A/N: …You know why you're here : D


Chapter 12

"Plans, dates: what happened to hating Neji?"


Tenten POV

"Pink or purple, which would she prefer?"

"Pink."

"Large get together or small gathering with friends,"

I placed my hands under my chin for concentration. "Umm…small gathering with friends?"

Okay, I had to be honest; I had no idea what I was saying right now. Would Sakura prefer chocolate icing on her cake or cow's waste? Would she prefer strawberry or blood mixed with white paint? Did I even mind?

Deep down, (Way deep inside where I wasn't thinking about Neji or obsessing over the fact that we were at a pizza place "hanging out") I know I cared. It was just buried under all the Neji obsession, I'm sure of it.

"What are her favorite foods?" He asked pausing to look up at me from the pen and paper pad squashed under his arm. At the same moment I opened my mouth to answer, the waitress that was assigned to our table decided to appear.

"Hi my name is Danielle, are you ready to order?" She asked, and I couldn't help but notice how nasally her voice sounded. It echoed like she was talking with her hands covering her nose. I peered at her from the corner of my eye when I felt her wink at Neji.

"We have some specials out on the table today if you're interested." She directed her question solely to Neji and I felt resentment start to rise at this blond, tall, dimwitted idiot standing in front of us. She wasn't even that attractive; Twisting her hands around in suggestive movements like she was trying to flirt her way into Neji's pants; the slut.

"Its fine," he assured her completely ignorant of the indicative gestures currently being thrown at him. He stared at me inquiringly, "Why don't you order, I'm fine with whatever you choose."

"Alright," I said smiling up sweetly at her. "Danielle, we will get a medium pepperoni and sausage Pizza, please."

She looked at me with her nose scrunched up as if to say she smelled something bad. "You're order will be ready in 15 minutes."

I smirked at her once she started to walk a way but turned to look back at me. I felt oddly triumph, almost like sticking my tongue out at her so I could rub in the fact that I was the one sitting here with Neji instead of her.

So I did.

She sent me a menacing glare and disappeared behind the kitchen doors. I turned back to Neji, a small smile at my lips, just in time to catch his raised eyebrow.

"What?" I asked him innocently.

He shook his head but otherwise said nothing about what just transpired. He pushed the pad aside before folding his hands under his nose and staring at me. Under his intense gaze, I started to feel self conscious; I didn't like him staring at me like that.

"What?" I inquired yet again while touching my cheek to hide the heat growing there.

He shrugged. "Nothing…it's just that, you're hair is up."

I blushed harder this time, flattered that he noticed. I actually took advice from Sakura this morning about what I should do with it. Sakura being Sakura obviously did not fail to get suspicious in my sudden interest for a new look, so she pestered me about it all afternoon, until finally she gave up and left me alone about it.

The last thing I expected was for him to notice the small change and even go so far as to comment on it. I ran my hands threw the bangs that were once tucked behind my ear.

"Yeah," I cleared my throat. "It was kind of like a spur of the moment thing you know?"

He grinned knowingly. "Of course. It's not like you're starting to take my advice now or anything."

I squinted at him just as our drinks were placed on the table. I took a sip of my sprite and agreed, "Right, it's not like that at all."

He grinned. "Is you're house cleaner now too?"

I laughed at his attempt at tricking me. "Do you not remember at all how dirty my house was?" Then I snorted. "You wish it was cleaner."

We both laughed at that, and I had to admit it felt good. I don't remember the last time I laughed so deeply with a guy. All the guys I knew were jerks. It was all pride, power and balls in there court, and although I do feel closer to the male sex than that of the females, it didn't mean I enjoyed there company the way I did Neji's.

With him, things were easy like breathing in oxygen. I could say anything I felt like, do what I felt was comfortable…..I could just be me. It was weird how easily relaxed I felt with Neji despite my not liking him very much at first.

"Okay, this party is going to be a bit of a pinch considering that its tomorrow night. Sasuke has most of the plans ready. You know, like decorations and such?"

I nodded.

"Well, yeah. I was wondering if," He hesitated for a moment and turned to the window we were sitting by. He didn't bother to look at me when he continued. "If maybe you would like to accompany me…to the party."

I sat on the small bubble of hope and excitement building inside my chest, trying to appear calm and composed from the request. I raised an eyebrow, a small smile at my lips.

"As you're…date?" I asked him, though it was obvious by the tone of his voice, exactly what it was he wanted me to be. (I hope I wasn't being too cocky.)

A frown crossed his features before he turned back to me and grinned. "Only if you want to,"

I nodded and agreed in a small voice, "I want to."

He smirked at me. "I bet you do. Pick you up tomorrow night, say…30 minutes before the party starts?"

"Sure."

Neither of us said anything for a while after that. The Pizza wouldn't be ready in another 5 or 10 minutes or so. What were we suppose to talk about until then? At least when the Pizza was here we weren't required to talk since our mouths were busy….

Suddenly my mind came upon a question I've been meaning to ask him since the moment we met.

"Neji," Saying his name gave my arms Goosebumps, but I tried to ignore it instead by getting lost in his cloudy gray eyes once he turned at the call. "I've been meaning to ask you. I know Sakura told me Sasuke was twenty, but, how old are you?"

He held my gaze for a moment and sighed. "I'm twenty one, just a few months older than Sasuke."

I was silent for a moment as I took in this piece of information. Finally, I lied, "I see…"

In truth I didn't see at all. Twenty one? That's three years older than me. It didn't seem like a lot to anyone else, but to me… I felt like a kid sitting next to him. It was ridiculous I know, but I just couldn't shake off the uneasy feeling of immaturity.

Sitting across from me, Neji appeared exactly as he was: an adult. While I sat there looking glum and childlike, I'm sure he would appear to be my father to anyone who passed by… (Or was that going a bit too far?) It didn't matter, I felt silly and insecure and the emotion just would not go away. I wonder if I should have ordered the kids menu…

Wait.

There.

Was.

No.

Kids.

Meal.

Ugh…Life sucks.

"Does that bother you?" He asked, and his voice caught me off guard. I was so into my thinking before, "What?" I asked meekly.

"My age, does it bother you?"

Gray, curious, eyes held mine, and I lost my train of thought. The way he was looking at me gave me a sort of bizarre feeling, sort of like he was looking into the very depths of my soul. I didn't dare lie to him under such an intense stare.

"Maybe," I tried to choose my words carefully, "Just a tiny bit."

"Why is that? Aren't you eighteen?"

"Yes, of course I am!"

I stared at him until he looked away.

"Then why?" I heard him mumble, and the wave of confusion and hurt in his voice hit me like an electric shock. He was like a little boy deprived of his favorite toy.

It was about the exact time that I was kicking myself for being too obvious and tripping over my answer that the waitress, a different one from before thank kami, walked up to the table with the Pizza on a tray.

"Enjoy guys." She advised before marching off, never once, to my contentment, did she spare a glance in Neji's direction.

I sighed.

"Well?"

Damn. I was hoping he'd drop it sense the pizza was here now. Guess I was wrong.

"It's just that…I don't know," I shrugged for emphases. "I'm only eighteen."

He frowned, like he smelled something bad. "There's only a three year distance between us."

"I know, I just don't...you're just so much more mature than me…" I was babbling now, I knew I was. I didn't expect him to understand, and the frown lines still evident on his forehead, told me he really had no idea what I meant.

"And?" He made the word sound stressed. Like he didn't see the point or meaning behind my words.

"And…it doesn't matter." I grabbed a napkin to grab a slice of Pizza to distract from the perfect man across from me. (I still didn't know when I made the jump from egoistical jerk to godly specimen, but I was over the bridge now anyway, and had no intention of going back.)

"I mean," I continued, "it's not like were even together right? Were just…friends-I think."

Neji looked back baffled at me, his eyes widened slightly as he watched me take a bite from the pizza slice in my hands. I had trouble swallowing for three reasons. One, he kept staring at me, two, my heart was beating so fast it was like a lump in my throat, and three the sound of his voice as he slowly agreed with me and took a slice of his own, was agonizing.

Why did it hurt so much that he didn't make such a big deal, or seemed to care either way over our not being together, when it was me who brought up the subject in the first place?


The rest of the day dragged slowly. Really slowly. Sllooowwwwllyy.

So slow in fact that I could have sworn I could touch the moon and come back without 5 minutes having passed by. And it didn't help at all that Neji wasn't talking to me. When I tried to talk to him, he'd just resort to one-word-syllables, answering in Hn's, Huh's, Aa's and Yeah's.

I had this haunting feeling that he was mad or upset with me. I just didn't know why.

After leaving the Pizza place Neji and I headed to the mall for the last few items Sasuke needed, including ordering the cake for tomorrow night, and helping me find a present for Sakura. I felt kind of bad that I was birthday-present-shopping so late considering how early I usually had her other gifts.

Neji was absolutely no help considering he said everything I picked out was nice and that Sakura would like them all. Finally however, I decided on this nice couple beginner set I found. I thought Sakura would like it since it was a really cool bag with scrap books and picture frames and stuff.

Currently, we were walking back to Neji's car in the malls parking lot. I figured it was past five or six since the sun was just inches away from disappearing from the horizon completely.

I waited in silence as he opened the driver's door of his vehicle before walking over to my door so I could sit down. I settled the shopping bag in between my legs and cringed when he slammed the car door behind him.

I bit my lap until it started to bleed and buckled in my seatbelt as he reversed the car from the parking lot.

My heart clenched at a realization. He really was mad at me. I've realized how he seemed to tense up when I self-consciously leaned closer to him by accident when the car swerved or something. He didn't look at me even once after we left that pizza place. He wasn't talking to me and he completely freezes up when I, try to, touch him.

But the question was why? What did I do to get Neji so irate with me?


Neji POV

I tightened my hands around the steering wheel for what felt like the hundredth time that evening, grounding my teeth against one another to distract myself. I was behaving like a juvenile little boy, and I knew it. It just meant I didn't care. I couldn't help myself.

I had convinced some part of me for the remainder of our…..get together, (Yes, get together. We were only friends after all.) At the pizza place, that if Tenten didn't care about our relationship status, that I myself shouldn't be concerned either.

If it even bothered her so much of our age difference, which is only three years by the way, then there was no reason to care.

That's why I've been distancing myself from her. I don't touch her anymore unless it was an inevitable circumstance and it could not be avoided. Nor did I try to converse with her either. Before, I had complied easily into conversation and even found myself enjoying many of our talks.

As I suspected before, Tenten Kurosaki truly was not like the other woman I have come to know. She was intelligent, witty, talented in many areas, (but mainly weaponry) beautiful and significant of all, independent. She counted on no one besides herself to get through life and I admired her for that greatly.

Most women would rather have a shoulder to lie on but Tenten; she was so much stronger than that. When she told me about her past at the carnival, I could hardly believe she had survived such a fate, let alone overcome it.

Her birth parents had died when she was very young, leaving her to fend for herself at an orphanage where she was then adopted by a young couple who couldn't have kids and still live in Japan this very day. Considering the pain she had been in that night not too long ago, she didn't particularly enjoy talking of her past. But she had.

With me.

The thought gave me such an overwhelming feeling of contentment. Almost like, the idea of her confiding in me was so powerful, I could do just about anything. However, that did not matter. Not even now as we sat in my car as I drove her home for the night, the chemistry between us, callous like a reopened wound.

Not as I felt her body heat only inches beside me, breathing, sturdy, and alive. Burning into the very core of my existence, aching to be touched.

It was for my pride that I was doing what I was doing. A man had to have some level of pride, and I'm sure mine exceeded the average level. [A/N; I'm sure it does Neji, I'm sure it does. (Lol)] She intrigued me, so much that it hurt. But if she saw me only as a friend then that's what I would be.

I treated my friends just as I was treating her now, stoic, silent, and cold.

She wanted to be friends, so be it. I could be just as cruel and carefree.


Tenten POV

I sneaked a peak at Neji through the corner of my eyes. The silence was becoming unbearable really quickly. He hadn't turned on the radio once we settled in and I didn't want to appear rude and just open the radio for a distraction myself.

I've been raking my brain for the last ten minutes over reasons why Neji might have a reason to be upset with me. So far I've come up with zilch, nada. What did I do?

He was intent on his driving, focusing only on the road ahead. I was sure he felt me staring at him, but he made no move or indication that said so. I was frustrated with myself, and I was also beginning to get irritated with Neji as well.

Just when I felt that our relationship was improving- he was less distant with me now, and I didn't hate him like I did before- this had to happen. What the hell was wrong with him, ignoring me all of a sudden?

I did nothing wrong, I was sure of it. Neji seemed to pull this anger out of no where. (Most likely his ass!)

Finally I couldn't take the silence anymore and said, "Are you mad at me?"

One thing I've learned after meeting Neji (Which was like what, a couple of weeks ago?) it was that he hated people who beaded around the bush and were not straight to the point.

He didn't even so much as look my way at the question. "What makes you say that?"

My rage slowly started to rise at how calm he sounded. How could he sit there like that when I was killing myself trying to figure out what I did wrong to upset him?

"Oh I don't know," I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm."Could it possibly be the fact that you've been ignoring me for the past few hours!"

He was silent for a while before replying. "Hn, it's all in you're head."

My mouth hung open in disbelieve. "All in my head-forget it." I lifted my hands in a clapping position and returned them to my side almost immediately. "I'm not arguing with you. I'm not going to sit here and waste my time with a jerk like you, debating over if you're mad at me or not, which I'm sure you are by the way. Just forget it. Forget I even asked."

I turned my face to the window, so he couldn't see the hurt clouding my face. "Asshole," I muttered not too quietly.

I heard him sigh.

Suddenly, he stopped the car and I had to look around before realizing we were at my apartment. His car waited at the gates with the security guard.

Neji lowered his window before speaking to the guard outside.

"We don't allow visitors past six without a pass." I heard him say.

I groaned at my stupidity. I completely forgot about that. In my apartment complex outsiders weren't aloud until ten in the morning. With Sakura though that was different, the guards were familiar with her by now since she practically lives with me. So they let her in whenever she feels like it, hence the example from the other day when she showed up at my place unannounced, at six in the morning. But how was Neji able to get pass security the other night to come see me….

"Move." I barked at Neji still very much upset with him. I struggled through the small space he made and managed, somehow, to let the guard see my face.

"I'm Tenten Kurosaki I live in-Dean!" I grinned at the familiar face.

After realizing who I am Dean returned my grin with a small smile. "Tenten, out this late. You're parents wouldn't be too happy about that."

I rolled my eyes at his teasing. "Could you just buzz me in please?"

He stuck out his tongue at me and I did the same. He laughed at my reaction. "Very mature Tenten."

I laughed with him, "Aren't I?"

He grinned again, and buzzed the gate to let us through. "Very. Enjoy you're night."

I sat back up in my seat shaking my head at Dean's comment, just as Neji drove on to the small parking space under my bedrooms window.

He stopped the ignition after parking between two Toyota's, and we sat there in silence. After realizing he had no plans to apologize I started to collect my bags. "I have to go pack Sakura's present. Thanks, I guess, for going out with me today." I turned to him when I said the last part.

Still no reaction, I reached for the handle. His cool finger rapped around my wrist before I could reach it. "I'm sorry." I heard him say.

I turned to look back at him, confused. Noticing my confusion he continued on to clarify. "I do not wish for you to be cross with me."

I frowned, seemingly more aware at the throbbing of my heart than ever before. "Then why have you been ignoring me and why do you act like you hate me?"

"Is that what you think? That I hate you? Of course not, I was just…being idiotic. I took some of the things you said at the pizzeria a bit too personally, I guess." He shrugged.

I stared at him in disbelief. His form, out lighted by the porch light and that of the moons glow, left me at a loss for words.

He smirked at the look on my face. "Would you mind it if I walked you to you're door?"

I barely heard what he said because of the loud thumping of my heart in my chest but I nodded anyway. He carried most of my bags to the front door and I was able to unlock it with ease. I placed all the bags inside on the kitchen counter and returned back outside to tell him goodnight.

I turned to him. "Thank you, for a nice day and apologizing too. It means a lot, I'm glad we're friends again." I stared into his eyes, as he did with mine.

"That's the thing Tenten," He said, his voice hoarse and his eyes never leaving mine. "I don't think I can just be you're friend."

There was an instant zap of connection as we both stood there. It was hot and powerful and it left Goosebumps all over my arms. What was this man doing to me?

"What?" I finally whispered getting over my shock.

So fast that I could barely react, his lips were on mine, sweet and soft, just as I imagined them being. Not registering at all what I was doing I started to kiss him back, my hands moving around his neck, under the soft mane of brown hair on his head.

It felt so right, so unbelievably right. I could not find the strength in me to push him away, let alone make myself stop. The first time I met this man I knew from the very beginning we weren't going to get along, and that I wouldn't like him. How wrong I was…Now, I was freaking kissing him!

And I liked it. I liked how his body pressed up on mine like pieces of a puzzle. How sparks like fireworks exploded into the deep caverns of my belly.

I moaned and he took this as an opportunity to enter his tongue into my mouth, exploring all the different areas and corners in it. He left my lips for air and I gasped at how cold the night air felt on my now bruised lips. He softly kissed my neck and I about died right there.

Instead, I pulled at the collar of his shirt, pulling him inside, and closed the door firmly behind us.


A/N: Te-he-he….Who feels naughty? Lol. Joking. Anyway I haven't talked to you guys at all have I? It's been a really long time. Well, at least for me. I'm not sure if many of you enjoyed this chapter but if you did I'm happy. Please don't hate me too much about the cliffhanger. I thought it fit in really well with what's in store for the next chapter.

YAY for Neji and Tenten Fluff. YAY! YAY! YAY!

Lol, wow I'm starting to go crazy from all of those equations. Die stupid math that makes no sense. Die! Die! Die! *Breathes heavily*

Thanks to all the reviewers again! You guys are too awesome!

About the next update….um, that really depends on how much time I have. So…I'm not sure. But you can read Burning Flames while you wait ;) Lol

Please Review!