A/N: Wow, I was and still am so overcome by what a warm reception I've been given by the Naruto fandom. And with such intelligent questions and awesome enthusiasm, you all are positively inspiring! Thank you, really.
Note: To those who inquired about Goldberry, she pretty much IS my sensei. In a Gai/Lee way even. BERRY-SENSEI! MY YOUTHFUL RAYS OF DETERMINATION ARE BURNING! (We are also very silly people.)
Bride of Note: I feel it's only fair to warn you that I am NOT a person with a huge amount of time on their hands and that I don't possess awesome updating powers. The reason this chapter is up so quickly is because I had a 15-hour car ride today (coming home from vacation) and fortunately my laptop with with me. Which means the story came out really soon yaaaay!
Disclaimer: As always, no ownership of Naruto do I have. And very little money, I'm afraid.
Mature Intentions
Part Two: Catching Attention
By Nessie
The first day at the Yumuwa Inn was relatively painless to Tenten. After that first half-hour in the hot spring, the men retired to their own devices for the day. For Neji this meant spending some time in his room and trying to figure out what kind of ways he could touch the subject of dealing with Urume Hidegaya. In Tenten's case, she spent hardly any time at all in her little room and instead did what she could to help around the inn in exchange for being allowed to operate there. The elderly owner didn't mind the help at all, and when it came time to deliver evening meals, she stacked two trays atop each other and went first to Neji's room.
"Kana-sama," she called from the corridor outside his door. She didn't at all like using false names.
"Come in," he replied without delay, and Tenten entered swiftly, closing the door behind her. She found Neji sitting cross-legged in the center of the room, papers and files scattered about him. It took him several moments to finish what he was reading, but when he did, he tossed down the paper with a careless flick of his hand, and then used that hand to tiredly rub his eyes. "And reading is supposed to be relaxing," he muttered.
She found herself smiling. "You wouldn't be so exhausted if you ate something," she suggested, setting the tray down in front of him and then kneeling on the other side of it. "Did you find anything useful?"
"These are just records of some past Hyuuga family excursions into business. Hinata took them from her father's study and loaned them out to me." He took a rice ball from the tray, raised it to his mouth, and finally looked at her. He paused open-mouthed and just let his jaw hang as he took in her appearance. Tenten was about to go on the defensive before alertness returned to his light-colored eyes and he asked, "Where did you get that?"
"What?" She followed his gaze and glanced down at herself. Yards of dark blue silk, patterned with tiny pink rosebuds, all connected by thread of light green covered her from her ankles to halfway up her neck in the traditional style of a Japanese kimono, except that it was made a dress by a Chinese collar instead of a frontal fold. Rather than long flowing sleeves, only her shoulders were covered for the summer heat. "Oh, well—" She grinned somewhat sheepishly. "Baa-chan – this inn's owner – is letting me wear it for awhile. Most of the girls wear kimonos, but she thought…she said I was a special servant, so…" She realized she was blabbering and cut herself short. "It's for the mission," she said at last.
By this time Neji had returned his attention to alternating between his work and his food. "I see," he muttered inattentively.
Tenten's eyes narrowed, and she exhaled sharply. "Anyway," she said, her voice coming out more sharply than intended, "I'm off to take Urume his dinner." Sliding a foot forward, she rose and went to the door.
"Stop!"
Startled, Tenten's face snapped back toward him. "What's wrong?" She thought he might have landed on something crucial for the mission.
Instead, Neji was staring at her as though he had never seen her in his life. "What is that?"
She looked down at herself expecting that a huge insect or something had landed on her right leg, but upon inspection she found that there was nothing on her leg – literally. Not even silk covered it, for there was a long slit from the hem to the middle of her thigh. Tenten shrugged. "Thank goodness it's there," she told Neji. "It would have been terrible walking in this thing without it."
"I guess so," came the quiet reply.
"I'll bring you a yukata later. That'll be much more comfortable than wearing your village clothes every day."
Turning away, she did not see the dark look that crossed the Hyuuga's face as she left.
Urume's room was in the hall next to Neji's, and Tenten rapped gently on the wooden panel of his door. "Your meal, Urume-sama," she called to him.
His voice was a far cry different from Neji's, deeper and even gruffer. "You may enter."
She stepped in with ninja training that managed to come off as graceful. Before even looking at him, she dipped to her knees in a graceful bow, and then picked up the last tray of food and turned her gaze up.
Compared to Neji's bland, bare-walled guest room, Urume's room was a cornucopia of color and wealth. Elegant painted scrolls graced the walls, and intricately-woven tatamis covered the floor. The main attraction of the room, however, was the sophisticated Western-style bed with a headboard and rungs that she suspected were made of pure silver. Dozens of ivory pillows stood out against a deep green comforter. Inside, Tenten despised the luxuries for their beauty. Men like Urume who were criminals deserved nothing so fancy.
"Ah, Amaya-chan."
Hearing her false name, she made sure her smile was in place and turned her attention to Urume. The crime lord already had his eyes trained on her. "I'm sorry," she apologized in recovery. "I was distracted by your room. You have many pretty things."
"I tend to appreciate beauty over much else. I cannot be somewhere that has no beauty," he told her calmly, a pleasant look on his face. "You have brought me my meal, I see. You are very kind."
"I'm only doing what I'm paid for," she said in an automatic attempt to hurry, but then Tenten remembered what she had to do. Telling herself to slow down, she said, "I hope you like curry."
"It's my favorite," he assured her. He watched her closely as she kneeled in front of him to present his food. "That's quite a dress."
"It belongs to the owner. I'm borrowing a few things from her for while I work here." That much, at least, was true. "I admit I come from a poor family, and my things would not do for living in such a nice inn."
"On the contrary," said Urume as he lifted a spoonful of curry to his lips, "I thought you looked splendid this morning." In nothing but that damn towel, Tenten mentally finished for him. He ate a couple more spoonfuls, and she wished she could feed him some of the Curry of Life that Lee so favored. That would turn his smug head. "The dress looks far better on you than it would on the old lady, anyhow. Since you're dressed so nicely, why don't you join me?"
"Oh!" Thinking fast, she held up a hand to cover a very forced smile of flattery. "I've already had my dinner, Urume-sama. But thank you."
"That's a shame." Setting down his spoon, he picked up instead his cup of green tea and studied her over the rim of the cup as she began to move to her feet to leave. "Ayame-chan," he said quietly. "I have not dismissed you yet."
Tenten's stomach dropped. He actually wanted to talk to her. Well, she supposed it had to happen sometimes, and sooner was better than later. Saying nothing, she resumed her sitting position and waited for him to speak.
"I'm simply fascinated. I come to this very inn for a time every single summer – it has been so for the past five years – yet I have never seen you once." He tipped his head back as he looked at her, and his shoulder-length dark hair fell back away from his face, making his green eyes seem even brighter. "What's your story?"
Tenten bowed her head, mind racing in search of holes in the question. "Sir, as Hiraya-sama told you, I normally only work here in the fall."
"And why is that? Family reasons, I presume."
"Yes." But it would best, Tenten reasoned, to tell him that she had no relations in case it turned out that he was so insane that he would seek them out for some reason. "I come from a family of rice farmers. I usually harvest with them in the summer, but…"
"But what?" he pressed when she trailed. Urume's smile suddenly softened further, and Tenten was momentarily surprised at how gentle he looked. "Amaya-chan, you don't have to tell me if—"
"No," she interrupted, hoping she sounded eager. "My…my parents and brother died last winter. Influenza," she muttered, and almost immediately realized how ridiculous that sounded since the flu was easily cured in any village.
However, Urume surprisingly ate it up. "That's terrible," he murmured sympathetically. "My poor dear. And you can't be older than… Well, how old are you?"
"Sev…" She paused. Like most people, she wasn't yet used to thinking of herself as eighteen so soon after her birthday. Rather than correct herself, she guessed that Urume would be even more pleased by a seventeen-year-old girl than an eighteen-year-old one. "Seventeen."
"How young!" It seemed he had forgotten his meal entirely and instead leaned forward, his whole self captivated by her story that was so nearly obviously untrue. "Far too young to be working so hard, I should think."
"But this work isn't hard at all," she protested with a genuine laugh. If Urume thought she was a little feathery flower, she thought he should have seen her fight in the Chuunin Exam the year she had passed it. Then he would see some hard work.
"But a girl so beautiful…" A thoughtful expression crossed his face. "Ryo won't like it at all," he murmured, mostly to himself (Tenten had learned that Ryo was Urume Hidegaya's bodyguard), "but I insist. I'll speak to the old lady. I shall get her to lend you to me as my private assistant for my stay at this inn."
"I couldn't!" Cursing foully in her head, Tenten lifted the food tray even though she wasn't sure if he had finished or not and used it as a physical barrier between Urume and herself. "I'm paid to do what the owner tells me. If you—"
"It will be perfectly alright," he smiled calmly. "What do you think, Amaya-chan? Can you fetch my slippers and hold my tea for me in the hot spring if I need you to? I promise to reward you handsomely before I leave."
Tenten longed to tell Urume precisely what she thought, but she didn't come close to forgetting her duty for Konoha. Instead, she stood up and, fighting back an urge to kick Urume in the head when his gaze strayed to her bare thigh, bent at the waist.
"If you can arrange it," she said, sounding sweeter than a morning nightingale and feeling as ill as Lee tended to after a drop of alcohol, "I would be honored." Going to the door in deliberately slow movements, she turned and bowed once more. "Sleep well, Urume-sama."
He gave a slight nod, his green eyes glinting. "Goodnight, Amaya-chan."
Leaving, Tenten realized just how tightly she was clenching the edges of the wooden tray of now-cold food. Let him be hungry, she thought bitterly. A minor inconvenience would do him some good.
One thing was certain. She wasn't afraid of Urume Hidegaya.
He made Tenten angry as hell.
Apparently, she wasn't the only one that Urume infuriated. Though she had been around Neji so little in the last few years that she was a little rusty on gauging his emotions, she managed to label his way of barging in her room as being "ticked off." His words suggested more depth was involved, however.
"What the hell did you do?"
His voice was very steady and very quiet, so the average listener would have thought of him as quite calm. But since Tenten usually suspected Neji of buckling down his true feelings, there was a fairly good chance of him being far more unsettled.
Yet Tenten supposed she could have been wrong. She had to consider that her current position left her little room to be particularly clever at this moment. Because, in true Neji fashion, he had focused on nothing but possible danger to the mission, and he had come into Tenten's room without first checking if it was well for him to do so. Had he asked, Tenten would have had him wait.
The reason for this was that, as of two minutes ago, she had returned from the shower and was presently toweling herself dry. Other than that insufficient strip of cotton, covering no specific places, she was completely and entirely naked.
"Neji!" she squealed in unpleasant surprise, turning away and curling herself into a ball in a reflexive attempt to salvage any modesty that she could.
As usual, Tenten didn't see Neji's focused expression totally drop from his features to be replaced with one of off-guardedness, shortly followed by as much embarrassment as Neji was capable of displaying. Wordlessly, he swiveled and stepped close to a corner of the room, keeping his eyes trained on the line that separated two of the walls as though it held the secret to becoming the best shinobi in history. "I'm not looking," he called stoically.
Tenten threw a glare over her shoulder, but the look was rendered useless when she saw him standing in the corner like a misbehaved little boy. She desperately bit back the urge to laugh. Instead, an exasperated "thank you" was all she could manage.
She dressed hastily, pulling on a pair of brown spandex shorts and a loose white tank top that she wore as pajamas. Reaching for a comb, she squeezed some excess water from her mahogany hair. This time when she looked at him, it was with practiced patience. "What are you doing, Neji? It's nearly midnight. Shouldn't you be—"
"I overheard Urume talking with the owner." He turned, perhaps with more caution than he was accustomed to using. Once he had ascertained that Tenten was indeed decent, he leaned against the wall he'd been facing. There was certainly something fiery in his eyes, and Tenten half-thought she liked it. "He was making a deal with her, Tenten, to have you serve him."
She lowered her eyes to the comb she was dragging nervously through her damp and tangled tresses. "I thought that was the deal already."
"In private," he growled out. "What did he say to you exactly?"
Tenten stood up and went to her backpack and fished out a hair tie. "He was interested. He felt sorry for Amaya, an orphan who has just lost her family to the flu. If you're going to know me on this mission, I think Hiraya Kana should know about Takane Amaya's unfortunate circumstances."
He had seemed a bit taken aback with her lame story, which was exactly what she had expected from Urume. Tenten went on. "So far, though I haven't gotten anything out of him, this mission's going as planned on my part. Tsunade-sama said—"
"She said you didn't have to do anything."
"Neji." She gave a sort of shocked chuckle, which was really just a fast expelling of breath. "What kind of amateur do you think I am? You know how I fight. I keep at least fifteen kunai and ten shuriken on me all the time. I didn't bring makeup in this backpack, you know..." A curious look came upon her. "Actually, do you think—"
"No," he said firmly. "I don't think you need makeup. I think you're going about this the wrong way."
"What way?" she demanded. "At least I—ow!" Shaking her fingers, she saw that her hair tie had snapped when she had tried to put up her hair with it. It had sprung from her hair and was now on the floor by her foot, a useless, limp string.
Tenten sighed and lifted her eyes to Neji's with restored calm. "Neji. I know you've gotten used to working with guys. And I know that when we were teammates we never did any missions like…this," she finished after hunting for a good term and failing to find one. "I already told you that Urume has no chance of taking advantage of me."
He had an eyebrow lifted at her, and the curse seal on his forehead, which Tenten had never given a second thought to, now made him look somewhat threatening without his Konoha forehead protector to hide it. "He didn't have that big guy Ryo there to discourage anything. Are you sure you can handle him, Tenten?"
Determined not to be intimidated, especially by her mission partner (and especially because it was Neji), Tenten squared her shoulders. "Even if Amaya can't," she retorted, "I can."
"Fine." Neji seemed to accept his lack of control over her decisions and headed for the door. "I'll talk to Urume tomorrow."
"Good luck." Tenten said it more from habit with Lee than she actually meant it. Almost in afterthought, she added, "Neji."
The Hyuuga turned back, his features purposely revealing nothing to her.
Tenten gave him a teasing look, although some of her initial annoyance still came through. "The next time you decide to come see me in a fit of rage, you better knock."
Something about Neji relaxed, but in the few seconds she had to notice the change, Tenten couldn't distinguish what it was. "I've never seen your hair down," he said simply. This caught her off-guard, but the effect was nothing compared to the tiny, almost internal smile that crossed his face right before he went out.
As the door shut behind him, Tenten felt herself filled wholly with a confusing combination of frustration and flattery. She served the frustrating by taking the comb in her hand and hurling it at the place where Neji's head had just been. Once it smacked against the door and fell to the floor, there was a bright pink blush heating her cheeks. She sunk down against the wall, hugging her knees to her chest.
There were two men that made her angry. One was Urume Hidegaya, whom she had expected it from and who managed to still hold her temper down with ridiculous shows of empathy. The other was, of course, Hyuuga Neji, whom kept doubting her ability and accused her of endangering herself without having accomplished anything on his side of the work.
It would be a wonder if she didn't kill one or both of them before this mission came to an end.
The owner, or more affectionately known as Baa-chan to her servant girls, made it clear to Tenten that it was up to her how she convinced Urume that she had a wish to serve him, not just as an employee but personally. Still, Tenten could see that Baa-chan also hoped Tenten wouldn't ruin Urume as a customer.
"Don't worry," Tenten had smiled at her, "any money he gives me is going to go to this inn anyway." She meant it; she didn't want any kind of cash that came from being obedient to someone like Urume, who would rather use medicine to harm people instead of save them.
She officially began her private service to Urume the day following her argument with Neji. Once again, she was to be in hot spring number two with a bunch of shirtless men wearing nothing but the towel she had come to hate. This time she double-knotted the cloth before going out with her beverage tray.
The chubby Jurishi-san was not in the hot spring today, but there was still Urume, his bodyguard Ryo, and Neji. When she called her cheerful "Good morning," she smiled as though this hot spring was heaven and the men around her were angels. The truth was, the only one close to an angel would be Neji, and she had always seen him as more a white devil.
Today she served Urume first, bringing him his sake and an additional specialty of a bunch of green grapes on a small plate. She caught him sitting up a little straighter against the cool rock, and he took the ludicrous towel off of his head.
"Good morning, Amaya-chan," Urume said to her with a slight grin upon seeing the fruit. "I trust you slept well your first summer night here."
"Urume-sama is too kind," she said politely. "I slept very well. Shall I serve your companions?"
"Of course, I could never be so rude as to ignore my friends. Please, join me in some sake, Ryo. You too, Hiraya-san."
"Forgive me," Neji said in a tone that was almost friendly. Tenten didn't look at him, but she wondered if he had a cord of tension straightening spine. "I'm never able to drink sake until at least sunset."
"That's a shame," replied Urume as Ryo accepted a cup. "Next time, Amaya-chan, you'll have to remember to bring some tea for Hiraya-san." His eyes flashed as he looked between her and Neji. "Well, since you know each other, maybe you think something weaker, such as water, would suffice?"
The jibe was well-masked, but both Neji and Tenten were too quick to miss it. Tenten's amiable smile would have fallen, but she had set it so hard into her mouth that to smash it a hammer might have been required. As for Neji, he only responded with a smirk that made him look disturbingly like his uncle. And as far as Tenten could tell, he had no tension whatsoever.
"Now, now," admonished 'Hiraya Kana' jokingly, "you wouldn't say something like that about a potential client, would you, Urume-san?"
"Oh?" Urume's eyebrows rose. "I had no idea you were a businessman."
"Just a little." The truth made Neji's words that much more believable. "The Hirayas dapple in economics, mostly in the village of Sand."
Good thinking, Neji, mused Tenten as she sat quietly by. They could message the Sand village, and if Urume decided to check up on Neji's background, Gaara and his siblings could back them up. Temari and Tenten held a special respect for each other, and the Konoha woman was confident that the she, at least, would be willing to help.
Urume laughed. "Ha, that poor village would need it most! Well, Hiraya-san, I can see that you're a person who should learn to relax. You've said you are twenty – a man so young should not be as work-oriented as you. You need some fun. I have…"
He trailed off when he saw that Neji was looking at Tenten. Tenten had noticed the same thing moments earlier and couldn't help feeling that Neji was staring too intently – both because he could blow their cover and because she didn't like standing so immodestly in front of him. Urume and Ryo didn't bother her nearly as much, but she had grown up with Neji. He had known her before…well, before there had even been anything on her body that needed to be hidden.
At the intensity of his gaze, she felt her face go flush involuntarily. Had she been allowed to be herself, she'd have hissed at him to quit staring at her and he most likely would have shrugged and looked at the clouds as though they were just as interesting. As it was, she could only lower her eyes to the tray she was in charge of and hope nothing bad happened.
It seemed her hoping worked because Urume followed Neji's line of vision and chuckled a little at her. "Oh, gentlemen, it seems our sweet Amaya-chan is embarrassed by her lack of knowledge on our topic." Wading over to her, he set a hand on her naked shoulder. Tenten at first had the urge to jerk away, but she had schooled herself to expect minor touches and only reacted by closing her eyes for a few seconds. "This is no talk for a lovely woman anyway. Why don't you give us a few minutes, Amaya-chan, and get some tea for Hiraya-san?"
"I'll deliver it to his room." She bowed her head graciously and left the hot-spring after bowing in the direction of both Ryo and Neji. She met Neji's eyes for a brief second and knew he understood her message: Tell me everything later.
Tenten was more than happy to get out of the steamy hot tub and put on some real clothes. As she was going inside the inn, she heard Urume's voice: "Now, Hiraya-san, I must tell you that I am about to have my hands on a novel product that I think you'll find…"
Disgusted by the diplomatic way Urume spoke about useful medicines serving a purpose no better than opium, she flung her bedroom door shut behind her and began to quickly strip and redress herself in a flowing sleeveless kimono that was dark purple, patterned with white crescent moons. The garment had been stylishly cut to trail farther in the back than it did in the front, and Tenten thought if she ever had a good reason for wearing something this foolish in Konoha, she would want it to be similar to this.
It took her ten minutes to get the light blue obi tied around her waist relatively well and five more minutes to secure again all her concealed weaponry. She had just redone her hair from when it had gone sloppy in the hot spring when there was a knock on her door.
She expected Neji had come to let her know what had transpired with Urume and his silent guard. Using the small mirror that all good ninjas carried with them at all times, she unconsciously checked her appearance and then went to the door.
Instead of the open panel bringing her face-to-face with the Hyuuga come to report his progress with their target, she was instead looking at Urume Hidegaya himself, dressed thankfully in a yukata instead of just the towel around his waist in the hot spring. Surprise knocked her off mental balance for a moment, and when a shocked "Urume-sama" popped out of her mouth, it was genuine.
"Oh, good. So they gave me the right room after all." Propping an arm up on the doorframe, Urume looked down at her with a grin that even Tenten had to admit was handsome. "I know you hotel girls like to play jokes. I was certain that the old lady was going to open the door."
The thought of Baa-chan, with her wrinkles and sagging kimono, coming out when Urume had expected Tenten actually had the kunoichi laughing. "That would have been funny," she commented amusedly.
"I wanted to catch you early," said Urume. "You haven't had tonight's dinner yet, have you, Amaya-chan?"
She smiled because the idea was silly. "Of course not. Lunch was only two hours ago."
"Excellent. Then you have no reason for not joining me tonight."
Tenten thought about it, then shrugged carelessly. "You're right."
"Meet me in my room at a quarter after seven. I'll have someone else bring the food. All you need do is show up." Urume took a couple of steps backward. "I'd say that you should pretty yourself up, but there's really no need for you to try."
His voice was slick and as Tenten watched him, she thought that he didn't really seem very mean at all. "It will honor me, Urume-sama." She didn't realize that these words were her most convincing ones yet.
"Amaya-chan." He turned away and left her to stare at his back as he walked off. "Me too."
As Tenten went back inside, she ran her hands absent-mindedly over the skirt of her kimono. Although she didn't know why, she found herself still smiling.
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