a/n: Oh, I guess I'll be doing weekly updates from now on, eh? Haha I guess it's better than monthly or yearly updates. (Argh, don't you hate it when you find an amazing story, reaf that it's incomplete, and realize that the author hasn't updated in months? Even years? The suspense always kills me a little inside. T-T)

Anyway, school and horseback riding and crap like that have been keeping me busy but I still managed to find time for this. :) Sasuke make's his lovely Uchiha appearance. Tad bit OOC because he's slightly social, more smug than antisocial. Keeps insisting that Neji and Tenten are 'going out'. Hehe.

So, enjoyy:)

disclaimer: My birth certificate does not say Masashi Kishimoto. Nor am I a man. Therefore, I do not own Naruto.

Ahnyongg
~Cel:D

BUTTERFLY WINGS
CHAPTER 6
~Friend~

Tenten descended the stairs the next morning, still wearing Neji's sweatshirt and a pair of yoga pants. Neji looked up from his breakfast and quirked an eyebrow. "You're still wearing my clothes?"

"They're softer," she protested, bringing her lower lip into an uncharacteristic pout. Tenten cleared her throat and continued. "We…also forgot some pajamas, too."

"Shit." Neji mentally thwacked himself on the forehead. "We'll have to go later."

She nodded and took the seat beside him, looking around aimlessly.

"Go make yourself something," he ordered suddenly, jerking his head towards the refrigerator. "We've got bread, bagels, butter, jam, and you can even make some eggs and bacon as long as you don't accidentally burn the house down."

Tenten laughed shortly, stood up, and grabbed the opened package of bagels. Placing one on her plate, she began eating but grew uncomfortable when she noticed Neji staring at her. She indignantly swallowed and glared at him over her bitten bagel. "Stop looking at me like that," she demanded.

"Hn." He smirked and took a sip from his glass of water. "I just expected you to bombard me with inquiries. From the few days I've known you, it's become quite clear to me that you have no trouble speaking your mind."

"Damn right I don't." Tenten chomped down on her bagel as if to emphasize her point, chewing slowly, scrutinizing the taste. "This is…whole wheat," she announced, reading off of the label. "It tastes weird."

"It's healthy," Neji countered smoothly.

She frowned but took another bite, too proud to admit defeat. When the silence had stretched to an almost unbearable point, Tenten began speaking. "What are we going to do today?"

Then, as if the forces of the universe had decided to answer her question themselves, there was a rapid fire of knocks from the front door and Neji froze. "What the hell?" he muttered, slowly rising from his seat.

Tenten felt her heart beat a little more rapidly than normal. "I thought you said…that no one knew you were here…"

"Yeah, that's what I thought, too." Neji moved slowly towards the door, his hand held out defensively. She followed him slowly, unsure of what would happen next. She watched as Neji peered through the peephole and stiffened.

He swung open the door to reveal a handsome dark-haired boy looking very surprised indeed. "Well," the boy said with a slight smirk, one that could only rival the Hyuuga's, "I guess my investigating really did pay off."

"What are you doing here, Sasuke?" Neji asked calmly, only the slightly pulsing vein on the sides of his forehead giving away how irritated he was. "I didn't tell anyone that I was here."

"I snooped around, asked around, did some speculating," Sasuke answered casually, oblivious to Neji's glare, "and clearly, my speculations were on viable facts."

Tenten peered around Neji and it was then that Sasuke first noticed her.

"Your girlfriend?" he asked. "She's wearing your clothes. How cute."

"No." Neji placed his arm in front Tenten and pushed her behind him. "She's not." Turning his back to Sasuke, he glared at her. "You should go."

"But Neji-" she started but he silenced her with a dangerous look.

"Leave. Now."

Making no effort to disguise her scowl, Tenten shuffled upstairs and the two boys could distinctly hear a door slam shut and a body fall onto a bed.

"If she's not your girlfriend, what is she doing here, living with you?" Sasuke wondered, breaking the silence.

"It's complicated," Neji replied tartly. "I'd prefer not to explain it now." He moved away from the door and let Sasuke enter before glancing at the living room. "In fact, it's you who has a lot of explaining to do."

"I'll explain, and I'll be sure to use small words so that

you'll be sure to understand.

You wart-hog-faced-baffoon!"

~The Princess Bride

Tenten rolled over on her bed and peered at the ceiling, silently muttering curses under her breath. Neji could really be bossy jackass when he wanted to be. "Telling me to leave as if I were some annoying kid," she growled, giving her pillow a little punch to let off some steam.

What was he so insistent on keeping hidden from her? He sure as hell had a huge secret that he wouldn't disclose but why keep it from her? She wouldn't wrongly judge – she never did, always having good reasons before doing so – and she wouldn't hold it over his head.

She realized that she wanted to know. And she was hurt that Neji wouldn't tell her.

Suddenly she sat up, listening as the door closed. Screw Neji and his 'leave'. He had no dominion over her, only the fact that he was a generous host. But he also necessitated answers from her – vital answers she assumed by the serious air he had when discussing his need for them – and he wouldn't get them if he threw her out of the house.

Silently, stealthily, she crept downstairs, hearing voices coming from the living room. Like a wisp of smoke, she floated into the kitchen and crouched against the wall. She would be able to hear them but they couldn't see her.

By the tone of anger in both their voices and how they raised them dramatically with each breath, Tenten knew something was terribly awry.

"You're an idiot, Neji!" Sasuke exclaimed, jumping to his feet. "Stop acting as if you've been cast into an abandoned hellhole and actually live your life!"

"I'm not acting." Neji's voice was eerily impassive and Tenten could only imagine how Sasuke's face twitched slightly. "I'm headed for hell. I always knew I was. I just didn't know it would be so soon."

"You've got to suck it up!" Sasuke snapped. "Hanabi's condition has worsened since you left!"

"But I'm trying to change my destiny," Neji mused, as if Sasuke hadn't said anything. "I need answers, about the right way to live. If not, I might as well just die now."

Sasuke frowned. "You're crazy. Just accept it and return to your real home. You need to make the most out of the time you have left. Live, Neji, God damn it!"

"I don't know how to live." Neji raised his voice slightly, clearly becoming annoyed. "I'm trying to learn, to remember what I've forgotten."

"Bullshit." Sasuke slammed his fist against the coffee table.

"Fuck you."

And as she heard his footsteps draw nearer, Tenten couldn't scramble away fast enough and found herself crouch below a positively livid Neji. Hastily, she pulled herself up to a standing position and bowed quickly. "Sorry, Neji, I didn't mean-"
She stopped speaking as the breath was knocked out of her lungs and felt the wall connect with her spine, acutely aware of Neji's hands pinning her against it.

"What did you hear?" he hissed.

"N-nothing," she gasped, shutting her eyes.

"Really?" He gave her a slight shake. "If you're lying…" Neji let the threat hang.

Tenten quickly shook her head, more perturbed about Neji's sudden behavior than fearful. "I swear I didn't…"

"You did," Neji countered, squeezing her arms until she was sure that the circulation had been cut off. "Tell me: what did you hear?" His eyes blazed furiously and Tenten realized at that point that she really was apprehensive of what he would do next.

"What the hell!"

She watched as Sasuke managed to pry Neji off of her and instinctively backed away. Neji pulled his arm away from Sasuke and sent him murderous glares. Sasuke, however, brushed them off as if he were used to it – such was the fate of befriending the Hyuuga – and gave Tenten a lopsided grin.

"You should probably head upstairs for a while," he suggested. "Your boyfriend seems to be going through his time of month."

Tenten turned and left before Neji opened his mouth, yet whether it was to deny their relationship or proclaim that he wasn't PMS-ing was never revealed to her. As she traveled up the stairs, she could catch the incensed timbre in Neji's normally composed voice and shuddered slightly at it.

Once inside her room, she sat cross-legged on her bed and involuntarily touched the spot where Neji had dug his hands into her arms. It was sore and she was sure that purple tendrils would blossom overnight but she wasn't worried about that.

She saw it as a reminder of how she and Neji were on two sides of the coin: she had escaped death and given a chance to live; he was being cheated out of life and handed a grave instead. The more she pondered about it, the more she realized that it was impossible for her to choose which fate was worse.

Whatever the case, their paths had crossed and Tenten supposed she'd have to be grateful for that. In a way, they would save each other – her from a lonely life, him from a lonely death. It was a nicely planned out deal destiny had given them.

Downstairs, it was quiet but Tenten didn't dare venture out yet. She knew how Neji could still convey his feelings of immense rage at a volume that seemed paradoxical. The other boy, Sasuke, seemed to do that as well so it was not a surprise they got along well enough.

But what had Sasuke come here for? It certainly wasn't for a friendly chat. No, more of a scolding, a lecture, reprimanding, trying to convince Neji to return.

He had mentioned a name as well.

Hanabi.

Who was she?

A friend? A family member? A lover?

Tenten, who was at the moment too submerged in her thoughts to make note of an uncomfortable twist in her gut, traced the stitched on the blanket absentmindedly. This Hanabi needed something from Neji, something that he didn't want to give up. All Tenten could conjure up was that Neji was going to lose his life and she didn't want that.

She had to tell him that. She had to let him know that there was someone out there who didn't approve of his helping Hanabi. She had to before he did something crazy.

She didn't want time to rush by them, rustling past with fluttering gusts and rapidly changing colors, until one day she woke up and Neji's eyes remained closed. She didn't want it to be too late and regretting about what could have been.

With that, she practically threw herself at the doorknob and hurtled down the stairs like a rocket, pedaling the brakes in time to avoid colliding with Sasuke's chest. He smirked but seemed to look through her with those dark brooding eyes.

"Worried about him, eh?"

Tenten could only nod, intrigued by the way his hair seemed to defy gravity. He must use liable amounts of hair gel.

"I wouldn't get so worked up about what happened before," he stated, narrowing his eyes. "He's going through a lot of stress, denial, mixed feelings. I suppose it's good that he's got a girlfriend to distract him."

"I'm not-"

Sasuke held up a hand. "I'll rephrase that: denial from both parties."

Tenten glowered. "I'm not mad at him for that, you know. I was just…surprised…"

"That he's capable of anger?" he finished the sentence for her. "Yeah, Neji gives off an aura that could get angry but you can't picture it until it happens. Anyway, he should be calm enough now. Talking to you will be good for him." Sasuke pointed into the kitchen. "He's in there."

She nodded once and entered the kitchen, surprised to see Neji slumped over the table, his head held in his hands, looking utterly world-weary and defeated. His shoulders slumped with an immeasurable amount of weight and his long hair looked aberrantly frazzled.

"Neji," she whispered, taking a seat at the table, not expecting an answer, simply saying his name to alert him that she was with him.

They say like that for an unbearable amount of time, Neji motionless except for the occasional rise and fall as he breathed and Tenten glancing around the room, wanting nothing more than to leave but knowing that that would be unacceptable.

Finally, Neji took a deep breath and picked his head up off the table. His skin seemed to glow for a scientifically unexplainable reason and his eyes were dull, but a trickle of determination seemed to fan the flame.

"You must hate me," he said monotonously.

"No."

"Then you must think I'm a bastard," he corrected himself.

"You are."

In spite of his current mood, he couldn't help but scoff in amusement at her bluntness. "I suppose that's rightly placed. You have a right to be scared of me, even turn me into the police for harassment or something."

"I don't like the police." Tenten wrinkled her nose for emphasis.

Neji didn't answer but waited for her to speak.

Slightly uncomfortable under his gaze, Tenten cleared her throat and blurted out the first thing on her mind. "I don't want to lie to you, Neji, but I heard that you're going to die."

"Your honesty warms my heart," he deadpanned, looking as if nothing would make him happier than to strangle her then and there.

"In my defense, you were talking rather loudly," Tenten pointed out. "But…I'm sorry to hear that. I don't want you to die."

"Don't remind me," he warned, the dangerous glint back in his eye.

She looked away. "Then I'll tell you instead why I'm so messed up."

"Your past?" he guessed.

"My past and all the traumas," she confirmed. "Your fear of death is normal-" Tenten paused, seeing him flinch, but plowed on. "-but my fear of butterflies is extremely abnormal. I'm probably the only one in the world with that trepidation."

"I'm sure you have your reasons."

"I do," she agreed, tapping her fingers on the table twice. "And since we're on the subject, I might as well tell you." She hurried on, intent on telling her story before Neji could protest. "I was six when it had happened. A few days before, my mother had warned me not to touch a butterfly wing because terrible things would happen. 'In a way, it will be trapped, hindered by its own fragility,' she told she said that, I had assumed that she was referring to a butterfly's broken wings.

"I had heeded her warning for days before desire had gotten the better of me on the afternoon of my mother's death. I had grazed the wing of a blue butterfly and in my ecstasy, made the mistake of picking it up." Tenten smiled wryly but Neji did not return it, his eyebrows furrowed in deep thought. "Needless to say, it slowly died as my mother called me in for dinner.

"My father was to return home after a business trip that day, just in time for my birthday, and I had run upstairs to freshen up when there were these weird noises coming from downstairs – thumps, crashes, clattering. At the time, I assumed it was my mother being her usual clumsy self but when I entered the kitchen, she was dead.

"The front door was ajar," she continued, taking no notice of the rivers of tears that cascaded down her flushed cheeks.

Neji's hand twitched to grab napkin and hand it to her but he was enthralled in her life's story.

"The front door was ajar," Tenten repeated, trying to compose herself. "But there was a note taped to the door, written in my father's handwriting. It said…'I'm not coming back'."

She took a deep shuddering breath. "So I ran. I ran into the woods that lined our yard and didn't look back. From then on, looking at butterfly freezes me with fear, transporting me back to that harrowing time. For years afterwards, I lived off of my own wit and cleverness and fast-thinking. Without it, I wouldn't have lived past age seven. My mother's dead, my father's probably in prison for killing her and I'm alone. Yet, somehow, I found a reason to live without knowing what tomorrow would hold."

"You have the answers," Neji concluded as if in a trance.

"I might," Tenten commented, cocking her head slightly, "but I don't know them consciously."

Neji pursed his lips and got up from the table. Tenten mirrored his action and waited for what he had to say. "I appreciate that you told me. It's good to have an honest friend."

Friend. The word made her heart smile. She was glad that he found some value in a homeless orphan.

Sasuke looked up when he heard Neji enter, Tenten trailing behind him. "I see you two lovebirds have worked everything out?"

Neji chose to ignore that inquiry. "I've decided I'm going home. If Tenten can face such a cruel and horrible reality, I'm capable of that as well."

Friend.

And then, for some unknown reason, Tenten felt her heart stop smiling and plummet down beneath the floorboards. Neji was going back home and there was no use for her any more. Friends came on different levels, she realized. She was on the lowest level while Sasuke and the rest of the Hyuuga household were higher up on the ladder.

Of course he would choose the latter.

Sasuke broke into a smile and clapped a hand onto his friend's shoulder. "That's great."

"Yeah, yeah," Neji murmured, brushing off Sasuke's hand. "I need to pack. You wait down here. Tenten can help me."

"Hai."
Neji closed his bedroom door behind her and pulled a pair of suitcases out from under his bed. "I thought I wouldn't ever have to use these."

Tenten said nothing and she did nothing either. Somehow, Neji didn't need her to do anything, instead perhaps simply wanting her company as he admitted defeat. She watched him fold his clothes and pack them into neat little stacks, easily zippering them up.

He walked into his closet and pulled out another pair of suitcases and thrust them at Tenten. "Here."

"Oh, I- uhh…" Tenten stammered, unable to grasp the handles.

Neji raised an eyebrow. "You're leaving as well, aren't you?"

The corners of her mouth threatened to sag into a depressing countenance but she forced them to curve upward into a carefree smile. However, her attempt failed and produced something close to a grimace. "Oh, yeah, I guess I am."

"Go pack your stuff," he commanded. "I'll be downstairs waiting for you."

…so we can say good-bye.

Though he hadn't said it aloud, Tenten was sure that that was what he was thinking.

"It's weird, you know the end of something great is coming,

but you want to hold on, just one more second,

just so it can hurt a little more."

~Unknown

"So, are you going to tell me who that girl is?"

"Her name's Tenten," Neji replied, knowing full well that that wasn't what Sasuke was asking.

"But who is she?"

Neji frowned at the smirking Uchiha and wondered how the hell he had ever become friends with him. "A friend."

Sasuke gave his head a slight shake, as if reprimanding a child and Neji stiffened indignantly. "She's living with you, Hyuuga. I bet she's not just any friend."

"She's a friend who needs help," Neji clarified, not exactly lying. He lifted his suitcase easily into the trunk of Sasuke's car.

"Hn. How long have you two known each other?"

"About four days."

Sasuke's eyes widened. "That's all?"

"It feels like much longer," Neji reassured him.

"You must really like her then," mused Sasuke. "Is she coming back with you?"

Neji raised an eyebrow. "Of course."

"Are you sure? She doesn't have any other plans?"

"Uchiha," Neji sighed, "what are you getting at?"

Sasuke pointed to the side of the house, where a figure was walking towards the forest, two suitcases in tow. "I think she assumed you weren't taking her."

"What the hell?" Neji murmured, surprised that Tenten had been so willing to leave him. "Tenten!" he shouted at her retreating back. "Where do you think you're going? The car is over here?"

She lifted her head and he could see the shock in her eyes. "What? I'm going with you?"

"Obviously." He strode over and reached out a hand then stopped. "Unless, of course, you don't want to."

"I do," she answered, allowing him to pull her luggage into the trunk of Sasuke's car, feeling elated, like walking on the clouds, happiness warming her through and through. "I do want to go with you."

a/n: Wahh, did you think Neji was really gonna let Tenten leave him like that? No way in hell. :)

Haha so I believe Sasuke is slighty uncharacteristic, says too many words in my opinion. Then again, he would be a rather boring person if he never talked. -_- Besides, he's vital to the plot. I'm debating whether or not making him a love interest in this story. Neji would ultimately win in the end, of course, but love triangles are always interesting to write. And I'll be able to add jealousy in without changing the plot. In fact, it flows rather nicely if I think about it.

Ehh, tell me what you think in a review. *hinthint* ;)

Anyway, for some reason unbeknownst to even myself, I have decided to make a website on tumblrdotcom. It's very random, but deep. I think it'll help me improve my writing, sort of like a diary but I'd never call it that. Blog, for lack of better word. Basically reflections on life and whatnot, everyday happenings. I'd appreciate it if you'd check it out. :) Maybe even let me know how you like it?

Link is on my profile:D

And remember, review and I will love you forever. 3

Ahnyongg
~Cel:D