Strings Attached

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto or the characters herein as they are copyrighted to Masashi Kishimoto. He created this universe and the wonderful characters therein that I have chosen to write about. I make no money off of this work nor do I profit from any of my other works, as they are clearly fan fictions.

Note: This is actually part I of the story since many people are still shocked that some teenagers actually have sex (even though Naruto-verse is a pseudo Japan place). Part II is when everyone is legal to mess around and stuff.

--

Tenten knew that she might have overreacted to Kankurou’s intrusion and that she might have hit him a little too hard. Still he was in her room uninvited and being a giant creep, scaring her while she was trying to change out of her old clothes then complementing her exposed upper body as if they were in a strip club. The whole mess left her thirteen year old mind to play with several different outcomes than what happened.

Last night she dreamed that after Kankurou had caught her hand before she hit him and kissed it. Innocent? Yes, until he started trailing kisses up her arm and toward her virgin neck and finally her slightly parted lips. Meanwhile the puppet master had snaked arms his around her waist, kneading her back with the intensity of his hold. Before she knew it, they were on her bed with him on top of her, bestowing hot kisses to her pale skin as they both tried to find their way out of the their clothing...

‘... dirty thoughts! Dirty!’ Tenten buried her face into her hands, rubbing furiously and taking deep breaths to cool her self off from the smutty thoughts. ‘Anyway, I shouldn’t want to lose it to him of all people...’

“Tenten!” A pink haired kunoichi named Haruno Sakura called. She was holding a few flowers which Tenten didn’t have to guess who they were for. “How are you doing today?”

“Fine, thank you Sakura.” Tenten answered. She noticed the flowers and knew who they were for— Rock Lee. Sakura would bring him white daffodils sometimes as a sign of caring and friendship even after he managed to survive that horrifying injury and the life or death surgery. It made Tenten a little sad to know that Lee was on the backburner with Sakura, but it also made her happy to know that he was even on the stove simmering at all.

“You seem troubled.”

“Me? Yeah I guess.” She burrowed her favorite kunai into an adjacent tree.

“So what’s wrong?” Sakura gave her a meek but sincere smile as she sat down next to Tenten on the bench.

“That sand guy is what’s wrong.”

“Gaara?”

“No, the loud rude one with the stupid kabuki paint on his face.”

“What’s Kankurou doing?” Sakura asked, ready to use the puppet master and his puppets for target practice. It was true that she and Tenten rarely spoke, but she felt kindred to the spirit in this girl.

Tenten was amused by the sudden change in Sakura’s demeanor and the cracking of the younger girl’s knuckles. “Well it’s complicated. We were sparring and I ran off, he followed and the moron got an eyeful.”

“Oh.”

“And I decked him but...” Tenten looked away.

‘She’s blushing? Could it be that she has a crush on Kankurou?’ Sakura smiled even if she didn’t think Tenten’s feelings were best directed at puppeteer, infatuation or not. “But, you’re having second thoughts about what happened?”

“Yeah that’s it.” Tenten nodded. ‘Friend or not, there is NO way that I am telling her that I had perverted dreams about him.’

“Just talk to him and see where it leads,” Sakura said. She looked at her watch worriedly. “I hope that helps. I have to go see Lee-san now.”

“Thanks Sakura.”

“You’re welcome!”

“Hey, I know where Lee is going to be training and that’s where I was going today, so let’s walk together.”

“That sounds good to me.” Sakura said as she and her fellow kunoichi walked side by side.

--

Kankurou gave up on trying to find Tenten, so he sat out in the forest free of his dark airy clothes, puppets and face paint, looking like a normal everyday citizen of the Fire country. It was just too much of a hassle for just an apology, so he dropped it. He figured that with his luck Tenten would run into him, causing trouble and leaving him no option but pounding her into the ground.

He twitched at that last thought. It didn’t sound right at all— not even to someone like him whose mind was about as clean as a sewer. The whole idea left him imagining a flushed and aroused Tenten at his mercy and all but a few steps away from calling his name.

‘Not a bad thing though.’ Kankurou laughed as he sat against a nice big tree with a cup of steaming hot ramen. He grinned happily at the meal and brought down a pair of chop sticks to snag some noodles. “Time for some grub!”

Just before he could dig in, several shuriken blades whizzed by his head and implanted themselves in the bark of the tree behind him, startling him and making him nearly drop hot ramen all over himself. He looked up to see Tenten standing no more than fifteen feet away and Sakura ducking out somewhere. “What the fuck? Are you insane woman? I’m trying to eat and not burn myself!”

“So eat dummy,” Tenten said. She hadn’t planned on finding Kankurou so early when she had wanted to find her team, but since she was here with him now she figured she might as make with the apology already. “I’ve got time.”

“Apparently too much time.” Another kunai landed with a loud clink, right between Kankurou’s legs and less than half an inch away from his crotch. ‘Damn she has dangerous kinks.’ He stared at the sharp projectile which now had the delicate hand of the girl kneeling in front of him pulling it up from the ground. “Hey I need that I hope you know.” He said icily.

The kunai trailed from his groin up to his chest and finally to the tip of his nose. She met his eyes, watching his reaction to her bold actions. “Thank you.”

‘So very dangerous...’ Kankurou quivered as she kneeled closer to him. “For what?”

“For the crude complement you gave me.” Tenten looked away, pretending to notice some late summer flowers until the red tint on her cheeks faded. “Even if I still think you’re a pervert, I was very flattered and I’m sorry for hitting you.”

“I’m not a pervert.” He said gruffly. The puppet master felt a little feverish with the girl deciding to sit down so close to him. He didn’t really mind since this was the closest he would get to a girl in this sense. Past encounters either involved him fighting as a ninja with a female adversary or yelling at his female servants and subordinates. Sometimes he was at the mercy of his sister Temari— outside of training mostly.

“It’s not a bad thing to be a pervert, so don’t act like you aren’t one.” Tenten said looking up at Kankurou with a teasing grin. “Especially when you’re left to your own devices with no obligations... it really gets boring.”

Kankurou shook his head. She had the nerve to call him a pervert and there she was admitting to him that she was one herself. He wondered what exactly she did in the moments she described, but he kept quiet— only returning coy smile for his silence.

Tenten looked up at him. “Hey Kankurou, why were you in my room anyway?”

“Hm. Wasn’t it obvious? I was just checking on you.”

“Why?”

“You just ran off so suddenly. I thought you may have been poisoned by my puppet,” Kankurou said. Tenten smiled, glad to know that he actually cared. He continued, “The last thing I need is to have my psychotic brother breathing down my neck just ‘cause some Konoha girl got wasted by Karasu.”

“Jerk.” Tenten grumbled.

“Huh? What’s your problem?”

“You really like to kill the mood don’t you?”

“Eh?” Kankurou was still lost. ‘Kill the mood? Oh right...’ He smiled. ‘But it’s the whole truth isn’t it? I don’t want to die young at the hands of an emotionally stunted brat— die a virgin at that!’ About a million different ways of dying by Gaara’s direction went through his head. It just didn’t fair in each scenario.

“Nothing.” She resisted the urge to grab his hand and forced it over to make the ramen spill in his lap. Rising to leave, she dusted off her pants and collected the weapons she used earlier. “I have to go train.”

“Right. I have to check in with my brother after I eat this,” Kankurou said dryly as he continued eating, unaffected by her pulling the shuriken loose from the tree where they landed so close to his head.

“Yeah.”

“Hey uh Tenten, you wouldn’t want to hang out with me tomorrow would you?”

Tenten stood mortified that he would talk with his mouth full, but her disgust was short-lived as she realized that he was asking her out. “Me?”

“Who else would I be talking to here lady?” Kankurou said sarcastically. Tenten blinked. “Come on, I only have what, three days left here before I get carted off back to that god forsaken desert I call a home.”

“Yeah but where are we going to go?”

“Well Konoha’s sort of a tame little place, so it wouldn’t be anything special if we left this spot. Why not meet here again after I’m done tutoring the brats of Konoha’s academy?” Kankurou stood and crushed the empty ramen cup in his hand. “Sounds good?”

“Okay.”

“Good it’s a date in my book.” Kankurou yawned unashamedly and stretched then started on his way back to his temporary quarters. “That’s four-thirty.”

‘A date? It really is a date?’

“Hello! Earth to Tenten!”

“Well then I’ll—” Tenten stopped herself. Kankurou looked back her expectedly. “I’ll definitely be there.”

“Whatever.” He said and then he was gone.

Sakura crept out of the bushes and toward Tenten with a fiendish grin. “Now that was too interesting.”

“What do you mean?” Tenten took an annoyed tone.

“Eh? Ah nothing! Nothing really!” Sakura waved her hand nervously in front of herself. She should have known better to get involved in any way— nothing good ever came out of being meddlesome. “I hope these flowers don’t wilt before I give them to Lee! Bye Tenten!”

“Wait!” Tenten yelled as she chased after her friend.

--

Kankurou had come home to his siblings’ ominous stares, one of which he could clearly read. Temari was acting creepier than Gaara— that was a really bad sign. “Okay, what is it? You’ve been wearing that fucking creepy smirk for the time I came home.”

“Kankurou, you’re growing up so fast. Give your big sister a hug.” Temari wiggled her index finger at him, gesturing for her little brother to come over to her.

The puppet master was visibly shaken by his sister’s words. ‘She was spying on me? But how and why?’ Then his eyes darted over to Gaara who averted his own eyes. “You!”

Those cold mint green eyes quickly found Kankurou’s again with a familiar frown. “We made a trade.”

“And what could she give you to make use that sand eye of yours on me?”

Gaara was about to answer, but Temari answered for him. “That doesn’t matter Kankurou. What really matters is that I’m right. You are in love with that girl.”

“I’m not in love. I was just making things up to her that’s all.” Kankurou said. And while he denied Temari’s claims, he still wondered what would motivate his little brother into spying on him for her.... “Temari, you didn’t! After all the fuss you made, you had the nerve to—!”

“Idiot. I didn’t have a choice. Nothing else would sway him.” Temari said as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Nothing serious happened and he was unimpressed as usual.”

“She didn’t hold up her end of the bargain.” Gaara stated. If he was feeling disappointment or anger, no one could trace in his voice or features.

Kankurou sighed as he looked back and forth from his brother to his sister. Everything was just so very wrong now. “Why? Just why?”