Vulnerability is a sin
A/n: (sniff! sniff!) I never realized getting reviews was THAT great...
Well... thanks everyone... I really appreciate it!
--------------------------------
Tenten woke up to the sound of a kettle boiling. Her senses unfolding, she felt her skin prick up and form goose bumps because of the air that had suddenly become musky and warm. Opening her eyes, she glanced around the room- a place that was so unfamiliar.
"Where, am I?" she managed to croak. Tilting her head up, she scanned the place for other signs of life.
None.
Only the faint reminiscence of old rococo furniture, sterile and sanitized walls common in the Hidden villages hospitals.
"Hospital?" she wondered. "Why was she in a hospital?"
Confused. She was so strangely confused. She was somewhere between consciousness and unconsciousness, except she was already wide awake. At least her eyes were. Her brain still hadn't caught up, yet.
Bracing her body up, she used her arm as a support. Raising herself, she cringed. Pain shot daggers into her arms, making her dizzy
Glancing at the source of her vertigo, she looked down to notice her right, hand bandaged and stitched up, black, blue and purple.
Turning blue herself, memory hit her in full force.
"Damn it!" she swore. A loud, and rather profane string of curses escaped through her lips, and was heard outside in the hospital hallway.
"Who is she? Isn't the mental ward in the left side of the building?" said a random nurse.
"I don't know... All I know is that she came here with that gorgeous young man, all banged up and bloody..."
"Really? uhh...I didn't see..."
Inside the room, Tenten continued to stare at space, thinking absently, thoughts drifting in and out, streaming throughout her consciousness.
She was calm now.
A while ago, she wasn't. If truth be told, she had come so close to a serious nervous breakdown all due to the fact that Hyuuga Neji had seen her in the worst possible scenario-a situation where she became so weak.
Looking wildly about her, she searched the room for signs of Neji-sama...
None...
Letting out a big sigh of relief, she relaxed her whole body, and it fell in the bed with a big thump.
"Thank god...I still have time to brace myself...," she whispered. All tension relieved from her body, she now even managed to grin.
"Typical of Neji... To just dump me in the hospital..."
Closing her eyes, she let her smirk grow wider.
"No dreams of me lying in his lap, nursing me... no worried Neji... no dark, concerned, beautiful eyes."
Her eyes opened wide.
Disturbing thoughts again, she decided. Then, she laughed half-heartedly...
"Love's driving me crazy... Neji's making me think strange visions like these..."
After that, she relaxed again, letting the hot air enter her body, refusing to let its pungent and disgustingly divine fragrance to infiltrate her nose.
"Disgusting..." she said, while wrinkling her nose.
Who decided to torture her in this manner?, she wondered as she listened to the steady tick-tock of the infirmary clock.
With all these randomness in mind, she drifted back to sleep...
Then woke up!!
Some one had barged in through the door.
"Neji?" she suddenly thought, while starting to panic. Her heart was leaping in all directions, as she tried to get up to face the boy.
"Tenten?"
"..."
It was Rock Lee.
"Hellooo! I thought you were still asleep!!"
Tenten sighed...false alarm
"Well? What do you want?"
"Oh!! I just came here to visit you..." ---flashes weird grin-----
"...and to refill that kettle of special herbs..."
Tenten gasped in surprise
"whoa!! Waitaminute!!! You mean..."
"...specially designed to heal 1000 kind of injuries present today" ----hops happily to the counter---------- "Gai-sensei told me that when he heard you were sick!! HE told me it could heal-"
"Get that thing out my room!!"
"-heal stomach ache, digestion, toothache, a loose bowel, warts-
"Get out of this room, Rock Lee!! Or I'll..."
"accumulated earwax, boils, arthritis, rheumatitis, halitosis..."
"AAAaaaargh!!!!!!"
Tenten screamed in utter dismay, while she silently wished for the earth to swallow her up, or better for the earth to swallow Rock Lee.
It was no use. The heavens had no pity for her.
Rock Lee just kept on talking and talking, and talking......
Back in the hallway.
"Hey, the weird girl in room 101 has found a companion..."
"Is it the cute one?" asked the acne embedded nurse.
"No... another weirdo..." replied the wart encrusted fat one.
"uh... that's a pity..."
"yeah...it sure is..."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neji stood on one of the village's remote bridges.
Just staring at the ripples in the waters below him, he didn't seem to notice the loud hustle and bustle of the mass striving to get the last coin to feed their families before the sun gave out.
It wasn't as if he didn't mind their presence. In fact, they quite irritated him, and in normal circumstances, he would have already left, refusing to spend one second in this inferior crowd.
But now, Neji had his thoughts to occupy him.
Naturally, he was thinking about Tenten.
Tenten-that strong, cold, ice princess that had been accompanying him and Rock Lee for many years now since they had passed Ninja academy.
That same girl, he saw shrinking from him, that same girl who embraced him so tightly, and suddenly fainted away to cap it all.
Strange, he thought... very odd...
It was as if in one afternoon, all his views about that girl changed.
It was all because of the fact that he had never, or even imagined to see her in this position. He couldn't quite place what he felt about it.
He felt...weird.
He walked towards the railing, and turned his face towards the wind, letting its harsh fingers strike him over, and over again, all the while enjoying it.
He and Tenten loved this. Both enjoyed the challenge nature offered them.
Many training nights were spent just listening to storm brewing in the far west.
He closed his eyes.
And, he sighed. "I'll just wonder later..."
But suddenly, he bowed his head down low, as if troubled.
"That feeling again...weird..."
His hand crept to his chest, and he thumped it as if to stop the thoughts that were coming in from the outside, thoughts he tried his best to hide from...
His eyes opened and it darkened.
It's coming now..., he thought, any moment.
And he turned around.
But it wasn't him.
It wasn't who he expected, rather, someone else. It was Rock Lee.
"Neji..."
"What is it?", he asked.
"Neji...I..." Rock Lee slowly said, as if he hesitated to say the words. "...umm"
"What?" NEji asked again trying to curb his impatience.
"Well... umm... I...she..." Rock Lee suddenly stopped.
"What is it damn it!!" Neji growled in intolerance.
Finally, Rock Lee found the words.
"Neji...Tenten's missing."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------