I got this inspiration from the song by Katie Armiger, "Unseen".
Some OoC, possibly.
Neji/TenTen pairing. (Yay!)
Review, if you please.
Re-Posted for certain Grammar mistakes. I'm nothing if not a perfectionist.
Disclaimer: I own not.
Song: Unseen - Katie Armiger.
Unseen.
I always expected to be ignored. I'd been overlooked most of my life, considered not worthy enough of anyone's time. TenTen: The weapons mistress who isn't so pretty to be noticed, doesn't have enough talent to be praised, too mediocre to hang out with. I had lived with that, and I didn't expect anything more. Still, it didn't keep me from dreaming.
My sixteenth birthday had been planned like all of my birthdays before: A small, quiet party with my teammates. It had never changed; I was content with just such. The only thing different this year was that all of Team Guy had become Chunin. I was pleased, along with the rest of my teammates. We were all the same rank, if not ability.
Neji had started to prepare for the Jonin Exams, which employed me to train with him. He wanted me to be harsher on him, which kind of frightened me. I mean, my teammate was annoying sometimes, but for me to pull out all stops against him made me uncomfortable. But Neji insisted, so I obliged, as always.
Lee had begged me to let him set up the decorations at Guy-sensei's house, but I had refused. It was my party, after all. Streamers with fishes printed on them and water balloons just didn't say 'Sixteen' to me. It read to be more like, say, four. So, I did the decorations myself, hanging some simple balloons around the room. I sat down after I had finished, glancing around the room, pleased . . . but discontent somehow. I turned around as I heard the door slide open. Neji entered, glancing around with his pale eyes. He found me.
"Am I late?" he asked, but I knew full well that he knew he wasn't.
"No. You're kind of early, actually," I answered, watching him carefully.
There was a pause as Neji looked at one of the balloons I had hung.
"Good," he finally said, walking over to me and handing me a small, wrapped box.
I started to open it, treating it carefully. Once the paper was off, a small inscription was scrawled in Neji's handwriting.
For my favorite kunoichi, was all it said.
I looked up at Neji, but he was turned away, focusing once more on the balloons. I turned back to my present opening. I lifted the lid of the box.
Inside was a necklace. Honestly, it hadn't been what I'd expected. For my previous birthdays, Neji had strictly only given me certain weaponry. Of course I had appreciated them, but they were just teammate gifts, nothing endeavored in or personal. This, however, was obviously different.
I glanced up at Neji. He had dropped his interest in the balloons, and was now looking at me intensely, searching for my reaction.
"It was my mother's," he told me, glancing quickly at the necklace and then back to me.
I stood and hugged him tightly, not understanding why my eyes had started to leak. Neji politely dealt with it, grasping my waist loosely.
"Thank you," I whispered earnestly, trying to plug my tears.
Neji nodded, his cheek moving against my hair.
I turned away, partly to hid my tears, and partly to put on the necklace Neji had given me.
Finally, the person who I'd wanted to acknowledge me most had finally done it. Neji had noticed me, the real me.
Maybe I wasn't as unseen as I thought.