TenTen managed to avoid Neji for three whole days. That was actually a long time for the two of them. They usually trained together almost every day. But she'd made the excuse that Lee has asked her to help with his training to avoid training with Neji. And of course she felt incredibly guilty about that, but she just couldn't face Neji right now. Just thinking about what had happened made her want to cry, and if she cried in front of Neji he'd only get annoyed. The jerk thought of tears as a weakness.
Right now TenTen was at Lee's apartment, laying across the green beast's bed on her stomach and reading a magazine. It was a good thing that Lee was as good a listener as a girl, because TenTen didn't have any close friends that were girls. Sure, there was Hinata, but she couldn't talk to her about Neji. They were family.
When she'd told Lee about what had happened, he'd stopped her the moment she used the word 'bra.' He did not want to hear any more, fearing for his youthful friend's modesty. Why couldn't Neji be so considerate? Or at least think about her feelings. The jerk.
"You cannot avoid our youthful teammate forever. He's going to get upset with you and Gai-sensei would not be happy if you upset our team dynamic," Lee piped up from where he was sitting next to her, legs folded and cleaning his weights.
TenTen sighed, shaking her head.
"I know. I guess I'm just hoping that maybe if I wait long enough he'll forget about the whole thing."
Lee laughed, setting his weights down and looking down at her.
"Neji does not forget a thing. That is part of what makes him so youthful!"
"Do you have to work that word into every sentence?" TenTen asked.
"What word?"
"Youth."
Lee looked at her curiously, as if he hadn't realized that he actually said it that much.
"I didn't say youth. I said youthful. Those are two completely different words," he finally exclaimed.
TenTen rolled her eyes. He was impossible. There was no worth in arguing him. He was kinda like Neji in that way.
"Right. Whatever."
TenTen sighed once more shutting her magazine and laying her head down on Lee's bed. It was silent for a moment and TenTen was actually enjoying the silence, which was so rare when she was around Lee. But then there was a knock at Lee's front door. Both ninjas perked up. They weren't expecting anyone to show.
Lee climbed off the bed and went to the front door, answering it. TenTen could hear the voices from the bedroom.
"Neji! What a pleasure it is to see my most youthful teammate!"
Even though she couldn't see Neji, TenTen could practically feel his annoyance. She knew him that well.
"I need to talk to TenTen," Neji said, sounding as irritated as she expected him to be.
There was a small silence then Neji spoke again.
"I know she's here. Don't bother trying to lie."
Damn Neji and his stupid byakugan. It gave him an unfair advantage. TenTen frowned, but managed to slide off the bed and walked to the front door, seeing Lee facing Neji and looking very uncomfortable being in the middle of the situation. The taijutsu user mumbled some very youthful excuse and got out of there as fast as he could, leaving TenTen alone with Neji, who was holding her weapon scroll in his hands.
"Hi Neji. What's up?" TenTen said cheerfully, trying not to look like he was the last person in the entire world that she wanted to see right now.
"Here," Neji said, shoving the scroll into her arms.
He looked mad, and not just his usual mad. He was clearly upset, probably because he realized she was avoiding him. She never was good at hiding things from him.
"It's got to be hard to train with Lee without your weapons."
The brown haired girl laughed sheepishly, not really knowing what to see.
"Gee… Thanks Neji. Do you wanna hang out with me and Lee for a while?"
"No," was his only curt reply.
It made TenTen cringe, hearing him speak like that to her. He was usually slightly less cold with her than everyone else. But not today. Today he was extra cold. Before she could even say anything he turned and left, practically disappearing from her sight. She really hated being the slowest member of their team. She knew there would be no way to catch him if he didn't want to be caught.
But she didn't know if she wanted to chase after him anyways. She was upset with him until he actually showed up in front of her, but once she saw him that all changed. It actually seemed like he was almost hurt by her actions, which was weird because nothing got to Neji. People could insult him all day and he wouldn't be fazed. But she'd hurt him? It didn't make sense. Maybe she was reading him wrong. It had happened before, just not often.
"Oi Lee. I'm gonna go. See you later!" she called, not even waiting for a reply back from her teammate before she left Lee's apartment.
TenTen didn't really know where to go, so she just ended up wandering around the village. She walked around for a while before finding herself walking on the path to her team's training area. She hadn't meant to go there. It was just sort of where she wound up. There shouldn't be anyone there yet since they weren't supposed to train today and Neji trained alone he did so at home. She would at least be able to get some thinking done there. She'd always found the place to be soothing. Lots of good memories.
Sitting on the ground and leaning her back against a tree, the girl was finally able to just think about what had happened. She'd gotten angry at Neji for being completely cold about accidentally seeing her bra. It was if he didn't realize that she was a girl at all. Sure, she didn't want him to treat her any differently as a ninja just because she had boobs, but she also didn't want his reaction to her practically flashing him to be amusement. It was bad enough that guys usually saw her as some kind of sexless tomboy, but this was taking it to a whole new level. No guy would ever see her as anything but a friend. She should accept it now. She was going to be a very accomplished ninja, and be alone forever because of it.
"Stupid stupid stupid…Should have known better," she mumbled to herself and she rubbed her eyes, trying to stop herself from crying. But it was for nothing. She just couldn't stop the tears from coming. It made her weak and she knew it, but she just couldn't stop.
"What are you talking about?" came the voice of the teammate she was currently obsessing over.
TenTen practically jumped out of her skin when she heard him speak, which of course prompted him to lecture her.
"You should have notice me approach. I wasn't trying to hide my presence," he said, staring down at her with that blank look on his face.
"Not now Neji. Just go away," she said, resting her forehead on her knees and trying to hide the fact that she was crying from him.
She didn't hear his footsteps at all. He wasn't leaving. He wasn't saying anything either. She wished she could see the look on his face so that she could know what was going on inside that head of his, but that would require looking at him and therefore letting him see her cry. That was not happening.
"I already know you're crying. No use hiding," he said, still with no trace of emotion in his voice.
As well as she knew him, he knew her just as well. She should have known that he didn't have to see her face to know she was crying. But she still wasn't going to look at him. It was just too shameful. In fact, she didn't bother answering him at all. She kept her head buried in her knees and just ignored him. That is, until he spoke.
"Get up," he said, using the same commanding tone he had whenever they were training and she was getting tired and wanted to quite.
"What?" was her muffled response, quiet and barely audible because of her face being against her pants.
"Get up. I'm not coming down there, so you can to stand."
It figured. Neji was always so rigid. He didn't bend for anyone, which was actually literal this time. He wouldn't bend down for her.
"Why?" she muttered.
"I want to talk to you."
"Not now."
She could practically feel the pale white eyes boring a whole into her brain with his glare. TenTen sighed and stood up, but was not happy about it. Her eyes were still wet from having been crying and her face was all red, not to mention the very unpleasant expression on her face.
"There, I'm standing. Now what do you want," she growled.
Neji actually didn't respond for a moment, caught off guard by her irritableness.
"You're avoiding me. I want to know why," he demanded.
Now it was TenTen's turn to glare.
"Because all any man will ever think of me as is a friend. I am a girl! I like boys. I just want you to act like seeing my bra isn't hilarious. Even Lee was embarrassed to talk about it! Seriously, do you even like girls or is it just me that you could never see that way?"
She had gone off the deep end now and she knew it, yelling at him like that. He looked so confused at that moment. There was a very awkward pause after that. Finally the silence was broken by the brown eyed girl.
"Guh… Sorry. It's not your fault I'm not pretty enough for any guy to notice."
She was about to say more but was cut off by him opening his mouth.
"I like girls."
So he wasn't asexual. That was good to know, but so not the point right now.
"That's great Neji, but I think I'm gonna go home now. I've had enough embarrassment for one day."
And with that she turned and tried to walk away, but was stopped by a hand grasping her wrist. She turned back and looked at Neji, who seemed to be contemplating something. Then without any warning, he used the grip he had on her wrist to pull her back to him. She nearly tripped over her own two feet, startled by the motion, but caught herself mere inches away from Neji. That left her staring at his chest and very confused at what he was doing. She looked up at him and saw that the look on contemplation that had been on his face before was now replaced with a look of interest. What was so interesting?
And then the small distance that was left between them was nonexistent and she felt his free hand on the small of her back pulling her up against him. It happened so fast that she didn't even have time to react. His lips pressed against hers and her eyes widened with shock. He let go of her wrist but she didn't try to pull away. Instead she rested her hand on his shoulder, closed her eyes and actually leaned into the kiss.
And then just as quickly as it had all happened, it was over. Neji's hand left her waist and he pulled away from the kiss. TenTen was just left there, stunned and unable to speak. The strange thing was, Neji didn't speak either. He just turned and walked away, disappearing into the trees.
"What the hell was that?" the brunette mumbled to herself, reaching up and touching her lips gently with her fingers as if trying to figure if what she just experienced actually happened.
Surely it didn't. Neji didn't kiss people, especially not her. She was his best friend, had been for years. And now… now what? She didn't know. The only thing TenTen could do was try to figure out what had happened as she walked home.