So, here I am. Um.. Neji and Tenten might be slightly OOC? I have no clue because I think I've heard Tenten talk about three times during the entire series. Point being (yes there was a point), I know nothing about what sort of relationship they might have, but THAT"S NOT THE POINT! Point is... this is a strange story and Tenten has no last name so I'm going to assume she's a orphan and her parents were killed during the fox attack. I think that's all I wanted to say.
Neji had changed, really, he had. But that wasn't enough, was it? (and he realizes but doesn't try anymore) Because he, with his Byakugan, sees everything and there is only fate. (and nothing will change his mind on that matter). So he, with his vision, closes his mind and denies choice. (because it doesn't exist and everything that was meant to happen will happen because that is Fate and he's learned long ago that there is nothing you can do to fight it so he succumbs) So he does all he can to get stronger (by himself, always) and looks at the Main House that he'll never be a part of. (Fate is cruel) Tenten learned a long time ago (as an orphan) that you can't let anybody decide for you. (and she's a fighter and spontaneous and erratic and maybe a tiny bit immature). So she runs around the streets of Konoha, with her hair up in those ridiculous buns (because she saw a picture of her mother as a girl and that was what her hair was like) laughing like there's no tomorrow because there might not be and she's learned that much from her parents deaths at least. Laughs and jokes and plays and realizes that a future beyond this one exists (and she's not that immature) The first time they meet, it's an accident. They're both leaving the academy. She's wearing boyish cloths and her hair is flowing free behind her for once. Tenten stares at the girl in front of her with the big white eyes and the nice long silky hair which falls like a curtain (and how did her hair get to be like that!?). "You're really really pretty," Tenten said, fingers already itching to tug on that long, silky, smooth – okay, Tenten, snap out of it. She gives the other girl a half-smile… which fades when she finds the other girl glowering at her. "I am a boy and my name is Neji," he said, haughtily before stalking away (to cry in a miserable corner because that's the fourth time this week that he's been called a girl but not really because that would be totally out of character for him). Tenten's left stunned. "I'm sorry?" she apologizes to the thin air before grasping her wits again. She turns around in the direction that he's going and shouts after him, "Well, if you don't want people to thing you're a girl, you should cut your hair!" He turns around and marches back (he despises yelling and firmly believes that things should be said face to face and obviously he is a deeply misguided young boy because what sort of grade schooler doesn't like to scream just for the hell of it?) and she stares at his form, unsure of what he's going to do. "Well, unless you want people to thing you're a boy, you might want to start acting a bit more feminine," he snarls before stalking away again. What. A. Jerk. Tenten thinks as she watched his retreating figure. But he had really nice hair. Life's not fair. The next day, she goes out and buys a pink kimono top. She stares at him for a full five minutes before thumping her head against the desk as quietly as she can (she manages somehow). Then she proceeds to beg every god she knows that Neji has forgotten their encounter years ago. (she hasn't because his hair was so damn shiny and how come no girl ever has hair that is that shiny and seriously, why the hell is the world so screwed up that she is on the same team as the guy she thought was a girl when they were younger?) "Hi, may name is Rock Lee," a spandex clad boy yells in her ear. His eyes are clear and glimmering and there is just way too much excitement in him. "And, today, I have met the girl I would like to spend the rest of my life with, a girl I will cherish above all others, the picture of feminism who has captured my heart," he stated in a theatrical voice. Tenten blushed but it quickly faded as the next scene took place. "Would you, beautiful lady, spend the rest of your life with yours truly?" He clasped one slim pale hand into two of his larger brown ones and stared right into the incandescent eyes of… the one and only Neji Hyuuga. For a moment, Neji does nothing other than stare down that their joined hands and then curtly says, "I am a boy." Tenten bursts out laughing and that's how their new sensei finds them. One member of the team laughing on the floor and rapidly running out of oxygen and the other two clasping hands, one shell shocked and the other wearing a mask of irritation. "Wonderful. The power of youth!" He shouts and is almost drowned out by the laughter. And into creation came Team Guy. They don't restart off bad (in that not-quite-friends-but-you-aren't-my-enemy-either way). And he's an amazing ninja (first in the class, she later finds out and wonders why she spent so much time day dreaming). He blocks all of her attacks on the first try (and she can't help but be amazed and a little depressed at the same time because, seriously, first time?) and he ignores them all because he thinks (is) better than them all because of his Hyuuga blood and those stupid eyes and ohmygod could they see through EVERYTHING? She hates his eyes (but loves his hair and what conditioner did he use? she's never seen anybody with hair that fine and silky and- he's a guy, isn't he?) But, it could be worse. He could hate her whereas he just ignores her most of the times (but that's not really worse, is it?) It's during their fifth (fourth?) mission that they smooth things out a bit more (and maybe, just maybe, Tenten hopes, she's earned his respect). And maybe he sees her as a teammate and a kunoichi and not just a girl (please?) because she did handle herself very well and they were the one's who screwed up because they couldn't follow her once she was captured. So she was left to fight of three fully grown nins all be herself. And she faced them and, for the first time, she was afraid and then she wasn't because she had known that she would get out of it. But they came, the rest of her team, charging after her 9because she was not just Girl or Kunoichi but also Teammate). And she sees that Neji's in the lead and they all surround her in second and Neji sends he a looks through his opaque eyes and she's okay because they're all here now. "Good work," he says, all bland and emotionless, to a sweaty and tired Tenten but he looks her in the eye and she knows he means it. And she's so happy that, for a moment, it's hard to breath and then there's just rubble and haze and the bodies of the nins she, herself, had caught. And, it's enough to make her happy that he just said it (because she likes to take whatever she can get and she probably would have made a very good thief in a former life). And for now (forever) this is enough and she throws back her head and lets out a laugh. She's not sure when, before she became a Chuunin, after? When Neji became a Jounin? She honestly has no clue (because love can be kind of funny in that way and you realize that maybe what you are feeling is love). But, all of a sudden, he looks handsome, not pretty and even though his hair really does make him look like a girl, she's fallen for him (or it could be because she's a teenager… damn hormones and puberty and why did Neji just suddenly become hot?!) And, in an equally startling way, she realizes that she's not the only girl who likes Neji. Around forty percent of the female population does too (it used to be fifty but then Sasuke became a nukenin and some girls converted because nukenins are way sexy, you know? No she does not know so she'll stick with Neji, thank you very much and pray to god that he or someone else doesn't massacre the entire Hyuuga clan). It's the small things that attracted Tenten. Like the way he eats his food, so prim and proper and decorously and the way he spoke with certainty and careful pronunciation and the way he – (and she realizes in an 'ohmygod' moment that she's completely obsessed). And she falls in love a little bit more each day and, seriously, she's screwed over because she can't concentrate and she's going to die at the hands of an enemy nin one day because she was imagining a bare-chested Neji (pause. drool. drown in drool. pay extra for the plumbing bill.) Seriously. (because Tenten is no longer innocent at the age of fifteensixteenseventeen) She knows the duties Neji has to the Hyuuga clan (but because, somewhere, a long time ago, Tenten learned to hope and believe and make her own chances and screw fate) she also refuses to give up. But she knows Neji and expects nothing more when he refuses to eat with her or come over to her apartment or do anything really outside of training (and she knows he knows she likes her and doesn't expect anything more beyond his silence). Neji is Neji. He does not believe in anything beyond his Fate and genius and Main House and destiny. And he watches Tenten, as she rushes to greet him, nearly knocking over a tomato cart in the process when she notices him in the local grocery store sporadic, spontaneous and free like he's never been and he knows she'll never leave him behind but doesn't know if he's grateful for that or not). She smiles and jokes and laughs a little too loud and buys the wrong food but that's okay because she's Tenten (and he's content with that because that's enough). She asks if he wants to go down to the park with her but he shakes his head because (his mind comes up blank but Tenten says she understands and she does and he likes that). And he thinks (knows) that maybe he likes her back too (and it's so tragically funny that's he's tempted to throw his head back and laugh, stoicism be damned). "Hey, Neji," Tenten says hesitantly (he agreed to help her bring her groceries back to her apartment even though he refused to go to the park). She bits her lower lip, wondering if she should go on with her question/observation/statement/whatever. "Yes," Neji says patiently, surprised because he's feeling patient (and the sky must be falling and Sasuke must have stopped brooding and THE WORLD'S GOING TO END!) She tilts her head up and smiles that same half smile she gave him when they were oh-so-young(er)(and he remembers that memory). "Um, what conditioner do you use?" He says nothing. She's promoted to Jounin at the age of 20 and he watches her march proudly out of the Hokage's office. Because she's Tenten, she abandons all thought of the larger responsibilities that she'll have and the greater danger (seriously, Neji? you sound like you're my grandfather. honestly, what am I going to do with you?) and revels in heroic ideas and dreams and new weapons and invites them to a bar. She's changed out of her pink kimono top and she's wearing a tan colored halter and he realizes that she's Girl and not just Kunoichi. And she's very pretty with her hair hanging free for a change and make up highlighting her features. And he notices lot of guys were smiling a bit more than necessary at her and she was smiling back and he drags her home (what? the night's still young and- let me go you stupid moron!!) because he's Neji and she's Tenten and she finds it reassuring in it's own way because he (still) cares about her. She smiles and slams the door in his face and she happy and sad and realizes Neji's hair is still the same as it was before and he won't tell her what conditioner he uses and- she's angry because they aren't twelve anymore and he should at least try changing. But, because she's Tenten and he's Neji, she forgives him almost as soon as the thought occurs. Neji makes it into Anbu and she's there then, smiling until the sun that bounces of her teeth blinds him because she's so happy for him just because he's made it into Anbu and he's been wanting to do this for a while and isn't it great? She looks up at him with incandescent eyes that don't lie and he feels that fond, familiar feeling as she drags him off to the bar to celebrate because it's always been Neji and never Neji Hyuuga and he needs that. "To Neji, the guy with the really pretty hair," she giggles, already partially drunk as she clinks her third glass against Lee's. She smiles again at him and this time, his lips twitch as the ghost of a smile forms there (and she wonders why exactly the space-time continuum hasn't already ripped). And she smiles a little bit bigger as she orders yet another glass, well aware that her stoic teammate is withholding a groan and/or refraining from slamming his head against the table. (all the propriety and decorum they teach, you know?) When he comes back from his first Anbu mission, she's there then, too. Tenten says nothing as she gets the bandages for the cuts that are leaking blood on to her carpet (there's something wrong when you're too arrogant to go to the hospital. you do realize that, right?) and that almost smile comes to his face again. It disappears when he feels the moisture trickling down her cheekbones. She wipes it away quickly (because she knows that Neji despises weakness and she can't be weak, not now, maybe never). He says nothing (and it hurts a tiny bit but she didn't expect him to and it's okay). She rushes into the kitchen to make some tea and when she comes back out, he's still there waiting for her and she's a bit surprised and a bit creeped out because she was not expecting this. She hastily pours him some tea and wonders what's wrong (is his injury really that bad?) And they both sit in silence and drink their tea, their eyes never quite leaving each other. As it gets darker and darker outsides, slowly, Tenten's worries dissipate and she offers Neji tea again and he tells her he'll be back again tomorrow and the faint smile is touching a corner of his lips. He, prodigy of the Hyuuga clan with no future of his own, knows his fate. And she, Tenten, who smiles and forgives and laughs and jokes with him, loves him anyways and he loves her. And that is the pure and simple truth and he remembers what a certain blond had once said (shouted in his ears). And this time, when Tenten asks him to walk in the park with her, he doesn't refuse (and it's a start, really and, for Tenten, who, since long ago, has learned to hope, it's enough). All I have to say is this souded better in my head. Reviews? Please?