Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. But... I own... err... the sliced pineapples I'm soon going to eat! XD
Inner Tsukiko: Oh no... you're in the random mood again?
Tsukiko: You bet! -thumb up-
Inner Tsukiko: Guess I'll have to resume my storywriting then... -sigh- And I thought I'd enjoy some rest today...
Tsukiko: Noo! I want to write this chapter!
Inner Tsukiko: Forget it. You'd be way too random if you did.
Tsukiko:-sulk- Okay, okay, then.
Neji's Birthday: Welcome to Dreamland! Part III
Neji felt his head ache when he awoke, this time for real. He rubbed his head and then his hands traveled to his short hair, just to assure himself that he wasn't dreaming. With a sigh, he realized it was reality when he could feel the roughly cut edges, which he had yet to fix.
Suddenly, he heard muffled sobs outside, and a familiarvoice mutter: "Baka... Neji no baka... if he at least came out..."
For a moment, Neji got angry. Don't call me baka! he thought, but then his expression softened, and changing clothes, he slowly opened the door so he wouldn't surprise Tenten. Still, it did.
Immediately feeling a chakra approaching, Tenten jumped up with a kunai in her hands. Neji just smirked amusingly when she looked, shocked, at him.
"Hey, I didn't open the door just to fight", he said, still smirking.
"N-N-Neji", she stammered, sounding quite like Hinata when doing so. Neji didn't say anything, but his smirk got wider as he closed the door behind him.
"You wanted me to come out, didn't you? Calling me baka too...", he continued, when she didn't say anything, just putting her kunai back with a still surprised face. But at the mention of calling him baka, her cheeks turned pink.
"Um... well... I... er...", she began, but he sat down on the doorstep, and motioned at her to sit down too.
"I get it, I get it. Just sit down, 'kay?" he said with a more serious tone. Stopping with her stammering, Tenten resumed to her sitting at the doorstep. Both were quiet for a while, until Neji looked, astounded, at his surroundings.
"It's already evening?" he said in disbelief.
"Yeah, you didn't know? I bet you were probably sleeping in there, didn't you? I heard you... snoring...", she giggled. Neji hid a blush of shame. Snoring? That was just so unlike himself. It must have been because of the dream. But he was glad he hadn't been talking in his sleep, or even worse, walked in his sleep.
"And you've been sitting here all along?" he asked, ignoring her giggles.
Tenten stopped her fit of giggles and looked serious again. "Yeah..."
"You haven't eaten lunch? Dinner? What's the time, anyway?" he said, and found himself doing another un-Neji-like thing- asking so many questions at once.
"No... but I've been through worse, haven't I?" she said with a little smile.
"And that's why you were crying before?" he asked in a low voice, looking at her with his serious, white eyes.
"I..." Tenten hesitated. "I just didn't want you to be angry with me for too long. I know I was being, you know, weak and girlish and all that stuff, but I don't like when you're mad with me. Besides, you are much more angry with me now than you were with me last time when I chopped off your hair because of a bug."
"Aa." Neji stared at the starlit sky, and at the fireflies around them.
"But.. you aren't angry with me now, are you?" Tenten said, smiling broadly, and then her smile faded away slightly, and she added unsurely: "... Right..?"
"Yeah... uh, Tenten." Neji felt slight discomfort when Tenten turned her large, hazel eyes towards him. "SorryIwasmadwithyou."
"What?" she repeated, looking confusedly at him. "Neji... talk slower."
"..." Neji frowned. He didn't want to repeat that again. Noticing his frown, she shrugged.
"Oh well, never mind. I bet it wasn't anything important anyway. And, you know, when you were inside, you missed a lot of stuff... you know, I heard a rumor that Uchiha Sasuke - can you believe it, the ice cube Uchiha Sasuke - agreed going on a date with Haruno Sakura for once. That's just totally weird, don't you think? And..." Tenten began ramble about how unbelievable it was that the two opposites had begun dating, awaking the annoyance in Neji; what was so important with it anyway? If Uchiha so decided to date Hokage-sama he wouldn't care. He could date anyone he wanted to...
... except one girl, of course, Neji added in his mind. Not Tenten.
"And when we got to know it, Lee got totally depressed and Gai-sensei was just weird again and -"
"Sorry."
"What?" Tenten stopped abruptly, staring at him."Say what?"
Why is she so slow on getting things? Neji thought, irritated. "I said 'sorry'."
"'Sorry'? You mean 'sorry' as in 'sorry, I didn't get it'?"
"No", Neji sighed, "I mean sorry as in 'I'm sorry for what I said' or 'I'm sorry for what I did'."
"What?"
"I'm sorry that I was so rude and sour and angry and... yeah, you get it, don't you?" he said, hoping sincerely she did. And, judging by her face, she had, because she was smiling softly.
"Neji, you don't need to apologize, I knew you'd get angry anyway. Only a perfect person wouldn't be angry if that person's hair would be chopped off like that."
Neji felt slightly hurt. "I'm not?"
"I'm not what?"
"I'm not perfect?"
Tenten laughed. "Of course not, silly. There aren't any perfect people in this world. You're not perfect, I'm not perfect, nobody's perfect."
Neji's smirk returned again. "But, Tenten..."
"Aa?" Tenten looked at him, still smiling.
"There is a perfect person in this world..."
"Really?" Tenten looked puzzled. "Who?"
"... at least, for me, there is."
"And who is he?"
"She", he corrected her. "Or rather... you."
Tenten's eyes widened, half in confusion, half in astonishment, but she didn't say or anything. Or move. And he leaned closer...
... and closer...
... and he saw her eyes close...
... and Tsukiko and Inner were watching in a bush nearby, smirking to see the result of their "dream-making"...
... until...
"Yo. What're you two doing?" a certain silver-haired jounin said with a smirk underneath his black mask when he suddenly appeared from nowhere beside them. Tenten's and, amazingly enough, Neji's cheeks became a deep color of magenta.
"K-K-K-Kakashi! What the hell are you doing here?" Neji snarled.
"Well, I was thinking I'd come around and convince you to come out from your room, like Gai and me had decided, since he said he bet that I wouldn't be able to make you do it, but apparently I don't need to since you're already out", Kakashi explained boredly. "Now can you tell me what was going on?"
"Nothing that concerns you!" snapped Neji, even redder in the face.
"Oh, oh, I get it. I should leave you alone, right?" he said with a mischievous sparkle in his eyes. "Fine, I get the message. Ja!" He winked and poofed out of sight.
"That... that... that..." Neji struggled to find a word that'd express his anger for Kakashi. "That pervert!"
"Um, Neji...", said Tenten shyly, catching his attention again. She was flushing cutely.
"Never mind what I did before", Neji sighed. "It was just..." He hesitated. "Nothing."
"Oh." Was it just his imagination, or did she seem disappointed? "Okay."
Then she stared at him in awe. Neji looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "What're you staring at?"
"Neji... have you just realized that your hair..."
"My hair?" Neji looked nervous.
"Your hair... it has... it has grown? It's just as long as before."
"What?" Neji stared at her. "You're kidding, Tenten."
"I'm not. Go and look in the mirror yourself."
"Fine, I will."
An awkward silence followed.
"Um... well, Neji. I think I've gotta go before my parents wonder what the heck I'm doing not coming back even though it's midnight already", she said, slightly uncomfortably, arising, when she suddenly felt something grab her wrist.
Looking surprised, she saw it was Neji's hand.
"Hey, Tenten", he smirked. "You're free tomorrow, aren't you?"
"Uh... yeah?"
"You wouldn't mind... hanging around with me a bit?"
Tenten just stared. "You mean... like... going out?"
"Yeah. Something like that."
She beamed. "Oh, sure!"
"Let's meet at... Ichiraku 10 a.m.?"
"Okay!" He let go of her wrist. "See you then, Neji! Bye!"
And she soon disappeared out of sight, walking away from him. Heaving a sigh, Neji arose, but then felta soft breeze tickle him in the neck... and he could feel his hair lifting up, flying behind him before he closed the door with a smirk.
I guess my birthday wasn't that bad, after all, he thought.
The End
Tsukiko: YAY! I'm done!
Inner Tsukiko: You mean I am done.
Tsukiko: Yeah, yeah. I just hope this chapter wasn't too OOC.
Inner Tsukiko: Maybe it was. I don't know. -thinks-
Tsukiko: Anyway, July 23rd is Sasuke-kun's birthday, so next birthday fic should probably be released then! (If I don't find another character's birthday of course, and decide to writea birthday fic about him/her too.) But if you want to read more fics by me... then The Curse of OOCness will soon be released, and every third day a chapter of This Is (Not) My First Time will be released too. So until next chapter... ja ne!
Reviews Corner
Mea823: Actually, it's the original (?) version of Beauty and the Beast. ;)
Thanks for all the reviews I got:)
Thanks to all reviewers: Cliff Hanger and Pluki-Kun, Twilightwing, angellive, doometh, and Mea823!
