Chapter Three: Curiosity
Author's note: Don't own, blah, blah...
Tenten curses her ill fortune to be stuck a year behind in school because of some stupid mix up with the orphanage's education system. It means she and Neji share lunch together but that's it. She can't try to get closer to him and Hinata sits on the other side of the class room in English. Luckily, the period after lunch (Gym) is also shared with Hinata.
Not so luckily, she shares Gym with the guys who might try to keep her away from Hinata and the two most popular girls in the school: Yamanaka Ino and Hanaro Sakura. Tenten keeps away from the two girls and their hoard of hangers on by sticking to the furthest corner of the locker room. But, if she wants to talk to Hinata so she can find out more about Neji then she has to come out of hiding.
Tenten takes a centering breath and puts her backpack down on the benches where the other fifteen girls in her gym class are changing. Ino glances over to her but huffs and goes back to changing into her gym attire. Tenten has situated herself close to Hinata, two lockers away, which is plenty far enough from the other girls. Hinata is five lockers away from the next closest girl and Hinata blinks her strange eyes when Tenten starts changing.
"Hi Hinata,"
Tenten bites her tongue when Hinata's eyes go wide and her lips part in awe. Hinata glances around the room for a moment then blinks owlishly. Tenten grins. Hinata keeps staring. No wonder no one talks to the Hyuuga. The creepy lavender eyes scare everyone off.
"Hello Tenten," Hinata says softly.
Tenten does a mental victory dance and outwardly keeps smiling. She'll keep the grin on her face even if her cheeks fall off. She needs to know why everyone hangs back from the Hyuuga cousins and besides, Neji interested her.
He doesn't seem like the other guys she knows. Shino is a silent type who obsesses over bugs and thinks way too logically. Shikamaru is lazy but if he put his mind to school he would be the top of all his classes. Naruto has a joke for everyone and took life as it came to him. He always grinned and told jokes.
Kiba lived with dozens of dogs at any given time and liked being in constant motion. He wanted to be a veterinarian like his mother and sister. He all ready helped with the family's breeding business and dog-show competitions.
Of course Lee wanted to join every single sports team. They were all full but he still worked his butt off in Guy's personal weight room. He wanted to be a fitness instructor and Tenten could see him doing it with no issues.
Neji seemed different. For one, he had been called into the office to help with lights at a presentation. He had been reading an advanced Chemistry text while he waited and hadn't needed to be moving in order to concentrate like her other guy friends (minus Shino and Shikamaru). He had looked so disappointed when her name had been called too.
"So, do you think Anko-sensei is going to make us do the mile?" Tenten asks.
Tenten watches Hinata wince. Tenten held back a gasp as Hinata removed her button down shirt to reveal bigger breasts than Tenten would've thought. Hinata wore the schools dark blue vest over the white button down tee-shirt. The vest wasn't a requirement and Tenten had noticed the vest hung off Hinata. Now she understood why.
Tenten sees Hinata flushing and understands running the mile would be painful for Hinata. No wonder the girl ended up in last position all the time. She would never be able to get a proper running stride without two or more sports bras and maybe some breast binding.
"I hope not," Hinata says.
"Yeah, me neither," Tenten tells her.
They change swiftly and Tenten sees even Hinata's tee-shirt is a few sizes bigger than needed to hide her over-large chest. Tenten sticks by Hinata's side as they leave the locker room and smiles when Hinata gives her a wide-eyed look.
"Tenny!"
Kiba is waving manically at her from the bleachers. He stops when he spots who is walking beside Tenten and she sees him come close to falling head first down the bleachers. Tenten notices Hinata starting to lag back and comes to a decision.
She grabs Hinata's wrist and pulls the girl along to the group of guy friends she has. All of them are staring at her in wide-mouthed awe except Lee who is grinning broadly. Everyone else in the gym has stopped to stare as Tenten forcibly brings Hyuuga Hinata into her circle.
"Hey everyone! Hinata's sitting with us," Tenten says.
"Uh," Shikamaru smartly says.
"H-he-hello," Hinata sputters.
Tenten sees Hinata fiddling with the hem of her tee-shirt. Hinata's eyes are massive in her head and she is nibbling on her lower lip. Tenten helps her sit down and beams at the guys. They're staring like she's decided to run around the gym on her hands a thousand times.
"Hi Hinata! I um, like your tee-shirt," Naruto says.
Everyone in the group stares at him. Hinata looks to her plain white school issue tee-shirt with the school's crest on the front. She looks to Tenten who is wearing the exact shirt in a smaller size then to the other guys who wear the same shirt.
"Thank you?" Hinata questions, her voice unsure.
Tenten refrains from smacking her hand against her face like Shikamaru is doing right now. Kiba's entire body is twitching like he wants to laugh but he's holding it back. Choji is shaking his head while Naruto has gone bright red. Shino simply sighs and looks away.
"It's um, nice," Naruto says.
"Dude," Kiba gets out.
Shikamaru rolls his eyes and leans back on the bleachers. Lee is gaping at Naruto and looks to her for help. Tenten shakes her head.
"Oh, ah, it's the same as yours?" Hinata asks, still confused.
"Er, right but um, it looks better on you," Naruto answers.
He's rubbing the back of his neck and his cheeks are a red Tenten didn't think possible. She didn't think it humanely possible for someone's eyes to go as wide as Hinata's were right now. Tenten hoped Naruto didn't mean Hinata's chest made the shirt look better but had a feeling he was too dense to mean it like that. She waited as Hinata opened her mouth.
Anko-sensei's whistle cut off anything Hinata had been about to say. Tenten saw Hinata jump as a little squeak came out of Hinata's lips. She patted Hinata's shoulder and turned to face her sensei.
As typical, Anko-sensei had an evil grin on her face as she regarded the thirty or so of them. She wore black short shorts under the school tee-shirt except her tee-shirt had cut off sleeves and had been rolled up so the top of her shorts could be seen. She had a dodge ball in her hand and Tenten didn't like where this was going.
"Boys against girls dodge-ball. Winning team gets to pick what we do next class," Anko-sensei announced.
Tenten lets out a sigh and sees Hinata shudder. The boys are yelling in excitement and rushing down the bleachers, well except Shikamaru who heaves a heavy breath as he makes even getting to his feet look like a chore. Choji is pouting as he follows after Shikamaru and Shino is scowling.
"Hey, new-girl, Hyuuga, get over here,"
Tenten turns to the voice and sees Yamanaka Ino glaring at them with her hands on her hips. Long blond hair is in a high pony tail which leaves a fringe free. Tenten stands and helps Hinata get up. She hadn't been called new-girl in two weeks and doesn't appreciate the thought.
"We are totally not doing whatever stupid thing the guys want to do," Ino tells them when they're close enough.
"Yeah, so if you're going to be dead weight then stick to the back," Sakura commands.
Tenten squares her jaw. Dead weight? Who did they think she was? She would show them.
"Brother?"
Neji looks up from his algebra homework. Hinata is standing on the threshold of his doorway in her baggy pyjamas, nibbling on her lower lip. Unlike Hanabi, she tries not to interrupt him while he's studying and Neji appreciates her for this. But, she has interrupted him so something important must have happened.
"What is it Hinata?" Neji asks.
Mentally he's preparing for the worst. Someone at school could be teasing her again or Hiashi could be pushing back his return another week. Hanabi could be sick or the family cat, Hiro could have gone missing again.
"Tenten beat Yamanaka Ino and Hanaro Sakura in dodge ball," Hinata says.
Neji stares for a few moments and takes in this statement. He happens to know both girls because they are the head cheerleaders on the team. Both are hot-headed, extremely physical, and immensely competitive.
Sakura wrestled in the men's division and won every year while Ino played on the men's rugby team. Ino had brought Konoha High's team to nationals last year. Despite this, the duo could often be seen shopping, tanning, having spa days, and tended to giggle aggravatingly when he walked by.
"How do you mean?" Neji asks.
"Ah, well, they told us if we were going to be dead weight to stick to the back," Hinata tells him.
She takes a few more steps into his room and sits on his bed, close to the foot of it so she's near his desk. Neji turns to face her and waits. Hinata has placed her hands on her lap and a smile has come onto her face.
"Tenten didn't come to the back with me and when Anko threw the ball to the girl's team, Tenten physically got in between both and caught it with one hand. Then she threw it so quickly, it knocked Kiba over and the boy's ball rolled into our court," Hinata tells him.
Inuzuka Kiba, the boy who had been trying to intimidate him today during lunch. Kiba stood tall with broad shoulders and a muscular physic. Neji couldn't imagine Tenten knocking him over then remembered Tenten had stabbed someone in the hand with a screwdriver.
"Tenten caught both balls and systematically took out every single guy. No one else on our team even got a chance and it was over in three minutes," Hinata says.
Neji can't help but stare. Hinata is still grinning. In fact, it looks like she will start laughing at any moment.
"Some of her throws looked impossible and they all bounced off one boy, hit a second, a third and sometimes even a fourth before returning back to her like she summoned them. She never missed even when she leaped into the air to make catches or throw a ball. I haven't seen anything like it," Hinata tells him.
Neji wishes he had seen it. He curses the fact Tenten had been held back a year because of some paperwork going astray. Hinata giggles and Neji waits.
"Ino and Sakura were shocked into silence. Lee gave Tenten some trouble with the way he dodged and he was the last one standing but then she started bouncing the balls off the floor, the walls, and the ceiling to finally get him. Tomorrow we get to do archery. Tenten picked it because, as Anko-sensei said: "She did all the work." It was amazing," Hinata continues.
Tenten had defeated some fifteen boys in dodge-ball alone then picked archery for the next lesson. Tenten, who did not giggle insanely when he looked her way and who had started a conversation with him after stabbing someone with a screwdriver.
"Ino and Sakura said it wasn't fair so Anko-sensei told them they could try beating her. Everyone cleared out and Tenten won even though Sakura and Ino threw the entire rack of dodge balls at her. Once they were all on her side, she got this evil grin on her face and pummelled them with all the balls," Hinata goes on.
Neji sees her eyes glittering in joy. He curses the fact he hadn't been there to see it. No one, male or female went against Hanaro-Yamanaka and won. Tenten, the new-girl of Konoha High had defeated them in a dodge-ball match of all things.
"Then she simply brushed off her hands and thanked them for the warm-up," Hinata says with a giggle.
Tenten had thanked them for the warm up. Neji had no idea what a physical competition would mean to Tenten if dodge ball against all the males in her gym class then against Hanaro-Yamanaka was a warm-up.
"Anko-sensei laughed and told us we had the rest of the period free. Tenten brought me to sit with her friends and ah, it was nice," Hinata says.
Her cheeks have gone pink and Neji stiffens in his chair. Tenten had invited Hinata into her group. No one had ever done such a thing in all the years he and Hinata had gone to school. Their peers had been stand-offish and intimidated by their last name, their eyes, and their social awkwardness.
"Though, I think Ino and Sakura are planning revenge of some sort. They kept glaring at Tenten the rest of the period and in the locker room. Tenten ignored it," Hinata informs him.
Of course the duo would plan revenge. They had a reputation of sorts to hold up. Everyone would tell everyone in the school about how the new-girl had defeated Konoha High's toughest females and the duo would need to prove they were not to be trifled with.
Neji shook his head and had no idea what to say. Part of him wants to grin as someone finally knocked Hanaro and Yamanaka off their podium but he is concerned for Tenten. It would not end well for her. But, the largest part of him wants to track her down and ask her all about it. He wants to know how in the world she could have possibly done as she had. There had to be a story there and he needs to know it.
"That is amazing," Neji says.
Hinata is beaming. He smiles along with her, though not as widely. He does see she is sitting up straighter and has not stuttered once during the entire story.
"She's so friendly and strong. We exchanged phone numbers after gym. I think she's willing to be my friend and I can't believe it," Hinata says.
He can't believe it either. They had never had friends growing up. It had been him, Hinata, and Hanabi since his father had died when he had been eight. They did have the various helpers around the house but they did not do much but keep an eye on them.
More unbelievable is the fact it is Tenten: the girl who had asked him about being in the principal's office the other day. She had been completely un-intimidated by his gaze and initiated a conversation with him which somehow led to her speaking to Hinata. Neji wonders if he had made so much of an impression on her she had decided to talk to his cousin.
No, he had to be thinking too much of himself. Then again, the entire female populace of the school had affection towards him as did some of the males. He had not run away when she said her reason for being in the office. He had agreed with her about defending herself. It would be an interesting school year.
Haha, Neji. Reviews welcome.