A/N: Ingrid, baby, this one's for you . Also yes. Yes, I wrote a very long fic on sapphic romance, gasp all you want, but I had fun. These two deserve a lot of loving, and sometimes I doubt they can get it from their moronic teams. And so.

Girls: Interrupted

"You take the ones on the right, I'll take the ones on the left."

The last sounds the renegade ninjas heard were those of flying kunai and the ground splitting under their feet. The scuffle lasted less than a minute. Then, silence.

---

"It's absolutely imperative, so shut up and bear it," snapped Tsunade for the third time that day. Her fist slammed against the table in front of her, causing a small vase to rattle and fall to the ground.

From her seat in the room, Sakura stared mournfully at the vase. That had been an expensive birthday present; she knew it, because she'd bought it for the older woman herself, and it had taken her half the salary of a B-ranked mission. Ever since the war had ended, Tsunade was more on the edge than ever. It made Sakura wonder if the two Jounin men in the room were actually carefully disguised morons, for repeatedly trying to anger the Hokage further. Didn't they know that it was Sakura who paid the price? Each morning in training was tougher, each afternoon in the hospital was more stomach-churning, each evening was worse and more lonely. Didn't they see that?

Obviously not, as Kakashi's following line proved it too well: "Surely one boy added to the team wouldn't hurt."

Sakura felt like grabbing the nearest chair possible and hitting her former sensei with it. Repeatedly. And then she'd move over to Gai, who was nodding fervently in agreement. "Their youthful innocence should be protected, Hokage-sama. At least allow me to send Neji behind them as potential backup."

"Even if Hyuuga-san looks like a girl from afar," Tsunade said, stroking her chin as if she was seriously considering it. "My answer is still no. This is a delicate mission. We were asked specifically to only send girls."

"But why?"

It was Kakashi who answered Gai, his nose still hidden behind the yellow book. "It's a brothel."

Sakura groaned. On the chair next to hers, Tenten slapped her palm against her forehead. Gai sputtered: "They're objectifying women! They're objectifying my precious student! I cannot let this happen, Hokage-sama. Tenten is too young, too pure—TAKE ME INSTEAD!" But the time he'd finished his speech, tears were in his eyes, and Tenten's head was pressed to his chest lovingly.

"We can deal," Sakura interrupted, standing from her seat and moving to help Gai let go of his student. This was just like those children that were brought to the hospital for a vaccine—all they needed was a pat on the head. Sakura allowed her pat to be directed at Gai's arms, adding a bit of chakra to it so that he'd feel them grow heavy and let go. It worked—she smiled sweetly: "Tenten-san and I are big girls now, Gai-san. It is perhaps time to...eh..." She struggled to find an appropiate end so he'd stop protesting.

"Let us bloom properly," was what Tenten came up with, sharing a look with Sakura.

Strange enough, it worked. Gai offered but a pitiful sniffle and a nod, mumbling about how proud of his precious little student he was as he allowed Kakashi to drag him out of the Hokage's office. Sakura let out a long sigh, and grabbed the mission scrolls from her mentor, handing one to her now mission-partner, and heading out behind the men.

"Sometimes I wonder who's more mature, us or them," Tenten said, lingering a few good steps behind the Jounin.

"Us," Sakura said. "Definitely us."

The older girl giggled softly. "He shouldn't worry this much, but...I've never been on a mission without the rest of the team," she said.

Sakura shrugged. "He has no reason to worry. Us kunoichi are much better for these types of missions." She tried to ignore the bitterness over the fact that Kakashi had not even protested to her innocence being tainted. Did he already think she was a lost cause? Or was he paying her a big compliment by not interfering? His way of saying 'of course Sakura can do this, she kicks ass', but without actually speaking or looking up from the damned book of his.

"Mm, I don't worry about it. It's just an infiltration, and we've done that before," Tenten said, looking in front of them. Gai was hanging onto Kakashi's arm, shouting something about his students being more youthful than Kakashi's. It soon turned into a full-blown challenge, which Kakashi was trying hard to pretend he was not interested in.

However, five seconds later, when the girls had caught up with their respective sensei, Kakashi patted Sakura's head in a very paternalistic way, and instructed her firmly: "You...show your youth, Sakura."

Sakura rolled her eyes, and looked at Tenten, who was suffering the same instructions. Yeah, definitely us who're more mature.

---

From a strategical point of view, the missions did not really deserve its B-rank. Tenten noticed that as soon as they reached the bathhouse. It was at this place where the girls for the brothel were supposedly picked up, and in this place where Tenten and Sakura hoped to get picked as part of the future staff.

The scroll had given the instructions perfectly. She'd gone over it ten times, just to not miss one detail. The brothel in question was located in a well-guarded citadel, deep in a forest in Waterfall Country. Inside the citadel, the brothel was not what was important, but rather the houses around them. Runaway ninjas, renegades, outlaws, bounty-hunters, and even heads of the local mobs all took cover in this paradise, safe from the law, from responsibility, and more importantly, their wives—when they had them. The girls of the brothel were not just cheap prostitutes; they were dancers, conversationalists, confidants. Sakura called them geisha, and Tenten was inclined to agree, up to the point where sex was involved. Their own mission, thankfully, was not to infiltrate the organization as hookers, but as cleaning ladies.

All the men in that citadel were isolated from the world, in fear of being apprehended as soon as they stepped out. They led their whole life in there, surrounded by exotic and beautiful women—be it the hookers themselves, or even the staff in their own houses. Essentially, each of the kunoichi was supposed to use their cunning minds to end up on the cleaning staff of two of the main houses—the head of an influential mob from Sound, and the former leader of an assasination squad from Suna, who had ran away from his village. Once that post was ensured, they would get in good graces with the superiors of the house, using whatever means necessary—though they both hoped they would not need to use their own body—and find out all they needed for the organization that had hired them, and if possible create enough discord to ruin the citadel's hierarchy from within. And then, in the blink of an eye, they would be gone, leaving no memory of them behind.

In all honesty, there was no real risk. Even if they were found out, which both girls seriously doubted, they were not there to steal anything, nor kill anyone—there would be no proof, except for a snoopy cleaning lady or two. At best, they'd be fired.

"It's not really B-rank," Sakura told Tenten the night before the caravan arrived to pick up new staff. "Tsunade-shishou always ups the ranks of this sort of mission, and the pay. She hates objectifying kunoichi."

"What if they had asked for men?" asked Tenten.

Sakura gave her a slightly condescending look. "When have you ever heard of men being sent on missions that involved seduction? No, kunoichi always get the roles of being part-time sluts, while men just...lurk around, killing people in dark corners."

In all honesty, it made sense too. They did not live in an easy world. The war against Akatsuki had finished a year ago, and now that spring was finally by, Konoha had started to bloom back to its full potential. But it had left a mark on everyone, from the youngest to the oldest. Tenten often thanked her team's good timing, for having reached Konoha in time enough to save not only Kakashi, but other people as well.

It was back then that she had first fought with Sakura, side by side. They both took on one version of the man called Pein, with Sakura absolutely refusing to stand in the sidelines any longer. She had shouted back then, at Gai and whoever else decided to confront her, that Konoha already had the best team of medics around, even without her on it, and that she'd be damned if she let Kakashi die before he could see his team get together again. Gai had let the matter drop, and so had the boys, but it was Tenten who had understood, that deep down, Sakura was still striving for Kakashi's approval. It was perhaps why she didn't allow him to perish that day.

Now that she looked at the situation at hand, she realised that their team captains had nothing to worry about. These two young women had fought against the leader of the Akatsuki and got out of it alive. And Sakura had managed, time and time again, to prove to Tenten that she was a trustworthy teammate to have. And a friend, too, for all those days they'd both spent confined to a hospital bed in the same room, sometimes talking and sometimes not. War brought people together in the end, and bonds made from comfort after suffering were often the strongest. It was that why the weapons-expert had no doubt that this mission would be an easy one.

---

Five days after they'd gotten inside the citadel, Sakura was hired on staff of the renegade ninja, and Tenten was already in good graces with the mob leader.

On the sixth day, the mob leader was invited to a party held by Sakura's boss, in celebration of another year that he had survived away from the law. He chose Tenten to be his companion for the event, because she had a pretty mouth, and looked more classy than the other girls on his staff. It was thanks to the man's finer taste in women that Tenten was able to see Sakura again. The pink-haired kunoichi, whose pink hair was hidden beneath a layer of brown hair-dye, was in charge of serving drinks and offering conversation to those that needed it.

Thankfully, the party was not about the girls, but the men. Thankfully, their bosses were chauvinists, deep down and on the surface, who considered a beautiful woman to be a valuable decoration or accessory, and for that reason, they were left to their own devices in a smaller adjacent room.

It wasn't only Sakura and Tenten there, and they had to act as if they did not know each other before conversing. Fortunately, the other women were most happy to talk between themselves and let Tenten isolate herself in a corner. She waited patiently for Sakura to finish serving drinks and be sent to the women's room, and when that happened, she was quick in 'introducing herself' to the girl.

Idle chat was initiated, the perfect act in front of a gullible crowd. As the night advanced, Tenten and Sakura talked about hair accessories and latest books they'd read—when in reality they were giving each other a fully coded report of what they'd found out so far. In the men's room, exotic dancers were brought to entertain them, while the companions were given drinks. The tall servants that were handing the girls their drinks left no doubt that drinking them was not optional.

Sakura slipped a quickly effervescent pill inside her drink, and another one in Tenten's while no-one was looking, and told her teammate that she had things under control, in face of poisoning or drugging at least.

Of course, even a master against poisons as Sakura made mistakes.

---

It occurred to Tenten, when she woke up in a golden, gigantic version of a birdcage, with Sakura's body lying next to hers, that their bosses were a bunch of perverts.

"When're they supposed to begin?" asked one of the men in the room, somewhere in the front row of chairs that had been set out as some sort of macabre theatre.

"The effects should start now," answered another, whom Tenten recognized as Sakura's employer.

Near her, the younger kunoichi stirred, then woke up with a start, quickly assessing her surroundings. Not wanting to let the girl give out their status as kunoichi just by her reactions, Tenten pressed a hand on Sakura's shoulder. Some men in the room gave out a low cheer, and the look in Sakura's eyes showed that she knew exactly what was going on.

"Sons of bitches," the younger girl hissed, turning her head from the crowd and keeping her voice down. "They expect us to put on a show."

"I know," Tenten answered, still tentative as to what to do next. "You were right about the drugged drinks. What do we do?"

Sakura sighed, and looked up at the other girl, offering her a tentative smile. "If we don't, it'll blow our cover."

Tenten held her breath for a moment, and wondered if the drugs had really gotten to her after all, because in this light, Sakura looked really beautiful. The girl in question lifted her hand to brush a strand of hair from Tenten's face, leaning in to whisper.

"I am sorry either of us has to go through this. When we get home..."

"Hey," Tenten offered her a tentative smile as well. "We're professionals."

Sakura laughed once, and leaned in to brush the tip of her nose under Tenten's jaw. "Yeah... Just pretend they don't exist."

"Got it," the older girl breathed out, her ears already shutting off all noise other than her own breathing.

Sakura brushed her lips under the weapons-expert's chin, before peppering kisses up to the corners of her mouth. She muttered a shy 'sorry', and pressed her mouth against Tenten's.

As far as kisses went, it wasn't the best. The crowd of perverted men edging them on from below took away any and all romanticism, even though Sakura tried to bring it back by running the tips of her fingers down Tenten's chin before cupping her face. It was as if with each touch, the younger girl was instructing her to ignore the public and focus on her, on the two of them.

It was surprisingly easy to do. Sakura seemed to be an expert at kissing, something that Tenten could not say of herself. Sakura's lips were soft, and her tongue was doing wonderful things that only made Tenten respond to the kiss with fervour. In less than a minute, they crossed the line from 'entertainment for the sake of the mission' to enjoying themselves.

It was not that Tenten liked women. In fact, she doubted even Sakura liked women. But this felt good. It was exhilarating, to kiss another girl—the taboo in it made if feel even better, probably—it didn't even matter that they were being watched. Sakura was very determined to not give the men the show they wanted, and she exploited that determination by pushing Tenten down softly, until she was laying on the floor of the cage. Ever gentle, ever perfectionist, the younger, shorter girl covered Tenten's body with her own, bringing one knee between the brunette's legs.

She parted them with a soft moan, her hands trailing down Sakura's back, resting at the small of her back for a moment. Sakura touched her jawline again, angling her head for another kiss. She was good—each friction caused by their tongues rubbing together caused Tenten to squirm, each touch to her chin or her neck or her cheeks caused Tenten to breathe heavily. She was glad though, to learn that she wasn't the only one affected. That she wasn't the only one out of control. Because Sakura, who adored having control at all time possible, was pressing herself closer against the young woman beneath her, their covered breasts pushed together, her own legs parted so Tenten could bring one of her knees between them.

She grabbed at Sakura's hair, revelling in its softness and wondering, not for the first time, what it would look like between her fingers in its natural colour. Sakura's hand travelled from her cheek, to the tip of her ear, then followed her hair line to the nape of her neck. She pulled away again, to trail kisses down to Tenten's ear, where she whispered something that broke the spell:

"I know what drug they used." Tenten only moaned in confirmation that she'd heard—and maybe because Sakura'd just rubbed her thigh against her covered sex like so. "When I kiss you again, pretend to fall asleep." Her next confirmation was a gasp, her hands tightening around the girl's waist. Sakura kissed her again, and Tenten moaned once more, and deprived of oxygen from holding her breath—it felt so good—she found no difficulty in faking sleep, two seconds later.

Sakura followed short.

Tenten managed to listen to the conversation of the disgruntled men they'd deprived of their show. One was scolding the butler for putting too much of the drug in their drinks. Above her, she could feel Sakura's heartbeat, the steady thump thump thump, calming at best. Two minutes later, they were taken out of the golden cage, and each carried to their respective house.

When she finally managed to fall asleep that night, Tenten's hand was resting above her left breast. There, she could still feel the steady thump thump thump of Sakura's heartbeat.

---

"I'm not a lesbian."

Sakura fretted under Tenten's steady gaze, her hand clamped over her mouth. She had no idea what impulsed her to blurt that out, when they were in the middle of putting together all the information they had. Especially since they were inside a closet. Regardless of the dark, she could venture a guess that Tenten's look was a combined glare and roll of eyes.

Therefore it came as a complete surprise when the other girl stammered out softly. "M-me neither," before letting out a sheepish laugh.

"Good. I just—not that I have anything about girls loving other girls, after all...but. I just. Wanted to make that clear," the younger girl repeated.

"Aah," Tenten said after a few seconds. "We should get back to the information—"

"But I will not deny that I did enjoy that kiss. However, I apologize for making you feel uncomfortable—not just because I stole your first kiss, but because it had to be in front of a crowd--"

"Wha--?" Tenten groaned, the cramped space of the broom closet making that groan sound very close to Sakura's ear. "Why would you think it's my first--"

"Gai-san told me." She heard a thump and guessed it was Tenten's head hitting the wooden wall behind her. "I'm sorry! He just cornered me before the mission and told me to take care of you, for no-one had plucked the flower of your first kiss, let alone the bud of your...um. Ladyflower. Those were his words."

"I'll kill him," Tenten muttered to herself. "Kill him three times over. Why does he even know."

"I'm still...so very sorry," Sakura repeated, putting her hand on the older girl's shoulder. "It wasn't my place to be the one to kiss you. And not in a place like that. We could have simple faked sleep earlier, if I had figured out the drug before--"

"It's fine," she murmured. "It. It wasn't...I liked it. It was a good first kiss."

Sakura's mouth clamped shut, and stayed that way for two seconds before she barked out another laugh. "I'm so glad! I didn't want to traumatize—I mean, as far as girls go, we value our first kiss a lot. And speaking for experience here, losing it to someone you hate, or even it being a bad kiss...isn't nice to remember."

"Mm," murmured Tenten, then said, "Your hair smells like freesia."

"Ah," choked out Sakura, the flushed red in the dark. "I-it's the shampoo at the house. I--"

"I like boys," Tenten blurted out.

"So do I!" Sakura blurted out.

"So then..." started Tenten.

"So then, it...it could have been worse? It was just. A kiss."

"Between two girls," Tenten added, and Sakura nodded in agreement. "We should return to the mission."

"You know," started Sakura, shyly. "I've...never felt safe. Like that. Before. Kissing you...was like a...really warm embrace. A really warm enjoyable embrace." She quickly realised what she was saying and spluttered. "Right, the mission! The mission—so I think tomorrow, we'll be able to..."

---

Three days later, they could safely say that together, they had destroyed a city; and it had all started with a kiss. After their display in the golden cage, Tenten's employer decided to host a party of his own, and try to re-enact the spectacle from the night before, but successfully.

By this time, however, both Tenten and Sakura knew all the internal machinations of the citadel. Who was in dispute with whom, and who was just waiting for shit to go down so he could usurp the proverbial throne. They had all their information gathered, and were therefore, ready to leave. As the mission required it, they were to try and get fired instead of revealing their identities.

And what better way to do that than by frustrating already horny men? It was not hard to fake sleep again, though secretly, Sakura had hoped to be able to sneak in another kiss—not because she was a lesbian or anything, but because after the war, everyone'd needed their own steady, warm embrace. By the end of the night, they were both escorted out of the citadel by a group of renegade ninjas. It was obvious that the girls that were fired would not be allowed to happily go back to their former lives.

Sakura walked close enough to Tenten so that their arms were brushing. "Lucky they let us pack our things, first," she murmured.

"They give them false hopes, so that the girls inside the city won't freak out," Tenten concluded, then gave Sakura a sideglance. "We'll be killed."

"Aa, and raped," the girl calmly answered, not a fear in the world. One of the ninjas kicked shoved Sakura, at which the girl stiffened a growl. "Petty thieves, hardly even Jounin," she told Tenten.

In one second, she snapped the ropes binding her hands. "You take the ones on the right, I'll take the ones on the left."

The last sounds the renegade ninjas heard were those of flying kunai and the ground splitting under their feet. The scuffle lasted less than a minute. Then, silence.

---

Once dismissed by their Hokage, Sakura invited Tenten to lunch. "I'll treat," she said. "For the lost kiss."

Tenten didn't answer, but let Sakura guide her down the streets of Konoha, grateful for once that neither their teams were in the village at the moment. There was also that lingering feeling of pride, at Tsunade's words of congratulations. Fortunately, even if they had fought their 'escorts' out of the city, Sakura had insisted that they only injure them to the point of making it impossible for them to return. The young medic-nin had broken their legs, her face showing no signs of neither trauma nor sadism at the feat. By the time they would be fetched back, it would already be too late.

Ten miles into the forest, the girls were met by assassination squads from all of Konoha's allied countries. They shared their information on how to slip into the city, which people to be wary of, and the rest was out of their mission.

The journey home had been pleasantly quiet. It was as if the talk from the closet had been laid to rest. That did make Tenten frown a bit, but although she felt a great deal of admiration, respect, and affection towards Sakura, there was no crush, no broken heart, no lost impossible love to mourn over.

In the restaurant, Sakura takes a seat across from Tenten. Their legs brush under the table during the whole meal.

By the evening, Sakura invites Tenten to her apartment for a cup of tea, and some girl time, confiding that aside from Ino, she's never had a girl friend. Tenten went there too, amazed at the girl's power of conviction. Was she really that dominant, or was Tenten just that willing? The thrill still rested there, deep under her skin, lodged in ever nervous termination. She still felt Sakura's heartbeat sometimes.

By the second cup of tea, she gathered up enough courage to corner the younger girl in the kitchen. Yes, she was older, higher-ranked, and she could do horrible things with a kunai and two strings; but Sakura was the apprentice of the Hokage, she could split mountains with her pinky finger, she could poison, break bones, and she had a very volatile temper. And her skin glowed in the moonlight, and her hair was beautiful back to its original pink colour, and her lips had been so warm.

"Do you still like boys?" Tenten asked, standing in the doorway of the kitchen. Tempting. Tentative.

"Yeah," Sakura answered, before turning around to face the other girl. "But...only because I'm used to it."

Tenten nodded—she understood. She liked boys too. She'd had crushes on boys too, just like Sakura had had. "I liked it when your hair smelled like freesia," she murmured.

Sakura's eyes softened, and she crossed the room to stand toe to toe with the other girl. "I like the way you're so confident in yourself, that you don't need to shout to make people listen."

"I like the way you grin after you leave your oponents in shock when you show them the magnitude of your power."

"I like your ears," Sakura whispered, her fingers trailing over the tip of one.

"I liked kissing you," Tenten whispered, leaning down.

"I'd like to do it again," was Sakura's answer, before she brushed her mouth against Tenten's. "I'd like to do it again."

"I'd like you to do it again," Tenten answered, leaning down to press her mouth against Sakura's. "I don't know if this makes me a lesbian."

"I don't think it's something you know from birth," Sakura murmured, brushing her fingers under the other girl's eyes. "It's just something you discover."

Tenten nodded, and smiled. "I'd like to continue what we started in the cage. Without a public."

"Okay."

"And maybe without clothes."

"O-Okay!"

Tenten smiled, wrapping her hands around Sakura's waist tightly. "I like it when you blush," she said affectionately, and kissed her cheek.

---

"You know," Sakura said, the next morning while they were having breakfast in bed. "Gai-san will blame this all on me." She held up a piece of the toast with jam she'd prepared, placing it before Tenten's lips. She smiled with satisfaction when the other girl's lips brushed over her fingers, lingering.

"He should," Tenten teased, wiping the excess of jam from the corner of her mouth before mimicking Sakura's movements and feeding the girl toast.

"Should not! You're the one who asked me for more," Sakura snapped, not unkindly.

"You're the one who let me get away with it," the weapons-expert grinned, gripping Sakura's chin in her hand and leaning down to lick at the corner of her mouth. "You had jam there," she said, smirking.

Sakura huffed, and accused: "Now who's the one tainting whose innocence?"

Tenten smiled, leaning against the pillows in Sakura's bed, her bathrobe—Sakura had lent it to her—slipping slightly off her shoulders. "Give me two minutes, and I'll answer that."

The medic-nin giggled, picking up the plate with their breakfast and putting it on the floor, before straddling Tenten's hips. "And here I thought you'd be the innocent one."

"We're both perverts," Tenten answered, wrapping her arms around Sakura's neck to pull her down. "And lesbians too, I think."

Sakura laughed, nuzzling her nose against the side of the girl's neck. "Oh yeah. I think we can make something work."