Naruto Without Youth

**Without Youth**

Its been almost three months now since it happened. Nothing seemed right anymore.

"TenTen you are forbidden from engaging in any missions for the next week."

"What?" cried TenTen. "You can't do that. Why wrong have I done to deserve this?"

"You've done nothing wrong, but at the rate that your going with these missions you'll burn yourself out. As the hokage I don't need ninja who can't take proper care for themselves." Tsunade gave her a concerned look. Three months was not enough time.

"I do take care for myself."

"Take a break. You need it."

Her idol was not one to back down.

Reluctantly, TenTen agreed. "Fine."

Stepping out of the office, she allowed the Hokage to deal with more pressing matters.

Thudding down the stairs, her disdain drained into despair as she saw a familiar face that hadn't been so familiar for awhile. Neji Hyuuga.

He was going up and she was going down. On the same team for a few years, but not any more. Not really. They didn't even exchange a glance

She looked down. He looked ahead. Ghosts to one another, haunted by the same tragedy.

Since Lee's death team Guy had never been the same.

When you lose a comrade, a teammate, a friend people always say how you need to be close with those around you. No one ever mentions how much the smallest light only shows you how vast the darkness is. Like hearing a pin drop in a silent corridor it only makes the truth apparent. Every member of what was left of team Guy used ever excuse possible to avoid one another.

Three months had passed, but none of the team had come to terms with the truth.

The early stages of mourning had come to pass easily enough. In those moments everything had felt like dream. Neither pleasant nor painful. Just a lie. Fiction. Made up. Lee couldn't be. It just wasn't possible. It was Lee.

All other teams offered their condolences. Their words did little to consul the younger inexperienced of the group, but it was Team Kakashi that had sparked the anger and frustration in TenTen.

_"I'm so sorry about Lee, TenTen." Sakura "I know what its like to loss a teammate. I mean when Sasuke left I didn't know what to do with myself."_

_At her words TenTen tensed with disdain for the arrogant girl. _

_"Shut up!" with a firm slap across her face TenTen silenced Sakura. "Don't ever compare Lee to that traitor bastard Uchiha! You have no idea what its like to lose a teammate! Lee was my friend and he's never coming back."_

_"Uchiha chose to abandon the village, but he's not..." she choked on the defining word. "He's not dead."_

_Sakura stood their in stunned silence, with purposeless gestures. "TenTen I'm so so-"_

_"Don't," such futile apologies. She didn't want to hear them. They didn't change anything. All they did was throw salt on wounds that wouldn't be allowed to heal._

_"All I did was try to help! Why you have to be so-"_

_"Sakura!"_

_Naruta gave her a long hard look that she had never seen before. Tightening her lips she dropped her head ashamed by her actions._

_"Whatever."_

_TenTen walked away. Hoping that maybe leaving the truth behind would be her saving grace. It wasn't._

Exhausted by the days events TenTen collapsed in the age old battlefield that she has called home day and night. Where her body steadily grows stronger as her heart threatened to break.

Lee was dead. She knew. But she didn't want to believe it. She had been there with him in his final hours, but she still wanted so badly to believe that this reality was nothing more than some terrible nightmare.

_Lee. Just hold on a bit longer. Were almost there. Carrying Lee on his back Neji ran swiftly to the village._

_"I don't think I'm going to make it TenTen-chan."_

_"Nonsense Lee. We'll be home soon and everything will be just fine," replied TenTen. "Right, Neji?"_

_"Right."_

They had lied to him then. Things weren't fine. Maybe they never would be.

_The ER sign dimmed and out came the doctors in their medical suits, now stained red by Lee's blood._

_TenTen rushed over to them, followed by the rest of team Guy._

_"How is he? Will he be alright? Can we see him?"_

_She wanted to se him. It had been far to long since she had seen his face. Worry had aged her, but all she needed was to see his smiling face and hear his wildly enthusiastic face._

_The doctors looked gravely at the bunch._

_"What's wrong?"_

Questions. So many questions that day. She knew the answers to all those questions know. Every day she wished that she didn't.

Leaves danced to the sound of their own music, the sun brought a festival of colors to light.

A figure stepped from the shadows among the trees.

It was him again. The man's face that she couldn't bear to see.

He didn't say anything. Neji just took a seat beside her.

TenTen didn't want to be here. Not here. Not with him.

"How long has it been?" he asked.

A question that need a reply.

"How long has it been since what?" TenTen answered, staring at the blue sky.

"Since we even looked at each other," he said.

Still he did not see her.

"I saw you earlier today."

Short answers were all she was capable of right now.

"How long since we talked?"

"We're talking and this is pointless, so I'm leaving."

TenTen sat up and moved to stand, but he grabbed her arm to stop her.

She turned to him and for the first time in a long time they actually looked at each other.

"Lee dying was hard enough, but we can't keep doing this." said Neji.

TenTen didn't respond immediately. She was trying her best to keep together.

"I know," where her only words.

She'd known for a long time, but she never accepted it. She couldn't.

"I don't want to lose you too," said Neji.

Even someone like him who seemed to feel nothing, could recover from losing both of his teamate. His friends. The only people he would trust with his life. They had failed Lee. But he wouldn't fail TenTen. He wouldn't fail what was left of Team Guy.

"I know," she choked on air as she spoke.

Neji took her in his arms and finally TenTen broke down. She shed tears that were long over due. Let out cries of dispair into the cold air. Sharing in a pain only they could truly know.

A knock came from the door of the once ridiculously cheerful teacher. Wearily he set down the picture of his team and walked to answer.

There in front of him stood the two people to whom he had wished so long to see.

"Hello Sensei. Would you like to join us for some curry," asked TenTen.

* * *

><p>Sorry I haven't been submitting for a long tmie. Hit a bit of a writers block on Taboo. But this a piece that I need to get out of my system. So there it is.<p> 


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Naruto, Hurt-Comfort, Tragedy