heartbeat: Hello, everyonee! I've been lurking around FF dot net for quite a while and I noticed how depressingly few stories of KakaTen there are. NejiTen is still my numberone but I wanted to try my hand at KakaTen, as I seem to like them a little more than I should. XD

The first chapter is shortish. More to come later if you all want more.

~myheartscontent

disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.


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MY SWEET DEMISE
Act 1
~coffee~

"I'm socially retarded."


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The late morning sunlight streamed through the crack between the two curtains, illuminating the dust that danced and swirled about the room like feathers on a zephyr. She knew it was about time to wake him up but a part of her refused, choosing to remain in this tranquil peace of mind for the time being.

Tenten rolled over and smiled fondly at the man she lay naked in bed with. He looked so serene when he slept, the complete opposite of what he was when he was awake. His piercing, white eyes could make even the most confident of men cower in fear and his ego was perhaps the biggest in all of Konoha.

Still, she thought as she laid a hand on his chest and drew lazy circles with her fingers, any girl in their right mind would kill to be me.

He stirred and she removed her hand quickly. His eyes opened and they blinked sleepily at her before adjusting. "What time is it?"

"Time to get up, Neji," Tenten said in a stern voice, standing up and wrapping a silken robe around her bare body. "You have a press conference this afternoon."

He growled and threw the blankets off himself rather violently, climbing out of bed. "Damn, woman, can't you let me sleep for a little longer?"

"No, it's my job to take care of you." Tenten picked up a pair of Kalvin Clein boxer and held it out to Neji. "You promised the spokesperson you'd wear these?"

"Why? It's not like anyone will be able to see them." But Neji snatched it from her anyway.

Tenten twirled a lock of her hair around her finger. "You feel better, Neji?"

"I always do." He smirked. "I'm going to take a shower. You stay here."

Tenten smoothed her hair primly. "Of course."

After Neji had locked himself in the bathroom, Tenten began looking for her clothes, finding her panties almost on the other side of the room. She folded them and stacked them on the bed in a neat pile.

Her phone rang and she made quite a mess trying to look for it but found it eventually underneath Neji's shirt.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Tenten."

She felt her heart drop at the sound of Sasuke's voice. "Hey."

"Where are you right now?"

Tenten bit her lip and looked around Neji's penthouse, debating whether to answer truthfully or not. She decided to try her luck. "I'm at home."

"No, you're not. You're lying. You're at Neji's, aren't you?"

She cursed quietly, hating how he always knew. "So what if I am?"

There was silence on the other end of the phone and then Sasuke took a deep breath. "I thought this was going to stop, this…sleeping around with Neji."

"And we all thought Neji was going to stop having depressingly short and painful relationships, too," Tenten countered. "Funny how these things work out."

"You can't sleep with him every time he and his one-day girlfriend break up," he pointed out.

"I am his agent," she reminded him. "It's my job to attend to him, make sure he's happy."

"No, you're supposed to book his events, fetch him coffee if he needs some, and yell at people when he doesn't feel like it. Sleeping with him was not in the job description."

"Sasuke, I know you mean well and you're just trying to be a good friend, but honestly, I am a big girl. I can take care of myself." Tenten smiled reassuringly but quickly stopped once she remembered he couldn't see her.

"Just think of how many STDs you must have," Sasuke said. "It's not healthy."

"I told you already: it's fine," she insisted. "Neji's-"

"I'm what?"

Tenten looked up to see Neji standing in the bathroom door, his hair wet and a towel wrapped around his waist. She cursed again and whispered into the phone, "I have to go. I'll call you later." Snapping the phone shut, she turned to face a skeptical Neji with a smile of mock innocence.

"You're amazing, Neji, absolutely amazing," she singsonged.

He did not look convinced. "Who were you talking to?"

"Doesn't matter," Tenten said quickly.

Neji furrowed his eyebrows disbelievingly.

"Seriously, you have nothing to worry about," she insisted, grabbing a towel from the closet and running into the bathroom.

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Kakashi looked up from his book at the knock on his door and sighed, reluctantly marking his page. "Come in," he called.

The door opened and Shizune marched in, carrying a thin folder and looking very intimidating indeed. She strode across the office, her pointed heels clicking against the mahogany floor, and took a piece of paper out of the folder, slamming it onto Kakashi's desk forcefully.

She waited as he studied the photograph. "Well?"

He looked up at her questioningly. "Well…what?"

Shizune rolled her eyes and pointed at the man standing to the far left. "Him, do you recognize him?"

Kakashi squinted. "He looks familiar."

"It's Neji, Hyuuga Neji," she told him.

"Neji?" Kakashi echoed.

"Yes, Hyuuga Neji, one of our models – he's the one modeling for that new clothing line," Shizune explain rather impatiently. "Really, as president of Shinobi Entertainment, you know very little about your employees."

"I guess I do." He did not look at her; he was busying trying to be subtle as his hand slowly inched towards his book.

Shizune's sharp eyes, however, caught it and she grabbed the book before his fingers could skim its binding. "You do know there's a press conference today regarding Neji-san and the new Kalvin Clein clothing line, right?"

"You don't say." Kakashi's eyes were glued to the book.

"You should go."

"I can't."

She shook her head. "Let me rephrase that: You're going whether you want to or not."

"Is that really necessary?"

"It is." Shizune waved the book around in a hypnotizing pattern as she continued to speak. "You are president of one of the biggest entertainment companies in the country. And yet, you never attend any of the actors' premiers or the singers' concerts or the dancers' recitals or the models' photo shoots. You rarely attend press conferences and never answer any questions that the general public has a right to know the answers to."

Kakashi looked solemn. "I'm sorry."

"No, you're not," she contradicted at once and he grinned sheepishly. "I know you'd rather stay holed up in your office all day reading that dirty book."

"It's a masterpiece. But I wouldn't expect you to appreciate it," he sighed in mock melancholy.

"Because I prefer the real thing," Shizune answered drily, "and you should, too. Anyway, what I'm saying is that you have to let our entertainers know that you support them and you have to let the general public know that you're different than the other company presidents who force their employees to sign unfair contracts that bind them to decades of minimal payment and slave labor. Those presidents don't give a damn about their entertainers but we're different.

"You need to step up and talk to your employees, get to know them, befriend them, establish lasting relationships with them. You can't spend your life in this office, Kakashi," Shizune told him sternly.

"I'm socially retarded," he said matter-of-factly.

She scoffed. "I highly doubt it. You just don't want to make new friends, create new bonds."

He nodded affably. "That's very likely."

Shizune spent a few moments studying him and he looked back at her unblinkingly. "I think I've figured out the problem. You need a girlfriend."

"I have an ex," he said.

"Yeah, but you need a real girlfriend, not one that just dated you to gain publicity," she explained.

"One step at a time, Shizune. But I'll go to the press conference. Just give me my book back." Kakashi held out his hand and smiled as pleasantly as he could.

She hesitated and slapped the book into his grasp, refusing to chuckle at the sight of his gleeful face. "Be ready at one."

Before Shizune was even out the door, Kakashi had opened his book to the dog-eared page and continued his reading.

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The press conference was held in Hokage Theatre, an upscale, luxurious theater in downtown Konoha that hosted topnotch performances every week and could accommodate up to fifteen hundred audience members.

Neji and Tenten were quickly ushered backstage and into a dressing room where a whole team of make-up artists and designers worked on Neji.

Tenten stood to the side for a while before deciding to have a look around. Promising Neji she would be back soon, she ducked out of the dressing room and into the bustling halls of backstage.

A long table had been set up on the stage and hundreds of reporters, fans, and fashion enthusiasts were seated in the arena, chattering amongst themselves excitedly. The CEO of Kalvin Clein, a rather rotund man with a pleasant face sporting an expensively tailored suit, was chatting with the head journalist of the Konoha Times.

Tenten decided it was simply too crowded in the theater and she escaped into the front lobby, where fans and reporters were still trickling in. Deciding that she needed to be away from the crowd, she ducked down an empty hallway that lead to the practice rooms and the office.

As she rounded the corner, Tenten stopped in her tracks, staring wide-eyed at the scene in front of her.

Ino detached herself from Shikamaru's mouth and smiled widely. "Hi, Ten-chan!"

Tenten nodded slowly.

Shikamaru glared at her, keeping his hands on Ino's waist, and told Tenten to leave with his eyes.

"Right, sorry to disturb you two," Tenten muttered, shooting her own dark looks at Shikamaru. "I'll see you later."

"You're coming to my photo shoot later, right?" Ino called as Tenten turned to leave. "Shika-kun's going to be the photographer!"

"Uh, yeah…" Tenten scratched her head. "I'll leave you two, then."

That's what you get for wandering off, she scolded herself as she emerged into the lobby. It was empty now and the chatter from the theater had ceased, meaning that the press conference must have already started or was going to begin very soon.

"Tenten-san!"

She turned around and smiled at an unfamiliar stage crew member. "Hello, can I help you with something?"

"You're Tenten-san, right? Neji's agent? Great," she continued without waiting for an answer. "He asked for coffee but I was too busy to find the time to deliver it. Could you give it to him?"

Tenten nodded and took the cup of coffee but frowned. "It's not even hot."

"Like I said, I was busy." The stage crew member began walking away. "Make sure he gets it."

Frowning, Tenten spun around and crashed into something, a warm, very strong, muscular something, spilling coffee all over it. She scrambled away and bowed immediately, coming to stare at a pair of classy leather shoes.

She straightened up and looked at the person, recognizing him.

"Moushiwake gozaimasen, Kakashi-sama!"


heartbeat: Okay, that was pretty short but I'm just giving you all a taste for noww. I'll upload the next chapter in a few days.

I feel like Kakashi is a bit OOC. What do you think?

Please remember to review! Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated!