A/N: Ah, I believe this is the chapter we've all been waiting for.
...the climax..
It's not as extravegant as I'd originally planned, so sorry about that.
But enjoy chapter twelve :D

Disclaimer: Three guesses to whether I own or not.

I love you. Will you marry me?

Tenten read those seven words over and over again until there was no possible way she had misinterpreted it. She noticed that her mouth was hanging open slightly and she re-read the little note. When the words passed through her mind for what seemed like the hundredth time, she slammed her mouth shut and acted though this was no surprise.

She had no one to blame her shock on but herself; most people would have seen this coming from a mile away.

It was the second of January, and a cold one it was. It was nearly a blizzard outside and Tenten had almost cancelled her date with Kankorou to a fancy little Chinese restaurant. But he insisted, he would not take no for an answer.

So she took the only other option and said yes. Haterou was at the hospital again, so she wasn't doing anything splendid that night anyways.

Dinner was great, Tenten loved Chinese food, and she ate it whenever she could.

But the surprise came in the fortune cookie.

Okay, so Kankorou knew that putting a ring and a note asking for her hand in marriage inside a little fortune cookie wasn't very original, but it was the perfect way to propose to Tenten.

"I meant to ask you yesterday, girl. You know, to add to the magic of the New Year and all. But I couldn't get a hold of you." The little guilt monster in Tenten's stomach moved, she had spent yesterday with Neji and her son. Best not to mention that. "Are you okay? I guess this is a bit of a shock." He grinned at the expression on her face.

Was she okay? Oh don't worry, she was at a loss for words, suffocating in confusion, and surprised enough to pee her pants; but she was fine. Oh so perfectly fine. Somehow, Tenten managed to give out a wry smile that she hoped didn't give away any of the mumble jumble going on inside her confused brain.

Kankorou's grin widened. He was quite confident that night, when most guys would be shaking from nervousness. But he knew everything would go fine.

After all, he was the father to her son.

After all, they had known each other since high school.

After all, they were at the perfect age. Not too old, not too young.

And after all that, Tenten really had no reason for her to say no.

Except for the fact that Kankorou didn't know that she was in love with Neji and she was questioning her feelings. But let's not get into that.

"Kankorou…I don't know what to say." Tenten had lifted up the ring, which had clattered onto the table as soon as the fortune cookie was broken in half. It really was quite lovely. One large diamond stood out on a gold band, and on either side of that were three other diamonds, growing steadily smaller.

Tenten knew it must have cost a fortune. And she was quite sure that she wasn't worth that much to him.

Or he wasn't worth that much to her? Oh, life was confusing.

"Then say yes." Yes, it was a cheesy cliché thing to say but he didn't care. Kankorou reached over and locked hands with both of Tenten's. Both were fully aware that they had become the centre of attention for the restaurant and nearly everyone in the vicinity was looking there way with looks saying 'that's so sweet', even the cooks had come out of the kitchen. Some pedestrians had stopped to look in the window. All the attention made Tenten feel like she was in a movie, where she thought only this kind of thing happened.

Still, Tenten hesitated. She wasn't sure what to do, not at all. It would be horrid to turn him down in front of all these people. One look in his pleading eyes decided everything.

Biting her lip, she slipped the golden ring around the fourth finger on her left hand. She leaned her head back and examined the effect of the shimmering diamonds on her finger. She looked up and smiled sadly, nearly closing her eyes so as to not let out the tears that were threatening her.

"Yes. I will."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The booming sound of Neji's fist slamming down on his uncle's living room coffee table made both his cousins look up from their books in surprise. Despite the fact that they were family, it was quite uncommon for those three to be in the same household building, as Hinata and Neji had already moved to their own homes and Hanabi was still in high school, therefore living with her father. Though once in a while, they got together to have dinner. But Hanabi swore it was because her father missed Hinata's fantastic cooking.

Neji himself nearly started. He looked down at his hand in surprise, as if blaming it for the noise he had made. If it'd woken up Hiashi, who was asleep upstairs, all three of them would be in trouble. And they knew it because it was silent for a moment. The tension seemed to lift like a blanket when nothing happened.

Hanabi snorted. "Jeez Neji-nii, what's up now?" She asked, as turned back to her work of copying notes from the textbook.

"I've decided that I'm going to tell Tenten." He wondered for a brief moment as to why he was sharing this with his family. Possibly it was because they were the only people around him currently.

The two sisters looked up at him; one wearing caring smile the other looked like she was about to laugh. Three guesses to which sibling did which.

"That's great Neji-nii," Hanabi said, trying to keep a straight face as she turned back to textbook. "Excuse me if I don't throw you a party for finally being a man, it's just that I have a shit load of homework to do before I go back to school."

"Good for you Neji-nii." Hinata's tone was much less obnoxious than her sister's. "But I too have some work to do." Then she too turned back to her book, copying down notes as well.

It was silent between them for a while. But soon enough Neji headed to the closet to grab his jacket with a plan in his head to make a beeline straight to Tenten's house. It was snowing like crazy outside, but he would go through a blizzard for her.

"Can I borrow your car?" Hanabi yelled after him. She had been asking at random intervals now, hoping to surprise him into saying yes.

"Ask you Hinata." Came his muffled reply a split second before the front door slammed shut.

Hanabi turned to her older sister who owned a baby blue Mercedes convertible. It seemed that everyone in her family owned nice expensive cars except for her. Of course, they had all earned it themselves…

Hinata closed her eyes and smiled a smile that seemed to menacing and out of place for her kind face. She patted her younger sister on the head and turned back to her book.

That was the end of their conversation.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Neji slowed down when he neared Tenten's house to make sure Kankorou's car wasn't in her driveway. It had been a habit he'd developed in the past month, he didn't want to be face to face with Kankorou for more than was absolutely necessary.

To his luck, the only car in her driveway was Tenten's own blue Chevrolet. Neji sighed in relief as he pulled up beside it, being careful of the ice on the ground. He turned off the ignition, pocketed his keys, got out, walked to her front door, rang the doorbell, and waited.

And waited.

He didn't know what kept him rooted to the spot in the middle of the freezing snow.

Perhaps it was the fact that he was so determined to tell her: possibly.

Perhaps it was the fact that he knew she was standing behind the door waiting for him to leave: possibly.

Perhaps it was the fact that both of the above were true and he was positive she had enough heart as to not let him stay out for so long he'd freeze: probably.

Being a man true to his thoughts, the door opened four minutes later to reveal a Tenten who didn't look very happy. She sighed as she let him in and then ducked behind the door to close it again, hiding her face.

The next time Neji looked up, Tenten was wearing a smile that was perhaps a little too large. "Good evening, Hyuuga-san. It's eight o'clock, what brings you here?"

Neji froze and stiffly turned her head to look at her. Not even a minute ago, she looked unhappy, almost angry. Now she seemed ecstatic.

But that wasn't what surprised him.

What surprised him was the fact that she had called him Hyuuga-san. Hyuuga-san! The surname and the suffix 'san' is what you say to people that had just introduced themselves, strangers. It was a sign of polite respect. But they'd known each other for years. They were practically best friends. Even when they first spoke to each other Tenten called him 'Neji-san' which eventually turned to 'Neji-kun' which soon became just 'Neji'. She had always called him by his first name.

Not only that, but she was speaking as the barely knew each other. 'Good evening'? Hardly anybody says that when it isn't a formal occasion.

You don't suddenly go calling your good friends by their last names and act overly polite unless something was wrong. And Neji knew that something was wrong.

He looked at her worriedly. "Are you okay? Is something wrong?"

Tenten's smile faltered ever so slightly. She seemed to attempt to fix it, but it just ended up looking so fake it was nearly blinding. Finally, she just frowned. "What do you mean? Of course everything's fine." She cursed herself for having such a shaky voice.

"I'm not sure it is. You shoul – " Neji stopped speaking when he caught sight of herleft hand. Tenten noticed this and tried to hide it in her pocked, but he was too fast. He caught her hand and held it so he could plainly see her ring finger.

It felt as if his heart had been ripped in two.

Tenten ripped her hand out it his and backed a step away. She could feel her eyes tearing up. Her voice was shaky again. "I'm sorry Hyuuga-san. You should go now. I don't think we should see each other anymore."

Try as she might, Tenten couldn't hold back her tears. They seemed to burst out of her eyes, almost blinding her. But still, she didn't move to wipe them away.

But Neji stood tall, planning to say what he came here to say. "Tenten, I like you. I love you. Please don't marry him." His voice hadn't sounded confident like he had wanted it to, instead it sounded like he was begging. Tenten bit her lip to prevent herself from sobbing.

"Hyuuga-san…" Then she started sobbing. "Damn it Neji…why are you telling me this now? Can't you see I'm happy? This is what I want. I want to be with Kankorou, I want to spend the rest of my life with him." Even she didn't believe half of what she said, but the sobs corrupting the sentences made her sound unbearably serious. "I loved you too, but you have a girlfriend that you just love, don't you? It broke my heart when I found out. I don't care about you Neji. I don't care if you love me now. I don't care, you fucking bastard."

The words pierced him. She wasn't shouting, in fact her voice was quite quiet. But the cold bitterness and disappointment made Neji wish she had screamed at him. Even a slap in the face would have been better. Anything would have been better.

"Tenten…" He moved forwards and she just backed away, refusing to let him come near her. He got the point and stopped. "I understand. I'm sorry for what I put you through. But can you answer me one last question?"

She reached up to wipe her tears away. She attempted a glare, but it probably didn't turn out considering that her eyes were swollen. "What is it?"

"Do you love him?"

"Yes."

Neji almost let out a sigh of relief. She had hesitated before answering, he saw her hesitate. There was hope after all. He smiled "Thank you."

Before Tenten knew it she was pulled into a hug much like the one on New Year's Eve. She didn't push him away as he had expected but stayed in his arms and smelling his scent. "Neji…" She began.

He pulled away from the hug and Tenten realised she didn't want him to leave. She was about to say something, but he was already at the door.

"I'm sorry for all the stress I've put you through, Tenten. I'll stay away from you from now on." He opened the door and took a step outside. "Congratulations on the engagement, you have my best wishes for a happy marriage."

Then he was gone.

Gone, probably like he had been for a year out of College. Gone.

Tenten stood as she watched his headlights pull out. Then she sank to her knees and sobbed. Now that he was back in it, she couldn't imagine life without him.

Five minutes later she made her way to the kitchen for some tea. Then she spotted it. For time in eight days she saw it, even though it'd been sitting in plain view all along.

Neji's Christmas gift to her. Still sitting on the table unopened, untouched.

Hesitantly, Tenten reached for it as if it might bite her. Carefully, she unwrapped the little box as if it might break. Slowly, she opened the lid as if she didn't want to know that it was.

"Oh wow…" Gingerly, she picked up the light gold chain of the necklace. Dangling on the chain, were little square blocks of what seemed to be pure silver. Inside the blocks was an aquamarine stone, her birthstone. In the largest box, the stone wasn't just circular like the other ones; it had a shape to it. Upon closer inspection Tenten saw it was a tiny kunai knife, exactly like the ones in the meadow Neji had showed her. The necklace must have been expensive.

Spotting a note in the mess of wrapping paper, Tenten put the necklace back in the box and unfolded the note. There she recognised Neji's elegant script.

Merry Christmas Tenten,

I wasn't sure what to get you, but I hope you like my gift. The kunai in the middle is beautiful and particularly stood out to me, it reminded me of you.

Happy Holidays.

-Neji

Then Tenten remembered the day at the mall before Christmas. Sakura had said something about Neji buying an expensive gift for a girl he had called beautiful whose birthday was on March 9th. Later, he himself had told her the girl was a brunette.

Everything matched up, how could she have been so stupid?

"Neji…" Then she laid her head in her arms and cried.

Even later, Tenten wasn't able to recall how long she spent crying that night.

A/N: What? What's this? What's happening?
Why aren't they together yet?
Is that what ya'll are thinking?
I might just turn this into a KankTen fic...hmm ;)
Thanks for reading! Reviewers get cookies in the shape of Neji ;D
fanny-kun