figured out she was in no state to walk due to sleep paralysis. That was another clue. She hadn't been sleep-walking.

"You," He said as he carried her through a dark hallway, "Were in the facilities closet."

"Ah, no." She was waking up more, "I'm in bed. What are you doing here? Bothering me."

"You are on the west side of the house."

Tenten entered into a half-baked state of concern, because she knew her bedroom was in the east wing, closer to where Hideyasu, Kayato, and Fujita resided. Had he said facilities closet? She'd been patting the boiler in the dark, trying to figure out what it was. 'That's just sad.' Also— what?

"How did I…?" She stopped to yawn. She didn't remember bringing herself to a closet on the far side of the mansion.

At the turn near the front of the house, Neji hesitated to continue eastbound. He was thinking. His shoulder was somewhat comfortable so she rested her cheek on it.

"If you're left alone you might Shadow Step again."

"Pff. I don't do that."

"I know you don't." His voice was low and warm, consoling, "You don't realize what you do when you sleep, but I saw you."

"…checked on me—?" Another yawn, "Before you…go t'bed?"

He back tracked slightly and decided, no, putting a sleepy, shadow-travelling person back where she started just might produce the same result. Tenten didn't seem at all aware of what was actually going on. In his room, which was on the ground floor with southward facing windows, Neji deposited her on the moonlit side of the bed. Hopefully she wouldn't roll in any shadows.

He flopped down in exhaustion beside the snoring woman and wondered what good it would do to keep watch over Tenten. He almost hadn't believed it when he saw it with the Byakugan, before settling down for the night: Tenten disappeared from view in her room, and reappeared in a west-wing closet.

Based on Hinata's descriptions of Huo's ability in the Exam, and Tenten's common lineage with the brute, Neji had always reserved the possibility in the back of his mind. That Tenten might one day use a Tao Art. What he had witnessed, however, was not by any means intentional. Tenten had tapped into something subconsciously.

Neji stretched out his arm to encircle her middle and pressed himself into Tenten's back. This wasn't exactly allowed. If the eyes of any senior member of the clan noticed him cozying up to a person he wasn't married to, he'd catch an earful over it. There were strict lines of propriety in the Hyuga clan, and bedrooms were not spaces for co-mingling. Though, he had no untoward intentions, and only sought to ensure Tenten did not wake up in the morning hugging a hot water boiler. It was just for now.

Besides, he had ran himself ragged on a reconnaissance mission. Maybe overdoing it on his first Jounin assignment was unnecessary. Most people Neji worked with were consistently impressed. He only wanted to feel Tenten breathing slowly and remember why and what he endeavored for. Even in sleep, he could remember.

---

Neji's waking instincts reacted shortly before morning sunlight brushed his face. He coiled and stretched where he lay and, ah, yes, there she was. Unmoved and tucked into him, Tenten's head was heavy on the edge of a flattened pillow. Where her shirt rode up, his fingertips danced along the skin of her stomach. She didn't smell like a garden or bright honeyed things, but there was something that was so unequivocally her when a lock of Tenten's unbound hair passed under his nose. How long had he known it? The scent was familiar now.

She wasn't stirring naturally like she usually did at this hour. Maybe Tenten had been serious about skipping the early morning routine? If they did, they would probably make up for training later. The shadowy journey she had taken in the night was not conducive to productivity, Neji figured. And also, he preferred holding her and mapping the layout of bones and muscles beneath her skin, tracing his hand over her slight features. He indulged in the exploration for a while, a traveler all through her landscapes, his fingers retreating when she shifted or twitched at a touch. Neji finally spread his hand flat on her hip, and waited for a persistent but unusable erection to pass.

It didn't take any palmistry on his part to know that she would stay asleep if left undisturbed. Since he had learned how naturally generous he was these last few months, Neji elected to let Tenten be.

His only selfish concession was a set of cloud-soft kisses along her neck and behind her ear. That would have to hold him over. Then Neji padded a quilt around Tenten before rising up, listening to the crack of his knees as he moved across the room. His hair didn't require much brushing before he dressed, frequently glancing back at the object of his affection. She wasn't going to disappear. Whatever had overcome her in the night had ceased in his presence.

Within the house there was a frenzy of activity as cleaning and meal preparation efforts escalated before noon-time. Based on what a staff member had to chirped to Neji as an explanation, "The Head of the Aburame clan will be here for an in-house meeting with Hiashi-sama and Hideyasu-sama."

This was news to Neji, "Why?"

"To make amends for some rude remarks that circulated, and were not denied by Taketori clansmen."

"Rude remarks..." Neji muttered, wondering who in the Hyuga wanted to bad-mouth an allied clan leader. The Branch member raced away to prepare a tea room for occupation. He had a feeling he wouldn't be able to access a typical breakfast this morning.

When he rounded the corner, Hanabi stomped up to him, "You'd think the daimyo himself was coming here for an audience. Someone stepped on my foot!"

"You know better than to get in their way."

"I was just minding my own business, I wasn't in the way!" She surmised that Neji was also after a morning meal, so they circumnavigated towards a porch exit, preparing to breakfast in the ancillary house, "Did you go upstairs, Onii-san?"

"I didn't—"

"Don't. There's no need. I already caught her a third time, she's really got no shame…"

Neji was not sure he knew to whom Hanabi was referring.

She cleared it up, "Hinata, that's who. My big sis has been linking her mind with her boyfriend. Constantly! It's so annoying. Every time I tried to talk to her after her mission yesterday, it was Naruto-this-! Naruto-that! Can't you tell a rival of yours to bug off for a while, hmm?"

"I would not call Naruto a rival." Neji assessed honestly, "He's my friend."

"Yeah, well I don't think you'd say that if you knew what a relentless flirt he is! Spouting romance that could gag a poet. And my sister eats it up!" Hanabi stepped up to a covered porch.

"A…flirt…?" Neji did not appreciate this update.

"You really ought to watch out for him, Onii-san. He's the determined type. I couldn't handle someone like that— not that I need attention from a boy, pff— no! I don't want to sigh and trade wistful looks, it's way too stupid."

"Hanabi…"

"…I didn't say anything." She retracted the incriminating remark as she sat at a table, "I didn't say anything…"

"You want me to police what Naruto is up to, but it sounds to me like you've got your own entanglements." Neji kept his voice lowered so his aunt Hizome's youngsters, Tsukuru and Hirokazu, wouldn't overhear the exchange as they played nearby with spinning tops.

"I have no entanglements!" Hanabi hissed quietly, "I have a dead-end interest, there's a difference! No harm, no foul! You have an entanglement in your bed right now, Onii-san!"

Neji warned her, "And you won't be speaking one word about it." Leave it to the meddlesome whip of a girl to use her Byakugan and dig up morning gossip.

"You know better!"

"Of course I do."

"Then why break the rules?" Hanabi reached for a plate of croquettes on the tea table and began pounding them back. Ha! She had her cousin cornered, teetering on the edge of hypocrisy.

Sitting straight-backed, Neji clarified the situation, "Do you question my honor? I've done nothing improper. Tenten was Shadow-Stepping in her sleep."

Halfway through a bite of food, a croquette dropped back onto a plate as Hanabi processed the claim.

"I found her in the boiler closet."

"No you didn't."

"It's true."

"But only that horrible piece of trash from the Exam can Shadow Step!" Hanabi was trying and failing to keep her voice down, "He almost killed my sister!"

"Relax. This has nothing to do with Huo. Tenten's family can use Tao Arts too."

"Hmf." Hanabi's emotional eating resumed.

"Tenten didn't go anywhere after I stayed with her."

"What'd you have to do? Tie her down?" The joke was very uncouth, and Hanabi almost regretted it, but she did adore the furious and mortified look on her cousin's face.

Neji needed a moment to gather some composure to threaten the firebrand, "Test me again and I'll have Gai-sensei tutoring you for the next twelve months."

Hanabi cleaned the plate and replied, "I'd rather plunge headfirst into hell, thank you very much."

"You'd get no such mercy from me."

"Yeesh, you're scary. Fine. So don't do anything about Naruto and my sister. See what happens!" She shrugged it off, "And isn't it weird that your girlfriend used a Tao Art? Should we be worried about that?"

"There's nothing to worry about." Neji capped it definitively as the young Branch boys came indoors for the larger spread of food that was served, and aunt Hizome also joined them at the table for a meal.

"Are things a bit busy on your side of the property?" Hizome noticed, "Alright, eat a little and then get lost! This is my family's food! Nyozeka hasn't eaten yet and he has a mission today."

They did as she asked and took a pauper's serving each before politely excusing themselves. Hanabi, somehow, caused no further mischief before she left estate grounds for the Academy.

Neji crossed the lawn back to the Main House and returned to his room through the porch door. As he stepped inside, he could see Tenten rising lethargically into a sitting position. Like a dizzy eaglet in a nest, she blinked at the unusual environment and tried to piece together what landed her in such a nicely-appointed room. An amazing, elated feeling tickled his insides. This was perfect. Seeing her like this was perfect.

Tenten fussed at the collar of her sleep shirt, "Mn. Mornin'…"

"Good morning." He bent down and balanced his arms on either side of her, taking a sleepy kiss from Tenten while he could get it. The pressure of Neji's mouth on her own nearly fooled her into looping her arms 'round his neck and reeling him in, but Tenten thought better of it.

"You're trying to get me in trouble…" She pushed back on his shoulders and kicked the quilt off, "I got the anti-cohabitation memo, Neji; didn't you? And though I may have fantasized about your bed several times, Hideyasu says don't commit the crime if you can't do the time…"

"I wasn't going to—"

"You're pitching a tent." Tenten pointed out the slant in his bottoms as she crawled away from her sleeping spot, then stood to stretch. Neji frowned at her for drawing attention to his (mostly) involuntary bodily functions.

She glanced around again, "Say…how did I get here?"

"I brought you to my room last night."

A small gasp, "Were you actually trying to put the moves on me—?"

"No." Neji halted her allegations, "You really don't remember?"

"Being kidnapped in the night—?"

"You Shadow-stepped into the facilities closet. That's where I found you." He brought her up to speed.

Tenten stilled at the edge of his bedroom, her expression calcifying with serious consideration. Her eyes shifted left, then right, before she pressed her hand against a shadow on the wall cast by Neji as he stood illuminated by a window. Tenten only devoted a few seconds to focusing, pushing and grunting before she decided, "Well, if I did, I don't know what the on/off switch for it is." Tenten tapped her foot in a shaded patch before she promptly gave up and left the room, adding over her shoulder, "I'll meet you outside in ten minutes."

In truth, Neji would have been more surprised if Tenten had instantly found the means to tap into a dormant ability. The trigger for it was still elusive, though she had not called him a liar or denied what may have happened in the night. She was more casual about her dismissal. And though he did not want to think much about what Hanabi had said over breakfast, he did feel ill-at-ease over Tenten's one-off use of Tao Art. What was the range of it? Could she transport herself unknowingly into danger? Did she make herself more vulnerable when she did so? What if he wasn't around the next time it happened?

He made his bed with military precision, and then outfitted himself with the few weapons and scrolls he needed before stepping out onto the engawa. Neji remembered some of the other curious things Hanabi had mentioned.

Hinata was in frequent contact with Naruto, thanks to the newly named Samanvaya technique she used with the Misago Byakugan. Neji had been aware that she could reach Naruto that way, but never gave much thought to how often his cousin was linking her mind and senses to Naruto's. Apparently, the answer was a lot. He was not upset by this information, nor the implication that Naruto was "a flirt" because that behavior wasn't unlike his usual extroversion, only now he'd focused that energy on one intended recipient, and, well, 'That's as it should be.' Naruto had no impure intentions for his cousin, of this Neji was very sure.

And the other thing Hanabi had mumbled about— a one-sided affection for someone! And that she excused herself of all wrongdoing because her feelings were unrequited by whoever it was. 'Frankly, someone her age should not feel romantically about anyone.' Even if her Graduation Test was scheduled for the end of the week, Neji would forever see that girl as a child, especially when she acted like one. Maybe his uncle needed to be informed? No. No good could come of it. Hanabi often dug her own holes and accepted the consequences when the backlash hit.

Gosh, this family kept him busy. These days Neji was exceedingly fond of them, and felt disappointed that he'd distanced himself from clan relatives when he'd been younger. The more he opened his heart up, the more genuine his desire to better and protect his clan felt. That ambition had been so half-assed back in his Academy days, to borrow a term from Naruto.

Tenten appeared again wearing her standard red and white cheongsam, weapon holsters in place, and Fujita was trotting out of the house excitedly beside her. He had official-looking Hyuga clan correspondence in his hand.

"Fujita is going to accompany us to the Administrative Building, since he has a proposal to submit. I want to vouch for his idea too before we check in and see if any missions are scheduled…" Tenten explained, trailing off into a yawn as she covered her mouth.

"What sort of proposal?" Neji asked as they walked off the property together.

"I wanted to suggest an alliance between Leaf and Waterfall." Fujita announced.

Neji did not even blink, "We have an informal truce."

"But I think something formal is better! They're a small village…"

"And so they don't have much to offer." Neji was playing devil's advocate unconsciously.

"Lee-kun said that Waterfall's leader wants to develop relationships with the five Great Villages. And it isn't so far away from Hidden Leaf!" Fujita tried again.

"Arguably, Waterfall is closer geographically to Rock." Neji countered, just based on pure observation.

Fujita's face fell. Tenten saw this and discreetly pinched the back of Neji's arm to alert him to the downward trajectory of the conversation. He frowned at the slight pain and she frowned at his frown.

"I don't say any of this to discourage you, but these are things that our council will notice." Neji tried to salvage what he could, "And your motivations to ally with Takigakure seem to be…more personal." He didn't want to bring up that he knew Fujita was enamored with the jinchuriki in Waterfall.

"I guess so. It would take time to see any real economic impact through a formal agreement, that's what Arisu-san told me. And…it might benefit Waterfall more than Leaf, which councilors may not like…" Fujita supposed, "But the overall benefit is still important. Militarily, anyway. No village wants jinchuriki to be taken by the Akatsuki. And villages that work together can prevent that from happening."

Tenten nodded, "At least that benefits both villages."

Neji was still skeptical, "Would the Hokage really want to risk the lives of her ninja to protect another village's—?"

"She already did!" Fujita grew impatient, "The Hokage agreed to the same thing with the Tide Village, so there's a precedent."

"It didn't work." Neji reminded him.

Tenten sensed that her adoptive younger brother was about to blow his lid. She watched Fujita stomp ahead of them, growling, "Onii-sama you don't know everything. There's still a chance! A chance that we can save them! What about our village's jinchuriki? Don't you think we should care about that person too? We've got to do something!"

Neji blinked as the young man crossed the street in a hurry, rushing through the building's entrance to get a head start on meeting with the Hokage. Tenten cleared her throat beside Neji to get his attention as they walked. He looked at her, realizing he'd unnecessarily incensed Fujita.

A smile of concern tilted Tenten's lips, "Why do you have to shit on him, Neji?"

"I…didn't mean to."

"He's young. If he's going to fail, don't hand him a list of all the ways he can do it. Let Fujita make his own list so he can look at it and grow from it." Tenten recommended, "Isn't that what you had to do?"

"Yes." He admitted.

"That's what I thought. I could probably fill an entire Tool Scroll if I wrote down all the things I screwed up." Tenten imagined.

This notion fascinated Neji. Tenten, as the wise and rational individual he regularly depended on, was not one he'd peg for rampant mistake-making. He could think of no example. In his mind, Tenten's record was pristine, but that was probably because love tweaked his recollection of her past errors. Neji watched her face interestedly as she led the way into the Administrative Building, and then up the main stairwell.

When they arrived at Tsunade's office and knocked once at the door, the Hokage barked for them to enter. Neji and Tenten did so and discovered Fujita beside Tsunade's desk, more composed and calm than he'd been before. Tsunade had the entreaty unwound in front of her, tapping her nail on a particular block of information.

She acknowledged the visiting pair briefly, "Just a moment, you two." Tsunade turned to Fujita, "Your reasoning is a bit shaky to say the least, but a few good points have been made. Do you know Waterfall's jinchuriki personally?"

"Yes, ma'am." Fujita confirmed.

"I see." Tsunade reached for a drawer and extracted an official seal from it, "I'll let you present this to the council this afternoon. I have no idea how they'll react but I can say that I have no objection to fortifying bonds with Hidden Waterfall. In spite of the recent attack on the Tide Village, we've made a fortune off of trade with them already. Things didn't go as planned, but the relationship is stable. Stability has value. There are also a few Tide ninja who liaise with our council, who may warm Leaf dignitaries to this idea of yours." She stamped the parchment and rolled up the scroll, handing it back to Fujita, "I hope it goes well."

He bowed respectfully without smiling too much, "Thank you, Tsunade-sama."

"We'll circle back on this tomorrow." She told Fujita as he exited the office. He flashed a stage one complete! face at his elders before hurrying out.

Tsunade then leveled her stare on Neji and Tenten, "Every time I see the two of you I think of what is possible through sheer perseverance."

"Um. Thank you." Tenten said.

"Are there any assignments you have for us?" Neji pressed on.

"Not as a team. Individually, yes. Minor tasks." Tsunade stowed away her official seal again, "The security alert has ended, though we'll still have increased patrols. I've called back two search teams that did not find any evidence of an intruder outside of the village. Thus far." She pointed to Neji, "Can you do me a favor? It isn't exactly a mission."

Neji nodded and Tsunade went on, "Sarutobi Asuma's injuries are healed, for the most part. He asked to postpone Sato's Jounin Evaluation that's scheduled for tomorrow. I want to grant Asuma time off, but I honestly don't think he needs it." She sighed, "Either you substitute for him at the Evaluation, which I am not cancelling, or convince him that he's being dramatic and he can still handle one measly test. I'm already prepared to promote Sato and I have work for him, but I need the certifications over and done with."

Wow. Neji already knew that he did not want to substitute for an Evaluation after dealing with Hatake Sato during the Chunin Exam. Neither was he sure that he could say anything to motivate Asuma, but as a fellow and novice Jounin, maybe he could gently shame the veteran into it? He could try. With that, Neji told the Hokage, "I'll do what I can to convince him, Hokage-sama."

"See that you do. Asuma is on the first floor waiting for his students. Strike up a conversation." Tsunade then beckoned Tenten closer, "You stay here with me, please. I'll send you downstairs shortly."

On the way out of the office, Neji glanced over his shoulder once at Tenten, wondering what she was needed for. When the door shut behind him, the Hokage leaned back in her desk chair and let her confident airs drop. This change tightened the muscles in Tenten's neck and back. She tried reading the village leader's expression and body language while waiting in silence, but Tenten could not decipher much.

"You can sit if you want." Tsunade noted an armchair recently set in front of her desk.

"Is everything alright, Tsunade-sama?" She asked hopefully as she took a seat.

"No. And I don't want to unload everything on you. The Hokage first and foremost should get a grip on the most alarming of threats…but sometimes these things must trickle down. I can't let you be uninformed about what's been going on." Tsunade adjusted her position to rest her elbows on the desktop, "I don't know much about Tao Arts or the ones that use them. Because of the attacks on this village, I've had to better understand why we have the attention of a rogue cell in the first place."

It was good that she chose to sit. She'd be fidgeting if she were still standing. Tenten felt her palms get clammy as she flattened them on armrests, "It's for the same reason my parents had their attention." Tenten could not deny what was now so obvious.

"The Sandaime left behind a written record that detailed Konoha's past conflict with Dintei Bi and his followers. From what I understand, they were of a cadet family to the main branch of your clan, formerly based in the Earth Country. After a coup that deposed the main…and killed most other bystanders, Bi tried saving face with the Tsuchikage by eliminating Iwa's enemies during the war. After a time that arrangement was no longer favorable, and the Third Tsuchikage called for his arrest. Naturally, Bi decided to disappear instead." Tsunade tried to condense the tale, "And he was not unaware that a few survivors took refuge in the Fire Country, which was part of an armistice trade of prisoners the Tsuchikage sanctioned. At that point, he dedicated his time and energy to hunting these refugees."

"He didn't miss a mark." Tenten noted morbidly.

"Could you please not say it like that?" Tsunade grumbled, "You're still here. For good or ill."

"We both know that it probably isn't good when Konoha has already dealt with collateral damage." A withered breath escaped Tenten, "Back when my…parents were killed…I'd already thought about turning myself over."

"You were a child." Tsunade reminded her, "And you were upset."

"I still think about it."

"You were a child. And children think stupid things because every problem must have a simple solution." The Hokage bent forward and curled her fingers, "The martyr attitude can't resolve much when your willing demise would only cause more issues. For one: the weapons you have."

"Clan weapons, yeah." Tenten acknowledged what Tsunade was getting at.

"They're Tao Weapons."

"I…guess?" She hadn't given it too much thought.

"So they are only useful to a certain sort, and are potently dangerous. The Third felt it was more responsible to let you maintain ownership over these weapons as opposed to locking them away or ransoming them. If Bi acquired them, he could do far more damage to any target if they were at his disposal." Tsunade reasoned, "I agree that it is ideal for you to be better armed than our enemy."

"Maybe that's one upside, but I still need to point out that I'm outnumbered."

"Outnumbered? The Leaf Village's forces can rout a band of eleven."

"But Leaf struggles to deal with Tao Arts, and Bi's subordinates rely on ambushes, not full-frontal confrontations. That's why no one's been able to counter them so far. And maybe that method is being imitated by the Akatsuki—"

"No matter their methods, they can't win. They're already at a disadvantage." The Hokage had to have her say, "Nukenin and rogue groups target individuals in this village more often than you realize, and will pick off affiliated villagers as a taunt. Turning you over, or turning those weapons over is simply out of the question. The Hyuga clan would never stand for it."

That touched a very sore spot of Tenten's, prompting her to nearly shriek, "Don't bring them into this." She sat back and apologized faintly, "Please. I don't want them to. It's bad enough…"

"What's bad enough-?" Tsunade laced her hands under her chin.

Tenten boiled over again, "—it's bad enough that Hikune's dead!"

"I know." Tsunade replied evenly.

"I won't let it happen to anyone else. I should've thought more—"

"Maybe you should've," Tsunade agreed harshly, "Thought more. Thought more about the jeopardy you've brought upon one of this village's chieftain clans. And that you have not yet openly discussed this predicament with its leadership. It's not my place to meddle in a delicate matter like that, but I've thought more than once about saying something."

Winded by the gruff reality that the Hokage had flung at her, Tenten sunk into the backrest and tried to breathe. Had she been pontificating about mistakes earlier? What would she have to say on the subject now?

"I don't want you to lead a life of solitude in the hope it spares others from Bi's wrath, because it most likely won't. Nor do I think it is fair of you to imperil the Hyuga clan without it knowing the scope of your circumstances." Tsunade made it clear, "But I want you to take more responsibility. Even if that means you preemptively strike these rats at their source, I'd rest easier knowing you'd do that in the defense of Konoha."

She felt her face get hot, her throat tight, "Of course I would."

"You have two of the three heirloom weapons, is that right? Well, I would prefer it if you had them all." The Hokage sat up straighter, "And that you make those men sorry they ever dared to look for you."

"I don't know where to find the last one…" Tenten swallowed some of her grief, "I never even thought to—"

"I do." Tsunade said.

The young woman stilled in her seat and stared at the Hokage, desperate in her attention.

"I have some intelligence from a reliable informant that the weapon, Chōten, has been tracked through the hands of various owners and is for sale. Not very many realize what it actually is, or what it can do for a particular wielder." Tsunade explained, "One of the Fourth Hokage's contemporaries has been following it. Now that he's pinpointed Chōten, I've asked him to retrieve it for me."

"How soon?"

"Within the next month or so, we'll see how that mission pans out. Though I am sure that what we've heard did not escape the ears of Dintei Bi either." The Hokage rubbed her chin thoughtfully, "So you'll stay here and I'll keep you informed of how it turns out."

"Alright." Unable to handle her restless legs, Tenten stood to fidget, "I might…be able to use Tao Arts. On my own."

"Then learn how. You're better equipped than other shinobi to deal with this threat in every sense. And as you said, this faction may have common interests with the Akatsuki. If we have an opportunity to put an end to Huo, Bihokokuni, and the rest…I intend to take it." Tsunade told her, "It isn't easy knowing how many in this village depend on you to act in their defense. I too have lost sleep over it, Tenten. So please do as I've asked and make certain that the Hyuga clan is willing to stick its nose in this conflict, and if it isn't— accept that."

"I will." The full body sweat Tenten had been fighting dampened her top considerably.

"I have no tasks for your team for the next two days, but if that changes you'll hear of it." Tsunade dismissed her after that.

Tenten woodenly walked out of the office, pondering how the most distinguished role model in her life ground her face into the mud of a crisis she had tried to ignore. She was a sweatball, breathing shallowly, hyper-aware of each person she had encountered in the last 48 hours and how she could not risk inaction. Their lives were still at stake no matter how safe she felt. All because they were bonded to her.

The stairwell was vacant as she took rigid steps down, trying to grasp something that had tormented her father his whole life. Surely she would find it in his journal if she looked— how he tried to find ways to minimize the damage. Tried not to risk the lives of those who knew him. Tenten stopped on a landing before reaching the second floor. If she returned to the lobby and saw Neji there, she might bite her tongue off. If only to avoid spilling the unfortunate truth in a public place, choked on her emotions, Tenten wished to stage some diversion to avoid bringing it up. At least until she had processed her distress.

'If I'd…really examined the big picture when it started to come together…' She took several breaths through her nostrils, 'I would've known that…I shouldn't have started something with Neji. I shouldn't have gotten close to anyone, really, but it felt like if I didn't then I'd have nothing.' Which was the crux of it, so to speak. Having something to lose was as much of a gamble as having nothing to live for. Youth and teamwork had kept Tenten adequately distracted from the rock bottom reality, but she couldn't unlearn what she now knew.

She turned to the window of the landing and pushed it open, 'I just need to do something that feels normal. Just for a while.' The shop. Handstands at the training field. A basketful on dumplings. Any of that would do. Tenten vaulted out of the window, crossed clay roof shingles, and dropped down into the alley, in full retreat.

Below on the first floor, Neji watched as she made a run for it.

---

Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;

I have loved the stars too truly to be fearful of the night.

—From Sarah Williams' The Old Astronomer

Note: Oh look, a double-update.

Chapter 52- Haunt