AN: Ugh. It's a shorter chapter, and yes, I feel bad about that. In my defense what I have planned for the next chapter would make it run very long in my opinion. And I guess there's nothing wrong with smaller doses. I also feel like this had a decent closing point and gives readers a taste of what's to come. I hope the idea will make people actually come back again when I update.

Disclaimer: Blah blah blah, the usual with a touch of something funny. Blah blah blah, self-deprecating humor.

It isn't panic that begins to overtake Hyuuga Neji, but it's something close to it. Pale faces dotted with colorless eyes begin to fade into the bland room; the difference between the whites of their eyes and the white of the walls becomes less distinguishable. The glares of a room full of Hyuuga main branch elders were dizzying to say the least.

Both his heart and his head are pounding, and Neji could almost swear that someone in the room is slipping him a small stream of pain through his curse seal. His eyes wince. His jaw goes slack. Even though he wasn't going to cry out in pain much less say anything, an elder in the room yells, "SILENCE!" at the opening of his mouth.

Normally, even with his eyes closed, Neji could still see everyone in the room, but the pain that's crushing his head is making the byakugan ability useless. The searing sensation starting in his brain is slowly trickling down his spine like how water rolls down a window pane during a light spring shower. The curse seal's effect slowly and gradually glides down, intermittently gaining momentum at unpredictable times. The pain is locking up his shoulders and arms and it's taking all of his concentration to retain his balance and remain standing.

In a room full of the most insightful people in the entire village, they are all blinded to the inhumane agony being placed on Neji. All of these most respected people are distracted. Some have their attention stolen away by anger, some by jealousy. Some have willingly given their attention up, so as to not really see what is happening in front of them. Every single one of them has either ignored or purposefully overlooked Neji's pain all because of the color that has appeared in a branch member's eye.

"This is a disgrace," a hushed voice says in disgust, "a defiled byakugan such as his is a blemish on the entire Hyuuga clan."

Phrases filled with contempt swirl around the room spoken by countless random elders. The belief in those words is as real as anything can be, but behind these lips that spewed vocal hatred is the fear of evolution. Each of these high status men are recalling how the Uchiha clan started. How one of their seemingly untalented branch members was allowed to marry outside of the clan, how she'd given birth to a 'normal' baby without the byakugan, and how that child's dark eyes that escaped the cage of the Hyuuga lead to tragedy.

The thoughts shared by all are on the tips of the elders' tongues until someone gives them life.

"At least we have a cage on this one..."

It's morose, paranoid, and probably an inappropriate thought for these men of elevated stature to be thinking out loud, but it's also comforting. The reassuring thought that they literally control the life and death of this branch member allows some of the men to finally breathe easy.

Hyuuga Neji is becoming less and less of a person. His name was never even spoken since he entered to room. What Neji is now is a liability; an easily terminated liability.

"What do you mean, 'He was released'?"

It wasn't the first time that one of Tenten's teammates escaped the much needed clutches of Konoha's hospital. Thinking about it now, she realized that she should have expected this. Neither of her restless teammates could tolerate the dreadfully slow process of healing. At one point in her many years of knowing both Neji and Lee, she'd come up with the hypothesis that to the two boys, not training was more dangerous than actually being deathly ill. While there was something to be said for the obvious necessity of training in the life of a ninja, Tenten couldn't overlook the importance of well-needed rest.

"I'm sorry Miss, but Hyuuga Neji is no longer-"

Tenten already knew how the sentence would end and jumped to cut the girl off. "Didn't he have a heart attack last night?"

The nurse looked around on her desk until she found and picked up the right chart. She quietly whispered select words and flipped through pages as she skimmed through the file until she came upon the diagnosis of young man's condition. In a pace too slow for Tenten came the words, "...Yes, it looks as through he suffered-"

Again Tenten impatiently cut into the girl's sentence, "And you let him go?" Tenten could feel the onset of a headache, this was becoming too much for her to handle with any sense of rationality.

Normally the hospital could handle strong-willed ninja and make them comply with a doctor's orders. After all, this was a ninja village's hospital; they dealt with matters like these often. In the past, Lee has been strapped down to a bed and made to heal from wounds received in battle. Thought Neji never required physical constraints to keep him in the hospital, the nursing staff would make sure to stop by his room and insist on his need for a restful recovery.

The nurse became quiet once more and focused back on the file. "Actually, it says right here that Hyuuga Neji was signed out of the hospital by Hyuuga Narabi against the doctor's will."

"Fine!" Tenten took a deep breath to try to keep her head from pounding. If much more of this nonsense continued, she'd had to be checked into the hospital. "I'm going to the Hyuuga estate. I'll try to get Neji back in here if I have to drag him myself."

The look that the nurse gave her was that of plain disbelief masked with a polite smile. "Good luck."

Tenten realized that she would need luck too. The number of times that the Hyuuga's main family ever allowed good things to happen to the branch family could be counted on one hand. Getting Neji readmitted to the hospital would probably be against the white eyed man's consent, much less the main families.

The series of events that took place in the elder's meeting room were fresh in Neji's head. He walked through the hallways aimlessly without destination as he replayed the memories over and over like a broken record. So lost in his own world of thought was the Hyuuga genius that he didn't even notice his name being called. It wasn't until he felt a tugging on his right shirt sleeve that he surfaced from the depths of his mulling. When he turned to see who had pulled him from his serious contemplations, the familiar face of Hyuuga Hanabi was looking back at him with a perturbed countenance.

"You're ignoring me..." It was a statement. It was a complaint. It was supposed to be a cute whine.

Neji had understood Hanabi's affection for him for a while. Years ago when Hiashi made efforts at restoring the relationship between the two branches of the Hyuuga clan, he'd taken direct control of Neji's training. Hanabi had grown resentful because this meant less training time for herself. And after all, how had she become of equal importance to a branch family member in the eyes of her father? But beyond the resentment, and after she had actually trained along side Neji, Hanabi started to see her male cousin as more of an older brother. He was someone who was talented, smart, and bore a handsome resemblance to her father. With that understanding in place, Neji earned a spot in Hanabi's view of family.

"I'm sorry Hanabi-sama, I didn't mean to. I was just lost in my thoughts." Neji apologized politely as he turned to face the teenager. "Was there something you wanted?"

Neji watched as she was suddenly startled by his face, and once he remembered why, he supposed this would be happening a lot now days. Before she could find the appropriate words to say, he spoke up.

"Oh, right. Don't worry about this." His right hand went up to his face to touch the patch that had been placed over his right eye. "It's nothing."

"I didn't know you were hurt on your last mission..." She was searching for something to say that could break the ice of protocol that held back her concern.

"Seriously, Hanabi-sama. I wasn't hurt. I'm fine." His words were coupled with a reassuring smile to try and convince her. "Now, was there something you wanted?"

Hanabi couldn't help but stare at the black eye-patch that adorned Neji's face. There was a very obvious pride in all Hyuuga that had the byakugan, for Neji to have one of his covered; she couldn't even fathom why he would do that if he wasn't hurt. But for the sake of his insistence and his smile, Hanabi pulled her eyes away from the foreign object and refocused on her original goal.

"Neji-niisan," she said as she beamed him a smile back, "I was wondering, do you think you'd like to train with me by sparing?"

Additional AN: Thank you Takky-san, Blood Heron, Kratos Wilder, Aireonna, and all the others who have continued to write reviews of these chapter and urged me on to continue updating. I'll be honest, I was scared of writing this section of the overall story. I know it's going to start getting a bit tangled up with emotional realization very soon, and I'm afraid of taking people OOC. But purhaps I've established the characters and their motives enough to move their personal lives forward... /shrug