Author's Notes: Again, apologies on the long hiatus. Chalk it up to school and other stories. Hopefully you will enjoy this one no less!
Berry inspired me to play around a little too. In her previous fic, "A Throne of Wood," she made the Land of Rain's daimyo a very nice guy. I thought I'd use the character and reverse his mentality, to have a contrast.
The Arrangement
"The Emperor"
By Nessie
The Land of Rain's Hidden Village was a wild place with vines growing throughout the streets, vibrant flowers hanging from the walls of every house, and an unceasingly humid climate. The great hall in which the daimyo received his requested Konoha ninja had the same untamed ambience the rest of the country flaunted.
Neji personally disliked the place. He enjoyed peace and quiet, but the village was silent with the exception of several loudly-pouring waterfalls and the cawing of jungle birds. It was also seemingly devoid of life; only a few armed shinobi could be seen crossing from one meeting place to the next, their faces straight and their flesh scarred. Neji decided it was best that Lee had been sent on a separate mission with Naruto. The younger Beautiful Green Beast would only have caused disruption in the everlasting calm with his uncontrollable personality.
Gratitude, however, was the only thing he felt in knowing that Tenten was with him. The Konoha kunoichi was very good at adapting her moods to the social environment, though a flicker of her usual fire was always present. Knowing it would have made Neji smile, if smiling had not seemed entirely inappropriate at the moment.
The daimyo, Shioshi, was a tall, serious-looking man, richly garbed in bright blues and soft greens. His brow was greatly lined, although whether it was from age or simple disapproval Neji could not tell. As he and his partner stood before the daimyo's seat in the hall, the Hyuuga noticed that Shioshi kept his crinkled eyes only on him and never Tenten.
"As you have been briefed, the Land of Earth has been successfully seizing our imports for the past four months. The Land of Rain depends on several other countries for the supplies that refuse to grow in this humidity, and we in turn export many vegetation-based goods to nations such as the Land of Wind." Shioshi's jaw tightened as he spoke. It seemed to Neji that the daimyo saw the import and export market as an embarrassment to the Land of Rain, rather than just good business. "Any questions?"
"I was a little surprised," Tenten began in a suitably respectful tone, "when I heard that this country was not using its shinobi to defend against the burglars at the northern border. Might I inquire as to why?"
Though he had not thought it possible that Shioshi's tension could increase, Neji did not even need Byakugan to see the vein that protruded at the daimyo's temple. "Woman, I was informed by the Land of Fire's Hokage that you could be used for your talent, not your tongue."
Neji watched, his eyes narrowed, as shock dominated Tenten's face. Hands fisted, he took a slow breath and wished the Godaime had not silenced him with a direct order.
"You summoned me, Hokage-sama?"
Tsunade looked up from the latest stack of paperwork on her desk. Neji saw at once the shadow of exhaustion so few others managed to perceive and wisely let it go unmentioned. The Fifth's strength was not decreased by a couple of dark circles under her eyes, and he acknowledged that wordlessly. "Are you and Tenten ready to leave tomorrow, Neji?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama." A warning went off in his brain. Whenever he and his weapons-favoring teammate were sent on a mission alone together, Tsunade often delighted in teasing him (for she, unlike the majority of other villagers, had figured out their relationship status). But there was no such playfulness in her demeanor at the moment. "Is something dissatisfactory?"
She sighed – his constant formality exasperated her, he knew – and waved him over closer to her. "I have to let you in on something before you head out. The Rain Village…it's different from Konoha. Different from most villages, be they civilian or ninja-based. Few Konoha ninja have had the opportunity to get there, and this report arrived late." She held up a single sheet of paper, and Neji took it at her gesture.
Scanning the text with silver eyes, he found nothing unusual until he arrived at the third paragraph. This he had to read twice before he managed to react. "The Rain Village…it's…"
"Only available to shinobi. The female population is kept in another village a few miles away. They have a custom there that dictates no man shall spend time with a woman unless it is for one of two reasons: wedding or bedding. Young boys are raised by their mothers in the female village until they graduate from the academy. Genin are immediately uprooted to the Rain Village and stay there. Women never set foot inside the shinobi village. And the Land of Rain does not have any kunoichi."
Tsunade finished her speech in grave disapproval, then balanced her chin on her aligned fingers. "I wanted your input on whether or not you think Tenten will be alright there. As you can imagine, the daimyo living in the Rain Village is steadfastly anti-feminist. It was as difficult for me to assure him of Tenten's skill."
Frowning, Neji regarded his leader with a nearly expressionless face. "You're asking me how I think Tenten will fare then?"
"You've known her for ten years. As teammates and – well, more – I thought you would be more capable of gauging her reaction to the way of things in the Land of Rain." Her brow furrowing, "Besides finding it preposterous," Tsunade added.
Giving it thought, Neji folded his arms. "She's strong. Mentally as well as physically." When Tsunade nodded in agreement, the Hyuuga wished Tenten were beside him; she would have been overjoyed to witness her idol's approval. "I believe, offended or not, she will carry out her mission without any idealistic attachment."
"Then that's all we have to discuss. I trust you to lead as expertly as you always do." She dismissed him with an upheld hand, and Neji bowed. Before he could close the door behind him, however, Tsunade called out again.
"Don't tell Tenten about the Land of Rain's special tradition before you arrive."
What could have been the purpose in that, Neji now wondered in irritation. He would have preferred to spare his partner the silent offense she now bore because of the rude daimyo, who returned his hard gaze to Neji.
"I look to you to train my men, Hyuuga Neji, so that those damned Earth-nin do not again succeed at claiming what belongs to the Land of Rain!"
At the unanticipated expectation, Neji blinked once in the only display of the surprise he felt. "Train, Shioshi-sama? I was told that we were hired to guard the border from the Earth-nin."
"Indeed you were," nodded the aging daimyo, "but how long can you expect me to rely on Konoha? My men are not learned in this type of defensive strategy, and you are. Logically, I would hope that you will pass on your knowledge, Hyuuga-san."
He slid a glance over to Tenten. She stood facing forward, never so much as twitching beneath his gaze. Her expression seemed to be more featureless than his and as hard as Shioshi's. "To be perfectly honest," Neji replied diplomatically, "I do not possess the people skills that training your shinobi would require. My partner, Tenten, is more than capable of—"
"But it is you, is it not," spat Shishio, "who has been put in charge of your mission? Not this woman."
The way his client spoke the last word, as he had to Tenten, caused Neji's muscles to clench. "Yes, Shioshi-sama."
"Then I expect you to perform the task. We will make sure this 'teammate' of yours waits in the neighboring village until you have completed your work." Shioshi raised his hand to signal for a guide to lead Tenten away.
"No." Before any servant could step forward, Neji's hand was on Tenten's wrist. "She has been assigned this mission in the same way I have. You are paying her at the same rate as I. And she will not," he said commandingly, "be removed from me during our time here. On this I'll not be swayed."
Shioshi regarded him coldly, but only for a handful of second. Squaring his shoulders as though to declare the matter a thing of the past, he nodded curtly. "Done. But she remains only because your family is so esteemed, Hyuuga-san."
The audience with the daimyo ended. As both Konoha ninja bowed out, Neji could not help noticing the way Tenten held herself – stiff, restrained. He had never seen it before.
"It's unbelievable!"
She charged ahead of him into the inn suite they had been loaned, throwing her backpack onto the nearest chair with such force Neji thought it a wonder the legs did not collapse from the malicious intent. Glancing from the bag to his prowling teammate, he busied himself by shutting and locking the door behind him.
She certainly was not stiff or restrained now. Tenten was rampaging.
"That chauvinistic, old-fashioned, sexist, narrow-minded…" She paused in her barrage of insults, snapping her fingers to show she'd run dry.
"Monomaniacal?" he offered stoically.
"Monomanical! That—oooh!" Plunging all ten fingers into her hair, she tore the ribbons from her scalp. Her bark-brown hair tumbled down obligingly. " 'I was informed you could be used for your talent, not your tongue.' What I could do to him would make him wish he never had a tongue to say those things with!"
He had thought appreciatively of her characteristic fire before. Right now, Tenten was blazing. And Neji was beginning to feel singed too. He decided it would be best to stay quiet for now and let her simmer.
"I'll bet it was torture for him to contact the Godaime – a woman – to request assistance. What an idiotic…and he leads them! No wonder there are no women here." Without warning, she stopped being a pacing blur of red and white and rooted herself, facing him. "Did you know they keep their women in a whole separate village? Most shinobi never meet their daughters! And did you know—" She suddenly froze her speech. "Neji?"
He met her dark eyes with his pale ones, wishing he had broken command just once and warned her about the gender segregation prior to coming to the Rain Village. Why had he thought she would be anything less than morally outraged? It wasn't like he could blame her for her anger.
"You knew." Her eyes went wide. "You knew about these pig-headed alpha males and you never said anything?!"
"Tsunade-sama forbade me to tell you. I don't know why. Perhaps she thought it would interfere with your focus."
Neji saw too late that he had given the wrong answer. "My focus?" Tenten demanded. "How can anything interfere with my focus, Neji? Or did you not notice that I'm not allowed to talk here?"
He visibly winced. "Considering…I thought you performed well."
She gave a sharp bark of a laugh. "There was a performance, all right. Yours. 'She remains only because your family is so esteemed.' You should have told him the future leader of the Hyuuga is a woman. You degraded my position back there!"
"He would have sent you away!" he argued.
Her gaze sharpened, and she tossed a hateful look at the window, her hair falling forward to shield her eyes. Fittingly, it was pouring rain outside. "I'm not sure that would have been such a bad idea."
"What would you have had me do?" he cried, furious now himself. "Tell him you were my wife, say you're a Hyuuga too?"
The whole climate in the room changed with that question, but whether it was hot or cold Neji wasn't sure. He knew the way Tenten looked at him was making his skin prickle and burn at once. Slowly, he took a breath and saw her chest rise and fall with a deep inhalation as well. "Tenten…"
"It was my choice," she interposed quietly, "not to tell anyone." Undoing the first two buttons on her high-collared blouse, she revealed a thin chain from which a plain golden ring glinted jovially. It was identical to the one Neji wore beneath his own shirt. The first hint of a smile, sad, bloomed on her lips. "Only the Hokage knows still."
"Tenten." He went to her and in two strides she was in his arms, her face buried in his chest. "I'm not saying your decision was wrong. I'll do what you want me to. I'll tell them we're married if you think it will help."
She shook her head, her words muffled by the fabric of his shirt. "It won't. Then they would send me away, wouldn't they, where they keep their wives." He tightened his hold on her, and she sighed.
"You're more than just that," he assured her. "You're a capable kunoichi, a woman who—" A smooth finger put a stopper on his compliments.
"Still…" Looking up, her smile lost its sadness in exchange for something more spirited. "I am your wife." Circling his neck with his arms, she pulled him toward her until their lips met feverishly. "And I lied; going away would have been a horrible idea…"
His heart thundered with the storm outside as she maneuvered them into the adjacent bedroom. He loved this woman. And it was not because she was a talented kunoichi, not even because she also had a very talented tongue…
It was because she was Tenten, and she was all he had ever wanted from another person.
The early morning sun was a gold silk sheen over a very wet training ground. Neji took in the smell of it, feeling energized as he faced the one hundred men who would be learning the proper defenses for guarding a nation's border.
"I am Hyuuga Neji. Today, you will meet and begin training with your new, Konoha teacher." With a gesture to the side, Tenten stepped forward.
There were several murmurs and whispers among the many shinobi, above which Neji's voice promptly rose.
"And if your daimyo, Shioshi-sama, asks about the arrangement…" Looking at his wife, Neji gave a smile only Tenten could see. "Tell him that Tenten-san is indisputably in charge of our mission."
The End