disclaimer : Naruto does not belong to me.
Whenever his children asked him about how he had fallen in love with their mother he always told them about how they had gotten close during their time together as genin under Maito Gai.
When they asked him to tell when he fell in love with her , he could never give them a clear answer as he too did not know when he fell in love with her.
Though they had been in the same class at the academy , had seen each other on a daily basis for years . Yet, they had never really talked to each other .
Even then he had known she was different , not just because she was the sole girl in their class who was not a fan girl , not because of her frightening accuracy when it came to shruikenjutsu.
She did not stand out because she took being a kunoichi seriously .No, even now he did not know what had made her stand out for him , why each time he activated his byakugan he could not
help but look her way discreetly.
He was proud of the fact that he did not stalk her like someone else cough 'Hinata sama' cough who had a tendency to stalk the object of her attention.
Though perhaps it was because he had yet to realise what she had meant to him then.
They had spend more than a year on their team together having only each other to protect their sanity from the power of their sensei's and team mate's 'Youth'.
He shudders at thought of how unbearable it might have been if she had not been there and a fangirl in her stead.
By the time of their first attempt to become chunin he had come to realise the depth of his feelings for her and had in an attempt to forget them had become more cold.
But he had come to regret that decision when he had seen the pain in her beautiful eyes at his sudden coldness towards her.
It had been a difficult time for him as he too felt much pain with his decision to keep his distance from had been extremely hard for him to maintain his composure as he heard her call that Uchiha Sasuke on the outside he remained calm he had felt the need to ask her how she found the Uchiha cute , only deranged fangirls like Yamanaka and Haruno found him cute.
When she was matched up with Temari from the sand for her match he had felt bad for her as he could already see the carried a large fan along with the fact that she was from Wind country he was sure that she had a Wind affinity against which he knew Tenten had no chance and this time he only felt pain and nothing else as his guess turned out right.
During the month of training he had been happy as she helped him master a jutsu that was only taught to those who were fortunate to be born into the Main branch of the his happiness was gone as he lost Uzumaki Naruto who kept his promise that he would defeat him.
Then that dreadful mission took place , even though he had won against his opponent he had still gotten injured heavily enough that he had almost not made it alive if not for the efforts of Shizune-san.
He remembered how tightly Tenten had hugged him and he could not help but wonder why they had not included her in this mission , because he was sure that if she had come with them then the mission would have been a success. He hugged her back as tight as she had hugged him as he felt her pull he finally released his hold on her he could not help but think of how beautiful she was even with eyes red from crying , her hair flowing free out its usual hairstyle just reached her shoulders but as she told him of how glad she was that he had made it back he felt his resolve of attempting to keep her at a distance all but crumble away as he replied to her of how glad he was as well to see her choked down a laugh as she attempted to dry her tears.
authors note : I may or may not continue this story. please review to tell me what you think of my story.
