A/N: Thank you for the reviews! I'm glad that you're giving your honest opinions, (at least, I hope you are…). The thing with fanfiction is, to make it more "juicy", writers rarely put things that would happen in real life when it comes to romance. I'm being a hypocrite, because I do that way too much for my own liking. I mean, I love fluff, but little to none of it would EVER be likely to happen in real life. So I'm striving to make this as realistic as possible. Really. I am.

I'm sorry if Neji seems like he's kind of just floating around out there. Please be patient, and I promise that you'll be seeing more of him soon. (He should have reason to hide. After all, he's traumatized, lol).

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Day 8

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Tenten thought that she needed a break.

She was a bit on the lazy side normally, but once she set her mind to something, she was a hard worker. She always went the extra mile to make everything she attempted perfect. It was either all-fail or perfect success for her. As Yoda had once said, "do or do not, there is no try".

But she seriously needed a break! Or she was going to snap. Her mind wasn't all that resilient. She wasn't like Naruto or Lee, who both tended to be such cheerfully unaffected people that nothing really bothered them in the first place. She wondered why some of that hadn't rubbed off on her.

She sighed, and knocked on the door to the Hyuuga Compound once again. Yumi was going to decide to give Tenten a break the day that Hell froze over, so she braced herself for the coming hour of boredom, awkwardness, and other such unpleasant things.

Hanabi answered the door again, and didn't bother to show her the way. She left Tenten to bump into several walls, get lost a few times, and start going the wrong way for a while before she finally came to Neji's door. It seemed like it was different from last time, until she realized that she was just standing at a different angle. Tenten had never really been that great with directions.

"Hey," she said, trying to sound friendly as possible as she pulled off the slippers and curled up barefoot on the couch, hugging her knees. Neji raised his eyebrows at this new show of comfort. The past times she had come, Tenten had always sat with a stiff back, her hands in her lap and her eyes staring straight at him. Now, her body sagged into the couch, and her eyes roamed his room.

"Hello," he said. He, too, slouched deeper into the chair, to Tenten's surprise. She hadn't realized that he had been sitting so stiffly that he looked like he was a statue. It had seemed like a part of Neji's disjointed personality to sit like that. Now he looked so much more human, actually sitting back in his chair. He eyed her expression with slight amusement, as if he had guessed what she was thinking.

"Would you prefer to actually talk about something?" he suggested as if this were a novel idea. Tenten laughed slightly, and her toes wiggled.

"Sounds good to me. You didn't seem like a talkative person, Neji-kun." His name still felt a bit awkward on her tongue, and she made the "kun" part sound like she had said a "g" instead of a "k". She shrugged it off.

"Excessive talking is unnecessary," Neji said.

"Excessive, sure, but you don't talk at all," Tenten reprimanded. "You should get out of this place more often. Nice as it is, you really need a life. No offense, or anything," she said all in a rush. It was only the truth.

Neji didn't seem offended in the least. She hadn't been expecting him to be. He didn't seem like the sort of person who got offended easily. Her awkwardness was naturally returning to her, so she put her feet back down on the ground. The show of comfort had only worked when she was riding in on the wave of anxiety at the doorway.

"I go outside on occasion."

"Yeah, but not nearly enough." She did not know this fact for sure, but judging by how pale his skin was, she thought it was a pretty accurate guess. The time she had accidentally bumped into him on the street, he must have been on an errand with Hiashi and Hanabi.

"How much is 'enough', by your standards, Tenten?"

Wow. He actually remembered her name. She smiled slightly.

"Everyday, at least for an hour. Don't you like the outdoors? It's nicer outside than it is in here." Biased? Tenten? Nah.

"I have work to do," Neji said, one eyebrow raised, though his lips were slightly twitching at one end at Tenten. It was a funny expression. Tenten found that though his smile was strange, she liked seeing it there, (or at least almost there). It suited him better than the cold mask he was usually wearing when she came.

"Work? You can't be much older than I am!" she said.

"I do have work," Neji repeated slowly. He narrowed his eyes at her. "How old are you really? You seem incredibly childish."

"I'm fifteen, I'll have you know," she growled. "I'm also fully trained in martial arts, so I've got mad moves and I will use them on you if you don't watch what you say to me."

"You see? Your temper is horrible."

"Do you like your nose? Because if you want to keep it, I suggest you shut up."

"You are proving my point."

"I'm going to count to three."

"Tenten, please. You were being honest with what you thought of me. I told you honestly what I thought of you. Handle it maturely, if you will."

"Three."

"Tenten."

"Two."

Neji clamped his mouth shut, and his face turned back into the indifferent cold mask. He turned his head to gaze out of the blindfolded windows once again. Tenten took a deep breath, and decided to hug her knees on the couch again. It was rather comfortable.

They sat like that for what seemed like forever, though Tenten was just starting to get used to the large spaces of silence. The watch on her wrist said that she still had forty-five minutes to go, however. She sighed loudly.

"If I say that I'm sorry, will you talk to me?" she suggested almost hopefully.

"I do not wish to talk to you," he said coldly.

"Now who's being babyish? I'm sorry, if that makes you feel better. I'm being paid to talk to you, so, well, if you don't mind, we have to actually talk. I hate all this no-noise time. It sucks."

"You dislike silence?"

"Don't you?"

"I find it…relaxing."

Weirdo, she thought. This is why you're in therapy. Neji's expression seemed to change slightly as he processed all of her words. Tenten didn't realize what she had said wrong until he said it himself.

"You are only talking to me because you are being paid," he said slowly.

It sounded pretty bad when he put it that way, (though she herself had just put it that way a minute ago, but it sounded worse when he said it), but wasn't that why he didn't like her the first few times she came? Why was he being all mad about it now?

"Well, yeah. You think I'm just coming because I enjoy this?" she said incredulously.

"No." He sounded like he was lying, though. "I know that woman Yumi sent you. She must be paying you. I already knew this. It does not bother me."

"It doesn't? Then why are you mad?" she asked, confused.

"I am not angry. I just was under the impression that you enjoyed coming here as well."

Tenten paused. Where the Hell had he gotten that idea?! When had she, at any point during her visits, implied that she enjoyed coming to the Hyuuga Compound? Heck, she and Neji had hardly exchanged two words with each other!

"Not…exactly. You didn't exactly, well, talk to me, did you?" said Tenten, trying to say the right thing. She did, apparently, or at least somewhat, because Neji was looking at her like a normal person would again.

"Talking would make it more enjoyable for you?"

"Very, very much so."

"Then we will talk."

"Why were you so mean to me when I came the first few times?"

"None of the other 'doctors' are kind. They are simpering, overprotective. But not kind."

"So you thought I was going to be like that too?"

"I had no reason to believe that you would be any different."

Tenten stared at him. Neji was really different from anybody she had ever met before. Well, besides having silkier, fuller hair than any girl, even Ino. He seemed like he was a 30-year-old man instead of a teenager. He was a teenager, right? What if he really was thirty, and he was going to suddenly go insane on her, and tie her up while cackling maniacally? She waved away this mental image with a hint of amusement. She really needed to kill her imagination.

"Neji-kun, just how old are you?" she asked curiously, almost dreading the awaited answer. Neji looked almost ready to smile at this question, but he didn't laugh at her as Naruto probably would have.

"Fifteen."

"Oh. Oh, okay." She deflated in relief.

"It matters to you?"

"Oh, it's nothing," she said hastily. "Anything in particular that you want to talk about?"

"No."

"Maybe…you interested in any girls?"

"…"

"Okay, wrong topic. What about Hinata? Have you decided what you're going to tell your Uncle Hiashi about making you guys get hitched? I mean, you've got to put your foot down! I sound like I'm nosy and butting into your business, and bossy too, and all, but still, this is too much if you don't even want to do it!"

"Hn."

"I give you my speech, and that's all you've got to say? 'Hn'?!"

"You say it with more of a throaty sound. It is close to a grunt, but you must make it sound dignified. You do this by sucking in your collar bone slightly, and pushing out your throat."

She stared at him baldly as he calmly explained to her how to grunt. This was just too creepy. She felt like the more she talked with this guy, the more she understood just how…disturbing he was.

"Um. Okay."

"I will not talk to Hiashi about Hinata."

Tenten stared at him more fiercely this time, indignant on both Hinata and his behalf. It was an insult to their pride! What happened to good old-fashioned love?! This world was so jacked up. He stared unnervingly back at her, not like normal people would do. A normal person would get embarrassed and look away. He just kept staring until Tenten had to look down at her bare toes.

"It is for the sake of the Hyuuga clan, and I live for the protection of the main family." He said this through his teeth, like he hated it. Tenten almost flinched back at the venom in his tone.

"I will not betray the wishes of Hiashi-sama. For him, my father…" He trailed off, and glanced at Tenten.

"Your father what?" she said, suddenly realizing that she had seen Hanabi, Hinata, and Hiashi…but never a trace of Neji's own family. Where were his parents? His siblings? Maybe even pets.

"It is nothing."

"It's not nothing if you say it is."

"Do not ask me more of it."

She squinted at him with one eye. "Listen, man, I'm your psychologist right now, and you have to tell me whatever I ask you to. It's psychoanalysis."

This time his lips did pull up slightly into a half-hearted smile. "Yes, I am sure that you have all the necessary degrees."

She chuckled a little at that one. Before she knew it, Hiashi was announcing that it was time to go, and she was almost reluctant to leave Hyuuga Neji's oppressing, gloomy bedroom.

Seriously, Tenten thought, what's wrong with me?

O0O

"TENTEN!"

Sakura was fuming, her face completely red, when Tenten walked into the dorm after her visit to Neji's. She very nearly grabbed Tenten by the throat to strangle her, if Ino and Hinata hadn't grabbed her arms. Hinata looked on the verge of tears. Her face was panicked, and all the blood was drained.

Tenten wondered what could possibly have happened.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!" Sakura yelled so loudly that a moment later, the owner called up for them to "please quiet down". Sakura told them to go do something very rude.

"IF YOU HADN'T TOLD NARUTO THAT…THAT…" she sputtered like she had rabies, and stopped struggling. Ino cautiously released her arm, and Hinata followed her lead. Tenten looked back and forth between them all, alarmed and confused.

"What happened?"

"What happened is that you told NARUTO of all people that UCHIHA SASUKE was my boyfriend," Sakura fumed at her. "Do you KNOW where they are right now? DO YOU?!" She looked on the verge of trying to strangle Tenten again.

"…No. Where?"

"They're about to have a FISTFIGHT. Well. Naruto challenged Sasuke. Whoever wins gets…me." Sakura gulped down a wad of saliva, her face still beet red with fury. She wagged her finger at Tenten in a way that reminded Tenten of Aki.

"I thought I made it very clear, Uchiha Sasuke is not my boyfriend. He never was, never will be. And NARUTO, of all people…do you KNOW how far back he and Sasuke go? They've been rivals, bordering on enemies, since practically preschool! I would know." She exhaled and inhaled deeply.

"And now…" she shook her head. "Now he thinks Sasuke's my boyfriend, and Sasuke's going to beat up Naruto. He always wins. Much as he can be annoying, I don't want to see Naruto hurt. Sasuke…isn't like a normal person when it comes to fighting. He won't settle for a black eye. You haven't seen him in a real brawl before—it's like he's some sort of demon. He'll reduce anything alive into a bloody pulp. " Sakura shivered.

"Okay, I can explain," said Tenten hurriedly. "Naruto has a crush on you, Sakura, so I told him that Sasuke was your boyfriend just so that he would leave you alone. I had honestly no clue at all that Naruto actually KNEW who Sasuke was. If they're in a fight right now, then I wouldn't worry too much. Naruto's tougher than you may think. We just have to get there as soon as possible to stop them."

Sakura nodded curtly and got up.

"By the way, how do you know about all of this, anyways?" Tenten inquired.

"Rock Lee came by to see her today," Ino said, a hint of amusement in her voice. "He said that Naruto went off to fight somebody because of Sakura. And he said that Tenten had told Naruto that Sasuke was Sakura's boyfriend." She talked so fast that it was hard to process the information.

"…Lee?" said Tenten weakly as they hurried down the steps.

"Yeah. Shocker, huh?" Ino chuckled.

"Just out of curiosity…why aren't you there stopping them?" Tenten asked Sakura, getting ready to duck in case Sakura took a punch at her head. Sakura gave Tenten a squinty look, and picked up her pace a little.

"Hell, I am NOT stupid enough to try and stop Sasuke and Naruto. I'd get killed too, and then what? I need some backup for this."

Tenten couldn't really think of anything much scarier than Sakura in a bad mood. This must be really bad.

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A/N: Okay, another chapter. Tis interesting! And I'm now obsessed with the song "Hey There Delliah" (did I spell that right?), which is thanks to FallingMoon lol.