New Girl- A Konoha High School Story

Chapter 30- Merry Christmas

Tenten's POV

The next morning, I woke up to find an empty space beside me. I was somewhat disappointed that he wasn't still there—I almost missed being in his strong, muscular, arms. However, by the standards of my sleep schedule, it was probably 2:00 in the afternoon or so, and Lord knows the Neji Hyuga would never wake up that late.

I quickly changed and walked down to the kitchen to find that the entire first floor had been beautifully decorated, with holly and mistletoe lining the ceiling, paper snowflakes across the windows, and tinsel on the fireplace. All Hinata's doing, probably. Of course there was no tree, but that was to be expected with the circumstances of being in the middle of nowhere with no means to cut a tree.

The group was spread around the house. Shikamaru was probably still asleep, Sakura and Ino were in the hot tub (gossiping about something, probably), Hinata and Naruto were making a snow family (which was officially the cutest thing I had ever seen), and Sasuke and Neji were in the kitchen, eating lunch.

Neji looked up at me as I walked in. I quickly brought my eyes to the floor. Ever since last night, the question that was once in my mind seemed childish and immature.The question was no longer: Do I like him? Of course I did. The butterflies that popped into my stomach from simply looking at him told me that much. The new question that I had not stopped asking myself since I woke up was: Am I in love with him? And to this, I was fairly certain I knew the answer, and it terrified me.

Looking back on it, there were many possible reasons that I was terrified to fall in love. Everyone in my life that I had ever truly loved had left me for the other plane. I had known loss just as well, and as the result of, knowing love. On another note, Neji was too perfect. Neji, the soccer captain, the genius, the ladies' man, the junior representative of the student council, the cook, the list goes on. To me, Neji represented the unattainable. He was the person I could never hope to reach. He was the antithesis to all of my stupid imperfections and shortcomings. I could never deserve Neji. 

However, the major problem I felt that I faced was something so trivial and juvenile in comparison to all of those thoughts that were more so in the back of my brain. But what if he doesn't like me back? What if I ruin our friendship? He's the best friend I've ever had, and I don't want to lose him. The usual daring and carefree Tenten was simply stripped to cowardice when it came to the idea of rejection. That's it. I was just scared of him saying no. I would like to say that the aforementioned trauma and fear was the root of my problem, and maybe it was, but really, I just didn't want to lose my first "best friend." Is that so wrong?

During the long monologue of thoughts that ran through my brain, I had quickly taken a snack from the kitchen and ran off, leaving a very confused Sasuke and Neji. I grabbed Hinata and told her to come with me to the hot tub, where I had recruited my now-low-key-therapists for help. I was now discussing my dilemma with Hinata, Sakura, and Ino as I sat in the warm, comforting water.

"Just make out." Ino said casually. "Solves all your problems."

Sakura jabbed Ino in the side. "No! That would never work with Neji! He's too.... sophisticated."

"And you're saying Shika isn't?!" She replied with indignation.

"No, of course not." Sakura replied. Ino nodded in understanding.

"Ya, you're probably right." She muttered.

"Tenten," Hinata said. "I think if you just talk to Neji, he'll understand. He does like you after all."

I nodded, still not entirely convinced. As the girls moved on to talking about other things, I stayed uncharacteristically silent, still engulfed in my own thoughts. I could tell Hinata was concerned; she kept looking at me nervously, but I just gave her a soft smile and pretended I was listening.

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Nonstop, the idea of telling Neji I loved him fully consumed me. These ideas were even engulfing my brain through dinner that night.

"Uh, Tenten, is something wrong?" Naruto asked as he ate his noodles. If even Naruto could tell something was wrong, I needed to work on my facial expressions.

Everyone at the table looked at me wearily. "Ya." I lied. "I'm just a little tired." The girls of course knew this wasn't true (I had woken up only five hours before, after all) and Neji didn't seem convinced, but everyone else simply took it with a shrug.

I was sitting across from Neji, and while normally I wouldn't mind that, his presence simply angered me in that moment. He was so perfect and I was so in love with him, but I couldn't bring myself to do anything about it. I glared at him for making me feel this way. Of course he didn't know what was going on, and just looked at me with a confused look about him.

That night, I turned in early (again), and hoped that I would already be asleep by the time Neji walked in. But I was wrong. He followed me all the way up.

"Tenten!" He called. I cursed. Damn you Hyuga, can't you see I want to be alone?

He grabbed my shoulder. I felt a jolt on my skin from his touch.

"What's wrong?" He asked. Those deep white eyes made me want to tell him everything, but I resisted.

"Nothing."

His gaze became deeper, if possible. "I know that's not true Tenten. Your smile lights up the entire room. It's pretty obvious when it's not there."

"Really?"

He nodded. "Tenten, I... I just want to see you be happy. All of the time. Please be happy, Tenten." Neji seemed embarrassed at his own words. I had never seen him so flustered, but nonetheless, his words sent the butterflies in my stomach bouncing in a billion different directions, and I'm sure my face reflected the sudden smitteness that I felt in that moment.

Although my guts were all in disarray, I pulled them together enough to say, "You wanna make me happy?" I then stood on my tiptoes and tapped my lips on his cheek, pulling away rather quickly, like Neji did to me in Ino's truth or dare game. His face became a bright red. "Because I think you're the only one who can make me really happy. I-I, I love you Neji." I looked at him nervously. Although I wasn't sure how he would react, I already felt better with the weight of that statement off of my shoulders.

"Um, Neji?" I asked after he didn't speak for a while

Neji's face then broke out into the most gorgeous smile I had ever seen on any human ever. He took me in his arms and brought his mouth down to my ear. "Tenten, I love you so much that it's not even funny." His breath against my ear sent chills down my spine, or maybe that was from the words he spoke. Although he mentioned that it wasn't funny, a laugh of relief escaped my mouth. I was so nervous for nothing.

I looked up at him. "So...... what now?" I asked.

He lifted up my chin and looked at me with a certain glint in his eyes. I fell right into the trap of those pupil-less pools of white. He slowly brought his lips down to mine, and we stayed like that for a while, not moving except to gasp for air.