Meeting
Author's note: I saw a post about how two friends met and it said imagine your OTP. So I did. I have no regrets. Also: er, sorry about not posting for so long. I've been working on original fiction and yeah.
This is a High School alternative universe featuring Neji and Tenten and how they met. It was supposed to be a one shot but morphed a wee bit. I don't ask questions. I just follow the plot-bunnies. Let us begin.
Chapter One: Meeting
"So, what are you in for?"
Hyuuga Neji looks up from his Chemistry text to regard the girl who posed the question. She has a smile on her face which lights up her brown eyes and her hair is done up in two buns at the top of her head. She wears the school's dictated uniform: white button down tee-shirt with the dark blue tie loose and the pleated dark blue skirt.
Her skirt actually goes to an inch above her knee like the school dress code dictates unlike the other girls Neji sees in the hallways. She even wears the proper white knee socks which go to an inch under her knee, again as required, and her shoes are black girls' dress shoes.
"Well?" the girl questions.
It takes him a moment to realize the girl is trying to talk to him. This has never happened before and Neji does not know what to do. Her head tilts to a side and Neji lets out a breath.
"The Vice Principle needs to know if I am able to help with the lighting for a presentation tomorrow afternoon," Neji answers.
He normally cannot engage in idle chit chat, especially when he is reviewing for a test he has next period. He did study of course, but not to his regular standards. His young cousin Hanabi had been pestering all night about some show she wanted him to watch with her.
As typical, she had worn him down and he had spent two hours watching the show. He would never admit to enjoying it and being disappointed they had to cut the binge-watching to go to sleep for school.
"So you're getting permission to miss classes?" the girl asks.
"Yes. Why are you here?" Neji returns.
Surely a girl who followed the dress code had done nothing wrong. She smiled and Neji could not help noticing how cute the smile made her. She even tilted her head to a side.
"I stabbed a guy in the hand with a screwdriver," she says.
It takes Neji a few moments to process her words. She had stabbed another student, a male, with a screwdriver in the hand. Neji opens his mouth but has no idea what to even say. He blinks, closes his mouth and shakes his head.
"Pardon?" Neji tries.
The girl has the decency to flush. She rubs the back of her neck as her cheeks continue to go pinker still.
"Well, I was in wood working and using the screwdriver to tighten a screw," she begins.
What else would one use a screwdriver for? Besides the aforementioned stabbing of course. Neji inclines his head to signal her to continue.
"Since the benches are low, I had to bend over slightly and the guy behind me flicked my skirt. I kind of went on instinct, you know? I turned, stabbed, and called him a pervert. Yamato-sensei didn't like it so much so here I am," the girl says.
Neji takes a moment to sort out the girl's story. Firstly: she took woodworking, a subject the other females in the school wouldn't dare to choose. Secondly: her instincts told her to fight back when someone she did not want touching her touched her. Thirdly: she had been merely defending herself. Neji liked her all ready.
"Did someone at least witness the skirt flipping?" Neji asks.
"Mm-hmm, my brother Rock Lee, my seat mate Uzumaki Naruto, and the guys across from us: Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino. The principal wants to question me first," she says.
Neji hums. He has no idea who any of those people are. He vaguely recognizes the name Uzumaki Naruto because his other cousin, Hinata, happens to talk about the boy all the time. Hinata had turned sixteen this year to his seventeen so this girl and the people she spoke of were a year younger like Hinata.
"Well, you have a good defense then," Neji says.
"Right? Guy really wouldn't like the idea of me being suspended for stabbing someone," the girl says
"Guy?" Neji questions.
She smiles.
"My adoptive father, Maito Guy. He adopted me this summer along with Lee," the girl says.
"Ah," Neji says.
He had not meant to bring up a potentially painful subject. His mother had died shortly after giving birth to him and his father had been killed in a car accident. Thankfully, his uncle Hiashi had taken him in or Neji would have been sent into foster care.
"It's no big deal, really," the girl tells him with a wave of one hand. "Lee and I lived in the same orphanage for five years together. It's tough being an older kid since no one really sees the point in adopting anyone over ten. But Guy's a great dad so it's awesome."
She has a smile on her face even now. Neji had not been in the mood to smile for years after his father died. He had barely spoken to his cousins and uncle besides proper social protocol and even now did not have anyone he would consider a friend.
"Oh, um, I'm Tenten by the way. Ha, I told you the names of all my friends and family without telling you my name," Tenten says.
She sticks out one hand and Neji takes it gently. Unlike the hands of other girls' Tenten's hands have calluses. Her nails are uneven, chipped, and she wears no nail polish. There are a few thin white lines on her tanned flesh, scars from sharp blades and Neji wonders at these.
"Hyuuga Neji," Neji says.
"Hyuuga, oh! Any relation to Hyuuga Hinata?" Tenten inquires.
Her eyes have gone bright in curiosity and she has leaned closer to him. He tries not to feel disappointed as she takes her hand back but he fails. She awaits his answer with a bright smile.
"She is my year younger cousin," Neji says.
"Neat," Tenten says. "I have English with her. She's really sweet and smart. It's a boring class but I'm a year behind in studies according to the school. Apparently the orphanage didn't do some kind of upgrade or something so Lee and I are stuck in the tenth grade when we should be in the eleventh."
This made her the same age as him. A year difference in age would not have mattered but Neji likes the fact they were both seventeen. Neji turns a bit more to face her and opens his mouth to ask another question.
"Maito Tenten,"
Neji turns the same time Tenten does to see the vice principal's secretary looking at them. Tenten stands and smoothes down her skirt. She turns and gives him a sunny grin. His heart flutters and Neji finds it difficult to swallow.
"Nice talking to you, Neji," Tenten says.
"Likewise," Neji manages.
He frowns as he watches Tenten enter the vice principal's office. The door closes off his sight of her and Neji leans back in his chair. He adjusts his reading glasses and looks back down at his open Chemistry text. He wants to speak to Tenten more but had not gotten her number. Surely he would be able to find her again. Besides, Hinata has to know her.
Reviews appreciated. More to come.