Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto (yet).

For my bestie Chocolvr69, who – despite (or maybe because of) her obsession with shirtless guys, piano players, and Itachi Uchiha – made this a year to remember. :) And now…onward to Chapter 16!

Sakura socked him across the jaw. Hard.

There. That would wipe the idiotic smirk off his face. She cracked her knuckles violently, watching in stony satisfaction as Sasuke reeled backwards, crashing unceremoniously against a tree trunk.

"What were you saying about me pining after you?" Sakura fisted her hands at her hips in an effort to keep her tone cold and carefully controlled. Coated with iron, laced with steel. Inside, she was a tangled and bewildered mess, a million different emotions rocketing through her bloodstream and aggravating her frayed nerve endings. But she would be damned if she let Sasuke see even an ounce of that.

A tension-clogged second passed before Sasuke pushed himself off from the tree, his coal-black eyes glowering at her. He raised a hand to his jawbone, wincing as his fingers grazed the rapidly spreading bruise. As he took in the tightness of Sakura's features and the fierce set of her chin, his mind rewound through the past sixty seconds.

A flash of anger seared through him. Anger at Sakura, for pushing him off the brink of rationality. Anger at himself, for his frustrating inability to confine his emotions in a dark and obscure corner of his mind. Anger at Naruto, for leaving the two of them alone. Anger at Neji, for having the gall to take Sakura on two dates. Two fucking dates.

"Why did you do that?" Sakura's steely voice broke through his thoughts like a sword slicing through flesh. "Why?"

Sasuke clenched and unclenched his fists, ruthlessly curbing the outpouring of "I don't know dammit, I DON'T KNOW!" that threatened to burst from him. He'd already had one lapse of control; he couldn't afford another. So instead, Sasuke fixed his gaze on Sakura, careful to conceal his inner turmoil beneath a layer of icy indifference as he gave his answer.

"I did it…because I could."

It was true, in a way. Sasuke didn't know what the hell had possessed him to close the distance between him and Sakura…to trap her against the tree and breathe in her intoxicatingly familiar scent…to lean in so close that their breaths became one… But he knew with cold certainty why he had pulled away. It was because he could.

Because if for some reason, he couldn't, Sasuke would know that he'd lost all control of his heart. Once he relinquished jurisdiction over his tightly confined emotions, chaos would break loose. And to someone like Uchiha Sasuke – someone who had spent a decade painstakingly constructing an insurmountable barrier around his heart – that was entirely unacceptable.

Sasuke stood still, his back rigid and his features hard, as he forced himself to watch the play of emotions across Sakura's face. They flashed across her countenance like clockwork, exactly as he had predicted. First, disbelief. Then a flicker of hurt. And finally, a stiff mask of anger.

But in the space of a breath, all traces of feeling vanished from Sakura's face. Instead, a dispassionate smirk twisted her lips, mirroring the chilly remoteness in her eyes. Shock tore through Sasuke's gut, lodging disconcertingly within him.

"It's funny how you say that." Sakura's voice seemed distant, detached, and yet all too real. "Why do you think I didn't push you away?" She let the question linger in the air for a single strained moment before continuing. "It wasn't because I couldn't, but rather because I could…and chose not to." Sakura forced the blatant lies through her teeth, all the while maintaining a frozen façade, her gaze unwavering and impassive. Two could play at this game. "Did it ever occur to you, Sasuke…that I was toying with you? That I was simply biding my time, to see how far you'd go?"

She searched his face, watching for the aftereffects of her words. But there was no flare of incredulity, no sign of pain or confusion or even irritation. Just the same exasperating blankness.

Sakura took a deep breath through her nose, and let it out slowly through her mouth. It didn't help. She had already reached her boiling point.

"Go to hell, Uchiha Sasuke," she snapped. And then, after impaling him with her deadliest glare, she turned on her heel and strode away. Away from this madness, this mess. Away from the insanity that threatened to overturn her entire world.

Sasuke waited until her footsteps had faded into the foliage before he slammed a fist into the tree behind him, viciously denting the bark.

It didn't make him feel any better.

-x-

"This…is harder…than Gai-sensei's…endurance…training," Neji said between heavy breaths, completely winded after twenty minutes of intense nonstop Chicken.

"But you wouldn't…stand a chance…against Gai-sensei…in this game," Tenten managed to gasp out, equally breathless as she crouched into a defensive stance, a difficult position considering she was still balanced on one leg.

"And you…would?" Neji cocked an eyebrow, all the while eyeing the headband dangling from his teammate's waist.

Tenten scoffed at him. "I can hold…my own…against anyone."

"Hold your own, perhaps…but can you…win?"

Before Tenten could even blink, Neji was flying at her, his arm aimed straight at the Leaf insignia on her headband. In a last-ditch effort to dodge him, Tenten lunged to the left, twisting away from Neji and losing her balance in the process.

But she had planned it that way. It was her trump card – a secret weapon she only used on the wiliest of opponents. It never failed. Ever.

As her leg gave out beneath her, Tenten threw her momentum forward, pitching her entire body towards Neji's headband. She made no move to grab it, intending to catch him off guard. It worked. Capitalizing on his confusion, Tenten rammed her head into his stomach. She inwardly cheered as he landed with an audible thump on the tree branch. Now. Her arm shot out in a frightening burst of speed, tearing through the air toward her bounty. Yes. Fingers curling around the metal plate, she ripped Neji's headband away and gave a triumphant whoop. Tenten looked up, a victorious expression already painted across her face.

Neji slowly picked himself up. And then, in a moment that wiped the smile right off of Tenten's face, a self-satisfied grin stole across his features. He held up his left hand, flashing her headband at her.

"How…what…when…?" Tenten sputtered.

"When you were preoccupied with stealing my headband," Neji replied, a smug smile still sitting on his lips.

"So we…TIED?" Tenten burst out, her voice saturated with indignation and a touch of wounded pride.

"Hn." Neji snorted. "You can think what you like. But I most assuredly grabbed your headband before you grabbed mine."

Tenten opened her mouth to reply. But rather than a scathing retort, a surprised giggle came out instead. She took one look at Neji's face – his proud, regal features quickly melting into irritated confusion – and the chuckles bubbling up inside her chest turned into full-blown guffaws. She laughed like she had never laughed before, laughed with her sides shaking, laughed until her insides hurt.

And all Neji could do was stare. At first, he stared because his usually levelheaded teammate had apparently gone completely, utterly, inexplicably insane. But then, he simply stared because he could not have looked away even if the continuation of his clan's kekkei genkai depended on it. The slanting sunbeams formed a weightless frame, with Tenten as the centerpiece. Her eyes were shut, long lashes fanning across her skin. Her eyebrows drew together, scrunching across her brow, as she put a loosely fisted hand up to her mouth to stifle the giggles.

This could be my reality, Neji thought absently, the pad of his thumb running across the emblem on Tenten's headband, still clutched in his hand. Every day. Just sitting on a tree branch and watching Tenten laugh, without a care in the world.

His headband was suddenly thrust under his nose, halting his dangerous train of thought. Tenten was grinning at him, the corners of her mouth indenting her cheeks.

"Next time," she said. "I am so going to –"

"Lose again?" Neji cut in.

Tenten skewered him with a glare. "Kick your ass," she finished matter-of-factly.

Neji just smirked, grabbing his proffered headband and leaning forward to return Tenten's.

Somehow, as their respective headbands changed hands, Neji and Tenten ended up knocking heads. And somehow, as Tenten was rubbing a palm across her temple, Neji ended up taking her chin in his hand, tilting it upward to inspect her forehead. For some unfathomable reason, as Neji paused to run his fingertips along the bruise, Tenten ended up reaching forward and turning his face towards hers. And beyond all bounds of logic and sanity, as both were caught in each other's eyes, their lips ended up locking in a kiss.

It wasn't a bright, intense flare of passion. Nor was it a fiery meeting of barely-repressed ardor. No, this kiss was tentative, cautious. A soft brushing of lips, a gentle melding of hearts. But there was something more to it. Something intense and incredible. Something that was almost…inevitable.

Yes, that was the word, Neji thought distractedly as he slanted his mouth across Tenten's, unconsciously deepening the kiss. Inevitable. Their noses bumped lightly, and Neji breathed in the scent of fresh soap and spring grass. It was as if he'd been an aimless shadow wandering through life, waiting to experience this exact moment – watching Tenten laugh, pulling her close, kissing her and tasting the future on her lips. It almost felt like fate had been twiddling its thumbs, expecting this of him all along.

A startled shiver slid down Neji's spine as the thoughts digested in his mind. Expected of him…expected of him…expected of him… The familiar words reverberated through his skull like bells at a funeral.

Neji certainly knew what was expected of him, and nowhere in those expectations could fit even a small sliver of breathing room for an impulsive, unprompted kiss. Especially with his teammate, of all people.

Frantic anxiety seized his brain. Neji wrenched himself away, doubling the distance between him and Tenten. His heart hammered inside his chest, the sound throbbing painfully through the corridors of his mind. His breathing was forced and unsteady as he gathered up the courage to meet Tenten's gaze.

What he saw nearly knocked him off the tree branch. Neji could almost see himself reflected in Tenten's eyes, wide with disbelief and glassy with…

A pang seized his chest, hurting more than a hundred chakra-laden jabs to his vitals. Was that elusive, indefinable expression in her eyes…regret?

Neji couldn't pinpoint the black tightness that squeezed mercilessly around his heart. All he knew was that he felt like a broken-winged bird being forced back into his cage…and he couldn't stand it. He was certain of what Tenten would say next, could even see her lips forming the words. Neji, this can't happen again, she'd tell him, her tone apologetic. And then she'd put her hand on his shoulder, or hug him as if he were a small child, or some other maddening gesture. So Neji did the only thing he could to salvage the situation.

He beat her to the punch.

Pasting a look of haughty indifference on his face, he looked Tenten squarely in the eye. "From this point forward, what happened today can never repeat itself."

Author's Note: Happy New Year's Eve to you all! And THANK YOU for the spectacular influx of lovely reviews. They were a wonderful epilogue to a wonderful year. :) You guys are amazing!