A/N: Thank you for the reviews, (no, KT, is wasn't too harsh, I'm lacking in constructive criticism even though, as a writer, I love the positive reviews more than I really should xD Thank ye very much.) Neji's "Hn" isn't really a word as much as it is a sound: we all use it everyday, probably, just don't really realize we are. It's kind of like the neutral answer to a question that you weren't really listening to xD It's the sound that parents make when they're reading the newspaper and you're trying to tell them about your day, lol.
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Day 19
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"Hi…" Tenten poked her head into Neji's bedroom, trying to arrange her features into an apologetic expression, (it actually looked like she had a toothache, but Tenten did not know this. Neji, for his credit, knew what she was trying to look like and chose not to comment on her bizarre behavior, as he often did.)
"Sorry about ditching you this afternoon," she said, letting herself into his room like she always did and sitting down on the inevitable couch.
Neji shrugged. "I had better things to do," he said flatly, not seeming the least bit angry.
Tenten felt a bit miffed at this calm response. She had been nervous about his reaction, (Neji had an unnerving way of staring people down), all the way there, and now he was just going to let her off the hook? All of that angsting and anxiety for nothing? She felt like pouting.
"Oh. Were you at a meeting or something?" she asked, trying to sound surprised. Even though Neji was her age, he wouldn't have seemed out of place at a press conference.
Neji shrugged once again, and more unresponsively if that were possible. "Something of the like." He stood restlessly, walked over to the door, and opened it impatiently. "Tenten, let's go outside," he muttered.
"Er…okay…" she said, confused, and this time allowed him to hold the door open for her.
O0O
The Hyuuga Compound was a bit like a hollow square.
The architectural structure of the building made it into a somewhat square shape in the middle, four hallways framing a large, garden-like courtyard with smaller hallways branching out, so that if you looked at it from above, it looked a bit like some sort of symmetrical fabric design. Everything about the Hyuuga clan was neat, balanced, and calm.
Even as Tenten followed Neji outside into their central courtyard, she knew that it was supposed to be a garden, but never quite got there…or perhaps, it had once been a lovely garden full of living, growing things, but that time was long past.
The air was heavy somehow, like the time before rain falls, but without the humidity. The sky was perfectly clear, so it ruled out the possibility of rain anyways. It was more like the place's chi was so clear that it pressed on you.
The entire square took on a shrine-like appearance. The ground was all brown dirt, with a sidewalk made of stepping stones in the shape of a cross dividing the area into four exactly even sections. There was a little pebble pond, the surface so still that it took on a mirror-like quality. At the head of the square, opposite where Neji and Tenten had entered was a tall gray stone, bearing a kanji inscription. The only flowers in the barren courtyard were laying at the foot of the stone: yellow roses, red peonies, white carnations. The colors exploded to the eye.
"What…?" Tenten asked curiously, running along the stepping stone path to touch the gray, weathered stone. She felt a sort of calm emanating from the stone. It was as if the stone gave the entire square it's solemn aura. Tenten was positive it would not be the same without it, not just in appearance, but in spirit.
Neji followed her with his slow, measured gait, so slow as if he were purposely dragging his feet. "The grave of my father," he said quietly, coming to stand on the other side of the stone. He, too, brushed his fingers against the rock.
Suddenly, there was the same awkward silence that Tenten thought had already been banished to the days when she had nothing to talk about with Neji. She had already gotten used to his I-Am-Above-You aura and his reluctance to do with anything verbal…but of course, the awkward silence was back.
"Oh," she said, unable to really think of anything else.
He smiled wryly. "I don't need your pity."
"Oh, um, I didn't mean it like that!" Tenten hastily said.
Neji raised his eyebrows. "You didn't say anything at all."
"Right," Tenten muttered, and just like that, the silence was gone again. She smiled. "Hey, there's nowhere to sit out here, huh?"
Neji glanced around. "No."
"Why didn't they put in a bench or something?"
"Oh, the Hyuugas don't particularly enjoy the outdoors. We rarely use this square, except for large formal gatherings," Neji said matter-of-factly. He seemed to struggle with something, and then said, "It's just as well. A tan wouldn't look very fitting on a face with white eyes, no?"
Tenten snorted, and then she laughed out loud. "You tried to make a joke, Neji-kun! Good for you, this is progress!"
"Yumi will be thrilled," Neji said dryly, "I believe I heard her call me 'that emotional child'. She seems to believe that I am suffering from the type of trauma that makes you 'cold, unreachable, and shunned from other children'."
Tenten crossed her arms. "Well, that pretty much sums up what you are."
"A mere coincidence, I assure you," Neji replied.
"Right. You sure there's no secret, dark past you're hiding from me?" Tenten said in a doubtful voice. She had meant for it to be a joke, but she realized that she was half-serious. Neji seemed to realize it too. (Damned Hyuuga, he realized everything. Stupid, white eyes.)
"Tenten," Neji said in a voice like a father reprimanding his child.
"What? If anybody I know is an assassin by night and an ordinary teenager by day…well, somewhat ordinary at least…then, it would be you!" she laughed. "You sure you don't have a killer razor stuck in a weapons tool belt hidden under your shirt or something?"
"Would that not be rather painful?" Neji inquired.
"Touché," Tenten mused. She shrugged. "Ah, well, when we're old and gray and you're in the FBI and I'm a retired teacher of eighth grade biology, then you can finally point your finger and laugh your head off at me without me retorting with a snarky comment that always outwits you."
She paused.
"I can't really imagine you laughing maniatically, though." In truth, Tenten realized, she couldn't imagine Neji doing all the things a normal person did: brushing his teeth, washing dishes, maybe walking a dog…
"I don't believe that 'maniatically' is a real word," Neji said calmly.
"Sure it is!" Tenten protested. "You do it like this: FUFUFUFUFUFUFU!" She raised her arms in the air and cackled. "Or maybe like….MUJARJARJARJARJAR! Or HAHAHAHAHAHHA!"
"Tenten, you're scaring the birds," Neji said, glancing up at all of the crows flying up into the sky from their perches in the trees.
"Oops," Tenten said sheepishly.
"Hm. Crows. Death birds," Neji murmured, completely ignoring her embarrassment. (Maybe he was just really good at ignoring awkward situations, or he just never actually noticed that they were there). "A bad omen."
"This is the 21st century. Crows are everywhere, and I've probably crossed a black cat's path a billion times in my life. I'm not dead," Tenten said.
"All the same," Neji said softly. "It is best not to tamper with the messengers of Fate. Omens are omens."
"Superstition," Tenten said, shaking her head, "belongs in the same category as overrated things, stereotypes, and hypocrisy. It's for nannies. And perhaps mothers."
"Perhaps," Neji said diplomatically.
"You really need to loosen up," Tenten advised.
"Why?"
"You're fifteen. Do you really need another reason?" Tenten said, laughing. "Neji-kun, I bet you could be a lot of fun if you talked a bit more. I mean, I like you enough. Other people would, too."
Neji's pale eyes flickered. "You enjoy talking with me?"
"Yeah," Tenten said, a little embarrassed by the way he was staring at her as if her answer would be the reason if his life would go on. Then the look was gone, and he was just her Neji again.
Wait a minute, rewind…since when had he been her Neji? Or was that just the unconscious name she had given to the part of him that he displayed only when she was around? The side where he talked somewhat normally? (Excluding omens and fate and black crows, of course. And flipping off skateboards, too).
Or maybe she had meant he was her Neji in all of his entirety? Her mind came up with a reasonable conclusion.
She meant he was her Neji in the way that he was her patient: well, they were somewhat-sort-of-kind-of-not-really friends, not a doctor and her scheduled, disturbed person.
Maybe.
O0O
"Whatcha doin'?" said Ino.
Hinata smiled politely, if somewhat nervously, at the blonde, (in the oh-my-God-she-is-going-to-roast-me-on-a-stick-and-do-a-strange-dance-before-eating-me type nervous). She went back to her book.
"Reading, huh?" Ino answered herself.
Hinata nodded. "S-Shakespeare. He is quite a f-fascinating playwright."
Ino wrinkled her nose. "Too tragic. Too many long words. Too…"
"Old f-fashioned?" Hinata suggested, smiling. "Yes, I sometimes t-think so too. But his s-stories are quite a-amazing. They capture the h-human nature very w-well."
"Oh," Ino said, blinking. "That was…deep."
"N-Not at all," Hinata replied. "…Ino-san, w-what is your favorite w-work of his?"
Ino laughed. "Well, I don't really know of any except for Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, so out of those two, I pick the second."
"Oh," Hinata said quietly. "I've n-never liked his t-tragedies," she said with a wistful air in her eyes. "They are t-too real. Do you k-know, I only ever r-read tragedies if I c-can't relate them to my l-life at all?"
"Well, all of us do that," Ino said kindly.
The two were sitting in the lamplight lobby of the Bed and Breakfast. Sakura had gone out for some coffee at the Starbucks, and both were bored out of their minds. At least, Ino was.
She peeked over the entranced-by-novel Hinata's shoulder warily. "Eek. You're reading the original play format version?"
"Yes," Hinata said distractedly.
"Hm. What story are you reading?"
"A Midsummer N-Night's Dream," Hinata said. "It's a r-romance, but in a more c-comedic style."
"Oh." Ino furrowed her eyebrows together. "I see." Actually, I don't.
"It's d-difficult to explain the s-story," Hinata said.
"Don't try," Ino said. "I probably won't understand it anyways." Hinata smiled slightly.
"I think that S-Sakura-san is back with c-coffee."
O0O
Neji walked her home, again.
The nights were cold, even in the days were sizzling. Tenten stood on the door step of the Bed and Breakfast, agitatedly attempting to fish her keys out of the mess of her messenger bag. She growled in frustration, her breath coming out in a puff of fog.
Neji watched patiently as she finally located the key with a triumphant "aha!" and jammed it into the door as if the keyhole had done her a great injustice, turning it with a satisfying click.
"Goodnight," Neji said courteously. "Sleep well, Tenten."
"That's sweet of you," Tenten cocked her head slightly. "Sounds like something they would say in a chick flick."
"Chick…flick?"
"Never mind," she waved her hand dismissively. "It was nothing. Just a random thought. Chick flicks are all stupid, anyways. They never seem to score high in the box office."
"Hn," he grunted.
"Well, thanks for walking me home. You're going to be okay walking home alone, right?" she asked, "Or do I have to walk you all the way back and have somebody pick me up?"
He smiled slightly. "No, that is not necessary. Goodnight, Tenten."
"Night, Neji-kun," she smiled, and walked through the door, to be greeted by…
"Hey, Tenten? How do you pronounce Y-E?" asked Ino, her blue eyes wide.
Tenten sighed and exchanged a look with Hinata, who was helplessly giggling into her copy of Shakespearean plays. Sakura was lazily sipping coffee while surfing the net, her eyes looking on the verge of major bloodshot issues.
Life was so strange.
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A/N: Hope you enjoyed it! Review and let me know. Gosh, I've got TWO pending Naruto plot bunnies! I shall probably end up writing both…look out for them. –smiles- A Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants fiction will probably also be coming out in the near future, though I have NO idea what that one will be about.