Disclaimer: Sometimes I wonder if I even own my own soul... Kishi-sama! And blah blah blah.
Author's Note
I wrote this chapter because several people who reviewed requested another one. And well... I do love writting about awkward moments.
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Little awkward moments like that really do tend to happen on a team.
Up till the point of their mission to the Sand Village
to help save the Kazekage, Gaara-sama,
Tenten had been on 22 D rank missions, and 12 C rank missions
with both Lee, Neji and Gai.
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She's been in plenty of awkward situations with all three guys on her team.
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There was this time, when Lee accidentally saw her naked
in the shower room of the hotel the entire team was sharing for the night.
He hadn't had any idea she was in there, so he opened the door.
Of course, she screamed, threw a soap bar at him
which quite accurately smacked him right in the center of his face.
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After getting showered and dressed,
she remembers coming back out and whacking him over the head.
Well he blushed, and eventually they'd both wound up laughing over it.
Both of them knew that he would always remain loyal to Sakura.
Even if Sakura never loved him back,
Lee's not the kind of person who would ever give up on something
... or on someone.
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Strangely enough, this was how the frequent pep-talks began between the two.
But only when it came to the topic of Sakura and his pursuit of her.
Quite often, Tenten found herslef stuck with the role of supporting Lee's love ambitions,
and at the same time trying to do everthing in her power to prevent him
from getting a broken heart.
It was a hard task indeed.
Thankfully, she had a lot of help in the form of Gai-sensei.
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Speaking of who... she also has had awkward moments with...
abet thankfully not of that kind.
Gai sensei was... well, her sensei.
It still happened, actually it happened far more frequently than she would have liked.
She still remembers the first time, on a particular mission,
the details of which she can't quite remember,
she somehow twisted her ankle and could no longer walk without pain.
After limping for about a mile, she couldn't take it anymore and all of the sudden collapsed.
Whatever worry her team mates had for her,
ended when Gai-sensei decided to carry her all the way back to Konoha on his shoulder.
How embarrasing it was!
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She knew her glare wasn't quite as potent as Neji's.
Nevertheless she tried to give a 'glare of death' from her odd position
to her two team mates of whom one was in an uproar, and the other was grinning...
Okay, well maybe not quite grinning, but...
"Oh wipe that smirk off your face Hyuuga Neji!"
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And what about Hyuuga Neji?
Somehow... it was always different with him.
You simply don't treat a guy like him the same way you treat people like Lee and Gai...
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Nevertheless, even with the most apathetic member of the team, there were awkward moments.
Tenten remembers one particular mission they were on.
It was their third D level mission altogether, and their first one outside of Konoha.
They were supposed to be in charge of taking care of security
during a festival performance a particular village was hosting.
The performers were having a practice session prior to the main event.
The main event was the only part they really needed to be responsible for.
Lee and Gai had wanted to go watch them practice,
but they had yet to find a decent inn in which to stay.
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It was actually Tenten's idea that they should split up.
Lee and Gai would 'check out the situation' prior to the actual mission.
She and Neji would continue trying to find a suitable hotel to stay in for the night.
To this they all agreed.
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Neither Tenten nor Neji had expected practically every inn and hotel in the village to be full or nearly full.
Finally, they managed to find one hotel with two adjacent bedrooms.
It was then decided that Neji and Gai would sleep in the one room,
and Lee and Tenten would stay in the other.
It was only when night time came that they realized their mistake.
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Of course, Neji never knew that Gai-sensei snored so loudly.
And Tenten never knew Lee talks about Sakura in his sleep...
saying things she never quite imagined Lee would ever say.
Out of coincidence, or perhaps fate,
the two decided simultaneously to use the balcony connecting the two rooms.
Neji went out to sit there and meditate. Tenten went to look at the stars.
What began as a steady silence, eventually grew into a discussion
about stars, constellations, divination, and fate.
Almost unknowingly, Neji began to find himself talking about things
he never discussed before with anyone else...
simply because he had never had the opportunity.
And Tenten discovered that despite his appearance of complete stoticism,
there was this whole other side of Neji that was almost... spiritual in nature.
Their slow and steady conversation went on through the night...
eventually all they did was stare at the stars together,
under the moonlight spreading over the balcony like a blanket.
It was early autum. The temperature wasn't cold enough yet to be freezing.
But nevertheless the night time had started to become slightly chilly.
As they watched the stars, both eventually fell asleep.
In the night, they must have sought each other unconciously for warmth.
In the morning, Lee and Gai found the two in such an awkward, embarrasing,
and semi-compromising position, that Lee couldn't resist but take a picture.
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The flash and the sound of the camera was what woke them up.
And as Tenten realized what had happened,
she started chasing Lee through the hotel trying to get the camera back
so that she could destroy the incrimidating, misinterpretable,
and worst of all embarrasing evidence.
She herself
didn't believe how Neji's hand could have gotten there of all
places while they were asleep.
It was an accident of course... there
was no way Hyuuga Neji would ever be that perverted on purpose.
Thus she used all the energy she would have used shouting 'hentai!!'
into the more productive action of trying to get the silly camera back and the picture that was taken. E
ventually she managed to get her hands on it, and destroy it...
But what she didn't realize was that Lee already had a double.
This then became part of Lee's scrapbook that he privately kept.
You wouldn't believe some of the images he has in there.
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Even back then, Lee knew that in the future, when all of them were passed their prime,
possibly raising their own children to be ninja...
he'd be able to take out his scrapbook and laugh at the fun moments.
Because in the end, when even dreams fade away,
these memories are the most treasured posessions of a shinobi.
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