Ricochet
"This ends here."
There was an artic chill in his pallid eyes, a clinical detachment on par with Sai's non-emotive state that was perhaps the one thing that overrode his words and filtered into Ino's mind. The Hyuuga spoke the words as much for himself as he did for her because no matter how much he struggled against it, there was something between them and it wasn't going away. Determination be damned. It was growing with time, and though quenched with satisfaction for the moment, Neji knew it would return. He needed to come up with some sort of plan before it did, while he could still think rationally.
A flash of hurt swept Ino's eyes before it was gone, replaced with something more neutral. Those were not the three words she had been hoping for.
It infuriated her, on some levels, that Neji would so easily cast aside something that seemed so natural and felt so perfect to her - how he could pass up something so profound and precious. But on others levels she was delighted. To demand the end of something, one first had to admit that there was something there to end. It had certainly taken him long enough. And while her track record for romance wasn't going so well - what was her average now? Zero for two? - she had to admit that at least she was making progress. His behavior had kept her guessing up until that point but that last kiss had outed him: the fact of the matter was that he had kissed back. He, who had to have seen her coming and could have avoided her as easily as one quick step. He, who could pin a large man to the ground in two seconds flat. He'd kissed her back by his own free will and that meant that he felt it, that electromagnetic spark surging between them, begging to be acknowledged. He felt it too.
Not that Ino was complaining, but simple words would have sufficed; both her conscious and subconscious mind were going to have an absolute field day with that revelation. The moment may have passed but the memory remained, recorded in explicit detail in the depths of her mind. Now that her brain knew the exact feel of his hands across her skin, the intensity he was capable of putting into a kiss...her nights were going to get a lot more sleepless.
For now, as shallow of a victory as it was, it was enough.
"Understood."
The remaining eight hours flew by.
Dry heaving and and wiping at her mouth with the back of her hand, Tenten flushed the toilet with her free hand and watched the colorful contents of last night's dinner swirl away. It had been two days since Hanabi's impromptu visit and two since the start of her own battle against the contagion. Stupid. She'd been really, incredibly stupid to be handling infected blankets and clothes and not think she'd catch it too. Wasn't that Motherhood 101, protecting the unborn child from illness? She'd have to be more cautious when the baby was born.
Tenten straightened from her bent over position slowly, least a quick action inspire more convulsing, and braced her hands at the sides of the sink. The girl staring back at her from the mirror above it looked nothing like her, miserable and unkempt and feeble. What happened to the girl who once killed five men with nothing more than a broken teapot? Where was the girl who'd run twenty miles on broken toes? The girl who weathered four days of constant battle without a wink of sleep?
Right. This is nothing. The first prenatal appointment is just a few days away, I can tough it out until then. The nausea will subside, the fever will break. Stronger than I was yesterday. The brunette recalled Team Gai's motto with a wry smirk. Maybe Hanabi and I aren't so different. She scrutinized her reflection with renewed resolve, letting go of the sink to stand on her own and backing away from it to see herself more fully. Her hands passed over her flat stomach proprietorially before she turned to the side and inspected her profile. There wasn't yet a bump to indicate her pregnancy, and for the moment Tenten was glad. Her shape was one last piece of herself she wasn't quite ready to give up yet.
Ten year old Masamune Aoi turned out to be an easier target than anticipated. Everything had gone according to the plan of Neji abducting the girl and whisking her away to a secure location while Ino assumed her appearence and chakra pattern, making it look as if she'd never left. From there they sabotaged the formation of an alliance with Takigakure - cleverly disguised in the form of an arragned marriage to a civillian magistrate - that would have jeopardized the small civillian town's treaty with Fire Country. By the night's end, the girl was returned to her quarters with nothing more than dirtied shoes as evidence she'd ever left. They'd even accomplished their secondary goal of gaining intel on Takigakure's manpower without so much as a raised eyebrow. Ino and Neji were working together like a well-oiled machine and it showed; if they had been efficient before, then they were absolutely phenomenal now.
Having the answer to the question that had been mutually haunting them made all the difference in the world. For the first time in a long time, Neji felt almost at peace. Months of frustration and weeks of self-loathing had finally subsided, giving way to the calm he'd been so strongly yearning for. The discovery of Ino's feelings for him had transformed his own from a burden he had to carry to a pillar to stand on.
She loved him.
He could hardly find the reasoning or merit behind it. Ino had seen from him not only his excellence but both his less guarded vulnerable side and his darker, easily provoked side and neither feared him like so many others nor ridiculed him for his sentimentality. She'd looked at him as a superior without placing sky-high standards on him for being talented and even now, standing on equal grounds, she didn't expect him to be superhuman. None of his achievements or failures seemed to make her think any more or less of him, and that gave him a sense of assurance he hadn't had since childhood.
He supposed they'd reached something like an unspoken truce now : you know how I feel, I know how you feel, let's leave it at that. A truce that, surprisingly, both of them were respecting. Ino was being the walking definition of a perfect subordinate and Neji found he had nothing negative to say to her. She didn't complain when he told her they wouldn't be going straight back to Konoha, that the Godaime had handed him two scrolls and that they would simply be moving on to the second mission. The Yamanaka heiress had only quirked her head to the side, commented that it was rare to get a "double-header", and adjusted her direction. She didn't even complain when their cash ran low halfway on their journey, forcing them to pause their mission in order to gain supplementary funds. Also known as an unauthorized side job.
In the small village of Shurabi, they found exactly that. The pair offered temporary service and the villagers were more than happy to pay their requested fee in return for the elimination of a "monster" lurking around their border. Not that anyone had actually seen the fiend, but as far as the story went about three people vanished into thin air every week, never to be seen again. At this rate, the village would be completely exterminated within a season and the inherent danger of an unseen monster picking them off little by little had the small community borderlining on hysteria. The duo almost felt bad for charging them. Almost. As the sun bid it's farewell and the moon made it's ascent, Ino and Neji prepared for a long night of scouting - starting with a bath.
It felt heavenly to lather away the grime building on her skin and grease slicking her hair, the peach-scented soap feeling absolutely divine as it tingled on Ino's skin. Cleansing away the lies and deceit of the former day and shedding the skin of another life she'd meddled in. Erasing all traces of everything but age as if it could purify her forever bloodstained limbs. She turned the knob higher, putting the spray on full power as she slowly rotated and watched the suds slide and slither and disappear into the drain. Cutting the water off, Ino groaned when she realized she'd left her comb in the bedroom. A quick scan of the bathroom, however, told her it didn't matter. Apparently the people of Shurabi had something against mirrors as the room was distinctly lacking that luxury. Ino put it out of her mind, coming to stand beside a waiting tub and easing into the steaming water neck-high.
Slowly but surely, the heat coaxed the stiffness out of her muscles and Ino allowed herself a level of comfort usually restricted to her home in Konoha. With Neji in the adjacent room, she was as safe as a kunoichi could ever be. Neji. Her idiot-genius of a partner. Didn't he realize that denial never solved anything emotionally? She'd had to learn that the hard way herself, but she thought the prodigy would've found a shortcut to that conclusion earlier. Denying their connection only made it more apparent, ultimately drawing more attention to it both consciously and subconsciouly. Ino doubted Neji had noticed that while he had told her those three words with the coldest look ever in his eyes, his voice had been hushed and reverent. She doubted he even noticed that he'd been looking at her lips at the time.
Ino was nearing the edges of dreamland when she heard his voice through the door.
"The food is here."
Ino jerked out of her daze, blinking numbly before standing, wringing her hair out, and stepping out of the bathtub. She wrapped a towel around herself and sauntered into the bedroom, her gaze settling first on the modest tray of food on their low table, and then on her necessities pouch lying on the bedside. Extracting her comb and hair stick, Ino settled down at the table to start on her half of the platter. It was mostly vegetables in different formats : pickled, steamed, grilled, fried. They were being fed like a pair of rabbits. Killer rabbits.
Ino snickered under her breath, earning a curious glance from her partner as he readied himself for the bath. Ino smiled at him.
"We're killer bunnies."
The Hyuuga cast her an incredulous look before wordlessly sliding into the bathroom. Ino finished her portion of the meal, washed it down with unsweetened green tea, and set to work on detangling her ash blonde locks. By the time Neji returned from the bathroom, Ino had dressed and gone on ahead of him, considerately leaving his clothes folded in a neat pile by his food. It wasn't until he dressed himself that he noticed she'd stitched up the large rip in one of his shoulder seams - and taken the liberty of embroidering a small daisy overtop of it.
Sometimes it surprised Ino how whimsical and active the imaginations of civillians were. Monsters. As if! The true cause of their population decline was much less mythical and much more practical, Ino mused as rough tree bark bit into the flesh of her back and her head swam briefly from the collision. Shurabi's "monster" was human. Moreover, a kunoichi. After three long hours of scouring the surronding lands and working their way inward, Neji had been first to catch sight of what looked to be a normal situation playing out : an angry husband, a crying wife, some slapping around and some shoving. Nothing unusual, especially in a small, close-knit community. The giveaway had come afterward. The battered wife retreated to the bedroom with tear-streaked cheeks and a swollen eye and promptly composed herself, slipped out the nearest window, an accessed a hidden armory of weapons under the roof tiles. Among her stash Neji spied a hitae-ate bearing the symbol of Amegakure. From that point on there was nothing but fierce combat as the Leaf shinobi tag-teamed her blow for blow. The kunoichi hadn't had a prayer.
The sun inevitably rose declaring the day's start and, as more and more people awoke to the news that the "monster" had been defeated, excitement quickly spread. By the end of a typical breakfast time, a full-on celebration was in the works and Ino and Neji found themselves hailed as heroes and showered in gifts of gratitude. Most were politely refused, Shurabi having little to spare and almost nothing of outright value, and the two accepted only a fresh stack of clothing they planned to wear for the celebration in their honor before collecting their payment and going on their way.
Though she kept her remarks to herself, Ino wished they'd refused the clothes as well. The town's style of dress was distinctive and somewhat peculiar, making use of prints and hems with piping and chunky shoes that weighed even more than standard geta. She cringed at her color scheme of mauve, beige, and mint green and the chrysanthemum print that covered it all. Fully dressed in the ensemble, she felt ugly and clumsy and shot Neji an envious eye. Clad in a mustard yellow, tawny brown and slate grey outfit covered in oak leaf print he still managed to look...like Neji. For that, a small part of her cursed his name. It didn't help that, on top of that, he was once again keeping a sizeable distance from her; skirting across the edges of her vision like a phantom.
Engrossed in her irritation, Ino stumbled over a pebble and her ankle rolled painfully to stave off face-planting on the ground and the immediate shame that would follow. Despite her proficiency with high and impractical shoes, the oddly-made footwear was getting the best of her. When it happened to her other foot two minutes later, Ino felt a steadying hand at the crook of her arm helping her to counterbalance. Without a word Neji walked beside her, eyes never drifting from the pathway ahead as they walked towards the heart of the village. Ino no longer noticed the weight of her clunky shoes.
Neji's hand had eventually drifted down to find hers once they melted into the crowd of people, leading her through the gaps between bodies towards the table specially prepared for them. All the while he wondered why they hadn't collected their payment beforehand and skipped out on the celebration so he wouldn't have to notice how unnaturally soft Ino's hands were for a kunoichi. The event was a colossal waste of time, the warrior in him insisted. But the Neji in him observed that things had been far too emotionally tense lately, a break was needed. He regretted not listening to his inner warrior when halfway to their table, an unexpected face popped up.
"Hyuuga...Neji, wasn't it?" The gravelly sound of his voice rolled between them and the man's dark eyes trailed to Neji's side as if just noticing Ino there. He seemed to be a man who voiced his thoughts, following his appraising glance with a curious guess. "Honeymooning with the bride, are you? 'Til now I never believed 'em when they said you were hitched."
Ino smiled politely at the stranger, eyes alighting on the single feathered earring dangling from his earlobe and the way his curly auburn locks surrounded it.
This guy a friend of yours?
An acquaintance. An ex-Kusagakure refugee turned wandering merchant. He's been a valuable source of information...at times.
An insider on town gossip, you mean.
More or less.
"Nothing of the sort, Endou-san."
"Pity then, for you anyway. All the more luck to your ladybird."
He made a movement to grasp Ino's free hand, but thought better of it at the ominous look pale eyes sent his way. Instead, he inclined his head at her and grinned.
"I'm Hajime, by the way. Lovely little doll, you are. I think I have just the kind of thing you might be interested in, something girls your age always ask me for-"
"Now is not a good time for bartering, Endou-san." Neji's voice lifted in an obvious indication for the man to leave, unaware of his tightening grip on Ino's poor hand.
"Nonsense! Anytime's a good time for bartering. Unless you're in a hurry to do- oh! Oh. Well, let me get out of you young folks' way then."
Hajime left with a parting wink, much to the mortification of the two shinobi. A mental picture of what he'd hinted at flashed in Ino's mind and, to her horror, Neji's as well. She hadn't cut the mental link from their short exchange earlier. Oh yeah, her imagination was definitely in on the conspiracy against her.
"Oh dear."
Tenten tensed under Shizune's touch as the medic poked and prodded at her belly, lingering on an area on the left of her abdomen. That, paired with the strained look on Shizune's face, couldn't be good. Genuine fear well up in her, prickling her skin. Something was wrong, something was wrong with her and Neji's child. And though the thought alone was already more than she could handle, Tenten need to know more. If there was any shot at correcting the problem, she needed to know how serious it was first. She drew a breath.
"What is it?"
Shizune frowned, running her hands over Tenten's stomach once more as if double-checking before looking her in the eyes. When she did, Tenten saw they were filled with sympathy.
"It looks like you have an ectopic pregnancy; the baby is developing outside of your uterus. It feels like it's over here, in your left fallopian tube."
Tenten sat up on her elbows, looking down at her stomach as if she could see what Shizune felt with her chakra. She had no idea what the older woman was telling her.
"What does that mean? Is that...bad?"
Shizune blinked slowly before covering one of Tenten's hands comfortingly. "It classes you as a high risk pregnancy. It means that the next few months may be very difficult for you, and that when the baby is developed enough, we'll have to operate instead of a standard birthing procedure." She turned her head, lowering her voice in loathing for the next words she had to say. "We usually terminate these kind of pregnancies, this requires an extensive amount of caution and constant monitoring and even then things can go badly. Embryos aren't meant to grow in the fallopian tubes, there wont be enough space to accomodate a baby. There is a high chance of the egg rupturing, killing the child, and possibly the mother as well."
Tenten's brain froze. There weren't words. She couldn't even fathom... Not this. Anything but this.
Shizune spared her some seconds to get her bearings before she asked the question she always hated to ask.
"Do you want to continue with the pregnancy?"
Neji was alert and concentrating hard as he and his partner trekked across lush, grassy terrain. The tips of each verdant blade brushed at his shoulders and for every hundred he trampled, a hundred thousand more waited their turn ahead. He was silently thankful there was no need to hide their approach for another four thousand feet; it would be hell navigating such vegetation without leaving tracks. Not to mention his tiny blonde partner would be considerably slowed down if she weren't trailing directly in his footsteps. Then again, he'd wager she'd move faster than the speed of sound if she could see what was stalking them beneath the soil like he could. The giagantic burrows in the ground he steered them around did nothing to understate the behemoth's epic size. He could only guess that the creature was either simply curious or not carnivorous as to why it simply tracked them and did not attack. Not that he wanted to stick around long enough to test that theory.
But whether he wanted to play the odds or not, Neji's feet were forced to a sharp standstill.
She wasn't behind him.
Some distance back, he could see her chakra silhouette through the obstructing grass. He doubled back without a second thought, eyes scanning all the while for danger and confusion mounting when he saw none. His mouth opened to question her when he got close enough but she beat him to it.
"I thought those were extinct!"
His sight instantly dropped to the ground to glance at their tagalong beast, but Ino's sights were set dead ahead of her with a level of awe and enthusiasm he'd only ever witnessed from Lee. He followed her gaze, slightly perturbed at the false alarm, and grunted when his eyes settled a pop of orange coloring in the vegetation.
"There will be time for sightseeing later."
There wouldn't be, but he still wasn't interested in tempting fate by standing stationary in such a disadventageous environment. Ino tore her eyes away from her discovery to plead her case.
"You have to be kidding right now. Do you know what that is? That's the Tintinnabulum Serenitatis. I've only ever seen it in books, botanists everywhere say it died out over three hundred years ago. This is, like, the botanical breakthrough of the century! I can't believe it's here..."
She made steps toward the flower and Neji immediately stopped her, seeing the open pit whose edge the flower rested on. And what waited in it. Channeling chakra to his feet for security, Neji came as close as he dared to the hole hidden to normal eyes and snatched the flower by the stem, casually handing it over to an appalled Ino.
"You just killed a possibly three hundred year old plant!" She exclaimed as she held it gingerly, half-expecting it to disintegrate on contact.
"You wanted to leave it here?"
"No! I - Yes! I mean...ugh." She frowned at the ancient beauty in her hands. It was the only one around, very possibly the only one left in the world, and he'd killed it. The florist in her was outraged. The kunoichi in her reasoned that it would've wilted on it's own eventually, unseen, and that would have been a bigger tragedy. The woman in her was more than a little charmed by the romantic aspect of the action. Ultimately, the woman in her won. "Thanks."
And there was that world-tilting grin again, the one that had more pull over him than ought to be possible. That smile so different from all the others she gave to other people, so radiant and honest. The one just for him.
And Neji knew at that precise moment, with utmost certainty, that their delicate truce was destined for failure.
A / N : I don't usually give spoilers, at least not publicly lol, but Tenten is not going to die. I summarized a lot of this chapter but you guys are smart, you get the point without filler paragraphs :) I apologize for the shortness, transitional chappie y'know. And remember Angst? It's coming back. Also, I just wanna take a sec to say thanks to all of you, reviewers and lurkers alike. You guys rock.