Title: Shampoo
Author: Mina
Pairing: NejiTen
Summary: After a mission all Tenten wants to do is wash her
hair. Is that so much to ask?
Disclaimer: I'm not Kishimoto.
The mission hadn't been difficult so much as long. And exhausting. Even Lee's energy was flagging a teeny bit, though you wouldn't know it unless you had been on a team with him for several years. Neji looked a little strained but still managed to give the impression of being unaffected. The last few days of their contract had involved a lot of running and fighting as they chased down the shinobi causing their client a problem, yet despite that, maybe one or two hairs on the Hyuuga's head were out of place.
Tenten had to fight the urge to scream at the unfairness of it all.
She had to fight it again when she opened the bag holding her toiletries. During the course of all that running around, the caps to her shampoo and conditioner had managed to come off, the contents covering everything within the watertight pouch. Gingerly grasping a hairbrush between index finger and thumb, she lifted it from the slimy soup to watch glistening hair product drip off the bristles. At least the pouch maintained integrity, she thought glumly.
"What's wrong?"
The brush was dropped back into the bag with a wet plop! "Oh, nothing, except for the fact I've got nothing to wash my hair with. The tops came off," she explained. It wouldn't be the first time she had gone stretches without a good shampooing but the mission was over, and they were in an inn. True, it was a bit of a hole in the wall as far as inns went, but after the day's rain it didn't matter so much as it was dry.
Neji said nothing as he went to his bag. Before Tenten could react he'd plucked her pouch away and put his own pouch into her hands. "I'll clean up your stuff while you shower," he said, his tone declaring the discussion over.
Tenten shot glares at his back and muttered about how she could take care of herself, thank you. He ignored her. Sighing mentally she pulled a change of clothes from her bag and popped into the closet that contained a toilet and shower.
She let her hair down then inspected the contents of Neji's pouch. Nothing much – shampoo, conditioner, and a washcloth-wrapped bar of soap. The first two were in generic, pale blue unmarked containers while the soap, she noted, was wrapped in a blue fresh cloth and homemade. She sniffed the dark brown bar. No distinguishable scent, just as she expected. Stories abounded where missions had gone wrong because one of the shinobi on a team had been sniffed out after using a scented soap. She shook her head and put her hand under the shower head. Finding the water temperature acceptable she stripped and stepped in quickly, closing the curtain behind her.
"Strange" did not begin to describe how she felt at using Neji's stuff. A bit embarrassed or more than a mite self-conscious came closer to the mark. Oh, sure, they were a team and they looked out for each other and helped one another out, but there had been a time not five years ago when Neji threw pissy fits if anyone got within ten feet of his personal belongings. And now he was voluntarily permitting her use his shampoo. Not just any shampoo. Tenten knew the recipes for the homemade Hyuuga hair care products were almost as fiercely guarded as the Byakugan.
Hyuugas. Go figure.
Rather than encourage the sure-fire headache if she attempted to force her tired brain to follow the convoluted thinking generally required when attempting to analyze Neji and his motives, she distracted herself by paying attention to the pleasant tingling of her scalp as she worked the shampoo into her long, thick hair. She smiled as she recalled the look on Hinata's face when the other girl had seen just how long Tenten's hair was. After a long day of hurling various objects at Neji and watched as he tried to catch them with his Kaiten rather than deflect them, Tenten had uncoiled her buns but left her hair in the twin braids that hung down to mid-back while she and Neji rested. Hinata had come to find them because Isamu and Osamu had gotten into trouble again and Neji's presence as branch family head was required, only to stop short and stare at Tenten for several moments before mostly regaining her composure and relaying the message.
Later Hinata had commented how she hadn't realized how long Tenten's hair was. Tenten reassured her that most didn't, and that even Neji was surprised the first time he saw her take her hair down. Wear your hair up long enough and people forget just how much you have.
She took good care of her hair. Not that she was vain about it (compared to Neji, she had only the vaguest of passing interest) but she wore it loose when she truly wished to relax, and she liked to pet it when it was newly washed because that was when it felt the most soft. Her hair was naturally ramrod straight, but wearing it in braided buns all the time had given it a slight, constant wave. Though she found it patently unfair that even if she decided to use the expensive stuff she occasionally splurged on her hair would never come close to luxuriousness of Neji's.
But ooo, did her scalp feel nice. And there was a definite change to her hair already, she was certain. The shampoo washed out cleanly, too. No discernable residue her fingers could detect. Same went for the conditioner.
She checked the bottles to see how much was left, and cringed when she saw less than a third remained in each. Hopefully he wouldn't get too annoyed, seeing as he was the one who had insisted in the first place...
The soap left her skin feeling the same way the shampoo had her scalp—tingly clean. She was amazed at how much dirt and grime the soap got off her. No wonder the local merchants were drooling to get their hands on even a sample of the Hyuuga stuff.
She finished rinsing off and toweled dry before donning the sleeveless purple tunic and cuffed brown capris that served as her pajamas while on a mission. Her hair was expertly wrapped in her towel before she gathered up her dirty clothes and exited the steam-choked bathroom. She spotted the contents of her pouch, along with the pouch itself, laid out on a towel on the countertop to dry. Lee glanced up from where he was finishing his evening pushups and grinned momentarily at her before going back to his usual focused expression. Neji took his own change of clothing from his bag and silently moved past her so he could shower himself.
"Feeling better?" Lee asked when he finished with the pushups.
"Yeah," she replied as she removed the towel from her head to start rubbing her hair. "Amazing the difference a hot shower makes. You doing okay?"
He nodded. Easily balancing on one leg he removed sandal, legwarmer, and weights from his left leg before repeating the process with his right. The weights were then carefully placed on the ground. He wiggled his toes as he adjusted his balance to compensate for being near-weightless before sitting on the edge of the bed. His hands weren't the only appendages wrapped. To be able to support the strain of having about eighty pounds around each shin, he had to wrap his legs as well from below the knee to just before his toes. "Looking forward to getting home," he continued. "That one Ame-nin had some great taijutsu moves, and I want to see if I can incorporate them into my usual style. And I promised Sensei I'd have lunch with him to tell him all about the mission, and Risu's probably missing me."
"I'll bet he is," Tenten grinned. Risu was actually the second squirrel to bear that name as rodents unfortunately had very short life spans. The first Risu had died peacefully of old age, and after giving the squirrel a proper alcohol-free wake and subsequent burial Lee had befriended another woodland critter. Risu II was even more hyperactive than Risu I in her and Neji's opinion, but they accepted the squirrel because it was important to Lee.
Ten minutes later and her hair was as dry as it was going to get. She got her brush from the counter and began working out the usual tangles when she froze. Lee froze too, one arm half-unwrapped while he looked at her intently. "...Tenten?"
"Sorry." She offered him a sheepish smile. "It's just... I usually have more knots in my hair after a mission, and... I haven't found even one yet."
"You did just use Neji's shampoo," he pointed out.
"Well, yeah..."
Lee grinned. "There you go." He did a nice-guy pose and went back to unwrapping his arm.
She almost wondered why he wouldn't consider a lack of tangles particularly out of the ordinary, but then she remembered that he trained his hair as ruthlessly as his body. No knot could ever hope to stand up to Lee when wielding a brush.
Soon she was humming at the gentle pull of the brush in her hair. It slid through easily, and when she touched her hair it felt so soft, and she noticed that even the lamplight reflected brightly, giving her hair a lovely healthy sheen. She tried not to grin like an idiot while she brushed and failed.
Unseen by her, Lee shook his head, amused.
When Neji, pouch in hand, finally emerged from the bathroom clad in black silk pajamas with matching headscarf peeping out from beneath his own hair towel, she was curled up at the head of the bed with legs tucked demurely beneath her. Her eyes were closed and she was still brushing her hair. Lee's glance was innocent enough to cause the Hyuuga's to sharpen questioningly. The other man said nothing before taking his turn at getting clean. The happy shout at finding that hot water still remained was barely stifled by the door.
Neji added his dirty clothes to the where Tenten's already hung on a wire strung across the far wall of the room, out of the way from where anyone would normally be walking. The clothing wouldn't be washed until they got back to the village, but airing them out made donning them again in the morning a little easier.
"Having fun?" he inquired dryly. Tenten jerked out of her reverie, then flushed when she saw Neji looking down at her.
"Actually... yeah." Neji raised an eyebrow and earned himself a glare. "What? It's not like you don't when you brush your hair."
He smirked. "I'm not denying that. I simply..." ...wondered if his hair ever looked like that.
Funny he never really paid attention to her hair before. Well, he did, especially when she changed her hairstyle, but this was different. Her hair didn't shine. Her hair trapped the lamp's feeble light, claimed it as its own, and released it by diffusing it through each individual strand causing every one to glow.
She eyed him suspiciously when he trailed off. "You simply what?" she pressed when the pause continued.
"--Nothing," he said abruptly as he sat on the bed near her and reached for one of his own combs while the other undid the towel. He had his own hair to take care of after all.
Tenten frowned and set her brush down. She shifted so that she was kneeling on the bed's covers and leaned in to study him intently, brown eyes narrowed. Soft hair slid over her shoulders in chocolate waterfalls. "Neji, are you feeling all right?"
A muscle in his cheek ticked as he shifted his gaze and studiously focused on combing his hair with even strokes. "I'm fine."
"Oh? Because correct me if I'm wrong but you don't normally avoid someone's gaze." She paused. "Look, I'm sorry I used so much of your shampoo, but you did offer it for me to use..."
"It's not that."
"..." She put the inside of her wrist to his forehead and pulled it back only when his right eye twitched violently. "Okay, and you're not sick, either. So what is it, huh? And don't give me 'nothing' because nothing's ever 'nothing' with you."
He wondered if her hair felt as soft as it appeared when she sat back and crossed her arms over her chest. Mahogany strands fell artfully over deep chestnut eyes that could pull you in if you weren't careful.
Maybe he was more tired than he let on? Stubborn, stupid Hyuuga, Tenten grumbled mentally as the silence continued. "Fine, whatever," she declared as she threw up her hands into the air before tucking her hair back behind both ears, "don't tell me, I'm only your teamma..." For the briefest moment an odd look had passed through his eyes. Having been around him for years meant that she could read him fairly well when he wasn't being Mr. Iceblockhead, but she'd never seen that look before. "...Neji?" She didn't know what it meant, but her heart really needed to stop thudding against her ribcage like that. If Lee couldn't hear it in the shower she'd be amazed.
Neither of them noticed when the water stopped and Lee eased the door open only enough to peek out, smiled to himself, and closed the door again. Nor would they know he had a huge grin on his face and was crossing his fingers for luck.
Tenten was trying not to fidget, but Neji's gaze was just so intense. When those silver eyes moved to something beside her, she released the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding only to freeze again as he reached for her. When he brought his hand back some he was holding a lock of her hair, studying the strands as they flowed like water over his fingers. He did that a second time, and a third. The fourth time he just held her hair and kept brushing his thumb over it with a gentleness she was unused to seeing from him.
He kept his eyes on that lock of hair. "Does my hair feel like this?"
She opened her mouth to inform him she had never touched his hair before but nothing came out. Closing it again she did the only sane thing--she got a handful of his hair and nearly groaned in pleasure at the unbelievably soft, silky thickness. No man should be allowed to have hair this divine! She hummed quietly to herself as she wrapped her fingers in the sable tresses, smiling as his hair slid across the back of her hand with a light tickling sensation. "Hnn," she intoned an indeterminable amount of time later. Stroking his hair was rapidly becoming an addiction of hers, and if the light pull on her scalp was any indication, the opposite was true as well.
If she wasn't so distracted by the glossy hair in her fingers, she probably would have laughed at the absurdity of the two of them sitting here, petting each other's hair. Instead, she simply enjoyed it.
So soft... and... warm? Wait, that's his...
She blinked several times at the pale hand enclosed around her own, wondering if this was some sort of genjutsu.
"Tenten," he said again.
"Soft and warm?" she blurted out before the filter could resume functioning.
This time Neji blinked twice before smirking. Not his usual I-am-Hyuuga-and-superior smirk but something a little...warmer that prompted her to smile back at him even while her face burned.
"It's late," he said quietly, "so we should probably get some sleep."
"Uhm... Right... Yeah," she agreed. She lowered her hand and fought the giddy little squee that threatened to sound when he didn't move his hand away immediately. A minute later she realized how quiet it was.
Neji must've caught on to her train of thought because he was on his feet and knocking on the bathroom door an instant later. "Lee?"
"Buh? Wha?" came the groggy reply.
"...Lee, did you fall asleep in the tub?"
"No! ...Yes?"
"Get dressed," the Hyuuga sighed, "and come to bed."
Tenten smiled. "Poor Lee," she chuckled.
"Tch. I didn't hear any splashing, so at least he had the sense to open the drain so he didn't drown," Neji said annoyed resignation.
"I heard that!" Lee declared as he exited the bathroom.
Tenten looked at him. "I don't know how you can stand to wear flannel in the summer. Don't you overheat?"
"I would say he's used to it by now," Neji commented.
Lee replied by sticking out his tongue before hanging up his jumpsuit and legwarmers. "Yosh!" he declared. "Time to sleep and rest our bodies so we can embrace the coming dawn with vigour the shinobi of Konoha are known for!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just don't hog the covers."
"That's Neji, not me."
"Correction, that's advice for both of you. Your midnight tug-o-wars do get old rather fast." When neither male commented, Tenten grinned. Chalk up another point for the kunoichi.
They let her settle down in the middle before Lee got in on one side, and Neji in the other after turning off all the lights. Surrounded by the comforting weights and smells of her boys on either side of her, Tenten fell asleep with a smile on her face.
Two hours before dawn when the sky was still pitch black, Lee got up to use the bathroom. He finished quickly and tiptoed back to the bed, pausing at the scene before him. Tenten lay on her back while Neji was on his side facing her. Neither one had remembered to bind their hair before falling asleep and now the strands were interwoven.
The best part, Lee decided as he slipped back under the covers, was not only did each have a hand twined in their intermingled hair, but how their pinky fingers were linked possessively.