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Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, b/c if I did, Sasuke would be MINE!!
Chapter Four
The hospital corridors were bare, save for a pair of shinobi in shiny green jumpsuits and even shinier hair. They took long strides, walking side by side towards the last door at the end of the hall. Upon approaching their destination, the younger of the two reached forward to pull on the metal handle, only to realize he was supposed to push the door instead. Blushing slightly in embarrassment, he tried again and this time, successfully entered the room.
They were met with a bright, sunlight filled room. The walls were a pale beige that reflected the sunshine brilliantly, and the windows were slightly ajar, allowing a cool breeze to flow throughout the room. The curtains, pulled back with a thin string and slightly ruffled, cast a thin shadow across the occupant on the hospital bed.
Her hair had left behind its usual style of two bun-buns and was now sprawled out across her pillow, shimmering in the sunlight. The expression on her face was peaceful, except for the fact that occasionally, she would wince in her sleep, reminding everyone of the fact that even in this tranquil setting, she was experiencing a lot of pain.
The tiny clock sitting on her bedside table seemed to tick away endlessly, and the two visitors in the room waited, almost giving up hope. As they stared mindlessly at the vase of flowers beside the clock, they silently debated with themselves whether they should wait longer, or go training for the time being.
Fortunately, they had come at just the right time, for the hospitalized girl began stirring, until her eyes fluttered open and the world became visible to her again.
"Tenten! You are recovering quite well!"
The girl slowly sat up in bed and smiled sheepishly.
"Hey, Lee. Gai-sensei", she greeted them.
"Are you feeling better?"
Their sensei, despite his beliefs in tough love and harsh training, could visibly feel his female student's pain. She nodded and sat up a bit straighter, but winced when she felt a small pain spread through her back.
"How long have I been out?" she asked, lying back down.
"Well, all the paired matches have ended, and the one-on-one fights will begin in two weeks", Gai replied.
The Chunnin Exams! For a moment, Tenten was shocked that she'd allowed something so important to slip her mind.
"What were the results? Who fought who?!" Tenten was pretty much this close to grabbing Lee by the shoulder and shaking him until he fell apart.
"Oh, Tenten, you must calm yourself down! I shall tell you who has won", Lee grinned, "You already know that the most beautiful Sakura-san and her partner from the mist-nin won. Well, the team of Ino and Kiba won against the team of Chouji and Hinata. That was quite a fight, I must say, having teammates fight each other. Then, Temari and Kankuro from the sand won against two grass-nins. Most interesting too, since both teams were familiar with their partners. And of course, Gaara-san and I won our match against Shino and his partner from the grass".
"That's great!" Tenten smiled happily for her teammate.
"Yes. After last year's match, Lee and Gaara have learned to work together", Gai stated proudly. Tenten could only smile awkwardly in reply as both Gai and Lee beamed with tears of happiness in their eyes.
Fortunately, before she had to endure anything else the dynamic duo could come up with, a knock sounded at the door, and Tenten soon found a solemn-looking Neji sitting at the foot of her bed.
Having spent an entire night outside of the busiest bar in Konoha, hiding under an open window, Kanaye and Leiko were able to gather valuable information about their target. Now, in the bright afternoon setting, they could only hide in a well concealed area full of bushes, waiting for the cover of night.
They had already learned of the Hyugga family and the location of their estate. They'd learned that Hyuuga Neji was a recent graduate from the academy, only a few years ago, and that his file may very well be still accessible, especially since he had graduated at the top of his class.
Thus, their next step was to infiltrate the academy at night, retrieve Neji's file, and learn about him so that they would be able to recognize him and use his weaknesses against him. Unfortunately, Neji had very few of those.
But for now, all the pair could do was wait, hidden behind bushes. It would have been quite a comical scene, actually, to see two spider-like shinobi crouched by shrubs, if it weren't for the fact that the death of one of their close ones still lingered heavily in the surrounding air.
They were both determined to avenge Kidomaru, and when it came to deep, meaningful things like this, shinobi were known to fight to the death.
After Gai-sensei and Lee left the hospital to catch up on some training, Neji was able to more comfortably speak with his teammate. He explained in detail what happened during each of the matches, and in all her life, Tenten had never seen or heard Neji say so many words. In a funny way, it was overwhelming. She suspected that he missed talking to her, but quickly pushed that ridiculous thought aside. How could Neji, the Neji, actually want to talk to someone, much less her?
"Tenten, are you listening?"
Maybe something happened to him. Since when did Neji care if she, or anyone, was listening?
"Yeah, I'm listening", Tenten nodded.
"I talked to a medic just a while ago, and he said that …" Neji trailed off, as if something was bothering him and he was unable to speak of it.
"Medic?" Tenten frowned.
"You can't fight in the final round, Tenten".
"What do you mean I can't - "
"Listen to me", Neji quickly cut her off, waving a hand carelessly in front of her face, "You are in no condition to fight, and even now, there are still traces of the poison in your system".
Tenten was silent. She didn't know how to respond to this and knew even less what to say. Failure seemed to surround her and she hated herself for not being able to pass the Chunning Exams a second time. Last year's little show with that sand princess had been embarrassing enough, and she hated the thought of having to wait yet another year. Still, if she was under orders from a medic-nin, she was in no position to disobey them, especially since she was already in the hospital.
"I guess I'll be watching you fight… again", Tenten murmured at last. Neji nodded but made no reply; it seemed as if he had returned to his natural, silent state. They sat in silence, each deep in thought. Neji shifted slightly on the edge of the bed and looked at his teammate, who was staring blankly at the ceiling. He wanted, more than anything, to be able to somehow magically heal her. He knew Tenten really wanted a chance to prove herself, but that wasn't really why he wanted her healed. Simply put, it bothered him to see his teammate in such a condition.
Now, Neji wasn't normally one to feel pity for others, and in fact, for the longest time, he didn't feel much at all. But, he was still a person, and in reality, he was really still a kid. (I mean, what is he, like 14 years old during the time skip?)
"Do you know when I'll be able to fight?" Tenten asked finally, breaking the silence. Neji shook his head, but promised to find out as soon as he could. His teammate nodded sadly, but forced a weak smile, hoping to show that she would be ok.
A knock came from the door and a moment later, Tsunade entered with Sakura trailing behind her. They had arrived for a routine check-up and politely asked Neji to leave them alone. So, feeling somewhat dejected, Neji left Konoha Hospital and headed home.
The full moon had taken over the sky, allowing no room for stars to make their presence known. Using the shadows that large trees cast over the entrance of the academy, the two figures crept into the normally children-filled building and proceeded down the long corridor.
They had done their research on this place as well, taking time to hide in various places surrounding the building to learn of its structure. During the day, while they camouflaged themselves within the trees, they could look through the open windows to see each classroom and what it consisted of.
Now, although it was dark, the two intruders knew their way very well around the hallways. They easily slipped into the examination room, where all the files on shinobi who graduated from the Academy were kept. It took the pair quite some time, and a bit of arguing, to locate the correct file, but they eventually did.
As the two poured over the file's contents, their minds quickly jotted down mental notes and formulated ways to best hurt their targeted character.
"It'll be a lot harder to deal with this guy than we thought, Leiko".
"I know. But we don't have to attack him straight on".
"What? What are you talking about?"
"You'll see, Kanaye, you'll see".
Neji reached the Hyuuga Estate to find a sullen looking Hinata squatted on the floor just outside the walls, her head buried in her arms. He looked around, confused, then sat down beside his cousin.
It wasn't like him to care about other people, especially a member of the head branch, but he really seemed to be changing recently. He couldn't attribute it to any one event, but felt it was probably because he had experienced Naruto's determination for helping his teammate firsthand. Seriously, after he had been beaten within an inch of his life by some spider-ish guy with the curse seal all across his body and extra arms, then watched as Tenten landed herself in the hospital, Neji had begun to rethink everything quite a bit.
Hinata's quiet sniffles snapped Neji back to the present, and he looked at his cousin, but couldn't find the right thing to say. Typical. So, he simply did the only thing he knew how to do: keep quiet. For Hinata, just having someone not yell at her or ignore her was enough encouragement, and she began relating to Neji why she couldn't return home.
Her disappointment in herself and the fear she had for her own father came as a shock for Neji, who realized he had never taken the time to think much about anyone in the main branch. He had automatically expected everyone to get along, especially the people of an immediate family. And yet, here he was, sitting on the dirt ground beside his cousin, who was only a step away from being kicked out of the house.
He knew she had already been disowned, and that little Hanabi would be the heiress someday, but he couldn't imagine things to be this bad for the girl, especially since her father still allowed her to stay home. She must still be somewhat important, right?
Hoping to help at least a little bit, Neji got onto his feet and then motioned for his cousin to enter their house. She couldn't very well disobey, so she silently followed him in, praying her father wouldn't see her.
Neji's rare act of caring for someone other than himself did not go unnoticed by the two hidden shadows within the trees just outside his home. They crouched silently among the leaves, watching intently as the Hyuuga prodigy escorted his cousin inside their home. For Leiko's sharp mind, this served as the basis of her now rapidly forming plan. For Kanaye, who was known to take orders, especially from the quirky Leiko, this was just another day to do what he was told to.
After Neji and Hinata disappeared inside the walls, Leiko motioned for Kanaye to move forward, and they shifted their positions on the tree to a nearer location.
"Did you see that?" Leiko whispered excitedly. Kanaye shook his head, slightly confused. He may have been a fantastically skilled fighter, but he wasn't the brightest guy around.
"I saw our target. And I imagined me killing him", he replied.
"No, idiot. We already know that attempting to confront him straight-on isn't going to work, especially since we're the ones coming to his home", Leiko explained impatiently.
"Well, you said 'you'll see', so, what am I seeing?"
"We're going to do to him, what he did to me", Leiko continued, "Whoever that girl was, she's of obvious importance to him".
"So we're just going to kill that girl? I wanted to kill him. And plus, what if she isn't even all that important?" Kanaye countered.
"Fine. We'll kill her. Then we kill him. As for the girl, we'll just wait a few more days, just to see who she is to him. Maybe wait till after the Chunnin Exams; then we can see his fighting style", Leiko decided.
Kanaye grunted in agreement and the pair retreated for the time being.
Just as a fun side note, the name "Kanaye" means "zealous one", which fits Kanaye becuase he pretty much acts without thinking, but puts 100 effort into everything he does. Well, except thinking. And "Leiko" means "arrogant", becuase she always bosses Kanaye around. But, I guess she has a right too, since she's much smarter.
I would very much like reviews please! That's all I ask for.