Tenten was sitting up on a hill a little bit outside of Kohana, staring up at the clouds on a calm day in the summer. She was thinking about the usual for girls her age: hair, clothes boys. A boy in particular she really liked was a guy on her team named Neji. She always had liked him, but she knew he never would have feelings for her. He was too serious, and preferred to be alone.

She sighed at the thought of him never noticing her and got up to stretch. Tenten wondered if she should just forget about Neji and just find another guy to daydream about, but she pushed that thought away. Neji may be a lone wolf, but he was too handsome to give up on so easily.

Tenten giggled and blushed at this thought. She looked at her watch to see what time it was because she had told them she would meet them around 3 for training at the training grounds. She gasped at the time; it was already 4:30! She must have fallen asleep when she was thinking. She quickly gathered up her bag, and hurriedly ran to the training grounds.

When she arrived Lee and Neji were already there waiting for her.

“Where have you been?” Neji impatiently asked her. Tenten apologized and made up a lie so Neji wouldn’t chew her out for oversleeping.

Lee chimed in, saying “No matter, now that we’re all here we should start training.” Neji and Tenten both agreed with Lee.

They all trained until it was dark and it started to sprinkle a little.

“We should stop for today,” Lee suggested. Tenten nodded in agreement with him. Neji sighed at her agreement. Tenten knew he would. Nothing she does seems to be right for him...

The rain started to come down harder, and Lee asked Neji, “Since it’s raining, and since Tenten’s home is in between here and the Hyuuga’s household, Neji, why don’t you walk Tenten home?”

Both Neji and Tenten were shocked about what Lee had said. Tenten blushed at the thought of Neji walking her home in the rain. It was like a perfect romantic scene of a movie.

Neji glared at Lee at this idea.

“Tenten can walk herself home, “ he snapped back at Lee. Tenten sighed, knowing that her perfect romantic scene with Neji would be shot down by him.

“Neji, why can’t you be a gentleman?” Lee asked him.

“It’s okay, Lee, I’m getting cold and really wet. I’ll just go home by myself,” Tenten told Lee, shivering a little.

“No, Tenten, I’ll take you...” Neji said to her, looking away and blushing a little at the thought. Tenten smiled and blushed too. Lee nodded in agreement and said goodbye to them, then walked off in the opposite direction from them.

Neji finally turned to Tenten and said, “We should get going. The rain seems to be coming down harder...” She nodded and they both started to walk down the path to her home. They walked down the road together in silence under the rain for some time. After the silence started to eat at Tenten, she tried to make friendly conversation with Neji.

“So how are Hinata and Hanabi doing?” she asked.

“Fine,” he said, not looking at her.

“What about your uncle?”

“He’s fine too,” Neji said, still not looking at her. Tenten was starting to get annoyed at Neji’s responses. She wondered why he had agreed to take her home if he couldn’t even talk to her. She wondered if she should tell him how she felt or what was on her mind. She decided to ask him how he felt about her.

“Neji,” Tenten started, “What do you think about me?” Tenten blushed, shocked that she really did ask such a thing!

She looked up at Neji’s reaction, but then realized he had stopped walking when she asked the question, so she was about ten feet away. She walked back to him and looked at him. He was slightly blushing, thinking of what to say to her question. The rain started to lighten up, then it just stopped.

Neji looked at Tenten to answer her, but when he saw how beautiful Tenten was with a glow from the water and the stars and moon shining on her, he forgot what he was going to say. An eerie silence fell between them. Neji snapped out of his trance and looked away from Tenten.

“Why would you ask such a stupid question?” he asked her, still looking away blushing. Tenten felt hurt at his answer, not noticing him blushing. She looked down at her feet. She couldn’t tell if she was crying or id the raindrops on her face were just rolling down her chin, but she knew one thing for sure: that wasn’t the answer she wanted to hear from him.

“Tenten?” Neji’s voice appeared in her thoughts. Tenten looked up at Neji, and knew that she was indeed crying. She didn’t know what to say to his response, so she just ran away from him. She didn’t know why she ran from him, or what was going through her mind, but one thing she knew: she would never forgive herself for asking such a stupid question! What was she thinking Neji would say? That he loved her?

She stopped running and wiped her tears. Tenten decided that she needed to think a little, so she started towards the hill she daydreamed on that very day.

Once she arrived on top of the hill, she laid down and looked up at the stars in the sky. She wished she could go back in time to take back what she had asked Neji. Maybe there was a jutsu to do that very thing.

Tenten laughed at that last thought of hers. She remembered what her mother used to say, how she would learn from her mistakes. Now she knew what her mother meant. Tenten sighed and still wished she could take back everything that had happened.

Footsteps on the wet grass behind Tenten made a ruffling sound. Tenten got up and turned around, and shouted, “Who’s ther-“

It was Neji.

“Neji!” Tenten said, shocked seeing him here.

“Look, Tenten, I’m sorry for what I did to make you run off...” Neji said, looking at his feet.

“No, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked you such a personal question,” Tenten argued, trying to take responsibility on the subject.

“Tenten, it wasn’t the question that made me feel weird, it was the answer,” Neji said, finally turning to look at Tenten. “I really like you. I always liked you.”

Tenten didn’t say anything to this answer. She couldn’t understand; why would he feel weird liking me as a friend? There was a silence between them, each waiting for the other to make the first move.

“Let’s sit down,” Tenten suggested. “You haven’t rested since training...” They both sat down next to each other on the hill. Tenten looked up at the sky and excitedly pointed towards it.

“Look, Neji! A shooting star!”

Neji looked up and smiled. “Hurry, Tenten, make a wish!” Tenten blushed at what she wished for.

Neji noticed Tenten’s face turning red and asked, “What did you wish for?”

“You would laugh...” Tenten mumbled to him.

“I promise I won’t.”

Tenten looked at Neji’s eyes and could tell he meant what he had said. She had never seen Neji so friendly.

“Well...” Tenten started, blushing so much her whole face was a deep scarlet.. “I wished you really liked me. I mean liked me more than just a friend...”

Neji didn’t say anything.

“Thanks for keeping your promise and not laughing.”

“Your wish is my command,” Neji said, leaning over Tenten, holding her hand, and he kissed her on the lips.