Don't Look Back Nejiten

Team Guy raced down the halls of the small fortress. A local warlord has taken over an area of the Land of Fire, and the four ninjas had been assigned to the task of taking out the main citadel where the warlord, and undoubtedly a great number of ninja bodyguards would be hiding.

Lee and Guy raced ahead with Tenten and Neji not to far behind. Neji had his Byakugan activated and was scanning the hallways for any signs of life. Due to some amount of foresight on the part of the designer of the strong hold the sides of the hallways were lined with led, allowing the white eyed jonin to only see the path they were on.  

Tenten heard the familiar sound of a sword being drawn and stopped, looking for the source. Neji realized a moment later, but by then it was too late, the trap had closed. Lee and Guy were far ahead, looking back in time to see Neji and Tenten sectioned off from them by a large metal panel.

The kunoichi of the team saw the same thing happen on her end, leaving Neji separated from all of them. Before she could shout to him, the ninja who had drawn the sword earlier attacked, swinging a nodachi. Tenten jumped out of the way, unfurling her scrolls as she started summoning weapons. It only took a few minutes for the attacker to be pinned to the wall

"What is that?" Tenten growled. The scared young man shook his head at her.

"It's chakra-reinforced steal, nothing can get through there." He explained, "Your friend is trapped." Tenten used her coms to radio in Neji. It didn't take long for him to reply.

"Tenten I've sent Lee and Guy ahead to finish the warlord. I'm sure that they will be sufficient to finish the mission." He explained calmly. Leave it to Neji to remain calm and impassive in the face of danger.  

"He says we can't break through, but I'm going to try to blow it up, so get out of the way as much as you can." she said as she began placing charges on strategic points on the door."

"Don't, it's set up that if the door is damaged it'll release kunais down onto me and I can't do rotation in this position." Neji explained, causing Tenten to rip off the paper bombs with great speed.

"How do you propose I get you out? Can I go onto a lower level and blast in through there?"  She asked desperately, running her hands over the metal, as if she would suddenly stumble across a doorknob.

No, it's a steal cage, surrounded by this chakra metal on all sides. There is no way to escape, I stand corrected, it's a steal coffin." He said coldly, quietly, more to himself than the girl on the other end of the radio.

"I can go back to Konoha, get help. Maybe someone like Shikamaru can figure a way out, or Tsunade-sama can-" Tenten began but Neji cut her off.

"Konoha is a 3 day journey, even for Lee. I will die from lack of air before then." The most maddening part for Tenten was how calmly he discussed it.

"I'm not going to let you die, now tell me what I can do and I will do it." She said, facing the steal wall.

"The first thing you can do is release the man who attacked you, don't ask questions, just do it." He ordered and Tenten, despite being confused did just that, watching him scamper down the hall. "I'm sorry Tenten, but I wanted to spend my final moments alone with you."

"You're not going to die." she repeated.

"Tenten I want you to set up the bomb so that it will blast open the door. Even if it's cruel to ask you to watch me bleed out I'd rather die out there then slowly in hear." he was completely calm, almost methodical. Tenten however was not as composed.

"You're not going to die!" she shouted into the radio, but Neji ignored her.

"Tenten be reasonable, it's too late to do anything about it. Just please, take my headband back, but you can't carry back my body, it will just get in the way. Meet up with Lee and Guy back in the forest. Just don't look back." Neji said quietly, "Just live on, grow old, and don't look back."

Tenten did as she was instructed, carrying back a bloody headband as she kept walking, not turning back once she closed his eyes and left the corpse. His final words were ringing in her head.

Don't look back.