When they first met
Chapter 7 : When Kankuro met Neji (part 2)
August 2018
Even if he couldn't quite remember the first time he met Neji Hyuga, Kankuro always loved telling the third time he met the stoic boy and how he was one of the few people on this earth to have pushed him over his limits.
It was about two months after the break-up, he was completely healed from his concussion and with a renewed sense of purpose. To his father's greatest joy, Kankuro realized he might want to try to get a degree, not to please his father, but because he wanted the same sense of accomplishment, he saw in his sister's and ex-girlfriend's eyes when they finally took a chance on their dreams and got it. He had always been fascinated with the idea of machines and had even made a few of his own surfing boards. He might just want to study engineering or industrial relations.
But before that, he had convened with his father a year off, traveling the world, because more than finding his passion, the brown-haired boy wanted to find love. Great and unbinding as he had witnessed, and he thought he might as well open himself to the whole wide world. He didn't know why he knew it to be accurate, but he could feel it with every bone of his body.
That this trip was the beginning of everything he had ever wanted. Years later, when catching waves with the love of his life on their 16th wedding anniversary, he'd thank his lucky stars for taking that first step towards his destiny all those years ago. He'd have a thought for Tenten, thinking she, in a way, got him on the right path.
Tenten would know only much, much later, that his first daughter's second name was hers, but his wife knew what this meant for him, and that is all that mattered. His wife understood it was a tribute to the one person who pushed him to meet her, and in a twisted way, was the reason he had a perfect daughter with the woman of his dreams: because she knew when she had to let go of him.
But this was still far from happening, and as of now, Kankuro had packed his stuff and was ready for his year-long trip around the world. With his ticket in hand, he woke up that day with a sense of excitement and carefreeness he hadn't felt in a long time.
It was late in the evening, and he was rolling his luggage through the airport when he noticed something, or rather someone.
Neji Hyuga.
And he remembered why his name was the first thing he said when he woke up from his concussion two months ago. It was because, at that moment, he had really wanted to punch the daylights out of this man. And sincerely, this was still the case right now. Kankuro being a pacifist, decided on the next best thing: to knock some sense into the guy.
"Hyuga." He called out placidly when he reached the paled-eyed man.
He turned back, his hair swaying elegantly around him. His eyes changed from feigned polite interest to hide his indifference to feigned indifference to hide his discontentment and the hint of anger colouring his lilac irises.
"Kankuro." He replied with a carefully curated tone of neutrality.
Without further ado, Kankuro snorted at him: "I honestly don't understand what she sees in you. She could do so much better."
His grin widened when he saw Neji grip's around the handle of his carry-on tighten and his jaw clench at the same time.
"Relax, Hyuga." He said with a lazy tone that could have rivaled Shikamaru's. "I'm not here to pick up a fight. I just don't get it. You have someone like Tenten, ready to love you until her dying breath and you're squandering it away. I have to understand. This boggles me to no end. Is it truly because you don't love her back?"
Neji kept a straight face. "I don't see how this is any concern of yours."
Kankuro ignored his questions. "She still loves you, you know."
Instantly every stiffened muscle in Neji's body relaxed, but guilt and sorrow quickly came to cloud his eyes.
"It will pass," Neji mumbled, not meeting the other man's eyes.
Kankuro chuckled darkly. "I used to think so too." He shrugged. "But she still does, come what may, every day of her life, she wakes up, and she chooses you. Over and over again." He gave a disbelieving half-laugh. "I don't know why she does, but she loves you, and she always did."
Neji felt like he just ate a ton of stones. Somehow, this should have made him happy, but all the guilt and the pain he had pushed away during his year abroad came back tenfold.
"During her first month in Suna," Kankuro continued. "She cried every single night in Temari's arms because she missed you so much. And you, like an asshole, you ignored her every single call and text. And even then, I couldn't understand how someone could react so poorly. Were you that enthralled in your own misery that you couldn't care less about hers? Weren't you, her best friend?
"I won't even go into the details of the mess she was in when she came back from Fu's funeral and how long it took her to get back to the resemblance of a normal state. There was not a single day she was in Suna when she didn't think of you. She didn't yearn for you." He took a pause, trying to still his heart from what he was going to say next. "There wasn't a single day when she was with me that she was not with you, at least deep buried in her mind."
"You're really a waste, you know that?" He added to the unflinching Hyuga. "I don't get it. I don't get it. I don't get it. I never will. You're not dumb, and you've known her. You've loved her."
He scrutinized Neji's features, waiting for him to deny it. "I just knew it. With the way you looked at her and the way you wanted to punch me when I put my hands around her when I was the one she was enlacing."
Kankuro watched as Neji's hands clenched into a fist. "Still want to punch me, huh?" He teased the seething man. He took a step forward, whispering next to his ear. "Don't you wonder how she would feel pressed against you sometimes? Well, I can tell you, she feels fucking amazing."
The older man smiled when he finally got a reaction out of the stoic man.
"Fuck off." Neji scowled, a warning in his voice.
Kankuro continued, in a sick way, exacting his revenge for the man that didn't seem to understand what he was squandering away. "Do you want to know how she tastes? Fucking sweet-"
He didn't have time to finish his sentence that Neji had already grabbed him by the collar, bringing his face distorted by anger one inch from his.
"I said," Neji ground out each word painfully through his clenched teeth. "Fuck.Off."
He then pushed Kankuro away and proceeded to walk in the opposite direction. People were starting to look at them funnily, and the last thing Neji wanted was to draw attention. Unfortunately, this seemed exactly like the kind of thing that someone as impulsive as Kankuro wanted because he ran up to him.
To be fair, Kankuro had never had sex with Tenten, but he sure did enjoy where Neji's mind seemed to wander. It was probably the most uncharacteristic thing he did, but he couldn't help himself. He's had it for Neji Hyuga since the first time he saw Tenten cry over him. And it still baffled him how stupid someone could be to hurt and discard a girl like her.
"If this makes you mad, just imagine what the next man in her life will do, and the next one after." Kankuro taunted, and when he saw Neji's furrowed brow, it hit him. "You didn't know?" He asked with a hint of wonder in his voice. "And here I thought the news traveled fast within your group of friends." He smiled at his puzzled expression. "We broke up two months ago."
Neji said nothing as he let the information sink, cursing himself at the slight feeling of joy that seemed to push through all his repressed emotions.
"If you think that was bad seeing her with me..." Kankuro scoffed. "Just wait until the next man. At least, I had some sort of respect for what you had. But the next one…"
Neji glared daggers at him.
"What will you do when he completely makes her forget about you? When the only thing that is going to occupy her mind is how good he feels while he's fucking her senseless-?"
The sharp pain Kankuro felt when Neji punched his nose did nothing to ease the bubbling amusement he had at watching the Hyuga struggle with his breathing. He grinned through the faint trace of blood running down his nose.
Sure, Kankuro went too far. Not with Neji, heck he didn't care a single ounce about Neji's fury. But he did feel horrible about how he was talking about Tenten. At the same time, everything he said to hurt Neji hurt him too. The rupture was still too fresh to imagine her with someone else, but he had this pervasive need to break Neji like he broke her, and indirectly, him.
He threw one last look at the fair-skinned man, letting a dry laugh escape his mouth, and picked up the things he dropped on the floor when Neji hit him. He left him distraught behind, walking toward the departures thinking to himself he'd have to call Tenten to ask for forgiveness.
Yet, there was something oddly satisfying about this encounter, and he couldn't help but feel he got something off his chest.
For the sixth time in an hour, Tenten pretended to be completely enthralled by her cellphone to avoid talking with one of the Epsilon bros.
Come to the party, Tenten. She mimicked it internally. It's going to be fun.
She exhaled one last time, trying to look as disinterested in her corner as possible so she wouldn't have to entertain another conversation with a knucklehead that probably got into university because of their parents' big money. They always had the same three questions and Tenten found she was losing her patience quickly.
"Never saw you here before, are you now?"
"It's been a year, just not much into parties."
This question always made her uneasy. What did that even mean? How much have they scanned and appraised every other girl coming to their annual back-to uni party that they could quickly tell when someone was new? Of all the parties she went to in Suna, she had never been asked this question, so maybe that is why she found it so odd.
Also, it wasn't necessarily true that Tenten wasn't into parties. She just rarely attended parties outside of med school. Their exams schedule made it so that most of the other parties came into conflict with their exams. But the Epsilon party was the event of the back-to-school season. Her group of friends in her medical program had been extremely excited that this year they didn't have intensive two-week classes with two exams at the end of it, as was the case last year, which had prevented them from attending it last year.
Even Sakura was excited about it, but hers was for a completely different reason. Since a couple of months, things had quite evolved with her situation with Sasuke, who'd finally came down from the hellhole he dug for himself in the last years, which had demanded both Naruto and Sakura to search for him in another city and drag him to a sobering facility. Now over one year sober and clean, Sasuke was finally on a straight path to what he wanted. And more than to finish his law school degree, he wanted the pink-haired beauty all to himself.
So it was with an apologetic look that Sakura left to find her not-so-secret boyfriend, who currently resided in the frat house where they partied. Tenten was now left with the few tipsy girls she came with that were outrageously flirting with some guys who were just equally inebriated.
Since coming back to Konoha last year, she had been updated that most guys of their group had been in the Epsilon fraternity. She knew Neji must have been pressured by his uncle. No doubt that Naruto being the newly-appointed mayor's son was naturally going to get recruited by this selective fraternity whose most crucial mission, outside of having the most extravagant parties, was to keep their boys' club well connected. For similar reasons, Sakura told Tenten Sasuke had an easy way in, his father being the Chief of Police and his older brother, Itachi, being president of the Konoha chapter a few years back. Kiba was also a legacy. And the boys just dragged a reluctant Shikamaru in, who had been spotted because of his remarkable IQ.
Ino had rolled her eyes at this fraternity anytime it was brought on the table.
"They're not all bad." The blonde would start by being nuanced. "But most of them are trash. Shikamaru told me they had this sick game of designing a girl per party as 'the catch.'"
"The catch?" Hinata frowned.
"Yes, like some sort of prize. They have this group chat where they share pictures of the hottest girls at a party and settle on one. Whoever ends up sleeping with said girl wins the round."
"The round?" Hinata repeated again, dumbfounded.
Ino nodded. "This is all a sick game for these douchebags. By the end of the year, they compile the scores and designate the 'Epsilon Alpha.'" Ino made a barfing motion. "It's all very gruesome, but unfortunately, for them, Sasuke got the prize two years in a row when he had just entered the fraternity."
Sakura frowned at the mention of her crush being quite the fuckboy the first two years of uni. If it was only that, she could have managed her broken heart, but what had been absolutely excruciating was seeing him waste away because of substance abuse. One time they had nearly lost him; it was Naruto who found a way to track his phone down in Oto and was able to find him just before the overdose killed him.
"But, after Sasuke's, err, year off," Ino coughed. "It was Neji who took the prize home. Well, to his defense, he had tried to abolish the whole idea when he was still with Fu but was met with too much resistance." Ino was so lost in the retelling of her story that she did not notice her friend's reactions. "And again, to his defense, Shika said Neji never approached the girls himself, but he didn't say no when they offered…" Ino trailed, suddenly realizing Temari's death glares, Sakura's 'cut it out' hand motions and Hinata's pleading look, giving sideways glances at their twin-buns-haired friend.
"Ah, shit… Sorry, Ten." Ino apologized putting a hand over the brunette's.
Tenten shrugged. "I've grown past that."
And as soon as she said it, she knew they did not believe her. So she waved her hand and added: "Better to learn it now than to just witness it myself on campus."
"In any case, Nii-san is going abroad this year." Hinata had assured her.
"Yeah, good for him," Tenten said softly.
And indeed, good for him, Tenten thought. Also, she couldn't blame him for having a sexual life. Also, knowing him, she knew he'd always been very popular with girls. It's just he never really acted on it, unlike Sasuke. She was more worried than pained because she wondered if this new behaviour with women was not an unhealthy way to cope more than anything else.
"But, the only good thing in this whole mess." Ino hurried to change the subject. "Is that they have like a 'no-touch' zone, so sisters and girlfriends are off-bets. Like both me and Temari are no-touch because of Shika - thank God, for once this lazyass had been proactive. And-"
"And that's a good thing because…?" Temari interrupted. "If anything, this seems just even more toxic."
Ino swatted the interruption away. "Oh yes, definitely. But, the only good thing to come out of this shitty thing is that this year, Naruto was the first one to call Hinata a no-touch!" The platinum blonde squealed.
"What!?" Tenten exclaimed. "Did the boobs plan work?"
"Of course, it worked." Sakura scoffed. "With the dress Temari put Hinata in at her last birthday? Naruto had no chance."
Ino nodded. "Honestly, a rare find that dress. My compliments to the chef." She kissed the tips of her fingertips.
"Thank you, thank you." Temari acknowledged. "But I have no merit, I went shopping with Gaara, and his eagle eye for fashion did all the rest. Perks of having a gay brother." She winked.
Tenten scrunched up her nose. "Gosh, I can't relate. The only thing I could shop with Lee would be sweatpants."
The girls' laughter was interrupted by Sakura. "Hinata!?" She shook her friend slightly. "Hinata?"
"Oh, no!" Ino whined. "Don't tell me she had another vagal choc because of Naruto."
Well, that was one year ago, and since then, the relationship between the exuberant blonde and the shy porcelain beauty had evolved to a dizzying speed. Once Naruto had realized the love of his life was there all along, the ever passionate man had been devoted to loving and honouring the Hyuga girl in every way. On her side, Hinata glowed with newfound confidence after finally confessing her love to her longtime crush.
It was like once they countered the initial inertia that had slowed the formation of their couple, everything fell together like a neatly played Tetris game, and the rest of their relationship evolved at an alarming speed. This whirlwind of imploding love resulted in months of infinite public display of affections which would have left anyone sickened by that much gushing and kissing, but their friends couldn't help but smile as they knew how long and difficult it was for the two to have found themselves. Well, that was until the couple's kissing became so intensely hot that whoever was among them widened their eyes in disbelief, looked away and coughing to signal their discomfort. Finally, they would decide to run somewhere safer since the couple clearly had forgotten all about their existence.
All of this happened much to Neji's discontentment, who found it very fortuitous that Naruto suddenly became so enamoured of his cousin just when he was thousands of miles away and could not properly chaperone their budding relationship.
Whatever, Neji would think. Since, anyway, Hiashi seemed to already have given them his blessing and Hanabi had been so emotionally invested in their relationship that she would have snapped Neji's neck with her bare hands had he interfered in any kind of way. Teenage Hanabi was scary.
Really, it came with no surprise when in early August, they all learned Naruto was thinking of proposing to Hinata and was only waiting for Neji to come back to Konoha to pop the question. After all, Naruto was finishing his last year of master's in political sciences and was hoping to start clerking at his father's office. Hinata was completing her double MBA, majoring in corporate finance, this year and would assist her uncle as co-president of the Hyuga Tech company.
As Tenten put it: "Naruto's a Virgo and Hinata's a Capricorn. Earth signs get shit done quickly, no kidding around."
And as Hinata so eloquently expressed it on their hebdomadary girls night: "And I really can't wait to have sex."
"Hinata!" Ino shrieked.
It was no secret the black-haired girl had been waiting until marriage to have sex, but it was unusual for her to talk about her libido so earnestly. And even more unusual was that, ordinarily, it was Ino that said something that forced out an outraged shriek from Hinata.
But Ino quickly added, eyes gleaming: "I am so proud of you, Hina!" Then she gave her friend a malicious smile. "But tell us the truth, girl, y'all rushing to get married because he knocked you up, huh?"
"Ino!" Hinata shrieked.
Sakura face-palmed and Temari shook her head in disbelief as Tenten laughed, thinking that the world was back to normal.
"So you're in med school, huh? Must be pretty smart."
Someone new had come to grip Tenten away from her reminiscing, and she groaned internally. She hated that question because most of the time, men who asked her this would try to persuade her their program was harder. And she'd have to nod at whatever nonsense they were sputtering because no one was more talkative than a man whose fragile ego was threatened. And seriously, this whole subject was at best boring, at worst a cringe-fest on one's insecurity. Obviously, every program was complex in its own way. For her, inducing a diagnosis on collected knowledge was easy, but she could never get through the dry law text Temari read by the ton or do whatever they did in accounting like Hinata so diligently succeeded in doing.
"Do you… do you have someone or…?"
And here it was, the last question of the trifecta that had composed every conversation she had had since the beginning of this party.
She suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. "No, but I'm not looking to meet anyone." She sipped her drink and looked away. She didn't intend to be mean and customarily would have been more open to discussion, but she suspected she was a pawn in their stupid game.
But it was also true that she was not yet ready to get into another relationship, not with how she still missed Kankuro and how Neji still seemed to haunt her thoughts.
Tenten was about to leave the party early before another frat bro found the courage to accost her even though she had mustered every ounce of her inner frigid bitch to keep them at bay. Alas, she was stopped in her track by a drunken Kiomi, a friend from class, who wrapped her arms around her neck.
"Tenten-chan." She whined, clearly drunk. "You're not leaving this party early, are you? We haven't seen you all summer. Come dance!"
Her friend pulled her arms towards the makeshift dance floor in the garden. Tenten was about to protest because the last thing she wanted was to join a group of girls dirty dancing with other guys, but she relaxed when she saw that they had formed a group of only girls she knew and after all, the song playing was one she really loved and a couple of minute unwinding to music couldn't hurt.
Right?
"Wrong," Neji said placidly to the phone. "No, I'm not coming to the party." He rolled his eyes at the junior recruit that was pleading with him to come since he came back early to Konoha.
"There are a ton of hot women, just what you need for your jet lag."
"I believe sleep will do just fine." He replied dryly.
Neji was in his taxi, driving back to their fraternity house to take his car that he had left there so Naruto could use it while he was away. He planned with every bit of his remaining energy to enjoy a quiet evening at the Hyuga Mansion. He was exhausted from his flight, and his little spat with Kankuro on his way out of the airport just aggravated his sour mood. So when he called one of the junior recruits to prepare his car for him so he wouldn't have to enter the debauchery going on at the moment, he had zero patience left at the nagging of the said boy who tried to convince him to join the fun.
"Oh, come on! Plus, tonight's catch is a feisty one, and she is like super hot dude."
Neji rolled his eyes at their stupid game. Was this shit still going on?
"Just get my keys from Naruto's room like I asked you to and make sure no one parked in front of my car."
"Ok, but have you seen the pictures in the WhatsApp group?"
Of course, he hadn't. He muted this group years ago.
"It's a brunette who is friends with Kiomi. Do you remember her? Anyway, the girl is exactly your style. You know how you always go for the brown-eyed, brown-haired ones?"
Neji's jaw clenched at the comment, but he couldn't help thinking…. Could he be talking about...? No, probably not. She wouldn't be caught dead there, unless… Unless Sakura somehow convinced her so she could see Sasuke. No. Probably not. There were hundreds of brunettes on campus. But Kiomi was also in med school… But that didn't mean anything. Yet, this uneasy feeling would not leave his guts, and he reached the application and opened the group with the hundreds of notifications he had never read.
And sure enough, when he finally scrolled to the end of it, here was Tenten's picture, in this damned cursed group chat where her face should have never ever appeared.
Neji's hold on his phone tightened until his knuckles were white. All the while, during the painstaking ten minutes left to his destination, all Neji could think of was what Kankuro just said to him.
Don't you wonder how she would feel pressed against you?
Do you want to know what she tastes like?
Just imagine what the next man in her life will do.
What will you do when he'll completely make her forget about you?
… while he's fucking her senseless?
It repeated itself in a loop, driving him crazy. So crazy that he was already blinded by rage by the time he had reached the house, his rational thinking lost somewhere on Leaf street and 1st avenue.
oOo
"Neji, you're here-"
The younger frat boy didn't have time to finish that the Hyuga had pushed him against a wall.
"Where is she?" He gritted at the boy cowering in front of him.
"Wh-who?"
Neji rolled his eyes. "The girl, where is she?"
The boy's scared expression changed to a sly one. "Oh! You mean the catch." He seemed to think this was a game.
Neji pushed him a little bit further, and the boy's face scrunched up in worry again. "Where. Is. She."
The boy gulped and pointed with the hand that wasn't holding his drink to the garden.
Neji released him. "Where are my keys?"
The boy shakily took them from his pocket, and the Hyuga snapped them out of his hands. "Thanks." He let out before he passed him.
Neji abruptly came back to the junior and snatched the drink he was holding from his hand a meter away. He gulped it down in one shot, hissing at the familiar burning sensation of Tequila. Wordlessly, he handed back an empty cup to the younger man and hurried to the garden, completely ignoring his bewildered expression.
If he was to face Tenten and all the emotions that seeing her would bring, he'd need all the liquid courage he could get, so on his way out through the patio doors, he snatched the drink of a new pledge that was about to protest until he saw who had stolen his drink and decided to stay silent.
Just like he had done previously, Neji swallowed in one gulp the fiery vodka laced with cranberry and tossed the reusable plastic cup - Epsilon prided itself on its zero waste parties - on a nearby table.
It's as he wiped the remaining alcohol on his lips that his eyes landed on her. As beautiful and majestic as she had ever been, like a literal goddess in the middle of their garden, gracefully dancing, enticingly rolling her hips to the rhythm of the music, her silky wavy hair flying around her like an auburn halo.
For fuck's sake, get a grip, Neji. He admonished himself.
Now was not the time to lose his breath and find that all the poesy he had been forced to read in high school suddenly made sense.
But how could he not? She looked stunning. And she was smiling. And suddenly, he realized it was the first time in over four years since he'd seen her smile authentically. He knew he'd missed it, but he hadn't discovered how much it had killed him to not see it until it revived part of his soul he had forgotten about.
Then he frowned at her outfit. Now, Neji had never been one to notice what women were wearing or not, and he liked to believe he had been raised by two very woke men who drilled into him that women's choice of clothing regarded only them. He didn't even raise a brow when Hinata had this phase at the beginning of university where she only wore short yoga shorts everywhere she went.
So his inner feminist voice was decidedly unhappy when he couldn't control the frustration at seeing Tenten's bare legs and cleavage exposed in her short strappy black dress.
Now, Neji had imagined a million times seeing Tenten again. He had cooked up thousands of possible scenarios and reactions he could have.
It usually involved him apologizing and pleading with her for things to go back to normal. But all Neji could think of as he saw Tenten dancing and as he became keenly aware of the numerous stares she was receiving; all he could think of was Kankuro's words.
But he had never imagined he'd walk up to her with such decided and angry steps, stomping the grass, taking her arm and dragging her away before she could utter a single protest. It's only when they were outside on the street, in front of his car, and when the loud music seemed like a distant echo that he let go of her arm, keeping the heavy breathing of his frustration in check.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Tenten yelled at him, rubbing her arm. She was still too occupied by the state of her arm to notice who had dragged her in the blurry haste of their movements.
It's only when she leveled her eyes to the man that she breathed out :
"Neji."
Her eyes roamed on the features of this man she had pinned on for so many years. They hadn't been alone, just the two of them, since Fu's funeral. But Tenten rapidly shook her head, internally scolding her restless heart, and found back the threads of her anger. But before she could say a single thing, he had beaten her to it :
"What the hell are you doing here?" He asked icily.
To Neji's defense, he hadn't intended to use this tone with her, but his emotions were as unruly as a naked electrical wires in the middle of a thunderstorm.
She scoffed, disbelief in her tone. "Are you kidding me?" She raised a defiant brow. "What? I can't show up at your frat house? Is this where we are at now?" She spat at the man looking at her impassively. "Do I have to avoid every space where you have breathed in the past four years? Will you grant me a sacred list of places I should avoid, so you don't feel offended by my presence?"
All the anger she thought had dissipated over the years seemed to bubble up like a shaken can of soda, and it needed to burst out of her.
She raised her hands to the sky, barely feeling the tiny drops of rain on her skin, hot and flustered by the sudden apparition of the man she had loved most.
"Do you hate me that much, now?" She asked, her tone more soft and helpless than she had intended. But her heart was rupturing open all over for this man, incapable of expressing any emotion than the ones it was honestly feeling, incapable of anything but complete surrender to this man who had haunted her every thought and dream.
Hate her?
How could she even think that? When he loved her so blindingly, he hurt himself at every turn in a labyrinth of his own making, in a maze of despair he had built around himself since she was gone. How could she for a second think he would have anything for her but the most excruciating form of adoration and painful yearning at never being able to touch her when all he could see when dreaming awake was her?
Just as they kept staring at each, each struggling with their own heartbreak, the drops transformed abruptly in a ragingly pouring rain, so suddenly like those summer rainstorms that are known to break out from one second to another.
"What is it now, Neji?" Tenten asked again, drenched in a matter of seconds by the rain, ultimately defeated by this war that had lasted too long between them. "What do we do now?"
And he could feel the same weariness in his own bones that longed to close around her like they did so innocently, so many times, years ago. Neji felt the warm raindrops falling on his skin, his shirt clinging to his body like a second skin and his hair instantly dripping wet. His eyes stayed on her, her hair sticking to her skin and her dress sagging with the weight of the water, hugging her every curve. He locked eyes with her pleading eyes, as lost as him.
"Get in the car, Tenten." He finally murmured. "I'm driving you home."
But she did not move. She hated how her skin prickled at the mention of her name. It never failed to send her in a frenzy whenever it came from his mouth.
"No." She merely whispered back.
"Get in the car, Tenten." He repeated, a warning in his voice. He opened the passenger's door and looked expectantly at her.
She shook her head vehemently, sending raindrops flying left and right.
"Get in the fucking car!" He roared.
Tenten's head swiftly shot up upwards, and for a second, Neji thought he had won.
But she glared at him and shouted back: "I'm not getting in your fucking car, Neji! Not now, not ever."
And in a way, Neji was proud and amused, deep down below the blinding rage, because, of course, Tenten wouldn't feel threatened by him as everyone else would. She'd simply be greatly annoyed and tell him to fuck off.
But Neji was too mad at the moment to acknowledge this. All he wanted was to drive her home, so she could be safely tucked away from the thirsty men lusting after her inside the house.
As if on cue, Tenten snarled sarcastically: "What!? Do you think I don't know about your fraternity bets and how I'm the catch tonight? Y'all are incredibly too loud and stupid to be subtle."
Against his will, Neji felt mirth bubble up the dark waters of anger. Obviously, anyone stupid enough to try a move on Tenten when she was not interested would only get their ass handed to them. It's not that he doubted that. He was mainly scared that she would indeed be interested in one of them.
Simply put, Neji was maddeningly jealous.
"Do you think me stupid enough," Tenten continued. "To sleep with one of these low-lives?" She snorted.
Of course, she wasn't. But he couldn't help himself. Mostly when she looked the way she did under the rain, feisty and untamable. Frantically gesticulating. Angry Tenten was unassumingly his favourite, the fluster colouring her cheeks, her widened eyes, her expressive brows furrowed and raised. It made her all the more charismatic and undeniably hot.
He hadn't realized the step he took towards her until he was towering over her.
"Just get in the car." He asked more softly, reaching out for her arm so he could drag her and drive her home.
"Are you dense?" She spit back, agitating her upper body, trying to free her arm from his grasp.
And to be honest, at this moment, he probably was. He couldn't even take his eyes away from her lips, glistening under the rain, hypnotized by the way she licked the drops that accumulated on the rosy flesh. He couldn't even hear her monologue as she gave a graphic explanation of all the reasons why he was a complete and utter asshole. He barely registered her last sentence as a fire of his own was starting to spread in his belly, and he was overcome by the irresistible impulse to kiss her.
Don't you want to know how she tastes?
"What did you tell me, last time, at Fu's funeral?" She laughed sarcastically. "That I should do what I do best and leave? Why don't you follow your own advice and do what you do best? Ignore me and leave me the fuck alone." She spat.
Maybe it was the last spark he needed, the tiny pinch of anger that set the motion off. Perhaps it was the two cups of liquor he had indulged in a few minutes ago. Or maybe it was that she was finally here, in front of him, after so many years. And that for once nothing and no one separated them.
Don't you want to know how she tastes like?
Don't you wonder how she would feel pressed against you?
As he swiftly bent down to rapidly capture her lips with his, the only truth that had ever mattered was that all he wanted was her. All he had ever wanted was her.
Hungrily, avidly, his lips crashed onto hers, cutting her off mid-sentence of whatever insult she was saying. He brought one hand behind her neck and the other behind the small part of her back, pressing her against him, deepening the kiss.
Decades later, he would still have difficulty explaining the amount of adrenaline that rushed through him when she returned his kiss when her unmoving arms that had been dangling by her sides, motionless from shock, suddenly wrapped themselves around his neck, and Tenten practically launched herself at him, kissing him back as feverishly as he was.
Over his rapidly pounding heart, he could barely hear the rain splattering against pavement, cars and rustling leaves, but it added to the intensity of everything he was feeling. Their emotions and repressed feelings were unleashing like the torrents that were falling from the sky, and everything just felt exquisitely dramatic and intensely passionate. Everything in them that had died with the other's absence was quenched and reborn.
She feels fucking good. She tastes fucking good.
That's all Neji could think, when under the pouring rain battling their mangled bodies, he pushed her against his car and lifted one of her legs around him so he could further press into her. He nearly lost it when she moaned, a low rumble coming from her throat. Had he been less civilized, he would have taken her right there and now, intently ensuring he could remove all traces and memories of any other man who had ever touched her.
Tenten could feel all of him. From his muscled arms tightening around her to his ripped chest pressing her against the car to his stiffness digging in her pelvis.
But it still wasn't enough. Even the flimsy clothing that barely posed a barrier when they were wet as such, she wanted them all off. She wanted his skin on hers, his heat melting with hers. She licked his lower lip, nibbled it, and he reacted instantly by reaching to her tongue with his, battling for dominance, caressing her, and she readily gave up, knees weak, to his commanding kiss while he echoed her moans with growls of his own.
She was kissing Neji. The thought seemed so unthinkable yet so impossibly delicious it fired up her lower belly with an explosion of lust. She ran her hand down his chest, gripping the wet material of his shirt as if she was gripping to dear life and let her other hand wind through his wet locks.
She didn't know how far they would have gone if it wasn't for the whistles and catcalls they received from party goers who had spotted them. Neji suddenly came back to his senses, took a step back and, distraught, opened the door of the passenger side again. This time, she got in without a single protest, still too stunned to find any words to say, impressed by her ability to still know how to breathe because, for all-purpose and matter, she had been left breathless and boneless.
A hyperventilating jelly of needs and she needed to cool her thoughts, so she kept her eyes on the passing building, on the coloured umbrellas and the sliding raindrops on her window.
Except for when he asked for her address, the ride had been silent so far. There was only the pitter-patter of the rain against the metallic carcass of the vehicle and the slow hum of the heater Neji turned on to help them dry a bit.
So, it was very out of the blue that he broke this tension-filled silence.
"I don't hate you, you know," Neji murmured so softly that Tenten thought for a second her willful imagination had played a trick on her.
He gave no sign of what he had just admitted, his eyes determinedly fixed on the road, his face devoid of emotion if not the slight furrow of his brows and the little dip at the corner of his mouth.
"Wh-what?" She hated how dumbfounded she sounded, but all of this was so unexpected.
"How could I ever hate you, Tenten." He continued so faintly, it almost looked like he was talking to himself. His eyes were serious and pained, still fixing the horizon of empty streets drowning under the heavy rain.
The way he said her name broke and lifted her heart because he said it with all the love and tenderness he used to have for her before they went their own ways, and she didn't know how she felt about that much yearning and nostalgia gripping at her heart and soul.
"You're…" He paused as he parked in front of her building, turning his head to her. "You're everything."
His severe and blazing eyes genuinely searched her surprised, unbelieving ones.
When she said nothing, he unlocked the doors as a way of respecting that she may not want to engage in what he just said. She opened her door, still numb and undecided of which emotion was winning this round. Anger at him just randomly saying something so heartbreakingly tender when he had been so unkind before? Joy? At knowing she still held a unique place in his heart? Confusion, sadness? At the mess that their unresolved feelings were?
Unsure and disorganized, Tenten stepped one foot outside the car, still lost in the raging battle of emotions within her. After a moment of hesitation, her foot still dangling over the pavement, she changed her mind and brought her foot inside quickly, closing the door.
She turned to him, searching for his eyes, who had been on her all the while.
"You can't do that, Neji." She whispered, looking intently at him, chestnut eyes drowning in ivory ones.
To his furrowed brows, she continued: "You can't just kiss me like that," Her voice was shaky. "And say things like that," She continued, her tone wavering. "And expect me to go back to life as if nothing happened." She inhaled with a tremor, waiting for his response.
She didn't know who leaned in first or who kissed the other first. They simply rushed to it as if their lips were magnetically pulled towards one another. He kissed her like he could die if he let go, as if she breathed air into him and he needed every last ounce of her to survive. It overwhelmed her, yet she wanted so much more. It was agonizingly sweet and delectable. It overpowered her, and she craved to feel his body against her again.
She rose from her seat and moved towards him to deepen the kiss. He was entirely drunk on her, and the moment she moved closer to him, he pulled her down, so her whole body followed suit, and she fell into his lap. She straddled him, rolling and crushing her hips against his pelvis.
"Tenten," He groaned against her lips.
This lit every nerve in her body, and her fingers trembled over the shoulders they were gripping. She bit his lower lip, pulling it a bit until she released it and looked at him with eyes hazed with lust, and he had never found her more beautiful.
"Come upstairs," She panted against his mouth. "Temari is not here."
It was probably a bad idea, he thought to himself while they stumbled through her elevator's doors, and he pushed her against the mirrored wall, kissing her again, tilting her head backward for better access, slowly caressing the sides of her stomach. She shivered in his arms, and he felt his anticipation building.
It was probably a bad idea, he thought again as they entered her apartment, and in a frenzy, they took off their shoes, and she started unbuttoning his shirt as they headed for her bedroom.
And by the time she was under him on her bed, completely at his mercy and the sweet kisses he trailed down her collarbone, sucking on the precious peachy skin: he couldn't form one complete thought.
She pushed him a bit, just enough so she could wiggle out of her dress, and his hungry stare traveled down her exposed body. He felt like he was gazing at perfection. But this was Tenten. Let alone that she was beautiful, and at the moment, incredibly hot, she was also the woman of his dreams, which made everything all the more intense and magical.
It was not just a smooth, perfectly tan skin. It was the skin he had brushed so often in tenderness, that had comforted him when it wrapped around him in times of sadness and that he gazed at secretly so many times when he was a teenager. It was not simply delicate fingers traveling down his body and leaving a blazing trail behind. They were hers. They had held his hands for safety, reached out to him out of affection, led him through streets when they played and chased each other. They weren't simply whimpers. They were hers. Her voice, who had said his name in a million different tones and every single one had churned his insides in the most exquisite torture.
He didn't simply desire her. He loved her. And as his lips gently brushed against her jaw, he realized he may have had sex, but he had never made love. And he wondered if Tenten did, if she ever kissed someone else desperately and lovingly, held them so vicariously. Because for him, it was a first.
He had never held anyone so preciously. He had never treasured them in his hands like he did: so delicately as if she could break at any time like porcelain and yet, so demandingly and firmly because he wanted so much out of her. He was drinking her in with an alarming abandonment, completely forgetting there ever was a time where her skin was not glued to his and where her scent was not inebriating him so.
He took his time traveling down her throat, leaving her breathing hard and mewling when he reached the sensitive spot right at the nook of her neck, she gasped when he bit the delicate skin, and then he traveled down her stomach until he froze.
He slowly got up, shaken up.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
But he couldn't find the words to speak. He simply traced the inky dragon tattoo on the skin near her left hip bone.
"You didn't forget," he murmured, looking at her.
She shook her head wordlessly. Suddenly, her saliva was thick and hard to swallow when he bent down and slowly, agonizingly, tantalizingly brushed his lips over the marked skin, then licked it and sucked on the permanent drawing. The feeling of his tongue so near her throbbing desire sent her in an array of emotions, and she arched her back to meet his mouth better.
She groaned in protest when he stopped his ministrations to get up. He undid the last buttons of his shirt and got rid of his jeans.
She got up on her elbows, and that's when she saw it, near his right hip bone, the tiny tattoo of a phoenix inked in black. Her breath caught up in her throat, and she sat at the edge of her bed.
He walked over her slowly until his pelvis was a couple inches away from her face. She traced the tattoo with her fingers, firing up again when she felt his muscles stiffen under her touch.
"You did it too." She said in awe. Not only did he do it, but with almost the exact emplacement and in a similar style. It was uncanny how it looked premeditated because of the resemblance of their tattoos when they'd done it in different cities, without one knowing that the other would do it.
She looked up at him, lost in his hooded stare, looking at her wholly lost in sensual want. Never breaking eye contact, she slowly brushed her lips on his tattoo the same torturing way he did, and when she slid her tongue on it, it was more than he could take, and he pushed her down the mattress.
With renewed vigour and intensity, he continued where he left off but starting back again at her throat, then her collarbone, passing through the valley of her breasts, sliding down her toned stomach, over her navel and back on the tattoo that got him suddenly so emotional. He wanted his mouth to erase any other man who had ever seen her, touched her or made love to her the way he was doing.
It was when he was dangerously closing in on her panty line that she put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.
"Wait," She breathed out, feeling all hot and bothered.
And Neji immediately looked at her.
She bit her lip. "I…" She trailed, unsure, searching for reassurance in his eyes. "It's… you're… it's my first time."
Neji felt at the same time frozen and totally relaxed. He knew those things didn't matter. Heck, she could have been with half of Suna's football team that he wouldn't have minded. Still, maybe unreasonably possessive, maybe foolishly enamoured way; it felt like it was the right way of things that he was her first, because unconsciously, for Neji, no matter who could pretend to lay a claim to her heart, Tenten Maito would always be his.
And at that moment, she was. He made her his all night. Gently, hungrily, territorially. Relishing in every sound coming from her mouth, every tremor of her body and how perfectly his body fitted with hers.
When, exhausted, they laid back down and she snuggled into him; he tried to ignore his pounding heart that became louder in his ears than the rain beating against her windows. Neji wondered if this was how it was supposed to feel all along. Were sex and love supposed to be this elating? This grandiose? This daunting yet perfect, and booming, and blooming like a thousand orchestras harmonizing? The rain was still splattering against Tenten's windows, and her breathing against his skin was becoming more even.
She was sleeping in his arms. Tenten was safely tucked in his embrace, and he had never felt happier, and grand, and soothed.
But he couldn't find sleep just yet. Lovingly stroking the bare skin of her arms, Neji wondered was it possible to be that content? Was it even allowed? For anyone, let alone him?
As he closed his eyes, he thought he'd allow himself to. At least until the break of dawn.