"Neji is emotionally retarded. You ever notice that?"
"Kiba-kun!" Hinata cried, giving Ten Ten a worried look.
They weren't quite sure how, but the three of them had bumped into each other at the market place and ended up eating lunch together. They were seated under a tree and had their bentos open, food being picked at between conversations.
"Well it's true." Kiba said. "He may be a genius with the bloodline, but he's got zero common sense when it comes to getting along with people."
Hinata hung her head in futility while Ten Ten smiled in amusement.
"I agree." The older kunoichi said. "Sometimes I don't know who's the worse social disaster. I mean - we've got Gai-sensei and Lee who are...Gai-sensei and Lee." Kiba nodded. "They are a handful sometimes, but then throw in Neji with his up-tight, training-obsessed, 'I'm-better-than-you' attitude and I just want to switch teams sometimes!"
"Only sometimes?" Kiba asked snarkily.
Ten Ten rolled her eyes. "Gai-sensei and Lee never changed but you should have seen Neji in the beginning. 'Fate this', 'Destiny that', 'woe is me', and the constant mystifying analogy to birds (had no clue what he was going on about until the Chuunin exam), so I thought he would have been a good catch if only he wasn't messed in the head!"
"So what?" The dog trainer asked snickering. "Did you think he had a bird fetish?"
"I thought, he probably thought he was a freaking penguin!"
The boy threw back his head and laughed. Hinata caught the dislodged bento.
"Or a nightingale." Ten Ten compromised. "But geez, 'can't fly this', 'caged like a bird' that. Man, I thought I had one normal teammate until he opened that mouth of his."
Kiba cracked up.
"But it's true!" Ten Ten defended. "He was the number one rookie of our year! And I heard he was very smart, but a loner and didn't talk much. He had his own fan club you know."
Hinata blinked. "He did?"
Ten Ten nodded sagely. "Oh yeah, did they ever come after me with the pitch-forks when we were first sorted. Sasuke's fangirls got nothing on them."
Hinata smiled lopsidedly.
"What was I supposed to think? He was all like; yes-no, get away from me, and one words answers for the first few weeks. Then he just starts about birds and being unable to fly!" She exclaimed. "So I asked him if flying was the Hyuuga bloodline limit or something and if he needed help training, and he looked at me with the 'are-you-stupid?!' face!"
Hinata's lips were pressed together into a thin line while she tried to suppress her giggles.
"Oh! Oh!" Ten Ten shifted her bento to the side and gestured for the two younger ninjas to come closer. "And then he started with the Main House! 'Main house' this! 'Main house' that! And 'Hinata, Hinata, Hinata!'" Ten Ten threw her hands up dramatically. "We thought you were an ex-girlfriend who dumped him or something!"
Kiba howled.
"What!" Hinata squeaked.
"But Neji was like, no you weren't! You guys shared the same surnames! Then Lee thought you were his wife!"
"Stop!" Kiba cried. "Stop! I can't...it hurts..." he rolled holding his stumach in pain.
Hinata was red as a beet and her mouth opened and closed, but only small squeaks came out.
Ten Ten had to wait for herself to stop laughing before continuing. "Yeah," she chortled. "Because he stomped off all incoherent the day before when Lee said it, we were all sympathetic. But I personally thought, 'Wow! Someone actually married this nutcase?!' You had my sympathies Hinata-chan. I mean, monotone and crazy." She shook her head despairingly. "Thought his parents knew he wasn't going to be getting any girls in the future, so they married him off before anyone could find out."
Kiba wheezed, out of air to laugh anymore.
"But yeah, still, it's so unfair to be married so young, you know, and against his choice too. We all thought he just needed time - until we saw him pick on you, then he was just an ass." Ten Ten sniffed.
Hinata wanted to say something but she didn't know that to say, instead she just stared with wide eyes. It was like a proverbial disaster - horrifying, but you just couldn't pull yourself away.
"We got the full story out of him a few months later." Ten Ten said. "But the way his face get red so fast for the first while, then the haughty cold look he gave us afterwards whenever we mentioned your" she coughed, "marriage." She cleared her throat. "Yeah, thought I should've came by and warned you that you might have a bipolar husband to boot, as well as delusional."
Hinata gave a small giggle and Kiba wheezed, trying to get air.
"I couldn't understand why people respected him so much." Ten Ten pulled a face. "I mean, with all his problems..."
Hinata gave a twinkling laugh.
"So what made him tell the truth?" Kiba asked intrigued, eyes twinkling.
Ten Ten chuckled. "Gai-sensei and Lee wanted to meet Hinata. Like really meet her, sit down for a dinner sort of thing. Neji sorted things out quite fast afterwards, and banned them from going near her."
Kiba snorted.
"Yeah," Ten Ten said amused, schooling her face to mimic a benevolent smile, "that was my reaction too. Personally, I don't think he thought he could have survived that humiliation."
. : the days of our lives : .