Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Chapter Seven

Tenten frowned at the sheet of music, and stopped playing. Neji, who was sitting next to her on the seat, sighed.

"That was going along really nicely Tenten, before you stopped right in the middle of it."

"Well, sorry! Anyway, what's that?" She said, pointing to a high note.

Neji leaned forward and took a look at it. "That's a D."

"Oh, ok."

She started playing again, and Neji leaned back to listen. Tenten hated practicing piano, and she was only doing it now because her mom had forced her to. Neji usually sat next to her on the seat while she practiced, helping her on the tricky parts.

Tenten played to the end and yelled. "MOM, I'VE FINISHED!" Then hopped off the seat.

She grabbed Neji and dragged him up to her room.

"Hey Neji, what did you get me for my birthday?" She said excitedly, jumping onto her bed.

Neji raised his eyebrow. "I thought you wanted it to be a surprise?"

"Well...I wanna know!"

"You'll find out on your birthday, Tenten." He smiled, sitting down at her computer.

"You're so annoying sometimes...anyway..." She rolled over and reached down to her bag, which was sitting next to the bed, taking out a few sheets of paper.

Neji got up from the computer and lay down next to Tenten.

"Hey Neji?"

"Hm?"

"First, I will schiesse you, then I'll um..." She turned over the page. "I'll steche you with my Messer!"

"And then you'll be tot, right?" Neji smirked.

"Hey! You'll be dead! I just shot you and stabbed you with my knife!"

"Let me see that." Neji grabbed her German vocabulary sheets. "Tch, this is so easy."

"Well duh, you're three years older than me." She reached over to get her sheets back, but Neji held them out of her reach. "Neeeeji! Give them back!"

"Let me help you study my dear Tenten. What is 'to put on make-up'?"

"Sich schminken."

"What is...instead of?"

"Statt."

"To achieve, to reach?"

"Erreichen."

"Ok, now how do you say...if I had a lot of money I would...fly to the moon?"

Tenten stared at him. "What kinda shit sentence is that?"

"Just answer the question Tenten."

"Ok ok, fine...wenn ich viele Geld haette, wuerde ich auf den Mond fliegen?"

"Okay, you pass." Neji said, giving her sheets back to her.

"...wow, thanks Neji."

"Your welcome. You can pay me when you get your A star."

Tenten stuck her tongue out at him and he smirked. Then she suddenly remembered her conversation with Gaara the other day.

"Hey Neji?" She said casually.

"Hm?" He was lying spread eagled on her bed, one arm under Tenten's neck.

"Did you talk to Gaara?"

"No." He said. There was no change in his position, voice, or facial expression. His small smile was still there.

"Oh, okay..." Tenten frowned. So why had Gaara asked her...

"Why do you ask?"

"Oh, he was just asking me the other day about you."

"Asking what?"

"About our relationship." Tenten propped herself on her elbow, her eyes on Neji's face, ready to see whether anything changed.

Nothing did. "And what did you say?"

She shrugged. "Just said you were like my brother."

Something hard hit Neji's chest, but he ignored it. "And he was fine with that answer?"

"Well...yeah..."

"Okay then."

There was a brief pause before Neji talked again. "So, you're coming to the lake this year right?"

"Yup."

Ever since Year 7, Hinata had always invited her friends to spend a month of the summer holidays at the Hyuuga house by the lake. Neji usually invited his own friends and they would all have fun. It had become sort of a ritual.

"Only three weeks to go before the end of the year."

"Yeah, we're gonna get all our tests back...I think I screwed up on all of them."

A fond smile came to Neji's lips. "You say that every year."

"Yup. Then I know I'm gonna get a good mark." She grinned.

He shook his head. "When you fail a test..."

"Le Great Tenten shall never fail a test! And if I do I'm gonna go kill myself..."

"Yeah, wanna go find a nice tall building now?"

Tenten threw her pillow onto Neji's face, laughing. "You're so mean, Neji!"

Neji laughed and put the pillow back. "I am not mean. Gaara's mean."

"Why are we suddenly talking about him? And no, Gaara is not mean. He's really nice!"

"So you love him now do you?" Neji said this casually, but he could hear his heart beating in his ears.

Luckily, Tenten pulled a face. "Love? Nah..." Neji couldn't have been happier at that moment. "I mean, I really like him and stuff but I don't think I love him...I dunno, what does being in love feel like?"

Neji thought about it. "Well, who do you love?"

"Um...there's you, definitely, and my parents, duh." Neither of them thought that this was strange. They had told each other that they loved the other many times before.

"So, how do you feel?"

"Well...family love? It's like, I can't live without you guys."

"So, can you live without Gaara?"

"Yeah. I mean, I'd be sad if we broke up, sure, but I wouldn't kill myself."

Neji smirked. "So if I went away, would you kill yourself?"

"You're never gonna go away, right, Neji?" There was new panic in her voice.

He rolled over and put his arms around her to reassure her. "Never, Tenten. I'll always be here. I promised, right?"

Flashback

Thirteen year-old Neji walked out of his house and through Tenten's gate, as he did every night. He immediately spotted his best friend sitting on the grass, knees at her chest, and went to sit down next to her.

But the moment he saw her face, he knew something was wrong.

"Tenten, what happened?" He said, looking in shock at her tear streaked face.

The ten year-old girl hugged him tightly and sobbed into his shirt. "M-Mom a-and Dad are f-fighting a-a-and I h-heard M-Mom shouting at Dad t-t-to get out and never come back!" She wailed, in between sobs.

Neji was speechless. Not knowing what to say, he put his arms around her protectively.

"W-Will D-Dad really go a-a-away, Neji?" Tenten continued sobbing. "I don't want him to go and leave me!"

"Your dad won't go away, Tenten." He said gently. "He loves you, right? He won't leave you."

"B-But then, wh-what if Mom leaves?" He head her muffled voice as she buried her head deeper into his shirt.

"Tenten...I would never lie to you, you know that right?" He felt her nod against his chest. "I can't tell you anything for sure, but if they really love you, nobody will go away."

She seemed comforted by his words, as her sobbing slowed down. Then, she wiped her face and looked at Neji's.

Neji looked into her beautiful brown eyes. The expression in them struck him hard.

"You won't leave me, right, Neji? Because I love you too, and I don't want you to go either!" She said, new tears forming in her eyes.

Neji took her into his arms again and whispered into her ear. "I'll never leave you, Tenten, I swear. I love you more than anything."

At that time, he too thought that he loved Tenten as a sister. But his feelings towards her would soon change and cause him more pain than he had ever known...

End Flashback

Yeah...sorry if you guys spot anything wrong with the German, usually I check everything but I really didn't feel like running down to get my German folder...anyway, please review!