Title: Family
Summary: Tenten's distracted, so Gai tells Neji to go home with her to help her with some extra training. However, in the end, the training doesn't get done, but Neji and Tenten grow a lot closer. (Oneshot. NejiTen. Takes place right before the Chuunin Exams).
"TENTEN!" Gai and Lee yelled together, for maximum volume and freakishness.
Tenten jumped, clearly shaken out of her thoughts. "Yes?"
"YOU'RE SO DISTRACTED! YOU ARE PUTTING YOUR YOUTH TO WASTE!"
Tenten sweatdropped and bowed several times. "I'm sorry Gai-sensei! It won't happen again!" While bowing, she accidentally hit her head on the ground. She stood up, eyes swirling, and swaying slightly, making Neji eye her carefully, as not to let her fall over and get as brain damaged as his other teammate and teacher.
"TENTEN! NEJI WILL GO HOME WITH YOU TO GIVE YOU SOME EXTRA TRAINING! IS THAT OKAY?"
"O-okay, Mr. Unicorn…" Tenten said, still swaying, her statement causing Neji to step closer to her, realizing that she had hit her head a lot harder than he had originally thought. "Hey, Penguin-chan…" You know that Tenten has hit her head harder than everybody thought when she starts calling Neji Penguin-chan…
(End Of Training)
Tenten, who had, thankfully, fully recovered from her unforeseen meeting with the ground, sheepishly stuck her hand out towards Gai. "Umm… Gai-sensei? Can I please have the payment for the mission that we had yesterday?"
"SURE TENTEN! HERE, PAYMENT FOR ALL OF YOU!" Gai handed out the payment to his three students.
Tenten carefully counted the money handed to her. When she was done, she carefully counted it again. She repeated the process about five more times, each time looking more disappointed at the end than she had the last go, before Neji finally spoke up. "No matter how many times you count it, the total number isn't going to get any higher." Tenten looked up, as if realizing that she wasn't alone. She shoved the money in her back pocket.
"You know, I heard that the Chunin Exams are coming up really soon. I think we should enter them. Chunins make a lot more money than Genins do." (AN: At least I think they do…)
Neji chuckled. "What don't have enough money to buy all the make-up you want?"
"…Sure, I'll go with that…" Tenten muttered.
"WELL, GOODBYE!"
"YES, GOODBYE!" Lee and Gai took off into the distance.
Tenten turned to leave and blinked when Neji started to fallow her. "What are you doing? You live in the other direction…"
Neji raised an eyebrow. "I'm supposed to go home with you to do some extra training."
Tenten's eyes widened before she sighed. "Fine, I don't have time to argue. But, I have to stop somewhere before I go home, okay?"
"Sure, whatever." Neji said, stuffing his hands in his pockets. This was weird. Most of the time, when they had to do extra training, Tenten insisted that they go to his house. Not that he cared or anything…
After ten minutes, they walked into a run-down looking shop. The old, white haired lady at the counter looked at them, turned around, and then quickly turned around again. "Tenten! I didn't recognize you with such a handsome young man!"
Tenten smiled and waved. "Hi, Mrs. Yuki. I'm just going to pick up a few things, if you don't mind."
"You go ahead, dear. Help yourself."
Neji fallowed Tenten around the cluttered store, pausing when she picked up a bar of soap, a box of cookies, a box of candles, and a pair of dark blue ribbons. She walked up to the counter and Mrs. Yuki began to count up the price when a man, around twenty, came out of the back of the shop. He looked at the items and then at Tenten. "That's fifteen dollars, Tenten. I'm sorry, but I just can't give you a discount today."
"No problem, Mr. Yuki. I haven't asked for an extension on the rent for three months now."
"Tenten? It's Renren's birthday today, correct?" Tenten nodded. Mrs. Yuki bent down and picked up something from behind the counter. She stood up, handing Tenten a box of crayons and a pad of paper. "I know how much she loves to draw. Tell her happy birthday for me."
Tenten smiled, taking the offered objects. "Thank you, Mrs. Yuki, I will. She'll just love these…"
They walked out of the shop. After three minutes of silence, Neji couldn't stand it. "Who's Renren?"
"You'll meet her soon enough."
Neji hated being out of the loop. He looked around. After they left the store, the area had become more and more run-down and trashy. He noted the several homeless people sitting on benches and bus stops where the buses had clearly stopped coming to. Suddenly, two children came running up to them.
"Hi, Miss Tenten! Can you tell Renren happy birthday for us?"
"Sure, but you better go home. It's getting late; your mother will start to worry."
They continued walking and it seamed that each time they turned a corner, the people who stopped them and asked Tenten to tell the mysterious Renren happy birthday increased.
Finally, they came up to a building that looked like it was about to fall apart. Neji could see from the sidewalk that part of the sidewall had collapsed. Did Renren live here? If so, why were her parents allowing something like this to happen?
"Well, let's go."
Neji nodded and fallowed Tenten, who kept a hand in her back packet, probably curled around the money, into the building. He and Tenten started climbing the stairs, up to the third level, which was right above the level where the wall had collapsed.
"Tenten!" Neji turned to see an old woman walking toward them.
"Miss Reku, can I have a small extension on the rent? I only have twenty dollars…"
The old woman laughed. "Darling, I don't know why you insist on paying rent. I'd let you live here for free."
"I just don't want to be a burden." Tenten smiled before leading Neji to the last room of the apartments on the opposite wall of where the sidewall had collapsed. She fished out a key and easily opened the door. "I'm home!" She called out.
"Sissy!" A flock of girls ran up to Tenten. Neji was shocked to count five girls, all of who had to be under nine, had latched on to Tenten.
He looked at Tenten as she began to sing.
"Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday, Dear Renren
Happy birthday to you."
The youngest girl squealed in delight as Tenten picked her up and tossed her into the air and caught her before doing it again, repeating the lyrics to the song over and over again.
"It's been like this for a year now." Neji turned to see Reku standing beside him. She had apparently walked in while he was observing Tenten. "Just Tenten and her sisters. You see, a week before Renren was born, their father died. Tenten's mother, after giving birth to Renren, just left, abandoning the sisters. The sisters were left in the care of their paternal grandmother. Tenten was ten when they moved in with her. However, she died last year, meaning Tenten and her sisters had nowhere to go. Tenten, who had just passed her graduating exam, which made her an adult, decided to take care of her sisters on her own and moved in here. Since then, Tenten has been fighting a nearly impossible battle just to keep their heads above water. She's so strong, it's amazing. Could you imagine becoming the parent of five little girls at age twelve?"
Neji shook his head. He felt ashamed, stupid, and apologetic for thinking that all Tenten wanted was make-up and such. Part of him wondered why she hadn't told him and Lee, but the other part already knew the answer; she didn't want them to worry. "TOO LATE for that." Neji thought. He almost groaned out loud at the realization that he would never be able to fall asleep again without thoughts of Tenten and trying to help her flooding his mind.
"Renren? This is my friend Neji. Can you say "Hi"?"
Neji briefly wondered if she was talking to him or the girl, but soon crushed those thoughts.
"Hi…. I thwee…" She said, waving a little bit, but mostly hiding behind Tenten's leg.
"That's right! You're three-years-old today!" Tenten cheered.
Neji heard one of the older girls whisper to another one. "See? Told you she'd like it."
"Okay! It's candles time!" Tenten yelled. The girls ran to another room, Neji walking closely behind. Tenten grabbed the box of cookies and the box of candles she had bought earlier. She gave a cookie to each girl before turning to Neji and held a cookie out to him, expression a mix of questioning and hopeful. He reached out and grabbed the cookie, causing Tenten to smile. She put down the box of cookies and grabbed the box of candles and grabbed some matches. She carefully put the candle in the cookie in front of Renren before lighting it. "Make a wish, and then blow it out!"
Renren fallowed her instructions, being silent for a minute before blowing it out. Tenten then pulled out the ribbons she bought and handed them to Renren. "Happy birthday." Tenten said before kissing her on the cheek.
"Tank ou, Sissy!" She held out the ribbons to Tenten. "Like ou."
"Sorry hon, but your hair isn't quite long enough to put into buns yet. How about this, I'll take my hair down today, so our hair's the same anyway!"
"'Kay!" Tenten took her hair down and picked up the crayons and the pad of paper.
"These are from Mrs. Yuki. Can you tell her thank you the next time I take you to her store?"
"Yep!"
"Do you know how many people told me to tell you happy birthday for them? Thirty-seven!"
"Wow…"
"Ummhumm."
"Tenten? Is he Neji?" An older girl asked.
"Yes, but don't pester him, okay?"
"Yes, Sissy." The whole group of girls said together.
"But, can he really see through walls?"
"And is he super fast?"
"And super strong?"
"And smart?"
"And-"
"Yes, yes, he's all those things. Now, I think it's time for bed."
"But!" All the sisters cried.
"No buts. To bed. NOW!"
"Yes, Sissy." The girls walked off to their room.
Tenten turned around to talk to Neji, but found him gone.
"Guess he went home…" She lied down on the couch and quickly fell asleep.
The next morning, Tenten woke up and went into the kitchen to cook breakfast. However, on the table, which had one leg made out of torn up books she'd found in the dumpsters on the way home from training, she found two brightly colored packages.
"What's this?" She looked at the tag on one of the boxes.
To Renren
Happy birthday
From Neji
Tenten's jaw dropped and she read the other tag.
To Renren
Happy birthday
From Lee
"He didn't tell Lee, did he? Oh man, if he did, I'm surprised Lee wasn't standing over me when I woke up this morning…"
(At training)
"TENTEN! DID NEJI COME TO YOUR HOUSE LATE AT NIGHT DEMANDING THAT YOU BUY A PRESENT FOR A THREE-YEAR-OLD GIRL WITHOUT OFFERING ANY EXCLAMATION?" Lee yelled as soon as she was within earshot.
"No…" She smiled as everything clicked.
"LEE WILL TRAIN WITH ME! NEJI, TENTEN, YOU TRAIN WITH EACH OTHER!" Gai yelled.
"Okay." Both said.
They walked into a part of the forest far away from the brain damaged ones.
"…Renren wants you to stop by after training today…" She started to run into the trees to start training.
Neji rapped his arms around her waist to stop her and shoved a wad of money in her hand. "We will enter the Chunin exams. We will pass. I will give you my payments from now on. You will accept it. You will not tell me to take my money back. Understand?"
"Neji, I can't-"
He tightened his grip on her waist. "You will accept it. My family is rich. I don't need more money. You do. Just take it. Be selfish. Use all of it on stuff for you sisters, I don't care. I will help you. Understand?"
"…Yes Neji…"
He let her go. "Good." He disappeared into the trees and training began.
(After Training)
Neji was once again walking up the stairs in the so-run-down-a-wall-has-collapsed apartment.
"Hi, Miss Reku. I have all of the rent today." Tenten handed her the money and continued walking down the hall. She opened her door. "I'm home!"
"Sissy!" Four girls ran to Tenten and Neji found his leg in a bear hug from little Renren.
"Tank ou, Mr. Neji! Tank ou, tank ou, tank ou!" In between her little arm and his leg, a small brown teddy bear was having the life squeezed out of it.
The End
S.A.: This made me realize exactly how much I hate writing in all caps. I feel all warm and fuzzy now… Reviews will make me feel better! Reviews are the blood of an Author/Authoress, you know… Flames, criticism, telling me it was okay, telling my you want to burn me at the stake, telling me you now worship me like a goddess, all is accepted and loved! Except flames, they're laughed at.
NOTE: Sequel officially up! Title: Birthday. There is, however, a mysterious lack of Tenten.
Note: This was called "Family" for lack of a better title. And Chunin and Genin are from Shonen Jump so if there misspelled, it's the Editor person's (from Shonen Jump, of course) fault.