#tenneji

I. 

Tenten’s body moves before her mind can catch up. 

All she’s thinking is that Neji is hurt. Hurt so badly. Impaled. And she’s gone right for his side. With Naruto holding onto him. Their eyes meet, and her breath catches. At this moment Naruto looks so young.

Younger than he should. A boy in a warzone holding onto the form of his dying friend. 

And she feels so young and so old at the same time. Her throat is already raw even though she hasn’t made a sound apart from Neji’s name being torn from her mouth when she witnessed him get hurt. 

They’ve been hurt before. Of course, that’s their lifestyle. To be a ninja is to deal pain and deal with pain. All the times she’s tended to his wounds, and he to hers, flash through her mind at rapid speed. Scratches and bruises, where some were deeper than others. But they always managed to find one another by campfire or moonlight, and patch up any wound that came their way.

And death, they’ve seen death. What shinobi  hasn’t? What shinobi made their mark on the world without dealing death and dealing with death in return?

But it’s in this moment where she is watching Neji die, where their eyes meet and she can’t help but say, “Don’t go” all wrecked and broken, that the reality of their world hits.

They are kids asked to be soldiers. They are kids asked to die for their people. They are kids who can never really be kids because before they could walk they had to run. Before they could learn how to count they had to learn how to fight. She’s wielding kunai before pencils and summon seals before spelling. 

It feels so wrong. The biles sky rockets. 

“Don’t go,” she drops to her knees and grasps onto his hand that becomes colder with any second. “Don’t go! Neji I swear if you die I’m dragging you back from heaven or hell! You can’t go .” 

“Tenten,” Naruto rasps beside her but she doesn’t look at him. Her eyes are set on Neji, who smiles at her so weakly. 

“I am content, if this is how I must go out.” Neji starts, and Tenten makes a rather choked sound. 

“Don’t. Don’t talk. You have to s-save your strength. Ok? Some, some medics are on the way. Ok? So you have to-you have to stay,” alive. You have to stay alive until then. She wants to say but the words get trapped in her throat. 

She looks desperately at Naruto, who looks equally horrified and at a loss. And if Naruto felt lost, felt seemingly defeated, then Neji… Neji was going to. 

“I,” Naruto goes to speak and then stops. His eyes widen, then shuts as if he’s speaking to himself and Tenten is trying to not think about how every second they’re here and a medic is not on the way, Neji is dying. When his eyes snap open, there’s a renewed sense of determination-harried and fried at the edges, but with hope . “I think I can save him.”

“ Please ,” is the only word that comes out of her mouth as Naruto lays Neji on the ground.

Lee joins. He’s yelling Neji’s name to kingdom come as Tenten watches Naruto become cloaked in fiery red chakra. She bites her lip and reaches out for Lee’s hand, who clutches onto hers with a fierce grip. 

“Naruto thinks he can save Neji,” Tenten says.

“He will,” Lee says so resolutely that Tenten couldn’t do anything other than nod, and believe. 

Soon, the red chakra flowing from Naruto’s body envelops Neji. It bubbles and hisses and Tenten can’t help but stare and pray. Pray and pray that this will work. That whatever miracle Naruto is attempting to make in the middle of a warzone would bloom from the cracks like flowers after the winter. She prays and she prays and then finally, she sees it. 

The breakthrough.

The color in Neji’s face returns. The wound, gaping, starts to close as if being stitched back inch by inch. She watches through her tears enrapt at the vision of Naruto healing Neji. Bringing him back from the brink of death. By the time the others arise Neji is able to sit. His wound is gone, like it never left. 

Neji’s eyes are wide. Like he can’t believe he’s here and not crossing the bridge to the afterlife. He looks at Naruto, who smiles at him all sunny and bright and tired. Lee is the first to move, running over and barreling Neji into his arms. Neji is shocked, but he takes it. Holds onto Lee feverently. 

Tenten hears a gasp and looks behind her, only now realizing that Hinata was there the entire time. With tears down her face and relief shaking at her shoulders. Tenten swallows, because if she opens her mouth she’ll wail. And it’s been a blessing that during battle they’ve even had this time at all to process and work through navigating death.

Then, their eyes meet. 

Neji looks at her, and Tenten looks back as if Neji is a whole new world. And he is. In that moment, she leans forward to join the hug. Squeezes both her teammates tightly, and swears that when she goes back into battle she will fight and fight and fight so that they do not have to repeat this anytime soon. 

II. 

Tenten hadn’t expected to see Neji at the training grounds so late.

Then again, she hadn’t expected to be out so late either. Though that was a lie. The training grounds had seen more of her in the past few weeks than her own bed. No one at the academy had taught them when they were kids what war could do after it was over. How war never really left you even though you have left the battlefield.

Tenten could still see the bodies. She could still feel the blood on her skin and the dirt under her nails. She could still picture Neji impaled, nearly lifeless, nearly dead every time she closed her eyes and prayed for sleep to take her. 

So the training grounds became her new nightly routine. It was simple. She’d work herself until her bones felt weary and her eyes became heavy. Then she’d crawl into bed and sleep into the midday and attempt some normalcy after a nice bowl of breakfast.

For now, it was a doable routine. The healthiest? Probably not. But Ino had already made her promise several times to stop by the clinic to see someone sometime soon about her insomnia. Until then, throwing kunai into anything she could on the grounds would suffice.

But to see Neji was not a part of the plan, nor the routine.

They hadn’t seen each other much since the war. Life went on too fast, with everyone being pulled into different directions to help rebuild and replan and rethink what the future was going to look like now that they were entering an era of peace and prosperity.

When she last saw Neji he was recuperating in the hospital. While Naruto’s chakra did miracles in healing the wound, it wasn’t a complete fix. He still had to see a doctor for additional care. Lee and Tenten and Gai had stopped to see him multiple times, of course. But once Neji was healthy enough to leave, the Hyuuga household had taken hold of him. Since then, it was hard to find time to see Neji.

“You’re out late,” Tenten attempts to be casual, and ignores the way her heart constricts when Neji pauses in his movements to look at her. 

Alive. Alive. Real, and here , she thinks.

“As are you. Why aren’t you asleep?”

“I don’t think you have the right to ask me that question since you’re also here too,” Neji had such a way of saying things as if he himself also wasn’t guilty of the same thing. Tenten can barely hold back rolling her eyes, though it’s in fond exasperation at best. “ You at the very least should be resting.”

Neji frowns, “I’m well rested. Too rested.” he flexes his hands into fists. Tenten gets it. She does, because she feels so energetic it’s maddening. It’s not even good energy. It’s restless, chaotic, war tuned energy that doesn’t know where to go now that things have dulled down. 

That’s why they’re here in the first place, after all. 

“Yeah,” she nods, eyes dropping to the floor. “I get what you mean.”

“Well, if you’re here. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t make use of our time.” Neji fixes his stance into a ready pose, hands raised ready to fight. 

Tenten’s eyebrows spark up, “You wanna spar?”

“No. I want to bare our souls under the pale moonlight with only the stars to bear witness to our souls’ vulnerability.”

“Hey! Watch yourself, Neji. I was only making sure because I wanted to give you a second chance to rethink your decision!”

She gets into stance herself, and the smirk Neji gives her in response does something to her. A shock, all the way down to her toes. She blinks. And recognizes how her heart rate spikes slightly-not in the usual anticipation of a good fight. Or maybe that, and then some. 

“Nothing to reconsider,” Neji says. “Come, Tenten. We don’t have all night.”

Sparring with Neji was always-electric. That’s the only way Tenten can feel about the way her skin buzzes and her cheeks are flushed. The way their bodies mesh and clash in a way that can only occur from years of watching one another fight, learning how the other moves, and working in tandem for so long. 

Neji moves so gracefully while Tenten’s always been a heavy hitter. Her taijutsu was good, but Neji’s was better. And while he never held back with her, because that would make her mad that he wouldn’t use his all against her regardless of their skill levels, she knew Neji was adjusting for Tenten with each blow. 

“Not bad,” Neji goads. 

Tenten meets his gaze with a slightly wild grin, “Shut up.” 

When she brings out her seals and summons her weapons, the sparring ramps up in electricity. She brings out a staff, twirling it around until she rests at her ready stance. Neji tilts his head, intrigued, and mirrors her stance. They both move at the same time, staff meeting gentle fists. They move in synergy, in practiced synchronization. 

But there’s an edge to each hit. Barely under the surface as they clash. Tenten gets a few hits. Some to her side, to her arms. She’ll feel those for days, and she thinks rather distantly how just a few months ago she was worried an enemy would pierce her to the point she’d never feel again. 

The thought disappears though because she blocks a kick from Neji. 

They go for what seems like hours until Tenten has the end of the staff pointed under Neji’s chin. They’re both breathing heavily with satisfied smiles mirroring one another. 

“I’m pretty good, huh?” Tenten teases. 

“Shut up.” 

III. 

She’s not sure when this becomes part of her routine, meeting Neji at night to spar, but she finds that she looks forward to the restlessness that creeps under her skin when she tries to go to bed.

Neji never holds back. And that’s good, because Tenten never liked to be limited. Not once, not atll. With Neji, she could go all out. He always met her halfway and then pushed her to go even further. 

They’d fight until one of them was either pinned or too tired to continue. They flip flopped between using weapons and taijutsu. To making up silly competitions like who could get the most bullseye on the target practice dummies. 

Neji had the byakugan, sure, but Tenten had excellent aim. You can’t bloodline that. 

“Alright. That makes the score between us seven to six.” Tenten sits on top of a tree branch while Neji rests down below. “With me being the seven, of course. Since I’m the best.”

“Your low sweep kick was uncalled for,” Neji scoffs, folding his arms. “If you hadn’t caught me off guard I would have had you.”

“Would have. But didn’t. You sound like quite the sore loser!”

Neji clicks his tongue in disapproval and Tenten laughs. Laughs harder than she anticipates, or wants. When she jumps down from the tree she’s still laughing. So hard her sides hurt. Doubled over, laughing and laughing until Neji breaks the chain. 

“Are … you crying?”

Tears were running down her face, streaming as she laughed. Coming out more broken, more relieved, more tired, more … something. This could have turned out to not be her life. In another universe, in another time, Neji would be buried. Dead. Gone. They wouldn’t be able to spar like this? They wouldn’t be able to have this moment where they’re both avoiding demons that are coming for them in their sleep, and so they find each other because they both knew without having to say anything at all what the other was running from.

Yes, she’s crying. She’s crying between the bubbles of laughter not because she wanted to. But because somewhere, somewhere deep, is crying with relief that she can have this moment where Neji is here and real and alive. 

“Tenten-” Neji starts again, softly, and she throws herself at him. He stumbles from the weight, and the two end up on the ground with Tenten sobbing into Neji’s chest. 

“I’m so glad you’re here,” she gasps into his shirt. Over and over again. “I’m so glad you’re alive. Neji, Neji, Neji.” 

There’s a moment and then, Tenten feels Neji’s arms wrap around her. Feels his breath near her neck, hot and soft and quiet. “I am here. And I’m not going anywhere,” he responds, among a litany of other promises and words Tenten can’t quite catch through her tears. 

They lay like that until Tenten realizes how embarrassing this must be. Pushed to the ground by his teammate but not in a fighting way. She pushes herself up until she’s hovering. Looking down at Neji who is looking up at her in return. She feels his hands on her waist, and there’s heat pooling at her cheeks because . . . this feels intimate. 

He must feel it too, because his hands move so fast and his cheeks also turn red. “I-I’m sorry,” he clears his throat and looks away. 

Then something clicks. Something breaks. And Tenten gets this thought in her head that she should kiss him. She should kiss him over and over until his breath is on her tongue and his lips are the only thing she can remember. She should kiss him because he is alive and this moment may not happen again. 

War has taught her to be desperate and greedy and impulsive. To never hesitate when there are people in your lives who may be violently ripped away from you by death. 

“Neji,” her voice grows quiet and foreign to her own ears. Covered in some sense of heat and emotion she’s not sure of what to call. Her heart picks up in speed, hammering loudly. He looks back at her, and Tenten feels his breath hitch when she leans down to kiss him. 

He tenses under her. Which makes her flinch. Shit. No, she should-this wasn’t how-but then, he relaxes. He kisses her back. Their kiss is soft, and gentle. A test, as they both become aware and attuned and adjust to the reality that they’re kissing on the grounds of the training field. 

She pulls back, her cheeks still warm. Neji is searching, looking for something, as is she. 

“I have wanted to do that for…ever.”

“Oh?” Neji’s eyebrows rise to his hairline. 

Tenten scrunches up her face, “Ew, don’t say it like that. Gods, this is embarrassing. I hadn’t planned-”

“We can kiss again.”

“Huh?”

“I said…” Neji looks like he wants to sink into the floor. Tenten will be right behind him. “Kissing-that. We can do that again.”

“.... Oh.”

“Ew stop-” and she descends, devouring whatever else he might have said. This second kiss is less hesitant. Not when Tenten has so much to say that she doesn’t have the words to vocalize. So she hopes Neji gets it all with the way she kisses him as if she may never get the chance to again. 

This time, Neji’s hands do hold her hips. And she gasps from the sensation. Neji takes the chance to slip his tongue in slightly, in question. Asking if that was alright, if a deepening of the kiss would be allowed. Tenten responds with her tongue. A little hesitant, but eager. She’s never done this, and it’s clear that neither has Neji.

But together, they’re learning the shapes of each other’s mouths. How to kiss, albeit a little sloppy and novice but with passion. A desperation that can be tasted on both of their tongues. They kiss and kiss. Tenten breaks the kiss again, but only to pepper Neji’s face in kisses. On his forehead, on his nose, on his cheeks. To his lips, where she nibbles on his bottom lip before going back for more. Over and over. She melts on top of him, and Neji holds her with such a tightness. She feels more anchored than she has in weeks. 

Neji pulls back next. His lips are swollen and red and there’s this possessiveness that comes over Tenten knowing that she made his lips look like that. Enjoying the fact that she has. Wanting to know when and how she can make his lips look like that every time, everyday. 

“I’m glad you’re alive,” she says again after moments of silence.