Unsaid

Neji had just flung his best shirt over a chair in his kitchen. He'd worn it because he knew his uncle was most comfortable when everyone was appropriately dressed - and by appropriate he meant well. Preferably indicating rank and family. But the truth was Neji was a little less comfortable in those clothes. He was also frustrated because his uncle had not told him anything and Neji was afraid to push too much in case it tipped their hand. The last thing he wanted to do was alert his uncle and sabotage Tenten's mission. Whatever it turned out to be.

Figuring Tenten would be at the archive for at least a few hours longer - that place was huge - he took a moment for himself and started cooking some water. Then he took some much-needed minutes for just himself.

The floor in his kitchen was good enough - all he needed was a flat surface. He sat down, crossed his legs and loosely rested his wrists on his knees. He took a couple of deep breaths, leaving eyes unfocused on the chair leg in front of him. He shifted his breath from his lungs to his stomach, so they became even deeper. Then he finally allowed himself to close his eyes.

The dark encased him but it was not empty. It was filled with so much feeling it made him feel a little sick. Guilt, attraction, love, frustration, panic, duty. His uncle sometimes rattled him and it didn't help that he'd gone to see him pre-rattled. The trick was to allow the feelings to occur and not try and suppress them. If you suppressed them, they just came back with a vengeance and you never found your calm.

He just had to accept that he was not the model nephew he had believed himself to be growing up. He had to accept that wanting to impress his uncle was still a reflex that came up every once in a while even though it wasn't in line with his priorities anymore. And that was ok. And he had to accept that he was in love with Tenten and there was nothing really to do about it; just because he felt a certain way didn't mean that she owed him anything. And that sucked. And it was ok to feel that way. What wasn't ok was taking it out on her.

Now that he had been reminded of these fundamental truths, he worked on finding his calm in this storm of emotion. He needed to find the blue sky behind all these pesky emotional clouds. He was reminded of what Tenten had said in bed yesterday. She never felt unsafe in his presence. The thought filled him with a calm warmth, a self-efficacy he hadn't realized he'd had. The firm knowledge that he never once lost his control around her helped him see the blue sky. It meant that all those exhausting feelings never got the best of him. When he opened his eyes, he was smiling.

Not for long though because his door flew open. Future Tenten had his spare keys since his place was pretty much her home for now. Tenten couldn't go live at her own home since her younger self currently resided there. The hectic energy that burst into his place was so unsettling, he got up off the floor immediately.

Before he'd gotten all the way up, Tenten was on him, slamming some paper onto his chest. Naruto not far behind her.

"Any idea what this is?"

Neji looked at what she'd presented him with.

"An engagement-?"

Tenten snatched it out of his hand and tore a different one out of her belt.

"Forget that. No, this."

"Paperwork to have something imported to Konoha?"

"Yes, but have what imported? Have you seen this? Were you around the day this was delivered?"

"What? No. I haven't been on speaking terms-"

"Did you see anything at the house recently? Something old or special? Anything on display? Anything he's proud of?"

"Yeah, a bunch of stuff-"

"Recently. Anything since after this date. Something that ain't there usually."

Neji felt a little overrun by all these questions. Tenten was so eager to get the answers she needed, he wasn't even allowed to finish his sentences. When he didn't have any more answers to give her and she still looked at him with hard features, he looked for support in Naruto, but he was not willing to lend any. In fact, Naruto stayed firmly behind Tenten. And then something not well thought through escaped.

"You're very bossy," Neji let slip.

Tenten frowned.

"No, I'm an agent on a mission and you've been commanded to assist me in it," she made clear.

"This is my job," she went on when both men just stared at her. Suddenly, Tenten didn't look so sure anymore and muttered:

"I think, at least."

Then she looked from Naruto to Neji and back, finally stating:

"Sorry… I think. I mean. I'm guessing I'm not in the habit of commanding anyone around yet, am I?"

Both men shook their heads.

"Huh." Tenten looked thoughtful for a second. "I think I just relearned something about myself. I think I am bossy. I definitely feel very comfortable bossing people around."

"So, you remember what you do in the future?" Neji asked.

Tenten made a face.

"No, not really. I just have a vague feeling that it's a good job."

Before Naruto could ask, Tenten shut him down:

"No, I'm not Hokage."

The blond wannabe-Hokage calmed down. Then Tenten shook herself.

"Anyway, I need you to go ask Hinata about whatever her father had shipped over here."

"Why?" Neji wanted to know.

"I don't know," Tenten admitted, which made both men frown again.

"All I know is that I have a really strong feeling that Category B of shipping is extremely important and I hardly doubt I'd be thinking that way about something so inane if it weren't tied to this mission. Just figure it out, will ya?"

She let Neji keep the paper. Then she turned around and gestured for Naruto to fall in step behind her.

"I'm getting back into the carriage. We need to deliver a report to Tsunade."

Then bossy Tenten walked out of his apartment as quickly as she'd burst in.

Three hours later no one was wiser. Neji was frustrated because his uncle thought his nephew coming to visit him so often in such a short time frame meant that he wanted to be part of the family again. Hiashi had even clued him in that this was exactly what he had been hoping for. When Hiashi had recruited Neji to transport the mysterious scroll, the clan chief had secretly hoped it would lead Neji to miss his family. That day - going to his uncle's house, seeing Future Tenten for the first time on his way back home - seemed like an eternity ago, even though it was anything but.

When his uncle clued him in, Neji had to bite his tongue to not divulge that he was really on a completely different mission now. Had to bite back that not everything was about the Hyūgas or their clan chief. So, after having to sit through an impromptu lavish lunch with his uncle in order to play nice and keep his real agenda secret, he decided that his uncle was not a good source.

Instead, Neji had switched to questioning Hinata. She was more trustworthy than his uncle and she had assisted him in investigations into the Hyūgas before. Of course he could not divulge any mission details - not that they were believable had he divulged them - but she also came up dry. Whatever his uncle had imported, he was not showcasing it or even talking about it, not even to the inner circle of his family.

When Neji headed back home, he was more worried than ever. Perhaps he could sneak a peek at the scroll's contents when he was transporting it and find out whether it might be related to any item that would fall under a Category B Shipping. Surely, if the scroll contained any hints as to a historical or cultural artefact, then he would be able to tell pretty quickly. Only problem was that he didn't leave for his uncle's mission until two weeks. He had no idea whether Tenten would have that much time here. She might not be able to wait that long. He wondered whether time travel had a time limitation and if so how many days he still had with her. To complete the mission, of course.

When he got home, he had just enough time to write up that complaint Tenten had asked him to draft. His Tenten, the other Tenten. He was running out of mental labels and starting to get a tension headache. Having one Tenten in his life was already more than he could handle; two was almost more than he could bear. He tucked the complaint draft into his pocket. Just in time because now bossy Tenten from the future was back. And she had a plan.

After inquiring into his research endeavors, Tenten divulged Tsunade's orders:

"So, we talked things over with Tsunade and since you guys couldn't find anything the other day and Neji's research today was also unfruitful, you're going back tonight to the Hyuuga compound. With me."

Tenten had been talking to Neji, Sakura and Naruto, crammed into Neji's tiny den.

"Sakura, you're going to be our first layer of security. I need you monitoring the house from the outside. If anything suspicious happens out there, I wanna know and we bail. Naruto, you're inside security. I need you always either one step behind or in front of us. If we go into a room, you stay at the door. If we're going through a hallway, I need you ahead of us, checking corners. We cannot be detected, understood?"

Both Naruto and Sakura were nodding.

"Oh, and Neji you're with me. I need you to help me make sense of everything. I can't read your uncle's writing."

"How do you know that?"

Tenten froze for an instance.

"Not sure. But I'm fairly certain."

The four professionals looked at each other. Then Naruto shrugged and Sakura smiled. Apparently, accepting that Tenten had knowledge that she couldn't explain was just another fact now. They agreed to get some rest and get ready and then meet back here in their gear at 2 am in the morning.

After Sakura and Naruto had left, Neji was left alone with her. He only looked at her for a heartbeat, taking in her mussed hair, the shadows under her eyes, the intent in her features. She was still standing where she had given everyone instructions, just now she was rubbing her temples.

"I'm going to hurry back to Tsunade," Tenten announced.

"Won't you be seen?"

"No, Naruto left the carriage. And you will take me."

Neji nodded silently. After transporting her all the way back to Tsunade, he went home again, only wondering a second or two what Tenten and Tsunade were up to. Then he reminded himself that it was not his place. Tsunade was his superior and she - or whoever else was Hokage in the future - had put Tenten in charge of this mission and he respected that. This was not about his ego or how involved he felt. This was about getting a difficult job done.

Once home, he went through his usual mission ritual. He worked out the key characteristics of the mission - stealth, speed, search - and on the basis of those determined what gear to pack. He went with his stealth outfit, all black and tight-fitting, and chose small close-range and throw weapons. He also added several chemi-luminescence sticks. They were ingenious devices that Neji loved to bring along on reconnaissance missions. The sticks had three compartments, two at each end with the chemical reactants and a catalyst chamber in the middle. When you squeezed the stick, it broke the barriers and the chemicals came together and the reaction produced a long-lasting light that burned with no heat. It was so small that it could be carried easily and the heatless light was perfect for reading paper documents as there was no risk of incineration.

After getting all that done, he sat on his sofa in the den and tried to meditate. His feet left the floor easily and folded up into triangles at his sides. It was easy for him to rest his wrists on his knees, letting his fingertips dangle. He was prevented from achieving peace of mind by an intruder. Or rather his house guest.

The apartment door opened and Tenten slid inside like a shadow. Obviously she had borrowed clothes from Tsunade. They were slightly too big but much less so than if Tenten had borrowed from Neji again. Her outfit mimicked his own with the exception that she wore a cloak with hers. Neji always found them hindering and could never get used to wearing one, but Tenten seemed to be one with the clothing item. In fact, there was a fluidity to her movement that he hadn't noticed about her yet.

Realizing that the Tenten he had just seen sneaking in was years ahead of the Tenten he knew, the discrepancy was easily explained. Still, it was fascinating to watch. Neji admonished himself for being surprised - Why wouldn't Tenten be a leader of great skill and efficiency in the future? She couldn't stay in his team, playing mediator to him and Lee forever.

Of course she was going to leave him. In fact, it was probably a good thing to not be her superior anymore. He wasn't impartial to her and that was not something a ninja should want in a leader.

Tenten swiped the hood of her cloak off her head and came over to where he was sitting. She stood across the space of the tiny little den, meeting his gaze almost expectantly. Was he supposed to ask her to sit down? Brief her on something? Ask her how her visit with Tsunade had been? She seemed to want to tell him something just then and a surge of emotion went through Neji; he desperately wanted to know what she wanted to say. But the urge to know subsided just as fast as it had arisen when Tenten seemed to change her mind; her whole demeanor changed, going from hesitantly intimate to business-like.

"Ready?" she asked instead of saying any of the things she had almost divulged.

Neji nodded.