Title: Of Death
Author: Moonlight Music Mistress
Pairings: NejiTen, NaruHina
Summary: While visiting the grave for his late cousin, he never would have expected the closest person in his life to be right next to her.
xOxOxOxOxOxOxOxOxOx
Omg!! I'm writing a TRAGEDY fic!! I'm not really one for fluffy fics to begin with 'cuz that's just not my style, but TRAGEDY!?! I cry at every single fic in the world, and me, the author was crying at this. Please read it!! It would mean so much to me!! I never thought of how Tenten and Hinata actually died, so you make it up!!
P.S. They're between pre and post timeskip, kay?
xOxOxOxOxOxOxOxOxOx
The rain was pouring powerfully and loudly on the multitude of gravestones in Konoha's cemetery. It was a most pitiful day to be visiting the death of a loved or cared one, however this did not stop two young Konoha male shinobi from visiting the gravestones of late kunoichi that were very close to their hearts. These two kunoichi's bodies will be gone forever, but notwithstanding, their souls will always be in the safe sanctuary of the boy's hearts.
He gently lay the red rose subtly next to the girl's gravestone. Trying to hide the tears in his eyes that were calling to be set free, he remembered her. His cousin, the sweet, innocent, pure, kind, gentle Hyuuga Hinata. The traits describing his cousin described the way Hyuuga Neji did NOT treat her. Regretting ever treating her so poorly, the Hyuuga dared to let a tear drip down out of his pearl orb.
"Hinata-sama," Neji quietly murmured, "I'm sorry for how violently I have treated you in the past. Hopefully, Kami-sama will treat you with the love and respect you deserved from me."
Stopping to wipe a gentle tear from his eye, Neji prayed, "Kami-sama, please keep my cousin, Hyuuga Hinata-sama, safe, cheerful, and comfortable in Heaven. Treat her with the kindness she has worked for, and remind her that I have always cared."
Neji then stepped away from his cousin's grave, walking back to the Hyuuga compound in mourning, sorrowful steps when he noticed the aura of a sad, familiar boy, stepping over to a gravestone on the opposite side of the cemetery, the opposite side of where his deceased cousin's body lay. Noticing the figure to be an acquaintance, Neji walked over to the boy. "Oi, Naruto," he called to his friend between tears and gulps.
"Neji? Why are you here?" Naruto inquired, slightly sadly. Neji noticed that Naruto was also carrying a bright red rose to lay on the gravestone of someone.
"I should ask the same question," the Hyuuga returned.
"Well, Neji, I'm visiting the gravestone of...someone. She wasn't a very specifically important person to me, but she was my friend. And I will miss her."
Neji wondered curiously who Naruto was visiting, but then told Naruto who he was visiting. "I'm visiting the grave of a deceased family member."
"Oh. I'm sorry to hear about this, Neji."
The Hyuuga prodigy was a bit shocked and pitying at the Uzumaki. His loud, cheerful demeanor was diminished because of the deceasing of...someone. To make Naruto's perky, energetic exterior fade, this dead girl must have been someone close to him. It's probably the Haruno, Neji figured. Poor Naruto.
"Naruto, do you know who's gravestone I am visiting?" Neji asked.
"No, do you know who's I am visiting?"
Neji replied, "No."
Naruto's heart felt horrible for Neji. When Neji saw who was laying underneath the other gravestone, his heart would break into two pieces and his eyes would be the wettest eyes in the world. Little did Naruto know, he would feel the same.
"Neji, I'll go to the gravestone of your family member. You go to the gravestone of the person I'm visiting," Naruto told him.
"Okay," Neji agreed. "But I wish to tell you one thing, Naruto."
"I wish to tell you something too."
In unison, the two lachrymosely spoke, "This person's death will break your heart."
And then, in unison, the two gulped. As Naruto was in front of Hinata's grave and Neji was in front of the other person's grave, their eyes were closed tightly, as both were too afraid to look at the grave of the person laying beneath them.
"Neji," Naruto suggested, "on three, open your eyes and look at the gravestone."
Neji responded, "Alright."
"One..." Naruto started.
"Two..." Neji continued.
Together, both huffed, "Three." Neji's pearl, saddened orbs glanced at the grave of the person below him, while Naruto's eyes blinked back tears at the grave of the person below his own blue orbs.
Naruto's baby blue orbs widened and produced many tears as he read the kanji imprinted on the grave. HYUUGA HINATA.
Neji's pearl orbs blinked in horror as tears flowed continuously down them at the carved word inside the stone. TENTEN.
For the third time, the boys hollered something in unison, only this time screaming different hollers.
"HINATA-CHAN!!!!!!!!!" Naruto screamed.
"TENTEN-CHAN!!!!!!!!" Neji screamed at the same time.
Both took a moment to let the fact sink into their confused, upset minds. The two of them kneeled down on their knees and dug their faces into their wet, thorn-stung hands, crying uncontrollably and painfully, in complete shock at the kunoichi's ephemerality.
"Tenten...is...she's gone!!" Neji hollered, trying not to gasp in misery for the loss of his teammate.
"H-Hinata-chan too!!" Naruto breathed heavily to stop himself from sobbing.
Neither of the boys could believe their indescribably terrible misfortune. The two people closest to their broken hearts were laying underneath them in a neverending sleep, never to wake up and greet the Earth with their presence again. This time, their tears could no longer stay inside their eyes. The weeping and sobbing they were currently performing would not go away or cease for even a second. Why were the two people beneath them dead? It had to happen sooner or later...but why sooner? Two of Konoha's best kunoichi were currently dead underneath their friend's crying eyes. And nothing could be done by Neji nor Naruto.
The crying went on for about five minutes, until Naruto decided to speak up once his voice was able to properly function once more. "W-why did Hinata-chan h-have to die?" he questioned, trying with all of his determination and power not to break down in an emotional cry.
Neji was struggling to do the same. "H-Hinata-sama was destined to die at some point or another. A-And s-so was T-Tenten-chan..." Neji's voice trembled hurtfully at the word "Tenten-chan."
Naruto was not shocked to see Neji speak of destiny once more. Although the Kyuubi boy had rid Neji of his constant destiny and fate talks, he was unsurprised to hear Neji's destiny talk ensue. When something tragic happened to one that Neji loved, his blunt, boring conduct and dull, uncheerful behavior returned once more.
"B-but Hinata-chan...she meant everything to me!!" Naruto whined sadly. "She was always so sweet, and so kind...she was powerful, helpful, hardworking, and she w-was the only one to accept me...you don't know how much it meant to know Hinata understood and admired me...I felt so powerful to know how much she cared...and now she's gone!!"
"I am incredibly sorry for you, Naruto. B-but, Tenten-chan is gone, too...she sparred with me whenever I pleased, she fought to protect me, she was so cheerful, and perky, and able to put me in a good mood. If I was upset about something, Tenten-chan was always right there, by my side, helping me through...a-and she too, i-is deceased!!"
The boys shed a few more tears when Naruto decided to speak. "N-Neji, did you...did you love Tenten?"
Neji gazed up with grief and emotional pain at the rain, which was currently pouring all over Tenten's tombstone. "I-I...I did."
Naruto glanced at him. "Y-you did?"
"N-no...I do."
Naruto looked ready to cry at Neji's sadness when he was then interrogated. "Y-you loved Hinata-sama, didn't you?"
It was killing Naruto inside to remember Hinata. Recalling past events with her made him feel good...but it was simply too sudden and heartbreaking to reflect on his past with her. "I-I did. And-and I still do..."
The two boys were finally beginning to calm down about their losses. "I still d-do love Tenten-chan, and always will," Neji continued, the tears pouring less rapidly now.
After recollecting something in his mind, Naruto spoke with what he recalled. "N-Neji...did you know Tenten has always loved you?"
This was enough to make Neji drop down emotionally. "S-she did?" he questioned nonchalantly, yet at the same time, with complete anger and feeling. "How do you know?"
"I was walking home from Ichiraku, and I heard her talking to herself. She stated, and I quote, "I love Neji so much, but the burden of him not loving me is emotionally damaging."
Neji's tears started to emerge swiftly as his legs lost balance, his knees dropping to the ground. "T-Tenten-chan thought I didn't love her? Sh-she's wrong!!" At this, Naruto walked over to his friend and tenderly put a hand on his shoulder. "Neji...I am feeling the same pain as Tenten was."
"W-what?" Neji asked, looking up at his blonde, equally upset acquaintance.
"It destroys me to think that Hinata-chan has passed away without returning my cherishing feelings for her."
The Hyuuga's heart immediately knew Tenten and Naruto's pain. Before Naruto had told Neji that Tenten loved him, he was in the exact same state.
"Naruto...Hinata-sama has always loved you."
Naruto glanced at Neji with incredulity. "Sh-she did..." Neji couldn't quite tell if what Naruto had just said was a statement or a question.
"Yes..." Neji replied.
Naruto's heart was warming up slightly, knowing that Hinata loved him. "The two we love have died below us...I will always pray for both of them."
Neji agreed. "I will always pray that Kami-sama keep both of them safe and happy."
"Neji, this is going to be hard to get through. But together...because we're going through the same pain...we can do it."
The woeful yet hopeful Hyuuga concurred, smiling a sad smile yet a smile with thankfulness at his hyperactive companion. "Yes...we can."
The two looked down at the graves of the ones they loved; Neji looking at Tenten's and Naruto looking at Hinata's. Their eyes closed, their minds raced with the memories of their loved ones.
And, as Hinata was appearing in his brain, Naruto could have sworn he felt a gentle pair of angelic lips kiss his warmly, taking him aback, and whispering soothingly, in a voice that sounded strangely identical to Hinata's, "I love you."
And, as Neji was mentally mourning, not concealing the sorrowful tears dripping down the bridge of his nose, he knew that an angel from Heaven, a certain weapon-throwing, kind-hearted angel from Heaven, took his lips in her own subtly and quickly, whispering, "I love you."
As the Hyuuga and Uzumaki's eyes reopened, they looked at each other, mournful tears still streaming down their faces lightly. Their mouths were smiling slightly, and their eyes were regaining faith. Because, although the ones they'd always love were gone forever, they were still there, in their hearts. Life would move on. The boys would never forget the two late kunoichi, because the girl's new homes were in the hearts of the two males. The mentioned males' gazes shifted to the graves of the ones they loved. Picking up a stick, both of them, in unison, wrote on the grave of the one they loved, "I love you, no matter which world you are in."
xOxOxOxOxOxOxOxOxOx
(crying slightly) When I read fanfics, I don't bawl, but on a LOT of tragedy fics I cry. This is one of them. I always dislike (in a way) fics where someone dies, but a tragedy fic is just too hard to pass. I really hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!! PLEASE review!! (does puppy dog eyes) Free cookies if you do!!
