They had nothing to say to each other. Her brown eyes latched onto his white ones, the cool serenity of them washing over her like the flood of the rain washing over the desert on a dry summer's day. They had nothing to say to each other-and yet everything felt unsaid.
"Neji?" She immediately regretted speaking, the sound had a way of pushing away the soothing trance his eyes had laid upon her. She broke away from his captivating gaze and turned her head towards the sky, her back resting firmly on the bark of the gnarled oak. She liked that oak- for all the various scars besmirching it, lines running up and down from misplaced kunai thrown by an errant hand, it always had a way of making her feel secure. Just like the dark-haired prodigy sitting next to her.
"Hn." he responded. She took it as permission to speak. The girl was cautious, careful not to shatter the fragile calmness of the night enveloping her. The body next to her shifted slightly, uncomfortably.
"Are we any different now than we were then?" she mused. They both understood the meaning. Four years ago, they were elected to team Gai. Four years ago, they became genin. Four years ago, they were only children. A lot seemed to have changed in the space of those four years.
"We are no longer children, Tenten." He spoke plainly, the words reverberating through the souls of the two. The souls that already felt as if they had been melded into one. Yes- through the hopelessness and hardships, the trials and tribulations, all the times they fought, sweat, bled and almost died for each other, their separate hearts had fused into one beating entity. From the moment they met, the first time her warm, chocolate brown eyes penetrated his cold, blank ones, Tenten knew that stoic Neji was not so much the ice prince as everyone believed. His heart was reachable, attainable, able to be won if she tried hard enough. And that is the reason that she fought. Every time he pushed her away, all the times he made her feel as if she would never get him to open up, she fought with her heart and soul even harder to shatter the walls Neji Hyuuga thought to be impenetrable.
"Yeah, I know that, but are we really different?" she reiterated. The Hyuuga did not know if he knew himself. He shrugged and gave a classic 'hn' , his end all-be all of responses to questions for which he did not have an answer. He disliked tricky questions with no one answer- Neji Hyuuga liked things simple, black and white, like the contrast between his raven black hair and his pale eyes. He simply turned away anything which might ruin the simplicity. That is why he had fought and failed to keep her out. She complicated things. She made things more difficult, destroyed the little perfect bubble he had used to enclose his mind. Despite how hard he searched, he had eventually come to realize that there was no one simple answer when it came to Tenten. With her, the inks seemed to run together, forming a grey smear on the once perfectly crisp, perfectly black and white pages of his life. That was the reason he had lost in the end. She was like water to his mind, as hard as he may try she would always find a way to seep in through some miniscule pore which he could've sworn he had sealed.
"Children don't understand suffering, Tenten. They do not understand what we have gone through." She grimaced at the way that the boy always seemed to put a dark spin on whatever topic they were discussing. All the same, she knew it was right.
"I know. You know what else children don't understand? I don't think they understand what it means to be a true friend. Four years ago, I didn't know what it meant to be a true friend to someone… but I do now, I think." She sighed, her words hiding a deeper meaning, one which she herself was just beginning to fathom. Four years ago, it seemed, they began to fall in love. As much as they had tried, no, fought to hide it, as of late the fact had become apparent. The way they spent every available moment with each other, along with Neji's cold stares at any guy who dared approach Tenten, spoke the volumes in their hearts that their minds could not yet decode into words. She felt the warm body next to her shift closer, and she rested her head on a steady shoulder, content to be next to the one whom she now knew she had grown to love. She felt safer with him than she could feel anywhere else.
"I suppose I have too." He looped an arm loosely around her and scanned the area with his byakugan to insure that they were not being watched. He kissed her softly, quickly, only slightly allowing himself to lose the restraint he would normally have fought to keep over his mind. Tenten sighed. Yes- it seemed as if a lot had changed within four years. More than either of them would ever have imagined.