Chapter 6: Bodies
Tenten discovers that Anko has a penchant for theatrics when their leader barges into the Lady Hokage's office, banging the doorknob against the wall with enough force to leave a sizable dent and belting out a cheerful "Arriving!" Without further prelude, she proceeds to drop the discovery she has carried all the way back onto the Lady Hokage's desk with all the pomp and pride of an overgrown cat presenting its master with a dead bird. Papers and ink go flying, and it seems that a good deal of the Lady Hokage's good humor goes with them.
This marks the first time Tenten sees the corpse up close. Anko had been especially secretive about her find, storing it away in a prepared scroll almost immediately after offering them a tantalizing glimpse of it. She is momentarily startled by how similar it looks to Neji; the masculine, refined facial features, the lean, pale musculature and the long, silken hair are all evocative of her teammate's appearance. But Neji's locks are the color of dark coffee, not silver-white, and he bears only the green cursed seal on his forehead, not the twin red dots and eye markings this body has.
"This is remarkably well-preserved," the Lady Hokage grumps after her window-rattling shouts have subsided, "They must have wanted to keep his unique body structure intact for study."
"Unique?" Anko echoes, the remnants of her exuberant grin falling away. Tenten notices not for the first time that Neji has spoken very little since his encounter with the strange woman. She supposes that failure is a relatively new concept to him, and makes a note to speak to him about it later. The Lady Hokage's grunt of affirmation snaps her attention back to reality.
"Good work, you three. Anko, I'd like to speak with you about the exact circumstances in which you found him. If I'm not mistaken, he possessed a very rare bloodline limit. You two are dismissed."
The elation brought by the Lady Hokage's commendation is quickly replaced by panic as Neji turns on his heel and leaves brusquely. Eager to catch up to him, Tenten bows hastily and follows, only to find an empty hallway. She hears the word "Kimimaro" drift through the open doorway, but she is too busy rushing off to find her teammate to care about the unknown name.
【[_|[__§__]|_]】
Tenten tries her luck with the sweeping feint to conceal her thrusting right palm, but Lee has evidently seen the combination before from their mutual teammate and absorbs the hit on a cross-armed block. She notes with some satisfaction that it manages to drive him back a pace, but is forced into a diving roll by his flying axe kick. His hard-earned physical strength and the additional force provided by his leg weights blast a miniature crater into the earth from even the relatively simple move.
"You didn't find him?" he asks in the resultant interlude. Tenten shakes her head ruefully. She had been hoping that perhaps Neji had sought out Lee for a spar to get his mind off of things, but had arrived to their training grounds to find Lee practicing his forms alone.
"Perhaps he is meditating in the Hyuuga estate," Lee suggests, dodging Tenten's punch as almost an afterthought. She scowls and presses the attack, only to have each strike evaded. Closer, though. She is getting closer with each successive attempt. Tenten realizes that she has focused too much on the offense when Lee launches a counterattack, catching her in the stomach and stealing her breath for a few desperate seconds. She stumbles back, gasping and he waits patiently for her to recover.
"Neji will be okay," Lee says with a staunch nod. His chin stiffens nto a look of determination Tenten has seen many times before and finishes, "My eternal rival is too strong to lose his youthful vigor."
A pause.
"You are getting stronger, too."
A small smile flits over Tenten's lips and she straightens, taking in a deep breath to steady her respiration. Lee is many things, but he is not one for baseless flattery. If anything, he is far too honest for his own good.
"Again," she barks out, reinvigorated, and the mock battle begins anew.
【[_|[__§__]|_]】
"Hey, Lee. Does the name 'Kimimaro' mean anything to you?" Tenten asks. Hours later, she has managed to land a few glancing blows on her sparring partner, but she still sports the lion's share of the bruises. Still, to be able to hold her own, unarmed, against one of Konoha's most skilled combatants is a more than satisfactory end to what she considers a good day, and she wears a proud smile that more than outshines her relatively minor contusions.
Lee blinks and looks up from his meticulous task of winding the bandages around his hands and arms. Her sudden inquiry seems to have caught him off-guard and he looks nostalgic for a moment, as though recalling something that happened in the distant past.
"I fought someone named Kimimaro Kaguya several years ago," he says, bemused at the mention of his former adversary's name, "He was very strong, and possessed a bloodline limit that allowed him to shape and grow his bones at will. Why do you ask?"
"I think we found his body," Tenten answers, crossing her arms pensively, "The Lady Hokage thinks it was preserved for further study. Do you think maybe that has something to do with Neji's strange mood?"
"Neji never fought against Kimimaro. I do not think they have met at all," Lee frowns. His expression is remorseful as he considers the information Tenten presented, "He was an honorable fighter, though, and he deserves a better end than that."
Tenten mirrors the expression, though her consternation is more with the negation of her burgeoning hypothesis. What else could have upset the normally steadfast Neji so much as to force him to so openly display his emotions? It certainly was atypical of him to miss an entire day of training, even if they had just completed a mission. Sparring together after returning home had become a sort of ritual for the three teammates, one that, to Tenten's knowledge, they had never departed from.
Speculation is pointless, she reprimands herself. She stretches, loosening her limbs and standing again.
"It's getting late," she says, dusting off her pants, "How about one more round before we call it quits?"
She loses again, but it takes Lee several minutes to achieve that outcome. Without a doubt, Tenten is improving at a prodigious rate.
【[_|[__§__]|_]】
Ino Yamanaka jolts awake to the presence of an intruder, leaping up instantly and grabbing the dagger she keeps under her pillow, ready to defend herself from all manners of assassins and ambushers. The silhouetted figure makes no move to attack, though, or even move at all, and she swipes a hand across bleary eyelids several times to squint more closely at him.
"Hyuuga?"
On the exceedingly short list of people Ino expects to see in her room in the middle of the night, Neji is certainly not an entry. Confusion tempers the adrenaline pumping through her veins and she sets her weapon down, stifling a groggy yawn and trying to tame her hair into some semblance of propriety. She manages a messy ponytail, though a good portion of her golden tresses fall in front of her face in a messy veil.
"Yamanaka," he acknowledges curtly. He looks over her in a cursory, assessing way, and Ino would have felt violated in her lack of clothing were it not for his icy succinctness. His luminescent eyes seem strangely opaque, given their usual translucency. Ino's internal musings are broken as he states shortly, "Get dressed. I require your assistance."
"Is it urgent?" she sighs, eyeing her disturbed covers longingly. The sudden rise and fall in her heart rate from his unexpected entry into her living space has left her exhausted and she would like nothing more than to go back to her slumber. She barely staves off another yawn, feeling small tears spring to her eyes at the effort and groans out, "I'd love to help you, really, but it's late. Can't we do this in the morn–"
He is on her like lightning, muffling her cry of surprise with a hand and pinning her helplessly to the bed. His free hand holds the dagger she discarded, and the frosty blade causes the vulnerable skin of her throat to shiver involuntarily. Her pulse is up again, and she can feel it jumping against that dangerously sharp edge.
"Get dressed," he reiterates, his tone unyieldingly exigent this time, "I require your assistance. If you do not comply or if you try to alert anyone, I will kill you and find someone else. Is that clear?"
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