( I Hope It's) The First One 1/16/07
Tenten was not as strong as Neji.
Tenten did not have Byakugan like Neji.
Tenten was not a prodigy like Neji.
But Tenten loved Neji.
If you thought about it, is was really not that unlikely. Sure, a few people had caught when Tenten had smiled straight at Lee during training, but stop and think. It could have just been filled with admiration, in a friendly or motherly way. And did you ever think to stop and look at her disposition? It is entirely possibly that she was daydreaming, and smiling at an image in her head of someone.
And so it was that Tenten fell in love with Neji. It took a while, and then some more time to realize she did. She supposed, later on, that it had maybe started as a little infatuation in their academy years. There were occasional serious, handsome looks, sometimes in just the right position to catch her eye. To make her have to erase something she had messed up from the distraction. To blush in embarrassment at a fumble with the practice kunai or a stumble when running laps. Then, when they were put in a team, their time together greatened. Things started heating up.
An accidental brush of the hand during practice battles caused a slight pink to tint Tenten's cheeks. A few nights, she would stay up late, getting frustrated and confused about her feelings. It took until the Chuunin exams, when he fought his cousin, Hinata, to realize she was in love with him. In love with this, as she considered him at the time, monster.
She hated it.
God, she hated it.
She was quiet for weeks. When she came to training, she didn't speak with Gai-sensei or Rock Lee. She went straight to the place where she and Neji always trained and did it alone. When he fought against Naruto, she perked up. She perked up on the outside, just in case he was looking at her. When it was over, she was even more solemn. She didn't come to training for a long time. Finally, she came back.
She trained alone.
Neji began acting rather droopy as well when he came back, wondering why she would train with him like usual. Some days it would cause him to tolerate Lee and Gai's antics much better, the next he would blow up at the slightest hint of insanity.
So people avoided him.
One day, when he was feeling particularly mad (his training hadn't been in the best shape since Tenten stopped training with him), he tracked Tenten down. She was furiously throwing kunais and senbon and the like at a dummy. Suddenly, she whipped out a huge fuuma shuriken from nowhere (a little freaky, ne?) and hurled it. It hit the dummy in the face.
The head fell off.
"Tenten!" Neji said abruptly. Tenten glared.
"What?!" This attitude was so unlike the motherly, cool Tenten.
"I need to train with you."
"…."
Neji sighed. "What is it?"
Tenten smiled ruefully, bitterly. And so she told him the truth:
"I don't know whether I love you or hate you."
Neji stared at her. His eyes widened slightly, because after all, he is the cool, better-than-everyone-else, genius Hyuuga prodigy. His eyes are probably stuck like that. I mean, he does that narrow-eyed smirk thing so much! Seriously! Uhm…aaaanyway.
"Hn. I hope it's the first one." The Hyuuga Neji, who had regained his composure, walked away. Tenten stared at his back. Then she shook her head and smiled.
Two things suddenly hit Tenten.
It was the first one.
And….
Didn't he say he wanted to train?!?
So much for that.
a/n;; Yes I do know it sucked. Review, please.