6 Months with the Hyuuga Family
By: Whipped Coffee
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Disclaimer
I don't own Naruto.
If I did, I wouldn't be here, now would I?
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Month Two
Day Thirty
Chapter Thirty-Five—Secret World
Three days had passed without Tenten realizing it. She had barely realized that it was Wednesday before she collapsed on her bed, feeling dead exhausted. She had successfully avoid Neji (for a reason she did not know, or rather, believed strongly that she wasn't avoiding him, and just had a lot of things to do), as well as Ino and Kairi. Of course, she had seen Hinata at times at school and at the Manor, but she never stopped once to say hello, or make a small conversation.
Tenten sighed to herself as she stared at the ceiling. It was silent – dead silent, like it always was at the Hyuuga Manor. She closed her eyes as she took another small breath.
Sunday was horrid. As expected, she had caught a cold, and a horrible one, too. There was sneezing every fifteen seconds, and coughing came right after the sneezing. Tenten was on the verge of losing her voice, but she had immediately gotten better when school came around, for some odd reason.
Monday was not as bad. It took up most of her energy to avoid Ayama, since she wasn't in the mood of dealing with her. And like always, her teachers had decided to give millions of assignments, right at the beginning of the week. She had at least three tests everyday of next week, plus, she had a couple of essays due for each class. Her teachers claimed that, "they were falling behind the other classes," and it was kind of suspicious that all the classes she had were "falling behind".
She did hear a rumor about how the school was losing its eleventh place on the top school list.
Tuesday got better. Half of her teachers were absent, and that meant no assignments due for the next day. Still, Tenten took this rare opportunity (almost all of her teachers were never absent, for as long as she went to school there) to get a head start on her homework.
The results?
When the alarm clock rang the next day for school, she found herself sleeping on the table with her books in front of her.
She hadn't realized how tired she had been lately, and the fact that endless thoughts of Neji were on her mind didn't help at all. The only good thing about the three days was that none of her friends had pestered about what was going on with her. To that, she was grateful.
When she was finally drifting off to slumber, she heard a quiet knock on her door. Tenten opened her eyes slowly and sighed, thinking that it was a maid who wanted to change her towels. She ignored it, and flipped to her side on her bed. The knock came again, and she groaned. Getting up irritably, she threw open the door with an annoyed expression.
"Hey."
Tenten stared at him. It was odd for him to come looking for her. Well, this is the first time he came to her door, anyways. Tenten looked at him warily, feeling a sense of comfort when he stood in front of her. "Why are you here Neji?"
Neji looked at her, as if he was confirming something. "Grab your coat," was all he said before he turned and walked away.
Tenten stared in confusion after him. "What in the world…?"
"Are you kidding me?" Tenten deadpanned. "We came out here in the freezing cold to get ice cream?!" She burst as she shivered against the blowing, cold wind.
Neji handed her the chocolate ice cream while he ate his chocolate ice cream himself. He didn't bother answering her as Tenten took it from him. He walked off, leaving Tenten frozen in her spot with an ice cream (which seemed like a frozen stick to her) in her hand.
Tenten grumbled as she came to her sense. She stomped after Neji, a little bit aggravated that she had been dragged (not really, since she came willingly) out in the freezing cold to eat something, well, even colder. Following Neji mindlessly, she didn't notice that he had stopped in front of a café. Not realizing this, she couldn't to stare at the ground and stomp like a little kid.
Bumping into Neji's back, she glared at him irritable. "Why'd you stop?!" She asked hotly.
Neji raised a brow, but said nothing more. He entered the café, leaving Tenten outside. "The man of a million words," Tenten grumbled as she followed him inside the café. Her cold ears seemed to immediately turn warm when she entered the shop. It felt cozy and nice, with the smell of hot chocolate in the air.
Tenten took a deep breath, smelling the air. She smiled to herself and wondered why Neji brought her there. Immediately, she turned red. 'This… isn't a date, is it?!' She widened her eyes at that thought, and nearly crushed the un-licked ice cream in her hand. When she realized that she was crushing it unconsciously, she started licking the ice cream that was coming out of the cone.
Once she was done with that, she looked up, to see Neji staring at her with… an amuse expression? Tenten didn't know what it was of course, since she hadn't seen him with an expression other than the 'leave me alone I don't want to see your face or talk to you' expression. Tenten raised a brow, and before she could speak even one word, someone called out their names.
"Neji! Tenten! You guys took forever!" Tenten heard a voice that sounded very much like Ino.
She turned around to see that the whole group was there, in the back booth. 'So this wasn't a date…' Tenten chuckled to herself as she walked past Neji and towards the back booth.
"W-Why are you eating ice cream in the cold…?" Hinata asked, staring at the semi-crushed ice cream in Tenten's hand.
Tenten laughed sheepishly as she scratched the back of her hand. She gave the ice cream to Kairi, who had been eyeing it rather curiously. Kairi took it happily, and licked what was left of it. Ino gave her disgusted looks as she stared at Kairi eat the unsightly cone. Kairi shrugged once she caught Ino's look of disgust.
"Ice cream's better in the winter; it doesn't melt like in the summer!"
Ino rolled her eyes as she went back to texting someone on her phone. Hinata stared at the ice cream, not knowing what to say about it.
"It feels like we haven't seen you in forever," Kairi said while she chomped off a part of her ice cream.
"That's because we haven't seen her at all," Ino stated, still texting on her phone.
Tenten smiled at her friends, suddenly realizing that she missed their bickering with each other. Seeing that Tenten was already starting to cheer up, Neji turned towards his group and sat them with them. They had two tables; of course, it was gender based.
As quick as she had started to eat it, she had already finished it. Kairi gave Tenten a smile, as if it was a sign of thanks. Tenten grinned back, immediately feeling normal again. She hadn't realized that she had been feeling empty lately – like a part of her was missing. As soon as she saw her friends again, she felt finally back to her old self again, without all the complications of her love life.
"You've been avoiding us haven't you," Kairi accused as she warmed her hands up with her hot coffee.
Tenten avoided Kairi's accusing stare. "Uh, I'm going to get what you got," she said, getting up abruptly, trying to get away from the topic.
Kairi sighed as soon as Tenten stopped at the counter. "Yeah, she's been avoiding us," she said glumly.
Hinata smiled softly as she looked back at Tenten's back. She knew that Tenten was going through some hard times, but she didn't know what to say to make her feel better. She looked down at her hot chocolate, staring at the marshmallows dissolve in the cup. It was always like this—she knew what people were going through, and yet she couldn't do anything to make them feel better.
"Don't look so down, Hinata," Ino said sincerely, having put down her cell phone. She gave her a light smile as she went back to eating her croissant. "I'm sure whatever Tenten's going through, she'll get through it. She's not the type to give up halfway."
"Wow, you actually sounded deep for once," Kairi drawled on sarcastically.
Ino glared at Kairi as she chewed on her food angrily. "No one needs your sarcasm here, Kairi. You can't go one day without it, can you?"
"D-Don't get that started again," Hinata said, breaking into their argument.
Ino and Kairi rolled their eyes as they became silent again. They went back to their thoughts—it had been like that most of the time these days. They didn't talk a lot to one another, without Tenten there to lift up their spirits. Everyone had their own things to think about, so silence was what filled in most of their time together.
There was a slight buzzing sound coming from Ino's cell phone. She picked it up quickly, and had a small smile on her face when she read what the text said. Kairi rolled her eyes—it was probably Shikamaru. Funny; he had always said texting was a waste of time. But even so, that didn't make sense, since Shikamaru was just on the next table.
Ino quickly texted whoever the person was back with sudden eagerness. The silence of the table was filled with Ino's quick fingers as she hurriedly pressed the buttons. Kairi sighed rather loudly again, earning a glare from Ino. Ignoring that glare, Kairi sipped her coffee again.
It was a boring day, like all the other days.
"Why so quiet?" Tenten asked, coming back with her drink and a croissant, like Ino.
No one bothered to answer her; Kairi was ignoring whatever was going on, Ino was too busy texting her beloved boyfriend and Hinata was too wrapped up in her own thoughts. Tenten raised a brow at her friends' actions. It hadn't been this quiet since… well, since, ever.
Tenten drank her hot coffee, deciding not to say anything. Everyone seemed odd, with the exception of Naruto screaming at the next table. Other than that, the whole café was quiet.
She propped her arm up on the table, and put her palm under her chin. She drummed her fingers to a familiar melody, and sighed once again. She was glad to be with her friends, of course, but the silence was unnerving. As she lifted the drink up to her mouth, her eyes caught on someone she didn't want to see. She widened her eyes, dropping her cup of coffee. It spilled all over the table, spreading everywhere, and even dripping on the floor. She gasped quietly to herself as she took the napkins to wipe up the spilled coffee.
Hinata, noticing the predicament that Tenten was in, snapped out of her thoughts. Her eyes widened like Tenten's as she quickly got up to get more napkins. Kairi finally stopped ignoring what was happening, and started to laugh to herself whereas Ino was glaring at Kairi for laughing at something that wasn't funny.
"Oh lighten up, Ino," Kairi said, still laughing. "You're always glaring all the time, it's not very attractive, ya know. I don't know how you got Shikamaru."
"My glares are only directed towards you," Ino said hotly, putting away her cell phone in her bag.
"Oh don't I feel special," Kairi said sarcastically once again.
"You know what Kairi?" Ino asked, glaring daggers at Kairi.
"No Ino, I don't. Would you care to enlighten me on what you've found out?"
"Can't you just shut the f—"
"Guys, a little help here?" Tenten pleaded as she tried to stop the coffee from dripping on her. "I don't think that I clean this up myself."
"Oh, just let the workers here do it," Kairi said, waving the matter off with her hand. "That's the point of their job: to clean up spilled mess. Just leave it," Kairi said, ignoring the spilled coffee as she picked up her own drink to drink. "Why'd you drop it anyways? You're not that clumsy."
Hearing this, Tenten instinctively looked up to see if who she saw was there, still. Unbeknown to her, she let out a sigh of relief as she saw that they weren't there. Ino raised a brow at the odd action from Tenten, and followed her gaze out the window. She scanned through the few people that were out, and found no one that would be able to make Tenten drop her drink.
"What happened?" Hinata asked quietly, leaving the pile of napkins she used to clean the mess on the table. A girl who worked there (she had the uniform) sighed as she came over to clean up the mess.
Tenten looked down at the dripping coffee. "I thought I saw someone," was all that she said.
Kairi tensed up as she heard Tenten say this. She looked at her with cautious eyes, wondering if who Tenten saw were the same people who tried to kidnap her. She sipped her coffee quietly, as if she was going to miss something by just drinking.
"Who?" Ino asked.
"No one special," Tenten said, grinning up at them to make them feel less worried. "I thought I just saw an old friend," she said breezily as she finished up her croissant. Ignoring her friends' disbelieving looks, she turned to the café's clock. "Ah, look at the time," she said as she got up. "I still have homework to do, sorry guys. See you tomorrow," Tenten said quickly, dashing out of the café before anyone could protest.
Tenten sighed as she stuffed her cold hands in her jacket pocket. Truthfully, she had no homework, since she finished all of them during lunch (during her little escapade from her friends). She wandered aimlessly around the streets, unconsciously avoiding the spot where she had seen them.
It wasn't really surprising that they were where she was—it was just a little shocking and overwhelming that they'd come in just three days. She shouldn't be shocked though—she knew what Ami could do. Tenten sighed as she settled down on a bench, staring at the people who hurried past her. It was obvious that the safest way to deal with it was to stay in the café; with her friends. But she couldn't risk them knowing what happened. It wasn't like she wanted to hide it, but she didn't want them to know, either.
She felt her cell phone vibrate against her leg, but she chose to ignore it. It was too cold to take out her hands to get her cell phone, and plus, she knew that it was probably Neji wondering why she left so quickly. Tenten bit her lip as she got off the bench. It was wiser to go home than to stay here in the vulnerable cold.
"Where you going so quickly?" A sly voice asked as Tenten hear footsteps around her.
She looked behind her and glared. They were different ones than the ones she had fought before—but they were thuggish looking, just like the others. "Oh, you know," Tenten said breezily, not wanting the numbers of the group to get to her, "just trying to get out of the cold."
"Oh really now?" He asked, giving her a wicked grin.
Tenten felt the need to throw up just looking at his face. Holding back a revolted expression, she smiled grimly back at them. "Yeah… so, what are you guys doing? In so many numbers too?" She asked, faking her cluelessness as she looked around at the endless thugs that surrounded her. "You know, if I didn't know better this would like a total suspicious activity," Tenten said, managing to get a joke out.
"She jokes!" One of them said. "She still joked even though she knows what's going to happen to her," Tenten heard him say wryly.
"Well, you know, you kind of get used to it when it happened to you the first time," Tenten retorted back, giving the guy who said it a glare. "And also, just for the record, this really does look suspicious. Why don't you tie me up and bring me to a warehouse like the other douche bag did to me?"
"Because that would look even more suspicious," the same one who talked first stated.
"Oh really now?" Tenten said, using the same words he used before, earning a glare from him. She smiled back, "Surrounding an innocent girl is not as suspicious as accidentally knocking her out and taking her somewhere," she rolled her eyes.
The guy seemed to contemplate something. it was a real joke to look at him while he was doing that, since he had the whole troubled expression on his face. Finally, after what seemed like an hour, he grinned up at Tenten. "Hey little girl, that is a really great idea," he said, nodding his head. Tenten raised a brow, wondering what he had meant.
"Get her," he said seriously, pointing at Tenten.
She widened her eyes as she realized what she had just suggested. "Me and my big mouth," Tenten muttered to herself. Dodging the arm that came her way, she fought the urge to scream as thousands of arms came flying her way. Nearly escaping them, she felt herself tugged back by her hair.
"Holy fuck!" She shouted as she almost fell backwards. She yanked her hair back violently, and glared at the person who tugged it. Not losing any time to run away, Tenten sprinted through the crowds of pedestrians that were hurrying.
"Shit!" She heard someone scream, obviously out of frustration.
"Mission Escape Freaky Looking Desperate Gorillas: Accomplished!" Tenten said to herself with a smile as she continued to sprint across the street.
"I still think that she's avoiding us," Kairi said hotly as she drank her third cup of coffee.
Ino knew that Kairi wasn't going to be able to sleep tonight. She just knew it.
"M-Maybe she just thinks that it's better that we don't know," Hinata said, sticking up for Tenten. Kairi rolled her eyes as she continued to drink her cup of coffee. "She should know us by now; keeping things away from us is only going to make us want to know it more. It's not going to make it better if she doesn't tell us what's going on."
Hinata looked to the side, knowing that Kairi was fully right. Ino pursed her lips, but other than that, she made no move that she was going to speak. Kairi sighed as another blanket of silence coated over the air. She continued to drink her coffee, not caring that this was the third night she won't be able to sleep.
"Why are you guys so quiet?!" Naruto said irritable. The quietness of the girls' table was even getting on his nerve, too.
"Shut up Naruto," Ino said with disinterest, playing with the small spoon that came with her cappuccino.
Naruto didn't seem to take offense to that; he seemed to be energized with that little sentence from Ino. "Man, you girls are really weird. Are all three of you on your period or something? Is this why you've been quiet the whole week?" Naruto continued on annoyingly.
Ino's anger bar was slowly rising, but she made no comment as she suppressed her scream at Naruto. Hoping that he would go away and leave them to their silence quietly, she continued to sip her drink. However, Naruto, being how he always was, didn't seem to get the clue.
"Man, you really are on your period! How come you're so quiet? I thought girls became violent and loud and angry, not quiet!"
And the anger bar in Ino's mind exploded.
"Shut up, Naruto!!" Ino shouted. "We three are not on our periods, and we would appreciate it if you would just shut up! We all have our own things to think about, so that's why there's silence whenever we're together, okay?! It's not because of our stupid period, and for your information, I do not get violent or angry or loud when I'm on mine!"
"It really is her period…" Naruto muttered to himself as he slowly turned away from Ino.
Ino twitched, ready to burst out again, but Kairi came to the rescue. "Naruto, just be quiet," she said with disinterest, not wanting to hear Ino's scream again.
Listening to Kairi, Naruto went back to his table, shouting and screaming to his heart's desire. Ino breathed in and out, trying to calm herself down. Kairi rolled her eyes as Hinata looked back, biting her lip as she felt sorry for Naruto being the victim of Ino's rage.
"Tenten really is odd these days," Kairi thought out loud.
"I thought we established that minutes ago," Ino said with a sigh as she calmed down from before.
"It gets on my nerves every time I think about it," she admitted finishing her cup of coffee. "She's hiding something."
Walking down the bright lit street, Tenten hummed to herself. She was feeling happier, knowing that she had escaped from the thugs that tried to get her. She smiled to herself as she grew happier and happier by the second.
"You know, if I didn't know you, I'd think you were crazy," a chuckling voice came from beside her.
Tenten whipped her head around quickly. Her accelerated heart beat slowed down as she grinned at the person who was next to her. "Misaki! I haven't seen you around since… forever!" Tenten said with a smile.
He chuckled returned the smile back. "Hi to you too, Tenten," he said. "You seem to be doing well," he commented as they both walked down the street.
"Oh, you know," Tenten said, shrugging even though she herself didn't know what she was talking about. "Where are you going?" Tenten asked as she peered over at Misaki.
"Kairi was supposed to be home an hour ago," Misaki said, frowning. Tenten smiled to herself—it seemed like Misaki cared about why Kairi was out so late. "So mom kicked me out to go find her, and she said that I can't come back in without her," he muttered darkly.
Tenten laughed nervously. So she was wrong. "So you've been walking around like this for an hour?"
"More or less," he replied, lifting up a plastic bag. "I bought myself snacks in case I wasn't going to go back home for dinner," he said with a smile.
Tenten laughed as she grabbed the bag. "Wow, did you buy like the whole supermarket?" She asked in astonishment as she looked through what he had bought.
"No," he said, grinning. "Just the junk food part of it."
They laughed together as Tenten handed back the bag. "Well, thanks for walking with me," Tenten said gratefully as they both stopped in front of the vast Hyuuga Manor.
Misaki shook his head. "No problem," he said, handing Tenten a bag of chips. "Here, my gift to you for not seeing you in so long," he said with a grin.
Tenten took it with a smile. "And I hope that you get back home eventually," she said with a chuckle. "Bye," she waved to him as she walked past the gates.
"Hey," Misaki called out, stopping Tenten from walking any further. She raised a brow, wondering why he stopped her. "You have friends, Tenten," Misaki said seriously, his joking demeanor gone.
"Yeah I do…" Tenten said, wondering where he was going with the conversation.
"They're there for a reason," he said, "Pushing them away won't make them leave; keeping them in the dark won't make them not find out. They're there for a reason," he repeated with a smile as he waved goodbye, jogging away.
Tenten stared after him in confusion, wondering what he was talking about. She turned back around slowly, and as she started walking again, she wondered what he meant by it.
'Don't get in trouble anymore.'
'Don't get in trouble anymore.'
'Hi! My name is Sakura, what's yours?"
'Ami? Are you okay? What happened to you?'
'Mina? Why do you want to be called Mina when your name is Ami?'
'Please Mina. Don't get in trouble anymore.'
'Don't get in trouble anymore.'
'Please.'
She woke up startled, sitting up in bed as sweat dripped down her forehead. She had the same reoccurring nightmare, again and again. She sighed heavily as she wiped away the sweat. The nightmare just wouldn't go away. It was here in Japan with her, just like it was with her in America. It was stupid of her to think that just moving to another country would make it go away.
She breathed slowly, listening to the drizzle of rain pelting her window sill. She closed her eyes and sighed once again. She got up, walking out of her bedroom to her kitchen.
Nights like this were always met with a cold glass of milk.
She gulped the whole glass down, wiping the remaining sweat on her forehead. It had always been a habit for her—every time she had nightmares, a glass of cold milk always calmed her down. She didn't know why—or maybe, she did. Her mother always gave her a glass of milk before she went to bed.
She sat on the kitchen stool, staring blankly at her empty glass. One glass was always enough to calm her down, but tonight, she had the urge to get more. Her craving was suddenly sparked, and she wanted another glass of milk. She got up, reaching into her refrigerator for milk. She bit her lip as she saw that she had enough for only half a glass of milk. She would have to buy it again this week at the market.
It was odd—the only time she had drank more than one glass of milk was when her parents died. She had been in grief—the ones who had always played with her, taught her, laughed with her. They were gone, and they were never coming back. It hit her like a bunch of rocks that had been hanging on a piece of thin string. Reality was a bitch.
She sighed in relief as she finished her half glass of milk. She gave a small smile of content as she dropped the glass in the sink, and walked over to her bedroom. Going back to bed, she couldn't help but feel that something bad was going to happen. Her sudden desire for milk a while ago had been ominous—she was going to lose something important to her.
What she was going to lose, she had no idea.
The thought haunted her ever so quietly in her dreams.
Reviewers(;
foxflyer ll xmarachanx ll SnowCharms ll FrozenVoices ll Gaara- aishiteru ll HPMagicLuvr ll naruto watching freak ll Lyris88 ll CatxRock07 ll missy4eva ll Tenten2295 ll chigirisasaki ll . ll Musical Demon Obsessed Girl88 ll MissBrown22241 ll .debi.09.
Yay, I got this one out before school started! School starts tomorrow, by the way): Okay, so some reviewers asked a few questions, so I'll answer them here, if anyone else wonders the same questions, too.
What does Tenten have to do with Ami's parents being dead?
That will be answered later on in the story, most likely when Hinata and the others find out what Tenten's hiding. She'll have to tell them everything, including her past, so it's likely that I'll explain what she has to do with Ami's parents.
Why doesn't Neji know that Sakura is coming back?
He doesn't know because the others won't tell him. Cruel of them (and me, since I made it that way), but they have their reasons for it. They don't want him to be distracted from the present, and they don't want him to be stuck on the past.
Is Ami Tenten's friend Ayama talking about?
I thought it was pretty obvious that she was, but since it seems not to be, yes, Ami is Tenten's friend Ayama is talking about. But if you guys didn't know, Ayama didn't mean friend as in friend, but meant friend as in the sarcastic friend, meaning that they're not really friends. …Hopefully you guys know what I'm trying to say d:
Why would Tenten feel guilty of liking Neji when it was Sakura who left him in the first place?
She knows that there's more to Sakura leaving Neji on purpose, and she feels that if they (Neji and Tenten) do get together, and Sakura comes back, she'll feel insecure, not knowing whether Neji's distracted by Sakura or not. After all, he still doesn't know that Sakura is coming back and Tenten never found out if he was over Sakura, like really over her.
Yeah, that's all the questions d: If you have anymore questions I'll be glad to answer them in the next chapter! :D Well, now you know one of the little 'twists' that I put in there. And if you forgot, Misaki is Kairi's brother. Just a heads up; since I haven't included him in some of the recent chapters.
This chapter's title is Secret World by KARA. Korean group again, sorry d:
Review(; (andthankyou!,ifyoudo)