Author's Note: Thanks to my two reviewers and to all the people who added this to favs and alerts, you are awesome! This story is sort of an experiment to try and get myself into writing, I'm glad some of you enjoyed it. ) Sorry if updates take a while, I'm going to be gone for 2 weeks, so I had tons of make up work. (Sorry for mistakes, I didn't have much time)
--TUL
There Are Two things I've Realized
Chapter 2: Not Training
"Two hundred-seven, Two hundred-eight; Hey Gai-sensei?" Lee spoke between breaths.
"Yes Lee?"
"Where do you think, the other youthful members of our team are?" Gai rubbed his chin thoughtfully. This had been the first time Neji and Tenten had simply not shown up for training. Neither of them had acted sick the day before, except for Tenten. And then it hit him.
"Lee! I've got it! Our youthful little flower must be sick, and Neji must be taking care of her in the spirit of youth!" He grinned to himself.
"Yosh! That must be it!" Lee said jumping up.
"Let us run 500 laps before we start training to help make up for their absences!" Gai then turned towards the path and took off with Lee at his side.
When in reality there was a very different reason for the absence of Tenten and Neji. It had been a tradition for Neji to meet up with Tenten before going off to their training grounds, and when Tenten didn't show up he was mildly concerned, see as to how Hyuga's do not worry.
"Tenten open up!" Neji said angrily pounding on her door.
"I'm not going to train today, go away!" Tenten's voice broke a little. Neji stood outside glaring at the door like it was its fault.
"Tenten, I am not training with those idiots. Come out now." He was beginning to lose his patience. Why was Tenten acting so…so unreasonable?
"I am not a dog; you can't just order me around."
"Fine, but come out….please." Neji rolled his eyes. Begging really wasn't one of his strong points.
"Did you just say please?" He could tell Tenten was by the door via Byakugan.
"Hn."
"No, I already told you I'm not training today." Tenten was beginning to get annoyed. Neji was so bossy; it was like dealing with a six year old who didn't want to finish their dinner. In other words, he was stubborn.
"I said please." Neji rolled his eyes. Tenten had always done what he asked her to do, lately he didn't understand her at all and it bugged him.
"Just because you say please, doesn't mean you get what you want." Tenten replied opening the door.
"But it did." He said bluntly.
Tenten glared, and tried to slam the door only to be stopped by Neji holding it open.
"What do you want anyway?" Of all the days for him to pay attention to her, why did it have to be today? Tenten looked off to the side of his face, not wanting to look in his eyes.
"Have you been crying?" He looked at her face. Streaks from dried tears were stained on her face and he eyes were red; it was an obvious observation.
"No" She lied, moving back into her apartment.
"Why?" He asked void of emotion, though on the inside his mind was going crazy. If any guy had hurt her, they would pay.
"Just…because I was upset." She replied, still not looking at him.
"Tenten, you can trust me." Curiosity was taking over. It was like an unstoppable force and it was driving him insane; he had to know.
"I know I can, I just don't want to tell you, you wouldn't understand."
"Tell me."
Tenten looked at him carefully. She could tell him what was going on, but there was a chance he would laugh and things could become awkward; it was best he didn't know. But she had to tell him something, or she could go train; he wouldn't turn that down. "Let's go train now, I feel better."
"No." He replied quickly. If she only knew.
Tenten sighed. "Neji…have you ever been in love?" He raised an eyebrow. "If you haven't, then there isn't any point in trying to explain.
"I am." He said quietly, looking away from her. Tenten looked like she was about to break. He eyes grew big and glossy. Her mouth fell open, and she stared at him. It took all of her inner strength not to break down right in front of him.
"You…you what?" She felt her stomach grow tight; she bit her lip in an attempt to hold back the tears.
"I said I am." He looked back at her. She looked so upset. If he could just hold her, just once everything would be ok.
"I well, ok. I just you need to, I mean please go." She mumbled as tears began to fall.
"Tenten." He stood up and started to walk closer to her.
"LEAVE!" She cried hysterically. Her whole world was falling apart. Right when he said that, there was no doubt left in her mind; it wasn't a crush, it was love. She loved Neji.
Neji stopped, and left. He had never seen Tenten cried, she always acted so tough. Someone had done something to her, and he needed to know who. He was going fix it. There was one thing he realized; He really cared about her, he just wanted her happy.
