Uchimura Tanaka cackled in glee, rubbing his hands together like the proper perverted villain he was. The best part about his plan was the fact that he wouldn't even have to do anything for the next step.

He smiled indulgently at his computer monitor, which was currently displaying a ten day weather forecast. This was falling into place much too well. The complications he had painstakingly planned for were not appearing.

Heroic boyfriend successfully finds flowers.

Heroic boyfriend successfully, single-handedly defends flowers from others.

Heroic boyfriend successfully, single-handedly, heroically gives flowers to girlfriend. Only, to see them wilt in front of his eyes.

And the only thing anyone could blame would not be Uchimura Tanaka. Oh no! It would be a common, everyday occurrence that people blamed very often.

The weather of Konoha was going to be appropriately ironic for Uchimura's scheduled doomsday: bright and sunny tomorrow with no clouds and a light, warm breeze from the southwest at approximately five miles per hour. This, of course, had to be followed in the afternoon by a surprise thunderstorm that would last the rest of the day. Tanaka Industries' lab instruments had reported that a horrible blast of desert winds from Suna come rather fortuitously. All of this was making its own merry way over, right on the heels of a certain Hyuuga Neji.


Neji would have grumbled in annoyance at the deliciously sunny weather Fire Country was experiencing, but he was a perfect, stoic Hyuuga and such things would not befit his station. Still, there was something cloyingly sweet about the weather. It was much too perfect. The sun was warming his back. The birds were chirping.

The wind was blowing through his gorgeous, gorgeous hair with the breakneck speed of his traveling.

No, things were too perfect for Neji. Neji, who had only recently decided that a little discord was welcome. That exceptions could be made. Neji decided that he did not like this perfect weather at all, not at all. And then, a little thought begin niggling at the back of his genius mind. Something about this perfect day was off. Doing a quick couple of mental calculations, Neji reminded himself that it was the traditional time of year for scorching Suna winds to sweep through Konoha and Fire Country.

That could only mean one really, really bad thing was about to happen. Fire Country was about to be on the receiving end of one of the summer heat waves it was famous for.

"Think of a woman on PMS. Deprived of her chocolate," Tenten had said when they were caught outside during training, forced to trudge to Ichiraku for shelter (Lee turned up his nose at the un-youthful unhealthiness), confronted by an exuberant Maito Gai in the midst of a ramen-eating competition with an unwilling Kakashi (who, by the way, was not eating any ramen at all), and ordered out to train some more in this brilliant, blossoming opportunity by their oh-so-deranged sensei. But, thinking of that memory hurt too much.

Neji cut it off quickly and continued his running. He told himself that Tenten would be up and about soon enough. She would be back in the sun, sparring like always, within a week and he would be able to sort out what exactly the odd vision of Tenten during the confrontation with the Sound Four had meant.

The birds stopped chirping. Perhaps it was too hot.

To the ordinary observer, Hyuuga Neji did not exist. You blinked and the mirage of white had already passed, leaving the heavy dullness that exists only in the steps of a person who has discovered many regrets and even less time to remedy them in.

It started to really heat up. He only hoped the sun-colored petals would stay in their proper place, nestled next to his water bottle and carefully covered from the sun with (what do you know?) a dark brown paper that had once protected his chocolate from melting. These fancy dark chocolate bars had to have the proper packaging and Tenten's lecturing voice filled his head.

Neji was still a good day's journey from home.


Haruno Sakura looked out at the dismally perfect blue sky that peered in through room C-2. This was bad news for Tenten, whose chest no longer rose and fell of her own accord. Hot weather and dehydration could wipe out even the most skilled ANBU operative.

A morbid thought crossed Sakura's mind.

This would be the first time she lost a patient in her career as medic nin. She really hoped Neji would hurry up.


With a final burst of chakra, Neji slid past Izumo and Kotetsu (both on guard duty at the gate) and began his final stage of the journey, hopping from roof to roof, searching with his keen eyes for the bleached white façade of the Konoha General Hospital. Another few minutes and Neji found himself in the lobby. His head swiveled right, then left, in search of the hospital's stairs. Promptly discovering them, he took them two at a time, never pausing until he was on the third floor.

A flash of pink and white swam past his peripheral vision and he detoured sharply to the left.

"Sakura-san!" Neji called in a sharp tone, fingers already reaching for the zipper on his pack.

The pink-haired medic in question ground to a halt for a mere half-second before gesturing Neji towards her. In minutes, Sakura was in the Ward C laboratory. Her nimble fingers reached out for various bottles of medicine and a few quick stirs of the already half-made antidote ensured her the ingredients were still fresh.

"The flowers?" she queried distractedly, holding out one hand expectantly. Neji placed the plastic container in the medic's waiting hand and peeled back the cool brown papers cocooning it. Sakura unscrewed it and hoped desperately for fresh, golden blooms to great her eyes.

She was not disappointed.

The flowers were a little worse for wear and the hot weather had certainly dried out the leaves, but the delicate polymers they needed would still be twisted in the proper positions, a lock-and-key mechanism just suited for removing this particular poison. A few more minutes of careful pressing and she'd have enough essence to cure Tenten and Ino.


Somewhere in Tanaka Laboratories, Uchimura Tanaka squealed in displeased anger. His father's prized weather instruments had been wrong! There was supposed to be a thunderstorm rolling in this afternoon, a thunderstorm that would drop temperatures low enough and raise humidity high enough to destroy the Hyuuga's precious little bouquet.

Those damn perfect Hyuugas. First, they had turned down the weapons contract with his father's company, stating something along the lines of unreliable performance over longer distance throws. Apparently, some upstart weapons mistress had tested them and reported terrible accuracy in long-range fighting. It wasn't even like the Hyuugas needed long-range weapons! But that snotty branch house member Hyuuga Neji had adamantly refused on the clan's behalf, and Tanaka Industries was now stuck with (literally) tons of inventory they could not move. Profits were disappearing as other clans switched brands and assembly lines stalled over the lack of demand.

Tanaka swore in every language he knew. He then proceeded to swear some more. Now out of new or innovative expletives, he kicked a nearby refrigerator and then proceeded to swear even more at the pain in his big toe.

He'd planned everything! He'd worked on a perfect schedule with so many back-up plans there couldn't possibly be any exceptions he'd forgotten. No exceptions! None at all!


It was about a day after the antidote had been administered intravenously, about two after Neji had returned home, and about a week after Tenten had been poisoned. Uchimura Tanaka, unlike the majority of Konoha, did not know this fact. In fact, Neji had personally made sure the pervert would remain unknowing and unconscious for the next few days or, preferably, weeks.

Tenten, who had recently been taken off of life support, had woken to find two slumbering team mates and a snoring, drooling, altogether unattractive Maito Gai by her bedside. A box of what she assumed had once been chocolate sat open in Lee's bandaged hands.

"Leeeeeeeeeee, Gaiiiiiiiiii…" she attempted to squeak out past the still-healing mess her recent tracheotomy had made of her throat.

She received nothing but a prolonged snore from Gai. Alas, the (eternally, blossoming-ly) dynamic duo had always been heavy sleepers. Time to try option number two.

Deciding to give her aching throat a rest, she reached out for Neji with her left hand. And, suffering from coordination issues due to the poison, Tenten managed to miss Neji's shoulder and heartily slap her Hyuuga boyfriend on the cheek. He reflexively caught her wrist in a firm grip before blinking awake. Tenten was looking very expectantly at him with her chocolate eyes.

"You're awake," came out in an uncharacteristically dumb voice. The prodigy cleared his throat and managed a more acceptably reserved, "You're awake."

She nodded.

"How do you feel?"

"Thirsty." Tenten gave a slight wince at the way her voice grated. Despite the gruff and gravelly tone of her declaration, Neji felt the tension that had pervaded his body for a long, tiresome week melt. He carefully folded her arm back against the white sheets and got up to pour a glass of water. Remembering the cheek slap from earlier and Tsunade's mention about lack of coordination as a result of the poison and coma, he brought the cup to her lips and obligingly tilted it. It was finished in seconds.

"You are recovered? Everything has returned to normal?" Neji queried a second time.

"Except for one thing."

He looked alarmed. If Tenten was going to die on him after everything they had been through (Gai, Lee, training, Gai, curry of life, Gai, his uncle, Gai, Lee, a birthday gift of a forest green spandex suit from aforementioned spandex-clad terrors, Gai, that terrible picture Lee had taken of him in the hot springs, the ensuing chaos in Konoha's female population, etc.), then…

"What is wrong?" he asked.

Tenten smiled and Neji had the vague feeling it was at his expense. She shook her head and tapped the cup with a finger. Neji refilled it and returned to the bed. This time he withheld the cup from her.

"What is it?" A crease formed between his brows and Tenten could feel the heartache at seeing such an endearingly familiar facet of his personality.

"Nothing." Tenten's hand curled weakly around his as she attempted to pry the cup from his grasp.

The endearing crease became more pronounced and Neji let go of the cup (but not before assuring himself of Tenten's firm grasp upon its ridged surface), white eyes intent with something that Tenten could only label as even more endearing.

"Tell me," he demanded.

"Nothing. You were just smiling." She drank greedily from the cup for lack of anything else to do.

This perplexed the Hyuuga genius far more than it should have. He was smiling? And so what if he had been? What exactly was wrong with smiling? Perhaps it was not fitting of his station?

"Should I frown?"

Hyuuga Neji then proceeded to frown.

"No. Just looks odd on Hyuugas. Belongs on Gai. Lee. But, by all means, keep smiling."

He smirked, but it had a touch or softness she hadn't seen before.

"Anything for my official girlfriend."

"And as your official girlfriend, especially one who's just come back from a near death experience, I declare that it's cute enough to shame a puppy and you should do it more often," Tenten commented sarcastically, noting Neji's suddenly blank face with a smug smirk of her own. For someone just out of a coma, Tenten's alacrity in wiping that particular smug smirk off his face was still as sharp as ever.

"I will not smile anymore."

Lee gave a thunderous snort and woke himself up with the sheer amount of decibels he had created. Gai echoed with a thunderous snort and suddenly decided to join (interrupt) the odd little reunion with something like this:

"TENTEN SPEAKS! I PLEDGE A THOUSAND LAPS OF KONOHA IN MY STUDENT'S YOUTHFUL HONOR. OH, JOYOUSLY YOUTHFUL DAY! THE WORLD IS, ONCE MORE, RIGHTEOUS AGAIN!"

The brown-haired, brown-eyed kunoichi closed her eyes and leaned back into the pillows, calmly waiting for the end of Gai's loud declaration. The short conversation she had managed with Neji had taxed her and Tenten decided to sleep some more. When she woke up, though, it would certainly be nice to have some chocolate next to her.

"Neji?" she asked, "Could you get me some chocolate? The…"

"Dark chocolate ones with the brown paper wrapping. 76% cacao. Imported from Stone," Neji ticked off dutifully. Tenten smiled at the well-memorized spiel and Lee's triumphant shout concerning youth and obtaining chocolate. She felt a squeeze of her hand and opened one eye to find Neji smiling again. He promised to stay by her bedside while Gai went to supervise Lee, who was not known for his shopping skills. And with no more cares or worries, Tenten fell asleep.


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