My writing sucked last chapter and I'm fully aware of that. Writing first chapters are difficult, and trying to maintain your style while pursuing a plot is difficult, at least for me. This is why I prefer one-shots and short things over thick stories, but I've always wanted to write a thick story, so hopefully my writing will revert back to normal. Plus, my writing sucks when I'm writing for someone else. Anyway! On to chapter two! This should be fluffy. I don't know. I haven't written it yet.

2. the moon; it rises; and it rises in your eyes

Its dark blue with white polka dots, matching the night sky with surprising accuracy, but coming from a weapon mistress, it's not very surprising at all. Neji smiles just the slightest bit, and it looks more like a smirk, but Tenten smiles -- much more widely -- at the smug smile Neji offers to her.

Neji has met her right outside her apartment, a bit late due to Lee's pestering -- which he silenced by telling him to shut up or pack up, like the nice ninja Neji is. He repeats this story to Tenten and just as the wind is blowing Tenten laughs -- and it sounds like well-timed wind chimes.

Some part of Neji is falling in love -- all parts of Tenten already have.

That static, alive-but-dead air stuffs itself between them again; this time, however, they both have the urge to reach out and feel the other's fingers. The urge to have a long-winded talk, a talk about the dark times lingering beyond them, about how they just happen to be in love, about how this can affect them greatly.

Tenten might be ready but Neji certainly isn't -- cold and withdrawn, he's shuttered himself inside a shell, a shell without many emotions, because that's just how he gets by. Tenten wants to pry open that shell with one of her deadlier weapons, wants to make it all better.

"Where are we going?" Tenten asks, after the strange silence (not uncomfortable, not awkward, not comfortable, either -- just, strange) and her own musings.

"You'll see," Neji whispers, and the corner of his mouth turns up, offering another slight smile. Tenten decides she's going to count out many smiles he gives, however small and slight they might be, and she smiles as well, because Neji Hyuuga smiling is like Rock Lee shutting up.

Sometime between conversations mingling with silence, Tenten grabs Neji's hand, wraps her finger around his, and he doesn't let go. The space between them, closed, complete. It's a small step.

But it's a step nonetheless.

They arrive in front of a restruant Tenten has never seen before, but Neji has gotten good reviews from -- Kofuku's, the letters on the building read. The building is low and lightly colored, with the general air of happiness hung around it, the sort of place if you were out on the street and saw you'd just want to come in.

Immediately, Tenten notices that the place is teeming with handsome shinobi. She blushes slightly, glad Neji's eyes are temporarily focused somewhere else. Handsome, Tenten registers, but Neji is beautiful.

Unfortunately, Neji notices this too. He catches Tenten looking, just the slightest bit, and this action provokes a fiery feeling -- jealousy. He knows it well, and he would currently like to suffocate the feeling, strangle it with his bare hands, and throw it against a wall before stuffing it inside of him like some tailed beast, except a much tamer

one. It still endangers lives, though, seeing as its Neji Hyuuga we're talking about here.

Luckily, Tenten's moment of recognition of the shorthaired, shaggy-haired, longhaired, wiry-bodied, normal-bodied, built-bodied, light-eyed, normal-eyed, and dark-eyed shinobi scattering the place fades as she sets her eyes on Neji. There is something strange in her eyes, a feeling Neji cannot place his finger on -- he scowls at this, wanting to know, but he stays silent.

He is good at that.

They take the seat nearest to them, choosing something off the menu and then folding them down. Neji is not very hungry, really, but the food smells delicious when it arrives in front of them. Tenten is hungry. Tenten does not hide that she's hungry, gobbling food up, and Neji smiles that smug smile -- three times, Tenten counts -- at her lack of manners.

Tenten swallows a small bite and says, "What? I'm hungry."

"I can tell," Neji remarks, leaning back and folding his arms. Four smiles -- or did that one never fade? Tenten can't tell. It's very Neji-like of him, that smirk that drives Tenten insane. It's sexy as hell, yet very infuriating. Neji's smile matches him so well, she thinks.

This moment is when Neji feels a presence. The feeling that someone is looking in your direction. His head rotates slowly, and he spies the man whose eyes happen have glued themselves on Tenten, who has returned to eating, but being much more careful and slow this time. The man is not necessarily a man -- hell, he looks to be around the same age as them. His hair is a purplish shade and done in a ponytail, bangs hanging loosely around his face, and a forehead protector tied around his neck like a thick necklace. His chest only covered by a thin fishnet tank top just peeking over a jounin vest. Loosely tied pants, a deep-yet-slightly-light purple, hang from his waist. They look like sweatpants, with strings and everything. Of course, the traditional sandals hug his feet, but he looks more like he should be lounging on a futon, or stuffing junk food into his mouth in an open field, associating with Shikamaru and Chouji much more then being a shinobi. Neji frowns at the lazy appearance.

"Neji?" Tenten asks, seeing how dismal Neji's facial features have become. Neji is focusing on the dark eyes exploring Tenten rather then paying attention to the actual Tenten. His fingers curl into his palms (why, he's not sure, since he uses techniques without fists) -- he could handle the jealously of a man looking at Tenten, slightly more innocently, quickly, but this man is staring at Tenten with the intent of getting up, walking over, and -- stealing her away!

"Neji?" Tenten asks again, finishing her meal, becoming worried. Neji's head turns slowly again, scarily, and he looks at her.

"Tenten, we should be going--"

"But it's so nice in here! Why?"

Neji's teeth clamp. It is nice in here, warmly decorated. But -- is she also talking about the abundance of male company? Sure, females (very gorgeous females) clamp themselves to their arms, and Neji's paying much for this meal, but that doesn't necessarily mean they should be staying.

Not in . . . not in that man's (Neji accepts he looks older then them, then him, makes Neji looks like a scrawny, pale kid playing dress-up, but Neji thinks Lee would look like this, too, compared to this man, and Neji knows Lee is muscled due to extensive Tai-jutsu training) company.

The purple-haired man makes this the perfect time to raise himself from his table, obviously done with his meal since there's nothing on the table in the first place, and walk over to theirs. This movement causes his pants to dip down, revealing a stretch of tan, muscled skin, and Neji is certain this is not his usual shinobi clothing. His pants would fall down upon actual, quick movement.

Slow motion initiates on the man's first step.

Neji cannot shake the expression of anger from his face, ready to fight right here. Tenten looks worried, and gets more and more worried, until it finally dawns on her as the man steps in front of the table.

"I'm Yashi," The man says, smiling. His teeth are unusually white.

"Hello, Yashi," Neji replies, a bit too curtly, trying to distract Yashi -- no, the stranger, Neji decides he will call him -- from Tenten. Turn around, damn it, you . . . you fake shinobi, one not worthy of such a title, seeing how you pair your sleeping clothes with your working clothes, and how you seem to wear it as an accessory, something to 'pick up chicks' more then a symbol of the hard work and effort it takes to be a shinobi.

Neji takes a quick glance at the table the stranger has come from. Upon his absence, Neji notices a similar-looking female sitting behind what would've been the stranger's spot, therefore obscured by him. She is too alike to be a girlfriend -- definitely a sister. Surely a twin. Has to be a twin.

"No clan name?" Neji says, interrupting a conversation he hadn't heard, save for a brief mentioning of the words 'kunai' and 'shuriken' -- talking about weapons, no doubt.

"No. Me and my twin, Yahi, do not know our clan, nor do we care. Clans define too much about a person."

"Clans are a symbol of power and recognition, of royalty and nobility," Neji rattles off. It is a sentence that has been beat in his head since he was little.

"Whatever, you brainwashed drone--"

"Leave!" Neji screeches, interrupting Yashi, not particularly caring what he was about to say. "I will not associate with the likes of you." He knew it. He knew the stranger was bad, and he will tell Tenten later. Inform her of his gaze at her, which he really could not blame the stranger for. However, he could blame him for looking at her with the look he had been.

"You don't own this land," Yashi grins, a strange gesture, before departing.

"You don't know that," he says to the stranger, completely bluffing, completely serious, with a tone of voice suggesting but I will kick your ass anyway.

The man stares at him like, surely, you are bluffing and I realize this, ignorant, arrogant clan-member.

"Tenten, I think we should leave," Neji mutters.

"Sure. He seemed odd," Tenten says in agreement, knowing his clan rant was way out of line. Yet, he seemed normal when she talked to him about her ninja techniques. Nodding, staring at her, giving her his full attention. Polite.

Neji does the same thing, but Neji is not polite. Although, Neji knows how to go about missions, how to show off shinobi personality. Tenten is slightly shocked that Neji did not try to injure, to harm, to fight Yashi.

"I love you," Tenten whispers, once they've stepped outside Kofuku's. Yes, she is sure of this, after her little, quick comparison between Neji and Yashi.

That was sudden -- and then there the stranger, asking Tenten something, and her giving a response filled with laughter punctuate the moment. Neji does not remember the stranger stepping out.

"Marry me?"

"No. Too sudden."

"Damn."

Tenten doesn't know that the stranger was serious. Neji does.

Neji stomps a few steps away, indicating that he is ready to leave, wanting to get Tenten out of the range of this place where Yashi hit on her all night, or at least stared -- damn it, she looks too good out of uniform, I don't know why she thinks she's so plain. Also wanting to get out of the range of this place in general, because the food sucks despite the smell and he just doesn't like it. The once warm atmosphere radiating from the building they just stepped out of has turned teeth-chattering cold.

"Come on," he says to her, as they slide out of the booth and his arm slides around her, and he feels daring, because he is a Hyuuga and Hyuugas get what they want, "The night isn't over yet."

Neji dances with Tenten through the night, and when Neji drops Tenten off at her apartment, they both know that there's something special there, between them. And it is not the ninja Neji now despises, interfering.

You'll see more of Yashi and his twin Yahi. I created them a little bit ago for something I may, or may not, work on in the future, but he was nicer in that story so I don't know. Then again, the part truly mentioning him as nice was from the view of Tenten, who's a bit naïve to Yashi's ways. Neji can just see right through him, I guess. Anyway, Neji is a jealous type, or at least that's how I take it -- and if you notice any mistakes, grammar or spelling, please point them out. Things like 'me and my' do not count, since they're talking. By the way, I know how old they are, and it may or may not reveal itself as this fic unravels. There's a quick time-skip in the next chapter, anyway, since I need to get this moving along and what happens next is something that wouldn't make much sense if it's taking place like, the next day or something. Well, I guess it could, but it'd be a dumb move. Let's put it that way. Sorry for the rambling A/N.