A/N: Oh my god! Do I really have over 500 reviews on this story?? Wow, it really has been too long since I got on fanfiction and did some real work. xD But thank you guys so much for putting up with my bad updating habits and all. I hope this makes up for it. Somewhat. :p
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Day 30
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"Are you ever going to tell me the story?" Tenten asked.
"Story?" Neji raised his eyebrows inquiringly at her before going back to the same medical text that he had been reading at the park earlier. They were in Tenten's favorite café, the one that the party had been held at. She took a sip of her sweet cappuccino, which was no longer steaming.
"Yeah. The story about your first kiss that I asked about when we were stuck in a blanket burrito," Tenten hid behind her coffee cup once more.
She heard rustling and then a dull thump as Neji sat up straighter and carefully shut his textbook. Tenten could have sworn that she saw dust go up in the air as he did so and she set down her coffee cup a good distance from the book.
"It is not terribly interesting," Neji remarked dully, his white eyes scrutinizing her as if she were some kind of interesting zoo exhibit. Tenten got the feeling that he was trying to figure out how her brain functioned.
"Well, I think it would be," she argued. "Personally, I think it would be fascinating. What girl would ever kiss you?" she joked.
Neji smiled slightly as Tenten took another sip of coffee. "Actually, it was Hinata."
It took all of the self control Tenten had in her to keep from spitting a mouthful of cappuccino into Neji's face. Instead she forcefully swallowed the warm coffee and nearly choked.
"Hinata?! We are talking about the same one here, right? As in my roommate? Your cousin?"
"Yes," Neji said, sounding amused.
Tenten sputtered herself into silence.
"It was a very long time ago," Neji said quietly.
"Neji-nii-sama? Am I really going to marry you when I grow up?"
Neji blinked. "Of course. Hiashi-sama arranged for it."
Hinata bit her lip, her white eyes wide. She glanced up at the huge tree that they were standing under in the Hyuuga courtyard and shivered as a breeze blew through the Compound. "Then nii-sama will be my husband someday?"
Neji paused and considered this. "Yes."
Hinata hesitated. "Oh. Then I have to love nii-sama, right? I have to smile whenever you come home and give you a welcome back kiss like kaa-chan used to give otou-sama, right?"
Neji scowled. "I don't want any of that. It doesn't matter."
Hinata put her hands behind her back and rocked back and forth on her heels. "But kaa-chan's always given otou-sama a kiss when he comes home. I think it makes him happy. Wouldn't you like to try it out first? Before you say you wouldn't want a welcome back kiss?"
Before Neji could protest, Hinata stood up on her tip-toes and gave him a timid little chicken peck on the mouth. "Welcome home, Neji-nii-sama," she said in a happy little voice.
Tenten smiled slightly. "And then what happened?"
Neji was silent for a moment. "Nothing of importance. You only wanted to hear of my first kiss."
"That's true," Tenten sighed. "It's so strange, that it was Hinata and you're supposed to get married, but now she's got Hiashi to consider letting her choose who she wants."
Neji shrugged. "It makes no difference to me."
"Really?" Tenten tossed her empty paper cup into the trashcan over her shoulder.
"Yes."
"So you really don't care about marrying somebody you love?" she pondered. "But that's so sad, Neji-kun!"
"It is not to me," he said in a calm voice. "Hinata may be happier now that our union is no longer existent, but I feel no difference."
"Of course there's a difference! You'll know that someday when you fall madly in love with some beautiful girl, and marrying her will be the happiest day of your life…" Tenten said, faltering slightly. Neji noticed her pause.
"What is it?"
Tenten shook her head. "No, it's nothing," she murmured, "I was just suddenly thinking of what that would be like. Your wedding, I mean."
Neji's lips twitched slightly. "I'm sure that would be difficult to imagine."
"It isn't, actually. Not for me," Tenten admitted. "You would be all dressed up in a stiff tuxedo and there would be very few guests. You'd have it held in the Compound, if possible, and the rites would be read very formally and the reception would be virtually nonexistent. And then, for a honeymoon, you would take your poor wife to some quiet and unexciting place."
Neji chuckled slightly. "Is that what you think?"
"Yes, and with good reason, too," Tenten answered defiantly.
"Well, perhaps you're right. But only time will tell," Neji said.
"I hope I'm wrong. Your wife would hate you after that kind of ceremony," Tenten laughed.
"Who would this wife be?" Neji asked flatly.
Tenten paused. "Good question."
"Does she have her hair up in buns, and is she wearing jeans?" Neji's lips twitched.
Tenten laughed. "I doubt it. If it had been me, I would never have put up with such a boring wedding. There would have at least been rainbow-colored confetti."
"Of course," Neji said in such a grave voice that Tenten had to laugh again.
"Yeah. Of course."
O0O
Karin acted oddly when Tenten went down to get curry for the four girls that night. She kept twitching to glance at Tenten while the curry was being prepared and other odd things like that. Finally, she came over and said hi.
Surprised, Tenten muttered a tentative "hello" back.
"So…I hear you've got a boyfriend now?" Karin asked, attempting to bring back the time, ages ago, when she and Tenten and the others had lain around on sleeping bags and gossiped about boys, (at least, they had and Tenten had pretended to listen).
Tenten nearly gagged. "Boyfriend?!"
"That…that white-eyed guy," Karin said hesitantly. "Isn't he your…?"
"No. Not in any world," Tenten choked out. "Wow. Where did you hear that?"
Karin coughed. "Um. On the wind, you know. News travels fast."
"So what about Neji?" Tenten asked as the chef came out with the boxes of curry and tied them into a plastic bag for her.
"Neji? That's his name?"
"Yeah."
"Oh. He's actually sort-of my patient. It's a long story. He lives in the Hyuuga Compound on the other side of town, so I go and visit him a couple of times a week to just talk and hang out. It's nothing romantic in any way."
Karin bit her lip. Tenten blinked, trying to make sure she wasn't seeing things. Did the redhead seem…disappointed?
"Sorry about jumping to conclusions, then," she muttered, quickly dropping her eyes and untying her black waitress apron, folding it on the table to distract herself. Tenten sensed that Karin was hiding something in the same moment that Karin looked straight back up at her, the lenses in her glasses glinting in the sunlight so that it was almost impossible to see her eyes through them.
"So he lives at the Compound? With a lot of other people?"
"Well…I guess. The entire Hyuuga clan's probably living in that place." Tenten shrugged, internally wondering why Karin was suddenly so curious about her personal life. She had never exhibited any sort of real interest before, even back when they had been "friends".
Karin nodded. "See you around, then." She went back to the apron and the menus. Tenten took that as her signal to turn tail and head for the door to get away from the redhead as quickly as possible, but Karin's voice stopped her hand on the door.
"Um…Tenten?"
"Yeah?" she half turned, expecting to be informed that she had not paid the correct amount of cash or that the tag was sticking out of the back of her shirt. Instead, Karin's mouth opened hesitatingly as if she were weighing her words even as she was about to speak them.
"Just…watch your back, okay?"
Tenten blinked. "I always do. But thanks anyways."
Karin nodded once more, and hastily turned to go into the kitchen.
O0O
In the middle of madly consuming her curry along with Hinata, Ino, and Sakura, Tenten's cell phone began to vibrate. It spun in an agitated little circle on the table before she picked it up, right before a grinning Ino made a grab for it. "Hello?" she asked while trying to ignore Ino's "who is it?" faces.
"Tenten-chan?"
Oh. Naruto.
"Hey, wassup," she said, sneaking another bite of curry. Naruto wouldn't mind if he could hear her eating. Besides, she was so hungry!
"Er…I need your help on something," the blonde said in a somewhat nervous tone, very unlike himself. "Could you come by the park later?"
"Uh, sure!" Tenten said, caught off guard. Naruto often asked her for help on schoolwork, but this didn't sound like the same kind of help. "When will you be around?"
"Probably all afternoon…it's a nice day," he answered. "See you later, okay? Ja ne!"
Tenten flipped the phone shut and sighed as Ino kept asking who it was. "Just Naruto, relax. I doubt Neji knows how to operate a cell phone, and that's the only person you'd be interested in if he called, right?" She stood up and picked up her now empty bowl of curry and rice. Ino blinked.
"No, I'd be interested if Shika or that Sasuke guy called." She quickly hid her grin as Sakura elbowed her a little harder than necessary in the ribs.
"How would Sasuke have Tenten's cell number?" she demanded. "That's just stupid."
"Lay off, would you? Sheesh! I was just joking," Ino pouted, sounding wounded. Hinata giggled at the pair while Tenten cleared the rest of the table.
"Hinata, you wanna come with when I go to the park later?" Tenten called over the sound of dishes clanging in the sink as she drenched them in bubbling, soapy water. She heard giggling and some quiet protests from Hinata as Ino immediately started to poke fun at her, most likely for blushing a previously unknown shade of red at the mere thought of talking to Naruto. Tenten rolled her eyes. She would have to fix Hinata's shyness a little if she ever wanted to get anywhere with Naruto.
"Um, s-sure!" she heard the tentative reply a few minutes later.
O0O
Naruto seemed pretty relieved, (overly relieved) to see Tenten showing up around the corner, but instantly turned pale at the sight of Hinata. That's odd. Tenten frowned. Naruto was almost always completely overexcited at the sight of Hinata, and then she would blush and everybody would get on with their respective days.
"Er…hi, Tenten," he said in a very subdued, non-Naruto manner. Tenten grinned.
"Hello yourself. What's up with you? You aren't sick, I hope." She reached out to feel his forehead and he slapped her hand away, embarrassed. Tenten grinned some more.
"I'm fine."
"Too much cup ramen will shrivel up your liver, and then where will you be?" Tenten rolled her eyes.
Naruto glared at her as if insulting ramen was the worst thing that a person could do in their lifetime, and nervously smiled at Hinata when Tenten didn't seem to care. "Hey, Hinata-chan."
Hinata smiled, but didn't reply. Tenten noticed that she was barely blushing today. Maybe some of her shyness had finally started to wear off. In that case, Naruto was a good influence on her.
"What'd you want to talk to me about?" Tenten asked, curious.
Naruto instantly began to look even more agitated, glancing at Hinata again. "Erm."
Hinata took the hint instantly. "I'll go…feed the pigeons over there," she said quietly, her lips twitching. "I brought some crusty bread." As soon as she had wandered out of view, Naruto grabbed Tenten and dragged her behind a tree, checking to make sure that nobody was around. Tenten winced and pried his fingers off of her arm.
"Naruto, what is up with you today?!"
"It's about Hinata-chan," Naruto whispered, checking around the tree again.
"What about her?" Tenten suddenly grew worried. "She's fine, right? Right?" She shook him a little by the shoulders, and this time he was the one that winced and had to pry fingers off of himself.
"She's fine. She's…" he hesitated, scuffing his toe in the ground. "Tenten-chan, how would you ask a girl out so that she would say yes?"
Tenten blinked. It took a moment to sink in, and then the hugest, goofiest grin spread across her face. She felt like she wanted to giggle madly, but that would attract unwanted attention. "You want to ask Hinata out?"
"Well, yeah," Naruto muttered. "But no girl would ever want to go out with me. That's why I want you to tell me how to—"
"Naruto, you don't need my help! Are you kidding me? Hinata would love to go out with you! She's totally in love with you, and you hadn't figured it out yet? Oh my God!" Tenten grinned at Naruto's dumbfounded expression. Although she had felt overprotective of both of them at the beginning, now all she felt was happiness for her two friends. "I'm so glad that you're finally over Sakura and all."
Slowly, Naruto started to smile. "So…she doesn't think I'm a failure?" He motioned to where Hinata had disappeared around the bend.
"Dude, that is the last thing she thinks you are." Tenten grinned even wider, although she hadn't thought it was possible for her face to remain intact. She probably looked something like the Cheshire cat by then.
Why shouldn't she laugh? Everything was right in the world.
O0O
"No, no, no!! Everything is wrong in the world," Sakura moaned, marching to and fro across the room. Ino sighed and closed her gossip magazine, setting it on the table next to her. Sakura's tantrum had started about two minutes ago and she was going at it at too loud of a volume to be ignored any longer.
"So. I take it you got bad news?" Ino motioned to the phone clutched in Sakura's hand, which happened to be employing a death grip.
Sakura gritted her teeth together. "Not so much bad news as just…well, my parents want me to go home. They've finally tracked down where I am."
Ino's eyes widened, remembering that Sakura had ran away.
"Well, then are you going to go?"
"Obviously, I don't want to. But I don't think I have much choice. If I don't go back on my own, they'll just come and get me themselves."
"They are your parents, though. They do kind-of have a right to make you live with them. Don't you want to go back home?"
Sakura laughed sarcastically. "You don't know my family. I would do anything to be able to stay here with you guys. Yes, even you, Ino."
Ino sighed. "That's so strange."
"I know, I don't know why I ever became friends with you either."
"Not that," Ino laughed. "It's just that, while you would do anything to avoid going home, I would do anything to go back there with my family."
Sakura shrugged. "It proves a point."
"What point?"
"Everybody's different."
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A/N: Happy Holidays, and please review!