Here's something that came to my mind earlier today. I thought I'd whip up a story and serve it quick, while its still hot! Don't h8. If you're a Neji/Tenten fan, then I suggest reading my multi-chapter story, Lucky. Soon, I'll be posting three more chapters to it! Yes, three! But if not, just enjoy the story here and feel free to tell me what you think!
It was raining that night.
Tenten grabbed her ponytail and wrung it dry, cursing the moment her hair tie decided to die in the midst of battle. Her hair swung near the middle of her back, creating tangles around her katana and shoulders.
A thud was felt to her left as Neji crouched beside her on the large tree branch. She narrowed her eyes at him in the near darkness. Perfect fucking hair, even though they had been running for ten minutes in a torrential downpour. At least the idiot was sopping wet.
Two months prior, Tenten had invested in a black waterproof jumpsuit. It fit like a glove, doubled as armor, and kept her body nice and dry. Sure, it cost her three missions worth of compensation, but she looked damn good. And it was nice to be gawked at for a hot body rather than your freakish ability to kill a man with a single shuriken.
Speaking of hot bodies, a sopping wet Neji wasn't a terrible sight. True, it wasn't the same when he was wearing black (she would never forget how he looked during their fight with Kisame...), but he was enticing nonetheless.
And that perfect fucking hair…
"Neji, do you use product?"
He stared at her, quizzically. "I'm not sure I follow…"
Yes, his hair was wet and dripping, but it's as if he had just finished combing it. There was no hair out of place, literally! How could a male, of all people, be blessed with hair from the Gods? Did he secretly carry around a brush and tidy up while no one was looking? That was unlikely.
Tenten gripped a kunai from her side and glared back at her partner. Anger swelled inside of her, and she tried not to let the water dripping from her bangs obstruct the hatred in her eyes.
Normally, Tenten was never near this impulsive – or crazy, for that matter – but she suddenly had to know. How far would he go to protect his unnaturally unharmed Hyuga locks? Would she dare find out?
The white-eyed man activated his Byakugan, assuming Tenten's tension was a result of an enemy presence. After a quick scan, he saw nothing except for a few deer and some foxes. There was nothing there, then why did she look so… on edge?
"Tenten?" His friend portrayed a curious look on her features. It was almost as if she was deciding to either kill him or let him live. A single raindrop fell on her nose, and travelled down to its tip before falling to the kunai in her hand. Hair product and a defensive stance? Neji was definitely a genius, but this was beyond him.
"How is hair product relevant to –! " His jaw dropped.
In a fraction of a second, her look changed from that of murder to that of defeat as she grabbed her ponytail and sliced it clean at the base. Tenten stared at her right hand, now holding twenty two inches of her dismembered, chesnut hair. She smiled.
Taking off her forehead protector, Tenten shook her head and let her new short tresses dance in the rain. "This is so liberating! Why haven't I done this sooner?" She ran her fingers through her hair, reveling in the new sensation it brought.
Neji stared back at her, mouth slightly ajar, and face vacant. Only in that moment of silence had he realized that the rain had let up.
"What? It was going to get in my way." The girl stared back incredulously, as if she hadn't taken away twelve years of her identity.
"But…" He managed to stammer, "I like your hair."
"Liked," she corrected, "and I did too, but I don't need it."
Tenten thought for a moment. "Someone else will like it," she retorted, carefully placing the remaining hair in her back pack.
"Come again?"
"It can be used to make wigs for people with diseases." After returning the bag to her back, she scanned around one more time before falling to the forest floor. "Or for self-conscious elderly women," she said as an afterthought. An image of an eighty year old woman wearing her hair surfaced into her mind, and she shook it away with disgust.
The ends of her hair stuck to her face as she did so, and she knew the next week would be extremely awkward. However, she held not a single ounce of regret.
Half a second later, Neji stood next to her, still trying to adjust his eyes to her new do. His eyes were used to seeing so much more than everyone else, but now they were seeing so much less. It was uncomfortable.
"There is a method in which one person can wear another's hair?"
"Mh," the girl nodded. She looked back at him, ready to continue on their way.
"So... you can put it back?" He asked innocently.
Tenten rolled her eyes and sighed before making her way back to the trees.
"Idiot."
I have, and probably always will be, a short haired girl. I do not in any way condone Tenten to cut her hair, because I like it long! But I can see her doing something like this, and Neji being all, "But... but... why...?" :3