Disclaimer: Naruto and all Naruto related stuff is (c) Masashi Kishimoto. All OCs and original storyline/plot/imagination (c) of ME!!
WARNING: And yet, another cliff-hanger! Sorry the chapters have been slow and short (but as always, above the one thousand word mark… not that I would ever update any less than that), but with my two sprained wrists, it's a miracle I'm typing at all. XP
THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS!!
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A REUNION WITH FRIENDS
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"Jeeze." The loud blond scoffed at the entrance of the restaurant. "What took you two so long?" Naruto demanded; though Tenten could tell from his tone that he held no actual reproach. Knowing Naruto, she figured he was probably just hungry, and annoyed to have to be kept waiting.
"You're the guests of honor." He stated, as the three of them walked up to the table where the rest of their party was waiting. "You should be the first to arrive, not the last!" The knucklehead ninja added; before taking a seat at the table, across from Shikamaru and Temari.
"That's not right, is it?" Chouji, who was seated on the same side as Naruto and Sakura, turned to his wife; asking for her opinion on the matter.
"Mhm." Ino nodded. "The guests of honor don't have to be first, they just have to show up." She stated, matter-of-factly.
"Besides." Shikamaru lazily yawned from beside Neji and Tenten. "They're not the last one's to arrive." He pointed out.
Tenten quickly scanned the large table and realized the lazy genius was right. Of all their friends, so far only Shikamaru, Temari, Naruto, Sakura, and Shino had arrived. It was a little surprising to see that Hinata and Kiba had not arrived; Hinata was usually never late. But what truly stunned Tenten, was that Lee had yet to arrive. Since their arrival, he had been insisting that the Konoha eleven, plus Temari, reunite; independently from the others who had gone to the "welcome back" party Tsunade had thrown for them upon their arrival, in order to better catch up.
Though they chatted about some of the more basic topics on the day Neji and Tenten returned, the group of friends had not really been able to talk in too much detail. The main thing Neji and she had learned was that none of their friends had been punished for helping them escape. Naruto's clone, which had transformed into Tenten and replaced her in her cell while the bun-haired kunoichi escaped with her father, had disappeared before anyone even knew of Naruto's involvement. Though Shikamaru, who had aided Neji in escaping from the Hyuga compound, had been reassigned to a teaching position, he had hardly seemed unpleased with the outcome. In fact, the lazy genius almost seemed to enjoy the more leisurely life of an educator, to that of a field operative; though he did take the mission here and there. Tenten was glad; she had known how much it had plagued Neji to think that Shikamaru would be reprimanded for helping him that day.
"…" Tenten turned to her husband, pleased to see him so openly enjoying himself, as he and the rest of their group continued to exchange pleasantries.
"Oi." A boisterous voice from behind them interrupted Tenten's musings. "We're here." Kiba loudly exclaimed as he and Hinata quickly approached the table.
"Sorry we're late." Hinata quietly apologized from besides her husband.
"Yeah." Kiba sheepishly nodded. "We had some business to take care of and sort of lost track of time." The scruffy-haired shinobi explained.
"Business?" Ino disbelievingly repeated. "Oh right." She teasingly smirked. "The business of newlywed's I'm sure." A crimson heat rapidly arose on the face the blue-haired kunoichi.
Despite having recently been named clan leader, Hinata continued retaining her shy personality; still blushing at the smallest of things.
"Now look what you did." Kiba wrapped his arm protectively around the timid girl; shielding the girl's embarrassment. Tenten happily observed as the untamed Inuzuka adoringly watched his wife's reactions; smirking at the cuteness of it.
"Haha." Sakura laughed mockingly at the blond. "Well you would no better than anyone right Ino?" She teasingly eyed her very pregnant best friend.
"Yup." The group immediately broke into a fit of laughter, as Ino proudly smirked at her friend's comment; momentarily standing to reveal her immensely swelled belly. "Huh… maybe you should have stayed longer." Ino directed herself to the new arrivals. "You two have a lot of catching up to do, after all, you're the only ones left without kids."
As the conversations continued, Tenten could help but remember the last time the ten of them have been gathered together in a similar atmosphere. It was the day before their escape from Konoha
.:..:..:..:..:.:..:..:..FLASHBACK..:..:..:..:..:..:..:..:..:.
"Awww." Sakura exclaimed. "You two are so cute." The pink-haired kunoichi repeated for what seemed like the hundredth time since their group had met up for breakfast.
After some overzealous rumors had spread about Neji and Tenten, the couple had decided to gather their friends and announce, over breakfast, that the two of them were now engaged.
"I still can't believe it." Ino shook her head in surprise. "How did none of us see this?"
"Tsk." Shikamaru scoffed. "Speak for yourself." He mumbled quietly.
"What? You knew?" Ino accusingly glared at the lazy shinobi. "And you didn't tell us!?"
"It really wasn't his business to tell Ino." Chouji pointed out.
"Yeah but…" Ino reluctantly gave in to her teammates' logic.
Meanwhile, as the rest of them had been talking about who had known and who hadn't known, Neji turned his sleepy gaze toward the amazing woman sitting next to him. In the past few weeks, he had hardly been able to sleep. First because he had been so nervous about asking Ryoku for his daughter's hand; then being anxious and terrified of asking Tenten to marry him. It had been a huge relief when she had said yes, but even after that, Neji's anxiety had only grown with the anticipation of how the elders would react.
Now that everything, including the odd rumor that had surfaced, was finally beginning to settle peacefully, Neji at last felt calm enough to relax. Sleepily, the blissfully content shinobi tranquilly moved his head onto his fiancés' shoulder.
"…" Neji smiled as he closed his eyes; delightfully breathing in deeply the scent of the woman he loved.
"Awww." Ino and Sakura cooed in unison; forgetting about the conversation they'd just been so intensely involved in with the others. "So cute!!"
.:..:..:..:..:..:..:..END FLASHBACK.:..:..:..:..:..:..:..
As Tenten continued watching her friends chatting away, she found it hard to believe that five years had passed since that day. So much had changed during their absence from the village. Not only had all of their friends moved up in the shinobi world, and gotten married, most of them even had kids. Though their friends had all met Ryuuken and Hitori, Tenten and Neji had yet to meet the other's kids, but they had already heard so much about them. Ino, who was currently pregnant enough to burst at any second, was having her second child. She and Chouji already had a daughter, who was two years old; her name was Chika. From what Tenten had been told, the girl was a lot like her father; quiet and observant, as opposed to Ino's more direct and forceful personality. Their next child was going to be a boy.
Temari, who had moved to Konoha shortly after Tenten and Neji's disappearance, having already been engaged to Shikamaru at the time, had married the lazy shinobi and given birth to two children; a boy and girl. The girl, Matsumi, was a three year old spit-fire; and the two year old boy, Shinemuri, was apparently the splitting image of his father. Also, according to Temari, though Shikamaru still found all women, even miniature ones, to be troublesome, Matsumi had her lazy father wrapped around her little finger.
In that time, Naruto and Sakura had also gotten married, and had two boys of their own. The oldest, Minato, named after Naruto's father, was three; and the youngest, named Jiraiya, in memory of the late sannin, was two years old. Not to be left behind, after marrying a kunoichi from a foreign land, Shino had also had his own child; a two year old daughter by the name of Kei.
"Hey." Tenten called out; breaking free of her silent thoughts. "What about Lee?" She questioned.
It had dawned on her that Ino had said only Kiba and Hinata were left to have kids; so did that mean Lee also already had children?
As she thought about it, Lee really hadn't mentioned anything about his life in the past few years. He had been so concentrated on finding out how she and Neji had been, and on trying to get the twins to call him uncle, that he had neglected to inform them of how his life had turned out in all those years.
"What about Lee?" Naruto asked.
"Well does he - " Tenten began.
"My friends!" A very familiar loud voice interrupted the kunoichi, as the man in question walk up to their table. "I apologize for our delay." Lee cheerfully smiled at the group.
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TBC
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A/N: Hate me if you must for the cliff-hangers, but writing when there's a big group, is a lot more challenging because it's not like everything stops like the person whose POV I'm in (in this case Tenten) is thinking… so it's hard to juggle keeping the POV, while allowing the other characters to continue doing their thing… so anyway… yeah cliff-hanger, but hey at least I gave you all a little NejiTen Fluff in the flashback… and some KibaHina Fluff as well… oh and as for the kids… I'm going to post some fanart in the next few days, so be sure to check back on that…