Hello. I told myself I wouldn't write fanfiction until I was caught up on the series, but I think it's admissible to write short ones like these that don't involve much right?

Naruto ©Masashi Kishimoto

Haven't written in a couple years. I know my narration is weird and not very…uh, professional, but it's Fanfiction and I enjoy writing this way. So if you like reading fanfiction with proper usage of narration and such, I would advise against continuing to read this. Otherwise, please bear with me and I hope you don't have to try to enjoy.

Confidence and Things
Chapter One: The First Steps

It all started on a slightly breezy day, 71 degrees Fahrenheit, about 22 degrees Celsius, at about 11:48, almost noon.

The trees were rustling atthe Hyuuga compound from the light breeze, as Hyuuga Neji opened the door of his room, stepped out, and closed the door behind him. He and his old team had agreed to train together today, as they haven't in a while. It was a good opportunity to catch up, they all had been quite busy. Well, Neji felt like he was the least busy out of all of them. Tsunade was being unusual. Or perhaps it was because Lee and Tenten had recently become jounins as well, so they were being sent on all the missions he'd usually be sent to. This seemed most probable, as he remembered when he first became a jounin.

Neji began to walk to the Hyuuga kitchen and dining room. While he agreed that eating a good hearty breakfast in the morning to start off the day was a healthy practice, he knew it most definitely wasn't a good idea right before training. So he figured he'd scavenge for a light breakfast, something to hold down any hunger, but not enough to make him even close to feeling full.

As he opened the door to the eating area, Hyuuga Hinata was sitting at one of the long tables that went along the side of the room. She had a large bowl beside her, and was making buns, adding to the mountains of them that already surrounded her. She looked up and smiled at her cousin.

"Good morning, Neji-nii-san."

"Good morning Hinata-sama." Neji replied, before continuing on to find any light food he could consume.

"You slept in today." She noted, giggling lightly. Sometimes her cousin would sleep in until 12 or 1, or he would wake up at 4 or 5 in the morning. Hinata wasn't sure how he could manage to oscillate his sleeping habits so easily, but it was something that she actually found funny and impressive of her cousin. Just another one of those things about Neji.

"Yeah."

Hinata noticed Neji looking around in the large cabinets, cupboards, and drawers, anything that held food, for food. Hinata thought it was funny, how people often thought of her cousin as some sort of holy being that was too cool to eat or scavenge for food, but being as close as they were now as family, she knew that he could be considered just another typical hungry guy in the morning, looking for food.

"Neji-nii-san, are you going to train today?"

"Yeah."

"I made rice porridge. Since you want something light, yes?"

Neji went to the stove where a pot sat and lifted the lid. Hinata sipped her tea. "It has been sitting there for a short while, shouldn't be too hot."

"Aa. Thank you Hinata-sama." He said as he filled up a bowl with the rice porridge, it was warm, and just what he needed this morning. He went and sat down in front of Hinata at the table, and began eating. Hinata gave him a slightly concerned smile. "Neji-nii-san…just eating that is so bland, don't you think?"

"No, it's fine. Your food is very good as usual."

"Well yes thank you but…"

"It's okay Hinata-sama." He said, as he took another spoonful.

A couple seconds passed as Hinata watched Neji eat, slowing down her bun making process. "Well, then have a bun." She handed him one of the finished buns she had been making. "It'll keep your hunger down while you're training."

Neji took it and looked at it, then looked back at her, noticing that she had been putting meat in the buns. "But, Hinata-sama, isn't there something in this?"

"Oh, no. The ones I made earlier don't have anything in them. The ones I made after, and am still making, do. Did you want one with meat in it?"

Neji tore the bun in half, and took a bite upon seeing that there wasn't any filling in it. "No, it's alright. This tastes very good."

Hinata smiled happily at his compliment. "Thanks Neji-nii-san."

"You've been awake for a while haven't you?" he stated, finishing off the other half. "The rest of our clan will be very appreciative of these, they're very good."

Hinata chuckled lightly, and handed him another one. "You should have one with the meat filling in it! I don't think it'll cause you as much trouble as you might think while training. I just feel like your breakfast as is is too bland."

Neji smiled. "Alright."

Pretty soon Neji finished his breakfast, bid Hinata good day and left the kitchen to leave towards the training grounds. On his way out near the entrance, one of his clansmen stopped him.

"Hey Neji!" Neji stopped and turned upon hearing this call. He saw the long haired Hyuuga walk up to him with a smile on his face.

"Oh, hello Kaede."

Kaede rubbed the scar on the side of his neck before setting one arm on his hip. "You going to train with that girl again?"

"Tenten?" Neji blinked. "Ah…somewhat."

"Haha man, I feel like you guys are always together!" he laughed. "Please tell me you two are a thing."

Neji's eyebrows raised. "A 'thing'?"

"Kaede, shut up. You can be so disrespectful sometimes."

Neji turned his head to the approaching figure of the shorter haired Hyuuga clanmember. "Hello Katashi."

Kaede glared at Katashi as he approached. "Man Katashi, you ruin the fun." He turned back to Neji. "You guys make a cute couple."

"Kaede! Stop being so ignorant!" Katashi turned back to Neji. "Aren't you guys more like a partners in crime sort of relationship than anything?" he hits Kaede upon the head. "While it's true that you guys are always together," Neji pondered for a second. This was very much true, wasn't it? He didn't know they were together enough that people would actually start noticing. "and she is very attractive," Neji, for some peculiar reason, felt some sort of odd animosity towards Katashi at that moment, even though he was the one who was trying to be rational in contrast to Kaede.

"it doesn't mean they have to be exclusive!" Katashi finished, crossing his arms at Kaede.

Hinata was walking back from the kitchen to take a short break in her room and paused for a moment, upon overhearing the conversation.

"Isn't that right, Neji?"

Neji winced. "A-Aa…yeah."

Hinata blinked at Neji's reaction, and a smile slowly took form on her face as she quietly continued on her way to her room.

Team Gai had finished their collaborative training and sparring, so Neji opted to sit under a tree and meditate while Lee and Tenten went over some drills with their punches and kicks. He sat quietly under his shaded tree, the breeze feeling much colder in the shade than in the sun. He watched Lee and Tenten in the distance as they punched repeatedly, trying to synchronize with each other in the opening of the forest training grounds. Well, more like Tenten trying to catch up with Lee's endless amounts of energy, but you get the idea.

He watched especially Tenten, as he thought back on the conversation that he had shared with his friends earlier that morning.

A thing…

He couldn't shake the thought. Neji wasn't quite sure what it was, exactly. Normally when presented with such situations, he'd usually brush it off, as it wasn't something he ever thought about at all.

…you guys are always together.

That was the undeniable truth, he knew. Often times when Gai and Lee would run off, he and Tenten would find themselves alone together, and sometimes would just wander around the village together, or maybe train, or have short, very meaningful conversations together. He also realized that every time he found himself in a group situation, say with the Konoha 11, he'd automatically go and stand beside Tenten. It was almost as if it was second nature to him now, as they had always been together.

Neji's train of thought was interrupted by a weak presence of excitement upon seeing Tenten trailing behind Lee towards him.

Wait…excitement?

"Neji! I'm going to go find Gai-sensei and do some workouts with him around the village! Would you like to join us in our stamina training?"

Neji remembered the last time he had gone to this "stamina training". The only reason they were able to stop after almost 18 hours was because Sakura had come telling him that he had a mission from Tsunade.

"No." he replied. "But you can go with Gai-sensei, I will stay here."

"Are you sure Neji! We were doing so—"

"No…thanks…"

"Yeah Lee…" Tenten held her support on her knees as she was still trying to recover, and eventually just collapsed to the ground near Neji.

Neji, for some reason, felt the right side of his body that was closest to Tenten's exhausted figure all of a sudden go up on end. It was as if that side had suddenly gotten goosebumps, or that his body was trying to make him fully aware that oh my god, it's Tenten, she's right there.

This was mind boggling. This had never happened before…at least, not that he noticed.

And the most confusing thing was that he felt the hairs and muscles that had reacted to be almost…pulling his body towards her. He felt a little dizzy as he felt a small bead of sweat roll down the side of his face.

What the hell was happening…?

"I think I'm done for today…I don't think Neji wants to end up in the hospital either."

"Very well! It was a lot of fun training together as a team today, team!" Neji and Tenten nodded in agreement. "We should train together again soon!"

"Yeah," Tenten agreed. "Let's do this again soon, it was fun!"

"Yeah."

"See you!" And there went Lee.

Upon him leaving, Tenten fell back on her back.

"Are you alright?" Neji asked as he tried hard to not concentrate on her chest rising and falling from her breaths.

"Yeah." She replied, sitting back up. "It's exhausting, doing these drills with Lee, but you really feel the effects later on." She smiled, looking down at her fist as it clenched and unclenched. "Don't you agree?"

"Yeah. But it's good to keep some rationale." He answered. Tenten chuckled at this.

"Yeah…can't argue with that." Tenten stood up and stretched. "Well…" she smiled at Neji. "I'm exhausted, I'm gonna go walk around to cool down, and take a break." Neji nodded.

"Bye for now!"

It was while watching Tenten's retreating figure in the distance that Hyuuga Neji came to this very conclusion. The way he was so happy when seeing Tenten approach him, and the way that same feeling felt like it was being forcefully torn out him when she left…

...that the reason why he couldn't stop thinking about being a 'thing" was no other than because it was exactly what he wanted and have been wanting for a while.

On his way home, Neji realized he wasn't sure what to do about his feelings next. Now that he had realized and acknowledged such feelings exist within him for Tenten, what should he do next? It was obvious that he should present them to her…right? But what if…

Neji's eyebrows scrunched up as he closed his eyes in frustration at his jumbled thoughts. He shook his head to try and clear his mind a little, and held his faith in Hinata to help him and give advice, because he knew that he sure as hell wasn't sure what to do.

"Hianta-sama is gone?"

Neji was not happy.

Quite disappointed and frustrated, actually.

"Yeah, mission. Heard it's an extended one, might be a while till she comes back."

Neji's eyes narrowed at Kaede who was forwarding this information to him. A bead of sweat formed on his forehead as he felt Neji's ominous gaze on him. "I-It's not a dangerous one, Neji." Kaede stammered out, raising his palms in an effort to calm Neji down. "Don't worry. It's just one that's a little heavy on time. Hinata-sama will return safe and sound."

Ugh, what was he to do now? Like hell he would turn to Lee…not that Lee or Gai weren't good companions, as they were with pretty much any and all problems he had, except when it came to those that dealt with issues that could be described as "passionate" and "emotional"…who was he supposed to talk to now? The one person he'd usually turn to is the problem, and the other person he'd turn for advice is gone for an extended period of time, one that's much too long for him to not worry about his sanity.

Kaede raised an eyebrow at Neji, who had turned his gaze to the side, frustrated. "What is it Neji? It's not like Hinata's never been on a mission before. Never seen you act this way upon finding out she's gone."

"No, it's nothing." He replied, and began to walk back to his room.

"Hey hey, are you sure? You seem really concerned just now."

"Yes, everything is alright. Thanks for your concern."

No. NOTHING is alright.

Days passed as Neji lived the never-ending desire to take action, yet not doing so due to him not knowing exactly how to come about it. It was driving him up the wall, and every time his team agreed to train together again he'd always want to reject at first, but then he realized turning down the chance to see Tenten (and Lee of course, but in this situation…) was one he wasn't sure how he would take with the current state he was in. Normally he'd be okay with turning down team meets, as he had done it countless times before, but this time…Neji just felt like he was torturing himself.

Day in and day out Neji would run scenarios, options, solutions, answers, and actions in his head. For brief seconds Neji would also think about perhaps looking at romance mangas or romantic movies or any other form of entertainment in the romance genre to help his situation. However those options were quickly dismissed as he understood that those were often just too unrealistic. Neji also thought about possibly asking Ino or Sakura for advice…but that possibility wasn't even given a chance. He'd look for help from a pornographic movie before he went to them for help. Besides, they didn't exactly have the most steady, stress-free experiences with relationships and possibly romantic feelings either.

Neji's physical actions to the public and around the Hyuuga compound didn't change very much, but if you got a glimpse of his face you could tell, something was amiss. But what exactly it was, nobody really knew.

While walking back to his room from a shower after finishing training with Hiashi, Hanabi crossed paths with him, and saw his scrunched eyebrows as he walked.

"Neji-nii-san?"

Neji stopped and turned to face his younger cousin. "Ah? Hanabi-sama?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yes. Why?"

Hanabi blinked. "You seem very frustrated."

"Eh? Is that so?" Neji paused. "Well, I'm fine. Thank you for your concern."

Hanabi watched as Neji continued on his way, back towards her.

"Neji-nii-san?"

"Yes Hanabi-sama?"

Hanabi paused for a moment, before turning her body to completely face her older cousin. "I feel that Neji-nii-san sometimes looks above and beyond for the answer. Maybe you need to remove the extra things and look more closely to yourself the answer. Perhaps you should meditate Neji-nii-san." Hanabi smiled slightly. "That always makes you feel better."

Neji was surprised at Hanabi's advice, and smiled appreciatively. "Yeah, you're right Hanabi-sama." It was true, he hasn't been meditating very much recently, being so on the edge.

"Thank you, you've helped me a lot just now."

Thursday after the week after Hanabi's advice, Neji found himself alone with Tenten, yet again. At this time, Tenten usually leaves to go home after a day's worth of training. Well, really it had only been about five hours or so but with Lee it was the equivalent of a whole 24.

After much deep meditation upon receiving Hanabi's advice, Neji found that his head had become much clearer, or at least when compared to the jumbled mess before. While he still was hesitant on what to do with his feelings, he at least is able to continue without frustration. Even if he couldn't or didn't know what to do, then he could wait for Hinata. She'll be back eventually.

Till then, Neji can handle himself.

"Neji? Are you sleeping?"

Neji's eyes shot open to see Tenten's face inches from his. His eyes widened, and all his emotions suddenly went awry

No, no, no. He can handle himself, he can handle himself…

"…no."

"Oh, sorry." Tenten backed away and sat down in front of him, holding herself up with her palms behind her. "You had been meditating for so long, I thought you had fallen asleep."

Neji stared at the figure that sat casually before him. Her fair skin and her bright eyes that turned sharp with accuracy when in focus. Her body, fit from hours of training and practice, and the different shades of brown in her hair that showed only when the sun was shining. Her eyes were now slightly apologetic as the smile on her face. She must feel bad for breaking his meditation. "No, I was only meditating."

"Aa…sorry." She apologized as she rubbed the side of her face with her finger, slightly embarrassed and apologetic.

"Hn." Neji hated how he was taking in all these little -amazing- details. It was distracting, which frustrated him greatly. Yet part of him just continued appreciating her presence…

Neji heard himself calmly reply, "It's alright. You and Lee had finished anyway, so it was appropriate timing."

So it seems like he's still able maintain his composure despite about 75% of his mentality admiring someone like a marvelous piece of artwork sent down by the heavens themselves. Had he not noticed these things before? Or maybe now that he knew what he wanted…

Oh.

Wait.

But isn't that right? He knows what he wants, right? Maybe it's just that simple.

Maybe he'll get turned down. Hyuuga Neji, after all, isn't so ignorant to not acknowledge that being rejected might just be a problem and a possible consequence. But having been thinking about this "thing" thing for such an excruciatingly long time, it's not as if there's really anything else he can do about it. There's a problem that needs to be addressed, and he should do just that.

Yes, that makes sense…

He knows what he wants, and the means to achieve.

His mind suddenly became empty of nothing but thoughts of being a "thing" and becoming a "thing" and what Tenten might think, and what Tenten might have been thinking, and what she will think…

Tenten chuckled lightly. "Ahaha, yeah you're right. Guess it's not so much a bad thing after all."

Silence fell upon them, as Tenten watched Neji curiously. He seemed very much in thought as he stared down at the ground. Yikes, maybe she did interrupt something important going in his mind…

She was about to inquire when Neji suddenly spoke up, eyes shooting up to meet her's. Though, they seemed a little…hesitant. Just a smidge.

"Tenten?" he heard himself say.

Oh no, there's no stopping it now…

"What is it?"

"May I ask you something?"

Tenten raised an alarmed eyebrow. She began to worry and panicked slightly. This was very odd! What did she just interrupt?

"S-Sure…What's wrong?

Neji paused for a moment, hesitant.

He could still go back now if he w—

"Are we a…thing?"

Both of Tenten's eyebrows rose this time, and blush became evident on her cheeks as she backed away further, having been caught completely off guard by such a spontaneous question.

"A-A thing?" she exclaimed, eyes panicked.

Neji's expression turned slightly concerned as he nodded slowly. He could feel his lower back forming small beads of sweat as he became more and more nervous due to her reaction just now. He wasn't sure if it was one that was good or bad. Good, if she was blushing and acting flustered because she felt the same way and she was embarrassed to be confronted so directly about it, or bad, in a sense that she was flustered because the thought of being a "thing" with someone like him was just that embarrassing…

"N…no…w-we're not a thing, Neji."

Neji felt the sweat that had formed turn cold, and all the hope that he apparently had been developing up to this moment crash and dissipate violently within him. His entire body suddenly felt heavier than usual as he tightened his hand around his knee for a brief second, one that not even Tenten could take note of.

Neji's lips tightened as he slowly nodded understandingly. "Hm," his eyes moved from her's to the ground to the right of them. "yes, of course." He turned his back to her to begin to pick up his things, but also to hide any possible evidence of his disappointment on his face that he didn't want her to see. "I didn't think so. I was…curious, that's all."

A silence fell around them for a couple moments, one that sounded deafening and forever lasting.

Neji hoped, hoped so hard, that even if though he was rejected just now, that they could still remain friends and continue on as if nothing had happened…he valued her companionship more than anything. It was the main thing that kept his sanity in check when facing Gai and Lee at times. Her support was absolutely priceless to him. While it pained him so be turned down by someone so important to him, the thought of losing Tenten completely struck him colder than being rejected just now.

"D…Do you want us to be…a thing…Neji?"

Neji's eyes widened dramatically, as he froze in the middle of picking up one of his scrolls. What did she just say?

No, wait…more importantly…

What should he say?

Neji heard himself reply in mid shock, almost as if his consciousness felt that if he didn't answer promptly the question would disappear, slipping away and become something that never existed in the first place…something that was just too good to be true.

"…yes." He heard himself mutter. "I would…like that."

There was another pause that felt like forever to Neji, but really was just like five seconds. Would this truly be when she actually turns him down? Slamming his feelings into the ground with another "sorry", but this time one that actually impacted him deep down into his core?

"Okay then." Neji felt a shock run up and down his spine and all throughout his body, especially when he felt something, or rather someone, peck his cheek. He whipped his head to the side to see Tenten's brightly beaming, blushing face, facing his own flustered, speechless expression.

"We're a thing."

So…originally I intended this to be a one shot, lol.

Well I guess it's going to be a two shot.

I know this chapter was sorta really uber boring, sorry. I think it's fair to say there's not going to be much of anything hawt or exciting in this story at all.

Reviews and comments aren't necessary, as I'm not really actively trying to improve my writing skills or anything. But even so, feel free to share your thoughts. ^^

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it and will continue doing so.