Said blond woman was already directly in front of them with a wide smile on her youthful face. She bowed respectfully to grandma Chiyo first and all the children followed her example before meeting Tenten with a handshake. "You must be the woman everyone has been talking about since Eve-sama got here. I'm Chinosuke Chino, it's nice to meet you."

***

Tenten looked down at the dainty hand asking for a handshake and took it almost shyly. "Xinyang. Xinyang Tenten. Nice to meet you. Too." She replied mechanically.

Chino grinned at her. If she wanted to say something, she couldn't because the children flocking her began to get fussy about the promised goodies. They tugged on her arms until she was practically bending sideways and Chino chuckled. "You children are so spoiled." She laughed. Her green eyes shifted over to Tenten. "I would have loved to talk more but these little gremlins wouldn't allow me. If you would help us with the sweets please."

It was a struggle to even lift her arm to give Tenten the key to Neji's car with the children hanging off of it but she managed to and Tenten led them to the car. She figured that the sweets were in the packaged bags resting on the backseat and she was right. The children grew even more excited at the sight of the goody bags, much so that Chino had to threaten them with keeping the goodies for herself before they quieted down. Somewhat.

Once all the candy and cookie bags had been placed safely in Chino's arms Tenten locked the car up. "Thank you very much Miss Xinyang." Chino bowed her head in appreciation. Tenten reciprocated the gesture. "We'll catch up later okay?" She then turned to the kids. "Now about we share our goodies with everyone?" The children cheered loudly and off they went distributing candy to the other neighborhood children.

Tenten watched them go with amusement. The happy atmosphere reminded her of Luse, when a new wife made local snacks for all kids to share. It was a Meigui tradition for a newly wed woman to make local snacks or food for the village children to appease the spirit of fertility. The more children loved her offering, the more children she had when it was time for her to begin to give birth. Tenten used to run around with the other village children eating the snacks and going back for more until all was exhausted. How she missed eating those snacks now.

"Heartwarming, isn't it?"

Tenten startled when Chiyo's voice sounded suddenly behind her. She had forgotten about the old woman's existence. "O-olushi!" She yelped as she turned around.

There was a young man beside grandma Chiyo now. He must have arrived when she was helping Chino with the sweets. Upon her curious stare the man bowed respectfully to Tenten, which was queer because she had never received that level of respect before. "Give the car keys to Molife please. He shall help with the luggage." Chiyo explained the reason for his appearance.

Tenten wondered if she should trust the man with Neji's car and their luggage but since Chiyo seemed to trust him she decided to do so too, handing over the keys to calloused hands. Once she did Chiyo nudged her with her cane. "Take a walk with me, will you?"

-

The city of Amegakure wasn't as bright as any other city Tenten had been to before. It wasn't as busy as Konohagakure and certainly not as bustling with activity as Kirigakure was. What it lacked in human activity though, it made up for in its serenity. The streets were muddy, staining her sandals, and the air was damp. Clouds covered the whole sky so there was no sun, however Tenten loved the place. It was so peaceful, so different from what she had heard about the Weeping City in the news.

Almost everyone wore raincoats. Those that didn't held an umbrella in hand for fear of a sudden downpour. But even then the people of Amegakure bustled with joy. The children were playing games on the streets, betting the sweets they'd just received from Chino as their price. Adults were on about their daily commercial activities however small they seemed. Even though the houses were ratty and small compared to the ones in the big city, contentment wafted off the people in waves.

Eyes watched her and Chiyo go by, a few people waving at her or giving acknowledging nods of their heads. Tenten heard some children chatting among themselves that she was Neji's wife and her mood almost soured. Almost. Why did people associate her with the thieving jerk? She wasn't a criminal like he was.

Tenten was brought out of her thoughts when a little girl in a red raincoat and yellow boots ran out of a group of children, the ones whispering loudly about her, and stopped in front of her. "Ne, ne, missus, is it true that you are Neji's wife?" She asked with a toothy grin. The other children loudly groaned at the background. They clearly did not expect her to jump out and give their conversation away like that. Tenten found it adorable.

She bent till she was at the girl's level. "No I'm not." She replied.

"Told you so!" A voice rang out amidst the disappointed groans of the children.

"Aww but but you're his bestest friend, right? Right?" Ever so enthusiastic, the girl pushed for an answer she was satisfied with. Tenten was almost tempted to say she could never be friends with a pervert like Neji but that would mean more questions and she didn't want to waste Chiyo's time. Said old woman was looking on fondly at her interaction with the local children.

Tenten patted the girl's damp hair. "Yes I am his friend. Don't tell him I say that okay?"

"Okay!" The girl chirped, satisfied with their compromise, and ran back to her group of friends.

"Everything is different."

The children had resumed their play and Tenten, her walk with Chiyo. The stark difference between what she heard on the news about Amegakure and what she was seeing fascinated her so much that she couldn't keep her thoughts inside.

"What is, dear?" Chiyo asked, not understanding what the girl meant by her words.

"Weeping City." Tenten clarified. "Weeping City is different from what I see on TV. I think that Weeping City will be sad and there will be rain but it is different...happy." Tenten realized how offensive her observation might have been after she had made it. "Ah no offense." She said to lessen the impact but Chiyo simply chuckled.

"None taken dear. After all what you said is very true." Chiyo's face began to gain a faraway look, one that was often associated with a serene but bad memory. "Amegakure was no place for the living. It was a literal dump site, the slums of the Water country if you'd like to call it that. It was a place for the rejects. It still is. Plagues infected and killed us off like it was child's play. Everywhere was dirty and messy. People died here and there, if not by disease then by the numerous atrocities committed in the place."

"Very horrible." Tenten verbalized. Chiyo smiled.

"Yes. It was. But that was until a certain group of people found this place and for better for worse, they took over the old government." Tenten wondered if the group Chiyo was talking about were the Akatsuki. She'd heard rumours about it before but she wasn't about to interrupt Chiyo while she spoke. "I think it was for the better though. Amegakure got a lot better without its government exploiting the little the people had." Chiyo sighed, looking up at the sky. "Neji..."

Tenten perked up at the mention of the long haired man. "Neji...?" She urged.

"I remember the day he was brought here like it was yesterday. Like the rest of us, he was rejected, abandoned. He used to have a dead look in those pale eyes of his until, suddenly, they came alive. It wasn't a good turn of events. His eyes no longer looked dead, they glowed...glowed with something I could not place my hands on. His interaction with those people turned him into something I can't describe." At the confused look on Tenten's face, Chiyo chuckled. "Now don't get me wrong dear, Neji is a really sweet boy. He's the one that brought this much innovation to this dead town, hence why the people love him. However sometimes I fear for him. I fear that the darkness in his heart will one day overtake him." Well that did nothing to clear Tenten's confusion.

Chiyo suddenly stopped walking, turning to face Tenten abruptly. The girl was startled by the action but was grounded by the old woman's hands on hers. The wrinkled hands held hers tightly with a strength that Tenten didn't think she had. "Right now the only thing keeping Neji sane is his strong moral principles. I fear that one day those principles will break him and when it does he would not be able to recover!"

"Uh..." Tenten wasn't sure how she was involved in all this. Chiyo seemed so genuinely scared for Neji that it had her feeling constipated in return. Was the old pervert that bad? As bad as she thought he was, was there an even worse side to him that she didn't know?

"Seeing you today with him however gave me hope for the first time in years." Chiyo's grip on Tenten went lax but she didn't quite let go. "The way he looked at you... there's a light you shine on him even if you don't quite know it, and even if he himself doesn't know it. It was a brief interaction but I can already tell you're a good influence on him. So Tenten, my dear, I beg you. Please do not leave his side no matter what faces of himself he shows and please do not let him wander too deep into the darkness. Please Tenten."

Tenten felt choked up. This old woman was giving her such a hard task and little did she know that she wanted nothing to do with Neji. They were only together for this mission and after that they will part ways hopefully forever. She had things to do. She had to retrieve the dragon jewels that were stolen from her mother land. She had to offer the head of her family's murderers to their graves as a sacrifice. There was no time to take care of anybody, not to mention Neji, but Chiyo was so desperate, it made Tenten's skin crawl.

"I... I'll..." Tenten didn't know what to say. She couldn't make a promise she wouldn't keep. "I..."

"Bara?"

Tenten didn't think there was anybody other than Neji in this town that knew her by that name but, grateful for the the interruption that saved her from answering Chiyo's request, she turned around to find none other than the woman she'd impersonated to save her life at Kirigakure, Shirayuki Haku.

"Haku." Tenten was surprised by the woman's presence at Amegakure, even more so by the figure that loomed so closely beside her. Now criminal news was something Tenten was so keen on given the nature of her job so she quickly recognized the jagged looking man with filed teeth beside Haku as one of the most notorious criminals in Kirigakure. "Z-Zabuza?!"

Tenten wasn't even aware that Chiyo had released her hands. She gazed from Haku to Zabuza and Zabuza back to Haku rapidly in shock. Her mind whirred almost audibly as she pieced two and two together.

Tenten didn't know the full extent of the story but she knew that just until she travelled to Kirigakure, Zabuza was in Kirigakure's municipal prison. Although she was a bit behind in current affairs because of the recent situations she had been finding herself in she was sure that there was no way a criminal of Zabuza's caliber could get a pardoned release from the law court. The mystery of how Zabuza was free and thriving in the Weeping City remained but more than curiosity Tenten felt her forgotten anger towards Haku and Neji rise again.

When she was mistaken for Haku and arrested at Kirigakure the police officers asked her if she was an accomplice of Zabuza's but she didn't want to believe that somebody as innocent looking as Haku worked together with a hardened criminal like Zabuza. However, as she stared at the two of them, everything started to become so clear why what seemed to be a simple request of diverting the police attention so Haku could get away successfully became a complicated situation of tag with the Kirigakure police.

Tenten still had a lot of questions about everything that had happened until now but she was angry. She was angry at both Neji and Haku for putting her in a position that could strip her off her job at Hatake Security Inc. She was angry that Neji was apparently a bigger criminal that she thought. She was angry at so many things that the reasons for her anger began to look irrational at some point.

"I'm sorry elder, Zabuza, but can I speak with her alone for a moment?" Haku's soft voice broke through the dark cloud that hovered above Tenten. Chiyo shrugged as she continued her walk alone.

"Please put my request into consideration, dear. I will see you later." The elder said as she walked away.

Haku turned to look at Zabuza who was still hanging around. The man grunted, leveling Tenten with a hard glare which the woman returned , before he conceded to Haku and left. "I'll be waiting for you at home." He said roughly.

"Alright bye." Haku watched Zabuza go for a while before she returned her focus to Tenten with a small. "I didn't expect to see you here, Bara." Tenten wasn't impressed, her flat face said so. But if she opened her mouth to speak she wouldn't say anything nice, so she kept quiet and waited for the other woman to talk. "You...you have no idea how grateful I am to you and Hiashi-san for reuniting me with my beloved."

"Beloved?" Tenten asked, baffled but Haku gained a soft pink flush on her face.

"Yes. Zabuza is my beloved. You must be surprised because of his reputation, aren't you?"

Tenten was more than surprised. "Yes..." She uttered.

"I get that a lot but you see, I don't care what people think about us or about me for the man I love. Zabuza means a lot to me and I will continue to cherish him no matter what anybody thinks or says about us."

"Uh..." Tenten was stunned speechless. Seeing Haku so determined and with a flush high on her cheeks made Tenten realize that even if she wanted to be angry at Haku, she had no right to. It was strange, the person she chose to love and the heights she was willing to go for that person, but it wasn't in her place to decide for her. "Sorry." Tenten felt the need to apologize for jumping into conclusions even though Haku didn't understand why she was doing it.

"For what?" The other woman asked, confused but Tenten just gave a strained smile.

"Are you happy? Here?" She asked instead.

Haku shrugged. "Well it was a bit of a shock to know that Hiashi-san was the leader of this place but I'm really glad he accepted me and Zabuza. We're being hunted in other places but here is so peaceful, something we haven't experienced in a long time, so yes. I'm happy."

Tenten guessed that was all that mattered. If Haku was happy with the person she loved then it was okay. As the women parted ways Tenten began to ponder on a lot of things and most of them were about Neji. There was a darker side to the man that she didn't know of and she was not sure she wanted to know at all. From her conversation with Chiyo earlier she figured that Neji was somehow related to the Akatsuki. Her assumptions could be wrong but what if she was correct? The old woman's words gave her so much unrest. What darkness was Neji spiralling into?

"Ah." Tenten snapped out of her inner musings and took a look around at her surroundings. Everything was unfamiliar and she had no tour guide. "I'm lost."

She looked around trying to trace back where she came from but the buildings looked too similar with each other, she couldn't tell which one was which. Tenten was about to ask a passers by the way back to the main town when she came across a familiar face. "Chinosuke-san." She called the petite blonde whose face lit up upon seeing her.

"Miss Xinyang!" The woman was carrying a baby on her chest. Tenten wondered if it was hers. "Fancy seeing you in this part of the town."

"Ah I get lost." Tenten replied sheepishly. Chino chuckled.

"It's okay, I'll lead you back to Eve-sama's house."

"Thank you." Tenten appreciated.

"You're welcome. And by the way, call me Chino. That sounds better." Chino said cheerfully.

"Okay... Chino-san." Tenten obliged.

"That's the spirit! Can I call you Tenten?"

"Yes." Tenten answered. "The baby...yours?"

"Oh him?" Chino gazed down softly at the dark haired child strapped to her chest by a sash which looked like it was tied in a complicated but secure way. "He isn't mine, I'm afraid." Something told Tenten that Chino wished he was hers but she said nothing. "I offered to babysit! I was actually on my way to get some groceries." The blond concluded with a smile.

"Oh." Tenten uttered.

"So... what's your relationship with Eve-sama?" Chino had a cheeky look on her face that Tenten didn't like. It was like Chino was assuming that there was something between her and Neji and there was not. But Chino was relentless. "Are you his girlfriend? Fiance?"

"None." Tenten shut her down flatly.

"But soon to be eh?" Chino teased with a wag of her brows. Tenten scoffed.

"As if I'll be that criminal's girlfriend." She meant it as a soft mutter only she could hear but apparently Chino heard it because she went silent. Only for a brief moment though.

"You know Tenten, Eve-sama might be a criminal to you but to me, to all of us in this community, he is our hero."

"Hero?" How was Neji a hero?

As if hearing her internal question, Chino spoke up. "He saved me from a wretched life of prostitution." The admittance caused Tenten to gasp loudly but Chino only smiled, wordlessly saying she was okay with sharing her story.

"I was in a huge debt and when I couldn't pay off I was forced into prostitution by my creditors until I repaid all my debts. Of course they weren't planning to release me so soon. They kept adding incredulous interest rates to my debt to make sure I remained in debt while they used my body how they wanted. I wasn't the only one in those shoes. Many others in the cage were like me, some of them had been kidnapped and forced into slavery since their childhood. The four walls of the cage were the only things we knew until Eve-sama came and saved us. Not only did he save us, he reunited us with our families and for those of us that didn't have any, he accepted us into his town with open arms. I've always wanted children but I can't have any because so many abortions has rendered me infertile. But now I'm surrounded by so many children. Nobody judges me for my past and upbringing and leaves their children in my care."

Chino softly patted the baby's hair she carried as she said this. "I'm forever grateful to Eve-sama for giving me the opportunity to live again, to see the sun again and to have children even if they aren't my own. I owe him my life. Those of us that he saved and accepted owe him our lives. So you see, even if Eve-sama is a criminal like you say, it doesn't matter to us." Chino pinned Tenten with a smile that made her so uneasy and itchy. She almost melted from the gaze. "All I'm saying in essence is to give yourself a chance to know Eve-sama better. You never know what you'll find underneath all that hard exterior."

"Uhm ..." Tenten didn't know what to say. Fortunately she didn't have to speak because they had gotten to the house where Neji's car was parked in front of and the devil himself was at the doorstep, waiting for her while he played with some kids.

"We're here. Have a nice day Tenten."

"Thank you Chino-san. Have nice day too."

Chino waved Tenten off and resumed her quest to buy groceries. Meanwhile Neji had shooed the kids off as he walked over to Tenten. "I see you're making friends, Coconut." As usual he was annoying with every word that dropped out of his mouth but now the words just hit harder than usual. Maybe it was because of the things she heard from both Chino, Haku and grandma Chiyo, she didn't know.

The people she met today kept telling her there were different sides to Neji she didn't know. She didn't even know what to do with the information. It was overwhelming. "Ugh I'm tired." Tenten sighed.

"Well let's go inside then." Neji said, ushering her into the house. Molife had taken their luggage in, Tenten noticed as they passed. "You look like an old granny from how hard you're scowling. If this goes on people will start mistaking you for one.

Well, Tenten made up her mind, if there were other sides to Neji that would be revealed to her later on, she would cross that bridge when she got there. For now she would focus on not killing Neji in his sleep for being so annoying.

***

Hello. How are you today? I managed to update this story! I'm so proud of myself though I feel that the chapter needs a little bit more working on. I hope you enjoyed it anyway. Leave a vote, leave a review if you did. Thanks for reading!

-Star.