Surviving a Boy's Boarding School

Disclaimer: I do not own Mulan, Hana Kimi nor do I own Naruto. After all, if I owned Naruto, Tenten would get more screen time. ;;

Thank you for all of the alerts, reviews and favorites, by the way. Did I mention that all of the students are in their second year in high school? I think that this school will have three years of high school... it seems to me that a lot of the high schools in mangas are three-years long. Oh, and the other Naruto characters may appear more in this chapter. Obviously, only the guys are going to be present, but the girls might (that's a hint) be in future chapters.

Sorry it took so long to update. A lot has been happening the last week for school.

The freestyle martial arts teams (I'll abbreviate it as the FSMA team) are based off of the teams in the real Naruto world. I had to switch things up, though, because of the absence of the female members.

WARNING: If you hate scenes when people puke, you can skim the end. I don't think it's too vivid...

Chapter 3: Freestyle Martial Arts

When Tenten woke up on her second day there, the first thing she noticed was that the room was completely silent, and that Neji was already gone. She looked groggily at her clock; there was still an hour until her classes started. Groaning, she punched her pillow before she jumped down the bunk bed and onto the floor. True to her thoughts, Neji was already gone, and she couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. She wanted to ask him what was wrong with the poem that she had read, after much thinking before she fell asleep last night.

Slightly frowning, she went about her morning ritual (e.g. brushing her teeth) and put on her uniform, glancing at the windows. They were slightly fogged up, to her slight surprise, but she thought it wouldn't be too bad, so she stuck to her summer uniform. After she got ready, she took a look in the mirror and checked herself. She didn't look too feminine, but she did look less masculine than most, no, all of her classmates.

After almost getting hopelessly lost, she arrived at the cafeteria, ordered her breakfast and went back to the table she was sitting at yesterday during lunch. Tsuki, Taiyou and Lee were already there eating their breakfast, but Neji was nowhere to be seen. When she sat down, she turned to the others. "Where's Hyuuga?" she asked, skimming the cafeteria for any sign of long, black hair.

"Today's the first day of the physical practices," said Tsuki, not even looking up. "As the strongest of the freestyle martial arts group, he has to help the coach set up for the afternoon. After our classes, instead of having physical education, we go off into our respective groups and train, learn various techniques of our sport and practice for upcoming tournaments. Among the groups are basketball, freestyle martial arts and karate, and of course, there's a lot more. What did you sign up for?"

"Freestyle martial arts," she said, and, with a sinking feeling, thought about Gai-sensei.

"Are you signing up for the team?" asked Taiyou, almost excitedly. "We have about thirty members, but we only sign up to be on the team if we want to. So far, only eleven of us are on the teams, and we need one more person in order for all four teams to enter competitions."

Tenten pondered it for a moment before she muttered, "I guess I'll try out."

"YOSH!" yelled Lee, making Tenten jump. "This is perfect! Neji and I needed a third member!" Tenten immediately went pale. The team with a missing member is Lee and Neji's team?!

"Yes, they're the ones who are missing a member," said Taiyou, as if reading Tenten's thoughts. "They're the fourth team. The teams aren't determined by strength, and are ordered randomly. For example," he continued, gesturing towards Tsuki, "Tsuki and I are on the second team, but we're both considerably less clever than the third team's captain, Nara Shikamaru. Though our strength may be greater, Nara can defeat us by using strategies and trickery, within the rules, of course."

"What are the team listings?" asked Tenten, glancing around the table. Tsuki shuffled in his bag (yes, he brought his bag to breakfast) and pulled out a piece of paper.

"Here," he said simply, handing the paper across the table. Tenten read down the list of names and rankings.

Freestyle Martial Arts Team Groupings

Please contact Maito Gai if you request any changes in the organization.

Team 1
Uchiha Sasuke
Uzumaki Naruto
Inuzuka Kiba

Team 2
Kurayami Tsuki
Hikari Taiyou
Nozawa Haku

Team 3
Nara Shikamaru
Akimichi Chouji
Aburame Shino

Team 4
Hyuuga Neji
Lee Rock (or is it Rock Lee...?)
-not yet applied for-

"Hey... isn't the only person here who isn't in Dorm 3 Nozawa?" asked Tenten, staring at the list. Taiyou nodded.

"Even though there's not supposed to be a lot of division between the dorms, we do have them nonetheless. Most of the Dorm 3 students focus themselves in martial arts. Dorm 1 focuses on speed, thus they run the track, soccer and basketball teams. Dorm 2 focuses on ping pong and tennis as well as badminton. Dorm 4 has the swim team and other neglected teams, though many people wonder why the swim team isn't centered around Dorm 1," he explained. Somehow, Tenten had taken in every single word of that and slowly nodded.

"Okay... but who's Nozawa, exactly?" questioned Tenten. Tsuki filed through her bag once more and pulled out a twelve-page packet of paper and gave it to Tenten. Tenten flipped through the pages before she saw the name "Nozawa Haku". She glanced at the picture and nearly choked on her piece of toast.

She was wrong this morning when she thought that she looked the most feminine. Haku looked just as girl-like as Kazemi, who was one of Ryuhi's friends, and that was saying a lot. He had long hair and kind gray eyes that looked... pure. There was a soft smile on his face, which greatly contrasted from the one of Taiyou, whose picture was before his.

"He looks very female-like, doesn't he?" asked Taiyou, grinning. "Don't be fooled, though; Tsuki and I were his teammates since first year, and we know that he's not someone to cross. His speed is almost as incredible as Lee's, and his accuracy is deadly, though not completely correct. He's devoted to our senpai, Zabuza, and does anything if Zabuza told him to. Actually, he would probably kill himself if Zabuza was the one who ordered him."

"That's rude, Taiyou," growled Tsuki, taking back the papers. "That's a good trait of his, you know— loyalty. He isn't obsessed with Zabuza or anything."

"His dedication is quite youthful," said Lee, flashing his teeth. Tenten covered her eyes just in time. "He never goes against our senpai's words even if they are unreasonable, though usually, senpai doesn't make Nozawa do anything that would hurt himself, like juggling ten knives or something."

"You have a vivid imagination," said Tenten weakly.

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"Is something wrong, Miyamura?" asked Taiyou during the beginning of class, with Kakashi-sensei nowhere to be seen. "You seem quiet this morning."

Tenten turned to him. He had a book written in English, titled Inkspell, in his hands. Tsuki, too, was looking at her, and was also reading a book, though it didn't seem like a work of fiction. "It's nothing," she murmured. "It's just that I couldn't find out why Neji was so cold yesterday. It's going to be difficult living in the same room if he refuses to talk to me."

"He'll snap out of it sooner or later," answered Tsuki, going back to his book and wrote something down. "By the way, when's your birthday?"

"Uh, March 9," replied Tenten, sweat dropping. "But why do you want to know my birth date? It doesn't have anything to do with this..."

"According to your horoscope," interrupted Tsuki, taking out a smaller book, also in English, "you, a Pisces, are compatible with Hyuuga, who's a Cancer— his birthday is on the third of July. If horoscopes mean anything, then you both will eventually mend whatever damage was done and become friends once again." He closed the book. "Many times, horoscopes are wrong, but they could give you hope to go forward."

"I guess you're right," sighed Tenten, looking down. "But still, how am I supposed to get him to forgive me? I don't even know what I did!"

"You'll think of something, or do you want me to take your numerology reading as well?" asked Tsuki, gesturing towards the book he was reading, entitled Glynis has your Number.

Tenten smiled meekly. "Thanks, Tsuki, but I'm okay. I'll try and make up to Neji by myself." She then went back to slouching over her seat, her chin on the desk and her arms wrapped around her head.

Taiyou sweat dropped and whispered, "Do you think Miyamura will be all right?"

"Sure," said Tsuki absently, who continued writing things down. "But just for the fun of it, I'm doing Miyamura's numerology reading. It'll be pretty interesting..."

"Now you're doing Miyamura's? I thought you were going too far when you were doing Hyuuga's, but now this? You're addicted to fortune telling, aren't you?"

"No, but I do like to do it from time to time."

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The morning passed in a flash, yet there was still no sign of the Hyuuga Prodigy. Tenten could just barely hear what her teachers were saying, and willed her hands to move faster to take more notes. He was still not present when the bell rang for lunch, when Lee ran into the room and dragged Tenten to the cafeteria, with an amused Taiyou and sweat dropping Tsuki trailing them.

"YOSH! It's lunch time!" yelled the bowl-haired boy as he hauled the cross-dresser down to the noisy lunch room. Tsuki promptly told Lee that Tenten needed air and dragging her around wouldn't help as Taiyou tried to hide in a snicker.

When they sat down in the same spot they were in that morning, Tsuki decided to speak up. "Hey, Miyamura," he said, taking a drink of his tea, "if you want to apply for the freestyle martial arts team, then you better go tell Gai-sensei about it today, since they usually only accept new team members on the second day after a break. You'll automatically get into the team, by the way," he added. "Since one team is already missing a member and nobody else wants to be in the teams, you'll be accepted if you want to compete."

"Thanks..." she trailed off as she counted all of the pros and cons of being in the same team as Hyuuga and Lee. Most of them were cons.

"Oh, and Gai-sensei usually coaches our team!" exclaimed Lee with great enthusiasm. "You will learn many things from him, Miyamura!"

Tenten now wasn't so sure if she made the right choice in joining the FSMA team.

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Neji was back by the time they arrived in Bara's classroom. However, when Tenten tried to sit next to him, he curtly got up and moved his things to the other side of the room. Slightly bitter and confused, Tenten asked Tsuki what happened, but he once again shook his head.

"He'll go back to his usual self in no time," the boy said, giving Tenten a small, assuring smile. "Don't worry about him too much; his sulking nature only surfaces for a week at the most... I'm not helping, am I?" he asked sheepishly when he noticed that Tenten's face paled. He was about to say something else when the bell rang and Sasaka-sensei stepped in.

"Good afternoon, class," the teacher said, and got murmurs in response. "Today, I'd like to give a review on symbolism and its uses in poetry. Now, if you will turn to page 703 in your textbooks..."

A groan echoed in the class as the students got out a large, heavy book lined with crimson edges. Tenten glanced towards Neji's direction, and noted that he had opened his book without opening his mouth, though that was to be expected. Her head still drowning in questions, she nevertheless returned to her own textbook.

However, throughout that class, on top of her worries about Neji, she had a chilled feeling in her spine, as if somebody was watching her. Whenever she turned around, everybody was either reading their books or staring blankly off into space.

This proceeded through to her last period, English with Asuma, though without the staring eyes. When she got within ten feet of Neji, he always found a way to move away from her, which annoyed her to no end as well as worry her. Won't he listen to her for even a moment?

At the end of class, Lee once again barged into the room to show Tenten the way to the training field. Thankful for the relief in emotions, she lightly slapped him in the back of his head for causing such a commotion. Lee called Tsuki, Taiyou, and, to her relief, Neji over as well so that they could go to the training grounds together. Taiyou, upon seeing Neji's face, clapped his shoulder and told the prodigy to lighten up, earning him a glare. Tsuki rolled his eyes as he followed the other four, one who was overenthusiastic, one who was in a bad mood, one who was being overconfident, and one who was slightly clueless.

"Did you hear, Neji?" asked Lee, his eyes shining towards his "eternal rival". "Miyamura-san is going to apply as our last teammate! We will finally be a full team!"

Neji immediately stopped in his tracks and stiffened, causing Tsuki to nearly bump into him and Taiyou to almost trip over after a failed attempt to clap his shoulder again. Tenten looked at him nervously as he gave her a strange look, as if he was pondering whether to strangle her or Lee. She averted her eyes and found Taiyou with an uncharacteristically serious expression on his face, and Tsuki mirrored him.

"Oi, Hyuuga, aren't you going to move from that spot? It's not that big of a surprise that Miyamura's going to be in your team," said Taiyou lightheartedly, though his facial expression didn't loosen up completely.

"Hn," was all the reaction that he received, and Neji resumed mobility, though it was evident that he was deep in thought the whole walk to the grounds. Tenten glanced nervously at him once before she listened to Lee's speeches half-heartedly.

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"Just suck it up and try to look like you're paying attention," muttered Tsuki in an undertone to Tenten while passing the girl.

Currently, the teams and other members were sparring with one another to get ready for upcoming competitions and to improve their abilities. Some of the FSMA members, after all, were just there to get more in shape and become stronger individuals and, in some cases, cooperate better with people. Tsuki had apparently gone to a corner in the area to get a drink out of the water fountain and passed Tenten on his way back to Haku and Taiyou.

Indeed, Tenten was not particularly happy at her current situation. Gai-sensei was telling her all of the rules, suggestions, and advice that were present in FSMA history as if she was a newcomer at the sport. There were occasional items of interest, but his loud, ardent voice was a bit too much for her, especially when combined with the fact that he was currently speaking of the basics of FSMA. Taking in Tsuki's advice, she nodded her head occasionally while Gai-sensei talked, but watched the teams spar out of the corner of her eye in longing.

She noted that the loud blonde kid with fox whiskers was fighting with the black-haired boy who had strange red eyes that she did not notice before. Inuzuka was in the sidelines, laughing sometimes when Naruto's face pulled into scowls. The pineapple-haired kid was fighting with the pudgy one, and she watched in amazement when the pudgy one expanded. The boy with small sunglasses on was watching as well, though in a more serious demeanor. Tsuki and Taiyou were also sparring, though, she noted, with considerably more effort than the other teams (though the other teams did put their effort in it). Taiyou's face was in a strangely concentrated look as he aimed a kick an unexpected kick at Tsuki, grazing his shoulder while the boy who she recognized to be Haku was looking at them with consideration, as if analyzing their moves.

Her eyes shifted until they landed on Neji and Lee's fight. Lee's large eyebrows were creased in concentration as he launched kick after kick at the Hyuuga. Neji didn't seem to be even trying to attack as he dodged each and every one of his kicks, though in a considerably slower pace. Tenten was quite entranced in their spar for some reason.

"...and will you be applying for a team?" asked Gai as Tenten snapped back to attention. She nodded. Gai-sensei grinned with the familiar bright smile and announced, "Then you will be with my team!"

Tenten nearly choked on her own spit. "Wh-what?" she asked, trying her best not to look like an idiot.

"Didn't you hear me?" asked Gai-sensei, raising an eyebrow. "Each team is instructed by a teacher. My eternal rival Kakashi surveys the first team, Sasaka-san coaches the second team, Asuma teaches the third team and I am the instructor for the third team!" Tenten stared at him. So, she was supposed to spend an hour a day with Lee's... inspiration? This was not going to be good... "But, today, you'll get to observe and get to know your teammates!" he finished, dragging Tenten towards the whiskered boy, the scowling black-haired boy and Inuzuka.

"Uh... hi," she muttered as she glared at Gai, whose retreating form was turned away from her. "I'm Miyamura Hayaite, though I'm pretty sure all of you know that by now."

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" exclaimed the whiskered one, slapping her on her back, causing the girl to wince and stagger forwards slightly. "I'm going to become the best ninja someday!" Put simply, her first impression of him was a loudmouthed idiot. And he seems to have a thing for ninjas seeing that the more formal name was Freestyle martial arts.

"Shut up," grumbled the scowling boy, casting Naruto a glare. "...and since you already introduced yourself, I am Uchiha Sasuke." From the looks of it, Sasuke was even colder than Neji, and that's saying something.

"Inuzuka Kiba," said Kiba, though she already knew him because of yesterday's incident in the first class. He stared at her for a while, making her slightly nervous. Raising one eyebrow, he said, "Actually, you look even more like a girl up close." Sasuke rolled his eyes as Naruto looked at Tenten more closely.

"I'm a guy," muttered Tenten, hoping that she could hide the fact that her face was turning paler by the second. Naruto straightened up, giving her a quizzical look while Kiba snorted.

"Strange. That's the first thing Tsuki said when he entered the school," he said. Tenten raised and eyebrow, urging him to continue. "He's not exactly feminine-looking, as you can see. At that time, the only other person in our school that looked more like a girl than him was Nozawa, and I pointed that out to him. Of course, he gave me a glare as well and looked like he wanted to punch me."

"Tsuki wanted to punch you?" asked Tenten, surprised. The only person she has seen so far who was able to test Tsuki's tolerance was Taiyou, but they seemed to know each other pretty well.

"Oh yeah!" Naruto looked like he just remembered that incident. "But you just got away with getting your butt kicked in the first day of ninja training by him. Anyways," Naruto continued, grinning at Tenten, "I haven't seen you hang around anybody in your first days here. How about you sit with us during mealtimes?"

"I'm already with Lee, Hyuuga, Tsuki and Taiyou's group... I think," she answered, with an apologetic look on her face. "Sorry."

"You're hanging out with that guy who Naruto calls bushy-brows, the annoying hothead, the ice man and the asexual mystery?" asked Kiba incredulously. He just got a blank look in return. "Bushy-brows is self-explanatory. You'd have to have really bad eyes to not notice that Lee has huge eyebrows. Taiyou is a hothead and is just... irritating sometimes. Hyuuga never smiles. And Tsuki cares even less than Hyuuga when it comes to girls (and that's saying something), not to mention he hates personal questions. And he's not gay; we asked and he just gave us a curious look and answered no in a tone that suggested he thought we were crazy."

"...okay..." said Tenten, not sure whether she should be grateful or not to hear so much information on the others. "I guess I have to go to the second team now. Bye." With a confused wave, she ran over to Taiyou, Tsuki and the feminine-looking boy who she recognized as being Nozawa Haku. "Hey!"

"Hm?" Tsuki turned around, blocking Taiyou's kick with his arm at the same time. "Oh, Miyamura. Nice to see you." He turned back to Taiyou briefly to grab his friend's leg and twisted it, forcing Taiyou, whose other leg was suspended in the air in the attempt at another kick, to do a full turn in mid-air and drop onto the ground. Painfully. "I advise to not put both feet off the ground too much," said Tsuki coldly before once again turning to Tenten. "Anyway, I'd like you to meet Nozawa Haku, our team member."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," said the boy, smiling as he took Tenten's hand in his. "I am looking forward to seeing your potential in being a fellow FSMA team member."

"Same here," said Tenten, grinning, and couldn't help but notice that he had blue... nail polish on. His hair was put in a bun at the back of his head and he wore a loose blue outer garment and a turtleneck-like undergarment. Earlier, the five had gone to the locker rooms to change, to Tenten's horror. Taiyou took her horror as a sign that she forgot to bring clothes and lent her a sweatshirt and sweat pants to put over her uniform for the day. She had made a mental note to put on a baggy t-shirt and shorts under her uniform tomorrow.

Taiyou's yell captured the attention of both teens as he was tossed ten feet away from them by an annoyed-looking Tsuki. Growling, he jumped up, made a few hand signs and charged at him. He pulled back his fist, which was slightly glowing, and gathered his speed until he was surrounded by rippling air that seemed to shine for some reason.

Tsuki's expression clearly showed that he wanted to yell, 'Taiyou, you IDIOT!' as he jumped out of the way. Taiyou promptly switched his course and slammed into the navy-haired boy in a full-body slam, punching his stomach. Tsuki's eyes widened as he dropped onto the ground, rolled a few times and finally managed to use his leg to halt himself. Slowly, he staggered up, various cuts and bruises evident on his body.

"You just had to use that, didn't you? Well, I'm going all-out now as well, then," growled Tsuki. Completely ignorant to the fact that Haku and Tenten were still watching, he also made a few hand signs. Finally, he yelled, "Kurayami Secret Technique: Cell Regeneration!" His body glowed a strange silvery color as his eyes narrowed into a glare. To Tenten's surprise, his wounds were healing, or rather, his cells were regenerating.

"Not this again," sighed Haku. Tenten looked at him. "Those two always get on each other's nerves at least once a month during practice. All three of us have Kekkei Genkais. Tsuki's main power is the ability to manipulate cells, and among cell manipulation he can destroy and regenerate them. I'm pretty sure he has other parts to his Kekkei Genkai, but he doesn't show them. I do know that all of them depend on the phases of the moon, though, and work better at night. Taiyou's is basically to draw power from the sun and use it to increase his defense, attack and speed, and put it in a high-powered attack. Their names were probably given to them according to their family powers."

"I get it," murmured Tenten, as she watched them try to knock each other's block off. "Do they always fight like this when they're mad?"

"Basically," answered Haku. After about five more minutes of fighting, Haku seemed to deem it enough, walked over, and threw five senbon needles between the two fighters. That seemed to snap them back to reality, as they immediately began apologizing to the two (in different manners, of course).

"I'll have to get going now," she said, smiling. She was about to go before stopping, and looked around. "By the way... isn't Sasaka-sensei supposed to be here?"

"Usually, the coaches aren't here until fifteen minutes into the session, or, in Kakashi-sensei's case, thirty minutes into the sessions," answered Tsuki, wiping his forehead. "Gai-sensei is the exception, of course, since he's the main organizer. Oh, and as a side note," he added, "our team members are usually determined randomly, as are our coaches. The only exceptions are if you arrive at the school late."

"Ah," said Tenten, nodding, before hurrying to the third team. She saw a pineapple-haired boy, a pudgy boy who was eating, and the boy wearing "sunglasses". When she opened her mouth to speak, though, the pineapple-haired boy held up a hand signaling for her to not even start.

"Yes, we all know you're Miyamura Hayaite," he said in a tone that seemed to suggest he's done this hundreds of times. "I'm Nara Shikamaru, the one who's eating is Akimichi Chouji, and the one wearing a green coat is Aburame Shino."

"That was kind of rude," said Shino, hands in his pockets as he looked at Shikamaru for a moment.

"Well, introductions are so troublesome," grumbled Shikamaru, looking up at the sky.

Silence ensued between the four, interrupted only by the occasional chewing of Chouji's chips. Tenten sweat dropped. "I guess I'll be going now, then," she murmured, and slipped away, towards the two males wearing... green jumpsuits... and the unnaturally silent one. When she arrived, a question struck her head. Addressing the coach, she asked, "Um, Gai-sensei, why are you here if you're the health instructor?"

"What YOUTHFUL observation skills!" shouted Gai, shining her an unnecessary smile that was very much like Lee's, except shinier. "Worry not! I still treat wounds for the FSMA teams, but each of the sports groups have at least one adult who has medical training!"

"Gai-sensei, you only do chiropractics and other things that do not require chakra-based healing," said Taiyou from behind him, a huge gash on his face and blood seeping out of his right sleeve. Slightly alarmed, Tenten looked at his wound and then to where she had seen his team earlier. Sure enough, she saw Tsuki standing there, giving Taiyou a scowl, a katana in his right hand, with a little blood dripping on it. "Tsuki said that he couldn't heal this because the moon hasn't risen yet and he doesn't have enough power to heal others."

"Ah, yes! Let us get the disinfectant!" Gai then proceeded to bound off to a different corner of the training area, Taiyou at his heels with a grimace, as if desperately hoping that he wouldn't have to deal with more pain dealing with disinfectants than getting the wounds themselves.

"Is it just me, or do Tsuki and Taiyou share an interesting friendship?" asked Tenten, noticing that Tsuki seemed to feel no remorse for giving Taiyou those wounds.

"Hn," was all Neji said.

"YES, they do! They've known each other for years, though exactly how long, nobody knows!" shouted Lee enthusiastically, or rather, in his usual manner. "They argue everyday, but they actually make good teammates. Despite the fact that they try to take the other's head off every other day, of course."

"I see," was all Tenten could say, staring as Taiyou seemed to yell out in pain as Gai applied the disinfectant and Lee bounded to Gai to help him with the "healing" (old-fashioned, of course). "...Isn't Gai-sensei using too much disinfectant?"

"Less enough so that Hikari would be able to handle it," grumbled Neji, ignoring the fact that Taiyou prefers people calling him by his first name.

Tenten rolled her eyes. "What is up with you?" she asked, crossing her arms. "You've been avoiding me for who knows how long."

"It's none of your business," grumbled Neji. Mouth twitching out of annoyance, Tenten made a fist and punched him in the back. Grunting, the prodigy straightened himself up in an instant, glaring at the girl. "What was that for?"

"Oh, come on, Hyuuga!" she snapped, losing her patience with the stoical boy. "I'm trying to help you, darn it! I have enough sense to know that this is all connected to that poem I read yesterday, but why the heck are you avoiding me just because of one stupid little poem?!" (Uh, no, she doesn't really think the poem is stupid. She's just really angry with him. -.-;;)

There was a silence between them. The only sounds that were heard were the yells of a few of the boys, metal clashing with metal, and, if Tenten strained her ears, the crunching of potato chips. She and the Hyuuga were in a staring contest, though it didn't seem that blinking mattered in this one. Each glared at the other with the same amount of force as he/she was receiving.

"If you must know," said Neji after what seemed like three hours (but was really three minutes), "it's that I feel like a caged bird within my family. Happy now?" he finished with a hint of anger in his voice.

"That wasn't so hard, was it?" asked Tenten, coming out of her "defiant" pose. "But... do you care to elaborate?"

"Maybe some other time," he answered, still looking a little irritated. She shrugged.

"Sure," she said, and then noticed, for the first time, that he had bandages on his head. It didn't seem like that his head area was wounded (but if it was, it would probably explain his antisocial nature), but she thought that now was not the best time to ask him. Smiling, she asked, "Friends?"

Before he could say anything, he sidestepped to his right as a blur of green landed at the spot he was moments ago, causing a small crater to appear on the ground. Lee lifted up his head. "You are as sharp as ever, my eternal rival Neji!"

"H... how did you know that Lee was going to attack you?" she asked, knowing that she did not see him even turn his head.

"My Kekkei Genkai allows me an almost 360 degree sight," he said simply, and she assumed he referred to his eyes. So, his eyes did have a use other than seeing and glaring...

"YOSH!" shouted another voice as the one and only Gai appeared between the three of them. "Now, we shall begin with training!"

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Tenten sat there, dazed, with her arms hurting more than ever before. All she remembered from the last ten minutes or so was that Gai told Tenten to spar with Neji and it had ended in disaster. She saw veins pop around his eyes and when she released her weapons, he created a shield that made each one of them bounce off. That's when he went on the offence and tapped each of her arms a number of times, each tap hurting more than it should. She was then kicked in the stomach and sent flying backwards, and into her current position.

Gnashing her teeth together, she jumped up the best she could without using her arms and aimed an unexpected kick at Neji's head, who thought she was knocked out cold. It made contact, but he recovered quickly and tapped her leg this time. The pain registered even faster this time and she fell over. She wanted to cry out for being so... weak... but bit her lip instead.

There was a sigh above her as a hand came down and touched her left arm. The pain ceased almost immediately. The same hand then went over to her other arm, and finally, to her leg. Looking up, she noticed that it was Neji, who looked a little disgruntled.

Lee looked like he was close to tears. "Neji! How could you injure our youthful teammate on his first day as part of our team?! He does not know about the other abilities of your Byakugan! That was just plain cruel!" he blubbered as streams of water erupted from his eyes. Tenten sweat dropped. It wasn't that big of a deal. Apparently, Neji agreed with her.

"One must prepare for the element of surprise," he said cooly, and after hesitating a bit, offered his hand to Tenten. Slightly taken aback, she took his hand nonetheless and heaved herself up, so that she was now standing.

The rest of the hour was spent like that; each team member sparred with the other accordingly. Tenten didn't spar with Neji again that day, but she got to watch the one between him and Lee and she even sparred with Lee after that. She had to admit that the "Green Beast" was fast; his speed was probably second only to Gai-sensei's. However, she was complimented on her weapon abilities and how she could always be able to hit a target.

When the practice was over, Tsuki and Taiyou came over to their team. "How was your first day in training?" asked Taiyou, with a band-aid on his cheek and bandages wrapped tightly around one arm. He seemed to have trouble moving it, as it restricted his movements. "I see that Hyuuga didn't kill you. That's a good sign."

"I'm pretty sure I could say the same for you," said Tenten, glancing warily at some of the still-visible blood, having seeped through the bandages. "Tsuki, what did you do to him?"

"Just a few sword cuts. They aren't particularly deep," he answered airily. She thought she saw a few faded bruises on his head. "But on another note, I see that Hyuuga finally accepted you."

"What?" She looked at Neji, who was staring at Tsuki blankly.

"In other words, he isn't particularly mad at you anymore," answered Tsuki, rolling his eyes. "I mean, he doesn't offer his hand to anyone. That's his way of saying either 'I'm sorry' or is a sign of forgiveness. Isn't that right, Hyuuga?"

"Hn."

"As an award to Miyamura for finally getting Hyuuga to forgive him for whatever he did wrong, I'll treat you guys to pizza today," said Taiyou, eyes gleaming.

"...This isn't really important, is it?" asked Tenten, thinking that he was overdoing it a bit too much. "I mean, Hyuuga just helped me up from the ground. That's not a reason to celebrate for." But Taiyou and Lee were already way ahead of them, and yelled at them to hurry up and follow him.

----------------- -----------------

The pizza was quite satisfying, actually, especially after the practice. Neji and Tenten each took two pieces, while Lee, Taiyou and Tsuki had four. Truthfully, Taiyou had stuffed the fourth piece in Tsuki's mouth with help from Lee, and the navy-haired boy nearly choked to death (the only people who cared seemed to be Tenten and Lee, despite the fact that he was one of the two who tried to force it into his mouth). In normal circumstances, Tenten would expect Tsuki to beat Taiyou up, but he looked too sick to do that.

"See you guys tomorrow," said Taiyou, waving, when they were in their dorm building. Tsuki had one arm slung over his shoulder and was only half-standing, and he looked green around the gills. Tenten suspected that he had no idea on what was going on as Taiyou heaved him into their room. She heard a dull thud on the other side and then Taiyou yelling something along the lines of for Tsuki to "sleep on your bed instead of on the bathroom door, darn it!"

"Are they going to be all right?" she asked Neji when they entered their own room. Lee had already departed when they ran into Gai minutes before, offering his protégé to go do push-ups by the pond.

"Most likely," answered Neji, putting his coat on the coat hanger next to the entrance to their room. They passed the next thirty minutes in silence as they both took out their homework (Tenten already lent Neji her notes earlier) and the only sounds that could be heard were clocks ticking and pencils scratching paper.

'If the square root of fifty is the equivalent of the square root of five times the square root of two, then that simplifies that monomial to five times the square root of two, which makes this...' thought Tenten as she scribbled her work on the worksheet. Truthfully, everything on the paper were things that they have already learned, but reviewing things wasn't that bad. She heard a pencil being set down somewhere behind her, and she turned. Neji, sure enough, had finished writing something; it was most likely that poem that Sasaka-sensei assigned them. She was about to turn back to her math when Neji turned around as well.

"When I used the Byakugan earlier," he said in a serious tone that made Tenten nervous, "I saw that you had wrapped bandages around your body." Tenten's stomach dropped and her heart jumped to her throat, eyes wide. That's right... the Byakugan could be used to see through things! Stupid, stupid Tenten for forgetting that! She wanted to bang her head on the desk, but she would just lose more brain cells that way. Neji continued. "Would you care to explain to me why you had bandages on?"

Tenten gulped. Was he serious? Did he really not see what was under the bandages? She looked at his face; it was dead serious, and she knew that he really didn't know what was underneath the bandages. She laughed, trying not to sound nervous. "Oh, it's nothing," she said. "It's just a few scars that I don't want other people to see," she added after the first thing that popped to her head; she had heard that excuse from a manga... something Juliet.

"Hn." Neji turned back to his homework without another word, and he apparently accepted her answer. Inside, she breathed a sigh of relief and she, too, resumed doing her homework.

----------------- -----------------

"Ugh..."

A figure stepped out of the shower, shaking uncontrollably. Their eyes were huge as they wrapped a towel around their body. The water dripped slowly from their hair and onto the tiled floor as they kneeled down, next to the toilet. Lifting up the seat, they put their head over the toilet and threw up.

"Hey, HEY! Are you alright?" asked a voice nervously from outside as banging could be heard on the door. "Wait... are you throwing up?!"

"What..." coughed out the person as they steadied themself, "What do you think? I'm vomiting, and no thanks to those fou— urgh..." The person regurgitated again, sweat pouring down their face. Their other hand tightened into a fist as they tried to get everything out, and tried not to look at the contents in the toilet. "Ugh..."

"O-oi, should I prepare some water for you?" asked the person outside as the one inside slowly ceased vomiting.

"Yes, that would be greatly appreciated," the person rasped, flushing the toilet. Walking over to the sink, towel still intact, they cupped their hands and filled their hands with water. Then they rinsed their mouth, trying their best to get the acrid taste out. Sighing after that was done, they opened the door.

Taiyou looked alarmed when they came out, but relaxed after a second, though with an unnaturally stern face on. "Next time, knock before you open the restroom door even if you're coming from the inside," he scolded, and tossed them a water bottle.

Their eyes closed as they chugged down the water, focusing on the clean taste of the cold, icy water that Taiyou had somehow preserved. Due to the sweat, navy blue bangs clung to their forehead. After drinking down half the bottle, they lowered the water bottle. "Thank you, Taiyou," they said, and opened their eyes.

Red-orange eyes.

----------------- Half an Hour Later -----------------

"It's almost your time."

"Yes. Just about twenty-four more hours..."

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...I'm not satisfied with this chapter... sorry if you think so as well...

In case some of you are wondering (though I doubt it), "Miyamura" comes from the last name of the Japanese voice actress of Larxene from Kingdom Hearts: CoM, I think. Yes, random. But it slightly fits it. I mean, Larxene is in an organization with all males (excluding Namine, who isn't in the ranks, and the mysterious fourteenth member, because she's not introduced yet), and Tenten is in an all-boy's boarding school. I'm pretty sure "Nozawa" is the last name of Vexen's voice actor.

I know that Kiba, Naruto, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Shino, Chouji, and Haku had little screen time in this chapter. I'll try to get them in more in later chapters. Sorry about the large amount of oc's.

Well, anyway, reviews are welcome, as well as criticism. Thank you for reading.