"Hey!" said Shikamaru as they approached the table "What are you guys doing here?"
"Geez Shikamaru! You're so smart and yet you ask the dumbest questions possible! Why would anyone come to a restaurant?" laughed Ino "Nice to see you here, move Shikamaru lets make some room for them!"
They sat down next to Shikamaru and Ino, opposite to Hinata sat Lee, and opposite to Neji sat TenTen. Everyone was surprised to see them come in together, and their surprised turned into shock when they noticed Hinata and Neji were holding hands. Ino and Sakura shared a communicative smirk, and TenTen clenched her jaws. Lee and Shikamaru simply smiled.
"So are you taking part in this Joanin exam Hinata?" asked Lee after they placed their orders.
"Yes I'm already signed up for it." She replied. "How about you Lee are you taking part as well?"
"Yes, I'm signed up as well, I just hope I make it in time, I have a mission tomorrow morning, so if anything goes wrong… well then I won't be taking part after all." He explained.
"Well at least you could sign it, I was absent when the sign ups took place so now I can only sit and watch!" grinned Shikamaru "That Tsunade won't let me rest, I start one mission after another. No respect for hard working men…"
"Hard working my ass you lazy bum!" yelled Ino "You're as lazy as cow! You won't get out of bed if the Hokage hadn't ordered you!"
"I think you overdid it Ino-pig! Insulting cows! Poor innocent creatures!" smiled Sakura.
"Why do girls have to talk so much?" murmured Shikamaru.
"Did you just say something?" Ino and Sakura looked at him; if eye sight could kill Shikamaru would die on the spot.
"No, no I haven't said anything…." replied Shikamaru.
The discussion continued vividly, Ino and Sakura argued all the time, Shikamaru kept complaining and Lee talked with Hinata and Neji about his last mission and the new training plan he developed with Gai-sensai. Hinata, Neji and Tenten did not say much. The first two were too much concerned with each other so they just listened to Lee's monologue. Tenten was not listening at all, she was glaring angrily and Hinata's and Neji's joined hands, she noticed every smiled they shared, every deep look in the eyes, she noticed how Neji kept his leg close to Hianta's, how he caressed her hands. She felt so jealous. It was sick in her eyes, they were cousins! It was not normal! The anger in her grew till she decided she could not stand it any longer, she go up rudely excused herself and ran out of the restaurant.
"Now what gotten into her?" said Shikamaru "Women are so troublesome…" he concluded.
Ino and Sakura looked at each other; they both knew what gotten into Tenten, but it was not a topic to be discussed in public.
Hinata grabbed Neji's hand stronger, as if searching for a way out of the situation. But he sadly looked at her.
"Better sooner then later" he commented.
No one came back to the topic, and the remaining part of the evening went relatively smooth.
Coming back home Hinata tried to talk with Neji about what happened.
"Maybe we shouldn't have…" she started.
"No, it was high time she realized that she has no chance. I've had enough of her smiles, touches and all the going out crap. I feel nothing for her, she is just a teammate and she has to know that you are most important in my life." he declared.
"Oh Neji, but that was so cruel…" she tried to persuade him
"Not everything can be nice; she had to understand that I am not hers, and that I will never be hers. I didn't want to worry you but in the last weeks her behavior was too much. End of topic!" he demanded.
"As you wish…" she sighted quietly.
That night she hugged closely to him, but the feeling of fear did not go away. She never wanted to hurt anyone in her life, and the fact that she hurt someone badly was torturing her. She knew what Tenten must have felt; she experienced the same some time ago when she was still in love with Naruto. But that love died out on its own, and her heart turned to someone else, to the man that was holding her right now. She hopped that Tenten will soon calm down and live her own life without Neji. Neji was Hinata's and first time in her life she had the will to fight hard for her beloved one. She will not give him without a fight and she will not abandon the love that made her so strong.
Neji could feel that Hinata couldn't sleep and he knew what was going on in her mind. She was most probably thinking about the incident with Tenten. He was mad at that stupid girl to have made Hinata so worried. Hinata was his life and he would not allow anyone to hurt her. Not even his own teammate. He wrapped his arms around her even tighter and slowly opened his eyes to meet hers.
"Stop thinking about it and go to sleep" he ordered.
"But I just can't…" she whispered.
"Then I will use a different method of persuasion." He replied slowly leaning down to kiss her. This time he left much more confident pushing hard on her lips, demanding she replied to his gestures. She hugged him and slowly broke the kiss, she put her head on his chest and said "Maybe you are right, I am so happy that you are with me that I will never give you up!" she smiled at him and slowly fell asleep. He felt relived that she finally gave up on the stupid topic and followed her into he path of dreams.
Hinata was standing on the arena, and she was fighting bravely, soon a hit came from behind and she fell to the ground bleeding badly, he could hear her scream and her agony, he wanted to run to her but his legs were like frozen. He yelled at her asking who did this to her, he wanted so badly to be next her, to take all the pain away from her.
Then he heard laughter, a deep and evil laughter.
"Who is better now Neji?"
He looked back to see Tenten playing with her knives. Then he suddenly knew he knew it was Tenten who hit Hinata.
"Why did you do that? Why?
"You ask me why? Why did you choose her? That pathetic little girl! She is worthless! And now she is less then shit!" Tenten evilly grinned.
"No! I will kill you for hurting Hinata! I will never forgive you!"
Then he suddenly felt something clutching around his neck.
"Neji wake up!" he heard the voice he cherished so much.
"Neji!"
He finally opened his eye to see him beloved Hinata just next to him holding him tightly.
"What happened? What's wrong?" she asked him.
"Nothing, it was just a stupid dream…" he whispered "Go back to sleep." He held her tighter wanting to shelter her from all the evil in the world; he would rather die then let her get hurt…
