50 Days

18 Days

(Neji)

"Hinata, isn't a little late for a Halloween party?"

"N-No Neji, Halloween was only a few days ago. B-Besides, Father won't let me go if you don't, s-so please?"

I stared at her giant pupiless eyes for another minute before giving in. She knows I can never say no to her, which is just really frustrating. "Fine. give me a second."

"Yay! Thank you Neji."

"Hn."

Five minutes later, I came back down and grabbed my keys.

"N-Neji, it's a costume party you know..."

I looked to Hinata, finally realizing that her 50's style get up was indeed a costume and not what she would normally wear. Oh well. If all goes well, I won't be there for long.

"Eh, whatever. Do you have your overnight bag ready?"

"Yup!"

Swinging my keys around my finger, I walked into my car with Hinata in tow.

"Oh, also N-Neji? Sakura is already there, and Temari can drive, b-but I promised Tenten we'd pick her up."

I sighed. Of course she did.

Hinata put in Tenten's address and as I started driving. Luckily, her house is extremely close to ours. But, that meant I had very little time to mentally prepare myself to talk to Tenten again.

Now, I know what you're probably thinking. It's something along the lines of "when did you get so hung up over this girl?" And to answer that, I have no idea. I've dated many girls before, but none of them have ever made me feel the way Tenten does. That festival day with her felt amazing, but I haven't gotten the courage to talk to her since. What's worse, I kept having trouble deciding between Tenten and the phone girl. I liked the idea of them both. And for them both to be the same person, no. That was just too good to be true, considering my luck.

"Oh. N-Neji, it's this one."

"Hn."

I never really thought of what Tenten's home life was like, but I was pretty surprised at her living situation. Her house was definitely smaller than most of the houses in the neighborhood, especially for someone who goes to Konoha, where the majority of the students are loaded. I guess I just assumed Tenten to be the same.

Several minutes later, Tenten came bouncing out of her house and into the backseat. I held my breath, now was the moment of truth.

"Hey, Hinata! Hey Nejdog! Nice car!"

"Hello Tenten!"

"...Nejdog?"

She laughed in reply. "Well ya! Since we're super tight now, I decided to give you a nickname. Do you like it?"

I stared at her through the rear view mirror as I drove to Ino's house. "Absolutely not."

"Ya, ya. Anyway, you know this is supposed to be a costume party, right? You're not even dressed up!"

"I'm your worst nightmare." I said dryly. 

She looked me up and down hesitantly. "Yes I suppose if I had a dream with you in it, it would be a nightmare."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, haha."

"W-What are you Tenten?" Hinata asked.

She gave an enthusiastic grin. "Oh, my costume is based off of Mu Lan Hua, legendary Chinese-"

"Sounds fascinating." I muttered.

She scoffed at my interruption. "For your information Hyuga, it actually is!"