There was a little of each of those things in Neji's question, but she doubted he'd feel comfortable getting so personal with most people. Things were different between them.
He didn't really specify what he meant, nor did he need to. The object of Neji's question lay in a bedroll in the next room. Their teammate on their recent mission in Bird Country. Naruto Uzumaki. The ninja academy 'drop-out' who had defeated Neji Hyuuga.
And the vessel for the Kyuubi.
Tenten nearly flinched at that thought. Her aunt had died during the Kyuubi's attack. She almost wished Neji hadn't found out. Or that Neji hadn't told her, but if he didn't tell her who would he tell? It explained how Naruto beat Neji after enduring the sixty four palms. Why Jiraiya of the Sannin took Naruto on as an apprentice... And why the adults treated the innocent looking blue eyed boy the way they did.
She sighed. "You were right. It doesn't seem to affect him... Or if it does, that doesn't really matter. He's a good kid."
Neji smirked in response. For him, that was a ringing endorsement. Your typical kunoichi would have figured his sudden friendship with Naruto was due to that inexplicable male phenomenon that occurred sometimes after they beat each other half to death. Not something she felt toward Temari, that was damn certain.
And maybe the fight was a small part of it. Tenten knew, however, that the larger source of Neji's sympathy rested on the fact that Naruto DID have the Kyuubi sealed within him. And that the boy suffered as a result.
People who didn't know him well tended to think that Neji's resentment of the Main house was an uncomplicated thing. They looked at the events of the chuunin exam preliminary and figured that his grudge was one-dimensional. That he simply hated the Main House of the Hyuuga for putting the punishment seal on him, and would just as soon see them all dead.
Even some of those who had grown to know him after his little revelation at Naruto's hands figured he used to think that way. That was stupid. It hadn't been Hinata's position in the Main House that had provoked Neji into a real rage, or even her defiance. It had been the insight into her cousin's suffering. Stoicism wasn't just a philosophy for Neji Hyuuga, it was a survival mechanism. Revealing the pain he pretended not to feel... That had been the provocation.
The fact was, the Main House by necessity wasn't as large as say... The Uchiha clan. And the punishment seal was a stupid idea in the first place. If Neji had really hated the Main family enough to want to kill them, poison gas or explosive tags could have put an end to things in one night. He could have done it as a child. Humans were frighteningly fragile creatures in the end.
Tenten didn't know for certain, but she expected the situation was a bit like Naruto and the villagers who had feared and hated him. Neji resented the Main family, but even moreso he wanted to prove himself. Prove that they were wrong to look down on him. And somehow rise above their ideas of his inferiority and servitude, just as Naruto wanted to become Hokage and rise above the resentment of the villagers.
For the longest time, Neji had thought that such an idea was impossible. That was where the real anger in his past came from. But if nothing was impossible... If he really could escape his fate as a member of the Branch family? That changed everything.
For one thing, it had opened certain options in the Hyuuga prodigy's mind as to the future. Their future. Tenten gave her teammate a thoughtful and rather fond look. "So... Do you really think he can become Hokage?"
Neji nodded, a small but confident smile on his face. "Believe it."