NessieGG's Fanfiction - [Naruto, NejiTen] "An Everlasting Vow" - Chapter 7

Title: An Everlasting Vow (Chapter 7)
Author: NessieGG
Genre: Romance/Fantasy/AU
Fandom: Naruto
Pairing/Characters: NejiTen, Tsunade, Hiashi, Shizune, Lee, Gai, Hinata, Orochimaru, Anko, Shikamaru, SasuSaku.
Rated: PG

Over the first days Tenten spent at Orochimaru's secluded castle, she saw little of Sakura, who came only to bring Tenten her a proper meal at night. Otherwise the only forthcoming sustenance were bread crumbs tossed onto the lake during the day when the princess was locked in the form of a swan. She had no choice but to accept the stale and then soggy bread or risk weakness from lack of nourishment. Tenten had no doubt this was one of Orochimaru's ways of demonstrating his control.

Each night, a few minutes before dawn while Tenten remained as a woman, Orochimaru came down to the lake and knelt before her, his proposal growing slicker each time the dreaded question was posed. Tenten never offered him any indication of even considering acceptance, however, and she understood his patience to be thinning.

On the fifth night since her carriage had been overturned, Sakura Haruno approached Tenten before her reversion took place. This was not unusual. The pink-haired woman tended to leave a steaming tray on the north side of the lake, and it was to that shore that Tenten drew near before the moon's reflection touched the wings she had yet to consider as her own. Tonight, however, Sakura carried no tray and waited until the moon arrived and Orochimaru's spell receded, leaving Tenten free to greet the other woman at the same eye level.

“I have something I would like you to see,” Sakura explained when Tenten inquired into her change of routine. “Or rather, someone I would like you to meet.”

Tenten followed her in befuddlement. She had not been aware of the presence of others besides Orochimaru, Anko, Sakura, and herself in this beautiful and depressing place. The two women walked around the lake to the south side until they reached the powerful trunk of an old ash tree. Before the princess could say anything to her new if mysterious friend, a figure stepped out from behind the tree.

A man, hair and eyes identical in shade, blended well with the shadowed foliage in the surrounding night. Even his shirt and trousers were black. The grim set of his shoulders and mouth clarified his discontent, which hung over him like an impregnable curtain. Yet when Sakura went to him and took his hand, Tenten saw her initial impression was mistaken.

“Princess Tenten,” Sakura began, her nervousness adding breathiness to her voice. “This is Sasuke Uchiha.”

Sasuke inclined his head a fraction in acknowledgment. “Princess,” he muttered shortly.

Tenten could restrain herself no longer, forming the question she had longed to ask since first seeing Sakura. “How have you both come to be here?”

Neither Sasuke nor Sakura seemed surprised by the outburst. Sasuke's answer was nothing short of direct. “My brother murdered our parents. I came here to kill my brother. When I did, Orochimaru trapped me.”

Sakura, accustomed to the Uchiha's terse indelicacy, volunteered details. “Itachi – Sasuke's brother – was to be a subject for Orochimaru's magical experiments. When Sasuke took revenge on Itachi before Orochimaru could test the return of his powers, Sasuke took his brother's place.” Her deep green eyes turned downward at the reminiscence. “As it turned out, what powers Orochimaru did have was enough.”

“For what?” Tenten absently gripped at her soft skirt, fearing the answer.

“You could say,” Sasuke told her, “that I am the proof that Orochimaru's plans for you would work.”

“I do not under...” But then Tenten did understand, and the truth hit her like a blow to the head. “Sasuke, what spell has Orochimaru put on you?”

When he did not speak right away, Sakura moved forward and saved him from the question. “Please, Princess, come eat something.”

Tenten relented, urging to be called by her first name. She could not seem to stop speaking even when she entered the four wooden panels fit for one to two people, in which Sakura cooked for all three of them. They dined outside of it, sitting in the cool, moist grass. “But why are you here, Sakura, if Orochimaru has not cast anything on you?”

Sakura paused in drinking from a chipped glass filled with lake water. Her eyes flicked to Sasuke's and held. “I am in love,” she said. The words were simple enough but the meaning behind them could have scalded Tenten with their heat. “Orochimaru allows me to stay here so long as I provide for Sasuke, and now, for you as well.”

The notion made Tenten take a long, shaking breath, prompting Sakura to ask if she was all right. Nodding, she released the flatware she had been using, knowing she could not eat now. “It is only that...that I am as well.” The silence born between the three was instantly crushing, and she continued. “He is the prince of West Fire and—” She paused, swallowed.

Tenten had been going to say that he was now lost to her, but she hesitated. In her mind's eye she could see Neji, standing erect and proud as he had when he had first seen her in his uncle's ballroom. His eyes had turned softly on her for perhaps the first time in their lives, and he had filled her with love that she had refused to give him right away. Even when she had rejected him, Tenten had discerned a flicker of determination in the ivory depths of his gaze. Just because she had run, she now thought, did not mean the Hyuuga heir would not take chase.

“And I know somehow,” the princess said at last, “that he is on his way here.”

Sakura's hand fell over her wrist. “Do you truly believe so, Tenten?”

She attempted a smile. “I can practically feel Neji's approach. Like the two of you, we are bonded beyond danger. He has been with me since we were both too young to comprehend the meaning of higher emotions. I now realize something I didn't see before.” Her fingers rose to her throat where, until but a few nights ago, the necklace from the Hyuuga family had rested. “He can only love me as he knows how. I love him enough that words do not matter in the least!”

Tenten stood, turning her eyes to the sky where there glinted millions of stars, all visible from wherever Neji was. Her smile was genuine now and came easily. “It is certain. He will find me, and then I—”

“Wait.” In her unanticipated rapture, Tenten had grown loud as the sky had grown light, and Sasuke quickly silenced her. It seemed unbelievable that they had already passed the majority of the night together. “He comes,” said Sasuke.

Tenten knew he was not talking about Neji. Turning, she faced Orochimaru as he and Anko approached the trio.

“I see you have met Sasuke and Sakura.” Orochimaru eyed Tenten with steady, almost penetrating regard. “Do you know why I am here, Tenten?”

She had long since abandoned her fear of the sorcerer and taken on resentment as a replacement. “No,” bit out the princess, allowing her previous joy to leak from her like water through a sieve. “Why don't you remind me?”

Orochimaru's sickly pale face went taut in the cheeks, but he bent to his knee as he had grown accustomed so that Tenten towered over him. “A simple question,” he said, “for an apparently simple girl. Will you marry me?” The tone was overly sweet, and he ignored completely the annoyance that had crossed Tenten's face at his comment.

“Every night you ask a fool's question,” replied Tenten steadily, the waves of her freed hair catching in the evening breeze to dance. “And every night you receive the only answer I offer.”

His eyes narrowed nearly to slits. “Think carefully.”

Rather, she told him immediately, “You can kill me first.” The light in her dark eyes was more than enough to convey her conviction. Behind her, Sasuke watched dispassionately, his lover more obviously concerned.

“You can continue this way,” said Orochimaru, “at least until I resort to tactics more persuasive than the shape of swan. It seems, however, you require another day to reconsider your options.” He gestured to the horizon as the sun made its first appearance.

Tenten's shoulders drooped as she walked stoically toward the lake. She was not surprised when Sasuke fell into step with her, though she was unsure of what to think when he stopped at the ash tree and began to climb its branches. She continued into the water just as the spell activated a spiral of mist, light, and wet, all rising around her, forcing her to close her eyes or go blind.

When she opened them again, the colors of the world were changed. Tenten could see, however, even in this minimized vantage point that Sasuke was no longer there. Instead, perched in the highest branch of the ash tree, was a bright-eyed raptor. The yellow and gray beak appeared deadly in its sharpness, the frightening claws at its feet a clear threat.

Tenten fluttered her wings upon the water, sending ripples along the surface in the tree's direction. From above, Sasuke tilted his feathered head. They were two victims of the same cruel and twisted mind.

“Sweet dreams,” Orochimaru called, returning to the castle, Anko at his heels.

A distance away, Sakura sighed. “Goodnight,” she murmured to them both before turning to go into her little shelter for a day's sleep.

In the dawning light, two birds continued to stare at each other. It was a strange sort of condolence, but it was all the choice they had available to them.

A single tear fell from the swan's eye to commence another ripple on the lake.

---

“Listen to me Neji. It seems to be, but it isn't.”

Neji barely slept after receiving Hinata's bulky text. Between what his cousin had told him and the whisperings of Queen Tsunade prior to her coma, he could not have been more sure of the engineer of Tenten's kidnapping. By candlelight he poured over the information of shape-shifting beasts alone in his room, satisfied further when he read: Transformations are often signaled by light of some kind, usually a flash or intense glow of dazzling color.

His heart raced with the prospect of what waited before him. “I'll find you, Tenten.” His eyes, bleary from so many words in weak light, went to sit at the window as it filled with both stars and the pale light of daybreak. “No matter what it takes,” he whispered, hand fisted near his chest.

The prince did not notice when his head landed on the table, his cheek against the open pages of the book. He did not dream but even in sleep continued to plan a hunt that would determine his future and that of the woman he was now most certain he loved.

Between his clenched fingers was Tenten's golden necklace, the swan engraved on it turned toward him.

To Be Continued...