Summary: Tenten had always thought relationships could come later. (Rating: T)
Timeline: Some time after the 4th Shinobi War. SPOILERS for the most recent manga chapter, 614. You've been warned.
Once Upon a Time
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Tenten was always a little different from the other females in her age group. She had never placed much stock in romance and relationships, choosing instead to focus on her training. She had a goal, and she was still young. She wanted to be known as one of the strongest kunoichi, like Tsunade-sama.
Relationships could come later.
She had time.
But as she stood there, flowers in hand, staring down at the grave she visited every night, Tenten couldn't help but remember the times when she and Neji shared a smile full of promises.
One day, she had always thought.
Some day, she had imagined.
And it was so easy to picture the two of them together.
But relationships could come later.
She had time.
Tenten wondered how she could have gotten it so wrong.
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Written and posted: December 18, 2012. LJ community 500themes prompt #154 - Unfinished tale.
A/N: This is probably as close as I get to a ship fic for this collection, but I'm not sure I view this as ship-centric. More like a painful could have been and a bit of mourning for all the NejiTen shippers out there. This scene kind of smacked me in the head while my brain was trying to catch up with what just happened in the most recent manga chapter, and this is what I ended up hacking out.
I still have a couple of old snippets to add here, but since this was a direct response to a recent chapter, I thought I'd upload this one first. And sorry, I'm kinda still in shock here. :P
