AN: Merry Christmas!
And I don't own Naruto.
Neji Hyuga was a proud shinobi. He had a reputation for always being serious, living out his no-nonsense attitude to the last detail and was held in high regards as a jounin. He was a member of the prestigious Hyuga clan, a natural genius and prodigy, destined for greatness in the future and he had a talented and beautiful girlfriend.
Or, as his younger self would have said, fate seemed to favour him (even after all his childhood traumas).
So this situation right now was just… ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous.
He felt his eyebrow twitch in annoyance as Kaka- no, the Sixth Hokage desperately tried not to burst out in laughter at his current discomfort.
Tenten and Lee were sitting next to him, his female teammate awkwardly laughing after explaining the events which led to their current appearance. More specifically, Tenten's and his.
Because as idiots rarely fall sick, they apparently can also outrun devastating jutsus.
The Sixth suddenly snorted before breaking out in uncontrollable laughter, tears forming in the corners of his eyes, the shape of his mouth widening under his ever-present mask. He banged his hand on his desk for good measure, wheezing between his roaring laughs, desperately trying to reign himself in and fill his lungs with oxygen again.
Tenten shot Neji a guilty look, mouthing 'sorry' in the process.
He let out a frustrated sigh. It wasn't her fault, but he had the nagging feeling she'd still feel partially guilty. That's just the kind of person Tenten was.
However, this… man… was their village's, Konoha's strongest shinobi. Who was currently laughing his ass off at their expense. How on earth was Konoha supposed to survive?
"Lord Sixth…" One of the ANBU tried calming his master. "Deep breaths, Lord Sixth."
Kakashi calmed down after a few minutes, clearing his throat while averting his visible eye. "Please continue, Tenten." He ordered, pretending his outbreak in laughter mere minutes ago never happened.
Lee suddenly started gushing out tears of happiness. "What a youthful rival our teacher has!"
This time both Tenten and Neji let out simultaneous groans.
Tenten pushed aside her teammate's exuberant antics and continued explaining what had happened. "After that, we concealed our appearances and headed straight back to the village. We let Lee collect the reward on the way since we didn't want to unsettle anybody with this." She gestured to her hair, or rather what was in her hair, which hadn't been there prior to the mission. Two cat ears were perched in front of either of her buns, and a long tail gracefully curled behind her.
The C-rank mission even genin could have been sent out on. Neji pondered on that thought a bit longer. Hell, genin would probably even find some sort of silver lining in all this. He however could not find one single positive aspect about their partial transformation (okay, maybe Tenten looked really cute like that, but he'd appreciate a 100% human girlfriend, thank you very much).
"Are you annoyed, my dear Tenten?" The respectable (not) Hokage asked the brunette girl. "Because your ear has been twitching for the past minute." He snickered.
Tenten glowered at him, crossing her arms in defiance. "Dear Lord Sixth," she said in a saccharine laced voice. "just because you are a dog person, it doesn't mean you have to disregard a cat's feelings as well. As I'm sure you're well aware, cats don't bark before they attack you." She finished it off with a harmless smile, dangerously twirling a kunai around her fingers at the same time.
"Hehehe…" Kakashi attempted to brush it off nonchalantly, but everybody in the office must've heard his audible gulp after the brunette kunoichi finished her speech. "So, just to get this right," He started, looking at the notes one of the ANBU made during their conversation, "you left for your mission two weeks ago, the mission being to retrieve a lost item for a VIP's son near the border of the Fire country."
He paused his reiteration of the story to look at the trio in confirmation. They nodded.
"You got there without any problems, met up with the client for the specifics and left to search for the item, which was a cat plushie. By using his byakugan, Neji was able to determine its whereabouts, namely in the house of an elder lady."
All three nodded one more.
"Then you approached the lady, hoping she would give it back to you if you asked nicely. She then told you how much of a cat lover she was and why she chose to pick up the plushie."
Nod.
"But then, when she gave you the plushie back, she also cast some unknown jutsu to commemorate her favourite animals. Which turned the two of you," he gestured to Neji and Tenten, "into partial cats."
Another strained nod.
Kakashi sighed. "Go see what Tsunade or the jutsu division can do about it. You're dismissed."
The trio left the Hokage's office, all of them mentally exhausted.
"That was worse than I expected it to be." Tenten whined, her cat ears drooping in the process. "I can't believe he so openly just laughed at us!"
"I still question how the Elders ever thought it'd be a good idea to make that man Hokage." Neji added with a frown.
"Didn't the two of you see his youthful reaction to your youthful appearances?" Lee intervened.
"There's nothing youthful about this, it's purely downgrading." Neji sighed in irritation. "If Lady Hanabi ever sees me like this I'll never hear the end of it."
Tenten froze up. "You're right. We can't let your scary cousin see us like this." She said fully determined as she grabbed his sleeve and started dragging him down the hallway. "See you later, Lee. We'll go see Lady Tsunade now."
"See you later, my youthful teammates!" He hollered after them.
"Why do we even put up with people like him?" Tenten groaned as they headed towards Tsunade's office.
"I have no idea." Neji grumbled in defeat.
Of course, Tsunade broke into laughter the moment she laid eyes on them. It was probably because of Neji's annoyed expression, which made him look like a grumpy little fur ball instead of the usually intimidating Hyuga.
After making a comment on how 'cute' they were, to which the Hyuga genius merely scoffed, she examined their newly acquired extremities, starting off by stating how fluffy their fur was.
Neji's face morphed from annoyed to mortified, making both kunoichi giggle.
"Now now, Neji-kun." The former Hokage grinned. "Why don't you try ending all of your sentences with 'nyan'?"
"Over my dead body." The Hyuga replied coldly.
"Lady Tsunade, please," Tenten quipped in, stopping the two of them before things got worse. "We were hoping you could help us find a way to reverse this jutsu."
The blonde woman leaned back in her chair, stroking her chin with perfectly manicured fingers. A smirk crossed her face.
"I might help you, but I do have one condition." She explained.
"And what would that condition be?" Neji asked close to losing his patience.
"Both of you, end your next sentence with 'nyan'!"
"…"
"Tenten, we're leaving now." Neji abruptly stood up, grabbing his girlfriend's arm and dragged her out before she could say anything.
Luckily, the jutsu division was far more willing to help them (even cat ears and cat tails can't take away the scary out of Neji Hyuga) and told them to come back in a few hours, giving the two shinobi the long-needed opportunity to rest.
They settled down in one of the training rooms in Hokage Tower, Tenten falling on her stomach, ready to sleep the next five days. "Man, I'm tired." She muttered.
Neji however, in all his Hyuga elegance, sat down on the ground, crossed his legs and closed his eyes. "Use this time window to rest a bit." He told her.
"You won't need to tell me twice." She sighed contently as she put her head down on her arms, nearly falling asleep right then and there. But something kept her up.
Her brown eyes followed the curve of Neji's newly acquired tail with interest. "Y'know," she mumbled, "she's right."
"I thought you were going to sleep." Neji commented.
Ignoring what her companion just said, Tenten continued scrutinizing his tail, which started curling as he began to meditate. "It's really fluffy."
"And what if it is?" He huffed in annoyance. He suddenly froze up as he felt her fingers running along the tip of his tail.
"Hey, turn around for a second." She said, eyes still fixated on the fluffiness before her. "You need to see this."
"Hn."
"C'mon, just turn around for a bit."
Adamant to prove his ability to ignore and defy her, he concentrated on peaceful thoughts, sinking further into his meditative state.
"Turn around, Hyuga."
Neji mentally swore at his inability to do what he had planned to, succumbing to her rather authorising tone. He turned around, letting out an irritated "What?" (except that it didn't sound the least bit irritated because his body has a mind of its own).
"The colour of your fur matches your hair colour perfectly." She said innocently with a smile.
"That's what you wanted to tell me?" He raised an eyebrow at her.
"Maybe, maybe not." She replied a bit playfully, winking at him.
He may have been deemed a genius, but it takes more than a genius to understand what the hell women are thinking.
And as he watched her, he reached out to straighten out her bangs and her short ponytail between her buns. His fingers brushed the fur on her ears for a second and he suddenly knew what she was talking about.
"You're right." He whispered. 'You're always right', he wanted to add, but stopped himself as he saw the triumphant smirk dancing across her lips. He didn't want to give her too much credit, after all.
She propped herself up on her elbows. "Do I get a reward for being right?" She asks with a smile.
"Maybe, maybe not." He smirks at her.
She frowns for a moment, making her ears twitch at the same time.
Neji thinks back to what he had thought an hour ago, seeing no perks within this jutsu. He leaned down towards her, ready to kiss her (because he's such a sucker for her) and decided maybe there was something good about this nasty jutsu after all. Like how incredibly cute Tenten looked right now.
Just as their lips were about to meet, the door to the training room was kicked down, making the two of them whip their faces towards the now broken entrance.
"Yosh!" An overly familiar voice called out, making Tenten and Neji sigh. Rock Lee stepped through the rubble of the door and stood in front of them, victory written all over his face.
The two shinobi grimaced once they saw what he was wearing.
"Lee, why are you wearing fake cat ears and a fake tail?" The brunette kunoichi carefully probed.
"Because I have decided to join you in your youthful endeavours! Your youthful appearance, Tenten, makes you shine even brighter than nearly all the other flowers in Konoha, but I'm afraid you still do not quite reach Sakura-san." He declared while striking the 'Nice-Guy-pose'.
Tenten visibly blanched. "I never knew that was my intention…" She remarked sarcastically.
"And since both the jutsu division and Lady Tsunade have yet to come up with a solution, I will prove our friendship and rivalry in this challenge for us to reach the ultimate springtime of youth together by adjusting myself to your current appearances." He explained on, ignoring Tenten's comment.
"Can this get any worse?" Neji growled out in irritation.
"I , too, shall help out my poor cousin and his girlfriend!" Another voice exclaimed, followed by a young, black-haired girl with a striking byakugan.
Neji sighed. Lee was one thing, but Lady Hanabi as well? His mind connected the dots, concluding that Lee must've lead his devil of a cousin here, interrupting his precious time with Tenten and getting on his nerves.
He takes back everything he said about the whole cat jutsu having perks. Tenten was cute on her own, and the rest was just an unnecessary nightmare.
Lee was standing there, smiling at them dazzlingly while Lady Hanabi, in a similar get-up, stood next to him giving them a thumbs-up.
One day, Neji was definitely going to kill him.
AN: This is my Christmas present for all of you, but you'll have to thank the wonderful Nairil for asking me to write this for her art piece "Ears and Tails". Go check out her art on tumblr if you haven't already ;)
~Emi