Word count: just over 4000, a treat for waiting so long. :)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Humanity always had a tendency to fascinate her. Tenten perched herself atop a tree branch and silently observed the events transpiring below.

Sakura was there, tending to an injured mouse she'd accidentally hurt on a power rampage after a brief sparring match with a rouge tiger. A flash of green, and a high-pitched squeal later, it was scurrying away into the surrounding bushes. Sakura sighed, brushing her long pink hair back into a new ponytail, then walked off. Tenten didn't bother following; Team Konoha was hiding out in the nearby cave. They were terribly uncreative, but then again, hiding in plain sight wasn't exactly ingenious either.

She felt Sasuke creep up beside her, feet resting daintily on the same branch. Tenten threw him a glare. "You're going to send us crashing down, idiot."

He chuckled. "Right. Ready to go?"

She looked back in the direction of the cave, which looked empty and desolate without the members of Team Konoha milling around in front of it like ants. "Yeah, let's go."

They made it back to their base, a new one, in a literal castle of sand in the middle of a clearing they'd found the previous day. She felt a rush of nostalgia when they were immediately attacked by a violent sandstorm and her arsenal of self-made weapons. It dispelled within seconds, right after she felt Ino's presence touch their minds, and they walked towards the building unscathed.

The Sand Siblings and Ino and Sai were sitting around a table, deep in thought, when she and Sasuke entered. Temari was the first to look up. "So?"

"Nothing new, they're still at the cave. I haven't been able to get inside, though."

"And the items?"

Sasuke spoke up. "Nothing important south of here, and there isn't anything near their hideout either. Safe to say, we won't be moving onto the next stage any time soon."

She leaned back into her seat, frustrated. "I don't get it. Why would they made a simple scroll so hard to find? All the previous years only took a day, at most, to find them! We're only on day three!" Ino scrunched up her eyebrows, then pressed her right index and middle finger to her temple; their heated discussion simmered down. When the blonde entered her Mode, as they called it, no one was allowed to speak.

It took a few moments for Ino to relax her expression and open her eyes.

"Well?" The Team looked at her expectantly. She gave them a weak smile.

"We have a lead. Team Konoha's - Hinata's - found something north-west of here, near the river. We haven't searched there yet, have we?"

Sai nodded in affirmation. "Not yet, that was scheduled for tomorrow."

"Well, how about we start now? I don't know about you, but I'm-" Gaara cut his sister off.

"How do we know this isn't just a trick?" Ever the sceptical Sand Sibling, he continued, "From what I've experienced in this Tournament so far, nothing in this arena is a coincidence. Sand storms are supposed to be impossible in a dense forest, and the encounter with a kangaroo that I had yesterday was even less likely. What if the organisers were just throwing that 'thing' into the river to hurl us into a trap? What if Team Konoha were aware that it was a trap?"

After a brief silence, "He has a point," Tenten spoke up, "it's almost impossible to differentiate between reality and fabrications in this Tournament. We need to tread lightly here, 'Mari."

Temari relented, eyes slowly losing their enthused shimmer. "Well, then, we have," her eyes squeezed shut, then reopened, "two options. One, is to leave it be. Two, we go investigate."

"Alternatively," Sasuke quipped, "we trail Team Konoha. Let them experience the trap first, if it is one. If it isn't, we take them down while they move back to their base."

"That is feasible," Temari nodded, impressed, "Manoeuvre Ten?"

"Seven," he corrected her, "we want to spread out on ground, canopy and sky. It gives them less of an escape route, and us more grounds to attack if we need to."

At this very moment, Tenten could have cared less about the rumours floating around about Sasuke from the opposing team, or the suspicions Temari shared with her while on patrol. He was their master strategist, their MVP, a diamond in the rough. So what if he was more ruthless than usual, so long as he fought with and alongside them, she was fine. Suna wasn't exactly the breeding ground for acute moral compasses and wholesome, patriotic citizens like Konoha was. They had to fight to survive.

"Right," Gaara conceded to his point, "Then I'll take to the skies, with Temari."

Sasuke nodded, "Sai and I will be up in the trees. Ino, Tenten, Kankurou, you three will be trailing behind them on land - you're the quickest, but make sure you cover up well. Especially you Ino, your hair's too bright." She sputtered, but offered no objections. "We'll depart at daybreak, and keep surveillance on their base until they depart. Ino, honey, make sure you cloak us as soon as we enter their radius, maybe by about twenty metres. I don't want to risk Hinata discovering us before then."

"What about our stuff?" Kankurou inquired practically, "All of our essentials are in here, and we still have a week or so before the Tournament ends. We've never really abandoned our supplies before."

Temari frowned. As much as they, including Tenten, wanted to ditch the heavy bags and travel light, it wasn't a viable choice. They all needed the supplies they had until they made it to the Final Battle. "Gaara, can you bury our stuff in a sand-ball? We can just leave our things behind underground while we're gone, then recover them later."

He rolled his green eyes at her. "I seem to recall warning you about the spontaneous and unpredictable event that is this Tournament, dearest sister."

"Hold your snark, guyliner." She rubbed her hands up against her temples, "I suppose we could just leave the supplies in here and take the most valuable items. I'm sure we can all survive without sleeping bags and cuts for a while."

"Yeah, if anything, we can just huddle against each other for warmth."

"I've read that on some occasions, warmth can be generated against naked skin. Might that be what you are suggesting, Buns?" Sai interjected, eyes innocently questioning her.

Tenten glared at him. "Call me that one more time, di-"

"Alright," Temari interrupted her, "Let's call it a night. Get some rest for the next few hours, night patrol will be the same routine. I'm out."

Temari and Ino clamoured away from the meeting table, stretching their arms out and slumping away into their rooms. Kankurou, Gaara and Sai followed, leaving her and Sasuke behind at the table.

"Tenten," Sasuke said quietly, "I want you to trail a bit further behind tomorrow."

"What, why?" She replied, genuinely curious, "We're a team, we move together. Like a family." Tenten smiled brightly, trying to offset his sombre expression.

"It's just that things might get a little...ugly."

"ChiChi," she smirked when he flinched, "I've been through worse than whatever will happen tomorrow. It takes more than a brutal fight scene to scare me away. You're worrying too much."

"I'm aware of your resilience," he smirked back, "it's your reaction to Neji that I'm worried about."

Tenten stiffened at That Name. "What?"

"You've always been a little more...unhinged...around him than anyone else. Not to say that you go insane, but my point is that you're not the battle-hardened Tenten that I know when he's here."

"If you're saying that I'm soft-"

"I'm not," he held up a placating hand, "You're not soft. You're tough, I know that better than anyone else. But, even if you can handle about ninety-nine percent of the obstacles that come your way, you've never had experience handling a Neji before."

"I think I can handle him in a fight, Sasuke."

"That's not what I meant, and you know it. Look, just," he took in a deep breath, "Okay, don't worry about trailing further behind. Just make sure that you keep a lid on your emotions when things start turning ugly tomorrow."

"Fine," she still felt mildly confused, "but you don't need to worry about my reactions - I'm a fighter. I fight, I don't agonise over my feelings."

Sasuke smiled, standing up from his sand-seat and pulling her into a hug. Tenten's eyes widened when she saw the angry red mark on his shoulder again; it was bigger, and pulsated more than it had a few days beforehand when she first saw it. His lips moved over to her ear, "I've always trusted you, Tennie."

He pulled away, and she noticed a strange glint in his eyes before he walked away to his room. "Wake me up when you finish your watch, alright?" She called out a brief 'yes', then moved towards the doorway and sat down.

Tenten lifted up a hand, pulling her circle of daggers upwards and pointing outwards, still mulling over the strange markings on Sasuke's shoulder. What the hell was it?

The Forest of Death decided to quit its relentless onslaught of wacky obstacles for the night, and Neji thanked it profusely in his mind.

His abdominal muscles were still hurting from where Sasuke struck down his shields and inadvertently his core, even though Sakura worked round the clock to remedy his pain. He felt pathetic, still being injured, when all he took was a slight power surge. Though, Tenten kneeing him in the exact same spot did not help either.

"Pathetic," he winced when he crouched down to scoop up firewood. It was only day three; this was ridiculous. Neji heard a twig snap behind him, and swivelled around with a hand outstretched. "Sakura."

"Neji," she replied, holding out her own, outstretched hand, and letting a soft, green light cover it. "I'm just checking up on you again." He let down his guard, then felt her hands prod his abdominal area softly. They hovered over the tight knot, eliciting an immediate hiss of pain. "Sorry."

"How is it?"

"Do you want the good news, or the bad news?"

"Any."

He heard her suck in a deep breath. "It's getting worse." She waited for the information to sink in before continuing. "I don't know how this is happening; you shouldn't be suffering so much!"

He lifted up his shirt to assess the damage himself, but was shocked to see nothing visibly threatening. "Why are you panicking so much? There's nothing here."

"It's internal, Neji. Sasuke's done something to mess you up on the inside. Fuck," she ran a hand through her pink hair in frustration, "He's so fucking low."

"On the contrary," Neji admitted, albeit begrudgingly, "He acted accordingly. Sabotage the opposition, and win. We would have done the same, too; we were, before Team Suna came into the picture."

"Planting a mole is different to planting a-a-whatever it is!"

It was silent for a minute. A few crows were cawing and gliding past them from above the canopy, forming a V-shape in the sky as they flew. "The good news?"

She perked up for a millisecond. "They totally fell for our trap. Hinata overheard them by chance, they're not very subtle with their noises. No doubt they're thinking that they have the upper-hand, with Ino as their telepath and all."

Neji nodded approvingly, firmly. "Good. We'll proceed as planned." He cut her off when she motioned towards his injury and opened her mouth in protest. "My personal injury should never interfere with the outcome of the Team. I joined this Tournament knowing full well that there were risks awaiting me on the other side of the door. Leave it be. I'll handle it."

He hurried off at breakneck speed towards the cave to avoid any more of her protests. Sakura was no push-over to authority, and he knew that she could pack a mean punch without even blinking an eyelash. They all slept around the fire that night, huddled together for warmth and taking turns to patrol the area. Their natural compatibility was proving to be a blessed advantage towards them, but Neji was still cautious. Sooner or later, their Gensho abilities would run out of their usefulness and they'd be put on the same playing field, if not worse, as the other team.

Neji tossed and turned, partly because of his racing thoughts, and partly because his insides felt as though they were being eaten up, and woke up feeling disoriented. Six other faces were looking down at him in concern.

"Perha-a-ps," Hinata stuttered out, "We should j-just-"

"No," Neji asserted, "Don't mind me. I'll be fine." They seemed as convinced by his words as he sounded - and looked, going by the thin sheen of sweat covering his forehead - but kept their words to themselves when they trekked out of the cave, through the trees and the undergrowth and atop the piles of guano and faeces lying on the forest floor. Naruto and Lee were smart enough to keep quiet, for once, thank Kami, because he was in a foul mood.

Kiba appeared to be turning greener and greener by the second; having a stronger nose than the average human being seemed to be his disadvantage in this situation. Neji heard the tell-tale gushing of their river, and held out a hand to stop the group's movements. They stilled, drawing in their breaths.

There it was, the white object. Neither he nor the other members had gotten close enough to it to pinpoint what exactly it was, and there had been a good reason for that too. The area was riddled the brim with booby traps. There was no way that this was a trap set up by the Tournament organisers, it was too blaringly obvious. He waited some more, ears and eyes peeled for any signs of movement. Team Suna should be here by now, if Ino had fallen for the trap accordingly.

The birds stopped tweeting. Ah.

He turned his head around slightly, caught their eyes, saw the resounding nods signalling that they were aware, then silently set up a shield to surround his team. It buzzed into existence the moment he channelled his energy through the tips of his fingers, then swirled around them in shades of light blue until it became translucent as per his wishes. There was no point in setting up a shield when it was impossible to see through it, after all.

Shikamaru finally decided to speak up, after a good few days of silently keeping his thoughts to himself and only opening his mouth to complain about their predicament. "Boss. I got one." The boy's elongated shadow shortened rapidly, pulling in a screeching presence as it drew nearer to them. Tenten.

Oh, sweet victory. A smirk formed on his lips as he stood face to face with her, separated only by an invisible barrier.

"Tenten," he gloated when her face took on the colour of Sakura's hair, "You seem unsettled."

"Do I?"

"You're positively blushing."

She spat at him, widening her eyes when the water made contact with his shield and evaporated away with a hiss. "Fuck you."

"We were getting along so well, too."

Then he noticed how noisy it was again. The birds were back. Tenten still looked like she wanted to pummel him into the ground.

"Hinata?" He looked at Kiba and his cousin, confirming the birds' return, then turned to Tenten again. "Where's your team?"

She scoffed. "None of your business, sugar-pie."

Neji conceded to that point; he wouldn't have told Team Suna anything either. "Then, that begs me to raise the question of why you are here, of all places."

"I was thinking of going for a swim; it's a nice day today."

"I agree, this sunshine is most pleasant."

"More than you could ever be."

"Good one," he responded flatly.

"I'm a natural, aren't I?"

"A natural topic-changer," he looped their conversation back to his Point, mostly because his team was starting to shoot daggers into his back for taking so long. "Shikamaru."

He'd always appreciated Shikamaru's intellect and ability to think steps ahead, and one of those moments occurred when he watched the shadow curl around Tenten's body. She smirked at him, specifically, before the shadow made its way over to gag her mouth. He wasn't sure what to make of it.

He lead the group towards the river, still maintaining the shield cautiously while Shikamaru held Tenten in his grasp. They threw sticks and stones at the white object, setting off tens of booby traps in the process, until Hinata deemed it trap-free. They all glanced at each other uncertainly; Hinata silently agreed to retrieve the object herself.

It was easy. Too easy. His cousin stepped out of the river and onto the dry ground, passing the object - a white scroll, miraculously dry - around until it reached Neji. He felt pleased, if not extremely apprehensive. Tenten seemed to be goading him towards her with her eyes. Team Konoha huddled away, wary of the brunette's calculating gaze. Neji stood, resolute, and examined the scroll in front of her.

"It seems that you've lost. Send my regards to the Kazekage."

"What do we do with her now?" The Team of seven continued to scrutinise Tenten as she hovered just outside of his force-field, eyes glinting in amusement. Neji sighed. Even as a hostage, Tenten still looked like she was having the time of her life. That seemed to be a 'thing' with Team Suna, now that he thought about it. Sasuke and Sai hadn't been the least bit worried when they were capture on day one.

Sasuke.

The sneaky scumbag. What was he doing inside that weird cave anyway?

Neji still felt the surge of electricity shooting up his spine and into his core whenever he recalled those moments, seeing Sasuke stand ram-rod straight in the middle of a dark cave with a blank sheet as a face.

He felt his teammates huddle around him and scream at each other urgently, and was faced with a harrowing thought: Sasuke was doing it again. Team Suna were here. Neji looked up, saw Tenten laughing, saw her teammates rush to her aid and surround the group with a thick sheet of sand and metal weapons.

Sasuke was standing beside Temari, looking extremely pleased.

"Told you it would work."

Temari didn't respond, only held her gaze with Neji while inching closer towards him. "Neji, you look wounded."

He clutched his stomach, keeling over in agony, but held the scroll tightly in his arms. Neji felt the Team surround him defensively.

"Back off."

"Oh," their leader replied mockingly, "I'm so scared." A sudden gust of wind nearly threw him backwards, were it not for Shikamaru's quick thinking. The shadows held him and the other members firmly to the ground. "You're good," she threw a quick peek at Shikamaru, "But it's all for nought now. Your little leader can't even protect you from us." Another bolt of lightning flashed around them. He heard a male scream.

Neji craned his neck upwards, then noticed how the walls around them were closing in, as were Team Suna, with their menacing auras and confident smirks. Tenten's brown eyes were the only ones that appeared to be ambivalent about the entire occurrence, but she stuck with her team as he'd expected she would.

Sakura charged forward, as did everyone else save for Shikamaru, the lazy ass, in what little space they had left. A metal knife was getting dangerously close to him when he realised that Shikamaru was curled up on the ground and holding his hands to his chest in agony. Neji froze, white eyes flitting back and forth between the scroll in his hand and his grievously-injured teammate.

Konohagakure's team will achieve victory with you as their leader.

I am proud of you.

Shikamaru screamed. Ino punched Sakura. Sakura wiped the blood away from her mouth. It smeared red all over her pale cheeks. Naruto, Lee and Kiba formed a triangle around him and Shikamaru, arms scorched a deep, charcoal black. Neji wanted to vomit from the putrid smell of cooked flesh. Hinata retreated.

"Neji-nii, get a hold of yourself!" She hoisted his body onto hers and held his chin up high. He watched his team get pummelled to the ground at a rapid pace. "Neji!" She was screaming. "You did not train your entire life for this to happen!"

He saw vines protruding from the ground when Hinata's byakugan veins popped up, only to be swiftly cut down by lightning and metal and sand and wind. He saw Kankurou unleashing a vat of purple chemicals from his skin, thick droplets were oozing out of the pores. Why was this Tournament so messy?

Several Narutos were running around, swearing profanities and poofing out of existence as the weapons drew closer and closer.

Slap.

"NEJI!" Hinata screamed at him again. "Get OVER yourself and protect your team!" A new vine curled around Shikamaru and covered his body for safety. More plants protruded from the ground, trying to push back the weapons and the sand, but uselessly. He jolted up, refusing to cringe from the excruciating twisting of his stomach and the blood he coughed out. He felt his vision blur, then sharpen rapidly. Byakugan.

A familiar, distant sensation came over him. The veins popped up at the sides of his temples, as he knew they would. He gave himself thirty more seconds until the bloodline technique would knock him out cold. Hinata grimaced wearily, holding on to his shoulder for support as he raised a hand. A small, blue sphere came out of it, slowly increasing in size until it was palm-sized - he was already panting from the effort - then shot it forwards, towards Ino. The blonde flew back from the impact, annoyingly stopped from spearing herself on the surrounding knives by Gaara's sand.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

Three more spheres were launched at Kankurou, and his poison. Neji felt nauseous, his vision suddenly starting to decline. "Hinata," his lips, stained red, let out a raspy noise. "I-"

Twenty.

"Don't you dare give up," her teeth were clenched together as her arms shook from the effort taken to hold them off. Her eyes looked down at him, then to the scroll. They widened. "What is that?" He didn't hear her, only heard the piercing screams given off by Sakura and Naruto, the shouts from his friends, and the groans coming from Shikamaru's shelter. Neji grit his teeth; how could he have let this happen so easily? Why was his team being taken down so easily? What was the use in training night and day for this Tournament when their loss was already imminent three days into it?

"Open it!"

Ten.

Neji felt flummoxed. He shot another - weaker - sphere at Tenten and looked at his cousin.

"What?"

She lunged towards the scroll, snatched it from his hands, and opened it without a moment's hesitation.

One.

His head was immediately seized by a cataclysmic force, similar to the ones he'd experienced as a child, only worse. Neji felt the ground give way underneath him, literally, and was swept around like a rag doll until he hit solid ground again in a loud thump - all the while, searing pain cut into his eyes ruthlessly and mercilessly. He screamed.

"Hush," Neji heard a silky voice call out to him from above, seconds before he collapsed onto the ground in an unceremonious, unconscious heap. "You're safe now."

Reiyaame, and all the other readers/followers/favouriters out there, you guys are the light of my life.

-misspandalily