Author's Note:

I'm back. :)

I'm really really sorry that I couldn't update. My dad brought his laptop with him, but the house we rented didn't have internet access so I couldn't put up some kind of announcement or anything.

Second, it would be a good idea for you to re-read the previous chapters (again) unless you're quite familiar with the characters due to the number of OCs that will be playing a part in this and the following chapters that are a part of this arc.

Err... I'll just go away now.

Disclaimer: If I owned it, the series would be filled with more romance than actual fighting and it probably wouldn't be as popular since it's pretty obvious which one teenaged boys would rather watch.

Contrary to what Tenten had believed, Neji was wide awake, meditating soundlessly in the calming darkness of his room, attempting to ease his apprehension.

His instincts never lied. Something was going to happen. Even Fuuma could feel it, whether he was conscious of it or not.

If it hadn't been for that, he wouldn't have been so insistent on her not patrolling on her own.

Against his better judgment, he had given in to her when she'd objected. Instead, he intended to simply stay awake until she gave in and returned to her room. That way, if anything happened, he would at least be able to do something about it.

Then, the peaceful quiet of the night air was broken by the sound of breaking glass.

Neji rushed out of his room the same time his neighbour burst out of his, dressed in the same navy blue slacks and shirt he had been wearing earlier. Apparently, Fuuma had thought of the same idea as he had.

"Did you-" Kazuya's question was punctuated by a shrill, feminine scream.

"Byakugan."

There was a moment of long tense silence before Neji deactivated his doujutsu and disappeared down the hallway, closely followed by the now irate blonde Chuunin.

A crowd of curious servants had gathered outside Sakurai-san's room, speaking to each other in low, conspiratorial whispers. Neji paid them no heed as he brushed past them and entered the bedroom the shortly before Kazuya did.

The light cast by the lone candle was dim and flickering, but the Hyuuga took in the sight of the his female teammate slumped against the bed and the blood spattered sheets with astounding clarity.

Dressed in their sleeping yukatas, Fujimura-san was instructing a servant to summon the doctor while Sakurai-san was kneeling on the floor beside Tenten, tending to her wounds with inexperienced, shaking hands. The floor around them was scattered with the shattered remains of an ornate vase.

Nakajima-san was standing over the room's final occupant, his lips set in a grim line. Neji's eyes narrowed further when he saw the long, bloodied knife strewn on the floor in front of the kneeling culprit, who was staring at his blood stained hands with pure shock and horror. He was ready to kill the bastard who was responsible for his teammate's wound, but Fuuma had gotten there first. He grabbed the man's collar, gripping a fist full of his shirt and roughly pulling him to his feet.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! You're supposed to be guarding her, not trying to kill her!" he shouted at the bodyguard whose loyalties he was seriously beginning to doubt. Hiroshi did not respond, his expression merely one of pained acceptance.

"K-Kazuya, stop. It's not Hiroshi-san's fault," Tenten's voice was soft and weak; Neji quickly strode to her side and bent down, taking the cloth from Rin. "There was a strange chakra presence just now." She winced when Neji's strong hands pressed hard against her wound to stem the blood flow. "He could have been controlled."

Kazuya let Hiroshi go and stared at the injured girl. The Hyuuga prodigy sent his partner a long, measured look before activating his bloodline limit. He scanned the entire room with his byakugan again, but he didn't find anything out of the ordinary.

"Fujimura-san, is Hiroshi-san a shinobi?" Neji questioned.

Soichiro shook his head. "I've known him since we were children. He couldn't possibly-"

"He has a motive doesn't he?" Kazuya cut Soichiro off with a stormy expression in his dark grey eyes as he glared at the latter's supposed god-brother.

Everyone fell silent at that.

"But if Tenten-san is right," Nakajima spoke for the first time since they Neji and Kazuya had arrived. "Then who was the one controlling him?"

Neji scooped the wounded kunoichi into his arms, careful to avoid her injured shoulder as he did so. Tenten dug her fingers into the fabric of his shirt as a spasm of pain shot down her arm and back from the sudden movement.

"Fujimura-san, Nakajima-san, please provide me with a list of and all the servants and guards along with information about their backgrounds." Despite his polite tone, what he had asked was more of a command than a request.

"I will see to it the first thing tomorrow morning," Nakajima agreed before he began instructing the maids to start preparing another room for Rin as well as assigning her extra guards.

Tenten could feel the heat from Neji's chest radiating through his robes. In spite of the overwhelming pain and dizziness from the blood loss that was slowing dragging her into unconsciousness, she felt so warm and safe there, cradled in his arms.

"That was foolish of you," she heard him say as they were walking away. She knew that he was chastising her for refusing his and Kazuya's help earlier, as well as for risking her life so selflessly. His curt statement gave no room for dispute, especially since he was right; and at the moment, she simply didn't have the energy to argue with him.

"I know," she murmured, managing a tiny wry smile before the darkness overtook her senses.

Now that the drama was over, the small crowd outside the room had begun to disperse. Apart from those involved in their mistress' relocation, the servants were heading back to their quarters while the guards were returning to their posts. Accompanied by two guards each, Nakajima lead Hiroshi away while Soichiro returned to his room.

Eventually, the only ones left behind were Rin and Kazuya.

"Will Tenten-san be alright?" Rin asked worriedly.

"She'll be fine," Kazuya reassured her gruffly. However, when he noticed her fear at the angry bite that had yet to fade from his tone, he forced himself to calm down.

"What about you? Will you be okay?"

"Hai." The uncertainty in her voice and her small, trembling frame revealed the lie.

"Sakurai-sama, your new room has been prepared," the maid who had just arrived informed her politely. Rin thanked her and gave a Kazuya graceful bow.

"Good night, Fuuma-san," she said quietly before following the servant down the darkened hallway.

Tenten had woken up to find herself lying in her bed and feeling much less pain than she'd originally imagined, with one irate Hyuuga Neji sitting at the low table by her bedside. Once she was fully awake, he wasted no time in informing her of her current condition as well as the doctor's orders for her not to exert herself.

Of course, he hadn't literally pinned her to her bed with kunai, but the glare he'd given her when she'd objected to staying in bed for the rest of the mission had pretty much the same effect.

Tenten had long since finished venting her annoyance at the cruel irony fate had dealt her with and her overly paranoid teammate. Also, since said paranoid teammate was from the fate adoring Hyuuga clan, he'd probably have agreed with her on the first point. But at least she would be spending the rest of her time here in relative, scratch that, exceptional comfort.

But she was bored out of her wits.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

"Ano... Tenten-san," Rin called out softly, "may I come in?"

"Sure." Tenten's expression brightened instantly as the door slid open. Maybe fate wasn't that cruel after all.

Her hair was done exactly the same way it had been yesterday, but her kimono was made of black silk with bronze butterflies dancing across the fabric and a matching, rust hued obi. The dark coloration of her clothing brought out the paleness of her smooth skin that still retained a healthy glow, like backlit alabaster. Her hands were holding a tray laden with a small pot of tea, two cups and a small plate with a variety of traditional Japanese sweets arranged neatly on top.

"I made these yesterday," she explained, carefully setting the tray down on the table. "You can try some if you'd like."

Tenten selected a sweet from the proffered plate and bit into it.

"Wow, this is really good." Tenten popped the remaining half into her mouth and Rin's cheeks coloured immediately, both embarrassed and pleased at the compliment.

She's just like Hinata-chan, Tenten observed with a smile, already feeling the same sisterly affection she held for the Hyuuga heiress for the young wisp of a girl in front of her.

"How are your injuries?" Rin asked delicately as she poured the tea.

"Not too bad," Tenten replied truthfully.

"Thank you very much for saving me yesterday," the other girl said with a tiny bow.

"I should be thanking you for keeping me company. I was bored to tears," Tenten replied with a teasing grin that was able to draw a serene smile out of Rin.

"Why did you make these?" Tenten then enquired curiously, taking another one of the delicious sweets. She was no good in the kitchen, but she could tell that the amount of effort Rin had taken to make them so fine and detailed must have been monumental.

"I made them for Ka- Fuuma-san," Rin answered, almost knocking over her cup when she realized she had almost called him by his first name and immediately correcting herself.

"But Kazuya never eats sweet things," Tenten blurted out in confusion. She regretted her words when Rin froze and the expression on her face became completely crestfallen.

"He really has changed a lot, hasn't he," she whispered softly, sadly.

"Well, I really wouldn't know about that," Tenten said quickly, trying to salvage the situation. "I've never really been all that close to him until recently."

Rin looked up, eyes wide with shock. "You mean you're not..."

"We're just friends," Tenten assured the other girl and hopefully dispelling anymore potential doubts about her and Kazuya's relationship.

"Oh. I see," Rin murmured, sounding a lot more cheerful than she had been earlier.

Thank goodness, Tenten sighed inwardly in her relief as she accepted her tea cup from which a thin spiral of heat curled invitingly.

"Then what about Hyuuga-san?"

The weapon mistress almost choked on her tea.

"What?"

"What is Hyuuga-san to you?" Rin asked again, totally unaware of the dilemma the kunoichi was experiencing due to her innocent question.

What was Neji to her?

A teammate, a superior, a comrade, a fellow Konoha nin, all that was stating the obvious. Their relationship had to be something more than that. She'd known him long enough for him not to be regarded as a mere acquaintance, yet she certainly didn't know enough about him to consider him a friend-

"He's the biggest jerk I've ever met," Tenten finally concluded, her earlier irritation at the aforementioned Hyuuga was returning with a vengeance for the headache he was causing her now.

Turquoise eyes blinked.

"He trains at unholy hours and expects me to do the same. Not to mention the fact that he's so socially inept that he could go for weeks without saying a single word, and when he does say anything, all he says is one word, 'hn'. And it's because he's so over protective and paranoid that I'm stuck here." She finished off her list of complaints with a deep, calming breath.

"But I suppose he isn't so bad all the time," Tenten admitted grudgingly. "I mean, he is a good teammate and he's quite dependable during missions and... stuff."

"I-I see," Rin said hesitantly before changing the subject. "Is being a ninja fun?"

"It's... interesting, I guess," Tenten replied, pausing in between to find the right adjective. Her career had definitely been very interesting, thanks to a particular pair of green spandex-wearing ninja.

"Do you want to hear about my teammates back in Konoha?"

Rin nodded eagerly and Tenten launched into an epic about one of Lee and Gai's comically disastrous escapades, much to the amusement of her new friend.

Unbeknownst to both Rin and Tenten, a certain blonde was standing just outside the room, leaning casually against the wall. He had originally come to to see how his teammate was doing, but had decided against it when he heard muffled voices speaking inside.

He couldn't hear the exact words, but he could easily recognize who it was inside the room...

"Wait."

Brown eyes looked up curiously at him, waiting for him to continue.

"I have a favour to ask you. It's about a f-friend." His voice nearly failed him on the last word. "She's the one that's getting married next week. But if I know her parents, they're probably not going to be there until the day before the wedding so I was wondering if you could err... you know..."

Tenten's eyes lit up with understanding and she gave him a dazzling smile.

"Sure."

"Thank you," he said, wondering if she could tell how much he meant it.

Suddenly, Kazuya heard laughter coming from the room behind him. He could distinctly make out the separate voices, yet they somehow sounded musically harmonious together. Like a pair of wind chimes played by a gentle summer breeze.

He smiled silently to himself before walking away.

The investigation had been going on for what was soon to become two days, but it had turned up nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

To say that Hyuuga Neji was in a dangerous mood would not be an understatement. And the fact that Fuuma was late was not helping.

From the beginning, Neji had never been exactly very keen on working with the infuriating blonde, but at least he could interrogate the servants and manage to get a few comprehensible sentence out of them. The only thing the unusually agitated Hyuuga succeeded in was mentally scarring several guards for life, and reducing a number of maid to tears with his glare, as his new partner never failed to remind him.

The Hyuuga genius suspected that his partner was trying to irritate him on purpose. If he was, then it was certainly working.

Not willing to allow his rival any more success in his childish game, Neji returned to his attention to the stack of résumés and other miscellaneous documents. He had read them so many times that he had practically memorized all the background information on every single servant in the manor.

Now he was getting the feeling that they were missing something.

Someone.

"Byakugan," he intoned, chakra enhanced eyes scanning the estate until he found who he was looking for.

Fujimura Soichiro was in safe in his chambers located in the west wing of the house, but the two guards that were supposed to be standing outside his door were absent. Then he spotted Nakajima heading towards Fujimura's room, carrying a bottle and two tiny glasses.

Within his monochromatic view of the world, Neji was shocked to find a hint of colour other than the subtle, swirling blue of chakra present in every living being. Out of the two that Nakajima was holding, one of the cups had a purplish tinge that he recognized instantly.

At that precise moment, Kazuya strolled into the room.

"Oi Hyuuga, what are we-" He cut himself off when he saw Neji with his bloodline limit activated and heard the latter's sudden intake of breath.

"I'll explain on the way," the Hyuuga said, his tone clipped and urgent. He pushed past the dumbfounded blond and ran out of his room. Kauzya joined him in a matter of seconds.

Out of the dozens of questions racing through Neji's mind, one was clearer than all the rest.

Would he make it in time?

He'd find out soon enough.

Author's Note:

It's me again and I know you're probably annoyed with hearing me by now, but I'll make this quick.

Just to clear up any possible confusion, the whole purple thing came from one of the anime filler arcs. So anyone who only reads the manga, hasn't gotten that far in the anime or watched that arc and just forgot probably won't know what I'm talking about but not to worry, all will be revealed in the next chapter.

This chapter was beta-read by Midnight Memories. Congrats to her on finishing NaNoWriMo *gives cookies*

Until next time.