The End

Neji tried to respect her wishes. He really did.

But he was the one who was dying and he really thought he deserved a goodbye. He couldn't say goodbye to the Tenten in his timeline. She didn't know anything about their history and he didn't even know when he would die. It could happen during the next mission, or the one after that. Tomorrow or in a year.

He didn't want a big tearful scene. He just wanted to kiss her one last time, tell her it was an honor knowing all of her, and thank her for the time she'd given him during her visit here. Surely that wasn't stupid. And if it was, Neji really felt he was allowed this one stupid thing.

That's why Neji had hastened across Konoha to where Tsunade's home was. He was visiting her home more in the last few days than he had in all the years previously. When Neji came barging into Tsunade's home, his Hokage didn't even seem surprised. She just rolled her eyes.

"Five minutes," he demanded. Tsunade, who strangely found herself on the receiving end of an order, stood still for a moment, sighed and then waved her consent.

"Fine. One of our attempts to send her back failed anyway just now. Follow the corridor, third room on the left."

Neji was in such a rush, he forgot to thank his superior. He also forgot to knock.

Tenten jerked around in her state of undress.

"Sorry. But it's not like I haven't seen you like this before."

Tenten pulled her shirt back down, then slid over to pull him down onto the floor with her and shut the shoji screen behind him.

"What- ?"

"I couldn't let you slip out in the middle of the night," he interrupted her.

"Does what I want matter at all?"

"Yes, it does. That's why I won't do anything you've explicitly asked me not to."

"Gee. Thanks."

"When I was rushing here I thought I wanted to kiss you one last time or tell you how it was an honor to have known you or to thank you for everything you've given me but that all seems rather trite now."

"So… you have no idea what you want now?"

"Pretty much."

Neji gave her one of his rare smiles. It was one of those sheepish smiles her Neji had never been comfortable enough to give her. She wasn't about to let him know but it made her heart clench.

"Well, at least now you can say you really knew your friend."

"Yeah."

"I imagine it'll be more difficult for you."

"Why?"

"Because you'll be going back to a world where I don't exist."

"But I'm used to that. You're going back to a world where I'll be right there but you won't be able to love me."

"Preposterous. I'll love you. I just won't have sex with you."

Tenten gazed at him quizzically.

"Being able to sleep with you … was a very special experience and I wouldn't have wanted to miss it. And I might even miss it in the future. But if this entire bizarre segment of my life has taught me anything it is that there are many ways to love. What? My love is not the real thing just because I don't get to sleep with you? No. 'Making love' is inadequately termed because it is not synonymous with sex. I'm definitely the more fortunate. I have an entire lifetime of you ahead of me."

Such a clinical explanation was very typical of her friend. The smile he gave her wasn't. There was a tension to it that Tenten was too afraid to inquire after.

"I can't wait for it", he confessed. And she really wanted to believe him. Hoped he wouldn't be lonely.

"I realize now, that's really all I wanted to tell you. That I'll be fine. I'm really excited to treat you better and support you on your life journey as your friend. I can't wait to take you to this restaurant on-" Neji discontinued his speech because he'd looked over and discovered that the space next to him was empty.

He was sitting alone in the present.

Neji had to accept that Tenten had vanished , hopefully back to where she came from in the middle of his goodbye speech. A tiredness overcame him so profound that he only now realized that he'd spoken more in the last couple days than he usually did in a whole month. He never realized how much being vulnerable took out of you. When he came back into the hallway and encountered Tsunade, she said:

"Yeah? Ready to let Juliet go?"

Neji's face clearly showed he didn't appreciate being made fun of but he had already used up his resource for civil disobedience for at least a year, so he only said:

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Gosh, I hope that you go back to faithful soldier after this."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"I'm glad to hear it. Let's go get you a drink, Neji."

"I don't drink anymore."

"Have tea then. I don't care. After all this time contingency chaos, I definitely need one and since you're one of the only people who understands why I need that drink you're just going to have to come with me. Got it?"

"Yes, M'am."

"That's what I like to hear."

"By the way, Ma'am. I need to discuss a complaint by Tenten and that promotion you might be giving me."

"She's not even in our timeline anymore! What could she possibly be complaining about?"

"Uhm, Hokage? I mean the Tenten that was left behind."

"Oh. Yes. Of course … Do you see why I need that drink now?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

And so they went to get a drink and a cup of tea and wallow in the sorrows of those left behind by time travel.

ttt

Tenten would have expected to find herself back in the middle of that road. That's where her time travel journey had began; that's where she'd expected it to end. Except that this time there would be no Neji on his way back from the Hyūga mansion.

But Tenten did not return back to that road. It was time travel, not time and place travel. So she ended up in the exact same location just seven years later.

She just blinked - Neji was cut off in the middle of a sentence - and when her eyes opened again, she was sitting in the same room, disturbing a family at dinner.

Apparently, the Inuzuka family had bought this home at one point and were seriously wondering why Tenten had just showed up in their midst. Tenten didn't have a good answer.

All she could do was keep from collapsing and command someone to find the goddamn Hokage.

Naruto arrived in record time and he brought Sakura with him. He pushed all slobbering puppies aside while Sakura tried to inspect Tenten's vital Inuzuka family was banned from their own dining room. Naruto tried some of their fish while Sakura was still inspecting Tenten. But Sakura saw and slapped his fingers. Then she continued with her inspection of Tenten.

"You have some more bruises than when you left but you seem in a fine condition otherwise. Do you feel nauseous?"

"Not yet. But I might change my mind if one of those dogs tries to stick their tongue in my face again."

"You've been gone several days. Was it the same time on your end?"

"Yeah, more or less."

"So, it actually worked!" Naruto cheered.

"Did you have any doubts?" Tenten wondered, alarmed.

"Well..."

"Naruto!" Sakura admonished.

"No, not really. I mean. I could remember you from back then. Tsunade gave us the jutsu she used when she thought she'd failed to send you back. I mean, we thought we did everything right. But, - come on, man - it's time travel. Who knows what could've gone wrong?"

Tenten nodded. She could tell quite some tales about that.

"Did you follow protocol?"

"Uhh… about that. I don't really remember everything. Especially anything from right before I left is kind of..."

"So, you don't remember any of the temporal rules we discussed?"

"Not really."

"Did you change anything about the past?"

That was a tough one.

"I hope not."

Sakura and Naruto gave each other a worrying gaze.

"Surely, if something would have changed, we would know."

"Would we though? If it never happened that way, would we still know it happened that way originally?"

The two looked at Tenten as though she could provide some kind of answer.

"Don't look at me. The whole thing gives me a terrible headache."

But then she thought of something. Keeping her voice as bland as possible, she asked.

"Does Neji still die protecting Hinata?"

"Yes, of course."

"Then I guess all is as it should be."

"You really need a couple of days rest, Tenten," Sakura prescribed. "We'll keep you at the hospital but you need to promise not to try and sneak off to work."

"Sakura, I barely remember what it is I do for work, so don't worry about that."

"Wow, if your memory was that affected, do you even still remember what your mission was?"

"Eradicate the fire lance from the Hyūga possession, so they cannot sell the weapon to anyone and cause war and destruction?"

"Yes! Thank God!"

"Great. Now that we know that I didn't destroy time and fulfilled my mission, can we get me to a hospital bed because I'm almost certain I'm about to fain-", Tenten said right before she slumped over, unconscious.

ttt

Sakura's hospital was not the nicest place to wake up. Tenten could remember evermore about her own time period now, namely that they lived in a time of peace. But apparently, this didn't stop ninjas and kunoichi bashing in their heads during training, so there was always one emergency or other being admitted to the hospital. When Tenten was waking up, it was Naruto's kid that had somehow managed to damage a major artery and was admitted with urgency; calls for Sakura's expertise echoed through the halls. By the time Tenten was fully awake and realized she was in a hospital, the boy had already been stabilized, but the whole episode did serve another purpose. Tenten remembered acutely what time period she was in. Because a time where Naruto had a kid was a time where Neji was no more.

And of course her head hurt.

In fact, it hammered so hard for several minutes Tenten couldn't even hear her own heartbeat until she realized they were probably one and the same. The hammering feeling was most likely caused by blood rushing through her skull.

She tried to swallow and realized she was parched. Tried to call out but nothing other than a croak occurred. She couldn't even open her eyes.

So, all Tenten could do was lay still, hurt, and listen to the noise around her.

The hospital was actually not a bad place to remember one's life. Tenten remembered she'd been in this hospital several times, recuperating from a lot of broken bones or other injuries. She remembered when the hospital had been nothing more than a lazaret - a military hospital set up in war times. She also remembered when Sakura and Naruto had cut the ribbons to the new hospital building, built in stone rather than wood in a Western tradition. Built to last rather than be torn down and rebuilt every few years. Tenten also remembered being diagnosed with concussion syndrome at one point in her life and needing to take several months off of missions and any sort of training. The headaches she got now were not unlike the ones she had back then. At least she wasn't suffering from hallucinations.

Unless, everything had been a hallucination.

Overcome with a strong urge to verify everything that happened to her - time travel did seem rather unbelievable now that she thought about it - Tenten tried to call out again. Croak after croak she tried to get someone's attention. Her eyes were still glued shut, so she couldn't even see whether there were any potential listeners.

Finally she felt someone's fingertips on her face. Then a voice.

"Tenten, are you trying to say something?"

It was Hinata.

Tenten tried to form a 'yes' but her strength left her halfway through the word. Thankfully 'ye' was enough for Hinata to understand.

"Goodness, ok. Hold tight."

Her fingers left Tenten's face and she could hear Hinata commanding someone to get Sakura. Hinata sounded far away; perhaps as though she were in a hallway and Tenten remained in a room.

Then the fingers were back.

"Stay with us, Tenten. We're so happy you're back. You've been gone for weeks."

Tenten was confused. She vaguely remembered returning back to her time and confirming her trip had only been a few days into the past.

Hinata kept stroking her cheeks affectionately until they were replaced by hands that were a lot more purposeful. The second set of hands checked her pulse, then manually opened her eyelids to shine a bright light into them. The hands continued to roam all over Tenten. Whenever she didn't feel them, she could hear a scribbling noise as though someone were taking notes.

"Do you think she's conscious?" Hinata asked.

Finally Tenten heard Sakura's voice, whose hands had probably inspected her.

"Her vitals are returning to normal. Her reaction seems normal. She really tried to speak?"

"I think so. She was making sounds when I came to visit her today."

"And she wasn't making them yesterday or on any other day?"

"No. I've been reading history books to her and she hasn't been making a peep this whole time. But today right when I entered, she sounded like she was choking. I thought something might be obstructing her airflow but it really seemed like she wanted to say something. I think she even tried to say 'yes'."

"Well, that's great. For a while I was afraid part of her was somehow left in the past. Or somewhere in between. People aren't really made to be displaced in time. I worried it was trying to pull her back the whole time."

"If I didn't know from first hand experience that she actually manages to do it, I never would have let her go," Hinata confessed. "But I remembered how tough she was back then and it somehow made me think if anyone can do it, then it'd be her."

"I'm just glad she agreed to this absurd idea. After all, she was the only one involved in the mission, who didn't actually remember it already."

"Yeah, must've been scary. To be honest, I was terrified she was never going to wake up again. Coming here to read to her for an hour every day was really just wishful thinking."

Sakura didn't respond anything to that. But the scribbling had stopped too.

"Tenten, if you can hear me, say 'yes' again."

Tenten croaked something.

"That didn't sound like a 'yes' but it's the most we've been getting out of her," Sakura said and the scribbling started again. After this, a series of questions followed that Tenten tried to answer to the best of her abilities. Do you remember travelling to the past? Do you remember securing a weapon? Do you recall returning to your present time? It went on like this until Tenten could croak no more.

"Maybe she needs to drink something," Hinata suggested.

"The IV supplies her with all fluids-"

"I mean for her throat."

"We usually don't do that because there's a choking hazard with coma patients. They don't know how to use their throats."

"Oh. Sorry. Of course I'm not telling you how to nurse. I'm just worried."

"You're a good friend, Hinata. Can you afford to stay here?"

"Yes, Naruto will stay with the kids and I'll have Hanabi bring my work to the hospital. I'll stay here with her."

Tenten was exhausted at this point and she began to slip out of consciousness again but it was comforting to know that she had good friends in this time too.