"Neji lives"
Two words she'd truly never thought she'd hear ever again? Neji lives. Even when she did, they didn't sound real. She had to have imagined them, it had to be a cruel joke or a mistake, it wasn't—
She couldn't…
It wasn't fair to make that sort of a joke, because…she absolutely couldn't bear that kind of hope.
But—but even when she waited they made no such indication, there was no smile or smirk, nothing to imply it was anything but the truth…and from Lady Tsunade…she couldn't have been lying to her. Not about this. Not about him.
Her fingers pressed to her lips, and her legs simply ceased to support her weight. She didn't really feel the crash of the ground against her knees, and she didn't really care. Why should she even care at all?
She'd been silent and still. She'd boxed everything away, suppressed the grief and pain like a true shinobi should, and pressed onward like he'd never left, like he never was. She faced the sunlight alone, and resisted the urge to chase hopelessly after him into the night, because that was what a good shinobi such as herself would do.
Yet…
now…
Painful sobs wrenched from her throat, ane she buried her face in her hands as if they could muffle or disguise the sound of it. The wave of relief was too strong even for joy to accompany it, and somehow along with it, it dredged up all the pain and grief and anger she'd buried before.
Because…
her songbird came back