A/N: Wow. I think I'm on a roll! I'm updating so fast lol, even for my standards. Too bad I'm neglecting my Twilight fanfic…-runs away feeling guilty-
Anyways, here's the chapter!

(Oh. P.S. If anybody has trouble understanding some of my twisted humor, then please don't hesitate to ask if something is confusing. I'll clear it up.)

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Day 5

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"Sakura, who is this Sasuke guy?" Ino prodded.

Sakura lay on her back on Ino's bunk, (much to Ino's dismay. She said that Sakura was making her sheets rumpled), ignoring Ino as she fiddled with her iPod. Tenten sighed and put down her book.

"Lay off of it, Ino."

"Why?" Ino said defiantly.

"Why? Because you're making my eardrums bleed. I want to read."

"That rhymed. Yippee," said Sakura dully. So she could hear them through those earphones! Or ear pieces…Tenten shook her head. She had never owned an iPod, so she wouldn't know.

"Seriously, we could go and kick his-"

"Shut UP, Ino!" said Tenten and Sakura together.

"I've never heard you get defensive on my behalf," said Sakura as she sat up, her green eyes once again bright. Her voice was tinged with amusement as she watched Ino flush all the way up to her pale hairline. Ino shooed Sakura off of her bed, but Sakura wouldn't move. Ino told her to take off the boots. Sakura did. Tenten stared as they cooperated for pretty much the first time.

"It's…complicated," Sakura said finally after Ino prodded her some more, (both with words and with her finger in the ribcage).

"Aw, come on. You've got to give us more than that," Ino whined. Sakura glared at the blonde, and then glared at Tenten too for good measure, though she had not done anything. Tenten picked up her book again and tried to ignore them.

"See? Little Ten isn't butting into my personal business," she told Ino. Tenten sighed, and closed her book shut the second time with an expression of resignment.

"I am not Little Ten."

"How 'bout Lil' Ten?"

"No."

Ino laughed thoughtfully at the furious scowl pasted on Tenten's usually calm face, (though it was looking agitated more and more the last few days she had spent in Sakura and Ino's company). "You need a really cool nickname, Ugly. You're way drab if you don't have one."

Tenten didn't have the energy in her to shoot something witty back at Ino. Ino thought for a little while.

"What are you good at?" she asked finally.

Tenten sighed. "Not much."

"I saw the black belts in your trunk," said Sakura from the bed. Tenten opened her mouth to say something, and then closed it again.

"You went through my trunk?" she said incredulously, heat rising into her cheeks. Wasn't this type of thing supposed to be illegal? What reason did Sakura have to look through Tenten's trunk? Tenten was perfectly average. At the time that Tenten wanted to search Sakura's trunk, she had believed her to be a potential illegal drug dealer. Was that so wrong?

Okay, so maybe she deserved that lump swelling out the back of her head from the bat swing.

"What black belts?" said Ino curiously. "Could I try them on? I need one to go with my white tank top."

"You own something that's not pink?" said Sakura incredulously, as if somebody had announced that Austria was no longer going to make apple strudel. Tenten raised her eyebrows.

"You want to try on my black belts? You know, those are for martial arts."

"Oh. Ew. Sweat," said Ino, wrinkling the bridge of her nose. Tenten tried to mimic her, and failed. How did you move the skin on the bridge of your nose? She shook her head.

"Ooh, how about Jackie?" said Ino.

"Jackie?"

"As in like Jackie Chan."

"In case you've forgotten, I'm a girl."

"The Mistress of Kung Fu Doom?"

"No."

"How about…Weapons Mistress?"

Tenten was about to say no again, but then she paused with her mouth wide open, and shut it again. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately. Opening and shutting her mouth with nothing at all to say. And saying no.

"Hey, I kinda like that."

Ino beamed. Then she rounded on Sakura again, her ice blue eyes blazing fire. It was a rather interesting effect. Sakura ignored Ino completely, even though Tenten would probably have been frightened by the determined expression that Ino was wearing.

"Now, I am only going to ask this one more time. Who is Uchiha Sasuke?"

O0O

Tenten walked down the road, once again sipping a coffee. Well, not really coffee. She was sipping a brand of cappuccino that they mixed with milk. It was the brand that Hanabi's bottle cap had indicated. She decided that it was rather good, but a bit too creamy for her own tastes.

With the promise that she would tell Tenten and Ino who Uchiha Sasuke was if they waited until that night, Sakura had left the dorm. When questioned by Ino as to where she was going, she simply shrugged and said, "To clear my head."

As she walked down the street, she thought she heard somebody call her name. She shrugged it off. They called it again, and this time she turned.

A blonde boy with bright blue eyes, (though not quite as bright as Ino's. His were more of a cerulean. Tenten had actually looked the color up online with him as children), was running toward her, his hand raised and an unopened cup of ramen in his other hand.

"Oh. Hey, Naruto."

She and Naruto had been friends when they were kids, though he was an all-around reject and she was a year his senior. He was a happy kid to be around. They weren't all that close anymore, and she hadn't seen him for weeks.

"Tenten-chan, what are you doing here?" he huffed, as he stopped next to her, and pulled open the steaming ramen cup.

She shrugged. "Drinking coffee."

Naruto made a face. "You know, that stuff's bad for you. It stunts your growth."

"Oh, really?" she said in a flat tone, taking another sip. Naruto nodded, shaking his head in disapproval.

In truth, Tenten never had any really good friends in her life except Naruto, and another boy named Rock Lee. Both wore jumpsuits. Both were loud. Both were very, very unusual. Did this mean that Tenten was a freak?

"How's Lee?" she asked instead, shaking off the thought.

Naruto smiled from ear to ear. "Training. I think he's actually better than you now." Tenten rolled her eyes. That would have been impossible. "And, he's fallen in love," continued Naruto. Tenten spat out her coffee all over him. He blinked.

"Eh? Tenten-chan? You got coffee in my ramen."

"Rock Lee, our Rock Lee, is in love?!" She winced at the absurdity of the whole thing. The words "Rock Lee" and "love" did not belong in the same sentence. There were pretty much two things that Lee loved in life: training, and Maito Gai, Tenten and Lee's martial arts sensei.

"Yep," said Naruto happily. "He showed me her yesterday. She's pretty."

Tenten almost spat coffee again. Naruto did not know the difference between a pretty girl and…well…Naruto just didn't get interested in pretty girls. Ever.

"You two like the same girl, don't you?" she said suspiciously from the way that his blue eyes were two bright.

Naruto shook his head too fast. Her suspicions were confirmed. They did like the same girl! Too bad that neither of them were going to get her. Girls just didn't go out with Uzumaki Naruto or Rock Lee, the Green Beast.

"So you like the same girl. How'd you guys meet her?" said Tenten.

Naruto sighed. "By chance. She buys cinnamon buns for breakfast every day at a café down the street from here." He gestured vaguely. "It's next to the Starbucks. Lee and I go to watch her. She's awfully pretty. Did you know that she has pink hair?"

Yeah, sure, Tenten was about to say, but then she froze, and tried very, very hard not to spray Naruto with coffee once again.

"Did you just say…pink hair?"

"Yep," said Naruto cheerfully. "I don't think she even had to bleach it, either. Kinda funny, because it matches her name. Haruno Sakura," he said the name like it was even nicer to taste than his ramen. His eyes had stars in them. Tenten nudged him back to earth.

"Naruto," she said very, very slowly. "I know Sakura, and you can not like her. And you have to talk Lee out of it too."

"Why?" Naruto whined.

"Because…well, she's not…normal," said Tenten slowly. "And…I get the feeling that she's already taken," she added on hastily, an image of Uchiha Sasuke popping into her head. "Yeah," she kept inventing wildly, "She has a boyfriend. A tough one. You don't want to cross him." Well, at least part of that was true.

"A…boyfriend?" said Naruto, pouting. "Who?"

"A guy named Uchiha."

Naruto's blue eyes widened dramatically. "Sasuke-teme?!"

Tenten did spit coffee this time. Really, just how small could this world get? Everybodys she knew ended up knowing each other…this was just too weird. "How do you know him?" she demanded.

Naruto grimaced. "He's my rival."

Tenten choked. "Ah, well…maybe I might have exaggerated a little when I said that he was Sakura's boyfriend…"

"I don't think so," said Naruto, his teeth gritted. "Sasuke-teme always gets whatever he wants, all easy. He's not getting my Sakura-chan too. See you, Tenten-chan. I've got some work to do." And he stormed off into the crowd. Tenten stood there, letting the crowd jostle her.

Oh. My. God. Noooooo…

O0O

Tenten called the Hyuuga Compound from a pay phone, and after that, dragged her feet as she walked over.

Hanabi answered the door this time, her wide white eyes seeming innocent and yet dark at the same time. Tenten followed her once again through the winding mazes of hallways and such, trying to memorize the way by herself.

"Hello?" she called softly into the room after Hanabi had left.

"Hn."

She walked in and sat on the same couch as on the other day. Neji didn't look much different, though his white shirt and black pants were different from the other days. He had changed his clothes. She smiled slightly at him, and he stared back at her, not really moving at all. She wished she could stare like that.

"So…how are you?" she said meekly. The words didn't really seem like the right ones. "How are you" could mean, "are you mentally stable today" in this kind of situation. Neji raised an eyebrow.

"You believe that I am insane," he stated without a hint of awkwardness.

"No, not exactly," said Tenten quickly.

"Do not lie. You believe that I am strange. You are uncomfortable being in the same room as I am." He turned back to the window, which was still blinded just like yesterday. His white eyes were narrowed, suppressing some inner fury, though his voice was cool.

"The head family put this on me," he growled.

"The…head family?"

"My uncle Hiashi, and his daughters," he said, his tone betraying some bitterness.

"Oh," said Tenten, curious but not wanting to pry. "You mean Hinata and Hanabi? Did Hinata come by again today?" She wasn't really sure why she was even asking. Perhaps just to make conversation. Or because she was interested in the timid girl from yesterday. In a way, she reminded Tenten of her weaker inner self.

Neji abruptly stood. "Do not speak to me about Hinata."

Tenten was surprised, and she stood too, not liking being shorter than Neji. "Why? I thought that you guys were cousins. She seemed pretty nice." Or just overly polite.

"You would not say so if you were forced to marry her," Neji spat.

Woah, wait. Marry?!

What she did say was, "Well, I certainly wouldn't be happy to marry Hinata, because unlike you, I'm a girl." She paused. "I'm also not completely sure whether you're not a girl, but anyways." Another pause. "Isn't she your cousin?"

"Yes. Hiashi wishes for a pure blood line," Neji's face was cold again.

Tenten didn't really have anything to say to that. She hadn't ever met anybody with an arranged marriage before. The Hyuuga household was unlike anything that she had ever seen in her life. It seemed to still be living in some ancient era, instead of in the modern world. She scuffed her toe on the ground.

"Can't you get out of it?" she finally asked.

Neji glared at her, and sat back down. Tenten sat too. "I cannot. I would not dishonor the Hyuuga clan, even if it be the head family."

"But…won't you be sad?" Tenten asked, knowing that it would probably make little difference to Hyuuga Neji whom he married. "Wouldn't Hinata be sad?"

"That does not matter," Neji said stiffly.

"Why? Isn't happiness the most important thing for all marriages?" Tenten winced. She shouldn't talk about that. Her parents had hardly been very happy together.

"My own father…" Neji stopped himself and shook his head. "It is nothing."

Tenten was rather sure that it wasn't "nothing", but she didn't prod. She nodded. She hadn't even realized that she had been talking to Neji about all the things that bothered him, (he would never admit that these things bothered him, but Tenten could tell. She could always tell when people were bothered). She was doing her job, and he probably thought she was only asking him these questions because she was being paid. Not because she actually cared.

Did she care? Tenten barely knew Neji. But she couldn't stand the idea of marrying somebody without some type of love there. Neji obviously detested Hinata. Hinata was afraid of Neji. Wasn't there something that she could do about this? It didn't really matter how well she knew them. She was saddened by this whole thing. And they were cousins, for heaven's sake…

And when Hiashi came to get her that night, she looked at him with a whole new perspective. What kind of man could force his own daughter to marry her cousin which she did not love?

O0O

A/N: Okay, I thought it would be interesting to approach the whole Hinata-marries-Neji thing in a modern perspective. In the ninja-Naruto world, it might not have seemed so unusual, but right now, it would have been something that people thought was not right…right?