Staying Alive

A Neji x Tenten Story

Summary- AU fic. Doesn't really have a set time. NxT When Neji is hired to capture a criminal he doesn't expect what he finds. Can the thief reach her life long goals of killing the one man she utterly loathes or will her Uncle get in the way of things? More twisted than it sounds.

Disclaimer- And they say bribery gets you everything.

"sup"- talking

sup- thinking

'sup'- Flashback

'sup'- Thoughts in a flashback

A.N.- Yeah I know, It's taken forever for me to update. I'm still blaming school and my laziness. I hope you enjoy.

What happened last time- 'Tenten's anger slowly faded away and she slumped against the cold damp wall of her cell. She slid to the floor resting her arms across her knees as she stared up into the dark ceiling her head resting against the cool stone wall. Now what?'

Staying Alive

Chapter 8- Correcting the Past

Tenten's eyes snapped open as the heavy steel door to the dungeon was pushed open. She stared up at Neji's silhouette slightly surprised that it was him. It had been nearly twenty minutes and Tenten expected Shinji would be around to mock her by now. Neji descended from the stairs as the door was pulled shut with a loud grating noise.

"Well, I didn't expect to see you down here, come to join the low life?" Her words were biting and she flinched at the unwanted bitterness.

"Here." Neji tossed her a small blue pouch. Tenten caught it and smirked before eyeing Neji warily.

"You sure you want to trust a common thief with weapons?" Neji locked eyes with her, a solemn look came over his face and Tenten knew that he was serious.

"I trust you with my life, and there is nothing common about you Tenten." A genuine smile broke across her face and her distrustful eyes softened and shone with happiness. It was as if a mask fell from her face as Neji finished speaking.

"How long?" She questioned softly wondering how long he had known who she really was.

"Not long enough," Neji confessed silently berating himself. Tenten pulled a gleaming senbon needle from the pouch and began to pick the lock on one of her shackles.

"Hey, on the upside I finally know what my dungeon looks like," she said with a shrug. Neji frowned disapprovingly at her jest. He knew the way she had been treated over the past few days had been outrageous and un-forgivable for someone of her status and he was embarrassed at how he himself had treated her, one of noble blood, like a common criminal. Tenten looked up abruptly with a frown on her face.

"How did you get down her anyway?" she asked gesturing around the large stone room with the senbon needle.

"I convinced the guards that Shinji had sent me to interrogate you." Tenten looked back up at her childhood friend a look of disbelief on her face.

"You're serious? They actually believed you?" Her words were more statements than questions but Neji nodded.

"Boy the two of them are really dense. I'm seriously going to have to fire them." Tenten went back to trying to undo her shackles finally succeeding in opening one. She smiled in triumph before moving on to her other hand.

"You've changed," she whispered quietly without looking up at Neji. He didn't answer for a while and Tenten began to wonder if he had even heard her.

"So have you." His quiet voice seemed almost regrettable. Silence elapsed over the two as Tenten finally managed to unlock her second shackle. She quickly released the shackles on her ankles her pace quickening now with the use of both her hands. Neji reached down and helped her to her feet and Tenten secured the weapons pouch tightly to her right thigh. The added weight felt awkward but was welcome none the less.

"Come on." Tenten gestured to the door with her head. Neji followed passing her as they reached the stairs. He stood in front of the closed door while Tenten backed into the shadows and out of sight. Neji rapped on the door to the guards on the outside.

"I need to speak to Lord Shinji about the thief, it's important." His voice was cold and demanding and echoed in the stone room as it traveled through the small barred window of the door. Tenten's palms began to sweat as she heard the sound of keys jingling. Soon the door was pushed open and Tenten jumped the guard hitting a pressure point in his neck knocking him unconscious. Neji quickly attacked the other guard before he could make a sound and soon he was passed out on the floor as well.

"Neji." Tenten's voice was hard and sharp. The Hyuga prodigy turned and looked at her.

"None of the servants are to be harmed, they had no choice." A sad note managed to seep into Tenten's voice as her thoughts drifted to Ayame. Please be alive, she silently prayed. Neji nodded in understanding and Tenten's razor like gaze softened. She nodded as the two moved stealthily from shadow to shadow as they made their way up the stairs. They would take the long way around back to the throne room to remain more inconspicuous. Instead of going strait they turned left through a servant's passageway to get to the main hall. Footsteps echoed in the corridor ahead of them and Tenten bolted into a shadowed doorway Neji close behind her. They managed to get out of sight just in time as an assembly of guards marched by. Tenten exhaled the breath she didn't know she had been holding as the patrol finally passed by. She turned to look up at Neji who was watching her, a look of worry in his pale eyes. Their bodies were mere inches apart.

"Are you sure you can do this?" A shiver ran down Tenten's spine as their breath mingled and danced across her face.

"Hey, I'm not the one with arrow wound in my side. Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Her voice held a teasing chord and she barley managed to keep her voice from shaking.

"Very well." Tenten gave him a reassuring smile but she was beginning to doubt herself. This is what she had wanted but now that she was here Tenten wasn't sure if she would be able to defeat Shinji. He had after all managed to kill both her parents who were well versed in the art of self defense. Maybe her dream of regaining her crown really was impossible.

The two moved out into the hallway again careful to avoid any more guard patrols which proved fairly easy. It seemed Shinji had slackened in his number of guards in the short time since Tenten's capture. Tenten's confidence slowly returned as she snaked down the hallway. He must feel safe now that I have been detained An evil smile made its way to her lips as malicious thoughts swarmed through her head. Oh how wrong he is. Neji watched from the corner of his eye as a smirk made its way across Tenten's soft features. The smirk didn't fit Tenten and a feeling of foreboding came over Neji, he began to wonder if Tenten might take her revenge to far. Banishing the thought from his mind Neji focused on the doors ahead of them. They had reached the main room.

(Insert Page Break)

Hurried footsteps echoed in the hallway. Tenten inhaled sharply and bolted into a shadow. Neji did the same, hiding as the footsteps drew near. A maid came into view and Tenten stopped breathing. The maid stumbled and dropped the basket of clothing she was carrying. As she scurried to pick up the fallen garments and linen tears filled Tenten's eyes. Ayame…Anger filled Tenten and she felt the urge to step foreword and reveal herself to the woman who had saved her life, but a sound halted Tenten from taking any misplaced action. The door to the throne room opened and Shinji emerged. The maid stopped moving, a sheet in her hand. Her eyes remained on the floor and her whole body went rigid.

"Clumsy woman, always making mistakes, pick up those sheets and do the job right," he snapped at her. Ayame nodded dumbly before picking up the basket and rising from the floor. She scurried away from sight and Tenten turned her burning gaze on Shinji.

"You bastard," she hissed, her fury radiating off of her body in waves as she emerged from the shadows. Shinji jumped and turned sharply to look at the infuriated woman. Her eyes burned with fire as she glared at her uncle. Shinji appeared startled to see Tenten standing before him when she was supposed to be chained to a stone wall in the dungeon.

"Surprised to see me?" Tenten hissed darkly. With this much wrath pumping through her veins she was as deadly and as unpredictable as a viper.

"You really shouldn't be. I swore…" Her voice was slow and measured as she spoke. "I swore…five years ago…on the night of my parent's death…that I would come back…" Tenten's voice slowly began to shake and her body became rigid. "and I…would…kill…you…" By now Tenten was shaking with rage making everyone word she spoke an effort. Shinji seemed to regain some of his composure and he straightened, staring cockily down at the young woman who was a few inches shorter than him.

"Pity that's not a threat you will ever be able to fulfill my dear, you just don't have the strength by yourself." Shinji put on an heir of politeness as he spoke to his niece which only infuriated her all the more. Neji chose this moment to emerge from his own hiding place to stand behind and off to the right of Tenten. He locked his intimidating pale eyes on the man and Shinji's heart began to pound.

"She isn't alone." Neji's voice was cool and level, the exact opposite of Tenten's fiery and passionate one.

"Well, well…the Hyuga." Despite the now twisted feeling forming in Shinji's stomach he acted cool and nonchalant, crossing his arms over his chest and leveling his amber eyes at Neji.

"I should have known you would turn and help a criminal. You have no pride or sense of honor, to turn you association just like that." A sneer formed on Shinji's face as he saw the pure rage form within Neji's pale eyes. Neji took a step foreword, his hands balled into fists at his sides ready to kill Shinji for insulting his families honor but he walked straight into Tenten's steely forearm.

"He's mine," she hissed. "You can have what's left of him when I'm though." Before Neji could protest, Tenten had lunged at Shinji pulling two kunai from her weapons pouch and throwing them at her uncle who dove to the side to avoid the projectiles. A solid thunk resounded in the hallway as the two kunai struck the elaborate doors that lead to the throne room. Shinji swept his leg out at Tenten's feet from his position on the floor to try and trip her but Tenten leapt into the air to avoid the attack and threw three shuriken down at the corned figure of her uncle.

The three weapons landed solidly, one between the man's golden brown eyes, another in his throat and the last in his chest. Shinji's body disappeared in a poof of smoke and Tenten glared. A replacement! her mind screamed. She landed safely on the ground and her muscles tensed as she stopped and listened. Suddenly her eyes went wide and she rolled quickly to the right, multiple senbon striking the stone floor where she had been lying only a moment before. The mild scent of poison permeated the air around her. Tenten launched herself to her feet and flipped backwards as more senbon struck the ground where she had previously been.

She ground her teeth in anger and launched a barrage of kunai up at the ceiling into a high corner. Shinji rapidly jumped away from his position high above Tenten as weapon after weapon struck the walls and ceiling where he had been hiding in the shadows. He landed safely on the floor only to have Tenten's bare fist make contact with his smooth face. A loud crack was heard and Shinji was sent flying backwards and into a table which shattered under his weight. Tenten ignored the aching pain in her fist and continued her attack wasting no time. She pinned Shinji to the ground her knee pressed into the small of his back. She pulled a kunai from her weapons pouch and drove it though the right hand of her uncle as he cupped a hand to his broken nose. He cried out in pain as Tenten drove the weapon further through his hand and into the stone floor pinning it there. She twisted the knife furiously and drove her left elbow down towards the back of Shinji's head but he managed to move just in time and Tenten's elbow crashed down into the stone floor and her arm erupted in pain. Tenten clutched her elbow trying to stop the bleeding and she rolled off of Shinji as her left arm went completely numb. The brunette haired man clutched the handle of the kunai and ripped it from his right hand glaring with malice at Tenten who lay immobile on the floor next to him. He slowly rose to his knees and raised the bloodied kunai above his head ready to send it plunging down through Tenten's left temple. Shinji dropped his arm but before the weapon could reach Tenten it was stopped mere inches away from her head, blocked by two of Neji's own kunai. The Hyuga Prodigy had his Byakugan activated making him look all the more intimidating.

The two glared at each other before Neji forced Shiji's kunai upwards forcing Shinji to take a step back, his right hand pressed tightly against his stomach. Blood rapidly covered the cream fabric as the gaping hole in his hand continued to bleed. Neji stepped over Tenten's crumpled body, she was still seeing stars, and he took up a defensive stance in front of her, wielding both knives precisely as he stared Shinji down.

"My turn," he growled darkly. Neji lunged at Shinji lashing out with one arm. Shinji jumped backwards and the tip of Neji's kunai sliced open the bloodied front of the fabric covering Shinji's chest. Neji continued to force Shinji back with his two kuani so rapidly that Shinji couldn't get a shot in. Shinji was at a distinct disadvantage with only one hand to fight with and he was losing too much blood and both he and Neji knew it. Tenten panted on the floor a few feet away still clutching her bleeding elbow. Pins and needles laced up and down her arm rendering it more or less immobile. Tenten struggled to her feet beginning to feel the effects of three days and two nights hog tied and her muscles were once again beginning to protest. She stood on wobbly legs and watched as Neji landed a roundhouse kick to the side of Shinji's face sending the other side of his head flying into the nearest wall. Tenten ground her teeth in anger and she drew a two kunai from her slowly depleting supply of weapons, her left hand hanging uselessly at her side. Tenten watched and waited, her muscles tensing as she waited for her opening. Finally it came and Tenten unleashed her two kunai.

The weapons both found their marks, one landing in Shinji's upper left shoulder and the other landing directly in the center of his left elbow, slicing muscle and tendon in half. The knife wedged itself between both bones completely cutting off the use of his left arm. Tenten smirked and straightened up. She raised an arm and ran at Shinji, her fist landed a powerful blow to the man's chin and a sharp crack was heard. Shinji's lip was split open and he cried out in pain as his jaw broke. The pain in Tenten's now bleeding knuckles was ignored as she stared down into the bloodied and broken face of her uncle. Tenten withdrew her last few kunai ready to finish the job but she received a kick in the face and she went flying backwards the dual kunai's clattering to the floor. Tenten sat up and spat blood; her chin had been split open from the blow and was bleeding profusely. Neji landed a crushing blow to Shinji's face breaking his nose with a loud snap!

Tenten rose angrily to her feet and collected her two kunai. She stalked towards Shinji and plunged a kunai straight through his left lung. Shinji was lying in a pool of his own blood and there was more of if scattered throughout the entire hallway. Blood was splattered on the walls and floor coating everything in a thick veil of crimson. Tenten wanted the man to bleed until he was dry. She twisted the kunai in his left lung ferociously more blood coating the front of his formal clothes. In a blind rage she sliced open the palm of her own hand with a random kunai. She grabbed the barley conscious Shinji by the hair and jerked his head upwards. His eyes fluttered open and Tenten forced her bloodied hand into his face.

"Do you see this!" she shrieked. "This is MY blood! This is not your blood!" Her voice was filled with a rage that she had kept locked inside of her for the past five years and she was desperate to voice that anger. "You are no family of mine." Tenten slammed her uncle's head down into the floor and glared at his dying body. She clutched her arm tightly to her side. She was covered in blood, sweat, and dirt and there was an aching pain in her heart that could never be matched by any physical wound, but she was still alive, which was more than she could say for her uncle. Tenten stared down at the body of the man who had put her through so many hardships. A smirk appeared on Tenten's face and she spat, blood mixing with saliva.

"I win," she hissed.

A.N.- Yay!!! Chapter is done! No it's not the end of the story. I'll get the next chap. up soon. This hasn't been beta edited yet, I just wanted to give you guys an update because I haven't updated in forever. I hope you enjoyed!!!