A/N: Yo. I usually update faster than this, but blame the rude people who criticize my writing for no GODDAMN REASON!! Whoo..calm. Anyway, next chapter of Kawari. Love it, hate it, I don't care, long as I get reviews. If you guys want anything specific to happen, you can let me know because I have serious writer's block but I guess I sort of have an obligation to write or whatever....ANYWAY. On with the reading, reviews, please, they make my day and I love reading them...except when they're mean. THEN I hate you people and don't update in foreva!!! jk, go read now.

Disclaimer: Unless any of you is willing to give me several billion dollars to buy this Naruto empire off Masashi Kishimoto, I'm guessing I don't own it. Trust me, if I did, it would be all lovey fluff between TEAM MEMBERS!! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!

Gee, I sure wish I could press that nice green button down there...

The lady at the desk typed my name into the sleek computer rapidly. A cheerful beep resounded once I was registered.

She handed me a folder and brought out a hi-lighter, starting to mark down my schedules and where my classes were. I nodded along, my eyes widening when I realized the map had more than one page. My brain went fuzzy as the pen skidded all along the miniscule lines on the page.

I stiffened suddenly, feeling very uneasy for a minute. It felt like someone was watching me…and from where, I had no idea. My street instincts were telling me that it probably wasn't safe, but I reminded myself that I was in a school, and an elite, protected school, at that. There were no threats.

The woman finally asked clearly, "So, do you understand?"

I had actually buzzed out the whole time she was talking; her monotonous voice droning on. Not wanting to look moronic, I just nodded and smiled at her, scooping all the contents off the counter into my overflowing arms.

I pushed my way out of the office, looking around the hallways for a brief sign of something familiar. I recalled my earlier brief tour with Shikamaru and started trudging back to the main hallway, my bare feet getting cold on the marble floors of the school.

"I got this, I got this, I'm smart…" I mumbled to myself encouragingly. "I've grown up on the streets; I can find my way around…"

OK, it was officially hopeless.

Wait, no, maybe I had already gone down this way…

Aw, screw it, I was lost, late AND my feet were freezing. Lovely first day of school. Guess those street skills of mine weren't so sharp anymore.

I had gotten lost among the numerous hallways, and soon I couldn't even get back to the office. Curse my shitty navigational skills.

My legs were getting tired and I was tempted to just sit down and curl my feet up under myself. I wandered around until I found a group of plump armchairs resting on a cushy rug. I sighed gratefully and shuffled over, dropping my luggage on the chair and curling up on the rug, warming my feet blissfully by the hot air vent on the ground.

While my toes thawed, I thought about what my next move would be. I didn't have much to do, obviously. I wasn't in the mood to go get lost again, nor was I up for just sitting here all day. And that got me awake.

On the streets, I was never still. I sneaked along back pathways, and no one knew I was there. I went unseen, smuggling and stealing to survive along with what meager paychecks I got from my part time job.

Every minute was an adventure, a risk, another opportunity to be caught. You always have to be watching out for yourself. Take from others; protect what you have…that was what I knew from the beginning of my life. School was the same; steal when they're not looking, take what you can and turn everything into a chance for more money, food, whatever.

I thought with icily that that was no longer my life. Social Services said I was lucky when the rich foster parents took me in. They put me in the top school, money and resources at my disposal. I was surrounded by protection. And I imagined my father, stuck in a filthy prison cell, dying, calling for help.

I honestly felt sick. How was it possible some people could live a perfect life and others barely surviving? My dad was a good man; he was just going through some rough times. He deserved the wealth as much as any of those irresponsible, wasteful people. He wouldn't have been so screwed up if the money had only been divided equally among society.

Awakening slowly from my daydream, I looked at my feet; bright red. Guess that was long enough. I stood up and shouldered my pack again. I walked away from the seating area, passing by a mirrored wall. I stopped abruptly and stared at my warped reflection; new, clean clothes, designer bags, everything about me expensive. I couldn't even recognize myself. Where was Tenten? All that was there was a brunette Ino standing sternly before me.

I dropped my bag and took off my blazer, checking the tag I refused to cut off from it, lest I felt I needed to return it.

That was a big number.

Angrily, I threw the jacket away from me. Screw returning it; my foster parents can live without some of that money for a while. I stomped over to the jacket again, grounding it into the floor with my foot, throwing it into pillars, unsuccessfully trying to tear apart the fibers. Shame swelled inside of me; what would my father say about me now? I should've saved this money, given it away, helped someone else. Not buy some stupid blazer.

I rampaged on in the empty halls for a while, nothing greeting my outburst but deafening silence. I breathed hard and steadied myself, trying to convince myself that it was nothing to be ashamed of to have money.

I picked the jacket up, staring at it again, before continuing down the halls and stuffing it into a nearby garbage chute. I cursed under my breath, at who and for what, I didn't know.

I passed silently along the hall until I came to an intersection of sorts. I didn't bother checking the map nor looking down every route, and just continued along. I guess that's why it shocked me when a voice called out.

"Why're you ashamed of what you look like?"

I went stiff as board, and turned my head creakily over my shoulder, catching a glimpse of the person who was talking.

A tall, muscular boy…well, actually, more of a man, stood there, arms crossed and leaning against a modern, black locker. His long, sleek dark hair was tied neatly behind him, framing his pale skin. One of his elegant eyebrows was raised at me. One beige silk-swathed leg crossed over the other expectantly. His pearl toned eyes bore into mine intently.

And the entire a time a disheveled girl without a blazer, messed up hair and no shoes is standing there, gawking and drooling like an imbecile.

The corners of his mouth went up slightly in a small smirk.

I shook myself out of my staring contest, and straightened myself up. "I'm not ashamed. I'm afraid I just don't have 'taste', or whatever you rich preppies call it." I started to turn away, disgust evident in my tone.

His eyes grew surprised. "Hmm, rich preppies. Is that what you think all of us are?"

I gave him a look that oozed, DUH, but continued on, nodding my head sarcastically at him. "No, I think you all donate to charity and buy second hand clothes and adopt children and milk llamas on farms." Then I turned away from him, starting to walk down the hallway again.

He continued sternly. "Think what you want. After all, I'm sure you have a lot of experience because you know so many rich preppies, am I right?"

I stopped in my tracks and turned around to roll my eyes at him. "Don't you have a class to get to, or something?"

He frowned at me. "Free period."

I looked at him disbelievingly. "Right, that's why there's a bunch of other people in this hallway, enjoying 'free period.'" I air quoted, gesturing to the wide and silvery expanse of the hallways around us.

He shook his head. "No, just free period for me. I've already finished all my other courses, see, and I'm too bored to bother taking any other new courses, most of which I've already mastered, I might point out." He finished arrogantly.

I stared at him. "But, that still doesn't explain why you're the only one. Surely there must have been one other person who finished all their other courses…" I questioned.

He smirked. "Nope. See, I'm what they call, a genius." He tapped his temple, as if it should've been obvious.

I placed my hand on my hip girlishly and INVOLUNTARILY, I might add, staring at him incredulously before rolling my eyes again and starting to walk off. "Whatever."

He didn't respond, and I continued on proudly, refusing to admit I was a tad disappointed we hadn't continued our banter.

Suddenly, something was blocking my way. A large pale sleeve was just a few centimeters from my face, and I involuntarily inhaled its scent as I gasped, growing faint at the sweet smell of his skin.

The guy from earlier leaned down so that he was right by my ear. He tucked a lock of stray hair behind my ear non-chalantly and started whispering to me.

"Don't you have classes to get to as well?" he breathed.

I replied with a very intelligent response as always, which was something along the lines of 'duh' and 'blah'.

He smiled. "I guess I better take you to your classes, then." With one swift movement, he placed one hand on the small of my back and swept me around in front of him, hooking my arm with his, and starting to walk me forward.

My face was as red as tomato, and I stared constantly at the ground, unable to neither look at him nor admit that he actually was kind of hot, regardless of the fact he was an arrogant jerk.

We continued on, and eventually, the awkwardness of the situation made me withdraw my arm and rub it consolingly. We wove through the maze of silvery hallways, until he finally spoke up.

"So I hear you're Tenten."

I looked up at him and nodded.

He sighed. "Sorry, I can't stand this. How can you walk on marble floors for 10 minutes straight without shoes on?" he rummaged in his shoulder bag, pulling out a pair of black flats. "These are my cousins' shoes. They carry shoes around all the time and lose them a ton. I usually have to end up bringing them to them. I think they should fit you."

I stepped into the shiny shoe, and attempted poorly to stuff my foot into the tiny wedges.

He laughed. "I guess not. I suppose her feet are kinda tiny."

"Tiny?" I asked disbelievingly, picking up the shoe. "These are a freakin size 5! I'm a size 8 ½ for God's sake."

He smiled at me. "I guess it runs in the family. I'm only a 7."

I flushed to a dizzying shade of red. It just seemed so embarrassing that my boyfriend had smaller feet than-

WAIT. What did I just say? Did I just call him…my boyfriend?

I slapped myself internally. I usually didn't act like this. Reassuring myself it was first day jitters, I fell back into my conversation with him, slapping my feet playfully on the hard floors as I started walking again.

I kept my head facing forward, not wanting to make eye contact with those disorienting white eyes. "You know who I am. But I don't know who you are. All I know is that you're arrogant, a supposed genius and have ungodly small feet."

He glanced at me out of his peripheral vision, one eyebrow raised. "My, aren't you polite."

I sighed exasperatedly. "Sorry. I guess you preppies think that you should all be articulate with one another all the time."

He stared at me. "No. I'm just making a point. Like you said, you don't even know me, but you already seem to be annoyed be me."

I accepted his point, nodding and gesturing for him to continue. "Then who are you exactly?"

"Neji. Neji Hyuuga." He walked over to my other side, head barely touching my shoulder. "At your service." He breathed into my ear.

Shivers went down my spine and wild thoughts filled my head. I started blushing and felt a strange urge to giggle. I brought my hand up to cover my mouth, trying not to pass out at the proximity of us. I just wanted to turn around and…

…and what?...

…make a move…

I turned around every so slowly, meeting his strong gaze…and I....

I slapped him.

Wait.

Did…did I seriously just do that?

Well, he is staring at me really funny, and my hand is up in the air, AND there's a red mark on his cheek, so yes…

I think I might've.

I stuttered something incoherent and made random jerky, arm movements to explain the unexplainable.

He stared at me, disbelief written all over his features. He wanted me to explain myself. Then he smirked, hands up in defeat.

"Sorry, next time I won't get in your way." He snickered. "Oh, God, but seriously, was that really necessary…" He started rubbing the red mark gently. "You got a serious arm, there."

I looked around the hallway, not sure how to react. I was embarrassed, to say the least, but I could always say it was self defense…

No, that was a horrible excuse. My chin was glued to my chest, shame bubbling to the surface, as I rubbed my arm comfortingly. What the hell was I slapping him for?

Gratefully, I heard the click indicating the speaker had come on. The robotic voice filtered on again, spreading down the soundless halls. Then, a clear bell rang afterwards. The shuffle of chairs and feet resounded from all the classrooms. The threat of oncoming student traffic and voices tickled the empty halls.

I still didn't want to look at him. I overreacted, like I always do. I thought it was something else, but obviously that was just my imagination.

I saw Neji's dark shoes move away as the bell rang, but not before he placed something into the crook of my elbow. I didn't look to see what it was. His footsteps floated away as the torrent of students flooded out of the rooms.

All the students pushed me around, indignant cries hovering around my ears as I was shoved around, finally being tripped into a small closet-like indent in the wall.

I sighed and sunk to the ground, not bothering to check the obvious rat-nest of hair I had. I fiddled at my manicured nails, biting them and picking at them until a thin sliver of red appeared from under my fingernails. I sucked at the blood childishly and tried to forget about what had just happened.

I looked down into my arms; whatever Neji had shoved into them I was now clutching close to my chest protectively. The sight tugged at the corners of my mouth in a smile.

Black flats. Size 8 ½ written on the inner soles.

That's right…he did say he had more than one cousin…

I nodded at his kindness, and slipped on the simple black shoes, fitting perfectly around my large feet.

I stood up, brushing off my skirt, and following the flow of the crowd, catching up with Ino when I saw her.

Neji was standing behind a wall, sweating a little from the running. Finally, he wiped his brow off and panted, hands on his knees.

"Oi! Shikamaru!"

The silence echoed throughout the courtyard until a familiar face appeared through the window. Shikamaru inclined his head to Neji.

"Hey man, what's up?"

Neji glared at him, enough to make Shikamaru sweat drop.

"Dude…what's your issue?"

Neji continued his icy stare as he said sarcastically. "It went perfectly. She slapped me and called me an arrogant prep." He spit out angrily. "You said it would work!"

Shikamaru stifled a snigger, covering his mouth. "Sorry. You really shouldn't have come to me for this kind of stuff…"

Neji sighed, closing his eyes, before turning to him again. "I thought you said you were a ladies' man."

Shikamaru shrugged. "They're always chasing after me, not the other way around. Besides man, my girlfriend's Ino, I repeat, INO. She's the one who knows all the romance in the relationship. I may as well be her prisoner."

Neji smiled bitterly. "But you're a happy prisoner, no?"

Shikamaru slapped Neji playfully on the head. "Shut up."

A/N: Love? Hate? Please don't hate, I like love. Anyway, I've been really thinking how to make this work, as in most stories Neji is not usually interested in Tenten, but I think I've got a rather interesting plot coming up...bwahaha. Reviews, please, they motivate me to write you 500000000000000000 chapters a day. Oh, and check out my other stories on my other pages please. :) K, thanks a bunch for reading.