Chapter 27 - chapter 26

Disclaimer: I don’t own Naruto!

A/N: this chapter is dedicated to my cat Zoe. She watched me write most of this story, coming downstairs while I was typing and just sitting on the floor looking up at me. May she rest in peace and know that she was very loved (and that she still is)

“Hey guys!” Ino looked up to see Sakura and TenTen coming their way. Now they could get something to eat, and then get TenTen to her house to work on her project with Neji.

In the Limo

“Ok, so, you guys are dropping me off first, right?” TenTen asked. There was no way she wanted Neji to get back to her house before her. She didn’t want her parents bugging him, that’s for sure.

“So, TenTen, what are you guys going to do today?” Sakura asked.

“Just get some charts, state our hypothesis, and test out the experiment on ourselves first. If it doesn’t work at all, there’s no point in collecting all of that data then having to turn around and do something else.” TenTen said.

“So where are you guys gonna work?” Ino asked.

“Hm?” TenTen said. “Oh, I don’t know, where ever my parents will leave us alone the most, I can’t stand how they bug me when I have friends over, and can you imagine what they’re gonna do when I have a guy friend over to work on a project? There’s no way they’re coming near us.”

The girls all giggled at the thought of TenTen’s parents bugging her and Neji. They didn’t leave them to themselves when it was just the girls, so they would probably drive TenTen insane tonight.

“Ok, well, I believe that this would be my stop, and I’ll text you guys if I need help with anything…like ,er, my parents?” TenTen asked.

“Don’t worry, TenTen.” Hinata reassured, “I’m sure that you’re parents won’t bother you guys.”

“Well, wish me luck, I’m hoping Neji isn’t here yet so I can get everything that we need out.” TenTen said as she stepped out of the limo. “Bye, guys!”

“Bye! See you tomorrow!” The girls said as TenTen shut the door.

“Mom, Dad, I’m home!” TenTen yelled as she stepped into her house.

“Oh, good, sweetie! We were just talking to your friend here!” TenTen’s mother said to her daughter.

“My friend?” TenTen asked, while thinking, ‘Oh, God, how long has Neji been here?’

“Yes, your friend who came to work on your project with you, he’s in the receiving room with us.” Her mother said.

“Oh, ok, well, I’ll just get him and we’ll go get the materials that we need out of my room.” TenTen said as she smiled at her mom.

“Oh, ok, then, dear, but we’ll be right here!” Her mother said as TenTen walked to the entrance way of the receiving room and motioned with her hand for Neji to follow her. Once they were in her room, TenTen threw her pillow on her bed, as well as her overnight bag, and walked over to her closet to throw the shopping bags in.

“Aren’t you even going to hang that up?” Neji asked her.

“No.” TenTen replied, “Why should I?”

“Just wondering.” Neji said. “So, where’s the stuff that we need to get?”

“Oh, well, we just need to grab these stop watches and my laptop.” TenTen said. “So, tell me, how bad were my parents?”

“Well, they’re really nice, they just kept bugging me about if I needed anything and things like that.” Neji said.

“What kind of ‘things like that’ were they bugging you about?” TenTen asked, looking at Neji.

“Well, they asked me if…we were going out…”Neji said.

“They what?!” TenTen said as her eyes got wide. Her parents were so dead!

“Um, yea, I just told them that no, we’re just working on a project together.” Neji replied simply.

“Ok, well, they should leave us alone if we go out back to work on this.” TenTen said.

“Ok, lead the way.” Neji said. TenTen threw the stopwatches at Neji, picked up her laptop, a pencil, and a piece of paper.

“Follow me.” TenTen said as she walked out her bedroom door. When they got downstairs, TenTen yelled to her parents, “Mom, Dad, we’re going out back to work on the project!”

“Ok, sweetie! But if you guys get hungry or anything just call my cell phone and I’ll bring something out!” Her mother replied.

TenTen rolled her eyes, “Ok, mom, we will!” She walked down a hallway, to a door that led outback. “I really don’t want to work out in the yard where my parents can see us, they’ll just come out and offer to help some more.” TenTen said as she turned towards the woods. “Follow me.” She led him to a spot at the edge of the woods and she sat down. “My parents hate the woods, so they never come out here.”

“Is that how you know where to go to get away from them?” Neji asked with an eyebrow raised.

“Well, yea. This isn’t where I go to get away from them, though. This is just as far as I can ever get Ino and Sakura to come.” TenTen said with a laugh.

“Really? Where do you go, then?” Neji asked.

“That’s a secret, only Sakura, Ino, and Hinata know that.I did manage to get Ino and Sakura out here once, and Hinata comes there more often with me. You should have seen Ino and Sakura walking through the woods.” TenTen replied. “So, let’s get started. What’s our hypothesis going to be?”

“If someone gets a lot of exercise, then immediately takes their blood pressure, their blood pressure will be higher. If someone gets a lot of exercise, then sits down for five minutes before taking their blood pressure, it will be lower than the first. If you take your blood pressure after getting no exercise, your blood pressure will be lower.”

“Ok, got it!” TenTen said as she finished typing it into her laptop. “Ok, let’s start by just sitting here and then taking our blood pressure.”

“Ok.” Neji said as he closed his eyes and began to think. He then opened his eyes to look at TenTen. “So, why do you dislike your parents trying so hard to be a big part of your life?”

“Oh, well, it’s just, they try to do everything for me, it was a lot worse last year, but Sakura, Ino, and Hinata helped to get them to loosen up.” TenTen said.

“What do you mean by worse?” Neji asked.

“Well, they wouldn’t even let me go to the mall with my friends, and they took me everywhere. I couldn’t be out past 10 o’ clock, and a lot more. But Sakura, Ino, and Hinata helped me to get them to loosen up by helping me write a letter to them. In it I said that I was almost 15 years old and I needed some space. They agreed, and now things are better.” TenTen explained.

“Oh, well, you’re lucky to have parents that want to be involved in your life. My father died when I was younger, and now my mother doesn’t really care what I do.” Neji said.

“Oh, I’ve never thought that parents could be that way.” TenTen said.

“Yea, they can. So, should we take our blood pressure now?” he asked, reaching for it.

“Yea.” TenTen said. After that, they tested the rest of their hypothesis, and recorded the data on the piece of paper, and then TenTen created charts on her computer.

“Now we just have to get our friends to help us out by doing all of this for us, and we just have to write a conclusion and we’re done!” TenTen said happily.

“Hn. We picked an easy experiment.” Neji replied.

“Well, come on, let’s go back into the house and get some food. I’m starving!” TenTen exclaimed as she picked up her laptop.

A/N: Ok, so, good, bad? I don’t really like the way this chapter turned out, pretty much since I haven’t really focused on them together yet, and it was kind of hard. I hope that Neji doesn’t seem to OOC, but that was the best I could do with him for now. Reviews are much appreciated!

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