Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto—no matter how much I scream and whine about it.

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The Awkward Battlefield - Neji & Tenten

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Neji and Tenten were teammates, friends, and excellent sparring partners. However, against popular belief, they weren't perfect teammates, friends and excellent sparring partners. No, definitely not—in fact, they were far from it—just like all the other people in this world.

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Sweat rolled down the side of her face as she watched him narrowly dodge the last kunai she had sent flying towards him. Before he was able to catch his breath, and focus his Byakugen, she leapt across the clearing and to the far reaches of his view.

She cursed softly; he found her. She could tell by the slight tension in his neck and she immediately threw a set of six shuriken towards him and eight senbon to the trap wires she had set up. He had already used his Kaiten four times and was visibly tired. She knew she had a better chance now since he wasn't going to use it again—after all, most of his chakra was gone.

She watched with pride as her prized weapons cut the air with their amazing speed; her genjutsu hiding them perfectly. He tensed slightly, and she leapt closer to watch his upcoming show.

She grinned with satisfaction at his late reaction to the trap and watched in fascination as he set to work. Her weapons began the first few steps and he completed the 'dance' as she liked to call it. First he bent backwards to avoid the shuriken, then he flipped onto his hands and pushed off, into the air. He twirled and dodged with careful precision and practiced movements. She was completely captured by the movements of his body.

Blind spot. She reminded him mentally, and just like always, realization dawned on him and he turned towards the spot where his blind spot had been moments before. She always made sure that she had all three-hundred-sixty degrees covered when she launched her attacks at him. After the mission to recapture Sasuke had failed, she made sure to train him to look out for his blind spot.

This time, a fuuma shuriken was headed straight for him, and she watched in anticipation; if he used a replacement jutsu, it meant she had won. But she added a little trick to it, just to test his "expect the unexpected" senses. She had hidden another few weapons under the fuuma shuriken's shadow—effectively hiding them from view.

He prevented the fuuma shuriken from hitting his upper body, but failed to move his lower body and five senbon embedded themselves into his abdomen. She watched with slight nervousness as he plummeted to the ground, but breathed a sigh of relief as he twisted, intending to land on all fours. The breath was quickly taken in again as he winced in pain at the last minute and landed in a face-plant in the dirt.

Amusement and concern bubbled in her chest, but concern won out.

"Neji!"

She was by his side in a flash, peeling him away from the dirt and lightly slapping his cheek in an attempt to wake him.

He groaned in pain and she watched as his eyes fluttered open. "Tenten?"

"I'm sorry!" She cried as she hugged him lightly and pulled back. "Where did it hit you?"

He shifted slightly, feeling where the pain stung him, as she looked for any signs of pain on his face. He winced and just as she was about to ask him what was wrong, he flushed a pretty pink and fainted back into the dirt.

"Neji!" She called out again, but to no avail—he was out cold.

Cursing under her breath, Tenten carefully scrutinized his body. She shouldn't have used senbon! They barely allowed blood to leak out and were often so thin that they couldn't be noticed unless you knew where to look or had the eyes of a Byakugen or Sharingan user.

Finally, after much searching, she had found her needles in a rather…awkward place. Gulping down her pride – and maybe a little of Neji's for his poor unconscious soul –, Tenten plucked the needles from their position and stripped him of his shirt, folding it neatly beside her.

You're stalling. She reprimanded herself and quickly refocused on the task at hand. Using her chakra strings on one of her kunai, Tenten directed it to the first-aid box lying a few yards away and tried to hook it into the handle of the box. She carefully tugged the kunai and the first-aid box—now attached to the weapon, thanks to the kunoichi's slightly nervous tremble—back towards her.

Suddenly, his face seemed more interesting then normal, but no. She mustn't. She couldn't. She had to focus! No running away from it! This was a battlefield and as a kunoichi she had to do her…duty.

With shaking hands, Tenten shifted her position and took a hold of the stupid fabric that was keeping her from tending to the wounds. The very stupid and very rough material suddenly became much more interesting then her task, just as his still flushed, unconscious face had.

Pull it together! You are a kunoichi! Remember? This is battlefield, so act accordingly. She reminded herself and took a deep, calming breath. Her actions were useless and as soon as she refocused she became anything but calm.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she continued with her task. A quick unbuttoning and unzipping, and Neji's pants were an inch and a half lower then they had been before. She tried her best not to make a sound, really she did, but it didn't work and she squealed like an excited fangirl.

She couldn't believe this, either Neji was going to kill her or she'd die from the flames that seemed to inhabit the skin beneath her cheeks. Tenten worked quickly, dabbing the wound with an antiseptic and applying a small bandage before readjusting his pants to their previous position.

She pulled back with a relieved sigh, closing her eyes and taking a few extra deep breaths before reopening her eyes. Surprised brown met very embarrassed and shocked white, and just as quickly, panicked and embarrassed brown met everything but the extra embarrassed and shocked white.

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And so we conclude that the battlefield is, indeed, a very awkward place where anything goes and everything is fair.

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A/N: Hope you liked the embarrassment. I'd die if I was Tenten!

xoxoxox – RomanceFanFicLover