Author's Note: Set years into the distant future, with obscure references to the Fourth Shinobi Would War, this is probably the most, uh, mature piece I've ever written. It is nothing truly explicit, I should think, but be advised: there are references to sex and a serious case of authorial fabrication, invention and creative licence. But it's all for a good cause, because we all know that Tenten and Neji were meant for each other.

Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto, nor NATO's definition of 'human intelligence'.

Human Intelligence:

a category of intelligence derived from information collected and provided by human sources

-#-

"…sorry," he says, hoarsely and a bit awkwardly, as he flops down next to her on the mattress. His movements are a shade slower, less fluid than usual; and it's more than a little strange to think that, somehow, she did that.

"Don't be," she replies at once, sated and breathless, because she has always been honest with him, from the moment they met, and old habits really do die hard.

Granted that he wouldn't kiss her mouth even once, and that it hurt quite a bit before it got better, but he was nervous and she was nervous and that alone almost makes up for discovering that he most certainly knew what he was doing.

(Not that she can bring herself to resent him for it. Never. After all, it was experience that allowed him to do exactly what he was supposed to – and more, so much more, but surely he could tell? – and the kunoichi in her understands this perfectly. In fact, that part of her might even have expected as much, because he is only twenty-two years old, strong, handsome and unclaimed, and even the best of their kind die far too young.)

Still, it bothered her – before she lost herself in him, that is – this facet of his life that has been completely unknown to her until tonight, and to which she obviously doesn't belong. Just as it bothers her now that he so clearly regrets what they have done.

(She had no right to ask this of him. No right no right no right. But then, she was always sort of selfish.

And he could have said no.)

"I hope," he ventures, a little stiffly, "that this wasn't too unpleasant for you…?"

He is looking straight at her – she could always tell – and she realizes that he is worried that he hurt her, but is too tactful to ask outright.

(Perhaps it is a bit unfair to him, but, seriously, who would have thought?)

She shakes her head, uncaring about the pitch-black that separates him from her, because the mere absence of light means very little to someone like him. "I'm fine," she says with a small smile, and she is, truly, though it is pretty much a foregone conclusion that she'll be hella sore in the morning.

"But you cried." He hesitates. "I saw it, when I…"

He trails off, but she can't quite make out from the sound of his voice alone whether or not he owes it to embarrassment (or perhaps a second or third reason) and she wishes, not for the first time, that she too was blessed with all-seeing Hyuuga eyes.

So she waits. And when he speaks again, he is strangely quiet.

"Tenten, why were you crying?"

She supposes that there are several answers to that, but for some inexplicable, wholly peculiar reason, the first thing to pop into her head is the Ninja Code – and one precept in particular.

Rule 25: A shinobi must never show emotion.

Because unlike Sakura, who is scarred and struggling, and gentle Hinata who may never get it completely right, she lives and kills by the rules she was taught. Even Number 25 is no exception, although that one rule had been the hardest to stomach by far. But those were the early days – the beginning of her very own Once Upon A Time – when she was just starting out: she had been but a scant fledgling then, so young and naïve and awfully rose-tainted, and still falling out of trees and struggling with even the most basic D-rank techniques. But so had they, dammit, and the whole world had been theirs for the taking all the same, because they were Konoha's Team Gai: he, she and Lee together. They had been one another's first backs to watch, sworn shadows-in-waiting long before Naruto showed up and Sasuke faltered; not to mention that they had been stronger, sharper, better than any other cell by the time all hell finally broke loose less than six years later.

So it's an appropriate tribute to those golden years of mostly undisturbed camaraderie (and to Gai-sensei, of course, for tirelessly proclaiming everlasting youth to everything T-E-A-M over and over and over, until one mad dash around the village too many, it stuck) that they have remained so close even after their paths diverged forever: his to the elite ANBU, Lee's to the Academy and hers to a somewhere in between. Because even now, years later, Neji-buntaichou and Lee-sensei are still her boys and they always will be, and perhaps this is why she understands that Rule 25 is especially important.

…and it makes her feel like the biggest hypocrite ever, because there are probably all sorts of rules and regulations against this kind of 'extracurricular liaison', as if asking this of him wasn't ever not going to be utterly unreasonable all in its own right. But the small part of her that isn't fully kunoichi is only human and needy and inherently selfish, and that side of her knows that all of her desired him tonight.

(It is such a dangerous line of thought, and she is foolish to speculate because she isn't a sensor like Ino, a tactical mastermind like Shikamaru or a people-person extraordinaire like Naruto, but what if—)

So she decides to take a chance, go out on a limb and be daring, because just for tonight daring is allowed. She draws the line firmly at that, though, and the irony is not lost on her, but the next logical step would be flirting and she couldn't possibly be coy and delicate with him now; she is almost an hour – or nearly eight years, depending on how you look at it – too late for that.

"You surprised me," she says instead, lightly. "But afterwards wasn't… so bad."

"I take it, then, that the experience was to your liking."

He replies a bit too readily not to sound relieved. And smug, it dawns on her only a heartbeat later.

Tenten would, under more normal circumstances, never in a million years let him walk away – unharmed – from such a truly moronic and conceited remark. But as it happens, he has actually got a valid point this time, and it definitely doesn't help that she can't risk flinging any sharp, pointy objects at him just yet. They still spar, occasionally, between missions, so he's better acquainted with her personal brand of lethal than most living people, and as a former teammate there is no way he would let her live it down once he noticed – yes, once, because he's too good a ninja not to – that the exertion from earlier has left her aim somewhat less bull's-eye perfect than usual.

(Not to mention that he is still the same freaking genius with surround vision he always was, and an ANBU squad captain to her jounin, which makes a decisive victory by K.O. that much harder nowadays.)

But forgiving him for being mannish and annoying is a small price to pay for this – which is all for her – even the knowledge that she would be too overwhelmed to fight all-out so soon after. Because isn't this why he is here, in her apartment, in her bed, with her, in the middle of the night?

(It is, it is, it is! but only partly.)

They called it 'human intelligence' at the Academy, and she supposes that this makes him 'her' human – sort of – though she is still undecided on whether it is something very nice or just extremely tragic. But it is crucial that she knows exactly what to expect from her body (and her mind, because the mind is equally important) should something go horribly, horribly wrong on the actual night and her plan not to let her target even as much as touch her go down in jet-black Amaterasu flames.

Never mind that she has never crashed and burned quite like that before, ever – and that she would have been more than happy to run through her normal preparation routines instead of resorting to this – but a wise woman once said that it is better to be fussy and overly prepared than vulnerable and dead. And this mission promises to be vastly different from any of her past undertakings, and that requires extra care.

But even so, all that is still some days off, and… well, she's safe now, isn't she?

She stifles a yawn before settling down on her side of the bed a bit more comfortably. She briefly entertains the idea of excusing herself to clean up, but abandons that thought almost immediately: he might misunderstand and leave, and she doesn't particularly want him to go. Not yet, anyway.

(Or at all.)

"You know…" she says, a little sheepishly, in a brave attempt to keep their stunted conversation going. "You've probably heard it before, but, uh, everyone says it's like controlling chakra. 'The first time is the hardest', and all that."

Then she waits. But there is absolutely nothing. No forced chuckle, not even a polite cough, and she is beyond relieved, because the Neji of old would sooner give in to Gai-sensei and get himself a pair of woolly legwarmers to go with the spandex than ever extending any courtesies whatsoever to that; a crude, immature joke that is especially inappropriate considering. The distinct lack of the usual, disapproving Look is a little worrisome, however, because no living soul in the Village of the Hidden Leaf does the Look better than a Hyuuga. Sans Hinata, of course, though her cold fish for a father has made sure that fierce little Hanabi more than makes up for it.

(Obviously, Tenten is a purely objective and impartial outsider, harbouring absolutely no grudges or justified biases against strange, clannish behaviour.)

Instead she can feel him shifting beside her. It is only a very slight movement, and he has been careful not to touch any part of her since she cried out his name, but she knows him like she knows her own shuriken, and the horrible, bothered feeling from earlier resurfaces with a vengeance.

"I'm glad it was you," she murmurs, just to have had it said before it's too late, and it's so, so true that it almost hurts. "You and not…"

She doesn't finish. But there is no need to, because sometimes no words say it better.

He clears his throat, and she can't help thinking – because this part of a ninja's brain is always switched on, always alert, always ready – that it makes for an enticing target even in the dark. Given the close proximity of her body to his, she could easily silence him forever with the sharp edge of a steel fan or a few lacquered senbon, and neither would require virtually any stealth or effort.

(A civilian wouldn't stand a chance.)

(She'll have to remember this for later.)

"When?"

His voice is piercing in the darkness, and admittedly, this she did not expect.

It is forbidden to discuss upcoming assignments with anyone outside the immediate cell, and they both know that it is pointless to ask for details that she can't – shouldn't – give him. But he is Neji and she is Tenten and that complicates things, because she trusts him with her life (despite the original Team Gai disbanding ages ago and the fact that they no longer are quite what they used to be) for the sole reason that he trusts her with his.

"In two days," she relents, in a deliberately neutral tone, because that will be all.

(Because even solid trust to one side, he's with the ANBU now and everyone knows that the ANBU has a life all of its own.)

Not that she believes, even for a second, that he has been sent to spy on her or to somehow interfere with her mission – though Special Branch can help themselves to this one for all she cares – but Tenten is an experienced kunoichi of the Leaf, as swift and deadly as they come, and she leaves nothing to chance. She's methodical, cautious and feared; and Tsunade-sama didn't have to tell her twice that Konoha needs her at her very best.

On paper, her orders are relatively simple – get in, get out and should worst come to worst, don't let the bastards take you alive – and the assignment itself is hardly anything out of the ordinary – infiltrate, assassinate and pass Godaime's office for debriefing on the way home – but it's a given in their particular line of work that nothing is ever quite as painless and straightforward as it seems. In fact, the long, shadowy road to payday is normally paved with no end of complications, more complications and some complementary nasty surprises.

(And those are the good days.)

Her target this time is an endlessly cruel, endlessly violent and endlessly greedy (but then they usually are) arms dealer stirring up trouble in the West. It's a poor area, politically unstable and it beats her why a delegation of very concerned neighbouring states would travel all the way to Fire Country to request aid. But it's not her place to question their intentions: Tsunade-sama's instructions were absolute, and that is good enough for her.

Besides, Konoha needs the money and Konoha is home, and Tenten is a kunoichi and kunoichi can't afford to be squeamish. She's no stranger to using her womanly wiles to worm herself closer to her targets than any masked ANBU squad captain ever could, but at twenty (and a few), she has yet to properly seduce anyone. Even tonight doesn't really count, because he was the one seducing her and not the other way around. So with that in mind, and like so many women before her, she asked a man from her village to be her first so at least that might be of her own free will.

He didn't refuse her when she came to him, and even though it was awkward to undress and be undressed by someone she has fought side by side with since they were both short, genin and twelve, it was much easier than she had expected. And he had been surprisingly gentle with her, humming soothingly in her ear when she bit into his shoulder.

She loves him for being so understanding, she thinks, blinking blindly into the darkness.

No, she corrects herself. She doesn't love him any differently from how she loves Lee and Gai-sensei, because loving Neji would be to feel for him and that is impossible. She wouldn't let herself while growing up, and now she can't, because even though he is Neji and she is Tenten and a frightening number of former teammates somehow end up either dead or married (or both), it simply wouldn't be right to do something so stupid as to risk his everything as well. They were a team once, the best of comrades who would have done just about anything to keep each other alive, but there are rules and a family and a friendship to consider – and the fact that he wouldn't kiss her mouth even once.

(Why? Why wouldn't he? Who is the woman on his mind? Who is she? Who?)

Tenten is a ninja and ends lives for a living, and as such she knows that this shouldn't upset her. But it does. She is being silly and irrational and too much of a woman, and she knows that she can't afford to be any of those things or the people who count on her may die. But tonight he was hers – and only hers – and she doesn't want to know any better or be any smarter until tomorrow morning at the very earliest.

(It's such a shame that she can't blame any of this on the alcohol, but he refused to do it drunk.

She's glad that he did.)

"Mission rank?"

The kunoichi inside wants to lash out at him for asking something he knows she has no right to answer – the stubborn idiot just had to go there, didn't he? – but they're Neji and Tenten and to hell with all the regulations they haven't broken yet, just for tonight.

And before she knows it, her breath comes out in a low hiss that may or may not be a long, drawn-out 'S'.

(It is.)

Suddenly, there is movement again, and she wonders if this will be the part where he leaves. So she shuts her eyes and listens; her eyesight might not be nearly as penetrating as his, but her hearing is just as reliable, and there is no way that she'll ask him straight out. But if anything, the sound of his breathing feels closer.

He's waiting, she thinks. But what on earth for?

She turns slightly towards where she thinks he is, and this is just as much as a challenge as it is invitation, but he surprises her when he reaches out and captures her right hand firmly in his and just holds in there – for exactly ten heartbeats – before lacing their fingers together into a tight knot. This is different and tentative and new; and when he slowly wraps his free arm around her and pulls her towards him, she lets him.

Then he kisses her, gently, and although it isn't her first (and definitely not his either, she can tell), it is everything she ever imagined his kiss to be.

"We didn't do that before," she murmurs against his skin, because they didn't didn't didn't, and now that they have, their dynamics have changed again.

He heaves a heavy sigh, as if all the world's S-ranked missions were on his shoulders, but she sort of likes how she can feel his chest move.

"Forgive me," he breathes, and it is such utterly un-Neji-ish behaviour that she is tempted to turn on the light to check. "I… I shouldn't be so selfish."

His hold around her weakens, but she doesn't move; she doesn't dare.

"I'm such a fool," he whispers after a while, and strong, calm, reliable Neji sounds so small and uncertain and bitter that her heart breaks a little. "But when you asked for… for this, I couldn't help but thinking – hoping – that you chose me because you wanted it to be."

There is a funny, funny feeling growing in her chest and she can hardly breathe.

"It wasn't supposed to happen, but it was you and… and I couldn't make myself not wishing for something impossible."

He feels for her, she realizes. She never knew, but Neji feels for her.

"I was going to tell you, Tenten. I was always going to tell you. But—" an empty, self-depreciating laugh, "—that's just the kind of pathetic coward I am."

She doesn't agree. Not at all, because nobody is braver (except for Lee, maybe), but there is something she must know first.

"N-Neji?" she chokes out, because it's so much easier to think the words than to speak them.

(Since when?)

"I suppose it doesn't matter now," he mutters, more to himself than to her. "…years."

Again that sad little laugh, and suddenly she can't take it anymore. She pushes herself away from him, ignoring the way his breath hikes under her hands.

"You!" she declares with her most chakra-curdling glare. "You, Hyuuga Neji, really are stupid!"

There is a long moment of nothing. Then a single, indignant, "…excuse me?"

(Though what she really hears is confusion, frustration, bruised pride and a miniscule, miniscule sliver of hope.)

"I said you're stupid," she repeats as calmly as she can, which isn't easy, because he has got this so, so wrong. "Why didn't you say anything until now? What was the point of living in misery for so long, you masochistic idiot?"

Then she pulls him in – yanks, really – and she kisses him, furiously, until she's satisfied that whatever memories he might have picked up along the way pale in comparison.

"Only you," she murmurs, forehead resting against his. "Only you would decide something like this on your own."

"What…are you…?"

She grins. He sounds a little breathless and completely disoriented, which is incredibly adorable and incredibly strange all at once; Neji isn't exactly vocal even on a good day, and concise to a fault when he's in one of his moods, but he is normally rather eloquent.

(It's probably just another clan thing, though, because she and Lee turned out just fine.)

"Me too, you stupid Hyuuga," she says as if it were the most natural thing in the world. And perhaps it is.

"Tenten." He sounds so wistful that the civilian part of her melts a little. "Are you sure about this?"

(Yes! she wants to yell in his face – yes, yes, yes, yes, – because she has never felt more certain about anything.)

"It's not…uncommon for women to…to be… and especially after…" Pause. "Damn it, Tenten! You know what I mean!"

She does know, and she can tell that it has taken a lot out of him to express his feelings for her and that he has reached the absolute limit of what his closed-off little heart can handle (definitely a clan thing), but she is touched that he is trying.

"So it would be wrong to take advantage of your emotional state," he finishes quickly and quietly.

"Thank you, Neji," she says, wriggling a little against him so that she can hear his heartbeat through his chest. It is such a childish and sentimental and utterly cliché thing to do, but she thinks that she can learn to be okay with that. "But I'm sure that my emotional state is just fine."

He sighs again. But it's a deep, contented sigh this time; and it is wonderful and satisfying and maybe even a bit terrifying to think that she did that, too.

There is undisturbed silence for a few minutes, and she is about to fall asleep when he murmurs into her hair:

"Be careful."

She makes the point of untangling herself from him, and he reluctantly lets go of enough of her that she can prop herself up on one elbow and smirk haughtily into what she guesstimates is his face.

"They won't know what hit them."