"My present goal was to get rid of Tenten's depression."

– Neji's training diary, Naruto Retsuden

Dark clouds swathed the sky, and the distant drumming of thunder rattled the training grounds. The black sky closed around Team Guy menacingly, and thick white sheets of rain descended upon them.

Samidare.

Within minutes, the previously hard ground had become an unnavigable mud pit, and the rain, much to Neji's irritation, was blocking his Byakugan's line of vision. Disgusting squelching sounds kept erupting from the ground, barely audible over the pitter-patter of the thunderstorm. Neji looked down and once more was irritated as he felt the thick, viscous mud seeping into his open-toed sandals. Ew.

He sighed.

Tenten hardly looked better. Her hair, styled into buns, did not soak as easily as Neji's hair did in this weather. But her clothes clung unrelentingly to her torso and the lack of sleeves on her ninja gear was a big disadvantage against the freezing rain. Or maybe it wasn't. She was bound to get annoyed if her sleeves clung to her arms as well.

The pitter-patter of the rain became a dull roar and she sighed as deeply as he had just done, casting a glance at the two neon green blurs at the opposite end of the field.

"THAT'S MY BOY!" yelled Guy-sensei. The roar of the rain had nothing on the roar of his voice. "DO TWO HUNDRED PUSH-UPS ON THE SOGGIEST PART OF THE GROUND! IT'S GREAT FOR YOUR UPPER BODY STRENGTH!"

"YES, GUY-SENSEI!" Lee yelled right back. "IF I DON'T SUCCEED, I WILL RUN TWO HUNDRED LAPS AROUND KONOHA IN THE RAIN! WITH NO UMBRELLA!"

"LEE!"

"GUY-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GUY-SENSEI!"

Tenten groaned. Neji's eyes twitched.

It was samidare. And the springtime of youth theatrics had begun. Again.

Baiu meant typhoons were right around the corner. While Konoha, being far inland, didn't have to worry as much as the coastal regions of the country, this typhoon system was apparently massive, and Konoha was told that it should expect severe rains.

Naturally, this meant that Guy-sensei was ecstatic. Never missing an opportunity to proclaim the wonders of youth, he had decided that the best way for his genin to become splendid ninja was to practice in the rain. Every day. He was actually disappointed yesterday that the afternoon rains had been relatively mild. Then the typhoon system's clouds had moved in, and he seriously started crying. And yelling. About the springtime of youth.

It was summer.

"GUY-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

Tenten was muttering darkly under her breath. She started sharpening her blunted tessen with a stone with an unnerving, uncharacteristic viciousness, and Neji's mood shifted from irritation to concern. He barely even considered it while he was competing in the Chuunin Exams, but she'd been out of sorts ever since her loss to that Suna ninja. She didn't speak openly about it or loudly proclaim her sadness at the top of her lungs like Guy-sensei and Lee were prone to doing, but would entreat him to dismal sighing, morose muttering, and sulking at the empty training grounds, arms wrapped around her knees, head resting on her joined hands, after she believed everyone had left (Neji never did, though, something she had yet to realize).

After his own humbling defeat to Naruto, he'd begun to see that he should have used his Byakugan for more than just counting birds and sealing people's tenketsu. He'd long since figured out how to read others' emotions through the movement of their eyes, the way they walked, the way they talked, and the way they would twitch their facial muscles. He'd even used it as a stick to beat Hinata-sama with during their match.

Only now did it ever occur to him that maybe he was misusing his kekkei genkai. That maybe the Hyuuga weren't endowed with the Byakugan to tear people down.

Tenten's eyes remained more downcast than the stormy sky.

And Neji's eyes narrowed in determination.

"Tenten," he said in what he hoped was a kind voice (he was working on it, and it was much harder than he'd thought; his impassive tone, to his frustration, almost never reflected his true feelings). "Shall we focus on improving the aim of your tessen? It might actually be good to practice in the rain, you know. You could figure out how to angle your projectiles in inclement weather."

Her hands stopped their sharpening and her legs remained perfectly still. Neji was perturbed that he couldn't understand her change in body language. But her dark eyes seemed open and clear, which Neji took as a good sign.

"Okay!" She smiled a tremendous smile that brought out the dimples in her cheeks, and Neji didn't need his Byakugan to read her feelings.

It turned out that Tenten's aim was perfect when she was calm and clear. Not even Neji's Palms Revolving Heaven could block the path of her folded tessen, and pride bubbled up in his chest as the fan cut his cheek.

It was true, he mused as he applied the Hyuuga clan ointment to his wounded face. Only now was he using his kekkei genkai properly.

I've found a way to eliminate the Byakugan's blind spots.

"Neji, whatcha doing?" asked Tenten, taking a seat next to him under the Hyuuga garden's giant peach tree. She peered over his shoulder at the fancy notebook with thick white pages, with silk thread binding it all together.

Neji snapped the book shut. "It's nothing."

Tenten scowled at him. He'd been opening up more and more to his teammates lately, dropping the arrogant martial arts genius routine, smiling more, looking happy more often, and just generally no longer being a killjoy. But evidently he wasn't willing to share all his secrets with Team Guy just yet. Tenten would have to fix that.

Lunging forwards, she ripped the book out of Neji's hands, and to her great glee, her normally stoic teammate's face was wreathed in panic.

He made a wild, clumsy grab for the book. "Tenten, give it back!"

Some people don't do well under pressure at all, she noted smugly.

She stuck her tongue out at him, laughing evilly as Hyuuga Neji's face turned more colors than the rainbow. "Doesn't seem like nothing," she teased, running out of the garden as Neji chased after her. "Let's play a game of hide and seek, okay? If you don't retrieve this book from me in ten minutes, I'll tell Guy-sensei just how much you love training in thunderstorms!"

"TENTEN!"

"It'll be our rivalry challenge!"

Little did Tenten know that Neji had finally eliminated the Byakugan's blind spots, and would win the game of hide and seek in just three minutes, so desperate was he to stop her from reading his diary.

Tenten still told Guy-sensei that Neji loved training in thunderstorms, though.

A/N: Written for Day 4: Training. I haven't read the Naruto Retsuden light novel fully yet, but I saw this cute line with Neji's diary and I thought it would be a good idea for this prompt! :)

Thanks for the comments, Guest and Nanoue-chan! I would love more reviews! :)