Title: Broken Cadence
Author: HarmonyRose
Claim: Sakura Haruno and Neji Hyuga
Theme: # 27-Violin
Rating: M- for safety
Disclaimer: Um... If you thought I owned Naruto, I'm sorry to say you're kinda stupid. Can't you tell I've messed up the plot so bad it's barely recognizable? If not you should go back and carefully read the last three chapters again, if only to boost my reader traffic numbers.
Summary: The end of all things should have come to a close under the prevalence of peace. However, history will forever repeat itself, and the ceaseless threat of war is continuously just over the horizon.

A word of thanks to Popping Fresh and Kinky-Nami-Lass for beta'ing and Lady Kaliska for suggesting the beginning of this plot.

Suggested listening: Sooner or Later-Breaking Benjamin

Chapter Four: Captured

Running through the canopy of trees with silent footfalls, three men kept their ears open for any sounds of violin music. Each of them was hoping that this odd task they had been allotted would be easier than they anticipated. However, it was beginning to feel like an impossible task.

Of course it had sounded easy to begin with; all they had to do was find some violinist from a clearing. That was, until they'd heard all the details. The details themselves were not a problem. No, it was the lack thereof. The trio of men had almost nothing to go by, just that their lord had seen a male violinist in one of the eastern clearings of the rather vast forest. The only identified features had been a dark-colored summer cloak and a large warhorse accompanying him.

Umino Iruka, leader of the group for this retrieval mission was deep in thought, though his senses were carefully tuned to the surrounding environment. He was trying to figure out the best course of action to take. So far, the best plan seemed to be to surprise the man and have a single one of them approach him and extend the request to the musician. Should he not accept the mission, then the other two elves would let their presence be known and intimidate the man into compliance. Three to one wasn't favorable odds no matter who you were. However, the brunette man with the horizontal scar on his nose hated to use such an underhanded method such as intimidation on another living creature that breathed the same air as he did. It seemed unjust to the elf, but this mission appeared to have a need for it and he would do what it took to succeed, "Izumo, Kotetsu if the violinist is in one of the clearings then you two will continue to keep your presence masked, unless he doesn't agree to come with us peacefully. I will extend the invitation. Don't unmask yourself at any point; I don't want to use intimidation until it becomes necessary."

Kotetsu nodded in assent to the order; he and Izumo would have the easy part of the job. It wasn't that this job was going to be difficult. No, what could some mere musician do to three elf ninjas? It seemed like this would just be a boring escort mission like the last one and the one before that, and the one before that one as well.

The third ninja scowled, but gave his agreement just as his friend and mission partner had. This mission wasn't going to be any fun. He wanted to play with the target for a bit before having to take him back to the Underworld. He wasn't sadistic or evil by any means; he just wanted to mix this mission up from his long stream of rather tedious missions. No--he wasn't brutal, just a little mischievous in nature.

Shortly after arriving around where the Lord Neji and Shikamaru had heard the man, the three elves heard the sound of horse hoof beats trotting easily through the forest. Long pointed ears twitched, their keen hearing picking up the noise from a few miles away. Straining their other senses to feel for the man's chakra system, they were sufficiently satisfied when they couldn't find a developed one. Looking at the assigned leader for this mission, they asked a silent question with only the look on their faces and the gleam of a predator in their eyes.

Iruka nodded. That was enough the three jumped off in the direction of the aforementioned sound and noiselessly followed the man they had been searching for. This mission was becoming easier and easier by the moment.

Now deep in the forest on her horse, the nymph Sakura was immersed in her thoughts, her emerald eyes, the only part you could see from under her cloak, were mournfully reminiscent. Today was the anniversary. Six years since he left and the memory still made her bitter, she had been just a weak girl and he had no time for her or their best friend Naruto. She had loved him and he had scorned her.

A bitter smile twitched at her lips, she had gained something from his departure that came to good use though…

A slow rumbling of thunder in the far off distance and sudden bursting of the clouds, raindrops splattering like tears on the forest floor, awakened Sakura from her dismal thoughts. Lowering her eyelids over embittered orbs, she tilted her cloth covered head to face the rain, enjoying the way the cold water ran over her cheeks and down her jaw as she wearily sighed out, "It always rains on this day."

She froze imperceptibly beneath her dripping black cloak; there were chakra signatures at the edge of her perception. They were faint, but it was highly likely they were ninja and masking their energy. The woman cursed her lack of attention on this particular night, she should have been more careful. It had been foolish that she hadn't completely masked her own chakra before setting off earlier that evening.

Focusing on the chakra, she could discern how many different people where there. It appeared that there were three, though it was difficult to tell, because they, unlike her had cloaked their chakra well. They didn't want to be noticed yet, and that suggested an underhanded motive.

It was entirely her fault that she would have to deal with these shinobi, should they decide to follow her. Which she wasn't yet sure that was their intention, they could be harmless ninja just passing through on their way to the next mission… but she doubted it, for one it was raining steadily and even now she could feel them keeping a measured distance away, trying to stay out of the range of vision, but close enough that she wouldn't be able to shake them if she tried to run.

Loosening her body once again in the saddle, ridding her limbs of the telltale signs of tension the cloaked woman kept moving toward her destination. For now, she would pretend not to have sensed them. It would be better if they underestimated her…

Reaching her chosen field minutes later, the emerald-eyed musician dismounted her large warhorse with the ease of an expert, violin case in hand. She was tying her reins to the slippery trunk of a nearby wet tree in the shadowy forest, when a single man, or rather elf, walked into her clearing. Finishing the complex knot, she turned to face a tall male ninja with non-descript dark eye and hair colors. His medium length hair was tied in a high pony tail at the back of his head and the expression painted on his face was almost dispassionate, except for the irritation toward the rain water that kept dripping into his eyes and drenching his hair and clothes. However, the only thing that truly stood out about him was a horizontal scar that suggested that he might have seen more in life than he let on with his mostly average appearance.

Straight-backed and as proud as he could manage the ninja addressed the shadowy figure formally, "Musician-san, sir, my master requires your musical skill in his estate for an indefinite amount of time."

Holding in her mirth at seriously being mistaken for a male, Sakura only
decisively shook her head, wanting to continue the charade for just a bit longer.

"You'll be well provided for by Hyuuga-sama and it'll be more than worth
your time…" Iruka added, not finished with his original statement.

Once again to the ninja's aggravation the apparently small male shook his head, signalling a negative response toward him. Like hell was she going to play her precious violin for the conceited Lord of the Underworld! Dismissing the elf by turning away from him, the half-nymph began walking through the rain to the large, natural rock platform she liked, allowing her to form hand signs hidden from the ninjas' view.

Motioning with his hand, Iruka summoned the rest of his platoon to surround the petite male. He really wished he didn't have to resort to such underhanded methods; however, the mute musician seemed to be giving him no other choice. Kotetsu landed with a wet splash in front of the violinist, simultaneously soaking her cloak and blocking her way to her natural stage. Izumo leapt and landed between the violinist and the powerful warhorse, effectively barring any escape.

"I will ask you one more time, will you freely come to the Underworld
to play for Hyuuga-sama?" The scarred elf forcefully addressed the trapped
instrumentalist's back.

Tilting her head up to face the serious ninja in front of her, the fabric of her hood shadowed her eyes and her nose, but the cynical twisting of her lips into a smirk was visible to all the shinobi who surrounded her. A whispered jutsu name escaped her lips slowly and calmly as the rain splattered over her visible face, completely out of place for the tense environment. There was no warning to the shinobi who surrounded the violinist as a massive scorching fireball, hindered only minutely by the rain drops, shot toward Kotetsu. He barely managed to avoid it with a well-timed replacement jutsu. Surprised but not upset by this development Kotetsu launched into his own set jutsu, but before he could get past the fourth seal the cloaked figure flickered into existence before him and sent him sprawling backward with a swipe of her leg at the back of his knees.

Catching the shocked ninja and whipping a kunai from inside her cloak, the viridian-eyed woman held it to the taller man's neck, secured his hands by taking his wrists in her one free hand, and put one foot between his feet, ready to trip him at a moments notice. Thank you Naruto for this hold, Sakura silently praised in her head. There was no way he was going to get out of this hold unless she let him go herself.

"Gentlemen, I think you owe me an apology and I want you to bring me to
your Lord- I will not play for him, but perhaps a compromise will suffice?" The purely feminine voice that floated past the cloak's hood was laced with indignant anger.

Astonished at the change of situation and the obvious gender of the violinist, Kotetsu sputtered out an almost incoherent, "Wh-what?"

Shaking off the hood, Sakura revealed her features; furious bright viridian eyes, cerise hair, a straight nose, and a scowling mouth all of which screamed her femininity.

Widened eyes displayed themselves on the remaining two ninjas' faces…
that had been unexpected.

"Well are you going to comply, or must I unnecessarily kill him..?" she pressed the blade tighter to the tanned throat of the man, the water droplets catching on the sharp rim and rolling to the tip to stream off the kunai, akin to blood cascading downward. Kotetsu stretched his neck trying to alleviate the pressure he felt, he was becoming frightened, for this young woman meant business.

Sakura sincerely hoped that the ninja would just decide to take her to the Underworld. She had no intention of killing this man, but her escape options were becoming limited and she would do what was necessary. Even if she ran, this would just become a game of cat and mouse, and she knew she would lose as she didn't have the stamina necessary to combat three ninjas. The knowledge she'd obtained of the fighting arts was learned from Naruto and her own secret experimentation. While she knew how to defend herself from unsuspecting enemies, Naruto's fighting style wasn't suited for someone like her. However, it was the only training she would likely ever receive as an aristocrat. It didn't help matters that she was also female who had trained guards to defend her. Naruto's style had everything to do with stamina not only because he was a lord, but it also helped to have an almost unlimited supply of chakra as well. So whereas chakra and stamina was not a problem for him, for her it was a different story altogether. Although she did have a significant amount of chakra due to her heritage, particularly compared to the elves in front of her, she didn't have nearly the amount of knowledge of jutsus or the strength to carry out the more advanced techniques that Naruto carried in his extensive repertoire of ninjutsu. Besides, the pink-haired girl wasn't going to kill any of them; they were her ticket into the Underworld.

Sakura's fingers tightened around the handle of the Kunai. Her brows drew together in righteous anger, displacing the water gathering on her forehead, making it trickle down her face all that much faster. She wanted to let have whoever decided that abducting people as they pleased was a good thing a piece of her mind at the very least. There was no way she could let something like this go. She was furious that this Hyuuga-sama thought that he could force people to do his bidding by bullying them. Just who did he think he was? She was a free woman (relatively speaking) and she was not about to be caged so some stupid man could hear her violin. It was no different than caging a bird to hear it sing. She was livid and it was becoming harder for her to hold the ninja in her arms and stop herself from stomping around the soaked field, throwing a tantrum and breaking everything in sight.

The bridge of her nose was red with anger. Still smoldering in her anger, the half nymph spoke in a low threatening tone, "Have you arrived at a decision gentlemen?"

The voice broke through their reverie and the ninjas began walking toward her slowly, thinking that she was just a spooked horse and that they could placate her with slow movements and calming words. "No harm is going to come to you."

She snorted, who did they think she was? She wasn't stupid and no amount of soothing words was going to help them capture her. They continued slowly toward her, but she merely laughed sardonically. Truly this was becoming pathetic. The ninjas froze at her cackle; they hadn't expected that type of reaction. Using their momentary
distraction, the rosette haired woman brought her other hand upwards toward her
hostage's neck and preformed a string of eight rapid hand seals.

At the last moment Sakura pushed her hostage away as she watched the genjutsu take hold of all three of them. The pancetta smirked in dark satisfaction. Genjutsu had always been her favorite type of jutsu, although it had helped that she was naturally superior at it. Turning in the direction of her horse, she began to walk towards the spirited beast. It was for the better as it would be wiser if she didn't take out her anger on the Lord of the Underworld despite the anger coursing through her veins like quicksilver, no matter how much she wanted to at the moment. It would probably be best if she found a nice private place to vent her anger and wear herself to exhaustion. Her lips furled into something that wasn't quite a smile or a smirk, it was more like a half snarl… She knew just the place too.
Just as her light footsteps neared her horse, Sakura glanced to the side as a kunai whipped through the air just centimeters from her. Surprised that one of the ninjas had broken out of her horrifying genjutsu so quickly she spun on her heel, water spiraling off her cloak, to face the captain of the shinobi team. He had his hands on his knees and was slightly hunched over, his heavy panting for breath could be heard even over the steady drum of the rain, but his eyes fastened determinedly to hers.

Raising her hand up with the kunai level to her chest, the pink-haired women widened her stance and took an offensive position. Her eyes were gleaming; perhaps she'd get to work off some anger after all.

With a low growl in her throat Sakura launched herself at the male, the water in the puddles on the ground flew up and the sound of grating metal met the air as Iruka moved his own kunai to block the oncoming attack.

The rain picked up in intensity and it began to pour harder and faster, blurring the vision of the two opponents, plastering their clothes to their bodies, and cooling their bodies down which lent a blue undertone to their skin.

The adrenaline was high as a fury of kick and slashes were exchanged and blocked. Every move got progressively stronger, until it was a full taijutsu match, their speed and accuracy only hindered by the onslaught of rain. Kunai met kunai time and time again; heavy breathing was now heard from both sides. Each blow was met by a counter attack. By this time Sakura was looking to make a retreat. She was still furious, but this wasn't the ideal condition to fight anybody. Darkness blanketed the forest, and every raindrop that had panged against her skin was colder than the last. The air was freezing due to the rain, and she could even make out her breath. If she didn't get out of the harsh weather soon, she would likely get sick. The sharp edge of her anger had cooled, and her instincts were telling her to run, before she got too wrapped up in this situation.

A gust of wind threw the rain at her faster and obscured her vision almost completely, Iruka took his chance and went to strike her, but Sakura also saw this as an opportune moment and made a move to hit him. At the last second they both caught the other's punch and try as they may to overpower each other by placing their weight into the move, they couldn't, because the ground was all mud, both sets of feet were slipping backward in the mud, not gaining any traction or leverage over the other. Locking narrowed eyes, they had both let go and jumped back a few feet.

The wheezing from both sides was audible. The rain had thoroughly soaked the ninja and nymph to the core. Her vibrant pink hair was now a deep magenta plastered to her forehead, chin, and cheeks. Her lips were beginning to tinge a frosty blue and she was beginning to become drowsy, but there was no way she could fall asleep anytime soon. No, the adrenaline coursing through her veins would keep her awake and alert until the battle was truly over.

They were at a stalemate and neither of them could continue to fight and expect to win, the weather was too bad and they were evenly matched as long as they were out in the elements.

Gritting his teeth in frustration, Iruka sighed half in defeat. Just why was he fighting a woman? His mission was to bring back the male violinist from the forest, and of course since said violinist didn't even exist that meant he had already failed his mission and now he was wasting time battling some odd nymph woman. He grinded his teeth subconsciously, he detested having to admit failure however this one wasn't his fault as some god had forgotten to undeniably confirm the musicians gender. The brunette cursed, he wasn't going to fail this mission, he had a long string of successfully completed missions and he wasn't about to break that pattern. He'd just have to bring back this musician, female or not. Bringing back something was better than bringing back nothing.

Relaxing his shoulders and facial expression, the shinobi started diplomatically, "You want a little revenge on my master and I really want to complete this mission, and since all this mission entailed was bringing you to the Underworld, I'm going to… compromise a little," he paused momentarily for emphasis, "As long as you agree not to do anything too drastic, I will take you to the Underworld and complete my mission." He waited with baited breath for the woman to come to a decision. If she agreed then, this would be a good bit of revenge on his part as well; his Lord had caused him a lot of grief by not discerning this woman's gender. Technically, no woman was allowed onto Neji-sama's estate, but this was his own fault, he wanted this musician and he would get what he asked for… whether he liked it or not.

Sakura's anger sparked again, just who exactly did these people think she was? Did they think that she was some common human? She looked at the man shrewdly trying to discern his intentions, and found them honest enough. She supposed that there was no such thing as a truly honest ninja. The anger was evident in her narrowed eyes and the harsh tone of her voice matched the icy chill from the rain as she replied with one word,

"Alright."

That one word had sealed her fate.

Sakura shivered, her clothes were still thoroughly drenched even though the rain had stopped. She had sent her horse back to the estate with a note attached, just saying she would be back in a few hours and not to come looking for her. She was running along side all three of the other ninja in the tree tops, which was more difficult this evening since it took more control and attention to stay on the slippery branches than normal, besides it had been quite sometime since she had even attempted to walk on a tree, so she was a little bit rusty at it, although it was hard to truly ever forget it. Her anger kept her going even though she was exhausted, she couldn't wait to teach that jerk a lesson he wouldn't soon forget. Although something was nagging at her conscience, she had heard and been told by the trees of the surrounding forest that the one ninja's heart beat speed up to a dangerous level in fear of her when she had threatened his life. It was distracting her and not allowing her to focus fully. She supposed she was sorry she had frightened him so bad. However, even after acknowledging the sentiment, it wouldn't leave her alone. Sighing inaudibly, she knew what she would have to do.

Had Sakura not been absorbed in her thoughts she would have noticed the wary sidelong glances the two ninja were directing at her and their captain. They were probably wondering just what had happened when they were under that genjutsu and what kind of woman this was not to have immediately wanted to meet their master. Perhaps she didn't know who he was? That was impossible, every one knew who Hyuuga Neji was especially if said person was a female. He was widely known as the Lord of the Underworld and a rake among the women.

Sighing gently to himself, Kotetsu wondered exactly why all women were attracted to his master, even this unique woman in front of him who hadn't swooned at his master's name would most likely be charmed instantly once she came within close proximity of him. He sensed this was going to end badly.

Kotetsu's (she had learned his and the other ninja's name when she had broken them from her genjutsu) sigh had broken her out of her reverie; he was obviously exasperated with something. Slowing a bit to get into sync with him, she unabashedly looked him in the eye and apologized to him for threatening his life earlier.

The shinobi had almost lost his footing. She had apologized to him? She really had to have been the strangest female he ever met. Plus most woman, noble or not were scared to look into the eyes of a ninja, most of them were too scared. His widened eyes softened at the sincere but firm look in her eyes and he accepted her apology. The ninja shook his head after she had sped back up and into position. This woman really was something else. Perhaps he was glad he'd taken such a different mission, it had been most interesting so far.

Sakura, feeling better now that she had apologized, could concentrate solely on getting to the Underworld and she was pleased to see that they were entering the land surrounding the River of Styx.

She had never seen this River, but had heard countless stories about it. The trees had once told her that only the foolish trees grew near the River, for even the tree spirits were afraid of getting to close to death. This was foolish as spirits of the trees were almost immortal. As long as someone didn't cut down the tree their spirit dwelled in, which wouldn't happen, not in her forest, they wouldn't die. Although why they thought they would go to the Underworld themselves she had no idea since, they had already cheated death once by becoming spirits. Besides death wasn't really what they thought it was like, this she knew they wouldn't know since none of them were former elves or aristocrats, all of them whom had well guarded secrets of their own about Hades. Either way she was their protector and she would very well send someone directly to Hades if they so much as attempted to cut down one tree without permission. Of course all the speculation about foolish trees was done all through tree gossip, which tended to be highly inaccurate as the trees could only travel so far to communicate with each other.

However she had heard from other, more reliable, sources that trees did not in fact grow along the banks of that river and as a result the bank of it was disgustingly muddy. Now since they were approaching the edge of the forest she could say that it was indeed quite disgusting, however she alighted gently onto the mucky ground so she wouldn't splatter mud anywhere, unlike the elves who weren't quite as concerned about getting soiled with mud stains, as she was when they jumped down from the trees. Glaring at the shinobi's back that had splattered her cloak with mud, they walked toward an old wooden boat that the Sakura's sharp viridian eyes doubted would safely hold the four of them across the wide slow river.

Once close enough to the boat, she could feel the chakra that held the boat together and kept the water from leaking in the many gaping holes. The cloaked woman was surprised, even though she'd heard the boatman was barely more than a decrepit skeleton, she hadn't quite believed it. She wasn't sure what she had thought but, it hadn't been that.

Climbing into the boat with the others she surveyed the wide murky river, the water looked like cheap alcohol; a deep molasses in color and just as unclear. In the moonlight emerald eyes could just make out the outline of the gates she was seeking on the other bank. Even though Sakura was districted by her purpose she noticed that as she neared the entrance to the Underground the moonlight waned to nonexistence.

This was curious to Sakura because she could see the outline of the gates which meant there was light, but she wondered where it was coming from. Then she noticed it, there were lamps behind the closed gates and the entrance seemed to lead underground.

Disembarking from the boat the nymph walked up to the gate and moved her left hand over the framework, she would have used her right hand, but it was carrying her violin case. It had some sort of twisting design on it, but because it was dark she couldn't make out what it was, but the metal was cool against her fingertips and if she had to guess the metal she would say that it was either nickel or silver, because it was a lighter grey and strangely not as dark as she would have imagined.

Sakura impatiently waited for the shinobi to open the gate to let them through. She was pleasantly surprised that as soon as the ninja came up to meet her in front of the gates, another shinobi appeared seemingly out of nowhere and searching the group, he recognized the ninja and without even asking or really looking at the stranger let them through.

Iruka nodded at the guardsman and proceed to walk toward a large castle with a massive stone-based wall around it. They had to travel down hill for a while before they hit even land. It was still some ways off, so Sakura contented herself with the scenery. Artificial lighting lit the landscape and it was even eerier than the forest in the late evening. Truly what she saw wasn't what she was supposed to, this was the Elysian Fields, but to the wood nymph it sincerely looked more like Tartarus, the field was dying, withering slowly and torturously. It was supposed to be green and healthy and beautiful, but it was none of those things. It was dead like all the heroes it was said to encompass. Speaking of all the heroes that were supposed to be in this field, where were they anyway? Malachite eyes scanned as far as she could see, but the land was much larger than any area she could see, even if she hadn't been using the depressingly dim torchlight's to see. This was disgusting! Neji-whatever his name was, wasn't even taking care of his own land! Her anger built up into a fully stoked inferno as she trudged along with the other ninja, it was a good thing for Sakura because the adrenaline masked her fatigue.

By the time the pinkette was fuming mad, the leader was a little wary of her, but they had already reached the estate's gates. Iruka signalled the guard at this station and they were promptly let in and informed that Hyuga-sama was in his office still. Iruka let the other two shinobi go and began to escort the Lord's guest to him. It was lucky that the nymph was so irate that she didn't notice the ornate estate otherwise it would be easy for her to misinterpret.

Reaching the door ahead of "the guest", the brunette struggled to get the smirk off his face. Finally succeeding he rapped on the door with two sharp knocks. This was going to be entertaining…

A firm voice answered the sounds, "Come in."

Iruka walked into the room and held the door open for the lady, who glided into the room, and if one couldn't feel the high tension from her, they might be tempted to think she was perfectly calm.

Neji, not being near enough to feel her cackling energy yet, stepped out from behind his desk and moved to greet the cloaked violinist. He was naturally a little wary of this plan, but hoped that this musician could help him to relax at least somewhat.

The musician put down the case and coolly met him halfway, upon reaching him and his outstretched hand, the violinist did the only reasonable thing she could; she clenched her fist and sent it into his face. Hard.

The god stumbled backward a step from the force and went to move in to attack, when the instrumentalist took off the hood of her cloak. He froze. What was a woman doing in his estate?

He immediately addressed the captain he sent out to retrieve the violinist in cold fury, "Is this a joke? Why is there a woman in my house?"

Iruka, who was struggling not to laugh before, started to answer seriously, "I…"

However, before he could get two words out the woman growled lowly, "If you have something to say to me, address me. I'm not a second-class citizen because of my gender; so stop acting like I am. You wanted the violinist from the forest and now you have her. But, there is no way I will ever play for you." By this time the woman was starting to sway on her feet now that the adrenaline had mostly worn off. She was shivering lightly under her cloak; her clothes were still pretty wet. She was light headed and she felt so exhausted from the previous day and that fight that had taken so much energy. The woman was thoroughly drained and black spots were beginning to blot out her vision. She just needed to sit down…

The pearl-eyed lord was stunned and merely stood inactive for a moment before coming to his senses and advancing predator-like toward her. Who was she to tell him off? When he reached her all he got was an armful of damp fabric and a pink-haired, passed-out woman that had plunged into his arms.

Bewildered opal orbs made their way to the older ninja's eyes. It was just too much for Iruka to take and he promptly burst out laughing. He couldn't wait until he told Naruto…

Look at all that length! I'm so excited that I put out a chapter that was over 5,000 words. School has been very busy so i'm not sure when I'll post another chapter, but hopefully soon. I have one question for you all. Does anyone listen to the suggested music during the chapter? Let me know what you thought of the chapter. Did you like it? What could be better? What about my characterizations? Is it predictable?

Thanks for reading!

-HarmonyRose-