im not totally satisfied with this piece (particularly tenten... for some reason i could NOT get her proportions right agh) but im learning to just have fun and let go of expectations. perfectionism is a vice and all that. hope you like :)
"I get what you two are saying but I just don't understand why you need to stay in my apartment until I get back?" Tenten squints at her two teammates, standing in her doorway. The boys knew it was going to be hard to get past Tenten's strong sense of intuition and skepticism, and it's already not looking so good.
"Because..." Lee starts, fixing his green turtleneck that suddenly feels super tight around his neck.
"You're right. We don't need to stay here. We just wanted to hang out with you afterwards but it's fine. We'll see you tomorrow." Neji grabs Lee's arm, who is sending him a confused look. This wasn't part of the plan.
"Ouf, don't have to be such a grump, Neji. You guys can stay. I'll be back in an hour." Tenten slips on her shoes and pushes past the boys, before abruptly stopping in her tracks and pointing a finger in their faces. "Don't go snooping through my room. I will find out if you do." And with that, she leaves.
"They don't call you a genius for no reason!" Lee exclaims, patting his friend on the back.
"Hn. Let's just get this place set up."
"What if she comes back and we're not ready?"
"Don't worry, she won't come back for a while. I made sure of it."
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As Tenten briskly walks through the village center, she thinks back on how odd Lee and Neji were acting earlier. What's even odder is Gai Sensei urgently needing to see her. Usually, he would just stop by her apartment to talk to her. He never insisted she walk all the way over to his place before. The only times she's been at his house are when he demanded the team taste whatever he's recently learned how to make. Tenten never complained when that happened though, Maito Gai is a good cook.
After 10 minutes of walking through slush and snow, and Tenten cursing the weather every couple of minutes, she finally makes it to his house.
"My precious, youthful flower! You look so cold, please come inside." Gai opens his front door as wide as possible and makes room for her to enter. Tenten takes a good look at him, trying to detect anything wrong from his appearance, in attempt to figure out why he wanted to see her. She concludes that he looks normal.
"What's wrong, Gai Sensei?"
"Wrong? Nothing is wrong!"
He leads her to his living room where Kakashi is seated on the floor, nose deep in a book. Not that you could actually see his nose though.
"Hi Kakashi Sensei." She waves to him with a smile, but deep down she's confused on what is going on.
"Hello Tenten." His eyes squint in a smile and he closes his book. "I'm sorry for what Gai is about to tell you. I told him not to bother you but he insisted."
"Oh?" She frowns, turning her attention to her teacher.
"I needed you to be the judge of something. Earlier I made a passing comment about how pretty I would be as a woman and Kakashi here turned it down immediately..."
-----------------------
Lee feels his lungs starting to hurt with each breath he blows into the balloon in his hand. After the 15th one, he collapses on the sofa and takes a break.
"We have a balloon pump. Didn't I tell you that?" Neji smirks, placing a birthday banner from one wall to another.
"Yes, but I know my lungs are far superior than any pump. I can do it without the tool!" Lee exclaims, standing right back up and reaching for another balloon.
"Slow down. You're gonna hurt yourself." Neji mumbles, getting down from a chair. Of course his teammate doesn't listen, he rarely does especially when he has something to prove.
"No time to waste!"
Lee eventually finishes blowing up all the balloons and watches Neji move Tenten's coffee table to the side to make more room.
"I've never seen you put this much effort into anything" Lee says, cocking his head to the side.
"It's for Tenten, so." Neji replies but immediately realizes what he said and blushes a bit.
"You're right. She deserves the best."
Neji nods in agreement and continues with the table.
The two boys move in silence as they decorate the entire apartment with birthday decor but a sudden knock on the door makes them both jump.
Lee looks at Neji in terror, his wide eyes going back and forth between the door and his friend.
"It's probably just Hinata with the cake." Neji whispers.
He walks over to the door and opens it a small crack. He was right, it was his cousin.
"I brought the cake." Hinata says with a smile.
--------------------------
Tenten cannot believe she spent almost the entire day judging how two grown men looked as women. She cannot remove the sight of Gai Sensei in a short dress and awful makeup from the back of her mind. Tomorrow was her birthday but she might have to spend the whole day rinsing her burning eyes out. You thought his eyebrows were hairy? You should see his legs.
Don't get her started on Kakashi. She wasn't expecting he would dress up in drag too but his competitive streak was far too strong for him not to do so. Tenten was a bit confused when he walked out with his mask still on. It defeated the whole purpose but she had to admit he had a nice figure when he came out wearing a tight dress. She was a bit jealous.
When it was finally time to make her decision she ruled it as a tie and ran out the door as fast as she could before they even had the chance to pester her.
When she's almost halfway back to her house, she breaks out into a fit of laughter as she thinks back on what just transpired. She's quite satisfied in her response. Serves them right, making her rush to the house just to be the judge of a stupid competition.
Tenten finally reaches her home, and places a hand on her doorknob, but stops turning it when she hears some giggles on the other side.
Is that a girl's voice? Did they use my apartment as a bachelor pad?
She wastes no time in opening the door, trying to catch Neji and Lee in the act but instead she enters and it's all dark.
"Huh?"
Suddenly the lights are turned on and Tenten gasps when she sees her apartment has been decorated with colourful balloons, banners, and streamers.
She steps back, shocked, when her friends jump out from behind the couch, armchair, TV stand and some come out from the kitchen.
"SURPRISE!" They all chorus, releasing party poppers and blowing on glittery party whistles.
A hand flies to Tenten's mouth. She takes in everyone. First, she sees Akamaru who is overly stimulated by all the noise and is running laps around her apartment. Then she sees Gai and Kakashi and wonders how they beat her to her own home. Then she sees all the teams. And lastly, she sees Lee and Neji near the back looking smug and satisfied.
"I wasn't expecting this." Tenten shakes her head softly in amazement and awe. "Thank you guys so much!"
She doesn't want to cry in front of all these people, so she bites down hard on the inside of her cheek. She tells the party that she's going to get changed, since she's seriously underdressed and a bit frumpy.
When she reaches her room, she closes the door and slides down it. She finally lets out her tears.
No one has ever done something like this before. Tenten never even celebrated her birthday before joining Team Gai. She didn't see the point of spending a birthday alone, she had no family.
A gentle knock on the door interrupts her thoughts and she wipes her eyes before opening the door.
"You were crying?"
Neji.
"Do you not like the party? I can tell everyone to go home." He adds with a look of concern on his face. He places a hand on her upper arm.
"No! I was crying, yes, but only because I was so happy." Looking at Neji and seeing how concerned he was for her, the tears come back.
"Hn. That's odd but I'm glad you're happy."
Tenten grabs a tissue from the box on her bedside table. She sneaks a quick glance at herself in her mirror and groans. "I look so ugly. My eyes are puffy and red."
Neji smiles a bit and Tenten catches it in the reflection. "That's rude ya know."
"I smiled because there's no way you could ever look ugly. It's impossible."
Tenten rolls her eyes but deep down she feels butterflies. The butterflies have been frequenting her stomach a lot lately, all thanks to him.
He takes a step back from the doorway and slowly closes the door.
"Wait!" She shouts out. When she reaches him, Tenten wraps her arms around his shoulders and whispers 'thank you' in his ear.
Neji didn't need a thank you from her. In fact, Neji wanted to thank her instead. Tenten always made all of their birthdays into such a big deal, she makes them feel so special and loved. It's only right they did the same for her.
All Neji wants is for Tenten to know that even though she spent her birthdays alone in the past, as long as he's alive she will never have to experience that ever again. He will make sure of it.
"Anything for you."
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Thank you @shana4anime for the prompt, I had SO much fun writing it. I hope you enjoy!!
day 7 - 狂い咲き(kuruizaki; Japanese): flowers that bloom out of season. things that happen at unexpected timings
very late submission expanding on my headcanon that (hypothetical..) nejiten's kids are oopsie-babies heh
“Would you feel better if I took one with you?” Hinata chewed on her bottom lip as she contemplated Tenten’s question, staring at the pregnancy test in front of her with a worried frown. She’d been mulling over this decision for a few days—taking a pregnancy test, that is—but it was all getting too much to handle on her own, so she finally opened up to her best friend about it. So one almost-unintelligible and definitely-panicked phone call later, the two girls were in Hinata and Naruto’s apartment—well, technically just Naruto’s, but ever since they started dating, Hinata had been staying there more than at her own house, so she was basically unofficially moved in—pregnancy tests in hand.
“You’ll be fine, Hinata,” Tenten said reassuringly, redirecting Hinata’s wandering thoughts back to the present. “You have options, and whatever it is you decide to do, we can do it. The village is at peace. We have no shortage of doctors or resources anymore. Plus, you have us, and you have Naruto. Everything will work out fine.”
“I know,” Hinata conceded, distressed, and put her face in her hands. Her voice was soft and panicked. “But I’m so nervous.”
Tenten took Hinata’s hands in her own. “I know.” Her tone was sympathetic. “But you have options. You always do.”
With a deep breath and a nod, Hinata steeled herself and grabbed the one of the (many) pregnancy tests.
“I’ll do one, too,” Tenten said resolutely, despite Hinata not asking it of her. Her tone took on a lighthearted levity, and she added, “You can never be too sure, right?”
︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶
Tenten was right. You really could never be too sure.
“On the count of three, okay?” she gently instructed Hinata, who was positively trembling next to her. Hinata nodded, breathing deeply, and gripped the test. Tenten grabbed hers with one hand, and Hinata’s hand with the other. “One… two… three.”
“Oh, thank God!” The words breathily rushed out of Hinata, as if impatient to escape. She folded over the bathroom counter, her forehead braced against the back of her hand, the pink and white stick lax in her grip. “I’m not pregnant.” She laughed disbelievingly, the adrenaline release evident in the shakiness. “I’m so glad—there was no way I could have a child right now. Could you imagine?”
Tenten stared at her own test blankly, half-hearing Hinata’s words.
“Tenten? What’s wrong?” Hinata sidled up next to Tenten. “Oh.”
Two bright red lines stared back at Tenten. Positive. The test was positive.
“I don’t—” Tenten struggled for words, sounding perplexed more than anything. Her brows furrowed, and she turned to Hinata, weakly saying, “Is this accurate?” Hinata could see the mild panic brewing behind Tenten’s eyes.
“Let’s retake them!” Hinata said immediately, grabbing two more pregnancy tests and solidly shoving one of them in Tenten’s hand. “They might have been switched! Or maybe it’s faulty!”
That seemed to snap Tenten out of the trance-like state she was in. “Okay,” Tenten finally agreed, distractedly nodding, but she knew. She knew they weren’t switched—they’d each been holding their respective test the whole time. She still went to take the new one.
୨୧
“They’re so bright, Hinata,” Tenten said weakly, showing Hinata the second test. It was positive; there was no question about it. “Look!”
“It’s gonna be okay, Ten,” Hinata repeated those words from earlier and rubbed Tenten’s back, gentle and impossibly reassuring. “How do you feel?” she asked. “You know, about all of this. What are you thinking?”
“I don’t know,” Tenten replied honestly, because it was the truth. She was completely and utterly baffled. To her, it wasn’t even in the realm of possibilities. She was just taking the test in solidarity with her friend, for God’s sake! “I’m twenty-one, Hinata. This wasn’t the plan.” Her voice shook, and she looked at her friend desperately. She swallowed, “I don’t— I’m not—” A tremor ran through her, and she dropped the pregnancy test.
“It’s gonna be okay. Just take a deep breath.” Hinata pulled her into a hug. “It’s all gonna work out. I’m here with you. Just breathe.”
Tenten braced her weight against Hinata, unable to hold herself up anymore, and then, shakily, she asked, “What will Neji think?”
Hinata’s hand didn’t cease its movements on Tenten’s back, despite her confusion at Tenten’s words. “What do you mean?” Why was she worried about how Neji would react, of all people?
Tenten made a sound that was suspiciously similar to sniffling. She was crying. “Do you think he’ll be mad?” she asked, voice breaking.
Hinata was bewildered. “Mad?” She gently backed away from Tenten, just enough to look at her friend’s teary face. “Why would he be mad?”
Tenten’s lips trembled. “I don’t know,” she replied, voice thick with tears and barely audible, “but what if he is?”
“Tennie…” Hinata started sympathetically, feeling tears sting at her own eyes (she was an empath, okay?!). “Why would he be? If anything, this is kind of his fault, if you think about it—”
Tenten laughed wetly, and Hinata smiled. She continued, “But even if this were something he could get mad at, you know him better than that, Ten. This is Nii-san we’re talking about. He’s too mushy for you to get mad.”
“No, he isn’t,” Tenten sniffled again, but her voice was a lot more even now. She mumbled, wiping her tears, “We’ve gotten mad at each other plenty of times.”
“Not about things like this, you didn’t.”
Tenten had half a mind to joke and say that, yeah, this was true… because Tenten had never been pregnant before, but she understood what Hinata was saying. Neji was nothing if not on her side.
After a short stretch of silence, Hinata asked tentatively, “What are you gonna do now?”
Tenten sighed, suddenly exhausted. “I guess I should go home and tell him. Maybe make a doctor’s appointment.” Hinata nodded and took Tenten’s hand in hers.
“Do you want me to come with you? Or do you want to stay here tonight? We can kick Naruto out, I’m sure he’d understand—”
Tenten laughed and declined her friend’s offers, assuring her that it wouldn’t be necessary.
“Call me if you need anything, okay?” Hinata handed her the two pregnancy tests, plus an extra one (“In case you want to do another one,”). “Really. Absolutely anything, okay?”
Tenten felt her eyes water again. “Thank you so much, Hinata. You’re the best.”
“Please don’t cry, because if you cry, I’ll cry.”
Tenten giggled, then mock-saluted. “Okay, okay. No crying. By the way, why did you buy so many pregnancy tests? There’s like… thirty here.”
“I don’t know, I panicked.”
︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶
The sun had begun to set when Tenten was laying in her and Neji’s bed and she heard the keys jingle in the door outside. After everything that went down and his sacrifice in the war, he was given a house outside of the compound by his family as like… a consolation prize for all the abuse? I guess? Tenten had many thoughts on all of this, obviously, but she’d long given up hope for certain things. For now, she could be glad that Neji was finally away from them and that he could finally start living for himself.
When they got more serious about dating (and when the looming threat of imminent danger disappeared), Neji brought up the possibility of her moving in with him. She’d said yes, obviously, and since then, the house had undergone major changes (well, apart from the obvious Woman’s Touch™). For one, the temperature wasn’t always set to negative one trillion degrees, as Neji liked it to be, for some reason, but the biggest difference, perhaps, was how Tenten’s presence—just the knowledge that she would be there, at the end of the day—transformed this house, this meant-to-be well-meaning gift that totally missed the mark, into a home. A sanctuary. A safe haven where he could let go of all of his responsibilities and worries and sadness.
“I’m home,” that familiar voice came from downstairs. Like clockwork, she heard the door shut and the faucet turn on.
She tiredly pushed herself off the bed and headed for the stairs, the nerves making her stomach roil. It was fine— she would go down there, greet him and ask about his day, before calmly bringing up the situation, and they’d figure it out together. It would be fine, and she would remain composed, and they would deal with this pragmatically like they always did.
“Welcome back,” she said with a smile when she saw him. He glanced at her for a moment, smiling, before turning to grab a towel to dry his hands. “How was the meeting?”
“It was—” His eyes settled on her again, and he stopped. “Have you been crying?”
Ugh. Of course he’d notice. She was about to lie and pass it off as, like, allergies or something, but before she could, he cupped her face in his hands, his white eyes full of worry and searching her face. “What is it, darling?”
His voice was so gentle and so soft and so full of worry and she was so fucked. Quite literally, too, as it appeared. Her game-plan from earlier (the staying calm and composed bit) went straight out the window.
She burst into tears, covering her face with her hands.
“Hey, hey, hey,” —he pulled her hands away from her face and kept them in his, intertwining them and pulling her closer— “what’s going on, Tenten?”
“I— I’m—” her words were barely intelligible through her sobs. “Neji, I—”
“I’m here, baby.” He led her to the couch and knelt down in front of her, taking her hands in his. “Breathe,” he instructed, his voice gently commanding, “it’s going to be okay. Whatever it is, I’ll fix it. Just breathe.”
She squeezed his hands, willing herself to take a few deep breaths and calm down. She was not doing good with the whole composure thing, clearly.
“That’s it,” he cooed when her breathing started regulating and the tears subsided. “Now, can you tell me what the matter is? Calmly?” He was worried she’d start crying again, so he added, “Or if you’d prefer to tell me later, that’s fine, too, we can just—”
She took a deep breath and whispered, “I’m pregnant.” She’d said it. She’d ripped off the band-aid.
He blinked. “Pardon? I don’t think I got that.”
Her jaw clenched, and she repeated, louder now, “I’m pregnant, Neji.” She let go of one of his hands to grab something from between the couch cushions, which she handed to him. The two pregnancy tests.
He stared at them, uncomprehending but somehow not dismayed, like they were some foreign invention or a flower he’d never seen before—curious. “Please say something,” Tenten whispered, her heart pounding. He finally looked up at her then, and he set the tests next to him on the floor before gently pulling her down with him.
“We’re gonna be okay,” was the first thing he said into her hair once she was in his arms. “No matter the outcome, or what you choose to do, it’ll all be okay, alright?”
She adjusted herself on his lap, wrapping her legs around his middle and burying her face in his neck. “This wasn’t the plan,” she mumbled weakly into his skin, her breath stuttering. “This is so sudden.”
“I know,” he replied, stroking her back. “How do you feel?”
“Like, physically, or…?”
He huffed a laugh. “I was thinking more… philosophically, but sure, that works, too.”
She smiled at the attempt at humour, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I feel fine physically, but…” She could feel herself getting teary-eyed again (God, what was it with her over-active tear ducts today?!) as she trailed off.
“What is it?” he prompted gently. “Talk to me.”
“I don’t know how to do this, Neji,” she confessed desperately, finally looking him in the eye. “This was all supposed to come later. We’re not even married yet.”
“I know,” he repeated. He seemed about to say something else, but she went on.
“And I’m scared,” she continued. “I don’t know the first thing about raising a child, Neji, and I thought we had a few years to figure everything out and get settled into our lives since everything is peaceful now, but at the same time—”
He could feel her heart start to beat erratically against his chest again, so he cut her off. “Tenten.”
“Hm?” she released a breath.
“Do you want this?”
The question seemed to give her pause. She hesitated when saying, repeating, really, “This wasn’t our plan.”
“That’s not what I’m asking, Tenten,” he said gently. “It wasn’t the plan, yes, but it is what happened, so I want to know how you feel about it. We absolutely do not have to keep it if you don’t want to—I need you to know that. I will be here; always. You can make this choice, and no one will blame you for what you choose, am I understood?”
She wrapped herself around him even tighter, looping her arms around his neck, and nodded. She didn’t trust herself to speak right now.
“So do you want this?” He continued rubbing her back, and the movement grounded her. “And don’t answer based on how you think you should feel.”
The first answer that came to mind was yes, which shocked her. Despite everything—the fear, the uncertainty, the logistics—she wanted this, and that scared her. She wasn’t supposed to want this. She was supposed to be practical. She was supposed to plan.
And yet.
“I do,” she whispered, practically inaudible, afraid to say it out loud. Afraid to make it real. “So bad.”
She felt Neji still against her for a second, and she immediately feared the worst. What if he didn’t want this—
“Okay,” he breathed, wrapping his arms around her and pressing kisses to her temple. He sounded so sure and so unperturbed, the way he always did. “That’s okay, my love. We’ll go to the doctor tomorrow, and we’ll figure it all out.”
There was a lull in conversation, where the only thing happening was Neji rubbing Tenten’s back and her occasionally sniffling.
“You said something earlier about us not being married,” Neji said after a while, playing with her untied hair, his voice questioning.
Tenten hummed, “Yeah. What about it?”
“I didn’t realise you cared about such notions.” He wasn’t being accusatory. Simply curious.
She yawned, nuzzling into him. “I don’t, but your family probably does.”
His brows furrowed. “Since when does that matter?”
Since always, she wanted to say, because it was true. Kind of.
They’d gotten engaged a few months prior, but they hadn’t gotten married yet. And despite the inspired opinions she held about some of his family members, or maybe because of them, she didn’t want to give his family anything more they could hold against him. Any leverage. So if that meant maintaining a Traditional and Holy Woman Who Doesn’t Even Know What Sex Is facade (amongst being on her best behaviour just… in general) whenever they were around, she could handle that.
“Well, I, for one, don’t care what they think,” he added when she didn’t reply. “I no longer feel the need to bend over backwards to please them, so it goes without saying that you definitely should not either.”
She sighed, knowing that it would take some time for her to get to that point, but she smiled then. “I know you don’t,” she said, tucking his hair behind his ear. “I’m proud of you for that, by the way. It’s nice to finally see you do things for yourself.” His mouth went slack, and he spluttered a little at the praise. Even in the dim light of the setting sun, she could see his cheekbones reddening. And when he tried to respond, he came up short, so he just rested his forehead on her shoulder in surrender. It was cute.
“Thank you,” he murmured after a while.
︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶
Neji walked downstairs to find Tenten in the kitchen, wearing an apron and holding a bowl to her chest. She sang along to a famous pop song under her breath, twirling and swaying as she mixed the contents of the bowl with a silicone whisk.
A slow smile tugged on Neji’s lips. She seemed in a much better mood than last night, thankfully.
“Good morning.”
“—I wanna know, know, know, know what is love— eep!” She jumped, turning around and almost dropping the bowl. “Neji! You scared me!”
He hummed, walking closer to her. “Good morning,” she then said, a little grumbly, “you weren’t supposed to see this.”
“Someone’s happy,” he pointed out, wrapping his arms around her from behind and resting his chin on her head. She set the bowl down, melting into him with a happy sigh.
“Yes,” she confirmed, almost shyly. “All that crying from last night sucked all the sadness out of me, apparently. Made me sleep pretty well, too.”
He chuckled, “Is that why you’re up so early?”
Technically, it wasn’t all that early, but Tenten was the type to sleep in on her days off.
“Mhmm.” She extricated herself from his bear hug only enough to turn around and rest her hands on his chest. “Happy birthday,” she acknowledged, voice soft, before standing on her tippy-toes to kiss his cheek.
She watched the realisation dawn in his eyes, before he uttered a soft, “Oh.” She giggled, honestly unsurprised that he’d forgotten. He was never too fond of his birthday, but over the past few years, he was learning to let himself enjoy it. “Thank you.”
“Are you busy today?” she asked, her voice hopeful. She didn’t mind that he’d forgotten his birthday—in fact that was better for her; you know, the element of surprise and all (even though that was ruined now, but whatever)—but that also meant that he might’ve scheduled a meeting or made some kind of unavoidable plan with his family, which was not good for her.
“I don’t believe so, no,” he replied, brows furrowing contemplatively. “Well, apart from the doctor’s appointment in a few hours. Why? Would you like to do something?”
She cleared the counter behind her and made some space, hoping to sort of hide away the cake batter and everything, and she lifted herself up on it. He didn’t let go of her, only subconsciously moved closer and rested his hands on either side of her hips—something they both discovered about him after dating was just how much he enjoyed and craved physical affection. It wasn’t often that Neji was in Tenten’s immediate vicinity without some part of him touching some part of her. Her hands immediately went to his hair, pushing it away from his forehead and idly raking through it. “Well,” she started hesitantly, figuring she might as well just tell him the supposed-to-be-secret plan, “would you be upset if I told you that I invited our friends over for your birthday?”
The corner of his lips tugged up in an amused smirk, and he gave himself a few more moments to enjoy the moment. It was rare to see Tenten so flustered, and especially over something so small.
“I know you don’t like parties,” she continued, rambling a little, “but I thought that—”
“Tenten,” he interrupted evenly. She paused, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, waiting for him to finish. “I’m not upset.” He lifted a hand and gently dragged his thumb down her lip, freeing it from her teeth and then some. “Thank you for thinking of me, darling.”
“Don’t mention it,” she replied distractedly, face pink, and she seemed to be caught between relief and... arousal, quite frankly. She seemed to come back to herself then, because she clapped her hands together and perked up. “Right, then! We have no time to waste!” She leaned forward and pecked him on the lips before hopping off the counter. “Your breakfast is over there, so hurry and eat up. Since you’ve found out about my secret masterplan—”
“You willingly gave up the information.”
“—you’re gonna help me bake this cake, and then we can go to the doctor. When is our appointment by the way?”
“At noon,” he replied. “You’re baking a cake?”
“Obviously?” She gave him a weird look. “I always bake you something for your birthday. Why is this at all surprising?” She pulled out two cake pans from the cupboard. “Sorry for making a fuss last night, by the way.”
Neji rolled his eyes spectacularly. “Shut up. You were not ‘making a fuss’, Tenten. Your reaction was completely justified,” he disagreed. Just as she passed in front of him, he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her into him. “But even so,” —he gave her a hard, smoochy kiss, making her laugh— “you can make a fuss all you want, baby.”
She giggled, “Gosh. Hinata was right— you are mushy for me!”
“Damn right I am,” he huffed, voice low.
︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶
Sakura jerked her thumb towards Neji. “Do you want him in the room or should I kick him out?”
Tenten grinned. “He can stay.”
“Alright, then. Lay down and lift your shirt for me, please,” Sakura instructed, pulling on her gloves. She turned to Neji with a small smile. “Nothing personal, by the way. Just standard practice.”
“I understand.”
“So,” Sakura started, grabbing the gel and smearing it on Tenten’s abdomen, “talk to me. What’s going on?”
Way to be vague, Sak, Tenten thought with some humour. “Well,” she sighed, trying to think of what exactly to say. “I took a pregnancy test yesterday, around noon, with Hinata because she was having a pregnancy scare—she’s not pregnant, by the way—and it came out positive. That’s kind of it…?”
Sakura nodded. She set up the hand-held scanner and said, “Alright. When was your last period?” She pressed the scanner into Tenten’s abdomen, eyes fixed on the monitor in front of her.
“Last month, I think?” Tenten blinked. “Though my periods have been very irregular the past few months, now that I think about it. I just attributed it to stress, though, since my period’s the first thing that affects.”
“What have you been stressed about these past few months?”
“The normal stuff, I guess,” she replied contemplatively, the feeling of the cool gel on her stomach making her subconsciously hold her breath. “Sometimes I feel like I’m still living on edge from the war… And Neji has started going on Jōnin-level missions again, so I guess, with his injury and everything… I worry sometimes,” she mumbled, frankly a little embarrassed about the admission. She pointedly avoided his gaze—they were most definitely not gonna do this right now—but she let him squeeze her hand.
Sakura threw her an understanding look from behind the monitor before resuming her questioning.
୨୧
After a few more inquiries about Tenten’s diet, medication, and overall lifestyle choices, she set down the scanner and asked, “And you are sexually active, correct?”
“Yes, but we always use protection,” Tenten replied honestly, figuring there was no use skirting the topic. Not only was Sakura her doctor in this situation, but she was also one of her best friends. It was kind of hard to summon any embarrassment right now. “I think the last time we might have had unprotected sex was on New Year’s.”
Sakura hummed something that sounded suspiciously like, “Makes sense,” under her breath before sighing and setting down the scanner. “Well, I can tell you that you are definitely pregnant...”
Tenten narrowed her eyes, sensing Sakura’s hesitation at something. “Out with it, Sak.”
“From the look of the ultrasound, I’d say you are around six or seven months pregnant.” Tenten and Neji didn’t even get a chance to digest this information before Sakura continued, “But since you said you had unprotected sex on New Year’s—was it at Naruto’s party, by the way?—I’d say it’s probably the latter.”
“Are you serious?” The look of utter shock on Tenten’s face would’ve been honestly a little funny, under other circumstances. “How?”
“Yes.” Sakura pulled off her gloves and gave Tenten some paper towels to wipe her—still very flat and ripped, by the way—abdomen. “It’s called a cryptic pregnancy. Uncommon, but not that uncommon. Since you didn’t have any of the tell-tale pregnancy symptoms whatsoever, you said, and you also didn’t gain any noticeable weight—probably due to your workout and training habits, though this probably wouldn’t have been the case in a normal pregnancy—you simply didn’t think to take a test. Your ‘irregular periods’ were probably implantation bleeding or abnormal pregnancy bleeding, but again, since you didn’t know you were pregnant, you just assumed it was your menses. Very common in cases such as these.”
Tenten blinked. “So I’m giving birth in two months?” she whispered, the distress starting to settle in for real now. Despite her wanting this, it was still too much to take in at once, and with only two months to prepare. She turned to Neji, her eyes wide and puppy-dog-like. “What are we gonna do?”
He took hold of her shaking hands. “It’s gonna be okay. We’ll figure it out,” he replied, voice low and clear, and wholly focused on her. He had already started running through the logistics of the preparations in his mind.
“There is something else,” Sakura said, and both her friends turned to her in waiting. “Neji, I’d like you to use your Byakugan on Tenten’s stomach, please.”
“Alright,” he obliged, a bit quizzical. Wordlessly, he activated his Byakugan, the tell-tale veins framing his eyes and crawling to his jaw. He focused it on Tenten’s abdomen, like peeling back layers with his vision.
Two forms, two chakra natures, two heartbeats—
His head whipped towards Sakura. “There’s…”
“Two of them, yes,” she confirmed with a smile. It was like a switch flipped, and she was no longer Doctor Haruno— she was just Sakura now. Smiling, excited Sakura. “You’re having twins. Congratulations!”
“Twins?!” Now Tenten’s head whipped towards Neji, accusatory, and she smacked him lightly on the arm. “This is your fault!”
He blinked, utterly puzzled. “I'm… sorry?”
“I just had to marry someone with a trillion sets of twins in their family, didn’t I?” she grumbled.
“That’s not really how that works...”
“Alright,” Sakura laughed. “Well, we’ll have to do a few tests on you to check everything, since you haven’t been taking your prenatals or anything. Thankfully, you don’t smoke, and you said you haven’t drank since New Year’s, so that’s good…”
︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶
“Okay, so,” —the sound of Tenten’s feet quickly padding on the floor as she ran back to the kitchen, where Neji was, made him smile— “this is my list of baby names. I started this when I was… seventeen, I think?”
Neji grinned, lopsided and wolfish. “So when we started dating?”
“Shut up,” she dodged his question, scrunching her nose and bumping him on the head with the journal in her hand before resuming her seat on his lap. His hands went back to where they were, clasped around her back. Her cheeks were still red when she said, “I would like one of them to have a Chinese name, and since we’re having a girl and a boy, I can pick one and you can pick the other. Okay?”
“Alright,” he agreed, leaning forward to kiss her on the corner of the mouth. “But I’ll have you know that I don’t have any names prepared.”
“That’s fine. There’s a whole list of Japanese names I like here, too.”
That shit-eating grin was back.
“Neji, I swear to God—”
“Sorry, sorry. I’ll stop.” He was visibly holding back the smile. “Tell me the names.”
Her chocolatey brown eyes ran down the page in her journal, and she hummed, “I really like the name ‘Hao’ for a boy…”
“Like, ‘good’?” His hands absentmindedly went to her hips, his thumbs gently kneading the flesh.
She shook her head. “Not Hǎo— Hào.” She twisted the journal around to show him the character (昊). His eyes unwittingly flitted down the page to the other names, and where, in pencil, she’d tried the some of the names with a 日向 next to them. Hyūga.
Some of them were marked with asterisks, a few had question marks, while others were crossed out. ‘Cute name but doesn’t match,’ one of them read, with an arrow pointing back to the kanji of his last name.
He nodded, his eyes low lidded. “What does it mean?” he asked, gently pushing the journal out of the way and taking her bottom lip between his, unhurried and languid. Suddenly the fact that she was pregnant didn’t seem so impossible to her after all.
She kissed him back, a soft sigh escaping her when she answered, voice feathery and distracted, “Same thing as my name. Sky or heaven.”
“Mhm. I like that,” he murmured, his hands traveling up her torso. His voice was low when he said, “I think this one’s the winner, babe.”
She breathed a laugh against his lips. “You haven’t even heard the other ones yet.”
“But I like this one.”
She giggled again. “Alright then.” Just as she was about to say something else, the doorbell rang. She perked up. “Our friends are here!”
He groaned and tightened his hold on her hips, “Do we have to let them in?”
Tenten rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. She untangled herself from him and got up. “Yes. We do,” she said with finality before giving him one last sweet kiss. “Now come on. Stop dawdling.”
day 4 - يقبرني (ya'aburnee; arabic)
a way to declare your hope that your loved one will outlive you, as it would be unbearable to live without them.
“That’s kind of how I feel about you,” Tenten said contemplatively from above, startling Neji from his position against the tree. He jumped ever so slightly, the book in his lap slamming shut. She frowned, still looking down at him. He was reading in their usual spot under that willow tree, and she had ‘snuck up’ on him. (In reality, she’d been standing behind him and reading over his shoulder for the past few minutes. Hardly being inconspicuous, too.) “That could not have actually scared you, Neji. I was literally humming as I walked up here.”
“You don’t exactly inspire danger, Tenten,” he replied drily, but there was no real annoyance in his voice.
He leaned back against the tree trunk, craning his neck back to look at her. “I was reading.”
She scrunched her nose cutely the way she always did, before dropping down to sit next to him. “And you’re a shinobi. You should be able to sense danger,” she argued absentmindedly, reaching over to open the book back up to the page he was reading. He appreciated the gesture—the instinctiveness of it, the casual affection in it— and he, in turn, angled it towards her.
She gasped, her brows furrowed and her mouth dropping open, “How dare you—”
His hand reaching to grab a leaf that was tucked between her hair effectively silenced her. “You were saying?” His eyes barely strayed from her face— from her wide brown eyes and the slight part of her lips, to the pink on her cheeks and her skewed bangs. She was beautiful, Neji noted without any surprise. It was something that didn’t shock Neji anymore, a realisation he’d long come to terms with. Tenten was really pretty.
“Don’t do that,” she breathed after a second, dropping her forehead on his shoulder, no doubt trying to hide how flustered she'd gotten. That was also something she had sort of gotten used to— Neji doing seemingly small things that would set off a torrent of butterflies in her stomach. And it was hard to play it off when things like this happened— he knew her too well for her to be able to hide it. So at some point… she kind of stopped trying to.
She just let it happen.
“You were reading, weren’t you?” She shifted next to him, pointedly avoiding his eyes and staring at the book in his lap. It was something about Suna (and the neighbouring lands?), but she wasn’t quite sure. Her leg pressed up against his, and when she leaned into his shoulder to read with him, the smell of her shampoo wafted into his nose.
“Mhmm,” he hummed, and she felt the vibration. “You said something when you came here. What was it?”
She pointed at a paragraph on the page, leaning her head against him. He didn’t mind. “I was talking about this,” she replied airily. “I said it’s kind of how I feel about you.”
Yo’burnee (يقبرني) is an Arabic phrase that directly translates to ‘bury me’, and it is a way to declare your hope that your loved one will outlive you, as it would be unbearable to live without them. It is often used as a way to express extreme affection, and in a more lighthearted manner (ex: “Yo’burnee jamelak”, translating to ‘your beauty buries me’)...
Neji stilled, his heartbeat picking up in his chest. He didn’t know how to approach this. They’d been stuck in this will-they-won’t-they limbo for so long now that he was sure nothing she could say or do could shock him anymore, but there he was. Blushing like an idiot over a vague, roundabout declaration of affection.
So instead, he wilfully missed her point. Danced around it and toed the line but not quite. Nudging her gently with his shoulder, he asked, “So you think I’m pretty, huh?”
And as expected, she rolled her eyes, pushing herself off of him to make a point. “I take it back. You’re the worst.”
(After a while though, in the quiet of the meadow, with no one to hear him but her, he whispered, “I feel that way about you, too, Tenten.”)
︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶
The first thing a very teary-eyed Tenten said to her (could’ve been dead!) boyfriend when she visited him in the hospital was, “I didn’t think you meant it literally, you dick!”
one of my favourite neji headcanons is that one of his primary love languages is gift giving because hes a #richBoy and he has so much money, which he enjoys spending on those he loves. like, imagine one of his friends (probably lee or tenten, mostly) (OR hinata and hanabi) mentioning needing/wanting something VERY BRIEFLY/in passing & then later opening their door to find a package on their steps with the best model/highest quality piece of said thing.
and they'd immediately know who the culprit was.
and then the exchange would go something like this:
“???”
“?”
“neji, this is insane!! why would you buy this for me ??? how much did this cost you ??? how did you even KNOW I WANTED THIS —????”
“you said you wanted it, right..? 🙁”
“HOW MUCH WAS THIS!!!!”
“it was not very expensive. please do not worry about paying me back or anything of the sort.”
day 2 - gezelligheid (dutch)
A convivial, cozy, or warm atmosphere. The warmth of being with loved ones, or seeing a friend after a long absence.
The snowstorm outside didn’t seem to be willing to relent anytime soon, but that wasn’t all that unusual for late December in Konoha. Blankets of pure white snow coated the streets and slicked the windows, creating the idealistic picture of a winter wonderland. It was the perfect setting for creating snow angels or having a snowball fight, Tenten thought, but with them coming up on the coldest month of the year, she couldn’t imagine getting pelted in the face with snow in these particularly frigid temperatures would be very comfortable.
Which was particularly why she’d insisted on everyone staying inside that day, much to her twins’ absolute and utter dismay.
“It’s getting pretty late,” Tenten murmured, brows furrowed, and bit down on her bottom lip. Her eyes flicked up to the clock once again, almost instinctively, and she was again met with the fact that Neji was supposed to be here hours ago.
Despite the world being fairly peaceful, the Fourth Great War having ended five years ago (along with the whole ‘let’s blow up the moon!’ thing from three years ago), shinobi were still needed, and especially capable Jōnin like Hyūga Neji. This time, he was tasked to lead a team of two Chūnin on a mission in the Land of Silence. She didn’t know anything past that, though— he wasn’t allowed to share any specifics with her, but she imagined she had a basic idea of the objectives.
Tenten knew he could take care of himself and of those with him, she trusted him implicitly, honestly, but whenever he was late coming home from missions, she still couldn’t help but worry.
What if he was hurt? What if his subordinates were hurt? What if they encountered—
“Mamaaaaaaa,” a sulky voice came from behind her, little feet padding on the kitchen floor and cutting her train of dreary thoughts short. She could practically hear the pout that was surely on her two year old daughter’s lips. “When’s Papa coming home?”
Ah, yes. And then there was this little munchkin. Tenten had accidentally fallen pregnant with twins, a boy and a girl, two years ago, around this time. Thankfully, it was a fairly easy pregnancy.
Too easy, in fact, to the point where they didn’t find out until around seven months in. By chance, at that. Was quite the way to celebrate Neji’s twenty-first, that one.
(And then it was even more surprising when they went for their first checkup and found out they were having, not one, but two children. But that’s a story for another day.)
The brown-haired woman sighed, picking her adorably sleepy—though Hibari was vehemently insistent on denying this—daughter up. “Soon, baby.” She planted a kiss on Hibari’s cheek and fixed her sweater, absently wondering if she should turn the heat up a little more. “Are you cold?”
Hibari shook her head, tiredly nuzzling into Tenten’s neck. “Can we play in the snow, at least?” Unlike her twin brother, Hibari was very vocal. Sakura told her that they were both incredibly advanced for their age, speech-wise, but Hibari was a lot more outgoing than Hao, and therefore a lot more chatty.
If there was someone who did not let her terrible grammar and weird conjugational habits (like exclusively using the word ‘talk’ in the past tense, no matter what) stop her from speaking her mind, it was Hyūga Hibari.
“It’s too cold right now,” Tenten responded, repeating that same explanation for what seemed like the millionth time that night. And then, in a playfully chiding tone, she said, “And it’s too late now, anyway. It’s way past your bedtime.”
Hao was already asleep on the couch, wrapped up in Tenten’s knit throw blanket, having gotten too tired to stay up waiting for his dad. It was a valiant effort, and Tenten didn’t blame him— it was just past midnight by now, and she frankly wished Hibari would just let herself sleep, too. And, well, he was also two years old.
“You sure you’re not sleepy?”
“Yeah.”
“Sure?” Tenten walked back to the living room and folded herself on the couch next to Hao’s sleeping form. Hibari nodded again and nuzzled into her mom’s chest.
A tell-tale sign that she was about to surrender to sleep.
Smiling, Tenten reached over to grab the second throw blanket they had draped over the couch, and adjusted it over the two of them
“Wanna watch a movie?” she asked, voice quiet so as not to wake up Hao. Tenten’s master plan was to put on a Christmas movie, have Hibari utterly entranced and engaged for, like, thirty minutes, before she would inevitably fall asleep. Worked every time.
When Hibari replied in the affirmative and Tenten put the movie on, she was finally free to fret over her husband once more.
And so they sat there; all three of them on the couch next to each other, Tenten and her two chunky two year olds, bundled up in cosy Christmas pyjamas and warm knit blankets. It was a sweet sight.
︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶
When Neji quietly unlocked the front door of his house and walked in, absolutely and utterly exhausted from that week-long mission abroad, he was surprised to see that warm, yellow light coming from the living room.
Hm. It was probably one of two things: either Tenten was still awake, probably reading or watching a movie (she did that sometimes after the kids went to bed, taking advantage of any alone time she could get), or Tenten was reading or watching a movie, and ended up falling asleep on the couch. Also a likely possibility, and usually an inevitable consequence of the former.
With a small, amused huff, Neji took off his cloak and hung it up by the door, and stepped over the threshold. “I’m home,” he said lowly, if only out of habit rather than out of a real need to alert his wife. As expected, no response came. He made his way to the living room, where a large, prettily-decorated Christmas tree sat in the corner, dimly illuminating the room along with the fairy lights Tenten had strung around. The only other source of light was the television, which was playing one of Tenten and Hibari’s favourite holiday movies (Hao found it a little too scary), The Nightmare Before Christmas. The volume was very low, though, and the credits had started playing at some point before he walked in.
And again, as expected, Tenten was asleep on the couch.
Her long, brown hair was unbound, falling in waves over the back of the couch, and her lips were slightly parted, making way for quiet huffs of air. What surprised him upon walking closer, though, was the toddler laying on her chest, and the other one asleep next to her thigh. All in matching red and white pyjamas, by the way.
He sighed, exasperated but without any real annoyance. He should’ve known they’d wait up for him. Or, well, try to wait up for him.
It was touching.
One of Tenten’s hands was automatically patting Hibari’s back, as if by muscle memory—which meant she mustn’t have fallen asleep that long ago—while the other was holding the remote. Silently and with the easy grace of a seasoned shinobi, he grabbed the remote control from her lax grip (which, okay, wasn’t difficult whatsoever), and turned the television off, before walking to the corner of the room and turning both the decorative tree lights and the string lights off. He was starving and in desperate need of a relaxing bath, but he would carry all three of them to bed before making something to eat. They’d gone through the trouble of trying to stay up and welcome him home, but the mission had unexpectedly dragged on, and with the snowstorm outside, it had all delayed their travel plans. So the least he could do for them was to tuck them in.
“Neji?”
He turned around at the whispered proclamation of his name.
“I’m home,” he said simply, smiling tiredly at his wife. She blinked rapidly, as if trying to dispel the sleepiness, and gently set Hibari down. “I’ll come to you,” he said hurriedly, noticing how tired she was and not wanting her to get up. It was fine that she’d woken up, he supposed—he could still carry her to bed regardless. At the last second, he decided to keep the fairy lights that were strung behind the television on. Despite his words, Tenten still got up and quickly made her way to him, meeting him halfway.
“Welcome home,” she murmured into his chest once she was close enough, having all but thrown herself at him. Her hands grabbed onto the back of his shirt, as if of their own accord. She exhaled, “I missed you.” Immediately, a pair of strong arms wrapped around her, and he basically crushed her to him.
“I’ve missed you more than you can imagine, my love,” Neji breathed tiredly, inhaling her sweet smell, and both of them were content to stay in that embrace for a long moment. She could feel the tension leave his body—the way his toned muscles relaxed under her touch and his shoulders drooped. And Tenten honestly would’ve been content to stay like that for the rest of the night, practicality be damned, but much to her dismay, Neji’s arms loosened around her. She pouted at the loss of contact, and made a sound that was much more fit for her daughter to make than it was for a twenty-three year old woman. He rolled his eyes, amused, and planted a kiss on the top of her head. “I’m sorry. I probably smell. I’ll hug you all you want after I shower; I promise.”
Tenten braced her hands against his chest and stood on her tippy-toes, promptly kissing his scruffy cheek. “You really don’t,” she said honestly. “Smell, I mean.” And it was true—even after a week-long mission with no access to his nice soaps and fancy shower products, Neji still smelled nice. Because everything else wasn’t enough, he just had to add ‘always smells good’ to his résumé, apparently. With a yawn, she said, “I’ll go put the kids in their beds and then I’ll heat up your food while you shower and change into something comfortable.”
He covered her hands with his, rubbing gentle circles across her knuckles. “You don’t have to do that,” he argued softly. “You can just go to sleep, darling. Really, I can do the rest.”
She hummed. “I know I don’t,” she yawned again, “but I want to.” She had already turned around and started gently extricating the blanket out of Hao’s grip, and the look she gave him over her shoulder dared him to argue, and while the refutation was at the tip of his tongue, he let it die.
“Thank you,” he murmured, wrapping his arms around her from behind. He spoke so sincerely, brushing her ear with his lips, “You’re incredible.”
She grinned at him, and with an adorable little wink, teased, “I know.”
︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶
Once she heard the water shut off, Tenten started heating up Neji’s share of their dinner that night—homemade herring soba. This would’ve been so much better fresh, she thought, a touch sadly. She’d gone through the trouble of making everything from scratch (save for the smoked fish, of course), and she would’ve loved if he had gotten to taste it right after it was done. Oh, well. It wasn’t like she regretted putting in the effort regardless— she didn’t have much to do today anyway.
Soon enough, Neji walked out of their room in a matching pyjama set in his size and a towel around his neck. Once his eyes found her and then fell on the bowl of noodles in front of her, it was like his whole body softened. His gaze softened, and his shoulders dropped.
This girl, he thought, was sure to be the death of him.
“C’mere,”
She obliged, pushing herself off the table with a small smile. The moment she was close enough, he pulled her into a rough hug, lifting her off the ground. Over the past few years, Neji had, not unlike some of their other friends, grown considerably in height. When they were teenagers, he’d had some two inches over her, but now, at the age of twenty-three, that difference had increased to what must’ve been something like nine, if she had to guess. His body had filled out considerably, too. (The wonders of testosterone, am I right?) After the War and his fatal injury, he had had to spend upwards of a year recovering and recuperating, and then he had to spend the next year regaining his strength and training, little by little, but he managed. It was a miracle he’d survived in the first place, though.
The curse mark had disappeared, removing any doubts that he could’ve been alive, but somehow, medics found a very weak pulse, which was enough for them to work with. It was so on brand for him, though—denying the odds so intensely.
Tenten squeaked gleefully, the noise dissolving into giggles when he pressed his lips to hers. “You,” he was saying between bruising kisses, “are not real.” She looped her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his middle, giggling into the kiss but unable to come up with a witty comeback of any kind. “God,” he groaned, “I love you so much.”
Ah, there it was.
She grinned against his lips, and mustering up her most annoying, smart-alecky voice, she interjected, “Um, the name is Tenten, actually, but thanks—”
Neji rolled his pretty eyes spectacularly, without any real annoyance (when had he gotten so mushy?), and he scoffed a laugh. Of course she’d say that. “Oh, shut up.”
When she giggled again and nuzzled her face into that spot in his neck, he allowed himself to fully enjoy this moment, letting go of that knee-jerk guilt he felt whenever he got something good, for once.
And when, after a moment or two, she murmured a very quiet, “I love you, too, Neji. I’m glad you’re home,” into his skin, he let himself think he deserved it.
--
thank you to my lovely oomfie @lubdubu for letting me borrow hibari & hao LOVE YOU DEARLY!!!
