A New Way of Ninja

16: Crossroads--2

["Hello My Old Heart"]

The hospital was mostly deserted at this hour, save for staff, who did not bat an eyelash at the Hyuga girls slipping in with so many other people.

Perhaps they knew better than to quest the Hyuga clan at all.

Neji was recovered enough to be sitting up in bed, eating an apple. He was very surprised to see his family members there again, Hanabi in particular.

Hinata reminded him quickly that Momo and Shine had been the ones to help him out before, and he thanked them politely.

Of course by now he knew that the whole mission had failed, but no one had told him of the subsequent efforts.

Hinata lacked the courage to easily tell him why they had come, though, and began to fumble over it.

Shine decided to spare her the pain and stepped forward.

"Neji, right?" she said. "I'm Shine Likstar. I'm an ally of the Hidden Sand Village."

Temari was impressed. Shine had picked up on their way of speaking quickly.

"Yesterday we were helping your allies to track Sasuke," Shine went on, "and then were doing some other things for them, and Hinata mentioned that you might be interested. Something about a curse mark."

Neji was quite taken aback.

"You told them about that?" He gave Hinata a very severe look.

Hinata opened her mouth to speak and found no words.

"Don't get mad at her." Shoto could never stand to see girls get bullied, especially by guys. "She was concerned about you. She was asking us if we could remove the curse."

Negi went from angry to shocked to mistrusting in a few moments' time.

It was strange to see it. Momo wasn't sure what he was thinking.

"That's impossible," he at last said, with a bitter edge.

"It's not impossible," Shine spoke again. "With permission, we have already done something people said was impossible, if it's all right with you to share it."

She looked at Gaara.

"I don't mind if he knows. I don't think he has a lot of reason to spread the information," Gaara said.

Temari hurriedly checked the hall to make sure no one was listening, but unless there was a literal bug in the room, no one appeared to be close by.

"I'm sure you know what the One-Tailed Beast is," Shine said to Neji. "Just yesterday, the four of us removed it from Gaara, without killing him, something apparently it's known to do."

Neji looked wary, but then his eyes contracted the same way Hinata's did, which was kind of gross to see. The veins pop out of his forehead. [I seriously think that can't be good for them.]

However, he was looking at Gaara's chakra levels...and he did not see any unusual amounts that would denote the beast's presence.

Though he did have higher levels than the average ninja, but that was normal for people who had the beasts, so as to be able to stand it.

"It seems like you're telling the truth," he said at last. "But I don't...know how that would be possible."

"We can use a higher power," Shine said. "We're going with it--it's not our own--the power of God. I'm told you all don't really believe in God, but that's too bad, because I have no better explanation."