A/N: Wow, school is so awesome!! (Yes, I'm nerdy like that…I actually ENJOY school…-gasp-). Language arts is KILLING ME SLOWLY but the rest of my subjects are pretty cool, especially drawing and music and PE, (I rarely like PE, as I have about as much hand eye coordination as a cow, but this is an exception.)

Anyway, enough babbling. Here's the chapter.

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Day 14

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Tenten awoke slowly and unwillingly the next morning.

It was a bit like the famed hangover: you spent the night high as a kite, and then you woke up with a headache that could kill the grim reaper.

Except Tenten had no headache: she had more of a stomach-heart ache combo. It wasn't the type you could take Tylenol for. Grimly, she staggered into the bathroom and changed in a trance, accidentally poking herself in the gum with her toothbrush when she started to rinse.

Sakura didn't speak a word, as she was next to get up. She acted as if Tenten were not there. The only sign she made that she knew Tenten was a person and not a ghost, was to ask very quietly for the toothpaste.

The meek Sakura scared Tenten even more. Sakura just didn't do meek.

Hinata was quiet too when she woke up a few minutes later, (they heard her stretching and yawning), but that wasn't anything unusual. The raven-haired girl stared solemnly at them with her big opal eyes, almost like the almost-lonely stare of a basset hound, (the fact that her eyelids were drooping added to this factor).

"T-Tenten-san…" she yawned, "…don't you t-think you should apologize t-to Ino-san? She's really-"

"Yeah, I will," Tenten said absently, patting Hinata's shoulder absently as she went out of the bathroom. She glanced over at Ino's bunk: the blankets were pulled over all the way, so that no human skin was shone. She sighed, and pulled on the Nikes.

"I'm going for a jog," she called. Nobody bothered to answer.

In the silence, the creak of the door opening was deafening.

O0O

She soon tired herself out.

Tenten wasn't much of an aerobic exercise enthusiast. In everyday language, this meant that even though she probably should have been keeping herself in shape by doing more jogging and less skateboarding, especially since she did martial arts…she usually just slacked off and ate popcorn while watching TV and her mother scolded her to deaf ears.

She collapsed lazily onto a chipped-green painted park bench facing a street close to the freeway, sweat plastering tendrils of her brown hair to her forehead, the soles of her feet squelching uncomfortably in her sneaks even through the socks in pools of her own sweat, (she winced at this mental image), harsh pants escaping through her nose and every wheeze feeling like iron wool was scraping against her lungs.

Soon, the rapid pounding of her heart slowed slightly, and she sighed gratefully as the cool morning air started to take an effect on her sweaty body. She squinted up at the rising sun: it was well past 10 now, at least, she decided. The early morning work rush was long gone, and the air was definitely warmer than it had been when she had started to run.

Getting up and testing her legs, which were red-looking from all the blood that had rushed into them, she glanced around her casually. A couple of passing people smiled nonchalantly at her, not a care in the world, and she returned an equally pointlessly grin, massaging her tired shins, mopping her hair out of her face.

Bored, and on sudden inspiration, she checked the name of the street, and decided to go and visit the Hyuuga compound. It wasn't far from this street: a left turn and two blocks plus another right turn, and then three blocks, if she remembered correctly. She sighed, and picked up her pace to a comfortable jog again.

Hyuuga Hiashi looked rather surprised to see her on his doorstep so early, particularly in such a sweaty state. He eyed her almost balefully, his expression emphasized by the harsh lines of his aging face and the wide pale eyes, which never failed to express any type of emotion, but hid them even better. She merely smiled vaguely up at him.

"Er, I'm sorry to intrude," she began without a hint of regret in her voice, "But I thought that it might be alright for me to visit Neji-kun?"

Hiashi sighed, resigning himself to the fact that she was actually here, and let her inside with an air not unlike one of a father eyeing his daughter's first boyfriend on his doorstep on prom night.

Hanabi didn't seem irked to see Tenten. Instead, her pale, small features brightened where they had been dull a moment before. She grinned widely, a cap sewn with coca cola bottle caps perched on her head at a jaunty, kid-like angle. "Tenten!"

Tenten was surprised by this warm welcome. Hanabi had always seemed like the sullen, sarcastic type to her, albeit in a likeable way. The bottlecap collecting habit, ever present, made her even odder, but at the same time, more likeable. Hesitantly, she grinned back, unsure of herself, and allowed the younger girl to lead her to Neji's room, though she already knew the way.

Tenten couldn't help but notice how much Hinata and Hanabi resembled each other: much like the rays of the sun and the sparks of fireworks. She smiled. How fitting. Hanabi's brilliance, imbedded into her skill with martial arts and the bottlecap collection, was out there for everybody to see: colorful and boastful, just like her namesake the fireworks. Hinata was quieter, and her light was harder to see: next to Hanabi, she seemed colorless, much like how you could never quite stare at the sun.

After a moment of this train of thought, Tenten was surprised at herself for being so philosophical. It wasn't like her: she had always had her head firmly down on earth instead of up in the clouds, as Hinata sometimes seemed. Perhaps the raven-haired girl was rubbing off on her.

For once, Neji was not actually in his room when Tenten arrived. Hanabi poked her head in, and then withdrew it, shrugging in the way that only young children can. "Hm. That's weird. Go on in…I'll see if I can find him for you," she offered helpfully.

After a muttered thanks, Tenten sat herself down on the now familiar couch, picking at a piece of lint. Neji's room without him seemed strangely incomplete: she had grown accustomed to seeing him across from her in that stiff-backed chair. She had, at one point, contemplated the idea that he might have been glued to that chair.

It didn't take long for Hanabi to return. Neji was in tow, scowling. He glared at Tenten, rather balefully, not unlike Hiashi. Tenten smiled at this resemblance. Hanabi rolled her eyes at Neji, though only Tenten could see, and mouthed "good luck" to her, vanishing out of the doorway.

"What do you want?" Neji growled.

"Did I interrupt something?" Tenten asked, surprised at the truly angry note in his tone.

"Yes," Neji said stiffly. "I was in the middle of my morning training."

"You train every morning?" Tenten asked, surprised. "Sorry."

Neji sighed. "I suppose it will have to be alright, now that you are already here. It seems that Fate is in a punishing mood for me today."

Tenten was about to laugh at this statement, and then uncertainly stopped herself, realizing that she wasn't quite sure if he was actually joking or not. Neji raised an intrigued eyebrow at her. "Tenten, why are you here?"

She shrugged. "I…guess I needed somebody to talk to."

An odd glint worked itself into Neji's pale eyes, almost as if he were….amused. Tenten stared at him, bemused. Neji's lips twitched. "I was under the impression that you were coming here only because you were being paid to talk with me, the insane Hyuuga."

Tenten laughed lightly. "Well, that's changed. You're not as bad as you would lead people to believe."

"Hn," Neji shrugged. "I dislike loud company."

"So you don't like me," Tenten said.

Neji raised his eyebrow. "Well, I mean, I'm loud," Tenten said to clarify.

"No, you are very different," he said slowly, as if tasting the words as they came out of his mouth, trying them on his tongue. "In fact, you are so different from all the other people that I have met, that I might compare you to myself." He waited for her reaction, staring at her with wide, serious white eyes.

Tenten laughed again. She found it easier and easier to let herself be amused by him, even when he wasn't trying to be funny.

"Great. So I'm a freak," she summed up. Neji growled in frustration while she laughed again.

"You have the oddest way of contemplating what others say," he finally said, after she had finally gotten the mirth under control.

"Do I?" Tenten asked, confused. "I didn't think so. Compared with you, anyways. You're so cynical."

"Cynical…?"

She snorted. "Oh, come on, you've never gotten that one before?"

Neji's eyes were glinting chips of ice. "Nobody has ever dared…but you are not everybody else, as I am learning."

"Nope," Tenten said airily. She had already come across the conclusion that Neji was not somebody that most people usually crossed, but in her opinion, a little argument and defiance would be good for his blown up ego.

"You are impertinent," he noted coldly. Tenten smiled a very fake smile showing all of her teeth. "You are also very unladylike," Neji noted even more icily.

"Like I care," Tenten laughed. "Ladylike is the last thing I've ever aspired to be. Now, if you tried telling Ino that, she'd probably slap you."

"Ino…?"

"The blonde one." Tenten sobered up immediately, memories of the night before swimming slowly into her head.

"Ah." He didn't say any more, as if he understood the personally torment that she was undergoing.

"You know what? I think I have to go," Tenten said quietly, standing up, and dusting herself off when there was nothing to clean, (Neji's room, as always, was spotless). Neji stood also, for once instead of ignoring her, and nodded briefly.

"Yes. Perhaps that is best."

She walked out of the door without another word.

O0O

"Look, Ino…I'm really, really sorry about what happened last night."

Those were the first words that Tenten blurted out of her mouth as soon as she pushed the door open to the dorm, and in the back of her head, a small voice said that it sounded almost like some kind of lover's line fro ma cheesy old romance movie. She shook that feeling off.

"Go away," Ino moaned from beneath the covers.

Tenten strode over and tore the blankets off. Ino's eyes were bloodshot, the eyelids rimmed with red, when she glared furiously up at Tenten. "Leave me alone, jerk. Haven't you done enough?"

"Give it a rest," Sakura called. She was no where in sight. Tenten realized after a moment that she was crouched behind her bed, rifling through her duffel. "She's not talking to anybody right now." This fact didn't seem to bother her at all, and she plugged in her iPod seemingly without a care in the world. Tenten envied her so much that it made her ache on the inside.

"Look, Ino," she repeated again, even though Ino had pulled the blankets back over her head when Tenten had turned to look for Sakura. "I know what I…we," she glanced pointedly over in Sakura's direction, and the pink-haired girl promptly ignored her, "…did was wrong, but you have to understand that we were only trying to help you."

"Help?" Ino sat up so fast that she nearly did a head-slam with Tenten. "Are you kidding me? Now Shika hates me, and worse, Temari's pissed and she's probably out for vengeance! How, exactly, does this help? So I got my kiss: what good does that do when Shika didn't even want to kiss me in the first place?"

Tenten sighed. "I said I was sorry already, right?"

"But that doesn't make anything better! Or make it any less your fault that everything is ruined!" Ino screeched so loud that Tenten winced and took a step back so that the bed took her knees out from under her and she sat down on her bunk. Vaguely, she realized that the four of them were lounging around in each other's beds a lot more often without squabbling.

"But we can make it better," Tenten said quietly.

"How?" Ino demanded. "I'm listening."

"Okay, so this is totally Sakura's and my fault," Tenten began. Sakura made a sound of protest, which she promptly ignored. "So, we're going to fix it."

The words were coming out of her mouth as if she had memorized a speech beforehand, and Tenten honestly did not know if it was herself speaking anymore. It sounded like somebody else, but at least Ino was staring at her avidly, wanting a solution so badly that it was almost tangible in the air.

"Now, if we all work together…"

O0O

"…we can totally fix this."

Once again, the four of them found themselves sitting on the floor at night, in a circle, huddled together in a mass of comforting blankets around a single beam of bright light from the lonely-looking flashlight sitting in the middle of their group.

Hinata looked positively spirit-like in the glow of the light. Her pale eyes seemed to be sunken deep into her drawn, pale features, the black hair only adding to her ghostly appearance. A splash of light, almost like a glowing scar, stretched from her jaw to the corner of her right eye.

"You know what…" Ino murmured. She smiled cockily, seemingly starting to get over her depression phase, "…while we're fixing my love life…why not everybody else's too?"

"What do you mean?" Sakura said, even though her tone implied she knew exactly what Ino was edging at.

"I mean," Ino said eagerly, "Let's get the Uchiha baby back with Sakura, and let's get blockhead Naruto to realize that he's not after Sakura, and that he is actually madly in love with Hinata."

"Ino-san!" Hinata protested, her face flushing up to the hairline. "I c-couldn't possibly do something l-like that."

Tenten raised her eyebrows. "No thanks, Ino. Schemes are the reason that we've landed ourselves in this position."

"Yes, but these ones won't go wrong," Ino insisted. She eyed Tenten. "Isn't there anybody you'd like to hook up with?"

"Hell no," Tenten said firmly.

Sakura glared vehemently at Ino. "And I do remember saying that I have no interest in Uchiha Sasuke."

Ino brushed that off quickly.

"You know, we're stuck here for an entire summer," she reminded them. "We've got to have something to amuse ourselves with." Sakura popped something into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully.

"What's that, jelly beans?" Ino demanded.

Sakura laughed. "Well, the brand is 'magic beans' and I bought them at the CVS down the street. You want some?" She tossed a few brightly colored chewy beans into Ino hand, and as a second thought, handed Tenten and Hinata both a few too. "I used to eat these all the time as a kid."

"Wow, no wonder your teeth are so yellow," Ino commented dryly.

Sakura ignored her easily.

"So…are you guys in?" Ino prodded.

Tenten sat there, staying silent like the rest of them. Images of teepeed trees and screaming girls and candlelit dinners flashed through her mind like a slideshow: Hinata would be so happy if Naruto loved her. And Sakura…and she could fix the problems with Ino. For a moment, the image of her three comrades laughing with the guys, sitting in some expensive restaurant downtown while Tenten sat outside in the chill, shivering and lonely, ran through her head, but she quickly pushed it away. Tenten was going to remain single, and that was that.

"Don't hold me to my word about this, but I think I'll give it a try," Tenten said slowly. "But if I want out, then I get out." Ino turned to Sakura. The pink-haired girl shrugged.

"Sounds fun."

Hinata glanced anxiously around at all of them. "Oh, come on, you know you want to," Sakura taunted. Hinata gave an almost inaudible sigh, and then, twiddling her fingers, murmured her assent. Ino smiled.

"Great. I've got just the thing we can do tomorrow morning."

O0O

Tenten, in a small part of her mind, knew that she was dreaming.

A voice, deep and echoing, scaring her and making her heart pound fast…but at the same time, strangely pleasant and comforting.

'Tenten, you are not like other people.'

She frowned, and turned over, willing herself to wake up.

She was surrounded by red, and if she looked closely, she could see brush strokes all around…like a giant painting. Her fingers touched the paint, and it, which had been dry a moment before, dripped sickeningly over her fingers.

'I want to wake up,' she thought to herself, and squeezed her eyes shut tight.

The Tenten in the real world, who was still soundly asleep, tossed, and then kicked up her blankets, which landed with a dull thunk at the bottom of the bed.

Somebody was behind her. Arms, too strong for her to break free from, like the iron bars of a prison, surrounded her…one bound her around the waist, the other stifled her scream. A wisp of long, brown hair…a flash of two blindingly white eyes…callused, dry hands.

Tenten lurched upright and hit her head on the top of the bunk, breathing hard. She winced, and rubbed the top of her head.

Neji-kun.

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A/N: Okay, please tell me what you think!