one_long_mission | how did this even happen...

He started, just a little. Yes he'd been aware of her presence, but the question itself wasn't what he was expecting when he registered she was there. There was no guilty jerking of his fingers, which stayed where they were on the other man's cheek. Instead, he just lifted his gaze to her and smiled, a certain degree of undeniable contentment there. "Tenten, this is Obito. Obito-nii, this is Tenten."

Obito turned his attention over to the girl, focusing on her with a sudden fierce, playful interest. Not threatening, but eager, catlike and fascinated. "You're Tenten?" he asked. And oh, she really did seem like everything Itachi had said she was, just by the look of her. "This is wonderful. I'm glad to meet you. Do you want to sit down with us?"

A little taken aback by the other's interest and friendly greeting, she casts Itachi another glance before lightly brushing her free hand over his shoulders and the back of his neck as she slides into the chair beside her lover. Itachi clearly trusted this man, and the addition of nii to his name? As they weren't brothers by blood, unless Sasuke had never mentioned the other, that meant he was a friend.

Her eyes finally leave Itachi's to measure the other carefully, his build and potential weak points should it come to battle. Obviously trained as a shinobi, and if the physical resemblance was anything to judge by? An Uchiha. Her eyes linger over the scars for a moment, though as soon as she realizes that she's staring, she forces her eyes to meet his. If Itachi trusted him, then she would.

"You know more about me than I do about you, Uchiha-san," she offers as greeting, eyes staying on his to see how he'd react. "That doesn't seem all that fair~"

"Obito-nii was my favorite cousin as a child." He finally pulled his hand back so he was actually sitting properly in his chair again. "But he died. So I've been telling him about me and I mentioned you and Sasuke as well."

He watched her looking him over, noting where her gaze lingered briefly. There on the missing eye, he thought. He was blind on one side in a battle. Even if he could feel someone's chakra, he wouldn't be able to sense or see--say, a kunai flying at him. Beautiful. They had not been acquainted for even a minute yet and she was absolutely taking a moment to figure out how to kill him. He was smiling. Nothing but pleased by it.

"Itachi, I can't believe you've never mentioned me to this lovely girl before." He sat back, watching the two of them and smiling.

"We haven't spoken that much about our respective homes," she answers easily, her eyes threatening to drift over to his scars again, wondering what could have ever caused such a wound. And his eye... or lack thereof. A moment, and she glances to Itachi again, cheeks starting to go just the slightest shade of pink. Mentioned her and Sasuke? In what context? "But it's a pleasure to meet you nonetheless, Uchiha-san." She inclines her head, using the gesture to check for any areas on his clothing where he might be hiding weapons almost as reflex. She wasn't afraid of this cousin of Itachi's, it's just -- old habits died hard.

Itachi noticed both of their reactions, her reflexive wariness, and his pleasure at her viewing him as a possible threat, and he was absolutely thrilled at how well they were getting along already. His only worry now was that Sasuke and Obito would not get along at all.

That would be saddening.

He brushed the thought off for now though, noting the chide. From both of them. "We've been sorting through more current affairs, primarily Obito-nii." His lips quirked. "He's the one that taught me how to throw Kunai."

And there were several concealed weapons under his clothes. Even now, with the mokuton at his disposal, it didn't feel right not to have a few little blades here and there. They came in handy. If not for sticking into people, then just for prying things open or peeling skins from fruit.

"Throw them very well," he elaborated. And then he looked intent. "You don't talk about the places you come from? Why not? I'd love to hear about your world." He watched Tenten curiously. "I think each of us here is from somewhere different."

"Really?" Her interest obviously perking at the mention of throwing kunai, the weapons mistress leans back more comfortably in her chair as she keeps her eyes on his. "I'd be interested in seeing your technique in such a case, Uchiha-san. And as for your question..." She trails off, cheeks threatening to flush again, considering that she doesn't want to tell him that most of their conversations quickly dissolve into something more physical. "It's hard to know where to begin with such things, you know?"

Finally letting the bag of groceries slip to the ground now that she's confident she won't need to throw them in his face as a distraction, she rests her chin on her palm and her elbow on the table. "I would like to hear more about you."

Itachi pondered, reaching to pet Tenten's arm a little as he canted his head to the side. "Well... when Obito-nii rescues people he's remembered forever. He prevented my being kidnapped when I was four."

After a moment he looked at her directly, not having seen what she intended to dress in previously so it was mainly check for how much the cloth covered of her arms. "Though I haven't asked if that holds true in his as well. I know not all the Itachi I've met hold my same childhood."

"It's true in mine." He nodded. It was interesting to watch them. All those little touches, the casual intimacy. He liked it. He always liked to see lovers together, and seeing Itachi with a lover was particularly entertaining. "I think all the early events match, probably. Up to the end. And, hey, ask me anything." He turned to look at Tenten. "What do you want to know?"

Her fingers curl lightly against the table at the pet as more of the earlier tension bleeds from her form. His fingers brush skin left bare from her three-quarter sleeves of her tunic, another high-collared Chinese-style shirt clasped over the chest. "Did he?" Her respect for this Obito goes up another notch, and she gives him another glance, softened by a smile. "I guess I have to say I'm grateful for that, huh?"

Her fingertips touch her lips as she thinks, then shrugs. "I guess I'd just like to know about you and Itachi. Anything you'd like to talk about." Her lips quirk up. "I didn't mean to interrupt earlier, really."

"Well, I was talking about you, so I suspect he wanted to meet you already." It was a murmur, and he looked to Obito for confirmation. "After all, I did describe you with what I hope was high accuracy."

He quirked his lips and shook his head, fingers drifting to her wrist to pet there instead. "So that wasn't interrupting so much as shifting the topic back. If you're going to thank everyone who stopped me from getting kidnapped you'll need to thank my sensei as well."

He gave Obito a wry smile before clearing his throat. "My team got insanely protective after the attempt when I was eight. We all rather were separate entities up until not long before that, so I think we were still sorting out our system and the rotating third genin didn't tend to help."

"It was very accurate, though it didn't do you complete justice, Tenten-san. I would have looked forward to meeting you even more if it had."

His expression twitched toward a frown just slightly, hearing about the second kidnapping attempt. Though he relaxed again hearing that at least it wasn't successful. "Always work together. Have each other's backs," he tsked, a flash there of the older cousin speaking to the child-Itachi, not the grown Itachi before him. The shrugged, and smiled.

"He was such a sweet boy," he said, turning his attention to Tenten. "Gentle. Smart, too. Good at every game we played."

If she didn't know better, she'd think the older Uchiha was flirting with her. After all, it's not all that often she got compliments like that, even from Itachi and Sasuke. They tended to speak those kinds of things with actions more than words, but she had to admit, he was kind of charming. "I'm sure Itachi's exaggerated some, but thanks," she says after a moment, another pleased grin crossing her face.

Her own expression mirrors Obito's for a moment as she hears about his kidnapping attempts, but rather than show the same kind of unhappiness, she smirks and pulls her hand free from his to elbow his arm. "Good job getting yourself almost kidnapped twice there, Uchiha Itachi," she teases, then returns her attention to Obito with a nod. "Yeah... that hasn't changed about him, I can assure you of that."

He flushed under both their reactions, just a hint of color across the cheeks. "We learned the teamwork lesson rather harshly a bare two months before that Obito-nii, that's -why- we had a revolving teammate." It was a murmur that wasn't a true attempt to return to the former topic.

"I was small for my age as a child, it's not my fault if that made me particularly grabable. That -did- stop happening." He paused to make sure. "Yes, only the twice. After that it was me keeping Naruto from being Kidnapped, then straight to clan politics and hokage." He nodded once crisply. "If someone kidnapped me -now-..."

He trailed off, looking around where they were. "...I'm suddenly not certain if the recent months away from home count as a kidnapping."

Oh, and he was flirting, a bit. How could he resist? But he followed Itachi's gaze after the comment about kidnapping. Looking around at where they were, this strange world full of people from all sorts of times and places.

"I'd count it as kidnapping," he mused. "We've all been kidnapped on a cosmic scale, by who knows what, taken to who knows where. But I guess it's not so bad, as far as that kind of thing goes. At least the food is good. And I found an adorable little shop that sold hats, the other day. Which makes this place about ten-bazillion times more interesting than the last place I was kidnapped to."

Almost as apology for the elbow, she brings her hand up to just gently brush through his hair at the murmur before returning her hand to the table.

"Kidnapping... that's a word for it, I guess. It just doesn't make much sense that so many different people would be kidnapped and taken to a place like this. I keep expecting some kind of battle, but there never is one." She briefly closes her eyes and sighs, then opens them to stare at the older Uchiha with more than a little amusement. "So you like hats, Uchiha-san? Where else have you been, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Hats, goggles, anything else one can put on ones head without getting yelled at about it." He flashed Obito a little smile as he said this, though was curious as well and thus asked no questions himself, his fingers coming to rest on top of Tenten's.

He snorted, amused. "Actually, I'm more of a masks guy, these days. For obvious reasons. But I haven't found a shop for those, yet." He paused, looking from their faces to their hands resting together and back again. "I haven't really been anywhere interesting. Just a cave, for a long time. And after that I kicked around the different countries. Doing, you know, this and that." It had mostly been mercenary work. What else were shinobi really good for, out away from their villages? "I visited the eastern continent," he said. "Beyond Iwa. But it's very... empty. In my world, at least."

"Mm." She nods once, eyes moving to his scars again before catching herself and looking back. "Well, I mean you could just get some cloth and fold it for a mask if you really wanted. That'd be kind of a shame though, I think. But... how did you end up in a cave?"

She turns her hand to let her fingers curl around Itachi's for a moment, stroking his skin before she just lets it turn back to the table.

He flexed his fingers to skim his nails very lightly over the back of her hand as he hummed. "There was a mask vendor at the festival that just ended. They might have a shop somewhere in town if you'd truly like one. I don't think you need one though."

"Ah, I'll make some out of wood, by and by." He shrugged. "They're useful sometimes, you know? People don't notice a guy in a mask the way they notice a guy with his face this messed up."

He thought over the question about the cave for a moment. "I was dragged there. Someone... an old man scraped what was left of me up after I'd been hurt and took it home with him. To a kind of..." He made a vague circling gesture with both his hands. "...underground place, where he lived."

Edited 2012-12-01 07:37 (UTC)

Her fingers twitch from the attention, relaxing under Itachi's touch as she watches Obito's face, just listening for now. "If you don't want to talk about something like that, it's fine," she's quick to add, tilting her head to measure his expression. "I don't mind."

He stilled for a moment, then leaned to touch Obito's hand with his other other. "Is... that why...?" He didn't want to fully articulate the question, watching his face intently.

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