Please see first chapter for disclaimer, etc.

Prompt: Forbidden

Special Thanks: goes out to Awaiting My Prince, DarkAnonymous324, rao hyuga 18, Franoncrack, naash, and Kratos Wilder for your reviews! I enjoy reading every single one of them, and appreciate you all and your kind words so very much!

Author's Note: I picture this as somewhat of a sequel to Teammates (chapter 3), but it can definitely stand on its own. I intend it to take place right after the Sasuke retrieval arc, and not too long after Naruto left to train with Jiraiya. This one was a real joy to write, since it turned out exactly as I envisioned it, so I really hope you all enjoy it! Thanks for reading, reviewing, alerting, and favoriting my story, and I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint!

*~Forbidden~*

For almost two weeks after Neji returned to training, Tenten acted differently. At first he was relieved that she seemed willing to ease back into training, since being so badly injured (and nearly killed) required quite a bit of time to recondition himself to where he'd been before.

But it was her distance from him, emotionally if not physically, that bothered him. Neji had latched on to Tenten from the beginning, understanding that she was the other sane, normal person on his team, and that training with her would be a much more enjoyable experience than if he did the same thing with Lee and Gai-sensei. Even back then, when he all but gave her the cold shoulder and trained with her only because she was the least of three evils, she would pour all of her heart and effort into training. Afterwards, she would keep him company as he meditated, quietly cleaning her weapons and resting after their vigorous practice sessions.

Now … something had changed. Tenten still trained with him, and she stayed on the field with him as he meditated, but she didn't say as much as she used to, and she definitely didn't seem as cheerful as usual. In fact, he could count on one hand the number of times she'd smiled genuinely at him since he'd been released from the hospital. Something had changed.

Though confused, Neji decided to let her sort through whatever was bothering her on her own. He had no right to pry into her personal affairs, particularly if she was having trouble at home or some such thing. If she wanted to confide in him (unlikely, since he'd made it clear in the past that he was a private person and expected the same of the people around him), she would do so. It was that simple.

Neji's plans, however, went awry when Tenten froze unexpectedly in the middle of training. He had been in the middle of his clan's rotation jutsu and, unable to stop in time, had sent one of her own kunai hurtling back toward her, expecting her to be long gone by the time it reached the tree in which she was perched. Thankfully it did not hit her, but her late attempt to dodge had unbalanced her, sending her tumbling from the tree to land in a heap on the ground.

Cursing under his breath (honestly, he wasn't sure if he were mad at himself for not being able to stop his kaiten or her for freezing like she had), he quickly covered the distance between them and knelt next to her. She had rolled herself up into a seated position, grimacing as she carefully rotated her left shoulder. "Ouch."

"What were you thinking?" Neji snapped. He honestly hadn't meant to be so harsh, but Tenten had never reacted like that during training. They had perfected the deadly dance they performed every day, perfectly synchronizing every dangerous step they took. Until today.

Very pointedly not looking at him, Tenten brushed some leaves and dirt off her pants. "You just got out of the hospital," she said with forced casualness. "You've only been back to full-time training for a couple of weeks. I didn't want to overdo it."

Neji felt his fingers twitch, trying to curl into fists. "Don't sugarcoat this and don't lie to me. What were you doing?"

She sighed once, heavily. Lifting her head, she motioned toward him with her right hand. "You're Hyuuga Neji," she said, as if that explained everything.

He arched a questioning eyebrow at her.

Once again, Tenten looked away. "Maybe it's foolish of me, but for all this time I've thought of you as, I don't know … invincible or something."

"Naruto beat me at the chunnin exams," Neji pointed out. As much as he wanted to be invincible, he was not. It seemed Fate wished to remind him of that more than once. Painfully.

"But you weren't badly hurt, thankfully," Tenten said. "When the med team brought you back to the village and I saw you and thought…" She let out a long, shaky breath. "I thought you were dead. You looked dead. And … I finally realized that you're not invincible. That was unsettling, to say the least."

"That still doesn't explain why you froze during training." Neji's earlier anger returned, and he scowled. "Sending that kunai back to you could have killed you." Perhaps he was just realizing that Tenten wasn't invincible, either. He hadn't ever really given the matter thought, but now that he had, it was a painful thought to think of Tenten as mortal, able to be hurt or killed. And to think that it could have been him to deal such a death blow, even accidentally? It made the fine hairs on the back of his neck prickle with a little icy shiver that shot down his spine.

"You're going to hate me for this," Tenten whispered.

That derailed his train of thought. "What?"

She looked up at him miserably from beneath her long lashes. "I know you have a blind spot with your Byakugan," she whispered. "It's why you use the kaiten. But … for one second, after I launched that volley, I was - I was afraid that I would have accidentally thrown one just right, or just wrong, I guess, straight through your blind spot. I was afraid that I would hurt you."

The Hyuuga blind spot was one of the clan's more aggressively guarded secrets. Each member of the clan had one, but its location was kept within the family, if it was mentioned at all. Neji had not told anyone about his own blind spot, particularly since he'd been working so hard to extend his field of vision to the complete three-hundred-sixty degrees every Hyuuga desired to achieve. It made him wonder how Tenten had learned about it. "Tenten-"

One forestalling hand shot into the air. "Don't say it," Tenten said. "I know you're angry at me. I promise it won't happen again. I won't put you in that position again." Then she added, so softly he almost missed it, "I won't fail you again."

Neji blinked. "That wasn't what I was going to say." He could tell just by looking at her face how miserable she was, and now her behavior as of late made sense. She had been as shaken as he about what had happened, and seeing his injuries had made her question her every move for fear of causing him that same pain over again.

Tenten looked at him doubtfully.

Sighing, he reached out and latched on to her right hand. She tensed, eyes widening slightly, but Neji didn't let go even when she tugged her trapped appendage back toward her. At last she yielded, watching him with equal parts curiosity and suspicion as he pulled her toward him, guiding her hand over his shoulder, under his hair, to his upper thoracic vertebrae. "Here," he said softly. "This is the originating point of my blind spot."

Her fingers hesitantly curled, brushing against the spot to which he'd guided her. "You weren't supposed to show me this." It was not a question. He had not told Tenten a lot, but what he had revealed had let her know that the Hyuuga clan had many secrets, and all of them were guarded by whatever means necessary.

"Someone should know," Neji stated. It was true. In battle, he often teamed up with Tenten. He knew all of her weak spots, thus was able to compensate and protect her. It was only fair to allow her to do the same for him. And he knew without a doubt that, of all the people in Konoha he could have told, he'd chosen the correct one. Tenten would take the secret of his blind spot to her grave without him even asking. She would not betray him, just as he would not betray her.

Tenten's fingers slid across his back and shoulder as she withdrew, and Neji couldn't quite repress the strange shiver that shot through him at that sensation. She didn't say a word, but he could see all sorts of promises in her eyes, not the least of which was that she would become his blind spot's eyes, protecting him from any further harm. Just as he had silently promised her that he would make sure her weak spots were protected in battle, saving her from severe injuries.

It didn't matter that the Hyuuga were forbidden to tell anyone about their blind spot, most particularly where it was. Tenten could be trusted, and he had a feeling he'd be telling her a lot more secrets in the future, as well.

To Neji, nothing was forbidden for Tenten.

*~The End~*

Author's Ending Notes: A short oneshot, but I'm really satisfied with how this turned out. I like the idea that Tenten knows exactly where Neji's blind spot is, despite the fact that it's supposed to stay a Hyuuga secret, and I wanted to play around with that, as well as formulate a scenario for him to tell her exactly where it was. I thought that the time just post the failed mission to save Sasuke would be an appropriate place, so I wrote this. Thank you so much for giving this a read, and I hope you enjoyed it!