Tears flowed down Tenten's face. She silently cursed being the overemotional drunk type.
The angry (and extremely tipsy) Sakura wobbled over to her. "YEAH! CRY, BITCH! YOU'RE NOTHING BUT AN UGLY WHORE!"
Tears flowed more freely down Tenten's face. Shit, she thought. Well this is embarrassing. I'd rather not draw more attention to myself.
Sakura screamed in frustration, as Tenten said, "Excuse me," and hurried out of the room. Sakura was pissed off tonight, and was spoiling for a fight, and she was infuriated to see Tenten run off, in tears. It had not only made Sakura look bad, but it made Tenten the victim. Whereas if Tenten flung herself at Sakura, it would've been a different matter.
"Shit," she made a move to go after Tenten. Stupid cow, leaving her high and dry, looking like an idiot.
Neji stepped in front of Sakura. "Don't you think you've done enough damage tonight?" he growled.
Above all else, the tone and anger of his voice shocked her. She looked around her. Everyone was frowning or shaking her head at her. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I just got too drunk and angry."
She made another move, to go follow Tenten. "Don't," said Neji. "You may feel sorry, but you're still drunk, and that means you're still unpredictable. I'll go bring her back."
Tenten sat on the grass in Ino's back yard. It was an impeccable garden, with beautiful variety: from roses to orchids, from passion flowers to dahlias. Yet none seemed out of place. The moon shone on the big bit of topiary in the middle of the garden. Tenten asked many Ino many times what it was meant to be, but Ino just laughed and shook her head every time, and said "It's abstract, it doesn't have to be anything, beautiful or ugly, happy or sad, it's just art. And people are allowed to percept it differently." Tenten, for one, always liked to know what things were, otherwise, there wouldn't be much point in it existing.
She walked through patches of flowers, to the centre of the garden. The whole yard sloped down slightly into the middle. Ino had told her, it gave it a more of a dynamic effect. A work of art.
She sat down at the base of it. She stared at it a bit longer.
"You're just an ugly whore."
"It doesn't have to beautiful or ugly."
"Cry bitch."
"It's just art. And people are allowed to percept it differently."
Sakura and Ino's voices ran in and out of Tenten's head.
What is abstract? Tenten wondered, slightly tipsily to herself. What the hell was Ino trying to pull? Tenten had always known that Ino was extremely proud of her piece of 'art'. But she had never stopped to wonder why. Everyone probably just assumed that Ino was just proud of doing all the trimming and designing herself. "I don't know what to do with it," she had said so many times. "There are just too many options." So most people wondered why she chose to do that. Tenten stared at it in awe. Everyone thought that Io was just another stereotypically shallow dumb blond, and that she just didn't want to choose something.
"It doesn't look like anything," Naruto had said. "I don't like it."
"That's how it's abstract," Ino had pointed out to him.
"I like it," said Neji. "It's abstract. This reflects a lot about the way you perceive things, Ino. I perceive them in a similar way." He smiled, and nodded at her.
"YOU'RE NOTHING BUT AN UGLY WHORE!"
Tears once again rolled down Tenten's face. She wiped them away, furiously, and scolded herself under her breath. "Honestly, Tenten, I know you're slightly drunk, but you're being overemotional, cut it out."
Tenten knew that Sakura was extremely drunk, and that she was just pissed off after seeing her best friend Ino, and her long awaited Sasuke making out on the couch, and that she shouldn't be so depressed after being called an ugly whore.
But the thing was, it still hurt. Tenten knew she wasn't the prettiest girl there was, and it didn't help that Sakura had those pretty green eyes, and Hinata had that nice, flowing dark hair, or that Ino was fucking perfection to all the guys. There was nothing special about Tenten.
She heard shuffling behind her. "Well, you seem to be in your own little world, right now," said a familiar voice from behind her. Neji sat down beside her. "What's up?"
Tenten snorted. "Feeling sorry for my overemotional drunk self."
"You shouldn't worry," said Neji. "She's completely wasted. And she's only pissed off about Ino and Sasuke making out on the couch."
"For how long?"
"We don't even know if either of them have even breathed once in the past half an hour."
Tenten sighed. "I know but it still hurts like shit."
Neji sighed. "You shouldn't be punishing yourself like this."
Tenten turned to him angrily, tears welling up in her eyes, before she just sighed and looked at the ground. "You just don't fucking get it, Neji. You've always been Mr Perfect. No one was even good enough for you to compare yourself with. But I have to compare myself with Sakura, who has her eyes that everyone goes crazy over. Hinata. Who was flawless hair. And Ms Fucking Perfect Ino Yamanaka. THERE'S NOTHING SPECIAL ABOUT ME!" She screamed, her face flooding with tears. "NOTHING!"
Neji blinked at her. She half expected him to get all pissy and give her a big lecture about how she should be thankful for him, and then storm off. To her dismay, he started laughing.
"UGH. DO I FUCKING AMUSE YOU, NEJI?"
"Aw. That's cute."
"WHAT'S CUTE?"
"You're not ugly, Tenten."
"WELL, THEN WHAT AM I?"
Neji grinned at her. "You're just abstract."
Tenten's eyes flared. "AND WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?"
"You're not pretty or ugly, Tenten, it just depends on how people percept it."
The tears dried up almost immediately. Tenten smirked. "Oh?" She stood up and walked round to the other side of the garden. Neji followed her. "And how do you percept me, Neji?" she purred.
He smirked back at her. "Well, Tenten, I like you, and I think you look beautiful the way you are."
She raised her eyebrows, and turned her back to him. "Oh? Is Mr. Hyuuga finally admitting there is something I don't need to improve on?"
He heard him chuckling behind her. "Well, Tenten, there might be just one thing." He yanked her hair out of its usual two buns. Her long dark waves tumbled down her shoulders.
She turned around and pressed her nose to Neji's. "Am I perfect yet?" she whispered.
"Nah, you're still abstract," he breathed, knowing this would annoy her. "But you're perfect to me," he added before she could slap him.
He gently pressed his lips to hers.