A dark congregation of familiar faces
Gathered around the quiet earth
A red rose fell upon the soft snow
Prayers were whispered so slow from our mouths
It wasn't raining. That was the first thing she noticed. How could such sadness exist when the sun was bright and the sky was blue? She officially hated the sun. Walking to the Yamanaka flower shop, she shaded her eyes, looking at the brilliant sun. The snow still hung from the trees, not quite melting. It had been the first snow of the year.
Stepping inside the store, she was assaulted with a mixture of different flower scents. Ino looked up from the book she was reading. Ino's eyes softened slightly.
"White roses?"
Tenten nodded, sparing her words. As Ino wrapped the flowers, her hand rubbed the wooden counter. It was so unfamiliar, this place. This would be the second time Tenten had gone inside in the last eighteen years.
Grabbing her flowers from Ino's hands and placing the money on the counter, Tenten checked her watch. It was almost time. Quickly, she reversed her direction, walking purposefully towards the memorial stone. She was one of the last ones there.
The coffin was empty. There was no body to put inside. His mission had been created for a one man cell. He had died, and no one had been able to find the body.
She tuned out the droning service delivered by Tsunade. It was the only time she could ever remember not caring what the Hokage had to say. Quite frankly, she no longer planned on caring.
All too soon, all of the familiar faces were lined up to pay their respects. Everyone tossed in a flower. The flowers decorate the coffin, the only decoration on the solid black affair.
Hinata threw in orchids. The flowers looked surprisingly like his eyes. Despite their strained relationship, Hinata always could understand people. It made Tenten wonder what kind of flowers she would get when it was her funeral.
Hiashi threw in a red rose. What a garish and unfitting choice. There had never been any love lost between them. And the red. What a horrible color for the Hyuuga prodigy. He had always been rather colorless, emotion took a backseat to strength. The flower contrasted horribly on the snow. It was a bloodstain on white fabric. Maybe that was even what his final hours looked like; blood blossoming on the traditional robes, until no white was left, and he was irreparably damaged. As she threw in her rose, she whispered a slow prayer to him. He had never believed in what he couldn't prove. She would have to do the believing for him.
Our breath rose in the cold like a hundred souls escaping
Save me, I am swallowed by the guilt of this
You're gone, sleeping in the dust
We will not let time erase us
We are surrounded
By all of the quiet sleepers inside the quiet earth
A fear I cannot shape
You dared to kiss the face of the night
Tenten had never gotten to say goodbye either. He had come to bid her goodbye just before the mission. Instead of seeing him off, she mumbled a goodbye and went to sleep. She had never opened her eyes; hadn't gotten a last glimpse of his face. Her prayer exhaled with her breath, hanging in a fine mist.
It had been a week since the funeral. Since then, Tenten had made it a routine of breaking and entering. The empty coffin had been buried, but a memorial had been erected in the Hyuuga complex, amidst the other stones of dead Hyuugas. She stood in a field of felled shinobi, those who had dared embrace living and killing in the night, facing the horrors that the darkness concealed.
Our lips were cold as clay, we couldn't speak anyway
Save me, I am swallowed by the guilt of this
You're gone, sleeping in the dust
We will not let time erase us
Her lips felt heavy, frozen by the weather. It had snowed several times, each time the snow reminding her of the way his eyes could suddenly seem so cold. For the first few days since the funeral, she had hidden all her pictures of him, trying to forget her feeling of helplessness. However, as she began to fear forgetting more that remembrance, the pictures slowly made a comeback, until her apartment was completely covered. Sometimes she would sit for hours trying to imagine life in the flat eyes captured in the frame.
Our breath rose in the cold like a hundred souls
We, we are alone, I know you're gone
Save me, I am swallowed by the guilt of this
You're gone, sleeping in the dust
We will not let time erase us
A ring hung heavy against her chest, a constant reminder of what she lost to him: Hyuuga Neji.