Tenten lifted her head, wiping the drool from the side of her mouth. She'd heard something, she was sure of it. Blinking tiredly, she yawned and put her head back down, now sure that she'd just been dreaming. She was just drifting off when she heard it again, and growled, throwing herself off the bed to stomp down the stairs to her front door. Throwing the door open, she glared at the knocker.
"What!? Neji?"
She stared at him, rubbing one eye. He didn't even say hello, just pushed her out of the way to storm into her house.
"Where is it?"
"Where's what?"
"That stupid game."
"What stupid- oh. The 'Game of Life', maybe?"
"Yes. That. Where is it? I demand a rematch."
Tenten laughed, closing her door and joining him in the lounge room.
"Was losing too much for you to handle?"
He ignored her comment, looking around the room until he spied the board game nudged under her lounge.
"Come on, Tenten, let's go. You and me. I'm going to win for sure this time."
Tenten shrugged, moving over to sit across from him. She was still tired from work, but she wasn't about to pass up another chance to whip Neji's butt.
And so it went. Every day for the next three weeks, if they were free and didn't have a mission. She was really getting tired of it. Not that beating Neji was tiring, but doing it every single day was making it lose its charm.
On this particular day, he was trying a new strategy, throwing his pieces around at random and losing out on precious time. Eventually, when he finally did go, she beat him by eighteen paces and retired, counting out her money. Sighing dramatically, she threw herself back onto the lounge, looking up at the ceiling.
"Come on, Tenten. I demand we go again."
She groaned.
"Neji, this is getting so old. Why do you have this obsession to win!? It's not like I'm Naruto, punching your face in. This is just a game!"
He was studying the board, glaring at it to make it open up its secrets to him.
"It's the principle of the thing. I have to win."
She groaned again.
"I'll go grab someone else to play. Seriously, I can't hack this anymore."
Just as she stood up to leave, Neji's arm whipped out and gripped her wrist, stopping her from going.
"No, wait, Tenten. Just one more, I promise."
She eyed him for a few seconds before groaning again, slumping back down onto the lounge.
"Fine. I concede. Let's get this over with."
An hour later, Tenten counted her money and almost fell of the lounge in relief that it was over.
"That's it. I'm not doing that again, no matter what you say or what kind of bribes you use, you can forget it."
"Neither of us has won yet."
She lifted her head and glared at him.
"What are you talking about? I have the most money here. There is nothing more for me to win."
He gestured down to the board. She followed his line of sight and her breath caught. In place of her piece was a small silver ring. She glanced up at Neji.
"Is that what I think it is?"
He shrugged half-heartedly, looking down at it expressionlessly. She hesitated for a few seconds before reaching down and picking it up. It had a small, practical diamond right in the centre, with two even smaller diamonds on each side. She tilted it and watched the light catch on the jewels.
"You know, Neji..."
He lifted his head, waiting for her to continue. A small smile spread across her face.
"You suck at the Game of Life. But... in this instance, you win."
A/N: I was perusing my stories when I realised that some reviewers didn't actually know what the Game of Life was. It was a board game from my childhood. A little bit like Monopoly, only you're actually controlling little people in a car. You start off with one, then continue through the board, choosing a career or college and continuing through the little person's life by rolling the dice and landing on squares. So, for instance, if you land on the marriage square, you add a little person to your car. If you land on the 'babies' square, you add how many babies to your car as is on the square etc. The way you win is by going through the board, retiring your little people and counting how much money you have after going through life. Whoever has the most money, wins!
Phew! That was far less complicated when I was a kid. By the way, so sorry to those reviewers who asked about how to play this game three years ago. I must've had email problems or something, never even saw them.