A/N: Ah, it's been a while.
Oh well...
Anyways..this chapter is nothing important.
I just started typing and this was the result :D
Main story line starts again next chappie, don't know when that'll be..
Thanks for my reviewers! Enjoy chapter 8!

Disclaimer: no ownage.

One month later.

"Can I braid your hair?" Tenten asked from her position leaning against Neji's shoulder. They were at his house; he was watching television while she was reading one of his many books. It was the winter holidays so neither of them had work. Haterou was playing at a friend's house, leaving the two alone.

The past month had been smooth going for the most part. They saw each other barely and if they did it was on weekends because of work but the two have developed to be like best friends more than anything. That still didn't stop Neji from getting annoyed every so often like he always did. "No. You may not braid my hair."

"Oh come on. It's so long and shiny, it's practically begging to be braided!" She hadn't looked up from her book yet, and he hadn't looked away from the TV screen either.

"My hair does not beg to be braided." Before she could say anything else he added. "It does not beg to be cut, brushed, or dyed either. So don't bother asking."

Tenten, having nothing else to say, merely read the book for the total of five more minutes. Then she snapped it shut and walked over to stuff it back on its shelf. She turned to Neji and crossed her arms. "Let's go out."

This caught his attention away from the screen. "Out?"

"It's almost noon." She pointed to the clock. "Let's go grab some lunch at that Akatsuki café, I've been meaning to drop by there." Then he sighed.

"Fine. I'm hungry anyway."

She let out a smile and grabbed her jacket. "Can I drive?"

No reply until he'd gotten his jacket on. "You can drive your car."

"But I like yours. It runs really smoothly, and it's really quiet. I love your car, can I drive it please?"

"No."

"Please?"

Neji let out a frustrated sigh and tossed her the keys. "Fine. But be careful, I don't want you scratching my car."

She caught them and grinned. "What's with it with guys and their cars?" Under her breath, "Kankorou's like that too."

"What was that last part?" Neji had slipped on his shoes and was at the door when he heard Tenten mutter something he didn't quite hear.

"Nothing. Let's go." She pushed past him out the door and practically ran to his white Coupe. She turned on the ignition and drove off.

It was about a ten-minute drive and was in a comfortable silence. When they reached the café, the size if it was a surprise to both of them. It was more like a large restaurant then the coffee pub it was supposed to be. Neji held the door open for Tenten and when they got inside they saw that it was decorated mainly black with small, red, and swirly clouds.

They walked up to the small podium where there was a sign in and elegant typeface that said 'Please Wait to Be Seated.' Waiting was about half a minute when a smiling girl with bluish black hair with an origami flower in it came to help them.

She looked them over with her dark blue eyes then wrote something down on a piece of paper. "Table for two?" The looked up to see them nod. "Follow me please."

As they followed her, Tenten couldn't help but notice that there was a surprising amount of people, and that most of the people here were in couples or group dates. Only three or four families of two parents and children. The two stopped at a small table near the window. The girl leading them put down the menus and spoke when they were seated. "My name is Konan. You're waiter should arrive shortly; if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. Thank you for choosing the Akatsuki Café." With a last smile she was gone.

"This place is…different from how I expected it." Tenten picked up the menu and flipped through it. "It kind of reminds me of a club."

Neji raised an eyebrow. "How does this place remind you of a club? There's puffy red clouds everywhere." He opened his own menu and flipped through it.

"I don't know, I guess the black gives off a sort of vibe." Then she looked around. "Ino said Sasuke's brother is supposed to work here."

"You're talking about Uchiha Sasuke, yeah?" A blonde man with long hair in a ponytail had just arrived next to his table. "His brother, Itachi, works here, yeah. You know him?"

Tenten tapped her chin, thinking of when she'd met Sasuke's older brother. She'd seen him in College, but never talked. "Itachi? No. I don't think we'd ever met him. But Sasuke's a good friend of ours."

The blonde man looked at her and Neji for a moment. "I think I remember you guys, yeah. You went to the Gakure College, yeah? I remember now, you were freshmen in my senior year, yeah."

"Sophomores," Neji corrected. "We were sophomores when you were senior. Uchiha Sasuke was a year below us with everyone else."

"I remember you too." He looked at Neji for a while. "You're that Hyuuga prodigy, yeah." His face suddenly lit up as if he just remembered something. Then from a pocked he pulled out a notepad. "My name's Deidara and I'll be your waiter, yeah. You ready to order yet, yeah?"

Tenten flipped through her menu again, so Neji ordered first. "I'll have a bowl of miso and pork ramen."

"And I'll take the soup and sandwich combo of the day, thanks."

Deidara collected their menus and said. "No problem, yeah. You're food will come soon."

About a minute after he left Tenten found her voice. "Prodigy? Since when were you a prodigy?"

Neji smirked and leaned back in his chair. "Always been." He tapped his head. "It's in the Hyuuga blood. You'll note that Hinata's smart too. Hanabi too, she's in all advanced classes, but she's not as good as she could be. Maybe she was dropped on the head."

She laughed. "Why do you hate her so much? Hanabi's not that bad. She's a good kid."

"You didn't grow up with her." His ran a hand through his hair. "Hinata was quiet, which was good. But Hanabi was loud and reckless."

"I see. You're lucky though. I wish I had siblings."

It was silent for a moment. Then Neji said, "Why don't you have a surname? You didn't have one in college."

Tenten sighed. "I was adopted. My real parents could be dead for all I know or care. I never bothered finding out who they were. And taking the last name of my adopter's didn't feel right, so I dropped it. So it's Tenten now. Just Tenten."

Before anything else could be said, a loud voice reached them. "Neji, Tenten!" both said people looked up to see that Ino and Hinata had just walked in with Naruto and Kiba in tow. It was Ino who had shouted as Hinata was blushing a very tomato-like colour from being so close to Naruto. The four followed the same girl two in to a table not far from where they were sitting.

Tenten was slightly confused. How Ino had worked her magic that time was beyond her. From what she knew Kiba liked Hinata who liked Naruto who liked Sakura who liked Sasuke and the list goes on and on. Ino however, only had her sights set on Shikamaru who was nowhere in sight, so the only reasonable explanation was that the blonde was playing matchmaker.

Okay, Tenten was now unconfused.

Only now, she was slightly agitated because Ino had run over to a visit to their table. "What are you guys doing here? Are you on a date?"

Tenten thought she sounded like a little kid. But it was Neji who answered. "No. We're just having lunch."

"Right. I was just thinking that since Christmas is only about a week away we should have a little get together. If not then we should all go to the bar on the thirtieth, you're only young once, right?" She winked at them with her startlingly blue eyes.

"Sure. I'll call you sometime Ino." Tenten said, offhandedly. This made the blonde grin.

She skipped back over to her table and said something to Hinata. Within the minute she'd grabbed her purse gone out the door and out of the building lot. Hinata, however, was now shocked to find herself alone with the two boys.

"Poor Hinata." Tenten sighed. With one look at Neji's face she sighed again. "Don't go being the over protective big cousin type person now. Hinata can handle herself. I think she carries pepper spray in her purse, so if either of them try anything she'll squirt their eyes out. Now calm down. The food's here."

And so it was. After another short and rather entertaining conversation with Deidara they began to eat.

Lunch went by well, with light conversation. They left with a leaving a tip and had another light conversation on the way back to Neji's car where he held his hand out. "I'll drive. I know a place that I think you'll like?"

She tossed him the keys. "Sounds cool. How far is it?"

"Around twenty minutes."

It turned out to be a half hour. Neji took her to a place by the lake. They drove around the outskirts of the water until there were no more roads. When Neji told her that they would be walking for a couple more minute she laughed.

"Just letting you know, Hyuuga, I carry pepper spray too." She joked.

Ten minutes and treacherous footing later they had reached a small clearing. "My father took me hear when I was young." He explained. "He told me a story about ninja's, or shinobi, and how they were believed to exist a long time ago. Historians think it's a load of bull though, but my family dates way back.

"It's said that there was a war that killed the last of the ninja and it occurred right here." He walked over to a nearby tree and heaved himself up to a branch some ways about the ground. Tenten followed him and he lifted up a thicket of leaves so she could see. "Not many people know about this place, it may only be my family that knows." After some heaving he finally managed to pull the leaves away.

From the ground Tenten awed. There were many scratched on the tree and sticking out from the trunk up high were several kunai knives. "Wow."

Neji jumped down and landed next to her. "I thought you might like this. You're an archaeologist after all. It would be good experience to study a myth."

Suddenly her heart sank. Tenten though he'd brought her here because he wanted to, not because of her job. But still, that wasn't enough to take her away from the awe. Walking over to another tree, she lifted up the thicket of leaves as well. This trunk revealed several shruiken stars as well, even some dried blood. "Wow." She repeated.

"There's more." He led her though a dense patch of trees and Tenten thought he was randomly picking his way through when he stopped her. "Careful, you don't fall. It's not an archaeological sight, but I thought you would like it."

"Neji, it's beautiful."

They were standing on a cliff overlooking the lake. The sun hung bright and low over the water and Tenten couldn't help but think that the light reflection looked a little bit like a heart.

A/N: Well that's it folks.
Sorry if Neji was a little OOC
Thanks for reading, reviews are appreciated :D
fanny-kun