You can all breathe easy-this isn't the last chapter. However, it's coming soon.

Also, we're back to shorter chapters. Yay! ;)

And, as always, thanks to all of you who read and review. You're all too kind. :)

Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto own all recognizable characters and places. I own the plot.

Twenty-Six.

I don't know how I got up, but I did.

I passed out only a few seconds after Sasuke left me lying in the warehouse, alone and bleeding. I don't know how long I was out, but I did know that I was still bleeding, which was a good sign. It meant I wasn't dead yet.

I didn't want to assess my injuries, not yet. I just wanted to get home, and then I could figure out what to do.

I managed to half-crawl, half-stumble out of the warehouse.

I would have loved to take the bus home, but I knew no sane bus driver would admit someone with injuries like mine without taking me to the hospital.

I coughed out blood on the sidewalk.

No hospitals.

I breathed out of my mouth. My nose was broken, and I didn't want to use it more than was necessary.

Walking was a struggle. Sasuke had stabbed me in the side a couple of times, and it ached in the worst way. Indescribable pain shot through me with every breath.

I had no concept of time; I figured it had been hours before I saw a familiar building up ahead. My breathing quickened and I tried to walk a little faster.

I felt my feet fumble on something invisible, and I collapsed hard onto the pavement, face first. My nose gave another sickly crunch and I blacked out.

The first thing I became aware of when I came to was the unrelenting migraine in my frontal lobes. My one good eye cracked open, but I quickly shut it again. The light was blinding and it made my headache spike unpleasantly.

"How did this happen?" asked a female voice.

I wanted to tell her to shut up. I attempted to raise my hands to cover my ears, but they were too heavy to lift.

Neji muttered out some complete bullshit reply, that even I knew the nurse wouldn't buy for a second. However, she made no protest.

When she spoke again, she was calling me to see the doctor.

I rose unsteadily, shirking Neji off when he tried to help me. I was too upset with him to want his assistance.

The doctor winced when he came in to see me. I must have looked fucking awful. I know I felt like it.

He set my nose after shooting me up with anesthesia, placing gauze carefully on it, and treated the wound in my side where Sasuke had stabbed me.

"Your ribs are bruised, so take it easy the next few days," he instructed, writing me a prescription for painkillers. "If that nose gives you any trouble, come back. Try to be really careful with it. In a few days, you can remove it, after the pain goes down. You might feel nauseous; that's normal."

I nodded carefully, grimacing as I slid off the examination table. I clutched my side, sore.

"Don't tear your sutures," he said sternly, handing me the slip.

"Thanks," I said, and limped out of the room, doing my best to ignore the pain in my right side.

The anesthesia was still working through my nose, so I couldn't feel it. However, I was not about to test the numbness, and kept my hands firmly at my sides.

Neji was sitting quietly in a chair in the lobby. His eyes were closed.

For a moment, as I shuffled towards the door, I allowed myself to consider him without him knowing.

He was paler than usual, and his forehead was deeply furrowed, as if he was confronting a mental problem. His fists were clenched tightly, his skin taut over his bones.

His eyes cracked open, and then he was staring at me.

"What'd the doctor say?" he asked softly.

I held up the slip.

"He wrote me up some pills."

"I'll get them for you tomorrow, when the pharmacy opens."

I gave a short nod and shuffled towards the hospital doors. Neji followed behind me, and helped me into a cab that he apparently had called.

I thoughtfully reflected on the ceiling in my room, resting back against the elevated pillows Neji had arranged for me.

We had barely spoken since we left the hospital. Currently, I was content with the silence.

He re-appeared in my room a second later, holding several ice packs for my side. I had taken some pain medication Sakura had in her medical cubby, but it wasn't helping all that much. Cautiously, Neji lifted my shirt and placed the ice packs on and around my injury.

He shyly searched out my eyes.

Even though I had recently been pleased with the silence, I felt words push at my lips, unchecked.

"I could have died," I said to him, my tone without inflection.

Neji waited a long time before choosing to respond.

He gave me an unsatisfying, "I know."

"I can't believe you trusted Sasuke over me," I continued, feeling my anger return with surprising swiftness.

Neji lied down next to me, staring. There was remorse in his eyes.

He sighed and murmured, "Sasuke was right. That's why I left."

"What are you talking about?" I inquired.

Neji gazed at me for a while, carefully placing his hand on my cheek.

"What Sasuke said about me—he was right. I've been so preoccupied with figuring things out with Uncle Hiashi and moving back and graduation and college . . . that I've forgotten everyone else. I've been so focused on myself that I haven't been thinking about anyone else. Including you. I've neglected you and I'm sorry for doing that. You don't deserve that. Tonight, Sasuke called me out on everything. I shouldn't have left you alone with him, I know that, but after everything—I assumed it was what you wanted."

Neji traced his thumb over my lips for a few seconds.

"I'll understand if you want to join with Sasuke, even though I don't approve."

I swatted his hand away.

"What?" I demanded.

Neji glanced at me.

"Isn't that why you met up with him? So he could test your skills?"

I had half a mind to slap him.

"I would never do that!" I exclaimed. "I was there because I made a deal with Sasuke that I would fight him to keep you from getting shot!"

Neji gaped at me, and I felt my eyes widen.

"Oh, shit, I wasn't supposed to tell you that. . ." I muttered, closing my eyes.

"What?" Neji emphasized, sounding incredulous.

I sighed heavily and looked up at him.

"When Sasuke came here that day a week or two ago, he had a gun with him. He was going to shoot you, had you been there, because you pissed him off so bad by fighting Itachi. That whole night I was freaking out because he could've run into you, anywhere, and I didn't know if you were going to be alive the next morning or not.

"I knew that Sasuke wouldn't let it go—it doesn't seem to be in his nature. So, I made a deal with him that I would fight him in your place if he promised to leave you alone. He said I wasn't nearly as skilled as you, so I made him an offer he couldn't refuse."

Neji's eyebrows drew together.

"And what was that?"

I exhaled, unbelievably tired.

"I told him I would find Itachi for him. So, I did. You weren't supposed to know about any of this, I told Sasuke not to tell you, but of course he had to be a fucking jackass—"

"Wait," Neji said, "you found Itachi and persuaded him to speak to his brother?"

He was wearing a mixed expression of awe and disbelief.

I nodded.

"Damn," Neji shook his head. "What'd you say to him?"

I shrugged slightly.

"I told him what I was doing and why, and Itachi told me to tell Sasuke where he could find him."

"That's . . . something," Neji commented in wonderment.

He mulled it over for a few minutes, pushing my bangs out of my face.

"Do you forgive me?" he eventually said. "For leaving you with him when I should have known better?"

I bit my lip. I was still pretty angry with Neji, because, frankly, he should have known better. And he basically left me for dead at the hands of a psychopath.

"Tell you what," I started, "you spend the rest of your life making it up to me, and I'll tell you when it's atoned for."

A small smile tugged at Neji's mouth.

"Done," he said.

But a second later, a troubled countenance returned to his face.

"What?" I prompted.

"Sasuke needs to pay for what he's done."

I shook my head immediately.

"No. That's the whole reason I fought him, to keep you two away from each other—"

"TenTen. He almost killed you. If I hadn't been watching for you on top of the roof tonight, you would be dead by now." Neji's face was stern, decided. "I'm going to fight him, and then I'm going to retire from street fighting."

I stared at him, unsure if those words had actually left his mouth.

"You can't be serious," I said after a prolonged silence.

"Why not?" he questioned, his usual playful smirk flitting across his lips. "TenTen, I'm graduating in a few weeks. I've applied to college, and I'll be leaving Konoha. I love fighting, but there are other things now that require my attention.

"I don't want to be like Itachi and Deidara, always doing the same thing over and over. I want to be somebody, and make something of myself. I can't do that if I stay here, fighting every other week."

I had mixed feelings about his decision. Most of them were akin to unhappiness.

"You're leaving me?"

Neji leaned down and pressed his lips to my cheek, and then slowly, gently kissed my mouth.

"That won't make this better," I informed him.

Neji regarded me, tracing his finger along my jaw.

"We can figure this out," he promised.

I studied his eyes, hoping he was right.

A very Happy New Year to you all. :)