06-15-2007, 01:05 AM
In The Space Between Heartbeats
A Naruto Fanfiction
Post VIII
He just needed a sign, some small thing to give him direction. The fact that they were following air and instinct made him feel as if they were wasting time chasing phantom trails. If he could only see where he needed to go, he knew he could find them. He knew it.
"Tell me where you are," he murmured, staring into the trees.
A moment later he sighed soundlessly and stood. It was no use. No matter how hard he looked, Tenten did not appear.
Not bothering to call up to Lee, Neji started to erase the few signs of their own passage, very conscious of the fact that there could be enemy ninja nearby. He was glancing around their campsite to make sure he hadn't missed anything when he heard it.
A light musical note, delicate in the heavy silence of night. It was brief but came again seconds later, and again.
Frowning, Neji pushed back the hood of his cloak and moved forward, following the sound. He found the source under a large evergreen tree, raindrops dripping from the branches to ping sweetly against smooth steel.
It was a kunai.
~~~~
Tenten was awakened a few hours later by the prick of a needle in her hip.
She hadn't even realized she'd dozed off and the slight pinch made her sit up, startled out of the easy sleep she'd been half occupying. A woman by her bedside was putting the empty needle on her bedside tray, the plunger only halfway down, revealing the remainder of some golden liquid she couldn't identify. The sight of it made Tenten's blood run cold.
"What was that?"
The nurse smiled calmly and pressed a cotton swab to the puncture mark on Tenten's hip, wiping away the small drop of blood before pulling her hospital gown back down with a pat. "Just something to help you relax. You've been through a traumatic experience so it's natural to be anxious and worried. The doctor thought it would help you sleep."
The words were said with the steady beat of someone reading from a script, the same feeling she had gotten from the "doctor" earlier. This time, however, Tenten didn't feel like playing the game.
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