Ch.19.: Broken Mask

"He is a traitor!" the man exclaimed as he thrust his sword at her neck, only managing to slice some brown tresses. She retailed by throwing a kunai at him, trying to take advantage of the distraction to hit him on the chest with her palm. He barely dodged before kicking her on the chest, sending her flying, the ANBU landing perfectly as graceful as a cat and rushing again at him.

"Whatever you think of him, you can keep it to yourself." She stated, dodging a blue chakra-covered hand that was about to hit her on the stomach. "Lord Hokage cleared him."

"You and your Hokage are a shame for the village! Danzo-sama would've never…"

Her hands quickly formed the seals for the Doton: Retsudo Tensho but, before she was able to slam her hands at the floor, a kick straight to the chin interrupted her.

"I don't think so." He sneered beneath the mask. The man went on to perform the ones for the Kuchiyose but she quickly lunged, grabbing his arm. The blue hue suddenly vanished from that hand's arm. He let out a grumble before slashing her leg with his sword.

They took their distance, droplets of blood falling onto the ground. Her leg was bleeding, yet it had only been a superficial wound.

"You had the advantage of surprise, that's the only reason you were able to take him down." She stated under the cat mask, sparing a glance at her fallen comrade. He had been a good comrade. Now he only laid facing downwards, dark hair covering the man's features which the broken rabbit mask had left exposed. Her teeth clenched. Sasuke was still there, crunching beside her fallen fellow shinobi.

She knew he couldn't leave, there was the possibility that his intention had been to separate them from the start, so an accomplice of him could give Sasuke the final blow. She needed him near her; her job was to protect him. As ANBU she couldn't let the man leave either and, first and foremost needed to get close enough in other to disrupt his chakra network-

"Make sure to say hi to your comrade for me!" the man yelled lunging at her, his other hand, the one still glowing aiming for her mask-covered face. Neji got ready to grab his other arm and disable the tenketsu there when she saw him throw a kunai at Sasuke. The Uchiha, regardless of his condition would be able to easily dodge it, yet what caught her attention was the explosive tag attached to it.

Her hand went to her weapons pouch as she sent another kunai, in an attempt of throwing off the one with the explosive tag attached to it. The one she threw embedded itself a few inches away from Sasuke while the other one got redirected a few meters away from them, yet it never went off. Then she knew it had been all part of his plan. His glowing hand was grabbing her arm.

"Don't worry, they will know you went down fighting." He was so close Neji could see his blue eyes underneath the bird mask. Shetch'd.

"I would've thought that move better if I were you." Behind the bird mask, his eyes widened. On his chest was resting her open palm. A violent cough erupted from his chest, blood tainting the mask's insides before letting go of her arm.

Her arm, on the other hand, had blue colored little veins protruding, starting to spread from where he had touched her. 'Damn him.' Her gaze shifted to Sasuke and then to the man who was doubled over in pain. A direct hit to the heart tended to do that.

Holding her arm, she disabled the tenketsu on it, in an attempt of delaying the veins from spreading. Neji cautiously approached him. He attempted to rise up and attack, yet a wave of pain threw him on his knees. She quickly grabbed his arm, disabling his tenketsu, pining it with her foot to the ground. A crunch resounded between his coughs; she had just broken his wrist.

"Explain yourself, Tori." The Hyuga repeated, sternly. He only chuckled.

"Hahaha, just tell your Hokage-sama that he can send as many ANBU dogs as he wishes, but Danzo-sama will be avenged." He cackled.

"Why don't you tell him yourself…" she applied more pressure on his wrist. Not even a wince escaped his lips.

"Too late." She realized what was happening a second too late. The next moment he was laying completely on the ground, foam falling from his mouth as he fell into a fit of arcades. Then he stopped moving. He had ended with his own life before talking.

"Dammit." She actually said it aloud this time. The blue veins on her arm had already covered almost all of it. Goddamit, this asshole sure had a loathsome technique. Chakra poisoning certainly was up there on her Top Five least favorite techniques. Her arm was getting really weak but, anyways took the body and slumped it over her shoulder. A wince almost escaped her lips. Byakugan activated she could see the only ones there were Sasuke and her, no sign of other threats on her vision range.

"Uchiha-san," Neji started. She still was on a mission. "Are you alright?"

Sasuke only nodded, his brows furrowed, a glint of anger beneath his eyes. Neji crouched next to her fallen teammate and picked him up. The broken porcelain shards from the mask fell with a clank, a young face revealed. Sasuke had never seen him, he looked perhaps three or four years older than him. Yet, 20 was a young age to pass away.

"We are going to your house, Uchiha-san. You will have to stick with me, we don't know if his accomplices are coming." Her head was beginning to feel light. Sasuke only nodded as he rushed to his house, Neji behind him, carrying both bodies.

As they arrived, Neji couldn't help but notice nothing had changed. The same soft peach color she had seen the last time she'd been there, still prevailed. As soon as they stepped in, the Hyuga laid the bodies on the floor, quickly rummaging through Danzo fanatic's clothes. There could have been something her Byakugan missed; a dizziness spell suddenly took over her body. The ANBU shift would be there soon, in the meantime, she could not leave Sasuke alone.

The Hyuga could see Sasuke sitting on a nearby chair.

"I thought Kakashi would've known better than to post an ex-Root member as my guard." He bitterly spat.

"We didn't know he was. He must've been infiltrated on the Hokage's ANBU ranks before Danzo perished." Were her words.

She could not see anyone for kilometers so, Neji deactivated her Byakugan. Her vision spun and she grabbed the edge of the table in an attempt to overcome it. She noticed Sasuke's eyes were fixated on the blue veins, which had already spread further.

Still, the Hyuga stood straight, kunai on hand, standing guard. Her Byakugan had told her the veins had reached her torso. Once they reached her brain it was game over for her. After a quick glance at the clock, she only confirmed it. She only had to last half an hour before the shift arrived. Minutes passed and taking every breath was more difficult as time passed. Her hand was pressed to her side as she tried sending chakra waves to soothe the pain and activated her Doujutsu again.

"Sit." A voice said behind her. She turned her head, acknowledging Sasuke. "You're not fine and look moment away from collapsing. Those things don't look good either." He simply said, pointing towards her arm.

"Don't worry yourself over…" The Hyuga started before being abruptly interrupted.

"And take off that cat mask. It'll make breathing easier for you, Neji." She stilled, her eyes under the mask widening. The room suddenly felt heavier for her.

"How…"

"There are not a lot of women in Konoha I know of being able to cause such severe damage to internal organs with their palm." He stated, eyeing her a bit anxious. "…and I recognized your voice. Now, please sit and remove the mask before you fall unconscious."

Any other time she would've been highly annoyed of him ordering her around but, at that moment she could only nod. Neji practically slumped on the chair.

"The mask." Sasuke insisted.

Hesitantly, Neji removed the mask. She was sweating cold, veins protruding around her eyes.

"How long?" she asked, trying to keep her composure.

Sasuke sighed and stood up, going into the kitchen. A moment later he returned, a glass of water in his hand.

"Here." He offered her the glass.

She stared at it a second before grabbing it and taking a sip, the fresh water clearing her dry throat.

"Thank you."

He nodded before sitting down.

"If I'm being honest, only until now I realized it was you." He answered her question. "A couple weeks ago we exchanged words your voice sounded vaguely familiar, but I dismissed it. It wasn't only after I saw you fighting that connected the dots."

Now she was the one that nodded. It certainly felt weird being face to face with Sasuke but, the fact that she could barely feel her body anymore made it hard to focus on their situation.

"I don't think having your Byakugan activated is wise."

"It's not wise but, given the circumstances, it's a must." She replied. Still, she felt her Byakugan slowly losing vision range.

"What did he do…?" Sasuke asked, eyeing her cautiously.

"His technique is based on chakra poisoning; he pours contaminated chakra on your network through direct contact." A violent cough erupted from her chest; her hand had spots of blood on it. She quickly hid it from Sasuke's view and resumed her explanation. Only 15 more minutes. "Umm, it spreads especially fast since its basically chakra, I delayed its advance."

"I don't remember you being this foolish."

Her head spun, locking her glaring eyes with his, Byakugan activated. It would've made any lower men cower on the spot, but Sasuke kept his nonchalant look.

"Excuse me?"

"The way I remember you, you would've known when to stop forcing your Byakugan, especially given the veins have spread to your other arm." He responded, pointing to her other arm which already was covered in blue veins.

"Well, I guess it is foolish of you to think people will stay the same as you remember them." She sneered. "The Sasuke I knew wouldn't have…"

"Wouldn't have what." Sasuke uttered.

"Forget it." She rubbed her temples. "The mission I was given by Rokudaime-sama was of guarding your well-being." Neji remarked. "I will do as ordered and that includes looking out for possible enemies, especially right now."

Sasuke stayed silent, a cold atmosphere filling the room. He knew she most likely, like the rest of the village, hated him. Well, perhaps 'hate' wasn't the right word. Knowing Neji, if she hated him, she wouldn't even have spared him a word. She just did not consider him even a comrade anymore…and he couldn't blame her. Hell, he wouldn't have blamed Naruto if he had thought the same, but Naruto wasn't like that. Yet, it wasn't Naruto the person he was in front of.

"I'm trying to redeem myself." He confessed; brows furrowed. "I know I wronged people and, perhaps the path I followed wasn't the right one."

The Hyuga's expression softened slightly.

"I guess I can empathize with that. The path I was following wasn't the right one either…" her gaze was cast downcast. "I also wronged people, but it was Naruto who showed me the light in the darkness."

He chuckled fondly.

"Naruto has that…"

A sudden cough from the Hyuga interrupted whatever he was going to say, a reminder of the situation they were in. The Uchiha quickly got up and filled the glass with water again, offering it to her not being able to do much else at the moment. She muttered a 'thanks' before gulping the water down. The urge of doubling over in pain was only increasing as she felt as if her whole body was burning, but she only clenched her teeth, keeping it on check.

"Just trying to redeem yourself isn't going to erase what you did." She expressed, her voice raspy. "But if you have the right mindset, you can attempt to do better than the bad you ever did."

"I hope so."

For a moment he felt as if he had gone back in time, if only for a brief moment.

Neji took out a piece of parchment and some ink before starting to write something down. After a couple minutes, she rolled up the parchment and stood up, grabbing her mask.

"They're almost here." She announced referring to the ANBU, who should've sensed something since she saw him speeding up. Neji put on her mask and grabbed the bodies. A minute later an ANBU wearing a rat mask landed beside her.

"What is the meaning of this, Tora?!" he exclaimed the moment his eyes caught sight of the bodies, later of her arms.

"There was an assassination attempt perpetrated by Tori." She entered a fit of coughs, the ANBU watching his comrade with worry beneath the mask. "I'll inform Hokage-sama, Nezumi." She informed, before puffing in a cloud of smoke.

As fast as her legs allowed her to, she sped towards the Hokage's office, the parchment explaining the situation clenched firmly inside her fist. Having been Gai-sensei's student had given all his pupils extraordinaire resistance, any other person would have been on their knees by that moment. Once the Hokage building came to sight, a sigh of relief escaped her lips.

A pain spasm almost threw the Hyuga off her balance, but she quickly recovered. Neji appeared inside Kakashi's office, laying the bodies on the floor. He had been absorbed reading paperwork when his head snapped up, black eyes widening at the sight.

"Hokage-sama…" she started before her vision field darkened and lost all feeling from her limbs, the parchment rolling out of her fist. Before her body could hit the floor, Neji barely felt someone preventing her from doing so, just as consciousness completely left her.