Day to Day
A Naruto Fan-fiction
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any bands mentioned
(A/N: I was bored, nobody had reviewed, and so I decided to take the liberty to writing the next installment. Bwahaha.)
Chapter 8: Losing Everything
The Christmas spirit was spreading like a disease, and the snow had returned after a week of nothing. Target practice became harder, since you had to pierce the ice, Lee had already become a human ice cube during a week-long non-stop training session, and Neji had gone from shorts and sandals to big boots, a gray hooded jacket and black pants. Sakura had rolled her eyes at Neji, saying, "Neji maybe a genius, but his fashion sense equals an I.Q. of zero." Tenten couldn't help but smile at that, wondering what the Hyuuga would've said if he had heard it himself.
The kunai hit the boards with a twang, and each twang earned her a satisfied feeling in the pit of her chest. That's right-Tenten, the great weapon master!
With Gai in the hospital with a concussion (he had a no-holding-back match with Kakashi, so they both ended up in the hospital, thank fully alive), Neji off on ANBU missions, and Lee trying to become a senin so he could travel around to become stronger, the old group hadn't trained together in what was seemingly a lifetime. Tenten almost felt like the only normal person left! Sure, she was in black ops, but that was nothing compared to ANBU or applying for senin! It was just as strict and grueling, but not as time-consuming. Besides, unlike Neji, she felt she needed a few more years under her belt before going out for ANBU.
Her boots crunched in the ground as she walked up to the targets, and began to dig up the kunai that sunk into the softer sections of snow.
"Long time no see, Tenten."
The voice was right in her ear, but she didn't turn to look, just smirked and continued to shift around for the weapons. The voice was a familiar one, after all.
"Same to you, Hyuuga."
"When the hell did I become Hyuuga?"
"When you addressed me so seriously. You'd think you had a stick up your butt."
Neji smirked, and walked over to where she was knelt down, filtering through the white stuff. As if to show off, Neji kneeled down next to her, shoved away a bit of snow, instantly uncovering the last kunai. He handed it to her with a smirk and a lifted eyebrow, and she snatched it away and stuck out her tongue at him.
"You and your damned eyes." She said, and shoved the last kunai into her holsters. Then she stood and walked away from the targets, trying to get a good distance away. Neji followed, and watched as one kunai whizzed past his head and smacked into the middle of the target.
Soon he stood next to her, watching her throw the kunai. "Want to give it a try?" she asked, offering one to him. He smirked.
"Oh, so you're going to let me and my damned eyes use your weapons?"
"Yea. Give it a try. You've been gone for ANBU so much, you probably haven't been doing much target practice." She smiled softly, and he took the kunai, and threw it. With a twang, it landed right in the middle, next to Tenten's.
"Hyuuga Neji, you are amazing."
"Hump." He grunted and motioned for another kunai. Then he stepped back a few more meters, and threw it again. Of course, it landed smack-dab in the middle, like the rest. Tenten just watched, her hands on her hips, a sort of reliving of what they used to do all the time. She would give her burst of energy and feats of strength, and then sit back and watch him show her up, like the gifted genius he was. Unlike most others, Tenten had a way about her that welcomed anything, and the Hyuuga's incessant pride, stubbornness and constant higher ranking was among them. Instead of getting angry, like most others would, she saw it as an opportunity to grow, learn, and just hang out with one of her only close friends. Of course, her definition of a "close friend" was changed in Neji's case. Rather than thinking of a close friend as someone to spill all your secrets to, have long talks, and confide in, it was more of a makeshift kind of thing. Sure, she could talk to him, but everything had to be smart and challenging. Like, instead of a simple, "Hey, how are you doing?" it was "Hey, where the hell have you been?" or "What's that? Another battle scar?" The catch was to not be bothered by it, to shrug off any kind of hurt feeling and return just as expertly.
For Neji, it was a dangerous game. Don't let her know. God, don't let her know. She'll never respect you. It's weak. Don't let her know.
"So, how've things been in the rich suburbs?" Tenten asked. Unlike Neji, Tenten grew up in a middle-class family, and after the death of her father, her mother could hardly support them; she had lived in the slums since she was twelve. When Neji had come to visit her on Gai's orders, he had been shocked just to see the address. It was obviously the address of an apartment in the slums, although he had always thought she lived in a middle-class home, near the market. Tenten had answered the door with a smile, and said, "Hey, you want to go take a walk around?" "No." "Aw, you chicken? Poor rich kid suddenly pulled into the slums?" "No." "Okay then." She had stepped out and promptly looped her arm through his. He had not objected, mostly out of shock, and just let her lead him through the dirty streets.
As they walked, she had greeted just about everyone with a smile, comment or concern, and even invited one boy and a girl to walk with them. The girl was Keioko, an adventurous girl with a sharp eye for coins on the ground; she dressed in a dirty flowered dress, and walked on the hot cement in her bare feet. The boy was Radok, an older boy who, even though he was only fifteen, was already a jounin. This intrigued Neji, but he never had the opportunity to fight the young man. In any case, Radok was a strange boy who always spoke softly, stepped as if on clouds, and moved with an uncanny, wise swiftness.
Neji had been shocked at the slums. He had thought they would be full of criminals, horrible people, slackers and trailer trash, but most of them were people that were just dealt more hard knocks than most, and were just trying to survive.
Unknown to Tenten, she always did teach him little things like that. Like when she had been talking to him, and he had complained about Naruto; she had quickly snapped back that he didn't know for sure, and he was assuming more than he actually knew. Of course, he didn't admit that she was right, but she was.
He learned things from her too.
This memory brought a question to the surface.
"Are you still living with your mom?"
Tenten stopped mid-throw, and then tossed the kunai. "No. I'm living in the ninja apartments with Sakura, Ino, Shika and everyone."
"Where's your mom?"
"Since when did you care?"
"…Why can't you tell me?"
Tenten growled and turned to face him. "My mom is gone. She ran off, and no one knows why. We think she went back to her home village, okay?"
Neji was taken aback. So that's what was up. He shook his head, and started to walk towards the dartboard to pick up the kunai. Tenten just stood there, holding the last weapon in her fist, biting her lip. The Hyuuga never turned when she began to squint her eyes and bit harder into her lip, trying not to cry.
"It's amazing," she said aloud, "that I could kill a man, but I still cry about something as stupid as this."
He stopped at the sound of her voice, and stood stock still a moment, listening to her gasp, and the crunch of her knees as they hit the snow. Tenten never cried; in fact, this was only the second time he had seen her cry. The first was on the day of her visit to her father's grave. Master Gai had foolishly scheduled a training session that day. Tenten had showed up, seemingly fine, but when the session was almost over and she was about to go visit him, she had ran into the forest while Master Gai was lecturing suddenly, and collapsed behind a tree.
Within minutes, she was found by all three males, and Lee had wrapped his arms around her and pressed his cheek against hers, crooning. Gai and whimpered, and Neji had stood by, his face like stone, but a hurricane of questions running through his head. 'Should I come up to her?' 'Maybe I should do something special.' 'No, that's weak!' 'This is stupid…what do I care, anyway?'
Now her mom was gone.
And this was his chance to do what he never did when he was twelve.
His boots crunched as he turned and began to walk towards her fallen figure, with her face pressed into her gloved hands, and her body shaking.
"Tenten."
He knelt next to her, watching her shake with ever gasp.
"Oh, God, this has got…to be….so…embarrassing…how shameful….."
"It's not."
She acted like she didn't hear him.
"I-I-I'm just so afraid that I've…lost my mom too, not just my dad. I mean it's not like I have any other family to-"
"It's okay."
She looked up at him, shock written on her tear stained face. "You know what I just realized?"
"What?"
"You just showed concern for me."
He looked down, trying to make his cheeks not burn in embarrassment, but her face just lit up in a smile. Then she jumped on him, wrapping her arms around him, surprising the heck out of him. His eyes bugged a moment as he realized that she was wrapped around him, her eyes closed and her head against his.
Without thinking, he put his arms back around her, and just closed his eyes, taking in the moment.
She smelled like snow, metal and warm spices, and her face was soft against his. Her breathing was easy and when she leaned against him, she began to breathe in the same rhythm as he did, in, out, a easy, stead pattern. No wind whipped now, and the snow that had lay dormant for hours began to start falling again, making spots on their dark hair, and falling on her lashes.
How beautiful.
Hey ya'll!
Okay, that's my eighth installment! I tried to update faster, since I totally owe you guys for not writing for like, three weeks. I know it was short, but I really liked this one! Although it didn't go along with the tradition of every-day kind of feels, I still liked it. I needed something dramatic to happen in order for Neji to do something anyway! Also, I tried to give this couple a different sort of feel than the others. Neji tends to be very serious, and he's a genius in a different way than Shikamaru; sort of like Shikamaru and Sasuke blended together, I guess. And Tenten is just as smart and determined, and admires Neji a lot. So, I threw something together, thought about how they might interact and all that jolly good fun, and ta-da! The sarcastic, challenging, yet mysteriously sweet atmosphere.
Much thanks to my reviewers: warprince2000 (apparently you think my story is cool, all the time. Lol-sorry, I couldn't resist picking on you!), TimeShifter (I'll see what I can do about some more Naruto and Hinata chapters. I won't put them back-to-back, but I'll try to add them in more, since a lot of people seem to adore them. Was Hanabi the name of Hinata's sister?), AkiaBinZaid (Happy to make you feel special! And, thanks for your patience, and the nice comment about how fun this is to read! Warms my heart; truly, it does. Lol), animEvivvErz (YEA I THINK IT'S SWEET TOO! Lol-did you get it? Hey, um, were all those capitals because you forgot to press caps lock so you could get lower case again?).
Yea, I got four reviews; about an hour and a half for four people.
I'm just kidding-I love to write. It's not a problem; and besides, you guys make me feel great!
Thanks so much,
How you enjoyed chapter eight,
Merry Christmas (hey, it's ALMOST December!),
Please Review!
-IHearVoices