Love I

Disclaimer- Naruto is not mine.

Chapter One. They meet.

Neji Hyuuga lay in his bed. He was attempting to read his AP language arts reading assignment with little progress. He just didn't want to do what people told him. Every once in a while he got like this. He hated everything to do with the outside world.

Okay so it was a lot more than every once in a while. But he had full justification for acting like this. He had lost his father, and that was why he didn't have to do what other people told him.

He heard a soft "Nii-san." From the door.

When he looked up he saw his younger cousin standing in the doorway. Her violet eyes were twitching lightly. "What is it Hinata?" He asked.

"Ano... Could you take me to the library? I want to check out another book." She said holding up her book she had been reading for the past week.

"Yes." He said after a moments delay. He hated various members of his family, but he could never hate Hinata. He got up and went to his car keys.

Together they walked to Neji's car. Hinata was sixteen, but her father Hiashi did not want her driving yet. So Neji or their personal chauffeur drove Hinata wherever she wanted to go.

Neji had only been to a public library a handful of times before. He often used the one at his private school. He preferred not to mingle with the common folk. The only other family in the area that could possibly rival the Hyuuga's wealth would be the Uchiha clan. And there were only two brothers left in that clan.

Neji followed Hinata wordlessly through the door.

The library was so small compared to the one at his private school. It was two stories, but just barely. No one ever went up to the top floor because that was where the dusty nonfiction was kept. The children's corner was made to seem warm and inviting with decorations of caterpillars and other insects.

Hinata went to the teen section and began browsing among the books. She was lost to her own thoughts as she looked at all the summaries and titles. She was a golden reader, for she didn't spare the cover a glance, instead focusing on the prime subject of the novels.

Neji wandered away from her knowing that she would take a long time choosing which book to read. He never spared such thought on reading books. He just picked them up and if they captured his attention he kept reading, if not then he discarded them.

He noticed a circle of children around one girl. He wasn't paying any attention to the actual children, and instead was focusing on the teen girl.

She was beautiful. And she looked to be his age or younger. She had bright brown eyes that seemed to sparkle in the dim light of the library. Her hair was tied up in two buns on each side of her head, and it looked to be a rich reddish brown.

She was reading a story about a swan to the children. The swan wanted desperately to become a ballerina, but she was a bird. But at the end she eventually became a ballerina, the thing she had always wanted.

Neji was captivated by the girl's smile as she told the ending of the story. She had a ringing Chinese accent that reminded him vaguely of a trip Hiashi had made him take to Hong Kong.

He turned away though. Hinata was already checking out her books and was waiting for him by the door. "Ready to go Neji Nii-san?" Hinata asked.

"Yes Hinata-sama." Neji answered, his thoughts leaving the girl in the library.

He drove Hinata home dutifully. But once she was safely reading her book he went back to the library to see if the girl was still there.

She was not.

He simply shrugged and left.

Neji went to school in the most prestigious (expensive) private school in Konoha. Konoha itself was not a poor city, so getting into Konoha's exclusive private school was difficult.

Neji spent his day constantly surrounded by screaming fan girls and brooding men.

It didn't help that his closest friends were Shikamaru Nara and Sasuke Uchiha. Whenever Shikamaru was awake he was often being attacked by two blondes.

Sasuke was also the object of fan girlish tendencies. He himself loathed human contact. After his brother Itachi had failed out of college twice, it seemed that Sasuke had lost faith in humanity.

Neji spent most of his days surrounded by girls that were either ogling him, or passing him love confessions. He hated it. Women had fought so much to get equal rights as men, but here they were acting like they deserved to be segregated.

Yes, Neji did not care for women. He found them obnoxious and noisy and altogether too much work. So he had never taken the time to have a serious girlfriend.

One of Neji's friends was not at school today, and there was a reason for that. Naruto Uzumaki had wrecked his father's car over the weekend and was spending time in the hospital. He'd be getting out sometime next week.

They'd all been taking turns visiting Naruto at the hospital and today it was Neji and Hinata's turn. Neji hated hospitals because the last time he had been there, his father had been dying.

Neji shook those thoughts from his head and rapidly walked into his fourth hour. A freshman was left standing in front of where he had used to be. She looked flabbergasted, because she'd just been confessing her love.

Neji slid into the seat beside Sasuke Uchiha. The two of them sat in the back of their life science class. They sat at a table with four chairs. Kiba Inuzuka was occupying one of the other chairs and the last one was left empty. That was Naruto's seat.

Neji had noticed the way Sasuke had responded to Naruto's car accident. Sasuke had seemed genuinely worried about someone. And that was good. Sasuke had spent his whole life without anyone except for his older brother. So he needed a friend.

Kiba looked up at Neji "Hey dude! How is your cousin?"

Kiba and Hinata were very good friends. "She is well." Neji was not one to say a lot of words all at once.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully for Neji until he and Hinata were strolling to the hospital after school. She was nervously fidgeting with her hands and looking over at Neji. "Ano, are you sure I should come? Naruto doesn't really know me that well."

"He knows you." Neji said simply.

They filed into the building and ere directed to Naruto's room.

Naruto was lying in a hospital bed and his face brightened once Hinata and Neji walked into the room. "Neji! Good to see you! And you two Hinata, thanks for visiting me! Did you bring me any ramen?"

"I have a feeling you aren't supposed to have that." Neji said in a monotone.

"Ah Neji! You are no fun." Naruto said.

"How are you feeling?" Hinata asked, the first time for her to speak.

Naruto and Hinata immediately immersed themselves in a conversation and Neji felt uncomfortable. He excused himself quietly and left the room.

He was planning on walking around the hospital and maybe find a food court. He had had to make up a test during his lunch so he was famished. He had located a vending machine when he heard a voice.

It was the girl's voice from the library days ago.

Only this time, she was speaking fluently in Chinese. He rounded a corner and saw her with a small Chinese girl sitting on her lap. A pink haired nurse hovered over them. The nurse was saying things to the girl in Japanese, and then the girl would tell the small Chinese child in Chinese.

She was translating. Neji watched them for a while. It seemed the Chinese child had lost its family, and was lost. But luckily the pink haired nurse had located the child's family.

Neji was just turning to leave when he heard the Chinese accented voice, "Excuse me, I saw you at the library."

Neji turned to see the beautiful girl looking right at him. She was only standing a few feet away. "It is such a coincidence to see you twice." She added.

It was quite obvious that Japanese was not her first language, but she spoke it fairly well. "Indeed." Neji simply said.

"May I know your name, mystery stalker man?" She asked.

"My name is Neji Hyuuga, and I am not stalking you. May I ask you your name?" He asked.

"I am Tenten." She said. Her name meant heaven, how fitting.

"Why are you here?" He asked. Hoping she was not sick.

"I'm just here to volunteer. Sometimes they need help with the mandarin speaking patients. So help is what I do. I work at that little library that you were visiting." Tenten said.

"I don't get the opportunity to meet many bilingual girls." Neji said.

"Well I don't really get stalked that often." Tenten said, then upon seeing Neji's face she added, "I'm just teasing! Ha ha, I had you going didn't I?"

"Why volunteer, when you could get paid very easily?" Neji asked. His money making genes were screaming 'Why does this girl not get paid for her talent?'

She answered his internal conflict with, "I love to help people. This community has given me so much, and I really want to give back."

"I would normally think someone was lying when they told me that." Neji said.

For a while neither of them said anything. Neji had sat down at one of the little tables. He looked up to see Tenten sitting next to him with her own snack.

"I have a question." She said. "I sense a lot of hatred in your eyes. And that doesn't make any sense. Why would you be so angry, you're a Hyuuga, and you've been given everything? What do you have to be angry about?"

Neji thought about it for a few minutes. "I hate the main branch of my family. My uncle and his daughters."

"You can't hate them! They're your family!" Tenten protested.

"They killed my father." Neji said his voice becoming steely.

Tenten turned to look right at him. "They killed your father?" Doubt was coloring her voice. In her knowledge, family members did not often kill other family members.

"Yes. I know it sounds hard to believe, but they did." Neji said. "They are murderers."

"What was your father's name?" Tenten asked.

"Hizashi Hyuuga. Why do you ask?" Neji looked right into her brown orbs.

"I'm going to research him. Meet me here in one week, and I will have the details of your father's death." She said. "I cannot bear to have someone such as you so angry. You're a Hyuuga, you deserve to be happy. And I cannot stand the thought of someone hating their own family."

"You won't find anything." Neji said looking out a window. He knew that there was nothing to find, he'd tried searching for answers for ten years.

Her hand rested on his shoulder, and she removed it once he looked at her. "I'll find out what happened. Meet me here in one week."

"Fine." Neji said. He sounded lethargic, as he always did when the subject of his father was brought up. "

"No. You have to pinky promise. That way I know that you actually will." She said.

He looked down to see her extending her pinky to him. He reluctantly linked his pinky with hers.

"I promise."