Neji was going to protect Tenten all his life.
It had became his life-goal since the very first day he laid his eyes on her, which happened far, far before they officially met. Days before she accidentally bumped into him during recess and spilled her tea over him. Weeks before he purposefully came two hours earlier for class so he could sit behind her. Months before she threw a kunai at him for standing in front of her practice-target and refusing to move. Years before they got assigned in the same team. She probably didn't and wouldn't realize this, but Neji had known her since forever.
He knew everything about her. What she hated, what she loved. Why she did this and why she didn't do that. What she dreamed about at nights and what filled her thoughs at days. What made her think so clearly and what clouded her judgement. He knew her as well as he knew his alphabet, and she was his A until Z.
He loved to hold her close to him and he hated to let go. He liked the way her eyes would crinkle everytime she laughed and he enjoyed the way she always did. He admired her streght and respected her personality. He loathe to see her suffer and he would do everything not to. He would defeat gravity to prevent her from falling and break through the atmosphere to bring her the moon, just because—
Because he loved her.
He would never ever ever admit it out loud, let alone confess it to her, but he did, he did so much wholeheartedly. It pained him to love her from afar, to meet her as friends and then part as nothing more. He regretted it every night he went to sleep that one day had passed without her knowing his undying love for her. That less than twenty four hours had came and went without the warmth of her lips against his.
Who knew that the almighty Neji Hyuga was too scared to confess? To a clanless girl who was his teammate, nonetheless. He had gone years assuring himself that he was not scared, that nothing related to his bun-haired teammate was there to be afraid of, until the girl herself almost got killed during a mission if not for his inhumanly amazing eyesight and their green-spandex-wearing teammate's fast moves. Then he realized that he was not afraid of her or of being with her—
He was afraid for her.
He was afraid that he would lose her, that one day he wouldn't be there to keep her safe, to protect her like he had always sworn to. He was afraid that she would slip through his arms and went to where his eyes couldn't see her, that at one unexpected moment she would just disappear. He was afraid that one morning, he would wake up without her, and he was afraid that when the the time came, he couldn't do anything to prevent her from leaving.
But somehow, Neji Hyuga knew that she would never ever ever leave him.
"Neji, I swear to Kami I will pack my stuffs up and move out of this house if you don't—"
"You know that's impossible."
"Um... yeah. Somehow I know it is."