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As a shinobi, he’s seen a lot of the bad than the good that life has to offer, has even experienced a thousand more grievances than a normal man twice his age. He’s been through hell and back and back to hell again more than his genius mind could count or even guess. He’s met death, even – has stared at the eyes of the grim reaper only to be given a chance at a second life.
It can be concluded, then, that there aren’t many things that could faze Hyuuga Neji.
Yet, the sight of his teammate simply tearing letters after letters unnerves him. Greatly so. Maybe because she didn’t seem bothered by said letters tumbling out of her locker on that bright Saturday morning, when they were both about to report to the Hokage office for a mission debriefing. Maybe because she didn’t even stop to read the contents of each letter.
Or maybe because she didn’t even trouble herself in finding out who, exactly, penned the letters.
“Tenten.” He starts, cringes slightly when he hears paper being torn. “Don’t you think you should take your time in reading those?”
Tenten sends him a bored look.
“What for?” She wonders, shreds another missive with a kunai. “It’s not like these things are important anyways.”
He gapes, coughs, tries again.
“And what if they are?”
Tenten shakes her head stubbornly, glaring at the mess she’s made from all the paper shredding.
“They’re not.” She assures him with a smile. “They’re just love letters sent to me by an anonymous admirer.” Her face suddenly scowls, the grip she has in her kunai tightening. “As if that would impress me.”
Neji is at a loss of words.
“I thought most girls like that.”
Tenten picks another letter and glares at it as if it had just insulted her.
“I guess so?” She shrugs, rips the paper in her hand with a quick slash of her blade. “But I kinda prefer it if this person just tells me personally, alright? I hate it when I have to guess who it is.”
She picks another one, but before she could end its life with a barrage of her kunai, Neji quickly points at the right bottom-side of the envelope, particularly at the seal engraved on it.
“It’s the Hyuuga Family’s crest.” He reveals too quickly, hoping this would stop the carnage. It does, but now there is a slight prickle pf embarrassment in his chest when Tenten finally recognizes the seal on the envelope with a startled gasp.
Her eyes immediately widen, first gaping at the Hyuuga crest, then at Neji, and repeat cycle. The ticking seconds of her muted realization have Neji slightly quaking in his heels.
“Oh my God.” She finally whispers, dropping her kunai so she can cover her gaping mouth. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry, Neji!”
Neji stiffens but gradually relaxes his shoulders. So she doesn’t return his feelings then? He’s anticipated that, of course, but damn, who knew rejection could be this painful? What was going to happen between them now? Can they at least still be friends or—
“I didn’t know one of your cousins wrote all these! Oh my God, please tell them I am so so so very sorry and—”
There aren’t many things that can faze Neji, that much is true. But right here, right now, with his teammate spewing apologies like a machine, he wishes that some hole or portal could magically open up and swallow him whole. Or maybe even kill him. Or something just as brutal but less humiliating than this. Anything, really, to get him out of this awkward mess.
Alas, the world is not as merciful, and he stands there like a defeated soldier, mechanically taking the letters Tenten has shoved his way so he could help her apologize to his (nonexistent but still heartbroken) relative.