Happy birthday to me? Yeah. Well, this is my gift to you guys and I fully expect one back. Please review!
Yeah, I know last year was like… four stories? Hm, I didn't get much ideas this year, gomen.
Disclaimer – must I even type this?
Flamers, instead of the norm of going to jail for arson, will find a fire extinguisher painfully colliding with his or her sad, sad head.
I accept criticism. I detest people who have no purpose but to insult other people with varying degrees of grammar. (I know a five year old that can spell better than some.)
Thank you.
Sakura's hands glowed green when she healed, her chakra precise and flowing to the injured area.
It was a delicate job; not everyone could do it. She was special.
Hinata's medicinal creams were known for their potency.
She learned, tried harder… and she had learned well.
Ino's knowledge of plants with medicinal properties surpassed that of most medics.
It was her family's knowledge, ingrained into her being.
Where did she stand?
She used her blades to injure, to maim.
To kill.
But then there were times like this where she wished she were more useful.
That she could help.
That she could heal the ones who meant the most to her.
So she spent hours in the library in between perfecting attacks and techniques and hoping that one day she will be good enough.
There was always room for error.
She approached Sakura, asked for her help.
So that the people close to her, the ones who meant the world to her, would have a better chance of living.
She asked Hinata to teach her about making medicine.
So that she would be prepared when the time comes.
She went to the Yamanaka flower shop and asked Ino to recommend some books.
So that she could learn, just in case.
Then one day it all paid off in a traumatizing night when they were fifteen. (It was a few months before Naruto returned)
It was just her, Neji and Lee, and the enemies seemed to be easy.
Until the reinforcements came.
It was a simple mission near Konoha's border.
It was when they focused on Neji that they knew something was wrong.
The enemies usually went after Lee.
Lee.
Not Neji.
They usually chose to pick on the weaker looking members. Usually Lee or Tenten.
Never Neji, and if they did, they focused on the easy kill soon after.
They didn't.
Neji, exhausted at the repeated use of Kaiten and other Jyuuken attacks, had managed to defeat many opponents, but was feeling the strain.
He had let an attack pass through.
One attack too many, as any shinobi can tell you.
One attack was enough to grievously harm.
Neji kept fighting, ignoring the rivulets of blood that trickled at his side.
Ignored the rain pelting against his skin, making the ground slippery and treacherous.
Tenten and Lee had been held up, following mission details. The local village children had to be rescued, and the captors had hired Kumo-nin.
They had another mission, as well. (One that was revealed through Neji in the Chuunin exams, of being stronger-Stronger-STRONGER… To know the secrets of the Byakugan.)
They just knew of his white eyes, and not about the seal that was covered by his forehead protector.
They learned that the current captors, the ones who hired the nin, performed experiments, not unlike Orochimaru's.
Human experiments.
Tenten blanched.
The raw energy crackling above them did not help, the Kumo-nin used ninjutsu.
About thirty children had to be rescued, and though it was favorable to finish the nins first, they'd never finish with the number of reinforcements.
It was a mission-and-then-help-Neji-and-flee plan.
Tenten sighed, they had to make fifteen trips in total two children each, and seven per person with one returning to pick up the last two and the other to immediately assist Neji.
She made the extra trip as Lee hurried to Neji.
(The children looked scared of Lee.)
So as she deposited the little boys with their anxious parents at the gates of the small village that had hired them, she gave a parting smile that didn't quite shine or sparkle as much as Lee's or Gai-sensei's but was enough to reassure the villagers that everything would be fine.
She ran, hoping that she felt her own reassurances.
There had to be more than fifty, and Neji was injured…
The Kumo-nin used lightning, she had noticed the lightning flashing over the field…
Darnit, she thought, exerting more charka in her legs.
She had to hurry.
She burst into the clearing, not having time nor the will to bother panting though she was tired.
It didn't matter, she thought, you'd still be tired afterwards.
She sprang into action, making her way past fallen bodies, none of which were her teammates, she noted.
A man's hand reached out, kunai extended several meters ahead of her.
Behind Neji. At his blind spot.
Tenten scowled as she flung a shuriken viciously, the force enough to knock the kunai from his grip.
Neji glanced at her at the sound of clanging metal, giving a brief nod before facing the rest of the enemy.
"It's not possible for them to have much more manpower that this, and the next assault will be the last," she heard him say as she scanned his body for injuries.
The earlier painfully red wound on his side was just one of the more worrisome injuries, it dripped steadily, red blood that was definitely worrisome.
Blood and water mingled on the ground. His blood, the blood of his enemies, rain water.
He had a long gash from left shoulder to right hip, and it was the worst.
There were other scratches on his arms, legs, and torso and an ugly welt on his arm.
He had a few minor burns as well.
She glared at him frostily. "Keep your guard up."
"It always is," he retorted, and the corners of her lips twitched.
"How's Lee?"
"As he always is," he replied shortly, tilting his head subtly in Lee's direction.
He was a green blur. She smiled. "Why are we talking?"
"It is a momentary pause before they send their last troops in."
"Ah," she settled into a combat stance, feet slightly apart and ready to yank her scroll out. "Almost?"
"Yes," he said. After a short pause, enough to get Tenten fidgeting, he added: "Now."
Tenten sprang into action. She knew Neji was exhausted, even more than Lee.
The reasons for which she had immediately stayed at his side.
In the midst of summoning hundreds of weaponry, her eyes flicked over to how her other teammate was doing. Lee caught her glance and smiled.
She nodded briskly as she tended to the people in front of her.
She smiled, a slow smile that spoke of practice and strength.
That should have been her enemy's cue to run away.
They didn't.
The remaining enemies were easier now that the team was complete.
She hated the smell of singed flesh, small retaliation as it was that the enemy had inflicted before they had died.
It hurt like hell AND it meant burns.
(She was not unused to fire, her old home burned before her very eyes. The next day, she moved to Konoha. She didn't like it.)
She watched her teammates fight through their injuries; most were superficial and almost paid the price for her distraction by a shallow slice on her left wrist.
"Keep focused."
"Sorry," she apologized to her teammate, impaling one man's chest with a kunai as blood sprouted blooming red.
"Lee!" he'd been hit by lightning jutsu repeatedly and she knew what could have happened at any time. Cardiac arrest, cardiac arrhythmia, trauma…
"He's alright," Neji reassured her. "Maybe just mild shock."
She nodded briefly and ran towards Lee, Neji taking a slower pace. She didn't notice Neji wince.
"Lee? Are you awake?" she asked, shaking him.
"H-hai, Tenten," he responded. "I'll be fine."
She gave a tight smile. "Where are the worst of your injuries?"
He chuckled. "Uh…"
Her face darkened. "Do you not trust me?"
"Well…"
There was a soft, splashing thud behind them. Startled, the two turned to Neji.
He was face first on the muddy ground. Tenten shrieked.
Okay that was not what she was supposed to do, but to hell with procedures. That was her teammate bleeding on the freaking ground after the battle.
"Neji? NEJI!" stifling a curse, albeit barely, Tenten yanked his shirt off.
Aside from the gashes and cuts on his body, he had painful looking bruises. They were starting to turn colors.
Tenten used one hand to gently prod his body while the other was looking for her supplies. "Lee?"
"Yes?"
"We need to get him out of the rain."
They'd found a cave, and while Tenten had been setting up supplies, Lee had set up a fire.
"Lee?"
"Yes, Tenten."
"Look for a healer, and send a report to Tsunade-sama."
"Hai," Lee responded, before disappearing with a flicker.
She looked at Neji; his skin was rapidly paling due to blood loss, he'd been bleeding for a while, some wounds could have been infected…
Darn.
Thinking quickly, she heated a needle to disinfect it, while applying some of Hinata's cream on the bruises.
"Neji? Are you awake now?"
He twitched sporadically. "Poison," he managed to croak.
"Careful there, Neji."
She had no way of telling what kind of poison it was. Or where it was located.
No clue. And now he was unconscious.
Tenten saw the discoloration (1) of the skin around the gash on his left arm, and cursed.
She found it.
She grabbed bandages and knotted them tightly around his arm just below the shoulder to cut off circulation and placed the arm above his heart.
Removing the needle from the fire, she threaded it with silk (it was a non-dissolvable suture) and sewed the injuries which needed stitches.
(It was a good thing she could sew)
Steel felt welcome in her hands, but for once, she was healing with it.
For once, she could save someone.
Her stitches were neat, professional.
― She did not feel professional in the least.
She looked like she had done this all her life.
She never felt more unsure of herself.
Her hands were steady, opposite to what she felt.
After she sewed the wound, she spread ointment liberally over before dressing it.
The ground was red with his blood.
She was already finishing up the last one she could reach from his prone position when Lee arrived, frantic.
He was alone.
"Lee? Where's the healer, or the doctor?"
He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Tenten, the village had no healer and no hospital."
Her grip on the needle tightened. "You sent the message?"
"I sent a bird, since we're so near, it should be arriving now."
She nodded. "Come here, Lee. I need to see his back."
Her spandex clad teammate approached her and Neji. He lifted Neji to a sitting position as she kneeled to face the gash on Neji's back.
She repeated the procedure on his other cuts and the liberally bleeding diagonal gash.
When she finished, she decided she felt squeamish.
Neji was covered with bandages now; his face injuries had been treated with antiseptic and gauze.
And medical tape. Tenten was glad for the invention of medical tape.
"Lee? Are you sure you can carry Neji back?"
"Yes," he said gravely.
Tenten knew they were both worried. "Let's go."
Hokage's office; Debriefing
2:43 am
When the three had reached the gates, there had been a team of medics standing ready.
They had wheeled Neji away, blood already soaking his bandages as Tenten and Lee were instructed to catch some sleep and report when they woke up.
After tossing and turning for one and a half hours, she decided to hell with sleep and she was reporting to Tsunade and THEN breaking into the hospital. And visiting Neji.
Tsunade twitched. She had just arrived from a trip to the hospital to check on some patients when she was confronted by Tenten and her insistence to be debriefed. Now.
She needed to sleep, but seeing the expression on the girl in front of him, she decided to finish it fast.
"Good job, Tenten," Tsunade said. "You really did save his life."
"Um… Thank you."
"What you did there was good, he's stable."
"Arigato, Tsunade-sama."
"By the way, nice stitches."
She smiled. "Thank you."
"Alright, dismissed."
Tenten exhaled sharply. She had made her way into Neji's hospital room at unholy hours in the morning… HA!
"Tenten."
She turned sheepishly, her hand still pumped up into the air in victory.
She lowered her hand discreetly and clasped both hands behind her back loosely.
"Er, hey Neji, are you feeling better?" she said cheerfully, her face masking worry.
"… Thank you," he said shortly. "The doctors said I had a lost a lot of blood and if you hadn't done anything, I'd be dead."
"Right! Well Neji, I need to tell you something," she said, approaching him and sitting on his bed.
"What?"
"Eat lots of veggies so your blood would be thicker and it would be harder for you to bleed to death, stupid! We were really worried!" (a/n: According to my teacher, eating greens help guerillas' blood get thicker, since they live in the mountains. Though I think she said terrorists… whatever, so the bleeding to death thing is a valid point!)
She could've sworn Neji smiled.
All her work had paid off, she reflected as she hugged her teammate, remembering not to put too much pressure.
He hugged her back, and she smiled, closing her eyes.
"Hey, Neji?"
He grunted, but she knew him well enough to know that his aknowledgement gave her the 'Okay' to continue.
"Well, can you at least try not to bleed too much? I mean, you're pale enough without losing that much blood..."
She heard the low chuckle and felt his slight wince from laughing, but she just hugged him closer, feeling his heart beating, knowing he was still alive.
This was an idea that just popped up in my brain, and just grew…
Yeah, something about how Tenten handled her weapons struck me and I wondered if she helped heal, right?
Sorry for any inconsistencies…
(1) I'm not sure if poison DOES cause discoloration. If not, inform me and live with it. Thanks.
Oh, I'm not sure if these procedures would work in real life. I sorta forgot, and I'm not planning to try.
Well, I mean I integrated what I knew about first aid… But it's pointless since we were never taught about weapon injuries.
(School procedures?)
As if, they wouldn't even teach us self defense. Except for in a year or two, when we get this scripted regimen with two sticks. STICKS.
Reposted for errors and slight additions, embellishments...