A/N: I am so, so very sorry of the delay! I have been really busy lately .
I hope you all will enjoy it very much!
I apologize for any grammar errors /spelling mistakes there may or might be. I try my best to avoid as many as possible.
Main pairing: Nejiten
Side pairing(s): Naruhina and possible others
Warning(s): Possible OOCness, medieval era, mild mature hints, alcohol, fighting
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto!
A Sense of Duty
Chapter 9: A Sense of Alcohol
More than a week has passed since Tenten started living together with the proud and wealthy Hyuuga family, and so far the week has been filled with both good and some not so good moments.
Tenten's unpredictable temper is still unpredictable and Neji's pride is still trying to reconstruct the broken pieces, but they are both fine so far.
"Ow! Tenten, be careful with those things! I am not a target plate!" Neji yelled at Tenten as he had just managed to avoid getting hit by one of Tenten's arrows.
"Then get off the field" Tenten informed Neji.
"I am off the field! Take off that blindfold, you crazy archer!" Neji pointed out.
Tenten groaned and took the blindfold off, which had covered her eyesight.
"Stupid Neji, always running by fun" She muttered under her breath. Neji groaned in annoyance at her, but said nothing.
Tenten lifted her arrow up again and fired.
Right at where Neji was standing.
Neji's eyes widened and jumped to the side as fast as he could, landing on his stomach on the grass covered ground beneath him.
And the arrow hit the tree, burying itself into the thick tree trunk.
Tenten looked like she was about to break into a laughter, but once she saw Neji's eyes on her she tried to make an innocent expression as she said:
"Oops sorry, my bad! How clumsy of me! I forgot you stood there"
Neji used his arms to lift himself up and dusted the dirt of his clothes before he gave Tenten a hard look.
"Tenten" Neji said with a not so happy sounding voice. No, he was not happy at all with Tenten's sense of humor and her way of showing it.
"I said sorry" Tenten defended herself.
"But you did not mean it! By God's name you could have hit me and fatally wounded me, your foolish archer!" Neji harshly informed Tenten, who brushed it off by saying:
"But I did not, did I?" Tenten paused, "No, I did not because I knew you would avoid it anyway. Your reflects are quite fast despite being just a mere swordsman, but even I have to admit that your reflects are pretty formidable" Tenten admitted openly.
Neji stood staring blankly at Tenten with his mouth slightly agape. He lifted a shaky finger and asked:
"D-did you just give me a compliment?"
Tenten rubbed her chin before she answered:
"Oh" She blinked, "You are right, I think I did! Now, how about we go out and have some fun?" Tenten looked at Neji, waiting for him to reply.
"Go out? Have fun? Why? We have things to do, important things!" Neji told Tenten, who yawned and said:
"Important things sound like boring things! Let us go out and drink like real warriors!" Tenten lifted her arms up high in excitement.
Neji looked at Tenten with a raised eyebrow.
"You are not going to change your mind, are you?" Neji asked Tenten.
"You can bet your long hair that I will not change my mind" Tenten exclaimed.
Neji sighed.
"Fine, you win!"
"YES!" Tenten jumped up happily.
The two packed their things together and made their way off the field when Neji recalled something.
"A MERE swordsman? Tenten!" An angry Neji shouted out after Tenten, who took off in a sprint while she yelled out loud:
"I regret nothing!"
Neji followed Tenten into one the towns bars. It was not the same as the one where he had meet Tenten, but that did not him make any happier for being there considering the fact that he hated bars and the people, who went to bars.
Neji looked at Tenten and rolled his eyes.
"Why did I go with her? No, why did I even let her go? I cannot trust her on her own" He thought to himself as he mentally winced over the strong scent of beer and the noise that surrounded him.
Looking the whole place over, Neji felt both out of place and displeased.
Loud, drunken men were talking drunkenly with each other while others were sitting with their arms around scantily dressed women.
These men, seen from Neji's point of view, knew nothing of honor or pride. Acting like greedy pigs, who would lie, betray and cheat everyone, in order to achieve their greedy, selfish goal.
Filthy, disgusting cowards!
Neji's eyes narrowed and a flare of anger mirrored in his lavender eyes.
These men made him feel sick.
"Disgusting" Neji thought to himself as took notice in how a few men in the bars looked Tenten up and down while smirking perversely.
Neji groaned.
Tenten did not seem to have taken notice. Either that or she was simply ignoring the stares she was receiving. Neji felt a sudden urge to shield her away from the stares and to keep these men as far away from her as possible.
He needed to protect her, whether she wanted to protected or not! It was his duty as a swordsmen, his honor as a swordsman and the vow he made as a swordsman.
To protect and to serve the path of honor.
"Hello Neji? Are you still here?"
Neji broke out of his thoughts as Tenten waved her hand in front of his face while she tried to get his attention.
Neji blinked and shook his head.
"My apologies, I am not a big fan of bars especially not the ones, which is filled with dishonorable men, lowlife women and the strong scent of beer" Neji explained to Tenten.
"Well I agree with you about the dishonorable men and lowlife women because these people are just desperate and yeah lowlife, but I really do not mind the smell of beer, it is not as bad as you might think it is" Tenten told Neji with grin-like smile.
"Beer, the curse of humanity, created by the Devil himself to make people stupid and lazy, I really cannot stand the smell of it, disgusting" Neji cursed, only loud enough for Tenten to hear.
"And you call yourself a man? What man would not like beer? How very unmanly of you, Neji" Tenten commented to Neji, who flushed a deep red and hissed at her:
"I AM a man! I just do not like beer or other alcoholic liquid for the matter of fact"
Tenten chuckled:
"You are really pathetic. Sorry, but really? You do not like alcohol? How can you live with yourself? Alcohol is like liquid gold, it is a piece of heaven" Tenten sighed dreamily.
"Something tells me that you have a thing of alcohol" Neji thought to himself out loud.
Tenten grinned at him and said:
"I sure do!"
"Great," Neji sighed, "But no drinking yourself under the table, I am not carrying you home if you drink too much" Neji informed Tenten, knowing that she would be drinking.
"Haha as if I would drink myself under the table, you make me laugh" Tenten laughed as she spoke.
She walked over toward the bar to order something to drink while Neji followed her closely.
"We will see" Neji muttered under his breath while he gave a man, who was grinning at Tenten's bottom, a warning look.
"Ho ho Jo ho, we are the kings that will slay the world! Jo ho jo ho ho, we drink as we speak because we are free!" The singing continued much to Neji's great annoyance.
Loud and noisy the men alongside Tenten were. Neither of them knew how to rhythm or how to sing remotely well, which made it even more painful for Neji to listen to.
Neji's ears were starting to hurt.
"Someone please kill me, this is just too much for me to handle!" Neji misery thought to himself.
Tenten, on the other side, were having a really good time.
She was literary one of the men.
With a man on each side of her body, her arms over their shoulders, a beer in her right hand and a big grin on her face.
"Joho, one more time! This time with more feel in it!" Tenten told the men as she lifted her beer up for a toast.
"Yes, one more time!" One of the men drunkenly shouted out loud in joy.
"You are one hell of a… I forgot the word, but who cares? More beer!" A man with messy black hair spoke to Tenten, patting the brunette on her back in a friendly manner.
"Are you stupid or have you forgotten your eyes at home?" A dirty blond haired man told the black-haired one.
The black-haired looked weirdly at the dirty blond, having a hard time focusing due to the alcohol running in his blood.
"Maybe, everything is kind of blurry, what am I supposed to see?" The black-haired asked confusedly.
"That your drinking comrade is a woman, you foolish fool" The dirty blond replied.
"A what?" The black-haired asked with once again with dumb expression.
"A wo-man!" The word Tenten despised so much was repeated loud and clear for everyone in the bar to hear, including Tenten, whose smile froze and fainted away.
Neji stood up, hand ready to grip his sword as he watched Tenten from the corners of his eyes.
He swallowed as he saw Tenten once happy eyes turn angry and dark.
Groaning Neji cursed to himself as he bit his own lip:
"And this is why I thought going to a bar was a bad idea! These men do not know how angry Tenten can get when referred by her gender. I really need to find a way to control her temper before she ends up killing someone!" Neji stood by watching the scene before him, looking closely to be ready to go in and stop Tenten if she loses her self-control.
"Excuse me, but what did you just call me? Could you please repeat it?" Tenten asked with an emotionless and dark tone.
The dirty blond grinned at Tenten, looking her body over with his lusty, dark eyes.
He smirked widely.
"Well of course, pretty doll, I called you a woman, a wo-man" He repeated once more.
Wo-man!
Tenten looked him in the eyes.
His smirk vanished.
She looked at him intensely as she undid the one button holding her shirt together. Letting the shirt fall apart, exposing her black corset-like blouse and toned stomach.
Everyone around them, including Neji, looked shockingly at her back.
Under her vine red shirt and attached to her black corset two daggers, longer than the one on her thigh, were. Criss-crossing each other on her back.
Tenten moved her hands behind her back, taking the two small blades from their holding place while she flipped them around in her hand before moving forward.
To attack.
*Clash*
A table broke as the dirty blond-haired man managed to move away before Tenten had reached him, resulting in Tenten running into the table.
The dirty blond saw his change and draw his own blade, a long sword, launching an attack at Tenten while she had her back turned to him.
*Clink**Clank*
The sound of two blades colliding echoed in the small bar.
Neji stood with his own blade, blocking the dirty blond's attack while protecting Tenten, who had just managed to stand up straight again.
"I am sorry, but I cannot let you do something so unfairly such as attack someone from behind" Neji told the man with a smirk on his face.
"Why you!" The man angrily launched an attack after Neji, who quickly avoided it.
"Getting angry will not help you win against me, it will only insure my victory faster" Neji informed the angry blond.
"Shut up and move aside so I can cut that head off your little lady" The blond shouted angrily at Neji, moving to attack him once again, but this time he was stopped by…
...Tenten!
"Wha?" The man looked at her speechlessly.
"Sorry, but no one calls me lady, or woman for the matter of fact" Tenten informed the dirty blond as she used her daggers to hold his blade still while she kicked him in stomach sending him flying into a table.
*Clash*
"Ow!" The man winced in pain as he hit the table with his back, crushing the table in the process.
Tenten smirked for a moment before her eyes narrowed as she saw the dirty blond stand up again, pushing the wood pieces of his clothes.
"Oh no, I am not finished yet" The blond creepily spoke as he wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth off with his hand and with a tightened grip on his sword he ran forward to attack.
Tenten prepared herself for him, but was taken by surprise when he suddenly changed direction.
Towards Neji.
Quickly she tried to run over to Neji to help him block off the blond's attack, but she was not fast enough.
Neji's eyes widened as he saw their opponent suddenly changing direction, from Tenten to him.
Neji had not seen that coming and was somewhat left unprepared. Holding his sword in a blocking stance to stop the upcoming attack.
Before the blade reached Neji's something flowed between the two men, almost hitting the blond.
The two men turned to look at the wall.
"A dagger?" Neji thought, "Tenten?" Neji wondered, who else could it be?
Neji turned to Tenten, who looked just as surprised as he did.
It was not her?
Then who?
Neji looked at his and Tenten's opponent. Their opponent was not looking at them, but at the entrance of the bar.
Neji turned his face around and…
For a moment he found himself unable to breath.
At the entrance to the bar a man dressed entirely in black was standing holding both a long sword and a dagger similar to the one on the wall, but that was not was left everyone speechless.
No, it was the symbol on his clothes. A symbol everyone in the entire Kingdom of Konoha knows and a symbol that Neji, himself, has been dreaming about wearing one day.
The symbol of the Knights of Konoha.
This man was a…
"Knight of Konoha" Neji speechlessly thought to himself as he stared in pure disbelieve.
Far away from the noisy bar, deep within the land of the Kingdom known as the Konoha Kingdom, behind thick walls of brick and hundreds of guards a woman was sitting on a giant chair with crown on top of her golden haired head.
She was the queen and the ruler of the Konoha Kingdom.
Queen Tsunade The First.
"Your majestic, the king of the Suna Kingdom has agreed to meet you and he is willing to strengthen the bonds between his kingdom and ours on one condition" An elegantly dressed man with brown hair explained to the queen.
The queen raised an eyebrow and asked:
"On what condition? Could you please clarify it to me, I need to know what I am agreeing to"
"Of course, your majestic!" The man then coughed before he spoke once again, "The king of the Suna Kingdom will only agree to your terms if you are willing to marry off your granddaughter to his youngest son" Then informed his queen.
"Marry my granddaughter? The sole heir to this kingdom? Why would I agree to such unfair condition?" The queen spoke with an outrageous look on her face.
The Suna king was well aware that her granddaughter was to inherit the throne seeing as she, the queen, was not married and therefore had no children of her own.
"Truth be told, she is not my actual granddaughter, she is my nephew's daughter, but they are the only family I have left and I, myself, have declared her the heir to the throne" The queen reminded herself bitterly as she remembered the wish she had longed for, but never gotten.
"Your majestic?" The man looked at his queen with worrying eyes.
"What? Did you say something?" She queen blinked before she asked.
"Ehm yes, I did. The king of the Suna kingdom has informed me that if you do not agree to his terms he will not rethink about strengthen the bonds between his kingdom and yours, your majestic, and the alliance between our kingdom will dissolve" The man explained to his queen.
"So, in other words if I do not agree our deal will be over, am I right?" The queen asked with a cold tone.
"I am afraid to say it, but yes, that is correct" The man nodded his head sadly.
"Hmmm, I see," The queen rubbed her chin before she turned to one of the knights standing by her side, "Sir Hatake, could you bring my granddaughter to me?" The queen asked one her most trusted knights.
The white haired knight nodded his head in silence before he left the throne room to bring the princess.
"Ehm your majestic? Is there a reason to why you are bringing the princess to us?" The brown haired man asked the queen nervously.
"Since it is her future we are discussing, I believe it is only rightful to have her take part in it as well" The queen replied.
"Oh I agree with you, she is the crown princess after all!" The man with a nervous grin agreed.
"Grandmother, you wanted me here?" The young princess asked as she walked into the throne room.
The queen turned to her granddaughter and smiled.
"I did, come sit here" The queen said as she patted the seat on the chair next to hers. The princess walked up to her grandmother and took a seat down.
"Okay, so, tell me, grandmother, why did you need to speak to me?" The princess asked confusedly.
"Because what we are discussing could affect your future" The queen spoke truthfully.
"How come?" The princess looked at her grandmother with an unsure and confused expression.
"Because the King of the Suna kingdom will only agree on strengthen the bonds between his kingdom and ours, if I agree to marry you off to his youngest son" The queen explained.
The princess opened her mouth a little bit, speechless perhaps? She then closed it and with an emotionless expression she spoke:
"Okay, I do it"
The queen looked taken aback by her granddaughter's reply.
"You what?" The queen could not believe her own ears.
"I said, I do it! I will marry the youngest prince of the Suna Kingdom! It is my duty as princess of this kingdom, to insure the future of our kingdom and its citizens!" The princess explained to her grandmother while she had placed her hand on top of her heart.
"Are you sure? You have never meet him and divorce is not an option once you to have wed" The queen informed the young princess, who took a deep breath and said:
"I am sure, I will not fail you or this kingdom"
The queen placed a comforting hand on top of her granddaughters and said:
"I will ask the King of the Suna kingdom to arrange a gathering so you and the prince can meet each other before the two of you become engage, that way you will still have a change of backing down if you do not feel ready, my dear"
The princess nodded her head and the queen pulled her hair to the side, looking into the princess' emerald green eyes before she spoke once again:
"Now you may leave"
The princess left and the throne room was left in silence as the queen looked out of her one of the large windows in the room.
"Your majestic?" The brown-haired man looked at his queen confusedly.
"Nevermind me, nevermind me, you can leave now" The queen dismissed the man and smiled bitterly.
"Why is it always so bittersweetly to be a royal?" She wondered to herself.
Everyone had their eyes on the knight. Men, who previously had been drinking, singing or dancing, where now staring with their eyes open wide at the knight, who was dressed entirely in black.
Aside from being covered in only black the knight's face was covered as well, so only his black eyes and a few stands of his black hair were exposed to his surroundings.
Neji felt himself shiver. This was the first time he had ever seen one of THE knights standing so close to him. The knights, who had inspired him to become someone great.
To become a hero, like his father had wanted to become.
The knight looked his surroundings over once before he asked with cool voice:
"Is there a problem here?"
Neji tried to answer by saying that everything was fine, but Tenten was faster than him and said:
"Problem? If you mean by problem, you mean this," Tenten pointed at the blond haired man, who was standing close to Neji, "Then, yes!"
The blond looked at Tenten angrily, grinding his teeth:
"Why you, woman!" The man hissed at Tenten, who snarled at him:
"Watch it! Unless you want to have your head slit off by my dagger" Tenten flipped one of her daggers in her hand.
"Tenten!" Neji shouted at Tenten.
How could she act like that in front of a knight? Not just a simple knight, but one of THE knights of Konoha! The nerve of that danger-loving woman!
"Hush!" The knight commanded.
"B-but-" Neji stopped speaking, when the knight lifted his hand up indicating him not to speak.
Afterwards the knight walked up to Tenten, who looked at him weirdly at him. The knight took Tenten's hands in his and went down on one knee.
"Milady, this man did not violate you in anyway?" The knight, to both Neji and Tenten's big surprise, asked.
"Huh?" Tenten looked at the knight confusedly. She pulled her hand out of the knight's grasp and said:
"You are even weirder than Neji! What is it with men carrying swords trying to save me? How many times I have to say, I do not need to be saved!"
A glint of anger flashed in Tenten's eyes and she lifted her hand up.
Neji took notice in Tenten's eyes and moved to stop her.
*Grasp*
Neji blinked, and so did Tenten, who found herself with one of her hands in a tight hold. The knight's tight hold.
He had stopped her.
"Have you calmed down, miss?" The knight asked Tenten, who groaned at him:
"Do not call me miss"
The knight looked like he was about to say something, but Neji bet him at it:
"Please do not, she turns into a devil whenever people refer her by her gender, to her you are insulting her just like the guy over there" Neji pointed at the blond, who he and Tenten had fought. Tenten gave Neji an annoyed look, not liking being call a devil, but she did not say a word.
"I see" The knight nodded, "My apologizes, then" The knight released Tenten's hand from his hold.
Tenten rubbed her sore hand while she pouted her lips and muttered:
"Stupid men with swords"
Neji decided to walk over to them.
"Sir?" Neji spoke to the knight, who looked at him with a lifted eyebrow, waiting for Neji to speak again.
"I most apologize for taking up your time, I should have known better than to let her speak me into going to a public bar with her. If I had rejected her request you would be doing you duty rather than wasting your time here and for that I must apologize!" Neji bowed down politely.
The knight chuckled.
"Did I say something wrong, sir?" Neji blinked cluelessly.
"No, no, you did not. It is just… you remind me of myself when I was your age, eager to please and very mature" The knight explained.
Tenten sniffed a laughter while she looked at Neji smugly.
"What are you looking at?" Neji hissed to Tenten, who looked up at him innocently and said as innocently as she could:
"Nothing"
Neji sighed deeply, feeling his face reddened.
"This is so humiliating!" Neji cursed to himself. Tenten teasing him and the knight staring intensely at him.
"You are a swordsman, am I right, young man?" The knight asked Neji, breaking the awkward silence.
Neji looked up at the knight and replied:
"Yes, I am"
"Who is training you?" The knight asked out of curiosity.
"Well when I was young my uncle, but now one of the swordsmen, who serve my uncle trains me" Neji replied calmly.
"And your uncle, does he have a name?" The knight wondered.
Neji looked at the knight oddly before he asked:
"Well yes, of course he has, but why is it important?"
The knight looked at Neji seriously before he said:
"Because you remind me of someone, although I am not sure who"
"Well my uncle knows the queen, but he has never told me about knowing any of her knights personally, but I have a big family so maybe you have met one of my relatives" Neji assumed.
The knight nodded his head slowing.
"Yeah, that must be it"
While Neji and the knight were busy speaking Tenten was feeling rather impatient.
"Oh dear lord, this is so boring!" Tenten moaned to herself.
Tenten puffed her hair locks while she crossed her arms over her chest. She rolled her eyes and suddenly…
A wide grin appeared on her face as she took notice in something, which sparked her interest.
The knight's dagger!
Tenten looked at Neji and knight, making sure neither of them where looking at her. And once she was sure the coast was clear, she slowly moved over towards the dagger, which still was struck on the wall.
Tenten then pulled the dagger off the wall and ran a finger over the sharp blade, feeling the cold steel against her finger tip.
"This blade is a masterpiece!" She thought to herself as she ran her finger over the smooth surface of the blade.
So smooth, so cold, so sharp, so steely, so deadly.
So perfect!
"Tenten!" Neji spoke from behind her in a harsh tone. Tenten was startled by it and she almost dropped the dagger.
"What?" Tenten said as she turned around with her hands behind her back, hiding the dagger away from sight.
"The dagger" Neji demanded while holding his hand forward, waiting for her to give him the dagger she was hiding behind her back.
"What dagger? Mine? Or-" Tenten was cut off by Neji taking her by the arm, pulled her arm forward with the knight's dagger in her hand.
Oops, busted!
"Ahhh that dagger! I just wanted to take it off the wall and give it to Mister Knight here" Tenten tried to come up with a good excuse.
"Sure, you were going to keep it, right?" Neji looked at Tenten with a raised eyebrow.
Tenten gave in:
"Fine, I was, but just look at this beauty! All smooth, flawless and deadly! How can I resist such perfection, it was just so tempting!" Tenten held the dagger upwards.
"Give me it!" Neji took the dagger and turned to the knight to return the dagger to him, but the knight had other ideas.
"Just let her keep it" The knight told Neji, who looked at him with his mouth agape.
"Close your mouth, Neji, you are being improper" Tenten teasefully commented to Neji, who looked at her annoyingly and said:
"Right and you are just an expert when it comes to being proper, am I right?"
Tenten stuck her tongue out at him while the knight suddenly began laughing quietly to himself.
"You two remind me so much of a married couple, unbelievable you two are not lovers! Well, I better leave now, I have a queen to protect. Take care, young warriors!" The knight in a laughter spoke out before he began walking away from Neji and Tenten, who was left looking both dumbfound and shocked.
"He has to be the first person not to think that Tenten and I are already lovers" Neji thought to himself with shocked look on his face.
"He let me keep the dagger! He let me keep it! Now, this beauty is mine, MINE!" Tenten greedily thought to herself as she ran her hand over the dagger.
What neither of the two knew was that while the knight was walking off, he was smiling while he was thinking:
"It has been so long since we last saw each other, Tenten, I am pleased to see that you have grown and I pray we will meet once again with my face being uncovered. Please take good care of her, young swordsman"
Back at the manor Hiashi was looking at his nephew and his nephew's dear… friend oddly. He was unsure of what to say and how to react. This was something he had never experiences before.
His nephew had his arms full...
Of an awfully happy Tenten.
"Oh mister long hair, let me go! I promise I will not fall, I can walk just fine!" The happy Tenten told Neji while she giggled childishly as she played with Neji's long, brown hair.
"For the last time my name is not mister long hair, it is Neji and will you please stop pulling my hair, it hurts" Neji told Tenten with a blank face.
Tenten pouted her lips like a small child and said:
"But, but you hair is sooo silky and funny, all soft and, and long!" Tenten pulled Neji's hair clumsily while she spoke.
Neji sighed deeply and gave his uncle a pleading look as he said:
"Uncle, please… A little help"
Hiashi rubbed his chin a little before he with a slightly smug smile replied:
"Of course, but first will you please tell me what happened?"
Neji gave his uncle a 'is it not obvious'-look before he answered him:
"Well… Tenten convince me to go to a bar with her and at first everything was fine, aside from the horrible singing and the of beer, but then a man called Tenten a woman, which made her very angry. A fight broke lose between Tenten, the man and myself. Luckily before anyone got hurt our fight was stopped by a knight"
"A knight?" Hiashi looked at his nephew with interest.
"Yes, a knight. One of the knights of Konoha to be exact" Neji explained to his uncle.
"Ahhh I see. How was it to meet one, my nephew?" Hiashi asked with a small smile on his face.
"I really do not know, I was a bit shocked, but I also felt honored… to meet such person face to face, it felt so unreal and yet so real" Neji admitted to uncle.
His uncle nodded his head and asked:
"So, what happened afterwards?"
Neji looked at his uncle and then back down to Tenten, who was still in his arms giggling, and said:
"Well…"
FLASHBACK
After the knight had left and Tenten was overjoyed by the dagger the knight had given to her, although Neji really did not approve of this. Three knives on her were more than enough, if you asked Neji.
Neji groaned to himself while ribbing his forehead, which was starting to hurt.
Once again there was peace in the little bar… well peace in a no fighting and not peace as in silence.
Because the bar was everything, but silence.
It was noisy and loud.
And Tenten was drinking and giving out drink for free.
Free for her, at least. Not for Neji, who apparently was the one paying.
"That Tenten, she is using all of the money I have with me on this filthy, disgusting drink, they call beer" Neji thought to himself while he tried to tolerant the thick smell of beer that passed by his nose with now and then.
Disgusting.
It was truly disgusting, that smell, to Neji.
"One more beer, please, mister barman!" Tenten ordered yet another beer. The man behind the bar desk looked up at her and gave her another beer while he smiled flirtatiously at her.
Tenten did not seem to notice, but Neji did and he did not like it one bit, and he knew Tenten would not either. IF she was in her right state of mind, which she was not at the current moment.
"Well well what is a pretty lady such as yourself doing here, drinking beer all by yourself without any sort of company?" The man behind the bar desk asked Tenten, who giggled at him.
"Silly! I am not alone, I have Neji with me!" Tenten replied to man absentmindedly.
"Neji? And who is he, if I may ask? You husband?" The man asked Tenten with his head cocked slightly to the side.
Tenten giggled and pushed the man in a childish manner as she said:
"No, no, no, he is my… my… my ehm I am actually not sure what he is to me, bu he is with me," Tenten looked around the bar and saw Neji walking over towards them, "There he is!" Tenten pointed at Neji and began waving at him, "Neji, I am over here!"
Neji walked up to Tenten and gave the barman a cold, somewhat warning expression.
"Ehm… Oh look there are someone waiting for someone to take his order, I have to go, bye!" The barman fled away in a hurry.
Tenten blinked confusedly and mumbled:
"I wonder why he was in such a hurry, I was going to introduce you to him. Oh well, nevermind that"
"Oh dear lord, Tenten and here I thought you were a pain when sober, but I guess you are far worse when you are drunk, we better go back to manor before you get yourself hurt" Neji told Tenten as he tucked at her blouse, trying to make her follow him.
"I can take care of myself just fine" Tenten stubbornly exclaimed. She then took the dagger, she had gotten from the mysterious knight, and slammed it into the table next to her.
"OW! My arm!" A man yelled out in pain.
Neji's eyes widened while Tenten absently lifted the dagger up to look at it.
It was covered in blood.
Neji mentally cursed to himself.
Tenten had by complete accident stabbed a man in the arm with her dagger.
And this time Neji acted quickly. So before anyone in the bar, including the man Tenten had stabbed, Neji lifted Tenten up into his arms, bridal style, and ran as fast as he could out of the bar.
"I am never going to let Tenten drink alcohol while carrying her daggers, never again!" Neji vowed to himself as he ran through one of the smaller alleys in the town, hoping that no one was following him.
No more drinking for Tenten again!
END OF FLASHBACK
"And that is what happened, can we go now? I am putting this troublesome girl in bed" Neji informed his uncle while he looked down at Tenten, who seemed to have fallen asleep in his arms, breathing softly with her eyes closed.
His uncle chuckled soundlessly before he dismissed his nephew.
In his mind he could not help himself, but to find the display of the sleeping Tenten in his nephew arms adorable. Her face nuzzling into his nephew neck with an extremely peaceful expression on her face and his nephew's protectiveness of her.
Young love was indeed a beautiful thing.
"Although they may not know it, I have a feeling those two will grow even closer and maybe someday they will admit their true feelings for one another, feelings they both have yet to discover" Hiashi thought to himself as he smiled softly.
But his moment of bliss was ruined when…
"Lord Hiashi, the queen wishes for your presence" One of his swordsmen informed him.
"For what reason does she wish to see me?" Hiashi asked with calm, yet serious tone.
"I am sorry, Lord Hiashi, but I only know that the queen wishes to see you, I do not know why" The swordsman explained to Hiashi, who nodded his head.
"I see," Hiashi mumbled before he commanded, "Prepare my horse and inform the head maid that I may not be here at dinnertime"
"As you wish, Lord Hiashi," The swordsman nodded his head, "I will tell the horsemen to prepare your horse and I shall inform the staff that you will not be here for dinner" The swordsman bowed before he left his master by himself.
Hiashi rubbed his chin while he wondered.
What did the queen need of him now?
To be continued…
A/N: Well, this was chapter 9! ^^
A drunk Tenten = A Tenten, who you can refer to by her gender without her getting pissed off and who has a bad aim.
The drinking song was just something I came up with, it is not an actual song and it makes no sense, but it I drunk people we are talking about – they never make any sense at all! xD
Two knights of Konoha introduced. One does not need an explanation I am sure you all know who he is, but the other one he is a bit of mystery – and he knows Tenten! Who could he be?
I hope you all enjoyed it!
Please leave a review and tell me what you think :)
P.S. I cannot promise a fast update for the next chapter, I am currently working on a pretty big school project, but I will try my very best to finish the next chapter as fast as I can ^^