Author's Note: Well, I've decided to try my hand at a Naruto fic. It's slightly AU, as Sasuke isn't obsessed with killing his brother and some characters may be a little OOC. This story does not follow the storyline, and takes place when most of the characters are 17-18ish.

Disclaimer: I dun own Naruto, its characters, or anything remotely related to it. Except several manga which are carefully hoarded in a glass, shrined case.

Pairings: LeexTenxNejixSakuxSasu NaruxHina ShikaxIno etc...

Ama No Kagerou

The Shimmer of Heaven

Chapter 1 - Waking Up

'Damn them. Damn them both.' A raging Lord Hyuuga vented his fury on a tree, hurling shuriken and kunai knives at it blindly. He hadn't even seen it coming. Thunk. Why should he have? He was the Hyuuga Neji, elite prodigial genius of Konoha. Maybe he would have expected this from Uchiha, but from Lee? His own damn teammate of 6 years and classmate for longer. Neji was beyond livid.

He remembered the day they'd come home from that "secret" mission to who-knows-where. They'd both been fidgety and uneasy, but they had brushed that off by saying that they'd been ambushed by several bands of foreign ninjas the whole way home. And like the moron that he was, he'd believed it. They'd made a fool of him and he wasn't in a forgiving mood.

"..ji?"

He didn't turn around. He didn't want to see her face right now because he was imagining it on the tree at which he was aiming. "Neji, can we talk?" He ignored her. Thunk. "Neji...I'm really sorry about this whole thing. But I think...I think maybe we should break up..." Thud. Bullseye. He whirled around to face her, for once dropping his emotionless facade and allowed her to see the full force of his anger. "Break up?" He snarled at her. She took a step beck from him. "Don't you think it's a little late to be breaking up? You ended this relationship when you decided that Lee would make a better lover and 'forgot' to inform me. Screw you, I don't want to see your face, you slut!" And with that he resumed hurling any sharp object within his reach.

Tenten blanched as the blood drained from her face. "So it's over then? Just like that?" He didn't turn to look at her. "I thought that was stupidly obvious. Why do you sound surprised? This is your doing. Not mine." "But...but I thought we could work things out. Still be friends!" Thud. "Yeah? Well, you thought wrong." "But we're still a team, right?" Tenten took a tentative step toward him, reaching out to touch his shoulder, but froze at the bitter contempt in his voice. "What team? You obviously don't need me to be a team. So go ahead. You and Lee go get all cozy and be all 'team-y' together."

Neji stalked off, leaving Tenten to fall to her knees and allow her bitter tears to flow. How could everything have gone so wrong? She'd never meant to feel anything for Lee, hell, she'd never even considered it. But Neji was wrong about one thing. He suspected that they'd fallen in love while on assignment, but the truth was that they were on assignment because they'd fallen in love.

Tenten knew in her heart that Neji would never understand. He was too obstinate and proud. He wore his damned pride like a shield, using it to hide behind from the rest of the world. She had always wondered if Neji was afraid. Afraid to let someone in, never letting his feelings show for fear he would be hurt. ...Or maybe he really was emotionless. Maybe he didn't care. Maybe he didn't even really care that she and Lee were together. Maybe the only reason he was angry in the first place was because she'd damaged his stupid enormous ego.

'Maybe...maybe he never even really loved me. But I guess it doesn't matter now. I have Lee.'

"Yo!" Thud. Well, that was Naruto for you. Falling out of trees, on a regular basis. And, also on a regular basis, the same response was illicited. From Sasuke, a disgusted snort and an eye-rolling. From Sakura, the usual lecture in shrieking tones and several blows to the head.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Guess what! You'll never believe it, na na na na na na!" Naruto danced around like a drunken monkey while cackling merrily. Surprisingly, Sasuke actually replied. "Let me guess. You've decided that being a ninja isn't for you and you've decided to move far far away to become a monk and shut yourself in a monastery for the rest of your life."

His teammates blinked. It was the weirdest sentence he'd ever uttered in their presence.

Naruto recovered quickly and continued his mad dancing. "Close. But no. That Hyuuga guy got dumped! Ha ha ha!" Once again, Sasuke was speechless. But this time for an entirely different reason. Sakura's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Are you serious? Tenten dumped Neji?" Naruto struck a "macho" pose and grinned. "Yep. I heard she dumped him for Rock know, Dog Brow? Heh, she must be on something."

Upon hearing that, even Sasuke was surprised. He remembered the day when Lee had made pledges of undying love to his pink-haired teammate, and had even vowed to protect her with his life. He'd been under the impression that Lee had taken these vows very seriously, as he was always popping up at the oddest times just to glomp Sakura by way of greeting. He'd half expected Sakura to be upset.

Sakura, however, wasn't quite upset, but did look pensive. She was thinking, not about Rock Lee, but about Hyuuga Neji. What a blow to the ego that must be, to lose a girl to an idiot like that. Sure, Lee's taijutsu skills were quite impressive, but Neji's prestigous family background and bloodline were by far the better choice, if one was to go by skills alone.

Not to mention that Neji far outranked Lee in the looks department. Sure, he was silent most of the time, and was overbearing and pretentious and egomaniacal, but Lee's resemblence to Master Gai was just plain creepy. Not forgetting that fact that Lee could be suffocating in his affections, and downright annoying.

No, despite the fact that she could see through any illusion or decipher any code in an instant, Sakura could not for the life of her figure out why Tenten preferred Rock Lee over Hyuuga Neji. Naruto, meanwhile, had no trouble believing it. He was bouncing around like a hyper baboon, gloating at the top of his lungs.

Sakura, lost in thought, screeched in surprise when Naruto loudly announced in her face, "Hey, since Dog Brow's gotta girlfriend now, does that mean I have a chance with you, Sakura?" His face radiated pure joy and hope. All to be dashed by a nasty right hook to the face. "NO." Inner Sakura cheering her on with chants of "Hell no!"

"Hpmh."

"He's such a jerk, Lee!" Thud. A sweat drop rolled down the side of Lee's head as his girlfriend's fist landed in the training dummy's "face". "Eh heh...yeah." Tenten growled and landed another blow. "I mean, all he cares about is his stupid reputation. I bet he doesn't even care that we broke up, only that it makes him look bad. Well, I hope everyone laughs at him!" Thud.

"Heh heh, I'm glad to see that you're over him, but I still think we should try to talk to him again. I will not be satisfied until he grants us his blessing!" The "flames of youth" (as Gai-sensei called it) were burning in Lee's eyes. "In fact, by the time I'm finished talking with him , he'll be begging to give you away at our wedding! Yes, and Gai-sensei shall be my best man! And the Hokage will wed us, and after we can smush cake in each other's faces! Ooh, it'll be white of course, with green flowers all over it! And green letters! And green decorations. And..gasp! I must wear a green tuxedo! And we'll require all the quests to wear green..."

Tenten twitched. As much as she loved Lee, he was still a hopeless moron. "Lee, I don't think Neji will forgive us, much less grant us his blessing. And who said anything about walking down the isle? YOU HAVEN'T EVEN PROPOSED!"

Lee gasped. "You're right! Forgive my rudeness, love, but I must go find the perfect engagement ring to surprise you with! But don't tell, I don't want to ruin the surprise for you!" And with that, he went skipping merrily down the street, bellowing out exactly how, when, and where he was going to propose to her.

Tenten sighed. She had questioned her own sanity millions of times since this whole affair began, and she still couldn't find an answer. A small part of her heart still cried out for Neji. But she quashed that part and refused to acknowledge it. She had turned to Lee because Lee would go out of his way to make her happy and give her the world. Neji had pushed her aside to fufill his own dreams. She was little more than a conquest, a distraction to him.

But for now it didn't matter. For now she would let herself float along in Lee's river of insane love. For now.

End of chapter 1. It's a tad short, but I'd like to see how it does before I continue. Review or else I'll stick you in a room with Lee and Gai who've just eaten tons upon tons of sugar. Mwa ha ha. Flames and criticism accepted as long as I don't have to get an Idiot translation device to read it. Thankies. n.n