Finale. Tenten dreams, rain washes away the pain, Neji's future is decided. Please review.

Fate

"Tomorrow!" Neji and Tenten both exclaimed.

"Yes." The Hokage looked at the two ninja with troubled tan eyes. "The chakra pathways that direct the Byakugan were damaged during your mission three days ago. It looked as though it would take weeks to heal, so we would have time to fix your actual eye sight and cut out the bloodline arteries."

Neji gulped, and Tenten found herself holding his hand. He didn't pull away.

"Your chakra seems to be speeding up the healing process, and your body is trying to make up for the lack of the bloodline by attempting to fix it prematurely. Unfortunately, it doesn't know how." The curvaceous woman walked toward the door. "You have tonight to decide. Come to me tomorrow at this time to give me your decision. If you want to go through with the surgery, we'll start right away," Tsunade said with a soft tone. "I'm sorry to rush you with this, but it's the only option left at this time."

Neji stood, still holding Tenten's hand. With a slight bow he said, "Thank you Hokage-sama." He quickly pulled Tenten out of the office. She heard the blond woman sigh as she closed the door behind them.

Tenten didn't dare speak as Neji dragged her out of the tower and into the streets. When he started bumping into people, she stopped. He turned toward her and his frown increased. One would think his face would hurt from frowning so much...

She placed her hand in the crook of his arm and started leading him back to her house. He seemed to deflate with each step, partially leaning on the kunoichi for support.

When they returned home, she led him to the couch. He sunk into the cushions while she fixed some tea.

"Here," she said as she placed the drink in his hands.

"Hn." He took a sip, then reached for a coaster and set the cup on the coffee table.

Tenten sat next to him, unsure of what to say. This is a major blow...

"Tenten." His voice slightly cracked, causing her to flinch.

"Y... Yes?" She internally scolded herself for the unsure sound in her voice. Even though he would never admit it, Neji needed her to be strong for him.

"What's your opinion on the matter?" he asked, trying to sound detached.

Tenten bit her lip lightly. "Well... Does it matter what I think?"

"Yes, it does."

She gulped. "I don't want to sway you either way. You need to make the decision yourself. I... I'm sorry."

He stood and nodded. "I understand. Excuse me." He retreated to his room. She frowned when she heard the click of the lock.

With a sigh she plopped down on the couch, spreading herself out along the fluffy cushions. Sachi meowed from a nearby chair and hopped over to join her.

"What could I have told him?" she whispered as the cat settled himself next to her hip. "I don't want him to make a decision that doesn't suit him... And I honestly don't know what he should do. I just... I just hopes he makes his choice for the right reasons," she said as she thought back to the glaring eyes of the Hyuuga she had seen a couple days earlier.

Suddenly she became incredibly tired. She willed for her eyelids to remain open, but the sound of Sachi's purring combined with the mental stress of the day caused her to go out like a light.

"Momma!" a little girl with large doe eyes called from the front door of a large hut. "What are they doing to Daddy? Momma!" Tears streamed down her pale cheeks as she watched a dozen Earth nins surround a single man.

He was tall, thin chocolate hair held in a small ponytail at the top of his head. His light green eyes turned to the little girl. "I love you, Kuri-chan! Take care of Momma!" he said as his words were muffled by a gag.

"Inoue Daiki, you are charged with treason! The council had found you guilty, declaring immediate execution!" one of the larger men yelled. The crowd that had gather cheered.

A cold hand rested on the little girl's shoulder. She looked into her mother's deep brown eyes, cringing at the tears that poured from them. "Momma, why are they doing this? Why are they mad at daddy?"

The woman closed her eyes as a flash of metal shot through the air. "Please, Kuri-chan, go inside," the woman said as she tried to push the girl inside. "You shouldn't see this..."

"No! I wanna save Daddy!" she yelled as she stormed out of the house.

Her heart cracked in half as she watched the men draw a kunai across her father's throat.

The ground was stained with blood as the man dropped from the other ninja's grip. The crowd cheered as the little girl fell to the ground by the dead body, calling out for a man who would never answer.

Suddenly, the Earth nins turned to the little girl and her mother, who was now standing behind her daughter. Tears ran down both of their faces, dripping into the crimson that settled over the dirt. "Now," the large one declared, the kunai in his hand still dripping blood, "it's your turn, little girl!"

"No!" the woman declared stepping in front of her daughter and the body of her husband. "You will not touch her!"

"Brave, for such a sickly woman!" he called as he approached.

Before he reached them, the area was surrounded in smoke. The girl felt herself being lifted up and taken away from the area. She didn't struggle.

"But... But why?" the woman asked as she sat in front of an old man. He looked over his pipe and grinned.

"Your husband was a great help to us. We wish to return the favor." The Third Hokage winked at the little girl, who smiled back shyly.

"You're giving us so much though... How can I ever repay you?" The woman seemed incredibly nervous, pulling at the edges of her kimono sleeve.

"By enrolling your daughter in the ninja academy," he answered. "If she's anything like her father, then she will excel as a Leaf kunoichi."

She glanced down at the little girl. "Oh please Momma! I wanna be strong, just like Daddy was!" Tears welled in her brown eyes as she looked at the pure determination splashed across the girl's face. She smiled and nodded.

"Yay!" she hollered.

"Now, onto something important," the Third continued. "You can't go by your true names any longer. Too much of a risk. From now on," he motioned to the woman, "you'll go by Toko and your daughter shall go by the name of Tenten."

"What about our family name? I refuse to change it." The woman, now known as Toko, crossed her arms.

He sighed. "Okay, okay. How about no family name? It's not exactly necessary, and you can't go walking around with the name 'Inoue'. You'll be recognized and questioned, which could leak back to the Earth."

"Okay," she nodded in agreement. "Do you understand, sweetie? From now on, your name is Tenten."

"Um..." young Tenten mumbled. "Okay!"

Tenten awoke to the sound of rain pelting the roof. I've had that dream so many times it doesn't even affect me anymore. She sighed and sat up, realizing that her favorite quilt was placed over her body. Her eyes widened when she realized who covered her while she slept. "Neji!"

She darted up and glanced at the clock. It's past six! Why did he let me sleep so long?

After a quick look through the house, she realized he was nowhere to be found. Anxiety clouded her thoughts as she ran to the back door, looking for the umbrella that Neji had dropped a couple days earlier. She would just have to go into the streets and look for him.

Fortunately for her, she found him sitting in the yard. Rain pelted his pale skin as his face tilted upward, rivulets of water running through his long hair. She sighed and walked slowly toward him, ignoring the chills running up her body.

"Neji!" she called. The boy seemed to know that she was there and didn't respond.

What's going through his mind? she wondered as she knelt down in front of him.

"What?" he asked with a sharp tone.

"I'm sorry I fell asleep. That was bad of me. I should have stayed awake an-"

"It's nothing," he interjected.

She flinched at his tone. "Have you thought about it?" she questioned.

An amused "Hn," escaped his lips. "I had already decided what I was going to do while I was still in the hospital on the first day."

She blinked. The first day? How could he decide so quickly? "And?"

He finally brought his eyes level with hers, an eyebrow raising in annoyance. "Don't you understand? Fate has done this to me. It wouldn't have happened unless I was meant to lose the Byakugan. I've decided to have the surgery."

Tenten was shocked. He's just... giving up? Just like that? "But..."

"No. You wouldn't give me your opinion earlier. You wanted me to make a decision. I did." His tone was absolute; his mind was made up.

He won't get off that easily. She balled her hands into fists and took a deep breath. "I wanted you to make a decision based on what was best for you personally, not on what 'fate' has intended," she said, venom dripping from her words.

He scowled. "What fate had dictated is what is best. It's always what's best. You must come to accept that fate rules over all of our decisions and every aspect of our lives."

"No! You're wrong!" Tenten smashed her fist into the ground, causing mud to cover her hand. The rain quickly washed it off. "Fate are things that happen, but people control their destinies! That's what is important!"

"How can you say something like that?" he asked in aggravated disbelief. "Your past is riddled with horrible things. How can you say that you controlled anything that happened?"

She glared at him, not caring if he couldn't tell. "I couldn't control those things! They were out of my grasp! But fate gave my father the opportunity to see what was wrong within the Earth! It gave him the choice of betraying his home land or killing people without reason! He chose for himself to do what he did, and I couldn't be more proud!"

"But that doesn't change that all these things happened to you."

"It doesn't give me an excuse, either!" she yelled, coming within inches of his face. A roll of thunder passed overhead, the sky flashing with light moments later. Tenten momentarily saw the confusion and anger written across his face.

He was silent. "Don't you understand what you've been doing all these years, Neji?" she asked, not removing herself from his proximity. Her voice dropped in volume as she brought her hands to his shoulders. "You've been blaming fate for everything that has happened to you."

"But, it was fate that-"

Something in her mind snapped and she pushed him into the ground. "Shut up about your damned fate!" she screamed. "All I've heard from you since we started training together was 'fate' this and 'fate' that. Why don't you start owning up to some of the things you've done and stop trying to blame fate for them?"

"Wha... What are you talking about?" he asked in a small voice, still leaning on his elbows.

"You've blamed your hate for the main family, especially Hinata-chan, on fate. But when you heard the whole story, you found it wasn't fate that took your father from you. It was his decision. Fate gave him an option, and he took the one he thought was best. Perhaps he was blinded by tradition and his own twisted concept of freedom, but we'll never know. You blamed almost killing Hinata-chan during the chunnin exams on fate, because she deserved it! To this day you haven't apologized for putting her in the hospital for months, have you?" His frown deepened, telling her that she was correct. "Why don't you just let it go? Make your own decision. Don't rely on fate to do it for you."

Suddenly Tenten noticed something she hadn't before. Neji was crying. Tears ran from his translucent eyes down his defined cheeks, causing Tenten's heart to quickly contract. "N... Neji?"

A sad smile crossed his face. "You're right Tenten."

Usually she felt a sweet satisfaction when she heard those words; now they made her want to curl up and die.

"I've been hiding behind fate. But what else can I do? All my life, I've heard only about fate. Fate was responsible for this. Fate was responsible for that." Large tears kept rolling down his cheeks like liquid pain, falling to the ground without a second thought. "How can I just put all the responsibility on myself? Fate is always right. How do I know that I can make the right decisions on my own?"

Finally, Tenten thought, I've gotten though to him. She lightly pulled him up and into her arms. Instead of resisting, he sat his head against her shoulder. "You don't. You make the decision and deal with the consequences yourself. Don't rely on something else to take away the blame."

His arms wrapped around her and crushed her in an embrace. Tenten's heart rate doubled as she closed her eyes, enjoying the warmth he offered against the cold rain.

"It's strange," he said after a few minutes. "I had to become blind to open my eyes."

She let out a small laugh."Neji, that is so cliche," she teased.

His fingers came up and touched her face, brushing back her drenched bangs. This time, she took his hand and sat her cheek against it, enjoying the feel of his rough hands against her skin. A small smile settled on his lips.

"Tenten... Thank you." Neji leaned in slightly, setting his forehead against hers.

"I think this experience has been beneficial for the both of us," she responded.

"Do you know what I miss most about not being able to see?"

"Your Byakugan?" she guessed.

"Wrong. Actually, it's seeing your smile."

She blushed. "Neji, there's no need to lie."

"What if I told you I wasn't?" He guided his mouth down slowly, deliberately.

Tenten was shocked. She almost backed away in fear, but her nerves wouldn't allow her to move. His lips lightly brushed against hers, causing any thought of running away to quickly leave her mind.

Finding her inner courage, she brought her hand behind his head and pulled him into a proper kiss, leaving them both breathless. His bottomless eyes focused on her, and even though she knew he couldn't see her face, she knew he saw her heart.

He saw her heart, and how it beat for him.

The next morning the couple walked into the Hokage's office. Tsunade lifted an eyebrow, able to tell something was different between them since she had seen them yesterday. She shook her head, deciding to take on one issue at a time.

"So, what have you decided?"

Tenten gulped. The night before, after they went back inside they had dried off and sat on the couch, falling asleep with Sachi curled up nearby. They hadn't even finished talking about his dilemma.

He squeezed her hand, signaling that he was sure of his choice. Well, then it doesn't matter, she thought as she smiled at him. As long as he's happy... I'm happy.

"I've decided that I'll take my chances with regaining my sight myself. Thank you for the offer, Hokage-sama, but I don't want the surgery." He bowed slightly, taking a deep breath.

"Really?" she asked. A brow arched in surprise. "Okay. But until I'm sure that you can function well enough on missions, you and your team are being taken off of active duty."

"That's fine," Tenten responded. "Thank you for your time, Hokage-sama," she said as she mimicked Neji's bow.

"Sure," the woman responded with a grin. "Anytime."

As they exited the Hokage tower Tenten had thousands of questions running through her head, but her mind was silenced when Neji swept her up into a kiss, nearly knocking her off her feet. Her knees were weak by the time they stopped to take a breath.

"That was to prevent you from asking anything," he said with a arrogant grin. She pouted, but he continued. "I chose to not have the operation because I've decided that what I want is more important that what is apparently supposed to happen. I want the ability to use the Byakugan back, so I've decided to take my chances."

She smiled. "I'm glad you made the decision that you wanted."

"I would have made a big mistake without you," he whispered, unaware of the people staring at them as they stood in the middle of the road.

"Maybe," she said. "Aren't you lucky to have me around?"

"Yeah," he replied, kissing her lightly on the forehead, "I am."

They strode away from the tower hand in hand, walking into the unknown together.

End