AN: Many thanks to eternalsmiles, udntned2no and sanriochica for the lovely reviews. Hopefully this will reach them since I can't respond. Made my day, guys!
"Neji," said Gai seriously. "Your hair is far too long."
Neji sighed. He had just arrived at the training grounds, and he wasn't ready to face Lee and Gai together yet. Actually, he was hardly ever ready to face Gai and Lee together, which was very intimidating, but getting some exercise done first usually helped.
"Having long hair is a Hyuuga tradition, sensei," he said as calmly as he could. "Pretty much everyone has long hair in our family, except Hinata. And even she has the long side bangs."
Gai shook his head slowly. "Neji, you must be the one to break the tradition. Youth must replace the old, and new ideas must fell old customs."
"Yes, Neji!" Lee broke in. "And you'll look manlier!"
"So what, exactly, do you people want to do with my hair?" Neji asked, though he already had a good idea. If it was what he thought he was…he fingered a kunai. No, he should probably refrain from killing them, but to lightly injure them was perfectly acceptable. It would be chalked up as a training accident, even by the victims themselves.
Lee and Gai both sighed impatiently. "Well, Neji, you might have guessed this, but we have decided to give you the most youthful cut of all…" Gai murmured dramatically.
"THE BOWL CUT!" Lee shouted enthusiastically.
Neji reacted to the words instinctively, letting his kunai fly at the two. Unfortunately it shot between them harmlessly, and he had nothing left to defend himself from the bowl cut wearing men in green.
He ran for his life.
Tenten arrived a few minutes later to see the three shinobi cutting intricate mazes between the trees. Shaking her head, she pulled Neji to a stop. He was generally the best person to ask for an explanation.
But as soon as he was grabbed, Neji panicked and used the gentle touch technique. Tenten ended up almost paralyzed on the ground before he stopped attacking.
"Eh…Tenten?"
Lee and Gai, who had come up behind him, ceased attempting to cut his hair upon seeing Tenten's condition.
"All right Neji, what's going on?"
Neji gulped. "These two want to cut my hair!" He shouted accusatorily.
"Oh," said Tenten. "That is a problem."
Neji sent her a pleading look. So Tenten decided that just this once, she would step in on his behalf. Although he would owe her.
"Neji can't cut his hair," she said firmly.
"But Tenten-san!" Lee cried out. "We know it is a tradition, but we must break the tradition!"
Tenten shook her head slowly. "Ah, Lee-kun. It is not because it is tradition, but because of a promise Neji made to me…" She could tell she had their attention now. "Neji has promised never to cut his hair until he marries me. It is to make him more motivated in convincing his father to allow me to enter the Hyuuga family. I am sorry if it prevents him from having a youthful haircut, but you know Neji can never break a promise."
"Oh." Gai nodded easily. "I am sorry we pressured you, Neji. If it's something like this, it's perfectly fine." Upon which he and Lee ran off to do more exercises in penance for pressuring Neji.
Neji stared. "Wait…they actually believe that? And they aren't even surprised? Even though you claimed I'm engaged to you?"
Tenten shrugged. "It was bound to happen sooner or later."
"What…"
A few days later, Neji realized that the side effect of this story was that he was never going to be able to get his haircut until he married Tenten, which could very well be never.
And he had split ends.
AN: I like reviews. A lot. Think I mentioned this earlier.