Chapter 8:

Nothing happened for a while. Then came Christmas. Everyone was in Homeroom.

"For Christmas, we will be doing Secret Santa!" Iruka-sensei said. Some of the class was excited and the rest didn't really care.

"You will be given a paper with the name of the person you will be secret Santa to." Iruka-sensei explained. "Who wants to pass the papers out?" A couple hands came up. 'I don't want someone who'll peek at the papers and cause trouble with them so how about Lee.' Iruka-sensei said and pointed at Lee. "Lee!" He said. Lee shot up and took the papers from Iruka-sensei and started to pass them out. Lee smiled at Tenten as he passed the paper to her. She smiled back as she unfolded her paper. She looked at what it had hidden. It said,

Hyuuga Neji

Tenten's eyes widened. She looked at the paper for a long time not believing her eyes.

"...Well have fun with this activity." Iruka-sensei said as he finished his lecture which Tenten had missed. "Remember to bring your presents by next week!" The bell rang and she got up to leave.

"So who'd you get?" Temari asked as he picked up her bag.

"Neji." Tenten replied trying to keep her cool.

"Really." Temari said. She smirked.

"I got Shino-san." Hinata said looking a bit relieved that she actually knew him.

"I got Chouji." Temari said. "Send him a bag of chips and he'll be fine." She said sarcastically. The trio laughed a little. Temari looked at her friends and said,

"How about we go shop for our people this weekend?"

"Sure!" Tenten said happy to be able to spend time with her friends.

"Yes." Hinata smiled as well.

Neji silently watched them.

'They look as if they've known each other since they were born...' Neji still remembered the story Temari had told them perfectly. He couldn't get it out of his mind, it was bugging him.

"Ryuko..." He muttered and went into the dorm.


The trio went to the mall together on Saturday. Hinata had a lot of trouble, but in the end, Hinata decided to use buy a new bug case that was suppoused to have all these new modern features on it.

Temari bought Chouji some barbeque flavored chips. (I hate those XP)

Tenten was having the hardest of times. Temari and Hinata helped as well, but even Hinata didn't know what he would like.

"How about this?" Temari pointed to this chain with a small stone that resembled Neji's eyes. Tenten looked at it. She liked it and bought it. After she bought it, she couldn't help but stare it, it was as if he was staring at her when she looked at it. She almost felt sorry that she had to give it to him.

When they got back, they went to Temari's room. They wrapped their presents with some wrapping paper they had also bought at the mall.

The next day, they went to class early and gave the gifts to Iruka-sensei. He smiled and took them.

The day came when everyone got their presents. There was 2 weeks till Christmas. Tenten opened her present, it was a small red pouch with a golden dragon on it.

'It's pretty!' Tenten thought as she looked at it. Tenten also found a note inside. It read:


Dear Tenten,

I really like you. Would you be my girlfriend? If yes, please leave me a note on the locker 2638.

Love,

Secret Santa


Tenten read it over and over. She wondered who it was from. Then an idea struck her.

'Could it be Neji!?' Tenten thought. She didn't know what to say. Afterall, she had seen Neji put his stuff away in his locker and it was about there if not there. She decided to check it out.

Afterclass, she followed Neji to his locker, watching him closely. Finally he came to his locker. She didn't want to be caught so she waited from afar. He left about 5 minutes later and Tenten walked over trying to remember the locker he was at. She came over to the place and looked at the number and checked with the one on the note.

'It...It matches!?' Tenten thought. She checked over and over but it was the same. She finally was confident enough to write it down on a note and put it in the locker.


Dear Secret Santa,

Yes, I accept.

From,

Tenten


She put the note in the locker. She left feeling pretty good.

From behind, a shadow lurked. When Tenten was gone, it approached the locker and opened it. The figure read the note and smirked.

"Now I can research how love works!" The figure said before closing his locker and smiling.


The doorbell rang in Tenten's dorm. Tenten went to answer it.

"Hello?" She opened the door. A young boy with short black hair and pale skin was standing at the door. He smiled.

'Who his he? He looks familiar...' Tenten thought. "Um...can I help you?" Tenten asked.

"Oh, I just wanted to greet my girlfriend that's all." He said smiling. "By the way, my name is Sai. I'm in your math class and have homeroom before you do." Sai explained. "Plus, I'm your secret santa." He added.

'...It was the wrong locker!' Tenten thought. 'I'm so careless.' Tenten thought.

"Tenten? Who was that?" It was Neji, the last person she wanted to see right now. Tenten turned around. When she saw the stone around Neji's neck, she felt even more guilty.

"It was..." Tenten tried to figure out what to say.

"Greetings Hyuuga Neji, I am Sai, Tenten's new boyfriend." Sai interrupted and kissed Tenten on the cheek.

"!" Tenten blushed madly.

"!" Neji looked angry.

"...Is something wrong?" Sai asked smiling.

"...No." Neji said and turned around and left.

'Wait!' Tenten thought but she couldn't gather the courage to say it.

"You look angry, is something bothering you?" Sai asked.

"Why would it? There was nothing between Tenten and me to begin with." Neji said before turning around and leaving again.

"..." Sai didn't say anything but watched him silently. 'So this is what you call jealousy?' Sai thought as he let go of Tenten. He kissed her on the cheek again. "Good night." he said before leaving.

Tenten just stood there. She looked at the ground.

'That's right, there was nothing between us to begin with.' Tenten thought. A tear fell and hit the ground.

'But then why am I so sad?'


This chapter had to be written because it sucked. The idea was thrown together and it was written when I had just started.

And this is more like Sai right? Since the original Sai was very OOC.

And I think this is a lot more realistic. Tenten was way too oblivious back then. Now it's more possible.

So now edited. Because it is edited, the next chapter may not connect with this one so you might need to wait.

Sorry,

悲倉 夏芽