It took all she had not to turn around when the crashes from the fight they left behind reached her ears. All doubts over his state of mind aside, she knew Jun could handle himself. She may not have seen him fight since her return, but if the information she'd heard was right, he and Tenten had saved their friends from the Moon. Surely this situation wouldn't be any more difficult than facing an enemy of the caliber she'd heard the man had turned out to be. That in mind, Kazue simply bit her lip and forced herself to trail behind the Hyuuga's broad back.

'Big, tall, and Hyuuga.'

Despite the situation, the memory of Jun's words almost brought a smile to her lips. She supposed he wasn't too far off. Neji was bigger than her entire time, Noriaki excluded. Jun might have gained several inches height wise in the years she'd been gone, but his slender, almost delicate appearance hadn't changed in the slightest. She hadn't gained an inch, although she had lost bulk. Any unneeded fat had been shed in those two years. She shook her head, discarding the matter from her mind. This was no time for her to be marveling over such trivial details.

Besides, it was Neji.

Time spent considering his words may have given her a different perspective on the situation that hung between the two of them, but that didn't mean she had to like it anymore than she did before. She was choosing a future that laid in marriage to the man walking before her, but she wasn't choosing him. Why would she? The Neji she remembered was a cold, arrogant, prick.

The instant thought that crossed her mind following the memory was that the Neji she'd seen since returning was somewhat different. Kazue instantly worked to shove the thought away, but the problematic details of it lingered. He had changed.

She'd changed.

"Stop."

Kazue blinked, the soft word hitting the air as Neji held out a hand to keep her from walking any further. Her sharp gaze picked up on a thin, almost invisible wire cutting across the doorway they'd only just reached. A dark, twisting staircase was visible beyond it. An unidentifiable feeling flooded through her at the sight.

They were only a number of minutes away from confronting the woman who may have--

Thinking like that would get her nowhere.

"She'll know we're coming by this point," Kazue suddenly muttered.

Neji paused, one foot successfully over the tripwire.

"Most likely," he agreed. "I doubt she was unaware of our numbers."

Kazue eyed the tripwire as he turned back to the task at hand and carefully finished moving to the other side. Within seconds she'd joined him, following close behind as he made his way up the twisting stairs, only pausing when a trap would become apparent in his field of vision.

"... am I that interesting?"

The even question startled Kazue to attention, her thoughts having wandered once more. As she knitted her brow in confusion- the last thought she'd held being over what sort of jutsu someone skilled in traps like their mystery shinobi might wield- Kazue attempted to piece together what could have sparked the question.

"What?"

Neji's expression was for the most part even as he continued up the stairs before her. His lips, however, twisted up in his the faintest degree of that smug smile he often found himself doning when dealing with her.

"You've been staring."

Kazue blinked.

"... I was not!"

"I saw you."

"You couldn't," she retorted. "You weren't--"

Kazue instantly cut off the moment the implication her words left completely sunk in; her face heating as that smug smile of his completely filled his features.

"Dammit."

Unknown to her, that smile of his only grew.

"You didn't answer the question," he commented evenly, tone betraying nothing.

Kazue simply glowered at his back, hands clenching at her sides.

"Move faster- we're wasting time."

Neji glanced over his shoulder then, cocking a brow as if to question how exactly he was supposed to do that. She narrowed her eyes in response and he simply shrugged, returning his full attention to the path before them.

Somehow, she regretted the mental thought that he'd changed.

It wasn't until they reached the top of the staircase that he glanced back at her again, this time his lips pursed in just the slightest degree as he considered the wording of what he needed to say. After all, the little glimpse he'd gotten of her during this adventure had made something clear to him- the reckless nature of hers that had so worried her cousin had far from disappeared. She might've started putting a bit more thought into her actions before jumping in, but she still jumped in.

The woman they were about to face may have killed Kazue's sister-in-law.

There was no room for reckless and emotional.

"... don't get angry."

That said, he tugged open the door that lead into the hall. She furrowed her brow, glowering at his back as she darted after him.

"The hell?" Kazue muttered under her breath, then raised her voice. "Why, are you planning something?"

He rolled his eyes, but didn't bother expounding upon the statement. The more he thought about it, the more obvious it was that any attempt at explaining to the girl would be met with annoyance at the fact he'd even uttered the words in the first place. If she couldn't figure it out on her own, there was no need for him to point it out to her.

Predictably, silence overtook them as they picked their way down the hall to the room that Neji had sensed the woman laid in. He didn't bother to share the fact that there were no other chakra signatures in the room, familiar or otherwise.

If Hikari was alive, she wasn't there.

The two shinobi exchanged a quiet look, each aware that opening the door before them would lead to a battle in which the enemy was a mystery. Still, it was something they'd learned long ago- in that first chuunin exam before their world fell apart.

Sometimes, being a shinobi meant accepting the gamble.

The sight that met their eyes once the door had swung open was surprising to say the least. The woman that they'd been searching for laid right before them. She'd perched on the edge of the sole desk settled in the room. Teal locks of hair spilled over her shoulders, her frame draped in a black robe that blocked view of the rest of her features. To top it all off, her lips were pressed together in a thin, almost amused, expression.

"You made it here," she observed.

Neji narrowed his gaze, byakugan still activated as he studied her critically. Next to him, Kazue almost seemed to be trembling with the force of the emotions that swept through her in that single moment. Anger happened to be the most prominent feeling among the mix, it was that exact feeling that caused her fingers to drop to her weapons pouch and enclose around the hilt of a single kunai.

"Kazue," Neji began, instinctively spinning away from the desk to study the rest of the room despite the fact that his byakugan allowed him visual of the majority of it without moving. "That's not--"

He cut off with a curse as the sight of a kunai flying through the air appeared in his field of vision. The woman didn't shift, the kunai simply flying through her form and burying itself in the wooden desk beneath her. The pressure atop of the sensitive plate caused a clear click to echo through the room. Before Neji could react, the trap blew. Both leaf shinobi were sent flying into the walls behind them, cracks flying through the wood with the force of their impact.

Shards of the desk cut through the air like blades as a result of the explosion; only quick action on Neji's part as he snatched a weapon from his pouch to deflect the splinters kept him from being skewered as Miki had been. Kazue, of course, wasn't as lucky as several pieces buried themselves in her skin unbeknownst to her. Crimson blood trailed over the surface of her pale skin as she drug herself to her feet.

A hatch- previously unnoticed- dropped open from the ceiling. A head of now familiar, teal hair dropped into view as she peered down at the mess her explosive had made of the room.

"Pity. I was hoping to see the room colored red."

"Sorry to disappoint," Kazue snapped in response.

Neji simply studied the woman again, this time satisfied to find no discrepancies in her chakra network. The clone that had been settled on the desk had been near perfect, the balance of chakra within its form having almost been enough to fool him. This time, however, he was certain they were looking at the real deal. Even as this thought crossed his mind, the woman's fingers slipped around the edge of the ceiling. Within seconds she'd shifted so that she was hanging above the room. The moment her fingers released the ceiling, she dropped in one, graceful motion so that she was standing where the desk had been only moments ago.

They were lucky that the explosive hadn't been stronger, Neji realized. If it'd been anything close to the on that Miki had accidentally set off upon entering the building, they'd have been much more seriously injured than they were.

"Perhaps I should introduce myself, now," the woman mused, her tone soft and thoughtful. "I believe you've already met my companion, Yo. My name is Matsu and you are intruding."

Kazue's lips twisted into a scowl.

"So, so sorry," she practically spat. "I hadn't realized."

Matsu simply sighed, raising one hand in a dismissive gesture.

"So hostile."

Kazue opened her mouth to snap a response, but was cut off as Neji raised a hand, his gaze unwaveringly locked on the woman.

"We're here about a companion of ours," he said. "She and a group of shinobi went disappearing in this area recently. From what we understand, you might know more about this."

The woman cocked her head slightly, as if considering the matter.

"Oh, them," she replied. "They're dead."

Kazue went stiff, Neji's eyes narrowing in the slightest degree. Matsu looked the two of them over in a disinterested manner, her previous interest disappearing by the second.

"I see it now, you're Leaf shinobi," she continued. "Not near as useful looking as that lot was. It's a shame you came up here, I'm sure Yo-kun would have had fun tearing you apart. That is his sort of thing."

"Useful?" Neji questioned.

Kazue's fingers tightened around the hilt of one of the kunai still settled in her weapons pouch. Part of her knew how important it was that they gain all the information they could- as they still had no clue what information Hikari's team had uncovered to result in their deaths- but the rest of her was beyond pissed. The simple, blunt words were spinning in her mind, mixing into the untapped vat of rage that had continued to simmer despite her return to Konoha.

She couldn't go back to her brother like this. She just couldn't.

"Tch, I like to believe myself intelligent. Why would I start sharing everything, hm?"

A kunai flung through the air; something Matsu easily dodged as she jumped with chakra infused feet to grasp the still open ceiling hatch.

"Then we're done talking," Neji added calmly.

The second the kunai had buried itself harmlessly in the wall behind her, she dropped back to the floor. Within moments of her feet touching the wood, Neji was there. His palm struck towards her arm with speed that could have almost rivaled Yo's. The woman met the blow without care, eyes narrowed as she fended off a series of strikes. Each blow had her gritting her teeth, eyes narrowed. Then there were the kunai and shuriken constantly being flung in her direction, causing her to repeatedly dodge as to not get skewered as a result of the deadly accuracy with which Kazue threw them.

Every time she dodged, Neji was there, palms open.

Then, suddenly, the array of shuriken and kunai stopped. Not having time to question it, Matsu slipped a single kunai into her grip, bringing it up in a swift arc aimed for Neji's gut. He jumped back, swinging out a foot. Matsu instantly ducked down, then sprung forward with her kunai still in hand. A kunai that fell from her grip when out of seemingly nowhere, a kunai glowing with the green hue of medical chakra sliced through the air just above the limb. Despite it having skimmed the limb, pain surged through her as she dropped the hand to her side with a grimace.

A smirk played on Kazue's lips.

She hadn't wasted a minute since her return to the village- well, beyond those annoying outings with Neji her grandfather had insisted upon. Two years was a lot of time to make up for- and make up for it she had. Her hands glowed with the medical sheen of the chakra scalpel, a color which faded from the kunai as soon as it came to as stop buried deeply in the weak, wooden flooring beneath their feet.

She'd learned more about that jutsu in the time she'd been gone than others could have imagined. It was one of the few weapons she'd always had on her. While away, she'd tried to extend it to her makeshift weapons, failure always the result.

The first thing she'd done upon given the chance to shop was purchase a set of chakra sensitive kunai.

Before Matsu could recover from the pain- Neji was there once more. His palm snuck past her guard, hitting her chest with a force that sent the woman skidding across the wooden floor. She gasped, barely bringing her hands up in time to guard against his next blow. A well aimed kick on her part- however- and he was sent springing backwards to keep from having his head clocked by Matsu's foot. In the split second following his retreat, the woman drew out a scroll from beneath her robe, dropped it open, and flashed one hand over the surface.

"Hidden Jutsu: Inferno!"

Neji's eyes widened in just the slightest degree as they picked up on the sudden surge of chakra from the scroll. Without a hint of hesitation, he threw himself to the side, taking Kazue to the ground with him as a surge of flame suddenly shot from the scroll in Matsu's hands. She didn't waste the time given to her in that moment, dropping the scroll to the ground and sending a series of shuriken in the leaf shinobi's direction. They barely dodged, a shuriken still managing to slice through the side of Neji's shirt, leaving a bloody line in its wake. Before the next wave of projectiles could reach the duo, however, he'd already caught his feet against the ground and brought his hands out in front of him.

"Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven!"

The shuriken were sent scattering in different directions, Neji coming to a stop within seconds of the end of the barrage. That- however- was all the diversion to Matsu's attention that Kazue had needed. She'd lunged forward, hands once again colored with the glow of the chakra scalpel as she drew one of her specially marked kunai from her pouch. The glow consumed the metal, similar to how it had done earlier, as she sent it flying towards Matsu's head. The woman barely had enough warning to duck, bringing her own weapons up just in time for the resounding clang of metal to metal to fill the air as Kazue's blades met hers.

A rapid exchange of blows took place following the clash, neither of the woman backing down as their kunai met again and again, each of them searching for a weakness in the others guard. The increasing speed of their motions had Neji watching with a narrowed gaze, his own eyes searching for his moment to rejoin the fight.

It came when Matsu's kunai slipped past Kazue's guard, burying itself in her shoulder as the woman spun, bringing foot around in a kick that sent Kazue skidding across the floor. Neji flung forward in her place, his palms striking toward Matsu's extended leg. A hiss of pain escaped the woman's lips as despite her instantaneous dodge, Neji still managed to turn and land a blow on her arm as she extended it to strike at his torso in a blow that no one else would have been able to see. The byakugan had it's uses, that was certain.

It was the same arm that had been injured by Kazue's kunai earlier, which in turn had the woman clutching it to her chest as she let out a series of colorful curses. She was cut short- however- as a kunai flying in her direction had her lightly shoving chakra into her feet to dodge in the air.

That smirk appeared on Kazue's lips once again.

It took Matsu a full second to see the tag tied onto the end of the kunai. In that single moment of distraction, Neji seemed to appear out of nowhere, his palms landing a blow that sent her flying back towards the boards just as the explosion tore through the floor, sending every piece of wood beneath their feet into splintered pieces.

Kazue instinctively snatched special, twin shuriken from her pouch, tossing them into the ceiling and grabbing the two lines that hung off of the ends. The sudden stop caused the chords to cut into her palms and colored the skin crimson. As if to add to her numerous injuries that had only begun to heal themselves, the kunai she hadn't bothered to drag from her shoulder- having forgotten about it in the heat of the battle- tore through the flesh from the sudden jolt to the limb. Without pausing, she released one of the cords, holding out a hand which Neji barely caught, jerking him to a stop as well.

Blood gushed down her arm, but neither one of them followed the path that their enemy took.

Just as Matsu had moved to keep herself from crashing into the floor below, her muscles locked up. Unknown to her, each of the blows from Neji that had she'd "blocked" had landed just where he'd wanted them. It'd taken a few moments, but she felt it, then- the pain of having her chakra network plugged.

Which was how the S-Class shinobi was sent crashing into- them through- the floors beneath them.

This was also how Kazue and Neji caught sight of a certain black-haired chuunin with a foot on his chest, kunai poised inches from his throat. The holes left in Matsu's wake had torn a clear line-of-sight from where they hung and the first floor room where Tenten, Jun, and Yo resided. It took them only seconds to pick up on the other, chilling view of Tenten slumped against a wall of the first floor.

A knot formed in Kazue's stomach as she realized that the girl's leg was drenched in blood.

In that single second, she became aware of something else:

From where she hung, she had no clue if Tenten was even breathing.

A/N: Let's leave off there, shall we? :3 Hope the action was clear enough that you guys could follow easily enough! I certainly enjoyed writing it!