Tenten was sitting down at her kitchen table when all of a sudden, Gai came crashing into the room.
"Let us go and practice in the spirit of youth!" Gai ran through the house and back out again. Neji came through the door, apparently following him.
"Was he just running through here in his underwear?" Tenten asked.
"Yeah." Neji replied. Gai had purple spandex underwear. He was apparently sleep walking. "He was running all over the village."
"Wow, and you felt it in your heart to save him?" Tenten asked sarcastically.
"No, I wanna see if he will go to the Hyuuga complex. It would blind them all." Neji replied simply.
"I'm surprised I did not go blind. I thought underwear was supposed to hide stuff, not show an outline." Tenten looked out the window, and saw Lee coming up to her house, chasing Gai.
Tenten's living room had blue carpeting and a blue couch. Basically, everything in her house was blue. Neji walked over to the fireplace, and looked on top of the mantle. There was a large snow globe with a happy family in it. It was Tenten's family. Neji frowned. He had always envied her for her perfect life. She had a family who loved her and anything she could ask for. Tenten got up from the table, and took Neji's hand.
"We need to go and train!" She said. She loved to train. Neji went red with the thought of Tenten touching his hand. He would do it when ever she touched any part of his body. As soon as they got out of the house, Tenten let go of his hand, but Neji half wished she wouldn't have.
"Race you to the training grounds!" Tenten knew that this wasn't the way that Neji did things, so she expected words of protest, but there came none. Instead, Neji ran ahead of her. Stunned, she lost a couple seconds, but she smiled, and was soon ahead of Neji again. The race was very close, but in the end, he let her win.
"Sensei, is this a new training exercise? I will join you!" Lee was running around in spandex underwear too. They were also purple. Go figure.
Tenten sweat-dropped, and Neji slapped his forehead.
"Should we stop them?" Neji asked.
"No. Let's see how long it takes for Gai to wake up, or for Lee to realize he's asleep." Tenten replied, giggling. Neji smiled for a split second, but when Tenten turned to look at him, he went back into indifference.
"Is something wrong Neji-san?" Tenten asked, tilting her head in confusion. Neji didn't know what to say. There was something wrong, but he didn't know how to explain it.
For the last few days, he'd been feeling really weird whenever Tenten was around him. He found himself acting very uncharacteristically. Very un-Neji like. He wasn't sure what was happening to him, or even if it was all just in his head.
"No. Do not be silly. We should get to training now." Neji replied quickly. Tenten gave a hard nod, and grabbed her scroll. Neji got into his fighting stance. Tenten opened her scroll that summoned hundreds of weapons and threw them at Neji. He blocked them, with his force field like jutsu. This exchange went on for a few hours. Finally, Tenten dropped to the ground, huffing from exhaustion.
"WHOO! I'm tired. I think that's all for me today." Tenten smiled, wiping sweat from her forehead. The sun was setting in the distance.
She got up, and started to gather up all of her weapons. As she reached for a couple daggers, her hand wiped passed Neji. It touched his stomach, as he sat down to rest. He immediately blushed. Tenten looked up and saw Neji's face.
"Is something wrong? You look like you someone just dropped something on your foot." Tenten looked at Neji, but he didn't say a thing. She shrugged, and picked up the rest of her equipment and left the arena, yelling a short goodbye to her companion.
Neji was left by himself. He sighed, and laid down in the grass it was soft and cool beneath his sweaty skin. The soft breeze of the darkening day blew around him, changif the course of his sweat droplets. He wiped his face off, and took a deep breath. He needed to figure out why he'd been feeling so weird lately. He wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary. He trained, he ate, he showered, he slept. What had he done other than what he'd done everyday since he was born?
"Yo, Neji-san." Lee plopped down beside him, that goofy grin ever-present on his face.
"Hello, Lee-san. Given up on following Gai-sensei?" He asked, smirking.
"Yeah. Did you know that he wasn't even training? He was only sleep walking!" Lee gave out one of his freaky laughs, and Neji rolled his eyes.
"We were wondering when you were gonna figure that one out." He replied.
"Yeah, how are you and Tenten doing? You've been spending a lot of time together lately." Lee never seemed to be out of questions.
"We've just been training up. We have to be our best if we ever want to be Jounin." Neji replied simply.
"No, I don't think that's it. You two don't usually spend this much together, even if you are training. Besides, don't you usually train by yourself?" Lee tilted his head.
"Well, yes, I guess." Come to think of it, why was he training with Tenten all the time? He never used to.
"You two seem to be getting pretty close." Lee gave a smirk, and nudged Neji in the side with his elbow. Neji just look at Lee like he was an idiot. "Oh, don't look at me like you don't know." Lee just smiled.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Sure you don't." Lee said in a sing-song voice.
"Alright, since you're so smart, what's going on?" Neji sighed, completely giving up on the idea of an intelligent conversation with the green-clad ninja.
"You're in Love, Neji-san." Lee gave a toothy grin, and Neji sweat dropped.
"There's no such thing."
"What are you talking about?"
"Love is an illusion. It is only a chemical imbalance in our systems to make sure there is a continuation of the species." He simplified.
"Well, whatever it is, you're in deep. Just think about it."
"I doubt I shall." Neji got up from his spot, and walked off, ignoring Lee's calls of goodbye.
What is he insane? Neji grew angry as he walked down the street towards his house at the Hyuuga complex. Even if the idea of my being in love was plausible, Tenten would spark no such attraction for me. She's...impossible! She's too reckless. Too sentimental. Too soft. Too touchable. Too... Oh my God! What am I thinking? He shook his head, trying to dislodge these thoughts. He sighed, and went to his room, plopping down on his bed. He squeezed his eyes shut, begging sleep to overtake him.
The next day Neji woke up to a major headache. He groaned, and grabbed a bottle of painkillers he kept on his bedside table. He popped a couple in his mouth and chased them down with a glass of water.
"Neji-onii-sama?" Hinata's timid voice came through his door.
"Yes, Hinata-san?" He sighed, wishing to be left alone.
"Lee-san is here to see you."
"Let him in." He cradled his aching head, and was about to pull on some clothes, when he realized he still his sweaty clothes from the day before.
"Yo, Neji-san." lee smiled broadly as he entered the room.
"What do you want, Lee-san?" Neji groaned.
"You're about to lose you're girl!" Lee shouted.
"Say again?" Neji's eyes went wide.
"I know you don't want to admit that you're in love with Tenten, but you're about to lose her forever."
"How so?"
"She's on a date with Kiba!"
"And why does this concern me?" He felt a strange twang in his chest when he heard it. He didn't understand why he felt so weird.
"If you don't know now," Lee said, shaking his head, "you'll never know." He walked out of the Hyuuga complex, a smirk on his face. His plan would work. He knew it.
"Well?" Hinata asked, still standing by the door.
"Well what? If Tenten wants to date Kiba-san, what am I to do about it?" He stared down on his cousin.
"Oh, shut up, Neji-sama." Hinata sighed, all timidness in her voice gone. "Everyone knows you love, except you. Come on!"
Neji just gaped at her. Even she thought he was in love with Tenten. Apparently everyone did. Perhaps they were right? He kicked Hinata out of his room, and changed into fresh clothes. He rushed out of the compound and down the street. He knew it was true now. He knew why he'd been feeling so weird now. He knew why he couldn't get her out of his thoughts. Lee was right. Hinata was right. Everyone was right.
"Tenten." He whispered, seeing her walking down the street, unaccompanied. Lee had lied! She wasn't dating Kiba! He clutched his fists in anger. He was going to kill Lee!
"Neji-kun?" Tenten's voice broke Neji's anger. His face flooded red.
"Tenten-chan."
"Tenten-chan? You've never called me that before, Neji-kun." She giggled.
"First time for everything." He smiled.
"I guess that's true." She shrugged.
"Yep." He grabbed her hand.
"Neji-kun?" she tilted her head in question.
"You wanna catch a movie?" He asked, smiling.
Her face lit up. "Sure!"
Lee was right. Hinata was right. Everyone was right. He was in love with Tenten. And, to his surprise, he didn't care.