Four weddings and a funeral – Chapter 5
Ino and Sai's wedding
6 months later
And indeed, those six months have been long and arduous for both of them. One can only take so much of video calls and sexting until they feel like going mad because their significant other is thousands of miles away.
"Is she there yet?" A screaming voice erupted from Neji's phone.
"No, Ino." He said exasperatedly.
"I'm going to kill her." The blonde grunted.
Neji rolled his eyes. "It's not her fault her plane got delayed twelve hours."
He proceeded to ignore her monologue on everything that was not working properly on the day of her wedding day, mainly one of her best friends not yet present at the Church when Ino was to be wed in less than an hour.
"Ino," Neji said, his mind entirely raptured by the sudden appearance of two twin buns. "I have to go. Tenten just arrived."
"Ok, but-"
He hung up before Ino could complete her sentence. Ignoring his surroundings and the shouting of reuniting people, he took long, purposeful strides to the woman he had yearned to enlace for so long.
Her searching eyes instantly lit up when she finally spotted him advancing rapidly towards her.
"Ne-!"
His lips crashed onto her, hungry and desperate for what they couldn't have been able to feel for far too long. She dropped her bags and wrapped her hands around his neck as he found her hips, and she could feel his strong, firm hold bringing her closer to him.
Finally, pulling back slightly to breathe, he rubbed his nose against hers: "I have your bridesmaid dress with me." He whispered.
With that husky tone, Neji could have said anything, and it would have melted her insides and lit her on fire.
"And also, Ino wants to kill you."
Yes, even that too.
"She always does." She gave a devil-may-care smile before pulling him back for a kiss.
"Yes, I know, Ino!" Tenten yelled as she shimmied her shorts and panty down, trying to change in the backseat of Neji's car.
"You better be here in twenty minutes," The shrill voice of Ino coming for the speakerphone resonated through the car. "Or I'll carve you up with your own weapons."
Tenten stifled a laugh, exchanging an amused glance with Neji. "If I don't make it on time, I'll even suggest the sharpest weapon myself."
Ino huffed. "Where are you now?"
"Leaf street and Kage avenue," Neji replied patiently. "We should be here in fifteen." He tried to reassure the anxious bride.
"Sakura's dress has been ruined because Sarada vomited on it." Ino continued to complain. "I swear I should have married first. It sucks when all your friends are mothers." She wailed. "And the only one that should have been the easy-to-deal-with celibate had to run off to the other side of the world."
Tenten could feel Ino's murdering glare through Neji's cellphone.
"Almost there," Tenten groaned and puffed. It was really not as simple as it looked to change in one's backseat.
Alerted by the strange respiration pattern of her friend who struggled to change in the tiny space of Neji's car, Ino shrieked: "You better not be having sex in the car!"
"Ino," Neji gave her his most icy one. "How could we do that? I am driving."
She scoffed. "With you two, anything is possible. You're like two horny bunnies frolicking around."
"Frolicking?" Tenten gave a raspy laugh as she tried to zip down her dress that got stuck in the middle.
"The stain is gone!" Tenten could hear Sakura yell in triumph.
"I always have some Tide-to-go on me because of Boruto." Hinata's soft voice could be heard.
"Is she here yet?" That was Sakura.
"No," Ino grumbled. "They're fucking in the car."
"While on the phone with you?" Hinata wondered, disbelieving.
"Everything is possible with them" Tenten could hear the smile in Sakura's voice.
Annoyed, Neji decided to intervene: "For fuck's sake, we are not having sex-"
As Neji said that, Tenten extended her leg to pull her pantyhose but at the same time gave Neji a kick on his chin which made him groan at the sudden pain and made her gasp at her clumsiness.
But all the girls heard were a groan and a gasp.
"Ah yes, definitely having sex," Hinata concluded, and Ino wailed her heart out.
"Isn't it impolite for a bridesmaid to be that beautiful?" Neji smirked, twirling Tenten around on the dancefloor. "Aren't you supposed to be ugly so that you don't outshine the bride?" Neji asked, joking but still awed at how when Tenten entered a room, all the other women paled in comparison to her.
Ino wanted a Great Gatsby-themed wedding, and the young Hyuga had difficulty believing anyone could be as ravishing as Tenten in a flapper dress.
But something else hit him when her eyes caught the shimmers of the immense crystal chandelier above them. As fabulously breathtaking as Tenten was, she was mainly incredibly witty, funny, smart, easy-to-be with, fantastic to talk to, unapologetic of her opinions and convictions. Above all, she had an irresistible bright mind, which helped her be curious and engage daringly with her surroundings. And all this combined made her all the more precious to Neji.
Tenten laughed. "I doubt anyone could outshine Ino, literally."
She grinned, and they turned around to see Ino, in her tightly fitted mermaid dress on which more than ten thousand rhinestones and pearls had been handsewn by the platinum blond designer herself.
The bride was happily swaying in the arms of her new husband, Sai, at the complete opposite side of the dancefloor. Tenten gave a soft smile a seeing her usually wound up friend so relaxed and overjoyed.
"Now that I think of it," Neji pursued. "I have seen you far more in a bridesmaid dress than any other outfit.
Tenten raised a brow, trying to recall their encounters and, if she didn't count their multiple online dates while she was abroad, she had to reach the same conclusion he did. It was crazy how she barely knew this man a year ago, except out of stories Hinata told her. And now, she felt he was the human being she connected to the most.
She clicked her tongue playfully. "Well, what can I say, always bridesmaid, never the bride."
Neji's eyes had this strange light play to them, a mix of desire and fear and longing; if she didn't know better, she might have said of hopeless love.
"Well, maybe we should remedy that." He replied softly, his eyes deeply burrowed in her surprised ones.
"Are you…" Tenten gave him her best teasing side smile. "Are you proposing to me, Neji Hyuga?"
And before Neji could reply, they both turned around, startled at the sudden appearance of Ino, who appeared to have dance-dragged a poor Sai all the way across the dance floor :
"Did I just hear something about a proposal?" Ino exclaimed right next to them. Sai gave Neji an apology look as if saying, 'I tried to stop her.'
Tenten laughed nervously. "No, no. We simply-"
"Because I wouldn't mind." Ino interrupted rapidly. "Normally, I wouldn't want anyone trying to upstage my wedding with a proposal. Very disgraceful." She scrunched up her nose. "But if you two did…" She trailed, setting her sharp icy blue eyes on Neji. "That'd be the best wedding present ever!" She beamed.
"Did I hear something about a proposal?"
Neji and Tenten, alarmed, looked on the other side where Hiashi suddenly appeared dragging-more-than-dancing an overwhelmed Goichi who received an empathetic look from Sai.
"Not yet," Ino grunted. "I did suggest he could propose right here and then, said I wouldn't mind."
Hiashi beamed. "How gracious of you." Turning to glare at his nephew: "So why haven't you done so yet?" He asked archly. "Wasting our time and all."
Neji sighed, and before he could retort something, Naruto had twirled a hurried Hinata to the assembled group.
"Did we miss it?" She panted, eyes wide. "Did we miss him propose to her?"
"He did not." Hiashi's lips were pressed in a thin line.
"I told them they could." Ino specified again.
"You should forget it, Ino." Sakura chimed in, slowly waltzing to her friends in Sasuke's arms.
"Everyone knows Neji and Tenten's specialty is hooking up in a closet." Sasuke completed Sakura's thought.
"Or the outdoor stairs of a hotel." Naruto supplied.
"Or the beach," Shikamaru danced to the couple, a smirking Temari in his hands.
"We could definitely hear a lot of things from our villa," Temari added.
Sakura clicked her tongue. "Insatiable those two."
"Even at a funeral," Hizashi winked at his son, waltzing in the circle forming around the two with his new girlfriend.
"Neji, you have grown so much!" Said girlfriend exclaimed. "Is this your wife?" She pointed to Tenten.
And every couple who had been slow dancing around them exclaimed in unison: "No!"
Neji and Tenten sighed heavily, feeling suddenly claustrophobic surrounded by so many meddlesome people all at once. People were also starting to look at them funnily, some wondering if this was some sort of cultural dance or a new Tik Tok challenge they have yet to hear of.
"Good evening, Dr-, I mean Shizune-san." Neji greeted amiably, all the while trying to find an opening so he and Tenten could escape.
"Wait!" Hanabi's voice echoed behind. At this point, she and Konohamaru were simply walking on the dancefloor, not even bothering to pretend to dance. "Is it 'roasting Neji and Tenten because they aren't engaged yet' time?" She asked excitedly, holding her fiancé's hand.
"Precisely," Hiashi replied dryly.
"And this is our cue to go," Neji whispered to a nodding Tenten.
As they exited the ballroom, they could hear Ino shout: "Please get engaged at my wedding instead of hooking up in a musty closet!"
As it turns out, Neji and Tenten did not hook up in a musty closet, but in Neji's car, self-actualizing the prophecy the girls had earlier discussed while Tenten was changing in the car.
When they came back, Ino was preparing herself to throw her bouquet at dozens of tipsy women. They took their usual seats at a table on the outskirts of the dancefloor where they could enjoy the spectacle while exchanging whispered derisions, laughing and leaning unto one another.
"Ino is going to be so mad at you for not trying to catch the bouquet," Neji smirked.
"Well, she's got to be mad about something," Tenten replied with a similar smirk.
"You still have time to join the hordes of women… and my uncle." He gave a confused look at his uncle who was mouthing to Neji 'This is for you.'
"And miss my chance to be a bridesmaid again?" Tenten gave a mock-gasp.
Neji smiled. "I don't think I would let you be a bridesmaid for long. That's way too dangerous."
"Is that so?" She raised a brow.
"Yes, absolutely." He said firmly, a smile threatening to erupt on his lips. "Groomsmen nowadays are a very risky business."
"So, I've heard." Tenten agreed, her playful eyes looking at him over the rim of her glass.
And something incredible happened that, years later, everyone would qualify as divine intervention.
As Ino threw her bouquet to the raging crowd, the people who rushed to try and catch it, in the midst of the commotion, only succeed in slapping it like a volleyball, deviating the trajectory of the bouquet.
Tenten and Neji were chatting and laughing pleasantly, completely oblivious to the crowd who held its breath, eyes glued to the big and heavy bouquet of blushing peonies and ivory hydrangeas flying over the dancefloor.
It's only when something very big, soft, surprisingly heavy and very fluffy landed in Tenten's lap, who jerked back in surprise, that both Neji and Tenten realized that the ballroom had grown deadly silent and that everyone was looking at them with wide-eyed stares.
The deafening silence was broken after what seemed like an eternity by the ear-piercing shrill squeals of Ino. The blonde's excitement was soon accompanied by Hinata's and Sakura's own shouts, as well as Temari's whistle.
Tenten looked at Neji, then at the bouquet, then at Neji.
Neji looked at Tenten, then at the bouquet, then Tenten.
Then, they both erupted in broad grins.
Neji smiled playfully. "I, for one, was always of the belief one shouldn't fight fate."
"I wouldn't dare to." Her eyes gleamed with hope.
With his heart bursting at the seams with unadulterated joy, he cupped her cheek to kiss under the erupting cheers of their family and friends.
