Please see first chapter for disclaimer, etc.

Prompt: Hope

Rating: T

Warnings: violence, character death, slightly dark themes

Special Thanks: goes out to DarkAnonymous324, rao hyuga 18, naash, Franoncrack, Kyaro-Chan, and SnowCharms for the reviews! Thank you all so, so very much!

Author's Note: This was a somewhat difficult piece to write. I knew the moment I got the idea that it would be, but, at the same time, I knew I had to write it anyway. With this piece, I am fulfilling something of a promise to a person very near and dear to me, as well as hoping you all won't hate me too badly. Thank you again so much for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and alerting my story!

*~Hope~*

Neji.

His name remained in the forefront of her mind, fueling her strides as she forced herself to keep moving, though her legs and sides burned and her body screamed for rest.

There would be no rest, no respite. Not until this was finished.

Four men followed, trying but ultimately unable to keep up with her. Rock Lee, Nara Shikamaru, Sai, and even the Hokage himself, Uzumaki Naruto, were coming with her. They all knew the importance of their mission, but none felt it as keenly as Tenten. Each had long ago given up trying to get her to slow down. Their pleas had fallen on deaf ears.

Neji.

Anger simmered inside her, cold and calculating. She didn't understand it, not completely, yet she embraced it nonetheless. Her rage was keeping her focused, driving her past limits even Gai-sensei would have found challenging. All of the training she'd found utterly ridiculous when she was younger had prepared her for this one mission, this one moment.

In the distance, she saw the yellow glow of lights. At last she slowed her pace, dropping from the trees to the ground as she waited for the others to catch up. Moments later they joined her, taking up points around her in the traditional east, west, north, and south positions. Even the Hokage, her superior, was watching her, waiting for her orders, for her plan.

Tenten sensed that some of them believed she wasn't thinking clearly or rationally. Perhaps they were half-right - rationality had left the moment she'd seen the blood-spattered scroll Naruto unrolled when it appeared on his desk during their briefing - but her thoughts had never been clearer.

Neji.

Their goals were simple, and were stated as such. "We get in. We rescue him. Nothing gets in our way. When we leave, we raize the place to the ground." Her eyes scanned her companions' faces, daring any to disagree.

Four faces stared back, sharing her determination. Four heads nodded in agreement.

She turned her icy gaze toward the building in the distance. "Let's go."

"Right." The five of them scattered, their separate missions clear in their minds, but their ultimate objective the same.

Iwakagure would rue the day they threatened Konoha's own ... Tenten's own.

On one of her missions a long time ago, an old woman had once mistaken Shikamaru and Tenten as brother and sister. Though Tenten was not a Nara, she was sure that her skill at blending in with the shadows, almost becoming one with them, would have made that family proud.

She was silent, deadly, and efficient. None of her kunai missed their targets; her senbon unwaveringly met their marks; and when she was too close for her steel to be effective, her hands dealt death unflinchingly, though her taijutsu had always been mediocre at best.

Tenten had no clan. She had no kekkei genkai. She had nothing but her weapons, her skill, and her determination. This night, they would be enough.

As she advanced, she left the walls behind her painted red with blood, though not a drop had landed on her midnight clothing. The closer she got to her final destination, the more she saw the way her enemies' eyes widened in surprise and fear, their gaze focused on her emotionless dragon ANBU mask. Beneath the artfully painted cover, her face was equally stony with resolve.

At last, only one man stood between her and her goal. His cruel face was distorted by the shadows, and he wore dried spatters of blood on his skin and clothes like war paint.

Despite his obvious skill with his katana, he did not stand a chance against Tenten. She fisted the fabric of his shirt in one hand, staring into his frightened, dying eyes as she easily plucked a key ring off his belt with her other. Then she let go, allowing his already-cooling body to fall at her feet as she stepped over him, fingers clenching around one key as she stepped up to the door her last victim had been guarding.

The key slid into the lock and turned with no resistance: it had been used often. Her teeth ground so tightly her jaws ached as she swung the door open on its silent hinges.

Dirty yellow light flowed past her into the equally filthy cell. The sharp, metallic scent of blood battered Tenten's nose as she strained her eyes toward the farthest, darkest corner, for the first time feeling a tremor of uncertainty in her body. Anxiety coiled tightly in her stomach, cold and hard.

Her ANBU mask slipped from her numb fingers, clattering unnoticed on the cold floor.

"Neji..." she breathed.

The shadow in the corner moved slightly. It took only three strides for Tenten to cross the tiny cell and kneel next to the figure, her hands seeking into the darkness, searching desperately...

Her hands brushed fabric, fingers automatically clenching so she could pull. The figure didn't resist; in fact, he weakly pushed against the floor, trying to help her withdraw him from the darkness.

Tenten had spent the last two long weeks imagining hundreds of horrible scenarios. None had even come close to preparing her for what she found.

His once-white clothes were now a dull shade of grey in the few places dried blood had not splattered. One eye was swollen shut; the other stared at her with a blank, almost lifeless stare. Though always pale, his skin was now almost translucent, easily showing the bones and veins beneath. His usually lithe, graceful limbs lay at awkward angles, obviously broken in several places. Each breath rattled out of his chest in wet, raspy exhales.

And the most stark - and heartbreaking - change of all: The long, richly dark hair Tenten had always relished running her hands through had been harshly, carelessly shorn, leaving uneven strands hanging limply around his skeletal face.

Her shaking hand lifted, calloused fingers running through the short locks even as her eyes blurred with tears she had vowed to herself she wouldn't shed.

"Neji..." Her voice broke, betraying her.

The Hyuuga's dry, cracked lips parted, soundlessly forming her name as his hand lifted to touch her face. His battered features, still handsome despite how he'd been injured, twisted in pain even that small motion caused his broken arm.

Very carefully, Tenten wrapped her arms around Neji and drew him to her, burying her face against his hair. "I'm here," she whispered. "It's all going to be okay now, I'm here..."

But she knew, had known the moment she saw him. She was too late, far too late.

"Tenten..." Her name was the barest thread of sound, more a breath that shakily caressed the skin of her throat. "I've ... been waiting for you ... had to see you ... one last ... time..."

Her eyes squeezed tightly shut, heartbreak and rage warring for dominance in her chest. "No, Neji, please." It was pitiful, shameful, her begging. That was even worse than her showing emotion - any emotion - in the first place, but she couldn't even begin to imagine her life without Neji. She couldn't hide her feelings anymore. "I-I love you." She had never said it enough, and could never say it enough. There had never been enough time...

Another breath eased past his lips, eyelashes unsteadily fluttering against her skin as he responded with the last words he would ever utter in the living world. "Love ... Tenten."

When Shikamaru appeared in the doorway only a few moments later, he was met with the sight of Tenten sitting slumped in the corner of a shadowy cell, her entire body hunched around the shockingly emaciated form of Hyuuga Neji.

Tenten lifted her head, tears trailing down her cheeks from icy, almost black, eyes, her face filled with a fury that was frightening to the Nara. "I am going to burn this place to the ground," she vowed through clenched teeth, her voice dark with intent.

She stood atop the hill above the Iwgakure compound, watching as roaring flames overtook the building. Tenten had used paper bombs and her Flaming Dragon jutsu to set the place aflame, depending on Shikamaru, Sai, Naruto, and Lee to do the same from their positions.

The survivors were trying desperately to put out the fires, not bothering to pursue the five nin escaping into the night.

Slowly, Tenten turned away from the destruction beneath her to face the stretcher lying on the ground next to her crouched form. Neji's body had been covered with a silver blanket emblazoned with Konoha's symbol, and she gently rested her hand over his, where she had crossed them over his chest. "We're going home now, Neji," she whispered. "It's ... finally over."

Lee and Naruto took the front of the stretcher, and Sai and Shikamaru the rear. The five of them made their way home silently, meeting no resistance along the way. Iwagakure was too busy licking its wounds and trying to regain all the critical information they'd lost when their base burned.

Several faces brightened in excitement when they finally reached the gates of Konoha; all of them immediately and simultaneously fell when they saw the covered stretcher the four men were carrying.

Hinata stepped away from the others, her large pearl eyes shimmering. "N-Neji...?" Her slender hand reached out toward the stretcher, then pulled back to cover her mouth. Tears streaked shamelessly down her cheeks, and she turned into the comforting arm Kiba slid around her shoulders.

Tenten used her own mask to cover the tears that had started some distance back. She kept one hand on the side of the stretcher as they made their way down the streets toward the hospital, a silent group of mourners, led by Hinata, following.

Despite the way her stomach churned, her head pounded, and her heart ached, she stayed by Neji's side until they reached the morgue. It wasn't until the others had advanced through the doors, leaving her standing frozen outside, that she felt the weight of everything crash down on her chest.

Neji was gone. Though she had avenged his death and protected her village, she felt like she had nothing left. Everything she had really been fighting for all this time was gone. The future she had been hoping to build ... was gone.

"Tenten?" A gentle arm slid around her shoulders, turning her away from the morgue. "Come on. I need to check you over, make sure you're okay."

She sat silently through Ino's examination, staring listlessly over the blonde's shoulder. Every time the medical kunoichi moved, the beautiful engagement ring on her finger flashed. Though Tenten knew she wasn't doing it deliberately, it made her heart hurt all the more.

Tenten didn't feel the antiseptic sting against her cuts, or even the pain when Ino's fingers found bruises she hadn't realized she'd developed. She was numb, inside and out. A fog had settled over her mind, bringing with it an exhaustion that nearly put her to sleep right there on the examining room table.

Vaguely, her mind registered the fact that Ino had finished her exam, declaring her healthy enough to go home. As if from a great distance, she heard the blonde offering to help her get there. Tenten must have nodded in consent, for the Yamanaka slid her arm through the brunette's and led her out of the hospital. The women paused long enough for Ino to share a quick, whispered conversation with Naruto, Shikamaru, Sai, and Lee, and then they turned their steps toward Tenten's small apartment.

Neji.

She didn't fight Ino as the other woman helped her out of her soiled mission clothes and into fresh sleepwear. "Thank you," she whispered as her friend settled her into her bed.

"Oh, Tenten." Ino brushed Tenten's shoulder, her blue eyes swimming with tears. "You sleep now, if you can. I'll be in the other room if you need me." She left then, quietly closing the door behind her.

Tenten stared dully at the window across her room, at the silver moonlight that glowed on the picture frame sitting on her desk. The photo had been taken only a few days before Neji's last mission, and depicted the two of them sitting under the meditation tree in Team Gai's old training ground. Tenten sat leaning against Neji, one of her scrolls unrolled across her lap, having fallen asleep halfway through putting her weapons away. Her Hyuuga sat in his traditional meditation pose, though his head was tilted toward her, one eye open, the slightest hint of a smile on his lips. Neither had been aware that Lee had taken the picture until he'd proudly presented them each with a copy.

Three days later, he'd kissed her goodbye at the gates and promised he'd see her soon. Five days later, the bloodied scroll appeared on Naruto's desk.

And now... Neji was gone.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Tenten rolled so her back was to the picture, drawing her knees up so she could wrap her arms around them. The first shattering sob ripped through her chest, and she muffled her scream into her pillow in an attempt to keep anyone else from hearing her agony.

She was broken, and not entirely sure there was anything that could be done to fix her.

The graveyard was quiet, save for the sound of raindrops falling on stone. Tenten sat on her knees in front of Neji's fresh grave, uncaring that her dress was getting ruined with mud. Her hair hung in loose strings around her face, her teardrops mingling with the rain on her cheeks.

One by one, they'd all left. Lee and Gai-sensei were the last to go, and she was grateful that they hadn't tried to pursuade her to accompany them. She'd stood back while dirt was shoved over the grave, filling it. When the crew had left, she'd come forward, fallen on her knees in front of the temporary grave marker, and let her fears tears fall with the sudden rain.

She didn't realize anyone else was there until a gentle hand rested on her shoulder. "Come, Tenten. You should get out of the rain before you catch your death."

It took too much effort to fight, so she yielded to the gentle arm that wrapped around her, leading her away from Neji's grave. She wanted to look up, to see who it was that had come to get her, but lifting her head required an act of strength that she couldn't muster.

A few minutes later, she was settled in front of a small heater, her shoulders wrapped with a blanket, her hair covered with a towel, a cup of honey-laced tea cradled in her hands. She sipped robotically for a few moments until she finally regained enough warmth and sense to look up.

To her surprise, a pair of pale Hyuuga eyes stared back at her. She blinked, but it didn't make the glowing orbs disappear. When she finally focused on the face of her tea companion, she was even more shocked to realize it was Hiashi, the head of Hyuuga House.

"Drink," he urged her softly, motioning to her teacup. "You need to get warm."

Automatically, she lifted the cup to her lips again and sipped. "Thank you," she whispered.

Hiashi leaned back, studying her from a lined face that made him seem older than his actual age. "My nephew..." He paused, sighed, and set aside his own cup. "Neji never asked the main house for anything. So when he came to me two weeks ago, finally ready to ask for the one and only thing he wanted from the Hyuuga main house, it surprised me." A brief smile twitched at the corners of his mouth. "I've never seen him so passionate for anything, so ready to fight for it, if that's what it came down to."

Tenten felt her fingers clench around her cup. What...?

"For all this time, he's managed to keep his relationship with you secret. Neither myeslf nor the Elders even suspected that he loved someone, let alone his own teammate. Not until he came to me and asked-" here he chuckled "-or, more like told me he was going to marry you." Hiashi shook his head. "Neji has proved time and again that he wants to be free, that he wants to leave the Hyuuga curse behind him and forge his own way. But not even at the worst of those times have I seen a fraction of the emotion in his eyes as when he told me you were the only thing he wanted."

More tears prickled at her eyes and silently streamed down her face. She couldn't speak, couldn't think.

Reaching into a fold of his robe, Hiashi withdrew a small bag. He extended his other hand across the table, gently gathered one of hers, and pressed the velvet cloth against her palm before he closed her fingers over it. "Neji asked me to keep this safe for him until he got back from his mission. He said when he did, he was finally going to make it known you were his, and he yours." Quietly, the clan head withdrew, focusing his attention on his tea again to give Tenten a little privacy.

The clanless kunoichi stared at the white bag for a long time, feeling its gentle weight in her hand. At last she set aside her cup, untied the string holding it closed, and turned it upside down over her other hand.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then a small silver shape landed in her palm, glinting like fire in the light of the candles lit on the table between her and Hiashi.

An engagement ring.

It was nothing too terribly fancy, since Neji knew Tenten didn't like to wear jewelry much, let alone the flashy kind. Two small birds with outstretched wings formed the band, their eyes set with small chips of diamond. Each bird's breast carried the kanji for their names, engraved side-by-side for all to see and know.

Her hand shook so hard she could barely slide it onto her hand. When it settled at the base of her ring finger, she smiled through her tears. A perfect fit.

Tenten looked up when Hiashi's cup landed softly on the table's surface again. "Thank you," she whispered.

The other inclined his head slightly in acknowledgement. "Even though Neji couldn't give it to you himself, I know he'd still want you to have it. There was no one in this world he loved more than you, and in honor of that, and his strength in protecting his family and his village, I want you to know that you will always be welcome in Hyuuga House. If there is anything you ever need, know that we will be here for you."

For the third time that day, Tenten bowed her head and cried. It was the last time she shed tears of sorrow, and even those held a hint of promise and hope.

*~Five Years Later~*

"Neji?"

"Hmm?" He didn't look up from the scroll he was studying intently, but his head did tilt in her direction, an indication that he was listening.

Tenten bit her lower lip, now wishing she hadn't said anything to get his attention. "I..." She couldn't back out now! That would be cowardly, and she was not a coward. "Neji, if anything ever happens to me-"

His head snapped up, pale eyes wide. "Nothing is going to happen to you!" Neji's voice was sharp and heavy with promise.

Smiling softly to calm him, she reached out and gathered his hands in hers. "We are shinobi, Neji. It's a dangerous job. Each time we leave, we might never come home, and we have to acknowledge that."

The tension in his shoulders eased slightly, and a heavy sigh eased out of him. Gazing down at their joined hands, he nodded once, albeit reluctantly. "Go on."

Lifting her hand to raise his face to hers again, Tenten pinned him with her earnest yet loving gaze. "If anything ever happens to me, I want you to move on. I - hope you never forget me, but I don't want you to live your life caught up in your grief for me. I want you to find someone else who will make you happy, someone else to love and protect."

One of Neji's hands rose to hold hers. The fingers of his other delicately traced her features, at last settling softly on her lips. "I could never forget you," he whispered. "And I promise to adhere to your wish, but only if you promise me that you will do the same should something happen to me."

Turning her head, Tenten pressed a kiss to Neji's palm, inhaling his comforting scent as she nodded. "I promise."

Neji's lips touched her forehead. "As do I."

Opening her eyes, Tenten let that memory slowly fade from her mind as she withdrew her fingertips from Neji's name, engraved in large letters on his headstone. "We made a promise to each other that day, Neji," she whispered. "I promised never to forget you, and I will not. I will always love you." Slowly, she reached up to remove a chain from around her neck, on the end of which dangled the engagement ring he'd gotten her. "I'm leaving Konoha, though I promise it's not for good. I'm no longer a kunoichi, can you believe it? My official title now is 'liason,' which I'm still trying to get used to." Gently, she set the ring on the base of the gravestone, curling the chain around it. She allowed her fingers to linger for a few moments before withdrawing. "You made me promise that I would find someone else to love me, who I could love. I did. I'm marrying Gaara in four days, and then moving to Suna with him."

Hesitation seeped into her chest, and she gripped her hands into fists in her lap. "Neji, I-"

A strong wind blew through the graveyard, startling her. She turned her head sharply in the direction from which it came, shocked when the winds suddenly calmed to a breeze that felt like gentle fingers running through her hair. What sounded like words drifted to her, carressing her ear for a moment before continuing on.

As long as you are happy, Tenten, I will be.

Closing her eyes, she bowed her head. "Thank you, Neji. I love you." Kissing her fingertips, she pressed them to the headstone, right over Neji's name. Then she stood, straightening her shoulders, suddenly free of the last burden that had been weighing them down.

Gaara looked up when she exited the gates. His green eyes were soft, questioning, as he held out his hand toward her. "Are you all right, Tenten?" he asked.

She didn't hesitate to take his hand, curling their fingers together securely. "I think I'm going to be," she said, smiling.

Two years later, when their first child was born, Gaara wrapped his arm around her shoulders, kissed the side of her head, and whispered in her ear, "We shall name him Neji."

*~The End~*

Author's Ending Notes: The final scene of this piece was for Mama Jo, who was intrigued by the idea of Gaara/Tenten after she read my Nothing/Anything/Everything pieces. She hinted that she'd like me to write a piece where they ended up together, and this was the only scenario in which I could see it happening. I hope you all enjoyed it, and aren't too upset with me. I plan to give you all some more lighthearted Neji/Tenten in the next piece... Thank you so much for reading!