It was a lovely day today, Tenten mused, as she stirred her rapidly melting ice cream sundae. No missions, no training (Lee and Gai-sensei had gone off on one of their one-on-one psychotic training sessions), no anything. She wondered where Neji was, eyeing the blank seat beside her with discontent. He was probably training by himself somewhere.

'What a stick-in-the-mud,' she thought. 'Won't even cancel a training session for once. He should go out more. With me.'

As if by magic, Hyuuga Neji appeared in her line of vision. Wait, Neji? On the streets of Konoha between the hours of three to four pm? She must be dreaming.

'Hey NEJI!' she yelled, knocking her stool over in her rush to get out of the ice cream store. 'Wait!'

Neji turned around, very slowly. 'What do you want?' he inquired in his You're-already-boring-me voice.

Tenten turned a shade of crimson. Why did he always have to be so difficult? He could try being nicer for a change.

'I..was wondering if you'd like to have ice cream with me.'

Neji rolled his eyes. He knew Tenten had a crush on him...and he didn't care. 'No thanks.'

She grabbed his arm without warning. 'Come on Neji! Live a little!'

Instinctively, the veins around Neji's eyes bulged very slightly. 'I said no.'

Tenten quickly let go of his arm and started looking like an extremely sulky little girl. 'Please Neji-kun?'

He counted to twenty. 'I'm...busy.'

'Busy doing what? You were just walking around.'

'I was not just walking around. I was looking for something, until you so rudely interrupted me.'

Tenten glared. 'What could you be looking for that's so important?'

Neji hesitated. Maybe she could help him. 'A brick.'

'...a brick. You're kidding, right?' Tenten reckoned he must've stayed out in the sun too long.

'Yes, a brick. Can you help me get one or not?'

Tenten reached into her pouch for her summoning scrolls. Now was the time! She would impress Neji by summoning a brick (hey, bricks are weapons right?), he would say something along the lines of 'Wow Tenten! You really are the most talented kunoichi I know!' and he would ask her out on a date and they would live happily ever after.

'I can help you summon one,' she offered, trying not to sound too eager.

'Sure.' He watched while she set the scrolls on the ground and performed a set of seals.

'...now!' Her hands rapidly slapped the characters written on the scrolls, producing...

'What the hell.' Neji, for once in his life, sounded surprised.

Lying on the checkered tiles of the ice cream store was a neat pile of sticks, some of them sporting green leaves.

Tenten turned redder than she'd ever turned before. 'I...I guess...well it was close! Stick sounds like brick, doesn't it?' She picked one of the sticks up and tentatively offered it to Neji, who didn't even bother looking at it.

'You're wasting my time,' he said, shortly. 'I'm going to look elsewhere.'

The little bell on the door tinkled cheerfully as the boy in the beige shirt left the store.

'Wait Neji! Waaaiit! I can do it! Really!' Tenten's frantic screams echoed after him.

And then...

'Shit,' said Tenten. And kicked her summoning scrolls away.