More than Friends

Summary: Tenten's out to find true love. Tired of hearing her best friend, Hyuga Neji, talk about how easy it is to get a girl. Tenten says she can find someone special before he ever could. Neji doesn't know the first thing about love--all he knows about are hormones. But after weeks of dating misery, both are ready to accept defeat...until Neji suggests they date each other. Do friends really make better partners? Pairings: mostly Nejiten and at the end Sasu/Saku and maybe Shika/Ino.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Rated: PG

Chapter 2

The sun rays almost blinded Tenten as she got up to get ready for school. She yawned sleepily and stepped over to her dresser and started going through her drawers. After flipping through the heap of clothes, she finally found what she was looking for - a faded pair of baggy pants that only went down to her ankles along with a plain green t-shirt. Reaching in her back pocket, she found her large glass which totally matches her "not-so-nice" outfit.

"Hang on; if I want to win the bet, I should start taking better care of my appearance." Tenten thought to herself. She started to find another outfit but all of them were as plain as what she was wearing. Finally, she gave up. "Oh man..I have to go shopping! But hang on again…why should I bother how I look like. Oh, screw that! My true love wouldn't mind how I look like. He should like me for me" said Tenten to herself. She sighed and dragged herself out of her room and out of the house into the glaring sun.

"Tenten, wait up!"

"Oh hey Sakura!" replied Tenten as Sakura caught up with her and both of them stopped at their lockers to get their books.

"So what's up? What's with that look of yours?" questioned Sakura. Tenten gave Sakura a head to toe glance and She looked like she just stayed up forthree nights in a row. Her hair was in a mess and she looked pale with eye bags below her normally pretty eyes.

"Nothing…Oh hey, actually there's something I wanna tell you. Guess what? I dreamt of Itachi last night! It was such a sweet dream. But I got woken up by my stupid alarm clock! What's wrong with you anyway? You looked like you didn't sleep for days!" replied Tenten.

"Yeah…this is worse than that. You know what? I had a dream too. It was A NIGHTMARE! I dreamt of that jerk and he was…he was… he was ki…ARGH...I can't say it Tenten! I feel like vomiting right now…"

"He was kissing you in your dream? Oh my god! That's so funny!" Tenten roared in laughter.

"SHUT UP! It's not funny! It's so freaky! I mean how could I dream of such a thing?" yelled Sakura.

Tenten looked at her friend and decided not to pursue any further. She knew how scary Sakura would get when she gets really mad. So, she changed the topic.

"Ok, ok, don't think about it anymore. Remember to get a good's night sleep tonight! Anyway, back to Itachi and I. He was so charming and so handsome in my dreams and he…"

Before Tenten could finish her sentence, Sakura started poking her and pointing at another direction.

"Tenten! Itachi's looking at you! Did you see? There he is! He's staring at you! Oh my! I think he's approaching us!" squealed Sakura excitedly.

Tenten looked up from her locker and turned to the direction Sakura was looking at. And indeed! Itachi was looking at her intently and strolling towards her direction casually. Tenten could feel butterflies in her stomach and she was getting jittery. As Itachi walked closer and closer to her, she felt dizzy and her ears were filled with a buzzing sound.

"Ok, Tenten, chill, it's just a guy. Now just act normally" Tenten thought.

"Hey, erm..Tenten right? I'm Itachi. Would you like to go for a cup of coffee tomorrow afternoon after class?"

Sakura's jaw dropped and Tenten was totally in shock and speechless. She unconsciously edged away from him. A million thoughts just ran through her head. 'Did Itachi just ask me for a date? Oh no! What do I say! What do I do!' she thought helplessly. 'HELP!' she screamed in her mind. Itachi raised an eyebrow, rather amused at Tenten's sudden reaction towards him.

"Hey, I don't bite you know?" he said gently.

To her horror, Tenten blushed madly and stuttered: "I...I k.know... I..I'm sssory." And she moved further away from him. She couldn't stand up properly and she felt like she was swaying.

"Then why are you acting like I'm some sort of fatal disease?" joked Itachi. He gave her one of his charming smiles.

"Oh no! I'm sorry, I didn't, I mean I…"

"That's ok Tenten. So are you free tomorrow?" asked Itachi.

"I…I'd be glad to…to have a cup of coffee with you." replied Tenten. She was now as red as a tomato.

"That's great! I'll see you then. Tomorrow 2pm at Breeks Café. Bye!" Itachi gave her one last smile and waved goodbye.

Tenten smiled and said goodbye under her breath. Suddenly she heard a shriek and felt someone pounce on her and they both crashed onto the floor.

"OH MY GOD TENTEN! HE asked you out! Your CRUSH ITACHI ASKED YOU OUT! HE mmpphhm" shouted Sakura.

"Are you crazy Sakura! What was that for! And SHUSH! Not so loud!" Tenten answered while covering her friend's mouth to prevent her from letting the whole school knows that the popular Itachi has asked the geek Tenten out for a coffee.

"So, he finally asked you huh?" said an all too familiar voice.

Tenten stopped trying to hold down the struggling and overly excited Sakura and looked up. Neji held out his hand and pulled her off the floor.

"Thanks. So you heard?" replied Tenten

"Who couldn't hear it when some crazy, loud mouthed, wide forehead nerd was shouting at the top of her stupid voice?" smirked Sasuke.

"You stupid, cold, unfeeling asshole, keep your mouth shut!" said Sakura and she gave him her meanest glare while she picked herself off the floor. Before Tenten and Neji could stop them, they started bickering down the corridor and away from their sight.

"Well, yeah, he did ask me to go for a cup of coffee. But it's only coffee. Maybe he just wants to be my friend." said Tenten.

Neji laughed and swatted her playfully. "That's not what you really think! You know he's interested in you!" he joked.

"Hey! Don't laugh at me! He wouldn't like me…Who would? I'm just an ugly geek." Tenten said as she walked with Neji to his next class.

Neji suddenly stopped, making Tenten bump into him. He turned around and faced her. "Tenten, you're not ugly at all, you're beautiful. So don't go on saying that you're ugly anymore ok?" he said to her in a serious way. Tenten was slightly taken aback at his seriousness but she smiled at him and nodded her head.

"Hey, you know what. Maybe you're right. He may be my special guy you know? Be prepared to lose Hyuga!"

"Don't say that too early. My next class is English and there's going to be a hot new exchange student joining us." replied Neji.

"Whatever…You just cant accept defeat, can you? I'll prepare the yellow hair dye first" grinned Tenten as Neji walked into his classroom. He smacked her on her head gently and said goodbye to her. Tenten walked down the halls alone and was deep in thought, thinking about what Itachi said to her when she felt a large amount of heat being emitted by someone beside her.

"Oh hey, there you are. What happened?" Tenten asked Sakura. Her face was red and her hair was even messier than before and she was huffing and puffing in anger.

"DO YOU HAVE TO ASK? What else could happen? That stupid jerkface, dumbass, idiot. I'm going to strangle him, stab him a million times, and kick him in his ass and…."

Tenten sighed as her friend continued her string of curses and name calling. What a day!

Meanwhile in Neji's class…

Neji just took his seat when Sasuke walked into the class scowling. Neji sighed and didn't bother asking him what happened. He didn't want to listen to him curse Sakura. All he does everyday is curse her and call her names. Neji was sick of it. Soon, their homeroom teacher arrived with a blonde girl with blue eyes and long, wavy hair.

"Everyone, listen up! This is Yamanaka Ino, a new exchange student. Be nice and Ino, you can introduce yourself to the class."

"Hi everyone! I'm Ino and I'll be here in Konoha High school for a term." She paused and took a glance at the whole class. Her eyes fell on Neji and she smiled at him seductively. Sasuke saw that and smirked and nudged Neji. Neji gave her a charming smile in return.

"So, I hope I'll enjoy my stay here and learn from everyone. Thank you!" finished Ino.

Everyone clapped and Ino took her seat across Neji. She stole a quick glance at him and found him looking at her too. She smiled sweetly and gave him a wink.

"Oohh, she's a blonde bombshell! Absolutely hot man! And she's interested in you! That's not fair!" whispered Sasuke to his partner.

"Hehe..Hey, I would have let you have her but I have my reputation at stake now. I need her to fall in love with me and me to fall in love with her. So, sorry!" whispered Neji.

Finally, after so much torture (the lesson was so damn boring), the bell finally rang. Neji saw Ino picking up her books and was about to leave the classroom. He dashed up to her and said: ' Hi Ino, I'm Hyuga Neji. Pleased to meet you."

"Hi Neji, I've heard of you. You're one of the most popular guys in Konoha high school, aren't you? Nice to meet you too. Great school this is! I love it already!" replied Ino.

"Wow, you've heard of me already. Great news travel fast around here. Here, let me help you with your books. Where do you live? I'll drive you home."

"Really? Thanks!" said Ino happily.

Both of them started chatting and walked out of the classroom forgetting all about Sasuke.

"Geez, some friend he is. Dumping me for a hot chick…He'll get it from me tomorrow…" muttered Sasuke in annoyance as he went home alone.

Everyone, Thanks for reading! Remember to leave me a review! And Yes, Ino is going to be Neji's girl for a while and Itachi is going to be with Tenten. Sorry if I made Ino sound like a bitch, but she would not be so bad at the end of my story. I hope this isn't too draggy. Anyway, next chapter would be Tenten's "date" with Itachi and more on Neji and Ino. I know there isn't much Neji/Tenten action going on but there will definitely be more later on. So, I'll leave you guys here for now!