Yes! A successful cliff hanger! Yes, yes, everything was deliberate… in this chapter, we find out what they wrote in the book which is not a very good cliff hanger, but anyhow! (See the 6th chapter of Camp is Fun!)
And now, once again, we come to the end of another story… it's been awesome! Read, review, enjoy…
CHRISTMAS DAY- SIX MONTHS LATER
"Tenten, I'm sorry." Sakura said, coming to stand by the bedside, checking the various monitors situated around the bed head. "It's just that you've been in a coma for six months to the day." Sakura pulled out a box from under the bed.
"It's been six… months?" Tenten frowned. She had thought that it would only have been six hours- it had definitely felt like it.
"Tenten," Neji said softly as Sakura rummaged around in the box. "It's Christmas."
"Christmas!" Tenten shrieked, making Sakura drop whatever she was holding in fright. "That slut was weaker than I thought!"
Neji smiled and took her hand, caressing its smooth skin.
"She was weak enough to put you in a six month comatose state!" Sakura said, shaking her head.
"Considering that she wanted to kill me, she didn't do a very good job of it…" Tenten muttered.
"Tenten…" Neji said.
"Just so you know, Tenten, you have no idea how incredibly…"
"Loving and loyal?" Neji suggested a smirk on his face.
Sakura glared at the Hyuuga- one that he returned. "Annoying it was to have that boyfriend of yours hang around you all day, everyday. He was freaked out of his mind about you and refused to leave your side, and would let no one other than himself, myself or Tsunade to attend to you because he was so bloody paranoid. It was six long, painful and lonely months, Tenten- and especially for him."
Sakura sat on the other side of the bed.
"Nice hat," Tenten said, toying with the pompom on the top of the hat. "And costume." She added, eyeing the boots with three inch heels.
"Yeah- Christmas party at Kiba's. Mr Broody Hyuuga here wouldn't come."
"And it was a good thing I didn't." Neji replied.
Silence fell.
Sakura shook her head and picked up the pencil torch.
"Open." She commanded. Tenten opened her mouth and Sakura shone the light in her mouth, then in her eyes. "How do you feel? Weak? Dizzy? Hungry? Thirsty?" Sakura asked many more questions and made some markings on the clipboard with the pen.
"Nothing. I'm feeling a bit weak and feeble right now… but that death curse didn't work very well." Tenten commented in an off-handed manner.
"Tenten?" Neji looked up at her. "Did you kill Akiko?"
Their eyes met, and Tenten lost herself Neji's silvery depths, with hints of lilac. It was a bit of a feminine colour, but who cared? Tenten mentally shook herself.
"No!" she cried indignantly. "She was the one who tried to kill me! We fought, I trapped her, and she shot that stupid and weak death curse at me!"
"Like I said before, it was weak enough to put you into a six month state of unconsciousness." Sakura repeated. "Okay, if I may ask, does this hurt?" Sakura had lifted the back of Tenten's shirt and pressed a certain point. Tenten took a sharp breath and winced. Neji noticed that she was trying to blink back tears of shock.
"What is that?" the kunoichi asked. "It's annoying as all hell!"
"That, my dearest," Sakura said dryly, "is where it hit you."
Neji traced his finger around the mark and Tenten shivered. "There's a mark there." He murmured quietly, his warm breath spreading across her skin.
"Let me guess, it's something tacky, cliché and predictable like a symbol of death." Tenten laughed.
"No, it says dragon." Neji said in the same soft voice.
"That wasn't expected, but then again, Akiko was always classy in her insults." She snorted and Neji and Sakura rolled their eyes. "So has anything happened?" the weapons mistress asked suddenly. "Anyone get married? Engaged? Break up? Engaged?"
"You said engaged twice." Neji said, positioning himself beside her once more.
"I know." She looked at Sakura significantly and the younger girl blushed.
Neji cocked an eyebrow.
"You're engaged?" he asked.
"Yes." She squealed, jumping up and down excitedly.
"Then why aren't you wearing your engagement ring?" he asked softly.
Sakura's blush returned.
"We wanted to wait for you to wake up before telling everyone. Ino would have noticed the ring."
"How much did you want to tell her?" Tenten asked, teasingly.
"Heaps. I mean after he proposed, it was so beautiful. I mean he even got down on one knee to propose." She sighed.
"Where did he do it?"
"It was sunset, and he'd taken me to the beach for a day…"
"Really? He's changed that much? Are you sure that Ino and Hinata don't know?" Tenten smiled.
Sakura smiled. "I'm positive." Then she looked at Tenten curiously. "How did you know?"
"I had a feeling. I have a strong intuition, which I think is quite necessary in our line of work. Anyway, you are feeling quite buoyant, and it just washed over me in waves and I thought that I should decipher it." Tenten said, quite cryptically.
"Why didn't Neji notice it first?" Sakura asked.
"Neji is still here you know." Neji grumbled.
"What? It looked like you were asleep again."
Neji was lying on the bed with his eyes closed, his hand still holding Tenten's.
"Listening to you talk about marriage and engagements became no longer amusing." The Hyuuga said.
"Well, he was wrapped up in his own pain and couldn't see your happiness."
"What are you- Miss I-can-read-and-interpret-everyone's-emotions?" Sakura asked.
"Not that I know of."
"You were never like this before."
"Hm. I wasn't, was I?"
"Where are you getting all of this information?" Neji asked, suddenly, curious.
"I don't know… something at the back of my mind. It seems to put everything together for me and I just know, suddenly." She replied, puzzled herself.
"Does your back hurt or tingle when it happens?" Neji asked.
"No. why?"
"Because it's glowing."
"Really? No way! What colour?"
"Um… white."
There was a silence. Tenten thought about it for a few seconds and said, "Its Akiko's doing. She is more than a bit stupid." She shook her head.
"What is it?" Sakura asked suddenly.
Tenten looked at her.
"Have you ever heard of death curses?"
"No."
"Neji? Have you?"
"Only one thing. It's a suicide act. You pour all of your hate and life into one action and it will kill the person you wish to kill, but you will die for it."
"Action? Can that be anything at all?" Sakura asked, still confused. "What has that to do with Akiko?"
"How much chakra would that consume?" Tenten asked slowly.
"A lot, depending on the strength of the person you wish to kill. The stronger they are, the more chakra is required."
"I see."
"What?" Sakura asked, desperate to know. She was extremely intelligent, but talking about this made her feel extremely in the dark and stupid.
"I bound Akiko's hands to the side of her body, her feet to the ground and destroyed any voice she had. The only thing she could do was think of the curse and throw it out of her body. I don't know how she did it, but she did. Maybe she had some kind of mental power…" Tenten's eyes widened in shock.
"What is it?"
"Akiko had mental powers?" Neji said.
"It appears so. She put all of her life into that one thought and cast it from her body, and transferred, unknowingly, her power to me." Tenten lay back on the bed, and sighed. "She really didn't have any idea about it. She never told me about it, and never really had big brainwave flashes or anything."
"But that's not possible." Sakura said, understanding, but not accepting.
"It is," said a voice from the doorway. Everyone looked at Tsunade.
"Really?" Tenten sat up, eager to hear more.
"Yes, but, for now, I think you should close your mind to other presences. There are a lot of shady characters out there who can sense sensitive minds like yours and take advantage of it."
"Sensitive minds?" Tenten said, her pride a bit injured.
Tsunade raised an eyebrow.
"I meant that your mind is now very receptive to other minds, emotions and thoughts. It is also very vulnerable in this state, so you'd be better closing your mind to these things when you're in a battle involving more than one opponent and walking around in the streets, or being in a crowded room with people you don't know."
"How do you close or open your mind?" Neji asked. He had known something like this would come with a drawback.
"Like this." Tsunade formed the dragon seal and whispered her name. Tenten blinked and sighed.
"That feels better."
"What? Why? Does it hurt to have your mind open?" Tsunade asked.
"No, it's just that someone close by is having an e… a very good dream. They think it's good anyway." She shivered and grimaced.
"Are you going to be okay?" Tsunade asked.
"Yeah. I think I need some more rest." She replied and her once idol and her apprentice stood up and left.
"Tsunade-sama?" Tenten called out. "When can I leave?"
"Tomorrow." The Godaime replied, and Tenten sighed.
When she was sure that the pair had left, she sat up and tugged on Neji's hand.
"Let's go." She said, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. "I don't want to stay in here another day." She stood up and walked over to the wardrobe and quickly put them on, not bothering to hide anything. Neji pinked slightly.
"Come on."
Neji sat up and rubbed at the dark circles under his eyes. "Where are we going?"
"I am going to have a shower, at home. I haven't washed my hair physically by myself for six months, and neither have you, from the looks of it." Neji glowered despite himself. He picked up his jacket and wrapped it around Tenten, and they snuck out of the hospital.
They headed towards the market place, walking slowly as Tenten's muscles became used to movement once more.
Something caught Tenten's attention. She drifted away from Neji, who pulled her back, but it was too late.
The man who had caught Tenten's attention was now walking confidently over to her, ignoring Neji. Tenten looked at him. He seemed to be slightly blurred at the edges, like he was surrounded by an aura. His clothing was neat and tidy, and he carried with him a thick black leather bound book. Tenten was about to say something, but he grabbed her hand. At that point, a strange scent washed over her, and a nauseating blankness took over her. She felt like she had to get away, faint, do what he said and do nothing – all at the same time. Tenten realised her was speaking. What he said went into one ear and out the other and she registered, on some level, that he was analysing her palm, all the while checking his black book and making strange gestures.
The urge to get away, or make the man get away from him overrode all others and she flicked her wrists. No wickedly bared knives came to her rescue. She was without any munition.
"I-I have to…" she mouthed, her voice gone. Neji noticed both gestures and tapped the man's head. He reeled back, falling to the ground, blood trickling down his forehead from where Neji had touched him.
"The Hyuuga!" He clutched his beloved book to his chest. "He's casting a spell over me!"
"Silence!" Neji thundered in a voice so terrible, that it was what he got- in a five mile radius. "You are now accused on preying on the weak-willed…" Tenten, her pride a bit marred, poked him roughly.
"I'll handle this." The kunoichi said, her face regaining some of its colour. She then looked down at the man on the floor, her face changing to an impassive mask. Tenten snatched away the book and summoned fire to the palm of her hand, burning it quickly to dust. The minute particles of ash were blown away by a gentle breeze and the strange scent seemed to wash away with it, leaving Tenten feeling clean and stronger than she had been before. "If you ever even try to accost anyone around here again, I will know, and I will hunt you down. Actually, I am going to stop that from happening for as long as you live." As she spoke, Tenten formed seals behind her back. She touched the man's forehead where Neji had tapped it and her eyes turned a dull black.
"W-what a-are y-y-ou…" the man stuttered.
"By your blood! I bind you to silence!" she whispered in a low voice. "By your blood, I bind you to silence. By your blood, I destroy your evil crafts and disintegrate all chakra in your body!" the man coughed up blood violently, his body obeying her commands and harming him in the process. "By your blood, spirit and mind, do you swear to never hurt any other living creature ever again and never to pass on your knowledge of this craft to any other living creature, or write it down, or reveal its secrets to anyone?" Tenten said in one breath. She, however, did not seem puffed out at all.
The power of the moment gave him his voice back.
"I.. I swear." He croaked.
Tenten looked into his blue eyes, flecked with gold.
"Do you swear on your life?" she asked quietly.
He hesitated.
"I swear! I swear! Please, leave me!" he cried.
The sun reached its zenith in the sky.
"Do you vow on your body, mind and soul?" she said quietly.
He paused yet again.
"I… I swear." He said, resigned. He opened his mouth to say something else, but his voice left him.
"Know this." She proclaimed so all would hear. " If you ever betray your words, you will die. Your blood will boil and burn and freeze within your veins, in anger, hate and pain. Your agony will last and torment you to all hell. Every breath you draw would taste and smell of every fetid deed you have ever done, and you will not receive redemption and forgiveness from any living creature in this world, for you have broken a sworn blood oath." Her voice faded, and the man fell to the ground, bowing at her feet.
She kicked him away, and her eyes became their usual chocolate colour.
"No one can take that vow away from you. You swore of your own free will." She snarled in a warning, then disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Neji, who had been all but forgotten followed her.
"I'm impressed." He said, on their balcony. "Who taught you magic?"
"It's not magic." she replied shortly. "It's a simple jutsu that uses the person's blood to make sure that they are under your command."
"Really?" Neji said, slowly. "Who taught you?"
"I don't know." Tenten confessed. "It just came to me, in a flash and I didn't know how or where from."
"How long have you known?"
She smiled sheepishly. "For as long as I can remember."
"Why didn't you use it before?"
"It's a close range technique, Neji. I didn't want to use it when I was younger because I liked my weapons. And besides, it's not every day that I want to actually want to have to take the time to do all of that. Knives are faster, easier and don't require chakra. I do it when I'm forced to."
Neji said nothing, satisfied with her answer, slid the key from his pocked into the lock and opened the door.
"Amazing, isn't it, how much dust gathers when you don't clean something for six months?" Tenten laughed when Neji raised an eyebrow. The apartment was spotless. "Then again, it's not so amazing if you have someone clean it for you."
The pair made their way down the hallway to Tenten's bathroom, where everything was just the way she lad left it, and liked it.
Tenten shut and locked the door behind her, then turned on the bath tap. She then proceeded to hunt around in her bathroom, pouring them into the deliciously warm water. The scent of coconut filled the room.
"Tenten?" Neji said, watching the white bath petals dissolve. "It's a girl bath. I'll smell like a girl."
"Who cares? If you stand with me, people will just think it's plain old, girly smelling me." The kunoichi smiled and Neji's breath caught. She was beautiful, and he knew that she was the only woman he had, and would ever, fall in love with.
"Neji," she said softly. "You can't have a bath with your clothes on."
Neji looked into her eyes and she met his gaze with a shyness he was taken aback by. She was stunningly innocent for a woman of her age, and her dreams kept her that way. For how long, he would not know- he hoped it would be forever.
They slowly disrobed, and sank into the tub when their garments lay discarded on the floor, silence and the scent of coconut reigning the room.
"Neji," Tenten said, after soaking for a few blissful minutes in the bathtub. "Neji, sit here. I'm going to wash your hair."
"I'll let you do mine, if you let me do yours." Neji retorted. Tenten wondered at this different Neji- he was altered to the one she had known six months before. He was not as cold and a lot … lighter. Carefree, almost. He was teasing her, for goodness' sake!
"What's wrong with having someone wash your hair?" Tenten asked as she gently massaged the coconut scented liquid into his hair.
"Nothing, anymore…" Neji sighed and he felt his muscles loosen and relax.
"Neji, what else happened while I was in hospital?" Tenten spoke quietly as she rinsed the shampoo out. Neji sighed.
"I don't know. I barely left your side to eat or sleep, and I hardly talked to anyone at all." Tenten gently combed conditioner through Neji's now cleaned tresses. The smell of coconut soothed the tension that had seemed to be growing, for an unknown reason.
"You know, they've probably discovered that we've left the hospital now." Tenten commented. She slowly rinsed the conditioner out of the Hyuuga's hair, the wet locks slipping through her fingers like black satin ribbons.
"I'm tired, Tenten." Neji sighed. "Tired of having to…"
"Then don't." she said simply. She began massaging his lean shoulders and he sighed once more, and leaned back into her slim body, his head on her pale shoulder. The weapons expert's sure fingers soon began to wander, and the moment of peace was broken when someone pounded on the door.
"Three guesses who that is." Tenten whispered as she changed positions with Neji. He smirked when a certain kunoichi began to shout.
"Tenten! You're so stupid! You have just woken up from a six month coma and when I came back t check on you and bring your friends, who have been waiting to see you awake and alive for half a year, and you and your bloody moody ass prodigy boyfriend are gone!" Sakura took a deep breath. "Have you any idea how much trouble you could be in? The people from the Wave country think that could be in? The people from the Wave country think that you killed one of their kunoichi!"
"I think I'm safe where I am," Tenten said, enjoying the feel of Neji's skin against her own, and the touch of his slender fingers in her hair.
"Get out of there now, or we'll break down the door!" Sakura yelled.
"I'm in the bath. As in naked. I wouldn't recommend opening the door." Tenten felt some dread creep into her system.
"Let's open the door then!" she heard Kiba say.
"Let me kill you when I get out." Neji growled.
"Don't open the door!" Kiba shouted.
"How long are you going to be in there for?" Naruto whined.
Tenten and Neji sighed in unison, then the kunoichi began to laugh.
"Get away from the door and out of my bedroom. Go and sit in the lounge room or something."
"Just so you know, we're not leaving until you come out." Kiba called.
"Kiba, go away." Neji growled. The pair heard Akamaru growl back, and Tenten laughed again. Neji slowly combed the conditioner through Tenten's hair. She kept wriggling around, trying to see her back, and Neji gave up, exasperated.
"Does it really say dragon?" she asked.
"I'll tell you if you sit still." Neji smirked as Tenten obediently sat still as he conditioned her hair and rinsed it out.
"Now will you tell me?"
"Didn't you believe me the first time?"
Tenten sighed. She formed the dragon seal and whispered her name. Her senses became heightened and she could sense chakra presences much stronger than she normally could. She got out of the water and wrapped a towel around her body. Reaching for her chakra reserves, she formed the goat seal and cried, "Henge!" and transformed into herself, but with clothes on. Taking a deep breath, Tenten unlocked the door and everyone looked at her for a single moment in silence.
"I'm not dressed yet. I'll be right back." She reassured everyone. The weapons expert ran down the hallway into her room and pulled out, from his drawer, some of Neji's clothes, and pulled on some of her own.
Minutes later, Tenten's hair was perfectly dry and she was sitting in her winter clothed bed- in summer, she liked sheets, and in winter, she liked blankets.
Everyone else was in her room- sitting on her bed, or leaning against the wall or her dresser. After a few minutes of talking, Sakura and Sasuke looked at Tenten. She smiled in response and they waited for everyone's attention.
"Everyone, Sasuke and I are getting engaged!" Sakura said. There was silence for a split second, and then Sakura was surrounded by her friends, and they were all laughing and squealing. Sasuke was getting congratulations by everyone else, and Tenten was laughing. The waves of joy washed around the room and she felt swept away by the entire affair. The excitement died down soon, however, and their attentions turned to Tenten.
Hinata presented the kunoichi with a wrapped, rectangular object.
"Hinata!" Tenten protested, trying to push her away.
"Take it." Hinata said firmly. It was more like a command, but Tenten sensed the humour underneath it all.
"Okay," Tenten said meekly, though her smile was far from it. She carefully unwrapped the marble printed paper, and a book slid out from inside, onto the weapons mistress' lap. "It's beautiful! Thank you!" Tenten hugged the younger Hyuuga who was smiling warmly.
"I think we're all just glad to have you back." She whispered.
Tenten carefully placed the brown, suede covered diary on her bedside table. She liked the notion that it seemed to fit there, as it meant to.
Kiba was next, surprisingly. Tenten had only ever properly talked to him a few times- she barely even knew who the guy was, but something in her warmed to him, and she figured it was probably the fact that he was, in some ways, the brother-figure Neji had never been, and he'd looked after her whenever she had been put out by something.
Akamaru came up and licked her face. She laughed and rubbed his huge white head, and blinked several times when Kiba handed her a set of brand new, fresh scrolls- lined in an apple green- and a new writing set, with green brushes.
"It's beautiful, and practical. Thanks, Kiba!" Tenten hugged the Inuzuka.
"Neji smells just like you," he whispered with a grin on his face and he shuffled away, to be replaced by Ino, who was smiling like she knew something Tenten didn't.
"Well," she began, smiling saucily, "You proved to me today that my gift would become useful, and one that you'd enjoy."
Tenten shuddered dramatically. "You have a dirty mind, No-chan!" she said in a pathetic, high pitched voice. The kunoichi unwrapped the gift, and smiled. Ino had bought her a rose scented bath set, along with a glittery grape smelling lip gloss.
"Thank you. It smells yummy." Tenten commented as she hugged the blonde.
Sasuke and Sakura came to stand at her side, both with a secretive smile on their faces.
"This is from the both of us." Sasuke said in his deep and rich voice. He handed her a baby blue box tied with a silver ribbon.
"Sorry for missing your 21st this year, too." Sakura added. Tenten smiled indulgently. The week of her birthday, in March that year, the old Team 7 had been reunited to go on a mission, and hadn't come home for a month. Sakura had missed Tenten's birthday, and still felt a bit guilty about it.
The suspense in the room built.
"Hurry up already!" Ino could not contain that one sentence and thought, and Tenten moved infinitesimally slower. She grinned and opened the box, and the smile died away.
Neji, who was sitting beside her on the bed, looked over her shoulder, and smiled the same smile Sasuke and Sakura were sharing.
"Would you three stop? It's annoying me." Tenten grumbled.
"Show us already!" Ino said, tapping her foot.
Tenten picked up the chain from its box, and the pendant hung, glinting in the soft lamp light. It was a small silver kunai, half the length of her smallest finger, and it had, cut in a blue stone, the symbol of Konoha on one side, and her name on the other.
"Is it… sapphire?" Tenten asked, rubbing her finger over the characters of her name.
"Why wouldn't it be?" Sakura asked.
"You guys!" Tenten protested.
"Take it." Sasuke commanded, much like Hinata had. Only this time, Tenten felt the tension between Neji and Sasuke rise a notch. It was filling the room, and Tenten's mind, and she almost panicked with the need to make it go away.
"Tenten!" Lee burst into her room. "You're awake!"
"Hey Lee!" Tenten felt the tension deflate and she was lost in Lee's embrace.
"How are you? Are you okay? When did you wake up? Did they carry you here?" Lee gushed.
"Fine, yes, an hour and a half ago and no, I snuck out of hospital."
"Oh. Okay then." Lee said, seemingly suddenly at a loss, then he produced a silver bag. "Merry Christmas!"
Tenten sighed as she drew out a silver bound book. Inside was a copy of the original green notebook that they had all written in on the way home from camp, along with Lee's thoughts on everything that had happened when no body had wanted to write in the book anymore.
"Lee… this is awesome, thanks a lot- you have no idea how much this means to me." Tenten traced the kanji for 'memory' embossed on the book cover.
Tenten smiled nostalgically as she flipped through a photo album that matched the book. Inside were all the photos of everyone he had taken during the camp.
"It's personalised. Your photos with you and Neji wouldn't be in Sakura and Sasuke's album, although there are the normal ones like this." Lee explained as he flipped to one of Tenten and Neji talking. Tenten was smiling, Neji had a resigned look on his face, although his eyes were twinkling.
A tear drop fell onto her cheek.
"Oh this is stupid! I don't even know why I'm crying… Lee, everyone, thank you so much for everything." Tenten hugged everyone in the room, even a slightly startled Shino who, nevertheless, returned the gesture. The kunoichi stifled a yawn.
"Okay, we've tired her out." Sakura said, in a motherly manner. "Everyone, let's get going." She then ushered everyone out of Tenten's apartment.
The calm touches of everyone's minds left and the weapons mistress heard Neji lock the door. She drifted into a semi-awake state, and the world faded away into a comfortable blackness called sleep, or in this case, nap.
At sunset, Tenten woke with a start. She sighed and turned over, hoping to find Neji in the bed with her, but he was gone. As if on cue, Neji opened the door and quietly entered, with a tray in his hands. He set it down on the bedside table, and sat on the bed.
"How are you feeling?" He asked, stroking her sleep tousled hair away from her face.
She smiled.
"Hungry." The kunoichi replied cheekily as she drew his face down to her mouth. Neji stretched out on the bed beside her as they continued to kiss, craving one another's mouths after being deprived that pleasure for so long. Oxygen, however, became more than necessary and they eventually disentangled their lips, panting.
"Neji…" Tenten whispered, her head propped up by her elbow, her other hand tracing the planes of his face. Neji closed his eyes, and Tenten whispered his name once more, savouring the taste and feel of it in her mouth.
Their interruption came, perfectly timed, a few moments later- but this time, it was their bodies that betrayed them.
"Okay, I wasn't lying when I said I was hungry." Tenten sighed, looking slightly forlorn.
"What's wrong with being hungry?" Neji asked, standing up to retrieve the tray of steaming hot food.
"Nothing… it just seems that there are always interruptions at the worst times and it seems like we'll never have a moment to ourselves." Tenten sighed again, and picked up a pair of chopsticks.
"Well, considering that I am not going to let you out of my sight for the next six months, we'll make up for lost time, I promise." Neji said, that all knowing and all superior smirk on his face.
His kunoichi sipped at her jasmine tea, enjoying its deep flavour. Their eyes met for a moment- his placid, hers unfathomable, and Tenten laughed. These meaningless moments suddenly seemed to be the only things that filled her life.
"Have you slept at all for these past six months?" the weapons expert asked a while later.
"I slept some days, but never for long. Maybe three hours at a time, if I was lucky."
"Neji…" Tenten whispered, leaning in and smiling. "You smell like a girl."
"That really isn't my fault- you persuaded me into it." Neji scowled.
"Don't scowl like that." Tenten scolded. "But it looks like you've had six months to perfect it."
"Don't joke about that. No one knew if you'd ever wake up- or if you'd be whole if you did."
Tenten sat back and drank in Neji's emotions and thoughts. It was terrifyingly simple- he loved her, and would always love her, and he had gone through the darkest time he'd had since seven years ago, afraid of losing her. For her, the party had been yesterday. For him, and the rest of the world, it had been much longer than that.
"Tenten, this is from Lee." Neji said as he handed her another beautifully wrapped gift. This one came with a card.
"Tenten and Neji," she read out loud. "Merry Christmas and have a happy seven month anniversary. Much love, Lee."
Tenten looked down and the hard object she held. She had a suspicious inkling of what lay beneath the paper. The kunoichi ripped the paper off the front, and laughed, showing Neji.
"I can't believe he did that!" she laughed.
The photo frame contained the picture of the kiss they had shared on the disco night.
"Sakura was right- the dress did look good." Tenten commented.
"Right- so much for modesty." Neji retorted as he absentmindedly fingered the kanji for 'love' engraved into a corner of the metal frame. Tenten took it away and placed it on her bedside table, next to the books where Neji had placed them. When she turned back around, Neji kissed her, and pressed something into her hands. When she looked down, she saw that he had handed her a flat white box, tied with a gold ribbon.
The kunoichi pulled gently at the ribbon, watching as it slid free in a smooth motion. She flipped the lid off the slim box, and almost dropped it.
"Neji…" Tenten gasped. "It's beautiful… but where will I wear it to?"
Neji smiled one of his rare, sincere smiles at her and lifted the white gold bangle out of its white velvet casing.
"Where ever you want to wear it to." He slid the bangle onto her wrist and she watched, intrigued, as it shrunk to snugly fit her wrist.
"How did it-?" Tenten asked.
"It changes to what ever you want it to. It matches your kunai." Neji handed her the chain with the pendant on it, and she realised the match. It wasn't that hard.
"The sapphire on your bangle is a bangle in itself." Neji said softly.
Tenten made the bangle big enough to slide back over her hand again and wished for the metal to take the form of a kunai. The sapphire bangle fell to the blanket and Tenten absentmindedly twirled the kunai as she inspected the cerulean stone.
"It's… it's real?" Tenten slipped it over her hand, and it shrank to fit her wrist, as it had before.
"It has limited functions, but it is almost the same as the metal- I wouldn't fight with it though." Neji smirked, and Tenten tapped him on the head with the blunt end of her white gold kunai.
"What about the kunai pendant?" Tenten asked.
"It's a decoration, but when you need it to be, it will become a weapon- but it can not grow or shrink in size." Neji smiled the same secretive smile.
"You three planned it, didn't you?" she said.
"No… We made them."
"What? You said you didn't move away from me." Tenten frowned.
"I was the… financial backer of these presents, and I also helped when they brought it in- why else do you think I got only a few hours of sleep at a time?"
"It's perfect," she said as she leaned over and kissed him. Their moment was destroyed seconds later when there was a knock on the door. Tenten rolled her eyes and slipped the gold and sapphire bangle back on once more, and closed the clasp on the kunai pendant adorned chain. "I'll be right back."
Tenten swung open the door. A figure clad entirely in black stood on her doormat, oblivious to the fanatic girls dying for a glimpse of the dashing Hyuuga prodigy.
"Hi, how can I help you?" Tenten slipped the sapphire bangle onto her other hand, the white gold shifting and moulding to whatever she wished as she held her hands behind her back.
"Are you Tenten?" the night-clad figure asked.
"No- she's out at the moment, can I take a message?" Tenten lied carefully. The bangle became a thin silver wire.
"Out? Out where?" the stranger asked.
"Out, as in unconscious out," the kunoichi lied again, feeling the wire slither soundlessly out of her hand and onto the floor.
"Very smart, Tenten," the new arrival said.
"I'm not Tenten- I said that she was unavailable before." Tenten said suddenly even more suspicious. The metal was slowly entwining itself around the person's hands, behind their back, in the air.
"You are Tenten," the person said.
"Really?" Tenten said, raising an eyebrow.
"Is this not her house?"
"Yes, it is, but I am minding it for her while she is still unable to take care if it herself." Tenten blinked and the wire tightened and morphed into strong hand cuffs. She placed a hand on the stranger's shoulder and pulled them into her apartment, quickly shutting and locking the door.
"Who are you, who sent you and where are you from?" Tenten said, glaring down at the person on the floor.
The person remained silent.
Tenten ripped off the mask, and a bright mane of corn silk coloured hair, and no doubt of that texture, tumbled forth, along with a pair of startlingly blue eyes.
"Who I am is of no matter." She said. Tenten detected a musical lilt to her voice. "Who sent me and why I am here is of no importance either, but I have come to give you this." She stood and looked at Tenten.
"Mm, I see." Tenten said. "I see that you are from the Wave country… and your name is Misa."
Misa blushed an angry red. "I see that you have been bequeathed Akiko's mental powers. A sure sign, I think, that you killed her."
Tenten snorted.
"Yeah. I stole her powers and killed her." She said sarcastically. "All we did was fight, then she committed suicide by throwing a bloody flimsy attempt of a death curse at me! And, of course, she passed her stupid dormant mind powers on to me in a stupid parting gift, along with a killer head ache."
The stranger glared at her.
"Don't glare at me, you stupid messenger. I did not kill her!"
"Right." Misa rolled her eyes.
"Get out. Tell this Michiko, or whoever you work for, that I did not, I repeat, did not kill your beloved Akiko!" Tenten put a particular stress on the name. Then she smiled. She'd heard the other girl's thought. She wasn't beloved by us- only by our men! "Hmm. Couldn't keep them, eh? Did she steal your boyfriend too?"
Misa snarled and broke out of the hand cuffs, then ran out of the room.
Tenten locked the door and picked up the bangle which was whole, once more. She slipped it onto the wrist that had the sapphire on it, then they merged together seamlessly. It was a beautiful piece of jewellery.
She looked up.
"Neji, your sleepiness is making me sleepy." Tenten prodded her boyfriend back to their bedroom and commanded, "Okay- clothes off, pyjamas on and sleep."
Neji didn't get past pulling off his pants. He'd just shrugged out of his white shirt and fallen on the bed, fast asleep.
The kunoichi he called his own sighed and picked up the tray he'd left on the other side of the bed and carried it into the kitchen and briskly washed them. When she returned to the bedroom, Neji had crawled under the blanket and was sleeping contentedly.
"Six months of troubled sleep. The title of genius no longer suits him- he's more of an idiot!" Tenten muttered to herself. She lay on her stomach on the bed and opened the silver book of memories. Camp memories.
"Dear Tenten,
I don't know if you're going to get this on the right day, but in any case, have a very Merry Christmas. This book is, literally from everyone- it's their memories between these covers, and it is therefore, a small gift to yourself. Get well soon, Lee"
Tenten smiled and turned the page.
"What do you think has changed within your group over the past few days?
Nothing at all"
Tenten's eyes clouded nostalgically and remembered Neji's famous all-knowing smirk before finishing her statement with;
"Except for maybe one thing or two"
The weapons expert glanced, suddenly, at the photo frame beneath the lamp. The Hyuuga's hands were on her back, her hands in his long hair. Their mouths fit together perfectly.
Suddenly restless, Tenten rolled off the bed and left the apartment.
The next day, when Neji woke to the sound of Tenten entering the apartment. He sat up and looked beside him. Tenten had been lying there, but the imprint was not recently made.
"Get up! Get up sleepy head!" Tenten jumped on the bed. "Up, up, up!"
"I don't want to go to Naruto's pool party!" Neji shouted, then the sound of his own voice shocking him out of sleepiness.
Tenten laughed in reply.
"Neji is silly when he is sleepy." She said, and kissed him once on the nose, and twice on the lips.
"Where did you go last night?"
"Still as sharp as ever," Tenten muttered.
"Where were you?"
"I went for a walk."
"With weapons?"
"I was training."
"From just past sunset to just past dawn?"
Not in the mood for an interrogation, Tenten kissed him, their tongues dancing, twining and exploring. Neji wrapped his arms around Tenten's hips and drew her onto his lap, then allowed his hands to roam and cover every single inch of her skin.
The phone rang.
They both moaned, from pleasure or frustration- neither of them knew or cared.
"No, Tenten just leave it," Neji said in an agonised whisper.
"I shouldn't- what if something's happened?" Tenten whispered back in a husky voice, their lips brushing as she spoke.
"Like what? Sakura having another daily fashion crisis?" Neji smirked.
Tenten sighed, slid out of Neji's arms, and ran down the hallway and picked up the cordless phone
"Sakura! Go away!" Tenten snapped.
"I am not Sakura!" Temari said, her voice sounding quite injured and offended. "I just called to say Merry Christmas, happy New Year and get well soon- well, you know, all that jazz."
"Thanks Temari- I'll talk to you another time, okay? Bye!" Tenten slammed down the receiver before the older kunoichi could say anything else.
The kunoichi turned, tripped and fell into Neji's waiting arms.
"Lots of déjà vu recently, huh?" Neji said softly.
Tenten looked up at the prodigy and briefly brushed his lips with her own, then stood up with some difficulty.
Neji glanced at the phone and took it off the cradle and threw it onto the spotless chocolate coloured couch.
"No interruptions this time," Neji said in the same soft tone. Tenten looked into his eyes and shivered in anticipation. The Hyuuga smiled and gently took her hand within his own and kissed her, slowly, sensuously, sweetly and almost seductively. Tenten sighed and melted against the curves of his lean body.
"Tenten," he breathed against her lips, "I love you."
Tenten sighed once again and kissed him roughly in reply.
The end!
(We can all guess what happens next…)
Or is it owari? Does owari mean the end? Anyway, thanks heaps to reviewers and readers- it's thanks to you, that I find the motivation to write! if anyone wants an explanation of anything that's happened in thisfic, i might be able to write another small chapter of explanations or something... (wowthat was totally random)Unfortunately, I won't be able to write anything new for the next few months because of sigh hot and sticky school. (