Tenten's POV
I woke up when my insides made a sudden jolt, which I realized had meant the bus finally stopped moving. My head was comfortably resting on something. I looked to see what I had fallen asleep on, and then almost hopped five feet in the air when I realized I had fallen asleep on Neji! His head had been resting on top of mine. My eyes no doubt held a look of shock. I turned to Kiba, who was staring at us and winking suggestively. I greeted him with my middle finger.
I slowly escaped from my position. Luckily, he hadn't woken up from my movement, and if I was even luckier, he never would know that I was there in the first place. I poked his cheek with my finger. "Sleeping Beauty...." I said mockingly. "Wake up. We're there."
He groaned. "You know Sleeping Beauty was woken up with a kiss right?" He joked.
I slapped him in the face instead. "Well was that enough to wake you up?"
He rubbed the part of his cheek that was now bright red. "Ya, alright."
He walked up the front of the bus to address the team. His movements were much more springy than I expected. It seems his nerves and adrenaline far surpassed the grogginess he may have felt from falling asleep.
"Okay team." He said, now addressing the entire bus. "This game has been part of Konoha tradition for years that far surpass our own. It's been a while since the title of winner was been ours in this match, but tonight, we have the full power to break that streak and their confidence with it." He broke into a smile. "Now, let's kick some ass!" Neji said quite uncharacteristically, raising his fist in the air.
"Literally!" Kiba said, earning a few laughs. I smiled and cheered with the rest of the team. I had never seen Neji so hyped up. It was a nice change from his normal couldn't-give-a-shit attitude, and I had to say I liked it. His speech was effective though, which I guess was the result of Neji's unusual attitude. He was serious when he had to be, but knew when to turn on a different perspective. I fully understood why he was the captain.
We were escorted to the visitors' locker room by one of the Suna coaches, who was talking with Gai-sensei, but by the looks of it, not willingly. There was only one locker room, so I had to run into a stall to change. When I came out of it, I soon realized the boys were changing, so I ran out of the locker room with a hand covering my eyes, and waited outside the door for them to finish. (I did NOT want to see that).
I quickly got bored. (Seriously, how long does it take for guys to change? What do they do in there?) I started wandering around for a little bit, not wanting to stray too far. The visitors' side of the stadium didn't really have much to look at, so when I reached the end of the hallway I just turned around and headed back. It was then that I was approached by a few boys in yellow uniforms. Oh. Shit.
"Well, well, well." The front one sneered. "You play for Konoha? But you're too cute!" The owner of this voice was a boy with brown hair, purple eye black under his cheeks, and a sneer that was all too telling of the malice underneath it.
"Kankuro!" Another voice came from the shadows, this time belonging to a girl. "Leave her alone. I told you to save your aggressions for the field!"
"Oh come on sis!" He complained. "I only wanted to check out the competition!" He winked at me after he said that.
My savior was a tall blond girl, who walked up to Kankuro and the others, and hit him upside the head. "You check out enough people at our own school already." She then turned to me. "So you're my replacement huh?" She smirked. "Sorry about my younger brother. He doesn't know how to handle himself."
I blinked for a minute, fully comprehending what she said. "So, you're Temari?"
"Oh, so you've heard about me? Well, I'd love to sit here and chit-chat, but I'll save that for later. Let's go." She beckoned for her teammates to follow her. They quickly obeyed her orders, leaving me alone in the dark corridor again. Some of my teammates had exited the locker room, and were viewing the scene from afar. I ran to go join them
"Tenten." Neji said sternly. "What did I tell you about the competition?"
"They snuck up on me!" I said in my defense.
"You always get into trouble somehow..." He shook his head. I grinned back at him.
We all headed onto the field and began our warm up. Whenever I got the chance, I would look over at the other team to access their skills. It was pretty hard to tell, since it was only a warm up, but they seemed capable. Their goalie, a red haired boy with a similarly colored tattoo on his forehead, seemed just as good if not better than Kiba at blocking. Temari and Kankuro, to my dismay, seemed to be two of the best shooters on the team, and that much I could glimpse even before the game. The warm up felt way too fast, but before we knew it, the game had started.
All eleven starters (including me) entered the field, and I took up my position in the middle. Kankuro was directly across from me. He gave me a wink, and I glared right back at him. Neji seemed to catch this weird interaction, but I didn't catch the emotion on his face. He seemed as determined as ever to beat these jerks.
The ref blew the whistle, and the 80 minute timer began. Neji started with the ball. He passed it to Lee. It was taken by Temari. She passed it to Kankuro. It was taken by me. I passed to Lee. Lee shot. It was saved by the goalkeeper. Wow. I don't know who that goalie is, but to stop one of Lee's shots he must be really good.
The rest of the game went just as quickly as the first 30 seconds had. The Suna players had taken no liberty or discretion with their kicks. If they missed the ball and "accidentally" hit our shins, they were pretty unapologetic. Kiba seemed to be in slight pain every time he had to catch a ball, probably because of the speed, but he held his own very well in the square. On the other side, their goalie seemed just as aggressive. The ball constantly changed possession, and it was never on one side of the field for more than two minutes at the maximum. Many shots were taken, but by the end of the first half, each team had only scored one goal a piece.
The buzzer sounded to end the first half, and we walked off the field, panting and gasping for air. None of us had stopped running since the game started. Many of us were clutching our sides, and a few people limped. Neji wasn't kidding about playing dirty. Lee came off the field looking the most out of sorts. "Are you okay?" I asked. I had not seen him get injured, and yet he could barely walk.
He nodded. "Yes. I am fine." He said, not sounding like his usual upbeat self. "It is their goalie, Gaara, he forced me into the goalpost. I pretended like nothing happened so as not to give him the satisfaction, but my leg is in a lot of pain at the moment."
Neji seemed troubled at the sight. I knew he was thinking that we were screwed without Lee at his full power, and I agreed, but we couldn't send him back in with the state of his leg. "Udon." He said to a snot-nosed freshman. "You're in next half instead of Lee."
Udon nodded, surprised, and Lee looked heartbroken. I patted him on the back. "Hey, you've done your part." he smiled back, except I could still see the disappointment in his eyes. "Thanks Tenten. I wish you the best of luck."
I turned to Kiba, who was still wholly out of breath, and smiled. "Good job!" I said to him. His eyes looked kind of dazed, but he gave me a thumbs up, signifying his thanks.
Neji looked serious, and addressed us all. "Okay guys, we're even. We need to break away in this next half. I know you're tired, but so are they. So this is the part where we show them we're stronger than they are." The rest of us nodded, and walked back onto the field for the second half of the game.
This time, the other team started with the ball. Kankuro passed it to some dude, who passed it to Temari. I stole it from Temari and passed it to Neji, who shot. It was saved by Gaara. Dangit! It was so close that time.
The game felt like it lasted a lifetime. Every two seconds another turnover. With two minutes left in the game, Neji and Kankuro had both scored another goal, making the score 2-2. I pulled my self together and hyped myself up. Although I was feeling pain all over, both from exhaustion and from being bruised by the other team, I was more determined than I ever had been in my entire life.
Temari had the ball. She passed it to her brother. He passed to another dude. Neji stole it. Neji passed it to Udon. Kankuro stole it. Neji stole it back. Neji passed it to me. I shot my shot. It went into the goal.
...
Wait a second.
...
Did I just say it went in the goal?
...
"Oh my God! It went in!" I unconsciously screamed my realization out loud.
The buzzer sounded just as my words spread across the field. Gaara's face was the color of his hair with anger. The rest of the Suna siblings looked equally disappointed. I scanned the field to find who I was looking for, until he grabbed me from behind.
"Excellent, Tenten!" He said as he hugged me. I blushed a bright red at his statement. His embrace made me feel really warm on the inside and I couldn't help but smile bigger than I ever had. The rest of my team had soon joined us, and we were cheering and smiling in a giant group hug that was suffocating yet still enjoyable.
We finally all let go of each other, smiles never leaving our faces, and went over to shake hands with the Suna team, who, understandably, looked pretty pissed. As I went through the line, I shook hands with every one of their players'. Their handshakes were less like greetings of good sportsmanship and more like an attempt to break our wrists. I reached Temari last. She smiled, which I didn't expect. She said only one word to me. "Congrats." I smiled back at her in thanks.
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The long bus ride home was mostly peaceful. We had celebrated for the first few minutes, but it didn't take long for everyone to realize how tired they were. Neji fell asleep again, but I couldn't bring myself to close my eyes. I was simply too excited. I replayed the moment over and over in my head, not wanting to ever forget it. And after all this time, I still haven't forgotten the feeling I received when I scored that goal. I doubt the grin on my face disappeared for days afterwards.
When we finally reached our school again, it was extremely late (and a school night). I looked at Neji's peaceful sleeping face, and remembered that I still owed him something very important.
I crouched down next to the seat and set my head equal with his, so that our faces were extremely and uncomfortably close together. With my voice as low as I could possibly make it, I said, very calmly, "Boo."
The look on his face was priceless.