I rarely do dedications, but for everyone who waited far longer than they should have for this chapter, this is for you. I'm sorry I let you down and thanks for giving me the chance to make it up to you.

Chapter Nine: Tin Foil

As far as Tenten could tell using her questionable counting skills (which were only questionable due to the gaps she had in memory from the stressful lifestyle) it was the fifth or sixth day since she had been captured. To put it simply, she was immensely bored and annoyed with the whole affair. So far she hadn't been serving any dark or mysterious purposes. Tenten spent her days in a smelly old closet, that though vexing was far from sinister.

Ren entered noisily, carrying her breakfast with an evident lack of concern for spilling. "And how are we this morning?" he asked snidely.

He wasn't expecting an answer and normally Tenten would not have given one, but she was feeling exceptionally bitter. "Bored as hell," she shot back. "Can't I get a book or something?"

"Icha Icha?" he asked, pulling a novel from his pocket that looked vaguely familiar. She couldn't quite place where she had seen it before.

Tenten groaned finally realizing what it was that Ren was holding. "I'll pass," she replied. Tenten wasn't that bored.

"Your loss," Ren sang out and slammed the closet door shut.

"Not really," she said to the door. And so Tenten was left to entertain herself with her own thoughts. She quickly found that the easiest, most comfortable thing to think about was Neji. Thus she leaned back and immersed herself in fantasies in which Neji came to the rescue and kicked some major ass (she liked watching him kick major ass).

It occurred to her once or twice that she ought to just break out, but she doubted that she could take down Nazuki without back up and if she didn't subdue Nazuki, then the real Kuma, wherever she was—Tenten hadn't thought much more on that subject—would be in immense danger.

Tenten knew that eventually Neji would track her down and until he did, she could wait even though her patience was wearing terribly thin.

She was twiddling her thumbs (a very difficult task to accomplish with her hands bound in harsh ropes) absently when a large disturbance occurred outside her closet door.

"I don't give a shit! We've been guarding her sorry ass all week and I need a fucking drink!"

Tenten arched an amused eyebrow as she listened to Ren continue to sputter, shout gibberish, and utter various other scandalizing obscenities. She sincerely wished she could witness the event with her own eyes. From what she could gather, her three guards typically went out drinking every week and they were now arguing about which one of them would stay behind. In the end it was Tomui, for which Tenten was grateful. Ren or Nonako would have been unbearable in their righteous fury.

Tomui was silent. He did not utter a single word when he brought her food. By the general warnings and whispered stories she barely overheard, Tenten decided it was best not to push her luck with the man, especially when she was the one tied up and trapped in a closet. Her evening would thus be excessively dull without even the antics of her captors to amuse her at times.

She lost herself in fantasy and dozed off, dreaming of spandex, rescues, and ass-kicking.

Neji put Lee on a legitimate guard duty outside The Lantern. It was his job to watch for what Nagano the bartender had called "the scourge of Onashi." Neji was to wait for them in the bar and observe them closely. When they left, Lee would follow and Neji would catch up later to avoid suspicion. Bing, bang, boom, they find the hideout, lay down the law, and bring Tenten home. End of story.

"Where do you think is best to wait?" Lee asked.

Neji scanned the area surrounding the bar. Admittedly it was pretty sparse on hiding places. There were no convenient alleyways full of crates and dumpsters to disappear into. "The roof perhaps?"

Lee nodded.

"This will all be over soon," Neji said, mostly to himself, and, breathing deeply, he entered the bar glad that he looked a little scruffy once more since Lee hadn't attempted to force Neji to shave again. Knowing all too well what Neji was up to, the bartender did not show any sign of ever having seen Neji before.

"What'll it be?" Nagano asked.

"Whatever the local ale is," Neji replied, deciding to expand his taste buds as he waited. There was no sign of Tenten's captors anywhere. It was most likely going to be a very long night. He settled into a corner and soon became involved in a game of cards with two day laborers and an old woman.

His mind was far away from cards, focused more so on the door than anything else. Still, he paid enough attention to win a few rounds and keep himself in the game. When all else failed he relied on the few methods of cheating Tenten had taught him several years ago (only after making him promise not to tell Lee or Gai-sensei who would have been appalled by the dishonest and simply unladylike behavior of their comrade). Cards were a very good cover.

The old woman was in the middle of telling a joke of some sort when there was a disturbance by the door. A shouting couple entered the bar and the previous babble of noise seemed like silence compared to the clamor the pair brought with them. A few customers left right then and there. Neji understood why Nagano despised them so much.

Neji recognized them instantly, but it was his turn to lay a card down on the table. He laughed with the others at a joke he had not heard and put down the queen of hearts. Neji had forgotten the kidnappers' names, though Nagano had told him only a few days ago. He quickly relearned them, however—Ren and Nonako.

One of the day laborers eyed Ren and Nonako (who had yet to cease arguing even with the distraction of hard liquor) nervously. "Sorry, folks. I think I ought to head home."

"I'll go too," the other man said, leaving Neji alone to play another few hands with the old woman until she too excused herself complaining of stiff joints and an equally old cat named Mr. Whiskers that needed feeding.

Neji settled himself comfortably in his chair and watched Ren and Nonako out of the corner of his eye, all the while trying not to be too disgusted by their classless behavior towards each other and those around them. Not to mention they were responsible for all of Neji's pain. It took every ounce of his rational being not to simply rise from his seat and descend upon them with all his wrath and fury.

Every now and then, Neji had to bite his tongue to stay awake. He had never been a big fan of coffee or other caffeinated beverages and biting aforementioned tongue, though not ideal, was a pretty unobtrusive way of keeping himself awake through the tedium of waiting for Ren and Nonako to finish their last round of beers and call it a night.

When they finally did choose to do just that, the bar was nearly empty. The two exited, arm in arm and certainly in a much better mood than that which they had arrived. Neji had been almost certain on numerous occasions that they were about to violate all rules of common decency and perform various unthinkable acts in public. To his relief, they seemed content to giggle and stagger around together.

Neji waited a full five minutes and then without a word he got up and left, entering the late night-early dawn air. He breathed deeply, allowing the chill sensation to engulf him. Neji closed his eyes and extended his senses. He could feel Lee's presence tugging at him from several miles to the southwest in the general direction of a large wooded area that stretched on for hundreds of thousands of miles beyond the Fire Country's borders with very little interruption.

Without any fuss or delay, Neji simply turned to the southwest and took off after Lee and the two idiots they were tracking.

Tenten's evening was so unbearably dull that several times she honestly considered cutting herself loose to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting Tomui. Though the idea seemed fun, Tenten's voice of reason, whom she had long ago decided to name "Inner Neji" (because apparently everybody had an "Inner Neji") told her to wait. For while she was completely and utter bored to tears there was also something in the air she could not quite describe. Something was going to happen. She just couldn't say what exactly.

She was just beginning to think that taking a nap would be the most interesting thing she could do when she heard a loud crash from outside the closet in the general direction where she supposed there was a hallway of some sort that led to the main entrance. Tenten recognized the noise as that of splintering wood. Shouts of alarm followed afterward, convincing Tenten that the ruckus was more than just Ren and Nonako stumbling home completely trashed after a night of boozing.

"Inner Neji" told her to wait for one more sign of trouble before executing the dangerous and destructive plan that Tenten was already formulating.

"Die, fuckers!" came a shout that was unmistakably from Ren.

"Ha!" Tenten gloated in triumph over "Inner Neji." She twisted her hands, plucking a shuriken from within the folds of her sash and rotating the blade so that she could grab it in her teeth. She began sawing at her bonds vehemently, grateful that she had thought to practice this particular skill in her youth.

Tenten tried to ignore the shouts and minor explosions coming from outside. The first time she had paid attention to them, she had nicked her tongue on her shuriken and almost dropped the blade in surprise. No, she had to do her best to ignore Ren's violent cursing.

At the exact moment that Tenten had cut her last rope away, the closet door burst open. Standing there in the door frame was the last man she had expected to see.

She gaped at him. "Lee?"

"Is that you, Tenten?" he asked.

Tenten was confused for a moment, then remembered she was still disguised as Kuma. For the first time in a week, Tenten took her natural form. Relief washed over her as she leapt up to embrace Lee. It was good to be herself again. It was good to have someone familiar around.

"You have no idea how happy I am to see you," she told Lee, stepping back from him. "Where's Neji?"

"Still fighting youthfully!" Lee declared. "Come. We must assist!"

Tenten felt her stomach drop as Lee all but dragged her from the closet. Her limbs were slightly weak from lack of movement or maybe it was seeing Neji less than ten feet away from her plugging up every last one of Tomui's chakra points. Ren and Nonako lay in an exhausted drunken mass in the corner of the room.

Tomui swayed and staggered. Neji pulled his arm back; a blade glinted in the feeble light of a tired old lamp and the moonlight. Tenten realized what he was about to do.

"Wait!" she shouted. Neji looked up and locked eyes with her. Her heart skipped. "We need him for information. These idiots were just pawns."

Neji put his kunai away and stood up straight. "Lee, secure him," he said quietly. He walked over to Tenten as Lee scrambled to fix ropes around Tomui's wrists. Tenten appreciated the irony.

They stared at each other for a moment, unsure of what to say until Tenten finally broke the silence with, "Took you long enough."

Neji smiled in spite of himself. "Well, you know, had to find the couple who eloped first."

"You're kidding me? I was right?"

"Happens."

"Oh, don't you give me that! I'm gone for a week and look at you! You're a mess. What the hell is that growing on your face?"

"Sorry to interrupt, my youthful comrades," Lee said, "but this man is ready to be questioned."

Their attention snapped back to reality and the idiotic grins that had been spreading across Neji's and Tenten's faces quickly faded. Briefly as possible, Tenten narrated her version of events since her kidnapping (earning the appropriate angered responses from her comrades when it was completely necessary, of course) and discovered that Neji and Lee knew more that she did about the chakra within Kuma.

"He's not going to talk easily," Tenten said with a sigh. "If only Ren or Nonako were conscious. They're plastered. The job's half done."

"Lazy," Neji muttered.

"Practical," Tenten countered.

"Hn."

Author's Note: As I mentioned before, it took me far too long to get this chapter out and I'm sorry. Time got away from me and I've been spending more time reading than writing lately. Seriously I've gone through so many books in the last three weeks. Anyway, I just want to thank everyone that waited patiently for this chapter and I hope it wasn't a disppointment. So there will be either one of two more chapters left depending on how long the next one starts to get I may divide it, we'll see, but this story is coming to a close. I know you're protesting, but I won't write a neverending story again. I've done that before. Finally I want to attribute my chapter title idea to my English teacher. It was unwitting on his part I suppose but nonetheless inspired the title. So sorry's and thank-you's once more. Please review.