Dislaimer: We own nothing, as usual.
Author's Notes: Set early on the series, right after Lee battles Gaara during the Chuunin exams. Dedicated to Ness for putting up with my slow, slow writing.
Comparisons & Other Things You Don't Make
By Goldberry
"The Hierophant"
Immediately after Lee's leg is shattered by Gaara of the Sand, Tenten sits by his hospital bed and reads to him. She brings a different book each day, some thick and dusty, others slim and new. She tells him about foreign princes and worlds of seawater and long adventures with friends. Most of all, she reads about heroes overcoming obstacles and in each one she makes the protagonist's name Lee.
Her Lee never moves, never wakes. The books start to make tall piles on the floor.
Standing at her shoulder, Neji looks down at her bent head, the clear black letters on the pages in front of her. He wants to make her stop – the nurses are pestering him, complaining about the mess and convinced Tenten is going to do herself harm. She, too, is supposed to be recovering.
However, when he opens his mouth to tell her these things, nothing comes out.
Tenten glances up, smiles briefly. "I'm alright."
He lets her be.
The next night he meets her there, leaning against a wall, arms crossed as their kunoichi reads aloud. Her voice drops and rises with her words, coloring in the details, and she pauses at the end of a chapter to search Lee's face.
Nothing.
She flips a page and goes on.
An hour later she finishes and closes the book. Neji comes to her side slowly, eyeing her pale face and the rings under her eyes.
"You should have been released days ago," he says. "Why are you doing this?"
Her fingers curl around the edges of the book in her lap. "Remember when we were eleven and I broke my arm falling out of that tree at the Academy?" He does. It is the only time he has ever seen her cry. "Lee went with me when I was taken to the medic. He stayed right by my side the entire time. I remember thinking that I wanted him to shut up, he was so distracting. All I wanted to do was focus on what was happening to me but he wouldn't stop." She laughs a little, softly. "I never even felt them set the bone."
There's a small moment of silence and then she finishes, whispers, "I can't let him focus."
Both of them have seen his x-rays. They know what such an injury means for their teammate.
"Do you really think he can hear you?" Neji asks, after a moment. His pale eyes try to find some sort of awareness on Lee's sleeping face.
Tenten leans the side of her head against Neji's hip briefly, a comforting pressure.
"I'd like to think so," she answers, and picks up another ragged volume.
Tenten is officially released from the hospital the next day, a result of Neji's irritation with the nursing staff and a quiet promise to her doctor that he would make sure Tenten took it easy the rest of the afternoon.
He sees her settled into the chair by Lee's bed, handing her a pillow and a blanket that she takes with an exasperated sigh. Once she is comfortable, he drops a slim paperback on her knees and she begins, her voice filling the room with a gentle sweetness.
Neji sits on the floor at her feet and leans back against her chair, closing his eyes.
When he opens them again, the sky is darkening and Tenten's book is on the floor. She's sleeping soundly, tucked into a corner of her chair. There's color on her cheeks and she seems to be resting peacefully. He won't wake her. She needs the rest.
He does pick the book up off the floor, returning it to the top of the nearest leaning tower of stories. His fingers then drift down the spines as he reads their titles, wondering if all of them belonged to Tenten or if she had borrowed them from somewhere. She had never struck him as the studious type and they trained too much to do a lot of recreational reading. When had she collected all these tales?
Neji chooses a book from a smaller pile and flips it open, glancing over the first page. He's a little unsure, but his voice is steady and low.
"The Second Hokage and the Bird King, by the Historian Osa Kaname. Chapter One…"
Tenten wakes to the Second Hokage having a spectacular duel with the Bird King. Neji's somber tone doesn't bring the story to life, but it has a soothing timbre that makes her body relax, her toes curling into the chair cushion. Neji is a silent person by nature so it's a rare treat to hear him reading aloud, the words strung together easily and precisely.
She closes her eyes again and listens to his tone rather than the words, feels the rhythm of the syllables in her chest. She drifts into his voice, feeling secure and heavy there, content. It's almost a painful disappointment when he finishes and she's pulled back to herself.
"Another one?" she asks hopefully, unsurprised to see that Neji isn't startled to learn she's awake. He's a genius. He knows everything.
His pearl-gray eyes watch her calmly for a moment. "No," he says, "it's getting late. It's time we went home."
She grumbles a little but takes the hand he offers, pulling herself out of her warm chair and folding the spare blanket. They leave everything as it is, only flipping off the lights as they go out. The nurses call goodnight and Tenten realizes she's slept a good part of the day and would probably sleep again when she gets home. She'd been more tired than she'd thought. Tomorrow, though, she would have to train. Neji had been very patient with her but she could tell he was getting restless practicing on his own.
Lee isn't the only one who needs her.
"Oi! Neji!"
Tenten startles and half turns, seeing Uzumaki Naruto running towards them. His face is scrunched together and he skids to a stop before them, panting. She doesn't know much about him, besides that he, too, will be fighting in the finals. She hopes he won't be paired with the boy at her side. As witnessed when he fought his own cousin, Neji was not one to be merciful. And by the looks of things, Naruto is still holding a grudge over what had happened with Hinata.
The blonde kid's eyes narrow at Neji's flat expression and he turns, directing his next question at Tenten instead. She wonders, though, if he even knows her name.
"Hey, how's Fuzzy Eyebrows doin'?" he asks. He kicks at a rock in the road and misses. "I heard he still hasn't woken up."
Tenten blinks at the nickname and glances at Neji before answering. "That's true, but I'm sure he'll come around soon. Lee is very strong."
"I know," Naruto almost mumbles, "That's why I wanted to fight him." He points a finger at her suddenly. "You tell him that, will ya? I'll come around to see him when he gets up!" And then he is off and running again, making a beeline for the ramen stand and leaving Tenten rather confused. When had Lee made such an impression on that kid?
"I didn't know they knew each other," she says aloud. Neji is frowning a little but he starts walking again without comment and she follows. She always does.
Two more streets and they stop to part ways. Tenten smiles up at him.
"See you at sunrise?"
"At the hospital," Neji replies, ignoring her look of surprise.
"But what about--?"
He's already turning away. "You want to be there when he wakes up, don't you?"
She wants to shout after him, ask him how he knows that, but it's clear that Naruto has put him in a rather arrogant frame of mind. Neji is a prodigy, after all, and they are a prickly bunch. It was really rather endearing, when it didn't make her want to strangle him.
She walks the rest of the way home on her own and fulfills her earlier guess by falling asleep the moment her head touches her pillow.
When Tenten arrives at the hospital the next morning, Neji is already there, reading silently. He looks up at her presence, marking his place with a finger, and she closes the door softly.
"Not reading aloud today?" she asks, choosing her words carefully. She'd enjoyed listening to him and didn't want to scare him off future readings.
"I think you should." His moon-colored eyes flicker over to Lee. "He likes it better when it's you."
She feels her eyebrows rise and can't help but ask, "How do you know?"
He goes back to his book. "His heart rate slows."
It's a moment before she processes that and realizes it makes sense. Neji and Lee are rivals, hearing Neji's voice must make Lee restless, while hers calms him.
"Maybe that's a bad thing," she comments. "If he gets too comfortable, he might stay asleep."
Neji turns a page. "It doesn't matter, he'll wake up today."
That was the second time he'd said that and again Tenten stops herself from questioning him. She'd placed her faith in Neji long ago.
Sitting down in her usual chair, she picks up the nearest novel and starts to read. The story is rather boring but she keeps going. An hour passes. Neji brings her a paper cup of water and she drinks gratefully, their fingers brushing as she hands it back. He sits down at her feet again, leaning back against the chair leg and she continues, a little distracted now by his nearness.
It's almost a relief when someone knocks on the door and opens it.
"Oh," says Haruno Sakura. "I…didn't realize. I'll come back later." She starts to back out the way she came, but Neji gets to his feet suddenly.
"That's not necessary. We were just going to take a walk." He's speaking smoothly, unruffled, and he gives Tenten a level look she understands to mean it's her turn to say something.
"Ah… right, just going to stretch our legs for a bit." She rises, letting her book fall into the creases of the chair. "Would you mind staying with him until we get back?"
Sakura looks about as bewildered as Tenten is but she nods agreeably. "Sure."
Neji and Tenten move out into the hallway and Tenten waits until the door is completely closed before turning a confused glare on her teammate.
"Neji, why did we just leave Lee with that girl? She almost got him killed in the Forest!"
Neji took her elbow, leading her a little further down the pristine corridor and momentarily making her forget how to breathe.
"She's his new goal," he replies calmly, and with a bit of distaste. "One he can't exactly reach if he's unconscious."
Tenten frowns. "So, when you said Lee would wake up today, you think it's Sakura that will do it?"
"I think she has the best chance."
Oddly, Tenten is a little hurt by this. She was Lee's teammate; shouldn't she be the one by his side? Hadn't she just spent three days endlessly reading to him in an attempt to bring him back? For Neji to believe that Sakura would succeed where she had failed…
Tenten looks away but Neji's fingers touch her jaw, force her to look up at him. His gaze reads her like one of her books.
"Lee is an idiot," he says plainly, "Don't compare yourself to her."
Tenten's mind spins, her eyes widening at his firm words. Her body feels tight, every ounce of herself focused on Neji's hand under her chin. She's forgotten about Lee and Sakura, everything but the fact that they are standing very close and Neji hasn't pulled away.
It's a moment before she realizes he is waiting for something.
"Okay," she breathes and his hand falls away.
And, later, when they enter Lee's room to find him blinking sleepily up at Sakura's excited face, Tenten smiles and teases him and doesn't mind that she's not the only kunoichi in her friend's life.
She's not someone's goal.
She's someone's weapon.
THE END.