Hi guys. Pretty long chapter here. Probably won't update until Monday or Tuesday.

For all you non-yaoi people out there- there is a brief mention of Leegaa at the end. I'm sorry, I was strapped for inspiration, and that… that's what it came too. I needed Lee to talk about something, but I don't know anyone canon who'd do and didn't want to write OC. So if you're so inclined, skip to the last few sentences, I won't be mean. :)

For all you yaoi fangirls, I'm afraid that I can't oblige you either, as Tentents seems to be a girl and I'm too much of a nitwit to write two pairings in one story.

Either way, please don't eat me.

And no, I'm not adding this to the summary, because it really isn't important to the story.

Enjoy.

Chapter 3- Tangled

Contrary to popular belief, Tenten's hair was not permanently fixed in those odd little lumps on the back of her head.

Although it could seem like that at times.

She was currently unpinning it; unwinding them like tiny snakes and letting them down her neck.

"What are you staring at?" She was tilting her head at a peculiar angle to look at him as she finger-combed her hair.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" Neji laughed. And laughed. And laughed some more.

The sky was rapidly turning gold and scarlet, and they'd found a good place to set up camp in the woods.

As the miles had passed and Neji had distanced himself from the village and the snares of the men in the clan hall, his mood had grown steadily more joyous; a mild dementia, by his reserved standards.

"That is not funny." (Tenten had no such elation, and was getting a bit tired.) "It is unfunny. You are unfunny."

"You're just tired." He leaned back on the boulder he had sat on, letting his spine mold to it, putting his hands on the back.

"That's it, yes. It could be also that the only sane teammate I have is oddly bubbly today."

He swerved around the rock so his upside down face was looking at her, his legs crossed oddly at a right degree angle to his torso.

"You look really different upside down and with your hair down."

"I'm going to see if they have any more green spandex suits."

Owch. He fixed himself from his contortionist position. "Okay. Okay. I'm sane."

She sighed in relief, and continued picking away at her hair. He leaned back on the rock once more, head slipping onto his shoulder, propping himself up by the elbows. He looked out at the sky.

"Where's Gai again?"

"Firewood."

"Lee?"

"Firewood also. I'll bet they're making a weird-ass competition out of it."

"Every day for them is a weird-ass competition."

Neji laughed. "They're currently tied for that, I'm afraid."

The world wasn't too horrible at the moment, he thought. It was nice. There were no main-clannies to wish death upon. She had forgiven his transgression of the green-suited kind.

This rock was comfortable, too. Damn, it was a comfortable rock. He closed his eyes.

"Hey, Neji?"

"Yes, tentents?"

A growl. "My hair's really bad right now. You wouldn't happen to have a brush, would you?"

"Excusemewhat?" He sat up, hissing indignantly.

She looked at him desperately. "I'm in a bit of a fix here. And your hair is longer than mine. Much longer. You don't have a brush?"

"Are you calling me effeminate?"

"I'm not calling you anything; I'm asking for help!"

Neji looked at her. It was pretty tangled, yes.

"I don't have a brush, but let me see if I can help you out." He slid over to where she was, and pulled her hair into his hands.

"See, if you kept it all nice and tied back like mine, this wouldn't happen."

"Yours is long enough. Mine isn't."

As he absently tugged, his fingers caught.

"Ow. Careful. Long strokes."

"Like this?"

"Yes. Oh, yes,' she said, eyes closing. "Yes good." Tenten's shoulders slackened, and she leaned back onto him, eyes closed. Her back conformed to plane of this knees and arms behind him.

Was he forgetting something? He felt like he was forgetting something, as his fingers unsnarled her clumped hair.

Oh right.

Breathing. He inhaled. Right. That's important.

The moment lasted… well, he couldn't quite gauge how long it actually was, but it felt like an eternity to him. He'd have liked to stay there forever, her body warm against him, his fingers working methodically, his mind in utter peace.

"Er, I think its all good now."

"Thank you, Neji." She tilted her head back, brown eyes angling up. She looked at him for a moment. A long moment.

Breathe, you idiot. Breathe. BREATHE. Neji wildly fished around for words. For actions. Anything.

A tiny voice in an inner crevice of his mind whispered in his ear, kiss her, you idiot. Kiss her.

I can't.

Why can't you? The voice smoothly said, You want to.

I, a reason, a reason, he needed a reason. And quickly. This business with the clan, I'd only lead her on.

That's miles away. Universes away. Centuries away. She's here now.

Silence. Then, no. I...I refuse to hurt her.

It's you who's hurting, isn't it? She's not the coward here.

"Neji? You okay?" Her voice snapped him back into the present.

"I'm fine." Damn, his voice was shaking like a leaf.

"You looked miles away."

"I'm sorry. I…" he faltered. Again. I falter all too much. "Well, I'm sorry."

"Its okay."

A snap of wood and a yelp of pain.

"Five bucks says that's one of them breaking a limb." She sat up. "I guess I'd better go help them." And she was off and running.

He folded his head between his knees.

I am a coward. I am an utter coward, he silently cursed to himself. What's my excuse again? Oh right, the clan. As usual. My perpetual excuse.

It's high time that I be more than a tool of the clan. It's high time I let myself be more than a tool of the clan.

___________

"Lee. Come over here, I need to talk to you about something!" Neji whispered to Lee as they were packing up to travel the next morning. Tenten was groggily walking ahead, and, well, god knows where Gai was. He wasn't here, by any means.

"Yes, Neji?" Lee chirped.

"There's, er, something…I have a problem."

Lee's face had a look of extreme concentration for a moment, then he brightened and said, "Could it be a girl problem?"

Damn. It must be a bit obvious if he guessed it. Neji cleared his throat. "Yes. Yes it is."

Lee looked like he'd just won the lottery. And a new spandex suit.

"Any girl in particular?"

"No. Not really, no." Psht. "Its just that, I have…."

"No experience?"

He's spot on, again. That's…that's unheard of. "Yeah, exactly. I've never even kissed a girl. Not… not really."

("not really" was a peck on his cousin Hinata's cheek when he was young, perhaps 6. "not really" had caused the silly girl to faint and quite a bit of teasing from his uncles after that.)

"And you. You have." Neji said. "That girl, on our recon mission to the Sound? With all those weird vibrating weapons? She was your first, was she?"

Lee shifted a tiny bit. "Well, the 'first' isn't really as important as-it's not as if-uhh"

"She wasn't you first?" Damn, and that was quite a few years ago too. What has he been up to?

"No-she wasn't."

"Oh. Would I have known 'the first'?" Times like this called for air quotes, and Neji obliged.

"You…I don't think you'd know her. Not personally."

"Okay. It's not even who that matters, it's how." Neji paused to push his hair back into place where it had fallen free onto his face. "Because I haven't the slightest clue, seriously. So how did it…go?"

Lee shifted, closed his eyes, and wiped his brow with his hand.

Is he sweating? It's quite cool down here. Maybe it's the spandex.

"Well at first, she was talking, but more quietly than usual. Talking to me, and not just projecting words. And then he…"

Neji actually did stop in his tracks.

"He?"

Lee looked like he'd just been zapped with a cattle prod. "She! She! I meant to say she!"

"You said he. Quite clearly."

"I meant she! She! She is what I meant!"

Neji grabbed him by the shoulder, and stared him right in the eyes.

"Come on, Lee. I won't think any less of you for it."

Lee cringed.

Come on, Lee. I'm really not in a position to judge here. And I really do need to know.

"It was Gaara."

Neji's jaw, which had been quite open before, fully unhinged now.

Lee embarrassedly smoothed the hair behind his head. "Yeah."

There's a lot about him I don't know, isn't there?

"First Sakura, then Gaara? Do you have a thing for murderous redheads or something?"

"It was after he returned to Suna. After the encounter with the Akatsuki, remember? And we stayed there to help them regroup for a week or so. After he'd been healed, I was around his headquarters, he saw me and invited me in. We were talking for a while, and then…" Lee turned red. "He started getting close to me, and I didn't run away. Just…just quickly. And, well," he sounded relieved now, "that's what it was."

"The man who tried to kill you. And nearly crushed your dreams. That Gaara. You kissed him."

Lee cleared his throat. "I was as surprised as you were, and I don't think he was expecting it either. But I think that in matters like these, the past doesn't matter as much as you think it does. It's the now more than anything."

Neji found himself nodding.

Lee turned his head. "Please don't tell anyone. Nothing came of it, and while I'm not sorry about it, it wouldn't have worked out in the end."

"You just said the past didn't matter, didn't you?"

"The past didn't matter, but the future did. He's the kazekage, remember? And I'm needed in Konaha."

"Okay. That's…easy enough."

Lee closed his eyes. "I think, in the end, its really most important not to run."