A/N: I read a great fanfic that totally inspired me. Yay! And, I don't own Naruto.
Chapter 4
The young Hyuuga couldn't bear being near his chocolate-haired teammate any longer. It was simply too painful. He wouldn't be able to handly getting near her, seeing her bruises, seeing her scars and cuts.
He quickly glanced at the sleeping kunoichi one last time before walking past Gai Sensei and out the hospital door. As he walked out the main entrance of the hospital, the nurse this time instead of glaring at him, gave him a look of sympathy once she found out what had happened to Tenten.
Neji walked slowly toward Ichiraku's Ramen Bar, looking at the ground. He couldn't face the evil world that had done this to his Tenten.
For all he knew, the culprits could be from his very own village of Konoha. Many villagers walking the opposite direction of Neji stared at him as they walked past him. They couldn't help but wonder why he looked so miserable. This young man usually looked so composed, and confident, but today he looked like he was going to commit suicide.
When he reached Ichiraku's Ramen bar, he found a stool and sat down. It was noisy and overcrowded inside the ramen shop, nothing unusual.
Ayame walked over to him with her usual clean white apron and smiled brightly at him, "Are you ready to order?"
Neji didn't even glance at her and just said, "I'll have a large bowl of plain ramen."
Ayame scribbled this down on a notepad and gave him a concerned look, why is this boy so troubled?
She nodded once she was done jotting down his order and bowed saying, "Your order will be ready in a few minutes, " and with that she left to take some other orders.
Neji couldn't concentrate on his thoughts with all the conversations buzzing around him. He couldn't help but overhear a few of them.
He heard Naruto and Iruka Sensei.
"Naruto, I'm very impressed with how much you've grown since the last time I saw you! You've learned some pretty amazing new techniques from Jiraiya-sama."
"Oh, you mean Ero-Sennin! Yeah, he used to be really lazy, but now he's teaching me more. But from time to time he'll leave me in the middle of training and say he has to do some more 'research.' What a pervert."
He heard Shikamaru and Temari.
"You were pretty weak on your last mission there, Shikamaru."
"You women, always pointing out men's flaws. How troublesome."
Neji's eyes also widened when he heard a conversation between two local villagers he wasn't familiar with.
An old lady said, "Did you hear about that young kunoichi that got raped? I think her name was Tenten or something."
An old man replied with a hint of anger, "Yes, I know very well what happened. Whoever did this should be skinned alive and dipped in hot oil."
Neji clenched his fists again as he heard about Tenten's scenario. He heard the old lady get out of her seat. He watched her as she left. He had never seen this woman before, all the villagers must've heard about Tenten already.
Not long after the woman left, he heard the old man get out of his seat and pay. He could hear the rythmic footsteps of the old man drawing closer to him. Creak, creak, creak, Neji could hear the floorboards of the ramen bar creak as the old man walked. The creaking abruptly stopped a few feet behind Neji.
Neji felt the old man's large hand rest on his shoulder. He heard his old deep voice ask, "You're Neji…right?"
Neji stared at the old man behind him and nodded reluctantly.
The old man sat on the stool across from Neji without bothering to ask. He paused a bit before saying, "I remember you."
Neji didn't respond.
"Would you like to know how?"
Neji blankly responded, "I don't really care. But if it amuses you, go ahead."
The old man looked at Neji with a semi-surprised expression, "Looks like someone's in a bad mood today."
Neji twitched with annoyance.
Seeing Neji's strong irritation, the old man started, "But anyways. I remember when you were just a Genin. I saw you at the Chuunin exams."
Neji continued to stare at the old man as he told his story, not even showing a bit of interest.
"My niece thought you were pretty amazing and was very confident that you would win…we were all a bit surprised that you lost to that fox boy," the old man said slowly.
Neji was even more irritated now. One because Naruto was actually very skilled and Naruto was somewhat his friend, and two because he hated fan girls. He hated them the way Sasuke hated Ino.
Neji said bitterly, "Don't underestimate Naruto. Ever. Or he'll kill you."
The old man was silent. He didn't know how to respond.
Neji continued, "And furthermore, I have no interest in a girl who thinks she has found her true love just by watching a man fight once in a Chuunin exam."
The old man smirked at this remark, "For a man who says that, you sure spend a lot of time with her."
Neji's eyes slightly widened, but he regained his composure, "Your…niece…?"
The old man smirked and said quickly, "Tenten."
Neji's eyes softened. The haunting image of Tenten's limp body sleeping flashed through his mind. Neji couldn't bear it when Tenten was even touched by another guy, let alone brutally raped by several.
Seeing Neji's melancholy expression, the old man asked, "So I take it you've already visited her in the hospital?"
Neji looked down at the table, and nodded slightly.
The old man was almost scared to ask, "How…was she…?"
Neji didn't look up at the man. He fists clenched on the table, and he remained silent.
The man hesitantly remarked, "So…it's that bad huh…"
Ayame walked cheerfully toward Neji's table with a beaming smile, "Here are your noodles young ma…"
She stopped smiling and hesitantly put the steaming aromatic bowl of ramen on the table in front of Neji when she caught a look of the pain on Neji's face.
She quickly bowed and said, "Enjoy," before leaving.
Neji didn't feel like eating anymore. Neji stared down at his bowl of noodles and asked, "If you're a relative of hers, why haven't you visited her yet?"
The old man paused and it was his turn to look at the table. He hesitantly said, "I don't think I'll be able to handle what I see. Her parents told me they were horrified when they saw her…"
Neji twitched again remembering the horrible state Tenten was in when he saw her, "Delaying your trip to see her won't change what happened."
Neji suddenly remembered something that gave him a horrible pang of guilt. This whole incident could've been avoided if only he hadn't left his diary out in the open like that!
Tenten saw his diary and read through the pages and then thought that he was having an affair with Sakura. This caused her to storm back to her house at night alone, and Neji didn't go after her.
Neji spoke softly, "I should've escorted her home last night."
The man somewhat understood that Neji was feeling a large amount of guilt at the moment. He tried to reassure him, "We can't escape what destiny has in store for us."
Neji shook his head, "You're wrong. We can change our destiny."
The man looked at Neji with awe and stammered, "W-What…do you mean…?"
Neji stared at his noodles for a while before answering, "Uzumaki Naruto taught me that. You can work hard you change your destiny."
The man mulled over these words and nodded. Without warning, he got up and left the ramen bar without saying goodbye. Neji had completely forgotten to ask what his name was. Oh well, it didn't really matter to him.
Neji kept thinking about Tenten as he ate his noodles. Neji got angrier and angrier at whoever had done this to her. Once he finished his bowl of ramen, he sat there with his eyes closed, chopsticks still in his right hand.
Neji clenched his fists as he remembered Tenten holding onto him in her sleep telling him not to leave her. He whispered to an imaginary Tenten, "I'm sorry."
Neji opened his eyes only to find his right hand all bloody from the chopsticks that he had snapped while clenching his fists.
Temari looked at Neji with a worried look. "What's wrong with Neji?" she quietly asked Shikamaru. She wasn't aware of what happened to Tenten.
Shikamaru explained quickly, "Tenten was raped."
Temari muttered to herself, "Tenten…Tenten…who is she…"
Her mind suddenly clicked, "Oh, you mean that girl I beat during the Chuunin exams?"
Shikamaru nodded.
Temari grinned, "What? Are they lovers or something?"
Shikamaru shrugged, "I guess so."
Temari gave Neji one last worried glance before returning to her own bowl of ramen.
As quiet as Temari and Shikamaru tried to be, Neji heard them anyways. It was rare for Neji to miss a comment made about him or Tenten while he was around the person speaking. Ignoring their comments, he stood up and walked out of the ramen shop, forgetting to pay.
Teuchi was about to yell at him before Ayame quickly waved her hand in front oh his face frantically, "No no, Otousan! Something horrible just happened to his friend, please don't get worked up! He is just in pain. I'll pay for him."
Shikamaru, hearing this, walked up to Teuchi after him and Temari finished eating and gave him more than enough money saying, "Keep the change."
Teuchi gave him a peculiar look.
"I'm paying for Neji too," Shikamaru explained.
Neji continued to walk down the street, Tenten still lingering in his mind and on his heart. Tenten, I'll be sure to kill whoever did this to you.
A/N: Please comment/review, thanks!