Chapter 4

Consultancy

"Never-never-never-never-going-back," Tenten had to be dragged by the arms to the Hokage's office as they were summoned for another Suna mission.

"Come on Tenten, it's a special request by your boyfriend."

"Neji, if Gai weren't here, you know what I'd tell you to go do to yourself."

"Tenten," Gai reprimanded severely. "Even the intent to use foul language is unbecoming of a lady such as yourself."

"A most esteemed lady," Lee chimed in, "Beloved of the Kaze-"

"I am thinking of a very rude gesture right now Lee!" Tenten announced loudly but refrained from further elaborating at the look from their jounin sensei. They entered the Hokage's office.

"Oh, Gai." Tsunade looked up from where she was concentrating on the reports in front of her. Shizune stood by her with a somewhat triumphant grin, obviously successful in wresting away the Hokage's sake and forcing her to work for the time being.

"The mission requires only you and Lee. Neji and Tenten are dismissed," she waved them away while handing the mission instructions to Gai. Neji and Tenten exchanged a look, mentally shrugged, and left the room.

"Training?" Tenten guessed, not without dread.

"You're off the hook," Neji half-smiled, "I'm going back to the compound to train with Hiashi-sama." Tenten grinned, happy for her now well-adjusted team mate. The pre-Naruto Neji had been so angsty. She had thought it was cool back then, but Tenten liked him even better now. She had always liked her team. But it was good to get away from them once in a while.

"Great," Tenten crowed, stretching, "An afternoon off for me then. A rare treat." She suddenly covered her mouth, so as not to jinx her good luck. "I'm getting out of here." She cast a fearful look back, as if expecting Gai to come bounding out with some last minute training instructions, which was likely.

"Let me know how your date goes," Neji told her before taking off.

"Date?" Tenten queried. But he was gone.

Humming, Tenten paused by her apartment window to wave madly at the dango-peddler whose stall was right across the street. The old lady waved back and laughed, as she always did, at the sight of the dango-haired girl sticking to the building wall with chakra to get in through the second floor window. Those ninja were a crazy bunch of people, she often told her civilian customers.

Ducking her head through the aperture, Tenten stopped short at the sight of a large, clay container leaning against her wall. Her mouth went dry suddenly.

"Drink?" While Gaara's attempts to reach out to others had been rebuffed many times during the course of his life, Naruto had taught him to never give up! He offered her the milk carton he had been sipping from.

"That's from my fridge, isn't it." It was more of a statement than a question, but Tenten liked to point out the obvious. It gave her time to think, "I thought you were back in Suna. Gai and Lee were just sent on a mission there."

"Where my brother will welcome them in my absence." Gaara watched Tenten cautiously enter her own apartment, noting she exhibited none of the fear of the one-tailed demon people used to display around him, but a different sort of wariness. Nervousness? Embarrassment? Around him? It was novel. He casually stepped closer to her, approving of how she stood her ground and looked at him with level gaze.

Tenten felt him size her up, while she made her own assessment of her 'guest'. He was a couple of inches taller when he wasn't carrying the sand gourd, and she thought he got a kick out of intimidating people, even if he wasn't aware of it. At the same time, he wanted to connect to those who he found worthy as well. She was familiar with the type.

"Anything I can do for you, then?" it was best to be hospitable when not openly at war. She wanted to fight his sister, not him.

"I'm here for consultation."

"Really." She picked her jaw off the floor, fought down a blush, and finally mustered a smile. "You stick to your word don't you?"

"I do."

"Well," she cast about, trying to look as if, yes, she gave girlfriend consultations everyday, to Kazekages no less, who really SHOULD have better things to do than to come to allied Villages for love advice. She then gave up and burst into giggles at the absurdity of his request. Gaara held on to his stoic expression a trifle longer, before the merest hint of a smile graced his features.

"I have to apologize," Tenten gasped between laughs, wiping at the corners of her eyes, "I'm- probably not the best person to help you in that department. When I like someone, I just go up and tell them they're cute, and wing it from there." She shook her head self-deprecatingly, "Not that I've gotten any boyfriends as a result of such an approach, but there were a few nice dates."

"Is that so." Gaara considered. "Okay." He stepped back, then deliberately moved up even closer to her, "You're cute. Want to go out?" He surprised another giggle out of her, and a blush this time.

"Got it on the first try," she praised. "My work is done."

"No it's not. Let's go."

Tenten was accustomed to being overlooked for her more flamboyant and genius team mates. It was fine, as she was secure in her place, which was to serve as a counter-balance to her team mates' extremes. She would often come across as the complainer, the nay-sayer, even, pardon the term, the bitchy one, but it was usually as a result of finally giving in to her pleas that the extent of their exhaustion from over-training would finally catch up to them and make Team Gai realize how wise it was to take breaks from their insane training and missions regimen. Needless to say, while the public saw only Neji, Gai and Lee, the three men owed a lot of what they achieved as a team to Tenten. She was fine with being the voice of moderation. She was okay with being the strong, unassuming ninja.

A red-haired boy with a large gourd strapped to his back and the kanji for 'love' tattooed on his forehead drew even more attention than green spandex in Konoha, however. Green spandex was the norm in the village of the Leaf. Desert attire and panda-eyes were not. Beside him, Tenten was getting noticed by everyone they passed.

"Hey, isn't that Gaara from the Sand with Tenten?"

"Why is Tenten walking around with the Kazekage?"

"Why is the Kage walking around with TENTEN?"

"Hm," Tenten was nonchalant. If it didn't bother Gaara, it wasn't going to bother her. She tapped her chin thoughtfully as they strolled down the sidewalk. "Anywhere in particular you want a tour of? Secret defenses of our village? Possible targets for assault?"

Gaara looked at her mildly. She did her sparkly-eyes at him. "Oh right, date. Do you like sweets?"

"Not particularly."

"Huh." Well, she was out of options. She frowned at him as he began to look bored. "Hey. This is give and take. You have to contribute something too. Any suggestions?"

"Training."

"Agh." She shook her head, she was not wasting her one free pass from training today in exchange for another bout of just-as-bad-or-probably-even-worse training with a style she wasn't familiar with. "You can train with Lee and Naruto anytime. This has to be something you don't normally do with guys."

"Make out?"

"Not even with my bunshin." She said flatly. "There has to be some preliminary activity before you do stuff like that with a girl. Unless you're just in it for the hormones. You'll have to consult someone else, in that case."

"No. I like you. You're cute." It was getting easier, he thought as he repeated the spiel. He'd be getting babes in no time.

Tenten sputtered, holding back her laughter. "Yeah, it's really rolling off your tongue now, Gaara. I don't think you had a problem to begin with, though. From the reaction I got back in your village, you already have a massive fan club."

"I'm not comfortable talking to any of them yet." His voice was monotone.

Tenten smiled at him, "I see. You think they might stop liking you after a while once they know you better. Everyone's worried about stuff like that, but you have a higher standard to live up to, being Kage and all."

Gaara was silent. Tenten's stating the obvious was sometimes comforting.

"Aha. You know what I think you might like if you tried it?" Tenten asked, but did not pause for his rhetorical reply, "Cloud watching!"

Gaara pondered it. And his mouth twitched again.