I've been working on this story for a while, in fact it's hampered my ability to work on my original fiction, so I decided I might as well put it out there. If anyone in this story is OOC it's for one of the following reasons.

I don't have all the facts The facts I do have I've ignored or twisted to my own ends, aka to suit the plot.  Regarding Kotetsu, I know.  Consider it a bit of random weirdness.  I don't like Original characters much, and we don't know about his past or TenTen's, I think. I'm not the type to do much research I didn't come up with Naruto or the characters in it in the first place, so what do you expect?

Chapter One

He was so angry that everything hurt.  He wanted to break something, anything, just to get rid of the helpless feeling the doctor's news had given him.  He'd considered breaking the man's neck for a few moments, but that would only hurt her instead of helping her.

Of all the girls in Konoha, why had they decided to hurt her?  She was his.  Even if he'd never acknowledged her feelings, her undying love made her his.

Their sensei had showed up almost immediately, not his usual happy-go-lucky self.  Since her parents weren't available, he'd been the first to see her, and when he exited the room had pulled the doctor aside and spoken to him for at least half an hour.

"Hyuuga-kun?" The nurse addressed him tentatively.  "The doctor wishes to see you in the young lady's hospital room."

Neji stood and followed the older woman in.  The older man was standing over TenTen's still body with a clipboard, registering her vital signs.  He turned to look at him as soon as Neji entered.   "Ahh...so you must be the infamous Neji-kun.  She's mentioned you a lot in her sleep."

He nodded.  He didn't care about what she muttered in her sleep.  "Who did this to her?"

"We're not sure who beat her up, but you can rest assured that the jounin will find out." He cleared his throat.  "Hyuuga-kun, I am told that you're her closest friend."

He grunted in response.

"When she wakes up and realizes what happens to her she'll probably want to make a lot of changes in her life.  She may not even want to be a ninja anymore."

"I don't think so.  She wanted to be the greatest kunoichi who ever lived."

"People's dreams change after tragic events."

"Just what exactly happened to her?" Neji questioned, getting frustrated with his own ignorance.  Gai had mentioned that TenTen had been attacked, but he'd assumed that she'd only been beat up, now the doctor was suggesting something more that he wasn't ready to admit could have happened to her.

The doctor sighed and pushed the glasses back up onto his nose bridge.  "She was brutally raped.  Judging from the bruises on her body it could not have been done by just one person, so we think it may have been done by a team of three genin, perhaps even from Konoha.  Foreigners or not, it'll probably be very difficult to unearth their identies since they left no DNA evidence on her body."

Neji's usually unemotional eyes became tinted with anger.  "Are you saying they'll get away with this?"

He sighed.  "It is possible.  However, I think a memory loss jutsu was used on her.  While it was intended to make her forget their faces, it may prove to be vital evidence."

He didn't respond to the doctor, instead he watched the girl sleep peacefully.

"Neji-kun, it is vital that you listen to what I have to say next." He folded his hands behind his back.  "It would be foolish of you to decide to become an avenger.  The last thing she needs is for you to get killed for her sake.  Instead, you should spend much more time with her than you usually do, helping her to get over what's happened to her."

Neji ignored the man's advice.  "I will do what I see fit."

"Hyuugas always think they don't have to follow the rules." The doctor muttered, leaving the boy alone with his genin teammate.

Neji was not happy.  Both of his teammates were useless, part-time residents in the same hospital, and it seemed like the doctors wanted to keep him under lock and key as well.  He glanced at the girl lying still on the bed.  "I don't care who it was who hurt you, I'll kill them all." Happy with his oath, he left the hospital room.

Before he could leave the building Gai appeared in front of him.  "Neji."

"Don't say anything to me."

Gai sighed.  "So he told you what happened then?"

The boy didn't reply.

"Don't worry about her.  She'll be okay."

"I wasn't worried."

"Oh." Gai looked sad for a moment.  "Don't put any pressure on yourself.  Lee and TenTen will be okay soon."

"I'm not stupid Gai-sensei.  Lee may recover, but TenTen will never be the same." At that he stormed off towards his house.  As he was passing Ichiraku his stomach growled loudly and he realized that he hadn't eaten yet for the day.  When Gai-sensei had fetched him to visit TenTen he'd been in the middle of rigorous training and hadn't paused for breakfast.  He pointed his feet into the ramen shop.  It was loud, noisy and overcrowded, just like it usually was.  Neji shuffled to a stool and climbed on.

"What'll you have?"

"Large." As much as he tried, he couldn't block out the swirl of conversations around him.

"Just wait Iruka-sensei.  I'll be Hokage before you know it."

"I'm sure you will Naruto."

"When do you think they'll assign you to your new team Shikamaru?"

"I dunno.  Don't really care."

"I better get going.  My younger sister's in the hospital and I promised my folks I'd take care of her."

"I heard about what happened.  I hope they find the bastards who did it, skin them alive and dip them in hot oil."

A stool was pushed back from the door and Neji heard feet shuffling towards the door.  However, they stopped three feet short of its chosen target, standing instead, directly behind Neji.  A large hand tightened around his shoulder.  "Neji, right?"

The boy didn't acknowledge him, but to his dismay the elder man kept talking.

"You were pretty impressive in the Chuunin exam finals."

"I lost.  I was weak."

"Only from your point of view.  A lot of people in this village think you're strong, including my sister."

"I don't have time for girls with mindless crushes."

Neji could almost hear the smile in the man's voice.  "For a man who says that you sure spend a lot of time with her."

The boy shrugged off his hand and turned to face him.  He quickly recognized him as one of the two chuunin that tried to rough up his team before the exam even began.  Hagane Kotetsu.  "TenTen never mentioned a brother."

"She never talks much about herself, but she never gets tired of talking about other people." Kotetsu noticed the boy's melancholy mood.  "I take it you've been to see her then?" The chuunin took the empty stool next to him.

Neji spun back around and accepted his bowl of ramen.  "Hai."

"How was she?"

He shook his head.

"That bad huh?" Kotetsu stroked his chin thoughtfully.

Neji ate his noodles in silence for a while before he decided to vocalize the question that was currently gnawing away at his brain.  "If you're her brother, then why haven't you visited her already?"

"Honestly kid, I just haven't had the courage.  No brother ever wants to acknowledge that something this horrible happened to his sister and he was powerless to help."

"Delaying your visit won't change what's already happened.  TenTen was raped and none of us could've protected her."

Kotetsu stood to his feet.  "I don't believe that.  I know for a fact that I could've protected her.  I should've walked her home instead of hanging out with Izumo."

"Destiny is unavoidable.  If you were there they would've just waited to catch her alone."

"Hmm...maybe you're right." He turned in the direction of the door.  "Still, I don't like that it happened to her."

"Neither do I."

"Ja." Kotetsu left Ichiraku for the hospital.

The more Neji thought about what had happened to TenTen the more aggravated he became.  He was so lost in his angry thoughts that he failed to realize that he'd snapped the chopsticks in his right hand and it was now bleeding.

"Check this guy out." Ino pointed.  "Think he's having a nervous breakdown?"

Shikamaru followed her finger.  "I wouldn't be surprised.  He never seemed like he was all there."

Ignoring their comments, the pain in his hand, and the irate noodle shop owner yelling about his lack of payment, Neji stood up and stumbled out the door.  He had been sure that TenTen's predicament had not affected him emotionally.  He had lamented the fact that he and his squad would be left behind once again due to injuries, and he was angry that someone would dare to assault a member of his squad in such a cowardly manner, but he now felt something more.  Kotetsu's conversation had awoken hidden pain inside him in a corner of his heart he didn't think he had.  A place where he regarded TenTen and Rock Lee as more than just comrades, but as friends.