Thanks for the reviews! I love how you keep my hyped to write this. :)

Stronger

by iJutsu

"Is this some kind of cruel joke?" Lee snarled at both girls, not knowing which one to get mad at. His eyes were firing with anger.

Neji couldn't blame him. Using a teammate as a toy with them was low. Then again, which one was the teammate? Which one was Tenten? Neji looked down at the one in his arms, eyes wide in fear and blood traveling down her lip. She started shivering again once the other placed her hand on her shoulder. Neji then looked at the betrayer. She was grinning at him and Lee, as if nothing happened between her and the other girl. That got Lee even more angry. Despite the whole Tenten dilemma, Lee couldn't stand it when someone hurts someone innocent.

"My, my, my," sighed the short haired Tenten, "You're always running away from me, Mistress Tenten."

'Mistress' gasped softly under her breath. Neji and Lee looked over at the attacker in confusion. Lee grunted. "Why did she call her 'Mistress'?" Lee thought, still glaring. (Mistress being a female Master) Neji thought the exact same thing. The attacker laughed, as she drew her hand back and placed it on her hip. The girl was still shaking in Neji's arms. Neji looked down and was to hold her closer, but didn't, for she softly pushed Neji off of her and with his support, turned around to face the one who just spoke to her. She smirked when she received a furious look from the girl.

"Why are you mad at me, Mistress?" she chuckled, "I mean, I'm only helping you. I'm only saving you the trouble. Didn't you want to get revenge on those two fools? Isn't that what you told me?"

Lee's face dropped a bit from anger to surprise and shock as he looked over at them. Neji stared in confusion."Revenge?" Neji thought seriously. He looked over at the girl who was once in his arms. Her legs were shaking, and her arms were around her stomach again. She was also coughing between breaths. It was obvious that her body was to give up on her soon.

"I-I never asked you to do it f-for me!" the long haired Tenten yelled dryly, her voice then getting soft, "I did want...want revenge...but...but I didn't want them to get hurt...! Stop it please...

Asuka."

Lee and Neji's eyes flashed opened. "Asuka?" they thought together in great confusion. Neji looked over at the short haired girl. He glared and Lee finally understood what this all meant. Lee looked over at Neji quickly. Neji feeling him looking at him and he also turned to him.

"Neji," he started, "If that girl is this 'Asuka', that means the one she's calling 'Mistress' must really be..."

"Tenten," Neji finished, as if he was out of breath.

Tenten's legs finally gave up. She fell down to her knees painfully, with her hands pushing against the ground to help her not fall down any further. Her head was down and she was clutching onto the grass.

"I didn't want them to get hurt..."she repeated, voice still soft and shaky, "It wasn't suppose to be like this..."

Laughing, the Asuka of a person walked over to the girl on the floor and bent down. She placed her thumb under Tenten's chin, lifting her face not so gently. She drew back her hand and, still bending, looked into her eyes, giving the poor girl more fear and pain. The girl's short hair was covering part of her eyes due to the wind, hiding such satisfaction in her eyes. Tenten flinched.

"I'm doing this because I know you never will," she said to her, "You don't have the heart for revenge. Especially towards these two. You hold back, even after all this training. And you call yourself a ninja."

Her eyes were now getting wet with angry tears. Laughing once again, Asuka stood up in front of her and took out her katana. Neji blinked. This time, she only had one katana and she was missing her pocket bag of weapons. "Besides," Asuka continued, "They look fun to kill. And considering that you were their teammate, might as well kill you too, Mistress." Tenten caught a glance of it and looked down, shaking uncontrollably. She was empty-handed and she could barely move. That made Asuka more satisfied.

"Now die!" she yelled, striking the weapon towards Tenten head.

After a second, Tenten flinched, only to find out that it didn't even touch her hair.

The attacker eye's widened in shock as her katana was hit by a kunai."What the hell?!" she thought angrily, seeing at her attack was stopped. She then growled, seeing the small weapon on the ground. Neji had another in his hand, smirking. He threw it to prevent her from attacking the Tenten. He threw another one towards her, and she easily blocked it with her katana. Little did she know what was behind her. She felt a movement from behind her and before she was able to turn around, Lee attacked with the same move he did with her before.

"Leaf Gale!"

She was sent flying, until her back hit a nearby tree. Lee straightened up from his attack and grinned at the girl, with determination in his eyes. Neji, seeing that Lee and his plan was going perfectly, ran over to the 'Mistress Tenten'. He bent down in front of her and lifted up her face with his fingers slowly. Her eyes grew wide for thinking that it was Asuka, but when she realized who it was, her face softened a bit. He brought back his hands and looked at her in the eye. She shivered.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly.

She merely nodded and looked over at Lee, who was now watching Asuka walk numbly towards him. Neji turned his head. She was angry. Of course, she didn't expect to get hit nor did she expect to not know that Lee was behind her. "She obviously wasn't expecting battle," thought Neji, "She didn't bring any other weapon." Lee focused on Asuka. She was now at a point where she was limping towards him. He became deep in thought, and realized something he was soon to tell Neji about: a solution. Finally, she made it and stood in front of Lee. She jabbed a finger towards his face and glared. Lee didn't move an inch.

"This isn't over," she whispered furiously before jumping into the sky, throwing a small silver ball towards them. Lee gasped and swiftly turned to Neji.

"Neji! Smoke bomb!"

There was no time to look at it, for it already hit the ground, producing large amount of smoke that began to surround them. Suddenly, Tenten began to cough. At this rate, she's most likely not to get through the smoke. Neji, knowing that Tenten was in front of him, quickly grabbed onto her. He held her closely, with his hand lightly pushing her face against his chest to prevent her from taking in any more of the air. As fast as he could, he shakily stood up and wrapped his arm around her legs, and kept his other hand lightly against her head. He then looked around.

"Neji!" yelled Lee from a distance, "Get out of the smoke!

Following his voice, he quickly ran, holding onto the girl as he did so, for her grip around him was starting to loosen up. To their relief, the smoke was starting to fade, making it easier for Neji to see his surroundings, and most importantly, Lee. He ran closer and closer to him, and finally stood next to him, with only having to catch his breath once. Lee sighed in relief, glad to see him make it out safe. Lee then looked over at the girl he was holding. Her face was still against his chest while her arms were still around his neck. Lee's eyes softened up.

"Is she alright?" he whispered.

Before Neji could answer, her arms slowly started to fall down his neck to his arms and her head slowly drew back from his chest. Opening her eyes to the best that she could, she gave them a small smile. Her smile. After closing back her eyes, she fainted.

--

They were now in front of the Konoha Hospital. Getting her cured was more important than finding Asuka at the moment. The sky was now orange, indicating that it was late afternoon. As early as it, they don't believe they'll be looking for her until tomorrow. Lee looked through the door and blinked. Gai, Kakashi, and Sakura were still there. Gai seemed to have noticed Lee's glance, for he swiftly got off his chair and opened the door for them. Sakura and Kakashi looked over at Gai, then at Lee and Neji once they entered the room.

"Lee! Neji!" Sakura yelped happily, running up to them. She then stopped in her tracks when she saw the girl resting in Neji's arms. She looked at her, then at Neji, then at Lee. Kakashi sighed and walked over to them, who awkwardly did the same thing as Sakura. Gai, however, touched the girl, moving the strand of hair away from her face. He sighed happily and smiled softly at her.

"Now, that's my student," Gai whispered, before quickly turning around to point at a random nurse, "You! Bring this girl to an emergency room immediately! Immediately, I say!"

Without having to hear him say it twice, about 3 nurse came to them, with one rolling a medical bed. One of them carefully got Tenten from Neji's arms and placed her softly on the bed. Giving them just a simple bow, they pushed the bed and went towards the room. One nurse stayed and stared at them, while Lee and Neji were watching the bed get smaller and smaller as it moved away. Sakura looked bewildered towards Lee and Neji. She looked at Lee. He didn't look like he was in the mood to speak about the situation. She sighed and looked down for a moment. She desperately wanted to know. Lee heard her and turned around to face her. She looked up at him.

"Something wrong?" Lee asked sweetly, giving her a smile. Sakura blinked for a moment, for she thought that he was depressed. She then giggled embarrassingly before she asked.

"Who was that?" Sakura asked, giving in as she cocked her head slightly to the side.

Lee looked at Sakura for a moment, then at Neji, then back at Sakura and sighed. Gai and Kakashi were also waiting for his answer. He then rubbed his head, "Sakura, that was Tenten."

Silence came over them for what seemed like hours. Gai-sensei was right. Sakura then broke it.

"Tenten?" Sakura repeated in a form a question, "What do you mean? I thought the one who attacked us was...and she looked nothing like..."

"Excuse me!" yelled a nurse that was running towards them. Lee immediately stood up and looked over at the nurse. She then looked at them with a sweet smile, "She's okay."

Gai glared. "That was awfully quick!" he snarled, knowing that it has only passed about 8 minutes, "I want through and precise examination for her! Give her the best treatment you can! Did you even-"

"Gai-sensei," said Sakura, holding onto his arm to prevent him from yelling any further, "We have better medical equipment and technology now. There's no need to worry. We're now able to indicate injuries in a matter of minutes." Coming from a medical nin, Gai couldn't help but believe her. The nurse nodded in agreement.

"It's true," the nurse stated, pulling out her clip board that held information about Tenten's body, "She's going to be okay. She has a few injuries around her body, but nothing serious. No broken bones, or disabled parts were located. Her wounds should be able to heal over night, but I'm afraid she won't be able to fight until the next week. She also seemed to have been missing chakra, or energy, in her body. She's so cold and numb. She needs to rest for a couple of days to restore her energy. But don't worry. She'll be back to normal in no time!"

Lee sighed in relief, "How is she doing now?"

"She resting right now," she smiled, then looked at the clock, "You all have some time left if you want to visit her. Though, only 2 visitors per room. You many each stay with her as long as you want for about 30 minutes. It's getting dark. " The nurse then looked outside, seeing the once orange sky turn into faded purple. Everyone nodded.

"Kakashi and I will go first," stated Gai towards their former students, "To save time for Lee and Neji. You both must have many questions for her."

Lee and Neji nodded in agreement and sat down, watching Gai and Kakashi disappear into the hallways. Sakura took a seat in between them. She sighed to herself and leaned back on her seat. She believed asking them more about what happened wasn't necessary at the moment anymore. They felt that talking about it won't get them nowhere. Although, they do plan on telling everyone what happened after they sort the whole situation out. Out the blue, Lee sighed happily.

"At least we found her, right?" Lee smiled.

Sakura smiled along with him. Neji did as well. All things considered, he couldn't be happier. Sakura looked over at Neji, then stretched, with a grin on her face.

"I'll let you guys visit her for the remaining time left," she said kindly.

"You don't want to see her, Sakura?" asked Lee.

"I do, but I have all the time in the world for that, since we finally have her back," she replied, "You're her teammates, and I bet you missed her dearly. Plus, you have questions for her. I wouldn't want to take time from you guys to find out stuff about Asuka. Besides..." Her eyes then flickered at Neji and her grin widened. Neji raised a brow, "I bet Neji wants to tell her something very important. Isn't that right, Neji?"

"Oh?" Lee said, giving Neji the same grin, "What is it that you need to tell her?" It seemed like Lee already knew where this was going.

Neji twitched as the two looked closely at him, "You're also aware of this, Lee?" he sighed.

"Huh? Oh, no, of course not," Lee laughed, with a hint of sarcasm, "I mean, my guess was that you were going to confess your feelings of love towards her. But then again, that was a guess."

Neji glared, making both Lee and Sakura laugh. Sakura then spoke, "Are you going to do it? It's the perfect chance! You'll never have a chance like this again! Before you know it, after she gets better, you'll probably never have the courage to ask her ever again!" Sakura was trying not to giggle while she spoke. It didn't seem to be working. Neji sighed.

"I hate you both," he said with a chuckle. Lee and Sakura's eyes lit up happily, knowing that he was going to do it. While their laughs started to fade, Gai and Kakashi were making their way back to the waiting room with them. Neji and Lee stood up immediately. Gai looked at the former students, with eyes wondering who was going to go next. Lee again looked over at Sakura and Sakura merely nodded, indicating for them to go. Lee smiled thankfully and looked over at Gai. Gai nodded, already understanding what was happening.

"Go down the hall, then go left. Her room number is 10," Gai said, pointing towards the hallway. And with no further words, Lee and Neji were off running to the room. They ran, ran as fast as they could. Although, they later found out that it wasn't necessary, for her room was only a 30 second walk from the waiting room. And for that, they missed the room and had to run back. Once they made it to her room, Neji and Lee both opened the door, with Lee's hand on the door and Neji's hand on the knob. They looked about. There she was.

Tenten was staring at them with wide eyes, with her long hair blowing against her face from the wind coming from her open window. Even though the wind made her hair cover her eyes, she didn't take her eyes off them. Lee and Neji stared at her calmly. Suddenly, the wind stopped, making her hair drop. It didn't take long for her to begin to cry. Her eyes started to water and she covered her face with both her hands. The two boys blinked multiple times.

"I-I'm so sorry," she choked, "I-I'm so so s-so sorry. P-please don't hate me," Tears were now seeping through her fingers and traveling down her hand, "I'm sorry f-for running away. I'm s-s-sorry for making you worry. I'm sorry for get-getting you hurt. B-but please. D-don't hate me. Don't hate me, please. P-please. A-anything but that. I-I'm so happy t-that your here w-with me. I missed...missed you so much..."

Lee couldn't take it anymore. Within seconds, he ran to her and hugged her, with her hands still on her face. This time, he wasn't pushed away. She was still sobbing onto Lee's shirt, and Lee again allowed her. Then, Lee felt tears stream down from his own eyes. He cried softly along with her, though his tears were no longer bitter. He cried with happiness as he held his teammate in his arms. Lee then released, and looked at her. She was still crying and her hands were still covering his face.

"D-don't worry about that," Lee said comfortingly, and said what Neji said to him, "The past is past. You're here with us now. You'll always be with us. You're back. That's all that matters."

Tenten felt something warm on her hands, and saw her hands leave her face. Neji slowly removed her hands from her face and held onto her hand with both his own. He smiled softly at her and nodded, agreeing with Lee. Suddenly, a smile appeared on her lips as more tears escaped her eyes. She was happy.

She was home.

Then silence came across them, making it awkward for all three of them. Tenten sighed and wiped away her tears with her free hand. She didn't let go of Neji's hand. She didn't want to.

"I-I guess you both want to k-know about w-what happened," she said quietly. Lee nodded.

"Who is Asuka?" Lee simply asked. Tenten looked down, shaking a bit, thinking of a way to put it. Her grip on Neji's hand began to tighten. She was feeling nervous. Then, taking one shaky sigh, she spoke, keeping her head down; wanting to avoid eye-contact with her teammates.

"My creation," Tenten finally said in almost a whisper.

Lee and Neji stared at her again in confusion.

"Creation?" Neji asked. All he received from her was a nod.

"What do you mean?" asked Lee, then sighed, realizing how nervous she was, "Tell us everything. Don't be afraid, Tenten. We won't get angered and we won't let anything happen to you."

Tenten calmed down a bit, and her grip on Neji's hand began to relax. She then spoke quietly, "I...I made her. She's my clone..."

"W-wait, start at the beginning," Lee interrupted, "What do you mean 'clone'? How was she created?"

"I tried that jutsu where a ninja could make clones out of themselves. Like N-Naruto. Then, I...I must've done something wrong. I only made one clone, and that clone wouldn't go away, no matter how many times I...I attacked it. Suddenly, she blocked my attack with her, or my, weapons. A-after that, she spoke to me. Spoke to me. She told me to train her. And I did. That's w-when I decided to name her. I called her Asuka."

Lee found it a pretty odd, but believable story, "So that means, if you trained her, all her attacks are similar to yours, but less powerful, yes?"

Tenten nodded. Taking it that she did train Asuka, she had to be stronger than her own 'student'. Neji sighed and spoke, "That must be the reason why she looks so much like you. What else?"

Tenten let out a shaky sigh. "I've trained her for about 3 years. T-the more I trained her, the more I also taught myself. I found myself getting stronger. But the more stronger I got, the more stronger she got. I felt us become very close. That was when I told her all about me running away and..."

Unexpectedly, tears started to again escape from her eyes, hitting both her and Neji's hand. Neji looked at her, as did Lee, in concern. Lee reached over at touched her shoulder, knowing that she was having a hard to say whatever she wanted to say.

"Go ahead, Tenten. Tell us," he said in such a sweet voice she couldn't say no. She wiped her tears boyishly with her arm, and didn't remove her arms from her eyes when she began to talk.

"That's when I told her about revenge," she said in almost a whisper. Lee and Neji's hold on her started to loosen a bit in shock. "So she did want revenge," thought Lee sadly, still hoping that it wasn't true. Tenten was then hiccuping a bit due to her tears. She continued, "I-I won't lie to you. I-I did want revenge. B-but that was a mistake...I should have never desired such a thing. A-and Asuka hurt you. I'm so stupid...so stupid."

She began to cry once again. Lee and Neji were looking down at her bed feeling a bit odd. They expected to feel hurt, and indeed they did, but more, they felt that they were the stupid ones. It came to them that they were the reason that she ran away. They were the reason she disappeared for the past 4 long years. Lee sighed. Tenten flinched, thinking that they were going to get mad at her for sure. She paced herself. She then felt his hand touch her cold skin.

"Tenten, don't cry," Lee said, "Whatever the reason that made you want to get revenge on us, we're terribly sorry. I won't ask you now what the reason is, okay? Just give us information of where we can find Asuka. We already know were her underground base is. Is there a way that we could enter?"

Tenten paused for a moment as she slowly removed her arm from her eyes. Her eyes were slight red and wet. Trying to get her voice back, she sat up straight, hands again tightening around Neji's, "There's an entrance within the lake, which is...about...2 meters away from the base. Go in the lake and there's a hole to the left. It's big, you can't miss it."

Neji twitched. "We have to swim," he thought dully. With that, she took a final deep breath. Lee believed he got all that he needed to know. He looked up at the clock above Tenten's head. They still had a couple minutes left. Lee then looked over at Neji and grinned to himself. Neji looked back at Lee and before he could speak, Lee stood up and dusted himself off.

"Well, I got to go aware Gai-sensei about the misunderstandings," Lee said, "Neji, you stay here with Tenten for a while. Keep her company."

Lee then gave Neji a wink and walked out the door, closing the door quietly behind him. Once Lee left, the wind entered the room in a calm rhythm, making both their hair flow with it a bit. Tenten wanted to open her mouth to speak, but she felt like she couldn't. What was she to say? She looked down and blushed a bit, realizing that their hands were still together. She looked at Neji, who happened to be looking in her eyes. She felt her blush deepen. Shaking her head, she slowly pulled her hand back to her. But, once she moved her hand, Neji took a soft grip on her hand, stopping her from moving. Tenten stared at him, wondering why he won't let her let go. Neji sighed, "It's now, or never."

"Tenten," he started off slowly. She looked at him, and since she said nothing, he had to continue. He sighed again and his eyes didn't lose sight of hers. "I found myself falling in love with you."

Tenten stared at him with wide eyes. And what was more surprising, he was talking about it with a straight face. He smirked a bit and continued, remembering all that Sakura told him about the story, "But to tell you the truth, I found myself admiring you more than loving. You see, whenever I watched you train, whenever I watched you fight, the more I would admire you. You work hard. Very hard to get head among the rest."

Her face suddenly became really warm. She thanked the wind, for it now blew, covering a bit of her face with her hair. She then heard Neji chuckle softly as he brushed her hair away from her face lightly and lifted up her chin slowly with his thumb. Tenten's heart started to beat rapidly as he leaned in closer to her face, lips just inches apart. He stopped once their lips were just close enough to breath in each other's breath. Neji smiled.

"I love you for that," he finally whispered, before delicately capturing her lips with his.

Tenten's eyes shot wide open. "How does he..." she thought, but was then at a point where she couldn't think. The atmosphere around them began to grew thick and the wind started to blow more, making their long hairs flow within the rhythm. Everything was silenced. Within seconds, her eyes and body began to relax. Before she could even close her eyes, Neji slowly released, leaving her hungry for more. She was panting softly, with deep red tinted on her face. Neji blushed as well, not knowing whether or not he did the right thing.

She didn't speak. All that came out of her mouth were small breaths. Suddenly, a smile started to creep onto her lips. Happy tears whelmed up in her eyes as she mouthed something he didn't quite get. But right now that didn't seem to matter. Without hesitation, he wrapped his arms around her and held her close, softly rubbing his head against her hair, taking in her scent. He embraced her, not wanting to let her go. Tenten then wrapped her arms around him as well, obviously feeling the same way as she hugged him tightly. Hard to admit to himself, but he was happy. Very happy. Very happy that she was finally back with them, back with him. After 4 long years of searching, the moment has finally come. Tenten felt Neji smile as he whispered:

"Welcome back."

TBC

I don't know whether the next chapter is the last, but it's almost over. :) This chapter is rather...'out of it' (told by my critic) and I still need to improve with suspense. R&R Thanks for reading!