As always, Naruto belongs to Kishimoto.
"Congratulations, Neji! You've ascended on the fiery wings of youth. You are burning a path forward, to the future!"
"Gai-sensei," Tenten said before he could expound further on Neji's youthfulness, "he's been promoted not turned into a god."
"Every achievement should be celebrated to the fullest measure of a man's heart, no matter how big or small!"
Neji offered an awkward smile. "No, really, you don't have to make a big fuss about it."
"Nonsense! Tonight I'll treat everyone to dinner so we can celebrate proudly. Isn't that right, Lee?"
On cue, Lee snapped into his signature thumbs up pose. "Yes, Gai-sensei! Even though I want to become jounin as well, I will honor Neji's accomplishment with all my heart."
Neji hunched his shoulders in a vain attempt to hide away from his teammates. "With all his heart" and "celebrate proudly" translated to screaming proclamations and hugging . . . so much hugging. Neji truly wanted to enjoy his promotion to jounin with his team, but with a bit less enthusiasm, perhaps. Beside him, Tenten rested a hand on his shoulder and smiled a sweet, rueful expression to make up for the others. Neji found himself grinning back at her.
"I wasn't trying to make light of it earlier," she said, while Lee and Gai exchanged tearful, manly embraces. "You deserve the promotion. Congratulations."
Before Neji could thank her, Gai and Lee separated with a resounding "Yosh" echoing across the training field, though since the acoustics weren't proper for that, Neji assumed one of them was off their usual unison. Neji blinked and shook out his head to clear away the vision of the sky changing color behind his posing instructor. He'd come to the decision that Gai naturally leaked chakra and that was the cause of the visual disturbances that sometimes plagued the green-clad man.
"Everyone! Time to celebrate!" Gai said, taking the lead to the restaurant district with Lee beside him.
Neji and Tenten followed several feet behind, which suited Neji. After a couple minutes of content silence (between them at least—it was never fully silent with their team), Tenten looked up. "Gai-sensei is giving you dinner, and Lee no doubt will have something appropriately rival-worthy to give you, but I don't have anything for you. I was thinking of having Dad make you a new shuriken set, but I always end up giving weapons and being promoted to jounin is special. Is there anything you want?"
Neji lifted his head as if to consider her question. There was something he wanted, though he didn't want to seem too eager in the asking. After an appropriate time, Neji nodded. "How about dinner?"
"Gai-sensei's giving you dinner."
"I don't want dinner with Gai. I want dinner with you. Just you." Neji turned to look her in the eyes. "I'm asking you for a date."
Tenten stopped walking, forcing him to do so as well. Conflict fettered her gaze, the same conflict he'd caught hints of before, the same conflict that had kept him from asking the question long ago. "Are you sure?"
"I am." It was a question Neji had been asking himself a lot since he learned he was being considered for promotion.
There were teams who stayed together for years, as theirs had so far, but there were far more who disbanded once they'd all made chuunin. Becoming jounin made him the same rank as Gai, and given the high skill that all four of them exhibited, he began to wonder how long their usefulness as a team outweighed how useful they could be separated. It was all a matter of time before they received separate assignments, and though Neji hoped that would be far from the present, he didn't want to ignore what was happening between him and Tenten and risk missing out on it entirely.
Lee called back, having noticed their lagging. "Neji! Tenten! Hurry up! We're going to race."
The two listened to Lee's "three, two, one" countdown, and while Neji tended to have too big of an ego to wholly dismiss Lee's challenges, this time they ignored it.
"So?" Neji said.
Tenten retrieved a senbon from her pack and began twirling it between her fingers as she thought. It was a nervous habit, the need to have something in her hands, which to Neji said she was feeling a bit out of control of the situation. He had blindsided her with the request. Since the shampoo incident, neither of them had spoken of their attraction.
"What if it doesn't go well?" she finally said.
He had wondered that himself many times. "We'll at least have been brave enough to try. And I want to try."
After a moment long enough to make him question whether this had been a good idea or not, Tenten nodded. "Okay, on one condition."
Neji wasn't one to physically fidget the way Hinata and Tenten did, but when she said that, he wished he did. It would have been easier to let out the nervous energy her words created. Forcing the feeling down, Neji grinned. "Putting a condition on a present?"
"Just one," Tenten said, smiling again. "If it doesn't go well, we let it go and just be friends. I don't want to lose the way we are now, and I definitely don't want it to be awkward and have Gai-sensei trying to figure out what's wrong. Do you want to explain that?"
"Absolutely not." Neji shuddered. If there was even a hint of romantic intentions that Gai or Lee could actually catch on to, neither of them would ever hear the end of it. There was enough springtime and youth in their team without the metaphors actually applying to them.
Still, her caveat hurt a little, perhaps his pride more than his feelings. He'd worried about how their friendship would change no matter how the date turned out—it was why he'd waited so long despite knowing something was between them—but he'd always ended up on the hopeful side. To have her prepare for failure was a bit disheartening, though not impractical.
"All right, if it doesn't go well, we forget about it." If it went bad enough to shut down any attempt at dating, he'd probably want to forget it anyway.
Putting her senbon away, Tenten started walking in the direction that Lee and Gai had disappeared. "Then I guess it's a date."
Thus Neji braved the penetrating aroma of flowers that overpowered the Yamanaka's Flower Shop, and the ensuing jibes from its young, gossipy counter girl. He'd wanted to keep the date quiet until he and Tenten knew for certain what they intended to do, but it wasn't easy to brush off the truth from Ino while dressed up and buying flowers, and anyone with half a brain could deduce the likeliest girl he was meeting. No doubt all their shared acquaintances would soon know, though, maybe it might not get to Lee and Gai. He could hope.
In the shop, Neji wasn't skilled enough to distinguish between the multitude of different scents. Roses, lilies, tulips, they had all merged together into one thick floral assault on his olfactory sense. But now that he was in the fresh air, the white and pink lilies he carried had a pleasant, earthy scent.
It felt odd to have them, but that was what guys did on dates. Guys dressed nice and bought flowers. So he did. He wasn't as properly dressed as a Hyuuga could get. He had formal wear that was only brought out for special guests, the kind of expensive fabric that felt like water over his skin and was hand stitched so that even the thread became an accent to the outfit, but that was too much for a date. He settled for a black and gray yukata, though if they did continue dating he might need to invest in a nice pair of pants.
When Neji reached Tenten's house, his hand didn't readily raise to knock. He had no problem facing off against an entire squadron of enemies, but a red, wood door intimidated him. Not the door, but person behind it and what it would mean when they met tonight . . . or what it might not mean.
Before he had a chance to work through his trepidation, the door opened. Neji smiled. Tenten cared enough to maintain her appearance, but she preferred practicality to vanity day to day. Tonight, she was radiant. Her normal mission gear was replaced with a knee-length dress that clung to her woman's figure like a second skin. Black swans flew up from her knees to her neck against a sea of blue. He'd never seen her wear a dress before, he realized. A skirt once, to a funeral, nothing like this. But what made Neji smile, what drew his eyes away from a silhouette usually muted by necessity, was her hair.
"You left it down," he said, a poor greeting.
"I said I would, didn't I? I'm just a bit late." She tucked the loose strands behind her ear. It was mostly straight, but slight wave made it shorter than it should be. Neji wondered if that was natural.
"You're beautiful." Neji groaned inside. Did he really just blurt that out? He did, and it was out there now, and they were standing in silence. Neji held out the flowers to her. "These are for you. I don't really know if they mean anything. Ino picked them out. They smell nice."
Neji was glad when she took them if only to divert her attention away from his fumbling tongue. He never had problems talking to Tenten before.
"Thanks." Tenten sniffed the small bouquet. "They do smell nice."
Silence.
"That's it. Mom, I know you're listening, put those in water!" she said, dropping the flowers on a small table near the door and closing it behind her. "Let's go before this gets any weirder."
"Oh, thank God, yes." Neji had never been so happy to have a gift discarded. Perhaps flowers had been a bad idea. It wasn't like it was their first meeting. He made a note to never buy flowers again.
"So, where do you want to go?" Tenten asked as they walked down the street, and though they were dressed up, it finally felt like normal again.
"I made reservations at Hakuchou." It was his father's suggestion, since Neji had no idea where to take a girl out on a date. He might have been older, but considering Neji had a one-year-old brother, Hizashi must have some romance left in him. And Neji really didn't want to ask Isamu and Osamu. Not yet at least.
"That place is pretty expensive, isn't it?" Tenten opened her blue purse and started counting. "I don't think I can afford it."
"Don't worry, I'll pay." That was part of dating, too. Guys were supposed to pay. He was certain that was customary.
Tenten's brow crinkled together and a slight frown formed. "I thought I was treating you for your promotion."
"I thought the date was my present."
"You said dinner. It was supposed to be my gift. I would have gone out with you whether or not you were jounin."
Neji stood off against Tenten, her cheeks flushed above a steady grimace. He returned her grimace with a scowl of his own, though he looked away at her last comment. Neji had a plan for this night; Neji liked plans. It kept him focused on what needed to happen, and maybe his notions of a date were traditional or stereotypical, but he had no other basis to work from. He wanted this night to go well, so the plan was important.
The plan was not going well.
"Do you want to go somewhere else?" he asked. Perhaps things would have gone better if he'd included her in the planning.
Tenten sighed. When she answered, her voice yielded any fight. "No, Hakuchou is fine. I'll just have to think of something else to give you."
Silence.
As they neared the restaurant district, Neji was acutely aware of the other couples walking the streets with them. There were families and friends as well, mingling the café fronts and street stands, but all Neji could see were the couples. Touching. All of them touching. Holding hands. Arms wrapped around each other. Hugs or kisses stolen in the shadows. Neji wasn't against touching. With the right people in the right way he thoroughly enjoyed it, but in public with the intent to display affection. . . . Why was it necessary to physically prove your couplehood to the entire world?
But Neji wanted this to go well, which it wasn't so far. If that was how he was supposed to act, so be it. He took her hand. Fast and strong, like striking an enemy. It was warm, a bit clammy. Calluses hardened her fingertips and circled the center of her palm, a weapons master's hand. His finger found a long, smooth indent on the side of her hand. One of the few times they hadn't been able to get to a med-nin in time to prevent the scar. He remembered bandaging her hand. Bandaging was far easier than holding.
"Are you afraid I'm going to run away?" Tenten said.
"What?"
"As firm a grip you have, I'm pretty sure you think I'm about to run away."
Neji let go of her hand and kept his gaze firmly ahead of him as the heat rose in his face. "I'm not very good at this."
Tenten laughed, a much more relaxed sound than the earlier tension. "You'd be doing great if I'd never met you and you were trying to impress me. The flowers, the fancy dinner, the 'I'm never going to let you go' death grip. But I know you too well, Hyuuga Neji. It's hard to be impressed by those things when I know the whiney sound your voice gets after three days of sweating through your clothes and no bath in sight."
A wry grin grew in place of his scowl. "Oh, and that hair is supposed to be so impressive, I'm sure, except I know you never wear it that way, and if you brush it, it will all frizz out around your head."
"I know that you have a huge sister complex, and I'm betting you'll have a brother one too once Shou gets older."
Neji smirked. "I know that no matter how tight that dress is, you're armed somewhere on your body right now."
Tenten gasped at Neji with mock shock, then, as fast as she could cram the words together so no one else would hear, "You'rejealousofLeeandGaisensei'srelationship."
Neji's eyes widened. "Take that back."
Tenten wrapped her arms around her chest and hugged herself. "You want to bond with them and run off to experience the springtime of your youth until night turns to day and everyone is hallucinating around you."
Neji tolerated plenty of friendly jabs from Tenten, but that was pushing it too far. "I do not."
"No," she said, struggling to breathe between her laughter, "but you do wish you had that kind of relationship with Gai-sensei. Not the enthusiasm, but that closeness and understanding, like Hinata has with Kurenai-sensei or Shikamaru with Asuma-sensei. You're jealous that Lee has that and you don't."
That was harder to dispute, because it was true. It took a while before he'd learned to respect Gai, and by the time he did, he wanted nothing to do with the overtly emotional requirements of being close to him. He still longed for that mentorship, though. To have someone outside the family that could understand you and teach you. He learned from Gai and he trusted and depended on Gai, but that wasn't the same thing. Something was missing from Neji's relationship that Lee's had.
He turned back to Tenten, her giggling subdued. "I know you give weapons as gifts because you want to make sure the people you care about have the very best to keep them alive."
"I told you, we know each other too well." Tenten stared at the ground, a faraway expression in her eyes and a smile, kissed by moonlight, on her lips.
Silence.
Hakuchou loomed before them, twice the size of the other restaurants in the area. With clean, sloped roofs and perfect red paint, it stood before them like a queen among paupers, and a young woman in a pale pink kimono welcomed them at the door. Tenten stepped closer to Neji as they made their way through the dimly lit halls, though he wasn't sure if it was by choice or sheer intimidation of the place. Each table was its own room, separated by shouji walls and lit by candlelight. Unlike the other restaurants in the area, this one felt still, quiet. Maybe he should have asked the twins for help instead.
Inside their room was a low black table, wood shined with lacquer, and cushions on tatami mats. It didn't exactly invite attempts at closeness; in private, he would have been more inclined to try. The lady in the pink kimono waited until they removed their shoes and both sat on opposite sides of the table—Tenten struggled to find a comfortable position that didn't hike the dress up to indecency—before taking their drink order and leaving.
Silence.
A new woman, older in a forest green kimono with autumn leaves blowing across the bottom hem, brought them their tea and the first course of their meal, a small hiyayakko. Tofu to Neji always depended on what it was paired with, and the tang of ginger and soy sauce lingered in the air as she set the plates down. Once alone, Neji waited for Tenten to begin first. She never did.
"Is something wrong with your food?" he asked.
"No, it's perfect. So perfect I'm afraid to eat it." Tenten looked down at her plate, then around the room, searching for something.
He didn't like what he was reading in her body language: her lips thinned, not frowning outright, but Neji found no happiness in it; her hand tensed around her chopsticks; her breaths shallow. "Maybe this was too much for a first date. If you're not comfortable here, we can go somewhere else."
She was quiet for a moment, then her shoulders slumped and she set her chopsticks down. "It's not the restaurant. It's this—us. You're my best friend and I feel like I'm sitting next to a stranger."
"I'll admit it hasn't exactly gone as I planned . . ." Neji wasn't sure how to finish that sentence.
"Neji," she said, voice lower than her usual child-like pitch. "I expected some weirdness, but if this was going to work, it would have by now. We've barely talked since you came by my house and I still have no idea what to say to you."
"It's early. It's not like we became friends overnight."
"No, it took years to get where we are, and I'm . . ." Tenten lowered her gaze to the black table. "I no longer think it's worth it to risk that. I don't want this awkwardness to be what we are from now on. You mean too much to me."
"Tenten," Neji said, but the plead was weak even to his ears. He didn't want to lose the closeness between them either, but he wasn't ready to give up yet. Fear wasn't something he was willing to submit to, not when it came to her.
She set her hands on the table and pushed herself up. "I'm going home. I'm going to take off this ridiculous dress. And I'm going to bed to forget we ever tried this."
Neji scrambled to get up, knocking the table in the process and spilling their drinks to pool over the smooth black table. "Wait."
"This isn't us, Neji. I'm not going to keep pretending it is."
She was right. This wasn't them. None of it was. The outfits, the dinner, the uncomfortable silence that had pervaded the evening. The only time anything felt right was when they were teasing each other on the way to the restaurant, short lived as it was. They knew each other too well to keep up these foolish pretenses and the last thing they needed or could do was impress each other in any traditional way.
"Wait." Neji grabbed her arm to stop her from leaving. "You're right. We've done this all wrong, but before we call it off, let's try one last thing. If we're still stuck like this afterwards, then I'll agree it didn't work and we'll go back to just being friends."
Tenten stood her ground, but, after a silence that seemed to drag on like the quiet preceding battle, she finally nodded. In her eyes was hidden the wary hope she wasn't willing to give voice to.
Laying down enough money for the meal they never touched, Neji led Tenten out of the elegant building. Once in the street, he took her hand and started to run.
Tenten stumbled behind him, though not enough to wholly lose her balance. "Slow down. I don't have the same stride in this dress."
"What?" Neji smirked, arrogance seeping from the expression. "Can't keep up?"
The awkwardness, the hesitation, the clumsy attempts to fulfill a stereotype of modest attraction melted away under the playful taunt. Tenten unbuttoned two of the cloth button hooks along her chest, which Neji had assumed were decorative, and pulled a small scroll no longer than her fingers from between her breasts before restoring the dress proper. She unraveled the small scroll and summoned a bo staff.
Neji laughed. "I knew you were armed."
The smile on her face said more than any words could. Pulling out of his grip, Tenten leveraged the staff against the ground and leapt up to the roofs above. She might not have had the same range of motion to get a proper jump in that dress, but the staff propelled her further than normal.
"Can you keep up?" she heckled from above.
"To the top of the Hokage Monument!"
"I'll be waiting." Tenten disappeared along the rooftops with only a fading thump of the wooden staff for Neji to follow.
This was them. They challenged each other, pushed each other. Just because they wanted more than friendship didn't take away the relationship that had built between them and place them into a neat little box called dating. They didn't need a first date; they were long past that.
Neji hurried to the top of the monument. It felt a bit blasphemous to run up the side of Sandaime's face, but he wasn't about to lose for a little sentiment. At the top was silence.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Neji listened to the pounding of wood against stone growing louder until Tenten's silhouette blocked the light from the moon above, a hawk in the night. She landed with all the skill and grace befit a shinobi.
"I win," he said.
Tenten bowed low with an exaggerated eye roll. "I'm so impressed you beat me with a full stride and flat shoes. We should force Lee to train in this dress and make him even faster."
Neji laughed and waved her over. "I'm not sure Lee needs to be any faster."
"What are we doing up here anyway?"
He motioned for her to wait and picked up a handful of loose rocks from the ground. His gaze passed over the village below, like a play town built to amuse them. Tiny people walking through circles of orange light enjoying their peaceful night. In the distance was a small wooden sign above a shop door, the old kind that hung on chains and swung in the wind.
Neji took one of the rocks and handed it to Tenten. "The sign four streets down. Think you can hit it?"
"You're questioning my aim?" Tenten almost sounded insulted.
"Never," Neji said. "Just curious."
Tenten set her staff aside and plucked the stone from his hand, tossing it into the air a couple times. The motion was smooth, trained. She didn't need to see the stone to know where it was in the air and to catch it. Neji smiled. She was in her element and that made her far more beautiful to him than the sleek dress did.
A flick of her wrist sent the rock soaring through the air. It ricocheted off a roof two buildings down and redirected straight for the sign, which swung back and forth from the impact. A smug expression brightened her face.
Neji rolled a rock between his fingers. "My turn, pick."
"So this is what you're calling a date?"
"It's a lot more fun than a stuffy dinner."
Tenten eyed him, then the village before. "I suppose it is." Carefully, so as not to soil the dress too badly, Tenten sat on the edge of the cliff, her legs dangling over Sandaime's forehead. "Okay, land it inside the bucket next to the takoyaki stand."
Neji sat down beside her, closer than he would when they were together with their team. The target wasn't difficult, but a towel covered half of its opening, which made the shot tricky. He aimed for the wood beam next to the bucket and threw. The stone hit the beam and dropped, landing on the towel instead of the bucket.
"So close," Tenten said.
Neji aimed a second stone the same way and threw. Like the first, it landed on the towel, but the extra weight dragged the cloth down into the bucket. Neji smirked.
"Cheater."
Time to up the ante. "Your turn. The door of the house at that crossroads, but you can't look."
"A challenge, finally." Tenten examined her target like it was an enemy hidden in the trees and closed her eyes.
Neji turned her chin so that she faced him. "No peeking."
Her eyes opened again, cheeks flushing the longer his hand lingered on her skin. "You're cheating again."
"Only if you can't handle a little distraction."
Neji leaned in and kissed her. A simple action to test, to see what was friendship and what was more. With his lips against hers, he felt so much more.
Tenten shifted and Neji moved back in time to see the rock hit the door at the crossroads. She smiled. "Maybe you should be more distracting."
Neji placed his hand on hers. Unlike his earlier attempt at holding her hand, this was gentle, natural.
He leaned in again.
Silence.
