Poser
By Musei Kage
Started: January 20, 2008.
Completed: January 27, 2008.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, it belongs to Kishimoto.
"You want us to do what?" Neji managed to say from between grit teeth.
"Yosh! Your mission is to pose as Mako-san's youthful long lost grandson and family!" Gai repeated enthusiastically.
"I refuse to be included in your senseless missions," the Byakugan user responded.
"Refusing means you agree to do 600 laps around Konoha when we return!"
Damn.
"Oh come on Neji, it'll be a nice thing to do for Mako-san," Tenten nudged him when their sensei left the room.
"I was brought up to believe that deceit is not nice."
"True, but not when it's for a good cause," she argued.
"No, I'm not playing dress up with you 3," Neji crossed his arms firmly.
-
How had they ended up in such a predicament the reader may ask? Well, Neji wonders about that too. It began with a simple C rank mission to the lowly populated Grass Village. The objective was to protect a travelling daimyo from Konoha to there. Supposedly, they should be home by now, but Gai Sensei had insisted they stay and take a short vacation.
And of course, Gai being Gai and Lee being Lee, had also insisted on doing miscellaneous chores around the community as a thank you for letting them stay (Although they had paid for their accommodations).
In this process, the dynamic duo came across an elderly lady, Mako-san, who lived alone, a couple blocks down from the inn. Mako-san regularly received letters from her grandson and had asked Lee to read them to her.
But the trouble didn't start there, it began when Mako mentioned to Gai and Lee that she wanted to see her grandson during her 80th birthday, which was occurring in 2 weeks.
Immediately, the two were set on finding this grandson of hers until the mailman finally admitted that he was the writer of the letters. These letters were Mako-san's life, and no one knew where her grandson actually was.
And of course they saw the simplest solution to this…convince Neji and Tenten to play the part of the grandson and wife! Getting Tenten to agree was easy, but then came the hard part, persuading the Hyuuga to join. Naturally, they left this job to the weapon mistress. Unfortunately for her, Neji was one hard nut to crack.
-
"Neji…" By this point, Tenten was gently shaking the man's crossed arms and giving her best dejected puppy dog eyes.
Neji could feel his opal eyes twitch at the urge to give in to the girl in front in him. But he stood firm.
"No, I said."
"Please," she practically begged, and pulled out her trump card, "If you really loved me you would agree."
"That has nothing to do with this," Neji grunted out of annoyance.
Well there goes her trump card. Or did it?
The tugging at Neji's sleeve ceased and Neji turned to see her chocolate eyes cast downwards. Should he panic?
Tenten's hands covered her face, and Neji heard a soft sob emit from the girl.
Okay, now he should panic.
"Tenten…" he reached out towards her and He was given a garbled reply.
"Tenten, stop," Neji half-commanded, he looked around and made sure there was no trace of Lee or Gai before pulling the bun headed girl closer to him. He always felt frustrated when his girlfriend was in tears.
"I'm…I'm sorry," he mumbled forcefully under his breath as he awkwardly rubbed his partner's back in a hopefully soothing manner but Tenten gave him no response.
The usually stoic and composed Hyuuga sighed at Tenten in a frazzled manner.
"Fine, I'll agree to pretend to be Mako-san's grandson…"
Hook, line and sinker!
"Really?" Tenten asked quietly.
"Yes," Neji almost rolled his eyes, "Do I need to repeat myself?"
Hearing Tenten giggle was when Hyuuga Neji realized that he had been duped once again by the sly Weapon Mistress.
Tenten: 52, Neji: 0
Neji cast a dark look at the girl who currently sat on his lap grinning ear to ear, looking quite similar to the Cheshire cat. A low growl came from the Byakuugan user's throat before he abruptly stood up and Tenten landed not so softly on the floor.
"Ow, Neji…It was for a good cause!" Tenten protested, rubbing her abused behind but couldn't help but laugh at the sulking boy, er-man, before her.
"Stop sulking!" She got to her feet, the top of her head only reaching his chin.
"Hyuugas don't sulk," He said simply.
"Then what do you call this?" Tenten poked his cheek affectionately, "A smile?"
"But we are allowed to be cross with our deceiving girlfriends."
"Oh Hyuuga, you wound me," the said girlfriend grinned mockingly, clutching at her heart.
"Hn," Neji crossed his arms.
"What a snob," Tenten laughed heartily, "But you're my snob." She reminded, standing closer and brought their lips together in a soft and sweet kiss.
"Better?" Chocolate eyes twinkling as she pulled away.
"Much." And he covered her lips with his again.
Much to Neji's annoyance, the following morning, they began to practice how to greet Mako-san and were taught some of her family tree by the neighbours who all wanted the best for Mako.
"Yosh! Now what is it that you call Mako-san, Neji?" Gai Sensei reviewed.
"Mako-baachan," he recited boredly. The words rolled off his tongue awkwardly as he had never really called any of the Hyuugas this before.
"You will surely be the grandson of the year," Tenten commented dryly at his frigidness.
"I'd like to see you do better," he scoffed.
Tenten raised an eyebrow accepting his challenge.
"Mako-baachan! I'm so happy to finally meet you, Haku-kun has told me so much about you!" She chirped happily, falling into character as 'Chihiro', the wife and granddaughter-in-law. As an added effect, she hugged Neji tightly, pretending he was Mako.
Neji had to fight the urge to blush at this sudden impulsive gesture.
The villagers murmured about how adorable the young couple looked.
"Ah, to be young again," One woman smiled.
This was going to be a long 2 weeks, Neji thought while trying to ignore the villagers chatter and gossip.
Fortunately for the rest of Team Gai and the villagers though, once Neji agreed to do something, he would always come out on top. Thus by the end of the 2 weeks, he could easily recite the family tree forwards and backwards and could exactly imitate the manner in which Haku spoke.
Overall, the past 2 weeks had been painless save for when Tenten and Lee had convinced him to wear onyx contacts since his silver white eyes would most definitely not fit with Haku's profile.
Neji hated them, needless to say. They didn't affect his byakuugan or anything, but they stung his eyes! And since his eyes being one of his most important weapons it made Neji worry that they would carry a long term affect. But Tenten had assured him that they were harmless, plus she had gently kissed each eyelid as a sort of insurance for him.
"I like them," Tenten had commented offhandedly when he first put them on, "Gives you a kind of mysterious look."
Neji stared at her in amusement as best as he could without succumbing to the instinct to tear.
"So you mean you don't like my Byakuugan eyes?"
"What?" the corner of Tenten's lips quirked upwards, "Now when did I say that?"
"Although," she continued, "You do sort of remind me of that Uchiha boy now."
Neji gave her a dead panned look so that she refrained from saying anymore, but couldn't help but revel in his discomfort in knowing that he looked like a certain raven haired man.
The day of Mako-san's birthday finally arrived and everyone had gathered at the village square. Being old fashioned, they had insisted on wearing traditional garments and decorated the location to resemble a festival.
"Neji, you look youthfully fabulous today!" Lee praised, "A spitting image of Haku I bet."
The now dark eyed Hyuuga wore a simple grey cotton yukata in the heat of spring with his haired tied loosely at the end per usual.
"Where's Te-,I mean Chihiro," Neji said, using their fake names.
"She will be here shortly, Rumii is helping her with her yukata," the mailman who originally wrote the letters answered him. And just as he finished speaking, Tenten appeared at the corner of the street wearing a light pink yukata, a woman, presumably Rumii, was behind her fixing the obi.
"Are we late?" She blinked, seeing everyone standing there.
Neji took in her full appearance, her hair was pulled up and decorated with a few simple hair pins rather than her usual two buns. Her face was flawless with no makeup, her deep brown eyes seemed to sparkle with excitement.
He allowed himself a small appreciative smile before offering his arm to her. Tenten nearly tripped over her sandals, but hooked her arm in his and they set off to meet Mako-san in the village square.
"My beautiful blossom looks so grown up," Gait exclaimed happily watching them.
-
The celebration had gone off without a hitch! Mako-san was in tears, happy ones of course, at the appearance of her 'grandson'. She had hugged Neji so tightly, that he swore he felt his ribs crack. Who knew such a small and frail woman had so much strength?
"Mako-baachan, I'm Chihiro, Haku's wife," Tenten smiled warmly, taking the grandmother's hand in hers.
Mako brought her hands up to Tenten's face and smiled with approval as if to say, 'Thank you for taking care of my grandson.'
Neji watched the warming scene, almost hoping that one day it would occur again with his own mother in place of Mako.
Tenten glanced over at him and winked.
-
Hours later, when the party had finally died down and everyone had left to their homes; Neji sat at the front of Mako's house, winding down from the day's events.
Gai Sensei and Lee had offered to help clean up with square since Neji and Tenten had already played their part.
The Hyuuga male sat with one leg dangling off the porch and the other bent with his arm resting on it.
"Tired?" a voice he knew all too well chuckled from behind him.
"No, just waiting for Mako-san to sleep so that I can take these damned contacts off," he muttered.
Neji heard shuffling from behind him and felt Tenten seat herself behind him. He turned his head to see that she had changed into more comfortable clothes and her hair was now in its usual style. Gently, she brushed her hand against his cheek to tell him to turn around again.
When he did, lithe hands that were calloused from handling weapons were placed on his shoulders. Tenten proceeded to squeeze and apply pressure to his shoulders, loosening his muscles and helping him relax. They sat there in silence for a bit until Tenten finally spoke.
"You know, she reminded me of my own grandmother." Neji didn't answer, waiting for her to continue.
"She died a couple years back from old age." He noticed her pause, and remembered the elderly woman's funeral when Tenten was 17. Her grandmother had been her legal guardian since she was 10, so naturally Tenten had been a mess for the following month or two.
"I miss her still," Tenten whispered, stopping her ministrations to wipe away some stray tears. Neji nodded in understanding, turning around to allow her to bury her head in his shoulder. With her breathing calmed, Tenten lifted her head up and looked up at him mischievously.
"You know Neji…if you weren't a shinobi, I think you'd do well as an actor," Tenten grinned, "Although maybe that's why you seem to finish all under cover missions so easily. I bet if I told Tsunade about this, she'd assign you more of those…" she trailed off. Neji paled at the thought of having to wear contacts again, which Tenten noticed and laughed.
"Don't you dare," he glared, which obviously didn't work because Tenten took the opportunity to press her lips against his softly.
End
A/N: I was being a little spontaneous when I wrote this and the story just started to take a mind of its own and thus a lot of recurring fluff! I tried my best to keep Neji in character, but I found it difficult as the situation was somewhat humorous to me. Please drop me a review ;) It's much appreciated!
Yours,
Musei Kage