Chapter 8: Bonding

Neji sat on his bed in his room, watching the news on channel five. He hadn't been watching for very long and so far there were no news stories that sparked his interest. But he would much rather watch an unimportant news broadcast than listen to a slumber party, any day. He sighed and leaned over the side of his bed. He reached under his mattress and pulled out a notebook. Neji had been writing a novel for a while now, about 3 months. Every now and again he would add something new, but he had yet to tell anyone about it. He plucked a pencil from the binds of the book and began to write. Twenty minutes went by and he gazed up from his book and looked at the TV.

"Here is a special news update: the burning building we've been informing you about for the last few hours has finally been extinguished. It has been proven that the fire was no accident, and was possibly a set-up. The building that burned was a local pizza shop. As well as a pizza shop, it was also a small living space for the resident; who currently has not been located." The news reported stated. The camera showed the burnt ashes and foundry of the building.

"Hey, wait a minute…" Neji leaned forward and looked carefully at the burned building, "that's Tenten's house…" He said softly. He stared at the notebook in his hands for a moment. He was the only one who knew that Tenten and her family owned a pizza shop; she never told anyone except him. He sensed a presence activated his Byakugan. A smile crossed his face and he almost laughed. He turned around onto his knees and opened the window that was directly behind his bed. "What are you doing here?" He asked the girl who was resting her crossed arms on his windowsill.

"Like there's anywhere else I can go." She sighed.

"Come in." He commanded as he moved to allow her entry to his room.

"Thanks." She smiled, climbing in, kicking off her shoes, and lying on his bed.

"Are you okay, Tenten?" He asked, closing the window and sitting next to her.

"Hmm… I suppose you saw the news story?" She asked.

"Yes." He nodded.

"What's that?" She asked, pointing to the notebook he was still holding in his left hand.

"Oh, it's nothing." He replied, flipping the pages to the blank cover to hide the words.

"Okay…" She yawned.

"What happened at your house?" He asked.

"I don't really know; it's probably just another attempted murder." She giggled.

"Attempted murder?" He lowered his eyebrows.

"It wouldn't be the first time." She shrugged.

"What are you talking about?" He asked.

"For about five months now, I'm been almost killed countless times. Some of those times it was you who saved me, remember?" She looked up at his ceiling.

"Are you talking about those times when we were training?" He questioned.

"Yeah." She laughed softly.

"Why haven't you told me?" He followed her gaze to the ceiling.

"I thought it'd just go away, but I was wrong." She turned on her side and looked at him, "I've never really told anyone this… About five months ago, like I said, something terrible happened." He turned his head to her and listened. "I came home from training and my front door was busted open. I was a little surprised that the sign on my family's pizza shop said 'closed', but I didn't think much of it. I walked up the stairs to my house, but I couldn't see anyone. I went into the living room and I saw my Mom, Dad, and brother tied to chairs. Standing around them were a few members of the ANBU. I knew I had to help them, so I acted as a distraction while they escaped. One of the ANBU came at me with a katana, but my brother jumped in the way and got his head sliced off. I fell down backwards and his head landed in my lap. My parents screamed, but the ANBU just stabbed them a few times and shut them up. I guess they forgot about me momentarily or something because they rushed out of there like the place was on fire or something. I sat there looking into my brother's eyes for a few seconds before gaining the courage to stand up. After cleaning my family's blood off of the furniture, and scraping their parts off of the walls I buried the remaining parts of their bodies out in the forest. I did some research, and it turns out that my parents were robbers and murderers in disguise. The ANBU didn't think that they deserved to have children, so they came after all of us. I suppose they found out I'm still alive, though, because they're still trying to kill me." Tenten said laughing softly.

"I had no idea…" Neji said sympathetically.

"News update: it's official; the resident of the burning house had been declared deceased." The news reporter said on the TV. Neji picked up the remote and turned the TV off.

"I hope the ANBU watches TV, maybe they'll think I'm dead and leave me alone…" She sighed.

"Do you have anywhere to go?" Neji asked in a serious tone.

"That's kind of why I came here… I have no one. No one except you." She smiled.

"Alright, I'm sure there's an extra room somewhere." Neji nodded.

"But I'm scared, Neji, can't I sleep here with you?" She looked up at him with shinny, pleading eyes. Neji sighed.

"Yeah, sure." He slipped his book into his mattress.

"Thank you!" She grinned.

"Neji?" A voice came through the wall.

"Uh, yes?" He replied.

"Is someone in there?" Hinata's voice said.

"… No why?" He questioned.

"We just heard voices and…" She trailed off.

"No, everything's okay. Get back to your slumber party." He suggested.

"Okay…" She agreed.

"Why didn't you tell her I was here?" Tenten whispered.

"I didn't want everyone to come running in here and keeping me up all night." He sighed.

"I guess." She yawned, "Come on, let's go to sleep."

Neji nodded and slid underneath the covers. Tenten slipped under the covers and stared at him with a sad smile. He grunted and closed his eyes. Within minutes, they were asleep.

Temari walked back to the hotel tiredly. Ino, Sakura, Hinata and her had been up for three hours talking about things Temari really couldn't care less about. She was looking forward to getting back to the room and catching at least two or three hours of sleep. She smiled as she rode the elevator to her floor and stepped out. The hallway had lights on either side, but she could still see a light coming from underneath her door. She sighed and rolled her eyes. Turning the doorknob slowly, she entered the room. Just as she'd expected, there were her brothers sitting on Gaara's bed. But they weren't alone. On the other side of the bed sat one of her closest friends.

"Shikamaru?" Temari questioned.

"Hey." He waved, drowsily smiling. She glanced at Kankuro who was laughing so hard he almost fell off of the bed.

"What are you laughing about?" She asked.

"T-this, this guy-y!" He said between laughs, pointing at Shikamaru.

"He's funny, Temari." Gaara said giggling. Giggling? Gaara hardly even ever smiled. Now he was giggling?

"What?" Temari was taken aback.

"He- he's telling us some stories of-of-of h-his life!" Kankuro was trying to pull himself together.

"Well that's nice and all," Temari yawned, "but would you mind keeping down the volume of your bonding so I can get some sleep?" She groaned and slipped into her bed.

"Okay. We-we'll try." Kankuro took a deep breath to try and calm himself down, but just exploded in a fit of laughs immediately.

Temari managed to get to sleep about half an hour of stories and laughing later. She had to admit, despite Shikamaru's looks and personality, he was a very funny guy. She just wished that she had enough energy to stay up and listen to him. Kankuro, Gaara, and Shikamaru really seemed to be becoming friends; which might be a good thing if they ever go on another vacation like that again, and everyone knew they would.

The End