Chapter Text
It was a beautiful day in Konoha. The trees were beginning to turn a lovely red and drop their leaves; the weather had been cool with frequent rain storms, and in Neji’s mind there was nothing better than bundling up in his thick robes with a cup of tea while sitting outside under the compound’s awning to enjoy the sights and smells of fall. He just wished Tenten was here to share the beautiful views with him.
Neji dug through the mail, looking for anything for him. It was his daily ritual before he headed off to the training field to meet his squad. He’d thrown himself into training his genin team after he returned from his vacation to China, if only to keep himself from missing Tenten while she finished her studies. She’d be home soon, but somehow these last few months felt the longest. His students were, and always had been, a handful, but they were a welcome reprieve, and he felt like he was beginning to break through to Hotaru because she wasn’t stuttering as much as she had when they first started working together.
He thumbed through the stack of mail quickly, almost missing the thin letter addressed to him. His dark eyebrows jumped in surprise. It had come much sooner than he expected, there was no way that Tenten had even received his most recent letter yet, but she had sent him something. It was in a plain white envelope and if he could judge the contents by the thickness, all it contained was a single piece of folded paper. Tenten usually sent him pictures that made the envelope thick, sometimes she used colorful envelopes to make the letters stand out, and on occasion she’d send a postcard or a box full of things for him to share with Lee and Guy, so a hastily scribbled letter in a plain envelope sent via the fastest postage set off alarm bells in his head. Neji stuffed the letter into his flack jacket, but his mind started to race as he walked to the field. It was early, and no one else was out yet, so he had no one to distract him from his thoughts.
Something was… strange. Neji didn’t want to think that something might be wrong, but his mind wandered in that direction. He reached into his jacket and pinched the thin envelope between his fingers, feeling the paper inside. Had something happened with her schooling? Was she going to stay longer? Or… was this one of those letters? Neji’s lips pulled into a tight frown as he looked down at the suspicious envelope peeking out of his jacket. Surely, she wouldn’t do something like breakup with him from overseas via letter?
Neji missed Tenten. He missed running his fingers through her soft hair, the perfume she wore when she wanted to impress him, he missed watching as her fashion sense evolved, and he missed feeling her presence beside him. Neji craved the way the tips of their fingers would brush against each other while they sat side by side in the grass. He wanted to eat those bentos that she would put together for him and Lee when they trained before she left to study. He wanted to see the way she grinned when she got excited, but most of all, he wanted to see the way she looked at him–like she loved him. Her brown eyes would light up like fireworks, twinkling against the night sky when she saw him, and it felt like something Neji wasn’t allowed to have, as if he was being greedy by stealing her for himself. His clan had never been much for showing affection, or expressing their emotions, but Tenten wore her heart on her sleeve. If something had happened, she’d let him know right away.
That only made the letter worse.
Either she was breaking up with him, or…
The realization made Neji stop in his tracks. It couldn’t be. There was no way. It had only been a single night–a night that Neji remembered in vivid detail–at his hotel. She’d been wearing that damn green dress, and she asked him if she could stay since it was late.
His eyebrows knit together, and Neji knelt down pretending that he was fixing the straps on his sandals. A single drop of sweat dripped down the side of his temple, and it had nothing to do with the chilly early morning weather. Tenten told him that the implant in her arm–standard kunoichi issue–was over 99% effective, so they had nothing to worry about…
Neji retrieved the letter and nearly tore it in half as he ripped open the seal. He read it while still kneeling on the ground. It started out with a normal greeting, but Neji quickly skimmed to the bottom.
‘Hey Neji,’
He skipped the middle portion.
‘If you can, please write me back as soon as possible. I hope you’re not on a mission right now because I’m sort of freaking out.’
That didn’t seem good. Neji tilted his head up to check if anyone was around, as if that might change the contents. No one else was up yet, it was too early, so he stood and read the sentences he had been avoiding.
‘It was really nice having you visit.’
He nodded. It had been the trip of a lifetime to see her there.
‘I went to the clinic because I thought I had a stomach bug because I’ve been so sick, but I’m not sick. I’m pregnant. They did a blood test and confirmed it.’
Neji blinked, and he read it again. Once, then twice, then a third time. He rubbed the side of his temple, digging his fingers into his long hair and tugging a dark strand. “Oh, Tenten,” he muttered. The timing was terrible. They weren’t even married yet, and Neji knew this would cause a scene. His stomach dropped thinking about how scared she must have been. It was the one thing he never wanted her to feel; even when they’d been genin, he’d tried his best to assure her that he always had a plan and everything would be fine, even on the scrappiest missions–especially the ones they went on with Naruto. The thought of Tenten losing sleep, or being upset over something that he’d done was unbearable. He shoved his personal feelings–and fear–about the situation down. The only thing that mattered now was taking care of Tenten. They were adults. Things like this happened… But the thought of everyone knowing they had been intimate during his trip to China caused hot blood to pool in his cheeks. There was undeniable evidence now, growing inside of Tenten. If she’d come home and they’d been married for a while, no one would have batted an eye, but now people would talk.
This was the one thing his uncle told him he was not allowed to do–embarrass the clan with Tenten–and Neji had managed to do just that. Even if they weren’t embarrassed yet, Neji knew exactly what the clan would say: nasty things about Tenten. And, out of both parties involved, Tenten was most certainly not the one at fault.
The sound of footsteps redirected Neji’s attention, and he saw his group of genin walking up behind him, Hotaru, Miiko, and Yuzu. They were early, most definitely because Neji had punished them for being late the previous day, but he hadn’t expected them to catch him on his way to the training field. He liked to have every set up ahead of time for when they trained. Now they’d be getting an earful for being too early.
“Neji Sensei!” Yuzu waved exaggeratedly in his direction, yelling too loudly for the morning. The sun was barely up.
He looked down at the short note in his hands, his palms becoming clammy just thinking of what would happen if word got out. His genin weren’t ready to keep a secret like this–they couldn’t even manage to work together well enough to catch stray cats. Besides, Neji needed time to figure things out. He needed to send a response to Tenten to tell her-
What was he going to tell Tenten? They were planning on getting married when she returned to the village, and nothing was going to change that, but what about her weapons shop? Would it be possible to run a business and raise a child at the same time? Just the thought of being a father made Neji’s body buzz with anxiety. He didn’t want to take Tenten’s shop away from her, not after everything she’d worked so hard to learn at the smithing school. They hadn’t talked about having children, but Neji assumed that, if Tenten wanted them they were somewhere on the list after her shop.
The man’s heart skipped a beat in his chest as the genin approached, all three of them surprisingly bright eyed for an early morning training session. Neji glanced back down at the note, then he ripped it in half with a quick shhht sound. He brought the two pieces together and ripped them again. But, that wasn’t enough. His genin would be able to put a few torn pieces of paper back together and read Tenten’s message. Neji reached back and patted the pouch on his hip–kunai, shuriken, and some ninja wire. It was all he’d brought with him because his genin were nowhere near ready for him to train them with paper bombs, and Neji wasn’t a heavy tool user anyway.
They got even closer still, wondering what he was doing.
Neji swallowed and grabbed two kunai out of his pack. He struck them together so harshly that they sparked, and a little ember caught on the paper in his hands. It burned rapidly, the letter disintegrating in his hands and dark smears of ash falling onto his skin. It still wasn’t enough. Neji watched the trio as they started to rush forward wondering what the hell he was doing. “Kaiten!” Neji yelled, throwing his body into a spin and scattering the ashes as far as he could.
The girls ran towards him, thinking something was wrong, but Neji just cleared his throat when they got near him. “There was an insect,” he lied, a pale pink staining the skin of his cheeks.
“You’re afraid of bugs, Sensei?” Yuzu asked, a grin splitting across her face. Miiko looked around, holding her arms tightly into her body. Hotaru nodded in stern Hyuuga agreement that bugs deserved the Gentle Fist.
The blush on his cheekbones didn’t fade, even as the sun came up and their training session dragged on. In fact, the yellow sunlight only accentuated the strange color on his face. He pulled a grim expression while lecturing to his students about the different types of chakra natures that shinobi could possess, but as per usual, they were hardly listening.
“There’s a spider on your shoulder!” Yuzu jibed, throwing her hand up to point.
Neji ignored her, not even looking to check. “As I said, jutsu of different natures have different effects on eachother-”
“Are you blushing Sensei?” Miito asked, cutting him off.
“It’s a sunburn,” Neji responded, closing his eyes and letting out a sigh. “This is very important, so I need you to listen. If an enemy uses a water based jutsu, what should you do?”
Yuzu pursed her lips suspiciously. “You didn’t have a sunburn yesterday,” she commented. “It rained yesterday, too.”
“Should we use an earth based jutsu?” Hotaru answered, almost a whisper since she thought she was wrong.
“That’s correct,” Neji said, opening his eyes with a nod. “We’re finished for the day.”
“Okay, but, like, none of us can use earth release, Sensei.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow, at the same time,” he said softly, dusting some dirt off his pants before he dashed off so quickly that the genin looked around to see where he’d disappeared to.
–
Neji didn’t return home, instead he wrote a hasty response to Tenten at the post office. There were a few people waiting in line to mail items, and he felt rushed, but he did the best he could. It was the only thing he knew to do, and he had to do something.
’Tenten,’
’Come home as soon as you are able to, I’ll be waiting here for you, and we’ll figure out what to do. Whatever you want, I’ll support you.’
He cursed himself after he left the post office, thinking he should have put an encouraging note at the end telling her that he loved her and everything was going to be okay. By the time he realized it, he was already stomping home, the stupid blush still on his face, but a look of determination stern on his brow.