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“GET THE MEDICAL TEAM! WE HAVE A CRITICAL INJURY! HURRY!”
The words repeated over and over and over in Tenten’s ears. She couldn’t believe what was happening before her eyes. How could this be? She never thought she would have to see Neji die in front of her.
It simply wasn’t fair…but, it was reality. As hard as it was to accept that. Blood poured from the giant wound in Neji’s abdomen and from the corners of his mouth as Tenten watched Naruto cradle Neji in his arms, with Hinata crouching just beside them. That should be me, Tenten whispered to herself. That fucking should be fucking me!
She crept closer to the scene, and decided to hide behind the bodies of some of Naruto’s other fallen comrades. She cupped her hand around her ear and leaned in a little so that she could better hear.
“Naruto, Hinata was willing to die for you,” Neji was saying.
What? Tenten thought. Now I’ll totally be single forever, thanks a lot, Hinata!
She hated to blame her—Hinata was really such a nice girl. If Tenten was into women (lol) she would have loved to date someone as kind as her.
Neji continued talking, “So, remember, you hold more than one life in your hands.” And, it seems, that my life…may have also been one of them.”
The kunoichi couldn’t bear to look at this anymore. She stood up from behind the dead bodies and called out to her beloved, “But, why…you can’t die here!” Oddly enough, Naruto said the same thing at the same time. Then, they both screamed, “You were gonna change the Hyuga!”
Tenten summoned a chainsaw immediately and started waving it at Naruto. Both him and Hinata stepped back with fear in their orbs. In doing so, they dropped Neji’s dying body onto the ground. “Step aside, Naruto! Step aside, Hinata! You’re not going to let him die. Not on my watch!”
Naruto and Hinata’s eyes narrowed—nearly in sync. For a moment, Tenten thought she should actually let Neji die so that Naruto and Hinata could share a moment in the light of the tragedy and then get together. A marriage forged by the loss of a loved one, there was no greater bond.
She rushed towards Neji’s frame. “I’m going to save him.” Building the strength of a thousand lasats, she scooped up his body into her arms and began running.
*FLASHBACK*
Tenten could not believe that the man before her was hers and simply hers. Nobody else’s but hers. She pressed another kiss to his mouth before reaching for his hand.
“Tell me a secret,” she whispered. He turned his back to her, but Tenten imagined that he was smiling.
“‘A secret,’” he repeated. Tenten couldn’t help but giggle at his joke.
“No, for real,” Tenten gushed. With his back still to her she wrapped her arms round his middle and rested her head against his back. “Tell me a secret,” she tried again.
“I am from the darkness,” he whispered. He still refused to face her. “But you have brought me to the light.”
*FLASHBACK ENDS*
She ran and ran and ran, oxygen was barely getting to her lungs but it was worth it. Finally, she found a medical tent. “Doctor! DOCTOR!” She screamed.
Doctor Ezra Inuzuka, one of Lady Tsunade’s top disciples, came out of the tent. There were bags beneath his eyes, he reminded Tenten of a dog that had survived trench warfare. The Fourth Shinobi World War would do that to you, though.
“Please operate on him! He’s dying!”
Doctor Inuzuka shuddered as he looked at Neji’s weakened frame. He was barely conscious now. “I will do what I can. No promises, though. Sssorry, Tenten.”
She handed the doctor Neji’s body before going to sit down on the ground outside the tent since there was no waiting room. Once again, Tenten was beginning to feel like a side character. Maybe she should just join the side branch with Neji…
*FLASHBACK 2*
“Why do you have that on your face?”
Tenten ran a hand through his hair, concern within her gaze. “You are still so beautiful, but I just wonder…”
“This thing on my face is necessary. It is now apart of who I am, I fear that it always will be. I don’t think anyone can ever understand…”
“Let me try to. I am trying to,” Tenten pleaded, lacing her fingers through his.
“I know,” he replied. He placed another hand over hers. “Thank you.”
*FLASHBACK 2 ENDS*
After many minutes, Doctor Inuzuka came back out of the tent. “Tenten,” he started. “Things aren’t looking so good. Another doctor is about to arrive to give a second opinion—on whether we should operate or not.”
“What?!” Tenten gasped. Just as she was trying to fully wrap her mind around the reality that Neji might die, another doctor from a different part of the war walked up. She barely got a glimpse at his face, he moved so quickly.
Neji…
About forty seconds later, Tenten decided to follow the doctors into the tent. What she saw shocked her but also pleased her. Doctor Ezra Inuzuka was dead on the floor already. Or, perhaps he had been put under a powerful genjutsu.
She chuckled, and then looked at the other doctor.
Neji’s dying self, still atop their reluctant operating table, made a faint sound of confusion. “It is you, my love.”
The new doctor took off his lab coat and revealed that he had a sweatshirt—No! He had an akatsuki cloak on underneath. “It is me,” his one eye winked behind his mask.
He laughed a very full laugh, a jolly laugh that shook his belly. It was a little off putting considering his otherwise menacing nature but Tenten loved that about him. “Ha ha ha, didn’t Naruto say he wouldn’t let any of his comrades die?”
Tenten cracked up. She specifically remembered Naruto shouting, “I’ll never let my comrades die! No matter what happens!”
Then, Neji’s heart monitor flatlined. Beep…beep…beep…beeeeeep.
Anyone who thought the man in Tenten’s flashbacks was Neji, was about to be in for a wicked surprise!
Tenten threw her arms around her masked man’s neck. “Obito, I’ve missed you so much! It’s been so hard pretending to be your enemy during the war.”
“I know, my love, it’s been a real challenge. And, you look so beautiful in your uniform. It was so hard to look away.”
“Well, now you won’t have to ever look away. They’re going to think I killed Neji, and they’ll exile me from the village. So, now, my love…I have a place by your side. A real place. Finally, I have a loving place to be my home!”
Tenten had grown up in a scary place. She had escaped the first farm—well, orphanage, it preferred to be called—and then she had been transferred into one in Konoha. That was where she had lived until her eighteenth birthday, when she had finally gotten to live on her own. However, it’d only been for a matter of months, because then she had to go to war! Jesus christ, how inconvenient. Her first taste of freedom tainted by war. All she’d ever known. She had been so young when she’d escaped the village hidden in the grace field, and so young when she’d come to the village hidden in the leaves…
“I have some bad news.” She stared up at Obito, gazing into his singular orb.
He looked so nervous, Tenten’s heart sunk. She would do anything for him—in that moment and always. “What’s wrong?”
“I’d rather not say…”
Tenten grew fearful, anxious, angry. She wanted to help him and he was shutting her out. “Obito Arihnda Uchiha, TELL ME WHAT THE PROBLEM IS RIGHT NOW!” She cried. “I’ll do ANYTHING for you! Just let me help, please!”
He simply looked away. His one orb turned to the ceiling of the tent, avoidant of making eye contact with her. “May I…borrow one of your scrolls?” He asked, voice just above a whisper.
Tenten handed it over to him without question. He used it to summon a machine gun and a dagger. Two of Tenten’s favorite weapons.
“Which way do you want to die?” He asked so quietly. “Which. Way.”
“Huh?” Tenten was so confused. Everything had been going so well. Now, Neji was dead on an operating table thanks to her, and her one true love was about to finish her off at his own hand using one of two of her top five weapons.
“This just isn’t working out. Maybe if we had been closer in age it would have been fine.”
“That makes me want to die,” Tenten said.
“Well, now you have to die,” Obito replied, not looking remorseful at all. “So, what will it be? Machine gun or dagger?”
“Ummm…dagger.”
And, so it was. Obito killed his second love. “You’ll never be Rin, Tenten. But I fuck with you for trying.”
With Tenten gone, Obito ran out onto the battlefield again with his machine gun and began to take everyone down. If Rin couldn’t live…nobody could.
The gatekeeper village soldiers? Dead. Why had they even let narcoleptic people into the army? The remaining gracefield forces? Dead, too. They reminded him too much of Tenten. Everyone was dead. Dead! Naruto thought he was the main character? Obito’s one man firing squad took him out too.
Back in the hospital tent, there lay three dead bodies. Doctor Inuzuka, Neji, and Tenten. Three innocent, misguided souls who were simply caught up in the art of war. Three cattle children who had escaped a harrowing mother. Three caged birds who were now free.
Then, a portal appeared. A man in orange stepped out—he was from a different dimension! Wow, the multiverse was really real! With his angelic touch, be placed a hand on Neji’s curse marked forehead. Due to his power, Neji came back to life.
“Take my hand, Neji nii-ssssan,” the angel said. His plasticy hair glistened beneath his orange halo. Neji did as he was told and stood up off the operating table, like Obito’s wood splinters had never killed him in the first place. He followed the angel through his portal. As they moved through space and time back to the angel’s dimension, Neji heard tales of a wonderful place where he would start his new life. No longer a caged bird in Konoha.
No…now he would be a free living lothbird on Lothal married to a beautiful woman named Levi.