Declaration: I don't own Naruto!


Spoiler Alert: my story is based on the Manga not the anime; but for those of you that watch the anime there some spoiler all through the first season, for those of you that read the manga spoilers up (including) Vol. 20.

21.10.07: Just wanted to thank too-much-romance for beta this fic-So…THANKS!

Ten Reasons: Why Does Neji Loves Tenten?

1. Tenten is the only girl-and I mean the only girl who Neji ever thought as tolerable from the entire girl population in the academy.

To him she was the only one who actually looked and acted as a real kunoichi to be.

2. In some ways, Tenten was the only person from the academy he found worthy of talking to-and even being the closest thing to a friend that he ever had.

3. When they were put in the some team, Neji found out that his academy assumptions were true-she was a real kunoichi-he somewhat admired her for that

4. He really admired her when she managed to cut him in their first spar-true the cut was shallow, you could barely see it and he had, naturally, won the spar leaving her with cuts and without a breath…

but still a cut is a cut.

5. He started to like her when after said spar, she had stood up and said to him with fire in her eyes: "next time Neji I'll made you bleed!"

6. It took her three months, and every piece of weapons she had, but she did it-she made Neji-the Hyuga genius to bleed!

It didn't matter that in the end he beat her-it didn't stop her boasting; it still doesn't…

7. Neji wasn't an open person-he didn't share his feeling, he just wasn't that kind of a person. But when Tenten asked him about the strange seal on his forehead one day (it was after a B rank mission when they were around 13), when on a rare occasion he took off his forehead protector to clean it, instead of ignoring her like he normally would if any one also were asking; he told her. He told her everything.

It was when he realized that Tenten meant something to him.

8. It was the way she called him an idiot after he almost killed his cousin during the preliminary matches of the Chunin Exam. He wasn't surprise of her reaction-he know his actions were stupid, he promised Guy (their instructor) to leave his personal grudge and resentment towards his family and focus on his training-which usually he did; however this time he just couldn't, it was too much. He knew that if anything would happen to the Hyuga hair he could be severely punished-he was by all means an idiot.

So when Tenten called him an idiot he wasn't surprise at all; however the concern in her eyes surprised him greatly. It was than that he realized that Tenten was someone special.

9. After Naruto beat him in the Chunin exam and after his talk with his uncle, Neji finally begin to feel that maybe there was hope for him to be free, to even find happiness of his own.

10. After the failure of the Sasuke Retrieval mission, his first visitor in his hospital room was Tenten. When she entered the room it was like a storm entering his room; she had fire in her eyes and her face was red from anger, she had yelled at him for being so stupid going to such a dangerous mission without even telling her, for endangering himself for a worthless piece of trash who abounded their town…it seems to go on and on for the last half an hour before she finally broke down and cried all over his shirt while holding him like there was no tomorrow. Any other person would have risked his life doing so-Tenten was the only one who hadn't dared to hurt. It was than being hold and cried over by Tenten when he came to realize probably the most important thing in his life: he loved her. She was his hope, the one who made him free-happy.

Being a member of the Hyuga family, a genius as it was-he was determined not to let his only chance for happiness to slip away, so as Tenten, who by then stopped crying and seemed to realize who she was hugging made a move to step back. Neji however wasn't going to let her go so easily, had decided to pull her closer and before Tenten could realize what's going on-Neji has kissed her.

Tenten who for the entire day (ever since she heard that both her teammates had gone to a mission) was in a roll of emotions was shocked-was more than shocked. I mean that was Neji, the some cold hearted (even though lately he seemed to be melting) boy she had known since their Academy days, which she had developed a crush since they become teammates-was kissing her! After the shock had passed a little, she began to relax a little and kiss him back.

When they broke apart Tenten noticed that Neji eyes which usually were so cold seemed to be warm a little which made her happy to know that she had a part of it; what she wasn't happy to see was the smirk on his face-she tried to look as furious as she could and asked him: "What are you smirking about?". Neji not fazed at all answered her: "I knew it".

"Yow knew what?" A confused Tenten asked.

"I knew that you want me"

Even though Neji spook with his usual I-superior-than-you kind of voice, Tenten could see in his eyes the worry that she might not want him after all.
She had to smile at him, even if he didn't know it or even want to recognize it-he was extremely cute in the moment; so instead of her usual scolding for speaking to her so arrogantly or teasing him she decided to kiss him again.

This time Neji was sure in one thing-no matter what will happen in the future he found his happiness, he found Tenten.

The End

I can't believe I wrote anther fic! This is my second Neji/Tenten fic and I'm so proud of myself!
To all that read my first fic "falling in love" just to let you know that I hadn't abounded my story-in fact I had started writing the third chapter and I expect to finish by the end of the week!

Also to all of you that find grammatical/spelling problems please e-mail if you want something to be corrected-I'm not a native English speaker so I can't really tell if there's any mistakes.

BUT! The most important thing you as my readers can do for me is very simple: REVIEW, REVIEW and did I mention to REVIEW?

18.06.07: So I've decided to fix some of the grammatical mistakes that I was able to notice (I again remind you that I'm not native English!) and also I add a spoiler alert (I know took me long enough…)

Anyway to answer Corina question (look for her review) number 10 is partly true (failure of the Sasuke Retrieval mission& Neji being in the hospital) the rest is something I would love to happen (and what I believe could happen) but didn't really happen.