Author's Note: Merry Christmas, everyone!
The thought of dinner, or lack of it, has Neji stopping by a takoyaki stand. He pops one of the balls in his mouth, savors the chewy octopus center. Sure, it's spoiling his appetite, but he's committed worse crimes as a shinobi. (Like that one time in the Land of Water that involved a blood sacrifice, a ripped green jumpsuit, and a crumbling ledge of a cliff. None of them ever bring it up anymore because it makes Lee cry and Tenten lash out.)
He eats a second, third, then pauses as a fly lands on the tip of his chopstick. With a smack, Neji carries out divine punishment. That fly's fate was sealed the moment his takoyaki was ruined.
"You can come out now. I know you're there," Neji says.
Shino steps out from behind a nearby building, hands stuffed in his pockets, looking as off-putting as ever.
"You didn't have to kill it, you know," Shino says.
This is the guy who has thousands of insects crawling all over his body, which makes Neji want to vomit what little food he's eaten.
"There's no point for formalities between us. What do you want?"
Shino adjusts his glasses. "I need your assistance. It's a rather urgent matter."
Absolutely not. Neji doesn't have time to go on an irrelevant side quest when he has yet to complete his main objective—finding Tenten the perfect Christmas gift. Most of the shops close a little after dinner, a phenomenon in a village inhabited mostly by shinobi, not civilians with an excess of time and money. And although he's still unsure of what to get her, he figures he can just look around until something feels right.
"As a jonin, I'm rather busy," Neji says.
"It's about Hinata."
Oh, he did not just pull the Hinata card! Now Neji is obligated to hear bug boy out before dismissing him.
"Is she okay?"
Shino shrugs. "She must've gotten drunk when going out for barbecue with the other girls. Ended up at my front door, crying and babbling about something. It was pretty incoherent."
"Where is she?"
"Still at my place."
Even without his Byakugan activated, Neji's glare pierces through Shino's bug-infested soul. "You left her there? By herself?"
"Yes, but it was out of consideration of your clan's reputation," Shino says. "If I brought Hinata with me, she would've drawn the attention of half the village. She was getting loud."
Fair enough. "Let's go."
They weave through the streets of Konoha, now quieting down from its bustling daytime. About a fourth of the shops have darkened windows, indicating they're closed for the rest of the night. The melon vendor, probably a masochist, is still shouting to a dwindling crowd about fresh, juicy honeydew. He even starts slashing down to laughable prices, so low that Neji could buy the whole stand with his pocket change.
In contrast, a nearby restaurant looks packed with shinobi in need of a hot meal after a long mission. That one has low quality cuts of meat. Neji's been there several times, crammed in a booth with the rest of Team Guy. There, in that tiny booth with their thighs touching, Tenten's smile still manages to be radiant. It makes the long day worth it and the food almost taste good.
Once they arrive at Shino's house, they find Hinata slumped over the arm of a couch, clearly passed out. She looks more like a wrinkled jacket that's been thrown about than a human being.
"I apologize for any inconvenience she's caused you," Neji says, picking her up from the couch. She wreaks of sake. "Thank you for being discrete."
Shino nods. "Of course. She's my teammate, after all."
By the time Neji has carried Hinata to the Hyuuga compound, he knows that it won't be possible to make it back to the shops before closing. Instead, he stays vigilant by Hinata's bedside to make sure she doesn't aspirate on her own vomit. Such is familial love.
It isn't the worst night he's ever had. That reward goes to the time he had to share a tent with Guy-sensei, who apparently kicks in his sleep. And doesn't hold back.
The next morning, Tenten has yet to arrive at the training grounds, leaving Neji stuck with Lee and Guy-sensei. If she doesn't get here soon, he might pull out all of his hair in frustration. The two have already started their ridiculous echo chamber. First, it's 200 push-ups. Then it's 400 push-ups, but with Neji sitting on their backs. Then it's 800 push-ups, Neji on their backs, and with only one arm.
Neji begins warming up with some stretches, trying to ignore all the nonsense they're spouting. However, this plan fails when Lee has the nerve to start a conversation with him.
"We were at odds yesterday over Tenten's Christmas gift, but I cannot stand by and watch you give her another kunai set," Lee says. "As your teammate, I would like to assist you with this endeavor."
Neji's working on his hamstrings when he says, "I'm heading straight to the shops after our training session. Your assistance is neither needed nor appreciated."
It's already December 23, and the Christmas deadline looms over him. Kind of like the sun, but with more urgency and less ultraviolet radiation.
"But Neji, I've already procured the perfect present." Lee pulls out a replica of the green jumpsuit he and Guy-sensei are wearing.
Neji stops stretching because he's developed an ulcer.
"Get that thing out of my sight," he says.
"It has moisture-wicking properties, excellent for training and in battle!" Lee says, waving it in the air for emphasis.
Guy-sensei appears by his side with a thumbs-up. "This jumpsuit maximizes the wearer's blossoming youth!"
Somewhere in Neji's stomach, a second ulcer threatens to form.
"Don't you have push-ups to do?" Neji says.
It's a switch of tactics that works because these two are morons.
Guy-sensei winks. "He's right, Lee! We should get started on our training!"
"Yes, Guy-sensei! Of course, Guy-sensei!"
Before starting their self-imposed workout, Lee folds up the green jumpsuit and places it next to Neji's knapsack. A futile effort. The probability of Neji gifting that thing to Tenten is a glaring zero percent.
Neji's already flowing into his tai chi routine when Tenten arrives, complaining of a minor hangover. Hinata was still sleeping when he left this morning, and he wonders how she's faring as well.
The days of being a selfish asshole were so much easier. Now that he's started to care for others, he's had to allot time and energy on their well-being. Not that he's complaining. Rather, it's nice to have people he wants to protect. It adds more meaning to every advancement in his skills, every successful completion of a mission.
Once Neji finishes up with his tai chi routine, he walks over to Tenten, hands her a water bottle.
"Here. You need to hydrate yourself," he says.
She nods, accepting the bottle. "Thanks, Neji."
They sit on the grass, side-by-side. She's gulping down the water, and he's feeling calm, centered now that she's here. Tenten's the only other reasonable person on this team, and if not for her company, he might not be where he is today. A jonin. Accepted by Hiashi, the head of the Hyuuga clan. And not locked away for murdering two morons in green jumpsuits.
While Lee and Guy-sensei count their push-ups in the background, Tenten talks about the barbecue she had with the other girls.
"And Sakura kept raving about this soba place that just opened up on the other side of the village," she says. "Want to head down there tonight? It's your favorite."
She's right, of course. Soba is far superior to any other noodle dish. But he's supposed to shop for her gift this evening when they've finished training. He can't afford anymore distractions, not even if it's Tenten.
"I already have plans," he says.
"Oh," she says, "that's okay. Maybe another day."
He cranes his neck toward the sky. With normal eyesight, he can see a pair of birds fly overhead, soon to be obscured by the glare of the sun. With Byakugan, he'd be able to see so much more. Neji isn't even afraid to stare down death, yet here he is, afraid to look at her, afraid to see the disappointment etched on her face. Since when did his resolve become this weak?
"But it's been a while since I've had soba. I'd like to see if this restaurant lives up to Sakura's praise," he says.
He's still not looking at her, but he can imagine the beginnings of a smile.
"What about your plans?"
"They can wait."
He still has tomorrow. It'll be Christmas Eve, but at least they're not scheduled to train, which gives him eight extra hours, an entire day, to figure out what he's going to get her.
"Alright, if you say so." She gets up, then holds out her hand to him. "C'mon, let's spar. I don't want to fall behind in my training."
Byakugan already activated, he takes her hand.
Disinfectant. Yes, that's the acrid scent crawling up his nose. Neji wakes up to a white speckled ceiling, the feel of scratchy sheets that surely aren't his Egyptian cotton ones.
"Look, I'm really sorry, Neji," Tenten says, peering over him.
"What?" He sits up and recognizes the standard layout of an inpatient hospital room. A bed, a nightstand, a sink, pretty bare overall.
Tenten's sitting next to his bed, fidgeting with a scroll in her hands, rolling and unrolling it. If she keeps doing that, the parchment may rip, rendering the ninja tools inside useless. It can't be that bad, whatever she's talking about.
"I think you were pushing yourself too far with your Eight Trigrams rotation. You must've ran out of chakra since you collapsed on the spot," she says. "But I didn't notice until it was too late... so I kind of sliced you up with a shuriken attack."
Neji examines his arms. "Your aim is impeccable, as always."
Several lacerations race across his left arm, and an unusually long one extends from his right shoulder down the length of his upper arm. All of them are stitched up, each suture tiny and precise. It's not painful, just unsightly. He looks like a human quilt. Or a mended sock.
Tenten hunches over, buries her face in her hands. "My reaction time was too slow! Ugh, this is all my fault."
"Oh, please. Leave the theatrics to Lee," he says, rolling his eyes. Self-pity doesn't suit her. He prefers her confident side, the one she shows in battle when summoning a thunderstorm of ninja tools to rain down on her opponents. "I should've been more aware of my chakra stores."
He's been working on chakra control for the past week of training, gaining new ground every day, but this is a huge setback. To miscalculate his abilities so much that it lands him in the hospital? It's beyond humiliating. Something that a fool like Naruto would do, not Neji. Not the alleged genius of the Hyuuga clan.
Neji pushes the covers off of him. No point in wallowing in self-pity when he has better ways to spend his time.
"Wait, where are you going?" Tenten says, a screech of her chair.
"To check myself out of here," Neji says. "Aren't we going to that new soba restaurant?"
That seems to snap her out of it. "Of course!"
It takes another ten minutes of arguing with a nurse—he's fine, yes, his chakra stores are replenishing, can't you see he's well enough to walk around?—before he's discharged from the hospital. Finally.
Neji falls into step beside Tenten, who rubs her hands in defiance of the winter breeze. He's a little cold as well, but complaining won't change anything. To distract himself, he listens to her gush about the new jutsu she's working on. It's a substitution jutsu that replaces her body with a dispersal of shuriken. If perfected, it'll be a useful counterattack in battle.
As they walk through Konoha's shopping district, the atmosphere twists into something more frantic. Shoppers spill out onto the streets, their bags overstuffed with last-minute gifts. Neji should be among them, but he can't seem to care when there's the promise of dinner and good company on the other end of this street.
"Isn't it gorgeous?" Tenten says rather wistfully.
They've stopped in front of a dress shop, where she's admiring a rose pink dress showcased in the storefront window. In a fine show of craftsmanship, a gold phoenix is embroidered across the left breast area and down the left sleeve. Interesting. Is this a hint of what she wants for Christmas? She'll look better in that than a green jumpsuit.
"It suits you," he says, gauging her reaction.
Tenten turns away. "It's not practical. I'd be afraid of ruining the silk in battle."
So they keep walking, their arms occasionally brushing against each other as the crowd presses them closer and closer together.
Neji fears that finding her a Christmas gift will be more difficult than he anticipated. Something practical, but not another kunai set. Something she'll appreciate, but not a pretty dress. Something that matches her brilliance, but there's nothing that can compare to her. Neji has his work cut out for him tomorrow.
But first, soba.