Tenten entered the kitchen with a thrilling sense of doom. For there it was, just sitting there, innocent and completely innocuous-looking. One never would have guessed...

And, Tenten realised with a sick, dropped sensation in her stomach, Ino was eating her breakfast on it.

Oh god.

"Mornin'," Ino chirped, as Tenten tried not to think about how her breakfast plate was more or less exactly where her bum had been last night. Ino was as perky as ever despite the endless beers, the wine and even sake (more of an older generation drink) that she'd glugged down the night before. Tenten took the other chair next to her at Sakura's breakfast table, not touching it at all and refusing the fresh, crispy bacon Ino waved in front of her. Her head burned and she had that bone-deep ache in her body that one got with a hang-over and a hard night's sleep on a floor.

"Ughnrf," Tenten replied, trying not to raise her eyebrows when Genma Shiranui loped through the door with fresh, showered skin that dripped water over the tiles as he tied his bandana. He sidled up next to Ino, popping some of the bacon in his mouth, and gave Tenten a sleepy-eyed salute. In the sunlight Ino and Genma looked like some god-couple with their light, shining hair and tanned skin. Tenten felt her eyes narrow almost imperceptibly in envy. Obviously hangovers didn't affect either of them. She hadn't even drank that much...

So she had been drunk enough to kick Naruto whom she rarely spoke to in real life. And then hide in a dark kitchen. And then get off with a stranger... Tenten pulled a rather queasy face, ignoring the look of surprise from both Ino and Genma.

God... she'd really done that, hadn't she.

That had really happened, hadn't it...

"Uh... Tenten? You there, buns? We've slept through the usual training time," Genma said through a mouthful of bacon, his warm, honey-coloured eyes watching her curiously. Tenten turned to him a bit dreamy-eyed still and suddenly noticed Ino's hair was wet too. Had they showered together? She wanted to disapprove but then her brain weakly reminded her of the night before, and she was off pulling faces again.

"Tenten?"

"I wouldn't have survived training today," Tenten replied, trying to seem nonchalant but she felt icky in the clothes she'd slept in and all the alcohol she could smell on herself. "I thought you went, uh... home, Ino."

"No," Ino giggled, her smile positively feline. "Sakura fell asleep and we... well, we stayed here." She dropped a piece of bacon on the table, right there, and then popped it in her mouth. Tenten blanched, remembering the night before and tried to keep a straight face as Ino chewed.

Who was that guy? Was he still here, or was it just Genma and Ino who remained? Did she have time to scout around the house and look for any shinobi with a missing vest?

It was almost as if thinking about the vest had drawn both Genma and Ino's attention to it, because their eyes snapped to it at almost the exact same time. Before Tenten had time to think on how spooky that was, the interrogation had begun.

"Hey, who'd you steal that from?" Genma snorted and inclined his head towards the vest that Tenten still had slipped around her shoulders. Yeah she'd slept in it... that didn't mean anything, of course? Genma did another one of those sniggery-snorty-laughs that always made Tenten feel somewhat homicidal. "Hey, did he give you those, too?"

What? Oh God! Tenten's hands flew to her neck as her mind flew back to the night before; and then the memory of that stranger's teeth, lips, tongue scraping over her neck. Her cheeks darkened to a thick, embarrassed red.

"That good, huh?" Ino's right eyebrow quirked upwards teasingly. She shared an outrageous look with Genma and, idly (though it was mainly to try and stem the feelings of abject humiliation) Tenten wondered if he was going to ever contact Ino again. He might keep her for a few months, Tenten thought snidely, she was pretty enough.

"Who was it?" Genma probed and popped yet more bacon in his mouth. How were the two of them not fat? For Team Gai it was a strict diet of fruit, vegetables, fish, low-fat meats and then more vegetables, would you know. A fried bacon sandwich would have Gai crying and demanding three hundred laps around the Hokage Tower (backwards and blindfolded of course) before it had even been digested.

Tenten's sleepy brain finally managed to process Genma's innocent question and she did the best impression of Hinata one had ever seen; umming and uhing and going as red as the tomato ketchup Ino was slathering over her scrambled eggs.

How to put this delicately? She wondered as her hands worked over the fresh, bite-shaped bruises on her neck and she felt a slither of what she had felt that night before. She tried to quell the sudden wave of pleasure that nested in her stomach and spread through her ribs and put on the straightest face she could manage. She wanted to say, I never saw his face, never knew his name, and my bum was right where you're eating your bacon Yamanaka, but her voice wouldn't come.

"I'm not going to tell you," she replied at last and hoping she sounded nonchalant. "Nothing's going to come of it anyway."

"Hey, when did you even get them?" Ino asked, suddenly. "You stormed off into the kitchen remember?"

Tenten swore. Why couldn't Ino actually be the airhead all of her haters said she was? The blond never missed a trick. Tenten did more Hinata impressions and tried her hardest not to jump when her hand rested against the table, right where her left foot had been.

"You went off with Genma, didn't you?" she countered, feeling a quick burst of triumph. "I came out of the kitchen a bit after that."

"I'll get it out of you, yet," Ino wiggled her eyebrows as she polished off the last of her eggs. No you won't, vowed Tenten, except you probably will... also I can see there's a reason Sakura calls you Ino-pig. That was a lot of eggs and bacon...

"Wild horses couldn't drag it out of me," Tenten replied airily, and told herself that it wasn't a lie. Because a wild horse couldn't drag out what she really didn't know, you understand? It was going to be hard to step around the awkward questions, though.

"Yo." The three of them jumped in unison when a head suddenly popped up from the window and waved a salute. "Is Sakura up yet, Ino-san?"

"Shinobi are quiet, but you're too quiet, Kakashi-sensei!" Ino yelled at the white-haired sensei of Team 7 as he hung from the window, his one visible eye crinkled into a smile. "I haven't woken her up yet."

"No, that's probably not the best idea," Kakashi replied, placidly, his voice pulling at Tenten's mind in a way she couldn't place. It was like having words on the tip of her tongue and just not being able to say them. "Oh you and Genma showered together? That's nice."

"Hello Kakashi," said Genma, looking completely unfazed whereas Ino spazzed out and threatened to have words about Kakashi with Sakura if he wasn't careful with what he said. "I didn't see you last night."

"I didn't see you either," Kakashi shrugged and then gazed at Tenten. "Hello," he called out cheerily.

"Good morning, Kakashi-sensei," replied Tenten, never quite knowing how to act around Gai-sensei's eternal rival. Were they friends? Were they not friends? Was she polite? She really didn't know.

"You look awful," Kakashi beamed at her. "Was there not enough room in the shower for the three of you?" It seemed he was much more outspoken when Sakura wasn't around to smack him into submission, thought Tenten acidly, her fingers twitching for kunai that weren't there.

"I'm losing my touch," Genma replied laughingly as Ino had another outraged spaz attack (though the part of Tenten that was somewhat envious of Ino, decided she probably enjoyed the attention.)

And why not? Why couldn't a pretty girl enjoy the attention she got? The other half of Tenten prodded back. Why are you always such a joy-kill Tenten?

You know some days she felt crazy. At least she had a war she could blame it on. That was probably why Kakashi-sensei was so weird, too. And Gai-sensei. Wasn't there an article in Kunoichi Monthly (not that she would ever admit to reading Kunoichi Monthly) that talked about child shinobi growing up to be either violently psychotic or sexually depraved? Briefly, Tenten wondered if the stranger from last night was violently psychotic or sexually depraved and then had a spaz attack to rival Ino's about it.

Who was he? Who?

"Toothpaste works," Kakashi told her from the window, just before Ino slammed it shut and the jammed the curtains together. "For your neck!" she heard, muffled through the glass and her hands flew to her throat again.

If she found the stranger, she'd punch him for giving her so much grief.

And afterwards they would have soul-wrenching, heart-attack-inducing, pleasure-filled love-making, because surely that had been the best almost-sex of her life! And then, once she'd gotten that out of her system, the two of them could go about their lives again, happily. She would go away with both her appetite and her curiosity satisfied and the shinobi... well he was getting laid, what would he have to complain about?

The crazy part of Tenten's mind, the sarcastic, gallows-humour part that she blamed on the war decided to taunt her. It could have been anyone it told her as she threw mental senbon at it, (a little trick the therapist had given her, until it learned to mentally dodge back.)

"It could have been Ibiki Morino," she murmured aloud, her eyes wide with shock. "Oh wait... no it's okay, he had hair... he definitely had hair—didn't he?"

"Did who?" asked Ino from the sink. "Ibiki-san's bald, you plum."

Yes, Tenten could remember his hair, soft, thick, lovely to run your fingers through. And he hadn't minded when she tugged hard at it or dug her fingers into his scalp; in fact it had been quite the opposite. Quite a few of her bed partners had mutually parted with her on the basis of her being "just a little bit too much to handle" Tenten recalled. Honestly, you pick up a few tips and tricks from Anko and suddenly everyone was terrified...

Tenten liked Anko. She felt bad for being terrified of her in the genin days, because now genins were terrified of her and it was annoying as fuck. Perhaps she'd turn into the slightly addled, weapons-loving freak in fishnet when Anko decided to retire...

She heard a disgusting, slightly wet sound that was Genma and Ino kissing goodbye (was there anything more aggravating than public displays of affection?) and threw a bye over her shoulder when Genma called out to her. She heard the faint sound of Sakura's front door being shut and, if she focused her ears, Genma's footsteps down the corridor outside.

Ino was on her in seconds.

"Genma's not here anymore!" she said, her eyes practically gleaming. "There's no reason for you to be embarrassed! Who is he? Tell me, tell me!"

"Argh!" was all Tenten said in reply, because Ino had slammed her hands down on the table and Tenten really wasn't sure how much more of this particular piece of furniture she could take. She cleared her throat and stared back at Ino, trying to sober herself. Was she an ally?

"Let's go the living-room," she told the younger blond and tried to ignore the pain that Ino's excited chirruping ignited in her brain. She was worse than that Chihuahua that had been the bane of Team Gai's existence in the "good ol' days". And Sakura had thought that cat that Team 7 had been forever chasing was bad...

Someone had obviously taken the time to clean the living-room because it was suspiciously free of any bottles, cans, pizza take-out and cigarette ash; however there was Shikamaru sleeping soundly on one of the lime-green sofa's, his soft snores rebounding off the spacious, white walls. Sakura's hospital pay on top of her usual mission cheques had certainly bought her a grand, spacious pad. Tenten practically lived in a matchbox herself and she was not above pilfering the weapons from any fallen enemies she encountered on missions, especially if it helped pay the rent. She watched, only mildly scandalised, as Ino tiptoed over to Shikamaru (god forbid he should ever fall asleep on guard duty they'd be dead within seconds) and skilfully filched his cigarettes. Ino pulled out two, offering one forwards to Tenten who hesitated. She had resisted the bacon, hadn't she? Gai would be disappointed if he found out.

But he wouldn't find out, Tenten thought as she stared down at Ino's smiling face. Because, why would Ino tell him? And would he find out about last night? No, he wouldn't know about that either.

Feeling a monumental change in such a small moment, Tenten took the long, smooth cigarette from Ino's waiting fingers and popped it in her mouth, experimentally. It was a day of many new things for her; namely smoking and stranger love, but she was sure there would be more. She let Ino light it for her, sucked in the smoke the way people said you were meant to, and was proud when she didn't choke.

You know, it was said that a day would always come when one realised that one's sensei wasn't omnipresent and all-knowing, and perhaps this was it. Lee would probably never have that. He would get to Gai's age and he would have a child and that child would be a mini-Gai, and his grandchild would be a mini-Gai, and his great-grandchild would be a mini-Gai and onwards it would go.

"Tenten are you okay?" Ino leaned forwards, her voice a bit breathy from the smoke. "You look horrified."

"Strange thoughts," she replied as they fell onto the sofa that wasn't Shikamaru-occupied.

"So who was he?" Ino prompted, knowing better than to pry at someone's 'strange thoughts'. "You were going to tell me, remember?" Her blue eyes were honed on Tenten's face and... hey, didn't Ino work for Interrogation these days? Well, there went Tenten's chances of secrecy.

"I was going to tell you?" said Tenten.

"Yes," she replied.

Well that settled it then.

.

.

.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T KNOW?" Ino howled with laughter as Tenten tried to hush her, frantically aware that Shikamaru was frowning in his sleep—had he heard? Was he just dreaming?

"What I said," Tenten scowled back. "Don't think I'd hesitate to hurt you, if you told anyone Yamanaka."

"Back to second-names, are we?" Ino replied, her voice still bubbly with laughter and obviously used to such threats. "I'm not half as much as a gossip as I used to be. Not since training under Ibiki-sensei... how far did you go?"

"I never want to hear 'Ibiki-sensei' and 'how far did you go' in the same sentence again," Tenten replied, deliberately avoiding the question. She sucked on that cigarette again, feeling that it was the perfect way to continue avoiding the question, but all it really did was leave a bit of a bad taste in her mouth.

"Did you kiss him?"

"Yes..."

Ino nodded. "...did you..." her eyebrows rose suggestively.

"Um...?"

"S-E-X."

"Oh!" Tenten blushed, despite herself. She wasn't usually embarrassed about such things, but did this constitute as girl-talk? Because girl-talk always made her red, ever since Gai-sensei sat her down and tried to tell her all about 'becoming a woman' in front of both Lee and Neji. "No."

"Did you do more than kiss, but less than sex?"

"Aha." Tenten tried to stand up and go away, perhaps chance waking up the Pink Dragon of Ungodly Strength, but Ino yanked her back down again.

"When? Where? Did you get caught? How was it?" She blurted out, almost shaking Tenten with her need to know. God, what did they teach them in interrogation? Her teeth were rattling!

"Fucking hell!" She spat back at Ino. "I didn't want to tell you, but I thought you might help me find him!"

Ino shrank back a bit, realising that Tenten couldn't be pushed the same way Sakura might. She smiled apologetically. "Well of course I'd be willing to help... but why do you want to find him again?"

"Because it's playing havoc with my head," Tenten grumbled back. She could remember the exact sensation of his lips against the back of her neck, and against other things. She could remember in perfect detail the feel of his fingers sliding along the sole of her foot as he slipped her sandals back on and made his proposition. "And he told me to find him."

"Like a challenge?" said Ino, her face oddly contorted as she tried to blow rings. Shikamaru had gone back to snoring again and Tenten was pretty sure he hadn't heard anything.

"Right," she said, the word challenge sending a thrill through her. "And he left me his vest as a clue. I can't... I can't remember the first clue, though."

"What did he sound like?" asked Ino, "did he have any particular mannerisms? Any sort of... catchphrase?"

"I don't remember," Tenten replied, feeling a sudden wash of shame pierce her usually nonchalant exterior. "Um... I remember he said that he knew you... but he referred to you as Yamanaka," she stopped, "and he called Sakura by her first name."

"So it's someone all three of us know," Ino nodded and then snorted in a way that was frighteningly close to Genma, Tenten thought. "That narrows it down."

"And Genma," she carried on. "And he knows Gai-sensei."

"Shit," Ino laughed, "he knows your sensei... oh, he's probably old."

"In terms of shinobi," Tenten nodded, recalling his cryptic words. "And he's ex-ANBU."

"Nice," Ino whistled. "Let me go wake up Sakura and we can pool our ideas."

"No!" Tenten grabbed Ino's arm, perhaps a bit too hard from the slightly panicked look in her eyes.

Tenten cleared her throat, feeling somewhat embarrassed. Sometimes she forgot others were different from how they used to be, too. "No, please. Er, I don't want anyone else knowing, Ino. Sorry."

"Yeah, no, that's fine," Ino replied, obviously trying to brush off the slight alarm she had felt when Tenten grabbed her arm. The silence grew taught after a few minutes of them quietly smoking.

"So..." said Ino. "Where were you both? I'm sorry! I just can't figure out where you could have been! I mean, you said you left the kitchen and well—me and Genma had the bathroom, so..."

Fuck it, she was leaving. Surely one could only be so sociable every 48 hours. She had fulfilled her ration of other people for the week, hadn't she?

Tenten stood up, yanking the too-big vest over her shoulders. Whoever this man was, he smelt good to her. And every time she got a whiff of his scent she was enveloped in the pleasurable memories of last night. She turned to Ino serenely, steeled by the smell of him.

"In the kitchen," replied Tenten, enjoying the way her eyes grew wide. "On the breakfast table."

She moved quickly to the living-room door, before Ino could recover from choking, and then let rip another mind-blowing remark. "Right where you were eating breakfast, actually," she said, feeling laughter rip through her throat. "Say goodbye to Sakura for me!"

"Tenten-!"

The front door shut behind her with a satisfying thud, somewhat marred by the two warring sides within her. She really shouldn't have said that to Ino... especially if she really did turn out to be a gossip and that information went to other ears...

But that look had been priceless.

Oh, she didn't know these days, Tenten wrapped her arms around herself as she trudged down the apartment stairs, too tired to go full-ninja (she wanted to save her energy for the sprint back to her own apartment in case she bumped into Gai who would notice her bruised neck immediately). It always felt like their were loads of versions of herself inside of her. There was the tomboy that didn't even want to look at someone as girly as Ino, and there was the bitch (that Anko had lovingly nurtured), and the little girl that still needed Gai's affection, and the grown woman that was sick of being a child, and it went on... she sighed, realised she was smoking inside the apartment building and put the cigarette out in a droopy-looking plant-pot by the end of the staircase.

She really didn't know herself, at all.


Kakashi couldn't help but laugh when he saw Gai that day. A full-bodied laugh, laugh, laugh in his face that left the usually unfazed Gai looking extremely nonplussed. And there were his students, or rather ex-students with him, too. Kakashi couldn't help himself! He full-out giggled, much in the same way he had used to laugh at his Icha Icha books, before Sakura had beaten it out of him.

"What is it, rival?" Gai had asked/yelled/bellowed/sung. Take your pick, Kakashi wasn't listening too hard.

"Nothing, nothing," Kakashi waved his book like he was waving off a remark. "An inside joke."

"I love jokes!" Lee had piped up then, looking hideously alike to Gai in the 'good ol' days' when they'd been kicking Rock-nin ass at twelve. Which he could laugh about now, he supposed, seeing as it was much easier to be a genius when you were thirty-something, instead. Kakashi managed to stop laughing and say to Lee, "I don't think you'd get this one, Lee-san."

His eternal-rival looked too confused to say anything to that and simply proclaimed his rival's back, "EFFORTLESSLY COOL!" as Kakashi sauntered away. He would never eat the god-awful diet that Gai kept his students on, the poor things queuing by that disgusting health store with it's protein shakes and it's freshly stewed vegetables. He had long ago given up trying to feed his own students healthy things, with Sakura wolfing down chocolate whenever Sasuke rejected her, Naruto and his constant stream of ramen and Sasuke being far too obsessed with revenge to attempt such a mundane thing as eating. Kakashi buried his nose in his book and placidly turned a page so he could ignore Ebisu's smarmy call of hello. He liked being himself. Only the copy-nin Hatake Kakashi could get away with such things as erotic literature in busy public places or ignoring high-ranking ninja in broad daylight. A lot of the civilians thought him a bit unhinged, endearingly so of course, because you knew how some of those prodigies could turn funny, you understand. Just look at the Uchihas, they would say, and blah, blah, blah; although Kakashi was willing to agree to that point because no one could take home the crazy trophy quite like Madara could.

Briefly he thought about returning to Sakura's house and seeing if Tenten was still there. He didn't want her to recognise him, not just yet, and had been relieved when she'd simply stared at him blankly that morning. Actually, he had been a little bit aroused to have such an intimate awareness of her body without her knowledge. She had said good morning to him in a bland, sleepy-eyed voice with no idea that it was him who had made her cry out in pleasure last night. That it was him, who had listened to her, touched her and tasted her. Kakashi flicked another page of his book and wondered how long it would take for her to find him out. What her reaction would be...

He hadn't meant to do anything originally. He had heard someone shout at Naruto in the other room, which had amused him. And no, he didn't usually hide out under tables at parties, but that was probably because he didn't go to them. Sakura had dragged him there and he had watched for half an hour or so in disgust as all sorts of young, lively shinobi had sauntered in, with most of them probably just over half his age. And then Yamanaka Ino had oozed up to him and offered him a strong bottle of some sort of spirit with a wink and asked him to drain it so they could all play 'spin the bottle'. As if he would fall for such a see-through attempt to see his face. He had gone out into the corridor and drained it, feeling he was going to need it, and enjoyed the burn of some forty-percent alcohol slide down his throat. Alcohol was good these days. The mask was pulled up again and he'd managed a surprisingly straight walk back into the living-room, before saluting Sakura and Ino and toddling off to read his porn and grab more of whatever that drink was. Sakura, yes he was embarrassed to admit it, had blackmailed him into coming to her house-warming-but-also-a-birthday party, (no party? I guess when Naruto publishes that book Jiraiya-sensei never finished, you won't be the first to read it.), and he held fast to his promises.

The drink had been found, even if Kakashi had had to taste quite a few of the bottles to find out what it was he had drunk in the first place (that was his excuse and he was sticking to it), and then he realised he really was a bit too drunk. A bit too drunk to be out and about near a scheming Yamanaka and a waiting Sakura (really, the only reason Sakura wanted him drunk was so she could undress him... his face, that was), Kakashi had retired to the kitchen. Beneath the table, for no real reason, other than it was dark and he'd have time to pull up his mask should anyone come in.

Then Tenten had come in and (never let it be said that Kakashi didn't make an impact) practically bust her head open after meeting him. He hadn't known who she was in the darkness and it was rather whimsical of him to refuse the light to be turned on. Although later on he had realised that he was indeed embarrassed; about his age, about his lack of sobriety and about being the copy-nin Kakashi. It had been exciting that she didn't know who he was, and that he didn't know her. It hadn't registered in his mind that Ino had been calling her Tenten until she introduced herself.

Gai's student.

Oh that would make him laugh even now! Kakashi ignored the strange looks some people gave him as he appeared to laugh at that 'filthy book he was always carrying around' with a slickness that only he was capable of.

He thought about making a detour to Obito's memorial. And Sai's. He hadn't gone yesterday, because he hadn't wanted to tell Sakura, essentially holding him hostage in her new place, that that was where he went. He had never liked Sai too much, he knew, and in some ways he was grateful that Sai was dead. Because otherwise it would have been himself, or Sakura, or even Naruto. And he was glad that the boy had learned to love before death took him, and that he had died completing what he wanted to do. Wasn't it better that he had died loving his team, with a real smile on his face?

Kakashi focused on his book and began to whistle behind his mask, even as his legs took him towards the familiar monuments that stood sentry in Konoha. He was always so maudlin after a night drinking. It wasn't right to dwell on things like that in a time of peace, but he was the copy-nin you know? He was allowed to be a bit crazy. Who else but him could still be handsome with a mask, read porn and seduce Gai's students? Exactly.

He thought he spied Tenten racing across the roof-tops as he made his way to the freshly-carved names of the fallen. Perhaps he'd visit her later.

Was she thinking about him? Was she ashamed?

She'd looked prettier than he could remember that morning, with heavy-lidded reddish-brown eyes. For the little time she'd talked to him, she'd been pretty amusing. And, yes the infamous copy-nin pervert was a pervert, she had tasted sweet. Not innocent, but innocent, and he had loved he way her hands had tugged hard at his hair and the way she had demanded pleasure. He'd even liked the angry way she'd tried to tug his pants back down again, but Kakashi liked to savour things. And, even for him, having drunk, anonymous sex with Gai's student was going a bit too far.

Yeah, he'd visit her later. If only to flaunt that he could without her knowing who he was.

Kakashi ignored the fact that he was actually looking forward to their meeting and turned another page of his book.


"What do you mean you won't smell it? Smell it!" Tenten had demanded, aware that anyone who didn't know about Kiba's famous nose was going to think her crazy. She was still in her clothes from yesterday, tired, cranky and going crazy over her mystery. "Inuzuka!"

"I'm tired," he whined back, obviously feeling the after-effects of yesterday too. "Look! I'm standing in line for coffee, and I don't even drink the crap. I'm that tired, I have a mission this afternoon, you know? I'll smell it tomorrow."

Yes, people were going to think both of them crazy.

"You don't have to track him," Tenten replied, trying to sound threatening, although not much threat was needed when it was widely-known that Tenten could probably castrate a shinobi twenty feet away with five or so well-aimed throwing knives. "You just have to tell me who it is."

"I'm not some sort of scent-bank," Kiba had snapped back muttering "traitor," when Akamaru yipped a greeting to Tenten and nuzzled her hand for food. "Look," he leaned in and sniffed the vest, "I've smelt it now. If I bump into the guy, I'll recognise the scent and then I'll let you know, okay?"

That was the best she was going to get she supposed.

"Hey are those hickeys on your neck?"

Time to go, "bye Kiba, thanks anyway!" Tenten leapt for the roofs, finally intent on home. It had taken her too long to track him down, when the idea that he could help hit her, and she'd been living in constant fear for the past hour and a half of bumping into her sensei.

"Mornin' Ebisu-san," she called to the thin, lanky jounin when he nodded to her from the street and hoped she wouldn't bump into anyone who immediately required small-talk when they saw her.

She just wanted bath and bed really and maybe that awful civilian drama about those teams of shinobi from Suna. She'd missed the latest episode because of that party, the one where both Maara and Tankuro had confessed their love to Katsuri.

You know, those characters sure reminded her of someone... Not that she would have traded last night for a soap opera, even if she wasn't the most sociable person in the world. Tenten wished her front-door was on the building instead of inside it as she jumped back down to street-level and slipped through the front door with a tired, yet triumphant smile.

She really wasn't a sociable person, she thought, as she slipped inside the small, quiet bubble she called home. It wasn't exactly a place that screamed 'dinner party' with the ominous axes that hung on the walls (she wasn't strong enough to wield them... yet) along with the various photos of celebrities she didn't like and the hole-ridden dartboards that she used as target practice (though scoring top marks all the time lost its charm when you were known as the weapons mistress.)

Tenten showered quickly instead of bathed because she could never trust her boiler for that much hot water anyway. Then she flumped down on her sofa instead of the bed she'd promised herself and tried her hardest not to think about that man and what they could do together if only she could find out who he was.

And what if she got it wrong? What if she approached the wrong person entirely and propositioned them with sex? She wasn't that desperate, nor that much of a pariah, not yet.

.

.

.

Later on she woke up, a bit stiff from the sofa and frizzy-haired from the shower, but more or less content. They were playing the repeat of 'Days of the Desert', hooray, and she quickly settled down to watch.

"No, don't choose Tankuro!" Tenten found herself hissing at the TV some fifteen minutes later, as Katsuri cupped the puppet master's face. She physically stopped herself from brandishing the kunai that she always kept by her coffee table. She couldn't afford a new TV, again. "You don't even know what he looks like under all that!"

Moments after, she downright refused to appreciate the irony of that statement. There was a huge difference between what they'd done, anyway (and Tenten could admit that what she had done was bad, even compared to Katsuri).

There was a knock at her window and she wondered if it was Akane come to return those poison-refillable shuriken she'd borrowed for a mission, or Neji come to apologise for practically ignoring her last night (but it probably wasn't the latter). She thought nothing of opening her window to a ninja, because seriously, what real ninja actually used the door?

As it was it was neither. Or at least she didn't think it was and half pondered the idea that a bird had flown into the window, or something, because nobody was there. Were they? She could definitely sense someone. Tenten looked up, cursing when she realised the slightly richer flats above hers had balconies. Someone was sitting on the balcony above hers.

"Have you guessed yet?"

...it was him! HIM in big capital, neon letters, because she didn't have a name yet! That cheeky, rat bastard-

"No," she spat back at him, half-annoyed about her program being interrupted and half-aroused at the notion that perhaps he'd come back for a repeat performance. She balanced a foot on the windowsill getting ready to spring upwards for the balcony.

"Mah. If you try and see my face, I'll just escape, and then you'll never know who I am," the voice told her, its legs swinging over the balcony with an irritating amount of nonchalance. She stepped back inside her flat and decided to perch on the windowsill instead.

"What do you want?" she asked, feeling a bit stupid talking to a pair of sandals. If only she were a Hyuuga! Maybe she could hide Neji and have him use his Byakugan without her mysterious shinobi knowing. Although awkward questions would probably be asked, and she wouldn't want to answer them... "And how did you find my address?"

"Third clue," he replied, "I have enough rank to pull that I can have your file pulled out for me."

"Sounds like you get a bigger pay-cheque than me," Tenten bit back sweetly, filing way the information just in case, even though it didn't really tell her anything. "Buy me flowers next time, yeah?"

"Touchy," the voice remarked, sounding amused. "I wanted entertainment. It's very easy to talk to someone who has no idea who you are, hm?"

"You'll understand if I don't feel quite so open," Tenten replied, though she melted somewhat when he all but admitted wanting to talk to her. And he laughed softly at her reply and it was always nice to feel like someone got your humour.

"Thought about you today," the voice told her in a low voice that made her feel dizzy with desire, even if it was a lot more hesitant when sober. "Bumped into your sensei," he broke off into more laughter. God, she knew that voice from somewhere! "Did you think about me?"

"I had to," she replied, trying not to sound too eager. "You set me a challenge, after all."

"A challenge, is it?" he laughed again. Three times, in as many minutes, Tenten thought with satisfaction. She hadn't felt this funny since she'd fallen down half the stairs in the Hyuuga compound and Lee and Neji had just laughed at her.

"Care to make it interesting?" she teased back. "I find out who you are in one month and I get an extra special prize." Like a new axe. Or one of those morning-stars she couldn't afford, just yet. That would be a decent reward.

"No time-limit," he said back. "I want you to find me, eventually, you know."

His voice held so much promise, Tenten shivered, partly from the cool evening outside and partly from the way he spoke those words.

"Can I come in?" he asked her, "I have drink and nothing to do with it... and no missions lately. Just the grocery store and the memorial."

"I have a strict policy that involves knowing the name of everyone who enters my abode," replied Tenten although she couldn't deny being tempted. She saw the blue plastic bag of the grocery store down the road dangle temptingly by her mystery man's feet.

"Just shove your forehead protector over your eyes," he encouraged, "and I promise not to take advantage of you too much."

She couldn't believe she was doing this... but it was kind of fun, you know? It almost felt right. And there was something incredibly kinky about this stranger being near her whilst she was blindfolded... not that she would admit that.

Thanking herself for realising just that day, that guy wasn't omnipresent, Tenten slid off the windowsill and stole back into her room, a bundle of nerves. Would they just talk? Would they do more than they had last night? Wasn't that what she was working towards, anyway?

Tenten stopped asking herself questions and simply snatched her protector off her worn coffee table and slid it around her eyes, adjusting it slightly for comfort before she tied it tight. She would stay true to her word, if only because she knew that Kiba would probably find him for her in a matter of days.

"Okay!" she called out, trying not to feel stupid as she sat on her sofa with her headband round her eyes and attempted nonchalance. "Enter!"

She heard his almost silent feet touch down upon her windowsill and couldn't deny the electric stirs that jumped through her arms, legs, throat, chest—her entire body.

He took each step into her flat slowly, probably staring at the weaponry on the walls and the charity calendar of half-naked shinobi that some ninja of Konoha had laughingly produced to raise money for rebuilding and reconsidering his offer.

"I had to buy a new vest today, you know," the voice drifted towards her and she tensed as she felt the sofa go down slightly when he sat down next to her. "I hope you're worth the expense."

"I'll find you out eventually, Gai's friend," Tenten smirked back and let him press the cold weight of a beer in her hands.


Not as long, I'm afraid. And I'll probably go back and edit it somewhat as it's not quite as well-written as I'd life. Thank you for the reviews :) I wanted to reply personally but I'm awkward XD even a thank you message is difficult! I'm glad the first chapter was enjoyed, though.