Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, etc.

Summary: Tenten is indebt and a really good liar. Neji's family is rich and is in need of a temporary niece. What happens when these two meet? ( Nejiten & minor others )


Her "lover" looked down disdainfully at her. He looked at the staff as if he was calculating their intelligence. Then he looked at Tenten.

Slowly he went down and whispered in her ear:

"You can stop faking it now."

Tenten's eyes became wide. What the- How did he know? Her mind raced until her inner conscious took control of the situation.

No… Don't panic, Tenten! As long as you remain still, he WON'T NOTICE A THING.

Tenten lay still, taking heed of her own thoughts, and averted her eyes on the floor.

She heard the man scoff in annoyance from above. "Quit kidding yourself," the man said raising an eyebrow.

No response.

"…" His eyes narrowed. At last he simply said, "Get off." Well, more like demanded.

Meanwhile, the staff members were looking interestingly at this conversation. The poor dear had fainted. What the hell was this man thinking? It wasn't like she could actually hear him while she was currently in this state of unconsciousness… right?

The manager gulped and the attendant beside him began with, "I don't think she can hear-" However, she quickly shut up as the man sighed from his seat and took out a pen from his pocket.

Slowly, he dug the pen underneath one finger and pried it off of the arm rest. He began to do the same to the other fingers. The manager and attendant looked on curiously, not knowing why the hell he was bothering to do that. If she had just fainted, then couldn't you simply pick her up off the ground?

It was clear they hadn't caught on… yet.

However, Tenten was aware of his intentions. The fingers that were pried off before quickly slid back into place and she tightened her hold onto the arm rest – ignoring the gaze of the stranger harden to a most… uncomfortable extent. Instead, her eyes quickly darted to the staff and then closed. She made a barely audible sigh of relief. They hadn't noticed.


The doors of the airport burst open as a bus came to a stop on the concrete (badly parked). A group swarmed into the building and there was a loud thumping of running feet.

"C'mon! Let's go!" Naruto cried as him and the tourists made their way through the surprised visitors and guests that were there as well.

Naruto and co. dashed to the right terminal number and the tourists quickly threw their tickets to the attendant. None of them cared if one or two (or all) fluttered to the ground during their rush.


Hyuuga Neji's eye was twitching.

Here he was with a seemingly fatigued girl clinging on to his arm rest for dear life. His eyes narrowed as he saw the girl move the ones he had recently shoved off and then clench her fingers even tighter around it.

And the staff wasn't even taking notice of it. The man's eyes rolled. Did he really need to waste his breath and tell them to get this crazy woman off of his seat? Couldn't they see that she was stalling this plane for some obnoxious reason that he didn't really care about? He seriously doubted the intellectual expanse of these two and he was going to bring this up to the plane company once he was in the city. But either way, it was clear that this woman was determined to not let go of his seat.

She had guts.

He took his pen once more and dug it underneath the first finger again and pulled. He grunted.

Damn. She was strong.


CRAP! CRAP! CRAP! CRAP! CRAP!...

Tenten's mind was going insane. She closed her eyes even tighter and made a resolution.

Once Naruto showed up, she would privately bash his empty head open. No, she was not kidding. Honestly, why couldn't he come any faster? Maybe she should make the tourists pay extra for making her go through this troublesome endeavor. She shook her head mentally at that idea. She did admit that it was her fault in the first place for getting them... and herself, she supposed... into this situation.

She felt the pen go under her finger again. Oh shit. She closed her eyes in fear…

…Until she heard the man grunt. She suppressed an obnoxious laugh against his useless attempt.


Neji heard the girl chuckle a little. Pfft…

A vein popped on his forehead.

Oh.

So she thought this was funny did she?!

He nearly stabbed the pen into her finger as he began his task of prying them off. This time he held the pen under and bent it upwards, using his other hand to rip the finger off. As expected, it peeled nicely off.


Naruto and the tourists began to board on the plane. "Hurry!" he yelled.

The passengers entered the plane and Naruto followed to help them find their seats and also arranging their belongings into the baggage compartments at the top.

"Wow," he said to himself cheerfully. "Tenten did a good job. The plane's engines didn't even start yet." His attention turned back to a woman who was handing him her handbag to put into the upper shelves.


Tenten grew nervous as the man pried the last finger off.

She flew backwards, forgetting that she leaned her whole weight on the arm rest. As she hit her back against the other seat, Tenten bit her tongue so that she wouldn't let out a yelp of pain from the hard impact she got on her spine. Unconscious, unconscious, unconscious! Was what she chanted fervently in her mind.

Neji turned back facing front. He tucked the pen back into his pocket. "Carry her out," he said unemotionally.

"Yes, sir," the manager and attendant responded simultaneously. They lifted the girl on their shoulders.

"COMING THROUGH, PARDON US!" a loud voice rang out. Tenten snapped her head towards the source. That was… Naruto!

Sure enough, he and the tourists made a loud fuss getting into their seats.

Tenten smiled in relief, and then shut her eyes quickly - remembering that she was supposed to have fainted.


The manager and attendant dropped her off near the information desk. They both looked at her with concerned faces. Now what were they supposed to do?

"She doesn't look ok…" the manager mumbled. He turned to the attendant. "Maybe we should call the doctor?" She nodded her head in agreement and he continued with, "Maybe the hospital-"

Hearing that, the girl's eyes snapped open and she blurted out, "I'M FINE!" Tenten jumped up instantly, preparing to make her escape if the current predicament required one. She watched as the two of them looked at her like she had risen from the dead.

"Are you… sure?" The manager stared at her, uncertain with her loud out burst. "Perhaps you should lie down. We'll call Dr.-"

"NO!" she cried, beginning to jog backwards towards the exit. "I'm fine! Perfectly ok!" With that said, she swerved herself around and dashed out of the airport without another word.

The attendant and the manager looked at each other, but then decided that it was better to not know. It was an awkward situation and the manager tried to make a joke out of it by saying, "As long as we don't end up getting sued…"


Naruto came out of the plane entrance moments later and turned to the both of them. "HI!" he greeted loudly. "Did you see a brown-haired girl with buns on her head?" He pointed to his own head to further emphasize his point. The attendant looked at the manager, expecting him to answer.

"… Buns?" the older man inquired. "She just passed through here." The young boy nodded, the grin still on his face, as he began to walk away. All of a sudden, the manager pulled Naruto down by the cuff of his shirt and whispered: "You better take her to the doctor or something and make sure she's ok."

Naruto looked at the man next to him. "… Eh?"


A tour bus was careening down the road at the normal speed limit.

Tenten yawned as she leaned back on the cushioned seats of the tour bus. "We made it!" she shouted happily. "We're done for the week's business!"

"Barely," her partner corrected, carefully placing his eyes on the road. "You must have told them a whopper…" As an after thought, he quickly added, "It's not good to lie."

The girl rolled her eyes. "We got them on the plane, didn't we?" Tenten answered, fishing through her shoulder bag for some food. Her smile widened as she saw an object for indulging. Bingo. Chocolate was always good. "You were the one who was driving – how come you didn't come earlier?" She began to rip of the tin foil.

"What?!" Naruto was flabbergasted that she was going to pin this on him. "You said the plane was at a different time!" he accused.

No response.

"Ha!" Naruto adjusted the top mirror to see Tenten's expression. "See? I was right. If you're going to be a tour guide, at least be punctual."

"Ugh," Tenten sighed. "This is coming from you? Your job is so easy! Look at me!" She swept a hand over her body. "I have to visit the same places every single time! Do you know how boring that is?"

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto muttered. "That's the same excuse you make every time something goes wrong and I blame it on you."

She snorted as she moved the foil downwards. "Whatever. Where's your father?"

Naruto heaved a sigh. "Why are you always calling him that? He's your dad too, ne?"

Tenten shrugged, unsure of how to respond. "He just adopted me. Now where is he?"

"Most likely gambling or getting wasted."

This time, Tenten sighed. It was true. He was always doing something stupid. Well, he wasn't doing something stupid. His friend was probably the problem. Making friends with the wrong type of people... She scoffed mentally. "Did you hear where?" she asked dryly.

"I don't know… Something about… horses?" He heard the crinkle sound of the foil and narrowed his eyes. "HEY! Don't get crumbs or sticky hands all over the seats!"

Tenten ignored the latter. "… WHAT?"


"C'mon… LUCKY SEVEN!" A tall, gray haired man was staring at the TV screen. One of his eyes was covered with a fabric. A wad of bills was in one hand and a white slip of paper was in the other that indicated the number of the object he was currently eye-balling.

"Kakashi," a brown-haired man next to him prompted. He twirled the last of his noodles with his chopsticks. "How much did you bet on that horse (3)?" He placed his chopsticks down and he began to slurp up the soup of his ramen.

"… 5… 10… 20…" Kakashi counted the dollars. "I… err…" There was a silence as Kakashi looked at the screen. To tell him or not to tell him…? I think… "…I think everything, Iruka." The man said spat out the soup.

"YOU WHAT?!"


"Dad!" Tenten's voice could be heard through the crowd of people. She wormed her way to the front. Once there, she looked suspiciously at them both from behind. "So Naruto was right…" she muttered to herself out loud in distaste. One man turned to look at her.

"Ah – Tenten!" Kakashi cried out as if he just noticed her appearance. He extended an arm to shove her a bit more closely to them and apart from the crowd. "You've finally come to witness our big break!"

"… Big… break?" Tenten repeated stupidly. Her eyes narrowed. I have a bad feeling… "What is he talking about?" she asked to Iruka.

"Ah…" Iruka sweat dropped a bit. "Well you see Tenten…" Kakashi butted in hastily with, "Oh don't worry, Tenten!" He turned to Iruka whispered so that only they could hear, "Don't tell her anything. She'll blow it!"

Unaware of the message that was conspired between the two, Tenten turned to the big plasma screen that was shown above their heads. Horses. Lots and lots of horses. She sighed.

"I can't believe you both are already starting to gamble!" she spat out. "And with my money too!" She held out her hand toward Kakashi as if she was expecting Kakashi to hand back her savings. He didn't. Instead, he looked dumbly at her palm as his eyes widened in realization.

"Tenten-chan…" he began, his voice dripping with honey. He clutched the wad of bills close to his chest. "I'm your father's BESTEST friend in the ENTIRE world!" He turned to Iruka.

"Surely you can allow-"

"How much did you bet this time?!" Tenten's voice was getting louder and she did all she could to restrain herself from screaming. "Huh?! You know; if you're going to bet, then just pay them back on your own!" She whacked Kakashi's head with the back of her hand. "After all those times I had to pay back those debts! Ugh!"

No one stopped her, so she continued to ramble. "You think it's so easy to just waltz in here and through money on the table! How much did you give out?!"

Silence. Iruka and Kakashi gave each other a look. Kakashi's face was a more of, 'Don't tell her, dammit!' and Iruka's face was more of a 'She deserves to know' look.

The girl crossed her arms over her chest. "Well?!" she demanded. "How much?!"

"… Everything. (Iruka)" "$10. (Kakashi)" Two answers at once. Of course, Tenten chose to believe the… erm… more… costly conclusion.

"EVERYTHING?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!" she was screeching now. "YOU BET EVERYTHING ON ONE DAMN-"

"AND THEY'RE OFF!" the announcer's voice was louder than Tenten's, but just barely.

Kakashi, Iruka, and Tenten's attention immediately went to the screen. Suddenly, all three of them simultaneously began to chant together:

"LUCKY SEVEN, LUCKY SEVEN, LUCKY SEVEN!"

"Horse 1 speeds forward, but is immediately left in the dust!"

"LUCKY SEVEN, LUCKY SEVEN, LUCKY SEVEN!"

"Horse 7 seems to be breaking apart – and he does! Horse 3 and 8 are following behind!"

"LUCKY SEVEN, LUCKY SEVEN, LUCKY SEVEN!"

"Horse 10 has is gaining a lead! He passes Horse 9 with colors!"

"LUCKY SEVEN, LUCKY SEVEN, LUCKY SEVEN!"

"Horse 7 is going for the lead! The winning line is dead ahead!"

"LUCKY SEVEN, LUCKY SEVEN, LUCKY SEVEN!"

"He makes it… and… what?"

"Lucky… seven…?"

Kakashi stopped chanting.

Iruka stopped chanting.

Tenten stopped chanting.

And her mouth dropped open too.

"Horse 3 speeds past Horse 7 before he reaches the finish line!"

The screen flashed Horse 7 about to touch the line, and then Horse 3 billowing past him. The screen froze, replayed in slow motion, and then froze again. Kakashi muttered something along the lines of, "Way to rub it in."

"UNBELIEVABLE FOLKS, UNBELIEVABLE! HORSE 3 WINS THIS RACE!"

"No… frickin' way…"

That just DID NOT HAPPEN!


(3) Iruka and Kakashi are currently betting on horses running for the horse race. It was probably obvious, but I just added the note here in case.


A/N. Yes. Iruka was placed in the position of the dad because of his fatherliness to Naruto. Kakashi is in there too because Iruka is too good-hearted to gamble. Kakashi is good-hearted too - just not as good-hearted as Iruka. XD

Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. ( . 0 . ) Or just read.

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dancergirl519
Spetiane