Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto - Naruto belongs to Kishimoto-sensei. I do own the plotline of this story.

Author's Note: I'm sure you've noticed by now that a lot of stuff happens around Konoha's hospital, and the most emotional moments (excluding battleground scenes and the death of the Third and Asuma) take place in rooms of the hospital. That's how my idea for these little tiny ficlets came to life... Anyhow, this first chapter deals with Tenten's feelings as she's desperately waiting for Neji to be allright after he has been retrieved from the forest. You know, in the end of the Sasuke Retrieval Arc? I hope you likey.

Read and Review, Onegai!

-xx- Nika-chan


White... White... White...

Tenten had never liked hospitals. Maybe it was a mental issue, maybe she needed to visit a psychatrist to deal with this problem, but Tenten knew one thing: She didn't like hospitals for three reasons.

She didn't like the colours. She couldn't get why everything was so white, a sterile type of white. It might have reminded some people of pureness, of light and soft silk sheets to sink back in, but it reminded her of the coldness her stoic teammate displayed in his eyes sometimes. It scared her.

She didn't like the smell, which reminded her of death and infections, of pain and hurting. The scent of hospitals reminded her of tetanus shots she'd gotten in the past, it reminded her of a battlefield scattered with disgarded limps, it reminded her of bloody bandages and first aid kits, and it reminded her of the time when she had recieved the scar that ran down her stomach, a thin white line contrasting with the rest of her tanned skin.

And she hated the cries coming from several rooms. She didn't like the sounds. Announcing death to come within a short time, a small shiver ran down her back at every horrific scream that passed her ears. You would think that she had gotten over the sounds of agonizing death a long time ago, it was her own choice to lead the bloody ninja life after all. But she couldn't stand these places eitherway.

Why? Because it was her teammate in there, her precious person, one of the few she would die for and one of the few she really loved. She was completely useless in a situation like this. She couldn't do anything.

She couldn't help him, she knew little to nothing about medical techniques and using her chakra for healing. She sticked with her trustworthy first-aid kit and her trustworthy bandage wrappings. That she could handle.

But by the faces of medic-nin rushing in and out of the operating room, with dirty hands and tired faces, she judged this wasn't something she could deal with that easily. It only upset her further. In an attempt to learn more about his condition, she'd tried to inform with one of the doctors or nurses. However, the looks on their faces said enough. They said too much, without words, but with frowns and sad eyes.

She couldn't be there for him. The operation being performed was restricted and only acknowledged medical workers were allowed inside the OR, she realised. She didn't even dare to ask, desperate or not, wanting to see him in whatever state or not. Tenten was also fully aware that even after surgery, she wouldn't be able to visit. It was a universal rule: Only relatives. She couldn't hold his limp hand in her warm ones as she sat beside him and waited for him to wake up, as she had done before when he overused Kaiten and passed out from the chakra loss. She couldn't watch over him and imagine he knew she was with him like she did sometimes at night when she could not sleep.

She couldn't even pray for him, because she knew Neji believed everything to be pre-decided. Her begging to Kami-sama woudn't make a differance, that's what he believed.

She could only wait.

Sitting still on the bench, checking every few minutes if his chakra signature was still there in the other room. From what she could feel, his was faint, but as long as it was there she would have something to hold on to. She would hold on.

She would wait.


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