CONSTANTLY | CHAPTER ONE
Can you get to sleep tonight?
I think the pain in my ribs has subsided,
And then I will close my eyes.
See you, see you in the next life.
Run wild, voice loud,
I'm screaming and screaming.
Dress wet, our minds set,
We're dreaming and dreaming.
Fingers go numb,
I've lost all feeling.
Where does this take me I'm praying, kneeling.
I'll see you again.
Tenten woke with a start, body pummeling up to a sitting position in a split second. It was those dreams again. She lifted her hand to rest at her chest, her heart thumping like a stampeding herd of horses. Calloused fingers tightened their grip on her shirt and she paced herself to steady her breathing until her heart rate was reduced to the steady dull it was accustomed to.
"Dull." The kunoichi thought with a sigh. It had been nothing more than that since the war ended and the rehabilitation of Konoha was completed. Routines disrupted by the war slowly fell back to its place; and with the newly-found peace between nations, turned into nothing more than humdrum buffered by pleasantries and diplomacies left and right.
Tenten hated it.
She was a kunoichi, she thought. Made and bred to fight. Every inch of her bone, every fiber of her being was taught to be on the edge for any impending enemy offense, or at least perhaps a fitting task for her competency. She was weapons master after all, wasn't she? She clicked her tongue as she straightened up to stand, gathering her sleeping pack into a neat roll and tucking it in her backpack. "Well," she thought, "that's exactly why I'm on a mission now."
After the war ended, missions became fewer and fewer as a result of the alliance between the nations. Even with this, Tenten found herself walking through the doors of the Hokage's office for a new one despite just coming back from her last.
"I know you are in pain." Said Kakashi, still not used to being called the 6th Hokage while scanning through her mission report she just handed. "But asking mission after mission to distract yourself isn't going to be good for your well-being, Tenten."
The said kunoichi exhaled. They have had this conversation many times before. "I know, Hokage-sama. But I am a kunoichi and my duty is to this village, simply put." She recited.
The silver-haired Hokage let out a little sigh underneath his mask. There is no arguing with that, he thought, as she was using constitutional entries to her argument. "Very well." He said, handing her a new mission scroll. "The details of the new mission are inside. It's an A-rank solo retrieval mission, mostly due to nuke-nin involved. By all means, do not let the item to be retrieved fall into the hands of the enemy. If you must destroy it to prevent them laying their hands on it, do so."
Tenten gingerly accepted the scroll, nodding. She mentally catalogued which weapons she would bring as she turned her heel to exit the office when she heard Kakashi again.
"Tenten."
"Yes, Hokage-sama?"
"It's okay to mourn."
A/N: I refuse to believe Naruto ends just like that. Neji and Tenten deserve better. Entry at the beginning of fic is a song by Young wonder called For You, which inspired this piece and is basically the soundtrack of the fic as well.
Now repeat after me,
Nejiten lives on.
We will ship Nejiten until the day we die
(repeat)