For my good friend I.Heart.Hatake.Kakashi who was lovely enough to pimp out this fic in one of her own stories wthout me even asking her to. I was so happy, cos it was the first time I ever got publicity for one of my fics! She's a good writer too so go check out her stuff XP

Sorry ShikallllTema there's no going to Neji's locker for you, you'll have to imagine that for yourself but on the bright side, I did do a sleepover for you and leaf.does.not.wither.

I shall be hiding under a rock studying for midsem exams for the next few weeks... ugh.

Disclaimer: I do not claim to have any intellectual property in the Naruto characters

Speculation and Pizzas

His fingers flew over the black and white keys as he worked on one of the more difficult runs in the piece. Neji was in what he liked to call 'The Zone'. The Zone was when everything else in his life was blocked out except for the music. It soothed him and it was almost like meditation for him. He normally spent an hour or two practising the piano on most days. His teacher had given up trying to convince him to play at recitals because he stubbornly refused each time. Neji was willing to do the exams and he had passed all of them with High Distinctions, he had already received his Associate diploma and he knew he would have done well at the competitions. Yet something held him back. To him, playing the piano wasn't just something that he happened to be good at; it went much further than that, it was a way for him to connect with his long dead father. His father had forced him to play the instrument because he loved music and Neji had been rather hyperactive when young. Taking piano lessons meant requiring the young boy to sit still for at least thirty minutes. However, Neji had become much more withdrawn when his father died but he continued playing, it gave him an outlet to express himself which he would not have had otherwise. Not many people knew he played or how well he played, it wasn't that he kept it a secret but it was just personal.

Neji was repeating a particularly difficult passage when he saw a movement in the reflection of the room behind him in the black polished wood of the instrument. He stopped abruptly and turned around.

"Please don't stop, that was amazing!" said Tenten, her eyes wide.

He continued staring at her, at a slight loss for words as he wondered what on earth she was doing in his house.

She misinterpreted his silence as annoyance with her. "Oh sorry, I'll stop disturbing your practice." The brunette girl turned to leave the room.

"It's fine, I just didn't expect to see you here," he replied sharply. He mentally hit himself, he didn't mean for it to come out sounding so harsh.

Tenten turned back to face him with a sheepish grin, "Hinata invited me for her three day sleepover 'cause we all have lots of dance rehearsals in the next few days."

"I thought I heard Ino and Sakura," he mused as he turned his back to her and began putting away his music before shutting the piano. During brief breaks in his practice, he thought he had heard them bickering loudly. Great, they would be bickering non-stop in his home for three days.

"Sorry Neji, I didn't mean to ruin your practice," apologised Tenten again.

"I was about to finish anyway," he told her. "I'm getting a drink, do you want anything?" he asked, trying to play the good host.

"Just water is fine," she replied, still sounding rather apologetic. "But I was looking for you 'cause I brought some Discworld books for you." Tenten gave him a slightly embarrassed smile as she handed him a few brightly coloured books.

Neji couldn't help raising a questioning eyebrow at the strange chaotic cartoonish designs on the cover. "Thanks," he murmured nonetheless.

They both walked to the kitchen in silence. He wasn't sure what to say as usual so he kept his mouth shut to avoid making a fool of himself. Sakura and Ino's voices became louder as they approached the kitchen. The two girls were arguing over what they should all eat for dinner. Sakura wanted to make sushi but Ino wanted to make salads. Hinata was standing aside poking her fingers together, looking distressed. Hanabi was making herself Milo in the midst of the battlefield, unperturbed that World War III was about to erupt in the room.

"Hanabi, dinner will be soon, don't drink too much," Neji warned her sternly. He was slightly annoyed at Hinata for not telling him that she was having her girlfriends over for a sleepover because Hiashi had left him in charge whilst he was on an overseas trip for some business conference.

His younger cousin pulled a face at him, "But I've already poured the milk in."

"Oh, hi Neji," said Ino and Sakura in unison when they finally noticed his arrival. He grunted at them in reply.

"As charming as usual," said Ino sarcastically.

He ignored her and poured Tenten a glass of water. "Hanabi, don't even think about eating those biscuits. If you do I won't let you have any ice-cream after dinner."

The little girl pouted and replaced the biscuits in the tin sulkily. "But I'm hungry Neji!" she whined.

Tenten tried to hide an amused smile as she sipped her water. Neji would make good husband material one day. She mentally smacked herself in the head for thinking such thoughts, this was her friend… that was if they could be considered friends. They didn't communicate much outside of school but they didn't annoy the hell out of each other either.

"Just hang on for fifteen minutes; I'll go get some pizza," he grumbled as he began searching in one of the drawers for the pizza vouchers they kept for moments like these.

"But we wanted to make dinner," protested Sakura. She glared at him with her hands on her hips. "We brought ingredients and everything."

Neji sighed, why couldn't his friends have sleepovers too so he could escape from this overload of oestrogen. He glanced at the kitchen clock, it was already 7.36 pm. "By the time dinner is ready it'll be 8-something and you girls will be here for a few days anyway so just cook tomorrow night," he replied firmly, his tone making it clear that he wasn't in the mood for arguments. "Now what kind of pizzas do you want?"

"Hawaiian," Hanabi chirped immediately.

"Vegetarian," said Hinata bashfully. Kiba and Shino had managed to convince his soft hearted cousin to join their Environmental Conservation Club as an active member. She was now slowly evolving into a hippie. It was good that she was becoming environmentally aware but she was trying to turn the whole family vegetarian and Neji really liked his meat.

"Supreme please."

"No, let's get Meatatarian Forehead."

"I don't want Meatatarian you stupid Pig."

Neji wondered how on earth two people could bicker so much but still remain best of friends. Maybe it was a girl thing. Ino and Sakura continued along this vein for a few minutes before Tenten turned towards him rolling her eyes. "A Supreme and a Meatatarian for those two please."

"Do you want anything?" he asked her. Ino and Sakura continued to argue in the background over whether they wanted thick or thin crust.

"I eat anything and you'd better make it a thick crust for the supreme and a thin crust for the meatatarian." Tenten glanced over at the two and shook her head.

"Hanabi do you want to watch Highschool Musical?" asked Hinata gently, deciding that she'd better take her little sister away from all the arguing. It was setting a bad example and she was starting to get a headache.

Hanabi nodded and climbed off the stool she had been standing on to make her Milo on the high kitchen counter. The young girl followed her sister unquestioningly out of the room.

"Ok I'm going to go get them now," muttered Neji, grabbing the car keys.

"I'll help you carry the pizzas," Tenten volunteered eagerly. As much as she loved those two girls as friends, they occasionally got on her nerves with all their arguing.

He had gotten his license fairly recently and he often wished that his uncle would let him have the car more often because he liked driving. It was relaxing. He and Tenten spent most of the car ride in silence until she started asking him what he wanted to do after school.

Neji wasn't entirely sure what he wanted to do after school. Perhaps medicine, dentistry or law. He had most of it planned out and once he had a plan he stuck to it. He was one of those people who liked their routines. His revolved mostly around school, study, sports training, occasionally hanging out with his mates and piano practice. He admitted that he loved playing the instrument but he was realistic, most musicians didn't get paid much and often had to have part-time jobs on the side unless he wanted to be a music teacher. But the problem was that he wasn't very fond of kids when there was more than three for him to deal with at once. His uncle often tried to steer him towards investment banking or stock broking but he wasn't interested in it, he actually didn't care that much about money. All that mattered was that it was a stable job that paid the bills, allowed him to live comfortably and didn't bore him to death. His plan was straightforward; graduate from highschool with good marks, study at a good university, maintain a high grade point average and to do well in his career.

Tenten, on the other hand, wanted to become a professional dancer, take a year off after graduation to travel and to generally live life to the fullest. She was smart but she had told him that she didn't think that getting top marks was necessarily everything. Tenten began trying to convince him to take a gap year. She wanted to backpack all over the world and she had read about some volunteer program that you could do in some of the poorer countries. It was intriguing, she was intriguing. He was very tempted but his uncle would kill him for wasting an entire year. It didn't fit into his plan but Tenten had a knack for turning his world upside down and making him rethink his future plan.

Neji found himself sitting on one couch with Hanabi and Tenten eating pizza and watching Highschool Musical when they returned with the food. Hinata, Ino and Sakura were sitting on another couch eating pizza and whispering quietly. Hanabi and Tenten were both absorbed in the movie. His youngest cousin was mouthing all the words along to the movie. She had watched it far too many times. He reached for another piece of pizza. He was really hungry today and was already onto his sixth slice. Tenten was onto her fourth, he was impressed, girls in his limited experience usually couldn't eat much or wouldn't because they were on a diet.

"Neji, do you want my pineapple? I don't like pineapple," asked Hanabi turning her large lavender eyes on him.

He sighed with exasperation, why did the child order Hawaiian if she didn't like pineapple in the first place?! Neji held out his plate to Hanabi and she deposited all the pineapple pieces she had picked off her pizza onto his.

Tenten chuckled, "Such a good older cousin."

"Hn."

"Neji, you're a machine. You just finished an entire pizza by yourself," she continued to observe.

He grunted at her, he was starting to feel its effects as well. Good thing he had basketball training tomorrow.

"Don't worry," she gave his side a friendly jab. He squirmed, he was ticklish. "You have nothing to worry about it's all muscle." Neji pushed her hand away.

Hanabi was giggling, "Neji's really ticklish." She then began poking his other side as well.

Neji growled and stood up swiftly, he was going to escape to his room. All the girls seemed to enjoy picking on him whenever they outnumbered him greatly! Both Hanabi and Tenten were giggling at his reaction whilst Hinata, Sakura and Ino looked on with interest. Neji glared at all the girls before getting rid of the empty pizza boxes and retreating to the safety of his room.

"Wow, he's so well-trained," Tenten drawled nonchalantly as he left the room.

Hinata giggled softly, "Well he is single."

"Yeah you both looked like you were getting along really well," Sakura added slyly.

"We should like totally set you both up. I reckon you'd make a cute couple," chipped in Ino mischievously.

Tenten threw a cushion at them, "Haha, very funny but no thanks."

"Just think, if you go to the Formal together you'd have a good looking partner for all the photos," pointed out Sakura unhelpfully.

Tenten threw another cushion at the pink haired girl. "Get stuffed."

"Yeah just try not to get too frisky with each other at the after party though, remember that the best form of protection is abstinence," joked Ino.

"Argh you're terrible!" groaned Tenten before chucking the last cushion at the blonde.

"Ino! My little sister is in the room don't say stuff like that!" scolded Hinata.

Ino laughed, "Whoops, cover your ears Hanabi."

"Boys are stupid, as if you'd go to the Formal (1) anyway," Hanabi retorted. She was still at the age where she hated boys and boy germs. The little girl hadn't been listening to their conversation much anyway, her older sister and her friends always talked about boring things.

"Hinata, does Neji like Tenten?" asked Ino, continuing to tease Tenten.

Hinata shrugged and smiled, "I don't know he hasn't said anything to me about it."

Tenten rolled her eyes and snapped, "Will you guys just drop it? There's nothing going on between the two of us. He doesn't like me, if he did he would have made a move ages ago." She was getting quite annoyed with how immature the other girls were about boys. Just because those three constantly analysed whether any form of interaction with any boy meant that the boy had a crush on them didn't mean she did that too.

Ino opened her mouth to needle the older girl some more but Sakura elbowed her sharply in the ribs. Hinata glanced at the clock, it was getting late, Hanabi should have been in bed a while ago and their dance rehearsals started fairly early tomorrow. "It's getting late we should go sleep," she said quietly to break the awkward silence that had settled over them. Her friends left to go get ready for bed.

Hinata took her sleepy sister to her room and before going to bed herself; she popped her head into Neji's room. He was still awake watching some anime on his computer. One orange haired boy was charging at another man with an oversized kitchen knife. "Hey Neji?"

He turned towards her and raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Can you give us a lift to the Dance School tomorrow morning? Our rehearsals start at 9am," she asked bashfully.

Neji sighed, "Yeah I'll give you girls a lift, I have basketball at 9.30 anyway." He glanced at his clock, it was nearing midnight, and he needed to sleep soon.

"Neji," Hinata continued quietly. "Do you like Tenten?"

He turned and glared at her, "You girls gossip too much, there's nothing going on between the two of us."

"Oh sorry, I was just wondering," Hinata mumbled before wishing him goodnight and going to bed.

Neji laid flat on his back on his bed and stared at his ceiling. Was there anything going on between the two of them? He didn't think that Tenten liked him in the romantic sense because she had never showed any hint of it. Of course fate would have it that all the girls who displayed interest in him were girls he would rather have nothing to do with but with the one girl he actually liked, she didn't seem that interested. In any case, he was actually talking to her more now and it was a big step for him. Perhaps something good would come out of it, but for now, he was going to keep his expectations low and just be happy that she was actually willingly talking to him.

A/N: Geez I wonder what anime Neji was watching lol.

(1) Ok when I say "Formal" that's like the "Prom" but where I'm from, we don't call it the Prom so sorry if I'm not using terms you may all be familiar with, I have a bad habit of doing that which is something I.Heart.Hatake.Kakashi can attest to.

I had a bit of difficulty with the ending... trying not to go down the typical highschool fic path is hard... and I feel like I may have with the sleepover, oh dear. But feel free to give me a review, I love hearing from my readers. I even try to reply to everyone but yeah if you don't actually want me to reply that's fine too just add a note in the review saying 'Do not reply' or even "you suck" Either one works fine... I'll probably cry myself to sleep if you say the 2nd one hahaha.

3 Shadeehue