Weapon of Choice

Chapter, the Sixth

The Melancholy of Tenten No-Last-Name

Naruto? Seriously? No.

Hinata woke with an unfamiliar feeling of warmth. She sighed and snuggled into her oddly firm pillow. She didn't want to get up, she wanted to stay here in this comfortable place and it's strangely soothing smell of Ramen.

Wait, Ramen?

She shot upright and looked around franticly. This was Naruto's apartment. Okay, don't panic, she thought. What happened last night?

Suddenly she remembered. He had taken her to Ichiraku Ramen to discuss their progress on setting up Tenten and her cousin. It started pouring and they had been soaked instantly. Together, they had gone to his apartment to dry off. It had been like a scene from one of those books Neji was hiding under his floorboards. She would put them back when she was done with them.

"XNARK," snored her pillow, startling her.

"N-N-Naruto?" she squeaked and her eyes drifted down to the shirtless blond she had been using as bedding. Her eyes briefly widened before she fainted.

0-0

Neji suppressed a yawn, he had not slept well. His dreams had been filled with images of Tenten. Tenten in her underwear, Tenten in his underwear, Tenten in nothing at all, and in one particularly confounding vision, Tenten dressed as a fireman.

He doubted he would see her this morning. It was her day off. He didn't see why she needed one. He didn't. He shrugged inwardly. Normally he would spar with Hinata, working to perfect her unorthodox 'girlie' jyuken, but today she was late, very late. Perhaps he should try and find her; it was supposed to be his job to protect the heir after all. She was probably stalking Naruto again. In his opinion she had an unhealthy fixation on the blond ninja.

He frowned. For some reason that made him think of Tenten. He was NOT obsessed with his teammate. He just liked to know where she was and what she was doing at every minute of the day. There was nothing wrong with that.

As he walked towards Naruto's apartment his mind started to wander back to his favorite topic. No, not Fate: Tenten. Maybe he was going about this all wrong. Instead of forcing himself on her in the bath, perhaps he should ask her to go with him on some sort of outing. Yes, that sounded reasonable. Why hadn't he thought of that before? He should 'woo' her, in a dignified Hyuuga fashion of course. Making up his mind with a curt nod, he continued on to his destination.

0-0

Hinata was awakened for a second time by an insistent knocking at the door. She snapped upwards and her Byakugan actively scanned for threats.

She found one.

Neji was at the door.

0-0

Tenten smiled wickedly in her sleep.

0-0

"H-H-H-hello, N-N-Neji," she stuttered at her cousin.

He shot her an irritated glare. "You're late." He paused. "Get dressed," he said as if he had just noticed.

"Huh?" She had been expecting more of a reaction "But..."

"What you do with... or to, Naruto is your own business and frankly, I'd rather not know, I just hope you remembered to take 'precautions'.

Hinata turned beet red. "N-N-Nothing h-h-happened!" she protested.

"Hn," he responded, clearly skeptical.

"R-R-Really!"

"Hn. Get dressed."

Hinata worried at the hem of her shirt. "O-O-Okay." She lowered her eyes and turned towards the bathroom where she had left her clothes to dry.

Neji eyed the rooms remaining occupant suspiciously

"XNARK."

He shook his head, idiot.

0-0

Tenten was eating cereal, that being the limit of her culinary abilities, and she soon found herself twirling a spoon around her breakfast bowl. Her thoughts, though less soggy than her Wheaties, were no less jumbled. What was Neji's deal? Did he care about her or was she just at the right place at the right time when his hormones finally kicked in?

She chewed pensively. Neji didn't seem like a 'hit it and quit it' kind of guy, and now that she came to think about it, she didn't think he'd ever looked at another girl. Before Neji kissed…or assaulted: kiss-ulted, her yesterday he had hardly even acknowledged her as a female. Normally she could read him easily but his recent actions had caught her off guard. She thought back to the previous day. At the time she had been surprised, even though they were both naked, and he was giving her a really good massage. It sounded incredibly shortsighted now, but at the time...

She blushed. Maybe Anko was right and she just needed to get over herself and make a move. She needed to do something to relieve the tension. She'd been avoiding Neji for a day now and sooner or later she would have to deal with it.

She sighed and continued to wrestle with her emotions.

0-0

Neji was looking for Tenten. He was mildly ashamed of himself. Logically he should give her some space, let her come to him. That would definitely be the more dignified course of action, unfortunately he felt compelled to seek her out.

He frowned. Surely he had better things to do with his time. Like train or...that was it really. Maybe he should get a hobby. He reminded himself to think about it later, maybe he would ask Tenten when he found her. She wasn't in her room so making an educated guess, he headed to the kitchen.

He found her thoughtlessly spooning cereal into her mouth with a far-off expression.

"Ahem."

Startled, she jumped up off her seat and whirled in his direction with a knife in hand. He noted that it was the blade he had given her and smiled smugly to himself.

"Tenten," he greeted once she had recovered herself.

"N-Neji?" she replied.

He frowned at the stutter, it was unlike her.

"Do you have any plans for the rest of the day?"

Tenten blinked in surprise and lowered her eyes to the floor. "Not really..." she mumbled into her chest.

For a moment Neji looked puzzled. Tenten was never demure. It was one of the things he liked about her. He quickly shrugged it off. He had been planning this for at least the last two hours, and had tried to think of a way to ask her out without actually saying it.

"Since you keep getting lost I thought it would be a good idea to show you around the complex."

Tenten's eyes opened wide in surprise and for the first time since he kissed her she looked directly at him.

"Y-You mean l-like a date?"

Neji knew he wasn't blushing but felt like he should be. Tenten could be annoyingly perceptive at times.

"Yes," he admitted.

"O-Okay." Tenten did that demure 'look at the ground' thing again and got up to put her dirty dishes in the sink. As she was walking back, Neji suddenly remembered something he had seen Asuma doing, and he offered Tenten his crooked arm. She stared at him for a moment. At almost the exact point Neji began to feel awkward, Tenten smiled up at him and entwined her arm into his. Neji tried to curb the warm sensation that came with such close contact, and failed.

They walked together for awhile.

"Neji?"

"Hn?"

"Did you just sniff my hair?" she asked with a light blush.

"...No," he lied.

Kind of short I know but I had a lot of trouble with this chapter I had to completely redo it. At one point there was some business with a cat that was just embarrassing.

Anyway, the blame for how long this took to get done should be placed squarely where it belongs:

Evil Canadian game developer Bioware, stupid Dragon Age, stupid elves...

and as always thanks to my beta temarixshikamaruluva