Marshmallows - Four

There was group... er, no actually. It was more than a 'group'. It was a clusterfuck of only guys and they were pushing and shoving and drooling with their hungry gazes looking down out the window their faces were pressed against.

Neji frowned. They were being very distracting, and he was trying to get his thoughts together before TenTen came into class. It was Monday morning, and he had been early so he could intercept TenTen as soon as she arrived. He needed to talk to her. He hadn't said one word to her in over five days, and it was weirding him out. He didn't know what he was going to say - though he was pretty sure he should start with an apology of some kind - just that he needed to say something.

"Damn she looks hott!" one of the boys exclaimed, wrenching Neji's focus away from his inner thought yet again.

"Yeah man, who knew?" another boy agreed, nearly falling out the window with how far he was craned out to see.

Neji rolled his eyes, returning them to the door. Where was TenTen? Shouldn't she be here by now? He was starting to lose his nerve, and he didn't want to. He was tired of being a scared little bird.

The door opened, but it wasn't TenTen, it was Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto was exuberantly praddling on about something, while Sasuke listened, looking bored. Sasuke looked over, saw the clusterfuck, then saw Neji and abandoned his blond best friend to go over to him.

"So that's it?" Sasuke asked, monitone as he had been yesterday and the day before and the day before that and... Well, since Neji met him in sixth grade.

Neji looked surprised and confused - not a normal look for him. Things hardly ever surprised him, and even less things actually confused him. "What are you talking about?" he asked the Uchiha standing in front of his desk, looking down on him.

Naruto came up on one side of Sasuke, looking like he was ready to snap at Sasuke for just walking away while the blond had been talking, but he didn't get the chance to say anything. "You and TenTen," Sasuke explained, a sliver of irritation embedded in his tone, "You're just giving up?"

"Huh? Neji and TenTen?" Naruto asked, looking back and forth between Neji and Sasuke, "Wait. Is that why T-"

"I'm not giving up," Neji stated flatly, not really wanting to discuss something like this with two underclassmen, even if they did come into his class every morning to hang out with Shikamaru, "I plan to speak with TenTen as soon as she arrives."

Naruto and Sasuke exchanged worried, regretful glances, making Neji uneasy. Sasuke sighed, but it was Naruto who turned to Neji and spoke, "So... You don't know?"

Neji felt his eyebrows furrow in frustration. He really hated it when people were so vague. Clearly he didn't know whatever it was they were talking about because they had failed to even ask a full, detailed question. "Know what?" he asked anyway.

"Your plans might just be a little too late," Sasuke mentioned, his deep voice more sullen than usual.

"What do you mean?" the Hyuuga asked cautiously.

Narto chimed in this time, "Have you looked out the window yet?"

Out of the corner of his eyes, Neji glanced at the clusterfuck before returning his eyes to the two guys in front of him, "No..."

With another sigh, Sasuke motioned his head towards the window. He didn't even have to say anything for his expression to cleary tell Neji, Go look.

Neji glanced between the clusterfuck and Sasuke and Naruto again, then slowly rose from his seat and made his way over. As he got closer the window, he started to lose his cool, such to the point that he dove straight into the clusterfuck and shoved the students in his way to the side so he could get to the window.

He didn't know what he was expecting, but it wasn't what he found. Down waiting near the front gate, waiting and talking with Hinata and Temari, was TenTen. He had to look twice, but it didn't change. That was definitely her.

And she was in a skirt.

Not just that. TenTen was in a skirt, the top five buttons of her white uniform shirt were unbuttoned and open at the top of her sweatervest - no red boy's tie in sight - and her hair wasn't in her two normal messy buns. The top half was tied back with the huge red bow that was supposed to be tied around the girl's necks, (even though hardly any of them ever did), and all of it was hanging down in a wavy waterfall down her back.

She laughed at something Temari said. She didn't look like she was forcing it either - she actually looked happy and enjoying herself without him.

Neji, awestruck and having trouble breathing, stepped back from the window. He didn't say anything to anyone - not even Naruto and Sasuke. He just needed to get out of that classroom. He needed a moment.

He stood out in the hallway looking like a fool as he leaned against the wall breathing heavily. What was she doing? Here he was all set to apologize and fix things and she was dressed up like... like... INO for God's sake!

Neji's blood ran cold. Sasuke had said maybe he was too late. That was impossible, wasn't it? No. No, he couldn't be too late!

He turned and headed down the hallway, then down the stairs, down another hallway and out the front door. He hesitated only briefly, when he first stepped out into the sunlight filling the yard of students. He swallowed, set his compsure and crossed the yard, heading straight for the front gates.

As Neji came up to the three girls, Ino caught sight of him. "Oh, hey there Neji," she greeted.

Temari and TenTen looked over at him as well. Temari Simply nodded, but TenTen spoke, "Morning Class Rep."

Neji was slightly taken aback. Class Rep?! Still, he swallowed down his emotions and spoke as if he were speaking to any random stranger - blank and emotionless. "TenTen, may I speak with you a moment?" he asked.

TenTen didn't seem put out, but liquid brown eyes flickered with a bit of unhappiness. She lift her hand and checked the face of the small thin chain watch on the inside of her left wrist. "Well.. I suppose for a moment," she told him finally, "But we'll have to go inside soon for class."

Neji nodded once, though he wasn't pleased. Not only did TenTen never wear any accessories - much less a WATCH - she also never gave a care in the world about being late for class. She had always said she wouldn't bend to meet anyone's agenda but her own and other people would just have to deal with it.

The two of them headed off to the left, to a small ten foot section of grass between the South wall of the school building and the brick wall that the front gate was built into.

When they were out of earshot of any other students and tucked away in this small place, TenTen whirled to face him and crossed her arms over her chest. "What?" she snapped, all essence of sweet that he had heard a moment ago was gone. She was back to being TenTen.

Neji would have smiled at this if he wasn't so upset. "What are you doing?" he asked, astonished, "Is this some kind of plot to get back at me for not-"

"Tch. No," she scoffed, cutting him off because everyone world that came out of his mouth just pissed her off more and more, "Contrary to popular belief, Neji, my life does not revolve around you and everything you do or don't do."

Neji sighed, throughoutly exhausted by the drama of the past five days. He was glad it was finally getting dealt with. "Look, TenTen-" he started on the speech he had roughly wrote up in his head on his way down to the front gate.

"Save it, Neji," she cut him off again, looking even more angry, "I know you. You've got a whole speech thought out and you think if you just apologize for ignoring me for the past couple days I'll forgive you and we can move on, but that's not going to happen."

"But-" he tried again.

"Shut up!" she snapped - a little louder than she meant to, "I'm done Neji! Done! You're going to listen to me for once, okay? I'm not just going to stand around as your shadow anymore! Yes, we were best friends, but that changed... WE CHANGED, and I'm sorry you can't accept that."

She took a deep breath, calming herself. Neji waited for her to go on. "If you had said something to me a few days ago..." she murmured, but the raised her voice up to normal volume, "I wanted more. I wanted our changing to be a good thing. So I waited and waited, and when you didn't call I realized that's not what YOU wanted. You just want to rewind. You want to go back to what we were before, and I can't do that, okay? And now..." She sighed, "Well, now I don't even want more. Now I just want you to leave me alone."

She walked past him, heading away. He turned and called out to her, so TenTen stopped and turned around, looking throughoutly irritated. Like, what part of ALONE did he not understand?

"We can't just walk away from this, TenTen," he tried to reason with her - failing miserably, "That... incident the other night-"

"IT'S CALLLED SEX!" she shouted out of no where; without even caring who might hear, "WE HAD SEX! It's normal! It's natural! It is NOT and INCIDENT! It's sex! And since it apparently didn't mean anything, yes we can walk away from it!" Her eyes glossed over slightly, "And I really wish you would."

Neji opened his mouth to argue some more, but she was too quick. She held up a hand.

"Unless the next words out of your mouth are to ask whether I prefer you to walk off a cliff or a bridge, I don't want to hear it," she snapped, turning to leave before he could come up with a retort.

Not that Neji even had one for that. As he watched TenTen walk away and turn the corner he felt the crushing weight of what he had just lost settle onto his shoulder. It felt like his world had shattered right there and then. He'd made her angry before, but never like this. He didn't have a clue what to do.

There would be no fixing this.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

TenTen never liked storms. And as she walked home after school on Friday, she couldn't help looking at the sky over and over again. She was practically begging the dark, clouded sky not to rain until she got home.

When the light changed, she stepped off the curb and into the street without actually looking around first. She didn't notice the car that was so clearly blowing the stoplight and headed directly for her.

"TenTen!" called a familiar voice. A hand grabbed her arm and yanked her back onto the sidewalk. She was so close to being hit by the speeding car the rush of wind that followed it's passing took her breath away.

"ASSHOLE! WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!" the obnoxiously loud voice shouted after the car, even though the driver probably couldn't hear him.

TenTen blinked, turning to face her savior. "N-Naruto?" she shook her head to clear it, "Oh my gosh… Naruto, thank you."

"Nothing to it," Naruto replied, pulling his angry eyes away from the corner the car had disappeared around. He looked TenTen up and down, but not in a perverted way. He was worried.

Someone else beat him to the question he was just about to ask. "TenTen, are you all right?" It was Hinata, and she came up beside Naruto, panting heavily - like she had just run down the block after she had seen TenTen nearly get hit.

TenTen looked over at her and nodded. "Y-Yeah… I just…" she couldn't even put the shame she was feeling into words. She was usually so much more alert and focused, but she was getting distracted by wanting to get home. If Naruto hadn't been there…

She looked up at Naruto, who was chuckling at a blushing Hinata. Apperently he had recovered from his worry and was now teasing Hinata about running so fast. Hinata had told him she was frightened TenTen had been injured, so Naruto chuckled and called her a scaredy-cat.

TenTen raised an eyebrow. Well, the blond idiot always had had a short attention span, but maybe… "Naruto," she called his attention sharply, "Can I ask you for… a favor?"

Naruto blinked at her, then shrugged with a smile, "Yeah. I guess."

Her eyes fell to her schoolbag, which she carried in both hands in front of her and had almost lost when Naruto yanked her out of the street. She felt like… Well, Hinata… with the way she was so embarrassed and timorous. "I just… wanted…" she started, but then changed her mind, "I mean, I was wondering… C-Could you walk me home? M-Maybe?"

After slight confusion, Naruto smiled at the top of TenTen's hanging head. "Sure, why not?" he replied, then he turned to Hinata, "What do you say, Hinata? Want to tag along?"

TenTen's head came up in time to see Hinata's beet red face smiling and nodding, "Of course."

With a sigh of relief, TenTen headed across the street with Naruto and Hinata right beside her.



15 minutes and 7 more glances at the sky later, Naruto finally spoke, "TenTen, are you afraid of storms?"

TenTen was about to answer with an immediate 'no', but then thought better of it. Why was it such a big deal if she told him? "Sort of…" she murmured, watching the sidewalk disappear under her feet as they walked along, "I'm okay if I'm in my house, but I don't like being outside in them."

"Oh," Naruto accepted this - it made sense to him, "So that's why you wanted me to walk you home?"

TenTen didn't answer.

"Come to think of it," Hinata carried her schoolbag in one hand, with the other one tapping an index finger on her chin as she looked upwards, "Didn't N-Neji always walk you home?"

Neji… TenTen cringed slightly when his name left Hinata's mouth. Monday they had fought. Ever since then, they had been strangers. Now it was Friday. Four years of friendship had been ripped away in one bad weekend. How tradegic.

"U-Um… TenTen?" Hinata's meek little voice drifted over to TenTen from where the indigo-haired little doll was walking on the other side of Naruto, "I-If you w-want, I could spend the n-night tonight… S-so that you're n-not alone, that is…"

TenTen smiled. Hinata was so sweet. Not that she didn't like Sakura or Ino or Temari, but if TenTen ever did pick a female best friend, it would definitely be Hinata. She sighed. Guess she was cursed to always get along with members of the Hyuuga family. "Thanks Hinata," she replied with the utmost sincerity, "But that's all right. I'm not that afraid. I'll be fine."

A thunder clap sounded right over them, causing TenTen to jump and yelp. Without noticing, she latched onto Naruto's arm and held tight. There were a few seconds of awkward silence, then TenTen looked up at Naruto, embarrassed, "U-Um…"

Naruto chuckled, "Let's get you home."

~ ~ ~

Neji paced.

He wasn't much of a pacer unless something really, really, worried him. Right now, that was TenTen.

It was storming. TenTen hated storms. She was afraid of them, even though she didn't know why. It was just something about the flashing lightening, the thunder, the pounding rain all mixed together that seemed to get to her. Neji supposed it was just as well - storms were the only thing she was afraid of.

His acute hearing suddenly made his pacing come to a screeching halt.

"Th-Thank you, N-Naruto… Y-You didn't have t-to…"

Neji raised an eyebrow over at his closed bedroom door. It wasn't really acute hearing, more like a classic style house made out of paper sliding doors and long echoing hallways.

"Don't worry about it. I wanted to make sure you got home okay."

Naruto? What was Naruto doing here? And more importantly, wasn't that Hinata he heard before? What was SHE doing here?

Neji didn't exactly bolt but he left his room at some sort of fast-walk. He went through two hallways, then stopped a couple feet from the front door, watching Naruto and Hinata, who stood right inside, dripping wet and smiling at each other. To him it was like watching a horror film.

"H-Here, at least t-take th-this…" Hinata was telling Naruto, offering a big black umbrella from the umbrella bucket to the right of the front door.

"I'm all right," he declined, "I'm already soaked after all."

Neji walked over to them, not caring about their precious moment he was about to ruin, "Hinata, why are you here?"

Naruto and Hinata both looked over at an approaching Neji, then Naruto threw Hinata a confused glance before he answered for her, "Um… She lives here?"

"You're supposed to be with TenTen," he ignored Naruto, looking down on his timid little cousin.

"I… I…" Hinata's eyes darted back and forth between Neji, the floor, Naruto, the floor, Neji, etc… "I off-offered, b-but T-TenTen said sh-she d-didn't need m-me…"

Neji looked cross, "That's exactly what I told you she would say! You weren't supposed to take 'no' for an answer!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow at Hinata, "What is he talking about?"

"I w-was supposed t-to s-spend the n-night at T-TenTen's so sh-she wouldn't b-be alone d-during the storm…" she tried to explain, but was interrupted before she could finish.

"Clearly, not a task I could trust you with," Neji spat.

Naruto's eyebrows slanted forward angrily, and he stepped in front of Hinata protectively. "Hey, back off Neji," he warned, "She did her best okay?"

Neji narrowed his eyes at Naruto, since he couldn't do so to his cousin anymore, "No, if she had done her best she'd be with TenTen right now!"

"And if you were really so damn worried about her, then you'd be with TenTen right now," Naruto snapped, pointing a finger at him.

"Watch it Uzumaki," Neji warned crossly, "You have no idea-"

"No, you watch it, Neji," Naruto cut him off before the Hyuuga could finish his threat, "Just because your mad at yourself for ruining things with TenTen, doesn't mean the rest of us are just gonna walk around with our heads down and take your shit!"

He took a step forward and poked his finger against Neji's chest. "Leave the rest of us out of it," he continued, completely unafraid of standing up to an upperclassmen, "You broke it. You fix it."

Neji blinked. Damn that blond.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~