Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, just this story and the idea.

The detestable mission

Tenten was a fierce Kunoichi. Anyone who saw her qualifications could see that. She was a master of weapons and could hit a target dead center a hundred times in a row, much to the pride of team Guy. Constantly, she strove for improvement. She considered herself deadly and with good reason.

She was also a respectable shinobi. Not completely modest but not filled with too much pride either. She did as was asked and required of her; even if it meant doing something she considered blasphemy to her image.

Tenten constantly strove to show that female shinobi were just as powerful–if not more so–than males, so she would never turned her back on a mission, especially one assigned by Tsunade–sama. However, right now, inside a high-class restaurant wearing a tight, white and gold trimmed, floor length, golden dragon with red eyes glowing embroidered Chinese dress…she wished she had argued more with Tsunade.

She had been working in this restaurant for two days, but since Tenten had no skill in dressing up of her own, aside from her training garb, Tsunade had suggested–more like insisted–that she meet up with Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura for help a week prior, as she thought that someone near her own age group would be more beneficial in the long run for the weapon's mistress.

'Help' was definitely not that first word that came to her mind when defining Ino and Sakura's strategies. Torture was a better suited word. But even Tenten had to admit–no matter how grudgingly–that Ino and Sakura's brainwashing techniques were good skills to possess on an undercover mission like hers.

By 'brainwashing' Tenten was referring to a word she never let spill from her lips–unless directed at fan girls–and much less acted upon its meaning. Flirting was a skill Tenten always valued as crass and unsuitable for a young, strong, female Kunoichi. But dealing with a target of this caliber that seemed to have a lot of experience in the dating department under his belt, Tenten had no choice but to employ such a distasteful act. Of course this required training, for Tenten had not been gifted with being able to utilize subtleness or gracefulness of tongue on point.

She was walking towards the podium, ready to greet any and all guests that came in when she spotted her target. She took it slow, not wanting to look like a complete idiot if she tripped in her three inch heels but she tried to walk faster to make it seem like it was almost effortless to glide across the wooden floor. Tenten inspected her target inconspicuously. Yep, definitely him, she thought as she reached from behind a podium to grab a menu, and he's alone. Holding the menu to her chest, she pressed the eye of the dragon that traveled over her front.

Tenten, miraculously, caught herself from tripping for the second time that night without attracting too much attention. Bitterly, she wondered how those three other girls working were able to move fluently in these heels. The menu in her hands rested on her lap, revealing the scarlet eye of the dragon.

"Hello sir. Table for one or do you have reservations?" Her fake smile hurt her jaw muscles but she dared not twitch.

The target, Yukio Matsumoto, sized her up and seemed to enjoy what he saw since a lecherous smile painted his face. Tenten held down the bile and smiled. Smiling, Sakura and Ino had said, was a good thing to do when you have no idea what else to do. So Tenten had been relying on such wisdom and for the past two days and so far it seemed to be working.

"Table for two, beautiful," he corrected. "I have a date but she's a bit late."

Tenten nodded, slightly uncomfortable with the word 'beautiful' being directed at her.

"Of course, handsome. Follow me please."

She walked carefully in front of her target. Calling her target handsome had not been a spur of the moment thing no matter how easy it sounded from her lips. Ino had been drilling it into her to call him handsome so that he would be more comfortable and be liable to make a mistake.

She motioned for him to sit down in one of the booths in the back and began reciting her line.

"My name is Haru and I'll be your waitress. We are a bit shorthanded tonight so please forgive us. I'll give you some time to find what you want."

"I think I already found it," Matsumoto said with a smirk while eying Tenten's figure appreciatively.

He could be considered handsome to many women, Tenten pondered, but that smirk is a total turn off.

From the corner of her eye she noticed one of the other waitresses signal towards the door. She glanced quickly to identify the number of people that were waiting to get in and blanched when she saw the faces of team 8. Smiling politely at Matsumoto she turned and suddenly stopped. The first thought that came to her head was not: I cannot believe this guy has the nerve to touch me. Her first thought was, my shuriken!

She turned around and with a swift and hard slap to the man's hand she hissed, "That is not on the menu buddy!" and she quickly walked away.

On any other day she would have killed this man–or at the very least beaten him to a pulp–for invading her space but she couldn't. The mission was more important than her feelings. For the pay she was getting for this mission she had to do a good job. The pay was enough to buy the new set of whetting stones she so desperately needed.

The one that was paying her was a wealthy landowner from one of the border towns of Konoha. The Hokage had classified this–as a way to pacify the unconfident and insistent woman with a large wallet–as an A rank mission, though normally this would be classified as a D or C rank mission for Genin. Tenten was the only one on team Guy that was not on a mission and was, unfortunately for her, the first profile that the woman saw.

Tenten was a confident person, but was slightly insecure at the requirements of this mission. To help her, she had taped down a shuriken high up on her inner thigh so that not even the splits in the Chinese dress would reveal it. It helped tremendously knowing that there was something familiar near her body. But it was a known fact that on undercover missions one must not carry a weapon, because if your enemy was to put you under suspicion of a charlatan then you'd have a better chance at convincing them you weren't one if you were not concealing a weapon. Then you could get all the information you needed.

She tried to be without it, telling herself that she wasn't so weak as to need a support line. But after the first 5 hours of the first day she had asked for a break, ran home, strapped on the shuriken, and heaved a huge sigh of relief.

Now she was worried that she might have done something wrong. Quickly a plan formed in her head. If she was ever going to walk away from his table again she would take two big steps backwards, excuse herself, and leave as quickly as the heels would allow her to. She had to keep her distance from the pervert, less he discover that she was a ninja.

Grabbing five menus she turned to team 8 with her first real smile in two days. "Hello, welcome to Ryugu (1). My name is Haru and I'll be your waitress this evening. Follow me please."

As they were walking towards an unoccupied booth Tenten secretly wished that they would all just disappear. If anyone, besides Sakura and Ino, found out what Tenten had been forced to do and wear, even if it was for the sake of the mission, she knew that others would give her a hard time.

She felt she was pretty safe though.

She had threatened both Sakura and Ino and, even if they didn't really know her well, they could tell that she was one to make good on a threat. Hinata was almost like Neji in the way she respected others and would never spill anything to cause trouble.

Shino…well Tenten didn't really worry about him. He was always quiet, though she did wonder if allowing a shinobi who permitted bugs to reside within him would be a health violation. Kurenai and Kiba were the ones she was worried about. She didn't really know them that well and didn't know if she could trust them or not.

One look at Kiba and she just knew she couldn't trust him. He looked like the kind of guy that liked to brag. Even though he was dressed formally in a black suit that sort of hugged his body and distracted her a bit, she still knew that he couldn't be trusted.

All of team 8 was dressed formally; being as they were in a formal restaurant she was hardly surprised. Shino, to her surprise, was actually the least formal. He was wearing a black coat that covered his mouth with its high collar, long pants, and black ninja sandals. She wondered why he would wear dark tinted glasses in a low lit restaurant but why ponder on that fact, she had more important things to worry about anyways.

Hinata and Kurenai were wearing long dresses, of course in different styles. Hinata's was more conservative with long sleeves while Kurenai's was a bit more revealing in the chest and leg area. Even Tenten's dress wasn't that revealing, it was just a lot of leg, arms and mid thigh exposed was all, but it was enough to make her feel like she was baring her body to the world.

As soon as Tenten spouted her overused line, Hinata, Shino, and Kurenai knew that she was undercover and should act as if she was a stranger. But Kiba…Kami, help that boy.

"Whoa…" Kiba drawled in a dazed voice as he stared unabashed at Tenten's form. He knew it was Tenten, but he didn't know it was Tenten.

Because of all that training she put herself through she had gained a great physical physique but–without her wrappings–she was well endowed. It's not like she couldn't use the wrappings on this mission. Tenten had already decided a week prior–after seeing what kind of dress she was required to wear–that she would wrap herself twice before slipping into the monstrosity. But when she let down her guard she had been overpowered by Ino's Shintenshin no Jutsu (2) when she least expected it.

Ino delivered her to the restaurant while she was still in Tenten's body and dismissed the jutsu after she got Tenten dressed. When Tenten saw that her wrappings were gone underneath the Chinese dress she felt like murdering Ino. But because the manager had already seen her without the wrappings, she couldn't show up with wrappings the next day. People tended to wonder why or how someone could go from a C to an A overnight.

Kurenai slapped the back of Kiba's head sharply, slightly annoyed at the obvious lack of tact in her student.

"Eyes up Kiba," she scolded. "Remember why we're here."

He didn't even blush. All he did was shake his head slightly to break him out of his daze. Kiba's lips uplifted into a smile that reminded Tenten of a dog.

"Right," he said and nudged Hinata in the ribs before setting his sights back on Tenten.

Kurenai pushed Kiba into the booth, seeing as he wouldn't move from his spot as he continued to stare at Tenten. She sat next to Kiba, just in case he tried anything he would have to get through her. Shino slid into the booth, followed by Hinata who Shino knew wanted to sit in front of Kurenai. They were close. The genjutsu user was like a surrogate mother for the young Hyuga heiress.

Tenten passed out the menus and glanced towards the door. She saw a young woman being escorted by one of the other waitresses towards the back of the restaurant where her target sat.

"Is today a special day for you guys?" Tenten asked in order to distract herself from the urge of murdering Kiba and his roaming eyes, and to keep occupied while waiting for the woman to be seated with Matsumoto.

Kurenai nodded. "Yes it is. We're celebrating Hinata's first success at an S-rank mission," she answered proudly as she gestured to the white eyed girl. Almost like a real mother would. Tenten felt something stir inside her she hadn't felt for years. It was a nostalgic feeling, but also filled with pain.

Tenten turned to Hinata, truthfully happy for Neji's younger cousin. "Well, if you don't mind me saying, congratulations Hinata–san!" Watching her face turn pink at all the attention was amusing for Tenten.

The Hyuga fiddled with her fingers and looked down at the table. "Th-thank you, Te–H-Haru–san."

The young woman was seated in front of Matsumoto.

"I'll be back when you decide to order." Quickly, she hurried so she'd be able to record some conversation. Tenten's hand went to her hip as she snapped photos of the woman's face. The button for the camera was in the form of a golden scale that she could inconspicuously click.

"Sorry I'm late. Forgive me?" the woman said in a nasally tone that actually physically hurt the weapons master's sensitive ears. Tenten shook it off. Focus.

"Of course," said Matsumoto in almost a breathy tone. "You'll just have to make it up to me later." He smiled the same twisted smirk he once directed towards Tenten.

The woman giggled. "I missed you, you know. You never come by anymore," she whined in an even nastier tone than before, if that was even possible.

As men do when they don't want to answer something directly, he sidestepped the hidden commitment she was hoping to convey with those words. "I'm here now, sweetlips."

What a pity, Tenten thought. She doesn't even know she's being used.

Standing two feet from the table–just incase the guy would try anything–Tenten grabbed a notebook from a small pocket on her hip and a pencil from one of her buns and asked, "Are you ready to order?"

At the end of the night, Tenten could swear that her jaw muscles were swollen from all the fake smiles and a couple of real ones when she chatted with team 8. After writing her mission report and taking out the small camera, recorder and microphone from the stupid, inane dress she felt the insane urge to burn it. The dress was provided by the manager and he said that she could keep it, "you look great in it," he had told her. With a look of incredulity she had asked him if he had a death wish. He replied he did not and told her to leave since she had no more business here.

There was already a fire burning in the fireplace, and with unadulterated glee she threw the dress inside. The smell of burning cloth surrounded her but she didn't mind. If the shoes were hers she would have thrown them in fire as well, but they were Sakura's. And even Tenten, someone who enjoyed fighting to its fullest, did not want to be at the brunt of Sakura's fist. That girl had freaky strength.

Though vaguely she wondered what it would be like to fight the medical nin. It was a proposition that Tenten looked forward to asking Sakura one day.

As soon as all the fabric had decimated she doused the fire, knowing that she wouldn't need to rekindle it later. She had been hoping to ask Tsunade–sama for a new mission, one that would take a couple of days. Tenten wouldn't admit it but she was lonely. Outside of her team and occasional mix–and–match mission pairups she never really made an effort to make friends.

Picking up her mission report, she tucked it under her arm and slipped into her sandals, finally glad to be wearing something sensible. When her feet touched the floor she winced. The blisters that she had the night before and spent the entire night soaking in a bucket of water at the foot of her bed were still hurting, but she sucked it up, thinking about them as a reason for never taking another undercover mission like that one again. Before she stepped out of the open door she looked back and yelled, "Bye."

Nobody but the house captured the parting sound. In the slant of light from the open door, two photographs on the opposite wall glinted for one shining moment before fading into darkness.

Deep in thought, Tsunade rested her elbows on the table while her fingers intermingled with her golden locks. There was a letter on her desk, just recently decoded, that had come from Suna. She bit her thumbnail, an action she got into the habit of doing when she was anxious or thinking hard. Two brisk knocks on the door reminded her to become more focused. She was the Hokage for crying out loud. If anyone, other than Shizune of course, saw her as weak for letting something like this get to her, she'd have to kill that person. But she still couldn't shake off the feeling of anxiousness.

"Come in," she announced. Tsunade already knew who it was based on their chakra signatures. Each shinobi in the village had a different one and she had most memorized by heart. "Yes, Tenten?"

A manila folder was presented to her. She reached to grab it, red painted nails gleaming from the lights above.

"My mission report Tsunade–sama."

Tsunade sank back in her blue Hokage chair, which was actually extremely comfortable and was one of the few, very few, perks of being Hokage. Being the leader of a shinobi village meant that you had to sit for hours at a time reading paperwork, handing out paperwork, writing paperwork, getting cricks in your neck because of the paperwork. She let out a private smile, wondering how a certain blond haired, blue eye Genin was ever going to handle sitting still.

As she looked through the mission report briefly, she noticed a word used in Tenten's summary. Escort. A frown wrinkled the spot between her golden eyebrows and she let out a sigh.

"Umm…" Tenten cocked her head to the side. "Is there something the matter with the mission report?"

The Hokage shook her head and stopped, feeling a headache come on. "What do people take ninjas for anyways? I have another request for undercover work. And it's from someone in the Land of Birds."

Both of them groaned at the same time.

"Tsunade–sama, I wish to be assigned to anything but spying on someone's two-timing boyfriend. That's like something a Genin would do to work on information gathering. Not a Chunin."

A vein appeared on the head of the Sannin. When did these kids get so demanding? she thought with bitterness. Can't they learn to respect their elders? Of course, Tenten brings up a good point. Those missions are more Genin level. So what should I saddle her with for revenge for being so damn demanding? Tsunade's amber eyes glinted with a hint of mischievousness as she glanced to the right of the red-walled room.

When a sneeze interrupted the silence Tenten about jumped out of her skin. Was there somebody here? I didn't sense them. She turned around sharply and had to do a double take as she took in the source of the sneeze.

Tsunade smiled and pointed to the young looking girl in the corner. "That is your new mission."

A/N:

Ryugu – Dragon Palace

Shintenshin no jutsu – Mind Body Switch Technique

Hope you enjoyed the first chapter. This was an idea that's been in my head for a while and I had to get it down.

Criticism is extremely welcome.

Love: Lola of the Peaches

=]