Weapon of Choice
Chapter The Eighth:
Engage!
Naruto is not owned by me. It belongs to the people. Or that guy that draws it whose name I should probably look up.
The night before.
Tenten sat up suddenly and blinked the sleep out of her eyes.
"What?" she asked loudly in response to Hiashi's statement in the previous chapter. She looked around and didn't recognize the room she was in, let alone the bed she was resting upon. She did recognize her heirloom weapon cabinet against the wall. Was it all a dream?she wondered.
"You fainted."
Tenten threw a kunai towards the voice that startled her.
Neji dodged it casually and sent her an annoyed look.
"Um...sorry," she apologized. "It's a reflex." She lowered her eyes. "Neji, are we really...can your uncle do that? Just engage people?"
Neji couldn't read her expression. "He can't force you to do anything you don't want to. I, on the other hand..."
Tenten was silent for a few moments. "Neji, are you...alright with this?"
He remained silent.
She bit her lower lip and waited nervously.
"I don't mind," he answered.
Tenten sighed. That was probably as close to a love confession as she has likely to get from the stoic Hyuuga. She was surprised when he continued.
"I've had...feelings for you for quite some time." He paused dramatically. "...and I suspect you feel the same."
She blushed and gave a shy nod.
Neji's face remained impassive, while inwardly he did a happy dance.
"Tenten, this is a bit redundant but, will you marry me?"
"Yes!" she exclaimed and threw her arms around his neck. Then she remembered something and her grip tightened rather painfully. She looked over his shoulder with a small frown.
"Neji," she said in a calm voice. "Why is my stuff in your room?"
0-0
Somewhere Hiashi giggled quietly to himself. "Grandchildren! Bwa-ha-ha-ha!"
0-0
The next morning.
Hinata awoke to shouting. Her head hurt, like, a lot. It felt like it had been stuffed with red-hot steel wool.
"Of all the stupid, idiotic, pea-brained, moronic things you could do-"
"SHUT UP!" she yelled, clutching her head in pain and trying to curl herself into a little ball.
"H-hinata?" Was Naruto stuttering? She cracked one bleary eye open.
Why did he look like he had been run over?
Several times.
By very large horses.
She felt cold panic as she saw who was standing behind him.
"Lady Hokage!" She sprung to her feet and a chill fell over her. She looked down, she was in her underwear. Oh god, she was having that dream again. Any second now her father would come in and tell her she was being replaced by a more popular character. The timid ninja shut her eyes tightly and tried to wake up.
"Hinata?" Tsunade snapped her fingers in front of the girls face to try to get her attention. Nothing Happened.
"Just a dream, just a dream, just a dream..." chanted the near nude Hinata.
Tsunade pinched her.
"Ow!"
"Do I have your attention now?" Hinata's skin paled as she realized that she was awake. When she wobbled a bit on her feet, Naruto moved over to steady her.
"Shizune, find Hinata some clothes," the village leader sighed.
Hinata suddenly felt very sick to her stomach.
"Blaaaagh." She threw up.
"And bring some for Naruto too."
0-0
Konohameru woke up slowly. He'd had the strangest dream. A giant rabbit with white eyes had been chasing him because it wanted his carrot. He wondered if that meant anything. When he opened his eyes, he was staring into a pair of pearly orbs.
"Gah!" He jumped off the bed. He was now fully awake.
"You're cute when you're asleep," Hanabi commented creepily.
"What are you doing here?"
She looked at him like he was stupid. "Watching you sleep, duh."
Konohameru was stunned at her blatant honesty.
"Oh and I need a date for my cousin's wedding. Wanna come?" She somehow managed to look both very cute and very scary at the same time.
"Um...Okay."
0-0
Meanwhile in a nest of sin (Aka: Anko's apartment.), Anko, Gai and Kakashi were sitting around the table in her small kitchen eating breakfast. The men looked exhausted for some reason.
"I'm sorry guys but it was another tie." Gai was uncharacteristicly subdued while Kakashi looked to be on the verge of collapse. "However," she continued obliviously, "I am prepared to keep doing this until a winner is declared, no matter how long it takes." She grinned lasciviously.
The two men groaned in unison.
There was a knock at the door and something fell through the letter slot. Anko walks over and picks it up.
"Uh, Gai, you might want to look at this."
It read:
Clan Hyuuga cordially invites you to the wedding of:
Neji Hyuuga and Tenten Nolastname.
Please RSVP
Then there was a box to check to indicate weather you wanted chicken or fish.
Is that really her last name? thought Anko.
"THIS IS WONDERFUL!" Gai exploded, suddenly revitalized. "My youthful students have finally realized their LOVE! I must go a congratulate them!" He ran off in a cloud of dust.
"Huh, She must have taken my advice," commented Anko.
"ZZZZ," responded Kakashi, face down in his bacon.
0-0
"N-n-naruto, I'm s-so s-s-sorry!" apologized Hinata.
"I told you not to worry about it."
The pair were leaving the Hokage's building. Naruto was escorting the very hungover Hyuuga back to the compound. For some reason Naruto didn't get hangovers, probably something to do with his unwelcome guest. She looks really bad, he thought, but still cute somehow. The Hyuuga eyes were slightly disturbing when they were all bloodshot like that. They stopped in front of the Hyuuga compound.
"N-n-naruto?"
"Yeah?"
"W-what happened last night?" she asked tentatively, Hinata was aware that she might not like his answer.
"We got drunk," he returned with a grin.
"Um..I...I-I m-mean did we d-d-do anything?"
He frowned with an expression of hard concentration. "Oh you mean like boy-girl stuff."
Hinata turned red and nodded.
"We, uh." Naruto turned his head to the side to avoid looking at her. "Kind of made out." He paused. "Oh, and you let me touch your boobs!"(is that 2nd or 3rd base? I can never remember) His grin ratcheted up several levels. "That was awesome!"
Hinata blushed a deeper red. It was now or never. She gathered her nerve, screwed her eyes tightly shut. "W-w-would y-y-you l-l-like t-to d-do i-it a-a-again s-s-sometime?" She spoke in a loud clear voice. Then she realized how that sounded. "I-I-I m-mean g-go o-o-out t-t-together, l-l-like a d-d-d-d-date?"
Her answer was silence. Lots and lots of silence. Even the normal background noise of Kanoha seemed to stop. She cautiously opened one eye. Naruto was looking at her as if she had just slapped him with a fish.
"H-hinata?" he started in a shell-shocked voice. "Did you just ask me out?"
"Um, well...yes?"
"WOW! Yeah I'd love to go out with you!" he started to take her in his arms but then paused. "Um, is it okay if I don't kiss you? I mean I want to but you just..."
"Oh!" She self-consciously put her hand up in front of her mouth. "I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it. Meet me at Itchiraku's for lunch?"
"Okay," she agreed. And rushed inside, hangover forgotten to clean up and find some ramen-flavoured mouthwash.
0-0
Neji and Tenten were walking towards their usual training area at the usual time in the usual way, everything was normal. Except that it wasn't.
"Y'know Neji, a lot of people, when they get engaged, take the day off."
"Hn."
"No, really, some of them even take." She paused dramatically. "A vacation!"
"Hn." Neji ignored her, but despite this she continued, wistfully.
"To romantic and exotic places with warm sun soaked beaches and palm trees and stuff."
"Hn."
They walked together in silence for a while.
"This is because I made you sleep on the floor isn't it?"
"No," Neji lied.
It was at this point they arrived at their destination and were greeted by Lee. "My wonderful teammates have discovered their youthful love! It is a wonderful day! Let us hug!" Tenten's exuberant teammate caught her in his crushing grip.
"Lee...need...to...breath..." Her friend quickly released her and made to hug Neji but the prodigy's pale-eyed glare made him decide to settle for a handshake. "Congratulations Neji, you have finally declared your youthful love for our youthful flower!"
"Something like that anyway," muttered Tenten under her breath. She looked at Lee, something was different about him today..."Lee, what's that thing on your face?"
Lee stood up taller and thrust his chest out in a manful pose. "This is my Manly beard of Youth!"
"It looks like you're trying to swallow a badger," scoffed Neji.
"Neji..." She looked at Lee for a few moments, appraising the new growth. "It kind of suits you." she concluded.
"Yosh!" It was at this moment that Gai-sensei made his appearance.
"Lee!"
"Gai-sensei!"
"Lee!"
"Gai-sensei Neji and Tenten are engaged!"
"I know! Isn't it wonderful!"
"Wait, it only happened last night, how do you guys know?"
"We got these in the mail." They showed her their invitations.
Tenten paled. "Who else knows about this?" she asked with rising alarm.
"I think everyone in the village got one, all the ninja anyway," speculated Gai. "It's a pretty big deal."
"Nononononono," Tenten chanted, much to the confusion of the others.
"What's your problem?" groused Neji, he was ready to start training.
"They know!" she answered cryptically.
"Who?" questioned Lee.
"THEM!"
Neji was about to ask her to stop being obtuse and just spit it out when he became aware of an odd noise. It had been steadily growing in the background but he hadn't noticed until now.
"What's that noise?" It was a sort of high pitched 'squeeeee' sound.
Tenten was nearly quaking with fear. "They're coming!"
The noise continued to get louder until it seemed to surround them. "Somebody's getting MARRIED!" Sakura and Ino appeared suddenly from nowhere to double hug Tenten while bouncing up and down. "How did ithappen? Was it really romantic? Oh my god! Oh my god! I can't believe you're marring Neji!"(That's supposed to be all scrunched up together as one word but for some reason ffnet isn't letting me do that)
Didn't they need to breath? Neji thought.
Tenten shot Neji a 'please save me' look. He just smirked at her. He really hadn't wanted to sleep on the floor.
She gave him the dirtiest look imaginable.
"Hello Sakura!" interrupted the ever hopeful Lee.
"Oh, hi Lee," she replied unenthusiastically before doing a double take. "Did you grow a beard?"
"Yosh!"
"It looks good," she said with a light blush.(What? It could happen.) Then went back over to where Ino was harassing the bride.
"C'mon, you can tell us EVERYTHING while we plan the shower," said Ino while dragging Tenten by one arm.
"But I already had one..."
"A WEDDING shower, silly," corrected Sakura while grabbing her other arm and lifting her off the ground.
"NOOOOOOO!" wailed Tenten as they dragged her off to her doom.
Sorry, sorry for taking so long, I kind of started another story without meaning to...it's for that game I was obsessed with in the last chapter so if there are any Dragon Age fans reading this you might want to check it out. It's called "Chronicles of an Elven Bed-warmer" I think it's going rather well... anyway next time: Tenten's Shower, and maybe some other stuff, kind of depends, all I have is a title right now, "The day Before the Morning After" or not after all the only constant is change, oh and Pi but just those two. Oh and leave some damn reviews dammit.