I don't own Naruto!

Relieving Stress

Chapter 4: Lunch With Tenten Akuma


Tenten and I walked down to her car, which was parked fairly close to the main entrance and climbed in.

"Nice car," I said, looking around, "Must've cost a fortune."
"Yeah," she replied, "but I'm almost done paying it off." She patted the dashboard and turned on the radio, switching to Blue Collar Comedy on Sirius. She then put the car in reverse and drove out of the parking lot.

We drove in silence most of the way there. Well, not really. Tenten insisted on talking about the "SaiInoSaku" bullshit going on at the office up to the point where I had to scream, "I will fire you if you don't shut the fuck up." That seemed to shut her up until we got to the restaurant.

We sat down at our table and Tenten said,
"So, why're we going to a club tomorrow night?"
"Why not?" I asked, "I'm new to work, this'll be a good chance to bond with my boss and coworker."
"Bullshit," she replied, "Real reason, please." I sighed and rolled my eyes.
"Two of the three other friends I have are in relationships so I'm bringing a guy do I don't seem completely third-wheely."
"What about the third friend?" Tenten asked.
"Well, guys can't keep their gross perverted hands off her. She'll be sucking face with some guy in a couple hours."
"Really?" Tenten asked, "She's hot?"
"She looks like a model, to be honest. But not in an anorexic, trashy, whore kinda way. She's REALLY pretty and she doesn't even try…" I frowned, but then smiled. I liked being friends with Hinata. She was nice, and I had found many boyfriends just by sitting there with her at a bar.

"She sounds cool. I'll meet her tomorrow, right?"
"As long as shooting doesn't run late." I said, giving my order to the waitress.

"Shooting?" Tenten asked after the woman was gone.
"Yeah," I said, "she's gonna be in some movie with Ryan Gosling. It's coming out next year. I get to go to a red carpet premiere with her and the boyfriend I know she'll have." I popped a Tylenol into my mouth, washing it down with my water. My head still hurt when I made any sudden movements.

"Well, damn," Tenten said, "I'm going to have to get to know this girl pretty well. Wait… should I bring at date to this whole mess?" she drank some more pop.
"No," I said, "you'll probably find someone there."
"Yeah," she agreed, "relationships are all shit anyway."
"Then what're all those pictures on your desk of that guy?" Tenten's expression went sour.
"Thanks for reminding me to get rid of those," she said.
"Who is that?"
"My ex-boyfriend. He figured all this shit out and we were over like," she snapped her fingers, "that. But that's okay. He wasn't good at it anyway. I mean, he was a really nice guy, but I need someone who can accept that I need to be semi-free."
"That's gonna be hard," I said, "because if you get to be free, he should get to be free to and then he'll cheat on you with just about anyone he can and then still take advantage of living with you and things like that."
"And I guess I'm okay with that," Tenten said, "I don't need someone to make me happy. I just need someone to take away stress for a night so I can face all the shit that'll get thrown at me over the next couple days, then repeat."
"That's also gonna be hard," I told her, "I mean, eventually he might want something more, or even you will and the other isn't going to want it."
"Or the other will! Think about that!" I rolled my eyes.
"I am thinking about that. It just isn't practical. You're either single, or you aren't. That's how it works in my book."
"That's not how it works in the office's book…" Tenten said with a laugh, "You hade better get used to that. Embrace it, I say."
"You sound like my friend Karin…" I said, taking another sip of water, "She pretty much hates her boyfriend and vise versa. It's not really important that they fight, but because of it she's always talking about how she's going to start sleeping with some other guy on the side, but she never does."
"And you think I'd lie about that?" Tenten asked, "Sweetie, I have slept with literally every single person I work with. I can sleep with someone on the side, no problem." I laughed. I had too.

"But that's the thing," I told her, "you actually can't. When was your last long-term relationship?"
"About six months ago."
"Before you broke up, how many people did you sleep with?"
"Three."
"How many since you two broke up?"
"… fifteen."
"My point exactly. Even if you still can, your brain can't take having feelings for more than one person for a while." Tenten grimaced.
"This conversation is taking a lot out of me."
"Sorry," I said.
"Don't be. You're my boss, you can walk all over me and not have it matter."
"Are you sure?" She nodded, stabbing the salad the waitress handed her just a little too hard.
"Positive?"
"Yes." she said, stabbing the leafy greens again. We continued to talk about various other things for the remainder of lunch. There really wasn't much to talk about, but I got to know her better. I guessed we could be friends. She was pretty nice.


•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•


The next day after work, Tenten and I went back to my house so I could change into what I was going to wear. Tenten said she'd steal some of my clothes, but I was pretty sure she already had her dress on under her clothes. It was just a bunch though. I had told everyone to meet at my house and while I fished through my closet, the doorbell rang.

"Hey Tenten, can you get that?!"
"Sure!" I heard the door open and Matsuri ask,
"Who're you?"
"Tenten. Who're you?"
"Matsuri. This is Gaara."

I froze. It'd been forever since I'd talked to Gaara. And after we broke up, I'd started dating Kankuro. Not my best move, but I really liked him, and that was okay with Gaara. Or, at least he never protested out loud.

"Matsuri, keep the door open!" I heard Karin scream, "Hina-baby and K-chan in the ho~use!"
"Excuse her," Suigetsu said, "my girlfriend's insane."
"Shut it! I'm about to have a good ti- who's the hottie driving the $150,000 car?" I heard a car door slam.
"Sorry, am I late?" I put my last earring on and went out to the front door.

"You didn't say he was this hot!" Karin whispered to me when I got into the front room, "Or RICH."
"It didn't come up."
"When I asked you to tell me about him, you did a shitty job…"
"Whatever," I whispered, turning to the group, "Okay!" I said happily, "Let's have fun!"


Chapter 4. It's short, but whatever. R&R! -Chiharu