Inspired by Blooming Cosmo, goddess of all things Nejiten, and her evil plotbunny-spawning abilities, which threw off my one-shot updating schedule.

If She grow suddenly gracious—reflect. Is it all for thee?
The black-buck is stalked through the bullock, and Man through jealousy.

-Certain Maxims of Hafiz

They gave their report to the Hokage - and it was a lengthy one - and then they had to give a second debriefing to their clanhead. But as soon as he was able - and much sooner than good manners allowed - Hyuuga Neji had left his cousin to explain their recent undercover mission (as civilian high school students) to her father. He leaped the Hyuuga compound wall, flitted lightly over the rooftops, arrowing straight towards a certain apartment in the Central district.

Long practice let him easily undo the latches (and traps) and slip in through her window, landing in a crouch on hardwood floors scratched by years of dropped weapons. She was seated at her kitchen counter, clad in nothing but an over-large shirt that reached to her thighs, and her signature hair-buns were tousled and loose - looking ready to spill down her back in a cascade of rich, autumn-hued silkiness. She was sipping tea, and the steam rising from the delicate bone-Yong cup shrouded her face in vague white mist. She glanced at him, and Neji shivered.

On the battle-field, and on the sparring-yards, he could beat her forty-nine times out of fifty.

Here, within walls and hidden from any eyes but their own, she was his utter master.

It had been so ever since Tenten had begun to notice how Neji's heartbeat raced whenever she held him pinned to the ground, or to a tree, or - basically - anytime she limited his movement; the way his pale skin flushed whenever she was subduing him in a fight; the way his breathing quickened whenever she displayed her prowess and the mindset Kiba and Naruto had admiringly dubbed 'hardcore'. And of course, the way his eyes turned cloudy gray-violet and hot, and fixed on her, whenever she came into his vicinity.

It hadn't taken long for Tenten to realize what that meant. In fact, it could be argued she realized it before Neji had.

And Neji loved it.

Now he waited, half-crouched, half-kneeling - head bowed but hungrily drinking in the sight of his Tenten, his mistress of blades, with his Byakugan - and he awaited her command. What would she make him do? Would she be lenient? Would she be displeased?

Would she punish him?

"Oh hello, Neji. Had a good trip?" she asked, casually.

Neji blinked, and actually looked up without being told to. That --- wasn't how it was supposed to go.

Didn't she care? Wasn't she mad about being left behind - again? Didn't she want to hear about how their mission went, how they'd had to pretend to be civilian teenagers, how Neji had fended off his new crop of civilian fangirls (he loved to see the jealous glint in her eye whenever he told a fangirl story; it always meant good things in his future), how Naruto had loved his black Yankee-type overcoat so much he had brought it back to the Village...

It seemed she didn't.

She offered him tea. She offered him rice-cakes and egg-drop cookies. She did not offer to punish him, or let him atone by worshipping her. Neji was confused and increasingly disappointed. He was not hungry or thirsty - at least not for tea and cookies. He wanted - he wanted...

"Oh, I wasn't bored," Tenten answered to his half-distracted query. "I've been running missions with Koutarou-kun's squad."

The cup of tea Neji was holding creaked ominously as his grip tightened.

"He's a very nice guy, Neji," Tenten scolded to his half-scoffing comment on Koutarou, who'd been second in the class rankings after Neji - tied with Tenten, actually, though shinobi and kunoichi were ranked separately.

"Give me the shirt off his back - literally," she said mildly, sipping at her tea. Neji's eyes widened and he took a closer look at the shirt she was wearing.

The next time Tsunade tried to assign Neji a mission without Tenten, he literally threw a tantrum (dignified and reserved as one could be, but a tantrum nevertheless) in her office and refused to set foot outside Konoha without Tenten beside him - and where he could make sure she wasn't running missions with Koutarou-idiot.
Heheh. Poor Tenten, inserted in the new ED. At least Neji, when left out of the old Naruto OP, had a reason.