Beat 1

Lee walked the hallway to the Hokage's Office with a light step and a jaunty gleam of white teeth for anyone he saw. He might have offered a thumps-up but there were quite a few people in the corridors and his arms were full of files. To make up for this, he told himself he would give one hundred people the Nice Guy Pose after he saw the Godaime. She would want to see his reports, after all, and it was never gentlemanly to keep a lady waiting.

The folders he carried were filled with the results of his latest mission, a brief reconnaissance journey into Bird Country. He and Neji had gone to collect information, to talk to some of the townsfolk - dressed, of course, as normal citizens and so without their hitai-ate. Tsunade had wanted to be as up-to-date on the other villages as possible and Lee had earnestly written pages and pages filled with his observations. Thirty of them had been dedicated to the natural wildlife, which Lee had quickly become fascinated with. (Despite it's name, Bird Country was home to a tree-dweller called a 'koala'. Lee had desperately wanted to take one home for further study but Neji had refused to travel carrying a 'bear'. His youthful vigor obviously needed reviving.)

Other teams had been sent to other lands, all ordered to stay discreet and observe. Most of them had returned, as Lee and Neji had, and were organizing hand-written reports and land maps in the hallway, trying to prepare themselves before seeing Tsunade. One such pair was Ino and Shikamaru, Ino's voice booming from one of the empty offices.

"I know I had the plans for the daimyo's estate! I know it! WHERE ARE THEY?"

Sheets of paper flew and rolls of parchment unraveled themselves out the door as Ino tore through boxes of reports. Lee stuck his head into the room to find Shikamaru leaning lazily against the doorframe, arms crossed and watching the carnage with a bored expression.

"Shikamaru," Lee greeted, tilting his head to the side to avoid a crumpled paper ball that would have hit him right in the eye. "You're back from Tea Country."

"Yeah. And none too soon," he drawled, eyeing his partner as she started muttering obscenities under her breath. "I saw Neji on the way here, said your own trip was pretty uneventful." Shikamaru glanced at him briefly. "Sent you to report to Tsunade alone, did he?"

"He had to check in at the Hyuuga compound," Lee answered. "Hinata was to come back this week too. Have you seen her or Tenten here?" The two kunoichi had gone to Snow Country and should have arrived back about the same time as the others. Lee had not seen either of them in the halls, though, and he really wanted to show Tenten a picture of the koala.

"Nope, haven't seen 'em. Then again…" he nodded towards Ino, "I've been occupied." The lazy ninja leaned forward as Lee turned to leave and said flatly, "It's in your hand."

Marveling at Ino's youthful stamina (the screams of rage had finally stopped), Lee hurried on, keeping an eye out for Tenten as he went. He didn't see her but that wasn't surprising. A number of other ninja mentioned that the passes coming down from the mountains had flooded with the recent rain there, making entry into Fire Country from that direction slow and miserable. It was the route Tenten and Hinata would have taken and, knowing Tenten's careful attitude while escorting the Hyuuga heir, Lee thought it likely they were traveling safely rather than quickly.

So, he gave his report to the Godaime, not failing to mention the fabulous wildlife, and was just about to leave when Tsunade floored him with a parting remark.

"Have Neji report to me when he's finished at the Hyuuga compound. I know they're anxious about Hinata's disappearance but I'll need to talk to him in person as well."

Lee turned slowly, feeling as if he had just been given one of Gai-sensei's Super Flying Kicks to the stomach. His expression must have given him away because Tsunade sighed loudly.

"You didn't know, I see. Tenten and Hinata were due back five days ago. They had to cut their stay in Snow Country short due to bad weather and were headed back the last time I heard from them. Even with the high passes rained out, they should have returned by now."

"Could they have been attacked?" Lee's mind had started to spin with endless possibilities. "Maybe the weather cleared and they decided to stay."

"If that's true, they should have sent word," the Godaime said firmly, "But they haven't and the Hyuuga are of the opinion that their heir has been kidnapped."

"By who?" Lee was dumbfounded. Konoha had never given Snow Country any reason to fight and—

"By Tenten herself, perhaps."

A silent moment passed and then Lee flared indignantly, mortally offended by the suggestion. "Tenten would never betray Konoha. She would never reveal the secrets of the village, or the blood limit of the Hyuuga," he said strongly, "And I will speak with anyone who says otherwise."

The Hokage was watching him, fingers steepled together in front of her mouth. "I agree," she said, and this time Lee heard the exhaustion in her voice. "But I have heard that theory along with a dozen others from the Hyuuga clan, and none of them reflect well on your old teammate. To them, she is either a traitor or incompetent." She snorted in annoyance.

"I will go," Lee said immediately. "I will prove them wrong by finding them both safe and sound. They will see that Tenten is far from incompetent." He was turning towards the door again when Tsunade's voice stopped him for the second time.

"That will be unnecessary, Lee," she said firmly. "You have just returned from a mission and I—"

He did not turn but kept his back to her, stiff and straight. "Tsunade-sama, please allow me to do this. I will take Neji and we will bring them back." He said it as if there were no other outcome.

It took a long minute but finally there came a reluctant "very well" and Lee hurried out the door and out of the building, headed towards the Hyuuga clan's headquarters.

He would prove to them they were blind in more than one spot.

There was a swirling, tangled moment of color and then she was conscious, her eyes burning, her throat strangely tight and dry. Something was pressed over her mouth and she struggled on instinct, bringing blurred shapes to her side. Hands were touching her, gripping her arms, holding that something over her mouth until she gasped, suffocating. Her spine arched in a wild surge of terror, her heart thundering in her chest as she realized she couldn't move her legs.

"Stop," she said, but her voice didn't sound quite right, hoarse and toneless. Her eyelids fluttered as her lungs struggled for air, a line of pain suddenly moving down her hip to her knee. She let her body fall in response and felt smooth sheets beneath her.

Someone was speaking, but the vibrations curved into her ear and translated into nothing she could understand. She shifted again, weakly, but her arms were dead weight, strange fingers pressing tightly into her skin. A noise rose in her throat. She had to get free. Hinata was counting on her.

The name blazed across her mind suddenly and she jerked, eyes opening to their fullest, unseeing. Bells were ringing in her head. She couldn't move her legs. She couldn't move her legs.

"Hinata," she said, in that gravelly tone that wasn't hers. Someone's breath moved near her ear, tickling the strands of sweat-damp hair against her cheek. This time words cut through the static and made tears fill unseeing eyes.

"She's not here, Tenten. She's gone." Softer. "She's gone."

Beat 2

"I can't see anything," Neji said suddenly, and Lee glanced over at him, hearing the underlying frustration in his voice. It was the first time his teammate had admitted that they had been following nothing but instinct for the last twenty-four hours.

They were high in the mountains, surrounded by sheer gray rock and clinging mists, and it had been drizzling for the last hour. Sodden and without a visible trail, they had been making a crisscross pattern up the mountainside, relying on Neji's Byakugan to notice anything out of place, any sign that Tenten or Hinata had passed that way. So far, they had found nothing but the remains of a small mudslide and downed trees that had been flooded out. The mountain streams were swollen with rainwater and, even now, Lee could hear the waterfalls crashing loudly up ahead.

For every hour that had passed with Tenten and Hinata missing, Neji had grown a bit more stressed, more tightly coiled. He said nothing, but Lee could almost feel the strain. With his clan anxious for the return of their heir and the disappearance of his childhood partner, Neji was under a great deal of personal pressure to find the two kunoichi. That they hadn't yet been able to was wearing on them both.

Lee jumped to the top of a large, flat rock, straightening his knees to get a better look at the area they were in. "The rain has washed away any signs they might have left," he said, voicing the obvious. He brushed damp locks of black hair from his eyes and peered northwards, still hopeful despite the knowledge that Tenten would have left few signs to begin with. They had not even come upon the remains of those traps Tenten was so fond of setting, the kind meant to "discourage" followers with makibishi and shuriken.

"Tsunade-sama should have sent a team earlier," Neji said flatly, turning his head to scan the area again and so missing Lee's vaguely surprised look. It was unlike the Hyuuga to criticize the Godaime. Lee let it pass though, under the excuse that Neji's youthful fiber had been dimmed by what seemed to be a dismal situation, indeed.

"It looks like the rocks open into a valley up ahead," Lee commented, knowing Neji would have already seen it. He bent down and tightened the weights on his legs in preparation to speed ahead. (Spandex and rain water were a rather slippery and uncomfortable combination.) If there was shelter in the valley, perhaps the girls had stopped to wait out the worst of the rain and had—

"They're not there, Lee."

Lee paused, fingers resting against the cold stone beneath him. They he rose slowly, fingers curling one by one into fists, his spine straight. He looked Neji right in the eye and finally addressed the thing that had been weighing them down ever since he had fetched his teammate from the Hyuuga compound.

"Tenten didn't kidnap Hinata," he said fiercely. Anger forced him to shut his mouth after that, however, and he watched the Hyuuga's eyes narrow at the implied accusation.

"Of course she didn't," Neji snapped, "Don't be a fool."

Lee's body relaxed slightly but he held on to that white gaze, unwilling to let it rest until he knew for sure. "And she isn't weak. She would never let anything happen to Hinata." He wanted to add, she knows how important she is to you and your family, but didn't because it wasn't the time for it. Tenten would not have wanted him to fling that at Neji anyway, though it might have made a difference.

Neji's expression lost it's severity and he broke away, moving up towards the valley. "Things can happen," he said as he passed, and Lee watched him go for a moment before following. The genius was right, of course, but Lee wasn't going to tell him that.

He still believed everything would turn out alright.

When Tenten awoke for the second time, she was alone.

She blinked into awareness and found white walls and white ceilings and a dirty window misted over with rain. Lifting a shaking hand, she reached up and pulled the oxygen mask away from her mouth and nose. As her hand fell out of sight, she saw the red impression of restraints around her wrist and inhaled slowly. She was in a hospital.

Or, at least, that was the only word that described her current surroundings. She was in a narrow bed, the covers folded perfectly at her waist. Her old clothes had been removed in lieu of a pale hospital gown and all of her weapons were missing, even the finger-sized senbon she always slipped into her hair. Machines beeped by her bed and her eyes followed the various tubing to an IV in the crook of her elbow. She looked at it a long moment before turning her gaze elsewhere, trying to find something at all familiar in her small room.

There was nothing. Not even a chair for a visitor to sit in. Besides the bed and herself, the room was completely empty. Inexplicably, her heartbeat picked up.

Hinata.

Where was the other girl? They had been together before… before… Tenten lifted a hand to her forehead, unsurprised to feel smooth skin where her hitai-ate should have been. Her mind was murky, her memories blurred and unfocused. She could remember Snow Country and the devastating blizzard that had snuck in, threatening to strand them there unless they got out quickly. She remembered sending word to Tsunade-sama about ending their mission early. They had been going back to Konoha and it had been raining when…

When what?

Her breath hitched in her lungs and she pushed down the sheets. She had to find Hinata immediately. Whatever happened, the Hyuuga heir was her responsibility and if she was in the hospital as well, Tenten needed to see for herself. She leaned forward to swing her legs to the side of the bed and found she could not. A voice echoed in her ears.

She's gone, Tenten. She's gone.

"No," she whispered hoarsely, but no matter how hard she concentrated, she could not move her legs. They lay there uncovered, marred by various scars, completely dead weight. For a moment she did nothing, simply sat there, screaming silently within her mind as all her hopes of becoming a great kunoichi like the Godaime crumbled to ash. She must have been injured, perhaps Hinata too, and now she was paralyzed.

She suddenly knew exactly what Lee had felt when Gaara of the Sand had shattered his bones with merely a hand gesture.

And then she abruptly locked it all away, slamming doors against the horrible, tearing thoughts of a future so suddenly ripped away from her. She couldn't think about it, there wasn't time. First, she had to find Hinata and then she must send news to Konoha. Only after that would she allow herself to dwell on her circumstances. After all, perhaps the paralysis was only temporary and she would—

She ruthlessly cut the thought off before it could blossom into hope. Later, she would think about it later. She tilted her head back and stared at the colorless ceiling until she was sure she wasn't going to cry.

Then she reached over and pulled the IV needle from her arm.

Beat Three

The moment the man entered the room, Tenten knew he wasn't a doctor.

If he had been, he should have been hurrying into the room at the sound of the beeping alarm she had set off after removing her IV. Instead, he swept through the door easily, unsurprised to find her disconnecting herself from the various machinery. He wore a white lab coat over ordinary clothing and her eyes zeroed onto his belt, which she knew instinctively hid a kunai at his hip.

He was a ninja.

Tenten forced herself not to come to any conclusions. Many ninja medics served in hospitals. It was completely possible that she was in an ordinary hospital recovering from legitimate injuries and that her small, bare room was not, in fact, a prison. It was very possible.

But something in the pit of her stomach told her it wasn't likely.

"You're finally awake," the man said, coming closer with a nonchalance that said he knew she couldn't move the lower half of her body. She could see he was fairly good looking, with dark hair and eyes, but his expression held a certainly apathy, a coldness hidden by a polite smile. He would not be easily fooled.

"Where am I?" she asked, grateful for her dry throat that made her voice sound weak with disuse. Her eyes followed him as he leaned over and turned off the monitors by her bedside.

"You're in a clinic. We brought you here after the explosion." He straightened, his gaze holding hers steadily. "Do remember what happened to you?"

She didn't have to fake the troubled expression that crossed her face. "I... I don't know. I remember rain and...noise." Her brow furrowed. "Why can't I move my legs?"

"You suffered an injury to your spine. We have been unable to tell if the damage is permenant but it would be wise to plan for all eventualites." He reached over and encircled her wrist with a hand, his fingers against the pulse point as if he were simply checking on her. He said nothing about the welts from the restaints. "I'm afraid you were not in any condition to tell us much about yourself when we found you. Could you tell me your name?"

It was a test, she realized. He would monitor her pulse to see if she were lying. For a single instant, she thought about going for the kunai he had hidden, but then realized that even if she did she would not be able to get out of the room. Not...not as she was now.

She swallowed her heartache and evened out her breathing. She might not be able to walk, but she was still a kunoichi of Konoha. She refused to be taken lightly.

"I am Tenten. Of Konoha," she added after a pause. If she really had been captured the odds were good he already knew who she was. And there had been that voice. She's gone, Tenten. She's gone. Her jaw clenched at the memory.

"Where is Hinata? She was with me when... when..."

"A small girl? Black hair and pale eyes?" He said it smoothly and quickly, as if reciting something off a fact sheet. Tenten curled her fingers into her hospital gown to still them and nodded tightly. Her 'doctor' shook his head. "I'm afraid she didn't make it. It appears she tried to shield you with some sort of circular defense and took the brunt of the explosion. There was nothing we could do."

Tenten could not help her surprise and horror. "What?" Hinata had tried to protect her with the Kaiten? "I don't understand, I was there to protect her. She couldn't have... She couldn't be..."

"I understand this is a lot to take in, Tenten-san, but if we're going to help you, you must try to remember as much as possible." His grip on her arm tightened slightly. "Do you know what sort of technique Hinata used to save you? If there are any effects you might suffer from being so near it? With more information, we might be able to keep such a tragic incident from occuring in the future."

"I..." Tenten was struggling with her thoughts. She couldn't make sense of what was happening. Was Hinata really dead? She couldn't accept that. It would mean admitting that she had failed and she couldn't do that on top of everything else. She could not look Neji in the eye the next time she saw him and tell him Hinata had died because of her mistake. Neji. "I don't know... I didn't know she could do something like that," she lied, still stricken enough not to have to act. Regardless of what had truly happened, she would never reveal anything about the Byakugan or it's techniques.

The doctor never flickered an eyelid but she sensed he was disappointed that she wasn't more forthcoming. She was very lucky he seemed so intent on maintaining the charade that she was a patient or he might have used a jutsu to force the truth out of her. Instead, he nodded solemnly and dropped her hand, apparently retreating for the moment.

"This is a difficult time for you, I understand. I'll send someone to make sure you have anything you need. We'll talk again when you're feeling better." He turned to leave but paused before the door, half-turning to look back at her. "This clinic is high in the mountains. It would be better not to move too much until you've become accustomed to the elevation."

And with that double-edged remark, he was gone.

Neji woke in the middle of the night, abruptly wide awake as if someone had called his name. He lay there for a moment, wrapped in a hooded cloak to keep out the drizzle that had been falling seemingly forever. A presence in the trees to his left told him that it was still Lee's watch for another two hours and the Byakugan further revealed that there was no one within range of divination. They were alone on the mountain.

Sitting up, he brushed rainwater off his cheeks and tried in vain to keep his mind clear. He had been unable to meditate the night before and his dreams had been chaotic, filled with images he would be glad to forget. He was sure part of it was due to the aimless searching, the fact that even his eyes had found nothing that said Tenten and Hinata were still alive. And, despite what Lee might think, he did believe they were still alive.

He just needed a sign, some small thing to give him direction. The fact that they were following air and instinct made him feel as if they were wasting time chasing phantom trails. If he could only see where he needed to go, he knew he could find them. He knew it.

"Tell me where you are," he murmured, staring into the trees.

A moment later he sighed soundlessly and stood. It was no use. No matter how hard he looked, Tenten did not appear.

Not bothering to call up to Lee, Neji started to erase the few signs of their own passage, very conscious of the fact that there could be enemy ninja nearby. He was glancing around their campsite to make sure he hadn't missed anything when he heard it.

A light musical note, delicate in the heavy silence of night. It was brief but came again seconds later, and again.

Frowning, Neji pushed back the hood of his cloak and moved forward, following the sound. He found the source under a large evergreen tree, raindrops dripping from the branches to pingsweetly against smooth steel.

It was a kunai.

Beat Four

Tenten was awakened a few hours later by the prick of a needle in her hip.

She hadn't even realized she'd dozed off and the slight pinch made her sit up, startled out of the easy sleep she'd been half occupying. A woman by her bedside was putting the empty needle on her bedside tray, the plunger only halfway down, revealing the remainder of some golden liquid she couldn't identify. The sight of it made Tenten's blood run cold.

"What was that?"

The nurse smiled calmly and pressed a cotton swab to the puncture mark on Tenten's hip, wiping away the small drop of blood before pulling her hospital gown back down with a pat. "Just something to help you relax. You've been through a traumatic experience so it's natural to be anxious and worried. The doctor thought it would help you sleep."

The words were said with the steady beat of someone reading from a script, the same feeling she had gotten from the "doctor" earlier. This time, however, Tenten didn't feel like playing the game.

"Where is Hinata?"

The nurse paused, looking into her face with something that might have been surprise or amusement. She placed a sympathetic hand on Tenten's shoulder. "Dear, don't you remember? Your friend... Well, there wasn't anything we could do. I'm terribly sorry." She moved away then and gathered up the syringe and a pile of clean cloths, obviously on the way to continue her rounds. Tenten let her go. The woman was not a ninja but she was obviously part of the deception. Unfortunately, she had not idea why she was being held under the guise of a patient. The doctor had wanted information, specifically about Hinata's abilities. Were they trying to learn the secrets of one of Konoha's bloodlimits as the Cloud had down years ago?

Pushing aside her sheets, Tenten slipped her finger underneath her gown and felt her hip, seeing the bruise that was beginning to form there. It was not a sedative they had given her. Tenten had been asleep when the nurse came in and so the woman's excuse that it would help her relax didn't make any sense.

Tentatively, she tried to move her legs.

Nothing. Not even a twinge. She leaned back in bed, pushing strands of long, loose hair out of her face in irritation. She had to think of a way out of there. Even if she only got as far as the hall, she needed to see what sort of building she was in. If she could get an idea of the layout, she'd have a better chance of escaping. The problem was she had no idea how she might accomplish anything without the use of her legs.

Then a call button attached to her bed railing caught her attention. Without totally thinking it through, she reached out and pressed it. A moment later, the nurse entered, a carefully blank expression on her face as if she was annoyed and unable to show it.

"Is there something I can get you?"

"May I get something to drink? My throat hurts," she said, coughing for effect. The nurse left again and came back with a small glass of water.

"Drink slowly," she cautioned and then breezed out of the room again. Before the door closed, Tenten heard a beeping sound from further away, as if someone else had pressed their call button. Tenten smiled to herself and downed the water.

Half an hour later, she called for the nurse again making sure she looked properly embarrassed and flustered. "I have to... use the bathroom."

The nurse blinked as if she had never heard of such a thing and left, muttering under her breath, only to return with a wheelchair. It was quite a feat to get Tenten into it, requiring a great deal of effort on the nurse's part and a swallowing of pride on Tenten's. When she was finally seated, Tenten was exhausted and all too aware of how helpless she was. The thin hospital gown wasn't helping much either, coming down only to the middle of her thighs, leaving her feeling very exposed. The nurse appeared not to notice her discomfort.

"The restroom and showers are just down the hall. A short trip."

Then Tenten's wheelchair was pushed forward out the door and she was in the hall, blinking in the bright overhead lights.

It looked exactly as a hospital should, with blank, stark walls and tiled floors. At the end of the hall there was a wide window to the outside. Tenten could not see anything though as it was dark and there was a mist of rain over it. The nurse pushed her past several doors identical to her own but Tenten heard nothing from within them except perhaps for the gentle beeping of monitors. She saw no other nurses either, nor doctors checking on their patients. The corridor was empty except for herself and her nurse.

A better time would never come.

Opening her mouth, she screamed at the top of her lungs.

Behind her, the nurse jumped in fright and then stumbled into action, reached forward to slap a hand over her mouth, the wheelchair coming to a stop. Tenten promptly bit her fingers and grabbed the rim of one of her wheels as the nurse jerked her hand away with a small cry. Tenten rolled herself forward with an awkward, one-handed push, still shouting.

"Hinata! Where are you? I'm here! I'm here!"

The nurse leapt for her, grabbing the wheelchair's handles and pulling her backwards. With a grunt of effort, Tenten leaned forward and fell onto the floor, hitting the tiles with a bone-jarringthud. Gasping, she pulled herself up on her elbows as the nurse grabbed the back of her gown, shouting for help.

"HINATA!" Tenten yelled, "LOOK AT ME!"

Then there was a set of black shoes in front of her and the doctor was there, rolling her over on her back so that he could grab and hold her arms. She struggled against him until he suddenly straddled her, leaning over her to push her wrists against the floor. His expression was coldly furious.

"I thought you'd behave yourself. It seems I was mistaken," he said. He glanced over at the nurse who still looked shocked and unsure of the situation. "You took her out of her room?"

"She said... She had to..."

"This woman is not to be taken from her room without my permission, Sakaki."

The nurse nodded. "I understand."

The doctor looked down at her, his eyes drifting to her disheveled gown and the curves it barely hid. He took a long look and smirked when she flushed and glared at him.

"You're proving to be more trouble than you're worth," he told her. "Be careful I don't find a reason to be rid of you."

Tenten barely heard his veiled threat for, at that very moment, she felt the rushing weight that said she was being viewed with the Byakugan. After so many years of training with Neji she could feel when it was being used on her, like a tickle at the edge of her senses, a silent wind.

Hinata.

She laughed out loud in relief and barely felt the doctor pull her back into her chair or order the nurse to put her in restraints. Hinata was alive and within shouting distance. They were going to escape.

No matter what.

Neji paused on a tree limb and stilled, looking out over the landscape. For a moment he thought he had felt a flare of chakra, brief and hesitant, but he was sure he had felt it. Somewhere to the north, still a bit of distance away but reachable by morning. Narrowing his eyes, he spoke quietly to the night.

"Byakugan."

Miles of trees and mountainside slid by until he found himself looking at a small clearing on the cliffs. A brief shift of his head and he saw the fuzzy outlines of chakra systems at a distance in the middle of all that nothingness. Genjutsu. The veins around his eyes eased and he looked down to the ground.

"Lee!"

His teammate appeared immediately, his face serious. "What is it?"

"They're using illusions. There's a small building higher up a little more than two miles away."

"Tenten and Hinata?" he questioned.

Neji jumped down from his vantage point and touched the kunai on his hip, the one with the tiny sunburst mark on the ring that said Tenten had made it herself.

"Let's go and find out."

Beat Five

Neji had only to approach the illusion for it to fade away completely. It was done so neatly anyone else would have thought it had been there the entire time, but Neji's eyes were not to easily fooled. As it was, Lee jerked in surprise as the low lying building suddenly came into view where before there had been only trees and mountainside.

"They wish to be found?" Lee asked, eyes wide though his tone was serious. Neji didn't answer, he was scanning the building with the Byakugan. Only when he found an oddly suppressed chakra system in the lower floor of the building did he exhale a thousand different worries, the lines of his forehead easing a little. He stared for a full minute until he realized Lee was watching him.

"She's in the basement." His voice was almost completely steady. Almost. "Tenten."

Lee pumped a fist silently, practically shining with determination to storm the building. Neji decided then not to mention the strangeness of Tenten's chakra nor how he had a feeling something was terribly wrong. The entire situation did not sit well with him, in fact. Why had the illusion suddenly dropped? Why had they been allowed to come so far without meeting any ninja? Was Tenten a prisoner, or not?

And why could he not see Hinata?

"Lee," he said, sharply enough to get his teammate's attention. "We need to be careful. I don't like this place."

Lee made a face. "Neither do I." He paused moment. "Shall I go first?"

Neji was silent a moment. "No, we go together."

Lee's expressive face broke into a grin.

"Right!"

In the end, they simply walked through the front doors, Lee with a very exaggerated limp once they passed a sign that read "Emergency Clinic". The place had all the signs of being a hospital: clean, polished, with a slightly sterile smell that Neji disliked. It lacked, however, a full staff and only a single, ragged nurse came to greet them, a clipboard in her arms.

"Is there something I can do for you? What happened to your leg?" She pointed with the end of her pen to Lee's bent leg. Neji spoke up.

"There was a rockslide," he said, and watched a shocked look cross the nurse's face as she noticed the color of his eyes. Her pen clattered to the floor and she reached down to swipe it up quickly, obviously nervous. She looked over her shoulder several times as she spoke.

"Rockslide, you say? Those are pretty common here in the mountains. Uhm, why don't I take you to an exam room. We'll have a medic see if anything is broken." Her words were rushed, practically tumbling over each other and she hurried off, obviously expecting them to follow. Neji and Lee exchanged glances and then Lee went after her.

Neji took that moment to disappear.

Tenten understood her paralysis.

It had something to do with the shot they kept giving her, right to the hip and every four hours. It never made her sleepy or relaxed or any of the other things her nurse claimed it would. Sakaki checked her, too, tapping the bottom of Tenten's feet and asking if her if she felt anything.

Tenten never did.

She could not remember what had happened to her and Hinata on the mountain, either. She tried often; it was the only thing she had to occupy herself with, but she never got more than brief flashes of movement, a word spoken in haste. She was sure it was unrelated to whatever it was that they were given her so her only options were that 1) they were somehow making her forget or 2) she really had been through a real trauma and the memory loss was natural. Either of the answers did not appeal to her. Getting out of her restraints, however, did.

After the incident in the hall, she'd been shackled to her bedrails and given neither food or drink. Indeed, the only person she saw was Sakaki who came to inject her; even the creepy doctor did not come to interrogate her. She was left mostly alone to watch light start to filter in her foggy window and rub her wrists raw with testing her restraints.

Then the doctor did come and she realized the loneliness was infinitely better.

She watched him steadily as he walked to her bedside, eyeing her with a cold detachment that told her he did not see her as a person at all. She was simply subject matter to him, a prisoner he kept because someone must have ordered him too. Even before, when he had looked at her body in the hallway, he had done it more to gain a reaction from her than anything else.

He was a ninja and he was perfectly in control. If she were going to escape, she would have to make him lose that precious hold on his emotions.

"Where is Hinata?" she asked icily, "I know you have her. Where is she?"

It was the same question she had asked a dozen times before. Each time she was met with sympathetic looks and fake shows of empathy. She was expecting the same thing again and so almost missed the doctor's surprising reply.

"Do you really think I'll tell you?"

She opened her mouth and then shut it, suddenly at a loss. Her gaze flickered up to his, momentarily off balance.

"You told me she was dead," she offered, haltingly. His mouth was a calm line.

"Yes, I did."

"But she's not." Almost it wasn't a question.

The doctor shifted on his feet. "You obviously don't think so as you were calling for her only a few hours ago." He said nothing more for several minutes and neither did she, both of them sizing up the other.

Then Tenten asked the question that had been burning in her mind all night. "What do you want from us?"

The doctor smiled slightly. "Your secrets." And then he did a series of hand seals that made fear shoot through her, her shackles rattling against the bed frame as she tried to move away from him.

She had time enough only to realize it was kinjutsu he was performing before her world went red and she began to scream.

The pain lasted only an instant, flaring throughout her entire body until she felt sure every nerve was on fire. She twisted on her bed, writhing with agony while the doctor watched. Then he made a single negative motion with his finger and it all stopped. Her back hit the bed and her eyes fluttered wildly, hardly able to register what had just happened. Every muscle in her body ached from the tension and her heart was racing in her ears.

Her captor spoke easily, "Tell me of Hinata's blood limit."

Tenten gritted her teeth and glared at him, tears of pain glittering in the corner of her eyes. He arched an eyebrow and, even though she knew it was coming, the second wave made her feel as if her bones were splitting. Again, it passed in seconds and she was left panting, sweat beading her brow as if she had just completed one of Lee's horrendous workouts.

The doctor leaned against her bed railing. "You can make this easy on yourself. Give me the information I want and you can go free." He straightened when she made no response, sighing as if she were being extremely foolish. Tenten felt her body jump in anticipation of another attack.

"Tell me-" The doctor never finished. Instead, there was a whooshing sort of sound and his eyes bulged before he suddenly slumped to the floor, revealing a familiar figure she had begun to think she might never see again.

Silver eyes found hers and held them.

"T…Tenten-san?"

(Kinjutusu - a forbidden jutsu.)

Beat Six

"Hinata."

Tenten's throat was raw but the name still came out with a fair amount of surprise. The Hyuuga heir was standing before her, one small hand dropping to her side after sending a surge of chakra through the doctor's heart. Tenten couldn't see whether or not he was dead and at that moment she didn't care either way. Hinata was alive.

"Tenten-san, w…what did he do to you?" Hinata's eyes were very wide, her delicate face even paler than usual as she took in Tenten's ragged state. Her gaze lingered on the shackles and the welts just barely visible underneath them.

Tenten shook her head and tried to clear her throat for her friend's sake. "It doesn't matter now. How did you get down here? Did anyone see you escape?" She glanced towards the door, wondering how long it would be before Sakaki came to give her another shot. An hour?

Hinata was looking at her oddly. "E…escape? What do you mean? After they took you away, I went back to the cave like you said, but…" The younger girl looked down at her thumbs. "I couldn't leave you to face them alone so I… I followed."

Tenten was having trouble understanding. "You mean, they never captured you? But I… They told me you had died in an explosion protecting me, but yesterday… Yesterday, I swore I felt your Byakugan find me."

"I did find you," Hinata answered, a worried expression creasing her forehead. "I h...heard you shouting from outside. " She leaned forward, concerned. "Tenten-san, don't you remember? You told me to run w…when they attacked."

The ground was littered with steel from Soushouryu and Tenten jerked her arms back, pulling her weapons off the ground with chakra strings. The two enemy shinobi immediately split, their focus still completely on Hinata who was standing battle-ready behind her.

With a wordless war cry, Tenten launched her weapons at them, guiding them unerringly towards hearts and lungs and eyes. The ninja halted their progress in order to defend against the onslaught but blood splashed in the air as she found her targets. A weary but victorious grin started to curve her mouth.

Then the third ninja descended from the trees and she had no time to pull her weapons back or reach for a scroll or kunai. He came down on her as she was snapping her chakra strings, his feet driving into her stomach and sending her down hard as his body weight crashed into her. He was already looking past her, however, and she understood that they only wanted Hinata. Nothing else mattered to them.

Reaching up, she grabbed the ninja's vest and slapped an exploding tag onto the material.

"Hinata, RUN!"

Tenten flinched at the sudden memory, grateful she couldn't remember the aftermath of that desperate attack. As the last image faded, her head started to throb with the beginnings of a fantastic headache. Her arms jerked against her restraints with the desire to rub her forehead.

"Hinata, you have to get out of here," she said finally, her voice cracking painfully from misuse. The Hyuuga heir opened her mouth but Tenten didn't give her a chance. "You have to go on to Konoha and tell them what's happened. Whoever these people are, they want to know about the Byakugan. If they catch you…"

"You're coming w…with me, Tenten-san," Hinata replied firmly, though her words caught in her effort to override the older girl. "I can release the restraints and there are few others in the building. No one would s…see us."

Tenten smiled then, a painful smile of pride in Hinata who had become so much stronger, and weary acceptance of her own situation. "Hinata," she said quietly, "I'm can't feel my legs." The Hyuuga gasped as Tenten went on calmly. "I can't walk out of here with you. I'll only slow you down and, of the two of us, you're the one they want. I can't let them find you. You have to go alone." Reaching over the bedrails, she opened her hand which Hinata took instantly, holding it in both of hers. "Return to Konoha and get help. I'm sure your family is worried." A sudden ache to see her own family and friends made her pause for a moment. Neji. Lee. Even Gai-sensei.

Hinata squeezed her hands. "What about you? He… He was torturing you. If I leave…" She trailed off looking absolutely miserable. Tenten smiled for her again, hoping she looked a lot braver than she felt.

"They won't kill me. They want information and as long as I have it, I'm valuable to them." She dropped Hinata's hands. "Now go before the nurse comes." Her eyes held Hinata's for one last moment. "I'm counting on you."

Hinata nodded finally and with a last soulful look from white eyes, she became just another shadow, her white gaze finding a safe path to freedom. Tenten watched the door close behind her and then turned her head away.

Someone would come looking for the doctor soon. She'd best prepare.

It took a full two minutes before Neji realized he'd been tricked.

The illusion was a massive one and when he reached the basement stairs, he understood that to take a single step down would be to walk off the face of the mountainside. And as soon as he comprehended that, another illusion shattered and he found himself standing before a cliff with the wind to his back and a misty morning ahead. Two hundred yards to the rear, Lee gave a yelp of surprise as the walls disappeared.

The nurse, however, did not and Neji pivoted just as Lee reached out and pressed three pressure points in the blink of an eye, causing the woman to fall to her knees, arms locked at her sides.

"An illusion within an illusion?" Lee asked as Neji approached. The Hyuuga nodded but his focus was on the nurse who was watching him with something like stark horror. The rigidity of her face said that Lee had locked her jaw. Neji motioned for him undo it.

"Where are they?" he asked when she could speak. The nurse trembled at the sound of his tone. "Where are you keeping them?"

"I don't-" she started, but Neji lifted a hand, palm out in the beginning of Jyuuken. The woman backtracked. "I only know of the woman, the one with all the weapons. We do not have the other."

Neji's mouth tightened. "Where?"

The nurse jerked her head upwards. "The clinic… It's…" Her lips closed as if she suddenly realized what she was doing. "It's too late for her," she said quickly, "Hien will have used it on her. She won't survive."

Something cold shot down Neji's spine and his veins filled with ice. Before he could do anything, however, Lee reached out and hit another pressure point. The nurse's entire body froze, her eyes rolling wildly.

"It has to be further up the mountain," Lee said, brows drawn together. He looked poised on the edge of motion. "Can you see anything?"

Neji had to stop himself from snapping that even if he could see something he wasn't sure he could trust it, not with the odd illusions their enemies seemed to use that confused his sight. Something made him turn his face to the north, however, lifting two fingers.

"Byakugan."

He couldn't believe it.

"There is someone coming down the mountainside," he said, unable to keep the surprise out of his voice. Lee's ears almost perked up.

"Tenten?" he questioned. Neji blinked and then settled back on his heels, his expression smoothing.

"No, it's-"

He was interrupted by Hinata emerging from the trees, tears on her face and smudged from head to toe with dirt and pine needles. She saw them immediately and her face cleared and clouded with worry both at once.

"Neji-ni-san," she called as she stumbled towards him in her haste. "Please, we have to hurry!" She hiccupped as if she were trying very hard not to cry and he reached out to catch her arm as she slid to a stop.

"Hinata-sama, you're-"

She cut him off, surprising him with force of her next words. "You don't understand," she cried, her fingers pulling urgently on his sleeve.

"I didn't kill him! I didn't kill him!"

Beat Seven

The fact that the doctor woke up fifteen minutes after Hinata's departure did not surprise Tenten. Hinata was becoming a good ninja, a strong one, but killing would never be her first choice. Not that it should have been, of course, but Tenten couldn't help but feel a little regret that Hinata's Jyuuken hadn't sent him into at least a coma. It would have given her more time to prepare herself.

As it turned out, however, the doctor rose unsteadily to his feet, took one look at her and suddenly blinked as if remembering something. Taking out a notepad from his coat pocket, he jotted a few things down, intensely focused on whatever it was he was writing. She didn't say anything, simply watched in confusion as he pocketed the paper and pencil again and turned his cold gaze to her.

"I think it's time we got those restraints off you," he said.

Reaching out, he unbuckled the cuffs around her wrists, revealing the welts she had given herself in her attempts to escape. She let her arms fall limply as they were freed, exhausted from his kinjutsu and the knowledge that she could not stand on her own. What did he plan to do with her now that he knew Hinata had been in the building? Now that he had felt Hinata's strength, did he still need her, Tenten, as a source of information?

He paused once in lowering the rails of her bed, his gaze suddenly pulled to the south where he stared at the wall for a full minute, a strange expression on his face. Tenten took that opportunity to feel him out.

"Hinata is gone, you know. She won't be coming back for me. You've lost."

He glanced back at her slowly, his lips finally curving in a knowing smirk. His answer, though, was not what she expected. "Let's take you out of here, shall we, Tenten-san?"

Looping one of her arms around his neck, he pulled her bodily from the bed, another arm around her waist to keep her firmly at his side. The moment her feet hit the cool floor, her nerves twitched and she bit back a sudden cry of pain. Whatever he had done to her with that jutsu had made her skin exceptionally sensitive. In reality, his grip on her was probably not very harsh, but to her his hands felt like vises.

Suffering silently, she let herself be half-dragged from the room, her feet sliding against the floor uselessly. Despite carrying her dead weight, the doctor moved swiftly, buffeted by a thin use of chakra. He took her past the other, quiet rooms and as they turned a corner into what must have been the lobby, his lab coat fell open enough for her to glimpse the handle of the kunai sheathed behind his belt. With all that happened, she had forgotten he wore it.

Before she could even start to formulate a plan, however, he was pushing them through the front double-doors and out into sunlight that immediately blinded her. Through a sheen of sun-wrought tears, she tried to see their surroundings, to determine where was, and so her gaze came to rest on a silhoutte on the hill. Blurry and indistinct, she couldn't see who it was but immediately her heart leapt in fear. Why hadn't Hinata escaped? Tenten's mind took a halting leap into action, plans formed and discarded just as quickly. If the doctor caught the Hyuuga heir...

"Well," her captor said, "It looks like he's finally made it here."

Tenten blinked. He?

And then she realized the figure walking towards them was not Hinata, but Neji, hands at his sides and Byakugan fully activated. His face was a study of cool anger and hostility.

Abruptly, Tenten was dropped to the ground as the doctor let go of her, falling bonelessly into the grass at his feet. She managed to keep herself upright by placing shaky hands against the ground, watching through stray locks of hair as Neji's all-seeing gaze fell on her. His expression tightened.

"What have you done to her?"

"Nothing that won't fade away in a couple of hours," the doctor replied smoothly. "It was necessary to subdue her." He paused, contemplating the Hyuuga. "I see you found your way past my illusions."

"My eyes will eventually discover lies, even those as good as yours."

Her captor smiled. "Interesting. The very reason I wanted to speak more with the other girl. I take it she has this power too?"

Neji didn't bother answering. "I want my teammate back."

The doctor snapped back just as quickly, "You can't have her." He cleared his throat, recovering a little. "My research is not complete. Do you expect me to give up my only leverage?"

Neji's mouth curved into that smirk she knew so well. "You aren't the only one with leverage."

"Hien!" Someone cried off to the side and Tenten turned her head to find Lee standing there, a bound Sakaki before him. The nurse looked absolutely terrified. "They're going to kill me! Hien!" And obviously hysterical. The day Lee killed a defenseless civilian would be the day Gai-sensei declared Kakashi the winner in their private duel and took up needlepoint.

The doctor's - Hien's - eyebrows rose and he smiled slightly. "She's your back up plan? I'm afraid I overestimated you. As a ninja, I am willing to make sacrifices to accomplish my goal."

The blood drained from Sakaki's face and Lee frowned. Only Neji appeared unmoved. "What is your goal?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Hien asked. "I gather information. Specifically information on shinobi clan bloodlimits like yours. The market for such research is rather astounding. Your enemies would pay dearly for it, I imagine." He glanced down at Tenten. "The fact that this girl has no clan bloodlimit was a disappointment, yes, but I realized she did have worth, if only to secure the other specimen's agreeability."

Specimen. Tenten felt a flame of anger ignite in her throat. He was referring to Hinata, a real flesh and blood person, as a specimen. In her haze of incredulous irritation, she leaned forward on her hands, taking the weight off her legs.

"What I did not expect was for this girl to sacrifice herself for the other," Hien went on, tilting his head as if looking at a puzzle. "But perhaps that is the way of your village, for the lesser ninja to die for the safety of your clans."

In front of her, Neji's hands tightened. A few years ago he would not have been moved by the doctor's words, they would have been natural to him. He was a Hyuuga and fate had dictated that he was to be superior to shinobi of less refined heritage.

Then Naruto had come and changed everything.

In Neji's pale eyes, nothing could be so easily cast aside now.

Tenten herself took no heed to her captor's words. They were merely that and nothing more. However, on the hill, one person did take offense on her behalf.

"Tenten is anything but a lesser ninja!" Lee shouted, his black eyes shining, clearly worked up. "The fact that a person did not inherit a bloodlimit does make them useless! Anything can be achieved with hard work and determination. If Tenten fought so Hinata could escape, she survived because she is anything but 'lesser'."

And just on the end of his words, as the last syllable left his mouth, Tenten twisted upwards using one hand and with the other pulled the kunai from Hien's belt. He had only an instant to understand her intention before she plunged it into his unprotected abdomen.

"Hien!" Sakaki cried.

With a lurch, Hien fell backwards, overbalanced by the force of the kunai and the weight of Tenten's helpless body. She collapsed on top of him, her legs still refusing to cooperate, and felt blood well between the fingers still curved around the ringed hilt. She had no time to contemplate it, however, as Hien suddenly rolled himself over, pinning her to the ground, his hands going for her neck.

"I should have killed you before," he said, his crisp voice colored with pain. His hands tightened and she struggled with him, nails digging into his forearms as her vision dimmed. "It's time I rectified that oversight." She gasped in his choke-hold, willing her legs to move, to work, to knee him in the groin. It was no use, whatever they had done to her, she could not undo it herself. She...

Her chest constricted, struggling for air.

And then something barreled into Hien's stomach, making him curl in, gasping as the knife was driven deeper. Her stumbled back, releasing Tenten as he did so, and she gulped in air as her starved lungs realized she wasn't going to die after all. She turned her head to watch hazily as Neji punched Hien again, the strength behind his fist so great she knew he wasn't thinking of using Jyuuken. And why should he when his anger was enough?

In fact, Neji did not use chakra until the very end, when he closed all Hien's tenketsu.

Afterwards, Lee was the first to reach her, helping her sit up against him and pulling the hem of her hospital gown down in a move so very Lee-like that she felt tears fill her eyes.

"I'm so very, very happy to see you," she told him, and was rewarded with a youthful, if somewhat worried, grin.

"Hinata found us and explained what had happened. We would have been here sooner but that doctor was very good at genjutsu. It fooled even Neji's eyes," he amended, "for a time."

As if his name had summoned him, Neji came to her side, kneeled down close enough for her to see the blood splatter on his clothes. The relief she felt at his presence made her want to throw her arms around his neck. Instead, she settled for a tired smile and a tilt of her head.

"Thank you."

He nodded, but his gaze was focusing, his thoughts elsewhere. "What's wrong with your legs?"

Ah, she should have known he would have noticed. "I haven't been able to move them since...since the explosion." The memory made her look around, scanning the trees. "Where's Hinata? Lee says she found you."

"We sent her back to Konoha for another team." Neji's mouth made a line but Lee's was curving. She blinked and Neji clarified. "She wasn't very happy about it."

She laughed, a short hiccuping laugh before pressing her lips together, overwhelmed. And then she really did put an around around each of their necks and hug them to her, so infinitely grateful that they were there and she was still able to touch them. The nightmare of her capture could do nothing but fade into that space between heartbeats, defeated by Lee's wrapped hand against her back and Neji's silky hair beneath her fingers.

"Let's go home," Lee said gently, and she nodded, allowing Neji to pull her onto his back, her arms around his shoulders as he rose. Lee went back for Sakaki whom Tenten had almost forgotten about. At the sight of her, however, her hip twinged and she looked at the nurse carefully.

"She gave me something, an injection," she said slowly, "I'm pretty sure that's why I can't feel my legs."

She felt rather than saw Neji's face harden fractionally. "What was it?" His question was directed at Sakaki who quailed under his strange, white gaze. "What did you give her?"

"It...it won't harm her," she said quickly, paling, "It has to be given every four hours or it wears off. Hien told me to give it to her to...to make her easier to manage."

Tenten nodded. "Then I wasn't really injured in that explosion."

"You had a concussion and some minor wounds, but nothing as serious as paralysis."

Well, that explained why she couldn't exactly remember what had happened during her fight with the enemy shinobi or how Hien had managed to get a hold of her. Their words had been lies based on a few truths - coincedentally, the type of lies that were easiest to believe.

All this in order to study a rare power, she thought, only to have it used against him at the end.

That was what you might call ironic.

As it turned out, Sakaki, it was discovered, was a real nurse who had thrown her lot in with Hien - a missing nin himself - because she thought he was a genius. She'd wanted power as well, the power of knowledge, and to be someone who Hien relied upon. That he had so easily dismissed her life in the end was something of a wake-up call for her and she cooperated with the Hokage, relating to Tsunade everything she had learned while working for Hien.

Tenten never got to hear that report, however, as she had been sent to Sakura for a full check-up, suffering herself to be tested until the pink-haired kunoichi declared her fit and ready for duty again. As she was leaving, Hinata came to see her, flanked by two Branch members. Without a single word, the Hyuuga heir flung her arms around the older girl in a tight hug, gracefully erasing forever any doubts the Hyuuga had had about Tenten's role in Hinata's disappearance.

Lee watched it all unfold with a trace of unusual smugness.

"You see, Neji? Your family was wrong about Tenten. I knew the sparkle of her youth would eventually win them over!"

Neji gave him a flat look, deciding not to mention the other handful of factors that had declared her innocence, such as, you know, exploding a man to save Hinata's life.

"Now that she's back, we must tell her about our mission! She'll want to hear everything," he gushed, waving a hand at the two, now conversing, kunoichi. "Tenten! You have to see this picture!" He pulled a photograph from his pocket and Neji, to his personal chagrin, immediately recognized it. "Isn't it cute?"

Tenten joined them, smiling, and completed the circle. Lee grinned in anticipation.

"It's called a koala..."

And everything was just where it should be.