Author's Note: So…. It has been a while! I'm in a totally different country now so that's crazy. Thank you to everyone who has commented on this story and encouraged me to keep writing! Without y'all I probably would have quietly dropped this and moved on. I'm going to be honest, I'm not entirely sure where this story is going but I'm glad to be working on it again. I'm going to go back and edit some of the older chapters because I saw some mistakes in there that need to be fixed but content wise they shouldn't change. Also I promise there won't be a fight scene in every chapter lol I just really enjoy writing fights.

I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

The trees flew underneath them in a green blur. They were moving quickly, but their speed could not match the grueling pace Gai Sensei usually set for his team. Tenten wished they would move a little bit faster. She wanted to be home soon enough to get a shower and sleep in her own bed.

The time away from her team had given her the chance to reflect on her feelings and calm down. She realized she had been a teensy bit jealous of Neji and his new girlfriend, or wife applicant, whatever he wanted to call her. She also realized she could never admit that she was jealous to another human being.

Who would she tell anyways? Neji was her best friend, and she didn't want him to feel bad. It wasn't really his fault. Lee would tell Neji. Gai Sensei… no. She had never been close with any of the kunoichi her age, except Hinata. And telling Hinata would be a disaster. She'd tell Naruto and Naruto would spin a whole story about how Tenten was in love with Neji. Which was definitely not true.

She was just lonely, and maybe a little afraid of losing her best friend.

Maybe she should start dating again. She'd never had much luck in the love department. Very few boys approached her, and when they did, they didn't stick around long. They were mostly civilian boys. Tenten assumed she was a bit too masculine or maybe eccentric for them. It didn't normally bother her. She didn't want to date someone who couldn't handle her or her ninja career.

"Let's make camp for the night." Kiba called out, breaking Tenten out of her thoughts and dropping below the tree line before Tenten could respond.

She scowled down where he had dropped. Because the mission had been centered around Kiba's nose, Kakashi had named him team leader. Which meant Tenten had to listen to what Dog boy told her to do. It was frustrating. She was obviously smarter if not more skilled than Dog boy, and definitely older and more experienced. She should have been the one leading the mission.

"We're only a few hours away from Konoha!" Tenten exclaimed, landing hard beside Kiba. He was laying his bed roll out on the ground. Hinata was nowhere in sight, probably gathering wood for a fire or refilling their canteens with water. Tenten had learned that team eight was pretty efficient and already had a way of running things. She didn't fit into that equation and hadn't really tried.

"We are at least eight hours away from Konoha!" Kiba said. Akamaru barked in agreement beside him, laying his head down on his paws and yawning.

"We could make it there in four hours easily!"

"We would have to run pretty fucking fast to make it to Konoha in four hours," Kiba glared at Tenten. "I am the mission leader and I think we should stop for the night."

Tenten was glaring right back at Kiba and would have argued more if Hinata had not made her entrance right then. She smoothly slipped between the two angry ninjas and set some firewood down.

"Who wants to make the fire?" She asked, obviously aware of their argument but choosing to ignore it. She had a bandage on her cheek from where she had gotten a little too close to one of Tenten's exploding kunai tags. Thankfully, that had been the only injury the whole team had sustained, but Tenten still felt a little guilty for not warning the girl in time and immediately went to help her with the fire.

"Tenten, do you mind being lookout tonight?" Kiba's question sounded more like a command. Tenten gritted her teeth. Not only were they stopping unnecessarily, but she couldn't even sleep during their break?

Regardless, Tenten grumbled out a yes as she finished making the fire. Kiba was already curling up with Akamaru and Hinata sent her a grateful smile as she went and joined the pair. Tenten jumped onto the branch of a nearby tree in order to have the best visual range while on lookout.

To keep herself entertained and awake, she flipped a kunai in her hands over and over again. She wanted to go home. She decided that if she had to be the one to keep watch she was going to wake them up in a few hours and demand they finish their trek to Konoha.

Sitting there in that tree, her eyes began to get heavy and sting. She fought back a big yawn and stretched out her shoulders. A cold breeze passed through, making her shiver. How much longer should she let them sleep, she wondered. Another hour or so?

To keep herself up and moving, Tenten began carving random shapes into the tree branch she was straddling. A star, some hearts, a star, anything she could think of. The bark came up easily to her satisfaction.

A sudden noise nearby made her ears perk up. She stood up, kunai out, and glanced around. She didn't see anything. She looked over to where Hinata, Kiba, and Akamaru slept. Akamaru seemed to have noticed the noise too because he was blinking sleep from his eyes slowly and checking his surroundings.

Tenten didn't see anything. It could have just been an animal or even the wind that made that sound. But something inside of her said it was more than that. She cautiously jumped from her tree and landed lightly beside Kiba and Hinata. Being ninja, they instantly woke up at the sound. Kiba jumped onto all fours, like Akamaru, and Hinata's face tensed as she activated her byakugon. The veins around her eyes stood out alarmingly against her beautiful face.

"Behind us." Her voice was a whisper in the wind, barely loud enough for Kiba and Tenten to hear. But that was all they needed. They both moved as if they had been teammates for years, Tenten immediately summoning weapons from her scrolls as she dove for the trees and Kiba running with Akamaru in the direction Hinata had indicated. They were trained ninjas, and they moved like it.

Hinata stood slowly and stayed behind the other two, being their eyes in the dark. "Kiba, there's two slightly to your left. Tenten someone is circling behind."

Tenten nodded moved to face the other direction. She squinted into the darkness of the trees in an attempt to see the enemy but saw nothing.

"Tenten, seven o'clock. Be careful, I think he's a fire user."

Tenten instantly turned on her heel and felt a blast of heat as she did. The fire passed so close to her a few of the little hairs on her arms disintegrated, and the trunk beside her was scorched. The smell of burning wood filled the air, and smoke clouded Tenten's already limited vision.

"Everyone okay?" Kiba's voice was breathless and strained. "I smell fire."

Tenten didn't have time to respond as another fireball was lobbed in her direction. Whoever was throwing the fire must have had terrible aim, Tenten thought, because despite the large size of the fireballs, they weren't hitting her. A flaming tree branch nearly snapped and fell to the earth, catching several sections of the tree ablaze. Smoke started to fill the air, catching in Tenten's throat and making her cough. She stood her ground, knowing despite the fire she would be able to fight best from the trees.

In retaliation to the fireballs, Tenten released a handful of senbon in the direction they had come from. The senbon didn't have to hit perfectly; any hit would be helpful. Each thin blade was coated in a poison that would incapacitate the victim for several hours.

The sound of a man's yelp made Tenten grin. He wouldn't be shooting fireballs at her for much longer. It would only take a few minutes for the poison to kick in.

She was pulling out another scroll, preparing to summon more weapons, when the next fireball came from a direction she hadn't been expecting. It slammed into her side, the heat licking up arms and ribs quickly, and knocked her out of the tree. She hit the ground hard but didn't let it stun her. Instead, she immediately began rolling on the ground in an attempt to smother the painful flames eating her clothes.

Tenten breathed a sigh of relief as the flames disappeared and a loud thump came from a few feet away from her as the man's unconscious body hit the forest floor. She turned to go help Kiba and Hinata but didn't have a chance as they were both running over to her. Other than a few bruises and cuts, and one nasty looking burn on Kiba's leg, the pair seemed to have done well in their own battles.

"You okay, Tenten?" Hinata said as her eyes trailed over her body, catching on the burns on her side. Her byakugon was still activated, and Tenten knew from experience that she wasn't looking at surface level damage.

"Well, on the bright side I can feel my stomach, so the nerves aren't too damaged from the fire," Tenten said brightly. "On the downside, I can feel my stomach and it fucking hurts."

Kiba snorted, "I'll take it that means you're okay. Neither of us know any healing jutsu, so we'll just have to wrap it up and get it fixed when we're home."

"Sounds good to me, are your guys dead? I left mine alive but unconscious, so I need to tie him up if we're staying for a while." Tenten said with her head tilted towards the body lying a few feet from them.

"I've got the bodies." Hinata said as she moved towards where Tenten had left her opponent. "You two handle your injuries."

"Yes, Mom." Kiba grumbled. Hinata flashed a smile over her shoulder at him as she continued walking away. Akamaru, seemingly unharmed, came bounding past her with a roll of bandages in his mouth. Kiba took them from him and gave him a pat on the head in thanks.

Tenten couldn't help but wrinkle her nose, "Won't those have his saliva on them?"

Kiba shot her a glare at the same time Akamaru gave a short bark that sounded reproachful. "I promise you, it's fine."

"Okay, okay." Tenten surrendered without a fight, raising her hands up by her head. "Do you need any help wrapping your leg?"

"No thanks, but do you have any water?" Kiba asked as he sat on the ground with his leg out. Tenten had to forcibly stop herself from commenting on how rusty his kunai was as he pulled one out of his pouch and cut his pants leg right above his knee, removing the burned portion and exposing his wound better. He winced as he pulled away a portion that had gotten stuck to the tender skin.

"Yeah, here." Tenten passed her canteen of water over to him and watched as he drizzled some of the water onto his leg.

He sighed in relief as the water touched the burns. "Man, that felt good. You should do it too."

Tenten followed his lead, letting the water run over the burns that she now noticed spanned from the top of her rib cage down past her hip and in splotches over her arm. She was thankful that was the only hit he had landed.

"This would feel even better if the water were cold." Tenten said. She couldn't help but whine a little as she said it.

"It would." Kiba agreed. He was already wrapping his leg with the bandages Akamaru had retrieved. "I don't think we'll find any cold water around here, though."

"I think you're right." Tenten said wistfully, imagining how good it would feel to sink into a bath of ice water. Now that the adrenaline was dying down all she could feel was the heat radiating from her side.

Hinata rejoined them as Kiba tied off the bandages around Tenten's waist. They had managed to salvage enough of her shirt to keep her modestly covered, but just barely. She ignored the blush on Kiba's cheeks, wishing it were Neji or Lee helping her. They wouldn't make this awkward, they were ninjas, they were used to things like this. What did Kiba do when Hinata was injured, stand around gawking?

"I think they were just run of the mill bandits, hoping to rob us," Hinata announced without preamble. Her face was back to normal, just her big white eyes and no bulging veins. Not for the first time Tenten wondered how people who weren't used to the byakugon reacted to the jutsu. "Do you two want to head back now or rest a little longer?"

Kiba stretched his arms out above his head, yawning so wide that his jaw popped. "I could go for a few more hours of sleep, but I think we should head back to Konoha."

Tenten frowned at his burned leg, "Are you going to be able to run with that?"

"Sure, think you can keep up?"

Six hours later they arrived at the gates of Konoha a sweaty, dirty, tired, and sore mess. Hinata was the only one who looked presentable. Kiba and Tenten were leaning against each other and panting.

"There are literal pools of sweat in my burns and it feels like acid." Tenten said in a high-pitched whine, fanning her face with the arm she didn't have propped against Kiba's bicep.

"I think my leg is going to fall off."

"I think I lost a rib along the way, have you seen it? Akamaru, did you grab it?"

Akamaru barked and wagged his tail.

"I have no idea what that means."

"He said it was delicious." Kiba said.

Hinata's eyes were shining and she had a small grin on her face, "We could have waited to return."

"Then we'd just be sitting around complaining about how much pain we were in." Tenten pointed out.

"This way we'll get healed faster and the faster we get healed the faster we can go to sleep." Kiba added.

"Alright then, let's get you two to the hospital." Hinata said.

The three of them made their way to the hospital with minimal stares. The streets weren't too busy, due to it being around ten in the morning on a Monday. Most people were at work or school. Most people were also used to seeing the ninjas arrive in a wide variety of states. Still, Kiba and Tenten looked as if they had rolled around in a pile of dirt for a few hours and Tenten was wearing more bandages than shirt. So they received a few stares.

It didn't take long for the three of them to make it to the hospital and be treated, their burns faded to a particularly bad sunburn. Tenten nearly sobbed in relief as the green light soothed her skin but she held it in because she didn't want Kiba to make fun of her.

A nurse gave her a spare t-shirt to replace the blouse she had been wearing. It was plain black and functional, so Tenten accepted it with a thanks even though it had come from the hospitals lost and found. It was better than wearing a hospital gown.

Kiba and Hinata waited until she was ready to leave, so the three of them could leave together. Tenten thought it was sweet of them considering she wasn't really a part of their team. She wasn't sure if she would have thought to wait for them if she had been the first one done.

"Do you want to come by my place, Tenten?" Hinata asked.

Tenten couldn't resist a yawn as she shook her head. "Too tired, but thanks. Maybe I could stop by tonight for dinner?"

"That would be lovely," Hinata smiled. "I'll see you around six?"

"Sounds good to me."

Hinata waved as she turned down the road that lead to the Hyuga compound. That left Tenten and Kiba walking in semi-companionable silence. Tenten found that now that Kiba wasn't her team leader she didn't hate him as much. She would probably even be happy to be assigned to a mission with him as long as she was the team leader. He was still Dog boy, though.

"So, Tenten, how come we never hang out?" Kiba asked.

Tenten stopped walking for a second and he continued without her. She waited until she had caught back up to answer.

"I don't think we have a lot of the same interests?" Tenten said with her voice going up with a question.

"Sure we do." He said easily. "I can show you we do. How about we do something this Friday night?"

She frowned, "Do you mean like a date?"

"It could be, yeah, what do you say?"

Tenten was quiet for several moments as they continued walking. She stared at the sky with her head tilted. A date with Dog boy? Kiba? She had just been thinking she should go on more dates, but she hadn't had Kiba in mind.

She turned her head to Kiba who was purposefully not looking at her and walking with his hands in his jacket pockets. Despite still being a little disheveled from the mission, he wasn't unattractive, he had nice hair and pretty good style. She liked how he painted his face. He was a little too impulsive and cocky for her tastes, but she knew he also had some good qualities.

Why not go on a date with Kiba? A date wasn't a big commitment, and who knows, maybe she would find she enjoyed spending time with him. At least he was a ninja and couldn't complain about her job or be freaked out by her.

"You know what, sure, it's a date." Tenten said as they reached the door to her apartment. She turned to him and said firmly, "Seven PM, don't be late."

He grinned wide back at her, and she noted for the first time that he had dimples. It was the first time she had ever really paid any detailed attention to his face.

"Yes, ma'am." He mock saluted before opening her door for her. "I'll see you around then."

"Sure." Tenten said and walked inside. She immediately stripped and crawled into her bed but found she couldn't fall asleep.

Was she really going to go on a date with Kiba? She wasn't even sure if she liked him as a friend. And since when did he like her? None of the other leaf ninja kids ever expressed any kind of interest in her.

And not that it mattered, Tenten told herself firmly, but what was Neji going to say?

She groaned at the thought and rolled over, shoving her face in the pillow.