A/N: It's been a long time, hasn't it? I've been gone, my computer's been gone, but I'm back and I've updated. Thank you to all you lovely reviewers and I didn't have a chance to answer you all and I'm sorry. Enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own.

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Chapter 3

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Neji

Uzumaki Naruto, Rock Lee, Chouji and Kiba stare openly at me in complete shock. Uchiha, Nara and Aburame don't stare but they're definitely giving me odd looks as well.

"Y-You . . . I-I can't believe it!" Naruto cries, pointing at me.

Hasn't anyone told him that pointing is rude? I mean, I know he doesn't have any parents, but someone has to have taught him some sort of proper etiquette.

I don't know why they're all staring at me weird, I don't look different today, usual Hyuuga robes, and we're just milling around the memorial, something we seem to be doing a lot nowadays. We haven't been assigned missions for a while and the only ways to pass the time are training, sleeping, eating or 'hanging out' as Lee calls it.

"Neji," Lee says seriously, looking into my eyes, "you were just being funny."

I'm not really paying attention to his words since his eye brows have caught my attention. You can't miss them. They're huge, like giant black caterpillars permanently plastered onto his overly happy face. Trust me; you wouldn't be paying attention to words if those things were in your face. You know why the Kazekage has no eyebrows? It's because Lee stole them. Of course Gai has larger ones, but he's not sixteen. They say they aren't related but the resemblance is just uncanny . . .

I give him a patented Hyuuga glare and he backs off.

"I didn't do anything." I say flatly.

"You just made a joke about Kakashi-sensei's porn fixation!" Naruto screams. "That's not normal!"

"Hn."

"That's not normal Neji behavior!" he insisted, looking around to the other members of the group for support.

Kiba, Chouji and, surprisingly, Shino nod their heads.

Uchiha Sasuke is eerily silent.

"Hn."

There is silence all around for a moment until . . .

"You've been acting different," Sasuke says suddenly. "More . . . Social, less moody—"

"That's funny coming from one of the most anti-social and moody people in all of Konoha." I respond automatically, tone sharp.

"See?" Naruto cries, pointing again. "Neji did it again! Something's wrong!"

I glare at the Uchiha and he's giving me the patented Uchiha smirk.

Damn him.

"Ever since you and Tenten began spending time together you've developed a sense of humor." Sasuke remarks, voice cool.

"I've always had a sense of humor." I snap. Noticing the barely concealed grins and hearing small snickers I glare at each person in turn, daring them to comment. "Hn."

"We're not saying it's a bad thing," Shikamaru sighs and rubs the back of his neck tiredly, "we're just pointing it out." I don't respond and he asks, "How're things with Tenten?"

"She's . . . A handful." I reply carefully. I can think of a better word but it would not be appropriate for my proper Hyuuga upbringing.

Kiba scoffs. "More than a handful. She pinned you to that tree in ten seconds flat and you couldn't do a thing about it. No one's ever beaten you that badly, Hyuuga."

There are murmurs of disbelief and laughter at my expense.

"She beat you?" Sasuke asks, smirking.

Shikamaru groans. "You lost to a girl?"

I grind my teeth in anger.

I didn't know news of my defeat would be that interesting, but from the pitying glances I had received throughout the day I realized that good news travels fast. Wonderful. Absolutely fantastic. This was even worse than the marriage, which people have been wishing me well on for the past few weeks, because it could've been avoided.

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Tenten and I don't get along well, I'm sure that's evident from all our conversations and encounters, but it's starting to affect our missions, more specifically, the types of missions we've been sent on. First, there was the mission in Kumogakure (Cloud Village in the Lightning Country) where Tenten and I had to pretend to be a married couple and steal some precious documents from some general, then there was the D-rank mission of taking care of the daimyo's three overactive brats.

And we've been sent on many D-rank missions for the past few days, like the one described above, and I've grown to hate it more and more each day.

I hate children now and I vow never to have any of my own.

I shall break my vow in the end because the whole point of this marriage with Tenten is for us to leave progeny.

I can tell Tenten hates it as well because every time we visit the Hokage there's a forced smile on her face when we receive our mission.

But the kids like her, no, love her.

She's nice to them, plays with them, feeds them, takes them around Konoha and is even willing to hold their hands. Tenten's like the perfect nanny, nice but can get angry when someone does something wrong, like hitting for instance. She's like a natural with children and all I do is stand to the side and watch.

I feel kind of useless during these missions.

They call me 'Scary Man'.

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Tenten

"Can you please help me?" I asked, exasperated beyond belief with Hyuuga Neji.

He's just standing there, has the audacity to give me a what-the-hell-do-you-want-me-to-do look, and then continues watching me try to handle two babies who are currently throwing their food at me. I've got rice stuck in my hair and it's running down my neck into my shirt. It's very uncomfortable.

"You're doing fine." he replies.

"Oh yeah," I say sarcastically, "I'm doing great." He looks at me and I give him my best, menacing glare. "Come help me," I growl and, miraculously, he comes over.

Neji picks up a bowl of rice, dips the spoon in, holds the spoon out to a wide-eyed baby, and, as if he expected it, the baby promptly starts screaming with tears streaming down her face. He puts the bowl and spoon down and steps away, then gives me a 'look'.

Having him try to feed that baby just made things so much worse.

Dammit!

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"I'm not good with kids." Neji says after we've returned the babies to the daimyo of the Water Country's wife.

"I can tell." I reply, picking grains of rice out of my hair with a grimace. How can two babies do so much damage? When I get back to my apartment I will take a long, hot, well-deserved shower. I look at Neji and I notice he's giving me a slightly apologetic look, though it's gone before I can really appreciate the fact that he's sorry he's terrible with children. "Well," I say, shrugging my shoulders, "at least you tried."

Neji reaches over, my god, my heart rate has increased to an unnatural speed, and he gently brushes my cheek with his finger.

He stares at me for a moment, Hyuuga eyes watching me, and then says, "You had rice on your cheek."

I swear, I almost fell over.

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Ok, the last few weeks with Neji, three weeks pretty much, have been tolerable. I mean, we don't get into nearly as many fights as before and we can actually have a civil conversation once in a while.

I'm going to tell you something.

The real reason we don't get into too many fights is because of Hyuuga Hiashi and the Hokage.

Hiashi apparently went to Tsunade-sama and asked for Team Gai, minus Gai and Lee, to be put on D-rank missions until we could learn to get along. Oh, and make them deal with kids because we'll need to practice for the real thing.

Needless to say, Neji and I have improved our behavior towards one another, especially in the presence of Hiashi and/or the Hokage, but when we're alone we get into a lot of arguments. That thing after dropping those babies off was just a fluke, a weird . . . Thing that Neji did.

And I liked it.

A lot.

A lot more than I'm willing to admit out loud.

I mean, he ruined the whole moment by saying 'You had rice on your cheek', but god, my heart was pounding and . . . I'm attracted to him.

Now, for me, it can't be all physical, but it's a very good start towards a relationship if I'm physically attracted to a guy. Very good because that means he's hot. But this whole thing was just raging hormones.

Yes . . . Hormones . . .

I turn to my window at the sound of tapping and see the familiar white bird tapping it's beak against the glass. Hurriedly I go to it and open the window, allowing the bird to fly in and perch on my shoulder as I get the note untied from its leg. After I get it off I go to my kitchen and put out some bird seeds, I went out and bought some a few days ago, and set out a shallow dish of water for it as I read the letter.

It had been a week since 'anonymous' had last written me and I was filled with anticipation.

Tenten,

Don't be insulted, I was giving you a compliment. If you look hard enough you'll see it nestled between the words of my previous letter. I agree that this correspondence is a little odd, but I trust that you are willing to continue.

I've never asked the Hokage what she thought of my skill, but I'm sure that she thinks they are adequate and useful for missions of whatever caliber.

You want to know what my name is?

Maybe some other time.

-Anonymous

Oh, that absolute ass hole.

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Anonymous,

I don't think it's fair that you know my name but I have no idea what your name is or who you are. To tell you the truth, this whole arrangement is a bit fishy. I mean, what if you were some person from another village trying to get the goods on Konoha? I could be talking to a missing-nin, you, and telling you all kinds of secrets about my village and totally doom us all.

I don't know why, but I'm not going to stop writing to you.

It's weird, but I think I can trust you . . . To some extent.

Seriously, it would make me feel a whole lot better to know your name.

-Tenten

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A/N: Do Tenten and Neji seem to be getting along better? They're supposed to . . . Somewhat. Please review!