Please see first chapter for disclaimer, etc.

Prompt: Frozen

Warnings: Character Death

Pairing(s): Neji/Tenten

Special Thanks: to DarkAnonymous324, Midnight Insomniac, hihimakino, and Franoncrack for their lovely reviews for the last chapter! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Author's Note: I know that angst isn't everyone's cup of tea, but there will be a few angst-y pieces scattered among these prompts, this being the first. I promise I'll always let you know which chapters those are, though, so you can skip them if you're not an angst fan! Thank you all so much for all the reviews, faves, and alerts I've received for this story so far, and I hope you enjoy this chapter! Thanks for reading!

*~Frozen~*

The front of her shirt felt wet, warm, heavy. She blinked sluggishly, trying to figure out why the pain that should be there wasn't. Her entire body, from her suddenly fuzzy brain to her cold toes, felt numb.

From behind her, she heard a vaguely familiar enraged scream. She blinked again, trying to put a name and face with the voice, as a blur of green and orange shot past her.

Lifting her eyes slightly, she locked gazes with the pale ones of the person standing before her. He swayed slightly, then coughed once, harshly. Fresh blood trailed over his lip and down his chin, joining that which was saturating his formerly white shirt around the sharp end of the arrow protruding from the center of his chest. Then he collapsed, falling toward her in slow motion as his hand reached out for support.

Tenten was finally able to move, catching Neji before he landed on his face. She balanced him in a half-reclining, half-seated position, trying to find a way to get the arrow out, to stop the bleeding, to reverse the damage done to him. Her hands were shaking, and she finally realized that the wet, heavy warmth on her shirt was Neji's blood that had spattered on her when he'd leaped in front of the arrow meant for her.

Somewhere in front of her, she heard Gai-sensei and Lee unleashing a barrage upon her and Neji's attacker, their combined shouts drowning out the frightened, pained cries of the other man. They did not require her help; Neji did. She would stay where she was needed.

The dark, heavy thundercloud that had been creeping across the sky veiled the sun, and the first few raindrops pattered across the dusty ground. A drop landed on Neji's cheek, trailing like a tear down his face to form a pink river in the blood staining his skin.

For a few seconds, silence stretched through the clearing.

Then Lee and Gai-sensei were there, kneeling on either side of Tenten. The former was unashamedly letting tears streak down his dirty cheeks as he stared at his teammate; the latter barely seemed to be keeping his emotions in check as he watched their surroundings to make sure there were no more threats around.

Neji's pale eyes shifted from his sensei, to Lee, then finally to Tenten. He wheezed in a deep breath, seeming to have to force out the following raspy words he spoke. "Thank you all." They were three small words, but the emotions behind them said so much more.

Lee sputtered slightly, reaching up a bandaged hand to swipe at his cheeks. "You cannot die, Neji," he said, almost plaintively. "I have not had a chance to beat you yet!"

A coughing chuckle escaped Neji, and his three teammates pretended not to see the blood that accompanied the motion. "Sorry, Lee." His glazed eyes shifted to his teacher; though he didn't say anything, an understanding seemed to pass between the two men before Gai-sensei turned away again, eyes suspiciously bright.

The rain fell harder from above, feeling like sharp little needles embedding themselves in Tenten's skin. Despite the fact that her eyes were stinging, she couldn't make herself blink. If she did, she might miss something important, a last vital thought or motion Neji made.

He seemed to have been saving her for last. Neji's hand slid across his abdomen to latch on to her forearm, fingers surprisingly strong considering the fact that he seemed to be having trouble holding his eyes open. "Tenten," he rasped.

The first sob tore free from her throat, shuddering through her body as she tried to choke back the rest. Even now, she was afraid he'd think her weak if she shed tears; was selfishly hoping the rain would mask any that escaped. And they were escaping, hot tears that felt like fire trails streaking down her cheeks to drip onto Neji's stained shirt. "Neji, please…" She couldn't find the words to finish her plea, hoping he would understand it. They'd always been able to communicate without words, it was what made them such a good team. Surely he would understand what she couldn't bring herself to say. Please don't die. Not for me. I love you, I need you. I'm so sorry… They were words she could never voice, for fear of destroying in one fell swoop the friendship, the easy camaraderie, they had. Now she was forced to regret her many moments of selfish fear for not being strong enough to take the chance to tell him, not even as he lay bleeding to death in her arms because he was fast enough to move when she hadn't been.

Neji searched her eyes with his own, which were beginning to flutter unsteadily. A small smile briefly transformed his crimson-coated lips, sparks of regret lighting his eyes. "How ironic," he whispered. "All these years of wanting to escape my cage, and the only way to do so is to die…" His face was completely open for the first time, full of promises he would never be able to fulfill. She would never know what it cost him to allow her to see that intense emotion that he usually tried so hard to hide.

In those last moments, a flurry of images seemed to reflect themselves in Tenten and Neji's eyes - a slideshow of a future they could never have together, but that each one wanted so badly.

A flash of lightning reflected in Neji's glazed eyes as his fingers relaxed around her arm and his head fell limply against her shoulder, breaking that final, precious moment between them.

Lee threw his arms around her, holding on to her as she began to shiver uncontrollably, feeling all the emotions bubbling in her chest freeze in place as she lifted her head to the rain weeping from the sky and screamed.

The only way to protect herself from then on was to become as frozen as the snow that fell the day they buried Hyuuga Neji.

*~The End~*

Author's Ending Notes: Any Fruits Basket fans out there might recognize the frozen as the snow line as a paraphrase of one the character Hatori used to describe himself. Tenten is a naturally cheerful character, but I think something like this might send her into a different state of mind, if only temporarily. I think anyone would be shaken by the death of someone that close to them, in such circumstances, so I hope everyone was in character, especially Tenten and Neji. To make up for this sad chapter, I promise that the next one will be happier! Thank you so much for checking out my story, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!