Chapter 3: A Rather Unwelcome Revelation

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Tenten woke in her own room at four in the morning. While that was not unusual for her (a consequence of being on Team Gai)--there was something abnormal about this particular situation--namely, a bushy-browed boy asleep in a chair next to her bed.

"LEE!! What the hell are you doing in my room?!"

He woke with a start. "Gah! Tenten? What--?"

"I asked first!"

Lee turned slightly pink. "Well, um, Tenten, remember what Sakura-san said? You will not be able to move on your own for a while. So how are you supposed to cook for yourself and all that?"

Tenten stared at him. "...So, you came over to my house and stayed up just to... take care of me?"

Lee sweatdropped nervously. "Um, yes? What else do you think I would be doing at your house... in the middle of the night?"

"...Oh.." said Tenten, for lack of anything else to say. An awkward silence filled the room. "But, why?"

By this point, Lee seemed assured that Tenten would not eviscerate him after all. He smiled and went into full-on, nice-guy mode. "Because you are my teammate, Tenten!" he exclaimed. "A true ninja would never abandon an injured comrade!"

"Oh..." said Tenten again, dumbly. So that was it. They were teammates, comrades, fellow ninja. And that was all they'd ever be. Tenten suddenly gasped. Had she really just thought that? Did that mean that she had a crush on...?

'No way!' screamed "Inner Tenten" 'No freaking way!!'-- (yes, Tenten has one too, but it's not as vocal as Sakura's).

Tenten clutched her head and fell back into a horizontal position.

"Are you okay, Tenten?" asked Lee, nervously. "Is there something I could get you?"

Tenten groaned. She wished that, just for a moment, he'd stop being so damn nice. Maybe if he were more like Neji--but, no. Tenten couldn't picture that; not in a million years.

"...a glass of water would be good..." she said, just to get him out of her room. Lee was gone in a moment and Tenten was left alone to brood over her rather unwelcome revelation.

'But, how?' she thought miserably. 'How could I possibly have gone from Neji to Lee?'

'Because Neji's a pompous bastard!' Inner Tenten yelled.

'And, Lee,' a blush suddenly colored her face. 'Lee... is...'

"Back!" As if on cue, said Lee picked that moment to stroll back in with Tenten's water. "Here you go, Tenten!" he said cheerfully.

"Uh, thanks, Lee." Tenten wasn't really thirsty, but she took a sip anyway. It would have been weird, after all, to tell Lee to get her water and then tell him that she wasn't thirsty. "Um, you can go sleep on the couch if you want," she said, when she finished her water. "I wouldn't have an easy time sleeping in a straight-back chair."

"It is much too late to go back to sleep! At this rate, I'll be late for training!!" He glanced at the clock. "Oh, um, will you be okay on your own?"

Tenten blinked at him. "I'll be fine, Lee. Like you, I'm used to living on my own and taking care of myself."

"Well, here," said Lee, presenting her with the crutch he still occasionally had to use.

Tenten's eyes widened. "But that's your--"

"You will need to use the bathroom at some point, won't you?" he smiled. "And do not worry. I adjusted the height so it would fit you."

Tenten opened her mouth to say something else, but Lee continued: "Oh! And I made you stuff to eat while I am training. You just need to heat it up. And obviously stay off your feet as much as possible."

She gaped at him stupidly.

"Bye, Tenten! I will see you this evening!" he called, before running off at top speed--leaving a trail of smoke in his wake.

At length, Tenten managed to close her mouth and settled back into bed. "Well," she remarked to herself. "If that wasn't a random-as-hell morning, I don't know what is." She tried to fall back asleep--she turned this way and that--she tried every position possible. But it was no good. Every time Tenten closed her eyes, all she could see was a pair of big, bushy eyebrows.

"Damn it!" she swore, giving her pillow a good whack. That unfortunately conjured up her post-fight chat with Lee, how she'd smacked him upside the head... right after he said that she looked cute. Unbidden, a slow, breathy sigh escaped her lips.

"Damn it..." Tenten repeated, now clutching the pillow to her chest. "What am I going to do now?..."

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At the training field, Neji looked his usual smug self. As Lee appeared, however (a full five minutes late!) Neji raised a delicately tapered eyebrow ever so slightly in what, on him, must have been an expression of shock. Gai, on the other hand, looked from his pupil to his watch, spluttering nonsense.

Tears streaming down his face, he bellowed, "why, my young pupil, why?"

"I can explain, Gai-sensei!" cried Lee, an identical waterfall of tears falling from each of his eyes as well.

Neji smirked. "Don't bother. Gai-sensei already knows why you're late. I told him exactly where you were... last night."

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On her way to work, Sakura spotted Ino and Hinata in the unofficial kunoichi cafe. This was where the four kunoichi genin tended to hang out, so Sakura wasn't surprised to see the two of them. She was annoyed though, that they got to have a leisurely breakfast, while she had to make due with a stale poptart. Sakura was about to continue on her merry way, but the sudden mention of Tenten made her stop.

"Hinata, wasn't Tenten supposed to meet us here?" asked Ino. "I mean, it's not everyday we all manage to give our senseis the slip!"

"Sakura couldn't," Hinata pointed out.

Ino scoffed. "What'd you expect from old billboard brow!"

A vein bulged on Sakura's forehead. She seriously wondered what possessed her to make up with her archrival.

"Seriously, though," Ino continued. "Do you think Tenten forgot or something?"

"I don't know..." murmured Hinata vaguely. She stared off into space a few moments.

"Yo, Hinata, what's up?" Ino waved a hand in front of her friend's face.

"It wouldn't surprise me..." said Hinata at length. "Maybe it's just me, but... Tenten's been acting weird lately."

"I wouldn't know. I haven't seen her in ages. Every time I've called her, she's been training or something." A wicked grin suddenly spread across the blonde's face. "You know what she's been doing all that time? Having a torrid affair with Neji!"

Hinata blanched. "I don't think so."

"Look, Hinata, just because he's your cousin, doesn't mean some other girl won't want to jump his bones!"

Sakura sweatdropped. Leave it to Ino to make the most perverted possible assumption.

"Um, I thought... you liked Sasuke," said Hinata.

Ino turned red. "I never said that I wanted to jump his bones!"

"Well, it doesn't matter anyway," Hinata shrugged. "Tenten told me that... she doesn't like Neji anymore."

Ino's eyes bulged at this shocking new development. "Really? Who does she like now?"

"She wouldn't say."

A few moments of silence elapsed as both girls mulled over that new gossip.

"Well... on that note..." said Ino, grinning. She glanced surreptitiously around the cafe and whispered, "Sakura's got a new crush, too."

"R-really? Did she tell you?"

"No, but it's soooooo obvious. You'll never guess who!"

If Hinata found those two statements contradictory, she chose not to comment about it. She did, however, look a little anxious. "Um, it's not... not... Naruto, is it?"

"What? Naruto?!" Ino exclaimed. " No way! I said you'd never guess who, but Naruto? That's just random! I mean, no one likes Naruto!"

Hinata breathed a little sigh of relief. "So... who is it then?"

Sakura gasped and strained hard to listen, every nerve in her body tingling. But it didn't matter anyway. Ino bent over and whispered the secret boy's name in Hinata's ear.

The shy girl gasped. "...Really? Sakura likes him?"

"I told you it was obvious, but that you'd never guess!"

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When Gai managed to subdue his tears (which took a while) he fixed his star pupil with an uncharacteristically nondescript expression.

"G-Gai-sensei!" exclaimed Lee. "I can explain!"

But Gai held up a hand and indicated clearly that this conversation would actually be a lecture. He laid a fatherly hand upon his pupil's shoulder while Neji looked smugly on. If his evil plan succeeded, there would be much fewer hugs, crashing waves, and emotional outbursts.

Gai turned to his other pupil. "Well, Neji, since you're here too, this conversation also applies to you."

The Hyuga's face immediately fell--that is, the smug smirk became a slight frown. "But I didn't do anything!"

"But you have the potential to," said Gai. While Neji pouted, Gai fell strangely silent again, as though putting careful thought into his next words. Finally, he sighed and said, "I told you before, Lee, how we're a lot alike, right?"

"Yes, Gai-sensei!"

Gai sighed again. "You're dealing with difficult times, Lee. Being in the Springtime of your Youth isn't always as easy or idealistic as I make it out to be."

Lee gasped at that startling new revelation and scribbled furiously in his notebook.

"Yes, Lee--and Neji," said Gai. "I remember many a difficult time in my own boyhood reeling under the constant influx of testosterone. During that period, strange thoughts and... urges... made themselves known to me for the first time."

Lee stared at his sensei in awe. Neji, though, looked like he would soon lose the bowl of Shuriken-O's he'd had for breakfast.

"...Gai-sensei," he said. "You gave us this lecture three years ago..."

"I gave you the modified version then," Gai corrected. "Because Tenten was with us." And, at the mention of his kunoichi pupil, Gai fixed Lee with another unfathomable look.

That was when something seemed to click in Lee's brain. "Um, Gai-sensei... you don't think that... Tenten and I... um... you know...?"

"Now, Lee!" bellowed Gai. "Having youthfully raging hormones is nothing to be ashamed of! But you simply must find another outlet for them! You and Tenten are far too young!" And he began sobbing passionately again at the thought of Tenten's curtailed girlhood. "If something were to happen to Tenten, she would have to--"

"Gai-sensei!" exclaimed a very red-faced Lee, interrupting his beloved sensei for, perhaps, the first time in his life.

Gai fell silent.

"Tenten was injured during our sparring match yesterday and I took her to the hospital. She fell asleep while I was taking her back home, so I stayed over to make sure she was okay."

Gai stared at his pupil.

"And that was it," Lee concluded, so there could be no doubt.

Tears of joy suddenly streamed down Gai's face at his pupil's innocence and youthful chivalry.

"Lee!" he cried.

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!!"

"Gai-sensei!!"

Despite the fact that it was still early morning and Gai's training field was perfectly land locked, a sunset and crashing waves appeared as the teacher and student embraced.

Neji, on the other hand, sighed dejectedly. So much for his evil plan.

And Tenten, who had been in her room sleeping during this exchange, woke suddenly and sneezed.

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A/N: To address cherrybubblegum's remark, I don't actually prefer NejiTen, per se. Well, maybe I did for a little while, but now LeeTen's my fav. If you like this so far, drop me a review! Thanks!

-Andrea

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"Hey, Lee," said Tenten, as he came in. "How was training?"

"Um, fine," he replied, uncharacteristically terse.

Tenten looked at him. "Was Gai-sensei acting weirder than usual today?"

Lee looked uncomfortable. "Why do you ask?"

"Because, about twenty minutes ago, he randomly called me and started screaming something about 'youth' and 'hormones'..."

Lee sweatdropped. "Let's not talk about that."

Coming Soon -- Chapter 4: Some Bad News

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