Tenten sat in a snug little booth in a classy little club, blowing her bangs out of her eyes as she tried to figure out why she had gotten dressed up in her little black dress and heels to come and sit by herself for an hour.
Ah yes, because Neji had promised to be there.
It had been weeks since they had seen each other, missions and clan politics keeping them apart. The missions had been her fault since she had volunteered for them, and the politics weren't even Neji's fault. The clan elders had finally caught wind of Hinata's and Naruto's relationship and were throwing a conniption fit, calling on every capable Hyuuga to protect their precious heir from such terrible influences.
But the man had called her and told her to meet him. He shouldn't have gotten her hopes up if there had been even a chance he couldn't make it, especially since she had put on her sexy underwear.
Not that he'd ever see it if and when he decided to show up.
So, sitting there and pouting into her drink, she didn't notice the man until he slid into the seat across from her. "Now, why's a girl like you sitting all alone in a dress like that?" Her lips twitched as she took in the man, happy to not have to look like a loser who went alone to clubs like this anymore.
"It is a damn good dress, isn't it?" He grinned at her, his dark eyes gleaming in the low light, bright hair falling across his forehead charmingly, the tips brushing against his shiny forehead protector. He was beyond handsome, looking almost godly as he sat there flirting with her. All too happy to feel pampered, Tenten leaned in and started playing the game with him.
"Boyfriend is running late." He didn't even falter at the mention of a boyfriend, seemingly more amused than anything.
"Only an idiot would leave a lady like you waiting, Little panda." Tenten, who had been sipping her soda, choked on the drink, feeling the burn of it in her nose as she tried to figure out where that had come from.
"What?"
"Your hair," He said, nodding to her customary style. "Like two little panda ears. It's cute." Tenten leaned back and crossed her arms, smiling as she felt a blush bloom on her cheeks.
"Damn, you're good."
He smiled at her in a way that would have charmed a snake into doing the Charleston, his eyes twinkling. "Thank you, but it's easy with someone like you." Another blush. "Would you mind if I bought you an actual drink?" Tenten thought about it, about how nice it would be to be treated like this for a little while longer, but she just really wasn't up for it.
"Sorry cutie, but my time's up. Thanks for the offer though, and the ego booster." He grinned once more and waved goodbye, watching her as she left with regret. If her eyes and legs had told the story right, she would have been a lot of fun.
Tenten sipped the fruity little drink Sakura had ordered for her, propping her chin on her fist as she listened to her friends' inputs into her little predicament. Sakura and Ino were just as outraged as they would have been if it had happened to them, and Hinata sat quietly across from her, stirring her drink with her straw.
"Hey, what do you think about all of this, Hinata?" Ino asked, sipping her martini.
Hinata looked down at her hands, biting her lips. "W-well, he left the estate early so that he could meet with you, so I don't know what could have happened... but I'm sure he has his reasons." Tenten nodded, sipping her daiquiri.
"Oh, I know he does, but I'm not going to listen to them for a while. Give it time to settle down, you know?"
The girls nodded and Tenten turned to Hinata. "How's it going with you and Naruto?"
Hinata smiled into her glass, her eyes softening as the tiny traces of nervousness melted away completely. "Good. It's been a bit more difficult with how the council is reacting, but Naruto has been coming up with all these plans for us to be alone for a few hours and it's not as difficult as it could be..." She said, leading off as Tenten easily picked up her meaning. It wasn't as difficult as it could have been without Neji's help, so please don't be too upset.
Tenten was about to tell her not to worry when a stealthy presence appeared behind her. "Well now, if it isn't Panda, the elusive girl with a missing boyfriend." Tenten smiled and turned.
"And if it isn't Cutie, the flirt and ego booster." The smiled at each other before the man pulled a seat up to their table and straddled it.
Ino leaned forward, her eyes eating the sight of the handsome man up. "Who's this, Tenten?" Tenten looked at him and smirked.
"Actually, we didn't really catch each other's names." Ino blinked, wondering how anyone could go five minutes without begging to know his name, relationship status and number.
Tenten held her hand out for his, smiling. "I'm Tenten." He took it and gave it a slow shake. "Ryou," He said as he brought her hand up to brush his lips over her knuckles, effectively stealing the breath of every girl at the table. "It's a pleasure to have met you, Beautiful Tenten."
"Damn," Ino whispered, and Tenten was about to make a remark to the same effect when a sudden killing intent flared behind them.
They turned slowly to find Neji, his eyes blazing as they remained on his girlfriend's hand, which had never been removed from Ryou's.
In a blink of an eye he was over at the table, jerking Ryou's hand away from Tenten's and dragging her from the bar, never saying a word and instead letting the fury that rolled off of him in waves do the speaking for him.
Ryou winced as he held his wrist, sincerely hoping that it wasn't broken. "Let me guess, that was the boyfriend." The three girls nodded and Ino leaned forward.
"Yes, but I, however, have no relationships currently and can heal that wrist of yours, no charge."
Tenten tried to keep up with Neji's furious pace, cursing as her heels got caught in crack after crack in the sidewalk, causing her to stumble. "Damn it Neji! Stop for a minute, will you?" He let go of her, causing her to wobble a bit before catching her balance again. She flexed her wrist, frowning at the small twinge of pain the movement caused. "Geez," She muttered, looking around to find that he had pulled her into the now deserted park. "Listen, Neji-"
"I don't want you to see him again." He said, his back to her. Tenten blinked, unsure if she had heard him right.
"What?"
He turned to face her, his colorless eyes cutting through the darkness of the night and meeting hers, blazing and beautiful.
"I don't want you to meet with that man again. Ever. He was far too familiar with you."
Tenten stared at him for a moment, her lips threatening to twitch into a smile. "Neji, are you... jealous?" His face bloomed red and his eyes left hers, staring off into the distance as he tried to control his embarrassment.
Tenten nearly gaped.
She had always been worried about the girls, the ones who saw a powerful Hyuuga and slid there skirts up a bit more and their shirts down, begging to be seen and be wanted. She had never really worried about him cheating on her -he was far too honorable- but she had worried about the looks he always got and had worried that one day he'd notice them and leave her for one of the tarts. But she had never thought about Neji being anything but... Neji.
Neji was always so calm and controlled, so much so that some might have called him emotionless. That was the Neji that she knew, the one she was used to. But this Neji was none of those things. He was jealous, embarrassed and... adorable.
So adorable that she just wanted to hug him and hide him away from the rest of the world.
A giggle slipped through her guard, making Neji's eyes snap back to her and causing his anger to increase tenfold. "Don't laugh!" He shouted as he suddenly shoved her into a nearby tree, holding her there and leaning his face into hers so that she could see just how serious and mad he was.
"I don't want you to see him again, I don't want you to talk to him again, and I definitely don't want you to let him touch you again. In fact, I don't want you to go to another one of those girl nights again."
"Wait, what?" This was quickly going from cute to unacceptable.
"It's obviously what caused the problem, what with you getting all dressed up and giving people the wrong ideas and drinking the way you do."
Tenten's eyes flashed and she decided that that was as far as she'd let him go. After all, she wanted for them to still be dating when she woke up tomorrow. "Excuse me?" She shouted as she shoved him away, "Who do you think you are, thinking you can boss me around?"
"Your boyfriend." He gritted out, causing Tenten to laugh right in his face.
"Good God, do you seriously think that that gives you permission? You're a hundred years too late to have that kind of attitude, mister."
He tried to grab her wrist again and she swatted him away. Glaring at each other they battled for dominance, at first just with him trying to grab her and with her shoving him away, but then it quickly morphed into a real, full blown fight.
Her dress ripped and she lost her heels, ignoring all of this in favor of trying to dodge his gentle chakra filled blows. He in turn had various rips in his own clothes and a scratch on his cheek from where she had unexpectedly thrown one of her now lost heels at him.
Tenten, having decided to end this quickly, winced and cried out as she dropped to the ground, holding her ankle. Neji dropped his bakugan and went over to her and was trying to see what was wrong when she sprung at him, pinning him down to the ground as she straddled him, holding his hands above his head.
They both glared at each other for a moment, panting, before they let their anger go and just watched each other for a moment.
"I'm not going to stop going to girl's night just because you're a little upset." He stared at her silently for a moment before she rolled her eyes. "Fine, maybe you're more than a little upset. But it's not my fault. He was just harmlessly flirting with me, which would never have happened if you had been at our date the other night!"
Neji sighed at her, as if he were an adult and she a troublesome child. "Check my bag."
Tenten watched him warily, getting up to grab the bag he had dropped when their fight had begun. She rustled in it for a moment, pulling out a long black box. Looking questionably at Neji, who had taken advantage of his freedom to sit up, she opened it and stared.
In it lay a matching pair of sai on black velvet, each over a foot in length. They were simple, elegant weapons, the prongs curving up on either side of the lethal blades. They gleamed even in the darkness, shining with beauty and power, the only thing disrupting the smoothness of the blades was the engravings of her name on either side of the blades.
Tenten looked up at Neji, brushing her fingertips over the blade lovingly, the gift meaning more to her than any jewelry he could have gotten her. "Neji..."
"I was at the shop picking it up before I was supposed to meet with you, and would have been on time but the man had your name spelled with an 'I' instead of an 'E', and the hassle made me an hour and a half late."
Tenten thought about how if she had waited a few more minutes she would have gotten the present earlier, but she quickly dismissed the thoughts, never being one to dwell on such things. Instead she slipped the box back into his bag calmly, slinging the bag over her shoulder before launching herself at Neji, pinning him to the ground again as she kissed him.
"Tenten-" She shook her head and pressed her lips against his again, stealing all of his words.
"Ten-" She cut him off again, smiling as she began to unbutton his shirt. He gave in for a few moments until he felt the night's cool breeze brush his chest. "Tenten, God... Stop!" She propped her elbow on his chest, resting her chin on her fist as she stared down at him to wait for an explanation. "Tenten, we're in the park."
"So we are." She giggled at his blank stare, tracing a finger down his sharp and aristocratic nose. "You know," She said conversationally, watching for his reaction, "You're cute when you get jealous."
He gaped like a fish, opening and closing his mouth in shock. "I can do without you ordering me around though."
When he did nothing more than stare at her with shock and more than a little bit of outrage she sighed and stood up, walking away. "Where are you going?" He asked, hurrying to get up and go after her.
"Since you seem to be against parks, I figured that my apartment would have to do." She paused to throw him a look over her shoulder filled with promises of the night to come.
"Are you coming?"
Okay, about the weapon Neji gave Tenten: A sai (not like the character Sai) is the same weapon Elektra from the Marvel comics uses, or Raphael from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles uses (He's the red angry one).
If you don't know who they are (shame on you!), google the weapon and look at some pictures. It's a pretty neat and versatile weapon, one that Tenten is more than happy to add to her collection.
Oh, and about Ryou: he will never show up again (Kathy promises).
He and Ino have a few fun little trysts in bed, and then they both move on easily. He will settle down with a normal woman that he knocked up, and they will have three kids and a dog before they have a break after ten years, but they'll get back together and live a comfortable live together.
Love you all lots! Big, happy panda baby hugs for all of you! (Because who doesn't want to hug a baby panda?)