Sakura let her apartment door slam behind her and rushed to the telephone. She glanced at the clock, it was 6:00, which meant she had only two hours until Lee came to take her out on their date. She dialed Ino's number quickly.

Two hours was a long enough time when it came to getting ready, but if all went well tonight it would be the first time Lee has seen her since he lost his vision. She wanted to look drop dead gorgeous, and that was a job involving teamwork.

As soon as Ino knocked on the door she was swept inside by a nervous and frazzled Sakura. "Where have you been? It's already 6:30!" Sakura felt extremely rushed. Ino took a step back and regarded her friend with a smirk. When it came to missions Sakura was hardly ever this diligent and demanding, but when it came to boys... lets just say that Ino could see a subtle facial twitch.

She walked passed her anxious friend and into Sakura's bedroom, leaving the pink haired Kunoichi's mouth open, gaping in the effort to tell Ino off. Sakura then took a deep breath, shrugged, and followed her, did she really expect anything else?

Sakura watched in awe as Ino took stock of every article of clothing she owned. She had managed to turn up a few outfits that Sakura didn't even know she had. Including a shirt that looked as if it belonged to a rotund midget clown. After being made fun of for about the fifth time Sakura diverted Ino's attention elsewhere, snuck up behind her, grabbed the shirt off the floor, then finally tossed the spotted frilly disgrace into her hamper while grinning, the perks of being a ninja.

Ino grabbed one piece of clothing after the other, throwing them into a pile behind her with dramatic swoops of her arms. Suddenly Ino froze in her tracks. She had finally found it. After all the searching, all that pining, she had finally found the outfit. It was a soft, green, V necked dress that would not only make Sakura's eyes pop, but her average breasts would look like they were size D.

"Um, Ino," Sakura interjected with a pointed index finger as her friends eyes sparkled, "You gave me that last year."

Ino met Sakura's eyes with a large smile, "No wonder it's the hottest thing you own."

Lee needed some dating advice. He had two males he could ask, Gai Sensei or Neji. He chuckled when he thought about his sensei on a date.

When Lee was twelve he believed that Gai could get any female he wanted, however his teacher was too focused on training for silly things like romance. Now he knew differently, Gai was an expert trainer and coach, but a lady killer he was not. Unless the lady was an enemy ninja and the word killer was taken in a literal sense. Thus Lee had no choice but to take another visit to Neji's mansion.

Neji looked at his friend with amusement, he wondered if he knew that he was wearing a purple sweater. He kept his laughing inside his head, and escorted Lee inside.

"So I see you've accepted a date? Finally gotten over Sakura?" Neji was talking to Lee over his shoulder as he walked towards his office. Lee felt guilty, he had left that part out when he had called Neji earlier. He grunted in response, that wasn't exactly a lie was it? He was just letting Neji think what he wanted to.

Lee walked deeper into the chilly abode, focusing on following the sound of Neji's foot steps, it was like a form of meditation. "So who is it?" Neji finally asked, Lee was normally hard to shut up, and now that he actually had something other than fighting or squirrels to talk about it was as if his lips were zipped together.

Lee shrugged, "It's just a friend." Neji turned around and faced Lee in the narrow hallway, he could tell he was keeping something from him, it didn't take any special Hyuga traits to figure out that much.

His eyes narrowed "Who are you going on a date with and why are you exerting so much effort in trying to keep it a secret?" The only reason Neji could possibly think of was that Lee thought it would upset him, did he have a date with a missing nin or something? Suddenly a thought occurred to him, what if Lee was dating someone that he himself was completely enamored with. Panic shot up his spine and electrocuted his brain, but he didn't show it. He could control his emotions, he didn't even know if he was correct or not.

Lee was stuck, in all of ten seconds his brain wrote off numerous possibilities to Neji's question. He could claim that Ino had asked him, but Neji knew that she was way to stuck up to go for someone like himself. Maybe Hinata? There was absolutely no way that would work, all Hyuga's within a hundred mile radius would be alerted if their heir to the throne was pursuing a romance, Neji would be able to spot that lie as easy as a ninja in a bright orange jumpsuit.

Neji was an expert at mind games but Lee had to try, if his friend knew that he was planning on going on a date with Sakura then he might not give him any advice, maybe he would tell him the truth if he ever decided to get married to her... "It's Tenten. She asked me out and I said yes, she's pretty and smart so I decided to give it a try."

Neji's insides lurched at a ninety degree angle. Pretty and smart? Is that really how Lee had described her? She was absolutely stunning! And as far as her Intellectual capacity went, she was one of Konoha's brightest!

Neji had never had to deal with this before, the girl he loved was interested in someone else. He gripped his chest, it felt like it was about to implode and his mind cycled dark thoughts. Why hadn't he just made a move earlier? All those nights of late training and bandaging each others wounds, all those chances. He felt angry that he had let every single damned one of them slip by. He was angry at himself, but he targeted all of it towards Lee. So this is how it feels to be rejected, to know that the woman you love is interested in another. It hurt.

Lee could not view any of this internal struggle, he could not even read his friend's expression. He absentmindedly tried to break the silence, which to him didn't feel awkward at all, "So will you give me some advice? I really like her and I want to make sure this date goes well." Lee smiled as earnestly as he dared and swung his arms to and fro, trying to make himself look like an innocent child.

Neji and Lee had always had a rivalry. Since they were children they had each tried to get the upper hand. It was only natural that Lee had chosen Tenten as a potential mate, the person that Neji loved more dearly than anything, even his family's honor. Neji thought of it as another challenge, a challenge that he could not lose.

An idea of pure genius occurred to him, "Sure Lee I'll give you some advice, I'm just glad that you finally decided to move on from Sakura." Neji faked a chipper tone, his acting should have won him some kind of award. This was going to be interesting.

Hey I'm not dead... but I'm sure if any of you knew my address i would be lol. I've finally, after about a years silence, begun working on this story again. If any of you are still even a tiny bit interested I thank you for your support. I've written this chapter over four times on two different computers, but sharing my hard drive with multiple people means virus's, and that means deleting everything. Finally I decided to sit down and pump this out within a two day time frame.

-Sunnyspider