A/N: ...so, I decided to write another NejiTen fic.
I'd say this is one of my better ones. Better than What is Love?, at least.
Please review if you like it!
The storm was raging outside on Konoha's streets. Everyone in their sane mind had gotten out of the fierce drops' way and had taken shelter inside the nearest house.
For Tenten, that had meant Neji's house.
The kunoichi felt pretty uncomfortable knocking on the Hyuga manor's elegant door, but she didn't want to run another four blocks to get to her own house. So, she decided bunking at Neji's place wouldn't be so bad.
Hinata answered the door, and smiled when she saw Tenten's face. "Oh, hi, Tenten," she greeted. Her shyness had dissolved a bit over the past few years, and she had become more confident. "I take it you've been caught out in the storm?"
"Can you believe it?" Tenten asked, blushing at her own stupidity. Darn it, she had watched the news that day! Why hadn't she gone home earlier?
"Oh, it's fine," she smiled, stepping out of the door way to let her friend in. "Neji is upstairs in his room…although I'm not exactly sure what he's doing."
"I'm a little scared to find out," Tenten joked before heading upstairs. She was glad her hair was in buns. It would be easier to ring out that way.
The weapon's specialist had walked down the familiar hallway and arrived at Neji's room. She knocked on the door before hearing her teammate's voice from within. "Who is it, and what do you want?"
"It's Tenten, and I want to come in. Why else would I knock on the door?"
Within seconds, the door creaked open and Neji stared at her chocolate brown eyes. "What are you doing in my house?" he asked, his cocky smile coming on his face.
Tenten rolled her eyes. "Oh, I'm sorry. Would you have liked me to get struck by lightning, Neji-kun?" She added the suffix on for sarcasm.
"Of course not," Neji replied before letting Tenten into his room. It was a dark blue with a traditional style bed, a dresser, a closet, and a desk that contained different battle strategies.
Neji shut the door back as Tenten gazed out his window. "Geez, it's getting pretty fierce out there," she said. Then she turned around slightly and smirked. "You'll hold me if I get scared, won't you, Neji?"
The Hyuga snorted. "I don't remember agreeing to that," he replied. Tenten frowned. She hoped he knew she was kidding. They had had a bit of friendship troubles in the past for her being fake flirty.
Tenten flopped down on the floor, sitting cross-legged. She sighed. "I'm glad I came to your house, Neji," she said. "I would have been beyond bored at my place."
"You don't seem very amused now," Neji noted, joining her on the floor. The kunoichi shrugged.
"Meh. You're a boring person. There's not much I can do about that."
That earned her Hyuga death glare number 7. Tenten snickered, and Neji couldn't help but smirk as well.
But he didn't smile. Neji Hyuga didn't smile.
There was silence for a moment before Tenten opened her mouth to say something. However, she was cut off when the lights suddenly flickered off and the room turned pitch black.
"Ah. There goes the power," Tenten realized. She heard a crash downstairs, and figured that it was Hinata dropping a glass of tea in surprise.
Deafening silence roared in both the ninja's ears. Suddenly, Tenten could just make out…heavy breathing?
"Neji?" she asked, knowing that it surely couldn't be her teammate.
"Y-yes…?"
The kunoichi couldn't believe it. Neji? The brave, honorable Neji Hyuga was having a panic attack? "Why are you breathing like that? Are you…scare-"
Before Tenten could finish her sentence, a shaky hand was clapped over her mouth. "D-don't say i-it," Neji stuttered. "I'm n-n-never sc-scared!"
"'ut ybour shoakin," Tenten retorted, her speech being muffled by the hand over her mouth. Finally, with a sigh, Neji dropped his hand and wrapped his arms around his legs.
"Look, you promise you won't tell anyone this?" he asked.
"Sure, I promise."
"OK. …I'm terrified of dark places."
That didn't make sense. Neji had gone on lots of missions with her whenever they had to camp out, and he was never scared. "I…hide it on missions. I never could figure out why, but whenever I'm trapped in a dark place, I can't help but get scared out of my wits."
Tenten frowned, then smiled. "Aw, Neji, it's ok," she grinned. "We're all scared of something. I knew you couldn't be completely fearless. And who cares? It's just the dark. Buy a nightlight for pete's sake."
"Tenten?"
"Yes?"
"…I can't believe I'm saying this…hold me."
The brown-haired ninja held back a laugh. Wow, that was probably a once in a lifetime chance to hear Neji say 'hold me'. Despite almost losing the giggle that was bubbling up her throat, Tenten crawled over next to her teammate and gave him a hug.
"It's OK, don't be scared," she said softly in a comforting voice. Neji heaved before blinked twice.
"…OK, you can let go."
Tenten nodded and scooted away, a gentle smile on her face. "You OK?"
The Hyuga prodigy nodded. Tenten stood up and was walking over to his bedroom door. "Alright, I need to get home soon, so I'll see you later…"
"Tenten." Neji spoke sternly, as if to a puppy.
She froze. "…yeah?"
"I swear, if you breathe a word to anybody, ESPECIALLY Guy that you held me…your weapons are going to disappear from your weapon's roster and reappear jabbed into various parts of your body."
Tenten gulped. "O…K?"
"Oh, yes, I forgot."
"What?"
"Thank you."
"No problem."
As Tenten said her goodbyes to both Hiashi and Hinata, she thought to herself about Neji. That's what she liked about their relationship. They could cross certain boundaries, and still nothing would be weird about them.
Like the next day, whenever they were making out by the river near the edge of Konoha.
There was nothing weird about that, right?
The End.