The cold, night's rain upon her face contrasted with the warm blood that flowed from the wound in her side. She had been sloppy, careless, and overconfident; a part of her whispered that she deserved to be beaten, but she didn't want it to end like this. Her pursuers were catching up; even without a trail they were closing in fast. At least she had confirmed what her team had been sent in for, illegal human experimentation based on Hyuuga genetics. No chakra detection, instead perfect night vision.
One finally came within striking range. Stopping on a large treebranch she blocked several shuriken with her sword and noticed three were flanking her around the tree. Taking a gamble she pretended to continue to block the shuriken but instead sliced off the branch she stood on, causing her to fall out of the way. The sounds of metal hitting flesh instead of wood and a body falling past her in the darkness was a small comfort.

Still the wound at her side robbed her of her strength, made it hard to breathe. They were barely a kilometer out of the compound and she was already feeling the strain. She'd never make it to the rendezvous point.

'I hope you've got your eyes open Neji.' Dodging a water jutsu, she pulled out four scrolls and channeled a faint amount of chakra into each before throwing two of them into the sky. After five seconds it was clear that they had been destroyed, the lack of a flare would keep her team unaware of her fight in these dense woods.

Neji stirred from sleep, something didn't feel right. Hyuuga could train to learn to see in their sleep, but it was a paranoid technique from days long since gone. His mind quickly ran through a checklist of things he had done, and would have to do come the new day. Curiosity struck him to look at the clock. It was approaching six a.m. Turning in his covers he noticed the bed was strangely warm. Tenten was on her side of the bed, wet with sweat. Reaching a hand to her under the covers Neji felt her skin was cold to the touch.

Any other group on any other night and this would have been business as usual but they moved too assuredly, their attacks too accurate, their intentions too sinister. Two came up in the pitch darkness and stabbed a replacement log she had in her scroll instead. The momentary gain allowed her to summon a pair of swords connected by a long chain. With one hand holding her side she swung the sword, manipulating the path it traveled slightly with her chakra to hit one of the men below her.

Water struck her hard, and she fell out of the tree. On rainy nights it was impossible to distinguish the sounds of a water jutsu. Crashing into another, nearby, tree she pulled on her chain and jumped to evade another attack. Her concentration was focused on the sounds of the water hitting the branches, giving her some sense of her surroundings. Whipping the sword chain around kept the remaining two from getting too close on either side, but it was clear they were the one's leading her. As she landed on a tree she vaulted to the next branch but turned her body in the air to alter the angle of her landing. The strain on her side was tremendous, but she landed in a way that allowed her to turn her forward momentum into a spring to jump backwards. Letting one scroll fly forward and keeping the last flare scroll, she activated it but again found disappointment when not bright flash light up the darkness.

Throwing her sword chain around again she heard a metallic clink hold her sword in place. Something was rigid and different about her chain. 'Magnets' she thought. As the sword was pulled away from her by one, she knew the other was going to come in for a killing strike. Using one last replacement technique, she put her hands together in a seal and closed her eyes as she fell backwards from the force of the blow that struck her.

Neji got out of bed slowly and picked up the small quilt they kept on the chair in the corner of the room. Often Tenten would fall asleep in that chair, reading in the sunlight on a Sunday afternoon always put her to sleep. He held the blanket near the heating vent in the room for a moment until he was satisfied with its warmth. Gently he went to Tenten's side of the bed and removed the blanket, seeing her sweat mark on the top sheet he lifted that as well. As softly as he could he put the warm, dry blanket on her and lifted her in his arms.

She was still asleep, the muscles around her eyes tensing, showing a classic sign of a nightmare. Opening a sliding door with his foot he carried her out to the stairway that led up to the roof. Her body felt so light in his arms, still so cold to the touch. Sitting down on the swing they kept on the roof he held her body close to his and slowly rocked her back and forth, in the hope of giving her body some comfort to still her wild, unconscious mind.

A flash shot up into the night sky, and Tenten landed hard. Her two attackers held their eyes as though blind, which was a small comfort. Trying to move her body produced no result. A broken leg, arm, and ribs were sure. Beside her lay her weapon scroll. Putting her hand on it she pulled out a kunai which she weakly threw at one of the attackers that had found her where she had fallen. The blade landed at his feet. The second weapon was a mace, which only traveled a few feet before falling harmlessly in the muddy earth. Consciousness was slipping, her energy spent. Her hand grasped a small kama, but she felt a boot press against her wrist, which caused her grip to fail. The rain on her face would have been nice on any other night. But it had felt wrong this night. The man above her bent down to pick up the kama from where it lay and loomed over Tenten with eyes that glowed silver in the night. Those eyes were wrong on him, unnatural. Unable to keep her eyes open she used the last of her strength to pull out a senbon needle from her sleeve to stab it into the man's ankle. After that all she felt was wind as sleep took her.

Her face was still moist with sweat. Neji brushed the hair from her face and gently blew on her. Cooling her face and head while warming her body would be a good way to stabilize her body temperature. Too much warmth was not good for the body, releasing heat though the head was the best approach given the situation. Kissing her forehead, Neji whispered in her ear, "I love you Tenten."

"Sacred Divination: Five-Hundred-Twelve Palms!" It was not the sound, nor the wind that brought her awake again, but the rain had stopped. What was supposed to land on her face instead landed twenty meters away from her. Several explosions followed with a "Konoha Hurricane" from what was obviously Lee's voice. Two strong arms lifted her gently from the ground. A voice whispered in her ear, "Sorry we were late." Though she heard the words clearly, it felt more like he had said 'I love you Tenten.' As her head pressed against his chest, something felt so familiar about this entire situation. Another flare light up the darkness as she opened her eyes to the dawn.

"Finally awake?" Neji asked Tenten as she showed signs of waking.

"Yeah, I was having a dream."
"Same bad dream as usual?"
"Yeah, I think I need to see Inoichi San about it finally."
"Well, I figured you were having a nightmare so I brought you out here."
Tenten turned her gaze to the east to see the sunrise start to show over the trees of Konoha, the smoke from the chimneys of the city starting to come to life, and a sky with colors more dazzling than a sky full of rainbows. Holding her head against Neji's chest, she felt her breathing relax and slow. She felt the scar at her side and remembered everyday at the hospital where Neji could come and read to her because of her broken arm. She had always been fond of him before then, but that was easily the experience that had made her fall in love with him.
"Thank you Neji, for saving me."
His strong and gentle arms surrounded her as he lowered his head to hers. There were no words for moments like this; but his kiss communicated everything his heart felt. And so two lovers, a man and his wife, shared a sunrise in Konoha after a night of rain and storms.