I'm so sorry about the long delay. For those of you guys that haven't given up on me, this chapter contains another big key in the story, so I hope you like it!

Note: Plot gets more significant as the chapter goes on—so if you do feel uninterested at the beginning, skip to the middle rather than drop the chapter if that's all right (Although I'd prefer if you read the whole thing through).

Chapter 6:

The Video Store

Neji ducked beneath the caution tape that barred the entrance to the music store. Tenten, following closely behind, couldn't help but catch a glimpse of the out-hanging tag on his button up.

JC Penny, she thought, narrowing her eyes as she pulled her trench coat further around her black-turtleneck-clad torso. Taste isn't that bad, I guess.

"I still don't get why we need to be here for this," remarked a tall, green dyed haired teenager, leaning against the store counter. By the look of her uniform, Neji and Tenten could tell she was one of the employees.

"Just for some questioning is all," Tenten informed her, reaching into her pocket to pull out a notepad. "It shouldn't take long."

"Thank God for that," Sighed another teenage girl, only more primped and pampered. Alongside her was another teenager that almost mirrored her. "If I miss another Grey's, I swear I'll have to start to…" she screwed up the contours of her face as if she had tasted something bitter. "…Recording them ahead of time."

"Not gonna happen," shuddered her counterpart, apparently sharing her pain at the thought of what was seemingly a horrific predicament.

Tenten inwardly rolled her eyes as Neji cleared his throat.

"…Right, well, we should begin now," Neji said, not wanting to get caught up in the girl talk. "Do you want to take a seat?"

"We'll stand," the green head answered for all of them.

"That works."

"So," began Tenten, flipping over her notebook. "Which one of you works the cash register?"

The green head languidly raised her hand.

"Ok," Tenten nodded. "So what did he rent the most often when he came here?"

"Meh," muffled Green, playing around with a keychain in her hands from the front desk. "That was the thing- he hardly ever bought. He'd mostly just look. But when he did get something, it would be some cheesy classic like Casablanca or Gone With the Wind."

" 'As God is my witness…'" Sighed Pristine #1 as she quoted the infamous line of Scarlett. Green simply rolled her eyes in response.

"Ok," Neji nodded, jotting that down quickly. "Miss…" He looked at her nametag. "Deliah Jamison?"

"Not if you value your life."

"Ok, then what would be your preference?"

"DJ," she sighed, tossing the keychain back into the bucket on the desk. "Just DJ."

"Ok then, DJ," Neji said trying to hide the hint of oddness in his voice. "In what genre would he spend most of his time?"

"Seeing as I'm a cashier and not an isle worker, Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum might be of more service to you." DJ hitched her thumb towards the two Pristines, who were obviously not too enthusiastic about their nicknames.

"Excuuuuuse me?" The first Pristine drew out stretching the vowel like a rubber band as she wiggled her fingers. "I prefer to go by Veronica?"

"Mel for me," Piped up the second Pristine, her golden curls bouncing as she pointed this out.

"Alright," sighed Neji, getting tired of the name game. "Around what genre would Gould normally browse?"

Veronica and Mel looked at one another. Mel, obviously being the sidekick of the two, bit her lip and shrugged.

"Veronica?" She said timidly, blatantly having not paid particular attention to where Gould had spent most of his time. Veronica's shoulders dropped in response.

"Aaah…" She held her hand up to her chin and looked to the ceiling. "Two things. Either family or horror."

Tenten blinked. Wow. At least that's not ironic.

"Well…" Neji cleared his throat, obviously seeing the oddness in this like Tenten. "Makes sense…sort of. He was, after all, a scientist, and the blood and limbs could easily have served…a study visual for him in some odd way."

"Oh, right, Hyuuga," Tenten sneered at him. "I'm sure studying the surgical methods of Freddy and Jason are just where Gould got his scientific expertise from."

"Well, Officer Tenten," Neji glowered back at her. "If you had the deductive mind half the size of an indecisive fruit fly, you'd learn that there's a logical reason behind everything."

"Is there?" Tenten asked him, tilting her head as she put her hands on her hips. "In that case, you could tell me why you are such a frigid bastard?"

Neji's eyes narrowed into slits as he glared at her, sending anger deeper than words. Tenten glared back at him, although smiling slightly in accomplishment.

"Damn, what's that all about," whistled D.J, raising an eyebrow. "You two ex's, or what?"

"Not exactly," growled Neji, turning his gaze away from Tenten at last.

"He wishes," scoffed Tenten unprofessionally, whipping out her note pad and writing furiously on it. "And the family section, you said?"

"Yeah," Veronica nodded, still a bit weirded out by the quarrel. "Mostly things like Snow White, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid…he pretty much had the whole Disney Princesses thing going on."

"According to what it says back in the files from Sakura, he does have a small child," Tenten nodded, jotting down what was said.

"A boy, though," Neji added. "How many boys do you know that enjoy the Disney Princesses?"

"They're classics," sighed Tenten in exhaustion. "Little boys are probably not old enough to know it's a girly thing, anyway."

"Well at least you give males some credit," Neji said sarcastically, jotting things down on his own note pad.

Tenten sighed. If this is what would happen at every realization, there were going to be some serious problems solving this case. Keep your mind on the matter at hand, Tenten. She continued questioning Veronica.

"Did he ever bring his son along?"

Veronica looked up at the ceiling as she bit a pink-glossed lip. "No," she said, shaking her head. "In fact, I didn't even know he had a kid until now."

"I did," said D.J, raising her hand reluctantly.

"You did?" Tenten asked her, turning to her.

"Oh, yeah," D.J nodded. "He told me a lot of stuff. Whenever he'd come, whether he bought or just looked around, he'd always weasel me into some casual conversation about the weather, construction, family, stuff like that."

"He'd never talk to me," whined Mel sadly. D.J laughed.

"Maybe if you spent more time actually working the shelves instead of the male workers on break at the next-door pizza place, he'd have talked to you, too."

Mel's face flushed at this. "Oh," she said quietly, backing behind Veronica in embarrassment.

"And…?" Tenten ignored the previous exchange and motioned for D.J to continue, becoming more and more interested.

"So naturally, I talked to him back. We had pretty normal conversations, nothing worth jotting down on that notepad of yours," she said, pointing at Tenten's beloved notepad, which she embarrassedly tucked closer to herself at this regard. "He seemed like an all-around normal guy. Can't imagine why any one would…" she hit a snag on her sentence as the accident came up. It seemed like it was an effort for her to work out of her mouth. "…do that stuff to him."

"Are you sure you don't recall any stranger conversations between you and him?" Neji asked seriously. "Did work pop up at all?"

D.J. thought long and hard for a moment before pursing her lips and leaning against the cashier counter. "Yeah…actually, yeah. That was a pretty weird conversation. Happened kinda recently, too."

"Really," Tenten said, eyes widening a bit as this was said. "Do tell."

"It's kinda long," D.J warned them.

"We have time," said Neji, tapping his pencil on his notepad.

"Ok," began D.J taking a deep breath. "The guy came in all slumped and depressed, way different from his usual happy demeanor. He went straight to the snack rack and began weeding through everything. He caught me watching him and just smiled, telling me something about how chocolate heals just about every kind of pain. So, I asked him if he was in some kind of pain right then. He said 'yes', and began telling me about how he was framed for seizing credit for some discovery made by his best friends. Alpha or something."

"Gamma," Tenten said quietly, her pulse beginning to quicken.

"Yeah, that was it," D.J nodded. "So, Gould was upset that Gamma wouldn't trust him ever again or something. Obviously, I assured him if he was a true best friend he'd understand that he wouldn't do that. After that, he thanked me, bought the chocolate and left."

Tenten and Neji both bolted this down word for word, neither of them believing it.

"Thank you," Neji told her dismissively, looking at his watch. "I believe our time is up. Thank you for the information…It will come in handy."

D.J nodded. "Anytime."

Veronica and Mel both looked disappointed that their 'efforts' had gone by unappreciated by Neji. Mel decided to speak up.

"Well, now that that's done," she piped up, breaking the tension. "Vera and I are off to the movies to catch the new Leo DiCaprio."

"Care to join us?" Veronica asked, taking this chance to sidle up to Neji in a way that she most likely thought was sensual.

Tenten's eyebrows shot up instantly as she searched Neji's face for any facial response. To her amusement, Neji's face looked annoyed.

"You know, I wish I could but I'm afraid I have to go by some pads and aspirin for my cramps," he said, his tone flat and his eyes rolling.

Veronica took a breath intake as she and Mel took a stride back from Neji.

"How incredibly…incredibly…"

Tenten couldn't suppress a smirk. Rude? Manish? Just like the snarky detective he is? Why am I supporting him? Why am I smirking? Why am I asking questions? Why do I care

"…Ignorant!" Veronica finished, looking fiercely at Neji. "Everyone knows you don't take aspirin for cramps…my God."

Tenten looked at D.J and knew they were thinking the exactly same thing. It took all the muscles in their guts to not bust into laughter.

"Uh…oh," Neji said, scratching the back of his head oddly. "You don't, do you. Well, we're later for something, aren't we Tenten?" He strode over to Tenten and grabbed her by the arm. Tenten looked at him with a 'what the hell?' face, but he continued to pull. "Aren't we?" He gave her a stern look.

"Uh…" she said, understanding. "Yeah. Thanks again ladies, we'll contact you if we have any more questions."

She didn't get to hear the response as Neji pretty much dragged her out under the caution tape and onto the sidewalk. From there, he dragged her into a narrow, nearby alleyway. Very narrow. Uncomfortably narrow.

…particularly uncomfortable because Tenten was not too sure about the sensation she was getting from the fact that Neji was pretty much millimeters from being squashed against her bust.

"Hey, what's the big idea, here?" She asked, yanking her arm out of Neji's grip. "And if it's so important, can't we discuss it at the office instead of a three and a half foot wide alleyway?"

Neji ignored her. "I know what you're thinking, and don't make any stupid premature decisions just because you have a lead."

"What do you mean?" Tenten asked him, trying to flatten up against the wall as much as possible.

"I know you think Gamma's our guy. I see why, too. But let me tell you, there are much more reasons out there as to why anyone would want to kill Gould. We just happened to dig up one," he said, lowering his voice. "So I don't want you running off to the office and telling your little cop friends that Gamma's our prime suspect."

"Are you kidding?" sputtered Tenten. "The guys obviously a suspect! He knew Gould, he seems to have a motive, it appears that he doesn't get out much…"

"Ok, first off," Neji snapped, holding up a finger. "The guy's blind. That tends to narrow down an abundant social life."

"What???" Tenten hissed, her eyes widening. "I mean…he is?"

"Yes," Neji said, rolling his eyes. "Or did you not notice how he said he had memorized our names instead of reading them off a list? And how he didn't look at us when he spoke to us? He's blind."

"How's he a scientist, then?" Tenten asked, scratching her head in confusion.

"Brail, how things feel, I don't know, apparently he pulls it off somehow. There are many areas of science that are available to blind people. But point two," he said, holding up two fingers. "If that's the logic you want to go by, then that D.J girl back there could just as easily be a suspect."

"What? How?" Tenten asked incredulously. "A moody teenager, yes, a rebel, maybe, but a killer?"

"She had a habit of not revealing essential information until asked," Neji pointed out critically.

"You look too deep into things," sighed Tenten before glaring. "That's the problem with you detectives."

Neji looked up at her slowly, an intensity in his eyes that Tenten had never seen before.

"Cops don't look deep enough," he told her softly, the intense look still on his face. "Not only when it comes to work," he added, turning to leave the alley, his arm brushing against Tenten as he passed her.

He stopped at he hit the end of the alleyway and looked back at her. "But in people, too."

Tenten felt something drop in her stomach when he sad that. She didn't know if it was regret, sadness, or something else she couldn't find a label to. But whatever it was, she didn't like it.

The only solution she could grab right then was to go back to the office and avoid Neji as much as possible.

Again, I'm so sorry. Please review if you like.