Bring the Hammer Down

12

TenTen scowled as she sat in the confines of her tree she'd been assigned. After several months of missions and helping, she'd come no closer to getting Naruto on good terms with the other two and she was beginning to get fed up with them all. Naruto had promised her he'd make an effort just for her, but that tended to backslide as time went on. He just couldn't put up with Sakura's jabs or Kakashi's cold indifference. And as time went on, neither could she.

She'd thought Gai, Neji, and Lee were hard to deal with. She'd thought the sunset genjutsu was the most horrible torture on earth. She'd thought Neji's indifference was the most painful and annoying thing on the planet. But she'd never had to put up with Kakashi's laziness and tardiness, Sakura's bitchiness and...well, bitchiness, or Naruto's over optimistic attitude or bullheadedness...and she was finding herself yearning for her old team. Hell, she'd have withstood a man hug just for some of what she called normalcy.

But it hadn't been all bad. Naruto had provided her with enough good moments to counteract the bad. He'd been the epitome of a good boyfriend, buying things for her, setting up her tent for her, helping her with whatever he could. And that was just on missions. After the first couple times he'd tried to keep her from getting hurt (and having his ass handed to him by an angry and insulted kunoichi after the mission was over) he'd finally learned that TenTen was not a delicate flower that needed to be under constant surveillance. She could handle herself just fine...although his over protectiveness of her was somewhat cute and admirable.

None of this was making her current situation any easier however. This mission was much more difficult than the last few ones and Naruto was once again playing front man and wrecking ball. They had to infiltrate a nest of several missing nins and try to rid the world of them. This particular group was an amalgamation and mishmash of ninja from several villages and had taken to raiding villages and caravans in that particular area of Fire Country. Murderers, rapists, thieves, traitors...the whole lot of them.

And those were the kind of ninjas that received no mercy from Naruto when he was focused.

She shivered as she remembered a particular Leaf ninja that had forsaken their home and decided that he would steal a certain scroll that was treasured by the village. He made a particularly nasty smudge on the ground when Naruto was through with him. That hammer was bad business to any enemy of Kami or Konoha.

Naruto had stated to Tsunade that any mission that Kami gave him would supercede any mission that Konoha had for him. And he'd already carried out a few that TenTen was not privy to. He'd come back each time and simply asked to stay over at her house that night. She didn't mind and was even delighted but those nights were always hard because he'd just hold her tight in bed and nuzzle his head into her hair. She remembered the first time he'd come in like that...and hadn't asked him about a holy mission since then.

Naruto stumbled to TenTen's door and knocked loudly, drawing the kunoichi away from her weapon shining and polishing to answer the door. She didn't know who the idiot was that had interrupted her 'me-time' but they were in for a severe beating. Growling she yanked the door open and gasped at the sight on the other side.

Naruto stood, covered in blood from head to toe, with an empty look in his eyes. The blood was quickly identified as not his, but his eyes...they were what bothered TenTen. They were so cold, so devoid of life. She looked behind him to see a furrow in the road, a sure sign that he'd been dragging his hammer. His voice was cracking as he asked if he could come in. She nodded hesitantly and ushered him inside.

"TenTen, can I use your shower? I need to get this blood off."

TenTen nodded and showed him the way. Not that he needed it, he'd stayed over plenty of times since that fight with Kakashi.