Disclaimer: This will be the second time tonight that I admit, embarrassingly, that Naruto isn't mine.
Royalty II: Pauper
Tenten's nerves were set on edge. Her muscles were tensed beneath her clothes and she could not, for the life of her, resist gripping the blade tucked underneath her sleeve. She glanced sharply out of the corner of her eye, at pale, opaque eyes trained on the ground behind her. Neji was better suited to this mission. His blunders would be minimal; his composure indefectible.
But she was here, surrounded by people of unknown loyalties, with only him as back-up. It would have been enough, had she not doubted her own ablities.
Tenten dropped behind as inconspicuously as she could muster, looking to earn Neji's ear. Murmurs erupted from around her, agitating her alerted senses. Wrong move. Still, she remained composed, eyes cast to the ground. Her insides were a mess.
"Neji," she sibilated, "I might fail." She knew he heard, but he didn't dare immediately respond.
Just as Tenten surrendered her hope of a reply, his smooth, baritone voice ghosted into the air. He chose his words carefully. "Impossible." That is not allowed.
With a start, Tenten registered the soft brush of his hand against her's as he stepped forward past her, poised with all the guise of a mere manservant. Nearly forgetting herself, her mouth parted to release more words of doubt. She stopped when he stopped, before a large, ornate door, just shy of inner palace rooms.
Bowing proper, he humbly drew the door open for her, only pausing once to meet her eyes with his own. "After all, you are royalty, are you not?" He was smirking.
The congregation of servants fell into step behind her, their mutterings now lost on her as the room came into view. Only Neji and the waiting princes espied the telltale flush of her cheeks as she stepped into their company, with all the airs of a pretend princess.
Her ruse would have been more successful had her thoughts not been occupied by a certain deceptive, pale-eyed attendant that day. But it all worked out according to plan, even though a Hyuuga Neji knew better than to flirt with her on a mission.
To be continued.
A/N: I hope it's not too confusing. It's not supposed to be an assassination mission (what with Tenten's paranoid gripping of a blade and all), but just a simple deception mission, utilized for the purposes of writing this drabble.
