Disclaimer: dun own naruto
Thankyou thankyou to all the nice peepuls hu reviewed!!! u made my day!!
Thanks phoe-chan for pointing out the " "/' ' thing!
Magus black, im assuming they didn't have the internet back then -.-;; eh he he and I ges neji is a fren… sorta…
And I wud also like to thank my fren xixi for her never ending support!! (thankyou xixi!)
So now… onwards!!
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Day 1: Seek and Convince
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"A boyfriend… A boyfriend… A boy. Who are the guys I know?"
Tenten was walking along a dirt track towards her usual training area an hour after her 'conversation' with her parents. She had pushed her problems aside and eaten a nice breakfast she had bought, having stormed out of the house before she could grab anything. But now, that her meal was over, she let the full weight of her problem settle uncomfortably in her stomach.
Tenten walked slowly along the road, fiddling nervously with the plastic handles of the bag containing extra food she had bought as a peace offering for one Hyuuga Neji. She was late for the training session and she knew he wouldn't be happy. Apparently, she was the only person who could train productively with him, or so he drove himself to believe.
Tenten had enough problems and she couldn't afford to have a disgruntled Hyuuga as one of them! But maybe he would understand… After all, she did have her problem… No. Hyuuga Neji does not understand.
"What am I thinking about?!" Tenten wondered aloud to herself, "I have more important matters then to worry about Neji's feelings! Besides, I bought him food, so he should be grateful. Heck, I'll just tell him I was late because fate decreed it so!" Tenten grinned at her ingenious idea, then realized what she had been doing. 'Great,' she thought grumpily, 'Now I'm talking to myself.'
Pushing Neji aside, she slung the plastic bag over her shoulder and brought her attention to more important matters. 'Alright,' she thought with a determined tone, 'A boyfriend. Who are the guys I know?'
Her thoughts immediately drifted to Rock Lee, her teammate as a genin and one of her closest male friends. 'Lee,' she thought, 'Lee already knows me well… I can't ask him to be my boyfriend… Wait! I can ask him to pose as my boyfriend instead of really being my boyfriend!! Lee would do it, plus he's a Taijutsu master!! Father would be impressed!!'
But Tenten's joy was temporary. Just as Tenten's face brightened up with a grin, an unpleasant memory hit her right in the face.
It involved a misplaced cup of sake, Lee and the time when Gai-Sensei had brought her team to a bar to celebrate Lee's learning of the Lotus move. What Tenten remembered most vividly was the shock she and her parents, who had been present, had felt when the owners of the bar had presented to her team the bill for the replacements of damage caused by a drunken Lee. It had drained a years worth of her allowance alone!
No, Lee wouldn't do. Her father could never forget about that incident, and he would always remember Lee's face. Of course, who could forget a bob-headed, thick eye-browed boy in spandex? Her father would never wait to meet the person Lee really was. No, Lee just wouldn't do.
Who would then? Her mind then drifted to some of the younger ninjas. Naruto, the annoying blonde kid, but the first ever to beat Neji a few years back. Too loud… Uchiha Sasuke? The last Uchiha? No, he was disgraced after the incident with that Orochimaru villain… Aburame Shino? No, her mother was afraid of bugs…
Tenten thought of a few more respectable ninjas, before she realized they were all younger then her and her father would never accept that. She then thought of any other ninjas that she knew enough to ask them to pose as her boyfriend, but realized they had faults her father would surely disagree with. She even resorted to thinking of older ninjas… such as Gai-Sensei… but she escaped that thought before she would let herself have nightmares…
Before she knew it she had run out of ideas of ninjas and walking space as she had reached her destination. Her training area. She took a deep breathe and thought silently to herself, 'Time to face the wrath of Neji.'
As she slowly stepped into the small clearing surrounded by trees she was greeted with… nothing. There was no-one there. She sighed, openly relieved, as she brought the bag containing Neji's food back to her front. Neji wasn't here.
"You're late." Quick as the wind, Tenten dropped the bag and whipped out a kunai, spinning around swiftly, ready to meet the voice's owner. Speak of the devil, there was Neji, sitting on a large tree stump with a bird eating seeds from the palm of his hand. Tenten huffed, openly annoyed as she put her weapon away. "Neji!" she exclaimed loudly, scaring the bird away, "You scared me!"
As Neji watched the bird fly away, annoyed that his friend had fled, he turned calmly towards Tenten with what she and Lee had dubbed the 'Mr. PMSed Hyuuga' expression on his face. He wasn't happy. Not very happy at all.
'This is my time to strike!' she thought, determined to herself, 'Or else he'll take his anger out on me during training!'
"Neji!" she exclaimed happily, with a false, slightly overenthusiastic smile on her face. "Neji! I thought you might be hungry, so I bought you some food!" Tenten turned around quickly to pick up the food she had dropped earlier. She quickly proceeded over to Neji's tree stump, and, putting on her best smile, held the food over to Neji at an arm's length, precautious if he would attack. Peeved Neji was Dangerous Neji.
When Neji made no move to relieve Tenten of the bag, her smile slowly faded off her face. They stood there in silence, Neji staring openly at Tenten. His white eyes bored into Tenten's brown ones, as she nervously shifted under his gaze, unsuccessfully trying to break the eye contact. 'What is he going to do to me…' Tenten thought nervously.
Time ticked by as Neji stared and Tenten shifted. Even the birds were quiet.
One minute… 'Why does he keep looking at me?' Two minutes… 'Maybe he doesn't mind that I'm an hour late…' 3 minutes… 'Might as well enjoy my last moments…' 4 minutes… 'Is he brain dead?! Oh damn, no. He's taunting me.'
Suddenly, Neji stretched his arm out towards Tenten, reaching out to grab her wrist. Tenten felt fear strike in her chest and her legs turn to liquid…
But she was a kunoichi, and she wasn't going to die without a fight. She dropped the bag, letting a nervous squeak pop out, before jumping back a fair way, while pelting random weapons as Neji. "Die Neji!!"
Neji saw the weapons coming. He had trained with her for over 4 years and he knew her reflex attacks quite well. Skillfully, he scarcely dodged all of the weapons specialist's attacks by a hair and agilely caught the bag of food before it hit the ground.
"Die Neji?" he asked unemotionally, dodging the last of the weapons and taking his seat on his stump.
When Tenten realized his intention, she ceased fire and screeched out, "You jerk!!" before realizing how impolite she was being with Neji and clamped her hand over her mouth. Just because she had had a tantrum this morning didn't mean she could let it affect her normal everyday behavior.
But when Neji just smirked at her, she was beginning to feel her remorse for her rudeness fade away. Still wanting to keep her pride, she slowly stomped over to his stump, and sat down next to him, her head held high.
The two sat there in silence as Neji slowly unwrapped the meal, and ate it slowly and politely. During this time, Tenten continued her thoughts on a suitable boyfriend. Just as she was re-evaluating if Gai-Sensei was actually that bad to have as a boyfriend, she was interrupted by none other then the only person who could have possibly made her day worse.
"Why were you late?" asked the stoic Neji having finished his meal. Before Tenten answered, she tried to determine what mood he was in. Being a Hyuuga and Neji at the same time, his face was like a slate; expressionless. But Tenten took that since there were no homicidal vibes being emitted from the Hyuuga Prodigy, who was packing up the rubbish unemotionally, she answered happily, not in fear that he would bite her head off.
"I had a few… problems. This morning." Tenten replied, her face turning dark when she said 'problems'. As Neji finished packing his rubbish, he decided that she needed some payback for making him wait an extra hour. He usually wasn't nosy, but then again Tenten wasn't usually late.
"Oh?" Neji replied as emotionally as he could, which was, mind you, exempt from any trace of emotion. "What problem?" Tenten felt a slight twitch in her left eye. This was the last thing she wanted to do. To add to her bad day, she would now be sharing her problems with none other then one of the top three unemotional people in Konoha. But better then having Neji take it out on her in training. She would not have the energy left to even think about finding a boyfriend after something like that.
"Neji," Tenten said seriously. "My father wants to set me up in an arranged marriage." Now, when Tenten said this to Neji, she didn't expect sympathy or pity, but she didn't expect Neji to smirk at her. And that's exactly what he did.
"So?" he asked, somehow maintaining his smirk and a totally unemotional face. "Neji!!" Tenten exclaimed, shocked at the aloofness he was showing towards her situation. "It's an arranged marriage!! To a man!!"
Tenten was only irked even more when Neji's smirk stayed pasted on his face. "What did you expect?" he asked, a shadow of amusement apparent in his voice, "A woman?"
She couldn't believe him. He was heartless. How could he? No, that question was easy. Neji. Damn, Neji was an unfeeling bastard. Neji was an insensitive, narcissistic, egotistical, unfeeling excuse for a male! Neji was a… a male?
"Neji," Tenten said, realization dawning on her face, "You're a guy!" Neji just stared at her. "Was that supposed to be funny?" he asked, no longer smirking. Tenten just ignored him and a large, happy grin appeared on her face. "Neji!" she cried, and before Neji could stop her, she pounced on him and pulled him into a big bear hug. "You're a guy! A guy, a guy, a guy!!" she laughed, squeezing him harder every time she said 'guy'.
Through all this, Neji just sat there, letting the barest hint of irritation grace his face. He frowned uncomfortably, his eyes face turning dark as he stiffened at her squeezes, a dark aura surrounding him.
It was another few seconds before Tenten realized what she was doing. She was hugging Neji. THE Hyuuga Neji. This morning's news must have seriously scrambled her brain. Almost as quickly as she pounced onto him, she jumped back, standing embarrassedly on the grass.
"Sorry…" she uttered, a pink tinge appearing on her cheeks, "It's just that…" Tenten sighed, taking back her former seat next to Neji on his stump. "Neji, you know this morning my father told me he wanted to set me up in an arranged marriage. But my mother and I managed to convince him into having a deal." Neji just looked back at Tenten, unemotionally.
When Neji said nothing in return, Tenten looked straight into Neji's eyes and continued. "The deal was… If I could find a boyfriend in this week… I wouldn't have to get married."
Neji closed his eyes, realizing where this conversation was going. "Lee." he said, his voice still emotionless as always. Tenten shook her head slowly. "My parents were there at his Lotus celebration. Remember?" A few minutes of silence passed as Tenten watched his face apprehensively, while his face stayed straight.
"Neji," Tenten asked quietly, "Will you please pose as my boyfriend?"
"Tenten. Let's train." Neji said, slowly getting up.
"But…"
"Tenten."
That was it. Her last chance to stay free. She knew Neji was unconcerned with other's affairs but she had been his bloody teammate. Tenten felt tears prickling the back of her eyes. But she wouldn't cry. That would be weak. And she couldn't give up either. She had to try a new tactic.
"Neji." She forced her head up to look at his back. "Y-you do realize," she choked out, forcing the tears back, "If I am forced to go through with this, you might lose me as a training partner. You have said so yourself that I am the only person who you can train productively with."
With that, Neji slowly turned around, looking into Tenten's brown eyes. Tenten looked back, silently pleading with Neji's blank ones. "I can train with Lee." With that, he turned around slowly.
Tenten felt the tears fighting to be released, and her hope draining away. But she held it back. She would rather die then give up. If not Neji, then someone else, even if it was Gai-sensei.
"Fine." She whispered. Coincidently, Lee ran into the training area, and greeted Neji and Tenten with a surprised expression on his face. But Tenten couldn't hear it. She just walked out of the clearing, trying to fight the tears back.
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Tenten was surprised to see herself back at the training area. She had wondered aimlessly around for half an hour until she was sure that she wouldn't cry. In her daze, she hadn't realized that she had been heading towards the clearing.
'Oh well,' she thought to herself, 'Might as well see how Neji's going with his new training partner.'
As Tenten walked into the yard, she was very surprised to see what sight greeted her in the clearing.
In the middle of the yard, there was only one green patch of grass left, surrounded by large craters. On the green island was Lee and Gai-Sensei, hugging each other, tears streaming down their faces, muttering incoherent things like, "Lee!" and "Gai-Sensei!"
Tenten's eyes flitted around the area, looking, and finding, a rather disgruntled Neji sitting on his tree stump, with the imprint of Gai-Sensei's sandal on his face. Every few seconds, he would throw threatening scowls at the blabbering pair. Heck, if Tenten didn't know better, she'd say Neji was sulking.
Feeling accomplished, she strode confidently towards Neji and sat beside him, a victorious grin threatening to break out on her face.
"Well?" she asked him smugly, making sure to contain her giggles.
"Fine." He replied, emitting a homicidal aura.
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