A/N: Ok, this is my first fic but I think its coming along well so far. I usually find that Neji is a little too OOC in most NejixTenten fics so I tried to keep him as true to the anime as possible. I think Tenten is a little OOC but I think its not too bad. Anyway please review, this should be a few chapter fic, maybe 5, maybe more. Enjoy:)

Scare In The Rain

By: Kiyoshi-san

Chapter 1: New Feelings

The doll that was pinned to the tree with string but the bulk of its weight was pinned by the eight or so kunai stuck through the straw doll. A young kunoichi stood about 30 feet from the doll. She was panting slightly from her exertions but she was pleased with the result. She was wearing baggy black training pants, blue sandals, and a pink chinese dojo style shirt without sleeves. Her brown hair was tied into two buns with a few clumps of hair sticking out due to her training, and a black hitai-ate (Forehead Protector) tied over her forehead. She wiped a small collection of sweat from her forehead and stood up straight. The kunai that she had thrown were sticking into the targets pinned up on the doll. One target on each hand, each foot, the chest, and the head. The chest and head each had two and one for each hand and foot.

Well thats it for the warmup...

She pulled out a small block of wood and twirled it at a speed that betrayed her appearance. The block of wood instantly clicked and unfolded into a three foot staff. She twirled it over her head and stabbed it in front of her, She then stebbed back slightly and spun it again and struck an imaginary enemy in the chin, sending him skyward. She then jumped and used the end of the staff to spear her enemy in the stomach. She landed gracefully and parried three attacks from her imaginary enemy. She then countered with a flurry of stab strikes into her enemy's gut. She stopped, brought the staff to a ready position and spun it quickly, folding it up into its compact form. Little did she know that she was being watched.

In a humble sized dark room an alarm buzzed annoyingly. It rang for about 10 seconds before a taped hand reached out and slammed it into silence. A young man sat up from the bed and rubbed his head. His black hair slumped over his head untidily hiding his white colorless eyes. He crawled out of bed and hobbled into the shower in the next room. He got out after 10 minutes in a towel and quickly re-entered his room. He got dressed in his normal black shorts with a white vest over it. He adjusted the tape on his leg and his arm. He flipped his hair back over his head and dried it furiously with a towel. He then took a small white piece of cloth and tied his hair into a small pony tail at the end to keep it in place. He replaced the bandages on his forhead and then put on his black hitai-ate. He strapped his kunai pouch onto the back left side of his waist and left his room.

He entered a long hallway with white pillars and turned right into a large estate. He entered a large dining hall to find a tray with food sitting at the table for him. He sat down and ate the scrambled eggs and toast without complaint. He finished his meal quickly and left the house quietly. He passed a few others with similar white eyes and nodded politely to them. He then took off to his team's normal training spot.

He arrived within a few minutes and landed in a tree above the small cleared area that his team used for meetings and spars. He was surprised to see someone else there and decided to watch. She was a teammate of his and she was doing quite well with her staff. She went through a fairly simple kata and then destroyed her imaginary opponent with a quick flurry of staff blows. It was then that he spoke up.

"Not bad Tenten, but I think its too simple for you to improve with your staff."

Tenten, who was quite oblivious to her teammate's presence jumped a mile.

"NEJI! HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU!"

She flipped six kunai at him with rapid speed but he merely jumped down from the tree. He had a slight grin on his face. She got so angry when he did that, and it always amused him.

"Now, now, that could have seriously injured me..."

This just infuriated her even more. His cool demeanor was one thing, but the fact that he was probably the most talented genin in all of Konoha just made his sarcastic attitude even more infuriating to her. He did have those moments when he wasn't sarcastic though, and it was those moments which she lived for.

"You are here early, couldn't sleep?"

She pondered for a moment why exactly she was here and then quickly remembered that she could not tell him, or anyone for that matter.

"Yah, I figured that if I was going to be up, might as well make use of the time, rather than just sit around."

He smiled. Neji hated laziness when it came to training. He was lazy in almost every other aspect, but when it came to missions and training he worked as hard as he could in order to be the best he could be. He looked around at their battered training ground. It had taken such a serious beating over the years. The ground permanantly sloped into a mini crater from the time when Lee first learned the Omote Renge (Initial Lotus). The trees had multiple bark wounds from the countless times Tenten used them as targets for her own training. However the newest addition to the training ground was Neji's own work. While the larger crater covered almost all of the training area it was very shallow. Right in the center was a smaller but much deeper crater created by Neji's Hakke Shou: Kaiten.

Tenten watched Neji as he looked around at their training ground. She liked how he always looked so serious. Well almost always. She caught glimpses of a more compassionate side at times. Mostly when he was asleep or not aware that anyone was watching him. The first time she saw it, she wasn't sure if it had actually happened. In just a fraction of a second, when he had turned to look at her, she saw something in that icey stare, something that wasn't normal.

As Neji examined the field he noticed Tenten was just idly staring at him. So he decided to confront the situation with a much more sarcastic way.

"So, did I not comb my hair correctly or do you see something you like?"

He pushed that very simple button that would set off any girl, no matter what her true feelings were.

Her gaze shifted from slight attraction to righteous fury in under 2 seconds flat and immediately she exploded.

"NEJI! YOU BETTER RUN BECAUSE IF I CATCH YOU, THERE WILL BE PAIN!"

Neji immediately jumped into the trees with a devilish grin. He loved setting her off like this because it was so easy and simple, and produced such entertaining results. Plus, she looked cute when she was angry. He was not often the source of her smiles which he adored but he wasn't sure if he could ever actually get her to laugh on his own. Thus he resorted to making her angry, which was much more fun in the end anyway.

He fled like a coward knowing he could never really hit Tenten unless absolutely necessary. He dodged another group of kunai and activated his Byakugan. He didn't want to take any needless injuries just because he was being careless.

Gai and Lee waited impatiently at the meeting point at the gates of Konoha.

"Gai-sensei, what in the world could be keeping them?"

"Ah, the fountain of youth is very prominent in both of them, they are probably off somewhere doing things frowned upon by others my age!"

Gai turned to look at Lee as he finished talking only to find Lee's reaction to be a bit unexpected. He looked as though he had been hit in the face with a brick. He was in absolute shock and couldn't believe that his respected sensei was implying something so vulgar.

Neji and Tenten stopped on top of Ichiraku as Neji looked at the sun.

"We are late..."

Tenten stopped suddenly as she was about to jump at him and looked at him questioningly.

"What do you mean?"

"Our meeting with Gai and Lee..."

Tenten's eyes widened in surprise. Gai-sensei always made a huge deal if they were late. Fortunately she was never late on her own. Neji was usually with her and it lessened the explosion that always emanated from Gai-sensei.

"Come on, we should hurry..."

Neji, kicked off with a huge burst of speed and hopped from roof to roof with Tenten close behind.

They arrived a few minutes later to find Lee pacing impatiently and Gai counting what seemed to be the clouds in the sky. Upon seeing them Lee, as usual, nearly flipped out. "TENTEN-CHAN, NEJI-KUN" He then was about to glomp the two of them when a cold glare from Neji stopped him cold. He stopped in mid-pair and fell promptly to the ground which brought forth a sigh from both of them. It was then that Gai rounded on them.

"Where have the two of you been! You are 358 seconds late!"

"Well...um..." Tenten struggled to come up with an excuse that her sensei would believe. Neji, as usual came to her rescue.

"Training. Never enough training." Neji of course sounded colmpletely truthful and looked Gai right in the eye. He knew that if he could stand to look at his weirdo of a sensei long enough, he would buy it. Which, of course, is exactly what happened.

"Ah, the fountain of youth is strong in the both of you! As expected of my wonderful pupils! Off we go!" With that, He jumped off into the woods with Lee right behind him.

Tenten looked to Neji with an exasperated face. Neji however didn't return the look. He had given up being tired when it came to Gai and Lee. He looked back to Tenten, wondering why she wasn't going ahead of him.

"Tenten, I am rear guard..." Tenten was snapped out of her slight reverie of admiration over the Hyuuga prodigy and quickly recovered.

"Right, sorry..." With that she sped off after her sensei and teammate with Neji close behind her, Byakugan activated to watch for ambushes from behind them.

After half a day of travelling, Gai stopped them for a bit of rest and strategizing. After they were all assembled, Gai pulled out a map and pointed out a small X on it near the edge of the Fire country. "This is where we are. We are going to use this spot as our base camp while we carry out this mission. Now, our mission is thus. We are to scout out the border for possible shinobi movement from allied countries, chief of our suspects are Kusagakure (Hidden Grass) and Iwagakure (Hidden Rock). Lee and Neji will be making our shelter for this mission. Just two buildings should do. Tenten you will be on scouting the area with me. Your eye for traps will help me greatly."

Almost immediately Lee jumped up in excitement and energy. "Neji, I challenge you! I will make a better house than you because mine will be a tree house!" He jumped off into the woods with the blazing look in his eyes which Gai admired so much.

Neji was left standing with the rest of his team with an exasperated look. Just watching Lee irritated him, and now it tired him out. He sighed and walked off into the woods casually, looking for any materials that he could use with his Byakugan.

Tenten grinned a little as Neji walked off. Lee's exuberance pissed him off more than anyone in the village. She turned towards her sensei to find him smiling at her. "Still haven't told him yet have you?" She immediately turned red. She had not told anyone of how she felt about Neji. Though, she didn't think it would take forever for someone to figure it out. Gai got into his 'nice guy pose' which kind of broke the ice but he quickly got back into a serious mood. "How long are you going to wait? You know how popular he is, how long do you think it will be before he finds someone?" She looked at the ground. She didn't really know. She had always hoped that Neji declined every girl in Konoha because he liked her. But, the more she thought about it, the more foolish it seemed to her. "I... shouldn't we be scouting sensei?" Gai sighed. He respected her attempt to change the subject and nodded. "Allright, let's go."

Tenten and Gai returned about 4 hours later to find two very different huts. One was a nice tree house which Lee was sitting proudly on top of. The other was a strange dome like thing in the ground. It looked like some sort of shabby dome. Neji was sitting comfortably on top. His eyes were closed and his forehead protector was drawn over his eyes, probably to keep Lee from bugging him more than usual.

"Well Tenten, which would you like to stay in?" Gai winked ever so slightly at Tenten, knowing exactly which she would choose no matter how dingy it looked. Staying with Lee was not even possible for Tenten. She would probably kill Lee if left alone with him for too long.

Trying to hide her slightly pink cheeks she pretended to think about it for a minute then decidedly said, "I will stay with Neji, I think." Lee nearly exploded from happiness. He didn't care who he roomed with. He knew it wasn't with Neji and that made his day. Neji breathed a sigh of relief. Spending the night or even more than one was way too much of a test for his patience. He nodded his approval as usual and then resumed his meditation.

Tenten was relieved that Neji was meditating and Lee was too far away to see her face. She walked into the small dome and gasped. It was extravagant inside. The outside was very deceiving. The hut had the nicest wooden furniture she had ever seen. She had no idea how Neji had managed it but when she sat down on her bed she stopped caring. It was probably the most comfortable bed on the planet. As she was laying back she felt sleep over take her. She was still fully clothed and only partially covered by the strange sheets.

Neji came in about an hour and a half later. He looked to Tenten who apparently didn't realize there was only one bed. He sighed and walked over to her. He had put a small window on the hut to let light in and it was now that he was glad he did. The moon was just beginning to creep through the window and it was just barely beginning to creep into the window. The moon was shining onto her face and she looked very peaceful. He adjusted the leaves which he had crafted into a makeshift sheet over her and removed the ties in her hair so that she could sleep a bit more comfortably. He had never seen her with her hair down, and it was like looking at her for the first time again. For the first time in nearly three years of being on Team Gai, he went to sleep with thoughts of Tenten clouding his dreams.