Just Some Girl: Bench Warmer
I guess I was Neji's best friend way before he even considered having any friends. If he felt like things were getting too mushy he would always use the teammates label and excuse. Despite his aloof attitude, he would always ask me out to help with his training. Not Gai-sensei, nor Lee. Either bumping into me at the markets or just calling me at home, he would ask me if I could meet him at a certain place and time. Each of us taking turns bringing breakfast, lunch or dinner depending on where the sun was in the sky. When I would tier out (which I would always be the first to do so), I would sit back and watch him continue to push his limits on some poor log or another piece of wildlife.
Occasionally, he would stop and join me.
Sometimes, the silence would succumb to chatter.
This increased greatly after his defeat with Naruto.
I guess those were my first dates. I'm only assuming that, from what I'd hear from other girls. The fact that it was just the two of us, doing something together, sharing a meal. It sounded a lot like what they talked about.
I had fun at these dates, knowing that my aim was steadily getting sharper. And unlike with Lee, I don't have to worry about accidentally hurting Neji, thanks to the Heavenly Spin. Not to say training with Lee wasn't fun, it's certainly more upbeat and cheerful. But he is more stubborn than Neji at times.
When Neji sees a situation he knows he can't do anything about, he stops. Even when Lee notices he's stuck, he doesn't stop. He would just shrug, smile and try anyways. Neji will start slowing down when his fatigue was low, just to save up in case of an emergency. Lee would push it thinking that at least for next time, maybe he will have gained more stamina.
Both are right in a way, but both sides have large flaws. Not that I have right to belittle, as I took every word Neji said in stride.
I didn't believe in fate. To be truthful I never really thought about it until I met him. But I did think he had something going because of my situation, the whole, 'why are girls more appealing than guys?' issue. And everyone eventually dies, that's a given. However, the way he went about it was extreme. To him, it almost seemed like fate also called the shots to minuscule, seemingly (to me) useless things. Sometimes, I would expect him to look at one of the meals I brought and say,
"No, this is unsatisfactory. It was destiny that I am to have key lime pie today."
I knew fighting against him wasn't going to accomplish much, I'm not as quick witted as he and the conversation would turn sour in a matter of moments. So as much as I didn't agree, I went along with it. Who was I to tell him to knock it off? I lost my mom but never in such a gruesome way. My family was loose and easy going, the thought of being a slave to your own family... I couldn't even begin to imagine.
I didn't know if Naruto had any disregard, or if he had lived anything similar or worse than Neji, but after the initial shock of his defeat, I was glad for what he did. It's what Lee would've done if he had the strength. Poor, poor Lee. He wanted to do it so badly. I wanted him to do it too, but I wanted someone, just anyone to make Neji realize that he wasn't completely trapped.
There is more to a bird cage than just water, food and a swing.
If you had a good master, there would be ladders and perches. Noisy balls and shiny bells. Mirrors and spinning wheels. Sometimes, when you play along with the one in charge they will begin to trust you. Boundaries are pulled back and the cage door is left open for you to explore your master's cage, the house. If you two came to an understanding, then you could take trips out of the house and soon enough, the old bird cage was just your bedroom where you return to relax and think.
Don't get too amazed now. I only came up with that after the situation had long gone past the point where it would've mattered. Who would've thought that some kid wearing a bright orange jumper would be so inspirational?
Apparently no one did.
Somehow, even though I had did nothing to improve Neji's situation, he still found me worthwhile to hang out with. We would train, and other than when giving the other an explanation when training, when we talked it was normally on the worn green bench sitting in front of the training field. Worn because it looks like no one bothered to repaint it ever since it was placed there. It's missing it's left corner, possibly from a previous training regimen gone wrong.
When we sat there, we hardly gave the other eye contact. We would just continue looking out, past the torn dirt and rock and into the small forest past it. Thinking of completely different things than what we spoke of.
"You are the only girl from our class that has never asked me out." His voice was as level as always as his chopsticks scanned the choices in his dark blue bowl. "Why is that?"
"I just was never interested." I told him while looking at the ground, I knew that caught him off guard. He was probably expecting me to say something like, 'I would but you are too good for me!' or something equally cheesy. Little did I know what was going through his mind.
"Do you think... you ever could be?" Now it was my turn to be in shock. He was interested in someone like me? But why? Though we hardly glanced at each other, I found it really hard not to look in his direction this time.
"I don't know." I said, and it was honest. I don't know how much I hurt him from saying those words, but something else incredible happened.
I had earned his respect.
While the word friend was still a stiff word on his lips, the word teammates became gentler. He wouldn't joke unless it was delivered in a sarcastic deadpan manner. He would never hug me or Lee unless the circumstance was dire, like when Gai-sensei crammed us together for a forced group hug. But life seemed to ease up for him, if just a little bit. And because of that, I started to see his cousin more often.
I saw her a few times before, but she was like a paranoid cat. When company came over she would disappear and not come out until the said company left. When she graduated from academy she was more commonly seen wherever her teammates would drag her. She was incredibly polite, which was very different from most Hyuugas I had dealt with. Oh, they were polite, but how they delivered their messages was far from sweet and caring. One might say, 'I hope you have a good morning' but the tone it was given in would sound like, 'I hope you get rapped in the next alleyway you walk into and die of AIDS.'
When she asked if you would like tea, it wasn't forced politeness of a stuffy hostess. She really wanted to make sure you were comfortable. Stuttering all the while. She was incredibly shy.
She was also incredibly cute.
She blushed over every little thing, wanting everything to be perfect. Or at least, wished one thing would go right. Her father loved her, but didn't know how to show it or seemed to be aware of how hard she took his words. She'd constantly press her index fingers together, her focus on something that wasn't there. One day, I felt like introducing myself. After all, it's kind of silly to not greet someone you appreciate.
Little did I know the similar situation she was in.
"Hello." I waved while walking up to the porch she was sitting on.
"H-hello." She gave a small smile before dipping her head. "Y-your Neji's t-team, teammate?" She didn't say it like it was a bad thing.
"Yea, I'm Genji Tenten." I gave a light bow, "I'm sorry for not introducing myself earlier."
"Oh please!" She immediately sat up straighter, waving her hands causing me to stand back from the shock of her blurt and not wanting to get hit. "P-please don't bow to me! I-" Her hands quickly retracted back to her chest, "S-sorry, that was very, very r-rude of me..."
"It's okay." I gave a smile hoping it would ease her, but she didn't look back up.
"My name is Hyuuga Hinata," she whispered, "p-please excuse my rudeness."
"I excuse you." I pointed to the empty azure pillow beside her, "May I sit here?"
"Please do as you wish!" She pushed the pillow to the edge of the porch and her hands retreated to her chest again. The first daughter to the Hyuuga Main Branch, what made her so insecure?
"We should talk about something," I prompted sitting down, "it's only natural that when two strangers meet each other that we figure out what the other likes." I gave her a soft nudge with my elbow. "So we'll know if meeting each other in the future will be a waste of time or not."
"Oh no! I'd never see you a waste of time!" It was the first time we gave each other eye contact, but I didn't think much of it when it happened. I was just so baffled that this girl couldn't even seem to take negativity even on a joking level. Or maybe I was just being too friendly at the time. This was the first time we ever spoke to one another.
"Sorry, I didn't mean for it to sound like that." I placed my hands on my lap to make sure they wouldn't try to go anywhere while I talked. "What would you like to talk about?"
"W-whatever you would like," she pressed her fingers together, "I-I'm not picky."
"Neither am I, but we got to talk about something."
"You can s-start first."
"But I'm the one who introduced myself first, it's only polite to have the interrupted have a say on what we talk about."
"But I'm the hostess. Guests s-should go first."
"But this guest doesn't care!"
"It's okay! P-please don't stop yourself for, for me!"
"You should be more confident, go ahead!"
"It's, it's really alright, go ahead."
"You go ahead."
"Oh, I couldn't..."
After awhile, I felt like I was getting nowhere with the girl. In less than than thirty seconds, she seemed to realize where this was going and in the end, we were both nervously giggling. We wanted so badly to give the other a good first impression and not anger the other, trying to find out something we both enjoyed. In the end, we were laughing about nothing in particular.
And that was okay.
In something irrelevant, key lime pie can go to hell. You heard me you freaky dessert. Magically grow some legs and take a hike. Of course, if you able to magically grow legs the government would be on your ass so fast you wouldn't know what hit you.
It was the government.
