DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto. This is purely the work of a NejiTen shipper.

Dedicated to someone who loves Neji and doesn't hate romance. Sorry but... this isn't exactly romance. More like a fluffy, happy oneshot and the start of the NejiTen ship.

All praise to NoeticSky.

In which Tenten plays nurse

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Things went downhill without the Byakugan in action. Tenten cursed, Lee stopped yelling exuberantly with every punch he landed and the two of them went into survival mode – no thoughts, just instinct and the sound of knuckle against cheek and kunais slicing – while Gai-sensei dropped one of the enemy nin and went straight to Neji, pressed two fingers to his lips and yelled "Kai", releasing him from the illusion he had been caught in.

In between scattered heartbeats ,Tenten could just make out her Hyuuga teammate standing still, eyes wide and unblinking. Being really only about a year out from the Academy, genjutsu was one of the ninja arts they had yet to even begin to start understanding. The farthest Tenten had come to the arts of illusion were bunshins and even that was more than Lee's. The only one out of the three who would have known something about it would be Neji but that wasn't much help. He was the one under the genjutsu after all.

~.~

White sears his vision and his forehead burns. The seal is activating. In his mind he is screaming, writhing in pain but for some strange reason he isn't moving.

This is genjutsu. Only an illsuion of the enemy's. An illusion. It isn't real.

… Is it?

He's always known what that seal on his forehead is for. His own sword of Damocles, always with him, always poised to fall.

And then it hits him like a hakke-shou to his stomach. Because this, this pain and this utter helplessness at the face of it… is reality.

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Later that evening, Neji had a fever.

For once, Gai-sensei had opted against sleeping in the open for (strength and endurance in the wild!) training and booked them a room at an inn when the four of them had finally reached shelter after hours of bushy undergrowth. While Neji hadn't said a word the whole journey, there were beads of sweat on his porcelain forehead and his skin was burning and no complains save for Lee's at this arrangement were heard.

Chakra interruption, Gai-sensei explained. It was the first time a foreign chakra had penetrated his own network and his body had yet to bounce back from it.

He could tell that already from his Byakugan, Neji reminded their sensei with a voice barely restraining irritation.

All his sour disposition received in reply was a patient "You must be tired, Neji." No one felt particularly inclined to admonish him because, on the floor and with his arm thrown stubbornly over his eyes, they weren't sure he knew what he was saying. He hadn't looked at any of them in the eye since sensei pulled him out from the genjutsu their target had thrown.

"Tenten, our springtime flower," Gai announced in his usual, abominably upbeat voice, while Tenten rolled her eyes at the nickname but was secretly glad their sensei was doing his utmost to keep the mood up, "You'll do your best to nurse our Neji here while Lee and I see where we can find a meal."

"And Neji won't get better if we walk AT ALL!" Lee adjoined with equal enthusiasm. "We won't take any rest stops, Gai-sensei, so we can let Neji-kun eat as soon as he can!"

"That's the spirit, Lee! My youthful student, you are just the medicine our Neji-kun needs!"

The inn room was plunged into a peaceful silence when the pair had finally departed. Tenten breathed out thankfully and began to arrange the small room they'd rented for the night. Putting things into neat piles, restocking her weapons set mostly (she had to get a new dozen set from the looks of it) and making sure that Neji's possession remained in a safe, untouchable and hence unable-to-be-ruined-by-anyone-else position, she crossed and re-crossed the matted room on tiptoes, so as not to wake her resting teammate.

A half hour later, Sensei and Lee still out, Tenten paced around looking for something else to do. Oh, that's right –Neji! She tiptoed over to the futon Neji had fallen onto straight after stepping into the room and where he still lay, eyes tightly shut. He was shivering.

~.~

It is blackness and the sensation of falling, like the day when he fell of the tree when he was younger. His father had caught him then but here he feels nothing. Just him, alone, falling helplessly…

And a tiny, pure, lucid moment when his mind suddenly clears and he realises that this is it, he's going to die. The way he'd always known he would.

He sees no reason to fight back, and somehow he doesn't think he is a coward for doing so.

~.~

The mousey haired kunoichi wiped her hand on her pink shirt before waving it in front of the Hyuuga's sleeping face. Still sleeping. That was a good thing. Not that she was scared of Hyuuga Neji or anything but, personality-wise, Neji was cold as the ice his eyes seemed to derive their color from. At first, he spoke little to anyone, even when Gai addressed him. He was meticulous and methodological in everything he did, excelled at everything from barehand forms to weaponry to tactics – and is also a cocky, arrogant prick at times who likes to rub it in by smirking every time he gets me out of a jam. And like it or not, she was actually the voice of reason in their dysfunctional trio. While Neji had no emotions and Lee was bursting with too many, she had to be in the middle to sort things about before they got too out of hand. Lee was their wildcard, she was the glue that held their team together and Neji their superlative leader.

Yet in sleep Neji looked…. vulnerable. The usual stern front he wore was softened with a placid, almost carefree expression. Like he was perhaps less of a stoic, unsmiling genius and a little more of a kid like everyone else.

~.~

He remembers his father clutching his hand to his forehead, a memory from a long, long time ago that he still remembers with striking clarity. Long, horrible moments while he could only watch as his strong, capable father gripped his forehead in an agony he had been born to accept.

He wishes he hadn't been caught by the enemy. This genjutsu had only proven to him what he had known all along.. Reminded him that this was his destiny and that, no matter how high he soared and no matter how strong he became, he would always be a servant.

That seal would be on his forehead, a part of him, forever.

~.~

"'…Otousan…"

Tenten sprang back with a speed that would have rivalled Gai-sensei's reflexes at the sound. In his sleep, her Hyuuga teammate raised a bandaged hand to forehead protector (he kept it on in his sleep?) and she instinctively held her breath lest she interrupt him from where he stood between dream and reality.

"Otousan…" Neji continued to murmur, "… it hurts…"

…Huh? "Neji? Nejjiiii?" Trying not to panic, Tenten went to his side, placed a hand on his cheek only to recoil at the heat. Thoroughly bewildered and maybe even scared now, the budding kunoichi wracked her head for ideas on what to do next. Oh if only Gai-sensei were here! She'd never seen Neji so much as have a cold but this was a fever (it was a fever, right?) of a bigger scale she'd never seen before.

"Don't worry Neji," she said out loud, not really caring whether he heard her or not, "just-just give me a second. You'll be alright. I have no idea what's going on but you'll be alright."

Her thoughts skittered over what she had seen other people do whenever they were burning up and a lightbulb pinged somewhere between the brown buns on top of her head. A wet towel! She had no towel but her handkerchief was in her pocket and while she wasn't sure of the particulars, it was better than just sitting and staring at her teammate's obvious discomfort.

She knelt at his side as she took her handkerchief in hand. For as long as she could remember, even in the days at the Academy, Neji had always had that bandage around his forehead. (But he'd always had those severe features so no one dared ask what was underneath it.) Besides, he was one of the pale-eyed Hyuugas and anything that would have seemed unusual to the normal civilian shinobi didn't count when you came from a prominent ninja clan. Neji just had that aura of mystery. Nevertheless, the present state of affairs overrode any qualms that would have been associated with this invasion of Neji's personal bubble and with quick fingers Tenten slipped her hand under the warm metal of his hitae-ate, pulling off the bandage beneath it and exposing his bare forehead.

Then she saw the green markings, the manji, his seal and realised that she was trespassing into close quarters. Very, very close quarters.

"Ohhh…. Shnap."

Neji stirred a little in his sleep so she immediately placed the cold cloth over his porcelain forehead, breathing shakily until Neji's breathing relaxed again. What was that? Was that the reason Neji said his forehead had been hurting? And why he never seemed to take his forehead protector off? Was that –she gasped at the revelation – perhaps, what he had seen under genjutsu? That seal working on him? She didn't even know what it meant but it looked hardly like anything that would be nice to have.

Hesitantly, lest she hurt him by the action, she touched the tips of her fingertips once again to the markings.

"Neji are you – have you been hiding this all along?" She whistled -she was one of the few in their class to know how to whistle and it became a habit in times of high emotions- "Does this hurt? You need to stop hiding this, you know." She didn't even know why she was saying this, out of pity for her teammate, out of worry. Or maybe because this was the only thing that was holding him back and she wanted them to be a team and together and coherent now. "You don't need to hide. We're a team aren't we…"

~.~

Somewhere in the vastness of his mind, he feels something touch his seal.

It doesn't hurt.

Why doesn't it hurt?

He leans his head into the touch, grateful for the respite it brings.

And a warm, clear voice…

"I'm here, Neji."

~.~

Pale eyes opened and blinked.

"Oh. You're up."

"Tenten. What are you doing?" His eyes zoned in on the hitae-ate on the floor, the bandages, his wet forehead and he pieced the story together fairly quickly. "Did you…"

Tenten grinned nervously and took the bands in her hand before Neji covered his forehead again. "Wanna talk?"

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They do not mention it in the years afterwards. They grow older, stronger and their bonds thicker and the memory stays a treasure in both their minds only brought up with a hint of nostalgia and for Neji, gratitude.

"You never really lose your freedom." Tenten told him when Neji had finished his tale. And she meant it. "Only when you stop trying."

Neji shrugged but did not contradict. He felt lighter, better. And confused that he never noticed how bright and… captivating… brown eyes were sometimes. The hitae-ate was placed back in his hand; he'd told her all she needed to know. The Hyuuga looked up towards the window, and followed two birds flying together. "Maybe."

Tenten smiled.

It was a start.

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-FIN-

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Well I'm in exams and I should be studying but I just HAD to write this, ok? I love NejiTen (It's MY OTP people, I be da captain o' dis ship) and I just HAD to spend an afternoon on this. I did.

I hope you enjoyed and please R&R! It would make me feel better as I look at my dismal exam scores. T_T

(This doesn't mean that I have forgotten Once I had a Sister by the way. It's just a work currently under a little meditation. I'll be doing it soon. Gosh. Don't rush perfection.)

Glossary of terms:

-Sword of Damocles: An old proverbial anecdote that basically means a constant and imminent peril.

- Manji - the seal on Neji's forehead. A Hindu and Buddhist symbol (the one that looks like the swastika but ISN'T)

- Genjutsu - the art of Illusions

Thanks again to NoeticSky for all her help! Please R&R!

-Alatariele C.
in collab. with Noetic Sky.