She prepared three bentos that day instead of the usual one for herself. The bentos held identical foods. Humming softly, she wrapped the bentos in a cloth and set off towards their usual training grounds.
She had noticed that the lunches that Lee brought were usually filled with energy- rich carbohydrates but lacked in others, such as vegetables and meat. It was a diet that was meant to give the hyperactive, training- obsessed boy energy but really, subsisting on carbohydrates was liable to make him malnourished sooner rather than later. For Neji, his bento had seemed well- balanced in terms of nutrients (what could you expect from the kitchens of the great Hyuuga clan?) but it did not look particularly tasty or creative. Come to think of it, Neji had seemed increasingly reluctant to open the bento from home, though he had still eaten it all with a sense of duty. So it was with a sense of anticipation that she brought her bentos to them that day.
After an arduous training session, the trio settled down for lunch. Lee, as usual, reached for his bento in gusto, but Neji was slower in retrieving his. Tenten ran to her pack and removed the three bentos, before handing one to each of the boys with a flourish.
"I made these for you two today!" Grinning widely, Tenten settled down with her own bento.
"Yosh, Tenten! Did you make this by yourself? Much thanks! Everything looks so delicious! Mhmm—." The bowl- haired boy had already munched down into his new bento with the same level of enthusiasm as he did everything else. Tenten beamed at him, glad that her efforts were appreciated, though she suspected Lee would devour anything in sight after running five hundred laps around Konoha.
"… Itadakimasu." Her much more composed teammate and sparring partner had opened the bento box and started partaking of the meal, his manners impeccable as usual. His lack of comment was even more obvious after Lee's warm reception. Tenten pouted slightly before opening her own. Peering carefully at what she had prepared in the morning, she frowned slightly. Was it really so appalling that Neji would not even deign to comment? There were two onigiri, one stuffed with plum, the other with mentai roe. Next came the vegetables. She had taken special care to choose three different vegetables and cut them into cute shapes before steaming them to retain their colour and nutrients. Then there was the herring, filleted and grilled lightly before being drizzled in teriyaki sauce over white rice. She would never admit that she had chosen herring because of Neji, however, or that she had chosen the vegetables that she had observed appearing most often in his bento.
But it was indeed a little hard to swallow the disappointment along with the food in her bento when her teammates finished their meal, with only Lee thanking her profusely for a meal that had "filled me to the brim with youth!" Neji had only wordlessly packed up the utensils and the box before handing it to her with a reserved nod and then sat down to meditate. Tenten had, to her credit, shown none of the disappointment that she had felt. Instead, she had packed up and bid goodbye to the boys before leaving for home. Tears irrationally prickled her eyes but she supposed that she had expected too much of her bento. Perhaps Neji had preferred the bento the Hyuuga kitchens prepared after all, and the reluctance she thought she had observed was merely a figment of her imagination. Washing up the bento boxes in her kitchen, she made a cup of tea for herself before settling down with some scrolls on weaponry. Nope, she was not going to mope around over such a small issue!
Four hours later with not a single word memorized from her scrolls, Tenten admitted defeat. Damnit, why was it that he could always get under her skin? Packing up the scrolls, Tenten started to move towards the kitchen to prepare for dinner but was interrupted by the doorbell. Frowning slightly, Tenten changed direction and headed towards the front door instead. To say she was shocked when she saw Neji standing outside was an understatement. "N-Neji? What are you doing here?" Recovering her wits quickly, Tenten immediately invited her teammate in, who, she just noticed, was holding something in his hands.
"I hope I'm not interrupting you. I know that this is sudden but, here." He had held up the thing that he had brought over to her. Tenten accepted the bag and felt the warmth before comprehending. "You made me a bento?" At the boy's almost imperceptible nod, Tenten set the box down on her dining table and slowly opened it. The coincidence was almost unbelievable. But there the box lay on her table, and her eyes widened when she saw her favourite dinner items inside, which included potato salad, tamago and kani rolls, as well as prawn tempura, all displayed beautifully in the sectioned lacquered box. Unable to stop the grin beginning to spread on her face, Tenten turned to the long- haired, silver- eyed boy whom she had liked for a really, really long time. "Thank you, Neji. This is, unexpected but really, thank you!"
"…You are welcome." He paused and seemed about to say something else. Finally, he shook his head slightly and turned to leave but not before leaving a note that smelled faintly of sandalwood beside the bento box. "I'll be leaving now. Enjoy your dinner."
The door clicked shut behind him even before Tenten had had a chance to say anything, much less stopped him from leaving so abruptly. Still glancing at the bento box as though she half expected it to disappear (or her to wake up for that matter), she gingerly picked up the note that Neji had left.
I had been planning to make you bento one day for lunch, seeing as you sometimes complained about making them yourself all the time. But I guess you beat me to it today. So here's dinner to make up for it.
It was delicious by the way. I especially enjoyed the herring and vegetables. Thank you.
Neji
Silly boy. He could have just said thank you and she would have been over the moon for the whole day. Yet, he had made her this beautiful dinner just to "make up for it", in his words. Quickly grabbing a pair of chopsticks from the kitchen, she sat down, saying "Itadakimasu!" really fast before digging in. Ah, bliss. Every bite was made sweeter when she thought about how Neji, her teammate who had never shown any attention to the words others said, the boy who always seemed unmoved by people's actions, had remembered her passing comment about lunch and had made this bento for her to thank her for her lunch bento. And he had enjoyed the herring and vegetables! Shaking her head in affection, Tenten decided that Neji was not as detached as he always made himself to be. Maybe there was a chance that… Best to leave that thought for another day. She was currently too happy as she finished the bento, sucking her chopsticks after the last mouthful, daydreaming about a certain boy.
The next day, she reached the training grounds earlier than usual. She had expected Neji to be there, meditating, and she was not disappointed. Lee and Gai sensei would not arrive for another few minutes. Feeling shy all of a sudden, Tenten removed the bento box in which he had brought her dinner yesterday and spoke to him. "Ne, Neji. Here." She waited for her teammate to open his eyes and accept the box before collecting her strolls for some individual target training. She was a little too nervous to stay around to see his reaction.
The box he held in his arms was still very warm, seeing as she had set off immediately after preparing it. Opening the lid, he saw steamed daikon and chicken cubes and two onigiri. There were three different vegetables present again, and he noticed that it was the same three as the lunch bento she had prepared yesterday. A small smile tugged at his lips as he closed the lid. Lunch would be good today.
Tenten still made lunch for Lee, though it was a twice- weekly routine rather than daily. Lee was grateful and always dug into her bentos with enthusiasm, making her smile fondly at her friend. Lee on his part had only started noticing the difference in Neji's and Tenten's bento boxes after a few weeks. Neji never seemed to use the bento box with the logo of the Hyuuga clan carved on the lid anymore, while Tenten's bento box seemed more expensive and more delicately decorated than the previous one she had carried all those years. The biggest difference was probably the secret smiles that the two thought he did not notice they exchanged every time before they snapped their chopsticks and started eating. Something was going on but instinctively, Lee kept his observations to himself. Besides, Tenten never forgot his share, so he had no grounds to complain that she made lunch for Neji, though for him, it was a daily routine, and he sometimes noticed how Neji's lunchbox seemed to be nearly overflowing with goodies while his own seemed, well, a little sad in comparison. He had also noticed the intricate arrangements that Tenten's bentos always came in, and he had even seen Is that grilled unagi?! certain quite expensive delicacies appearing in her lunches. Lee did not mean to be insulting but the wages they earned as chuunin would not cover such delicacies on a daily basis. Something was indeed going on between his two teammates. Maybe they would tell him personally one day what he had already known through the language of their bentos.