The Fine Line between Love and Hate:

Epilogue

One month later~

Tenten POV

"Hello Bitches, I'm back!"

Those are the words that I felt like shouting at the top of my lungs to the world on this particular Sunday morning. Only difference though: My voice would be taunting and creepy and it would be made to scare little children under the age of 5.

…..

I didn't know what it was, or what it meant but all I knew was that it felt like a thousand ton of bricks have been lifted from my shoulders. It felt like I was myself again and that this faze, whatever the hell it was, that it has passed and now all I could see was the light ahead of this crazy tunnel I've been traveling in the last few weeks.

School for once was bearable. Yeah, I know right? SCHOOL: The place I dreaded going to every week, that school. Kakashi-sensei hasn't once mentioned the incident that occurred between me and him that one day. I only found my car back in its parking spot the next day that Neji and I left the hotel and the keys underneath the welcome matt in front of my door.

Today, my Neji said that his uncle needed him to handle some business this morning and so he had to leave me all alone in my apartment. (He's been sleeping over a lot more lately. And on the nights that he happen to sleep in his own home, my bed would feel big, cold, and lonely. ) Luckily, today was Sunday so I had to attend church and my life wasn't as dull as it could've been.

My friends are supportive and time consuming as ever and the insaneness things have happened in this one month that passed by. Hinata Hyuga and Naruto Uzumaki (UZUMAKI!) have now started going out. Ino and Neji's buddy Kiba have been going at it too, they're not "official" yet, but we all know it's going to happen soon. And the one person I thought I would never let back into my life, was back. She was back, and suddenly I had someone to share secrets with again.

It hadn't been easy taking her back into my life and giving her a second chance but a little convincing from Neji and a lot of time to think on my part helped me in making this important decision. Surprisingly, although I felt like our relationship would be awkward; it was as if we were never apart. Things didn't feel strange or uncomfortable like I thought- on the contrary actually.

Right now I was rushing to a diner situated a little bit north of the busy town. Sakura had arranged it so that she could meet me there right after church; she said she had something important to talk to me about and that I couldn't be late. 'Well too late for that,'

I thought and then laughed at my own little joke like a mad woman. It felt so good to be weird, crazy and loud again, oh how I missed myself.

I pressed on the gas, unwilling to upset her more than I probably already have, and focused on the road. After finding the place, my car glided easily into an empty lot and I stepped out of my car, empty handed with some cash in my jeans and my car keys in my hands.

I took off my sun glasses after walking inside the restaurant, gazing around for the pink haired woman. At the edge of a long hallway I saw her bright pink hair in one of the booths and it looked like she was talking to someone, but I couldn't make out the face.

I called out her name, "Sakura, Hey!"

She turned to look at me as I walked towards her table and as I approached closer I finally realized who the person sitting in the booth next to her was; Sasuke, her boyfriend. The reason that my best friend was no longer my best friend anymore and that half of my life was screwed up a few days back.

He was just sitting there looking at me.

And you KNOW that got me upset.

Before Sakura could even open her mouth, I interrupted. "What the hell is he doing here? I thought you said we needed to talk, not hold a group discussion." I know I was being difficult but I think after all this time I had that right.

Sasuke's cold, composed expression didn't change from the moment he noticed that I saw him sitting there and for some odd reason that I couldn't comprehend, that pissed me off even more. The fact that he could just sit there and act like he didn't put his hands on me and embarrass Sakura, was proof enough that he wasn't sorry and that this was a waste of my time.

"Tenten please, he only wants to talk." Sakura said, ALREADY standing up for him. (We've barely begun and she's gone all girlfriend protective on me. What-The-Hell?)

"It's too bad for him that I don't fell like talking then, isn't it?" She stayed quiet at my comment and I lifted my shoulders and held my head high. "Now, if you will both excuse me," I began, "I have better things to do than act as a third wheel to this little party. By all means, enjoy you're date you two.

And that was that.

I turned on my heels and went out the way that I came. An argument with Sasuke Uchiha was NOT the way I wanted to start my day.

Just as I was getting to unlock my car door, a voice called out my name. I turned my attention to Sasuke's running figure and waited until he stood in front of me. "What do you want Sasuke? Because if its friendship and a sudden memory loss to all that you and I have gone through than I'm sorry, the answer is no."

He stared at me for the longest, and under his intense gaze I began to feel uncomfortable. (Regardless of the similarity between Neji's stare and his stare because where as Neji was sexy with his, Sasuke was beginning to creep me the hell out!)

I was just getting ready to say 'screw this whole thing' and get in my car to drive home when he decided to speak.

"I'm not asking for friendship, I'm clearly aware of our status as of right now." This peaked back my interest so I turned back to face him, again.

"All I'm asking is for a chance for me to explain myself about what happened, since I did handle the situation wrong. We don't have to be friends, but I do want us to be able to be civilized with each other around Sakura and I realize that for this to happen you would need to hear the whole story behind the birthday party thing and my apology."

I crossed my hand across my chest, my keys jiggling simultaneously, and squinted past the rays of the hot sun. "Go on,"

He held out a hand, pointing back to entrance of the restaurant. "Come back in first, and I promise to tell you everything."

I gazed back between him and the building, before finally deciding to give this a try. But if it were to go wrong, and it becomes obvious that he's a lying cheat, my promise to Sakura a few months back will not go unfulfilled, and I will cut off his balls.

I smiled at him as he held the door open for me, while thinking up of a hundred different ways to pull out the knife in my thigh band and slice of his 'cojones', if necessary.

Neji POV

"Neji are you sure she won't be mad?" Naruto's whiny voice bounced off on the freshly painted walls of my-our new apartment.

Lifting a heavy box up to the dining table I begun to rummage through it, obviously ignoring his question; the same question he's been asking for the past 2 hours.

"Yeah, Neji dude, if I had a girlfriend and then just suddenly went and unpacked her things without telling her, I doubt she would be too pleased." This time it was Kiba who spoke but his voice sounded strained.

"Trust me," I stated, just to get them both to shut up. "Tenten's already agreed to this, I'm only surprising her about the date, NOT the coming to live with me part."

Shikamaru walked past me with a lamp as he headed to the master bedroom. "You guys heard him, so stop being troublesome already and hurry this up. The faster we move the faster we'll finish."

"That's right," Temari agreed stepping from the room just as Shikamaru was going in. He had also called the girls for help even though he and the guys could handle moving the furniture and getting everything settled. Neji just wasn't sure if he could handle moving Tenten's clothes, accessories, and ehm, prized delicates without any female assistance, plus, he sure as hell wasn't going to ask one of his friends to help him.

"Hey Kiba!" Naruto yelled, trying to balance lifting the huge LG flat screen on his own. "Come help me out with this, its reallllly heavy!" He groaned wobbling.

Kiba, who was busy arranging the new leather couches I bought slowly turned at the blonde. "Dude I can't! I'm busy here!"

"Leave the couches and come help," He staggered, "help me out with this!"

"No way, why don't YOU leave what you're doing and come help ME?"

"I—I can't!"

"Oh, would you two just give it a rest," Temari called with her hands on her hips, "Just grow some bigger balls and take the weight on your own like a man."

I rolled my silver orbs. Hence, the reason I couldn't ask these idiots.

"Neji-ni-san," Hinata said, emerging from the room and walking over to me. "All of her things are settled in comfortably. She shouldn't have any problem with finding anything since we arranged it just the way she had it in her room."

I turned to my cousin after taking out all the silver ware from the big brown box sitting in front of me. "Thank you, Hinata…." She smiled after realizing that I took the 'san' from her name and nodded before leaving to assist Naruto.

My phone started vibrating in the pocket of my jeans and I took it out to find that my girlfriend was calling me. I smiled at my phone and turned to my slave—I mean workers.

"I'm getting a call from Tenten guys, someone take over the silver ware for me while I answer it."

Ino took over my job and I stepped outside to answer my cell.

"I miss you," was the first thing I said after answering.

I could feel her smiling as she said. "I miss you too,"

Just as I was getting ready to tell her about my day "at work for my uncle", she continued on this time sounding very frantic.

"And as much as I miss you Neji, this is much more important. Something is wrong because I can't get into my apartment! The key goes into the lock but the knob won't turn like it use to. And when I ask anyone for help they look at me like I'm crazy."

"What?" I asked sincerely shocked. 'She wasn't supposed to go home yet! What the hell is Sasuke doing, he was expected to keep her busy until AFTER we were done over here!"

"I don't know what to do Neji! And I know you're an hour away, but baby, I'm freaking out, what the hell is going on?"

I ran my hand through my hair in frustration, annoyed that my plan wasn't going through smoothly. "Listen to me Tenten, just calm down."

I heard her breathe on the other end. "Now," I said as I started thinking out a new plan "I want you to go to Sakura and see if Sasuke can help bang the door down."

"Why does it have to be Sasuke? I can just ask Naruto, he just lives a block from here where as Sasuke …well, lets just say I'm trying to get away from him."

"What do you mean?"

She sighed. "Well, all day Sakura and Sasuke have been trying to soften me up so I can move on from the thing at the party. I kind of ran away from them at the movie theaters just now so…it can't be Sasuke."

"It has to be Sasuke because Naruto is not home, he went on the trip with me and Sasuke is the strongest, of course right after me, but he's strong enough to get the door open."

"But I don't understand any of this. Why is my door locked? It's like they just moved me out, wait-did I pay mortgage this month?"

She started to ramble aimlessly and finally I managed to calm her down enough to convince her to see Sasuke.

"Ok?"

"Alright," she finally agreed.

"I love you; call me if anything goes wrong."

"Yeah, Love you too."

Click.

Immediately after, I dialed Sasuke's number.

He answered on the first ring.

"Hey man, don't worry Tenten's fine. She's with us right now as we speak, safe and sound."

I shook my head at his lame attempt to lie. "Oh really?"

"Yup, we did NOT lose her or anything."

"Uchiha stop being stupid, I just got a call from Tenten and she somehow managed to go back home and find that the door locks were changed. I convinced her to come to you for help got me?"

"Hn," His voice sounded.

"Alright, she's going to expect you to help her bang down the door but all I want you to do is tell her that you have a friend that works as a locksmith, bring her here and leave the rest up to me."

"Sounds easy," He commented, and I could tell he was smirking.

I smirked too. "Hn. Good, because if you mess up, I will personally kick you're ass."

"Yes sir!" He announced and then a click.

I sighed heavily and placed my phone back in my jeans. 'Great, now there's only 30 minutes left to complete my plan. Just perfect.'

"This is it," Sasuke announced as Tenten's car pulled up to a nice looking apartment complex.

"Wow," Tenten commented, leaning on the wheel to get a better view. "This guy must be pretty rich to be able to stay here."

The apartment was a large silver building with about 6 windows in all (which was strange since that meant only 6 people lived in a huge building that more than 10 people would normally stay), surrounded by security up front (Nothing at all like her security back home) many trees aligned the area and it was a fairly large space for people to walk, jog and move around. Best of all there was no graffiti and everything was clean.

Sasuke nodded, smirking strangely, "Yeah, I guess you can say that he's rich."

Something didn't feel right about what she was about to do. Using the help of a locksmith to breakdown into her own apartment was a bit strange, but then again nothing felt right about the events of this particular day.

"So, are you sure this guy can help us out?" She said turning back to the man in her passenger seat.

"Yeah, I'm positive."

"Ok," she said looking around, "Where do I park?"

Sasuke pointed to a parking spot under some shade and Tenten slid in comfortably.

"Are you coming?" She asked him and Sasuke nodded. "Yeah, just let me make a call first."

Tenten nodded and so she went ahead to the room number Sasuke had told her while said Uchiha locked all the doors in her car, (glad she went with her keys) and ran to his car, in which Sakura was currently driving. Quickly, they drove away.

Tenten heard a car drive by but didn't think much of it as she continued up the stairs. As she gradually climbed higher Tenten learned that the entire building was 6 stories high and that each apartment held a story to itself. That's f-fing huge in Tenten's book.

After finally arriving at the door which was luckily on the 4th story, Tenten calmly knocked. After the third knock in which no one answered, she tried the handle which was luckily unlocked. (But then again, with this much security people around here can practically sleep with there doors wide open!)

She slowly walked into the semi-lighted room and held her breath. It was so beautiful!

Admiring her surroundings and forgetting for a moment the reason she came to this place Tenten walked to the fireplace to look at a picture that look an awful lot like the one of her and her old foster parents.

Suddenly the front door closed behind her and Tenten quickly jumped. Her hand found its way to her thigh as she stood, frozen in her spot listening to the sounds behind her.

Nothing…

There were no sounds except for the breathing of the person behind her. What was he going to do? Did Sasuke plan all of this to get rid of her for good? Speaking of which where was Sasuke? And where was Neji when she needed him?

"Tenten," The man said.

Doing a double take, Tenten had to make sure that it wasn't Neji's voice that she had just heard. It couldn't have been Neji; he was an hour away in another village.

"Turn around…Tenten."

How did this man (Who sounded very much like Neji,) know her name?

Complying with his wishes Tenten turned around while simultaneously grabbing the knife and aiming for the man's head. She never missed in her aim so it was a surprise to turn around and find that he was able to slightly move so that the knife went through the door and not his head.

It was an even more surprise to find her boyfriend leaning on the door as if he never left Konoha with a smirk on his face. "Wow, you missed me so much that you want to kill me?"

"Neji!" She yelled in surprised walking over in his arms like a baby to give him a hug. "W-what are you doing in a place like this, I thought you were with you're uncle. Don't ever scare me like that again! I thought you were a killer."

Neji smirked at her and kissed her forehead. "Forgive me,"

He turned her around so she could look at the place. "What do you think of this apartment?"

"Why?"

He leaned down in her ear. "Because it's our new home…"

9:58 PM

"I hate you."

"You love me."

"No." Tenten said sternly grabbing a handful of popcorn. "I really do hate you."

Neji, who was laying his head on her lap while they watched 'Titanic' on the huge flat screen in there living room, slightly lifted his head to kiss his girlfriend on the lips. He smiled and pulled away. "See, you kissed me back. That means you love me."

Tenten leaned her head back on her new couch (HER new couch!) and sighed. "I still can't believe you moved me without my consent or that you went through all of this just to surprise me!"

Neji made a sad puppy looking face, a face only Tenten was allowed to see, and stared her straight in the eyes. "I'm very sorry about that, but you have to admit you love this apartment."

The brunette took in all of her new home. The nice mahogany drapes, brand new appliances in the kitchen, the new state of the art technology appliances but most of all at their stuff, his and hers, mixed in together in there new home together. She had to admit it alright….that she freaking LOVED the place.

But she wasn't going to let him know that, at least not yet.

"It's alright." Tenten muttered finally.

He lifted an eyebrow. "Only alright?"

She shrugged, "I've seen better."

His hands inched towards her stomach. "Oh, really?"

"Yeah, I mean sorry to disappoint you Neji but…I think I've seen bett—"

A chorus of laughter over threw what she was about to say as Neji worked his way on top of her in a tickling rampage. Tenten fought to get him off of her, but it was all useless.

"So is the apartment still, 'just alright?'" He called not relenting, glowing at her addictive laughter.

"N-NO! NO IT'S –P-PERFECT! I-" She was interrupted by a her own laughter before she could finished. "I love it!"

But Neji still didn't give. Tenten found an opening on his right and plunged for the bowl of popcorn, and in one move threw a handful at his face. Neji froze, taking in what she just did.

Tenten slowly realized that she had just thrown popcorn on top of Neji's beautiful mane of brown hair, (his prized belonging right next to his car) and oh boy was she in trouble.

This was a start to a buttery popcorn fight that lasted a good five minutes with non stop laughter and popcorn throwing.

"You got me all buttery!" Tenten laughed lying beneath him after he managed to wrestle his way on top.

"Want me to lick it off?" Neji asked seductively in her ear.

She quickly turned red at the mention of this, trying her best to glare up at him.

Neji laughed and lifted himself from her when she was about to push him to the brown wood floors. This helped him walk away and her to fall down in his place.

"I hate you!" She yelled again standing, happy and incapable of frowning.

Neji did the most juvenile-st thing Tenten, or anyone else for that matter has ever seen him done. He stuck his tongue out at her before running away to the long lengthy hallway that led to the huge bathroom.

"Turn off the movie and join me in the Jacuzzi!" He yelled back to her.

"No!" She responded, still upset, yet excited, that he managed to manipulate her into dropping herself on the ground.

"I know you want to…." His voice drowned on from the back,

"….Shut up!" Tenten called, laughing. She turned off the TV and threw the remote on the couch. "You're such an ass!"

She said following his lead to the bathroom.

"And you're not so bad either," he said when she appeared in the doorway.

They both laughed.

The Fine Line Between Love and Hate.

Written by: AnimeHostess

A/N:

Hoped you enjoyed taking this journey with me, everyone!

Sorry about not updating yesterday, a friend of mine from school has passed away and I'm dealing with a lot. So hope you enjoyed this chapter, and forgive me for being one day late!

I love you ALL! And thanks so much for reading my story and leaving me your reviews. I would like for everyone who has read this chapter to at least leave me with one last review on this last chapter. Please don't just read it without leaving me with your'e thoughts.

I have some upcoming stories for the future. Look on my profile in about a week to learn more about them.

For a final time in a journey to love and hate, will you leave me with a review?

Lots of love,

~Animehostess~