Chapter 7 is on. Thank you for reading this story, and please tell me what you like, dislike, expect, would like to see, etc. in review.

As always, I do not own Naruto, the characters and the universe. All rights to Masashi Kishimoto.


CAN YOU EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED?

Chapter 7: Shikamaru's plan

All the Kusa shinobis turned their head to look at the exhausted looking kunoichi standing between them and the Hokage. She was already tired from her run through the forest and was now suffering from chakra depletion, thanks to her summoning jutsu.

"Who are you, fine lady, to interrupt our mission like this?" asked her Kamame.

"My name's Tenten, and I'm a Leaf ninja." she answered proudly.

"Well, as exhausted as you look, you'll just prolong our fun here. We'll kill you in an instant and then get back to our original duty." laughed the leader of the group.

"You can try!" shouted a confident Tenten, reaching for another scroll, this one in her back, attached to her belt. She opened it and summoned hundreds of kunais, shurikens and other blades. She was throwing her weapons so fast that her every arm move was like a blur to her opponents. By the time every weapon had been thrown, 4 more Kusa ninjas were dead.

"I see you can still fight, even in your state. I'm impressed I must say." told her calmly Kamame Ringi, who had avoided her every attacks. "But you are still no match for me!"

In an instant, he disappeared, only to reappear behind her, the blade of a kunai touching her lower back. His other arm wrapped around her neck, he felt her heavy pulse, her soft skin, her slight sweating smell. "Oh... I recognize you now. Do you?"

Tenten was confused now. How did he move so fast? It couldn't be the Hiraishin since she hadn't been tagged. And how come he knew her. Was he just trying to get in her head? Or was he... "Who are you exactly?" she stuttered between her accelerating breathing.

"You really have forgotten me? I thought you had appreciated me last time." he said with a smirk.

Tenten's face changed as she finally understood. Everything made sense now. "You mean, you were the one who..." She was now breathing heavily, almost hyperventilating.

He answered her, a huge malicious smile on his face. "Raped you. Yes. And I'm ready for round 2, woman."

He could see in her eyes how terrified she was. The first time, she didn't even had been conscious when it happened. Now, she was fully aware, and was surrounded by the corpses of 2 friends, and 2 others incapable of moving a finger.

She would have screamed as he started kissing her neck roughly, but no sounds were able to get out of her mouth. When Kamame ripped the back of her shirt, she closed her eyes and tears ran down her cheeks, only to be wiped away by a strong shockwave a moment after.

"RASENGAN!"

As she opened them back, she saw him, standing over the dead body of Kamame Ringi, the blue orb in his hand slowly fading away. She saw his face, his strong facial features deepened by his anger, his eyes, now orange and looking ferocious by the action of the fox chakra, his blond hair, his sharp teeth. To anyone, he would have looked scary, but for her, he looked like a savior.

When the Kusa ninjas finally understood what had happened, they tried to flee, only to be caught back and massacred by the enraged Leaf shinobi. Sai, Shikamaru and Sasuke jumped from the trees they were hidden in just as 'their' dead corpses disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Of course, they had noticed Naruto's actions and had realised that he was now blinded by anger. Reacting quickly, Sai drew ink snakes to grab on to the Hokage's body. At the same time, Shikamaru used his Kage Mane no Jutsu to stop his movements. Sasuke made his Susano appear to protect everyone in case his former teammate snapped, but luckily, he calmed down a couple minutes after. When his traits returned to normal, his friends all released their techniques and ran towards him.

"Are you alright Naruto?" said Sasuke, visibly worried. "You hadn't lose control like this in ages! What happened to you?

Naruto stared at the kunoichi, still excessively weak and sobbing in the lazy ninja's arms. He wouldn't, couldn't tell Sasuke about what had happened to her. "I got carried away, I'm sorry. Maybe it's one of Kurama's prank..." he told him, unsure if he'd buy that lie.

"Hey there, don't blame it on me, brat..." groaned the Nine tailed fox.

"I see." said Sasuke. "Anyway, let's get out of here and bring Tenten to the hospital. She over did it again..."

Naruto agreed and, as he saw Sai and Shikamaru nod, they left the battle field, now filled with blood and corpses.


Tenten slightly opened her eyes and was now blinded by the bright light. After a couple minutes, she managed to see properly again and realised she was in the Leaf hospital. Around her were Kiba and Lee, both sleeping in their chairs. "They must have waited for me to wake up... How sweet!" she thought.

"You're awake, sleeping beauty?" Tenten jumped as she heard that other voice. She turned her view towards the door and saw the blond's face. She couldn't prevent herself to blush, which made Naruto smile.

"What do you want?" she said, trying to stay serious in front of her Hokage.

"I'm sorry. Actually, we just wanted to talk to you about what happened." he told her as he entered the room.

"We? So he isn't alone?" Tenten thought to herself. She felt a little disappointed, but didn't let it show.

Following Naruto inside the room were Sasuke, Sai and Shikamaru. They all seated around her bed and the latest talked first.

"Why have you followed us inside the forest?" the Nara asked coldly.

"I'm fine thank you! And I was curious to where you were going. I saw that you were all worried about something and I couldn't help but to check it out..." she answered.

Shikamaru sighed. "Well, I guess I owe you some thanking. If you hadn't showed up, my plan might not have worked..."

"Your plan?" Tenten asked, confused. "Could someone explain to me what's all of this?"

"Yeah, right." Naruto continued. "Well, the ANBU located enemies presence in the forest around the village. As I was about to take care of them, Shikamaru had already elaborated a plan..."


(Flashback, Naruto and Kakashi have already arrived at the ANBU HQ and are discussing what to do with the enemies in the forest.)

Naruto grumbled. "Alright, alright. Anyway, what's this great plan of yours?" he then asked.

"We'll make them tell us what they're here for without even asking questions!" told Shikamaru with a smirk.

"And how will you pull this one off?" asked back Sasuke.

"Quite simple." answered straightly the lazy shinobi. "The 4 of us, which means excluding Kakashi, will go at them in the forest. However, Naruto will make 4 kage bunshin and use a henge jutsu to make them look like us. Then, the clones will let themselves be captured while we will be hidden around, listening to everything. We'll learn why they're here, get the information we need, then attack them from behind. This way, even if one of them flees, he won't know about our capacity or techniques, and we will be fixed on their intentions."

"This is indeed a great plan!" told Sai with a smile.

"Yeah, yeah..." grumbled Naruto. "But do you really expect myself and Sasuke to use sneak attacks like this, without saying anything?! We want some actions, some challenge, right Sasuke?"

"I actually think it's a good plan as it is." replied the Uchiha coldly.

"Damn it!" yelled the Hokage. "I thought you were my friend! You're supposed to back me up, to be on my side!"

"Since everyone as accepted the plan, I suggest you all meet in 15 minutes at the main gate." said Kakashi laughing at the angry Naruto. "From there, you'll be able to leave for this mission..."


Tenten still looked confused in her hospital bed. "In the end, you're telling me that the ones I saw getting killed by those shinobis were only Naruto's clones?!" As they nodded, they couldn't tell is she was relieved or angered by that realisation.

"That's exactly it." answered back Shikamaru.

"Then I almost died, again, for nothing!" Now, they knew. She was pissed off.

Sasuke tried to calm her down, but again, the Nara had the best explanation. "No, you didn't. As I told you before, my plan was about to be ruined. Even though they had captured our fakes, they didn't let their guard down." explained casually Shikamaru. "They expected someone to appear, or at least some tricks to take them down. When you protected the fake Naruto, they thought they had captured the real ones, which enabled us to surprise them in the end."

Tenten was still angry, but she managed to calm down slightly during the lazy shinobi's speech. "I... I see..." she sighed.

"Well, we've got to go now." told her Sai. "We have to give our report to Kakashi, and to the... Actually, only to Kakashi. The Hokage already knows!" He exited the room with a big smile on his face, closely followed by Sasuke.

"I'll go to." casually said Shikamaru. "I'll let you two alone for a moment." He didn't waited for a response and left quickly. Naruto felt a slight accusation in his last remark and stared at him angrily as he exited, turning his head to Tenten. "How could he knew? Is it this obvious? Or as baa-chan talked too much again?" Naruto thought. All the possible scenarios passed through his mind.

On her side, the worn out kunoichi was actually glade he looked away, since he therefore didn't see her blush.

"What's wrong with him!" Naruto said with an uncomfortable smile. But she did not answered. Instead, she looked down. She seemed sad. No, more like guilty. Exactly, she seemed to feel guilty about something. But what? "Are you OK Tenten?" asked her the Hokage.

"I'm fine..." she whispered under her breath.

"No you're not!" told her Naruto. "I can see it in your face. It says 'I'm not alright but I don't want to bother anyone about this'. Am I wrong?"

She lifted her head up and gazed deep inside his blue eyes. He knew it. He knew she hid her problems from him. He wasn't the stupid kid who couldn't tell others feelings anymore. He was the Rokudaime Hokage, for Kami's sakes.

"Trust me, I know this face too well." Now his tone had changed from his happy, loud and cheerful voice to a more quiet and shy one. "I've seen it too often on my friends face, but I know it too well because... Because I used to make that face all the time before..."

Tenten felt like a big 'feel ball' was stuck in her stomach. She wanted to comfort the poor thing standing next to her hospital bed, but as she got closer to him, he spoke again, returning to his usual voice tone.

"And that's why you should talk to someone. I'm here right now, but if you prefer someone else, I really don't mind. Maybe I could get Sakura to come and talk to you during her break. Or even Hinata! She always has a lot of free time!"

"Thank you Naruto." she told her, sitting up in her bed. "I already have a confident for those kind of things. We'll discuss this later."

Slowly, she got closer and closer to the blond, who clearly wasn't expecting it. "But I want to thank you, Naruto." She gave him a kiss on his cheek. "You saved me. Again! And knowing that he is dead..." She looked down again for a second, before continuing. "Now, I'm relieved, and I think I'll be able to move on. Thank you."

After her small kiss on his cheek, Naruto had blushed a lot, his face turning almost bright red. She remarked it and giggled a bit. "Oh, you know, it's nothing! It's my duty after all to protect the people from my village!" he said, trying to convince himself more than anyone else. She found his reaction rather funny.

But all of a sudden, he became serious again. "I will never let anyone hurt you again. This, I promise you." And he left, not awaiting for a response from her.

"Thank you Naruto." Tenten whispered so nobody else could hear it.

TO BE CONTINUED...


Et voilĂ . Hope you liked it. Once again, please take a minute or two to review and tell me what you thought of this chapter and of the story.

Next chapter is started, but won't be published before next week. I'll still try to get it out quick, but I want it to be good, according to my expectancies.