This story was born of the request for a Neji playing pranks on Tenten story. I had to write it about 15 times before I got Neji in character. Or at least I think he's in character. xD Enjoy.

Neji didn't know when he first fell in love with Tenten. All he knew was at some point in their long history of friendship and being teammates, something subtle shifted in the way he viewed her. He no longer saw her as an androgynous partner with whom he sometimes trained with, but instead as a beautiful young woman who both supported and challenged him. One that he, put simply, could not live without.

Neji had made leaps and bounds in his social skills, but now at fifteen, he was still socially inept. He hadn't the faintest clue of how to go about telling her that he had decided that they were going to spend forever together.

But he had the rest of their lives to inform her of that fact. In the meantime, he recalled having heard somewhere that women liked men who were funny and had a sense of humor. He may not know how to break the news to her that she was stuck with him for eternity, but he could prepare her and soften the blow.

Thus, the pranks were born.

Neji honestly had no idea how to go about being funny, other than the immature gags Naruto committed.

He didn't see how dumping paint cans on Tenten's head or putting whoopee cushions on her chairs would make her love him, but then again, he wasn't very familiar with the way the female mind worked. All he knew, or thought he knew, he had learned through observation.

Cheesy romance movies and Hinata swooning over Naruto to be exact.

"You are such a jerk! When did you get so immature?" Tenten yelled at Neji, waving a zucchini in his face.

As usual, Neji only smirked and cocked his head to the side. He had to give himself credit, replacing her summons with vegetables had been genius.

Of course everything he thought of was genius, but that was beside the point.

While amusing, it also doubled as showing that he paid attention to her interests, and was concerned for her nutritional health. Perfect life partner material.

It was really unfortunate she didn't appreciate it at the moment though. Honestly, if she could just hurry up the inevitable falling in love process and fall for his devilishly funny charm, they could proceed to the wedding and mating ceremony he had heard so much about.

Was he doing something wrong? Were the pranks not enough? He had planned flooding her apartment, but he didn't want to overwhelm her with affection just yet-

"Are you even listening to me Hyuga?" Tenten yelled, slapping him with the offending vegetable in her hand.

She was right, he was getting ahead of himself. First he must catch the prey before mating.

Right?

Right.

"Hn, I wasn't listening." He responded emotionlessly. He thought about asking her to repeat what she had said, surely it was interesting, but it seemed kind of redundant because it was obviously implied.

"Ugh, you are hopeless!" She cried, throwing the zucchini at him and turning harshly on her heel, stomping away.

Wait. Wait. Why was she leaving? They were in the middle of a lovers spat, that was all.

"Wait, Tenten!" Neji called. Tenten stopped her stomping and turned to look at him expectantly.

Why wasn't she talking? Did she expect him to say something? What should he say? A compliment? Everyone likes compliments.

"You threw that zucchini accurately." There. Perfect.

Tenten stared at him, incredulously, for a few seconds. His charm was working apparently.

She then threw her arms up in the air, made a noise resembling a frustrated panda being strangled, and then stormed away.

Neji stared at his love's retreating back for a few seconds. He then let out a sigh and started heading to the plumbers store for something to break a pipe.

It was a work in progress.