Helloooooooo Everybodyyyyyyy! Ship here, providing you with yet another instalment of Precious and Irreplaceable.

Now this chapter is one I have worked quite hard on, I feel that I owe it to my reviewers and readers to try and make some sense of where I am taking this story.

First of all I have a couple of shout outs to make to a couple of reviewers who have inspired me to do better! To be more consistent with my stories!

BananaFoxKayri - I thank you for the positive review, I also appreciated the advice you have given me, which I shall begin to do with my stories. Who knows, this one might run away with me yet. Keep reading and reviewing, let me know what you think.

Grimvid - Apparently I have met someone as eccentric as I am! BROTHER! On a serious note, I found it really heart warming to see a reader taking such a vested interest in the early stages of my story. I can only hope I will improve the story to suit all readers including yourself, so keep the faith and let me know. :)

I do not however make any apologies for the corniness! For I am a romantic! You have nothing to fear about me simply saying This has happened, however there will be no description as to how or why! So suck it! I am not that type of writer, everything is going to be explained, hopefully to a satisfactory level.

The kyuubi thing is really just something I decided to add as a plot device, but I will attempt to work some kind of explanation into things. All I ask for is patience. :)

LD 1449 - The way I see it we rarely see the characters interacting unless they are out in the field, at which point emotions will be heightened and they are under great amounts of stress. My belief is that when they are simply in the village, acting normal is probably what they will do, Sakura cannot unfortunately simply be her violent self particularly with Naruto being as injured as he is. I have, in fairness, taken a little poetic licence with their attitudes. However that being said I am trying my best to make the characters be themselves as I see them. You'll just have to keep reading as I will try to keep improving.

So with the shout outs out of the way, I will simply allow my cute little readers to bask in the story and make their assumptions.

So with that, enjoy the story…

GO!

"Hey, Sakura-san."

"Hmm?"

"Can you tell me why Naruto did not want to take a simple sleeping tablet?"

The pinkette sighed, placing her tea mug down on the table they sat at. After the commotion earlier on, The Hokage herself had come by to see the blonde knucklehead, promptly kicking her apprentice and the weapons mistress out. The two of them had not really had anything to do so they had gone to grab some breakfast and morning tea, finding the hospital cafe satisfactory for the time.

Leaning forward, Sakura eyed her warily; "This stays between us?"

Tenten nodded, now more curious than ever, what could be so bad?

"The pills give him nightmares. Although they do make him sleep, he suffers psychologically from it."

The now confused woman frowned; "But I thought the whole idea of the pills was to provide a restful, dreamless sleep?" The whole reason she even knew about the effects was that she took them regularly, purely to escape her own nightmares.

The medic shook her head; "It's something to do with the Kyuubi's chakra, even though Naruto managed to curb its hatred, it is still a sentient creation made from malicious chakra. The pill reacts to this and actually creates realistic nightmares, forcing him to relive the traumatic events of his life. It's why he didn't want to take it, and I notice you didn't make him."

There was an accusatory tone to the end of that explanation, forcing Tenten to release a sigh of her own, placing her cup on the table next to Sakura's; "He did not want to take the pill, he was begging you for Kami's sake. He's my friend and I saw a way to help him."

"So how did you manage to get him to sleep again?"

The bun-haired woman actually blushed at this, leading to some impure thoughts from her observer; "A little secret I learned a long time ago about Naruto, a way to relax him without resorting to drugs, or sex." A pointed glare followed that last part, cutting of the perverted thoughts Sakura had clearly been thinking.

Picking up her tea, Sakura took a sip before speaking again; "That kind of leads me to my next question, since when are you and he such close friends? You don't exactly have a lot in common, plush I would imagine you'd struggle to not get frustrated by his childlike attention span."

Tenten chuckled at this, taking a sip of her own tea before placing it back down and begging her explanation;

(Flashback no Justu!)

The sound of metal on metal echoed throughout the near deserted training field. In the middle of this field, a young woman stood, a kunai held in each hand, four more in the air above her. The clashing sound was the young woman juggling two kunai with each hand, using the kunai she held to repeatedly hit them up in the air. The weapons mistress of Konoha had developed this training method to develop her hand-eye coordination and her reflexes, one wrong move could lead to some harm.

She had been at this for several hours now, from the rising sun to what was now mid lunchtime. However she had no intention of stopping, as had been the case for several months now, ever since the end of the great war. She would get up, practice till she could not move, then retire to her apartment.

A sudden sound behind her caused her to drop the four kunai she had been juggling, the four landing safely in the ground as she moved around. Throwing one of the kunai and readying the other, she expected to here the usual 'thunk' of a blade entering a body, however she was more surprised to here a familiar voice; "Maa Tenten-san, I know I should have given you a shout or something but was it really necessary to throw a sharp pointy thing at me?"

Realising she was not about to be attacked, the weapons mistress relaxed and stood; "Well Naruto-san, you should have let me know you were there instead of sneaking up on me."

"I wasn't sneaking Datteboyo! I was actually coming to ask you a favour!" Tenten paused at that one, wondering what the knucklehead could want.

"I'm listening."

He scratched the back of his nervously, drawing her suspicion at what the Jinchuuriki could want;

"You're a master with all kinds of weaponry right?"

She rolled her eyes at this; "No, I'm called the weapons mistress of Konoha because I am the foremost knitting expert, what do you think?!"

He flinched at that, acknowledging the stupidity of the question he just asked; "I asked because I was wondering if you would… Train me in Kenjutsu."

Tenten blinked owlishly, not really sure if she had heard that right; "Did you just say you want to learn Kenjutsu? From me?"

He blushed; "Well, yeah. I mean, I've seen how you are with weaponry. I figured if I was gonna learn from anyone it should be you."

Why would one of the most powerful ninja in the world, want to learn Kenjutsu from her? When asked the question he simply shrugged; "You're one of the few I would trust to train me properly instead of lazing around."

She opened her mouth to respond but he whispered something else, something that froze her tongue; "And Neji always said you were the person to come to if I needed help with weapons."

Being reminded of Neji usually did her no good, however this was different; this was not someone trying to console her, or talk about the good times in the hopes of her moving on. It was simply someone telling her about the faith her deceased teammate had had in her, and that made all the difference in the world;

"Do you have a sword of your own?" She asked, almost knowing the answer before he spoke it.

"Um, no, I was kinda hoping you'd know a good place to get one."

Tenten shook her head smirking; "I know the perfect place. Come with me."

Tenten took a sip from her tea, pausing in the story. The pinkette across from her who had been listening with rapt attention jerked as if stunned;

"So just like that you agreed to train him?"

The bun haired girl shrugged; "I've always been curious about him, even from the chuunin exams when he beat Neji. I figured helping him learn a new fighting style wouldn't hurt."

Not even aware she had mentioned Neji without the now expected flash of pain, Sakura decided to not mention this little fact, instead storing it away for future reference;

"So what happened after that?"

Taking another sip, Tenten grinned, almost maniacally; "He met my father."

(Flashback no Jutsu!)

"Ah Tenten, welcome back, now what is this you've brought back?!"

Even indoors the giant of a mans voice could have carried over fields from the volume, Naruto found himself looking up into the ultimate stereotype of a weapon smith, beetle black eyes looking down at him as one would a lost dog or fox in this case, scarred, muscled arms crossed with a hammer the size of the blonde Jinchuuriki hanging from a strap on his wrist.

"Dad, c'mon, you know who Uzumaki Naruto is. You're not that behind on the times. Now stop messing around, he's a customer today."

Naruto himself who, despite being now one of the most powerful shinobi in the world, found himself terrified of this man who looked like he ate his kind for lunch and then some; however upon hearing he would be a customer he relaxed some, remembering the hefty reward he received from the daimyo's of the united countries.

The big man, upon hearing this, unfolded his arms and placed the hammer on the ground, only causing the ground to mildly tremor as a result. He crossed the room in two strides and took a closer look at Naruto, who fidgeted slightly at the appraising look;

"You ever used a sword kid?"

Shaking his head earned a slight chuckle from the man, who stuck his hand out; "Guraundo Ō, TenTen's father, and you're probably the first man outside of her team she's brought to this shop."

Ignoring the incredulous cry of 'Dad!' behind him and simultaneously trying to avoid having his hand crushed, Naruto managed to grind out through the pain; "Nice to meet you sir, Tenten-san said you could help me find a sword?"

The big man grinned at that, turning and raising a bushy (though not as much as the blue and greens beasts of Konoha) eyebrow towards his now increasingly red daughter; "Well now Tenten, training this young man in the ways of the sword eh? Interesting."

Before the fourths son could ask why it was interesting, the blacksmith released him and turned, speaking as he went; "Follow me kid, I think I have the perfect weapon for you."

Turning to look at his fellow shinobi, Tenten merely waved him ahead, as if shooing a dog (fox!), still blushing heavily as she did so.

Shrugging and deciding to leave it for now, Naruto followed the her father out to the back where the non display weapons were kept. Sighing, Tenten followed after a bit, hoping to add her own opinion to the jinchuuriki's eventual weapon.

Aaaaaaaaand break! No people I am not dead, I have just a lot on lately, so for that I can only apologise to you, the next chapter is currently in the works and I am hoping to have it up sooner than this one had taken.

I don't really have a lot to add that hasn't already been said so I will simply wish y'all a nice time reading and hope you won't be too critical of my appalling time keeping. Let me know and as always my marshmallows are ready for the flames, however criticism is gratefully accepted as always, provided it is sensible.

R&R people,

Peace!

Ship