Tap tap.

I turn to look at who was attempting to get my attention. I turn around and come face to face with a... scythe? All red and black, crescent moon figure and with a long, long, shapely blade.

"Um. I'm down here?" The scythe sounds vaguely annoyed by the fact I'm addressing it rather than its wielder.

I look down to see that the scythe is attached to a small girl. She is wearing a dark- almost black- red combat skirt and grey leggings. A red cloak complete with hood hangs off her back. A konoha head band sits around her waist, slightly off center. Attached to her back, over the cloak, is the scythe that had caught my eye in the first place.

"Can I help you?" I bite off. Perhaps I'm being rude, but I just got my but handed to me by that suna chick with the big ass fan, I think I'm due a little grumpiness.

She tilts her head to the side and looks at me funny, not at all offended by the way I'm attempting to kill her with just the tone of my words.

"Why didn't you use any explosive tags?" She asks.

I furrow my eyebrows at her. "Why do you care?" I again bite off. Yup really being rude today.

"Well." She says, "You would have won if you had used them, not like tagged onto the end like a lot of people do, but if you had wrapped them around the handle of some of the weapons you had thrown. Waited until a few were on the ground. Then blew them up, she wasn't even looking at the weapons around her feet." She shrugs, "A few of those near hits you had, boom! and the fight is over. Those you don't even have to activate at range, just put the explosion on a shorter timer."

Now I'm annoyed, I mean sure that was a sound strategy and I wish I had heard about it before that match. At the same time this little girl was reminding me I didn't win.

I look at her funny for a minute. "Thanks for the tip." I say, flatly, no emotion in my voice at all, if this wasn't a Konoha ninja I would be taking a lot more offence. The fact that the scythe on her back looks wicked sweet, has nothing to do with why I didn't bite her head off- nope nothing at all.

I'm trying to think how I would use such a weapon in a fight. The blade is on the inside, so slashing motions, obviously, the shaft could be used to block. The end of the blade is sharp so, if you swing it in wide arcs that come in toward your body, and then on the back swing push the blade away from you? no that wouldn't work-

"Hey! My eyes are down here!" Honestly this scythe shouldn't look that attractive if it didn't want to be ogled.

I look down at the girl that the scythe belongs to, looking just a tad cross that I had been lustfully looking at her weapon- again. I feel my face turn red at the fact I was caught staring at her weapon- again. I look right at her eyes, because as she pointed out, that's what you're supposed to do when you talk to people. Deep silver eyes, like freshly polished metal, they show, annoyance and... amusement? She is having fun at my expense. I blush harder and look away.

"Sorry, I have a thing for weapons." I explain weakly.

She does this little snort giggle thing. "Yeah I kinda noticed." She is smiling now.

"The next match will be Ruby Rose vs Kin Tsuchi."

"Well that's my cue, I got to go." She says with a little wave, and with a hop over the rails she is down in the arena, the scythe comes off her back and circles around her. Just like I thought swinging motions with a slight pull inwards to both puncture and slash. But rather than push out on the back swing, she lets the weapon orbit around her, and throws the weapon away from her just a little when it's behind her back, turning the blade to slash in any direction she pleased. The motion is so smooth and so natural on her that I wouldn't doubt she could do it with just her hips if she tried. The way she holds the weapon as she walks forward, the shaft held across her back, right hand right under the blade of the weapon, almost as if she is protecting the weapon from her foe.

It occurs to me I will be silently rooting for the girl with the scythe in this fight. I try to tell myself it's just because she is a Leaf ninja, while the other is clearly from Sound. But if I'm being honest I just want to see that scythe in action as long as possible.

It also occurs to me I have no clue which name is her's.

The fight is short, almost over before it began. The scythe girl gets down in the arena, and enters into a pseudo-sprinters stance, one hand down on the ground the other still holding tightly to her weapon.

The Otogakure girl says something, I can't hear it from up here in the stands. The girl with the scythe just smiles.

The hand slashes down, and a sharp cry of "begin!" sounds through the building. And then the Otogakure girl is slumped over the girl with the scythe's fist. Clearly unconscious. "Uh. Winner, Ruby Rose." Genjutsu or she is just that fast?

The girl, whose name has to be Kin, drops to the floor as Ruby retracts her hand. The scythe does it's amazing orbit, and is planted firmly back on her back, right where it was before the match started. She looks around, sees me staring and gives me a wave. She looks over at, what I can only guess are her teammates, and waves much more enthusiastically at them.

I realise, I'm staring, again. I also realize I haven't moved from where I was standing when Ruby first tapped me on the shoulder. My face turns beet red as I walk over to where Gai-sensei, Neji and Lee,as well as Kakashi-sama and one of his genin, are standing. I shake my head, letting my team I wanted to be left alone for a bit, and clearing all thoughts of the girl with the scythe from my mind. Yes it's a sexy weapon, yes she handles it masterfully, but that's about it. Lee and Gai give me sympathetic looks, but they know me well enough to let me brood for a bit before comforting me. I slump bonelessly to the ground, and get comfortable.

I watch some of the fights, but mostly I'm thinking of ways I could have done better in my own fight. The more I think on it, as the matches fly by- Naruto Uzumaki vs Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame vs Yang Xiao Long, Blake Belladonna Vs Sasuke Uchiha- that Ruby girl was right, a few well placed explosive tags would have won me that fight. And that irks me. That this girl at least a year younger than me, could figure out how to beat that Temari girl, and I couldn't.

I stand up and lean against the rail to watch the fights just as Lee gets called down. His opponent looks even younger than Ruby, with blood red hair and massive gourd on his back.

Before Lee jumps down he turns to Gai-sensei and they do their normal routine. Being as loud and obnoxious as ever. I let my head hang low and silently curse what ever god that pushed these two together.

Their ruckus attracts attention. Everyone is looking at us now, the Gaara kid even growls at Lee to hurry up.

I feel a tap on my shoulder. I look over and it's Ruby again. My head thunks against the railing and I mutter. "I'm not with them. I'm not with them. I'm..."

"So... Your name is Tenten right? I mean you kinda' look like a panda, but for your parents to name you like one seems a little cruel." Kakahi-sama's genin giggles, whatever she has pink hair who needs her?

I look up at Ruby a glare already on my face. I've heard all the jokes in the book about my name. None of them have ever been funny to me.

She giggles like my glare is the real punchline.

I'm about to say something, but the sharp cry of "Begin!" cuts me off.

We both stand there and watch as Lee gets his but handed to him. As Lee pulls of his weights and- holy crap! I mean I knew he weight trained, but still! -turns the fight around- for all of a moment. Then Gaara's face cracks off, and his sand armor is revealed. Crap now Lee can't even touch him.

Lee jumps back out of the apparent range of Gaara's sand. Takes a few deep breaths. He cries out "Third gate Seimon Release!" And Lee disappears. Gaara comes off the ground sand shield trailing a bit behind, too slow to catch Lee, now more than ever.

I frown and mouth the name of the technique to my self. Gai-sensei explains the technique to Kakashi-sama's genin. And what the fuck Gai? Lee is already crazy strong, and then you go and give him a forbidden technique? Where's MY forbidden-super awesome technique of death? To be honest that hurts almost as much as losing to that sand bitch.

Gaara bounces around like a toddler in a playpen. All around the arena, never once touching the ground. Lee is hitting him so hard so fast that Gaara never has a chance to fall back to the earth!

I look over at Ruby who is shaking her head. "Lee's lost." She whispers. If I hadn't been looking at her when she said it I would have missed it.

"What do you mean? We can't even see Lee! There's no way you can know that he's lost already! And he is winning right now." Say what you will about me, but I am quick to defend my teammates, even if I do sound a bit bitter when I do it.

"I don't need to see Lee. Look at Gaara, notice how none of the blows are contorting his body? Blows at that speed from that many angles. The G-forces alone should be breaking his spine, but he barely moves. He's reinforcing himself with that sand of his. In addition his offensive sand has never stopped chasing Lee. It's only a matter of time till Lee slows down, and then the sand will catch him."

I take a second look at the fight, and she is right. Gaara should be dead by now, but he still keeps taking his lumps. And the cloud of sand is still moving around the arena, as if chasing some invisible, impossibly fast foe. A foe like Lee.

"Lee could outlast Gaara." I point out.

"Yeah, but thats the only way Lee's going to win. Unless he has jutsu or technique to neutralise the sand."

And there it is. How long can Lee keep up this speed? I shake my head no. Lee has no techniques, nothing but taijutsu.

Just like Ruby predicted, Lee starts to slow down. It's hard to see. The only way I notice at all is from the way the sand moves. It goes in a single direction longer. Crashes into walls that Lee must have bounced off of nano seconds ago.

And then I can see Lee. Which is odd because I was watching that pile of sand slither through the air, more than I was looking for Lee. And he's gone again. Moving too fast for me to see. But there he is again the next time the sand gets close to a wall. And the time after that. And the time after that. The sand is closing in on him. Inch by inch.

Lee is apparently aware of this because he appears again this time in the middle of the arena, with his sleeve bandages wrapped around Gaara. Then Lee pulls up and his fist crashes into Gaara, and sand armor chips fly off of him. Gaara is falling even as Lee flys up and bounces hard off of the roof, and falls right after Gaara. Making his own creator as he crashes into the ground.

And then the fight is over with a cry of "Sand Crushing Coffin" and a scream of pain.

And then Gai sensei is down in the arena defending Lee.

And then, salt, I'm tasting tears.
Because I could see bone sticking out from the sand.
Because I could see the way Gaara was pulling the sand down and away from Lee, ripping and tearing.
Because I know Lee will never walk again.
Because Lee is standing on the mangled pile of flesh that was once a leg- and blood is spurting and oozing out of his flesh.

I see Gai-sensei leaving the arena next to Lee who is laid out in a stretcher. I am trying to hug Neji, to remind myself that my team wasn't broken, Neji pulls away.

And then warm arms wrap around my shoulders. And I am hugging back because right now I just need to hold something real and solid.

And then I am on the ground, a cloak draped over me. I am dimly aware it's to keep me from going into shock. But the cloak is blood red and all I can see is Lee's arm and leg again, and I am pushing the cloak off of me, pushing the Image away- away- away. The cloak comes back and the warm arms with it. And I am sobbing into a shoulder, because my brother- and I didn't even know I had one until a minute ago- will never walk again.

I wake up, in my bed. It's warmer and far more comfortable than I ever remember it being. My limbs feel so heavy, but I force myself to sit up.

I look at the clock. 1:30, and from the light coming through my window, in the evening. A dull thunk comes from my parents backyard, followed by another. It's rhythmic and relaxing. I lose myself in that rhythm for a while. And It starts coming back to me. Lee, his arm, his leg.

The thought is numb and far away. Like someone else is having it. The rest of last night trickles back into my head. The prelims for the chunin exam. My fight with Temari, the girl with the scythe.

Then Lee's fight with Gaara.

Lee's forbidden technique.

Gaara crushing Lee's leg and arm then...

Then... nothing. I'm back here. At home. In bed.

A missed thump and a string of indecipherable curses comes from the back yard.

I get up and realize I am still in the same clothes from yesterday. I change into a fresh- clean? *Sniff,* okay mostly clean- outfit. Then I head down and outside to where the thunking is coming from.

It's the girl with the scythe -Ruby I dimly realise- Has her scythe planted point first into the ground. She is kneeling behind it looking down the shaft, at one of the training posts, that we keep in the backyard. She is fumbling with some type of red box that attaches to the shaft of the scythe.

She looks up at me. A smile on her lips, but worry in her eyes. "You okay?" She cringes at the question, but says nothing else.

"... I'll be okay." I answer. "What are you doing?"

"Oh! Well, you see, my sensei, gave me this technique that's supposed to give me some ranged options, but I'm not very good with it yet. Sooo, I thought while you were sleeping, I would get some target practice in! But it's not going so well, you see- I'm supposed to be able to hit a target a quarter this size from double the distance. But here I am, and as you can see- my aim isn't very good."

"No I meant what are you doing here. - At my house."

"Oh uh... after you collapsed, some one had to take you home? The medics were going to take you, but at that point you had recovered from the shock and were just unconscious and they had... other things to think about. Your sensei was at the hospital with Lee, and that Neji guy just left afterwards saying something about fate. I tried to get him to take you home, but he just walked away."

"What..." I sigh. Lee. "How do you even know where I live?" I cut that thought down, first find out what this strange girl is doing at my house.

"Oh! Well our normal training grounds are right over there." She waves her hands excitedly at the fence. "And I remember seeing you over the fence from time to time."

"No one questioned you carrying me to my house?"

"Weeeeell, this one old dude did. Let me tell you your neighbor is suuuuper nice! He threatened to beat the crap out of me cause I was walking around with your unconscious body! I had to be all like 'whciaaa I am a Ninja!' to get in." She finished while karate chopping the air with her hands.

"Tall guy, little bit of grey hair, about a hundred years old, walks with a cane?"

"Yeah that was him!"

I smile and shake my head, good old Ironwood, he does take care of his people.

"And I know I locked my front door, so how did you get in?"

"Uh, window? You really need to up your security. All the windows on the second floor can be opened from the outside."

I blink. I should probably do that sometime between now and the time my name goes in a bingo book.

"Alriiiight. So why are you still here?"

"Cause I wanted to make sure you were okay! Oh and this is a great place to practice my jutsu." She blinks innocently, god she's like a puppy. I have a mental image of me showing Ruby to mom and asking 'Mommy, mommy- can we keep her?' 'Yes dear but only if we get her fixed.' I snort.

"Thank you for taking care of me then." I say with a small bow.

"Oh it was no problem! Like my friend Jaune says, 'strangers are just friends you haven't met yet!'" She sounds embarrassed.

I stop. I know what I want to ask next. As I go to ask it a lump forms in my throat. It is large and painful and too difficult to speak around. I try to swallow it down, but when that doesn't work I know I have to ask, and I know it will hurt to do so.

"... Do. Do you know what happened. What happened to Lee?" My voice sounds small. I feel small compared to what Lee is going through.

Her smile drops, she looks downcast, it makes me feel like I just kicked a puppy. "He's at the hospital, I know which one if you want to go see him."

"... I'd like that. Yes." I say. I can feel numbness creeping up my fingers. A chill runs down my spine. Lee. The lump in my throat grows in size.

"Alright then, lets get going!" She says, all smiles again. The Scythe comes out of the ground and does that amazing orbit that I remember from the fight yesterday, and sits firmly upon her back. "But first we are stopping to get you something to eat!"

The lump vanishes, my irritation has done what I could not and pushed it down, now it just sits like a knot in my stomach.

"What? Why? We- I need to go see Lee!"

"And you haven't eaten anything but trail rations for the last week. And nothing at all in the last 12 hours." She says, amused at me now.

"We don't have time for this! I need to go see Lee!"

"Okay-" She sing songs. "But you'll have to find out where he is from someone else then." She grins, like the puppy with its favorite toy.

Neji's place is a good twenty minutes away, and that's if I roof jump- which you're not supposed to do unless on a mission- and there is no guarantee he is even home right now. It would honestly be faster to eat with this girl, than to find Lee's whereabouts on my own.

"Fine! But we're getting it to go." I ground out. I am very annoyed at this girl right now.

"Hmmm... Nope!" She says.

I sigh in defeat, this girl is impossible. "Can we at least eat somewhere on the way?" I plead.

It is large, looming even. The hospital is larger than life itself. The doors are jaws that have eaten Lee whole, and are about to swallow me.

A hand slips into mine. I look over to see Ruby, sans scythe -where did it go?- right next to me, smiling at me. My hand is squeezed and then let go of. I close my eyes and take a deep breath.

And I walk forward. I don't look up this time, just straight ahead. If I'm scared I can only imagine how Lee is feeling.

The receptionist is nice, she took our names and tells us the room number.

When we reach the room. Ruby looks at me and says something to me.

"What?"

"Do you want me to wait out here?" She repeats, her voice gentle, understanding. Without her scythe, she looks small. Smaller. As small as I feel.

The thought of being alone terrifies me. I have no idea whats on the other side of that door. I shake my head no.

Her hand slips into mine again. This time I am the one to squeeze down.

We head in and sitting, in the only chair, in a corner of the room is Gai-sensei. Snoring enough to shake the window. I'm mad at him, I should be mad at him. For teaching Lee that technique that put him here. For not teaching me a technique like it. For picking a favorite student, and it not being me. But I'm not. I am drained and tired, and just being in this place makes me feel weak in the knees. I feel like Ruby's hand is the only thing keeping me on my feet.

There are no flowers. The last time I was in a hospital there had been lots of flowers. 'It's only been a day. Of course there are no flowers.' I tell myself, it doesn't help. The walls are bland and dry, white, sterile, boring.

Then I look at Lee. He looks... His arm dangles lifelessly at his side. Tubes stick into it from odd angles fluids are pumping in and out of it. His leg is under the thin blanket, and I know I don't want to look at that. I can already feel bile at the back of my throat.

I ignore the arm, and for a moment forget that a leg under a sheet shouldn't look like that, I swallow the bile in the back of my throat.

He looks... Normal. Pale, sure. Exhausted even while asleep, yes. But normal. 'Lee is okay. Lee is fine.'

I can't fool myself. I've seen Lee asleep on extended missions. Heck I slept beside him in the forest just three days ago. Lee is not that still while slumbering, he shifts and moves, like he is trying to train, even while asleep. The Lee before me doesn't so much as twitch a muscle.

I didn't realize how hard I had been squeezing Ruby's hand until I feel my own fingernails digging- hard- into my skin. I wince from the pain. "It says here that Gai had to give a charka infusion to Lee. 'Complications arose when the patient had trouble accepting any chakra. Complications dealt with by the donor giving- by giving 200 times the required amount?'" I hear the question in her voice. But I can't bring myself to answer. "'Review of patient's medical file reveal that the complications were caused by a pre-existing condition.'"

"What does it say the odds of recovery are?" I ask.

"Tenten-"

"Please."

I hear a sigh and a few ruffing pages.

"'Odds of full recovery: zero.

"'Odds of partial recovery: ten to twenty five percent.

"'Odds of full recovery in right arm; one to five percent.

"'Odds of partial recovery in right arm: ten to twenty-five percent

"'Odds of partial recovery in right leg: ... zero.'"

The room falls silent. I feel myself crying. Lee.

Ruby comes and stands beside me again. Just close enough to brush her shoulder against me.

We stay like that for what feels like hours. Only when my legs start to tingle from standing in once place too long do I move.

I turn and look at Ruby. "Thank you."

She blushes a little and looks away.

My head held high, tears still wet on my face, I turn and march out the door. Ruby scrambles after me.

We leave the hospital, I ask the recipient where the nearest flower shop is. Right down the street she says. Of course it's right down the street. This is a fucking hospital. Everyone wants flowers in a hospital.

I march in the door of the shop. I grab a bouquet off the shelf, and the three beside it. I go to check out, and realize I had left my wallet in my other pair of pants, the pair I had worn yesterday. Ruby is next to me. She takes the flowers from me and hands me three bouquets of- Tulips?- along with her wallet. Blatantly I realize I had been about to get Lee roses.

"I don't think that's what you want to tell Lee?" Her voice is calm, questioning- she speaks slowly. I blush and look down.

"No."

"I'll put these back then." I watch her go back and disappear around the corner of an isle.

'She must have bought lunch too. I didn't even notice.' The clerk calls for me, I jolt awake and pay.

We march back to Lee's room, and I place the flowers around the room. The flowers brighten the room considerably, putting a sense of humanity in the white sterile walls. I try not to look at the price tag.

Ruby looks at me again. "I..." a sigh, "I need to go home." She says. "Will you be okay?" I nod my head, gaze focused solely on Lee.

She lingers a moment longer, uncertain and hesitant. I can feel her concern. I don't look up.

I hear the door open, footsteps heading into the hall and the door closing. I sigh, she is gone.

The door opens again. I turn my head away to see, my eyes take a moment to follow. Its Ruby, her arms full of a chair.

She puts it down in front of Lee's bed and gives me a smile.

I hear the door open again. "Ruby?"

"Yeah?"

"... My place tomorrow night? I can try and help you get that ranged jutsu down." Her smile lights up the room.

"I'd like that." And the door closes.

AN: This is a part of a larger idea I have of putting RWBY in the Naruto world, using charka instead of aura. Ruby might seem a little OOC, I apologize if that is the case. But if she was a ninja she would be 11 or 12 when she started, rather than 15 and that would make her grow up a little too much, being a child solider isn't fun. If I ever get around to putting up the story that this is apart of. It may or may not contain this scene, just so you guys are aware.

Tenten was never taken by the medics in the manga, one minute she is on the arena floor, unconscious, in the next panel she is gone, poof magic. It makes me think she could have crawled back upstairs on her own. I like to think Tenten is that strong. :3 And if Tenten did go to the hospital, what would she think when she found out Lee was there? Would Neji come and visit her? Would Neji visit Lee? What was Gai doing this month? The nurses would only let him see Lee during visiting hours after all. What is Team Gai's, minus Gai, opinion on Kakashi? These are the kind of questions you ask yourself when you start writing fanfiction, or even read too much of it.

Anyway this is a one shot, so don't expect to comeback and find another chapter on this story. Don't let that stop you from favorite-ing the story, and following me. Oh and reviewing. Do that too. If you feel like it.