Neji looked through his pamphlet once more before placing it into the front pocket of his shirt.
"It seems that we have arrived. This is where the tour is scheduled to begin" Neji turned and said to Shikamaru.
"There aren't any other students here though. Also I don't see anyone looking like a tour guide" Shikamaru pointed out, looking around.
"Yeah you're right. Maybe-" The Hyuga was then interrupted by a honk in the background.
"Hey! Sorry about that. I didn't think anyone else was going to show up" a man said as he approached the two of them.
He was driving a caddy which had a carriage connected behind it with 4 available seats. (A.N. Basically just imagine a regular horse-drawn carriage but instead of horses pulling it, it's a vehicle.)
"You're the tour guide?" Shikamaru questioned, examining the man carefully.
"Yeah I'm one of the tour guides. The name's Hayate" the man coughed as he spoke.
"Why is this place so empty? There's hardly anyone here" Neji asked, glancing around once more.
"That's because all the people that were once here are currently taking the tour with the other guides" the man explained coughing once again.
"Oh okay, so most of the students have already gone. Why are you still here then?" Shikamaru enquired.
"I was assigned to stay back just in case anyone else showed up. No one else really came and I was actually about to leave" Hayate explained.
"I guess we're pretty lucky then. We made it in the nick of time" Neji added, turning to Shikamaru.
"Well, not exactly." Hayate intervened, letting out a small cough.
"What do you mean?" Shikamaru questioned, looking a bit confused.
"I can't actually take you guys on the tour yet" he stated.
He then pointed to the carriage behind him "As you can see this thing has four seats and there's this rule I got to follow that says that I can only give the tour if there are four people present"
"You're joking right?" Neji asked, looking a bit dismayed.
"Afraid not my friend. I can only give the tour if seating capacity is full" Hayate responded.
"Well that rule sucks, especially since we're the only ones here" Shikamaru sighed, placing his hands into his pocket.
"I guess we've got no choice but to head back to our dorm" Neji stated, crossing his arms to show his frustration.
"Aw man, what a drag!" Shikamaru bemoaned.
Just then, quite luckily for the boys, Temari and Tenten appeared.
"Hi excuse me, is this where the tour takes place?" Temari enquired, drawing everyone's attention.
"You're here for the tour?" Hayate questioned, coughing once more.
"Yup!" they both replied enthusiastically.
Shikamaru, who hates wasting his energy, was so relieved that they came that even he had a smile on his face.
"Heh, you guys sure saved us" Shikamaru smiled as he approached Temari.
"Huh what do you mean?" The blonde questioned, shifting her attention to him.
"Apparently there's a rule that says the tour can start only if there are four people present" Neji explained as he joined Shikamaru in front the two girls.
"Oh really that's kind of silly if you ask me! Were you guys waiting here for a long time?" Tenten entered the conversation.
"Not really, you guys actually came just a couple minutes after us" Neji answered her.
"Well technically you guys saved us as well" Temari stated placing her hands on her hips.
"Huh how so?" Tenten questioned her friend.
"Heh, if we weren't here when you guys showed up you wouldn't have been able to take the tour either because there wouldn't be four people present" Shikamaru explained, smirking at Temari's keen observation.
"Oh yeah, you're right that's true. By the way, I don't think we formally introduced ourselves" Tenten said.
"I'm Tenten and this is Temari" she continued, pointing to Temari as she introduced her.
"Pleased to meet you. My name's Neji and this is Shikamaru" the Hyuga said cordially, pointing to his friend as he said his name.
"Sorry to interrupt but are you guys ready? Can I start this thing?" Hayate questioned from the background, drawing the attention of the four teens.
They all boarded the carriage which lacked a roof (It's a tour so you've got to be able to see!). The seats were at opposite ends facing each other so Neji and Shikamaru sat at one end and Temari and Tenten sat at the other.
"This is pretty fancy. I thought we were going to be walking" Tenten exclaimed.
"Yeah I didn't expect all this" Temari agreed, crossing her legs.
"This university seems to spend a lot of revenue on social events kind of like these" Shikamaru pointed out.
"Yeah I was looking at the school's calendar and it's full of social events" Neji added in agreement.
"The university has a bunch of these outings. You'll get used to it…eventually" Hayate commented from the driver's seat in front, coughing as he did so.
He continued "Anyway, the way this tour is going to work is that I'll drive by the important buildings and places. Most of them have signs denoting them so I won't have too much to say. Got it?"
They all responded with a simple "Yeah". And with that Hayate took off and officially got the tour started.
They drove across the campus, the four teens making mental notes of where the different facilities are. Shikamaru laid back in his seat, casually looking around whereas Neji sat up and looked around more attentively. The two girls spoke amongst themselves as the tour went on.
"These facilities are so modern. Even more so than Suna's best university" Termai remarked, looking around.
"You're from Suna?" Shikamaru questioned, turning his attention to the blonde.
"Yeah I am. Why do you ask?" she replied.
"It's just that not much foreign students attend this university. Most of the student population is from Konoha" he answered.
"Well I got offered a scholarship here and Konoha is a richer nation than Suna meaning the universities here are generally better, so here I am" Temari explained.
"A scholarship huh? I knew it, you're pretty smart" Shikamaru said, leaning forward and resting his arms on his knees.
"Thank you that's very flattering" she responded graciously.
"But you said 'I knew it' which means you thought that I was intelligent even before I mentioned the scholarship. Was that because of the observation I made earlier about us not being able to take the tour without you guys?" she went on to question.
"Kind of, that was one of the reasons" he answered.
"What's the other reason?" she asked, looking at the spiky haired boy with intrigue.
"A gut feeling I guess. I just got a different sort of vibe when I was with you" he answered further.
Temari smiled. She asked "Different vibe eh? Different as in bad or different as in good?"
"Heh, different as in good" Shikamaru chuckled, lying back lazily onto his seat and looking out at the buildings that pass by.
And with that their journey continued. The four teens resumed looking out at the various facilities as they did before. However the only difference this time is the smile on both Shikamaru and Temari's face.
Author's Notes
Well that's another chapter in the bag. Unfortunately this was a short one . Sorry about that, but I was just drawing a blank. Hopefully I'll get my mind sorted…hopefully.
Anyways someone asked what couples I'll be covering. Thank you for the question. It'll be all the canon couples and NejiTen. If Neji didn't die it would've been canon ;(. Also shoutout to that other dude/gal who reviewed positively. Thank you!
Well that's all for now. See you guys in the next one!
-Cloud
