TenTen had never really been sure when it came to confessions or anything related to romance. In her small village, everything was black and white and clear as day. You get introduced to someone, you marry that person... then you start a family with them and so on.

It was a little dull for her, in all honesty. The young girl had always wanted a change of pace, possibly a new life as well, but it was all too much to ask for, considering she was part of a small community that relied on eachother. Her parents owned a small shop on the other side of town and were quite content with their life. The townspeople too, they really enjoyed their current lifestyle. But needless to say, it couldn't be said for her.

TenTen was a rather odd one, completely delusional in some cases, by their standards.

She was the oldest woman without a husband (if you count twenty-five as being old), had refused all marriage proposals (yes, yes she did) for absolutely no proper reason (aside from freedom and love) and avoided her responsibilities like they were the plague itself. People saw her and found her to be weird and slightly deranged, though really, it wasn't the case.

TenTen was merely a dreamer.

In all her life, she wanted- no, dreamt for the perfect prince charming to come and take her, claim her as his and have her become his bride. She wanted the one, she needed her soulmate, and not some random boy from the village who was only interested in her looks and child-bearing hips.

TenTen wanted to find someone who understood her, who would look at her and see a person, not a freak, or a delusional woman. At this point, she didn't really care if her soulmate was a man or a woman; all she needed was a person that had her set of mind, her mentality and attitude. But of course, it was too much to ask.

'When was the last time I had a decent conversation?' She thought with a sigh as she walked along a narrow path, aiming for the forest. It was already noon, and she needed to get the necessary herbs to sell for their shop. This was without a doubt, the first time her parents asked her to head over towards the forest by herself, which, in a way, made her all happy and proud. Getting entrusted with a task was rare, espacially coming from her parents who were sure she'd fail due to her clumsiness- but there she was, on her own and capable!

The brunette grinned to herself impishly, trying to ignore the intense summer heat and her sweat-drenched clothes. It was a little hard to walk up the hill during noon, nonetheless, but she was a tough girl, and tough girls didn't give up. TenTen was proud of her stamina and didn't hesitate to help whomever whenever, out of pure selfless generosity.

Her parents had grown weak and, for the first time ever, she felt like she could do something right in her life. True, they were still persistent about her getting married, but she always had the right or option to ignore that, since they loved her dearly and respected her decisions.

She smiled despite herself, walking on the dirty ground while imagining her parents' happy smiles when she would come with a bag filled with medical herbs. At this point in the road, she was 70% sure that she got in the instructed forest and would near the herbs needed. It wouldn't be that hard now would it?

... except yea, it really was that hard, because eventually an hour passed, and TenTen found nothing.

"This is weird!" The brunette commented as she eyed a tree, "I feel like I passed that tree over three times already, what on earth..."

She raised an eyebrow in wonder and kept going, this time taking another path, but kept passing by the same tree over and over again. At some point she started getting tired from all the walking and took a rest underneath said tree, taking a bite of onigiri from her wooden lunchbox. There was no point in worrying about her environment so she just decided to follow another path this time around too.

When she was done with her rather small lunch, TenTen turned on her heel and followed a smaller path on her right; one that didn't particularly feel safe... but oh, if it managed to help her find the right way, then so be it.

It took about ten minutes for TenTen to realize with a smile that she went past the point of being lost, considering she didn't turn around in circles and pass by that tree again. The road ahead was getting clearer and, soon enough, she thought she saw a river upfront and started running towards it, her throat dry in need for water!

It took no time at all for her to get on her knees and drink water from that river like her life depended on it. It was so fresh and clean that she took large gulps while forgetting to breathe; occasionally inhaling air after drinking it excessively. Once she was hydrated and done, TenTen splashed her face to cool down and stood up to resume her search for herbs- until something caught her eye.

There, leaning on a tree right on her left, was a beautiful young man, about her age, with long luscious black hair and pearl white eyes. He had fair skin and wore an expensive outfit that was tainted with blood from his wounds, explaining his shallow breathing and rather pitiful state. Two long arrows were deeply stabbed into his skin; one in the shoulder, while the other on his chest, thankfully not so close to the heart. His eyes, though extremely beautiful, were unfocused and half-lidded, a sign that he was close enough to pass out, or worse, die.

TenTen blinked, shocked to find such a beautiful man there next to a river and wounded no less. It had been such a surprise that the brunette nearly froze for a good minute before returning to her senses and scramble towards his direction.

"Hello?! Hey! Are you alright?!" She spoke with a frightened tone while shaking the handsome stranger in panic, unsure of what to do in that situation. She was no medic; all she did was run errands and fetch a few things for her parents. Being face to face with a wounded man was close to being a nightmare, and she had no clue at all how to cope with it.

The man blinked lazily, feeling lost and confused. He looked up at TenTen's worried face while squinting, his vision blurry and uneven. What was going on? What was he doing there, near the river? Why was he wounded? He had no clue-

'Wait, wounded?' He thought with mild panic as he stared down at his chest and took notice of the multiple wounds on his body. His eyes widened for a split second before his memory came back to him like a hurricane, remembering him of the unpleasant fight he just had an hour ago.

"D-damn it!" He cursed as he tried to stand up, but in vain. All he could manage was to lean on the tree with his current strength, feeling powerless and unbelievably weak. TenTen noticed him trying to recklessly stand on his own and grabbed him firmly to hold him still, not wanting to further open his wounds. The man inhaled sharply and glared at her, she ignored it though.

"What do you think you're doing?! Can't you see that you are hurt!" She snapped as she examined his body further, looking concerned.

"This is n... none of your... business!" He hissed angrily and slowly stood up, holding on the tree to support his weight. TenTen gasped and attempted to hold him and give her shoulder for support, but he angrily smacked her hand away and limped towards the path, his hand gripping firmly on the arrow on his shoulder to rip it off.

"Please wait!" She called, stopping him again. "I need to bring you a doctor, you can't just-"

"No need." He cut her off, stopping midway to glance at her direction, "look, I'm thankful for the offer... really... however, nothing good will happen... from taking care of... a person like me..."

TenTen could see that he had difficulty speaking and bit her lip at his stubborness. What was he on about?! What did he mean by that! He was wounded! Wounded! What he needed was help, medical treatment! What he needed was-

'The herbs!' The brunette thought suddenly, eyes wide. She remembered what they were used for and how her parents took profit from them. They were special herbs made to disinfect and heal bruises of all sorts when mushed and boiled in hot water. If she could get her hands on them, then...

"Now hold on a second!" TenTen declared as she firmly grabbed the handsome stranger by the waist, ignoring his gasp of surprise. "You don't really think I'm going to let a guy in your state walk alone like that hm?"

"And just who do you think... you are?!" The man panted, unable to hide his blush from their close proximity. TenTen seemed oblivious though, as she lended him her shoulder to lean and support on.

"Relax, I'm going to fix you up." She said confidently, despite never having helped the wounded before. "There are special herbs growing around here, we'll use those for your wounds."

"I'm already well aware of that," he rolled his eyes, "why do you think I tried my dammnest to reach this forest in my state."

TenTen gave him an amazed look, was he serious? He walked all this way from god knows how long just to heal himself on his own? That was pretty gosh darn brave! But whoever hurt him must've been tough, those wounds were definitely from a battle.

"I doubt you could apply some by yourself, you can barely move! Here, let me..."

The man looked at TenTen with an unreadable expression, then suddenly turned to look at the path on the other side of the river, almost like he was half-expecting someone to appear. No doubt about it, he was worried about something, but what?

It took him a good minute of thought to give up and allow TenTen to do as she pleased. The brunette took this as an opportunity and had him sit near the river, leaning on a tree closer to it. She scooped some water with her hands and approached him, leaning closer so he could drink.

"Here, drink quickly! I'm sure you're thirsty," she spoke urgently. The man looked up for a second, seemingly fighting an inner battle with himself... but then shrugged it off and started drinking, directly from her palm.

TenTen blushed a bit when she felt his lips on her palm. They felt so nice and soft, almost like they belonged to a woman. His breath on her wrist was warm and ticklish, sending shivers down her spine.

He finished quickly though and TenTen gave him a look that asked if he wanted more, he nodded silently.

She repeated the process two times and he drank it all in mere seconds, making sure not to let it drip through her fingers.

He panted once he was done, breathing for more air as his throat started aching less.

"Okay, wait for a bit! I'm gonna' go and get the herbs." TenTen said as she stood up, letting her bag next to him. "There's some food in there, so help yourself if you want."

With that said, she dashed away towards the eastern path and disappeared from his sight. The man sighed and closed his eyes, trying to rest for a moment despite his body screaming in pain from all the wounds. If he hadn't gone alone to meet with the other clan leaders, unattended and without guards, then maybe he could have avoided such an unpleasant situaion. Perhaps he wasn't as strong as he thought he was, not against 20 heavily trained men anyway. However, he had still managed to kill them all, even if he ended up getting heavily wounded... his pride was still intact.

Still, it didn't mean he wasn't being followed anymore. After getting rid of the assassins, he had felt (only faintly) the presence of someone else, following him and keeping track of him. The reason why he was so skeptical about earning TenTen's help was simply because he couldn't really trust anyone outside of his village.

But after having tended to him and reading into her eyes to see honesty and genuine care, his worry shifted into him bringing her trouble, considering the person that is following him is more than capable to hurt her.

If she took to long, he would have to leave, wounds be damned.

But just as he had that thought; TenTen emerged from the path she had followed with her arms full of herbs, smiling in victory.

"I got em', I got em'!" She said and quickly rushed to his side, grabbing a thick branch on the ground to squish the herbs with and make their paste. She couldn't really get or make boiling water, but she faintly remembered that it wasn't exactly necessary. Thing is, boiling them in water was a trick for it not to sting as much...

'Ugh, it'll hurt like a bitch...' she thought while biting her lip, but at least it'll heal.

"Okay, done!" She said with her palm full of herb-paste. "Uhh, it'll hurt though..." she warned him sheepishly.

The man shrugged, "I'm used to pain." He then looked at the two arrows on his shoulder and chest, "however, I think it might be best if you take the arrows off first, before applying anything on my other wounds."

TenTen shook her head, "no! A doctor has to take them off, not me! If I do it then-"

It seemed as though he had enough of all the pointless blatter, so he swiftly took off the arrow on his shoulder by himself in a clean motion. TenTen's eyes widened when blood gushed out and sprayed on his thigh, he however was unfazed by it and merely grimaced when he took the other arrow off.

She could only stare wordlessly when he started unbuttoning his shirt, revealing his perfectly toned chest to her, albeit full of scars and fresh wounds. If it weren't for all the blood and dirt on him, she probably would have drooled at the sight of pale, sweaty abs-

'The fuck?!' She shook her head, blushing in shame at her perverted mind. He was a wounded man!

"There, now if you would..." he spoke slowly, feeling tired after all of his efforts. TenTen nodded and took a piece of cloth from her bag, dipped it in water and started to clean his chest. His bruises were a lot more visible now, so she took it as an opportunity to gently apply the paste.

She caught the sharp intake of breath he made when her fingers made contact with his wound, it really did sting a lot, but he made no sound or voice out any protest. She still made sure to be very gentle though, and it made him feel rather thankful.

During the process of bandaging his wounds, TenTen looked up and figured he might be able to talk now that the paste stopped stinging.

"My name's TenTen," she said suddenly, "what's yours?"

The man looked at her with raised eyebrows, but answered anyway.

"Neji."

"What happened to you, Neji? If you don't mind me asking..."

Neji snorted, "I got attacked, obviously."

"Err..."

"Bandits." He lied, figuring that she didn't need to know about his family, clan, and all the assassination attempts.

"Gosh darn, I didn't know there were any in the area! Did they take...?"

He shook his head, "I didn't have anything of value on me, only my horse." That was the truth at least, when he had gone to meet with the other leaders; he had been sure to bring the bare minimum since all they were going to do was discuss.

"If it was a decent breed, then I guess I would understand why they'd shoot you down with arrows to get it." She concluded with a sigh, "I'm sorry this happened to you."

She finished bandaging him and tied a small knot on the edge of his chest, proud that her work looked kinda' clean despite it being her first.

"There you go! Hope you get better now, it's not too tight yeah?"

"No, it's fine." He spoke softly, looking up to stare deeply into her eyes. She felt flustered all of the sudden at his sudden attention, but didn't look away either. Slowly, his lips curved into a beautiful, gentle smile that had her heart beat at insane levels.

"Thank you." He whispered, his eyes shining brightly, colors from the river reflecting on them.

Her throat felt dry when she whispered a 'you're welcome', unsure if he heard it or not. Either way, he closed his eyes and fully leaned on the tree, tired.

"I will rest for a bit... pardon me."

"Eh? Oh, no it's f-fine! Actually, you should! You must!" She insisted and he chuckled lightly, eyes still closed as he slowly fell into slumber.

TenTen carefully got closer and admired him, peering at his face. He was so fair, so handsome, it was almost like he came out of a fairy tale. She couldn't help but blush wildly, it wasn't everyday that she met a handsome stranger and/or had small talk with him.

TenTen had no idea how long she had been staring at him, but she figured it must've been long enough for her to get sleepy... because after a certain period of time, she fell deeply asleep, unaware that her head was resting on his good shoulder.

When she woke up, she was alone and had his shirt draped over her body, his scent still present and as sweet as ever.

(To be continued)