Disclaimer: Just realized I never did one of these. Nope, don't own anything.

Author's Notes: Another chapter with a soundtrack. This one was written to the tune of "Radical Dreamers" by Yasunori Mitsuda. Once again, stop by my journal (you can get to it from my profile) and pick up the song before you read if you want. :)

Crossing the Acheron
Chapter Three

She was out for only a few seconds, not enough time for her to hit the floor, though the mysterious intruder caught her before she could do so. Lying there in the moonlight, hair unbound and cradled in the lap of a ghost, she laughed lightly with bitter understanding. She felt dizzy and unbalanced but perhaps she had been more exhausted than she thought. Nevertheless, it explained why the face watching her was the one she most wanted to see. She should have known.

"I hate this dream," she told him, lifting her fingers towards his cheek but stopping before she could actually touch him. Every time she reached for him he always disappeared. "For a moment, I actually thought you were here." She dropped her hand and sat up, that aching grief in her heart returning now that she knew he wasn't real. For one blessed moment she had believed and it had fled, instantly healed. She laughed softly again. She really should know better by now.

He was still sitting there though, on his knees at the foot of her bed, watching her with that frown she had never forgotten. The details were perfect this time, down to the silky luster of his long hair and the pearl tones in his eyes, the way his eyebrows drew together as he looked at her. She had outdone herself with this one.

Tenten closed her own eyes and turned her head away. "I don't want to do this anymore," she announced in a whisper. "I don't want to see you… this way." A harsh prickling started behind her eyelids and she rubbed them before she could start crying. "It's hard on me," she admitted finally, "and on Keiki too, because I can't look at him without seeing you."

The frown deepened on his face and she wondered if he would disappear now, vanish like dreams were said to do if you knew what they were. Instead he spoke, and she wondered if that was jealousy in his voice. "Keiki?"

She stood, turning her back on him, wondering why the sound of him made her tremble like a leaf. She crossed her arms, holding onto her shoulders in an attempt to keep herself from shattering. "Please, Neji…" Hot, silent tears trickled down her cheeks. "I don't want to dream of you anymore!"

There was a moment of heavy quiet and then she heard him rise, his shoes hitting the wooden floorboards as he came up directly behind her, close enough for the cool touch of his breath to kiss her neck.

His breath… Tenten's eyes widened.

"I didn't think to find you here," he said, his voice so low she almost couldn't hear him. He seemed not to realize that a revelation was unwinding in her mind. "I went to your apartment and found it empty. For a moment…" he paused and she actually felt him tense despite the fact they weren't touching. "For a moment, I was… afraid… that something had happened to you. I came here for answers and discovered you in my old room." He exhaled tiredly. "Is this a dream? I don't know anymore. I thought I had woken from it days ago."

"Neji," she said hoarsely, teetering on the precipice of her heart. She could still save herself the pain, she could, but she would never know unless… "Please. Touch me." He hesitated and she squeezed her eyes shut. "Please," she begged, and sobbed aloud when his arms hugged her from behind, folding over hers slowly, bringing her back against the solid safety of his chest, his mouth near her ear.

He murmured her name into her hair. "Tenten."

Her knees buckled and they dropped together, Neji turning her slightly so he could cup her face, his translucent eyes watching her as he forced her to look at him. She saw him through a haze of tears and starlight but the feel of his hands against her skin had never been more real. Her mind whirled, unable to comprehend.

"You're really here," she gasped, her fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt. "I don't believe it. You're supposed to be dead."

"I was dead," he said flatly, "but I found my way back." Something moved in his face, a shadow of memory. "I remembered you."

"Me?" she whispered, almost too shocked to understand what he was saying. His hands dropped to her shoulders as he tilted his head, studying her.

"You changed," he said sternly, almost accusingly. His fingers brushed her free hair and the sleeve of her dress. "You're not how I remember."

Almost she could smile. "It happens." Carefully, almost fearfully, she lifted a shaking hand to his face, tracing the smooth line of his jaw and reveling in the ability to actually touch him, long dead senses flaring to life. Her soul took its first breath in ages and she saw him clearly, no longer an apparition in the night. She couldn't begin to imagine why or how he was there, what had kept him away for over a year and made everyone believe he was dead. She suddenly wanted to know everything, where he'd been, what he'd been doing… who he had been with. And most of all, she wanted to hear him say what he'd never had time to tell her.

"Neji…" she began.

Keiki started to cry in the next room.

She jerked in his arms, tugged back to reality and she turned her head towards the baby's room, something stealing her breath away. She wasn't ready yet. Not yet.

"Keiki," she whispered and Neji tensed, pulling her up off the floor with him as he stood. He glanced at her and she suddenly felt that he was somewhere far away from her, distant.

"A child?"

She met his gaze and gathered her courage. "My son."

He stared at her and she could tell what he was thinking. His arms dropped away from her and he crossed to the door, following the baby's cries. She trailed after him like a phantom, no longer feeling she had any substance left, nothing more to give or feel. She could only stand in the doorway as Neji went to the cradle and looked down, his usually impassive features twisting into shock as white eyes met white. His hand on the side of the crib actually shook. Tenten felt more tears cling to her eyelashes.

Keiki stopped crying.

"My son," she repeated raggedly, "and yours." Neji swung to face her, so many caged emotions swirling in his eyes that her voice broke. "His name is Keiki and he's four months old." Her words began to tumble out faster as he took a step towards her. "He loves his uncles, Lee and Gai-sensei, and he's always laughing, always happy. Hinata says he reminds her of you." Another step. She let her tears drip to the floor without notice. "Hiashi thinks he's going to be strong and I do too, and he has a way of charming everyone." She choked on a laugh. "He must get that from me." Another step and another. She backed up against the wall as he came to stand right in front of her, looking down at her with an expression she couldn't read. His body twitched as if he wanted to hold her.

"And you?" he asked quietly, leaning towards her. "What about you?"

She could not look way from him. "I don't sleep at night anymore. I remember what it was like to have you next to me and it's too painful." She swallowed. "And yet, I hate myself for being this way because I think that night meant more to me than it did to you. I can't claim you, I have no right to you, but I still love you even though you probably don't lo-"

His hand over her mouth cut her off. "Don't say that," he said, eyes flashing and voice strained. He was angry, she realized. Her tears slid over his fingers but he didn't move his hand. "You can't know… what I've been through to come back here." For a moment, something dark flickered in his eyes before it was gone and he was looking at her fiercely. "Despite what you may think, I didn't sleep with you with the intention of throwing you aside the next morning. I wanted…" She could see him struggling for the words. "…you, and not just for that one night, but for all my nights." He lifted his hand away finally. "Is that what you wanted to hear?"

She gasped for air and wished she could stop crying. "Yes," she whispered and leaned forward to wrap her arms around his neck, their mouths meeting in an uncoordinated kiss that was somehow the sweetest one of all. Her fingers clenched around fistfuls of his shirt in an attempt to be as close to him as possible. His arms locked behind her shoulder blades as if he had the same desire, one hand winding its way into her hair, the other pressed against the small of her back. When they finally broke apart, Tenten rested her head beneath his chin for a moment as he held her, knowing they still had a lot to say to each other but content, for the moment, just feel him around her.

A few minutes later, Keiki made a soft gurgling sound that let her know he was still wide awake. She smiled into Neji's shoulder.

"Do you want to hold your son?"

Tenten had always thought that her best memory would be of the night she had spent with Neji, the one accumulation of every wish she had had since realizing she was in love with him. Now she knew she had been wrong. Her best memory would be of lying in the crook of Neji's arm, their legs entwined against the mattress of her bed while their son lay asleep on his father's chest, a small bundle that held everything they loved best about themselves.

Neji's hand lay on Keiki's back, holding the infant steady, the Hyuuga prodigy's expression one of wonderment. He hadn't taken his eyes off the baby since Tenten had laid him on his chest, his amazement that the tiny being was somehow a part of him obvious to her.

Smiling into his chest, she ran a finger down Keiki's smooth cheek tenderly, speaking softly so as not to wake him. "What do you think?"

"He's perfect," Neji answered at once, surprising her. She hadn't expected him to reply so quickly. The arm he had wrapped around her waist tightened as he continued, his usual smirk crossing his face. "But then, he is a Hyuuga."

She laughed softly and he shifted as if wanting to hold onto the sound of it. "Just remember there's half of me in there too," she murmured.

"That's why he's perfect," Neji said quietly, and she moved her head back to look into his face, wishing he'd quit making her cry.

"Thank you," she whispered and he leaned down to kiss her, his long hair pooling against her neck. When he started to pull away, she threaded her fingers into the hair at his temple, her palm against his cheek. "Promise me you'll tell me everything," she said pleadingly. "I want to know, Neji."

For a moment he didn't move, simply watched her, his eyes reading her in that familiar way she had missed. "In the morning," he told her finally, his expression easing at whatever he saw in her. She smiled at him and dropped her hand to his chest, a small sigh escaping her as his fingers stroked her arm. In minutes her eyes had drifted closed and she was sleeping soundly for the first time in over a year.

As for himself, Neji stayed awake, holding her and their son and watching them dream with something that felt like a suspiciously full and content heart.

"I was with an old fisherman by the name of Seichiro," Neji told them the next morning, his eyes fixed on Hiashi's. They were seated on their knees in front of the patriarch, Tenten slightly behind and to the right of Neji, keeping her eyes downcast as was proper. Hiashi was in the front of the room, legs crossed and none of the surprise he had shown earlier anywere on his stone-carved face.

By now the whole Hyuuga compound was aware that the genius Branch member was alive and having an audience with Hiashi. Tenten was actually surprised not to see family members pressed up against the rice paper panels, struggling to hear what might be said. The Hyugga's were too regal for eavesdropping, she supposed, although that's exactly what she would have been doing if it had been her.

"He told me that he had found me half buried in the mud and rushes by the riverbank. He took me to his house and cared for me for many days. During this time, I… did not know who I was." Tenten felt her heart skip a beat. So that was why. "I had sustained a head injury while in the river. I remembered nothing of my past, not even my name, and I carried nothing with me that might identify me." A muscle moved in Neji's jaw, a sign she knew to mean he was tense. "Months passed and I stayed with Seichiro. I had no where to go and no one I met had ever seen me before. A month ago I started having dreams about people I didn't know and places I had never seen. The images came in flashes and I began to have headaches. I felt a sense of urgency that I couldn't explain. Then a week ago I was watching a single leaf fall and I remembered."

Tenten closed her eyes briefly in silent thanks. The leaves of Konoha.

"What did you remember?" Hiashi asked. Neji paused before answering.

"My life."

But something about his answer struck her and she recalled what he had said the night before. I remembered you. She swallowed a gasp. Could his memory of her have been the one to lead him home? Her eyes flew to the rigid lines of Neji's back and she smiled, her eyes shimmering.

"I trust you have seen your son?" Hiasha continued after a moment, his gaze flickering to her. Neji nodded once.

"I have."

Hiashi's expression eased. "Then I give you leave to spend time with your family. They, too, have a had a long road."

Tenten blinked, shocked into stillness, bowing to Hiashi-sama purely out of habit and rising to follow Neji out of the room simply because she was used to following him. Once they were a safe distance down the corridor, Neji turned to her, frowning slightly.

"What is it? Your face says you're surprised about something."

She shook her head, still amazed. "Hiashi-sama, he… he said that Keiki and I… that we're your family." She put a hand over her mouth quickly to stifle any sort of sob that might come out of her. It would be awhile before her emotions righted themselves, until then she was liable to cry at any moment.

Neji stepped closer to her, one smooth eyebrow rising in question. "Aren't you?"

She didn't know how to answer that. It's not as if they were married despite the fact they had a son. Still, she wanted to be his family, wanted it with every fiber of her being. She would live as a Hyuuga forever if it meant being near him.

Seeing her hesitation, Neji pulled something out of his shirt and she recognized the pattern on the back as being one of her tarot cards. She glanced at him incredulously as he flipped it over. The Nine of Wands.

"When did you…?"

"I took it with me the morning I left you," he answered quietly. "Do you remember what it means?"

"There's someone you rely on it times of stress, someone that brings you stability," she whispered, stunned. He had keep it with him all this time? "I never checked to see if they were all there. I never opened them again."

He leaned down, his mouth brushing her ear, as close as they could get in the very public hallway of the Hyuuga house. Her body shivered with the sound of his voice.

"That person, my Nine of Wands, she is my family." Her eyes widened as he straightened, that smirk of his curving his lips slightly. "I'm disappointed in you, Tenten. I thought you could foretell the future?"

And in an instant she was herself again, young and fierce, and he was her arrogant Hyuuga teammate that needed a good smack. She smiled up at him, letting a joyful laugh bubble out of her, and walked beside him to their son's room.

Surprisingly, Keiki wasn't alone.

"I heard a rumor and came to see if it was true," Lee said, some odd look on his face that she couldn't read. Either he was about to cry or do something incredibly stupid. In true Lee flair, he suddenly pointed a finger at Neji, one hand on his hip. "Hyuuga Neji, I challenge you to a fight!"

"Lee! What are you doing?!" she asked, feeling as if she had received one too many surprises in the last hour.

"I cannot accept that this is Neji until I have fought him!" he replied dramatically. "We shall see if you hold the same youthful talent that my teammate once had!"

Tenten was having trouble keeping her jaw from dropping. "Lee!"

He glanced at her briefly. "Forgive me, Tenten, but a promise is a promise." Neji shifted at that, eyeing their friend with renewed attention.

"I accept," he said suddenly, watching Lee with complete seriousness. Tenten looked at him as if he too had gone crazy.

"Neji!"

"This will only take a moment," he told her as he and Lee stepped out into the courtyard. She followed them, speechless, wondering why the two men in her life were such… such men. Already other Hyuugas were stopping to watch, sizing up the two contestants as if it were just another day.

Lee struck a pose. "Alright, Neji, show me your bountiful determination and don't hold back!"

Neji favored his son's uncle with a dangerous half-smile. He was going to enjoy this.

To be continued…