Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. That makes five minutes of awkward silence between Naruto and Tenten.

Naruto sighed. "We REALLY don't talk much now do we?"

She sweat dropped with a forced smile. "Not really, but hey! No time like the present."

"If wonder boy and captain fate couldn't do it, what do ya' got?" Naruto said cynically.

Tenten smiled warmly. "Sometimes strangers are better listeners. We can be objective. Plus, woman's intuition."

Naruto shrunk down a bit. "Woman's intuition tends to mean an angry fist while shrieking in anger."

A small tick mark appears on Tenten, but she keeps a smile. "I'm not Sakura. Now, come on! Out with your sadness and woes." She said over dramatically.

Naruto shifted uncomfortably. "I don't know what to really start with."

Tenten put her hand to her chin in thought before snapping her fingers with a smirk. "Out of everyone in our age group, who do you ever see me hanging around with?"

Naruto tilted his head. "Um.. . Neji or Lee?"

"Do you ever see me with anyone else?"

"Not REALLY, no."

Tenten seemed smirk at the answers. "Now, out of everyone, who do you think was most wrong about you at the Chunin exams?"

Naruto could almost have visible question marks around his head. "Uhhh. . . Ino?"

"No, she cheered for you against Neji."

"Sakura?"

"Same."

"Kiba? or-"

She cut him off. "I was the only one there who rooted for Neji." She said, annoyed that her name doesn't even come up in his mind apparently.

Naruto just shrugged. "Well, he's your teammate. Why wouldn't you?"

Tenten tilted in thought. "Good point, then again even I knew how much of an arrogant prick he could be back then." She looked back to Naruto. "I was SO sure that no matter what you could do, no matter how tough you were, Neji would crush you. I didn't care. You see, to me everything I currently know is more of sure fact. I took no time to look at you and properly evaluate your strength because I was so stubborn not to even care what others could do. Neji was the best."

Naruto seemed confused as to where this was going. "Well, I guess."

"And that comes out to my personal life. I don't make any time with many of you guys because I'm so set in my routine of only being around Lee and Neji. As you say, we all have personal issues. Mine aren't grand life changing events like yours and Neji's, but you helped him. Through that, it's sort of broadened my mind and helped me. So. . ." She pointed to Naruto.

"Let me return the favor and help you." She finished with a smile.

Naruto seemed more than surprised before giving the first actual smile he'd had this past week. Still sad in his eyes, but he was appreciating the effort. "Thanks. You know, you really are different from Sakura."

Tenten seemed to like the complement.

Unfortunately. . . he continued. "I mean, before now, I just thought you were a tomboy who used tons of tools to get out your violent frustrations from being the only girl without medical ninjutu, but you're actually really cool!"

ANNNNNND snap. CRACK! Tenten whips Naruto's head into the hard rock using a summoned metal staff. "VIOLENT FRUSTRATIONS!?" She calmed down after a second before noticing that Naruto wasn't getting up. "oh shit." She quickly checked to make sure he was alive. Then she sighed. "I AM like Sakura. . ."

Neji and Lee came out to see the results as Tenten scratched the back of her head. "So close, yet so far." Neji said shaking his head back and forth.

(With Shikamaru)

Shikamaru leaned against the side of the building in wait. He'd been in an alley across from the apartment Naruto lived at, keeping an eye out. So far, it seemed rather peaceful. He sighed. "I guess it really did stop." He scratched his head. "Maybe the Sound invasion took so much attention away that no one ever did it again."

Just as he was heading down the street, however, he stopped to look over to a group of drunken men who passed him. He turned to watch them as they went by the apartment. One pointed directly to Naruto's apartment, causing Shikamaru to narrow his gaze. One of them laughed about some sort of idea.

He ripped some cloth from his shirt and stuffed it into his bottle of sake as another pulled out a lighter. That didn't sit well with the Nara. They set the cloth on fire and tossed it towards the apartment. However, a thrown kunai strikes through the makeshift molotov as the alcohol blows into flames and dissipates mid air. The men all shift their gazes to Shikamaru, immediately fearful of the pissed expression in Shikamaru's eyes.

"You did not just try that. . ." Shikamaru said in shear disgust.