A Week to Decide, a naruto fanfic

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto… no matter how hard I wish.

A Week to Decide

By,

Anime Ace

Pairings: Tenten X Neji

Tenten woke up just like she would any other day, covered in sweat and tangled in her bed sheets. She had just woken up from one of her constant nightmares, and she was ready to rid her mind of the images.

She had been experiencing these nightmares as long as she could remember, and they were beginning to have affects on her. Don't get me wrong they were good affects. For several weeks she had been having them, and they had been distracting at practice, and exhausted her beyond belief. She hadn't known what to do; she knew that she couldn't continue waking up exhausted and then training with Neji all day long.

After two weeks of suffering from her dreams she had finally gone to talk to Tsunade about her problem. Tsunade had told her to start practicing extra in the mornings after she woke up, and said that is would clear her mind and it should leave her feeling fine. As soon as Tenten had started doing this, she had begun to feel fine, and was improving on her skills due to the extra training.

That had been over three months ago, and she was getting used to closing her eyes to find herself in her nightmares. Tenten was also used to waking up at 3:00 in the morning and training for around two hours before everyone else arrived.

Untangling herself and taking a few deep breaths, Tenten got ready for that day. After taking a shower, getting dressed, putting up her hair, and grabbing her weapons and keys, Tenten left her small one bedroom apartment heading for the training grounds.

No one was on the street at that time, and it was eerily quiet. Tenten yawned and closed her eyes, knowing the way by heart. Images of her nightmare began to run behind her eyelids, and she snapped her eyes open again. Deciding that she needed to work on her endurance anyway, Tenten sprinted all the way to the training grounds.

Neji got up at 4:00 and was on his way to the training grounds by 4:30, stuffing his hands in his pockets. Anyone could have seen the irritated look on his face, and the angry waves that were radiating off of him.

The events of yesterday gnawed at his mind…

(Flashback)

Hiashi had approached Neji after dinner, and had told him he had something to talk to him about. Taking Neji into his office, he had asked him only one question. "Neji, how do you ever think you will become stronger with that weak team of yours?"

Neji hadn't had an answer, so instead listened to what Hiashi had to say.

"I have looked over the files of your two teammates and your sensei. A boy who can not wield chakra, and a girl who only knows how to throw weapons around, and a sensei who wears a green spandex suit, not very impressive at all." Hiashi looked at Neji and frowned. "I know you do not like this arrangement very much, and I could have you moved to a team with stronger teammates. If you would like to become stronger that is. I will give you a week to decide." Hiashi finished, and waved his hand indicating that Neji should leave.

(End Flashback)

Ever since that little conversation with Hiashi, Neji had been rethinking his whole decision to work with the team he was on now. He was even considering taking up Hiashi's offer.

'Tenten and Lee will forever be weak, and Gai is just plain weird. There is no way they will ever be as strong as me, and I will probably never get any stronger training with them. Maybe Hiashi is right, maybe I should find a new team.' Neji thought as he neared the training grounds. Sounds of metal hitting wood and earth filled his ears, and he prepared himself to spend another day with his worthless team.

Tenten had started training as soon as she had arrived at the training grounds and that had been an hour ago. Sweat dripped down the sides of her face, plastering her hair to her skin. She threw weapon after weapon at the targets and trees, doing flips in between.

As soon as she saw Neji walking towards her, she stopped and waited for him to get closer. When he was in hearing distance, she called out "Hi, Neji," giving him one of her trademark smiles. He didn't even look at her, but continued walking until he sat under one of the trees that hadn't been turned into a pin cushion and started meditating.

'Well that was weird; he didn't even acknowledge my presence. He usually at least looks at me. I wonder if anything is wrong,' Tenten thought looking back at her cold teammate. Taking a huge risk she called out to him "Hey, you alright?"

Neji opened his eyes and glared at Tenten. She would have taken a step backwards if she had not been used to this already. Neji looked her up and down and then glared some more. 'How pathetic. She is already covered in sweat, and she has probably only been training for a few minutes now. Why am I on her team again?'

"You are pathetic; you do know that, right?" Neji asked icily.

"W-W-What?" Tenten stuttered. Neji hadn't insulted her for over a year, and hearing it now was a huge surprise.

"You heard me just fine. You are pathetic." Neji stated again, colder if anything else.

"O-Ok." Tenten said weakly starring at the ground, her bangs shadowing her face. 'Why, why did he say that? Has he not noticed I have been training? Probably not, it probably hasn't been helping any.'

They stayed there in an uncomfortable silence until Lee and Gai arrived, and training began for that day. Lee had begun to challenge Neji like he normally did, only to be cut off before he could even finish his challenge.

"You are not worth it. You are weak, and I will not waste my time on you." Neji said before walking away.

Tenten just stared wide eyed, usually Neji would at least humor Lee with a battle, but he had just shot him down and added an insult. Tenten gave Lee a little reassuring smile before turning to find Neji to begin training.

Four hours later…

Neji frowned at the girl in front of him. 'This is why I should not be on this team.' he thought staring at her again. Tenten lay sprawled across the ground, various weapons scattered around her. He had closed all of her chakra points and at this point she couldn't move at all.

'He has never done that before. Oh my god, it hurts so much. I can't move, but I have to get up. He might think I am weak if I don't try.' Tenten began to struggle to get up on her feet. As soon as she was up, wobbling a little bit, Neji began an onslaught of punches and kicks. 'This is not good…'

The next day…

Training yesterday had resulted in Neji leaving Tenten unconscious on the ground, and Lee taking her to the hospital. After a night at the hospital, where she refused to tell the nurses where she got all of her injuries, Tenten was back at practice ready for a new day. Bandages covered one of her arms from wrist to shoulder, and around her left ankle which she limped on a little bit.

Neji was scowling when she showed up, he had been scolded and lectured from Gai and then assigned to run fifty laps around Kohona yesterday. All his frustration from Hiashi's conversation had vanished after yesterday and he was beginning to regret what he had done. 'Maybe I did go a little far yesterday, I never usually use that attack on her.' Neji thought looking at the white bandages on Tenten, although he would never admit it.

Tenten wasn't really mad with Neji, she knew that sometimes Neji got angry and when he did the thing nearest to him was going to get pummeled. She also knew that most of the time it was going to be her, but she took that risk to help him. 'As long as I help him with whatever he is going through, I am happy. Although sometimes I wish I knew what was bothering him, so I could help him.' Tenten thought while looking over at her pale eyed teammate.

Yes, Tenten had known she had a thing for the prodigy around the time her nightmares had started. She knew that it was more than a crush, and that she would do anything Neji needed her to do if it helped and made him happy. Because of this, Tenten trained with Neji even when she got beaten every time. Because of this, Tenten got beat up every time Neji was in a bad mood. Because of this, Tenten trained every spare moment she got besides her training in the morning, and during the day with him. Because of this, Tenten knew she would stand by Neji's side and help him rise every time he fell down.

She pushed herself because she wanted to be strong so he would acknowledge her, even if it was only once. She trained as hard as she possibly could all the time. She tried and struggled every time she got knocked down so he wouldn't look down at her. Tenten did everything she possibly could so Neji wouldn't call her weak anymore, so he would see her more than some little girl, but he still didn't seem to notice. 'Ah well, maybe he will someday…' Tenten thought.

Lee and Gai showed up within five minutes, and Lee didn't even attempt to ask Neji to spar after what had happened the day before. "Due to the incident that happened yesterday, Neji you will be training with me, and Tenten will be training with Lee. That is unless Tenten you wish to continue training with Neji." Gai said looking at each of his students when saying their names.

Tenten looked at Gai, and then at Neji who was looking in disgust at Gai. "If Neji wants to train with me, than I will. No offense Gai-sensei but I don't really think that he wants to train with you." Tenten said calmly.

Neji was shocked. 'Did she just say she would train with me after what had happened yesterday? Why would she do something like that?' Neji was awoken from his thoughts by Gai's voice. "Neji is that what you would like?" he asked with a stern look on his face. It would take him awhile to fully trust Neji after hurting Tenten like he did.

"Yes," he said flatly and turned to go to Tenten and his normal area.

"Alright then, but don't try to beat her to a bloody pulp today." Gai called back and turned to Lee who was waiting enthusiastically for his training today.

'Don't worry I won't…' Neji thought.

Two days later…

Training had gone off without a hitch the days before, and Tenten was looking forward to today's training. She was there early again, and working on her throwing speed with various weapons. Her injuries from Neji's little temper tantrum days before were beginning to heal although she still had a slight limp. She was concentrating so intensely at what she was doing that she didn't notice the person watching her.

Neji's curiosity had been growing lately when he had been arriving to find Tenten training and covered in sweat. At first he had merely thought that she had been practicing for a few minutes before he arrived, but he noticed her appearance and decided it couldn't have been a mere few minutes of training. So, he had arrived extra early to find that Tenten had arrived at 3:30 and had been training ever since. It was now 4:45.

'She has been training, training for the past few days in the morning. Interesting…' Neji thought and watched her continue to throw weapons at things with her deadly accuracy. He noted that she faster, and that he would have to be more careful in practice if he wanted to dodge all of her attacks.

Tenten was a little confused. 'Neji would have been here by now, I wonder where he is.' She thought, throwing one more weapon at the head of a dummy and succeeding in decapitating it. She than gathered all of her various weapons, sat down and waited for her other teammates to arrive.

In ten minutes all three of them arrived together which confused Tenten even more. 'They never ever arrive together. Now I really wonder what is happening.'

After training was over, Gai and Lee decided to go run one hundred laps around Kohona leaving Tenten and Neji alone. Tenten slowly picked up all of her weapons, ignoring the fire burning through her back every time she bent down. She had tried extra hard at training today, and had almost tied with Neji until the last second.

Neji wasn't unaware of this either. He had noticed the extra effort she had put training today, and he had noticed that her skills were incredibly more advanced than they had been before. 'Maybe I should be paying more attention to her. She may prove to be strong after all.' He thought before turning back to look at her.

'1…2…3…4…5…6…7 scythes, wait I am missing one. Where is it?' Tenten thought while gathering her different weapons and stashing them in various places. Tenten looked around until she spotted the eighth scythe. She began to walk towards it when her vision blacked out for a minute causing her to pause. 'Whoa, I must really be exhausted,' she thought as she continued towards the scythe. As she outstretched her hand towards it, her vision began to flicker between black and normal. 'Almost got it, almost there.' She thought, and then her vision went black as her body fell to the ground, though it never touched.

Neji picked up Tenten's body bridal style, and started off towards the hospital. He had caught her before she had hit the ground, and decided that fainting called for a visit to the hospital. 'I wonder what is wrong with her, I have never seen her faint after practice before,' with that thought, Neji quickened his pace.

They arrived at the hospital a few minutes later, and Neji told one of the nurses that Tenten needed care. When they tried to take her from him, he wouldn't let them, just told them flatly that he would take her to the room. As soon as he laid her on the bed, he was ushered out by the nurses to a bench just outside of the room.

Tsunade arrived a few minutes later, and they exchanged glances silently before she entered the room. 'God I really am getting soft, staying here even when I can't do anything.' Neji frowned at this thought, and then started to ponder over his uncle's offer. 'Maybe I should stay with this team, they really aren't that bad. No, it is too early to decide. After this week then I will make my decision.'

For what seemed like hours, Neji sat there wondering what was wrong, and contemplating his decision regarding his team. In what were actually a few minutes, Tsunade came out. Sitting down next to Neji without a sound, she let out a huge sigh, and turned to talk to him.

"Well?" he said impatiently, he wanted to know what happened to his teammate.

"Don't worry about it, Neji. She will be fine. I just think she is a little overworked with her constant nightmares and the extra training she has been doing. Tenten should be fine by tomorrow morning, and should be waking up in a few minutes." She said and stood up ready to leave. Looking at the confused expression on the Hyuga's face she guessed that he had no idea what she was talking about.

"Please don't tell me that you don't know. I guess she didn't tell anybody. Tenten came to me about three months ago, suffering from horrible nightmares that were draining her of energy. She didn't want to fall behind in training, so she came to see if I could help her. Unfortunately there wasn't much I could do. I recommended doing extra training from the time she woke up in the morning until regular training time began. Looking at the state she is in now, I say she has been getting up pretty early and training hard. It also looks like she has been training in all other free time she has," Seeing the little bit of worry that was portrayed on Neji's face she added quickly "She will be fine though, she just needs a little bit of rest and some Jutsu's done on her that will keep the nightmares away for awhile. You will have your regular training partner back by tomorrow."

Patting him on the back, she left, and he entered her room. She looked fragile, her face was pale but he could see the color was returning. Tenten's hair was unraveling from her two buns, and bangs were hanging down in her eyes. Seating himself on the chair placed beside her bed, he watched her even breathes for a few minutes.

'So she has been doing extra training for about three months now. I wonder why. I mean I can understand her training like Tsunade said, but extra training on top of that too. I wonder if she was trying to get better.' Neji thought about these possibilities for awhile but snapped out of it when he saw Tenten began to stir.

Tenten swam through darkness trying to get to the light she could see was at the end of all the blackness. There was a force that seemed to be pushing her back, but she pushed and pulled against it until she could almost reach the light. She reached out with one of her hands towards it, and … woke up to be greeted by Neji's emotionless face. Or what seemed to be emotionless at first, something also seemed to be troubling him.

"Ugh… Neji, what are you doing here? Wait, where is here? " She asked, trying to recall what had happened before she woke up. Glancing around she saw that she was at the hospital.

"You passed out during training, I took you to the hospital." Neji said calmly, looking at her.

Then it hit Tenten like a ton of bricks, she had passed out during training, Neji had carried her to the hospital, and now he was sitting by her bed for gods know how long, wasting his time. "Gomen, gomen, gomen! I am so sorry Neji! I didn't mean to cause you any inconvenience." She repeated over and over again until finally bowing her head.

'She passed out during training, because she was training super hard, and she is apologizing to me! Argh, she shouldn't do that.' He thought but said "It's ok Tenten, really it is."

"Gomen…"

The day afterwards…

Neji had escorted Tenten home, and it was the next day. He had arrived early to make sure that Tenten had not come early to train as well. He was relieved to find that she wasn't. 'Wait, why do I feel relieved? She is just my weak teammate? This is really confusing, why am I feeling emotions for her?' Neji was deep in thought about his newest problem, when Tenten, Lee, and Gai arrived.

"Hi Neji! Good morning," Tenten's familiar voice broke him out of his meditation, and he looked up to meet her smile.

"Morning," Neji said without a hint of emotion. 'Sometimes I wish he would show just a little bit of emotion, I mean it couldn't hurt him to show a little bit, could it?' Tenten thought but soon focused on Lee approaching Neji.

Lee had gotten over his fear of Neji, and challenged him again. Neji stood up, and they faced off. Lee attacked first like always, and Neji was ready to block. Usually Neji would have Lee beat within a few minutes but today was different. Neji found it more difficult to block Lee's various punches and kicks, his speed had increased. 'God dangit, I am really going to have to pay attention to these two more.' He thought barely dodging another round house kick. Lee spun, and Neji saw his chance. Quickly tripping Lee, Neji put his foot on Lee's back.

"I win, and you are getting faster,' Neji said. Everyone's jaw dropped. Neji, never ever gave out a compliment.

"H-he j-just complimented me! Yahooooooooooo!" Lee screamed and he started running around in circles with tears of joy in his eyes. Neji sweat dropped anime style, and realized his mistake.

'I wish he would compliment me. Must not be good enough yet. I will beat him today!' Tenten thought and determination welled up in her eyes.

They went off to train as normal, Tenten and Neji, Lee and Gai.

Two hours later…

Tenten smirked as she breathed heavily. 'I have a shot today. He is having trouble blocking my weapons, and he is almost all out of chakra. Got to be careful though, I am almost out of weapons.'

Neji was on the other side of the clearing also breathing heavily. 'When the hell did she get so fast? I can't do the Kaiten (spelling?) anymore, and I am pretty sure she has more weapons on her.' Glancing around at the various weapons scattered around him, he confirmed this belief. 'Guess I always have TaiJutsu left.'

Tenten pulled out a kadaicha from behind her back, and charged Neji. He barely had time to bring up a kunai to block the oncoming sword. Tenten didn't stop her barrage of attacks, and Neji got slower and slower every time.

'I might win today! Don't get too cocky though, Neji always does the unexpected.' Just as Tenten finished this though, Neji found an opening and tripped her so she landed hard on her back. He held the kunai blade close to her throat.

"I win," he said.

"Not quite," she said and smirked. He then noticed the blade that was close to his throat. "Tie"

"Tie," he agreed. He stood up, and she got up as well, sheathing her blade. She than began to pick up all of her weapons as was her procedure.

'How could she get so good? Wait, she has been practicing! She almost beat me today; I have to be more careful. She may actually be a challenge in the future. And Lee almost beat me today too; I am going to really start having to watch out. Maybe they aren't as weak as I first thought.' Neji thought watching Tenten.

Tenten picked up her last shuriken and put it away, and then began to walk away from the clearing. Tsunade had said to get plenty of rest and she was planning on going to bed. That last match had worn her out. 'I almost won though! I almost won against THE Neji Hyuga! Yeah, maybe he will notice me more.' A small smile graced Tenten's lips as she walked towards Neji, and he noticed it too.

"Bye Neji, nice job today! Maybe I will beat you tomorrow, ne?" Tenten said, her small smile turning into a large grin.

"Maybe…Bye Tenten." Neji said, and he and Tenten began walking together towards the village. "Oh and Tenten," Neji said and stopped, she stopped as well to look at him. "Good job today."

The next day…

Training went as usual, although Neji and Tenten didn't tie again. After practice Lee invited Tenten to go out with him that night, as friends of course. Tenten agreed, thinking of Lee as a little brother. Lee also invited Neji, who just said "Hn" and left.

Lee came over to Tenten's and they went out to a restaurant / bar/ dancing place. After having dinner, they were sitting at the bar having a few drinks (as in soda pop, and non-alcoholic drinks). Tenten was only on her second root beer, while Lee was on his third. Next to them were some very loud, very drunk looking shinobi.

"Guess Neji isn't coming then, Lee?" Tenten asked looking over at her adoptive brother.

"Guess not, ah well. Didn't really expect him too, did you?" Lee answered

"No not really," Tenten said.

The ninja next to them had heard them say the name Neji, and came over to them. The first one slurred his words when saying "You two know the Neji bastard? He is such a bastard, and he only thinks about himself. I heard that as a child he was such a little pig that they put him in the branch house just because of how ugly he was."

"Yeah, and I heard that he can't make any friends because he such an asshole," the second man added.

"I know, and I think that he will never ever be a great ninja ever. I mean how can a boy with long hair and white eyes ever be a great ninja? He might as well be a girl and go into the sewing business." The third man said.

Tenten couldn't hear them anymore, after the second man had started talking, she tuned them out. Her left hand gripped her root beer bottle so tightly that she thought it was going to break any second. 'How could they insult Neji? They will pay for this!' Anger waves started to radiate off of her, but the three men continued to talk and insult Neji. Lee also had a frown on his face, and his fists were balled up tightly.

The root beer bottle snapped, causing glass to shatter and imbed itself in Tenten's hand. Everyone stopped and looked at her, including the three men. "Don't you ever dare to talk about Neji again!" Tenten screamed at the two men, sending her fist at the one closest to her making a cracking sound. The other two attacked and Lee took one out, while Tenten handled the other one. They beat the living crap out of them, and then hit them some more. When they were done, Tenten was still fuming.

"Neji will become the greatest ninja ever, just you watch. Much better than you three were or will ever be. Just you wait; Lee and I here will make sure that he does. We will always be there for him whether he thinks so or not. Most of all I will always be there for him, whenever he needs me, through whatever difficulties he runs into, I will be there. I care about him a lot, and I am completely loyal to him, and I will not let you say anything bad about him. You got that?" she finished, turned around gave the bar tender her bill and strode out of the bar.

"Yeah!" Lee shouted, and did the same as her.

Neither of them noticed the figure by the door with their jaw drooping open.

Neji had nothing better to do at home, and had decided to join the two. It was a little late, and he knew that they had probably already ate already, but he would go join them for a drink (again as in soda pop) or two. Grabbing a jacket, he walked out of his house, and towards the restaurant that Lee had said they were going to go to.

He arrived there within a few minutes, and opened the door. He quickly spotted Lee and Tenten sitting at the bar, but then saw three what looked like drunken shinobi walk towards them. With his excellent hearing he could hear what was going on.

The first one slurred his words when saying "You two know the Neji bastard? He is such a bastard, and he only thinks about himself. I heard that as a child he was such a little pig that they put him in the branch house just because of how ugly he was."

"Yeah, and I heard that he can't make any friends because he such an asshole," the second man added.

Neji saw the anger waves coming off of Tenten's body, and saw how tight her grip was on the bottle in her hand. 'They shouldn't push her any farther, she is about to blow. Wait, why is she all mad? They are only insulting me; I should be the one who should be mad.' Looking over at Lee, he also saw that he was getting angry. 'Lee too, I wonder what is wrong with those two. I mean they are only insulting me. They shouldn't be getting so mad; I am always mean to them and so cold. Wait, why do I care what they do? This is all so utterly confusing.' The sound of glass breaking woke him out of his thoughts.

"Yeah!" Lee shouted, and did the same as her.

Neji watched them leave, his mouth wide open. They didn't notice him as they walked by. 'What did she just say? I can't believe that she just said that! I wonder if she actually means it!' Neji was very confused now, and sprinted back home. 'I am going to have to meditate on this; I have to give Hiashi my answer about switching teams tomorrow.'

The next day…

Tenten woke up with a pain in her left hand. Looking down she saw the bandages, and remembered what had happened the night before. It was 4:30 in the morning, and her nightmares had woken her up once again. She got up, got dressed, and decided to go get breakfast.

Upon arriving at the ramen stand, Tenten went and sat down next to a familiar pink headed medic-nin.

"Good morning, Sakura," Tenten said cheerily, a huge smile on her face.

"Morning Tenten," Sakura said back, smiling even bigger than Tenten.

"What are you doing up so early?" Tenten asked

"Oh, Tsunade asked me to come in early today," Sakura said

"Oh, interesting." said Tenten.

Sakura looked over at Tenten, and thought about her pale eyed teammate and the news she had heard from Tsunade lately. 'I wonder if she knows. Probably not, knowing how cold Neji is.' She thought. "Hey Tenten, have you heard the rumor about Neji?"

"No, what rumor?" Tenten asked.

"Oh it is just a rumor and everything, but Tsunade said that Neji's uncle was talking about moving Neji to a new team, and that Neji was the one who got to make the decision. Supposedly he gave Neji a week to decide if he wanted to change teams or not, and today is the day he has to give his answer."

Tenten's heart broke, and she just stared at Sakura with hazed eyes. 'Neji wants to change teams. Neji wants to change teams. Neji wants to change teams. Neji wants to change teams,' this kept on playing over and over again in her mind. 'He wants to change teams? But why?' Then it hit her like a boulder 'We are too weak for him. He thinks we are too weak. But Lee and I have been training for so hard and for so long. He can't leave, he just can't. I won't let him!'

Determination setting in, Tenten stood and without a word to Sakura sprinted full speed to the training grounds where she knew he would be…

Neji was standing at the training ground, staring at the sky, as the wind played with his hair. ' I wonder if I made the right decision?'

(Flashback)

This morning Hiasi had called Neji into his office. "I hope you have made your decision. Now what is it?" Hiashi had asked. He was awaiting his nephews answer.

Neji looked at him for while, just staring into his eyes. Then he answered so suddenly that it scared his uncle "I will stay with the team I have now."

"But why?" Hiashi said composing himself. He really hadn't thought that Neji would have chosen to stay with this team.

"Because, they are strong whether you think so or not, they are determined, they are my friends, they care for me, and I care for them." With that Neji had left the office, and walked to the training grounds.

(End Flashback)

Neji had spent all night debating on what option he should chose, and it all came down to the fact that his two teammates cared for him. He was nothing but mean to both of them, yet they still defended and cared for him, especially Tenten. 'Tenten…you really do like me don't you? You like me a lot.' Neji smiled and recalled all of the times Tenten had been standing there beside him, supporting him. 'Am I really this blind? How could I not see her feelings for me before? I am going to have to tell her how I feel soon.'

Tenten ran, she ran as hard as she could, and still wished she could run faster. 'You can't leave Neji. You can't leave our team! I will not let you. I have given too much to see you leave. I care for you too much.' Panic was starting to grip her.

Tenten ran through the trees and broke into the clearing to see Neji standing there looking at the sky, he turned to face her as soon as she stopped.

"You can't leave Neji… I love you." Tenten voiced her last thought out loud without knowing it, and watching Neji's eyes widen in shock covered her mouth with her hand.

Fear gripped her already shattered heart. 'He is going to leave, and he is going to hate me. He already knows, I guess I can't make it any worse.'

"Neji, you can't leave our team! Please, please don't leave. We care about you too much for you to leave. Lee and Gai care about you too much for you just to go. I care about you too much to see you go anywhere. We would miss you too much if you leave. I would miss you too much. Please, please don't go!" Tenten had collapsed to her knees and tears were streaming out of her eyes, and down her cheeks to fall off of her chin and land in her hands. 'I can't hold them in anymore, and Neji is going to hate me. I guess I really am too weak.'

Neji was shocked but knew that he had to move otherwise he would screw things up more. 'She just confessed that she loved me, and now she is crying! What do I do? What do I do?' Panic gripped Neji's heart as she saw the condition Tenten was in. Her hair was wind blow, her clothes were wrinkles, and on her left hand were bandages. 'Those are the cuts she got last night…because of me.'

Calmly Neji walked over to Tenten who seemed like her world was falling apart around her. She looked up at him and he kneeled in front of her. "Please don't cry Tenten, I don't like to see you cry." Neji said wiping away the tears with the pad of his right hand.

Tenten's eyes widened a little bit, but more tears came spilling out of them. "Neji, please don't leave. Please don't hate me." Tenten said in a whisper.

Now it was Neji's turn to widen his eyes. "Why would I hate you Tenten?" he asked.

"Because I am being so weak, and because of what I said. I am so sorry, just please don't hate me. Please don't leave me. Please don't go to another team. Please don't leave me alone." She cried out.

"Tenten, I am not going anywhere, and I will never go anywhere without you. I promise." Neji whispered to her, and using her shock to his advantage, engulfed her slim body in a gentle hug. "How could I leave the one I love?" he whispered into her ear.

For a few minutes they just stayed like that, until Tenten finally snapped out of it. 'Neji just said that he loved me, and I am just frozen in place here. Do something body, god dang it.' She wrapped her arms around his midsection fiercely and buried her head into his shoulder.

Tenten pushed away though, as a question came to her lips. Looking straight into his eyes, she was surprised to find emotions that she had never seen there before. "But Neji, wouldn't you want to go onto a team with stronger teammates?" she asked quietly looking down at the ground.

"You are the strongest person I know, Tenten. And I love you for who you are, not for how strong you are, although you are pretty strong." He said while lifting her chin with his right hand, so she looked him in the eyes.

Then he captured her lips with his, very gently afraid that she would break if he pushed her too hard. To his great joy, she started to kiss him back after the shock of being kissed was gone. Tenten wrapped her arms around his neck, and he wrapped his arms around her waist.

For what seemed like years, though only a few moments, they stayed lip to lip until Neji broke apart. He picked her up bridal style and brought her over to a tree where he sat her on his lap. He wrapped one arm around her waist, and with the other started stroking her hair.

"I am sorry Tenten" Neji said.

"For what?" She asked. It wasn't everyday that Neji apologized, and when he did it wasn't without good reason.

"For not telling you before, and for not noticing your feelings earlier." He answered kissing her on the top of the head.

"That's ok, it doesn't change anything, I still love you." She said smiling.

"Tenten, what are your nightmares about?" Neji asked. It had been bothering him for awhile, and he thought now was a good time to ask.

"Oh, everyone left me. First my parents, then Gai, then Lee, and then you. Nobody was left, you all were gone and it was my fault. And then I thought you were going to leave...it was like I was really living my nightmare." Tenten said in a very weak voice, looking and studying her hands like they were the most interesting things in the world.

"I will never leave you, I promise. And it is a promise I am going to keep." With that, Neji turned her head and started kissing her again.

'I think I stayed on the right team...'

'I guess even nightmares have happy endings...'

After that no more nightmares ever came to Tenten, and Neji's promise was never broken.

The End

AN: Please Read and Review!