(A Sequel to Blind)
It had been nearly fifteen years since her mother had passed away. Tenten never knew that the "illness" that had taken away her mother's life was actually a brain tumour, and that the particular type of tumour was hereditary. It first appeared in the vision centre of the brain, and then gradually spread through the bloodstream to other parts of the body, destroying and mutilating cells as it travelled. When the symptoms first appeared, Tsunade-sama had yet to return to the village, and by the time she had, the tumour had progressed too far. Tenten's mother had been working so hard to give the appearance of normality that her immune system became overworked and began to fail. A common cold had her confined to bed for weeks near the end.
It took a long time for Tenten to realise that something was wrong with her. Headaches were the first symptom – at first they were mild enough to ignore, but they gradually built into head-splitting migraines. She thought nothing of it at first and continued on with her day, only taking pain medication when they got particularly bad. It took a failed mission to finally alert her to the problem.
It was a fairly simple mission – escort the wealthy landowner back to his village in the north of the Land of Wind. Although Sunagakure was Konoha's ally, the landowner was paranoid – he feared the attack of bandits and rogue ninjas, and insisted upon declaring this an A-rank mission, so that his guards would be of the highest quality. As such, Team Gai was chosen. Due to the slow pace of the landowner's carriage, it would take at least a week to reach the village, although their return home would be substantially faster.
They had barely crossed into Wind territory when they were attacked. Neji and Tenten immediately fell back to protect the client, as Lee and Gai moved forward to attack the bandits directly. They were mostly half-trained ninja, with basic taijutsu and ninjutsu, but with reasonable ability using weapons. Their leader was a rogue ninja from Amegakure. His face was listed in their bingo book, but only as a B-ranked ninja whose crimes were mostly desertion and petty theft, with a few cases of assault. His importance lay in his history as a double agent, spying on both Amegakure and Kumogakure for the opposite ninja village. Orders were to capture and question him and, if he resisted, to bring him back to Konoha for further interrogation.
All had been going well, until Tenten got one of her headaches. This one quickly escalated into a migraine, and she nearly crumpled to the ground, her vision blurring. She struggled to keep fighting, but continued to deteriorate until she couldn't see at all. The pain reached its climax, and she screamed, alerting Neji, Lee and Gai to her predicament. Neji immediately leapt into Hakkeshō Kaiten over her, forcing their attackers away, but leaving the client momentarily unguarded. This was enough for the rogue ninja to injure the client with a poisoned kunai, which lead to his death. The rogue fled and, though both Lee and Gai pursued him, there were unable to capture him before he escaped into enemy territory. They did not dare to continue, as there was no point jeopardising the safety of the team by entering enemy territory, when Tenten clearly needed to go to a hospital. As they were within Wind Country lands, and still a two day sprint from Konoha, they chose to visit the Kazekage, Sabaku no Gaara, in hopes that his village's medics may have some answers.
When they arrived, they were met at the gates by Temari and Kankurou, who swiftly lead them to the hospital. Tenten was admitted and, as Neji proceeded to sit by her bed and cling to her hand, Lee and Gai were escorted to the Kazekage's office to meet with Gaara. Medics poked and prodded, took samples for testing and asked millions of questions. It appeared that Sunagakure had a special medic corps that was dedicated especially to the science of the brain so, since her main symptoms were crippling headaches and loss of sight, they too examined her. They asked her about her medical history, and she struggled to answer. Her medical records were requested from Konoha, and they stayed for many more days in the village of Sunagakure. When the specialists were finally able to diagnose her with cancer, Tenten was surprisingly serene. It wasn't until everyone had left the room that she allowed herself to cry.
The sun had just set, and it was getting cold. As Tenten reclined atop the head of Godaime Hokage, staring at the sky with unseeing eyes, she couldn't help but remember a similar moment fifteen years prior. This time, as soft footsteps approached, it was her that was shivering, not him.
"Hey Neji."
A blanket wrapped around her shoulders and a kiss was placed on her cheek. "How did you know it was me?"
"You don't think that, after all these years together, I wouldn't know what your footsteps sound like?"
His only response was to sit beside her, and pull her into his arms. Tenten smiled, relaxing against him. Reaching up, she ran her fingers over his face, trying to gauge his expression.
"What's with the smirk?"
His smile widened under her hand. "Your son mastered Soshoryuu today."
"My son?" She raised an eyebrow. "So he's only your son when he's learning Juuken, but when he's working with weapons, he's mine?"
"Our daughter is quite proficient at both, though."
"Yet she wants to use her Byakugan to become a medic-nin, like Hinata." Tenten sighed, her hand dropping to rest in her lap. "She doesn't understand that the chances of finding a cure are slim to none."
"Well, if there's one thing she has inherited from you, aside from her looks, it's your determination."
"More like stubbornness. Why couldn't she just believe in fate, like Hizashi-kun?"
This elicited a chuckle from Neji. He wrapped his arms around her tighter, pressing a kiss into her hair.
"Did you watch the sunset again tonight?"
She turned to 'look' at him, before raising an eyebrow.
"Honestly, Neji?" She asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
This drew out another chuckle. "You know what I mean."
"It can hardly be called watching when I'm completely blind, but yes, I did 'watch' the sunset."
"And what did it look like today?"
A bright smile quickly spread across her face. This was their special game. Before Tenten lost her sight, they would spend many a sunset trying to describe it to each other as if the other was blind. Losing his eyes was something Neji had feared more than death, so Tenten encouraged him to participate in order to help him with his anxiety. So when Tenten was the one to lose her vision, Neji insisted they continue the tradition to help the transition.
"Tonight it was like a great joy and relaxation after a long day. The colours give you the warmth to comfort you, to calm your mood and to recover your energies for the next day. It is the anticipation of the dawn that will, with the sunlight, lift you up to start a new day of life. Or at least, it will help you through the night."
"You know what else would help me through the night?"
Tenten rested her head in the crook of his neck. "What?"
"You."
She groaned, and muttered, "Sap."
"I missed you today."
"I missed you too."
"I wish I had been able to come to your appointment."
Tenten reached up to touch his face again. He was frowning.
"You were spending time with Hizashi-kun." She replied, running her fingers down his jaw, "After all, you promised you would train him after you returned from your latest mission. I wasn't going to cut in on father-son time."
The frown refused to budge.
"You're here now, so stop sulking."
Neji's lips stretched into a smile under her fingers. He grabbed her hand and pressed a kiss to her wrist, and then another into her hair. She sat up and turned to face him, and he captured her lips. When they finally broke apart, the blanket had fallen off her shoulders and she had begun shivering again.
"Let's go home."
Tenten nodded, retrieving the blanket and getting to her feet. Yet before she could begin walking, Neji pulled her into another tight embrace.
"I love you," he whispered into her hair.
She smiled, squeezing him in return. "I love you too."