Chapter 5: Enough is Enough

The next morning she rushed into the hospital and found his room—she had to see him.

"Neji, are you alright?!" she frantically asked "How did this happen?"

"Tenten I'm fine calm down"

"You have two cracked ribs and suffered serious head trauma, you're not okay"

"I'm not dead am I?" he looked her in the eyes

"That's not funny"

"I wasn't joking. If he wanted me dead then those subordinates would've come out of their cars and finished me off"

"Maybe they thought you were already dead"

"Not possible Tenten; criminals can't afford a mistake that big. Killing me was never a part of the plan-at least not this time. The plan was to draw you out and I was the bait"

"What are you talking about?"

"Forensics found this in my car, it's addressed to you" he handed her the note

Tenten we meet again, I said I'd see you in someone else's body you know but I found this method to be more entertaining. Sending the man you love to the hospital was the perfect way for me to draw you out. Now that you know that I'm someone from your past, the game is nearly over and it's time to end it"

"That's it, enough is enough. He wants my attention so badly-he's got it. I'm finishing this mission."

"Tenten stop reacting-that's just what he wants, he wants you angry. Not to mention you can't do this alone, only members of the Lightning Class can do solo missions. You'll have to wait until I've recovered"

"And while I sit around and wait he could strike again and succeed in killing you!" she was fed with not being able to do anything

"Tenten stop being so naïve, he wants you to suffer alone! Killing me isn't the only way to do that and he's using that advantage to get you to try and kill him, because he knows that if you try to take revenge on him and kill him, you'll be removed from the agency immediately and sworn to absolute secrecy. You'll never be able to contact any of us ever again—isolating you completely"

He was right and she knew it. She sat down in the chair beside his bed and rested her head on her hands.

"I just…don't know what to do, we're both still in danger and you're stuck in here for who knows how long?"

"Tenten just relax, I'll be out of here soon. You don't need to worry about me"

"I know, you're probably the last person I should be worrying about…" she smiled at him "Alright I'm heading back to the agency, I've got some work I need to finish" she stood up and looked at him for a while and held his hand

"Tenten—?" she interrupted him with a gentle kiss then broke away a few seconds later "What was that for?" he asked quite confused by her boldness

"I'm just really glad you're okay" she spoke softly before she left

Xxx

Tenten was in the Intelligence Division—she'd just shown Shikamaru the note found in Neji's car

"Well this is an interesting twist on things" he said as he finished reading the note

"Does this mean that the first not was a lie?"

"It's hard to say but I doubt it. He could just be trying to distract you, why didn't he just send this note to you in the first place? Why change the game now? No I definitely think he wants to divert your attention with this new note. Are you sure you don't remember what he looks like?"

"I've been trying as hard as I can to remember but all I can think of is brown hair and that's not much help since all three suspects-who visited the night club-have brown hair"

"Alright don't push yourself, we'll figure this out"

Ino waked in and sat next to Shikamaru

"Hey Tenten, you seem back to your old self. You coping alright?"

"Yeah I'm doing a lot better-or I was until Neji ended up in the hospital"

"Can I talk to you for a minute-outside?" Ino stood up and walked out the room with Tenten following closely behind

"So what's up?" Tenten asked as they stopped in an empty corridor

"I don't know, you tell me?"

"What are you talking about? You're the one that called me out here"

"Because I know that you were lying in there, you're not okay, so I brought you out here to talk-so talk"

Tenten sighed heavily

"I guess I can't lie to my friends" she weakly smiled "Alright I'm not alright, I feel like I'm hanging on by a thread. First the picture of my dead parents was sent to me and then this, Neji in the hospital. He's been there for me every step of the way-whenever I needed him"

"Have you told that to him?"

"More or less, I mean we're just friends"

"Why don't you tell him already, how you really feel about him. You two have kissed-a hell of a lot of times-amongst other things and you don't do that with your 'just friend' so why not make it official?"

"I don't know if I want to go that far with him. I'm comfortable with what we have now-whatever it is"

"Do you care about him?"

"Undeniably"

"Do you trust him?"

"With my life"

"So then?"

"The problem isn't him it's me; I mean do I even deserve him. Throughout this case and every other time he's worried for me and looked out for me"

"Because he cares about you probably as much as you do him. Tenten, you obviously haven't seen the way he looks at you. There isn't a single doubt in my mind that he's crazy about you but he's staying back out of consideration of your feelings. He wants to go there but he's unsure if you do"

"Alright I'll try talk to him but not now. I feel like this killer has taken everything away from me and Neji is all I have left and now he's trying to take that from me too. I'm literally at my wits end; I can't do this alone anymore" Tenten was holding back her tears

"You should never have been facing this alone in the first place" Ino walked over and hugged Tenten

"I didn't want to get you guys involved in my past; it's messed up enough I don't need to drag you guys down with me"

"Tenten we're all agents together but more than that we're you're friends and we'll be there for you no matter what the dangers"

"I know, I think I just let myself forget that…forget what amazing friends I have"

Sasuke was standing just out of earshot and caught most of the conversation. He'd always know that she had feelings for Neji but actually hearing her say it hurt him a lot more than he thought and a lot more than it should've.

It was late afternoon when Sasuke went to the hospital to see Neji. He walked into the pure white room and found Neji reading a book before he noticed him.

"Uchiha, well isn't this a surprise? I presume you're not here for a friendly visit judging by the serious look on your face"

"No I'm not; I'm here to talk about Tenten"

"What about her?" Neji sat upright

"You need to get it together and just talk to her about your feelings because she is literally ready to snap worrying about you but she's confused about where she stands with you"

"I don't see what any of this has to do with you. What is she confused about?"

"That's a conversation you need to have with her. I'm here talking to you because-to put it bluntly- I'm pissed off that you've got her worrying this much about you. All this seems one sided. If you really cared about her it wouldn't take you this long to tell her that"

"Watch what you say Uchiha if I didn't know any better it would look as though you're the one with romantic feelings for her but you're too much of a coward to tell her"

"Are you talking about me or yourself? And so what if I did have feelings for her romantically you're not in a relationship with her therefore you have no say on who she ends up with, because you and I both know that she has feelings for us both"

"True but I'm not the one who broke her trust and her heart when you left the agency for three years, and only I, Shikamaru and the Director know what happened during those three years"

"She already forgave me for that" Sasuke spoke through gritted teeth

"Maybe but she still doesn't trust you one hundred percent, she still gets slightly anxious when you go on long missions"

"Don't try to put all this on me we're talking about you right now. You-Neji Hyuuga, who's been on plenty of solo missions, infiltrated some of the most secure places on earth along with Shikamaru and I—you've put your damn life on the line how many times now, but you can't even tell Tenten how you feel about her!"

"Oh and what makes you so different? You think I don't notice how you look at her whenever you're with her but you haven't said anything to her either. So don't you dare come here with your accusations when you're in the same boat as me. You can't compete with me; Tenten will never fully trust you again especially if she were to find out what you'd done during your three years away"

"Is that a threat?"

"If it were you'd know it. Don't forget what your actions put Shikamaru and me through. Her feelings for you aren't genuine"

"Hn, even though I've kissed her" Sasuke said triumphantly and savoured the look of outrage on Neji's face "You heard me, I kissed Tenten and she did nothing to resist me"

"That doesn't mean anything"

"You're right usually it wouldn't, if she hadn't kissed me right back. Face it Hyuuga, she loves both of us, and it's only a matter of time until she chooses one of us" and with that final remark Sasuke left Neji's hospital room quite satisfied with himself and the outcome of the conversation with Neji. He'd managed to injure Neji's pride.

Neji sat up in bed still contemplating his conversation with Sasuke—he'd made a valid point, the two of them did get along very well and spent a lot of time together, he wouldn't be surprised if Tenten did have feelings for Sasuke and that very thought was enough to make him angry. Whether he wanted to admit it or not Neji had very strong feelings for Tenten and since the two of them were teammates and spent a lot of time together themselves he knew she had feelings for him-the fact that they've kissed so many times-amongst other things-surely suggests that.

He had trouble falling asleep that night; he definitely needed to talk to her in the morning.

The following morning Tenten went to see Neji in the hospital-the moment of truth had arrived

"Tenten I need to ask you something"

"Okay…" she sat on the edge of his bed "What's up?" she could see that something was bothering him

"Do you love him?" he bluntly asked because he was tired of not knowing how she felt anymore

"Love who?"

"Uchiha, do you love him?"

"What? What are you talking about?" she was completely perplexed

"Don't answer my question with a question" he said quite sharply

"Well of course I love him, he's my friend"

"That's not what I meant!"

"What brought this on all of a sudden?" she couldn't understand why he was getting so upset and then it dawned on her "He came here didn't he? And he told you that we kissed?"

"I shouldn't have had to find out from him, you should have told me"

"And why is that, it's not like we're dating or anything-you have no right to feel betrayed"

"Given our relationship—"

"Relationship, Ha!" she bitterly laughed "You and I have been friends and teammates for years and we've fooled around with each other more than a few times but we were never anything official"

"You need to get your feelings straight because someone is going to end up getting hurt"

"And you don't think that that person could be me?! You've never made it easy for me Neji; I've never known where I stand with you. I've made it abundantly clear that I have feelings for you but did you ever say anything, and you wonder I'm so confused"

"And of all people to turn to you go running to him" he said bitterly

"It is neither my fault nor my problem that you have issues with Sasuke, he's my best friend and I will talk to him regardless of your feelings towards him."

"Well it sounds to me that you're getting more than a conversation out of this"

"Oh so what you think that everytime you and I have a fight, I go and sleep with him to forget my problems!" this was absolutely unbelievable "Do you really think that little of me Neji?" she was beyond furious but she could feel the tears stinging the corners of her eyes, the fact that he trusted her so little devastated her "Well then let me increase your suspicions, I'm outta here" she stormed out of the room without another word

Tenten buried herself in work to distract herself from her argument with Neji; she was looking at the evidence collected on the first night of the investigation. The photos of Lee taken from different angles, Sakura's medical report of Lee and the one thing she couldn't avoid-Neji's analysis of the assault and murder. Even when trying to escape him by working, something would always pop up reminding her of him. She took a closer look at the photograph of Lee and something immediately jumped at her. There was a bruise on Lee's jawline as well as an indentation on the skin-it looked like it could have come from a ring. As soon as Tenten could make out the symbol, she knew exactly who was responsible but to be sure she left her desk immediately to find Sakura.

"I wasn't able to match the symbol to any gang or organisation in our database" said Sakura as she looked at the photo again

"That's because this is a deviant from the original. The symbol in this picture is three number one's arranged to form a triangle and a number one in the middle and the original symbol was five number one's arranged to form a pentagon with a number one in the middle"

"How did you figure out that this was a deviant from the original and not a new gang altogether?"

"As soon as I saw the picture I started remembering the night my parents were killed, all three of the men were wearing rings with the original symbol and when you look at them both they pretty much mean the same thing. The pentagon and the triangle both enclose a number one in the centre, meaning that everyone comes together to hold up one central person-a leader"

"The 'All is one' gang" Sakura put it together

"Exactly, and I think the leader is the one with the power to control people"

"So we just need to figure out who the leader is"

"That won't be very easy; every person in the organisation has a cyanide cap on their back molar so if any of them ever get caught they kill themselves with the cyanide. Not to mention the structuring of the gang is pretty tight because it goes: the leader with his three subordinates-who have never seen each other or the leader-and they have their own troops. So no one knows any further up the chain than their sub-leader"

"Man this is going to be tough"

"And we're going to need as much help as we can get, I'll go inform the others of the new information" Tenten left the room

Xxx

Tenten was back at her apartment but not the one in the agency. She'd just finished taking a shower and walked back into her room to get dressed. Just as she put her shorts on she-without looking behind her-caught a kunai that was aimed at her head and immediately threw it back in the direction it came from. Her attacker revealed himself and came at her full force.

He tried to punch her but she caught his wrist and kicked in the shin—he quickly recovered and punched her in the stomach and grabbed her by the hair and holding one of her arms behind her back. She immediately stepped on his foot, elbowed him in the stomach, front flipped over him and kicked him in the back. He fell to the ground but quickly stood up and pulled a chain out his pocket and managed to wrap it around her wrist and started pulling. Tenten resisted and for a few seconds they were in deadlock, both of them pulled with the same force but Tenten stepped on the chain making him fly forwards towards her to which she responded with a kick to the face, he back flipped then came at her again but Tenten was already running towards him-she slid between his legs, stood up then swept her leg under his knocking him off his feet then punching him to the ground. He was unconscious.

Tenten-breathing heavily pulled the mask off his face and as soon as she did it all came rushing to her. She remembered the face of the man who killed her mother—she remembered everything.

Ten minutes after calling Shikamaru, he had arrived with the others—namely Sakura, Sasuke and Hinata.

"So you know who this man is?" asked Shikamaru

"I'm absolutely certain, he was there at my house, one of the two men who found me hiding under my parent's bed and brought me downstairs. He was always with the leader so once I saw his face I immediately remembered how the leaders face looked"

"Are you sure you'll be able to ID him though I mean you saw him thirteen years ago?"

"True his appearance will have changed with time but I'll know him when I see him, did you bring the suspect photos?"

Sasuke handed them to her, she focused on each of the three suspects faces and then she remembered

"It's him, the one with the long hair and square jaw"

"Are you sure?" Hinata asked

"Absolutely…wait a second…" she took a closer look at the picture he seemed very familiar as though she'd seen him quite recently

"What is it Tenten?"

"Hey doesn't he look…like Koji?" she said surprising everyone in the room "Or is it just me?"

Sasuke pulled up a photo of Koji from back at the night club and he did indeed look like him.

"He was wearing a disguise at the nightclub but there's no mistaking that these pictures are of the same person" said Shikamaru

"He's been a step ahead of us this entire time. If he was posing as Koji at the nightclub then he knows what we took and who we spoke to. We were probably at his gang's base of operations and we literally walked right through the front door." Sasuke added in

"Wait if he was Koji then doesn't that mean that he was the one in two places at once?" Hinata asked a little shaky

"Just what the hell are we dealing with here?" asked Tenten as the rest of them tried to take in the new information.

Xxx

It was midnight-all the agents had left for the night. Tenten was by herself in the Intelligence Division, using the satellite tracker and ID scanner to look for the leader of the gang. After a few minutes of searching she found a match.

"The abandoned armoury, huh?" she said aloud

"Tenten?"

"Shikamaru, I didn't see you. Were you able to figure out what happened to the rest of his gang?"

"No not yet I'm still working on it. What are you doing here so late?"

"I just wanted to get a head start on finding the leader of the gang so I came here"

"By yourself? Without informing anyone else? You're not thinking of going after him alone are you?"

"No of course not, I just want to wrap up this case" she looked him straight in the eyes

"I'll take your word for it" he said as he watched her leave then pulled out his cellphone "Hey Sasuke sorry for the wake-up call but I think we're about to have ourselves a situation"

Three a.m. and it was pouring with rain-Tenten stood on a rooftop in front of the abandoned armoury. She shot a cable across and zip-lined in through one of the open windows. There was someone on the ground floor in front of a laptop. She jumped off the balcony and landed in the centre of the room-the man noticed her

"Tenten…I was wondering when you'd track me here" he stood up from his chair and walked into the light. Any doubts she had were cleared, the man standing in front of her was the man who'd killed her mother and forced her to watch. She pulled her katana from its sheath…

"Our meeting was long overdue" she spoke through gritted teeth and clutched her sword as hard as she could