10/10

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Note: In honor of Naruto's birthday.

Uzumaki Naruto woke up, stretching and absentmindedly scratching his chest. Today was his fifteenth birthday. Or at least, he thought so, but was he was very tired. So, Naruto hopped out of bed and ran into his bathroom. Ten minutes later, he came out and got dressed in his orange jacket and pants, before running over to his calendar. The date read "10/10."

"IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!" yelled Naruto happily, jumping in the air and running down the stairs of his apartment building and looking around to see anyone he knew. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he noticed it was very early. No wonder he was tired. "MY BIRTHDAY IS TODAY! YEAH!"

Now, this would be Naruto's first birthday in the village since his return, plus his first with friends. So he was even more excited than he would normally be when his only company was the Ero-sennin. So Naruto began running down streets, yelling as loud as he could, until he ran right into someone, knocking them both to the ground.

"Gah! I'm sorr- Tenten-chan?" Naruto blushed as he stood up. He had been developing something towards the weapons mistress, ever since that mission he had gone on with her, and had gotten a bit shy around her.

"Naruto you idiot… Why are you running anyway?" asked Tenten, standing up and brushing off her pants. Naruto grinned brightly.

"Today is my birthday!" exclaimed Naruto proudly. "October 10th!"

"Oh." Tenten smiled and kissed Naruto on the cheek, on sheer impulse. Completely unaware of what would happen because of that. "Happy Birthday then."

Naruto was slack jawed as the Chuunin left in search of her teammates, muttering about not showing up for training. But it was then, as Tenten was retreating, that Naruto realized something.

October Tenth… 10/10... Tenten…

"THIS MUST BE SOME KIND OF SIGN!"

And with that, Naruto ran off to find the only person who could help him.

"SAKURA-CHAN! WAKE UP RIGHT NOW!" yelled Naruto, banging on the door of the Haruno household. "WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP WAK-."

"SHUT UP NARUTO!" yelled Sakura, bursting from the door and slugging Naruto in the stomach. The boy collapsed in pain and Sakura blinked. "Oops."

"… It's okay Sakura-chan… I need your help…" whispered Naruto. Sakura raised an eyebrow.

"What could you need me for?" asked Sakura curiously, offering a hand to her teammate, who gratefully took it.

"Sakura-chan, I told you I have a huge crush on Tenten-chan, right?" asked Naruto. Sakura nodded and wondered why this was relevant. "Well, it's my birthday and she kissed my cheek!"

"… So she was being nice. Why do you need me?" asked Sakura dimly.

"Don't you understand? October Tenth! MY BIRTHDAY! TEN TEN!" exclaimed Naruto, spacing out Tenten's name and waving his arms frantically.

"… I still don't see what's going on." said Sakura, staring at her teammate. They had gotten back from a mission with Kakashi-sensei very late, and she had planned on sleeping in. But as usual, it seemed Naruto was going to be a very annoying bundle of energy today.

"It is a sign from the heavens above! After years of torment, they have set things into motion! My love will not be denied!" exclaimed Naruto, and to finish it off, he did… He did the "Nice Guy" pose. Sakura's eye twitched.

"Deal with it yourself." Sakura slammed the door in Naruto's face.

"Damn…" muttered Naruto, before he looked up towards the sky. "I accept what you have told me, but please oh mighty beings above, WHAT MUST I DO?"

Chase her and ask her to go out with you until she agrees!

"If you say so!" replied Naruto, completely and utterly missing the snickering coming from his belly.

Tenten sighed as she left the training area. Neji had managed to get the chicken pox, and Lee had gone to check on his rival, and thus, Lee got it too. Thankfully, Gai did not and told Tenten she had the day off. So now the weapons mistress was very very bored. So bored in fact, that she would be willing to do anything. The reason for this boredom?

Well, no training or mission until her teammates got better. And most of her friends were on missions. Though, Tenten reminded herself, Naruto was around, and it was his birthday. And Tenten would also admit that she had the teeniest inklings of a crush on him, but just a really tiny one. Just enough for her to dream about him. Which is quite a big one in Tenten's book, actually.

"TENTEN-CHAAAAAAAAAAN!" yelled a familiar voice. Wondering if it was fate, and not the Neji kind of fate, that had given her the person she had just been thinking about, Tenten turned around to see none other than Uzumaki Naruto skid to a halt right before, a look of determination in his eyes, on that rivaled that of the great Azure Beast, Rock Lee.

"… Na-Naruto…?" said Tenten uncertainly. Naruto stood up and began composing himself. A few seconds later, he looked at Tenten and smiled awkwardly.

Do you want her to go out with you? Ask away, faithful one! mocked Kyuubi, pretending to be some sort of higher being.

"Tenten-chan! Wanna go out with me?" asked Naruto suavely, imitating a suave nice guy pose, which basically put his hand on his chin instead of a thumbs up. Tenten blushed slightly, before smiling.

"Sure. I've got nothing to do today anyway." replied Tenten sweetly. Naruto held out his arm, as he had read about the main character doing that one time he read Icha Icha Paradise.

"Shall we go?" asked Naruto. Tenten laughed and played along, putting her arm through his. Naruto's suaveness was gone, turning into the slightly-less-hyper we all know and love. "To the Ichiraku!"

Laughing, Tenten let Naruto lead the way to the Ichiraku. When they arrived, Teuchi greeted his best customer, before turning to Tenten.

"Girlfriend, eh?" said Teuchi, nodding. He ignored the blushing Naruto's embarrassed negatives and the blushing Tenten's glare. "Mmm… Okay, miso as usual?"

"Yeah!" exclaimed Naruto, embarrassment forgotten. He turned to Tenten. "What do you want Tenten-chan?"

"Um… Pork ramen…" said Tenten after a quick moment. The man got right to work on the order, and Tenten turned to Naruto. "So, is it really true you only eat here?"

"Yeah!" exclaimed Naruto happily. "At first, it was because it was all I could afford, but then I realized ramen was the best food in the world, so it was all great!"

Naruto nodded rapidly, and Tenten simply rolled her eyes and waited for her food.

"So, Tenten-chan, how have your missions been going?" asked Naruto curiously.

"They've been going well. Gai-sensei said he'd get us an A mission after Neji and Lee get better…" And it went like that. Tenten and Naruto began talking to each other, feeling so at ease, so comfortable with each other, that they didn't notice the ramen had arrived. Not at first anyway.

"So Tenten-chan, what's your favo- RAMEN!" Naruto grabbed two chopsticks, conversation forgotten, and dug in to his bowl. As Tenten was a quarter of the way done with hers, there was a clang. Tenten saw that Naruto had finished his bowl. "Seconds please."

As Teuchi began cooking more, he had thought Naruto would be more polite in front of his lady friend, Naruto looked back at Tenten and smiled brightly.

"You have something…" said Tenten, motioning to her face with her hand, implying there was food on Naruto's face. Naruto nodded and attempted to rid himself of whatever it was, but he failed. Finally, Tenten reached over and took the noodle off, her hang lingering for a moment, before pulling away.

"Um… Thanks…" mumbled Naruto as a blush slowly began growing on his face, his cheek tingling where Tenten touched him.

"No problem." replied Tenten, blushing as well, though her blush was smaller than the one covering Naruto's entire face.

"Here." Naruto looked over and to his glee, saw more ramen.

"RAMEN!"

Naruto and Tenten had thought about sparring, but Tenten dismissed it, knowing she wouldn't have a change. So instead, they headed down to an ice cream shop for a dessert, before going to go to a shop that recently opened for Chuunin and above.

"So Tenten-chan… You said lee and Neji were sick?" asked Naruto as he licked his chocolate ice cream Tenten nodded, but could not reply as there was strawberry ice cream in her mouth.

"Neji got the chicken pox, and then Lee ran over there as soon as he heard." explained Tenten. "Not even ten minutes later he had broke out in spots. Gai-sensei and I have already had it though, so we're pretty much safe."

Naruto grinned as he licked some more ice cream off his cone.

"I've never had it before, and even if I did get it, it wouldn't stop me from becoming the Hokage! I'd just have to work three times as hard!" exclaimed Naruto. Tenten remembered something then.

"Naruto, why do you want to be Hokage so much? I've been meaning to ask for a while now actually…" Tenten looked expectantly at Naruto. His face seemed to light up as he broke into a smile.

"One day, I will have the acknowledgement of everyone in the village. It's my dream." said Naruto softly. Then he reached over and ran his finger across Tenten's cheek, before pulling back. "Hmm. Never had strawberry before."

And Naruto stuck his finger in his mouth and grinned.

"It's good." said Naruto, not noticing Tenten's sudden blush. "But I like chocolate just a bit better. Maybe I'll get a scoop of both next time!"

As soon as the duo finished their ice cream, Naruto and tenten had gone to the weapons shop, which was all the way across Konoha, only to find them out of stock of nearly everything. Promising to come back another time, the two headed off to have dinner. And then, after dinner, Naruto had suggested something. Something that opted to be quite enjoyable.

Naruto was laughing happily. Tenten was laughing happily, and the two looked at each other. It had been a long time since Tenten had been on a swing, and Naruto wasn't sure if he had ever been on one.

Two bunshins were pushing Naruto and Tenten respectively, not minding at all and chatting about whatever bunshins chatted about as they pushed the two "lovebirds."

"Tenten-chan! Let's have a swinging contest!" exclaimed Naruto suddenly. "The one to jump the farthest wins!"

"Alright then, but only if we use our own power." replied Tenten. Naruto nodded and turned to his bushins.

Knowing they were no longer needed, they punched each other, effectively causing them to poof out of existence.

"One…" started Naruto.

"Two…" continued Tenten.

"THREE!" yelled the two. Tenten went far, landing right in the sandbox. Naruto, however, landed right on the splintery wooden border that kept the sand in. The wood ripped a large gash in his arm, and Tenten gasped and pulled Naruto's arm over to her, pulling some emergency gauze out of her pack. After all, she used weapons and sometimes training went a little too far, mainly when Lee was being to youthful or Neji reverted back to his fate thing.

"Are you alright?" asked Tenten, wrapping the gauze around Naruto's arm, as it absorbed the blood like a napkin on water. Naruto smiled brightly, as if he were in no pain whatsoever.

"Just fine." replied Naruto, his face seemingly inches from Tenten's. Tenten's arm was still on his own, but Tenten wasn't even paying attention. And as if Naruto was a north and Tenten was a south, their faces began moving together like magnets. And then, their lips met in an awkward kiss. Though it was obviously done wrong and their noses bumped together at the start, the feeling coursing through their bodies was enough.

After a moment, they pulled away, and the normally hyper Naruto was speechless.

"Yeah…" said Tenten after a moment. Naruto nodded.

"It's a bit dark… Should I walk you home?" said Naruto uncertainly. Tenten nodded slowly, and the two stood up and set off. The walk was silence, and both were contemplating the kiss. And after what seemed like only a few minutes, when it was actually half an hour, the duo arrived outside Tenten's house.

"So…" said Tenten after a moment.

"Um…" Naruto gulped. Maybe this was a one time thing? After all, it was his birthday. Tenten was his friend. Maybe she pitied him?

"Thanks, for everything, Naruto." said Tenten softly.

"Um… Tenten-chan." said Naruto firmly. "Would you… Would you like to… Tomorrow?"

Tenten laughed and kissed Naruto on the cheek, before a quick chaste kiss on the lips.

"No training, so come whenever. Just send a toad ahead or something" said Tenten, walking into her house with a bright smile on her face. Naruto grinned and headed towards his own apartment.

Sakura yawned as she laid in bed, thinking long and hard. After she had heard Rock Lee had gotten sick, she had decided to write him a get well card. Somehow it kept turning into a love letter, thus all the crumpled paper on the ground. However, wondering about Lee got her wondering about Tenten, which got her wondering about Naruto, which in turn got her wondering about what happened.

Well, she'd just ask Naruto tomorrow. Right now, she had to get this GET WELL letter right.

"Damn it! Not 'Love' Sakura! Damn you hands, why can't you just write 'sincerely'?" exclaimed Sakura, crumpling up another piece of paper and throwing it on the floor.

The End