Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Provoke Not The Lion ❯ Chapter 1

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
Author’s Notes: Used a different format that I like to play around with. A story in ten movements.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Provoke Not the Lion


1.

“He’s going to kill you,” she said, dully, as his hands fumbled with her shirt buttons. He was excited, she saw, and it made him clumsy in his haste. Only a fool used kunoichi this way and she would have broken his neck if not for the drugs currently flooding her system. As it was, her hands remained slack at her sides, her eyes staring vacantly at something over his shoulder as his hands found her breasts.

She even ignored it when he leaned forward, licking her skin like a dog, his saliva dripping down the flat plane of her stomach. You see, she had been taught not to notice ghosts.

And he was a dead man walking.


2.

A minute later, the door burst in an explosion of sound and chakra. Her captor turned, weapon drawn to face the cloud of smoke as it dispersed. She would have laughed if she had had any control of her muscles. Instead, she spoke flatly.

“It’s no use. You’ve made him angry. You’re going to die.”

“Shut up!” the Sound-nin barked, back-handing her across the face. Her head turned with the force of the blow and her lip split, a trickle of blood marring her already bruised skin. Instead of waiting to face the wrath coming through the doorway, he grabbed her and hauled her to her feet, wrapping an arm around her waist and holding her own kunai against her throat as he moved backwards. She found it almost ironic that he was going to try and escape.

There was no escape from a man who could see everything.


3.

She left a trail of blood in her wake and she wondered distantly if the wound was fatal. Even with the drugs he had given her, she would like to think she would know if she were dying. The Sound-nin didn’t seem to really care, too busy scrambling backwards to realize the crimson drops on the floor would lead the hunter to the prey as surely as a candle draws a moth. Her captor certainly was not the most level-headed of ninja. If he had been, he wouldn’t have pricked her neck with the knife edge as soon as Neji appeared.

He came out of the smoke calmly, every step a pronouncement of doom. He wore lines of someone else’s blood like badges, and his eyes were like ice in winter. They flickered over her, taking in her open shirt, her beaten body, the lack of shine in her eyes. His expression tightened minutely as if he understood what might have happened had he come any later.

His voice snapped across the room like a whip. “I’m going to kill you.”


4.

Fingers dug painfully into her ribs and her head was jerked back by his grip on her hair, the long tresses having come undone long before. The kunai flashed over the long curve of her bare throat.

“Come any closer and she bleeds to death right here, in front of you.”

He started moving backwards again, somehow still supporting her limp weight. Instead of following, Neji sank into the Jyuken stance, arms forward and back like a bird spreading its wings.

“Byakugan,” he commanded, and the Sound-nin halted, unsure.

“What are you doing?” he asked. “Do you want to get her killed?”

“No,” Neji replied, “I’m taking her back.”


5.

The Hyuuga moved so fast his image was only a flicker, and then her enemy made a hoarse, coughing sound before dropping to his knees, eyes wide and unseeing. She fell with him, still unable to control her body, and felt his life force disappear as he crashed on top of her. It was another heavy minute before Neji ripped his corpse off her, slamming the Sound-nin against the wall carelessly as he knelt by her side.

His hands were surprisingly gentle as he turned her over, looking into her face as his fingers pulled her shirt together.

“Tenten,” he said, and her name held a thousand different meanings.

Her lips twitched, unable to even smile for him. “Hello, Neji.”

With the Byakugan activated, his eyes narrowed as they took in the damage the drugs had done to her system. “I should have taken my time with him,” he said, and he sounded almost regretful.

“No,” she said, softly, “I was tired of waiting.”


6.

They rested a little before leaving the building, Tenten’s body cradled in Neji’s lap, her head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat as she struggled to move her legs every few seconds. He was exhausted, she found out, and at the end of his chakra. Having fought his way in, he needed a moment to regather his strength before carrying her out. She hoped to make it easier on him by seeing if she could force herself to walk. So far, it didn’t look good.

“I don’t know what he gave me,” she murmured. Even talking was hard for her.

“He wanted you awake but pliable,” Neji commented, and the hollow tones of his voice still echoed his anger. “He was a fool.”

She waited a moment before trying to lighten his mood. “Maybe there are no real women in the Sound,” she said, and felt him smirk.

“If that’s so, he wouldn’t have been able to handle you anyway.”


7.

They made love that night, under the trees, in the dark. Tenten’s weary body was cushioned by a bed of moss and night flowers and the strength of Neji’s arms. He was slow and careful, kissing every bruise as well as the bandages over the wound in her side, and she felt tears come to her eyes at some point. He kissed those away, too.

It was less like sex and more of a reunion, a healing. Tenten moved against him languidly, soft sounds leaving her like heedless butterflies and Neji lay over her like a warm, protective shield even as he shuddered within her and groaned her name into her shoulder.

When they had finished, he didn’t move, still sprawled on top of her, holding her, while she stroked his hair, giving back some of the comfort he had given her. When she knew he had fallen asleep, she looked up at the what she could see of the star-strewn sky through the canopy and made a dozen wishes.

All of them were the same.


8.

Lee ran to meet them when they returned to camp the next morning. Tenten was on her feet, the drugs having run their course long before, and she smiled in the face of his worried tears. He immediately hugged her and actually managed to slap Neji heartily on the back before the Hyuuga realized he’d just been physically touched by Lee and promptly gave the other boy an icy glare.

Lee remained oblivious though and chattered at her, taking her hand to lead her to the breakfast fire. Her heart lightened at seeing her comrades but she couldn’t help glancing over her shoulder for Neji.

He hadn’t moved, but the look on his face told her that everything he desired was now back where it belonged.


9.

Lee is the one to tell her that Neji killed almost a whole squad of Sound-nin to get to her.


10.

Provoke not the lion who loves,
for he who loves has something to lose.


The End.