Somewhere ELSE in Konoha...

Ten perfectly thrown kunai sliced through the air found their mark dead-center on ten targets. Tenten landed on the ground and lay down, gasping for breath. She had been training since the butt-crack of dawn. It was now well past lunchtime, and she was exhausted. As much as she wanted to lie on the ground and never get up again, she knew that she couldn't. If she stayed still, her mind would begin to wander, and if her mind wandered... memories of what had occurred the night before would re-surface...

"NO!" Tenten thought. "I'm NOT thinking about it. I'm NOT thinking about it. I need to focus on training..."

So she got back up, took out two handfuls of kunai, and started furiously attacking the targets. Suddenly, she heard a twig crack nearby in the forest. Instinctively, Tenten threw a kunai towards the direction of the sound. She heard a thwack as her weapon found a target. Tenten cautiously moved towards the bushes with another kunai ready in hand. She tensed as the bushes began to rustle and the outline of a figure formed... Tenten held her arm up, ready to attack the stranger with deadly accuracy...

"Must you insist on attacking everything that moves, Tenten?" came a drawling voice.

Tenten was thrown into a panic as she recognized the newcomer. "OH NO OH NO... IT'S HIM. Why couldn't it have been some assassin trying to kill me?? I need to get out of here, NOW!!!"

But of course, it was too late. Neji had already stepped out of the bushes, holding a log with Tenten's kunai stuck in it. With no way to escape, Tenten had to turn and face him.

"..." Tenten found herself at a loss for words. There he was. Neji. Standing there in that nonchalant manner of his with his long, silky hair hung in its usual ponytail. He had that oh so sexy smirk playing across his lips... and his lips... She didn't even want to get started on those lips. But the thing that made her shiver every time she saw him was his eyes. His most prominent feature. Those entrancing, pale eyes that seemed to engulf her every time she looked into them. Even now, she felt as though she were teetering on the edge... one little push would send her falling into his eyes and she would be lost in them forever...

"Is this you having a mental breakdown? Because if you are, I don't want to be here."

Tenten closed her eyes. Leave it to Neji to ruin the moment. Not that he knew they were having a moment, but still. She took a deep breath and prepared to fire off some witty retort. But instead...

"Neji, we need to talk."

"About what?"

"About...last night."

"What about last night?"

Tenten was getting frustrated.

"What the hell," she thought, "might as well just let it all out..."

"You know, last night... when you pulled me aside after training...and I was all angry because I was tired and wanted to go home..."

"And?"

"AND??? WHAT DO YOU MEAN AND??? Neji... you KISSED me!!!" screeched Tenten.

"What do you mean I kissed you???" retorted Neji.

"You did!!!"

"If memory serves, I wasn't the only one doing the kissing..."

Tenten rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"FINE FINE!!! WE KISSED. Are you HAPPY now???"

"Hey, I just wanted to make sure you had your facts straight." Neji said coldly.

Tenten had reached the end of her leash. She could deal with people asking about her... somewhat unique name all the time. She could deal with people pointing out her lack of a last name. She could even deal with having NO CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT WHATSOEVER. But she could NOT deal with Hyuuga Neji and his asinine ways. Tenten was done being nice. She glared at him with the most evil evil death glare she could muster and wished that a giant rock would just roll over him and free her from her misery. She looked him straight in those deep eyes of his and said,

"Hyuuga Neji, you disgust me. You're a lowly, manipulating, bastardly coward and I HATE YOU WITH EVERY FIBER OF MY BEING!!!"

With that, she turned around, ready to make an impressive angry exit.

Suddenly, she felt a hand on her wrist and froze.

"Please don't walk away..."

Tenten closed her eyes and willed her legs to move, but they wouldn't. That hand on her wrist was doing odd things to her thought processes.

"MOVE, YOU IDIOT, MOVE!!! It's the perfect angry exit!! Just LEAVE!!"

But she couldn't, and she knew it. She sighed, and resigned herself to her fate.

"Damn that oh so sexy smirk of his..."

Turning around with her anger spent, she plopped down on the floor and looked up at him expectantly.

"So talk."

"I like you."

Tenten was bamboozled. Was she hearing things? GASP!! Did Neji just talk about his feelings? DOUBLE GASP!!! Did Neji just talk about his feelings for HER?

"And you like me."

At this, Tenten's anger flared once more. She was about to comment on how his giant, inflated ego must be distorting his judgement when...

"Don't try to deny it, because I know it for a fact. You've never been good at hiding things from me."

Tenten had nothing to say to that.

"So we'll just... go slow." Neji said softly. He held out his hand. Tenten saw it, and slowly reached out her own. Their hands met, and fingers intertwined.

"This is such a nice... bubbly feeling. I could get used to this..." thought Tenten.

They looked down at their hands for a few seconds. Tenten looked up. Neji looked up. Tenten smiled.

"You are aware that you are in dire need of a shower and a change of clothes, right?"

"Neji, I hate you."

Unbeknownst to them, the two bickering ninjas were being watched. As Neji and Tenten set off towards Tenten's house so she could shower and get a change of clothes, a small black speck detached itself from a nearby boulder and flew away...