Disclaimer: No…Naruto does not belong to me…

Chapter 3: Hooded Stranger

Tenten looked at herself, again…She was transforming, exactly the same as last time. Her fingers darkened, and shaped themselves into claws. The dragon wings, she could feel, hung heavily on her back.

'I couldn't control when this happens,' she realized, 'Maybe Tsunade-sama knows how to change my problem. No…that wouldn't work…She'd probably think I was simply trying to fool her.'

While Tenten took her time to contemplate on whether to tell Tsunade-sama about her "affliction", a brown-haired hooded stranger strode into Konoha.

O.o.o.O.o.o.O

As he strolled down the streets of Konoha, Neji wondered why his teammate, Tenten, was acting so weirdly lately. First, it was the incredibly pathetic 'hot shower' lie, now she was running away from sparring.

He suddenly came to a conclusion.

'She's avoiding me, isn't she? What did I ever do to offend her?'

O.o.o.O.o.o.O

Eventually, Tenten decided not to go to Tsunade.

'Perhaps Tsunade-sama would be repelled by my monstrosity. After all, she does constantly put up a genjutsu to make her seem 30 years old. No…I probably shouldn't go.'

She heard a light knock on her door. It wasn't Neji, though; his knocks were different, quieter. And it most certainly wasn't Lee or Gai; they weren't that careful with their strength and so more often than not, their knocks ended up as the door crashing down. Therefore, this someone must be someone she did not know so well.

"Who is it?" she asked, curious. Almost no one, apart from her team, ever came to visit her.

There was complete and utter silence. Annoyed, Tenten marched straight to the door and unlocked it.

When the door completely opened, she came face-to-face with a hooded stranger.

O.o.o.O.o.o.O

Tenten stared at the person. The person, undaunted, stared back.

"Here," stated the brown-haired stranger, "Wear it." An object was thrown at her. Being a weapons specialist as she was, she caught it deftly (and quickly) with a flick of her hand. Yet, by the time she took to catch the object, the mysterious person had vanished.

Peering more closely at it, Tenten saw that it was a ring. Almost unconsciously, she slipped the silver band on her finger.

She stared at it for a while, as if in a trance.

Then, she paused.

'Wait a moment. What if the stranger had cast some strange jutsu on it?' she thought. Thinking that, Tenten attempted to slip the ring off, but for some reason, it wouldn't budge.

'Shoot,' she cursed herself inside her mind, 'There was a jutsu on it…' And as if on cue, Tenten fell backwards and slumped unnaturally into sleep.

Being as preoccupied as she was with the strange inability to take the ring off, Tenten failed to notice that she had changed back into a human, light-weighted and all.

O.o.o.O.o.o.O

The next morning, as soon as dawn arrived, Tenten immediately awoke to find herself on the floor. She stumbled into her room and changed into a new outfit. Falling into routine, she skipped breakfast and went to the practice fields to train.

Neji had already arrived there. Now, they merely had to wait for Lee and Gai.

O.o.o.O.o.o.O

Neji stared. No, it wasn't because he was obsessed with Tenten's fingers…It was rather due to the fact that the light kept on bouncing off of that metal ring.

'Where did she get that ring? Is she engaged?' As he thought this, his mouth automatically began to frown.

A/N: Is there enough Neji x Tenten in this? Or is this simply becoming a fanfic that simply has Neji and Tenten in it as characters? Please review… And yeah…sorry I haven't updated for a long time…High school kills.