A/N: I just need to ask something: Is it team Gai, or team Guy?

Chapter 1.

Abandoned

I was standing in the middle of the training field Team Gai usually trained in. I felt strangely abandoned, like no one could see me. I felt like a leaf on a tree, or a drop in the ocean. I was there, but no one paid any attention to me, everyone just saw me as a part of something more. I was just a simple part.

The sky was covered in a thick layer of dark clouds. They wouldn’t be able to hold their raindrops in for long; soon I’d be wet and cold. In some minutes I would regret going out; because I wasn’t properly dressed. I hadn’t even put my shoes on as I ran out of the door. I shivered as the light breeze upgraded to a cold wind.

After my parents had told me the news, all I could think about was to go and tell him. Something in me believed that he would have the answers. He would know what to do. How naïve of me. Why would he care? I wasn’t of any use for him anyway. Just a team member. Just a partner. Was I even a friend to him? Sometimes I doubted it. I would never know what he truly saw me as.

The rain fell onto my skin, shocking me by its sudden coldness. My eyes shifted to my arm. My skin looked paler than usual, with the water now running over it. I now felt safe enough to let my tears fall. The raindrops in my face would cover the evidence if anyone would stumble over me. Not that I truly believed that anyone was awake at the moment, but I had become paranoid after all his bran washing. No matter what, I couldn’t let him see my humanly weaknesses.

After letting the frustration out with the rain, I quietly returned to my home. Mom and dad sat up in the living room waiting for me. I merely glanced at them, before moving up the stairs and locking myself inside the bathroom. I was sure they’d leave me alone. I hurriedly cleaned myself up, undid my brown hair, and brushed my teeth.

As I covered my shivering body with the white bed sheets I heard mom and dad’s voices outside my door. I knew they were discussing my reaction. How shocked could they be? They should have known I wouldn’t want to leave Konoha.

The day that followed was like the days usually were in Konoha. Sunny. I wished the weather would match my emotions better. It would be much easier to be depressed if it was raining, or at least if the sun had been covered by clouds. This just made my day worse.

I left my bed undone and got dressed as quietly as possible. I would do anything I could to keep my parents sleeping, the last thing I needed right now was their worried faces and responsible speeches. I left the house without being busted, and felt a little better as the sun finally reached me and warmed my skin after the night’s event in the rain.

I didn’t really know where I was going. We weren’t supposed to meet at the training grounds, and I weren’t assigned any missions due to my parent’s moving intentions. I weren’t involved in those plans. They could move to the North Pole for all I cared, I would never leave Konoha.

As I strolled down the almost empty streets my stomach started demanding breakfast. I didn’t have any money with me, so I couldn’t go anywhere to buy food. I’d have to get it otherwise.

I was lucky. A certain boy, my age, with black hair and a green jumpsuit came walking towards me. When it came to breakfast, nothing could stop Lee.

“Hi, Lee!” I greeted as we reached each other. I put on my most normal smile and hid every sign of frustration and anxiety.

“Good morning, Tenten!” Lee greeted, with an overwhelmingly enthusiasm, as always. “How are you?”

“Starving actually,” I almost felt a little bad for doing this, but I couldn’t go home to eat. Mom and dad would try to discuss the idea of moving with me, and I didn’t want to hear about the matter ever again in my life.

Lee’s expression turned from cheerful to shocked. “Have you skipped breakfast?!” he demanded, clenching his fist dramatically in front of me.

I almost felt the need to back away from him, but kept my cool and my innocently nothing’s-wrong-smile on. “Yeah, I were in a bit of a hurry,” I said as I started rubbing the back of my neck – a bad habit.

“Fear not, Tenten! I shall get you something to eat this instant!”

Lee wouldn’t let me stop eating before he was fully convinced that I was completely full. I tried to make him see that me being a girl; ate a little less than him, but he didn’t see the logic in that. So when he finally set me free from his “most-important-meal-of-the-day obsession” I felt like I had gained enough weight to break the ground if I tried to jump.

Lee told me he had to run around Konoha a few times before meeting with Gai-sensei to train more, so he had to leave me. I weren’t too sad about that. I hadn’t told him about the horrible news yet. I just couldn’t bring myself to ruin his good mood.

So I was once again strolling down the streets of Konoha by myself. I tried not to let my bad mood show on my face, knowing I wasn’t very hard to read. I would have to avoid a certain someone until I had managed to get over the news; he would read me as an open book, even if I turned my face away from him.

Speaking of the devil; there he stood, shining in the sunlight like the human god he was. Was he walking towards me? No, he hadn’t seen me (probably pretended he hadn’t) and looked another way. I had to think quickly. Would he expect me to say hi? Or was this a sign? Did he want me to go away?

I stopped dead in my tracks. More people were walking around in the streets now, and someone bumped into me, but I barley noticed it. My brain was near a complete break down. How could I know what he wanted me to do? He never said anything, and he only had one facial expression. How could I ever make the right decision?

“Tenten?”

My inner conflict ended as he spoke my name with a confused voice. My eyes focused on his face. His pale skin, light eyes and dark hair. Human perfection.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah, why’d you ask?” I answered, and grinned sheepishly at him.

He lifted a very perfect eyebrow as he looked at me with suspicion. “You usually say hi when you pass me.”

“I do?” I asked, and it all came back to me then. I and Neji were friends, of course I said hi to him! “Oh, yeah! Hi!” I grinned, secretly trying to look cute, and probably failing miserably.

“Hi,” he mumbled and looked at me wonderingly.

Damn. He had probably noticed that something was wrong already, and soon he would start torturing me with questions until I broke down in tears. I bit my teeth together and tried to keep my cool. I had to put on my carefree grin, but I couldn’t remember how to put it on!

“Hn…” he mumbled, and began walking up the street with his hands in his pockets.

I felt a little abandoned again. Was he just going to leave me like this? Or did he expect me to follow him?

“Tenten?” again with the confused voice. He had stopped in the middle of the street, and stared at me with one raised eyebrow, questioning me.

“What?” My hands found each other, and I began rubbing my arm feeling a little uncomfortable under his staring eyes.

“Aren’t you coming?” his voice was dark and sounded annoyed and completely ignored the people that past him.

I needed a moment to think, then reality came back, and finally I could remember how my life was supposed to be. “Yeah! Sure,” I ran up to him, and pulled him with me. “Are you doing anything special today?” I asked him, letting go of his arm when I was completely sure he would keep walking on his own.

“Not really,” he said, looking right ahead of him.

He never said a lot of things at once. Sometimes he just needed some time, and then he continued what he was saying. Other times a short statement, or answer was all I’d ever get.

About an hour later we sat on a bench in the park. I knew Neji didn’t really like being in the park. All the happy kids were probably too much positive energy for him to handle, but today he was doing a good job. I had bought an ice cream, due to the nice weather, but he had quietly turned my offer down. He wasn’t the type for ice cream anyway.

I sat there with a satisfied smile on my face, and he sat besides me, resting his back against the bench with his eyes closed. I guessed he was trying to block the world out. A sudden urge to throw my ice cream in his face and run for my life occurred in my mind, but I managed to resist it.

Letting out a bored sigh I rested my back against the bench too. I let my head fall backwards and looked up at a huge tree, with long, strong branches covered in green leaves. The sun shone through the leaves, and gave the park a very peaceful setting.

How could mom and dad want to move away from here?

“What’s wrong?”

My head snapped up, and I turned around to face him. He was leaning his arm over the back of the bench, turned towards me. His face was serious, no signs of any worry, as always. But at least he cared at some level. He wanted to know why I was acting weird, I knew that, but if I told him about mom and dad’s plans now I would probably just break down in tears right in front of him and tell him stuff he never needed to hear. No, it would be better if I just kept my mouth shut.

“What are you talking about?” I asked and tried to laugh it off. He just kept looking at me. Plan failed. “Neji, seriously! Nothing’s wrong,” I said, and stuck my tongue out at him. I could see how his head jerked back a few inches. It always bothered him when I acted childish like that.

“You’re not very hard to read, Tenten,” he began, and I almost rolled my eyes. Tell me something I don’t know! “I can see that something is bothering you. Why don’t you want to tell me about it?” His face stayed serious.

I had to swallow so my heart wouldn’t get stuck in my throat. I loved it when he talked like that; it made me feel like he really cared about me. I knew it was a limited attraction, but it was something.

I sunk down on the bench, so my chin rested on my chest (very uncomfortable). “Nothings wrong.” Why couldn’t he just let it go? Oh, yeah, because he knew. “I’m… PMS-ing.” Out of all the bad excuses in the world..?

I could feel how his face turned from serious, to confused and then to humoured.

“You won’t be PMS-ing until at least another week, Tenten.”

I stared at him in complete shock. I felt embarrassed over the fact that he knew such things about me. How did he know? Were his senses so powerful that he could feel it when my eggs were loosening? What kind of sick animal was he?!

“How the hell do you know such things!?” I demanded as I straightened up, and turned towards him.

He smirked, a sign that he was enjoying himself. “I’m smarter than you think.”

“Or you’re part dog,” I spat playfully. “Go and tell Kiba. I bet you’ll become best friends.” I finished my ice cream and threw the tree stick away.

I could see how he rolled his eyes trying to look like he thought of me as childish, but actually was humoured by my genius comment. I was quite pleased with myself. Not only had I made that beautiful smirk appear on his perfect face, I had also made him forget about my complications.

We fell silent then. He didn’t look at me anymore. He rested his eyes on the young children playing at the playground. I followed his gaze and realized that he was observing a little boy pushing a little girl as she sat on one of the popular swings. He just watched them as the girl laughed and the boy grew more and more tired of pushing her.

The comforting breeze turned to a light wind as we sat there. I searched my head for something to talk about; desperate to use the time I had with him properly. We were always training these days, and when we were training I rarely got any chance to actually talk with him.

“What are you thinking about?”

He blinked and turned towards me again. The look on his face told me that he was a little amazed that I actually cared about his thoughts. What’s so wired about that?

“Those kids remind me of someone. Or I wish they would remind me of someone. They are living the childhood I wish I had lived,” he said, his voice silent and bitter.

Of course I couldn’t find anything to say. I knew he hated pity, but what else could I do? Frustrated as I was; I sighed and sunk down on the bench again. His eyes followed me all the time.

“I don’t mean to whine about it all the time, but you did ask,” he said, and leant back against the bench, closing his eyes.

“That’s not it. I’m so tired of never being able to find the right words to comfort you,” I mumbled. “You’re too proud to let me pity you. If I tell you to toughen up, you’ll probably hate me forever… and, eh….” I had planned to list up several examples, but those two were the only ones that popped up in my head, so I had to cut my ranting long before I had made my point. Damn!

I heard him chuckle silently. “Why do you keep thinking that I need you to say anything?” He asked; his voice filled with bitterness.

He made the sentence sound much more harsh than necessary, but I’d learned to live with it. It still stung a little in my stomach when he let his anger out on me, but I comforted myself in the belief that it was just words. It was a little harder when we were sparring. I couldn’t just tell myself that it was just kicks and punches, and that he didn’t really mean to hurt me.