Chapter 26- More Training And Neji's Date

Masaru sighed as he made his way to the hot springs on the estate. It was in a pretty out of the way location, compared to other places nearby, but it did help give it a sense of privacy about it.

When he made it to the isolated spring, he noted with some peculiarity short stone mountains that were nearby. They weren't short in the sense that they were only a few feet tall, but rather about thirty to forty feet tall. Not tall enough to be mountains, but not short enough to just be rocks. Looking closely, he saw that they concealed the spring perfectly.

He stepped through the winding stone passage a bit half-mindedly. As he walked on, he began to feel a bit more at peace with himself, a sense of security and safety that he hadn't felt in a long time. It was puzzling, in the very least, that the springs could have such an effect on him. It felt like that he wouldn't care if someone saw him naked or not.

When he saw the spring itself, his silent question was answered. A simple heated pool lie before him, with a small pocket in the rocks allowing water to flow out at a slow rate, not enough to allow a person to really feel it though. He saw as well that it was not divided into two sides for men and women, as it traditionally is done. Looking up, he saw that the rocks had covered the spring perfectly, so no rain could come in and ruin anyone's time, but also set up so that the steam let off could still filter out perfectly, almost like most indoor hot springs.

"Guess that means either some kind of genjutsu or seal is at work here. It makes a person completely comfortable with their naked body, regardless of how it looks. Guess if it's meant to be co-ed, then at least the women won't yell 'Pervert!' to any guys that happen to show up, since they won't mind if they see their body." Masaru thought to himself, as he stared at the clouds, a little habit he picked up from Shikamaru.

Seeing that he didn't have anything to question at the moment, he decided to relax. He slowly began to take of his weapons, his coat, and afterwards the rest of his clothes, allowing his nude body to be exposed. He wasn't built like some bodybuilders he has seen in some of the other lands, just a medium build, but each and everywhere one would look, they would only see him packed with muscle, something that came with both being a ninja, and at the same time something that came with being a wanderer as he had been before coming to the village. If one would look at him now, they would probably think he looked like a Greek god…

Well, if you don't include the fact that along various parts of his body are a number of scars present. He absently minded traced his hand along one on his chest as he remembered how he acquired it, in that last time he encountered Shinosuke and his cronies. He still feels that he had gotten lucky he was able to survive that day. Though now he wonders if Shinosuke is still out there, waiting for him.

Without missing a step, he submerges himself in the hot spring, reveling in the feel of the heated water against his body. He felt like he could just let all of his worries just pass on by, he was feeling so good. After all, it wasn't everyday he had opportunities to relax like he did now.

Even though to anyone that may have seen him at this moment, it would seem as though he was relaxing and enjoying the spring, in reality he was in deep thought, trying to probe the depths of his own mind for answers to his own questions. And not in the general sense.

He had activated his Kannyugan, and allowed himself to enter his own mind, something that isn't often done. He asked his kaasan about this once in his youth, and she told him it takes a great deal of concentration and practice to enter your own mind, since it isn't typically something a person would do in any circumstances. But nonetheless, that was what he was doing.

Compared to Naruto's mind, Masaru's mind was much more organized. Instead of simply a vast region of darkness, there was a more elaborate display. His mind, after you got past the first room (which incidentally enough, looks the same in every person's mind), you would see a near endless expanse of sky. Everywhere you looked, up, down, forward, behind, left, right, each and every way you could see the sky, and the clouds strewn about in them. Idly, Masaru wondered exactly how much Shikamaru would enjoy being in such an environment.

The only things that were really keeping you from falling into the endless expanse of Masaru's mind were the walkways that had been scattered about. Taking the appearance of slightly worn away stones, it gave the feel of ruins that had been left behind in the sky.

Not that such thoughts really surprised Masaru. He remembered hearing the stories in years past of the ruins of a city lost within the sky. Many people had tried to find there way up to the lost city, but no one was ever able to find the gateway. Well, except Masaru anyway.

It had been completely by chance, but he stumbled upon the portal that enabled him to enter the Sky Ruins. Its appearance was not much unlike that of what his mind looked like right now; since he modeled his own mind after the things he saw that day. A city, doomed to forever be lost among the clouds, gained a new presence in the mind of one individual.

Shaking his memories of the ancient city from his mind, he began to go through the daunting task he originally set out to do. And that was to find answers to his questions in the memories of his ancestors, so he sought to locate the door in his own mind that held just that.

Navigating his own mind wasn't as tough as one would like to believe. Having done this many times in the past, Masaru had little to no trouble in locating where everything was located in his own inner space. Considering that he actually took the time to rearrange and redecorate, it would be difficult for him to not know where everything was. But considering he never truly went through his own door before, he never bothered to locate it before now. It took a quick sweep of his Kannyugan before he knew where he had to look.

With his destination already in mind, he set out to find the internal door that concealed the past. Masaru idly wondered how hard it would be to find a door that stood several stories high in a place like this.

Not very, apparently.

It took him only about five minutes of walking before he found the object of his search. Gazing upon it with active Kannyugan eyes, he saw it was roughly the same size as the door in Naruto's mind, and looked almost exactly the same, which just served as a reminder to him that they are related. Masaru then remembered his mother teaching him that his mother had taught him that all people are related to one another at some point in history. All life had to stem back to some originating point, which acted as the root of a giant tree where all people are the branches that create it.

The Kannyugan scan of the door revealed the weak point that Masaru needed to open door, which was roughly half way up its surface. Gathering his own energy he began to float up to where he needed to reach. This was another feature that Masaru liked about minds. In here, you were capable of doing whatever the hell you wanted. The laws of physics here were your own little play toy. If he wanted fish to fly around and play poker, then they flew around and played poker.

As luck would have it (whose luck is entirely based on your own point of view), a group of fish appeared not to far away, flying around, and were sitting at a table betting chips and playing poker. This small lapse in concentration nearly caused Masaru to fall flat on his ass.

"Damn it, I need to stop doing that." Masaru thought before making all the fish vanish. Focusing on the task at hand, he quickly delivered a quick strike to the point his doujutsu had shown him was the weak point. As the door was slowly opening, the apparent Enjin heir wondered why he wasn't able to do that in Naruto's mind. He thought for a moment before he came up with an answer.

"Of course. His mind needs to set the laws that govern within its own space. That's not something I could very well easily do. It would've taken a considerable amount of chakra for me to exert such an influence on his mind, and we would've been forced out earlier than I would've liked." Thinking about it a little more, he came to a conclusion. "No. Even if I had a lot more chakra it wouldn't have been a good idea. His mind was already extremely unstable at that point, and pushing myself onto his mind like that would have very well broken him."

He just filed that information to review at a later date when he saw the door fully open, to reveal the hallway that of doors that held the thoughts and feelings of his own predecessors. He groaned to himself as he realized that it would take him forever to sort through all of these memories, and find what he was looking for. He just wished there was a way to quickly find what he needed.

He let out another groan when he saw a table off to the side, which contained a notepad, a pen, a slot to insert paper into, and a set of instructions. Looking them over, he grinned as he realized that by simply writing what he was looking for on a slip of paper, and placing it into the slot, the doors would move around and arrange themselves, so that the only one that you were able to enter were the ones that held any information relevant to what you were looking for. He wondered briefly why he didn't do this in Naruto's mind, but simply chalked it up to not knowing about this nifty feature at the time.

Writing the words Yamanaka clan on one of the slips of paper, he placed the skip into the slot, and watched in awe as a number of the doors along the vast hallway all simply, 'floated' up into the air would be the best way to describe it. They seemed to just vanish into the ceiling of the endless expanse, as if they were never there, leaving only walls where the doors had previously occupied.

A shifting sound brought his attention to the locations that the remaining doors were located. If he hadn't been surprised enough times in the past few days, then he was definitely due for another surprise. The remaining apertures all just moved along the wall as if they were on a conveyor belt of some sorts, which in any form of physics made absolutely no sense. Then Masaru berated himself for not remembering that the impossible is very possible here.

So Masaru resigned himself to watch the doors as they moved in to places along the wall. Some of the doors lifted off of the ground in an elegant display, and some of them emerging off of the wall itself, as they arranged themselves into two straight lines of doors, each one equidistant from the next one in the set. It wouldn't take long for anyone to notice that the room looked essentially the same as it was before any kind of rearranging had occurred.

"Took long enough. I thought I'd die of old age before this was done. Well, I've come this far, better not stop when I'm so close." Masaru thought as he prepared himself to open up one of the doors.

Hinata could only blush as she watched her crush create a large horde of shadow clones, and saw them get to work on the chakra stream exercise that Masaru had shown him only moments ago. It was intoxicating for her to take in his form as he grunted in concentration trying to do the exercise just correctly.

The young Hyuga heiress would've been content to just sit there and watch him like this all day long, but then nothing would get done that way. Despite how good Naruto is, without proper guidance as he is controlling his chakra, he wouldn't make any real improvements. Kurenai-sensei had taught her that not all the exercises in the world could be done by just one person. Sometimes a second party needs to be present in order for any thing to be done.

Learning a genjutsu is a very good example of this. You could easily learn ninjutsu on your own, since the techniques will have a real physical effect on the environment, and the effectiveness of the jutsu would show what you need to improve on. Taijutsu could mostly be performed on your own, but just needs occasional help from another to show you where you need improvement.

Genjutsu, however, compared to the other two styles, is completely dependent upon another person to assist you. It is an impossible feat for a person to alter their own chakra flow to put themselves in a genjutsu, since the person is using their own chakra to adjust their own chakra. It won't have any apparent effect on their stimulus. Only when a person's chakra alters the flow of another person's chakra will there be any effect. Of course, you can't just use any random person and place genjutsu on them. They need to be aware you are trying to cast a genjutsu, but they must also be able to dispel it should something go haywire. When learning a specific genjutsu, it is often the best choice to ask the help of someone that already knows how to perform the jutsu you are trying to learn, since they will know how it is suppose to be done.

Chakra control, though not considered one of the three types of jutsus, is also considered to be something that needs supervision. Although it can be learned by yourself, it is easier if someone experienced in the exercise technique is present, since they would be able to correct you in what you are supposed to be doing. Either that, or the person is a Hyuga, who happened to be well learned in the ways of chakra.

With that thought in mind, Hinata activated her Byakugan and paid close attention to the chakra systems of each of the Naruto clones, and the original. As she carefully observed each body as they performed the chakra stream exercise, she compared the work they did to the display that Masaru had asked her to memorize.

His control of the streams had been absolutely perfect, with no errors anywhere in how he executed it. Years of experience probably was the reason he was so good at it. In spite of this, Naruto, who had just barely learned the exercise, was already quite adept at it. In her own mind, she supposed it was funny that someone like Masaru, who learned this over years, could be outdone by a person who just learned it.

Setting that aside, she noticed that there was a single problem that he was having that was keeping him from properly executing the stream efficiently. As he gathered the chakra towards the fingertips, some small wisps of chakra were seeping out from the tenketsu in his knuckles. Not anything that could be noticed by the human eye, but it had a subtle enough effect that it deteriorated the overall efficiency of the stream altogether.

As she observed the stream itself, it was pretty apparent to her all-seeing eyes that he was close to perfecting the control of the flow, but there was one problem that he had yet to overcome. He was directing his chakra rather forcefully down the path that he was trying to make it follow, probably due to his nature to use an excessive amount of force that most people wouldn't feel was necessary.

Yet Naruto didn't seem to be aware that forcing the chakra on its path was actually rupturing the 'tube' that it was traveling through, causing it to bleed out into the air, and destabilizing the overall structure of the entire stream. This little analysis seemed to be the reason why he hadn't made much problem.

Now the crux of the problem. How would she tell Naruto? She had always seem him as a source of inspiration for herself, a person to look towards to give herself confidence when she was doubting her own abilities, and find a strength she didn't know she had. It had helped her in the past, when she became confident enough to stand against her own cousin Neji, despite the fact she knew he was clearly the better, as well as the time when they had gone off to locate the Bikochu beetle. If she hadn't seen Naruto the way she did, there was no way she would've been able to pull off the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms Shield as effectively as she did.

Naruto had always been a person she could look up to even when they were in their early years at the Academy. She was always put down by her failures within her clan, as well as her father continuously admitting her weakness as the heir to the clan. Naruto had more or less been in the same boat as her, but where it knocked her down, he got back up and continued to persevere. It was this undying determination in himself that made her admire him, which eventually led into a fondness for the blonde, and from there into full blown love.

Yet it was her shyness that kept her from revealing her true feelings for the person she loved so much. The most prominent thing that kept her at bay was fear. Fear of being rejected by someone she loved so much could easily hold back her desire to get close to the boy just several feet away. If he didn't return her feelings, then she would feel as though as she may as well kill herself so that she wouldn't have to go through the pain of heartbreak.

And yet, she needed to be able to speak up to him now. Here he was, stuck on a technique that he needed in order to effectively utilize his bloodline from what she had heard. But with the way he was progressing, he was actually becoming less effective in his attempts to master it. If she didn't speak up, then he would never master the jutsu. But would he accept her advice, and maybe even her love?

It was at that moment that Hinata had an epiphany. If she brought up the information he need to perfect the chakra stream, then he might come to her for more assistance in the future. Perhaps, somewhere in this, they could work together in the future for mutual benefit. If it worked as she hoped, then she might finally have the courage to confess.

Finding the resolve that she needed, she turned towards her long-time crush.

"N-Naruto-kun." She said. Despite her resolve, she still couldn't help but stutter in front of people, especially Naruto.

The sudden sound from the Hyuga heiress made Naruto turn towards her. He was so caught up in his training that he had practically forgotten she was there. Then again, she was always so quiet that he probably would've forgotten that she was there anyways. Nevertheless, she was speaking to him. "Do you need something, Hinata-chan?"

Hinata blushed at the attention she was getting, but she managed to keep herself from fainting. It wouldn't help that she needed to speak only to faint before doing so. "Um, the exercise y-you're d-doing. You're not doing it p-properly"

"Huh? I thought I was making a ton of progress with my shadow clones." Naruto exclaimed, surprised at this revelation.

Hinata quickly shook her head. "N-No. You're actually m-moving b-backwards. T-The glove on y-your hand s-should tell you that." Naruto looked down at the gloves he was wearing, and frowned when he saw that they were currently yellow with a tint of orange in them. Hinata hated the fact she had to lay on any bad news to him, but it would be for the best.

When Naruto looked up at Hinata again, he noticed for the first time that she had her Byakugan. Seeing those all-seeing eyes active, he remembered everything that they were capable of. Specifically their ability to see chakra.

"Hinata-chan, can you see what's causing my problems here? I could use the help." Naruto asked hopefully.

Hinata, for a brief moment, was surprised that he actually asked for her help. It brought a light tinge of pink to her cheeks, but she felt slightly more relaxed now that she knew he needed her help.

"W-Well, the c-chakra you are using is n-not being used effectively enough. The tenketsu in y-your knuckles are letting off some energy that should be going to the s-stream. Also, y-you are trying t-to force the chakra through the stream, and not letting it flow through it naturally. That's why you're not making the progress you want." As Hinata was explaining what was wrong, her stuttering began to lessen. This went unnoticed by either teenager.

Naruto was a bit confused. "So, you're saying that I shouldn't use so much chakra?" He asked.

Hinata answered by shaking her head. "N-No. You're using enough chakra, b-but it's being used to forcefully. Let it flow more naturally, and you shouldn't have as much of a problem."

Naruto thought about what he had been doing before Hinata had stepped in. Since he actually took the time to think about it, he seemed to actually become aware of the fact that he had been forcing his chakra through his technique, just as she said. It's funny that way. He never would've noticed any problem doing the training jutsu unless she had said anything.

Taking her advice, he instructed his clones to follow the advice that had been given by Hinata, and they all began to create the chakra streams again. This time, instead of just blindly going at it like before, they began to pay attention to the energy that was going into its creation.

He then began to notice the chakra leaking out of his knuckles. He tried his hardest to keep it from exuding from the tenketsu situated at those points, but despite those efforts, he wasn't able to fully reduce the amount that was released from them. Mentally, he calculated he managed to reduce the amount to about one third of what it originally was. A good start.

Now the second problem, the stream itself. In this moment, he became aware of his own personality as a forceful person. He has always been someone that just rushed in and beat his opponents senseless, without holding back. This attitude of his carried over into just about everything he did, including his own chakra. The only times he worried about any kind of control were when he learned about tree-climbing and water-walking, In tree-climbing, he had yet to learn how to effectively channel chakra to his feet, producing less than was intended. In water-walking, he was able to force the amount necessary to stay afloat, but the five-pronged seal on his stomach at the time he learned kept him from balancing out the chakra between his two feet.

Every other technique he had ever learned had been more about producing substantial amounts of chakra then effectively controlling it. Even the Rasengan, which had a heavy emphasis on both power and control, to him was more power than control, since he used a clone to 'mold' the spinning chakra into a compact orb of destruction.

This technique however, required him to not overload on power like he is used to. Concentrating fully, he loosened his forceful control over his chakra. In doing this, he allowed it to flow freely through the tubes that had been created to hold the chakra, and was surprised to see how much easier it was to control than it was before. Looking at the glove, he saw that it had changed to a solid blue color. If he had gotten the chakra in his knuckles under control, it would have been perfect. But at the moment. He was just too happy.

"Alright! I did it!" Naruto shouted triumphantly, while jumping around excitedly. Hinata giggled at his antics. No matter how much he matured physically, he was still a child at heart, and could easily get excited when he made even a little bit of progress. She felt a slight pang in her heart, though, when it seemed like he had done all the work, with no help from her. It may have been her pride speaking, but she was at least hoping he would compliment her for the assistance.

That thought quickly left her mind when she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her, hoist her up, and spin her around rapidly. The blood rapidly rushed to her cheeks when she realized Naruto was hugging her.

Although the spinning didn't make her that dizzy, she was beginning to feel faint from being in her crush's arms like this. It didn't help her all that much when she felt the solid muscles that he had beneath his sweater. Muscles that he had developed over the years he had trained as a shinobi were now wrapped around her body, and wrapped up in her thoughts.

"Thank you, Hinata-chan. I couldn't have done it without you." Naruto said happily. She couldn't help but smile at his honesty, and not to far away, the shadow clone that Masaru had left behind was smiling as well.

Perhaps the most amazing part of the experience is that Hinata did not faint at all.

Masaru opened his eyes as he deactivated his Kannyugan, and left the recesses of his own mind. No matter how many times he has done it in the past, he always feels a slight dizzying feeling overcome him whenever he does it.

"Dammit! Why does this always happen?" Even though the feeling would pass in a moment it still irritated him to no end to have to keep going through it over and over again. It was like the itch that just didn't seem to go away in some sense.

Once the irritation passed, he collected his thoughts of what he learned in regards to the Yamanaka clan. The hatred that his own clan possessed towards them, in his opinion, was simply appalling to him. Part of it may have been rivalry, and part of it may have been justified, but it doesn't mean that you can't extend an olive branch to your brethren.

If his clan had lived that day over fifteen years ago, he wondered if he would be no different than the rest of his clan was towards them, but shook his head of that. If he thought like that, then he'd be no different than the accursed villagers who hate Naruto just for existing.

Regardless of this, he resolved to speak with Ino the next morning. The need to clear up the problems between them weighed heavily on him, and with the mission starting tomorrow as well, they can't afford to be distracted by each other.

Tomorrow.

Tenten fidgeted nervously as she was getting ready for her date with Neji. After they had finished their training session the previous day, they had agreed to go out the next day at 7:00 P.M. As for where they were gonna go to, well, Neji said that he would surprise her, and she was hoping she would be surprised.

They had decided beforehand that they were going to be going on a more casual date that was slightly formal, so she opted to wear a pink sweater that clung nicely to her frame, accentuating her curves in all the right places. Alongside the sweater, she wore a pair of low-rise jeans that fit snuggly up against her butt to give off that sensual appeal, which she hoped Neji would just love.

What was perhaps the biggest thing that she had done was that she decided to not wear her hair in buns that evening, but just let it fall down behind her head, and place clips there so that it would fall into three strands. Since she hadn't cut her hair for a few years, her hair fell almost all the way down to her lower back. A little odd, but she wanted to something different for a change, and she was sure her date wouldn't mind it either. The truth was that no member of her team had ever seen her with any hairstyle other than her buns.

It didn't seem like it was too big of a deal, but this is a date with Neji she was talking about. She didn't want him to see the calm, collected side of her that had only been displayed when they were doing their job. She wanted him to see the real Tenten, the girl, not Tenten the kunoichi.

Being forced to suppress her emotions in her profession, she couldn't help but be excited at the chance to express herself, something she hasn't truly done in years. She could only hope that this date went smoothly.

She was so nervous about how the date would go, she almost didn't hear a knock at her door. Trying to push her anxiety aside, she opened the door to reveal Neji standing there, with a smile on his face, and obviously holding something behind his back.

"Hello, Neji-kun. Please come on in." Neji politely nodded, and walked into her moderately lit home, and she was able to see him clearly. To her, it seemed like his attire was not much different from her own. He wore a pair of jeans that seemed to fit a bit loosely on him. Complementing the jeans was a dark red sweater that was similar to the color of blood. A couple of thin purple stripes crossed over along the chest area. Looking up at his face she saw that he was wearing a dark bandanna. Normally such a thing would be frowned upon, but considering she knew that the Caged Bird Seal adorned his forehead, she would let it slide by.

She was a surprised when he suddenly took her hand into his, and quickly gave it a kiss. Then he pulled the object from behind his back, revealing it to be a bouquet of some of the most beautiful roses that she had ever seen. Tenten didn't even try to hide her blush as she accepted the roses with a heart-warming smile.

"Thank you, Neji-kun. Let me just find a vase to put these roses in, and then we'll head out. Ok?" Seeing his nod, she immediately ran off to do as she said.

Although he had put up a good front, the truth was that Neji was just as nervous about this date as she was, although he was hiding it well enough. Once she fully left the room, he let out a small sigh. He knew this was going to be difficult for him. Missions he could do. They were very straight forward, and it was easy to do what you needed to do. Girls, and dates; not so easy. So much could go wrong with but the slightest mistake. In his honest opinion, he felt he could take on a thousand S-class missions before he could deal with a date with a girl.

Still, this was Tenten he was talking about. He built up the courage to ask her out on a date, and she accepted. He couldn't very well turn down the date at this point. It was obvious she was looking forward to this date as much as him, and it would pain both of them if he didn't show up. Well, she'd probably maim him with her various hidden weapons that he was certain she ad somewhere on her person. And if not that, there was still her bloodline, which was just as bad.

"So, are you ready to go, Neji-kun?" Neji apparently didn't notice Tenten reenter the room, nor see her pass by him so that she was by the front door. Damn! He needed to be more attentive than that.

"Sure, Tenten-chan." With a smile on her face, Tenten walked out the front door, and with having a bit of fun, swayed her hips a bit. She didn't need to turn around to see him, but she knew he was blushing from her little gesture.

After exiting her house, and locking up, Neji reached out and took hold of Tenten's hand in his own. "Soft yet firm, probably from all the time she spent making weapons." He thought as they were walking down the road.

"His hand is incredibly soft. Then again, he does practice the Gentle Fist style. It shouldn't be surprising." Tenten thought. In her mind, things were going alright so far. Though she'd wish he talked more.

"So", she said drawing her date's attention. "What exactly do you have planned for this evening? It usually isn't like you to keep me in the dark."

Neji turned towards her with a small smirk. "Well, I was hoping to keep it a secret, but have you ever been to the Crimson Arrow?"

Tenten's eyes widened slightly at what he was saying. "No. It's a pretty high-class restaurant. Not to mention expensive. It would take me the salary of a couple B-rank missions to afford to eat there. If I had known we were eating there, I'd have worn something fancier."

"That wouldn't have been necessary. In fact, it's the reason I haven't told you before we were already going." The Hyuga said with a knowing smile. "Despite the Crimson Arrow's reputation as a five-star restaurant, people don't really dress formally when going there. It holds high quality food, but they don't hold a formal dress code, so it's a very relaxing atmosphere."

"You… really thought this out, didn't you?" Tenten said. Neji didn't answer, but still held the same smile. It wasn't long before they arrived at their destination.

"Hello there. Do you have a reservation?" The host of the Crimson Arrow spoke.

"Yes, the reservation is under 'Hyuga'" This caught the hosts, attention. So far, no member of the Hyuga clan had ever dined at this restaurant. He quickly looked at the list, and saw what he was looking for.

"Yes, of course. Right this way, Hyuga-sama." He said in a polite and calm manner, though Neji could detect an underlying tone of surprise.

Dinner was a very straightforward affair for the young to-be couple. There was an exchange of idle talk on a number of different topics. They started off with getting to know each other better, by asking about simple things such as what each other's personal tastes were, as well as what they like and dislike. Soon after this was when their meals arrived. It was a bit after this they began to speak of and offered their own opinions on some things occurring in and out of the Fire Country.

"Did you hear about that marriage of the heir of that clan in the Earth Country to the feudal lord's daughter in the Waterfall Country?" Neji had offered to Tenten.

Tenten thought for a moment before a light bulb went off in her head. "Oh yeah! I think I heard something along those lines. Wasn't it supposed to foster some kind of alliance for the two nations?"

Neji nodded. "That's what they said it is for, but honestly, I think it's more to cause a rift between Waterfall and Konoha." He said, and Tenten had asked why he thought that. "Well, it's simple when you really think about it. Our two villages are allies, and have been for about three years now. Despite the alliance, it is only being held together on very shaky grounds. To be honest, I don't know specifically why or how it's being held together."

Neji took a sip of his tea before continuing. "Anyway, the Stone Village is aware of the obvious rift between the two villages, and for what I assume are ridiculous reasons, still holds a grudge against us for losing a war that occurred about sixteen years ago. They'd do just about anything they can to get at us, so it wouldn't be surprising they'd try to make an alliance with a nation that is an ally of us, and use the political connections to do what they could to force apart our alliance with them."

Tenten was a bit surprised she didn't think of it like that, but she supposed that as a member of the Hyuga clan, he's had more time to witness the effects of arranged marriages on the alliances of villages. It was often a tactic used by nations so that they could gain some level of influence over the politics of the other nations. Though she didn't fully comprehend every thing that she learned, she'd have plenty of time later on to go over it.

After the two had finished, Neji gladly paid the bill with his own money (something that surprised her, since she was sure he'd charge it to his clan), and the two of them made their way to the next destination.

"A club?" Tenten seemed surprised by the choice of locations.

"What? You expect me to act like nobility all the time. It's calming to come to places like this every once in a while. If he wasn't the head of the clan, I'm sure Hiashi-sama would come to a place like this." Neji defended. Tenten giggled at the mental image of Hiashi coming to a place like this and busting loose.

"So, care to dance, milady?" Neji replied in a mocking formal tone. Tenten wore a playful smile on her face and let her crush lead her out onto the dance floor.

Even though the two of them had never been dancing, soon enough, they were tearing up the dance floor with many insane moves; acrobatic feats that would put break-dancers to shame. Several people had attempted to 'challenge' the duo in a dance-off, but each of them was beaten with apparent ease.

Around midnight, they decided to call it a night, in order to get enough sleep for the next day. They had already been informed by Gai-sensei that Lee would be going out on a mission with three others the next day, and wanted them to be there for one more training session before he left. This was typical of Gai. Each time any of them went on a mission without the others, they were pretty much expected to show up for an early session, rather than the ones that occurred later in the morning. They didn't understand exactly why they did it, but they believed their sensei believed it was sort of like a 'good-luck charm' of sorts.

It wasn't long before they arrived back at Tenten's house, and it seemed as though they were both just as nervous ass the date began. So many questions were running through their heads, but most importantly was: Did the date go as well as I wanted?

They stopped on her doorstep, still holding each other's hand as they did as they were walking home from the club. Both of them were smiling at each other, though Neji was beginning to blush a bit, and was starting to sweat a bit. He didn't know what to do!

"I had a really great time tonight, Neji-kun." Tenten said politely. At this point, he was no longer thinking, but acting.

"Likewise, Tenten-chan. I'm hoping that we could do this again sometime." Neji said, fighting off his blush.

"I'm gonna hold you to that. Goodnight, Neji-kun." In a blur of movement that was too fast to follow, Tenten reached out and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, before racing swiftly into her house. Not knowing, what to do, Neji daftly rubbed his cheek where he was kissed as he made his way back to the Hyuga estate.

The next morning, the other members of their team would rant on about their 'flames of youth.'

Author's Note: Sorry about the extremely long delay in getting this chapter out, but there was so much going on in my life that I haven't really had the time to be focusing much on this story. Plus, there was also a severe case of writer's block in writing out this chapter. (Particularly when it came to the date, since it isn't something I've written before, and even now I don't think it worked out as well as I had hoped). Nonetheless, any criticism towards how I did things would be appreciated.

That little scene mentioning Iwa in the story I don't think will hold much effect on the story, but I might considering using it to some extent in the future. (I already am using Iwa for a few things in my story anyway, so another won't hurt too much.)

It probably doesn't need much to be said, but regardless of the event that have occurred in the manga recently since the last time I posted a chapter, I'm not gonna work with the Uchiha clan with the way they were presented in the manga (a bunch of traitors to the village). Their role in my story is gonna be different than what is in canon.

Despite the lack of time I've got to work on this story, I'll try and do what I can to work on it more often, but my writer's block is still working against me for the next chapter, so I can't say when it will be released.

Next Time: Haven't thought of a title yet. Sorry

Eyes of Truth

Don't forget to review.