Chapter Five: Don't Look At Me Crosswise

Tenten was unconscious for a long time before she woke up again. Her head ached considerably—the after-effects of the chemicals that had knocked her out—and her hands were tied together with a low quality rope that chafed her wrists. Upon opening her eyes, Tenten found herself completely alone in a plain room without any windows. She suspected it was a closet by the size and the light of a single naked bulb that dangled from the ceiling.

She had no way of knowing what time it was or if it was even the same night. Despite her chemical induced migraine, Tenten began thinking hard. It was only a matter of time before her kidnappers, whoever the hell they were, discovered she was awake. She was still disguised as Kuma and she had to decide quickly whether or not she was going to continue the ruse. And furthermore, she needed to decide the best way to act. Should she kick ass or lull them into a false sense of security?

In reality, it took Tenten very little time to come up with answers. She was feeling particularly vindictive, perhaps because of all the abuse she had undergone as of late. Tenten would continue to masquerade as Kuma and she would play the role of a frantic hostage… sort of. When the time was right and she had learned enough information, she would become deadly.

Tenten smirked and took a deep breath. Glass shatter and all animals within a ten mile radius fled as Tenten emitted the loudest most piercing scream she had ever unleashed upon the Earth.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?"

The closet door slammed open, revealing a tall man with rather non-descript features, who was uttering various other and often worse obscenities. Tenten saw the snow white bandages wrapped around his middle and realized he was the man she had stabbed. To say that he appeared both very angry and disturbed would have been an extreme understatement.

Tenten artfully altered her appearance to one of sheer terror. "Who are you?" she screamed shrilly. "Where am I? What's going on?"

"Shut up, you damn bitch!" the wounded man yelled. "You're a captive!"

Tenten fell into hysterical sobs. "I want… hic… to go… hic… home," she wailed.

Her captor swung his arm back and slapped her. Tenten was in ten percent shock-ninety percent acting as she fell silent. "That's better," he said, swaggering with his false idea of power. "As I said before, you're a captive. Not only that, you're the captive of a very dangerous man whom you do not want to cross—"

"There you go again, Ren, always assuming powerful figures are men. Maybe she's a woman. Nazuki wears a hood after all."

"He doesn't have boobs!"

"Maybes she's flat-chested!"

The woman arguing with Ren had pushed her way into the cramped closet—that became smaller as her bushy hair filled up a great deal of space—and jabbed a manicured finger into Ren's chest.

Annoyed with the way the conversation was headed away from all useful information, Tenten let out a distressed squeak to get their attention.

"Hey, what did you do to her?" the woman demanded.

"Oh, there you go again, Nonako! You're sympathizing with the captive!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

Tenten rolled her eyes. This wasn't helping. How long were these two going to argue? Tenten bit her lip. Would an outburst be in character here or would it give away her impatient scheming? Tenten made a decision, hoping it wasn't the wrong one. She drew a ragged breath and screamed, "I want to go home!"

"Dear God, woman! Shut up!" Ren yelled.

Nonako bit her lip. "Well… she does sound a bit brattish…" She disappeared, leaving Tenten alone with Ren again. He took a deep breath that painfully reminded Tenten of the way Neji looked when he was trying not to strangle someone. She wondered what he was doing now. Was he looking for her already? Or maybe he had been captured too… somehow she doubted that. He was probably looking for her, but then the real Kuma and Shou were likely more important. Poor Neji, she thought and turned her attention back to Ren who looked ready to speak. "Let me go," Tenten demanded, hoping her voice still held a small tone of hysteria, but her ability to be afraid was quickly fading.

"In good time," Ren said, now mysteriously calm. "You see, Nazuki-sama has big plans for you."

"Wh-what kind of plans?" Damn, I could have been an actress.

Ren smiled. "Even I don't know exactly. But Nazuki-sama is a genius. He had researched your bloodline and found an ancient power that flows in your veins. Even your family has no idea."

"What are you talking about?"

He laughed, sending shivers up and down Tenten's spine. She hated evil laughs, they were so unnerving. "Just be a good little hostage, my dear, and everything will turn out fine."

Tenten wiped her fake tears away on her shoulder as the door snapped shut and the key turned in the lock. "Hmm… this is some crazy shit going down," she moaned softly. Since when did airheads like Kuma get secret, unknown powers? She wondered if this was all complete crap or if there really was something special about Kuma.

She shook her head rapidly, trying to clear the large amount of thoughts that had gathered there. At least this seemed more like a problem she could settle with her fist, which was her preferred method of problem solving. What she really needed though was someone she could talk to, not to help her figure out what to do, since she was certainly very capable, but to help her sort the thoughts in her head by vocalization. Pen and paper might have sufficed, but she doubted Ren would just hand it over if she asked. Tenten sighed. "I need Lee or Neji… even Gai-sensei."

Artsuma Takeda was startled when Neji burst unceremoniously and completely without warning into his study with two less than happy people in tow who were most likely upset with the things he had been shouting at them for the last twenty or so minutes ("If you're going to elope at least leave town and do it properly!" "Do you have any idea what you've done?").

The very disgruntled Artsuma Takeda was about to begin his own slurry of shouting at Neji for causing a great deal of damage to a very expensive mahogany door until he recognized the couple the shinobi had brought with him.

"Shou… and Kuma too! You're alive! Thank the gods you've returned." The man grasped his son, breathing heavily.

"We didn't intend to come back," Shou said stiffly, pulling himself out of his father's clutching hands.

"Wh-what?"

"They eloped," Neji snarled. "I found them in a bar in the cheap end of town. I don't have time for your family argument. I need to find my comrade who was kidnapped pretending to be your daughter-in-law," he shouted at Artsuma Takeda, wanting very much to kill every last Artsuma in the room.

Even Shou who had little respect for his father was left gaping by Neji's performance. "What on Earth possessed you to hire that guy?"

"He was a good deal more polite before his girlfriend disappeared."

"SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!" came Neji's angry shout from the hallway, annoyed that the Artsumas had not even waited until he was out of earshot before gossiping about him. Neji began cursing violently under his breath and when he realized why he was cursing so violently, he began to swear with even more vehemence (if that was at all possible).

Neji wasted a great deal of paper and ink trying to write another letter to the Hokage canceling his request for so many additional personnel. He would clearly no longer need another jounin and two teams of genin. His own "minions" as he liked to call them privately (a bad habit encouraged by Tenten when they went drinking with Lee) or Lee would suffice to get Tenten back from whoever had taken her thinking she was Artsuma Kuma.

A piled of crumpled, ripped, ink-stained paper littered the floor, but at least, Neji managed to compose a polite, neat letter without tearing holes in the paper with the pressure of his pen strokes.

With the letter headed straight for the Hokage, Neji went to see Artsuma Takeda, hoping that his own emotions had calmed down enough to converse with the man without tearing him limb from limb. The man was alone when Neji entered the study. The annoyed look Neji was getting did not bode well for the outcome of their meeting.

"I am very displeased with your treatment of my son and his wife," Artsuma Takeda said coldly.

"I could care less. They're back. That's what you asked for." Artsuma Takeda still looked vexed but could not argue with the young Hyuga man. "Speaking of Kuma and Shou," Neji said, trying to calm himself, "I would advise that they remain in hiding until I have recovered my comrade and eliminated this threat. I cannot be sure of what the kidnappers are after since they clearly have not contacted you. I do not want to find out what will happen if they discover Tenten is not Kuma."

Artsuma Takeda was reluctantly to speak politely to Neji after the way the shinobi had treated him, but quickly replied, "The story of your comrade has scared the two of them enough that they ought to be compliant."

"Good," Neji said. "I contacted the Hokage again to let her know the circumstances and request a smaller amount of additional aide. I can only guess at what your bill will be at the end of all this trouble." Neji took a deep steadying breath. "Do you need anything else?"

Artsuma Takeda shook his head.

"Then, if it is possible, I'd like to speak privately with Shou and Kuma."

"It'll have to wait until tomorrow. They're a bit… distraught."

Neji nodded and left. "Hell if I care," he whispered when he was out of the study.

Tenten's first major setback of her abduction was the growling pit in her abdomen that was her stomach. She was horribly, terribly, painfully, hungry. As much as Tenten disliked the idea of calling for the attention of her captors, the idea of slipping one of the weapons—that were still miraculously undiscovered—from her sash, cutting her bonds, popping as soldier pill hidden within her shoes, and hence revealing her true identity was not at all to her liking.

The reluctant kunoichi slid herself closer to the door and struck out at the wood with her foot which incidentally was covered in blisters from those impractical (except for hiding things) shoes she had worn on the evening of her kidnapping. "I'm hungry. Are you people going to feed me?" Tenten shouted.

A jumble of curses, oaths, and various other vulgarities and forms of swearing erupted on the other side of the door, causing Tenten to smile briefly in spite of herself. It certainly was amusing that she was giving them so much trouble. The door flung open. It was Ren as she full well expected. "A little princess, aren't you?" he sneered.

"Well, seeing as I don't have access to a kitchen or a grocery store or even something like an apple tree…" Tenten replied snidely, figuring she could get away with it on account of hunger, which as every knows turns people into raging monsters, particularly when they aren't used to being hungry.

"You're lucky if you get fed at all!"

"Oh please. I'm not stupid. You need me for something. You're going to keep me alive until then anyway. Being locked in a closet gives you time to think about these things you know," Tenten concluded. If she was lucky, that last comment might just get her out of the cramped little closet. A little extra surveillance would certainly be a fair trade for the elbow room.

Ren snorted brutishly. "I hate it when women start to think."

"And I supposed that's why you fight with your… co-worker… all the time," Tenten replied snappily.

"Watch it," Ren growled, "or I won't bring you back any food."

Tenten rolled her eyes and he slammed the door shut. It was then that her body began to shiver and Tenten realized just how they had managed to kidnap her. Her body was recovering after being drugged and it was more than the chemicals that rendered her unconscious.

She started laughing and couldn't stop. Tears came to her eyes. Even when Ren returned with a scant offering of food and harsh demands as to what was so damn funny, she couldn't stop. He left, completely disgruntled with no comment except to solemnly declare that his master would be paying her a visit the next day.

Finally Tenten quieted down, still shivering and now wondering how she was supposed to eat without any hands. Perhaps something in her snapped, but she no longer cared whether they suspected she was not Kuma. No, Kuma was about to transform into a strong, sassy woman whether she liked it or not. "I'm afraid I have a terribly ego," she said to no one in particular. "I really must do something about that. Hey," she yelled, pounding on the door with her foot. "I need my hands to eat!"

Author's Note: This is probably going to be a long one so please bear with me. First of all this chapter was probably the most difficult for me. There are a lot of things about it that I really like and a lot of things I don't like. In the end it is what it is and I only hope that I haven't disappointed my readers. Second of all, I want to let you guys know that updating could get a bit erratic, but I'll try not to. My mom is having some medical problems, so I've had to step up a lot lately and take care of the rest of my family and her. So it was really hard for me just to be in the mood to type this up today. I'm actually on the internet quite a bit though because it's sort of my refuge right now. Anyway, that's what's going on with me, but I'll try not to let it effect my update time. Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter and please leave a review if you've got a moment.