Tenten:
I ran as fast as I possibly could. Never in my life had I been in such a hurry to get to the training fields. My breathing was getting erratic, but I didn't really care. The only thing on my mind was Lee. It's not like I had a crush on him or anything, but he was my best friend, and from what I've just heard this morning, he might need me right now.
I quickly went through the small stands in the village, without noticing the people around me, until something green caught my eye. I stopped immediately, and looking over at the ramen stand not too far away from me, I discovered him. Apparently he hadn't gone training as he usually did on our free days. He was talking to Neji and his girlfriend Nerine, but smiled and waved his hand at me, when he noticed me.
I waved back, and tried to smile as convincing as possible. From the light expression on his face, I could tell, that he hadn't heard the news that Ino so enthusiastically had shared with me. It made my face fall, because that meant, that I had to be the one telling him, and I wasn't sure I would be able to. I anyhow found myself walking up to him keeping a glad facial expression, even though I felt miserable about what I had to tell him.
"Good morning, Tenten!", Lee said smiling.
"Good morning.." I replied in a low voice, greeting Neji and Nerine too.
"Isn't it a splendid day?", Lee asked. I felt guilty knowing, I'd soon be the one making the happy smile on his face disappear.
"Are you all right, Tenten?", Nerine asked in a soft tone. She pulled a tuft of blond hair behind her ear.
"Eeh.. Yeah, I'm.. I'm fine.. Have you talked to Ino today?", I mumbled.
"No, I haven't," Nerine said looking at Neji.
"Neither have I," he said," Is something wrong?"
"It's just that..", I wasn't really sure how to start." It's about Sakura.."
Lee immediately narrowed his eyes and got a sudden serious look on his face. I bit my lip. Everyone knew that Lee had been in love with Sakura from the first time he met her, and that he a dozen times had tried to win her heart and convince her to become his girlfriend. Every time she turned him down, he got more anxious to proof his love to her. But now it appeared his endless fight for her had come to an end.
"She has started to date someone," I said without looking at him," Ino told me this morning."
Both he, Nerine and Neji got silent, and I slowly raised my eyes to look at him. It seemed like he had got hit by a wan. He looked out into the air without really looking at anything. I could see his lower lip shaking as if he was unable to control his feelings.
"Who.. Who is it?", he asked quietly.
"I'm not sure. I think it might be Naruto.."
Lee nodded, still not looking at me. I felt horribly and reach up to lay a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry Lee."
"I don't think it's Naruto that she's dating," Nerine suddenly said, and pointed at something behind me. I turned around to see what she meant, and felt my own heart turn cold as ice.
The boy walking down the street with Sakura stuck up his arm was no one else than Sasuke Uchiha, the coolest guy in town. He was handsome, smart and mysterious – every girls dream. And mine too. I had had a secret crush on him for almost 3 months now, and I would never have guessed that Sasuke would start dating Sakura. Of course she liked him. Everyone knew that. But Sasuke didn't like her back.. At least that was what we all thought. I swallowed a mouthful of spit suddenly feeling Lee's pain myself. I couldn't believe what I saw.
All morning I hadn't thought of anything but how sad Lee would be to hear about Sakura, but now a lot of emotions started to grow in my own mind. I didn't want to believe it..
Overwhelmed by these emotions I felt unable to stand still and look at Sakura and Sasuke as they walked by. I needed to get away.
"I have to go," I whispered, trying to keep my voice calm, as I turn around and ran off.
I didn't want anyone to see me like this, and least of all I wanted to be forced to see Sasuke with someone else.
I somehow felt that moving gave me an excuse not to think – and that was exactly what I needed right then. So I just kept running and running. Without knowing where I was going I kept running. But the time came where I became too tired to run anymore, and I stopped at the lake. I sat down in the grass and leaned against a tree. I felt so powerless, I didn't know what to do. I just sat there, trying to keep the world around me away.
I didn't know how long I sat there looking out at the water, but a familiar voice suddenly brought me back to reality.
"Tenten?" I didn't have to look up at him to recognize Lee's voice. "Are you okay? You ran away so quickly?"
I sighed. This was such typical Lee-behavior. Even though the love of his life had just chosen another guy, he still cared as much about his friends as usually.
He came closer.
"You liked Sasuke, didn't you?" he said, and I looked at him. At first I thought about lying to him. It seemed easier to just tell him that nothing was wrong, but something inside me told me not to. He was my friend and didn't he deserve to know the truth? After all it was about the same thing we were experiencing right now. And it would be nice to have someone to talk to about it.
"Yes.. Yes I did," I nodded as I spoke.
"I liked Sakura too.." He said with a sigh. Even though he knew I already knew. He sat down beside me.
"Love sucks.."I said, and he nodded in agreement.
We sat in silence for a while until Lee spoke again.
"I still don't believe it's real.. It feels like a dream to me.."
"And it's definitely not a very youthful dream, is it?", I said, and turned my head to look into his dark eyes.
He grinned sadly. "No, not very youthful."
"I don't get why she chose him," Lee said after a while. "I would have offered her so much more. I mean, I don't think they are good for each other."
"I feel the same way." I told him. "I didn't even think Sasuke liked Sakura."
"No, and that's my point.. He didn't like her from start, and I still don't think he likes her that much.. He wouldn't love her as much as I would.."
I looked at his determinate eyes, and had to agree with him. No one could ever love Sakura as much as Lee did. He was way too passionate about that kind of things.
I smiled at him. "If she had just known what a great guy you are, Lee.." I said," She might not have been dating Sasuke."
"Do you really think so?", Lee looked at me in surprise, with a small blush across his cheeks.
"Of course," I wasn't really sure if I had gone too far by saying that.
"Maybe I should show her what a great boyfriend I would be!", Lee said loudly as he stood up and raised his fist.
I giggled at him. "And how are you going to do that?" I asked him. Talking with Lee made me feel a little better.
"I'll proof to her, that I'm worthy!" he said passionately as always.
I smiled up at him, thinking to myself that he'd fail like he always did when it came to proof anything to Sakura. I felt sorry for him. Lee was a great guy. If he could just succeed in proofing to her what a great boyfriend he could be. He deserved it. And I couldn't help hoping that I somehow could proof to Sasuke what a great girlfriend I could be too..
But it was in that moment a crazy idea suddenly came across my mind. I'm really not sure how it did, but right then it seemed like the perfect plan.
"What if we started dating, Lee?"
"What?" Lee looked confused down at me. He blushed.
"I mean, we should just pretend to be dating. We could show Sakura and Sasuke what they are missing out on," as I spoke, I started to get more and more into the plan myself. "We could teach each other to be the perfect boyfriend and girlfriend, and make them jealous. People who are dating always get more attention. Do you remember when Neji and Nerine first started dating?"
Lee nodded. He had sad down next to me and now listened with interest.
"Everyone talked about how they had never imagined Neji being such a nice boyfriend, and how they regretted they hadn't shown him more interest."
"Yeah, I remember that," Lee said, thinking a bit about all I had said. "But wouldn't it ruin our friendship?"
"No, don't worry," I assured him," you know, we won't be dating for real. We'll just pretend."
"Well… Do you really think it will work?" he asked after a while.
"Um.. I'm not sure. But isn't it worth trying?" I looked at him.
He thought about it for a while, then he stood up and offered me his hand to help me get up. I took it, and was quickly on my feet.
"All right then," he smiled," Let's try!"