A/N: Hello! Enjoy this chapter!

It was as if she was a moving picture and he was the observer from behind the lines. Neji gazed at his comrade for once with a pair of lover's eyes. She now adorned a braid that adjourned her hair buns. In the time that separated them, she became more beautiful than he could ever engage himself to imagine.

The sky grew with shades of warmth. The trees stood and frazzled with golden colors. And gently, the wind blew his curls of hair across his face. Neji's heartstrings began to vibrate. The bow of a renewed violin ran through his instrument. All at once, the resentment that he harbored within the depths of his emotions began to scatter. She seemed so untroubled from where he spotted her. He liked her the most when she was carefree.

They would meet again. In a way, his friends would see true to that. But despite seeing her again, despite knowing she was doing well, Neji wondered if she'd be the same person he used to know. He had thought of scenarios like this, plenty filled with unlikely things because she was only in his head. But now that she was in the flesh, he truly wondered if she had changed. Did her anger subside? Did she still remember their prominent talks in the future? Had she thought of him in the slightest? For once, the peering eyes of a man in love did him no good. He decided that he wouldn't seek her out today.

That was until they reunited anyway. By means of his friends' eager attitude to celebrate tonight together, his sun had returned. Almost instantly, she interacted with him as if not a minute had disconnected them. This renewed his devotion to this kindling admiration for her. Neji stoked the ambers and slowly, the fuel to his fire began to swell. All notions of his initial doubt, of him believing it was her will that kept them apart were beginning to incinerate with the cultivation of this fire.

Neji believed she would explain herself for he would hear it from no one but her. However, he did not think it would be tonight. For if it was, it meant everything else had to come out as well. Their long-awaited conversation would easily erupt like the clash of their calm oceans. For now, he only wished to walk the straight path to her. Although it was a negligent path, one where even the foot would freeze in uncertainty, he could only walk to her. Meaning. I've found meaning from everything else. A meaning to live. To wake up tomorrow with the will to live.

They began the celebratory evening walking in a bunch toward the masses that crowded the foot of the bridge. One by one, the Konoha 11 scattered due to the push and pull of an eager village. And somehow, Neji found her at the tail of migration.

She excitedly greeted him with that impeccable grin of hers. She beckoned him to join her as they overlooked the rowdy crowd. As they stood side by side with arms crossed across their chests, she whined.

Neji missed her signature complaints. She always voiced them out when her world was too quiet. Did she know that his' was silent as well?

Not a moment went by without him concealing all of his adoration for her. The words embellished in the deepest of his heart were ebbing from his lips. They move, mouthing minutely of the sappiest ways to confess. In that instance, it was not hard for him to forgive her for returning home so late.

Was she enjoying his company? Although he hadn't said much nor did much, was his presence enough? Neji couldn't tell. All that he knew was that despite spewing complaints, the corners of her lips continued curling upward. Even when her arms were crossed in guard, she was so open about her content. It was as if not a second was spared for anything but her enjoyment of the scenery displayed before her, before them. After all, this was a scene she fought for and left the village for so long for. A sea of brilliance swam in her eyes, collecting soft threads of light that only he could appreciate. Even if it wasn't because of him that she was gleaming in iridescence, he found that it didn't matter. His meaning was beaming beside him. And because of that, his shadow grew.

A loud and unified roar smashed through the bleeding primrose sky. In shades of reds, oranges, blues, and purple, the village embarked on their journey to a new era of peace. Neji followed after his sun by one step behind. The joy and laughter, from the chit-chat and glowing life on the other end of the bridge, he wished his frozen feet would endure this uncertain path until he too crossed that bridge to experience a new peace with his charm, his sun.

However, Neji couldn't make it past the bridge. She had turned around and locked with his eyes, inherently locking his muscles in place. From just one yearnful glance in her orbs, he knew that time had caught up to them.

"Neji, can we stay behind and talk?"

Tenten leaned on the rails of the bridge and so did Neji. Silently, they listened to the flowing river below their feet. The course of time paused and Tenten's reality seeped into her skin: he had changed somewhat. In a way, he'd become even more distant than before. Or maybe it was because she hadn't seen him for so long that approaching him now felt different. Certainly, Tenten could tell that the course of their paths had diverged from one another. Still, enjoying their time together again was somewhat joyful.

"Your face is a bit puffy today," Tenten blew a puff of air out. The waning sun glistened in her eyes. She could feel his orbs on her.

Indeed, Neji stared at her with curiosity, "Is it?" His heart lightened, embellished with the first drops of blushes that patted his cheeks since ages ago. He reached his fingers to touch his face.

"Or did I remember you slimmer?" Tenten turned to him fully, leaning on one elbow against the bridge rail. Her rumbly heartbeat struggled to gain control of her breath. In her eyes, she hadn't seen such a meek expression from him before. He looked so naive and childish to her. Her heartbeat jumped.

His hand soon rested on the rail like the other. With her eyes on him, the pressure to constrain his spilling admiration for her caused him to look away. Back to the twilight of the sun, he gripped the rail slightly. "I haven't gained weight at all," he said light-heartedly, yet, sternly.

Even as he had severed their eye contact, hers still remained. Tenten watched as a lazy wind blew the fringes of his hair into mild disarray. She tried not to carry herself away in his beauty swaying her feelings, "You look healthy." Alas, they resumed their fixation on the sky exploding in Spring colors.

"Thank you."

A pause registered.

"And me?" Tenten asked herself. However, the question was open to him as well. "I'm-"

"You're taller now," he answered.

Tenten chuckled and tilted her head to him. The long days wanting to see him and fill the constant void in her heart ended today. And though she had had her fill of seeing him, the image of him basking in careless joy kept pulling her towards him. Her orbs wandered to his shoulder, hesitant to fully focus on his breathing chest as her smile kept its curve. "Oh yes! I used to be at your chin!" Cowardice to admit how much she wanted him to live prompted her to avert her eyes back to the horizon. But down her blackened orbs went to the running river below them. That smile of hers now hung on a thin string.

Now that she had become his meaning, there was not a thing she did that would escape his prowess. The lively atmosphere just a few feet from them could not reach them. Even her smile couldn't deceive him. She was crumbling but all he could infer was that the cause was not because of their physical growth. Neji swallowed dryly, unsure of where their conversation would lead to.

"You look healthy too," he responded after some time.

To see him speak and breathe, to see his spirit as light as a soaring cloud, Tenten wanted to eat all of her thoughts up.

"Of course," her smile fell after an uneasy laugh, "it's important to be healthy when you're living alone."

The solid words she had always wanted to say to him, that she had been practicing days and nights for him, Tenten wondered if it was already too late to keep them at her tongue. Her heart was so easily swayed with just this instance of speaking to him, could she hold her composure and speak from her mind? Or would her emotions take over?

"I heard you moved," she began far from her point.

"I have."

"Mm, the seasons come and go so quickly, I didn't even have the time to give you a housewarming gift," a remnant of her bright smile appeared for a short second.

Neji turned to her, one forearm still resting on the rail as the other was by his side. Her eyes were filled with melancholy. "Don't be trivial," he straightforwardly replied, "you know I don't care for such things."

"I suppose." Those half-lidded eyes conveyed more than just sorrow, he could tell. By the weight of her response, Neji's own heartbeat trembled. His consciousness was filled with anxiety. It was never like Tenten to solemnly utter words open-endedly. It is as if she's not on my side anymore.

"Well-" Tenten opened her shoulder to him and looked directly into his eyes.

There was a false grin on her lips. Even her light-hearted tone was masked for he knew whatever came next would be like the unreachable jest on the other side of the bridge.

"-what should I do? I have so many trivial things to say to you. Should I throw them away?"

Her eyes glistened with a glint of glossiness through her tears welling. Neji always believed her tears were too meaningless because she had cried for the most insignificant things. But this time, even though a teardrop hadn't left her sockets, he discovered that these were tears beyond meaning. So difficult as it was for her to suppress them, whatever this trivial subject was, Neji concluded it must be worth her every effort to abate these tears of hers.

"It looks like you've been waiting to tell me about this, correct?" Neji asked her.

Tenten took a deep breath and nodded, "Every time, on nights where you'd cross my mind. I've rehearsed it to perfection."

Her muscles strangled her heartstrings, forbidding them from overtaking the threshold of her conscious will. Through the space between them, Tenten was intent on winning this battle with herself. As much as those onyx orbs unknowingly probed her to confess her foolish love to him, she bit through every inch of her crying heart to keep it from exposing herself to him.

"Then let's hear it," Neji braced himself. "I've some words I've been holding to tell you too."

It continued to be difficult to be optimistic about what she'd reveal to him. Just like her favorite choice for blades, Tenten was a double-edged sword. Neji could only read her so much.

Tenten smiled genuinely. The friend who once almost left this world thought about her from time to time with things to tell her too. Yet, time continued to pause. Even the sun gripped the horizon tightly to witness her speak.

Trembling as Tenten's fingers were, she clasped her hands together and noticed that the man she harbored feelings for noticed them too. Her shortness of breath kicked in and wouldn't let go of her lungs. Tenten eased in on opening her chest toward the tall man. Her eyes bounced between the tendrils of his hair framing his regal face. He then reciprocated shared attention.

"Neji," she found it difficult to say his name.

Silence ensued and stayed for longer than it was welcomed.

It was now a battle between whose hearts were the most earnest. Neji watched as her lips freeze midway. All confidence within himself rose as hers dwindled.

"I have something to tell you," Neji spoke before she could move her tongue. Tenten gazed into his orbs filled with intense hues of the sun. She took in a deep breath.

"Let me go first," Tenten demanded. Her eyes averted from his own for fear of caving to her weaknesses. She stared at his chest, recalling the bloodshed oozing out from his body. She could never forget how cold he already was when she arrived at his section of the battlefield. She did not want to see anything of that sort in her life ever again. With this conclusion, it was why she must make it as clear as possible of their bond.

"Neji," Tenten started off shakily, "I may not be smart, I'm the most ill-equipped in foresight than hindsight, but I think I can finally say for sure that this time, my choice is correct. Our time together as friends had stopped a long time ago."

The man raised a brow, making Tenten uneasy.

She gulped, "I've told you I thought it through and through and it is clear to me now. I don't want to stand by you or anyone anymore. I don't want to be an afterthought or anyone's shadow, especially not yours. I felt our paths diverge the moment you jumped in to save someone else's life. At that time, all I could see was myself walking toward an imminent future without a friend like you. I-"

"You've decided to proceed with your life without someone like me?" Neji asked her monotonously. If she still looked intensely into his eyes, could she see that he was hurt?

"Yes," Tenten replied. "I settled my mind right then that I'd continue to live my life regardless if my idol was alive or not. I decided I want to live for me, not for anyone else."

"Are you implying that this 'anyone else' is me?"

Why was it so difficult for the truth to come out? Neji watched with a grimace as Tenten spouted "yes".

"What does that tell me?" Neji probed her, "You mean to say that all this time, you've been living for me?"

Tenten glanced down, unsure of herself now, "It's not that simple."

"Make it clear to me, Tenten. Don't speak with half the words and let me decipher the rest," Neji told her sternly. His mind was igniting a million fireflies into the black skies. The dread that preceded him went away somewhat. Yet, the notion that the person to his meaning was going to remove herself from him still remained. He did not have the heart to accept half-boiled sentences.

"Remember what I told you before the war began?" Tenten closed her eyes, recalling a bitter memory. "I hated you at that time. I hated you because regardless of whatever I said, you didn't consider them at all. And I- I said them because I was tired of hurting myself. I was tired of keeping it all within me so much that I needed to let you know that you're setting yourself up to be in pain. I'm not too good expressing myself but I've done all I could to save you with that speech, if I may. And I'm not going to watch you descend to hell now that you're here."

Tenten's lower lip quivered just as the grip on her heartstrings ceased. She had frozen the instrument still and amassed frightening courage to open her eyes and meet his own gaze.

"I no longer want to live for anyone but myself. I don't want to save anyone but myself. Right now, I want to make a path for my future. And in order to do so, Neji, I'm going to have to walk my own path."

"And," Neji let the word trail off with the sound of rushing waters below them, "how are you going about that?" The spark in his fragile heart still lit itself aflame.

Tenten took in a gradual breath and turned away from him, eyes lingering on the traces of the scenery's silhouette.

"I'm going to treat everyone no more than a comrade," it was a feat she was still unsure of. "Be like I always am," Tenten relayed. There was no amount of words to relay her feelings clearly. A horrible lump had formed at her throat at the thought of severing their paths.

"What is the point of telling me this if nothing between us is going to change," Neji clarified his understanding. "If you'll be like you always are, then you won't change. Frankly, I won't either."

At his word, her eyes widened. Tenten could clearly hear her heartstrings being strung. She held the strings silent, "You don't understand, Neji."

"What am I not understanding?" Neji frowned in confusing pain.

"I'm saying," Tenten's breath shuddered as it escaped from her mouth. Her voice adopted a soft tone, one almost masked by the sound of ravaging waters below them.

One at a time, Tenten released the strings. Her lips quivered and her tears had lost themselves in between the battleground of her emotions. "I'm saying this to you because I like you," her instrument played no music.

Neji stared at Tenten's bowed head in disbelief. Although this was a beautiful news, it was caged in a field of wilting flowers. Neji held his composure with the cautious intake of his breath. His fingers pricked the rail hard before both hands rested beside him as fists.

"Liking you is not good for me. You see Neji, love is a horrible thing. It made me crazy and I lost sight of my purpose and dreams. That's why I said what I said before the war," Tenten's blurred vision regained focus at his obi. Confessing was not a part of her rehearsal.

She summoned the courage to meet his profound eyes once more; they were filled with strain. "From the moment our paths diverged, you became my comrade, a friend who I no longer harbored feelings for." Tenten's eyes scattered to the portrait in front of her, storing every inch of his particular features into the depths of her chest. "Do you understand me now?"

To him, it was as if there was no other sound but her breathing chest. Neji searched through her blackened orbs for any falter, any missteps but there were none. He already lost the battle before the flag waved.

In front of him, he couldn't grasp his memories of their time together from fading. Blown through the wind, carried by the coursing river, all hopes of living with meaning were ripped from his hands.

"I shouldn't have let you go first," Neji lowly murmured to her. She blinked with a lost expression. "Even though I had a feeling it would come to this, I could've stopped you but I didn't." Neji's brows knitted and his jaw tightened. "Do you still want to hear what I have to say?"

Tenten stared at him with determined eyes; they were filled with a film of glossy tears. She gave him a short nod.

Neji let out his breath and all at once, his eyes became watery enough that her expression changed. Still, his jaw moved so little. His mouth was stiff as ever as if speaking hurt his lips so much. He closed the small distance between them with a secure step. At a foot away from molding their bodies together, he tilted his head down to her. The tears that welled from his eyes hung for dear life.

"When we met at your door on that night, I wanted to tell you something completely different," Neji fished out her doorbell from his sleeve but had yet to reveal it to her.

It was now Tenten's turn to cautiously take in her breaths. Despite saying she had lost all her love for him, she couldn't help but feel her knees crumbling.

"And through the time you left the village, I began to miss your company. If I had gone first and told you I liked you, would you still steer yourself from my side?" Neji watched her unwavering eyes say her answer before her lips did.

"Yes." Tenten pressed her lips thinly. Her heart was shaking, wishing to break free, and yet, she wouldn't give in.

A single teardrop fell onto her cheek. It was heavy, filled with heavy implications. It traveled a long distance down.

Now, Tenten experienced the vacuum of immovable sound. She could not hear a thing except for the sounds that he made. And when he caressed her cheek with his palm, when his thumb brushed away his fallen tear, she stood frozen like a statue. Such an endearing gesture, Tenten did not want to do anything but feel his touch.

"It seems I've miscalculated. I cannot read you," Neji leaned further in closer to her face at a snail's pace. He was unconvinced. Gently, like holding a tiny feather, he caressed her skin. Unhurried, Neji leaned down, taking in the tiniest of her features for the frozen years to come. Even when their noses touched, he felt no kindling from her orbs. The inches turned to centimeters but not once did he feel her buckle and push away. Neji couldn't help but tear up at her lifeless eyes staring back at him. The moment his lips touched hers, he could no longer feel her warmth. He could only taste the cold.

But for Tenten, she was overwhelmed with the taste of his sadness.

Who shot down his sun?

A once in a lifetime confession of his truest feelings, it was not reciprocated. Neji thought a kiss would be sensual and fleeting. He thought his body would light up and there would be nothing on his mind but her taste. However, as long as that chaste peck was, there was no swaying her resolve.

The sun hit the twilight and down it took his own shining light.

Dryly, as if the wind of both their oceans had sliced their battle in half, Neji parted from her. He could only stare at her, fully poignant, and understanding of where she stood. His palm finally left the face of his one-sided love. Neji removed himself from her and proceeded not to give a second of his attention to her perturbed demeanor. Shielded by an ice cage, Neji silenced the instrument of his heart. He pulled out her doorbell and she instinctively gave her palm out.

"In the end, the past will always flow by. I, too, will conduct myself accordingly as your comrade. And when winter comes, perhaps I can escape from this sadness."

All the strength it took to confess so bravely opened up a path for his intended words to be heard. Neji gazed into those unmoving orbs, gleeful that she hadn't pushed him away.

"You were once my sun, fighting off all my sorrows. Now, I will slip into the ocean of my memories searching for your face," Breathing deep breaths to calm his volcanic heart, he placed the doorbell into her palm.

Tenten's jaw tensed and her nostrils flared with heat at the sight of her doorbell. It had been fixed after all.

"I believed it would be a bad omen for you and so I took it with me, hoping good fortune would only come to you. In a way, I was right, good things went your way and the rest came all to me."

Tenten snapped her head to Neji, witnessing the final destruction of her stubborn will to have things her way. Although the boy whom she shared affection spoke with a cold expression, she knew he was drowning in his words. And at the same time, he was dragging her down with him.

"Now I return it to you with good intentions."

Tenten felt the full blast of jesty tunes blare into her eardrums. Time had unpaused and the sun had already sunk below the horizon. Tenten watched Neji walk away from her back to where they formerly stood. Again, a warm and lazy draft blew through her body. She tilted her head up to see the moonlight belting soft lights down to him. Tenten gripped her doorbell moderately and bit her lower lip.

"In the end, the past will always flow by," she recalled his words just as the feel of his kiss burned a heavy mark on her lips. She turned away from him and took in a slow deep breath. She crossed the bridge and joined the celebration.

He never fully crossed it that evening.