Me: Alright, let me tell you guys that I am not familiar with anything related to mafias or mobs. So, I'm not one.
Kankuro: Oh, come on! That is so weird! You're writing a mafia fic and you're totally clueless about it?!
Me: It's true, anyway! Besides… I'm still… uh, researching on mafias. Back then, I thought a mafia was… a dance.
Kankuro: -eyes wide in amusement- I… I'm sorry, I didn't hear what you said. Please repeat.
Me: -sigh- You heard me, Kankuro…
Kankuro: No, seriously, I need you to say it again, please.
Me: -heavier sigh- Back then, I thought a mafia was a… uhm, dance.
Kankuro: -brings in cameramen and a mic- Say it one last time. But this time, loud enough for the whole world to hear.
Me: -smirk- Kankuro's not wearing underwear today! I saw!
Kankuro: Oh my gawd, how did you know?! -faints of embarrassment-
Me: -jaw drop- WTF.
Random Camera Man: Okay, I got that! It'll be aired in a few minutes!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
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"Oh my gawd, he's gone!"
Tenten stood outside in her pocket garden in her pajamas, staring at the same pile of cloth and metal stilts she left here last night. The only thing is: her mafia guard wasn't here.
She lifted the cloth up to check if he was beneath it and found nothing. She ran to the outhouse and found it empty (But the toilet bowl, on the other hand, wasn't.). Eventually, she ran back to the unset tent and thought, "If he did anything criminal, I swear I'll—…"
Chink.
Chink, Chink, Chink.
As she pulled on the sliding door's handle, she kept hearing the same sound. And she knew it was the sound the door makes whenever you tried to open it when it was locked. "Shit." She thought, "No way…"
"Screw!"
She hit her fist against the glass, calling his name in anger. "That guy has some nerve to actually do this." She thought furiously, gritting her teeth. She swears she'll hit him once she's got a hold of him.
After a few yells, she saw Neji smirk from the inside, chuckling at poor little her beyond the clear glass. Upon seeing him, Tenten pointed at him and exclaimed, "Listen, buster, I am so going to call the police if you ever steal anything or do any other crappy things in my house, understand?!"
With that, Neji just pressed his face against the glass and made a face. Once he had drawn his face away, he replied, "Try that and I'll kill you."
That made her shrink back a little. Definitely, a mafia gangster can say that and mean it any time.
He held a smirk before her and explained behind the glass door, "Don't worry. All I want to do is experience the luxury of your home. You know, the sauna, the pool, the bidet… the works. Besides, I need a bath."
"Oh, damn it, I swear if I ever find anything lost or misplaced, I will personally and single-handedly have you arrested!"
With those words, Neji took out his gun again and said jokingly, "And I, on the other hand, will personally and single-handedly have this gun against your head. And not just that, I'll even willingly shoot you."
And with that, Neji took out a marker and wrote Ciao for Now, 20 on the glass. After winking at her, he proceeded to the second floor.
"I swear, Eagle Eye Screw, I am so going to rejoice when you finally get your ass out of here!"
But he stopped in his tracks, walked back to her and whispered past the glass, "And, my name's Neji. Not Screw. So quit it, Twenty."
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O
"Yo, Twenty."
She turned to the glass door and saw Neji in a pink bathrobe with his long hair drenched. He looked pretty relaxed and satisfied.
When she saw this, Tenten's eyes grew as she pulled herself off of the ground. She briskly approached him and said furiously, shoving him by the shoulder, "Take that off! That's my bathrobe! Take it off!"
Arching a brow, Neji answered smoothly, "Maybe later."
Irritated, Tenten untied the knot that held the bathrobe together and pushed it off of him. When she did, her eyes grew wider when she went face to face with a (smexy) chest and nothing else to cover everything.
A blush appeared on her face as she turned around and reacted, "Oh my gawd, put it back on, put it back on!"
After a roll of the eyes, Eagle Eye tied it back on and muttered, "You never really listen to me, huh?" Once he had done doing so, Tenten placed her gaze on him again.
"Okay, what did you do to my house, eh?" she asked him, putting her hands across her chest, "Did you trash my living room? Destroy my game room? Cut the strings of the cellos in my music room? Abuse the ice cream machine? Stole my cash after figuring out my vault's code?"
Eagle Eye smiled and plainly answered, "Well, I made pancakes, took a bath, wore your bathrobe and… went out to invite you to breakfast."
All she did was stare back at him when she heard that. That explained the buttery aroma around.
"I didn't know you had an ice cream machine." Neji commented, chuckling.
"I don't." Tenten answered, walking into the house, "And I didn't tell you to make breakfast, right? You might've placed some drug in the food or something. You think I trust you already, don't you?"
He shrugged and honestly replied, "Well, kinda," he continued as he walked in with her, "I mean, I trust you already."
"That's because I don't have a choice. If I earned the money, I'd lose it anyway to your mafia and die of poverty. If I tried to escape this, I'd be dead. If I don't do this, I'm dead. Either way, I'll end up dying, right?"
"Why, did you think I had a choice?"
Hearing that out of Neji made Tenten stop and contemplate a little before heading to the kitchen, asked curiously, "Didn't you?"
Neji shook his head as he answered, "If I don't follow Kosa Hyuga's orders, they'll have me whacked or they'll just do away with me. After the next 28 days, I bet I'll be back to the same old chase where the other mafias try to kill me so our mafia will fall apart. Got a price on my head."
With that, she turned to him and giggled in amusement, "You're not exactly what I had in mind." She admitted, "I thought you'd be all tough and serious. I thought you'd always have a knife literally waiting to go down my neck. But here you are, inviting me to pancakes and wearing my bathrobe."
A snicker came out of Neji when she said this. "I'm… one of a kind?" he said with a grin.
"No." Tenten answered, "You're just different."
She walked up the stairs and made her way to her room with Neji still tailing her. "Aren't you going to have some breakfast?" He asked her as she entered her room. She slammed the door in his face without answering.
Tenten leaned on the door, listening to herself breathe. She knew that with this guy around, she's hardly safe anymore. She admits it: She didn't sleep a wink last night because she was worried he might kill her.
Locking the door yet again, she nervously went to her closet and picked out a pair of jeans and a simple shirt from her wardrobe. Her plan today was to try to get another job today. Hopefully, she'd soon get one and that Screw guy could leave her alone.
"Come to think of it,' Tenten thought as she made her way into the bathroom, "Where are Eagle Eye's clothes?"
And once she had entered the bathroom, she found his shirt, pants and even his socks hanging on the towel rack to dry.
"Gross."
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O
She came down from upstairs and found Neji still in the bathrobe.
Seeing this, she sighed and asked, "Why're you still in that thing?"
"Isn't it obvious?" he answered as he read the newspaper, specifically the Entertainment section, "I didn't get anything packed for this stay, right? In fact, I think it was at short notice, even. So, unless you want me to go around in wet clothes or naked, I'll be in your bathrobe."
Tenten tapped her foot and said, "You left your clothes in my bathroom. What did I tell you about using my bathroom? I said you weren't allowed to."
"But the guest bathroom didn't have hot water."
"A heater has a purpose!"
"And would you have appreciated it if I took a bath in your swimming pool? I don't think so."
"I get your point, Screw, but you could at least hang your clothes to dry at the laundry area instead of my bathroom! You even had your underwear exposed there, you know! It was gross!"
"At least they were clean." His eyes were fixed on the newspaper instead of Tenten.
"Nu-uh!" she opposed, shaking her head at him, "They are not officially clean unless they go through the washing machine, the dryer and the iron. Which is exactly why I did get them cleaned."
Hearing that, Neji put the newspaper down. "Excuse me?" he said, "Did you say you had my clothes washed?"
Tenten shrugged and innocently said, "Well, your male germs were contaminating my house, right? So I picked them up and dropped them into the washing machine. You'll be getting them later. Right now, you need decent guy clothes if you're going out with me."
Silence.
"I mean, go out as in walk out of the house and look for a job…" she clarified, turning red again, "Not go out as in go out on a date, not that I want to go to one. Not with you, yes, but with some other guy I am yet to meet, sure. So, let's go out. Out of the house, I mean."
Once again, he stared blankly at her before saying, "Can I borrow some of your dad's clothes, then?"
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O
Neji came out of the house in a polo and black slacks. He hated it.
"I don't understand why your dad has such corporate attire." He said, grumbling as they walked through the house, "Didn't he ever take a break from work and just wear casual wear? I mean, look at this. I look like I'm going to work."
She gazed at him from the corner of her eye, noticing his angled jaw line and the flawless skin that made up his face. His eyes were so gorgeous even with that angsty glare. Oh my gawd. His shoulders were broad and slender along with that charismatic scowl his lips thinly formed…
Realizing her sudden complimenting, Tenten shook her head a little before answering as she walked to the garage, "Meh, you look fine."
She took out her car keys from her back pocket and deactivated her Porsche's theft alarm. She took her seat behind the wheel and reacted when Neji sat at the back, "Hey, hey, hey!" she said, turning to him, "You're sitting here up at front. I have to keep an eye on you."
"What am I, a child?" he said, eyeing her pathetically as he got comfortable at the back, "Last night I was a dog and now I'm some toddler?"
After a roll of eyes and a nip of the lip, Tenten growled, "You'll be my foot rug soon if you don't come here this instant."
"Right…" Neji thought as he stood up to transfer to the front seat, "Like that'll happen. This kid has some guts."
Once he was beside her, she backed the car into the street and started to make her way through the streets. Soon, she was driving through, on her way to a store in the next ten blocks. Neji held the Job Listings for her and read the address to her as she drove.
Then, Neji looked at the rear view mirrors and saw a white low rider.
"Shit," he grumbled under his breath, "It's the Aburames."
"Huh?" Tenten said, hearing him.
"The Aburames are my mafia's rivals," Neji explained, taking his gun out from his pocket, "They've been trying to kill me for the past three months so there would be no heir to the Hyuga mafia…"
"What?!" Tenten exclaimed, "Why didn't you tell me that you're on someone's hit list?!"
"I didn't want you to think about it, that's all!"
"Well, now I am!" she screamed as she drove faster, overtaking more cars. Soon, gunshots were heard. The Aburames were aiming for their tires. "Gawd, if my tires burst, you're getting me new ones!" Tenten yelled at Neji, "These were limited edition white skins…"
"Shut up, Tenten," he answered back, "This is no time to be thinking about those damn tires. Keep driving faster and I'll try to shoot them back."
As he held his head out to try to shoot them, Tenten held him back and said, "Are you crazy? The police will see you! They'll get you and you'll be done for sure!"
Neji looked back at her as they drove at almost 200 mph, "Why do you care now?" he asked suspiciously as his hair flew about.
"Because you're a pretty whacked mafia guard and I don't want anyone more insane to watch over me!"
He rolled his eyes and muttered, "Wow. Real sweet, Tenten… Bravo. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be shooting now."
This time, he didn't let her hold him back. He held his hand out and started shooting aimlessly the white car roughly behind them. Before they knew it, the Aburames were already hitting their car's bumper at the back.
"Neji, make them stop!" Tenten shrieked as she held her ground on her seat while driving in a panic, "If they don't shoot us, we'll eventually crash into something with them hitting us. Do something!"
"What am I supposed to do, then?" Neji snapped back at her as she kept twisting through the intersections.
She gave him an angry glare before screaming, "Have you gone dumb? Do what the Aburames were trying to do earlier! Shoot their tires! Now that they're nearer, this'll be easier this time around! Do it!"
And with that, Tenten felt the wind through her hair as she kept her window open. She saw Neji hang his head out of his own window and try to shoot the tires. She heard his countless shots miss and finally, she heard one of the tires burst… but it was theirs.
"Shit!" Neji exclaimed, looking at their burst tire, "Sorry about that, Tenten. I misaimed."
"I don't care now!" Tenten yelled back as she tried to gain control despite the lack of one tire, "Keep aiming for them! The sooner we get rid of them, the better. Now go!"
Through those moments, Tenten couldn't feel her toes at all. She could tell that slowly, she was losing control and the shooting and the bumping behind her car was making her sweat and feel panicky. She can never get used to this.
Two gunshots and two tires of the Aburames have gone, from what she had heard and to her relief, she saw the Aburames' car lack behind and very soon, they have stopped tailing them.
Neji threw himself back into the car and when Tenten knew that she could relax now, she turned to the side sharply and with a skid and a screech, she had managed to park the car as both of them breathed heavily, recovering from the chase.
Tenten leaned back on her seat as her chest heaved up and down from difficult breathing. Neji, on the other hand, had his head on her lap as he kept his eyes closed while trying to catch his breath. He pulled himself up and mumbled, "H-Had fun?"
She looked at him angrily and grumbled, "Neji, please, please tell me that it'll never happen again."
With a smile, Neji joked with her, "Oh yeah? Well, I've been experiencing that for months and yeah, I still haven't gotten used to it, either." He fixed his seat before adding, "Besides, you didn't call me Screw after that chase, right? You called me Neji. I… kinda like that a lot, Tenten."
Tenten tried to recall when she did use his real name instead of Screw and answered with a grin, "Yeah, and you called me Tenten, too. Heh."
They looked around to see if the Aburames have bothered to follow them and when the coast was clear, they got out of the car to change that one tire Neji accidentally shot.
She took out the spare and asked him, "How do you survive those kind of things? I felt like I was going to die."
"It's a mafia's life for me." He answered as he fixed the tire onto the empty space, "If I couldn't handle that kind of thing, then I shouldn't have joined my family. It transforms a boring life into an adventurous one, so it's fun."
"But you risk everything once you've joined a mafia, right?"
"I guess," he replied as he gave the tire a quick shove, "You risk the lives of your loved ones aside from your own life. And if your enemy ever catches you, you lose everything: your property, land, and possessions… That's how it is."
Tenten picked the torn tire and kept it in the compartment as she questioned, "So it's not the kind of life for the weak, hm?"
"You can say that," he said, "We're not all guns, gold, money and whacking. There are advantages but there are more disadvantages. Even if you're rich, you can't get someone to stay with you. My mother regretted marrying my father at first, but eventually, she got used to it. Then, she got shot one day."
With that, Tenten closed the compartment door and kept listening to him as he said, "I used to have a girl, too. But when she found out that I was from the mafia, she dropped me like a hot potato. It's pretty rough, but I'm guessing it'll one day be worth it."
And once they were done, they got back into the car and Tenten revved the engine up again. Neji opened the Job Listings page again to recheck the address of the store they were looking for.
But before they went, Tenten turned to Neji and said, "You know what? I never thought you had a good side."
All Neji did was smile back when she added, "And don't worry. I can get used to these chases. Teach me how to shoot later."
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When will Hanabi and Hinata make their moves? Will the Aburames strike again? Does that last line of Tenten affect her relationship with Neji? Will Neji have enough money to pay Tenten back for the tire he popped? Will Tenten be Neji's new girl?
Find out soon.
Kankuro: Seriously, those questions could keep me up at night.
Me: Want me to bombard you with more?
Kankuro: No, gawd!
Me: Will Tenten get a job at the store they're going to? Will Neji ever get his clothes ironed soon? Will Neji be sleeping in the garden again? Or will Tenten let him sleep in her own room? Will Tenten flirt with Neji? When will the lemon chapter come?
Random people I borrowed from Sorrel Piedra: Oh My Gawsh!
Kankuro: Stop it! Stop it! Arrgh!
Me: -laughing head off- This is so awesome! Oh, look! It's on!
Kankuro: What's on?
Me: The video of me proclaiming your underwearless-ness!
Kankuro: Nooo! -foaming again-