Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

A/N: I know nothing about Fashion shows or fashion for that matter ((though I do know how to dress to impress, hehehe)), so I looked up some of the information and just winged it on other areas. With that said, NO STICKLERS! I know some things might be wrong, geez!

A/A/N: Sorry…you guys should know why…

A/A/A/N: So I realized I had run on the previous chapter which is why this chapter was 19 pages long, so I cut it off and it's still not so long; about 8000 words now….I decided to split it btw so this is not the whole of the 8000 word long, 13-14 page long update.

Chapter 37: I Love You

She sat comfortably in her chair backstage while she had makeup applied to her face. The show had come faster than she had thought it would, and in that span of three weeks, she learned to "perfect" the model walk per say. She could at least walk with confidence and that was defiantly something needed when being a model. Did that mean that she would become one? Maybe. It all depended on how she felt about herself as one after the show ended. So, as she sat as still as ever obeying everything Kanae was asking her to do, she kept her mind as open as possible. All the worst case scenarios were trimmed to more reasonable ones while the better ones were raised a little higher than usual, putting both sets of thoughts on a level playing field.

"There's my woman." Came a deep voice that had her smirking widely.

"Hello, lover boy." She cooed just as Kanae finished her makeup. She turned, smiling all the time and faced a serious Gaara. "I missed you, Cuppy-Cake!"

"I missed you too," He grimaced, "Gumdrop."

"Oh that killed you." She laughed before turning back around and looking herself over in the mirror. "How has life been?"

"Harder than normal. They still believe that we're dating, and this," He motioned at her and Kanae with a wave of his hand before stuffing it back into his pockets, "It's not helping."

"I know." Kanae smiled. "It was my idea, actually. I used you to get her to want to come to my side."

"What if I had said no?"

"She had already agreed from just the thought of being able to model with you." Kanae smirked. "With that, it adds more to the fire. The press is going to eat this up. They're sure to ask me about my model choices."

Gaara sighed then stepped up when he was beckoned. "I can't deal with women like you two."

"You love us." Tenten added.

She smiled as she stood and walked into the back where the girls were all getting changed. Most of them had their first outfits on already and were waiting patiently for the start of the show, seeming just as flustered and afraid as the actual designers. Ino was constantly fiddling with a belt just by the door of the dressing room on the other side of the room, probably waiting for Yuuya to call her out, Essence was sitting with Hinata admiring her very existence with the biggest smile on her face possible, and there was no telling how happy Ikuya was in the men's dressing room.

"Ah! You're makeup is flawless!" Ino cooed as she headed towards her with Hinata and Essence following closely behind. "Kanae is really something with her hands, huh?"

"She's so pretty she could model her own clothes if she wanted." Essence added. "No offence, Hun, you're very pretty too."

Tenten rolled her eyes before stepping past her to get to the clothes. "First was seasonal, right?" She asked as loud as she could.

"Yeah. It's the blue one." Kanae yelled from the back. "Put on everything except for the coat. I'll have to fix that one on you to fit properly."

She nodded before pulling the clothes off of the rack and looking over the outfit with a smug smile. "Boy am I glad to not be you're competition…Who's starting the show again?"

"Someone we don't know." Ino cooed. "Not trying to be disrespectful or anything but…I have never even heard of this person's name before. Not from you, Yuuya, Meme, or Kanae…hell Neji doesn't even mention him much."

"That's because he's always being asked about his top students." Hinata retaliated.

"…Or Tenten." Essence added getting everyone in the room to laugh as the person in question turned with a sharp finger pointing at her.

"Watch it." She joked before stepping into the first piece of her outfit. "And zip me up."

"Is this always how fashion shoes work?" Essence asked no one in particular. "It's not as stressful as it would seem."

"I doubt this is how it's going to continue." Temari stated as she stepped through the curtains and headed towards her own set of clothes, stopping to pose for a fake picture with Ino when someone pretended to take a picture of the both of them. "Neji has like, 12 students, maybe more, and sure that gives us some time to get dressed and fixed up again, but that also means that the students have to show their skills in a small amount of categories and time."

"Not to mention keeping the audience entertained with things like music and such." Ino added. "So that puts stress on whoever's running the show. Plus, the stage isn't that long. It's more so wide than long since two people are walking on it at the same time."

"That's another thing!" Temari near laughed. "The students are dealing with both men and women. So at some point someone's going to have to wait outside while their model gets situated."

"So it's not stressful to us," Tenten added while she worked one of the socks as far up as it would go. "In comparison to them and Neji."

"And Lord forbid there's a wardrobe malfunction." Hinata whispered making everyone hiss in agreement.

"Artists, 20 minutes till curtain call." Lee bellowed from outside the walls of the dressing room. "Twenty minutes!"

"Well I'm done. I guess I'll see you guys after the show, when things have calmed down." Tenten chimed as she headed out with the thick blue coat in hand.

Standing not too far from her was Kanae who was franticly working on Gaara's makeup. He, being the busy body he was, was already fully dressed and primped up. She was mostly just putting on some finishing touches and occasionally fixing the collar on his coat. Aside from that uncontrollable thing, he looked flawless. Usually seeming shorter than most, he looked all but taller than her now as he stood cautiously, blinking out the hair that managed to fall too close to his pastel blue eyes. With some kind of a side swoop hairstyle he had going on, she could even say that he looked quite handsome…mysterious…sexy almost.

"Look at you." She marveled as she stepped closer. "You wearing shoe lifts?"

He cocked his head to the side, seeming insulted. "I can't be this height normally?" He asked before walking past her so that Kanae could work on her as well.

Tenten turned towards him, smirking as she sat down gracefully where he once was. From where she was now, she could get a good look at him. Besides his smirking face and eye-catching red hair, the outfit he had on was something else to pay attention to. With a tight fitted turtleneck sweater – the kind where the sleeve extends into fingerless gloves – dark gray skinny-jeans, black fold over boots all underneath a long, navy blue, Trench coat with a Lapel collar and sterling silver buttons, it would be considered a misdemeanor to not call this fine specimen of a man in front of her, handsome.

Then again, with the outfit she had going on as well was something to be gawked at as well. With matching colors to Gaara's outfit, she was almost as outstanding as any other model. She had on a square necked, log sleeved sheath dress with a checkered pattern that stopped just below her butt, all while leaving enough room for a comfortable feeling and walk. The socks were black and thigh high, stopping at a generous space above her knees and below the dress. Then, finally the shoes, the one that seemed the least fit for the outfit so far – though it still looked well matched with the overall look of it – were blue suede, bootie heels adorned with a suede bow at the back. However, the finishing touch was still not on.

"Hold still. I need to get your eyeliner on perfectly. Did you bring the coat with you? Where is it?"

"It's on the chair nearest the dressing room." She stated softly while looking up and trying her hardest not to blink. "Gaara, can you bring it please?"

"Almost done." Kanae encouraged. "Close your eyes. I'm going to put on false eyelashes."

"Sorry for having short eyelashes." She whined while Kanae continued to finish her up.

"Okay! Face the mirror, I'm about to put the coat on you. You can open your eyes now, by the way."

Tenten turned eagerly, ready to see what this beauty did to her. For many times, she had gotten dolled up by others, professionals in her book, and she was given multiple different looks. From cute to sexy, from moderate to fabulous, and, seeing Kanae's spiral-type hair that seemed both weird yet fashionable, she couldn't help but get her expectations high.

"Ah!" She started before reaching up gently just to make sure that she did in fact, have her signature two buns atop her head. "Isn't this…my hairstyle?"

"Yup!" Kanae beamed. "I mean to tell you this long ago, but that hairstyle you have there is simply amazing in my opinion. You can get so much out of buns. Like, of course the original bun. Then there's the messy bun, which can look just as good depending on the style choice. You could also take one of them down and move the other on to the center. Or braid up what was made up of the other bun into one big bun on your head. You could even do three buns! Aren't they so fun? I could never do that with my hair because it's short. Plus this is you. It's your hairstyle, just like you said."

She looked at Kanae for a moment before looking back at her reflection as she tried to take in all of what she said.

"Tenten, aren't you tired of always having some nickname in the media? Like, The Girl in the Yellow Dress, or The Missing Sabaku Siblings Girlfriend, or Neji's Woman?" She paused before she flipped the coat, throwing it over her in and instant without so much as brushing her newly touched up face, and clamped the buttons on firmly before she walked in between her and the mirror to fix the collar. "Don't you think it's about time you showed all of Japan who Tenten really is?" She moved from the mirror and stood next to her, smiling brightly. "Tenten the Tigress, Tenten the Dragon Queen, Tenten: The woman who rocked the Entertainment world in one fell swoop. It's about time they learned your name, no, and what better way to say that then present you to them in the style you usually walk around in?"

Tenten stood there, amazed by the speech Kanae had given her before smirking deviously and touching the mirror a little more intimately. "You know, I never understood how you could move me so much when you're so significantly younger than I am, but I don't think I mind." She stopped before turning and walking up to Gaara, taking his hand gently before moving it up to his forearm and facing Kanae with a bright smile. "You're right." She cooed before laying her cheek gently on his shoulder. "Let's show them who they are messing with, ne?"

During the show

Neji had felt near restless the whole time before the show had started, but that edginess near vanished ten minutes into the show, just after the first three or so of his student's models had made their way to the stage and were received pretty well. So far, none of his top students had made their way to the stage, being lucky and having pulled relatively good numbers for the order, but that only added to the still lingering feeling of nervousness. He knew they were good. None of his students were so miserably bad that even a novice could tell the designs were trash, yet, even so, he was still fearful of getting negative results on hiss better three. So far, that seemed unlikely. The first couple on stage had been wearing a design by his "worst" student and no one seemed disgusted. Hell he even had to applaud the design. It was well done. The second person did even better, but that person was never once in threat of having a low seat. Meaning that both an average and below average student gave the impression of doing well by the crowds standards.

"You literally have nothing to worry about, Neji." Akari sighed. She and her sister were sitting by him on either side, watching the students work and him as his face went from calm to panic in mere seconds. "The designs done by even your worse students were welcomed eagerly."

"Yeah, so calm down." Minori cooed after reaching for his face and turning his chin towards her. Though it took some time for his eyes some time to look away from the models, he did eventually give in to her and faced her all together. "It's about time you used that stern, death glare once again. That will really calm your nerves, wont it? Besides, I missed that look."

For a moment, he just sat there regardless of who passed him on stage before he moved her hand from his face then faced the stage once again. Like Minori had suggested, his face hardened into this cold look that only Neji Hyuga could give someone, and he watched the duration of the show in that manor. Even as Hinata and Naruto walked across the stage in Meme's designs did he not look away or phase. He seemed hard as a rock while the girls beside him finally calmed down and enjoyed the show themselves.

"That last one was cute." Minori started. "Who's was that?"

"Yuuya's." Neji answered simply. "It's defiantly his style."

"So who's left of your top chairs?"

He thought on this one. He considered his top chairs to be five people all together including Meme, Kanae and Yuuya, and he only one he could think of whose style has yet to grace the stage was…

"Kanae."

"Tenten's designer, ne?" They both asked.

"I wonder who the male model with her is. Since Neji's not it."

"Yeah. It's probable someone handsome, ne? Tenten's been all over the internet and TV from just that one showing that it would be no wonder the person with her is better looking than most."

"You think he's better looking than Neji?"

"What?"

"Probably. It's actually not hard to surpass him in looks once you get passed that delicacy rivaling that of a female."

"Agreed."

"Can you two please not talk about me while I'm sitting between you?"

"Ah! There's only a couple of models left. Did we miss her?"

"I highly doubt we missed-"

He stopped and allowed his face to drop instantly. His eyes went from stern to wide, his pressed lips were held open gently in admiration and awe and his hands almost instinctively went up to reach for her. Beside him, the twins could only stare as Tenten walked down the aisle with as much flare as Ino even. She looked and acted the part of the perfect model, the perfect snow queen for Kanae's winter themed designed. Under the light that surrounded her, her skin looked paler than usual, probable because of the makeup, and her eyes looked larger as she stared down the judges with a fierce glare. She was. Even so, she looked all too fascinating, something that would catch anyone's eye, like a…china doll come to life.

"Ah! She's modeling with Gaara!" Minori called out.

"The media is going to love this."

Same Time on stage

Kanae wouldn't leave her alone. The whole time they were lined up, her and many others were surrounding their models, checking and retouching them in just about every place possible. None of them were speaking and none of them needed to until their model left to walk the stage and they prepared for the next set of designs. Gaara, being the ever so "obedient" person he was, actually took a liking to Kanae, and had done everything right for her. She told him to not move as much and he only moved his head. She told him to not flip the hair out of his face, and he got used to the itching feeling it gave him. She told him to never touch his face, and he forgot he even had the ability to lift his arms up that high. He basically became this living mannequin, someone who was told to follow orders and did so whereas Tenten had a little bit more trouble with the factor. The reason she got along with Gaara so much was simply because of their rebellious attitudes towards life. Hell, even when Neji, a person she likes, told her to do something she tended to do the opposite. Not on purpose…sometimes, but on accident without even knowing. So, naturally, when Kanae told here to not touch her hair she did, when Kanae told her not to sit because her dress would ride up, she did, and frequently too, multiple times she almost flashed everyone around her. When Kanae told her to not touch her face, she suddenly felt this extreme itch around her heavily decorated eyes that she almost messed everything up moments before her showing. Yes she was being difficult, but none of that was on purpose. It was all unintentional and probably a ways to cope with the uneasiness that was slowly taking over her body.

She had never been on stage before. Not counting the time she awkwardly spent with Kakashi and Ikuya she could technically consider this outing her first step into the Lime-life for real. They had always asked her stuff about dating, relationships, how she managed to hook Neji and then, finally, what she was planning to do from now on. Many offered modeling as an option, she even got a lot of calls from modeling agencies about her participation in tryouts and such, but she always turned them down. Some asked her to go into acting. Any woman that could hold up a lie that big for that long was bound to do good, but she wanted nothing to do with that either. Regardless of how many opportunities she turned down, she was still presented with more and more to do which meant more to reject, and that nasty thought that still swam in the back of her head whenever she was asked about her career choices now: What did she want to do?

In all honesty, she had no idea what she could do. She was suddenly presented with all of these options but she still wanted nothing to do with the lime life. Her old boss had offered her job back if she ever did decide to go back, but she was against that as well. The last thing she wanted was for multiple people there suddenly acting like they knew her all their life and asking for favors and shit, making her feel obliged to do them simple to get them out of her hair. Someone suggested that she just stay at home then and do nothing but show up whenever he had fashion shoots, but that too, was out of the question. So what else could she do besides try things out? She became more open and decided modeling would be the first thing to do since she's had slight, and she did mean slight, experience in the field…and she was now regretting it all together.

By now, she was at the very edge of the curtains with Gaara and Kanae who was still messing with her coat, and the fear had started to sink in. She was still scared of the world she was about to step into. She didn't view it so roughly anymore but that didn't stop here fear for what could happen out there, because once she stepped out of her comfort zone, once she was dawned from head to toe in lights and being watched by stern eyes that were ready to defame her the turn back would be hard and uncomfortable.

Beside her, Gaara squeezed her hand, catching her attention long enough to pull her eyes away from the many people that were out there, waiting. "You can do this. There's no reason to be scared. You're up here and they are down there. No one here hates you. Hardly anyone really knows or remembers you. So there's nothing to be that worried over, okay?"

She looked up before focusing on the ground below her. He was right. She knew he was, but the mere thought that something could happen always frightened her. Still, she made a promise, and she had gotten this far so quitting was out of the question.

"You are a porcelain doll." He whispered before they got ready. She could hear the crowd die down from the previous design and just knew her time was coming. "A Chinese porcelain doll, wide eyed and remarkable."

"A Chinese Doll…" She chanted to herself as they took their first steps and her eyes went down out of habit. She felt the lights hit her before she saw them and slowly looked up with the most doll like face she could muster.

Wide eyed…and remarkable

Her mind went blank. She eyed the judges down. She felt that Gaara was near her, still holding her hand firmly, but she didn't utilize him till they reached the edge of the stage where they stroke a pose together as planned. She couldn't think. All she could do was walk, all she could do was stare and turn and stare some more. Yet she was still aware that there were eyes on her now. There were camera's flashing. There were people watching with mixed emotions, whether for the designs or her she couldn't tell. All she knew was that she was out there…and she was a doll. A wide eyed, enchanting, Chinese doll with.

They parted ways on the middle of the stage on either wing, posed, posed some more, than turned and headed towards the other wing, making eye contact long enough to put on an act; she looked away and he turned briefly as if he was checking her out before smirking and turning to face the crowd again. They posed some more then turned and stopped at the middle of the stage. She blinked generously, he cocked his head to the side before reaching his hand out and offering it to her. She took it with a slight smile, one a doll as cold as ice would do before turning and walking off stage, pulling him along with his arm above hers…and the act was over. She had made it through the first part. Others were lined behind the curtains on the other side waiting for the theme to change so the new set of designs could be presented and she…she felt nervous all over again, falling into Gaara's hands due to quaky legs.

"Well?" Kanae asked as she handed her a bottle of water after Gaara ushered her to a chair. "How was your first taste of fame?"

Tenten looked at her with tired eyes before she started fanning herself. "Exhilarating." She joked. "I felt like I could have fallen at any time. Why is the stage so slippery? Why are those damn lights so bright? I was nearly blinded out there. Why did you have to grow and make me wear higher heels?"

She asked the last part towards Gaara who was already taking off the coat. He smirked before he started heading off. "Welcome to the lime-life."

"You'll have fun. I promise." Kanae smiled as she unbuttoned her coat. "Next theme is casual wear. It's the one in the green bag. Stretch out the tights as much as possible. I want natural looking rips in them, and bring out the plaid over shirt. I'll put it on you."

"Ugh!"

"Go! Go!"