Disclaimer – I do not own Naruto (in any form), I do not own any of the jutsus used (I don't have a sharingan :P) but I do own the two OCs :P

Note – All credit for this chapter goes to my girlfriend, she's the reason I live after all ^^

Tiger and Wolf stood in front of the Hokage as straight and as motionlessly as they could. As ANBU they were expected to be the best and the best did not slouch when they gave mission reports because, as they best, they aced their missions with no problems at all so there was no shame and thus no reason to slouch. Except that standing at attention for twenty minutes was enough to hurt anyone's back and it didn't look like they were going to be able to report any time soon seeing as the Hokage was in one of her sake-induced comas. Even though they had their ANBU masks on, Tiger and Wolf gave each other a significant glance. Slowly, Wolf began to creep closer to the slumbering Hokage.

He turned back to Tiger, suddenly unsure about the course of action she had silently suggested he take. She tilted her head to the side and Wolf swore that he saw her role her eyes at him. Tiger made a continuing motion with her hand, obviously a bit impatient to get this over with so that they could continue with the ritual they had started when they'd first become partners. Also anxious to get to the more relaxing parts of the winding down ritual, Wolf plucked up the courage to poke the Hokage on the arm a bit sharply.

The effect was instant.

The Hokage's right fist came flying up and slammed into Wolf's chest, sending the ANBU member sailing through the air and into the wall. Tsunade sat up in her chair but didn't bother to open her eyes as she growled angrily,

"God damn it Jiraiya!" she growled out in frustration, "I will not go out with you! How many time do I…?"

She paused when she realised that she was now awake. Blinking a few times, a look of sadness crossed her face before she was able to school her features like any good ninja was able to do. However, Tiger was unable to school her own reaction quite as fast and it was clear to see that she'd stiffened at the name Jiraiya. Tsunade sighed a little bit and turned to the wall where Wolf was pulling himself to his feet again, trying to dust himself off without wincing,

"What have I told you about waking me up Wolf?" she asked, exasperated, "You're supposed to just try and call my title or even my name if that doesn't work."

As Wolf went to stand at attention beside Tiger again he frowned behind his mask. There was a small silence before he answered,

"We did, Lady Hokage." He told her in a respectful tone before frowning behind the mask again, a bit more than last time, "Very loudly I might add. You did not even appear to be aware of it and carried on sleeping."

Tsunade nodded with a rather pleased smile on her face, reaching for another bottle of sake as she did so,

"Exactly why that's the way you should attempt to wake me up!" she told him, causing both Tiger and Wolf to sweat-drop. She looked at the two reports on her desk and sighed, "Great… more paperwork. I'm guessing that this is the report on that bandit mission I sent you two on?"

Tiger decided to answer instead of Wolf this time, seeing as he was trying to massage his ribs discretely and failing at doing so massively,

"Yes Lady Hokage." She answered respectfully with a small bow, "We wrote up the reports on the journey back, keeping to just the bare details and essentials as you requested Lady Hokage."

Tsunade nodded in response to Tiger's affirmative. She looked at the reports for a few seconds before sighing in annoyance and throwing them onto one of the two massive piles of paperwork,

"I can't be bothered to read them." She declared, once again getting the two ANBU operatives to sweat-drop. Tsunade waved at them, "Give me a verbal report and then we can all go do something much more fun alright?"

Tiger and Wolf glance at each other for a split second before Wolf nodded and took a small step forwards. Tsunade turned to him, waiting for the report so that she wouldn't be forced to read the written report,

"Upon entering Wave Country we ran recon in order to find out where the bandit leader had made his camp." He began in the formal and clipped tone of a ninja hiding all emotion to make the report more accurate, "The only person who may have been a threat to the mission was the leader's ninja bodyguard so I took him out first and took his place to ensure that we had a man inside the enemy ranks, close to the leader at almost all times."

Tiger took a step forward and picked up the report,

"From there it was a straight forwards assault by me with my various puppets." She reported, "Having used my most potent poisons it was safe to assume that the leader and all of his bandits were dead. However we checked as part of protocol and both agreed that all of them were dead. We set fire to the fort in order to remove the bodies. Wolf had already disposed on the single ninja's body."

Upon hearing the report, Tsunade nodded and reached into one of the desk's many drawers. Rummaging around for a few moments, the Hokage removed two envelopes and handed them to Tiger and Wolf,

"Excellent work. Here is your payment for the A rank mission." She told them simply, "You have the next two days off but be sure to check in immediately after the two days are up as I have a special assignment for you."

Although the 'special assignment' intrigued both of them, Tiger and Wolf were trained not to speak out of place and merely saluted their Hokage. Tsunade waved a hand dismissively at them as she settled down to go back to sleep,

"Dismissed."

"Barkeep!" Tiger yelled in a rather slurred voice, waving a mostly empty sake bottle in the man's direction, "Give me another one!"

The bar tender looked to Wolf, who was sat at the bar beside Tiger, as if asking if it was alright to let her have another. Wolf looked at Tiger for a few seconds before deciding that she wasn't half as drunk as she looked but was emotional enough that the alcohol seemed to affect her more. He gave a shrug and the bar keeper went to get another bottle of sake for her. Wolf sipped at his own sake, still not removing his mask, and noticed that Tiger's masked face was turned in his direction expectantly. He paused,

"What?" he asked eventually, not entirely sure what he'd done to receive what was surely a rather dirty look. Tiger made a huffing sound,

"Why does he turn to you whenever I ask for another bottle?" she asked before shaking her head, "You've not been telling people that we're dating have you?"

Wolf regretted his decision to take another sip of sake through his mask when he immediately spat it out in surprise when she spoke. Tiger giggled slightly drunkenly at the little rainbow that the spit take produced before Wolf shook his head,

"No I haven't been telling people that…" he told her once he was sure that he hadn't gotten his lungs filled with sake, "I'm sure that you'd probably poison me six ways to Sunday for ever saying that and I like my blood non-acidic thank you very much."

Tiger snorted for a second before getting a devilish idea. Knowing that her ANBU uniform was a tighter fit than was regulation, showing off her stunning body, Tiger struck a sexy pose,

"Are you sure you wouldn't be tempted to date me?" she teased him mercilessly, "I sure you'd love… WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AWAY?"

She accompanied this shout with a smack to the back of the head that had Wolf rubbing his head gingerly. It was true though, Wolf had looked away slightly as soon as Tiger had struck such a sexy pose. Not because he didn't want to see but because he didn't want to be seen as a pervert,

"I didn't want to be seen as a pervert." He replied, wincing, "Did you really have to hit me for not being a pervert?"

Tiger turned to look at him again and Wolf could tell, even though they were both still wearing their masks, that the woman was glaring at him. He just wasn't entirely sure why she was glaring at him. She moved closer to him and poked him hard in the chest,

"You listen to me Wolf…" she growled dangerously, "Some of the best people have been perverts, there's absolutely no shame in being a pervert sometimes. Or even most of the time. Hell, Jiraiya-sama was a super pervert and he was the greatest man who ever lived!"

At some point during the speech, Tiger had begun to loom over Wolf, who nodded with a small gulp. He'd seen Tiger this angry only a couple of times. As she sat back down in her seat it was clear that Tiger was upset, on the verge of tears if he had to guess. There were some who would assume that now would be the best time to give her a pat on the back or maybe even a hug. But being who he was, and that their friendship seemed to run on friendly teasing, Wolf waited until Tiger had relaxed a bit before holding up a small Jiraiya plushie,

"Is that why you carry a little Jiraiya doll with you wherever you go?" he played with the little plushie, "I always liked the Jiraiya action figure best personally… bit of a childhood hero I admit."

There was complete silence in the entire bar for a few seconds and Wolf had to check that Tiger was actually looking at him. She was and he merely began to count slowly down from five. At two, Tiger tried to pounce on him and Wolf only barely jumped out of the way in time,

"GIVE ME BACK MY JIRA-KUN!" she demanded and pounced after Wolf again, leaping across the room in her effort to tackle him and wrestle the plushie from his hands, "GIVE ME JIRA-KUN BACK! NOW DAMN IT!"

Wolf laughed a little bit as Tiger's body language got a little bit more playful with each unsuccessful pounce attack. It was a game they'd played a few times now and it was even more fun than Ninja-tag. And after all, Wolf only really succeeded in cheering Tiger up by making her have some fun.

Wolf stood at the edge of the changing rooms for a few seconds before turning to look at Tiger,

"This is a bad idea." He told her, trying to keep his eyes above her neckline as she was wrapped up only in a towel. He was blushing as well because he was only dressed in a towel as well, "How on earth do you think this will make more powerful?"

Tiger tutted a little bit and took the protesting Wolf by the hand before dragging him into the man's side of the hot springs. It had been her bright idea that they should go to the hot springs in an effort to make Wolf stronger and her naïve little partner seemed to have honestly believed that was what they were doing. Although it baffled her why he insisted that they continue to wear their masks despite being naked, except for towels, bellow the neck. She pulled Wolf over to the divider between the men's section and the women's section,

"Well it'll actually make you faster, not more powerful." She told her, happy that her mask was hiding her rather cruel smile, "It's a technique that was used for speed training by the Third Hokage and Jiraiya-sama! It's an amazing technique!"

Feeling as if something was about to go dreadfully wrong at any moment, Wolf nodded slowly,

"Alright…" he relented, unable to see the mental happy dance that Tiger was doing now, "What do I have to do?"

Tiger merely pointed to a hole in the divider between the male side and the female side. Behind his mask, Wolf blushed and shook his head. Behind her mask, Tiger raised an eyebrow,

"You owe me." She told her firmly. Seeing that he was about to protest she held up a finger, "Iwa. Saved you from that exploding note."

Internally, Wolf swore his past self for his foolishness and merely sighed before nodding,

"Alright alright…" he looked at the hole in the wall, "So… what am I supposed to do?"

Tiger pushed him to his knees so that he was at eye level with the hold and pointed to the hole again,

"All you have to do is look and the training can begin!" she told him with a happy bounce in her step, "Awwww you'll be just like Jiraiya-sama!"

Not exactly thrilled with being just like Jiraiya, but not stupid enough to tell Tiger this, Wolf put his face against the wood and looked through to the other side. His blush this time went past his cheeks so even his chest grew pinker,

"T-tiger!" he spluttered, "You're trying to make me peep!"

He blinked a few times when he noticed that he was all alone in the hot springs. Glancing around, Wolf didn't see her anywhere until he noticed that she was stood on top of the hot spring's roof,

"PERVERT!"

Immediately a ton of Killing Intent hit Wolf and he paled significantly. Turning to the wall, he yelped in surprise when it exploded into splinters and a large group of towel-clad women, very angry towel-clad women, charged at him. Wolf unknowingly used one of Jiraiya's most used techniques… Running Like a Bitch no Jutsu. From the top of the hot springs Tiger laughed,

"That's for stealing my Jira-kun!"

There we go boys and girls! :D

A second chapter! You can thank Abi'Briony'Romain (my girlfriend and inspiration for Tiger) for this chapter! :D