Kiddies who aren't in college yet; if you have the opportunity to double major in accounting and finance, DON'T DO IT. D':
I do not own Naruto. This chapter is AWK. I sincerely apologize for my inability to present it in a straightforward manner.
"Well, here we are," she said, and turned to see a very confused Lee.
"Where?"
Tenten gestured to the building behind Lee. "The post office," she deadpanned.
"Oh."
She crossed her arms over her chest when he failed to move. "Are you going to send your letter?"
He looked down at the paper still in his hand, then burst out in nervous laughter as his other hand made its way to the back of his head. "Of course," he replied, his voice sounding too off pitch to be convincing.
"So do it," she said, a little exasperated by his behavior, but also a little concerned. Why would he be so nervous about mailing a letter?
Lee was a little startled by the edge in his friend's voice. "Okay," he muttered, turning around and pushing aside the cloth covering the entrance. He slowly made his way to the counter, Tenten following behind him.
"Can I help you?" The elderly clerk at the desk inquired, feeling a little nervous when he recognized the junior green beast.
"Yes, I would like to have this delivered post-haste!"
No one laughed at the awful pun, and Tenten buried her face in her hands.
Realizing that his joke had fallen flat, Lee was self-conscious enough to look sheepish as he extended his arm over the desk, the letter to his family clutched firmly in his hand.
The clerk nodded. "Rest assured, we will make sure your letter arrive safely and in an orderly fashion…" The man trailed off as he attempted to take the paper form the younger man only to find the shinobi had it in a death grip. "Sir, I need you to let go."
"Of course!" Lee said brightly, but when the clerk once again tried to take the letter, Lee's grip hadn't slackened at all.
Tenten, who had been waiting in the corner, walked up to the counter and grabbed his arm, forcing it to bend at the elbow. Lee looked surprised, but allowed her to move his hand to in front of his chest. Tenten then slid her hands up to his and not-so-gently began to pry his fingers off of the letter. His grip loosened, and though Tenten couldn't figure out why he was being cooperative for her and not the clerk, she was happy that he wasn't making this even more difficult by resisting her. With her goal accomplished, she pried the letter from his (not entirely relaxed) fingers and handed it to the clerk who was waiting patiently.
Lee breathed a sigh of relief. Now that it was out of his hands, the anxiety lessened, and all he could do was wait and see what happened.
"Thank you for your patience," Tenten somewhat apologized to the clerk. She received a nod and a slight smile when he noticed the two were only now letting go of each other's hands.
"You're welcome. Have a nice day," he bid them farewell as he disappeared into the back of the post office and the two ninjas exited the building.
As soon as they were outside, Tenten stopped Lee from walking away. "What was that all about? Was that really just a letter?" she huffed, crossing her arms underneath her breasts for the second time that day. Really, he was acting very suspicious, and she couldn't help but worry about him. It almost hurt to see him looking so anxious.
Lee looked around nervously, trying to find a reason to run away. Finding none, he grabbed Tenten's arm with a muttered "follow me," and practically dragged her to a less crowded area in the residential district of the Hidden Leaf. Though this was not Tenten's favorite mode of transportation, she still preferred it to the times when Lee had grabbed her arm and run so fast that she was airborne for the duration of the sprint.
Once he felt they were in a suitably private area he released her and turned around to look at her, and boy did she look worried. As much as she tried to control her expression, she couldn't hide her concern, which she knew was unfortunate because it caused Lee to exclaim "Please do not be so concerned! There is nothing wrong! It is just…" he trailed off, looking at everything but Tenten before continuing. "It is just something very important that I have put off for far too long, and I am simply anxious."
"Lee," she prodded, wanting a more thorough explanation.
He sighed, his shoulders drooping as he stared at the ground. His feet shuffled in the dirt, and Tenten had to practice some self-restraint in order not to yank his head up and force him to look at her. After a moment of contemplating, though, Lee continued without her needing to manhandle his face. "I… I have not spoken to my family in a long time," he raised his head. "And I thought it was about time…" Something above Tenten's head seemed to catch his attention and he trailed off.
Tenten, for her part, was torn as to whether to wave her hand in his face and ask him to continue or try to comfort him. He had never spoken about his family before, never. Tenten had always just assumed his parents were as eccentric as he (at one point actually, Tenten and Neji had discussed the theory that Gai sensei was some sort of relation). She would never have guessed that her teammate had come from anything but a loving home. How else could he have become such a friendly shinobi? After Lee's eyes widened and he looked back down at her in order to continue speaking, some of her concern was replaced by curiosity. She had just assumed that he was staring off into space, but it seemed that he had actually been looking at something.
Something being something awkward, considering how red his face turned. It sort of reminded her of a Christmas tree. A nervously stuttering Christmas tree that flailed its branches around as though it didn't want to be decorated.
"Letuscontinuethisinamoresuitablelocation," he spat out, and if it weren't for the fact that her tried to pull her down the streets yet again she wouldn't have any idea what he just said.
Tenten, however, wasn't going quietly this time. She yanked her arm back, and started to turn around in hopes of turning around and finding out what was making smoke pour out of Lee's ears.
"Lee, what in the world, ah!" she gasped as her eyes lighted upon the sight she least wanted to see. It took her a moment to process that her eyes were watering.
"Tenten," Lee said soothingly, reaching out to touch her shoulder. She knocked his hand away and started running, not even fully aware of what she was doing.
I didn't see that, I didn't see that, I didn't! She chanted mentally as she hopped up to the roof of a building, nimbly jumping across alleyways in an attempt to get as far away as possible. She thought she heard a shout behind her, but didn't stop even when her teammate tried to cut her off. Instead she barreled right into him, knocking the breath from his chest. Unfortunately, this had happened mid-air, so he couldn't hold his stance in order to stop her. They tumbled to the next roof, Lee twisting so that he landed on bottom.
It wasn't exactly a soft landing, but nothing the miniature green beast couldn't handle. He took a breath, holding Tenten against him with one hand so that she wouldn't run away, and he used his other to prop himself up.
"Tenten, are you?..." he asked, slipping his hand off of her back to touch her face. Never, never had he expected to see her cry. She was one of the strongest people he knew, and to see her looking so broken was unforgivable.
Unfortunately, letting go proved to be a mistake, because just before his fingers could touch the trail of moisture streaming down her cheeks she bolted, leaving a very stunned Lee behind to try to process what had just happened. It didn't take long for him to flip onto his stomach and slam a fist onto the roof, creating a lovely little crater that he knew he would volunteer to fix later.
"Damn it, Neji!"
