Started: August 6, 2016
Finished: August 7, 2016
So she may or may not have found him tied to a tree in his underwear while she was walking her dog. And because he now owes her one, she's taken the liberty of beginning to slowly steal all of his clothes.
If there was one thing that Tenten enjoyed, it was consistency. Surprises just didn't do much for her. It was why she liked having a big dog who, just like her, worked like clockwork. Her Doberman stood just past her hips when standing upright. Tenten and the dog, named Karma, went out for walks in a schedule practically set in stone.
Tenten would get up at six. By six fifteen, she was out the door with Karma. Six forty-five and they were back home from a good run. They'd both eat breakfast at seven fifteen after Tenten's shower, and then by seven forty-five, Tenten was out the door to head to be at work by eight. She'd get home from work at five and take Karma out again for a leisurely walk that lasted about an hour. And then before she went to bed at midnight, she took Karma out one more time. It wasn't necessary if Karma went to the bathroom during their five o-clock walk, but Tenten liked to be outside at night. The usually bustling neighborhood was quiet and serene. It was the same every night, and Tenten felt at peace in the consistency.
But one summer night, the walk was a little different than usual.
She had a bandage on her arm covering the tattoo she'd gotten earlier in the day to complete her sleeve. Her short brown hair was out of its usual twin-bun hairstyle, and she put a backwards hat on to keep her hair out of her face. Her sweatshirt was one that she'd stolen from an ex-boyfriend years prior, and it was baggy on her slim athletic frame.
Karma pulled on her leash more than usual, and Tenten clicked her tongue. The dog whined for a moment, but relented nonetheless. They got to the end of the block before Karma began pulling again, harder this time. Caught off guard, Tenten allowed herself to get tugged along by the sixty-pound animal.
"Um. Hi."
Tenten squinted under the low light of the streetlamps and found herself looking up at a guy.
Karma was smelling this mystery man, and that's when Tenten realized that he was standing in his underwear. And tied to a tree.
"Usually my dog drags me to chase rabbits, but tonight she seems to have led me to a witch. When are you scheduled to be burned at this stake?" Tenten asked, and the guy groaned.
"Listen, I've had a long night. If you could untie me, that'd be great."
His long hair was strewn across his face, and his eyes were so light they almost seemed white. His skin was porcelain in contrast to the dark lines and shapes of tattoos that splattered across his torso and arms.
"What do I get in return?" Tenten asked, crossing her arms after telling Karma to sit.
"I don't know; whatever you want, I guess. Most girls want a date with me or some money," he said, and shrugged.
Tenten stuck her tongue out. "I don't need a date with you, buddy. You're not my type."
Total lie, by the way.
"Money, then?"
He sounded casual, as if this were a regular conversation, and not one occurring in the dead of the night with him half-naked and tied to a tree.
"I've got enough of my own hard-earned cash, thank you very much."
"Well then what do you want, you hussy?"
Tenten cocked her head. She could understand that her statement could come off as illegal actions, but there was no need for insulting words. Especially when she was the one with the power here; she had the ability to release him from this wooden prison.
She looked up at him – a real chore to do, seeing as he was a full head taller than her – and simply smiled.
"I think that's enough conversing for us. Hope you get out of here before the parents in the neighborhood wake up and report you for being a sexual predator." And with that, she turned on the heel of her sneakers and let Karma lead her away.
"Wait!" came the cry from the mystery man. "I didn't mean it! Seriously, I need to get out of here. If I'm late to work tomorrow, I'm totally fucked."
This plea made Tenten pause. He could be lying, but she liked that he chose to stick to a story that alluded to good morals and values. She turned around slowly and looked down at her dog.
"What do you think, Karma? Should we let him go?" she asked the animal. Karma barked, a loud, short noise. She shrugged and went back to the tree with the man tied to it.
"I want the keys to your place. And your address. In fact, take me home with you. Hell, I'll drive you there if you want."
"So you don't want a date, you just want to fuck? You should've said that to begin with, babe. We would've gotten outta here way sooner," he smirked, a mischievous gleam in his light eyes.
Tenten rolled her eyes, but decided it would be pointless to correct him. She began to work on the knot around the tree until the rope was loosened enough for him to step out. He stretched, and she watched as the muscles across his back grew taut with his movements. She averted her gaze before he caught her staring.
And so, Tenten returned home with a half-naked man in tow.
She ducked into her closet to find him some sweatpants and a shirt stolen from boyfriends of relationships past, and he pulled the pair of black sweats up over his plaid boxers. The elastic rode low on his hips, and she focused on scratching Karma's stomach to distract herself from staring again.
"Why'd you name your dog Karma, anyway?" the guy asked as he pulled the t shirt over his head. He plucked a hair tie right off of Tenten's wrist and tied his long hair up in a sloppy bun at the base of his neck.
"Because Karma's a bitch," she said in the same tone that she used whenever people asked about her dog's name. It was such a satisfying answer; she'd named her dog Karma specifically for this moment.
"Well then shouldn't your name be Karma, and not Tenten?" he asked lazily, and she found him looking through her pile of mail on the counter.
"Those are big words coming from a guy who two seconds ago was half-naked in my house," she said, trying her best to keep her composure. Which turned out to be a difficult task, considering it seemed as though she had just released a literal child out into the world. She was beginning to see why someone would want to tie him to a tree and leave him there.
"I could get half-naked again if you want me to, babe," he told her with a wink. She rolled her eyes and picked up her car keys from the kitchen counter.
"Just get in the car and tell me where to go."
She followed him up in an elevator to his penthouse apartment. Apparently he didn't need a key, just approval from the man downstairs at the counter. Tenten made sure to make small talk with the security guard, so that she would have access to this man's apartment in the future.
"Have a nice night, Mr. Hyuuga," the security guard called as the elevator doors closed, and Tenten did her best to contain her surprise.
There was only one Hyuuga who fit this man's age and gender, and she was currently plotting to commit petty theft against him. He also seemed to think that she was about to sleep with him. Either way, Tenten realized that she was way out of her league here.
The elevator doors dinged as they reached to top floor, and Neji's name showed up on the elevator screen rather than the floor number. No sooner did they set foot into his apartment did he attack her.
Suddenly, she was shoved roughly against the wall of the hallway, his hands slipping under her sweatshirt and brushing against her bare skin. A shiver ran down her spine and curled her toes as his warm fingers danced across her skin. His lips were against hers with a desperate hunger, catching her bottom lip between his teeth and biting it with a painstaking slowness. She found her own hands reaching up to bury themselves in his hair, which was way silkier than it looked, and that was saying something.
His hands grazed their way up her shirt, teasingly brushing against her bra as he pushed his hips against hers in a way that let her feel everything.
And somewhere between his tongue invading her mouth and his fingers searching for her bra hook, she realized what she was doing.
She continued to go along with the act as her fingers worked through his hair, releasing it from the bun he'd made earlier.
And she pushed him back and dangled the hair tie that he'd stolen from her in front of his pale eyes.
"I wasn't about to let you steal my hair tie, Neji Hyuuga."
And she hit the down elevator button and left his apartment.
Neji Hyuuga wasn't one to get outdone like that. He liked having the upper hand, and he definitely did not have the upper hand when this pipsqueak of a girl had done him dirty like that and left him panting like a fucking dog. He'd had to take an ice cold shower immediately following her disappearance, and Neji Hyuuga did not take cold showers.
But it wasn't all for naught. He knew her name. Knew her address. Knew her car. Knew that she was fiery. He would have fun with her.
Tenten's schedule started to change. It had to, in order for her to pull this off. She started going to work later and coming home later. When she wasn't at home and wasn't at work, she was at Neji's apartment. She became close to the security guard, bringing him sweets and offering to tell his fortune. And as she talked to him, she got to know Neji's schedule. When he was in the apartment, when he spent the night elsewhere, when he stayed there for days on end. She took note of each and every hint that she picked up from the security guard, and she planned for a day to begin her operation.
She took off from work one morning to begin. She dressed casually with a backpack hanging low on her back. She greeted the guard and asked if Neji was home. When he told her that he wasn't – as she expected – she told him that she was planning a surprise for him and that she wanted to set it up for when he got home.
The security guard grinned and told her to go up, but that was probably because she'd told him that she and Neji were exclusive as of late. A little lie went a long way.
The apartment was different in the light.
Of course, a lot of places seem different when you're not pushed up against the wall by some hot rich guy who wants to get in your pants.
She explored the penthouse, which consisted of two entire floors. The first floor held his kitchen and living room with ceiling-high windows, along with a guest room. The second floor consisted of another guest bedroom and an enormous room that could have only belonged to Neji Hyuuga. It had the biggest walk-in closet she'd ever seen and a huge flat-screen hanging on the wall opposite the king-sized bed.
Tenten flipped on the light switch for the closet and began her search.
She found the sweats and shirt that Neji had taken that fateful night, but she thought against taking them back; it would be too obvious.
So she dug through his drawers and found ratty sweatpants and sweatshirts and joggers that seemed like they hadn't been touched in months. She stuffed them all into her backpack, along with a few t shirts that seemed like they were from high school. She plucked a single button down shirt that could've easily cost more than her weekly salary, and she shoved it under her baggy t shirt, keeping it secure by the waistband of her shorts.
She checked the time, and cursed when she realized she'd been there too long. She hurried downstairs and jammed the down elevator button. Within five minutes, she was out of the building. She was in her car and about to drive away when she saw Neji Hyuuga walking down the block towards his apartment.
Earlier that morning, Neji Hyuuga found himself outside of the house of the girl who had blue-balled him. Her lock was easy to pick, and he entered her home with ease. The house seemed different in natural light, but he had also been slightly intoxicated that night. He slipped into her bedroom and shuffled through her drawers. He found her shorts and shirts and began the process of stitching his name into each and every one of them.
He did four shorts and one shirt by the time he decided he'd been there for too long. He drove to his apartment building and failed to notice the girl in the car at the end of the block who had a backpack full of his clothes.
This strange ritual went on for the next two weeks, with Tenten secretly stealing insignificant clothes from Neji's closet while he simultaneously stitched the four letters of his first name onto Tenten's clothes. And somehow, neither of them noticed. In fact, it was each of their friends who noticed before either of them did.
"Hey Tennie, what's that on the hem of your shorts?" Ino asked as they were out at brunch. Tenten was standing up, ready to leave when her friend had pointed it out. She twisted her torso so she could see the hem that Ino was talking about. And lo and behold, on the back of her shorts, right on the hem, was thread that spelled "NEJI".
Tenten cursed like a sailor about how she was going to get revenge and how he wasn't going to hear the end of this until she realized that all she had was his address and no phone number whatsoever.
Meanwhile, Neji was at his apartment with some old friends from high school when one of them spilled beer all over his pants. Neji offered Naruto a pair of his own sweats to wear while they threw the soiled clothes in the wash.
Naruto went to dig through Neji's closet and came back empty-handed.
"Neji, do you not own sweats anymore?" he asked, confused. And Neji was just as perplexed, so he followed Naruto into his closet and checked his drawers. And found that they were all entirely void of sweatpants and sweatshirts. Further searching resulted in him realizing that a good amount of his clothes were gone, most of the casual variety. And somehow, he knew exactly who to blame.
Good thing he knew where she lived.
Tenten was eating ice cream in one of Neji's expensive button downs and her underwear when the bell rang. Karma barked, and Tenten shushed her as she opened the front door.
"So that's where my favorite Armani shirt went," said the smooth voice of Neji Hyuuga.
Rather than feel embarrassed to be caught red-handed in a shirt she'd stolen, Tenten became infuriated.
"You sewed your name into all of my favorite clothes?" she shrieked, and had never more been so regretful that she hadn't taught Karma how to kill on command.
Neji shrugged. "You stole my clothes."
There was silence as she glared at him and as he glared right back.
And then a moan or two after their lips came crashing together.
In the end, they reached a nice medium. Of course, it took a lot of yelling and a lot of negotiating before they finally agreed, but they reached an agreement nonetheless.
Neji sent all of their clothes to a seamstress and had her sew their respective names onto their favorite clothes. He let Tenten keep a couple of his shirts, mainly because she looked mind-numbingly hot in one of his button downs, and she let him keep his name on a couple of her shorts, mainly because she liked to make it known that her ass belonged to him.
And it wasn't until years later on their wedding day that Tenten realized she never even knew why Neji was tied to a tree on the night they met.
Can I just say that this was probably the weirdest fanfic I've ever written? Like literally so pointless and with so many plotholes and totally shitty omg? I only wrote it because I found this INCREDIBLE NejiTen fanart and I fell in love with the way that Neji and Tenten were portrayed and had to write something about them. Coming up with this plot was so half-assed because I just wanted to get to work making these characters my own, you know? So seriously. If this sucked, I know. But if it didn't, please tell me in a review or a PM or a hand-written letter because I don't know what y'all like until you tell me!
PS: the title refers to the stealing of clothes and the stealing of kisses and maybe the stealing of hearts ;))))))