"Henrik." Konohamaru told the Military Police that showed up to question them. "They mention a man that they work for. Man called Henrik."

The two officers looked at each other, visibly debating over whether or not to trust Konohamaru's word on the subject. "You sure you heard that right, kid?"

"Yes." Konohamaru rolled his eyes. "I may have accent, but I know what I hear."

"Listen, kid, it's not that we don't believe you…" The female officer tried to placate him. "But these are some pretty heavy accusations, and—"

"You want me to get information?" Konohamaru cut her off, arms crossed. "I can get information. It is easy."

"What, you gonna dig through the papers or summat?" The male officer raised an eyebrow. "Thought you had a friend doin' that."

Konohamaru pulled out a kunai, and pointed at one of the tied up men. "You want me to get information?" He repeated, watching as their faces paled. "I know how. People would try it on me. It did not work."

"That won't be necessary." The female officer tried to assure him, glancing nervously at her partner. "We'll take it from here. You're dismissed, cadet."

"Yes, sir." Konohamaru muttered as they walked past, rolling his eyes the second he could get away with it. He hadn't really been planning to torture the guys (though he could have if necessary), but seeing how quickly the officers folded when he so much as suggested it was kind of, well, sad.

Now… he had to go find Mina. Who was over… there!

"Mina-chan!" He jogged over, smiling at her when she turned around. "I need your help."

"Okay, shoot. What do you need?" Mina stood between him and the girls that still hadn't been taken away by the Military Police, and that was probably a good thing.

"The corset. It is start to hurt."

"Starting to hurt." Mina corrected him, then gestured at him with one hand. "Turn around. I don't think we can get it off without a ton of trouble right here, but I can loosen it."

"That is… good. Not best, but good." Konohamaru nodded, turning as he was told.

"I think the phrase you're looking for is 'good enough.'" Mina laughed lightly, her fingers already untying the back of the dress and pulling it apart to reach for the ties on the corset. "It was really nice of you to help out with all this. A lot of people would have been too scared, or just written it off as not their problem."

Konohamaru scratched the back of his head, an embarrassed smile on his face. "Ah… it is not that different from what I do back in Konoha. I just, eh, fight bad men, yes?"

"…Yeah." Mina reached up and, to Konohamaru's annoyance, ruffled his hair. Well… ruffled his wig.

"Eh! I am older than you. Do not do that." Konohamaru shrugged away from her and reached up to fix the wig. "This is very, ah… it cost much."

"I think the word you're looking for is 'expensive.'" Mina offered, smiling.

"Aa." Konohamaru scratched the back of his head again, and then sighed. "Ah… the girls are scared, yes? I should go."

"Yeah, probably. See you after this all blows over?"

"Un!" Konohamaru nodded, and then wandered off again, no longer quite sure what to do. Thankfully for his need to constantly be doing something, he was waylaid by one of the members of the Military police.

"Ah… I don't understand." Konohamaru smiled apologetically. "I do not know that word. Can I ask a friend to help me understand?"

"Sure, kid." The female officer from before muttered, looking down at a clipboard that she'd, at some point, managed to get ahold of.

"Mikasa!" Konohamaru waved her over, and after a few seconds finishing up whatever it was that she was doing, she walked over, calm as a cucumber.

Mm… Konohamaru hadn't had cucumbers in a while. He'd seen them around, but he hadn't had any. Huh. He needed to get on that.

"Is there a problem, officers?" Mikasa asked coolly, staring at the Military Police with badly-hidden disdain. She clearly had some history there.

"Mikasa, what is a 'reward?'"

o.o.o.o.o

The problem was, Neji later realized, that he hadn't bothered to try figuring out what Naruto's sage-enhanced punch had done to him to cause him to feel so strange. He had simply assumed that, like all of the other attacks Naruto had jokingly launched at him over the course of the past several years, it had been ineffectual.

He was, fortunately or otherwise, wrong.

The thing was, whenever Neji or one of the other ghosts (and he knew quite a few, since the fall of Kaguya) went into a populated area, there were reactions. There were people shivering, seeing shadows where there were none, seeing just the faintest glimpse of fabric or hair in the flickering light of a candle or hearing the quiet shuffling of nonexistent footsteps. No one ever saw them, but they were felt, sensed, known.

When Neji passed over the city of Trost, he was not acknowledged. He saw anger and fear coursing through the crowds below, a city on the verge of a riot and people on the verge of tears. He saw a town that had gotten something back, but in a way that only made it outraged.

He passed on, making for the barracks that he knew Konohamaru lived in. It was late, past even the wee hours of the morning, and Neji doubted that there was anyone left awake in the entire complex.

Now, Neji didn't quite know which room, specifically, Konohamaru was in. Usually, Naruto asked Asuma or the Sandaime to check in on Konohamaru, if he didn't just send a fox-disguised Shadow Clone. Neji, when he felt like helping, was more used to scouting things out for Naruto, trying to find patterns in Titan movement from high above the Earth and running messages from one world to the other. This was Neji's first time in the area, and given that the Byakugan hadn't worked consistently since he died (no one's doujutsu did; it was a fact of life… or death, anyway), he had to actually enter the barracks to see what was going on.

Unfortunately for Neji, the first building he entered was the girls' barracks. Normally, this would have been fine, as Neji would have just exited the building and gone to see the other one, especially as it was late enough for everyone to be asleep.

Unfortunately for Neji, there were still two girls awake.

Unfortunately for Neji, one of them did the impossible and saw him.

Unfortunately for Neji, she screamed at the sight of a man walking in through the walls.

Unfortunately for Neji, she screamed loud enough to wake up the rest of the room.

Unfortunately for Neji, the rest of them saw him too.

Neji got the hell out of dodge, and ran out through the wall to stand in the middle of the pathway in front of the building, eyes wide. What he'd just seen should have been impossible, but apparently, it wasn't. Within seconds, the girls from the building he'd been in were streaming out, makeshift weapons in hand, and surrounding him. They probably wouldn't be able to hurt him, so he didn't run, and even if they could, he was a Jounin and could probably take any one of them down by ease, but…

Well, it was rather disconcerting, to say the least.

They were yelling things at him, things he didn't understand because the language here was ridiculous, and the lights in the other building were coming on.

"I don't understand you." Neji finally said to the girls, face and tone as bland as he could make them. It wouldn't make up for the previous panic completely, but it was a step.

One of the girls stepped forward cautiously, and Neji took note of her features as quickly as possible; she could have been an Uchiha, or possibly (if the pictures he'd seen from old wars were true) even a Yuki.

"Who are you?"

Neji didn't answer, simply began to pace around the circle, waiting as he saw boys start coming out of the other building. That was good. Konohamaru would be here soon, and Neji would be able to do his job and go home. Or at least, go do something else.

With half a thought, he merged his legs into a ghostly tail and began floating around the circle, not quite within arm's reach of the girls, but he was still visible enough (and so was the stupid tail); a number of the children seemed rather scared of him, really.

Ah. There was Konohamaru.

"Neji?" The boy was staring at him in exhausted confusion, but at least it wasn't outright fear or hostility like so many of the others. "What… what the hell are you doing here? How can I see you?"

"You know who this is?" The maybe-Yuki girl demanded.

"Yeah, that's Neji. I… honestly, I shouldn't be able to see him. Like, at all." Konohamaru scratched the back of his head, rumpling up his hair. "I… You know what? No. Just… just no."

"No?"

"No. I'm not dealing with your ghostly ass right now. I haven't had nearly enough sleep to deal with this bullshit. I'll see you all in the morning." With that, Konohamaru turned around, strode off, and left Neji to the not-so-tender mercies of… children.

Civilians, by his standards.

Lovely.

And now he'd probably have to stay here 'til morning.

This was all Naruto's fault.

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto looked up from the seals he was working on, nose itching, but not quite enough to sneeze. Was someone talking about him?

Nah, probably not.

He went back to painting seals on his coat.

o.o.o.o.o

A/N: *whispers* I've been planning the Neji twist for months.

My interest in Naruto has been waning for a few months too, unfortunately, so let's all hope it can keep my attention for long enough to finish this story properly, yeah?

Ja ne,

Phoenix