Disclaimer : Naruto © Kishimoto
Genre : Humor/Fluff
Pairings : Nejiten and Kibahina
Word Count : 752
A/N : Last minute again!

Last minute gift

"Oh this is hopeless!" Tenten sighed in frustration as her usually agile fingers stumbled over themselves in a failed attempt at stringing some yarn from a needle on one hand to a different needle on the other. "I just can't do this!" she shouted angrily, glaring at the two sticks in her hands before abruptly throwing them to the opposite end of her living room. The sheer force of her throw, coupled with her expert aim, embedded the sharp needles into the small target on the wall over her fireplace.

"haah!" the blue-haired girl sitting besides her gasped. Across the room from them tiny particles of dust settled as the two needles bounced slightly, and the long small bit of yarn attached to them flapped against the wall. "Tenten-san..." Hinata turned to her bun-haired friend. Her concern for the other girl was evident as she placed her own hands knitting needles down and tried smiling reassuringly. "If you're having that much trouble with it, you could always bake him something."

Turning to face her timid friend, Tenten violently shook her head no. Why had it come to this, she wondered. For months she had had the perfect gift for Neji. Something she knew he'd not only like and find useful, but would never get for himself so it made the perfect gift. Unfortunately, Hiashi had seemed to think the same thing, and had gotten the same gift. If not for Hinata coming to inform Tenten about it, the bun-haired girl would have made a fool of herself and given her boyfriend a repeated gift, after the Hyuga Christmas dinner where he would have gotten the first gift from his uncle.

"Thanks Hinata..." Tenten sighed deeply. "But I just don't think I can make anything. And there's nothing left in the shops that really screams 'Neji' so... I don't know what to do anymore."

Hinata smiled meekly, saddened for her friend who had really wanted to give the prodigy something special for their first Christmas as a couple. It was a feeling Hinata could completely understand, as she too had agonized over exactly what to give her loveable fang-faced boyfriend this year and had ultimately settled on knitting him a hat and matching mittens. She knew he'd be giving her something special and hand made as well, so when Tenten had wanted to come up with something special and unique, Hinata had immediately offered up the idea of making Neji a scarf, which she thought would be simple enough to pull off in a few hours. Unfortunately, though skilled as she was with her hands, the two girls soon discovered that Tenten's fingers were quite clumsy when it came to knitting.

"Well," the blue-haired heiress began, searching her mind quickly for some other idea that might be of use to the older kunoichi. "Neji-nii-san often comments on how he thinks you do a wonderful job of sharpening his weapons..."

Tenten thought for a moment, but then quickly shook her head no. "That's just not special enough... but thanks anyway Hinata."

With eight days until Christmas, it seemed unlikely the bun-haired girl would be able to find anything perfectly suited to her liking. She knew that part of it was just her perfectionist nature, but what was wrong with that? Christmas was a wonderful time of year, and if ever there was a time to go all out, it was during this holiday season. And Neji deserved perfect. It was just a shame that she wasn't the only one who thought so, otherwise her gift wouldn't have been chosen by someone else as well.

"Well..." Hinata hesitantly began. There was something in her voice that hinted at a side of the blue-haired girl that very few people seemed to know about. Being friends for so many years, however, the girls hardly felt the need to hold anything back. And yet, despite all this, it still surprised Tenten when she heard what her younger friend said next. "You could always just wrap yourself up in a big red ribbon and bow..."

Staring back at the perfectly serious girl, Tenten briefly wondered how that idea even popped into the usually timid girl's brain, but just as quickly decided to ignore that thought, not wanting to picture the blue-haired girl and her feral-eyed lover. "ahh," the bun-haired girl shook her head of the mental images before sighing deeply. "It's always the quiet ones..."