My first shot at Naruto. I hope I have their personalities like they should be...I'm trying to keep everyone as in character as possible. Read and Review, please!

Disclaimer: I own nothing; nada, zip, zilch,...you get the idea. Well, except a few OC characters that come and go for story purposes. Them and the plot are mine.

Missing You

By Saori Runa Dempsey

Chapter I

The Hyuuga's Faith: This is Not Goodbye!

"Anything?"

Her voice, when it came over their communication set, was broken up due to the bad reception of the area she'd been sent to scout out. "Nothing. What am I supposed to be looking for, Neji? Hiashi-san wasn't that clear about it."

Even at the advantage of Byakugan and having become fairly good at knowing how his uncle thought (and this was only on good days; he didn't even try on the bad ones), Hyuuga Neji didn't have a clue about what to expect. Threats against their clan came in all the time, after all…but none had ever been taken with the seriousness Hyuuga Hiashi had taken this one. The message had come to the estate via a messenger crow, the animal fake thereafter exploding in the face of one of the Hyuuga council member's sons. He still wasn't all that happy about that, more because of having had his eyebrows burned off then having possibly been killed by such a thing.

Neji continued his surveillance of the north side of the estate in silence, not seeing anything that was out of the ordinary. Gai-sensei was checking the east side and Lee the west while Hinata and Hanabi scouted around the south side. Until now, he doubted anyone in the Hyuuga family had realized how big the estate was with the much smaller dwellings dwarfing the huge main estate where Hinata, Hanabi, and Hiashi resided. Since the main families and branch families had finally settled their differences, their small corner of Konohagakure seemed somehow…bigger now.

"West side all clear, Neji-san!" Lee's cheerfully exuberant report made Neji wince mildly. Gai-sensei radioed him a few seconds later, twice as energetically and loud enough to make the earpiece squeal. Idiots. The thought held a trace of affection for the 'youth advocators' that Hanabi-sama loved referring to them as, though he himself had only admitted that fact a short time ago. He respected Gai-sensei as his mentor and old team leader and Lee as a strong fighter and teammate. Still, there was only so much he could take without a buffer.

That buffer, of course, was usually Tenten who seemed perfectly capable of dealing with anything thrown at her. She'd rip her hair out afterwards from the youth proclamations of the rest of their team, but the Hyuuga had never seen anyone who could stand in the presence of two overly excited green aliens all day and not turn them into wall decorations with her impressive arsenal of weapons – a scary one no less that had only grown in size over the years. While he'd never snapped at them yet, he could recall quite a few instances when he'd felt far too tempted to leave them hanging on their dojo's walls by their toes.

"Neji." Tenten again, and he was sure she sounded a little annoyed. After all that, she'd had nothing to impale for all her troubles under the hot summer sun. "There's nothing but tall grass for miles around and not a hint of chakra presence." They both knew that didn't necessarily mean anything, but no one had better target vision then Tenten, which was why he'd asked her to go to the plains. Honed from hours and hours of target practice, he had faith that if anyone was hiding among the grass blades, she'd find them. "You're going to owe me a big dinner for this!"

The proclamation didn't surprise or faze him. He'd just have one of his staff call in a reservation at her favorite Chinese place in the village once they were all finished. It was certainly no hardship to take her to dinner – they were, in fact, welcome face's to the restaurant's hostess who always looked delighted to see them. He was THE Hyuuga, after all. Everybody welcomed him. He was too used to their usual 'payment' plans for favors to be annoyed anymore.

He did, however, have a reputation to uphold, lest it be known that the spunky weapons mistress could actually railroad him. Hiashi-sama might get some bothersome ideas (more so then normal) if he knew that. "Hnn…"

"Royal Mandarin!" she proclaimed cheerfully, as if he didn't already know. 6 out of the 7 days they trained they often would stop by and order dinner there. If they trained late, Lee would run over and order for them. "You're buying me that roasted duck special!"

"Hnn…" He looked up as the breeze blew by him, bringing with it a strange presence. "Tenten, eyes open. The wind i-"

CRASH!

There was so much action going on around him as the ground shook from the explosion, a mushroom cloud of smoke rising from the plains, that he wasn't sure whether he actually said, "SHIT" out loud, or if it was actually Tenten who did before their connection crackled and turned to static. Either way, he was the first to take off toward the plains, Byakugan activated as he jumped from tree to tree with only one thought on his mind.

She's fine. They're all FINE.

The scene, once the Godaime arrived, was not 'fine'.

Even she couldn't have made a hole this huge, Tsunade realized, sweat rolling down her head as she observed the plains that had become little more then a huge crater. She doubted anyone had ever seen it coming. Smoke still rose from the very bottom where the forensic-nin's and ANBU were trying to determine if anyone was simply buried under the dirt, but she didn't hold high hopes for that. There was just no way the shinobi's out here could've survived it.

"Where's Hyuuga?" She looked around for the clan's head, but paused as she finally saw him by his nephew. Hyuuga Neji, known to be a stoical boy in his youth and a serious young man now, was staring straight ahead, unblinking. Hyuuga Hiashi, the clan head, was staring worriedly at him, and she was close enough to hear him say, "They're gone, Neji. Let's go…"

The young prodigy – a high level Jounin already at only 18 yrs old – merely shook his head and stared straight ahead where a small path leading into the forests remained untouched. Tsunade didn't understand why he was staring until quite a while later, nor did she know about how long he'd stood there until a thoroughly frustrated Hiashi had dragged him into her clinic a week later, heavy with a fever bordering on pneumonia.

"She'll come back," he said flatly from his prone position when she'd asked, white eyes intense even after she'd pumped him full of enough medications to heal a small plague-ridden village and knock out an adult bull. "Tenten wouldn't…be taken down like that. She might need some…help."

Shock, she thought with a shake of her head. He's gone into a state of shock. "I'll send someone then," Tsunade told him mildly, knowing she would, if only to be absolutely sure. Things tended to come back and bite her on the butt if she didn't double check. Just look at Jiraiya, for instance…what a nuisance…she should've made sure the latch on that box had been shut all those years ago.

"Arigatou, Godaime," Hiashi said, tired eyes staring at the now knocked out jounin. "Any news on…?"

She just shook her head. The best ANBU ninjas and Jounin had been dispatched to find any signs of survivors, but nothing had come up. It wasn't likely that anything ever would.

The great Hyuuga head drew in a breath, looking both miserable and dispirited. "I will…inform the clan. My thanks, Godaime." He let his eyes turn towards his nephew. "Take care of him for us. This may not…go over very well."

May not go very well, as it turned out, was an understatement of the largest magnitude. It was whispered through the Hyuuga main and branch families that the force of the door Neji slammed upon receiving the news had been felt all the way to Sunagakure in the form of an earthquake. Needless to say, those who'd been in the compound at the time had given the Branch family heir a WIDE berth for quite some time.

When the day for the funeral service came, it was fittingly dreary and rainy with winds so harsh poor Hanabi had nearly been blown away were it not for Hiashi's grip on her shoulder. Predictably, Gai and Lee were inconsolable to the amazing point that Lee didn't even react when his long time crush Sakura came over to offer a shoulder to cry on. He'd actually refused, and not because the Uchiha had been glaring hard enough to burn through metal despite his own sympathies for the team. They'd lost a comrade in arms and he understood what they were going through. He'd even offered a strained condolence to The Hyuuga despite their complicated friendship (which didn't seem friendly at all, and was more or less based on unspoken 'understandings').

Neji, for his part, didn't hear any of them. He just stared at the portrait of his fallen teammate among the dozen others of his relatives who'd been with her, jaw tight and eyes narrowed. It wasn't…possible that she could be gone. Tenten was…well…Tenten. His mind couldn't accept nor grasp that she was being declared dead.

"You're Hyuuga Neji, right?"

"…"

"I'm Tenten!"

It wasn't right…it just couldn't be. From their academy days, she'd been the only thing he'd been sure of. He hadn't known her then – honestly hadn't wanted to, either – but he'd realized she could be counted on to always do what he figured she would. It was his birthday? Instead of getting him a gift he'd never use nor like (like everyone else who wanted to kiss THE Hyuuga's feet), she would slap him on the back hard enough to make him nearly smack his head against the desk, grin as if to say 'Happy Birthday', and then go on talking to him from her seat beside him like he weren't glaring hard enough to singe her buns off. By the time they'd graduated to Genin, he'd begun to actually listen when she rambled and felt quite comfortable in her presence. She, who did not kiss his feet and in fact tried to cut them off a few times if he made her mad enough.

"Mou…not a scratch on you!"

"…Are you done fooling around?"

For a second, Neji heard the sound of her kunai and shuriken as they hit the dirt. It was a strange memory to hear so clearly, but it was a comfort to him as he looked at the picture he knew she'd have hated – it had none of her weapons in it.

"Are you coming, Neji-niisan?"

He spared a glance at Hinata-sama, her Hyuuga white eyes red from crying and her pale skin even paler then usual. With a small nonsensical sound, he walked towards where Hiashi-sama and Hanabi-sama waited, hands shoved into his pockets where he always kept a few kunai and shuriken handy. Tenten, again, had taught him the necessity of it when they'd begun to train by surprise attacks on the other just to make sure their skills didn't get rusty and they were prepared for anything. Now he didn't go anywhere or even sleep without some of his weapons well within reach (He'd never forget the scene in his closet after he'd taken a shower some years ago and she'd surprised him there while he was only in a towel, nearly making him lose his grip on it when she tossed the shuriken at him).

Pausing halfway, he was relieved none of them came closer when he looked back at the photo one last time, the soaked black bow at its corner drooping heavily. Slowly, almost unnoticeable, he bowed his head and nodded.

This is NOT goodbye. I will see you again…someday.

Well, there you have it. The first part of this three part story. It's my first shot at Naruto, so be kind. ;;; From what little I've seen of Naruto, I'm particularly fond of Neji and Tenten. They don't get enough screen time, so I REALLY want to keep them as in character as possible. From what I could see, however, it seemed like he and Tenten are really close, so...read and review, PLEASE. I promise this ends happy.