"You can do it, Tenten-chan! Just a few steps more! The power of youth will sustain you!"
Tenten gritted her teeth – for once, not against the pain, but in order to keep a retort from slipping out before she could stop it. If she heard one more thing about the "miraculous healing power of youth", Lee was seriously going to need it.
The end of the support beams seemed infinitely far away, though Tenten realized that she was already more than halfway. She had been working on the exercise for almost an hour now, exerting every ounce of her effort just to support her leg as she moved along the bars. Lee stood at the end of the parallel bars, shouting words of "encouragement", while Neji sat alongside, silent as ever. Tenten could feel herself beginning to tire – just those few weeks in the hospital had weakened her, and even now, her arms shook as she neared the end. It was all she could do to keep the tremors at bay.
"Almost there! The power—"
"So help me, Lee, when I get to the end of this…" She let the comment trail off as she felt her grip loosen.
No time for sarcasm, must concentrate.
Still, Tenten could have sworn she heard a distinct snort of amusement from Neji's direction.
She inched forward, each step more difficult than the last. Her hands were clenched around the bars as tightly as she could manage, but her palms had begun to sweat, and that made progress difficult – as though it wasn't already. She concentrated on steadying her grip, ignoring the piercing pain that suffused her left leg every time she put it down.
"Just a bit more…" Lee murmured more quietly, but Tenten still caught the remark, and she shot him a death glare, one which would have been much more intimidating had it not been interrupted by a small gasp of alarm as her hand slipped. As if the whole of time had suddenly slowed to a crawl, Tenten could see the space where she'd just missed the support, could feel the air rushing past her. She anticipated the pain even before she felt it.
But then, the world snapped back to normal. Faster than her eyes could follow, Neji had moved from his meditative pose and braced her elbows, stopping her just inches from crashing into the ground.
It took a few moments for Tenten to reorient herself. Her mind had been anticipating a fall, but it hadn't come; regardless, the adrenaline continued to pump at full tilt through her veins, leaving her gasping for breath. Consequently, she failed to notice the shaking in Neji's arms as he helped to right her.
"Tenten-chan, are you alright?" Lee's wide-eyed gaze hovered in front of her, and Tenten waved him off, managing an unconvincing smile.
"I'm fine." She mumbled, though she could feel the heat rising in her cheeks. It had been stupid, to keep going even when she knew she was getting fatigued. Now, she'd just made herself look like a weakling again.
"Are you sure, perhaps we should—"
"I'm fine!" She snapped, raising her voice more than she had intended.
Lee recoiled as though she had slapped him.
"Alright, Tenten-chan." He slunk backward, not meeting her gaze.
"Perhaps that is enough for now."
Neji's calm voice only added to Tenten's frustration, but she managed to bite her tongue and responded with a nod. Neji fell into step beside her, supporting her left side, but she noticed that Lee hesitated slightly, his gaze flickering anxiously to her face and then away again before he put a steadying arm around her waist. They walked back in silence, making slow progress across the medical facility's training ground.
Tenten tried to keep her expression steeled as they walked, but her frustration threatened to break through at every staggering step. Though she would never admit it to either of her teammates, she was starting to get seriously worried. It had been almost a week, and though she'd improved in her navigation of the parallel bars, it had very little to do with any form of recovery in her leg. Mostly, she'd learned how to get around the burning pain in her left leg – it wasn't diminishing, she was just adjusting.
And when she wasn't on the leg, she felt almost nothing at all. She had woken up only a few nights ago in a cold sweat, panicking because she had dreamed that the leg had been amputated, and then woken to find that she couldn't feel it. Fortunately, her quiet hyperventilation hadn't been enough to disturb the medic that came by in the evenings to monitor her condition, so she'd been able to keep the episode to herself. She wasn't sure she could handle having anyone – particularly her teammates, for that matter – know the extent to which the injury was affecting her.
A distant rumble of thunder broke through the veil of her morose thoughts, and she glanced skyward. Apparently, she had been so concentrated on her training that she had failed to notice the cluster of rainclouds gathering in the west, slowly creeping toward the village.
Neji and Lee had noticed as well, but there was little to be done; with Tenten's injury, they couldn't move much faster, unless they carried her, which she had vehemently protested every time the topic had come up in conversation.
The first splatter of rain was quick to follow, misting drops like freckles across the bridge of her nose. Water gathered on the blades of grass beneath their feet, making it harder and harder for Tenten to find her footing and slowing them even further. By the time they reached the apartment, all three of them were thoroughly soaked, and Tenten had mud all the way to her knees, caking the outer dressings of the cast on her leg. When Neji and Lee had her safely deposited on the couch, she examined it at length, grimacing as she pulled away the ruined bandages. Neji excused himself to put some tea on, but Lee remained in the room, seating himself next to the window without a sound.
It took Tenten a few moments to realize he was sulking, but when the silence stretched to a full minute, she knew something was wrong.
Sighing, she reached over to poke his arm. "Look, Lee, I didn't mean to snap at you."
He glanced over at her, his face caught up in a childish pout. After a few seconds, he turned back to the window and muttered something unintelligible.
"What was that?"
"I said…" he turned back to her, still frowning, "you never snap at Neji-san that way."
Tenten couldn't hold back a grimace, because she knew it was true. But Neji was different. He was always so calm, which could, on occasion, be just as irritating as Lee's enthusiasm, but snapping at him had never been an option. She couldn't really explain it, but something about the idea of snapping at Neji would be admitting that her incapacitation was truly getting to her, whereas with Lee, it could just be explained away as a response to his boisterousness. Still, the realization left a lump in the pit of her stomach.
"I..." She wrinkled her nose. "It's just frustrating."
At that, Lee's face softened. "We're only trying to help, Tenten-chan."
She nodded, glancing over her shoulder before she spoke. Neji was nowhere in sight.
"I know you are. But I feel bad that you even have to do that. You both should be out training, not taking care of an invalid."
The exaggerated look of shock on Lee's face assured Tenten that the wound to his pride had been swiftly forgotten.
"Tenten-chan! Why would you even say anything like that? You are the beloved youthful blossom of our team! What kind of shinobi would we be if we didn't oversee the recovery of our teammate?"
Tenten almost laughed despite herself. "I guess so. Still, this isn't exactly what you signed up for. If I'd just been more careful—"
Lee cut her off. "You blame yourself for this injury? If Neji-san and I had been more attentive—"
"It's not your responsibility." Tenten chided quietly, adding almost as an afterthought, "…or Neji's. I let our team down, and that's all there is to it."
Lee opened his mouth to make a retort, but he was forced to stop as Neji re-entered the room. Tenten shot him a warning glance, and Lee realized, at least for now, the discussion was clearly over.
"…never snap at Neji-san that way."
At the mention of his name, Neji stepped out into the hallway; he wasn't typically an eavesdropper, but for some reason, this conversation caught his attention.
"I…" Tenten's voice was laced with guilt, and Neji could only assume it was because of her earlier loss of control. Tenten could be short-tempered at times, but recently it had gotten increasingly worse. Lee was right, however; the brunt of her temper recently had borne by Lee alone, and Neji himself wasn't sure why.
"…only trying to help..."
"I know you are." There was an element of tiredness in Tenten's voice as well, a fact which was also worrisome. The growing bags under her eyes hadn't escaped Neji's notice – he'd not broached the subject of her sleeping habits yet, but it clearly was not sufficient for her recovery.
"If I'd just been more careful…"
Neji frowned. Was that what she was worried about?
Lee made some astonished exclamation, but the first part of it wasn't clear. "If Neji-san and I had been more attentive—"
"It's not your responsibility… or Neji's." She responded, her voice going hushed. "I let our team down and that's all there is to it."
The admission sent a cold shock through Neji. As he re-entered the kitchen, he ran the words over in his mind, trying to make sense of it. She thought she'd let their team down? The entire mission had been riddled with problems, but it wasn't as though her injury had come about as the result of any great error on her part. Where would she have even gotten such a notion?
Lee and Tenten's conversation ceased the moment he stepped back into the room, and a quiet discussion of the sudden change in the weather replaced it. Still, Neji couldn't stop himself from glancing over at his teammate, whose waxen face was made all the more grim by the half-smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.
More than ever, Neji felt his determination redouble. They would get Tenten back into fighting form, regardless of the effort it took.
A/N: Hullo all! I'd just like to thank you all for your support of this story. I know I've been sporadic with updates, but I truly appreciate the amazing response I've gotten. You all are wonderful.
Keep the reviews coming, and let me know what you think!
Also, just a note to a couple of my reviewers:
To the anonymous reviewer that asked the wonderful question,"Where's Gai?" Answer to come in the next chapter. :)
And to my anonymous review from Paraguay: Hello! Sorry for the delayed response, but it's always wonderful to hear from readers around the globe. Hope you continue to enjoy the story! :)