A/N: I hope you are all staying safe and healthy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Promise
In reality, Tenten and Neji rarely have tea together in the morning. He is usually long gone before she awakes, his pillow cold and his nightclothes neatly folded on his side of the futon. With each passing day, Tenten feels as if a fog is slowly clearing from her mind. Now all the halls of the compound are filled with murmurs of the war, and it seems as though the air has become electrified, a warning of an impending storm.
Unlike the first day of their honeymoon, when she had admired the softness of Neji's features as he slept, his body is now never without tension. He sleeps rigidly beside her, just as she assumes he has been trained to do, and awakes at the slightest noise of her rolling or settling herself under the covers. His obvious stress from the war preparations does little to ease the growing knot of anxiety twisting within her. She feels insulated from the happenings of the world inside the labyrinth of the Hyuga compound, but she knows outside the battlefront is moving ever closer, and soon the war will be at their doorstep.
She is drinking her tea in the garden one morning when Lee comes to her with a letter. "It arrived along with a shipment from your father's smithy," he explains, and she immediately recognizes the writing on the envelope as that of her mother's.
She sets her tea down and quickly tears open the envelope, fearing that the war has reached her home, but the letter is only filled with descriptions of the mundane, and Tenten can hear her mother's voice in her head angrily asking why she hasn't written to her yet.
Lee is already slipping through the garden gate when she yells out to thank him. He waves and is gone. She takes her tea inside, intent on writing her mother back.
She writes that she is happy and healthy, and that Neji is taking good care of her. She does not mention anything about the war preparations and her fears, or her growing loneliness. There is no reason to make her mother worry.
She often brings Neji's dinner to the small room in their home that he has fashioned into an office. He does not look up from his work when he thanks her, and Tenten feels a twinge of hurt. She has always known, of course, that the preparations would keep him busy, but she had not realized how much she would miss his company (and his attention, although she quickly banishes that thought, her ears red). She eats her dinner alone in the kitchen.
Neji does ask her each night, when they are lying together in the darkness of their bedroom, if she is doing well. But they do not speak more than that, and soon he doses off to sleep.
In the Hyuga library she finds many books on the great wars of the previous century, as well as medicinal tomes on treating battle wounds. She devours them all, though she knows it will only worsen her concern. She is all at once horrified and transfixed by the gruesome nature of what she reads, the myriad of ways in which a person can be killed and the ease at which generals decide to sacrifice entire legions of their armies. She wonders, if given a choice, whether Neji would still have become a soldier.
Neji does not breathe a word to her about his tense relations with the Hyuga clan elders, but she finds out soon enough when he returns home one evening after a particularly long council meeting and snaps at her after she asks whether he would like jasmine or green tea. He would like neither, he tells her in a tone she has never heard from him before, and noisily slides his office door shut. She stands tensely in place for a few minutes, unsure on whether she should approach him or let him be. In the end she decides Neji is not the type to be coddled and it would be best if she lets him cool off on his own.
Idle time does not suit her, so she goes out into the garden to practice her swordsmanship. She mindlessly runs through the motions, unable to distract her thoughts from Neji. His growing absence and his distant moods gnaw at her, and though she wishes her emotions would abate, deep down she knows that she has come to care deeply for him. She desires him in a way that she had foolishly hoped she would never desire anyone.
Neji finds her still in the garden an hour later. The sky is pitch black now, with only the dim orange glow of the lanterns to light the path. Though she is aware of his presence, she does not stop her movements until he speaks.
"Forgive me, Tenten. I am not angry with you."
She knows as much, but still, her eyes well with tears. The knot of anxiety grows tighter within her. She is afraid, for both of them, of what will become of their future. Will the war leave her a widow? At the sight of her tears, Neji's shoulders tense in alarm. She wipes her face quickly, embarrassed.
"What happened at the meeting?" she demands.
Neji shakes his head and tells her it is nothing in particular, just that the elders tend to be overbearing. "They are too preoccupied with politics."
He asks her to please come inside for dinner.
"How long will this war last?" she presses, ignoring his invitation.
Again he shakes his head, and tells her it is impossible to predict. "It could be months or it could be years."
He stands before her now, and as he gently pries the sword from her hands, he asks if she is concerned for her safety. When she continues to cry silently, he assures her that he will protect her. "I have not forgotten the promise that underlies our marriage."
She tells him that she is more worried for him. "You are exhausting yourself before you've even fought a single battle."
He brushes aside her concern, just as she knew he would.
"Promise me then, that you will come home from this war," she insists stubbornly, threatening to sleep in the garden if he refuses.
Her heart is in her throat at the sound of his laugh. Why does it seem so long since she has heard it?
He dips his head in agreement.
"I promise."
A/N: Thank you for reading and please review!
~M.I.
