"Did you really have to do that?" was what Lee told Tenten that night when she begged him to come over to her house and told him everything that happened in the shop.

"What was I supposed to do in that situation? What was a supposed to say?"

"Eh, not that," he had answered like it was so logical.

Tenten knew he was right, the answer was clear. She needed to keep her mouth shut, but she couldn't. She couldn't let her 'friend' treat her so dismissively. Not when she put everything they had gone through in perceptive. Although, all things considered, could Neji still be thought as a friend? He sure was not acting like one.

Then again, had she been a friend to him when she brought him back?

"What are you going to do?"

She sighed then, "I have no clue." And she didn't. She guessed she would do what she promised Himawari she was going to do, train (but she knew it was more than that).

There had been silence for a beat or two.

"I will tag along."

"What?"

"Let this be a reunion of sorts," Lee had explained, giving a devilish grin. "It will be like in our youth."

Tenten does not know why she thought the training would be done in the Hyuga manor. She should have realized it was their old training grounds the place where they would have their 'training' session. It made the whole experience more surreal. Like time and death had not gotten in the way, like they were still young (although, 32 is still rather young).

Neji stood there, his arms crossed. Expression stoic yet stern. He wore a grey kimono-like shirt and dark pants. No forehead protector, which might have thrown Tenten off a bit if it were not for the fact that his hair was braided… intricately but in an imposing way. One look to Himawari's hair indicated that she was the one behind it. She was also sporting a similar look. Tenten would have found it funny if she were not so unsettled.

"What is he doing here?" was the first thing Neji said as he cocked his head in Lee's direction.

"Hello to you too, old friend and rival," Lee greeted unfaced. "Destiny seems to not want to have us separated for too long."

Neji rolled his eyes, but surprisingly gave in to the jab. "If destiny's name is Tenten, then yes. It seems destiny is ever so bothersome. I have long stopped believing in destiny, though. I believe in choices."

That last sentence was directed at her, everyone there knew it. She felt the mood already declining and rather felt anger raising again. It seems like he is not going to let that go any time soon, she thought. Maybe he had a right to it, to make her feel as miserable as he does, but tormenting her every chance he gets is not the way to do it.

"Call me destiny," Tenten said coldly, trying to seem unbothered, "or choices. Whichever rolls off your tongue easiest."

Neji's scowl deepened, his arms crossed tightened. "Pain in the ass does have a ring to it."

"Okay!" Himawari interjected, visibly uncomfortable. For a moment Tenten wondered if she regretted ever brining training together up in the first place. "Um, let's come to do what we all came here to do."

"Yes!" Lee chippered in, ever the cheerful man. "I want to see our youthful flower run Neji into the ground for once."

"Can't wait," Neji answered.

Tenten wondered why Neji was letting Lee get under his skin when he had never put so much interest in Lee's taunting before. She did not mention it, though. Tenten knew it would only make things worse. She only said, "Let's start then."

They started off easy, just hand to hand combat, just testing each other out. After all, 14 years is a long time. So much can change. Yet, after 25 minutes, they got used to each other. They found a rhythm and a pace. It was like dancing to an old song. Tenten noticed it. She wondered if Neji did as well. And if he did, what he thought about it. Tenten couldn't identified what she felt about it because Neji didn't give her enough time for her to do it. He was too fast and too forward, barely leaving any time left for an afterthought or a defense.

Neji must sense her unease because he said, "If I knew any better, I would assume that you are winded. But I could be wrong, you said so yourself, I am old. Or perhaps Lee is right, and destiny is intervening indeed."

He said it all without losing his breath which only annoyed Tenten. Maybe I shouldn't have called him old, she thought. If he did incapacitate her somehow, she will have to eat her words.

"Well," she said, trying to speak evenly, "we have barely begun, so don't grow too confident. How about we stop our hand to hand combat and start with our jutsus?"

Neji's only response to this was leaping backwards, reading himself. Tenten tried to exhale without trying to look too winded. But she could tell it barely worked, Lee was looking at her like all of this was a bad idea. Maybe it was. She wouldn't be here in the first place if she hadn't been too mournful and sentimental about death. Death is part of life, it's a never-ending cycle. Tenten went against that cycle and now she was facing the consequences of her actions.

"Are you doing to stand there all day?" Neji baited.

Tenten sighed into a stance. "Ready to take a walk down memory lane?"

Then she proceeded to unleash old techniques on him. The ones he knew of before he died. Bukijutsu. Fūinjutsu. Bashōsen. Twin Raisings Dragons, Heavenly Chain Disaster, Binding Meteor, Exploding Dragon Strike, Coil of Fire, Shuriken, Coil of Wind. But he repelled her attach with Eight Trigrams Palms Heavenly Spin. Then proceeded to use all of the Eight Trigrams techniques that he knows. Tenten was panting when she unsealed a technique—Segmented Iron Dome—to cast off Neji's attacks.

That stopped him. For the moment.

"That was a very short lane," Neji said, coldly.

Tenten can't help the burning rage boil in the pit of her stomach. An hour must have passed since they began. She closed her eyes and tried to slow her breathing.

"Are you going to stay inside forever?"

She snapped her eyes opened and pulled a scroll out of her pocket. "Are you still using Eight Trigrams?" she asked, trying to sound bored.

"Can't fix what's not broken. I find that my techniques have served me good, even well after death. They serve me well now."

"Well," she said, trying not to hint at what she is going to do (although, if he uses Byakugan he will know what she is planning to do), "let's shake it up a bit." Tenten unsealed the katana inside the scroll and started swinging just as the dome poofed out of existence.

Neji barely dodged it. It was no use, she was swinging again. When Neji regained enough momentum he jumped back, seizing her up.

"A katana," he said it like he couldn't believe it.

"Surprised?"

He seemed to shake off the amusement instantaneously. "Hardly."

"Come closer, then," she dared him, rolling the wrist of the hand holding the katana.

Neji didn't even hesitate, he was on her immediately, trying to knock the katana off her hands. She was quicker, and she swung every time he tried to. They fell into a dance again. After a few minutes, they jump back, their chests raising and falling quickly. Sweat trickling down their foreheads. They were muffling their breathing, not trying to be to loud about it.

"Tired?"

"Hardly," Neji answered, almost scoffing. "What about you? Your legs look like they are about to fall right under you."

"Are you describing what you are feeling?"

This back and forth was petty. Tenten knew it. Neji knew it. The look on Himawari and Lee on the edge of the training ground confirmed it as well. No, more than petty. It was pathetic. All of this seemed so foreign. They were never like this, never so pitiful. Never—

"I thought that you might have something more interesting up your sleeve considering you had 14 years to work on it, but it does not seem so. Is this all you've got?"

Tenten does not know why his words hurt the way they did. Why they made her eyes prickle just one bit. Why she had to swallow the lump in her throat. She had to straighten, close her eyes, relax her shoulders, and let go of a long shaky breath. Despite having her eyes closed, she could feel Neji trying to figure out what she was doing, if this was part of her techniques.

Slowly, Tenten opened her eyes and got another scroll out. Neji just watched her, his face made of stone. The weight of another katana in her other hand centered her. Before he could take another breath, before he could ready himself, before he could even get words in, she was on him. Swinging both katanas at him. She swung left, right, up, down. She feigned to hit one side but swung the other way. She moved one katana one way and the other a different direction all the while she screamed all the words she couldn't say.

When you died, I died.

Swing.

Focusing on things was hard when you were gone.

Scream.

It took me a whole year before I decided I could get out of the house. It took longer before I decided to train or work on different techniques.

Neji blocked one of her attacks.

I thought brining you back would mean I would have you back like you were. I was wrong.

Swing, swing, swing, swing, swing.

No, this is not all I got.

Her katanas made a crackling noise that she did not like, which made her retreat to figure out what it meant. Neji did not seemed too mad about the reprieve. He was not even bothering muffling his breath. Just when Tenten was closely inspecting her katanas, both of them broke in the center as if sliced through. Tenten lifted her gaze at Neji almost immediately. He was still gasping but it seemed satisfied.

Tenten threw them on the ground spitefully and cursed loudly.

This time Neji didn't try to hide a smirk. It only enraged Tenten more.

Tenten stumped her way toward him before she realized what she was doing, stood inches away from his face, imposing, spitting the words before she would think it through, "What the hell is wrong with you, asshole?"

"Could ask you the same thing." Despite the fact that his voice was sterner, Tenten could tell Neji was angry too.

Tenten didn't know she pushed him back until she saw her hands do it. But Neji just scowled at her and moved to stand inches away from her face, like she had done seconds ago, looking down at her. "Control yourself."

Tenten could feel the tension between them, could feel the tension in Himawari and Lee as well. This would lead her nowhere, only down spiral. This was not what she wanted.

Tenten closed her eyes. Exhale, trying to regain herself once again. Then she turned around and walked back to where she had been. "I have another trick up my sleeve, actually."

Neji did not respond, just stood there. His hands in tight fists at his side. Tenten could tell he was pissed off.

Tenten got a scroll out, unrolled it. "This one is called Eight Trigrams: Eat My Shit, Neji."

This was a technique no one had seen yet. One she had been working for a long time in private and secrecy. One she was holding on to for his 15th year death anniversary. It was actually called Raising Ribbons, but he did not have to know that. The reason why she dubbed it like that—Eight Trigrams—was because it mimicked his technique. Only with metal sharp ribbons.

Tenten moved towards him before he could process what was happening, flailing her ribbons like her life depended on it. And it might as well have, Neji was moving like a fiend.

She only knew she was nicking him with the ribbons because she was feeling it as well, she was seeing it too. They had been training for a while, but Neji and Tenten hadn't actually physically incapacitated or hurt one another. They knew their moves and each other too well to do anything. But now, she was able to get him somehow, to draw blood. Now, she was able to understand the fine print of the jutsu that brought Neji back here. Not only if one of them died would the other suffer the same fate, but if one got hurt, so would the other. Shit.

Tenten wondered if Neji was realizing this too.

No, he wasn't. He looked mad. It was then that Tenten realized two things. One, she was able to get a hit on him before he got her and that angered him. Second, she wasn't hurt by him, so he didn't know that if she hurt her, he would hurt too.

"Neji, we have to stop," she told him, blocking his attacks now.

"No," he answered and continued.

"Something is happening. It's the jutsu—"

"I know what it said."

"You have to listen!"

But he didn't seem to, he just continued on. Prideful jerk!

Tenten knew she couldn't keep blocking, but she also knew he would not stop until he could land a hit on her. His pride wouldn't let him live with the fact that Tenten bested him.

Tenten stopped, letting go of her ribbons. This was the only way.

Neji seemed surprised at first, but it did not stop him from taking this opening. He efficiently blocked her chakra points.

Tenten had never experience something like that before. She had seen it done too many times to count, thought Neji was amazing for it. Her imagination did not give it justice. It felt like dying, like closing your windpipe. One moment you are fine, the other you are laying on the floor.

Tenten saw the moment he realized the same thing she did moments ago because he stared at her wide eyed, mouth slightly gapping. He collapsed right in front of hers, his face slightly aligned with hers. She could hear Lee and Himawari shouting and running towards them, but all she could look at was at Neji. He was processing so much emotions at the same time, Tenten couldn't distinguish what she was seeing.

Then he snapped his eyes at her accusingly, like this was all her fault. Albeit, it was. But he was the one who didn't want to hear her out, so it was his fault too.

She mouthed, See.

A/N: Hello, guys. Hope you are doing all well! Here is the chapter and…it was a tie! *laughs in Puerto Rican*

If I am being honest, I don't know what to do for the next chapter. I mean, I know my next move is, but I do not know how to get there. So, be patient with me please.

Thanks you raspberryfanfics and hannahzerofive for the nice reviews ;)

This chapter was longer, and I kept researching their techniques on the fandom page to be accurate. The katana and ribbon thing I made up. I will try to make Neji and Tenten less annoying next time. Review your thoughts and what you think might happen next. See you on the next update.