Disclaimer: Naruto belongs not to me. Nor to you. Yet I encourage everyone to write more fics! Why? Why the hell not?
On Neji's fifteenth birthday, to celebrate the new, more open, more mentally-stable person Neji had become after his turning-point match with Uzumaki Naruto in the Chuunin exams – and maybe because they no longer feared being severely beaten for their presumption – Gai and Lee had arranged a surprise birthday party for the Hyuuga boy.
Well, it was the brainchild of Gai and Lee, but you couldn't really say they had arranged it; Tenten had ended up riding guard over the two enthusiastic party-givers, constraining the amount of green used, vetoing most of the weirder items on the menu, soothing horrified caterers, running around with invitations and warnings not to show these invitations to anyone else, and basically running the show from the background.
Moreover, she had to do all this while keeping up with her regular sparring/training/humbling (as she privately thought of it) sessions with Neji, so that he wouldn't suspect anything.
So by the time the actual party – held, with Hiashi-sama's permission, on the Hyuuga grounds – came around, Tenten was too exhausted to be very lively. She was content to stand quietly, sipping green punch (the two Beasts had prevailed that much) and watching amusedly as the party-goers laughed and danced and talked. She had a long, interesting discussion with Nara Shikamaru about alternative uses of weapons in combat situations, until an irritated-looking blonde kunoichi dragged him off; she made the acquaintance of several of Neji and Hinata's cousins, Branch and Main House both, and discovered that it was possible for Hyuugas to be loud and/or cheerful; and in her one burst of physical activity, she helped Uzumaki Naruto (who was visiting from his three-year training journey) tackle Inuzuka Kiba to the ground when they spotted him trying to spike the punch. They both lectured him on the grave dangers of a drunken Lee, although Tenten left when Naruto eagerly suggested just keeping the liquor for themselves.
Finally she removed herself to a dark, still corner of the gardens for some peace and quiet. She leaped lightly upwards into the spreading branches of a tall, undoubtedly ancient narra tree, settling herself comfortably in the nook formed by the y-spread of two leafy boughs.
She let her head fall back against the tree-trunk, already feeling a sleepy languor settle over her. Somewhere in the back of her mind was a faint uneasiness about falling asleep in the middle of the party, with no one knowing where she was and no one to wake her lest she sleep till morning in the middle of the Hyuuga grounds. Still, that concern counted for little against the weight of her sleep-deprived eyes.
She drifted into a deep, exhaustion-drugged sleep. Her usually impeccable shinobi-trained senses were muffled underneath a deep blanket of slumber, to the point that someone landing on the branch, causing it to dip and sway under the new weight, didn't even cause her to wake, even though normally the mere presence of someone close enough to the tree would have snapped her into weapons-ready alertness. It took a hard shaking of her shoulders to rouse Tenten from her sleep, something which almost frightened the one who had to do it.
She emerged from sleep slowly, like someone pushing through a thick fog; she blinked eyes dazed with sleep, stretched, almost fell out of her little tree-nest if not for the strong grip on her shoulder. Jolted a little more into the waking world by her near-fall, Tenten reflexively yawned as her eyes tried to focus on the person next to her.
"Neji?" she murmured sleepily, one hand coming up to rub at her eyes. She blinked at him, still seeing nothing but a bleary outline.
"You've been here all this time." Neji's voice was flat, but Tenten decided to take it as a question and explain herself.
"Well…I was tired, and it was so noisy, and it was so quiet here…anyway it's not like I've been here all night, I talked to Kiba-kun and Naruto-kun and Shikamaru-kun and Hinata-chan and Hiro-kun and Heiji-kun and…" she babbled sleepily, the filter between her thoughts and her voice temporarily removed by drowsiness.
"You met my cousins?" Neji's voice, this time, had a definite note of surprise in it.
"Mm, yeah. Hiro-kun kinda reminds me of you, only, you know, his hair is short…Heiji-kun is sweet. He's adorable! So cute…"
"I…I haven't seen you. At the party. I saw them, but not…I didn't see you."
Tenten yawned again, and turned over for a more restful position, leaning her head against a warm, surprisingly comfortable surface. "I saw you at the beginning," she murmured, beginning to fall back asleep. "Surprise! Face…all surprised…" Her eyes drifted closed.
Neji held very still, afraid to move for fear of waking her. He found himself controlling his breaths.
His carefulness was rendered moot when a loud explosion suddenly erupted from the direction of the party they had left behind, jolting both ninja. Tenten really did fall off the tree this time, Neji having to haul her back into the branches by main strength. Tenten panted slightly, adrenaline from her sudden waking and her equally sudden fall shocking her into awareness.
"What was that!"
The veins near Neji's eyes bulged as he activated his Byakugan, peering in the direction of the party. "Someone…someone set fire to the punchbowl?" he said blankly. "Wait...those idiots. Uzumaki and Inuzuka." He growled. "They had better have a good explanation as to why they're running around half-naked and painting themselves like savages. And also – how did they get fruit punch to explode? Dammit," he swore, uncharacteristically. "Now Hinata-sama's gone and fainted."
Tenten couldn't help but giggle. "Poor Hinata," she said, grinning. "Two hot guys running around half-naked. Oh how she suffers." She threw back her head and laughed a little more, not noticing the suddenly intense stare Neji fixed on her.
"You didn't give me a birthday present," he said suddenly, cutting off her laughter, and she swiveled to stare at him. "I looked at the presents on the table," he said, nonchalantly acknowledging his use of Byakugan for his own purposes, "Lee got me leg-weights and Gai got me another green suit. Naruto got me coupons to ramen. You didn't give anything."
Tenten gaped, too astounded by his bluntness and lack of tact to feel much else. And perhaps it was the lack of sleep – or maybe it was because he'd been so different lately, more open, less…less unhappy – or maybe it was a memory…
"Why?" Why are you giving me this? Why do you care?
"Because. I'm glad you were born."
…but in the end, she didn't snap at him, or point out that she'd already dedicated a significant portion of her time and effort to arranging him a party, or remind him of what he did with her last presents.
No, in the end, she pulled an answer from thin air.
"I...I was meaning to bake you a cake! But…but it's not yet done!" she half-yelped, pulling away from him. "I'll give it to you tomorrow," she promised, trying not to fidget.
Neji studied her with those pale Byakugan-eyes, and Tenten fought against the urge to wince away, waiting for the inevitable accusation: "Liar."
But it never came, and instead Neji just jumped down and began to stroll casually back to the party. "I'll be looking forward to it," he called back, over his shoulder, and Tenten slumped back against the tree-trunk.
As a point of fact, Tenten was not at all a bad hand at the kitchen; but she had never before tried to bake a cake, though she was perfectly capable of dishes such as yang chow fried rice, sesame-seed dumplings, and shabu-shabu noodles. Desserts and confections, however, had never been necessary in her life. Still she sallied forth, bravely, with eggs and flour and milk at her side.
She had long ago passed the point of mere coffee (the new western drink that was a closely-guarded, jealously-kept secret of the burners of the midnight oil, such as herself) being enough to keep her awake, and instead scoffed handfuls of chocolate-covered coffee beans. Usually one handful was enough to give her a boost of energy that made Lee seem restrained; now each bean was like a little coin, buying mere awareness for minutes.
She failed several times, over-pouring the milk, adding bacon – she had no idea why – to the batter, falling asleep as it baked so as to end with a lump of black carbon, substituting salt and pepper for sugar and cinnamon. These mistakes were born more out of her increasingly desperate need to close her eyes rather than any ineptitude; still, she ended up staying in the kitchen until the night-sky began to lighten from black into deep blue. She gazed blearily at the less-than-perfect (it was somewhat lopsided) but-edible cake that had formed in her oven, then fell asleep leaning against the oven's glass door.
She jerked awake with a startled oath at the shrill blare of her alarm clock. She flew upstairs and smacked the evil thing hard enough to send it into the wall – it merely bounced onto the floor, smugly unharmed.
After several incidents of Tenten having subconsciously skewered alarm clocks with the kunai she always tucked beneath her pillow, her team had pitched in and gotten her a special, nigh-indestructible model with an obnoxiously loud alarm. Neji had only just managed to convince Gai and Lee to refrain from recording a loud message of YOUTH and HARD WORK and leaving it with the traditional bell.
Tenten hated it, but was too touched by her teammates' thoughtfulness to do anything but set it, dutifully, every day. (Also they had threatened to fetch her themselves the next time she overslept).
And it was a good thing, too, because now she had to scramble if she wanted to make it to the training-grounds before Neji lost his patience and began destroying the local wildlife. The Evil Alarm Clock was equipped with a sliding scale; it began with Obnoxiously Loud, moved to Deafening, and finished with Sonic Weaponry levels of sound. Tenten had been so deeply asleep, so far away from the clock, that by the time she'd woken up it was at the Sonic Weaponry level – which meant she was late.
She hurriedly splashed water onto her face and hands, gargled, and raced back out of her room less than a minute after she had entered. She'd fallen asleep in her clothes and therefore did not technically need to change; she tied her hitai-ate around her head with one hand while scooping the cake out of the cake-pan and into a waxed box with the other.
She sprinted out of the house, clutching the cake-box under one arm, trying to keep her loosely-knotted hitai-ate from slipping over her eyes with the other. The one good thing about being up this early was the lack of people in the streets; Tenten could run headlong to the training-grounds.
Of course when she did arrive, Neji was already there, leaving Tenten to wonder how someone sitting in a classic lotus-position, face perfectly blank, the ideal image of 'The Student in Meditation', could project such an aura of irritated impatience.
"Um, hi Neji," Tenten mumbled. She thrust the box of cake forward, less like a present than a shield. She was suddenly struck by a slight tingle of remembrance to other presents given to Neji for his birthday; but he was different, the present was different, and it wasn't his birthday. And he'd asked for it. (Demanded, really.) It would be different...this time...
Neji took the box from her, hardly looking at it for staring at her. "Tenten…"
Tenten suddenly realized how she must look; rumpled, slept-in clothes, smears of flour and chocolate fudge on her skin, hair-buns half-unraveled, hitai-ate slipping over her forehead for an almost Kakashi-esque look. She grinned sheepishly. "Come on!" she chirped, deliberately upbeat. "Tell me what you think about the cake!"
"Right…" Neji said slowly. He opened the box, peered at the cake. "It looks…edible," he said, in a tone of wonder.
Tenten rolled her eyes. "Yes, Neji-kun. When I said that I would bake something, you can find it safe to assume that I would know how to bake," she lied through her teeth.
Neji grinned back, which shocked her slightly, and produced a fork (reminding her that she'd forgotten to bring silverware) from somewhere. He carefully carved out a bite-sized piece of cake, lifting the pale-brown piece of cake to his mouth…
Tenten suddenly realized that the 'correct' cake was dark brown; the pale-brown cake was the one she'd accidentally poured salt and pepper into. She opened her mouth to warn him, only to fall silent as Neji popped the morsel into his mouth. She winced as he chewed, waiting for the inevitable explosion.
"It's delicious," Neji told her. He swallowed, and if Tenten didn't know any better – that the cake must taste horrible – she'd say he did it naturally. "Thank you, Tenten."
She really should have said something, and saved him from his horrible fate; but she was too dumbstruck to do anything but stare as Neji politely ate enough cake to make up a good-sized piece, just as if it was delicious – Neji lying through his teeth (almost literally) just to spare her feelings…
A huge grin spread across her face. She finally sprang at him and hugged him, forcing him to drop the cake. (It died an unlamented smushy death on the grass) "Happy birthday, Neji!" she told him, still grinning wildly.
Preview: The return of the Neji fangirls!
Notes: Thank you for all the reviews, Ennariel, Wildcatt, misstr3ss and everyone else who reviewed! Hopefully people won't be so mad at Neji now, even if he did force Tenten to stay up all night baking for him…hm, maybe he isn't being as sweet as I thought I wrote him.
I'm currently tying myself into knots over certain problems over my admissions application to my university, and this ends the last of the prewritten parts, and though I've got the rest plotted out I'll have to write them. (sigh) So I don't know how soon I'll have the next part up.
(Although, somewhat strangely, it may actually be up sooner than later, considering I write fanfic whenever I should be doing something else and more productive to society. )