To Serve
A Naruto Oneshot
By: GoldenDragonClouds

Tenten knew she may not be the best fighter out there, but she was there to serve. To help her country win the war. And like her teammate, she would see through her goal or die trying.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Written after Naruto chapter 614. Sort of a spin off with spoilers.

It wasn't fair, Tenten thought bitterly as she readied her weapons for yet another assault of the wooden stakes that monster was sending towards them.

Just with this barrage, three people in her immediate area of sight were down, dead or critically injured. There was nothing she could do to help them.

Tenten didn't spare them a second glance as she trudged on, hating the fact that in situations like this, there was nothing she could do but dodge and deflect the thousands of projectiles while keeping with the last orders they had all received from HQ.

Their last orders.

It wasn't fair, Tenten thought bitterly again, readying herself for the fresh barrage heading towards her. Without Heaquarters being there to guide them, the Allied Shinobi Forces would eventually flounder on the field. Such a large army without an intelligence and headquarters to command them would soon become divided in their unified cause.

Not only that, Shikamaru and Ino had lost their fathers. Tenten hadn't known Shikaku and Inoichi personally, but Choza had told her they were good teammates, and even better friends. The Ino-Shika-Cho trio had been legendary.

And yet now they were gone, obliverated in one explosion.

Choza would be devastated.

It wasn't fair, Tenten thought once more, glancing over to where Lee and Gai-sensei were wrecking mayhem, having opened five celestial gates each. As a mid to long ranged fighter, there was really nothing she could do right now. She wished they hadn't taken the banana fan away from her, but what could she do? Even if she did have it, she would soon have with little to no chakra and be left for dead on the battlefield. Her chakra reserves were nothing to envy...

Something was wrong.

Tenten faltered in her tracks, a puzzled expression on her face as she ran through lists in her mind trying to figure out what was nagging at her brain when there was a war going on around her. It wasn't as if she was forgetting something back at home and her teammates were in just about as equal danger as she was in right now -

The last time she had felt such foreboding had been when her teammates had run off on that god-forsaken mission three years ago to try and recapture the last Uchiha.

Tenten blanched, abandoning her post to run through the most recent barrage to try and get closer to the front lines of battle where she knew Neji stood with his cousin and uncle, protecting their Key to the strategy. Blood pumping in her ears, Tenten dodged countless attacks from the sky until she reached a point where Naruto stood in her line of sight, Hinata reaching across Naruto's body to protect him from the onslaught -

"-!"

Tenten screamed in horror as she watched Neji throw himself in front of his cousin, soon impaled by several wooden stakes that tore through his torso.

Naruto screamed for a medic, but it would be to no avail. Even as far away as she was now, Tenten knew there was nothing anyone could do about his wounds.

The sounds of battle died around her as her nostrils flared, her eyes blinking rapidly in an attempt to stem the tears from flowing from her eyes. She pressed her lips against each other, gripping the kunai in her hands so hard that her nails bit into her palms around the handles.

Going into war, Team Gai had sworn to each other that they would meet up in Konoha as soon as the war ended, and celebrate as seasoned war veterans at their usual training grounds, Team Gai style. They had known there would be countless casualties, of course, but their team seemed so powerful, so invincible that Tenten had brushed her cares aside, promising with her teammates that yes, Team Gai would reunite at war's end.

It wasn't fair.

She stood there ignoring the shinobi rushing past her to get to the monster, watching as the seal on her teammate's forhead slowly disappeared, undoubtedly protecting his byakugan against theft.

A white bird flew into the sky, only to be shot down by another wooden stake from the monster, freed again from the most recent doton jutsu attempting to hold it down.

Tenten distantly heard the leader of their opposing force taunt Naruto with his promise not to let anyone die, but already her mind was miles away.

Gripping the kunai in her hands tightly, Tenten started stalking closer to the monster, closer to the man that killed her teammate.

It was a tradgedy, something she didn't doubt she was already traumatized from. But it was war, and this was no time to fall victim to her emotions.

One of the members of Team Gai had fallen to the greater cause, and that was that. Neji had died protecting his clan's future and the Key to the war, and Tenten knew that as a kunoichi of Konoha, she would too protect her people to her dying breath.

All her hopes and dreams for the future? They had evaporated with her teammate's dying breath. Everything she had seen for her future in Konoha had included her team as a whole, her family, their family, having stuck together till the end despite of everything they had gone through.

But no, life wasn't fair. And at the next cue Tenten lept into the air with a battle cry, unfurling her scrolls to send out everything she had at the monster that killed her teammate. That had killed thousands around her.

Because her part was just a small one in the greater event of things, but would make a difference. Because every last effort helped.

Tenten knew she may not be the best fighter out there, but she was there to serve. To help her country win the war. And like her teammate, she would see through her goal or die trying.

Author's Note:
R.I.P. Hyuga Neji. You were a great teammate, cousin, son, and nephew, a proud clan member of of the Hyuga clan and a brave shinobi of Konoha. Konoha will miss you, and your teammates mourn you.

Shit, Neji's death changes everything. I might not be on as often as a lot of my fics seemed to center around Tenten crack-pairings that made fun of Neji to some extent. A lot of these are now AU by default. But here's my little piece to offer up to Neji for his heroic death.

I'm actually really pissed at Kishimoto because he didn't even mention Lee, Gai, or Tenten in the last chapter after Neji's death. If they're not included in the next chapter, I'll probably blow up - but if this is another "oh, lol jk" thing again, Kishimoto better be afraid. I'm in Korea for break right now, and I'm right next to Japan.

I'm a mess right now.

Reviews are love.

Ja Ne,
~Golden