Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anyone else in the anime…though I wish I did own Sasuke…
Author's Notes: Hehehe, no need to worry this time, I didn't come up with this while in bed, I actually thought of this one at like 4 in the morning, so technically, I wasn't in bed since I had too much coke and candy…
Warnings: There are still those implications…although I'll actually tell you that these ones r a lot more sexual in nature, but that's ok. You have been warned, so deal with it and DON'T FLAME! Enjoy; drop a review on your way out!
Why be a man when you can be a success?
With all the aspiring talk of future jobs, Rock Lee had started to feel kind of hopeless compared to all the people who knew what they wanted to do in life, namely his precious Sakura-san. She wanted to specialize in that medical gibberish he knew absolutely nothing about, but he congratulated her belatedly anyway.
Sulking about and complaining how yellow the grass looked where they were training, he was really beginning to get on a certain girl's nerves.
That girl would be Tenten.
"Lee, if you really want to know what you should do in life, you can just borrow my laptop and do one of those career aptitude tests."
Well, needless to say, Lee stopped bugging Neji to spar right away and grabbed Tenten's innocent laptop lying on a tree stump a few feet away.
Which color do you like best: Green or blue?
Green…it was the only color he liked to wear anyway.
Which color do you like best: Red or green?
Green…what was it with those stupid people?
After 67 questions of picking favorite colors, Lee finally got to click on the button that said Test.
And instead of actually getting to the test, he got the results.
The colors were the test…
(AN: this actually happened to me. I did 67 questions of picking my fave color and that was it. The stupid thing told me to be a farmer! A stupid, goddamn farmer!)
Your future career is…fortuneteller!
"Fortuneteller!" He exclaimed happily, since he seemed to trust everything the Internet had to say, "I should be a fortuneteller!"
Perking up exponentially, Lee bounded over to Tenten and Neji to tell them the good news. He finally had something to amount to!
"Fortuneteller, huhn?" Neji said with a smirk, "Then tell me what I'm about to tell all of you right now."
Lee looked blankly at him. "You're getting married."
Tenten laughed. Then stopped. Neji looked he had gotten castrated.
Maito Gai spat out the coffee he had currently been sipping.
"Neji!" He exclaimed in that sugar-high voice, "When were you planning to tell us?"
"Yeah!" Lee cheered obliviously, "I'm psychic!"
"Oh my lord…" Tenten muttered, "Neji…you're getting…married?"
Neji just kept staring at Lee. How the hell had Rock Lee found out? Or…was he really psychic?
Earlier that day…
"Neji, you are 20 years old now, no?"
Neji gave a curt nod to Tsunade.
"Neji, I'm not sure how to say this, but since Hinata has decided to demolish the whole main and branch house crap when she turned 18, that makes you head of the Hyuuga house."
Again, he nodded.
"Neji, I really don't know how to say this, but since you're 20 now, there's a law that you must marry by the time you're 25 and have a child by 26."
This time, Neji cut off mid-nod.
"And since you're not seeing anyone, I took the liberty of setting up a marriage for you."
Hyuuga Neji actually sputtered. "Wha? Why do I have to get engaged now? It's not for another 5 years!"
Tsunade sighed. "The girl I arranged you to marry is a complete stranger. You don't know her, so I just thought a few years would be long enough for you to get to know her, and perhaps fall in love."
Neji opened his mouth to protest but was cut off by Tsunade.
"Before you even ask, you have to get married because you are now the head of the wealthiest clan in Konoha. We must be sure that there is an heir to that fortune, so we want you to start the children making as soon as possible."
Neji had never felt more mortified in his life. His Hokage was telling him to start having sex as soon as possible.
"But Neji," Tsunade half said half sighed, "I also want you to be happy, so I'm giving you a list."
"Of what?" He asked as emotionlessly as possible.
"Of all the girls you are having a date with to see if one of them can be a possible suitor for you."
Neji's left eye twitched spastically and when it stopped, his right eye started.
It was like seeing the Macarena done by eyeballs.
"Oh, it's not so bad!" Tsunade tried to convince him until she realized she was trying more to convince herself, "If you don't want to find a possible suitor, you can always just marry the girl I picked out for you! I'm sure you'll find her pretty enough and she listens quite well to instructions…"
Without another word, Neji grabbed the list and left Tsunade's office.
'Damn…' He thought to himself on his way out, 'What the hell does she mean there's a law? How come I've never heard of it? Married? God DAMN!'
For the first time in his life, Hyuuga Neji was at a loss for words.
Tenten just stayed unmoving and stared at the list Neji had provided them after his riveting story. She felt a very wide variety of emotions at the moment…from surprise to…disappointment? 'Disappointment? No, no, what could I possible be disappointed about?'
She really didn't know what to say to Neji.
Nothing at all.
"Um…" She said after moments of very uncomfortable silence, "So…have you picked out a suitor yet?"
Tenten was relieved to say the least when Neji shook his head.
"Neji, I'd have to say you're pretty lucky." She was saying this while combating the squeezing motion her heart was making.
"You don't have to worry about finding someone to love and spend the rest of your life with."
Was she having a heart attack?
"Unlike the rest of us, you can settle down early and have a family of your own. So I'd say you're pretty lucky."
There wasn't any history of heart failure in her family…
Neji snorted. "You might consider it lucky, but I'd like to find someone to spend the rest of my life with on my own terms in my own time, thank you very much."
"Oh be a man!" Tenten said feeling kind of pissed now, "Be a man!"
Then without realizing it, she wrapped her arms around his chest and started squeezing.
"Be a man!"
Each time she thought about the best friend she had getting married, her arms tightened around him.
And then the friend we like to call Common Sense welcomed itself in Tenten's mind.
"Oh my god." She said in a rush and quickly let go of him, with only the slightest tinge of pink on her cheeks.
"Sorry…"
Neji said nothing. His lips were set in a grim and very thin line. He stood there like a statue for a while and then turned around to sit down beneath a tree.
"He looks pissed…" Gai whispered in Tenten's ear, "Go talk to him."
Tenten sighed. She supposed some of this was her fault. Still…she didn't want to be the only one who had to deal with the most anti-social Hyuuga in the universe…
Neji, who was now calmly sitting under a tree, was not in fact pissed off. He was more flustered than anything.
When Tenten had gone and hugged him, he had gotten this tantalizing whiff of how she smelled, and in that moment, he realized what Tenten was.
The past years, she had just been a teammate he was more fond of than others, and the occasional emotions he felt was placed in that category of platonic because he didn't have any other explanation for them.
She was the closest thing he had for a best friend and he had never seen her any other way.
But today, he finally saw her as the woman she was. No longer the girl he liked to spar and sometimes talk with, not the friend he would often tease.
She was a woman. And she was a whole lot of woman.
Someone had once said: "Familiarity is understanding." He was not familiar with the feelings he was currently feeling, so he did not understand them. He had a vague idea, but it really scared him.
After all, what were the chances of Tenten agreeing to be his wife?
"Neji…are you okay?"
Her voice snapped him out of his reverie and he resisted the urge to squeal like a little girl. Putting on the stony face since he always had one, he muttered something incoherently and stared off to somewhere behind her.
Tenten frowned slightly at the detached look in his eyes.
Then sighed as she took a seat next to him. It wasn't his fault for being emotionally challenged. No, it wasn't that. It wasn't his fault he had forgotten how to love.
He spent so much of his life only knowing hate and fighting for himself, that he had forgotten how to love and be loved. All affection had been erased from his personality and replaced with contempt. She couldn't blame him for not knowing how to show anything else. He didn't know anything else…
Was it weird of her to want to show him how to love again?
Was it weird of her to want to ask him to choose her as the suitor?
Was it weird of her to be insanely jealous of Haruno Sakura since the younger girl happened to be number one on his list of dates?
She didn't really think so, but the rest of us do and if it weren't weird, there wouldn't be much of a plot so…yes, yes it was weird!
Neji and Tenten sat in silence as each was left to their own depressing thoughts.
Until Lee hobbled over and picked up the list to view the damage the girls of Konoha would be suffering in the next few months.
And choked on his own air.
"Neji!" He bellowed, "I can not let you go on a date with Sakura-san!"
Neji looked up uninterestedly at him. "Why not?"
"Because…" Rock Lee sputtered, "Because I have to go on a date with her!"
This time, Neji sighed. "Fine, I'll just go on the date, and nothing will happen okay? Tsunade told me to do this and follow the list in order, although I'm not quite sure why, so that's what I'm going to do. Instead of wooing Sakura, I'll just do nothing and that way, maybe she'll go insane and decide to go on a date with you."
Lee didn't seem to get the insult and sighed in relief instead. "Ok then! Want to spar?"
Now normally, Neji would've said no. But these weren't normal circumstances.
"You're on."
5 minutes later, Lee ended up beaten to a pulp on the ground.
When Neji was pissed, Neji was REALLY pissed.
None of them noticed that Tenten's name was on the very bottom of the list…
Tsunade chuckled to herself as she thought about Neji and what his reaction could be to the news she had given him.
Although it was true that he did have to find a wife and be married by 25 with a child by 26, she originally had no intention on letting him find a suitor himself. But seeing how the Hyuuga boy acted around a certain teammate of his, she thought it would be interesting to see how things ended up.
But first, she would have a little fun with him by making him date every girl there was in Konoha.
((( TBC )))
Next Chapter: Haruno SakuraSigh, this is much shorter than most of the things I write, but since this is multi chaptered, you'll have to deal with it. His date with Sakura is coming up next, so tune in for that!
Also, I want to make it very clear that I am not ripping off anybody else's story. I was so pissed when I got accused of that for something else, but you have to remember. There are over 10000 fics in the Naruto fandom. Some things are bound to be similar.
Anyway, you can review and tell me what order you want the girls he has dates with come in, but that means you need to drop a review…a NICE one or one with CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. No flames.
'Till next time then!
Yuxi