Chapter 6

Neji POV

I just arrived at the address Sakura gave me, with ten minutes to spare. Tenten was safe—for now. The front door was already open so I didn't waste any time and walked straight in. The house was empty and all the lights were off, it looked like it could be his parents' house but…where were they?

I heard a cry from upstairs and immediately rushed up there thinking that Tenten could be in danger. The source of the noise came from one of the bedrooms; as soon as I found the right one I burst through the door. The lights were also off in that room but the curtains were open, filling the room with natural light from the full moon. It took me a while to notice that there was someone sitting on the bed with their back to me…

"Tenten?"

"Neji? What…what are you doing here?" she turned around and looked at me but not with an expression of relief like I was expecting but rather a look of fear and worry. I couldn't see her face very well but from the way she spoke I could tell that she was crying. I quickly rushed over to see her

"No Neji don't come near me, I don't want you to see me like this" but her cries fell on deaf ears, I wasn't just going to leave her there. As soon as I got to her, I tilted her head in my direction so I could see what she was trying to hide but nothing could have prepared me for what I saw…

"Tenten what's—" I gasped in horror as soon as I took a good look at her. Bruises all over her face and neck, a large cut on her left cheek, her shirt was cut open revealing her bra and her bottom lip was bleeding as well as her hands tied behind her back. As soon as she saw my reaction, she broke down crying and hung her head. I held her in my arms.

"What the hell has done to you?!" I could feel the rage building up inside me

"Just gave her a little discipline. I like my girls obedient while I'm having my fun" Tenten and I turned to see Kenzo standing at the door with his arms folded. She was trembling in my arms; she was absolutely terrified of him.

"Now be a good girl and step over to my side" he had his pistol pointed at the both of us. She looked at me one last time then slowly walked over to him. I wanted to grab her and pull her back but I couldn't risk him shooting her. As soon as she reached him; he turned her around making her face me.

Kenzo then used his right hand to hold the pistol to Tenten's temple and ran his left hand slowly up her thigh and under her skirt making her wince. I got angrier with each passing second which seemed to delight Kenzo in every way. Tenten just stood where she was; tears continuously gliding down her cheeks. All I could do was look at him in disgust and contempt.

Tenten POV

My nerves were shot, I had no strength left. My heart was thundering in my chest and my breathing was erratic as I concentrated on the pistol held against my right temple. He could've pulled the trigger at any moment, ending my life in an instant. But for some reason I was more concerned about the fact that he was using me to get back at Neji—then came the worst thing; he unbuttoned my navy skirt and pulled down the zip—I cried out

"Please…stop" I was crying again and tried to pry his fingers off of me but he just moved his arm around my neck and cocked his gun.

"Try that again and the next mistake you make will be your last" he spoke into my ear "Now let's make this even more interesting…well for me anyways. Neji come here and finish undressing her for me would you?"

My heart sank and Neji's eyes widened in shock. He couldn't have asked him to do anything worse. I held my breath as he pressed the pistol even harder against my temple. Neji panicked

"No stop!" he yelled

He walked over to me and stopped right in front of me. We looked into each other's eyes for a few seconds until I finally closed mine. I had already forgiven him for what he was about to do but his eyes would haunt me forever; they were filled with so much anger but even more regret. I knew he was never going to forgive himself for this. I held my head up and tried to hold back my tears as he slid my torn shirt off my shoulders but the worst had yet to come.

His hands froze when they reached my hips, I bit my lower lip. He couldn't bring himself to do it; deep down I knew it was more unbearable for him than it was for me but he knew if he wanted to keep me alive he had to do it. Everything just seemed to move in slow motion, I couldn't hold in a cry when he slowly removed my skirt, I could feel his hands trembling as he did it and let my skirt drop to my ankles.

He looked at me with tears at the corners of his eyes. There was so much emotion behind those pearly white of his it was unbelievable.

"I'm so sorry" he whispered to me

"It's okay" I whispered back to him

Kenzo let out a wicked laugh when he saw how defeated Neji was.

"How does it feel Neji? Watching me explore every inch of your best friends body" he then licked my neck which sent shivers down my spine "You're feeling a whole bunch of emotions: rage, regret, sadness, fear, jealousy…now you know how I felt everytime you put your hands on Tenten." He spat

"I've never taken advantage her!" he yelled back

"Is that so? Well let me tell you something, you should have done so when you had the chance. Because you have all the control; power over your partner and the best part is that they won't struggle with you so you can go on for as long as you want" he went on to slide my bra strap off my shoulder.

"You sick bastard, why the hell are you doing this?!"

"Pure obsession, that's all" his hold on me weakened "And you know, I've come to realise…I've run out of usefulness for you…"

My heart stopped, that meant that he was going to…

Kenzo moved the gun form my temple and pointed it at Neji but he moved to fast. As soon as Kenzo pulled the trigger, Neji slapped his hand upwards making Kenzo shoot the roof and drop his gun which slid across the room. Neji pulled me out of his arms and kicked Kenzo to the ground. He hit his head and lay on the floor unmoving. I sighed in relief and buried my face in Neji's chest; I felt safe when he wrapped his arms around me.

A few seconds later I heard a laugh that made the hairs at the back of my neck stand on end—it was Kenzo.

"Oh did I forget to mention…I have a second pistol…

Time froze—with no time to react, Kenzo pulled out the gun, and I looked to Neji who was ready for him. Barely a second passed when Neji pushed me out of the way causing me to slam into the wall. I heard Kenzo cock his gun…

"Kenzo don't!" I managed to stand up and started running "Neji—"

BANG!

Drip, drip, drip…

Within seconds there was a small pool of blood; Neji's body lay motionless on the ground. I could still hear the sound of the explosion even after the gun had been fired. I ran over to his body; he'd been shot in the shoulder and was losing blood fast. I was crying so much that the tears blurred my vision. I picked up my shirt and tied it around his arm to stop the bleeding but he still hadn't woken up yet; I felt a large bump at the back of his head. I felt sick to my stomach, why wasn't he waking up I kept asking myself but my thoughts were interrupted when Kenzo grabbed me by the ankle and pulled me towards him. He slammed me onto the floor then climbed on top of me and held my arms down.

"I'm not finished with you yet babe" he pressed his lips on to mine

I'd had enough, something inside of me snapped and I felt this surge of energy. I suddenly felt like I could do anything.

"Get off me!" I yelled and crashed my forehead into his causing him to stumble backwards. I pushed him off and tried to make it back to Neji but he grabbed a fistful of my hair and pulled me up and slammed me into the wall…

"Now you're dead!" he held his gun in front of my forehead. I closed my eyes and waited for whatever was going to happen

"Get away from her!" someone yelled followed by a gunshot

I opened my eyes and saw Kenzo's body fall to the ground—he'd been shot. I looked to the door to see who'd taken him out, and I was surprised to see Sasuke standing at the door with a gun in his hand.

"You alright?" he asked as he walked over to me

"Yeah, but Neji's…"

"Don't worry the police and an ambulance is on its way" he took off his jacket and gave it to me, I took a step and immediately fell forward, luckily Sasuke caught me.

"Looks like I'm not as okay as I thought" I was still trying to process everything "Sasuke…when did you…how did you and where did you get that gun?"

"I've had it for years. Sakura explained everything and told me where you both were. Turns out I came at the right time."

"Tell me about it"

Xxx

Sasuke POV

It had been an hour since we arrived at the hospital. I watched Tenten wake up and look at me and smile.

"Hi" she said

"Hey" I smiled back at her

"How long was I asleep?"

"An hour now" she broke eye contact and looked down at her hands. I knew what she was going to ask next…

"And Neji…is he…"

"Still unconscious, yeah"

"I want to see him" she opened her blankets and was about to get out of bed

"Whoa, where do you think you're going? You need your rest as well" I laid her back down and sat on the edge of her bed. She held my hands between hers.

"Thank you Sasuke, if you hadn't stepped in when you did…

"Don't worry about that now; I'm just glad you're okay"

"I don't know what I would do without you; I hope you know how much I care about you"

"I care about you too; I wouldn't want to lose one of my closest friends" she smiled at me then yawned. That was a good indication as any to get going.

"I should let you rest, I'll come back in the morning" she nodded in agreement then released my hands. After that I did something unexpected; I leaned in and kissed her forehead, just to let her know that I was there for her.

Tenten POV

The next morning was cloudy and cold; Sasuke had just left when the nurse walked in. She brought in a tray of breakfast and put it on the mobile tray. When I asked her about Neji's condition, she tucked a strand of her long brunette her behind her ear and looked at me for a while.

"His bullet wound has been stitched up but because of the severe head trauma I'm afraid he's…in a coma"

"A coma?" My heart could've stopped right then, I balled my hands into fists and began trembling because I got so emotional.

"You really love him, don't you?" the nurse asked

"What?" I blushed, I'd forgotten she was still in the room "What makes you say that, he's just a very close friend of mine" I replied, the warmth in my cheeks intensifying

"I'm not so sure he is, when you've been a nurse for as long as I have, you can tell what kind of relationship the patient has with the person worrying about them. If being a nurse has taught me anything it's to cherish the time you have with the people who are important to you. A life is a very precious thing. I've been in situations where I'd bring a patient their breakfast and by lunchtime the very same day they'd passed away. Look Tenten, if you love Neji like I know you do; tell him"

"I don't know if I can bring myself to do it. For the same reason that most people don't their crushes their true feelings—the fear of being rejected"

"Well it's better than him not waking up and you spending the rest of your life wondering 'what if?' It would be sad for you to confess your feelings to him only to have them rejected but at least you would have removed that burden from your life. And who knows…" she stood up and headed to the door "Maybe he feels the same way about you, it's all about taking a chance."

My wounds began healing and I was discharged from the hospital two and a half weeks later but Neji was still in a coma.

Days turned into weeks and before I knew it a month had already passed. I was sitting in Neji's hospital room. I watched his chest rise and fall as he breathed—that was the only thing that confirmed that he was still alive, the rest of his body was as still as could be. I felt so guilty; I took his hand and started crying. I genuinely felt like I was being punished, the most important person in my life was fighting for his. I would never forgive myself for allowing this to happen to him.

My thoughts were interrupted when someone walked into the room—it was Hinata and she had a vase of flowers in her arms. She walked to the other side if his bed and placed the vase on the side table.

"Hey Hinata" I greeted

"Hey Tenten, how long have you been here?"

"Since one p.m."

"It's seven p.m. now, you've seriously been here for six hours?"

"I didn't even notice that it was dark out. I've literally focussed all my energy on Neji" she returned her focus to him

Xxx

Tenten POV

It was a sunny Saturday morning, I got out of bed and went straight to the shower. I thought about Neji the entire time I was showering. I decided that I would go visit him later on. It had been two months since he got shot and was in a coma—he still hadn't woken up.

As soon as I finished dressing I heard a knock at my door. I was quite surprised, it was only eight a.m.; most of my friends weren't even awake yet. But when I opened the door I was beyond stunned at the person outside—it was Neji

"Neji…you're back… you're finally back" I immediately wrapped my arms around him and he hugged me back

"I'm sorry for putting you through that" he whispered

We sat in my bedroom on the bed; we had a lot to talk about.

"When did you wake up?" I asked him

"At about five a.m., the doctor did some final check-up's and discharged me so I decided to come see you first. And another thing, I wanted to apologise again for what I did to you during the whole Kenzo incident."

"Stop, I don't want to hear that. You don't have to apologise, you didn't have a choice and I forgave you before you'd even started." I placed my hand on top of his

"But I'll never forgive myself for doing that, even if I didn't have a choice. I felt like a monster, stripping you down like that." He closed his eyes

"Hey, hey if anyone should be apologising it should be me. This whole thing had been about me and I ended up dragging you into it" I looked down

Neji POV

I felt something wet land on our hands, a tear—Tenten was crying.

"If I had realised Kenzo's intentions sooner none of this would have happened. You wouldn't have needed to come and rescue me. It's all my fault and I know it, it's my fault you got shot and it's my fault you were in a coma for two months…it's all my fault and I'm so so sorry Neji…" she cried even harder, I took her into my arms.

I had no idea she was carrying such a heavy burden all this time, she managed to keep all those feelings bottled up for two months.

"Everything you just said now…it isn't the only reason you're crying is it?"

"I thought I was going to lose you. All those days in the hospital and you never moved. There were days when I thought your chest would stop moving too and you'd be gone forever. I drove myself crazy worrying about you; I was angry at myself for putting you in that situation and I even ended up being angry at you. I wondered why you'd done it; why did you risk your life to save mine?"

I put my hand under her chin and made her look up at me; she needed to understand how I felt.

"Tenten listen to me; I would do anything to protect you. If getting shot and lying in a coma for two months guarantee's your safety; then I would do it again. I would do it because I'm crazy about you; I would do it because I love you Tenten." I cupped her face between my hands, her eyes widened slightly when I told her I love her

"You…what?" she asked in disbelief, I smiled

"I love you" I leaned in and kissed her

Tenten POV

I sat still for a few seconds; I couldn't believe what was happening; Neji just confessed to me and he was kissing me in my bedroom. Once I got over the shock, I put my arms around him and held him closer to me as well as I deepened the kiss. He pulled me into his lap and put his arms around my waist. His lips on mine, my lips on his. Everything we were feeling: relief, happiness, loving, longing; all of it was poured into that one fiery and passionate kiss.

After we broke apart I looked him in his eyes and smiled at him.

"I love you too Neji."