That the Byakugan has a blind spot was not well-known. The Hyuuga had been jealously guarding all of their secrets from the time of the Warring States Era onwards. After the founding of Konoha, they saw no reason to stop, because despite the protection that being part of a fellow ninja village accorded them, their eyes still fetched a handsome sum of money on the black market, and were coveted nearly as much as the Sharingan. This, of course, brought about such drastic and cruel measures as the Caged Bird Cursed Seal, and absolute silence regarding their secret techniques and especially their secret weaknesses.

Thus, Tenten felt honored and a bit scared when Neji, some time after the Chuunin Exams, guided her hand all the way to the back of his neck. That alone was quite a shock for her, because Neji was not a touchy-feely person in the slightest, and along with her, felt rather nauseated by Guy-sensei and Lee's rather graphic and over-the-top hugging and shouting and crying. So when her warm hand was brought to a stop on the cool, pale skin of Neji's neck, she stared blankly at him, wondering if perhaps she was seeing things.

"Uh...Neji?" she finally asked after a few moments of silence. "What are you doing?"

"Showing you my weakness," he said, finally letting her warm hand drop from his cold one.

"Your weakness? What, are you ticklish over there?" she asked, cracking a tiny smile.

Neji was unamused. "Very funny."

"C'mon, lighten up," Tenten protested good-naturedly. "You can't be speaking in riddles and expect me to understand."

"I'm not speaking in riddles," Neji said, calmly gazing at her with his cool, blank eyes. "That spot I showed you on my thoracic vertebrae is my blind spot."

"Blind spot?"

"Yes. The Hyuuga have 360 degree vision with the Byakugan," he explained. "We can see every single spot within a few miles. Except for that one spot. On the backs of our necks."

Tenten blinked and craned her neck sideways, unsure if she heard him right. His serene gaze assured her that she was indeed hearing correctly and not suffering from an auditory hallucination.

"You...have a blind spot. On the back of your neck?" she repeated.

"Yes." He was still staring at her calmly, calmly, calmly. Tenten began to panic a little, wondering if someone – Guy-sensei and Lee, perhaps – had spiked his breakfast with youthful hallucinogens.

"And...and you're showing it to me."

"Yes."

"Even though this is a really dangerous thing to do?"

"Yes."

The soothing light of the sun suddenly seemed to scorch the back of her hand. The hand that had just rested on Neji's smooth, creamy skin. Skin that marked his only blind spot. It was such ordinary-looking skin. Tenten would never have guessed its significance otherwise. She felt as though she had been handed the switch to a bomb.

Tenten stared at Neji. Neji stared right back.

"Um...why?"

Something flickered across his white eyes. Tenten wasn't sure what it was. He looked this way and that, up, down, then sideways, as though he were desperately trying to avoid her gaze.

"Because...because...I won't be telling Guy-sensei and Lee," he finally said. "I mean...could you imagine the amount of torturous training they would make me undergo if they found out?"

A dam broke inside Tenten's chest and suddenly she released a breath that she hadn't realized she was holding.

"Yeah!" she said, guffawing loudly, before altering her voice to Guy-sensei's explosive pitch. "My dear youthful Neji, we must practice and practice until you can see through your blind spot! To begin, I'll start by attacking you at your thoracic vertebrae with two hundred punches, three hundred kicks – "

"Hush," he hissed. "Don't talk so loudly or he'll hear and then it'll happen for – "

"My dear youthful Neji!" bellowed the actual Guy-sensei, emerging from a nearby tree. Tenten and Neji both jumped.

"Sensei, where did you come from?" Tenten yelled, blanching as she took in Might Guy in all his green jumpsuit, orange legwarmer, shiny black bowl cut glory. Neji shuddered at both the traumatizing image, and at the fact that he and Tenten were so immersed in conversation that they had utterly failed to notice his approach. He chided himself. If he was always this careless, then maybe he did need that extra training to cover his blind spot.

Guy-sensei looked overjoyed at having overheard their little talk. He swept Neji up in a bone-crushing hug, traumatizing him further.

"You want me to attack you in your blind spot with two hundred punches and three hundred kicks? To build up your defenses?" Sensei yelled with tears streaming down his face, causing Neji's ears to vibrate as ominously as a war gong. "THAT'S my youthful student! I have so many techniques that I practiced against my eternal rival's Sharingan. Perhaps they'll work against your Byakugan?"

Neji shot Tenten a withering glare over Guy-sensei's death grip of a bear hug. She smiled at him angelically.

The demon.

That the Byakugan has a blind spot was not well-known. Tenten could count on her hand the number of people who know this fun fact about Neji (just three: herself and her teammates and sensei).

In the beginning, she felt burdened with a crushing responsibility that weighed as much as the sky. To be told such an important, life-and-death detail...well, it was an honor. A terrifying honor. Then time had passed, slowly burning away her doubts. There were still moments when she couldn't breathe and her lungs suffocated at the thought of that little strip of pale skin on the back of Neji's neck.

But then...

Then she realized that he was, in fact, ticklish at that spot. It really had been dangerous of Neji to reveal that area to Tenten.

He was slurping up herring soba, his favorite meal, at his favorite restaurant in Konoha. It wasn't often that Neji treated himself, and whenever he did, he became so absorbed in the meal that he would lose track of his surroundings. Including his blind spot. His ticklish, ticklish blind spot.

Tenten crept up behind him, purple feather in hand, as quiet as a dormouse.

He didn't notice. And that meant that he wasn't expecting to yelp as loudly as he did when his teammate launched a brutal tickle attack on him.

Evidently Neji had more than one blind spot.

That the Byakugan has a blind spot was not well-known, and Neji found himself wishing that he had continued to jealously guard this secret.

A/N: Written for Day 13: Slow Burn. There's a sequel for it coming up. Stay tuned and please review! :)