Blind-Dated
A Naruto Fanfiction
By: GoldenDragonClouds

"Oh my god!" Ino exclaimed, eyes wide and sparkling. "Average! Yes! You're perfect! I have the perfect guy for you!"
"Okay, great. Who?"
"Uh-uh." Ino shook her head, still grinning widely. "That'd be telling."

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 1

"I mean come on!" Ino exclaimed, flipping her hair and scoffing in a manner guaranteed to bring laughter into a conversation. She grinned at the sight of her friends laughing. "How could he not see that she was totally pining for him? Some guys are completely oblivious!"

"Ino, Ino, stop!" Sakura cried, shaking with laughter. "It's just a movie! No need to get so worked up over something like this!"

Ino rolled her eyes comically, earning another laugh from Tenten and Hinata. The four of them were sprawled over cushions and blankets laid out in Hinata's room at the Hyuuga estate for a rare sleepover, all of them having declared needing a break from the constant stress of missions and assignments. So far they had cooked dinner together, saved a burning kitchen together, ordered food from the Hyuuga chefs, watched a movie, and were currently discussing said movie. Well, Ino and Sakura had been, mostly.

Ino suddenly sighed. "Isn't it sad that not one of us are in relationships right now? Seriously, Sasuke's not here for Sakura and me to fight over, Naruto's away so we can't do anything about Hinata-"

"Except maybe set her up with Kiba," Tenten teased the heiress, who blushed but shook her head firmly.

"Ha ha," Ino said without laughing, "But that wouldn't work. Which leaves…" she paused abruptly, a grin slowly spreading across her face. Sakura looked on in terror.

"Ten~tennn~" Ino sang, turning her head towards the oldest kunoichi of the group. Tenten blinked. This didn't look so good.

"Sooo," Ino dragged out, still grinning and scooting herself closer to Tenten. "What's going on between you and Neji?"

Sakura perked up at the question, suddenly attentive again and nodding at Tenten to answer. Tenten's eyebrows shot up.

"Me and… Neji?"

Sakura nodded. "Everyone knows you two disappear for hours almost every day when neither of you have missions to complete-"

"That's for training, you-"

"And everyone knows he's so much nicer to you than anyone else - right, Hinata?"

Hinata looked frightened at Ino's sudden inclusion of her into the conversation but nodded anyhow.

"Neji nii-san is considerably nicer to Tenten-" she was cut off by Tenten's scoff.

"Oh come on guys. Neji and I are just best friends, nothing more, nothing less. Well, I mean, unless you count teammates and training partners, that is. And he's definitely not nicer to me! You should see how mean he is during our practice sessions! Gai and Lee are not the only slave drivers on my team and I honestly don't get why people don't see that!" she moaned. "What did I do to deserve these punishments-"

"Punishments?" Ino looked scandalized. "You call that hot genius piece-of-meat that you can stare at every day a punishment?"

Tenten rolled her eyes. "Try training with him for hours every other day for years and let's see how you feel about him after that."

"I can't believe you Tenten! If I wasn't so fixated on Sasuke-kun I'd go snatch him up in a heartbeat!"

"Sasuke's not here right now. So why don't you?"

"Because he's so obviously fixated on you, duh!"

Tenten scoffed again. "No freaking way. Are you kidding me? He keeps me training every day of the week, and every other day we spend six hours in the forest beating each other up with chakra infused hands and weapons and-"

"Ooh, kinky-"

"Ino I will pretend I did not hear that from you. I have no social life because I spend so much time with my team and my team only-"

"Because he wants you all to himself!" Ino squealed.

Tenten deadpanned. "Excuse me, but you're taking this in an entirely opposite direction. And honestly, even if he did like me, he's just not my type."

"Why not?" Sakura asked, surprised.

"Yeah! He's totally hot!" Ino said, equally curious. Even Hinata leaned in to hear Tenten's answer to Sakura's question.

"Okay, I admit it, he's hot. Good looking. Really nice body. I've seen it every time we train on a hot day or go swimming or something. But. Honestly speaking, he has nicer hair than me, he's a total prick at times, his family's… um, no offense Hinata but you guys are more than a bit intimidating for a total nobody like me, and he makes me feel so inadequate a lot of the times even when we're not training or on missions. So no. He's not my type."

The girls visibly deflated at Tenten's explanation. Hinata inwardly sighed. Time to cross that couple off her wishlist. Poor Neji.

"Fine," Ino grumbled, disgruntled but still determined to find a perfect match for her friend. "You would have made such a cute couple, but fine. What is your type, then?"

Tenten sat up, a thoughtful expression on her face. "Well, someone smart, I guess. Someone hard working and diligent. No one like Lee or Neji, though - they're too enthusiastic about training and honestly they're like brothers to me. But yeah, someone diligent, but someone who knows how to be laid back. Oh, and smart enough for me to hold decent conversations with. Around average to handsome looks? I don't think I could date someone absolutely hot, you know, since I'm completely average-"

"Wait, what?"

"I'm completely average?"

"Wait, Tenten, come on, you're not-"

"Come off it Sakura, I mean, look. Out of the four of us I'm the plainest looking-"

"Is not," Sakura muttered to Hinata.

"I have mousy hair and tan skin, I'm clanless and I'm probably gonna be the weakest amongst all of us. You all have your clan techniques - Sakura stop protesting, private lessons from Tsunade-sama totally counts - and all I have are my weapons. You know? Plus I have almost no aptitude for ninjutsu, so even if Neji's a Jonin I'm probably not going to be one for a long time, if I even get to be one that is. I'm a completely average and normal kunoichi of Konohagakure, unless you take my loud an rambunctious team into account-"

"Oh my god!" Ino exclaimed, eyes wide and sparkling. "Average! Yes! You're perfect! I have the perfect guy for you!"

"Okay, great. Who?"

"Uh-uh." Ino shook her head, still grinning widely. "That'd be telling. I'm so excited! We all have a full day off tomorrow, right?" she asked, turning to the others. Sakura and Hinata nodded, curous as to who Ino was talking about, but Tenten shook her head.

"I have training with Neji from noon until nightfall-"

"Cancel it!" Ino said, scoffing. "He can live one day without that horrid slave drill you call training-"

"No he can't," Hinata whispered to Sakura, the two of them giggling.

"You'll need a full afternoon to relax and get ready for your evening date!"

"With who?" Tenten asked again, growing frustrated once more.

"Oh you'll see," Ino said cryptically, patting Tenten on the head before yawning. "Well! We should all go to sleep now. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow!"

The reason Ino couldn't sleep that night was fifty percent anticipation, fifty percent trying to ignore the death glares that Tenten was sending in her direction.

"Oh hey Neji, I can't make it to training today. Ino's setting me up on a blind date and apparently that'll take all day to get ready for." Tenten remarked nonchalantly as Neji passed by her at the dining room in the morning for breakfast.

Neji froze.

Sakura palmed her face and Hinata let out an "eep!" as her cousin turned his head to search for Ino. Said Ino was screeching at Tenten.

"Tenten! You don't just say that like that!"

"Why not?" Tenten asked, puzzled, looking up from buttering her toast. "I tell my teammates everything."

"Not something like this! Oh my god!"

Ino got up to push Neji out of the dining room in an inhuman effort, eventually reaching the door and shutting him out, heaving.

"I cannot believe you just did that!"

"What did I just do? I only told him the truth-"

"That!"

"What's wrong with telling my friend the truth about why I can't make it to our practice?"

Ino sighed. "Never mind. Just finish your breakfast so we can go out for shopping."

Tenten ate as slow as she possibly could, but eventually she ate everything on her plate and let Ino and Sakura drag her away to the shopping district for a five hour long shopping trip plus a short lunch during which Ino disappeared.

An hour and a half later and back at the Hyuuga estate, Sakura and Hinata were trying to find the "perfect outfit" for Tenten to wear - trying being the key word. So far, their efforts had come to naught, and that was how Ino found them when she returned.

"Oh my god!" the said blonde exclaimed, seeing her friends' predicament. "I knew this was going to happen if I left you alone! Sakura, I thought I already told you what Tenten's outfit's going to be!"

"Uh, no. You didn't."

Ino rolled her eyes. "Okay then, maybe I didn't. But still. Move aside girls, and let me work my magic."

"Hey wait," Sakura said, raising an eyebrow at Ino, "Where were you just now?"

"Oh just, you know, setting things up for the date," Ino said, waving her best friend's question away. "Now come on. Hinata, hand me my make up kit."

"I already know how to put on make up!" Tenten protested, but Ino scoffed.

"You call that teensy bit of lipstick, mascara and foundation make up? Girl, you're going on a date here. That's just not enough."

"I thought I was supposed to be average?"

"Shut up and let me do my work."

"…Yes ma'am."

Ino declared Tenten "Perfect!" thirty minutes before she had to meet her blind date and quickly ushered her out of Hinata's room.

They ran into Neji a minute later. Tenten supposed it was to be expected, and greeted him all the same while Ino and Sakura palmed their faces.

Neji said nothing, instead staring at Tenten wide-eyed. Tenten fidgeted with her dress.

"It's not that bad, is it?"

Neji cleared his throat. "I…"

"Come on, we don't have time for this," Ino said, pushing Tenten towards the doors to the estate. The doors closed - Tenten, Ino, and Sakura outside.

Hinata exchanged glances with her sister as Neji started at the sound. Neither of them doubted he would follow the trio.

"Poor nii-san," Hanabi whispered to her older sister lest their cousin hear her. "Tenten-san is completely oblivious."

Hinata agreed.

Author's Note:

Yay! Another non-canon-pairing fic - and this time with the actual pairing in it! By now by regular readers should have realized how much I love to torture Neji... Poor Neji indeed. I sort of feel bad for doing this, but naahhh, Tenten pairings are way too cute for me to pass up on a chance to do anything like this.

Until the second chapter is up I won't mark the pairing, but I'm pretty sure most of you have realized who this blind date is. Well, at least I hope most of you get who this is. My muse and editor didn't... I was slightly disappointed in her.

Reviews are love!

Ja Ne,
~Golden