AN: After reading many NejiTen fics, finding some good, finding some bad, finding some REALLY good, while still finding others extremely bad, I found that there are not enough REALLY good NejiTen fics. I want some! So, I'm going to write myself some. Not that I can write REALLY good ones, but at least I can try. Hehe…And if you are reading this from my other fics in Bleach, don't worry! This fic is secondary to my other fics! Which reminds me. If you like Bleach, head over there and read my fanfic. XD. Its called A Summer Job. If you don't read Bleach, then just ignore this.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Scaling the Fortress – The Usual
This early in the morning the ground always had a slight mist hovering over it. He didn't know why, but he knew that it was cold whenever he came. It was also barely light when he came. He would sit there with his eyes closed, letting his thoughts take over his body.
He came alone and then sat on the slope of the hill. But, he knew that it wasn't that big a deal. Because soon, his teammate would join him in a few moments of silent meditation before executing their usual routine.
Usual routine being, one they had carried out for the last five years. Five years since…
Neji was jerked gently out of his thoughts as a presence knocked at the corner of his mind. She was here. He didn't open his eyes, just let out a small sound to acknowledge her presence. Finally when he did open them, they drifted towards his left, where a young kunoichi was seated, her eyes closed.
When she wasn't watching him, he gave himself the liberty to look closer upon her. Her hair was done up in the usual messy buns, and her face radiated peacefulness, a slight smile glancing across her features. Her face was void of any makeup, her lips faintly red, but her skin was still the same smooth complexion from five years back.
She had grown, he decided, but hadn't changed.
Tenten flicked one eyelid open, to find the piercing gaze of Hyuuga Neji resting upon her. She had to mentally shout to herself to avoid reeling back in shock. Even after all these years, she still liked him. Whenever he turned his deep gaze on her she felt like an elementary schoolgirl, blushing madly every time their crush turns an eye to them.
Which was exactly what Neji was doing. Turning his eyes towards her. And she was desperately trying to hide her blush, which she knew would be easy to detect in the morning mist. Red always stood out.
The prodigy seemed to realise what he was doing, wait, he already knew what he was doing, but he seemed to realise that the girl he was staring at was now staring back at him.
He grunted softly, and then got up, signalling the start of their training.
Tenten followed suit, but not before wondering why he had been staring at her. She cast the thought away to the back of her mind to re-examine when they had finished training.
"LEE!"
"GAI-SENSEI!"
"LEE! I SEE YOU HAVE COME HERE EARLY AS USUAL! OH, REJOICE IN THE NAME OF YOUTH!"
"GAI-SENSEI! I WILL RUN 6000 LAPS AROUND KONOHA FOR TRAINING!"
"LEE! YOUR YOUTH ASTOUNDS ME!"
"GAI-SENSEI!"
"LEE!"
"GAI-SENSEI!"
"LEE!"
And then, somehow, a backdrop of sunset came materialising around them, nullifying any laws of nature that were practically screaming, "It's morning!"
As his student went off to run the 6000 laps, Gai turned his attention to his other students, who were sparring furiously. That training had developed about five years ago. Sure, they had sparred with each other before five years ago, but it never really turned into an obligation until five years ago.
The two were good for each other, he decided. Tenten's long range attacks that could pierce almost any defence, while Neji's short range attacks, with a ultimate defence that could stop almost any attack…They could go all out, without danger of killing each other.
The spandex clad ninja turned around after observing them for a few minutes. Time to catch up to his counterpart. The two here would compliment each other's attacks. No need for him to be there.
After executing his last kaiten he slowed to a stop, and seconds later, his team-mate dropped from heights unknown in front of him. It was his last kaiten; if anyone tried to attack him now, they would have a pretty hefty advantage, considering his chakra reserves were basically nothing at the moment. Luckily the kunoichi in front of him had no weapons anymore; they were littering the space around them.
She looked up at him and grinned, between panting. She had obviously gotten better, to tire him out this much. But, she was tired out as well, and it seemed like it was about time they finished anyway.
An unspoken moment passed between the two, before they carefully lowered their defences, and walked silently to the curve of the hill, where they had been sitting, hours ago.
There was no longer any morning mist, and the grass wasn't uncomfortably wet. The sun had come out, and was drying everything it could reach. Which was basically everything. The gentle slope of the hill was now dry, and Tenten reached it first, collapsing onto the soft grass with a groan.
Neji lowered himself onto the grass in a much more dignified manner, although his primal instincts told him to follow suit. Sitting in the soft grass was almost a healing agent to their wounded bodies. Though, this time, tending to their wounds wasn't a necessity. For some reason, none of her weapons actually hit him, and he hadn't actually managed to get a serious blow on her. Basically, they were just exhausted.
Tenten turned onto her side to eye the Hyuuga ninja, who was lying down next to her, his hands behind his head, staring up into the now blue sky. She studied him for a moment, even though she knew he could see her. His blank eyes looked firmly up to the sky, while his handsome face reflected the sun. His hair tie had broken during the fight, and his hair cascaded down his shoulders, and behind his back.
"I'm jealous."
The genius turned to her, his pale eyes questioning.
"Of your hair," she explained.
"Hn."
She lazily flicked a hand out towards his hair, only to have it stopped by the genius. She pouted, though she knew cuteness would be the last thing that worked past the defences of this ninja. How little she knew. Surprisingly he let go of her hand, leaving her free to touch his silky tresses.
She combed through his hair absentmindedly, thinking about what he was thinking. The Hyuuga genius never allows someone to be this close to him. Or touch his lovely hair. There were probably dozens of fan-girls that would have loved to do what she was doing at the moment, but she wasn't like them. Neji had silenced them a long time ago with his infamous glare. That stopped them talking to him. That didn't stop them talking about him, however. Everyday, Tenten could hear new rumours, mostly about her, and new things she had never even dreamed about the Hyuuga prodigy.
She would have loved to continue playing with his hair, but the morning training session they had just had took, and always took, a lot out of her stamina. Neji trained mercilessly. It amazed her to how she had kept up with him all this time.
Exhaustion finally kicked in, and she felt eyes falling, and herself falling onto her friend's shoulder.
Neji grunted in surprise as he felt a familiar weight land on his shoulder. He looked over to Tenten, who still had one hand in his hair, and her head against his shoulder. She looked comfortable, he thought, so he didn't move. He tried to ignore that fact that her head fit so…well with his shoulder. His arms were still behind his head, and if he moved them, it would end up with his arm around Tenten. He did not want that to happen. Well, he did, but he couldn't admit it to himself.
It had been five years ago, since they had started these training sessions. Five years ago, they had all trained as a team, but something happened that broke apart the unity for a bit.
She was thirteen, he was thirteen. She had approached him quite awkwardly for someone he had known almost all his life. He had wondered what was wrong with Tenten. Then she had told him, without much further ado, that she liked him. She wasn't like those screaming fangirls that had thrown themselves at him, proclaiming that they had loved him from the second they saw him. Her confession…was quiet, almost as if she expected it to be a rejection. Which, of course it was. Well, not entirely, but actions speak louder than words, and after a few moments of staring at his teammate, he turned his back on her, and walked slowly back to the Hyuuga compound. Slowly.
She had watched him go, and for the first time since she was a kid, she had actually let herself cry. She never let herself cry, always bottling it up, trying to be strong. She didn't have any parents, so she didn't have anyone to turn to. Instead, she turned to herself, telling herself that she needed to become strong. Afterwards, she finally agreed that it was just a stupid crush, spawned by the powers of adolescence, and that she would get over that cold, stupid, unfeeling jerk. She was only half right. It was spawned by the powers of adolescence, that was certain, but she never did get over him. It took her a week to get back into the usual routine of training with her team, but when she came back, Gai didn't question her.
It was hard, training with her teammates again, training with him. She tried to hate him while she trained, but found that she couldn't. After surviving the training session, Gai and Lee left her and Neji alone. She had waited, expecting the prodigy to go off, not waiting for her, not waiting for her because he didn't care.
Thus, she was surprised, when he had walked up to her, and started talking.
"You should concentrate more in our training session. It's endangering the whole team."
She had kept her steely resolve, but the insides of her were screaming, 'I knew it was too good to be true.' She turned away, almost crying again. She had thought the Hyuuga prodigy would have thought over his unspoken answer to her, but she was wrong. His next words shocked her out of her misery.
"Tomorrow morning, train with me. Early." With those few words he abruptly turned around and walked back to the Hyuuga compound. She had turned around, disbelieving that he had actually said that. He hadn't told her that he loved her, or kissed her passionately, but the invitation to train alone with him was enough for her. Even though she would have liked him kissing her passionately. Somewhere deep inside her told her that he was just feeling sorry for her, but she cast the thought away, preferring to live in blissful ignorance, rather than face the truth.
But, sure enough, he was there that next morning. Waiting for her. He had kicked himself on the way home, because he didn't tell her the exact time. So, he just got to the training ground when the sun rose. That would be early enough. She arrived a few moments after him, and after a few awkward moments, they sparred.
And from then on, it became a type of tradition that they kept. All relating back to that incident, five years ago. Gai and Lee never questioned their training together, and had instead launched themselves into a vibrant, green, training method that largely consisted of laps. Even Neji was amazed at their quick transition. But, he never questioned why, and focused on sparring with his teammate.
Neji closed his eyes, tired of gazing at the sky. He remembered that he desperately wanted to accept Tenten. Well, maybe not desperately, but he did know that he liked her. Even Hyuuga's, complete with their death stares, also like members of the opposite sex, unbelievable as it may sound. They just…never said anything about it.
He wanted to accept her, but told himself that he had too much responsibility, the crap between the main family and the branch family, his obsession with becoming invincible…but deep down he knew that he was just hiding behind those things…because he was afraid. And he didn't want to admit it to himself. He was afraid of letting her in, letting her become a personal part of himself. That would definitely show a weakness. That was why, he turned around that day. To soften the blow of rejection, he had offered himself for training. This was probably the lowest he could've stooped down to, helping his weak teammate. Surprisingly, she was not as weak as he had thought, and she grew stronger everyday under his constant training.
He tried to drift off into sleep, even though his eyes had closed a long time ago. His arms moved instinctively out from beneath his head, coming to rest on his teammate's soft body. If he hadn't been so exhausted, he would have jumped back. He had almost forgotten that Tenten was lying on his shoulder; she had felt so comfortable.
He didn't move his arm. Anyway, they were out in their old training grounds, hardly anyone ever came here. Plus, he had grown such good friends with Tenten over the years that he knew she wouldn't have minded. He knew her too well, even though he would never admit it to himself.
Sleep shifted silently into his exhausted brain, and the two of them rested on the grassy slope as the hours ticked by.
AN: Well, I don't really have much to say…this is basically an introduction sort of thing. Please review…I don't really know if I'll update this really fast cuz I have to catch up with all my other fanfics…groan…I should stop writing new ones, and start finishing a few. Well, anyway, yeah, review, and depending on how much reviews I get, I'll update really fast. If I get none…well, I'll update really slow then. XD