Curry for Gaara
{From the Point of View of Tenten}


"Guys."
We look up.
"It's time for another mission."
"Again?!" I scream, frustrated. "We just finished one ten minutes ago!"
Neji sighed. Lee punched the air. "Whooo!" he screams. I moan.
"What rank is it?" I ask, feeling tired from our last mission. We had to chase down a cat. That's frustrating—especially if you're doing it for three hours.
"It's an 'A' rank." Gai says, and we look at him. Neji looks at him like, "Oh, really?" and Lee's expression reads, "Is it true, Gai-sensei?!" Mine probably says, "No. Way. I'm. Going. Home." Gai reads our expressions and laughs. "Did I say 'A' rank? HAH! I meant 'B'."
I sigh. Lee moans in disappointment, and Neji smirks. "I knew it was too good to be true." Neji mutters. I rolled my eyes. Can Neji ever tone himself down? He's always doing everything to beyond the maximum. It's going to kill him one day. To Neji, an "A" rank mission is...well, nothing. To me, it's...a lot to handle. I'm not sure about Lee, though...He'll take on a mission, no matter what rank, and say, "I'll do my best to prove my nindo—my shinobi way!" Lee's almost like Neji; they'd both kill themselves in a mission trying to do their best. At least I preserve my power and know my limits.
"What is it?" Neji asks, watching some clouds.
"Well, we have to go out to Hiding-in-Sand..." Gai starts, and Lee explodes.
"Can we go see Gaara???" He yells, and I jump back. Neji eyes Lee and shakes his head. Gai grins.
"Sure, why not? But we have a very important mission, so don't spend all your time—LEE! Are you even listening?!"
Lee was staring all sparkly-eyed at nothing and smiling like the dweeb he is. He and Gaara are going out, I think. I dunno—last time I checked he liked Sakura. Not that I care. I don't have time for crushes—they only slow me down.
"Will you just tell us about our mission?" Neji growls. He's like Gaara in a lot of ways. For one—NO PATEINCE. Two, absolutely NO manners. And they both are powerful and don't take defeat too well. Take Naruto and Neji's fight for example. Neji, I have to admit, was a sore loser. I usually stick up for Neji, but hey, when I went down to see him, he was yelling at the wall for losing to that "stupid, weak, and not to mention ugly" Naruto. It was actually funny. I mean, Neji...Never mind. I smile at remembering that scene. Neji sees me smile and gives me a questioning look. "What is it, Tenten?" he asks. I shake my head.
"Well," Gai looks at a paper. "We have to...Uh..." Gai looks at the paper again. "..."
"We have to go make curry?" Neji growls. I stifle laughter. Lee looks at Gai.
"Erm...That's what it says....Hold on, let me go see Tsunade..." Gai disappears.
"I am going to go pack my bag!" Lee cries, running off.
"Lee! We don't even know if we're going!!" I call after him. I sigh agitatedly.
"Idiot." Neji mutters, and I nod.
"The possibility of seeing Gaara's got him all wound up." I say, looking at Neji. Neji's staring at a rose bush. "What's up?" I ask him.
"Look." He says, and I walk over and look at the bush. The roses were brown.
"Ohh, that poor plant." I say, looking for a hose. "It needs water..."
"No, look again." Neji leers at the bush.
I look again. The roses weren't wilted, but blossoming fully. But they were a dark brown, almost like my hair. "That's weird..."
"I don't see anything under it..." Neji says, using his byakugan to examine the ground under the bush.
"...Maybe there's dye in it. People use stuff in the soil to make flowers odd colors." I say, crouching down to look at the leaves. They were a sickly brown, too, but full and luscious. "But why would the leaves and stems be brown, too?" I pick off a leaf and it died in my hand. "Neji, watch this." Neji watches as I pick off a rose and it wilts up and turns into dust.
"What are you doing?" asks Lee, whose bags were packed and full. He stood over me. "What is with the bush?"
"It's...weird." Neji commented, turning to leave.
"Where do you think you're going?" I ask, getting up. Lee continues to examine the bush as I chase after Neji.
"I'm going home."
"Augh..." I growl. "Neji, we have a mission here!"
"Says who?"
"Says me." We hear someone behind us, and Tsunade and Gai are standing beside the bush.
"Told you," I mutter as we walk back over to them. Neji just huffed.
"You need to go make curry for the Kazekage." Tsunade says. "He heard about Lee's success with his curry and wanted you to make it again for him and his family."
"I GET TO MAKE CURRY FOR GAARA?!" Lee practically squeals, and I wince. Neji frowns.
"Erm, yes." Tsunade says.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!! OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!! THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE I GET TO GO MAKE CURRY FOR GAARA AND HE WILL LOVE IT I JUST KNOW IT I CANNOT WAIT CAN WE GO NOW I WANT TO GET THERE AS SOON AS WE CAN OH MY GOD I AM MAKING CURRY GAARA!!!!!!!!" Lee screams, and I fall over from Lee's extreme loudness. Neji helps me up and my head is still spinning from how fast Lee was talking.
"Uhhh huhhhh....My head..." I moan.
"Focus, Tenten." Neji says.
I do and everything slowly starts to come back into place. "Can you say 'over-load'?" I mutter. Neji smiles.
"Over-load."
"Exactly..." I try to keep myself from falling over again.
"Remember!" Tsunade yells over Lee's ranting with a megaphone. "You're fixing curry for the Kazekage, not just a restraunt! If you embarrass yourselves, you embarrass Konoha!" Tsunade walks off.
I shake my head and stand up right so I'm not leaning on Neji anymore.
"You okay, Tenten?" asks a girl who walked up to me when I wasn't looking. It was Sakura. "I kinda heard Lee screaming and ran over, figuring he was in trouble."
I laugh. "Oh, far from it."
"What's this about making curry for the Kazekage?" she asks.
"The Kazekage heard how good Lee's curry was and wants Lee to make it for him...Lee's all wound up about making curry for Gaara..." Neji says, watching Lee prance around. Gai was watching him, too.
"Wow, that's an honor." Sakura says, her eyes wide.
"You could put it that way." I say, smiling.
"Saaakuraaa!" Ino calls.
"Yeah?" Sakura yelled, turning around.
"Are you going to come here and let me fix your outfit or not?!" Ino screams.
"I gotta go...Ino's making me a new ninja outfit. My old one's really small....It won't hold more than three kunai." Sakura smiles. I smile back.
"Make sure it's not just for style and comfort, but for practicality." I say, waving my finger at her. Knowing Ino, she'd turn Sakura into a Sasuke fan girl in an instant.
"Don't worry, it'll be ordinary. See ya." Sakura grins and runs off. I sigh. She's a good person. It's a shame she's so focused on Sasuke. Well, at least she isn't as focused as she used to be.
"When are we going?" I ask Gai.
"Ah...Tomorrow." Gai says, looking at his watch. "Around five in the morning."
"NO WE NEED TO GO NOW IF WE GO NOW WE CAN MAKE IT BY SUN SET I NEED TO COOK FOR GAARA IT IS MY LIFE-DREEEEAM!" Lee says in a demotic voice. Even Neji is freaked out.
"Holy shit, Lee, we can't travel that fast!" I cried. Lee could go super fast and make it to Hiding-in-Sand by sun fall, but it'd take Gai, Neji and I until tomorrow afternoon if we traveled non-stop at the fastest speed we can go.
Lee growled at me. I back away.
"Lee!" Gai said sternly.
"Gai-sensei!" Lee stands up straight and salutes Gai.
"I thought Lee's life dream was proving his shinobi way," Neji mutters to me and I nod.
"We're going tomorrow because Neji and Tenten need rest. And I need food. WHO WANTS RAMEN?!" Gai cries, and Naruto comes up.
"I DO!" he yells. I smile, trying not to laugh. Naruto will do anything for ramen.
"Not you, idiot." Neji smirks. Naruto sulks and walks off.
"C'mon, Lee, let's go eat." Gai and Lee walk off.
"Hey Neji," I look at him. "Wanna go eat?"
"Not in the same place as those two," Neji says jumping off.
"I hear you." I laughed, following him. We arrived at a small restraunt near my house and were seated almost immediately. I order some roasted duck and Neji gets something spicy. I wasn't listening—my stomach was bugging me.
"What do you think about it?" He asks.
"What?" I look at him.
"About the mission."
"I think it's a trap," I say after thinking about it for a second.
"That's exactly what I thought." Neji eyes his water. He was making sure there wasn't anything bad in it. Satisfied, he picks it up and takes a drink. I start to drink mine but he stops me. "There are rat droppings in yours." He said.
"What?!" I scream, looking at my soda. "Waiter!" I call, waving the guy over.
"Yes?" he smirks. I hate this guy and I'm pretty sure he hates me. I pulled pranks when I was small. I used to put dead cockroaches in my food to get a free meal.
"There's rat shit in my drink!" I yell.
"Oh, really? Are you sure it isn't a cockroach?" He smirks, taking my drink.
I look at Neji. He eyes it, and nods. "It's rat droppings." He confirms. I glare at the waiter, glad I hadn't taken a drink. He smirks at me and walks off. Another waiter gives me a new soda. Neji eyed it and said nothing. That means it's okay. My head started to throb, so I took off my head protector. Sure enough, I had it on too tight. My forehead stops throbbing. "Does he have something against you?" Neji asks when our food arrives.
"Yeah," I sigh. "I used to put cockroaches in my food to get a free meal when I was little." I smile at the memory. Neji smirks. "Why?"
"'Cuz he spit in your duck." Neji smiled.
"WAITER!" I scream.

Neji paid for out meal, which was weird, since he usually walks out when we get the meal. We walk to the park and sit on a bench. I watch the kids play as Neji watches birds and clouds.
"Neji, look." I say, pointing to a daffodil bush. "It's just like the rose bush."
"What?" Neji looks at the bush and frowns. "Hm."
"I'll tell Tsunade when we get back."
"If we get back."
"What?" I look at him.
Neji stares intensely at a squirrel. "It's like you said, what if it's a trap? What if we die there? Konoha's shinobi are known to disappear on out-of-country missions."
I've never known Neji to be so insecure. Maybe the waiter put something in his dish, too. "Yeah, but aren't you being kinda pessimistic?"
"What?" It was his turn to look at me and my turn to stare at the squirrel.
"If they wanted to take out Konoha shinobi, wouldn't they go for cell seven?" I ask. "Sasuke is the last of the Uchiha. Plus, isn't Sakura one of the best healers in the country? And Naruto—" I stop. "Naruto's worthless. But it'll have the village in a fit if Naruto were killed. I mean...Well, look at what he's done and how Konoha sees him. He's like our comic relief guy. I guess."
"He beat me," Neji said, looking down. I smiled weakly.
"I'm sorry! I forgot about that." I say.
"You only forgot because of how terrible I was." Neji has major self-esteem issues with that fight.
"No! I forgot because I was focused on somethin' else." I try to cheer him up.
"The village only likes him because he beat the top rookie..."
"Neji, snap out of it!" I yell, shaking him.
"Wha-ah-ah-ah!" He yells as I shake him.
"You still think that you suck?" I ask. Neji nods. "Well don't, 'cuz you don't suck!" I shake him even harder. A few of the kids were watching us. I stop. "Still think you suck?"
"A little..."
"YOU DON'T SUCK FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!" I scream, shaking him three times as hard as I did before.
"Okay! Okay! I don't suck!" he yells and I stop.
"Good." I smile.
Neji sighs, watching the sun set.
"I didn't know you watch sun sets, Neji," I say coyly.
"I don't." He says flatly, and my joke goes down the drain. "I don't see them from my side of the house."
"I come out here and watch them a lot." I say, smiling at the sun set. The clouds are pink and the sky is orange, like sherbert. "Mmm," I say, smiling.
"What?"
"Orange and pink sherbert..." I smile, knowing he'd have no idea what I'm talking about.
"It makes me think that, too." He says, looking at the clouds.
"Eh?!" I look at him.
"What?" He looks at me.
"Nothing," I say, watching him. What's up with Neji? First he's acting emo, and now he thinks the sun set looks like sherbert?
"It's pretty." he said.
That's it. "Who are you and what have you done with Neji?!" I shout, jumping up and pointing at him.
"Sit down," He growled. "You're embarrassing yourself, you fool."
"Okay, that was one thing Neji would say..." I say warily. "But he'd never know I'm comparing the sun set to sherbert!"
"You must not know me that well." He smirks. I let my arm rest at my side. "I should be saying, 'Who are you and what have you done with Tenten?', since you're acting nothing like her." He has a point. I was acting strange around him lately.
"Hmm..." I frown, sitting down beside Neji again. "I guess I am acting weird, aren't I?"
Neji looks at me with his all-seeing eyes. I look back at him.
"You forgot your forehead protector in the restraunt." He says, and I feel my forehead. Sure enough, it isn't there. I get up.
"See ya, Neji." I say, half-waving to him. He doesn't say anything back.
And the strangest thing happens. I want him to say something back.

I set my alarm for four-thirty and take my hair down. I brush it out, brush my teeth, and get into bed. I fall asleep almost immediately. I dream about Temari kicking my ass at the preliminaries, knowing I'd see her again in a few days. I shudder in my sleep. Then I dream about Neji and Lee fighting. Neji is winning, and poor Lee is getting beaten to a pulp.
"This is destiny," Neji says.
"No!" I want to scream, but I don't. "It's not destiny! You can change it! Get up, Lee!" But Lee doesn't get up. Then Sasuke turns to me with his sharingan and I'm thrust into a vortex of illusions and pain. I wake up sweaty and panting. I look at the clock and see it's only four, so I get up to take a shower. I get out by four forty-five, which is a record for me. I put my hair in braids and change into my clothes. I put on my forehead protector and pick up my bag and leave after writing a good-bye note to my parents. I get to the meeting spot around four fifty-nine.
"Good timing." Neji said. I smiled.
"Where is Gai-sensei?" Lee asked, looking around. I shrugged.
Around five-thirty, Gai shows up half-asleep.
"Gai-sensei!" Lee cries. "We need to go!"
"Where've you been?" I ask.
"Coffee...Need...Coffee...." Gai muttered.
Lee runs off and comes back with a cup of coffee. Gai thanks him and drinks the whole damn thing in one gulp. Gai makes a war cry and we're off.

We stop for lunch around one and set up camp around ten, thanks to ol' energetic Lee. If it were up to him, we'd be going for...well, until we got there. Exhaustion much?
Neji decides to sleep alone way away from us, and I feel lonely so I sleep near Lee. After having that crazy dream last night, I'm not so sure I want to sleep alone right now. That part where I looked at Sasuke's sharingan...Man, was that weird. And what was up with the plants back at the village? I told Lee about my dream and he only stared at the sky intently.
"That is a strange dream indeed, Tenten." he finally says. Lee looks at me. "Do you think it has any meaning?"
I sighed, and stare at the sky. "I dunno, Lee," I say. "I didn't think it was significant." But Lee was already snoring by the time I finished my sentence. I sigh angrily and roll over. I hear Neji chuckling. "You be quiet, Hyuga!" I yell at him. Neji looks at me, smiling, then looks away. I scowl and roll over. I fell asleep in no time.
In my dream, I'm forced into that illusion from the sharingan again. This time, the pain's ten times worse. I see people dying in front of me; I see babies bleeding in their dead mothers' arms. It scares me. It terrifies me. I finally see Neji turn to me with his byakugan and I can see through everything. And then I turn around and see—
But I woke up before I could comprehend who I saw. Gai—well, Lee—awakes me up and I look around. No dying babies. And Neji's staring at the ground, kneeling beside his sleeping bag, which is rolled up. I roll mine up and pack again, sitting beside a fire that Gai lit. He makes us eggs on rice, which is really not that great of a breakfast. I mean, I could totally have made it way better than he did. After we eat, Lee jumps off and we are forced to get up and follow him. It was sun-set by the time we got to the Sand village. The sun-set was obscured by the buffeting sand, so I didn't risk my eye-sight just to see a sandy sun-set. The Kazekage greets us with open arms, and Lee runs in to find Gaara. I yell at him for being disrespectful, when Gaara walks out, asking why there was such loud voices yelling at each other. You should've seen the look on Lee's face when Gaara came out dressed in his pajamas. Lee squeals, and runs over to Gaara, hugging him like there's no tomorrow. I see
Temari and Kankuro come out of their rooms and I look away. They're all wearing pajamas. I guess the Sand village retires to their quarters early.
Gaara, after being mauled by Lee, looks at him for a second, then sorta smiles and hugs him back. This makes Lee squeal and hug him tighter. Temari and I stifle a laugh while Kankuro and Neji just roll their eyes. Gai apologizes to the Kazekage and the Kazekage assures us it's no big deal—Gaara's been wanting to see Lee, too. Humph. Figures.
Some servants come in and show us to our rooms. I get a beautiful room with a sliding glass door leading out to a small balcony. Lee—sadly for him—gets the room farthest from Gaara and Neji has the room next to mine. Gai is on the other side of the hall with Lee next to him.
I sigh and fall on my bed. Its really soft and cushiony. I smile. "Like it?" asks a voice. I sit up quickly and look at my door. It's just Temari. I smile, trying to be nice, and nod. She smirks. "It used to be my room, but Kazekage-sama let me have a bigger one. Doesn't have a good view, though."
"You like sun-sets?" I ask, mutely surprised.
"Sun-rises." She smiled slightly. "They're almost the same."
"How do you get up early enough to watch them?" I ask, amazed.
"I dunno," she shrugs, walking out. "I guess I have an internal alarm clock."
I smile. Okay, so maybe Temari isn't the blood-thirsty banshee I wrote her off to be.

That night, I dreamed again. This time, when I turned around to see who was behind me, it was Gaara. He was crying. Temari looks up and screams, pointing at something. It's me. I'm up on the top of a church, my body pierced through the lightning rod. I realize that I'm not me down here. Kankuro laughs and walks away. A giant bird swoops down and perches on his shoulder. Gaara turns to leave, but it swallowed up by a giant sink hole of sand. Temari's old wounds open up and she starts bleeding all over the place. Neji grabs his head, screaming in agony. He falls over, blood running out of his ears. Lee just falls over, and I see that he's been stabbed with a giant shirikin and the giant bird that was on Kankuro's should swoops down and starts sucking the blood out of Lee. I try to yell and scare it, but I can't open my mouth. I try to run over to it to beat it off, but my legs are literally stuck to the floor. In fact, they're sinking into the floor. I'm about to be swallowed up when suddenly I'm awake and Neji's kneeling over me with a worried expression on his face.
"Tenten, are you alright?" he asks sternly. I nod sorta, then shake my head, then nod then sorta shrug and Neji grabs a hold of my shoulders and looks me dead in the eyes. "Are you alright?" he repeats, and I start crying. I don't even know why, but I start crying right in front of Neji. Wow, smooth one, Tenten. Neji, unsure of what to do, hugs me softly and whispers comforting words in my ear. I hug him back tightly. He pauses at first, and to my relief, he hugs me tighter. When I calm down, he pulls away and looks at me. "What's wrong?" he asks softly.
I tell him about the three dreams I had and he listens intently. I mean, he really listens to me, like twice as hard as Lee did. When I finish, he sighs and rubs his forehead. I notice he's not wearing his forehead protector, so his curse-mark shows. Neji looks at the floor, frowning. "What's up?" I ask, my voice half-cracking. I clear my throat and try again, my voice smoother. Neji looks at me.
"I'm pretty sure that your dreams are insignificant, but since it's been reoccurring, I'm taking a stab at it being a sign." He says sternly.
"A sign of what?" I ask, looking at him.
"Of things to come." He says, getting up. "Go to sleep. It's three in the morning, and we get to sleep in."
I nod, and lye back down. "Night, Neji." I say softly.
He pauses at my door. "And try not to have bad dreams." He exits my room, and I smile right before falling back asleep.

I wake up after a dreamless sleep. I get up and look at the clock on the wall. It says that it's ten-forty-seven, and I lye back down. It's too early for me to get up, but I can't fall back asleep. Besides, at that moment, Lee and Gaara burst into my room. Lee blows a noise-maker and Gaara kinda just stands there with his in his mouth.
"Gooooooooood MORNING, TENTEN!" Lee shouts, causing Gaara to jump. I sit up and glare at Lee. Then I lye back down and roll over so my back is facing him. "Get up, get up, get up!" Lee runs over to me and shakes me. "Get uuuup! We have to start making the curry~!"
"It doesn't take eight hours to make curry, Lee." I growl.
Lee scowls at me. "It takes a looooong time to make good curry. Like in America, all those house wives make turkey on Thanksgiving and they take eight hours to make." Lee had to do a report on America's holidays in third grade.
"That's because they slow-roast the turkey." I growl. I listened to him in third grade, always wondering what Thanksgiving turkey tastes like. "You don't slow-roast curry."
"GET UUUUUUUUUUUP!" Lee screams demonically. "GET UP NOW SO WE CAN MAKE A GOOD CURRY FOR GAARA DO YOU NOT WANT GAARA TO BE SATISFIED WITH OUR CURRY HOW COULD YOU THINK OF ONLY YOURSELF AT A TIME LIKE THIS TENTEN IT IS GAARA WE ARE TALKING ABOUT HERE YOU KNOW IT IS MY LIFE DREAM TO COOK FOR GAARA HE IS MY ONE TRUE LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE!"
Gaara looks totally freaked out and I bet you five thousand yen I looked just like he did. I shoo the boys out of my room so I can change. But as soon at I have my shirt off, Neji walks in. I scream and he turns around, his face redder than a tomato. I bet you twenty thousand yen my face was redder than his right then. "N-Neji, y-you scared me..."
"I-I, uh, sorry." He walks out and I pull on my day shirt, my heart still racing. Better him than anyone else. I think, then I shake my head and question my last thought. What was that supposed to mean? I finish getting dressed, take my hair out of the braids and brush it. I feel lazy today, so I keep my hair down. I also feel lazy enough to just take my forehead protector and tie it around my head like Sakura does. Hey—it keeps hair out of my face. I open my door and see Temari with her fist raised. Either she wants to fight or she was going to knock on my door.
"Hey," she says, lowering her fist. "Kazekage-sama says breakfast is ready."
"Thanks," I say, following her to the dining room.
She glances at me, then looks again. "Your hair's down. That's a first."
I smile and nod. "Yeah, I'm feeling lazy today. I didn't even want to get outa bed but Lee came in and..." I sigh.
"I overheard his rant." Temari chuckles. "Heh. Is he like that all the time?"
"No, actually, he's never like this. But the past few days he's been really..." I search for the right word. "...Demotic."
"I'll say. He's so frolicky around Gaara, but when it comes to you and that other kid—the Hyugan—he's like a rampaging bull..." Temari smirks I laugh softly.
"Well, you could say that." I say as she opens a door to reveal a dining area. Lee and Gaara are seated next to each other, Gaara looking quite tired. Lee, however, was energetic, as usual. Neji was sitting beside Kankuro, and they were giving each other nasty looks every few moments. I sit in between them and Temari sits beside me, next to Kankuro. Neji looks at me questioningly. "Yeah?"
"Your hair. Your headband." Neji glares at me. "Who are you and what have you done with Tenten?"
"Ehhh?" I say. "I'm too tired to comprehend what you're saying. Run that by me again? Slowly." I yawn.
Neji gets up and pulls a kunai under my chin. I just yawn. "Neji?!" Lee cries, getting up. Kankuro, Temari, and Gaara all look at each other, then us. "What is the matter?"
"Neji, sit down," I moan. I'm really tired, and don't want to have to deal with Neji's untrusting ways.
"What are your motives? You're slipping up, spy," Neji glares. I just look at him tiredly. "Tenten isn't like this."
"Neji," I sigh, taking his kunai. "It's me, alright?" I turn to him and glare right back. "I just feel really tired because of last night, y'know? So, just for once, trust me." I toss his kunai at him and he catches it, putting it in his pocket. I lean my head on my hand, but he keeps looking at me. Finally, when the food is being served, he says something.
"I do trust you." He says it so quietly that I barely hear him. Digging into brunch, I try to comprehend the tone of his voice. It was something I've never heard come out of Neji's mouth. This is too weird, I think. Neji's been saying weird things around me lately, and I've been acting weird. What's going on? I glance at Neji, but he's busy glaring at Lee, who's drinking sake. Wait—SAKE?!
"LEE!" I cry. "It's not even twelve and you're drinking sake?! That's gross!" I sigh, grabbing the bottle and the glass from him. Gaara smirks, as does Kankuro and Temari.
"But—Tenten!" Lee cried.
"No. You're not going to get drunk before we make the curry and leave me and Neji to make it while you go and be drunk. That's not fair!" He did that last time. I remember.
You may be wondering by now, what curry has Tenten, Neji, and Lee ever made? Well, here's the story on that...

Okay, so one day, Lee was really hungry after we got back from a B-ranked mission. He was whining about his stomach so much, that Neji spun around and told him that we'll all make some lunch...And, uh, well....
"Neji!" I cried. "You don't cook!"
"If it'll get Lee to shut up," he muttered over Lee's whoops of joy, "Then I'll do it."
I sighed. "Alright. Let's go buy the ingredients..."
"Noooo!" Lee whined. "I can not wait that long! Plus, we have ingredients already!"
"Uh, no we don't, Lee." I said.
"Sure we do!" Lee ran off and came back with this huge pot and some extra super spicy curry mix. "Just grab some herbs and mushrooms! I have red wiiiine!" he said sing-songingly. I sigh, shrugged, and walked off. Neji went with me. Together, we got twelve mushrooms, ten herbs, and half a dozen roots. The curry mix was boiling be the time we got back. Lee was adding a lot of red wine. I mean, a LOT.
"Isn't that too much wine?" I asked him. Lee shook his head, throwing the empty bottle over his shoulder. Neji and I dumped the roots, herbs, and mushrooms in the pot and started making the rice. We had enough food to serve ten people. So that's what we did. We went back into town and served ten people, including the Hokage. She thought it was great and sent word of our success out to the Kazekage, Mizukage, and the Kakage. It was extremely spicy, and we all got really drunk, but really? It was good curry. It was so spicy, that even Sasuke had a hard time eating it—and his clan breathes fire! We all drank at least two gallons of water each that day.
Oh, and the part about Lee being drunk? Well, he had a full bottle of wine. Luckily, he brought five. So that means he dumped four bottles of wine in our curry. But I mean, he was so intoxicated, I had to carry him into town and feed him.

And that's how we got ourselves here. But what happened between then and now that made Neji and I different? It was only a few days ago...
"What's up?" Temari asks, breaking my flash-back. I look at her and shake my head.
"Nothin'." I say, eating more food. As soon as I was done, I drag Neji and Lee into the kitchen and we start looking for the right ingredients. Lee brought five bottles of wine again—we split one—and the extra spicy curry mix. We search the kitchen up and down, and can't find any mushrooms, herbs or roots that we recognize. Lee finishes off our bottle of wine and gets drunk again, so Neji and I improvise. I grab some herbs that looked like the herbs we used, Neji grabs some mushrooms that are all dried-out, and Lee finds a few small roots. We mix everything together, adding more mushrooms, herbs, and roots as we find them. When we finish, I taste the curry. The floor came up to meet my face quickly.

Apparently, the mushrooms were bad. And the roots. And the herbs. And two of the bottles of wine. I taste something really gross in my mouth and demand water. Lee gives some to me, which I gulp down faster than, well, really fast. Neji smirks at me and I glare at him. Lee sighs. “What are we going to do now?”
“I’ll tell you what you’re going to do,” says a voice behind us. We turn around to see—

And then, I have no idea what happens next. I think I blacked out. I try to move, but I can’t. I can’t even wiggle my toe. Then, I panic. Where’s Neji? Is he okay? What about Lee? Temari? Gaara? Kankuro? Gai? The Kazekage? I’m mostly worried about Neji, though, and I don’t know why. I think about what he said, about trusting me. Neji isn’t the type of person that trusts people so easily. He doesn’t even trust Lee or Gai. Why would he trust me? Neji…
Suddenly, the darkness disappears and bright, bright light surrounds me. Am I dead…? I thought. No, I can’t be! Neji—Wait, what about Neji? I didn’t have time to finish my thought, because I’m being dragged away from the light. Colors surround me, greens, blues, and black. They all are a blur, and I blink in order to focus them into shapes. But I can’t.
“Tenten.” A voice says to me. Neji! I think, my heart fluttering. “Tenten, say something.”
I try to say something, but I can’t. My mouth won’t move. I can’t move at all. Neji’s bleeding. His mouth, his cheek, and his arms are all bleeding. He looks pretty beat-up.
“Tenten.” Neji’s voice wavers. “Tenten, say something. Move. Do something. Show me you’re alive.
I wish I could. The one day I let my guard down, this happens to us. Greeeaat.
“Tenten,” he mutters, looking down. Neji’s shoulders shake as he hides back sobs. Sobs! He’s crying! My mind races. I’m compelled to hold him close to me, like he did when I was crying, but hey, I’m in a coma. Lucky Neji.
“Hyuga!” Temari’s voice rings out, and I feel glad that she’s found him. Maybe she can help me. Neji regains his posture and rubs his eyes. He turns to see Temari run up to him. “We found Lee and Gaara. They’re okay. I have no idea where we are and I still can’t find Kazekage-sama or your sensei…” She looks down at me. “What’s with Tenten?”
“Dead.” He says, one-wordly. But I’m not! I cry in my mind.
Temari leans over me, and a sweet scent of rose gently sooths me. Roses calm me down and sooth my nerves. I could smile, but—y’know.
Temari takes out a kunai and stabs my shoulder. It didn’t hurt, and blood didn’t seep out of my wound. Neji doesn’t see this, so he smacks Temari gentle-fist style right it the heart. She falls back, coughing blood.
“What the fuck are you doing?!” he screams, outraged. “Have you no respect for the deceased?!”
“She ain’t dead, Hyuga.” Temari says weakly, getting back up. “She’s not bleeding.” Temari coughs, blood running down her chin. Poor Temari! Neji hit me like that once in practice on accident. It hurt. A lot.
Neji looks at my shoulder, significantly surprised, and looks at her questioningly.
“It’s a genjutsu that’s rarely used. Tenten’s body is somewhere else. That’s just a clone. Her real body is connected to the clone, but she’s immobile. And she can hear and see whatever’s going on around the clone, so she thinks she’s dead too, which you aren’t.” She adds. Temari walks back over. “Look, Hyuga, she’s been kidnapped. By who, I don’t know. But we’re going to have to work together, you, me, Gaara, Lee, and Kankuro. We have to find her. She’s—” Temari stops, as if she doesn’t want to say what’s next, then regains her posture. “She’s a valuable kinoichi and a great friend. Tenten must mean a lot to you if you were crying over her.”
“I was not.” He says, emotionless.
“Suit yourself, but bring the clone.” Temari jumps off, leaving me and Neji. Well, my clone and Neji. Whatever.
Neji looks at me—my clone—and leans over and picks me—it—up. “You can hear me?” he asks softly. I want to nod, but…you know. “If you can, I want you to know. I want you to know that I—”
“HYUGA!” Temari calls, cutting him off. “LET’S GO!” Neji growls something about her going and dying, then jumps off.
The next few hours are a blur. It’s because I fall asleep and wake up and fall asleep. I’m either traveling or watching them rest. I can kinda feel the pain of when Temari stabbed my clone, and it—the clone—is bleeding. Temari says that since the clone and I are connected, when we get closer to where I really am, the clone will start moving, talking, and bleeding. I can’t talk yet, but I can blink and look around. I’m also getting sleepy more, so I fall asleep. A LOT.
At night, I sit up and look around. Then, I realize that I accomplished something and crawl over to a sleeping Neji and tug on his shirt. He pulls a kunai on me, but then puts it away. “You can move.” It was more of a statement than a question, but I nod anyway. Well, my clone nods. Whatever. “Good,” he says softly, so he doesn’t was anyone else up. “Then I don’t have to carry you around. You aren’t light, y’know.”
I frown, then pick up a rock and throw it at him. Neji lets the rock hit his arm, and turns to me. He smiles at me. “Child.” He gets up. “Come with me.” I get up and follow him to a near-by lake. We sit down.
I pick up and rock and attempt to skip it, but it just sinks to the bottom. I sigh.
“Here,” Neji takes my hand and places a flat rock in it. “Use flat rocks, they skip better. And throw them like this.” He turns my hand and guides it in a smooth motion, like throwing a Frisbee. We let go of the rock and it skips four times. I gasp and clap my hands. I was going to say “Cool!” But nothing came out.
“Can’t talk?” He asks, and I shake my head. “That’s okay.” He hands me another flat rock, and I skip it. It hops three times. I smile at him and mouth “Thanks.” He smiles at me. I want to know what he wanted to say earlier, yesterday, and I try to spell it out with rocks, but it doesn’t work. Neji has no idea what I’m trying to ask. So I give up and we sit in silence. I watch the moon as Neji skips some rocks.
“I wanted to say something to you before.” I turn to him. He doesn’t look at me. “Even though you may not have been able to hear me, I wanted to admit it to myself, too. I…Tenten, you…” Neji pauses, then sighs. “You mean a lot to me.” He looked at the ripples in the lake. Then, he suddenly gets up. “I need to rest. Carrying you isn’t easy.” I smile, then let him go. I watch the moon and study the stars for a few hours, then Temari gets up and joins me.
“How’s the Konoha kinoichi today?” she asks, and I smile at her. “Good, you move. Now Hyuga won’t complain.” I laugh, but no sound comes out. I don’t care, I just keep laughing. Temari smiled.
“Look, the sun’s rising.” She points to the other side of the lake, which must be east. We watch it, and when it’s almost half way done, Temari says, “Neji likes you, I think.” I nod in agreement. “But I won’t let him have you.” She smiles evilly. I don’t understand what she means until she leans over and kisses me. I’m in shock. Suddenly, I can’t move again. I fall over. “Tenten…?” Temari pokes me. I can’t move! She sighs. “We gotta get going…What a pain in the ass.” She picks me up and carries me to camp. Most everyone is awake and having breakfast.
“Why are you carrying Tenten from the lake?” Lee asks, Gaara’s arm around his shoulder. Temari sighed.
“She’s immobile again.” Temari explains. Neji sighs at the comment. “Lee, you carry Tenten. C’mon, guys, let’s go.” I fell asleep as soon as Lee took me in his arms.

I start to being able to move again as we get closer to the Village Hidden in the Rock. So, I carry my own weight. (No pun intended.) I think about Temari kissing me and Neji confessing. I become confused. Temari and Neji like me? Why me? I’m just a normal kinoichi.
Suddenly, my stomach growls. I realize that I hadn't eaten anything since...Was it two or three days ago? My stomach growls louder and interrupts my chain of thought.
"I'm hungry," I whine. Everyone stops. I stop with them, cocking my head. "What? ...Oh, that. Well, we must be getting close, then."
"I am hungry, too..." Lee whines, and Kankuro nods in agreement.
Temari sighs. "Alright, I guess we should all stop and eat."
"Yaaaaaaaay!" Lee and I cry, high-fiveing eachother.
So we stop at this run-down restraunt in this small, desolate town. Once we were seated, Temari leans over the table and mutters, "We shouldn't be here."
"But we are hungry! We need to eat!" Lee protests in a hushed voice.
They were both right. We DIDN'T belong there...I'm guessing Hiding-in-Rock is a small town. New comers, it seemed, weren't welcome. We were getting many dirty glances, I observed.
But we DID need food. I don't think I could jump another rock if I wanted to. We decided to eat, pay, and leave, for our own safety. But when the food got to our table, Neji's eyes turned into the size of a dime.
"Do not eat." He mutters, right before Temari stuck a piece of sushi in her mouth.
"Why?" she asks, agitated.
"Because the food is poisoned." He glances warily at the waiter who served us.
"He must be a relative of that one guy back at home," I say, smiling at my sick joke. Wrong time, Tenten!
"That he must," Neji growls, smiling, his hand on his kunai pocket.
"They're closing in on us," Kankuro warns, looking around. "Wondering why we haven't touched our food..."
"When I say so, we get the fuck outa here." Temari mutters, leaning on the table.
"Who died and made you boss?" Kankuro barks under his breath.
"Is something wrong with your food?" the waiter asks, walking up. I saw something shining in the hand he was holding behind his back.
"Yeah—it's poisoned!" Temari runs off.
"That was the signal?!" I scream after her, getting up and running out. Neji, Lee, Gaara and Kankuro follow me. We run about ten miles into the next town, which was bustling and full of activity.
"I'm guessing that THIS is Hiding-in-Rock." I think aloud. "Hey! I wasn't supposed to say that! Or that! It's like I'm speaking my thoughts." I whine to Temari. She nods.
"Then you must be here." She says, looking out into the city.
Then, this one actually stuck in my mind:
Where in here?