Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto…some preeeetty weird things would happen…(including Orochimaru getting pushed off a cliff among other various things.)

The next day, Tenten found that school was cancelled yet again, since no one had figured out who had flooded the school. Also, once again, Sakura invited everyone on a group date. However Tenten declined for a very good reason…

Flashback

Tenten and Neji left the fun house, with Tenten clutching onto Neji for dear life. She wasn't crying anymore, but she still looked scared out of her wits. Neji merely held onto her waist tighter as they sat down on a nearby bench.

"Are you better now?" Neji asked softly, stroking Tenten's hands with his fingers. The tracks where her tears had run still showed. He touched those as well.

"I'm…okay," Tenten whispered. She then noticed that her face was extremely close to Neji's.

"I was wondering…do you want to go to the park with me tomorrow? Just the two of us?" Neji asked nervously. He had never asked a girl out in his entire life.

She blushed lightly and looked into his gorgeous pale eyes. "Yes," she murmured. She gently laid her hand on Neji's cheek, causing him to turn red as well. Their faces inched closer and closer when…

"How was the fun-Oh," Ino giggled, sharing a look with Sakura and Hinata.

"Are we interrupting?" Sakura teased, noting how red both of Tenten and Neji's faces were. She felt bad about breaking up their almost kiss, but they would get another chance wouldn't they?

"H-have you s-seen the b-b-boys?" Hinata stammered, twisting her fingers nervously. She couldn't believe that her cousin was about to kiss someone!!! Wait until she told Hanabi about it.

"Huh? No I haven't seen them anywhere," Tenten answered dazedly. She glanced at Neji and they shared a sweet smile with each other.

At that same time…

"THAT WAS AWESOME!" Sasuke chortled loudly as he marched confidently out of the fun house. The plan had worked perfectly.

"I suppose it worked alright," Shikamaru said lazily. Despite his nonchalant comment, he was glad that the plan had worked. He was the one who had Googled Tenten and seen the newspaper article about her parents. He then fed this information to Sasuke.

Naruto said, "I think we should stop playing pranks for now. If we do too many, someone is going to start catching on."

Everyone raised their eyebrows at the unexpected intelligence in Naruto's words. The other boys agreed heartily and were about to praise Naruto rise in IQ levels when he spoiled it by saying, "I'm going to Ichiraku. Ja ne!" (A/N Honestly, all Naruto thinks about is ramen.)

Present

It was noon. Time to meet Neji. She pulled a pair of jeans and a white tank top out of her drawers. It was simple, yet cute at the same time. She changed quickly, trying to quell the butterflies in her stomach. Pulling her hair into her trademark two buns, she looked into the mirror one last time before rushing out of her house.

She waved her hand at Neji, who was waiting at the entrance of Konoha Park. (A/N I couldn't come up with another name for the park ok? I'm not very original.) Her steps faltered for a moment when she saw him, in all his handsome glory. He wore a black t-shirt, tight enough for Tenten to be able to see his well-developed muscles. His dark jeans fit him perfectly as well. While Tenten was ogling Neji, he was doing the same with her. His eyes traveled up and down her body, noting the small exposed space between the top of her jeans and the bottom of her top. It showed a strip of nicely tanned flat stomach. He unconsciously ran his tongue over his dry lips.

"Are you ready to go?" Neji cleared his throat, finding it difficult to talk. (Not that he ever does.)

"Yes." Almost instantly, they reached for each other's hand. Intertwining their fingers, they walked along the paved path, talking about their likes and dislikes, sports, anything they could think of. Surprisingly, (or not) they found that they had many things in common. Tenten could almost feel herself falling more and more for this guy.

Finally, Tenten announced that she wanted to lie down. She sat her butt down in the warm grass and dragged Neji down with her. They lay next to each other, wrapping their arms around each other. Tenten's head fit right under Neji's chin. He could smell the scent of raspberries coming her hair. He inhaled her scent over and over, as if he needed Tenten to be a part of him. But he feared that she already was. He had never felt this happy in his life.

Looking down, he saw that Tenten had fallen asleep, breathing softly. Neji pulled her tightly against his body. Before he joined her in sleep, he thought, "I'm telling the guys tomorrow that they're not going to carry out this plan to humiliate Tenten." He closed his eyes and fell asleep snuggled up against Tenten.

Ok, sorry about the long break between chapters. I've been scrambling to get my summer work done, and once school starts, I'll have even less time to write. But I'll keep trying to upload chapters. (I know this was probably one of the worst chapters. Sorry.)