Summary: …There just might be dual reasons as to why Neji
strove for perfection…
Disclaimer: Toboe LoneWolf does not own Naruto.
Note: Set during the month of training before the final chuunin exam, when Neji and Tenten were training together.
The Perils of Training
Tenten breathed heavily, having done yet another Soshouryuu. In a way, it was even harder than doing it for real -- since Neji's defense wasn't perfect yet, she had to expend that extra energy to pull her weapons back when it was clear that they'd hit him.
"The other, now."
Tenten nodded, getting up from the ground. Guess they'd be practicing their close-combat moves now. Picking up a bokken from the weapons littering the forest floor, she took her stance and waited for Neji to take his. A little puff of air left her mouth as she saw Neji adjust himself – ah, so he was going to try it from this position? Bending her knees, she charged.
"Kyaaaaaaaa!!!"
She swung the bokken at him, sliding sideways to dodge Neji's palmstrike. Whirling, she followed the second step, the wooden sword swinging towards Neji's legs. He shuffled, and she saw those incoming fingers--
A jerk of her body, and she dodged those evil pointy things.
A willing target she may be, but she sure as heaven's sky was not going to be an easy one.
"Ha!" She brought the bokken back, then whirled into another backside attack--
Oh crud.
"Hakke Rokujuuyon Shou!"
Bambambambambambambambambambam--
Tenten coughed, fumbled, tried twisting to make it harder – dangnabbit, he was getting better—
Thud.
Oh. That was her.
Tenten coughed from the ground, her body aching, as she felt her chakra pathways plugged.
Neji narrowed his eyes. "Tch. I missed one."
...What.
Tenten glared up at Neji with all of the collective energy of soaked toast. "It's one friggin' point! So what if you only hit sixty-three instead of sixty four?!?" Tenten croaked.
"I strive for perfection."
"Does it matter?!?!?! All I can feel is MY LEFT PINKY TOE!"
Later, much later, when Neji didn't always have something stuck up his ass and Tenten was not so awestruck by Neji's genius status and the two of them had actually unbent enough to admit that maybe, possibly, okay-fine-I'll-admit-it-now the two of them had feelings for each other of the romantic variety, Neji admitted that the reason he had so much trouble with attaining the last point of Hakke Rokujuuyon Shou was because the last point happened to be situated right underneath the target's heart, which in the case of a female, is also right alongside their breast.
And then later, much much much later, Tenten realized that since now that Neji was able to hit that point, he was one, no longer body-shy enough to not touch alongside the bottom of a female's breast, and two, he had been perilously close to groping her all this time.
The confrontation thereafter of this revelation is one of the reasons why this powerful Hyuuga jutsu is only taught to main Hyuuga family members. To protect, in some moderate way, the male members of the Hyuuga clan.
The main branch is not completely heartless.