"This is what she would have wanted. Though I didn't know her that well, Mable and I shared something special, we both had traumatic accidents, and unfortunately, she didn't make it over hers. In the brief time that I knew her, we became best friends, and could tell each other anything. She was the first person I told the entire story of why I visited the hospital every day, and she in turn told me her heart breaking tale. In her memory, I'm giving her every single bluebell that I was going to buy her, but never had the chance to, and 999 of the 1000 paper cranes through which we met, in hopes that maybe if she makes the last one, where ever she is, she too will get her one wish. Whether it be to find her family, or anything else her heart desires." Tenten took a deep breath.
She was at Mable's funeral, and since she had been the only one whom Mable had been able to open up to, she was the one asked to speak. The only others who attended were hospital staff members, Naruto as Saukra date, Shikamaru as Ino's date, and Neji as Tenten's.
"I know that of all the thousands of possibilities of her wishes, there are two things that she will never wish for; 1, to be able to forgive the nin who took everything away from her, because she told me that she had already done It, and 2, to be beautiful. She told me that she always found herself ugly, and didn't blame people for staring at her melted face when she went out, until she met me. She told me that I had helped her to see past the ugliness, and see the beauty within. T-t-thank you!" Tenten said, her eyes filling with tears as she ran off the stage.
After the funeral, at the final showing of the body, Tenten when up to Mable, and stroked a strand of hair out of her melted face. She placed within the cold hands a miniature horse statue and a bluebell explaining each one. The horse, to prove that she would always be loyal to her memory, as a horse was, a bluebell, because they were her favourite. She placed a kiss upon Mable's forehead, and the old lady's expression seemed to soften. Then she got into line at the procession.
Neji, Shikamaru, Naruto, and a member of the staff had been asked to be Paul-bearers, so they picked up the coffin, and placed it on their shoulders, starting the short walk from the civilian church to the graveyard. When they got there, and everything was all set for Mable to be buried, Tenten made the sign of the tiger. Out stepped Ino, Saukra, and Tenten herself, each with a small basket. They dumped the baskets full of cranes over the casket, offering up a quick prayer for her.
5 months later, Neji and Tenten are both downed by battle. News of their legendary love story had traveled around the ninja world, how Tenten had spent hours a day making paper cranes for Neji, when she was almost worse off them him, then, when her true condition was discovered, and she was whisked into surgery, the tables were turned for a few hours.
It also traveled around that after Tenten's emergency surgery, she was unable to be a ninja, but with Neji's help, she had blossomed into and even better one than she had been before.
They were buried in one casket, upon it were engraved 999 paper cranes, the symbol for their love. The 1000th paper crane was held in their hands, which had been clasped at the very end. It was the blood soaked crane, which many believed to be the most powerful of all of the others; the couple seemed to agree, it was the only one they had kept. Buried along with the couple was a horse statue, to signify their loyalty to each other.
Ninja and civilian from all over came to the lover's funeral. When it came time to bury the casket, hundreds and hundreds of people threw thousands and thousands of cranes on top of their casket. It seemed as though at least every household in Konoha had made 1000 paper cranes. Gai made a glass like barrier over the top so that the cranes wouldn't be crushed by the dirt, and you could still see all of them. Even the head stone was shaped somewhat like a paper crane.
Years later, if someone wanted a wish to come true, they would go to the grave of Neji and Tenten Hyuuga, and make a paper crane upon the plot. From way up in the position in the sky, it is said that they look down upon the people, and those that they smile at, their wishes come true. Now, don't tell anyone I told you this, but that is true. If you make a paper crane on the gravesite of Neji and Tenten Hyuuga, and they smile down at you, it will come true. As long as you are sincere, serious about your wish, and you concentrate upon every fold, thinking about your wish, who's to say that they won't smile at you? you never know unless you try.
