In gym class, Coach Asuma just let the students do what they wanted as long as it didn't involve destroying school property. Tenten and Akiko were taking turns taking basketball shots when the latter asked,

"So what's up with you and Neji-san now?"

"Nothing, I guess. We're back to how everything used to be," Tenten plainly replied, making a perfect shot without having the ball touch the rim. She passed the basketball to Akiko, who remained skeptical and asked,

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," Tenten said, catching the ball that had bounced off the backboard. Akiko wasn't completely convinced, but seceded to let the subject go for now. After Tenten had made another basket, Akiko said,

"Speaking of which, he's not brooding around like usual."

Bouncing the basketball at his side, Tenten turned to where Akiko was looking, finding Neji just sitting on the bleachers as if deep in thought.

"Maybe we should invite him to play a game."

"What?" Akiko asked incredulously. "You guys are too competitive. You'd trample over my body if it meant beating each other at anything."

Tenten gave Akiko a knowing look, and Akiko just shrugged. Playfully rolling her eyes, Tenten kept the basketball in her hands and approached the lone boy sitting on the bleachers and asked him, smiling,

"Wanna play a game?"

Surprised, Neji looked at Tenten, but surprise quickly turned to annoyance as he coldly answered,

"No."

"Fine. If you're so scared you're going to lose..." Tenten trailed off, starting to walk away.

Glaring at her, Neji retorted, "I didn't say I was scared of losing."

"You didn't have to say it," Tenten replied, smiling calmly.

Seriously irritated now, Neji stood up and walked past Tenten, mumbling under his breath, "Fine. One game."

Tenten was about to ask Akiko whose team she wanted to be on, but the latter quickly sat on the bleachers and said,

"There's no way I'm playing with you two. You're playing one-on-one."

Frowning, Tenten stuck her tongue out at Akiko, who returned the gesture. Dribbling the ball over, Tenten stood on the free-throw line and said to Neji,

"Okay, the rules are simple. First one to score ten points wins."

"Hmph," was all Neji said in response. Immediately, Tenten dashed past him and easily scored a point with a perfect lay-up. Smiling at Neji, she simply said,

"One point for me."

She passed the ball to Neji, and they switched positions-Neji on offense, and Tenten on defense. Neji had an advantage with his build and height, but Tenten was quick on her feet and could jump high enough to block shots. Just as Neji attempted a shot, Tenten had knocked it out of his hands, passing the ball from her right hand to her left behind her back, and quickly dribbled the ball to make another lay-up, left-handed this time. Maintaining her smile, Tenten passed the ball to an irritated Neji, who easily caught it and tried to advance toward the basket. But Tenten was blocking his path, never moving away from Neji's view, which in this case was incredibly annoying to him. In a blink of an eye, Neji faked a right, but pivoted the opposite direction on his left foot, shooting the ball for the point.

Catching the ball Neji had passed to her, Tenten bounced it at her side, calculating how she would get around the other, who was nearly a foot taller. She first faked a left, which Neji saw through and followed her to the right, but Tenten pivoted once more to her left, going for a right-handed lay-up. Just as the ball left her fingertips, Neji jumped up and used his height to catch the ball in his left hand, quickly passing to his right, and dunked the ball into the basket.

They were tied now.

With the ball in her possession again, Tenten attempted to break through Neji's defense, but he was too tall. However, she had managed to inch closer to the basket with each attempt, and now she was just ten feet from it. Taking this into account, Tenten bounced the ball on the ground so that it rebounded through Neji's legs, and she dashed around him, catching the ball and threw it in the air, but Neji swiftly knocked it off course, sending it out of bounds. As Neji went to retrieve the ball, a group of girls in that were in that area handed it to her and whispered,

"We're rooting for you!"

"Thank you..." Tenten replied, smiling sheepishly, and went back to the half-court she and Neji were playing on. Glancing around, she noticed that a majority of the students in the gym had stopped to watch their game. With a deep breath, Tenten cleared her thoughts and focused only on getting past Neji and scoring eight more points.


Nearly twenty minutes had passed, and Neji and Tenten were still tied at two points. One of them would break through to make a shot, but the other quickly stole the ball or knocked it off course. Currently, Tenten had possession of the ball, and everything else in the gym seemed to be in a stalemate. By now, everyone-including Asuma-had stopped to observe the game between the two students.

Unlike the day they ran the 1.5 km for their mid-term exam, the two were tired-exhausted, even. In addition to stress from studying for classes, they had both undergone significant emotional stress, having to deal with feelings they never knew-and still didn't. Aside from the hushed whispers of the spectating students, the only sounds heard were their heavy breathing and the bouncing of the basketball against the wooden floor.

With one last push, Tenten used whatever strength she had left to run past Neji and towards the basket. Jumping in the air, Tenten went for a lay-up at the same time Neji had jumped u to block her.

Without warning, the two collided and fell to the ground. In the process, Neji had fallen backwards, his right foot taking the force of the fall. He felt his ankle tighten and twist painfully to the right, and Tenten had also fallen on top of him, her elbow digging into his ribs as their hit the floor.

"Ow..." Tenten murmured under her breath and got off of Neji, standing up to rub her shoulder. When she saw Neji clutching his side in pain, she immediately kneeled beside him, instinctively placing a hand on the other's arm and asked,

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Neji groaned, shrugging her off. He tried to stand up, but quickly sat back down when he felt the pain searing through his right ankle. Worried, Tenten told him with a sense of urgency,

"You really should see the nurse. Here, let me help you."

As soon as Tenten touched his arm, Neji pulled away and snapped, "I don't need your help."

"Yes, you do," she quickly retorted. "Now stop being a baby and let me help you."

"I'm not being a baby," Neji shot back, glaring at the girl next to him, who replied just as quickly,

"Fine! So be a man and just let me help you!"

Momentarily taken aback by the demanding tone in the other's voice, Neji turned to glare at the wall and mumbled,

"Whatever..."

He let Tenten help him stand up, and, after getting permission from Asuma, they slowly made their way to the nurse's office. As much as it hurt to limp all the way there, Neji knew it would've hurt ten times as much if Tenten hadn't been there to help him.


It had taken them a good ten minutes to make it to the nurse's office, who was also Tsunade, and served as principal, which wasn't even that far away. When Tsunade saw the giant bruise forming on Neji's sprained ankle, she asked him with wide eyes,

"What were you doing? Wrestling?"

"Um, no... I was playing basketball," he awkwardly replied.

"Against who? Akimichi Choji?" Tsunade asked, referring to the captain of the Sumo wrestling team. But Neji didn't respond and looked away, feeling a little embarrassed.

"H-He was playing against me..." Tenten quietly answered, raising her hand.

Tsunade stared at the 164 cm tall girl for a long, awkward moment before saying, "Oh... I see..."

Soon after, she had tightly wrapped Neji's ankle, much to his discontent because it hurt more than Tenten's bony elbow being jammed into his ribcage, where he was sure a second bruise had formed. The nurse then left the room to look for ice for Neji's ankle, since the ice machine in her office wasn't working for some reason. The two students really hoped she would return soon, because the silence was just too uncomfortable.

Five painstakingly long minutes had passed, and Neji couldn't take the silence anymore, so he said the first thing that came to mind.

"Thanks...for, you know..."

Completely shocked at hearing the word "thanks" come from Neji's mouth, Tenten stared at the boy who was busy looking at a poster that described the proper hand-washing process. After a few moments, Tenten softly replied,

"...You're welcome."

The two students just sat there in the nurse's office, looking in opposite directions. The silence was still uncomfortable, but it was was slightly less terrible this time around.


Oohh? Happy New Year! Thank you so much for supporting me throughout this story! I'm happy to say I reached 50 reviews (almost 60!), and I continue to thank you so much! Sad news is, I won't be able to update as much, because I have to return to school on Monday, and exams are this month. I had a ton of time to write these past chapters since I was on break the past two weeks.

And as a present, I have given you cutesy-but-kinda-fail-romance! :D I hope you all enjoyed this chapter~ I worked really hard on this one.

I give cupcakes to those who reviews and favorited!

Chaki~