Kakashi's Mission (Kakasak

14 : 愛 Ai

"What do you see, Neji?" Tenten's seductive voice resounded in his ears.

Neji looked at Tenten in her seductive outfit, he knew what was going to happen and he finally managed to speak, he heard himself say, "The woman I love."

Tenten smiled, satisfied with his answer. She moved closer to him and smiled, her hand caressing the side of his face, tracing it down to his jaw. She moved closer towards him and kissed him on his mouth softly, deliciously. Neji found himself moaning needily against her lips.

"Would you do anything for the woman you love?" Tenten asked him, her lips moved a little further away from his.

"Anything." Neji breathed into her mouth as he shut his eyes, hungry for her. He felt strange though, like he had no control of his body, like he would do anything for her- even to kill.

Tenten giggled and gently pushed him away, "Here is what you are going to do."

Neji opened up his eyes and the vision of Tenten was replaced by Aoyama Hiroko.

"Neji."

——-

"NEJI! GET UP!" Tenten yelled, both her hands were on his shoulders.

He was enveloped in cold sweat, thrashing wildly in his sleep. Tenten cursed under her breath as she got up on the bed, straddled her comrade and shook him harder, "NEJI!"

Neji finally woke up, his eyes were wild, out of focus as they scanned his surroundings before they laid onto Tenten.

"Ten-Tenten?" Neji spoke, uncertainly.

"Yes it's me..Shh..Shh... It's okay. It's just a dream." Tenten hushed him, assuring him that it's okay.

Neji nodded as he exhaled loudly, it was ridiculous, he could exterminate any of his opponent but he could not escape this dream. He felt weak-pathetic. He felt overwhelmed with all of these stupid emotions which led him to shiver involuntarily as he looked down, unable to gain any eye contact with Tenten. He felt foolish-small.

If it were Lee or Gai, they might have asked him to get up and go for a run to shake it off. They might even inject their words of wisdom, it might possibly sound something along the lines of "We should not dwell on the uncertain Neji. For youth and hard work PREVAILS!"

But this was Tenten, the only sane member of his team. She pulled him closer towards her cautiously and embraced him gently while rubbing her hand on his back assuringly.

They stayed there like that in silence, Neji was not one to verbalise his emotions. He did not know how to react to this. It felt alienated but..nice. Tenten felt warm against his shivery, cold body. Tenten held him tight, like a mother protecting her child. This was an odd experience for Neji- for some strange reason, after a very long time, he felt - protected. He proceeded to loop an arm around Tenten's waist and whispered, "I appreciate this."

——

Kakashi received an earful of nags and scoldings from Sakura. One was for pissing off a patient which caused the patient's blood pressure to rise. The other was for not abiding to her orders.

"I told you to go. But NOOOO, you just HAD TO anger the stone faced, Hyuuga. And for what? To follow GAI'S instructions?!" Sakura bellowed in one of the empty rooms.