A/N: …I'm probably dead right now, but I owe anyone who follows this fic an apology.
Christmas, finals, and writer's block combined to produce something unpleasant. Hopefully this chapter makes up for part of it. If not, I'm sorry.
Tenten decided that giving Neji that kiss had been a very bad, very stupid idea.
(Even if it had been a spur of the moment thing and just on the cheek.)
Not only were things a bit more awkward between them, but Tenten was reverting to feminine behavior, much to her horror. For example, when she bumped into Neji by accident, instead of mumbling a typical "excuse me", she would blush.
Blush!
A very not-good thing when one was supposed to be a guy who didn't blush at contact with other guys!
To make things even worse, Neji was asking her about herself!
(Well, technically, he was asking 'Toyo' about his 'cousin', but whatever.)
It wasn't like he was obsessing or anything, but the idea that Neji was curious about a girl was disturbing.
Luckily, he only asked her a few basic questions about 'Tenten', and seemed satisfied enough to leave her alone after that. But it was more likely that he was too busy planning the approaching match against Oto Academy.
Either way, Tenten was grateful. She needed to keep her mind on her training, not on worrying what she should say or not say. The upcoming match also kept others from asking her what Neji what asking her about.
Everyone on the team had stopped goofing off so much during training and had begun to actually form strategies and cooperating with their groups. Hinata, Shino, and Kiba's practice became more focused and less relaxed, while Ino and Shikamaru had reached some sort of truce. Even Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura had cut down their dysfunctionality, to a certain extent, and proved to work remarkably well as a unit.
Team Gai (as the group of Neji, herself, and Lee were called) was proceeding as normal. Other than Neji and Tenten's occasional PMS mood swings, their training was rarely hindered.
So on one particular day, where Neji had delayed Team Gai's practice in order to reprimand Shikamaru, was unusual. Tenten and Lee both fidgeted as they waited for the third member of their group to stop lecturing their fellow teammate.
"Shikamaru, you are an idiot."
"My IQ levels beg to differ." Stated Shikamaru calmly, showing no nervousness at the glowers Neji and Sasuke were directing towards him.
"Your IQ levels aren't what punch the other guy out of the running." Pointed out Neji harshly, "I don't care how your brain formulates those punches, but it won't help if you can't actually punch."
"Tsunade says I'll heal by the match comes around, don't worry." Shikamaru waved his (not hurt) hand as though to say you are being troublesome. Tenten caught Ino and Chouji rolling their eyes, annoyed at how their teammate could be so lazy that he would resort to body language to communicate. Nevertheless, Ino came to his defense.
"Yeah, Neji. Don't be so hard on him. He injured Zaku more than Zaku injured him." Added Ino, putting a hand on Shikamaru's shoulder protectively. Tenten had to fight hard not to roll her eyes. Even after hearing about the events at the carnival, she still found the complete one-eighty Ino's personality had turned when it came to Shikamaru silly.
"Maybe, but you need to train, which is something you can't do with a sprained arm!" Neji was beginning to get pissed off, judging by the throbbing vein in his temple.
"Wrist." Corrected Shikamaru, ever a stickler for accuracy.
"Shut up."
"Yes, Captain." Agreed Shikamaru, slightly mockingly. Neji glared at the boy before stalking off, dragging Tenten by the collar to train a good ways away.
"So how does the Oto team look this year?" she asked conversationally, to ease Neji out of his bad mood. If he remained this way, Lee would try to cheer him up. Which would undoubtedly lead to an even surlier Neji, a bruised Lee, and less training completed.
"Pretty good, for once." Neji replied, moving to hit Tenten in the stomach, "They only have a few kunoichi, some of the idiots this year actually know how to use tactics, none of them as brilliant as Shikamaru, myself, or the Uchiha—" Tenten blocked the blow and jabbed him quickly in the arm, "—but not as mediocre as a couple years ago. They have new members to add to their forces, and supposedly, their abilities are rather impressive."
"Know any names?" inquired Tenten
"You'll have to ask Uchiha about that. He knows the new members from his days at Oto." Tenten was so shocked that Neji was able to hook his foot around her ankle and take it out from under her. She slammed onto her back and found herself staring up at the ceiling.
"Did you just say Sasuke went to Oto?" she asked, grabbing Neji's offered hand and hoisting herself back up onto her feet.
"For about half a semester, before he got some more sense knocked back into his head. Why do you think he and Sakura did not get along for a good part of these past few weeks?"
"I was wondering." She agreed. Tenten glanced over in Team Kakashi's direction. They were resting, and Sakura and Naruto appeared to be teasing Sasuke, playfully whacking him across the head. Kakashi's nose was buried in his little orange book and he appeared lost to the world, though Tenten knew from experience that he would be quick to stop any serious fighting.
"They seem to be getting along now," Tenten remarked, engaging Neji in a new taijutsu dance, "I guess you were right about the clashes passing."
"Yes." They finished in a draw, and stopped to catch their breath. Lee and Gai were still fighting—they never ran out of energy—so Tenten and Neji went to sit against the gym wall and rest for a while. Tenten was perfectly content to teeter between the realms of consciousness and sleep until practice was over.
Neji had other ideas.
"What's your cousin like?" he asked. Tenten started slightly, and was relieved to see that Neji was not looking directly at her.
"I don't know her too well; the girls could answer your questions better than I can." She replied after a few seconds of furious thinking.
"You don't?" Neji faced her, looking rather surprised.
"Well, we've never really talked much before high school, and we have our own lives and friends. We are both orphans, you know."
"Really?" Tenten heard the skepticism in his voice and made a mental note to call Temari and ask her to fabricate a profile for 'Toyo' in the orphanage database. Neji was the sort of person to hack into the government's computers and check for criminal records if he was suspicious enough.
"Yes, really. But I have my own place now and we're working on establishing a relationship, despite the amount of time we didn't know each other. Similar to yours and Hinata's ah, situation a few years back."
"Heard that story have you?" Neji sounded both resigned and slightly ashamed, which was only proper given his past actions and words.
"Yes. You really had severe mental issues when you were thirteen." Neji shrugged, very slightly, in agreement.
"They're gone now." Was his reply.
"Mostly gone." Corrected Tenten. "You're still an ass."
"Ha ha." Said Neji monotonously, without humor. Then, "I've been noticing, for cousins whom, so you say, don't know each other especially well, you both talk the same way."
"Eh? What do you mean?" Ah, shoot.
"The smart ass comments, so-called witty retorts, the whole package. You were more polite at the beginning of the year."
"Oh, I wasn't aware of that." Tenten forced a sheepish smile, while mentally screaming on the inside.
"I also assume that you didn't realize that you at times sound like a girl?"
"Now that's just rude." Tenten chose to be passive, rather than argue against a Hyuuga. Somehow, she doubted she would be able to hold up if he began guessing her identity. Already she was beginning to panic
"I'm only stating facts." Was Neji's response after a short pause.
"You might want to learn some tact." She replied, "It helps when dealing with girls."
"…But I'm not going to deal with girls."
"What am—is Tenten, then? A dumpling?"
Neji treated her to his best Hyuuga glare.
"Who says I'm pursuing her?"
"You just did."
"What made you assume I was pursuing her?" The throbbing vein in Neji's head had become much bigger, Tenten was able to observe.
"Konoha's rumor mill." She replied, examining her nails, "Among other resources." She glanced back at Neji and couldn't help but shrink back from the suddenly venomous look in Neji's eyes, and the veins standing out around his eyes. Even though Hinata had assured her that it was merely an eye condition unique to the Hyuuga, she still flinched every time Neji or Hinata looked at her when their eyes were so…creepy.
"Lee!" snarled Neji under his breath. Tenten was astonished to see that Neji looked a little flushed, and not just from anger. He started to get up, but Tenten, recognizing the deadly aura and panicking for Lee, put a hand on his arm and forced him down.
"Whoa man," she mentally cringed at the phrase, "Calm down. I didn't hear it from him."
"Then from whom did you hear it?" Tenten gulped nervously and pulled at her collar, unsure of how to answer. "Actually, never mind. You probably won't tell me anyway."
"You're right, I don't give away people's secrets. I'm trustworthy." Agreed Tenten immediately, relieved for the easy way out.
"People who are trustworthy usually have their own secrets to keep."
Or not.
Tenten was kept from having to respond by a sudden crash and loud cursing to their left. Tenten whipped her head around to find that, inexplicably, Akamaru had attached himself to Naruto's backside and in trying to shake the dog off, he had run into the bleachers and broke most of them.
"NARUTO, YOU IDIOT!"
"Dobe, what the hell?"
"Mooning dogs is never a good idea, Naruto."
"YOU DID THAT TO AKAMARU!"
"Idiot."
"N-Naruto-kun! Are you all right?"
"Sakura, please don't strangle your teammate."
"NARUTO! YOUR YOUTH IS ASTOUNDING! BUT SADLY, YOU MUST LEARN SOME COMMON SENSE BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!"
"I should probably go sort that out." Remarked Neji offhandedly, getting up and dusting off his pants. "Want to help?"
"No thank you. I like my nose, no need to get it bitten off."
"Funny." Said Neji dryly. "Again with the wit. Stay here then." He walked over to the bleacher area where at least half of the Shinobi team were trying to separate dog from boy.
Tenten tilted her head and let out a sigh, slumping against the gym wall. She was going to have to learn to be much more careful now, and learn how to think up more stories fast.
Why did he have to be so freaking smart?
After a very long week, the first game day arrived.
Tenten woke up early on Friday morning, a twisting feeling in her stomach. Even in class, with teachers' lectures, tests, and presentations to distract her, the she remained acutely aware of the sensation. Judging from the copious cups of coffee Lee kept downing and Neji's unusual rigidness, they were also nervous.
Tenten didn't have much opportunity to see the other girls or guys, but from what she could tell, they were both excited and nervous for the upcoming match.
Finally, sixth period arrived and the Shinobi team was called out to the team bus. Tenten's excitement went up several notches, as did her anxiety.
Fortunately, Naruto and Kiba somehow got the bright idea to start singing '100 Bottles of Sake'. They were quickly joined by Akamaru (who just sort of howled along), Sakura, Ino, Lee and other boys on the team. Shikamaru just slept through it, Sasuke began attempting to shut Sakura up (he was slapped upside the head for his efforts), Neji and Hinata were too dignified to sing, and Tenten just couldn't hold a tune.
Listening to their teammates bellow the song as loudly as they could amused the others on the bus for a while…until Gai declared a contest in singing ability with Kakashi.
Then everyone stopped singing in favor of scrambling to protect their ears from the now heinous tune.
Nonetheless, Tenten enjoyed herself right up until she saw the gray buildings and the 'welcome to Oto Academy' sign that had been graffitied with a few impressive swear words.
Most of those in the bus had managed to significantly calm down as they looked at their surroundings.
"Woah, this place is depressing," commented Sakura, "Orochimaru isn't exactly an aesthetic person, is he?"
"I'll say." Ino wrinkled her nose in distaste. "They could have at least planted some flowers, or something."
The others in the bus nodded or grunted their agreement. When the bus finally stopped, the Leaf Shinobi got off, carrying their bags over their shoulders.
"Come on, we need to get to the gym." Together, Gai and Kakashi herded the team through the school, ignoring the rude remarks by the Oto students who were either cutting class or leaving because they had no interest in Ninjutsu.
As they passed through the school, the conviction that Oto was not somewhere she would want to be grew stronger in Tenten's mind. The entire place was so…gray. It reminded her of a well kept prison, or a juvenile hall.
The only real positive thing that could be said for the school was that it had a very large, well kept playing field. Tenten, however, couldn't get more than a passing glance at it before her eyes were drawn to the design of a giant purple snake over the doors of the gym. The slitted eyes and exposed fangs made the entire image appear malicious, and she wasn't the only one who shuddered as they passed under it.
As expected, the bleachers were already filled, the number of Oto supporters outweighing Konoha supporters. The bleachers surrounded three sides of the gym, with mats laid down in the center to keep anyone from hurting themselves too badly when they fell. Ignoring the boos and jeers coming their way, Tenten and the rest of the team dumped their things to the side of one of the bleachers and began to warm up. While stretching, Kiba and Naruto compensated for the general lack of reaction by gesturing very rudely in the direction of the jeers.
Cheers abruptly sounded when the Oto team entered the gym. She might have been prejudiced by the things she had heard about them, but Tenten thought that they were definitely people she wouldn't want to be within a ten meter range with.
Turning around to see her teammates' reactions, she could see that none of them were happy to see the team. Sasuke's and Naruto's faces were twisted in grimace, while Sakura sneered at a girl with a peculiar haircut who had gestured rudely at her. Shikamaru seemed to be involved in a staring match with a black haired boy with bandaged arms; Ino was seething at both the boy and the long haired girl besides him. The others held similar expressions of contempt and dislike on their faces, mirrored on the other side as well.
"They look like a nasty bunch," she muttered to Neji, who was closest.
"They are," he confirmed, "Konoha and Oto are too different to really get along. It really doesn't help that the schools themselves are enemies, too."
"Enemies?"
"Toyo, you're occasionally a smart guy." Tenten twitched at the insult but said nothing, "Tsunade and Orochimaru don't get along, and they've channeled down this dislike to their students, do you understand?"
"Yeah, but this isn't some, TV rivalry, shouldn't they be more mature?" Neji nodded his agreement.
"One would think so. Of course, when one meets Jiraiya, one can understand the enmity better." He added. Tenten grimaced at thinking of the fifty–something man's mixture of childish and teenaged behavior.
"Sure, but how—"
"Be quiet, Orochimaru's talking."
Tenten turned to face the man in the center of the gym. She had seen a couple of pictures of him before, so she easily recognized the man with long black hair, gray skin, and yellow eyes as Orochimaru.
Tenten turned away from him and continued to stretch, focusing solely on her task. She didn't stop until Orochimaru had stopped speaking and had announced the first match as Kaguya Kimimaro and Rock Lee. With a burst of delighted energy, Lee bounced onto the floor to greet his silent opponent.
"Well, that's an interesting choice," commented Neji, his eyes trained intently on Kimimaro as the match began.
"Why?" asked Tenten, also watching Kimimaro, surprised that the boy could move so fluidly, so differently from Lee's rapid fire style.
"That Kaguya is a very high level Shinobi, well known for his speed. Very prodigal, well in Uchiha's and my own rank."
"And Lee's not?"
"No, but they are both so fast, if either one cheats, the referee might not be able to see it."
"But Lee wouldn't cheat."
"Kimimaro might." Said Neji darkly.
Neji's fears were unfounded. While Lee did lose, Kimimaro was a gracious winner and did not ridicule Lee, despite his classmates' actions to the contrary. Lee also seemed to take his loss rather well; indeed, Tenten privately thought that had he won, he wouldn't have looked half as happy as when Sakura comforted him by complimenting his footwork.
Sakura was called up for the next match. Her opponent was called Karin; Tenten noted that she was the girl who had flipped Sakura off prior to the game.
"Good, a match we can actually see." Said Tenten.
"Looks like it will be a good one, as well." Commented Neji, watching the match carefully, "They seemed to be equal in ability, though Sakura's stronger, this Karin is faster."
"Orochimaru is really an idiot." Tenten was surprised to see Sasuke look…almost worried. "Sakura's going to kill her."
"What makes you so sure?" inquired Neji, turning to face the other prodigy.
"Remember when I told you about the psycho fan girls?"
"She's one of them?" Tenten cut in as soon as she realized the implication of what was probably going to happen.
"Yeah."
"Uh oh." Right as Tenten summed up the general feelings; Karin said something unintelligible to Sakura while blocking her arm. Judging from how Sakura's face went dark with rage, it was no compliment.
"Exactly." Said Sasuke. He watched intently as Sakura, grabbing and using Karin's arm as leverage, swung her leg up and around to make contact with Karin's back, knocking the other girl down to the ground with a loud crash. When Karin was too dazed to get back up, Sakura was declared the winner. She marched back to the team, back stiff with anger. She refused to repeat what Karin had said to her, but was placated by most of the compliments and Sasuke's hand on her shoulder.
Shino's match wasn't of much interest, as he was considerably more skilled than his rather brutish opponent and had the guy on the mats in less than thirty seconds. Sasuke's own match was much the same, though the Oto kids and team booed him the entire time.
After him was Ino against Kin, which stopped being a real fight after about a minute and quickly became a catfight. Members from both teams were needed to separate the clawing and shrieking girls, and the match was given to Kin because Ino initiated the catfight.
"Ino, what just happened?" Tenten was considerably shocked as Sakura led a nail-marked and scratched up Ino off the mats. She knew the Ino sometimes let emotions get the better of her, but when they had been on the Sand Kunoichi, she had generally been completely professional. Tenten had never seen her lose control like that.
"Oh, nothing worth noting. My clothes just got dirtied by trash, that's all." Ino said, her voice clearly carrying across the gym. The 'piece of trash' responded with what Tenten assumed to be a very detailed, physically impossible description of what Ino should now do.
"Do I want to know?" she asked Sakura.
"It would be better not to ask." Hinata advised, coming up to join the small cluster. "Look, Shikamaru's against..uh oh."
"Uh oh what?" Ino swiveled her head around to look behind her. Tenten followed her gaze to see that Shikamaru's opponent was the black haired boy he had been glaring at earlier.
"Oh! Go Shika-kun!" yelled Ino as they began the match, "Kick that idiot's ass into the next century!"
"Old boyfriend?" Tenten inquired, recognizing the vengeful glint in the blonde's eyes.
"Yep, and the girl she just fought is his girlfriend." Explained Sakura.
"Ah." Now that makes sense.
Using a considerable amount of strategy and very little of his arms, Shikamaru was able to defeat Zaku, much to Ino's delight. Then, much to the girls' (including Tenten) amusement, she jumped on Shikamaru as soon as he left the mats and kissed him on the cheek as a thank you. The boy promptly turned the most interesting shade of purple Tenten had ever seen on a human.
The rest of the fights seemed to go by too fast for Tenten. She only could remember images, from, Naruto's loud, flashy fight with a mummy boy, ending in victory, to Akamaru biting the Oto teen who defeated Kiba somewhere unpleasant. Hinata's surprise win against a brash redhead to Chouji simply hitting his opponent hard in the back, knocking the boy unconscious.
Then it was her turn. She was against some boy with a cocky grin and blue hair called Suigetsu. While taller than her, they had similar builds, so she wasn't exactly at a visible disadvantage.
When the match started, they only circled each other at first, sizing up the other with their eyes. Then Tenten struck, hitting him in the stomach with her left hand, following up immediately with a right-handed chop. Suigetsu blocked the chop with crossed forearms, and kicked Tenten in the side with his right leg with enough force to make her stagger and almost fall.
A quick cartwheel got her back on her feet steady enough to grab the arm Suigetsu had thrown to punch her with without being thrown off balance. She yanked his arm, intending for him to be pulled to her. Unfortunately, Suigetsu was strong enough that he was only pulled forward a little, not enough to make a difference. Tenten was forced to let go of his arm and jump out of the way of another kick, and behind Suigetsu.
While he turned furiously in every direction, trying to find her, Tenten made sure to always stay behind his back as she tried to think up a new strategy to defeat him. An idea popped into her head and out of pure desperation, she put it into action without thinking it through.
She allowed Suigetsu to face her and crouched down and swung a leg out to sweep Suigetsu's feet out from under him. While successful, Suigetsu was able to catch himself before he fell and bounced back up.
…Only to have Tenten's foot shoot out and catch him hard in the stomach unaware. He stumbled back, off balance, and fell after Tenten twisted around and chopped him on the neck.
"Match over. Victory goes to Katana." Announced the referee, to Tenten's relief.
She walked back towards her team, wincing only a little from the kick. Sakura and Ino immediately grabbed her in a group hug and almost knocked her over. Hinata smiled while Lee punched her on the shoulder to show his congratulations, which sent her and the two girls down.
After her, Neji was the last one up. He went against Juugo, a giant with orange hair who was surprisingly nimble despite his large size. The match ended in his favor, though for a moment there had been a scare when it looked like Juugo had fallen on top of Neji. But Neji's speed managed to keep him out of danger.
The referee announced the game over and Konoha the winner. The announcement was met with cheers by the Konoha side and much booing and swearing on Oto side.
Tenten couldn't help but let out a whoop, pleased that she had won her first match against a boy, already beginning to prove her point. If she could keep winning, she would be able to show that girls could fight boys, as long as it was an equal match.
Gai took her aside as the Leaf Shinobi began to head back to the bus.
"Toyo-kun."
"Yes, Gai-sensei?" inquired Tenten, relieved that Gai wasn't slipping up about her name.
"You did an excellent job in your match today, very nice work."
"Thank you, Gai-sensei."
"But in the future, please don't use delaying tactics; frankly, it makes you look like you've only studied the Kunoichi style." Tenten mentally flinched, berating herself for the slip up.
"I won't, Gai-sensei."
"I would suggest that you should start sparring with me instead of Neji, let the boys spar with each other for a change. I'll teach you a few new moves."
"Really?" Tenten felt a grin spread across her face, "Thank you!"
"No problem. Now hurry, unless you want to run back to Konoha." Tenten yelped and ran towards the bus, everyone else had already gotten on and the bus driver was not a patient man. The second she and Gai boarded the bus the doors were closed with a snap and they were off.
Scanning the rows she passed for an open seat, Tenten slid into the one next to Neji, after finding that all others were full.
"What was Gai talking to you about?" Tenten turned to face Neji, who was leaning back in his seat, eyes closed, his temple slightly bruised.
"He wants to teach me some new moves," she answered honestly, seeing no reason to lie. Neji cracked an eyelid half open and peered out at her sleepily, making her blush and look away from him.
"Aa." He said nothing else. When Tenten dared to look at him, she found that Neji was asleep, arms crossed, and head resting on his right shoulder, away from her.
He's going to have one hell of a stiff neck when he wakes up, thought Tenten, smiling a little at how…harmless he looked.
At least until a particularly sharp turn made his head flop over onto Tenten's shoulder, much to her mortification. Even after pushing him off her, the blush on her face remained, as well as a single thought.
I think I might really, really like Neji.
What am I supposed to do?
A/N: Anyone confused by the matches? If so, I'm sorry. Ninjustsu isn't based off any sport in particular and I'm still trying to get the rules straight.
Review please!