It's finished, and now I can really get into the next major part of the story. whew. It's not over yet.

Rising Winds

"Don't feel too bad, Naruto." Sakura said patting the shoulder of the wilted boy.

Pretending not to see Lee's hopeful look and crocodile tears she quickly turned away. She might be ready to comfort Naruto for only coming fourth, but comforting Lee for his second place was too much. Besides, she had ground to make up with Sasuke.

"I'm sure Sasuke would've come first." She fluttered her eyelashes at the brooding boy.

He looked at her suspiciously and turned away.

Damn, arrogant, bratty, immature, not even cute... Sakura bitched silently.

It wasn't fair that she had to play the fangirl for the younger brother, when the older brother pulled all her heartstrings.

"Yosh! Everybody, let's head over to the Shuriken." Lee said recovering quickly from his disappointment.

"We have a lesson." Sakura was quick to point out, after all if she was at Itachi's house, she had a better chance of actually seeing him.

Sasuke slipped his hands in his pockets and pretended not to care. Naruto grabbed him around the neck and ground his knuckles into his head.

"You think that I'm gonna let you leave with Sakura-sweetie while the rest of us are miserable you're a bigger idiot than I thought."

Tenten pointed out that she and Lee weren't miserable, in fact her third place overall suited her quite well. Naruto wilted further and looked around for sympathy from the only other person in the group. Who immediately fell in line.

Hinata looked hopefully at Sakura with such a quiet desperation that Sakura found herself nodding to Lee's repeated invitation before she realized it.

The group left, Tenten leading the way with Lee chanting something about the power of youth close on her heels. Sasuke being dragged by Naruto looked half angrily at Sakura, who gave him a helpless look of 'what can I do?' She didn't even have to work hard to put the disappointment on her face, because she really felt it.

The Shuriken

An hour later, Sakura had to admit, coming had been a good idea. The three guys had ended up lancing various competitions on the game machines in the game room. It kept them busy enough that Sakura could relax her worshiping act, without Sasuke glaring at her when she missed an opportunity to polish his ego.

Given Tenten's competitive nature, Sakura had been surprised when Tenten chose to sit with her and Hinata. She soon found out the real reason for Tenten's decision though, as Tenten proceeded to thoroughly question Hinata about her life.

"So that cousin of yours, he's like what, some kinda genius yeah?"

Hinata blushed faintly.

"He's perfect at everything." She practically whispered.

A small part of Sakura protested that she should stop Tenten from questioning Hinata, but her own cursedly curious curiosity kept her silent. Sakura also wanted to know more about her enigmatic friend, but lacked the guts and skills to find out. So she let Tenten be the badguy.

"He seems pretty close to you, you guys hang out a lot?"

Sakura snorted, and interjected before thinking,

"Overbearing you mean. A complete jerk, and he's arrogant."

Belatedly she remembered her manners, and her goal of information. With an apologetic look at Hinata and Tenten, she shrank back into her seat willing Hinata to continue.

"So you guys are close?" Tenten repeated her question, leaning forward on her elbows.

Hinata tried to avoid answering by sipping her drink, but Tenten didn't budge at the gentle request for privacy. Finally Hinata replied.

"I suppose, Father asked him to look out for me at school."

Tenten nodded encouragingly.

"But other than that, we don't have anything in common. He tries to ignore me most of the time." Hinata continued, her hands toying with her glass.

Tenten looked thoughtful for a second.

"He must like you a bit though I mean he always walks you to school and home again."

Hinata glanced desperately right and left looking for a chance to escape, but even Sakura was looking at her expectantly.

"Umm h-he kinda, it's not difficult or anything for him. He's not really following me, he umm, he lives wi-with us."

Tenten's eyebrows raised and she gave a low whistle of surprise.

"Why?"

The word came out before Sakura even realized she was going to ask it. She covered her mouth in embarrassment, but didn't retract the question.

Hinata shrugged, drawing squiggles on the table top with her finger.

"His dad died when he was young, and his mother isn't in the picture."

She gave a little sigh and interlaced her fingers to keep them still.

"I think she abandoned her family just after Neji was born."

Realizing what she just said, Hinata gave a little gasp of surprise and covered her mouth.

"You can't repeat any of this." She said frantically.

Her huge pale eyes fixed themselves pleadingly on the two girls.

"He'll kill me if he finds out I talked about him to anyone."

"Of course." Sakura promptly promised as an apology for her curiosity.

"You're really scared of him huh?" Tenten said, ignoring the need to promise anything.

"N-no, I'm n-not, really!" Hinata said giving a brave smile.

"I-it's just I don't want any trouble."

"Hey, if he ever gives you any grief, just tell me and I'll put him in his place." Tenten said suddenly.

She pulled a dart out of somewhere and twirled it in between her fingers.

"I can take him."

Hinata shook her head with a sad little smile.

"It's not really Neji that's the problem."

Sakura had a sudden brainwave.

"Is it your family?" She clicked her fingers. "I bet he's supposed to spy on you or something."

Hinata shook her head, but the way her eyes avoided her told Sakura that she was probably right.

"What for?" Tenten said, shaking her head and dismissing the idea. "Why would her family want to spy on her?"

Hinata blushed hotly. Desperately looking for a way to salvage the conversation from the dangerous direction it was taking she felt an increase of adrenaline that went to her head.

"I'm the problem!" She blurted out. "I-I can't do anything right."

Her sudden rush of courage seemed to disappear all at once, and she felt the hot blood drain out of her cheeks leaving her weak and a little dizzy.

"He just makes sure I don't do anything too stupid." She closed her eyes in self disgust as she realized she'd just said exactly what she didn't want to.

Sakura winced and kicked herself mentally as Hinata's face crumpled. Even if Itachi did say her honest (judgmental) and upfront (blunt) character was one of the things he liked about her, it wasn't an excuse for being cruel and unfeeling.

Even Tenten who was normally pretty obtuse when it came to other people's feelings had the grace to look embarrassed.

The two girls quickly started another conversation about what they thought the upcoming inter-school competition would be about. Hinata snuffled a few times, then seeing she was going to be left in peace, subsided gratefully into the background.

Minutes went by and the crisis seemed to pass under the pointless chattering that the two guilty girls kept up. Seeing Hinata was back to her normal shy self, Tenten took the chance to apologize, blushing faintly herself.

"Ex-cop's daughter." She offered as an explanation, examining her fingernails rather than looking at Hinata. "Sometimes I forget…"

She cleared her throat, trying to force down the heat in her cheeks.

"Once I get started, it's hard for me to stop."

"I suppose you learnt that from your Dad huh?" Sakura asked.

More to ease Tenten's embarrassment, than out of curiousity for Tenten's family secrets.

"Yeah, he was pretty good at his job." Tenten said a frown forming on her face.

"He learnt interrogation techniques after his accident, it was all they let him do until the pain from his injuries stopped him from doing even that."

Tenten's face darkened as she thought of how she'd watched her father change from the big, strong; capable man of her memories, into a half-empty, half-crippled shell.

Hinata swallowed hard.

"Um, I know it's rude, but, what exactly happened to your father?"

Hinata cringed visibly, expecting a sharp reply, but Tenten just rubbed absently at a stain on her nail, a sad look overtaking the anger.

"Ask Lee, I really can't talk about it."

Standing up suddenly, Tenten gave an overly cheerful smile.

"I'll get us some drinks!" She said brightly, practically bouncing out of the room before either girl could say anything.

Seeing the empty chair at their table Lee sat down quickly leaving Naruto and Sasuke in a 'to the death battle' of Table Foot.

For once Sakura was glad to see him as Tenten's reaction had piqued her interest. Telling herself that it was only fair after Hinata's questioning, Sakura leaned forward eagerly.

"Her father?" Lee said, sounding unsure, for once his clowning behaviour leaving him.

Sakura nodded.

"She said we should ask you."

Lee looked thoughtfully at the table top, his fingers twining and untwining, until suddenly he stopped and looked up.

"Her father's a hero." He said with a smile half proud, half thoughtful.

He waited a second for their reaction, but when they stayed silent, he seemed to make a decision. A serious look on his face Lee began,

"You guys don't know much about us, so in the name of friendship I'll tell you a bit about Tenten and I."

Lee straighten up in his seat.

"Rock Lee, 14 years old, fourth form at…"

"We know, we know…" Sakura broke in. "Athletics star and all."

Lee gave a sheepish grin, sinking back down into his seat.

"Uh, I live not so far from the edge of town with my Foster Dad who's also a cop."

"Foster Dad?" Sakura asked her eyebrows raising.

"Yeah, he's still working on the adoption papers, single Dad and all, plus his job is really time consuming." Lee said a little embarrassed by Sakura's keen curiosity.

"Anyway, he's a cop. He used to work in a special team with Tenten's Dad, back before he was injured."

Lee picked up an abandoned straw and tapped it softly against the palm of his hand

"Tenten's Dad was a sharp shooter," Lee looked up briefly, apologetically. "We don't know a lot, they don't talk about it much. But they were part of an anti-organized crime squad."

His eyes dropped to the table again.

"There was a big sting operation going down and someone leaked information and it went wrong, and a lot of people died."

Sakura leaned further forward, her voice soft as she encouraged Lee to continue.

"But not Tenten's Dad?"

Lee gave a little smile.

"He betrayed his sniping position by saving part of his team, my Dad included, and took a bullet in his back as his reward."

Hinata's eyes swam with tears, sniffling quietly she pulled a delicate looking handkerchief out of her pocket.

"He's in a wheelchair now, didn't start off in one, but the nerves continued to deteriorate and he slowly became paralyzed. He had to give being in the force, but he couldn't give up being a cop. So he opened this bar."

Sakura sat back a little ashamed that she'd been so pushy, but glad that she knew a little more about her friends.

"Must be tough." She'd never been in a situation like Tenten's.

Her family was the most normal family you could imagine. Her Mum and Dad were normal, they worked, they kinda cared about what she did, but as long as neither teachers nor the police ever called about their daughter they let her do what she liked. They had family dinners, and vacations together to see her Grandma. They fought a bit, laughed a bit, annoyed her, embarrassed her, loved her. She thought everyone had a family like that, she'd thought she had it rough because her Mum hassled her about her chores.

Paralysis, orphans, estranged family members, pressure, evil cousins, when did everyone develop such complicated lives? She was used to feeling young and inexperienced with Itachi and all his secrets and complicated emotions, but to feel it with her friends was new and unpleasant. She was supposed to be their equal, since when had they left her behind? Was she that immature?

Add to that her selfish behaviour towards Hinata, and even towards Sasuke, did that mean she was a brat too?

Was it possible that she was the immature brat in their group?

A crash from the direction of the Table Foot game had everyone at the table spinning around. Sakura sighed to find Sasuke holding Naruto in a chokehold, while Naruto's wildly failing fists battered both Sasuke and the surrounding environment.

Lee jumped up and tried to pull the cursing boys apart, receiving a flying fist and a well placed kick that soon had him battling away as well.

No she wasn't the immature one, Sakura reasoned as she stood up to separate the three her own way. Sasuke was biting, and Naruto was tugging on both Sasuke's and Lee's hair she realised with a groan. Nope compared to those two she wasn't immature at all.

The competition will bring in everyone else we're missing. But first we have to do the Wave Country Arc. Because Ecrire says so. Nyah.