A/N: I'm not really sure exactly where I'm going to end this story: I'm never really sure. I just kind of…write myself out. And then, once the story kind of concludes itself, I just…stop. I'm not really a fan of sequels, and they always turn out sucky whenever I try to write them, (most sequels are suckish).

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Day 13

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Sakura nudged Tenten. Tenten ignored her.

"You want to make yourself useful?" Sakura drawled. Tenten glared at her. Hinata promptly pretended that she did not know them, and hastily made an excuse about going to get punch. She, too, was quickly swallowed into the moving crowd.

"How?" Tenten snapped. "I'm not accustomed to pushing my nose into other people's business, unlike you." Sakura smirked.

"Touchy, aren't we? I thought that we had an agreement."

Tenten was about to retort, and closed her mouth, thinking better of it. "Alright, alright. Fine." Sakura smiled. "But I hate you. Have I mentioned that already?" Tenten added.

"I can read it in your face," Sakura shrugged, like it did not bother her at all. "Doesn't matter. It's trivial whether you like me or not, tonight, we're working towards a better cause." Tenten snorted at Sakura's innocent expression.

"Uh huh. Cut the crap, and we're in business," she said.

O0O

Tenten was feeling…silly.

Not clown-in-a-pinstripe-suit silly. Not I'm-sugar-high silly. She was feeling this-is-ridiculous-and-my-pride-is-being-thrown-into-a-sewage-system-with-turtles-in-it type of silly. Why? Well, if you had a look at her, the explanation would be pretty simple.

Tenten was hiding under a table.

Well, it was more like two tables: Temari had put two long rectangular wooden desks together to form the snack table, loaded down with punch and junk food. A long, pale pink 2-ply polyester tablecloth covered it all the way to the floor, so at least it shielded her from view. But for God's sake, Tenten was kneeling, all cramped up, under a table.

What had she done to deserve this?

Well, she'd been the one to agree to this, which made it that much worse. Oh, yeah, she was feeling another type of silly too: I-am-a-fool-that-has-been-cheated type of silly.

Honestly, she had no idea why she put up with this type of thing. Sakura might be intimidating, but she wasn't scary, (well. Maybe a little). So, somewhere deep, deepdown inside of Tenten, she must have wanted to help Ino. But that must have been so deep that if you sent a probe in there to find her soft spot for Ino, it might accidentally go through the other end of her.

She choked back the images of stomach surgery suddenly popping into her head, and pulled up the hem of the tablecloth a few millimeters off of the ground, every footstep near the table making her flinch. Her hands were shaking, even though she kept telling herself that she wouldn't get caught.

A few inches away from her was somebody wearing a pair of black pumas, though only one of the feet had an ankle sock visible. She assumed it was a guy. Next to him, though it was barely visible because she must have been on the other side, was some girl with dangerously-high red heels.

She tilted her head, and strained her eye to the other side. Two boys, both wearing high-top Converse, and a girl with flowery flip flops contrasting her cherry black toenails. At least…she hoped that it was a girl. Five witnesses by the punch table, she mentally wrote down.

It was hard to see straight ahead from her position, but she knew that it was just the dance floor. Ino and Shikamaru were no where to be seen, but Sakura would hopefully give her a signal if she spotted them.

Listening carefully through the loud beats of music thrumming through the floorboards, Tenten decided that nobody would notice if she crept out the other side of the table, so very silently, though she doubted that anybody could hear her, she slid out from under the tablecloth…

A hand, dry, scaly, and icy cold, grabbed her bare wrist. A feeling like dry lint and ice being slid down her back came over her, and cold sweat popped onto her forehead. The feeling, she subconsciously paired with a face: a face with pale eyes and long, brown hair.

Not here. Please, not here. He can't be here.

And, of course, it was him.

"Neji-kun," Tenten rasped weakly. "What are you doing here?" Why the Hell are you stalking me?!

Neji was actually a very comical sight, amidst all of the hooting teenagers, he stood perfectly erect with a cold, dignified expression on his features, his long brown hair extremely out of place. His clothes were plain as ever. "You forget that you were arranged to come and meet me at the Compound tonight. I inquired your landlady as to your whereabouts, and she informed me of where you were."

"My landlady?" Tenten echoed. She hadn't told her where she would be, but it was no surprise that she knew anyways. Keeping secrets was difficult around here.

Neji nodded.

"But…we never really made a schedule or anything," Tenten protested, yanking her wrist out of his grasp as she said it, and rubbing it furiously as if to make the lint sensation go away. Neji shrugged diplomatically, grunted, and folded his arms in front of his chest. Not much of an answer.

Tenten narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Are you stalking me?"

Neji raised his eyebrows. "Why would I wish to stalk you?"

"Well…I really don't know."

"Exactly." Neji paused, seeming to struggle with what to say, and then ended up with, "I was unsettled when you did not come."

"You were worried about me?" Tenten asked, surprised. Wow. Touching.

"Perhaps," Neji murmured vaguely. "Dark streets present many dangers. You always walk alone to my…home. It is not wise to do so after the sun is set. I thought that…maybe…with your luck, you had run into some sort of danger."

"Oh," Tenten muttered. "Well. You don't need to worry. I could probably whoop your ass at martial arts."

"I highly doubt that," Neji said complacently. "Now, what are you doing here when you should be with me?"

"I am with you," Tenten corrected, "But I wish I weren't."

Neji grunted. "Hn."

"Still, you shouldn't have just come to the party uninvited," Tenten chided. "It's bad manners. Once you found out from my landlady that I was safe, you really didn't have to actually check in on me."

"It is a habit," Neji said indifferently.

Tenten sighed. "Right. Want punch?" She resigned herself to the fact that he was actually there, standing in front of her, and that wishing he would just go away was not going to make it actually happen. She handed him a brimming cup of red stuff with ice floating in it. Neji took it, but did not drink.

"So…what do you want to do?" Tenten suggested hopefully, at the same time searching for Ino and Shikamaru out of the corner of her eye. She hoped she wasn't crossing her eyes by accident. Sakura should have managed to find them by now…

"I will find someplace quiet," Neji said thoughtfully, and without another word, melted into the crowd. Tenten sighed. Her life really did suck.

At that moment, she heard a familiar giggle behind her, and she whirled. Sakura was making faces at her, leading a bubbly Ino and a bored-looking Shikamaru towards the table. Tenten hurried to hide.

Sakura smiled at Ino, and flexed her fingers in anticipation. Before going to fetch the two friends, she had told Temari that the punch bowl was empty, (a total lie), and she should have gone to get more to refill it. She would be arriving at the table any minute now. Five witnesses.

Just as Shikamaru got Ino some punch and was about to hand it to her, Tenten reached out from under the table and tripped him, so that he stumbled into Ino. His arms went around her with the momentum of the fall, she reached out to catch him somewhat…they stumbled a few paces…and their lips accidentally met when Ino at last stumbled backwards into the wall. It looked quite romantic, though Ino was dripping with red punch. Everybody turned to stare…

And of course, Temari walked in on the scene just as planned.

Her eyes widened, and she dropped the 2-liter Hawaiian Punch bottle she was holding. The plastic exploded all over the floor and her feet.

"You…" she whispered. "Shika…?"

Shikamaru's eyes widened. "Temari…it's not what you think…!"

Ino looked a bit dazed, but she wasn't bothering trying to explain what had happened to Temari. She looked, instead, like the cat who had caught the fattest canary, still with her back to the wall and caged within Shikamaru's outstretched arms. Shikamaru hastily let her go when he realized that he was still holding her.

"You know what? Get out," Temari said softly.

"Temari…"

"Out."

"Please!"

"Get. Out. Nara Shikamaru, this is my house, and I will say who has the right to stay in it," Temari hissed, her eyes flashing, her finger pointing towards the door.

Resigned, Shikamaru dragged his feet, and his back soon vanished out of the door. All the guests were solemn, quiet and still while the pumping beats of the DJ still blasted through the room. Temari waved a hand at them, and they all, rather reluctantly, went back to dancing.

Ino's electric blue eyes met Temari's muddy hazel, the platinum blonde's eyes wide with surprise and now, a slight trace of guilt, Temari's livid with hatred.

"How long?" she demanded.

"Wha…no, he just ran into me just now," Ino said, the honesty in her voice transparent. Much as she still despised Temari, she wouldn't lie just to make her even more miserable than she was already.

"I'm not buying the crap," Temari snapped.

"It's the truth. If you don't believe me, then that's your choice," Ino said stiffly. And then she too walked out of the door.

Sakura and Tenten glanced at each other from opposite sides of the punch table.

Just then, Hinata and Neji made their way through the crowd, having run into each other. Hinata was looking rather stunned that her cousin was here; Neji was looking annoyed that Tenten had dragged Hinata along with her.

"Tenten, what is going on?" he demanded icily.

Tenten shook her head at Sakura. Hesitantly, she braced herself and took Neji's callused palm in hers and dragged him towards the door. "C'mon, Neji-kun. We don't want to get involved in this." She wanted to run and run and run and never have to see Temari's stunned, hurt face again. Everything had gone just as planned…but now regret burned deeply into her stomach. Now everybody was unhappy.

"Tenten…" Neji warned. She tightened her grip on his hand, though the texture still was creeping her out.

"You said I was due at the Compound tonight, right?" she said in a clipped voice. "Well then, let's go."

"Stop." She did, however much she didn't want to obey him. He took her wrist in his other hand and turned her around, his pale eyes serious.

"What is bothering you? You seem saddened by something."

Of course. She could tell Neji. Neji didn't judge people, at least not the normal way. He might even have an inkling of how guilty Tenten felt. She had never done anything remotely close to this in her life.

"We…we tried to make Ino happy and get her and Shikamaru together," she said. "So…we made it look like they were kissing and Temari walked in and Shikamaru and her broke up, so now Ino can get together with him." She bit her lip. She was explaining all of this to a guy like Neji. This was so weird.

"Anyway…it was stupid." She sighed. "Now everybody's depressed."

Neji eyed her distressed expression carefully. With horror, Tenten realized that her eyes were wet. She blinked rapidly several times, but that didn't stop the first tear from slithering its slow way down her cheek. She didn't think she had ever been more embarrassed in her life.

She made to wipe at her face with her other hand. Neji released her wrist, and she scrubbed at her face for a moment. She tried to smile at him, though it must have looked rather grotesque because her eyes were pink and puffy.

"Regret is torture," Neji said quietly, calmly. He didn't seem embarrassed that she was crying, not like most people would be. He didn't shy away from her.

"Yeah, I'll say," Tenten muttered.

He took her hand again when she was finished wiping her face, and held it palm up so that she could see the lines in her palm. "Do you see?" he asked matter-of-factly. She shook her head at him.

"Your hand has the power to do many things, many are good. Many are bad. But most are somewhere in between the two: things that will hold both regret and triumph, joy and all the sadness." He traced the spindly-thin lines that splashed across her palm, so gently that it tickled: as if he were a palm reader.

Finally, he looked up at her. Tenten was utterly lost at this point. Neji didn't seem like he belonged in this century. He didn't seem to fit in with skyscrapers or cars or just the people in this generation. He seemed like something out of the medieval times. She realized, with a pang, that this was what made her intrigued with him: he didn't think the same way that other people did. He was a release from her twentieth century troubles.

"Tenten, you are not a bad person," he said solemnly, with conviction. Tenten didn't for a moment consider that he was lying: he actually believed that she wasn't a brat, wasn't nasty, and was a good, selfless person. His paradigm of the world was so warped.

She had to laugh. "Yeah, right. I'm the ideal saint."

He didn't laugh, but his lips curved up slightly at the corners, and his index finger stroked the back of her hand, just once from the knuckle to the wrist bone, before he let go. "Yes. You are not like other people." He scrutinized her carefully for a moment, before starting to walk down the street. When she didn't follow him, he made a beckoning motion of his hand.

"Come. I will take you home."

Tenten had to smile at this. She wasn't looking forward to another long bike ride, and right now, she wasn't feeling very charitable towards Sakura. Sakura could bike.

"What about Hinata?" she inquired.

Neji paused. "It is alright. I will tell Hiashi-sama to pick her up later."

"Oh. Okay." And she followed him, golden pools of streetlamp lights spilling at their feet.

O0O

Neji's room was pitch dark when Tenten walked into it.

He walked in behind her, and he flipped the light switch that had eluded her. At night, his room seemed very different from the depressing afternoons that she had spent there. The light lit up the room in golden warmth, and his sofa actually seemed inviting. She flopped down into promptly, propping up her feet and sighing in relief.

"You seem at home here," Neji observed, raising his eyebrow.

"Oh. Sorry. Would you prefer me to sit?" Tenten said apologetically, taking his tone for sarcasm, and sitting up.

"No, it's alright. It is no matter to me what you do."

She believed him. Neji was a very distanced person. The little things that ordinary people worried about didn't seem to reach him as very important at all.

"So…what do you want to talk about?" she asked.

Neji shrugged. "Hn."

"Tell me about your family," Tenten suggested.

"They're dead," Neji replied flatly. Tenten was taken aback. They're all dead?

"Really?" It seemed like the wrong thing to say, but Neji nodded like he didn't really care, though she could see the flash of pain in his eyes. "Oh. I'm sorry."

"The pain is not so bad anymore," he replied.

"Do you miss them a lot?"

He paused. "I used to, when I was smaller. Now, I only grieve for my father." His eyes hardened. "If it were not for Hiashi-sama, he would be here and not in the ground."

"How is it Hiashi-san's fault?" Tenten asked, surprised. "Wasn't your father his brother, since you're his nephew?"

"Yes. They were twins, in fact," Neji said bitterly. "I do not wish to discuss it."

"Fine," Tenten said. After all, it was his dead father.

They sat in the same awkward silence as they had in the first few times that Tenten had visited. She curled and uncurled her toes a few times. Neji sat, staring out of the blindfolded window, through which an almost-full moon was visible, shining brilliantly grey-silver in the middle of an ebony-black sky.

"Neji-kun, why is your hair so long?" Tenten blurted out of nowhere, after staring at his hair for five very long minutes, (there really was nothing else to do).

Neji turned to look at her, his eyebrows raised. "No particular reason."

"Why don't you cut it, then? Isn't it a bother?"

Neji shrugged. "It is comfortable like this. I have kept it long since I was very small. It would be odd for it to be cut." He eyed her. "How long is your hair?"

Tenten realized that he must have never seen her with her hair down before. Smiling slightly, she undid her buns and let her mouse brown hair fall. It reached just a tad past her shoulders, curving out on top from being in the buns so long. She shook it out in slight annoyance, until it looked like it was supposed to: straight and shiny.

"That answer your question?" she said.

"Hn." Neji stared at her for a moment, before turning back to watching the moon.

After an hour had elapsed, once again with Tenten really doing nothing but picking at the seams of the couch, she stood. "Better get going."

At first, it appeared that Neji had either not heard her, or was choosing to ignore her. He sat, stiff as ever, his pale eyes smaller images of the full moon. She shrugged and walked towards the door. She didn't hear Neji stand, but he must have, for he was suddenly beside her at the doorway. She flinched.

"I will walk you home," he said quietly and with assertion.

And Tenten had to smile.

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A/N: Hope you liked it! Sorry about the long update…school kind of got in the way…