Youth
"D'you know what you do when you get hurt and you want to forget your pain?" an eight-year-old Tenten asked seriously. She was crouching over Lee in the Academy schoolyard after just kicking in his shin and flipping him on his back.
"No, what do you do?" he asked once the pain had mostly ebbed away. He was still hugging his shin tightly, though, because it throbbed with heat.
"You say owie," she said seriously. "And then you giggle because you just said owie."
Lee tried it.
"Owie," he said, then giggled. "I think it worked!" he declared, sitting straighter and releasing his shin.
Tenten giggled too, and roughly shook the sand from his hair, swatting at his braid to get it all. They turned around, together, to find Neji staring at them disdainfully in front of the building.
"Lee," he said, his voice much older than that of an eight-year-old. "Lee, can you hear me?"
Lee opened his eyes and regretted it. There was a dull ringing in one ear, and a mass of numbness pulsed in his abdomen.
"Lee, you've been hurt," Neji said, and Lee was in such disarray that he didn't hear the contraction. Neji's white eyes were wild, the veins in his face still standing out sharply. "Gai-sensei and I have taken out the interlopers, but it's going to be a while until the medical team shows up. You're going to have to hold on."
"Wh-where's Tenten?" Lee asked after a couple tries. "She should have…should've had my back."
"Lee, Tenten's gone away. She's not with us anymore, remember?" Neji said softly.
"Oh. Oh yeah," Lee muttered.
The pain reached him now, and he spasmed, moaning.
"Stay still," Neji hissed, holding down his shoulders.
"Owie," Lee muttered, and giggled.