Please see first chapter for disclaimer, etc.

Prompt: Colorless

Special Thanks: goes out to KNO, rao hyuga 18, naash, DarkAnonymous324, the-azian1028, and sepsis for all your reviews! You guys are some of the most amazing people in the world, and I appreciate you all!

Author's Note: Wow! This is the twenty-fifth prompt I've completed, which means we're halfway to the ending! While I'm excited to have reached this milestone, it also makes me sad in a way. Twenty-five means we're halfway to the end of this story, though I promise that I have no intentions of quitting in this fandom, let alone Neji/Ten stories, in the near future. Thank you all so much for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and alerting this story, and I hope you enjoy this piece!

*~Colorless~*

Tenten gazed at her reflection, head tilted to the side, nose scrunched up, eyes narrowed thoughtfully. She had been wearing the same style of clothing ever since her days in the Academy. But she was older now (and, she liked to think, wiser), meaning change was in order.

So here she stood, second-guessing herself as she critically examined her new clothing. She'd taken both Ino and Hinata along with her when she'd gone looking for a new style (Ino because she had fashion sense, Hinata to keep the other in line), and they'd both given their approval on Tenten's final choice. But now she wasn't so sure. Team Gai had changed a lot over their years of working together, but some things seemed taboo to change. Gai-sensei and Lee were still wearing their green spandex and orange leg warmers (something, undoubtedly, that would never change no matter how many years passed), and Neji was still wearing the same style of clothing he always had. Up until today, she'd done the same.

But now… Well, now she was really going to rock the boat and find out how well the team accepted change. (Because, undoubtedly, Gai-sensei and Lee were going to make a huge deal over her change of clothing, after being so used to her wearing one thing for so many years.) Neji - well, Neji was Neji, and she was never quite sure how he really accepted things on the inside, since he always looked and acted the same on the outside.

Standing here thinking about it isn't going to help, Tenten told herself. She'd already put this off yesterday, so if she didn't do it today, she knew she'd never do it. They're your teammates, she told herself. Everything will be fine. With a final determined nod to her reflection, she spun around, snatched up her weapons scrolls, and strode for the door.

Tenten began to relax, at least a little, when the people she encountered on the way to Team Gai's training grounds offered her approving looks. Maybe her new choice in wardrobe wasn't as bad as she thought. Perhaps Gai-sensei and Lee wouldn't freak out when they saw her. (It would, she had to admit, be a far bigger surprise if they showed up in something different, after all.)

By the time she arrived at her daily destination, Tenten was actually feeling a little confident. This wasn't so different from what she used to wear, after all. She'd just changed the style a bit, and the colors. Everything would be fine.

This assumption was, however, shattered when she encountered Rock Lee. For a long moment he stared at her, openmouthed, his eyes even more widely open than usual, if possible. He looked like someone had just told him squirrels were evil tree rats, or Gai-sensei actually hated the color green and bowl haircuts.

"Lee…?" she asked hesitantly. Self-consciously, her hand crept to the collar of her shirt, wondering if she'd been hallucinating earlier and had actually put on something different than what she'd intended.

"T-Tenten!" he stuttered. "W-What are you wearing?"

She glanced down at herself - nope, no hallucinations. She was wearing her new outfit, and she hadn't forgotten any of her scrolls, either. "Something new," Tenten replied. "I didn't think it was so bad, myself."

Gai-sensei came to stand behind his clone, looking just as horror-struck as Lee. "Tenten, Neji has sucked all the youthful color out of you!"

Tenten had anticipated several reactions from her sensei and teammate, and yes, most of them had included the word "youthful" in there somewhere. The reaction she got, however, had not been anywhere on her list. "What?" Not the most intelligent response she'd ever given, but that was all her confused brain offered her. To where had all her earlier confidence fled?

Spinning in tandem, as if the move had been choreographed, Lee and Gai simultaneously pointed to the calm figure sitting across the clearing, under the tree he used for shade when he meditated. Neji was right where she'd expected him to be: meditating, completely spaced out and ignoring Lee and Gai and their theatrics. What she had not expected was for him to have suddenly changed his own style of clothing - drastically.

Gone was the khaki top, the dark shorts, the bandages, even the leather strap he usually wore around his head to hold his hair back out of his face. Now he wore all white, except for his shoes and a dark brownish-grey sash around his waist. Except for the band around his hair, about a hand's length above the ends, he was allowing the rest of his hair to fall loosely over his shoulders and around his face. His wardrobe, for the most part, was now as colorless as his eyes.

"Did you two plan this?" Lee demanded. He and Gai-sensei both looked like someone had yanked the rugs out from beneath their feet.

Okay, so obviously the more volatile half of her team didn't take to well to change. "No?" It came out more like a question than a statement, which Tenten had not intended.

Lee narrowed his eyes, quite obviously not believing her. Gai seemed a little more uncertain as he critically examined her again. "If I'd known you were looking for a new style, I-"

Tenten knew exactly where that sentence was going, and decided to shut it down before the image of herself in green spandex and orange leg warmers was forever painfully seared into her mind. "Thank you, Gai-sensei," she said politely. "But green really isn't my color." Spandex also isn't my style. And orange is just - yeah. No. Not going there.

Her team leader looked a little disappointed. "If you change your mind…"

Tenten forced a smile. "I know right where to find you, sensei."

Apparently knowing they would get nothing further out of her, Lee and Gai left her alone with the still-meditating Neji while they went to do their requisite 500 laps around the village. Once more happy that she and Neji had agreed to be sparring partners, not to mention that he was still meditating and thus was not to be disturbed, she went to sit down under the tree next to him. Propping her back against the trunk, close to but not actually touching shoulders with him, she unrolled one of her scrolls and made sure everything was in order and ready to go.

She had to wait only a few minutes before she sensed the change in Neji's chakra. Looking up, she was just in time to see his eyes open as he turned to look at her. Silently, he regarded her new appearance from head to toe, face remaining as emotionless as ever. At least he wasn't freaking out on her. "Hmm," he said. "Ready to start sparring?"

Tenten blinked. She hadn't really been expecting him to say anything much about her new clothes, but something other than "hmm" would have been nice. "Sure." Subdued, she accepted the hand he extended toward her, allowing him to pull her to her feet. Had Neji been anyone else, she would have slapped them for even trying it; but she knew her teammate respected her as a kunoichi, and was doing it for that reason, not because he saw her as some frail girl who couldn't rise on her own.

Neji moved to the center of the clearing, activating his Byakugan as Tenten took to the trees, one scroll draped over her arms as two others rested within reach, ready to be called upon at a moment's notice. "Tenten?" he called. He didn't turn his head to look as he addressed her, but she didn't take offense since she knew he could see her anyway.

"Yes?" She remained on guard, just in case he was trying to distract her.

"I believe it was a wise choice, forgoing the green spandex." Perhaps it was Tenten's imagination, but she was almost certain she'd heard a smile in his voice when he said that, and what followed. "And I think your new clothes are - very satisfactory."

Failing to keep the grin from stretching her lips, Tenten let out a soft laugh. It was very much something Neji would say, and to most it would seem unsatisfactory, almost insincere. But Tenten knew him better than anyone else in the village, except perhaps himself. "Thanks, Neji. You look pretty satisfactory yourself."

Pleased with the compliments they'd given each other and still quietly laughing inside at the coincidence Gai and Lee had thought was deliberate planning, they settled into their normal routine of sparring. At least some things never changed.

*~The End~*

Author's Ending Notes: This piece was kind of hard to write. The prompt colorless has been sitting there on my list since I got it, and it's been driving me crazy. I wasn't quite sure what to do with it! But then while I was at work today, this idea just kind of jumped up and bopped me on the head, so I decided to go with it. I'm really excited about the next prompt I'm planning on working with (one I also thought of today while at work), so look for it soon (hopefully the website will continue to stay fixed), and in the meantime, I really hope you enjoyed this one! Thanks again for reading!