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Scene IX: "I have heard of your paintings well enough."
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"So Teten," Ino eyed the brown eyes girl over her menu. "Have you professed your love to Lee yet?"

Tenten snorted into the glass of water she was sipping from. Both Sakura and Hinata laughed. They were sitting in a rounded booth at Vive, the french restraunt downtown. It was Ino's initial idea to go out for dinner with all the girls.

"What?!" She half asked half cried. "Why would you ask something like that?"

"Well, you were going a little crazy when he got hit yesterday," Sakura said.

"I was just scared," Tenten explained. "I mean, I've known the boy for like, forever. He's one of my closest friends, why wouldn't I be worried?"

"I was just kidding," Ino said. "Relax."

"I kind of wasn't" Sakura teased. "Come on Tenten, why not? Can't you imagine the babies?"

Tenten shuddered.

"No thanks," she told them.

"But Lee is a nice guy," Hinata said.

"If you like him, you can have."

Hinata's cheeks went pink.

"Stop teasing her," Ino nudged the brown eyed girl next to her. "You know she has a thing for Naaaruutoo."

She dragged out the boys name for extra emphasis causing Hinata's face to redden.

"Inooo," she whined. "Please, stop."

"Oh come on, lighten up a bit. It took ages to convince Neji to let you out of his sight for dinner, let's just have some fun and gossip."

"Okay, you know gossiping doesn't mean talk only about Sasuke," Tenten said.

"What else would you want to talk about?" Sakura asked incredulously.

"Okay, fine," Ino directed to Tenten. "Let's talk about your love life. Who've you been crushin' on?"

Tenten's face tinted pink. She buried herself in her menu. "You guys know what you're getting?"

"Come on, Tenten!" Sakura cried, yanking the menu from her. "You know all about us, what about you?"

"What about me? I'm not that interesting. Look, the waiter."

The waiter came up to their table and asked them if they were ready to order. Hinata ordered first, asking for a chicken and mushroom crepe. Tenten went next, ordering le steak-frites. Ino went with a fish filet and Sakura ordered a dry salad.

"That's it?" Tenten asked her.

Sakura nodded. "I'm not particularly fond of french food."

"You should have said something," Ino said to her. "We would have gone somewhere else."

"No, it's okay, really."

The waiter left with their orders and the girls went back to small talk. Ino participating in most of it, Hinata not really saying anything, but enjoyed the listening.

Fifteen minutes later, the waiter came back with their food. They took turns sampling each other's plates, except Sakura, who politely declined each offer.

Halfway through their meal, Tenten saw someone familiar.

Tenten lowered her head down and motioned for the others to do likewise.

"It's Temari," she whispered and pointed to their classmate who had just walked in with a man who seemed to be older than her.

Way older.

"Who is that?" Sakura asked.

"Her grandfather?" Ino threw at them.

"He seems the right age," Hinata agreed with her.

"But they don't have any family, right?" Tenten countered. "That's what they said their first day, remember?"

"Shh! They're coming this way!" Ino warned them all.

They all looked down into their plates, suddenly taking an extreme interest in their food, not talking too each other. The hostess led Temari and her companion past their table and sat them in the rounded booth behind them. The only thing seperating their tabled being the thickness of the fake plants in the middle of the booth seats. It was like at some of those restraunts that have booths back to back, but to try to give some privacy to the seperate customers, they'll put some sort of object in between the booth seats. Usually plants. This was their case.

Ino motioned for them to stay quiet. All of them (even Hinata) scooted towards the middle to eavesdrop on Temari's conversation. It sounded innocent enough at the beginning, but then it got a little more interesting.

"Are you still a virgin?" the old man asked.

Temari giggled. "It's a secret," she said sweetly.

"Oh, come now, you can tell me," said the old man.

Temari giggled some more.

"Maaaybe, with the right incentive..." Temari trailed off.

The old man chuckled. "I get it. Ten more?"

"That's less than what you gave me earlier!" Temari cried mockingly.

He chuckled again. "Okay, twenty more."

"Tell you what," she started out slyly, "I'll take the twenty, you take what's under the skirt, and we'll save the big thing for next time."

"What about under the shirt?"

Temari laughed. "Well, alright. Just because I like you so much."

They laughed together.

"Is everything alright?"

The girls jumped at the sudden intrusion of the waiter.

"We're fine!" Sakura was unable to control the volume of her voice.

"Sakura!" both Ino and Tenten hissed warningly at her.

"Can we have the check, please?" Ino asked.

The waiter blinked a few times. "Alright then."

He walked off and the four girls let out a sigh of relief.

"Hey guys!" Temari poked her head through the rubber plants.

They immediately paled. Sakura was the first to recover.

"H-hey, Temari," she said. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm just hanging out with a friend. Come on over."

"Are... Are you sure that's okay?"

"Yeah, come on!"

Sakura looked at Ino. Ino looked at Tenten. Tenten looked at Hinata. Hinata shrugged. They scooted out from behind their table and hesitantly walked around and faced the front of Temari's.

"Odajima, these are some of my friends from school," Temari introduced.

"Hello, girls," the old man said with a smile.

"Hello," they chorused.

"You don't mind if they join us do you?" Temari asked the man next to her.

"No, no," he said pleasently. "The more the better."

"We already had dinner," Ino said. "And besides, we'd hate to intrude on your... outing?"

She looked to the other girls for acknowledgment of saying the right word. She received no confirmation.

"Then how about some dessert?" Odajima offered. "My treat."

'I'll bet,' they thought.

"No, really, we're fine," Sakura told them. "Dessert isn't really all that necessary."

"Yeah," Ino joined in. "I'm stuffed. No way I could eat more."

Hinata meekly nodded in agreement. Tenten on the other hand, wanted to know what exaclty Temari was doing.

'It's obvious though that they don't want to be around this creepy old guy,' she thought. 'I know.'

"Oh no!" Tenten cried mockingly. "I feel the need to use the restroom,and seeing as how us girls always go together, we should go... together... Temari, will you come with us? Seeing as how we're friends, and all girls?"

"Um... sure," she said. "Excuse us, 'kay?"

"Don't take too long."

"I won't!" Temari cooed back at him, sliding from behind the table and following the girl quartet into the ladies restroom.

Once they were inside, Tenten did a search of all the stalls to ensure their solitude. Once she was positive they were alone, she turned on Temari.

"What the hell was that?!" she questioned the girl.

"What are you talking about?" Temari asked her.

Ino, finally understanding Tenten's less than convincing performance, rounded on the girl as well. "The old guy, Temari, what's the story with him?"

Temari understood now. "Oh, that. Nothing, just a date."

"What?!" They shrieked. Except Hinata who was in a state of quiet shock.

"What the hell?" Sakura asked. "What is he? Like Fifty?"

"Sixty one," Temari answered.

"Eeeewwww."

"Why?" Tenten asked.

Temari huffed impatiently. "Look, if you wanna know, I can explain tomorrow if you want. I'm working right now."

Tenten grabbed at her arm. "Are you selling yourself?"

"What?!" she cried and yanked her arm back. "Of course not! It's just a date."

"But you said something about selling your underwear," Ino accused. "Or at least that's what you made it sound like."

Temari sighed impatiently. "Like I said, I can explain it better tomorrow, if you want to know all the details about it. Do you wanna know?"

"Kind of."

"Sort of."

"Maybe."

Hinata said nothing.

"Just come by my house, alright," she told them. She walked out the bathroom and left them standing there.

xxx

"I know that all of you want to know what last night was about," Hinata said quietly. "But did I have to come along?"

The girl quartet walked past the fence posts of Temari's home. They stood in a small group on the miniature front porch. Sakura knocked on the door.

"Come on, Hinata," she said. "Don't you want to know what she was doing with a sixty year old date?"

"I really don't think it's any of my business."

"Didn't seem like that when you were eavesdropping with the rest of us," Tenten told her, 'causing Hinata to flush out of embarassment.

"I'm kind of scared," Ino said suddenly.

"Why?" Sakura asked her.

"Not about what she was doing," Ino explained. "Going into the house. Temari's like our friend and Kankuro's okay you know? But it's the other one..."

They all agreed silently and prayed that the red head was not home.

The front door opened and revealed Temari on the other side.

"Hey again," she greeted. "Come on in."

She stepped back and let the door open wider to let the group inside.

"The living room's to the left," she told them. "I'll bring us snacks and stuff."

While Temari walked into the kitchen, the other girls went into the living room and sat down around the coffee table. Temari came into the room with a tray of jelly filled onigiri, odango, and tea. Each girl took a cup and the snack of their choice.

"Alright," Temari said. "First question?"

Tenten raised her hand.

"You don't have to raise your hand, but whatever, Tenten."

Tenten lowered her hand sheepishly. "Well, Temari, you told us that you were on a date, why were on a date with a sixty year old man?"

"Sixty-one."

"Whatever."

"Well, Kankuro wasn't making a lot of money with his night job, and I had a friend from our hometown who used to go on dates with older men for money."

"Do you have sex with them?"

"What?! No! It's just a one time thing, I never see them again. It's all an act."

"How much do you make?" Ino asked.

"It usually ranges from five to twenty thousand yen a date, you can also make extra money by selling underwear to the guys."

"Ewww. That's gross."

"Girls do this?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah," Temari said. "It's not that uncommon. It's called Enjo Kosai, Compensated Dating."

"If you were going to say it in English, then why bother saying it in Japanese?"

"Shouldn't it be the other way around?" Ino pointed out. "Said in English and translated in Japanese?"

"Well, if you think about it, are we speaking English or Japanese?" Tenten questioned the blonde.

"Well," Hinata finally spoke up, "we're in Japan, so we should be speaking Japanese, but this is written in English."

"I don't think we're supposed to know that this is being written," Temari told her.

"Why not?!" Ino cried. "If you can read fanfiction in a fanfic, then why not be in total awareness that your every move is controlled by a power that is?"

"Power that is?"

"You know, people say "powers that be", and this is like, present tense... I don't know."

"I thought this was like a play in prose," Hinata said.

"I don't think a play can be in prose," Sakura told her. "Then it wouldn't be a play, it would just be a story."

"Well, you can't really have a play, then it would be in "chatspeak" and those are against the rules."

"What rules?"

"Rules made by powers greater than the power that is," said Ino simply.

"What?!"

"Going back a bit," Tenten said, "I don't think that the ones in the fanfic where they were reading fanfiction knew that they were in a fanfic themselves."

"Really?" Ino contemplated. "So, it was like their actions were still a mystery to them."

"Are our actions a mystery to us?"

"No," Temari told her. "This is kind of us acting and going by a script."

"There's a script?!"

"Don't you remember in the beginning beginning?"

"Double word!" Tenten yelled.

"Shut up, but yeah, Shino was rehearsing lines and we were in a green room."

"Yeah, I still don't get that..." Sakura confessed.

"So is this real?" Hinata asked.

"I guess... Oh my God, is it? Like, are we living?"

"I think we're living, Sakura!" Ino exclaimed towards the girl.

"No, I know we're alive, but I mean, is this our life life?"

"Double word!"

"Tenten, shut up!"

"I don't think we should have delved this far," Hinata told them all.

"I think you're right," Temari agreed. "Let's just forget about this and go back."

"To the script?" questioned Ino.

"Let's just go back!"

The five girls took a deep breath and sat in silence for a minute or two.

"Yeah," Temari repeated. "It's not that uncommon. It's called En-... Compensated Dating."

"Compensated Dating?" All four of them repeated the last words spoken by the other girl.

"Yeah, it's those matchmaking sites you know? Just by touring the site, you can make some money, but the real cash comes from actually meeting the guys."

"Isn't that dangerous?" Sakura asked.

"No, as long as you know what you're doing, you should be fine. I mean, I'm pretty sure that all of us are smart enough not to get in a car with a total stranger. Or go anywhere that wasn't a public place with them. Right?" Temari asked them.

"Yeah, I get what you're saying," said Ino.

"You guys want to try it out?" Temari asked them. "I get one hundred yen for each person I get to join."

"Sounds like a good paying gig. I could get into it," Tenten confessed.

"Are you serious?!" asked Sakura.

"Well, yeah, I mean it's not like your having sex with the guy or anything. It's just hanging out, right Temari?"

"Yeah, and if you seriously have a problem with the man, it's not like you can't just walk out."

"Yeah."

Sakura looked at Ino. Ino shrugged.

"You don't have to sell your underwear, right?" Ino questioned.

"No, if you don't want to, you don't have to," Temari reassured her.

Ino turned back to Sakura and shrugged again.

"I'll do it," said Tenten.

"We could do one together," Ino told Sakura.

They looked at Hinata.

"Um... Thank you for the offer, but I think I'll pass," the quiet Hyuuga girl said.

"Are you sure?" asked Temari.

Hinata nodded.

"So when do we start?" Tenten asked enthusiastically.

XXX
TBC...
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