WARNING! Adult situations within (sorta, you'll see what I mean). Read at your own discretion. The song lyrics used in his chapter are from "Indio" by See Saw. Listen to it while you read this if you can, it will mean a whole lot more.
This is an interlude chapter, meaning there's little action or plot progression, but plenty of building romance. Which is not that easy to do with Neji but I think I somehow managed it by casting him into a state of confusion and frustration. Just the way we like him, right? ;)
Tilting At Windmills
Chapter Four
"Neji…"
That husky whisper of his name made something molten coil within in him, a low growl rising in his throat as he bent to kiss her, drinking her in like a man dying of thirst. She moaned against his mouth, spurring him, her soft lips pliant against his as he dominated her, pushing her back until her knees buckled against the mattress and they fell in a tangle of limbs onto the sheets.
His body was burning, his mind on fire as kissed down her jaw line to the delicate hollow at the base of her throat, his lips grazing the pulse point beating wildly there. Her hands were in his hair, long locks of it dripping over her body like dark silk, and her smoky eyes watched as he undid the clasps on her shirt, pushing aside the annoying material.
He paused only once, only for a second, but a blush rose on her cheeks nevertheless. He leaned forward until he could meet her gaze, never meaning anything more in his life than the words that finally spilled out of him.
"Your beautiful." His lips moved against satin skin and she arched against him. "And you're mine."
"Yours," she gasped back, incoherent. "Always yours, Neji."
He groaned as her nails slid down his back.
"Neji…"
"Neji…"
"Neji!"
He jerked upright, wild-eyed, almost panting for air, his body tense and restless and unfilled. Tenten was beside him, watching him carefully, her long hair disheveled as if she had woken suddenly out of sleep, the moonlight turning her skin milk-white and her eyes into diamonds.
For one brief moment he was caught within the vestiges of his dream and reality, and he leaned forward, acting on instinct alone. Tenten blinked and said his name, breaking the spell.
"Neji?"
A husky whisper..
In an instant, he was up and off the bed, off balance and so out of control he didn't know how to right himself. Running a hand raggedly through his hair, he glanced at her and took a breath, steadying his voice.
"I'm going out," he said roughly, turning on his heel, not caring if she thought he had gone crazy. He couldn't stay there, not with her so close to him, so… He had to get out. He needed to run, to train, to do anything except think of her. She was his teammate, he had no right to dream of her that way. No right to hear her moans, or feel her skin against his palms, or think of her as his…
He stalked out of the house like a thunderstorm, walking so fast one might never know he was escaping. Shirtless, tousled, and frustrated, Hyuuga Neji was in the mood to fight someone, something, anything.
Hizaki Kei presented himself.
Tenten sat on her bed for a good ten minutes after Neji left, stunned and confused about what had just happened. She had been sleeping off the after effects of the antidote she had taken when she had heard Neji murmur something in his sleep. Surprisingly, he had been laying next to her as if he too had slipped into dreams while waiting for her to wake up. Not that she was complaining, mind you. After all these years, she couldn't fool herself when it came to him. Still, it had seemed like he was having a bad dream and she had woken him, thinking to bring him out of it.
Instead he had looked at her with something primal in his translucent eyes and she had actually felt her body temperature rise several degrees as he had leaned forward to… to what? And then he had left, just like that, without explaining anything, leaving her to draw her own conclusions.
Tenten didn't know what to think.
Turning her head towards the open window, she closed her eyes as the cool night wind washed through her loose hair, ruffling the mussed bed sheets and calming her heart.
She and Neji had always had a sort of unspoken companionship. Never once, in all their time together since the Academy, had he ever looked upon her as weak, or as some silly female that he had to put up with just because she was on his team. Even when she had lost against Temari in her first Chuunin exam, he had come to the hospital afterwards, remarking only that she had fought well. They had become friends, best friends, if she dared to go that far. She knew more about him than anyone else, enough that she had decided long ago to do anything she could for him. They had trained together for years, long after Gai-sensei had taken Lee under his wing. The three of them were a team, but she and Neji were a partnership. He understood her limits and never seemed to mind that they were below his. She, in return, withstood his power, challenged it, molded it.
He never trained with anyone else again.
She couldn't say that she understood all the intricacies of their relationship. All she could say was that she had never been like the other girls, not with her hidden stocks of weapons, and her very physical way of fighting. And he had never been like the other boys, always distant and silent and seeing things other people never did, even when he wasn't looking.
She smiled privately to herself.
What she lacked, Neji had, and what he was missing, she gave without question. The thought made her laugh softly. Perhaps together they made one whole person.
Which was why it hurt her that she couldn't understand what he was feeling. It hurt her, but she knew he would back in a couple of hours. No matter what happened or what he went through, Neji always returned.
Pulling her knees up to her chest, Tenten rested her chin on them and watched the stars twinkle outside, waiting.
She was singing when he returned.
It was something he had not witnessed often. She seemed to think he would see it as some girly habit that she had forgotten to pack away with the rest of her childhood, and so would only sing when she was sure he wouldn't hear her. He had heard her song for the first time about a year ago during a training session. She had worn him down until his chakra levels had been exhausted, something she liked to do with him when she thought he was getting too arrogant. After the following period of weary unconsciousness, he had awakened to find his head in her lap as she sang over him in a soft, fumbling, all too real way. She had always had a pleasant speaking voice, but before that time he had never heard her so much as hum.
At that time he had kept his eyes closed, simply listening, and he did the same now, halting outside the half open door to take in her melody, his stomach twisting as he realized it was a lament.
Suddenly, I remembered a sad song
Though it was night, I went underwater in a blanket of summer
Even if I had to quicken my pace in the cool rain,
I would cry if I didn't find something I lost… your song.
He pushed open the door, a slight creak giving away his presence and making her turn, eyes wide, hair sliding over her shoulders. He closed the door behind him and she gasped at his appearance.
"Neji! What happened to you?" She made as if to rise from the bed but he went to her instead, telling her to stay seated with just a look.
"I ran into Hizaki Kei," he told her flatly, raising one hand to a shallow cut on his cheek. The ninja hadn't been that bad, really.
Tenten sighed. "I hope you took him to a doctor. You didn't leave his body lying in the street, did you? If Ishin-san finds out you beat up his daughter's fiancée…"
He shook his head and sat down next to her, rung out. "He'll be fine." A smirk. "After about a week or so."
She paused then and looked away. "And you? Are you alright?"
It was a moment before he could answer. Years ago he wouldn't even have bothered. "I'm… tired."
Her expression softened and she pulled on his arm, motioning for him to lay his head in her lap. He did so without hesitation, stretching out on her bed, his head pillowed on her thighs. He closed his eyes.
And after a few silent minutes, asked her to sing.
On the way back home, without releasing your fingers in my mind,
the sound of the distant train changed into a gentle sea rumbling,
…together with us
I called out for you when I was a child, toward Indio's south
We were together before the ship left, then I wrote in my notebook
The sun was not clouded in that dry wind
Only I am wandering through the illusionary land, even now
I don't want to forget what you have given me
And I'll listen carefully to the sea rumbling far away... alone
As she trailed off, her fingers hesitantly lifted to stroke his hair, as if she thought he needed soothing. For a brief moment, he thought about telling her to stop, that he didn't want someone to comfort him, but the words wouldn't leave his lips. So he laid there, her touch smoothing his ragged nerves despite the fact he would never admit it. Did she know him so well that she knew what he needed before even he did? Could he say that he knew her that deeply?
"You found Nanabi," she said confidently after a moment, as if it was something she had never doubted. He didn't open his eyes.
"She's at the Tenma house."
He felt her nod. "I thought so. I can't say I would do any differently."
He scoffed. "Yes you would. You would fight it."
She laughed softly. "That's true, but if I was cornered, if I was sure there was no other way and someone who loved me was waiting for me… I would go to him."
He digested this for a moment before speaking somewhat reluctantly. "We'll have to bring her back."
"Of course." And she was Tenten again, a ninja, no longer mysterious and singing in the dark, but a warrior who knew when to follow orders and when to follow dreams.
"But not until the morning," he told her, feeling the urge to give her something, that other her that would surrender for such a notion as 'love'. The fingers running absently through his hair stilled and he heard a smile in her voice.
"Yes, not until the morning. Until then, let her have her fantasies."
And Neji did.
To be continued…