For the sake of the plot, I'm ignoring the existence of social media hehe I'm going to start hinting other pairs as well.
I apologize for grammar erros in advance.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
New ally
Tenten now knew whay she was so moody last week. Rolling on her bed, she clutched her belly, feeling like someone was stabbing her uterus from inside. The medication would take some time to ease her pain, but the worst part was that she needed to get up and go to class. She just hoped that it wouldn't be so bad this month.
Dragging herself out of the warmth of her bed, the pain increased, and she cursed. She would rather spend all day doing a crazy training with Guy sensei, or being the end receiving of Neji's mortal serves than having menstrual cramps. With great struggle she bound her torso and chest, and put on the uniform, her tie the same mess as always, but hey, no one really cared much about that.
She wouldn't go to the cafeteria, fearing that if she ate something she would need to rush to the bathroom right after, so she went straight to her classroom.
"How are you doing today, Tenshi-kun!" She really liked Lee, but she didn't want any loudness by her side right now, and for her dismay Lee found her halfway through the classroom trajectory.
"Hey Lee" she managed to greet him with a week smile.
"Are you feeling ok? You are a little pale..." Lee's examined her a little closer. She dismissed him with her hand.
"I'm fine, just ate something bad I think" she invented, it would come in handy if she needed to go rushing to the bathroom, something she felt she would need to do soon.
"Ohh, I know how you feel!" Unless you're also a woman, then no, you don't, "once I ate ten plates of spicy curry, then I finished with a plate of ice cream. Afterwards I had so much stomachache that I spent a whole day in the bathroom. That ice cream surely was expired!" Somehow, Tenten was sure that it wasn't the ice cream that gave Lee stomachache.
Just nodding and giving another weak smile, they went inside their classroom. Lee kept chatting happily while they went for their seat, but Tenten stopped halfway, alarm bells in her head. She needed to go, she needed to go now. Quickly apologizing to Lee, she rushed out of the classroom and went for her room. Today she would miss class, she didn't care, she would get the notes from Lee later.
…
"What happened?" Neji asked Lee after Tenshi rushed out of the classroom.
"Stomach pain, he said he ate something bad apparently" Lee told him, face filled with empathy. Neji just nodded and said nothing more.
Classes went by, and when was time for lunch, still no sign of Tenshi. By the end of the day, the boy was nowhere to be seen.
Worried?
Why would I be?
Dunno, but you kept thinking on where he could be and looking out for him
Nonsense
Yeah right
Hn
"I wonder if Tenshi-kun is alright" Lee commented while they walked back to their dorm after practice, "I know! I'll o cheer him up and lend him my class notes!" He pumped his fist into the air.
"Your notes?" Lee was a good, hardworking student, but it was easier to understand quantum physics than his notes.
"Yes, so he won't fall behind on classes! I just need to know where he is though"
"Probably in his room" Neji said nonchalantly. Lee eyes shined.
"Why haven't I thought about this before! I shall go now!" Lee was about to go when Neji grabbed the boys shoulder. He looked at Neji confused, while Neji seemed as confused as him. Clearing his throat, Neji let go of Lee's shoulder.
"Take my notes, it will be better for him" was all that he said, reaching his notes in his backpack. Lee blinked at him.
"Ok" he took the notes from Neji, giving him a flashy smile. Neji just grunted and walked away.
Finding Tenshi's room wasn't that hard, he just asked Tsunada-sama, who told him in exchange for him to stop pestering her. And for his luck, the door was unlocked! Going inside and closing the door silently, Lee was surprised to find someone on the bed.
Tenten was finally feeling better, deciding that she would have a deserved rest after spending the day agonizing in pain. She was surprised however, when her door was almost kicked open, then slammed closed. For her utmost horror, it was Lee. To make things worse, she was on her pajamas, hair down. They made eye contact, and after a minute of intense staring, Lee opened his mouth.
"I'm sorry, I thought this was the room of my friend" he bowed, opened the door and closed it again. Tenten blinked, unsure of what just happened.
Not even a minute later, Lee barged in again. After another staring contest, Lee was the one to speak again.
"What in the youthful name of Guy sensei is going on in here" in Lee's language it was like 'what the hell?'. "You are-" His eyes were wide.
Tenten, in her now panicked state, rushed to Lee's side, ignoring her outfit, and put a hand on his mouth, stopping whatever he was going to say.
"I can explain" she started, "I wanted to play in a top volleyball team, so I'm using the name of my twin brother and got in here masquerading as a boy so I would be able to play in here and then go to nationals and show how a woman can play as well as a man, so please don't eat me out." she rambled, explaining in a rush, hoping that the boy would understand.
Lee blinked, processing what she just said. Tenten released the poor boy, who still looked at her confused.
"What!?" Lee's jaw dropped, "I was going to ask if you were his girlfriend, but you ARE Tenshi-kun!?" At this Tenten wondered how oblivious Lee could be at some times, and also wanted to slap herself. She just confessed without the need to.
"Well, you see... yes, I am" she admitted, defeated.
"And you are cosplaying as your brother?" If you put it that way…
"Yes, my twin"
"Just to play volleyball?"
"Exactly"
"And prove a point that girls can play as well as a man?"
"That's right"
"That's... that's... I'm so proud of you!" Huh? Lee was hugging her, tears streaming down his cheeks, "you're going so far to prove your point, challenging everything and yourself, that's so youthful!" Tenten blinked, trying to get out of Lee's tight hug.
"You won't rat me out?" She wanted to be sure, and get out of Lee's bear hug, desperately. She was feeling better already from the pain, but the shaking around would make her get worse again.
"Of course not! And if you need any help, just count on me!" He let go of her, giving her his signature thumbs up and blinding smile, tears still streaming down his cheeks. Tenten sighed in relief.
"Thank you, Lee" she smiled at him.
"So, you have a twin brother?" He asked curiously.
"Yeah" going over her bed to pick her phone, she searched a photo. Finding a photo where it was her, Tenshi and Julio, she showed it to Lee, "this is Tenshi my twin, this is me, I'm Tenten by the way, and this is Julio, our butler" she pointed to each one.
"Your faces are identical! Aside from other things, you two sure are twins!" Lee grinned, "How fancy to have a butler, where are your parents though?" He asked innocently. Tenten shifted a little, but decided that it was fair explaining her family to him.
"They died when I was five, airplane accident. So since then, it is just us three" Lee's face dropped immediately.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to" Lee started to apologize, she dismissed it.
"Don't worry, it's fine, really. I miss them and all, but it has been so long since then that it is alright" she assured him, and he nodded. Then, she realized her state, in her pajamas. "Lee, can you excuse me for a minute?" He looked at her confused, and she thanked God that he didn't notice her attire at the moment.
Rushing into the bathroom, she put on some more decent clothes and her hair up in her twin buns, something she dearly missed. Returning to her room, she found Lee doing sit ups while waiting.
"What brought you here anyway?" She asked him, seating on the chair by the desk.
"Oh, right! I wanted to check on how you were doing and give you today's class notes" he reached for his backpack. "By the way, how is your stomachache?"
"About that… I was actually having cramps" Tenten chuckled sheepishly, "and thank you for the notes!" She smiled brightly at him, he smiled sheepishly.
"The notes are from Neji though"
"What? He lent me his notes?" She was surprised to say the least.
"Well, I was going to lend you mine, but he said it was better to hand you his" she would need to thank him later, because, for what she helped Lee with, she could see that his notes were... complicated.
"Well, thank him for me" she smiled, taking the papers from Lee's hand.
They chatted for a while, Tenten explaining her plan and telling stories about her and her brother. After two hours, Lee bid his goodbye, going back to his dorm.
Arriving at his dorm, he met with Neji, who was reading his book, again. Trying to not catch the other mans attention, Lee slipped quietly into the bathroom.
"How is he?" Neji suddenly asked, startling Lee.
"He? Who? Ah Tenshi, the man! He's good, just had some cramps - I MEAN, stomach cramps, stomachache from eating bad food, like, spoiled food and you know..." Neji raised an eyebrow at his friend odd behavior but said nothing about it.
"Hn, you stayed until now in his room?"
"Yeah, I mean, we talked a lot, you know, man stuff" Lee was panicking with his roommate question, and Neji knew he was hiding something.
"Spill it" he commanded, Lee gulped.
"I - I - I" Lee was frantically trying to think on something, Neji's sharp eyes on him making it hard. Gulping, Lee took a deep breath, "I HAPPEN TO HAVE SPIED ON SAKURA-SAN AND I'M DEEPLY ASHAMED OF MYSELF. AS A PUNISHMENT I SHALL RUN FIFTY MILES RIGHT NOW!" and there went Lee. Neji blinked, Lee's face was a dark shade of crimson and he embarrassed indeed, but it was unlike him spy on a girl. Though it was Sakura, his crush for two years, so maybe his hormones got the best of him.
Deciding to let the boy alone, Neji just went back into his reading.
…
Tenten felt glad that someone knew her truth, but didn't know if Lee was a good person to know that. He kept glancing at her and giving her odd thumbs up all the time through the morning, and at lunch, he wasn't making it any better.
"Tenshi! My youthful brother!" He tapped Tenten's back while laughing awkwardly. Kiba and Naruto glanced at them but said nothing.
"Here come the girls! and Neji" Naruto told them, pointing at the group approaching them.
"Ah, the girls! The only girls in our group!" Tenten face palmed herself mentally. She was going to have a talk with Lee later.
"Hello guys" Ino cheered, sitting by a sleeping Shikamaru, slapping him awake. He muttered something about troublesome woman and picked on his food.
"Tenshi-San, how are you feeling today?" Sakura asked Tenten when she sat between her and Kiba. Hinata sat by Naruto's side while Neji sat by Hinata's side.
"I'm much better today" Tenten grinned, Sakura smiled.
"You girls should have seen Tenshi Saturday, he was awesome, made Neji and Teme kiss his ass!" Naruto chirped, earning a glare from both males and making Tenten blush slightly.
"It was nothing, you guys did the points, I just organized the team" she said, scratching the back of her head.
"But you did the last point though, you guys should have seen Neji's face, it was priceless" Kiba commented, and Tenten chuckled, remembering Neji's shocked face.
"Not to mention that you lifted the ball for us perfectly almost all the time, even when it was a tricky ball!" Lee joined in complimenting her.
"Wow! Who knew played so well! Don't get me wrong, but you are way smaller than the other members of the team" Ino told her, she smiled sheepishly.
"Size isn't all you know" Tenten said without thinking twice.
"That's depends on what we are talking about" Kiba said slyly, starting to laugh with Naruto and Choji. Sasuke's lips went a little upwards while Shikamaru didn't care much, but you could tell they were amused. Shino... well, you couldn't see much of his face since it was hidden by clothes and sunglasses. Tenten and the girls blushed madly, Sakura punching Kiba on the head. Neji stayed emotionless, but you could see a faint, almost invisible traces of pink on his cheeks.
The lunch went by, and when class ended, Tenten dragged Lee away, until they found a secure spot where no one could hear them.
"Lee, would you please just act like before?" She pleaded, going directly to the point. Lee scratched his head.
"I know, I'm sorry, is just that I was nervous... yesterday Neji almost saw through me and I panicked" she felt sorry for the boy, but thankful that he is trying his best to keep her secret.
"Look, just don't worry about it. Just treat me like before, no need to emphasize about me being a man nor anything. If something happens and I need your help covering up I'll let you know" she patted his shoulder, hoping he would cheer up. That did the trick apparently, as he was back into his usual self.
"You are right! Everything is fine so no point getting nervous! Thank you Tent-, I mean, Tenshi!" He gave her his thumbs up, "now, if you excuse me, I shall go to my training with Guy sensei!"
"Uh, sure!" Tenten sweat-dropped, they just had gym and the guy was going for more practice?
Lee vanished from there, leaving her alone in her walk back to her room. On her way back, she spotted a pink haired woman that she was familiar with. Sakura was sitting on a bench, alone, staring into nothingness.
"Hey Sakura!" She greeted the pinkette, who was startled to see her.
"Oh, hey Tenshi-San" she greeted, but looked slightly uncomfortable. Tenten raised an eyebrow at her.
"Everything's alright?"
"Oh yeah, just some thoughts here and there..." Sakura avoided eye contact, and Tenten's curious side peaked.
"Anything I can help with?" She asked, smiling gently. Sure, she just knew the girl for a week, and only saw her on lunch, but she was nice to her in general, plus, she was friends with her friends.
Sakura glanced at her, then looked away, then looked at her again, deep in thought.
"Its... ah, to hell with it, you're a guy and new around here, so maybe you can help" aside the guy thing, sure! "It's just, imagine you had a girl after you, someone you knew from childhood, and when she noticed that it was the best for her to stop chasing you because you are an icy cold bastard, and started to treat you formally, what would you do?" Well, shit.
"Uh, well, it depends. I think if I really liked said person, I would try to talk to her, see what's going on. If I don't care being treated formally, probably wouldn't mind much the change" Tenten tried. Upon seeing Sakura's pout, she tried to amend, "I mean, that never happened to me, and I think, and hope that I'm not a cold hearted bastards, so really, it depends" she laughed nervously. Sakura gave her a sad smile.
"It's ok, I guessed this answer too. And don't worry, you are not a cold hearted bastard" Sakura chuckled sadly, "I guess I really must move on, right?"
"Well, for what I get you are really intelligent and caring person. Not to mention that you are, please don't get me wrong, beautiful. So, it's his loss, whoever this icy cold bastard is" she tried to cheer Sakura up.
"I won't get it wrong, don't worry" Sakura giggled, more at ease now, and Tenten felt accomplished. "Thank you Tenshi!" She smiled and got up, "I'll be going now, see you around" Tenten waived her goodbye while Sakura walked away.
Smiling to herself, Tenten made it to her room, finally hitting the shower and then going to study. She still had to finish going through Neji's notes, and she had to admit, his notes were perfectly organized, his handwriting clean and beautiful. She felt a pang of jealousy of how well he did in everything. As far as she observed, and heard, his grades were perfect, he was also extremely athletic, his notes were neat and extremely organized, not to say that he was handsome as heck. Even his hair was better than hers!
"Too bad he has the attitude of a grumpy bird" she thought out loud, finishing going through his notes. She would give it to him the next day, hopefully he wouldn't charge her anything.
…
Her first class with him was after lunch. It was no surprise that, by the time she arrived at their classroom with Lee, he was already there. She wondered how fast he could get into classes, as they left practically at the same time after lunch and he still got there before her and Lee. Tenten made her way to him.
"Here are your notes" She stood in front of him, handing him his papers back, "Thank you by the way" Tenten murmured the last part. Neji just shrugged, picking his notes. He had stopped glaring at her, now he was only ignoring her full time, which was much better. Sitting down, she started to pick her own things for class, when he turned around, facing her.
"You passed the try outs. Practice are on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at six pm and Saturdays at eight am. Today is your first day. Be on time" Neji informed, then went back to facing forward, not waiting for her response. Tenten blinked, digesting his words. Controlling herself to not squeak, Tenten smiled widely, almost as much as one of Lee's blinding smiles. Nothing could change her good mood, not even when she got chased by some fan girls, not even when –
"Alright, you are going to work in pairs for this project, Amarai, you are with Hyuga" well, that did change her mood.
…
"It could be worse" Tenshi said on the other side of her phone, "You could have been paired up with one of your fan girls…" Tenten winced, that would definitely be worse.
"I know. Just wanted for him to stop giving me the cold shoulder so much" Tenten moaned, "But at least he stopped glaring, only ignores my existence, which by all means, I'm fine with."
"Well, that aside, congrats on making into the team! Hard work is paying off!" Tenten smiled brightly, her good mood coming back.
"Showed them who's boss" She grinned, "How's school at your end though? Are you doing ok?" Tenshi wasn't the best student, so Tenten worried a little.
"Eh, its fine, passing it is all that matters" He shrugged, not really caring about it. Tenten rolled her eyes.
"What do you even plan to do in the future?"
"Streamer" He said with a blank face, Tenten laughed.
"Good luck with that" He stuck a tongue at her, "If all goes right, I will try for an engineer maybe, I like math and physics, however, hate history, and guess what this reminded me? That I have a history project to do with that guy" She said exasperated.
"Oh well, nothing is perfect, and who knows, maybe he warms up with you"
"Really doubt that, but you are right. Send my greetings to Julio, I gotta do some homework now if I want to be on time for practice" Smiling, Tenten hang up her phone after she and him bid their farewells.
Glaring at her backpack, she got her books, still thinking about history project. It wouldn't be that hard, she hoped. They needed to research about Greek mythology and make a mini version of something related to that. As Tenshi said, it could be worse, and for a plus, Neji was smart, so it should be a no brainer for him. Without delaying any more, she started on her homework.
…
Of course she would almost lose the time, if geography wasn't so freaky hard, she wouldn't be running down the halls going for the gym. Arriving with barely two minutes to spare, she searched for any familiar face.
"You made it senpai!" Came a voice by her side. The tall and scary freshman was also there.
"Kanji! You made it too!" She greeted him, happy that he made it, "Who else passed too?"
"That other runt of our team, he is somewhere around, and one other from the other team, dunno who it is."
"Hanataro made it too, that's nice." She commented, searching for the slightly taller than her player.
"My youthful students, gather up!" They heard Guy call them. Doing what they were told, they gathered in front of Guy and Neji, who was by Guy's side, "Now, for the warm up, lets run twenty miles, then do some push ups and sit ups" By some Guy meant three hundred.
After warm up was done, Neji was the one that called them.
"I'll pass the roles of the newbies, if you have a question, save it for later, and if the role does not suit you, we will see it within practice. Kanji Tatsumi, you're middle blocker. Hanataro Yamada, you go with libero. Fuki Gideon, you go with defense specialist. Tenshi Amarai, setter" The last part he said through his teeth, but Tenten ignored, grinning at him. Neji lingered his gaze at her for a while, averting it after to the other players. "We will have basic training now, serving, spiking, receiving. Then, we will have a match, until the times up."
…
"Tenshi" after the practice was over, Neji caught up to Tenshi before he could go away. The man almost jumped by hearing his voice, making Neji smirk a little.
"Yes?"
"About history project" Neji started, and Tenshi tensed. Apparently he like being paired with him as much as Neji liked, which was close to zero, safe for the relief of not being paired with a fan girl, "Tomorrow, five pm, at the library" It would give them enough time to hygiene themselves and rest a little after gym class, even though Neji didn't need the rest, but he supposed that Tenshi could use some.
"Ok… See you tomorrow then" He said, waiving and retreating, almost making a run for the exit. Neji stared a little, then headed for the lockers.
He figured that glaring did nothing against that guy, so it was better for him to just ignore Tenshi completely. The boy wasn't bad, Neji thought, he didn't try to hit on Hinata-sama again, and was a decent guy. Wasn't loud or foul mouthed like some others, and also, he looked like he was intelligent at some point, if he even helped Lee. It was nonsense to keep wasting energy glaring at him, se he might as well just be civil.
I'm looking forward for tomorrow
Don't, it is just a group project
Exactly
Hehe
Hope y'all liked this chapter! It was kind of hard to write it, but it is alright i guess. Anyway, leave your review and tell me what you think so far! Thank you for reading, and see you next chapter.
Be safe!