Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, etc.
Summary: Tenten is indebt and a really good liar. Neji's family is rich and is in need of a temporary niece. What happens when these two meet? ( Nejiten & minor others )
'Text' - English dialogue
She raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Details…?"
The other woman shook her head and put a hand to her brow. "Sakura – Haruno Sakura is back in Korea. Sasuke and I saw her in the company building."
Kurenai's eyes widened. "WHAT?!"
Mikoto raised an eyebrow. "Honestly, Kurenai. I thought your hearing was better-"
"NO!" she hissed angrily. "LOOK!" She jabbed her finger to the name that was on the plaque near the wooden sculpture. Mikoto sweat dropped. She didn't hear a thing I said…?
"The name on it is… is… Asu-" she stuttered.
"Asuma." The man said walked behind her. "Earlier this week you told me that my art was trash…" He nodded to the plaque and Kurenai's eyes widened again.
"FIRST PLACE?!?!?!?!" Mikoto's eyes twitched. Art obsessive…
Tenten carried the overload of shopping bags on her back. She huffed angrily. She had wanted to go straight to Ino's apartment again and never come out, but she knew that Neji wouldn't pay her if she did.
She had finally come to the conclusion that all of Neji's relatives and family were hysteric and complete spazzatrons. She was completely exhausted from hanging out with Kurenai. Honestly, the woman was an art spazz.
Tenten raised an eyebrow at that thought and then shook her head. She was a little too hyper today. Her eyes widened. Oh shit! Did I put too much sugar into her coffee?!?!?!?!?!?! She slapped herself on the head.
It was a good thing that she wasn't the real niece…
Sasuke was driving.
The meeting with Sakura had unsettled him. She was in the company building. The company building that Neji governed. And if Neji was there, she would want to visit him.
And there was the problem.
He sighed. The Hyuuga family distrusted her. As well as his mother and he. It was almost a miracle that Neji was able to show any expression on his face and even smile – although a small one. But miracles didn't last very long.
Sasuke remembered the day – three years ago. Neji had come back home during their "family reunion" dinners. He had gone upstairs without a word and had just lain on his bed. They never found out the news until it was flashed onto the TV screen and on the newspapers:
HARUNO SAKURA: Big shot taking her first step to glory.
And then it had shown a picture of her happy face and an interview slot about her training for the next tournament coming up.
He kept on driving until he spotted a girl. Her hair done in two buns. Tenten. He frowned. The Uchiha was debating whether to approach her or not and demand her explanation for being a fraud. He thought for a few moments.
At last he made his decision and stepped out of the car.
"How did it go?"
Silence. Moegi sighed. She had been asking the tennis player next to her for at least ten minutes of the car ride. They were on their way to practice now, but the girl could tell that she wouldn't be playing her top notch.
She took a deep breath and began to try again. "Sakura-"
"It went fine," Sakura said suddenly. "Fine…" Moegi raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Even now she was good at telling whether she was lying or not, but she could tell that she could be extremely sensitive at times too.
And although Moegi was an accomplish trainer, she knew to not push it. And besides that, Sakura had almost become an older sister to her as well. But she frowned at that thought.
Even sisters hold secrets from each other too.
"Tenten!"
The bun-haired girl turned around at the sound of her name and was surprised to find a familiar face. "Sasuke?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "What are you doing here?"
He just shrugged and smirked at her. "Just saw you walking." He stared at the shopping bags. "What are you doing?"
She took out a frozen package of pork buns. "Shopping for Uncle," she responded. "I don't know if he's ever tried Chinese style pork buns though…" she muttered. "I don't want to go back and have to return it…"
Sasuke smiled inwardly at her antics. "He likes trying new things," he stated. "Maybe he'll like it." He took the package from her hands and looked at it. "Chinese… style?" he murmured. He began walking.
Tenten nodded as she caught up to him. "They're good," she told him. She paused and then shrugged a bit. "I mean, I like it. These kinds aren't as authentic as the ones from Hong Kong, but they're still pretty good…"
He raised an eyebrow. "So you've been all over the world, huh?" His tone seemed casual, but Tenten could detect a suspicious act in it. She gulped and tried to go with the flow.
"Oh yeah," she said. "I'm a tour guide…" She looked at him skeptically. "… as you might've known." She switched the shopping bags in her right hand to her left.
"So you can speak Chinese too?" he asked.
She nodded her head. "Yeah. After all I was born there." She thought and quickly added, "And I never left there."
Sasuke put the frozen bag back into the plastic shopping bag and stared at her. "But you know how to speak Japanese too," he pointed out. "Did you take classes back in… What was it? Hong Kong?"
"Err… Yeah!" she quickly agreed, uncomfortable where this conversation was going. It was clear that he was trying to get her to say something out of line. She narrowed her eyes and stopped. "Why are you asking me all these questions?" she demanded. "It's getting quite annoying, you know."
He raised an eyebrow. "I just wanted to get to know you better." He looked at the sky and noticed how the sun was going down soon. "It's dark." He turned to her. "Do you want to walk around a bit and get some dinner?"
She looked at him in surprise. "Know me…" She gestured to herself. "… better?"
The Uchiha smirked again. "Do you see anyone else around?"
Tenten found herself grinning. "Nah, but whatever." She looked at the time and had a feeling she wouldn't get to the household by dinner. "I'll eat with you…" she began. "… If you pay."
"What do you want?" Neji hissed. "You didn't even knock."
Shino sighed and folded his arms. Kiba was on him in a full sprint, however. "I so did knock! I-"
"Sorry," Chouji quickly cut off, giving Kiba a sideways glance. "Our apologies." Kiba whirled around and gaped at him as if he was a traitor.
"What are you doing, Chouji?!" he cried… err… shouted. "You're apologizing to the enemy!" He jabbed Neji's chest with one finger to further emphasize his point. The Hyuuga just growled and threw Kiba's arm back to him.
"You still haven't told me why you're here!"
"Well you see-" Chouji began.
"We haven't found your girlfriend for three weeks so far, dammit!" Kiba screeched. "We've come here to claim the money that she owes us!"
Neji sighed, his eye twitching. "I told you before: I have no relation whatsoever to Tenten-"
"But you know her name," Chouji pointed out. "So you've met her before… Correct? And that means…"
"… You're friends with her," Kiba ended nodding his head. "We're just here for around 900 thousand or so," he explained. "Now if you'd just pay us-"
"No," Neji quickly cut in. "I told you that she and I are not related. At… All." He raised an eyebrow as if calculating their intelligence span. "Understand?"
Kiba growled. "Stop being so stingy! You think we're going to believe you – Hyuuga Neji who is the president of the company over an innocent girl?" He scoffed. "You've got to be kidding-"
Neji sighed again. "She has a vulgar habit of lying…" he muttered to himself.
They pair both walked together through the streets, until Tenten stopped abruptly. She was looking at a television screen displayed on a store window. Identical TVs surrounded it displaying the same image. A crowd of people were gathered around.
On the screen was Haruno Sakura.
Tenten smiled sheepishly at the image and then sighed. "I don't know why, but it's strange seeing her everywhere on every single channel you turn on."
The boy next to her nodded and then smirked. "You want to know something?"
She looked at him awkwardly. "Eh?" He tugged her closer and bent down into her ear.
"I heard that she used to have a boyfriend," he told her. His voice was low so that only the two of them could hear. "But she dumped him awhile ago."
"Wow," Tenten said, lifting her head up again. "Really?" He nodded. She looked at the screen and sighed again. "I feel kinda bad for the boyfriend then," she admitted. "It must be tough seeing her all over the place."
Sasuke raised his eyebrows, but didn't comment on that. "Let's go," he told her. "Aren't you hungry?"
Taking a last look at the television, she followed Sasuke.
The two of them went to a nearby restaurant just around the corner. After a moment of gaping at its fanciness, she finally followed the Uchiha in.
They sat down at a table near the window. Tenten picked up a menu, shocked to find that it was all written in English. "Err…" Tenten began. She looked at Sasuke. "You do know that this whole thing is in English… right?"
Sasuke shrugged. "Yeah, I do. Do you want a-"
"You know how to read English?" Tenten asked in awe. She slumped down and looked to see if she could decipher the drinks. "I'm impressed," she admitted sheepishly. She paused. "To be honest, I just thought you were a play boy."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the comment, but shrugged. "So what do you want to eat?" he asked again. "They have 'spaghetti'…"
"What?" Tenten asked. "What is this 'sp-sphetti' you speak of?"
He just smirked at her pronunciation and answered, "They're noodles with some tomato sauce." He looked at her in a strange way. "You've never tried it before…?"
She snorted in response. "Well if I tried it, I probably would've remembered the name, right?"
He nodded in agreement. "Touché." He gave a small smile. "So 'spaghetti', then?"
Neji and the debt collectors had finally gotten their views straight: Hyuuga Neji was not related romantically to Tenten. Or family related or friend related. He was her boss. Nonetheless, Shino dragged Kiba out roughly (payback for what he had done to him beforehand) and Chouji apologizing prolifically before he stole the bag of chips on Neji's desk as he walked out.
And now Neji was back at home.
Wondering where the hell Tenten was.
He had taken out the garbage and was just standing there for what he had planned to be a minute… five at the most. But that minute (s) had slowly turned into twenty – five.
He frowned in the dark. Where was she? She should've been home by now. Kurenai had told him that she was off getting some pork buns for Uncle… apparently. He would've believed her, but she had told him that they were at an art museum.
And that, surprisingly, changed the whole thing.
Not only did he know Tenten well enough so far, but he was absolutely sure that she wasn't the type to just sit and stare at abstract pieces of paper for a whole two hours.
His eyes widened as he saw headlights from a blue convertible. Sasuke's car, he thinks. His eyes widen again as he sees Tenten and Sasuke chatting. Together. His frown deepens. Since when have they met before?
"Wow," Tenten laughed. "I wish that I could do nothing like you did and still earn money." She frowned. "It would make life much easier."
Sasuke shrugged again. "My mom forced me to get into the company." He pauses. "It still works fine even though I'm not there… I wonder how it would be if I left…?"
Tenten just smiled. "It would probably be slightly different, but life still goes on." She unbuckles her seatbelt as the car stops. She gets out of the car and then bows slightly to Sasuke.
"Thanks for the meal!" she says happily. "I hope we can do it again sometime-"
"Tenten!" She whirls around at the familiar voice and frowns. Neji, she thinks sarcastically. Great. "Where were you?" he hissed angrily. "Kurenai told me that you were out shopping. Do you-"
"I took her out for dinner, Neji." Sasuke's voice popped up as he stepped out of the car. He stood beside Tenten. The Hyuuga arched an eyebrow. "It's a long way from Chinatown to here," Sasuke reasoned. "She wouldn't have made it back in time for dinner."
Neji's frown was still intact, but he considered his thoughts again. He then took Tenten's arm roughly and bowed. "Thank you. Now if you will excuse us-"
Sasuke went over to Tenten, however, and gave her a genuine smile. "I hope we can do this again sometime too," he said to her.
Tenten grinned in response and was about to answer when the man next to her grunted. She frowned at this. "Alright, Neji, we'll go inside." She rolled her eyes exasperated and waved a farewell to Sasuke. "Until next time!"
"What was that?" Neji exclaimed. "What were you doing with him?"
"Jeez, Neji!" she said quickly. "Calm down, would you? I just bumped into him on my way home-"
"Right," he cut in skeptically. "You can't just go out and have dinner alone with him – or anyone else. I can't always be there to keep you in line and make sure you don't spill the lie-"
"I can do fine on my own!" Tenten snapped back. She fumed at the way he was treating her. "I admit that he asked me questions at the beginning…" Neji opened his mouth, but she quickly cut through. "… But that doesn't mean he's suspicious. He even said that he wanted to get to know me better-"
"Yeah," Neji snorted. "'Getting to know you better' as in 'Getting in your pants'-"
She was taken aback at what he had said about his own friend. Her eyes narrowed. "What is your problem?!" Tenten cried. "I just went out and ate…" She frowned trying to remember the word. "Err… 'spaghetti' with him." She stared at him. "What's the big deal?"
"The 'big deal' is that you could've spilt something – anything to him!" he explained angrily. "Sasuke isn't stupid. He-" Tenten rolled her eyes.
"Neji," she cut in brashly. "I don't mean to be rude, but I'm the one who's lying. You're not." She huffed as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I think I know what I'm doing, for starters – I can take care of myself."
He rolled his eyes this time. "Sure you can," he muttered sarcastically. He glared at her. "I'll have you know that your 'debt collector friends' came by my office." He smirked at her shocked expression. "Take care of yourself? I think you've let your lies get out of hand."
Tenten didn't say anything, her eyes darting from one side to the other, trying to sort out her thoughts. They came by his office…? What…? Does… Does he know? Neji stared at her, waiting for her to say something. But when she didn't, he went back up the stairs leaving Tenten behind.
He closed the door roughly and sat down in front of the computer. He was definitely concerned about what had conspired between Tenten and Sasuke. It was obvious that she might have dropped something. Neji knew Sasuke wasn't stupid, and that he would catch on sooner or later.
Not only that, but it had made him think of a conversation that the both of them had a while ago…
Sasuke smirked as he too also breathed heavily. He looked at Neji. "Yeah… I just… I just met someone."
He raised an eyebrow. "A girl, most likely."
"Yeah," Sasuke replied. He gave off a rare smile. "She can be a bit cocky, but she can… She can be fun to be around with."
Neji frowned at this sudden flashback, but chose not to pursue it. He couldn't help thinking though… Had Sasuke and Tenten met beforehand? Was she that "girl" Sasuke had mentioned before? His eyes narrowed. He couldn't help but feel unsettled by these thoughts.
Tenten, meanwhile, had finally made it up the stairs – still confused on the last part Neji had said. She chose to shrug it off temporarily. It was late and she was tired.
She took a quick shower and then jumped on her bed. She laid there for twenty minutes without feeling any drowsiness of any kind. At last she sighed and sat up, scratching her head. She went to small night table at the side of her bed and opened a drawer. She took her pocket book out.
Tenten flipped through her previous calculations. It was a habit of hers. When she couldn't fall asleep, she would always try to think of more ways to make money. Yes, it was a bad habit. No, she didn't think she would change it anytime soon.
But at last she skipped all of the calculations and ended on a blank page. Taking her pencil she wrote the word "GOALS" and underlined it three times. And she wrote thus:
- Pay back the debt.
- Live in the small house that Neji (-cough-)owns w/ family.
- Fall in love and get married.
At last Tenten smiled to herself and nodded her head in agreement to all three. She would definitely complete all of these by the time she reunited with her father again.
She fell asleep imagining her and the rest of her family living a rich life in that red and white bungalow by the sea.
A/N. Neh... Sasuke seems a little too OOC, I realize. Ah well… I shall try to fix it, but I'm not that big of a Sasuke fan, see.
Not sure if I will have Sasuke and Sakura end up together because… I don't really like it much and the other 2 people don't get together in the show.
But I still don't know. So just give off some views.
Thanks to those who read & reviewed. Or just read. That's ok too. Thank you for 120 reviews. :)
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