Ever since Lee had met Neji, he had doubted Neji's manliness.

I mean, it's not like it was hard to do.

Men wear their hair short, preferably cut in a bowl cut. Neji wore his hair long and silky. Lee did not care if it was a Hyuga tradition-Hinata's hair was short, which indicated that Neji could easily cut his if he wanted to.

Men were loud and confident. Neji was almost always silent, and he had never had the confidence to challenge Hiashi-sama about being part of the branch family. Nor had he ever had the confidence to ask Tenten out, even though he clearly liked her.

Men made their own decisions. Neji whined about fate. Lee had seen some girls he knew reading astrology columns in the Konoha Times and he couldn't help but compare the two.

And now, Neji had done the least manly and the least youthful thing of all.

He had made Tenten cry.

She had run away, so they hadn't actually seen the crying, but as she left her breath had been shaky, and Lee, peeking through her house's window to check up on her, had seen it all. There was a pile of tissues on the bed next to her, and if she wasn't crying anymore, she looked like it would take very little to get started.

He returned to report to Neji, who was waiting for him in the garden.

"She looks like she's gotten over it, more or less. But not that great."

Neji turned around. "She'll be fine, then."

Lee couldn't believe his eyes. Was Neji about to walk away? From a teammate in distress? How unyouthful! He grabbed Neji's shoulders and threw him to the ground.

"What are you doing?" Neji hissed as Lee sat on his back and pinned his arms to his sides. Honestly, he would be yelling, but he really didn't want Tenten's attention right now.

"What are you doing? You made her cry, Neji! You can't just walk away. That's unyouthful and in your heart, you know it."

"I don't care about youth."

"But you care about Tenten-san! And right now, you're so distracted that you didn't even notice me coming until you were already chewing dirt. You know you can't just let her go this way."

Neji sighed. Didn't Lee understand? "If I go up now, she'll get mad again and hate me."

"Oh, BE A MAN!" Lee was tired of this. "JUST GO TELL HER YOU'RE SORRY AND YOU LOVE HER SO WE ALL CAN GET OVER THIS!"

Neji flinched.

Lee huffed.

Tenten, hearing the yell, was now looking out the window.

Lee turned to her with his trademark smile. "Hey Tenten, there's something Neji wants to tell you."