Chapter 10

Tenten

For the next few weeks, Tenten was seen with Neji a lot. They sat next to each other at lunch, Neji walked her to each of her classes and to her mom's car after school, sometimes he drove her home himself, or he drove her back to his house to do homework. Their friends were getting suspicious, they all knew that something was going on between Neji and Tenten, but they couldn't figure out what.

The evidence of something was very obvious. They held hands in the hallway, they flirted…very obnoxiously one might add. Teachers gave them looks in the hallway, a few even asked if they were seeing each other, to which, they both replied, "no."

Temari was convinced they were dating; Ino, Sakura and Hinata thought that they liked each other, but hadn't made it official yet; Naruto and Sasuke were sure that they were sleeping together, since Neji didn't date; and Shikamaru and Lee didn't think they were anything more than just friends.

Tenten wasn't sure how she felt about the situation. She liked Neji…she really liked Neji, however, she didn't like his attitude about girls, or that he never told her anything, or that he only kissed her when they were alone, or that whenever they went to a party together, he always ditched her to make-out with or dance with someone else.

Temari was driving Tenten, Hinata, Sakura and Ino to the mall for a girl's night. Ino and Sakura were leading a conversation about something Tenten wasn't paying attention to when Temari said, "Hello? Earth to Tenten?"

Tenten looked up to meet her friends' gazes and snapped herself out of her funk, "oh, sorry, what was the question?"

"Nothing important," Ino said from the backseat.

"What are you thinking about so hard?" asked Sakura.

"Nothing," Tenten replied, bringing her stare back to the window.

"Is it Neji?" Ino asked, wiggling her eyebrows in a teasing manner.

"No…yeah…kinda."

"What's going on between you two?"

"I don't know, Ino. Nothing I guess."

"Okay, it's definitely not nothing. People that have nothing between them don't hold hands in the halls."

"Yeah, I agree," Sakura added.

"Do you even like him?" Temari asked.

Tenten shrugged, "maybe a little, but he's…"

"Yep," they all agreed.

"Has he showed any signs of liking you back when you're alone with him?" Sakura asked.

Tenten thought quietly to herself about how much she'd be okay with her friends knowing about her and Neji's pseudo-relationship, and how much Neji would want them to know. "He kissed me."

"What!?" Everyone gasped.

"When did that happen!?" Ino screeched.

"Which time?"

"It happened more than once!?" Temari asked.

"Yeah, but I can't tell if he wants more or if he just wants to make out with me until I'll have sex with him."

"To be completely honest," Ino thought aloud, "It doesn't seem like Neji even knows what he wants. He's definitely not trying to seduce you then ditch you, if that were the case, he would have done it already, but you guys keep hanging out, right?"

"Yeah. When it's just me and him, it's fun, but if we're at a party or some other social thing, he always ditches me to sleep with someone else."

"He's afraid of getting hurt again," Hinata finally chimed in.

"Definitely," Sakura agreed. "Tenten, what are you usually doing when Neji ditches you for someone else?"

"Nothing at all. Usually just talking."

"About?"

"I don't know!" Tenten threw her hands up in frustration with the multitude of questions, "life, I guess."

"Like, personal stuff?" Ino pushed.

"Sure."

"Tenten, we need specifics," Sakura ordered, "or else we can't help you."

"Yeah, give us an example." Temari clarified.

Tenten frowned, not wanting to let her friends in on all these details about her personal life. "Just last weekend, at Hotaru's lake house, we were sitting on the docks making out, and we were laughing about some stupid thing that happened in homeroom, then out of nowhere he got really quiet and just got up and left. I followed him back into the house, but he didn't say anything and the next thing I knew, he was pushing some chick up against the wall."

Everyone was quiet. Tenten sighed when no one had an answer for her.

"He's afraid of getting close to someone again…" Hinata mumbled.

"Mmhmm," Sakura nodded.

"Well, I think he likes you a lot," Ino piped in.

"But he thinks I'm going to hurt him like Mika did."

"He told you about Mika?" Hinata asked, completely shocked.

"Not exactly…I only know she exists because Ino mentioned it once, but I don't know any of the details."

"Neji will have to be the one to tell you," Sakura said.

"Yeah," added Hinata, "it was really bad."

For the rest of the ride to the mall, nobody spoke.

Neji

"So are you two fucking or what?"

Neji glared at the stupid blond. "Depends on who you're referring to."

"Tenten of course!"

"Then no."

Sasuke raised his eyebrow at his friend while he took a puff from the joint he had just taken from Shikamaru. "I find that extremely hard to believe."

"Why is that?" Neji asked crossing him arms across his chest, and leaned back into foot of the couch in Sasuke's basement.

"Because you're always together!" Naruto yelled.

"No we're not."

"Yeah you are," Shikamaru mumbled.

"So are you banging her or not?" Naruto asked.

"I literally just said that I wasn't."

"Not yet anyways," Sasuke added.

Neji glared at him.

"What? It's not totally unbelievable. You hold her fucking hand in the hallway, and you flirt with her all the time, I thought Sakura and I were bad, but holy shit, you guys are obnoxious."

"We're not flirting."

"Yeah you are," Lee, Shikamaru, and Naruto all said.

"Whatever."

Naruto reached across the circle to grab the lighter from next to Sasuke. "Are you interested in her then?"

Neji frowned.

"So yes?" Lee asked.

"Clarify what you mean, Naruto," Shikamaru suggested.

"Are you planning on fucking her just to fuck her, or are you planning on getting a girlfriend?"

"Neither."

Sasuke scoffed, "yeah, 'cause that's realistic."

"Why not? I'm just friends with Sakura and Ino, aren't I?" Neji grabbed the joint from Sasuke's fingers and put it to his own mouth.

"That's different."

"How so?"

"Sakura already belongs to someone else, not that that's stopped you before, but she's Sasuke's. Ino is Ino…nobody wants to get into the mess, but Tenten's cool. She's not ugly, she's single, she's not annoying, and she obviously likes you." Naruto shrugged like it was no big deal.

"I don't date."

"Trust me Hyuga, we know."

Sasuke then added, "But don't you want to have what you had with Mika again? Now before you get all mad at me for bringing up that whore, let me get to my point. You've spent the last two and a half years venting your anger at Mika onto just about every female in our school. I'm sorry Neji, but get the fuck over it. Mika sucked, a lot, everyone knows that, but you need to move on."

"I've been moved on."

"No you're not," Lee treaded on thin ice, "If you were over it, you would have fallen in love again."

"And you haven't," Sasuke ended his rant proudly, "and now, there's this new girl, who's hot, knows how much of a whore you are, and still likes you."

"And she's all artsy and shit, like you," Naruto grinned.

Neji really didn't want to talk about this. He was too high to be mad at Sasuke for bringing up Mika, and the rest of them were too high to not push Tenten on him, even when he made it clear that he didn't want to talk about her. He liked Tenten, she was cool, and like his friends had said, she wasn't annoying. He knew that she liked him, it was obvious. Maybe he should hold back with the flirting and the hand holding and the kissing, but he didn't want to. He liked spending time with her, even when she just wanted to talk.

"I'm hungry," Naruto let out a puff of smoke.

"Same," Sasuke mumbled. "Ramen?"

"Obviously!"

Naruto and Sasuke ran up the basement stairs to Sasuke's kitchen, careful not to gain the attention of either of his parents waiting to bust them for smoking pot in their house. When Neji, Lee and Shikamaru followed the two close behind, Itachi was sitting at the table doing homework.

"Hey guys," he said looking up from his chemistry text book. "Got the munchies?"

"Quite literally," Lee replied.

"Shut up Lee," Sasuke snapped while he put the pan of water on the stove to boil, "my parents are in the other room!"

"No they're not. Mom left a while ago to have dinner with Kushina. I'm not exactly sure where dad went, but he's not here either."

"Good to know," Sasuke threw a semi-hard noodle at Naruto, who then threw it right back.

"It's been a while Neji," Itachi grinned, "how've you been? Still charming the pants off all the girls?"

Neji chuckled as he took a seat in the chair across from Sasuke's older brother. "You know it."

Itachi glanced to his brother, who was still fighting with Naruto over a noodle. Shikamaru and Lee got involved the minute Naruto picked up the boiling pot of water in retaliation to his friends harassments. Itachi figured now would be a good time to talk to Neji alone. "There's something I've been meaning to tell you, Neji. Got a second?"

Neji stared up at Itachi as he stood from his seat and nodded his head in the direction of the living room. "I guess." Neji followed him, but he was very confused.

In the living room, Itachi pulled the sliding door closed, which only made Neji even more uneasy about this entire situation. Sure, Sasuke and Neji had been close since diapers, but he and Itachi were anything but close, so why was he pulling him into another room to talk?

"What's up?" Neji asked.

"Have you heard from Mika at all recently?"

Neji stared at him, not knowing what to say. He hadn't been in contact with her at all, she wasn't even his friend on Facebook, he had absolutely no clue what was going on in the girl's life. "No, why?"

"She's getting married."

Neji blinked.

"I know, I was shocked too, but I figured you'd want to know, especially since its one of the guys she…" he trailed off, taking notice to the hurt buried deep within Neji's eyes. "She's coming back to Konoha too apparently."

"When?"

"I'm not totally sure. She's been in Osaka for school, but I guess her and her fiancée are coming back for the engagement party. I figured you'd want to be prepared if she tried to contact you at all."

Neji shrugged, "I doubt she'll try anything, but thanks for letting me know."

"Well you never know with her. Mika's always been very unpredictable."

Neji nodded in agreement, knowing exactly how unpredictable she truly can be. Everything about their relationship was unpredictable, and looking back, extremely tiring to keep up with her antics, but also so much fun, Neji almost forgot about how much he had to work to meet up with her needs. And how much he had to pay for it after she dumped him. He shuddered at the memory.

"Sorry for dropping this on you while you're high," Itachi apologized while making his way back to the kitchen, "better sooner than later."

He didn't reply. Back in the kitchen Sasuke was wrestling the cooked noodles out of Naruto's hands so he could put in the rest of the ingredients, but there was no way Naruto was going to let Sasuke touch his ramen.

"Neji!" Naruto hollered, "Hinata just texted me, apparently you need to call Tenten ASAP!"

"Why? What's wrong?"

"I don't think anything's wrong. Can't a girl just want to talk to her boyfriend?"

Neji glared at the blond.

"What?" Itachi asked confused.

"Shut the fuck up, Naruto!" Sasuke scolded, "If Hyuga says he's not fucking her, then he's not fucking her!"

"That's right," Lee agreed, "Neji's never been one for hiding who it is he's been intimate with."

Neji rolled his eyes at his friend's word choice and replied, "She's not my girlfriend."

"I thought Neji didn't date," Itachi teased.

"I don't." Neji pulled out his phone from his pocket to see if Tenten had texted him at all herself. She hadn't.

"Call her," Naruto pushed.

"No. I'm seeing her tonight, I'll talk to her then."

"Oooh," Naruto teased.

"Neji's gonna get laid," Sasuke grinned.

"No."

"Yes," the others in the room replied.

Itachi, who was completely lost at this point, had begun to gather his books and retreat to his bedroom upstairs, away from the distraction.

"You like her. A lot."

"No Naruto, I don't"

"Oh yeah? Tell me Neji, since you and Tenten have been hanging out, how many girls have you slept with?"

Neji paused, and thought for a moment. "A few."

"Names?"

Neji shrugged. "Nobody important."

"You always say that," Sasuke glared while handing out bowl of ramen to his friends, "but you always remember their names."

"And you always remember what they look like so you can draw them later," Shikamaru added.

Neji couldn't believe the words his friends were saying. They were exactly right. He never forgot, and he seriously could not remember a single one. He thought back to the lake house party at Hotaru's the other day, he knew he had slept with someone there, but all he could remember was the conversation he had with Tenten out on the boat docks. Their conversation even important, just small talk. He hadn't been drinking or doing drugs, so there was literally nothing that was preventing him from remembering who it was he had had sex with.

Tenten.

Neji bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself from overthinking the matter.

But he had to accept it. His idiot friends were right.

He liked Tenten.

A/N: I don't think I like this chapter, but I tried.