My head was pounding, heart racing, body shaking, and I thought I was going to die. That was the good part, because I was standing over the edge of a cliff, and pretty soon, I wouldn't be thinking anything. I'd be a splat on the ground, nothing more, nothing less.

"Stop!" I heard someone behind me screaming, someone feminine and not familiar to me in the slightest. "Don't jump!"

I couldn't turn my head to see who it was. "Why should I listen to you?"

"When dead people die, they don't come back." I felt hands on my shoulders, gentle, gentle, until they pushed me. It was then, while I was falling, that I caught a glimpse of this girl, and she looked just like I had when I was younger. Shocked, I ran my fingers across my face, feeling to see if I felt like me. I did, but the water below, something I hadn't seen before falling, showed a totally different picture.

I looked just like my mother had.

The scream coming from my dream mouth woke me up. Or did it? Nothing else in the room was stirring, except for something in my closet, rummaging through my things. Something that may or may not have been a figment of my imagination, just like the dream. Why was it that I always had dreams involving death?

Fingers trembling, I pulled the covers off of my body and tried to sit up. No such luck. I was too much in shock from what I had seen to do anything major. "Damn mind, being so descriptive," I muttered, just laying there. As badly as I wanted to, I couldn't even roll over and just look at the man who loved me.

He must have loved me for something more than my personality. I was honestly the worst person alive back when we got together. And, actually, I knew he chose me because I was pretty, but how pretty? The me I saw in my dream wasn't gorgeous. The me I saw was absolutely hideous. How did I find myself to thinking I looked like my mom?

Something must have been trying to escape my unconscious mind, something involving the two sides of me. I was pretty sure the dark, nasty side of me was gone like my mom. Maybe that was what I was trying to convey, that I had pushed the evil out.

When dead people die... That could mean so much. My mother was dead, yes, and the young me would do anything to push her off of a cliff. But couldn't that be good me killing off the dead bad me? My entire body convulsed, and I let out a sharp breath. I wasn't beating myself up. I shouldn't be. I needed to be nice to myself, for the sake of everyone.

This reminded me of the fact that, at the moment, every person living under the roof of the house was talking to me, except for Hiashi. Hinata would only talk to me, Hanabi was being her normal mood-swing-y self, and of course I was being talked to by Neji. But it was weird, me having more than one person to talk to civilly.

The rustling in the closet startled me, and I couldn't dismiss it as me dreaming again. This time, I was awake and alert, and most definitely not dreaming anymore, but I couldn't just get up and look to see who was there.

"I wonder if she'll ever notice if this stuff is gone?" That voice belonged to no one other than Hanabi, I knew it. But what was she doing in there again? My body was still unresponsive to any commands I gave, so it wasn't like I could just get up and confront her. "It's all so pretty and gorgeous, and wonderful! She's lucky for having everything in here, and I'm glad I'll be taking it all!"

Something fell, and she gasped. "Oh no! Not a box!" My ears perked up more than they already were. A box falling? It couldn't be the one that had my old notebook in it, could it? "What's this? A book? Did it come out of there?"

The mere mention, from her, of my dear book gave me the energy to jump up and make a mad dash for the closet. What I found was the exact opposite of what I thought I would have found. There Hanabi was, standing on her toes to put the box back up on its high shelf, no sign of the book anywhere.

"Oh hi there, Tenten. Fancy seeing you up." Her grin made me wish I hadn't bothered getting up. She wasn't doing anything wrong, other than going through my stuff without my permission and plotting to take it all. "So, can I take more stuff?"

"Hanabi!" I sputtered. "You-the box-clothes—what are you doing here?"

Nothing in my ramble seemed to phase her. "I'm me, yes. I put the box back after it slid down. And I'm looking through more of your clothes."

"But why?"

"Because it's all amazing. You know, when you don't want it anymore, I'll be glad to take it." I sighed. She was right. I was a pack rat when it came to my clothing, and I had so much of it, she could do this two or three more times and I'd still have way too much. "And, I can help you make room for new stuff. Nice, shiny new stuff."

I felt so loved then. "Thanks, and I do appreciate it that you care. Yet, at the same time, I feel like you know something I don't."
"I know nothing. Believe me, if I knew something you were supposed to know, someone would have told you already."

What was I going to do then? Hanabi was being my figurative best friend, while my real best friend was pretty much out of my life. Every day I was learning more about myself, and each of those days I also learned something new about my family. Things around here were weird, and I knew I wasn't the only one noticing it. I was also sure this weirdness wasn't isolated to the Hyuuga house. Things couldn't have been the same since Tsunade died, not in this village.

"I just wish I wasn't so alone," I said, sitting in the hall. Like usual, I was by myself, but this time it was because no one else was home. "I have people here for me, but I'm separated from all of them by something that I can't help."

Flashback to my dream. I was just like my mother after all, being so apart from the real world even though I had tangible attachments to it. But, unlike her, I had someone who loved me for me. It took me hours to figure it out, but I finally did. In getting married, I took a step she never had, and that was because there was a real person to take that step alongside me.

I sighed, "I'm not so alone after all, am I?"

No, love, you're not.

Tennie, we're here for you!

Never forget that we can listen to you like you listen to us.

Yeah, they weren't really there, but I could hear their voices. It was strangely comforting, to know that even in my mind, I had people supporting me. It brought a broken smile to my lips.

"Thank you, guys."

"And of course crazy little Tenten is talking to herself once again.. Batty woman, isn't she?" Hiashi snickered from down at the other end of the hall. He kept walking, and I didn't respond to him. He wasn't worth ruining my good mood, even though he was just going to aggravate me even farther by coming back when I didn't say anything.

"Oh? Did I disturb you? Have you forgotten that this is my house, and I can break your privacy at any time?" He wasn't worth it. He wasn't.

A loud knocking noise came from somewhere else in the house, and he went to investigate, leaving me alone with the item he sent at me. I inspected it, to find it was an empty blade case that looked awfully familiar to me, before I realized exactly where I had seen it before.

That case came from my closet.

The closet where Hanabi had been digging.

She had taken one of my prized kunai, hadn't she?