(A/N) Orochimaru comes! He a creepy bastard. I'm sayin it now.
"I accidentally grabbed the wrong hiraishin seal, and we ended up here," Tenten finished, staring at Mei, who was staring back. "Get all that?"
"You are an amazing seal mistress," was all Mei said. "That's awesome."
Tenten barked a surprised laugh. "Thanks I guess? I didn't really do much, it was all on accident. If anything, you should be thanking Obito for scaring me that badly."
Mei puffed out her cheeks and draped herself over Tenten's lap. "I ain't thanking that bastard for anything!"
Tenten huffed out a laugh, patting her girlfriend's back. "Alright, alright, you don't have to thank him for anything."
"Good!" Mei replied vehemently. "He's a bastard Uchiha."
"Sure. I doubt he was actually illegitimate, but alright." Tenten lay back on her bed. "Kakashi had said he was the most cheerful Uchiha alive, with maybe the only exception to that being his cousin Shisui, who was only a baby. I wonder what happened."
"Did you not get the full story?" Mei asked, tilting her head to look at Tenten.
"Nope," Tenten said, shaking her head. "Kakashi died before we could convince it out of him."
"Rude," Mei huffed.
Tenten laughed. "Sure. He didn't really want to die. At least I don't think so, his death had kind of been an accident. It'd been a routine thing to check the entrance. It caved in somehow, and buried him. We found his body only two days later."
"That must've been horrible," Mei murmured.
"It was," Tenten sighed. "Gai took it the hardest. I'd thought Lee was bad when Neji died, but oooh boy, Gai took it even worse. Lee's death was just the final nail in that coffin."
Mei shifted to hug Tenten, resting her head next to Tenten's. "Coffins aren't any fun."
"Especially when you're the one burying them," Tenten said, choking back tears. Reassurance came from the seal, she must have been projecting accidentally.
Mei cuddled closer, and Tenten shifted herself to be more comfortable for both of them. "Thanks for not taking this too hard."
"It seems it was harder for you than for me," Mei murmured, her breath warm against Tenten's ear.
Tenten sighed. "Maybe. I am glad you know though."
Mei just hummed, warm against her back.
Shino eyed the man he was meeting with. This particular person didn't like Jiraiya much, so Jiraiya had sent Shino in to collect the information. So here he was, attempting to be inconspicuous in a large hoodie and sunglasses. He really didn't like it, he hated shedding his jacket for anything, it made him feel exposed, plus his extra seals for his hive were in the jacket, so by leaving the jacket behind, he was leaving behind a good two thirds of his hive, which he really didn't like.
"You had information about the snake?" Shino asked calmly, drinking from his teacup. On the plus side, the place they were meeting had his preferred kind of tea. Which wasn't common. And they made it well, which was even less common.
"Yeah. He's heading north for the summer, in a couple of weeks maybe." The other man shrugged. "I've heard there's a veritable mansion up there waiting for him. Round northern Earth country."
Shino inclined his head. He knew of the Northern Hideout, it'd been where Juugo had been. He knew vaguely where it was, had visited the ruins, although whether he'd be able to actually find it was another matter. Especially without Juugo to lead them. They'd find it. They kind of had to. While they could ambush Orochimaru along the way, that would give the sannin a chance to use his bigger flashy jutsu, which wouldn't be great for them. So they had to get him in a hideout.
"He's heading up with an entourage, a redhead Uzumaki and a caravan with what I think is a huge fish, hard to tell," the man shrugged. "Don't know any fish that get that big."
Shino hummed slightly. "I do. Alligator Gars often do, although most fish that size come from Kiri." It must be Suigetsu and Karin. But why were they going up to the northern habitat. From what he remembered, Karin had been in the southern hideout, while Suigetsu had been in the eastern one. Why were they being moved now? What had happened?
"Right, well, if that's all, I'm going to be going. Don't want to run into the pervert."
Shino scoffed quietly. "Go west. He's in the east side currently." He'd placed a bug on Jiraiya to track him. It was coming in handy now.
"Thanks. He should send you more often, you're actually polite. Why you're traveling with him is a mystery."
"It's for an assignment," Shino sighed. "Regrettably."
He patted Shino on the shoulder. "Right, you're a good man. Hopefully I'll see you around."
"Likewise," Shino replied easily.
Tenten huffed as she stared out at the abandoned wreckage. "Well, that was fun."
"I…" Mei paused for dramatic effect. "Got to test out so many babies against that bastard."
Tenten snorted, which turned into snickering, then full on laughing. "W-we just… slapped him… and it solved all our problems."
Mei snorted, then started laughing too.
Shino watched them laugh, leaning against each other. "Well at least someone is finding amusement out of this situation."
"Sorry," Tenten gasped out. "He just caused so many problems before. And now he's gone because I slapped him."
Shino sighed, but Tenten could hear the amusement behind. It just sent her further into giggles.
(A/N) In my defense, I'm also writing SS at this time, and there are too many fights there for me to not want to skip that. Also I have no clue how that fight would go either. I might have been slightly sleep loopy when I wrote that last bit because that is irrationally funny to me. Is it amusing to anyone else, or am I just sleep loopy as I write this. (Edit, a few mornings after finishing that update, it's exactly as funny as it was the night I finished that update.)