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There have yet again been reviews, which brighten a gloomy day.

Elemental Dragon Swordman: Who said that Naruto gets to choose?

So you want to be an Author: That's why I'm glad my mother works with flowers.

Demonkid: Thanks for that, I hope this chapter won't disappoint.

There may be some comments at the bottom. Or not.

Bloody bells

There was a noise, echoing down the hall of Naruto's house, as someone messed around with the lock. Then there was a clicking noise as the cylinders did their mechanical duty. As the door swung open, Naruto frowned a bit and mentally noted that he needed to get some oil. It seemed weird that a new lock should be so difficult to open. He held the door open, allowing Tenten to walk in first. She stepped out of her shoes, thankful that she'd been able to resist Ino's suggestion that she wore high heels. They'd spent a good two hours walking around, talking about pretty much everything.

It wasn't all that late yet, and Tenten had been curious about something she'd heard earlier during the day. Considering how gullible Naruto was, she'd decided to use the fact that he had a private onsen as a starting point. She'd simply asked him about his new home, and let him gush about it for a bit. Then, he'd of course happened to mention the onsen, at which point it hadn't been hard to convince him to let her try it out.

She felt good, really good. Naruto had been an exemplary date, attentive and respectful, yet not above having his own ideas or suggestions. He'd listened to what she'd said, keeping his eyes on her, and even asked questions to show he was listening. And when she had asked him about his training trip he'd been modest. Naruto, modest. It had seemed strange at first, but he simply switched the subject over to something else every time she tried to get to know more.

"Sorry Naruto, but what way is the onsen?" She did her best, but there was all manner of undercurrents in her voice. The kind that drag the unsuspecting to a cold, watery grave.

Naturally, Naruto missed those currents by a mile. "Oh, through that door, down the corridor and last door on your left. That's the girls changing room. Can I offer you some refreshments, by the way?" Naruto was enjoying himself. "Heh, this whole being nice thing is way easier when there aren't a dozen girls at the same time wanting stuff done."

"Just something cool please, no more alcohol for me tonight." With that, Tenten walked in the direction of the door that Naruto had pointed to earlier.

Naruto went to the kitchen, picked up a can of fruit juice and two wine glasses, before heading off to the onsen as well. He'd sort of gotten addicted to the warm waters, a nice soak seemed to do all sorts of wonderful things to him and the stress he'd been under lately. It wasn't until he passed the door that Tenten walked through a few minutes before, that things started getting weird. Either Tenten had taken his invitation of making herself at home a lot more literally than he had expected, or she had been in a real rush to get into the onsen.

The reason for his consternation was the fact that her dress had been dropped in the middle of the hall. And further down, just outside the door leading into the ladies changing room, he could see her Hitai-ite. The Hitai-ite that had just minutes ago been strapped to her thigh. For some reason seeing this had him feeling very warm around his ears and neck. The he caught himself. No underwear lying around, right? Maybe she just really wanted that bath. Who knows, girls could be strange like that. "Yeah, it has to be something like that, or maybe she just wants to join the tease-and-bash squad. Hopefully the tease department, I have enough deadly kunoichi willing to smash my face in."

He entered the male changing room, deciding to wear some trunks under a large towel (just in case). He left his weapons next to his clothes, only keeping the old necklace Tsunade gave him. He then picked up the glasses and the juice can and heads outside. It was pretty dark outside, but he could see Tenten's silhouette. She seemed to have put most of her body below the waterline.

"Hi, sorry for the wait!" Naruto said, walking up next to where Tenten was. "How's the water?"

"Why don't you get in and find out." She replied. It was hard to tell, but he got the impression that she was smiling. He didn't know Tenten all that well, but generally smiles meant that there wouldn't be any bashing. And considering how nice the evening had been, he found to his surprise that a bit of teasing wouldn't all that bad either.

"Sure." He replied, putting down the two glasses between them, filling them up and then slipping into the hot water. "Ohh, I just love this. Hey, I didn't know you lived by yourself."

"Yeah, well I am getting old enough to live by myself, and I can visit my dad whenever. My mom died about a year after I was born."

Tenten reached for a glass, having a taste of the chilled drink. "Mmm, this is great, but I seem to remember reading something about another time you went to an onsen."

Naruto twitched, feeling supremely uncomfortable when he realized that Jiraiya's writing had somehow ended up in the hands of his date. "How do you know that?! That book isn't even in circulation yet!"

"I have my sources, and you don't need to feel bad. The description of your looks was quite accurate. By the way, can you dim the lights a bit; I'd like to look at the stars."

"Uhm, sure." Was all the reply Naruto to produce, before going over to a small panel near the entrance. A bit of fiddling with the controls and the onsen was covered in almost complete darkness.

"Oh, great." Naruto grumbled. How was he supposed to find his way back without falling and hurting himself, or worse, Tenten.

"What's wrong Naruto?"

"Ah, nothing, just keep talking and I'll be right there."

"Sure, I can do that. Umm, thanks for the gift and the flowers, and for walking me home to drop them off. I didn't know you could be such a smooth guy on a date. Where did you get all that practice?" While Tenten kept up a monologue for him to navigate by, Naruto found his way back to his spot again. Tenten quieted when he reentered the onsen, leaving the question hanging.

"Umm, I don't really know. Some things I've read, and of course Akane-chan has been giving me a lot of tips and practice. She was my guide back in Suna when I was there, and since she's Gaara's cousin, I was sort of obliged to repay her by taking responsibility of her here."

"Wait, I thought you hadn't gone on dates before?"

"Well, not dates as such, but when you're an official representative to another village you tend to end up I a whole bunch of social situations." Naruto grinned, which Tenten couldn't see, but sense in how his voice changed. "Akane-chan is really cool, I wouldn't have lasted a day in Suna on my own, but she kept making sure I didn't mess up too badly. And she helped me avoid some awkward situations to boot!"

"What kind of situations?"

"Well, once this woman from Iwa sorta thought I was the Yondaime reborn or something. She spent a full hour glaring at me, although I promised that I had nothing to do with that, which was a bit awkward since she was sitting next to me. I swear she didn't let her eyes stray from me the whole time. And then after the dinner, she was asking if I could go to her room so she could test whether I could perform like the 'Yellow Flash' or not. I really didn't wanna do that though, I mean, imagine what oba-chan would say when she heard that I'd beaten up a female diplomat from Iwa, in her own rooms at that! Thankfully Akane-chan talked her out of it, saying that Gaara had requested my presence or some such."

Tenten took in his story, noting how Naruto had managed to take a fairly obvious invitation into a woman's bedchamber and misunderstand completely. "This woman, was she beautiful?"

"Umm, well yeah, I think so. She was probably around her late twenties, and, well-"

"What?"

"I think she was really angry, 'cause the top of her kimono kinda got loose, and she never noticed. So I had to be really careful or get an eyeful of, umm, well, y'know. Imagine if she caught me staring."

At this point, Tenten had taken all she could, and started laughing. Naruto wasn't really sure about what it was that was so damn funny, but since it was important that your date got to enjoy herself, he didn't say anything until she had calmed down.

"I'm sure I'll be laughing too, as soon as you explain what it is that's so funny." He said it in a mild tone of voice, as he remembered her being one of those kunoichi who thought that using feminine wiles to complete a mission just couldn't compare to kicking some ass.

"S-sorry, Naruto-kun. It's just that you're so clueless." Tenten giggled a bit. "Naruto, please try to consider what kind of actions you could be expected to perform in a beautiful woman's bedroom."

There was silence for a while. A few crickets could be heard, which was not surprising since it was summer.

"Oh." Naruto said quietly. "You think she wanted to-"

"Jump your bones? Do some horizontal slow dancing? Kidnap your little shinobi? Well, nothing is certain, but I'd certainly say so." She giggled a bit more, and then slowly started to creep over towards him. Their eyes had adjusted to the dark quite well by now, and she could see that he looked confused. Very confused.

"T-Tenten-chan?" He almost squeaked.

"And how would I know? Well, because I can see where she's coming from." Her sudden smile was quite visible, as the moon had suddenly decided to show up. Naruto could see that smile quite clearly, as well as noting that she had apparently forgotten her towel somewhere, as well as her underwear. He could see that clearly, as she was now leaning over him.

"As cute this whole innocence act is, I for one prefer a man that can understand what I'm saying. And, seeing as how hard I've worked to get you in this position, I intend to collect the reward for it tonight." Her smile turned into a grin, and Naruto was fairly certain that there was a light in her eyes that wasn't reflected from the moon.

"Whoa, T-Tenten-chan you know I had fun and all but-"

"What, you don't want me? Am I unattractive to you?"

"Hey, come on, you know that's not it! It's just, you know, a bit sudden and-"

"Oh shut up!" She growled." I know what I want and unless you have a damn good reason, I'm taking it." With that, she produced a kunai from somewhere and sliced through the knot on his towel.

"E-easy Tenten-chan! That's very flattering of course." He was starting to sound strained, as she kept leaning in closer, and he couldn't immediately think of a safe place to put his hands. "I just don't know about, y'know, love and all that, so-"

"I'll teach you. And tomorrow I wouldn't be surprised if Ino will teach you some more." She put one hand behind his head, and put the tip of the kunai just under the edge of his trunks. "And don't worry about the whole love thing, I'm sure you'll find someone for that later, but right now you have a whole different kind of loving to deliver. So stop talking!" With that, she put her lips on top of his, starting slow but quickly getting rougher.

At this point Naruto really didn't know how to resist, or even respond. He'd been subjected to a lot of unexpected situations since his return, but this topped everything else by a mile. Acting on instinct, he started returning her kisses. Then he felt his trunks falling off, and realized she'd brought her kunai down between his legs. He was thankful that it was Tenten that did that maneuver. He really didn't want anyone doing that without having her skill with weapons.

The idea of getting certain rather essential parts of himself cut off brought him back to his senses. There was something he had to do, before this went too far.

"Wait Tenten, there's something you need to know. About me"

This time he didn't give her a chance to respond. He slipped his leg around hers, grabbed an arm and twisted her over to his right. Tenten might be good with weapons, but she wasn't that good on taijutsu, so she found herself suddenly underneath Naruto. Although he tried to secure her, she still got her blade up just under his chin.

"Ahh, you like to be in control, huh." She grinned hungrily. "That's okay, just remember that I still have a kunai, so don't disappoint me."

"Please just listen, you'll regret this otherwise."

"What? What is it?" She was starting to sound confused.

"Well, I-"He faltered. "I'm different."

"Uhu, very. I'm not one to come on to just any guy you know."

"That's not what I mean, I-I have a condition."

"What, like a disease? You know, there is something called condoms."

"No, not a disease. I'm not ill. I've never been actually. Not once." He took a deep breath. "What do you know about the Kyuubi?"

Tenten stared at him. "What the hell is he talking about?"

"The demon that attacked Konoha. The Yondaime killed it, and died in the process."

"Yeah, that's what you were told. Most of us who were too young to know what was going on were told that. It's not the truth though." He pulled away.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Now she was feeling insecure, uncertain, and that would soon lead to anger. "And then there will be another face-bashing."

"Well, you know about Gaara, right?" He said, hoping to delay his answer a bit.

"Yeah, he has one of the bijuu in him. So?"

"When the Yondaime defeated the Kyuubi, he didn't do it by killing it. The Kyuubi was too powerful, so he had to seal it somehow. The only way to do that was to use a human sacrifice. A jinchuuriki."

He looked away, she had to have guessed what he meant, and if not, she would know what he meant now. "The jinchuuriki was a newborn baby. The sealing worked, the Yondaime died to complete it and Konoha was saved. Unfortunately for the baby, most of the villagers didn't like the idea of the demon running around among them. To protect him, the Sandaime passed a law that forbids the adults from telling the children about what had really happened."

"And you're telling me that baby was you? And you expect me to believe that?"

"I'll prove it." He didn't look at her, as he got out of the waters, reclaiming his towel and covering himself again. Then he walked over to the switches and fired them up. He felt empty and tired, but turned around so she could see him anyway.

"Look at my stomach." With that, he made a ram seal and started molding chakra.

When Tenten gasped, he stopped. "The seal isn't visible all the time, but it's there. I'm the jinchuuriki of Konoha, the jailor of the nine-tailed beast." Then he looked at her again.

They stared at each other for a while, and then Tenten turned away. She picked up her towel, wrapped it around her and without saying a word walked past him.

Naruto didn't move for a while, and then he shut off the lights and went inside. He'd done what he knew was right, but that didn't really make him feel any better.

It was going to be a long, sleepless night.

Naruto's home, early morning

Kakashi walked in through the outer gate, sauntering lazily along the graveled path leading to the main house. It was a bit of a nostalgia trip. His teacher had rarely invited his genin team to his clan's holding, preferring to use a rented apartment closer to the village's center. However, there had been a few noteworthy exceptions. He could almost feel the ghosts of his old teammates walking beside him.

Then he felt someone molding chakra. Not a lot of it, but noticeable none the less. He was pretty certain who it was, and veered of the path, heading straight for one of the other houses. This one was an old dojo, meant to give privacy when practicing.

He was still a few meters away from the dojo's entrance when he stopped and looked up.

"Yo, Naruto. Good morning."

"Hey Kakashi-sensei. What's up?" Naruto replied. He was standing a few meters up in the tree, looking away into the distance. His shoulders slumped, and he had dark rings under his eyes.

"I've been asked to test you and Sakura, we're going to form a new team, by order of the Hokage."

Naruto looked down, and Kakashi was troubled by how uninterested Naruto seemed. The newly baked genin that he'd trained a few years back would have been jumping with joy at a possibility to show off, but this Naruto hardly seemed to care. Something wasn't right.

"Okay, when and where?"

"Training area three, at noon."

"Okay, I'll be there."

Kakashi hesitated, something he wouldn't do normally. "What in the name of Kami is going on?"

"Are you okay Naruto? You seem a bit down."

"Just tired, I didn't get much sleep last night."

"Oh, okay." Kakashi decided that he'd save his prying for later. "I'll be off then, see you later."

"Yeah, ja ne."

Kakashi left, his new book already taken out. It was definitely one of the best that Jiraiya had written.

After a while he passed by training area 33, and saw Tenten demolishing various targets and dummies. Remembering that she supposedly had been on a date with Naruto the day before, he figured that there might be a connection between the two. Seeing the wrath in her movements, he gathered that something had gone wrong and decided that for once, he wouldn't just ignore it. Naruto was his responsibility again.

"Yo, Tenten." He called. "You're up early."

"Kakashi-san. Good morning." She also had the telltale signs of sleep deprivation. "I had trouble sleeping and figured I might as well do something productive."

"Hmm, just like someone else I met this morning then. Tell me, how did your date with Naruto go yesterday?"

Tenten stiffened, anger evident in her posture and face. "I don't see how that's any of your business!"

"It becomes my business when one of my new teammates acts like the world has ended. I have less than a week to get him ready for active service and he doesn't have time for heartaches. So tell me what happened. I haven't seen him this bad since Sasuke defected."

Tenten looked a bit surprised, but went ahead anyway. "What happened was that I tried to get close to him, and he lied to me just to get rid of me. He couldn't just tell me what he felt."

Kakashi frowned. "Naruto isn't like that, that idiot would be truthful to Orochimaru. What did he say?"

"He claimed that he was a jinchuuriki! And then he pulled this weird genjutsu to make it seem real!"

Kakashi covered his visible eye and let out an audible sigh. "Just to be clear, he went flat out and told you he is a jinchuuriki? Did he say what bijuu?"

"He said he had the nine-tails, the bastard. That thing killed my mother!"

"Oh, so he really did tell you then. What did you do at that point?"

Tenten, having worked up her anger again, ignored most of what Kakashi had just said. "I walked away. Of course I had to get dressed, but he didn't even follow."

Kakashi gave her a firm look. Then, holding a tight rein on his feelings he said. "Would it change anything if I told you he was telling you the truth?"

"Oh, come on, if he had that thing we'd have known." A memory of something that Naruto had said kept nagging her, but she ignored it.

"So he didn't mention the Sandaime's law? I thought he would."

"Wait, maybe he did say something." She tried to think back, and then, connecting various dots, her gaze shot up to Kakashi's face. "Oh no."

"I see you've finally figured it out." Kakashi didn't bother to hide his irritation anymore. "That silly girl! She'd better pray that Tsunade doesn't hear about this."

"What do I do? H-he just – I mean, how was – damn it!" She was babbling now, her mind jumping from conclusion to conclusion.

"Well, I expect that a bit groveling might be in order, and as soon as possible. I don't want him to do anything stupid."

"Y-yes Kakashi-san. I'll go right now!" With that, Tenten took off, moving at top speed.

It didn't take more than a few minutes, going directly over rooftops and yards, upsetting a few dogs and startling a few early risers. Soon she was standing outside the door of Naruto's home.

Naruto got up from the couch, his robe hanging open over a pair of boxers and a T-shirt. He'd spent the night trying to keep himself occupied, cleaning a few of the unused rooms, modifying some of the clothes he'd recently bought and generally trying not to think of Tenten. He couldn't blame her really. He'd decided that if and when he had to tell someone about his unwanted resident, he'd accept their reaction. That didn't mean it didn't hurt.

And now he somehow had to pull himself together for the test that Kakashi had set up. Normally he'd be really excited about testing himself against one of the most powerful ninja in Konoha, but this early morning seemed cold rather than promising, the harsh light of the rising sun drenching the world in a colorless tone of grey.

He had a few hours left until noon, and was just trying to decide how to use the time when he felt something. It wasn't really a sound or scent, and it seemed to be out to the front of the house. Frowning, he walked over to the front door. Something was out there, he just had to figure out what it was.

Stepping out, a kunai casually palmed and hidden in his sleeve, he glanced around. There! A movement among the trees. Then the presence had moved, heading around his house. It was subtle, yet easily detectable for someone of his level of training. He thought for a moment, and then followed the unknown person.

They played a strange game of sorts in the compound, and although it only lasted a few minutes, his tension made it seem they had played the evading game for hours. Then the presence moved to the back of his house. He landed behind a tree, the bathing area on the other side. Then he heard a splash, and reacted instinctively.

Before he quite understood what had happened, he was standing at the edge of the onsen again. The shape was standing in the water, facing away from him. He barely had time to halt his hand, which was moving his kunai upwards to drive through the soft area underneath the chin and all the way into the brain. The other hand had a firm grip around the jaw.

The shape was female, long hair hanging down the back. And she was naked. Although he had her in what could be mistaken for a loving embrace, the breasts that were barely covered by slender arms told him all he needed to determine the gender. Then he heard a voice, and turned stiff as a rock.

"Naruto?" He knew that voice, but he had never heard it that quiet, or unsure. He tried to start breathing again, and released his grip. Before he had had a chance to move away, she had turned around and buried her face in his chest.

"Tenten?" He mumbled in reply. He felt confused, and then realized that he had felt something on his hand when he gripped her face. Something wet. "Tenten, are you crying?"

He felt her shudder slightly, and then she broke down, sobbing into his T-shirt. "I'm sorry." She said, and then repeated it, again and again, while standing there slowly soaking his clothes. He was unsure of what to do, but decided that he could get angry later. Instead he hugged her lightly, stroking her hair and whispering calming words.

After what felt like an eternity, he felt her calming down.

"Are you okay now?" He asked cautiously.

"Yeah, sorry Naruto." She took a deep, shaky breath. Then she looked up at him. "I'm sorry about walking out on you before, I misunderstood. Please forgive me."

"Yeah, sure. I supposed I could have tried telling you before. Sorry." He looked at her. She was a mess, a deep red around her eyes from the crying, pale from a night without sleep and her makeup on the run. "Will you forgive me? And why did you leave like that?"

She opened her mouth, as to reply, and then kissed him. "I thought you didn't want me. " She kissed him again. "Why haven't you told us?" A hint of anger had started to sneak into her voice. "I was so angry at you!" She kissed him ferociously, and then wrapped herself around him, tripping him up and making sure to end up on top when they landed. "I might forgive you, but you'll have to make up for last night!" Then she was holding his kunai in her right hand, while her left held his throat to keep him from moving.

At first he felt confused, but when she started cutting up his clothes he understood what she meant.

"Well, this will be the best excuse I've ever given!" He thought as he felt her start on his boxers.

Training area three, noon

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. "Where is he, Kakashi-sensei? We're supposed to start now!" Sakura looked seriously pissed. She was wearing her usual active-duty outfit, and was busy tapping her foot and pulling at one of her gloves.

Kakashi looked at Sakura, before returning to his book. "I'm sure he has a good reason for not being in time."

"Huh? What do you mean by that? And why are you on time by the way?"

"Well, there is a reason for that."

"What reason is- Naruto!" The last word was shouted out, as the young blonde landed just in front of Sakura, a grin etched into his face to rival anything that Lee or Gai could deliver.

"Yo! Sorry I'm lat-OUCH!" As Naruto started rubbing his head where Sakura had hit him, Kakashi sighed. "Feeling better Naruto?"

"Yeah, thanks for talking to Tenten for me."

"What did you do?" Sakura had a look like someone had better have a damn good answer or someone would get hurt. Naruto just smiled.

"It's okay now, we've talked about it and she says she's fine with it." At that, the smile became a grin.

"So I take it she didn't try to kill you for telling her then. You ready for the test?" Kakashi asked, wondering just how they had made up.

"Yeah!"

"Oh, I guess I can interrogate Naruto afterwards. I'm ready too"

"Excellent, then, you'll have until tomorrow morning to get these from me." At that, Kakashi held up two bells. "Don't hold back, Naruto has another date this evening, so he has to hurry up, ne?" With that, Kakashi pulled up his Hitai-ite, revealing his sharingan.

"GO!"

And they were off.

A few hours later

"Damn it! We don't have time for this! I want those bloody bells now!" Naruto was fed up, and hungry. Kakashi had taken all they could throw at him, and gotten of scot free every time.

"Well, then we'd better think of a way to get to him. That sharingan is a pain in the ass." Sakura's mood wasn't much better.

"Yeah, he can see through genjutsu, read our movements, we can't hide anything from him. Where's Shikamaru when you need him?"

"Okay, calm down. What is Kakashi's weak point?"

"If I knew that, I wouldn't be here, risking to get killed by Ino for being late. God damn-"

Naruto suddenly shut up, which was almost unnatural enough to make Sakura start to worry for him.

"Naruto? You okay."

"Yeah, I think I've got it." He bent over and whispered something to Sakura, just in case.

"Oh, that's it, that'll force him to leave the bells unprotected."

They set off to put the plan in motion.

......

"Well, that was embarrassing." Kakashi stated calmly. His two new teammates just grinned at him, each holding a bell.

"Kakashi-sensei, that's what you get for being a pervert. Now I have to get going, or I won't be in time for my date! See ya later!"

With that, Naruto was off, leaving a slightly annoyed Sakura and an exasperated Kakashi behind him. He had a date to prepare for, and hopefully Akane would be nearby to help. He really wanted to look his best for the evening that was coming.

After all, Tenten had said something about Ino teaching him some more.

A/N: Oh damn, I think I've veered into the twilight zone! Na, this will have to do for now. I'm currently trying to decide how to juggle the whole dating thing, this is getting longer and longer, as are the length of the chapters.

If the whole emotional part seemed weird, well, go ask someone in a relationship about make-up sex.

Other than that, drop off a few comments on how this chap is, I'm just not certain that it works. Hearing some voices going "it sucks!" or "it rocks!" would help.

And, if anyone think they're up to it, I suppose I could use a beta-reader. If I show this to my gf, I'll probably be sleeping on the couch for a week.

Nuff ranting, cya at the next update (whenever that might be).