Weapon of Choice
Chapter the Tenth
The Morning After the Night Before
I've run out of interesting ways to say that I don't own Naruto.
After several hours of laying awake Neji finally managed to fall asleep, only to be awakened what seemed like seconds later.
"Neji," someone whispered at him urgently. He groaned and tried to go back to sleep.
"Neji!" The voice became more insistent.
"What?" he answered blearily.
"Why are we naked?" whispered Tenten.
He glared at her.
She looked back with an expression of confused innocence. "What?"
Neji narrowed his eyes at her. She obviously didn't remember last night.
"Wow Neji, you look terrible." She put a hand to his forehead, suddenly concerned. She squinted at him in the darkness."Hmmm, Doesn't feel like you have a fever." She got out of bed and circled around to his side, unintentionally giving Neji an excellent look at her nude form. He growled a bit in the back of his throat.
"Oh, are you hungry?" she misinterpreted, walking over towards the closet to get some clothes.
"Not for food," he mumbled under his breath.
"Did you say something?" she asked, turning back towards him. Despite having asked him why, the fact that she was naked didn't seem to bother her in the least, and Neji felt his throat dry. He swallowed.
"Tenten, come here."
She made her way over to him with a slightly curious expression. Once she was within reach Neji grabbed her and pulled her over until she was laying face up on the bed with him crouching over her. She looked up at him with big, round eyes.
"Neji, wha-" He silenced her with a deep fierce kiss, pinning her wrists above her head with one hand while the other explored her lithe physique. Her head was spinning, what was going on? Then Neji met her eyes with a smoldering look and she understood. Oh, that. She struggled against his grip but not too hard, she didn't want to actually get away after all. He growled possessively as if to say "MINE!" then the camera sort of panned off to the side and faded out.
0-0
Hiashi was sitting at his desk piled with the endless paperwork that seemed to come with the position of clan head. He wondered if he could push it off on Hinata and say it was training or something. Then he could go see how far Neji and his rather attractive fiancee' had gotten on the whole grandchildren thing.
He was taken out of his thoughts by a quiet knock on the door.
"Enter."
"H-hello, F-father."
"Hinata." he greeted his daughter and heir as she crept into the room and shut the door behind her. She paused for a few moments, took a few hesitant steps into the center of the room, ignoring the chairs that had been set in front of his desk.
"F-father I want to bring a d-date to the wedding," she announced
Hiashi raised his eyebrow, he wasn't aware his daughter was interested in anyone except...
"Hinata, I'm a reasonable man so I know you're not talking about that Uzamaki boy."
She remained silent and lowered her head.
"No Hinata, absolutely not," he said gravely.
She sniffled.
"Hinata, stop that." He ordered.
She raised her head up to look at him, eyes wet with unshed tears.
"No, stop that right now!" he repeated with an increasingly frantic tone.
Her lower lip started to tremble.
"Oh fine." the clan head relented. "Just stop doing that."
The heir wiped her face on her sleeve and smiled slightly. "Thank you F-father."
Hiashi breathed a sigh of relief as she left the room. His daughter was going to be one hell of a clan head. The rest of the Hyuuga clan had almost no resistance against her Teary-eyes-no-jutsu.
0-0
Tenten was enjoying the afterglow, toying with Neji's hair. Her fiancee (that still felt weird to say) was dozing lightly next to her. So she thought, that's what all the fuss is about. It had been...kind of awkward at first as they felt each other out, but eventually they got the hang of it and it was...fantastic.
Why had they wasted so much time dancing around each other when they could have been doing that?
Out of the corner of her eye she spied the clock on Neji's nightstand. Oh shit, she thought, I'm late. She started to try to get up but Neji wouldn't let go. Tenten rolled her eyes, this was so not the time.
"Neji." she jostled him awake once again
"Hmm? Tenten?" He replied muzzily, blinking up at her.
"I need to go."
Neji looked confused for a second before realizing he was holding her "Oh." He reluctantly released her.
Tenten wasted no time as she frantically darted about the room whilst simultaneously fixing her hair.
"Where did those stupid women put my clothes?" She griped in reference to her nemeses, the Hyuuga household maids.
Neji sat back and enjoyed the view as his fiancee traipsed about in her birthday suit completely unselfconsciously.
"Ah-ha!" she crowed triumphantly, hoisting her clothes upward. Neji was a bit disappointed the show was over.
"I'll be back later, Neji." She leaned over meaning to give him a quick peck on the lips but he held her in place and deepened it considerably.
"Don't take too long." He ordered with a low rumble.
Tenten blushed shyly and left.
Neji sighed in a satisfied way and went back to sleep.
0-0
He awoke about two hours later. Tenten had yet to return. This should be rectified as soon as possible. So, now in 'find Tenten' mode Neji got dressed and left his room . First stop was the kitchen, she wasn't there but he did manage to snatch a bagel. Next stop was Hinata's room.
0-0
The Hyuuga heiress was in her room quietly reading one of Neji's Icha-Icha books. She had just gotten to her favorite part where Ling and Lan-Fan had admitted their feelings for one another and were about to engage in enthusiastic and, in Hinata's opinion, impossibly acrobatic sex when there was a knock on her door. It was almost immediately followed by said door opening to reveal the book's owner. She just barely managed to thrust the illicit literature beneath her pillow in time.
"Neji?"
Her cousin stuck his head through the doorway, byakugan activated and scanned the room. "Do you know where Tenten is?" he demanded.
Hinata was slightly taken aback. Not that he ever said 'Hello' or exchanged social pleasantries, but there was usually at least some kind of pause of acknowledgment. The intensity of his gaze was unnerving. "I-I-I t-think s-she had a dress f-fitting."
"Hn." He looked thoughtful for a moment, then abruptly left, slideing the door closed silently.
Hinata rolled her eyes. And people said she was obsessed.
0-0
He eventually found her in the forge. Apparently she was done with the dress.
"Tenten?"
"Neji?" she motioned urgently. "Quick, get over here!"
The Hyuuga prodigy noticed a faint hissing sound coming from the bench near where Tenten was, this combined with the fact that the weapons mistress was crouching behind an improvised barricade of large heavy things alerted him that something...interesting was about to happen.
Tenten was playing with explosives again.
Neji sighed but still dashed over next to her behind the barricade. Tenten was squatting down behind it holding a very long stick with a length of slow burning fuse at the far end. Set up on the bench in front of the obstruction was a long metal tube, sealed at one end with a small hole drilled into the top.
"What's all this?" he asked, finally giving into curiosity
"Just an idea I had last night at the party." She even had a twinkle in her eye and everything as she concentrated on the alignment of the metal tube on the counter.
"You can remember last night?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
Tenten shot him a dirty look. "Parts of it. Anyway, I remember the champagne corks flying across the room."
"And that relates to this, how?"
"Just watch, I've filled the tube with explosive powder and stuffed a crossbow bolt in the end." She brandished the stick. "So when I put this in that hole it should light the powder and propel the bolt into that target over there," She paused in thought for a moment. "Or explode."she added in an off-hand manner.
Neji was about to respond with something along the lines of 'don't use explosives in the house' but Tenten spoke first.
"Here goes!" She touched the fuse into the hole in the tube and there was a loud bang and a great deal of smoke. "Did it work?" Waving her hands in an effort to clear the smoke in front of her face, Tenten poked her head out from behind the barricade.
They waited a few minutes for the smoke to clear revealing that the tube was still intact and that the bolt was was embedded several inches into the opposite wall. It had completely missed the target though.
Tenten quickly moved to the impact zone to make observations.
"Hmm. Good penetration, not very accurate though...burned off fletching, maybe try a different projectile..." she mumbled to herself.
Neji gave an internal sigh. She was in 'research mode' he wasn't a big fan of 'research mode'. Tenten demonstrating the reason for this was ignoring him in favor of her notes. He frowned. This wouldn't do at all. He came up behind her and embraced her around her waist and kissed her on the back of the neck.
She squeaked in surprise. "Neji! I'm working!"
The pale eyed shinobi ignored her protest and kissed her again.
"Neji, stop, someone might come in." She was smiling now, he knew it.
He worked his hands up under her shirt and she stopped protesting, a low moan slipping from the back of her throat.
"Well, okay...but just this once."
Neji smirked.
0-0
Shikamaru was awakened from his slumber by an uncanny sense of foreboding. He tried to get up but found he couldn't. Something was holding him in place. He opened his eyes to reveal a pair of blond heads resting on his chest. How did they get in here? He thought, Oh, right, ninja. Remaining calm he attempted to disentangle himself. The slightly spiky blond on the left let loose a warning growl. He went very still. This was not going to end well.
0-0
Lee gathered his resolve. He was going to ask Sakura out on a date. Again. It would be different from the other 1,378 times he had asked her out, this time she would say yes!
He entered the hospital where his target was working. She looked as if she was on a break. That was a good sign, he had learned not to bother her while she was working.
"Hello Sakura!" he greeted with his usual enthusiasm.
"Oh, hello Lee." She looked up at him, and the corner of her mouth seemed to lift slightly. It might be his imagination but she seemed pleased to see him.
"Did you receive an invitation to Neji and Tenten's wedding?" he asked.
"Just about everyone did, Lee," Sakura replied. The amused smile grew just a fraction.
"Well I was wondering if you would do me the very great honor of accompanying me."
The smile disappeared and Lee's heart dropped. Sakura looked thoughtful for a few minutes, then a few minutes more, and then she furrowed her brow in thought for a few minutes longer.
"What are you wearing?" she asked suddenly.
"What do you want me to wear?" he responded honestly.
After thinking on that for what seemed to Lee like quite a long time she responded. "Okay."
"Oh," Lee sounded disappointed. "I understa-, um, what?"
"Yes, Lee, I'll go with you." she said, with a small smile.
Lee started to spaz out. His heart started to pound and his eyes shone with the fire of youth. Lee started to spaz out. "If it is not your best date fever I shall run 5000 laps of the village, and if I cannot do that I will-"
"Lee," she interrupted. "Don't make me regret this."
"Yes! Of course! I must prepare!" He rocketed off in a cloud of dust.
Sakura sighed quietly. Maybe this was a bad idea...but he just looked so cute with that beard...
kind of short and not really my best work...hmm.
anyway, Getting towards the end now folks.
Oh and I'd like to thank Tanya Lilac for filling in at beta at the last moment.