A/N: I'm sort of on a rampage, hahah. \o/


Short Moments 7: Returning home

Manami and Shou were sleeping peacefully, tiny forms snuggled warmly beneath thick quilts. Kissing their soft cheeks a last time, Tenten rose from the futons and left the nursery quietly.

When he staggered into their room, ANBU uniform bloodied and torn, porcelain mask already clattering on the planked floor from his limp fingers, Tenten had already reached his side and caught him before he could fall.

Laying Neji gently down on their futon, Tenten noticed the abnormally hot flush of his skin, his long hair tangled in sweat around his face. Smoothing them away, she kissed his forehead, hating that he was injured and yet glad that home was where he turned to first upon reaching Konoha.

She already had a servant prepare a bowl of warm water and clean dressings, tending to his wounds herself, rinsing a cloth in the bowl as the water bloomed with crimson. He did not protest even when she took a needle and swiftly sewed up the larger wounds, although his face paled even as the fever burned higher.

She carefully removed his dirtied clothes, making sure to remove the grime from his shivering body as quickly as she could before wrapping him up in their thick quilt, a cool cloth already on his forehead to bring down the fever. It would not do for him to catch a cold now, especially with the chills of winter.

Finally, when everything was done and Neji lay sleeping fitfully, Tenten sat an oil lamp to burn low through the night as she sat vigil beside him. Her fingers danced across his pale skin, tracing a path from his temple to the smooth line of his jaw. Sighing softly, she placed a kiss at the corner of his lips. It was a tradition, a sort of prayer actually, of love and thankfulness that she carried out whenever he returned safely from missions.

Morning dawned softly as Tenten placed a clean cool cloth against Neji's skin, the fever having broken during the first hours of the new day. Extinguishing the oil lamp, Tenten exited the room quietly and carried Shou, and then Manami, to their room, both children still slumbering in dreams. Carefully, she lay them down on the futon beside their father, before lying to rest herself, their children nestled safely between them. With a contented sigh, the kunoichi closed her eyes and slid off to join her family in sleep.