"So," she said opening the carton, "Since you bought me dinner, I can help you with your paperwork."

Itachi helped himself to a white box of low mien noodles and shoved some chop sticks in them. "You do not need to do anything to pay me for dinner. After all, you did set those traps for me. I would be throwing most of this out anyways. You just prevented me from feeling guilty about wasting all this food." He took a large bite of the noodles and placed a wary eye on his desk covered completely in hours of sorting and sifting. Tenten could tell he was debating on taking her up on the offer.

"I could cut your workload in half, possibly more." She grabbed some chopsticks out of the bag. "I am just saying I am offering. You don't have to take me up on it if you would prefer to be here all night."

Itachi gave her a skeptical look. "And just what type of magical-red-tape-slashing skills do you posses?"

"I have a system," she walked behind the desk to stand beside him. "Check it out. All of the papers that you need for each office get piled into one place."

"It is better to sort them out by which ones need to be filed first. These documents are all time sensitive." Itachi argued.

"Yes, that is exactly why this system works," she explained picking up papers and tapping them on the desk to keep them neat. "Here, we have a document asking Ibiki if we can use one of his rooms for interrogation in the event that we bring back a prisoner. All this paper requires is a signature. So we put that bad boy on top, and file this one that needs to be filed first, and is significantly more time consuming, underneath it. He will sign this one first, then when he realizes that he can't turn that one in without documenting this last one, it will force him to do the paperwork we need him to do so that it doesn't look like he is just picking and choosing easy paperwork to fill out and then get yelled at by the Hokage for filing them out of chronological order." She smiled as he took it all in.

"That is sneaky and underhanded." He spoke with a near distain. She shrugged a shoulder. They were ninjas, weren't they? Wasn't that part of their job description to use subterfuge and misdirection? Then with sudden amazed awe he added, "That is brilliant, but Ibiki has no doubt figured out your system by now."

"Yeah." This was an easy admission on her part. Everyone was totally on to her, but the other trick up her sleeve is what really pulled off getting the paperwork in with little effort.

"So what makes your system so perfect?" he asked as he put the carton of noodles down the one crumpled piece of paper on his desk, then realizing his error, picked it back up again.

She hesitated. "Well?" he prodded leaning back in his chair. She turned to face him, putting her back to the paperwork-littered desk. He was piercing her with those dark eyes of his again. Her legs, which were the closest thing to him, could pick up his body heat the mere inches away from her he sat. He focused her with that intimidating stare of his, yet she didn't feel as intimidated as she did scrutinized. It was like his eyes were roaming all over her body even as they remained firmly locked with hers. She didn't look away regardless if that is what he intended her to do. She wasn't going to back down because she wanted to be sure that Itachi didn't misunderstand.

"I find out what makes them smile, butter them up, and then hand them their paper work. It moves the process along faster and makes everyone happy."

He leaned further back in his chair and chewed anther bite thoughtfully. "Let me give you an example," she shifted through a packet of papers and snaked out a few for her demonstration. "These would normally go to Shizune. Since I know how much paperwork she receives, when I give her some, I always make sure to have one of her favorite candy bars on hand when I deliver them. I slip in a compliment and suddenly, that paperwork is done before anyone else's."

"Clever," he praised after another moment of contemplation. "That is why you gave Ibiki vending machine money, so he could butter Shizune up before asking her if she wanted to join him for dinner?"

"That man needs all the help he can get," she countered. Itachi nodded in agreement.

"So who else? How do you get Yamanaka to do anything? You would think that man channeled a sloth when it came to paperwork." Itachi dumped the empty carton in the trash as Tenten took another bite of hers. Did he eat that all in three bites? Didn't men have to chew their food, too? She had witnessed Shikamaru eat at the same alarming rate when he splurged for take-out on nights there was no way around cutting the work load down without pulling extra hours late into dinner. She finished the food in her mouth before answering.

"I pretend to check him out," she smiled mischievously, "the man is a classic narcissist. Anything I do to stroke the man's ego and he bends over backward for me." She readjusted the chopsticks in her hands as she theorized her next statement. "I suppose you could just say that you thought you saw one of the other jounin women checking him out or something. Unless you want to hit on him, but he might find that creepy." She suddenly put her hands up defensively, "Unless you swing that way, then I apologize for the creepy comment."

"I most certainly do not," he spoke with a stern voice, then stood up. His glare only lasted a split second, the fact that he was a full foot taller than her helped to solidify how adamant he was about his sexual preference. This time she didn't feel intimidated as she did smug about ruffling the Uchiha's feathers. Getting her captain to emote so definitively was somehow fulfilling. She pressed back against the corner of his desk, half sitting, half perched on it. She shrugged her shoulders by way of apology, and Itachi only bothered to arch an eyebrow at her in response. She may have just insulted him by questioning his sexuality, but the payoff was well worth it. He then crossed the room to put distance between them. She busied herself with picking out and eating the vegetables in her container, hiding her smile as he opened a box of rice and composed himself.

"So how did you become friends with Ibiki?" he changed the subject quickly. There was a hidden meaning to what he was saying, she knew. He wanted to know if she was just manipulating the man or if their relationship was actually genuine.

"That man saw right through my crap the moment I walked in the door. I leveled with him about needing to push the paperwork through and we came to a little…arrangement of sorts." Itachi was smiling at the discovery, not bothering to hide his curiosity about the deal the two had struck up. He also beamed with pride at how quickly his friend was able to spot her deception.

"What kind of 'arrangement' did you come to?" He then tipped the box over slightly by way of offering her some as well as showing that its contents were full of rice. She gladly accepted and brought her container over so he could fill it up. A finger bumped up against hers and a part of her wondered if he wasn't suffering from some sort of neuropathy due to his being dead for so long. Surely the Hokage would have fixed that right away, there was no way the man could get away with it being that bad all these years without it compromising his job duties. Was this a recent problem? Was the resurrection jutsu going bad? She knew that was impossible, but a possibly sick ANBU captain worried her all the same. She decided to ignore it and answer his question instead.

"He gets a back rub, I file some stuff for him, and then he pushes the stuff I need through. Simple." She smiled. "Can you pass the soy sauce?"

He dug an arm all the way into the bottom of the bag in search for some. With a furrowed brow, shook his head as he came up empty handed.

"Bummer," she dug around aimlessly with her chopsticks at the sticky rice.

"The break room usually has extra condiments." Itachi offered.

She flashed him a knowing look and smiled, "We need to check up on Mr. Sunshine, anyways."