NejiTen Oneshots And Drabbles

Camellias

She saw the camellia mixed in with the other flowers at Neji's funeral, but did not see who had placed it.

Hinata took note first of the pink, because it stood out among the lilies and roses. She noted the white camellia after.

It was a tragically beautiful snapshot, and her mind took the picture and filed it away with the memories that stay in the heart. She did not think of it, until that morning she went to tend to his grave.

Another camellia, fresh and bright and pink rested on the marker, yet not even the dew had been disturbed. Hinata looked around, wondering if she had interrupted anyone, but deciding against using her Byakugan.

No matter how early she visited the grave, the flower was waiting.

One morning there were seven blooms – three white, three pink, and one yellow. The following morning, there were no flowers, nor the morning after that. Hinata thought it strange, but hoped perhaps this meant that whoever had been leaving the blossoms had come to some kind of closure, and left the weight of their heart with those seven camellias.

But then, one morning, a white camellia greeted her.

She counted back.

It had been seven days.

And her heart broke a little more for the soul that mourned her cousin, just as she did.

But it was not in Hinata's nature to be nosy. Growing up in a clan that could, literally, see everything for miles, she had been instilled with a high regard for the privacy of others. Therefore it was completely by accident that she stumbled upon the truth.

The morning mist was dense on the cool autumn morning three years to the day from Neji's sacrifice.

She came earlier than usual, because she had to leave at dawn for a mission, and was navigating the wan light and heavy fog with her Byakugan.

She stopped when the muffled sobs reached her ears, for fear of intruding on the grief of another. She quickly adopted the invisibility that her own unobtrusive nature had afforded her, and suppressed all of her chakra.

Her hearing was not nearly as sharp as Kiba's, but he had taught her how to listen, and she instantly locked on to the occasional gasp for air. She wondered if she should comfort this person, or let her presence be known?

Perhaps it was a friend. Ino had lost her father on this day – what if it was her?

Hinata allowed herself to locate the source of the heartbroken cries, and felt her own heart begin to break in kind.

Kneeling at Neji's grave, heedless of the dew clinging to her, or the earth dusting her knees, she sat on her heels and wept.

Her chest and shoulders reverberated with the effort of containing the sobs that wracked her body – hands pressed to her eyes, doing nothing to stem the tears that fell continuously and without mercy.

"Not a day goes by," she whispered.

"Not a day that I do not miss you. Not a day that I do not ache for you. I try to honor the life you lived, and smile, Neji, but today..?"

She trailed off and shook her head.

…Today I can't. "

Her breath shuddered and hung in the air.

"Today I am lonely and lost and cold."

She brushed gentle fingertips across his name, and the swirl of the Konoha emblem.

"Today I mourn your loss," she whispered. "But I promise. I'll be stronger tomorrow."

She fell silent as she pressed a kiss to the camellia, and laid it reverently on the stone.

It was several heartbeats before she knelt and touched her forehead to the stone.

"I shall love you, always."

And with that, she wiped away her tears, rose to her feet, and strode into the mists.

Hinata waited no less than ten minutes before approaching her cousin's grave, allowing the gravity of the grief and sorrow she had witnessed to sift down through the water-laden air and settle into the dew on the grass.

When it was her turn to pay her respects, she knelt delicately, as if afraid of breaking spidersilk.

The flowers she laid were from their gardens, and she knew each bloom by name and what it meant.

That is why she was so careful not to disturb the single blossom with the teardrops on its petals.

She left as silently as she had come, and kept the secret of what she had seen close to her heart.

It was the least she could do for the person who held what was left of Neji's heart.

Naturally, it was Tenten.

white camelia: Waiting
yellow camelia: longing
pink camelia: longing for you/romantic love

~

OK I don't know what's wrong with me. Can't believe I started my book with sad endings.

Well, you guys didn't really expect me to bring sunshine and butterflies did you?!

If so, word of advice : Expectation is the mother of all fuckers.

I'm in love with that picture 😍😍

See y'all in the next chapter.