Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form. All characters and settings used belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

Chapter 2-And Back She Comes

by insert cliche

Neji woke up before dawn, and padded around his still-dark room, preparing for another day of training. As he paused beside his small lacquered nightstand and fingered the kunai resting on the table's glossy surface. Then he picked up the blade and used it to gouge another mark in one of the wooden ceiling beams.

After Tenten had left, all of Neji's friends and mentors had expected him to do something drastic. They had all treated him like a living time bomb, ready to explode at any moment. Their actions had been understandable, but all in vain. Neji had been the calmest and most unchanged out of everyone. He had been the person to force truth into others' minds, and he had been the person that they'd leaned on when they cried. He had been the constant, when he should have been the variable.

The only times when he had ever regretted anything was at night, when he allowed himself to think of her.

Two years, six months, fifteen days, and four hours since he'd last seen Tenten. So long since he had held her in his arms, looked into her eyes, breathed in her scent. So long since he'd kissed her for the last time.

Not that he was counting or anything. Most definitely not. He just missed her a little bit too much.

I hope you're free.

When he arrived at his training ground, he sat down under an abandoned target board and started to mediate. He'd kept this habit through the years, even without a person to trust with his life as he erased his mind from the world.

A loud yell woke him from his reverie just as he was about to surrender to the peace that meditation brought him. When he listened further, he recognized the voices as those belonging to Konoha's Second Green Beast and the "Future Hokage, believe it!" - Rock Lee and Uzumaki Naruto. He heard the two boys stop right in front of him.

"Neji!"

"Oi, White Eyes! Wake up! You won't believe this!"

Neji opened his pupil-less eyes. "Naruto, I have trouble believing anything that comes out of your mouth. I doubt what you want to say now will make any difference."

Lee stepped forwards. "Neji, my comrade, Naruto has real news! I have seen for myself what he is talking about, and you need to see this!"

Neji sighed. "What is it, Naruto?"

The hyperactive boy spoke his words in a rush. "We think we saw someone who looked like Tenten in the market! She looks a little different, but it's only her clothes and hair and stuff! I mean, she even has huge sealing scrolls and everything! The girl was walking really fast, but she really looks like Tenten!"

"Naruto. Tenten's gone." The words were painful, but they were the truth. Tenten had left, and she wasn't going to come back to Konoha - to him, his mind said - until Danzo was gone and life was better.

"No, Neji! She's seriously here! Like, here!"

Neji made his next answer quite blunt. "Tenten. Is. Gone. What do you not understand, idiot?" The stupidity and general hard-headedness of the Kyuubi's container astounded him.

Naruto sighed, and shot an exasperated glare at Lee. Lee shrugged.

"I believe you were the one who wanted to tell Neji."

"You're not helping, Fuzzy Brows!"

Neji sighed again. "If you have no real information, then leave. Both of you." Neji saw Lee start to say something, and cut his strangely serious teammate off. "I repeat - Tenten is not here, and will never come back."

"Neji, c'mon! Just let us show you! I swear on ramen that Tenten's back!" Naruto continued to

The Hyuuga contemplated his choices. One was to just go with Naruto to shut the idiot up. He knew everyone would be disappointed in the end, but it was better than having to listen to the blonde rant for another few hours about a false sighting.

"Hn. Let's go."

"Four, come here. You have a new mission." The ROOT kunoichi paused and looked up at her addressee. She cleaned up the target range quickly, then moved to stand in front of her mentor.

"Yes?" she said dully. "What is my assignment?"

"You are to join the shinobi team led by Maito Gai, commonly referred to as Team Gai. You will be monitoring the actions of the two younger members of that team, Hyuuga Neji and Rock Lee. You are also keep of the actions of Teams Seven, Eight, and Ten, led by Hatake Kakashi, Yuuhi Kurenai, and Sarutobi Asuma respectively. This mission has no projected end time. I trust you can acquire all extra information on your own."

"Does this Team Gai not have a female member?"

"Due to...circumstances, let's say, the kunoichi was forced to leave the team."

"Understood. As for my name?"

The mentor smirked, his sharp teeth shining in the darkness that surrounded both of them. The ROOT underling ignored the smirk, and waited for an answer.

"...just let them make one up for you. Understood?"

A nod. "Yes."

A moment later, and all traces of her presence had vanished.

Four arrived in the center of the Konoha marketplace. A quick scan of her surroundings told her that there were no immediate dangers, and that the crowd was mostly composed of civilians and off-duty shinobi.

Her first task was to locate Team Gai. She walked into the closest store, which happened to be a flower shop, and approached a blonde girl who was watering a large arrangement of peonies.

"Welcome to Yamanaka Flowers. I'm Ino, and I'll be with you in a second!"

"Excuse me. Would you know the whereabouts of a Team Gai? Three-man team, led by Maito Gai, containing Rock Lee and Hyuuga Neji?" Four's voice was monotonous, but the store employee turned around anyways.

The girl's eyes widened, and she gasped. "Tenten? Is that really you?"

Four was surprised. "Would you be referring to me?"

"Of course! You are Tenten, aren't you?" The other girl - Ino? - seemed to be on the verge of tears.

"I believe you are mistaken. I am not this Tenten that you speak of. I am agent Four, of ROOT."

The Ino girl stopped moving for a moment and grabbed onto Four's left arm. The agent tensed. "What are you doing?"

"You're Tenten, and I'm going to prove it!"

"Kiba! Shino, Hinata! Forehead! Hey, Chouji, get Shikamaru over here! Look!" Ino's voice was loud, piercing through the low murmur of voices that was always in the market.

"What, Ino-pig? What stupid thing are you up to now? And who-" here, the strange pink-haired girl gestured to Four "-is this?"

Ino shoved Four forwards. "It's Tenten! Can't you see, Billboard Brow? It's totally her!"

Four stayed still as the strangely named "Billboard Brow" scrutinized her. "You've gotta be kidding me. Tenten left years ago!"

Ino shook her head. "But just look at her! It's Tenten, I swear!"

"What are you doing, Ino?" A slouching boy with a spiky ponytail had shuffled up to the blond, and was rubbing his neck tiredly. "Can't you go a day without some kind of drama, troublesome?"

Ino grabbed the stranger's head, and turned it so the boy looked Four in the eyes. "Look, Shikamaru. Really look."

Four felt a calculating gaze sweep over her. It wasn't cold, but it was most definitely not friendly. "She does look like Tenten, but-"

"T-tenten-chan?"

A trio of chuunin had joined the gathering. The one who had spoken was a short Hyuuga girl with long, dark hair, and her companions were an Inuzuka boy and a boy who seemed to be an Aburame. The wilder-looking boy suddenly spoke up.

"Woah, Tenten? Where've you been?"

"Where did you go? You've been away for ages!"

"Hey, is that really you?"

"Tenten! Hey! Welcome back !"

"Oi, scary weapon girl! What's with the new outfit?"

"TENTEN! You-"

The voices around her were starting to increase in volume. More people started crowding around her, and Four lost track of some of what was going on around her. These people all talked like they knew her, all referred to her as "Tenten." Why was that?

Soon, Four couldn't even hear her own voice. She moved to speak, but someone beat her to it.

"Stop."

Neji's voice rang out above the noise, and everyone obeyed his command. The people, shinobi and civilian alike, parted as he stepped forwards, and his footsteps echoed as he walked purposefully towards the center of the crowd.

There, he found Yamanaka Ino holding onto a strange kunoichi's arm. He moved to speak to the blonde, but the mind-reader spoke before he could start. She gestured to the stranger.

"Look, Neji. Look at her."

The girl was wearing an outfit that looked similar to Sai's. She had a cutoff top and long black pants, accompanied by fingerless gloves and lots of kunai holsters and shuriken pouches. There were scrolls strapped onto her hips, and a large sealing scroll dangled from her back. But those were unimportant details. What mattered most was that she looked like Tenten.

Even with shorn hair, pale skin, and dark, hooded eyes, Neji knew that the girl in front of him was his teammate. He just knew.

"Tenten."

He started to move closer to her, but was stopped when he saw the strange emotionless smile that spread across the girl's face.

"Who are you?"

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