The Switch
Chapter Four – Compromising Positions
Dedicated to 1 Helluva Guest
She gazed up at her captors in panic, too confused to realize that they had dragged her into an abandoned storage room. Dust laid in pristine layers over every surface like brown snow. There was hardly any sign of human activity. The only obvious users of the room weaved their webs from ceiling to wall. Cobweb covered most of the furniture and articles hanging on the wooden partition.
Dust bunnies tumbled across the floor, sticking to the heels of their shoes. Old ceramic mugs and dirt covered glass bottles lay on shelves—shelves that were thickly encrusted with dried up mould. The smell of mildew and stale air permeated the dimly lit room.
Its sole source of light came from the light bulb above them. Dust particles could be seen moving randomly around in its flare as it flickered. Obvious circuit wear caused it to buzz like an annoying fly that couldn't be caught.
Music from the raging party beyond the old door lulled into the background.
Tenten's breathing had grown shallow. A shiver ran the length of her spine. She was a mass of nerves. Her heart plunged to her feet as a hand ran down the former brunette's chest to her slacks. Exploring fingers slid along the waistline, just below the fabric, and then moved over the zipper. They fumbled with the clasp, pulling down the zipper.
The bold gesture sent an eerie spark of something through her nervous system. Heat stung her cheeks when it dawned on her that they really intended to violate her—to violate Sasuke.
Her abductor giggled in triumph, feeling Tenten's shudder shooting around like fireworks beneath her sensitized skin.
Fangirls weren't supposed to get this touchy. Did this sort of thing happen often? Alarm flooded her mind; her stomach clenched unpleasantly. She didn't think she would be able to cope much longer in Sasuke's body if it did. And she can't imagine that the Uchiha would earn much street cred if he was caught fighting a couple fangirls, much to her dismay. She felt like pummeling these two to the ground.
She was however, by no means, as proficient with wielding the brute strength and stamina his form possessed. "Get your hands off me!" she thrashed about, but it was to little avail. One of her detainers had clasped both her hands behind her back in a steel-vice-like grip.
The girl's bust was the only thing that prevented Tenten from being firmly—flatly pressed against her front. She had steered them towards the darkest corner of the small space. Tenten's sneakers drew tracks on the dusty board floor.
The fact that she couldn't see the other girl's face threatened to overwhelm her, that and the foul smell of liquor that seemed to thicken the girls' breaths. Sweat poured off Tenten faster than if she was subjected to the sun's full intensity.
Her legs were free though and without even realizing it, she blindly kicked out. Reacting solely on instinct. Luckily the girl in front of her had sharp reflexes or she would've had the wind punted out of her.
"That wasn't very nice Sasuke-kun," the said lass reached up and caressed Tenten's cheek with the back of her fingers. "Naruto hinted that you'd be a bit more accommodating."
She felt the blood pound in her ears, her voice trembled. "Accommodating?"
"You've been leaving me these signs—" the girl leaned in towards Tenten, using a hand to graze the tender skin at the back of her neck. Trickles of repugnance chilled her body. The warm breath fanning Tenten's lips was one of a disturbing sensation that she was certain testosterone was responsible for. "—I've seen the way you look at me Sasuke-kun."
"I don't even know you!" Tenten retorted.
Her capturer's eyes became dark slits and an angry gasp escaped her throat. She steadied the pair of glasses she wore and tossed her mob of red hair behind her. "I didn't peg you as a liar Sasuke-kun," she whispered thickly before attempting to press a kiss to Sasuke's mouth.
Tenten sharply turned her face away, utterly repulsed. She was not going share her first kiss with another female nor let it be in Sasuke's body. "You're disgusting," she said under her breath.
"Am I?" she smirked, reaching down to tug the slacks down, and Tenten would have been left in her nothing but her boxers hadn't Hyuuga Neji came to her rescue.
His anger was one of stone cold fury, evident in how fiercely he had swung the door open.
The full blast of the music stole into the room, taking along with it the occasional flash of light from the overhead disco ball. Tenten swallowed as a few eyes shot inside to assess the situation.
"Karin what is going on here?" he demanded, white eyes glittering as he looked at the flustered girls and an equally red Sasuke. His expression was scornful, his jaw clenched. "Get out!" he instructed coldly, his voice sounding like the lash of a whip's tongue.
At the sight of the seething Hyuuga, both Karin and her nameless accomplice dashed out of the room at a speed that lightning itself would envy.
Tenten scrambled towards Neji—without any thought of being in Sasuke's body—and threw herself into his arms. "They were harassing me Neji," she sobbed dramatically, burying her face into the cradle of his neck. "Naruto—he—he."
Neji's reaction was instantaneous; he gingerly peeled her off him and scoffed. "What is the meaning of this Uchiha?" he cringed, studying her intently. "Have you been drinking?"
Her stomach took a nosedive at the killing look he shot her.
The shock of what had almost become of her still washed in waves over her. She tried to compose herself but her composure was already frayed. Being on the receiving end of Sasuke's fangirls' antics had shaken her up more than a notch. It left her a little traumatized. A little shell-shocked.
Her fingers shook as she struggled to re-zip her trousers.
When she raised her head, Neji was still studying her—waiting for an answer.
Tenten opened her mouth to speak but a lump had clogged up her throat. Having observed how Sasuke and Neji communicated with each other, she shrugged her shoulders dismissively in hopes that it would be enough.
"Why is Tenten here Uchiha?" Neji suddenly asked, sounding as if he'd wanted to ask that very question before he had even shooed Karin.
Her nerves squirmed. "Sasuke?" she gasped and wondered what he could possibly be doing here.
His neat brows furrowed his beautifully sculptured features taut in enquiry. "Why is she here and looking for you?"
"Hn," Tenten tried to shake it off.
His eyes burned with such intensity that her breath froze like Popsicle in her lungs. For a moment she had to look away.
"You've been acting a bit strange lately," Neji noted, running a calculating gaze across her face.
Tenten's knees buckled, it felt suddenly as if his eyes had morphed into limbs and were actually caressing her face. "It has been a long day, Hyuuga," she stuttered hoarsely, her hand went to her throat as if she was sweetly suffocating.
There was a quality to Neji's scent, one that carried a musk. It sent a sharp ache deep into her chest.
She swayed a little.
He took in a sharp breath even as she inhaled his scent. She felt the rush of blood to hidden places.
He filled her senses. His body heat surrounded her even with though he was a good couple of feet away.
Everything beyond him fuzzed in her vision, as if her eyes wanted to focus wholly on him. And his scent reached out to her, drawing her closer with an undeniable pull.
She'd never felt like this, even when she'd daydreamed about him. Not even this morning in the locker room.
It was so different. Scary, but totally delicious too. And the sensation wasn't one she wanted to end immediately.
Damn it, was the male body so weak and control-resistant?
If she remained too long in Neji's presence there might just be a repeat of earlier's incident. Every single inch of him looked too strong, too sleek and formidably exclusive. Her mouth ran dry and her heart started beating too fast as she flickered her gaze up to stare at the sensual shape of his unsmiling mouth. And finally—finally she made contact with his eyes.
He was looking back at her as if the incident had disconcerted him as much as it had done to her. Apparently her explanation wasn't reason enough for Sasuke's odd behaviour. "One minute you're parading around the school with Tenten, the next I catch you here, frolicking with some other girl."
If she didn't know any better she would have thought he sounded a tiny bit bitter.
Defensive tension stiffened her stance. "What's it to you?" she managed, unaware that her hands had clenched into fists on the ends of arms that held straight like sticks at her sides.
It was more in anticipation—for what? She didn't know—rather than out of frustration.
The floating veil of his eyelashes swept downwards, "I don't like you playing around with her," he delivered tersely.
Her lips parted in mild surprise.
Hyuuga Neji was expressing concern over Sasuke's motives where she—Tenten—was concerned. Cue the fucking apocalypse!
Still his voice had been casual, his expression bleak. So perhaps she was reading too much into his statement.
Tenten heaved a long and sorrowful sigh, "It's nothing Hyuuga," she assured him; her efforts geared towards letting him know that she was available. Though, coming from Sasuke's mouth Neji must've interpreted it differently.
"Alright," he declared, rolling his own shoulder. "She's outside," Neji informed her, indicating that Tenten was to follow him.
Without hesitation she complied with the request.
"Why is he—why is she outside?" the veins on her neck stood pronounced from the strain it took to get her voice above the music for Neji to hear her.
They fought their way through the sea of people on the dance floor, bumping into both familiar and unfamiliar faces. Bodies moved against each other, the friction of denim against denim—of skin against skin sparked some sort of sexually charged energy that the entire pub seemed to run on.
The stench of alcohol, sweat and raging hormones was an unpleasant combination that had Tenten scrunching up her nose. It lay sickeningly heavy in the air, seemingly diffusing from the bodies of gyrating teens.
From the corner of her eyes she caught a flash of gold and pink, it strengthened her momentum and she picked up pace, gruffly shoving people out of her way. She was definitely not in the mood to deal with Sakura and Ino tonight. Escaping molestation by the skin of her teeth had made Tenten extremely cautious of Sasuke's fangirls.
"Invites only," Neji finally answered once they were outside the pub. He drew in a long breath, savouring the fresh night air. "You want to explain why you were locked in that storage room with Karin?"
A tinge of pink coloured her pale cheeks and she scratched the back of her head self-consciously. "It was the dobe's idea of a practical joke," she brushed it off, gazing at the starry skies. "Where's Tenten?"
Neji made a thoughtful sound. "She was here not too long ago." She didn't have to look at him, she felt his eyes on her—piercing her skull with those white laser eyes of his. "Uchiha, what did you do to tick her off?" he elevated a dark brow, and sought to keep a loose lock of his chestnut satin hair from latching itself between his lips.
There was a gentle night breeze. It rustled and stirred the charred paper and plastic contents piled up in a nearby curb. Thin fumes of smoke were being emitted from the heap, an indication that it had been set alight earlier.
The pub was located in a wide, asphalted alley. The bricks that climbed three stories up on either sides of the lane were aged but hid well beneath layers of graffiti. Old, rusty iron staircases that served as fire escapes and leaking pipes clung to the buildings as if in danger of falling victim to gravity.
It was the kind of scenery one would expect a thug or gang to lurk in, waiting for the right moment to pounce. But it was one of the most popular hotspots and such activities rarely ever occurred.
Water glistened in the moon light on the ground beneath them. Laundry that were left to hang by the windows upstairs casted shadows below. It was quiet, safe for a few mice that scurried behind trash cans, rattling tins and the murmur coming from the queue of waiting people outside the heavy metal door.
The bouncer was an austere looking, big guy with a mustache. "No invitation, no entry," his voice was low but effective.
Tenten couldn't imagine Sasuke and the stick up his ass to take lightly to being told that.
"She was very upset," Neji commented.
She mentally face-palmed herself. The night would not end well if Sasuke was pissed at her. Maybe she should have asked for his permission to attend the party. After all, it was his body. He had a right to dictate where and when it should turn up to events.
Who was she kidding? She was her own damn boss. Neither he nor she had conjured up a manual or a list of do's and don'ts so why should she behave as if they had?
"There you are!" A loud feline growl bellowed from behind. The hair on the nape of Tenten's pale neck stood up. "What the fuck were you doing in there?" the voice reached an ear splitting pitch.
Tenten winced, she could almost imagine the look of fury burning golden in those hazel eyes she once called her own. "Before you get upset, I wasn't doing anything," she argued doggedly, thoroughly terrified of giving Sasuke a reason to be vindictive. "Tell him—her, Neji."
The Hyuuga frowned, confusion etched across his porcelain face. He glowered at the elbow she used to nudge him in the gut. "What is going on between you two?" The words rose unbidden.
She realized that Neji was enraged. Dark brows were lowered heavily over brilliant lilac eyes that seemed to glow in his face. His lips were a flat, thin line, his shoulders bunched with tension. Still, he wasn't frightening; he was hot. He should have been frightening. But she was seeing so much emotion on his face, something besides the mocking amusement or cynical look he normally displayed.
The metamorphosis was hypnotizing. Watching anger fall beneath suspicion and jealousy overtake his expression.
He was—jealous.
Neji jealous?
He had no reason to be jealous.
"I called your cell phone a dozen times," Sasuke pointed an accusing finger at her, one hand placed akimbo. His posture was slightly saucy and defiant; evidently he was getting the hang of body language.
If he was back in his own body he wouldn't have been this expressive. He was always such a rigid piece of shit that it was hard to read him. His voice was generally void of emotions and his face was tight mask of paralyzed muscles.
This spur of expression was refreshing but she put it down to the influence of hormones.
Tenten raised her arms in a gesture of surrender, "How was I suppose to hear it above the music?"
OoOoOoOo
Apprehensive silver eyes drifted between the growling duo. Neji couldn't understand what business Tenten had concerning herself with Sasuke's whereabouts nor why the Uchiha should look like a child who had sourly been told off for being bad.
What was going on? He wondered with a staggering mix of reactions to the underwritten threat of what he sensed could be going on between the two.
"Are you two involved?" the words left his mouth in a stunned rush before he could do anything to stave their flow. They hovered in mid-air before crashing down into the stony silence that settled amongst them.
Tenten was the first to react; her voice was hard enough to break glass. It shattered the silence with its heightened timbre. "Neji you know me better than that, she isn't my type!" she expelled testily.
Sasuke shot her a poisonous glare, "I'd rather eat my own head than have you as my boyfriend," his drawl was biting, his black eyes like ice.
Neji blinked in confusion. His head pounded like a heartbeat, weariness closing in. Maybe that shot he took was finally beginning to take effect. His features contorted, certain he hadn't heard either of them right. They were making use of all the wrong nouns and pronouns.
"Look, I don't know what the hell is going on but I'm getting out of here," he told them, reaching into his pockets for his car keys.
"I thought Sasuke drove tonight," Tenten was saying to him, but her eyes were fastened in question at the raven haired boy, as if conveying a secret message.
"Oh..." the raven-haired boy's voice trailed, he uncharacteristically drew out the sound of single syllable. "Right, Itachi decided not to loan me the car," he explained, having decoded what was being transferred telepathically—it seemed—to him.
If Neji's frown deepened anymore, he swore his brows would permanently merge.
Sasuke was explaining himself to Tenten? What for? He couldn't stand a bone in the brunette. And how did she know about Sasuke's initial plans to borrow the car from Itachi? Sasuke wasn't the type to disclose his plans to anyone, especially not someone he despised with a passion.
"Then how will I get home?" Tenten demanded, narrowing her brown eyes disdainfully.
Neji's head snapped in her direction. She was clenching and unclenching her jaws in irritation. He found it rather strange since it was a habit of Sasuke's. Had they been spending that much time together for her to have adopted his brooding mannerisms?
"The same way you got here," Sasuke told her bluntly, folding his arms and turning up his nose.
That was Tenten's signature way of letting someone know she had mentally cut them out of existence.
Neji knew them both like the back of his palms, which was why they seemed awfully out of character.
He cleared his throat, "Come on, I'll drop you both," he suggested and stalked off in the direction of the car park across the street from the alley. "Uchiha, I suggest you drive. I may have drunk a little."
OoOoOoOo
As soon as Neji was out of earshot, Sasuke grabbed Tenten's wrist and pinned her with a pained look. "I have a situation," He tensed; the tanned cheeks formerly owned by Tenten were chalk-pale with mortification. "I think I—" Either an enormous lump formed in his throat or he was having difficulty saying what he wanted to say.
"What is it?" she breathed with a ragged edge to Sasuke's deep voice—her deep voice, and surveyed her former self. "Why are you clutching your stomach?"
In an agony of pain Sasuke spoke. "I think I broke your—," he struggled to find the right words to refer to THAT part of her anatomy. His stomach knotted sickly. "—your flower. It's bleeding. But I swear I wasn't probing it with my fingers," he added in his defense, with only the slightest tremor in his voice, brown eyes lowering.
Broke your flower?
The words resonated in her head.
Alarm bells went off madly.
Tenten's black orbs burned amber like a coal pit set aflame. "What do you mean by you broke my flower?" she demanded, her voice lancing with contempt. There were a number of things he could be referring to and none of them was pardonable.
A dull flush of colour darkened his smooth cheekbones and fell silent. The face he'd stolen might have been carved from marble. Not a muscle moved on.
"What have you been doing to my body Uchiha?" Tenten asked with a savage look in her dark eyes as they rested on Sasuke's delicate profile, studying his sudden pallor.
He swallowed visibly, a bead of sweat trickled down his hairline. "I haven't done anything."
She cleared her throat and asked a question that nibbled anxiously at the back of her mind "What date is today?"
Chocolate eyes studied her with unhidden impatience before full pink lips parted to grumble his response.
Tenten laughed with a raw spontaneity that shook the Uchiha and threw him a look of infuriated bemusement. "At least I know you hadn't stuck any foreign object—"
Neji's car horn blew.
She suddenly grabbed his hand and pulled him in the direction of the waiting vehicle. "I think a trip to the convenient store is in order," she declared, a vibrantly amused smile curved her mouth. "Congratulations Sasuke, you've just had your first period."
Chapter Five Preview
"What are you doing?" Neji heard Tenten's voice choking from inside the bathroom stall.
"Hold still and spread your legs so I can insert it properly."
The sound of that voice halted the Hyuuga in his tracks. That dark drawl cut into him like a razor. He shuddered. What was Uchiha doing in there? Most importantly, what was he doing to Tenten?
"Are you sure it's supposed to feel like this?" she gasped incredulously.
"If you keep fidgeting, it'll fit awkwardly," he heard Sasuke respond, ignoring the enquiry with supreme cool.
Neji's body shivered with a sudden rush of raw aggression that came from fathoms deep down inside him. Something festered in him like a cancer, eating away until it consumed every other emotion.
A/N: I had no idea people still read this story or was even waiting for an update. Either way, I apologize for the neglect. I get easily disinterested and discouraged, usually from unpleasant reviews or just reading other works that completely make my stuff look like amateur garbage. All my stories are stupid and shitty but this one in particular...!
Regardless, I read the latest reviews on this and was plagued by guilt so I just typed this up on my phone. Whoever you are, I am sorry for the overdue update. I'm not even sure if this chapter was worth it. But there you have it.
Since I can't actually delete my fanfiction account (much to my annoyance, I've been contemplating quitting this site as of late) there may be updates to this if I get Reviews.
Please request an eventual pair: NejiTen or SasuTen (The decision is yours to make)