NessieGG's Fanfiction - [Naruto, NejiTen] "An Everlasting Vow" - Chapter 2

Title: An Everlasting Vow (Chapter 2)
Author: NessieGG
Genre: Romance/Fantasy/AU
Fandom: Naruto
Pairing/Characters: NejiTen, Tsunade, Hiashi, Shizune, Lee, Gai, Hinata, Hanabi, Orochimaru, Anko, a Shikamaru cameo.
Rated: PG

It was a warm, bright day in West Fire when the country received its first visit from Princess Tenten with her mother. The country had miles of farmland, and West often traded food for construction goods from East. Riding in front of Tsunade on the queen's horse, the wide-eyed girl saw dozens of pairs of men bartering, while women young and old in plain dresses carried water from wells to thirsty men in the fields. It was planting season, and Tenten had never seen such wide spaces.

Even the village leading to the palace was about a third of the size of East Fire's capitol. Villagers reciprocating her interest watched the royal procession from both sides of the street. Putting on a charming smile, Tenten waved as she had been taught.

In the last few yards before they reached the wrought iron gate of Hyuuga castle, Tsunade began fussing, smoothing the skirt of Tenten's pale pink summer dress and finger-combing her soft brown hair. She sat through it, energetically petting the mane of the mare they rode, as though to pass on her torture. Tsunade snapped at her to keep her hands back or they would get dirty.

Tenten didn't understand what about this visit was so important to her mother. Or perhaps she was just cross from traveling. They had rode from the palace to the river that separate East and West Fire, crossing by ship, then had rode from the docks to the palace of King Hiashi. If anything, Tenten thought her mother should be elated at finally arriving.

The twin doors opened inward, and in rode the two royals, followed by Shizune on a brown horse. The medic/bodyguard/advisor was the only entourage whose accompaniment Tsunade had allowed. As the horse came to a halt, Tenten felt a pat to her back; a gentle reminder to be on her best behavior.

On the front grounds of the many-turreted, stone palace waited the whole of the Hyuuga royal family. There were a great many of them, she saw, and would learn that only the four nearest the gate lived in the main castle while the rest lived in various placed around the country.

King Hiashi stood with Hinata close to his left side, a young girl who held a few-months-old baby in her small arms. To Hiashi's right was Neji, black hair straight and hanging to the middle of his back, looking like a younger version of King Hiashi. He, like Tenten, wore no crown or other symbol representing their privileged status, yet even now he carried an air of solemn regality about him.

Hiashi did not smile, but his face relaxed somewhat at the sight of Tsunade and her traveling companion. “You are welcome here, Queen Tsunade. I had heard your daughter had grown, but I did not predict how much.”

“I must say the same for your adopted son there,” said Tsunade in turn, still atop the horse. “As well as Hinata. She will prove a good friend to my girl, I am certain.”

“Actually, she leaves tomorrow morning for finishing school,” Hiashi informed. “She may not be my heir, but as my daughter she deserves proper upbringing.”

Tsunade did not bother furthering the topic, and little Tenten knew why. She was told before leaving their palace that King Hiashi's wife had passed away the previous year in the birthing of his second child, the baby girl Hinata now pressed close to her chest. The two girls and Neji were the closest family the king had.

Tsunade now dismounted and gently pulled Tenten from the saddle after her. Shizune followed suit, and the whole of the Hyuga family bowed and curtsied to their visitors. Tenten, though not usually timid, felt a blush rise to her cheeks.

The taut line of Hiashi's mouth did curve now, almost imperceptible in the glaring sun and at such great height. “You are also welcome, of course, Princess Tenten.”

Brown hair catching unmanageably in the wind, Tenten only waited, feeling the weight of Tsunade's hand on her shoulder. She saw Hiashi exchange a meaningful glance with Neji, who without a word strode forward toward her. On guard at first, training in manners eventually took hold of her, and Tenten relaxed.

“Go on,” murmured her mother, providing an unhelpful little push that scooted her a few steps in Neji's direction.

“Hello,” said Neji softly, white eyes cast to the dirt road beneath his feet.

Prompted his uncle, “Hello what, Neji?”

“Hello, Princess Tenten,” continued the ten-year-old boy, with a ten-year-old's reluctance. “It's a pleasure to meet you.”

She knew when she was not found truly pleasing and had to force charm into her voice as she gave a wobbly curtsy. “It's a pleasure to be here...Prince Neji.” The boy looked ready to bolt.

“Well?” came Hiashi commanding inquiry, and Tenten could practically feel the expectancy radiating for Tsunade's desire for a good first impression.

Restraining a sigh, Tenten extended her small, chubby hand. The older boy took it with even greater hesitance, and she tensed as he leaned over. When he kissed her hand, it was only a peck of lips and on the very ends of her fingers.

Not liking it either, Tenten quickly rubbed her hand on her dress. Neji pressed his lips together. But their parents looked pleased enough.

She, on the other hand, could only think of the beautiful day and of how many more she would have to waste in the presence of this pale, pallid-eyed, high-and-mighty, quiet, begrudging boy.

Not fun, Tenten decided, and stuck to her decision.

---

This would be only the first of many summers that went precisely this way: Princess Tenten would arrive with Queen Tsunade at the home of Prince Neji and King Hiashi. Hinata would leave for finishing school practically at the same moment, depriving Tenten of any chance for equal female companionship. She had no choice but to spend time with Neji or be left alone, as her mother was always with Hiashi, making plans of some sort.

Neji, on the other hand, could always escape somewhere with Lee, the son of Hiashi's leading advisor, Gai. The two boys kept to themselves, away from Tenten.

When Tenten was eleven, she hit her awkward stage, which coincided with a stage of chronic tomboyishness. It was that summer she began wearing tunics instead of skirts. She put her hair up in two buns atop her head to lessen instant noticeability that she was a girl. And she made friends with Lee by demonstrating her self-defense ability in sparring matches, which the boy frequently lost because he refused to use his full strength on her.

To make up for his best friend's shortcomings, Neji took his betrothed on himself. Their parents watched from the garden, drinking tea.

“Has she always fought like that?” asked Hiashi in surprise.

“We believe in teaching girls to defend themselves in East Fire, my lord,” Tsunade replied, sipping.

“I suppose... They will get along, won't they?”

“Oh, you don't think they already do?”

However, the sparring soon turned to grappling. To force a bond of some kind, both rulers sent their children to bed without supper once the match resulted in Tenten's bleeding nose and a black eye for Neji.

Summers came and went, and although it often seemed a renewal of war between the separate Fire nations was likelier than a reunion, there were moments when Neji and Tenten suffered each other in silence at meals or during quiet evenings indoors when it was stormy outside. This gave their parents hope, but when they tried to amuse their children – such as showing them a prospective map of the land of Fire once East and West were joined – tempers flared once more and they began their resentment anew.

Meanwhile, rumor circulated far and wide on both sides of the river border. Neji and Tenten would be married after the girl turned sixteen, some said. Other declared it would be twenty. The more cynical maintained they would never marry, because they hated each other so much. These people were not actually cynics at all, but friends or relatives of servants in the two castles who witnessed the prince's and princess's delight in the autumn and winter months when they did not have to live in the same kingdom, and who passed on what information they knew.

Change came over them both with adolescence. Neji grew to pay more attention to Tenten, though it was mostly in the negative ways. He found ways to vent his frustrations on her, such as seeing that something she ordered from the kitchens was prepared incorrectly or that he soundly defeated her in any matters of sport from swimming to fencing. But certain things she did (mundane things, such as wearing her hair in two long braids instead of buns and trading in her earth-toned tunic for vibrant gowns) arrested his attention and did not free it.

“I have a hunch,” said Lee to him one day, in a summer when the other boy had grown ungainly tall and altogether mischievous. “I believe you like the fair Tenten!”

They were watching Tenten speak with a captain's son, Shikamaru, who was not easily distracted by the opposite sex but now seemed as willing to flirt with her and Tenten ostensibly was with him.

“I believe,” Neji retorted in razor tones, “that you are a complete fool.”

“But my father claims there is nothing wrong with such a thing, Neji!”

“Your father advises for my uncle – whom, as we know, is also a fool.” Besides, thought Neji, Tenten's nose was still dusted with freckles, which he did not find attractive, and she was still fairly short. Not to mention the lack of female development. The list went on and on, but faults came to mind less easily now.

---

Adolescence passed them by with about as much minimal damage as can be done by a hurricane. They listened to Tsunade's and Hiashi's reasoning for the marriage now, but they spoke out against it not only forcefully but intelligently. It came down to cunning by both Tsunde and Shizune to even get Tenten onto the boat to West Fire. Hiashi had to threaten Neji with banishment from the training grounds for weeks at a time unless he approached Tenten with honest civility instead of the icy, false respect he pierced her with each year. The “day of rebellion” he had predicted had manifested into a number of years.

After a particularly long winter, when Tenten was eighteen and Neji twenty-one – behind schedule, as the king and queen saw it – the two took great evasive maneuvers to avoid that summer's meeting. Neji could only think of how well he might have done without his betrothal; he had never had the freedom to hunt with the wild of his uncle's kingdom, or even that of Queen Tsunade, lest some tragedy befall him and he did not make it to his wedding day. Tenten, in contrast, had never walked the streets of East Fire's own capitol without at least Shizune at her side. She had no idea what true privacy was.

But Tenten was half-carried, half-dragged to West Fire by her mother's impressive strength, developed over years of similar courses of action. Age did not easily slow down Queen Tsunade. Shizune assisted, dressing Tenten by force in the palace rooms given to them each year.

Neji, for his part, put up a good fight but was no match for both Hiashi's discipline and Gai's exuberant, iron grip. One way or another, his dark locks of hair were combed, trimmed, his boots shined and his royal cape was tied in place before he was ushered to the south door of the Hyuuga castle's ballroom while Tenten was shoved to the north.

“Must you push?” Neji demanded at an irritating loss, his words falling on deaf ears.

Tenten did not hesitate to remind her mother that, “His hands have left me bruises!” Her mother apparently did not care in the least.

Both were half-tossed into the ballroom simultaneously. In equal stubbornness, they faced opposite walls. Neji folded his arms. Tenten, arms akimbo, drummed her fingernails on her hips.

After what felt like an age, intrigue got the better of them. Tenten shifted first, and the rustling of her skirts alerted Neji to her movements. Both turned, and Neji saw her moments before her gaze settled on him.

The first thing he noticed was that she once again wore the golden heart necklace given to her as an infant (he knew that its absence from her throat each summer had resulted in severe scoldings from her mother or Shizune). It highlighted the smooth length of her neck, which gave way to lean shoulders below and a perfect oval face above. The freckles were gone, noted Neji. He saw the clear cocoa of her eyes, the perfectly-matched hair now freed and hanging in thicks waves even longer than his own hair. The gown Tenten wore was mostly white, with red trim at the shoulders, hem, and neckline. It clung to a body he remembered as boyish but now loudly declared her female.

He wondered, unable to stop staring, what transformation had overtaken her when the snow had covered their kingdoms?

Tenten, for her part, performed admirably as her heart began to attempt an escape from her chest the moment Neji unconsciously smiled at the sight of her. Smiling nervously herself, she mentally admitted instant like of the way the Hyuuga prince looked. The flowing, white shirt set off his hair, his golden-lined, dark cape adding a form of true nobility he had lacked in previous years. She was surprised that he knees did not begin shaking when she stepped toward him in response to his striding forward.

Neji did not say anything, which relieved her as she wasn't certain she could manage the feat at present. He merely bowed. As well-trained as she was, Tenten's elegant dip of a curtsy came from wanting to make her own good impression today.

His eyes latched onto the gleaming gold necklace, which he recalled from boyhood. He did not remember, however, the pale engraving of a swan on the surface. It was lovely on her.

“It's a pleasure to be here,” Tenten murmured at last, he voice loud only because of the grand ballroom's emptiness. She did not realize she echoed the words of their first meeting.

Yearning for a better look, Neji went to her. He straightened her from the curtsy with a hand upon hers, and this time the kiss he pressed to her knuckles was unreserved and flattering. Looking up, he met her surprisingly pleased face.

The two did not even notice when King Hiashi and Queen Tsunade, having spied from a crack in their respective doors, burst in and led a charge of maids with platters and flowers, musicians, and torch-carrying servant boys who dimmed the lights.

When soft music began, Neji pulled Tenten to him by the hand he still held, and their dance began. Isolated, they were watched by hopeful parents and enthralled guests as they spun in gentle circles in the center of the ballroom.

Tenten's hands grew warm in his, and her nerves soon melted away under the quiet intensity of his silver stare. She found within moments that she would have liked to stay here, gracefully dancing in his arms, commanding his full attention.

But the dance soon stopped because the charm of the moment weaved its intended spell, and Neji's and Tenten's lips met in front of dozens of courtiers from both their kingdoms. Tenten's hand clung to his shoulder while Neji's found its way to her hair.

Pulling away, Neji was the first to break from the ensuing daze. Gripping her hand, he turned to where King Hiashi stood with Queen Tsunade. “I will marry the princess!” he announced to the room. At once, applause and cheers sprang from the witnesses.

The noise woke Tenten from her trance, and she turned to Neji in shock of his declaration.

The revelers went on without noticing, even when the she withdrew her hand from the prince's.

To Be Continued...