You resolutely ignore the urge to wipe your palms on your pants as you hold his pale grey eyes with your own; even dishevelled, you always feel like you're somehow underdressed, less cultured, than him. Like you just don't measure up. You do your best to swallow the lump that's formed itself in your throat.
"Hello Neji."
"You've been avoiding me." It isn't a question, and you see the barest hint of a blush form on his face before he turns away, hiding behind long brown hair.
Not that it stops him from seeing you while he has those eyes
activated. The fact that he's avoiding your sight, while keeping his own, isn't lost on you though.
"I can't speak to you now, Tenten" he begins gruffly. "We're competitors, and we're not allowed to-"
<Doesn't want to talk. Ashamed to talk to you.>
You blink at that, before your hand curls into a fist. Temari's voice sparks in your ear,
You have to make
them listen They'll just ignore you otherwise.
You cut him off in a decidedly frosty tone. "Hyuga. Neji. I took time off
my training to seek you out. Y'know, because we're
supposed to be friends."
Best friends. He stiffens at that. "I believe you can spare me the courtesy of an hour of your time. And I know for a fact that there are no rules against pre-tournament contact, since the two Suna finalists live in the same apartment."
You cross your arms and peer closer, pausing slightly before you fumble with one of the new seals you've put onto your clothes, coming up with a water bottle. "You've been hydrating right? You know how Gai-sensei gets about that stuff. Because you look terrible." You briefly wonder just how much he's been training here, as you lazily toss the bottle through the air, you can't remember the last time you've seen him looking this stressed.
He catches it reflexively as you walk past him, deeper into the training ground.
"Water and electrolytes; replace some of what you've lost."
The training ground looks like a warzone. Something has carved massive circular tears in the grass and dirt of the clearing. One of the training stumps lays splintered and shredded on its side, uprooted from its former position in a shower of dirt. Your eyes spark gold, and the world spins around you.
One can never be too sure, even in a training ground as remote as this one is. The vibrancy of the freshly-bloomed spring leaves stands out the most, surrounding you on all sides, the scent of loamy soil is almost overpowering. And yet, it is only you and Neji here.
You turn to Neji, still standing behind you, and suddenly you see. You see the faint slivers of wood embedded in his hands, the dirt and blood left under his nails, the rings under his eyes, partially hidden by the veins of his Byakugan. The veins that haven't disappeared since you got here. "Neji? Is there any one else close by? Within lip-reading range?"
"What was that Tenten?" There's a faint note of suspicion in his voice, though however faint it maybe it stands out clearly to you. Is this how he feels? When he has those eyes? Like he's looking through people, rather than at them?
"Neji..."
He sighs, "No."
You lean back against one of the remaining two posts and fix him with your best stare. "Good. You are going to sit, and I'm going to tell you what I've found out about some of the other contestants. Things you
really need to know." You pause, you've never been good at arguing with Neji, especially when he sets his mind to something, but what's been happening isn't acceptable. You're going to stop it, you
have to stop it. "...And then we are going to talk about why you've been avoiding me."
Neji just stares back at you, a faint scowl on his face, but he doesn't move to leave or stop you.
You take that as good enough.
"Do you know what a Jinchuuriki is?" You begin casually, and that gets him to blink. "They're prisons. Built to contain the Tailed Beasts."
"Tenten I don't-"
You cut him off, "Neji, Gaara is the jinchuuriki for the One-Tail."
Neji opens his mouth, but then closes it. You see his jaw working as the veins around his eyes finally recede. After what feels like an eternity he finally exhales a breath, and beneath the veins you can finally see the lines of tiredness they were obscuring. "No, I...I did not know that."
You idly pull a kunai into your hand, turning it over and over again in your hands, the feeling of steel pressing on your skin calming in its familiarity. "He's...Neji, I've
seen it. The One-Tail. It's
awful. It hates us" Memories of all-consuming killing intent washing over you, under that awful moon. "You can fight it, I
know you can, but you need to be prepared. Lee-"
Neji's face instantly hardens, "Lee was
destined to lose that fight."
And there it is. Destiny. You had never totally bought Neji's talk of Destiny. Some of it was true, obviously, your birth determined...a lot. Being an orphan had forced you to learn
that lesson very early on. You and Neji could use Ninjutsu, Lee couldn't. Neji had the Byakugan, you and Lee didn't. But to say that work was meaningless? No you didn't buy that, you couldn't buy that. It had always rubbed you the wrong way.
Now it felt somehow even worse, striking against something fundamental deep inside you.
"Lee was amazing," You tone cools drastically, "You still don't understand what he was up against, and he almost managed to beat that...that
thing."
"Tenten, thank you for your advice but-"
<Proud. Confused. Ashamed to talk to you. Trying to push you away.>
You set your jaw.
Not likely. "No."
That gets a reaction, you see his eyes widen, "Wha-"
"Neji, watching as Lee fought Gaara was the worst thing I ever felt. Watching as he almost died, while I couldn't do
anything." You stop moving the kunai in your fingers, your hand clenching tight at the memories of Lee's screams, "That's never going to happen again, not if I can help it. So I'm going to help you, whether you want me to or not. But
this-" You wave your hand around, "This ends now. We're friends Neji, I know we are, so act like it."
"You've changed Tenten
." Neji's voice is quiet, barely more than a whisper as he looks at you.
"I've changed?" You say incredulously, "I saw you almost murder your cousin in cold blood. That's not the Neji I know."
A small part of you worries that maybe it
is the Neji you know. That you've been blind to your friend's flaws until they were shoved in your face, but you push that part of you down. Neji can be harsh, but he's never
hurt you. Even Lee always bounced back.
Neji just looks away, "I-...I lost control, there, I'm sorry you had to see that."
Oh.
He's ashamed to talk to you.
Right.
You open your mouth to say something, but this it's Neji who cuts you off this time. "But you
have changed Tenten. Something happened to you during that fight, your Chakra is different. You're more...you're
acting different."
You quirk one eyebrow up, "Well, if I am, that's news to me." Have you been acting different? You don't think so, you certainly don't feel any different. But then would you? No, you don't think it's that. It's just now you've been forced to look,
really look, at what you care about. Now you realize what you need to do.
Still, the idea sticks in your head, and it only subsides when Neji sighs. "If you want to do this though, I guess I can't stop you, even if you are a competitor."
<Resigned. Worried for you.>
"Neji, I don't give a damn about the competition anymore. There'll be more, but there's only one
you. And we will talk more about this." You pause, and then a your entire face splits into a beaming grin. "But for now, I'll take this as a victory."
Then you punch him in the shoulder, not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough he fixes you with a glare, "That's for being an idiot."
You swear you see a ghost of a smile on Neji's face.
Gained Training Partner: [Neji Hyuuga]
Bonus to Taijutsu, Awareness, and Perception
You stay to talk with Neji a bit more, filling him in one a bit more of what you've learned about Gaara. It's nice, to be talking with him again. They say you never knew how much you'll miss something until it's gone, and you can't help but agree. Eventually however, you run out of answers to his questions, which begs the question of what you're going to do now.
At least you've managed to partially rebuild from whatever rift happened with Neji, and you intend to work on that further, but you remember the condition you saw he's in. Will staying here just encourage him? Will you be able to get him to call it quits for the day? You'd normally trust him to be responsible with his health, but now?
You're not so sure.
Pick One
[ ] Stay with Neji
[ ] Spar
[ ] Just help him train
[ ] Continue with your research
[ ] Read up on Jinchuuriki more
[ ] Research another Finalist (if so who?)
[ ] Try to find Gai-sensei, you might be able to catch up on what you missed here,
if you run yourself ragged.
[ ] Go visit Lee
- [ ] Stunt?
**Rules Edit**
Sakura also gives a bonus to training Occult.
Ahhhhhh why I'm updating at 2:30 in the morning. Oh yeah, and a head's up, choosing to Spar with Neji will lead to another minor vote about how you plan to approach the spar. 
