Sunday, February 2nd, 2014. Groundhog Day and the Superbowl (America)

I don't really care if the groundhog saw his shadow or not, but I lost the bet I made on the Superbowl. Again.

I never win.

And the team I bet on (the Denver Broncos) lost horribly. I didn't see all of it, but with Peyton Manning on the team, this was a really terrible loss.

Great job, Seattle Seahawks, though. Props to you guys. I just owe my dad money now, though. Not much at least; my dad was nice enough that if I won the bet, I'd get more than I would lose. What I win is less than what I'd lose.

Anyway, I'm so sorry about the horribly late update! I'm two chapters behind on you guys, and here is one of them!

Now that Science Fair's over, I plan on catching up to my regular schedule. Same for DoOver, though I'm not as behind on it.

I'm working on the next DoOver chapter right now. Hint: It has a lot of ShikaTema in it.

Fun Fact/News: Uh... I'll be spending 3 hours at school every Saturday now, and 2 more hours somewhere else tutoring, also every Saturday. And then an additional 1.5 to 2 hours in church for choir practice two Saturdays a month. So... on some Saturdays, I might as well have gone to school with how long I would be gone. So that would mean less time to write, but I'll try to be better about my update schedule regardless of all of these activities.

A few weeks back, I had a burst of inspiration for some poetry and metaphor stuff in English, and once I get those papers back, I will re-write them and stuff. I may turn some of them into Naruto (or other fandom) one-shots and start a one-shot collection, where I'll also put the one-shots I owe you guys. But you won't see those for a while. Like a few months, maybe.

Rec.: Long chapter, and I don't have a lot of time to write one right now. So no, again, sorry.

Disclaimer: IDNON.

Dedication: All of my viewers because I love you and I'm sorry. XP

GRR:

Chloe: Thank you Chloe, and I'm really sorry about the late chapter.

I already responded to Guest, who was White Tiger...

Warnings: Uh... mentions about killing people, but it's nothing bad or anything. Pretty mild stuff in this chapter. Though Tenten's a tease.

Romance: SaIno, major NejiTen. Total fluff. And mentions of an OC couple.

Content: What Sai's been up to, and the end of NejiTen vs. Kidoumaru.

Length:

With AN: ~5.9k. Wow.

No AN: Exactly 6.01k.

Read on, Loves!


Chapter 29: Of Sai & Fear


Sai POV

I fought the unconsciousness that threatened to take over. Images danced in and out of my sight.

"It's okay now, Sai!" Shisui said to me, looking down as he held me in what I believe is called a "bridal hold". I'm sure a normal boy would have found this embarrassing, but I was in too much pain and too tired to care. "We've got you now; just sleep. You're in safe hands."

As if I was waiting for the "okay", my eyes shut almost immediately. Wait… just a little bit more.


Flashback


"…- did he say?" I heard a male voice say from the hallway. I hid behind the shelf I was searching through. Just keep walking…

"… to the-…. That's all." Said another male voice.

Their footsteps echoed in the hall, but I didn't hear them near the room I was in.

"Alright, you're dismissed." The footsteps disappeared. I almost sighed in relief. Alone once more.

I looked back to the shelves and continued my search. No… no… not quite… what about this one?

I picked up one of the scrolls with the gloves given to regular ANBU and ROOT graduates – they leave no trace of any prints whatsoever, as well as no substances (that the gloves may have come in contact before) and odors so anything we touched was completely untraceable.

Just perfect for shifting through classified scrolls for even more classified information without anyone able to hunt you down and kill you. Through fingerprints and such, at least.

I opened the scroll and did my best to decipher as much of it as I could. Every classified scroll was in code – the higher the rank you had after graduating ROOT and the closer you were to Danzo himself, the more of it you knew.

But the only one who knew the whole code –and was also the one that encrypted the scrolls in the first place– was Danzo.

There was doubt that even his two right-hand men knew all of it. But they certainly knew the most aside from the (corrupted) leader himself.

I, however, knew maybe, about 90% –if not just a bit more– of the code if I had to represent it in such a way.

I knew more than most of the ROOT base, and even though it wasn't all of it, it was more than enough to get by.

I continued skimming through the document. No… No… Uchiha?... genocide… This is what I need!

I stuffed the scroll into my pack and continued skimming through other scrolls that had any information on the Uchiha Massacre and Orochimaru – Tsunade concluded that Danzo must have been working secretly with Orochimaru after I told her all I knew about him.

Well, wrote, actually.

And conveyed in other ways. I couldn't speak what I knew, and even if a Yamanaka tried to shift through my memories for information, there were "locks" on the memories. Only Danzo and I can see them. And only he can unlock them..

Though only two things -the Massacre and negotiations with Orochimaru- were my primary goals, any more information about Danzo's secret dealings or anything else that could lead to suspicion on his part, would be taken by me as well.

I had been at this for a half hour now, and I was doing quite well, if I do say so myself.

What is this?

I picked up a scroll with a red smudge on the parchment. I opened and skimmed through it. Hm…


After about another half hour of this and having gone through as much of the library/archives (and the hidden parts as well) as I could, I decided it was time to leave. It won't be long until someone finally catches me here if I continue to linger. I barely avoided some of the guards and librarians… I better not, how to say, "Push my luck." Was that the saying? I should check later...

I took a secret passage from the back of the library that led to a dark and often deserted hallway and walked through it, heading for one of the many exits of the ROOT base.

"Stop!" I stopped, and turned slowly.

It was a trainee. I believe, judging by his age and demeanor, that he may be taking the graduation test soon.

"Are you taking an exam?"

Every once in a while, ROOT members take random tests to keep them in shape and sharp. Some included stealth (such as sneaking around the building without anyone knowing), strength, agility, and more.

I was dressed head-to-toe in dark clothing that ROOT gives to each of us, so we know that if one of us is caught, that they are one of our own and we do not kill our own men.

I also had a light henge so my appearance was different (members that are taking the stealth tests also often do this – the only ones who know who the members truly are are the ones who administered the tests itself [teachers] and Danzo and his right-hand men).

I had ash-blonde hair, dark blue eyes, and a pale complexion (not but not as pale as my normal skin tone) that made my freckles pop out.

I simply nodded at the trainee. Please believe me…

"Alright. Continue then. I did not intend to interrupt." After that, he abruptly turned and left. This tradition would one day be the downfall of Danzo… or really, his belief that he has controlled all of us, this system, is going to be his downfall.

When I could no longer feel his chakra nor hear him, I continued along my way to the exit. And hopefully, it'll happen soon.

I had just reached it and opened the door when I saw a kunai coming for me.

I had barely dodged it and it skimmed the top of my hand.

I dropped to the ground, dodging more weapons before I suddenly felt arms grab me and pull me back up, pulling my pack off of me.

"Hold him still!" I heard a voice shout, and the arms that held me gripped me tighter.

I winced.

"Both spies and traitors of Lord Danzo shall be properly and quickly disposed of." Said another, emotionless voice.

It was then that 6 also-cloaked figures charged me. I felt another coming in from above.

Panicked and desperate, I forced my hands out of my captors hold long enough to form a hand sign; the Substitution jutsu.

I re-appeared next to my back and I put it back on, connecting the front straps as well, in record time.

Knowing these other ROOT members (also trainees, I assume) would never let me run away, I pulled out my ninja scroll and ink, ready to fight. I'll just have to tire them out… there's no way I can beat all of them unless I got help.

"Super Beast Scroll: Choujou Giga!"


"Aaahhhh!" My mouth felt as if it was burning from molten lava and was melting as well.

Soon though, I had to stop screaming because it made the pain even worse.

"Danzo-sama knows of your betrayal." One of my opponents said. He coughed up blood, lying against the tree.

Out of my eight adversaries, I was only able to defeat three and seriously injure one – the one who spoke. I did not kill the three I had defeated, however – when I thought of doing it, the image of Ino popped into my mind. I wondered what she would say if I did. Would she be disappointed in me?

My heart clenched at the thought. I guess I don't want her disappointed in me... I must talk to Sakura about my feelings, soon. She would know what I'm feeling.

So, I decided against killing them, even if killing the others as well would make the fight not only go easier, but also faster. Though it is not as if it would be necessary that they died. Things would be alright as long as they remained unconscious.

It would simply be unnecessary death. Lord Danzo already knows I had betrayed him. What difference would killing these students to keep them silent make?

Moving on; the other 2 only suffered very few minor injuries from me before they teamed up once more and beat me.

I lied here, on the ground with the seal in my mouth activated and giving me pain too much to handle standing, covered in injuries.

My right ankle and left wrist were fractured – my left shin was shattered and both of my thighs were covered in a few but deep gashes.

My right hand also had many cracked or broken bones in it. I had 3 broken ribs, two cracked ones, and one of the broken ones was digging into one of my lungs, causing difficulty in breathing.

My clothes were ripped from the cuts and gashes they gave me. Some of the deepest were in my sides and in my stomach.

I had even more cuts and bruises and cracked-but-possibly-broken bones throughout the rest of my body; what I mentioned was just the worst of them.

My vision was filled with black spots, and I knew it was only a matter of time until my henge fell and they removed my mask and discovered just who exactly I was, though it seemed Danzo already knew.

I felt them pull on my pack and as much as I tried to, I couldn't move enough to fight back. My left hand's fingers twitched, and I tried to bring that arm over to my other side, but it before I could even move the rest of my arm, a foot stood on my upper arm.

Next thing I knew I powerful force of pain ripped through my body and it took all I had to not scream.

The person who stood on my arm had just crushed my humerus – the bone in your upper arm.

"Lay still." One of my enemies said. "Things will go much more smoothly that way."

I was tempted to retort something Naruto-esque, but I couldn't allow myself to talk.

Moving any part of my mouth, especially my tongue, was highly undesirable at the moment.

The hands tugged harder at my pack, and I felt one of them grip my arm so they could try to slip it through the arm hole. I was suddenly thankful for the extra straps on the pack that I had that crossed my chest and met in the center, connecting together.(1)

But before they could lift my arm up and attempt to slip it through the backpack straps, they were thrown off somehow.

I couldn't see, but I heard the others shout in response and question the attacker.

"Who are you?" One of them asked. "What are you doing?!"

I don't think the invader said anything, but then again, I wouldn't know for sure because it was then I was beginning to pass out from exertion and pain.

I fought the black spots in the vision and tried to stay awake. I only caught snippets of voices, all those of my attackers.


I don't know how much time had passed, but the next thing I knew I was being carried.

I opened my eyes, only to see blue and green flying across my vision. I closed them again.

"Oh, you're awake!"

I snapped them open again, realizing that someone was carrying me.

I looked up at the person. Shisui! He must have been the one to rescue me.

I tried to open my mouth to speak, but it still pained so I closed it.

Suddenly, the memories of what had happened before came rushing back.


End of Flashback


"Be-… b-beau-… In-no…" I muttered.

I immediately resolved not to speak any more than I had. That was much too painful!

"Ino?" Shisui said. "Oh, she's fine! She should be getting checked up on in the hospital. She and Chouji won their fight. You don't have to worry, okay? Just rest."

My body finally relaxed fully. I can sleep now that I know she's okay.

As I drifted off to sleep, I felt Shisui land.

"He really cares about her, doesn't he, Hana? He wouldn't let himself sleep until he knew how she was."

"He sure does." Giggle. "I'm almost jealous."

"Almost jealous? I think you mean, 'definitely' jealous."

"Oh, shut up."

Unconsciousness finally took me.

My dreams were filled of long, blonde tresses, sky-blue orbs, warm eyes, and gentle hands.


Neji POV

"Just… *pant* a little more, Ten…" I rose her arm just a bit higher than it was.

It was taking nearly all I had to simply stay conscious, with a large arrow lodged into both my body and Tenten's.

The fight with Kidoumaru was (or felt like) a long and hard one.

At first, it seemed we almost had an upper hand, but once Kidoumaru summoned Kyodaigumo, his personal giant spider summon –which is what "Kyodaigumo" means; "giant spider". Creative name there, Kidoumaru– the fight took a sharp turn.

If the sight of Kyodaigumo alone didn't traumatize my teammate, its technique, Rain of Spiders certainly did.

As you can imagine, there was a rain.

Of spiders.

Kyodaigumo releases an egg sac full of said those horrid creatures from a web it holds onto directly above you. Each little creeper is the size of a small dog.

Yeah. Imagine spiders the size of Akamaru raining down on you.

Mind you, this was already after we had managed to escape Kidoumaru's Spider Cocoon and being introduced to his "Sticky Gold"; I'm not actually sure what it is, but I don't want to know.

Kidoumaru releases this thick, golden, sticky substance -hence the name- from his mouth. I assume that once it hits air (possibly the oxygen in the air, specifically), it hardens and he begins to mold it with his multiple hands immediately afterward. When they're thrown at us soon after (or used as other kinds of weapons, like a bow and arrow), they're hard.

Like steel.

Even after head-on fights with the Sound nin, several injuries -but few were very serious- and barely escaping some of his spider webs, we still had to deal with that damned Kyodaigumo and its fucking Rain of Spiders.

As you can tell, I'm frustrated.

Tenten, mind already weakening from constant exposure to her worst fear, did not move during the "rain" and instead stood frozen, mouth still open, gaping horrified at Kyodaigumo's summoning on the web above us.

She stood that way even as the rain began, mouth still open. Still as a statue.

There was only so much a person could stand.

Fearing for her, I grabbed her and pulled her against me as the rain thickened. I closed her mouth and pulled her tightly against me, gritting my teeth at the feeling of the spider's sharp legs and fangs against me.

I have to stay strong for her, I thought.

A moment later, she seemed to have awoken from her fear-induced stupor -somewhat, at least- because all of a sudden she collapsed onto me
and d.

Shivers ran violently down my spine and I trembled. The shrieks were just so full of fear and terror… just hearing it made me almost break out into a panic attack.

At the same time, tears poured down her cheeks in rivers, eyes blank.

I tried in vain and pathetically, to soothe my teammate. But my words were full of stutters and shaking, so it was no wonder they didn't work.

There was also the fact that it didn't seem she knew I was there… she was fully engulfed by her own terror.

I knew I shouldn't have let her stay!

I forced myself to calm down, holding Tenten against me tighter as she gripped my shirt so harshly her knuckles were white and her fingers had produced small tears in my clothing, threatening to make even larger ones.

Once I had calmed my mind and vanished the terror that was threatening to take over –granted, I'll admit I was still afraid, but I had to disregard it to fight – I looked up, searching for Kidoumaru.

He began laughing when he heard Tenten's screams, encouraging her to make them louder and had Kyodaigumo lay even more eggs.

But right now, the rain was so thick I couldn't see him. And I doubt he could see us…

I took Tenten's face in my hands and tried again to soothe her. This time, though, my voice was calm. "Stop crying, Tenten… things'll be okay, I'm here…"

Her screams had died down greatly by now, but whether it was because she was getting tired or she was becoming more aware of the rest of the outside world besides the spiders, (read as: me) I didn't know. Her eyes were also still blank…

I wiped her tears away, but when I was in the middle of doing so, her wrist grabbed mine.

My eyes snapped to hers, and I found them… alive again.

Mostly.

She was back!

"N-neji-ku-… ne-nej-…!" she was choking on her words, still sobbing wildly.

I took her face in my hands again and rested my forehead against hers. I bent down to whisper in her ear. "Be calm, Tenten; forget about everything but me. Just for now, let me take some of your fear away. We still have a chance… we can't give up just yet."

And I kissed her, and poured all of the pent-up feelings and frustration I had for her in it. It was a bit of a sloppy kiss, but it was still a good one.

After my birthday, I tried to force myself into not pursuing a romantic relationship with Tenten, but that had only resulted plenty of frustration; with my clan, for being the main reason I didn't want to be involved with her. Had they not been the way they were...

Anyway.

I was frustrated with myself for both thinking of resolution in the first place, and for failing so miserably at keeping it. Since my birthday, we had only gotten closer despite my attempts at the opposite:

We sat closer in public than we normally would, and in private, she was either in my lap, or almost there. There were heavier and lingering gazes; there were more light and random touches between each other, and hugs, handshakes, and other usually-casual physical contact were far longer and intimate than they should have been; even in public.

Our behaviors were too intimate to be those of "just close friends."

I was also frustrated with fate or whoever or whatever controls it; because of it, I only fell harder and harder for Tenten the longer time passed. I cursed it and myself for it.

Once I had decided I couldn't have her, I fell harder. Was this some kind of twisted punishment?

And finally, I was frustrated with Tenten herself: if she wasn't the way she was, I wouldn't be like this! I wouldn't be so frustratingly, madly, terrifyingly in love with her!

It's all her fault! Why couldn't we just have a platonic relationship?

She knew I was attracted to her – and used it against me! She teased me, purposely making me jealous by talking about her far-too-friendly relationship with her older and attractive (but taken, thankfully) co-worker from the smithy, Hakamine Ryo. I knew they had a purely platonic and sibling-like relationship, and that he had a happy relationship with his long-time-love-now-girlfriend Konobata Hayako, but I couldn't help myself.

Tenten was even the one who had set them up together in the first place, forcing them to come with her to some mysterious location that had ended up being a set-up for a dinner. It was there they had admitted their feelings and gotten together. Cheesy tactic, but it worked.

Not to mention, aside from the physical attraction she'll admit she had in the beginning for Ryo, their feelings for each other are purely friendly and family-like.

She has no romantic feelings whatsoever for him, and he treats her like one of his (apparently many) siblings.

I had no reason to be jealous of Ryo, but she knew I was anyway. A fact she gets a kick out of teasing me for.

She also wore slightly more revealing clothes than usual around me during training or when we were at the other's apartment alone; that meant basketball shorts and tanks as opposed to sweats and a large t-shirt at home. This is Tenten we're talking about.

However, when we trained at the dojo (which we did more often now that it was colder, and occasionally snowed in the training grounds), her once occasional attire of a half-shirt or sports bra and tight, short-shorts were far more frequent…

Her clothes around Lee, though, were only slightly more conservative – they were like siblings, and no matter how you look at it, there's only so much a sibling typically wants to see of another sibling. Not that he's bothered much, anyway.

The point, however, was that she knew what she was doing to me. And exploited it.

And she also knew that I couldn't stick to my goal (which I had told her about) of not wanting to fall anymore in love with her than I already was and not pursue anything with her.

But that moment I kissed her, in that horrid "rain", I finally had a chance to express all of (badly) hidden feelings for her.

Just for a moment, I felt free to let myself feel and act however I wanted. You know what? Fuck that "resolution." I don't want to deny myself of her any longer.

Once Tenten realized what was happening, she responded back eagerly as well, tears raining down her cheeks as she gripped my shirt tightly.

Though the kiss was intense, it stayed chaste all the same; this was mainly to comfort Tenten, not seduce her.

... That can be saved for later.

When we finally broke away panting, we stood for a moment, gazing into the others' eyes.

Slowly, a smile came on my face, and one appeared on hers.

"Ready?" I had asked.

"Yeah. Sorry about that." She said, scratching her head, embarrassed.

I shook my head. "Don't worry about it. Let's just take care of this."

And we immediately set to killing every single one of the spiders we saw.

I wasn't stupid enough to believe my kiss had cured her of her arachnophobia – this wasn't some Disney movie or something; a kiss can't solve everything, no matter how good it was.

But what it had done, at least, was awaken her from her frozen state of both mind and body and alleviate some of her fears. Calm her down just enough for her to be able to be able to fight these creatures while only trembling slightly and sweating nervously.

Once we had cleared enough of the spiders away –Kidaigumo had not dropped any more eggs; Kidoumaru returned him back to wherever he came from– I realized that while the spiders were on the ground, they were spinning a web.

But I realized it too late – I tried to move, but I found myself already stuck to some webs at my feet on the other side of the clearing where Tenten also seemed stuck.

Kidoumaru jumped down, took our mostly-immobile states to land a few, but strong and well-placed and kicks against us. On the bright side, I had managed to close a few of his chakra points. Not as many as I would have like, but enough that his punches were weaker when he got to Tenten, who had managed to cut his arm open.

Having enough of using us as human punching-bags, he –finally– tore us from our webby confines and threw us against a large spider web he or Kyodaigumo had spun.

We landed next to each other, "a final luxury before death"; a "gift" from him.

He was going to kill us anyway, so why not put the "lovebirds" together, right?

He had moved to behind us, where my blind spot was; he had figured it out a while ago, and has since been using it to his advantage. Tenten had been forced to cover for me, but now with both of us completely immobile against his webs, my spot was completely open and none of us could move.

But we still tried, and we got some somewhat decent results.

Using chakra, I had managed to slice through the webs, and Tenten tried used a kunai she had hidden on her person, although it wasn't working. As expected, and shown before with other webs that Kidoumaru shot from his mouth, his webs were only cut by chakra.

The Sound Nin had thrown all our pouches in several directions away from us and cut open all of our pockets (as well as the skin beneath them) when we were stuck by the webs of the rained spiders, so I had no weapons, and Tenten had the very few that had escaped Kidoumaru's –too touchy and too thorough– pat-down.

Once I managed to free my arms, I took the kunai from Tenten and tried to free her with my chakra, but I was so depleted, I was struggling to produce a strong and steady current.

But I had eventually managed to free her, paranoid about to why Kidoumaru hadn't attacked us yet, as we were taking quite the while and frustrated that I couldn't see him with him hidden in my blind spot. But I pulled and held Tenten against my chest, her back to me, as I helped her try to remove part of her arm form the webs as well as a few weapons hidden in her hair.

Had I not held her, her body would've fallen and though her weight may have freed her arm, it may rip off skin in the process, break it, or break it and still remain stuck to the web, leaving her to swing back and forth from her arm.

But before I could finish, I felt and watched something pierce through my back and protrude from Tenten's stomach.

A large, bloody arrow.

Kidoumaru's arrow.

The force of the arrow had ripped us from the web and we crashed into the ground on our sides harshly, the arrow digging far into the both of us.

The pain was excruciating, and neither of us could help the scream that ripped from our lips as we landed.

Kidoumaru went into hiding again, torturing us with the paranoia of not knowing where he would come out from next. But with the time he forced us to wait in, we managed to get used to the pain of the arrow –more or else– and bear it enough to sit up. And as best we could, we concealed our chakra.

The last time we had done this, we did it well enough that he wasn't able to sense us. However, to attack properly, we would have had to confront him, which we did and was also the reason we were the way we were now – he didn't let us out of his sight after that.

He kept us busy enough to not have the time to calm down and too exhausted to carry out properly hiding our chakra, but we somehow managed to do this now.

I whispered instructions to Tenten's ear; our final battle plan.

When we landed from the arrow and web, there was one of Tenten's scrolls near us.

Sadly, it only held one arrow with a bow, the rest of the arrows used up before.

But it was also her last special arrow – it was heavier, laced with steal and could be infused with chakra to pierce through harder and follow a target the way one of Kidoumaru's earlier, smaller ones did, if enough chakra was added.

We pushed both of our chakra into it, since the chakra of only one of us would not be enough for the technique to work. I had not expected both of our chakra would work, anyway, thinking the two chakra signatures would not be able to fuse together and with the arrow, but we didn't have much of a choice.

Thankfully, it did work and that's where we were now: I had my arms around my love's waist, chin on her shoulder and raising her tired arms just a bit higher to aim at our target.

He was in the trees above us, unable to see us because of the leaves of a fallen tree branch from before. He was shouting for us, frustrated and angry that his game was interrupted right when he was going to end it.

"Now," I whispered into her ear.

Her fingers released the arrow and we watched with bated breath as the arrow soared into the air.

My heart stopped for a second when Kidoumaru began to turn around sharply, sensing the arrow, but started again when we all realized he was too late and too slow to avoid it.

Instead of piercing the middle of his back as we had been aiming, the arrow instead tore through his collarbone, which was more than enough to incapacitate –if not kill– him.

He fell from the tree and landed on his back, bouncing once from the fall, and ending up on his stomach.

He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

His Curse Seal form faded back to his normal body covered in the 1st stage's black designs, –he had transformed a long time ago– which also began fading and receded back to the black circle on his neck.

His body fell slack, and he glared at us, finally finding us. But it did not last.

The fight was now over. His expression fell to nothing and his eyes faded and rolled over.

Kidoumaru was dead.

Actually, he may just be unconscious, but the likelihood of that diminishes more and more the longer he remains without serious medical assistance.

I'd personally prefer him dead, but the village may need him for interrogations so… well. Either way, neither Tenten nor I will have to deal with him ever again.

Exhausted, and unable to stay upright any longer, Tenten and I fell on our sides, grunting at the impact.

Then, I saw something; ahead of Tenten was her pouch. We hadn't seen it before.

I reached up the large tree branch above us and broke a small, but thin and long branch from it. (That's what we did to get the scroll the bow and arrow came from.)

She used the stick to bring the pouch over, and from it, she pulled out a flare gun.

"To alert others of our position," she said, knowing what I would ask.

Hummed in response against her neck, her scent of natural, earthy, slightly sweet (and also sweaty) scent soothing me and almost lulling me to sleep, my exhaustion speeding up the process. I struggled to stay awake.

I helped her lift her arm up to point to the sky in an area that was clear of trees for her to fire the flare.

She shot twice, the first releasing a green smoke, and the second a black.

"Emergency," she croaked.

Then, she dropped her arm and the gun, no longer able to keep up with any physical activity. I could tell she was starting to fall unconscious as well.

But before either she or I could, I wrapped my arms tighter around her and whispered a few, final words into her ear:

"I love you, Tenten."

My world went black.


(1): If you don't get it, this is what I mean: (colon) / / 4. r / (underscore) (underscore) o.j p g

Sorry it's late again guys!

I'm horrible, I know, but I'm trying to get back to my proper schedule soon!

I wrote Sai's part of the chapter a long time ago, and couldv'e updated earlier, but I think you guys deserved more than about 2k words after all that waiting. So I added more, and edited it, though it took a while.

QotW: #1: X-Mas ideas for DoOver. Between couples.
#2: Any Valentine's Day plans? If you have that in your country? If not, does your country have a holiday about romance like Valentine's Day?

I know I'm horrible.

With love,
-Cherry.