Please see first chapter for disclaimer, etc.
Prompt: Intimacy
Series: sequel to Choices and Lovers, prequel to Joy and Surreal
Special Thanks: goes out to imjuzakyd, Kari-Kateora, rao hyuga 18, BLUEsky, DarkAnonymous324, kimbi07, naash, and Zyrr for all of your reviews! I appreciate every single one of you and your kind words so much.
Author's Note: Once more, I've gotten an idea for a series I thought was completed. This is another fairly lighthearted chapter, a bit of a glimpse into life between the time Neji and Tenten got married and when she found out she was finally pregnant. I hope you enjoy, and thank you so much for reading, reviewing, alerting, and favoriting my story!
*~Intimacy~*
Tenten sighed softly in relief as she closed the front door of her apartment behind her. A quick flick of her wrist secured the lock, and then she was able to limp her way across her cramped sitting room and into her bedroom. The pounding in her head, discordant with the throbbing in her back and shoulders, kept time with her shuffling steps.
As she slowly slithered her way out of her mission clothes and into her sleepwear, she bemoaned her stupidity before she'd left for her most recent mission. She had expected it to go smoothly and quickly, so she hadn't bothered to go shopping before she'd left. Now she wished that she had, since she was low on foodstuffs and completely out of any sort of painkiller.
A few more shuffling steps brought her to her bed. She stared down at it for a long time, wondering if it was worth the effort of drawing back the covers and crawling under them. An admittedly large part of her wanted nothing more than to lie down atop the blankets and cry herself into oblivion. If this isn't better in the morning, she promised herself, I'll go see Sakura. Of her two med-nin friends, the pink-haired girl was the less likely to make a huge deal out of the brunette kunoichi's injuries. Tenten did not like anyone to make a fuss over her, particularly not when she was injured.
Somehow she managed to get herself into the bed and under the blankets without too much extra pain. She lay on her back, arm flung over her eyes to block out the moonlight trickling through the window (the silver shine felt more like harsh sun rays to her throbbing head), her back kinking and complaining as she tried to relax her muscles. She had not been in this much pain for a very, very long time.
Then again, she had not had to face down a dozen enemy ninja by herself for a very, very long time, either. Perhaps that had something to do with it, she mused.
The various aches and pains in her body prevented her from falling asleep. Tenten briefly considered getting back up, drawing herself a hot bath, and soaking in the hot water for a while, but the effort she'd have to expend to complete those objectives made everything that ached scream in pain even more. Perhaps tomorrow ... if I can even get out of bed tomorrow.
Tenten didn't know how long she'd lain there, attempting to find the way to rest her body that hurt the least, when she heard her window softly scrape open. Her eyes snapped open beneath her shielding arm as she realized that she had completely forgotten to open it herself before she'd gone to bed. At least it was unlocked, though she'd probably get a scolding about that...
"Tenten!" The bed shifted as a gentle hand moved her arm away from her eyes, which immediately snapped closed to block out the sudden intrusion of light.
She swallowed back the irrational urge to cry as she blindly groped out, fingers closing around the hand her visitor thoughtfully supplied. "Neji." As much as she'd missed him the past few days, how in the world had she forgotten that he would come tonight, as he always did when they were home?
Her secret husband's free hand smoothed strands of sweat-sticky hair away from her face. "What happened?"
"Mission went wrong. Had to face down a dozen enemy nin before I got out." Her head offered another powerful throb in remembrance.
Neji's long, strong fingers rubbed up and down her arm soothingly. "Where do you keep your pain medicine?" he asked. His voice was moderated to a quieter tone, thoughtful of her pounding head.
"I don't have any. I intended to go shopping when I got back, but that's obviously not going to happen."
"Where do you hurt?"
Tenten didn't have to think about that one for long. "Everywhere."
A soft chuckle escaped Neji as his fingers stilled against her skin. "Allow me to rephrase. Where do you hurt the most?"
"Head. Neck. Back." Three of the ninja had been taijutsu users, and rather quick besides. It had been startling when they had sneaked through her defenses, getting too close for her to effectively use her weapons against them. Her taijutsu was mediocre at best, causing her to escape with much more bodily harm than usual. She felt like one giant bruise all over.
"Hmm. Can you roll over onto your stomach?"
She cracked open one eye to stare at him disbelievingly.
He arched an eyebrow at her. "Don't you trust me?"
"With my life. I just want to make sure moving from my semi-comfortable position will be worth the effort in the end."
Leaning forward, Neji placed a very soft, gentle kiss on her forehead. "I promise, it will be worth it."
"Hmm." Deciding that further questioning would get her nowhere (except with an even worse headache), Tenten carefully hitched her way around onto her stomach, biting back a groan when pain zinged up and down her body from the crown of her head to the tips of her toes.
Everything was silent for a moment, then she heard skin sliding across skin - Neji rubbing his palms together. "Neji...?"
"Shh. Trust me." Another few moments of rubbing, and then he whispered, "Byakugan."
Tenten wanted to ask him why he was activating his bloodlimit, but bit her lower lip. She had agreed to trust him, and pestering him with questions would indicate a lack of trust, not to mention the potential distraction it would cause.
Neji's hands lowered gently to the base of her spine, shifting across her back and shoulders, exploring, pushing her hair out of the way as he grew closer to her neck. He seamlessly switched to his fingertips only when he got to her head, brushing through her hair as he made a humming sound. "All right. This may feel strange at first, but I promise it will help you. Ready?"
"Mm-hmm." Despite her pain, Tenten found herself smiling, her eyelids slightly heavy. Neji had a special gift: his ability to soothe her with nothing more than his touch.
The heel of Neji's palm impacted her lower back - not hard, but it was enough to startle her. She let out a soft yelp, but her husband whispered soothingly as he rubbed the place he'd struck a few times, then repeated the procedure again in a different place. This time she was expecting it, and didn't startle or tense up. There was always a brief moment of pain, but as soon as Neji finished rubbing and went on, the pain eased, knots seeming to unwind themselves as her muscles began to relax.
By the time he had finished, her pain had lessened considerably. A dull ache was all that remained where before there had been almost unbearable pain. "How...?" Now that she felt better, she wasn't able to articulate her sentences. She was so sleepy...
Neji pushed her hair away from her face. "Feel better?"
She nodded once. "Mm-hmm. What'd you do?"
"I was able to use my Byakugan to see disturbed areas of your chakra system. By using another Hyuuga technique I learned, called the Healing Touch - similar to the Gentle Fist, except to repair damage instead of inflict it - I was able to encourage your chakra to flow easier, basically urging it to heal itself. You will still be a little sore in the morning, but you should be able to sleep relatively pain-free tonight." Neji hesitated for a moment, then sighed. "I'm afraid I'm not as good at it as Lady Hinata, though. I'm sorry. If she had done it, you wouldn't be in any pain at all."
Tenten found it remarkably easier to roll over so she could take his hand in both of hers. "You helped make it bearable," she murmured. "That is what matters to me."
He kissed her forehead again, this time allowing his lips to linger longer. "Anything for you."
A few minutes later, he climbed into bed next to her. She curled into his side, tucking her head against Neji's neck as his fingers once more gently probed against a few of the places he'd worked on earlier. "Sleep well, Tenten."
"Hmm, thanks. You too..." The last thing Tenten felt before she fell asleep was the kiss Neji placed on the top of her head.
Tenten opened her eyes to predawn stillness and an empty bed. Blinking blearily, she reached out to touch the sheets: cold. I could have sworn... A slight ache in her shoulders as she started to roll over reminded her of last night's events, and she smiled, knowing that ache could be much, much worse. Thank you, Neji. She just wished that he had stayed long enough for her to say it to him this morning, or woken her up before he left so she could. But she understood that he had to get back to the Hyuuga compound before he was missed.
Since she had nowhere to be for the next few hours, Tenten gingerly shifted onto her back and stared up at the ceiling, waiting for the sun to rise. Her mind drifted back to the technique he'd used on her the night before, marveled by its effectiveness. Was she the first person outside of the clan to benefit from its use? Neji hadn't said, but something about the way he'd said what he had made her think the theory had merit.
She was just drifting toward sleep again when she heard the key turn in the lock on her front door. Immediately her eyes snapped open, her head lifting from the pillow to listen intently as her hand slipped over and beneath the edge of the mattress to latch on to the kunai she kept there for emergencies. Only a few people in the world knew where she kept her spare key, but she never left out the possibility that it could be found by someone with ... less than honorable intentions.
Hardly daring even to breathe, Tenten continued to wait for any further sounds. Her bedroom door was closed, so she couldn't see into the room beyond. When a minute or so passed and the door remained firmly shut, she decided she couldn't wait any more. For all she knew, someone could be in the other room robbing her (not that she had much of value), and she wouldn't know unless she looked.
Getting out of bed was a much easier exercise than it had been getting into it the night before. Still gripping her kunai, Tenten quietly slipped across her bedroom to slide open her door just enough to peer through.
Her sitting room was empty. And, from what she could see, all her possessions remained undisturbed. Hmm. Silently, she opened the door and continued her explorations, working her way toward the wall separating the sitting room from her tiny kitchen.
Thunk.
Well, that proved there was someone in the apartment. She hadn't been imagining it! Drawing in a deep breath, Tenten swung around the edge of the door and into the kitchen, weapon at the ready to be thrown.
Neji turned his head from where he was standing by the cabinet by the stove, arrested in the motion of putting what looked like a fresh bottle of pain medicine on one of the shelves. "I'm sorry," he said when he saw her standing there. "I didn't mean to wake you. I'd hoped to have all this put away before you got up."
Tenten blinked. "You came in the front door?"
The bottle rattled slightly as it dropped from Neji's fingers onto the shelf. "...Yes?" He sounded puzzled. "You told me where your spare key was hidden a long time ago."
"I'm used to you coming in the window." In fact, now that she thought about it, she couldn't really remember the last time Neji had entered her apartment through the front door. "Did you just ... get my groceries for me?" She bit back a yawn as she lifted her free hand to rub her sleepy eyes.
"Yes. I went back to the estate, changed clothes, and came out again through the front gates." Returning to the cloth bag sitting on the counter, he pulled out some fresh vegetables and headed for her refridgerator. "I just let everyone assume I was going out to train."
She blinked again. "Neji, I..." Biting her lip, she moved across the kitchen, setting her kunai down on the counter as she passed. "Thank you." As soon as he turned around, she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his chest. She was used to Neji doing little things for her - he had the entire time they'd been in a relationship, and the number and frequency had only increased since they'd married - but he'd never done something like getting her groceries for her before.
Neji's fingers combed through her loose, tangled dark hair. "Feeling better this morning?" he asked.
"Much better than I thought I would when I went to bed last night." Tilting her head up, Tenten gazed into Neji's pale eyes with an easy smile on her lips. "Thank you. What you did last night was - amazing. I guess it makes sense that the Hyuuga would know how to manipulate chakra points for healing, too."
"I've seen Lady Hinata do it a few times. But, to be honest ... last night was the first time I'd ever tried to do it." He smiled sheepishly. "I'm glad to know it worked."
"Hmm." Once more, Tenten felt her eyelids drooping sleepily. She'd just gotten out of bed, yet she felt like she needed to turn around and get right back in. Neji didn't know the strength of the sway he held over her. "It did. Wonderfully." Yawning, Tenten rested her head on Neji's chest again, her head tucked under his chin.
Wrapping his arm around her shoulders, Neji turned her back in the direction of her room. "Come on, Tenten. Since you're my training partner, and you're not really in any shape to actually train right now, I know neither of us have anywhere to be. You need to sleep for a while longer." He settled her into the bed, then climbed on on the other side and settled his back against the headboard. "Now then, sleep a while longer. This time I'll still be here when you wake up."
Tenten fell asleep again to the feeling of Neji's fingers combing comfortingly through her hair, his soothing baritone humming softly to her. "Thank you," she murmured.
Neji's words finished lulling her to sleep, assuring her dreams would be sweet. "You're welcome. I love you, Tenten. Always."
*~The End~*
Author's Ending Notes: Yet again, I get an idea for a series of pieces that I thought was completed. I think I should learn not to say, "I think this is the final piece for this series now"! Anyway, I've always found it interesting that the Hyuuga's ability to see the chakra points can also help them heal, not just hurt, though we've definitely seen far more of the latter. So I wanted to play around with the former a little, and this was born. Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!