I Am You?! (NejiTen)

21- Undeniably serious problems

Neji knew from the way Tenten pulverized his doorbell that he was in trouble big time so when she socked him again in the gut the moment he opened the door, he was not surprised. The words she said however, were more than surprising.

"You jerk of a bastard!" Tenten growled out. "You dare accuse me of cheating on you when you're not better off yourself. You're freaking engaged and you think you can...I don't know, put a leash on me?!"

"Oh no." Neji muttered. His palms rubbed down his face in frustration. What he was trying to avoid literally came to meet him at his doorstep. "Tenten please calm down..."

"The hell I'm calming down!" Tenten was heaving with anger already. In fact she was pacing. "Who are you? Who are you? Who are you to accuse me when you...!" Tenten forced herself to take a breath. "Were you ever going to tell me?" Her voice was small as she asked that question.

"No." Neji admitted. "I was going to resolve everything without your knowledge."

"How did you know about me and Gaara's outing? You said you were doing some family stuff on Saturday." It didn't take too long for Tenten to make a connection. "You were seriously spying on me?!"

"What?! No! I-I was just..." Neji knew that he would be digging his own grave with his next words but he had to admit it. "An anonymous parcel was sent to me and...it contained your pictures. I was over come with anger..."

"You were jealous." Tenten deadpanned.

"Yes." Neji's gaze lowered.

"I- I need a break." The words Neji feared. He was about to say something but Tenten beat him to it. "I don't know how to react to hearing all this and yeah...I need a break. Don't talk to me again."

Neji watched helplessly as Tenten left his house. The moment she was gone, he released the emotions he felt in a scream and a punch to the nearest wall. He messed up. He messed up so bad.

Xxx I am you?! xxX

The reunion was not something Neji looked forward to, neither was it something he was thrilled to be at. It was fun meeting the others from their set whom he had not seen in years like Choji and Shino for instances. The chubby man owned a chain of restaurants while Shino was a lecturer at a university.

They played games, sang the school anthem and reminisced the fun old times they had together but nothing was appealing to Neji. Tenten was not at the ceremony, so it seemed. The long haired man just felt numb and out of commission.

Nothing he tried could get Tenten to talk to him. Neji understood that she needed some distance but he was getting paranoid, which was so uncharacteristic of him because he was normally always in control of his emotions. His paranoia made him drink. Not beer or mild alcohol but strong drinks.

Neji was a quiet drunk so nobody knew how wasted he really was until Sasuke noticed how he just sat still with his hair shadowing his facial expression. Upon getting closer to him, Sasuke noticed how flushed his face was and saw that he was very drunk. The ebony called Shikamaru, Neji's manager to handle him and the lazy man groaned at the promise of strenuous work.

"What a drag! You are so troublesome, how much did you drink?!" Shikamaru accentuated every resentful word with a harsh tug of one of Neji's limbs. He draped one of Neji's limp arms over his shoulder and wrapped his own arm around the drunken man's waist.

Pineapple head got no warning before the both of them went tumbling to the ground with an undignified thud. Shikamaru cursed under his breath and appreciated Lee's help when the green clad man came to assist him. A car pulled up at the entrance of the venue the moment Shikamaru and Lee stepped outside with drunk Neji.