A/N: -sigh- Inevitably, my updates are slowing down because of school and other after school events. Sorry. But I'll try to update as quickly as possible! (Once again, excuses excuses. I know what you're thinking, I'm thinking it too –sigh again-)
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Day 17
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"Hey, Neji-kun!" Tenten shouted.
She threw another rock at his window, and this time, was rewarded when his white eyes stared through the window at her disapprovingly. He nevertheless got up, and pushed open the back door to his room for her, and she stalked in like she owned the place. He didn't bother to try and stop her.
"Might I inquire what exactly you are doing here?" he asked, brown hair falling into his face and his white eyes just a slight bit amused. The way he sat was definite: like he knew the influence he had on other people and used it. He was surrounded by an air of strange elegance. Tenten shook her head. She probably wasn't getting enough sleep and too much caffeine again, if she was analyzing how her mental patient sat.
"Oh, I just wanted to say thanks for picking up Hinata for me." She stared at him carefully. "You weren't too hard on her, were you?"
"I don't believe it is of your concern," he said coldly.
"It is! Hinata's my friend, and I've got to look out for her," Tenten protested. She really did like the quiet girl, much more than she did Ino or Sakura. She already felt like an older sister towards her, (though she did not actually know if Hinata was older or younger than her…hm. She had always seemed like she was much smaller than the others, as her personality seemed to shrink by the day).
"Well, I am her cousin, and I believe I have more authority over her than you; you would agree?" Neji said calmly.
"Over-possessive tyrant."
"I am merely looking out for her best interests."
"You've got a pretty twisted up idea of what that is."
"Hn."
"See? You don't have a decent answer to that one! Hinata's our age, not some little innocent kid. Not like Hanabi or something."
"Hanabi is ten years old and able to look out for herself."
"She's ten? No joke? She's so small!"
Neji raised his eyebrows. "Now you are going against your own point."
Tenten sighed and waved it aside impatiently. "Well, I was never good with arguments anyways." She sighed, and smiled at Neji. "You want to just pretend that never happened and start over, Neji-kun?" He didn't answer, so she took it as a yes.
"Ohayo. O genki desuka?" she tried. Neji raised his eyebrows.
"Genki desu," he said flatly.
Tenten snorted. "Right. Well, how'd the Uchiha treat you?"
"Are you implying that he might have attempted to hurt me?" Neji asked incredulously. "I assure you, not one man or woman has yet bested me in combat."
"No, not that. I mean, with two egos as big as you twos' in the same room, was there even room to breathe?" she laughed in a sarcastic manner, though the glint in her eye showed that she was only teasing.
Neji's face remained stony. He didn't seem to find it very funny.
Tenten rolled her eyes. "Neji-kun, you honestly have no sense of humor," she complained. Neji shrugged indifferently.
"It is not something that I can fix. I was born this way."
"Yeah, I bet you didn't even cry as a baby."
"Perhaps not," Neji muttered vaguely, not really looking at her even though he was staring straight at her in the unnerving way that he did. Neji often seemed as if he were not really there, even though he was sitting right there across from her. It was hard to believe that he was real, sometimes.
"Anyways. We got off track, but basically, thanks again for picking up Hinata. I really, really didn't want to get involved with the Uchiha again." Tenten tried a grateful smile, but was pretty sure that it turned out as a cross between a grimace and a cheesy camera grin.
"Hn. It was my duty," Neji said stiffly.
Tenten was about to just get up and go, but then she spied a deck of cards on the little desk beside Neji's chair. "Do you play?" she asked, motioning towards them.
"No."
"Really? I could teach you," she suggested.
"No," he said again, very flatly. "No, thank you."
"Do you have interest in anything besides martial arts, being overprotective of Hinata, angsting in your room, and inventing new ways to torture my sanity?" Tenten ticked off her list on her fingers. A hint of a smile touched Neji's lips.
"Perhaps…you would enjoy going out to eat curry sometime?" he suggested flatly.
"Really, Neji, you are sometimes so pathetic…wait, did you just ask me out?" she sputtered.
"No, I invited you to try curry," Neji said calmly. "'Asking you out' would imply that I felt a sort of romantic interest towards you, and that is simply not the case."
Any other girl probably would have taken this as offensive, but Tenten took it in stride. She knew who she was and what she looked like, and also that she was a guy's perfect a-girl-who-is-a-friend material…but not necessarily girlfriend.
"Well, that's nice of you," she smiled brightly. "When should I meet you?"
"Come here tomorrow morning, eleven O' clock," Neji said like it was a grave military order. Tenten rolled her eyes.
"I'll bring my own money," she said as she went out of the door.
O0O
"He so totally asked you out!" Ino squealed, her blonde hair done in two child-like pigtails that she was currently tugging on obsessively.
"Get off my bed," Sakura complained, nudging Ino aside to get to a book that she had been sitting on.
"Ino, he did not ask me out," Tenten repeated for the seventh time, (but what felt like the millionth…). "I'm just going with him to try out curry. Besides, he spends too much time indoors. An outing would be good for him. It's part of the therapeutic thing."
"Sure," Ino said sarcastically.
Tenten was regretting very, very deeply, telling Ino about her outing with Neji the next day. However, it had been inevitable, as the girls had been planning to go to the park the next day together and they would have missed Tenten. She could see the cogs in Ino's brain developing a plan to get Naruto and Hinata together, and Tenten really didn't want to see that in action.
"Ino-pig, get off my bed," Sakura repeated through gritted teeth, giving Ino a more insistent shove and finally tugging her book free. It was a glossy, homemade-looking, very thin hardcover: a bit like the fairy tales Aki used to read to Tenten.
"What's that?" Hinata asked softly, coming over to see.
"It's a yearbook," Tenten realized, sitting down next to Sakura, who scowled, trying to shove it back into her backpack. Ino snatched it out of her grasp first.
Her eyes bugged at the title. "Forehead-girl, that school is in the next big city! You aren't from around here?"
"I ran away," Sakura said stiffly. "Isn't that obvious?"
Tenten sighed. "Oh….God…"
"Well, haven't you ever tried running away?" Sakura defended herself hotly. "I used to be from over here, but my family moved to the next town last month. My mom's been arguing with my dad a lot about how to pay the rent. Things haven't been going well."
"Oh," Ino said quietly. "Things aren't so great with my family either."
"Are y-you okay?" Hinata asked. She probably knew a bit about dysfunctional families herself, Tenten noted wryly.
"Yeah. My mom and dad and my little bro are all chipper, but our flower shop's slowly going out of business," Ino explained. "They can't afford to clothe and feed both of us for the time being, so thus, I'm here," she motioned around the room. "The treasurer for this place is my aunt."
They sat in a semi-awkward silence for a moment. Ino flipped open the first page of the yearbook.
"Where are you in here?"
"I'm not, I'm too new to be in there yet, they didn't get a chance to take my photo," Sakura explained. She pulled another thin-covered book from her backpack. "You guys might recognize a few kids from here, though."
"Hey, you went to my school!" Tenten realized, staring at the cover of the yearbook and knowing that she had one almost identical to it sitting on her bedroom shelf at home.
Sakura snorted. "I wouldn't be surprised, I mean, this world's already about as small as it can get. Besides, there's like hundreds of kids in that high school. Where do you go, Ino-pig?"
"Oh, I used to attend private school, with the uniforms and everything," Ino sighed. "The last year, my parents couldn't afford it anymore, so I was going to the public high school north of the nearest freeway. It's on the other end of town."
"Do you go there, too, Hinata?" Tenten asked.
The violet-haired girl shook her head. "I'm h-home schooled. There are m-many sufficient Hyuuga e-elders to teach Neji-nii-san, my imouto H-Hanabi, and I, as well as the other c-children."
"That must be cool," Ino said.
"S-Sometimes," Hinata smiled slightly. "You d-don't get to choose y-your family."
"True," Sakura agreed quickly. She laughed suddenly. Tenten's face turned pale.
"You found my school mug shot!" she cried indignantly as Ino and Hinata bent over to look over Sakura's shoulders. Ino snickered.
"Nice afro, Weapons Mistress."
"Look, I was having a bad hair day, okay?"
"What happened, did Godzilla try to eat you?"
"If you're so perfect, show me your mug shot," Tenten retorted sulkily.
Ino dug it out of her pocket. Tenten raised her eyebrows. "You keep your school portrait on you?" It was like keeping little packets of salt in your pocket or something. Ino shrugged and handed it over. To Tenten's dismay, Ino's blonde hair and blue eyes accented her movie star smile in the picture perfectly. Not a flaw to be found.
Sakura's mug shot in the yearbook, once they had forced her to show them it, was considerably better than Tenten's, but still not nearly as polished as Ino's. Her green eyes were hostile and there were purple marks under her eyes, but somebody had combed her pink hair until it shown and fell flat and neat around her face. She had on normal clothes, even.
"You look…different," Tenten said.
Sakura laughed. "Everybody says that when they see this shot. My mom got me all dolled up." Her tone turned bitter. "Sometimes, I think she doesn't even remember my name anymore."
"I'm s-sorry," Hinata said awkwardly.
"Nah, don't bother," Sakura waved it away. "I hate it when people say that. It's not your fault anyways."
Next to Sakura's picture was Uchiha Sasuke. His black hair was the same as always, and the earring and the pale face and the overconfident smirk. His eyes seemed haunted, instead of cold, the one difference between the present Sasuke that Tenten knew and the picture: he seemed like he was suffering.
"Orochimaru?" Ino voiced Tenten's thoughts.
"Yeah." Sakura nodded, and she bit her lip. "It's his fault."
O0O
Hyuuga Neji was never, ever late.
Of course, he was waiting just on time, dressed, occasionally glancing at his watch, his white eyes staring out at everything from his back porch. It was how Tenten found him when she arrived five minutes after ten, a bright smile spread on her face like it was contagious.
He looked like a marble statue, standing there: opal eyes, ivory skin, a relief that might have been a depiction of an angel: the long brown hair and the calm, almost serene expression.
If it weren't for the modern clothes and tattered leather sandals on his feet, Tenten might have mistaken Neji for just that: a relief of an angel, (perhaps a moodier one than was customary, but nevertheless…).
He turned to look at her so abruptly that she flinched, but she was learning to accustom to his strange ways.
"So where is this mysterious curry place?" Tenten asked curiously.
Neji didn't look at her. "Close by."
Tenten sighed and shut her mouth.
Neji was never late, but he sure took his time with answering questions.
O0O
"Hinata-chan, you'll be fine!" Ino assured the nervously walking girl.
Hinata didn't seem convinced of that. She was fiddling her fingers together, a nervous habit the others thought had been squashed out of her for good. Sakura sighed and tried a smile at the timid Hyuuga as well. "You know, this isn't a walk to the guillotine," she said flatly at the frightened expression in Hinata's eyes.
"Yeah, for all we know, Naruto probably won't even be there," Ino said cheerfully.
Hinata flinched and reddened. Sakura sighed again. "This is hopeless, isn't it?"
They rounded a bend in the park sidewalk and the skateboarding area came into view. There were a few early risers already testing out their boards and warming up, but none had blonde hair. Hinata exhaled loudly in relief. Ino sulked in obvious disappointment.
"Well, let's go and get some proper breakfast, then," Sakura smirked, amused.
"Oi! Hinata-chan!"
"Oh, crap," said the pink-haired maiden, rolling her eyes.
"I didn't know you came out this early!" Naruto stopped behind them, having just come up with Kiba at his heels, looking mutinous. He promptly ignored Ino, smiled at Hinata, and slightly awkward, offered her his hand. Hinata shook it with trembling fingers, her cheeks flaming.
"Sa…kura-chan," Naruto smiled a little wider at the apple of his eye. Sakura rolled her eyes and grudgingly shook his hand as well. It looked pretty awkward.
"Hey…where's Tenten?" Kiba remarked. It was obvious that, while Sakura, Ino and Hinata were considered "real" girls in the two boys' eyes, Tenten would most likely have received a body slam than a handshake. Ino gritted her teeth, having been pretty much ignored for the past minute of conversation.
"She's with Hyuuga Neji."
"Who's he?" said Naruto blankly. Kiba snorted.
"Hinata's relative, obviously. You don't even know who the Hyuuga Clan is, Naruto? You really are an idiot. Maybe that bastard Sasuke was talking sense."
Sakura visibly stiffened. Kiba cocked his head at her, much like Akamaru might. "What, is he your boyfriend? No offense," he muttered scornfully.
Sakura's emerald eyes glared daggers at him. "No, he is not," she said stiffly.
Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Eh…Kiba and me-"
"Kiba and I," Ino said gleefully.
Naruto scowled. "Well, we're going to go and do some boarding. See you." They pushed past the girls with a wave, (at least, Naruto waved. Kiba didn't bother to even glance back at them). Hinata exhaled in relief once more.
"God, it's not like that was all that bad," Sakura laughed, playfully ruffling Hinata's hair. Ino scowled even more deeply than Naruto had.
"They ignored me," she whined.
"Yes, because you're basking in the shadow of my amazing charisma," Sakura gloated. They instantly started bickering back and forth and calling each other childish names. Hinata hastily stepped a bit of a distance away, and thus they made their way over to a park bench to unload their food horde.
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A/N: Wow, that took a LONG time! I'm really sorry! Please forgive me.