Author's Note : The "Truth" game was inspired by Sarah Dessen's; The Truth About Forever.
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Neji shot a quick glance towards Itachi, the latter looked infuriated with Tenten; something completely different from his composed features. Itachi then snapped his head and looked straight at Neji with possible killing intentions.
"What a psycho." Neji thought inwardly.
"Neji." Itachi greeted him in a monotonous voice.
"Itachi." Neji replied back placidly, pale eyes never leaving Itachi's dark coal eyes, before he walked towards the direction that Tenten jogged off to.
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"We should leave now, Airin-Senpai. Keep a close distance..." Itachi started but was cut short by Airin.
"Itachi-Kun." Airin said out sternly, "We cannot do that. Both of them will notice our presence immediately! Neji has the byakugan for crying out loud. He can see us within a 20 kilometres range. We have to wait for at least an hour or so."
Itachi kept quiet a he clenched his jaw tight. He was beyond enraged. His fiancé was out on a mission with the very man that he detested. He could not fathom why he hated the Hyuuga that much. Was it because they share a certain connection that even he did not posses with Tenten? Was this just jealousy? For an entire month he had tried his best to get the Hyuuga out of the picture. He was the one who scheduled their scholarships program into different timings, he was the one who proposed Gai to go out on a whole month worth of mission (he had to spar with the other jounin shinobi and kunoichi and hurt them to a great extent so that the Hokage had no other choice but to deploy Gai out). Itachi sighed out loud, he thought spending more time with Tenten would forge the same "unique bond" that she and Neji shared; but instead, he felt that she was distancing herself away from him. She hardly slept over anymore, if she did, she would make a million excuses as to why she refused to sleep in his room but rather; preferring the futon in Izumi's room. He was infuriated with her behaviour up to the point that made him go extremely tough on her during their usual sparring sessions. He had even unconsciously unleashed his mangekyou on certain occasions onto her. It marveled him how quickly she had adapted to the pain, but she never did once cried or broke down in front of him.
He was snapped out of his reveries when he heard Airin clicked her tongue disapprovingly.
"Is there something wrong, Senpai?" Itachi asked her calmly.
"You are hurting her." Airin said sharply, adding an accusing tone towards it, "If you love her, you should not even think of hurting her."
"It was essential for me to teach her.." Itachi started but was cut short by Airin.
"Cut the shit-fest Itachi-Kun. You hurt her to punish her. Every single time she rejects your company, your intimacy, rejecting you. You will punish her during the spar with your damn mangekyou. I can still read minds if you have forgotten." Airin exclaimed worriedly.
"I am aware. But you are reading everything wrongly. I know your weakness. Even reading minds can be puzzling for you, you simply read but decipher it in your own perception. What you conclude is wrong. I am doing this out of love.." Itachi started but was interjected by Airin's mirthless laugher.
"Then should I kill Kakashi to show him that I love him? Should I threatened the life of my unborn child to show him that I care for him? What the hell happened to you? You are overwhelmed by jealousy, it had turned you into this unreasonable asshole.." Airin muttered but stopped when she saw Kakashi standing before her.
He was shaking his head sadly and mumbled the word "Unbelievable" "8 months pregnant" ,"Stubborn" And "Crazy Wife".
Itachi took that as a hint to give them some space. He walked off towards nowhere in particular.
"This is a dangerous Mission. You are carrying our child, you might give birth anytime soon.. May I ask why do you need to do this?" Kakashi asked her, he had pulled Airin closer towards him, his forehead now resting gently against hers. He knew Airin too well by now, if she was persistent in attending a mission, something was definitely brewing.
"It has to be me.." Airin whispered gently. "He will lose control. He will try to hurt them. I was the one who made the mistake of matchmaking them in the first place. Itachi-Kun was right. Mind reading has flaws and one of them is that if the person in question is confused.."
"Then I am coming with you." Kakashi decided firmly.
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Tenten and Neji walked silently out of the gates, they walked through the lush forest that was situated just a few metres south of Konoha. They were extremely quite that they could hear the sounds of their feet crushing the dried brown leaves underneath them, the chirping of the birds and if they listened closely, they could almost hear each other's breath. Neji could not take it, he had missed her so much, her silly outburst,her cheeky laughter; basically Tenten being Tenten.
"So.." Neji's deep voice broke the awkward silence between them, "Did your Otto prevent yourself from having a decent conversation with me?"
Neji saw from the corner of his eyes, Tenten winced ever so slightly at the mention of her fiancé. "I knew it." Neji thought inwardly.
"No." Tenten snapped as she quickened her pace, to get away from Neji. "I do not have to listen to his request all the time." Tenten ended defiantly.
"Really? You did not sound so tough before him a little while ago.. Slow down! We are having a proper conversation after so long..!" Neji exclaimed as he shot out a hand and grabbed Tenten's left arm to halt her from walking too fast.
What Tenten did next; confused Neji, she winced, in pain in the area where Neji touched. Neji barely used any force when he pulled her towards him. Neji leaned closer towards Tenten and swiftly pushed up her long-sleeved shirt before Tenten could even protest. The sight before Neji literally shattered his heart. New and old ugly bruises were visible all over her arm. Tenten might be clumsy at times, but this was certainly not the result of a spar, Nor was it sustained from any mission-related injury. Neji checked constantly to see if she was deployed on a Mission, no~ she had been physically abused. Neji being the smart lad he was, knew who the culprit was.
"Itachi did this to you didn't he?" Neji said in a low and agitated voice. Tenten attempted to yank her hand away from Neji's grasp but was futile when Neji retained a firm grip on her arm. He hurriedly took out the Hyuuga ointment from his pocket in his pants and uncap it with the flick of his fingers.
"Stay still." Neji commanded as he let go of his grip on her hand and dabbed a generous amount of ointment on Tenten's badly bruised arm. Tenten remained motionless as she allowed her ex-roommate to gently massage the ointment all over her left hand before he started on her left arm as if he knew that her mental fiancé had bashed her blue and black all over her body, the parts where it was not visible for the naked eye to see. Her face was left untouched, unharmed, but her entire body was filled with cuts and bruises.
"Thank you, Neji." Tenten mumbled softly, "You really should not.."
"..should not what? Help you?" Neji snorted as he covered the ointment bottle when he was spreading it on her right arm.
"..touch me.." Tenten finished her sentence and continued, "He can see through deceptions easily using his mangekyou, I cannot lie.."
"MANGEKYOU?!" Neji yelled loudly which made the birds that were peacefully perched on several tree branches around them, to flutter away in panic. "He..Used..The..F*cking..
MANGEKYOU..on..you..?!' Neji's low voice enunciated every word.
Tenten looked abashed, she was not supposed to reveal that to anyone. She was in so much trouble. He would most possibly kill her when he finds out. They heard a sudden snap of a twig before Tenten quickly threw a kunai towards a nearby tree and they heard gasps coming from the said tree.
"Tsk..Tsk..Tsk.." an unknown voice surfaced from the shadows, "Are we disturbing a lovers' quarrel?" Neji and Tenten looked up to see a pale looking man who had the lightest blonde coloured hair with streaks of yellow, next to him surfaced his comrade. He had distinctive light ocean blue eyes, his mouth was covered by a black coloured mask.
"Who the hell are you?" Tenten asked as she bit her finger and smeared it across her weapons scroll, revealing a mallet.
"Two extremely strong individuals.." blondie replied which earned him amused scoff from both his opponents, an anime vein propped prominently on his right temple before he continued, "Just give us the damn scroll and we will be on our way.."
"Nope." Tenten answered making a 'pop' sound as soon as he said the word out.
The two perpetrators looked at the duo angrily and took their fighting stance and started to attack. Blondie used earth style technique while masked guy used mainly taijutsu offences.
Neji took on blondie while Tenten handled masked guy. Tenten managed to evade most of his offences, even though they talked big, the masked guy was only a of chunnin level at best and fortunately for Tenten, she had been sparring only with the best Taijutsu masters of all time; Lee and Gai. This fight was really easy for her that she played along with the guy while mocking him fervently.
"What's under your mask?" She asked him sheepishly annoying the crap out of the masked guy.
Neji's opponent was also not that strong, Neji could easily evade him and when the time came for it, Neji blocked his tenkutsu points, he looked at Neji in shock as his body collapsed to the ground unwillingly.
"Takagi!" Neji yelled towards Tenten who was still evading punches thrown from her opponent, "Get it done and over with, quit messing with him!"
"Come on, Neji! I have been getting my ass kicked daily from the same man.. Let me have some fun.." Tenten whined as she evaded masked guy's infuriating kicks.
"I will spar with you later. Just end the damn fight." Neji sighed, although, he was grateful that Tenten had returned to her normal cheerful self.
In one brisk movement, Tenten used the heel of her foot and delivered a side kick to her opponent's thigh, knee and shin. She used the heel of her palm deliver and exceptionally powerful strike on a 45-degree angle to the opponent's nose and chin. She did a few hand signs before she yelled out; "Katon, Gyoukaku No Jutsu!" And a huge fireball escaped her mouth to savour its victim.
"Itachi taught you that?" Neji asked incredulously as he stood at the side, impresses by Tenten's newly learnt movements. She did not poses fire affinity, for her to perform that move and mastering it well, was highly commendable.
"Yes." Tenten replied through gritted teeth, "He casts me in a painful illusion, will not let me out until I performed that correctly." She scowled at the memory, she needed the help of a walking stick for three days afterwards.
"I told you before and I will say it again. He is mental." Neji stressed on the word "mental" to justify his observations.
To his ultimate surprise; Tenten laughed, "I believe you are right there. Enough about me, how have you been? How is Aiko-San? Hiashi-Sama? Hinata? Hanabi? I miss them all.."
"Just them?" Neji teased her as he motioned her to walk away from where they were standing.
"You, most." Tenten replied truthfully before she realised what she had said and added awkwardly, "I meant Team Gai, yeah, Team Gai."
Neji's back was facing Tenten, she knew he had caught on, he always does. He was too smart and bright to be fooled, he suddenly spoke, "I missed you the most too..I meant I miss Team Gai too, yeah Team Gai."
A small smile had subtly curled upon Tenten's lips. Something that she had rarely indulged in for the entire month. She was always nearly on the brink of exhaustion and tears. Itachi had been abusing her for an entire month after he found out through Sasuke using his Mangekyou that Neji had kissed her in the forest. Something snapped within him, a suppressed anger that scared Tenten; he turned into a Monster. Tenten was afraid of him. That was why she had refused to sleep over the Uchihaa household afterwards. She knew there would be repercussions from that, which indeed came in the form of "mangekyou punishments". But she would much be preferred to have gone through that rather than to sleep with a Monster. If she really had to sleep over their place, she would stubbornly stay in Izumi's room.
"Now let's go before.." Neji started but was startled by what Tenten did, she had hugged him from the back. Her face was presently pressed against his back, her arms had locked themselves tightly against Neji's waist. She was sobbing softly against his back.
"Tenten.." Neji started but was interrupted by Tenten's choking voice.
"It was really great to see you Neji. I am so glad that I am assigned to this mission with you. I am granted a chance to say goodbye to you before you leave to Sungakure." She slowly let him go before she shuffled herself forwards and quickened her pace towards their destination.
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They were stranded under the rain it was half past 1 in the morning and neither one could sleep on the uncomfortable huge branch that they were currently seated on.
"A game.." Tenten said abruptly.
"Huh?" Neji asked her wearily. Both of them had decided to just talk about general topics after their awkward embrace, things like Neji's accommodation in Sungakure, things he needed to prepare before the trip and so forth. They have decided to not sleep in a tent like before to ease the weird tension between them, plus, Tenten only brought one Tent that could fit both of them. So they settled for resting on a branch instead.
"When I used to be bored as a child, Anko would get me to play games with her," Tenten recalled as she smiled at the memory.
"Okay.." Neji breathed out, he had never played any games whatsoever as a child. He was too focused on getting back at the Main branch that it literally took away his childhood. He shuddered at the very memory. "..how do you play this.. game?" Neji said, his voice filled with uncertainty.
"Truth." Tenten started as she looked straight into Neji's eyes, "You are not allowed to lie. Just speak the truth to whatever question that had been asked by the other. You literally can't lie. If a twitch or stammering or any lying related behaviour is observed, you lose."
"Sounds diabolical. I approve of it. I will definitely not lose to you." Neji said our confidently which earned him an eye roll from Tenten. "I will ask you the question first. Because I was not the one who played with my opponent during a fight."
Tenten sighed but a small smile had slowly formed at the corners of her mouth, "You know.. Gai-Sensei's competitive edge is rubbing off on you.."
Neji ignore her remark totally and asked, "Describe how you feel about me, starting from the day we first met." Neji exclaimed boldly.
Tenten gave him a sharp look which he took in with calm pale eyes, "You sure you wanna go there, Hyuuga? You might regret what you are about to hear."
"What was the name of the game again? Oh right! Truth! Not "stalling or chickening out"." Neji exclaimed viciously.
Tenten gave him a hard glare as she breathed in and said, "The first time I bumped into you.. I thought that you were an arrogant, obnoxious, self-loving prick who.." Tenten started but was interrupted by Neji's muttering.
"I really hope this is going somewhere.." Neji muttered.
".. had no emotions in his cold-heart. It was like meeting up with evil himself. Evil in the form of an attractive male." Tenten continued as Neji's ears sharpened.
"I disliked you, Neji. Like loathed your presence. We would quarrel over stupid things and I would get extremely agitated because of this quarrel. And then you changed, you became nicer, quarrels became bearable and even at some point of time, enjoyable. I would secretly look forward to the little quarrels. You always surprised me with a new come back, it kind of harnessed my debating skills. After I revealed that I was a woman to the others and we were further apart, I slowly looked forward to our sparring sessions, our team dinner. I looked forward to seeing you. I knew, that I was.. head over heels for you.." Tenten's voice became softer, which made Neji leaned in closer to her, he did not want to miss this revelation.
"..but who am I kidding right? You are you. The good-looking genius who is engrossed in his dreams and visions. And I am just me."
Neji kept extremely quiet if that was even possible. His eyes were still locked onto Tenten's, his entire body went rigid after listening to her confession. Tenten chuckled gently as she rubbed the palm of her hands together and faked an evil laugh, "Now it is my turn."
Tenten cleared her throat as Neji finally got a hold of himself and sat up straight, "Do you harbour any feelings towards me? Explain in detail why."
Neji cocked his head to the side as he looked at Tenten, his face was calm but his breathing intensified, his heart felt like it was about to explode out of his chest. He gulped down before he stammered, "Tenten.. I.."
Tenten snorted as she repeated what Neji had said before, "What was the name of the game again?"
Neji shot an angry look towards Tenten, her mocking him was always enough to rile him up, "Fine." Neji started "Not every expectations are achieved because of mere desire - some are achieved through fate. Now, fate is what brought you to me, not that I deserved you."
Tenten who was smirking was now looking at him in awe. Were her ears deceiving her? Did Hyuuga Neji just said what she thought he said? Now it was her turn to be paralysed.
When Neji did not hear a response from his ex-roommate, he continued "You are that psychotic roommate who goes into the women's bathroom, lied to me countless times, picked a fight with me when no one else even dared to. Defies me in every damn way and yet.. I am oddly attracted to those qualities. You fought with me but showed me what big of an idiot I used to be. You drove me crazy with your endless defiance, yet it was the one thing that comforted me. Strange isn't it? Our endless quarrels were comforting to me. Your annoying loud sleep talk and absurdly loud way of breathing when you sleep, were music to my ears. I thought I was going insane. Until it occured to me, the very day Itachi confessed his undying love towards you. My existence became meaningless then, I wanted to just.. disappear.. meet my parents in the other life.. That was the day I had acknowledged what I tried so hard to deny. I was in love with you. All those time."
Tenten was trying hard to hold back her tears. She choked them back as she heard him ask the next "truth" question, "Why did you accept his proposal, if you had been harbouring feelings for me, Tenten?" Neji looked up towards the sky, his face refusing to look at Tenten's depressed face.
"B-because of y-you.." Tenten said, which resulted in Neji discreetly activating his byakugan to view her without having to turn his head towards her, "Don't you remember? You told me to reply to his feelings. I was confused, I thought that feeling I had for him was love. And you encouraged me! That was when I thought that you had never regarded me more than a friend.."
Neji cursed himself. He should have just pushed his pride, ego, selflessness aside and just admitted to her when he had the chance. Now that it was like this, it was hard. They would hurt others if they decided to embrace their love. It was never meant to be. Fate was not siding their love. He sighed before he heard Tenten shuffled slightly, she stifled down a sob as she asked him gently, the next "truth" question, "If you could do anything right now, what would you do?"
Neji looked at her slowly, her face was slightly wet with newly formed tears, her entire face was flushed, liquid was coming of slightly down her right nostril, but she looked absolutely breathtaking to him. Her sincerity, her revelation, her boldness. Everything about her was just mesmerising to him right then. He almost forgot the question she had asked him earlier. He leaned himself closer towards her and replied, "This."
And he kissed her. Unlike the previous kiss they shared, this was filled with more than one emotion. The previous kiss was mostly filled with lust. This- was a combination of suppressed joy, anger, sadness and want. It was extremely tender and gentle but both parties did not want to stop. They could not bring themselves to stop. Their bodies craved each other's presence and was always denied that opportunity. Neji finally pulled himself away from her and slowly pushed the sleeves of her shirt upwards. He began planting kisses on the slightly healed bruises on her arms.
"I am sorry. If I had been brave before, he would not even hurt you like this.. You would not get hurt.." Neji apologised sincerely.
Tenten halted the kisses he was planting by cupping onto his chin and gently pushing it up to face her, "And I am so sorry dear Neji. For making you feel like your life was meaningless. You are the best roommate I could have asked for, you are the best teammate I could have ever asked for and you at the Best Friend that I have ever had.. You mean so much to me.. Never let yourself feel that way again.. I am sorry we can't be together.."
Neji's eyes turned gentle-sad. He had wanted her so badly to only realise that he could not have her. He was surprised when Tenten pulled him into and embrace. She held onto him tightly, afraid of letting him go. He hugged her back as he kissed the top of her head inhaling the beautiful scent of cherries that always lingered around her.
"Isn't that sweet? The two of us almost barfed out our dinner. Such a shame that would be, the chicken miso ramen was exceptionally delicious. Wasn't it Kabuto?" A man with Long black hair, pale skin and eyes that resembled a snake spoke.