In this story, whenever it refers to first person, it's in Tenten's point of view. Just for refrence.
Chapter 2: No Freaking Way
I opened my eyes and the first thing I thought was go back to sleep. But I knew it was the first day of school. I snuck a glance at my clock and read 6:45. I had to be at school for 8:30, so I could catch another fifteen minutes of sleep.
If it wasn't for my growling stomach, I could've gone back to sleep. I slid out of bed and rubbed my face, waking up almost immediately. I headed downstairs and made myself breakfast as usual. I got dressed in a new outfit that I had been saving just for the first day and tied my hair up in those twin buns that had earned me the nickname 'meatball head' just because I could. I didn't care what people thought of me. That's why regardless of all the teasing, I persisted in my hairstyle. I'm pleased to say the teasing stopped.
After that, I went off to school. It was an ordinary morning to what would be an ordinary day.
.oOo.
I met with my friends in the cafeteria of our high school as usual. Sakura was my best friend. I would go to her with anything.
"Tenten!" She called, waving at me as I walked into the cafeteria. I sat down at the table and began comparing timetables with her.
"Saku-chan! Tennie-chan!" A loud voice called into the cafeteria. That was Ino. She wasn't my BEST friend, but she was a good friend. Just think about a best friend, and take it down a notch.
"So guys, what's up?" She asked as she sat down.
"The ceiling." I replied simply.
Ino gave me a sideways look.
I smirked. "Up is a direction."
Sakura laughed.
Ino sighed. "Tenten, you need to loosen up."
"Hey, I can't help but say that!" I laughed.
Ino shook her head. "So, what's up?"
Sakura giggled. "Nothing really."
"Same. I'm glad to be back in school though." I replied.
Ino leaned towards Sakura, putting her elbows on the table. "So...Sakura..."
Sakura began to look nervous.
"How's it going with Sa-su-ke?"
I shot Sakura a look. "You're dating HIM?" This was news to me.
Sakura's cheeks flushed slightly.
"Since when?"
"Mmm, since about a week ago." Ino said easily. "And she's only dating him because I set them up!"
"Oh god, what did you do this time?" If I knew Ino, it involved revealing clothing, a club, and Truth or Dare.
"If you want to know..." a monotone voice said behind us. Judging by the way Sakura's face lit up, it was Sasuke. "Ino tormented me for an entire month until I asked her out."
Ino shrugged with a smile on her face as Sasuke sat down beside Sakura. I immediately got worried. If I had to spend the school year with Sasuke, I think I would go insane.
Ino flipped out a magazine. I immediately turned away from Sasuke and Sakura to look at Ino.
"So what's new in the world of celebrities?" I asked, pretending to be interested.
Ino raised one perfectly manicured finger in my direction. It was her 'silence' gesture. I looked over her shoulder at what she was reading and sighed at the image of the boy with long brown hair and dazzling silver eyes. What was his name again? I could never remember things like that. I just knew that at least half of the school, most likely more, were total fans of that actor. I've seen one of the movies he was in only because it was about a boy with epic superpowers. He wasn't a half bad actor either. I just wasn't one to obsess over him like lots of people.
Ino's jaw was halfway to the floor as she finished the article. She slammed the magazine on the table.
"Neji Hyuuga quit!" She cried.
Sakura tore her eyes off of Sasuke to look at Ino with surprise. "He did WHAT?"
Ino put her finger on the magazine. "It says in here that two weeks ago he quit acting over script issues, and left! He hasn't been seen since then!"
"Script issues?" I scoffed. "Actors these days."
"What else does it say?" Sakura asked, looking over at the magazine.
"That's the thing! It doesn't say anything else! That's the whole topic of the article! And look at the front page!" Ino flipped the magazine to the front page. There it showed Neji's unmistakeable face from his part in his most popular movie, covered in a big label saying 'Neji calls it quits'.
"I wonder why he quit." I murmured. "There has to be a bigger picture than just script issues."
The bell rang at that moment. We all stood up and headed to our classes. Ino and I had the same class first period: Math. However, the moment we left the cafeteria we were faced with a massive wall of people. They all seemed to be chattering excitedly.
"What's going on?" I asked.
Ino began standing on her toes to see over the heads.
"Clear out! Clear out!" A teacher called, making sweeping motions with her arms. The crowd began to disperse. Ino and I walked up the stairs, but not without looking over our shoulders. We saw someone with long brown hair shaking the teachers hand before taking off down the hall.
"Who the hell..." Ino said, her face twisted in an expression of confusion, shock, and various other emotions that I can't name.
"Come on Ino." I grabbed her arm and attempted to drag her up the stairs. She remained rooted in position. "INO!" I yelled.
"What?" Ino's head snapped towards me. She seemed baffled by something.
"What is it?"
Ino looked back towards the hall where the mane of long hair had disappeared. "I don't know. I'm just thinking. But it CAN'T be..."
"Come on." I continued up the stairs. Ino followed me, still looking baffled. We made it to math class with a minute to spare.
The class was abuzz with activity. People were gossiping, chattering and whispering to each other.
"Ino! Ino!" A girl called with panic when we walked in. Ino, smelling something juicy, moved faster than I've ever seen her move. I followed her for no reason.
"Did you see him?" The girl asked.
"Who, who?" Ino asked eagerly.
"Neji Hyuuga! I swear! He's in this school!"
"WHAT?" Ino and I screamed at the same time.
"No way!" Ino cried.
"You're lying!" I stated.
My cell phone vibrated in my pocket. I quickly turned so the teacher couldn't see it and flipped it open. It was from Sakura.
Tenten! Neji Hyuuga's in my class! It said.
I pressed my fingers to the keypad and quickly typed No freaking way...I just heard a rumour that he was here, but you just confirmed it for me. Are you absolutely sure? I hit send.
The bell rang a second time and everyone jumped in their seats. The teacher stood in front of the class. His name was Mr. Umino. He had a scar on his face. The first thing he did was tell the class about it, saying that he played hockey as a child and got tackled to the ground and got cut right across the face with someone's skate. It was an impressive tale.
My phone vibrated again and I pulled it out quickly and read the text.
Yes! It's him! He's sitting right beside me! I would not lie about this! I slid my phone shut as Mr. Umino began to speak again. The bell rang again after an agonizingly slow wait. I wanted to know if THE Neji Hyuuga was actually in the building.
As I headed towards drama class I was looking around constantly. I noticed that everyone else was doing the same thing. Things spread fast in this school. To my disappointment, I didn't see him. When I walked into my drama class, it was buzzing with excitement. I took my seat in the circle of chairs and chattered with the people around me. The door opened and everyone's head turned towards it. The room went dead silent at the sight of the long haired boy walking into the classroom. I couldn't believe it. It was Neji Hyuuga in the flesh walking into our classroom and taking his seat in our circle.
The classroom began to hum with whispers, and cell phones were whipped out all at once.
"Put the phones away!" The teacher barked. The phones slowly went away, but not before everyone finished their texts. Thus, the teacher did a full loop of the classroom and took three phones before they all disappeared back into pockets and bags.
"I don't want to see cell phones in this classroom." The teacher said calmly. She was quite pretty for a teacher. We soon learned that her name was Miss Yuhi. She immediately began to make a big deal about the rules of the class. No gum, no laughing at skits unless they are meant to be comedic, and to always use each other's names. To start us off, she told us her full name, and her favourite thing to do. The person to her left would say her name and what her hobby was, before saying their name and their favourite thing to do.
The teacher's full name was Kurenai Yuhi, and her favourite thing to do was to paint. It went around the classroom and eventually it got to me. I went through the class before eventually doing my part.
"My name is Tenten Akiyama, and my favourite thing to do is karate." I said simply.
The introductions continued around the classroom. I knew everyone was waiting for Neji's introduction. Luckily we didn't have to wait long.
"My name is Neji Hyuuga...My favourite thing to do is read." He said.
I could almost feel the disappointment in the air. Everyone expected something interesting. He just had to go with reading. I thought maybe he would say something awesome, like he did Kendo in his spare time. Or even knew how to swordfight. For goodness sakes, why reading?
By the time the game finished, the bell rang and everyone filed to their next classroom.
I arrived in my next class: English. I was shocked to find out that Neji was in that class as well! But I found that I wasn't as excited about it as I was before. I mean, okay, so Neji Hyuuga's in my school. So what's he doing here? There has to be a reason. It turned out that I ended up sitting beside him in the front row.
Our English teacher was a silver haired man named Mr. Hatake. He was reading a book at his desk. Reading the cover immediately made me question this teacher. Make Out Paradise? Are you serious?
I heard a snigger beside me. I saw Neji with his hand over his mouth, staring at the book in our teachers hand while trying not to laugh.
I immediately decided to go on with the game.
"Mr. Hatake?" I called, raising my hand. He looked up at me. "What are you reading?" I smiled sweetly at him as the class immediately began to laugh. Oh yeah. The class had seen the title too.
Mr. Hatake's cheeks literally turned pink, earning him more laughs from the class.
"Is it any good?" I asked, earning me a ton of laughs. See, this is what people usually ask when they see a book they are 'interested' in. I wasn't interested in the book, I just wanted to make him squirm.
Mr. Hatake's cheeks got pinker. I have never seen anything so freaking funny in my life. Now for the grand finale...Neji got to it first.
"Could you tell us what it's about?" He finished with the perfect innocent voice, complete with British accent. The classroom exploded with laughter. I felt like I was dying.
Mr. Hatake cleared his throat and set the book down. "All right, all right, you've had your laugh. Settle down."
Neji continued sniggering behind his hand, as did the rest of the class. A random giggle tore through the classroom and the laughter fired back up again. Mr. Hatake sighed in defeat and picked his book back up again, causing the laughter to swell to an impossible height. Mr. Hatake soon caught on to the fact that it was his book that caused his class to lose control, and shoved it into his backpack.
"Mr. Hatake!" Someone cried, raising their hand. The class turned towards him.
Mr. Hatake looked at the boy.
"I couldn't help but notice you were on volume six! Do you by chance have the whole series?"
The class killed themselves laughing again.
Mr. Hatake stood up and walked to the front of his desk. He sat on it. "What is your name?"
"Suigetsu!" The boy laughed.
"Suigetsu, I trust you will refrain from being the class clown."
"THAT'S MY JOB!" A blonde haired boy screeched from the corner.
"Shut up, dobe!" I recognized Sasuke's voice.
"No way, teme!"
"Dobe!"
"Teme!"
"DOBE!"
"TEME!"
"SHUT UP!"
The class went dead silent at the sound of Mr. Hatake's loud voice. Note to self: do not mess with this teacher.
"I do not want you to judge me based on my choice of literature-"
"Oh so you're not a pervert?" Suigetsu cried.
The class burst out laughing.
"Do I have to send you down to the office on the first day of school?" Mr. Hatake asked.
Suigetsu shook his head.
Mr. Hatake went on with his lesson. Finally, the bell rang and we all took off. I had gym next. As it turned out, Neji was going there as well. Damn was I lucky! Whoa, wait...lucky? Okay, I admit it...Maybe I had a tiny crush on him and I was slightly infatuated with him. But that wasn't a problem, right? RIGHT?
"Schmuck!" I cried as my bag tore. Okay, yeah. Backpack tearing on the first day of school: not good. However I had rejected the idea to get a new backpack this year. I loved my bag! And now, out goes the bottom. Guess who stopped to help me out. If you guessed: a certain ex actor who had for some unexplained reason showed up at the school, you win!
I grabbed my newly obtained English text and searched for my math text, and found it in the hand of Neji Hyuuga who was watching me with his incredible pale eyes.
"T-Thank you..." I said nervously. I took the textbook and tucked it under my arm with the other one.
"Didn't you get a new backpack for the new school year?" He asked. A simple question. I found I was a lot less nervous.
"No, I didn't. I like this backpack too much."
He smirked. I tried not to blush.
"So you like the backpack so much that you ran it into the ground?"
I laughed. He had a point. It was like people and their animals. Say their beloved fifteen year old cat begins to develop health issues. People would spend thousands of dollars just to keep them alive. I still remember sewing it up five times last year. Now it was officially dead.
"Think it deserves a funeral?" I asked.
Neji laughed. "Definitely. That thing looks like it went through hell and back."
I laughed again. I suddenly remembered where we were. "Gotta get to class." I said. I took off for the gym.
"See you around then." I heard him say. My heart just about stopped. Did he really just say that? I shook it off and entered the gym.
"Hey Sakura!" I called to her upon entering the gym.
Sakura beckoned me over with a frantic hand.
"Tenten!" She cried when I neared.
"What's up?" I asked.
"Have you seen him yet?" She asked.
"Who? Neji?"
Sakura nodded.
"Yeah. He's in two of my classes."
Sakura's jaw dropped. "Damn you're lucky!" Then she looked smug. "But I've spoken to him."
"So have I!" I said smugly.
Sakura's jaw dropped. "Okay, well I've made him smile!"
"I've made him LAUGH!" I said triumphantly.
"Damn!" Sakura snapped her finger. "You've beaten me this time."
"He also said 'See you around' when I left."
Sakura's eyes widened. "All right now you're lying."
I shook my head.
"You're kidding me!"
The teacher walked in at that moment.
"All right maggots!" She cried.
"Oh great...another psycho..." I heard someone mutter. I giggled slightly.
"Anko Mitarashi is my name, but you will call me Miss Mitarashi! Clear?"
We all nodded.
"YES SENSEI!" Anko cried.
"Yes sensei." Everyone said dully.
"MORE ENERGY! YES SENSEI!"
"Yes sensei!" We called.
"Whenever I give you an order, that is how I want you to reply! Clear?"
"Yes sensei!"
Anko smirked. "Good. We'll get along just fine."
"I pity the boys." Sakura whispered in my ear.
I turned around to look towards the boys. I almost laughed at the sight of a man in a green spandex suit. All the boys, including Neji, looked like they were in a torture chamber.
Anko began to go through everything about the rules of the gym. Then guess what? On our first day, she ordered us to jog in whatever we were wearing at the time! I pity half of the girls in my gym class as they were wearing flip-flops. Soon after, we heard a cry of, "BOYS! DO NOT LET OUR YOUTHFUL FLOWERS DEFEAT US! RUN! RUN! RUN!" and the boys joined the mad dash.
"Our gym teachers are INSANE!" Sakura cried.
I laughed at her. I could do with a little insanity from time to time. The bell rang a few minutes later and people made a beeline for the door.
"NOT A CHANCE!" Both of the teachers cried. "Keep running!" I shrugged and kept running while over half of both of the classes stopped and attempted to leave. I knew I wasn't going anywhere, so I just ignored everything and kept running. Sakura was right beside me. I realized there were two others still running as well. One of them was Neji, the other was a black haired boy I didn't know the name of. Everyone else looked bitter at the fact that they weren't allowed out of the gym. Sakura quit soon after and I just kept going, zoning out as I pretended my legs weren't aching at the moment.
After another five minutes when I ran by Anko I unleashed my fury onto her.
"Hey! Miss Mitarashi! This is ridiculous! Why do I have to run for you when class is over?" I cried.
"It's a contest!" Anko cried. "Girls versus boys! Nobody goes home unless there's a winner!"
I rolled my eyes. By now I had done a full lap of the gym again. "Then I quit!" I stopped running and picked up my books. "Boys win! Let's go home!"
I shoved my way out the door along with everyone else. They were incredibly relieved.
"Thanks!" They called at me.
"Why'd you quit?"
I turned around and came face to face with...Neji. I was surprised, I'll admit that.
"I quit because I'm not going to be a pawn in someone's rivalry." I said easily. "If they want to beat each other, they're going to have to do it without my help."
Neji smirked. "True." He walked past me and headed for the door. I suddenly had a single question that I had to ask.
"Neji!" I called after him.
He turned and looked at me.
"Are you really, I mean...Are you-"
"No I am not the actor." He turned and headed for the door again.
"It's because you quit, isn't it?" I asked, jogging after him.
"Why are you so persistent?" He looked at me.
"Because if you don't tell me it's going to kill me until I find out the truth."
"Well then dig yourself a grave." He said bluntly.
I stood there like an idiot, staring after him as he walked out of the school. Just who was Neji, and what was he doing here? I was determined to find out.