Blood In The Water: A Tenten Fan Fiction (#3 In Shifting Series)

You What?!

Reno felt quite a bit of urgency rising up in him as they got dressed the next morning.  He had completely and thoroughly loved on Tenten but he knew if he gave her too much time in her head, she'd be begging off.  He had to get a ring on her as soon as possible.  He was not sure how things worked in this world so he had to go see Kakashi first and get the scoop on how to latch her down immediately.  He could not blame her, it was rather quick and they obviously did not see eye to eye on a lot of things.  Yet in his heart of hearts, he knew she was the one for him.  

It was not that the sex was fantastic.  He had great sex multiple times in his life.  It was not that he was the first partner that she had ever had, although that was erotic as hell to him.  There was a stirring in his very spirit, a connection he could not deny and refused to deny.  He had never experienced that before and he was not about to lose it just because they would have friction from time to time.  He just knew that he wanted to protect and defend her for the rest of his life.  That he wanted her as the mother of his children.  It was for this reason he had insisted that they go see all of his family.

"Do you have family that we should see today too?" Reno asked as he finished tying his boot.  "I'd like to get married as soon as possible but if they want to do something special, we can do it that way too."

Tenten was looking at him with wide eyes.  "Yes, my parents.  They should be at their shop by now."

"Let's see them first," he said softly as he looked to her. 

Her face flushed with color and he chuckled.  He walked over to her and squeezed her arms as he looked at her.  "Tenten, you don't need to be embarrassed.  They won't know what we did here.  That's just between us, okay firecracker?"

"I'm not sure how they will feel about this... us... I'm not even sure how I feel..."

He cupped her face between his hands and gave her a soft kiss.  "Don't worry so much.  I'm going to prove to you this is the right move for us both."

Tenten was not so sure about what he was saying.  Her parents would not be easily won over.  In fact, she suspected her father would probably be very angry since she had not brought him around sooner and that they had known each other for such a short period of time.  The fact that he was so new to the village would not sit right with him, either.  This was going to be a disaster.

She watched as he went to the mirror and was carefully looking over his image.  He was such a handsome man.  He was not dressed up, per say, but she could tell he was dressed a step above what he normally would wear.

If he somehow won her parents over, she would not hold anymore doubts but she was convinced there was no way he could do it.  She had so many strong doubts herself and she suspected that he was rushing today because he knew it.  Why was he so certain?  He couldn't be doing this because she had been a virgin could he?  Some kind of misplaced chivalry?  She narrowed her eyes on him.  That would be just about right thinking he had to now shield her.

"Don't even start thinking like that," Reno said as he ruffled the hair on the top of his head without even looking at her.  His hair was just starting to grow out from the buzz cut.  "That has nothing to do with me wanting to marry you."

Tenten's mouth dropped open.  Could he read minds like Melissa Umino?  How did he know...

Reno chuckled as he looked at her finally.  "Honestly, Tenten, I'm not psychic I just have the way you think all figured out."  He extended his hand to her, "Ready to formally meet the family?"

"No," she responded truthfully.

"Come on, ye of little faith, this will be great."

Tenten was very aware of the eyes watching them as they walked down the street.  Since she had been in the village since she was a child, she was known by many.  She could just imagine what they were all thinking as the other worlder had his arm draped across her shoulders, his fingers interlinked with her right hand.  There was no mistaking their status with one another.