Irony of Her Actions

Pulling away, Tenten raised her right hand and slapped Neji. It was sort of on instinct the action. Neji barely made a move to yell or stop her action. He was able to tell what she was going to do, but simply ignored it. He did however wince slightly but not because of the pain, it was because she was the one who did it. If she wanted to hurt him, she would punch like in the sparring matches they still had together once in a while but never slap. Realizing what she had done, she apologized. Neji shrugged it off and turned to leave again.

"Change and meet me at the entrance." That was all he said before opening the door, take his leave and close it again. Not even a glance back at her. Tenten didn't know what to make of the situation she was on, and about her behavior. Usually she was more calm not reckless and short tempered. All of these changes were taking its toll on her but to lessen the trouble she knew she was causing Neji, she decided to just play along for now and decide later what was going on. Tenten turned to look for something to wear around the room. There atop the same chest Neji took he pants from, laid a pink long-sleeve top and brown pants. Quickly she changed, leaving what she was wearing on top of a chair and exited his room. The hallways were longer then she seemed to remember but then again she only visited the Hyuuga manner once or twice. It was easy to get lost in a place such as this. When she was close to the point of frustration she saw Hinata exit a room.

"G-good morning Tenten-san." Hinata said nervously, even after all those years she still kept that nervousness and uncertainty in her voice.

"Hinata?" Tenten said questionably still not completely sure that the person standing now in front oh her was the same Hinata she knew.

"Um yes?" Hinata said thinking Tenten was going to ask her a question. Tenten who wonder why Hinata replied in what sounded like a question figured out what she thought and decided she might as well ask where the entrance to the manner was.

"Do you know where the entrance is?"

"Yes, um just turn left after you walk down this hall." Hinata said pointing the direction. Tenten was about to continue walking when Hinata's voice stopped her.

"Um would you like me to walk with you? Neji-niisan says that you may be feeling a little unwell this morning." Hinata said concerned about Tenten's well-being.

"It's alright Hinata, I'm fine. Thank you for your help." She waved before turning back to walk. As instructed she walked down the hall until close to the end before turning left and started to walk. In no time, Tenten saw the entrance and Neji standing silently against the boarder of the doors. He had his usual cold emotionless stare that she knew him for, and was slightly skeptical in getting closer. Either way she knew that he had already felt her presence and the Byakugan had already located where she was no matter if she wanted to hide. Recalling the events before with the slap, Tenten felt as though she should apologize again, it wasn't at all like her.

"Neji…I wanted to-" Before she was able to say it, Neji cut her off rather rudely.

"We're meeting Lee today. Let's go before we're late." Neji started walking, ignoring what Tenten wanted to say to him. He wasn't in the mood to talk especially with her at the moment. Tenten just signed at his actions and followed him along, no matter what time period, she seemed to always be the one to follow him when this part of his personality showed. To some extent she was relieved to see his act like he usually did when they were together. The feeling of him being caring was awkward, maybe not entirely awful but it was, well awkward.

They continued their path in silence, neither of them wanted to speak, Neji not feeling up to talk to her and Tenten uncertain of what to say. This silence continued even as they reached the main part of Konoha that was filled with stores all over. Everything seemed to be in the same place as she remembered, familiar yet foreign still. From the corner of her eyes she saw someone who she thought looked familiar. He sat on one of the stools placed near a table for those to eat at Ichiraku's. He wore an orange and black shirt and orange pants, Naruto. He was the easiest to figure out but there was someone sitting next to him. Taking a guess Tenten decided it was most likely Sakura. However she didn't catch Sasuke, the other member of Kakashi's squad near them.

When they were getting closer to where she remembered as their training grounds, Tenten couldn't take the silence, even Neji was never this silent. He would have made some sort of noise whether it be a word or some sort of sound.

"Neji-" However again Neji cut her off with not even the slightest of care to what she had to say.

"We're late, hurry up." His voice seemed colder then it had been before, somewhat hurt. It was only after hearing those words did Tenten notice that the constant speed she was walking at had slowed down that she was at least two feet away from Neji. Had she subconsciously moved away from him or was it something else, something in the back of her mind that she was terrified of him for the moment. Her thoughts were broken when loud shouted broke what had turned into silence between then.

"TENTEN! It's been a while hasn't it my dear friend." Lee jumped out through the bushes and took Tenten into a tight embrace. Tenten notice that Lee hadn't changed to much either, he was taller like Neji and was wearing something more similar to what Gai-sensei wore. Tenten couldn't help but smile at her teammate's greater alikeness to their sensei.

"I'm so glad that we are able to meet again like this even with our non-stop schedule. I'm just disappointed that Gai-sensei was not able to join us this moment. I had finished my runs early to arrive here before you and left him far behind." Lee's embrace tightened even more if possible around her, this got Neji's attention.

"Lee." He said firmly yet simply. That one word made Lee let go of Tenten but only after he whispered something quickly inter her ear.

"I see he's very possessive over you." Lee smiled and walked away from Tenten to stand in front of Neji.

"I finally can face you off in combat again, I'm very glad to get this chance again to fight my greatest rival." Lee was still excited as ever when he got a chance to face off against Neji. It was something he still looked forward too and trained hard knowing that one day he would eventually beat Neji, but until then to become even stronger in his Taijutsu.

"Not today."

"Aw but why." Tears of disappointment started to leak through Lee's eyes until it came ushering out. Because of the separate missions that the three of them had to carry out, it was hard to find a time when all three of them were able to see each other to catch of things but usually this time was spent with Lee fighting against Neji.

"Look if you called us out here just to fight with me, your wasting my time." Neji explained before turning to take his leave. Tenten noticed the slight frustration he had in his voice. She couldn't help but wonder why.

"Sorry Lee, I think he's just in a mad mood right now. I'll see you another time alright." Tenten said and gave Lee a quick hug and wave before trying to catch up to Neji. She followed to where she thought he would go and ended up in a familiar place. He was standing there in the clearing, tree surrounding the area except a small circular plain of which he stood on.

Coincidence was one thing, but irony was another. This was the same place she had told him that he could train by himself for all that she cared before she left him alone. But there she was, getting into a sparring position with him already in his fighting stance, ready for her assault. And as expected, she launched a barrage of various weapons at her target.

A/N: Sorry about the mix up with the years before, thank you to those who pointed that out foe me. Anyways about the time skip, I'm not going to reveal how or why that happened for fanfic purposes.