Disclaimer: I own not the characters of Naruto.
Possibilities
Somewhere, someone once told you that there were a million universes out there. One for each possibility under the sun. That every choice you had made in your life spawned a different reality. You didn't believe them then, and maybe you don't believe them now.
But what if it were true, you wonder?
Perhaps, in one of those multitudes of universes, you wouldn't be where you are now.
Now, where your husband is dead and your children are young, and the only recourse to feed them is to leave them alone to go on even more dangerous missions in the name of your village and your country. Now, where your only surviving team mate from earlier days has not spoken to you for the last ten years and you realize with a pang that that's probably a good thing. Now, when your dreams of becoming a strong, independent kunoichi like your childhood idol are rapidly diminishing and it takes all the strength you can muster to continue living for the next day.
Perhaps, in one of those realities, you would be safe in a noble house somewhere.
Where you would have been married to your first love instead of your second. Where that argument would not have happened, or where it would have been patched up quickly rather than being left to stretch over a decade of interminable silence, fed by wounded pride and bitter regret. Where you would arise everyday to the cries of children with pale white eyes instead of thick black eyelashes, and your husband would have had bandages around his forehead rather than his arms.
Perhaps.
But right now, you are here.
Here, where you are bleeding to death and being driven back into the corner by a group of shinobi four times stronger than you are numerically. Here, where the bodies of your sensei and husband lie among the twenty-odd enemies they took with them to the grave after opening all eight gates. Here, where you can taste the blood in your mouth mingled with the bitter bile of fear for your children's future after they are orphaned, for you know you cannot survive.
Maybe, in another future, things would have been different.
In another future, you and the rest of your three-man team would have arrived safely back in your village, with enough pay to eat for months before having to go out again, and you would have time to watch your children grow up. Or in another future, you would have become stronger and eventually risen to the top, attaining the rank of Hokage after all, and then demanding an apology out of that white-eyed bastard who had broken the team and retreated behind the fortress of his duties to his House instead of honestly facing up to his feelings.
In another future, or in another past, your life would have gone exactly as people said it should have.
But as you see a streak of white appear out of the corner of your eye and a spinning globe of glowing chakra hurling all the enemies away, you wonder. As each surviving ninja was rapidly taken down by critical strikes to their inner coil system, and as he bends in sorrow to pick up the fallen bodies of his sensei and his teammate, you wonder. And as he turns to look at you with those same intense, milky eyes that are haunted with a sense of opportunities lost and a determination to make up for them, you wonder.
Perhaps, in one of those multiple universes out there, a world of sorrow and regret would not have occurred.
But you wouldn't have appreciated the world of possibilities that had just opened up in this moment because of it.
Author's Note: Well, what can I say? I can't seem to stay away from NejiTen too long. I think, though, this is the first time I've painted a really tragic picture of what Neji's pride and Tenten's ambition can lead to if they clash. It's also the first time I've tried experimenting with this form of writing. If you want to see a much better implementation of this idea, and the original source from which I drew, I highly recommend you read "Second Time Around" by Sunfreak. You should be able to find it near the bottom of my Favourite Stories list on my profile. It's absolutely brilliant.