*legasp* My very first NejiTen oneshot! I hope I did okay; you wouldn't believe how hard it was to find the inspiration for it... o3o But I won't bore you with a long A/N; if you feel like hearing me rant about the details, feel free to ask. xD
But let's not forget the most important detail! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TAYLOR! I hereby dedicate this story to you, because you're just that awesome. Lemme know if you have anything to criticize about your birthday present, charicterization especially. xD;
Tenten: Kaiti doesn't own any of this, at all. Except Amira, who is an OC created just for this story. ;P
"Tenten. What are you doing?"
The speaker was Neji. He didn't even turn his head towards where he knew she was, but he kept his Byakugan activated.
Tenten stepped out from behind the tree she had spent the last five minutes. "I didn't want to interrupt your training. But now that you've stopped for the moment, may I join you?" she asked, giving her teammate a small grin.
Neji seemed to consider for a moment, but then less than a minute later, the two were going at each other hard. Not as hard as their sensei and other teammate loved to do, but nonetheless they pushed themselves.
"Hey, Neji?" Tenten asked after a while. She hurled half a dozen kunai knives at him.
Neji dodged each of them easily. "Hn?"
Tenten hesitated before continuing, but said, "Do I ever cross your mind?" She let loose another set of kunai knives along with shuriken.
Neji caught one of them and threw it back, dodging the others. "No."
Not at all? "Do you want me?" Tenten's second question was pretty vague, but she didn't try and specify what she meant as she threw more his way.
This time Neji managed to catch three kunai knives. He threw two back quickly and used the third to block the other incoming weapons. "No."
Tenten's eye twitched and she put a bit more force in her next set of weapons. "Do you even like me?"
Again the Hyuga prodigy dodged with seeming ease. "No."
That was a very flattering response. Tenten didn't know what exactly she expected from the guy that was so stoic most of the time, but they were teammates, for goodness' sake. That thought, along with the one that had pushed her into even beginning the conversation, made her ask, "Would you be upset if I left?"
Neji used his rotation technique as Tenten let loose dozens of weapons almost at once from different places around the clearing. "No."
Stubbornly determined to try and get a yes from him one of these times, Tenten asked next, "Would you live for me, do anything for me?"
Okay, so maybe that question was a bit more stupid than the others. It was dangerously close to letting her intentions for asking show, and how could she expect him to say yes to that when he said no to the others? But Tenten pulled out a couple scrolls to use as though her questions were the most ordinary ever asked.
Neji braced himself coolly for her attack. "No."
Tenten gritted her teeth and attacked with the numerous weapons that appeared from her scrolls. "Choose, Hyuga: me or your life."
Neji seemed to consider that one a little longer than the others, or perhaps he just had to focus more energy on dodging than the other times. He used rotation again after a moment and then replied, "My life."
Tenten shut up for the rest of the training session and then stormed off without even so much as a good-bye.
The next day, Tenten was officially not talking to Neji, even when Gai-sensei and Lee got assigned a mission separately from the two. The mission Neji and Tenten were to carry out was an escort mission. They were to make sure a visiting V.I.P. returned to her home safely.
The girl, Amira, of course had her own guards to protect her, but Lady Tsunade had decided that it wouldn't hurt to spare a couple ninja to help out, and Amira hadn't argued.
"Guide her safely back to her home in the Land of Waves," Lady Tsunade had ordered.
"Yes, ma'am," Neji and Tenten had both replied.
So now they were strolling down the road leading to their destination. Amira started talking with Tenten, and soon the girls were chatting like old friends.
"What made you decide to want to be a ninja?" Amira asked Tenten presently.
"Hm, well, I hate it when people, men especially, think that girls can't be as strong as the guys," Tenten answered. "I guess I just wanted to prove them wrong."
Amira nodded her encouragement and Tenten continued. "I mean, there's no proof to that whatsoever! Look at Lady Tsunade – she's a girl, and yet she's one of the sannin."
The conversation might have gone on longer, but suddenly the group found themselves surrounded. They didn't look like ninja, but Tenten was still wary. Neji, who had been walking a few feet away, also tensed, anticipating a fight.
Within seconds, battle ensued. Amira's guards stuck to her side like glue, deflecting what attacks they could. Tenten leapt up and threw some weapons, then pulled out another weapon for close combat. Neji moved swiftly from one enemy to the next, using his precise aim to make the enemy useless.
When it was all over, some of the guards were a bit scratched or bruised up, but overall not much damage had been taken.
"We should move on," Neji said coolly.
"Right. Please, come along, Lady Amira," one of the guards said.
Amira smiled bravely and nodded. Tenten walked alongside her again, purposely allowing a few guards to separate her and Neji.
"You and Neji did terrifically," Amira gushed once the bodies of the wounded thieves were out of sight.
Tenten resisted the childish urge to make a face at Neji's back. "Thank you, but had they been ninja, it might have been more difficult."
Amira smiled. "My home country doesn't have a ninja village. It's too bad, really. However, the only time my father can ever remember the Land of Waves needing ninja for protection was when a businessman tried to rule over us once - not long ago, actually."
At Tenten's questioning, Amira outlined the story of her home country.
"So what's the bridge's name?" Tenten asked when Amira had finished.
"The Great Naruto Bridge."
Tenten's jaw dropped. "You're joking."
Tenten could hardly believe it, but after a great deal of convincing, she managed to absorb the information.
Tenten nearly jogged up next to Neji to repeat to him the story, but remembered just in time that she was ignoring him. "Tell me more about the Land of Waves," Tenten requested.
The next day, they were just over three fourths of the way to their destination when there was another attack, this one on a larger scale. Not only were there more of the enemy, but even the way they stood suggested they knew how to fight.
"Stay behind me, Amira," Tenten ordered, pulling out several weapons and a scroll.
Tenten concentrated on her own fight, not being given any breathing space to look around and see how any of the others were doing. She threw most weapons, but she also used some to knock away anyone that got too close.
Suddenly, not ten minutes after the fight had begun, an enemy was practically on top of her, getting ready for an attack that would do some serious damage. Tenten didn't have any time to react before something crashed into her. She felt an arm around her waist and couldn't decide whether it was pulling her or pushing her; and the next thing she knew, she was on the ground, Neji beside her.
He jumped back up to his feet and continued the fight. "Try to be more careful next time, Tenten."
Tenten bristled and jumped to her feet as well. "I would have been perfectly fine had you minded your own battle," she said, giving him a fast glare before running back to Amira.
It quickly became apparent that two genin, half a dozen non-ninja guards, and a girl with no battle experience whatsoever didn't stand much of a chance against an enemy that overwhelmed them with sheer numbers.
"You!" Tenten shouted to a random guard. "Get Amira away from here!"
The guard looked ready to protest, but he seemed too beat up to do so. He nodded once and Tenten began to fight her way to the edge of the fighting, clearing a safe path for the two behind her. Amira grasped Tenten's hand.
"Wait, what about you?" she asked worriedly.
"We'll keep the enemy distracted. Once we're sure you're safe, we'll lose these guys and look for you," Tenten promised. "Now go!"
She gave the man and Amira a light push and they jogged away deeper into the woods, not drawing any unnecessary attention. Tenten hoped they wouldn't encounter more of the enemy. She returned her attention to the fight, scratched up as she was, and continued pressing the enemy.
She eventually found herself back-to-back with Neji. Much as she wished to avoid him at the moment, right then wasn't the best time to be thinking about it. Besides, she and Neji had been through a lot of battles together, so it was almost possible to forget about what had happened two days previous and just focus on the enemy.
A weapon came up suddenly out of nowhere, aimed right for Tenten's throat. Neji, genius though she thought he was, jumped right in front of her and the kunai impaled itself into his shoulder.
"Neji!" Tenten gasped. "Are you crazy?"
"I'm fine," Neji grunted, pulling the kunai knife out.
Another of Amira's guards was suddenly beside them, hurt worse than either Neji or Tenten. "We believe our lady to be safe now. It would be best to attempt a tactical retreat."
Tenten agreed and Neji nodded. With expert dodging, or something close enough to it, they managed to lose the attackers in the woods. What remained then was finding Amira.
"Tenten?" Neji said, falling into step beside her.
Tenten considered ignoring him or telling him to scram, or something along those lines, but instead she finally replied, "What is it?"
Neji was silent for so long Tenten thought he'd changed his mind, but finally he spoke again, haltingly, as though it was hard finding just the right words.
"You never cross my mind because... Because you're always on my mind."
Tenten turned her head to look at him fully, an eyebrow raised.
"I don't want you; I need you. I don't like you because..."
Tenten could've sworn he was doing his best not to blush.
"Because I... love you."
It didn't even register with Tenten to blush. All she did was gape.
"The reason I said I wouldn't be upset if you left is because I would die if you left. I wouldn't live for you because I would die for you. And... I said I wouldn't do anything for you, because I would... do everything for you."
If he explained away one more of her questions, Tenten would demand to know who he was and what he had done with her teammate.
"And I chose my life... Because you are my life," Neji concluded.
He stared straight ahead, not even looking at Tenten, whereas she couldn't tear her gaze away even to watch where she was going. Thankfully, she didn't seem to be running into anything. Yet.
"Who are you?" Tenten finally demanded.
The tips of Neji's ears turned slightly pink, but he said nothing.
"Okay, then," Tenten muttered. Aloud, she then asked, "Why are you telling me this now? Why didn't you make yourself clearer when I asked those questions in the first place?"
Neji finally looked over at her. "Why didn't you make your own intentions clear then?" he asked her quietly.
Now Tenten blushed. He'd caught her, though how he had figured it out, she wasn't sure. "I don't know," she admitted.
"That's why," Neji replied.
A comfortable silence settled between the two for a while, until Tenten broke it.
"Neji?"
"Hn?"
"I... I love you, too."
"I know."
"Now." Tenten rolled her eyes, but she couldn't stop a smile from forming.
"Amira!" Tenten called, spotting the girl ahead. Her guard was leaning against a tree, appearing exhausted. However, they both glanced up at Tenten's voice and Amira smiled and waved happily.
"You're okay! Or, at least... Not dead," Amira laughed self-consciously.
Tenten grinned. "And we ninja define that as 'okay'," she responded. "Let's get you home."
Nearly twenty-four hours later, the small group was crossing the Great Naruto Bridge into the Land of Waves. There Amira had waiting for her a small crowd of people from the nearby town.
"Thank you, Tenten and Neji," Amira told the ninja, once they had been bandaged up well. "Tell Lady Tsunade that your mission was a complete success, and that I thank her tremendously as well."
"It was no big deal," Tenten said cheerfully.
"Take care on the rest of your journey," Neji added.
The fact that the two were standing closely together, shoulders nearly touching, made Amira giggle, but she didn't comment. "You bet, and same to you!"
After farewells were through with, Neji and Tenten set off for their return to Konoha.
"Neji?"
"Hn?"
"When you said you would do everything for me..."
Uh-oh.
So? How'd I do? Like it, love it, feel like giving constructive criticism, or just random comments about the story? Review, whether or not any apply to you! xD