It was a distinct lack of a certain female that aroused Kakashi from his slumber. Grasping blindly at the sheets sometime before dawn only to be sorely disappointed, left him sighing with despair as he tried in vain to fall back to sleep. The sheets where she had been only moments ago were still warm and he noted her unique sweet scent lingered ever so subtly as he inhaled his pillow searching for the hypnotic fragrance. Rubbing his thumbs into his and Obito's eye, he stumbled his way into the bathroom, determined to find something better to do with his time than idly thinking about the slender konoichi who had taken off much sooner than he would have liked. As his thenar eminence slowly finished their circular movements around his mismatched eyes, he had to blink several times before his vision could focus enough to read the post-it note attached at a sideways angle on his bathroom mirror.

It simply read with neat, precise characters.

I thought you slept naked.

He blinked several more times just to register that he was not hallucinating. It was really all the encouragement he needed. She knew this of course. A smile crept slowly on his face.

Time seemed to skip forward and he was nearly frantically looking for her now. It being late afternoon and no one seemed to have any idea where she could be located. He had found it nearly impossible to concentrate on anything else; his mind was one track at his point.

It was sheer luck that he had found her chakra signature as she talked to one of her former teammates. His words echoed harshly in the cold hallways of the Hokage tower. There was no one around, no one but him at least. He recognized the jouinin with the long hair-that one that tried to kill Hinata during the chunin exams the first time his team had entered them. The Hyuga's broad shoulders leaned in towards Tenten's in a menacing way; replaying an all too familiar scene that Kakashi couldn't help roll his eyes at.

Did all guys think they could get away with being this idiotic?

Tenten pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration, a habit that was becoming more and more endearing to Kakashi as she tried to reason with the protégée. He was still too far off to even really register on their radar for eavesdropping and he couldn't quite make out distinctly the words they were saying, but he did manage to make out some few choice words that Tenten dropped so vehemently by the way of, " Are you kidding me?" if he read her lips correctly.

Neji was going off on her about something and Tenten crossed her arms with an indignant expression plastered plainly on her face. Spiced with just a bit of murderous intent, Kakashi decided as he snuck with in ear shot using his ninja prowess.

He only had to hear about three seconds of the conversation to realize that he was going to do something stupid. Neji had just commented on Tenten's inadequate capabilities for procuring an Aoba, who wouldn't be dating Neji's precious Sakura, if Tenten wasn't so incompetent.

The second Neji laid a hand on Tenten, Kakashi lost it. Granted, Neji was just putting a very ill intentioned hand on her shoulder, and Tenten was completely capable of taking care of herself, but somehow he just couldn't stop himself. He remembered seeing his haymaker coming swiftly down between surprised hollow colored eyes and a just a smirk from Tenten out of the corner of his vision. It connected with an most grueling crack, and he was certain he had broke the boys nose as he knocked him out in one swift move that left Kakashi wishing he had just chidoried him instead. Hand throbbing from the impact, he opened and closed his fist as he hovered over the fallen Hyuga.

"I should really be pissed that you did this." Tenten uncrossed her arms to take a gander at Kakashi's handiwork. "But between the fact that I am not going to get into trouble for this and seeing Neji bleed all over the robes he wears to try and impress Sakura, somehow, I'm not mad." She pleasantly ginned with a kind and self-satisfied smile that Kakashi was secretly warmed by. He dumbly blinked at her instead.

Kakashi continued to blink stupidly at her, still shaking out the sting of the blow to his knuckles in an almost unconscious way.

"I say we riffle through his pockets for loose change and go out to eat." She explained this nonchalantly as she found the Huyga's wallet hidden in the folds of his robes and casually took out a large amount of the cash before placing it back where she found it. "Loose change," his left foot. Kakashi was loving this plan.

"There is a new BBQ place downtown that just opened up last week. You game?" She asked, as if what had just happened were a normal occurrence and she wasn't just about to leave an unconscious body lying around with no intention of helping them.

He broke out of his reticent reverie of just blinking at he girl without a remark, "I would love to."

"We should get that hand some ice on it," she said taking it up with great care and slipping the glove off to inspect it. The bruise had spread across the dorsal surface of the hand and a slight swelling had already began to bloat the discolored skin.

"I should have that cute pink-haired konoichi look at it," Kakashi muttered as if very off-handedly. "She is quite the med-nin."

To this, Tenten dropped his hand and stared at him with all the force of a stridulous chidori. He lightly chuckled and picked her hand back up to kiss it over his cowl.

"Too soon?" he tried affably, pulling her close to him. She responded with a shake of the head, an eye roll and a sigh. This time, he wouldn't let her slip away; this time he was going to show her exactly what he wanted from her.

Pulling down the cowl he brushed the aberrant strands from her eyes and slowly pressed his lips against hers. It was slow and intense as he was still trying to get used to her chakra without going into a euphoric haze. It seemed he was doomed, however as she slid her body against his and he wondered if he would ever have another coherent thought. She broke away and quickly leaned onto his chest and sighed with pleasure.

His arms automatically found their way to snake around her, and had a hard time releasing her to continue to their destination. Hand in swollen hand, they enjoyed their meal with their filched moneys and Kakashi decided it was about time to prove to her that he really did sleep naked.

…..

Hope you all enjoyed this. Most reviews I have ever gotten, so I hope I did not disappoint my wonderful loyal fans! Your reviews are better than drugs! I have recently come to love getting massages…if I could get you all a massage…I would! Best things ever!

You know, besides you guys.

Cheers!

-jaggedwhitejacket-