A/n: Written for the Nejiten Childhood Contest in Naruto forums. There is a reference for a book that served as inspiration, we'll see if you can find it.

Word count: 2,325

Characters: Neji and Tenten

Summary: Different from public belief Neji's first crush presented itself by the early age of ten. Since that incident, they have never talked about it again.

Contest entry:

Of Childhood Premises

There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.

Different from public belief Neji's first crush presented itself by the early age of ten. He was yet to grow tall –he was third shortest after the dropout Lee— and his voice…his voice was yet to thicken and grow masculine making him sound not much different from a chirping bird.

It was highly infuriating to Neji that by his current status of affairs –by this he meant being a child—he could not be taken seriously in the least. Not by his uncle who consistently forced him to play with his younger cousins (though he attributed this to his uncle's satisfaction upon seeing him suffer), not by his teachers who thought they knew what was 'best' for him and ordered him around and not by his fellow companions, especially girls, who wouldn't understand when he had to repeat himself and tell them to leave him alone.

"I'm glad you accepted to meet me," his words were as serious as he could manage; he had carefully planned his words days ago. A mistake in his mind would've been tragic.

"I have to remark this situation to be extremely weird. I don't see Sasame-sensei near."

Kuroda Kumiko was a virtuous girl. Even though she was not tall for her thirteen years of age, she was still pretty: long dark hair on a tight ponytail, big hazel eyes and a bright smile that was presently utterly confused.

"Sasame-sensei is not coming."

"Then what—"

Neji covered her mouth with his palm in a hasty movement, almost stumbling over his own feet. Kumiko even with her shortness was easily at least four inches taller than him. The older girl gave him a bemused stare and Neji withdrew, highly embarrassed, even when his perfectly controlled well-mannered face said otherwise.

"I….I just wanted to tell you that…I-I like you."

Kumiko's eyebrows rose startled while a sudden and loud giggle escaped from the nearest tree. Neji's heart hastened, his face contorting in managed anger.

"Who's there!"

To his surprise a younger girl unexpectedly appeared before his eyes. Neji stepped back. She had just jumped from one of the branches of the tree they were under. She held her dark brown hair in taut buns and her eyes were of dark chocolate. She too, annoyingly, was taller than him.

"I'm sorry," she scratched the back of her head— from his point of view he could easily notice the way her arms and legs were somewhat scratched, "I was hanging around and thought this might've been fun to watch," her eyes danced with laughter and the corner of her lips curved in a carefree smile Neji was sure he recognized from the Academy.

The way she uncoiled herself before them made him boil as dangerously improper words dangled from his tongue. Swallowing his pride, he pursed his lips and comforted himself with a lethal glare in her direction.

"Leave, this is none of your business!" he hissed angrily.

"Please don't, I think it'll be best if you have someone here," the oldest of the three said meekly, gaining the attention of the pair that had suddenly forgotten her in favor of a glaring contest.

"Hyuuga-kun," she stammered at her words, "I…I can't return your affections,"

Neji tried his best not to purse his lips miserably while the other girl remained mute though the fact that she was biting the inside of her mouth told him she was probably amused. Such actions only fueled his anger towards her and her funny buns that he was suddenly finding annoying.

"…we can be friends first and –

"You're way too young and short!" Kumiko exclaimed, her exasperated grimace betraying her intention to be diplomatic, "I mean…we come from different status, you're a Hyuuga and I'm the daughter of a low merchant, I..." she paused, he face hot and flustered.

"That sounds more like an excuse," spoke the girl of buns her smile replaced with a grimace of dislike, the older girl answered with a glare that clearly read 'shut up'.

"…we can be friends…" Neji insisted cautiously, his voice the lowest he had ever heard; Kumiko managed to give him a pained uncomfortable grimace.

"I think friendship between people of our age is weird… I'm sorry," she cut him with shrug and turned her back into the academy grounds. She had graduated last year, and was probably on her way to meeting her sensei before she had been cleverly intercepted.

Neji slumped on the ground with a 'thud' then and a not easily read sulking face. For some reason, he had assumed everything would work out. He was a Hyuuga, after all.

"What did you see in her?" the girl sat nimbly beside him and shot him a welcoming smile once Neji's face turned to her. He knitted his eyebrows together, her presence was galling but he felt so emotionally shattered he had no energy to shoo her away from his misery.

"She's beautiful and graceful to look at," he bit his own tongue trying not to pout and drowned further in his slouch, his embarrassment was highly vexing to his ego.

"Wow, I'd give a lot to achieve that, the best I can actually hope for is panda girl… and that's 'cuz you know…my buns… I'm often overlooked."

Irritated at her insistence on talking and ready to shoo her with a glare he turned to her. He had expected her to give him a sad smile, but she didn't, instead she regarded him with a toothy smile that made him bewildered.

Neji blinked perplexed, girls were really weird to him. Moving a couple of inches away from her they remained still for what felt a lifetime. The strange girl started twirling a kunai expertly with her fingers, movement which he found vastly aggravating. He, he just glared at the dirt in his shoe with hatred.

After that brief encounter they never talked again until months later. He learnt a few things about her though. First, that her name was Tenten but he couldn't find her surname, that she had broken a boy's nose in her first year in the Academy –he wasn't sure of the details considering the variety of versions floating around—and finally, that she had little to no friends to speak of. Just as she had admitted herself, she was easily overlooked.

She was also in another class, so he hardly saw her except for two occasions—not that he cared of course. One exiting target class because she saw her unusually surrounded by a group of boys and another on a very late afternoon he had spent watching Kumiko talk to a teacher before he left the Academy grounds and he had managed to notice the bun-haired girl was cleaning a classroom.

Considering nobody ever teased him about his rejection, he assumed she hadn't been a snitch much to his relief. Secretly, he was grateful for that, not that he would ever accept it.

His kunai hit on the first red ring outside from the bull's-eye for the seventh time.

"You're doing it wrong."

Neji turned his neutral expression to the still slightly taller girl now by his side. He had grown considerably for the last couple of months—how she had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, however, was an entirely different matter.

"I was distracted," he replied coldly and shot another kunai, once again missing its bull's-eye by a couple of inches.

Tenten shook her head in fake disappointment beside him and started the twirling of her kunai with one finger; Neji grew annoyed at her and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Look," she instructed and threw the kunai gracefully, which pierced its target spot on, right through its bull's eye. Neji sneered with incredulity, it was impossible for such a simple girl to outdo him on anything, ridiculous even.

"It's the thumb," she shared, "its position often changes the trajectory," she spoke confidently in a way that Neji couldn't help but to think she knew what she was talking about.

Taking another kunai from his pouch, he tried her advice but instead of making it to its original target it pierced through a chunk of wood that stood six inches to the target's right.

"Wow... that was way off."

"Shut up."

Neji minced with annoyance, he wasn't sure what the brunette was intending (did she wanted to be his friend?), but if that was how 'friendship' felt like he felt he was better without it.

"You're sulking aren't you," her question came out as a statement and she gazed at him in a way that made him feel awkward.

"Hn," Neji wasn't quite sure what he had meant with that but he wasn't feeling like talking.

"Does she really means that much to you?" she smiled broadly, "Does she?"

"Hn," he was sure his cheeks were humiliatingly reddening; the delicately pale skin of the Hyuugas did not dealt well with embarrassment, but it was true, he was still hung up on her and denying it would've been a lie.

"Your world is too small if you're sulking for the likes of her, you are ten," for a reason she even looked older than her ten year-old person.

"I thought you were a genius."

Neji tried to remain calm. He was used to being called a genius all the time, however, this time it felt different so he said nothing. He wasn't about to argue….she didn't know anything about love anyways. For all he knew and cared, she still probably believed he had cooties or something.

Then, she smiled a bright dazzling smile that made him extremely confused.

"You look silly," he had been wrong to call her older, her childish smile made her look like she had just entered a candy store where she could eat anything for free.

"One day you'll look back at this and laugh, at least that's what my mom used to say…that girl, she isn't plain like me—no, she's beautiful as you put it—but you…you're worth a dozen of her, I'm sure."

Neji looked at her with wide eyes and a shocked expression. No girl had ever talked to him like that, ever. Tenten's face paled considerably only to blush profusely a moment after.

"Not to me! I didn't mean me; don't look at me….that way….I..."she spluttered clumsily. She then gathered her things in a hurry and rushed out, knocking her face flat against the door before opening her exit.

Neji wasn't quite sure he believed her.

This time around, he didn't talk to her again or even got to see her much until their very last year in the Academy. It was quite a coincidence they were stuck together in the same class, which regrettably included 'good-for-nothing' Lee, who found no other joy but to challenge him in battle, which he unmistakably always lost.

And for a reason he quite didn't understand, they avoided each other. He had to accept part of it involved the fact that he had turned into a cold-blooded bastard and she had set herself the goal of becoming better than males in something or another. Notion which he respected, but didn't whole-heartedly encourage much less supported.

That was until destiny finally stuck them together in their genin cell with Lee and the craziest and less conventional teacher they could have hoped for (or not), Maito Gai. And things turned to normal, or became normal. Lee and Gai would engage in their weird practices while Neji and Tenten were sort of forced to work together.

It was one of those last days of winter, they were fifteen. The constant breeze of February devoured their bodies in frosty bites.

"Neji," Tenten called to him, there was something that had been floating in her mind and she felt daring. He didn't answer back but she knew he was listening to her because of the way he slowed his pace on their walk back to town.

"I've been thinking…"

"You want to ask me something."

His voice was serene. Sometimes she felt as if she couldn't hide anything from his eyes, as if he could know what she was thinking with only looking at her. It was difficult to remember a time he couldn't read her so well.

"Did you ever thought of Kumiko again?" even when it wasn't evident, Tenten knew she had caught him off guard.

He paused. "Not after the incident," It was hard to recognize whether he was lying or not.

"I'm worth a dozen of her, remember?"

He didn't look at her and she was grateful for it. It was weird for him to tease and Tenten savored the moment, especially if it meant that she could ignore his comment later.

"…Well, I just heard she's marrying and the question had been floating in my head for a while."

"If your world revolves around one person…you'll get your heart broken."

The world stopped for a moment and she suddenly noticed they had stopped walking. His face was as blank as ever, his eyes…there was something in his eyes she didn't quite understand as her heart worked its way to her throat. It was hard to guess whether he'd meant it as a warning or an allusion.

"She liked you, loves you even."

His eyes didn't widen in surprise, his face remarkably unreadable. Her heart rushed, Neji was a lot different from that kid who didn't understand women, and the boy with the incredible superiority complex she had met so many years ago. Still, he was the same.

"She was too plain and often overlooked, remember?"

Her voice was a zephyr, her smile the warmest he had ever seen. Neji's eyes danced with bewilderment, he always had trouble when reading her smiles.

"I thought you were a genius."

His laughter that was a rare occurrence melted away in the air. They never talked about it ever again, different from the kiss that followed afterwards.

FIN

A/N:

Gaah! I'm so torn about this piece, a part of me likes it (I won't go as far to say I love it) and another part is 'I don't know'. For some reason, I think this could've been much better. This happens to me whenever I read something of mine a couple of times in a row, after a while I just end up sort of hating it.

Personally, I always imagined that if Neji ever felt something for a girl, he would be very forward about his feelings. So that's why I wrote it that way. As for Tenten, I think she's more hesitant and cryptic about them because of the way she regards Neji.

The reference for the book was a conversation between Elphaba and Boq in the book 'Wicked (The life and times of the wicked witch of the west)' by Gregory Maguire. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.

Constructive criticism is always welcomed, just as positive feedback or if you just happen to have an opinion or whatever, don't hesitate to leave a review.

Edit: this chapter has been revised.

Half-note