A/N: Finally it is here! Chapter 11!
I am sorry it is a bit shorter than chapter 10, but I could not add any more to it without ruining the most important part in this chapter!
I hope you will all enjoyed 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, sword fighting, moments of sadness
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto!
A Sense of Duty
Chapter 11: A Sense of Living
Tenten was with shifting eyes giving Neji and Shikamaru a bored look. The two males where rubbing their chins while looking at her, deep in thought much to Tenten's annoyance.
This silence and those stares were annoying her.
"Will you two quit staring at me with those looks? It is really starting to annoy me!" Tenten exclaimed out loud, clenching her fists tightly.
"Everything annoys you, Tenten! Shikamaru and I are merely trying to figure out how to make you cooperate with us without making you angry or pissed off. I knew this stupid deal with my uncle was going to be tough, but not this tough! I thought you wanted to prove my uncle wrong, but no you just have to be a pain and work against me rather than working with me!" Neji admitted to Tenten.
"I do want to prove that stupid old man of your uncle wrong, but I do have my pride to think about!" Tenten told Neji, who replied with a tightened expression:
"And so do I! Do you have any idea of how much damage you have caused on my pride, on my honor?"
Tenten opened her mouth to speak, but stopped herself, blushing a bit while she puffed her cheeks up while she looked downwards, feeling somewhat ashamed of herself.
He was making it sound so bad, which gave her a bitter taste in her mouth.
Because, in a way, what he said was truth. She had not been very fair towards him while he, on the other hand, have tried to cope with her, tolerated her and… yeah treated her like an equal, not a woman, not a man, but with respect and patience, which was kind of… nice of him.
"Stupid Neji! For making me feel sorry, for making me feel this way! How dare he!" Tenten thought to herself as she bit into her bottom lip as she fought her own pride.
Saying sorry was not something she was good at. She hated it, but she felt like he deserved one…
"Sorry" Tenten finally spoke with very low spoken voice. Only Neji managed to catch her words, which left him in quite of a shock, unable to speak himself.
"Did Tenten just…. say sorry?" Neji asked himself in disbelieve.
On the other side of the room Ino and Hinata was standing, clueless to what was going on.
"What are they doing? Should they not training in mannerism rather than just talk?" Hinata asked Ino, who looked at her master and said:
"Lady Hinata, they are not talking, they are arguing. Look at the how your cousin's mannerless friend is clenching her fists and how your cousin's face tightens up"
Hinata looked at Ino surprisingly.
"How can notice all of that?" Hinata asked looking at Ino with amazement. Ino smiled proudly to herself and explained:
"I might not have told you, but I am pretty good at reading people based upon their facial expressions, which is also why I knew about your feelings toward that Uzumaki boy before you even knew it yourself"
Hinata blushed a deep red and looked down while mumbling:
"You did? Oh my" Ino placed a comforting hand on Hinata's shoulder and said:
"Awww no need to be embarrassed, only I knew, no one else and I will not tell a soul, promise"
"O-okay, thanks" Hinata smiled to Ino kindly. Ino smiled softly back at Hinata and the two then turned their attention back to the scene happening before them… well the argument happening before them.
On the opposite side of the two ladies, Shikamaru was standing near Tenten and Neji with an odd expression on his face.
He did not understand why Tenten was avoiding eye contract with either of them nor why Neji was standing there in complete shock.
Had he missed something?
"Eh Neji, are you okay?" Shikamaru placed his hand Neji's shoulder as he asked his friend.
Neji blinked and turned to Shikamaru.
"Y-yes, I am fine, I just…" Neji carried on as he turned to Tenten and asked:
"Did you just apologize to me, Tenten?" Tenten looked away with pink cheekbones.
"I-I… " Tenten puffed her cheeks up, "I will not repeat myself! It was hard enough to say it the first time!"
Neji started to chuckle.
"No laughing at me, it is not funny! Quit it already!" Tenten informed Neji, who finished his chuckling and said:
"But it is, to me at least"
"Well your sense of humor does suck after all. So, be my guest and laugh at your own silly humor all by yourself while I do some more productive" Tenten explained as she began leaving the room with her head held high.
"Ehhh Tenten, where do you think you are going?" Neji had stopped laughing by the time he saw Tenten leaving and he was not happy about her leaving.
"Out" Tenten replied as she walked out of the door. Neji began running after her while he called out:
"Tenten! Wait up, we are not done yet!"
"Yes, we are! I am bored and I suddenly feel like having a good spar" Tenten told Neji, who then said:
"We can spar later. You need to improve your mannerism!"
Tenten stopped in her tracks and turned to look at Neji as she said with a raised eyebrow:
"Who said I wanted to spar with you? I have done that far enough and I am tired of losing" Tenten began walking off again, this time talking faster steps.
"Tenten, there are not anyone other than me you can spar with me! My uncle's swordsmen are busy training! They do not have time to play around with someone as stubborn as you!" Neji tried to explain to Tenten, who said:
"Just you watch me! I am sure those two fools, the blond and the brown-haired, have time for a little spar"
Neji stopped running, looking at Tenten with shock, as he said:
"Those two? You cannot be sure, they are… idiots!"
Tenten turned her face around as she began to run and said:
"Yes, indeed! Only idiots will accept a challenge from me!" Tenten then ran off in a sprint, disappearing from Neji's sight.
Neji stopped in his tracks, panting while he thought:
"Did she just call me an idiot?"
Somewhere outside the Hyuuga manor. In the large garden behind the manor, a brown-haired young man wearing a red shirt and black pants was sleeping peacefully against one of the big trees in the garden.
Suddenly a blond young man wearing a similar outfit, only with an orange shirt rather than a red one, came running towards the brown-haired man while he yelled:
"Kiba! Kiba! Wake up! I have something you just have to see!"
The loud yelling awoke Kiba, much to his own annoyance. Kiba gave the blond an annoyed look as he with an annoying voice said:
"Will you be quite? There are actually people here trying to sleep!"
The blond blinked confusedly and began looked around his surrounding with a lost expression while asked:
"Really? Who? Where are they?"
Kiba man gave the blond a look while he rolled his eyes and spoke:
"By God's mother you are denser than usual, me! I am trying to sleep! And you woke me up with your loud, annoying voice!"
The blond rubbed his ear, not really paying attention to his friend.
"NARUTO! ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?" Kiba yelled angrily at Naruto, by the time he was done shouting his face was red and he began panting after air. Naruto cocked his head to the side and said:
"Ehm… no, did you say something?"
Kiba sighed deeply to himself.
"Just forget it and tell me why you are here?" Kiba asked in pure misery. Why did Naruto always ignore him when he tried to lecture him? It is so unfair!
"Oh, right! Look what I found!" Naruto then showed Kiba a beautiful looking pendant. The pendant had a round shape and it looked like it was made of gold or some metal with a similar color. On the pendant a black and white symbol was painted on in the form of the yin yang symbol alongside two beautiful lotus flowers on the edge of the yin yang symbol. Inside the yin yang symbol the letter 'H' was cut into, colored in a sliver-like color.
Kiba looked at the beautiful pendant with a skeptic look, how did Naruto get his clumsy hands on such a beautiful item? It looked somewhat familiar to…
"Naruto, do not tell me that you stole this from the Hyuuga jewelry collection?" Kiba suddenly asked, fearing the worse of his dear comrade. Was his friend a thief? More important, was he friends with a thief?
Naruto paled and quickly said in panic:
"What? No, no, you got it all wrong! I found it! I swear! I found it lying on the ground outside the manor!"
"Well then give it back to its owner" Kiba told Naruto, who replied by saying:
"But I do not know who owns it!"
"It was found outside the Hyuuga manor, it has the letter 'H' on it and the Hyuuga family's has a yin yang symbol on their family crest. So, it must belong to a Hyuuga" Kiba explained to Naruto.
"But which, do you have any idea of how many of the Hyuuga family's members that uses the initials 'H'? Everyone! H for Hyuuga!" Naruto said with very little belief that they would ever find the owner of the pendant.
"I know, Naruto! So far we can start by taking every male off the list" Kiba insisted.
"Ehm why?" Naruto blinked confusedly.
"Because do you know any man, who would wear a pendant with flowers on it? No real man would do that!" Kiba openly declared.
"Ahhh of course, because women like flowers and men does not, they like swords and manly things" Naruto nodded, understanding Kiba point fully.
"Exactly, my dense friend!" Kiba smiled at his friend.
As the two made their way to begin investigating who the owner was, a certain someone startled them by suddenly attacking them from behind.
"Take this!" The person yelled at them as the person shocks the two men by throwing two daggers at them.
Kiba and Naruto panicked, releasing everything in their hands and then going down on their knees while covering their heads with their arms.
"Please, do not harm us!" The two literally begged.
The stranger sighed and said:
"Stand up, you two! I am not going to throw anymore daggers at you, at least for now"
Kiba and Naruto looked up with tears of joy falling from their eyes. When they saw who had shocked them, jaws dropped to the ground.
"Tenten?" Tenten waved at them with a grin and said:
"Hi, what are you two guys doing? Because if you are not doing anything interesting then how about we have a spar to see who is the better of us?"
"A spar? Well that sounds great and all, but me and Kiba-" Naruto began, but was cut off by Kiba.
"Kiba and I, Naruto, Kiba and I" Kiba corrected Naruto, who nodded before he continued:
"Ehhh right, Kiba and I were kind of busy trying finding the owner of…" Naruto lifted his hand up to show Tenten the pendant, only to realize...
That it was missing!
"What! The pendant! Where it is? Oh no, why me?" Naruto shouted out loud in misery of losing the pendant so easily.
"The pendant? What pendant?" Tenten blinked, clueless to what was going on at the current moment.
"Did you lose it already, Naruto? Way to go, I knew I should have taken it from you!" Kiba gave Naruto a shocked look, how could he have lost it?
"I must have dropped it when Tenten surprised us! It must be somewhere nearby!" Naruto tried to reason with himself, looking around to every corner nearby and that was then he froze.
The well.
"That girl, that woman, that archer, that Tenten… Agh! Drives me mad! How could she leave in the middle of nowhere, she has yet to learn how to speak properly to others! And her posture is also in the need of some help if she wishes to look a little more lady-like! Why can she not understand that she is dragging me down with her?" Neji thought to himself in almost agony, lost in his own thought, feeling somewhat hopeless.
"Ehm Shikamaru, is cousin Neji okay? He has been standing there staring into nothing for quite a while now" Hinata asked Shikamaru, feeling a bit worried for the well-being of her older cousin.
"Tsk, that mannerless lady can surely affect sir 'I-am-married-to-my-duty'" Ino commented in a slight arrogant tone.
"Ino, be nice. It is not my cousin's fault that he does not believe in love and such things" Hinata defended Neji, who was still deep in thought while looking at the open door.
Ino looked at Hinata with a look of both surprise and curiosity.
"Then, if you can tell me, why does he think that way?" Ino's question made Hinata stop for a moment.
Should she tell? Or should she not?
"Do not worry, dear cousin of mine, you can tell her, it is no big secret of mine. Shikamaru know of it as well, so why keep it hiding away? I truly do not care" Neji finally spoke.
"Cousin Neji…" Hinata looked at her cousin before she turned to Shikamaru, who nodded his head and said:
"That is correct, he told me it himself"
"Oh" Hinata blinked.
"So, sir Neji, why do you not believe in love?" Ino decided to ask her question once more, this time to Neji himself.
"Because, to me, love is just a mere illusion meant to fool us and toy with our hearts" Neji spoke in monotone.
"Toy with our hearts? Sounds more like someone broke your heart" Ino spoke somewhat judgmental, which caused Hinata to react.
"Ino, please try to understand. My cousin has experienced a lot of sorrowful things doing his childhood and for many years he rarely interacted with us, his family, but he has started to warm up and open himself up again to us. He, despite opening up a bit, still have yet to open up his heart to love and he, most of all, need to learn how to trust love again. And I believe that Tenten is the person, who can save him from himself, from his own demons" Hinata whispered to Ino, who speechlessly nodded her head in understanding.
"So, Neji, how about we go get Tenten?" Shikamaru suggested. Neji turned to Shikamaru and nodded his head:
"Sounds like a good idea, she needs to learn that she cannot run off like a child whenever she feels like it"
"I see you are still a bit grumpy about her running off like that" Shikamaru chuckled.
"I am NOT grumpy, just annoyed by her way of… behaving" Neji tried to keep his pride intact. Tenten's teasing was enough; he did not need Shikamaru teasing him as well!
"Hn, fine by me, let us go find the wild child" Shikamaru joked as he began walking with Neji following behind him.
"Yeah" Neji replied, feeling as if there was something he was missing, but not sure what.
"Must be my imagination" He assured himself.
Back in Neji's chamber Ino and Hinata realized that they had been left behind.
"How could they?" Ino hissed with an outrageous expression.
"Stay calm, Ino, I am sure they did not do it on purpose" Hinata tried to calm Ino down.
"Hmph" Ino replied.
"Ehehe how about we just go after them?" Hinata suggested unsurely.
"Of course" Ino snapped her fingers before the two females began making their way out of Neji's chamber.
Naruto found himself feeling nauseous as he stared downwards. His grip on the rope holding him up tightened and he looked upwards.
"Ehm is this really a good idea? What if I slip and get hurt or worse drown!" Naruto yelled to Kiba and Tenten, who was looking down at him from the well's edges, both holding on to the rope Naruto was using.
"Stop being such a chicken, Naruto! The well is pretty much empty of water and the ground is muddy instead of solid, so if you fall you will have a smooth landing! Now, keep climbing downwards and get the pendant!" Kiba yelled down to his friend.
"Why do I have to do the dirty work? It is so unfair! It was not my fault the pendant fell down the well in the first place! It was Tenten, who caught me by surprise! Why not let her go down instead of me?" Naruto asked.
"Correction, it was YOU who tossed the pendant aside, I did not!" Tenten corrected Naruto.
"But if you had not surprised us like you did then maybe I would not have tossed it away, so it is your fault and not mine" Naruto explained as he continued to climb down the rope, deeper down in the well.
"Just keep on climbing! We do not have time to argue! Who knows, the person looking for it might come by anytime asking if anyone has seen it!" Kiba yelled down to Naruto, who in return turned out:
"Fine, but you two own me big time after this and I mean big time! I want a massage and a want to have my breakfast served on my bed with-"
"Just keep on climbing!" Tenten cut Naruto off.
"Tenten? Sir Kiba? What are you two doing there and why are you holding on to a rope?" An oddly familiar voice suddenly spoke.
Both Tenten and Kiba felt a sudden chill run down their necks.
They knew that voice, a bit too well!
"I am so dead, I am so dead! I might as well kill myself! I am so sorry, mother!" Kiba thought to himself miserable.
"Why now? What am I supposed to tell him? He is probably wondering why I am not sparring! Oh what to tell him, what to tell him?" Tenten asked herself.
Both Kiba and Tenten turned around, rope hiding behind their backs and fake happy smiles on their faces.
"Hi Neji, are you here already?" "Hi sir Neji, what can I help you with?" Tenten and Kiba both spoke at the same time.
Neji raised a suspicious eyebrow at the two.
"They are hiding something, I am sure of it. Question is: what are they hiding?" Neji told himself as he narrowed down his eyes to look at them both more closely.
"Tenten, I thought you wanted to spar with Kiba and Naruto, not look at old a well with just Kiba? Speaking of which, where is Naruto?" Neji finally decided to ask the two, who smiled nervously at him.
Tenten found herself grinning oddly as she tried to explain herself:
"Well… it is correct that I wanted to spar with them, but seeing as Naruto had yet to show up, we," Tenten pointed between her and Kiba, "decided to…" Tenten carried on, looking at Kiba with eyes that told him that she needed his help.
"I decided to show Tenten some of the more interesting things in the Hyuuga manor garden while we waited for Naruto to appear, and who does not like to look at old wells? They are … a quite fascinating sight" Kiba forced out a grin as he finished.
"I see" Neji spoke slowly as he rubbed his chin with a suspicious expression.
Down in the well Naruto had finally reached the bottom of it. Much to his own relief and joy.
"Now I only need to find the pendant and then I can go back up to the flesh air" Naruto spoke to himself.
"Oh pendant, where are you? Pretty pendant, show yourself to mister Naruto, I promise never to toss you aside again" Naruto began speaking to the pendant as if it was a dog or something similar, making weird noises while he crawled on the muddy and watery well bottom.
Back up on the upper ground, in the garden, Kiba and Tenten were trying to ease up Neji's suspicious. And most of all…
Keep Neji far away from the well!
"Now, Neji, do tell me, why are you here?" Tenten asked Neji, trying to appear curious even though she was not. She knew why he was here!
"It is not obvious! I am here to get you, so we can continue what we begun back inside the manor!" Neji spoke in a harsh tone.
"And what did we begun?" Tenten asked Neji, although she knew very well what he was on about.
"Training your mannerism!" Neji told Tenten with a voice that did nothing to hide his annoyance with her.
"Oh right, but can it not wait till later? Perhaps tomorrow? Training that manner-thingy, or what you call it, is so boring and one missed day could not hurt, could it?" Tenten asked Neji, trying to shy away from the whole 'manner' training.
"No, it cannot wait" Neji spoke shortly.
"Someone got out on the wrong side of the bed this morning" Tenten teased, which caused Neji's face to redden while Kiba found himself chuckling.
Back in the well Naruto had finally found the pendant and when he looked up to show the pendant, he found no one looking down at him.
Where had they gone? Had they forgotten all about him? Had they left him all alone in this creepy, old well?
"Ehm Kiba, Tenten, anyone up there? Hello! I found the pendant! Anyone? Anyone up there? Hello?" Naruto gave up and decided to climb up himself, hoping that the two above ground had made sure the rope was secured. If not, well then he better learn how to fly otherwise he would be stuck down here until someone finds him.
"Next time, I will be the one looking down at them and not opposite" Naruto promised himself as he began climbing.
Back up on the ground, Neji decided to speak once more:
"Come on, Tenten, the others are looking for you as well, why waste anymore of their time?"
"Why are they not with you?" Tenten wondered out loud.
"Well because the Hyuuga garden happens to be quite big and it was easier to look over a large area if we went separated ways, that is why" Neji explained.
"Ahhh okay" Tenten nodded, trying to look amazed.
"FOUND IT!" A very familiar voice shouted out loud from behind them.
"Naruto!" Kiba and Tenten both thought.
"Oh, so you two did not leave me, what a relief, look what I foun-" Naruto froze as he saw Neji there standing a not far from Tenten and Kiba.
Oops!
Kiba and Tenten tried to make hand signs to Naruto, telling him to hide the pendant, but Naruto did not seem to understand them at all and did absolute nothing to hide the item presented in his hand.
"What did you found, Naruto? And why where you down the well? Did something happen? And why do Kiba and Tenten look like they are about to have a panic attack? You three did not do anything that you were not allowed too, did you?" Neji asked with suspicious as he walked over to Naruto and took the dirt covered pendant out of his hands to have a closer look at it.
Neither of the three dared to speak as Neji began cleaning the dirt of the pendant, so he could see what it was and once he had done that he froze.
"It cannot be? How could I have forgotten all about this?" Neji asked himself, shocked by himself and what he had found.
His mom's pendant…
FLASHBACK
"Neji, I am back" A warm well known voice called out.
A young boy with long brown hair stood up, from the floor he had been sitting on, with a bright smile on his pale face. Lavender eyes shining brightly, reflecting the happiness in the youth was feeling.
"Father!" The young pale boy called out in pure joy as he ran over towards the direction his father's voice were coming from.
"Neji!" His father greeted him with open arms while kneeling down so his son could reach him.
Neji jumped right into his father's warm embrace and hugged him tightly.
"Father, I have missed you so much! Never leave me for so long ever, ever again!" Neji told his father as he held on to his father.
"But Neji, I have only been gone for 3 days" His father said while he laughed at his son's childishness.
Neji pouted his mouth and said:
"3 days is a long time, it three times worse than one"
Neji's father chuckled and patted his son on the head while he said:
"Oh Neji, you know father has to leave sometimes, there are people who needs me"
"But why? I need you more than they do" Neji complained childishly, which only made his father laugh even more:
"Neji, Neji, father has an important job to do and if father does his work well he might be rewarded with the greatest glory of all. Do you know what that is, Neji?" Neji's father poked Neji on the nose.
Neji looked up at his father and asked:
"Father gets to meet the queen?"
"Better than that, father may get to work for the queen and become one of her most trusted swordsmen" Neji's father explained to his son with a warm smile on his face.
"Oh, you mean father can become a knight? A real knight?" Neji asked ecstatic. Neji's father chuckled and nodded his head:
"You got it, my son. Your father could become someone who you would be proud of"
"But I am proud of you already, father, you are the best" Neji told his father sincerely. His father looked at him and smiled while he planted a kiss on his forehead.
"Father, that is embarrassing! Someone might see!" Neji told his father with flushing cheeks, his father merely laughed and smiled at his son.
"No need for that, I am your father" Neji's father said before he started to trickled his son, causing the small boy to break into a fit of laughter.
"Not hahaha there hahaha father hahaha it is hahaha not hahaha funny!" Neji tried to speak, but he could barely make the word come out properly and in the end he just gave in to his father's trickling.
After his father had stopped trickling him, the two Hyuugas where left in silence until…
"Neji?" Neji looked up at his father.
"Yes, father?" Neji asked, looking at his father with curiosity and interest.
"There is something I feel you should have" His father began while he moved his hand over to the collar of his black uniform and loosened it a bit.
Moments afterward Neji saw his father pull up a pendant from underneath his shirt and lift it over his head.
"This, my son, was your mother's" Neji's father told Neji as he held forward the beautiful looking pendant.
Neji stared at in pure amaze.
"In our family we have a very important tradition where we give the ones we marry a special made pendant to symbolize our love for them and to show them that they are welcome into the family" His father explained, biting his lip slightly as the painful memories of the love he lost too soon for him to have been prepared to say goodbye.
"I want you to have it as a memory of the mother you never got a chance to meet" A small teardrop fell from the corner of his eyes as he spoke to his dear son.
Neji took the pendant, running a curious finger over it before looking up at his father, who had quickly whipped the teardrop away before Neji had the chance of noticing, and said:
"Father?"
"What is it, Neji?" His father asked kindly.
"What was mother like?" Neji asked innocently.
His father smiled while his pale eyes started to glitter as more tears threatened to fall.
"She was… the most wonderful woman I have ever had the pleasure of meeting"
END OF FLASHBACK
"Hello, anybody still there" Neji heard Tenten said while she waved her hand in front of his face.
He blinked and everything became clear once again.
"Well that explains that this must be something of importance! In other words; we are so dead… well Naruto is since he found it" Kiba spoke cockily.
"What? But I was going to give it back! It was Tenten, who made me toss it down that well!" Naruto defended himself as he whined like a 5 year old.
"Are you implying that I am the one to blame" Tenten spoke with a voice that could freeze hell over.
"Ehm no! Of course not!" Naruto said with a voice that clearly showed that he was scared of Tenten.
"Now that was better" Tenten said, sounding very pleased with herself.
Neji, feeling somewhat annoyed by them, decided to speak with harsh, somewhat accusing voice:
"I believe you three need to explain to me how you got your hands on that pendant and why it fell down the well?"
Both Kiba and Naruto paled while Tenten merely made an 'hmph' sound.
"Well that is kind of a funny story" Naruto said awkwardly.
"Yeah, very funny, hilarious in fact!" Kiba agreed.
"Okay, then please enlighten me of what happened" Neji told the two with his hands crossed, waiting for a proper explanation.
"Well it began with… well… a well?" Naruto tried to explain, but failed miserable.
"Let me do it, Naruto" Kiba pushed Naruto aside before he began explaining:
"I was taking a nap by this big tree then Naruto came running to me, yelling he wanted to show me something. That something happened to be this," Kiba pointed at the pendant, "pendant, which he had found lying around in the garden. At first, I thought he had stolen it, but he told me he had found it and I told him to give it back to its owner, but Naruto did not know who the owner was so we began trying to figure it out and that was then," Kiba pointed at Tenten, "Tenten came and surprised us, which caused Naruto to end up tossing the pendant down the well" Kiba finished.
"But I have managed to find it, so now we can give it back to whoever owns it!" Naruto said with a proud grin.
"Yeah, we just need to figure out, which Hyuu-" Kiba was cut off by Neji, who spoke shortly:
"It is mine, so please give it me"
"Eh?" Both Kiba and Naruto said, looking at Neji oddly while Tenten looked at the scene before her with curiosity.
"Well that was… surprising… we did know that you was that kind of… man… well maybe… with that long hair of yours… and your pale, flawless skin… yeah, the signs was there… but I guess we thought… seeing you with Tenten, but I guess… not…" Kiba mumbled while rubbing the back of his neck in a nervous and very awkward manner.
"I am sorry, but I really cannot understand you when you are mumbling like that, but that pendant belongs to me. It was giving to me by my father as a memento of my mother" Neji told Kiba, who suddenly felt like a complete idiot.
"Oh, you mother's! Well that explains the flowers and all ehehe nevermind" Kiba tried to regain himself after saying some really stupid things.
"Thank God that I was mumbling! If sir Neji had heard me! Oh, I would have been dead by now!" Kiba thought to himself while sighing in relief before he elbowed Naruto, telling the dense blond to handle the pendant over to its rightful owner.
"Come, Tenten, we better go" Neji looked at Tenten after he had received his pendant back. Tenten looked at Neji with confusement.
"Why?" Tenten asked with a somewhat disappointed voice.
"We have a schedule to follow and this time no running off, you have already wasted enough of our time" Neji explained to Tenten.
Tenten pouted her lips and muttered as he walked over to him:
"Sir 'bored-my-bottom'"
Neji choice to ignore her as he began walking.
"We might have to wait for Shikamaru as well as my cousin and her handmaiden, Ino, to come, they are looking for you as well" Neji informed Tenten as they were walking.
"Then a little round of sparing would not hurt, would it?" Tenten asked while she gave Neji a pleading look.
Neji rolled his eyes and sighed:
"Fine, but only one round"
"Yes!" Tenten jumped up in joy, while Neji could not help, but to smile a bit by her reaction.
"As much as she annoys her when she is angry, as much I found myself liking her whenever she is happy" Neji thought to himself with a small smile on his face.
*Clink* *Clank* *Clink* *Clank*
The sounds of steel hitting steel echoed as Tenten and Neji's swords clashed together every few seconds.
Attack. Dodge. Attack. Dodge. Attack. Dodge.
And so on…. Until…
*Slash*
Tenten's sword managed to bypass Neji's defenses and rip a quite big hole in Neji's white blouse.
Neji had been lucky, Tenten had not managed to piece her sword through his skin only his blouse. No blood was spilt, luckily.
Neji panted heavily as he looked down at his, now exposed, pale arm.
Shocked he was.
Never, in any of their sparring sessions, had Tenten managed to bypass his defenses. Never, not even once.
Neji felt his vision blur as he with confusement touched his forehead, lifting up his bangs while slowly massaging his forehead smoothly.
"Neji?" Neji looked up at Tenten, who was holding her sword loosely with hanging arms.
"Are you okay?" Tenten asked, she sounded almost worried, but Neji pushed that thought long away.
Tenten worried? Tsk, as if!
Neji looked down at his destroyed sleeve and said:
"Yeah, I just… spaced out"
Tenten looked at Neji with a lifted eyebrow while she crossed her hands over chest with her lips formed into a thin line.
She did not believe him and she was not impressed by his lousy little pathetic excuse of a lie.
"Well, I am not buying that pathetic explanation of yours! Now, tell me what is on your mind, bothering you so much" Tenten demanded harshly.
Neji looked at Tenten, unsure of how to take her reaction.
Was she trying to act like she cared or did she really, in her own odd and selfish way of being her, care?
"Why do you care so much? This has nothing to do with you" Neji told Tenten, trying to keep a cold front.
"Because whatever it is there is on your mind, it is affecting your swordsman skills and I hate sparring with people, whose mind are elsewhere" Tenten explained to Neji.
"Hmmm I figured" Neji mumbled under his breath. Of course, she did not care.
"Also," Tenten began while avoiding eye contract, "I guess you can say that I am a bit worried about you… you, acting so unlike you, makes me for some odd reason feel uneasy with myself and yeah worried for you" Tenten admitted, her cheeks tinted a pale pinkish color.
Neji looked at Tenten for a moment, feeling a sudden warm spread through him and with a sigh he smiled a small smile.
"I guess it will not harm anyone if I tell you what has been haunting my mind while we were sparring" Neji gave in, feeling he needed to express his emotions to someone and seeing as Tenten was the only one around, why not let that someone be her?
"As I told you and the two fools, Naruto and Kiba, the pendant the two found was my mothers, giving to me by my father as a memento of her… So, I guess you can say that seeing it again, after almost forgetting I even had it, brought back a lot of old memories," Neji took a deep breath, "I remembered my father and it reminded me just how much I really miss him" Neji let out a deep breath, feeling his eyes starting to water, but fighting it back.
No, he was not going to shed any tears. Not in front of her.
"I am sorry, but from the you are speaking of your father, I can guess that he is no longer alive, am I right?" Tenten asked with a somewhat timid and hesitating voice. Although she did found it odd that she had only met and heard about his uncle, the thought that Neji was practically an orphan had never her mind.
"Yeah, that is correct," Neji nodded his head while looking down, "I lost him back then I was quite young and I guess after losing him I pretty much forgot living life like it is supposed to be lived" Neji admitted openly.
"How did, or should I say do, you live life then?" Tenten asked.
"Like life is and was a duty. Like it is something you just have to, not because you want to" Neji told Tenten, who looked at Neji with eyes of wonder.
Tenten smiled softly to herself.
"I guess I have to admit that I at some points envy you" Tenten admitted out loud. Neji turned to her, looking really taken aback by her words.
"Envy me? I should be the on who envies you!" Neji pointed out.
"Why?" Tenten asked, not getting Neji's point.
Neji took a hold on Tenten's shoulder, pushing Tenten up against a tree while he almost shouted:
"Because you live life! You do not do it because of a duty or something like that, you just do it! You are FREE! Something that I have never been able to be" Neji released Tenten, letting Tenten slide down the tree until she was sitting on the ground.
Neji fell to his knees and released a cry of frustration.
Tenten looked at Neji, blinking her brown eyes in confusement before she moved her hands over to one of his and took it in hers.
Neji looked up at Tenten again and Tenten started to speak:
"What I am doing is not living life; I am running from life… I have always done that because life…. it scares me more than anything I have come to face! So, please do not envy me for at least you can live the life that you have been giving! I, on the other hand, have not, all I have done is run and lie my way in this unfair and twisted world" Tenten lost her hold on Neji's hand and let it fall while she looked down, avoiding eye contract.
She felt… exposed.
While he felt… vulnerable.
Neither of them spoke. Silence surrounded them.
They did not know what to say, words could not describe the emotions that ran through their heads and their hearts.
Like cold water hitting warm water, creating fog and energy.
They felt as if…They were no longer…
…Alone.
To be continued…
A/N: Done!
I believe that the chapter speaks for itself, but Neji and Tenten are growing closer to one another.
I hope you all enjoyed it, leave a review and tell me what you think ^^
P.S. I passed my portfolio exam and I can look forward to a little well deserved holiday before 2nd semester begins by the end of January – Hoping for a quicker update for the next chapter :D