Disillusioned
By: Faraway Dawn & Kigen
Disclaimer: I'ma stop writing these next chapter. If anyone actually thought I owned anything at this point, I'd have to demand they find this vast wealth I should have because of it. I could use it!!!!
Chapter 20
A week later, Tenten sat on the couch smirking uncontrollably. Neji was pacing around the living room and it greatly amused her. Neji didn't pace. "You know if you keep that up, you're going to make a rut in the floor eventually." She teased, he had been tested the previous day for the rank of jounin and his test was split into two parts. Neji had finished the first part of his tests, he recounted the whole thing in vivid detail and it sounded rather pleasant compared to what they endured in Konoha. "The test couldn't have been any worse than back home. You just had a verbal test. You didn't even have to fight anyone."
"Nobaru gets to give the second part of the tests." Neji muttered, gritting his teeth as he paced. Just how much of the village did Nobaru have control over? "There's going to be standard questions about combat, loyalty, and my history. It'll probably be more like an interrogation than a test. If I answer a question incorrectly, it could blow our cover." Or worse, Neji shuddered slightly, Nobaru might feel me up.
"Yeah, but you don't take that part till tomorrow." Tenten shrugged. "Relax and stop pacing for crying out loud." He needed to calm down and stop worrying. Things were going just fine. "We already went over everything about fifty times. Just stay as calm as you do with me, and you'll be fine. Heck, pretend I'm interrogating you. You'll clear it perfectly."
Neji paused a moment, the mental image of Nobaru molesting him while demanding answers in an interrogation room was replaced with Tenten in the same position. Grumbling to himself and willing down his blush, he started pacing again. This time he looped into the kitchen and through the dining room rather than allowing himself to be confined to the living room.
"Jeeze, you're really worried about this huh?" Tenten muttered leaning forward to glance into the dining room. "Neji come on, sit down and relax. Why are you so worked up?" Normally he would just meditate frustration away, but she chuckled to herself. The pacing was kind of cute...
"I'm no more worked up than I usually am. I simply have no outlet for my frustrations." He did sit though, he sighed deeply and resisted the urge to run a hand over his face. Meditation was fine and dandy for this, but nothing could work off stress like a good hard workout that left him sweating and depleted most of his chakra.
"I'd say we could hit that training area but..." She jerked her head over her shoulder to the window. The storms were persistent even on a 'nice' day, which in Lightning Country generally meant frequent showers, small breaks of sun, and more showers.
"I'm tempted to use the basement, though I don't believe that it would be able to stand up against a real spar."
Tenten blinked. Use the basement? "We have a basement?" She stared at him in disbelief. "You mean..." She pointed to a small doorway, that she assumed was just a small closet. "It leads to a freaking basement and you never told me?"
"I told you about the basement. I told you about it when we first moved in." He smiled, thoroughly amused. "Though, you were half asleep when I mentioned it to you."
"And you never thought to remind me? Ugh. Get up." She grumbled as she grabbed his hand and all but dragged him to the doorway. He wanted sparring? Sure, they could spar. It'd have to be light sparring she imagined, but light sparring could go on for hours.
"And what do you plan on doing down there?" He was thinking serious sparring, the things he had done in the past when frustrated. Tearing most of the area up was part of the process and there was no way that could be done in their basement.
"You and I can spar lightly for hours on end, one way or another, you'll get worn out eventually." Tenten's eyes lit up when she saw the space. There were a few support beams and the main support for the house, but other than that it was entirely open. Hell it was even finished! "Carpet! This is perfect. It's as big as the entire house, all open...plenty of space." The lack of windows made it perfect. "I could get some wards put up to trap all sound made here to this room."
Neji allowed himself a roll of the eyes. Of course, the first thing Tenten did, was figure out a way to turn it into a fortress. Though, admittedly sound wards wouldn't be a bad idea. They would finally have a space in the house to be free to speak, look over their pilfered information, and even to train.
"I saw that." Tenten muttered a second before she swept his legs out from under him. She chuckled when he fell to the floor. "You look good down there you know." Catching Neji off guard was such a rare feat, one simply had to take advantage when they could.
"Cheap shot." Neji retorted as he rose and straightened his shirt. "So, I take this to mean that you plan on wearing me out?" He asked, shifting his weight to one foot, a challenge in his eyes.
Tenten smirked, mirroring Neji's stance. "It's always an option, as long as you can resist the urge to turn this into a lesson."
"Then you want me to come at you with no mercy? You want me to fight you until you are forced to submit to me?" He asked, raising his hand to guard his body.
"I've never once submitted to you." She stepped slowly to her right, watching his every motion with caution. If Neji went all out, it would be a game of avoidance on her part. She repressed a shiver when she thought of his words though. "I've certainly never once admitted defeat to you, Neji."
"You've never said 'no' to me either." He mimicked her movements and followed each step carefully. "If you've never been defeated by me, why haven't you ever argued when I told you that I've won?"
Tenten struck first, she had a slight speed advantage, being smaller and lighter than Neji. She would use it to her advantage. I'm gonna need to abuse it. She thought as she struck at his dominant arm, knowing it was wisest to disable him if she could. "I stop arguing, because it's pointless to argue with a wall. When you think you're right, there's no convincing you otherwise."
"If you're right, and I've never defeated you, then why haven't you forced me to the ground? If you've never lost, why haven't you forced me to submit to you?" His hand redirected her strike so that it gently ghosted over his arm, rather than striking and numbing it. His eyes focused on the speed of her counter and he found enough of an opening to strike. Tenten however, was just as quick as he expected her to be. She shifted her weight back and left him with more than a hand's length between his own hand and her shoulder.
"I did," Tenten smirked darkly, "on the couch."
They traded well timed blows while he thought of what to say. She shifted or blocked with ease, and he increased his pace to match her. He recalled now, that light sparring with Tenten, was a far cry from an easy workout. "You caught me in a moment of weakness. I would hardly call that submitting."
"Weakness? You almost called me by name instead of my code-name. Must have been a seriously weak moment." Tenten chuckled. "Must be pretty distracting because you've just barely managed to hit me."
"I was trying not to bite your breasts while speaking." He watched her feet closely as he spoke. Each step they took was strategic. One misstep would allow one of them to gain the upper hand and he would have to make sure it was him.
Tenten felt her cheeks burn. "Wha-"
There it was, her footwork was slower, she moved the wrong way, and now control was his. "Your chest was pressed against my face. I was making an effort to not accidentally mouth them while arguing with you."
"I wasn't that close to you." It was a good attempt at distraction, she had to admit. It was brilliant actually, because it did throw her off pace, and he managed to make a rapid recovery. He was closing the gap she managed to keep between them faster, his strikes were much closer to actually hitting before she blocked or moved away, and he had that damned confident smirk on his face again.
"I know, it was a cheap shot." He said quietly, his smirk was as much in his eyes as it was on his lips. He spun quickly to avoid her kick and returned one hard.
"So much for serious sparring then huh?" She slid back from the force of his kick and wiped a bit of sweat from her bangs. She had just barely managed to block it. "Ok then, if all's fair..." She turned around, untied her hair and shook it loose. It was an impractical way to spar, but when they teased each other, sparring was rarely practical. "...then you won't mind if I get more comfortable." She slipped her shirt from her shoulders and tossed it across the room and smirked confidently at the wall. From behind, her hair covered the thin tank top she wore over her bindings, even the straps. "I know you want to break a sweat but I have no desire to smell like Gai and Lee at the end of this."
"Why are you untying your hair then? You'll just sweat more and smell worse." If she thought he was that easy to seduce, she had another thing coming. He had seen her do far more in far less clothing, and he didn't find the loose hair any more attractive than her buns. Though he did admit, she looked more her age with her hair down.
"It's more comfortable to land on the ground when you get rough without my hair tied up. You land on a bun once or twice and tell me how it feels." It made her feel more like a girl, having her hair down. She was more aware of how it fell across her shoulders and framed her face, and her mother always scolded her for not wearing it down more often. "I figured if I took off a few layers you wouldn't mind. I mean you've seen me in wet undergarments. It's not like you'd be distracted." She turned to face him and resumed her defensive stance. "Come on now, you've been taking it easy. Haven't pinned me yet, usually you do that within the first ten minutes when I'm not at the top of my game."
"I thought we were sparing lightly?" He didn't want to admit it, but it took quite a bit to wrestle Tenten to the ground. It involved precise timing, effort, and control. Those were things that Tenten was an expert of manipulating in combat.
"Worried you can't handle me?" She taunted, waving him on to strike. "It's been a good few months." She said softly, almost teasing him for his hesitance, with the awareness that Neji would not turn down a challenge. Especially if she was the one challenging him.
"Worried it will cause property damage." He answered, striking in rapid succession. A series of kicks threw her footwork off and his strikes kept her eyes and arms occupied with blocking and dodging. If she couldn't keep focused on her surroundings, he could take total control of the fight.
"In such a big open space? Come on seriously..." Her eyes quickly scanned the room while she tried desperately to keep an eye on his attacks. He'd have her cornered soon if she didn't watch her step.
"There are pillars, Tenten." Neji said quietly, pinning her roughly to one. "If we took these out, it would be quite a mess."
"Careless." She smirked forcing herself a bit lower to kick his legs out from under him.
Neji flipped backward, turned, twisted on his hands, and tugged her legs out from under her with his own. His lips curved into a superior smile when she roughly hit the ground next to him. "You were saying?"
Tenten coughed slightly from the force of the landing before she tried to regain her breath. "I stand by my initial statement." She pointed to him with a grin. "You look good on the ground." He did however, look better when one coupled it with him being sweaty, breathing a bit more harshly, and still flaunting that arrogant smirk.
"Pity you don't see me down here often then." He sat up slowly to catch his breath.
"Oh yeah, a major pity." Tenten answered before reaching over to grab his arms. She twisted both behind his back and pinned him chest first to the floor before pressing the weight of her body against his back. "Good thing I plan ahead when I fight you, huh?" She muttered in his ear. Victory was always sweet, even when it was short lived.
"Mm." Neji answered as he remained as still as possible. "I'm not beaten yet."
"Neither am I, at least you're getting your workout hm?"
"Indeed." He couldn't use as much force as he would have liked, and he would have to be careful not to hurt her, but she should have paid more attention to his hands. He knocked her back from him with his chakra and quickly got to his feet to resume his defensive stance.
Tenten grumbled as she rose to her feet. "Well played, I should have kept your hands further apart."
"You should have kept yourself better guarded as well." Neji muttered in her ear before twisting her arm behind her back. He forced her first to her knees, then to her stomach on the floor. Neji was careful only to apply the necessary pressure of his body to keep her from moving too much.
She immediately struggled against him and grumbled in annoyance. The weight of his body ensured that she would not be moving much. "Cheater." She wiggled as much as she could beneath him. He was wise enough to not repeat her small error. Her hands were far enough apart that she could not form any seals, and she sure as hell could not reach the single scroll she had on her.
"All's far in love, war, and our way of life." Neji responded. "Give up?" He asked, watching her squirm under him.
She wiggled more, hoping his weight on her would ease up just enough to break free, but to no avail. Neji just wasn't careless enough for that. "No. I don't." Her fingers twitched slightly as she reached as carefully as she could for her scroll.
Neji saw the subtle motion of the arm that was pinned under her, his hand wiggled its way between her body and the floor and slipped just inside the waist of her pants to remove the scroll. "Nice try."
Her face burned against the floor. That was one of those rare, bold moves, that Neji would never have pulled back home. She wiggled more in frustration, admitting defeat to him was not an option. "I have several weapons on me still." Though she knew she would need some slack from Neji to reach any of them with ease.
"None that you can get to in this position. Not unless you have some new hiding places you haven't told me about." Neji smirked. Tenten was trying to force him to give her an inch, that would be all it would take for her to gain the upper hand.
"I might." She shifted again under him. Might as well get comfortable, she mused. They were going to be there for a long time it seemed. "I can stay here like this for a good while though. It's not like it's not enjoyable in some manner." She decided to play a more feminine route. Ino would have called it playing fairly. Tenten called it playing dirty. "I mean, sure it's a bit hard to breathe with you on me like that, but I can feel every single move you make."
"Nice try, Tenten. I know you're breathing just fine. You'll need to try harder than that if you plan on leaving this room the victor." Who did Tenten think Ino tried to practice on in the past?
"Your heart is beating a bit fast, I know, we've been sparring, but your left hand is shaking slightly. That Neji, is somewhat new. I've never felt you tremble before." She continued calmly.
"My hand's not shaking at all."
"Oh yeah it is." The arm that was bent between her back and his body moved only slightly to allow her fingers to brush across his hand. "Why though?" She shifted her body to try to force him off her. She managed to slide the hand under her body free when she pushed her body up from the floor.
"You said this was light sparing." He redoubled his efforts to keep her pinned to the floor. A knee landed on the floor between her own for his stability as he reversed the hold. He locked Tenten's arms around his body and pulled her back flush against his chest.
"Doesn't explain why you're trembling." She continued to struggle against him. "You're not going to get me to admit defeat and you won't be able to hold me forever."
"I'm not trembling." He rolled his eyes as he drew Tenten closer to him. Making a face, he blew away the loose hair that tickled his nose. "I can hold you as long as I need to…until you eventually submit."
She clenched her teeth and let her breath out in an annoyed hiss. The tighter he held her, the more painful struggling would become, but she refused to submit. She had spent years telling him she was just as good, just as skilled, as any man. He was the only one she had not truly beaten, and she could not allow him to defeat her. She twisted her wrist painfully and forced a hard strike into his back, enough to loosen his grip only slightly, just enough for her to break one arm free. She forced herself up onto her knees, drew a kunai rapidly, hooked her arm over his shoulder, and allowed the weapon to rest against the back of his neck. "How about calling it a draw?" She asked with a smirk when he regained his hold on her, the cool steel resting exactly over his one and only blind spot.
Neji quirked a brow. "A draw." He conceded, not stupid enough to argue with a blade at his neck. He made no move to release Tenten though.
Tenten however, began to laugh. It had been a long time since anything like that happened. "Oh...that was fun." She said turning her head to glance at him over her shoulder. "Hasn't come to this in years." At least, by her count, since they were at least sixteen.
"No it hasn't." Neji agreed, letting out a quiet chuckle. He released Tenten's arms once the blade was lowered. "It has been a long time since we fought like that." He watched her sit up and stretch.
"Too long." She said, turning as she moved to fall onto her back. The kunai she had drawn against him, she promptly threw while falling backward. It flew right over his shoulder and into one of the support beams. She stretched out on the floor and smirked up at the ceiling. "I wasn't entirely sure I'd be able to get free this time. You're a lot stronger than you used to be."
"And you're a lot more flexible." He noted, lying on the ground next to her. "Though I must ask, why did you try mind games half way through?" It wasn't her style. Tenten was usually far more blunt with her attacks.
"Because you really were trembling a bit. It used to work...I mean it did when we were teenagers. Last time I did that, you turned the same shade as Sakura's clothes and promptly released me to argue that I was delusional. It was worth a try." She laughed. "Time changes people though. You're not exactly a teenager anymore."
"Nor are you." Was he trembling? It had to be nerves.
She nudged him lightly with her elbow and feigned an annoyed glare. "That really hurt too." She waved her hand around, the one she had to twist to strike him. The pain it caused was similar to a twisted ankle, it was nothing that could not be endured, and it would fade within minutes. It was hard to maintain the fake expression though, and she tried very hard not to smile or laugh.
"You should have given up," Neji said, turning his head. "and you suck at pouting."
"Yeah, mom never taught me properly." She said, finally smiling. "You knew I wouldn't give up though, not to you."
"Not after your initial refusal." He agreed, but he enjoyed that she had not given up so easily. "I thought we might spend the next few hours, pressed against each other, struggling for the upper hand." He breathed deeply and exhaled slowly. The large basement would probably be put to frequent use.
Tenten returned her gaze to the ceiling. It wasn't an unpleasant thought, so close to him and unable to break free for hours. "That...would have been interesting."
"Until one of us had to use the bathroom." He remember similar incidents with Lee from his childhood, though that was less pinning and more trying to beat the crap out of each other for hours on end. At least, until Lee would jump around and excuse himself promptly.
"Why didn't we get more sparring like that in anyway?" Missions, she knew had kept them busy all the time, then they started taking more solo missions, then eventually their former team was finally split up. "It was always weirdly relaxing." Sakura liked to walk around at night to relax, Ino liked to go out and party, Hinata enjoyed dinner and conversation, but she had always preferred sparring.
"I suppose it's because when we sparred, it was purely for training. We haven't done it for the sake of doing it, for a while." Neji mused. They had been so busy with their missions and lives, they didn't have the chance just spar for old times sake.
"We should do it more often." She said as she tossed another kunai into the air and caught it carefully. "I don't think we tried to take each other down as much when we were teenagers either. It would have been good practice."
Neji nodded. "It would've been great practice." He agreed, thinking back to his teens. "Though we didn't even start simple sparring without a reason, until we were both chuunin." He noted. When they were genin they were focused on getting stronger than everyone else.
"Ah, to be fifteen again. It was a good year." Tenten smiled, she could get used to the basement. It was nice to be able to talk without having to run a steaming hot shower. "You know, one night, we should just sleep down here. Like when we had to camp out." She sat up on her elbows and laughed. "We'll drag the pillows and blanket down here. Then, we'll just talk about stupid things, like we used to when Gai-sensei started snoring and kept us up all night."
Neji smiled at the image. It seemed like something children would do rather than grown adults. "Life was simpler then." He agreed, laying back down. His hand landed next to hers, not quite touching, but close enough that she could feel the warmth of his fingers.
When she did feel the warmth from his hands, Tenten glanced at her own before returning her gaze to the ceiling. "Yeah, it's strange when you think of it. Life was so dangerous then. We barely gave it a second thought though." They had so many amusing memories, fun memories, and even utterly ridiculous memories. "So, are we going to sleep down here sometime?" She grinned cheerfully.
"I don't see why not. It's a bit strange though," He teased. "a full grown woman wanting to camp out in the basement of her house."
She shrugged. "The windowless basement, with a very soft carpet." Tenten flopped back onto the floor lazily. "I can rough it on the floor if it means some privacy for a night."
"They haven't spied on us in quite a while." Not close enough to watch them anyways. The guard had been lessened since the storms started. Now they only had the occasional 'visitor' to make sure they were in the house and that their chakra was normal.
"Ok, ok, fine! For old times sake." Tenten smiled. "Besides seriously, the floor really isn't all that bad down here. Being pinned to it wasn't too ba-er uh, never mind."
"You liked being pinned down?" Neji asked, eyebrow raised. She enjoyed the carpet that much? It was soft admittedly, but to be that comfortable? So comfortable in fact, that she wanted to be pressed hard against it? Neji would never have taken Tenten to be a carpet lover.
"Eh..." Tenten fidgeted. "For the challenge?" She offered trying to work her way out of the hole she felt herself dug into.
"Sure..." Neji gave her a dubious look. It was strange, but there were stranger things than enjoying the feel of a soft carpet. His mind however, caught on a few moments after, and argued that it wasn't the carpet she enjoyed while pinned. He cleared his head when he stood, stretched, and groaned softly as his joints cracked and muscles stretched. He felt better, even if it had been short and simple.
"Feel better?" She asked grinning. She hadn't heard him make a sound quite like that in a very long time.
"I do. Thank you." He said sparing her a smile, it had been too long since he'd been able to relax like that.
"Hey, anytime." She stretched and blinked when her own joints cracked. "Seriously, anytime, we're out of practice."
"We haven't had as much time as I would have liked to practice." He hadn't counted on the rainy season to be as wet as it was. Even in Konoha, they had the occasional days of sun when it stormed. The weather had been a total throwback to his plans to keep them both in peak condition.
Tenten gestured around her. "We do now."
"Yes, we do." He agreed as he headed for the stairs.
"Hey Neji?" She tossed a few kunai at him, for good measure. He ducked the first three and grabbed the last two reflexively, not even suffering a light cut.
"Yes Tenten?"
"Showoff." She muttered crossing her arms. "You better make one hell of a meal. Round two starts after dinner."
"I'll make sure you'll have had more than your fill of me when the night is through." He said as he walked slowly up the stairs. He ignored the kitten as it ran down past him. "Watch for the hell spawn." He warned.
Tenten smiled at the kitten that was trying to play with her scroll while she looked around the basement. There was space for her to set up some targets and there was plenty of room to spar. She looked down at the kitten that purred and continued to bat her scroll around. "You need a name." She told it. "Hell spawn and demon spawn don't really suit you." She tossed a few of her weapons at the same support beam in a perfect row.
"Yes they do!" Neji's voice drifted from upstairs, accompanied by the sound of a knife chopping vegetables.
"Hey, I can call you that if you keep calling him those things!" Tenten called up the stairs before she looked the kitten over. "You're too cute for names like that huh?" She smiled and scratched the kitten's head lightly.
"Go ahead." Neji didn't care one bit what Tenten called him, or the kitten for that matter. No matter what Tenten named the thing anyway, he would still consider it evil spawned in animal form.
"Maybe I'll call you...Neji." She smirked, throwing a glance up the stairs.
The chopping stopped a moment, before the basement door slid open. "You are not naming that thing after me!"
"Why not? You're so much alike." She watched the kitten hiss before she chuckled.
"That thing and I are nothing alike." He glared at the fuzz ball, which ignored him and laid down to clean its paws.
"I see a lot of similarities. Unless you have a better idea, that isn't hell spawn or demon spawn." She smirked when the kitten swatted its light gray paws at her bangs.
"Why does it need a name? Why can't it just be called cat or kitten?"
She crossed her arms in response and gave Neji an annoyed look. Because I said so, she said with her eyes, end of discussion.
Neji sighed and closed his eyes, "You know I'm horrible at naming things." Tenten usually teased him about being either too blunt or too simple anytime he had to give a title to anything.
"Hey, you don't have to name him." Tenten smirked. "You just have to stop calling him demon or hell spawn."
"If you can come up with a proper name, I will consider it."
Tenten looked from Neji, to the kitten, and then back at Neji. "I'm still tempted to call him Neji." She smirked before another name came to her mind.
"If you call that creature by my name, you're sleeping on the couch."
"I slept on the couch most of last week." She smiled and picked up the kitten. She looked him over once and touched the kitten's nose to her own. "I'm calling him Ryuu."
"How is that thing even close to being a dragon?"
"I'm not going to let you call him a demon, and dragons are a sign of good fortune." She smiled when the kitten attempted to lick her. "Dragon was the closest I was going to let you get to calling him a demon."
"It isn't a dragon." He leaned down, looking at the fuzz ball. "Maybe a lizard, but not a dragon."
Tenten smirked when the kitten hissed and swatted a paw at Neji. "I don't think he agrees."
Neji pulled his hand away, and poked the kitten on the head. "Call it whatever you like." He sighed.
"Ryuu it is then." She smiled and leaned back slightly. "You didn't really think I'd call him your name, did you?"
"If you were feeling malicious enough." He confirmed before heading back to the kitchen to finish their meal.
"Nah." Tenten muttered before letting the kitten in on a little secret, she whispered it directly to the kitten and glanced up at the stairs to make sure Neji was out of sight. "It'd just be way too weird if you had the same name, I mean weird for me you know?" She asked him. It would be very strange to be having certain dreams, calling out a particular name in those dreams, and then have a kitten hop up on the bed in the middle of the dream. "Total mood killer, you know?" She whispered to the little creature that stared at her with big blue eyes.
The kitten mewed, as though it understood. It licked the tip of her nose and jumped on the floor, returning to the tongue bath it had been in the middle of before Neji had interrupted him. "You stay down here and play, I'll be back down in a bit." Tenten smiled before running up the stairs. She had things to move to the basement. The first thing she did, while Neji cooked, was gather up all her scrolls, some targets, and of course, their pillows and blanket.
The kitten ignored Tenten's words, bounding up the stairs when it realized it would be left alone. Not seeing his owner anywhere nearby, he crept to the kitchen, where he smelled meat. Neji looked down with distaste. "No moocher. You have food in your bowl. This is people food."
Tenten dragged everything downstairs and hurried back up when she heard Neji's comment. "Hm, something smells good." She stood on her toes and looked over Neji's shoulder before looking down at the kitten. "Someone knows good cooking when he smells it."
Neji turned his head to look at her, his cheek brushed against her nose before he moved. "It'll be done in a few minutes Amaya. Can you set the table?"
"Uh..." Tenten's mind blanked for a few moments just from the lightest trace of contact. "Oh, set the table? Yeah, no problem." She hurried over to the cupboard and grabbed everything they'd need. "Should I make some tea?"
"If you could." Neji began to dish the food onto their plates and only briefly turned his attention to Tenten. She must have been really focused on the basement and the damned cat to blank out at her code name.
He watched her rub her head lightly while making the tea.
Spacing out, was not a good thing, especially when it only happened because of close proximity to Neji. Spacing out so much, that she didn't react to her code name, would have been very bad in public. She sighed and poured each of them tea, almost not noticing that she had almost filled her cup to the point of overflowing.
"Careful." Neji grabbed the teapot, stopping it before it spilled and scalded her. "What's wrong Amaya? You're all over the place right now." Was she starting to get nervous about his test now?
"I am?" She blinked and stared at him. Was she? "Oh, ha-ha, just a bit distracted. I just have all these crazy uh...ideas in my head. Art stuff and so on, you know?" She tried to smile. Now is NOT the time to be thinking about being pinned to that floor under him again girl! Get your head out of the clouds pronto! Tenten waved a hand dismissively while she berated herself mentally. "I'm fine."
"Are you worried about my test as well?"
"Of course not, you're going to do just fine." She said confidently.
"Then why are you distracted? You're not acting like yourself."
"I must be hungry?" She offered.
Neji gave her a look, but didn't prod any further. "Go sit at the table then. I'll be there in a moment." He took the tea from her. He didn't trust her to carry it without spilling it at the moment.
Tenten did as he said, without arguing. She sat and glanced down at the kitten that sat at her feet. "Ever get the feeling he can read minds?" She whispered to the kitten. The cat however, jumped onto her lap and onto the table. He sat patiently, waiting for his share of the meal.
"Off cat." Neji nudged the animal off the table as he set the plates out. "You don't get human food." He reminded the creature. He heard Tenten chuckle.
"Yeah, he's like you in cat form." She nodded to the kitten's annoyed expression.
"Just because we are both annoyed by the smaller injustices of life, does not mean we are the same."
Tenten only smirked at Neji when the kitten hissed in response.
"You're teaching it strange things." Neji accused as he sat and began his meal.
"He's just mimicking you." She laughed while she ate.
Neji paused, chopstick half way to his mouth. "The cat is not capable of mimicking what I do."
"Sure he's not..." Tenten muttered. She looked down at the kitten who held his paw in mid air.
"It proves nothing. He's just watching us." Neji grit his teeth, mildly annoyed with the insinuation that he had anything in common with a cat.
"And mimicking you." Tenten smirked while she finished eating. She cleared her plate long before Neji and they made minimal small talk over their meal. "Aw that was good." She stretched in her seat and smiled. "I really needed that."
"So are you ready for more then?" Neji asked, finishing his meal. "You did say I would need my strength."
"You know it's not a good idea, training right after eating." She pointed at him and nodded sagely. "Remember your teammate and sensei?"
"More than I would like to." Lee and Gai had once wolfed down a large meal, and resumed their training immediately. He and Tenten had the common sense to wait a short time before resuming their training. Lee and Gai were eventually curled up in balls on the forest floor, bawling like babies about stomach pains. He and Tenten had spared them at most, an annoyed glare and a roll of the eyes.
Tenten stood with a grin. "So we'll do the dishes and then we'll get back to work hm?" She picked up her plate and headed to the kitchen. He'd be lucky to not trip on all the things she dragged downstairs.
"If there's any space left done there after your redecorating." Neji carried his own dishes to the kitchen, pushing the cat out of his way with his foot. She washed their dishes while he dried them.
"I put everything in one corner for now." Tenten smiled innocently. She had put everything in a corner, except the pillows and blanket. Those had been left in a messy pile at the bottom of the stairs. Which Neji found promptly when they headed back down.
"Not a hazard for the blind at all." Neji smirked, picking up her things and depositing them in the corner.
"Course not, blind or not, you're still a ninja."
"Ninja or not, one would think you were trying to kill me." He turned and stretched as he waited.
She watched her partner in silence while he stretched. Why did he have to be capable of bending like that anyway? Tenten waved her mental fog away. It wasn't like he was doing it shirtless or anything. "Kill you? Nah. What good would that do me?"
"It would save you from imminent defeat." He said with a smirk as he turned back to face her.
"Yeah, yeah. Big talk, considering I didn't lose last time." Tenten mirrored Neji's stance and waited. This was more a Naruto and Sasuke thing, staring each other down like hawks. She had to admit though, there might have been something to it. It was amazing what you could tell from your opponent by watching them ever so closely.
"Neither did I." He watched her and his eyes narrowed slightly. Tenten was her usual self, but there was something in her eyes this time. She wouldn't be so easy to pin down.
"Worried about first strike, Neji?" She asked with a confident tone of voice. "Or are you worried I'm not going to play nice this time?"
"I know what you're going to do." He stepped forward carefully careful not to leave any openings.
Tenten shifted her weight to her back leg and smirked. He knew what she was going to do hm? "Really now? Well then make your move, I know the saying is 'ladies first' but I'm not exactly a lady."
"Are you insinuating that I am, Amaya?"
"Neji, we're in the basement, you can call me 'Tenten' you know?" She smirked. He was a far cry from a 'lady' in her mind. "I already told you, the hair does not fool me. I know how much of a man you are." How did Naruto and Sasuke stand in one place, talking and staring each other down anyway? She was already itching for him to start the spar before she broke eye contact.
"Oh and what if I was hiding something?" He raised a brow and struck when she stuttered.
"About the only thing, you've managed to hide from me all these years, is what you look like naked." She took the hit and dropped low to swipe his legs out from under him with a kick. Of course, he expected that, and she cursed when he moved away rapidly. "I've seen you mostly naked and wet, I doubt there's much that's been left to the imagination."
The two all but teleported around the room. It was one substitution after another, a few kicks here and there, a few rapid strikes yielding no direct hits, and through it all Neji couldn't resist smirking. He could not use his techniques while sparring indoors. As he had indicated, it would cause a great deal of damage to the interior of their home. Substitution was all he could do. She resorted to kunai every few minutes, and he dodged them carefully, leaving them pinned to walls or support beams. "I wonder how much your imagination differs from the truth."
Tenten choked back laughter. "Y-You want to find out?" It was hard to fight Neji seriously with such strange conversations going on. Over the years their conversations became increasingly odd. First it was merely Neji berating her for not focusing or dropping her guard. Then it turned into her mocking him about turning each spar into a lesson, followed by him teasing her back. In a few years time it became strange attempts to throw each other off guard with sarcastic remarks or challenges. Now they were talking about how he might look naked and he was humoring the conversation!
Neji smirked. "Lee's bigger." He saw Tenten quirk a brow at him and took advantage of her temporary distraction and questioning gaze. He caught her arm when she struck and twisted it forcefully behind her back before he forced her roughly against a wall.
Tenten twitched when Neji pinned her to one of the walls. Her arms were twisted behind her back and she sighed slightly. He pinned her much faster this time. "I doubt that. I've seen Lee naked, unfortunately. It was a particularly 'youthful' day and he was very drunk."
Neji held her tight, making sure she couldn't squirm away. "You should know better then to let him anywhere near that stuff." He drew a kunai and held it to her throat. "Do you submit?"
"I didn't let him near it, Sakura did." She let her gaze drop to the kunai at her throat. "Submit? To you?" She felt the cold metal against her skin and taunted him. "Make me."
"I thought this was 'friendly' sparring. How would I do that without slitting your throat?"
"You could start by actually pinning me." She smirked. She opened her hand and revealed a blood stained substitution scroll before leaving him surrounded in smoke. Neji was fortunate enough to block the swift counterattack she made from behind him and was careful to avoid being caught too close to the wall. "Did you know I was going to do that?"
"I knew you had something planned." He wiped the bit of blood from his mouth from Tenten's punch. It had caught him off guard and he would not allow the same thing to happen twice. "Don't expect me to leave you another opening."
"I'm a good kunoichi, I have to be, to keep up with you." Don't ever 'leave' me an opening. He would make good on his warning to not be careless with her, and she would not get another opening easily. Neji never let himself make the same mistakes twice, which made him a more challenging partner each time they sparred. He learned quickly and compensated rapidly for any errors. She smiled slightly, grateful for all the training with him. People had said she was too kind to help him train with no thought for her own training, however training with him had never been anything less than a challenge. "I'm good because of you."
"Being a bit modest, aren't you?" He helped her yes, and he trained for years with her, sure. However, in his mind, she was good because of the effort she had put in. Another lesson he had learned later than he would have liked. Hard work and perseverance really was just as good , if not better, than being born talented. She, Lee, and Naruto were living testaments to that very simple fact.
"We're partners." She told him through her strikes and his effortless blocks. "I helped you get to the point you're at today, and you never once let me fall behind." He barely avoided her kicks and she barely avoided his counters. Sooner or later one of them would be pinned. "I wanted to be one of the best, and you never let me be anything less than my best." She watched his footwork and strikes desperately. She needed an opening, and he was not going to just hand her one.
They moved in a complex circle. Strike and dodge shifted them around in the circle like a dance. Their foot work mirrored each other, their strikes were timed perfectly with the other's blocks. "You still put in the work Tenten. I couldn't force you to be your best unless you wanted to be." At last he saw her movements slow. She stepped a second too late, and he forced her to the ground.
Tenten felt the breath knocked out of her when she hit the floor hard on her back. She was pinned again. "I still can't beat you." She muttered when she was able to breathe easily again.
Neji helped her to her feet. "Not yet." She could challenge him more then most could, that went without saying. If she really dedicated herself to it, there was no doubt in his mind that one day she would beat him.
"You're still a few steps ahead of me every time." She was slightly faster now than him, but he was able to anticipate most of her attacks in advance, even without the byakugan. She turned her head away and looked at the kitten watching them curiously on the stairs. "It's frustrating. Eight years, and I still can't beat you."
"If it weren't for the fact we have trained together for years, I doubt I'd be able to read you as well as I do." He admitted as he wiped a bit of sweat from his brow.
"If you say so Mr. Perfect." Tenten mumbled. "Ah well, at least I can still get you to break a sweat." That was more than most people could say, whether she cared to admit it to herself or not. "I think at most it would take a few minutes longer."
"A few more minutes and you would have won?"
"No, if you hadn't trained with me all those years, it would have only taken you a few extra minutes to pin me. You've always been good at analyzing your opponent in combat." Tenten sat down on the bottom step next to the kitten and eyed Neji with a half amused expression. "You're sweating buckets, don't tell me you're getting sick again. I swear if you make me freeze in a tub again…" She began with a half threatening tone, "Was I really that hard to hold still?"
"Holding you still wasn't hard. Making sure you didn't accidentally slit your neck when I had a kunai to your throat was hard." He was still nervous from holding a weapon to her, loath though he was to admit it.
Tenten laughed slightly. "Your hand was shaking. I told you, you should just leave sharp, pointy objects to me."
"I was beginning to worry how far you would go to avoid defeat."
"I'm supposed to be willing to go as far as it takes." She answered pulling her hair back into a ponytail. "Fight to the death, or get out alive." She explained that they were the simple rules she had to live by as an assassin.
"Except I'm not your enemy. I'm your partner."
"And the only person I still can't beat in fair sparring." She flipped a kunai in her hand and looked it over. "The only one I trust to not go to any lengths to beat me too."
"Does that mean you expect Lee or Gai-sensei to kill you in a fight to win?" She was taking this spar far too seriously. What happened to her upbeat attitude from their earlier fight?
She shook her head. "No...oh never mind." It was a bit too complicated to explain to him. I don't have a thing for them Neji, fighting someone you're not attracted to is not a challenge. Not moaning when your extremely attractive partner has you pinned to the ground, is hard work. Beating him, would be its own reward. "I have the most respect for you, beating you would...eh..."
"Be a personal victory?" He suggested as leaned back against a support beam.
"It'd be rewarding." She smiled. Very rewarding, if anything for the look on your face. "I'd be just as good as I think I am." She admitted tossing her kunai across the room.
"Do you think I'd waste time working and training with someone who wasn't as good as me?" Neji asked, incredulously. Where were the self-esteem issues coming from?
"No, you wouldn't." She mumbled. The kitten was giving her the exact same look Neji was giving her.
"Then stop wallowing in self-pity and put that energy towards something useful."
Tenten twitched. "It's not self-pity, it's frustration." She got up and poked him in the chest. "I work just as hard, if not harder than anyone on our team, just to keep up with you. I trained with you every day, I trained with my dad every day after training with you, and then I trained on my own every day. You're still three steps ahead of me, no matter what I do. I'm at my limits, and it frustrates me to know I have them." She crossed her arms and looked away. "I'll beat you one day though." She said confidently. "I'll give you a real workout that day."
"What's stopping you? Try it now. I'm here, and there's nothing standing in your way."
"Property damage." She smirked. "I'm gonna need a lot more space than this. Hell, you're gonna need a lot more space than this." She tilted her head, her mood improving steadily. "Or is that just your ever roundabout way of asking for another round?"
"I won't deny it if you're looking for another spar." He took his defensive stance, even as she circled him.
"You know, usually when they say a man is insatiable they aren't talking about sparring." She moved in slow circles around him and stopped behind him.
"I hope you're referring to men like Naruto and their appetites." When he turned to face her, Tenten merely chuckled and shook her head. "Are you implying that when I spar with you, I am in fact flirting with you?" Neji arched an eyebrow.
"Oh, someone's reading too deeply into stuff." She shifted her stance and struck out at him with an amused smile. "I mean that, you never seem to get enough of sparring. Maybe it is your way of flirting, I dunno, you aren't the flirty type though."
"The image of me being openly flirtatious is amusing to say the least." He caught her hand and returned the strike, a mildly pleased smirk curved his lips when she redirected it flawlessly. "I doubt I could do so in the usually accepted manner." He remembered the training sessions at the beginning of their mission all too well. No one had fallen for their act, and it had mainly been his fault. It took days of her torturing him before it all sunk in.
"No kidding," She mumbled shifting away from his strikes, "flirting with you would have to be a suicide mission of sorts. Even Ino and Sakura asked how I managed to seduce a human ice cube. Heh, I think I actually told them it was something that just happened in training and missions." She laughed and jumped back away from one of his kicks.
Neji rolled his eyes. "Yes, because I find autassassinophilia so unbearably attractive." He dodged her rapid kicks and returned one of his own. She shifted in perfect sync with his attacks and avoided each blow.
Her pace slowed though and she laughed almost uncontrollably. "You really do have a hell of a sense of humor when no one's around to hear it but me." Dodging his attacks, she noted, was much harder when laughing hysterically.
"Most people simply do not understand my humor." He told her while he shifted his foot and tripped her when she tried to step back from what appeared to be another kick.
Tenten allowed herself to fall for a few seconds before she caught his leg with her own and forced him down with her. She hadn't exactly meant for him to fall on top of her, but she wasn't complaining. She was still laughing, even with the weight of him on top of her. "Pity people don't get it, because you are very funny sometimes."
"Few people have the intellect to appreciate it." He answered, looking down at the girl laughing under him. There was something…just something about hearing her laugh and feeling her laugh. She continued laughing for a few minutes before she got a hold of herself.
"Ok, that was our worst spar ever. Pretty bad when we're both down this fast you know?" She was still trying to fight a chuckle.
Finally, Neji laughed as well. He sat up right and pushed Tenten's hair back from her face. "I never thought I would beat you with a joke."
"I don't know if that counts for your victories." She shrugged on the ground. "I mean, I took you right down with me. Kudos for beating us both with a joke though."
"I'm the one that had you pinned."
She laughed again and didn't try to contain her laughter. "My aim was off, I expected you to fall next to me, not on me."
"Maybe it was my intention to fall on top of you." He stood and offered his hand to her, which she promptly took and got to her feet with his assistance.
"I don't think you were intending to fall." It sounded nice though, him intending to fall on top of her. "I haven't heard you laugh like that in a while though." She pointed to his face and smirked. "Even got you to crack a smile, how rare is that?"
"I did no such thing." Neji frowned, rapidly wiping the smile from his face.
"Why do you act like it's such a bad thing? It's nice to see you smile once in a while." If truth had to be told, she had always enjoyed his rare moments smiling. He had a very warm, gentle smile, and the young children in Konoha were very fond of it, especially the girls. "It's not like your fangirls are here to see it."
"I'd much rather the fangirls to the fanboys." His frown deepened and his mind returned to the original reason they were sparring. He, most likely would be facing an interrogation the next day, he needed to relieve his frustrations.
"Your fanboy isn't here either." She sighed. "Next time I'm not going to tell you when you're smiling."
"Selfish aren't you? Keeping my smiles to yourself." He let the corner of his mouth quirk. "Are you up for another round, or do you want to stop for the night?"
"Are you going to have to crack a joke to win?" She stepped back a few paces and took a familiar defensive stance.
"Only if you don't admit defeat." He smirked as she took his standard defensive stance, this time without a single flaw.
Tenten raised her hand to guard herself. "Admit defeat to you?" She returned his smirk. "Never."
"You will before the night is over." He slid back and shifted his weight before lashing out at her again, he used his full weight as momentum and gradually increased the speed of his strikes.
Tenten laughed again and shifted out of his attack range. "If you plan to beat me by making me laugh, you might be able to pull it off." She threw light strikes at him and allowed him to block or redirect her strikes while she searched for the ever elusive opening.
"I wasn't aware that you found dry humor so amusing that you could lose because of it." He struck swiftly, though not as accurately as he would have liked.
"You're the only one with a dry sense of humor that I know." He knocked her back a bit, but she recovered quickly and turned his attacks back upon him. "Naturally I've somewhat adapted what I find amusing to suit that."
Neji tilted his head, both in a questioning manner and to avoid a strike of the elbow. "You make it sound like you've adapted yourself to suit me."
"It kind of happened naturally." There was the perfect opening, he was slightly distracted. "It happens when you grow up." She turned rapidly and threw a hard kick at him.
He grunted, grabbed her leg, and held up on her one leg. "You're grown up? Who was the one making the pillow fort in the basement?"
She smirked before forcing herself into a jump that would utilize her momentum to spin and force her leg from his grip. She turned a hard kick to his side as she turned and landed a little too gracefully. "You're childish too sometimes."
"How is that?" He grunted from the force of her kick and rubbed his side slightly as she moved out of reach.
"How often do you tease me?" She smirked. "Jeeze Neji, distracted much?" She quirked a brow when he rubbed his side. "There's no way that should have hit you...you're a lot faster than that."
"Is that so?" As soon as the words left his mouth, he was gone. "Or maybe I'm just luring you into a false sense of security?" He continued from behind her. Training with Lee always had its advantages, irritating though the training sometimes became. One had to be very fast to keep up with Lee, even with the weights on.
Tenten titled her head when she sensed him behind her. "Maybe. You of all people though, should know that attacking me from behind is a total deathtrap."
He dodged the weapons that she rapidly threw at him, frighteningly accurate, despite her back being turned. "Or maybe I know how to avoid such traps." He told her when she ceased her attack.
"You could just submit." She smirked. Sure, he knew how to avoid many traps, but eventually he always slipped up. Usually it took a lot longer for him to walk into a trap though, and usually with significantly more space in their training grounds, he could get out of it easily. She lifted her hand and tugged sharply on the air. "You just let me set up a wire trap. Usually, you're a lot better at avoiding traps like that." She smiled darkly when his legs and hands were drawn together and he fell to the floor. "Don't worry, I won't count it as a victory, even if it is." She knelt down on the floor and tilted his chin up to look at her. "You don't have space to use to your advantage, and we're both avoiding property damage, so we can't go all out."
"I wasn't aware we were using weapons for sparring." Neji raised an eyebrow, wiggling a bit in his confines. the wire cut through his shirt, and bit into his skin. She had forced him to still. No joke or tricks, the wire was very real and she wasn't playing around anymore.
Tenten smirked and knelt on the floor in front of him. "It's not a spar if I don't make you work for it hm?"
"It's not a spar if you can't win with your wits and your fists." He squirmed a hand discretely, his hands carefully worked through the seals. If Tenten was going to play dirty, so was he.
"It's never a spar when I'm winning." She smiled slightly and brushed a finger over his lips. "Not to worry, I can keep that a secret too."
Neji smirked against her fingertip. "Who said you were winning?" He whispered before leaving her in a rapidly dissipating cloud.
Tenten's smile widened in response to his clever escape. "Oh yeah, now it's a fight..." She barely dodged all his strikes when he finally attacked. Most she took lightly, but she felt her chakra suddenly limited. The flow was weaker and it greatly affected her perception. She had a harder time deflecting and dodging his strikes. Neji, clearly wasn't playing around either.
They were almost devastatingly close blows. Their strikes, if serious, would have severely injured any amateur that crossed them and Tenten almost gasped in surprise when she felt more of her chakra restricted. His last four strikes, had effectively cut off a large portion of her chakra. She knew better than anyone how debilitating a loss of proper chakra flow was. He knew how much it affected her as well. While her accuracy could not be affected by the weaker and somewhat restricted flow of chakra, her perception was severely hampered. Perception was just as important as accuracy, she always told him.
'It's like a weapon, if you keep it in perfect condition, the advantage is yours. Accuracy means nothing if you can't perceive the movements of your opponent and anticipate their actions. Hehe, it's not like they're going to stand still and wait for you to hit them after all.'
Neji was not disappointed by her at all. She stepped up her game to match the higher stakes. She could not anticipate his next move, so her strikes became faster, and to his never-ending amazement, painfully accurate. She struck several pressure points that caused unbearable pain or numbness, significantly slowing his pace. She's not a little girl anymore, the sooner you stop looking at her as just a girl and your best friend, the easier it will be to fight her. She knew he was holding back, he saw it in her eyes, but he reminded himself that he had to hold back. She's not a little girl…but you'll beat yourself up about it later if you hurt her.
He expended most of his remaining chakra to keep her on her toes, and she expended hers in defense. He was mildly surprised when she deflected what would have been the winning blow, with her bare hand and a surge of her chakra. Another strategy, so very similar to his own techniques.
They landed a strong series of attacks in perfect sync, and she felt his heavy breathing in the small space between them. He was wearing out. Tenten panted slightly when they separated from their last attacks. He was breathing as heavily as she, and not to her remote surprise, smirking just as confidently.
"I thought you were winning, Tenten." He cocked his head to the side, stepping sideways, preparing to cut her off from another assault.
"I'm winning as long as you're questioning whether or not you're winning." She mirrored his steps and chuckled. "I still stand by my initial statement. You looked good on the floor." Her eyes flashed mischievously. Looked great bound on the flo-oh bad, bad Tenten. "Come on, you're getting worn out, you're not going to be able to hold out much longer." She was aware, however, that Neji outclassed her in endurance, and he always had.
"If I'm tired, you must be exhausted. Don't forget Tenten, I know your limits."
"I know yours too. I know your weaknesses, your limits, better than anyone." Her eyes softened though, it was a moment of weakness for her. She could never take total advantage of his weaknesses. "I am getting exhausted though." She conceded.
Neji paused, weighing the situation. He was tired as well, and he had the 'test' with Nobaru the next day. "Are you proposing a draw Tenten?"
"Sounds more like you are." She shrugged. "The pillows are looking tempting huh?"
"Hn." Neji spared a glance. "The kitten is trying to eat one."
Tenten chuckled. "We really should try to at least rest soon, maybe not sleep, but rest. I doubt you want to face Nobaru wiped out."
Neji shuddered. "That is an unpleasant situation to think of, to say the least."
"I can settle for a draw for now then." She smiled as she passed him. Far from graceful, she flopped down onto the pillows, causing the kitten to bounce lightly from one pillow to another. "You realize this room means we won't have to make a mad dash for the shower as often right?" She asked as she stretched out slowly.
He nodded, sitting on the blankets. "It will be much more convenient." By a long shot, it was far less compromising than sitting on the couch or pretending to shower for hours would be.
"Like that spot in the woods." Her eyes fell shut and she smiled. "Except, Ino won't be able to listen in, and your uncle won't sneak up on us."
"And we won't wake up with you screaming because one of Shikamaru's deer wandered off and decided to try to eat your hair." He chuckled. That memory was one he enjoyed thinking of, her waking up in a panic on a mission, yelling about of all things- a deer eating her hair.
"Or you screaming about a butterfly landing in your hair and a camera flash going off..." Tenten smirked broadly. Ino and Sakura had said it looked like he was wearing one of those ridiculous hair clips Hinata had for festivals.
"I told them I didn't want my picture taken." Neji picked the kitten out of his hair, and laid it on Tenten's chest.
"They're girls," She told him before sharply tugging him down to the ground next to her. She shifted almost instantly against him and rested her head against his shoulder. The kitten curled up on the other side of her. "it would be a miracle if they listened to your request, especially without you giving them something to buy their silence."
"I'll bring Nobaru and Taiki back with me next time. It'll distract them a while at least." What, with Sakura' yaoi fangirl moments and Ino's fashion sense; Taiki and Nobaru wouldn't be left alone. The comment earned him a small fit of laughter against his shoulder, a sign of agreement, and amusement from Tenten. Neji stretched out, relaxing on the thick pillows. He was comfortable, and reasonably tired out now, a vast improvement from earlier in the day. He took a deep breath, and considered preparing for his next task, dealing with his 'test' in the morning.
"You'll be fine tomorrow," She whispered confidently. "remember...just like I'm interrogating you." Her soft yawn broke her words apart. "J-just stay calm an-and relaxed like you do with me. No problem at all."
Neji leaned his head towards hers. "It's not the interrogation I'm worried about." He said back, his voice a soft murmur.
"What are you so worried about then?" She could hear sleep tugging at both of them. They quieted down so quickly, and already the tiny kitten was curled up in a ball, purring loudly.
My eyes. He wanted to say it, but pushed the thought away. Nothing will happen. Everything would be fine, and he needed to keep that state of mind to succeed. "The mission." He answered after a long pause. It was true enough.
"You are such a horrible liar." She shifted onto her side and propped herself up on an arm. She stared down at him and waited for him to look at her. "What are you really worried about?"
Neji sighed quietly. "I am worried about the mission." she couldn't take the easy answer, could she? "All they have to do is notice my eyes for this to fail."
"I thought so..." She sighed quietly. In all honesty, she didn't have a way around his concern there. There was nothing she could do to ensure nothing went wrong, other than give some confident assurance.
"There is no point worrying, it will be a long day tomorrow." The pillows weren't the most comfortable to lay on. He turned to his side, brushing a bit of hair out of Tenten's face so he could see her. "Let's both just stop worrying and go to sleep."
"That sure as hell doesn't sound like your usual self." She smirked. "I like it. We should wear you out more often." She nodded lightly so her cheek brushed against his hand. In her mind there was a ridiculous conversation going on, between what felt like an inner Ino and Sakura. It was disturbing but both were telling her to just lean forward and kiss him. She let herself slide back down onto the ground and rested against the pillows, inner Tenten clearly had won the dispute. "You know, I haven't slept well in weeks."
"Then close your eyes and relax. We both need to rest properly." He wanted to add in some facts about the success rate of being properly rested during long term missions, but was to tired to come up with any exact percentages. He had a feeling also, that she would tease him about it. He watched her nod though, and she closed her eyes.
She hadn't been sleeping well she noted, for a few weeks, and she slept perfectly when...I'm NEVER going to be able to sleep well, for the rest of my life. She sighed quietly and tried to let herself sleep. It had been a few weeks since he held her at night, and she was far too proud to ask him to. Damn pride.
Neji pulled a thin blanket over him and laid unhappily. The basement which had been pleasantly cool before, was downright frigid now that he wasn't attempting to escape loss at the hands of Tenten. His eyes shifted to look at her and noticed the slight shaking of her hands. Tenten was cold as well? Sliding closer, he placed his blanket over Tenten, and joined her under hers.
"We're gonna need to get a heater down here in the winter." Tenten whispered when she felt him move closer. "Felt a lot warmer earlier." Of course it had though, she told herself, they were sparring! That involved moving, quite frequently and rapidly!
"Mm. We need a heater here now." He mumbled, content now that he was starting to warm with her closer to him.
Tenten held back a chuckle and wrapped her arms around him. She had a very clear memory of him making a comment at one point, that he thought she only liked him warming the bed. "I got my heater, I'm good." Neji just shook his head in response as he shifted slightly to get comfortable. It ended with his arm around Tenten's waist, and her head resting against his collarbone. He could feel the soft inhale and exhale as she swiftly entered a deeper state of sleep.
"Good night, Tenten." He whispered against her hair before his own eyes succumbed to his combined exhaustion and relaxation.
AN: Sorry about the delay in updating, the site wasn't letting me get this uploaded, kept giving me silly errors, but it looks like that's been straightened out. Kigen and I might be delayed in our next update ahaha...we have like two pages written hehe...we're working on it, we swear!
On a side note! Autassassinophilia is very real. We did not make that one up. A person with the paraphilia of autassassinophilia is sexually aroused by putting themselves in situations in which they may be killed. I know, wow. Don't believe me? Google it.