A/N: Been wanting to write something more up-to-date i.e. with the shades of the 4th Shinobi War in my Nejiten stories. More specifically, I wanted to give a little more depth and weave Nejiten into certain scenes where I could imagine them to have hehe. Finally got it out of my system. This is what happens when Kishimoto does not give enough screentime and canon to them. *sigh*
Warning: I'm pretty sure most of you are more up-to-date than me on the manga and anime. However, this story contains spoilers for Episode 278 of Naruto Shippuden.
Hope on barren grounds
The world stretched out in front of him in shades of black and white, a panoramic view that allowed the shinobi to detect foreign chakra and signs of movement for a radius of two miles.
Faint patterns of veins fanned out on the sides of his face; pale, almost colourless irises now visible in his lavender- hued eyes. Suddenly, his vision wavered. Hyuuga Neji shut his eyes for a firm moment and opened them again rapidly, determined to protect his comrades and the shinobi world in the only way he could contribute. Yet, his sight refused to cooperate. Blackness began to tinge the fringes of his vision as the persistent ache in his temples that he had been suppressing for the past five hours exploded, dotting the creeping darkness with white spots.
"Hey!" Inuzuka Kiba and his beloved dog Akamaru rushed to the Hyuuga as he stumbled, a rare sight for the shinobi, before he was falling, body sliding limply from his vantage point afforded by a sandy ledge. Kiba soon reached Neji's side and brought him to rest on a canvas sheet. Neji regained consciousness shortly afterwards.
"Tch. You should know better than to strain yourself at such a time! Don't be stubborn; you should go to the medic tents for help." Kiba, as part of the surveillance faction of the Shinobi Allied Forces with Neji, was concerned for his partner but being a man and one who never minced his words, expressed it roughly.
"Shut up, Kiba. I know what I'm doing." Neji turned to the figure hovering beside him, concluding that it was the Inuzuka.
"That's Akamaru you are talking to! And to think that you are known for that Byakugan of yours!" Kiba was exasperated; Neji's reckless persistence had backfired thoroughly.
Neji was shocked despite himself; was that vague form in front of him really the Inuzuka's dog? Narrowing his eyes to focus more properly, the figure remained frustratingly blurred, although the half bark, half whimper in that direction gave him his answer. Sighing, he allowed his lids to close as he massaged his temples in an attempt to lessen the sledgehammers currently tapping at his skull. Neji knew about the dangers of using the Byakugan extensively for stretches at a time and had deliberately trained to lengthen the activation time of this special doujutsu to reduce this limitation. This time though, his Byakugan had been activated for nearly eighteen hours, a necessity as he fought off hundreds of White Zetsus with his Jyuuken, which required the douujutsu. Konoha and the other hidden villages of ninja were cooperating together in a war against the damnable Uchiha Madara. Neji had been assigned to the Second Division of the Shinobi Allied Forces along with others who were skilled in close combat and had been tasked to withhold the onslaught of White Zetsus from the enemy. It was no wonder his doujutsu had shut down automatically after overstrain, although the proud shinobi still refused to go for medical attention as Kiba had suggested.
Ignoring the Inuzuka's grumbles about stubborn Hyuugas who did not know their limits, Neji tried to sit up so that he could carry on with sentry duty. The dizzying sense of vertigo disoriented him however, and he fell back on the hard ground against his will. This was ridiculous; now was not the time to be weak! He had many people he had to protect and night was when the Shinobi Allied Forces were at their most vulnerable after a harrowing day of fighting for their lives against a seemingly endless wave of enemies. Propping himself up by his elbow and ignoring the fact that he was being as stubborn as Kiba had complained, Neji once again sat up, gathering residual energy to begin the task of surveillance even as muscles in every part of his body felt like lead and his headache had begun to take on head- splitting proportions.
Gai, Lee and Tenten were somewhere out there, resting and preparing for an attack by the enemy. Hinata and Hiashi, along with the rest of his clan were out there too, giving of their skills and lives to protect what they held dear—Konoha, friends, comrades, family, lovers. As Neji struggled to his feet, he thought of all the people in his life, people he had once thought to be unnecessary presences to be tolerated, but were now flesh to his heart. A crease marred the smooth brow of the Hyuuga as he once again returned to his vantage point. This damned war was threatening all that was dear to him and he, Hyuuga Neji, would not allow any one of them to be taken from him. If there ever was a time for his skills as the genius and prodigy of the Hyuuga clan to be of use, it was now.
"Byakugan!" Once again, his world expanded almost incredibly as things invisible to the naked eye materialized in the widened and deepened field of vision afforded by his doujutsu. Neji settled more comfortably into his stance, preparing for a long night of standing guard.
Two more hours passed in companionable silence, Kiba and Akamaru constantly moving around the perimeter of the camp to make sure they caught every scent that drifted towards them. Neji, his sight virtually 360- degree in nature, remained at the top of the ledge, the height giving him a top- down view on his surroundings. Suddenly, a loud commotion came from behind them; the breaking of branches and restless rustling of leaves as a figure dashed out from the foliage towards the Hyuuga.
Warm arms surrounded his waist and he automatically turned around, Byakugan already giving away the identity of the intruder. Kiba had started running towards them but the Inuzuka stopped when the new scent reached his nose, its familiar signature causing a smirk to cross his face. "Tch. Let's patrol over there, Akamaru. We wouldn't want to disturb those two now, would we?" The large dog barked softly in assent and master and pet quietly departed to the periphery of the camp, far away from where Neji stood with Tenten in his arms.
"Tenten, what are you doing here? Did something happen to the First Division?" Neji was facing his teammate now, concern tingeing his eyes and voice as she remained silent, the only indication that she had registered his words a tightening of her arms around him.
Neji exhaled quietly as his hands, of their own accord, reached around her, long fingers brushing her hair and back softly. "Tenten, what happened?" He did not know what had caused his teammate to appear abruptly in his camp but after a day of constant fighting and worrying for his friends, the fact that she was well and alive in front of him was something he could only be mutely grateful for. Holding her like this though was causing unnamed sensations to course through his veins and Neji was not sure if the sudden warmth in his chest and stomach was due to surprise or something else altogether. He breathed in the clean and floral scent that was Tenten as the kunoichi, always so sure and confident with her kunai and senbons, rested her head against his chest, a slight trembling felt by him only because they were so close to each other.
"I heard that you—you had attacked the medical tents and gotten killed there." Finally, Tenten raised her head, chocolate brown eyes swarming with fear and uncertainty as they met his pearlescent ones. "But it couldn't have been you! I had to come here and find out for myself if that was true. You couldn't have attacked our own people, and I had to see with my own eyes whether—whether you were dead." At the last word, a shiver seemed to go through her and silent tears began to flow from those expressive orbs, the trembling becoming visible shaking as the kunoichi began to sob.
Neji instinctively reached to cup her face, thumb catching the drops of moisture as they slid from the corners of her eyes. Inexplicably, his action caused Tenten to cry harder and he dropped his hand to hold her against him again, feeling her tears seep into the dark green vest of his jounin uniform. Stroking her hair in an unconscious gesture to comfort, he could not focus on the unexpected and unwelcome news of the attack on the Allied Forces' medics (apparently carried out by him) at the moment. Tenten was priority.
"Tenten, nothing happened to me, and I definitely did not attack our medics. I will have to check on the issue though. If what you said is true then our medics are being targeted by the enemy." Regrettably, Neji released Tenten from his arms when he felt her calming down, a final sniffle signaling that she had gotten control of her emotions again. Still, she looked so vulnerable and lovely in the moonlight, those lashes still damp and heavy from the tears that she had shed in her worry for him. Neji had never seen her like this before, the sadness and fear displayed so openly when she had always been a vivacious and brave company by his side. He tenderly brushed a wayward tendril of hair away from her eyes and in a move that surprised the two of them, pressed his lips against the warm skin on her forehead. It felt right though, as if this moment had long been weaved into the fabric of the universe, only waiting until the spin of the world caught up with it.
"I will go with you." The determination in her voice made him smile, a little. This was the Tenten he knew, confident and in control of her actions. Neither spoke more of their time together on the sandy ledge at the fringes of the camp as they entered into the midst of their comrades to find Kitsuchi. They were at war and there had to be a proper place and time for everything. Yet, as they walked towards the commander's tent, their arms brushing against each other's more frequently than not, Neji and Tenten looked at each other, hope for the future reflected in their eyes.