A/N: Top'o'the mornin' to ya!!

Er. That's….weird. –shakes head- Ignore that.

Anyways, thanks for the reviews! I have a tendency to prefer minor pairings rather than the "main item", if you will. As it is, my favorite pairings are actually Gaara and Matsuri, as well as Suigetsu and Karin, and they're not even IN this fiction, xD. I also have a soft spot for SasuSaku, as you people probably realized. NaruHina was my original, first pairing shipping of Naruto, so I still love that. And NejiTen is just plain…awesome. And it's a minor pairing, so obviously, I love it, xD.

Well, if my rambling bores you, then please just skip right ahead to the chapter. (And if Tenten's dreams don't make sense….don't worry too much about it. They're not supposed to make sense. Well. They're supposed to make sense but in a not-making-sense sort of way. –is pummeled to death by pitchforks by angry, confused reviewers-)

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Day 15

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Summer is known as the "hot" season.

Well, I suppose if you live in Australia, then it would be the "cold" season. But for the general gist of it, summer equals hot.

So why did Tenten wake up drenched in cold sweat every morning?

She knew perfectly well; living in a room with Ino was going to make her age fifty years mentally every, single night. She wouldn't be surprised if she found a white hair sticking out of her scalp the next time she combed her hair, (the last time her tresses had come into contact with a comb had been some while back).

The feeling of sheets sticking to her arms and glued there by her own sweat made Tenten feel disgusted with herself. She was having nightmares about Hyuuga Neji. Granted, he was mental, but that didn't make it okay for her to be so freaked out by the idea of him that her subconscious decided to step in and make her dream about him as well!

She decided to open her eyes right then, blinked, and then blinked again, harder, in disbelief.

On the little tabletop by her, along with the alarm clock and the phone, were four rolls of toilet paper: the thick, soft kind that came in huge packages of 18 or more.

She blinked again, and realized that there was a neat row of toilet paper rolls stacked along the floor, too, in the shape of a pyramid with three levels: there had to be twenty more rolls at least. Dreading what she would see when she turned over to the other side, she rolled over and was faced with Sakura's impish looking expression, her face all innocent looking, her chin resting on Tenten's bed. Tenten flinched, very involuntarily.

"Ohayo," the pink-haired girl said cheerfully.

"What the Hell's going on?" Tenten replied in a, (at least she thought so), very calm voice.

Sakura's thin, pale pink lips twisted slightly into the smile of an angel, albeit one with pink hair.

"Oh, I'm not sure you'd want to know," she said slowly. Damn right, Tenten didn't want to know, but if Sakura didn't tell her right then, Tenten would happily wring that girl's stringy little neck!

Tenten grunted.

"Right," Sakura laughed mischievously. "I gotta give it to Ino…this is probably the best idea she's ever had in that empty blonde head of hers."

"I heard that!" a muffled voice called. Tenten assumed that Ino was in the bathroom.

Ignoring Sakura, she called over the cherry-haired girl's shoulder, "Hinata! What are they up to?"

The raven-haired girl peered blearily at Tenten as she sat up, scratching the top of her head slightly, and shrugged, yawning. "It's s-so early," she sighed. "W-What are you all d-doing up?"

"Well, I would have been sleeping in if pinkie hadn't destroyed my rest," Tenten grumbled. Sakura raised a thin, perfectly arching eyebrow. Tenten wished that her eyebrows looked like that.

"Sleeping? You were screaming," Sakura said, obviously relishing the expression of sudden horror that dawned on Tenten's facial expression. "Something about the Hyuuga." Her smirk grew wider, and Tenten had to admit that, while she believed Sakura's claims of not loving Sasuke, her smirk did look identical to his.

"N-Neji-nii-san?" Hinata said incredulously, kicking off her blankets, and coming to sit on Tenten's bed.

"Yeah…well…"Tenten said intelligently, mentally smacking herself.

"I'll bet you have fantasies of him every night," Sakura cooed, malice and glee leaking conspicuously into her tone. "I bet you think and daydream of your dear Neji-kun all the time-"

"Sakura-san," Hinata interrupted her gently. "I d-don't think that's the c-case."

Tenten sighed and smiled at Hinata gratefully. The tone that Sakura had been teasing her in…it resembled the way that Sasuke had teased her, or maybe ridiculed, mocked her…that first time she had shown up on his doorstep. They were so alike sometimes that it scared Tenten.

"Yeah, the day that I think of Hyuuga Neji as a romantic interest is the day that snowballs stay intact when they're in Hell."

Hinata smiled slightly. "Neji-nii-san isn't s-so bad once y-you get to know h-him a little better," she reasoned. "He used t-to be very k-kind to me when we w-were small."

"Used to be?" Sakura questioned. Hinata shrugged slightly, diplomatic to the last degree.

"P-People change," she murmured. "He's different n-now, after Uncle Hizashi…p-passed away."

Tenten furrowed her eyebrows. "Yeah, he mentioned that."

Hinata looked startled, even alarmed, like a deer in the headlights, when Tenten revealed this tidbit of information. "He d-did?" She said, her stuttering even worse than usual, ivory eyes huge. Tenten's eyebrows furrowed some more.

"Yes…" She could understand why Hinata might be uncomfortable about talking about how her own uncle had died, but her reaction seemed a bit strong, even for her.

"H-How much did h-he tell you?" she questioned faintly.

"Well…" Tenten didn't really want to say to Hinata that Neji blamed Hiashi for his own father's death. She shrugged. "…not much."

Perhaps Hinata saw something in Tenten's expression that she was hiding something, but Hinata was not the type of person who prodded, and so she kept quiet. Tenten glanced once more at the stacks of toilet paper, the perfect opportunity for a subject change.

"So, are you actually going to say what this is about?" Tenten gestured.

Sakura shrugged. "Well, it's more fun if I keep you in suspense, isn't it?" She let her lips twist into a feral grin. Sakura was one of those people with sharp canines, almost as if she had fangs. The effect was almost comical.

Just as Tenten opened her mouth to demand what the toilet paper rolls were for, Ino barged out of the bathroom, one hand waving a frothing toothbrush and the other the empty toothpaste tube, her blue eyes livid as she garbled around the bubbles in her mouth about wasting toothpaste.

Sakura rolled her eyes at Tenten, stood, and began to happily argue with Ino.

O0O

The day passed without much going awry: it was the usual catastrophic arguing between Sakura and Ino, the usual solemn quietness that shouldn't belong to a teenage girl living in the 21st century from Hinata. The usual very bored, very annoyed, very irked Tenten.

Shikamaru usually came by every few days to drop off flowers, or a card, or to tell Ino that her mother sent her love, or some other sweet, little trivial thing that always made Sakura smirk and Ino blush or be extra loudmouthed, (Tenten and Hinata hid in a corner and read books).

But, he didn't come by. And Tenten bitterly knew that she and Sakura were to blame.

However, Naruto and Lee did stop by, along with their buddies Kiba and Shino, (well, Kiba was a buddy, and Shino mainly just kind of looked creepy and followed them around as if to keep an eye on a few unruly boys). They quickly made themselves at home, though as usual, Shino didn't sit. He stood stiffly against the door, his mirrored sunglasses staring around at them all.

"'Sup?" Kiba grinned at Tenten, wolfishly. She rolled her eyes and plopped down next to them, Hinata coming timidly to join their circle. Sakura and Ino had gotten into a quarrel in the bathroom over something again. His eyes slid over to Hinata, his eyebrows raised.

"Who's she?"

"H-Hyuuga Hinata. Pleased t-to meet you!" She bowed hastily.

Kiba raised his eyebrows higher at Tenten. "Where'd you pick her up, eh?"

Tenten sighed and glared at Naruto. "Why'd you have to bring him along? His mouth is even bigger than yours is, and that is saying something indeed."

Naruto pouted. "Well, Inuzuka just had to come," he said, whining.

Tenten smiled what she hoped was an apologetic smile at Hinata, and then turned to shoot an even more venom-filled glare at Naruto. "I hate you," she muttered. Kiba was still grinning wolfishly, almost stupidly, like a dog, his fang-like canines, even sharper than Sakura's, glinted over his bottom lip, his spiky brown hair a mirror image of Naruto's hairstyle.

"Where's Akamaru?" Tenten questioned, looking for the little white pup that Kiba was rarely seen without. Kiba shrugged.

"Big sis took him for a walk."

"Oh, how's Hana doing?" Tenten questioned. Though Kiba might be a jerk in every aspect, his older sister was actually quite likeable. Tenten and Hana got along on pretty good terms.

"Fine," Kiba said like he couldn't care less.

"Tenten-san, my Flower, what are we going to do today?" Lee questioned eagerly. Shino had now fixed his eyes on their little circle. Tenten squinted at him suspiciously. She had never quite gotten used to him.

"Oh, I dunno. You skateboard?" she turned to Kiba.

"I'm a fast learner," Kiba shrugged.

Hinata looked positively scared at the prospect of more skateboarding, and Tenten felt a bit sorry for her. "Or, we could play a board game?" she suggested weakly, knowing that the boys would never take that over a good, hard afternoon of skateboarding at the park.

Kiba looked at her like she was crazy. Naruto looked back and forth between Tenten and Hinata. Lee winked and gave her a thumbs up. Shino ignored her completely.

At that moment, it seemed that Ino and Sakura had finally finished their argument, because they came out of the bathroom, and stopped dead at the sight of their visitors. Even though it was late afternoon, Ino had never changed out of her pink pajamas, her blonde hair pulled hastily back into a messy ponytail, a strand of her bangs hanging into her face. Sakura was in a baggy old black T-shirt and a pair of neon green leggings, her feet bare to reveal purple-painted toenails.

"Er…hi," said Ino uncertainly, quickly reaching up to smooth down her hair. They were boys, after all, no matter how dorky.

Sakura snorted, rolled her eyes, crossed her arms. To be expected, Tenten noted dryly.

"Are you going out?" Sakura said, inclining towards the door. Tenten shot her an exasperated look.

"Well, I don't want to really leave Hinata here with you guys: I don't think she'll be in one piece once I'm back. But she doesn't want to go skateboarding either. I was thinking we could play a board game or something."

"Board games, my dear, are vastly overrated," Sakura sighed, but went to retrieve Tenten's board of Scrabble nevertheless.

Kiba shot Hinata a furtive look. "Alright, well, if Hinata here doesn't want to, then I guess I'll play." Tenten's eyebrows shot up into her hair. In all of the years that she had known Kiba, she had never seen him do anything thoughtful for anybody except perhaps Akamaru.

She glanced at Hinata, who was slightly pink, and then at Naruto, who was looking confused, (nothing new there). Lee shot her a nice guy pose and a kiss. She shuddered, and hastily sat down.

"Ino, you in?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," the blonde sighed, facing the inevitable. "But can't we not play Scrabble?"

"…Twister?" said Lee hopefully.

"Yeah, Lee, I'm sure you're Mr. Flexible," Ino said sarcastically.

"I bet I'm more flexible than you are," Sakura said smartly. Ino's electric blue eyes narrowed minimally.

"You're on."

A few minutes later, they had laid the plastic Twister mat onto the wooden floor, and stuck Shino with the spinner. He was looking rather bamboozled…or maybe it was just the effect of his face being covered by a huge collar, (Tenten had never seen one so tall before…), and glasses.

"Okay, let's draw straws and see who goes first," Ino suggested. "We can go in pairs or something, so that it doesn't get too crowded. Or triads."

"Triads," said Sakura.

They drew. Sakura, Lee, Ino.

And Sakura was so amazingly flexible that she looked like a noodle. At the moment, she had sat herself in the splits, and was bending backwards in a bridge to reach across the mat while Ino wobbled above her, (Lee had long since struck out, sitting pouting in a corner).

At last, Ino collapsed and blew the hair out of her face, seething at a triumphant, smug-looking Sakura. "You know what? Being that flexible has got to be illegal." Sakura shrugged and grinned.

They drew again, Ino and Sakura going to try and drag Lee back up to his feet.

Hinata, Kiba, Naruto.

Tenten should have foreseen some problems with this particular triad, but waved off the foreboding feeling in her chest.

Kiba grinned devilishly at Hinata, the type of grin that only a guy thinking he's hot can give to a girl, who flushed a faint pink, though nowhere near as red as she got when Naruto was around. The blonde grinned at her too, though in an utterly different manner: his was more the grin of an enthusiastic kindergartner first seeing his best friend in the morning type of grin.

Shino spun.

Hinata was a flexible person as well, perhaps even more so than Sakura, (Tenten was feeling her bones crack just watching the pair of them). She easily arched herself into a graceful bridge to snake around Kiba and Naruto, (Kiba was looking rather clumsy, but Naruto was doing alright…ish.)

"Right hand, red," Shino said glumly.

Naruto reached carefully across Hinata to put his palm on the free red spot, his tongue poking out from between his teeth. He smiled boyishly at Hinata. If they hadn't been on a Twister mat with Kiba also entangled with their limbs, it might have looked like one of those classic romantic scenes where the dashing hero sweeps the girl up for a kiss.

Hinata's face grew so red that it looked like there might have been steam coming off of it, her pale eyes wide and staring into Naruto's cerulean ones, his the tips of his blonde hair brushing against her cheekbones. Tenten gulped. Oh…God…

The bloody two inches of proximity that kept Naruto from being pressed face to face with Hinata, far from making him nervous and uncomfortable, did not seem to bother him at all. While brushing off embarrassment was something about Naruto that Tenten envied, this was just plain weird.

Kiba was seething, which was predictable. Lee didn't seem to notice anything was wrong. Ino's blue eyes had widened and a wicked grin settled onto her lips. Tenten could imagine Ino munching popcorn and watching the three of them. Sakura didn't seem like she cared. Shino was bored-looking, (or maybe he was sadistically eyeing that moth that had just settled on the lamp. Who knew?)

And in the center of all of this tension, inside their own little happy bubble, were Naruto and Hinata. Well. Naruto practically gave off happiness like usual, and Hinata looked like she could fry an egg on her cheeks.

And then the tense silence was broken by the tactless Lee and Shino. Shino spun, his voice sounding like he was bored to the very last molecule, and Lee clapping loudly and cheering "Naruto-kun" on. Tenten sighed and put her face in her hands.

Later, she couldn't say if it had been in embarrassment, exasperation, or just plain old relief that Lee was a blunderhead.

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A/N: Yay, some NaruHina there…but no NejiTen…aww…But rest assured, the next chapter shall be very interesting –wink-.