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Disclaimer: Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me, otherwise the NejiTen would be canon.
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Enjoy.
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Chapter 4. Fourth moon
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The official story said that Neji had offered her a job in his huge property with better pay and she was going to leave the village with him for that reason. For his part he said that given all the arguments over hunting methods he was retiring, plus he had been away from his business for several months and had to return to catch up.
The next morning she tried to sneak out of her work day to run away and she met him head on, he didn't let her out of his sight even when she slept, with the exception that now he didn't sleep in the bed next to her but he tied her up so she wouldn't escape and he lay on the floor watching her and dozing off only at times. On the last day she said goodbye to little Miku wishing her that the next maid would also play with her and got into the carriage voluntarily, at the very moment the door closed he took out some ropes and tied her up again.
After all they had shared, – Did he actually think she was a monster? Good! She would act like one. From the floor of the transport where she was sitting, she looked at him spitefully and let her fangs out, every time he tried to talk to her she would only growl from inside her chest, surprising him at first when she made that sound.
The 1st day she wouldn't take food from him even though he repeatedly offered it to her and in fact she was very tempted to let her bowel droppings out on herself, but she hated feeling dirty and it would make her uncomfortable too, it was all she spoke for and he gave her no privacy as he accompanied her to do her needs. The 2nd day she was starving and thirsty but didn't ask for anything, grunting and hissing every time he offered her something. On the 3rd day it was impossible for her to refuse, when he brought out the piece of food her nose had twitched on its own looking for the source of the smell and she reluctantly ate the tasteless piece of cooked chicken.
"Tenten, please listen to me." Neji said on the 7th day, she just growled at him. "I need to explain something to you," in response she hissed at him and he rubbed his face in despair.
She overheard him talking to the driver, it was a 2-week travel so they would have to change to another carriage in the middle as the horses were tired. They would stop the next day in Ame for that purpose and also to buy some provisions for the remaining days of the journey. In a demanding voice Neji warned her to behave herself as he released her to get off on her own feet and accompany him on the shopping and other business he had to take care of, before getting back on. She had to admit she was grateful to be able to stretch her legs the hours they were in the place. She hated the whole situation, even though she knew she wouldn't make it, it was impossible for her not to look for a way to run away as she knew her last day of freedom was approaching.
"Tenten," it was the 13th day, she grunted just out of habit while she turned her head to look at nothing specific, every now and then Neji tried to talk to her and that was the answer she gave him. "I am sorry, I should not have talked to you that way and it is really important that you listen to the reason for doing this."
"I don't care," his apology was absurd and so she decided to answer him. "A carnival, a circus, a private collection," so many stories about what had happened to her similes, "it makes no difference."
"It is nothing like that, the reason behind all this is actually a favor I need to ask of you... something I require you to do."
"Fuck you, I'm not going to do you any damn favor."
"No, I know you are not," his voice sounded sad, but still she kept looking at nothing. "This mission was always a foolish one, and unfortunately it was my only hope," all the hatred from that afternoon in Konoha was gone, "but the favor is not for me."
"I don't know what you intend, but humans don't matter to me so you can tell that person to fuck up too."
"The favor is for someone of your kind," for the first time her interest was piqued and she turned to look at him
"Do you have more of my kind captured?" How evil was he going to prove to be?
"No, not exactly... it is a bit more complicated. Will you listen to me?"
"But that doesn't mean I'm going to help you."
"I know, I should have told you the truth, explained the reason behind all this," he seemed to organize his mind. "I have to start from the beginning, what triggered everything... this started 5 years ago, my cousins and I were living in the place we are going to. We inherited it from our parents and..."
Wow, he was really going to go all the way back to the beginning of it all. A little bit more and he would start to talk about his childhood.
"That is not the point nor is it at all important, back then like everyone else I had heard some stories about werewolves, werepanthers and like many I said they were silly beliefs of ignorant people. But then a man came into our lives," his frown deepened, "I never liked him, but Hinata, my older cousin fell in love with him and they began to see each other often, either on the property or outside. I forbade her to continue with that, but she always found a way to circumvent security and sneak out to go see him, on more than one occasion she returned with scratches on her arms, neck and even her legs." He paused, "at first I did not understand it, after that I saw her start researching in the library of the mansion, it was the first time I heard the word therianthrope, it was written in a very old book. And after tying some ends between what those writings said and the condition in which she returned I knew what the subject was and the obvious way in which she received such wounds. Again I forbade her to continue in that relationship, but it was like talking to a wall, my words fell on deaf ears." He exhaled heavily, "several things happened very close together, my younger cousin got married so she left the grounds and the guy who was dating Hinata disappeared from the face of the earth."
"They hunted him down," she concluded, the males of her species weren't exactly monogamous, but if he had lasted so long with that woman he wouldn't just leave.
"Yes, everyone in the village celebrated catching the creature that had been ravaging the livestock for some time and the fur was displayed in the main square. My cousin cried inconsolably for a long time and her health deteriorated very quickly. She felt worse and worse to the point that she could not even get out of bed and the doctors could not find a way to help her... It was also difficult considering that the patient had no desire to go on living to begin with, sometimes losing consciousness for several days at a time while me and the servants tried our best to moisten her lips and with difficulty to get her to swallow something. It was a novice doctor who decided to give her a new check-up, since everyone else had already given up on the case no matter how much money I offered. That man decided to do a physical examination of her entire body to begin with and discovered what many had overlooked... something was growing in her belly."
What? That was the question that immediately rang in her head.
"We had no idea what to do, so the next time Hinata woke up I told her the news and it was like injecting her with a dose of life. The color came back to her cheeks, she was laughing again and she was eating, she regained her will to live for that being inside her," she knew very little about that kind of pregnancies with normal humans as it was rare that it happened. "It was then that I started this mission, this search, I needed a therianthrope preferably female that could give us some lights of what was going to happen, I alternated between going to some villages where they claimed to have seen panthers and coming back to watch over my cousin's health, it was a complicated pregnancy and the nights of the full moon were always the hardest because it seemed like they were going to tear her from the inside." She knew his next words before he pronounced them, "she died in childbirth... it was at dawn so I could not even get a doctor to attend her properly... even though it would have been useless, she bled to death in seconds. We hid the truth and everyone was told that the baby was born dead."
"What happened to the puppies?" she was afraid of the answer
"Hinata had 3 of them, the servants are loyal and only the oldest ones were present at the birth so no one knew the true form they were born... that was almost 2 years ago and today those who were present have already died of old age," he sighed, "since then I am almost fully involved in finding a solution, no matter what, they are my cousin's children... but nobody can see them..."
"Are the puppies alive?"
"Of course, I have them isolated from any curious look and a servant of my entire confidence is the person who is in charge of feeding them and cleaning a little... although every day that passes they are weaker, time is running out and to top it off I insulted you instead of explaining why it was so important to catch you unharmed... I do not even know if this makes sense or if it was a stupidity... if you know what to do, or if you are even interested in helping them, or... you are my last hope."
"You should start talking about the puppies!" She claimed. "Neji, the first years of their life are vital for their development and survival in the future, you had to get me on this carriage before! We would be with them by now!" he raised an eyebrow, she had been the stubborn one who asked for those 2 extra days. "Can't this go any faster?
"Will you help them?" Wasn't it obvious? She nodded. "I will talk to the driver, we are very close anyway, we will be there by noon the day after tomorrow at the latest."
He complied, that night they advanced an hour more than they usually did and the next day they left at first light, the horses were going to hate her more than they normally feared her for having them forced like that, but it was a matter of priorities. Knowing that she was no longer going to runaway or attack him, and that she was indeed going to help him, Neji released her and she wanted to throw herself out the window but not to escape but to get there faster, the problem was that she didn't know where to head and it was safer to wait than risk getting lost if she followed the wrong trail.
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They arrived late at night, she could feel the smell so she got out of the carriage when they were just opening the gate that led into what seemed to be a property that covered half of Ishi, but that didn't matter to her, Neji told the driver to continue alone to the main house and with the servants to unload the luggage while they would go to the other place.
The closer she felt them the more desperate she became, the man next to her didn't seem to be in a hurry and she wanted to grunt at him again. She stopped in front of a door of what seemed to be a huge stable, before Neji opened she could hear the scratching behind it and she emitted something similar to a meow, 'I'm almost there little ones', she thought. As soon as she saw them, she threw herself on the floor purring, and they climbed into her lap. She hadn't seen puppies of her kind for too long and she felt a mixture of anger, sadness and joy.
Anger because of the condition they were in, it was evident that they had never had a mother to teach them how to groom themselves properly and the humans didn't give it any importance to the matter, they were completely dirty. Sadness because they were too small for the age Neji said they were, they didn't look more than a year old and they looked sickly, that was because they had been very poorly fed. But despite the above feelings she felt immeasurable joy, fortunately they were still alive and she was already there.
"We will go to the property to rest, in the morning if you want..."
"No! I'll spend the night here with them," her words gave no room for reply.
"Do you need anything?"
"Many things, I know you have done what you could but they're bad... this is bad," she could see his look of guilt. "What have you fed them with?"
"It is a stew of vegetables and meat, plus some milk."
"They aren't house cats, they need raw meat."
"Raw meat has infections that..." he stopped when he saw the look on her face. "I will bring raw meat first thing in the morning – Anything else?"
"That water is stale, it needs to be changed more often," the other things could wait, "that's all for now."
"Okay, I will see you in the morning," he turned to leave and stopped before leaving. "Tenten, thank you very much for this."
The moment she was left alone with the puppies she undressed, removing the splint her wrist was still not fully healed and ached at times but it was bearable. She closed her eyes and transformed at will. She spent several hours grooming them one by one with her tongue and then lay down in one of the corners, purring as she felt them settle almost on top of her. When morning came she was awakened by the insistent sounds of the little ones, they were hungry and demanding food, she entertained them playing for a while until finally she could smell the raw meat scent in the distance, Neji was on his way, when he entered he stood watching her.
"I brought you some clothes from your luggage, I do not know if you want to take a bath or..." He left in one of the cups that was on the floor the meat and the puppies pounced on it, although he had brought more than enough two of them took the same piece so they began to growl and she made a noise to make them behave, as soon as she saw them eat calmly she returned to her human form, being naked in front of him who looked away.
"Please, it's not the first time you've seen me like this," she took the dress he was offering her and covered herself up
"I must say it again, I am sorry for uttering the words I used in Konoha... I was desperate, I felt that you had played with my time when we were together, and meanwhile they..."
"It's okay, just forget it," she shrugged. "Besides we both knew it was nothing serious, we were just hanging out and that's it," she ignored what seemed to be a hurt look and preferred to keep talking. "The important thing is what's next now, it's going to be something arduous and I'm going to need your help."
"Whatever it takes."
"I have to get them out of the transformation and start the process of teaching them to understand the beast that is part of us so they know how to alternate between being human and panther. I have never done it, mothers usually do it from the time they are 6 months old and we will have to wait for the full moon to pass because at this point in the cycle any novice is easily overpowered."
"I do not understand, – Where do I come in there?"
"Your eyes."
"What?"
"You noticed the second time, in my human form your eyes partially trigger my transformation... at full moon they returned my consciousness, which never happens. I think I can start to bring them back that way," on days other than the new moon.
"That is why your eyes have always been yellow, it was never an effect of the light," she nodded. "And after that?"
"Humans are a baby just like any other, so be prepared for diapers, porridges and lots of crying." Unlike normal panther cubs that reached adulthood in 2 years, therianthropes grew at the same pace as a human although as adults they could live a little longer. "As felines they will have to learn to groom, defend themselves and hunt. Do they have names?" he denied. "They are 2 females and 1 male, think of something."
The next thing she asked for was to enlarge the place because despite being a whole stable, they had them locked in only one of the cubicles although the whole place was empty, obviously any horse would be upset at the idea of sleeping near them. She also requested that they be let out that full moon, at least to her, she needed to hunt although the puppies were useless and a hindrance to such task, she was in a dilemma. Neji had allowed it and even pointed out a spot within the same property for her to do it without anyone noticing her but she didn't want to leave the little ones.
Since her parents died and given her lifestyle, she didn't want to have a litter of her own, that was her reasoning when she was in her human form and fortunately the beast agreed. Her zeal was activated voluntarily and she had never done it nor did she plan to do it, but there it was, the beast had surfaced her maternal side and thought she wouldn't go out to hunt for staying with puppies that weren't even hers but that already saw her and followed her as if she was their parent. So finally that full moon they ran inside the stable that was already completely for them while they had fun chasing a couple of rabbits that Neji brought.
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All corrections and comments are always well received, they help me improve a lot.
Hope you like it.
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Att: Sally K
