Summary: Everyone feared him. Everyone wanted to get near him. However, he would not let anyone grow close to him, except her. She was just an exception, after all.

Pairings: Neji/Tenten

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, at all. All the characters belong to Kishimoto Masashi-sensei.

As Time Passes

Exception

"It's not fair! It's not fair!" shouted an opalescent eyed male, slamming his fists on the wall surrounding Konoha, still within the territory of their village. "Why did you have to die, Otou-san!" shouted the little boy, tears spilling, leaving sticky trails on his visage, "It's all the fault of the Main Family! I hate them!" His screams scared the small animals nearby away from him, scampering or flying away from the hysterical boy.

From a child of four, he grew up, growing colder and stronger each day. He showed off his capabilities as the true Hyuuga Clan genius each time he fought, each time he trained. He blamed everything to fate. Winners were born winners and losers were born losers. That was the only thing he believed in, besides himself.

He berated everyone, making them all feel lowly and insignificant if they were unable to make a good impression on him, especially his younger cousin, the heiress to the Clan, Hinata. He scorned them all, he despised them all. He loved only himself and would never allow anyone to grow close to him. They didn't deserve to. There was, however, an exception to that and hit was his sole female teammate. It was Tenten.

He was always calmer when she was around. He was less rational, less cold, less calculating when she was around. The dark brown pools she called eyes had that sparkle when they were alone. The pearls he called his eyes could truly see when they were alone.

They were all jealous of her, the sole human being who knew Neji personally since his father had died. They were jealous of the way he treated her. They wanted to get to know him but they were too terrified of him to even try.

"Neji! Today, I will defeat you in a fair fight! If I lose, I will run around Konoha one hundred times!" announced Lee, his rival and teammate.

"You're no match for me. You are a born loser. No one can go against what fate has planned for us," said Neji coldly, not looking up from the object of his concentration, Tenten's wounded arm.

"You'll never know until we try!" persisted Lee, his body restless with unbridled energy.

"We've tried hundreds of times and you've always lost. I highly doubt there will be any difference today."

"Lee! I will teach you a new technique today!" announced their Jounin instructor, Maito Gai. "Neji! Tenten! The both of you will come as well."

"Coming, Gai-sensei!" In a quick blur, Lee was gone.

"I can take care of it, Neji. You go ahead," said Tenten softly, blushing.

"Can I trust you to do a good enough job so we can spar later?" asked Neji calmly as he continued to wrap the bandage around the wound. Tenten's blush reddened further as she let him do as he wished. "There, it's fixed," he said simply as he stood up straight.

"Okay. Thank you, Neji."

"Let's go and see what Gai-sensei wants to do this time," he drawled lazily as he stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked the direction Lee ran off to.

"Sure." No matter how normal the things he did for Tenten seemed, it always meant something more. She smiled slightly as she trailed after him.

You should open up soon, Neji. Many wonderful things will come your way. Until then, I'll stay here, waiting patiently for you.

Owari

Aww. I really like this one. I like writing about the reasons why Neji seems to act all different around Tenten.

On a side note. For those of you who've read 'Torn Apart', I'm really sorry about that but I wanted to write it. And you're totally right, that Sakura doesn't understand the loss of a loved one but she was talking about the pain of losing Hinata. Naruto, being out of focus, didn't seem to understand that.

wow...u r very cruel and twisted...
and since when can sakura kick narutos's butt?
naruto anyways could quite easily kill sasuke, as he has unlimited chakra...

-FireDragonBL

I never said Sakura could beat Naruto. Naruto also has not the heart in him to kill Sasuke. Sasuke is a good friend of Naruto, well, if you go past the rivalries. Sasuke nearly killed him once and for the sake of saving his own family, he possibly couldn't care less if his friend was the next one his hands would be stained on. Not entirely sure but that's what I think. And definitely Naruto has no unlimited chakra. His limits are just far greater due to the fact that the Kyuubi is within him.

In any case, these stories aren't going to be long, since they're the type devoid of any major storyline. If these one-shots inspire you to write any more, by all means go ahead.