Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, etc.

Summary: Tenten is indebt and a really good liar. Neji's family is rich and is in need of a temporary niece. What happens when these two meet? ( Nejiten & minor others )

Tenten went into the backyard for the first time. She gasped at the grove of orange trees that grew in it – covering the whole lawn.

"Wow," she muttered to herself in amazement. "No wonder he doesn't want to sell the house…"

She quickly went down and inspected the oranges, tearing one down and peeling it open. She took one of them and popped it into her mouth. Her eyes widened and she smiled at the sudden sweetness that burst through her taste buds.

"Mmm!" she cried as she quickly devoured the rest. She discarded the peels on the ground as she went deeper into the grooves. "One could make tons of money just by selling these!" she shouted as she picked a few for herself to eat later.

Then stopped.

She took a look at the orange trees around her again.

The oranges turned to dollar signs.

Money…

Tenten quickly worked her way down the groves, picking up as many oranges she could carry so far. She made her way back to the house to drop of the current load, and then went back into the groves again to pick even more, all the while having the "Money, Money, Money! (7)" song playing over and over in her head.

"Oranges!" Tenten cried, standing at a wooden stand near the most visited highway. "Oranges for sale!" She jauntily smiled as she saw a car pull up. Out came 3 people, willing to buy 3 bags each.

Tenten sighed happily to herself as she quickly counted the dollar bills. Soon, even more people came over and bought even more.

As soon as all the oranges were depleted, Tenten returned to the house once more (climbing over the fence again), and calculated her savings. At this rate, she'll have enough money by Wednesday to buy a ticket for Naruto, and enough by Friday to buy a ticket for herself as well.

Neji walked into his Uncle's house. He hadn't been here for awhile. He always chose to stay in hotels instead of coming back home.

Gai turned up first at the door in front of Neji. His face was grim – not bearing that usually hyper active smile that he has been annoyed with for months (years). In his hand was the newspaper from this week's.

"Neji," he said gravely. "What is this? Do you-"

He was interrupted by Lee, however, who popped out of nowhere cried, "ZOMG! IT'S SAKURA!" He quickly dashed over to Gai's shoulder and peered down at the paper and tried to rip it from him. "LET ME SEE THE ARTICLE! I MUST SEE HOW KOREA'S BLOOMING-"

Gai quickly whacked him on the head with the paper. "Lee! Enough!" He quickly pulled the young buy by his ear and whispered (loudly), "Don't you… remember?"

"What?" Gai sighed and callously whispered into his ears. Lee's eyes grew wide as Gai progressed, saying words such as "Sakura" and "Neji" and "couple" and "she dumped him."

Neji, meanwhile, was too busy rolling his eyes at the sight of them – knowing that they were talking about him. "Get up. You two look ridiculous," he spat out.

Lee was the first to spring up with, "YES! I understand!" He turned to Neji. "How could you let such a beautiful young flower slip through-"

Neji's eyes flashed dangerously and he punched the boy making him land with a loud CRASH on the floor. Gai's eyes widened in mortification. "LEEEEEEEEE!"

"I'm going to my room," Neji stated dispassionately. "Don't bother me." And with that, he stomped up the stairs.

"LEE!" Gai had forgotten what he was going to say to the young master, for he quickly went to Lee's aid. "Oh Lee!" he cried. "Are you alright?!"

"Gai-sensei… (8)" Lee coughed loudly.

"Oh Lee! I know how much you attracted to Miss Haruno, but remember – don't go fraternizing with the enemy!" Gai's eyes immediately widened as he just remembered that he forgot to say those same words to the ravaged man upstairs.

The night had come, with Neji staying in his room for most of the day. In reality he was actually pretty hungry (just devouring a Granola bar). However, he refused to come down and deal with those "meddling green hooligans."

However, Asuma (9) ("one of the sane ones") had managed to coax him from his tempered (and definitely unprepared) flight to his room, and into the dining room for dinner.

Around the table was Kurenai; an aspiring painter and cook Uchiha Mikoto (10); the mother of Neji's close friend – Sasuke, Gai, Lee, and also his cousin (and personal secretary) Hinata. Neji had already resolved by the time he came downstairs that he was going to eat enough to sustain him for the night, and then retreat to his room… again.

The dinner that night was mostly quiet. Until Hinata had spoken, "Father is…" She looked at the grave face of Kurenai for her approval. The woman gave a quick nod. "The paper…" Hinata tried again, but failed. Kurenai sighed, but continued from where she left off.

"Don't look for her, Neji," she told him severely. "The master's condition got even worse – even fatal." Neji continued eating in silence. Kurenai's eyes narrowed at his reaction.

"We need you to be with us – to watch over him. Finish your business at the island… and then come back," she continued. "If Sakura comes looking for you, we won't accept her in. You know this?"

Hinata came in - her voice faint. "Cut off… all ties with her, Brother," she said. "We don't want you to get hurt… again-"

Neji dropped his fork down and got up abruptly from the table – finished with his meal. "I didn't get hurt last time," he stated. He went back up the stairs. Moments later, a door closing shut was heard.

Mikoto looked at Kurenai pointedly and shook her head. "He's in denial. It's really a shame that he turned out to be this way." Kurenai snorted at her silent rival and also close friend. They were always comparing who was better – Neji or Sasuke.

"I wonder where your son is, Mikoto. Probably getting another girl in Australia or Paris." She smiled smugly as she didn't hear a response.

The next day, Neji had worked in his company office to the bone. He had visited his Uncle earlier that day, and was frustrated to find out that his Uncle's status had worsened and had become fatal. To add things to that, he had to return to the island once again for his occasional checkup on the hotel property grounds.

"B-Brother…" Hinata began hesitantly.

"What is it?" he said as he read another case file for his Uncle's missing niece.

"You know…" she started. "H-How Father's case has worsened…?"

"Yes," he muttered. "I know." He closed the first file and put it to the side of his desk. "The only thing that can save him now is the appearance of his niece…" He hit his fist harshly against the desk. "And that's one thing we don't have!"

Hinata hung her head low in despair, but then her eyes sparked with an idea. She looked at him. "What if… What if we get a temporary replacement?"

"… What?"

"Another day of selling!" Tenten chirped happily as she set up her stand once again. Beside her were even more additions – orange juice and some orange marmalade. Earlier that day, during her daily picking, she had found some inspiration…

Flashback

"Ne…" Tenten mumbled to herself as she navigated through the groves again. "I shouldn't really pick so much… you can sort of tell." She bent down to see if there were fresh ones at the bottom. "From now on, I'll have to pick them more discreetly."

However, her attention was caught upon the few oranges that littered the ground. Sighing, she picked one up. "What am I going to do with these?" she asked aloud to herself. "They're such a waste if they're on the ground…"

Her eyes brightened as she received an idea. Then she smiled as she held it up at eye-level.

"They shouldn't be too bad if they're made into orange juice…"

End.

And so, the idea evolved into orange juice. Then orange marmalade. Because they were in so much better use that way.

Soon, she became busy rolling oranges into bags and also serving cups of orange juice to visitors. Alas, a tour bus came into view of the greatly populated stands and parked up to the side of the road nearby. Out of the bus came Naruto.

As soon as all the visitors had gone, he walked up to Tenten. "HIYA TENTEN!"

Startled, Tenten turned around in a kung fu stance; however, seeing it was Naruto, she quickly went back to her normal pose. "Oh! Naruto!" she cried out happily. She gave him a quick pat on the shoulder, and then dug through her pockets.

At long last, she found the item and held it out to him. "Here's your ticket."

Naruto gasped out in surprise. "You actually got one?!" He gave her a look of interest. "How?" Tenten rolled her eyes at his stupidity and gestured to the orange stand. "The oranges?!" he yelled. "How did you manage to get all of these?"

At this, Tenten sighed a bit. "Well… I… They…" She huffed in frustration. "They're really not mine. I kinda-"

The boy's eyes widened in realization. "YOU STOLE THEM? OMIGOSH, YOU ACTUALLY STOLE THE- grmpf!" Tenten had covered his mouth with one hand.

"Not so loud you dimwit!" she shouted. The blonde shook his head in alarm.

"Tenten! You can't just steal oranges!" he yelled as she released her hand on his mouth. He took a grasp of the handmade wooden stand and began to pull. "That's it, we're taking these back RIGHT NOW. We can't have you ending up in jai-!"

"No way!" Tenten cried as she took the other side and began to pull. "There's no way I'm taking these back! I need these to buy the other- ACK!"

The stand crumpled apart, sending the majority oranges onto the street.

Hyuuga Neji was once again on the road heading for the hotel once more.

Ffft… He heard a shift of documents and frowned as a few – most – all of them fluttered to the ground with the movement of the car.

Grumbling in anger, he bent down, with one hand still on the wheel to grab the fallen documents…

Tenten had stood there for a moment, in pure shock. Then, hearing the speeding of a car, she snapped her head up and began to run toward the middle of the street. "Stop!" she cried. "Stop!"

"Tenten!" Naruto shouted and he pulled her back to the safety of the sidelines.

Her eyes widened in horror as the car's wheels smashed through practically all of the oranges. Instead of crying out in despair, Tenten started to run after the car.

"Hey!" she huffed. "HEY YOU!"

Neji got up again and placed the documents more securely. Glancing in his side mirror, he glared. Her again?!

He stopped the car. Tenten rushed up him and banged on the window. A muffled "Open up!" could be heard. Rolling his eyes inwardly, the Hyuuga rolled the window down.

"What?" he asked acidly.

Meanwhile, Tenten froze. It's… HIM! The guy who owns the house! Why does everyone have to have one-sided windows?! she thought to herself angrily.

Neji raised an eyebrow. "What is it?" he demanded again.

"What… huh?" Tenten snapped from her thoughts. Realizing who she was standing in front of, she composed herself and laughed nervously. "Eh… heh… It.. It's nothing!" she said cheerfully. Nothing at all!" Noticing the weird look he was giving her, she continued, "I just wanted to say… hi! That's all! Just a nice hi!"

The man stared at her for awhile longer, and then peeked his head out of the window. There, he saw oranges that were practically demolished onto the paved road and… a… boy yelling (cursing) at him.

He took his attention to the tires and grimaced inwardly at the orange pulp that was found around it. "Why didn't you tell me that I ran over your oranges?" Neji asked her.

Tenten nearly broke down when he said "your oranges." Augh! If he only knew!

"No, no!" she cried out hastily. "It's no problem." Really.

Neji just sighed. "Your stupidity is overwhelming. If someone destroys something, you expect them to pay you back." He opened his wallet and smacked five 50 dollars (11) into her hand. "Here."

Something inside her bit Tenten with guilt. She would normally take the bills and go, but something persuaded her to object (which she has never done before). "No," she said again. "I'm serious. Take these back. It's ok. I don't care."

"I'm serious too. Just take it."

"No. Just… HERE!" she cried handing back all of the money through the window.

He huffed and handed the money back to her. He roughly took her hands and pried her fingers opened to place the bills in it. He slowly closed her fingers around it. "Take it already," he said angrily.

Tenten prided on herself not to blush when he took her hands like that. She pocketed the bills. Grunting in satisfaction, the Hyuuga began to roll up the windows. He had a feeling she couldn't resist the smell of money-

"Wait!" the girl shouted. She began to dash back to the stand. "Just stay right there!"

Neji gave her an inquiring look, but did what she told him.

Meanwhile, Tenten scooped as many oranges as she could that were still off the ground, and inserted them into two plastic bags. Naruto watched her with his mouth hanging. "Tenten!" he shouted. "What are you-"

"Just shut it, Naruto!" she cried as she made her way back to the car.

She hefted the bags into the surprised arms of the man. "Here."

The Hyuuga stared at the oranges for a moment, not knowing what to say. "Uh… Thanks," he managed to finally splutter.

Tenten laughed lightly. "I never knew someone like you would ever say that!" Neji glared at her – daring her for another squabble. "Gee, I was just kidding." She shook her head and grinned at him. "Drive safely, ok? Don't kill yourself!"

"Hn." Neji sped away, thinking about his encounter with her… again. It was strange seeing her all over the place, yet strangely… comforting. And amusing. He couldn't decide on what it was.

Either way, he would have to rethink his opinion on her. The actions that Tenten had taken earlier were beyond his impression on her. Giving him the oranges was definitely not a "Tenten" thing to do. The Tenten he had imagined would've sneered and chewed him off about how he should watch where he was driving and demand payment.

He watched from his side mirror that she was still waving good-bye to him. Yes. He would have to rethink again.

Tenten finally dropped her arm in exhaustion from waving so long until the car was out of sight. The grin that was on her face was replaced with one of disappointment as she stalked back to the wooden stand.

"Tenten!" Naruto greeted her with whirlwinds of chastising. "What the hell do you think you were doing?! Giving him a pack of oranges, why that's the-"

"Please, Naruto," Tenten said, butting in. "Just stop it already."

"I won't! Do you have an infatuation with that creep or something because that's what I'm-"

"THAT'S NOT IT, NARUTO?!" Tenten grabbed him by the shoulders and began to shake him violently. "DON'T YOU KNOW WHO HE IS?! I'M LUCKY HE DIDN'T ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT WHERE I GOT THESE!"

"Eh…?" Naruto asked. "What the hell are you talking about-GAH" She had begun to shake him again with every word she spoke.

"HE'S" shake "THE" shake "OWNER" shake "OF" shake "THOSE" shake "ORANGES!!!" Three shakes to end the whole sentence.

Naruto quickly pried himself away from Tenten, staggering backwards, before she started her rampaging shaking again. "You mean, HE'S the one that you stole the oranges from?!"

She quickly nodded, Naruto grunting with an "Oh boy." Tenten snapped her head up and looked him straight in the eye. "Naruto! You go over to the city first, ok?"

"What?!"

"You have to use your plane ticket so that he doesn't make me exchange it back for the rest of the money that was gained from the oranges!" She blubbered out the whole thing in one extremely long sentence.

Oh.

Neji entered the hotel through the revolving doors.

A man that had been standing quietly next to the translator quickly appeared at his side in a flash. "Hyuuga-sir," he greeted, bowing with respect. Neji nodded his head in acknowledgement.

He eyed the Chinese guests with interest. "I trust… everything is fine over here?"

The man nodded. "The translator is as good as the other one from last week. The guests aren't responding much to his whims, but… well, you can't have everything."

Neji nodded his head. "Yes…" he mumbled. His thoughts went back to the girl again. Where had she gotten those oranges?

Later that day, Tenten went back to clipping off more oranges. She gently placed them in a wooden basket carrier that was placed near her feet. She paused, wiping her brow with her shirt. This was exhausting work, but it was worth it. She already had enough to pay for her own ticket, but Iruka and Kakashi's dept was too apparent to ignore.

Her mind went back to the events that had happened hours ago. Perhaps the Hyuuga wasn't so bad after all. He still had insulted her, but it wasn't as harsh as yesterday. She snorted to herself. He had definitely shown his more polite side by repaying for the broken oranges. She nodded her head in silent agreement with her conscious.

He's not such a bad guy after all…

Neji clicked open the gates of the house. It was to be his last stop before he made his way back to the city – permanently.

He opened the door of the clean bungalow and was satisfied to see it clean so far. He went over to the kitchen and… his eyes narrowed.

He saw orange peels littered over the ground – a white blender perched on the kitchen counter with a few orange pulp in it.

Was this some kind of sick joke?

He crept throughout the house, frowning at rumpled bed sheets and small bread crumbs of fresh baked toast. At long last, he went out into the orange grove. He moved silently through the branches, careful to watch where he stepped (lest he stepped on an orange).

Neji's eyes narrowed as he saw a figure clipping off a few oranges. Who was that? He crept closer.

"There!" Tenten said happily to herself as she placed one last orange in the basket. "That should do for now!" She smiled to herself as she placed the clippers down into the basket.

"What are you doing here?!"

Tenten's eyes widened. NEJI?!?!?!?!?! Without giving it a second thought, she immediately broke into a run through the orange trees.

"Why you-" Neji began, but he started to chase after her. "COME BACK HERE!"

Tenten kept on running all the while cursing to herself out loud in Chinese. This was definitely not her day. And she had just started to think he was a gentleman. Now having him chase her and wanting to beat her into a pulp changed all that. Drastically.

She kept on running dodging random branches. Then she stopped. She was at the end of the property. She was standing on the edge of a stone wall, but she jumped off anyway. It's a lot better than being caught by him – that's for sure.

Landing on her feet, she felt a pain surge through her ankle. She suspected that she had twisted it, and so, she hobbled as fast as she could away from the crazed man.

However, Tenten soon realized that she couldn't run any farther, and was forced to do another course of action in order to loose the prodigy. She blinked as she saw a handkerchief jutting out from one of her pockets. She pulled it up and stared at it with a frown on her face.

It was a desperate move, and not guaranteed to work, but it was the only thing she had right now.

Neji, not being an idiot, chose the much more safer route off the property – through the gate. He slammed the gate shut as he jogged in the direction he was sure she went off in, but stopped scanning the area. And sighed.

Until he saw a beautiful long, brown haired girl jogging down the street with a bandana (or was it a handkerchief?) tied to her head. As she got closer, he frowned.

Scratch what he had said before.

"Tenten," he said. "I'm not stupid."

The girl looked at him with an eyebrow raised as she jogged in place in front of him. "Tenten? Tenten? Nope. Never heard a Tenten before. Nice day out for jogging though, isn't it? I think I'll go and jog some more!"

She began to speed away until Neji grabbed her arm and pulled her back in front of him.

"Tenten," he said again. "I'm not stupid," he repeated.

The girl, Tenten, sighed in defeat.

"…" Neji finished counting the money and put it down on the table in thick bill wads. "Is this it?"

Tenten quickly nodded, her head hung low.

The Hyuuga rolled his eyes. "I'm going to get a drink," he said. "Don't think about taking any money because I'll be counting them. AGAIN." He walked away into the kitchen next door.

She sighed once he left the room. It was tense being around him, but she had gradually begun getting used to it. In fact, he reacted to the situation pretty well. She had expected him to go totally OOC (out of character) on her once he had found out, but all he asked for was the money.

And of course he did this with his Stage 4 glare.

So, she had emptied out her pockets of her savings. But she grinned to herself. She used a double-edged lie – a common technique. Of course, not to the Hyuuga.

The trick is, to not tell all of the truth.

Sure, that was all the money she had from just the oranges. But what about everything else?

She sighed anyway. HE'S BOUND TO FIND OUT SOONER OR LATER!

Neji went into the kitchen, unfazed by the orange peels. To think that he had started to think she was a pretty good person. She was "semi-honest," but she was also a "semi-liar" as well. This girl never failed to surprise him. Literally.

Taking a glass cup from the cabinets, he placed it on a nearby counter while he went and opened the fridge.

To find that he was fazed once again. Or surprised… again.

Inside were rows and rows of… orange marmalade? He wondered where she had gotten all the jars. To the left of him on the opened door, were jars and jars of orange juice. He snorted. This girl really had a hobby, didn't she?

A yellow post-it note on a jar of marmalade caught his attention. He took the jar and inspected it, closing the refrigerator door – forgetting about the drink he was supposed to be getting.

Neji -

You're still the most stingiest and meanest dude on earth, but I'm really sorry for using your oranges like that! I sorta need it for… personal reasons. Heh. I can tell you don't believe me anyways.

Either way, please take all of the orange marmalade in the fridge (go get the bread yourself)

Neji tried to suppress a chuckle at this.

and also all of the orange juice in there as well. Please take them as an apology and excuse this event as simply helping the poor. Remember:

IT WOULDN'T KILL YOU TO SMILE.

- Tenten

Neji took the note and put it in his pocket and brought the jar with him to the living room. Tenten who was sitting there with her face in her hands quickly snapped up, and continued looking downwards.

"What is this?" he asked. He thrust the jar under her eyes. She looked up at it.

Damn. "Uh… it's just… Wait." Tenten gave him a weird look. "You don't know what orange marmalade is?" Neji rolled his eyes.

"I'm saying, where's the money you got from selling these?" He thought and then added, "The orange juice too." Tenten sighed. Right.

She stood up and then took out the plastic case full of her business cards. Going to the fifth – to – last card, she propped it up and slid out five 20 dollar bills. She gave them to him. Neji arched his eyebrow at this. (12)

Then she went over to a drawer near the couch and took out a set of playing cards. Slowly, she pulled out twelve 10 dollar bills from between a few stack of cards and handed those to Neji. Shoving the playing cards back into the box and putting the box back into the drawer, she went over to the phone. Neji followed.

Taking out two phone books, she flipped page, after page, after page – stopping to take out money each time. It seemed that she was the only one who knew what she was doing. In the end of her "page flipping," she gave him ten 50 dollar bills. She handed him those.

Then she bent down and lifted up her pants. She lifted open one sock she was wearing and slid out even more money. She did the same to the other one. Taking those, she slapped them into Neji's palm.

"There. That's it," she stated as she got up from her knees.

"Interesting…" he mumbled, referring to her hiding places.

"Hey!" she shouted. "Those are special hiding places and if I find that you told someone I'll personally jab a knife down your throat!"

Neji rolled his eyes as he counted the money. However, a white piece of paper slipped out from between the bills. Tenten's eyes widened as she made a dash for it before he even reacted. She crumpled it into her hands.

His eyes narrowed. Thinking it was money, he demanded, "Give it, Tenten." She shook her head rapidly back and forth. His eyes narrowed even more. "Tenten," he warned. Still she shook her head.

At once he took her hand before she could escape and snatched it away. "Why you-" she began. "You'd better not rip it or-"

Neji's eyes eyebrow went up. "Plane tickets?" So this is what she meant by "personal."

"Yes, plane tickets," Tenten seethed. "And you better not throw that away since it took me awhile to calculate the sums and-" She stopped and winced, applying too much pressure on her left ankle. She slumped down and began rubbing it.

Neji had a worried expression, but shook his head. "Is your ankle really hurt?" he asked.

Tenten rolled her eyes at him. "Are you stupid?

He glared as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Well you were jogging in place before. Who says that you are hurt right now?"

She snorted. "If I wasn't hurt, I would've run as fast as I could have before away from you." Neji thought for a moment, drinking it in. Then he nodded in approval. It did seem somewhat logical…

Making a decision, he looked over at Tenten. "Let's go."

"What?!" she asked. "Where?!"

"The doctor's."

Neji dropped her off at the hospital, but didn't follow her inside.

He looked pointedly at her and sighed. "Go and get your ankle healed. And don't try to do anything like this again. Ever." Tenten looked down from shame. "Right."

He sped away.

Tenten looked at the doors of the hospital with sad eyes. "Did he really think I have the money to go and get my ankle healed?" She looked at where the car had gone. "He's an honorable man, but he's not as smart as he think he is."

Sighing, she made her way to the nearest drug store to get a quick and large band-aid to heal her ankle.

(7) This song usually plays in the opening scene of the show The Apprentice. Either way, it's an extremely catchy song. :D
(8) I'm aware of the "sensei" part being Japanese. However, nothing in Korean could really replace it, so I'll just leave it as it is.
(9) Ah yes. Refer back to Chapter 3 to see yet another connection. :)
(10) I cannot recall if this is the real name of Sasuke's mother. If I have made a mistake, just add it in a review.
(11) I will be using reference to American money since… well, this story is in English. XD
(12) This was all made up by me. No, I don't know if they're really effective hiding places. D:

A/N. Ah. This story is slow progressing. -bows- My apologies. This chapter was quite long since I wanted to sorta speed it up more in just one long chapter thing. XD My bad. There's also an overdose of extra notes in here. My bad again.

Thanks to those who read and reviewed. Or just read.

Matahari
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