Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or Sasuke, or Tenten (Neko)…

Chapter 13: Winds of Change

Kakashi and Tsunade had told her that she now had mangekyou sharingan, which looks like a red and black pinwheel when it uses the tsukiyomi, an illusionary attack. His sharingan had grown darker, and she noted that he was probably about to attack her with it. So Neko closed her eyes and activated her own sharingan, allowing him to see just what kind if a ninja he was dealing with.

When she looked up again, she was met by a glare. The last three Uchihas stood together now in a clearing, and a clash of titans seemed imminent.

"So you're that long lost cousin…" Itachi commented as she drew out a kodachi.

None of them turned when they heard Naruto and Hanabi thrown back again as they tried in vain to free Hinata from Kisame.

"Help them," Sasuke hissed at Neko. "This isn't your battle."

"You'll get yourself killed," she retorted as Itachi waited.

"So you'll help me like you helped Hyuuga?" Neko winced at the verbal blow and slowly backed up closer to Sasuke. Sasuke seemed relieved and Neko's aura glowed with annoyance as she caved in. The clearing felt oddly still as the seconds ticked by.

"You're going to let him talk you down so easily?" Itachi teased. "You have these same eyes, and yet you listen to him?"

"Shut up," Neko hissed. You don't know what you're talking about…

"You know how it feels, don't you?" Itachi went on, and Sasuke cast a sidelong glance at Neko. The girl was shaking.

xXx

"Neji," Tsunade said to get his attention once she entered his room. She muttered for the nurse to go back and send Kakashi to trace the Uchiha cousins movements as she went over to the Hyuuga. Neji tried to sit up but she was already pushing him back down onto his bed. "I need you to relax, we can't help them if you don't relax."

"How did you know?" he looked surprised.

"I saw it, too," was all the explanation she would give him. "Now, we are going to try something that has not been done in many years…"

"What are we doing?" Neji sounded suspicious and Tsunade gave him a weak smile.

"We're going to help them the fastest way possible," she answered and placed her hands on his temples.

xXx

"Shut up!" Neko yelled and closed her eyes.

"And to have that dreadful sight that makes sense of nothing," Itachi smirked slightly. "You must really be going through something unique."

"Shut up," the shaking was worse now and Sasuke tried to place a hand on her shoulder. She pulled away and covered her ears, the kodachi clanking dully as it hit the ground.

"Neko, Neko don't listen—" Sasuke tried to talk to her but she would not hear it.

"He's in your head, isn't he?" Itachi's voice rang like a bell in the clearing. Neko froze and even stopped shaking for a moment. Sasuke stared at his brother in surprise, was this what had make Neko so crazy in the waiting room?

"Shut up," she said weakly, tears falling from her eyes.

"It won't go away," Itachi almost sounded sympathetic as he said it. "He'll be there talking to you forever. It will always be the negative side, never the optimism. It's the side cast away as they pass on."

Neko opened her eyes and looked over at Itachi, he stood alone in the dark clearing like a pale spirit back from the dead. A dark memory hanging over them all.

"You're wrong," her voice broke as she said it. " He just… He just…says good-bye… over and over again…"

"But he's still there, haunting your every breath, every heartbeat," suddenly Itachi was standing an inch from her face, between her and Sasuke. "I'll end it, end the pain for you, cousin…"

xXx

"Just relax, you will be fine. They need you…" Tsunade trailed off and Neji closed his eyes as his mind melted away. Suddenly he saw trees, and grass. It all seemed so blurry. And loud. There was so much yelling…

xXx

There was yelling, all too fast and panicked to make sense of. Within seconds, Sasuke had a chidori charged and ready to pierce through Itachi's flesh as Neko's own kodachi was raised to her neck. The weapon was dropped, and Neko thrown back, when Itachi grabbed Sasuke's elbow. He bent his brother's arm back towards himself, so that the ball of lightning was heading for Sasuke's own chest.

Neko jumped back up, snatching her kodachi, and charged into the mess to save Sasuke. It looked hopeless, as Itachi continued to manipulate any attack to his advantage. The buzzing chidori drew ever closer to Sasuke's chest. One part of the lightning edge licked the sleeve of his shirt off.

A final, deafening thud threw all of them back. Neko landed painfully on her rear end, then felt her head connect with the ground. She jumped back up and looked for signs of her cousins; it was then that she realized someone was standing next to her. Her gaze traveled slowly up from their feet until she gasped upon sight of their face.

"Neji?" Neko cried out. He looked down at her and smirked, offering her a hand up. She took it shakily and never took her eyes off of him. "What are you doing here? You're injured!"

"Someone had to help you, since these guys are preoccupied," Neji gestured at Hinata's situation, and Neko noted with a worried expression that Hanabi looked like she had broken something as Naruto taunted the kidnapper in his usual fashion.

"How?" Neko could not help but ask.

"It's a trick Tsunade-sama will show you someday," Neji explained. Neko frowned and let the subject drop, then ran over to help Naruto save Hinata, she knew Sasuke would not let her offer any help to him now. Neji watched her go and then turned to see Sasuke and Itachi. Both had managed to get up again and Sasuke was glaring daggers at the eldest Uchiha. Neji chose to sit this one out and went to help Hanabi with her injury.

"Naruto," Neko approached him as he yelled at the sharkman. "Let me handle this one."

"But Hinata-chan…" Naruto protested.

"Sasuke needs you now," Neko never looked away from Kisame's eyes, letting him get a good long look at the pinwheel effect in her own. Naruto finally grumbled and went over to help his teammate.

Sickly yellow eyes focused on Neko after watching Naruto leave, and Hinata's squirms could be heard easily. Neko glared up at her captor and he returned it heartily.

"Is that all you can do, wench?" he taunted and she let a ghost of a smirk creep onto her lips.

"You wish…" she trailed off as the red and black in her eyes began to blend together, bringing a nightmare to life in Kisame's mind. He easily let go of the flame he thought was burning the hand that held Hinata. Neko relaxed her eyes, locking the sharkman into the illusion, and went over to help Hinata.

Naruto had come to a halt next to Sasuke, who barely registered it as he continued to charge at his older brother with yet another chidori. Naruto prepared his own rasengan and helped out his teammate, who said nothing as they closed in on the elder Uchiha. Itachi said nothing and merely stood there as they approached.

He had vanished within seconds of contact, leaving a log to be torn apart by the force of their attacks.

"It seems that we've wasted out time here," Itachi commented from the other side of the clearing as he glanced over at Kisame screaming in agony. It was not long before he had gone, taking his partner with him.

"Wait, nii-san!" Sasuke screamed but it was too late. He screamed a string of profanities and went down to his hands and knees. He had failed again. He was too weak. Naruto just stood there looking sad and watching Sasuke's break-down.

Neko looked up just in time to see Neji slowly fade into the background, his job being complete. "No, wait, Neji!" she yelled before he was completely gone, and added when she had his attention: "Thank you." The last thing she saw was the smirk that had adorned his lips. Kakashi showed up just in time to see that everything had already played out, and Naruto gave him a slight look of annoyance that clearly said 'late again.' Kakashi saw the emotion radiating from the Uchiha cousins and chose to help Naruto with the Hyuuga girls.

"Why?" Sasuke yelled and whipped around to face Neko, who jumped at the sudden motion. "Why the hell did you stop him?"

"W-what?" Neko's eye twitched, she knew what he meant but was afraid to hear it.

"Why didn't you let him kill me?" Sasuke cried out, and his eyes looked wet. She did not even notice as her own eyes bleed back to their natural brown state. Her cousin just continued to stare her down with hatred as Naruto checked on the Hyuuga heiresses.

Without warning, Sasuke had punched Neko. She fell back with the blow and kept her eyes down to the ground as the situation sank in. They now had all eyes on them as Neko got back up again and Sasuke glared at her.

"I told you not to do that again," her tone dripped with anger. "And you forget cousin, that we have a bond now."

"Bond?" Sasuke scoffed, still looking ready to attack her.

"I've never had a brother before," she spoke honestly, and then looked over at Naruto. "You two… Have a bond like no other. You two really are like siblings. I don't know if we're more like cousins, or if it really was like living with a brother…"

Sasuke's expression softened when he saw the tears falling from her eyes, though her bangs hid her face. He frowned at the scene; he hated it when girls cried. Especially her and Sakura. He never knew whether to hug them or to try and get out of the way of the attack that would follow.

"…But I don't want to be alone again…" she finally sniffed. The clearing was silent as she stood there with her eyes to the ground. Naruto bit his lip as he watched; Sasuke just did not understand how important he actually was to so many people here.

The raven-haired boy moved forward slowly, and Neko had barely looked up before he wrapped his arms around her. She clung to him helplessly and cried into his shirt. He just let her do it, and kept his face as stoic as usual. Somehow he knew this all hurt her too, she would never feel the way he did but it was a kind of companionship he could use.

xXx

"They left," Neji mumbled as he came out of the daze Tsunade had put him in.

"Thank you," she gave him a weak smile and rose to leave the room. Neji could not help but notice that she looked strikingly like Neko when she had said it.

Tsunade left the room quickly and found Gai first. She gave him quick instructions to go to the field where the genin were and help the Hyuuga heiresses back to the hospital. Then came the difficult part.

"Hyuuga-san," she went out into the waiting room and addressed Hiashi. "May I have a word?" He obliged silently and followed her out to a nearby hallway where they would not be overheard.

"What is it?" Hiashi wanted to know.

"I'm afraid that your daughters were ambushed on their way home with Naruto. The Uchiha cousins were able to help and thankfully drove away the attacker."

"A couple of genins drove away an ambush?"

"The attackers were after Naruto. One of them was an Uchiha, and was distracted by his relatives," Tsunade explained. "Please keep this quiet and don't worry. The girls only have minor injuries."

Hiashi fell silent and Tsunade said goodbye as she had patients she needed to prepare for. He returned to the waiting room looking more solemn than before and none of the other Hyuuga clan members dared question what had occurred with him and the Hokage.

"I guess we won't be leaving for awhile," one of them remarked.

Little did they know, Hiashi was planning some thing that involved much more than medical bills.

xXx

"Gai-sensei?" Neko was naturally the first to notice the approach of her teacher. He did the traditional 'good guy' pose and she felt a small sense of relief that something in this world could still be seen as normal.

"What happened here?" he asked and immediately went over to Hanabi, who showed the worst injury.

"Akatsuki," Kakashi said with a frown, and a tone that suggested familiarity.

"It was a long overdue family reunion," Neko said venomously. Gai nodded sympathetically and steadied Kakashi as he rose with Hanabi in his arms.

"How's your neck?" Naruto studied Hinata before letting her get up. She smiled and said that it was just a few bruises. He still looked upset when he lowered her collar to see it was already a deep purple. She blushed and pushed him away as they followed Gai and Kakashi back to the hospital.

Neko sighed with relief as they were able to leave and she gathered her weapons. Sasuke muttered something about her being slow and she expertly aimed a shuriken at him. He smirked back at her and caught it easily.

"You're losing your touch, Nek—" he stopped, as she was on her knees. "Nee-san?"

"My… My side…," she said slowly and removed the arm she had at her side, revealing a deep gash. Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise and he quickly tore her shirt to use as a tourniquet.

"How... did…?" she wondered more to herself than to Sasuke. He was talking but she could not understand him. When did Sasuke get so blurry?

But why was there a gash in her side? She tried to remember the fight. Itachi had thrown her aside when Sasuke tried to charge him with chidori. Itachi had also thrown her kodachi. The landing had been painful, but she had bounced right back up to save Sasuke and her friends. That pain… it must have been the kodachi connecting with her side. Adrenaline had stalled the pain until now.

Sasuke had turned and yelled at the others. Why couldn't she hear him? Naruto and Hinata were standing over her now, looking scared. Poor Hinata, she looked so horrified. Why was everyone watching her? Hanabi was the one who needed to go to the hospital. And Neko was just so tired, her eyes began to drift shut.

Sasuke prodded her viciously and she hissed in pain. Now he was yelling at her. Had he not done enough to her tonight? He hit her twice and now he was yelling at her? She just wanted to get some sleep…

xXx

Neko opened her eyes to see a sea of white. She blinked and suddenly felt a wave of pain wash over her head as though she had run into a stone wall head first. With a groan she placed a hand on her head and rubbed her eyes.

"Good morning," a voice came from her left and she turned her throbbing head to see a smiling Hyuuga Neji in the bed next to hers.

"Am I in the hospital?" she wondered.

"Yes, they said you were fairly banged up," he commented and smiled as she rubbed her head again. "That's a minor concussion. You also have a few broken ribs from that kodachi."

"How are Hinata and Hanabi?" Neko wanted to know and he pointed to the visitors that were leaning against the wall. Hinata's neck was as pale as ever while she and Hanabi slept leaning on each other, with Hanabi's arm in a sling for the time being. A seat away from them sat Sasuke, Naruto and Lee. Neko had to suppress a laugh as Naruto and Sasuke slept on each other.

"Hiashi-sama was angry," Neji sounded tired as he spoke. Neko just listened intently as he went on. "He wants to marry off Hinata for her safety."

"What? But she's fine…" Neko was surprised.

"But it wasn't her or Hanabi they were after…" Neji trailed off and looked pointedly in Naruto's direction.

"I see," she lowered her eyes and felt a twinge of pity for Hinata. "Seems so rushed…"

"Apparently he's been talking about it for awhile," Neji admitted. "That was what Hinata came to talk to me about that day when we left for our mission."

"So that's why you looked so down," Neko gave a weak smile. "You really do care about her."

"She's like a sister to me, her and Hanabi," the ghost of a smile was on his lips; just enough for her to recognize the honesty in his words.

"Don't worry, it'll all work out," she assured him and they drifted into silence. He was surprised at this and looked over to see that she had fallen asleep once more. Neji let himself smile slightly and turned back to studying the sheets on his bed. Would she have been so supportive if he had told her which clan Hiashi wanted to marry Hinata off to?