You know what really steams my brocolli?? MY INTERNET PROVIDER!!!
I don't who they are but they suck. I can only be on for like an hour after I get home from school and tutoring and then pages take forever to load. My mom has written like three letters and nobody will respond and they won't even tell us when we can switch. UGH! I guess I'm gonna have to go and find these people and kick some tail because being nice obviously isn't working.
OK enough of my venting. lol XD
This chapter is all Nejiten and pretty long so I got few hand cramps along the way. :) ENJOY!!
Oh and thanks to my reviewers.

Pairings: Nejiten, Shikatema, Sasusaku.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of it's characters.

Somone Other Than Yourself

Chapter 10

By: turtlechick

Tenten-

We all split up the next day once again, but things went a little differently today. Sakura had her last check up appointment after her accident and Temari took her to the doctor. With Sasuke having no one to be a nurse for, he went with my brother to help him to do the last needed repairs on Temari's mecha. Everyone was really surprised by how much we got done yesterday. Neji and I really helped a lot by having the arm almost all the way fixed when my brother and Temari came to do the other repairs.

They gave Neji and me the day off because we had worked so well and long yesterday and we also had a race the next day and we would need the rest. I think also it had to do with the fact that I had totally freaked out when Temari brought my brother to me with a fat lip and a black eye. Of course he didn't even think it was a big deal, he just went around muttering 'troublesome,' and went on with his job.

So here I was sitting on the couch bored as could be in a pair of sweats and a tank top. I had slept in, eaten breakfast and that was about it. Neji was in his room reading a book or something. I wished that I could have helped out again today but Temari insisted that I get some rest. I knew that there wasn't much to do but I didn't like to sit around and do nothing and I wasn't too keen on being alone today either, but I didn't dare go ask Neji if he wanted to do something. He was in one of his weird funks today.

I heard a knock at the door and hopped right up, eager for the human interaction. I answered the door and I thought that no one was there until I looked a little farther down to see a small girl. She looked to be about eight or nine and had the same lavender eyes as Neji.

"Is Neji here?" She looked excitedly into the apartment and before I could give her an answer she darted in behind me and into the door. I shut the door and saw her looking around enthusiastically. "So are you Neji's girlfriend? You're really pretty." She asked, as serious as could be and then got a cute grin on her face when she said the last bit.

I was sure that my face was beat red. "Um no. But who are you?"

Just then Neji walked out of his room. "Tenten, who was at the door?" He saw the small girl standing in the middle of team's living room and his eyes got big. "Hanabi what are you doing here?"

"Cousin Neji there you are!" She yelled and then went running into his arms. He gave her a pat on the back as some sort of embrace and then looked to me for help. I didn't know what to do, heck I still didn't even know exactly who she was. She stopped the hug and turned around. "I'm Hanabi, Neji's favorite cousin." She said proudly.

"Oh you are?" I said cheekily.

"Yep." She got the biggest grin on her face. She went back to Neji. "Neji, is she your girlfriend? People who usually live together are lovers. So are you lovers?" She had a knack for making people embarrassed because for the first time living with Neji I saw him blush. I knew he didn't like me it was just a normal human reaction.

"Hanabi, Tenten is on my racing team. This is the team's apartment." He answered calmly.

"Ohhh." Well at least she got it now. "So Tenten do you have a boyfriend?" What was it with her and her fascination with my love life?

"No."

"Well why is that? I think you're really pretty." She asked.

"Well I-I." I didn't have an answer for her. I guess I just wasn't in the market for a boyfriend at that moment. Racing took up most of my time these days.

"Hanabi how did you get here?" Neji asked. I think he could tell I was struggling for an answer.

"A cab." She said with a smile.

"Does uncle know that you are here? And Hanabi you live in the country you couldn't get all the way here in a cab. Now tell me how you got here." He was stern with his questions, but they didn't seem to phase Hanabi.

"Yeah I know. I took the train into to town and then a cab took me here." She was only around eight years old. How did she get a train ticket all by herself and then a cab driver to take her to the apartment? Neji was wondering the same thing because her the question. "A nice old lady got me the ticket. I just wanted to come and see you Neji, because you never come to visit us anymore." She huffed. "Hinata get's to see you all the time but I never do." So she was Hinata's sister. I get it now.

"I'm busy Hanabi."

"Well that's no excuse!" She wasn't a pushover that was for sure. I almost felt like I was interrupting something.

"Come on Hanabi I'm taking you home. Your father and sister are probably worried about you."

She crossed her arms over her chest but then got a sly smile on her face. "Fine but on one condition." Neji waited for her to explain as did I. "Tenten has to come with us." I was shocked why did she want me to come?

"No Hanabi. Tenten is busy."

"Well she doesn't look busy. You'll come with us won't you Tenten?" She was giving those little kid puppy dog eyes that no older person could resist. I caved like a second.

"Sure but let me change first." I said.

"OK!" She said happily. "See Neji I said she would come with us."

"Tenten you don't have to do this." He said.

"No it's fine Neji I'll go." I smiled once at Hanabi and went into my room to change but remembered that I had no clothes to wear, or at least none of mine to wear. I had forgotten that person who did our laundry was on vacation and no one had done it so all that was left was a skirt that Temari had picked out one day that we had gone shopping. It was everything that I didn't feel comfortable in, frilly and girly. I would have preferred to stay in my sweats but didn't think that it was too appropriate.

Neji-

Tenten was taking a long time to get ready. I wanted to get this over with. "Wow Tenten you look really pretty!" My cousin gushed from the other couch. Finally she was done I don't know how much longer I could stand watching cartoons with Hanabi.

I looked behind me to see Tenten. She was wearing clothes that she normally didn't wear when we were just going into town. She usually just wore a pair of jeans and a t shirt, nothing fancy. Now, she was dressed in a skirt and a nice shirt for once. It was one of the few times I had seen her like this without the influence of Temari.

"Ok let's go!" She grabbed Tenten's hand and pulled her out the door. I followed and hailed a cab when we had gotten outside. I opened the door and Hanabi slid in and then Tenten followed her. I had no choice but to sit next to Tenten.

"Where are you three headed?" The cab driver asked.

"The train station." Hanabi said confidently. She had never been shy, not even when she was littler. I could remember one time when I took her to see a movie and in front of us was a lady with extremely tall hair. It blocked her view so Hanabi of course told the woman like it was and asked her, not so nicely, to move. The lady had gotten mad and stormed off, but Hanabi could have cared less because she got to see her movie.

I was a tad uncomfortable with three people in the back of that cab. I tried to not sit too close to Tenten but our legs touched a few times. We were to the train station in a few minutes and I went to get three tickets while Tenten and Hanabi went to go and get something to drink. Hanabi had said she was, "parched."

The man handed me the tickets and I went to go and find them. They were still in line at the smoothie stand Hanabi had just whispered something in Tenten's ear and all of a sudden Tenten started laughing uncontrollably. I walked over and Hanabi grinned at me while Tenten tried to control her laughter. I guess whatever they had said was something I wasn't supposed to hear.

Hanabi finally got her smoothie and we went to the train platform where we got onto the train and waited while it got started. I had gotten a private room on the train and Tenten looked amazed. I guess where she grew up there weren't all of the luxuries I was used to. She was in for a big surprise when we got to my uncle's house.

"So Tenten how old are you?" Hanabi asked. I just stared out the window. I guess I should be glad that Tenten was here so that I didn't have to entertain my cousin. She seemed to be enjoying the job that I normally hated.

"Twenty. And how old are you Hanabi?"

"Eight." She smiled and held up eight fingers. I saw a few teeth were missing in the front. I had to hold back a grin. "So do you like Neji?" She asked cheekily. What was it with her and Tenten's nonexistent attraction to me? She just kept asking those unimportant and fact less questions.

Tenten's face became slightly pink. "Well I- I think he is a good teammate, but, I don't think that."

"So your just friends?" She asked again.

"Well… um." Tenten was struggling for another answer.

"Yes Hanabi we're friends Just leave it at that." I crossed my arms over my chest and looked out the window again.

"Oh ok Neji." I think I saw her wink at Tenten out of the corner of my eye.

The train was only an hour or so long but Hanabi was asleep in only about fifteen minutes. I could have guessed that she would be tired, traveling so much today. Now she was lying with her head on Tenten's lap as Tenten slept as well her head against the side of the car. I think that Tenten and I had come a long way. I could remember when we first met I hated her and wanted absolutely nothing to do with her. I knew that I was wrong in my actions and that she had nothing to make me detest her so much but I guess I was… jealous. Jealous that I wasn't the best new rookie pilot and she was. But after today I think you could call us… friends.

XxX

The train came to slow stop and an attendant came to tell us that we could leave. He lowered his voice when we saw Tenten and my cousin sleeping soundly. I nodded and he left trying hard to not slam the flimsy sliding train door.

Now I had no idea what to do. This was certainly a predicament. I had no idea how to wake them. Was I supposed to shake them? Or perhaps just leave them there. I settled for just saying their names. "Hanabi, Tenten, we're here." My cousin woke first and was wide awake from there on out. She saw that Tenten was still asleep so she nudged her knee and she slowly awakened as well. Her eyes fluttered open and she stretched her arms and then looked at me with a serene smile on her face. Her look made me uncomfortable.

"Are we there?" She asked while yawning at the same time.

"Yes." I went quickly out of the room to escape her. I had never been looked at like…that, it made me nervous, but I would never admit that out loud.

Hanabi went and grabbed my hand on the way out of the train and normally I would have made her release me, but today, I let her tiny hand stay interlocked with mine. I hadn't felt this comfortable in a long time and I felt like nothing could go wrong. Outside of the train station I hailed a cab and we all three got in and I gave the directions to the cabbie. I had never had been all that close to my uncle when I had lived with him after my family died. Our relationship had gotten better over the years but there was still a little resentment I held about him when my father and mother died.

My father and mother died in a car accident when I was very young. They were on their way to pick me up from a friends house but had asked my uncle to do it. He had said that he was busy with work and that he couldn't, so they went instead. If he hadn't told my parents to go then maybe they might still be here. I know I shouldn't hold a grudge but it feels better to have someone to blame.

"Wow is this your house Hanabi?" Tenten said excitedly her face plastered to the window. She had a big grin on her face as we went through the iron gates and pulled up the long lush driveway. We pulled up to my uncle's house, it's big and white with tons of striking landscape surrounding the pathways that led to different areas to the court yard.

Hanabi, Hinata and I had always grown up with this kind of thing but I knew that this was all new for Tenten. I didn't know the details of her life but I knew that she wasn't used to the life that my family was known for. We all stepped up to the tall Victorian styled doors and Hanabi opened them with a tiny bit of effort, they were a lot bigger that she was. Hinata was at the door when we stepped in.

"Hanabi where have you been? Father and I have been worried sick." She was almost in tears. I knew that would happen. Hinata had always been easy to cry.

Tenten-

The house was huge, and I mean big. It was the biggest house I had ever seen. I grew up in a small house in the middle of the city that we used to live in, it was nothing like this. Hinata looked like she was going to burst out in tears when she saw her younger sister. I didn't blame her. I would have the same reaction if I was in her shoes.

"Hinata who was at the door?" A tall man stepped out into the foyer. He had an almost freaky resemblance to Neji. His dark brown hair was long, probably a tradition in the Hyuuga family and he shared the Hyuuga eyes. He was also extremely handsome. I bet he looked exactly like Neji when he was younger. "Hanabi where have you been?" He was having a the complete opposite reaction to Hinata. His facial expression never changed. I guess this is where Neji got his rough personality. It was eerie how alike they were.

"I was with Neji. I went to go visit him." She smiled and held up her hand that was still enclosed in his. Was she unaffected to the Hyuuga glares or something? But I guess that you would have to be if you lived with one twenty four seven.

"Hn." He finally noticed me. He looked me up and down judgmentally before asking who I was. "And who is that?" He asked staring straight at me. I squirmed under his brutal stare.

Neji opened his mouth to speak but Hanabi beat him to the punch. "This is cousin Neji's racing teammate Tenten. Isn't she pretty? But she and Neji aren't lovers, believe me I asked. Even though they live together and everything, they aren't. But get this Tenten doesn't even have a boyfriend. Isn't that weird, because she is so pretty?" It was completely silent after Hanabi spoke, partly from embarrassment from me and just plain confused from the others.

Neji's uncle looked at me again and extended his hand stiffly. "Hiashi Hyuuga." He said rigidly. I put my hand out hesitantly and shook it slightly.

"Tenten Nara. It's nice to meet you." I took my hand back and put it behind me.

"Come on Tenten." I hadn't noticed Neji open the door and step out. He was holding the door for me as I followed his lead silently. "Goodbye uncle." I looked back once more and gave Hinata a wave and smile at Hanabi, they both returned the gesture. I half way curtseyed to Hiashi. There was something about the way he carried himself that was regal. For all I knew Neji could be some duke or something like that.

Outside, the cab was still waiting for us and we both got in. Neji was silent like he usually was but I think there was a different reason that he was rather than him just being unsocial. Maybe he had some sort of past with his uncle or something. I guess that would be the next thing I need to figure out about him, the thought made me smile.

I told you it was long. lol
It wasn't supposed to be this long but no one can stop the creative mind when it gets started. XD
I guess the next chapter will be their next race. Whoo!

Please review and even if you don't check out some of my other stories.
And vote on my poll, if you have time of course. :)

turtlechick...out