You speak so eloquent and sweet, but your poison seeps deep into the floor. I do not hear your lies and refuse to drink from the cup you force to my lips. What is your aim anyway?
She wanted to cry out to the heavens and ask God what the hell he thought of this whole thing. Tenten wasn't religious enough to believe God would answer back so she stayed quiet, coughed up blood and cursed her naivety and love.
She didn't know how long she stayed bent over, but when her vision started to blur she could feel every muscle in her body ache. Every breath pained her and her arms began to shake with the straining effort of not falling down.
So you must imagine the relief that filled her when the sound of footsteps echoed down the hall. The light foot steps were probably female, possibly a maid, and it made Tenten glad to not be left here until dawn. She shakily got to her feet right as none other than Hinata turned the corner.
"Tenten-san I have brought you tea to calm your nerves." It didn't take long for Hinata to cross the room and place the tray with green tea onto her now neatly organized desk. Then she was right beside Tenten steadying her with a strong arm, one placed around her waist the other holding Tenten's arm over her own shoulder.
Silently and without question Lady Hinata helped Tenten out the door and headed straight for her bedroom. Quietly so there would be no eavesdroppers Hinata spoke. "If I ask you Tenten who did this too you, will you answer me?"
Tenten felt drowsy and she knew this was going from bad to worse, the hit from Neji coupled with the pregnancy was too much for her body. It was almost as if her body was shutting down, even the emotional pain was draining. Tenten's head rested on her upraised arm as she wondered if perhaps this is what dying was like.
She dismissed the thought and whispered out Neji's name before falling into unconsciousness. Had she remained conscious she would have witnessed the furious look that erased Hinata's gentle features, but as it were she did not.
Tenten woke up some time later in a bed that wasn't hers and in a night gown she didn't remember changing into. "Tenten." Looking towards the voice, Tenten waited for her eyes to adjust to the dim light. "Sakura." The medic moved to the edge of the futon before sitting down and facing the married woman.
"If there was a problem in your marriage you should have told someone." Tenten looked at the ground counting the wooden planks mindlessly. "I figured it was a faze, a lapse in personality back to his genin days."
Tenten who had sat up moments ago, gripped the blankets in her hands as her throat threatened to close. Sakura patted her hands and Tenten released her death grip. "I just didn't expect it too go on for so long. I...I didn't expect for him--"
"To be such an ass?" Tenten smiled at the medic's use of adjectives. "Yeah that too, but never...I never expected him to hit me." A shadow of hurt passed over Sakura's features as Tenten gauged her expressions.
"I know what your talking about." Sakura sat back her eyes downcast as she chewed on her bottom lip and set her hands on her lap. "But sometimes people aren't as they appear to be."
Silence filled the room and Tenten couldn't take it any longer, she stood up on the floor, her bare feet warm against the wood. "He didn't do any kind of major damage did he?"
She heard Sakura stand and pad across the room. 'She's not very quiet for a ninja.' Tenten watched as Sakura pulled on her doctor's coat and took a slip of paper out of her pocket. 'But considering how strong she is stealth isn't very important.'
"He only disrupted chakra pathways in your chest and around your heart. It's nothing serious but if he aimed to kill Tenten..." The medic caught herself but Tenten had all ready known where that sentence was leading to.
Turning around Sakura held out the paper and Tenten plucked it from the medic's fingers. She took one glance before knowing what was on it. "Your number?" Sakura straightened at Tenten's tone. "Yes it's my home phone. If you need to talk just call me."
"Sorry." Tenten handed back the slip before smiling charmingly. "The Hyuga complex is an old fashioned place, there are no phones here." Turning away Sakura left the number in the pregnant woman's possession. Stopping at the door Sakura turned half way to speak and Tenten was aware that perhaps, the medic knew her smile was fake.
Nevertheless she didn't comment on it. "All right then but Tenten, if he does anything else to hurt you, just tell me." With that said Sakura opened the sliding door and left.
Tenten found her fake smile gone and her stomach twisting anxiously. Straightening her night gown and pulling on an outer robe laid out for her, Tenten also left the room, in the opposite direction.
The hallways were dark as usual and Tenten wove her way through easily having memorized most of the mansion, especially the ones leading away from Hinata's quarters. The dainty Hyuga leader would heal Tenten's wounds and ailments personally if ever she was sick or had some injuries during training.
She even passed the kitchen before backtracking and heading inside. Opening the fridge she pulled out a bowl of cherries freshly picked and began to munch on the firm fruit. Her mind was reeling and instead of focusing on one particular thought, Tenten examined them all.
Most of her thoughts led back to the situation at hand, divorce was out of the question now that she was indeed pregnant with his kin. Up and leaving never crossed her mind considering Tenten was not a woman who just turned her back on a problem, besides it would be seen as a weakness if she did that.
The only other option was to have an annulment, a dismissal of the marriage would have her free and the elderly council would not be able to blame her for such an act.
Now all she had too do was somehow convince young Hinata Hyuga to dismiss the marriage but that would be a problem if the woman thought she was doing it for herself. Tenten married at the age of twenty and now at the age of twenty two...well it could have been a decade with the personality of the Hyuga leader.
One year apart wasn't much but it sure did seem that way with the twenty one year old clan leader. She was kind and well tempered not fitting of such a powerful clan. Of course nobody would stand up to her considering that she invented a new technique that was quite deadly when used appropriately.
Reaching down into the bowl and coming up with nothing Tenten noticed that in her nervousness she had eaten all the fruit. She set the bowl on the table and leaned back against the wall, her hands crossed her stomach and she tapped her fingers breathing silently.
Closing her eyes she drifted off for several seconds not noticing the extra presence that slipped into the room. As she drifted deeper into unconsciousness she could hear the clanging of metal, she could feel the spray of blood on her skin. Tenten's eyes fluttered beneath the lids and her head lolled to the side.
Somewhere in her head a baby's cry was cut short abruptly, she could hear the laughing of men and a woman sobbing furiously. Shaking her head to rid her of those thoughts they calmed once and Tenten settled more comfortably against the wall. Then without notice the scene that was played out without any visuals finally showed it's self.
Tenten was the woman sobbing, Kinmotsu was there and her baby was...Tenten jerked awake to find herself still in the kitchen where she dozed off momentarily. Unnerved by what she had just seen, what her mind had just concocted she inhaled and exhaled before taking notice of the open refrigerator door and the body that was in it.
Tenten scrambled to her feet and watched someone rummage through the containers of fruit picked just for her. She dusted off the nightgown having noticed that's all she wore, she glared at the man who had been in her dream..or was it a vision? Lacking the time to think on it Tenten merely glared.
"What are you doing here?" The gardener straightened and in his hands was her freshly picked and sliced mandarin oranges. He smiled and she could barely hear his words beyond the rushing of blood in her ears. Alarms were blaring through out her body, alarms that said that this man was not to be trusted, not to be let close.
"Never mind I have other places to be." Tenten walked right past him but was stopped when he reached out and snagged her wrist. She looked up at him annoyance clearly written on her face and in her eyes. His own reflected genuine concern for her and she broke contact, doubting his sincerity.
"Tenten." Maybe it was the way he said her name, maybe it was the fact that there was no teasing included or maybe it was the way his grip on her hand tightened, but Tenten looked back. He looked saddened and Tenten found herself grappling for the man she saw moments ago standing over her, dripping in the blood of another. HER blood.
"You look troubled has something happened?" She shook her head and maneuvered her hand out of his. "No." She lied and she knew it but there was no way she'd admit anything to a man who set off every instinctual alarm for her too get away or fight.
"At least nothing that should concern you." With that she tried too leave but he stopped her once more before she could even slide the screen open. "Tenten, you know if he treats you..wrong you can always just..."
"What!" Tenten turned to him then, anger at everything riding her down, edging her on.
"Leave him? Is that what you were going to say?" She turned on him then and all fear left her at the slightly hurt and human expression that adorned his face. "Well it's not that easy Kinmotsu! I can't just up and leave they would hunt me down! I wouldn't get very far not while I'm four months pregnant!" She slapped the open container of oranges out of his hands and into the opposite wall.
Slightly panting and glaring harder then she has in months, Tenten stepped back and took in the fact Kinmotsu refused to meet her eyes. Opening her mouth to apologize she was cut off by the mysterious man who stood across from her. "Have you given your baby girl a name yet?" Surprised by the randomness of the question Tenten closed her mouth and shook her head.
Looking to the ground it was she who refused to meet those navy eyes of his. "No...I wanted it too be decided between us...me and Neji but...we haven't been together for a while to talk about it and he..." She choked up here and almost jumped back when strong arms wrapped around her. Kinmotsu wrapped her tighter and laid her head down upon his shoulder.
"He's not going to be here for the pregnancy, is he?" Still unable to find her voice Tenten merely shook her head, he ran his hand down her hair before speaking. "It's okay you know? It could be worse you could be absolutely alone." Tenten looked up into his eyes finding herself captured just like before.
The hand stroking her hair moved to stroke the side of her face, seeking the comfort and not the harsh treatment, Tenten angled her head into his hand just by a few inches but it was enough for him. She closed her eyes and Kinmotsu fancied seeing the tenseness slide from her countenance. He whispered, lest he break the spell woven over the alert and weary kunoichi before him.
"Tenten means here and there..so why don't you name your child..Ama Kudari Hyuga?" Tenten who had thought nothing of her troubles while in his arms, snapped her eyes open and leapt from his embrace. She stood at a safer distance and brought her emotions under control. "Ama Kudari?.." Kinmotsu's face lit up with a bright smile.
"Yes, it suits her very well considering she hasn't been born yet. Why, don't you think so?" Tenten looked around checking to see if anyone else was near.
"Descending from heaven?" Then collecting herself she snorted at his response. "Yeah right I only listen to the people I trust with something so important as naming my child." Dusting herself off and shaking away how handsome he was when he smiled so charmingly, Tenten slid the door open and retreated but not before reiterating that she did not trust him.
Kinmotsu in his time of isolation could only smile, the time would come for him to strike, five months was a long time to hold your ground, and by the end of that dead line Tenten would be under his spell and within his reach...permanently.