It was weird seeing her like this when just five hours ago he had seen her in the most normal of ways. Had wrestled her to the ground, perhaps a little harder than was necessary so he wouldn't tip his hand. And then he'd stood by like an idiot while someone felt the need to comment on the fact how delectable she looked with a wet shirt on.
Just the memory of how his inner being had leaped at the sight of her drenched shirt, the color of her skin permeating the white transparent undershirt, made him feel sick with guilt. But not quite as guilty as he'd been feeling for the last couple of hours.
After she had just collapsed for the second time, he'd finally turned around and risked getting a second close look at her. She still looked the way she had upon his first glance: eerily similar and eerily different from his Tenten. But she wouldn't wake up this time, so he had decided to pick her up and carry her up the rest of the hill over his shoulder. It had been a very disorienting journey for him. She even smelled like Tenten.
Once he had brought her into the vicinity of the village he had caught Sakura on her lunch break and told her Tenten had been asking for her. The story got stranger when Sakura found Naruto and the blond ninja had told them he had no recollection of being on a mission with Tenten. And then Sakura had been adamant that this woman was his Tenten.
And when she had confirmed it, there was no stopping the feelings anymore. This bone-deep instinct to protect her just took over his body when he saw her laying on Sakura's dining table with the blinds drawn. Tenten had regained a little bit of consciousness for a few seconds and he knew this was his chance to figure out who had targeted her.
Neji wanted to tell himself that he was so adamant about knowing what happened after she walked off that training field because he was a good soldier and wanted to protect his village from harm but he really was only thinking about one person. And how he should've stood up for her. That he wasn't giving into his weakness for her if he just let his peers know that he was not ok with their sexist remarks. That it shouldn't be ok for anyone to be subject to catcalls or whistles. That none of the guys would receive that kind of treatment if they spilled water down their shirt front. But instead he'd been so worried she'd figure him out that he'd fake-chuckled along and watched her walk off.
And the next time he saw her she was almost broken. Rambling about how she hadn't seen him in years and she looked like whatever she'd been through had aged her tangibly. This must be some kind of torture jutsu he had never heard of. And he felt guilty for letting her walk off right towards that. And he felt guilty for the way he was staring at her now.
Taking her home had seemed like a good idea - at least until they could get orders from Tsunade - but she had been burning up, so he had taken off most of her clothes so he could cool her and lower the fever. But seeing her halfnaked and sweaty rolling around in his sheets was not the most easy sight for him to behold.
It intensified these feelings he had for her and the more he felt it, the more the guilt grew into a big heavy anchor he could barely carry around with him. But no matter how heavy that anchor got, he couldn't help staring. He couldn't help imagining what if it wasn't a wet rag he was running over her body, what if it were his hands, his lips? And it just made the guilt heavier because she was in obvious agony from the aftermath of her attack and here he was sitting next to her with a hard-on.
So, he just told her what he could.
"You don't feel so good. I know. But there isn't much I can do. Sakura's in the other room and she doesn't know what to do and we can't have any more senior medical personnel running around until we know what kind of sneak attack this is."
And when that didn't alleviate the guilt or changed the way his eyes stalked her every move, he could only offer her one thing short of an apology:
"I know something terrible happened to you and I just wanted to let you know that, regardless of what I said before, you still look…" He took a long hard look at her face and despite the fact that she definitely looked older, he could also tell that she was still his Tenten. The way her face crinkled because she wasn't feeling well, the way her arm would stop just shy of reaching for him was all 100% her. The way her strength throbbed underneath her hot skin… He had to look away from her before he finished the sentence with"...the same to me." and even then he could not quite stomach looking back at her.
"What did you say?" she croaked.
This confused Neji. Could she not hear him or had she perhaps forgotten what he had said once he had noticed something awful must've happened to her.
"About the..." He tried to remind her by gesturing towards his face but realized that he would just have to admit to saying something less than sensitive in the light of her pain. "About your ...wrinkles."
She must still be in a fever haze because the next thing she said sounded just as crazy as all the other stuff she had been saying before.
"Oh, those. I've had those for a while now..."
For a moment he wondered whether he was ever going to get Tenten back, the way she was supposed to be. Easy, sweet, confident. Or whether whatever torture she had been subjected to had changed her personality forever. Perhaps there were medications? Antipsychotics?
Before he could finish his brooding, Neji heard a noise and knew someone else had entered his dwelling. He straightened up and went out to meet the new arrival. Neji was relieved to see it was Tsunade standing in his hallway. Surely she would have answers.
Respectfully he took her coat and gestured for her to take the most comfortable chair in his tiny den.
"Is she…?" Tsunade began and nodded towards the closed door to his bedroom he had just come out of. Neji nodded.
"Still running a high fever and speaking gibberish."
"I'll have to examine her."
"She's right in there."
Neji gestured over to the door, then dropped back onto his old uncomfortable sofa. Trying to live independently from his family's money had seemed like a good idea until he realized that he was a spoiled little rich boy. He had to suppress a smile when he remembered all the times Tenten had teased him about it and he had pretended not to like it. Would she still do that when she ever woke up?
Sakura was rummaging in the kitchen and must have dropped something that tore Neji out of his thoughts. When he mentally reentered his tiny living den he realized Tsunade was still sitting across from him, staring at him thoughtfully.
"You look tired," she mentioned.
"Hard training. I was really hoping to come home, have dinner and catch an early night. Instead there might be an attack with an unknown tactic imminent. I can assure you though, I am more than capable of executing my current duties."
What he really wanted to say was 'please don't take her away from me'. Tsunade made a reassuring gesture.
"That's really not what I meant. You look mentally exhausted. I was hoping you could tell me a little bit about how bad it is before I go in there and have to see her for myself."
Oh. Now Neji realized what Tsunade wanted from him.
"Didn't Sakura fill you in?"
"Yes, she said whatever attack had been used had sped up the aging process? So, what am I to expect? She's a grandma now?"
Neji couldn't chuckle at that. And Tsunade had not intended it as a joke he realized now.
"No, ma'am. Whatever caused it only seems to have robbed her of maybe… six, seven years? She looks to be around 30 or so, so not that substantially older. When I first saw her, I didn't even notice it. Only… when I took a closer look. Because I realized something was wrong," he added hurriedly.
"Strange," Tsunade sighed. "Ain't ever heard of anything like it."
Neji hadn't either but it didn't seem worth stating.
"And Sakura says she's sure it's the same Tenten. And you? I heard you weren't so sure when you first brought her to them."
"I was… confused. By the fever talk, Ma'am. I'm sure. It's her. Between the fever gibberish, she even knew what had happened earlier today."
"Could anybody have been watching you?"
"Possibly but not probably. The recounted activities concerned occurred at a secure training ground here in the city. More than a dozen ninja were there, including senior personnel."
Tsunade nodded, then muttered:
"So, infiltration is unlikely…"
They sat like that for what seemed like an eternity but must have only been a minute or two in actuality. Both of them sitting perfectly still, both emerged by their racing minds, chasing difficult thoughts.
The den was a rather scruffy place, really just an alcove at the end of his hallway with an armchair, a sofa, a beat up coffee table and makeshift shelves running up one side of it with a lot of different things Neji kept lying around. Books, weapons, pieces of leather armor, tanning grease to darken one's features or blade, so one became one with the night. Like Tenten disappeared into those woods today. Her strong legs walking off.
What if he never really saw her walk again? What if she didn't get better?
They had no idea what was causing her state…, Neji was thinking when he noticed some movement behind Tsunade, at the bedroom door. It was opened a crack and Tenten, wearing one of his nemakis, was limping out. Her face was pale and looked stretched in a way he wasn't used to but she managed to set one foot in front of the other. At first he thought she was heading towards him but that wasn't true. She wasn't even looking at him, she only had eyes for the blond head of hair sticking up from the armchair. Tenten made it all the way down the hallway and then held onto the wall and the armchair as her hand landed on Tsunade's shoulder.
The elder Hokage swept around immediately and looked up at who had disturbed her thought processes. Neji couldn't see Tsunade's face when she beheld Tenten but it wasn't really her face he was interested in. Instead, he saw how Tenten's face transformed into pure joy.
"Finally, someone who looks the way they're supposed to," Tenten sighed and leaned heavily on the armchair's armrest. Neji suppressed the urge to jump up and hold her up.
"My my, Tenten. First of all, I always look the way I'm supposed to. That's what youth spells are there for. But I'm afraid to say even with my knowledge on age spells, I have no idea what's going on with you." Tsunade put a hand on Tenten's in all seriousness. Tenten gave a tired smile, then said:
"I think I might."
Neji couldn't believe how coherent Tenten sounded. She might know what happened to her? He was dying to hear but from the looks he was going to have to wait. Tenten had turned back towards the bedroom and was gesturing for Tsunade to follow. Only Tsunade. Obviously he wasn't invited. The two of them just left him sitting there all by himself on the couch as they went off and discussed something important without him, in his bedroom.
