I sat in the shadow of a roof across the street from Tenten's house waiting for midnight to roll around. I had tried to find something to do at the orphanage, however nothing had struck my fancy to do while I wait and from past experience I knew it was just easier to stay out than to sneak out. So here I am doing an activity that could be described as stalking. I hope Tenten doesn't mind or I will have a great time practicing my dodging while beating a hasty retreat, or as some like to say, charging in the other direction.

My musings were cut short at the sound of a window opening. I turned my head to Tenten's window and watched her slide out. She crouched on her sill for a moment before I attracted her attention. She jumped over to where I was sitting.

"So what we going to do?"

"We're going to find Naruto and help him learn a jutsu."

"Really, that's it? And here I was expecting us to go and prank the village with something like an explosion in the middle of the night or painting the Hokage tower like a brothel."(1)

I gave her a look at the last one. Leave it to the girl to be a pervert.

"Considering how many people don't want to see Naruto become a ninja, I think this will be a fairly good prank."

With that I got up and started running through the shadows, working my way out of the village, with Tenten hot on my heals. Soon we got to the old woodcutter's hut.

"So, what are we going to do now?"

I sat down in the shadows, becoming nearly invisible in my dark clothing, and when Tenten turned around to look for me after looking over the clearing she couldn't find me. I was amused by her somewhat frantic searching, so I sat and let her look like a fool for a minute or so before striking a match to get her attention, only to have the flame taken off with a kunai.

"I swear you could take the wings off a fly at a hundred yards, you weren't even facing me!"

"Next time you do that, it'll be your jewels being hit, not the match."

I paled at the idea.

"Hm, looks like I have about two hours or so before Iruka-sensei shows up."

Our attention was turned to Naruto, whose sudden arrival took us by surprise.

Tenten was fed up with being surprised by blonds and took it out on poor Naruto.

"What the hell is up with you people just showing up everywhere without anyone noticing! It's like it's a bloodline you two have!"

Naruto, being who he is, only heard the word bloodline in her protest to our awesomeness.

"You really think so? Ha! In your face, you bastards! That's right, I've got a bloodline!"

I quickly stepped in to save Naruto from his own stupidity, and Tenten's wrath.

"I thought you had to learn a jutsu from that scroll to pass, not brag about the possibility of a bloodline."

"He, he. Your right. Let's learn a jutsu!"

And with that he unrolled the scroll with a flourish only to let loose a scream in frustration.

"Why can't I get away from clones? It's like they stalk me!" sigh, "Might as well try and learn this technique, then I'll at least have learned a clone."

I leaned close to Tenten and whispered, "Sometimes I wonder if he's bipolar or something. It's unnatural how fast his moods can swing."

She nodded at my statement as we watched Naruto read the scroll.

"Alright, let's try this thing out! Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

With a puff of smoke, three more Narutos appeared, however it was possible to find the real one because he was the only one that looked healthy.

"Man Naruto, these clones of yours sure are ugly!" I said poking one on it's forehead. To my amazement, I actually felt the clone.

"Wait, these are tangible!"

"That's why I bothered to work on it. Amazing huh."

I shook my head in wonder, "Imagine if one could apply that to a kunai or a shuriken."

"That's actually the nest jutsu on the scroll."

Tenten's eyes glazed over at the thought of being able to throw more weapons faster. Suddenly I felt worried at the possible repercussions of pissing her off, which I had found an amusing pastime in the past.

Seeing that Naruto had abandoned the scroll, I grabbed it and began searching for a jutsu to learn. As I read further down the scroll, I was amazed at the high level all the jutsus were. There was nothing short of a B rank in the scroll and most were A if not S rank. I settled on an A rank fuuinjutsu that was supposed to make the wearer resistant or impervious to elemental jutsus depending on the skill with seals the applier has. It was declared forbidden because of the mental strain the technique put on wearers, for it to negate the jutsus.

"Elemental Defender Fuuinjutsu. Sounds interesting." I mused as I copied down the seal designs so I could practice (and possibly edit) them later.

"Tenten, your turn." I called out. Not receiving a reply I looked up to see Naruto practicing the Shadow Clone jutsu, summoning and dismissing about five at a time.

"She disappeared with one of my clones a while back," he said.

Sighing I got up to look for her. "Did you see which direction she went in?"

Naruto gestured and I left the clearing looking for our missing friend. After awhile I started to hear noises slightly to the right of the direction I was heading in. Suddenly I came upon the back of Naruto's clone. Upon looking closer I realized that the clone was kissing Tenten.

I punched the clone, dispelling it, much to Tenten's disapproval, only to find out that Tenten had taken off her shirt.

"Really? Why did you do that?" She asked pouting, crossing her arms beneath her breasts, which she didn't seem to care that I was looking at. At my lack of a response, she waved her hand in front of my face, saying, "Hello, earth to Erik. Anyone home?"

I wordlessly handed the forbidden scroll to her, not able to take my eyes off her breasts.

"Like them that much?" She asked finally noticing what I was staring at. I nodded.

"Well to bad!" She said, hitting me upside the head with the scroll.

I lay dazed in the leaf litter, trying to figure out why I was now staring at the stars instead of Tenten, when said person appeared in my line of sight.

"Next time you want to stare, ask first. Okay?" She said, offering her hand to help me up. I tried not to stare this time as she hadn't put her shirt back on yet. Little did she know, the image of her without her shirt would be burned into my memory forever.

I watched her put on her shirt (this time from behind that way she wouldn't notice) and grab the scoll.

"Come on, let's get back to Naruto-kun, shall we?"

When we got back to the woodcutter's hut, we found Naruto passed out in a pool of blood, with a trail leading to his nose.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that memories transfer."

"You mean he…"

At my nod she blushed a dark shade of red, much to my amusement.

"Come on, you need to find a jutsu and learn it quickly, there's only six minutes or so before Iruka's supposed to show."

Still blushing she opened the scroll up to the shuriken shadow clone jutsu and set about learning it.

"You've really done it this time Nar… what are you two doing here?"

We turned to find a pissed off and slightly confused Iruka.

"Do you think we would let Naruto take the retest by himself did you?" I asked, attempting to get the subject off the forbidden scroll before it even got there.

"Retest? There's no retest."

"Well, well, well. Look what we got here." Mizuki's voice pierced the clearing. "The demon brat, the bitch with who has a fetish for weapons, and Erik… there was so much potential in you before you began hanging out with these losers."

"I've been hanging out with these 'losers' sence before you knew me, so what you said was totally irrelevant."

Naruto being lost in the discussion decided to put it on a track he could understand. "Mizuki-sensei, I got the scroll and learned a jutsu just like you said I had to. So do I pass now?"

'Thank you Naruto' I thought as Iruka's anger became palpable.

"You told him to steal the scroll, and made him think it was a second way to pass? You know what the price of treason is. Prepare to pay it, bastard!"

Mizuki merely laughed. "You think that you can stop me? Don't make me laugh. I'll take the scroll to Orochimaru-sama and he'll reward me greatly for ridding the world of the fox!"

"Mizuki, don't. It's forbidden!" Iruka said his eyes wide at what Mizuki said.

"Naruto you ever wondered why everyone hates you? All that anger and hate is not for a poor boy, oh no, it's for the Nine Tailed Fox Demon. That's right, you're the Kyuubi, who slaughtered so many that night, thirteen years ago."

I burst out laughing at that. "You believe Naruto is the Kyuubi? I haven't heard a more ridiculous idea! Naruto would never hurt anyone that didn't first endanger a friend of his, let alone be able to slaughter hundreds without remorse. Not to mention the fact that the only features that he has that even remotely look fox like are the wisker like birth marks on his cheeks. Not that Tenten would mind if the fox gave him some furry appendages.(At this Tenten's eyes glazed over and she suffered a minor nosebleed.) Even if he was the Kyuubi, he is my friend and as such I would never allow you to kill him."

"You think you can stop me?" Mizuki sneered.

"Yes," Tenten answered, "because it won't just be him. You'll have to go through myself as well!"

Suddenly I found myself ingulfed in a hug, with Tenten squeezed up to my side, from behind. "Thanks guys, this means a lot to me."

I jumped backwards, nocking over all three of us to dodge a shuriken thrown by Mizuki, before rolling off the pile and saying, "You can hug Tenten all you want after this fight, but for now concentrate on the fight, so I don't have to explain to anyone that you died because you got to wrapped up in hugging on the battlefield. Now let's help out Iruka-sensei, shall we?"

They blushed at my statement, before adopting a serious attitude.

Suddenly Iruka was sent flying from a kick.

"That's the best you got Iruka? All those years of teaching really made you soft."

Before he could say anything more, he was forced to start dodging if he didn't want to turn into a piece of swiss cheese.

"Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Tenten shouted, throwing a handful of the metal stars. The handful turned into a hundred, much to the shock of everyone present. I turned to her and saw her panting like she had just ran a mile.

"Too much chakra. Don't tier yourself out in the first minute."

She nodded, to out of breath to comment.

I turned back to the battle as Mizuki escaped the last of the shuriken. More than a few cuts showed on his figure, bearing mute testament to Tenten's skill at throwing.

"So the bitch actually might be able to back up her claim." Mizuki mused, slightly out of breath from the fancy footwork he had to employ to dodge.

Suddenly a wave of killer intent washed over the clearing.

"What did you call Tenten-chan?" Naruto shouted. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Suddenly Naruto was as common as grains of sand at a beach, then they all began speaking at the same time, "NO ONE INSULTS MY GIRLFRIEND AND GETS AWAY WITH IT! PREPARE TO DIE!"

All two hundred or so Naruto clones jumped at a now very scared Mizuki. All with the intent to do what the villagers have been trying to do to Naruto for the last thirteen years, beat him to death.

Two minutes later Naruto stood before Iruka, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.

"Hehe, kinda got carried away there."

Iruka nodded mutely, staring at the still form that was Mizuki. Mizuki was covered in bruses and blood, and his limbs were skewed at odd angles that told of multitudes of broken bones.

"Hey Naruto, close your eyes a minute."

"Huh? Okay"

We watched as Iruka took off his forehead protector and placed it on Naruto, both of us happy that we did what we could to get our friend to pass.

"Okay, you can open your eyes now."

Naruto opened his eyes and saw a smiling Iruka without his forehead protector. Confused Naruto's hand flew up to his forehead, where he found his goggles missing, and in their place was Iruka's forehead protector. He grinned, then tackled Iruka in a hug.

"Thank you, Iruka-sensei!"

Bouncing up he ran at Tenten and me, his arms held wide open for a hug. Ducking I avoided the hug and looked up in time to see Naruto tackle Tenten and land in a compromising position as they hugged.

'Blakemail!' I thought watching them. Pulling out a camera, I snapped a picture, to the embarrassment of the two.

Smiling, Naruto helped Tenten up, as Iruka called to us, "If your quite done over there, why don't we get some ramen? My treat."

We all walked, tiered as we were from being up all night then fighting a chunin level traitor. As we walked I noticed that Naruto never let go of Tenten's hand from when he helped her up after the hug.

Smiling I started humming Sweetest Thing. Iruka recognized the tune and joined in after noticing the hand holding. They were to wrapped up in their own world to notice.


About the song, I listen to mostly classic rock so I heard it many times growing up, so when I found out that Tenten had chocolate colored eyes I imeadiatly heard the song in my head. After that I knew I would write a Naruto/Tenten pairing.