Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto (yet).
All paths eventually converge at one point. It is a law of life – static and inevitable.
As a blanket of stars unfurled across the ink black sky, the six Konoha ninja found themselves converging in a forest clearing, setting up camp for the night.
Neji's jaw tensed as he calculated distances in his head. (It was a little known quirk of his, often overshadowed by his penchant for counting birds).
Eleven feet. The distance between his and Tenten's bedrolls.
Nine feet. The distance between Tenten and Lee's bedrolls.
Seven feet. The distance between Tenten and Sakura's bedrolls.
Five feet. The distance between Tenten and Naruto's bedrolls.
Three feet. The distance between Tenten and Sasuke's bedrolls.
Perilously close. The distance between his mind and the edge of insanity.
Neji strode to a tree near the perimeter of the clearing. He sat down, back to bark, and folded his legs beneath him. "I'll take the first watch," he said, finding comfort in the mundane.
His statement was met by a chorus of snores. Neji shifted his gaze to the waning crescent moon. It was so thin – just a coconut shaving hanging amid a sea of stars. For some unfathomable reason, a twinge of sadness threaded though his heart.
Neji dragged his eyes from the sky and refocused on a small, slumbering figure eleven feet away. In sleep, the lines and angles that composed Tenten's features were softened. Her mouth, usually set in mulish determination, had relaxed into a faint flicker of a smile. A few recalcitrant locks of hair had escaped from her buns, spilling like rich chocolate onto her bedroll.
Shifting position, Neji looked away. Over the years, Team Gai had fallen into a pattern: Neji would volunteer to take the first watch. When his shift was over, he would shake Tenten awake, and she would take the second watch because she liked the idea of having two sleeping shifts. After Tenten was Lee and Gai, since neither could bear to watch the sunrise without the other at his side.
Neji was a strict believer in the kind of teamwork in which each member carried his or her own weight. In his mind, team dynamics had no room for individual weakness or constant coddling. But sometimes, when he watched Tenten's face soften in slumber, he couldn't bear to wake her up. There was just something about the way her lashes fanned delicately over her skin, the way her hair escaped the confinement of her buns, that made him pause for a second before he shook her awake. And then the second would stretch into a minute, and the minute would stretch into an hour.
Tenten never noticed his habitual tardiness in waking her for her watch. Neji had the cover of night to thank for that. The darkness made it near impossible to keep track of time. But nevertheless, Neji harbored a tiny, nagging fear that one day, she would turn to him and demand the reason behind his self-enforced delay.
And Neji had a sinking feeling that he would not know the answer.
A small whimper pierced the still night, interrupting his thoughts. Neji whipped his head toward the direction of the sound. His eyes widened.
Tenten was clutching her blanket like her life depended on it, her knuckles turning bone white from the force of her grip. Beads of sweat dotted her hairline as she curled into a tight ball.
Neji was alarmed. Clambering to his feet, he was at Tenten's side in an instant, checking her forehead for signs of fever. But instead of burning heat, he encountered a clammy coolness. The type of clammy coolness most often associated with fear. Withdrawing his hand from her forehead, Neji watched as his teammate's shoulders shook like a brittle leaf in the wind. Was Tenten having a…nightmare?
A soft cry escaped Tenten's lips, followed by a single word.
"Neji…"
Neji blanched. Was he in Tenten's nightmare? Was he the subject of her nightmare?
"Neji…please!" A tear leaked from the corner of Tenten's closed eyes, meandering slowly down the slope of her cheek. "Please…stay. Don't go…"
Without consciously registering his actions, Neji took Tenten's clammy hand in his and squeezed her palm in reassurance. A thousand words spun through his mind, bursting to get out. I'm right here. I won't go. I will stay. Always. But he kept the words tightly under lock and key, pushing them to the back corner of his mind.
Tenten's fingers were crushing his hand in a rigid death grip. Neji winced, but didn't pull away, allowing her to squeeze all her anguish and fear into his palm.
"Tenten," he finally said, trying to keep his voice stern and in control. "Tenten, wake up."
All of a sudden, the pressure on his hand eased. Tenten bolted upright from the bedroll, her eyes snapping open to reveal two blank pools of amber. "N…Neji?" she breathed unsteadily.
He nodded in a business-like manner and started to stand up. "You were having a nightmare," he informed her matter-of-factly.
But before he could get to his feet, Tenten threw her arms around his shoulders and buried her face in the front of his shirt.
Neji was stunned into stillness. He could only sit there, speechlessness painted across his features as Tenten's soft sighs vibrated through his chest.
"Neji…you're here."
He did not reply – did not know how to reply – so he simply stayed still, letting Tenten burrow her nose into the folds of his shirt.
"What…what were you dreaming about?" he asked at last. There were times when silence became too stifling even for him.
Tenten pulled away, tilting her chin to look at him with glassy brown eyes. "It's a recurring dream I have – a dream about that day." A small shudder ran through her slight shoulders.
Neji didn't ask her elaborate. He knew Tenten like he knew his blind spot, and he knew she would explain without prompting when she was ready to do so.
He felt rather than heard Tenten take a deep breath and open her mouth to speak.
"It was the day you and your team were brought back to Konoha after the failed Sasuke retrieval mission." Her voice was thin and strained, but she forged on. "I was hanging around just inside the gates, waiting for you to stride through in that signature collected way of yours, with a repentant Sasuke in tow. I expected to see a slightly haughty smirk on your lips, a quietly triumphant light in your eyes. But instead…"
Seemingly of its own accord, Neji's hand tightened over Tenten's. He knew what was coming next.
"Instead I saw you carried in on a stretcher. The first thing I noticed was that your hair was undone, streaked through with dirt and dried blood, framing your pale face like a death shroud." Tenten's eyes squeezed shut for a moment. "Then I saw the wounds…and…and…" Her fingers constricted over his, and there was a long pause as she struggled to continue. "Oh, Neji – they were so horrible! Two gaping holes that tore straight through your body, seeming to suck the life right out of you."
Neji's free hand absently found its way to the scar just below his left shoulder, where Kidoumaru's first arrow had pierced him. "I'm okay now," he said, feeling the need to reassure her.
"Yes, that's true," Tenten conceded, her lashes lowering as she looked away. "But I can't help but remember the moment they told me you were halfway between life and death, with death being the more likely outcome. You were in critical condition for almost fourteen hours as Shizune operated on you." Her teeth caught the edge of her lower lip as the memories overwhelmed her. "Those were the longest fourteen hours of my life. Just sitting outside the operating room, twiddling my thumbs…helpless and very nearly hopeless."
Without a word, Neji pulled her back into his arms, tucking her head neatly against his chest. He turned his hand until it lay palm-to-palm against Tenten's, and interlaced his fingers with hers.
He told himself that he was only doing this for the good of the mission. It wouldn't do to have the team equilibrium disrupted by something as trivial and intangible as a nightmare. Moreover, as Tenten's teammate – and possibly the person closest to her in all the world – Neji held himself responsible for her physical and emotional well-being. He was driven by duty, pure and simple.
But as he sat there with Tenten cradled in his arms, her breath sifting through the starchy folds of his shirt, Neji was struck by a strange and incomprehensible feeling that this was all somehow…exactly right.
I'm right here. I won't go. I will stay. Always.
-x-
Uchiha Sasuke was rarely – if ever – taken by surprise. But when he woke up in the middle of the night, cracking his eyes open in the penetrating dark, he was hard-pressed to keep his jaw from dropping.
Because framed by the glow of the firelight, leaning into each other like they had been born that way, were Neji and Tenten.
Even though no one could see him, Sasuke's eyebrow hiked up of its own accord. Looks like the plan has moved on to Phase Two…
As if sensing the subtle shift in the atmosphere, Neji snapped his eyes upward, his gaze locking directly with Sasuke's. The Hyuga's eyes widened.
"U – Uchiha," Neji stammered. The last syllable came out an octave higher than normal.
The corner of Sasuke's mouth kicked up at the thought that Tenten could reduce Neji's speech patterns to that of a pre-pubescent boy.
Neji extricated himself from Tenten's hold and laid her carefully back on her bedroll. Sasuke snuck a glance at the kunoichi. She was already fast asleep, her face more at peace than he had ever seen it.
"Tenten was having a nightmare," Neji announced, his trademark calm arrogance reinstated into his voice.
Sasuke smirked. Whatever.
The hard line of Neji's jaw stiffened at Sasuke's silent mockery. "Since you're already up, why don't you take the second watch." His words were more of a command than a question.
Sasuke shrugged and climbed out of his bedroll. "Are you sure you don't want to trade spots?" he shot out offhandedly, staring meaningfully at the three feet of space between his and Tenten's bedrolls.
Neji didn't bother to reply; he simply strode to his own bedroll at the far edge of the clearing and climbed in. But as he tucked his headband neatly under his pillow, he couldn't resist one last gibe at the Uchiha's expense. "For your sake, I hope Sakura doesn't have a nightmare tonight."
All he got in reply was a vehement "Hn."
Author's Note: My apologies for the later-than-usual update. School and fanfiction are hard-pressed to coexist with one another :P Hopefully the massive amount of NejiTen fluff made up for my negligence. (NejiTen for the win!) In other news: 101 reviews! *airhugs for all of you* Thank you so much!
On an unrelated note: I found the cutest flash animation of Neji and Tenten the other day. It's set to the song "Accidentally in Love" (from Shrek! XD). What a fitting title. If you want to squeal with fangirly delight, just delete the spaces: www. newgrounds. com / portal / view / 523821
