Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. However, I do own the events of this story. Don't read if you can't take character death or heartbreak.

The sunrise was gorgeous as they set off from the village. The sunlight dyed the clouds all sorts of shades of pink, lavender, and gold. They set off towards the sunrise, for they were traveling east, and the forest they entered was changed in color as well. The birds sang in the branches over their heads and a pair of squirrels scurried in front of them. The girl stopped to look as the smaller trailed the larger as if it was its shadow and smiled at a hidden joke.

"Hey, Neji-kun, look at the squirrels." She giggled slightly. "Don't they remind you of Gai-sensei and Lee?" The smile was affectionate as she thought about the two members of their genin squad that were missing from their current assignment.

The boy turned around at a slight angle to see the small rodents. The larger was now throwing acorns at the smaller one's head while the small one dodged the projectiles clumsily. "Yes, in a way." He smiled slightly at the animals and told her, "But Tenten-chan, we need to get going if we're going to get to the mission in time."

The girl's smile vanished and she nodded her head and continued on. This was the first mission the young brunette had been on since being promoted to the rank of jonin. The mission was an s-ranked infiltration mission: she and her partner, the light-eyed young man called Hyuga Neji, were to retrieve a stolen artifact from the center of an enemy base without being caught. The rank was only because of the importance of the artifact, the original manuscript of a novel that was more than 700 years old. It was believed that said scroll as contained a hidden map to a fabled treasure. It was unlike her, but the girl was worrying today more than she ever had. There seemed to be an ominous feeling about the mission to her, no matter how bright the sky was. She was suddenly afraid to be seperated from him. She was afraid for him to walk along without his byakugan activated; enemies could be anywhere.

"Neji-kun," she started hesitantly, "Let's try to stay close together on this mission, okay? I don't know if I'm ready to do this on my own, so please, don't leave."

He looked at her with those lilac eyes that she loved so much. They expressed very little to most, but Tenten had learned how to read them in the years since she had begun working with him. Now, they told her that he would allow nothing to separate the two of them.

"Tenten-chan, I'm going to make you a promise." He said quietly, looking at her. That caught her off guard; her boyfriend rarely ever made promises. "I promise that as long as you need me, I'll be here."

It had been eight years since that conversation had taken place. Neji and Tenten were now in thirty. They had been married for five years and had one daughter, age three. Hyuga Tenshi was currently at home with her aunt Hanabi while her parents (plus Lee) were on yet another important mission for the sixth Hokage.

Tenten finished the last enemy she had to face with a single slice across the throat with a kunai. Brutal, but very effective. Pale and exhausted, she looked anxiously for her husband and saw his familiar dark hair spilling out behind him as he lay on his side in a small lake of blood. Neji was down. She had not seen Neji down for more than fifteen years.

She held back a scream as she walked as quickly as she dared towards him. As she approached, she had to fight back the urge to vomit. His pale, flawless face was covered in scarlet blood leaked from a large gash on the left side of his face. His breathing was strained as he twitched in the blood and dirt. A sword through his shoulder blade was the only way that he could have gone down, and there it was.

"N-Neji..." she choked on his name. Her breath came in large gasps as she tried to find words.

Lee, across the field, looked up at the sound of her voice. "Tenten-san, are you-?" He didn't have to finish the question when he saw her crouched over the nearly lifeless body of his rival and was by their side in less than three seconds. "Neji-san..." It was probably the first time she had ever seen him thunderstruck, but now she could not laugh at his startled face.

And then, she could speak again. "No, Neji! Don't you die on me! You promised that you'd be here as long as I needed you! Well, I still do! Don't break that promise now, Neji! I love you!"

His face moved a tiny bit as if he heard her, and then Lee snapped back into place, his mind racing ahead of Tenten's frozen intellect.

"They may be able to save him if we can get him back to the village in time!" He shouted, hefting the other man across his shoulders and grunting slightly at the added weight. "But we have to go extremely quick, Tenten-san!"

She had never known Lee to be much of a leader, but now he seemed to take charge. She was grateful to him for being able to think when she, Neji's own wife, could not.

"R-Right." She stood quickly and almost fell back down. Her legs were unsteady and weak. "Let's go!"

The steady beep of the heart moniter was no comfort to Tenten as she sat in the dark, still hospital room beside a dark-haired man in a coma. The curtains drawn on the city's nightlights, no light entered the room. She had not left his side since they arrived in the room for the first time; she had not slept, waiting for the steady beat that meant the one that she loved more than anyone else was still alive. She had not seen her daughter for more than two weeks, and she longed for her baby girl.

But Hyuga Tenshi must not see the broken shell that used to be her father. It hurt Tenten to sit by the bedside of the man she loved, and Tenshi was Daddy's Little Girl. She would not understand that this was not her daddy, that she must not jump on him or tickle him or even hug him. She would not understand that the man in the bed was just an empty body; Neji didn't live there anymore.

"Neji, can you hear me?" she murmured. It was a stupid question, but the only way she knew to begin. "I need you, Neji. I need you to wake up, please. I have to tell you something I should've told you before we left, and it's important."

She took a deep breath. "I'm pregnant, Neji. I'm only about two months along, but I definitely am pregnant. I was going to tell you when we got home, but that didn't happen. No one except for Hinata, Hanabi, Tsunade, and I know. Well, you might, too, if you hear when I talk to you.

But I'm not ready to be a single mom, Neji. I don't think I can do it by myself. You've seen me with Tenshi; she listens to you so much better than me. I can't even get her to eat spinach, and for you, she'd jump off a mountain. I think it's a boy, too, actually. You're a great father, Neji, and I want you to meet this child. I want him or her to know you like Tenshi does. I want this child to know that you love it, Neji, but who is it supposed to know if you won't ever meet it?"

She exhaled, and then continued. "The point is, Neji-kun, that I need you. And more importantly, our children need you. I can't do this on my own."

She didn't know exactly when she started crying, but she knew that she was doing it. She wasn't crying for herself; she was crying for the baby that may never know its father, the little girl that would never be trained by her father, and for the little children that might not be raised correctly by only a mother and a bunch of people that called themselves aunts.

"Tenten-san," Hinata said softly, shaking the dark-haired woman asleep in the chair. "Wake up, please."

Tenten's eyes opened to the sight of around nine people crowded into the small hospital room with sad eyes. It seemed like everyone that they knew was their in the tiny room. Naruto, Sakura, Lee, Gai, Hinata, Hanabi, Hiashi, and the girl with her own face and Neji's eyes in her great-uncle's arms were all with a white-coated medic. The little girl reached for her, half-jumping into her mother's arms.

"Mommy, I missed you." She said softly. Tenten's shoulder was wet.

"I missed you, too, Tenshi-chan." She stroked the dark-brown hair slowly while the little person it was attached to sobbed. "What's going on, everyone?"

They exchanged uneasy glances before Sakura spoke up. "We've run every test known to man on him, Tenten-san." She said sadly. "Neji's not going to wake up."

"I..." she lost words again. "I see." She concentrated on her daughter, trying not to cry infront of all her friends. "But he's still alive."

"No, Tenten-san," Hinata's soft voice was shaking. "His heart is still beating. It isn't really life unless you're living."

"He should have already gone by now." Sakura continued. "But I think that he's trying to stay. For you."

"Just like he promised..." she muttered slowly. She hugged her daughter tighter than ever and felt tears flow freely down her face. "He promised that he's stay with me as long as I felt I needed him." She whispered the last part.

It was Naruto's turn to talk. "Yeah, that's what we think is happening. There's a part of him that's still hanging on for you. But you need to let him go, Tenten, so he doesn't have to hurt anymore." His blue eyes looked at her sadly.

"I can't." she whispered. "I can't let him go, everyone. He's too important to me. I still need him because I can't do it on my own. I'm not a superhero; I can't raise two kids on my own. I can't go on missions if I'm always at home with the kids. What am I supposed to do? There are no options." She looked at the still form in the bed.

Hanabi snorted; it reminded Tenten of when Neji used to argue with Lee so many years ago. "You didn't really think that we'd let you try to do this on your own?"

Naruto and Hinata exchanged a look that clearly said everything that they would have said out loud instead.

"I think we should leave these two alone with him." Naruto told the group. Almost as one, they nodded and walked out to the hall. "Call us back whenever you're ready."

"Daddy," Tenshi sobbed. It was obvious that she was falling asleep to her mother, who cradled her tighter than she ever had before. Tenten hushed her quietly, rocking back and forth, until she fell asleep.

Maybe she wouldn't have to do it alone, but could she really survive without her one true love? It felt like they were asking her to do would make her heart and soul break into a thousand pieces. Then again, if they were right, if he was in pain, could she rightly ask him to stay with her now?

"Neji," she sobbed quietly. "You can go now, if you want to. I think that I may be able to do this on my own. You can let go now; I won't hold you here anymore. Go, please. I won't ask you to hurt for me anymore."

The people filled in quietly to room. They saw the heavy flow of tears and she knew that they understood. She nodded at them and they watched the man in the bed. The ragged but steady breathing was slowing fast, and everyone knew what that meant. Sakura started towards the many machines, and when Tenten nodded her agreement, pulled the chord from the wall.

She stood slowly and followed them out of the room.

"You did the right thing, Tenten-san." Hiashi, Neji's once-hated uncle, said. Tenten nodded, still sobbing into her baby's hair.

"I know. But that doesn't make it any easier."