DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO!

Tekamaru and Mikoto had been best friends for a good while now, but never before had he expected her to cry in front of him.

"What's wrong, kid?" he asked he comfortingly.

She shook her head. She couldn't tell him what was wrong! He would just tell her father about it, and then they both would end up worrying.

Tekamaru leaned down to whisper in her ear. "I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong." He was a patient guy. He was lazy, but he was very patient. But it pained him to see her crying.

He brainstormed. He hadn't said anything to make her upset, Naruto's son, Nawaki, wasn't even in the village to make her upset seeing as he was off on a mission, Rock Lee's son, Masaro, was too nice to make anyone upset, and as far as her homelife went, he didn't think that she would be crying over anything Hikari, that annoying brat of a cousin she had, had said.

Really, it was safe to say that Tekamaru loved Mikoto. He loved her alot, more than words could say. she was the Anbu captain and all, so that struck fear in the hearts of most men, but he was a Nara and for some reason the thought of a strong female partner didn't intimidate him at all. But he did shudder at the thought of his grandmother, Yoshino. She wasn't a ninja, but she was sure as heck scary- as was his mother, Temari. The wind-user never failed to punish her husband, Shikamaru, with a few flying tessen fans to the face.

Tekamaru decided that it was time to break his lazy facade and go out of his way to show Mikoto that he cared. He picked her up and walked over to the tatami that was in his kitchen while she sobbed. He sat down Indian-style and let her nuzzle his neck. "Stop that," he said softly. "What's wrong?"

Mikoto sobbed even more. "I can't tell you."

Tekamaru didn't exactly know how to comfort women, but he decided to go on his insticts. "Yes you can," he encouraged. "Whatever happened, I won't get upset."

"Tekamaru, it-it it hurts," she confided finally.

"Huh? What hurts, Mikoto?"

Mikoto didn't answer, but, instead, she began to make a noise that scared the crap out of Tekamaru. It was a mixture of both a choke and a sob. "Mikoto, what the crap is wrong with you?!"

He lifted her up and set her on his table to further inspect whatever injury she had. The Uchiha helped him identify the location by pressing her hand to her shoulder. "Let me see." Tekamaru wasn't the type to order, but if his love was injured he wanted to see the damage that was done.

Mikoto moved her hand away slowly. It still seared.

Tekamaru desperately wanted too see the wound, but Mikoto's shirt wouldn't allow it. There was no blood, but if it was hurting an Anbu officer that badly, it had to be something horrible. Gently, he lifted the shirt up. "Mikoto, relax," he whispered. She was a medic -nin. she should've known to do at least that much.

She complied as he took the shirt off of her completely. She didn't have to worry about modesty because she was wearing a shirt of chain mail right under it.

She hissed as Tekamaru fingered the mark. "The cursed seal?" he asked himself. Time seemed like it had stopped for a moment. If Sasuke had then seal, then it was definetely a possibility that Mikoto would have it too.

The seal glowed a deeper shade of red as Mikoto sobbed harder. "Shhh. Everything will be fine." He got up from his seat and returned with oint- ment. Mikoto opened her eyes. "I'm sorry. . ."

"It's fine," he countered gently. He had put the ointment on and it seemed to help a little seeing as she wasn't sobbing anymore. "How often does this happen?"

Mikoto sat up."Not much." She sniffled.

Tekamaru didn't have much time to think before mikoto ran at him with lightning-fast speed and jumped on his stomach. She had him pinned down with her kunai to his throat. Tell anyone bout this and I will kill you!"

Tekamaru blinked. "Look, kid, your secrets safe with me. Now get off of me and go to your hotel room-the Chuunin Exams are tomorrow and you're a procter."

"Shut up, Captain Obvious. And since you're so worried about me I guess I'll just sleep here." She hopped off of him and walked towards his couch.

"Good night, Tekamaru-kun!"

He followed behind her and flicked off the lights. "G'night, Mikoto-chan." He walked back towards his bedroom and ran a hand through his sandy blonde hair. I have to tell her soon. . .the tension's killing me.

He took off his Suna head protector and went to take a shower. He smiled faintly as he watched Mikoto flipping through TV channels.

Little did he know, she was thinking the exact same thing.

The next day Mikoto was in perfect fighting condition. She did all of her paperwork, finished her training and scared the crap out of a few wannabe chuunins. Life was back to normal.

She had woken up on Tekamaru's couch with a blanket pulled over her shoulders. Tekamaru had gone to work on preparatons for the exams, so Mikoto had decided to stay at his apartment for a few hours and watch some TV. She kind of missed the apartment when she decided to get back to Asuka.

Sarutobi Asuka was sitting on the couch reading a magazine by the time the Uchiha got to the hotel. Most of the hotels in Suna were strictly traditional and didn't have couches, only mats. Actually, there's only had a mat too.

That was, before the four month pregnant Asuka made the concierges carry a couch down from the lobby into their room, embarassing her shyer comrade, Mikoto.

"Lighten up," Asuka told her, her eyes relaxed as she licked an ice cream cone. "You're too old-fashioned."

Actually, Mikoto was anything but old-fashioned. Konohamaru, the legendary Trap-Ninja, had trained her to use explosives himself. Haruno Sakura, one of the best medic-nins of their time had trained her as a medic for a few years before the war, and Uzumaki Naruto had trained her gennin team before he passed the reigns on to Konohamaru, so he could serve the village as Hokage.

But, as she descovered after training with Konohamaru, her real talents lied within ninjutsu and genjutsu. Sure, Sakura had taught her to fight using her chakra and some brute force, but taijutsu just wasn't her thing. Actually, Masaro, Sakura's son, had kicked her behind a few time using taijutsu, but was too nice to bring it up over and over.

Unlike Nawaki who reminded her every chance he got.

At first, Mikoto had thought she was a failure becuase she couldn't do taijutsu, but that was before Temari of the Sand, her shinshou, trained her to use her fan.

This shut Nawaki up pretty fast.

Mikoto sat down on the couch next to the red eyed woman. "Where were you last night?" Her big sister mode was kicking in.

"No where you wouldn't approve of. . ." Mikoto hinted slyly.

Asuka caught on quickly. "Oh, Takemaru-kun!"

She blushed. "It's not like that!"

Asuka kept on teasing. "What did you and Takemaru-sama do last night?"

"Teka-chan and I talked."