"Tenten! Tenten!"

Tenten looked over her shoulder and smiled widely. "Lee!"

Lee rushed up to his teammate, grabbing her around the waist and giving her a spin. He squeezed her waist, laughing, "How was the mission? Are you alright?"

Tenten laughed loudly, batting at Lee's hands. "I'm fine, the mission was fine. It was boring!"

Lee set her back down on her feet, pushing her good-naturedly. "Boring? You went to the Land of Stone and call it boring?"

"Totally. No action whatsoever. I packed up my scroll and everything and nothing happens."

Lee cocked a curious eyebrow. "Nothing."

Tenten shoved her fists into her hips. "Absolutely nothing."

"Oh, I am sorry to hear that! Everything was a success, though?"

"Yes, yes! Everything turned out okay! Jeez. It was a routine mission. You act like I was going blindly into a war zone." Tenten smiled and looked around. "Hey, is Neji still out on a mission? I haven't seen him since I got back."

Lee frowned. "I am not sure. Tsunade-sama said that he was due back a week ago, but I have not seen him. I hate to assume the worst, though. I am sure he is alright, wherever he is."

Tenten's smile faded. She averted her eyes and forced a little laugh. "Yeah, I'm sure he is. This is Neji."

"That is right. Hey, you want to come over for a while? I made cake a couple days ago and it is still pretty fresh."

Tenten sighed and cracked her back. "I dunno. I'm kinda tired-"

"Come on, Tenten! You can rest at my house! I will even rub your back if it is bothering you."

Tenten wanted to argue, but took one look into her teammate's eager eyes and sighed with a smile. "Oh, alright, but that had better be some damn good cake, alright?"

Lee grabbed her shoulders and quickly wheeled her towards his house. "Trust me. It is to die for!"

The two arrived at Lee's house at a jog, one that left an already tired Tenten panting. However, Lee grabbed the door and even took her shoes off for her, settling her down comfortably on the couch before going to prepare refreshments for her.

Sore from her mission, Tenten relieved herself of her heavy shirt and threw it absently over the couch. The light white undershirt was much cooler and much less of a burden, allowing her to lean back comfortably into the couch, kick her feet up on the coffee table and relax. She had closed her eyes and almost drifted off when Lee came back into the room, bearing a plate filled with sliced cake and a glass of iced water.

Lee set them down in front of her and handed her a piece of cake on a napkin. "Here. I am going to make you some hot tea to go with it, just give me like five minutes. You want anything else?"

Tenten shook her head and spoke around a bite of cake. "You always treat me so good. For god's sake, I'm not the queen."

"You are my teammate, who is tired from a long mission. That makes you twice as important."

Tenten rolled her eyes. "You are so sappy."

Lee ruffled her hair, pulling strands out of her tight buns. Tenten batted him away violently, complaining loudly, but Lee just laughed and went back into the kitchen.

Tenten shoved the slice of cake into her mouth, muttering around it as she redid her hair. After three failed attempts to get it right, she took it down completely and threw it up in a messy bun behind her head. She retrieved the cake from her mouth and looked around curiously as she worked on it. Lee's house was messier than usual. All his little knick-knacks were dusty. His weights were thrown around helter-skelter. Even his furniture seemed a little dingy. Tenten looked over to the spot reserved exclusively for her stoic teammate and frowned. Obviously, Neji had not been by in awhile or he would have cleaned it on impulse. The thought made her nervous and sick at the same time. She hoped he was alright.

Tenten swallowed the last bite of her cake and licked her fingers. Still, the sticky chocolate icing stuck to her fingertips and under her nails. She frowned and stuck her thumb in her mouth. She got up and headed towards Lee's bathroom to wash her hands and probably she if she could fix her unruly hair. She walked down the hallway, yet stopped halfway down. She switched fingers, glancing around curiously. Something was different, but she could not place it. Everything looked the same. The doors, the floor, the walls. It was a little quiet, but Lee was usually blaring music or at least talking, so that was accounted for. She switched fingers again and took a deep breath.

That was when she smelled it. Her eyebrows furrowed and she sniffed the air, frowning. What in the world was that? It was not overpowering or even strong, but… it was odd. She could not place it, but it made her nervous. She had the feeling like she had smelled it before and not liked it. She pulled her fingers out of her mouth and wiped them on her pants, moving her head around to try and locate the strange smell. She poked her head in the bathroom and found it was not there. She began to walk to Lee's room, but as she passed the doorway to his spare room, the scent grew stronger. She turned and sniffed it, leaning in close to to crack of the closed door. It was much stronger.

She frowned deeply and opened her mouth to call for Lee, but something in her gut told her to be quiet. Closing her mouth, she reached out and grabbed the doorknob, turning gently and pushing open the door.

The scent almost bowled her over. She recognized it immediately. The scent of formaldehyde hit her like a tidal wive and she gagged quietly. Covering her face, she felt around on the wall for a light switch. She ran into something hard, something on wheels. It clattered metalically and clashed gently into something else, ringing like steel on steel. She patted it, feeling cold rounded metal and towels and something else. Something slick, like poor quality rubber or-

"Tenten? Tenten, are you in here?"

Tenten looked up at the shadow in the doorway. She sighed and took a deep breath, stating, "Yeah. Lee, could you find a light switch and maybe tell me what in the hell that smell is? It's like something died in here."

"Oh. Well, about that, Tenten."

The shadow stepped into the room and disappeared, the door snapping shut behind him. Tenten blinked rapidly in the sudden darkness. She covered her nose again, calling out, "Lee? Lee, I can't see a thing. Where are you?"

"Here, Tenten."

Suddenly, the room was filled with a bright light. Blinded, Tenten sheilded her eyes and blinked rapidly. "Good god, Lee! What kind of lighting did you install in here?"

"I needed good lighting for my work."

Tenten uncovered her eyes and reeled in horror. The room was completely white, yet she could see brown and black crusting between the tiles. Surrounding her were stainless steel carts with a variety of instruments, some professional, some not. Hung from hooks on the wall, bundles of intestines dripped fluids into pans and lining the carts were steel bowls where various bloody masses sat in their own fluids. Horrified, Tenten looked beside her, to the knife-lined cart and saw the bloated mass of some yellow organ sitting in a shallow pan. Her eyes snapped to her hand and her stomach dropped, seeing the blood and thick fluid dripping down her arm.

She reeled backwards, her mouth moving and desperate, horrified gasps bubbling out. Her foot hit something heavy and she slipped, landing hard and flipping whatever it was in a cacaophony of metalic clatter. Suddenly, she was drenched in a thick, reeking liquid and she gagged as a metallic taste invaded her mouth and nose. She wiped her face desperately, but her hands were slick with it. She blinked, trying desperately to clear her eyes, only to see what she was covered with.

She squealed, her short desperate breaths coming out in pitiful squeaks as she scrambled backwards away from the pool of clotted blood. Her back hit something hard and something jabbed her in the spine. Her eyes snapped up and met the empty eye sockets of her best friend.

Tenten's shriek hit the walls and resounded like a thousand screeching nails.

The girl scrambled up, scrabbling on her hands and knees away from it. She slid and fell back, paralyzed with horror. Pinned to the rack by nails in his arms, Tenten could barely recognize the mutilated body of Neji Hyuuga. His skin had been removed from the waist down, leaving behind the faintly red muscles and the white lines of bones. What was left of him was smeared with blood and reeked of the formadehyde. His eyes were completely gone. His seal had been ripped from his forehead. His hair was limp and lifeless over his bloody face.

Yet, his lips were twisted, like a sick joke, into what could have been a smile.

"Tenten, are you alright? I am so sorry, I should have-"

Tenten screamed, jumping away from the voice behind her. She looked up in horror at Lee, who had a clean towel in his hand and was looking down at her with concern. She looked between him and Neji, shouting, "L-Lee! What in the hell? What is this? What ha- why would you do this?"

"Tenten, calm down. I can explain."

"Explain? Explain?" Tenten slapped him away as he tried to wipe her face. "Get away from me! Get away! You-! You killed Neji!"

Lee held his hands out pleadingly, advancing on her. "Tenten, I had to! You do not understand!"

"Get away, get away!" Tenten grabbed for her kunai holster and threw a knife at Lee. She missed, slipping on the floor. She scrambled to her hands and knees, trying to right herself. "Don't you dare touch me! You killed! You killed him! You-!"

Suddenly, fire exploded in Tenten's leg. She screamed, collapsing against the floor. Through the fog of agony, she strained her neck and saw a heavy kitchen knife shoved through her calf. Her eyes snapped up and she howled again. "No! Lee, no, please-!"

Lee slammed a second knife into her other leg, shattering the bone inside.

Tenten thought she had screamed, but her head hit the tile in a daze. Her head swam and her eyes rolled. The pain was excruciating. It was unreal. This was all unreal-

"Tenten? Tenten, can you hear me? Tenten!"

Tenten felt something cold hit her face. She shook her head violently, gasping. The agony came rushing back and she cried out, writhing. "God, god, god…"

"Tenten, I am sorry! I am so sorry!" Lee wiped her cheek with a towel. "I had to. You were panicking."

"Panicking?" Tenten's body convulsed and she sobbed. She turned her misty eyes up with a snap. "How could you! He was your friend! He was my friend! He was our friend! How could you!"

"Tenten, please understand me. If I did not kill him, someone else would! I needed to make sure he would die with a friend. I could not let him die alone!"

"So you killed him? How does that fucking make sense?"

"I got to say goodbye, Tenten. He knew someone cared about him, that someone would miss him. How many ninja can say that, huh?" Lee's eyes were shining and he smiled. "I want all my friends to die like that. All of them!"

"All of-"

"See, Tenten?" Lee got up and went to a corkboard, pointing at all the pictures. "I have all my friends here. Naruto, Shino, Hinata, Choji- everyone! Even Kiba, Shikamaru and Neji. See?"

Lee grabbed one of the pictures and showed it to her. "See? It is Neji. He is happy."

Tenten looked in horror at the picture, where Neji's face was barely visable through the cracking red X. She looked up at Lee. "You… you're going to kill everyone?"

"Yes. Everyone. I have to work fast, though. I have to make sure I get to everyone before someone else does. I have done three and luckily, one of them was Neji, but-"

"You're going to kill me! You're going to kill me!" Tenten pulled desperately at her legs, howling in agony. "I can't believe you! After everything-!"

"No! No, no, I am not going to kill you, Tenten!" Lee grabbed her face and forced her head still. "I would never kill you! I promised."

"Wh-what?"

"I promised," Lee let her go, walking over to a cart where the tattered remains of Neji's death clothes sat. He rummaged through them, coming up with a photo. He walked back over and showed Tenten her own picture. "See? Neji made me promise I would not kill you."

Tenten stared at herself, at her own smiling face. "H-he… he…"

"He asked me as a friend and I had to honor his last request, right?" Lee handed the picture to her, stating, "He seemed really put out about his last words to you. He liked you a lot, Tenten."

Tenten stared at the picture in her hand. Tears began to form in her eyes. She collapsed against the tile floor. His last request… his last words… had been a plead for her life…

"I like you a lot, too, Tenten. You are one of my best friends. My only best friend now." Lee stood up and brushed off his pants. "I am a little conflicted over what to do now, though. I cannot kill you, but you cannot leave, either."

Tenten's breath hitched in a sob. "Neji…"

"I know. I miss him, too. Do not worry, though! When I am done, we will still have him," Lee walked over and set his hands on Neji's shoulders. "You see, I am going to sew all the pieces back together and make my own Neji to keep forever! Since we are both his friends, I do not mind sharing-"

"You fucking monster…" Tenten wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "You heartless… you…"

"It will hurt for a long time, Tenten. I know I killed Kiba over three months ago and it still hurts. In fact, Gai-sensei died over six months ago and it still hurts." Lee turned his back on her, going to the carts and looking through them. "Do not worry, though. We can hurt together, just like when Gai-sensei died. I will just make a couple amputations and we can hang out forever."

Tenten looked at his back with pain-filled eyes and found her heart aching not with hatred, but with pity. Despite herself, her heart went out to her lifelong teammate. He had taken Gai-sensei's death so hard… she just never even imagined…

"Would you like that, Tenten?" he asked, examining a heavy knife in his hand. "You can even help me with the others. I have a lot of work ahead of me."

Tenten struggled up onto her forearms, jarring her legs. She bit back a cry of pain, clenching her teeth and her fists. She squinted in agony, watching Lee's back as he looked through his assortment of knives.

"Perhaps this is good fortune, Tenten. I was talking to Neji about how lonely my work gets. Obviously, the drugs had gotten to him. He did not understand that he could not help me if he were dead."

Tenten reached carefully for her kunai holster, sliding one out quietly. She would have a single shot.

"Would you like that, Tenten?"

Tenten swallowed painfully. Her throat hurt. "Y-yes, Lee. I… I would love to."

"Oh, Tenten. I am so happy," Lee turned around with a smile on his face and a heavy cleaver in his hand. "Now you understand how wonderful this all is-"

Tenten threw her knife with deadly precision.

Lee's body crumpled to the floor silently. The cleaver clattered out of his hands.

The tears welled up in Tenten's eyes as she watched the life leave his eyes. Numbly, she laid her head down on her arm and sobbed, one hand on her picture, the other on Neji's.