NejiTen is going to be canon; don't you deny it! It was only evidenced in the anime, but that's enough for me to go by. This couple is absolutely lovely and they look great together. Neji's gorgeous and TenTen's adorable; what better combination could this be?
This is a one-shot. Neji might be a little overdramatic in this, but it fits the context a bit. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.
A variety of metal projectiles clattered to the ground after being repelled by a rotating force. Masses of kunai, shuriken, senbon, and even larger weapons like swords were thrown off course the instant they struck the whirl of chakra. The sound of a bodily slump and panting slid by just as the spinning halted.
A girl with dark hair tied up in two side buns and olive-brown eyes was kneeling on the ground, shoulders rising with each breath she took in exhaustion. Sandaled feet walked in front of her, belonging to the Hyuuga genius himself. "You need to improve your stamina. How will you keep up if you go on like this?"
The oriental-attired weapons specialist, TenTen, rose from her position and bent her head down apologetically while her eyes shifted upwards to meet those of silvery white. "S-sorry." she murmured, carrying a sheepish but earnest look. Neji sighed and shook his head, swayed by her sincerity but stern about her easy acceptance.
"Try again." Neji's arms stretched themselves out as he formed the traditional Hyuuga stance when performing his rotation technique. TenTen was startled, suddenly donning a look of disbelief and dread. "What? But we've been training for two hours! Can't we take a break?"
Neji raised a brow at her behavior. Normally she complained about training sessions with Lee (though even he found that understandable), but she seldom wanted to avoid "regular" exercises. He considered it for a moment; TenTen had been working tenaciously and patiently for quite a time, but the training's length hardly differed from that of any other practice. In fact, the period of their training steadily decreased with each session. He felt that it was the lack of time put in that affected her recent performance.
He opened his mouth to deny her request, but was struck abruptly by the expression on her face. Her wide almond eyes drooped, diminishing some of the sparkle they usually contained. Her eyebrows were creased in a high bridge of reluctance while her mouth was set in a shrunken state, resembling a sweetly plump purse.
"..."
"Ahh! This feels much better!" TenTen's childlike voice rang pleasantly through a modest dumpling shop. She sat on a floor mat with her shoes to the side. Three skewers of colored dango on a plate and a cup of steaming green tea were set in front of her. Across from her position sat Neji, who calmly sipped his tea with his eyes closed. On the surface, he appeared to be solemnly calm as usual, but he was inwardly troubled at his hesitation about stopping their training. But at that point, he was already past hesitation; conceding to her plea led him to be coaxed by TenTen to have a snack break with her.
Yet despite being persuaded by TenTen's mere but strangely powerful look, Neji continued to remind himself that his forfeit was on his own, and that he was the one who made the closing decision to rest. With his thoughts extricated from their previous tangle, Neji succumbed to the peace of the quiet eatery and drank his tea to keep himself occupied. The mixed scents of lightly sugared dango and mildly bitter tea tingled at his nostrils when he inhaled. He tilted the cup's rim firmly against his lips, palm beneath the bottom and fingers lightly enclosed around the cylinder, exhibiting proper etiquette of tea drinking. The fragrant and warm liquid slid down his throat, causing a peculiar serenity to vibrate throughout his body.
The cup parted from his ivory lips and was set down gently on the table. The lids of his eyes opened like curtain blinds, slow and leisurely, but he almost gurgled on his tea in surprise when his vision was unveiled. Luckily, the ever-so-cool Neji managed to mask his half-choke by passing it off as a minor cough to clear his throat. "What is it?"
TenTen had been watching him intently for the past two minutes while his eyes were closed, her elbows on the table and her head propped on hands. Neji cursed himself for not keeping his Byakugan on. Her face of awe was cut in by merriment; her eyes closed as her mouth spread into a wide line. A sweet giggle tinkled like bells in his ears. TenTen's body shook as she tried to suppress her laugh, eyes squinted in mirth.
Neji stared blankly, feeling somewhat peeved at her reaction. Had he done something to make himself seem foolish? TenTen's fist stifled the giggles as she finally raised her head to look at Neji. "Do you always drink your tea like that?"
The Hyuuga genius furrowed his brow at the inquiry. Was she mocking him? "Yes. I don't see anything wrong with that."
TenTen's laughter ceased as she settled into a wide smile, waving her hand in front of her face in defense. "Oh, it's not wrong. It's just that... you drink so neatly. You look like an old man."
Neji twitched. Now he was offended. "I look like an old man?" he repeated, eyebrows level with his eye ridges to convey his flat expression.
TenTen's bell-like giggles returned, only to magnify and burst out like airy, chorusing gongs. "Don't be so uptight! I meant that you look peaceful and proper." The corners of her mouth remained tugged, revealing a set of pearly whites. The jounin frowned even further, though he seemed to relax a bit more. Why did he become insulted in the first place? It wasn't like him to care what image he illustrated (at least not when it came to trivial things such as drinking tea).
Perhaps it was the fact that TenTen said it so candidly. It wasn't often that she poked fun at him, but then again most of their time spent together was just training. Neji was accustomed to her playful behavior, but it really didn't occur to him that she had a whole different persona outside of business until lately. The things she said briefly pulled him taut. It seemed that the more she smiled, giggled, or made a lighthearted gesture, he grew more defensive. He could feel his muscles tense up like when he performed Kaiten, but in situations with her, he could not use his barrier. If there was an ultimate defensive technique for his mind, he would have surely wished to learn it.
He was jerked out of his thoughts when he felt something lightly brush against his leg. His eyes focused back on TenTen, who was happily nibbling her dango on a stick. His loose pant leg bumped against his skin, brushing at it as a cat would. Neji stiffened. He dipped his head down slightly to peer at what caused the occasional pats.
While eating her sweet treat, TenTen had stretched out her legs beneath the table. Her toes curled every so often, presumably in leisure and enjoyment over her dango, unintentionally pushing his pant leg. The cloth tickled his shin. Neji dismissed the action; she would probably stop sooner or later.
Pat, pat. His right leg tickled. Pat, pat, pat. Were his pants made of wool or some other itchy material? No, he was quite sure it was some sort of linen or cotton. Pat, pat... pat, pat, pat... pat... pat, pat, pat, pat, pat-
"Stop that." Neji said finally, causing TenTen's interest to drift away from her dango. She blinked once in puzzlement. Even without the Byakugan, Neji felt like he could see abnormally, or at least see in slow motion for some odd reason. Just a single blink from TenTen appeared to last for five seconds—he could see the lids of her brown-olive eyes fall, dragging along light, feminine lashes. The lids rebounded from the bottoms of her eyes as her lashes bounced flippantly on impact. Did his usage of the Byakugan affect his eyesight?
"Stop what?" came TenTen's voice, once again snatching Neji back into reality. Neji shook his head, blinking several times to regain normal vision.
"Your feet... They keep brushing against my leg."
TenTen stared at him quizzically for a moment before his words registered. "O-oh! Sorry!" she apologized, shrinking her feet back into a criss-cross position. Deep pink suddenly seeped its way into the healthy, tan parchment skin of her cheeks. Her head bowed down to hide her embarrassment. She brought her skewer to her mouth as she nipped at the last dango.
Neji sighed as he finished the rest of his tea. He set down the cup and decided to open a conversation about their earlier session, if just to bring his focus back. "Is there any reason why you have been low on stamina lately?"
TenTen stopped eating. Her eyes shifted upon the question, squirming a little on the spot. "Well, I don't mean to. It might be just me, but for some reason our practices lately feel... harder?" she proffered, not sure if that was the correct word to use. She didn't want Neji to think she was making excuses.
"How so?" he asked.
"I don't know... It's like you've been pushing more. The time shortened, but the work gets rougher." TenTen scratched her jaw line with her index finger with uncertainty.
Neji rested his hands on the table, fixating on them in contemplation. Had he overworked her and not realized it? It didn't feel that way... But come to think of it, he did seem to be distracted by something with each passing day... He simply didn't know what was causing him to harden his focus more than he should have...
After a minute of straight silence, TenTen's voice rang again. The bells. Neji was beginning to think her voice box consisted of those gadgets. "Aren't you going to eat that?" she asked, her voice softer and more tentative.
Neji glanced down at his own dango stick. He hadn't touched it at all. But to his dismay, his strange vision had returned, this time shaping the objects he was staring at into things they were not. The longer he stared, the more they seemed to look like the dark buns on TenTen's head. The spheres of hair that looked like the ears of a panda, or of a mouse, both animals that were renowned for their cuteness...
Hold on. Neji Hyuuga, the Neji Hyuuga had deemed something cute? No, he knew from fact that pandas and mice were associated with adorability, so he simply followed that assumption... Thank the heavens; he was saved!
But then again, if pandas and mice were cute, so were the dango in front of him. And if the dango in front of him were cute, so were TenTen's hair buns... Neji almost tripped over himself while he was still sitting. His teammate's hair was cute? That simply didn't sound right in his head. Strangely enough, the thing that was cute was a simple word: her name. The concision and terseness of it complemented how sweet it sounded. It even meant something along the lines of "little by little", or, if put into context, "heavenly".
Neji inwardly smacked himself with his Gentle Fist for thinking so much on the matter. He shut his pale eyes tightly as if he wanted to punish them for behaving so bizarrely. He hastily picked up his skewer and bit down on his dango, sliding it off the wooden stick. As he preoccupied himself with chewing the treat whole, TenTen had finished hers and found herself staring at him once again.
"That's a complete change..." she murmured, observing Neji's mouth swish in circular motions as he tore apart the dango. Neji swallowed and risked opening his eyes to reply with a query. "What is?"
"Just a few minutes ago you were drinking tea like a prince, and now you're eating like a rabbit." A small giggle broke out. The brevity of the bells sounded quite pretty, now that he thought about it.
... What? "Pretty"? Not only were his eyes scrambled, but his ears seemed to be having trouble, too. Neji swallowed the lump in his throat that felt like an entire dango ball. What was happening to him? What made him so disoriented all of a sudden? What made him think the words "cute" and "pretty", both within the span of ten minutes?
TenTen noticed the pallid color of his face (though how she could tell was a conundrum; Neji's skin couldn't have achieved a higher whiteness) and leaned over the table in concern. "Neji? Are you okay?"
The Hyuuga could barely overcome the disturbance in his mind as he hurriedly rewired his senses. There was never a time when he felt so shaken in such an odd fashion. His body felt like it had a fat worm wriggling inside his stomach and chest. "N-no. I feel a little unwell. I think I need some rest..." he replied, voice wavering a bit. He stood up, sagging slightly but still able to keep his posture.
"Let me help." TenTen offered, extending her arms to support him. The tips of her fingers prodded against the sleeve of his robes, stroking his now oddly sensitive skin. The mild pokes of her fingertips caused him to twitch his shoulder away in reaction. His gaze fell on her face, which was painted with genuine concern and graced with her unexpectedly charming features.
The proud and once firm Neji felt his throat run dry at the look she gave him. Though he didn't seem to lose composure externally, he was downright humiliated by his overreactions. This wasn't him. Since when did he exaggerate the appearance of his teammate, whom he had been training with for years without giving much thought to her? Since when did his brain dissolve into a clump of mush that could make no sense of his own thoughts? Since when did his body react to the slightest touch TenTen gave? He shook his head from side to side, carrying his silken locks along as he did so.
"You sure are strange. You're completely calm in battle but you're so uptight when you're supposed to be relaxing!" The corner of TenTen's mouth curled in a lighthearted smile. She reached down to grab her hefty scroll and attach it to her back, laying down the payment for their snack.
"Well, I guess if it makes you more comfortable, we can start training again. I feel more refreshed now. Meet you at the training grounds!" TenTen flashed that peculiar smile of hers and threw up her hand in a casual wave before jogging off.
Neji exhaled, unwinding his nerves a bit. Whatever he felt for the past half hour or so bewildered him, but at least it started to subside. His taut mouth loosened after he restrained it from becoming a wiry line of befuddlement. His prickled skin smoothed over after being stroked against with his robes, which shielded him from the blunt and slender fingers of TenTen's partially gloved hand. Though the sensations and thoughts that invaded his normally rigid mind were foreign to him, there was no question that they had quite an impact on his psyche.
His pale, silvery-white eyes swept back at the table where TenTen had fully paid for the small snack break. An old woman sauntered over to collect the money and clean up the table. She peered up at him with squinted eyes as she held up the plate of the remaining dango skewer. "Are you going to eat this?" she asked.
Neji stared at the skewer with two dango balls pierced though it. Mouse ears. Panda ears... TenTen's hair buns. His willowy fingers reached to grasp the wooden stick. "... Yes."
He brought the treat, colored maroon and white, to his lips and took a bite, feeling his tongue tingling with sweet.
The last line ended up rhyming on accident, hehe. Please leave a review; I'd greatly appreciate it.