the story in between: a study of tenten & neji
there is an untold story between friends, one that has been enduring for years, resembling the murky beginnings of love. a study of nejiten, with the moments we didn't get to see and a bond everlasting.
The first time young Tenten met the prodigy of the Hyuuga family, he was unassuming but gravitational, in a nearly unnerving way. There was an untouchable quality about him that distanced whatever attention he would receive from his peers. They pretty much remarked with an Ah! and "he's going to be something."
He was in her year at the academy, with that long dark hair and those striking eyes. It took her sometime to decide what she felt about him. Some days, his seriousness was borderline manic, like a joke could unhinge the very balance of his genius. Other times, he was of a decidedly lighter disposition, and Tenten's unhurried gaze could linger on him for a second longer than usual. But she was made of carefree tendencies and didn't obsess over much like her classmates did. When some quip about the Hyuuga boy came to light, Tenten would wiggle her eyebrows at the gossip, the most discernible emotion forever boredom.
She actually met him for the first time in the surrounding area of the Hyuuga compound. There was a time, with a few friends, she stumbled across a brook where he was meditating. Tenten found it somewhat unique that there was such necessity for a kid so young to be so affixed with such a solemn temperament.
He opened his eyes a peek at the sound of feet paddling in water in the distance. Tenten smiled at him.
Upon graduation from the academy, Tenten found herself at alarming proximity with Hyuuga Neji.
At closer range than classroom affixation, Tenten found him physically beautiful. She couldn't decide if he was subjectively attractive or just appealing in the way that one marvels at a stone statuette. He confounded her easily with his brilliance, but this too could have been the same reaction one has contemplating the unknowable universe. Tenten could not form a concrete opinion of the Hyuuga for the longest time. But this may have been better attributed to her well-meaning nature and infallible receptivity.
Most of the time, she was more overwhelmed by the frantic nature of Guy-sensei and the firestorm that was meek Lee. Slowly, she found herself standing beside Neji, united in their us-against-them exasperation. In that way, they became a natural partnership.
The first time he asked her to train with him was a day after he observed the intimate understanding of weaponry that would come to define her. Just as his genius unfolded from the enigma of the Byakugan, Tenten's expertise grew from her meticulous attention. And the first time he unleashed the secrets of the Hyuuga name, Tenten was blown away, finally having formed her first opinion of Hyuuga Neji which was: Damn.
There were things about Neji you just knew, even when he never said a word. Sometimes this knowledge was just the knowledge that he was a mystery and you had to piece the puzzle together from observations of his demeanor or movement. For example, an extra furrow of the brow or a strange jerk of the neck meant that his eyesight was troubling him that day. When they trained on such days, Tenten would know exactly where to land a hit or what maneuver could stump him. He didn't say a word, like usual, but he would tighten his defense the next time… and the next time, Tenten would have to find a new way to penetrate his improved perfection.
Sometimes it irked him that Tenten could read him so readily. He had come to count on her during every mission. Every attack of his had a counterpart in her movements. Neji was still flawless in his own right, but everything seemed so much smoother against the grain when his attack was topped off with the unfurling of her summoning jutsu. He didn't worry about her either. For a kunoichi, she was surprisingly adept at holding her ground. The only time he recalled instinctively reaching forward to protect her, she seemed peeved later that she had allowed herself to be flanked by such an egregious oversight.
The other thing Neji didn't say a word about was the grudge within the Hyuuga name that snipped his full potential. Sometimes this was all that consumed him—an unnamed rage and darkness that kept everyone else at bay. She knew his story early on. From the days and nights she spent in the Hyuuga compound, she collected the pieces of this history, even though no one outright laid any of it before her. But these days, it seemed like every prodigy dealt with some cruel draw of luck, and Tenten felt no desire to be anyone's savior.
If anything, Tenten was the most mysterious one of the team. Her presence was one of warmth. Whatever darkness she withheld did not consume her. Its only manifestation would be that some days, she might have seemed more distant or preoccupied, and in these moments, Neji would be the one to notice. There was a mutual sense of companionship between them, something Lee or Guy could never infiltrate. Slowly and unremarkably, Neji and Tenten grew to rely on each other even off the training ground.
When Uzumaki Naruto hulled this terminal fate away from Hyuuga Neji during the stadium match of the Chuunin exam, everything changed.
From color, to the density of air, to the lightness of being, it was a difference so infinitesimal yet absolute, its explanation eluded even himself, like trying to capture in words the sensation of water or the difference in emotion between love and hate. He awoke with a start, a part of the unclouded world at last, suspended in a haze of clarity until…
"You're awake?" A familiar voice brought him back to earth.
Neji turned to see Tenten, a halo of light behind separating each strand of dark hair, big brown eyes burrowing into his gaze. For all the unfamiliarity of being born again, her voice was as sweet as home.
Once, while Guy and Lee were on a month-long training bender, and Neji and Tenten had finished a session of their own, they sat side by side outside in the Hyuuga compound sharing a pot of tea. It was hard to explain, but the days felt shorter now, less weighty than before. When Tenten would sneak a stare at her teammate, there was a sort of soft cleanness to his concentration, uncomplicated and for once just serene. She couldn't understand exactly what had happened, just that Naruto had happened. But she smiled nonetheless to Neji's quizzical glower as he slowly opened his eyes.
"What?"
"You gave me the same stare when we first met." Tenten quipped, leaning forward and tilting her head.
"What?" He returned again, this time turning his face.
"Nothing." She responded. There was no urgency here; only gentle companionship. She had grown accustomed to training with Neji as a near daily routine, but some of the moments she enjoyed most were ones passed in solitude, together, sipping on tea and making light conversation of everything. She smiled at him the same way she did just years ago across the brook.
"It's hard to explain—" Naruto rubbed his chin thoughtfully, seated on one side of Tenten at Ichiraku Ramen. "The two of you just have this, total unspoken way of being. Like an old couple you meet for the first time after they've been together for twenty years."
Tenten's expression could only be described as one of mild annoyance and poorly veiled incredulity: "Give me a break," she managed to choke out.
"No no, Naruto-kun is onto something!" Lee asserts, twirling a pair of chopsticks at the air on the other side of Tenten in the booth. "Or perhaps a complete assumption that you and Neji-kun will just get married one day without ever once having to discuss such an arrangement!"
The two boys whooped with glee, having arrived at such astute observations, leaving Tenten exasperated. It had felt like just minutes since Naruto arrived back in Konohagakure and already, he had recruited Lee into a tirade of Neji-Tenten related mockery. She was happy to see an old friend back in town, but the abuse she received from Lee and Guy-sensei alone had been insufferable.
Who could explain, that instinctually, her gaze would wander over to Neji right before she knew he was going to speak? Or that, perhaps by pure coincidence, whenever good or bad news was at hand, one or the other would be informed first. It was a measure of trust that was unparalleled in many of the other teams. And as natural and seamless as it was, Tenten couldn't quite decide when the leap was made from natural partnership to unequivocal companions.
"What is it?" Neji's eyes opened slowly, lying on his side, neat hair tied back yet still sprawled across the tatami mat between slivers of moonlight. He felt a pair of soft arms wrapped around his torso from behind. Tenten pressed her face against his back, a light blanket around both of them, soaking in the spring night.
She murmured something undecipherable, half-pressed with sleep, and burrowed her face against his back even more. He felt her movement, felt the hitch in her breath, and the eventual draw of sleep that overtook her until she grew completely tranquil.
He sighed softly, resigned at his teammate's gentle imprudence. Within a lingering second, he flipped over from his side to face her, taking the blanket and wrapping it tighter around her.
In his arms, Tenten was soft and still, her hair smelling like lavender.
"Alright, alright." He whispered quietly to her with a soft smile.
It had been years and years.
The outcrop of the cemetery remains well tended after all this time. There is a sense of peace here where many fallen heroes take their eternal rest. Any remnants of guilt or pain are momentarily forgotten amongst the tranquility of wildflowers growing nearby.
Tenten would visit him with Guy and Lee, or sometimes accompanying Hyuuga Hinata and Naruto. These breaks were never ones of grief—too much of that had already passed and time had been a trustworthy healer in the end. But without Naruto, or Hinata, Guy or Lee, Tenten would leave her shop to visit not the martyr of the village, not the prodigy of the Hyuuga clan, but a friend she once called out to with exuberant brown eyes and a "Neji!" that never lost its rang.
She would still have those chats with him. Chats they always had in pleasant company when he was still alive. When she visits his burial is when she feels the most visceral remains of pure and raw grief, so she wipes her tears away and saves their conversation for another time; another time perhaps when the flowers start to bloom again.
"I love you." He says.
She spins on her heel to give him a good and frank stare. "Stop being facetious," she says, smiling a knowing grin all the same.
These days, Tenten wakes up in the dead of dawn, unable to recall if some memories had been just old dreams or pieces of a forgotten conversation. Now, his face recedes a little bit more each day as she moves forward and life culls away the pain of the past. But somewhere, she thinks she must've loved him forever, ever since no realization of any beginning, but just always, and always.
In her dream, or maybe in her memory, she smiles back at the meditating boy next to the brook. Her smile never changes. And this time, he smiles back.
end
A/N: Feeling like I never properly grieved Neji's death. It's been a long time, but this OTP rings true for me. I love them as much as I have loved this series for over 8 years of my life. For me, Nejiten remains true.