Ok. You guys are like: THIS WON'T TAKE LONG? LIAR!
I know. I know. I'm sorry! I'm updating, see? Enjoy! Or cry. Your choice.
Four Little Letters
By Mini-Chobi
Tenten walked cautiously into the room, afraid of what she would see and hear.
Tsunade was shaking her head and tears of tears were streaming down Shizune's face.
"Not again... not again!" screamed Shizune in fustration, a depressed Tonton at her feet. "We couldn't do anything! Again!"
Tenten's breath caught in her breath. Couldn't do anything? Again?
"Er... Tsunade-sama? Shizune-san?"
Tsunade looked over at Tenten.
"I'm sorry, Tenten," she whispered softly.
"You're saying that a lot more than you should today, Tsunade-sama!" said Shizune.
"I'm sorry..."
"SHUT UP!"
Shizune and Tsunade turned to look at Tenten, shocked at her outburst.
"You CAN save him!" Tenten yelled. "You CAN! You guys are the legendary Tsunade and her medic sidekick, Shizune! You can save Neji! You can! You can! Please! Tell me you can!"
"I can tell you that," said Tsunade, walking briskly towards the door with Shizune shuffling behind her, sobbing. "But then I'd be lying."
As soon as the door closed behind her, Tenten hobbled over to Neji's bed and pulled over a chair. She sat down, clasped her hands together in her lap, and looked down on the floor.
When I look back up, Neji will be sitting up sipping a cup of that bitter green tea he's always drinking, Tenten thought.He'll be fine, we'll talk a bit, and then Lee will jump in with a squirrel on his shoulder and start talking about his new Genin students and how youthful they are.
Neji will be exasperated, I'll laugh, and it'll be alright. Everything will be alright. Neji'll get up, and two days later he'll come over and tell me that he failed his Genin students because they were all really stupid, and then I'll listen to him cuss about the idiocy of the nation while writing up a report of my own Genin.
It'll be just like last year, and every single microscopic detail will be alright.
There was a knock on the door, and Tenten looked up.
Lee came in, no squirrel on his shoulder, not talking about his youthful genin. There was no mug of steaming bitter green tea on the hospital's bedside table, and Neji was still lying on the bed.
Tenten's daydream crashed in around her. Nothing was alright. The whole big picture was wrong, let alone every little detail.
"Tenten?" asked Lee.
"Yeah?" her voice was a lot wobblier than she expected.
"Neji gave me this to give to you before he went on his mission," said Lee, holding out a pale blue envelope with 'Tenten' on the front. "He said it was important and no peeking on my part. I got one too, but it was just him telling me to always be happy. Hope yours is better."
Tenten took the envelope in her hands. She stared at it for a moment.
"Thanks," she whispered, tears welling in her eyes.
For a moment there was an awkward silence as Lee stood in front of the door and Tenten held the envelope.
"Thanks," she repeated.
"Welcome," replied Lee, walking out.
As Lee's footsteps faded away, Tenten leaned back in her chair, eyes closed, tears welling in her eyes.
After a bit, she opened the envelope and took out the letter.
Tenten,
I'm on an S-class mission. I don't think I'll survive, so take good care of Lee and Gai-sensei to see that they don't go insane. You're a strong person, Tenten. I'm trusting you to not cry yourself broke with tissues.
Now to what I really need to say.
How do I start this? I don't want to sound cheesy at a time like this, but I don't want to be too formal either... any suggestions? Be casual, be you! You call yourself a genius? You're thinking that, Tenten. I know. I know I should.
It's just that whenever I talk to you I feel all weird. I feel like I have to show you my good side and never let you see my ugly one, like I'm afraid that if I do, you'll run away. Why is that? I feel like I always have to have you around, but when I do, I feel a need to show off. I don't know why...
I've been talking to Lee and Shikamaru, the dumb and the intelligent, to get an answer. Shikamaru looked at me all weird and looked like he was having an internal battle, Lee climbed onto a boulder and started singing/dancing/crying out of pure joy all at once,but I got the same answer from both.
They both said I liked you VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY x1,000,000 much.
Ok, so Lee said that. Shikamaru gave me a straighter answer.
He said that I loved you, and I would do anything for you...?
I think they're right. I've never felt like this towards anyone. Even Ino. So bear with me, because now I'm sounding OOC and I have no idea how to word my feelings.
How about this:
Marry me if I live, Tenten?
Neji
Tenten sighed and put away the letter. She smiled slightly in spite of herself. Her letter was waaay better than Lee's.
That aside, it was making her want to cry. But Neji didn't want her to cry...
2 years ago, when Neji was going out with Ino, she thought that he was lost to her forever. Anyone would be captivated by the girl's sparkling blue eyes, platinum blonde hair, and spunky personality.
However, within a year and a half, they broke up, and Tenten was renewed with hope, but Neji never turned her way like that. Never looked at her all special, never put his arm around her shoulders or gave her corny phone calls, gave her flowers or whatnot, to signify that he was making a move.
Was he waiting for her?
But then again, he visited her with Lee on more or less a daily basis and cheered her up. He would bear with watching chick flicks with her while Lee kept excusing himself to the bathroom, and didn't yell when she took away his hairtie and started combing his hair and joking that he was a real-life, long-haired Ken while Lee laughed.
She remembered one time, Lee was away on a mission, and it was only her and Neji. As she began her routine take-out-the-hairtie-and-comb-the-blackness-while-teasing-Neji-with-the-same-old-thing, he suddenly spoke up.
"Hey, Tenten. If I'm Ken, whose Barbie?"
"I don't know," she had replied. "Maybe you haven't met Barbie yet. She's probably yet to show up. They never said how many girlfriends Ken had before Barbie, did they?"
"How should I know? I'm not a girl."
"Sexist! I don't know either!"
"Well I suppose not, tomboy. However, in my world, Barbie and Ken would never break up."
"Shut up, will you? Or I'll french braid your hair really tight and take a picture of it!"
"...it's all in the stars..."
"That's my line, Neji."
She took that all as friendship, not love. She didn't know he was trying to imply that he thought she was his ideal lover. She thought he wasn't ready for another relationship, and treated this all as routine friendship-building excercises, especially since they almost always included Lee. Apparently not.
All along, he had liked her, but didn't even know it? And he only knew now that he was dead?
Tenten sighed at the irony of it all and looked back at Neji.
She leaned over and kissed his forehead. His cursed seal was gone, and there were bandages around his eyes. His prescious pearl-white eyes were probably destroyed beyond recognition to protect the secret of the Byakugan.
As she played with the long silky black hair, she remembered the last line of his letter before his name.
Marry me if I live, Tenten?
"Yes, Neji."
And, well, there you go. Neji/Tenten. Made it a bit long to make up for the lack of updating.
The routine, R&R, ppl! You've read, now you should review!
MC
