Okay, this idea has been bouncing in my head at night, refusing to let me sleep [it is quite cruel in that respect]. Hopefully writing it down for you to read will earn me a few extra minutes to sleep, and entertain you for however long you read.

This story takes place during the Menma Arc: one of the fillers from the original Naruto series. The arc is centred around Menma, an amnesiac boy Naruto pulled out of a river one day on a hunt for bamboo shoots for Ichiraku. For this story, I am using some of the characters and the general situation only. The rest is a product of my imagination.

Remember, reviews are always welcomed.

I do not own the Naruto franchise: it belongs to Kishimoto Masashi and associates. I do, however, own this storyline and the other characters clearly created by me.

Æ

His feet scuffed slightly as he pushed off, jumping high and far to reach the next branch. His landing was hindered by the exhaustion he felt, his left ankle turning inwards to the point that he gasped quietly in pain, but that was no matter. He could not cave to exhaustion when he was the mission leader: everything was riding on his abilities.

He pushed the exhaustion to the back of his mind, but he could not force the nagging fear that gripped him away in the same manner. He waved his team towards him, "We'll stop here for a while."

"What do you mean 'we'll stop here?' " a particularly-annoying blond-haired shinobi scoffed. He gestured to the pale, dust-haired boy beside him with one thumb. "We came to find Menma's memories. We can't stop now."

Neji groaned inwardly but, on the outside, his façade remained a stoic mask of calm and calculation. "If we rest now we can be on the move again before first light. So long as that information you got is correct, that would put us at our first town by midday, when all of the workers break to eat and stay out of the sun." He hated explaining things, rationalising away his inability to continue.

"Neji's right, Naruto." The final member of his team, the mousy-haired kunoichi named Tenten, said.

Thank God for Tenten.

He couldn't leave her to stand alone, especially when she had defended him. Stepping up beside her, he spoke in cool warning tones. "We will stay here tonight, get some rest, and continue in before the sun's up."

The mission could not have come at a worse time. Ever since that infernal letter had arrived, Neji had not been sleeping well. Tossing and turning in his bed at night waiting for a kunai knife between his ribs, a poisonous cloud to permeate slowly through the air, or the sudden shock of cold hands wrapped tightly around his neck, a learing face watching until his lips turned blue and his curse seal faded. The letter had not been too specific about how he was to die, simply stating in its delicate, precise penmanship that he was to die.

Neji still could not get the words out of his mind, even here, surrounded by his peers, he shook under his blankets almost as much as he had sleeping alone in his room waiting for the creaking floorboards, death bells ringing slowly in his mind.

He woke before the others, his sleep disturbed by branches cracking just beyond the circle of dying firelight. Springing up into a seated position at the sharp crack, he looked around, snapping his head from side to side. Summoning his byakugan, he saw a doe leading two small fawns through the underbrush.

If whoever sent me the letter doesn't get me, I'll die from the stress. He fell back into his blankets, trying to catch the last few traces of sleep, but his mind had locked them away. He lay quietly gasping, hoping he didn't wake him teammates with his sudden scramble to see what lurked around him.

A quick glance over each sleeping face. Good, he thought.

Neji knew he would not sleep again that night. The moon was barely halfway across the sky but his heart throbbed too much for him to relax. He folded his blankets and sat beside the fire, staring into the night with his byakugan.

.:.

Tenten woke to see Neji feeding more twigs to the fire. His eyes bore the same hollow look she had noticed yesterday when he suggested they stop: all of the white light his eyes once reflected had drained out of them, leaving the lifeless look of white paper left out in the rain, darkened to grey by the water.

"Tenten, why are you up." He hadn't even looked at her before asking.

He must be using his byakugan, Tenten realised. I wonder what scared him into using it?

She sat up and placed her hands down on either side of her body for support. Shaking her head a bit to clear the sleep-fog, she replied, "I must have slept enough."

Neji turned to her. The sleepless shadows made his eyes look like they were buried deeper in his head. "You sure nothing woke you?" He asked, his expression softening slightly. If he was anyone else, he would have grinned at her, but he was Neji, the stoic, stone-faced Hyūga genius.

Tenten grinned in return, trying to weasel a smile out of her teammate before Naruto and Menma woke. "Of course."

" 'Of course' what? Hey, what's goin' on? Isn't someone going to explain to me?" Naruto shot up, kicking his blankets off and leaping across the clearing to stare Tenten down. "What were you talking about?" he asked in a childish voice, enunciating the words syllable-by-syllable.

She pushed him away with one hand, using the other to hold the edge of her blanket over her nose in an attempt to block the stench. "Your breath stinks. Go brush your teeth while I wake Menma."

"Hey, who made you leader?" Naruto cried indignantly.

Tenten looked to Neji for backup, but he was staring into the flames. The veins around his eyes remained pronounced, but she wouldn't be able to ask him why until they stopped again. She knew that Naruto hadn't noticed, being too busy hopping and trying to kill the rest of the team with his putrid breath, but she was pretty sure Menma was awake. Whatever the reason for Neji activating his byakugan, it had obviously been nothing.

For the third time in as many days, Neji was jumping at shadows and, until she knew why, Tenten wasn't going to bring it up in front of the others.

"Just do it," Neji said. His voice sounded somewhat detached, like his mind was somewhere else. "The sooner we leave, the sooner we return to civilisation and begin asking villagers if they know about Menma."

Naruto walked into the trees with a harrumph of displeasure, but at least he could see Neji's logic: that had to count for something. She was still staring at the place Naruto had abandoned when something heavy but soft hit her in the back of the head. It was Neji's black and white sling bag. "Put you stuff in here," he said. "I'll carry it today."

"But …"

"Just do it, Tenten." He turned away from her. "You should get Menma. I'll find the food, I think Naruto has it, and see if there's anything that tastes fine warmed." Tenten knew Neji ate warm things when he was tired; he must have been awake all night. As she watched him push himself up, wincing like he was in pain, she decided she would be asking him at the nearest opportunity.

Resolve in place, Tenten folded her blankets, stowing them in Neji's sling bag, and left to wake Menma.

.:.

Shadows into the bare traces of moonlight and sunlight mingling together under one sky. High and far from the earth, they raced across the curled fingers of sleeping giants. Five shadows far and one shadow behind. Turning its head, red eyes reflecting to silver light cast by the moon's shadow, it stood still for a single moment, the world turning in constant rhythm around it, before it vanished.

Sudden: the eyes were there.

Staring: the eyes were gone.

All that remained were five moving shadows, the world turning around them, and winds of change blowing their hair back from bright eyes peering eagerly ahead.

Too eagerly, the hunter thinks, but for now I can let them run ahead.

Æ

Okay, that was a somewhat slow start, but trust me when I say it will pick up C-major next chapter.

[Reads words, horrified green-eyed gaze, stuffs possessed-puppet-musician-clone into a box, sits on lid to keep it from rattling]

Remember, reviews are always so very, very welcome. I love to hear from you, the reader, whatever your opinion of my story is. Tell me if I made Naruto annoying enough, if I managed to keep Tenten in character, who you think the shadow is and if it's benevolent or malevolent, who do you think wrote the death note to Neji, or whatever else you can think of.

[To those who review: I am bowing to you through my computer, green eyes full of thanks.]

Next chapter is coming soon. If you are coming from my other story, "The Sasuke Retrieval Arc: One is Lost," I promise the next chapter will be up by the seventh of January, and the third chapter is already being written [promises to be a longer one].

-7ShadowsUnleashed out; off to write more fan-fiction for you [and possibly do her trig homework]

PS: Heh, death note ... not to be confused with Death Note.