Warnings and Disclaimers: I do not own Naruto! Besides…if I did everyone would probably be hooked up. :P

Summary[NejixTen Another early morning sparring match with his team; but this time, Neji loses?!

Cheating

"Byakugan!" Neji activated his bloodline jutsu as the veins near his eyes protruded from his face and his eyes strained with chakra in response to the technique as he scanned the area.

Tenten had placed surprisingly obvious traps of weapons all along the clearing's perimeter. It seemed as though she was going to use her usual fighting technique; she would hide in the trees and set off the traps, sending hundreds of weapons flying at Neji and then she would throw her 'special', sharpened, genjutsu cloaked weapons at him using her chakra to speed it up.

Neji smirked slightly. Another easy victory for him, he supposed. And Tenten had said that she would definitely win one of their next matches. Ha, good luck with that.

It was slightly suspicious, though. He knew that Tenten was a very good kunoichi and that he shouldn't underestimate her. Perhaps she had a new tactic to use after the traps were set off? Perhaps right after he had finished his Hakke Shou Kaiten?

The Hyuuga prodigy didn't have much time to think on it as a shuriken was sent flying towards him at a fast pace. He narrowly dodged it and had his right sleeve nicked slightly.

'Serves me right...' He thought angrily, mentally berating himself for getting cocky and losing his concentration. He really shouldn't underestimate his teammate; she was Konoha's 'weapons mistress' after all.

"That was close, our little flower!" Gai-sensei shouted as the shuriken Tenten has thrown at Neji embedded itself into a tree behind the prodigy.

Neji didn't allow himself to be distracted by his teacher's shouts as he heard the familiar snip of one of Tenten's trap wires being snapped. That shuriken was most likely thrown straight at the wire and he wasn't supposed to have been hit at all.

That bruised his pride a little and he found himself glaring into the branches where the shuriken had been thrown from. She was probably celebrating that she had hit him.

A leaf rustled and Neji focused on the rain of weapons approaching him through the trees. Quickly, he released his chakra and began spinning rapidly as he shouted "Hakke Shou Kaiten!"

He didn't slow down until he heard all of the weapons bounce off of his chakra and clatter to the ground. When he finally came to a complete stop, a cloud of dust was surrounding him. He could barely see, even with the Byakugan he could barely see a foot in front of him.

Damn it all! This wasn't a smoke bomb or an illusionary skill. He had created the damn dust storm himself. Readying his senses, Neji crouched into a fighting position and readied one of his shuriken.

There! He could make out a shadow plummeting down at him. Wait, there was another one? And another?! Neji fought off each Tenten look alike that fell upon him. One of them made him drop his shuriken before he struck them with a direct punch to the gut. It vanished in a puff of smoke.

As if that was what he needed; more smoke. Abruptly, he turned as he noticed a denser shadow moving more rapidly towards him in his peripheral vision.

Quickly, he pulled out a shuriken just before Tenten's descended on him. So she was using a new technique, she was going straight at him. It was a shame that he'd put it to rest before she could fully use it effectively.

Although, she was quite strong and the fact that she had the force of gravity on her side only made the force of her shuriken against his stronger. Neji gritted his teeth as she put more pressure on the shuriken. He had used up most of his chakra since he had kept up the Hakke Shou Kaiten for so long and now his energy was depleting.

Suddenly, Tenten leaned her head closer to his and Neji's genius mind worked rapidly. What could she be doing? He had heard that Naruto defeated Gaara by head butting him. Was Tenten thinking of doing the same?

Neji tilted his head back as an extra precaution, but her swift descent never hesitated, in fact, it quickened.

The Hyuuga's eyes widened in alarm as he found Tenten's nose to be brushing lightly against his own. She made eye contact quickly, brown eyes twinkling with mischief meeting white eyes full of shock and apprehension.

Then, all of the thoughts that had previously been prying the boy's mind fled as her warm lips descended on his own. They seemed to stay like that for hours on end until she pushed her shuriken down forcibly on his slackened one and pushed away from him.

Next thing he knew, Neji Hyuuga was sitting on his ass in the middle of the dirt with Tenten standing over him triumphantly.

"Lee! Did you see that?" She cried out as she jumped up and down in joy. "I beat the unbeatable Neji!"

Lee's battle cry rang through the trees as he came running towards them, Gai-sensei in tow.

"Our strong flower has defeated the cold, stoney youth!" Lee shouted as he jumped around doing various taijutsu stances.

Gai-sensei gave them his regular "Good-Guy pose" and gave Tenten the thumbs up. "Your springtime of youth is at its peek! I am proud of you, little flower!" He and Lee proceeded to jump around happily, shouting and posing. Tenten beamed happily at them and turned her back on the fallen Hyuuga.

He felt numb, incredibly numb. The only thing he could feel, was the tingling warmth on his lips. Tentatively, he reached his hand up to his mouth and brushed it gently, almost afraid that if he used too much force he would brush away her presence from them.

Gai-sensei appeared before him and offered him a hand up. Shaking out of his daze, Neji stood up by himself and dusted himself off.

"Aren't you proud of Tenten, Neji?" Lee asked jovially as he bounded past Neji energetically.

"She cheated." Neji stated nonchalantly.

Tenten giggled happily before turning to him. "Neji! There's no such thing as cheating in fighting!"

Gai-sensei nodded in agreement. "That is right, Tenten. It is true, Neji, that there is not really such a thing as cheating in ninja fights."

As cold and uptight Neji was, he seriously felt like pouting. "But, she cheated." Neji insisted. He was about one-hundred-percent sure that if he told Gai-sensei and Lee that Tenten had kissed him to distract him, they would agree that it was cheating.

But he was Neji Hyuuga. So no matter how badly he wanted to pout, he wouldn't. And no matter how badly he wanted to 'tell' on Tenten, he wouldn't.

He could glare at the kunoichi though. And he didn't hesitate to do just that. She stuck her tongue out at him in response. He grunted slightly in amusement.

He shrugged slightly and headed away from the clearing, waving slightly at his teammates and teacher. He was a ninja—he was supposed to expect the unexpected—and Tenten, as his sparring partner, was supposed to help him with that.

And that stunt she pulled was not only extremely unexpected on his part, but incredibly well planned on hers. He fought from moping on his way back home.

- -

As a ninja far from being a loser he most certainly would not pout, sulk, mope or cry, he repeated to himself as he got into bed that night. He had another training routine in the morning and he would make sure that he had a good night's rest to refresh his mind and ready his senses.

The next morning, Neji found his thoughts revolving around a certain new battle technique he had learned. Spotting a familiar pair of brunette buns, Neji quickened his pace.

As a genius, he most certainly could and would get revenge. It wouldn't be considered cheating if he took out both himself and the competition before the match, right? Anyways, he had some new techniques to try out…

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A/N: Have no fear, I will do another pairing in good time, but this thought just came to mind and I loved the way I did it. Sorry if Neji was a bit (or a lot) OOC in this one too.