"I think you should take this more seriously, Gai," Kakashi reasoned to his friend. He of all people should be on his side. Genma was bad news, why was he the only one seeing this?

"Genma has been trying to get her to sign up for that volunteer mission for a while," Gai explained back, "and why are you so interested in volunteering all of a sudden?" he aimed the conversation accusingly at his eternal rival, "you hate volunteer work."

"Someone has to make sure that Genma behaves," Kakashi volleyed back at him as if he was tired that it was suddenly his job. "So, I took your spot on the team." Okay, so he had neglected to mention that little tiny bit of information before now.

"What?" Gai stated with a disapproving look, "I, unlike you, like to volunteer. Usually it's just a bunch of guys going out and digging wells anyways. Your not the kind to do manual labor or hang out with anyone but me, what gives?"

Now it was going to be a sausage fest? Except Tenten. Oh shit, she was the only girl on that damn list as he recalled going over the names in his head. And now, because of his meddling, he had just made his life significantly more complicated.

…..

Kakashi got down on hands and knees and shuffled boxes under his bed until he found the small black box he was looking for. It was about the tenth of the side of a shoe box, and he carefully opened the lid as he sat on his bed to reminisce about the contents inside.

Funny, he didn't remember reading this fortune before, "trouble only comes from those who meddle."

Maybe he was just tired, he picked up another unfamiliar slip of paper, "the interference of others will cause you much grief" not to mention, "happiness lies in your own affairs" were all written out on the same paper, but they conveniently lacked the same subtle smell as the others did. Underneath his bed was not a pleasant place for smells. The papers that the rouge fortune slips were written on were not as pungent with the musty smell that seemed to be more prominent on the other slips of paper. They smelled like they were newer fortunes.

Some one had tampered in his fortune cookie slip box. He smiled. There were only a few people that knew about his box of wisdom that he kept underneath his bed.

He had gotten to her.

…

Kame, she was going to pay for this.

Tenten was conveniently not with the squad that was going out to dig trenches along the north boarder with Genma's team. She was smart enough to get someone to go by proxy, explaining to Genma, he supposed, that she had found a substitute and would no longer be attending due to whatever the hell excuse she gave him not to be there.

Kakashi was issued a shovel and the only thing he wanted to do with it was shove it up that senbon-mouthing jack hole's ass. So, with a clever bunshin taking his place, the man returned to Konoha in search of revenge on his now targeted konoichi.

And paybacks were a bitch.

So when Kakashi had finally locked down her chakra signature and found Aoba cornering her by the vending machines exactly the way Genma had at the party earlier that week, he was definitely seeing red.

She recognized him from a ways away outside the Hokage's tower and changed her stance from being mildly entertained, to suddenly very interested and even played the game of there is a fuzzy on your collar let me get that for you.

She was smiling up at Aoba now, and the taller shinobi was suddenly backing out of her space if only to allow for Kakashi's commanding presence to rush in and grab Tenten's wrist without hesitation to haul her away from him.

"She's late for ditch digging duty," he explained curtly to the goggled man as he continued to drag the brown-eyed girl along side him.

She wasn't putting up much of a fight, just looking irritatingly pissed, more like what he would expect out of a mature adult indulging, for the moment, a truculent child. They were well out of ear shot, when he stopped and threw her wrist back to her, which she promptly started to soothe with her other hand as he cut in, "just what do you think you are doing?"

She had the nerve to react calmly, because honestly, she should be asking him that question.

"At the moment, I am out-smarting a fellow jounin, as well as humoring him."

"What?" he quickly replied, man did he get stupid when he got jealous.

"I am beginning to think that I am not just collateral damage to get back at Genma," she stated with a half-bored look in her eyes, "unless you have a personal vendetta against Aoba as well?"

Kakashi was walking on dangerous ground; he needed to find a level head and fast. "I am merely trying to help out my fellow shinobi; you shouldn't skip volunteer work once you sign up." He explained with calm and ease. He couldn't believe she had gotten him so riled up.

"How kind of you to stick your nose into my business once again," she bit sarcastically.

"Now unless you want to say what's really on your mind, I am going to get going."

"Can't wait to get back to dig trenches, let's walk together." Kakashi announced sidestepping her comment. Her comment that had suddenly gotten Kakashi into thinking about how in the hell he had ended up so tangled in her affairs. Somehow, the line that he was just looking out for her seemed laughable if he tried to say it out loud.

She was walking closer to him, in a determined way, in a very enticing way. Her hands were fingering his vest collar, as she pulled him foreword and leaned her body against his.

Kakashi's one eye went very wide, and he was on full alert for whatever the sly little minx was going to throw at him-weather that be a knee to the groin or something far more painful.

She had pulled him so close her lips were brushing against his ear when she whispered very slowly, "let me have my fun, or I will have to come after you to get it." He couldn't tell if she bit his earlobe warningly or playfully or if it was more of one of those things you did after threatening someone so seductively. He didn't have time to reel at that little tease of foreplay, because he was too busy gaping at the smoke suddenly surrounding him.

It had been a clone.

She could be anywhere.

Kakashi had been duped again.

…

Ok, Kakashi was seriously getting upset. She was having a casual lunch outside of a local café pouring over work documents again like she had been in the jounin lounge. Aoba was going over the schematics sheet with Tenten and he kept brushing up against her arm as he pointed to certain areas of the sheet. He noticed only one empty glass on the table. He had probably just joined her.

Aoba gingerly reached an arm around her as he tapped an area of the map with the other hand.

Tenten looked up and caught sight of the copy nin walking his way toward the outside pavilions. Her face remained mutely the same, but she hesitated on his glare for just a split second before smiling fondly at Aoba and leaning into him ever so slightly as she pointed in turn to the papers before them. Aoba noticed the empty drink of hers and took it inside to get her a refill before the twin bunned shinobi could object to him leaving.

Kakashi slid casually into Aoba's vacant spot.

"Good afternoon, Hatake-san," she said politely enough. He could tell she was preparing herself for what ever it was that he was going to throw at her.

"I'm not interrupting anything? Am I?"

"You? Never." She shot back at him and rubbed her neck with a free hand. She looked tired and frustrated.

"Must be tired from sneaking under other people's beds," he noted as she swiped her hands around her face in an attempt to gain composure and clarity.

"I've not been sneaking anywhere," she deadpanned, "and on top of them is where I would like to be," she mumbled the last part to him as Aoba appeared with the glass of water in hand.

She thanked him with a smile and he took a chair across from her, although he looked a bit leery now that Kakashi magically appeared and commandeer his spot. She shrugged her shoulders in response as if to say she didn't know either.

She gathered up her scrolls and headed off with a smile and a good afternoon to the male shinobis after leaving some money for the bill and promising Aoba to meet him later.

Kakashi wasn't going to let her get away that easily.

He hid his chakra and hopped out in front of her when she was four blocks away from the restaurant.

She so very nicely jumped and made a sound like a bath toy, before hitting him with her scrolls and cursing.

Finally, he had gotten a raise out of her.

"What the fuck is your problem?" She straightened up and pulled her vest taunt trying for all the world to not look so disheveled and flustered from his "attack."

Her hair was loosing little wisps from its two buns adding to her look of less than professional decorum. He had her frazzled. He smiled.

"Did I do something to you that would solicit this kind of behavior from you?" she began with locked elbows at her side, following him down the streets of Konoha, "You loose a bet?" she ventured, "hit your head?"

They had made their way to his apartment and she seemed undeterred as he opened the door. She followed him inside without thinking, still raving.

He easily ignored her, smiling through his mask as he made some tea.

"Dammit Kakashi!" she yelled, "answer me!"

Her face had turned nearly red from frustration. Her hands were gripping the cardboard tube of the scrolls that she carried them in until they white knuckled the casing until it was crushed. She was really pissed.

But all he did was raise a mug up to her and offer very politely, "Tea?"

Throwing up her hands in frustration and growling, the konoichi made a move to exit the way she came in only to be blocked by a very different looking shinobi. It was still Kakashi, but he had a different look in his eyes. He had removed the hai ate from his left eye and was looking down at Tenten with all gravity and sincerity. And a hungry determination.

Tenten took a step back from the man covering the front door and then took a few more as he was slowly walking towards her. As she backed herself into the kitchen counter, there was a panic in her eyes as she realized that Kakashi was closing the distance and there was no where else to retreat.

"Hatake-san," she explained with a worried tone, "I don't know what you think I did, but I assure you, genjutsuing me isn't the answer." She wasn't just worried, he quickly realized, she was scared.

She thought she was going to be tortured because Kakashi had unmasked his shiringan and was going to take out some kind of revenge on her. That made sense, he hadn't ever quite explained his little fascination with her. Revenge, was a logical conclusion to come to. Unleashing his stolen Uchiha power would be an excellent way to execute such a thing to torture her.

Well, then, he would just have to prove her wrong.

"Just tell me what you think I did to you and we can work this out," she offered with a very fake smile, blinking nervously.

"If you thought this was a genjitsu," he carefully brushing up against her, "then why haven't you tried to dispel it?" he drew up a hand to gently caress her face. She looked at him wide-eyed at the touch, not breaking eye contact with him.

Reaching for the nape of her neck to draw her close, he pressed his masked mouth to her ear, "you could have at least tried to counter attack."

To this, the temptress nuzzled back affectionately, sending shivers down his spine, and tenderly weaved some of the tuffs of silver hair from the back of his neck in her fingers. She purred wickedly in his ear, "who says I haven't?"

Kakashi pulled his mask down, pressing his lips over hers to silence her in a drudgingly erotic kiss, right before the flash bomb detonated.

Who cares if she had warned him, he knew he couldn't waste the opportunity to take those temptingly soft lips captive. It was well worth the eye stinging, but he was sorely disappointed when he found that his devious little konoichi had split.