Ri the Brown Bird

There was silence; no sounds were made after Tenten asked her question. Somehow the question didn't connect with him at first but when it finally seeped in he just looked at her. He could do two things, tell her everything and go back to living happily with her, but then again. It might be better to let her remember on her own. He took a moment just to think it through; this wasn't just his happiness on the line but hers. This was no time to be selfish and force all of there past just to make her be something that he wanted, no matter how hard it was.

It was true in their Genin days he had been selfish and allowed his stubbornness blinded him from the truth until Naruto caused his eyes to open and see what he had been the truth. Even after that it was really Tenten who stayed by him still, making sure that he was not alone to shrivel back up with his self pity. Even when he found out that his Byakugan did not have a complete 360 degrees visual, she helped him fix that problem. She was the one that gave him the idea to fill up his weak spot with chakra. She trained with him until he was confident that his weak spot was guarded well enough with the chakra. Most of the weapons Tenten aimed at him during there sparring matches were through his blind spot to further enhance his senses to the presence of a treat.

Even after that, on the mission to retrieve Sasuke Uchiha, he stayed behind to fight against Kidomaru and told the others to leave. He knew it was the best and that Naruto would be able to knock some sense into Sasuke. At the end of the fight just before he fell to the ground from his victory, if you were to call it that, Neji though of what Tenten might have said to see her teammate in this condition. He remembered smirking, probably sighing and calling him stupid. That was all he had remembered, besides the feeling of being picked up slowly and place on to someone's back. The person who carried him back he could tell was smaller then him, most likely a female.

He most likely never would have guessed it was Tenten if she hadn't been standing by his bed when he awoke and started yelling at him. Going off about how stupid it was to go off and Lee too and not telling her. That she was part of the team too and deserved an explanation as to why the two of them just left without even a note.

So there he was, just sitting next to her with the brown bird sitting on his finger happily.

"Neji, answer my question." It was more a command then a plea for an answer. Without a second thought he gave her one.

"I can't tell you."

Tenten continued to stare at him, not much in disbelief that he wouldn't tell her, but sadness. She sighed and moved back to lean her back against the tree then closer to him. To was still in her hands still looking at his master. As Neji moved his right hand to pet Ri again, she jumped off his finger and landed next to To on Tenten's hands.

Neji really could help but smirk, even his own bird didn't want to be near him either. It was better this way that she found out on her own, at least that was what he had convinced himself in the few minutes he had sitting there. Again silence filled the garden, not even the birds made a sound feeling the slight tension from their masters. Borg birds stayed together in Tenten's hands and Tenten stared at them as if she was trying to remember her memories. There was even more silence, everything seemed to not want to make a sound, nothing. Not even the sounds of other members of the house talking, no outside sounds of people passing by, absolutely nothing.

"Do you remember her?" Neji asked, his voice seemed lower as if her were whispering. Unsure of what Neji meant she didn't say anything.

"Ri I mean." Neji sensed this and tried to clear things up.

"Not fully." She really didn't remember much about this brown bird besides the fact of her name.

"She was injured the first time we saw her. My Hakkesho Kaiten had sent one of your shurikens into the air and it made contact with the tip of her wing. Though it wasn't severe, it still caused her to be unable to fly. Ri was a young bird back then, To was only slightly older and knew to keep watch incase of danger. Ri fell into my hands and you were guilty that this was because we were the cause of it. It healed back eventually; we kept it in this garden while it practiced flying again. Strange, but after she fully healed, she still didn't leave. To was left here too to make sure that Ri wouldn't be lonely." Neji's eyes changed from grief to somewhat happy. If Tenten looked, he probably was smiling at the memory even. Something else caused this though. It was how Ri got its name.

"Thinking it would never leave, you even came up with a dumb name for it." Neji said which caught Tenten's attention. It wasn't that he said something was dumb, it was that he called Ri's name dumb. However she waited before bursting out at him.

"After seeing To with her, you decided Ri would best fit as a name since they seemed insufferable to each other, so why not have the combination of their names' to mean something as well. Tori. That's what you said." Neji said, this seemed to comfort him more then to answer her question, but the same it did tell Tenten the origin of this brown bird.

"No matter how nice I am to them, they prefer you more." With that Neji got up and started to head toward his room. Tenten looked up from the two birds and watched him leave. Unsure of where he was going, she decided to get up and following him, but before she could take a step, Neji stopped but didn't turn around.

"Stay here." Neji said in a commanding tone. His mood seemed to just switch back to his emotionless self. This caused Tenten to get curious however as to why the sudden change in tone.

"Where are you going?" Tenten asked.

"There's just something I have to do. Stay here." Tenten could see the tension in him as his fist clenched, his whole body language was more serious as he repeated the words 'stay here'. His shoulders were slightly slumped as if he were…frustrated. Before he could continue walking, Tenten placed the birds down quickly but carefully and got up to run after him. She reached her right hand out and grabbed the left sleeve of his white robe to stop him.

"Answer my question." Tenten said calmly but Neji didn't say a word. They stood there for a moment but Tenten could tell that Neji wasn't in the mood for talking. Even if she didn't remember everything about her forgotten memories, that didn't mean that she couldn't still read his body language, the way his movements and energy connected with his mood. That questioning him was not the wisest action to take when he was at this level of frustration.

Time seemed to not affect them as they stood there, not moving an inch. Tenten watched as Neji slowly but surly started to relax from his tension. Before Tenten could even guess what Neji was going to do, he moved his hand up, grabbing her hand and pulled her into a tight hug. His arms wrapped around her body and she was pressed very close to him body. Her hands were flat against his chest as he buried his face into her shoulder. At first she tensed up at the sudden contact but quickly eased that tension out and wiggled her hand from their squashed position on his chest to around his neck. She leaned further into him, placing more of her weight around his neck.

"I'll kill him."

"Hmm?" Tenten turned her head slightly too look at his face but it was pressed so deep into her shoulder and neck that Tenten couldn't identify his expression. It didn't matter that Neji was still taller then Tenten, she still rubbed his back in gentle strokes and let him hold her. When Neji was completely tranquil, he loosened his grip but still held on to her.

"Kabuto. I'll kill him." Neji said and finally let go, or better yet pried himself off of her and left her to stand there. Neji went inside and started packing.

A/N: Just a quick note that Tenten doesn't think that she was "magically transported" into the future anymore, she now is more on thinking that the flashback and dreams are her real memories. Also a special thank you to my two friends for looking over this chapter and editing it.