A/N: Thanks to those of you who read chapter 1, here's chapter 2! And regarding the other story I started (Morning) – it was supposed to be mainly SasuSaku…but it is turning out to be more NejiTen, yikes! But you can never get enough NejiTen :D Ok, back to chapter 2, enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fanfic.
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Possession
By nejiandtentenfan
Chapter 2: Jealousy
Tenten could barely hear herself thinking of how much this was hurting. The searing pain was causing her to sweat profusely; she didn't know how much longer she could take this. Her eyes were shut tight, but through her eyelids, she sensed the blinding brightness that surrounded her.
What is that Hyuuga doing? Tenten thought for a brief second before shrieking in pain again.
A few moments after her cry was released from her mouth and into the dark drizzling sky, the hurting ceased. The pain that had felt like flames licking her skin was no longer existent. The kunoichi lying on the damp grass would have opened her eyes to see what her surroundings were like at this moment. But, somehow she was too weak to even open the eyelids on her tear-streaked face. She gave a weak moan before rolling over onto the left side of her body that felt burned rather than healed. She unconsciously tucked her two callused hands under her head and fell asleep out of all the drastic events that had occurred to her today. First she was sexually assaulted, then she had her argument with Neji, and now when he told her he would heal her, this is what she gets? She was sure this couldn't have been a treatment; all that pain was so unreal. She yawned quietly without another thought of the world around her. And for once, when she dozed off into her own dream land, she didn't have the same horrible flashback of Neji getting accepted into ANBU. Instead, she dreamed of the old Team Gai training happily like in the old days.
Neji had watched the kunoichi fall asleep in front of him before he reached out and attempted yet again to pick her up and bring her to the hospital that wouldn't take too long to reach if he walked at a brisk pace. His hands barely touched her white skin when he felt a surge of pain make its way through his body too. Instantly, blood came spurting out of his mouth as he choked on his own blood. He could not understand what was happening, but it probably had something to do with the fact that he had used way too much chakra trying to heal Tenten.
Neji inhaled sharply as icy air came rushing down his throat that felt like Tenten had stuck one of her kunais down. He clutched his stomach and coughed out blood once more as he fell to the ground next to Tenten, his long hair flailing down with him. Despite the sharpness of his eyes, the world around him was spinning in a blur and he was forced to close his eyes to stop the dizziness. The man was soon unconscious and he lay next to the brown haired woman that had once loved him. The two members of Team Gai – well, one of them being a former member – laid there together on the damp grass in the light drizzle, eyes closed and bodies limp.
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Shikamaru cursed as he blinked a few times before accepting what he saw on the computer monitor in ANBU headquarters. Shino also looked a bit shocked.
"What did that blasted Hyuuga do?" Shikamaru said, his voice rising.
Shino, being his usual subtle self said calmly, "It's nothing we can't solve."
Shikamaru scowled, surveying the situation, "I don't know about that…it looks pretty bad."
Shino replied impassively, "You take this mission."
Shikamaru nodded, brow still furrowed at the monitor screen. The Nara quickly fixed up his black ANBU robes and put on his mask in the shape of a cat's face. He headed for the exit.
"I expect you'll be back before midnight," Shikamaru heard Shino's voice speak behind him in his same monotone.
Shikamaru smirked without even turning around, "That's giving me 9 whole hours," there was a slight pause. "This won't even take half that amount of time," he said not hesitantly, but his voice wasn't brimming with his usual confidence. The truth was he didn't know how long this was going to take. He had no idea what kind of technique Neji had used on Tenten. He recalled the blinding light on the computer screen, and in the next flash, Tenten's eyes were shut and she appeared lifeless on the ground – while in the next moment, the Hyuuga was pretty much in the same position. Shikamaru had heard Tenten's shriek and saw the blood spurt out of the Hyuuga's mouth. They now were both hurt and it had all happened so quickly.
Right before Shikamaru disappeared from ANBU headquarters, he heard Shino's last words to him, "Then I'll expect you back around 7."
Shikamaru smirked but did not make a remark. Instead, he just headed out the long hallway to the exit, looking like the professional ANBU he was. But even with his excellent IQ, he had not the slightest idea what the Hyuuga had done.
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Tenten was, at this time, completely unconscious. But the Hyuuga could still distantly hear the pounding of his aching head. If his limbs could talk, his body would be shrieking in pain right now.
Somewhere, through the soft patter of the drizzling rain, the Hyuuga could hear what sounded like distant footsteps. With his eyes still shut tight, he could sense the footsteps getting closer and closer. His body being unable to move was a total loss for him. Was this an enemy? As much as Neji wanted to spring up and get into a proper defensive stance, he found himself unable to even open his eyelids.
When he felt the footsteps come to a halt, he got the feeling the person was standing right in front of them. He heard a familiar clicking of the tongue in an irritated fashion.
"How troublesome," he heard the unmistaken voice of Nara Shikamaru.
Shikamaru? Neji thought, but the words didn't come out of his mouth. His vocal chords didn't seem to be working properly, probably due to his low amount of chakra.
He heard another curse from the Nara before he felt a warm hand placed on his forehead – right over his cursed mark. The warmth didn't feel natural though - like a warm hand that had just been around a hot mug of tea – but instead that was the warmth he recognized as chakra being released from the pores of the Nara's palms. Ino had learned from Sakura some basic chakra control techniques and was just extremely enthusiastic to offer to teach Shikamaru while Sakura taught Neji.
"It'll be just like a double date!" Ino had exclaimed.
Sakura hadn't liked the sound of that and simply told her that wasn't a very accurate analogy since she wasn't exactly in love with Neji. And although she didn't say it out loud, she knew Shikamaru only had feelings for Temari of the Sand village. So 'double date' was totally inaccurate when describing their teaching the ANBU members. No one had taught Shino because apparently he already knew basic healing techniques. He had claimed quite calmly that he always had to heal his wounded insects, which made Sakura and Ino flinch at the idea of inserting chakra into thousands of gross bugs.
Some color came back into Neji's unnaturally pale skin tone, so he didn't look so wan. The Hyuuga's eyelids fluttered open as he inhaled sharply. With chakra, the Hyuuga could pretty much do anything and everything, but without chakra he was powerless – like everyone else. Neji breathed deeply, in and out. When he was low on chakra, his oxygen starved lungs seemed to not even have enough energy to take in proper air.
After catching his breath his eyes immediately turned to Tenten urgently.
"Is she ok?" he said a little too quickly, a little too urgently, a little too much concern in his voice.
The Nara cracked a grin behind his mask, which Neji could see with his Byakugan, "Is someone a little worried about a certain female?"
The Hyuuga scowled and was clearly in a bad mood from this remark. He wiped all the concern professionally off his face and said in monotone, "It's my job to protect people."
Shikamaru's grin widened under his mask but he didn't say anything.
"And don't give me that look," Neji said menacingly again.
Shikamaru's grin was, again, wiped from his face. He caught me again, the Nara thought, at least his Byakugan is in his eyes and not his ears. Shikamaru couldn't even imagine what havoc Neji would be capable of causing if he could hear other people's thoughts. Oh the gossip he would be able to spread. Oh the blackmail he would've had.
Neji went to pick Tenten up again but stopped as soon as he lifted her a few inches from the ground. He almost dropped her, if it had not been for Shikamaru who caught her for him. Neji kneeled on his left knee and coughed out more red liquid. He inhaled and exhaled desperately again. Shikamaru sighed in irritation and, with his free hand, offered his hand to the Hyuuga.
At first Neji wouldn't take it. He was a Hyuuga – meaning he was too arrogant to take help from anyone, including a fellow ANBU member.
An image of Tenten's tear-streaked face flashed through his mind. Her voice echoed inside his head. Her voice was filled with pain, "Gai Sensei, Lee, and I all cared for you. But you didn't care about us at all and left us!" Her face was clearly disapproving of his arrogance.
Neji sighed, put on his rightful ANBU mask again, and took Shikamaru's hand, which hoisted the Hyuuga to his feet. Letting someone help him was bad enough, but Neji was definitely not about to give any form of appreciation – not even a simple "thanks." He wrapped one arm around the Nara's shoulder and the three of them started off slowly to the Hokage's office. Tenten was in Shikamaru's arms while Neji was limping and being supported by the Nara. The weight was all being pressed down on Shikamaru, but he didn't mind. The Hokage's was not far from where they were standing. And although it was slow, they were making progress – advancing to the Hokage's step by step.
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"So if we place a bet in that pool, we'll surely earn enough money to…" Tsunade's voice was cut of while talking to her apprentice, Shizune, by a loud banging on her office door.
"Who the devil could that…" and her voice was once again cut off as two ANBU members busted in without waiting for Tsunade's approval. One ANBU was being supported by the other and there was a girl that Tsunade recognized in the standing ANBU's arms.
Tsunade raised an eyebrow, but not in question or concern, but it amusement. She recognized these two ANBU anywhere.
"Long time no see…" she smirked for effect, "Nara Shikamaru, Hyuuga Neji." She nodded to each of the men in ANBU uniforms as she said their names. She recognized Neji's long dark hair and Shikamaru's spiked ponytail anywhere. As a matter of fact, pretty much all the shinobi of Konoha had unique hair that couldn't be concealed under a mask. For example, Uzumaki Naruto with his blonde spiky hair, Shino with his afro, Ino with her smooth blonde hair always tied into a high ponytail or bun with her bangs parted to one side, etcetera. The only ones she might've mixed up were Rock Lee and Maito Gai with their almost identical hair styles.
Neji and Shikamaru would've bowed in respect to the Hokage – the only person Neji could bear giving a little bit of honor to other than Hyuuga Hiashi, who he had to respect – but Neji was pretty much crippled at the moment and Shikamaru had too much bodyweight on him. The two men just nodded their heads at her in recognition of her presence. But she was too caught up in the scene they formed to notice their greetings to her.
"What happened to Tenten…and Neji?" Tsunade asked, apparently directing her question to Shikamaru.
Shikamaru sighed, not knowing exactly how to explain the situation, "Well first Tenten got drunk in a bar and then later a man attempted to rape her."
Tsunade's eyes lingered to Tenten's inert body. She couldn't help but interrupt, "Shikamaru…is she…"
Shikamaru shook his head, knowing where this was going, "No, she's alive…I think."
Shaking that thought off he continued, "Then Neji was sent by ANBU to assist her. He quickly killed that man without thinking and performed some kind of technique that was supposedly supposed to heal Tenten…but uh…from what I saw, a bright light erupted and in the next moment Tenten was on the ground unconscious and Neji was on the ground next to her sputtering out blood. So I went to help them and here we are now."
Tsunade crumpled her brow deeply and scrunched her nose a bit, looking at the handicapped Hyuuga, "Who did you learn this technique from, Neji?"
"Haruno Sakura," Neji replied professionally as a proper response from an ANBU.
Tsunade cracked a grin at hearing her apprentice's name, "What did she tell you this technique would do?"
"She told me by doing this technique; I could insert chakra from my body into the body of another person of almost no chakra. As a side benefit, that person's body condition will be almost flawless – so I chose this technique so I could restore her chakra level as well as heal her bruises and cuts," Neji explained in monotone, not even blinking once.
Tsunade smirked again, "Did she happen to also tell you what would happen to your body?"
Neji scowled, but only for a brief moment before regaining his facial composure. He softly cleared his throat a bit, "Hai."
Tsunade frowned. She knew very well that when someone used this technique, their body would become very weak and some internal organs may even be damaged. Most medical nin only use this technique in desperate measures. The Hokage had a hunch Neji might've still had some hidden feelings for this kunoichi to have gone to such extreme measures just to restore her chakra level. It was not as though the situation had been dire.
The Hokage nodded, the frown still plastered on her face, "Shikamaru, please take Tenten to a room at the hospital."
Shikamaru nodded before releasing his support on Neji, who had to lean on the wall to keep himself from collapsing yet again. Tsunade had made it so that Neji was alone in her office for a definite reason. She couldn't resist but find out more about his feelings for Tenten – typical impulse from this woman.
She raised an eyebrow – trying to do so subtly but failing, "Neji, sit down." She smiled and extended her hand out to the seat in front of her desk.
She could hear the Hyuuga inhale softly behind that ANBU mask of his before giving himself a small push away from the wall and limping over to the seat the Hokage had offered him.
Once the Hyuuga got himself settled, Tsunade immediately threw him a grin that he couldn't make out, what was she about to do to him? Her grin was sly as if she was going to interrogate him, "Take your mask off Neji, it's been so long since I've seen you around Konoha."
Neji didn't take off his mask willingly, but only because it was the Hokage's orders. Tsunade's grin grew wider. "You're starting to look just like Hiashi," she couldn't help but verbally remark.
Oh lovely, Neji thought sarcastically. He wasn't exactly crazy about the idea that he was one day probably going to look just like Hiashi since he was the reason that his father died, but at the same time, looking like Hiashi would be looking like his own deceased father – Hyuuga Hizashi. Instead of vocalizing his disapproval, he simply nodded with an impassive face.
Somehow this made Tsunade chuckle, "You still act the same as when you were a Jonin." As strong as Tsunade was, thinking of the wonderful past made her want to tear up, but she wouldn't let the liquid in her eyes get even that far. She hated crying, and she would not let herself do it now. How she missed Shikamaru, Shino, and Neji being in the village. Every shinobi added to the flourishing character in the village of Konoha. Good thing she only lost 3 shinobi to ANBU, anymore than that would've kept her incredibly lonely. She loved the youth of Konoha; their generation was probably the strongest she had seen so far. She loved them more than the older generation, if she were to lose more shinobi to ANBU she wouldn't know how to cope.
Her attention turned back to the man that was still watching her fantasize to herself. She had a somewhat nostalgic look on her face as she stared off into space. She cleared her throat when she looked back at Neji's ivory pupils, "Sorry, I just had something on my mind."
Again, a simple nod came from the Hyuuga. Nothing more.
She remembered what she wanted to say, "You know…Tenten has been pretty depressed since you left."
She saw his jaw tense up when she said the weapon user's name – which gave her incredible amusement.
"Oh," Neji uttered dryly.
"She's been drinking nonstop," the Hokage continued.
"I know," Neji recalled using Byakugan to see into her alcohol infested chakra system. It was no surprise that she had taken in drinking into her lifestyle so well considering two main factors – one, she had an incredibly high tolerance level for alcohol, and two, her role model happened to be someone named Hokage-sama – who was notorious for her horrible drinking habits.
"Despite her depressed state…it is my belief that she has maintained her old childhood crush…" Tsunade searched Neji's face for any sort of reaction. None. Did he not understand that she was talking about him? She furrowed her brow, "Meaning you."
Neji's blank face finally broke into a smirk. He seemed amused, "How is this information of importance to me?"
Tsunade found herself searching for any words to put out, but she couldn't. Her lips were moving pointlessly like a goldfish as she tried to find a good remark. Useless.
Neji continued, voice full of his confident arrogance, "Hokage-sama, pardon me, but I think that you, of all people, should know that emotions are a weakness."
It was now Tsunade's turn to feel confident. She faked a smirk, "You must still have maintained your childhood crush to have used such a desperate technique in that situation."
Neji furrowed his brow, confidence not as strong. "I have no idea what you're talking about," he said icily, his jaw visibly tensed up.
Tsunade knew she could not get anything else out of him even if she continued to interrogate him. She smirked and simply told him, "Fine. If you're going to play dumb, then you might as well go and check into the hospital. Shi…"
There was an ANBU at the door. She smiled and continued, "Shikamaru will escort you. The resting process that follows this technique is 3 days."
"Three days?" Neji's voice was slightly raised.
"That is correct," Tsunade said, acting professional. She crossed her hands on her desk and straightened her back, "Is there a problem?"
The corners of the Hyuuga's mouth tightened, "What about ANBU?"
"What about ANBU?" Tsunade snapped back.
"They will surely need me for missions these next few days?" Neji reasoned.
"They can find a replacement," Tsunade said this in an 'end of discussion' tone. "Now go," with one flick of her hand, she indicated Neji should shoo now.
Feeling defeated – which he hadn't felt in years – he shot the Hokage one last glare before standing up, slipping his mask on, and limping to Shikamaru's side. Shikamaru was quite surprised at the Hokage's ability to make Neji back down. The Hyuuga's arrogance always made sure that he won any battle – physically or verbally. He hated losing to anyone, but apparently Tsunade was able to declare a victory for herself. Even Shikamaru, who had worked with him in ANBU for these past couple years, didn't dare start an argument with him.
Secretly, Shikamaru had been back from carrying Tenten to her room for a while now and had actually listened in on their conversation. He was surprised Neji had not sensed his presence earlier. He always caught Shikamaru even when he stopped breathing and was on his tip toes. The Nara suspected he would make a pretty good mother with those eyes in the back of his head.
Once they were out a good distance from the Hokage's office, Neji said icily, "You were eavesdropping."
Shikamaru sighed, "Why didn't you stop me?"
Neji paused for a while, still limping by Shikamaru's side, "What we were talking about wasn't important anyway."
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow behind his mask, "So you do like Tenten?"
"When did I ever say that?" the Hyuuga said, trying to mean 'no.'
As much as the Nara knew Neji was trying to say he didn't like Tenten, he had the impulse to push him, "So you don't like Tenten?"
"Nara, I find your questioning very pointless," was all the Hyuuga said before limping on.
Shikamaru grinned beneath his mask. He knew it was rare for the Hyuuga to tell a lie purposely, he only went around the question.
"Give me that look again and I swear I'll…" the Hyuuga's voice trailed off because pretty soon they were at the hospital's entrance.
"Let's check in first - then you can cuss at me all you want," Shikamaru said in a somewhat sarcastic tone.
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"What happened?" came Haruno Sakura's sympathetic voice and concerned face. She was talking to Tenten, who had woken up in her hospital room. She was sitting upright in her bed and Sakura was sitting in a chair next to her bed. The medical nin hadn't changed much. Her face was still as innocent as ever, and her voice did not get any higher or lower over the years, but she was definitely a person of more confidence than before. When she was younger, she had pretty shattered self-esteem with Naruto and Sasuke on her previous team. But, over the years since Sasuke had left, she molded herself into a real kunoichi and medical nin, putting aside her mindless crush on the Uchiha. This made Tenten and Sakura different. Sakura worked harder to make sure if she ever saw Sasuke again, she would do whatever it took to drag him back to Konoha – including knock him unconscious and literally drag him back. Tenten on the other hand, simply stopped trying without Neji by her side. And once they met again, this was how she presented herself. Weaker and drunk with alcohol. Tenten wasn't sure if she was to be ashamed or just ignore this fact.
"A man tried to get fresh with me and then Neji killed him. Then he used this strange jutsu on me that was supposed to heal me, but I guess I passed out," Tenten explained to the best of her ability using the little information she had. She kept it pretty brief because she didn't feel like going into detail – after all, it had happened so quickly.
Sakura immediately knew what technique she was talking about that she had indeed taught Neji. "I told him to only use it in a dire situation," she murmured to herself.
Tenten ignored the girl thinking to herself. She noticed something that had changed over the years in the Konoha hospital. Previously, the hospital provided everyone with their own individual room – one bed per room. Now…
"Why are there 2 beds in each room now?" Tenten asked Sakura while staring at the empty white cot on her right side, just a few feet away.
"Oh! There have been more injuries lately with ANBU and Jonins because of several attacks from enemy villages. So we decided that instead of extending the hospital, we would simply double the possible intake of patients by adding an extra bed to every room. We didn't have enough money to extend the hospital because Hokage-sama bet…" Sakura silenced herself as she realized she shouldn't be blaming anything on her master, "But uh, never mind that! The important thing is that this was what Konoha chose to do with their hospital!" Sakura's cheerfulness was rather peculiar to Tenten. The brown haired kunoichi didn't know why, but something about Sakura made it seem like she was hiding something. Her voice seemed anxious and somehow nervous. But Tenten couldn't put her finger on it. And suddenly something dawned her and she was horrified.
"So that means I have to share the room with a complete stranger?!" there was urgency in Tenten's raised voice.
Sakura briefly bit her bottom lip and gave Tenten another fake nervous smile, "No…well I mean…I wouldn't call him a stranger…"
"Him?! I'm sharing the room with a man?" this was the start of a panic attack for Tenten. She didn't want to stay in the hospital with a strange man. She had just been sexually assaulted by one of those men. Oh the mental images. Now whenever she thought of men she didn't know, she couldn't only envision them as lechers. She'd rather run 30 laps around Konoha with Gai Sensei and Lee – at least she knew they weren't perverted and wouldn't spend the whole day gaping at her body like many other men did.
"Yes, but uh…" Sakura tried to think of words to calm the girl down, but couldn't find any with out giving too much away.
"Who am I sharing the room with, Sakura?" Tenten gripped her blankets and was pretty much begging for Sakura to tell her now.
"You…are sharing the room with…" Sakura started hesitantly. But she didn't need to finish. The door to Tenten's room was opened and two ANBUs she clearly recognized were standing at the doorway. One was limping and being supported by the other ANBU.
She undoubtedly knew that the one that was limping was Hyuuga Neji with his long onyx hair, and the one supporting him was her old comrade from Konoha – Nara Shikamaru. She could tell by his hair, which still stayed spiked in a high ponytail – like it has been in since his Genin days.
Neji, Tenten mouthed the name with a shocked look on her face. She had been unconscious for most of the Shikamaru's rescue, so she did not understand why the Hyuuga was limping.
"This is the room Hokage-sama assigned you to Neji," the Nara spoke calmly behind his mask. Now Tenten could definitely tell this was Shikamaru, his voice was still as lazy and as laid back as ever. She just wished she could see his new face, how much he had changed, what he had grown into. She mainly had missed Neji over the years, but the thought of losing so many familiar comrades to ANBU made her heart ache with childhood memories.
Tenten kept her cheeks from blushing when she heard Neji was assigned to the same room as her, she couldn't show any sign of embarrassment around these Genin-turned-ANBUs.
Neji gave a simple short grunt before Shikamaru had to support him to the hospital bed next to Tenten's. The Hyuuga lied down on the cot with a sharp exhale, which was a clear indicator to everyone in the room that he was in pain.
"I'll take it from here," Sakura's professional medical nin voice kicked in.
Tenten could suddenly feel her palms start to sweat as Shikamaru left and Sakura started toward Neji's bed. She wanted to tell Shikamaru to stay and use whatever technique he could pull out to heal Neji instead. But no use, she heard the door shut behind him as the ANBU left without glancing back even once.
"What happened to Neji?" Tenten suddenly blurted. She was desperate to not have to watch Sakura heal him. She knew it was wrong to try to stop a medical nin from fulfilling her duties, but something inside of Tenten made her feel uncomfortable…almost jealous.
This caught Sakura in surprise. She stopped in her tracks and her confused facial composure turned into a gentle smile.
"Neji-kun inserted chakra from his own body into yours. He almost lost all of his chakra, and it left internal damages, so I'm just going to have to he-"
"Is there a bathroom I can use?" the brown haired kunoichi interrupted rather rudely. But Sakura could hear the utter desperation in her voice to get away from Neji at this moment.
Sakura stammered, a bit baffled by her urgency, "H-hai…turn right in this hal-"
"Turn right in this hallway, got it. Arigato Sakura," Tenten said before leaping out of bed and attempting to walk quickly out of the room without looking back. Her right leg was absolutely killing her, she felt like it had been detached – or more likely burned. She restrained herself from showing any sign of pain and did her best to try and not limp.
Neji eyed her right leg as she walked out and watched her body bob up an down at an uneven rate.
Once the door was closed behind the girl, she quickly leaned her back against the closed door and grasped her leg.
She quickly spotted what she had been looking for – or rather who she was looking for.
"Shikamaru!" Tenten called out, loud enough for the ANBU - about to turn the corner at the end of the hallway - to turn his head and face Tenten.
She started to limp over to the man. Seeing Tenten was in need of support, Shikamaru quickly darted out to help hold up her fragile body – the way he had (less carefully) done with the arrogant Hyuuga's. The gentle girl looked up and cracked a wide grin when she saw the ANBU mask of Shikamaru.
"Nani?" Shikamaru asked, not in his usual irritated voice – but more in a laid back tone.
"Nothing much…I just didn't want to stay in my roo-" Tenten quickly changed her sentence, "I mean I had to go to the bathroom and then I saw you walking." The girl put on a fake smile.
"Oh…it wasn't because you didn't want to watch Sakura touch Neji?"
Tenten's face gave off a hint of surprise at his comment before simply replying to the man, "How do you know these things?"
"I'm an ANBU. Of course I know little details like these," Shikamaru gave a long sigh, "It's actually quite troublesome."
Tenten gave a giggle, "You haven't changed at all."
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"Sakura," Neji breathed out the pink haired kunoichi's name. It was the exact same way Sasuke had said her name the night before he left Konoha. Her heart softened at his voice for a bit but then hardened again.
"Hn?" the girl replied, tracing many cuts on his now-topless chest with careful glowing green hands. The Hyuuga's mask was still off and when she looked into his eyes, she noticed they were lingering somewhere else. His useful bloodline limit was currently activated – Byakugan. He seemed to be looking at the wall – or rather, through the wall. What he saw didn't exactly please him. Through the wall he could see Tenten's arm wrapped around Shikamaru's shoulder. She was clearly smiling at him and talking to him, in a way she never smiled at the Hyuuga himself.
"Has Tenten told you about any new crushes she has?" he asked calmy, gaze still staring holes into the wall.
"I…don't think so…why?" Sakura continued to trace more minor cuts after she was finished with the large gashes. Neji just continued to watch Tenten smiling widely and talking in Shikamaru's arms.
"Nevermind," the Hyuuga said, his voice carrying an edge of iciness. "I'll talk to her about it tonight." Within the coldness of his voice was a hint of something Sakura had never heard in his voice before. Something completely new.
Jealousy.
To Be Continued…