"D'you think it will have worn off?" Neji asked curtly, as Tenten exited her flat, fastening her weapons holster and straightening her hair.
"Good morning, and what are you taking about?" Tenten asked as the pair headed towards Team Gai's training area.
"Well you know," Neji said testily. "Lee's little – crush." He spat out the last word, rather scornfully.
Tenten looked anguished.
"Ugh! I forgot about that! I hope it was some temporary madness, I can't deal with a lovestruck Lee – and why me of all people?! It's crazy!" she ranted, and Neji grunted in agreement.
"It's going to be really weird if he actually does really like me…" Tenten muttered, oblivious to Neji's scowl.
"How so?" he asked, crossing his arms.
"I mean, how am I supposed to act around him? He's one of my best friends!"
"Do you feel that way for him as well?" Neji asked, stopping suddenly.
"What?! Where did that come from?" Tenten demanded, stopping as well to glare at him.
"Do you?" Neji persisted.
"Why are you so interested?" Tenten shot back.
Why does he care at all? Could he be – jealous? Tenten wondered to herself, feeling just a bit breathless at the prospect.
"Just wondering," Neji said nonchalantly, continuing their walk.
"Well, he is one of my best friends," Tenten said, and Neji waited for her to continue.
"But I think – I'd find that kind of relationship really strange. I mean I'm just not ready to – date or anything yet! I have to focus on my training," Tenten finished carefully, looking at Neji, trying to gauge his reaction.
Neji nodded his head approvingly at this statement, and Tenten rolled her eyes.
Stupid, emotionless Hyuuga. I should have known better, she thought to herself.
"Wait – does that mean when you are ready, you will consider him?" Neji asked.
Tenten winced inwardly at his acrid, condescending tone, but then decided to humor him. At least she may be able to surmise something of his feelings that way…
"Oh, I don't really know," she said carelessly. "Maybe, we'd just have to wait and see."
Tenten allowed herself to smirk as Neji fumed silently beside her, saying nothing more as the pair walked towards their training spot in silence.
...
...
Surprisingly, Gai and Lee hadn't been at the training spot, which was a rare occurrence they usually started training at 5 am, only to be joined two hours later by Neji and Tenten. Having nothing to do, and Neji not seeming in the mood to speak much, they had decided to spar.
Tenten regretted her earlier words, as she noticed Neji's strikes were much harsher than normal today – it was like he was fighting an enemy, though Tenten wondered why what she had said had pissed him off so much.
"Respite!" she choked out after thirty minutes of vicious sparring. She had exhausted most of her weapons, and Neji's strikes had taken their toll on her.
Neji stopped, saying nothing and proceeded to unleash his jyuuken on a tree, which soon crumbled and toppled over with a crash.
"What's with you?" Tenten demanded angrily, massaging her sore muscles. "Are you trying to kill me or something? You've never fought this – aggressively before!"
Neji glared at her.
"I'm helping you train. Your opponents won't be holding back you know."
"My opponents won't be freaking super-geniuses like you!" Tenten retorted.
Neji smirked at this, apparently palliated, and Tenten rolled her eyes. Male ego.
"You know," she said after a while, and Neji nodded, signaling her to continue.
"I think I take back what I said before. About Lee, I mean. I probably won't ever date him. He's too much like a brother to me."
Neji nodded carelessly, though Tenten thought she saw his fists, which had clenched at Lee's name, relax.
She smiled to herself.
"I'm rested, wanna spar again?"
She noticed, feeling rather triumphant, that his strikes were much gentler this time.
...
...
"NEJI! TENTEN! WHAT A YOUTHFUL DAY IT IS!"
Neji and Tenten stopped their sparring, both panting heavily. It was 9 o clock – they'd been at it for two hours. The training ground was littered with weapons, and large circular shaped dents where Neji's heavenly spin had cut through the ground.
"Gai-sensei!" Tenten said, breathing heavily. "Why are – you so late?"
Gai looked at her seriously. "Lee and I were having a little man-to-man talk."
"Uh-oh," Tenten muttered. "Please don't let this be about what I think it is…"
"TENTEN! MY BEAUTIFUL TEAMMATE! IT'S GREAT TO SEE YOU!" Lee boomed, leaping into the training area, right in front of Tenten, shooting her his 'Nice Guy' pose.
Tenten tried not to look too disgusted. Neji moved closer to Tenten, and if looks could kill, Lee would have fallen dead the moment he looked into those fiery byakagun eyes.
"Lee, seriously. Don't tell me you're still doing that whole act of yours," Tenten begged.
Lee looked seriously affronted.
"It is not an act, my darling Tenten. It is truth. I love you more than anything in this world, and I wish to be your boyfriend. I promise I will keep you happy!"
"Lee…" Tenten said warningly, then turning to Neji for a second.
"Attack him and I'll pulverize you," she whispered, not fazed by Neji's glare.
Luckily, Gai chose that moment to intervene.
"Lee! Neji! Tenten! Stop wiling away this youthful morning and start training! 100 laps it is!"
"Yes, Gai-Sensei!" Lee shouted enthusiastically, saluting.
Tenten sighed in relief. At least training would take Lee's mind off of things…
"But for winning the heart of my future wife, Tenten, I will do 200 laps instead!" he added, immediately sprinting off for his laps.
Neji snarled at the 'future wife' part, fully intending to run after Lee and beat him to pulp, but Gai held him back.
"No fighting yet. 100 laps, both of you. Now," he said sternly, and Neji and Tenten complied, both groaning in annoyance, Neji still looking rather dangerous.
...
...
"So now we'll have one-on-one sparring for awhile," Gai said to his team, who lay gasping for breath, having completed their laps.
His students nodded, Tenten automatically moving over to Neji. They were always sparring partners, leaving the two 'green beasts' (who also preferred each other's company most) to their own overly youthful training.
"Can we go a bit easy this time?" Tenten requested. "I'm still sore from morning."
Neji nodded slightly, and the two began walking towards their usual sparring spot, a few metres away.
"GAI-SENSEI!" Lee shouted suddenly. "I feel like I should train with my darling Tenten today!"
Gai didn't look too shocked; more like he had been expecting it.
"Tenten's sparring with me," Neji snarled at Lee, who was strutting closer to the duo. "We always spar together."
Lee was unfazed by this.
"Yes, but my rival Neji, changing sparring partners once in a while is beneficial to all ninjas. It helps develop defensive and offensive skills against a wider range of fighting techniques," Lee said sagely.
"Bullshit," Neji spat, knowing full well that Lee actually made sense.
"Spar with me, Tenten," Lee begged, taking her hand much to poor Tenten's consternation.
"Lee!" Tenten exclaimed. "I – I don't know if –"
"Tenten!" Lee whined, pouting.
"Tenten…" Neji growled, though she could see he looked slightly panicked at the prospect of losing his precious sparring partner.
"Come on Tenten, we're wasting youthful time!" Lee insisted, dragging her forward. To her surprise, Neji grabbed her other hand, entwining their fingers and pulling her back to him, rather roughly, as she fell back onto his hard chest.
"She. Is. Sparring. With. Me."
Lee's eyes narrowed.
"A challenge of strength then, my rival Neji?" he asked, tugging Tenten ever harder. Neji gripped her hand even tighter.
"NEJI! LEE!" Tenten shouted. "Both of you, stop it! I'm sparring with Gai-sensei!"
"Tenten!" Neji exclaimed, shocked. Tenten thought she saw a flicker of hurt cross his face, but then guessed she was imagining as it returned to its impassive mask once again, eyes now cold.
"Tenten, that may not be a good idea at this present time, since that would leave them to spar with each other," Gai whispered, not having taken any sides during the tiff.
Tenten, gulped. Gai had a point, as Neji was currently looking rather murderous. Lee looked on the verge of tears.
"BUT TENTEN, MY BLOSSOM, WHY?" Lee wailed. "AM I NOT STRONG ENOUGH FOR YOU? NOT YOUTHFUL ENOUGH?"
"No Lee, it's not that," Tenten said hastily.
"WELL THEN I SHALL HAVE TO PROVE MY WORTH TO YOU, TENTEN! I SHALL RUN 200 LAPS AROUND KONOHA ON MY HANDS!"
"Lee, please-"
"300 IT IS!"
And he was off, with a blur of green.
Tenten buried her face in her hands.
"Well, I've wasted enough of my time. I'm training," Neji said curtly, walking away from the clearing.
"Neji," Tenten cried, getting up. "Wait! I'll come with you."
Neji turned around, fixing her with his most arrogant look.
"What makes you think I need you? Spar with Lee for all I care," he said, stalking off.
Tenten looked after him, biting her lip. She knew Neji too well to be hurt by his egotistical, uncaring attitude – he was obviously hiding his feelings and was probably unleashing his wrath upon the poor vegetation.
"Idiot," she muttered.
...
...
"OI! Sasuke! What are you doing here!" Naruto called cheerfully.
Sasuke rolled his eyes.
"I'm waiting for Sakura," he responded.
Naruto raised his eyebrows in surprise at this, but fortunately decided not to comment.
"Baa-chan teaching her some healing jutsu, huh?"
"Hn."
"Oh. Well you wanna do something in the meantime? Cuz she's gonna take a while, Granny Tsunade's really thorough about these things."
Sasuke shrugged, looking questioningly at Naruto.
"Well, uh…" Naruto began, scratching his head. "We could – um – go for a walk?"
Sasuke raised his eyebrow.
"What?!" Naruto shot back defensively. "D'you have any better ideas!"
"Didn't you just go for a walk with Hinata?"
"Yes – but… I'm bored! I hate sitting in hospitals!" Naruto shouted loudly. "You have to be quiet and you can't run around, it's really irritating!"
They were now getting quite a few dirty looks from the receptionist due to Naruto's loudmouthed behaviour.
Sasuke stood up, heading towards the door, pausing for a moment.
"Tch. Moron."
"Alright!"
...
...
"So then Sakura-chan smashed the guy to pulp, and Sai and me managed to get the scrolls with this really cool version of my substitution jutsu, only later we found out they were fakes too, so we had to double back-" Naruto was animatedly recounting one of their earlier missions to Sasuke, who was listening with an impassive expression on his face as Naruto gesticulated wildly.
"And finally Sakura punched this huge crater in the ground and they fell in, so we could run off and mask our chakras before they could track us," Naruto concluded proudly. "It was a flawless mission, no casualties whatsoever!"
"Well, Sakura has gotten stronger," Sasuke supplied when Naruto looked at him expectantly for some kind of a reaction.
"Hey! What about me?! And of course she has, she's like a mini-Tsunade, it's crazy! She nearly beat me up the time I asked her out on a date and – uh, Sasuke, are you okay?"
Sasuke's face hardened imperceptibly at Naruto's comment; however the blonde could still read him relatively well.
"Hey, Sasuke, what happened? Was it something I said?" Naruto plundered on obliviously.
Sasuke turned to him, eyes cold, asking a question which had been bothering him for quite some time.
"Sakura. What is she to you, Naruto?"
His voice was calm, though Naruto could feel the sudden anger radiating off Sasuke.
He scratched his head, grinning. He had cottoned on to what Sasuke was getting at, but thought it may be fun to humor him either ways.
"Whaddya mean? She's my Sakura-chan! She's awesome and I love her!"
Sasuke raised his eyebrows, his expression growing even more frigid. The air seemed suddenly chilly, menacing, but Naruto was unfazed.
"I asked her out a couple times, but she refused," he continued, enjoying Sasuke's reaction. "Until a few weeks ago when she told me she loved me too…" Naruto's face took on a slightly pained expression as he recounted this lie Sakura had presented him with, but thought it was worth it, as he gauged Sasuke's reaction.
"WHAT?!!" Sasuke spluttered, losing his usually calm demeanor, eyes blazing. The air seemed to crackle with electricity, and Naruto could almost hear the chirping of birds. Deciding that he would rather not waste more chakra (even though it was the Kyuubi's) healing himself from a gaping chidori-induced wound, Naruto immediately backtracked.
"Yeah. It was just a lie though, to make me stop searching for you, 'cause I was so upset. Nothing more."
Sasuke visibly relaxed at this, slipping back into his impassive state.
"Hn."
"Were you – jealous?" Naruto ventured.
Sasuke glared at him.
"I guess that means you were."
"I never said that, moron."
"Still – I mean, the genjutsu you cast on me… the one you were controlling… I could tell you were jealous and just wanted to get back at me. I'm not stupid you know."
Sasuke was slightly surprised, and looked away. He hadn't expected Naruto to have guessed.
Before, when they had been fighting, Sasuke had used Tsukuyomi on Naruto, in an attempt to torture him by making him witness what Sasuke had thought would be a living nightmare.
He'd shown himself and Sakura, together, kissing passionately – with Naruto watching alone, as a spectator, as Sasuke stole Sakura right in front of his eyes.
Evidently, it hadn't worked, for Naruto had seemed rather happy at the scene. He'd laughed. Sasuke was confused, as he'd assumed Naruto still harbored the crush he'd had on Sakura since genin days. Apparently not.
Sasuke felt extremely stupid, a rather unusual occurrence for him, as Naruto smirked, walking towards him, looking him in the eye.
He glowered at Sasuke, he responded with an equally forceful glare. However, their expressions lacked actual venom.
"Yeah, you mucked that up, bastard. I wasn't jealous. Sakura's like my sister."
"…"
"But I love her, a lot! And I hate seeing her hurt!"
"So do I."
"What?!"
"I care about Sakura, Naruto."
"Yeah right! You don't care about anyone but yourself!"
"…"
"Fine! So you care about her! But you can't date her, I won't allow it!"
"Since when would I need your permission, dobe?"
"What?! So you're actually considering it!!!"
"…I never said that."
"You insinuated it!"
"Didn't know you could use such long words."
"Stop changing the subject, teme! You can't date Sakura!"
"I love her, Naruto."
"WH-WHAT?!" Naruto's expression was priceless at the moment. Sasuke suppressed his amusement however, immediately regretting the words that came out of his mouth. He was not supposed to admit it. Especially not to a loudmouth like Naruto. He didn't know what was wrong with him! The whole village would find out!
"YOU LO-" Sasuke clapped his hand over Naruto's mouth, muffling his words.
"Shut up, idiot!" he hissed. "Nobody is supposed to know!"
"Sasuke-kun! Naruto!"
The two boys whirled around, Sasuke removing his had, to see the pink-haired object of their affections (platonic or not) waving in the distance.
"Naruto," Sasuke began, his voice containing a note of urgency. "Do not tell anyone of our conversation! Do you hear me, Naruto! I will kill you if you do!"
"I won't, I won't, stop nagging me! I can't believe it, though! Hey, I haven't said that in a long time! Believe it!"
Sasuke rolled his eyes.
"Shut up," he muttered, as he began walking towards Sakura.
"Sasuke," Naruto said abruptly, suddenly stopping and grabbing the other boy's wrist.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes.
"What, dobe?"
"If you hurt her again – I will kill you."
Sasuke smirked at this, shaking Naruto off.
"What makes you think I will? Idiot."
Naruto nodded, understanding the strange, fiery look in Sasuke's eyes.
"Then you have my – permission…" he conceded.
"Hn. Whatever."
...
...
"Hey, Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted, bouncing towards the pink-haired girl. "How was your training? What was the new jutsu Baa-chan taught you? Was it to change your appearance, 'cause if it is, you should know I think you're pretty enough as it is! Baa-chan is a wrinkly hag who needs to use face-altering jutsus, but you don't!"
Sakura giggled at Naruto's incessant chatter, before turning to Sasuke, who had a rather annoyed look on his face.
However, it softened as his dark eyes met hers, and Sasuke nodded at her in greeting.
"No, Naruto, it was just a new kind of healing technique! And stop insulting my sensei! And if you want to be hokage, you really shouldn't say things like that about her!"
"Ah, whatever," Naruto grumbled. "Stop preachin' me! I'm hungry, I want ramen!"
"You just ate an insane amount a few hours ago!" Sakura reminded him, as the trio walked towards the village.
"Yeah, but I'm hungry! I want ramen again, Sakura-chan, please!" Naruto whined, knowing Sakura would probably not relent so soon.
However, Sakura was momentarily distracted, as Sasuke, who was walking in silence on her other side, suddenly reached out to thread his fingers through her, his warm hand encapsulating he own.
"Um – sure, Naruto, whatever you like," she murmured absently, and Naruto whooped happily, punching the air.
"Alright, let's go!" he shouted, racing towards the ramen stall.
Sakura and Sasuke stood in place, watching the trail of dust he had left in his wake.
"Hey, Sakura," Sasuke said slyly. "I don't really want ramen… do you?"
"No…" Sakura said uncertainly. "Why?"
Sasuke smirked.
"Well, as much as I wouldn't want to ditch Naruto, I'm pretty sure he'll find some company. I mean Hinata's probably hanging around near Ichiraku's anyway."
"Um – your point?" Sakura asked, eyes widening at the unlikely possibility that Sasuke was implying what she thought he was.
Sasuke smiled at her, ever so slightly, a genuine smile which made her heart flutter, as he drew her towards him, his hands shifting to her shoulders.
He looked at her straight in the eye.
"Would you like to go eat somewhere else with me?" he asked.
"What?! You – you mean – j-just both of us? On – on a d-date?" Sakura stammered, her face heating up as her cheeks flushed wildly.
Sasuke smiled gently at her, his eyes twinkling uncharacteristically.
"I guess you could call it that," he murmured, still gazing at her tenderly. "So would you like to?"
Sakura thought she'd faint out of happiness at that point; she was sure she was swooning. Sasuke Uchiha, being gentlemanly enough to ask her on a private date – was probably something she didn't even dare to fantasize about.
"Yes! Of course!"
Sasuke smirked at her breathless reply.
"Hn. Let's go."
...
...
...
A/ N – OOC, but whatever, its fun.
Any requests for anything?
Next chapter – Sakura and Sasuke's 'date'
Neji and Tenten reconcile – plus Tenten with her hair down =)
Sorry, I'm really busy now, but will update asap… I think I'm gonna have to change the genre to romance/humor since the adventury bit is over
Pls review!