My first attempt at fluff. NejiTen. Flames and/or reviews welcomed.
Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, Jiraiya would be a woman.
"Take a long rest Neji-nii-san. You've caught the bug that's been going around. Naru-chan's got it too," said Hinata with anxiety in her voice. She hurried away from Neji's room as soon as she closed the door to tend to her Naru-chan.
Neji groaned at having to stay home with all the elders. They'd probably poke their heads in to check on him every five minutes. Worse still, he wouldn't be able to see Tenten that day for fear of infecting her too.
He didn't mind infecting Gai-sensei and Lee. Making them sick would make them shut up about the joy of youth. But Hinata had specifically told him to stay home.
And there he lay, bored to tears.
Just as he was about to doze off, there was a knock on the door.
"Come in," Neji said irritably.
Hiashi poked his head in with his Byakugan activated and stared at his nephew. Neji stared blankly back at his uncle and soon began a staring game between the two.
Neji won because Hiashi heard a cracking sound coming from his lower back. "I'm getting old.." muttered Hiashi as he backed out of Neji's room. Neji snickered at his uncle's age and rolled over in bed.
The bottle of medicine Hinata gave him looked ominously at him from his bedside table. He flinched inwardly and turned away.
He felt something tickle his nose and drew his head back. "AAAACCHOOO!!" sneezed Neji. He wiped his nose with the back of his hand and sighed. He had been sneezing like that all morning. How undignified.
He eventually fell asleep, cursing the bug that infected him.
He awoke to a light tapping on his window. He looked up groggily and saw Tenten, holding a bag of something unidentified. And she was smiling. Neji didn't know whether to be afraid or happy that she actually came to see him.
He slouched to the window and unlatched it, permitting Tenten to enter his immaculate bedroom.
"Hey Neji-kun. How are you feeling?" enquired Tenten. "My nose is itchy and I sound funny," replied Neji with a small sniff.
Tenten suppressed a smile to hear Neji talk like that and put her hand into the bag she was carrying. "Guess what's in here," he told Neji.
Neji began to back away slowly until he fell back on his bed. Tenten drew out her hand and held out some chocolate to Neji.
"Chocolate aways helps me feel better," she explained. Neji took a piece and sniffed it while Tenten unwrapped the shiny foil and popped her piece into her mouth.
"What is chocolate?" asked Neji with a puzzled look on his oh-so-serious face, staring at the foil-wrapped chocolate in his palm. Tenten's eyes widened in shock and almost spat out her chocolate after hearing him ask her that question.
"You mean you've never had chocolate?!" she exclaimed as Neji shook his head slowly. "We need to go out sometime, Neji-kun."
There was a silence as Tenten realised how that sentence came out. A light blush spread across her cheeks and that of the pale Hyuuga's.
"You.. really want to go out with me?" asked Neji quietly. Tenten didn't respond and blushed all the way to her ears. Tenten had never been a shy girl but Neji was always able to have this strange effect on her.
Neji pondered the situation for a moment. Soon, he put two and two together and came to the conclusion that Tenten could never like him and probably only said that because she pitied him and/or made a mistake. Yes, that sounded right.
"Tenten, you don't have to pretend to like me because you feel sorry that I'm sick," Neji stated calmly. Tenten looked at him incredulously and smacked her forehead inwardly. Could he be any more naive?
"Neji-kun, I'm not pitying you," gulped Tenten. "I want to go out with you. As in.. On a date."
Now, for the first time in the history of forever, the Hyuuga prodigy blushed in earnest. Realising her offer fell on deaf ears, Tenten quickly stammered, "It's not like you HAVE to go with me or anything, I mean, it was just a thing I though we could do..mmff!!"
Her lips were captured by a certain prodigy to silence her babbling and as he pulled away, she smiled with an air of someone having accomplished something.
Now to get him to eat all 2000 kinds of chocolate in that shop, Tenten said to herself.