This is a story I've had on the back of my mind and computer lately and thought to finally bring it out.
On with the show.
"Please, no, damnit! Wake up! Don't you dare die, c'mon!"
What was happening?
"Open your eyes! Just a crack!"
He felt wet. Covered. Dead. The epitome of what felt wrong to his body, a contradiction.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."
All these voices... Who were they?
Where were they? The last place he remembered was a forest and a dirt path.
A girl's cry and a man's roar flashed into existence. None of them felt foreign, yet, neither did they feel certain either. Next to him whispering overrid the rebounding echo. It felt hollow. These voices were so near, yet so far, so sad, full of rage, yet sorrow.
"What went wrong? Huh!?"
There—the man's voice again...
"The mission was supposed to be easy! It was C-Rank! There are no excuses for...for this!"
Ah... the mission. What was it again?
Then the girls own shallow tinge of a cry came... and he felt... something. Pressure.
"That's enough!" The whispering near his ear ended and the voice once by him sounded far away, the pitch high in nature, thundered deep.
"It wasn't anyone's fault!"
The woman sounded so much older. So strong.
Upon on his chest he could feel a pressure, now that the whispering left he could focus on everything else, like the thumping pressure barreling down like a piston.
Funny... he felt cold and colder still.
"Then tell me what happened! Your teammate is dying, another one is gone to do Kami knows what, and you don't have any reason why!" He heard a light smack and then some laughing.
The little girls' voices came back.
"We were on a mission to defend a caravan..."
He had no time to listen as his body racked with pain from the center of his chest. A sensationaly fantastic pain lit like smoldering flesh. What it was he had no idea.
"What the hell are you doing? Are you trying to get him killed?" The man roared. He felt the man's foot snag his clothing and he knew the man had stepped over him, driving whatever coming out, back in.
Hell... Small droplets of sweat ran down his face like little bugs scuttling off the plains of his cheeks, if only to be blocked and pushed to the side and to the ground as gravity dictated those to descend down by the dams of blood corralling it. It felt like electricity was shooting through his body, shocking everything as if thousands of needles were puncturing his insides.
The man continued, "If we take that out of him, he will die, and not from the stab wound but from the fact that his blood will become the latest fashion statement to have ever have graced the unholy grass beneath his ass!"
"Fine! Just keep him alive until help arrives!" The woman yelled again.
"That's what I've been trying to do!" The man said.
The girl and woman seemed to join on either side of him while the man disappeared from his senses. Sweet nothings were uttered into his ear again.
There was no more pain. Just intolerant black.
There was no warmth.
Serenity.
"Why did he have to be the one? Him of all people..."
Their voice lost their significance to his ears as they lost focus and blended together. No difference. Just noise saying words. Not sentences... words without meaning.
"It's all my fault..."
"Don't say that. Those men were too strong for anyone to deal with."
Now even the comforting buzz in his ears were deaf.
….
….
….
So silent.
Little pressure gathered in small pools of tension at random places on his body. Unhampered by the protection of his skin it seemingly seeped lower into his marrow and everywhere in between. Breathing seemed to be his saving grace since it was the only thing he could feel.
It was peaceful, yet lonely.
Purgatory.
And for what seemed like hours he laid there... or, was he even laying? He couldn't tell. Either day or night would seem so impossible for him to realize at that moment, and as such, he had no clue.
Then, finally, he felt the brimming sanctions of rest come to him at last, peace, in all its horror.
...Apathy being his only friend.
"Tenten-chan is an orphan too, so she will have to go back to the orphanage when you two are done playing," The Hokage said gently.
That was so long ago...
"But why can't she stay with me? I don't have any parents, and I live by myself! So if she lives with me we can both be happy! She won't have to be alone anymore!"
"It's not that simple," the Hokage said, gently grasping the young boys shoulders. "Even if I wanted to I couldn't have her stay there with you."
"The laws of the village won't allow me to."
"Then why am I alone?"
The old man recoiled, if for a moment, before his soft eyes turned solemn and he found himself sighing.
"Nothing will convince you otherwise, will it?"
"No," he said innocently.
The old man's eyes softened and he buckled underneath the child's gaze.
"I'll tell you what. Why don't you go find your friend and we can get the paperwork signed and then I'll deal with everything else alright, ******-kun?"
From that point everything was a blur. The next thing he knew his best-friend was sitting next to him in that office, a look of complete shock followed by overwhelming joy showing itself on her face.
He was six then... and Tenten didn't want to be adopted without him. The process took two weeks to become official. There was no backlash over two orphans staying together.
Again, why did everything hurt so much? People were so intolerably foul to him, yet he showed them the kindness he wanted in return. Fellow students belittled him and his best-friend for the smallest of things with rumors of demons and whores among a myriad of others running amuck throughout their schooling experience.
The only place the two felt safe and comfortable, besides the apartment, was the training yard, and they used it regularly. Not to hang out.
"Ten-chan! Let's give it a break alright? We'll die before we even reach genin at this point."
The girl turned her head to him with a longing gaze.
Her brown hair stood tight in two buns nearing the top of her head with the cunning curves to her jaw coming down to meet her breastbone as she sat down next to a tree. Her knees stopping their transit up near her forehead. Soon after, her arms came to support her make-shift haven.
"We can't stop..."
"Ten-chan, you're going to drive yourself into a coma."
"Then what would we do?" Tenten glared at him across from her.
He couldn't answer. She had been having episodes like this the closer their 'special' day shadowed them, and when he thought about it, all she needed was a few moments to vent.
And so she did.
"Fighting's the only thing we have," Tenten stated, hollowly. "And without our own strength what can we even do? It's not like we were even given a choice? Oh, join the Academy become a kunoichi and your problems will be solved!"
She slammed her fist against the ground and roared, "Bullshit!"
"Either join the ranks or be bullied!" Tenten cried to herself.
Children were cruel, not excluding the larger children selling items on the street. For years, when they were very young and fragile. Parents ushered their children away. Children scowled as they came near and cried when they came too close, per the stories their parents would tell them at night.
Everything became too much. But Tenten was strong, and so was he.
They survived. Although that's all they needed.
The boy touched down next to her and cradled her, throwing his arm over her shoulders, he pulled her close to hopefully alleviate some of her long pent-up stress.
"You know," he said. "We have each other. That's something that wasn't a mistake. And who knows, it might not be too late to back out! We can still get an apprenticeship under Hokage-sama for something."
Tired brown eyes looked up to meet his and the world seemed to melt away from view as the boy's loving face came into sole focus.
"You're right. We do have each-other."
"But we can't back out now. The test to graduate now is tomorrow..." Tenten shook her head. "Iruka-sensei and Hokage-sama would object to it."
He pulled her closer and nuzzled her head against his.
"Are you sure, Ten-chan? It wouldn't hurt to ask would it?"
"I think it would."
Melancholy settled over the both of them as they sat huddled together under the evening's heavy scene until the sound of night fell upon them and they were forced to go home by the colds nipping nature.
Years ago, Tenten and him were travelling to the Hokage's monument for some reason he couldn't remember. On their way a shinobi stopped them, along with a few kunioichi. They were drunk. Pittifully off balance and leaning on one another for support. One kunoichi even more so, looking like she'd drank ten shots of the strongest alchohol with her face bright red, and her breathing cumbersome. Snippets of speech briefly fluttering out her lips.
The two watched baffled at their behavior before one of the Shinobi grabbed him and spouted bouts of nonsensical jargon in his ear. Not long after the kunoichi joined in. They talked of sex. Rape. One in particular rather graphically depicted her first time receiving a man's pride and joy as a two inch tick tack.
Needless to say... it never left their minds.
"Ten-chan, even though we aren't on the same team, try and not be so reckless..." he said somberly.
Down near the village gates where the walls were like the echoing cliffs of a mountain just before the brief calling of midday, Tenten and him were saying their goodbyes for the mission she was given outside the village. A C-rank.
The night before they kissed for the first time. Stories of battle, friendship, hardship, and in a kunoichi's world rape played through their minds as things heated and hormones ignited. Fear drove them with unconcious desire and possessiveness burying deep in their minds and toggling what he and she thought necessary.
They made love at sixteen years old.
"I know."
Either of their eyes averted down and the situation grew more uncomfortable and heated, showing not only small hints of red hue blossoming from their cheeks, but small teardrops of sweat rolling over their brows and noses. The afterglow of what was beauty, in essence. A sacred moment that couldn't be defiled. He didn't want her to leave. In his arms alone did he feel safe for her.
"When are you being sent out?" Tenten asked.
He merely shook his head and hugged her. He didn't know. Nor would he find out until his team came together later that day.
"If I only knew."
Her brown eyes flashed over to the three men whom she was to be travelling with for the next few weeks walking toward them. She felt dread enter her system. The young man in front of her looked like a mirror to her, afraid and scandalized.
As Tenten was about to depart from him, leaving to go to the outside, he took a split moment, and kissed her.
Once again.
"For good luck," He jested.
Tenten smiled and giggled, "You'll need it more than I will."
Then she was gone. Off in a faraway land for whoever knew how long.
A few weeks later, and he couldn't feel...
Something had went terribly wrong...
He felt, dead.
The two women beside him cooed to him like parents trying to keep their child awake. But so in vain were they in doing so. He felt so completely exhausted. Hell, they must've thought his eyes were open, and if they were, well, he wouldn't know.
His senses were gone. He felt colder, a horrible ringing silencing the moving mouths of his teammates, and possibly the man trying to keep him alive. The object in him was probably the only thing he took notice of now beyond the surreal feeling of pain and not.
Faces flashed through his eyes and he knew he was crying. Tears cascaded down his cheeks even though his face sat motionless in the rain puddling around him. His hand fumbled to the ground and he tried to feel the dirt mash itself between his fingers. Nothing.
The man and women fighting to keep him alive stopped to listen for a single moment, and the single specific thing they heard was...
"Tenten..."
Tenten's smiling face brought a joyful melancholy grin to the mediocre world he was a part of as his breathing shallowed.
Blood rushed to her cheeks on the day they kissed and the day they declared their love. Tears filled her eyes on the day the world seemed to stop and the universe was theirs as they became one.
Her eyes lit with excitement and her smile dimmed the sun. So beautiful...
"Naruto-kun!"
Naruto's heart stopped.
With one last breath he spoke with all his heart to the woman in his eyes.
"I love you."
Tenten's sprint ran to a crawl at the sight before her, and her blood boiled over. What was this? Tears collected in her eyes, and her hands quickly shot to the kunai pouch near her waist. Angry eyes looked over the scene quickly as she heard him say something. Quickly, she collapsed down next to him and her heart skipped a beat just before his eyes dulled to a lifeless pit of deep blue.
Her mouth opened and closed like a fish breathing underwater. What?
Naruto's clothes were mutilated. His black haori shuddered in blood as with the rest of him. The skin that once rested against her embodied death like no other.
She licked her lips and muttered something closely into Naruto's ear, the one not covered in blood.
"Naruto-kun... this is a joke, right?"
Tenten smiled as more tears fell.
The rest of her team came rushing past around her to help, only to be shoved off by Tenten herself.
"Right?" Her hand went to his jugular while the other clutched the blades of grass beneath them.
Her heart stopped.
"Naruto-kun?" She asked, her head twitched slightly causing monumental shivers to come in a roar of emotion. Air didn't want to enter her burning lungs as she fingered his bloody clothes, until her eyes finally recognized the sword through his stomach and the kunai in his body.
Gulping, Tenten stared down at him before giving him a hug.
"Why did you have to go ahead and give me all the good luck, baka?"
Rain pattered against the ground so humorously it was almost hilarious. Not even on a storm's best day could it out talk Naruto. She smiled and nuzzled his neck closer while the men and women joining them left a small berth for her to grieve. Time after time, Naruto would distract her attention from the horrible storms outside their windows just with the sound of his voice. It didn't matter how loud the thunder would roar, or how fast the wind came in, his voice became the center of everything.
Tenten smiled more and chuckled to herself, towing a few stray strands of hair out of his face, she looked into his eyes. When was the last time they saw eachother? A few days? A few weeks?
"You know I said it was alright to keep some for yourself, right? Right?"
Finally, the tears, no longer held by the dam of disbelief fully unleashed hell as Tenten ran into hysterics with herself, though no one could see. She kept it well hid even if the rain patted her back to let it go.
"We've been through so much, right Naruto-kun?" She pulled his lifeless head to settle in her lap as she played with his hair some more, a disturbing smile gracing her face.
"I mean, you've kept your promise to stay with me..." Tenten's eyes widened with an idea popping in her head.
Both Naruto's team and Tenten's team stared at her, both with varying degrees of shock and sadness conjoined in their eyes.
Saddened by the unfolded events under the rainy tears of kami the two teams glanced to eachother, wondering what they should do. The two sensei's of the teams were veteran's, yet this wasn't wartime, neither had a student die before. Teary eyes belonging to the students openly displayed their disgust at the gushing blood seeping down the boys body.
But what should they do? What could they do?
"We need to move him," A voice said gruffly.
Over behind a tree where Tenten sat against, the stranger leaned melancholy, feeling exactly the way he looked. Weary, and frustrated. He felt he hadn't done enough—that was clear.
"I'll carry him," Tenten stated, astonishing the others.
"No," Neji interjected. "I'll carry him. You relax."
He walked over, only to be cut off and pushed out of the way by Tenten who gently pulled out the sword and kunai from Naruto's body.
"Don't touch him..." She commanded.
"Tenten-san, it's for your benefit that someone else carry him. You shou-"
The man leaning against the tree merely offered him a dirty glare that shut him up. Hardened eyes leveled the group beyond Tenten and her fallen.
"Let the girl take him. It's best this way," he stated.
Moments later, and very little discussion, Guy and Naruto's sensei bowed curtly.
"Fine."
Arriving at the gate to Konoha Tenten's tears hadn't stopped, not even close. Her red cheeks were on fire and the hellish condition Naruto was in burned her eyes even more. Looking back at the shinobi behind her she scoffed and screwed her eyes shut. From beginning to end, Naruto's sensei and teammate had been annoying, constantly offering their help and consolation as if they understood what she was going through.
They didn't.
And it wasn't her ignorance saying it either. It was a known fact that Naruto's sensei was the Ice Queen of Konoha,Yuuhi Kurenai, and his teammate, Hyuuga Hinata.
Rumors said that Kurenai was cold and unwilling to let anyone inside disallowing for simple obligation outside her team. The opposite was said for Hinata since she was the soft heiress of the Hyuuga clan, raised to be a great fighter and diplomat. All of which was lost on the girl. Like hell a princess and isolationsist would know...
Tenten shook her head and held a hand to her head, briefly sporting Naruto's paling cheeks against hers as she felt for any of that lulling warmth. And when she found only a lithe hum unlike the vibrant glow he had before she sighed and stared down at Naruto before she concentrated on the road ahead. Things would either get better, or worse from here on out, she thought. Mourning would only be allowed in their apartment.
She flinched at the thought and corrected herself... her apartment.
Years of isolation had left them with barely any friends beyond the acquaintances they formed within their squads. At first Naruto confronted her over at the Ichiraku's, who had been loyal to them for years, and it wasn't an overt anger or sadness that he chose to say, but a light cheery tone. He was excited. Completely and utterly joyous and floored to finally be able to expand his and her life beyond their home, over the mountains of seperation. Nevertheless, his ecstatic overtone was tainted by the hurt and discomfort the general population saw fit to greet him under, so it was only fit he was nervous when the teams were announced. So they talked and agreed on one thing, and one thing alone.
Do not get attached until they earn your respect.
After a time of simple missions Neji and Lee were accepting to her. However they too were hesitant around her, and now even more so as her need to lament and bemoan grew daily.
Naruto once stated that his team was, besides her, the best thing to ever happen to him. He felt he belonged to an extended family and he didn't regret joining.
"Even if I do die someday," he told her, "I don't regret becoming a shinobi. I only regret what forced us to become one."
He paused, "If I do die."
She remembered he had stood up and looked off into the sky with a look of true freedom as he said, "If I do die I want you to remember that the world we live in cannot function without hope, and that means us as well. We've only made it this far because we've always been looking forward to the future, nothing held back."
This time he looked to her and smiled before he held out his hand.
Whatever he said next was lost on her as her eyes were forever locked and chained to the depths of his own.
It had taken days to reach Konoha's huge walls and bulked doors again and Tenten had taken to sleeping closely to Naruto's corpse during the night, using her scrolls to preserve his body until she needed to carry him during the day.
When they approached during the night they could hear little more besides small ramblings and tears being whimpered to the scroll in her arms, and if they did in fact get too close brown eyes would snap them to bits like they were death itself.
Now during midday Tenten held onto Naruto's paling form as they entered just within sight of the gates where two guards stood. Two visions blurred in the distance. Upon contact things came in a whirl. The Hokage came out followed by his anbu.
Hardened eyes cracked the instant at what he saw and Tenten could see perfectly what he was thinking. How could this happen?
Then behind him a genin appeared, Shino. The missing one.
"Where the hell were you?" Tenten questioned venomously.
Shino tilted his head in question before he answered, "I was relaying our team was under attack and in need of assistance."
His body made no flinch, nor proof that he was looking at her. He didn't even appear to notice the body in her arms for some odd reason. Anger swelled deep in her gut and she pulled Naruto closer still as she knitted her brows and clenched her teeth. But the old man's voice intercepted just in time.
"Your guess was right. Shino-san's eyes were damaged in the battle," The Hokage stated sadly.
"I wasn't guessing that."
"Oh?"
Tenten shook her head.
"No, than how did he make it back?" Tenten questioned, annoyed.
The Hokage seemed to look her over wearily, deciding to answer quickly as to not provoke her anymore.
"As it seems, the effects weren't immediate, it corroded the receptors in his eyes over time so by the time he did enter Konoha," The Hokage wiped his face tiredly and sighed. "I trust you can imagine the rest from there."
She nodded and jerked her head away, opting to look at Naruto instead.
Naruto's sensei and friend both listened carefully to what the Hokage said moments ago before they both came over to relay the news to Shino about Naruto. On the other hand the Hokage tried to look strong, ultimately baring his shoulders and puffing out his chest sooner as he exited the gates shadow and entered the light.
It had taken time to fully process what had happened after that.
The Hokage decided to keep his death under wraps from the other rookies. Tenten approved of this, and yet she wanted people to grieve over her loss and to moarn him like she was now. It just wasn't fair. Her world had crashed with him. The palace they had built and the sancticty they had wrought within that apartment felt hollow, devoid of life, color, it lost any sense of vibrance that she had once experienced every day of her life. Soon following his burial, which was a crowd of just her and the Hokage, she was told to go to the doctor for unknown reasons where she quickly left after, not wanting to stay any longer.
Tenten didn't care anymore. Hope was gone. Light was gone.
Her strength faltered.
Her breathed hitched.
And Tenten felt more alive than the day she was born.
"Where's Tenten-san?" The doctor asked, stupefied. He had just stepped out from his office, coat on, when he found the window to the hospital room open, wind blowing. He stepped in and looked around curiously. Where was she? Turning around, he quickly went to find a nurse hoping to find some answers.
As he calmly walked through the hall a light glinted through the many windows against an object he was holding.
In his hand was a test with a little pink plus sign smiling to all who welcomed new life.
I hope you all enjoyed. REVIEW.
I'M CONSIDERING WRITING A FULL EPILOGUE, REVIEW OR PM TO ANSWER.
See ya!