Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Chapter One
"Tenten, hurry up or we'll be late."
"I'm coming already!"
Tenten ran out of her house, clutching her bag. "Bye Mom!" She called over her shoulder.
"You're always in such a hurry..." She said, running up to Neji.
"No. You're just always late."
"Hey! No I'm not!" She punched him playfully. Then she ran up the street. "You're the one who's gonna be late!" He could hear her laughter even when she turned round the corner.
Neji smiled fondly and ran after her. Tenten was always so hyper in the morning.
"See ya Neji!" Tenten grinned and went into her classroom. She looked around for her friends.
"Hey Hinata, Ino, Sakura!" Tenten dumped her books next to Hinata.
"G-Good morning, Tenten."
"Hey Tenten..." Ino said distractedly.
"Whatcha doin?" Tenten asked, looking over at Ino's desk.
"Chemistry homework..."
"THERE WAS CHEM HOMEWORK!"
"...no, I'm just doing extra chemistry for no reason."
"Shit!" Tenten cursed as she rummaged around in her bag for her chemistry book. "Fucking, fucking...oh, here it is. What page?"
"37."
"Can you guys do your homework at home for once?" Sakura said in an exasperated voice.
"I did! I just didn't know there was chem homework!"
"Then get more organized!"
"Whatever..." Tenten scanned the page. "Plastics are high molecular weight organic substances usually formed from low molecular weight compunds, that is, polymers. The raw meterials are often...WE HAVE TO READ ALL THIS CRAP!"
"And answer the questions."
"God..."
"Good morning class!" Ms. Anko walked in.
"Shit. Mr. Wong's gonna kill me..."
"Haha." Ino sniggered. Tenten shot her a glare. "Sorry."
"Now please welcome our new student Gaara."
Tenten looked up and her eyes widened.
The new student had thick red hair and beautiful green eyes outlined in black. He stood in front of the class, looking bored. All the girls had their eyes on him. After all, there weren't that many good looking boys in their year.
"Gaara, go take that seat next to Tenten," Anko said, gesturing over to Tenten.
'Hahaha I get to sit next to the hot guy!' Tenten cheered silently.
Gaara walked slowly over to his seat and sat down quietly, ignoring Tenten completely.
'Geez...he could at least say hi...'
Neji sat down in his seat next to Sasuke, deliberately ignoring the cries of his fangirls. He looked out the window accross the courtyard. From his seat, he had a perfect view of the Y09C classroom. Tenten's classroom.
"What're you so happy about?" Sasuke said in a bored voice.
Neji had forgotten to wipe the smile off his face. He quickly forced his face back to it's emotionless expression.
"Nothing."
"Hn."
"Hey Neji! Wanna go somewhere after school?" A pretty redhead fluttered her eyelashes at him.
"No."
"Aw cmon please! You said no last time!"
"No."
"God Neji, just get a girlfriend and they'll leave you alone." Sasuke growled.
"Why don't you take your own advice?"
Sasuke fell silent. Neji didn't see his friend's gaze move to the direction of the Y09C classroom.
After school...
"Neji!" Tenten called. Neji looked up and walked over to her.
"You took longer than usual..."
"Yeah, hello to you to!" Tenten snorted. "Anyway, we got this new guy in our class called Gaara. He is so hot! And guess what? He sits next to me! Hahaha everyone else was like, so jealous..." She ranted.
The more Neji heard, the more he wanted to kill this Gaara person. How dare he take his Tenten!
Yes, Neji was extremely protective and possessive of Tenten. She was his and nobody else's...
Flashback
Four year old Neji sat in front of the playpen, watching Tenten stumble around clumsily. His uncle's neighbour always picked him up from school and took him to her house before his uncle picked him up after work. Neji didn't mind. Better than being stuck with his aunt and his constantly crying baby cousin. He liked his neighbour. And he was extremely fond of her daughter. Everyday when he came home from school, he would play with her for hours. Tenten reached out her chubby arms towards him, gurgling.
"Nnngh!"
"Neji." Said Neji clearly. "Say Neji?" He had heard Tenten's mother saying this to Tenten a few months ago and decicded to try it out himself. So far, it hadn't worked. The closest Tenten had gotten to his name was 'Nuh.'
"Neji?"
"Nuh..."
Neji sighed. Tenten's mother, who was sitting on the couch, laughed. "Keep trying Neji, she'll get it. It took me ages to get her to say Mommy too."
"Ne-ji."
"Nuh..."
"Neeeejiiii"
"Nuh...Nuh-ji?"
Neji actually leapt back in surprise. "AUNTIE TAKARA! AUNTIE TAKARA, TENTEN SAID MY NAME!"
Tenten's mother smiled. "See?"
Neji looked back at Tenten, who was smiling angelically at him. He hugged her.
End Flashback
"Hellooooo Neji!" Tenten waved a hand in front of his face.
"Hm?"
"You completely spaced out for a sec! Anyway, I was asking you, what do guys like?"
Neji shot her a look. "Why?"
"Have you been listening to a word I've been saying? I wanna get Gaara to like me!"
Neji was silent. Did Tenten really like this Gaara more than him? She had never gotten so excited over a boy before.
"Jeez Neji I thought you'd help me." Tenten pouted.
He sighed. "Do you really like him that much Tenten?"
"Well...I dunno." Admitted Tenten. "I mean, I just met him today. And he's as rude as hell...but you know, he's hot and I want him to you know...like me."
Neji glanced at Tenten's face. He was surprised to see her smile not on her face.
"Tenten?" He put his hand under her chin and tilted her face up so he could see her.
"It's nothing...see ya tomorrow Neji." She turned to walk up to her house, but Neji caught her wrist.
"Tenten, what's wrong?" He asked, his eyes full of sincere concern.
She sighed, a slight blush coming to her cheeks.
Neji, seeing this, got even more worried. She had never hesitated to tell him anything before. Heck, she even rang him up the day she got her first period.
"It's just...guys always like Ino and Sakura...and they're really popular...and I know they're like my best friends, but everyone else also wants to be their friends and always want to talk to them and I'm just like standing there pretending I don't care...I just wanna know what it's like for a guy to like me."
Neji was shocked. He never knew Tenten felt this way before. Which was strange, because he always knew what she was feeling.
"Anyway, forget it Neji. Bye." She walked into her house.
He stood there on the street, and was about to follow her when he heard a timid voice behing him.
"Neji?"
He spun round and saw Hinata looking up at him nervously. "Hinata. Hello."
"H-Hi...are y-you c-coming in?" She nodded towards their house.
"...No, I need to talk to Tenten."
Hinata nodded and went into the house alone.
Neji rang the bell of Tenten's house. Her mother answered it.
"Oh hello Neji!" She smiled, genuinely happy to see him.
"Hello, Auntie Takara."
"Tenten's upstairs, you can leave your bag down here."
"Thanks." Neji placed his bag next to the door and climbed up the stairs to Tenten's room. He went inside without knocking.
Tenten's room was quite big, as she was the only daughter of a successful lawyer and her parents liked to pamper her. She had her own phone, TV, laptop, walk-in closet and bathroom. Her bed was basically green; Neji never understood why she liked that colour. One framed photgraph of her and her family hung around the room, but three were photos dedicated to her and Neji.
One was of them at the park, Neji was nine and Tenten was six. It was around late afternoon, and he was pushing her on the swing and she was laughing happily.
The second one was at Tenten's Year Six graduation. She was wearing the stupid graduation hat thing and he was hugging her, both of them grinning.
The third one was posed for, and the most recent. He and Tenten were both sitting on horses, smiling, and Tenten's mother had taken the picture.
But Neji wasn't looking at the pictures. He was staring at Tenten. She lay spread eagled on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. When she heard the door close, she looked up.
"Hey Tenten."
"Oh, hey Neji." She gestured for him to join her.
Neji walked over to the bed and lay down next to her.
"Taking a nap?" He smiled.
"Ugh, I'm just tired...school sucks."
"Need help on homework?"
Tenten sat up. "Really? You haven't done homework for me since...last week?"
Neji laughed. "And your grades have dropped since, of course?"
Tenten threw a pillow in his face. "Just cos I'm lazy doesn't mean I'm not smart!"
Neji stood up and went over to her laptop, peering at the screen. "History: American Revolution-Loyalists"
"I hate history. It's pointless! I mean, it's already happened, why do we have to study it?"
Neji didn't reply, instead he was typing rapidly. "How many words do you need?"
"1500."
"Ok." He countinued typing.
Tenten sighed and pulled her chemistry book out of her bag, reading.
"Hey, you know monomers make polymers."
"Yeah..."
"And there are thermoplastic and thermoset plastics..."
"Yeah..."
And this continued until Tenten's mother called her to come down for dinner.
"Hey Neji, wanna sleep over? It's Saturday tomorrow." Neji had slept over many times before.
"Sure."
Tenten grinned and dragged him downstairs.
Neji lay in the darkness. Tenten had fallen silent an hour ago, so he assumed she was asleep.
He pulled the blanket of himself and got up from the floor. Tenten's parents didn't mind him being in her room. After all, he had played with her even before she could talk; they trusted him with their daughter's life.
Neji kneeled beside Tenten's bed and watched her sleeping face fondly. Her long brown hair was still up in two buns, her lips in a content smile.
He had known better than to bring up what she had said to him outside. But her words still rang in his head.
'It's just...guys always like Ino and Sakura...and they're really popular...and I know they're like my best friends, but everyone else also wants to be their friends and I'm just like standing there pretening I don't care...I just wanna know what it's like for a guy to like me.'
Neji traced his finger along Tenten's jawline, sighing.
'Oh Tenten, if only you knew...how much I love you.'
Sorry about the corny flashback hehe...oh, and sorry if you think the three year age gap is weird :)