It was a bit after seven in the morning when Tenten left her home to go train with her new team, walking calmly.

‘I got up just at the right time today.’ she thought, happily. ‘Not like yesterday… or the day before yesterday.’ Somehow, she had managed to wake up too late, and had barely made it in the time Gai-sensei had set. And of course, she had been the last one. Gai-sensei had told her that it was OK, and Rock Lee had been too busy warming up to even notice. That Hyuuga guy, however…

Tenten clenched her fist in anger, remembering. Both times, he had glared at her with those cold eyes, as if saying ‘Be on time next time. The rest of us aren’t irresponsible persons, so please!’ without words. ‘The bastard,’ she thought, getting angry. ‘how dares he? I am NOT a careless person, so he can't look at me like that and make judgments as if…’

“Tenten?” she heard a voice asking.

Pulled out of her inner thoughts, the girl finally noticed Sakura, who had been staring at her for a half a minute. “Sakura! Hi! Sorry, I was a bit distracted…”

“It’s fine” Sakura said, smiling. She knew what it was like to be lost in a world on her own. “Are you going to train with your team?”

“Yeah. What about you?”

“Me too” The pink-haired girl smiled, excited. “It’s so awesome to be in the same team as Sasuke!”

Tenten smiled, nervously. “That’s great, Sakura.”

The girl nodded, happily. “Indeed. I’m making him warm up to me. You’ll see, we’re gonna be such a nice couple!” She suddenly stopped, remembering something. “Ah! I’m late! See you later, Tenten!” and with that, she ran off waving at her.

Tenten sighed, a bit relieved. She didn’t dislike Sakura, she was a nice girl and was friendly to her, but the constant adoration towards that guy, like the one from most of the girls in her class, bothered her a bit.

‘I don’t get what’s so attractive about the ‘quiet and cool’ type, anyway’ she wondered, back on track towards her team. ‘They are never nice, and are so self-centered. As if no one but themselves were important.’ She realized she was being a bit unfair, and that she couldn’t generalize like that, but some of the anger for that Hyuuga guy still remained.

And talking about that, a quick look at her watch told her she was starting to be late again. “Damn it!” she exclaimed, frustrated, and started running. ‘I do not want to see that guy giving me that superior look again, I simply don’t!’ She entered the dirt trail that got her into the woods and in direction of her team’s somewhat hidden training spot.

A few minutes later, she could already hear the voices of her sensei and partners. “Why, of course, I can!” that was Gai-sensei, screaming at the top of his lungs. She was almost there… “With the POWER of YOUTH, there’s nothing you can’t do!” Finally! She came out of the dirt trail into the clear spot where everybody else was.

Just to see a giant rock rolling it's way towards her.

Some people say that when they are in mortal danger, they can see their whole life passing in front of their eyes. Tenten would later say that she didn’t even have the time to do that: she closed her eyes and covered her head with her arms, waiting for the impact.

But that never came. Instead, she felt herself being quickly lifted from the ground. Was the rock hitting her so hard that she was flying? Wasn’t there supposed to be pain? And blood, you can’t forget that either. ‘Perhaps I died.’ she thought, still not opening her eyes. ‘It was so quickly, I hardly even noticed the pain’.

Suddenly, a voice spoke to her. “Are you alright?” A bit reluctantly, Tenten opened her eyes to find that Hyuuga guy staring back at her. His face was really close to hers, and she could feel his arms around her shoulders and behind her knees.

She couldn’t help to blush a little. “Y-yes” she replied, still surprised for her current situation. Had he always looked this good? Tenten felt her heart beating a bit stronger.

As he put her down, Gai-sensei and Rock Lee rushed to her side, with worried looks on their faces. “Tenten! Are you OK?” exclaimed the teacher, almost screaming. “It was my fault, I’m sorry! You see, I was trying to demonstrate Lee here that with the Power of Youth, there’s nothing you can’t do, like rolling a rock twice your size without any sort of problem.” Even though he looked worried, Gai-sensei couldn’t help the excitement in his voice.

“It’s fine.” she said, feeling a bit more calmed now that she was on the ground. “I came out of nowhere, so there was no way you could have seen me. Besides,” she added, with a little smile, “I’m not hurt, and that’s what’s important, isn’t it?”

“You’re right!” exclaimed once again her teacher, a lot more relaxed to see she was unharmed. “Luckily, we have someone as fast as Neji who noticed you quickly enough to save you!”

”That’s impressive, Neji!” said Rock Lee, with determination in his eyes. “This means I’ll have to work extra-hard to beat you one day. And don’t doubt that I will!”

“That’s the spirit, Rock Lee!” Gai-sensei exclaimed even louder, making his “good guy” pose. “If you train hard enough, and with the POWER of YOUTH, there’s nothing you can’t do!” Tenten looked at them, smiling nervously as Rock Lee hugged their teacher. She still hasn’t gotten used to seeing those shows of affection, as one might call them.

Ignoring them for a moment, the girl looked at the boy standing next to her, who seemed to have a similar opinion of the show in front of their eyes. “Uhm… Hyuuga-kun.” she started, nervous.

He turned his head and stared at her. “What is it?”

“I wanted, I mean, I want to thank you…” ‘This shouldn’t be so hard!’ she thought, as she fought for the words to come out of her mouth. “I want to thank you for saving me...Neji-kun” she finally said, aware that the blush had come back even stronger than before.

He stared at her for a second or two, with a slightly surprised look on his face. Tenten could feel her heart racing. “It was nothing” he finally said, turning his head again. She could have sworn she saw him blush, but it was just a second and she couldn’t be sure. She smiled a bit, turning her head as well to see Rock Lee and her teacher proclaiming the greatness of the power of youth. But her mind was elsewhere.

‘I guess… the quiet type isn’t so bad after all’