xXx...xXx...xXx
All sorts of metal flew through the air, a crackle echoing around them whenever they met a target. The source of the weapons was a rather rugged-looking girl with two buns holding up her brown locks. Those buns, though, looked as though they were about to collapse and let her hair fall wherever it pleased. Flecks of dirt were smudged across her face, hiding the flush of her cheeks from working her body to such extremes. The exercise she was getting wasn't exactly from training, though. A pair of buffed bandits stood only a few yards from the exhausted kunoichi, grins spread across their devilish faces.
The girl had paused from attacking to clutch at a wound on her shoulder, the torn cloth rubbing against the burns that plagued her skin. She barely grimaced at the touch, though, not wanting to show any sign of weakness to the fools before her. Besides, she had worse injuries in the past. What was really making her nervous was the collapsed boy behind her.
"You shouldn't have gotten that close, Neji. What the hell went through your mind that made you think that would end well?" she seemed to growl, removing her hand from her shoulder to clutch at a kunai in her pouch. Even though her words were directed at the boy, her eyes continued to send a glare at the advancing bandits. With every step they took, she took a step back. Pretty soon she was only a few inches away from her companion. Still, he continued to stay silent.
"Damn." she muttered, pulling out her scroll to summon more weapons, sending them in a vicious wave at her opponents. A few met their mark, but the rest were dodged easily by them. So the rumors were true about these "extraordinary" bandits. Still, how could they have so much skill?
"Come on, Neji! All I need is for you to stand up." she said over her shoulder, sending more weapons at the two and managing to get them to back up a couple feet, "I don't exactly have an unlimited supply here!" Surprisingly, she heard the sound of someone gagging coming from behind her in response.
"TenTen..." she heard him cough, "Why... are you still here?"
"I can't just leave you here to die at the hands of these maggots."
"So you've decided to die with me?"
"Stop it!" she yelled, "Just stop saying that! Neither of us are going to die!"
"Oh? So your limited supply has just become unlimited?"
TenTen paused, unsure of what to say in response. Instead of replying, though, she took a step back and crouched beside him. She then helped him up into a sitting position, placing one hand on his back and using the other to drape his arm across her shoulders.
"You can't be serious..."
"I really don't want to hear it." she grumbled, struggling to her feet as she supported most of his weight. Neji then narrowed his eyes at her, a frusrated look coming to his face.
"Didn't I just say to leave me? You're only wasting your energy."
"I'm not going to let a friend die!"
"You can't fight destiny, TenTen."
"Screw destiny! You have so much to live for, Neji. I expected more from you than this cowardly slug that you're being now."
"I'm not-"
Their argument was then cut off by TenTen's sudden gasp, the color draining from her face and her eyes growing wide. Her body became limp for a moment, causing her to fall to one knee. Neji, who was still a bit wobbly on his feet, followed right behind her. His eyes then fell on the girl next to him, instantly seeing some kind of strange weapon sticking out of her stomach. A reddish brown stain had begun to spread across the fabric of her shirt and became darker by the second.
After a moment he looked up at her eyes, which were beginning to narrow; a small smile had begun to shape her lips.
"We probably should have paid more attention to our surroundings, huh?"
"TenTen..." he murmured, his gaze hardening as his head whipped around to look over at the bandits. Neji forced himself into a crouched position, wincing at his still-painful wounds as he tried to keep a hand on TenTen's shoulder to keep her, and himself, steady.
"Why didn't you run when you had the chance?" he heard himself mutter, letting whatever thoughts he had pass his lips. Without waiting for a reply, he pulled out a few kunai from his pouch and threw them with a simple flick of his wrist. The pieces of paper attached were only seen for a moment before the metal stuck in the ground at their enemies' feet, exploding and sending thick smoke in all directions.
Neji and TenTen both reached for one another as soon as the smoke washed over them, the pair disappearing in a blur to the cover of the trees around the battle-scarred clearing. They didn't go very far, of course, because of their injuries, but they did manage to find a place to rest in the shadows of a rather tall tree's leaves. The canopy seemed to be rather thick from the outside but from the inside it wasn't that hard to get a good look of the rest of the forest.
"Now how are we going to get out of this one?" TenTen murmured, one hand hovering cautiously over the weapon that was still poking out of her stomach. Her hand wrapped around the handle and tugged, only for more blood to trickle out. The stain had grown until the red substance dripped onto the wood of the branch below her, beginning to form a puddle as she spoke. Still she refused to wince and instead clamped her teeth together. Even then the nails of her one hand had scraped against the bark, causing Neji to look over at her, the veins around his eyes an obvious symbol of his Byakugan.
"Somebody will come once they realize we aren't back soon. All we have to do is hold on until then."
"Fighting destiny, Neji?"
The Hyuuga didn't say anything in response, his eyes traveling down to the piece of metal that seemed pretty deep in. He then crouched down beside her and wrapped his own hand around the handle. Before doing anything, though, he looked up at TenTen, a blank expression on his face.
"It would be best to get this out... It may cause more damage by staying in." he murmured, eyes narrowing as he studied her facial expressions. TenTen's eyebrows rose in surprise before a hint of fear could be seen. After a moment, though, she nodded and closed her eyes, preparing herself for the pain that would come. Minutes then ticked by and still there was no movement from either of them. She opened one eye to see Neji still staring at her, his fingers still wound around the weapon.
"Then again..."
"What?"
"Are you sure you want me to do this?"
Both of her eyes widened at his question before a smile once again came to her lips.
"Might as well give it a shot, right? What happens.. well... happens."
Neji nodded in response before his eyes once again went to her wound. With a quick tug the weapon was free of her flesh, a few splatters of blood covering his hand and dotting the branch. Her body then doubled over, arms wrapped around herself in an attempt of keeping a gasp or scream of any kind from escaping her lips. The sudden jerk of her body had caused her buns to fall, letting the locks cascade down over her upper back and shoulders. Tenten payed no mind to them, though. Her thoughts were mainly absorbed by the pain that was radiating from her stomach, only noticing how her hands seemed to have some sort of warm liquid flowing through the fingers.
After a while she noticed something resting on her shoulder, providing some sort of support for her body. She managed to open one eye to look over, her gaze traveling from the hand and up the arm to a pair of lavendar eyes looking back at her.
"T-That wasn't too bad..." she managed to stutter, a corner of her mouth turning up before her vision blurred, her body seeming to fall through endless space before everything went black.
xX...Xx
Some sort of scraping sound had managed to reach her ears in the darkness that loomed around her. A throbbing sensation was then coming from her stomach, causing her to flinch and try to clutch at the area, only to realize that for some reason she couldn't move. TenTen blinked her eyes, attempting to clear away whatever was blocking her view. The black eventually began to fade away to be replaced by a white ceiling. She blinked a few more times to see if it was actually there before moving her eyes, taking in her surroundings.
To her left was a simple end-table with a small vase of flowers resting on its surface. Realizing that she once again had control of her fingers, she ran them over the sheet that was draped over her. The rather confused kunoichi then glanced to her right to see a certain brown-haired boy looking back at her. The sight caused the memory of the tree to come back to her, her hands going under the sheet to feel bandages wrapped around her entire mid-section. The wrap then went up over her chest and stopped just below the collar bone before veering off to her burned shoulder.
TenTen's eyes then went back to his own, a questioning look on her face. He had a new shirt on, his torn one probably already thrown out, and the bump of a few bandages wrapped here and there clearly seen beneath the fabric. As for the rest of his outfit, though, it didn't seem to have been replaced with anything else.
"What happened-"
"Don't worry about that now." Neji cut her off, "You should be focused on recovering, instead."
"I'm sure my body can handle having my ears listen to a quick explanation, at least."
"Well... lets just say that a few friends came along to help."
"Is that so...?" she murmured, resting her head back on the pillow.
A few minutes of silence passed between the two, both of them content with there being no conversation, before Neji finally spoke up,
"Why didn't you run when you had the chance? You wouldn't be here in the hospital if you did."
"Like I said before, Neji, I couldn't leave you there to die."
"And what made you think I would let myself get beaten by them?"
"You were collapsed on the ground!"
"So? I'm only just another ninja of Konoha, right? It wouldn't be hard to replace-"
"Don't."
"Hmm?"
"To some others you may be easy to replace... but to me it wouldn't be the same."
"How so?"
TenTen turned her head away from him, not a sound escaping her lips as she stared intently at the vase next to her. Silence once again stretched on before the chair could be heard scrapping against the floor. Footsteps then followed before she felt a hand rest on each of her shoulders, causing her to look at their owner. Her eyes locked with his, their gazes refusing to leave one anothers,
"Can you just tell me?" he sighed, a bit of a frustrated edge to his voice.
"I shouldn't have to tell you."
"It would be nice if you would."
"That's just your opinion, then."
Neji removed his hands from her shoulders, letting them hang limply by his side and he backed away a few steps from the hospital bed.
"If you refuse to say, then I may as well go. Its no use arguing with you."
With those words, the suddenly-calm Hyuuga began heading towards the door. It was only when he was a few steps away from the exit did she say anything,
"Its just..." TenTen paused, a light blush beginning to creep up into her cheeks, "Well.. you're different than the others."
"Everyone is different from one another, so what's your point?"
"That's not what I meant! Its just... I consider you as a closer friend than the others." she struggled to say, attempting to push herself into a sitting position. Her body then flinched from the action, causing one hand to clutch at the wrap that covered her wound. It mustn't have been that long since when she was injured if it was difficult to even sit up. After a moment, though, she began to realize that yet another silent moment had made itself present.
"Now its your turn to say something." she murmured, her back still bending over as her hand hovered over the bandages. Her eyes looked over at him, hoping to see him staring back but only seeing the back of his head. Did he even hear her?
"Neji-"
"I'm glad."
"What?"
He looked over his shoulder at her, a small smile forming on his face.
"I said that I'm glad you consider us to have a close relationship."
TenTen blinked a few times, still wondering if she heard him right. After a moment, though, his words began to sink in, causing the blush in her cheeks to become even deeper.
"What do you think of that opinion?" he asked, a curious tone in his voice. The only response he got in return was a smile.