Neji stared at the brown eyes of the girl in front of him. He had just approached her as she was doing some grocery shopping in the Konoha market. She reached up and placed her hand on his arm gently. “Is there something wrong Neji?” she asked. He shook his head in reply. “No TenTen, I just wanted to ask you something.” She tilted her head a little and gave him a quizzical look. She looked so cute when she did that. Neji shook the thoughts out of his head and took a breath. “I just wanted to know it you wanted to…” He froze as he came to the hard part. “train with me tonight.” That wasn’t what he’d meant to say, but he just couldn’t ask her. He’d really wanted to ask her out on a date. He almost did it too that time. It was definitely closer than last week. Chickening was harder to do today than yesterday. Yep, he tried the same thing every day.
Neji was brought out of his misery by the sound of her voice. “If you really think we need to practice again, sure. But, you’re too serious. You shouldn’t work so hard. Go out and have some fun. Hell, go on a date. Because if you keep this up, you’ll work both of us to death.” Neji froze on the word date. Trying to regain his composure he grunted and walked away, leaving TenTen confused behind him. “What a weirdo,” she mumbled. Neji hurried in the direction of the Hyuuga compound. He needed a new strategy. This asking her directly thing just wasn’t working for him. ‘Maybe I should ask someone for help,’ he thought to himself. He stopped in his tracks and thought. “Well, I can’t ask Hinata-sama. She can’t even talk to the idiot. Lee would just spout out some shit about youth. I need someone who asks someone out a lot. But who does that?’
At that very convenient moment a loud voice came from the shop behind him. Neji turned out to see the Ichiraku ramen shop. That could only mean one thing, Naruto. Neji sighed. The things he would resort to in order to get a date with TenTen. He walked in and sat on a stool next to Naruto. “Beef ramen please,” he said to the store owner. Neji glanced at Naruto. He was alone, which meant he was just talking to the store owner earlier. “Hey Neji!” Naruto exclaimed. He had only noticed Neji when he spoke because he had been practically inhaling his ramen at the time. Neji stared at the ground, “Hi.” Naruto ate the last few bites of ramen still in the bowl and stared at Neji. “Oi, something wrong? You’re being antisocial, even for you.” Neji sighed. He had to get help from someone with experience asking girls on dates and Naruto had been rejected by Sakura more times than he could count. “I have a problem.” Naruto laughed at him, “What, did you mess up your hair or something?” Neji gave Naruto his best death glare. Naruto immediately shut up. Neji thought it was because of him, but then he saw the store owner bringing out some ramen. He set a bowl of beef ramen in front of Neji and a bowl of miso ramen in front of Naruto.
Neji ignored the ramen and continued when he was sure Naruto wouldn’t make any jokes. “I don’t know how to let TenTen know how I feel about her.” Naruto covered his mouth in an attempt to stop from laughing again. “Well, why don’t you just say ‘you’re my best friend and I’m glad we’re teammates.’?” Neji put his head down on the table. This guy really was the biggest idiot in the world. No wonder he had no idea how Hinata felt about him. “I want to be more than friends with her, you idiot!” Neji blushed when he realized he had just yelled that last sentence. Naruto smiled as big as possible, with some ramen hanging out of his mouth. “Why didn’t you say so? That’s easy.” Neji lifted his head up to listen to Naruto. Naruto continued, “You just ask someone else out and make sure she knows. But make sure it’s someone who will say no. You don’t want to be stuck on a date with someone you don’t like.” Neji thought about what Naruto just said. It actually made some sense to him. It might make TenTen jealous enough to like him. ‘Wait; ask someone out who you know will say no?’ That sounded a lot like what Naruto was doing to him. Could it be that Naruto liked someone other than Sakura? Neji placed this thought in the back of his mind. He would pry the information out of Naruto later for the sake of his cousin. But right now, this was more important. Neji let one word slip from his lips, “Who?”
Now it was Naruto’s turn to think. Only he thought out loud. “It has to be someone close enough to TenTen that she would find out, and someone that we know would say no. Who is she friends with?” Neji answered without needing to think, “Hinata-sama, Ino-chan, Sakura-chan, and that girl from Suna.” Naruto looked over each in his mind, and of course, thought out loud again. “Hmm… Hinata-chan is a no for obvious reasons, Ino-chan is just desperate enough to say yes, and Temari-san is way scary. Besides, I think she’s dating Shikamaru. He’s be pissed if you asked out his girl. I guess that just leaves Sakura-chan. She would definitely say no. She’s way too hung up on Sasuke-teme. Yosh! Sakura-chan it is!” Neji frowned at the mention of Sakura. She wasn’t exactly his type. But, she would say no. Naruto looked at Neji for an answer. “Alright.” Neji mumbled. Naruto grabbed Neji’s hand and pulled him out of the shop, giving Neji barely enough time to drop some money for the ramen that he didn’t even get to eat. It was probably for the best anyways. He wasn’t a big fan of ramen.
Naruto drug Neji all the way to Sakura’s house and knocked on the door. “Okay, when she answers the door just ask her out right, look slightly sad when she says no and walk away. Got it?” Before Neji could answer, the door began to open and Naruto disappeared into the bushes. Sakura’s face appeared before him. “Oh Neji-kun, is there a mission or something?” Neji froze again. He just wasn’t good at this. “No,” was the only word he could get to come out of his mouth. Sakura paused and waited for him to explain about some meeting or something. When he didn’t she began to get impatient. “Then what?” she asked, slightly irritated. “Do you want to go on a date with me?” Neji finally managed to ask, talking way too fast. He tried to keep his cool while getting rid of the blush on his face. “Okay,” Sakura replied. Neji looked up immediately. She just said okay. She wasn’t supposed to say okay. “What?” he asked. “I said okay. I’ve given up on Sasuke-kun. And you are the second most sought after guy in Konoha. It’s not a bad deal. So yeah, I’ll go on a date with you. Pick me up at eight, okay? See you then.” Sakura closed the door without giving him a chance to say okay to eight. Not that he would have. Neji turned around and let out another one word sentence, “Shit.”
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Chapter notes: I decided to take a break from OC-centric fiction and write a Neji/TenTen fic. Neji is about seventeen in this story. This is done from Neji's point of view.
I don't own Naruto.