A/N: Wooooooooooaaaah it's been a while. Haha. Sorry. O.O School has been insane. Plus band. And I can't FIGURE OUT THIS FREAKING PROOF I AM DOING. Stupid circles.

Anyways, I'm sure you're all interested in what's going to happen to Tenten and her friends xD. So here it is!

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Day 32

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Trying to get out of the subway station was just as bad as trying to squeeze in, if not worse. Tenten nearly spliced herself in half against the closing door of the train as she was pushed every which way by the stocky businessmen. If it weren't for the neon shade of Ino's hair, she would have lost track of the blonde completely.

Shoving against the squirming mass of people preoccupied her mind almost enough to stop her heart from trying to leap out of her ribcage. Adrenaline pulsed through her veins as she yelled and attempted getting out of the crowd alive. As the masses of well-dressed working citizens began to thin, Ino was visible again. She was no less pale than she had been on the train.

"Tenten…" she stopped to catch her breath. Her hair was all tousled, but for once she wasn't completely preoccupied with stray hairs. Her blue eyes were wide. "…what are we-"

"I don't know," Tenten sighed. She didn't like or want Ino questioning her like she knew the answers. Ino was supposed to be the infallible one that overcompensated for silence and uncertainty. Tenten's personality didn't seem to be built for any of that. All her brain could think of was Neji and Sakura, and her body didn't like having all that worry warring with each other. Tenten was certain she was going to explode in a messy catastrophe all over the underground.

"Are we still going to Uchiha's? We're going to have to go on foot." Ino glanced sadly down at her shoes. "I really didn't want to wear out these this early, but it's for a good cause." She sighed dramatically in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Tenten shrugged. "I guess we've come this far…but I feel like I should go see Neji."

Ino nodded wisely. "I'll go to find Sakura. You go find Neji. It'll go faster that way." Tenten looked uncertain. It was already almost pitch dark outside, and you could barely see a few feet in front of you without the assistance of a street lamp. All sorts of dangers roamed in the shadows of her city.

Ino read her mind and winked. "I'll be fine. It's just a couple of blocks."

Tenten shook her head. "Still, at least I know some martial arts. You've got—" She had been about to say nothing, but Ino held up her tiny little purse defiantly.

"I can swing this thing like no other," she said solemnly.

Tenten looked uncertainly at the handbag, and then remembered Ino's meat cleaver stashed away in her luggage. Her worry shifted to whatever pedophile tried jumping Ino. They'd be in the hospital within seconds. "I don't suppose you've got pepper spray in there too?" she asked faintly.

Ino grinned, revealing her startling white teeth. "Of course not. It's a tazer."

O0O

The ride back in the opposite direction was a rather silent one: Tenten actually had a seat, and it was dark enough to see her reflection in the window of the train. She leaned on her palm, letting the soft rhythm of the subway speeding over its tracks calm her mind. Her face was pale and there were faint bags under her eyes. She wondered if that had been coming on for a while, or if it had been the sole result of recent events.

The Hyuuga Compound was a good block or two away from the station, and not by any road. She knew the shortcut was through a wide courtyard that during the day streamed with employees getting to work in the buildings around it. It was eerie at night: she had never walked through this way before after dark. The buildings cast shadows and warped them into strange shapes. Despite never having feared the dark, Tenten walked a little faster than usual.

The Compound didn't look much different by moonlight. She was grateful to see the familiar shapes of the wooden buildings. It didn't take her more than five minutes to find Neji's room by now, and she rapped on the glass, trying to stop her teeth from chattering. Summer nights could get chilly.

When nobody answered, she rapped again. Her knuckles seemed to burn against the freezing glass. They were red; she could tell from the faint light coming from within the room. She knew Neji was in there. She was also positive he knew who she was. Nobody else would come at this time of night from the outside.

"Neji!" she called. It sounded loud in the silence of the night. It seemed like the crickets were sensing the stress.

She heard the latch within the door click, and Neji appeared in the doorway framed by the gold light from his room. Tenten had the odd urge to laugh, because he looked like he was glowing. She felt relief instantly swell in her chest at the sight of him. She had never been more glad to see anybody as far back as she could remember.

He looked like he was about to sigh, but instead he just stepped aside and motioned for her to come inside.

Tenten quickly closed the door behind herself, rubbing her arms. The hair was standing up on the back of her neck, and she had goose bumps rising all over. It was probably due more to terror than the cold. She sat down carefully in her usual place and curled up into a little ball almost immediately. Neji sat down in his chair. He had been reading the newspaper, judging from how it was open on his desk.

"Tenten," Neji said quietly, "You are not coming with me tomorrow afternoon."

"I am!" she immediately responded. It came out sounding more childish than she had intended. Neji's lip twitched slightly. It seemed like he always found the time to laugh at her. "It's not funny. I'm being serious," she muttered.

"I know you are. You are not going."

"You can't tell me what to do."

"It's my cousin in jeopardy here."

"Hey, I'm supposed to be the person you're exchanging for her. I get my say in this."

"No, you do not. You are staying here. The other Hyuugas will ensure that you are safe. You may bring that blonde girl, and that strange pink-haired girl as well. Hiashi has already gone to collect Hinata."

"Sakura's gone; she ran away again. Ino's gone to the Uchiha's place to see if he knows anything. And I appreciate your concern, but Hinata and I will be perfectly fine. You do know that she just had a perfect afternoon? And now you ruined it by dumping this on her too?"

Neji's stare turned icy. "It is her sister that we are talking about, Tenten."

Tenten sighed. Misery was filling her up now to compete with the anxiety and fear. It wasn't a good mix. It made her stomach queasy. "I know." She knew it wasn't Neji's fault, his least of all. Mostly she was blaming herself.

"Tenten," he said in a softer voice after a beat of silence. She noticed that their moments of silence were getting shorter and shorter, as well as more natural than awkward, but that might have had to do with the necessity to talk in the mad situations they were thrust into. "Tenten, I will take care of Suigetsu. I will bring Hanabi home and make you safe again."

"Neji—"

"That is what will happen," he said flatly.

"Like hell it will! I'm coming with you, and there's no way I'm staying here waiting around to hear how bad you got it, and oh, by the way, Hanabi's dead. I'm not some damsel in distress! You don't always have to do everything—"

"This is my responsibility; I was the one that let Hanabi be taken away—"

"Yeah, well, there wasn't much you could do about it! I'm the one that knew Suigetsu was going to try something like this, and I didn't try to do anything—"

"Tenten, you are not guilty of all that has happened!"

By now, Neji's voice was nearly at the level of a roar, but like always his tone was even. She had no idea how he managed to sound so calm when he was practically yelling at her. She subsided into a furious silence. This time, Neji did sigh, but it was one of his strange and dignified sighs. He put his head in his hands.

Far off in the silence, Tenten was aware of the second hand on a clock ticking quietly. She hesitated, watching Neji. He showed no visible signs of moving. She got up and walked over to him, kneeling down.

"Neji?" she asked tentatively. He didn't move an inch. She sighed and attempted to pry his hands away, and to her surprise his left hand came away in hers with no struggle at all. His white eye opened to stare at her, and he shifted his other hand to the side of his face to glare sternly at her with both startling pale eyes. Tenten gulped involuntarily.

Instead, she inhaled and exhaled in one of her own sighs: she hated comparing them to Neji's. "We might not get a happy ending, you know. But I want to be there tomorrow and make things right. I've got to make things right," she said quietly. "You're not allowed to do it for me."

"Tenten, they're going to hurt you," he said in an equally quiet voice. His white eyes narrowed. "Suigetsu is going to hurt you."

Tenten smiled slightly. "Not if I can help it. I'd be more worried about his physical well-being, if I were you." Neji growled in frustration and straightened up slightly. Tenten laughed a little at his expression. Neji raised his eyebrows at her and stood up from his chair, only to sit back down on the floor next to her. She blinked in surprise.

"You're…sitting on the floor of your own free will. Informally."

Neji shrugged. "Sometimes you seem like you believe I am not human."

She shrugged right back at him. "You have to admit that you're more like a robot than most average people you meet walking down the street. You're braver than the rest of us, too. Smarter. Probably stronger, but I'm still better." She grinned. "It seems like you can make anything turn out alright."

Neji shook his head. "I like to believe that too."

Tenten's grin vanished. Fear was beginning to choke her chest again. Tomorrow seemed much closer than she would have liked. Yes, she was sure that she wholeheartedly wanted to go with Neji: after all, she could have never left him to face Orochimaru's thugs alone. But that didn't mean she wasn't terrified.

"I…Neji, I'm scared for Hanabi. I'm a little scared for me, too, but mostly I'm afraid for you." When he turned to look abruptly at her, she realized how close they were. She could feel his body heat radiating out. It was a small comfort. His white eyes pierced through her like they were searching for the reasons behind her mad pronouncements. "Neji, we can't call the police, but can't we get Hiashi to go with us? Or…"

Neji shook his head slowly. "Tenten, I have to go alone."

"Not alone. With me. He wants me," Tenten reminded him immediately.

"I know." Neji frowned. "That Suigetsu will die."

Tenten blinked. His voice had been so vehement that it was unlike the usually cool and collected Neji she knew. It frightened her even more. "Don't say that."

"I will not let him touch you," he promised.

"No need to get homicidal over that. Don't worry, I'll keep him plenty busy." She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around his neck, her nose buried in his shoulder. His back only stiffened for a few seconds before he relaxed into her hold. She smiled against his shirt.

"Don't do anything rash, please," she murmured. "Don't die on me, please, Neji."

She felt a jolt of surprise when his arms encircled her back protectively and held her close to him. "As long as you promise the same," he said quietly, his breath tickling her ear.

O0O

The biting cold seemed determined to permeate Ino's clothes. She gritted her teeth and walked abruptly on, the cold sidewalk reflecting her footsteps as she progressed. She could see the familiar outline of the Uchiha house in the distance. The lights were on; she could tell from the one glowing downstairs window.

In the darkness, the colors of the Uchiha crest melded into gray and black, but the shape of the fan on the door was still visible. She spent some time groping along the side of the front door for the doorbell, and accidentally pressed it while she was searching for it. She heard it ring inside the house.

A moment later, the door unlocked and swung open.

Uchiha Sasuke stared down at her with a look fit to murder several people at once. Ino gulped. There weren't many people who intimidated her, but he was definitely among them. His black eyes narrowed. "You're that girl," he pronounced finally after what seemed like hours of careful speculation.

Ino let out a breath of slight annoyance despite herself. "Yeah, glad to see you know me. Do you know where Sakura is?"

Sasuke's face was immobile. The light was too poor for her to distinguish anything much, anyways. "Sakura? Is she not in your dorm?"

Ino sighed. "She ran away. Her parents are looking for her, and they got a tip-off. Do you have any idea where she could have gone?"

Sasuke stayed silent for a few seconds. It seemed like he was deliberating with himself. Then, Ino heard a voice call from within the house. "It's okay, Sasuke-kun. You can let Ino in."

From the doorway, Sasuke grunted in both irritation and acknowledgement. "It's not your house. You don't decide who comes inside," he muttered, but let Ino pass over the threshold anyways.

Her blue eyes widened to find Sakura sitting cross-legged on Sasuke's blue couch, looking perfectly in one piece. Her first instinct was to scream in joy and hug the pink-haired girl to pieces in relief. The second was to strangle her for making them worry for nothing. The third was anxiousness as to how to tell her about Tenten's current situation.

While she stood there going through flashes of different moods, seemingly gawping at the girl like an idiot, Sasuke quietly closed the front door and came up behind Ino to give her a small nudge forward. "As you can see, she is perfectly healthy," he said in a somewhat amused tone (it was always difficult to say with Sasuke).

"Damn straight she is," Ino muttered.

Sakura's green eyes danced with amusement. "Awwww, Ino-pig, you were worried about me? I thought Hinata might be, so I felt bad, but I thought you would dance on my grave or something."

"You weren't dead," Ino growled. "You could have been."

Sakura shrugged. "Nah."

"Is that all you've got to say?!" Ino thundered. The absolute-fury phase was taking full control of her by now. Sasuke smirked at Sakura in an I-told-you-so way, who glared back at him, and stuck his hands in his pockets, sauntering off down the hallway so he wasn't around when Ino started breaking whatever was within reach.

"Actually, it is," Sakura said calmly. "Now, would you care for some tea?"

Ino ground her teeth harshly together, producing a nasty grating sound. Sakura winced. "Do you know how long we've searched for you?" she said in a deadly quiet voice. That was when you knew Ino was really getting ready to kill you. "Do you know what kind of a situation we are in?"

"Well, I'm sorry to have caused you trouble. I'm perfectly alright. Is that all you needed to know? Because I'm not coming back to the dorm. Nothing you say or do is going to convince me. I'm staying right here with the Uchiha." Sakura tucked a strand of pink hair behind her ear and tilted her head slightly to await Ino's reply.

Ino struggled for words for a full minute out of pure fury. And then, she smiled sweetly and said, "How does a fight with Orochimaru's gang sound to you and your precious Sasuke-kun?"

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A/N: Wooooooh it's done :D Forgive mistakes please, I'm so whacked out right now. Should go to sleep.