Chapter Two: Research
Author's note: Why is it every time I try to write a one-shot, I get chaptered fiction? Meh, good for the word count. Let's go!
"Do you know Maito Tenten?"
Neji waited as Hinata considered his question. Her pale lavender eyes were wide as she thought and she nibbled on her full lower lip. Hanabi shot up from her lounging position and a grin came to her face. The same pale eyes lit with glee and Neji ignored his eleven year old cousin.
"Tenten? That's a girl's name. Oooh, Neji has a crush," Hanabi said.
Her voice came out teasing and she burst into giggles after her pronouncement. Neji clenched his jaw to keep the flush out of his cheeks. He did not have a crush. He simply wanted to speak with Tenten again.
She had intrigued him. No girl in the school took wood working or had a natural fighting instinct. No one had the courage to approach him or Hinata in all the years they had gone to school but Tenten had. The stabbing another guy with a screwdriver did frighten him a bit but so long as he did nothing to compromise her person then he would not face the same fate.
"I do not have a crush," Neji said.
"Then why are you asking about a girl?" Hanabi asked.
She had a coy grin on her face. Neji narrowed his eyes but she kept grinning. He let his glare fizzle away. Damn Hanabi and being immune to it.
"I met her while waiting for the vice principal," Neji said. "We made conversation and unlike other girls who come near me she did not get all giggly or annoy me."
Neji forced himself to remain still as the silence went on. Hanabi began laughing again while Hinata pursed her lips. A flush had come to Hinata's cheeks and Neji saw her trying to hold back a laugh.
"Neji has a crush! Neji has a crush," Hanabi proclaimed in a sing-song voice.
Neji refrained from rubbing his temples or sighing. Instead, he raised his eyebrows to Hinata who jolted slightly then nodded.
"She is in my English class," Hinata said.
"Yes, she told me as much," Neji said.
He had been hoping for more but should have known not to expect it. Hinata hummed. She tapped her lower lip in thought and Neji disregarded Hanabi who had begun to sing a song about him and Tenten sitting in a tree. He had no idea how he would even get up a tree to kiss Tenten. Besides, this wasn't love, there would not be a marriage, and he would not be pushing a baby carriage.
"I don't know much about her, honestly. She sits with Rock Lee and I see her in the cafeteria with Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino, Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Choji, and ah, Uzumaki Naruto," Hinata said.
Her cheeks had gone bright red at the mention of her crush. Neji hummed as Hanabi gaped. Hanabi began laughing and going on about Hinata and Naruto. Hinata tried to scold Hanabi but Neji had blocked out the two girls. Tenten spent her time with a group of males. He did not know how to take this but would not let the other males stop him from talking to her. He had to satisfy his curiosity about the girl.
"What's that dude's problem?"
Tenten looked to Kiba and blinked. Kiba had his scary face on which consisted of narrowed eyebrows and a snarl which reminded Tenten of a growling dog. Tenten followed his gaze to see Kiba glared at Hyuuga Neji, the guy she had met the other day.
Neji merely adjusted his glasses and went back to his book. A little frown graced his face but he made no other indication he had been caught staring. Tenten looked back to Kiba who grinned in victory now.
"Feel better O Protector?" Shikamaru questioned.
His eyes were half-lidded and he had a lazy grin on his face. Of course Kiba huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. He said something about someone needing to look after the group but Tenten ignored it. She had turned her head back to Neji and studied his profile.
She couldn't help admitting he happened to be attractive. He had smooth skin, a bit too pale for her liking, and he happened to be tall if a bit on the thin side. His eyes were pale like Hinata's, lavender with no pupil which Tenten found plain weird and his eyebrows were kind of like a girl's: thin, well maintained and perfectly arched.
His hair though. He wore it long enough it touched the belt of his dark blue pants but he kept it tied back at the nape of his neck. Neji obviously took good care of his hair because it looked thick, silky, and soft. Tenten wanted to run her hands through it and had almost given into the urge while they had been waiting in the vice principal's office. It's why she had begun rambling off to him about everything.
The glasses he wore had thin black frames with half lenses, obviously meant for reading alone but Tenten had never seen him with the glasses off. She did know Hinata didn't use glasses in English class. Maybe she wore contacts.
"Hey, Tenny, you're not supposed to be checking him out. I scared him," Kiba said.
Tenten leaned down in her seat and put a hand over her face. She hadn't been checking out Neji. She had been curious that's all. Tenten peeked through her fingers to see Kiba looking at her with his head tilted to one side. Again, she couldn't help being reminded of a dog.
"You did not scare him. Why? He hasn't moved from his spot and he is looking over again," Shino said.
Immediately Kiba's head swivelled and Tenten followed with her eyes to see Neji had in fact glanced back over. He did not look away when Kiba snarled but instead he lifted one hand. Tenten sat up in her seat and was about to raise a hand when she spotted Hinata waving back to Neji. Kiba coughed and Tenten saw him flushing.
"Oh. Perhaps he had been looking for his cousin," Shino said.
Tenten held back her groan as Shino shrugged and went back to the text book he had about entomology. He had willingly signed up for the course and Tenten had learned not to ask about it or Shino would talk for hours without end on every kind of bug.
Shikamaru snorted while Choji munched on potato chips. Naruto had turned in his seat and grinned in the direction of Neji and Hinata. Lee had a thoughtful look on his face. Tenten knew Lee being thoughtful could turn out wonderfully amazing or horribly wrong. She'd been around him long enough.
"We should invite them to eat with us," Lee announced.
"Wha-wha, why?" Naruto sputtered.
Tenten had figured out her first day with the group (also her and Lee's first day here) Naruto had a massive crush on Hinata. He stared at her with a dopey grin on his face and whenever he tried to talk to her he stuttered about some completely silly topic which made her get all confused. Then he would apologize and run away. Really, it had started to get annoying.
"They look so lonely," Lee said.
Tenten looked back to the cousins and saw no one sat with the two. Neji had occupied the end of a table and the next closest person sat five chairs away. Even the people behind and in front of Neji completely ignored him and had moved their tables and chairs further away like Neji had some kind of disease.
No one else had greeted Hinata and no one looked at the two Hyuuga. Tenten didn't know why. They seemed nice enough, besides the creepy eyes.
"No one sits with them," Kiba said.
"Yes, exactly, so we should," Lee said.
The other guys exchanged a look. Shikamaru sighed heavily while Shino shifted nervously in his seat. Choji started eating a little faster while Kiba scratched the back of his head. Naruto pouted. Tenten didn't get it.
Okay, so she had been in Konoha High for exactly a month. She knew these guys were and had been a click since the first grade but were friendly to anyone and everyone. She knew the group of guys in the corner by the vending machines sold weed and the guys nearest the doors were the chess players. The girls and guys in the middle of the room were the jocks and cheerleaders: no one joined their ranks unless on an athletic team.
She hadn't noticed the two Hyuuga sat alone every lunch period and thought it a little sad. Hinata would be alone once Neji graduated next year and Tenten didn't like seeing anyone left alone.
"They're untouchable," Shikamaru said.
"Huh?" Tenten asked.
"Untouchable," Kiba repeated.
"What, do they have the plague or something?" Tenten questioned.
"No. It's just, well Hinata's dad is Hyuuga Hiashi, the mayor and people want him to run for president of you know, the country," Shikamaru said. "It means eventually they're going to be pulled out of school and live in the White House so: untouchable. Besides, neither of them really talk to anyone else or do any activities outside of school. They know they're better than the rest of us so don't bother."
Tenten stared. Neji had talked to her the other day. He had even asked her questions and looked genuinely curious about how she had come to stab someone with a screwdriver. He hadn't even balked when she had told him.
"Um, I did talk to Neji while waiting for the vice principal," Tenten said.
"You did what?" Kiba asked loudly.
A few heads turned and Tenten rubbed her temples. Kiba gave his scary face and people turned back around. Tenten let out a breath.
"Well, he was in the office waiting with me so I asked him why he was there. Then I told him about the screwdriver incident and yeah. He doesn't seem so bad," Tenten said.
"You talked to Hyuuga Neji?" Kiba questioned.
"Yes," Tenten said.
"You talked to Hyuuga Neji?" Kiba repeated.
Tenten tossed her spoon at him. It hit squarely in the middle of his forehead and Kiba shook his head. Choji had stopped eating to stare at her and even Shino wasn't reading about bugs. Shikamaru gaped while Naruto sputtered but Lee looked as lost as her.
"He didn't even kill me with his laser eyes," Tenten said.
Tenten had meant it to be a joke but no one laughed. Lee coughed to hide a snicker and Tenten shifted in her seat. Shikamaru recovered first and shook his head.
"I don't think they can shoot lasers out of their eyes," Shikamaru said.
"That's biologically impossible," Shino said. "Then again, so is pupil-less eyes which their entire family seems to have."
"It was a joke guys," Tenten said. "And I'm with Lee. We should invite them to sit with us."
They all gasped like she had decided to start singing show tunes and dancing on the table. Shikamaru groaned and slapped his forehead with the heel of his hand. He let out a long-suffering breath and pegged her with his black eyes.
"No. You guys are new so you don't get it but it's been an unspoken rule since elementary not to talk to the Hyuuga. Besides, their body guards will probably tackle you," Shikamaru said.
"Body guards?" Tenten asked.
Shikamaru pointed unenthused at the corners of the cafeteria. Tenten spotted a suited man in each corner, each wearing sunglasses with ear pieces in one ear and each turned to keep the Hyuuga in sight. She had seen them before but assumed they were looking after the entire cafeteria.
"Erm, huh," Tenten muttered.
She looked back over to Neji and Hinata to see the two speaking about something or another. She held back her gasp as Neji turned his head and their eyes met across the distance. A little smile came onto his face before he looked back to his cousin. Tenten could have sworn she saw him blush but it disappeared now. She needed to know more.
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