Forced Wedding

Farewell

That morning she woke up with a lump in her throat, on the one hand she felt the excitement of doing something halfway like being a ninja, and on the other hand she wanted to sneak out to see what was going on and why Neji was coming back, maybe they just wanted to keep an eye on her and that was it. She sighed heavily as she searched her closet for an appropriate dress but one that wouldn't be totally uncomfortable as she planned to go back up on the roof.

Breakfast went smoothly and after it she headed to the main hall where Haruo was waiting for her with the files of the students who would be taking the exam that year. The idea was to give personalized advice to each student to strengthen their skills, improve their chances of passing the previous phase of the exam, and to be able to reach the combat arena to demonstrate their skills in front of the other villages.

It was a profitable morning of hard work, there were 12 students who were going to participate, and they had only managed to make a training plan for 4 of them, a plan based on reinforcing some of their defenses to ninjutsu, their physical resistance to taijutsu accompanied by aiming training.

Lunch was accompanied by several important lords of the village along with their wives, because in one morning it was already known throughout the village that they would begin to prepare for the upcoming exams. She went to the bathroom, and made a kage bunshin to attend tea with the ladies because the men had already retired to have their private meeting.

Once she was sure that no one was watching her, she climbed out the window and went up to the roof, and then advanced along it to the place where the Hyūga was standing. He didn't turn to look at her as she approached, he just was standing there, staring blankly into nothingness.

"I wanted to take it back," he muttered, almost as if speaking to himself, "when you accepted the mission, I wanted to go and confess to the Hokage our relationship..."

"It's a little late for you to tell me this, Neji."

"I know, but I had to let you know... I didn't want to argue with you in the forest that day, nor tell you any of the words I said. What I wanted was to explain to you the reasons for having denied our relationship to the Hokage, for you to see things from my perspective, but seeing that you were acting like a little girl I noticed that you hadn't understood the seriousness of the mission, and you were just letting yourself be carried away by a whim."

"My feelings for you were never a whim."

"I didn't say that, what I said is that you didn't understand the seriousness of the situation. The village is not prepared for a war, and much less if such a war was so easy to avoid, it's simple logic."

"Neji, I'm not going to repeat this discussion," he smiled half-sideways in an almost mocking but absent way, she wondered the reason for that smile and obviously to whom it was directed. She knew him well enough to know that was the closest thing to an apology he was going to offer.

"I don't plan to discuss anything either Tenten, I was just clarifying a point," he exhaled heavily and took a step away, "I always thought we would be together for the rest of our lives."

"Neji, please," she whispered almost as a plea, "things have changed."

"It was hard to understand what you said about your marriage," something like a growl came out of his throat, "I was the only man in your life, just like you are the only woman in mine."

"You said it before, you can't turn back time and take back those decisions that have us here today."

"That's right, I can only hope that you will be happy and that your husband will be able to give you everything that I cannot."

They were his final words and she knew it, so she hugged him, one last hug before she had to let him go forever. She couldn't tell exactly how much time passed, and neither was she aware of who initiated the kiss, but she was fully aware that it was deepening, and she noticed every one of her senses reacting to the gentle caress Neji lavished on her cheek and she felt a tingling at the spot on her waist where he rested his other hand.

Slowly her hands began to descend untying Neji's haori, pulling up his fishnet shirt seeking to feel his skin and caress his back, that chemistry she felt with him she hadn't achieved with her husband, she wanted to remember one last time what it was like to make love with the man she loved before returning to her routine nights.

She could feel his hesitation, although she was sure Neji wanted it as much or more than she did, but he resisted, so she managed to slip a hand down his pants to caress his crotch and all defenses disappeared, now he began to undress her. She had to admit that it seemed completely wrong what they were doing but she didn't care, and she didn't want to stop.

Neji's haori was a perfect mat to lie on it, he laid her down there while he kissed her vehemently all over her body, she could only arch as she felt the fervent and longing contact of his lips. And that was how in the middle of a rooftop where they could be discovered by the security of the mansion they made love, forgetting for a few moments the reality that was waiting for them and that hit them because that was the definitive goodbye.

"I hope you will be very happy, Tenten," were his goodbye words.

She put her dress back on and went to her room, where the kage bunshin had been waiting for her for a while. She took a shower controlling her desire to cry, and in order to appease a little the anxiety and guilt that she began to feel for what she had done. After that, she decided to go for a walk through the mansion in those endless corridors while the time passed.

"Yoshida-sama," one of the servants called her when she was about to walk through one of the back gardens, "it's time for dinner."

"Thank you."

After dinner, which went by in total normality, Toshio and the feudal man were reunited. Her mind was still restless so she went back to walking aimlessly through the corridors.

She heard some voices arguing, she recognized her father-in-law's voice and her husband's, but the other voices in the room were unfamiliar to her, very carefully she approached the ajar room and caught a glimpse of the Raikage and the feudal, her husband and another person she didn't recognize had their backs turned.

"How much longer?" asked the Raikage impatiently.

"We will start soon, don't you worry," answered the feudal in what seemed like an attempt to calm him down.

"I still don't understand how any of this will help us, it's an absurd."

"We will have the village in our hands, that's all that should matter."

"I shouldn't have lent myself to this, that poor girl is not to blame for anything."

"We had no other choice Raikage-sama, I remind you that it was vital for us to have a ninja from that village, besides if you didn't lend yourself to this my family would withdraw our donations to the village... May I remind you that half of your income is from our family?" a slight pause as a glass rattled. "We both know that Konoha must pay for everything they have done."

Without noticing she was too close to the door, and the Raikage's gaze rested on her for a microfraction of a second. She had no choice but to flee the place with all the speed she was capable of as she was thankful that she was no longer lost on those corridors, and tried to make some sense out of everything she heard. She stopped when she was in her bedchambers, and hurriedly prepared to crawl under the blankets pretending that she had been there for a long time. About 10 minutes later Toshio entered the room.

"Today we discussed something interesting with my father," she put aside the book, thinking about what her defense would be if she had indeed been discovered.

"Did you come to any wise decisions?"

"Yes, diplomacy has always been important to maintain good relations in the villages," that didn't sound at all like what she had heard, "So we will take advantage of the proximity of the exams, and in 2 months we will be the retinue that accompanies them."

It took her a second to process the information, the exams were in Konoha, so they would be visiting her village. She smiled at the news, and Toshio kissed her.