Christmas Chaos

Chapter 18: The Storyteller

December 31st - 8:33 AM

Tenten jumped out of her skin when the blood-shot eyes of Sakura were the first thing that appeared in the small space of the door she was opening.

"Oh my God," Tenten breathed out, a hand on her chest. "Sakura! You scared the shit out of me."

In her pink cow slippers, Sakura was standing right by the side of their entrance door, waiting for her friend to come back from work. As Tenten tried to make her way to the cloak closet, the sleep-deprived surgeon kept her gaze fixed on her roommate, tightening her pink plush bathrobe in an anxious shake.

The younger girl barely acknowledged her friend's fright to her eerie hovering, but by the twitch of an eye.

"For fuck's sake, Sakura," Tenten gave a horrified look at her dishevelled friend. "Have you been waiting for me all night?"

The eye twitch became more severe.

Tenten shook some goosebumps as well as the few snowflakes that piled up on top of her buns. She swallowed down the burning melancholy that came up like bad reflux. She couldn't associate something as mundane as snow to her heartbreak over her ex-fake-boyfriend, now could she? Otherwise, she'd be heartbroken 4 months a year at this rate.

"You said we'd have breakfast," Sakura reminded her friend with a ghostly tone.

"Sure," Tenten gave her a weird look over her shoulder as she headed out to the kitchen. "Are you ok? You seem… weird."

Sakura said nothing, her face emotionless, shuffling right behind her friend making her way to the kitchen.

Somehow the brunette was relieved to find Naruto in his Christmas frogs onesie, ravenously devouring his rainbow cereals while trying to solve the kids' puzzles on the back of the cereal box.

"Oh, look who's back." Ino waltzed in the room, in a whirlwind of silk and myriad of scents from her morning self-care routine. Vapour rolled out their bathroom down the hall, carrying the smells of eucalyptus, and expensive hair and body products.

"Hey," Tenten replied back tiredly. Now her body craved even more a shower to wash off her shift, after Ino's entrance.

Ino sat gracefully on the kitchen chair, rolling up the wide sleeves of her silk kimono and to apply her weightless vitamin E rich body lotion. Bearing her usual Cheshire cat smile, her eyes fixed Tenten with delight.

"So, I heard you had an exciting shift," The blonde winked at her.

Refusing to engage this early with Ino's mind games, Tenten replied with a yawn. She popped two toasts in the toaster and a pod of coffee into their espresso machine, before turning back to lean on the counter and lazily open the peanut butter jar.

"It was alright," Tenten said with a spoonful of peanut butter in her mouth, circumventing what she knew Ino was referring to.

"Well, some nurses said you had a cozy talk next to the distributors last nigh with a certain Hyugat," Ino said, getting up again to replace her lotion in her bedroom.

Tenten declined to answer, instead pretending to be deeply enthralled in the complex operation of spreading the nut butter on her toasts.

"Also got reports that you've been wearing a certain ring on your finger," Ino added with a canny gleam in her eyes as she reached for the green goddess smoothie she had prepped earlier that morning.

Ino's taunting fell on deaf ears. Tenten only raised a brow at the dichotomy Ino and Sakura made this morning. On one side, there was perfectly pampered Ino, with her dewy skin and expertly towel-wrapped hair, sipping her green concoction after her morning run. While on the other side, there was tousled Sakura with her sunken eyes, waxy skin and dark circles, munching over a two-days old donut messily crumpling on her flannel bathrobe. .

The two sat at each end of the kitchen table and even the light distribution made it that Ino's beaming expression sat in the light rays piercing the window, while Sakura's gloomy traits were shadowed by the cupboard blocking the sunlight.

"Can someone fill me in on why Sakura looks like a promo shot of The Walking Dead?" Tenten deflected instead, taking a bite of her toast.

"She's switching her cycle." Naruto sputtered, bits of his masticated cereals flying on the table, making Ino stop her dainty sips to look disgusted at the droplets of spit that crashed near her.

Tenten aahed in satisfaction of finally understanding Sakura's predicament.

Now, this made sense of how the sleep-deprived doctor was slowly dunking her tea bag in and out of her steaming mug as laboriously as if she was pulling a massive anchor from the sea.

Whenever the surgeon had to prepare for a month of night calls, she would 'switch her cycle' by skipping a night of sleep so she could sleep in the morning. Thus reversing her sleep cycle as well as her daytime habits. Which worked pretty well if not for the first 48 hours of this operation where the genius girl would be a mere moping shadow of herself.

"Can you please," Sakura breathed out as if winded out by the simple act of speaking. "Tell us what happened on that goddamned last day of your vacations!" She shrieked the last sentence so unexpectedly, it startled everyone around and made Tenten carefully reconsider denying her friend the end of her rocambolesque story.

After a long while staring at her half-eaten toast, under the expectant stares of Naruto and Ino - and while Sakura was fighting to keep hers open-,Tenten finally sighed in defeat. Her initial plan of deflecting their attempts and make it to her room to catch up on sleep had lamentably failed.

"Fine," She relented, the chair squeaked against the linoleum floor while her friends squealed in anticipatory delight. "So Deidara was-"

Ino clicked her tongue repeatedly. "No girl," She frowned. "From the top."

Tenten groaned in protest of having to go over the cringe-worthy awkwardness of her last day with Neji.

"You won't escape this," Naruto warned her before gulping down the remaining milk in his bowl.

Everybody waited for Naruto's indecorous slurping sounds to stop. Ino pursed her lips in distaste at the spill of milk the boy made while inhaling the liquid.

"Naruto, I love you," Ino almost gagged. "But you're disgusting."

"Ah," Naruto exhaled in satiety bliss before burping and smacking the bowl back down. He grinned back at Ino with all the cheekiness he could muster. "Please, continue." He graciously allowed Tenten to resume her story.

Tenten rolled her eyes at the 'courtesy' her friend made her.

"Like I told you, while Neji was talking with his dad and uncle," She took a deep breath. "I was at Madame Yang…"

December 27th - 11:11 AM

"Mmh," Madame Yang tapped her chin with the closed fan she held tightly in her hand, as her eyes scrutinised Tenten's features like an MRI machine. "Mmh, mh, mh." She mumbled to herself was circling her client that was awkwardly standing on the circular podium of her atelier.

Surrounded by floor to ceiling mirrors, clad in only her meagre underwear, Tenten tried to not fidget too much under the watchful gaze of the reputed seamstress. Her mother and aunts were squeezed on the pink velvet chaise lounge that matched the rest of the upscale studio in equal shades of light pinks and fuschia.

"Mmh," Madame Yang repeated again and Tenten's stress could only be rivalled by her aunts and mother. "Non," She finally said in her beloved language.

Tenten often forgot how Madame Yang grew up in France. As the daughter of a chinese ambassador mandated two decades to Paris, it was natural she could muster a perfect british accent in great thanks to her expensive education. But whenever she chose to, and mostly in moments of great stress, she reverted to the more comfortable thickness of her french accept. Her th would vibrate as Zs, her Rs would roll on her tongue and everything was said with over pronunciation.

"Désartreux," The chinese-french woman shook her head and Tenten's insides twisted.

Tenten opened and closed her mouth in utter incomprehension and the usual laid-back Suki let out a strangled gasp while her mother squeezed her sisters' hands in distress. Madame Yang was a peculiar woman, completely unpredictable except for the notion that she would do as she pleased, always.

She was the most sought after designer in all of Suna, and stars and influential women would bend over and backwards to be honoured to wear her designs. Tenten knew the only reason she did her the favour of such a short-notice was out of affection for her mother that she had befriended when her shop was a 3 metres damp room in some gaudy basement on the sixth avenue twenty-five years ago.

Tenten knew how lucky she had been to have always been received by Madame Yang and allowed to wear her confections over the years, but truth is, she always took it for granted. Effectively, the seamstress was known to have caused quite some stir here and there. It wouldn't be the first time that she would, at the last minute, refuse to lend her creation to a very-well known figure because something suddenly displeased her about the design… or the client.

Madame Yang did not care about fame or power, and she cared even less about those who possessed it.

No, she cared for stories.

Her success lay in her discerning eyes. She didn't design an outfit to fit a body. No, she was a storyteller, using fabric to narrate a tale.

She didn't design a blue dress for a famous actress winning an award. No. She saw a woman that came from a fishermen village whose father had sacrificed his youth and health on hazardous paltry boats so his daughter's dreams could be as limitless as the impetuous sea that threatened his life every day.

So when Madame Yang chose that actress's qipao, she visited over fifty fabric stores to find the exact shade of blue the sea took at dawn when her father's ship rolled out to the horizon. And when she embroidered flowers on her qipao, she chose the only correct tone of white that Irises held as they bloomed with love in her mother's heart when she used her last breath to name her Ayame.

So, no, she didn't design a blue cheongsam dress so that Ayame could tell who her designer was on the red carpet. She retold the story of her client's fortitude. So when Ayame humbly accepted her accolades for best actress in a leading role, and when under the emotions, the words failed her to explain how much love and gratefulness she had for her parents' sacrifice : her dress did.

Which is why everybody that wanted to be anybody in Suna was desperate to be clothed by the legend. They wanted to be part of her legacy, of the history she was creating in the fashion world. They wanted their stories to be told, forged in a sumptuous fashion statement.

Now Tenten wasn't desperate because of some urge to attain glory, but because she literally knew no one else that could make her a dress in such little , she had no other options but to oblige with the woman's oddities.

Madame Yang exhaled loudly in discontentment, rummaging through the discarded fabrics on her work table with rising frustration.

"C'est pas possible, c'est pas possible." She complained to herself.

Genius had a price, Tenten would think while watching the dressmaker, and that price was madness.

Tenten and her family were astounded by the turns of events. It was supposed to be a quick affair, they were only here to pick up her qipao. Madame Yang had already received her measurements through her mother and had called them this very morning to confirm the dress was done.

But Madame Yang gave one disapproving look at Tenten before barking at her to change into the qipao she had spent the morning sewing and stitching. She then proceeded to circle the girl like a vulture waiting for its prey to die.

"Xia," Tenten's mother affectionately called her old friend by her chinese name to attempt to coax her out of her frantic daze.

"Don't Xia me," Madame Yang threw a severe look at Mikoto, reaching with a decisive hand her packet of cigarettes.

"This," She pointed to Tenten with her freshly lit cigarette and the younger girl had to reel in her nausea and the smell of burning tobacco. "You didn't tell me about this."

"What do you mean?" Mikoto frowned, astonished. She was used to her friend's artistic eccentricities but usually they made sense.

In wide strides, Xia Yang closed the distance to Tenten, swiftly taking the girl's chin in her bony fingers, bringing her forward to the bewildered eyes of her family.

Tenten almost tripped down the podium at the sudden motion, her lips squeezed in-between the solid grasp of the artist. Her mother and aunts rose in alert, afraid the younger girl would fall but Madame Yang stopped them with a motion of her hand.

"This is not the face of a naive maiden!" Madame Yang finally sputtered overcome with her simmering ire. "The qipao I designed is all wrong for her!"

"Vat's wrong vith my fathe?" Tenten protested, her distorted mouth mangling her words.

"What?" Aunt Yara whispered to Suki.

"I think she said 'what's wrong with my face'." Suki whispered back.

Said not-maiden girl stood up, shrugging away from the perfectly manicured hand that was holding her.

"It seems fine." Tenten mumbled in meek protest.

"Fine?" Xia raised a brow at her client. "This a jade qipao with exquisite boutons de rose carefully stitched on the very fragile material."

Tenten rolled her eyes once the designer walked away to smash her cigarette in the dainty strawberry cake shaped ashtray on her desk.

"This dress, from the imagery to the colour and the material: they all symbolise a pure, gentle love." Xia said adamantly, pointing to each detail with her closed fan. "It's about innocence, the spring of love, when you tiptoe timidly in the foreign land of love. It's soft, it's tender, it's-it's…Dainty steps in a garden full of firsts."

"Now she's sounding like your husband," Suki whispered to Mikoto causing Yara to chuckle and the designer to glare back at the lot.

"In any case, that's why the qipao is in shades of pastels and blossoming youth." Madame Yang covered her eyes, exasperated. "But now it's all wrong." She insisted.

"Xia, really," Aunt Suki tried to reason with the seamstress but she wanted to know none of it. "They're kids in love-"

"Arre you blind?" Xia shouted, her french accent gaining strength by the second.

"Zey arre having a torride affaire, UNDER YOUR NOZES." She warned them.

If her mother and aunt Yara were confused, Suki just chuckled.

"I hope they are," Suki snickered before Mikoto elbowed her in the ribs.

Madame Yang sighed. "When Mikoto told me about you and the Hyuga heir, I thought you had a sort of fairy tale love. Love at first sight sort of thing-"

Tenten snorted "As if!" at the same time her mother protested "They do!"

Mikoto gave her child a disbelieving look that quickly morphed into a sheepish smile at the capricious tailoress attention.

"Oh, ma pauvre," Madame Yang gave a pitiful look at the obviously clueless mother. "Can't you see the conflict in her eyes?"

Madame Yang squeezed Tenten's face in both her hands, bringing her forward to the three older women as if exposing her clues before a jury.

"Are oblivious to the chewed lips in worry?" Xia paraded a dazed Tenten like a chiffon doll, pointing, poking and pinching different elements of her features. "How her expression saddens the kimono? The quick anxious beating of her heart? The flush of her cheeks?"

With each word of her relentless statement Madame Yang's voice grew more feverish, with an ardent and unyielding tone.

"Her glowing complexion clashing with the gloom in her vacant stare? The fresh smell of pine ravaging her delicate skin only like red herrings of sizzling night of erotic-"

"OH MY GOD," Tenten screeched. "Enough, we get it, you think I'm a hooker."

"Not at all, ma chérie." Madame Yang denied it vehemently. "But your love affair is convoluted, mysterious, obscurrre. It seems fated and trrragic. Loverrs parrting ways with unsaid confessions…"

She whipped an imaginary tear. "So much young passion with nowhere to go!" She shook her head at the tale forming in her head.

Suki fanned herself. "Wow, that woman could write a spicy romance novel. Please, Xia, tell us more about that sizzling night of erotic-"

"She will do no such thing," Mikoto interrupted briskly. "Xia, really, I don't think anything to dig here. Neji and Tenten fell in love at work and now they are navigating their relationship like any other two people in love." She shrugged at the simple truth, not understanding why her friend was trying to complicate things.

"Alright, out with the three of you," Madame Yang wooshed them with the sway of her hands.

The three women thought of protesting but before the insistence of the workshop owner they gave an apologetic look at Tenten before rushing out.

"Aller, aller, ouste! Du balai!" Continued to pressure the family out before closing the doors behind them.

"Now," She turned towards Tenten who felt a headache coming on. "Tell me everything. And the truth!" She cautioned, raising a warning finger.

"Tut-tut," She stopped the younger woman when she opened her mouth. "The whole truth. Not that watered down version you obviously gave your mother."

Madame made herself comfortable on the sofa where Tenten's mother and aunts sat earlier.

Resigned, Tenten sighed and went to sit next to her.

"So, seven years ago-"

December 31st - 9:33 AM

"What?" Ino interrupted Tenten. "You told her everything? Like everything, from the very first encounter?"

"Yes," Tenten groaned. "You can't play games with Madame Yang! I swear if she wasn't a fashion designer she would have been a psychic."

"From the on-going hate drama you had during residency, to the spicy last night you had together?" Ino confirmed, incredulous.

Tenten nodded, cringing at the recollection of how she just vomited all her personal details to a woman who she might have known all her life, but in terms of intimate details, was basically a stranger.

In retrospect, she had needed to just clear her mind and she didn't have anyone to talk to about it, in Suna. Not with Temari busy with her new engagement and the web of lies she got herself into that prevented her from seeking counsel from the women of her family like she usually did.

"She has her way of doing things." Tenten explained. "She needs the story, then she designs."

"Wow," Ino looked mesmerised. "She's my idol."

"Sure," Naruto gave the platinum blonde a bored look. "So what happened next?"

"Well, after that she just said some more things in French I didn't understand." Tenten shrugged. "It's like once I told her, everything fell into place."

Ino nodded as if she was a connoisseur of designing high fashion.

"It's the same for a sculptor. Micheangelo said he would see the sculpture inside a block of marble, and his job was to free it. She needed your story to see the qipao in the fabric." Ino beamed,cradling her cheeks in her hands with absolute admiration. "Wow, she's a true artist."

"Yes, that much, I'll give it to the mad woman." Tenten yawned, she needed her bed very soon. "She'd spontaneously say 'indigo!' or 'silver threads!' as if I didn't exist. Then she told me to come back in four hours, which was crazy because that gave me twenty minutes to go to the wedding. After a few minutes she ushered me out, calling me her little Chang'e."

Tenten shook her head in regret. "I should have known at that moment trouble was looming."

"Trouble?" Naruo asked, confused.

Tenten nodded, but was tight lipped about the rest.

"Anyway," Tenten continued. "I went home, we had lunch with the family. Neji was there the whole time. He'd take my hand, and… kiss me, even. Somewhere along, the lines got blurred. Well for me anyway. I didn't know what was pretending and what wasn't."

"Was it pretending on your side?" Naruto asked and Ino was impressed that he asked such an insightful question.

Tenten looked away, staring at the crumbs of cereals Naruto had sputtered earlier.

"No," She finally admitted, holding herself more tightly.

"I don't think he was either, if you want my opinion." Naruto leaned back on his chair. "Neji is not romantic, or soft. And he's a lousy liar. With him, what you see is what you get. For a stoic genius, he is the worst at poker nights. Always the first one to lose, it's crazy."

Naruto grinned and Tenten chuckled.

"You think?" Tenten asked back shyly.

Naruto couldn't help but laugh. "You three are always on my back on how I lack emotional awareness and how I should know Hinata likes me back, but here you are, with a colossal amount of proof Neji is head over heels for and you're still burying your head in the sand."

Tenten shrugged. Naruto could say whatever he wanted, he wasn't there to see and feel how it all ended.

Naruto gently tapped Tenten's hands.

"You're overthinking this, Tenten." He assured her.

"Wow," Ino commented, surprised by how thoughtful Naruto was. "Since when do you have so much emotional intelligence, Naruto?"

"Well, we all had to pass our psychiatry rotations here, ok?" Naruto bit back.

Ino struck her tongue out to Naruto before she turned sharply towards Tenten, suddenly remembering something.

"Wait," Ino frowned. "What happened to Kakashi and Anko?"

"Oh, damn," Naruto snapped his fingers. "It's wild that with all the chaos that happened to you and Neji this Christmas; Kakashi and Anko fighting and making up during your Christmas brunch doesn't even make the top 10."

Tenten chuckled before leaning in, in secrecy. "You didn't hear this from me," She whispered. "But I think they eloped."

Naruto and Ino gasped.

"No way," Ino brought a hand to her hand. "How do you know?"

"Well, they were supposed to be staying the night, but when we came back from the Sand Ball, they had already packed their things and they were gone." Tenten shrugged. "Then, last night nurses were talking about how they both requested urgent time off for 'urgent family matters'."

"Next morning before we went to see Madame Yang, at the breakfast table," Tenten added. "My mother received at texto from Anko-"

"It's crazy your mother met your boss at a yoga retreat and they are now besties." Ino chimed in.

"-and my mother and my dad got super excited saying 'it's about time!'" Tenten finished.

"Ok," Naruto focused back her attention on Tenten. "Not that I don't appreciate the tea, yasss queen, thanks for spilling, oh ehm gee." Naruto took on his high-pitched voice to imitate his female roommates in mockery like he often did, wiggling his fingers in a girly fashion.

"But can you go straight to the wedding ceremony, already?" He finished with a complete change of tone, suddenly very callous. "I have places to be this afternoon." He whined.

"It's Ino who asked me to start from the top!" Tenten protested.

"Ooh," Ino's gossip antennae raised in curiosity. "What important things?" She smiled slyly at her friend.

"I'll tell you all about it tomorrow." He said mysteriously.

"It's a grand gesture for Hinata, isn't it?" Ino grinned and Tenten cooed at Naruto's blushing face.

"Stop, I don't want to jinx it." He mumbled shyly.

"Alright, alright" Ino smiled fondly in surrender.

"Honestly," Tenten offered. "I wouldn't mind speeding this up to the wedding cause I'm exhausted from my night shift and I still need a good shower."

She stretched her sore limbs. They had three gunshot wounds last night and the patients were heavy to shift when she was completing her screening of the back injuries.

"Fine, fine," Ino gave in. "Thank you for all the scrumptious intel, I have been well fed. But for time purposes I'll let you skim the rest."

"There was really nothing that happened in the afternoon anyway." Tenten said. "We had lunch, we were very cosy which confused me even more. Then most of my family either went to take a nap or to prepare for the wedding. Temari and Shikamaru joined us a bit on the veranda, and we played cards. Nothing too competitive this time."

She smiled at the memory of the Christmas charades they had won in a landslide.

"Then," She continued. "We walked a bit on the beach. It was really peaceful. Talked about everything and nothing. Our past, our children. We talked a lot about family. Obviously with my slip up at Haepo he knew I wanted many kids, but I was surprised to learn that was something he wanted to. Then we talked about residency, the personal sacrifices…"

"Yes, yes, yes," Naruto interrupted. "You had a big heart to heart, what happened at the wedding?"

"Wait, did you guys kiss again?" Ino propped a chin on her hand carefully taking in the fidgeting brunette in front of her.

"Yeah," Tenten reflected. "That made it confusing too, the kissing and holding hands even when nobody was around."

Naruto snorted.

"You're the only one that's confused," He said impassively. "And that's called denial."

Naruto offered his two cents in unusual stoicism for the exuberant blonde.

Ino looked at him in disconcerting wonder. "Why can't you be this self-aware about yourself?" She whispered, puzzled at how ironic it was for Naruto to see so easily the things in others, he pained to notice in himself.

"Ok before you just skip to the wedding part," Ino shook her head to direct her attention back to Tenten. "Just tell us what happened with Madame Yang, did you get the qipao?"

Tenten groaned loudly before cradling her head in her hands and letting it rest on the table, cringing hard at the reminiscence of that qipao and the commotion it had caused.

The bun-haired girl got back up quickly, grinding her teeth at the awkward memories, her cheeks flush with embarrassment.

"Yes, I got that freaking qipao." She gritted through her teeth.

December 27th - 4:44 PM

"So?" Tenten asked her aunts who saw her exit Madame Yang's atelier wearing the qipao. The wedding was supposed to start at 5PM sharp and if they wanted to make it on time, they couldn't lose one more minute.

Tenten was already relieved that they were able to secure the qipao after the tumultuous event of the morning. Madame Yang had really outdone herself in the little time she had. She opted for a shade of silk that danced between midnight blue and indigo that shimmied under the copper tones of her tanned skin and the depth of burnt umber in her hair.

There were intricate repeated designs of a dragon and a bird in silver threads and gold accents and in a thread of the same colour as the fabric, there were more subtle and smaller designs of yin and yang, of lotuses and a sort of weird flame in a circle.

Madame Yang had beamed at how well the dress had fitted her and she called Tenten her little Chang'e again. Tenten guessed she found her story with Neji a little similar to the myth of the moon goddess because of how star-struck and star-crossed the lovers were. It was a nice wink to how drama-filled the last days have been and it made Tenten chuckle a little.

On the small podium, Tenten gave an appraising glance at how well the dress suited her. Compared to the Jade one this morning, Tenten could understand Madame Yang's point of view better.

This dress was more fitted to Tenten's curves but still loose enough to not lose the timeless elegance of the cheongsam dress. It floated all the way down to her ankles strapped in rhinestones stilettos with slits running her her toned thighs. Even the smoky eye her aunt Suki gave her complemented the colour depth of the garment. And, her braided updo with hints of pearls and rhinestone pins was simple enough to not overwhelm the already intricate qipao.

Tenten also had to agree the dress felt more representative of her relationship with Neji compared to the jade one who would have been more suited for a story like Naruto's and Hinata's.

The more obscure colour scheme of the outfit was reminiscent of how the night had sheltered and nested their most intimate moments, both physically and emotionally. It also better pictured the darkness in which they still kept their feelings and the ashes of their slow burn. The fabric shimmied like the sea of lies on which they tried to navigate their uncertain relationship, that has sailed on and threatened to drown in.

When she saw the torn look on her client's face, Madame Yang had been unusually soft, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"It's a beautiful story still, ma chérie." She smiled at her through the mirror.

Tenten ran a finger through the stitches. The silver threads reminded her of glistening Haepo snow under the stars, but mostly, of Neji's eyes. Their gleam before he was set to disarm her with either fury or charm, and more often than not, both.

Evenmore so, Tenten loved how she incorporated her mother's family heirloom into the design. The porcelain cups, the only remaining connection from her mother's biological family she had lost, harboured the exact same replica of a golden dragon. Only on the dress, the dragon was mostly in silver with a few traits and scales in gold.

Really, the only thing Tenten didn't like about this lavish clothing was the reaction of her mother and aunts, because they were lousy liars.

Sure, in all her humble opinion, Tenten felt absolutely beautiful in this dress. But it certainly didn't warrant the frozen, mouth-agape shock in which the three older women by the car were stuck.

"We don't have time to tell her," Suki was the first out of her daze. "We're already late enough as it is." She rushed back to the driver's seat of the car.

"But-" Yara tried to interject before being cut short and startled by the loud honk of the car.

"Suki!" The youngest sister protested, rushing in the backseat. "Don't scare me like that again or I might lose my waters."

"You keep them fluids and that baby safely tucked in until we make it out of that wedding, you hear me?" Suki threatened her with a glare.

"Tenten, you look resplendent," Her mother smiled warmly at her, carefully placing her hands on each shoulder of her daughter to walk her to the car. "Don't mind us, we're simply emotional to see you in such a stunning dress." Her mother ushered a confused Tenten in the backseat next to her aunt Yara.

"Why are you acting all so weird?" Tenten raised a brow at her younger aunt humming nervously while strumming her fingers on her protruding belly.

"Us, weird?" Suki laughed hysterically. "You're so funny!"

"Mom?" Tenten urged her.

"Oh, look, the venue is just around the corner!" Her mother dodged her daughter's inquisitive tone and instead pointed to the smaller Suna's palace, a relic converted into an events venue. "Lucky it is so close to Madame Yang's atelier, otherwise we wouldn't have made it in time."

Tenten gave a weird look at her family as they grew more and more nervous after giving the keys to the valet.

She had expected the paparazzi, after all it was the wedding of the year for the upper crust of Suna.

Deidara's father was a textile tycoon and his mother's side came from basically Suna royalty, they were a prominent and established family in the city. Every family that mattered was present today. Even Neji's Suna relatives would be attending, though Hiashi had hinted it was more likely to spy on them both than by actual interest in the function. Although, upon hearing that the Hyugas would be in attendance, Deidara's mother had made sure they would get the best table, rearranging the whole seating chart last minute which was no small feat considering how many influential people would be in attendance.

As Tenten walked on the flowered path leading to the sumptuous gazebo where the ceremony would take place, she was assailed by flashes left and right.

It was not the photographers screaming her name that worried her, or the looks she received. No, it was cacophony slowly dimming down until it was all too quiet. The quiet lasted for a split second before the paparazzi started screaming her name with even more ferocity, the crowd slowly closing in.

Tenten heartbeats went faster as she desperately tried to look for her relatives she had lost in the cacophony of things. She didn't understand what happened, but in the few seconds it took her to cross half the path to the gazebo, something broke havoc in the opulent gardens.

She was blinded by multiplying flashes and the stares from the attendees intensified as people whispered things to each other.

If before she felt uncomfortable by the situation, things were quickly getting out of hand enough for her to start to panic. Her breaths became more shallow and she felt a tingling in her arms while she stood, frozen, in the middle of the raucous of unknown cause.

"Tenten," Neji put her hand on her shoulder and she relaxed almost instantly. "Are you alright?" His worried eyes dug into hers and they quickly turned dark in anger when he saw the fright freezing her traits.

He had just arrived with Tenten's uncle when he saw her being engulfed by the rowdy crowd of paparazzi and gossip aficionado stalking the premises.

Neji secured Tenten next to him with a firm grip of her waist before barking at some nearby security guards to come handle the situation.

Security arrived quickly, forcing the non-attendees to retreat back and the attendees to cross the fence leading to the gazebo. All the while Neji pushed people out of the way, Tenten looked up with marvel at how commanding Neji was and how powerful he felt, leading her out of this mess while she tried to keep her panic attack in check.

"What took you so long to react?" Neji spat at what seemed like the chief of operations. "You should have had your men react earlier than this, your passiveness endangered my fiancée."

Tenten was still too stunned to register Neji's words, gripping his torso for more support, her breathing was almost back to normal but she felt a bit dizzy from the turn of events.

It all happened in a matter of five minutes, but to Tenten it had felt like an eternity. Finally away from the front line of the event, in a quieter part of the gardens, Neji took Tenten's trembling hands in his.

"Hey, are you okay?" Neji asked softly, his eyes were a storm of apprehension and concern, with dying specks of fury.

The heat radiating from his body was a source of comfort for Tenten, so she took a step closer to him urging him to wrap his arms around her body.

She knew that during a panic attack, one needed to focus on their senses : what she could smell, touch, hear. So she drew her attention to the familiar body that sheltered her, the alpine smell she could now only associate to him, and the slow, even rhythm of his breaths.

"Yes," She whispered back, slowly opening her eyes and being more aware of her surroundings. She took some distance from Neji, the blood rushed into her cheeks at his devout scrutinising.

She also noticed the distant guests staring at them. But they were poised enough to give them space and turned their gazes away, and Neji's glares dissuaded them from doing anything else. The ceremony had started with the cocktails being served in the garden as the crowd started to mingle in its usual networking manners. In a few minutes they would be asked to sit down but for now, in true Green Valley fashion, every conversation in this A-list event was an opportunity to get richer, more powerful or more famous.

Tenten always forgot how influential her mother had become as a pop culture icon of the golden city and how vital to Suna's economy and politics her uncles and aunt Suki's businesses were that people threaded so carefully around them. They were nowhere near as powerful as the Hyuga or as old money as Deidara's family and some other families were, but for people from very humble beginnings in the foster care system, they were really holding their own and imposing respect in the treacherous environment of Suna's inner circle.

"What happened?" Neji brought her attention back to him.

Tenten shook her head. "I don't know, people got suddenly wild." She levelled her eyes to his. "I don't do well in an extremely tight environment. Temari and I almost got stuck in a stampede when we were fourteen during a concert where a fire broke when some equipment misfired on stage. We were on the floor and people were rushing in hysteria, walking over bodies and falling over each other to escape the fire. We escaped the stampede, but since then I get panic attacks when I'm in a compact crowd."

"I didn't know that," Neji frowned, feeling he should have known this.

He should have known everything about her, he wanted her to have no secrets, no enigma to him. Mostly when it came to keeping her safe. He wanted to possess her fully, be privy of everything. Her scars, her fears, anything that haunted her should be his so it could never reach her again.

"I'm good, now." Tenten smiled at him. "Really."

Neji put her at arm's length to really take the time to see her since he arrived and his breath caught in his throat.

Tenten watched as his expression quickly changed from worry to pure surprise.

A surprise so pure, Tenten could safely say she never saw this expression on Neji's features. It usually showcased prime anger, shock-anger, disbelief-anger and maybe confusion-anger. But never pure surprise, like a bewildered child.

"What?" Tenten asked, flustered at his staring.

Under his raised eyebrows, Tenten started to squirm and play with his cufflinks, noticing the engraved phoenix.

"Oh," She whispered. "We are matching." She pointed to the phoenix on her cheongsam dress.

Neji's eyes regained the usual mischief they held whenever she was involved, a new gleam of amusement in them, and his pressed lips quickly adopted the sly smirk she had always known him for.

"Yes, Tenten," He said with an aplomb that only he could hold by his countenance. "That's because you're wearing my coat of arms."

His smirk deepened in satisfaction of seeing her covered in his name.

"You're completely draped in my family crest."

A/N: This chapter was not supposed to exist but the whole idea was so tempting I couldn't show restraint. I was rethinking on how Madame Yang seemed like an interesting character I didn't play with enough, so I'm happy I was able to explore that further.