Alchemy

8,3) UNANSWERED DREAMS

[A/N: please see the ALL AUTHOR'S NOTES AND INFOMATION chapter under the date 3/10 after this for the montly report and info on this chapter before reading...]

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Tenten:

"Listen here we have very important business and no time to waste so if you would just wh--" Neji's tone was curt but had changed into being on the verge of being called impolite.

He was beginning to grow agitated.

"No you listen. Just who do you think you are to defy your elders boy?" the old innkeeper said whilst simultaneously swatting his hands away from the door.

I stood to the side observing everything. I'm pretty sure he regretted telling me to stay out of it now.

The town we had stopped by was one of the very last ones before our country met its end and the rolling hills of the Land of Whirlpools had started.

Neji had insisted we check this border before heading anywhere else. But to be honest if the princess was travelling by herself and wasn't kidnapped; she would be long over the border by now.

When we had arrived in this relatively unpopulated yet built-up town we hadn't expected nearly every inn and lodging to be completely booked for some local festival. A festival that Neji had never heard of yet one that had attracted common people from dozens of other neighboring towns and villages to come and visit.

I had given Neji a look of boredom and irritation as he continued to argue with the old, wizened women.

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Neji:

In my peripheral vision I caught Tenten glaring at me.

Well how was I supposed to foresee this?

It's not as if we would have needed to retire to this backwater inn anyway… If it wasn't for the storm that was...I
It's is if fate wanted to keep me away from that forest for a little while longer. Why? I didn't know.

Flashback:

We stood into the oddly full town. Market stalls and festive decorations were set up wherever there was space narrowing the streets and hence cramming up the town even more.

We wouldn't stay long. Just long enough for me to send Hiashi-sama a letter and to collect any possible leads.

"Hyuga-sama? Hyuga-sama!" distant shouting pulled me from my thoughts.

I turned to see two border shinobi running towards us.

I turned back to Tenten--only to see that she wad a step ahead of me and had vanished.

We didn't need any reports of a foreign kunoichi accompanying me heading back to Hiashi.

Now that I had found out her secret...there and no need for her to hide it anymore. She had swapped out her threadbare, poorly fitted outfit for the kunoichi clothes I had discovered in her backpack a while ago  she had also explained the entirety of the Kunai family history and she had spoken of had tragedies had befallen her brother and why she had deceived me.