Virtue (Temari, Hinata, Sakura, Ino, Tenten) SLOW UPDATES

Heaven - Heaven 4

PART ONE: TENTEN

HEAVEN - HEAVEN

CHAPTER FOUR

"Ah. You are serious with your job today, I see." Tenten set her basket down amidst the potato ridges she was about to harvest. The lazy servant from the evening before had already dug up some roots before she arrived which she found impressive because it turned out that he was not so lazy after all.

"Why yes." The pale eyed man stopped to take a breath and wipe sweat off his brow. He pointed at a pile of potatoes not too far from the ridges between which they stood. "I even sorted them for you."

Tenten looked over the potatoes. An impressed sound left her lips when she judged that he sorted the good and bad ones appropriately. "More of this good work, I hope." She complimented as she walked over to startp packing them.

They spent the next few hours in silence between them, with the farm worker digging up more potato roots and Tenten transporting the good ones to the packagers in her raffia basket. When he was done digging up a row of potato ridges, the pale eyed farm worker assisted Tenten in transporting the potatoes to the packagers.

The both of them attracted bug eyed looks as they approached. Some jaws even dropped and the packagers hurried to lift the burden of potatoes off Tenten and the pale eyed farm worker's necks. Their strange behaviour made the woman scowl; they did not this on her previous journeys here, what caused the reaction now?

"One would think they would have gotten used to seeing a woman on the farm." Tenten muttered to herself once they had gotten a good ways from the packagers. "They could have done well to keep their swollen eyes off me. That, I shall very much appreciate."

"What is the matter, Tenten-san?"  Her companion asked. She did not answer him however and chose instead to cast her own question at him.

"How did know my name? I do not recall telling you."

The man grinned a little bit mischievously. "Of course I shall know the name of the only farm worker that is a woman." His smile disappeared then. "Say, what, pray tell, maketh thee find work at a place such as this?"

Tenten huffed as she set her basket down, they had arrived at the potato ridges, and started throwing the tubers inside it. "Life is not as rosy as I would wish. I need food and I be darned if I mend clothes for a petty number of coins that would be insufficient to feed me." She replied after a while of silence.

"Eh?" The pale eyed man, she should ask for his name, came to squat in front of her and select potatoes to throw into her basket. Their positions seemed familiar. "I would assume your husband forbid you to do such strenuous work."

Tenten pursed her lips. "You are the kind to keep your wives at home like a priced jewel stone, are you not?" She accused. "My husband never did such, forbid me to work that is. He was a cut above the rest amongst men in the village."

"Was?" The man in front of her questioned her use of past speech.

"I am widowed." Tenten clarified dryly and resumed packing up potatoes.

"Bless your soul." He sympathized. A subtle sigh of relief snapped her head back upwards to look at the one in front of her. "W-what is it?" He asked nervously.

"You sound happy that my husband is deceased." Tenten deadpanned.

"No no no! Nothing like that!" The man quickly denied her accusations. His pale eyes shifted away from her brown ones nervously as he scratched the skin of his cheek with a dirt stained finger. "Something came to mind is all."

Tenten kept staring at him, disbelief clear on her facial features, until she decided to leave him and his flimsy excuse be. As long as he was not mocking her dead husband, whatever went through his mind was not her concern.

They lapsed into silence once more. Only the sound of potatoes tumbling into their baskets could be heard between them. "I would never keep my wife hidden like a priced jewel." The pale eyed man suddenly spoke.

"Uh?"

"I would never keep my wife hidden like a priced jewel," he repeated. "But I shall treasure her like one. His eyes locked with hers at the moment and the surge from emotions in those pools of melted silver and lavender elicited a gasp out of Tenten. They were strong, pulling her in so hard that she struggled for words to say.

"Y-y-you seem old enough to have gotten a wife for yourself, yet you are unmarried." When she finally broke free from the spell the man's pale eyes casted, that was the only thing she could come up with to say.

"Alas, I am a wandering bachelor in search of my rib; the bone of my bone." He expressed his regrets a bit dramatically but the smile at the end of his sentence told Tenten that he was not too worried about it.

"Fate shall bring you both close." The woman offered. The man helped her to hoist her basket of potatoes up and place it on her head while he carried his own bigger basket on his shoulder. "Did you say something?" She asked for she thought he had spoken but he shook his head.

"I said nothing. Watch your steps." He walked ahead of her to the packagers but left a gap close enough that she could catch up with him.

"I never did get your name, mister." Tenten spoke once she caught up and settled into his pace.

"Just call me Neji. If you want, you might as well call me Neji-koi, I wouldn't mind." The pale eyed farm worker, now Neji, teased slightly with a sly grin.

"If I were not carrying these potatoes, I would have hit you." Tenten deadpanned.

"How scandalous! A woman hitting a man?!" Neji gasped dramatically, which caused Tenten to chuckle and play along with him.

"The feudal lord must hear this! A man could not avoid injuries from a woman's hit!"

"Is this a miracle? Could she be the true feudal lord that would lead the Land Of Fire to its greatness?"

"But of course! She has slain the mighty!"

The both of them fell silent for lack of nothing else to say and then started laughing hard at their folly. Not that neither of them believed that a woman could not lead their kingdom, but the spontaneity of how they started playing made them laugh.

When it was evening time, Neji helped Tenten to pick up the spoils from the harvest and slipped in some good foodstuff without her knowledge. His farmers had done the same so he was certified that Tenten would have something good to eat for the rest of the week.

He worried as he watched her leave with a hefty sack. It was only a matter of time but the harvest season would pass and she would have no more to do on his farm. Neji did not want her to leave for a reason he did not understand.

Or maybe he understood.

When he helped her to place her basket of potatoes on her head, when he spoke about the bone of his bone, he had said something albeit to silently for her hearing.

"Fate shall bring you both close." Tenten had said then. And he replied within himself...

"Fate has brought you to me."

***

Well well well, look who updated. I am so sorry for the hiatus and for not informing Blood Tainted Roses readers that I would not post a chapter today. Please forgive my blunder.

I hope you liked this chapter. Please vote and review if you did. I would see you soon!

-Star.