Naruto knew exactly what was going on as he looked back and forth between his two friends, grinning from ear to ear every time Neji cast him a warning glare. He'd been doing so every few minutes, ever since the night before when Tenten came back to the camp. Naruto had made a few…innocent comments that had earned him a few confused chuckles from Tenten and a decent amount of purple welts from Neji.

Neji was dutifully surveying the area around them as Tenten packed up the last of their camp, dousing the flames they had used to make breakfast. To an outsider everything would have looked perfectly normal.

What the two of them didn't know was that Naruto was scrutinizing their every action. He never understood why everyone always underestimated his intelligence. Sure, when he was a kid he often jumped before looking down, but he was a Chunin now. Three years traveling and training under the tutelage of one of the greatest shinobi of all time had resulted in a growth of not only his body, but his mind as well.

But it had been two years since coming home and everyone still seemed to view him as the village idiot. Naruto was a grown man now. Pervy Sage had taken him to all kinds of places to study the art of human interaction, granted most of these training exploits focused on women. He knew what a man looked like when he was in love, and he knew what women did when they were attracted to a man.

Naruto had noticed a commonality amongst the women who spurned the Great Sannin's advances. Women who didn't like a man had a tendency to either act nervous and run away or get angry and use physical violence. Naruto had plenty of hands on experience with both. Sakura fit the mold for the majority of women: her voice grew a few octaves and her fists began flying. Naruto had given up on approaching her with any romantic notions a while ago, and they were both happier for it.

He was also quite used to the whispered voices and turned backs that had plagued his childhood. He knew now that people were nervous or angered by his presence because of the beast within, but after becoming an accomplished shinobi people he barely knew would call out greetings and well-wishes as he passed through the market. There were still some who disliked and distrusted him though. The most confusing case was that of Hinata Hyuga.

Hinata was the only person out of the Konoha 12 who still distanced herself from him. Sure, she was always polite, but whenever he looked into her lilac eyes he could tell that she was two seconds away from bolting. He knew that she respected him for his abilities as a shinobi, but being in his presence outside of a fight resulted in her acting withdrawn and uneasy. It upset him more than he cared to let on. He'd seen her with her team and the girls of the Konoha 12 around the village before, radiant and carefree. He had started to avoid her a few months ago, tired of being the cause of her discomfort.

Naruto ran a hand through his hair, ruffling it up into its usual spiky mess. He diverted his gaze away from Neji, who was doing a subpar impression of a boy not in love with the girl behind him, to analyze the female of their team.

Tenten was acting a lot like Hinata ever since this mission had started. He was grateful that, at least this time, he wasn't the cause of her distress. Naruto didn't know Tenten as well as the other girls, but she'd always seemed very straightforward and bold, never holding anything back. She made eye contact with him from across the clearing and smiled. He beamed back.

Friendly, that's what she was. She just had this sincerity about her that made her seem approachable and trustworthy.

He watched as she cast a look over her shoulder at Neji, wincing at the realization that the Hyuga was already watching her. Tenten's face morphed into a look of panic and it was as if she was suddenly possessed by a klutz demon. The kitchen supplies she had been packing clanked together noisily as they scattered across the forest floor. As Neji moved towards her to help pick stuff up, she began fumbling around and stuttering out apology after apology. The behavior didn't match the personality, which led Naruto to one very important conclusion.

It was obvious that Neji, who even now was grinning fondly down at Tenten's ducked head, was in love with his kunoichi partner. Naruto felt a pang of sympathy for the proud Hyuga. It was unmistakable: Neji's teammate did not return this affection. In fact, it was clear as day to Naruto that Tenten felt quite the opposite.

….

Neji knew exactly what was going on. For someone so completely oblivious to matters of the heart, Naruto had figured him out. How could a boy be so completely oblivious to a girl who practically threw herself at him for the last 13 years and yet pick up on a facial expression that couldn't have been on his face for more than half a second?

Neji was sick of looking at Naruto's smug face. All morning the blonde's expressions had morphed from introspective thinking, to grinning like a baboon, to sympathy. Neji had no desire to know what went on in the mind of the last Uzumaki, so long as his thoughts stayed where they belonged – as thoughts.

Neji's thoughts shifted instead to the girl who had come to occupy his every waking thought. It wasn't in a creepy way – it was a matter of truth. Over the last couple of years Neji almost never found himself alone.

When they had first begun training as Genin together, Tenten had hurtled a kunai just about his head after he had mocked her for her lack of natural born talent. Even back then she had spot on accuracy. Luckily for him. At the time, he had been ashamed by his startled reaction to having a kunai almost impale him. So his younger, angrier self had goaded her more and more frequently into using him as her target practice. It was sometime after the failed Chunin exams that the hurtful jabs ended and the two took up as genial acquaintances. Without ever exchanging a word about the routine, the two found themselves in their training grounds every morning at promptly 7 am. Whatever tree he chose to meditate under was the tree that became her dartboard. She helped him grow immune to the natural instinct to flinch away from flying projectiles, and he helped her to overcome any trepidation of aiming her weapons at living targets.

This morning ritual's length extended over the years. At first they had become sparring partners. It was only natural as they grew as shinobi to spend more and more time honing their techniques and building their endurance. Then they had become lunch buddies. She'd started this tradition by sharing her packed lunch with him after a particularly grueling training session. These packed lunches grew in size over the years into full on picnics.

At some point they had grown to enjoy the other's company. The hours spent idle and alone in the Hyuga Mansion had been whittled away to nothing. Even his nights were spent with her. They'd walk through the streets of the Leaf Village, shoulders just shy of touching. They'd stop for a bite to eat at Ichiraku Ramen, blocking out the incessant bombardment from other shinobi (well, that was mostly just him). They'd curl up on her couch and talk into the twilight hours about weapons and strategies, family and loss, goals and failures. She literally occupied his every waking thought because she was always there.

His one conclusion at having this epiphany was that he had fallen in love with his best friend. It was like that quote he'd read somewhere years ago: "I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun." (Jane Austen 3)

That thought led him into another that he had been trying to avoid. He knew what Tenten was up to. It had been obvious from the moment she had made the mistake of using a technique he had taught her, forcing herself to pass out. He couldn't decide how he felt about Tenten faking having feelings for him in order to get Naruto to recognize the mannerisms of a girl who has a crush on a boy.

On one hand, he was glad that she felt secure enough in their partnership to act the way that she was acting. On the other hand, she seemed to have no qualms about messing with his own feelings. And there was still the question of Ino and Sakura. Those two were meddlers and they had their thumb on the pulse of every major happening in Konoha. There was a very good chance that the two gossip queens had already told Tenten about their suspicions of his budding feelings. Knowing Tenten, she would have brushed them off as being delusional even if they had told her. No…chances were that they were working an angle here that he hadn't figured out yet.

Cursing under his breath, Neji tried to clear his mind. It was impossible to stay focused though when he could hear the ragged breathing from a certain brown haired kunoichi every time she hit a branch with too much force.

Activating his Byakugan, Neji cast his gaze forward. They were only five minutes out from their destination. His gaze sorted through the mess of civilian chakra, focusing on searching for the building described in the mission file. A river ran through the center of Hikari village with a mess of bridges connecting the two halves of the town. Their client was Takadayo Nakamoto. He was a merchant who had built a shipping empire in this town, with the river being largely to thank for his success. Nakamoto Enterprise was located on the edge of the Ritchi District, and was home to not only the Nakamoto shipping empire, but the Nakamoto family as well. Neji marked the building in his mind and began working up a map of the city with its maze of cross streets and dead ends.

This was a simple protection mission; low risk. This wealthy merchant was worried about his daughter's safety during the upcoming three day Festival of Lights. The details in the file were pretty thin about why the merchant was so anxious for his daughter's welfare this year, but Neji got paid to follow the mission orders, not ask questions.

Another barely perceptible huff from behind him had Neji switching the focus of his gaze. Tenten, who was at the rear of their party, had her arm held tightly to her chest. Her face was set in a grimace and rightly so based on the state of her right arm. He'd make it his first priority to find a ninja healer when they arrived in the village of Hikari.

Neji's gaze followed the curve of his partner's arm up to her face. He was admiring how one of Tenten's hair buns had become lopsided when he realized that she was staring at him. But not just staring. Her brow was creased, her eyes squinted in concentration, as she glared a hole into the back of his head.

He quickly deactivated his Byakugan. After years of training together, Tenten always swore she could tell when he was looking at her using his Byakugan. He'd never believed her, but she always did have a particular gift when it came to sensing distant chakra. He decided that they would have to test it later, maybe once they got her all patched up and reached the inn. She was always game for whatever outlandish training technique he wanted to try. Not to mention it would give him plenty of time to admire just how beautiful his tomboy of a teammate had become. Despite the amount of time they spent with one another, he rarely ever got to just look at her. She was like the wind, always pulling him this way and that; a whirlwind of energy, never satisfied with dormancy.

It took all of his willpower to keep from looking over his shoulder to check on her. Just as his resolve was beginning to weaken, their group came to the end of the tree line and the large, bustling city he had seen only moments ago spread out before them.

…..

Tsunade did not like not knowing exactly what was going on.

She took another long swig from the sake jar as she looked over the reports from Hikari. It was definitely a good thing that she had assigned Naruto to the squad at the last minute, despite the vehement protests from the Hyuga prodigy. Her only worry now was that the only healer in the city had been found dead, his neck slit.

Slamming the sake glass down onto the table, Tsunade called out, "Shizune!"

"Yes, Tsunade-sama?" Tsunade glanced briefly at the three shinobi files on her desk, a smirk gracing her face.

"Send for Sakura Haruno and Hinata Hyuga."

"Hai!" Shizune turned to close the door.

"Oh, and Shizune?" The slight women paused, peeping her head back into the Hokage's office. "Make sure you tell them to pack for a week." Satisfied, Tsunade leaned back in her chair, downing the last of the bottle of sake.

Thank you for all of your wonderful reviews! This story is pulling me in a different direction than I had initially intended, so I hope y'all continue to enjoy this. More Tenten and Neji awkwardness is on it's way, but next time we'll get to see their friendship when alone! :)