Author’s Notes: Written for the September Challenge at Ten Squared. This is just a for-fun, silly little ficlet. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fiction.

Between Stone Walls

By Nessie

Unbeknownst to all, Hyuuga Neji had actually figured out he was attracted to Team Gai’s one kunoichi at fourteen, when she had fallen out of a prison of water and into his arms. A quiet “thank you” had done more to change the way he saw Tenten than any of her fierce battles had ever done.

Now at eighteen, Neji felt the same way, if not more, towards her. And, as he had pleasingly learned during a particularly wayward training session about a year after their return from Sand, Tenten’s feelings for him were just as true. So he was not the least bit opposed to Gai’s request that he got with Tenten to gather firewood on their team training/camping trip. Nor was he opposed to the unprecedented grab Tenten made for him to guide him into an outcropping of stone not one hundred feet away from where Gai and Lee were erecting the tent.

But if she didn’t quiet that inconspicuous (and confessedly adorable) giggling, they would be discovered mid-make out session and the years Neji had spent perfecting an abrasive, unyielding persona would be made worthless.

“Don’t be so stiff, for goodness sake,” she murmured, one hand gently kneading his left shoulder in an effort to make him decompress. “They’ll never hear us so far away.”

“I just don’t…see what…” It was so hard to speak coherently when she was teasingly nipping at the side of his neck. “What’s so humorous.”

She laughed again. “Your never-ending propriety, for one thing.” With a small pause, Tenten tilted her head and met his eyes. “See, Neji? I’m still unkissed enough to use a word like ‘propriety’. That’s bad.” Neji had the one thought that if anyone was going to kill him before he was twenty, it would be this weapons mistress with her come-hither eyes – before Tenten seized him by the shirt collar and yanked him bodily against her.

Despite the fact that it would have been gentlemanly to let her know that her hair was beginning to fall out of its two-bun style or that her shirt had begun to ride up, it was truer that he liked her hair messy and the glimpse of muscled midriff was nothing to sneeze at. Emboldened by her obvious show of affection, Neji encircled her waist with his arms and inclined his head to claim her mouth with his own. His jet black hair fell forward, stark against the white fabric she wore.

When they broke apart for air, Neji was pleased to find that Tenten’s lovely eyes were perfectly glazed over, and anything beyond two-syllable words would most likely be impossible for her to manage by now.

But then again, he was just getting started.

Switching angles, he pressed her to him with a hand over her shoulder blades. Tenten responded by slinging one long leg around the backs of both of his. She had a domineering side that he was still undecided of whether it was a good or a bad thing. Bad during battles, he reflected, perfect for moments like this. Unless, of course, he was feeling a bit domineering himself.

Twirling some of her loose hair around one finger, Neji ran closed-mouth kisses just below her ear. This time, she was the one who tensed and curled her hands into the back of his shirt. They switched angles and deepened their kiss. Tenten began to arch backward against the solid wall he had pressed her up against, and Neji followed her lead, taking hold of her wrists and wrapping her hands around his own neck to give him better access to her. He moved forward—

And fell, quickly and gracelessly in their narrow crevice. He had forgotten about the leg she had pinned him with.

Tenten’s giggling promptly began anew, this time so uncontrolled that even her raised hand did little to muffle the sound. And she was loud enough to alert—

“NEJI! TENTEN! How glad I am that you have decided to unleash your YOUTHFUL SPIRIT in this wondrous work of nature!”

Gai boomed with such zeal that small pebbles began to tip out of the recess in the stone cliff face, right on Neji’s fuming head. Behind his idol, Lee grinned with his unbearably white smile.

“I think they forgot about our firewood, Gai-sensei! After all, we did not required rocks!”

With as much dignity as he could sitting on the dusty ground as the kunoichi of his affections laughed, Neji shot a glare that would inflict ideas of death upon any other recipient. Rock Lee merely shot him a Nice Guy pose, which only made him want to Jyuuken the hell out of his teammate. At least when Lee was bemoaning his inability to defeat him, Neji didn’t have to deal with his highly improbable cheer.

“We’ll go get your firewood,” Tenten relented when she had sobered enough to assist Neji in getting to his feet.

“Actually, Lee can go with you,” revised Gai. “I need Neji to search our packs and make sure no enemy ninja with an invisibility jutsu have placed harmful articles within!”

It was a bunk excuse to keep the Hyuuga from her, and all of them knew, but Lee and Tenten were too amused to argue and Neji was disinclined to waste his breath – especially since he was still fairly robbed of it from his stolen minutes with Tenten.

The new assignments didn’t keep the kunoichi from catching the edge of his sleeve and whispering to him. “If you’re not doing anything later, I’ll meet you in that recess.”

Gai began exclaiming something pointless to him (“I’m SURE we’ve dangerous enemies to concern ourselves with even out HERE where the lands are not ninja-affiliated!”), but Neji watched as Tenten went off with Lee, the first traces of a smile flitting along his lips.

The End