Hello everyone I was so happy about the number of people that reviewed my story that I decided to update sooner than usual. I want to thank everyone that reviewed my story. I got really motivated. Flash3, Nayuda Mishino,Sayori Hollyhood, Dark Anonymous, Flockfighter101,sunset'90. You all are wonderful reviewers and with the advises you give me; you keep this story going so please keep 'em coming. I hope you all like this chapter there is a bit of drama in it. Please keep reviewing and I'll keep updating. ^_^

THREE

They had been travelling for hours and tenten had become bored and hungry. She hadn't eaten anything since that morning and she had been sitting in the carriage with nothing to do than to stare at neji jumping from tree. Her mind drifted to the activities of that morning. It had surprised her that neji had actually checked her out for almost two minutes. Although it was for less than two minutes it was out of character for neji to stare at check out any female for more than five seconds, no matter how beautiful that female was. At that moment she could only wish she knew what he was thinking. Did he think she looked beautiful or he just thought she looked stupid? She immediately shook the thought off her mind. 'Why will I care about what neji thinks?' she thought. She decided to concentrate on how to fill her empty stomach.

Neji kept forcing himself to move at the carriage's pace, which was frustrating slow. His mind kept drifting to the transformation of tenten. He had always thought that she was pretty but now he could actually admit that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. 'Why am I having these thoughts?' He asked himself, feeling really weird. He was about to jump to another tree when he noticed that the carriage was no longer in sight. "shit" he cursed under his breath. He was so lost in thoughts that he had actually gone so far ahead of the carriage. He decided to go back so as to enable the carriage to catch up with him.

When Neji found the carriage he noticed that it had stopped. He hopped down from the tree and walked up to the coachman. "Is there a problem?" he asked

"no there isn't, the mistress requested that I should stop and I did." the coachman said

"Did she tell you where she was up to?" Neji asked feeling a bit annoyed that tenten did not tell him that she wanted a break.

"No she didn't, but I think she went to relieve herself and desired some privacy." The man said.

"probably." neji nodded in agreement. " but if she doesn't return in five minutes I'll go end find myself" he said.

Tenten entered the teashop she had noticed while journeying in the carriage and her stomach had gotten the better of her. She hadn't seen neji so she decided that he'll figure it out after all he was a genius.

She looked around and immediately noticing that something wasn't right. Firstly there wee only men seated in the shop and the "Teashop' served alcohol. 'What sort of teashop serves alcohol?' tenten thought but after another growl from her stomach she walked though the shop to the counter, oblivious to the fact that all eyes were on her.

"Can I help you miss? The hefty man at the other side of the counter asked staring at her with a stupid grin on his face.

"Can I have you?" she heard a husky voice from behind her say. Before she had the chance to turn around, she felt strong arms grab her waist and sour breath on her neck. "Hello, pretty" the man said. It took all the will tenten had to stop herself from using her ninja skills to free herself and deck the man in the face in the face. She remembered Tsunade telling her that no matter what she did, she mustn't reveal her identity. This made her settle for a girly behavior.

"Please let go of me you are hurting my delicate waist." She said in a timid voice like that of hinata.

"No sexy. I don't feel like it." The man said making her turning her to face him. Tenten noticed that he was just a normal rogue but a very hefty one. He had brown spiky hair and dark eyes. "I wanna feel more of these curves." the man said sliding his hands to her hips.

'Screw being girly' Tenten thought. "Let go of me you slimy idiotic freak!" she screamed, struggling to get free of his grip.

"Shut the hell up you pretty bitch, you are hurting my delicate ears with all your screaming" the man said in a mocking tone. Tenten, who was at the limit of her tolerance had begun to concentrate chakra into her fist, with the intent of hitting the man hard in the gut but abruptly stopped when she heard the voice of neji behind the hefty man.

"Let go of her or I'll slit your throat" he said to the man. He was standing behind her captor with a kunai to his throat.

"Hey, hey, take it easy man" the man said releasing his grip around tenten's waist and snapping his fingers. All the men in the bar been to stand and bring out weapons. They directed their attacks to neji making him remove the kunai from the man's neck , in order to defend himself.

"Tenten get out of here" Neji said as he defended himself. Tenten immediately understood that neji had a plan and tried to run but the hefty man grabbed her arm. Without wasting time she lifted her knee and hit the man in the balls making him release her and grip it in pain. She ran out of the shop and straight to the carriage.

Once neji noticed that Tenten had left the shop he prepared for his best defensive and offensive jutsu. "Hakke shou kaiten!" he said spinning with the speed of light and causing a big chakra ball to form round about him. All the men in the shop felt the impact of the jutsu as it made them fly in different directions. After using the jutsu he ran out of the shop, although he knew that no one would com after him after feeling the impact of his jutsu.

Tenten was standing beside the carriage."Neji are you okay?" she asked as he approached her.

"I am perfectly fine. They were just ordinary rogues" neji said plainly staring at her coldly. "What did you think you were doing tenten you almost blew our cover."

"I am sorry neji but I kinda lost my temper and al I wanted to do was to punch the guy in the gut" tenten said.

"Whatever lets just move on and no more stopping till we get to a reasonable restaurant where we can get decent food to eat."he said sternly.

Tenten just nodded and got into the carriage. For a moment she felt like a fairytale princess being protected.

Neji wasn't feeling like himself. They had found a motel to stay for the night and had lunch at a restaurant close to the motel and all these while, his thoughts had been based on his kunoichi team mate. It had taken all his ninja will to stop himself from killing the man who had assaulted her. He had almost lost all his self control to anger and this bothered him because he had always had self control. Another thing that bothered him was that he couldn't stop himself from thinking about Tenten , her beautiful face and her womanly curves. It bothered him because he had never cared about how any female looks and there were some strange feelings he had whenever he was around tenten, so he decided that he had to keep his distance.

Tenten's mind had been wavering. She had not been able to keep her mind off neji. She remembered feeling like a princess at the time neji came to rescue her at the 'teashop' and she had felt her heart skip a beat when he put on civilian guard clothes at the motel. It was a bit similar to the anbu vest. It was a sleeveless body hug vest over a pair of trousers. This made him look very masculine compared to the traditional baggy cloth he usually wore that hid his masculinity. He had discarded his konoha forehead protector and put an ordinary head band around his forehead to cover the cursed seal on his forehead.

Tenten was sure that if ino or sakura were to see him at this point, they would have immediate crushes on him since he had already being tagged as on of konoha's hottest guys, by them.

Tenten and Neji went to the restaurant next to the motel to discuss their plans for the next mission. After agreeing on the plans they began to eat the food they had ordered. Tenten found herself staring at neji and lost In thoughts about him. The food she had been eating was totally forgotten. She couldn't understand the fluttering in her stomach and the alien feeling she had began to have any time she was around him. She had always liked neji as a best friend but she couldn't comprehend the way she had become so self conscious around him. Before, she had never cared about how she looked but now she became conscious of what she was wearing and the way she styled her hair. 'Maybe it's because I'm living a civilian lifestyle so I'm also thinking like a civilian'

Neji sensed her staring at him and lifted his head from the food he had been pretending to eat. "Did something on my face make you lose your appetite, tenten?" he asked staring at her.

Tenten blushed; embarrassed that she had been caught staring. She just shrugged and began to eat, making sure to stare at anywhere else but neji's face. This made her oblivious t the fact that neji had begun staring at her and having mutual thoughts about her.

OoOoO

So what do y'all think 'bout this chapter please review I really wanna know what you think. I haven't hand written the next chapter yet and that is because I'm stuck of what to write I have written about two versions of ch 4 but I canceled them 'cause I felt that they ain't good enough. Please I really need suggestions for the next chapter so please send your suggestions through feed back or PM. Lastly I need a beta reader to help me with my punctuation mistakes and any other mistake I've made. I'll be really glad to have one. For now bye ...till the next chappie

hey everyone this may sound silly but i really want your opinion on this my friends and i got into an argument on who the prettiest girl among Tenten, Hinata, Sakura and ino is. please i'll be really glad if you tell me when sending a review. in the next chapter i'll tell you who i believe is the prettiest. thanks