A/N: Short story for NejiTenMonth2020! It will not be super long!

The signs were obvious. All of their conversations, their sparse words shared unevenly, time teetering unequally on the subject of their prominent future, he always spoke the most. Yet, he spoke so unintelligently for a genius at the age of seventeen. A Jounin of one of the highest ranks speaks of personal achievements so incoherently. The subjects didn't match, they were never even threaded by a single hair. Whenever Tenten asked him what he'd do in the future, there was never just him in his mouth. His cousin was there too.

His cousin sat at the tip of his tongue. She was always at the forefront of his future. But, all that Tenten wanted to ask was what he'd want to do for the rest of his life. Over and over again, through those scattered conversations within her memories, he'd always conclude on one thing. He must protect his cousin. His father's last instructions for him was to protect her. It was why he must do it.

And so what fate did he truly learn from Naruto? Tenten pondered this question through and through. On nights where the atmosphere was unkind, she'd bundle herself up and ponder what Neji truly learned from his fight with Naruto. And whenever there was time to spare, where the mechanics of her mind were frozen dull with not even a task for her to do, she'd wonder what her comrade truly learned. Neji said the blonde boy had freed him of his fate, that, in a way, the solution to escaping one's fate was to go against all odds and fight it. By the look of his calmed white eyes when he said words along these lines, it looked like he truly believed in it.

Yet, Tenten couldn't understand it. She couldn't see him fighting his fate, let alone anything of that grandeur.

Neji once said his fate was to be caged with no chance of escaping his curse mark. His duties were tied to the main branch for as long as he lived. And to die, that was his only freedom.

Again, he was so sure he was fighting his battle with fate. He believed he was winning. However, Tenten didn't see it.

Uttering "Hinata-sama" was the easiest telltale sign of his delusion. Nothing had changed, perhaps he wanted nothing to change. Perhaps he was fighting small battles his own way. But that, that was not Neji-like at all. Or maybe it was? How could Tenten know a single thing? After all, she was an outsider trying to understand his familial matters. He had warned her several times not to partake in discussions regarding anything "Hyuuga". That in itself was a shield, a final blindfold he'd put on himself to dissuade whatever beliefs of his fate he had. In his mind, that was the route to take. But to Tenten, he was deluded. She didn't need any special kind of kekkei genkai to see it.

Those eyes of his' couldn't see a losing battle with himself. To be confined to customs, the same customs that branded him that curse mark, to uphold the status of his cousin as if it was a moral deed he cannot bend, he was simply acting like a stuck up idiot for a genius. If Tenten was him, she'd go through any means to remove the curse mark and rewrite her own story.

And when those projectiles embedded themselves in his body, when he breathed his last breath and ceased to live, Tenten learned that mourning for him was the most she could do. She could finally bless him with millenniums of peace and freedom. It would be what he wanted.

That was until she discovered that he lived. After leaving his body to grow cold alone on the battlefield, she no longer kept him in the back of her mind until the war ended. And when it did end, joyous news spread that the Hyuuga Neji was brought back to life. She discovered that he lived, but at the cost of his freedom. She wondered if it would do him any good.

To mourn for the living wouldn't be wise, although it fitted him well. He learned not a single thing about life nor death. His blind will to walk the path fate carved for him and to disguise this trek as a detour was laughable, arguably childish and sorrowful for a bird with broken wings. Tenten believed he should have stayed dead so that she could mourn for him correctly. But he lived, he lived and she discovered that there was no more use in asking him about his future.

They all returned home to their village calamity. She was happy that his life was spared, but a part of her knew his suffering would only continue.

From comrade to comrade, she had overstepped her boundaries and voiced her nonsensical stance on his issues onto him some time before the war occurred. All of these words and these pent up anger, she cast horrifying curses filled with irregular emotions to him. In the case that she'd never make it alive to tell him these vile words, she bombarded him with her own illusion of his fate. All but except one.

Tenten worried and tripped over his demise again and again because of one pesky little feeling. She was afraid her idol would collapse in shambles when the realities of his fate presented themselves to him. She worried he'd continue walking a rope of lies built from his own head. Although she did not know what went on in his clan, sometimes an outsider's views were more enlightening than the participant itself. Also, it was because that pesky little feeling kept urging her to make herself clear.

She liked him. Despite him being quite stoic and stuck-up, those times when his shell would falter and show a little human struggling to live up to his surname made her admire him. Tenten loved those parts of him when one ounce of a kind gesture was offered. Sometimes it would be caving under her constant nags to stop and rest. Other times it would be a simple exchange of words like pleasantries and gratitudes.

But this little pesky feeling was undermined. It shouldn't be said because it brought no use at the brink of war. And now that Neji lived, it was even more useless than before.

Useless. Despite telling him his vision of his fate was skewed, he still went to protect his cousin. It only showed Tenten that his way was the only way of thinking. That boy would not falter nor heed advice from anyone but himself.

Sadly, Tenten lived to witness his survival. She truly wished she shouldn't have fought so hard.

As expected, Neji still coddled to his clan's needs. He continued to walk the path fate laid out for him just as Tenten suspected. Telling him that she cared for him and loved him and wanted to do many things with him wouldn't have made a difference in the war. Tenten knew who was at the forefront and that person wasn't her. It would never be her.