Toxic Angel Chapter 11

"Naruto, you know...we only have three more days until we have to head back to the village." Tenten twisted a blade of grass around her finger and stole a sidelong glance at the blonde shinobi. "I don't know if we're going to find her."

He said nothing at first, but she could see tension tighten the corners of his mouth, drawing them downwards in an obvious frown as his eyes closed briefly against her inquisitive glance. Deep lines creased his brow; lines that had come more often since their visit two days before to the tavern in Kiyokawa. There, they'd overheard a pair of travelers speaking in hushed tones to a local man about the two ninja they'd passed by a few weeks earlier. A strange pair they were, the smaller of the two men had said with a shudder, and one of them who wore the mark of that tyrant Orochimaru. We couldn't be away from them quickly 'nough, but my partner and me, we was wondering why a pretty little girl like that would be running with such a criminal.He'd shrugged,She didn' seem no worse for the wear, so we figured she was willin' enough. No harm, no foul, I say, and we decided to play it safe and stay out of the affair.

Kakashi had been forced to drag Naruto out of the building while Neji and Tenten went to question the men further about where they'd seen the girl and the Otogakure shinobi. The information they'd gathered was scarce, but it was better than nothing. At least they had some idea of which direction to head, bleak as the outlook was.

After his initial tirade outside the tavern that day, Naruto had grown unusually quiet and remained that way, saying nothing more than what was necessary. Tenten was concerned about his behavior. She'd heard from mutual friends how much Naruto had been affected when Sasuke left to join Orochimaru, and she didn't know how he'd react if something had happened to (name).

"I'll go on my own if I have to. I won't give up."

Tenten's eyes grew wide at the sound of his voice, the determination, the conviction, "But the Hokage said..."

"I don't care. Don't you realize that by now? I've learned that the most important thing in life is to stick by your friends no matter what. I don't know where I'd be by now if it wasn't for mine, and now (name) needs me. She needs me to find her and to help her, and to let her know she's not alone."

"Alone? What do you mean?"

"She hid it well," he said slowly, distracted by memory. "I never really noticed it even though we spent a lot of time together before I left. One night though, we were talking about some serious stuff, and she told me that she'd never really felt like a part of anything in the village. You know, she wasn't born in Konoha, and her dad disappeared when she was little."

Tenten nodded slightly, recalling that she'd heard this somewhere before, "Her mom was kind of odd if I remember correctly. No one ever saw her. She didn't come to conferences at the academy or even graduation, and (name)'s grandfather did all the shopping."

"Exactly. And aside from all that, her grandfather made her spend most of her free time at home. She hardly ever got the chance to hang out with any of the other kids, and by the time everyone got older, there was a kind of wall there. Well, at least that's how she felt." He paused and dug a small spiral pattern in the patch of dry earth next to him. After a moment, he continued with a new level of sadness in his voice, "I knew how she felt all too well. Yeah, the reasons were different, but the feeling was the same. I wanted to help her, but she didn't tell me any of this until shortly before I left for my training. There just wasn't anything I could do at the time."

"I never would have guessed that she felt that way, but then, I didn't really talk to her until right around the time you left. She passed the Chuunin exams shortly after that and was always off on missions and stuff."

"How did you two meet anyway? I don't think either of you ever really said."

"That's an interesting story, actually," she replied as a faint frown crossed her lips. "We met because of Neji."

"Neji? But I've never even seen them talk for more than five minutes."

She glanced around, her voice dropping low, "It started just before you left. Neji had been acting really weird. I mean, you know, he's not one to get distracted by anything, but around that time, he kept randomly spacing out. We'd be in the middle of training, and out of nowhere, he'd miss a target or get hit. It was crazy!
After a little while I realized that these episodes weren't exactly random. Every time he got distracted, there was this girl nearby. Now, I didn't know who she was at the time, but I started asking around. My investigation, obviously, lead me to (name).

I think it was the week after you left that I first talked to her. She seemed nice enough, and we started hanging out once in a while. Eventually, I decided to introduce her to Neji." Tenten stopped short and looked over to the far side of the forest path where Neji stood staring off into the distance.

"So, what happened?" Naruto pressed, leaning forward with an exasperated look. "Aw man, don't even tell me they went out! Are they in love? That can't be. (name) would have told me! I mean, c'mon, that's big news! But that would explain why Neji volunteered to come on this mission. I couldn't figure that one out, y'know. Neji's not really the type to volunteer for something like this."

When he paused to take a breath she began again, her demeanor more somber, "Naruto, shut up. It's not like that. Not exactly, anyhow. Like I said, I introduced them. (name) was nice, and Neji seemed to be interested in her. It only made sense, but when the time came, well, Neji seemed insanely uncomfortable.
They talked a little, and the three of us went for lunch a few times. They just didn't seem to hit it off the way I thought they would, so I decided to let it go."

"But..."

"Would you let me finish? A few months later...I think it was the night before (name) left on her first mission as a Chuunin, I came across Neji. He was standing outside of her house. Just...standing there. Staring. I didn't let him know I was there, but the next day I decided to just come out and ask him if he had feelings for her."

"What'd he say?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing? Um, okay."

"Well, he didn't say anything, but," she paused, daring another glance across the path, "there was this look on his face that I'd never seen before. It was so...sad, so miserable. It was like someone just told him that his dog died and his best friend moved away, complete devastation and then nothing. He turned and walked away, and I've never gotten the nerve to ask him about it again. He'll talk to her sometimes when we're all together, but what bothers me the most is that I still catch him watching her now and again. Just...staring. It's kind of creepy."

"Yeah, that is kind of creepy," Naruto agreed with a puzzled frown.

Just then, Neji turned in their direction, arms crossed over his chest, face void of expression, but still, there was something haunted about the lack of emotion, something that sent chills down his teammates' spines. Neji turned back to face the setting sun as Tenten and Naruto shared a look.

Naruto smiled nervously, running a hand through his blonde locks and causing them to stand further on end, "Maybe bringing Neji wasn't such a good idea."