Needless to say, he was thoroughly embarrassed by the time Gai arrived and helped him remove his arm from the training dummy. To make matters worse, Gai had taken it upon himself as his destined mission to get Naruto to join the mixed martial arts team. Even after explaining that he'd taken one of the oldest dummies, Naruto was still stuck with Gai, and his little clone Lee pleading for him to join the clubs. Naruto managed to deflect them long enough to escape into the showers by pointing out that Sasuke had better style and would be a better choice.

He knew that Sasuke would be annoyed with that one, but thankfully he knew the ultimate weakness to gain his forgiveness. The tomatoes would do wonders to getting back to Sasuke's neutrally indifferent side. Thankful once again for having memorized the school's layout, he decided to take the back exit from the gym, cutting through the outer hall, he smiled seeing the rain still coming down.

He'd managed to kill another two hours, but he still had four hours to go before lunch, so he decided that he needed something to do. The student commons was out, since that would be packed. His room was out, since Sasuke would likely hunt him down there. The greenhouse was doing alright without him, but he could check the message board to see if Ino had been in yet. The library had it's appeal, in that no one ever suspected he'd hide there, but since he'd discovered they had a small graphic novel section he'd helped out there on occasion, but his favorite librarian Mr. Umino wasn't working today.

His wandering was distracted when he saw someone standing at the end of the hall, looking directly at him. Gulping he smiled sheepishly and wondered if he'd pissed off some god or other recently. "Hey Tenten... what's up?"

"Nothing, just don't see many people walk down these halls... wanted to see what was going on..." the brunette answered while pushing herself off the wall. "I saw what you posted this morning... do you always get up before five?"

"Huh?" Naruto asked, his mind having gotten on the track of explaining the dreams away. "Oh, well I like to swing by the greenhouse before I go to class..."

"Oh? So it's you that's growing all those plants in there? I'd been wondering... I mean I see Ino working all the time in there, but not on the vegetables and other plants..." Tenten mused while walking alongside the shorter blonde. "Would you be the one that gives the culinary arts students those fresh melons?"

"Yeah..." Naruto chuckled while rubbing the back of his head. "They asked me to grow some for them a few years ago, and it just went from there... actually a lot of the fresh fruit in the cafeteria is some that I grew..."

"That's good... it's nice to see others contributing to helping this school cut down on its bills..." Tenten replied with a smile and a playful wink. "Especially when they're little cuties like you..."

Naruto squeaked nervously, and a blush began forming on his cheeks, making his scars stand out brightly. "Uhh... well... thanks... umm... you're pretty cute yourself..." he stumbled, trying to come up with a compliment that she'd like. "I saw that you won the basketball game last week..."

"Yeah, well the others helped..." Tenten admitted while her own blush built on her cheeks. "I just helped out where I could..."

"By nailing twenty-five of the thirty baskets, all from past the free throw line..." Naruto quoted with a devious smile on his face. "If I remember right, you were one-hundred percent on your shots that night... as always..."

"You seem to be following me rather closely Naruto... especially for someone I only met in detention two weeks ago..." Tenten teased while ruffling the blonde's hair.

"Gah! Stop it!" Naruto shouted while trying to swat the teasing hands away. "Jeez, take a little interest in a friend, when she's mentioned in the school's newsletter as the hero of the girl's basketball team..."

The older girl laughed happily as she continued walking with the blonde. "So what are you up to today? Another prank?"

"Nah, I'm taking a break from them..." To be perfectly honest, he was waiting on a few supplies to arrive for a really spectacular prank. But he didn't have to tell her that... in fact it was probably best not to, for both of their sakes. "I just got done doing some self-defense training, and wanted to avoid Mr. Gai..."

"I know how that goes... I take out one girl about twice my size, and he's begging and pleading me to join that Mixed Martial Arts team of his..."

"Accidentally broke an old training dummy..." Naruto admitted with a sigh. "We just have no luck, huh?"

"I don't know about that..." a new voice spoke up from behind them, causing them to whip around in surprise. With barely a whisper the form of the English Literature teacher popped out a classroom he'd probably snuck off to read his orange covered porn novels in private. "Maa... you don't have to seem so surprised you two..."

"Er right..." Naruto answered while clearing his throat. "What do you mean by that Mr. Hatake?"

"Oh just that even bad luck is a form of luck... is it not?" the eye-patch clad teacher added while his good eye crinkled with mirth. "But look at you two now... just two weeks ago, both of you were didn't know anything about the other, and now... you each have a very good friend..."

"Oh... yeah... that's true..." Tenten answered while scratching her cheek. "I can see how that goes..."

"And soon you will start dating each other, get married, have two point five kids, settled down in the suburbs with a cat and a dog... Would you like to start with a dog? My friend at the adoption center is packed... and if they aren't adopted soon, they'll go to the Inuzuka family ranch..." Kakashi rambled as he read his work of ultimate literary fantasy, with great plots, intrigue, and only a minor dash of adult themes and suggestive material.

"Hey is that Mr. Gai?" Naruto asked while looking over Kakashi's shoulder. It was amusing to see the one-eyed teacher freak out. First his eye would snap as wide open as it could get, then he would whip around so fast that his neck would crack loudly, and then he'd fall to the ground holding his neck while crying out in pain. As step three occurred, Naruto and Tenten made good the escape that his self-inflicted whiplash allowed.

Getting to the main hallway, they found themselves outside the greenhouse where Ino was flitting around her flowers happily. Knocking on the door, he got her attention and she waved him to come in.

Apparently her first stop had been to check the message board, and she was hurrying to get the flowers ready for the main entry way, but she wanted to let Naruto he could go ahead and talk to Shino about getting the pollinating bugs in the greenhouse. It was her parting shot that got the two blushing however. "And take one of those roses for your girlfriend!"

Any denial that the two supplied seemed only to fuel the florist's smirk, until finally she clipped a yellow rose and handed it to Tenten herself. "There, since you two can't tell your obvious feelings for each other..."

The pair continued on their trip through the school, both of them blushing heavily. About the time they finally got the blushing back under control, they'd finally gotten to the commons, which was just as Naruto predicted. Completely packed with bored students. What he hadn't predicted was that they'd all be surrounding one of the pinball games. Since he didn't really care, he took the chance to secure the two of them an arcade machine.

"Ninja Whirlpool, that's a new one..." Tenten stated with a playful smirk as she slipped the rose into one of her buns. Naruto picked the first character he came across while she took a character that specialized in weapon use. A few seconds familiarizing themselves with the control, the debate began. They needed a third to fill out the squad. Naruto wanted a medic ninja, while Tenten wanted a tank. The debate ended when another person selected a character to play. Both of them looked over, to find Ms. Mitarashi had decided to join them as a snake summoning ninja.

The commons monitor was a regular at playing these games, as her job required her to make sure they were in working order. She did have top score on most of the games in the commons, and a few more private systems in the dorms. It's even rumored that she had the high scores on all the games on the campus's website, but no one wanted to ask her if she was PrettyPrincessKitty or not.

The three proceeded to dominate the game on the hardest setting. Somehow it felt almost second nature to be playing the characters they'd chosen, Naruto's was a powerhouse of energy, with regenerative abilities, even if his fighting and selection of techniques was subpar. When he leveled up, he decided to go with the strength of the character, and just started overwhelming the enemies with spam attacks.

Tenten seemed to have a savage side, as her weapon choices were always the nastiest, cruelest, most pain inducing selections possible. However, the real sadist of the group was Ms. Mitarashi, who quite frankly was doing things with those snakes that Naruto was certain that he shouldn't be exposed to until he's over 18, if at all. If those dreams were going to send him to a shrink, this memory would give the shrink nightmares.

Yay for scarring for life.

During one of the cut-scenes from hell, seriously they took five minutes to go through the SHORTEST one, Naruto took a chance to look back at the pinball game, to find that more than half had turned to watch them. Looking over at the adult, he decided to ask. "What was up with the pinball game Ms. Mitarashi?"

"Oh that? Neji Hyuuga was trying to beat my record... I don't think he'll manage..." the woman answered with a smirk as she watched the screen. "You must not come here often kid... call me Anko... Ms. Mitarashi sounds old..."

"How'd you land a gig like this?" Tenten chimed in while tapping her finger impatiently at the intermission. She really wanted to test out the new blade she'd gotten from the latest level up.

"I applied at the right time, fresh outta being here since I was orphaned..." Anko answered while the cut scene finished up.

"Yeah... know how that feels..." the younger pair answered dryly before getting savage on the new batch of enemies. Neither liked to be reminded that they had no family outside the school, even if they hadn't mentioned it to anyone, and above all else, they hated to be pitied. And thus they acted out in different ways.

Tenten pushed herself athletically, while Naruto resorted to pranking those that he felt had wronged him. The fact that he let most people slide and never hit anyone that hadn't wronged him or his friends severely gained him some support with the students, and more than a few teachers.

A mere two hours and fifty-three minutes later, the trio smirked at the ending credits while the chater of the watchers filled their ears. Naruto was the first to talk. "That was fun... now for some lunch..."

"Not bad kid, if you ever find yourself with too much time on your hands, come back and I'll show you some of the other games..." Anko offered while walking over to the counter she was supposed to man normally. Reaching behind it, she pulled out two capsules and tossed them at her former game partners. "Here, it's the company's prize for beating the game."

Pocketing whatever it was that she'd tossed, he nodded his agreement, and followed Tenten out of the commons. Walking along he chuckled softly. "That was fun... first time I've ever done that..."

"Oh? Too crowded for ya?" Tenten teased while playfully shoving his shoulder. "Gotta get you out of your shell Naruto, maybe then you'll come and watch my games for yourself. And..." she paused to mockingly gasp. "Even show some school spirit!"

"Yeah, yeah..." Naruto grumbled with a smile on his face, showing that he didn't mean anything by it. "Tell you what, you manage to prank Mr. Umino, and I'll come to your next game, not only that, I'll lead the cheers."

"Deal!" Tenten agreed, figuring that it would be an easy win for her. Little did she know that Iurka Umino was the prankster king that had taught Naruto almost all that he knew. Little did Naruto know that she never gave up once her goal was fixed in her sights.

Lunch was a pleasant affair, Naruto caught Shino's attention just as he was leaving the serving lines, and got him to sit with Tenten and himself. The entomology enthusiasts seemed to be interested in the idea, and only said that they'd have to get the approval of Mr. Sarutobi before they did anything.

Tenten left around one to go to practice, while Shino and Naruto cleaned up. After she'd left, Shino spoke up softly, so they'd be near impossible to overhear. "Have you done what I suggested earlier?"

Naruto blinked at the shift in topic before he realized what Shino was talking about. A nervous chuckle later and he began rubbing the back of his head. "Err yeah... got somewhere we can talk alone?"

"How about the greenhouse? It would serve me well to determine the insects that you need for your plants..." Shino replied without showing much reaction at all. "Unless you'd prefer to join me at the hive..."

"Umm... the greenhouse I think... Ino should be done, and I wanted to look over a couple of my plants..." Naruto answered, not that he minded bugs, but the sheer amount of them in the Hive was enough to drive any but the most enthusiastic entomologist buggy.