Author Notes: Hello again, everyone! A huge Thank You to the wonderful fanofthisfiction for inviting me to her Show Me the 'Review' Love challenge! I'd planned to write a NejiTen fic, but Rock Lee elbowed his way in and insisted on being the male lead. I personally find him easier to write than Neji so this became a LeeTen fic instead. Sorry, Neji! Better luck next time :)

Summary: Tenten once promised to marry Rock Lee should she and Neji Hyuuga not get married for whatever reason.

Warnings: AU, Post Fourth Great Ninja War.

Rating: T

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

- Story Start -

The Fourth Great Ninja War ended with the promise of a more peaceful era between the Five Great Nations. Freed of the horrors of war, of battling for months on end, and of seeing comrades new and old fall, the members of Konoha Twelve looked forward to put all that behind them and focus on the more positive things in life.

Needless to say, romance was one of them.

If Neji Hyuuga were still alive, Tenten would definitely be in that group. She used to dream of a future with him - her close friend, fellow teammate and secret crush. Alas, her dream ended on the battlefield when Neji went down protecting Hinata and Naruto from the Ten Tails' devastating attack.

Tenten wasn't even there at that time as she and Lee were fighting elsewhere. When they learned of his death, they collapsed on the ground in mutual grief together with Maito Gai, all three weeping over their loss and the waste of a young, talented person. Tenten didn't even get to say goodbye. It was Naruto who cradled the dying Neji in his arms, Naruto who saw him take his last breath and heard his final words.

The following weeks after the war passed in a numb blur for Tenten - returning to their village, seeing familiar faces and missing others, attending the memorial service for the dead, and trying to cope with the hole inside her heart. She wasn't the only one who lost a loved one, far from it. Shikamaru and Ino both lost their fathers too. Many others lost entire families.

Even Maito Gai didn't emerge unscathed and now was wheelchair bound.

Tenten couldn't say she missed Team Gai's punishing early morning exercises though. Not when she could wake up to sunlit mornings and become acquainted once more with the simple luxuries of clean running water, laundered clothes, freshly cooked meals and a comfortable bed.

Taking care of her personal needs and her tiny apartment took little to no time. With missions put on hold for the time being, she found she had too much time on her hands and volunteered at the Konoha Hospital to fill her hours. Sakura and the other medic-nin were more than grateful for any assistance. Lee and Choji helped too, but the other members of the Konoha Twelve were busy elsewhere.

Hinata assisted her father with clan duties which he'd started to groom Neji for.

Shikamaru and Ino stepped into their fathers' overly large shoes as clan heads.

Sai took on more ANBU duties and Kiba shouldered more of his mother's responsibilities.

Temari returned to the Sand Village to help her brothers while Shino assisted Iruka at the Konoha Academy.

Hard work helped to numb the pain, as did the friendship of her longtime friends and the passing of time. Tenten grew accustomed to a different, more relaxed schedule. She woke up after the sun did, put in a couple of hours of exercise and weapons practice, had breakfast and reported to the hospital. She soon learned to smile again, to take delight in the recovery of the patients she helped, and to look forward to catching up with her friends over a drink or a meal.

When missions began again, she signed up for them.

- o -

Weeks and months flew past and then a full year. A memorial service was held to commemorate the first anniversary of the day the Fourth Great Ninja War ended, to honour the fallen and to remind everyone of the sacrifices they had made to make the current peace possible.

Tenten soon saw her friends paring off, one after another, walking hand in hand and going on dates.

Naruto and Hinata.

Shikamaru and Temari.

Sai and Ino.

Choji and Karui.

Even Sakura insisted she was unavailable although Sasuke continued to travel the world.

Out of the Konoha Twelve, only Lee, Kiba, Shino and Tenten remained unattached. Kiba had made tentative overtures to Tenten, but she turned him down gently. Shino didn't, for which she was grateful. He was a sweetheart, but the prospect of waking up to insects crawling all over her wasn't something she could accept.

It was Rock Lee who won her hand, the one person she couldn't say no to because of the promise she had made to him a few years back.

Flashback:

Team Gai celebrated the success of their latest mission with a BBQ dinner. It was Gai's treat, but he was the first to leave after the dinner ended, sheepishly confessing to a dango eating competition with his lifelong rival, Kakashi Hatake. Neji was the next to leave, citing he had a meeting with Hiashi Hyuuga, and reminded his teammates not to drink too much.

Seeing Tenten's downturned lips, Lee ordered another around of beer. He was a lightweight and his cheeks were already pink from both food and drink. Still, Tenten appreciated him keeping her company.

By the time they left the eatery, both were more than tipsy. Lee offered to walk Tenten home and she accepted. They went the long way round, walking past the closing shops and further on until they reached the abandoned Uchiha compound before turning back to stroll by the Konoha river. They stood there for a while, letting the late evening breeze cool flushed cheeks as they chatted about the near misses during their mission.

"I'd have fallen off that cliff if Neji hadn't grabbed my hand," Tenten said with a remembered wince. "He saved my life."

"Hey, I helped too, Tenten!" Lee protested with wide, hurt eyes.

Tenten chuckled and patted his arm.

"Yes, you did. Your flying kick sent that bandit sailing right over our heads. You saved both of us!"

"Thank you!" Lee beamed at her, good mood restored in the blink of an eye. "Well, you both ducked when I told you to so great job too!"

Tenten laughed again and bumped his shoulder. He bumped her back gently. They stood in companionable silence for a few minutes, looking at the reflection of the full moon on the river.

"What would I do without you, Lee?" Tenten gave a soft sigh. She felt full and warm from the dinner and her deep affection for Lee. It was nothing like her crush on Neji, but it was a solid and genuine friendship. She turned to him, startled, when he took her hand in his large, rough one.

"You won't have a chance to find out if you marry me."

Tenten blinked at him, her gaze going down to their joined hands and then back up to his face. She was a shinobi and a weapons expert. Her palms and fingers had callouses, but they couldn't even begin to compare to Lee whose entire palms and fingers were covered in them.

"What?" She asked.

"Marry me, Tenten. Promise me that you'll marry me someday."

"Wha - Lee...!"

"Promise me!" Lee's gaze was unblinking, his lean cheeks still a bright pink in the moonlight.

Tenten tried to tug her hand free, but failed. Her buoyant mood vanished at once, leaving her with a sinking heart and a squirming stomach. This wasn't how she envisioned her evening to go at all. She had actually planned to tell Neji about her feelings, only he left before she could work up the courage to do so.

"I can't," she said weakly. "You're a good friend and a wonderful person, but I - well, I..."

"You like Neji."

Oh God. Was she that obvious?

"I - yes. I'm sorry."

As the silence stretched out, Tenten bit her lower lip. The evening could have ended right there and then, but it didn't. Lee - bless his enormous, kind heart - smiled at her. It was crooked and pained and it looked like it took a lot of effort... but it was still a smile.

"I understand, Tenten."

"I'm so sor-"

"No, don't apologise! Of course you would choose Neji. But! If for some reason - any reason at all! - you and Neji don't get married, will you marry me, Tenten?"

Filled with relief and still a little shaken at the proposal and the realisation that while she had a crush on Neji, Lee had a crush on her, she said yes, of course she would. She was too moved that Lee was so willing to be her second choice to really consider what she promised.

End flashback

Another year passed and Konoha Village held another memorial service for those who had fallen in the Fourth Great Ninja war.

Tenten was one of the few who lingered at the cemetery long after the crowd left. She finally stood up from kneeling by Nejji's gravestone, wincing a little at her sore knees, and turned around. Lee stood at the little gate, waiting for her. He had changed out of his usual green spandex and wore a light green shirt and dark, well fitted trousers.

Tenten was at first surprised by how nice he looked and then by the bouquet of pink roses in his hand, Ino's signature touch in the big showy yellow ribbon tying it together.

- o -

It didn't take long for word to get around. Everyone offered them warm congratulations and hoped they would be happy. Some insisted they knew it was bound to happen, others said they could imagine no one better for each other.

No one mentioned Neji which made Tenten very sure they knew of her crush on him. It was Hinata who hugged her tightly with tears in her eyes and whispered that he would be happy for both of them. Tenten hugged her back with a single tear sliding down her cheek.

- o -

Fifteen years later...

Tenten was snoozing in bed when the familiar bang of the front door made her groan. In exactly two seconds, the bedroom door was thrown open. She opened an eye to see Lee standing at the foot of their bed, smelling of sweat and life, and beaming down at her.

"GOOD MORNING, TENTEN, LOVE OF MY LIFE!"

Tenten wanted to throw her pillow at him. Or better yet, his pillow. Her traitorous lips wobbled, but she refused to give in to her smile. Sitting up, she gave him a stern look.

"Would it kill you, Lee, to announce your return without letting the entire neighbourhood know?"

"NO, IT WOULDN'T, BUT THAT ISN'T WHAT YOUTH IS ALL ABOUT!"

"Haaaiii... fine, fine. Now go take a shower, you're gross!" Tenten shooed him off to the adjoining bathroom before she could dissolve into giggles.

"I WILL AND WHEN I'M CLEAN, I'M GOING TO MAKE LOVE TO MY BEAUTIFUL WIFE!"

Something clattered to the floor outside.

"Lee!" Tenten glared at her husband who now stood frozen with one foot inside the bathroom. "Has Metal left home yet?"

"NO, BUT I"M GOING TO RIGHT NOW! BYE, OTOU-SAN, KAA-CHAN!" Metal shouted from outside, sounding just as mortified as Tenten. He clattered and banged his way out the door.

Tenten groaned and covered her burning face with her hands. When she heard the shower running, she threw back the blankets and got out of bed, shaking her head at her irrepressible husband.

She knew of one who stretched himself so thin with responsibilities that he ate more cup noodles than his wife's delicious cooking.

She knew of another who traveled the world frequently and when he returned, refused to say the three little words his wife longed to hear.

She knew of yet another whose brain was second to none yet preferred to spend his free time watching the clouds in the sky.

But her own husband proclaimed his love for her everyday, rain or shine, whether they were at home or out. He also helped with the housework without being asked, took her out for dinner when she didn't feel like cooking, and made sure to inform her whenever he felt horny.

To be honest, that last one never failed to put her in the mood too.

With Rock Lee, what you saw was exactly what you got. And Tenten had absolutely no complaints about it. She had a good marriage. A rock solid marriage, please excuse the pun. They shared everything - housework, expenses, training, laughs, bringing up Metal - and hid nothing from each other.

Well, almost nothing. Tenten never told him about her yearly visits to Neji's grave on the anniversary of his death, a tradition she had kept for the past seventeen years.

- o -

Early the next morning, the Leaf Village received a distress signal from Team Five. A senior team with an Inuzuka for tracking and a medic-nin was dispatched immediately to provide assistance. Tenten begged to join them, but was turned down. With Lee away on another mission, she spent the entire morning pacing up and down outside the emergency ward of Konoha Hospital. Sakura, Hinata and Ino dropped by to reassure her that Team Five's Udon Ise was a capable jounin-sensei, Metal's two teammates Denki Kaminarimon and Iwabee Yuino were strong shinobi, and Metal himself had excellent taijutsu skills like his father... but he was just fourteen years old!

Tenten forgot that she herself had gone on dangerous missions at a much younger age.

It was late afternoon when both teams returned. Team Five was brought straight to the hospital. Nothing too serious - battered pride, cuts and bruises, a fractured arm, a broken leg and a concussion - the last two were Metal's.

It was past ten at night when Tenten was ushered out from Metal's room by Sakura and ordered to go home and get some rest. She gave her sleeping son a kiss on the forehead and went home to an empty apartment.

Lee had returned from his mission earlier and popped by the hospital to find out how Metal was. Then he went off again to give his report to the Hokage and attend the briefing given by the rescue team. She wasn't sure when he would be home, but it was the anniversary of Neji's death and she owed him a visit.

- o -

A while later...

Tenten knew that Lee knew she had heard him approaching even though he walked quietly. They were trained ninja, after all. She felt a little wretched as she held out a hand and breathed a sigh of relief when he grasped her fingers immediately.

When he knelt beside her, she gathered her scattered thoughts.

"Lee, I-"

"Later, Tenten. We're here to talk to Neji, not to each other."

Tenten bit her lip and nodded, turning back to the gravestone embedded with a photograph of Neji, forever frozen in youth. Taking a deep breath, she continued her rundown of what had happened this past year. There was nothing she needed to hide so she said everything that came into her mind, going month by month so she wouldn't forget. She spoke of key events that happened in the village as well as in their lives, including her and Lee's fifteenth wedding anniversary which they celebrated at an inn with an onsen, and ending with Metal's latest mission, and the injuries he sustained.

By the time she fell silent, it was almost midnight. Lee shifted and she turned to look at him, taken aback by the twin tracks running down his cheeks.

When she opened her mouth to ask, he shook his head and laid a gentle finger across her lips. Then he turned back to the gravestone, took a deep breath and began talking. His voice came out thick and a little unsteady, but he only paused to wipe his face with the handkerchief Tenten passed to him.

Towards the end, he changed from talking to Neji to talking to her although he didn't turn his head.

"I always visit Neji on the anniversary of his death too, but in the early morning before my laps around the village. Now I know that you come here too, but late at night."

Tenten opened her mouth to say she usually visited in the late afternoons, but saw no point in interrupting him.

"If..." She heard him gulp and saw his fingers twitch, "if it were me lying here, under this grave... would you visit me every year?"

Tenten opened her mouth, lips forming the word 'Yes' only to close it again.

Would she?

She hadn't had a crush on him during the war. At that time, he was a dear friend and fellow teammate. Of course she would grieve and remember him, but...

"It's alright. I know the answer."

Tenten's throat tightened and her eyes began stinging.

"No, but that's because-"

"It's alright."

She pressed her fingers across his lips.

"No. Let me speak, Lee," she said with an imploring look, voice trembling. "I wasn't in love with you then and I'm not sure if I was even in love with Neji then. But I was very fond of you. And I do love you now, you've made sure of that."

Lee stared at her and swallowed again. He turned back to the gravestone.

"But you'd have been happier with him. Wouldn't you?"

She had never heard her husband - strong and powerful and confident - sound so small, smaller than when he had held Metal in his arms for the first time.

"Lee, look at me."

He shook his head.

"Look at me," she repeated and this time, he obeyed.

"I married you instead of Neji," she said. "I don't regret it, I never have. But if there was a way to go back to the past, to change things, to save his life, I would do it still."

"So that you could marry him?" Lee's voice wobbled and that moment of rare vulnerability was something so very, very precious to Tenten.

"So that he would be alive, because he's our friend. He's part of Team Gai, just like you and me."

"And then you'd marry him?"

Tenten exhaled and then she gave a little laugh and framed his dear face with her hands.

"Maybe, maybe not?"

When his lips turns down, she sighed.

"Lee, did you ever consider that maybe he wouldn't want to marry me?"

He scowled and enclosed her wrists with his large rough hands, making her feel once again, small and delicate.

"Whoever doesn't want to marry you must be mad!" He exclaimed.

"Thank you, but you know as well as I do that although Neji was a branch side member, he and Hiashi Hyuuga were on better terms. He could've been the next clan leader and he'd have to marry a fellow Hyuuga then."

Lee looked mollified even though he tried to hide it.

"We could have ended up married to each other still," Tenten said and touched her lips to his. "And if that happened, we would still be as happy as we are now."

Lee swallowed.

"Really?"

Tenten smiled and sniffled.

"Really."

Lee turned back to the gravestone. So did Tenten.

"Goodbye, Neji. We'll come visit you again. Together," she said with a fond smile. Then she turned to her husband and her smile widened.

"Let's go home."

Hand in hand, they walked along the path to the little gate.

"I LOVE MY BEAUTIFUL WIFE!"

"Shh! Lee, we're still at the cemetery!"

"SAY YOU LOVE ME BACK!"

"Shh! You're going to wake everyone up!"

"SAY YOU LOVE ME BACK!"

"Gah! Alright, I love you, now let's go home."

"I'M GOING TO MAKE LOVE-"

"Not if you don't keep quiet, you madman!"

Laughing, Lee gave her a sound kiss and placed his arm around her shoulders. Smiling, she slid her arm around his waist and together, they walked back home.

- Story End -

A/N: Thank you for reading! Please leave a review if you enjoyed it :)