Tenten was rubbing off on him.
Before, Neji was made of strict rules, training and a fate that pressed itself on him so heavily that he could barely breathe. He was to uphold the family name, to accel and perfect everything thrown at him, failure wasn't as option, neither was slacking off or doing half the work.
He meets her for the first time and doesn't think much of her. She said that she wanted to be just like Lady Tsunade, and the shine in her eyes and the passion in her voice when she says this reminded him of a certain blonde knuckle-headed ninja whose dream was similar to hers. Neji inwardly scoffed at her statement, she wouldn't get anywhere with dreams like that, everyone was destined to do a certain thing, and being the next Tsunade was far out if this girl's reach.
She was kind, and he remembers a scorching hot day when he sat under the shade of a tree, squinty eyed and irritable at how crappy the weather was. She came bounding up to him, with a smile that blossomed like spring flowers and presented him a cone of cherry flavored shaved ice. He takes it from her and she beams and says you're welcome and walks away, content with her kind gesture. He doesn't like cherry, but he eats it anyway because it's hot and a Hyuuga doesn't waste food offered to him. So he licks the cold treat that staves off the heat significantly and doesn't think anything of the encounter.
When they get a little older, Neji was forced to bring Tenten and the rest of his team over for dinner at the Hyuuga household. He protested greatly at first, because he's grown and he realizes that Rock Lee and Tenten and yes, even his sensai, mean something to him, just a little bit. He didn't want them to see how stiff his household really was, he didn't want to see the elder Hyuuga's disapproving gaze at his rambunctious, loud team; but he couldn't go against the rules and it was the elder Hyuuga who suggested the idea in the first place. All he could do was follow through.
"Don't worry," she whispers to him secretly, among the dinner conversation. "We wouldn't purposely ruin this for you, just relax, alright?" He looks at her and she winks.
When it was over and they left, with goodbyes and a possibility of coming again, all that was spoken to Neji was one sentence, nothing more.
"They were okay. A bit loud, but okay."
Neji was astounded. Was it a miracle? The early signs of a coming apocalypse? It had to be a joke, because the elder didn't approve of anything, right?
Wrong.
From then on, Neji learned from Tenten that laughter was okay, and so was breathing and relaxing and dreaming and just living in general. Lee taught him the desire to protect and that being a little odd was definitely a good thing. He could shake off the hand of fate that was always pressing down on his shoulder with an oppressive hand.
Tenten rubbed off on Hanabi, who started juggling knives and eating cookies by the handful and chugging a bottle of soda in sixty seconds flat. Hinata bonded with the bun haired girl and started being less of a wallflower and more like the sunflower for which was named, bright and beautiful and happy.
There was a significant change in the Hyuuga household as time went by, and although Neji wouldn't admit it, he secretly liked the tilt in his axis, the sudden change in his life.
He loved both his teammates dearly, although he wouldn't admit that either.