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Of Broken Bones and Shattered Dreams	By : Saitochan Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female Views: 1509 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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Hi guys! Here's chapter three of my story (I know, it's a little shorter than the other ones), and I hope you've liked this so far. As usual, please review. It encourages me to write faster and better. That way, we're all happy.

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Of Broken Bones and Shattered Dreams

Chapter 3 - Training Accident

Ten-Ten managed to get home and into her room without anyone noticing the tears she had shed. Once alone in her room, she threw herself on her bed and held her pillow tightly against her chest. Her body still ached from the fatigue and she was tired of crying, but she just couldn't sleep. Not after what she had been through tonight.

She felt her heart shrink and wither while she remembered Lee and her last visit to the hospital. Even though the remembrance hurt her as much as if she was standing next to her friend once again, she felt too spent and had no more tears to shed. Too tired to move, yet too hurt to sleep, she just lay in her bed for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, she gathered some energy, got up and walked towards the bathroom to take a shower, hoping the warm water would wash away her tears along with her pain.

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"Hakkeshou Kaiten!" Neji's voice rang briefly through the training grounds before being swallowed by the sound of various weapons hitting the floor. Neji was really progressing with his training, even despite the fact that he had came up with the technique by himself.

After throwing every blunt, sharp or piercing object she had at hand, Ten-Ten leaned back against a tree, panting to regain her lost breath. It was a little past noon, but there was no need to use the Byakugan to see her exhaustion. The dark circles under her eyes were more than enough proof that she didn't get a good night's sleep.

Even though the Hyuuga was still far from tired, a mere glance at his teammate told him that it was time for a break. As much as he hated interrupting his training, it was certain that his teammate could not keep up with him. "Well done, Ten-Ten," he said as he began to pick up some weapons around him. "Let's have lunch and rest for a while."

After they both finished recovering every last shuriken and kunai, the two Genin sat with their backs against a tree and took out their lunch boxes. As team Gai's kunoichi sipped a little tea and nibbled on a rice ball, her teammate looked at her intently, barely touching his meal. Of course, Ten-Ten was used to his piercing looks, and even though she found it a bit unnerving, she was too busy trying to regain her strength while forcing herself not to think about Lee to be bothered by Neji's gaze.

Finally, breaking the silence, Neji decided to talk to the girl in front of him, who was obviously lost deep in thought. "Ten-Ten." As he said her name, she was startled by his unexpected interruption. Ten-Ten looked at him questioningly, but didn't say a word. After granting her a few moments to put her thoughts in order, the Byakugan user spoke again. "Are you feeling okay? You have barely said a word all morning."

"Oh, I'm fine. I told you I didn't get much sleep last night." As if to prove her words, she let out a big yawn. But Neji wasn't about to let her go that easily.

As he turned to his side to see some birds flying in the distance, he said, "Are you sure that's it? Because I know it takes more than a sleepless night to mess up your aim."

Ten-Ten gave him a puzzled look. "My aim? What do you mean?"

"Come on Ten-Ten. We both know your aim is perfect, but this morning, most of your attacks haven't even been directed towards me." She blushed a little bit and lowered her gaze, staring at the floor. "Whatever is bothering you, I bet it's really big." He turned his eyes back to her and made a brief pause. "So, is there anything you want to tell me?"

Looking slightly embarrassed, Ten-Ten looked back up at his pearly eyes, but didn't answer him. Even though everyone thought Neji was cold-hearted, she had been friends with him long enough to know better. It wasn't that he didn't care for anyone; he just had a different way of expressing his feelings.

For a while, the brown-eyed ninja thought about telling everything to Neji. He could always find a good answer to a problem, and he was pretty much always eager to listen. But more importantly, he was a good friend; he would understand her.

"Neji... I... I..." While Ten-Ten was looking for the words to speak her mind, she realized her eyes were filling with tears once again. Why was it that the mere thought of Lee was enough to make her cry? She quickly looked away from her friend and fought back her tears. Even though telling everything to her teammate would be a relief, the pain was still too fresh in her mind to bring it to the surface once again. "I'm sorry... I can't tell you."

"I understand..." The Hyuuga kept staring at her. It was obvious she was in pain, but he didn't want to push her to talk just to satisfy his curiosity. Realizing he shouldn't delve too deep without her consent, Neji tried to stop focusing on all the details in her face that could shed some light on what was happening to her, but kept his gaze fixed on her face.

While observing every inch of Ten-Ten's face, and without even realizing it, Neji started to think about how beautiful his teammate was.

As she sat underneath a tree, lost in her thoughts and oblivious to her friend's intense gaze, Ten-Ten seemed to be surrounded in a halo of sad beauty. The way in which her face was sad and slightly blushed, the tears in the corners of her eyes and the way in which she bit her lower lip to contain herself from crying really made her a breathtaking image.

Neji found himself wanting desperately to hold her tightly against him, and erase all signs of sadness and grief from her face. He instantly cast that thought away. *Don't be ridiculous* he said to himself. *She'd probably just freak out if I started showing any kind of emotion. That's not how I do things.* Still unsure of what to say or do, Neji kept quiet, giving his female teammate some time to get rid of whatever thoughts haunted her.

As he stared at Ten-Ten while thinking about what was troubling her and how to make her feel better, Neji took notice of how she had changed in the past years. Although her body was still not that of a grown woman, she had developed a nice curvy figure, even if she tried to hide it in baggy pants. That, in conjunction with the melancholic beauty that seemed to flow right out of her, made the Hyuuga's heart begin to race.

He suddenly began feeling really uncomfortable with his thoughts, so he decided to cast them away and break the uncomfortable silence. He stood up, and, facing away from Ten-Ten, he managed to say in his usual tone, "Do you want to finish early today?" The kunoichi under the tree gave him a questioning look. "I know you're exhausted, I can see it. Besides, you're way too distracted to perform properly right now." Ten-Ten was about to say something, but Neji cut her off. "Go home and rest. We both know you need it badly."

Temporarily forgetting her sorrow, Ten-Ten stood and walked up to her teammate, turning him around so she could see his face. "Wait, I know I'm tired, but you really need to train! Every second counts!" She figured some more exercise would distract her, and would tire her so much that she would sleep like a log tonight, whether or not she thought about Lee.

"Come on. I'm already getting the hold of the technique, and besides, we have like two weeks left until the final matches." Locking his white eyes with her brown ones, Neji tried to convince her to rest, but he already suspected it was futile. She was very similar to Lee in some ways. "Go on and rest for today. I'll go home early as well." Having said so, he started to walk back towards Konoha.

The female ninja stopped him, putting her hand on his shoulder. She wasn't just about to let him neglect his training, not to mention deprive her from a productive distraction from her problems. "Hey! I don't care if you're going home or not! I promised I'd help you train, even if that means forcing you to stay here until sunset." After she said this, she took a few kunai put of her pack and got ready to attack. The sadness in her eyes was gone, and she looked quite dangerous. Neji knew she was serious, but decided to tease her a little bit, just for the fun of it.

"Force me to stay?" He said with a smirk. "I'd like to see you try." With this, he turned around and started walking again while secretly activating his Byakugan. He hadn't taken three full steps when he saw a rain of pointed objects coming at him from behind. *Yeah, that's more like it!* Neji thought to himself as he started spinning and parrying weapons with his chakra.

Soon they were sparring again all over the training grounds. While fighting Ten-Ten, Neji discovered she wasn't as tired as he thought at first, and he also noticed he wasn't quite getting the hold of his technique just yet. More times than not, he simply decided to dodge her attacks, which was a wise move, since a failure in his Kaiten could probably have some serious consequences.

They fought the afternoon away, and when the sun was nearly setting, they were both reaching their limits. Neji was surprised. It was a rare occasion whenever he reached the limits of his own strength, even more rare if it was during training. Ten-Ten had fought with a rage and ferocity very unlike her, and little did Neji suspect that such anger was fueled by jealousy towards a certain pink-haired ninja.

Ten-Ten was close to victory against Neji like never before, and since she was so tired she knew she wouldn't last five more minutes, the weapon mistress decided to finish the match with one last move. As she threw a couple shuriken and kunai at her friend, forcing him to dodge to his right, she took a flash bomb out of her pack. She had him just where he wanted him…

As the white-eyed Genin stood in the middle of a clearing, dodging more and more weapons, Ten-Ten hid in some nearby bushes and took her time to aim the flash bomb directly towards his blind spot. She knew his weakness pretty well, after all. She threw her bomb towards her unsuspecting opponent, and in order to make him turn around and get the flash right in his face, she threw a shuriken as well.

Neji was aware of that single shuriken coming towards his back, and since there were no more weapons coming from either side, he turned around to grab it… only to found a flash of blinding light.

He was barely able to close his eyes and duck ungraciously to avoid the shuriken. As he got up quickly, trying to return his sight to normal, he heard what sounded like a hundred kunai coming at him from all directions. For the first time ever, Neji feared for his life. Usually, the training matches with Ten-Ten were no different from a real battle, but he never feared, since he was so much stronger than her. However, this time he had to admit that she nailed him good. Releasing a huge amount of chakra, Neji started spinning blindly to negate every oncoming attack.

As her teammate and opponent began to spin, the female ninja came out of her hiding place, pleased to see her trap had worked. She wielded a Kusarigama (one of those sickles with a chain and a weight), and her plan was to dodge the bouncing weapons and catch him with the chain while he stopped spinning. It would have been a certain victory for Ten-Ten, but it was then that fate intervened.

As she jumped to the best position to capture Neji, she felt as if she stepped on something. Normally, she wouldn't have minded, even if she stepped on dog crap or a forgotten kunai. Despite her common sense, she felt the irresistible urge to find out what was beneath her foot. She lowered her eyes towards the ground and discovered she had stepped on a flower… a daffodil. Unknowingly, they had taken their match to a clearing where a lot of flowers grew.

Watching that single crushed flower was enough to take Ten-Ten's mind back to the previous night at the hospital, and remind her of how Lee had whispered Sakura's name in his sleep. While she recalled this, she drowned in her sorrow, became oblivious to the outside world and lost her chance to dodge her own weapons, which flew towards her as if guided by an unseen hand. A sharp and sudden pain in her chest threw her back into reality, and while she fell back to the ground, a painful scream left her mouth.

As he was beginning to slow down his spinning, Neji heard her scream, and even though he still hadn't completely regained his sight, he managed to run right towards her as soon as he came to a stop. His Byakugan, although weakened by the effects of the flash bomb presented him a disturbing sight: His friend and teammate lay on the ground soaked in her own blood and with a kunai stuck in her chest.
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Of Broken Bones and Shattered Dreams