"All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion and desire." –Aristotle

04: Nature

The Sand and the Sound had been driven back from their village, but the cost had been immense. Disheveled strings of hair freed from her twin buns threading down her face, dried blood caking her cheek from an earlier wound, Tenten knelt at the side of a dead chuunin and gently closed his eyes with one hand. Smoke rose from the remnants of destroyed buildings, and the faint odor of spilt blood permeated every breath. As she stood and gazed numbly at the devastation around her, she couldn't help but feel a sharp pang of loss.

None of her missions, none of the death and destruction she'd seen before, had prepared her for the sense of horror and pain that filtered through her soul. It was one thing to see others' hopes and dreams battered and crushed before their eyes. It was quite another to be the one in that chaotic maelstrom.

Lying among the dead and wounded was her childhood innocence, just another casualty of the frenzied battle.

What had once been her best outfit, the dark teal shirt and chocolate brown pants, was smudged with dirt and torn beyond repair, but she didn't even care anymore. Faintly, she wondered if she'd be able to care about anything ever again.

A forgotten tanto clutched weakly in one hand, she stumbled further down the street, leaving a trail of blood dripping sporadically behind her from the blade's tip until she emotionlessly wiped it on her pants. There was a pressure mounting somewhere in her chest and behind her eyes as if she were going to cry, but her eyes remained dry. Tears would have blurred the surreal scene around her, and her own sniffing would have blotted out the screams, but no such thing would be coming. Such weakness would be a respite, but she'd left such feelings in the dust with her innocence.

"They're gone."

Hollowly, she raised her gaze and blinked once as Neji staggered from an alleyway, pressing his hand against the closest wall to keep himself upright. Of course– his Chakra had been almost gone from his fight with Naruto, and then this attack... Tenten broke into a run and took one of his arms, supporting him over her shoulders. "Are you okay?"

Limply, his shoulder rose and fell in a weak shrug. "The exam... what happened?"

The exam. Tenten could have laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. "That's not important right now." Stopping in the middle of the street, she took him by both shoulders and looked him in the eye. "Are you wounded?"

His hand reached up, and he brushed the scratch on her cheek uncertainly. "You are." Neji's eyes trailed down her body, taking in her ripped and bloodstained clothes. As if to reassure himself that the injuries weren't serious, his hand lightly touched every clotted wound, pausing at a long slash across her belly.

Tenten hissed in pain and pulled back, covering the long cut with her own hand. "I'm fine. A lot of this blood isn't mine." Wrapping her arm around his waist, she guided him across the street and lowered him to the ground, sitting beside him underneath the remnants of what had once been a sweets shop.

She could tell from his eyes that he didn't believe her, but he didn't press the point. Neji leaned back against the splintered wood with a grimace and closed his eyes.

Tenten drew her knees into her chest and rested her head on his shoulder, watching Leaf ninja dashing here and there, their faces all stamped with the same weary, haggard expression she knew she had to be wearing. Corpses littered the ground, but from the dirt covering their bodies, she could barely discern their uniforms. Did it really matter what side anyone was on? The fact remained that the streets were filled with the dead.

"Are you alright?" With that uncanny sense, Neji felt her distress without even opening his eyes.

She gritted her teeth, but relaxed and leaned against him, resting her head against his shoulder. "I never thought... we'd be the ones being attacked. You know?" Closing her own eyes to the horror around, she let her mind drift, supported by his strong shoulder. "I never really cared about collateral damage on missions, but when it's your own village..."

Awkwardly, Neji shifted to wrap his arm around her shoulders. "I know what you mean," he said finally, opening his eyes and glancing up at the sky. "But we'll recover and rebuild."

"You think so?"

Twining among the smoke rising from the destroyed buildings, two birds frolicked high above. "It's human nature."