route_1065 | Even though I was always a side character / even though I'm a shadow

Entry tags:

tenten | naruto

Even though I was always a side character / even though I'm a shadow

Who: Tenten and Neji
Where: Cherrygrove
When: June 25
Summary: Tenten travels ~~five hundred miles~~ to go find her recently-arrived teammate, but they're in disagreement about a lot of things...
Rating: PG
Log:

Finally. After Flying from the Lake of Rage in the northern tip of Johto to the southern tip of Kanto, it would be nice to actually take a break from all this travelling and running around. As she came in for a landing, she let her Skarmory disappear back into his ball and looked up at the hospital doubtfully. It wasn't nearly as big as the one they'd used in Konoha, but it was something. It really just kind of looked like a PokéCenter to her.

A sigh as she forced any nervousness aside and marched forward, making her way through and looking around for her teammate. Even if he was from the future, he couldn't look that much different...

Though she paused a beat once she spotted him, eyes going a little wide. He'd certainly changed, in the future. Taller, stronger... Older. It was easier to tell with him, what with how mature he'd looked even at her age.

"Hey, Neji," she greeted as soon as she was close enough, resting a hand on her hip. "It's been a long time, huh?"

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He was to be discharged today once they finished with whatever paperwork was necessary with a trainer, or perhaps once they decided his wounds were sufficiently healed. He didn't care enough to listen to what the requirements were beyond that they were out of his hands. The worst of his injuries (although none were particularly grievous to begin with, deep cuts and burns and the like, rather than critical injuries) healed well enough now, but his arms and abdomen remained bandaged for the moment to allow for better healing. Natural healing, of course, as there was a tedious lack of medinin in this world, it seemed.

His hair hung free, and due to the bandages and wound care involved, his shirt was folded up with his other supplies in the corner of the room at the moment. Neither was a particularly uncommon sight for his visits to hospitals: keeping his hair tied back when he had no purpose to was not high on his priorities, and his shirts often interfered with medical care.

His pokemon, a female Meditite by now in perfect health, sat on the bed with him attempting to perform meditation. He was in the midst of physically correcting her posture when Tenten walked into the room. The tone of his words, if she stopped to note them, were instructional rather than irritable, despite his hands on effort. Having been stuck with it for ten days, scolding it got tiring.

He glanced up when she spoke, eyes just as white even without the ocular jutsu at his command, and gave an inquisitive frown.

Looking at her...was like looking into a living window of the past. She was shorter, slimmer...lighter. The extra years of being a Shinobi, the Akatsuki threat and attack on the village, and the weight of a so-far intense war were all missing from her frame and eyes. Despite only three years separating the Tenten he knew from this one, she looked...almost childlike without that experience.

Perhaps it was only his bias, but it seemed like she also held a distance to match the closeness that should have been there in her posture and her expression. But he lacked the Byakugan now and such biases were possible. "It's been less than two weeks, Tenten."

"Talking over the 'gear doesn't count, and you know it."

She moved in a little closer, taking further stock of his injuries. She'd hoped, after seeing that broadcast, that his injuries weren't as serious as they'd looked, but... Definitely looked like he'd gotten into a snarl with more than one angry Rattata. Idiot, too proud to use the weapon given to him.

Speaking of the 'weapon'... She turned her gaze toward the Meditite a little suspiciously. Yumi had one of those things, and it was kind of, well... creepy. This one didn't seem nearly so bad.

And it didn't seem like her own starter, either. Feng would try to snap someone's arm off if they came too close to her, but she felt reasonably safe in moving in closer, dropping into a crouch in front of him and touching his shoulder, pushing him back slightly to get a better look at the bandages over his wounds. It was an easy gesture, one they'd all do to each other dozens of times in the past -- how badly was he injured, and how long would they have to wait before resuming regular sparring? -- but now it felt... awkward. Like she was going through the familiar gestures, but there was nothing there.

She sat back on her heels and looked up at him, frown curving her lips. "How're you feeling?"

Edited 2013-06-25 14:16 (UTC)

"I wasn't counting it." For him he'd only seen her a short while before arriving...and the conversation on the gear hadn't felt like dealing with his Tenten, given this one was younger and fixated on a traitor. He had enough sense of tact to leave that part out, however. She'd complied with his request to speak to her in person, he wasn't about to start a fight with her over her poor sense of judgment now.

The Meditite, if one could read the pokemon's expression, didn't look exceptionally pleased at Tenten's closeness, and edged a bit closer to Neji once she started with the touching, but otherwise did nothing. Actually nothing, rather than summoning up energy like it seemed to only ever do in its battles.

Indeed, the touching and wound exception wasn't uncommon at all to him, and he merely glanced down at her hands when she did...but the warmth and concern usually involved in her inspection was considerably dampened if not missing entirely. Which, of course, was reasonable. She was from a time when they wouldn't have been friends, and therefore she would lack such concern as his Tenten would possess.

"The injuries were never vital to begin with, they're only minor cuts now." He stayed in the hospital this long without fuss partly because he saw nothing better to do until Tenten might arrive, and partly because it would be an easy landmark for her to find, rather than another trail. He nodded to the corner of the room with his things. "Your pokemon are there."

Yes, while he didn't have the opportunity to train them, as he ended up in the hospital longer than anticipated, he did at least withdraw them before he checked in (to the chagrin of some he passed by on the way), so they wouldn't be difficult to reclaim if she wanted them.

She only looked up at him with a brief exhale through her nose, the closest she'd let herself come to a sigh right now. For him it hadn't been long at all, but for her? Six months without him, without Lee, without Gai... It had changed her, though she wasn't entirely certain how much. Or, rather, she hadn't been certain how much until she was face to face with her teammate again.

Things were different between them, that much was obvious. She rested her hands between her knees as she settled more easily into her crouch, looking up to meet his eyes. She'd always prided herself on that, on being one of the few people stubborn enough (or willing enough) to look him right in the eye without flinching away. She only wished she could read him as well as he could read everyone around them.

"I'm glad you're okay," she answered finally, a small, relieved smile crossing her face before she glanced toward the corner. Her Absol, Gyarados, and Mienshao were in there, and she had to wonder aloud, "Did you even try letting them out of their balls yet?"

It's not as much the ways she had changed as the ways she hadn't. Those interfered far more--the lack of trust and friendship she had in him, and her lack of understanding anything about him beyond the hatred and bitterness toward the main branch that he fostered years before. In a regrettable way, the way she'd yet to see the suffering and tragedy the village and the world would experience also distanced them. His Tenten would trust him on the matter of Sasuke, yes, but she wouldn't need to, because she'd experienced the betrayal herself.

This Tenten's naivety was almost painful in comparison.

People did not fear nearly so much meeting his gaze anymore, and thus there was no challenge or stubbornness in his eyes when she met them. His expression remained neutral and...should she be able to read it better in person, a shade tired instead.

At her question, he glanced toward the pokeballs as well and gave a small nod. "They were outside when I arrived here, but there wasn't room to keep them free." That, and while his own seemed to sustain herself on one berry a day, the others would have cost much more to feed.

"I see." She exhaled again and stayed resting on her heels, staring up at him. Maybe it was the difference between the tiny screen of the 'gear and seeing him in person, but there was no missing how tired he looked. Sure, he was from the future, but he looked a lot older than he should have. If it was three years, that would put him at seventeen? But he looked far older than that.

If it was as a direct result of the future... she almost hoped she wouldn't experience it herself.

"What's wrong, Neji?" she asked finally, tilting her head to try to get a better look at his face. "Besides the whole 'getting picked up and dropped in Johto,' thing. Something else is bothering you, isn't it?"

Nothing for it but to be forthright. If he didn't want to answer, she's certain he'd just scoff and turn away like she was used to him doing. But maybe in the future... She'd started to the see the way he was changing, after those Exams. Only barely, only for a few days before she was gone, but she couldn't be that far off.

Some of it was the weight of the future on his shoulders and in his eyes--the same she could probably see in each of the shinobi from the future--but some of it was also physical, mental, and emotional fatigue from waging a war, facing his own death, and then traveling the route on his own without chakra to turn to. After the past two weeks it probably wouldn't be unreasonable of him to simply collapse in exhaustion for awhile.

The question was almost a surprise coming from this Tenten. The relationship she held with the past version of him should not have warranted such a question asked with any expectation of an answer. It was unexpected enough to earn a brief, silent pause, before he did indeed turn away and close his eyes. Not to scoff, however, but simply as a manner of preventing her from prying into matters he didn't wish to share with her at the moment: such as his death before arrival, or details of his friendship with her future self.

"All the things which I've held important to me are gone. That would bother anyone, wouldn't it?"

Her face fell when he turned away, and she leaned back again, exhaling as she watched him. It's true, about coming here; she'd been the same way when she first arrived. It was really thanks to Sasuke and Joonhee that she'd really been able to find a place here, and with everything she'd heard about the future, she had to admit, she almost rathered here than elsewhere.

"Yeah, but I didn't think much bothered you," she pointed out. It wasn't meant to be cruel, just an observation; beyond Gai and Lee's ridiculous antics and the Main/Branch struggle, not much ever seemed to bother him. At least not that he'd ever let her see.

She inhaled and exhaled again for another sigh, pushing up from her crouch to grab her three Pokéballs and clip them back on her belt, drawing a fourth. A flick of her wrist as she threw it into the air, then caught the egg that emerged from it and extended it toward him.

"Look, you're going to be stuck here for a while. I want you to have this. To keep, not like these guys."

Here was most likely the only place he could find a 'place', unless whatever brought him here would return him living from where he came. However, upon reflection, with the Fourth Hokage present such a possibility was close to nil. Should he return, it would be to whatever came after death. A new life, perhaps, one raised under the world Naruto and the others formed in the war. Or there would be nothing, if they ultimately failed to prevent the plan's execution.

Her comment did earn a scoff, though. Was that implication that he was an unfeeling creature with nothing dear to him? Did she think so little of him at her age? Even if that were so...adjusting to a life without all of the things one once identified with should be no easy thing. He would expect her to recognize that.

Still, he made no comment--what would be the point? She'd made her judgments about him, well founded as they were for the time she knew him, and only time and experience she yet lacked would change those. Instead, he simply watched as she retrieved her items and produced...an egg?

He frowned. "I don't have the resources to tend to an egg."

"Do you have hands and a backpack?" She gave him an impatient glare, then sighed and held the egg close to her, making herself comfortable there on the floor. There were so many things that had just started to become familiar here; six months of adjusting to life in this world had made it seem almost normal to be confronted with stuff like this.

Why wasn't Neji just agreeing with it like she had? There wasn't any choice, there was no way to get out, and he was still sitting there being as stubborn as always.

"I've been carrying it around for a while. I'm pretty sure the parents are my Skarmory and my Altaria." Belatedly realizing that this means nothing to him, she sighs again and digs into her pocket for her Pokédex, bringing up the right entries and holding it out to him with one hand, the other cradling the egg.

"Look, Neji, there's certain ways the world works here. If you don't at least make the effort to adjust, you're just going to keep ending up like this." She waved a hand to indicate the bandages, frowning again. "Maybe on Route 29 you'd be okay, but if you went up against a Gyarados or a Dragonair? You won't be so well-off."

As she said, stubborn as always. He'd never taken particularly well to having things like this thrust on him without discussion or consent, and while he was unlikely to attempt to kill anyone over it this time, he would hardly accept it passively either.

She was, of course, correct that the proper words she was using meant nothing to him, but he listened impassively all the same, and reached out for the offered Pokédex until she followed up the offer with her insistent scolding. His hand dropped back to his lap then, and he gave a disapproving frown to his younger teammate. "Even without chakra I'm aware of both my capabilities and limits, Tenten. Although you don't know me as well as you one day will, trust that I do."

She exhaled again unhappily and drew the Pokédex back for now, letting it fall to her lap so she could cradle the egg with both hands. That stung more than a little, to be told that they would have a better relationship in the future.

Even Neji being here like this stung, probably about as much for her as it did for him to see her like this. He didn't act anything like the Neji she was familiar with; she hadn't seen him change from the bitter, angry youth he'd been into... this. Whatever he was now.

"I thought I knew you pretty well," she said frankly, looking up at him, jaw set defiantly, though the hurt showed in her eyes. "You change a lot in the future, Neji."

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Even though I was always a side character / even though I'm a shadow

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