Disclaimer: EEEEEEEKKKKKKK!!! My first request! Bravo! This is dedicated to Shins Lighter, by the 'talented authoress'. Sorry, my ego is exploding. Don't own Naruto! Note: No whetstones were hurt in the making on this fic.
Neji sat comfortably meditating up a tree, while TenTen and Lee sparred, as Gai-sensei watched on from the sidelines. It was easy to see who Gai was rooting for.
"YES LEE! LET THE FLAME OF YOUTH BURN BRIGHTLY WITHIN!!!" TenTen scowled at him, and hurled another barrage of kunai at Lee angrily. Stupid teacher's pet.
As Gai's cheers grew louder and more energetic, TenTen grew more furious. All her pent up anger at Lee and Gai for being so creepy and 'youthful', was showing in the way she fought. Her kunai and shuriken landed more hits on Lee's torso and legs, even with his freakish speed.
One well placed kunai later, Lee was successfully stopped and pinned to a tree. The bad part was, it went right though his shoulder, directly above the bone. As Gai bawled over the injury of his protégée, TenTen marched angrily up to Lee, angrily plucked the shuriken out of the bleeding wound, and wiped it on the grass. She stormed off to her duffel bag on the other side of the field, as Gai carried Lee on his back to the hospital, screaming that if he didn't make it in four minutes, he would perform three hundred pushups, while singing Abba songs.
Neji watched all of this from under the cool shade of his tree, and a ghost of a smile touched his lips as he watched TenTen swear and sharpen her weapons with her long suffering whetstone, which they had decided to make the team mascot, and named Jerry. He winced as TenTen pulled out a particularly vicious scimitar and began raking it across the stone without mercy. Poor Jerry.
Neji stood up and brushed off his shorts, then walked over to TenTen. He placed a cool hand on her forehead, and she stiffened at the sudden contact. Her chocolate eyes looked surprised and wary, and grew tense were Neji's Byakugan flickered to life.
"You better mediate, because your chakra's getting to your heart to fast, and it might explode in the next five minutes, and cleaning up that would be very unpleasant." There was a small smile flirting around his mouth, and TenTen stared at it fixedly. Did Neji just make a joke?
TenTen took a deep breath, and tried to soothe her angry thoughts of strangling Lee. Neji looked at her with his Byakugan once more, and nodded with approval. She punched him on the shoulder.
"Sorry I blew up today. Gai just, just got under my skin, and I really- oh great, I think Jerry's dead." TenTen held up the mangled stone, and examined it carefully. The poor rock was almost completely spilt in half. She sighed and stood up, dusting off her knees. Neji raised an eyebrow.
"I've got another one at home. And I borrowed Hinata's jacket last week, so you're coming with me. Now get up." And with that she grabbed his hand and hauled him to his feet. They started walking through the village towards TenTen's house. She stopped in front of a small apartment building, and rang the buzzer. The door swung open, and TenTen bounded up the worn staircase. After three flights of walking in silence, they stopped at an old brown door, and she knocked twice.
Instantly, a worried woman with the same brown hair and eyes as TenTen opened the door. Her nervous frown broke into a smile, and she pulled TenTen into a relieved hug. TenTen feebly pushed her away.
"Aunt Ling! Stop it!" Ling laughed and released her grip on her niece's neck. She draped an arm fondly around her, and surveyed Neji in a quick once over look, and stopped on his pale Hyuuga eyes. There was a spark of recognition in her cheery brown eyes.
"So, you're the Neji Hyuuga, eh? I'm Aunt Ling. Come on in; I just took the duck out." TenTen looked from Neji into the small apartment, and blushingly shook her head.
"Aunt Ling, I just have to grab a whetstone and Hinata's jacket, but then we have to get back to training because-." Ling waved a wooden spoon in her face, dismissing the very idea of missing lunch, and promptly dragged them both into the small kitchen, to were a short, balding man sat eating furiously fast with a pair of chopsticks. He eyeballed them and grunted a hello. TenTen hugged him.
"Jin Bo! Get up and-!" Aunt Ling broke into a stream of Cantonese, as Neji was hustled out of the crammed kitchen, into a small bedroom. It was obviously TenTen's room, judging from the freakishly huge amount of weapons that decorated the walls. TenTen closed the door with a sigh and sagged against it.
"Don't touch the bed; it's booby trapped. My uncle thinks it's a good way for me to keep on my toes." She dashed into the closet, and dodged several kunai that flew directly at her face, only to pop out two seconds later with a beige jacket that obviously belonged to Hinata. A buzzer rang in the kitchen, and with surprising speed, Aunt Ling ripped open the door, and ushered both of them to the kitchen, where Jin Bo was eating an unidentifiable pile of meat and vegetables, with a beer. Neji sat gingerly across from him.
"Here." Jin Bo thrust a beer into his hand, and snapped the top open. He leaned back in his chair and took a long pull of his own, never taking his icy blue eyes off of Neji, who resisted the strong urge to swallow himself.
"Try a few o' those; we'll see if you're really the man my niece can't shut up about." Neji looked down, as TenTen burned a lovely shade of tomato. He looked down at the dark brown beer, then chugged half of the can. Jin Bo grinned wolfishly, as Aunt Ling and TenTen exchanged nervous glances. It was well known that Jin Bo's home brew could take out a moose; almost as well known that Hyuugas had low alcohol tolerance.
Neji coughed and sputtered as the strong liquor burned the back of his throat, and his head seemed to feel very fuzzy and the room seemed to be spinning. TenTen was staring at him, looking very concerned. Neji smiled widely and waved at her happily. Her pink shirt was slipping and he had a lovely view to the clasp of her black bra. He started laughing like a sociopath.
TenTen glared at her uncle, and dragged Neji out the door. Her voice floated up from the stairwell. "Thanks for lunch Aunt Ling! I'll be back for dinner around six!" There were several high pitch giggles that followed.
TenTen pulled Neji onto a bench and sat down next to him. She tried to think of what Aunt Ling had told her about curing hangovers, but instead remembered Ino's advice: one hard slap.
Neji rubbed his check, as an angry red handprint bloomed across his face. Without warning, TenTen swooped down and pecked him on the cheek, and then her face burned red.
"My aunt used to say that a kiss takes the hurt away," she mumbled into her hands. Neji thought for a few moments, and then chomped down on his lip, until a drop of blood appeared. TenTen stared at him.
"My lip hurts." TenTen grinned roguishly. Well, she wouldn't stand for that.
Several hours later, Neji returned to the Hyuuga compound around sunset. He smiled fleetingly at Hinata and tossed her the jacket from TenTen. She looked down at it, confused.
"TenTen said you'd let her borrow it last week, and she gave it to me." Hinata looked startled. Now Neji was getting confused.
"Neji, I haven't seen TenTen in almost two months, and I haven't worn a jacket like this for almost a year. It's not mine."
Back in her weapons filled room, TenTen opened her closet to change into her pajamas and was almost swallowed by the dozens of beige jackets hanging in her closet that had fallen off the hangers.
