Please see first chapter for disclaimer, etc.
Prompt: Warning
Special Thanks: goes out to DarkAnonymous324, rao hyuga 18, naash, Hope, thatCHICKyouUSEDtoKNOW, and Nenne for the reviews!
Author's Note: I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to update, again! I picked up this weird summer cold, and then it took me some time to get the characters to cooperate with me long enough to wrangle this chapter into something I was happy with. It's a somewhat humorous and fluffy piece, despite the ominous sound of the prompt, so I hope you enjoy it! Thank you again so much for reading, reviewing, alerting, and favoriting my story!
*~Warning~*
"You know, of all the girls in Konoha, you're the least troublesome."
Tenten blinked up at the clouds, shocked by Shikamaru's uncharacteristically high praise. "Uh - thanks?"
Her preternaturally lazy companion sighed. "You don't fish for compliments, you don't wear too much makeup, you don't complain..." He shrugged. "You're really not that troublesome."
Even though Tenten had a genius on her team, she still didn't know how to understand them. Was Shikamaru leading up to something with all these compliments? "I - uh ... try not to be?"
"I like you, Tenten."
Had she been drinking something, Tenten probably would have choked. As it was, she sucked in a sharp breath and shot upwards from her position reclining on the grass, twisting her torso to stare down at Shikamaru. "What?"
He cracked open one eye to look at her. "What 'what'? I just said that I like you. Don't get troublesome, Tenten." The Nara's eye slipped closed again.
Uneasily, Tenten carefully laid back again. "What brought all this on, Shikamaru?"
"Promise you won't laugh?"
She hesitated for all of three seconds before nodding solemnly. Her curiosity was too much to bear for her not to promise. "Promise."
"My parents want me to find someone to marry. It wouldn't be so troublesome if it were just my dad, because he probably wouldn't insist on it for too long. But now my mom is nagging me, too, noon to night, and it's such a drag." Rolling his head in the pillow of his hands, Shikamaru stared at her with intense eyes. "So ... I've thought about it, and I've decided that you're the least troublesome woman in the village."
Tenten felt herself wilt slightly as furious heat blossomed across her cheeks. "Are - you ... proposing to me?"
"...Maybe?" Now he looked almost contrite.
Surely, surely, if Shikamaru had agreed to their usual game of shougi instead of insisting (come to think of it, his being so insistent about anything was extremely out of character) that they cloud watch instead, since she was "too easy to beat," this wouldn't have happened. Right? "Uh ... Shikamaru, I-"
Sighing, he withdrew a hand from beneath his head to hold it up between them. "You know, you don't have to answer now. It's troublesome to wait, but I'll do it for you, to give you time to decide what you want to do. I don't want to force you into a marriage you don't want."
"I-I appreciate that, Shikamaru." Her frenzied mind kicked into overdrive, going into freak-out mode after her few seconds of brain-dead shock finally left. It's not that I'm against marrying - or marrying Shikamaru, for that matter, because he's really a very nice guy - it's just... She cut her gaze to the left, critically examining him as she thought a future wife would her future husband.
He was certainly handsome, she couldn't deny that. Sharp dark eyes set nicely in an attractive face; dark hair pulled up into a spiky ponytail that gave him a kind of rakish look; a tilt to his lips that suggested a smile without him having to expend too much effort...
Tenten blinked.
...In that brief moment, she saw children with his hair and her eyes, expressive features a combination of the best of hers and his. They would be good at weapons and the Nara techniques, making them very, very good shinobi...
She blinked again.
...The children changed: hair lightening; eyes widening and paling to pearly, luminescent lavender; the shape of their faces rounding slightly, features not quite so prominent and sharp...
On her third blink, she felt the tension ease out of her shoulders. Easing back down onto the grass, Tenten gazed up at the sky, watching the clouds float lazily past. She enjoyed playing shougi and cloud-watching with Shikamaru, but she couldn't picture herself doing it for the rest of her life, not as his wife. As his friend, yes. If nothing else, he would always be that. In some ways, perhaps he was even the brother she had never had, but always wanted.
But despite that split-second daydream, that image frozen in time - a snapshot of a future that might have been - she knew. Shikamaru was not the husband for her. He would take care of her, offer her stability and warmth and, someday, maybe even love. Yet the balance would always be tipped, because he could offer her more than she could offer him. She had no doubt that she could grow to care for him as her husband, but deep down she knew she'd never love him. Not the way he deserved. Not the way a wife should love the one she promised she would devote herself to forever.
"Shikamaru..." Rolling onto her side, she reached out a tentative hand to rest on his elbow, not surprised when she felt nothing at the motion. "You are a really great guy. You are a good shinobi, an even better friend, and-"
She saw it in his eyes. He knew what her answer was going to be. But he didn't look away, keeping his gaze focused intensely on her eyes as she finished.
"-I will always appreciate you as a friend, as the brother I never had. I will always love you as such."
The Nara's lips tilted slightly in that familiar smile that said everything while truly revealing nothing. "I knew you'd say that," he said. "But I had to try."
Tenten blinked. "You did?"
Lazily, Shikamaru allowed his gaze to stray back to the sky. "Yeah. I knew your heart belonged to someone else when I asked you. But ... like I said, you're definitely the least troublesome woman in the whole village. Everyone speaks highly of you, even my mother."
She tried to remember a time when she had met the infamous Nara Yoshino, but came up empty.
"Everyone'd be happy if we married. But not you. And not..." His eyes strayed again, turning toward the staircase that trailed down the front of the Hokage mountain. "...Him."
Sitting up again, sharply, Tenten realized that another familiar chakra network was close by, but rapidly moving away now. She had become so attuned to him, so used to the feel of his chakra close to her, she didn't realize when he was near.
And now... And now...
Neji!
"Have you seen Tenten?"
Lee looked up without faltering the rhythm of his feverishly-paced pushups. "Not today, youthful rival! Do you not remember?"
Neji fought the twitch itching at his left eye. He wasn't in the mood for Lee's over-enthusiastic approach to life on the best of days, but today in particular it made him have to fight the urge to use the Gentle Fist on himself. "No," he grated.
"It is Thursday! Today is the day Tenten plays shougi with Shikamaru when neither of them are on missions." Lee threw his left arm behind his back, continuing to push himself up and down with only his right.
"Hn." When did that start, and why wasn't he aware of it?
Those wide, unblinking dark eyes of his teammate never left him. "You - did not know? Tenten mentioned last night that she would be late to training today, because of her prior appointment with Shikamaru."
"She has never been late on Thursdays before. Tenten is punctual." Her punctuality was one of the few things that had kept Neji sane during his time on the same team with the two Green Beasts of Konoha.
"Because they usually meet on Saturday mornings, but this past Saturday, we were on a mission. Shikamaru just got back from his own yesterday, so they rescheduled to today." Lee seamlessly switched hands, now pushing with his left, his right tucked against the small of his back. He kept staring at his teammate, an expectant look in his eyes.
Neji turned away. "Thank you." He knew the next words out of Lee's mouth would be an offer to spar, and he just wasn't in the mood. Not without his usual sparring partner nearby.
"Where are you going?"
He kept walking, determined strides carrying him toward the fence around training ground four. "To find Tenten."
It was a relief when Lee said no more, allowing him to leap easily over the fence and take off in a half-jog toward the village.
Though Neji had never had occasion to go there before, he knew where the Nara compound was located. Few people didn't, for it was the most impressive after the Hyuuga estate. The fence around the property, used to keep the deer they raised from escaping, was visible from a good distance away. As Neji approached, his pace unconsciously quickened.
"Lady Nara."
The dark-haired woman turned at Neji's hail, looking surprised to see him. "You're Hyuuga Neji, Tenten's teammate, yes?"
Neji performed a respectful bow. "Yes. Is she here? It is important I speak with her immediately."
"No, I'm afraid she's not. She and Shikamaru were supposed to play shougi this morning, but instead they left. I think they're cloud watching up on the Hokage mountain." A vague flick of her left hand indicated the towering monument.
He bit back a frustrated sigh. "Thank you, Lady Nara." He bowed again, then left before the other could say any more. This game of hide-and-seek with his teammate was beginning to get irritating.
Several people turned to follow his passage with surprised eyes, but he ignored them all. Out of the corner of his eye, Neji saw Hinata, who was walking with her teammates, raise a hand in a shy wave. He had just enough time to return the motion before he swept past the trio.
Gai-sensei had, during the team's genin days, taken spells where he had the four of them run up and down the steps leading to the top of Hokage Mountain anywhere from ten to a hundred times a day. Neji ignored the memories running up those same steps as a jounin called up inside him, but he was briefly grateful that he was familiar (more so than he wished to be) with the steps, since it helped him ascend them quickly.
Snatches of conversation reached his ears as he got halfway up: Tenten and Shikamaru.
He slowed down as he got closer, and for the first time he heard a clear sentence spoken. "Are - you ... proposing to me?"
Neji stopped so fast he almost tripped over the next step. What?
"Maybe?" Shikamaru sounded oddly choked.
That's why they left. Nara didn't bring Tenten up here to watch the clouds, he brought her up here to propose! Neji's chest felt oddly tight, choking off his ability to breathe. Since when was he interested in her? Since when was she interested in him? And, more importantly, why hadn't he noticed?
So this was why Tenten never wanted to train on Saturdays. She was meeting with Shikamaru, and Neji had been blind to it all.
Guilt shot through his veins, hot and painful. He'd always thought of Tenten as his without bothering to tell her how he felt; always thought sometime in the future they would be together as something more than teammates without confessing the depth of his feelings now ... and he was paying for his assumptions. She was gone without ever having been in his in the first place.
Neji heard Tenten speaking again, and he held his breath. What was she going to say?
"Shikamaru, you are a really great guy. You are a good shinobi, an even better friend, and-"
He couldn't stand it any more. The next thing she was going to say was that he would be a perfect husband, and he couldn't listen to that. Turning, he made his way down the staircase even faster than he'd come up, wanting nothing more than to get away, to go somewhere and beat something to a bloody pulp. Maybe then he could find a way to make the pain inside him go away, and never return.
Shikamaru slowly made his way back home, hands in his pockets, head ducked slightly. He had known before he even asked Tenten what her answer would be, like he'd told her. But somewhere deep inside him, he'd kind of hoped that she'd say yes anyway. It wasn't just because she wasn't troublesome, like he'd told her. He admired her almost unnatural skill with weapons, her simple beauty, and her strong spirit.
"Nara!"
Cringing, he turned around to face Hyuuga Neji. It wasn't that he wasn't expecting this, particularly after he'd felt the other man's presence during his (failed) proposal to Tenten. Perhaps he had unintentionally wanted to goad the other man into realizing his feelings for the weapons mistress, because he knew Tenten liked him (even though he had no idea why). If nothing else, he wanted Tenten to be happy, even if it wasn't with him. "Hyuuga?" It was hard to maintain his blithe stare in the face of the other man's obvious anger.
Neji stopped less than a step away, shoulders rigid, fists clenched at his sides, jaw set. "You had better take care of her and treat her with the respect she deserves, Nara," he grated. His eyes were two chips of ice in his pale face, and the shadow-user felt its chill along his spine.
Shikamaru blinked. He doesn't realize Tenten said no? He didn't stick around long enough to hear her reject me? "I-"
"Take care of her," Neji repeated. "Or I will make sure you regret it."
Really, Shikamaru had never been one for sticking his neck out when it wasn't absolutely necessary, or for taking chances that could end with him injured. This left him wondering why he was even doing this in the first place. "Hyuuga ... Tenten's not mine. She never was mine. She said no."
"What?" Neji's eyes widened, his features going slack with surprise. "She - said no?"
"She's already in love with someone else. I knew that when I asked, but I was hoping she'd realize it." Shikamaru stared hard at Neji. Come on, you're supposed to be a genius, too. Figure it out.
"Oh." The sound was very soft, and if Shikamaru hadn't been listening for a response, he probably wouldn't have heard it. "I see."
Whew. Pretty sure he wasn't going to get Gentle Fisted into the next decade now, Shikamaru relaxed his posture again, tucking his hands safely into his pockets. "Besides," he said as he turned to leave, "my father's already given in to my mother's urgings and arranged a marriage for me." Troublesome. He'd wanted to marry a simple girl, not too plain and not too pretty; have two kids, a girl and then a boy; then retire when his son became a splendid shinobi and his daughter got married. Then he'd spend the rest of his life playing shougi and go, and die before his wife, because it'd be too troublesome to do so before the woman he spent so many years with. But, like everything else, his imaginings for his life was nothing like what he'd wanted.
Shikamaru had heard the saying that friends make the best lovers. That could have been true with Tenten, but he'd known all along that he couldn't compare to someone the kunoichi had spent almost every waking hour of every day with. He couldn't compare to a prodigy, but that was all right, he supposed. He didn't want to be a prodigy, and he certainly didn't want to be anything extraordinary.
He supposed he could just count it as a win that his betrothed was a friend, too. Even if she was a troublesome one. And a pretty one. And ... she was definitely going to make his life interesting. And difficult. What a drag.
A quick glance over his shoulder showed empty air behind him. All Shikamaru could do now was hope that Neji had taken the not-so-subtle hint. And Hyuuga, if you break her heart again, so help me, I'll make sure you're the one who pays.
Taking a sharp left, Shikamaru strolled through an open doorway and let the scents of flowers fill his senses. If nothing else, his father had said that troublesome girls were worth it in the end, if only for their smile. As he caught sight of the sparkling grin on his betrothed's face when she saw him enter the shop, he thought that just maybe Shikaku had been right.
...And then she scolded him for being late and making her wait right before she wound her arms around his neck to give him a tight, forgiving hug.
You troublesome, beautiful woman. He couldn't help the twitch of his lips that might have been a smile as he slid his arm around his blonde flower's slender waist. Maybe Dad was right.
Tenten leaned her forehead tiredly against her front door, battling back the tears of exhaustion gathering at the corners of her eyes. She felt guilty for turning down Shikamaru's proposal, but she knew deep inside herself that it was the right thing to do.
Especially right after he'd dropped the bombshell, saying that he'd known she was going to say no. And it was probably just as well, since he was already engaged. The wedding date was set for just over three months away, and both he and his future wife were planning to ask her to be in the ceremony.
"You love Neji," he'd told her bluntly. "And you're both blind for not seeing it in each other, because he loves you, too. I just figured you both needed something of a shove in the right direction. Now go find him already."
She'd spent the rest of the afternoon scouring the village for Neji with no luck. She'd even gone to the Hyuuga compound, only to be told that the young prodigy hadn't been seen since early that morning.
A sigh eased past her lips. What was she even doing? Despite what Shikamaru said, she doubted that Neji held the same feelings for her that she did for him. He had never offered any indication that he did. They trained together, went on missions together, went out with their team together, and ... that was it.
I love Neji, but I don't think he loves me.
Iron fingers latched around her upper arm, spinning her around to bounce off something equally hard with a gasp of surprise. Instinct and years of training had her fist drawing back to impact the face of the person who'd grabbed her. Before her clenched hand finished its backwards motion, preparing to snap forward in a punch, another hand locked around her wrist, holding her as securely as a manacle.
"Wha-?" Tenten's exclamation ended with a garbled string of noises as lips lowered firmly onto hers. Multi-colored sparks exploded behind her eyelids, sending heat flushing through her body from the crown of her head to the tips of her toes.
As quickly as it started, the kiss ended. Cool skin pressed against her cheek as a familiar voice whispered huskily into her ear, "I'm sorry."
She blinked. "Neji?" Her teammate wasn't impulsive, he didn't show emotions, he didn't touch her except for the few times they fought taijutsu style, and he most definitely didn't apologize.
He drew back, looking at her with anxious eyes. His expression was oddly vulnerable, showing her a side of him she never dreamed existed. "I'm sorry I never said how I really feel about you," he breathed. "Please forgive me."
They'd never done anything most would consider "couple-y." They'd never been on a date, he'd never given her flowers or written her love notes, she'd never cuddled with him or impulsively reached out and taken his hand. Before now, they'd never even kissed. But, somehow, their time as teammates - training together, fighting together, saving each other's lives countless times - had helped them forge a bond greater than any of those other things would have given them.
Had they been in a "normal" relationship, they probably never would have made it. But Tenten realized that what they'd shared as teammates and friends had somehow, impossible as it seemed, helped them form a strong, unbreakable love ... all without either of them realizing it. Not until they'd been shoved in the right direction, anyway.
Tenten gently tugged against Neji's restraining hand, and he let her wrist go. He watched her warily as she lifted her hand to his face, brushing the calloused pads of her fingers along his cheek. "And how do you feel about me?" she asked quietly.
Neji leaned forward, the metal plates on their headbands clinking softly together as he rested his forehead against hers. "I love you." There was no uncertainty in his voice, only a powerful awe that made her insides feel kind of fluttery.
Shifting her hand, she slid it behind his neck to twine her fingers in his dark hair so she could pull him in for another kiss. "I love you, too."
Neither of them noticed the group of people peering around the corner, satisfied grins on their faces as they unashamedly watched the new couple. "It's about time."
*~The End~*
Author's Ending Notes: Gah! This piece gave me so much trouble, it's ridiculous. I thought I was doing okay after I realized I could make this prompt word into something somewhat humorous and fluffy, but even after that it took me what feels like half of forever to wrangle this story into something I'm satisfied with. I'm sorry I made you all wait so long, but I hope the time was worth it! Thanks for reading!