Title: Balance

Summary: NejiTen. "Life is all about balance," he told her. "Too much of one thing and you'll start to fall over." She then thought, "You mean like how I'm falling for you?"

That's right. I had learned my lesson in life. I finally understood what his words, what his actions meant to me. I had realized that I was slowly but surely falling for him.

It all happened one day when Neji and I were sparring. I was desperately tired and a little off. Sure, I always managed to hit every target exactly in the center with my kunai, but I wasn't ready for sparring!

Why couldn't Neji have picked Lee to spar with? I remembered thinking, Oh, right. Lee is in the hospital. He's still recovering from that mission…

Every time I tried to move left or right, I would always lose my balance and trip embarrassingly. Neji would glare at me and shake his head in silent disappointment. I hated when he looked at me like that, with his milky, distant eyes. The message was clear- I was hopeless. Then again, I suppose I should give "the look" credit—it did motivate me. Every time he saw right through me with those blank eyes, I would feel the anger boiling up inside me. I would repeat my mantra in my head: I will not let Neji down. And I would always work harder, eager to please the Hyuuga. Most of the time it worked.

This time, however, I was absolutely dying from dizziness. I knew there was something wrong with me—probably that would affect my balance, like an ear infection or something. I didn't want to go to the hospital, fearing that I would lose my dignity. Obviously, I didn't want to appear as weak, especially not in front of Neji Hyuuga. Definitely no.

But this time was an exception. I couldn't take it anymore. I tried to maintain my balance, but in the end I ended up falling again. This time, I didn't land with a thud on the training ground. A pair of hands caught me.

"Neji…" I blinked at the Hyuuga and blushed when I realized our close proximity.

"Hmph. Tenten." He was clearly disappointed. Did I sense a faint blush tinting his cheeks? No, that was impossible. He was infamously known for being emotionless, a real ice cube.

"Tenten," he sighed my name again, and set me down gently on the ground. He then sat next to me, not meeting my eyes.

"Haven't you learned yet…?"

"Learned what?" I asked, clueless as to what he would be talking about. Didn't he already criticize my techniques and helped me improve my fighting strategy? Didn't he already teach me what I could be taught?

He smirked slightly. "You know…life is all about balance," he told her. "Too much of one thing and you'll start to fall over." Then I thought, You mean like how I'm falling for you?

I nodded. "So why don't you tell me what thing I have too much of?"

He hesitated. "I think you know what I'm talking about." He then turned to look at me directly in the eyes, "Tenten. Tell me. What do you…honestly think of me?"

I was shocked at his question. "W-why do you want to know that?"

"Just out of curiousity."

I gave it some thought. "Well, apart from being Konoha's number one ice cube…you're a…great shinobi, I guess. You use Byakugan well," I pointed out.

He simply shook his head. "No, what you think of me, as a person."

"Umm, well, I think, you're really not as emotionless as people expect you to be. I think you're just faking it all," I said truthfully.

"Oh, really?" He sounded surprised by this. But I knew he wasn't really surprised. He knew me too well. "Why is that?"

I honestly didn't know how to respond to that. "…Well, everybody has emotions. You can maintain your…balance a lot better than most people can."

"Hn. Interesting." A smile formed but quickly disappeared. "You haven't noticed, then."

I shrugged. "Noticed what?"

"Nothing," he said simply. "Just that I can't always maintain my balance well, Tenten. Most people actually do think that I don't have emotions, but you know me better than a lot of people. I am a deeply emotional man."

"Oh?" I couldn't help but laugh at that. "What emotions do you have?"

"Anger. Fear. Triumph. Gladness. Loss. Annoyance. Grief…" he began to list all of them.

I hesitated and finally blurted out what I meant to say, "What about love?"

"What about it?"

"Do you feel love around anyone? I've always wondered."

"Of course I do. Just not very often," he stated. "Only to those who deserve it."

"See Tenten," he continued, "I can't maintain my balance. There's always too much of one emotion that always overrides the rest."

I raised my brows. "And what might that emotion be?"

He shook his head. "Tenten, don't you get it? It's love."

"Who do you love?" I was almost afraid of the answer.

He shut his eyes and looked away. "You."

I smiled. This was the moment I'd been waiting for. I pounced on his back and whispered into his ear, "And I you."

He turned around and latched his arms around my waist. I fitted mine around his neck. He grabbed me and crushed his lips to mine. I felt love, lust, bliss, shock, passion…everything at once.

He was right. All this time, I haven't managed my balance. I've been dragged in the wrong direction, having too much love, eventually falling for someone I knew wasn't right for me. And for some miraculous reason, that someone felt the same way.

I was falling over, just like he said. He was, too. But for some reason, it didn't matter anymore.

Haha. This was just a story I wrote a while ago. It's not that great, and it's pretty short, but I'm proud of my very first shot at a NejiTen pairing.