Thanks and love to my reviewers!
Apologies for the long wait, hopefully it was worth it.
Let the fun begin...
Balance
Intoxicatingly Intoxicated
As it turns out, Neji wasn't pretending. He really was drunk. Out of his mind.
And he seemed to be getting worse.
What did they put in that stuff?
The great Hyuuga was now all but leaning on Tenten, inhaling her scent deeply at the base of her neck, "You smell soooo gooooood. Have you always smelt… smelled… this good?"
The weapon's mistress chuckled nervously, pushing Neji away, only to have him stumble the other direction. She caught him from behind, "Uh, no. I don't usually wear perfume. Only on special occasions."
"Mmmm, you're so warm," he muttered.
Tenten abruptly let her teammate go and continued on ahead. Several steps later she noticed the drunken Hyuuga was not following. She spun around to see him standing there, openly gaping at her.
"The view from behind is even better," he commented, arms crossed and arrogant smirk back in place.
Tenten flushed red. Well, more red. She hadn't really returned to her normal color since the whispering incident back in the bar. "Glad you like it," she deadpanned, "Come on, I need to get you back to the compound."
"I don't wanna go," he said in a tone that sounded suspiciously like whining.
The weapon's mistress' eyebrows raised slowly, "Why not?"
With the speed only a drunken Hyuuga could display, Neji trapped Tenten against the wall of a nearby shop, an arm on either side of her head. "I wanna go home with you," he whispered, his breath fanning across her ear and neck.
And there comes the red face again. Oh, and the liquid fire in her veins. And the loaded springs in her belly.
"I-I don't think that's a good idea," the brown-eyed kunoichi was clearly flustered as she began eyeing potential escape routes. Kami, how she had dreamed of him saying such things to her. But it was just so.. un-Neji-like. She couldn't help but be taken by surprise when he actually did.
Plus, he was drunk, that was kind of a bummer.
The Hyuuga prodigy would not be swayed, "Don't you find me… attractive?" he asked huskily, letting his teeth graze her earlobe.
"Neji!" she exclaimed, ducking under his arms and jumping a few meters away from him. She took a few shaky breaths. Kami, they were in the middle of the village. Granted, it was very late/early and there weren't many people around. But still, Tenten wasn't a public affection kind of girl.
Not that she was okay with that whole thing Neji just did. Definitely not. He was drunk, and… crazy. Kami, what did they put in that stuff?
"Okay," she said quickly, "We'll go to my place. It's closer, anyway." Once she got him in private she could-
Do very naughty things to him.
Knock him out or something. She could handle a drunken Neji, no problem. She was Konoha's number one weapons expert, after all. A strong, brave kunoi-
"What the hell are you doing, Neji?"
"Carrying you," he said, with a smile that could only be described as creepy. Perhaps it was best that he didn't smile all the time.
"But you're drunk!" And running! And carrying me!
"I seem to be managing fine, Tenten."
Okay, that sounded suspiciously like normal Neji.
"Put me down," she demanded.
"Whatever you say, Tenten," he let her name glide off of his tongue, in what Tenten thought was the absolute most sexy thing she had ever heard.
He set her down gently, but her knees promptly collapsed. Her head was still reeling with Neji's words and actions. It was too much.
It was no problem for the prodigy though, he easily caught her and held her tightly up against him, "We're here," he whispered, his breath caressing her ear.
It was only then that she noticed they were, in fact, standing in front of her door.
Once inside, Tenten thought it wise to shove a tall glass of water in Neji's face, "Drink this."
He smirked, "Take that jacket off," he said casually, all but ignoring her orders as he motioned toward the jacket he had pracitcally forced her to wear earlier.
"Drink the water," she countered in a challenging tone.
A small laugh escaped the back of his throat, "Take off the jacket."
Kami, he was such a brat, even when he was intoxicated. But Tenten was not easily manipulated, "Drink. The. Water."
The prodigy shrugged and proceeded to down the entire glass in one go. He grinned, which was, not surprisingly, very boyish and charming, "Now take off the jacket."
She rolled her eyes with extra force before swiftly ripping the article of clothing off. What was that about not being easily manipulated? Clearly, his intoxication belied the fact that he was a genius, and damn it, Tenten kept forgetting it.
She calculated that even with impaired reasoning, he was probably only at an average level of functioning now.
"We should dance," Neji announced abruptly.
Or maybe not.
"What?" Tenten did not mask her disbelief.
"We should dance," he reiterated, swaying his body around in an uncoordinated mess as he circled the weapon's mistress.
Her eyebrows shot up as she tried desperately to suffer back the giggles that were clawing their way up her throat.
She failed magnificently, but the Hyuuga prodigy hardly seemed to notice as he grabbed her by the arms and began pulling her around the room with him. She would hardly call it dancing. More like him making a fool of himself, and her being dragged along.
But still, it was kind of fun. She laughed as he stumbled and caught himself, then pulled her to him, "What so funny, missy?"
She couldn't fight the grin that seemed to be permanently plastered onto her face, "You, dancing. If you could call it that."
He abruptly let go of her and crossed his arms over his chest, "You don't think I'm a good dancer?" the pout on his face was evident.
"I don't know, I haven't seen you dance yet," she quipped, grin still in place.
He hmphed, "So you enjoyed dancing with all of those…" he paused a moment, looking for the correct word, "delinquents, tonight?"
Her smile slid quickly, only to be replaced by a frown. Neji was never one to have mood swings (mostly because he only seemed to have one mood), and Kami, she was having trouble keeping up. She was only joking about his dancing. She sighed, "I only danced with our friends, Neji-wedgie." Then she giggled again, she couldn't help it, she had always wanted to call him that. She had refrained though, for fear of being gentle fisted. Or worse.
He glared, but then it faltered and his face cracked into a smile, "Panda-chan."
She made a noise of disgust, "I told Lee he couldn't call me that!," she screeched.
He grabbed her by the wrists and pulled her roughly toward him, causing her to collide with his chest, "I'm not Lee," he said smoothly, then added, "Panda-chan." He fixed her arms around his neck.
"Neji-wedgie," she said, feigning disgust. Really, she thought, he could call her whatever he wanted.
He tilted her head up to look at him, "Tenten?" He leaned his head down toward hers.
She gulped, oh, Kami, Neji was going to kiss her. Drunk Neji. But still…
"I'm hungry, do you have anything to eat?"
Of course. She pulled away from him and cleared her throat, trying desperately to regain her composure. She rifled through her refrigerator, only to come up empty handed.
"Doesn't Lee live on the third floor," the Hyuuga questioned, to which Tenten just nodded, not understanding what he was getting at. He grinned mischievously before stalking out to her balcony, "Let's go see if he has anything." And with that, the prodigy jumped up to the next floor, and then the next.
His teammate was forced to follow him, as she always did, but she couldn't help thinking Ino was right: Neji was fun like this.
Lee wasn't really adept at recognizing approaching chakra, it just wasn't his thing. That, and he was out like a light from his frantic dancing.
In any case, it was shamefully easy to infiltrate his apartment, and even easier to not wake him up. Neji actually tripped on his way in, but Lee stayed peacefully asleep, only stopping to mumble something about youthfulness.
Tenten was desperately trying to reign in her giggles as she shushed Neji and proceeded over to the kitchen. Sadly, the only thing in it was milk and a few apples. Shrugging, she tossed an apple to her teammate, who caught it easily.
"This is it?" he asked in an incredulous, but hushed, whisper.
"And milk," she whispered back.
Neji rolled his eyes, although it was hard to tell, "Don't you two ever go shopping?"
"I'm usually too busy babysitting you," she said, before taking a bite of her apple.
The Hyuuga was about to speak when they heard a snorting sound come from Lee's room. Both ninja froze. "…I'll do ten thousand laps around Konoha!" then snoring.
Tenten covered her mouth and snorted, trying not to laugh. "We should go back," she finally managed, and strode toward the balcony.
But Neji was not following. "Neji!" she called, still whispering, as she spun around, "Neji?"
She found him in Lee's room, with the closet open, pondering something. "I think we should take all of his green jumpsuits," he whispered seriously, as she entered the room.
His brown haired teammate stared at him skeptically. "…and burn them," he finished, answering for her, the mental question of what they would do then?
"But what would he wear? He doesn't own anything else?"
"He has those," Neji supplied, motioning to Lee who was wearing some strange pajamas. They appeared to be a one-piece of some sort, with little green-clad posing figures. She finally made them out to be Might Gai.
Okay, creepy, and, where the hell did he get those?
She thought for a moment; She really did consider it. But Tenten was a smart girl and she knew tomorrow morning would come. She didn't want to deal with an angry, hungover Neji, and a mortified Lee.
"Next time," she said, before grabbing him by the hand and dashing out of the room and over the edge of the balcony.
When they arrived back in Tenten's apartment, she promptly collapsed on the couch, laughing uncontrollably.
Neji sat beside her, smirking. He still thought they should've taken Lee's precious green suits. How often did one get an opportunity like that?
"I meant what I said earlier," the prodigy said casually, before biting into his apple.
Tenten was finally calming down, "What about?"
"You're beautiful," he said it as though it were the most natural thing in the world. Which, for Neji, it was most certainly not. The real Neji, the sane Neji, would never say such a thing, even if he felt that way.
The weapon's mistress was surprised he remembered what he said five minutes ago, let alone earlier in the bar. Still, she wasn't sure how to respond, so they sat in silence, eating their apples.
After a long while, she abruptly leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, "Thanks Neji-wedgie." Yes, she was going to milk it for all it was worth. After tonight, she could never call him that again.
It was then that she noticed he was asleep. She sighed and stood up, taking the apple core from his hand and easing him down onto the couch. She covered him with a blanket before wishing him goodnight.
"It's been fun."
Sorry, that was a bit shorter than the first and I think I may have changed writing styles halfway through, heh.
Anyways, it was meant to be fun and funny, so hopefully you enjoyed it.
Review- Let me know what you think!
I can't help but want to write more, like the next morning and all. We'll see. I'm just so darn bad at writing one or two shots! I can't resist writing on.
Cheers!
