Disclaimer: I do not have Naruto in my arsenal of 'own'!
REASON WHY I PUT THIS OFF FOR SO LONG: Uh, stuff came up, but at least now it's finished, ne? The answer? Look at the first letter of each chapter. It's an acrostic poem! Sorta…
REAL REASON WHY I PUT THIS OFF FOR SO LONG: Because I realized that I'm not really a big fan of writing romances, only occasionally reading them. Pathetic, ne? Though it's because I think what I'm about to write is very stupid…
"A friend? As in Lee?" TenTen asked hopefully.
"No, not him, Neji." Naruto answered.
"Neji…" She looked at him with her big round eyes as she placed a hand on her heart. "Neji… here?" She said slowly.
"You bet! Hey! Maybe we could go find him! I saw him less than thirty minutes ago!" Naruto suggested, happy to see someone familiar despite the fact he hardly knew anything beyond her name.
TenTen blinked. Was this possible? Out of all the odds… But…
"I can't." She shifted her gaze, not looking at Naruto. "I can't." She repeated and then she turned around and quickly left, looking as if her heart and soul had shattered.
"W-wait!" Naruto called desperately. "W-Why not!"
"I can't…" And Naruto heard no more as the girl disappeared.
Neji stood in amazement as he looked between the scroll in which his mission was printed on to the entry in his former teammate's diary. He knew they were made of the same material, but one was transparent, and the other…
"Two pages." He said amazed. After all these years, everyday, he has failed to notice that. But it didn't matter now, because now he knew. Perhaps now he would find out where she truly was… The only problem was how to get that second page out. He dared not try and pry the two away in fear that TenTen had glued it or something, but he had to somehow get the pages apart. He had to… But what if it was just a blank page? What if he ruined it? So many questions, but no answer. None at all. Unless he was willing to risk everything on a gamble…
Neji sighed as he laid down page, or pages I should say. Putting out his fire with a cascade of water, he carefully slid TenTen's diary into his satchel, slung it over his back, and left for the city. Maybe someone there would know how to pry those two apart…
Naruto sighed as he realized that there was no stopping TenTen, or any other girl, save maybe Hinata when their mind was made up. Giving a last look of remorse, he turned away and started thinking about what he was going to do. He could go back to Konoha and beg Sakura to hand over the title before they carved her face into the mountain as well, hm…
Turning into the nearest ramen bar, he plotted himself down, ready for another bowl, despite the fact that he had already had plenty enough to last. Shaking his head he called for only one this time.
As he waited, the young blonde skimmed the other people that were here: two guys who seemed to be laughing at something extremely funny, and another guy, who sat in silence, not really eating anything, but staring at a piece of paper…
"Neji!" Naruto gasped as he quickly lunged his way, excited about telling him whom he just met. "Neji, I saw T-"
"Naruto, go home," Neji replied icily, not wanting to see him ever again.
"But, Neji, I-"
"Go home!" Neji spat, turning away and headed down the street. Just him thinking that by going there, he could avoid him. Too bad he didn't really use his brain that time.
"NEJI, I SAW TENTEN!" Naruto yelled, but the Hyuuga didn't pay any heed, too far away to listen…
"Yes, you are right, there are two pages together here," the book binder told Neji, who's eyes were wide opened and ears pricking to hear every word. "Though you're lucky, young man, it's only been glued on the sides," he continued as he separated the top right edge a little bit. "With something sharp and thin, you should be able to pry the two apart without too much trouble…"
"Thank you," Neji said curtly as he threw down a bunch of coins and sped out the door. He had been desperate, someone could have easily identified him to be from Konoha, particularly those assassins, but like I said, he was desperate, desperate for any clues at all.
As he reached a less congested part of town, Neji reached into his sack and took out a very thing knife, so thin you could even bend the metal and have it spring right back. It was really good for cutting fruit, but that wasn't the purpose then.
Slowly, ever so carefully, he lifted the blade to the raw edges of the paper. This was it, either it was blank, or it contained some very special information. He guessed the latter, seeing there wouldn't be much point to glue it if there wasn't. Yes, there it was, more ink writing. By now, the pages were split, but before he got another look at them…
A loud shriek followed by a huge bang and a brilliant display of iridescent lights snapped Neji out of his doings. Duty came before lost things in life…
"Well, if they don't want my help, they're not going to get it!" shouted Naruto as he marched back home to Konoha. "Besides, the two stubborn-heads can settle this without me! If they ever meet up…
There was a body of a man, blood freely flowing from his wounds as a waitress stood next to his lifeless form, holding two scrolls and a kunai. There was a tense air about them. There was something so familiar, yet so wrong about this scene, so, so eerie…
The waitress turned around to meet Neji's pure white and silvery ones with her own chocolaty round ones. A smile bloomed on her face at first, but then quickly disappeared in an instant as her eyes showed signs of deep longing and melancholy remorse.
"…TenTen…" Neji said softly, barely daring to breathe.
"…Neji…" she replied in almost a whimpered like voice, the one she would use when he scolded her about something that she did wrong.
"Is this… really you?" he asked, more directing it towards her in a sense of her haven broken the rules or such. She bit her bottom lips as she calmly answered him.
"Yes, it is,' she sighed sadly as she turned around to go.
"TenTen," Neji said, voice almost begging her to tell him it was wrong.
"It's because this is my job, Neji, I can't help it!" she told him, almost yelling it out. Her knuckles were white from clenching the things in her hands too tightly. Neji prayed it wasn't true, but her eyes told all.
"Why?" he demanded. "Why?"
"…You… you don't understand?" she said softly as you could almost hear the creak that her heart made breaking.
"No," Neji answered simply, stepping forward, a scowl on his lips. "This isn't like you, and unless you give me a reason, I'm not letting you go," he continued, grabbing her hand.
"Neji, have you been born into oblivion?" she screamed as traces of tears welled up in her eyes. "The only reason I ever stepped foot in Fire Country was because our family was on a mission! We were gathering information, and killing was one of the ways to seek out their strengths, and once we had enough, we came back! Neji, I'm an assassin, my family is the one you're out to kill!"
Neji staggered back in disbelief as the words struck his brain. This couldn't be, this isn't happening, everything was wrong!
"Please go, I don't want to hurt you too, but I will if you don't," she said, raising her kunai and pointing it at Neji's heart. "Please Neji, please go and never come back… please!"
"No, I won't," Neji answered simply as he activated his Byakugan. "Duty comes first before personal matters…"
TenTen stood stunned as Neji struck a fighting stance. And here she was, thinking he had changed, thinking he had loved her, but no. No man who says 'Duty before personal matters' will stay true…
"Neji… do you love me?" TenTen asked.
Neji thought hard about this. Did he? Did he really love her, or was he just afraid of loosing her like everything else? Was it because she was the only thing that didn't really go away? Or was it because he was just so selfish and never wanted to loose anything?
"…No, I don't," he answered solemnly and truthfully.
"…I-I see…" TenTen said, sighing. "Good bye then, it was… a pleasure to have been acquainted with you…" And with that, she was gone… for good, forever…
"It was nice knowing you too, TenTen…" Neji murmured as he dug into his pack and withdrew that hidden page:'
I hope we meet again, maybe in a field of flowers or something…
End Part I
Yech, I hate this, but oh well… Maybe I'll write a sequel when I get back into this stuff…