She woke up at six. She always woke up at six, everyday no matter what was happening. It was ingrained into her system. She had been getting up at six for the past seven years nearly without fault and that created some sort of a biological clock within her.

Slowly she raised her fits in the air, stretching her arms. Once that was over with, the limbs fell heavily unto the mattress.

Realizing something was wrong, Tenten's head slowly rotated towards the limb that hadn't quite made it all the way down. The grunt that accompanied it's crash-landing had also startled her, for it hadn't come from her.

No one was supposed to sleep on her bed! There were bodies sleeping all across the room, tangled up in their heavy fleece blankets, but no one was allowed on hers. It was a health hazard in case she came back from a mission and forgot to remove her armor and weapons before going to bed.

The slight panic rising within her was quelled as soon as she saw the silky black hair draped over the surrounding pillows. That kind of maintenance-less hair belonged to only one person, him.

By him, she meant Neji. The one and only Hyuuga Neji.

A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she slid off the bed. Then the smile faded as she remembered that Ino and Sakura were coming over to harass her about something stupid. She didn't know what yet, but it probably involved some form of torture. Now slumping, she made her way towards the sliding door closet in the far corner of the room.

Grabbing what she expected was enough clothing to cover her appropriately she made her way to the bathroom. Respectively the trip should have been over with quickly considering the miniscule apartment, but she was still shaking off sleep, and in no apparent rush to get ready for torment. Plus walls had a thing for being in her way. After taking a quick shower, Tenten finally discovered what she had grabbed; warm-up pants, a tank top, a hoodie, and the all-important underwear. Nothing special, but she was in no mood to impress people. Plus it was winter, and this apartment didn't exactly have the greatest insulation.

Once that was done, she began the menial tasks of cleaning the apartment. Since her schedule allowed her nearly no free time, and her roommates were akin to pigs, those tasks weren't done all that often. And in the past three weeks they had managed to accumulate a lot.

First was laundry. Stalking around the tiny space with a basket, she shoved every dirty piece of cloth she found, including Neji's clothing. He probably didn't care what happened to it anyways. As soon as she had taken everything she could carry she walked out, making sure the door was still open, and down the stairs to the five washers the apartment complex supplied. Throwing the clothing haphazardly in and feeding the machines the amount of money it required, she walked back up to begin her next task.

And that task just happened to be cleaning up the kitchen. Most of it involved cleaning away the innumerable quantity of instant-meal containers. Fresh food was expensive, and no one she lived with could afford it.

Once everything was done, she walked around the three-room complex, doing an assortment of monotonous and annoying tasks that needed to be done eventually. At some point during the mindlessness of it all, she ate breakfast.

At eight a knock could be heard against the door. The two had arrived, and whatever hell they had brought along was within moments of happening. Against all common sense she opened the door.

"Hi Tenten!" the loud and obnoxious Ino screeched at the poor victim. They were barely two feet away, would it have hurt her to lower the volume?

"Hi." Tenten returned feebly. Oh, how she dreaded 'make Tenten girly' time. She still didn't know why she agreed to it every time. "Come in."

"Thank you." Sakura said with a smile as she watched Ino rush into the apartment. They promptly sat on the couch, casting glances of approval and disapproval. Tenten was about to shut the door when she realized that there was still one more person out in the hallway.

"Hinata?" she asked, slightly surprised.

"Um… is N-Neji here?" the nervous kunoichi asked.

"Yeah, if you want you can come in and wait for him. Just don't tell the other two." Tenten responded.

Previously, Tenten had asked Hinata what punishments would befall either one of them if Neji slept at in her 'home' –it was more like a ramshackle pile of plaster and water pipes than anything- every so often. She had explained in length Neji's new rebellious phase and how she wanted to help in her own way. Apparently nothing would happen as long as it was kept a secret. Neji was feared throughout the compound and family, so they dared not enrage him. He would surely be able to kill a few clan members before they got the seal activated…

"A-Arrigatou." Hinata mumbled as she scurried in and proceeded to sit on one of the loveseats set on each side of the couch. Finally she closed the door and poured tea for everyone. Pouring honey in her own cup she sat down on the remaining loveseat.

"So… what's with the clothes?" Ino asked, going straight to the point. Sakura sighed and looked at Tenten, an apologetic look in her eye. Even though they were friends again, they didn't always agree.

"It's laundry day today, and this was the only thing left." Tenten replied, after more thought she realized that there were still things in her closet, but they were covered in flowers and sequins; basically not worthy to be called clothing. Infact I think they've been turned into toys for the kids… she thought to herself with a smile.

"Oh." Said Ino before she started ranting about something unimportant. Tenten daydreamed, absentmindedly nodding at all the right times. After a while Sakura joined the conversation, shouting at Ino for something stupid she said. Not that talking about how Tenten's inner girly side was begging to be freed was all too intellectual to start with.

Her daydreaming was interrupted by a small tug. Looking down she saw a tiny tuft of messy hair cocooned in a dirty baby blue blanket. Then a mouth appeared from the blanket, exposing all it's teeth in a yawn that could have dislocated its jaw.

"Who is he?" Asked Sakura as the blanket revealed a tiny hand kneading an sleepy eye.

"He's one of my roommate's charges." Tenten said as she looked over the boy. "Are you even dressed?"

The boy shook his head, a big smile gracing his lips.

Sighing, Tenten continued speaking, "Then go back in the room, and get whoever's there to dress you. There's how many others still in there?"

The boy extracted a hand from the quilt, making it hang loosely around his nude form, and he showed his five fingers pointing towards the ceiling. As soon as that was done, he grabbed the quilt again and wrapped it securely around him and walked back into the room.

"Sorry about that." Tenten said, not quite sure how to explain the presence of a four year old in her apartment. "What were we talking about again?"

But there was no answer.

Instead the two she had addressed sat, stalk still and gaping. She then looked at Hinata, who was also silent, but gaping with a little more dignity. Either she, or something behind her was very interesting. Since she did not think that her question was that dumb, she chanced a look backwards. Leaning her head against the back of the loveseat she saw a pair of crossed arms.

There stood Neji in all his smexy glory, frowning, half asleep and topless.

This wasn't going to turn out good.

Not. At. All.

"It your job to dress the brats, not mine." He said simply.

Of course he sent an angry glare to thunder down upon her, without any effect. She blinked innocently back, struggling against the victorious grin that was rapidly approaching. Why, she didn't know, but something about it made her think he'd never live it down. With a questioning glare, Tenten was forced to speak.

"The duo is here for their monthly 'gracefully fail at girl-a-fying Tenten session' and Hinata is here 'cuz Hiashi wants you back. Breakfast?" Tenten responded holding up her newly filled cup of tea. With one last angry glare he snatched the cup and stalked back the two feet to the bedroom. "I'll be right back…" Tenten said as she jumped out of her seat and ran in after him.

"Okay… what was that?" Ino asked as Tenten walked back into the main room.

"What was what?" Tenten replied innocently, coking her head slightly to show her confusion.

"Whatever just happened. First there's a mysterious kid that appears in the buff, then he appears telling you it's your job to dress kids. What the hell?" Sakura answered for her, shaking off the bewilderment.

"The kid lives here and Neji was angry he was woken up." Tenten responded once more, making her feel like this had turned into an interview.

"Why was he sleeping in your house?" Ino said; thus the uncomfortable and potentially humiliating questioning had begun.

"He wasn't." Tenten retorted, confusing her audience.

"Last I checked that's what people do before waking up." Ino said, frustrated that it was always her questions that were destroyed.

"I don't have a house, but yes he was sleeping… and I think it's because he was tired last night, he regularly uses this place as an area to crash before going to the Hyuuga compound." Tenten said, looking deep in memory. Her only achievement was to raise more questions than answers.

"Are you guys together?!?! As in a couple?!?!" Ino asked, putting heavy importance on a couple potent words.

"No." She replied simply. No matter how you look at it, her and Neji's relationship was nothing more than a grudging realization that they were more than friends… a lot more. But neither would admit it, especially to the gossip queens of the kunoichi world.

"Then why was he here?" Sakura asked, trying to glean as much information as she could form this conversation.

"Since he can't function without a constant enemy, within days of reconciling with the main branch, he started to despise the Council of Elders. So he comes here as a 'rebellious action' against them. Plus it also gives him time to recover from the change of setting. It's not that easy to switch from bloody killer to pristine silence. Oh, and Hinata, he'll be back at the complex by lunch. Currently he's sulking in his sleep and he won't wake up for another hour at least." Tenten replied, since his secret had been revealed, might as well shed light on it willingly.

"How do you know all this?"

"He sulks!?!?!"

"O-okay…" shouted two of the girls, while Hinata said her answer in a reasonable tone.

"One question, how many people live in this apartment? Sakura asked, remembering the number of digits the boy had shown.

"I only live here a couple days a week, so not counting me: twenty." Tenten said.

Needless to say, it was a shock to the spectators. Two people could have problems living in this small an apartment, much less ten times that.