Please see first chapter for disclaimer, etc.
Prompt: Birthday
Special Thanks: goes out to Ariasujm-chan, DarkAnonymous324, SnowCharms, and rao hyuga 18 for your reviews!
Author's Note: Though this was meant to be the final piece, since I originally planned to wrap up the story on July 3rd with the Birthday prompt, I wound up having to move this one up since I didn't hit my original mark. But there are still five prompts left, which makes me glad - I don't think I'm quite ready to let go of this story yet! Once again, thanks for reading, reviewing, alerting, and favoriting this story, and I hope you enjoy this prompt!
*~Birthday~*
It's raining. Again.
Neji glared up at the sky, wishing he was anywhere but the middle of Rain Country, where cold droplets of water poured from the sky even in July. "This is ridiculous," he muttered.
His companion watched him out of the corner of her eye, not even trying to hide the smirk playing on her lips. "I thought you liked the rain."
He scowled as a particularly fat rain droplet splattered on his nose. "When I am indoors. Even better, when I am indoors and it is warm inside and out."
Tenten didn't seem the least bit affected as she continued her brisk jog along the muddy road. They'd had to descend from the treetops some time earlier because of the slippery branches and the flickering lightning, which was growing closer by the minute. "Well, our mission should only take a few days. Within the week, we'll be back in warm, dry Fire Country."
"It's July," he muttered as if he hadn't heard her. "It's not supposed to be cold or rainy in July."
"You're just mad that you're having to go on a mission on your birthday," Tenten teased.
Neji stopped cold in the middle of the road. Tenten ran several more steps before she realized he wasn't next to her, then turned around and came back. "Neji? I didn't mean to hurt your feelings-"
"What's today's date?" he interrupted brusquely.
Tenten blinked. "July 3rd?"
Hinata had teased him several times that he was so focused on his training and missions that he would forget his own birthday. Neji had scoffed at her, but apparently there had been more truth to her words than he had dared accept. "It's my birthday."
"Yes..." Tenten looked at him strangely, as if wondering if he'd left his brilliant mind back on Konoha.
"Today is my birthday," he repeated, surprised.
This time Tenten rolled her eyes at him. "Come on, don't tell me you forgot your own birthday. Who does that?"
"Hn." Another lightning bolt brightened their gloomy surroundings briefly, thunder resounding less than three seconds later. "We'd better get moving again. Like you said, the sooner we complete our mission, the sooner we can go home." Without waiting for her response, he took off running again. Hopefully she'd take the hint that he didn't want to talk about his birthday.
She easily kept pace with him. "I think we should try to find some shelter, at least until that storm passes. I don't mind running in the rain, but it's not safe to be out with the lightning that close."
Grateful she had dropped the subject of his birthday, Neji nodded. "We can't be too far from the nearest town. We'll find somewhere there to take cover, warm up, and dry off."
Sure enough, a few minutes later they entered the outskirts of a small civilian village. The streets were abandoned because of the storm, but fortunately it didn't take them too long to find a little eatery to duck into for the duration of the storm.
Due to the incliment weather, most of the tables were occupied. The hostess led Neji and Tenten to one in the back corner of the restaraunt, where a waitress appeared before the two had even had a chance to sit down. Less than a minute later, she set down their cups of tea, took their food order, and left with a departing smile.
Neji cradled his cup thankfully, allowing the heat to thaw his frozen fingers and the steam to melt what felt like ice chips forming on his face. "Heat," he sighed in relief.
Tenten chuckled at him as another crack of thunder rattled the windows and shook the tables. "The key is to think warm thoughts and not let the cold bother you," she said.
"So you like the cold?" Neji arched a disbelieving eyebrow.
"I didn't say that. I just said that the key is not to think about how miserable it is." Calmly, Tenten sipped her tea as her eyes sparkled warmly at him over the rip of her cup.
Continuing thunderclaps combined with the loud hum of conversation in the full restaraunt kept Neji and Tenten from talking much while they ate. Neji was content to enjoy his herring soba in silence, all the while commiserating the fact that Lee and Gai-sensei were assigned the mission in Wind Country, where it was hot and dry, while he and Tenten were stuck in the cold and rain. It seemed extraordinarily unfair.
"Don't let her take my plate," Tenten said a few minutes later as she stood from their table. "I'll be right back." Neji nodded in acknowledgement without looking away from the windows lining the front of the crowded room, wondering if it was his imagination or if the rain really had started coming down harder since he and Tenten had come in.
If it kept that up, they'd be staying for dessert, if not the evening meal as well. How did people live with weather this awful year-round? It was unnatural, not to mention inconceivable.
The waitress reappeared to ask if they wanted any dessert. Despite his earlier thoughts, Neji shook his head and relayed the message that Tenten wasn't done. With a nod and smile, the slender girl gathered up Neji's plate and took his cup to refill it just as Tenten came back.
"You going to be ready to go when I finish?" she asked, picking up her chopsticks again.
"It's still storm-" He stopped, realizing that, even though it was still raining, he hadn't heard any thunder in a while. "I suppose."
When Neji's tea was brought back, he opened his mouth to ask for the check, but the waitress sashayed off before he could. Miffed, he stared after her as he took a swallow of his tea, promptly burning his mouth.
Tenten laughed at him as he scowled and cursed softly, holding his napkin to his mouth to hide his soft puffs of air to try to ease the pain. "Here, have a drink of mine," she said, taking pity on him and pushing her cup towards him. "It's cooler."
Muttering his gratitude, he took her suggestion. It seemed like someone was having a grand laugh at his expense, since it was his birthday and it was less than pleasant so far. Hopefully, though, that meant it could only improve, though he had an awful feeling that he just wasn't that lucky.
Right after he handed Tenten's cup back to her, the waitress reappeared, set a plate down in front of him, grinned, bowed, and escaped before he could say anything to her.
It took only one glance to see the candle perched innocently in the middle of the piece of cake. Raising his gaze, he glared across the table at Tenten, who grinned unashamedly at him.
"Happy birthday!" Thankfully, she was considerate enough to keep her voice down low enough so only he could hear her. "Go on, blow it out and make a wish."
And Neji had trusted that she had only slipped off to go to the ladies' necessary. It seemed his teammate was more clever than he'd given her credit for. "This was completely unnecessary, Tenten." But the warmth in his chest betrayed him: how long had it been since someone had done something like this for him? (Hinata did not count, since she was his cousin, thus a relative, and remembered everyone's birthdays, thus did the same thing for everyone.)
Her cheeks turned pink. "I wanted to. Now, blow it out and make a wish, or I will."
Laughing reluctantly, Neji leaned forward and blew out the candle, though he didn't make a wish. He hadn't done that since ... well, since he was four. He saw no reason to start doing it again now. "Thank you, Tenten." Sliding the plate so it sat between them, he shared the cake with her as the rain pattering on the roof almost started to sound like a certain familiar song.
Tenten caught the look on his face as their waitress walked past on her way to anther table. "Check's already taken care of," she said casually.
Neji narrowed his eyes. "Tenten..." His upringing and sense of pride balked at the idea of her paying for their meals.
"It's your birthday," she said defensively. Standing, she clipped her large scroll back onto her belt. "Now come on, it's time to get moving again." Tenten spun and walked away before he could argue with her.
If possible, the outside air seemed even cooler in the aftermath of the storm. (Come to think of it, he hadn't even thought it was possible for it to storm when it was that cold outside.) Neji began shivering again the moment they left the restaraunt, making him wish he'd dressed a little more warmly for the trip. But it was July, and he knew it, so he'd expected it to be warm. Big mistake.
He only hoped that he and Tenten would be able to find a dry place to spend the night.
For not the first time in his life, Neji found himself thankful for his family's bloodlimit. It had been the only thing that helped him see through the curtains of heavy rain to find the cave nestled halfway up a cliff - the only promise he and Tenten had seen for shelter for several hours.
The only downside was that no amount of searching with his Byakugan would provide dry wood for a fire to help warm them or cook any food.
Tenten silently pulled three candles out of a waterproof container in her pack, lighting them without a word to provide a golden glow they could see by. Neji tucked himself into the corner farthest away from the entrance to the cave and wrapped himself in the blanket he carried in his pack, wishing it were thicker as he shivered so hard his teeth rattled. Oh, yes, he hated the cold. If only there were some way to fit some firewood in his pack...
Silently, Tenten plopped down between the candles and the cave entrance so stray winds wouldn't blow in and extinguish their light source. They couldn't brew tea or cook food, so they had to settle for tepid water and field rations they'd brought with them from Konoha. It made Neji even more thankful for the good meal they'd had earlier in the day.
"We should get to the village tomorrow," Tenten said at last. "Plan still the same?"
Neji nodded, swallowing his last bite with a grimace. "Yes. We'll sneak in at nightfall during the change of shift for the guards, and you'll keep watch while I slip into the office and secure the scroll. Then we'll make our way back out in the three-minute window the exit is unguarded while the guards patrol the fence."
Tenten nodded. "Backup plan?"
"We fight our way out if we have to. But I doubt it will come to that." One of the reasons why he and Tenten were sent on missions together so often was because they had one of the highest mission-success rates in the village. They worked together so well, so seamlessly, that they rarely met trouble. The few times they did, their years of training together had helped them to fight almost as a single person, thus making it easy for them to dispatch their enemy with little to no fuss.
Hiding a yawn with her hand, Tenten nodded. "Sounds good. Well ... not the fighting part. Just the getting this over with part." Packing away the remnants of her meal, she pulled out her own blanket and wrapped it around her shoulders as she came around to sit next to him.
He eyed her. "What are you doing?"
"Giving you your birthday present. Here."
Now Neji eyed the small box sitting the palm of her hand. "I don't want presents for my birthday."
Tenten had known him for long enough not to get offended by his attitude. Rolling her eyes, she leaned over and dropped it into his lap. "Well, you're getting one from me, anyway. Look at it this way: it's better than what you could have gotten. Gai-sensei and Lee invited me to go in with them and get you a jumpsuit like theirs."
He shuddered, mentally thanking Tenten for her warning about what the Green Beasts had gotten him. (Though he really shouldn't be surprised, since that was the same thing they had tried to get him to give Tenten on her birthday in March.) "All right," he conceded reluctantly. Pulling his hands out of the warmth of his blanket, he picked up the box, untied the ribbon, and lifted the lid.
Though the light the candles cast was dim, it was just enough to glint off the pendant dangling on a sturdy black cord nestled inside the box. "Tenten, what...?"
For the second time that day, her cheeks turned pink. "Do you like it?" she whispered.
Lifting the necklace from the box, Neji allowed it to dangle from his fingers as he admired the charm: a bird captured midflight, wings outstretched in joy, beak open slightly to utter a triumphant cry. "Tenten, it's ... perfect." He'd never worn a piece of jewelry in his life, but for this necklace, he'd make an exception. He didn't hesitate to untie the cord, lift it to his neck, and retie it, allowing the charm to rest against his skin under his shirt.
Tenten smiled in satisfaction. "Perfect." Reaching under the collar of her top, she produced a necklace of her own: the mirror image of his. "I had them custom made," she continued. "They were crafted from the same metal as Asuma-sensei's chakra blades. If ... if we ever get separated, and you need my help, all you have to do is funnel a little bit of your chakra into the necklace. My own will react, and I'll know you need help. They'll work at any distance."
Neji unconsciously touched his own pendant. "How...?"
She smiled. "My secret."
"Does it work in reverse?"
"Yes." Tenten allowed her necklace to fall back beneath her collar again.
For a birthday he hadn't even remembered, and had started out terribly rotten, Neji mused that it was ending rather nicely. "Thank you, Tenten."
"You're welcome, Neji. Happy birthday."
"It has been, thanks to you." He hesitated a moment, then motioned for her to come closer as he opened the edge of his blanket. "Come here."
Tenten stared at him warily for a moment, then leaned forward and blew out the candles. Neji only had to wait a few seconds in the darkness for her to shuffle closer, then her shoulder pressed against his chest as her head landed on his shoulder. "Hmm, thanks."
They squirmed around until they had both their blankets wrapped around themselves, and Neji activated his Byakugan to search the area. As he'd suspected, there was no one around for as far as he could see.
In the morning, they'd have to go complete their mission, go back to being shinobi. But for the final few hours of his birthday, he decided he didn't mind bending the rules he and Tenten had set for themselves so they could enjoy their time together before they had to do their job.
Leaning down, he pressed a kiss to the top of Tenten's head. When she lifted her head in surprise, he captured her lips.
"What was that for?" she asked sleepily.
"Because," he said firmly. "Now go to sleep. I'll take first watch."
As Tenten's breathing eased into the even rhythm of sleep, Neji decided that he couldn't wait until her next birthday, as he'd originally planned. As soon as they got back to the village, he was going to ask her to marry him.
Even though it was a few days late, her saying yes to his proposal was by far the best present of all.
*~The End~*
Author's Ending Notes: In case anyone's wondering, the "rules" he and Tenten set for each other was no displays of affection during missions, since they've been dating for a while and are often sent on missions together - they want to try to keep things professional. I've been agonizing over what to do for Neji's birthday for a while, and then this idea occurred to me yesterday, and I liked it. The idea for the necklaces might also be a little ... implausible, maybe, but I liked the idea, so I ran with it. Thank you all again for reading this, and I hope you enjoyed it!