Author's Note: Well since everybody liked my last ch so much I figured I'd just keep alternating between this and Golden for now. Thank you all for your reviews, now on with the show!
Chapter 7: A Woman's Intuition
Sasuke blew into school the next day in a panicked rush, his brother trailing behind him giving his back an amused expression. Admittedly neither brother's night had ended ideally but, as Itachi had pointed out at home over a dinner of microwaved mac and cheese and spaghetti-o's, at least his crush hadn't run screaming from him.
"She didn't run screaming!" Sasuke had snapped, giving his brother his best Uchiha death glare.
"You really could have thought it out better though," Itachi had laughed lightly, dodging a spoon as Sasuke resorted to throwing things at him when the death glare had no effect, "It was pretty obvious to me that she was a little spooked of you to begin with. You should have started slower."
"I got impatient, alright?" Sasuke grumbled, grabbing his brother's spoon for a moment to serve himself another mouthful of spaghetti-o's, "I just got in the car with her and I couldn't help myself. The scared-little-schoolgirl routine was so cute on her, and she smelled like strawberries."
"Hinata smells of vanilla," Itachi remembered with a fond smile, "I noticed, but that doesn't mean I lost my cool. If you want to get anywhere with this girl now, take my advice and play the good boy for a while."
"She makes it so hard though," Sasuke complained wistfully, thinking back on the few moments alone with his cherry angel he'd stolen.
"Will power, Otouto," Itachi replied simply, "just keep it platonic for now. Remember, you've got time. Your only competition is the same as mine, and I'm dealing with him. She's not going anywhere with anyone."
"True," Sasuke agreed, thinking back on that morning when he'd been literally pushed aside for that idiot Naruto. At least he had his brother's help there, Itachi claimed to be working on a plan to take Naruto down. Still, there was the small matter of the boy that had pulled his goddess so abruptly from his car and taken off with her. Sasuke didn't recognize the boy, and from their brief encounter it was difficult to glean what his relationship with Sakura entailed. Could this be another rival?
"Try getting into her social circle," Itachi suggested, "make friends with her friends. If you play nice you're bound to find somebody who'll talk you up to her. Find someone she'll listen to."
Itachi's advice was usually pretty sound, so even though this plan seemed unbearably slow, Sasuke decided to give it a shot. He didn't think he had a chance with Ino, she and Sakura seemed too close for her not to know Sakura's inclination towards him already. So, keeping his distance to make sure she didn't get anything more to add to her "creepy stalker" image of him, Sasuke darted between students trying to tail her down the hall towards her first period class.
He stopped to smile for a moment when she led him to the music room. She hadn't been carrying an instrument case, so he could only assume she was a singer. The voice of an angel too, no doubt, he thought to himself as he headed for the door. He was going to be very late for his first period, hell he might just skip it altogether, but it would be worth it if he got to hear Sakura sing. A love song, he mused dreamily, a soft, sweet, innocent declaration of an unrealized attraction to a mysterious stranger that seems dangerous but is really only . . .
"You!" Sasuke cried in shock, at roughly the same time that the boy in front of him gasped the exact same word. It was the boy from the road! The one that had stolen Sakura away from him the night before! He was de-shouldering the strap of a large green guitar, and he looked every bit as surprised to see Sasuke as Sasuke was to see him.
"What are you doing here!" Sasuke demanded angrily, storming into the classroom.
"Me!" cried the other boy in furious shock, "What are you doing here!"
"What do you mean by coming here!" Sasuke growled at the other male, furious that he'd beaten him here to talk to Sakura before class. Suddenly he caught sight of said angel ducking behind the other boy with a petrified expression on her lovely face. No, don't be afraid angel! I only want to love you!
"I have class here!" Lee snapped, anger written all over his face, "What do you mean by coming here!"
That floored Sasuke for a moment. He hadn't actually expected the other to have a response to that, and now that one, a perfectly reasonable one at that, had been given he wasn't sure what to do. So, this person was a classmate, just somebody Sakura knew. A friend. Sasuke could have palmed himself in the forehead. Of course, there had to be plenty of people just happy to know his angel. His brain kicked back into gear as he tried to think of an explanation for his own presence. He took a moment to settle on 'just to talk', but unfortunately that was long enough for another girl with two large buns in her hair he'd never seen before to enter the conversation by practically throwing herself on him.
"Hey cutie!" she cooed, latching one arm around his neck and leaning into his chest, "What brings you here?"
"A girl," he replied shortly, trying to disentangle her from himself, but every time he managed to pry her off she seemed to fall back onto him and reattach herself.
"Aw, you came looking for a girl like me?" she simpered, walking her fingers up his chest as she practically crawled up his body into his arms.
"A specific girl!" he clarified. He was now supporting all her weight, and was trying to figure out a way to get her off without dropping her on the floor.
"That's ok," she purred seductively, batting her brown eyes at him, "I can be anyone you want me to be."
That was the last straw. Sasuke dumped her unceremoniously onto the music room floor. Ignoring her tearful wails of protest he scanned the room for Sakura, only to find that she had disappeared. Great, now she thinks I'm some kind of operator, he thought glumly. As the girl that had attacked him started to get to her feet, Sasuke turned on his heel and left the classroom quickly.
"You come back and see me now, you hear!" Tenten called, grinning broadly as she waved at Sasuke's retreating back. She grinned to herself, happy in the knowledge that she'd given Sakura time to escape into the back room where the school set of instruments were kept, and Sasuke a reason never to come back here again. Sakura peeked out from behind the door in the back, saw that Sasuke wasn't there, and came out again, smiling at her gratefully. Lee grinned at her.
"What was that?" asked a voice from beyond the door. Tenten glanced back at the entrance, to see Neji stepping out from behind the doorway. He wore a look of deep disapproval as he regarded her carefully.
Tenten smiled. "Oh nothing," she told him, waving a hand as though to shoo the moment away, "I was just helping Sakura-chan out of some trouble. She didn't want to talk to that guy, so I drove him off, is all."
Neji had an odd look as he looked Tenten up and down, as though not really sure whether or not to believe her. "So, you were just acting?" he asked skeptically.
Tenten blinked, "Yeah, of course."
"Good," Neji said at last, continuing on towards his seat. He had just past Tenten when he added, "'Cause you were acting like a real tramp. It was rather unattractive."
Tenten bristled. She turned around to look at Neji's back, angry and ready to tell him off for saying a thing like that. But he wasn't even looking at her. His tone hadn't changed at all when he'd said it. It hadn't been meant as an insult, there had been no emotion at all behind his words. He was just stating a fact, like he always did.
Somewhere around realizing this Tenten quite forgot what she was going to say.
"Tenten, why didn't you tell him off, huh?" Sakura asked as she came up to Tenten, rejoining the group after her brief trip to her hiding spot.
"I don't know," Tenten murmured, softly and a little vague, "I suppose he didn't mean any harm."
"But that was really rude!" Sakura protested, her brow furrowed in anger and frustration.
"Neji has never been very kind to anyone," Lee remarked, coming to stand between the two girls, "but that was unusually callous, even for him. Usually you would tell him so, Tenten."
"I," Tenten whispered, staring out into the classroom, "I just didn't feel the need, that's all. Come on, lets take out seats."
The class went by uneventfully. Nobody was asked to perform individually, but everyone started on their own arrangement for the same simple song they were to learn by the end of the weak. Sakura and Lee sat in the back again, side by side, but Tenten picked a seat a row back and across the room from her usual seat by Neji. She got out her flute and played as well as ever, but her heart didn't really seem to be in what she was playing.
At the end of class Sakura cornered Neji by the piano.
"You really hurt Tenten's feelings earlier," she told him bluntly, staring at him from beneath a furrowed brow.
"I didn't say anything to her," Neji replied simply, not looking at her but gathering up his sheet music.
"You said she was acting like a tramp!" Sakura protested angrily, glaring.
"Well she was," Neji defended, catching a stray sheet of music, "she admitted it herself."
"Yes but you didn't have to tell her!" Sakura cried, frustration building by the minute, "She was just trying to help me, and you had to go and comment on how well she played the whore!"
"So?" Neji asked, tapping the handful of sheets on the top of the piano to straighten them, "It was true wasn't it? And anyway, its not like she minded."
"Yes she did mind!" Sakura exploded, banging one hand on top of the piano, really angry now. "You just didn't see the expression on her face, since you had your back to her!"
Neji sighed, waiting a moment as Sakura agitated breathing returned to normal. "Tenten's my accompanist," he began softly, making Sakura blink in confusion. He rolled his eyes, "Someone who plays pieces that compliment mine often! She's my colleague, my equal, and I have to trust that if there's something wrong she'd be honest with me about it, not beat around the bush and play games like you do with your so-called friends. We've played together for a long time, and I think I know her better than you do, Sakura-san."
Sakura glared at him a moment, and then bit back her angry retort. She caught his gaze and fixed him with a hard stare. "Maybe you don't know her as well as you think you do," she said simply, and turning on her heal she left him by the piano, holding his sheet music and wondering if there was anything at all to what she said.
***
By the end of the day, however, Tenten was back to normal, and the usual chipper smile greeted him as he returned to the music room at the end of the day. Tenten had her own car, but she left her flute case in the music room during the day and came by after the final bell to pick it up, around the same time Neji and Hinata were meeting up there to go home themselves.
"Neji?" Tenten asked as she began to gather her things, one head phone dangling from her ear by its thin wire. Somewhere around third period Neji had realized that he'd left a piece of sheet music behind while he was talking to Sakura, and getting out the stack so he could put it in the right place he began to hunt for it around the piano.
"Hn?" replied, not looking at her but kneeling to look amongst the piano's legs.
"Did Sakura say something to you?" Tenten asked carefully, glancing around the piano to where he was kneeling, bending his head to try and find his missing sheet.
Neji frowned, wondering what to tell her. "Nothing important," he said at last, standing up, "Just something about you being the type of whiny girl who takes things to heart. I told her I knew you better."
"Oh," Tenten replied, not looking at him but down at the floor. Her back was unusually straight, though her head was bowed, and her bangs obscured her eyes. "And what exactly did you tell her?"
Neji gave her a wary look, "I told her I knew you better, that's all. She said you might have thought I was calling you a tramp this morning. I told her you knew what I meant."
Hinata was looking between them nervously now, as Tenten stood still as a statue and Neji continued to look around for his music sheet. He found it at last, closed into the piano itself, and pulling it out he tucked it into its proper place, tapping the stack on the top of the piano to even it out.
"And what exactly did you mean, Neji," Tenten asked softly, her voice taking on an odd quality he could not place as she continued to avoid his gaze, "Just so we're totally clear."
Neji stared at her. "I meant that . . . well that . . . I mean, I know you weren't actually coming on to that guy. You wouldn't do a thing like that."
"Oh, so I'm not allowed to flirt with a guy if I want to!" Tenten screamed. Her head jerked up to look at him, angry tears forming at the corners of her large brown eyes.
"Tenten, what the . . ." Neji reached for her, startled by her sudden outburst, but as he tried to reach out to her he quite forgot the papers he was holding, accidentally sending them soaring in all directions all over the floor.
"Hinata!" Tenten cried, turning to the younger girl and grabbing her hand, "Come on, I'll walk you to the car!"
"Tenten!" Neji tried again, ignoring the scattered papers to try to reach for his classmate again, but Tenten had already darted from the room, dragging Hinata behind her.
When they gotten two halls from the music room Tenten stopped running. "Sorry Hinata," she choked, dabbing at her eyes with her sleeve, "I don't know what came over me."
"Its ok," Hinata murmured, "Neji . . ."
"No, its not ok," Tenten cut her off, "but it will be tomorrow. I just have to take tonight to pull myself together, that's all. Come on, lets go."
As they walked Tenten put her other ear-bud in and fished her ipod shuffle from her pocket. She took it off hold and hit play.
"Got in this morning at 4 am
You're as mad as you can be.
I was drinking and talking
and you know I've had go's
time just slipped away from me.
By the time I knew what time it was
it was too late to call home.
Stop carrying on like you're like a child
I wasn't doing anything wrong."
Tenten smiled slightly to herself, letting the sound of her favorite song wash over her. She exhaled deeply, trying to blow out all the anger, the frustration, the pent-up aggression and the unshed tears.
"Guys do it all the time
and you expect us to understand!
When the shoe's on the other foot,
you know that's when it hits the fan.
Get over it honey,
life's a two way street,
or you won't be a man of mine!
So I had some beers
with the girls last night!
Guys do it all the time!"
Tenten took another deep breath as the song played itself out. This song always made her feel better. Not many people knew it, but Tenten had a certain weakness for country music. The genre was, after all, at least 50% truly kick-ass women, many of them dealing with heartbreak and life on the more difficult side of being single. Mindy McCready was her latest heroine, and as they stepped out onto the front steps of the school the song ended, leaving Tenten to wonder what little piece of sound therapy her ipod would play for her next.
The front steps were deserted except for a lone figure leaning against the railing. He was tall, with long dark hair in a ponytail, rather like Neji's, Tenten mused, except that while Neji's was a chocolate brown color this boy's was jet black. His head was bowed when the exited the building, but as they walked by him he lifted his head to look at them, revealing deep creases beneath deeper, almost cold black eyes.
Just as he and Tenten made eye contact a new song began to play on her ipod.
"Superstar,
where ya from, how's it going?
I know you,
Gotta clue, whatcha doing'.
You can play brand new
to all the other chick's out here
but I know what you are,
what you are baby.
Look at you,
getting' more than just a re-up.
Baby you,
got all the puppets with their strings up.
Fakin' like a good boy
but I call 'em like I see 'em
I know what you are,
what you are baby.
Womanizer,
Woman-womanizer
You're a womanizer
Oh womanizer
Oh you're a womanizer baby,
you, you, you are
you, you, you are
womanizer
womanizer
womanizer.
Boy don't try to front,
I-I know just-just what you are-are-are
Boy don't try to front,
I-I know just-just what you are-are-are
(Ooh) You got me goin'
(Ooh) You're oh so charmin'
(Ooh) but I can't do it
(Ooh) womanizer!"
A shiver ran down Tenten's spine as she looked at the dark eyed stranger. Without a word she grabbed Hinata's hand again and dragged her off the steps, quickly across the parking lot to where her car and Neji's were parked side by side.
"Hey Hinata," Tenten asked, throwing a look back over her shoulder at the boy. He hadn't moved, but he was watching them. "Do you know that guy?"
"Mhm," Hinata answered in her usual high, breathy voice, "His name is Itachi Uchiha. He just moved here."
"Do me a favor, Hinata-chan," Tenten asked quietly, still watching the boy as his eyes continued to follow them, "stay away from that guy, ok?"
"Why?" Hinata asked curiously, blinking up at the older girl.
"Let's just say I dabble in fortune telling," Tenten replied, "and I know a sign when I hear one. Come on we'll take my car, I'll drop you off at your house."
"Neji-nii-san will worry," Hinata pointed out.
"Let him worry," Tenten muttered, "we're getting out of here."
Author's Note: Tenten is very smart, is she not? And of course, Neji is an uttery clueless asshole, but then again, what else is new, right? Hope you liked, Nejiten will make up by the end of the story!