In Fate's Hands

Chapter Ten:
I'll Find Some Peace Tonight

The weeks following Tenten's confrontation with Hiashi Hyuuga were filled with both tension and fear – Tenten, as well as Lee and Hinata after they were informed of the incident, refused to go anywhere without Aiko and Hizashi by their sides. The children weren't bothered by the sudden overprotective attitudes of both their mother and godparents – Aiko enjoyed the attention and Hizashi was slowly getting used to people fussing over him and didn't cry as much when Lee or Hinata attempted to hold him. He still needed the song of his mother's heartbeat to lull him to sleep, but he was quickly growing out of the habit of waking up more than once during the night.

This thrilled Tenten – as much as she adored her son and loved spending time with him, any chance of sleep she could possibly gain (especially at night) was a gift to her.

Only one last thing mattered to Tenten – Neji. It had been two months since Hizashi's birth, making it two months since Neji had visited her in the mist – encompassed dreamland and declared that he was truly alive and would return to her soon. Tenten had thought "soon" should have occurred already, but it didn't seem to be so.

The more and more Tenten thought about it, the more and more she began to question the reality of the night. She was starting to convince herself that she really was just dreaming – even Lee and Hinata, who had attempted to act positive once Tenten revealed the event to them, were skeptical about whether or not Tenten was possibly dreaming. Lee thought that anything was possible, but Hinata was leaning more towards the dream theory.

Tenten cared very much for Hinata, but she refused to take too much consideration into the opinion of a girl who had fallen in love with Rock Lee – and as much as she adored her best friend and former teammate, she didn't know who could possibly handle him on the level of a personal relationship.

They still hadn't revealed their feelings to each other – something that was getting so obvious and annoying that even Aiko wanted to lock the two of them in the closet and let nature take its course.

Tenten herself found a sudden and disturbing change in her personality as she allowed the theory of Neji never coming back settle over her – depression. She found that very few things made her smile anymore – her daughter and son, and occasionally Lee and Hinata and their awkward interactions with each other, were about all that she cared for. It was hard not being able to find a reason to want to get out of bed in the morning.

But tonight was important.

Tenten stood in front of her mirror as she slowly undid her final braid, letting her last locks of hair join her released first locks as they cascaded in chocolate brown waves down her back. Satisfied with the state that her hair was in, she yanked down the sleeves of the golden – colored kimono she was wearing until they hung loosely over her hands. Normally she never wore her hair down and normally she never dressed in anything that didn't involve pants as one of the items of clothing on her body, but she knew how much Neji loved it when she wore the golden – colored kimono with her hair down. The ensemble drove him crazy - he would always tell her how stunning she looked and rewarded her with a well – deserved night of passion that often made Tenten ponder the idea of dressing femininely on a more regular basis.

However, she stuck to dressing like feminine woman on the nights of their anniversaries. Tonight was their fifth anniversary, and Tenten would be spending it alone and without Neji. Lee and Hinata had offered to keep her company, but Tenten refused their offer politely and stated that she had things to do by herself.

Stepping outside of the darkness of her bedroom, Tenten entered the living room to find Hinata playing with Hizashi and Lee attempting to keep Aiko from kicking him in the shin – the latter of which had just become one of the little girl's most favorite games, because nothing seemed to bring a brighter smile to her face than when she was bothering Lee. Tenten figured that her daughter probably had a childish crush on her sensei, which was slightly disturbing. However, she knew it wasn't going anywhere – Lee being far too enamored with Hinata to even notice – and she was aware that Aiko would find someone more like her when she was old enough.

Aiko noticed her mother and stopped suddenly, her foot in midair. "Mommy, you look so pretty!" she shrieked, recovering from her momentary paralysis to run to Tenten and throw her arms around her waist. Tenten stroked her daughter's hair fondly.

"She is very right Tenten, you look absolutely magnificent!" Lee agreed as he smiled warmly at her. "If Neji were here, he would be all over you!"

"Lee!" Hinata exclaimed from her spot on the couch as she cradled Hizashi against her. "Not in front of Aiko!"

"I am sorry!" Lee apologized. He leapt over to where Hinata was sitting, grabbing the girl's hand as they both turned a dark shade of red. "I did not think that Aiko would understand what I meant!"

"She doesn't," Tenten assured him, looking down at her daughter who was looking at Lee with confusion. "See? It probably didn't even register." She held her daughter to her for a moment more and then let the little girl go, who ran to where Hinata and Hizashi were and began to play with her brother.

"Be careful," Hinata said, taking her eyes off Lee to watch Tenten walk to the door.

Her hand on the doorknob, Tenten glanced back over her shoulder. "I'll be fine," she promised. "Just take care of the kids and I'll be back relatively soon." Smiling and waving at everyone, she grabbed a small bag off of the table next to the door and then pushed it open, her destination and purpose set in her mind as she made her way downstairs into the cold night air.

The training ground was empty, but Tenten hadn't expected anyone else to be there. Standing in the center, she looked around at her surroundings. Nothing had changed in twelve years – every rock, tree, speck of dirt was still there, the way they had been the day that Neji had asked Tenten to help him train for the Chunin Exam finals. She hadn't expected him to find her there – she always came to this spot by herself and used it as her own haven for target practice, her own place to train so she could become a better kuniochi, a better person, better than her idol…

And for Neji – she wanted to become good enough to impress him. That was why she trained so hard – to live up to herself and to live up to him so that someday she might see the flicker of amazement flash across his pale eyes.

And she did, finally, after so many years – and she was rewarded with so much more.

Tenten looked down, smiling despite the heavy aching of her heart.

"Tenten, will you help me perfect my Rotation for the upcoming finals?"

He had sounded so…so oddly embarrassed and his voice had sounded so soft when he had asked her for help that day, catching her off guard in the middle of perfecting the technique of tossing four kunai at once.

"Wow Neji, I'd love to! But don't you normally train by yourself?"

She had sounded too excited for her own good – but it was Neji Hyuuga, the Neji Hyuuga, asking her for help. He was amazing and she admired him and maybe…maybe, she had realized that day, she liked him a little too much for her own good.

"I figure, since I have to make up for both you and Lee, I need to train as much as I possibly can, and I cannot do it by myself. I will not lose, but I need your help to make that possible."

And she had helped him, and he had lost but he did not hold her accountable for it, and they had become friends, and they continued training together, and then she broke the one rule that they had all been warned against while still at the Ninja Academy:

Don't fall in love – especially with your teammate.

Tenten had gone ahead and done just that. Neji did too – and when they finally confessed to each other their feelings at eighteen years old, after fighting in a mission which she had barely returned alive from, scaring him to the point that made her realize that Neji truly liked her back and showing him that he needed her, more than he had thought he did, the kiss that followed was heart – shattering and made them both week in the knees. Neji clutched Tenten to him that day with so much strength that she knew that this was it – that he was The One, and that she was his One, the One that would heal his jaded heart and help him continue to forgive the Hyuugas for all that they had done to make his life miserable – intentional or not.

Tenten stifled a sob, waiting for the memories to wash from her and leave her alone in her emotional wreckage. Reaching into the bag she had brought along, Tenten removed both her forehead protector and Neji's. Looking at the black and blue bands, she tied them together at the end. Taking out a tack, she chose the nearest tree and placed the forehead protectors against the bark. Pushing the tack in, she backed away to view her work.

The two forehead protectors hung against the tree. One was Neji, the other Tenten. They were tied together – together, like Neji and Tenten would always be, no matter what.

Tenten smiled as the tears ran down her cheeks. This was it – it was all over. She was giving up – she couldn't take it anymore. The sadness was killing her, making her weak and she was tired with the emotional mess she had allowed herself to become.

She loved Neji, and she would always love Neji, but she couldn't hold onto fate anymore.

She could no longer make herself believe that he was still alive. It had been too long, and her hope had withered and died.

Turning around quickly, too ashamed to be facing the forehead protectors, she continued to cry until every last tear flowed forth in grievance for Neji the final time. Eyes red and emotions finally subdued, Tenten collapsed in a weak heap on the ground.

"Are you alright?"

Tenten barely razed her head to look at the person speaking to her. Hanabi Hyuuga stood a few feet from where she had collapsed, arms crossed defensively in front of her chest and her face devoid of all emotions savor her eyes. The girl's pale hues looked Tenten over with the slightest ounce of concern.

Tenten groaned at her bad luck as she allowed herself to become slightly worried and annoyed. She did not want to deal with another Hyuuga at the moment, especially one that she did not know too well. Hanabi might have been Neji's youngest cousin, but Tenten had only seen the girl on a few rare occasions. Neji never spoke much of her, and neither did Hinata, but Tenten knew that it was likely that she would be the heir of the Hyuuga clan. She was very much like her father – emotionally cold and distant, unkind to those that were not in her favor. She was the exact opposite of Hinata, and it was very obvious that Hiashi favored her for those reasons. Hanabi was also exceptionally beautiful – Hinata was also very gorgeous, but Hanabi was stunning without even having to try that hard. She had been immensely popular with all of the boys in her Rookie group, but her negative attitude did not compliment her well and she pushed off many advances from many of the boys.

Tenten pushed herself off the ground and looked tiredly at Hanabi. "I'm not in the mood to deal with you right now," she said truthfully.

Hanabi shrugged slightly, glancing nonchalantly over her shoulder before returning her gaze towards Tenten. "Unfortunately, that's not part of the plan," she said. "I can't disappoint my father, or he'll be very unhappy with me."

Tenten sighed loudly. "Don't even mention that man to me," she said. "Can't he leave me alone for once?"

"Not while you're still in possession of my niece and nephew," Hanabi responded coolly.

Tenten's anger was born the moment the words left the Hyuuga's lips. "Not that again," she yelled. "I told him that he would not be getting them back, and he won't get them back, because they are mine and I am not allowing him to take my children from me!"

Tenten reached again into the bag and brandished a kunai – she had brought it with her incase she would confront Hiashi again – Hanabi had been completely unexpected. The revelation of the kunai caused a flicker of panic to flash briefly in Hanabi's eyes, but the girl managed to remain cool and uncaring.

"I don't want to fight you," she said, and Tenten couldn't help but notice the slightest ounce of sincerity in her voice. "I don't even care that my father wants me to forcefully take your children from you."

Tenten lowered the kunai slightly, looking at Hanabi with confusion. "Then what are you doing here?" she asked.

Hanabi looked quickly over her shoulder into the darkness behind her. "He made me come," she responded quietly. "He physically forced me out – and he was following me, but I don't think he's here anymore." With that said, Hanabi dropped her arms and relaxed slightly, giving Tenten the smallest of smiles.

"I'm sorry," she continued on, and Tenten noticed that her attitude had gone from cold to mildly sympathetic. "About my cousin, I mean. I know how much he cared about you. And I know how much it must be hurting you to be without him."

Tenten smirked at the girl's statement. "No you don't," she replied.

Hanabi looked at Tenten, and her expression became suddenly very sad. "Yes I do," she retorted quietly. "I know what it's like to be in love with someone that your father hates and refuses to allow you to see so you have to sneak around behind his back to get a chance to be with them."

Tenten was momentarily stunned by Hanabi's statement. For the first time that night, Tenten began to understand Hanabi. She saw the girl, really saw her, for all that she was. The attitude was a cover – up. Hanabi was just as emotionally ruined as she was, and she had someone she was in love with that wasn't good enough to be part of the Hyuugas. She was very jaded – like Neji, Tenten realized with surprise.

"I hate your father," Tenten said suddenly. "And I hate all that your clan stands for. They really have some stupid ideals that they force you all to live up to."

Hanabi smiled slightly again. "Agreed," she responded. There was a slightly awkward pause between the two women.

"Who is he?" Tenten asked, breaking the silence. She was curious as to who the young man that Hiashi had deemed unworthy to date his daughter was. She figured that the two of them would have a lot in common – specifically the dislike of Hiashi Hyuuga and the pain of having to be in love with someone that was kept away from them because they were so beneath what the Hyuuga elder saw as acceptable.

Hanabi went red suddenly and looked down. "Oh, you probably don't know him," she replied, waving her hand slightly. "He's about a year older than me."

"I know most of the boys your age," Tenten responded, slightly amused at Hanabi's embarrassment. She marveled at the way the girl reacted – it was the same way the Neji normally got when someone managed to embarrass him.

Hanabi didn't seem to hear her as she remained red, her gaze still focused beneath her. "How's Hinata?" she asked suddenly, changing the subject.

"Fine," Tenten replied. "She's very happy living with me and the children. She's taken great care of all of us, and she and Rock Lee have formed a very close relationship…"

"Rock Lee!" Hanabi exclaimed, interrupting Tenten as she looking up suddenly. "Ah great, not him! He always used to creep me out whenever Neji had you two at the compound. You better hope my father doesn't hear about that one – he can't stand Rock Lee, and he'd probably react worse to the news about them than he did to the news about you and Neji or me and Konohamaru…"

She stopped suddenly as Tenten smiled at her, realizing that she had just revealed the name of the person that she was secretly involved with. Looking down, she went a darker red than she had been the first time. "Don't repeat that to anyone," she mumbled slightly.

"I won't," Tenten promised. The Third Hokage's grandson – she hadn't even thought that he would be the boy that would have won Hanabi's heart. Tenten knew him slightly better than she had known Hanabi. He had been annoying in his youth, reminding everyone of Naruto, but the death of both his grandfather and uncle at fairly young ages had changed him profoundly. He had grown up a lot during the years, and he had become very handsome and skilled in his area of fighting, shaking off a lot of the influence he had gained from hanging around Naruto so much – except Tenten heard that he still had a slight perversion issue.

But Hanabi was tough, and she probably kept him in line.

"Why doesn't your father like him?" Tenten asked. "He's the Third Hokage's grandson – that's a pretty important privilege, and I think that's a high enough status to make anyone else happy with him."

Hanabi shrugged slightly. "My father hates everyone," she responded. "No one is good enough for him. Not Konohamaru, not you, not Rock Lee…especially Rock Lee. He's too busy trying to preserve the greatness of the Hyuuga clan to care about what makes me happy, or Neji happy, or Hinata happy. If he had his own way, we'd all have been married off to members of the Hyuuga clan by now – which is disgusting, because we're related to most of the people in our clan anyway, and I don't want to marry my cousin or someone that I don't care about."

There was another brief pause, and Hanabi looked around at her surroundings. "I better get going," she said. "I'm taking far too long for someone of my skill level, and my father is probably very suspicious about what's taking me so long."

Tenten nodded. "I'm glad to have gotten to know you better," she said truthfully. She was happy to have gotten to know Hanabi better, and even happier that the girl had never really been planning on hurting her in the first place – but Tenten was still tired and she just wanted to be left alone.

"Me too," Hanabi responded. She reached into her leg pouch and pulled forth two kunai. "Don't worry," she assured Tenten once she saw the look of panic flash across Tenten's face. "I'm not going to attack you. I just need a little bit of proof that I fought you so my father will get off my back when I return empty handed."

She opened one of her hands, palm up, and then dragged the kunai across her skin. Hanabi grimaced with pain slightly, but the cut did not look very deep and there was enough blood on the kunai to make it look as though someone had been injured. She looked towards Tenten with the second kunai raised, and the weapons mistress reluctantly extended her own hand. The Hyuuga cut her hand quickly, and Tenten gasped at the pain slightly.

"Make sure to bandage that," Hanabi said as she turned to leave. She began to walk away before pausing. "By the way – happy anniversary!" she added, and Tenten was about to ask her how she knew, but she was gone.

Tenten looked at the spot where Hanabi had been standing, questioning herself and wondering if she had imagined the entire scenario. Looking down at the bleeding cut across her palm, she correctly assumed that it had all been real.

Weariness came back now that there was nothing to distract Tenten from her thoughts, and she suddenly felt very tired. Staggering slightly, Tenten sat against the base of the tree where the forehead protectors were hanging and closed her eyes, trying to relieve herself from the sudden dizzy feeling that had overcome her.

Something wasn't right.

Tenten felt nauseous and she opened her eyes to blurry vision. Trying hard not to panic, she blinked several times until her vision became mostly clear again. She tried hard to think about what had just happened that could have possibly made her sick, but a thick fog was covering her mind and she couldn't think straight.

The sudden pain from her hand gave her the answer.

Hanabi had cut her hand with a poisonous kunai – unintentionally, Tenten was sure, as the Hyuuga had cut herself with one too. Hanabi probably couldn't tell the difference between a poisonous kunai and a regular one, mainly because the Hyuugas rarely ever trained with a varied weapons arsenal.

Tenten laughed to herself – so this was how it would end. The poison was moving fast – she knew the affects of a poisonous kunai and it was too late for her to do anything about it. She hoped that Hanabi had collapsed somewhere that someone would find her so she didn't have to face the same fate.

Tenten closed her eyes and waited for death to claim her. She wasn't ready to leave just yet – there was still so much left for her to do that she hadn't done yet, but that was always typical of someone who was facing death. She was sure that Neji had realized the same thing too in his final moments.

She felt the tears but chose to ignore them. Aiko would miss her – she knew the little girl loved her unconditionally, having finally allowing herself to grow close to her mother over the last few months. She would be beautiful and skillful when she was older, and Tenten regretted that she would never be able to see that.

Hizashi was another matter – he would never get to know either of his parents. Tenten regretted that she would never be able to watch him grow, to see his personality develop and watch him become the person he was destined to be someday. She only hoped he would be like his father and grandfather – a good man with decent morals and amazing taijustsu abilities.

Lee and Hinata would miss her too, and Tenten hoped that they would finally find the ability to tell their feelings to each other and form a loving relationship. She also hoped that they would be the ones to take care of her children – because even though Lee was a little odd and Hinata too insecure, they would be excellent parents someday.

Tenten felt an odd peace settle over her – she was calm facing death, and this fact surprised her. Perhaps it was because she had been trained to not react negatively to her final moments – or perhaps it was because she knew she would be with Neji again.

She couldn't wait to see him – she couldn't wait for him to hold her in his arms and kiss her and for them to just be again.

"Tenten!"

Someone was calling her name. The voice sounded familiar, but Tenten was too out of it to recognize who it belonged to.

"Tenten!"

The voice called out again, more urgent and desperate and scared. She heard the sound of footsteps thumping hard against the dirt until whoever the person was dropped next to her and grabbed her.

She recognized the arms, the way they circled around her body and held her close to the person's chest, strong and comforting and secure.

She opened her eyes to the blur once more, but through the haze she could see the outline of a face hovering inches over hers, pale eyes watching her every move.

"Neji?"

It was all she was able to say before everything went dark.

(Fin)

(End of Chapter Ten)

A/N: After a week of not updating (I'm sorry - school), I finally give you a new chapter and I end it with a cliffhanger. I know. Everyone hates me. HIASHI MADE ME DO IT, I SWEAR!!

Anyway, guess who's back!! And I put in Hanabi - random, I know, but she's awesome! She's here for three reasons: 1. She's awesome, 2. Plot advancement (sort of), 3. To prove that Hiashi isn't only picking on Tenten. He picks on everyone. That is a fact. Sorry if the beginning is a little awkward too!

Thank you for reading and please review!

Chapter Eleven: Coming Soon!