The meaning of a flower
Note: Hello! This is my first time writing a fic and I'm currently at noob level so you may expect many grammar errors, crappy description and stuff like that. This is a short one shot for NejiTen!
Disclaimer: Naruto and NejiTen belongs to Kishi. Although I disapprove it! :(
Enjoy!
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"NEJI! NEJI! NEJI!" a high-pitched manly voice pierced through the forest which made the owner of the name shivered a little. Damn! Not him again!
The Hyuuga prodigy slowly opened one eye. He saw his green teammate jumped up and down in front of him. It was no long a rare sight for Neji anymore. Hmph, what can he expect from his idiotic teammate, already eighteen years old but still acted like a little child. Neji was feel like rolling his eyes the first time he witness his hyper teammate rather 'excited' behaviors on their first day of a team. Right! Like hell he would roll his eyes. Hyuuga ain't rolling eyes. That's just how cool they are!
"What is it, Lee?" Neji asked impatiently while closing his opened eye. He took a mental note to himself a long time ago that if he wanted Lee to go away as soon as possible, he has to respond to Lee's conversation. The kid can go on forever if he did not get the attention he wanted.
"Neji, my dear rival! Do you know what the day is today?!" Lee asked happily.
"Ugh…Monday…?" Neji answered.
"What! NO! My rival! Of course I know today is Monday but what day is today?!" Lee asked again. He stopped bouncing for good.
"Lee. Aren't you aware that you ask the same question twice?" Neji said but now opened both eyes. He raised one hand to rub his temple. Lee seriously got on his nerve sometime, scratch that, all the time must be the correct words.
"My rival! You don't remember what day is today? I'm really disappointed in you, Neji!" Lee scowled.
"And that came from a mouth of a shinobi who simply can't do any ninjutsu nor genjutsu." Neji answered back in sarcasm while glaring at his teammate. Nobody disappointed in Neji. Neji is the one who disappointed in people. That's how he rolls!
"Today is our beautiful flower's birthday! Do you honestly not remember, Neji?" Lee sighed, clearly not offended by Neji's insult.
Neji's glaredquickly faded, replaced by shocked expression written all over his handsome face. Oh…Shi-…
"Well then, I'm off! I have to go find a super youthful present that will literally blow Tenten's mind away! Its gonna be all cool and awesome, more than your present, my dear rival!" Slapped the last sentence on Neji's face, Lee took off to his search for a present of youthfulness while leaving the genius of the team dumbfounded in his seat.
Now with Lee literally gone for good, normally, Neji would immediately go back to his meditation, but now, the prodigy eyes and mind glued to nothing specific in the air in front of him.
Holy…Today is her birthday?!
~~~~ o ~~~~
Neji walked aimlessly on Konoha's street. Why in the world would he forget his best friend's birthday? A very bad friend that's who. Although, even in his dying state, he would never admit Tenten is his best friend. Out loud at least. Friendship was not a word in Neji Hyuuga's dictionary, even though there were only two words in that ridiculous dictionary which were 'Training' and 'Stronger'. Typical Neji. But the day he joined Team Gai, the day he became a proper genin, the day he met…her, the cold-heart genius slowly started to understand the term so called 'friendship'. A friend is the one who always support you, the one who always around you, the one who always understand you, the one who always listen to you, and that was Tenten to him. She always there for him.
Tenten is a friend to Neji. Yes, that must be it. A friend, a good friend, if he feels like flattered her. Yes, her, just a good friend.
Neji has a habit of lying to himself.
Neji lied to himself a lot, especially when matter related to emotions or relationships. He lied that he did not want to be friend with any rookies in Konoha 11 group, but in fact, he found himself secretly enjoyed their annoying conversations during group meeting. He lied to himself that he hate his team monthly dinner tradition, but he found himself end up being there every month. He lied to himself that he never smiled after his father's death, but he found himself unconsciously smiling to a person. There is one big fat lie that he told himself above all. Tenten is only a friend. Only.
In the bottom of his icy cold heart, Neji somehow aware of the funny feeling that built up inside his stomach whenever he met his female teammate big chocolate eyes. The beautiful eyes that drowned him from time to time in his own thoughts. The beautiful eyes that took his breath every time his white orbs landed on them.
Lie is still a lie. However, truth will come out some how.
Neji lied. Yes, but he himself knew that he is lying. He liked the sound of her voice when she gossiped with the girls during group meeting. He liked the feeling when her arms accidently touched his due to their close proximity during team dinner. He liked to secretly smiling at her adorable gestures without her notice when they were talking.
Somehow, Neji knew he liked Tenten, a lot.
That's what Tenten to him.
A girl he can't get off his mind.
But there he was, forgetting the girl, who supposed to be a friend but didn't, birthday. What the hell is wrong with him?
A reason can wait, he had to find a gift for her before she returned from her solo mission.
What can he giver her? Weapon, a set of new kunais or shurikens…? Maybe. The girl held a special love for her dear weapons. She cared for them, a little too much? There was one day that Neji got scowled by Tenten for dropping her precious katana carelessly on the ground. He sometimes wished to become one of her weapons.
Nice, Neji! You're jealous of some lifeless objects.
He rubbed his temple again, he seemed to that a lot lately. Back to the gift, Neji knew Tenten would really love to receive new weapons but he had done that every year. Too cliché? He did not like cliché stuff.
'I'm going to get her something different this year.' Neji told himself.
Neji looked at different stores on both sides of the street and set himself a check list in his head.
Clothes? - Can't! There was one thing that the great genius Hyuuga Neji is clueless, shocking, about is female fashion sense. Beside, Haruno or Yamanaka, maybe Hinata would give that to her. So scratch that.
Food? - A cake maybe? - Can't do that either, Akamachi probably taking care of that.
Stuff animals? - …Inuzuka would think about it. Beside, there is no way Hyuuga Neji would walked into a stuff animals shop. Not even Hiashi-sama made him.
Weapons? Did I just scratch that already?
Books? – I didn't know what type of books she like. Eh?! Is that Kakashi-sensei in adult novel section…?
Ramen? - …the hell…?
Flowers?
Yes! Flowers would be an excellent choice. Every girl loves flowers. That was what he heard. Except the red rose, flowers can make quite a good change for this year.
So Neji went to the nearest flower shop.
~~~~ o ~~~~
*Cling*
"Hello! Welcome to Yamanaka's flower shop! What can I ge-…" Ino greeted and looked up to her customer after hearing the doorbell. At the first sight of the customer, she dropped her fashion magazine to the ground. Also her jaws.
"OH! HOLY SHIT! Neji-san?! What are you doing here? Oh My God! Neji Hyuuga is in my flower shop? Jesus! Is the sky falling down outside Neji-san?! Oh My! I have to text to Sakura!"
Neji covered one ear of his after Ino's loud speech.
"Is this how you greet your customer, Yamanaka?" Neji grunted
Looking up from her cellphone, Ino looked at the prodigy in wide-eyed once again.
"Is this… some kind of a prank?" Ino asked, her eyes were ready to fall out of their sockets.
"What the heck, Yamanaka! I aware of your insanity but I never expect it to be this Much." Neji, already pissed of the younger girl disrespectful reaction, turned his heels to the door.
'If I know this much annoying, I shouldn't have come in the first place.' Neji told himself.
"Oh wait wait, Neji-san! I apologized! I'm a little shocked, that's all! Its just that I would…erm…never expect to see you in here…Heh…what can I help you with?" Ino stepped out of the counter and ran slowly toward the unexpected customer of her.
"Hn." Neji sighed. "I would like a small bouquet for a gift. What is your recommendation?" Neji asked
"Oh! To someone special, eh? Who is the lucky girl?!" Ino looked at Neji while grinning, Ino's gossip mode activated.
Neji glared hard at the florist.
"Yamanaka!"
"Oh! Gomen gomen!" Ino apologized, clearly scared to death by Neji's murderous glare. "If so, do you know which type of flower she -erm- the person like?" Ino asked
Tenten's favorite flowers…Okay! Why in the world he did not think about this first before enter the flower shop. So much intelligence for a genius. Neji frowned his eyebrows. He tried to search any clue about Tenten favorite flowers in his memories.
'Clue, clue, clue…Okay! Two or three years ago, there was a time our team went to help a farmer harvested his flower gardens. It was a D-rank mission. Tenten was avoided the daisy area. She told me she had a weird allergy with daisy ah, and also carnation. So those two are out of the list. If I remembered correctly…, she did say she liked Iris, didn't she…? Lavender, lavender…ah! Tenten! Her scent smelled like lavender flower. Its nice…What the?! Focus Neji! Do not get distracted by her scent nor her eyes, or her voice…okay…I just did it again…'
'The other day when I came to her apartment, there was a small vase on her coffee table that filled with little lavender spikes…That must be it then! Tenten's favorite flower is Lavender!
Realization hit Neji, he turned around to face the florist.
"I would like one bouquet of lavender flowers, get me the best kind."
"O-oh, okay!" Ino answered
She hurried to the lavender section. She searched and pick up the best looking spikes. The younger girl then looked up to Neji.
"Do you want any kind to go with it?"
"Uhm…I think not. These are fine!" Neji looked kind of pleased with the purple flowers.
"Which size would you prefer for your bouquet then? Small, medium, or big? And which of these colors would you like for the string?" Ino brought the fresh flowers to her counter, opened a box filled with many different colorful strings and showed it to Neji.
"Make it big, but keep its elegance look." Neji paused and looked at the box, he saw a string that reminded him of his female teammate.
" This light brown one would do." Neji pointed at the string he wanted.
"Alright! I'll be done in five minutes. That time, you can look around, see if you want to give more to your lucky woman."
Ino winked deviously at Neji and took off with the flowers to the room behind the shop. Have nothing to do while waiting, he did what he was told and looked around at the shop.
First few months of the year was the best time for flowers to grew and harvested. The small shop filled with different colors and shaped flowers. Neji walked around different section. He stopped.
"Neji-san! I'm done!" Ino called out to Neji as she walked into the shop with a beautiful bouquet of lavender in her arm. She looked up from the bouquet and saw Neji stared dreamily at that type of flowers. Ino shocked. She was not surprised very much by the softness on the Hyuuga prodigy's face that she had never seen before. She was actually shocked at the way the Hyuuga prodigy looked at the flowers. As if he was in love…
"Yamanaka." Neji spoke, still keep his pearl eyes at the flowers.
"Yes?!" Ino jumped slightly at the voice that broke the silence.
"Would you…make a small bouquet out of these?"
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A/N: So…how was it, mates?! :D
I knew it was pretty poor writing but how were the structure and idea in ur opinion. Do I organize it okay or should I change anything? Review please?!=3 any kind would do! I will appreciate them all!
I do apologize of Tenten lack of present but she definitely be on part 2.
Part 2 will be the last and I'm working on it.