Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did, Neji would be alive and well.
Hi guys! Sorry I haven't updated :( School is so busy right now. But, Thanksgiving is next week, and because I might not even update before then, Happy Thanksgiving!
Yes, Naruto ended two weeks ago, which I am still kind of depressed about. I just really am sick of the NaruSaku shippers who started a hashtag #fixnaruto and want to ban Naruto because their ship didn't get together. I just want to tell them to #fixtheirattitude. Kishimoto spent 15 years, beautiful 15 years to dedicate his life to writing this for us. How are you a true Naruto fan if you can't embrace what he has written and appreciate the legacy he left?
Anyway, enough of that super short rant. Please review and favorite/follow if you want more! I told you it would be interesting :) If you like this style or if you like my writing, check out the other pieces I did. Every review means a lot to me :) Enjoy!
Tenten was greeted in the morning with a tousle-haired Sakura with dark circles under her eyes. "Looks like you had a rough night," Tenten remarked, pouring herself a cup of coffee. Steam rose in spirals in front of her face.
Sakura groaned in annoyance and fatigue. "Tsunade-sama isn't letting me off easily this month. She said she would give me a raise if I work late hours everyday for the rest of the month. I still can't choose between my sleep and my raise. As if last month wasn't enough."
Tenten set another cup of coffee on the table, and Sakura reached over for it. The latter prompted to ask the brunette, "So, how's your 'training regime' with your 'Prince Charming'?" Tenten clutched slightly at her throat to prevent herself from choking on coffee. "What the hell? It's rehearsal. It's not too harsh; it's only been one month. It's only November. And he's just… Neji… right?"
"Well," Sakura took a bite of egg, "we all have our opinions, right?" She slammed her fork down. "Well, I've got to rush today. It seems there was an accident, and the traffic is horrible. It's still really early, but it's better safe than sorry. Again, Sasuke's taking me. We're both off late tonight."
"Yeah, sure. Even if I'm out, I'd probably be back before you. I'll see you tonight then." Sakura slid her coat off its hanger in the closet and slung it over her shoulder. "Have fun then. I'll see you later."
"I'm sure I will." Sakura dashed out in a valiant attempt to avoid later traffic. Tenten smiled at her back as the door slammed close with a bang.
Her only companion at home when Sakura was out was her violin, said object currently being taken out by Tenten in another effort to memorize the Beethoven. Memory had always been an issue with her. Just not with the important things, she thought, as Neji smirked in the back of her mind.
Sakura was chiding her frequently on how well the relationship was going, how there was no "drama" or anything yet. "When I was into this far with Sasuke, we already fought so many times!" she had said shrilly into the phone one day after a rehearsal.
"Not all of us are as dysfunctional as you two," Tenten had retorted.
Sakura had ignored her and hung up.
~X~
It was during a grueling session of struggling through memorizing the Beethoven in which Neji decided to knock on Tenten's door. She set down her violin and weaved her way around the flat to the living room, where sunlight was streaming through the windows, golden droplets reflecting off the windows.
Right after the door was unlocked, Neji invited himself in and embraced an unseriously miffed Tenten, and it was with feigned reluctance that she put her arms around him too. He set his head on top of hers for a moment of comfortable silence. After which he kissed her and whispered, "Hn. We still have some ways to go with that one."
"Not all of us can memorize things as quickly as you can."
"I stand corrected."
"Your place today though, right?"
"I was waiting for you to pack up, but you seemed too interested in correcting me to start." Tenten flushed slightly, wiped her violin, and closed her case with a resounding click. "Let's go, then. Wouldn't want to keep you waiting."
He smirked slightly but kept silent as he went out the door, Tenten following him, locking the door behind her.
~X~
The first thing she thought when entering the house was that it looked exactly the same. Or, mostly the same. Same arched ceiling, nicely painted walls, elaborate dining collections, ornate furniture, and not to mention a beautiful new Steinway grand piano. Winding staircase and glistening chandelier from all those years ago. Antique paintings adorned the wall, portraits' stone gazes seemingly following your every movement with a hawk's glare. Neji stood, still as a statue, by the doorway, a grand wooden door with a glossy finish, as he watched her take in her surroundings with her eyes.
"Hasn't changed much since I've last been here, and that was years ago."
"Hiashi-sama isn't one for abrupt changes in his environment."
"Your family and their uptightness," she said jokingly, pushing his shoulder in a relaxed manner. He put his arm around her shoulder.
"If you want to stick with me, you have to learn to deal with my family as well."
"I know that. I'm just stating it outright out loud first so that I know not just in my mind, but my ears know too. You see, as a musician, I have to hear everything out loud, not in my head. It's how I learn and perceive everything."
"It really does seem like you have a lot to say today."
"I speak my mind. I need to hear my thoughts."
"If you insist. Why don't you unpack first? I'll be right back." Tenten disappeared behind another grand arch into the music room. Neji waited until she closed the door to peer behind the arch behind him.
"You can come out behind the door, I'm sure she'd want to meet you two." A young girl, no older than 16 or 17 popped out behind the arch in a wild flick of hair as the girl behind her, closer to Neji's age, shuffled out timidly.
"Nii-san has a girlfriend. Nee-chan, isn't that right? You saw them! I wonder if practice is all they-"
"Hanabi, that isn't polite," Hinata said in a slight reprimanding fashion to her younger sister. "Neji nii-san, I'm really not sure she'd want to. I haven't seen her in five years, either. And all she remembers of Hanabi was a little girl in middle school. I- I really think that you- you would be embarrassed by us."
"It's fine. You were friends with her, were you not?"
"Speaking of friends and trust, Neji nii-san, you have yet to tell her what you need to tell." Neji's pearly eyes hardened slightly, hair falling in front of them to shield his gaze. "I understand."
"So, nii-san's got a secret?"
"Hanabi, go away."
~X~
"You took some time for you to be 'right back'," Tenten joked feebly as Neji closed the door behind him with a click. He grunted slightly as he sat down on the piano bench. "My cousins have a tendency to probe and pry with questions." He nimbly played a scale up and down on the piano, the sound vibrating off the walls and ringing with the delicacy of a crystal wine glass. "Have you tuned?" Tenten nodded in assent.
With only a look as their communication, they started their practice, the notes dancing off their strings, their fingers. They filled the room with a sort of delicate fragility, almost as if they were going to break. And so they were in their little world, the small world they called their own, in the music room, their ears ringing with sounds of fire and earth, water and air. Stories unwinded and tales retold through sound and not coherent words. Her violin sang, and the piano sang with her.
The kind of words that they've been trying to say. In a world where they can only whisper or not yet speak with eloquence, music flowed through their veins with the words they have yet to speak out. Through music did they find their new voices.
It was without any break between the pieces, no stops, that they played throughout the afternoon and into the evening, until the sky was painted red with the hues of the sun's rays. They didn't stop talking to each other for the entire day. Yet they never spoke a word. It was with this understanding that people truly believed that they were in love.
It was very late into the night that Tenten glanced at Neji, who nodded with assent, and started packing up. The stars had waved goodbye to the sun, and the moon began its reign over the bustling nightlife of Tokyo. The moon was full that night, an orb just like the eyes that stared at her from Neji's face.
It was then that Neji uttered the first word anyone of them had spoken in a long time. "You finish cleaning up. Tell me when you're done. I'll be upstairs." He smiled a little and closed the door soundly behind him. Tenten could hear his footsteps as they neared the stairs. She smiled at the closed door and continued wiping her violin like a mother with a child.
~X~
"The concert isn't in too long." Hinata stood behind his chair as Neji fingered the ring yet again. "Before you know it, it'll be too late for anything." He took in her reply without a sound or reply.
"I wished she could see this, me finally performing on a tour. I realized I loved her too long after she left." He rolled the ring around his fingers. The silver reflected off the desk lamp and cast a beautiful silver streak on the wooden desk.
"If you keep using this as a resort, Tenten will get the wrong idea. There will be misunderstandings." Hinata gripped the back of Neji's chair more tightly. "I don't want to be the one to tell her anything. It should be you. This is the only time that I will ever be telling you advice, but you need to be telling her this yourself, before something else crops up along the way."
"I will. The time will come." He let out a deep breath and let the ring roll around the table in a perfect circle, his opalescent eyes following its cycle. Hinata sighed from where she was. "That time will never come if you keep hold it off like this." She closed the door as she heard Hanabi making yet another ruckus downstairs. "This is important to you, but not in that way. Not the way that most people would interpret it as. It is time for you to tell her that it isn't, this isn't what she would think, not would anyone would think, this priceless treasure."
Neji closed his eyes before opening them again, revealing in a vacant expression with the face of a person lost in a memory. He wasn't, however; he couldn't remember anything at the moment, and he could never remember anything at all. It was too long ago. He remembered the aching pain from the past. He never really knew her, he thought to himself. No one really knew who she really was. And yet, he knew she loved him, and he loved her. She was gone before he could really see her for who she was. And yet, she was such a prominent figure in his life. How he never truly knew her, he did not know.
"Your mother's, wasn't it," Hinata whispered into the looming silence. "My aunt." Neji nodded, his head moving slightly up and down. After his father's death, she locked herself up for long hours at a time, never coming out of her room unless she absolutely needed something for herself. She became part of the background. She passed not too long after, haunted by grief, depression and anxiety. Neji knew he loved his mother, but she drew her past self into the depths of her depression, a shell of what she used to be. He did not know her for long enough to see just exactly what kind of a person she was. Even when she was alive, he didn't know much about her, her preferences, her family history, her side of the family, her personality. She was almost like a paper figure labeled with the word "mother".
"That's what you meant," Hinata said. "Finding someone, you had said. Information about your mother, was it not? That's why you came back to Tokyo." He made no reply, but his still form was an obvious sign for the word, "yes". Ever since he had come back, he was always seemingly preoccupied, until Tenten came. Neji became, not less serious, but more open. Tenten had a presence like eternal sunshine. She would stay until you became a more open and welcoming person.
"This ring itself won't get you anywhere," Hinata said firmly. "I suggest that you discard it before it -"
It was with a slam of his palm on the desk that interrupted his cousin. She faded back into her timid self as she pressed herself into the corner of the wall. There was the sound of footsteps up the stairs, but Neji didn't care. And the words he spoke next were louder than she had ever heard him speak.
"No. Absolutely not. This, this, is the gateway to her. The mystery she had become." His hand shook on the table, fingers trembling. "I LOVED HER. SHE LEFT ME. ALL I HAD LEFT IS THIS. I LOVED HER, AND SHE LOVED ME. SHE LEFT BEFORE I COULD SAY GOODBYE!" They did not hear the door open in his anguish, where a shocked Tenten stood with mouth agape. And that was when he truly understood what Hinata meant by a misunderstanding. Tenten turned around sharply and clamored down the stairs with her violin as quickly as she could without damaging her instrument.
"Go after her." Neji didn't need telling twice as he raced down the stairs, heart pounding in his throat, hair covering his eyes, feet slipping underneath him. He found her by the door, angry tears in her eyes. He reached out a hand, which he forcefully slapped away.
"It's not what it-"
"And if it is?" She retorted back angrily. "Oh, yes, I remember all those weeks ago, you telling me you were searching for someone. It was her, was it not? And what have you been doing with me these weeks?"
"It's not someone like that-" He struggled for the right words, knowing he wasn't as eloquent in speech as music. But, in this situation, there was no time to be groping for the right words.
"And it's not my business if she is or isn't!" Tenten took a step back, brows furrowed, eyes narrowed. "It's that you didn't trust me enough to tell me beforehand! What is it with you, barricading yourself? I've been working so hard to get back to you since we were in high school, to be just as good friends. And in this attempt, you've locked yourself up more. Chasing down the past when what mattered was your trust, in the present. If you really think that it matters whether or not it was an old friend or a past lover or some sort, it doesn't! I'm not the kind of person to be ruffled by another girl, another woman! Trust is the first step. If you haven't had the courage to smash down your walls to let someone else in, maybe it's not time for you. It's a big step, and I thought we'd do it together. If you refuse to walk toward the future, then please, be my guest, and stay in the past. I'm seeing brighter where new things can happen." She started walking away to her flat, which would be at least be a forty minute walk, but she didn't care.
Was it a break up or not, she didn't know. But it angered her that such trust did not exist in their hearts even if they could communicate in music. This was uncharted territory to them, harder for people who couldn't speak with the words they wanted.
She hoped he would come run after her.
He didn't, just watched her shadow disappear into the night.
His eyes reminded her of the moon. Cold and distant.
