A big thank you to bloomingcosmo for help with the techniques.

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Chapter 6: Faith

She had waited for him, dangling her legs over the side of the perimeter walls like a little girl. With her dark locks back in their customary buns and the wind gently blowing loose strands over her eyes, she had resembled an innocent child out enjoying the last few rays of sunshine on a pleasant evening, arms stretched out behind her on the dusty wood.

Only she was a woman, not a child, and the twin scythes gripped tightly between her fingers and the poisoned senbon secured into her hair told of danger and bloodshed, of screaming metal and lifeless bodies like rag dolls ripped apart and torn at the seams.

Suddenly Neji was there below her, a familiar pale figure, the ghost from her past. She had picked herself up as he began running along the perimeter, allowing herself to watch his long hair whip behind him, dark against the trailing white cloth of his loose garments; she had stepped off the edge, taking a few quick, controlled paces down the side of the wall to gather speed before letting herself leap freely into the air, and then she was falling and falling (it seemed like she was always falling, had always been falling), arms crossed over her chest, the sleek, curved blades of her scythes pointing inwards because it was much easier to tear someone apart that way and -

Neji threw his pack onto the ground as Tenten dropped down on him, leaping up lightly; a foot connected with the wall and he pushed himself away, hard. Tenten flew past him, unfolding her arms a second too late – steel arced outwards, cleaving apart the earth. She shuddered to a stop, heels digging into the ground and throwing out dust into the air, and then she was off again, jerking up, eyes flashing, flinging herself towards the surprised Hyuuga.

"Tenten!"

He had no time to assess what was really happening but instinct kicked in and he pulled back, arms coming up to block the onslaught of metal. She swung one scythe down, aiming straight for his chest; he ducked down and to the side, reaching up and grasping onto her elbow. A sharp, short tug and he had twisted her onto the ground, wincing briefly in pain when the razor-sharp tip of a scythe nipped against his hip. She automatically scrambled back onto her feet, crouched low on the ground, but he had already moved away; she was surprised and slightly angered that he hadn't taken advantage of her momentary weakness and attacked – idiot, why isn't he fighting back? Why? - but she shoved the thought away quickly, slipping out two scrolls from side pouches on her trousers and slamming them onto the ground.

"Sougufujin Heji!" The scrolls immediately whipped open, rolling out on the ground in a crisscrossed pattern; Neji found himself trapped between the two and tensed, one leg sliding out underneath him to prepare for his defense. Tenten narrowed her eyes, hands coming together swiftly in a series of seals that he could not recognize (and oh God when had she become this fast) – a split second later a barrage of knives ripped up from the scrolls, two thick lines of gleaming steel speeding upwards –

Neji spun, sleeves falling back to his elbows as his arms came up - "Hakkesho Kaiten!" – the weapons were flung away, the air momentarily alive in a mass of quivering, glowing steel before they landed with a subdued clatter on the earth. When Neji regained his balance she was missing from her earlier spot before him; he turned around, searching the area with his Byakugan. "Tenten! Stop fighting, you can't win me like this!"

"Have you forgotten that I know where your blind spot is, Neji?"

A sudden volley of senbon showered down on him from above and he pulled out a kunai, deflecting all but one. The needle embedded itself along his spine; he could feel muscle tearing, a bright pinprick of pain at the base of his neck.

"No, I haven't," he muttered quietly. "How could I?"

She was behind him, crouched low amidst the tall stalks of grass, watching his every move. Sighing, he tugged out the senbon with a sharp, brutal flick of the wrist. Back on the plateau, as he was overlooking the town, he had come to a decision - one that honoured both his duty and his love for a traitor of Konoha.

"Don't fight me, Tenten."

She froze at his words; for a moment it felt as if her heart had stopped beating, fingers curling involuntarily and digging painfully into her palms because she was remembering again, sepia-tinted scenes replaying through her mind and tugging painfully at her heart.

The small diner near the main gateway of Tsuchimura was still bustling with customers despite the late hour. Tenten and Anko had chosen a relatively dark corner to take their meal, having traveled the entire day by foot to reach the town before the nightly lockdown.

"Where did you get this scar?" Tenten frowned, tracing a thin, pale vein which ran like stitching down the length of Anko's right arm. The skin nearby was mottled, threaded with pale scar tissue. Anko glanced down carelessly, more concerned with finishing her dinner than on inspecting her old wound.

"Hmmm?"

"This." She poked the scar experimentally. "I'm surprised your arm wasn't cleaved in two."

"It was." Her sensei grinned wickedly at her, chewing on one end of her chopsticks. "Hurt like a bitch, too. I think I must've gotten Kakashi pretty damn pissed for him to have deigned to hurt me that bad."

"Kakashi-sensei?" Tenten stared at her, surprised. "You fought him? But I thought ...well..."

"You thought he's much too good for some little kunoichi like me, didn't you?" Anko smirked, turning her attention back to her udon. "Well, he's pretty decent, I'll give him that. Whipped me quite a bit when I challenged him to spar, but well –"

"You challenged him?" Tenten gaped again, unable to picture the petite woman in front of her fighting someone as legendary as the great Copy-nin of Konoha.

"Uh huh." Anko nodded proudly. "Nagged him for a week before he snapped and whipped out his kunai. Cocky little bastard, he was going on and on about how I wasn't good enough to fight him."

"Well, he beat you up pretty badly, didn't he?" Tenten observed dryly. To her surprise Anko growled, slamming down her chopsticks onto the table before spinning around to face her charge properly.

"That's not the point."

"...no?" Tenten tilted her head skeptically. Anko glared at her, tossing dark ringlets off her forehead.

"Of course not. Silly girl. I see now I have a lot of teaching to do yet."

She smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, Anko-sensei."

"The point is," Anko continued in a low voice, lips quirking up into a fierce smirk as she leaned closer towards Tenten. "- never – and I mean never – let anyone tell you that you're not good enough. Sure, Kakashi-bastard beat me into the ground, but you should see some of the pretty scars I painted on him. I fought to the best I could, and for me... that's enough."

Tenten blinked, a surprised smile spreading over her face. "Alright."

"You cocky sonnofabitch!" she snarled, withdrawing another scroll from a small pouch slung around her waist; this one was much smaller and contained only one kanji character, three thin strokes of ink black against the parchment as she slapped it against her knee. "Do you think I'm not good enough for you, Hyuuga Neji?" she demanded furiously, the scroll instantly disappearing in a thick cloud of smoke to be replaced by a long, broad sword. The blade slipped smoothly across her bindings as she hefted it up in both hands, the tip glinting in the light.

"No, of course I don't think that," Neji growled, but she was already rushing at him, sword raised high above her head. "I didn't mean it that way, Tenten! Stop this now–"

"You're here to kill me, aren't you?" she accused him angrily, bringing the blade in a sweeping arc towards his shoulders; Neji flipped back to avoid the blow but she had already anticipated his move, twisting around deftly and thrusting the sword down towards his knees.

"Yes." His voice was tight as he blocked the blow, jerking his foot up and kicking away the edge of the blade as he spun back, still concentrating on defending himself against the raging kunoichi. "But not to fight you. I am here to offer you an honourable death-"

Tenten wasn't listening. "Then fight me, damnit! Fight me! Don't fucking go easy on me! I am good enough for you." Neji slipped out a short dagger from his leg bindings and she slashed out again, repeatedly, forcing him to parry with her.

"I never thought you weren't good enough to fight me!" Neji bit out, frustrated. Why, why didn't she understand? He didn't want to fight her because he fucking loved her, not because he deemed her unworthy! He remembered a time when she understood him completely, when they never had to say word to make their feelings known. Now there was only betrayal, hurt and this angry, angry void between them, this frustration festering and burning like acid into their very cores.

"Liar," Tenten hissed, but her voice was breaking and all she could think of were her old dreams that now came back to mock her in all her once-naive sincerity.

I want to become a great kunoichi. Want, want want –

She was no longer a kunoichi of the Leaf but she would be a strong fighter anyway, for Anko's sake. For her own sake. "Fight me!" she hissed as she thrust forwards, backing him closer and closer to the wall.

Neji growled and suddenly she found his palms flattened against her abdomen – "Hakke Kusho!" – a searing burst of Chakra exploded into her stomach, flinging her backwards to sprawl painfully onto the ground, air completely knocked out of her chest.

"Enough, Tenten!" He straightened slowly, wretchedly watching her struggle to pick herself up again. He didn't want to fight her. He wanted to ask her why, why she was doing this, why they had to end this way. He needed to make her see that she was wrong, that she should never have left him, before he could fulfill his duty and his mission was complete.

Her lip was bleeding and she hastily wiped it away with the back of her gloves, inadvertently smearing blood across her left cheek. "No," she muttered stubbornly, her gaze lifting to meet his own.

The dusk was in full bloom. Slanting rays burned across their faces, casting them half in shadow, half in glowing, warm hues. They stared at each other across the mangled stretch of grass and earth for what seemed like an eternity, him leaning back against the wall, her still half on the ground, both wondering what had gone wrong in their lives to lead to this mess.

Neji was the first to break the silence. "Why are you trying to kill me? Because Orochimaru ordered you to?" he asked her, voice low and strained. "Do you really hate Konoha that much?...Do you really hate me?"

Tenten shook her head. No, no, he was getting it all wrong, she didn't hate him at all, all she had ever wanted was to be strong like him but then everything had gone wrong and -

"Anko is dead. I know she meant a lot to you, but..." He searched her face. "...How can you choose a dead woman over all of us? Couldn't you have let the past rest?"

"That's rich, coming from you," Tenten spat out spitefully, biting her tongue immediately afterwards. She hadn't meant to be so harsh – she saw the way he winced, the way his expression instantly tightened. Then she shook herself, expelling her breath in a soft hiss – why the fuck was she even caring about him now, when she was so close to saving Anko?

"I've learned to forgive."

"And I cannot."

"So you betrayed Konoha and joined Orochimaru? You joined Sound just to seek revenge?"

"I never joined Sound," Tenten hissed angrily, cheeks flushing. "I merely made a bargain with Orochimaru – two lives for one. Hell, I never even met the man – I've only ever talked with Kabuto and taken orders through him. A mistake, perhaps, but I ..." She paused, suddenly unsure of what she could say in defense against his accusations. Never meant to hurt anybody? Never meant to kill Leaf nin? Bullshit. She had known very well that she would be assassinating Konohan shinobi when she first entered the bargain, just not...him. Did she regret agreeing to Orochimaru's terms? The original bargain was a mistake, maybe, but she sure as hell did not regret sacrificing her all to keep Anko's body safe now.

Neji saw the momentary flicker of doubt slip across her face and he pressed on, determined to make her fully realize that she had been wrong these past seven years of her defection. "A mistake, you're admitting it yourself. You're a Leaf kunoichi, Tenten...you will always be one. You should not be doing this, and you know it."

"No, Neji," she sighed, picking herself wearily off the ground. Her sword was broken from the impact of her fall; she reached behind her shoulders, drawing out a final scroll from her scabbard. "Orochimaru...has Anko's body."

"What?" He started, surprised.

"If I don't kill you, he's going to revive her body and take it as a vessel," she told him simply, flinging the scroll wide open and letting the parchment whip loosely in the breeze. "And I cannot allow that to happen."

The remaining traces of light had now fled to the West. The warm glow intensified briefly before gradually receding over the mountains, the shadow cast by the wall lengthening and drenching them both in the cool darkness. Beyond the thick barricade of wood and bamboo the faint noises of Isako nightlife could be heard, ringing in the hollow quiet that surrounded them.

"I've made my choice," she added softly. Neji felt his breath hitch in his throat; he knew then that she would not change her mind and that no amount of arguing would persuade her to repent.

"I didn't know-"

"Fight me, Neji."

"I can't," his voice cracked, but she looked at him and he could see the final plea in her eyes.

Don't deny me what I have put my faith in.

Because she believed in Anko, all that she had taught her, and all that she had lived for; because she knew she had to kill Neji, but not before proving her own worth.

He sighed, slowly pushing himself off the wall. His eyes never left hers, feet sliding apart as he settled himself into a ready stance. "... ...As you wish."