Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto.

Author's notes: I guess this is too long to be a drabble, but it's been in my mind a long time, and I finally felt like typing it up. Comments will be appreciated.

Long Way Down

Tenten has been given an amazing amount of advice during her young life. Those shinobi both older and more experienced have told her many things; how to hold a weapon, how to kill without endangering herself, how to deal with the emotional recoil that comes from such a profession. And other girls her age have given her quite a bit of guidance when it comes to the opposite sex. All of this knowledge has proved useful in its own way, whether the advice was heeded or not.

But nothing shall ever compare to what she has just been told, a dark and ominous warning delivered by a strange child who sees far too well and understands too much for her age. Tenten has always loved fortune telling, and she recognizes a prophecy when she hears one.

--

Tenten is standing in the bland beige corridor of Konoha's Memorial Hospital, peering through a small but thick-glassed window into an Intensive Care room. A figure is visible inside the sterile room, hooked up to life-support and lying pale and half dead upon clean linen sheets. Tenten is both horrified and reassured to know that the Hyuga she had overheard the nurses talking about is not her teammate Neji, but his cousin Hinata.

"What are you doing here? This area is supposed to be off limits to everyone but family." The voice is high pitched due to youth, but commanding none the less. Tenten whirls around to see Hanabi, the current heiress to the Hyuga clan leadership, staring at her curiously with the family's distinct and unnerving white eyes. "You're Neji's teammate, aren't you?"

Tenten nods, and glances back toward the bright white private room and its lonely occupant. Hinata looks so terrible that she immediately feels guilty for her previous thoughts of relief. "I'd heard that a Hyuga was in ICU. I know there are rules, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't Neji, so I snuck up here. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you."

Hanabi gives a little shrug and comes to stand beside her. She looks in on her older sister with eyes that betray no emotion. Tenten sees the small hands fist at her sides, though, and knows the girl is upset. She wonders what she can say to put the child at ease, but decides that she does not know enough about the situation to offer anything but, "I'm sorry. Was it her Chunin match?"

"Yes, it was." Unreadable pearl eyes lift to meet her mahogany ones, and Hanabi simply stares at her for a few heartbeats. Tenten knows that she must be a mess; hair mussed from her fight and sleeping off her loss of consciousness, ugly dark bruises developing on her tan skin, bandages wrapped around the worst of her scrapes. She is proved right when Hanabi comments, "You lost, didn't you? Was it tough?"

Tenten gives a sheepish smile to cover the anger and embarrassment she feels at her shortcoming. One hand rubs the back of her head, and she is dismayed to feel a knot there. "Yeah, some kunoichi from the Land of Sand rendered all my weapons attacks useless with a wind jutsu. I'll have to work on that." An awkward moment of silence falls, and then Tenten continues, "But I'm sure that Neji and Lee passed, no problem."

Hanabi's face darkens almost imperceptibly at the mention of her cousin. She turns toward her sister's room, and inclines her head the slightest bit toward the invalid girl. Tenten's eyes follow the movement, and she does not see the moment when Hanabi turns back to face her. Her voice drops to a lower pitch, and sounds suddenly lifeless. "Neji did this, you know. He had the match won, but tried to kill her anyway."

No, he wouldn't…

Tenten is hard pressed to hide her surprise. She knows that Neji has long held a grudge toward the members of the main branch of his esteemed family. She knows there has always been friction between the two castes. But there is no way that her strong and well disciplined friend would fly off the handle and try to murder a blood relative, even if he does have something of a short temper. Her voice is small. "Are you sure?"

"We heard it from the proctor, Gekko Hayate, himself. And there were plenty of witnesses, of course." There is no gloating in Hanabi's voice, only a statement of the facts, and as much as Tenten would like to give her quiet teammate the benefit of the doubt, she cannot deny the logic of what she has just been told. That does not mean that it tears at her heart any less.

Neji…

Why?

Abruptly, Tenten decides that she cannot stand to be here anymore. This drab little hallway, so full of the stench of chemicals and death, and the unwavering white gaze that seems to see her very private thoughts is proving stifling. She has technically been discharged, and she has discovered the truth of the frightening rumors she had heard earlier. She has no reason to stay, so she bows and turns to leave, the first tears prickling at the corners of her eyes.

"You love him, don't you?"

Tenten stops dead in her tracks, spine straight and proud, but she does not turn around. She can feel those eyes boring into her back, questioning her in a way that no one else has ever dared. The first salty teardrop rolls down her hot cheek, and she hopes that the girl cannot see it. "No," she answers, deny the truth even to herself, but her voice sounds hollow, even to her own ears.

Hanabi turns back to the little window, looks through her own reflection toward her stricken sister. The doctors have assured her family that they have done everything possible, and still the girl is clinging to life by a hair's breadth. All because an angry branch member threw a temper tantrum. "Be careful, Tenten. Our cousin once held Hinata in the highest regard, and look at her now."

Tenten shakes her brown head, the movement causing more tears to fall and splatter across the gleaming tile floor. She begins walking away determinedly, aching heart not wanting to hear the rest. But she cannot block out those horrible, final words from a child that is somehow wiser than herself, and cold goose bumps rise upon her skin.

"It is a long way down, a terrible distance to fall."

Tenten rounds a corner and puts the oppressive Intensive Care ward behind her. Hanabi's words still ring in her ears, and she gives her head a little shake as if to clear it. "It's not too far to fall," she murmurs, thinking of the white eyed prodigy who has come to be so dear to her. Who still is, despite the things she has heard. She wipes her eyes and focuses on showing that forcefully cheerful face everyone else knows so well.

"Besides," she tells herself, "everyone knows that it is the landings that truly hurt."