NejiTen month day 18

August 18/2021

Prompts: Post-war / Boruto

Ninja world

.

Note: Continuation day 8

.

.

Day 18. Post-war

.

He sat up a few at a time on the bed, trying to keep his breathing from quickening with the effort and to be able to do it on his own. The moment he gasped Tenten was at his side, placing a hand on his back to help him.

"I can do it by myself,"

"Neji..."

"You don't need to help me Tenten, I just want to go to the bathroom," his words didn't make her move away, she just kept holding his back while in what seemed like a titanic task, he finally put his feet on the floor and took a deep breath.

"Wouldn't you rather I reach for the potty?"

"No," he replied in one breath, "I can do it, I have to do it."

"The doctors said not to overexert yourself," it was ridiculous to think that something as simple and mundane as going to the bathroom could involve such a great effort.

He took a deep breath, feeling a slight pang in his chest that he ignored, with that same momentum he stood up and for a moment had to hold onto Tenten. He hated that, not her, the situation itself. He had woken up a couple of days ago and could no longer be bedridden depending on others to do everything for him, much less for something as embarrassing as doing his bowels.

The brunette didn't seem to notice any problem, she was willing to help him with whatever he needed. She would hand him the portable urinal and vacate it, but for him it was simply unacceptable that situation. If it was a nurse maybe he could put up with it a little more, but not Tenten, she had no need to be doing those kinds of activities or seeing him at his most vulnerable moment. She should be outside, enjoying her life and not have voluntarily decided to confine herself in that detestable place next to him.

"Do you need me to come in with you and help you?" he shook his head, while Tenten had seen that part of his anatomy, not in that situation, "anything just yell and I'll be at your side in a second."

He closed the door behind him, focusing all his effort on achieving his goal of emptying his bladder. With slow steps he stopped in front of the sink and leaned against it, inhaling slowly as the pang in his chest had increased. He washed his hands and only then looked up to see his reflection, he wasn't used to the image he saw there.

In his fight with Kidōmaru he had been on the verge of death, he remembered it well. And the recovery had also been slow. But this time was different, he hadn't been on the verge of death, he had died and the disappearance of the seal on his forehead was proof of that.

The seal of the caged bird only disappeared from the forehead of the members of the secondary branch when they died, period. To his mind came the memory of that moment when he had approached the light and his hand had lit up, he was dead at that moment, at least for a few seconds and when the light went out that must have been when they managed to bring him back to life.

"Neji?" Tenten's voice sounded from the other side of the door. "Are you okay?"

"Yes," he cleared his throat to speak up, "I'll be out in a moment."

He didn't know what exactly the implications of the disappearance of his seal were, that mark meant that he belonged to the secondary branch and should serve the primary branch for the rest of his life, which he had done. What would happen to him now? Would he be sealed again? He inhaled again and brought his hand to his lower ribs where the twinge had worsened, the best thing to do was to go back to bed.

Opening the door he did his best to hide his pain, failing to fool Tenten who all at once advanced towards him to help him walk to the bed and call the nurse at once. Her brow was slightly furrowed and despite his frustration at the situation, the thought came to his mind that she looked utterly adorable angry.

As he lost track of reality invaded by the morphine that had been injected into him, he saw that Tenten and the nurse were talking, but he couldn't hear anything, at least his chest no longer hurt as everything around him went dark. When he woke up again the brunette was in the chair, reading a book, he wasn't sure if it was one of the ones she had reached to read aloud to him. She paused for a moment and covered her mouth for a yawn.

"You should go home, Tenten," she made eye contact all at once and shook her head, "it's not good for you to spend so much time in the hospital if you don't need it, you'll get sick."

"I like to be here," she said and smiled at him, "or well, to accompany you."

"I know, but you don't have to do it every day."

"No, and I don't do it because I have to, I do it because I want to," she got up and stood next to the bed, he pressed the button to raise the back of the bed to be half seated. "Do you want me to leave? - she asked in a whisper."

"No," he answered in the same way, taking her hand, "of course not."

She smiled and leaned towards him, kissing his forehead. He raised his head, his forehead had already had enough kisses while he was unconscious, he preferred it to be his lips. It was a soft kiss, his breathing couldn't stir and they were still in a hospital. They pulled away when they heard the door open.

"Oops, we didn't want to interrupt," it was the voice of Hanabi who came accompanied by Hinata, Tenten turned completely red and took a step backwards

"I'll leave you alone," she said at once.

"W-wait Tenten," spoke Hinata, "we brought you this," she extended a cup with what looked like food to her.

"Thank you, I'll be back in a while."

He followed her with his eyes, Tenten always left him alone when someone from his family arrived. His cousins were smiling, also in the direction of where the brunette had just left. As far as he knew when he woke up, many times they had visited him and every time she had been there, she left only while he had visitors and waited to go back in as soon as they left.

Obviously the rumors in the Clan weren't long in coming, Hiashi himself had seen her in the room. So the moment it was known that he had woken up he visited him, mentioning before leaving that it was clear that he cared a lot because no one managed to convince her to leave his side. And once the initial tears of his cousins for seeing him awake were over, they began to harass him with questions and comments for having hidden his relationship so far.

He smiled sideways, he hadn't hidden it, their relationship had started on the eve of war and was holding because Tenten had held on to his promise to her, he didn't break promises and he was keeping it. Finally they were together.

.

She jumped to the branch of a tree, ready to throw her kunai, but just before doing so she could see that movement that she recognized at once even though he will try to hide it and got down to run to his side. Looking now for the scroll she had exclusively for that. As soon as he saw her approach, Neji made an attempt to attack her, but fell to his knees.

"I told you it was too much," she didn't want to reproach him, but she had made it clear to him since he said they could turn up the intensity of the training, "inhale."

"No..." he shook his head, "I don..." she brought the inhaler closer to him and he tried to move away, however it was clear that he couldn't breathe. "I don't need it," he completed the sentence and now she shook her head.

"Don't be stubborn Neji, inhale," with a frown he took the tiny device, making a puff as he took a deep breath, he repeated the action and his chest stopped rising and falling at the dizzying speed it was doing it

"Thank you."

"You should take it easy," she spoke as she rubbed his back lightly, though she could see he could already breathe a little more normally so she put the inhaler back in her scroll.

"I'm fine, we can continue."

"Neji..."

"Seriously, Tenten," she rolled her eyes, "if I don't start increasing the demands of the training I will never return to my previous level."

"There's no rush for that, besides no one is demanding you to go back to your old level."

"I am."

"Neji," she put her hand on his cheek, "you lost a third of your lung capacity, you are alive by miracle... you don't have to be like before."

During his stay in the hospital they had done several tests and started several therapies to help him recover and strengthen his lungs. For example, there was a small device that had balls inside and he had to blow on it to see how many he could lift and for how long. At first he barely moved the first one, but little by little he improved.

He had to keep in mind that although he was alive and had been cured, some areas of his lungs would never recover. The initial diagnosis was that he would lose half of his capacity, meaning that his life would be as if he had only one functioning lung. Tsunade explained to them that they were actually parts of each, but when doing a total that was the equivalent. After another month there, he had been discharged with the final verdict of being one third and suspended from active duty.

In six months he would be able to take the test to validate his performance and know what kind of missions he could be assigned. That meant Neji wanted to start training at once, he was a proud man who found it hard at first to get used to the limitations his own body was putting on him. In fact it was still hard for him to admit that after half the time he was still far from the goal, and when it was hard for him to breathe he believed that only with his will he could control it. She trained with him, forcing him to take breaks and always keeping the inhaler handy.

"I hate this," he sat on the floor and held out his hand, to which she took it and felt the tug to bend down as well.

"It's a process, you have to take it slow," she had settled into his arms and although she couldn't see his face, she knew he had frowned, "little by little, it's like when we used to go to the academy."

"It never took me any effort at all at the academy."

"No, of course not," - she said ironically, after all she was talking to the best of the class, "let's say it's like Lee said, improve every day with effort and dedication."

"I became Rock Lee, if I end up wearing green tights I'll come to the conclusion that I did die and I'm in hell," she started laughing, thinking that it was quite probable that not even the Devil himself could force Neji to wear those tights

"So I'm some kind of torture to be with you in hell?" she made a fake pout.

"No, not that," he squeezed her lightly and kissed her cheek, "those are the moments when I think I did die and reached the paradise."

"Only you didn't die, you survived the war."

"We survived," he moved one of his hands to rest it on her cheek and she tilted her head, joining their lips. "And we are together," he concluded.

"And we are together," she reaffirmed, she always loved to know that, "there's something good you haven't mentioned about your recovery."

"What?"

"At least at night you don't lose your breath and you don't choke," it was a rare event to see Neji laughing.

"Good point," he remarked, brushing her lips again.

They stayed on the training field for a while longer, lying on the grass watching the sky without doing anything else. Neji's future as a shinobi was still uncertain, but she was going to stay by his side to support him, because if she had corroborated all the time she was with him in the hospital and now in their day to day life, it was that she loved him almost as much as she loved that they were together.

.

He took a deep breath in front of the mirror while adjusting his hair, seeing his reflection without the seal was already something normal after five years of that day he died, but he was brought back to life. He still couldn't help thinking about all the years he had worn it and how his life had changed since that war.

Their lives, he thought again as he walked out and saw Tenten in a beautiful dress, completely ready to attend the wedding they had been invited to. Although it was a bit selfish and childish to think that the lives that had been changed had only been the two of them. The lives of virtually everyone in the five great nations had been changed in one way or another.

Some hadn't had their luck, many returned to their respective homes now incomplete for all the lives the war had taken. He had nothing left to do but thank fate, luck, Tsunade and whomever they wanted because he hadn't been one of those, he was, but they managed to bring him back to life to fulfill that promise he had made, he had never broken a promise and that was no exception.

"Is something wrong?" asked the brunette as they walked hand in hand to the ceremony site.

He was silent, wondering if it was being too predictable that he was planning something. He ran his free hand through the pocket where he kept the small square box to make sure it was still there, was it too cheesy or cliché to ask Tenten to marry him in the middle of Lee's marriage?

Ever since he promised that when the war was over they would be together, he had the firm conviction that it was going to be for the rest of their lives. It was strange, but for that very reason he hadn't made the proposal to her before. For example when there seemed to be an explosion of post-war weddings in the village, all of Tenten's friends had gotten married, including his cousin. He didn't want to do it at the time because it would have seemed like he was getting caught up in the emotion of the moment, and also a ring or signing a piece of paper wouldn't change his feelings at all or that he wanted to grow old by her side.

And it wasn't exactly a priority, everyone in the village knew they were together, no one would ever doubt the solidity of their union. In the clan they already included her in the meetings and every time they made a future plan they mentioned her as well. They had been living together since shortly after he had left the hospital, so why did he suddenly feel the need to do so?

Maybe because he wanted to finally see her name linked with his surname, that the Tenten Hyūga was not a rumor or assumption but her legal name. Maybe because after those years it felt natural to take that step and be able to think about including a new member to the family a couple of years later.

He inhaled deeply to give himself momentum, grateful once again to be able to do so, to have his life back to almost normal despite the damage to his lungs. He didn't like being the center of attention, so he took her by the hand to go to a secluded area, to a beautiful fountain that seemed like the ideal setting for what he was going to do. Before he could think of anything else, he bent his knee and pulled the small box out of his pocket, opening it to reveal the contents.

"YES!"

He didn't even get to utter the question when Tenten shouted her acceptance and threw herself into his arms, kissing him. Nothing but them existed at that moment.

Them, and the fact that they were going to be together for the rest of their lives.

.

.

.

The threeshot of days 6, 8 and 18 has been completed.

See you tomorrow!

.

All corrections and comments are always well received, they help me improve a lot.

Hope you like it.

.

Att: Sally K