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 )

Cheh! Like I would put him before the guests in my list of priorities. She mentally prepared herself to give him a mouthful of bashing, but stopped herself.

"Just don't complain," she said simply. She nodded to the guests. "They aren't."

Neji grunted disapprovingly, but didn't say anything.

Tenten took it as an "I don't like it, but if it's what they want, then whatever" grunt.

The night had ended and both Neji and Tenten bid farewell to the guests. Wow. There is something that they do together without hell breaking loose in the process.

As the guests got into the cars escorting them back to the hotel, Tenten turned to Neji with a smug grin on her face. "So…" she began, clicking her fingers, "Where's my payment?"

The prodigy snorted and turned to her. "You ate. Isn't that payment enough?"

"WHAT?!" she cried. But then she mentally slapped herself when the man smirked at her. Her eyes narrowed. He doesn't even try to hide the fact that he takes pleasure in my pain. What a jerk…

"You overreact too much," he said. He lifted his coat up and drew out a small white envelope. "Here." Neji tossed it to her.

"Yes! At long last!" Tenten cried giddily to herself. The smell of money! How it motivates me! "Hey! What the-" She had begun to peel the flap open when Neji stopped her.

"Don't open it here," he said. He walked away. Tenten stared at him and then snorted when he was at a far distance.

"'Don't open it here,'" she mimicked in a high-pitched tone. She clutched the envelope tighter. "Honestly…" She huffed, blowing a strand of hair out of her face. "UPTIGHT MUCH?!" She yelled the two words loudly so that he could hear it.

Neji stopped. His first impulse was to ignore it. But a part of him was taking great pleasure in making her angry. "Fine," he said loudly. "Flash your money to the world so that others can steal it."

Hearing no response, he smiled smugly and walked back to the hotel.

For once, Tenten was nearly speechless. She bit back her lip to stop a growl of frustration and instead kicked it all into an unlucky pebble that was in front of her. 19 percent of her was embarrassed. The rest of that 81 percent was frustrated and was thinking of ways to kill the Hyuuga in his sleep. She stopped herself from kicking a tree and instead, closed her eyes and counted to 10 once again. Finally relaxing, she stalked after him.

Once entering the hotel, she quickly went to the side of the main entrance and slowly opened her envelope. She gasped at the wad of green dollar bills. She laughed to herself as she fanned them out and brought them up to her nose to smell them.

"Ahhhh…!" she cried out blissfully. "Sweet money!" She looked left and right in suspicion as she heeded the prodigy's words. She slowly slid the money back into the envelope and clutched it to her heart, her eyes closed in happiness. At last! A start to freeing Iruka and Kakashi.

She took out her cell and quickly dialed Naruto's number. The phone rang three times before she heard someone pick up. "Hey, Naruto!" she called cheerfully into the phone. All the while she was flipping the envelope back and forth – savoring the sweet sound of fine, crisp bills swishing back and forth inside. "I just wanted to tell you that I'm starting to pay back dad's debts."

"Ne?" Naruto's loud voice could be heard on the phone. "Tenten? Oh! Nice to hear from you again. Good th-" A small static interrupted what him. Soon, there were more static sounds that disrupted his speech.

"What?!" Tenten asked. "What are you saying?!" The phone became even more static than before and the girl had to resist holding it back from her ear. "Hello? Hello? Naruto?"

"Tenten! I hear you perfectly. What's wrong-" He was abruptly cut off.

"NARUTO?!" Her phone went dead. The girl cursed loudly in Chinese. Of all times the phone had to run out of batteries! She began looking for a charger nearby, knowing that she had enough to pay for one. Giving up, she went over to the desk attendant.

"Excuse me," Tenten said sweetly. "But do you have a cell phone charger I could borrow? It's kinda important."

The lady shook her head. "Sorry. I don't have one." She eyed the girl curiously. "Do you have business with Mr. Hyuuga again?" she asked.

Tenten thought. Then smiled. "In fact…" she began slowly. "I do. Perhaps you can contact me with him again? Tell him that this might be the last time I bother him."

Hyuuga Neji sighed as he sat down on the couch in front of the TV. Taking the remote, he switched it on as he set his eyes on the documents and papers in front of him. He was exhausted by Tenten's appearance, but it was humorous for him at the same time. He snorted. It was clear that she didn't have respect for others though.

"Haruno Sakura – representative for Korea – has made it to the finals." The TV announcer was speaking loudly. "Her coach and assistant are proud and also confident in her win against the Russians." The screen showed a picture of a pink-haired girl about to serve the ball.

He wanted to turn the TV off, but his finger just wouldn't press down.

"It's a deuce – 40 to 40. It's Haruno's serve with an advantage on her side. If she manages to win the point, she will win the championships!"

Sakura held the ball in her hands, feeling the roughness on it. She clasped a necklace – a key – dangling down the front of her shirt. She bought it up to her lips and kissed it in a quick motion. She threw up the ball and slammed it down with the force of her racket.

Neji goes around to the back of her on a candle-light dinner.
Taking the necklace, he places it around her shoulders.

The girl on screen hits the ball and it bounced off near the alley. Neji saw the coach raise a hand – it was in. Another image showed Sakura bouncing up in joy as she was awarded the silver trophy.

"Unbelievable!" the announcer cried out. "The championship title goes to KOREA!"

Neji looked at the girl in the TV. You've finally reached your dream, he thought.

Sakura smiles back up at him as he takes his seat.
She fingers the necklace for a moment, then gets up to give him a kiss on the cheek.

RING.

Neji picked up the phone beside him again and shut the TV off, throwing the remote somewhere beside him. His eyes narrowed at the information he received. "What?"

"She's at your door now."

"Hello again!" Tenten cried cheerfully at the instant the man opened the door. She held up her cell phone. "Can you just believe my luck?" She snapped her fingers. "I just go and call a friend and then the batteries went dead. You don't mind if I use your re-charger do you?"

Neji twitched. "What I want is you out-"

"Great! I'm glad you agreed!" She shrugged herself past him inside the office again before he finished. She lifted up a couple of papers; searching for the re-charger.

The Hyuuga slammed the door behind him in annoyance. He glared as he watched Tenten throw up random pieces of paper and rummage through his desk, wrecking his near-perfect organizing system. "What. Do. You. Think. You're. Doing." The sentence wasn't exactly a question. More like a demand.

Tenten arched an eyebrow. She was wondering when he'd start to do that. It surprised her that he was only reacting now. "I'm looking for the thing to recharge my cell," she explained again, pointing at the useless object in her left hand.

He snorted. "Right. Are you back here for more money? I know you're poor, but begging-"

She sighed as she stood up. "I don't want to hear your insults to me right now. Do you want me out of here?" She looked at him and saw the answer in his glare. "Right, so why don't you make me go away even faster by bringing the necessary item to me?" she asked acidly. "You not helping won't make me go away any faster." She looked in another drawer and started to poke around again.

He smirked at her. "How about I just kick you out?"

The girl paused, twitched, and laughed as she shut that drawer, beginning to go through another one just as fast. "If you think that's faster, then go ahead and try." She hoped that he bought the bluff. Kicking her out would probably be a lot quicker… But there's no way that she's going to tell him THAT.

Neji mumbled something, thinking to himself. He considered her everlasting persistence that he has seen so far and frowned. Would kicking her out be faster? The answer came quickly.

Probably… not.

"I'll go get it," he stated. Tenten gave him a "I knew you would see it my way" smile. Something about that smile made him waver his pride a bit more and he resisted the urge to wipe it off… physically. "Don't touch anything," he told her.

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Whatever." Neji left the room with an inquiring glance as he shut the door. Instantly, Tenten went and sat on the black, luxurious couch. "Jeez. He has it good," she said to herself, leaning back to enjoy the full relaxation of the material.

She spotted the week's newspaper under all the piles of untouched documents and picked it up curiously.

"Haruno Sakura," she read out loud from the headlines. "Tennis player goes to return to Korea once again after winning championships." She smiled as she thought of Korea's latest hero coming in. She often imagined herself being treated with the same honor.

Neji opened the door to see Tenten lying on his couch and glared. He thought he told her not to touch anything! He coughed loudly to get her attention, and he saw Tenten stir from behind the newspaper. His glare intensified. "Tenten," he said loudly.

She peeked out from the corner of the paper. "Hm?" She saw as Neji lift up the charger with emphasis and then put it down on the table. Hard.

She raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Rrrrrrriiiiggggghhhhhtttttt…" she drawled as she got up from the couch. She whipped out her cell with a quick speed and plugged it in the charger and then plugging that into a nearby plug in the wall. She then went back onto the couch and settled down.

The Hyuuga raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing…?"

Tenten looked up from the paper again. "What does it look like?" she asked. "I'm waiting for the cell phone to charge again, duh."

"… And how long will this take?"

"30, maybe 45 minutes or so," she said shrugging as she looked back at the paper. She rolled her eyes as she felt Neji's glare on her build up once more. "Oh please," she muttered to herself.

"And what," the Hyuuga stated with venom, "are you planning to do until that time?"

Tenten snorted. "Isn't it obvious?" she asked. Neji remained silent. It was a bit obvious. When he didn't respond, she waved her hand at him and added, "Don't worry Mr. Hyuuga. I won't bother you. Just do whatever you do."

Neji turned to Tenten who was now leaned back with the newspaper over her head in clear sleeping mode. He scoffed. He had a sense that this would happen… eventually. He looked at the clock. An hour had passed. AN HOUR.

He went over to her and took the newspaper from her, finally getting a good glance at it. He stiffened at the headlines. Coming back to Korea…? He looked at the date of the newspaper. This week's. Recent. He frowned.

Meanwhile, Tenten was imagining a romance scene in her mind that often happened on soap operas. When the guy walks over to the girl and sees her sleeping and then puts a coat on her and then watches her sleep or something. However, she gagged (also mentally) since she saw Neji's stoic face in the middle of it all. Neji wasn't the type to do that.

How does she know this? It's because she can feel the proof kicking her right now.

"Tenten!" Neji growled. He kicked the couch even harder. "Wake up!" Tenten didn't want to face his wrath right now. She turned a bit to the left in order to hide her face a bit as she scrutinized the problem at hand.

Meanwhile, Neji stared at her. He knew she was awake. He knew that she knew that he knew she was awake. "Tenten!" He shouted a bit louder. "Wake up!" Still no response. "Tenten," he said again. "I know you're awake."

At that, the girl "magically" woke up from her so-called deep slumber. "Eh…?" she mumbled, dazed, as she sat up on the couch again. "Oh Neji!" she cried, seemingly surprised as she shook her head out. She yawned (Neji snorted – he knew it was fake). "Sorry. I must've dozed off," she laughed. "Silly me."

He snorted again and threw the cell phone to her. "It's charged," he said. Now get out.

Tenten took it and pressed it on, calling Naruto right there on the spot. Neji stared at her, once again, asking the same question for the third (or was it fourth?) time. "What are you doing?"

Tenten looked at him, once again, giving him the same look and answer for the third (or was it fourth?) time. "What does it look like?" Neji sighed. It was always like this, he realized. Ten different answers before she said the truth.

"I know that," he muttered with annoyance. "But why are you doing it here?"

"A not more convenient time than the present," she said quickly and held the phone up to her ear – silencing the Hyuuga quickly. "Hey… Naruto?"

"Tenten!" The girl held the phone away from her ear, quickly giving the time for her ear drums to heal. Naruto's voice was loud – even Neji could hear it from such a distance. "Eh he…" she said sheepishly. "Don't speak so loud, Naruto."

Neji's eyebrows lifted. Naruto? Who was this "Naruto" that she spoke of? A boyfriend? He waved the thought away and snorted. Like the girl in front of him could ever get someone of the opposite sex to like her. Maybe a brother… or a friend… or something. An uncle? He blinked. And shook his head. This was none of his business.

"I wanted to ask you to rent out an apartment for us," Tenten said as she began fixing her buns slightly. "What?" She grasped the cell again with one hand. "Yeah, I'm doing fine. The collectors are off my track… for awhile…"

Her eyes narrowed and she cried, "What?! What do you mean I couldn't possibly dodge them by myself?! Why you-"

The way she chatted with him though was so animated. It made him feel like he was missing out a part of something – just like the way she had toured the guests around the hotel recently.

"Wait," she said. "Where are you staying? Oh. Yeah. We'll try going to the city later." She paused and Neji smirked as he saw her eyes wide in panic. Tenten turned to him and rolled her eyes at him and opened her mouth to say something.

But she stopped. And then she smiled.

"Of course Naruto!" she said loudly. "I have somewhere to stay! A friend…" She looked pointedly at him. "… Of mine is willing to let me stay at his hotel."

Neji started. Pardon?

Now it was his business.

"Ok, Naruto! Bye!" Tenten hung up cheerfully and put the cell phone in her pocket. She looked surprise at the look Neji was giving her. "What?" she asked obliviously.

He growled. "If you think that's going to happen you-"

"You can't just go back on your word!" Tenten butted in.

"What word?" the Hyuuga hissed angrily. "I didn't-"

"Of course you did!" she said incredulously. "I even have Naruto as proof." She sighed and gave him the look of pure disappointment. "Why Neji, you shouldn't lie like that." She jumped up and walked jauntily to the door. "In fact, I'll save you the trouble and get the secretary to get me a room anyway."

"… Excuse me?"

The door clicked behind her.

His eyes narrowed.

RING.

The prodigy picked up the phone. "What?" he snapped.

The lady cleared her throat. "Err… Hyuuga-sir, the girl-" A voice peeped up from the background. "It's Tenten!" The desk assistant immediately corrected herself. "I mean… Tenten is here again. We have no rooms available. She says that you allowed her to stay-"

"Yes I did." He hung up quickly, massaging his brow. He's never been this frustrated in his life. To think it all started with a cell phone charger. It was ridiculous!

"So?" Tenten asked with excitement. "What did he say?" The desk assistant just shrugged, which Tenten took as an unsure 'yes.' They didn't really have any rooms available because of the guests... So maybe she could...

"Wow," Tenten muttered, awed. "I was only asking for a room, but a-a house-"

"Mr. Hyuuga asks that you only stay there for tonight and tomorrow – and those days only," the desk assistant said, bowing her head. "I don't know how you did it, but he's most stingy to-"

"Yeah," Tenten said, cutting in. "It was pretty obvious from the beginning."

The assistant bid her farewell and went back to the hotel once more. Tenten pushed open the heavy iron gates and stepped inside. She made her way up the dusty, dirt road to the white bungalow perched at the top of a small hill.

She had stood at the front lawn for a moment, drinking in all of its features. The outside theme was painted with a white and light, but bright, red as a color scheme. The doors, window frames, and the roof were painted in red, whilst everything else was either white or a light tanned brown. Plants and vines were all over the place bordering the house.

Satisfied with the outcome of her endeavors, she opened the door and stepped inside.

Her hands ran over the smooth polished furniture. She looked at the fireplace mantelpiece with interest. It was dotted with candles. And she was going to use these… when?

Shrugging, she decided that she would explore the other rooms later. Meanwhile, she had to buy the plane tickets for her and Naruto to go to the city area of Korea.

They would probably have less chance running into them if they went over to the city. Plus, there was a friend over there that was willing to take them in for the time being. She would go first, Naruto coming later. She laughed, remembering their recent conversation. Too bad he'd get stuck with packing. Too bad…

Tenten had stayed in the house for days, and had grown attached to it even more. Her dreams were filled of the house being occupied by Naruto, herself, and her father. Her newfound dream was this house, and by all means, when she becomes rich, she'll buy it from him!

But alas, her dreams were short lived. They say when you're having fun, time passes quickly.

And it was the day when she was… forced to move out of the most beautiful place she's ever lived in her entire life. Literally.

She could've stayed – in fact, she would've stayed, if not Hyuuga Neji drove up to the door and saw her out himself. Her eyes pleaded with another day in this beautiful house, but he ignored her, forcing her to get in his car so that he could diver her out of the property.

"One more day?"

"Hn."

"Another night?"

"Hn."

"Five more minutes?"

"Hn."

"A minute!"

"NO."

It was a highly depressing moment of her life, and she was wondering if she would ever walk inside the house again. It was a ruse anyway. She huffed at the thought. She had remembered speaking to the Chinese guests before…

Flashback

"So you are doing a business partnership with the Hyuugas?" Tenten asked as she walked beside the leading representative.

"Yes," he had answered. "The Hyuugas are very good in business. Partnering with them will surely make our own company rise." Tenten nodded, following his words.

Then she spotted a house in the hotel property. She pointed to it curiously. "Is that where you're currently staying with your colleagues?"

The man shook his head and laughed. "Heavens, no. It's strange, even to us. Mr. Hyuuga still keeps it in the property, although no one ever lives there. No one has lived in it for awhile now – ever since it was built." The man paused and tapped his chin thoughtfully.

"From what I heard, he checks it rarely. Every three, five years or so?" The man laughed with the others. "The man is very good at business, for one so young. He has inherited the business from his Uncle, I hear."

"I see…" Tenten said, ignoring the last two sentences. What kind of idiot keeps something that he doesn't even use? He might as well sell it!

End.

"Why do you keep the house here?" Tenten asked him. He dropped her off at the front of the house near the closed gates. "No one ever uses it. I'll even buy-"

"I keep it because I don't know what to do with it," he answered brusquely. He smirked. "And if you think about buying it, forget it because I know you don't have enough."

She riled up. "Why you-"

"I hope this is the last time you bother me," the Hyuuga said, eyeing her warily. Bumping into you is making me wary." He rolled up the windows and sped away.

"Yeah, well GOOD RIDDANCE TO YOU!" she shrieked at the top of her lungs.

Waiting until the car had turned to the right, she slowly crept her way back to the gate… to find it chained. Her eyes narrowed as she shook the chains angrily. "Damn!" she seethed.

However, noticing the pattern of the gates, she laughed. Bringing her right foot up first, she placed it onto the first wrung of the gate and began to climb it.

What? You didn't think she was going to give up that easily, did you?

She opened the door of the house once again and laughed at the Hyuuga's stupidity. "Not even locking the doors – now that is the sign for big ego!" She went immediately to the kitchen and sat down in one of the chairs around the table.

Whipping out a pocket calculator she carried with her everywhere, she started with the sum of money she needed. Then taking out the white envelope filled with her latest payment, she calculated the amount of money she would need to get to pay for their tickets.

She punched in the numbers and then wrote it on a piece of paper, all the while mumbling to herself. Taking the paper, she smiled smugly to herself and tucked it in her pocket. Then she went to work on how much labor she would have to do to pay back the debt.

She clicked in the numbers.

The numbers flashed in the margin.

Tenten's eyes widened.

"WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!"

Printed clearly on the screen were 15.6. That was… 16 years doing mediocre work (it was the only thing she could do besides touring)! And she hadn't even put in the sums for her tax deductions yet!

"No!" she cried as her head hit the table in defeat. "No, no, no, no!"

Her head whipped up unexpectedly. She breathed heavily. "Calm down, Tenten," she told herself, hastily brushing strands that hung loose from her bun. "Calm down… All you need is some fresh air. Yeah… that's it! Fresh… AIR."

Tenten went into the backyard for the first time. She gasped at the grove of orange trees that grew in it – covering the whole lawn.

"Wow," she muttered to herself in amazement. "No wonder he doesn't want to sell the house…"

She quickly went down and inspected the oranges, tearing one down and peeling it open. She took one of them and popped it into her mouth. Her eyes widened and she smiled at the sudden sweetness that burst through her taste buds.

"Mmm!" she cried as she quickly devoured the rest. She discarded the peels on the ground as she went deeper into the grooves. "One could make tons of money just by selling these!" she shouted as she picked a few for her to eat later…

Then stopped.

She took a look at the orange trees around her again.

The oranges turned to dollar signs.

Money…

A/N. Ah. This was kinda shaky. (. .); Wow. I'll try to make longer chapters since… some of you seem to enjoy that, judging by reviews. The next chapter might come a little later. Just a heads up.

Either way, thanks for all the reviews. They really motivate me. And advertisements for Tenten's "fluff" are always good. XD (ninjafrogofHNM).
Neji and Tenten's age (Princess of Stroms) is about 17-19. Elaborate if you don't think that's a suitable age.

Thanks to those who read and reviewed. Or just read.

Matahari
ninjafrogofHNM
Spetiane
Ice Phnix
Icha Icha DRagon Wolf
Shadow – Ninja – Fay
Princess of Stroms
Mitsu – Hoshi0326