A/N: I do not own these characters, they, sadly are not mine. Old stuff I wrote a while ago.
Lee, Tenten, and Neji had just returned from their last mission. Neji had been so busy and this had been the first time in a long while that the three had been back together for an extended period of time. It had been a relatively simple mission, like most of the ones they'd been assigned in recent months. They had rushed to complete the mission, giving themselves ample time to relax on their return trip to their village.
Neji who was usually the most focused of the group had taken them on a detour to a small village with an inn that they would stay in that night. The inn was a little known treasure with fantastic food and drink. As they walked into the small village no one seemed to even notice them, the market was brimming with people shopping. Tired from their mission the three opted to go to their rooms first, not wanting to lug all their gear and tools around.
They found that there were only two rooms left, so the boys opted to share a room. The rooms were right next to each other, a single wall separating them, and each had a door leading outside, to a lovely little garden with a path the led to wooden dock that stretched out over the pristine water of the massive lake, stretching out to the horizon. Tenten was so lost in the view from her window that she didn't notice the knocking on her door until it became a loud pounding accompanied by a deep, commanding voice. Startled she grabbed her small purse and followed her companions outside into the marketplace.
The trio stopped at the small restaurant connected to the inn first, enjoying the hot meal of various flavored noodles. Afterwards they looked around at all the merchant stands, each pulled in a different direction; Neji had found his way into a small tea shop that doubled as a book store, Lee was searching through shelves of various healing salves and wraps, and Tenten was lost in the metallic shine of weapons on the tables before her. Each member of the team was so engrossed in what they saw that they didn't notice how the group had disbanded.
Tenten was the first to notice that she was now alone, and decided to move onto to another store, a quaint little building nearby caught her attention. Neji was standing at a shelf, skimming the title of each in his search for a particular book. So engrossed was her companion that he didn't respond at all when she came and stood next to him. Amused by his focus Tenten smirked as she leaned her shoulder against his arm, giggling when he jumped slightly.
Neji didn't scare. Ever. Seeing him so unguarded made Tenten smile, she looked up into his widened eyes. He was shocked that she'd been able to sneak up on him but his shock melted away into an unfamiliar feeling of amusement at just how accomplished she looked at having surprised him. The two continued holding eye contact each a little lost. Tenten was trying to define the exact color of his eyes, the grey was so pale and the light shined off them in such a way that she was mesmerized. Neji had also drifted, thoughts of Tenten clouding his head. Why had he never noticed her in this way before? When did she stop being just a team mate? When did she get so pretty? When did he become so comfortable around her?
The two ninjas didn't notice it but they were slowly starting to lean in towards each other, they were only inches apart when they were startled out of their haze by the voice of Lee calling them from the doorway of the store. The two jumped apart, Tenten blushing deeply and Neji keeping eye contact with the floor. Lee eventually found them, talking at them as he dragged them out of the store to see a demonstration on a fighting style from the other side of the world. The three watched the demonstration with intent focus; Lee for the actual performance, but Neji and Tenten for the distraction from their recent embarrassment.
After the demonstration finished, having given Neji and Tenten ample time to recover from their embarrassment, the three walked back to the inn, they chatted with Lee while they ate ramen noodles. When the three finally finished it was dark outside, the moon hanging high in the sky. They decided to call it a night and headed back to their rooms. Neji and Lee said goodnight to Tenten as the boys went to their room and Tenten to hers.
Lee and Neji set their purchases by their bags and went to bed. Lee simply flopped onto the bed and promptly fell asleep. Neji wasn't quite ready to go to sleep and decided to go to the garden just outside their room.
Tenten was still wide awake after changing out of her mission clothes. She was now dressed in a long night shirt, a pale green color with dark green at the hem and edges of the sleeves, she left her black shorts on underneath the shirt and decided to check out the garden she'd admired earlier that day.
She walked out and followed the path and around the half stone wall. She was surprised to see Neji sitting against the wall. She made a small noise to alert him that she was there and when he looked up she was once again lost in his eyes. She barely registered him telling her to sit down with him. Her body worked on auto pilot as it moved to sit next to him.
The two were quite for a few minutes before Neji finally broke the silence.
"So…how have you been?" Neji tried to act normal for once, tried to not to be strange.
"Um…" Tenten was surprised to hear him ask something like that, "well, I've just been training a whole lot; I haven't trained like this since before the exams. I've actually been researching some weapons that I found in Suna the last time I passed through, I've done so much research on just those that Lady Tsunade has offered to send me to other ninja villages to research their types of weapons and create a log of each weapon, how it's used, and where it came from. I haven't given her an answer yet but I think I'm going to do it. It'll give me a chance to look at and study so many types of weapons, all different from the ones I use, and I'll be creating a reference for other ninjas to look at." Tenten looked back to Neji and realize he was looking at her so intently, she felt a little embarrassed at how excited she'd gotten over research and weapons but she really couldn't help it.
Tenten flushed and quickly looked away, mumbling an apology for droning on and boring him. She didn't get to finished apologizing before Neji cut her off.
"Don't be. Don't be sorry for talking about something your passionate about. I…I… The way you look when you talk about your passions… you're just beautiful." Neji kept eye contact with her, barely blinking.
"Neji I-" she was cut off once again, this time by Neji's lips on hers. She couldn't move, she sat there for the few seconds their lips were connected, frozen. When he pulled back he just stared at her blankly, trying to figure out her reaction.
Neji was the one embarrassed now, he quickly got up and started walking away. Tenten moved faster in that moment they she ever had before. He had only made if a few steps when she kissed him hard, shoving him against the stone wall. Neji relaxed into the kiss, wrapping his arms around Tenten's small frame. They slid down the wall till they were sitting on the ground once more.
Neji was leaning against the wall, one hand cupping the back of her neck and the other wrapped around her back, with Tenten straddling his lap as she kneeled before him, arms wrapped around his neck as the kiss continued, neither wanting to stop for air.
When they finally broke apart for air they were panting, staring into each other's eyes. Neji then did something even more surprising than the kiss. He smiled, he'd only smiled a few times before this, but this was a bigger smile than any of the previous smiles put together. His smile even showed his teeth as it spread wise across his face. She'd never seen such an expression on his face.
Tenten wouldn't admit it but she'd always liked Neji. The friendship they'd formed had turned into a childish crush, one that she was not proud of, and that had turned into something more, something that had just been proven by their actions. One word echoed in her mind as she sat there, still panting, a word she'd never given much thought to before this, DESTINY.
A/N: Hope you liked it, uh, it's probably no good but I thought I'd post it anyway, please send me constructive criticism, please I really would like to get better at writing and this is the only why I know how.