The Tale of the Dove and the Orphan (Completed 2017)

Epilogue...

Tenten twirled a kunai in her hands and watched the shadows in the trees.

She was paranoid. Always paranoid.

Relaxing once more, Tenten sat and relaxed on the porch of her old house. Moments later, she gently gripped the discarded forehead protector beside her, allowing herself to remember what once was and what could've been. She always wondered about the unanswerable questions.

What if she and Neji died together?
What if she begged to be turned and tried to join them?
What if he stayed?

'What if Neji stayed?' Tenten wondered with a soft sigh.

It hadn't been too long since he and her shared their last kiss.

Since he left her for his mother.

Since Tenten was found and rushed to the hospital.

Tenten shuddered and forced herself not to remember those days. They were past her. At least, that's what she preached to herself. She had to enable to get by. Everyone worried for her; they still did, no matter how many times she said she was fine. And the truth was that maybe, just maybe, she was.

Tenten recalled the words she once said to Hiashi Hyuga.

"Neji had a choice."She snapped at him, "He wasn't forced into anything! But of course, if your stupid old men say so, you'd listen! You'd bow down to whatever they shoved into your ears!! If they actually cared about him; if his grandfather cared about him, they would've done something more, vampire or not!!"

Tenten winced at the memory and quickly shut it out. She didn't need to think about the past any longer. Thirty minutes was her mental limit. Tenten stood up and looked around the place she called home.

She smiled softly and said, "I miss this place... I missed when the girls would come over here..."

She looked in the direction where Neji would always appear. 'No longer,' she thought as her feet moved. She had one final place to visit; one more area that meant the world to her.

Tenten picked up several multicolored flowers and walked quietly in a direction she had known about for almost two years. The trail before her was worn, as she used to come to the area often to shed tears and try to rid the anger inside her.

She had soiled her mother's grave, and possibly angered her mother.

What she had done was unforgivable, even if everyone else around her forgave her.

Tenten gulped softly and kneeled before her mother's gravesite. Tenten had set up a pair of small birds next to her grave. She figured that her mother once loved her father like she loved Neji.

Loved Neji.

As her emotions continued to further stabilize, she slowly fell out of love with Neji, knowing that he'd never return to her.

Tenten placed the flowers before her grave and said, "Hey, mom... It's been a while, but I finally think that I'm okay. For the first time in a while, I'm... Stable. Happy, without him. There's always that part of me that will love him, but it's not dormant. I hope the both of you can forgive me for all I've done... But I cannot undo what's happened. I'm sorry, mom."

Tenten looked up at the sky and found it was darkening fast. She smiled slightly before saying, "It's time for me to go, now. Sleep well."

She stood up and turned away from the grave, walking back towards the village.

As she passed her house, she could've sworn that she saw Neji, but she kept her gaze straightforward, knowing that it was simply a memory; a mural of what was.

As Tenten closed in on the village's gates, she felt a familiar happiness return. She knew who was waiting on the other side.

Hinata, Kiba, Sakura; all of them. They waited for her with worried faces.

They always did.

Tenten smiled to herself and rushed home, hoping that she could grab a snack before she had to do another errand. Lee and Guy would be waiting for her.

She had developed a knack for being late, but it never bothered her.

Nothing, as it seemed, bothered her anymore.

A black bird, most likely a crow, landed before her, and cawed moments later. She smiled at it. It looked at her, as if noticing the smile, and cawed once .

Tenten turned to watch it fly away in slight confusion.

She could've sworn the bird had red eyes.

~~~

Hint, hint, hint.... Caw. Hehe. (It's a terrible hint, but I don't care.)

This signals the end of this story. I will have to think of a good name for the series itself. Everyone have a great day.

Until next time~

~ Nimo

P.S.: The picture is the bird's eye view.