AN: Gomenesai. This is really depressing but it needs to be to make the stuff later seem better. Honestly, it's all for the best. After all, "the course of true love never did run smooth", and with Neji, it was never going to be a fairytale romance, so…
2175 words in this chapter
Unmasked
Chapter 6- Favor
When she found him, he was sat in Konoha Park with his eyes closed, deep in thought. The sun shone through the branches of the trees to cover his face in delicate patterns. As she looked down at him, she felt a surge of respect.
He hadn't burdened her with a surplus of feelings, despite the effect all this must be having on him. He had given her the time she needed to think this through, and now that she felt like talking, he was not trying to avoid her.
For a sixteen year old boy, he was surprisingly mature, and although he seemed cold and heartless, she was truly beginning to see hints of compassion behind his solid façade. If he continues like this, maybe being forced into marrying him won't be all bad. Maybe he might start to open up. I need to know though…
"Neji" she bowed her head in greeting and sat down cross-legged on the grass beside him.
"Tenten" he replied, not moving at all in response.
"Why?"
"Nani?"
"I asked Hinata about this. She told me that you did have choice, because you are only a branch member, unlike her. She told me you chose me specifically."
He opened his eyes and glared at her disdainfully "Not for marriage. The elders asked me years ago who I thought was the strongest Kunoichi of my age. I told the truth."
She lowered her head, dropping the sound of her voice to a sorrowful level, feeling somewhat relieved but still hurt "Oh… so that's why you see it as a problem."
He sighed and leant back on his hands "No"
"No?" she looked up at him in confusion
"Hai"
Why won't he give me a proper answer, this is so frustrating "Neji, please tell me why?
"It is a problem because I knew you would say no."
She sat up a little straighter, stunned at his answer "Nani?"
"You heard" he continued to sit in his relaxed stance, ignorant of her reaction.
"You want me to say yes?"
He sighed softly "Hai"
"You want me to marry you?"
"Hai"
"So why the hell couldn't you have proposed properly like any normal person?" she snapped and tuned away from him to contain her anger.
Now it was his turn to sit up in alarm "I don't want to get married."
"Now you are really confusing me. Make up your mind."
"Alright, let me explain" he implored softly
She didn't turn back to face him, knowing that if she didn't, he would find it easier to display emotion "I'm listening"
"I don't want to get married, but I don't have a choice. What I do have a choice over however, is who I marry. Unfortunately, again my options were very limited. I was given a choice yesterday, whether I marry the one I named strongest by my reckoning, or an anonymous girl chosen for me by the main family who would bring them profit. I knew you would say no, but I did hope you wouldn't. I do want you to marry me, just so that I wouldn't have to put up the torture of marrying someone I don't know."
She paused for a while, but when she spoke again, her voice was not softer or more forgiving "You don't care what it would do to me? I'm not being forced into marriage by anyone except you"
"I will not force you Tenten. I was just asking a favor"
She finally turned back to him, perplexity filling her speech "A favor?"
He gave her a straight expression "Hai"
"What would be in it for me?"
"Your things are already at the Hyuuga estate. I had no part in it but your guardians have given permission. If you agree to stay, you will be classed as a main family member and so will have complete access to all of the estate. That includes paid for meals and accommodation, training facilities, clothing, weaponry. I know you do not have much, if any, money for those things as it stands. That is why you applied for ANBU, is it not?"
She scowled at his assumption. That's why he didn't approve earlier? "No. I applied for ANBU because I believe I can make it as one of them. If I wish to further myself and become as great a kunoichi as the best, I must do whatever I can."
"And I must do whatever I can to defeat the chains of the main Hyuuga house."
She sneered at him "I should have known… the marriage. It accepts you as a main house member aswell, doesn't it?"
"Not yet, but our children would be too powerful for them to allow them to remain in the branch family."
She choked slightly "C- Children?"
He glanced away from her nervously "Hai. Not for a long time, but that is the reason why I must marry. The bloodline must be preserved. It is also why they accepted you as an option. You have suitable genetics."
"And if it was not me? If you married someone else?"
He nodded, recognizing what she was asking "I would remain a branch member, regardless of children."
"My things are already there?"
"They spoke to your landlord. You were going to be evicted from your apartment today anyway. Apparently you haven't paid enough rent for months. Please Tenten, you have nothing to lose. Does this for me, as a favor?"
She took a deep breath "Fine. Just be grateful I have no interest in romance."
END FLASHBACKThe emotion had disappeared the second they shared their first kiss. The friendly connection disintegrated. Tenten merely assumed it was that their relationship was going to take an unexpected turn towards something deeper. She gave Neji enough time to sort out his emotions, just like he had with her.
As it turned out, enough time was at least four years, if not longer. The unexpected turn was not towards deeper connections, but instead to loss of all connections altogether.
The irony of the moment did not fail to grasp Tenten as she approached the same spot they had met in all those years ago and saw the outline of her husband.
Just like then, he was knelt on the grass with his eyes shut. Just like then it was eerily quiet and she found herself having to wait, knowing she must speak first.
Only, where the sun once shone patterns, his face was cloaked in darkness, leaving him as distant and alien to her as the shadow of a stranger. Where before she had felt optimism at the reason why they were coming there to talk, she now felt nothing but dread, anticipating his words almost to a key.
She looked down at her shaking hands and shoved them behind her back, feeling the need to appear strong. Just as she was about to take a step towards him, he snapped his eyes open to look up at her, their blank surface glinting from the moonlight in a way that made them look like the were glowing. It was unnerving for her and she took a step back in surprise.
"Tenten, you need to come back" his voice sounded weaker than usual, tired.
"Why?"
"You know why"
She glared at him, sarcasm in her tone of voice "So I can follow your orders again?"
"You know that isn't the case"
"Do I?"
"You aren't an idiot"
"I know that, but it's hard for me to understand you if we never speak to each other." She scowled at him to make her point
"We do speak" he told her stoically
"No, you don't." she suddenly lost her amused expression and raised her voice in her frustration "I refuse to believe that "you have to be pregnant by Friday" is the extent of your casual conversational abilities."
He blinked deliberately "It is un…"
"…necessary," she laughed "I know, so you've said."
"So you must understand"
"No I don't bloody understand!" she took her hands from behind her back and snapped them to her side; fists clenched "Why must it all be unnecessary? Why can't you at least make an effort? I have changed my entire life style because of this marriage."
He sighed casually "You didn't need to"
"Yes I bloody did! I had to move in with you, though not into the same room, at least into that huge house, which some girls are jealous of, but having moved out from a tiny apartment, it was a big change. I had to learn manners and dress in the right way for your clan. I have been cut off from all but training and missions and even they are limited. I had to put up with your family day in day out, which is no easy task when you're an outsider. Not to mention the complete lack of a social life the whole thing has inflicted on me. Don't you even care?"
"You have the dances"
"You just don't get it, do you? I really don't know whether your gender was stripped of you the same time you were bound to serve that family, but I need a little more from a social life than a few dances once in a while."
"No one is stopping you"
"Oh really, so you'd be ok if I just went and slept with another guy? You wouldn't mind the scandal of me having an affair?"
His eyes went wide "Tenten! That is a ridiculous notion!"
"Why? Why exactly is that ridiculous Neji? I'm not going to get any connection from you. That has been made blindingly obvious." She began to feel tears building up. Why did I ever hope he would change?
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"What do you think it means? You don't love me. You never did and I never expected you to. The least you could have done though… you could have tried to make me feel loved, wanted even."
"Why me?"
"Because you are my fucking husband!" she sat down, needing the strength it gave her as the moisture fell uncontrollably from her eyes "That is what you are supposed to do."
"Our marriage is arranged. Such displays of emotion are…"
"Unnecessary? You really do make me laugh at times. Why should the context of our marriage affect us? Ino and Shikamaru weren't into each other when they first realized that they were to be married, and Hinata and Takahiro were in the same situation as us when they didn't even know each other. They both managed though, and eventually they all formed emotional bonds. Real love."
"We won't ever be in love Tenten" he looked away from her, sadness in his voice
"Why not? You don't know because you won't even give it a chance."
He glanced back nervously at her pitiful face, his breathing uneven and heavy "y-you want to be in love with me?"
"Well it would make sense. Maybe not love but if we tried genuinely, I would hope we could find a thin trace of attraction." Now she turned from him, letting her voice drop to almost a whisper "Just enough to keep us happy in this marriage."
"Aren't you happy?" he cringed
"Are you? I have tried so hard…" she drifted off, pain in her voice "but I really do see now. The worst this marriage is for you is a slight inconvenience, other than that; it has no effect on you whatsoever. I may as well not be there at all."
He looked at her desperately as she stood to walk away "Don't leave Tenten"
She spun to face him angrily "Why not?"
"I need you"
It was obvious to her what he meant. Don't delude yourself. He only means for his children "I'm afraid you'll have to rape me to do that"
He stood up next to her in horror "Nani?!"
"I won't have your child willingly." She looked down at the ground as the tears continued to fall "I value my life too much"
"I don't understand." He frowned
"Ever heard about post-natal depression? If I had a child conceived without love, with a man who obviously thinks I'm far too unattractive to even keep in the same room as him unless its duty, if the childbirth didn't kill me, you can guarantee I'd commit suicide before its done breastfeeding. Maybe then this marriage might have made a dent on you."
"Tenten. Don't say that"
She wiped at her eyes "Dear Kami, why am I crying over you. You really aren't worth the effort Hyuuga-san. I don't want to be you're wife anymore. It's gone long past a favor to a friend and I have enough money from ANBU now to support myself for a while. There is nothing keeping me with you."
"Tenten" he called as she began to walk away again.
She stopped, but didn't face him again, speaking quietly and compassionately "We used to be teammates, maybe even friends… now I can't even bare to look at you."
AN: sob.
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stay shiny and show the luff
XX Belizma-chan XX