I couldn't help it, in this one I just had to add in a little veiw point from Tenten.

Disclaimer: The characters are not mine. Not even Neji. Sigh.

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Recovery

Konoha Hospital

That, Neji reflected with as little movement as possible, was not the most successfully completed mission ever.

The lack of perfection irritated him, almost as much as his injuries, almost as much as the fluttering nurses. He must have been checked at least a dozen times by a dozen different nurses, and the glints in their eyes as they asked him if he needed a sponge bath yet, still sent shudders down his spine. He was firmly decided to rest stinky until he was let out to go home, and if his stink that meant the nurses stayed away all the better.

It wasn't that he was afraid as such, no, but all that predatory attention was...unnerving, that's how he felt unnerved, not panicked at all. If he was feeling the slightess bit nervous it was the fault of all the medication they were pumping into him. Yet another nurse poked her head into the room for no apparent reason and then withdrew after giving his bandaged yet distressingly bare chest a good look. Did those women not have other patients to inflict themselves onto?

His only relief were the irregulier visits from Lee and Gai-sensei. But even they could not be there all day to protect him from the subtle and not so subtle sexual avances of the nurses. Of course he'd rather die than ask them for help, his was the path of the stoic warrior and it wasn't the path of the panic striken pleading for protection from the hoards of advancing nurses. At least his agitated imagination provided hoards of advancing nurses, night had not yet fallen so he didn't know for sure, but he imagined and he didn't like his imagination.

He knew there were other shinobi who believed he was either gay or an ennuch the way he avoided female company, he personally knew half a dozen male and some female shinobi who would kill to be in his overly coverted position. The thing was, women terrified him, try growing up in a household where the majority of women from the youngest to the oldest held the ability to fry your brain if you displeased them and you grew up scared. Since he'd hit puberty and come to really understand some of the more veiled looks women gave, he'd held a secret fear.

At first he'd added it to the list of his perfections, his qualities which rendered his curse seal even more undeserved, until he'd realised one day that being the object of desire when you had no power to stop the desirer was not an enviable position. He'd just been made a genin barely able to comprehend the implusions that had driven his head family cousin to order him to her room one day. Barely able to respond to her demands, her pressure, fear paralysing him, fear of the curse seal, of displeasing her enough that she would use it, sick helpless anger.

If Hinata-sama hadn't heard his whimpered protests and opened the door the faintest flush of anger on her normally crestfallen face, he didn't know what would've have happened. But it was enough to make him hate the head family even more, to hate his curse seal for making him so weak as to need the protection of the family loser, to hate Hinata-sama for ever having seen him in such a position, to hate her for having the power to protect him.

To fear women in a position of power over him had become natural to him. For him women were seperated into two groups, those he was constrained to obey and therefore fear and those he was stronger than and therefore not afraid of. Nurses fell into the first group, especially when he was too injured to effectively use his techniques. He didn't even think about Tsunade-sama, he just obeyed.

The sky grew darker and Neji shifted uneasily in his bed. A part of him knew he was being riduculous, that he was older, stronger, respected, that he still had at least one kunai for defense under his left leg. He tried to lean back more comfortably against his pillow, tried to look as bored and unaffected as possible. If only he would stop imagining things, stop almost cringing at the sound of passing footsteps. If only he had at least one room mate, preferably male, he could relax, but no, Hyuuga's got private rooms. Yippee.

The room got darker and darker and Neji's thoughts became more random as the medication fought to make him sleep while his paranoia fought to keep him awake. As a method to keep himself alert he tried picking apart the last mission, focusing on finding his errors so he could avoid future mistakes.

But as many times as he tried to rethink it he always came to the same inescapable conclusion, Tenten had screwed up, and it had almost cost him his life. She was supposed to have searched the contact for hidden weapons before he met with Neji. Obviously she'd missed one or two, because, well, here he was in hospital. Not that he held anything against her, it was a mistake, and if his stupid disguise hadn't by neccessity been too tight to allow him to quickly use his Juken moves he would've been just fine.

Mistakes happened, even to the perfect, and he couldn't really hold a grudge against Tenten, that was just stupid, because he had to trust his life to her everyday. Just she trusted hers to him and Lee, it was teamwork. However, and at this thought his normally unperturbed face frowned, she could've turned up to wish him well, or say sorry, or beg his forgiveness, or cry over his broken body or something. True this was his first full day awake not drugged into a stupor, but he'd asked Lee if she'd been by while he'd been KOed on medication. Lee'd said she'd been busy somewhere else.

Busy somewhere else. Neji snorted, shifting again so the point of the kunai pushed into his thigh keeping him awake.

He almost pouted thinking about it, almost, but the damned medication hadn't ruined that much of his self control. The growing panic he was feeling was also due to the medication he was sure. Damn nurses, probably did it on purpose. Biting his lip in annoyance he touched his exposed seal from habit, the pull on his bandages reminding him how even that normally calming move was a bad idea. Damn nurses probably did that on purpose as well.

He wished they'd left his forehead protector on, or at least have let Lee bandage his head. Lee had tried to bandage Neji's forehead out of politeness for Neji, even brought his own bandages. Lee knew how much Neji did not like showing his seal to all and sundry, but for some strange reason he'd been told it was bad for Neji's health. Damn nurses.

The panic was rising in his throat and he had to clench his hands in the bedspread hard to stop himself from grabbing the kunai and brandishing it at every sound. He had to speak to Gai-sensei get him to ask them to down the amount of medication he was on, this just wasn't normal for him. This panic, this lack of control, this being weak. It reminded him too much of that other time, that other room. His breathing became louder, more hurried. The sound of approaching footsteps pushing his long disused panic buttons and he pushed open his byukyugan even though it made his eyes burn.

He scanned the area, his hand coming unnoticed up into a defensive position clutching his kunai. His byukyugan flickered and swayed or maybe that was just him, the person passed his room without pausing opening a door further along and dissapearing into the room beyond the range of his weakened sight.

The movement in the trees outside drew his attention and without turning his head he extended his vision into the greenery.

Tenten knelt on a branch not far from his window reguarding his tense body. In a flush of heat he realised how ridiculous he looked. He dropped the kunai and leaned back into his pillow his head still turned away from her, even though he watched her with his byukyugan, even though he knew, she knew he was using his byukyugan to watch her. Settling back against the tree she drew out a book and opening it at a marked page began reading again.

She'd been there all along he realised, probably every night, the tree was too well prepared for an all night vigil for this to be a quick visit. There were books and a blanket, she even had snacks. Neji almost chuckled over her sugar addiction. Tenten popped a sweet into her mouth as if in defiance of his mocking. The moon was high giving a lot of light, but she was an expert at blending in with the background.

She knew, he thought to himself, she knew that he would feel panicked being a strange place, helpless, surrounded by people he didn't know. So she came to watch over him, in a way that 1, wouldn't get her thrown out of the hospital, 2, wouldn't end up running some stupid rumor about the two of them all over the village, and 3, wouldn't step on his fragile ego too much. He knew he had a big ego when it came to never needing help or protection but he couldn't help it, everyone expected him to be perfect.

With her there he felt he could almost sleep tonight, almost, there was still that tiny worry that she would fall asleep, she had to be tired after the mission. He tried to tell himself that Tenten had never fallen asleep on guard duty before and she wouldn't start now, and he just needed to stop letting the medication get to him and get to sleep. He was Hyuuga Neji for crying out loud and he could handle the situation without running for help.

He almost didn't hear it at first, the sound of his grinding teeth blocked it out, but it filtered through his panic and started to sooth him immediately, as she'd known it would. She was playing her flute, softly so she didn't disturb anyone else, and she was playing that song she always played when they were on mission, just the team...

His eyes blinked slowly.

And they were alone in the woods on their way back home after a successful mission.

He yawned but didn't really notice it.

And Lee and Gai-sensei were quiet for once, and they were all sitting around the fire, safe inside the patrolled forests surrounding Konoha village.

He shifted against the soft pillows sliding lower down until he was almost flat on his back.

And Tenten would draw out the flute fitting it together and put it to her lips drawing her breath in holding it an exquisite instant before starting to play.

He yawned again, wider this time and felt his eyelids droop.

He loved that instant before she started playing, he would lean his head back against a tree and close his eyes and let himself imagine the music she was playing. She was no virtuoso, but when she played it meant the mission was over and successful, they were one night away from home, they were safe...

Tenten looked down at her sleeping teammate, aware her cheeks were much too pink. She never allowed herself to look at Neji like this, it seemed wrong somehow to look at him and want him when he was no position to decide if he wanted to be looked at that way, by her. But even the strongest of self controls cannot withstand such obvious temptation.

He was, she said to herself, the most beautiful man she'd ever seen, and semi-nude he was so beautiful she wanted to cry with the need to touch that perfection. But there was her respect for him, and the fact that if she did try anything when he was so weak, so addled by the medicine, it would only leave a bitter taste in her mouth afterwards. Not to mention his justified loathing of her.

So she looked at him and drew her eyes up his body, over his mussed hair, and the startling fragility around his shadowed eyes and the tightly held mouth. She loved him from afar as she'd never let herself do before, and it brought tears to her eyes to think he might never return those carresses. But she was Tenten and she never left a teammate without cover no matter what the cost. And what were a few tears to protect the man she loved?