Virtue (Temari, Hinata, Sakura, Ino, Tenten) SLOW UPDATES

Heaven - Heaven 3

PART ONE: TENTEN

HEAVEN - HEAVEN

CHAPTER THREE

Hyuga Neji, the richest man in Konoha, started from a simple maize field. Orphaned at a young age, Neji began to work on the field of a small time farmer in order to make ends meet. He was a diligent worker, this did his master notice and taught him his trade.

The farmer's business expanded when there was a drought in a neighbouring country and Konoha began exporting food stock to them. By the time the farmer died, his small maize farm had multiplied in size by ten and he had bought another field.

Neji inherited the fields from the farmer and continued to plant maize and wheat. He hired a few farm aids and together they built up the business till the stage it was now. Shinra was one of those farm aids.

Sometimes, Neji liked to stroll through his orchard and think about his past like he was doing right now. He had come a long way from a homeless orphan boy to the richest man in the country. How times had changed. The man stopped underneath an apple tree and looked up at the leaves. The sun's rays scattered as it shined through them, making it a beautiful sight to behold.

He was too engrossed with the beauty of nature to notice that he had company until the person spoke. Neji's brow raised at the person's casual way of speaking to him and he turned to appraise whoever it was. It turned out to be the woman that Shinra hired, looking at him like a troublesome child that stole something. He felt strangely scandalized at how intense her glare was.

"Is something the matter?" He inquired of the woman confusedly.

"Moh, one would expect you to work hard especially when you are being paid but look at you trying to cheat your master by slacking off." The woman stood akimbo, tapping her foot against the ground as if she was scolding a child. Neji didn't know whether he was taken aback by the sternness of her voice or the fact that she mistook him for a servant.

Well, he presumed it was good that she was concerned about the work ethics of his helpers and the welfare of his farm. "I am afraid you are mistaken miss, I am not a servant." Neji tried to refute the woman's wrong notion but if the look on her face was anything to go by, she clearly did not believe him.

The woman eventually sighed and dragged the crates (he noticed) in her hands over to him. "You are lazy, that's what you are." She climbed the fruiting apple tree with surprising agility and picked an apple. "I would pick them and you would throw them into the crates, okay? Good. Get to work."

The woman did not even wait for a reply from him before she began to pluck and throw apples down at him speedily. When she saw that he was being rather sluggish with his assigned work, she paused to give him an admonishing talk.

"You're slow, are you not?" She shook her head condescendingly. "How in the heavens did Shinra hire an oaf such as you are?" She might've made it look like she was muttering under her breath but she clearly said it to his hearing.

Well if she was looking to offend him, she succeeded because Neji bristled under the insult. "I was merely disoriented for a moment. Come on throw the apples to me with everything you've got, I would catch them all." To prove his point, he moved into a guarding stance and gestured for her to bring the challenge on.

"Oh?" The woman mused. "In that case, try catching this!" As soon as she spoke, an apple came flying at him with the speed of the wind. Neji caught it and threw it into a crate, giving the woman a smug smirk as he did so. The woman plucked another and threw it at him and he caught it again.