Rust

A Naruto Fanfiction
Post II

“What the hell are you talking about?” Naruto exclaimed, jumping to his feet. His face registered his shock. “That’s impossible, isn’t it?” He looked to Sakura for confirmation. “Isn’t it?”

Sakura glanced at him, her green eyes full of doubts, and none of them about herself. “For an ordinary person it would be, but with Neji’s Byakugan…” She trailed off as if unwilling to pin their hope on one person, only to succumb to the conclusions of her training. “Supposing he did it, I could then fix the damage. But I still think there are other ways we might…”

“I’ll do it,” Tenten said suddenly, drawing all eyes to her. Her own gaze found Neji’s and held it as something ached inside his chest. Of all of them, he hadn’t wanted…

Sakura pressed her hands together worriedly. “Tenten-chan, it’s going to be difficult. Are you sure you…”

Tenten made a dismissive motion with one hand and smiled slightly. “I’ve trained with Neji since we were twelve. It has to be me. Besides, who else is there? You’re the medic, Lee’s our backup, and Naruto’s the bait.” Her voice lowered as she repeated, “It has to be me.”

Uchiha Itachi met him in the middle, red eyes meeting white briefly before Neji adjusted his vision downwards towards the man’s feet, as Gai had long ago taught him.

“Where is she?” he asked, his voice brittle in the pre-morning twilight. There was movement in the ranks of Uchiha’s ninjas and she was pushed forward, falling even with Itachi. Neji drank in the sight of her like a man dying of thirst.

Rust

A Naruto Fanfiction
Post III

She was bruised and battered but there were no wounds on her, no blood. Her hair was down and tangled, her face drawn, her eyes ringed by black circles as if she had looked into the face of a nightmare. He knew the horrors of the Sharingan and he wondered what she had seen within that crimson prison. Her blank gaze told him nothing. His jaw tightened.

She had never looked at him and not seen him before.

“He’s going to use it on you,” he told her as they stood together under an ancient tree, its drooping branches shielding their private moment from prying eyes. He wanted to hold her but couldn’t allow himself to until he made sure she understood what was going to happen.

“I know.”

“He can destroy your mind, and the others could do worse.” His throat closed at the possibilities. She only smiled calmly.

“Neji.”

He did hold her then, harshly, strongly. She wound her arms around him and buried her face in his shirt, silent and still, as if she weren’t facing torture in the next few hours. His mouth moved in her hair, his voice hollow.

“You must make them keep you alive. No matter what, when I see you next, you will be breathing.”

She laughed lightly, oddly. “So that you can kill me?”

His arms tightened and he closed his eyes bitterly. “Do you understand?”

She kissed his jaw. “I understand.”

“What do you want?” Neji asked flatly, though he already knew the answer. His voice seemed to echo oddly inside the mask. He didn’t like not being able to look the Uchiha in the face.

“The Kyuubi.”

Neji scoffed. “Did you think we would hand him over for only one ninja?” Behind him, he could almost feel Naruto’s anger growing. The loud mouth ninja had despised their plan from the beginning, but then, he never wanted others getting hurt in his place.

Rust

A Naruto Fanfiction
Post IV

“I think you will. I’ve seen inside her mind, after all.”

Neji struggled to show no reaction, his fingers tightening around the hilt of the sword in his hands. Raising his head slightly, he looked into Tenten’s face, searching for any sign that some part of herself still resided there.

Her eyes flickered, and her right hand slowly made the shape of a special signal. Ready.

Something uncoiled inside of him and he exhaled silently. “Give her to me.”

Even without seeing his expression, Neji understood that Itachi was amused, thinking it was all a little game with powerless pawns. He meant to take Naruto no matter what. It didn’t matter about Tenten, or even any of the others. The Akatsuki had come for one thing and one thing only. The rest of them would be dead within the hour.

“And the Kyuubi boy?”

Neji smirked, knowing Itachi couldn’t see it. “Try to take him.”

With a shove, Itachi flung Tenten towards him carelessly, already dismissing her importance with Naruto so close by. However, he did not count on the fact they might have prepared themselves for this confrontation, for the eventuality that war was inevitable. Neji knew the limits of his team’s powers against the ruby wheels of Itachi’s Sharingan.

And so he did not catch Tenten as she stumbled towards him. Instead, he lifted the katana and stabbed it smoothly through her abdomen, feeling the long blade emerge from her back to impale Itachi in the same way.

Tenten’s eyes were no longer blank.

“Use this,” she said, unsheathing one of two katanas strapped to her back. She flipped the hilt in her hands and handed it to him by gripping the blade. “I made it myself. It’s one of my favorites and it has never failed me.” The corner of her mouth lifted a little. “It will serve you well.”

He took it from her carefully, seeing the smooth lines, the steel folded so perfectly he would have known it was hers even if she hadn’t said so. It was slim and perfectly balanced and way too heavy. In his mind’s eye, it was already stained with her blood.

He stabbed it point down into the ground at his feet, suddenly angry at the serenity she showed him, raging against her simple acceptance of fate. “I don’t want you to do this.”

She corrected him gently. “You don’t want to do this.” He pressed his lips together and averted his gaze, his body stiff and breakable. She took a step towards him and tangled her fingers in a lock of his hair, bringing it to her lips to kiss in loyalty. “I trust you, Neji. Everything will be fine.”

He gazed at her fiercely and surrendered himself. “If you die, I will not be ‘fine’.”

A softness marred her pretty features and her eyes sparkled just for him. “Then I won’t die.”

Rust

A Naruto Fanfiction
Post V

He pulled the sword from her, catching her quickly as she crumbled with his free hand. As she moved out of his line of vision, Neji saw Itachi look down at the deep, bleeding wound in his stomach as if he wasn’t quite sure what it was. He took a single, hesitant step backwards and the Akatsuki jumped into action, finally realizing what had happened.

Gritting his teeth, Neji turned and fled, vaguely aware of his teammates engaging in battle with the Uchiha’s companions as he held Tenten firmly to his side. He didn’t even see Shikamaru’s team descend out of the trees but he could hear them calling out techniques as they appeared. His sole focus, however, was getting to Sakura and when he did, he cast aside the katana and lifted Tenten’s now unconscious body in a silent plea.

“Did you…?” Sakura asked tentatively, her fingers edging the wound in the other kunoichi’s abdomen. There was surprisingly little blood.

“It worked,” he said shortly, bending to lay Tenten carefully on the ground, his lungs constricting at how pale she was, how lifeless. He knew he had been precise, stabbing her in such a way that the blade had not touched any of her vital organs. That had been the plan from the beginning, to use his Byakugan and her as a shield to wound Uchiha Itachi. She had gone in knowing what was going to happen, but he still felt angry, unbalanced, that they had had to take such a risk. That it had worked was little comfort. She could not open her eyes and reassure him that she was alright.

He swallowed, wanting nothing more than to stay by her side even though the battle called to him. “Sakura…”

The medic gave him a hard smile, one he had seen long ago in the face of three Sound-nins intent on killing Sasuke. It was a promise in and of itself. “I’ll look after her. She’ll be here when you get back.”

Almost, he couldn’t speak. “Thank you.”

A surprised look flitted across Sakura’s face but he was already gone, picking up his borrowed katana as he went, one face clear in his mind.

And it wasn’t Itachi’s.

Rust

A Naruto Fanfiction
Post VI

He sat with her that night, in the makeshift tent Naruto had erected for her out of some misplaced sense of guilt. The Akatsuki had retreated, probably to have a medic look at the wound he had given Itachi. It was because of the difference in height between the Uchiha and Tenten that Itachi’s condition was more serious. Neji had purposefully guided the katana through Tenten’s body with his Byakugan, but since the matching places were not at the same level on Itachi, who was taller, the other man had received a grave blow.

Sitting beside her, watching her breathe, he hated the Byakugan which had made it all possible. Probably in somewhat of the same way that Naruto sometimes hated the Kyuubi.

At midnight, Tenten saved him by opening her eyes.

“Neji?” Her voice was almost a croak and he tilted her head up slightly so she could take a small sip of water. Sakura had warned him not to let her drink too much.

“I’m here,” he said, setting the cup aside after a moment, moonlit eyes watching her steadily. She blinked in the darkness, disorientated, and he reached out to grasp her hand firmly.

“I didn’t die,” she said with a wisp of humor. Immediately, he broke at the cheerfulness she offered him and hunched over her hand, his long hair shielding his face as he struggled with himself. He wanted to howl. Everything inside of him was building, like a storm on the horizon. He recognized the symptoms, he had felt them before when he fought Hinata during the Chuunin exams. Unreasonable anger and the horrible feeling that he couldn’t escape something strangled him, closed in around him in the darkness.

Then she whispered his name, “Neji.”

The storm vanished.

It was so sudden that he actually jerked, his head coming up in surprise at the utter exhaustion that took its place. He looked into her face and wondered that she had such power.

She was gazing at him with gentle confidence, something she had never failed to have in him. Her fingers squeezed his weakly. “You saved me.”

His body actually shook as he bent to give her the lightest of kisses. “No,” he muttered against her lips, “you saved me.”

“Neji,” she murmured as he pushed her back against the tree, kissing her with all the carefully caged emotions required of two lovers who were also teammates. There was something wild in him, something that said it might be their last night. He couldn’t stop himself from touching her, no matter what the others thought. They were not the ones letting themselves be caught by the Akatsuki.

“Neji,” she whispered again, somewhat more urgently this time as he kissed the curve of her neck and shoulder. It took him a moment to realize she as pushing at him, trying to get him to look at her. He straightened enough to show her moon-silver eyes.

She lifted a hand to his cheek. “When I come back, I want to come here again, with you.” She leaned into him, resting her head beneath his chin, quieting him with a touch. His arms slowly rose to hold her as he realized what she was saying. Not “if”, but “when”.

“When you return, we’ll come here again. It’s a promise.”

Tenten never broke her promises.

.:End:.

Symmetry

A Naruto Fanfiction
Post I

Tenten sat down on the edge of her pristine bed with a grateful sigh, allowing her eyes to travel over the lovely hotel room as Neji and Lee came in with their suitcases. They had traveled two hours to get there. “There” being the resort that Gai-sensei had arranged for them to visit. “A mission of love” he had called it, and there was no changing his mind when it came to missions. The reason behind the whole trip was Tenten herself.

She had fallen ill during a previous mission which had required insane amounts of time in the pouring down rain, ending with her in bed for almost three days. She was up to doing light exercise now but her energy level was still very low and since Gai had been sent on a mission that weekend, he had decided that Neji and Lee absolutely must take her to a certain resort where “she will flourish like a summer flower in the prime of youth once again!”.

Tenten didn’t feel much like a flower. No, she felt as weak as a day old kitten after all the traveling and she was frustrated at how long it was taking her body to recover. Lee’s constant enthusiasm wasn’t really helping either.

“WOW! This is the perfect place for Tenten to restore her youthful vigor!” he crowed, dropping his bags in order to clench a fist of victory. Neji gave him a disdainful look and set down his own suitcase, as well as hers. The Hyuuga had been surprisingly attentive, though reserved, through Tenten’s sickness, snapping coldly at Gai or Lee when their supremely jovial natures wore her out. It had someone made her feel… special, his attention. Even now, she found him watching her expressionlessly.

“Are you alright?”

She opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by Lee suddenly racing to her side, clasping both of her hands earnestly, a worried look on his comical face. “Yes, are you feeling alright? Tired? Hungry? You should probably eat some vegetables, they will-”

Tenten cut him off gently, knowing he meant well. “I’m alright, Lee, really. I think I’ll just take a bath before dinner…” Barely had the words left her mouth then he snapped to attention, saluting her smartly.

"Fear not, Tenten! I will go and draw your bath for you! Don’t move an inch!”

Symmetry

A Naruto Fanfiction
Post II

She smiled wryly at his retreating back and then turned to look for her other teammate, finding Neji thumbing through the dinner menu for that evening. Just a glance at the cover told her Gai had spared no expense at getting them that room, despite the fact that there was only two beds and three of them. They had all shared sleeping spaces before, but with her sick, it would be better for her to have a bed to herself, leaving Neji with Lee, something that would not be happening in her lifetime. On the way over to the hotel, Neji had simply replied that he would sleep on the floor, something that didn’t sit quite right with her. After all, they were at a resort.

Rising from the bed, she went to her suitcase, reaching down to heft it onto her bed when Neji was abruptly at her side, lifting it easily and without comment. She put her hands on her hips.

“Neji, you didn’t have to…” She trailed off when his eyes met hers.

“I know,” he said simply, and went back to reading his menu. Surprised, it took her a minute to drag her gaze away from him and dig out a change of clothes, zipping her suitcase shut just as Lee emerged from the bathroom, soap bubbles in his hair.

“Your bath is ready, Tenten!” he yelled happily. She winced at the volume and patted him on the shoulder as she passed.

“Thank you, Lee. I won’t be long.”

Once inside, she shut the door to the bathroom with a sigh, breathing in the fragrant air coming off the scented water. Stripping with as much speed as she could muster, she unraveled her hair from it buns and stepped lightly into the tub, wincing a little at the temperature. It felt a bit hotter than usual but that could be because of her sensitive skin after her illness. In any case, she sank into the water carefully, closing her eyes in bliss amidst mountains of bubbles.

The serene moment only lasted a few minutes though, and her eyes jerked open as the door to the bathroom crashed against the wall, Lee hurrying inside as if she were not completely naked. Making sure there were enough strategically placed bubbles as to cover her, she sank a little deeper in the water, wondering again why she suddenly felt so hot.

Symmetry

A Naruto Fanfiction
Post III

“Tenten! Are you alright? Has your burning flame of youth been doused by-”

“Lee!” she said irritably. “Really, you have to stop checking on me every five seconds. I’m perfectly fine! I-”

And then Neji was striding into the bathroom, his dangerous glare searing Lee to cinders where he stood. “Lee! What do you think you’re doing?” His voice was tight and Tenten noticed that he kept his eyes averted from her like a gentleman.

Lee looked honestly surprised. “I just wanted to make sure that our teammate was-”

Neji’s eyes narrowed. “NOT while she’s bathing, Lee.”

Again, Lee looked confused. “But, Neji, it’s only Tenten…”

Tenten’s eyebrow twitched. Only? What did he mean by only?

Suddenly, the water seemed much too hot and she realized she could feel her heart thudding in her chest, beating fast. The steam from the water stuck to her skin and hair and made breathing difficult. Her vision swam and she felt a little light-headed.

Hearing Neji and Lee still arguing, she reached out for the side of the tub and tried to sit up a little, her fingers shaking with her still depleted energy reserves. She gasped as the temperature suddenly became unbearable.

“Neji…” she said, weakly, disoriented, and felt his attention shift to her. “I think I’m… the water…”

The Hyuuga quickly grabbed a towel, still glaring at Lee over his shoulder as he came to her. “Lee, you made the water too hot. Get out.”

When the other boy had left, still spouting apologies, Neji knelt by the tub, a concerned note in his voice as he spoke carefully. “Can you stand?”

She nodded haltingly. “I think so.” She wasn’t concerned about the fact that, in a few seconds, she would be completely naked in front of him. She trusted Neji and they had certainly seen a great deal of each other during their years together. Still, they weren’t thirteen anymore and, if the pale tint on Neji’s cheeks was any indication, he was very aware of that.

However, it was either get out of the bath or pass out and possibly drown. Tenten went for the former.

Symmetry

A Naruto Fanfiction
Post IV

She stood slowly, water rushing off her body, and when she had straightened all the way, Neji wrapped the towel around her in one smooth motion. The action, unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), knocked her off balance and she fell against him, the upper part of her body against his chest.

For one perfect moment, they stayed that way, neither of them speaking. Then Neji’s arms tightened around her and he lifted her bodily from the tub, setting her on her feet gently and releasing her by stepping back.

“Will you be alright by yourself?” he asked, his gaze fixed on anything besides her. She held the towel a little closer to her body and hoped her face wasn’t as red as she thought it was.

“Y..Yes. Thank you.”

He nodded curtly and turned on his heel, closing the door behind him with a soft click. Immediately, she sat down on the cover of the toilet seat, vainly trying to control her breathing and the strange tingly feeling where his arms had pressed against her bare skin.

And she wondered if it was the heat or his touch that was making her dizzy now.

~~~~

Dinner, thankfully, went off without a hitch. Well, except for when Lee seemed to think he could take a sip of Neji’s sake and was promptly punched by the Hyuuga genius before he could get even a drop. Tenten consoled the taijutsu master by telling him even a really small sip would make him too powerful to control. Neji seemed a little perturbed by that statement (no one was too powerful for a Hyuuga), but he let it go and Lee glowed the rest of the evening at her pseudo-compliment.

After they had finished eating, Lee wanted to dance, the very thought of which made Tenten nervous, but Lee was insistent. After all, he had to make up for the bath incident and it was only one little dance so would she please, please, PLEASE dance with him?

Telling herself she was much too soft, she agreed, much to Neji’s silent chagrin, and allowed Lee to lead her to where a whole group had gathered to dance. The first dance wasn’t too bad, the tempo not too fast, and she smiled as Lee twirled her around, her dress whirling about her knees. But when the third one came and went and Lee still showed no sign of wanting to stop, Tenten had to put her foot down.

“Lee, I’m tired. I’m going to go-”

“But, Tenten!” he cried, “The fun is only just beginning! You must let your radiant youth shine through or you’ll never get well!”

Symmetry

A Naruto Fanfiction
Post V

“That’s…uh…good advice, but I need to sit down-”

“Lee,” a stern voice reprimanded, “She’s here to rest. Let her be.”

Both of them swiveled to find Neji coming towards them, obviously intent on making sure Lee didn’t dance her into oblivion. She flashed a grateful smile at him before turning back to Lee.

“You go ahead, Lee,” she said, “I’ll watch your…uh…youthful… display from the table.” He perked up immediately and flashed her a thumbs up, gyrating into the crowd as a slow song started up, the melody drifting across the dance floor.

She looked towards Neji and then around as various couples closed in around them, blocking their exit to the sidelines. She stepped up to him and, when he looked down into her face, she smiled hesitantly, unsure of his reaction.

“One more?” she asked. “We’ll never get out of here until the song’s over.”

He gazed at her silently for a long moment and she wondered if she had overstepped her bounds. She and Neji had always had a connection and she didn’t want to jeopardize that just because of some girly notion of-

But then he took her hand and pulled her to him, her arms going around his neck, and they were dancing as if they had done it a million times before.

Tenten was in heaven.

The feel of Neji’s hands on her waist was electrifying and, somehow, soothing all at once. In the circle of his arms, she felt… safe, something that was a little disconcerting for her. She had always been able to defend herself, but with him… she knew that, at that moment, nothing would be able to hurt her without getting past him first.

It was nice to be taken care of, once in awhile.

With a soft, weary sigh, she laid her head on his shoulder, her eyes closing, breathing in the smell of wind and wood from his clothes. And, miracle of miracles, Neji allowed her to, guiding them around the dance floor silently. Anyone observing him would have noticed the soft look in his pearly eyes and the careful way he held his dance partner, gently and surely as if aware she wasn’t quite herself yet.

Symmetry

A Naruto Fanfiction
Post VI

All to soon, though, the song was over and, with a goodbye wave to Lee, they went back up to their room, Neji’s hand on the small of her back the entire time and she wondered if it is was because he thought she would collapse at any moment or if he simply wanted to touch her. In either case, she said nothing and dropped onto her bed the moment they were in the door, bone-tired and adrift in all the pleasant sensations of the evening. Praise Gai-sensei for sending them away for the weekend!

Neji secured their room for the night and she felt something warm bloom in her chest when he set a glass of water by her bedside without a word. She hadn’t known he knew that her throat often got dry while she slept.

Feeling suddenly bold, she reached out and caught his wrist, actually hearing him inhale at her touch.

“Are you sleeping on the floor?” she asked sleepily. He turned his head to look at her, his eyes bright in the darkness.

“Yes.”

“Don’t,” she murmured, and he blinked. “There’s more than enough room here.”

She barely had time to register the quickening of his pulse before he disengaged his wrist from her fingers. The hollow baritone of his voice was strained.

“Are you trying to test me?” he asked finally, stiffly. She blinked, coming a little more awake at his tone.

“What?”

“I’m just a man, Tenten.” A muscle in his jaw ticked and she shivered at the way he said her name. “Even I have my limits.”

Her heart quivered. So she hadn’t been wrong. There was a reason he had been acting differently towards her and now… now she was flirting with dangerous, dangerous territory.

But Tenten was not a kunoichi who shied away from a fight. The path she wanted would be difficult but, if what he was saying was true, he might be willing to walk that road with her, no matter the hurdles.

Shifting slightly on the bed, she reached out and curled her fingers into his, tugging on his hand to make him look at her again and, when he did, she trembled at what she read in his face.

Symmetry

A Naruto Fanfiction
Post VII

“Stay with me,” she whispered in the silence, “Nothing has to happen, just… stay with me.” And she pulled him down into the bed, smiling as his body slid over hers until he came to rest next to her. He was tense and, though he would never admit it, unsure, so she pressed herself into his side, placing her head in the crook of his shoulder, curling her body up slightly to make herself comfortable. Sighing happily, she closed her eyes and felt him relax in turn, breathing out the tension in his body until he, too, felt sleepy.

“Much better than sleeping on the floor, isn’t it?” she teased a few minutes later, her voice muffled by his shirt. As expected, he didn’t reply, but his arm slowly curved around her waist, the movement full of the hesitancy that came with an evolving relationship. In return, she draped an arm over his chest, loving the way she could feel him breathing.

If this was some sickness-induced dream, she hoped it would never end.

And it didn’t until approximately two thirty in the morning when an exhausted Lee stumbled into the room and found them twined together, sleeping peacefully. His eyes grew to the size of dinner plates and his voice came out a high-pitched wail.

“NEJI! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS? YOU’VE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF TENTEN’S WAVERING FLAME OF-” A pillow hit him smack in the face with the perfect aim of a half-awake Tenten.

“Go to sleep, Lee,” she murmured, snuggling back into Neji’s side. “Everything’s alright.” She smiled a little and repeated what she had been telling him all day.

“I’m alright.”

.:End:.

Let Nothing Come Between

A Naruto Fanfiction
Post I

Neji dropped down onto the tree limb with a heavy grace, breathing raggedly as he gazed about the clearing below with his Byakugan, taking in everyone’s battle simultaneously and gauging their progress. The two teams were spread out, locked in individual combat. He was surprised to see the rookie genins holding their own with Naruto and Sasuke fighting two Rain-nin together while Sakura ranged in-between, helping where she could. Both Sasuke and Naruto were bleeding freely, defensive wounds on their arms and legs. Neji’s eyes revealed that Sakura barely had a scratch, something that could be attributed to her teammate’s protectiveness and her own superior chakra control.

In contrast, not far from them, Tenten stood within a ring of discarded weapons, fighting one of the enemy ninja head on with a katana. She had used Soushouryu a few minutes ago and he could see it had taken something out of her despite the fact that another ninja lay unconscious at her feet as a sign of her victory. Her chakra reserve was low but she was still battling with the same fever he had become accustomed to. Unlike Sakura, she was splattered with blood, some of it her own. To Neji it was the proper state of things. This was a battle, not child’s play.

Turning his head slightly, Neji caught the edges of Lee’s super fast moves against his opponent and nodded to himself in approval. It was not surprising his team was bearing the brunt of the attack. Though Naruto and Sasuke were strong, Neji and his team had trained longer together and were older, more experienced. Hence the reason he had taken a moment to assess everyone’s situation. Because of their hard-earned prowess, Neji had stepped into the role of unofficial leader, and that meant that Team 7 was now his responsibility as well.

However, it looked as if the whole skirmish would soon be over. Deactivating his Byakugan, he made ready to jump down into the fray again when a flash of pink caught his eye. Glancing back, he saw Sakura drive a kunai into a ninja’s thigh, forcing him to his knees. She pivoted, bringing another kunai around, ready to stab him through the heart, when she hesitated, green eyes flickering as she realized she was about to take a life.

Let Nothing Come Between

A Naruto Fanfiction
Post II

Mentally cursing, Neji dropped from the trees as the wounded ninja pulled a kunai from the sheath on his thigh, flipping it up through his fingers with a bloody grin.

Somewhere in the clearing, Naruto cried out, “Sakura-chan!”

But the pink-haired kunoichi remained frozen as the ninja lunged at her, his weapon ready to slit her throat. Just before it would have grazed her skin, the enemy shinobi jerked and halted, some sort of croak issuing from his mouth as he collapsed, revealing Tenten’s katana embedded in his back. Tenten herself stood there, panting, fingers still curled around the hilt as she looked to Sakura who was watching her with wide eyes.

Tenten opened her mouth to say something but was overridden as Naruto came running up, his face scrunched together in seriousness. “Sakura-chan! Are you alright?”

Neji heard her answer something but he ignored it as he focused on his own teammate, watching her closely as she pulled her sword free, flicking blood from the blade before sheathing it with a smooth click. In seconds, Lee joined them, the battle clearly over. He looked over at their teammate worriedly.

“Tenten…”

She made a dismissive motion with one hand. “I’m alright, Lee,” she said, but Neji felt himself stiffen. There was no half-smile on her face, no light in her eyes. There was just… nothing.

Suddenly, he was furious. The full force of his glare found Sakura who jerked backwards in surprise. His words, when he spoke, were bitten off in his struggle to control himself.

“Make camp. We’re staying here tonight.”

Let Nothing Come Between

A Naruto Fanfiction
Post III

They settled in for the night with little fanfare, the darkness like a thick blanket that muffled their emotions and curbed their thoughts. Perhaps sensing the undercurrents, Sasuke made a separate fire for himself and his teammates a safe distance away from Neji’s. Neji let him do as he wished, uncaring since they were still well within the range of his divination.

Instead, his attention was on Tenten, who was kneeling by Lee’s side and re-bandaging his arms. She had been quiet all evening, refraining even from teasing Lee as she worked; that odd, flat expression still gracing her features. She had done nothing about her own wounds, and so he was not surprised when she rose a few moments later and disappeared towards the river. He waited a full minute before standing and following her, entering the forest without a sound.

The river was laced with starlight when he arrived, gentle ripples distorting the moon’s reflection as Tenten swam, washing the blood off her body as she did so. He stood on the bank and watched her, knowing that she knew he was there.

This wasn’t the first time she had scrubbed death-stained hands in a river.

When she was finished, she swam to the edge, damp strands of unbound hair sticking to her skin as he held open her cloak for her, wrapping it around her shoulders as she stepped into him. With a gentle sigh, she rested her forehead against his chest and he let his arms loosen and drop to her waist. They stood like that for awhile, silent and together as mist began to rise from the water. When Tenten finally lifted her head to look him in the eye, he was relieved to see his reflection in her amber irises.

“I didn’t mind killing him,” she whispered, “I don’t mind taking someone’s life to protect a teammate.”

“It shouldn’t have been necessary,” he replied, his voice hard. She smiled slightly, that strange, flat expression gone from her face.

“But it was, and I can bear it.” Her head titled and her hair brushed his arm as her lips curved. “You worry too much.”

He pressed his lips together. There was nothing he could say to that.

But he could say something to Sakura.

Let Nothing Come Between

A Naruto Fanfiction
Post IV

Tenten should have expected him to do something. He didn’t like weakness, especially if it caused trouble for those close to him. Still, it was a complete surprise when she was awakened near midnight by the sound of strong voices reined in just shy of outright anger. It was an argument, albeit a tightly leashed one, and she sat up from her blankets to find Neji and Sasuke staring each other down across a dying fire.

Sasuke’s eyes were flat chips of onyx glittering with annoyance, his face fixed with a tight expression, chin tilted downwards as he glared at Neji. For his part, the Hyuuga stood stiffly, hands fisted at his sides, brows drawn together, his white gaze cold and unyielding. Both of them radiated agitation but something about the set of Neji’s shoulders said he wasn’t going to go easy on other boy. If it came to blows, Tenten was blindingly confident in Neji’s abilities, but she was concerned he might take it too far and injury Uchiha in a way that might be disadvantageous to their team.

She wasn’t sure if it was her place to interrupt though. From his expression, Neji was not about to be pacified by any amount of words on her part. Turning her head towards Team 7’s campfire, she saw the glimmer of wide green eyes fixed on Sasuke’s back and sighed wearily. If Tenten had to guess, she would say the two boys were arguing over what had happened with Sakura earlier and it appeared that the girl knew it. Still, she wasn’t trying to stop them, and so Tenten stayed where she was, only readying a kunai as she waited to see what would happen.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the climax of the scene was cut short by the whistle of tagged kunai and Lee’s shout of warning from the far side of the camp even as the night exploded in orange-red fire. Jagged chunks of tree splinters fell around her as Tenten jumped to her feet, her ears bringing her the sound of confusion through the dust and dirt. She had only a moment’s notice, that tiny voice in the back of her mind telling her to move, before a Rain-nin came out of the darkness with a handful of senbon for her. She had no time to assess her teammates’ situations and was forced upwards into the surviving tree limbs, her hands flinging invisible wire outwards. At the last moment, she turned and engaged her pursuer, unraveling a scroll from her waist pouch and slapping the ancient parchment, her fingers curling around the star-shaped blades of a handful of shuriken. She threw them almost absently, aware that they would, of course, hit their target, and jumped backwards, letting the ninja crash into wiry trap. More shuriken left her hands and the wires snapped, springing back around the ninja and holding him prisoner as he fell to the forest floor.

Let Nothing Come Between

A Naruto Fanfiction
Post V

Tenten didn’t watch his descent, her gaze already turned towards the center of the clearing where the hardest fighting seemed to be taking place. The dust from the explosion had cleared a bit, and the cloudy moonlight showed her the green and gold flash of Neji’s Kaiten as he defended himself against two enemy shinobi. Lee was near him, a tangle of kicks and punches and chops to the neck. Team 7 had closed around their campfire, forming a protective ring to their backs, the circle lined with Naruto’s shadow-clones, Sakura’s kunai, and the large inky blades of Sasuke’s fuuma shuriken. Despite the effectiveness of their formation, the Rain-nin were overwhelming them, breaking down the perimeter of their defense with sheer numbers. A circle could be held by a limited number of shinobi, but it also limited mobility, something Team 7 was quickly finding out.

Tenten dropped through the forest trees soundlessly, throwing her scroll out before her as she went. She felt Neji’s pearl-white gaze find her before she began the rotation, twisting in mid-air until her image was all but lost in the blur of motion. The Hyuuga called out for their teams to duck but the order was unnecessary. Tenten’s chakra allowed her to have perfect control of when and where her weapons fell and not one of them so much as scratched a Konoha ninja. The raining hail of steel caught their attackers off guard and many of them fell, struck suddenly by a kunai in the leg, or a shuriken in the shoulder. Even more unfortunate were those hit by spinning fuuma shuriken or the terrible spikes of the makibishi.

The scroll slithered to the ground before she hit it, dropping to one knee, hand out as she caught the last katana for herself, raising it defensively as they engaged the last of the Rain-nin. Those last moments were a blur, all muscle and force and breath in the flaring light of Sasuke’s Goukakyuu no Jutsu. The only thing Tenten could say for certain was that she never saw the hand that reached out, clamped around her throat and threw her backwards with such force that her back hit a nearby tree hard enough to make her cough blood as she staggered, hunching forward and blurrily trying to make out her attacker. A solid punch to her stomach stopped that effort and she folded around the fist, drawing her katana up and over, the downward slash stopped by a hand on her wrist. There was a brief struggle of strength wherein Tenten found she could breathe again and she saw the Rain-nin for the first time, the mask over his mouth twisting as he snarled silently at her.

Let Nothing Come Between

A Naruto Fanfiction
Post VI

Knowing she didn’t have the physical ability to defeat him, she let go of the katana, letting it bury itself into the earth behind her point first even as she dropped, swinging out a leg to sweep the ninja off his feet. He was good though, and he turned his fall into a roll, springing up and turning to drive a kunai in her unprotected back, her body still moving towards the space he should have been in had he not rolled. She had only seconds to adjust to his new position, to see the weapon in his hand and know she had no time to avoid it and nothing to counter it with. Her body tensed in anticipation of the blow…

… but it never came.

The Rain-nin dropped to his knees, eyes wide and unseeing, gurgling his last breath as the fall of his body revealed Sakura with a bloody kunai in her hand, her eyes hard and glittering. Tenten looked at her in shock and Sakura replied with a grim smile.

“Now we’re even.”

And in that moment they had an understanding, an exchange of experiences. The life of a kunoichi is this, their unspoken words said, and there was no need for Sakura to apologize for her earlier hesitation. They both understood, and that was the reason they had chosen the path of ninja. They were more.

After that, the battle ended swiftly, Neji somehow finding his way to her side, the set of his mouth revealing that he had seen what had transpired and was struggling with his pride as well as a particularly slippery Rain-nin. In the end, they stood together amidst fallen warriors, exhausted, and surveyed the damage.

Lee had taken only minor injuries, mostly reopening his previous wounds. He would be fine with some fresh bandages. Naruto was grinning and slapping “Fuzzy Eyebrows” on the back and so Tenten deduced he was perfectly alright. It took her a moment, but she at last found Saskue and Sakura at the edge of the clearing, bathed in starlight and speaking quietly, standing close but not touching. Tenten thought she saw Sakura smile.

“She did well,” Neji said, having followed the direction of her gaze, his eyes almost luminescent in the dark. There was no inflection in his voice, just the flat announcement of simple fact. Still, she knew it was as close to an admission of misjudgment as he would ever get. She smiled slightly and turned, taking in his ruffled exterior, the line of blood on his cheek. She reached up and brushed her fingers down the side of his face lightly, the most she could do until they were alone. The muscles in his jaw eased at her touch.

Let Nothing Come Between

A Naruto Fanfiction
Post VII

“I’m just glad everyone is mostly unhurt,” she said quietly, letting her shoulders drop, the tension leaking out of her.

“Did you say someone was hurt?” Sakura asked, Sasuke by her side as they stopped a few feet away. Neji glanced at the pair but it was Tenten who answered.

“No, we’re all a little ragged, but we’re alright.”

“It’s time to be away,” Neji said, “before others find us.”

Sakura nodded and Neji’s eyes flickered to her before settling on Sasuke. There was a small silence and then the Hyuuga spoke again, his tone as formal as Tenten had ever heard it. “Take point?”

Sasuke nodded once, but it wasn’t a curt motion, and Tenten knew that they, too, had reached an understanding. Their new found peace was shattered though, as Naruto came bounding up, still as irrepressible as ever.

“What’s going on? What’re we doing? Huh? Huh? Sakura-chan?”

A hard punch to the jaw sent him flying. “Knock it off, Naruto!” an irate Sakura shouted. Sasuke turned on his heel, ignoring the antics of his teammates.

“We’re going,” he said calmly. Sakura immediately hurried after him and Naruto jumped up as if the Uchiha’s words had been a direct insult.

“Wait up, Sasuke-bastard! Who put you in charge? Wait, Sakura-chaaaaaan…!”

Tenten shook her head. And she thought Lee was bad.

Speaking of Lee…

“Are we following?” he asked, joining them. He’d bandaged his arms again himself, his usual enthusiasm leaking through his voice. Tenten smiled.

“Yeah, we’re going.” She glanced at Neji and found him watching her, waiting. Stepping in beside him, she linked her arm threw his and Lee’s.

“We’re going,” she reiterated, firmly, “All of us, together.”

.:End:.

Take back My Heart
That title is so familiar. Do you have an account on FanFiction by any chance? Just wondering. That story rings a bell somewhere in my mind. I've read something similar before. I'd say more, but it's getting late. I'll be back to read more.

I share the account with my older brother; some of the stuff is his, some mine. Don't tell him, he'll get really mad at me, because he's obsessed with copyright stuff and whatnot. Our pen name is Goldberry. It's a long story how we came up with it...

The Right Hand of Bishamon

A Naruto Fanfiction
Post I

The makeshift field base for the Konoha ninja was all but invisible unless stumbled upon accidentally. A few pitched tents marked the edge of a small clearing, along with a hastily erected table littered with fluttering mission reports weighted down with scattered kunai. Standing over them, his pale eyes fixed on half a page of almost illegible text, was Hyuuga Neji. He was dressed simply, the long sleeves of his shirt brushing the weathered tabletop as he traced a line of script, his face unreadable. Next to him, the Fire Country’s best weapons expert watched him patiently, her hair pulled back in its usual functional style, a pair of katanas strapped to her back, a kodachi at her waist. She was a walking arsenal, her slim body toned for warfare, and she was feeling restless that morning. He could tell by the set of her shoulders, her stance, her electric silence.

In truth, he felt the same. Fire Country was at war with the Cloud Country and nerves were on edge, emotions bubbling just beneath the surface. Perhaps even more so for him whose family had long held a grudge against the hidden village and its ninja. However, burdened by the role of leadership, he did not allow himself to think of his father. Instead, Neji picked up the report from his old teammate, Rock Lee, and felt Tenten’s eyes follow his movement, her body practically humming with contained energy. Outwardly calm, she waited for his decision.

Lee had sent that an incoming enemy group would reach the field base at around midday. Neji needed to send out an arrow-point formation to break off and engage part of the force, giving Konoha time to regroup and reassess. The decision of who to send could not be made lightly; whoever was chosen couldn't be part of the main assault.

“Send me.”

At first, Neji wasn’t sure he actually heard her. The two of them were a well-oiled machine, their names spoken in the same breath by those close to them. They had trained together since they were children and had a way of almost reading each other’s thoughts. He glanced at her over his shoulder, arching an eyebrow at the set look on her face. For him to send her out would be to break up the partnership—something he was loathe to do. Despite how he tried to hide it, he liked having her with him when the fighting started.

The Right Hand of Bishamon

A Naruto Fanfiction
Post II

Tenten was a stubborn girl though, and Neji could see the value of her suggestion. With her chosen weapons, she had the ability to create a devasting army out of single scroll. She would take two other shinobi with her to engage the army who, by Neji’s reasoning, would split into two forces, one to stay and fight her, the other to continue on to the Konoha base camp. If she could hold off the first force for even a few minutes, it would give them a distinct advantage.

Tenten said she would do it, and Neji agreed.

She chose Hyuuga Hinata, with her far-seeing eyes, and Haruno Sakura, whose abilities as a medic would not be needed until well into the main battle. Neji watched them leave, the three kunoichi fading into the trees like dappled sunlight, barely a whisper of their passing reaching his ears. They were capable and intelligent, but something made him watch the forest long after they had gone, only Naruto’s loud voice drawing him away from his silent vigil.

~~~

Jumping from tree limb to tree limb, Tenten took stock of her personal inventory, mentally adding all the weapons she carried, save her scrolls. Those were worth a whole team of shinobi and she didn’t have any doubts that her plan would work. She was focused, determined. She had no need to tally her chances of survival.

However, as in any battle, there were always whims of fate, turns of chance that foil even the best of strategists. Originally, she had thought her quarry to be around seventy-five nin strong only to have Hinata frantically report that it was more like one hundred and seventy-five. Still, her resolve was unshaken. She had her orders.

Unruffled, she strung invisible wire the length of the anticipated contact zone, instructing Sakura in laying makibishi along the ground while Hinata acted as a lookout. Then she readied herself, methodically strapping arm guards over her forearms, pulling finger-less gloves on her hands. That’s all the mattered: hands and arms. Afterwards, she rechecked her rolls of wire, her weapons, and her scrolls. Ready.

Hinata leapt down from the tree canopy with news that the enemy was approaching, and faster than they had foreseen. Tenten straightened, and calmly turned to Sakura.

“Well then, you must return.”

Haruno wore an expression of utter disbelief. “What?”

“You and Hinata go back to base camp. Neji will be needing you,” Tenten replied evenly. “You’ll be worth more to him there than here.”

“T…Tenten-san, surely you’re not t..thinking…”

The Right Hand of Bishamon

A Naruto Fanfiction
Post III

The weapons expert smiled. “I’ll be fine, Hinata. I’m just going to make sure they hit the traps.” Her voice drifted absently.

“I’ll be right behind you.”

~~~

There were no words to describe the sinking, wrenching feeling that Hyuuga Neji experienced upon seeing Sakura and Hinata return without Tenten. A sort of grim lethargy settled over him, making it seem as if they were moving in slow motion, the spiral of a falling leaf taking years, every blink, an hour. When they finally reached him, he thought he must have been waiting eons.

“Where’s Tenten?”

Sakura met his gaze with something like apprehension. “She sent us back.”

It took him a moment to understand what she was saying. His voice turned carefully flat. “What?”

“She… She said she would be r..right behind us…” Neji’s pearl-cold eyes turned to his cousin and she took a step back. It was a full minute before he could speak.

“Haruno, go join the med unit, and take Hinata-sama with you.” He turned on his heel, headed toward the front lines. Sakura called after him.

“What about Tenten?”

He didn’t answer. As commander, he couldn’t leave his teams to fight without guidance, not to rescue one lone kunoichi who had spared others her own fate. He would have to rely on her strength to bring her back to him, despite the irrational desire to do something, anything. He had sent her to do his bidding and now it was a matter of trust. She would make it back.

He wanted to say, It was fated, but the words wouldn’t come.

~~~

Three hours later, Tenten staggered into camp, one arm useless at her side, hair unraveling from her buns, tired and anxious. He was waiting for her, looking a little worse for the wear but otherwise in one piece. Seeing him made her forget her own wounds: the fine crisscrossing welts from snapped wires, a particularly nasty cut from a kunai she had let get too close. These things seemed very small compared to the fact that they were both alive and whole.

“Neji,” she said, and smiled, her body falling forward of its own volition, relief making her lightheaded. He caught her against his chest easily and she could hear his heart beating a faster pace than was usual.

The Right Hand of Bishamon

A Naruto Fanfiction
Post IV

“You were very foolish,” he said as he lifted her, his direction telling her he was taking her to the field hospital. His face was a mask of painstakingly constructed composure. “And you disobeyed my orders.”

She only offered him a wane smile, eliciting a scowl from him before her expression turned serious and she lifted a hand to grip his arm. “Did we win?”

“Yes, for the moment. They retreated beyond the border.” He looked down at her. “Your mission was a success, it seems.”

Tenten relaxed. “That’s good.”

After that, she remembered very little. Neji had had the medics treat her superficial wounds and Sakura had come by at one point and given her something that had put her out until sunrise the next day. She was thus slightly late for Neji’s early morning council but got there eventually, taking her usual place just behind his right shoulder.

It took only a few minutes for her to realize someone else had not made the meeting.

“Where’s Lee?”

Every eye fell on her, a doom of silence stifling the air as Neji turned his head, regarding her levelly. She felt a stirring of fear even before he spoke.

“He was caught.”

The air in her lungs turned to ash. “When?”

Shikamaru answered her. “Yesterday. The scout that went with him is dead.” The lazy genius leaned down to point a finger at one of the maps. “He’s being held by a group near the border. One well-placed shinobi should be enough.”

“We can’t afford to send a team anyway,” Sakura put in. She looked worried. “But are we sure it can be done by a single person?”

“It can,” Shikamaru said, and surprisingly, his gaze swung to Tenten. She met his look briefly before turning to Neji, waiting for his verdict. It wasn’t all that necessary though, she knew what he would say. After all, Lee had been their teammate and she had always been fond of him, despite the fact that he often drove her crazy. Even Neji, though she knew he would never admit it, valued Lee as a friend and fellow ninja.

The Hyuuga nodded once and met her eyes, giving her a wealth of thoughts without uttering a word. You will go. You will retrieve Lee and you will come back. You are not to be seen.

She bowed slightly and talk turned to other matters as if the conclusion of her mission had already been decided, as if she had already come and gone. Only after Neji had dismissed them did he speak to her, his eyes watching the horizon. She wondered that he could not look at her.

“You’ll be by my side by nightfall.”

It was not a question. Tenten almost smiled at the arrogant tilt to his voice, but that was to be expected by those whom the Hyuuga trusted. When Neji believed in you he expected miracles. Never mind that she was still recovering physically. Never mind that she was terrible at stealth. Neji said she would be back by nightfall, and it would be so.

His words allowed for no other outcome.