Chapter 26: My Life for You
Neji was in the lead now. No one really questioned it, it just seemed as though he were the natural next person to assume the position at the front. Nobody was talking. Even Usagi, riding on Akamaru's back now, was silent. They were all thinking the same thing.
Six people we've left behind now.
Naruto, Sasuke, Ino, Choji, Shikamaru and Temari. Six people they'd lost, and the fight hadn't even started yet. It was a particularly depressing thought. The loss of just one member of their Army, and they already couldn't function well enough to get to the start of this fight with everybody intact.
Can we do this without Naruto?
None of them were really sure. No one had been really sure when they'd started. They'd never had to think about it before, Naruto had just always been there. When they were choosing a path for themselves, when they were trying to validate their existence, when they had to choose between following order and following their instincts. He'd just always been there. Always turned up at the last minute, always pulled some amazing solution out of the air, always fixed everything with an answer so clear and justified and utterly perfect that there were never any questions, that no choices ever had to be made or doubted. Now they were faced with the prospect of having to do it on their own, and they were all starting to ask themselves what in the hell were they doing there. They never would have dreamed they could do this, that they could be this great, without Naruto. The thought was beginning to occur to them that they were nine jonin, one tag-along and a little girl.
Tenten was bringing up the end of the procession, her eyes on the front. She was watching Neji in the lead, carefully noting each movement, each slight jerk of a muscle, the depth of each inhalation. She could see the telltale signs learned over a lifetime that Neji was starting to panic. Neji was not a particularly expressive person, probably no one else could see them. Lee was too focused on Sakura, so even if he might have seen, he didn't notice. Tenten did. She could see him starting to loose control of his perfectly controlled breathing. He lingered on each branch a split-second too long, trying to regain the balance it felt like he was losing. She saw as his tongue darted out to moisten his lips, not so unusual a action but on Neji practically unheard of. She began to make her way to the front, still watching carefully.
"Here it comes!" Neji called over his shoulder, stopping Tenten and the rest of the army cold. Nobody need to be told what he was talking about, they all knew they'd come to the last obstacle. The school was less than half a mile away. They were about to meet the last line of defense before the Nightmare itself.
Everybody dropped to the ground at once. The last thin stretch of forest before the school grounds lay before them, the trees widely spread but the dense foliage above blocking out most of the light.
There were Harbingers everywhere.
There was a surprising lack of Darks, probably they had all gone to feed the nightmare by now. Some, however, seemed to have merged with one or more of the silent gray warriors, making great bulbous masses of dark energy with random arms and heads protruding in odd places, or else monstrous beasts that resembled humans on all fours, bloated and leaking shadows at the seams.
"Don't let them push any of you back!" Neji called over his shoulder, not afraid to shout as the Gray Army waited for the Golden Army to attack. There was no provoking them, everybody knew their first and only objective was to hold the line. "Gaara, make sure Usagi gets through. Everybody keep moving forward!"
Neji went first. Swinging his chakra in a great circle he cut a dent in the enemy line, and then everyone else charged. Lee sped between the ranks of gray corpses, taking out as many as he could and cutting a swath through to the other side, which Gaara quickly took advantage of to wrap Usagi and Matsuri in a floating sphere of sand and fly them safely past. Kiba and Akamaru each took one of the bigger hybrids and Sakura struck the ground, burying a dozen Harbingers and one bulbous shadow creature. Hinata was busy weaving chakra threads in front of herself, creating a shielding cocoon that barreled through the enemies before her as she ran, not a single one touching her. Several dead soldiers and two hybrid monsters went down, leaking bugs, as Shino made a dash for the other side, and Crow, the Black Ant and the Salamander all guarded Kankuro's own race across towards the school.
Tenten kept behind Neji.
In truth she wasn't really worried about making it across the line herself, she half expected not to be able to do it anyway, but she kept her eyes on Neji as he weaved across the battle field, darting hither and thither to try and make sure everybody else got across, apparently with no thought for himself. Each time he approached the other side he would abruptly change directions to take on another halfling or another ring of harbingers. He was being reckless and careless and it didn't make sense, he didn't even have his byakugan activated. Why wasn't he breaking out? Most everybody was through, why was he still doubling back? Why wasn't he . . .
Then the truth finally dawned on her. Neji wasn't planning on getting across.
Somewhere around the same quarter of a second that hit her, one of the more well constructed halflings pulled a jagged piece of metal from nowhere and aimed it like a sword at Neji's heart.
"Neji!"
The first thing that registered in Neji's mind since the initial charge was the sound of Tenten's voice calling out his name. The second thing was the blood spilling down the front of her shirt.
"Tenten!" he screamed, watching as she was lifted clean off her feet as the hybrid tried to retrieve it sword.
Neji didn't really remember deciding to decapitate the thing, or how he'd actually done it, but a moment later it dropped to its knees, a useless lump of darkness on the ground, with a woman dangling from a sharp edge. Ignoring the few remained enemies he closed the distance between himself and Tenten in a heartbeat, never taking his eyes off her. She was still suspended maybe six inches in the air, the front end of the weapon protruding from the base of her ribcage. Blood was trickling down both sides of her shirt, and as he watched she coughed up a bit more.
If Neji had been holding anything it would have fallen from his grip. As it was he fell to his knees. "Why?" he croaked. "I didn't even know you were behind me. What were you doing?"
Another bit of blood exited Tenten's mouth, riding on a cross between a cough and a laugh. "You might have known if you'd had your byakugan activated." She smiled a little. "What were you thinking? You should be more careful."
"Me!" Neji half sobbed, choking back another scream, "What about you! What were you doing! Why . . ."
"Neji-kun," she interrupted quietly, "you need to get going. They need you."
"Well I need you!" Neji cried, tears leaking out of his eyes at last. It wasn't fair! He'd only just found her again, she'd only just come back! It wasn't fair that he had to lose her all over again, when he'd only just figured it out. "What the hell did you think you were doing! Why would you do a thing like that for me!"
Tenten closed her eyes, smiling just a little bit. "Baka," she whispered.
"What the hell does that mean!" Neji raged, tears flowing freely down his face, "Why would you . . ."
"Baka," she interrupted again, "My life for you."
Neji stood there, floored, for what felt like hours. He could hear somebody behind him calling his name, but he couldn't seem to place the voice. All he could see was Tenten, smiling at him from behind tired eyes.
He bent his head. "I love you," he whispered.
"I know," Tenten replied, her voice growing ever softer.
"No!" he sobbed, looking up at her again, "I love you! I love you with all of my heart! With everything I have! I love you more than I thought it was possible to love someone! I have since we first formed the Army, maybe even before then! And its terrible because I was always to afraid to say anything! Tenten, I . . ."
"I know."
Neji blinked back fresh tears and focused on her half-closed eyes.
"I know," Tenten whispered, "Neji-kun, I know. I . . . love you too."
"Neji!" called a voice behind him, making him turn,"We need to move now!" Even as Neji heard the words, wishing they weren't true, he realized once again where he was and what he was doing. He had to go. He had to leave her.
Neji faced Tenten again. She nodded. Dashing tears from his eyes he turned and ran at full tilt toward the others, trying to force himself into the present moment of the Army and the Nightmare and things that no longer included the person he'd just left behind.
