A Midnight Promise

"He's our objective?" Tenten asked, her dark eyes flashing dangerously at the guy who was drinking messily in the bar. "Are you sure?" She looked at Neji hesitantly. He was a S-ranked criminal, yet he was so careless, sitting in a bar doing nothing but drinking multiple cups of tequila.

Neji observed the guy – Izuri was his name – and his eyes fled to the photo he was holding. "It's confirmed." He told Tenten, still in a whisper. "All you have to do is…"

"Just go there and seduce him until the time comes, I know." There was a bitter smile on her lips. "Don't worry, I'll do it right. I have taken seduction lessons with Sakura and Ino, and I kind of learn how to seduce a guy." She said jokingly, slipping out of her peach-colored, warm jacket. Underneath it she was wearing a red, strapless short dress, the sleeves just above her knee.

Neji swallowed unconsciously as he tried not to blush of the sight of his teammate. She has grown admirably towards their years as a team. Now she was a kunoichi of twenty years old, experienced and not much of a nuisance – not to mention that she has never been a bother to him, not in any way.

"Tenten, if he does anything impolite to you…"

"I'll take care of myself, Neji." The weapon mistress cut him out, her voice flaring with determination, "Don't worry, I'm capable of that." She grinned at him and stood up from their hideout, letting her hair down as she thrust her hair ties into his hands. "Here. This damn dress doesn't have a pocket on it. Wish me luck!"

He didn't give a damn reply as she walked like a model on a catwalk to their objective, smiling flirtatiously as she offered him another round of tequila. He felt his fists clenching as their objective touched her bare shoulders, grinning in a perverted way.

He will need to kill someone later, that's for sure.

………

The sky was already dark when Team Gai decided to settle down on a soft grassy open spot in the woods. The moon was already high in the sky, clearly shining to ease the darkness revealed there. Painful whines could be heard – faintly, but still heard.

"Shut up, Lee, and be quiet." Tenten spat unconsciously as she extracted a scroll out of her waist pouch, her hair falling softly onto her bare shoulders. She was still wearing her hair down, still in the same red dress she was required to wear for the mission. "It will be over in a minute, even before you realize it." She said, determined to finish what she has started.

Lee was crouching on the grass, looking fearful at his only female teammate. He did not notice at all that a certain Hyuuga prodigy was watching them not from far away, his eyes following the female on their team.

She summoned a medical kit and quickly whipped out bandages and medicines. "You're very lucky that we arrived not long after that, you know." She said impatiently, turning him to his back, "Ha, at least now you learn what's so wrong about not following our well-developed plan! Damn, this thing won't open!" She glared at the medicine bottle on her hands, trying to open them.

"It wasn't his fault, Tenten." The Hyuuga prodigy said from her back, approaching them. Silently he took the medicine bottle from her and opened it for her, before passing it back to the weapon mistress. She quickly jabbed some medicine on Lee's wounds, ignoring his whines as Neji continued, "He didn't know clearly what our objective is. He has fled even before we finished the mission briefing."

"Yes, Gai-sensei called him." Tenten recalled as she scowled, although her hands were still busy unfolding the bandages she has. "What did he call you for, Lee? Make it important or I'm gonna scold him later on. Calling us when we were on our briefing… He couldn't be less careless!"

"Hey! Don't speak of Gai-sensei like that!" Lee protested as he turned around, only to meet Tenten's glaring eyes. He quickly returned to his old position as she resumed her bandaging carefully around his waist. The fuzzy-brows boy continued, "Gai-sensei was just calling me for a farewell training session, that's all."

"And that was why you ended up late to our decided post, right, Lee?" Tenten asked, sighing, "Although it was lucky that you were there. Izuri fled as soon as he discovered our plan, damn he was fast – and you are much goddamned lucky to be there to catch him for us all. Though you did have a little problem with him. He's strong, not to mention a bit…" She croaked, "Hideous."

"What does this… Izuri did, actually?"

"He did nothing." It was Neji who replied, crossing his arms over his chest in his usual conceited manner, "Except planning failed operations of infiltrating Konoha – over than a hundred times or so, too. Tsunade-sama wants him alive – it is for safety purposes. She wants to interrogate him since he was one of the shinobis who tried to bomb Konoha three years ago. We just need to bring him back."

Tenten rolled her bandages and put away her medical kit, her eyes looking at their target – Izuri. He was a man around the age of thirty, his face kind as his slyness was hided cleverly behind his calm façade. He was the objective of their last S-ranked mission of the week. She has no idea why he was considered as one of the highest ranked criminals; it was kind of easy capturing him, especially knowing that Izuri was perverted, although she must admit that he was clever, finding out their plan before she even got to 'Step Two'. Now the so-called criminal lied on the ground, tied by her chains, completely silent.

"Neji," She turned at her observant teammate, "You didn't kill him, did you? He seems too quiet to be alive."

"Of course I didn't." He frowned at her, his eyebrows joining. Although I want to, but the Godaime wants him alive, so I didn't. "All I did was to close his chakra pathways and block them for a complete day, that's all. He won't be giving us any troubles if we reach Konoha before midday."

"Good, then." Tenten clasped her hands together enthusiastically. She turned at Lee, who was already dozing off and then back to Neji. "Do you think we could really reach Konoha before midday? Look – Lee's already asleep. We're not far from Konoha, yes, but…"

"Don't worry." Neji replied, a smug smirk appearing on his thin lips. "I've made that sure." He sat down beside her on the grass, his tenseness going down as he relaxed beside her. He wondered why – this kind of feeling always appears whenever he was with her. This kind of relaxing, soothing, scent that overwhelmed him and sometimes caught him off-guard, but he knew that he always liked the feeling.

Tenten laughed softly, "It's so good to hear that…" She whispered softly, looking at him fondly. "We haven't been back to Konoha for about… a week, I daresay?"

"It's actually a week and two days." He remarked quietly, returning her look with equal fondness drawn in his pearly eyes.

She grinned at his remark. He was just as blunt as ever, and even if she wouldn't admit it, she knew that she loves that attitude of his. "Yes. Those ongoing S-ranked missions, all three in a week – we sure have a tiring work, don't we?" Her eyes were showing amusement as she said that, "I wonder whether Tsunade-sama will give us a day-off or not…"

He looked at her quizzically. She was not the type to ask for days off, actually. Their team was one of the most diligent team ever appeared in Konoha, thanks to their beautifully fitted team dynamics.

Lee often serves the role of being the one who motivates them all, always being enthusiastic and never down about things, while Tenten was the one who usually be the 'mother' of the team, ignoring how tomboy she might be. She was the one who sooths them; calms the 'raging boys' of the team if they couldn't think properly out of frustration anymore, and she did serves the role of a mother, from the looks of it. While him… He was always their strategist, also their unspoken leader. When night comes, it will be him who decided their camping site, and it will also be him to reveal the schedules of the next day.

Tenten smiled again, looking at the Hyuuga prodigy's lost-in-thought look. "Well, I don't say that I need a day off, Neji, don't look so weird." She said, half-laughing, half-teasing, "I'm just wondering whether she will consider giving us a holiday or not. After all, it has been a tiring week."

He nodded his head in agreement. A prodigy he was, he was also a human. He could be tired. "Well, we're going home tomorrow…" He said quietly, "Although if we stay here until tomorrow late, I'm sure Izuri will bring us trouble. He doesn't look like he's that kind…"

"It's fine." She assured softly, examining him. "And you're not. Go to sleep, I'll keep watch for the night."

"No." He shook his head, "You go to sleep and I will watch the night."

"Neji…"

"Tenten…"

"Come to think of it, you never sleep during our missions, anyway." She said, "Now I'm giving you the chance to sleep."

He simply stared at her.

She sighed as a sly idea came up to her mind. "Don't tell me that ol' lil' Neji is afraid of sleeping in the wilderness?" She cooed teasingly, "Are you scared that I might fall asleep as well and wake you all late tomorrow morning? Or are you afraid that we will leave you once you get to sleep?" She arched her eyebrows at his sudden intensity. Wait, she was only joking! She smiled at him, causing him to relax once more. "Don't worry, Neji, I'll never leave you."

Again, Neji simply stared at her, this time with amusement yet unspoken questions in his silver eyes.

"It's a promise." She said softly, standing up. She looked at him and bent down to kiss his cheek out of nowhere, and then she smiled at him tenderly, "I'll go get some blankets."

The End

End Notes

For all that I know, it isn't completely revised, changed, or edited. I barely added a word… Then again, I'm only changing the so-called former series into a one-shot. More one-shots will be coming up, since I already have a list of what I wanna write for the next few weeks, still around the NejiTen fandom, and maybe… other things.

Anyway, please review, and thanks as always!