Wow, you guys really like the idea of Teacher!Neji, huh? ;) Hope this rises to your expectations lol :P

Naruto and its characters do not belong to me.


Eyes Like Pale Thistle

Chapter 2: Walking the Line

iv.

The next time he saw her at remedial class, Tenten looked as if she had been crying. Her eyes were red, and she looked listless, distracted. She dragged her feet into the room and slowly sank into the chair at her desk.

"What happened?" he asked out of concern. There hadn't been math class at all today, so he had not had a chance to see her until now.

She lifted haunted eyes to him, and let her gaze drop back down.

"Lee's in the hospital," she croaked.

Neji remembered that Lee was her adoptive brother. His forehead crinkled. He would not have been as upset if Hinata were in the hospital - she'd been there too many times - but Tenten was different, and it was apparent that she very much treasured her brother, blood-related or otherwise. "How is his condition?" he asked.

"He's in the intensive care unit," Tenten mumbled. "Car accident last night."

He blinked. "Why are you even attending this remedial lesson, then?"

She heaved a sigh, a slight rise and fall of her breasts that he vaguely noticed. "I thought about it. I can't do anything to help if I'm standing outside his ward."

"But you aren't going to get any learning done, either," he pointed out. "Your mind is elsewhere."

Her full, pink lips pulled into a pout. "I need to improve," she said half-heartedly, if only to convince herself. "Lee would be happy if I got better grades."

Neji acquiesced. "Let's get started, then."

It became obvious that her concentration was flagging, however. Tenten stared at the question sheets on her desk, and inadvertently, her pen would slow, and her eyes would adopt a faraway look that Neji only knew too well. She would snuffle, snap back to attention, and the cycle would repeat itself again.

His attention drifted back to her after a while; he sighed. "Why don't you come over here, and we'll go through the questions together."

This solution worked far better, because Tenten focused more easily than when she tried solving the math questions by herself.

What Neji did not anticipate, however, was for his own attention to drift, because Tenten, in her despair, was just as gorgeous as she was when filled with joy. It made him yet more curious about her... yet more eager to taste her lips, to press her beneath himself, to help her forget her troubles with pleasure.

He swallowed, and berated himself harshly for even thinking that.

"Sensei?" she asked softly, when his focus lapsed. "Am I correct?"

Neji blinked awkwardly and glanced at her lips, before looking at the solution she'd written on the scrap of rough paper. It took him another moment to determine that she'd arrived at the correct solution. "Yes, you are."

A pause stretched between them, and Tenten swallowed, the little sound breaking their silence. She looked less upset now, he noticed. More focused on him.

"I... I might be overstepping my boundaries by asking this..." She trailed off uncertainly, and he looked at her in question, raising his eyebrows to signal that she continue. "Have you... been interested in someone you shouldn't?"

Heartbeats passed, and Neji blinked. "Someone I shouldn't be interested in?" he echoed.

Her tongue darted out to wet her lips, and Neji felt the vestiges of arousal gather in his loins. That tongue...

Tenten jerked her head in a nod. "Well... I'm- I think I have feelings for someone I shouldn't."

He watched her carefully, absorbing her every movement. "Don't you have a boyfriend?"

She shook her head, and Neji knew that was when he'd lost one of the main arguments he'd held against himself, that he shouldn't think about her the way he did.

The rough paper between them was suddenly very intriguing. She stared at it and fiddled with a corner, folding and unfolding it. "I want him to do very bad things to me," she whispered.

"Should I be hearing any of this?" he answered, just as quietly.

Tenten gulped; he watched the little movement of her throat, that he wanted so badly to slide his tongue over.

"I... that is, maybe you can decide if you want to hear it," she mumbled, refusing to look at him.

"Does it help if I listen?" he returned, curiosity searing through his veins. He knew the nature of what she held on the tip of her tongue, could almost hear the pounding of her heart, and the sharp intakes of breath through her nose.

She lifted her shoulders jerkily, and the corner of rough paper grew more worn by the second. "I- I suppose."

He nodded for her to continue.

"I- This person I like, I want him to push me against the wall," she whispered, barely audible. Shades of scarlet fanned over her cheeks. "I... I want to kiss him... and I want... to be in bed with him..."

He closed his eyes, and tried to regulate his breathing.

She'd made him stretch his trousers tight, for heaven's sake.

"Tenten," he grit, swallowing. He wet his lips with his tongue. "Why are you telling me this?"

Her eyes flickered up to his, and Neji knew, in that instant, that she meant him, that she wanted get in his pants just as much as he wanted her splayed beneath himself.

She tore her gaze away and fidgeted. "I... I just thought you might want to know."

"There are school rules," he began in a low tone. "I can't-"

"Do you want to?" she asked instead, cutting him off. Her eyes darted over his face, down his chest, and then to the open door.

He stared at her. "We can't, not like this."

"But you're interested," she pressed. Her breathing hitched.

Neji looked away. "As your teacher, I can't answer that question."

"What about you, as a man?" she murmured. "What is your answer?"

He was throbbing between his legs, and he couldn't think straight. Neji squeezed his eyes shut, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Tenten, please. Don't make me answer this."

"I can make you answer it?" she asked, her eyes lighting up.

He swore inwardly. "No."

But it was a little too late, because she was standing up, and leaning over, and he could see into the neckline of her blouse, the way her breasts were creamy and full.

Tenten's lips were soft on his, wet, and her fingers traced a line of fire down his chest, straight down, to where he strained against his clothes.

She knew to apply pressure - sweet, delicious pressure - and Neji jerked away, breathing unevenly. But her fingers were still on him, and he glanced at the door, suddenly afraid of being seen here, with her. Tenten withdrew her touch at his look, but she was still too close.

"You want me, Neji-sensei," she whispered, her breath feathering over his lips. "I-"

"Don't," he gasped, looking from her brown, brown eyes to her lips, and the white bra concealing nipples that he longed to touch. "I can't possibly do this with you."

"Just once, please," she beseeched, drawing away just the slightest bit, and he felt as if he could think again, if only barely. "It will be good. You know it."

"Tenten," Neji grated, pushed his chair back with a rumble, so he was out of her reach.

Her eyes widened; she glanced down, and Neji cringed at how his arousal pressed obviously against the dark weave of his trousers. His cheeks heated - he wasn't supposed to lose control in front of her like this.

He cleared his throat, and rubbed the pads of his fingers into his eyes. "The lesson is over for today, Tenten. Please go home."

"But I-" she began.

"Please, Tenten." He dropped his hand and looked her in the eye, breathing slow and deep. "We're done for today."

She seemed to understand then, and drew away, stepping towards her own desk. "I'm sorry, sensei," she whispered.

Neji kept his eyes on the edge of his desk. He waited until she collected her things, stopped short before him, and gave a quick, shallow bow.

Tenten was gone in a matter of moments. He leaned his head back against the concrete wall behind him, sighing in frustration. None of this could be good for either of them.

Even if he imagined that she would feel exquisite against him. Her lips on his had already been sin enough.


v.

In the days that followed, Neji's thoughts grew lewder in intensity, and it was embarrassing to find himself with an erection just as he was about to leave for class. It didn't sit well with him to have such little control over himself, as if he were an adolescent again, though at least he managed well enough when the time came to escort Hinata to wherever she had to go.

The subject of Tenten came up at their dinner table soon after.

"How are your students doing this semester?" he asked obliquely, as he dug into his miso soup and rice.

Hinata glanced at him in surprise, slender eyebrows rising above her own pale eyes. He had never posed that question to her before. "They're progressing well. Why do you ask?"

Neji shrugged. "I believe we share the same student - Tenten."

His cousin nodded slowly.

"Has she been giving you problems?" she asked mildly, curious. "She enjoys my classes very much."

If only Hinata knew. Neji's lips thinned, though a smile quirked at their corners. "She attends remedial lessons for math every week," he explained. "But no, she hasn't been giving me problems."

Hinata tipped her head to a side. "Why bring it up, then, Neji-niisan?"

At that, he frowned a little. "Has she... ever discussed her problems with you?"

He was itching to know what made Tenten tick, and he wanted to know what she was like in her other classes, and what she was like at home - everything about her.

His cousin shook her head. "She is mostly cheerful whenever she's in class - she enjoys art a lot."

"I can tell," he interrupted dryly.

"She's been upset recently though," Hinata pointed out. "I asked if she was fine - she didn't provide any explanations."

"Her brother got into an accident," Neji informed her, to Hinata's open-mouthed surprise. "She confided in me while I was giving her remedial lessons."

"She seems to be doing better though," Hinata answered, though her gaze did not leave him.

"She has," he agreed. "She's like me - her parents have passed away, and she has a surrogate family now."

Hinata blinked, pausing in the midst of lifting her teacup to her mouth. "I did not know that."

Neji shrugged. "I asked about her family."

A blanket of silence settled over them. Neji picked at his marinated fish, and Hinata crunched on her preserved vegetables.

"How does she do in art class?" he blurted suddenly, then wished he could take his words back. Focusing all this attention on Tenten was enough for a day.

Hinata smiled. "She does very well. Her specialty is portraits."

"Sketched or painted?" he asked, intrigue getting the better of him. His growing up with Hinata had given him some background in art, and he remembered the way Tenten's fingers looked, smudged with paint.

Neji knew what Hinata's answer would be, even before she said it.

"She likes to paint," his cousin replied with a satisfied smile. "Though she's good with other mediums as well."

He nodded his acknowledgement, wondering what it would look like if Tenten painted him.

"You seem to know a lot about her," Hinata continued when he didn't say a word.

Neji blinked at her, drawn from his thoughts about Tenten. "I see her a lot after school."

"For the remedial lessons," Hinata recalled. She drained her miso soup and set her bowl down, waiting for him to finish with his dinner.

He dipped his chin and fell silent, wondering if Hinata should, at least, know about Tenten's interest in him.

Neji contemplated sharing that information through the rest of his meal. In the end, he decided that he'd keep it under wraps for now. Nothing positive would result from Hinata's possession of that knowledge.

"Thank you for the dinner," he said, when he stood and stacked the various plates and bowls together, bringing them to the kitchen.

"You're welcome over anytime, Neji-niisan," Hinata replied with a smile. "I'll see you in the morning."


vi.

It was a little awkward seeing Tenten again during the next remedial class. Neji had not called upon her to answer any questions through the entire week; whenever possible, he had tried to ignore her presence during his classes, and she had thankfully not raised her hand, or approached him at all.

But that only meant that she was lagging further behind the class, when he neglected to check in on her every so often.

He couldn't escape the remedial lesson, though, and stilled when she entered the classroom. His tension showed in the way he stopped moving his pen; he felt her eyes on him, and could not bring himself to meet her gaze.

She bowed, walked to her usual seat and sat down, pulling her assignments out.

When he could no longer bear the silence, when he needed to look at her face even though the memory of it was etched into his mind, Neji cleared his throat and dragged his eyes up, only to find that she had been watching him discreetly the entire time.

He shifted self-consciously. "Good afternoon, Tenten."

She attempted a weak smile at him. "Good afternoon, Neji-sensei."

He fumbled around for a topic of discussion, and found one. "How is your brother?"

At that, her expression brightened, and her smile grew stronger. "He's much better now. I'm so glad."

"That's good to hear," he answered with some relief. It would have been bad if she'd remained depressed - bad for him, because he had no idea what he should do in response, and bad for her, because Tenten deserved to have happy things happen to her, not sad ones. "How are you coping with the schoolwork?"

She winced. "Not too well."

He stifled the revulsion he felt towards himself - he was supposed to help his student, not avoid her when she made moves on him. He wasn't supposed to be lusting after her, either. "I'm sorry about the past week," he said uncomfortably. "I should have checked in with you more often."

She cringed and blushed. "I'm sorry about... last week. I thought about it, Neji-sensei - I shouldn't have acted like that."

He still remembered the texture of her velvety lips on his, and the delectable touch of her fingers. Did this mean that Tenten would stop violating his personal space? Because, at the end of the day, he still wanted her next to him, in his bed, and it was so much easier to think about it when she made the first move.

Neji shrugged, and told her (like he was obliged to as a teacher), "Just don't do that again."

She nodded, and there was silence once more, while she focused on her work, and he on his.

Tenten looked up after some time, biting on her lip. He couldn't help but meet her gaze. "What is it?" he inquired politely.

"I... have no idea how to do any of this," she said with a wince. "I've been lost in the lessons ever since the start of the week."

Neji mirrored her grimace and sighed, sliding more pieces of rough paper out. "Pull a chair up - I'll go through the lessons again."

It was easier to concentrate when he was focused on having her understand every concept. The explanations took longer this time - there was more to cover - and Neji was gulping water down from his water bottle when he was done, leaving Tenten to digest the things he'd just gone through.

She glanced up when he set the bottle down and licked his lips - her eyes were on his mouth - and Neji swallowed as she slowly looked at the rest of his face.

The sexual tension was there, whether he liked it or not.

Tenten smiled at him, and returned to the equations he'd written, tracing charcoal-powdered fingers over the paper. Faint black smudges lingered where she touched.

He stared at her fingers for what seemed like forever - imagined what they would look like on him - and dragged his gaze back to his pile of assignments, all waiting to be graded.

It had not mattered whether he pleasured himself one time a day or five - the urge to taste her did not abate, and he wasn't interested in looking for a replacement to sate himself.

He'd tried it - his attention still returned to her anyway.

With a slow sigh, he concentrated on the neatly-printed equations on his assignments, and vaguely missed seeing the mess that was Tenten's.

"I understand it now," she said after a while, smiling when she set her question sheet in front of her, slowly writing her solutions on her foolscap pad.

His focus drifted back to her; Neji tried to watch her subtly, so she would not notice, and saw the way she stuck the tip of her tongue out between her lips, frowning as she went over numbers and symbols.

That tongue...

She happened to flick her eyes at him after solving a problem triumphantly. Neji quirked a tiny smile at her; she grinned in return.

He still had not looked away when she moved on to the next question; she noticed his stare this time, and glanced at him. Faced down, then back up.

"Will you stop staring at me?" Tenten said, a light blush tinting her cheeks.

Neji pulled his eyes away, looking at her hands instead.

"You used charcoal today," he said, observing her fingertips.

She blinked in surprise and looked at her hands. "Yeah, Hinata-sensei said we were switching to charcoal drawings this week."

"She mentioned that you were good with portraits," Neji recounted, slanting her a casual stare.

Tenten turned pink. "R-really?"

He raised his eyebrows ever so slightly. "Is it true?"

"Y-yes, it is," Tenten stammered, and looked back down at her math questions. Her fingers tightened around her pen, though she did not write anything for a while.

Hazily, Neji wondered if she would draw him if he asked.

He wondered if she would draw him in the nude.

"What is your favorite medium to work with?" he probed instead.

"Um... I like painting with acrylic," she answered hesitantly with a smile. "It dries quick - I don't have the patience to work with oils, and it's easier to use than watercolors."

"There's gouache too," Neji recalled, thinking back on Hinata's various paintings. Gouache was a more vibrant and thicker sort of watercolor - Tenten struck him as a person who liked vivid colors.

She shook her head. "Both watercolors and gouache are too easily ruined with water," she told him. "I like permanence."

"Oils are permanent," he replied. "You never know how long acrylics would last for."

At this point, she grinned at him. "I never thought you knew that much about painting."

Neji found himself smiling back. "I grew up with Hinata-sensei. You don't live with someone and not learn a thing or two about the things they like."

Tenten's honey-colored eyes sparkled. "What do you like, then, Neji-sensei?"

He blinked. "I like to meditate."

She stared at him, and made a face. "That sounds awfully boring, if you ask me."

Unbidden, his lips curved. "Really?"

Tenten nodded, and toyed with her pen. "I can't imagine sitting still like that. Don't you get bored?"

He lifted his shoulders, thinking about the focus he always gained after clearing his mind of thought. "It helps me concentrate."

A playful smile crawled onto her mouth. He stared, and she asked, "What makes you lose your concentration?"

You.

It should probably be a secret that he liked hearing his name on her lips (wanted to hear her moan, wanted to see her eyes half-lidded as she begged him for more).

"I... get distracted sometimes," he allowed. "Things like family matters, and so on."

She looked at him in surprise. "Well, you can always talk to me, you know. I won't judge you or anything."

His chest rumbled in a quiet laugh. He'd never seen the day where a student would offer to listen to his problems.

"Thank you," he said, meaning it. "I'll keep that in mind."

Tenten cocked her head to a side, still evaluating him. "What else distracts you?"

Neji stared at her for what might have been too long; he remembered himself and blinked, turning back to his assignments. "All sorts of things. Return to your work, Tenten - we have a lot to cover if you want to catch up before our next class."

She retreated to her desk; it was silent for a long time after that. He was glad that she had backed off and given him some space. The assignments flowed beneath his scarlet ink like slow-moving water, and Neji found refuge in the mind-numbing equations staring up at him.

He wondered what it would be like, what he would do, if she were to step up again, and kiss him like she did last week.

He wanted her to do that, badly, but he would never admit to it.

The sound of long pencil strokes caught his ears; Tenten was glancing up at him every so often, and when he finally finished the stack of papers like he promised himself he would, Neji looked up. "Is something the matter?"

She blinked at him and smiled, holding up her writing pad.

On the blue-lined paper was a very accurate drawing of himself. Tenten had gone with dark, strong lines for his face, sweeping strokes for his hair, and barely any hint of shade in his eyes.

He blinked - she was very good, like Hinata had said.

"I'm flattered," he said eventually. "You are very skilled with portraits."

Tenten smiled and blushed. "You think so?"

He nodded, glancing at the array of pencils she had on her desk. "Have you practiced much with pencils?"

"A couple of years," she answered shyly. Tenten set the writing pad down, and tore the portrait off, before walking over to his desk and presenting it to him. "I'm sorry that it's not my best work."

He accepted the portrait with murmured thanks, looking at it up close. The writing pad wasn't the best paper she could use for a drawing, though. "I like it. It's a beautiful piece of art."

"Are you saying that just because you're beautiful?" she teased, "I didn't think you were a narcissist, sensei."

Neji quirked an eyebrow at her - he wasn't about to find himself without a suitable comeback in a conversation like this. "I didn't make any such remark about my appearance, Tenten. Perhaps you might be the one who finds my appearance appealing?"

Tenten paused at that, her gaze flitting over his face. Her lips fell open, and Neji noted that they were moist-

"Are you going so far as to suggest that I may be attracted to you?" she replied lightly, grinning.

All he needed was a raised eyebrow and a smirk; she blushed, and he pressed on. "I would not dare to assume what you think about me," he answered, "Though I believe I may be available should you need a model to sketch."

Her eyes widened. "Really?"

His lips quirked. Neji dipped his chin. "Only in school, however."

Disappointment flickered across her eyes, though Tenten remained beaming. "May I draw you now, then?"

Neji blinked. "We need to finish this remedial class. Maybe another day this week."

Tenten's smile was blinding, so much so that he was sure it was seared into his memory.


A/N: This has similarities to f/2.8, ISO 100 in the whole artist/model thing... but no, we aren't doing nudes this time. ;) At least, there won't really be much of a focus on it.

Have been wandering around the Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle fandom lately - it's by the creators of Cardcaptor Sakura, using various characters from their various series and it's pretty dark... but I love it. If anything, I could be heading into writing KuroFai next. Just a heads-up. ;)

Thank you, as always, for your interest in the things I write lol. I'm reading all these TRC fics and the writing there makes me think that I really need to write better lol. :P