I don't own Naruto, any of its characters, nor the abilities they posses. If you review, make it constructive criticism and not hateful flames, for I am fireproof and will ignore you.

It was early spring in Konoha. The sun was starting to stay out longer, the weather was growing warmer, and the frost of winter was being replaced with the warm, heavy drizzle of April. One particular morning was sunny with the smell of fresh rain gracing the atmosphere. Perfect for training.

Off in a clearing the sounds of metal bouncing off metal and clunking into trees could be heard. This training had been going on for well over 4 hours straight, resulting in a very exhausted Tenten lying in the cool damp grass. Her teammate, Neji, jumped down from the trees and simply glared.

"Get up" he stated unfazed by her current condition.

"Just 5 minutes, please? I just finished a mission with team 10 last night, you know." She informed him in hopes of swaying his demands. It didn't.

"Exactly, you had a full nights rest after a mediocre mission. Get. Up." he demanded, enunciating the last few words with a slightly venomous tone.

Tenten, clearly irate after that comment, bounced up and glared at him.

"If you have the energy to do that, then you have the energy to continue training," he continued while turning his back to her, "maybe we can work the weak out of you."

To this she gasped. He had the audacity to say such things right to her face; beside the point that she's not weak!

"You mind running that by me again?" she questioned, clearly seething from his last comment.

He looked around to her with a cold stare and said "I'm tired of you constantly holding us back. One day your weakness is going to get you killed, and with how poorly you are at performing, no one would even want to save you."

She broke. Granite, this hadn't been the first time he had said such cruel things to her, far from it actually, but with this she turned around and began walking away.

"Where exactly do you think you're going?" Neji fumed.

"Away from you, clearly. Train with Lee for a few days." She left him standing in the field with those words. She had had a plan in place for about six months now but had never dared to do it. There had never been anything quite serious enough to merit doing it. Not until now. For this to work all she needed was her team off her case for a couple of days. Hoping to find encouragement to talk her out of the plan, she went to her only real friend, Hinata. Hinata answered her door just to find her friend on the verge of tears and immediately let her in. Again, not for the first time.

"Was it Neji-nii-san again?" Hinata asked in a calm, caring voice.

"Yes. I can't take it anymore. He's destroying me from the inside out." she managed to utter before the flood of tears came rushing out. "I want to do it. Tonight in fact, but I don't want to hurt anyone in the process."

Hinata was in thought for a moment before responding, "Tenten, are you still in love with him?" She was talking about Neji.

Tenten looked down, defeated by the internal conflict she was hosting. "Yes. Yes I do. I always will, but I don't think he will ever consider me as anything but a weak burden he has to bear."

"Then do it."

Tenten looked up into Hinata's determined eyes in shock. Hinata then pulled her into a heart wrenching hug and said "You've been such a good friend to me and I will always cherish you for it, but Neji-nii-san is destroying the wonderful person inside you. Here in Konoha, your happiness revolves around him. As long as he is the one holding your happiness, you'll just keep fading away."

She released her from the hug, ran to her dresser, grabbed a small pouch, ran back, and handed it to Tenten. She looked inside to find two small necklaces. yin and yang. etched into the back of each pendent was the word 'friends' and 'forever'. Hinata took 'friends' and closed 'forever' into the palm of Tenten's hand.

"To remind you that no distance on this earth is far enough to break the bonds of a friendship" Hinata said, tears welling up in her opaque eyes. Tenten put the necklace on and hugged Hinata, crying as well. "You should go tonight and whatever you do, don't stop until you've found a place you can truly call home."

Standing up and walking out, Tenten looked back and said "thank you" before running off to her vacant apartment. She packed her bag with clothes, food, water, and a few of her favorite weapons. She contemplated, then decided that her wooden sansetsukon would make a decent and inconspicuous walking stick.

It was 8pm now as Tenten stood outside the gates on a tree branch and watched as the gates shut for the night, effectively shutting her out. With her pack in hand she knew where she had to go, and where she wanted to end up. That's one of the perks of being a ninja is the constant traveling. With the muffled sound of the gates completely closing, she turned and began heading north towards Takigakure (hidden waterfall) to throw off any pursuers, then loop around through the Land of Earth, pass through the Land of Wind, then arrive at the souther reaches, where the coastline meets the border between the Wind country and the Rain. Team Gai went there for a mission once and she found the atmosphere and the low population there drawing her in. From then on it had become her imaginary escape whenever Neji ended up tearing her a new one. This time, though, her dream was going to become reality.

The next morning Neji was walking out of the Hyuuga compound when he saw Hinata walking in the same direction.

"Oh, good morning Neji-nii-san. What are you planning for today?" Hinata asked innocently.

He couldn't lie, he felt rather guilty this morning. Never had Tenten left him during training and pawned him off to Lee. It hit him that evening while walking home that Tenten was a god-given grace to train with in comparison to "youthful!" Lee. He knew he had always treated Tenten rather sourly when she lost focus during training or on missions. He decided then that he should probably stop it and apologize for treating her that way. Besides, she was the only girl he had really ever grown fond of (that he wasn't related to), and he didn't want to permanently ruin the feelings he had just because he was being pissy.

" I was just going to stop by Tenten's and then go train with her today." he finally replied. To this he saw Hinata's face fall.

"Actually I think you should give her a day or two to calm down. She was really sad about what you said, but also really angry and dangerous-looking." Hinata replied meekly. Neji's face when white. She told her. Tenten came to Hinata and poured out that whole damn conversation to her. Does Hinata know how many times I've said things like that to Tenten. If she does then there is some good merit behind her warning. If I'm going to repair things between Tenten and I then I'm gonna need her to be as un-murdery as possible.

Hinata, seeing the contemplation in Neji's eyes along with things like shock and regret, started to internally panic. She began conglomerating different ways to keep him away from Tenten's apartment. As soon as he would get there, he would know something was wrong and so far Tenten only had 10 hours of running time. Before she could say anything she heard,

"Okay, I'll give her space for today, but if she comes by again this evening to talk with you, could you come get me?" Neji asked with a sincere look of sadness in his normally expressionless face.

"Okay, I will." Hinata said and left the boy with his thoughts. If only Tenten could have seen that.

Next Morning

Neji arrived at Tenten's doorstep a little after their normal meeting time for training. He knew he was ready for this conversation (especially after yesterday's training session with Lee and Gai-sensei). He really did value her 'friendship' and if getting off his high-horse for a half an hour was all it took to fix things, it was well worth the effort to protect their relationship. He knocked again slightly louder but again no response. It was 7:30 by this time so she should be out of bed by now. He grabbed the spare key hidden in a crack below her doorframe, unlocked the door, and went inside. Immediately he noticed how cold it was inside her apartment. The thermostat was set to 10 degrees C (~50F). Why on earth would Tenten have the heat set so low. It's not like she needs to conserve power. He went into her room and was surprised to find some of her drawers empty of clothes, some of her weapons missing, and her headband laying on her pillow. He walked over and picked it up just to find a small note and a picture of their team when they first became genin. All the note said was,

Goodbye.

Neji was out the door within the second.

Tsunade's Office

"What!" Tsunade yelled when Neji and Lee told her of Tenten. "Of all the people, why her?" She said offhandedly, to which Neji took notice.

"What does that mean?" Neji asked. Tsunade looked up at him with a rather baffled expression.

"What I mean is, as far as combat goes, Tenten is one of our most capable and versatile kunoichi genin. To think she ran away when she had such a bright future here," Tsunade continued, "How long since she was last seen?"

"We already asked the gatekeepers that were on duty last night and there was no record of her using the gates to exit the village, and the last time we saw her was over 48 hours ago." Lee replied hastily

Tsunade pondered over everything for a few moments then stated, "Neji Hyuuga, you and Rock Lee are to collect Kiba Inuzuka and search for any trail that may be left to track Tenten. It has been raining nonstop since last night, but if you three happen to catch her trail, then find her and bring her home; If you catch her trail, your team will have one week to complete your mission before you are to return to Konoha with or without Tenten." Neji and Lee nodded and was out the door in a blink of an eye. She is unaccompanied, the weather is against us, and she's already had 48 hours of potential run time. In all honesty, she has double the chance of success as Sauske Uchiha had. Tsunade pondered to herself after the boys had left.

Outside the Village

Kiba was making rounds everywhere in a desperate attempt to find a trace of Tentens scent with no avail. Neji was scouring the exit and the woods all around Konoha with his Byakugan praying that he would find something, anything, that could point then in her direction. Unconsciously he found himself standing in Tenten and his favorite clearing for training, and he finally collapsed. The reality of this was eating him alive. How could she leave? Why would she abandon her home. Her career. Her friends? After a few minutes of loathing, he finally admitted it to himself. It was his fault. His incessant demand for her time pulled her away from her friends and with no parents to support her emotionally, his cruelty was free to push her past the breaking point. He never even realized what his actions were doing until that moment. I'm like an abuser trying to mentally incapacitate my spouse for a false sense of power. He continued to mentally berate himself for every little incident that could have contributed to Tenten's actions when he noticed Kiba and Lee walking up to him. He didn't even notice their presence till they were practically behind him.

"It's no use. Even my older sister is turning up empty and your own byakugan hasn't found anything either." Kiba said sadly. Akamaru even went up and nuzzled Neji's hand, clearly sensing the sorrow radiating from the boy.

"Go back and tell Tsunade-sama. I still need a moment."

Both boys nodded and ran off towards Konoha, leaving Neji sitting in the clearing with the heavy rain running over his already soaked form. Please, let me find her sometime soon. If not for anything than to at least tell her I'm sorry; To tell her I don't blame her for her actions; To tell her how I really feel. Please, be safe.