I'm such a lazy bum, I know, but my other stories are coming along. I have a fascination with the secondary Chuunin and Jonin characters though, so this is pretty much a compilation of random writings about every day occurrences that the Konoha 12 happen to see involving their superiors now that they are no longer Genin. (Because we all know you get to see a lot more once you're one of them).

Presumably, this takes place well after Sasuke Returns and all that. How those events come about, you can simply guess. I won't go into much detail about that.

Anyway, enjoy, and give me some feedback!

Disclaimer: I own no one but Nagashi Fuyuna and Inazuri Tsurako. Everyone else, sadly, belongs to Kishimoto-sensei.

Things You Never Knew About Your Superiors: Story 1

The Higher the Rank, the Lower the Maturity Level

By Saori Runa Dempsey

"NAGASHI!"

All of Konoha and half of Suna awoke that morning to the delightful yells of one Shiranui Genma outside of the apartment building where several of Konoha's more well known Chuunin and Jonin resided. Tenten, having newly rented the apartment above the chuunin examiner, peered out her bedroom window and couldn't help but point out loudly, "How did you get up so HIGH, Shiranui-sempai?"

How he got 'up-there' was quite obvious, but no one had ever accused Tenten of being particularly quick-witted in the mornings. Once she got a nice strong cup of coffee in her system, she'd be sharp as a tack, but before then she'd be lucky if she remembered what her name was.

His senbon gnashed irritably between his teeth as he unsuccessfully tried to dislodge himself from the flagpole holding him up in the air like one very heavy flag. "Tenten-chan, would ya be sa kind as ta cut meh down?" His accent that no one could place was even more pronounced in his irritation, so she had to pause a few minutes just to decipher what the hell he was trying to say.

While she did this, various other complex occupants had come out to see what in the world the ruckus was about.

"Who'd you piss off this time, Shiranui?" Hagane Kotetsu hooted from the apartment above hers. Though Tenten didn't hear Izumo, Kotetsu's roommate, she imagined he was there too, just as amused as his friend.

"Ho…maybe we should just let him hang there a while," Anko-sensei cackled, leaning in the doorway of her apartment down the hall.

"Won't Shizune get mad if we do?" Izumo finally leaned over into view to muse out loud. "It's getting cold out with fall turning to winter. She'll kill us if she has to deal with a sick Genma."

Though it was barely noticeable, a twitch ran through many of the onlookers. Apparently, this was a bad thing. While she'd learned…quite a bit since attaining Chuunin status, Tenten hadn't been here in her new apartment long enough to know the more personal quirks of the comrades she'd always thought of as her superiors. They still were, sort of, but she stood more or less on equal footing with them now, in the unspoken hierarchy of things. This made her and many others privy to things she and her former Genin comrades hadn't even suspected about them.

Like how frequently Shiranui-sempai got picked on.

Izumo and Kotetsu, she quickly realized, liked picking on him the most. Aoba tried, but obviously Genma-sempai's old teammate didn't succeed as she usually saw him getting a sound knock in the head if he even tried. Nagashi, who he was currently cursing to the deep depths of hell, was one of the Jonin she wasn't as familiar with. According to the two upstairs, however, the two Jonin had some unspoken one-up game going that dated back over a decade.

Apparently, this was just another move in the big game of things.

Taking pity – and because Iwashi kindly brought her up a cup of coffee from his first floor apartment – Tenten let a single kunai fly and watched as Genma-sempai fell, falling seamlessly to his feet because he was, ultimately, a Tokubetsu Jonin. Only Genin would fall clumsily from such a height.

"Your girlfriend is toast," he scowled up at the two bachelors above her, though she still wasn't sure whether he was addressing Izumo or Kotetsu. Seeing as neither of them looked particularly worried, she presumed it was just him letting off steam.

With an easy leap, the senbon-chewing Jonin was on her other side, leaning back against the railing and swiping her half-empty mug of coffee. "Tastes like shit, Tatami," he finally said as he swallowed the last drop.

Tenten just stared at it, torn between sighing and demanding he make her a pot to replace the cup she hadn't finished. She'd make her own, but anything that wasn't a weapon tended to dislike her. Her domestic habits ran along the same lines as Izumo and Kotetsu, who made it a habit to drag her out to eat with them if they were around at the same time.

Come to think of it, Genma-sempai's domestic talents were even worse then theirs. So Tenten sighed, and stared pleadingly at the only domestically-decent Chuunin that she knew in the building.

Even if his coffee really did taste like shit.

"That swill he calls coffee will kill us one day," Genma-sempai said conversationally, looping a friendly arm around her shoulders as the three of them meandered into her apartment. It wasn't unusual for them to do so in the mornings, though her relationship with Shiranui Genma befuddled Neji and Lee to no end whenever he got so friendly like this. Even Gai-sensei was bemused, though it wasn't all that strange. His obsession with pointy things – especially senbon – was hardly a secret. He'd spied, on a fluke, some of her special senbon that she was working on one day and, after she'd shrugged and said he could have them to keep since he liked them so much, she'd become his favorite person in the world.

It all just kind of expanded from there.

"Learn to make your own then," Iwashi grumped with a small glare, though it held no heat as he dutifully handed them both a steaming mug.

Now, her friendship with Iwashi wasn't so confusing, but she found it befuddling that he and Neji did not get along. At all. The elitist in Neji had decreased since that fateful first Chuunin exam, and Iwashi just liked everyone, so it made no fathomable sense. She'd flattered herself, a little, in thinking maybe Neji was jealous, but why only Iwashi? If he were jealous, wouldn't he naturally be jealous of Genma-sempai too? Reputation for pointy obsession aside, he was also a notorious charmer to boot.

"That's how we came to be living in this place," Genma-sempai grumped, and Tenten laughed with Iwashi. Izumo and Kotetsu had delighted in regaling her with the story of how he'd tried to cook dinner for Shizune, once, and ended up burning their old apartment building to the ground. There hadn't been anything salvageable left of the place by the time the flames had been put out, so must of the building's occupants had relocated here where they were only 20 minutes away from Hokage Tower.

"No burning this place down while I'm away," she told him. "I'm going to need my place in good condition by the time I get back from this mission."

"Another A-rank with Gai and your teammates, eh?" he grinned at her knowingly.

Iwashi, in typical form, frowned a little in worry. "You could always ask Godaime-sama to cut back on these A-rank missions."

This, of course, is why she also found the notion that Neji was jealous ridiculous. Her well meaning friend always said this, when anyone who really understood her knew that she lived for such missions. They were a challenge and, while they made her bone tired and sore as hell, continually helped her improve in ways that training alone would never accomplish. Genma-sempai knew this, so he'd long ago stopped wasting his breath about it.

Because he meant so well though, she only smiled and said, "It'll be fine. With Lee and Neji at my back, I've got nothing to worry about except if I'll have a bed to crash into when I get back."

The young Chuunin – the youngest in the building other then her – looked even more dubious, but his watch's alarm cut it short. "Have to go to the academy and help Iruka-san. Have a safe mission then, Tenten. See you when you get back." He gave her shoulder a squeeze before he disappeared, the smell of coffee lingering in his wake.

"It really is crap," she mumbled, never the less downing her third mug and refilling for a fourth and making Genma-sempai snort.

"It's strong – that's what counts." He filled up his fifth – or was it sixth? – and looked upwards curiously when her ceiling rattled. "What the hell are they doing up there?"

Tenten glanced up just in time to see a big black blur go crashing through the ceiling, through her floor and into Genma-sempai's apartment, going dot-eyed as she peered over the edge where Kotetsu was sprawled in debris, looking rather…limp. Looking up, Izumo was peering over the edge of the hole with a low whistle, Nagashi beside him looking quite amused. Nagashi's friend, Inazuri, was obviously the one who'd punted him all the way down to the first floor, veins throbbing on her clenched fist.

Of course, all this completely went over Genma-sempai's head.

"There you are, Nagashi!" He was off like a rocket, scowling, and Nagashi muttered a quick curse before she disappeared too, though the yelling could be heard long after they both disappeared into the distance.

For a long moment, Tenten just looked up and met Izumo's gaze, his one visible eye twinkling in suppressed mirth. Holding up Genma-sempai's abandoned coffee mug, she asked simply, "Coffee?"

He took it with one of those smiles that had broken more then one heart in Konoha. "Why not?"

Face completely serious, she said, "Iwashi made it."

And Izumo's face turned green, spitting out the now tepid liquid right before he would've swallowed.

While he let loose a curse so vile that poor Hinata would've blushed, Tenten just smiled and blew him a kiss that made the disgruntled Chuunin roll his eyes at her.

"What happened to my CEILING!"

They both paused to glance down at Ebisu, his horrified face staring at the mess that was now his first floor apartment.

That did it.

"Have a safe trip, Tenten," Izumo said between laughs, disappearing in a cloud of smoke. She took off too, before Ebisu decided to start ranting, laughing even as she met up with her bemused team at the front gate.

She really couldn't wait to come back home.

A/N: I'm not sure how this particular story ultimately came about. Though, to me it makes sense. Of all the Konoha 12, Tenten is very much unused for the most part like many of her superiors. So, in a way, she seemed like the most logical one who would join "their ranks"...or in this case, their apartment complex. Anyway, I have two ideas simmering in my head for a next installment:

1. Anko & Uchiha Sasuke (You can just see how this is going to go...)

2. Izumo, Kotetsu, & Hyuuga Neji (This will go almost as well as the above one, lol)

Please review and tell me what you think of this whole idea I have going and which one of the above you want to see next. Or any other random mesh that you think may be interesting!

Saori Runa Dempsey