Hello I am Aphrodiete.

As some of you know this fic was originally named "Torn" however I decided to change its generic title. However, the first chapter will still be titled torn in memory of its creation.

Originally, I was going to scrap this entire fanfic because looking back I did some terrible writing in my opinion. Good ideas, but without a solid plotline, but then I stumbled across this old fic and read the reviews that were left behind in my absence and I once more fell in love with the idea of writing this fic. Simply continuing where I left off wasn't an option so I am rewriting the entire thing (not that it was much LOL).

A special thanks to Blondie10, Cat, elli-sofia, LuvleeCookieChan, Etsuko Hoshi, lovewrath, EmoPrincess21, trulyanimelover06, Rougish, marissa mars and the lovely quest whom all left reviews for the old content! You all rock and I'm honored that you took the time to review on my work.

I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. I simply created the plotline.

The rookie nine are about 18 years old and the members of team guy are 19. I'm still bitter that Neji was killed off.

The Cat and The Canary

Ultimatum- a final demand or statement of terms, the rejection of which will result in retaliation or a breakdown in relations.

Chapter One: Torn

His day had started out perfect. A clean kill and not a drop of misplaced blood. The mark of an assiduous predator.

Had Neji known that Hiashi would be prowling around the compound with a lethal demand he would have never completed his classified mission so quickly. At least then he would still have a few more peaceful days to linger in blissful ignorance. He knew the moment he entered the main house and saw Hinata shaken of her last ounce of confidence that his life was about to change forever.

Neji escaped the somber Hyuga compound at a brisk pace weaving his way through the dark thicket determined to pour his anger out in training. Each low hanging branch of foliage that was passed earned a not-so-gentle smack from his palm effectively snapping the thin wooden limbs and sending shaking leaves to the grassy floor. It was late into the night, but he couldn't bring himself to care. That man had gone too far this time. Neji had just spent the last hour having his future decided by the unrelenting Hiashi.

"It had to be her." He seethed to himself. At this rate, he doubted that even his favorite pastime of meditation could calm his raging spirit. It baffled him that after all the progress he had made to accept his family and his fate that he was taking a step back. Of course, he wasn't blaming the main branch anymore, but he couldn't stand his uncles vile order which had been recently issued. Once more the lock had been latched shut on his gilded cage, leaving him aching for freedom.

Hiashi was determined to force his daughter Hinata to become the wife of his eldest nephew, something that Neji greatly opposed. Any other woman or girl Neji would have begrudgingly accepted and married by order of the main branch, however it was his dear cousin. The thought of destroying her happiness was vulgar. His uncle had thought otherwise and claimed to have to reasons for this forced union.

The first reason behind Hiashi's demand was that this marriage would diffuse the relationship between his daughter and the "scandalous and demonic troublemaker" and the second reason being that this union would pass Neji's superior abilities and valuable genes back into the Main Branch.

At the first exposure of this demand Neji cringed and fought back. After all, Hinata was like a sister to him and his uncle's resolution was sickening. For once in her life Hinata had something that she desired and Hiashi wanted to rip it from her trembling fingers. She would be damaged. An arranged marriage would not replace unequivocal love between two kindred souls. Sure, it had taken long - far too long in Neji's opinion – for Naruto to stop chasing Sakura and look at the girl who had been rooting desperately for him from the moment she laid eyes on him, but he loved her just as fiercely. And if he was being selfish he had to admit that this marriage would ruin his life as well by throwing away his opportunity to find someone to love.

Someone to cherish.

However, as soon as Neji had voiced his protest Hiashi was quick to remind him of his place. An excruciating burst of pain to his forehead and a sharp reprimand had Neji on the floor glaring at the Hyuga patriarch. Once the man had retreated Neji stormed furiously down the hall and outside to put distance between himself and reality.

Hiashi's words were still fresh in his throbbing mind. "You exist to serve the main branch and you will do as I say. Unless there is some liability you will marry Hinata."

The words churned viciously within the Hyuga genius as he crossed the property border: he only slowed down once he was a mile out into unfamiliar territory.

Neji chose to stop in front of an expansive tree which would serve as his victim. With each well practiced strike the tree dropped more of its emerald coat with a shiver. Each chakra surged palm bore down harder than the last as he tried to calm his racing thoughts… failing.

Any viable option of escaping the cursed arrangement would lead to his own demise. If he ran away he could escape the marriage, but he would be hunted down for retrieval or assassination due to his kekkei genkai. If only there were a way to change Hiashi's mind.

Neji shook his head to clear the useless thoughts. He began counting to regain control over his mind. It was an exercise that he used on occasion when he chose to ignore Lee or Tenten during practice. Counting wasn't always successful, but at this point anything was worth the shot to remove the burning thoughts that bleed through his psyche.

One, Two, Three, Four… Even if he were removed from the picture Hiashi would find another clan member to wed her… Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen… and if she continued to see Naruto after they were married then she would be pushed into the side branch like him… Twenty-Nine, Thirty, Thirty-One, Thirty-Two… however, Hiashi's aim was to return Neji's valuable genes to the main branch… Forty-Five, Forty-Six, Forty-Seven, Forty-Eight… if he had been in a serious relationship then Hiashi wouldn't have been able to corner him…Fifty-Two, Fifty-Three, Fifty-Four, Fifty-Five… if he hadn't rejected the weapon expert when she came to him… Sixty-One… she had offered herself to him…Sixty-Two, Sixty-Three, S-

-Splash

The sound rippled his concentration.

Neji paused and intently listened.

A series of soft splashes reached his ears along with the sound of music, singing, no… humming.

More splashing.

Momentarily forgetting his predicament Neji followed the curious melody. It was beyond him why another person would be out this far into the forest at such an unreasonable hour.

And there she was. There dancing upon a stream of bubbling water was a young woman. Her blonde hair swirled about her curves and she moved with a grace that nearly put his entire clan to shame. In one of her hands she grasped a woven flower basket quietly trickling pastel petals upon the glassy moonlit surface. Down the soft round appendages drifted… pink, yellow, blue.

She was surreal.

And then to his horror cerulean eyes landed on his own. Suddenly she was familiar, oh so familiar. This was Yamanaka Ino the other loud mouth blonde of Kohona. How could he have missed that trademark hairstyle style and revealing purple clothing?

Ino brought her graceful feet together, gripping her flower basket with both hands and accessed him with curious narrowed eyes.

Neji was torn between confronting her and simply walking away.

He took in her appearance once more, watching her delicate eyebrow lift. Hiashi would kill Hinata if she had ever decided to dress in so... little. Her looks had improved since they were genin or maybe it was just because he was older that he noticed her now.

The florist placed the bountiful basket on the creek bank and crossed her arms. "What the hell do you want Hyuga?"

Neji stopped his mouth from falling open in shock, instead keeping a calm and composed mask. He never would have expected such vile and unrefined language from a woman. Had she spoken like this all those years ago? It frustrated him that he couldn't remember.

Deciding that the spirited Yamanaka wasn't worth the trouble of humoring on such an atrocious night he turned his back on the crass girl facing the direction of the sinister compound. Neji pushed back the sense of dread that wallowed within his stomach as he pondered returning to the Hyuga household.

An unladylike snort penetrated the silence, splintering Neji's thought process for the second time in the short span of time that he had encountered the brazen woman.

Her voice rang out with a twinge of annoyance. "You haven't changed you know."

Of course, he had changed since the last time she encountered him. However, this time his view of the main house had changed back, coincidently the night of their second woodland rendezvous. Fate seemed to have a way of gnawing its way back into his life when this blond stranger was around him, almost as if she held the reigns to his destiny. A cynical part of him wondered if another forest encounter the next night would shake off his uncle's demand.

Fate. He pondered the word bitterly. Such a word that he believed to have left behind after Naruto had taught him that he held the power to change his own fate, his own destiny. Fate was forged more from fire than stone. Fate was malleable. Yet it seemed notorious when rearing its ugly head at a certain Hyuga family.

"I resented you for a long time." She admitted out of the blue. Neji spared a glance at her taking a seat among swaying stalks of emerald velvet topped by round pastel stars. Her lips quirked as she met his unamused gaze.

The Yamanaka patted the springy stalks beside her and he decided in that moment that sitting next to the unpredictable blonde was better than returning to his cage.

It was strange to see the embodiment of a raging hurricane so still gazing at the stars and tracing wildflower petals. Her nails he noticed were surprisingly chipped and rather than painted purple as he would expect they were a soft baby blue. Forgetting his own troubles for a moment he found himself asking a question that he knew the answer to. "Do you still?"

"Yes."

Perhaps her response only bothered him because everything else in his life had gone wrong that night. He couldn't truly care what this woman who was practically a stranger thought of him. He had interacted with her very minimally during his life and preferred to keep it that way. This would be an easy feat to accomplish considering that they held a mutual distaste for each other. After tonight he promised himself to avoid the diva.

Yamanaka changed the subject. "Naruto is worried about Hinata. She has been avoiding him."

Neji's gut twisted at her words and he simply hummed in response, but to him it came out sounding suspiciously like a turbulent growl. Perhaps if he ignored her she would drop it. The problem seemed impossible to escape even around this almost stranger.

"That's unlike her." The blonde pressed throwing him a sidelong glance. After a pause, she added with an indignant huff. "She loves him."

Oddly enough hearing the validity of Hinata's love from this woman made him feel guilty. As if it was his fault that the marriage had been arranged. He supposed in some twisted angle that is was his fault for not becoming romantically involved with his teammate that they were in such a compromising mess. But, Neji felt that he had done the right thing in not leading Tenten on to develop false hope.

He looked away to watch the moon and the smudged shadows dancing along its pristine surface.

This was not a conversation he wanted to have with Yamanaka Ino.

Ignoring the kunoichi proved to be futile when he felt her baby blue fingernails dig into his thigh making him uncomfortable. Not only had she returned to an aggressive state she was touching him in a way that he deemed grossly inappropriate.

She leaned in as he leaned away. "I know you know."

He was clearly insane for thinking he could spend time with the crazed blonde and forget about his own problems. Neji pried her hand off, gracefully climbed to his feet and turned his back on the Yamanaka. Before he managed enough steps to be at a safe distance he felt two small fists tug at the back of his clothing and registered a frustrated sigh. "Damnit Hyuga I'm worried about her too!"

After several seconds of silence, she let out a frustrated growl and roughly pulled on the back of his shirt which only succeeded in annoying him further. "Let me in you jerk. I want to help!"

She may be aggravating, but she clearly cared about Naruto and Hinata's happiness. Perhaps she wasn't as selfish as he previously assumed.

Neji spoke through a clenched jaw. "Hiashi arranged us to be married."

Everything was silent for a moment and then it wasn't.

"What do you mean arranged to be married?"

"That is his ultimatum."

"Fuck his ultimatum." The Yamanaka snapped walking around the Hyuga protégé to face him head on.

In his mind's eye, Neji could just see Hiashi's appalled expression as he ran for the nearest bar of soap to purge her sinful mouth. This girl symbolized everything that his uncle hated and rejected. She is invasive, stubborn, loud, provocative, and crass.

"You don't really have to do what that bastard says do you?" she asked looking up at him, firecrackers in swam within her cerulean orbs.

Suddenly a gleaming proposition burst into his mind. It would be reckless and it wasn't foolproof, but it was the only plan he could conjure up that didn't involve his own death. That is if he survived his uncle's wrath for concocting such a defiant strategy.

His own words rang in his mind reminding him of who he is. 'No one can determine another's destiny'. Unbridled hope soared through the Hyuga protégé.

Naruto was the one who changed his life forever, for good, for the better. He couldn't let that kindness go to waste. He had to pay him back by saving his relationship with the Hyuga heiress. After all it was Naruto who called him a genius. Neji would not sit back powerless to stop Hiashi's boorish ultimatum. Not when he could find a way to win.

If Hiashi thought Naruto was scandalous, the ramen lover was about to appear a saint.

Yamanaka Ino was the perfect liability.

A smirk broke out across his face causing the irritated blonde to blush. "I need your help."

She placed her hands on her hips forming her own Siamese smirk. "I see you've found your backbone."

Neji ignored her taunt and ushered his words out. "Pretend to be my girlfriend."

He watched as she took a moment to register the words before exploding.

"You want me to what!?" Ino screeched at the Hyuga genius, breaking the tranquility of the forest, scattering multitudes of birds into flight and causing a slight ring in Neji's ears.

Neji sighed with trepidation. He truly hadn't expected the Yamanaka to be so difficult about the subject. Most girls would have been swooning by if he had asked them the same request. Why couldn't she just say yes? "Miss Yamana-"

"Ino." She cut him off saucily, placing her hands adamantly on her hips.

"Excuse me?" Neji balked and crossed his arms, mildly offended by the loud girl's swift interruption.

"Call me Ino." She demanded crossing her arms to mimic him.

Neji observed the pushy blonde in front of him for a moment. He had always known her to be loud and obstinate from Shikamaru's complaints, however it had never occurred to him until that very second how well her name suited her.

"Fine." He continued tersely. "I believe that I had made myself quite clear."

Her eyes narrowed once more and she responded with slight venom. "You want me to be your pretend girlfriend."

Neji gave the irritable blonde a slight dip of his head in agreement, ignoring the bothersome stands of hair that fell forward onto his face and gazed intently into the infernal woman's cerulean eyes seeking an answer. It was apparent that his presence had some sort of effect on Ino due to her flushed cheeks.

Neji felt a trickle of sweat form on his palms as he waited for her reaction considering her unpredictable nature his plan could be crushed before it started. Why wasn't she getting that he was asking her to help him help Hinata and Naruto?

The young woman in front of him snapped back into action and set her jaw. Her hands resumed their favorite place on her hips and she smirked. "What is your aim Hyuga? Did you finally come to your senses?" She snapped with a haughty toss of her hair.

The air practically crackled with electricity and non-verbal insults between them. Neji narrowed his eyes at her accusation. Of course he had not lost his senses. Deep down Neji knew this plan of his was insane. He was demanding the annoying Sasuke fan-girl to date him, even if it was intended as a hoax.

He let the words roll across his silver tongue. "It had not come to my attention that I lost them."

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then pure fury resonated across her heavenly features. He knew instantly that he had spoken the wrong words. Neji would receive no help from the hellish flower girl if she continued to hate him. Although her accusations irked him, now was not the time to address them.

"No Hyuga!" Ino snapped. "I will not be your fake girlfriend and if you expect me to just forget and act like that little scene in the forest of death never happened! You thought wrong Hyuga." She finished her point by stomping her foot, crossing her arms, and letting out a huff of anger.

Oh, the irony. It took everything in his power to not openly laugh at her childish antics. He needed her on his side and displaying his amusement would only further drive her away. Neji wasn't entirely sure how to calm Ino down from her tantrum, but considering how dire his situation was: he would do anything. After all it was his and Hinata's lives hanging in the balance.

Neji sighed. "This isn't about what happ-"

"You humiliated me Hyuga." Her eyelids snapped into a half-narrowed stance once more and she pierced him with her cerulean eyes which he noticed for the first time were nearly pupil-less like his own.

His rejection of her seduction attempt clearly bothered her more than he ever thought it would. Neji could feel his and Hinata's futures gradually slipping away due to his past actions concerning the blonde-haired fiend. He decided to try one more time. With the last of his dignity slipping away he leaned forward close enough to smell the shampoo that she used that morning and spoke softly, gazing down into her piercing eyes. "Do this for Hinata."

The Yamanaka looked confused. "What do you mean… Ohhhhh." She perked up and her lips lifted with an ebullient smile as she cast her face downward. Her mood swings were going to kill him before Hiashi had a chance to.

Rose tinted cheeks and sun kissed hair rose up to face him, although her soft glare was averted in another direction. "Fine. Yes. I'll do it."

Neji felt his breath rush out in utter relief. How long had he been holding it? Once more his future was settled into his palms to shape. He was silently imagining everything returning to normal once the plan was a success. Hinata would remain with Naruto and Neji could resume his own unbothered life.

"Sooo." she drawled, sucking on her teeth as she waited for him to speak.

Her tone brought him back to the present. "I will pick you up tomorrow and we can discuss the details then."

"Okay." The Yamanaka had returned to a chipper attitude. "See you tomorrow." Bounding off she called out to him. "Sweet dreams!"

He opened his mouth to say 'Goodnight', but she was already far off, heading in the direction of her home he assumed.

Neji was too relieved to be annoyed by the fact that he was dating -well pretend dating- one of the most obnoxious people he knew behind Naruto and Rock Lee of course. Then again Kiba grated on Neji's nerves just as much as the other two teens.

He noticed that she had left her flower basket toppled with an expansive variety of wildflowers resting on the bank. Figuring that he was going to see her tomorrow and that they were in a relationship for show, he didn't mind grabbing the floral basket to return to her tomorrow. Perhaps after this act of kindness the Yamanaka would stay calm and tolerable around him for the day.

As Hyuga protégé walked back to the family compound he briefly wondered whether he had made the right choice and furthermore if his last-minute plan would work. His uncle was quite perceptive and his hoax relationship with the wild blonde would have to appear genuine. As for Ino, keeping her as his accomplice could prove to be challenging considering their opposing personalities. He supposed showering her with lavish, but pointless gifts would keep the angry girl happy. Neji momentarily cringed at the idea of holding Ino's bags as she tried on dress after dress. If that was what it came down to; sacrifices would have to be made.

The journey back was longer than he originally anticipated, but Neji was relived to finally slide open the doors to the main house and slip in with the singular thought of his soft bed awaiting him.

As he was padding silently down the hall towards the safety of his room the sound of his name reached his ears.

"Neji-nii." came the utterly desolate and heartbroken voice of the young Hyuga heir.

Neji turned to meet the swimming eyes of his favored cousin. "Hinata-sama." He murmured while opening his arms to comfort the smaller girl. They had become quite close after learning the truth behind his father's death.

She hesitantly stepped into his arms shaking. "W-we only h-hav-ve a f-few d-days left."

Neji stroked her hair as she sobbed into his robes. "Shhh. Don't cry Hinata-sama. I have a plan." He whispered.

Hinata stepped back sniffling and stabbing her index fingers together. "Y-you do?"

It pained him to see her reverting back into the ghost of her former self.

"Yes." Neji responded with quite conviction.

Her eyes lit up with a new-found light, reminding Neji of their fight during the chunin exams when Naruto had rallied her fighting spirit.

"Thank you, big brother." Hinata whispered. She pulled back softly and eyed the colorful flower basket. "N-new hobby?" she asked with a serene smile.

Neji gazed down at the basket before meeting her eyes once more. "You could say that."

Fate was indeed cruel, however they held the power to change its course. He would fight to the end for their freedom. Their dreams would not be crushed.

Neji would not lose to Hiashi.

His day had started out perfect, shifted to terrible, but now his night was glistening with hope as it came to a close.

TBC

I hope you enjoyed the first installment of The Cat and The Canary.

Let me know what you think in the reviews. Thank you for the support and inspiration.

Much Love,

~ Aphrodiete