(*This takes place when Kiba is being tended to by Hanabi)
Hinata opened the door leading to her room and invited Sakura and Tenten to come in. They obliged and entered the room as Hinata stood holding the door open cordially for her guests. Hinata then closed the door, set down her bag on a chair and sat on her bed with her legs crossed. She invited her friends to do the same to which they quite readily agreed. The group all sat down and made themselves comfortable until Hinata posed the first question.
"Well, should we start now?" she asked as she fiddled with the zipper of her jacket. "Well I was thinking that we should wait for our good friend Kiba. I know for a fact that he would be sad to miss out on all this hard work" she remarked sarcastically with an evil smile on her face. "Yeah, he was so eager to not do any work. The look on his face when he realizes that we waited for him to come back before we started the project will be priceless." Tenten added as she giggled. "Well... okay but what do we do while we wait for him to return" Hinata enquired. "What we're doing right now, talking" Sakura said smiling.
"That sounds good but before that may I use your bathroom Hinata?" Tenten asked. "Sure, down the hall, then turn right and go a bit forward, it's the second door on the left. Would you like me to come with you and show you exactly where it is?" Hinata questioned."No thanks, don't worry about it I'll be fine" Tenten responded as she left the room to head for the bathroom. She followed Hinata's instructions and successfully got to the bathroom. She then turned on the pipe and cupping her hand collected some water which she used to wash her face. She gazed into the mirror and let out a big sigh.
Recollections of the day's events flowed through her mind as she frowned. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy her classes or that she disliked the teachers or her fellow students. What was bothering her was the first impressions she left on her friends. She remembered her Math class where she met Rock Lee and decided to sit next to him. They became good friends in the short period of time that they sat next to each other. At the end of class though Lee said "Well I've got a different class so I guess I'll see you later, Bro". "Yeah" she replied softly as she walked away pondering if she came off as tomboyish. Tenten shrugged it off attributing it to the fact that Lee was kind of weird.
When Tenten met Kiba, Sakura and Hinata though for the first time in their geography class they referred to her as "Dude". This pretty much confirmed to Tenten that she did in fact come off as very tomboyish to the guys and girls in her respective classes. This was much to her dismay as in her previous school the girls made fun of her for this and it was hard to find a guy who liked a tomboyish girl.
Tenten then left the bathroom and began her trek back to Hinata's room. She was deep in thought contemplating how exactly she could alter her image in school. She considered dressing provocatively like some of the other popular girls in school even though she detested the very thought. She then opened the bedroom door and entered with a huge sigh, facing the door as she closed it. She then turned around and took one step into the room stating that she had returned. She looked around and her eyes widened in surprise as she realised she was in the wrong room.
She then covered her mouth to prevent any sudden outbursts as she saw Neji on his bed. His eyes were closed and he was wearing earphones which were almost concealed by his long hair. "Oh man, I'm so lucky. I don't think he heard me. I'd better leave quickly" Tenten thought to herself as she turned to exit the room.
"And you are?" Neji asked as he sat up on his bed, resting his arms on his legs and taking off the earphones. Tenten turned around slowly, bemoaning her bad luck that Neji was actually awake. "I'm umm, Tenten" she responded nervously as she smiled blushingly, scratching the back of her head. "It would be rude of me to ask you your name without giving mine, so I'm Neji Hyuga but can you please tell me why you're in my room?" he asked as he lifted his head to look at her.
"Sorry, I'm a friend of Hinata and I came over to do a geography project. Before we got started I went to the bathroom and when I was returning I guess I got sidetracked and entered the wrong room by mistake." Tenten explained. "I see. What's bothering you? If you don't mind my asking that is." Neji asked looking intrigued. "Huh, what do you mean?" she replied. "Well, as I look into your eyes now, they seem to conceal a troubled spirit. Also you just said that you got sidetracked which means that you were thinking about something lending credence to my conjecture that something is in fact bothering you." Neji stated. Tenten then let out a big sigh and walked towards the bed where Neji was sitting. She sat down next to him saying "Very astute, looks like I can't hide anything from you".
She then went on to explain her situation to him and the difficulty she was facing in trying to solve it. "Well that is a very troubling situation but I think I have the solution" Neji said calmly after careful consideration. Tenten then turned and looked at him intently as she waited for his response. He then stated "I think you should just be yourself. It sounds cliché but I think it's the right course of action for this situation. If you are tomboyish by nature why go against it? Quite frankly I think the so called popular girls in school are pretty annoying. So I don't think you should alter your personality to suit others because in my opinion the way you are now is perfectly fine".
Tenten sat there quietly for a couple seconds assimilating the information she was just given. "I think I understand now. The simplest answer is often the correct one huh. Thank you". Tenten then looked down at her watch and realized that she was gone for at least ten minutes. "Oh shoot! I've got to get back to Hinata's room. We still haven't started the assignment." she shouted as she got up to dart out of the room. "Wait, I'll walk with you" Neji said as he got up from his bed too.
"Oh you want to walk with me" Tenten said along with a mischievous chuckle. "It's not like that" Neji responded frowning. "I'm sure" Tenten replied raising her eyebrows up and down while poking fun at him. "Well it's just that you said you were lost when you entered my room so I assume you don't know where you are right now." Neji said with a slight smile on his face. "Oh yeah that's right" Tenten muttered as she laughed nervously, her face red from her blunder.
They both then left Neji's room and he led the way back to Hinata's room. He leaned up against the wall next to Hinata's door and said "Well we're here". "Thank you for everything Neji" Tenten said. "No problem Tenten" he responded. This brought a smile to her face as she thought to herself "Finally someone who doesn't call me bro or dude". She entered Hinata's room to find the group all present and work on the assignment finally went underway.
Author's Notes
I'm really sorry for the huge disparity between release dates but I've had a lot of school work to do plus my computer has been acting up. Anyway back to the story, I had some trouble approximating Tenten's personality so if her character seems a bit odd I'm sorry. Also Neji is my favourite character so if i seem biased towards him I'm sorry again.