Chapter 4
Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine. Wasn't, isn't and won't ever be.
Summary: Neji on his own, looking for help, also Tenten. Who they ask for advice? Start reading already!
A/N: I'm sorry for the delay, but now I have easter holiday- at last! I'm so happy because I have been up to my eyes with work… nevertheless, here I go again, this is the next chapter and I tried to keep them as much in character as I could. As always I would like to hear your opinion to the chappy.
Why the hell did you leave her there? Neji's inner self kept on asking his outer ego who sat in his room after he had left the shopping mall in a sudden attempt to whatever. 'It is not my fault, who could have known she wouldn't follow us- me, I mean.' Everyone sane could have seen that coming, you're a Hyuuga for Kami-sama's sake. I bet she is sad. Maybe even crying at home… at her cold, lonely home… 'CUT IT! I'M A HYUUGA, DAMN IT AND I SO DON'T GIVE A DAMN ON THE ADVICE OF MY INSANE SECOND SELF!' I see… go ask Lee then. By the way, did I mention that I'm only a figment of your imagination? Neji shook his head. "Speaking with illusions, hearing them answer, asking Lee for help…Anything else to get a bad image??" The Hyuuga prodigy asked himself aloud as he stood up and walked outside again. Right into his cousin. "Hu- oh, Neji-nii-san. Gom- no, that h-hurt." The brunette boy glanced at the lavender-eyed heiress of their clan who sat on the ground in the estate's inner courtyard. Just then he realized that he must have knocked her down. He also noticed that for the first time, Hinata didn't apologize. "Gomenasai, Hinata-sama, I haven't noticed you." He helped her up and wanted to tell her he wouldn't be able to make it on time for supper, but his cousin smiled somewhat knowingly. "I a-asked father to gave both of us p-permission to skip this time." She chuckled slightly. "He wasn't pleased, he made me p-promise to not letting it b-become a habit." The Jounin was surprised: "You- where- why did you know I would stay out? More important, where are YOU going?" Hinata smiled. "D-don't worry, n-not on a date. B-bye, Neji-nii-san!" With that the shy girl ran off to wherever she was heading to. The shinobi couldn't help but smile. He then remembered that he had something to do. 'Lee.' And the courtyard was left in silence.
Tenten had just arrived at her home on the other side of town. She had bought the dress she had announced as the perfect one only a hour before. She stroke over the soft silk. The dress was Chinese style. It was bright red with a golden dragon pattern and it was really tight. On both sides it was slit, so you could see up to Tenten's mid-thigh. She liked it because it showed her more womanly part, not the normal tomboy. The brunette kunoichi stood up and went to the kitchen to make something to eat when the door rang. 'Visitors? Today? I didn't have anything going on for today or… OMFG! The girls! I totally forgot!' The weapon mistress cursed loudly, while she was hurrying to make her apartment up for the meeting and by doing so, she laid the table, put four diet cokes on it and some sesame-dango as well as she tidied up the living-room from the whole girly stuff. After that she ran to open the door. "G- gomen… was in the kitchen, meal cooked… didn't hear you three… oh my…" Tenten panted. "D- don't worry, T-Tenten-chan." Hinata tried to calm her friend down. "Right! Let's start with the ladies' night!" A very energetic Ino squeaked. "Ignore her, Tenten, she's sugar-high. You sure that there is everything okay with you?" Sakura asked concerned, totally in her medic-mode. "I'm..." "Wowwwies! Diet coke! It's spurting! Cool! I'm singing in the rai- oh, no- coke! Ino-ino-piggy-chan wants another raspy-gum! Lalala…" Tenten looked from Hinata to Sakura. "Who for Kami-sama's sake gave her raspberry bubblegum?!" "Not us.", the other females replied. "Who on earth isn't informed about Ino's… Ino's… state when she gets raspberry bubblegum?" The Hyuuga and the Haruno began to smile. "Who?!" Tenten definitely wasn't in the guessing mode. At least not when Ino was squirting brown diet coke all over her white furniture. Immediately her friends' index fingers pointed on Ino. "Oh, life can be ironic." Tenten slapped herself. "Then let's-" "OH MY! BEAUTIFUL!!!! COME HERE LADIES! YOU'VE GOTTA SEE!" 'She wouldn't have…' was all Tenten thought while entering her own room. "Tenten, you've got to tell us something, don't you?" Ino asked seriously. Oh, how much Tenten missed the whole sugar-highness…
'I can't believe I'm doing this…' Hyuuga Neji stood in front of Lee's dojo, his youthful estate, as he called it. He looked around for the twelfth time already, when there was no-one, he decided to go in. "Lee?", He called. "My youthful friend! You come here on important purpose, don't you?" The tai-jutsu-expert sat in the middle of the dojo, eating what looked like instant-ramen. 'Kami-sama, those idiots become too similar…' Neji thought as he recognized this. "What is it? If it's something about youth, I can help." Rock Lee watched his friend sit down beside him and noticed that he had something more difficult, maybe also embarrassing, on his mind. "It's about… I'm not sure how to say that… I'm not even sure if it was a good idea to ask you…" "Girls." Lee simply stated. "What the fu- I mean, excuse me?" "You want my help with girls." "What makes you so sure?" Neji couldn't believe that he should be so easy to see through. "Because you act like the typical hopelessly in love prodigy who has a problem with everything that you can't do perfect from the start, which isn't explained in step-for-step 'Something for dummies'-books, but has to do with relationships or more exactly, emotions." Lee grinned; his ramen was finished. "I'm the typical… why so?" The white-eyed Jounin wasn't very fond of becoming a stereo-type. "I talked with Naruto-kun and Chouji-kun about this. They have watched the same as I have watched between you and Tenten." The bowl-cut noticed a little hint of a blush on the Hyuuga's cheeks. "But, what is your question now?" His team-mate hesitated for another minute. "I don't know how to behave around Tenten anymore… I don't know her nor me anymore… what should I do? I feel like you and Gai are the only one's that are still normal. What do I do wrong?" He described his problem. Lee seemed to think it over for a few minutes. 'I hope he doesn't tell me to do the thing I thought of at the beginning.' The prodigy had surely a good knowledge of human or rather Lee's nature, he learned about the second after this thought.
"I am… what is the problem with it? I have a dress, so what?" The tomboy tried to defend herself from other curious questions of her friends. "And why do you have it?" While Patience wasn't one of Yamanaka Ino's strengths, stubbornness was though. "I… aw, screw it, I'll tell you, just promise me to follow me back to the living-room." "That sounds better." The blonde said confidently. The four kunoichi went back to the living-room, sat down and Tenten began to tell. "… and here we are. I've got the dress, I've got my doubts, I don't know what to do." Tenten ended her report. "Forehead-freak? Hinata-chan?" Ino looked at the other two young women. "I'm in, Ino-pig." "H-hai, me, too." "Okay, tomboy, here you have your very own team of stylists! I'm on your make-up." The Yamanaka explained. "I- I will do your h-hair." The Hyuuga heiress told. "And I'm on your skin, scent and outfit." Elaborated the Haruno on her part of the task. "But it's tomorrow. What will you do now?" "We want to talk about Neji. So-" Ino got interrupted by Sakura: "Hinata-chan, give us a good idea of Neji in the past month up to now." The Bleunette nodded. "Neji-nii-san acts w-weird lately. I-I can hear him speak with himself sometimes. He tends to need more time in the b-bathroom than before, too comb his hair mostly. He u-unconsciously touches my hair and examines it jealously. H-He trains more, when I asked him once, if he was angry about me b-because I am able to win against him easily and still refuse to make the Jounin-exam he answered i-it would all be for the one person he needs to protect the m-most. I asked him, w-who this person was, he nearly gave me t-the answer, b-but then he g-got the point and went away. H-he blushed, I saw! And today, I mean, when I left the Hyuuga compound, he left also, I saw him heading to Lee's dojo. THE HELL I KNEW HE WAS IN LOVE WITH YOU! STUPID BAKA NEJI-NII-SAN! CALLING ME SHY, IF HE KNEW ME WELL, HE WOULD HAVE NOTICED I'M A FREAKIN' BOMB! THE WHOLE WORLD SHOULD NOTICE ME, I MEAN, I'M… whoops, g-gomen, I overwhelmed a bit." She smiled innocently at her friends who sweat-dropped. "See, Tenten-chan? He is in love with you." Sakura tried to convince the weapons' mistress. "No, that must be imagination." Tenten responded. "H-He blushed. He wouldn't have blushed if I d-didn't know this someone." Hinata added. "That isn't absolutely sure." The brunette retorted. "Okay, you want it… if you don't tell him how you feel I do Mind-transfer on him." Ino threatened. Ino got glared at; hard. "Fine." The oldest kunoichi said through gritted teeth. "I'll tell him. Totally fine with me. Excuse me, I have some duty to be carried out."
"Tell her. She needs to know how you feel." Lee advised. "That doesn't help, baka." Neji sighed. "You need to believe in the power of youth more, Neji-kun." "Oh, I just see it… me in green-spandex? Never!" "My youthful dude, you love her, don't you?" "Hn." "You want to have a relationship with her?" "…" "You need to tell her." The two shinobis looked at each other for mere five minutes. "I need to go. My uncle wanted me to collect Hinata-sama." Before Lee could say anything, the Jounin was gone. The black-haired young man knew that his friend lied, but he tolerated it. It was no lie out of bad intention. Lee stroke over the fur of his squirrel.
"Youth has a different path for everybody, my little fellow. Tenten's and Neji's belongs to those few paths that lead the same way."
Uh, somewhat cliffhanger, oh my. Hopefully, you like it. I'm sorry, no offense to anyone, I just couldn't resist the sugar-high Ino-thingy…
Anyways, I'm already planning on my next longer ff so you've been warned that the next could be the last chapter. I'm full of ideas for the end… although I'm sad that this story ends.
Bye for now,
Miyu