A/N: And here we have it, Chapter 2! I believe this is the quickest I've ever updated a chapter - sitting around avoiding work/your crochet projects at Christmas really does that to you. Hope everyone is having a lovely time whether that's celebrating with your family or just staying in on your own. :-)
Just to note - a lot of the Nejiten fics I've read on here (and absolutely adore and read time and time again) portray Tenten as quite 'timid' around Neji, and I always pictured her to be the opposite. For example, I've read a few instances where Neji doesn't reciprocate Tenten's feelings initially and it leaves her feeling really sad (understandably) but also 'skittish' around Neji if that makes sense? I always pictured her to be like 'Don't like me? Cool, I'm going to go off and date someone else. Cba with ur games' / doesn't get all tongue-tied or speechless when she's in his presence. Therefore, I've tried to channel that into this fic :-)
Enjoy!
Paperbound
x
Chapter 2
Tenten feels a sharp hipbone dig into her side.
''Can I squeeze past?''
For the sixth time that minute, she forces a grin and nods. ''Sure.''
Impatience fills her body as she observes the young woman walk past her to join the other working professionals ordering their morning coffee fix, their coats and bags bumping into each other with every movement. Reverting her tired eyes back to her phone, her weight shifts against the wall as she scans the headlines.
Scientists Discover New Type of Earthworm In-
Singer Deidara Releases New Track 'I Love Nail Pol-
How Much Weight Can You Really Lose this Christmas?
Lame. Maybe she should call Kankuro and ask how his morning is going.
Hyuuga Heir Makes Rare Appearance at Mitsuba Event
She stops scrolling and her slender finger poises over the headline.
November 10th, 2021
The nephew of Hiashi Hyuuga, the highly-respected CEO of Hyuuga Capital Group, was seen at a rare outing today at Mitsuba Hotels and Resorts' 50th Anniversary in the Azabu region of the capital.
The Hyuuga Capital Group, owned by the prestigious Hyuuga clan, was renowned in Japan as the most prominent investment banking group. It consistently climbed The Japan Times' top 5 richest companies and many graduates tried to get a job there upon graduating; securing an internship at Hyuuga Capital Group meant that you were set for life.
Long hours, no social life and an overly corporate work culture just didn't appeal to her. Not only was she not interested in high flying corporate investment banking, but Hinata never spoke about that aspect of her life during their college years.
As a result, the girls didn't know much about her dad's company except a) he was a really scary CEO and b) he was really, really rich.
Tenten scans the next few lines quickly in new-founded interest.
Neji Hyuuga, aged 25, is set to take over the elder Hyuuga's role within the next two years.
''Talk about someone your age being an overachiever…'' she mutters to herself before looking up to check on her order. With no sign of her matcha latte in sight, she returns to the article with baited breath; Hinata had never mentioned anything about a brother or a cousin.
The University of Tokyo graduate, who recently returned from a year-long work trip in Germany, was seen accompanying his uncle to the prestigious event. Hinata Hyuuga, Hiashi's daughter, was nowhere to be seen.
With the young Hyuuga now permanently back in Tokyo, it is thought that his uncle's retirement will happen earlier than expected.
Curiosity running through her veins, she scrolls down to the bottom of the page.
Aside from being known for their power and wealth, the Hyuuga clan were also known for being impeccably good looking and elegant. Perhaps he also looked like Hinata-
Ping!
Before she could even get as far as the top of the photo, a banner flashes at the top of her screen.
From: Kankuro
morning sweet. how did u sleep ? komaza went out last night and came back at 4am. he managed to topple the fridge...
Article suddenly forgotten, she clicks the message and chuckles upon reading the full story of his housemate's mishap. Nimble fingers move to formulate a witty response.
''Matcha latte?''
She hits send and moves to the front of the queue to grab the brown paper cup. Drink in one hand, phone in the other, she hurriedly glances at her watch.
7:53
It was only a three minute walk to her office (which was down one of the quieter streets in Shibuya) and if her luck would have it, she wouldn't be late for work. There may even be time to go to the bagel-
She suddenly knocks into something very hard.
"Oof!"
It turns out that balancing a hot drink in one hand and a phone in the other whilst simultaneously trying not to fall on tea spillage was really difficult. As she stumbles awkwardly, a vice-like grip grabs her elbow and it takes a few more seconds of hobbling before she regains her balance.
Looking in horror at her shoes, which were now covered in green liquid, a wave of disappointment flows through her.
''Sorry,'' she squeaks out, slipping her phone back into the safety of her pocket. ''I wasn't-''
Brown eyes come into contact with silver ones and suddenly she forgets how to breathe.
"-looking."
Oh, Kami.
The first thing she notices is that he's a Hyuuga. There was no mistaking those too-pale eyes that seemed as though they were studying the depths of her very soul, taking note of every shade of amber that slumbered in her eyes and storing it away for later use.
The second thing she notices as she's lowering her gaze to his jaw, clenched in what seemed to be mild agitation, is that she finds him incredibly attractive.
When Hinata told her stories of Hyuuga men constantly being hounded by fangirls and admirers, Tenten thought it was ridiculous and called the fangirls stupid. But now, as she fights the sudden intensity of lust she hasn't felt in a long time (sorry Kiba and Kankuro), she totally gets it.
He was really hot.
Aware that his death grip was still on her arm, she shakes it free before taking a step back. A small grimace forms on her face when she realises that the sleeve of his expensive-looking grey coat is now covered in remnants of matcha.
''Oh, god,'' she manages to grind out when she's done mentally calculating the hefty dry cleaning bill. "Your sleeve.''
He stops her with a frosty glance. ''It's fine,'' he says coolly, giving her outfit - a loose mint green button blouse, brown flared pants and a maroon trench coat - a slow onceover. His voice is smooth and toneless - every bit the strict upper-class upbringing the Hyuuga clan stood for - and she can't help but glance at those distinctively pale eyes again.
''Either way,'' she says with a sheepish smile, and she swears there's speckles of lighter lavender swirling in his irises, ''It was my fault.''
Before she even has time to offer to buy him a coffee to make up for her clumsiness, he walks away swiftly, leaving Tenten chewing on her bottom lip in thought. She looks down at her half-empty cup (or was it half-full?) and takes a slow sip.
Her day could only get better from here.
''Hey, Ten,'' Sakura says when she looks up from her laptop. She notices the way Tenten is panting and smiles. ''You wake up late?''
The brunette shoots her friend a childish look before sliding her backpack off her slender shoulders. ''Decided it was a good idea to stop at Pret,'' she mutters and shows Sakura the liquid stains at the hem of her shirt.
''Yikes,'' Sakura nods and takes a sip from her own Costa coffee cup, ''you're supposed to drink it,'' she emphasises with a gulp, ''not wear it, Ten.''
Pulling Ino's handkerchief out from her coat pocket, she aggressively wipes at her shirt and sighs. ''Why do bad things happen to good people?'' As she dabs away, images of the coffee shop stranger's intense stare fills her mind and she goes very quiet.
Sakura notices this. ''You good?''
She plops herself down on her desk chair. ''I think I ran into one of Hinata's relatives this morning,'' she mumbles and wipes the back of her neck. The aircon in the office was way too high.
''Oh, who? Hanabi?'' Sakura asks in mild interest.
Tenten shakes her head and takes her coat off. ''No, it was a guy.''
Green eyes light up in interest. If memory served her right, none of them (bar Hinata and Hanabi, obviously) had ever met another Hyuuga before.
They were a rare commodity, if you will.
''And?'' Sakura squeals. ''Did he live up to Hinata's stories about their groupies?''
Opening up her laptop, she slants her eager friend a sly smile. ''Truly. Sak, he was so good-looking. Like, so good-looking. I just think, how can so much wealth, brains and looks can be in one family?''
Sakura chuckles. ''Well, you know they're off-limits, right?''
''Yes, I know,'' Tenten says with a roll of her brown eyes, recalling Hinata's story about how she fought for Naruto to become her boyfriend, ''they all have arranged marriages with other Hyuuga women or pretty girls from other reputable families, yadda yadda.'' She takes another sip of her latte. ''Super tragic and constraining, if you ask me.''
''And that,'' Sakura says, going back to her desk, ''is the answer to your question.''
With a sigh, Tenten waits for the bright blue logo of Shiso Publishing to load on screen. Sakura, who is sitting to her left, is already typing away erratically with her headphones in, a look of determination on her face as she edits away at various Health and Nursing manuscripts.
Tearing her eyes away from Sakura's screen (there's only so many times you can look at the words 'vagina', 'fallopian tubes' and 'ischial spine' without getting bored), she glances to her right and sees Chouji from IT grabbing a packet of cookies from the snack jar. She contemplates joining him to make up for her bagel, but a tap on her shoulder quickly stops her train of thought right then and there.
''Ah, Tenten-san. I was looking for you.''
Feeling the presence of someone behind her, she glances up to see Shino, the marketing manager for her subject list (Psychology), peering down at her.
''Shino,'' she greets brightly, noticing that Sakura had taken an earphone out in mild curiosity. ''What can I do for you? Also, congratulations on the Twitter campaign for our Higashide title. I heard sales rose by 10%.''
He nods curtly, and Tenten is unsure if he's smiling behind the jacket that covers most of his face. ''Thank you. You did a great job ensuring it was published to a high standard.''
She offers a bashful nod in return. ''Thank you. Did you need me for anything?''
''Yes,'' he nods his head, and Tenten can almost see his eyes behind his dark glasses. ''If you are free tomorrow, would you mind accompanying me to a meeting?''
A confused expression makes its way across her features. She glances at her screen - which has now loaded - and bites her lip. ''Depends, what kind of meeting? I have a lot of work to catch up on.''
''I understand,'' he says, glancing at the 23 tabs that she had left open from the day prior. ''But I do recommend you join this meeting. Hyuuga Capital Group have plans to publish a book with our company, and we are holding meetings to determine which subject list would best suit the proposal.''
She turns to share a knowing glance with Sakura.
As she rattles through the countless reasons why Hinata refused to succeed her father in the business and instead chose a career as a book illustrator, she pauses in thought. If she was just going to be assisting on a publication in collaboration then she wouldn't be working directly for them per say, but she'd still be raking in royalties of the no-doubt high revenue of book sales.
''Sure,'' she eventually says with a sly smile. ''Count me in.''
The dark-haired man gives a brisk nod and bows. "Very well. I'll see you outside the Leaf meeting room at 10am tomorrow." With that, he turns and wanders back to the marketing department in the South Wing, where Ino was no doubt causing havoc.
"The Hyuuga Group?" Sakura's voice asks incredulously once Shino disappears out of earshot. Tenten turns around and sees her friend peering at her with an unreadable expression. "What on earth could they be publishing? How to Sell Your Soul and Become a Corporate Slave 101?"
Tenten snorts and moves herself closer to her desk. "Beats me," she shrugs, "but if my list can land this then we'll get a good Christmas bonus."
"Hmm, that's true," Sakura muses. "Imagine Hinata's surprise when she hears about this."
Grabbing a notepad with her mouse poised on Manuscript One out of fourteen, she grins. "Collab of the century, babes."
''And who knows?'' Sakura says before putting her headphones on once again. ''You might get some Hyuuga eye candy to ogle at.''
Heat floods to her cheeks and she glares at Sakura before whipping her head back to her laptop. As she clicks on the various tabs and types away at her keyboard, her mind slowly begins to drift to thoughts about the mysterious Hyuuga man she encountered that morning.
Off-limits. Off limits. Also, Kankuro.
With just the eensiest teensiest bit of disappointment in her face (she would never live it down if Ino or Sakura found out she momentarily became a Hyuuga-groupie), she reaches into her coat pocket and takes out her phone.
From: Tenten
Hihi kankuro, still coming by my office at 6 ? c u then x
''So, how was your day?''
The restaurant, a cozy place decked with Chinese lanterns and vintage Shanghai posters, was seemingly quiet for a Thursday evening in Roppongi. Aside from five other patrons spread out over two tables, the only other people present were the sole two members of staff on duty.
Tenten chews on her dumpling in thought.
''It was okay,'' she says as she watches another important-looking business man in a suit emerge from the small corridor at the back of the restaurant. ''Got a lot of my manuscripts done today, caught up with Sakura and Ino at lunch.'' She refocuses her line of vision back in front of her and leans in. ''Guess who Ino finally slept with?''
Kankuro, clad in a casual red Nike sweatshirt and navy blue jeans, puts down his teacup with a incredulous look. ''Don't tell me…''
''Yep,'' she says, popping the 'p' before shoving the last of her prawn dumpling in her mouth, ''Ino finally slept with the Sasori Fujioka.''
The senior book editor, a devastatingly handsome man who had been at the company for seven years and would glare daggers if you even dared to breathe his way, was a notorious tough cookie to crack.
But if anyone could do it, then of course it would be Ino Yamanaka.
''It was only a matter of time, right?'' Kankuro asks, breaking her out of her thoughts. She'd been so busy gnawing at her xiao long bao that she didn't realise he had placed his hand on hers gently to grab her attention. Glancing at their intertwined hands, an inexplicable feeling of uneasiness washes over her.
"I guess so. Whoever Ino wants," she explains with a precise stab at a dumpling for emphasis, "she gets, eventually."
He takes a swig from his beer. ''Fair.''
Random Mandopop music (Tenten thinks she recognises it as Jay Chou) mixed with the low noise of chatter from the table next to them fills the comfortable silence between her and her date, and she sips her tea in observation when she catches sight of another suave businessman.
''Does she ever talk about settling down?" His nimble fingers crawl up her hand and to settle on her bony wrist and Tenten feels her breath lodge in her throat.
"Nah. Our other friends are basically settled but that's not her vibe.'' She shrugs. ''Ino goes with the flow and it just happens she's just not met that special person yet."
His grip tightens. "And have you?"
"Hmm, have I what?" she asks whilst pouring herself another cup of Chinese jasmine tea. When he doesn't answer immediately, brown eyes look up to meet black ones and she licks her lips uneasily at the intensity of his gaze.
"Met that special person?" His brow creases in trepidation.
The look he's giving her is too much, and the shrimp dumpling suddenly feels too heavy in her mouth.
"Oh," she murmurs, freeing herself from his grip a little too quickly. Whatever reply she had on the tip of her tongue vanishes, and she finds she cant speak. "I…need to go to the bathroom. Excuse me.''
Without even sparing her date a second glance, Tenten hurriedly stands up. Fumbling her way across the restaurant and downstairs into the bathroom, she shuts the door behind her with a soft 'click'.
She frowns at her reflection - a girl with red cheeks and furrowed brows stares back at her - and she splashes some cold water on her face. Opening her bag with one swift motion, she grabs her phone and hits dial.
Ring ring...ring ring...
"Hello, Tenten-san?"
Upon hearing her friend's soothing voice, Tenten turns and relaxes her back against the wall. "Hinata, hi. How are you?"
"I'm fine - I'm just on the sofa with Naruto watching reruns of Friends-"
"Hiya, Tenten! What's happenin'?"
Tenten laughs upon hearing the loud voice of Hinata's college sweetheart. "Hi, Naruto. You better be taking good care of our Hinata."
"Eh?" she hears him call in offence, "Tenten, don't tell me you're underestimating my boyfriend duties! I treat Hinata like a queen, thank you very much!"
She rolls her eyes. "Yeah, yeah."
"Anyway, Tenten," Hinata begins, "did you need something?"
She sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose with her left hand. "I think Kankuro is going to ask me to be his girlfriend soon."
"Oh!" the voice on the other end croons, "that's great!"
"No, no," she sighs in frustration, "I don't know if it is. I mean," she glances at her frown in the round mirror, "he's a great guy and all, but I don't know if I see this as anything more. Plus," she internally grimaces at the failure of her last relationship, "I don't know if I'm ready yet."
"Oh, I see. Well, maybe you could give it a try and see if it's for you? Kankuro is really crazy about you."
Biting her lip, she contemplates this. From what she could gather, he really did care about her - the sex was pretty good, too.
"I don't know," Tenten says finally. "I also have so much to do at work. Oh, actually," she says with a sudden burst of excitement in her voice, "apparently your dad's company is publishing a book with us."
"Oh, really?" comes a happy voice on the other end. "That's wonderful! Father commissioned me to do the artwork but he didn't say which publishing company we were going for. Does this mean we get to work together?"
The brunette brushes a loose bang out from her face and huffs. "I don't know yet. I'm supposed to be going to an editorial proposal meeting tomorrow with some colleagues to determine which subject list will best suit the book." She pauses. "The Business Management and Economics lists will probably be a better match, so I'm not banking on it."
"Ah," Hinata says dejectedly on the other side of the line. "Well, you never know. Hyuugas can be unpredictable sometimes."
Tenten snorts. "I thought the whole Hyuuga thing was being obsessively meticulous and infuriatingly anal to change?"
Hinata giggles. "You'd be surprised, Ten."
"Whatever," she replies with a roll of her eyes, "I have to go. Kankuro's gonna think I've escaped out the bathroom window or something."
"Haha, okay, Tenten. Speak to you soon and good luck with tomorrow!"
"Love you, bye."
Hanging up with a swift click, Tenten smooths out her blouse before stepping out into the narrow hallway.
Maybe Hinata was right. Maybe she should just give-
The door to her left suddenly opens and Tenten finds herself being unceremoniously pushed against the wall, her shoulder blades just narrowly missing the wall lamp. She yelps in surprise.
Faint sounds of chatter permeate through the mahogany oak and Tenten suddenly realises that this was where the large private dining rooms for the important people were, and she was now eye-level and just mere inches away from a man's chest.
That explains the fancy businessmen walking around.
She tries to shuffle her way out from the human prison she finds herself in, but she runs the risk of stepping over his toes and - by default - his very expensive leather shoes. Nope, she was not having another mishap involving a potential hefty cleaning bill.
"I can't," she says with a nervous laugh, "move."
He doesn't say anything - merely stands there - and then she feels strong arms suddenly wrap around her. Their bodies are pressed so tightly together that she feels his muscles underneath his shirt and heat floods into her cheeks reflexively. Before she even has a chance to question what he was doing, he soundlessly spins them around so that her back faced the empty corridor once more.
''Thanks,'' she breathes when she finally has room to take a step back, ''talk about a narrow escape.''
He doesn't say anything. Noting the awkward silence, she finally looks up and freezes. Chocolate orbs meet pretty, pretty white moons, and she's suddenly in that coffee shop all over again.
Kami, please let me catch a break.
He was still as good-looking up close as she remembered from mere hours ago, she bitterly notes, and he was studying her with that unreadable expression again.
"Well," she's the first one to break the silence with a slight chuckle, "at least there wasn't hot coffee involved."
He doesn't react, although she swears she sees the faintest of smiles tug at the corner of his lips. When his hands return deftly to his side and he turns around to walk away, Tenten wonders if he even remembered her.
With a somewhat disappointed shrug (she isn't entirely sure why the small of her back felt cold all of a sudden), she brushes a strand of hair from her from her eyes and runs up the stairs.
By the time she returns to her table, Kankuro is already standing with her jacket in his hand.
''I already paid. Wanna head?''
She glances at her empty teacup and nods. ''Sure.''
He grasps her hand tightly in his and she's grateful that the collar of her coat hides the way she spares a glance over at the back of the restaurant before she leaves. Her fingers tighten her grip around his hand and she casts him a devious smile.
Maybe she just really needed to get laid.
A/N: hehe, tenten sure is punny