A/N: It's been way too long…forgive me please if you have to reread the story to catch up on what was going on again. So basically, if you've bothered to read my Author's Notes, I'll explain that I've just not been on fanfiction in a devastatingly long time because of: (one) Writer's Block, but mainly (two) School and the workload I have gotten. But I hate to just leave two stories unfinished. It bugs me to death. And now that it's Spring Break for me, I'm sure I can jump start my writing again. Thanks for those who stuck with me -hugs- So I wanted to end this story with this chapter, but this chapter alone was too long...so I'll hopefully make the next chapter the last of this story...and really I will post the next chapter within a week I hope. No more waiting for months! Yay!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fanfiction.

Possession

by nejiandtentenfan

Chapter 4: Unbearable Reality

After the pang of shock started to dwindle from her head and the numbness starting seeping away from her thoughts, the emotions that she had once tried to suppress came speeding past her in a blur now. So fast, it was more than she could handle. The struggles that she had gone through, he was her world to her, then he just left one day? How could any sane person just do that to the group of people that was practically their family? She had the sudden impulse to break free from his grip, which would not be hard by any means, but something unexplainable welled up inside of her and before she could react, her body went limp and she crumpled into his iron hold. The tears came swifter than she could have anticipated, but she didn't care anymore. There was nothing in this world of any worth to her. This thought melted away almost as quickly as her tears had first started. Tenten was now more than utterly confused to say the least.

She was completely lost. Nothing made sense to her. Everything she had ever felt made no sense now, all she could feel was the man's warm lips encased around her own. She didn't remember when they started or how it happened, but without thinking, she placed her arms around him and did the one thing she hadn't had a chance to do these past few years - follow her instincts.

The girl could feel Neji's hand playing through her hair as he fiercely kissed her, his passion and yearning growing greater and greater with each passing moment. It was almost as if he was compensating for an emptiness within him that was now being unleashed on this girl. He reached for her shirt, until she opened her eyelids slightly and gently broke the kiss and pushed his hand away.

"Not now..." she breathed the worlds out while huskily searching for oxygen, "We need to see Gai Sensei."

Acting as if nothing had happened, the girl gave Neji one final glance and walked towards the door before saying, "You better hurry up if you're coming along."

As the door closed and Neji was once again in the room alone, he stared at the whitewashed walls dumbly at what had just happened. While the actions were somewhat foreign to him and against everything he had ever claimed to believe in, he felt somehow fulfilled. But the warmth still left on his lips kept him wanting more.

When Tenten had left, he could have sworn he had seen a corner of her mouth edge upwards.

After snapping himself back into reality, he whispered, "Gai Sensei..."

Unlike Tenten, Neji really hadn't thought about anyone on the team since he had been recruited into ANBU...almost no one anyways. He mused over the team that they used to form. Just like every other team formed in the village of Konoha, theirs was a perfect match. Not just skill wise, but they also excelled in personalities and compatibilities. Once he realized his former kunoichi teammate must have been at least a mile ahead of him by now, he decided it must be time he started his trek to old team grounds - grounds that he was positive would have the ability to rip every nostalgic memory he had out of him, ANBU or not.

Ino sighed as she leaned against an ancient tree that had undergone many more years of training than her generation of shinobi had.

Chouji was sitting next to her, with eyes closed, attempting to appear deep in meditation. However, he fooled no one. Just by the tense apparel his face wore, even a child could have accurately guessed that Chouji's nerves were in knots and he was simply trying to calm himself down.

As Ino's arms were crossed in front of her chest, she tapped her slender fingers a few more times against her elbow before groaning loudly enough for Asuma Sensei, who was standing with his hands in his pocket and a cigarette in his mouth, to turn and give her a peculiar look. Even Chouji, who refused to open his eyes had almost jumped when hearing his female teammate in such an irritated manner.

Asuma Sensei eyed the girl before raising his eyebrow and speaking rather calmly, "Is there a problem Ino?"

The girl huffed, and at the moment every crevice in her face was plainly visible to the naked eye as she scrunched her face slightly, obviously extremely annoyed at their current situation.

"How long are we going to keep waiting for Shikamaru? It's almost been an hour! If he doesn't show up in the next two minutes I'm leaving and pretending I never got tricked into something so stupid..." Ino ranted.

Chouji, who lifted one eyelid halfway, looked at Asuma Sensei and spoke, "As for me too, Sensei. I'm tired of this. My energy level is so depleted already since I haven't eaten in so long. I would have thought of snacks if I had known it was going to take this long."

The boy closed his eyes and went back to pondering the wonders of the world deeply again, or perhaps it was just the wonder of starvation that he was now experiencing.

Asuma, who was now just as irritated at their lame whining as Ino was at Shikamaru, opened his mouth to scold the two ninjas for acting 10 years underage, until all six of their ears seemed to perk up when they heard a twig behind them snap so faintly. Their heads all turned to the source of the noise, and a flood of emotion streaked down everyone's bodies when they saw their ANBU strategist standing there.

Asuma cracked a smile, "Nara."

Ino bit back tears that threatened to well up in her eyes when she saw her former teammate that had left her so easily and without care. She gasped for air and whispered only audible enough for Chouji, who was right underneath her not meditating anymore, to hear.

"Shikamaru..."

The Nara raised his eyebrow at his former team and smirked.

Somehow, this was exactly how he pictured his former team to turn out - still exactly the same as when they were Genin.

"Tenten-san!" the more mature childish face of Lee brightened as soon as the former female lotus blossom of the team walked into the forest into their old favorite training spot.

Tenten looked around, taking in all of her surroundings. Absolutely nothing but the age of the forest had changed since the last time Team Gai trained here and Tenten had last seen Neji as a Jounin. She took in a large gulp of woody air and calmed her body down. I'm here for a Team Gai reunion, not to think about Neji...she found herself thinking.

She grinned widely at Lee and he ran up to her and they hugged as if they were six-year-olds, swigging back and forth wildly.

"Tenten-san! I have not seen your smile as genuine and true as it appears right before me now since we were Chuunin! Now I truly understand Gai Sensei's reason for calling you the lotus blossom of Team Gai all these years!" Lee's eyes were overflowing with emotions of joy.

Gai Sensei. Tenten had almost forgotten of the man that taught her everything. The father figure of their group. The role model. She looked over and her grin grew when she saw her old Sensei. A few more wrinkles and gray hairs did nothing to mar his appearance to Tenten. To her, he was still always the never-changing, youthful Maito Gai.

"Tenten-san..." Lee started.

"Tenten," the girl interrupted, implying to drop the over-respectful ending.

Lee's smile only grew wider, "Tenten," a small giggle emitted from his mouth as the name rolled off his tongue, "Where is Neji-san?"

The boy did not dare take the honorific off of their former teammate, current ANBU member's name, for if anyone had thought that the difference between the two shinobi were great at the Genin level, the difference at their current age was now downright startling. This resulted from the simple choice of different paths being chosen. Each leading to a different fate - not that one was any more correct than the other.

There was a sudden awkward pause and silence between all three of them - the forest seemed to have frozen. Even the wind seemed to hush up as the ignorant question was asked so innocently.

"Neji is..." Tenten bit her lower lip with a concerned expression on her face. She had not even thought about whether he would come or not. He had never once clearly stated that he would come along.

"Here," a man finished from behind.

The breath of relief was released from Tenten, and both Lee and Gai's attentions were turned towards their new target.

"NEJI-SAN!" tears started rushing from Lee's face as he crushed the ANBU in a rib binding hug. Either from hidden gratefulness or exhaustion, Neji had allowed Lee to perform this act of welcome just this once.

One could see the tears starting to form in their Sensei's eyes, but he restricted himself from pouring out his greetings to their ANBU friend like Lee had. Because Neji was past the Jounin level, he was not required to respond to Gai as his Sensei. As a senior, Gai had the unquestionable authority over all of them, but as a Sensei, all but one - and that would be the Hyuuga.

"Neji-san, Neji-san, would you like to train together once more as a team with us?" Lee asked excitedly, unaware of the predictable response from not only the one he was speaking to, but also Tenten.

Neji's eyes flickered from Lee's pleading face to Gai's smiling face to the ground for some sort of answer as to how he should respond in an unhurtful way.

Tenten moaned loudly. Training? For crying out loud, they were just in the hospital!

Neji grinned, after all the drama he has gone through in the hospital, there is no way he would want to go back and deal with Tenten questioning his time spent with Sakura.

"What would you like us to do, Gai Sensei?" Neji made the unexpected declaration and Gai Sensei's eyes gushed those signature river of tears. Training with the old Team Gai was a miracle enough, but even having your prodigy ANBU student still call you Sensei was much more than Gai had bargained for.

Tenten would have moaned, but they were kicking tree stumps before she could even utter a word.

"One, two, three, Tenten please hurry up!" Gai called to his female student.

"Hai." Tenten muttered before bringing her leg harder to the stump. She was going to need to stay twice as long now in the hospital, she thought.

"We're starting over now. One, two, three..." Gai's chanting seemed to blend in with Tenten's various thoughts of what she would do if she did have to stay in the hospital for a few more weeks. Would Neji stay there? Wait, what was she thinking? Who cares if that stoic Hyuuga in love with Sakura stayed in the same room as she.

Although half of Tenten felt like pitying herself for being in love with this man, the other half knew the truth and knew she'd have to fess up to it sometime soon before all opportunities were lost, and she'd have to go back to her old lifestyle of drinking, sleeping, and waking up to a reality she couldn't bear.

To Be Continued...(Really)