Notes: An offering unto the Nejiten altar! I have been informed that April is Nejiten month, so I decided to write five oneshots for each letter of the word "April". This is the first, "Apologies"

Next up are "Predators", "Ruled", "Instinct", and "Lullaby".


Neji had been in an excellent mood the night before. He had politely thanked the servants, had smiled at Hanabi when she told them about her day ("And then I beat Konohamaru into a thin smear!"), had made pleasant and easy conversation with people at the dinner table. His eyes had been bright and cheerful. He had glanced at the clock once, which - for a Hyuuga - was the body-language equivalent of bouncing excitedly.

It was obvious he'd had plans to "sleep over" at his girlfriend's apartment. Hiashi and Hinata had even managed to keep straight faces when Neji told them earnestly that he and Tenten had a mission the next day, so they were making arrangements to leave early….

Which was why Hinata was surprised to see Neji returning to the Hyuuga compound the next afternoon, face downcast and smelling slightly of smoke.

"N-Neji-niisan? What happened?"

Neji just gave her a mournful look and trudged into his room.


The next day, the "Rookie 12" (a name that had stuck despite its inaccuracy) met up at Choji's favorite yakiniku place. Neji and Hinata, who arrived together, were slightly late due to Hyuuga clan meetings. Lee was absent due to a training trip with his beloved Gai-sensei, but everyone else was already seated; however, there were empty places next to Tenten and Kiba, obviously left there by their teammates.

Neji perked up visibly when he saw the empty space next to his girlfriend, hurrying to her side. He wilted again when she simply gave him a cool look, returning to study her menu without greeting him at all.

After their orders had been given, Tenten excused herself to go to the bathroom. Immediately, Ino, Sakura, Kiba and Naruto pounced on the hapless Neji. (Hinata did not, but did admit she was not above taking advantage of her braver peers to find out what the hell happened.)

"What did you do, Hyuuga?" Kiba began.

"Oh, automatically it's my fault," groused Neji, turning a irate look on his cousin's teammate.

"Of course it is," Ino interrupted blithely. "Tenten is a saint - a saint with the patience of two saints, having to put up with you and Lee and Gai. And you're an asshole. Everyone knows that. So it must have been your fault."

Neji scowled.

"I…"

"It is his fault," Tenten interrupted, having returned unnoticed. "And he is an asshole. Thank you, Ino."

"What happened?" Naruto and Sakura demanded in unison, the rest of the table hanging on the answer.

"This jerk," Tenten announced, "…rearranged my spice cabinet."

There was a blank silence all around, except for Naruto's gasped "He didn't."

"He did!" Tenten reaffirmed, nodding sharply and glaring at Neji, who tried to look apologetic.

"I did," Neji admitted. "I was trying to help! Honestly, I was. I thought it would be helpful if I arranged the spices by color…they were just askew all over the counter…"

"Because I was cooking! Cooking a meal for me and you!" Tenten retorted. "And arranging them by color, honestly…I told you to leave them alone, I had a system!"

"Hyuugas and their thing about arranging things by visual category," muttered Kiba to Shino, who gave him a sympathetic nod.

"Arranging them by color leads to stupid inefficiencies like putting turmeric and coriander and curry next to each other, when ideally you'd want a three-jar spacing between them to make sure you always keep the flavors distinct when you're cooking, and don't add them one after the other. Or, what if you put garlic salt and dried garlic next each other, and it leads you to making substitutions?!" ranted Naruto. "What about cream of tartar and onion powder?"

Tenten sniffled. "You - you understand my struggle." She leaned forward and seized Naruto's hands in hers.

Two Hyuuga cousins suddenly stiffened and glared uneasily at the clasped hands.

"Of course I do, Tenten!" Naruto assured her. "I have to cook for myself too."

"And then he, he…." Tenten continued, assured of a sympathetic audience. "He put the star anise and the black pepper in the back!"

"No," Naruto gasped.

"They were darker colors!" Neji protested. He wished Naruto would stop dramatically agreeing with Tenten.

"But they were spices I used a lot, Neji," Tenten told him. "It's not efficient for me to have to dig out the first row of spices every time I want to use them."

The rest of the table sat with heads swiveling to follow the conversation, like they were at a match.

"Oh," Tenten mentioned, as if an afterthought. "He also decided to go a step further by tucking in any little jars he found that would fit in the spice cabinet. So he put in the little jars of explosive powder I had been working on. As I was cooking, the heat set them off and my kitchen exploded."

There was a profound silence.

Neji tried to use puppy dog eyes, but the effect was more frightening than anything.

Hinata suddenly spoke up. "Neji-niisan, you….you brute." She turned to Tenten and seized her hands - grabbing them away from Naruto in the process. "Let us make it up to you. Why don't you stay at our compound for a while? Neji will arrange for contractors to fix your kitchen - at his expense, of course."

Neji blinked. "Uh…." He caught Hinata's eye and winced. "Yes. Yes, that is what I will do. I'm sorry, Tenten. Let me make it up to you."

Tenten looked from one Hyuuga cousin to another - then abruptly broke into a smile. "Actually, I just wanted him to apologize. But sure, I would like that."


Tenten's stay at the Hyuuga compound was a raging success. (Perhaps too much of one, in Neji's opinion - his male cousins were a bit too welcoming.) It was so much a success that Neji tried to convince her to simply move in with him.

But that's another story.