Despite Appearances

Tenten stared at Lee in horror. She must have heard wrong. Lee wasn't known for his intelligence, but he wasn't this insane; it was impossible for anyone to be this insane!

"what did you say?" She asked, because she had to have heard wrong.

"I said, Tenten-chan, that Gaara-san will be joining us in our training today!"

The boy sounded very happy about the fact that a homicidal maniac would be fighting with his homicidal sand and would probably homicidally kill them!!

"Lee! He almost killed you!"

"But Tenten-chan, he also saved my life one time, remember? When Naruto-kun went off to try and save Sasuke the first time!"

"Hai, but –"

"And he's the Kazekage now! Don't worry, Tenten-chan, he can control himself a lot better now! He won't cause any harm to anyone!"

"What did Gai-sensei say about this?" says the quiet, stoic voice of Neji, who had finally decided that it was worth his time to speak.

"He said it would be a youthful thing to do!" Lee said, with his usual flare that Tenten either loved or hated. At the moment, she despised it. How could he be so happy when…when…when a crazy red-headed maniac was about to slaughter them all! She looked at Neji – he had to disagree with letting Gaara come, he was her only hope of survival!

"Well, if Gai-sensei said it was alright, then I'll fight with him." Neji said finally, getting him from his meditation position under the tree.

They were in their old training grounds. Tenten could still see the marks from Neji's juuken, Lee's stumps where he had smacked down trees with his kicks. The few trees remaining were littered with scars from her weapons.

Tenten can't help but find it ironic that the place that she first started her days as a ninja would be the place where it ended.

"Lee, I am not going to train with you if he come—"

"Gaara-san!" Lee's voice interrupted her, "Over here!"

Tenten felt a whoosh of air. She glanced to her side to see the boy standing next to her. He had grown remarkably since their last meeting – he was actually taller than her now. He still had the large panda-eyes, though they seemed more relaxed then last time. He still had the huge gourd on his back, and Tenten could still smell the blood.

"Thankyou for allowing me to train with you." He said. His voice was still the same – emotionless and deep.

She didn't care what Lee said, this guy was still a maniac.

"It's no problem, Gaara-san!" said Lee with a grin, smacking him across the back. Tenten winced. Was Lee trying to get them killed?

Oblivious, he continued to talk, "Fight me first, Gaara-san! Tenten and Neji will train with each other, and with you later, if you want! Training is how men bond! It will be great fun!"

Tenten was about to shout at Lee for mistaking her for a male yet again, but Gaara looked around and his eyes met hers, and she was silenced.

"I would like that very much," he said, turning back to Lee and walking towards him, gesturing to the training grounds to show that he wanted to begin, hiding his face from her.

Tenten gulped. She knew what those eyes had said – she'd seen them the first time she fought Neji. They said, 'I'll annihilate you, I'll defeat you, you're dead.'

Put simplest, he had just told her, 'you are going down.'

AN: Yes, a NEW STORY! And it's a crack pairing! No hate for it, please. It was suggested, and I took the challenge! I like Tenten's lack of screentime, I can take advantage of it and maul her character to peices! Mwaaha! I hope you all liked it, sorry the chapter was short.

Um...it'll be a chapter story, like Exception was, maybe longer. Um...nothing else to say. I have a poll on my page now (yay self advertising! xD!) so vote on it if you want...because...yeah. I want another chapter story up, you see, but I don't know what pairing you'd all prefer. So, check it out (if you care, if not I'll do coin flips xD)

Review please