A/N: Another chapter. Yay!

Dawn is not a romantic time and, as such, Shikamaru is not used to being up at this hour. His active hours are usually from sundown until midnight. He yawns, stretching his arms out to keep awake.

He leans against a boulder, pulling an arrow from his quiver, which he spins between his fingers as he waits. He wonders if his teacher is going to show up. If the hunter doesn't show up, he has plenty of time to go back to sleep.

The arrow spins between his thumb and middle finger and over his ring finger. The repetitive movement is soothing as he spots a figure coming towards him.

"About time," he mutters.

As the mortal gets closer, the arrow slips from his grasp. He doesn't bother looking down, stooping down to pick it up. He spots her checking out her surroundings winces when he accidentally sticks himself with the sharp end of the arrowhead. Suits him, he thinks, for being up so damned early that he can't even function properly.

Noted.

He forgets about it once she's closer, absentmindedly stuffing it back with his collection of arrows.

Tenten blinks and the figure she thought she saw in the clearing a moment ago is gone. The morning sun still isn't appearing as she inhales, looking around. She doesn't feel any threat, but pulls the bow off her shoulder anyway, tightening her fingers around the familiar center grip to regain a sense of normalcy so early in the day.

Her other hand fetches an arrow, feeling the feather end as her eyes dart around, determined not to get let any threat get the drop on her.

She walks hesitantly, each step careful as she advances.

"You must be Tenten," a voice says.

Unlike her earlier trip to the oracle, she doesn't jump back a mile, even though it doesn't sound any bit like the goddess in her dream. She stoops down instead and estimates the distance between and the being is in front of her. Twenty paces, perhaps.

"Who are you?" she asks, narrowing her eyes.

Shikamaru appreciates that she at least has her bow pointed at the ground, as she could very easily pull it up and send an arrow right into his eye. Best to proceed with caution. He steps off to the side, kicks a pebble and watches with interest as she stands and pivots to gauge where the direction the threat is located.

"Guess you woke up too soon," he says. "Or Artemis forgot to mention this little detail of you being my tutor."

"Is this what the goddess meant by putting my skills to use?" she wonders aloud.

"Yup, totally skipped that talk," he nods and chuckles sarcastically. "Good old Artemis is starting to show her age."

"And you are?" Tenten asks.

Shikamaru takes a few more steps, taking in the sight of her squared shoulders and tension in her arms. For a second, he weighs if he should tell her his title or real name.

He snaps a twig under his foot, cringing at his mistake as she turns to him, her aim lifting from the ground. He's definitely not a morning person.

Double noted.

"Eros," he says. Title it is.

For all of her alertness, he doesn't expect her to laugh.

"Seriously?" she chortles.

"Why is that funny?" he asks, stepping back, feeling unexpectedly wounded.

Tenten clears her throat, but her lips quirk upward, annoying him. He's not as spiteful as his mother and refrains from smiting her for something so minor as making her smile. It's cute on her, after all.

"It's unexpected," she admits.

At the moment, it feels like she's stepped into some upside down dream world where having a conversation with a winged baby who has an unexpectedly deeper voice is actually happening. Maybe the image of a tall youth was just a trick of the darkness.

Pissing off a god is never a good idea, especially one who could mess with her head so easily if he wanted. Last week, she saw one of girls in the hunting group chasing after the village idiot who was drunk and vomiting while she confessed to him. Her expression becomes thoughtful as she returns to that thoughtful, defensive expression, waiting for him to say more.

"Tenten," she introduces herself. "But you already knew that."

It becomes clear she's not used to interacting with many people. Most of her world is comprised of Ayame and the old shepherdess with the occasional villager.

"Nice to meet you," she says instead.

The grass crunches under his feet and she can't help the image of giant baby steps. This time, she suppresses a grin. Her grip tightens on her bow to help her keep a straight face.

"Will you help me?" he asks.

She feels a strange warmth in her face upon hearing him ask so nicely.

She nods.

"Of course."

Aphrodite combs her hair, gathering it over her shoulder to decide how to wear it. It's been unusually hot thanks to Apollo hanging out far too long. This summer is starting to feel endless. Not that she can really complain. People are still hanging out at her temple, asking for help. Autumn is also romantic with the cooler temperatures and skies darkening earlier, so she wins either way.

She wonders why Zeus hasn't interfered, but it's likely the old pervert gets off watching youths bathing outdoors.

It reminds her of Narcissus. It served that little idiot right for rejecting one of her favorite nymphs. Echo's body dissolved, but at least she didn't go out by drowning like an idiot. She grins. Eros did a good job there.

"That's my boy," she mumbles to herself, thinking back to one of her greatest hits.

Aphrodite decides on a braid so she can wind it away from her neck. It's early and she's already dreading the heat.

She pours herself some wine before starting on her task. It's a soothing rhythm to start the day. There are young people who need to fall for each other, some non-believers who need to be taught a lesson, a few marriage vows that need to be broken and some warriors in need of romantic inspiration.

More importantly, there are kingdom boundaries she needs to redraw. Poseidon and Athena have been muscling in on her territory and she needs to regain the temples that belong to her instead of those two.

"Goddess."

A mortal calls.

Good looking. Young. Exactly what she wants.

She's almost done with her braid and carefully pins it down. She applies balm to her lips. Pomegranate red. Her favorite. Unlike the other gods, her weapon is her appearance. And she yields it well. By the time she's done implementing her plan, they'll see that sharp pointy things aren't the only way to wage war.

An admiring glance in the mirror and she declares herself ready. She stretches out her arm, staring down her outstretched thumb and index finger before pointing at her one open eye.

"Bang," she says, pulling the imaginary trigger.

Eros is going to have quite a busy season. She knows he'll be up to the challenge.

Shikamaru is surprised at how calm and focused the kid is after hearing a disembodied voice. Maybe Kurenai was onto something when she chose her after all.

It takes less than ten minutes for Tenten to gage his abilities.

His aim is bad. The darts tend to hit tree bark or get lost in the grass.

"Have you ever practiced throwing techniques?" she asks. Shikamaru scrunches his nose.

"Not really."

Aphrodite kind of made him a natural. At first, at least. It just progressively got worse. Now, he's realizing the extent of it. Crap. Total crap. So much for divine perfection. No wonder Artemis wants him to train.

"Let's see how you do with arrows," Tenten says, gesturing him to follow her as she measures the distances in paces.

"Shoot from here," she says, offering up her quiver of arrows as she digs a line on the ground with her heel.

Shikamaru takes one and she watches one float in front of her. He pulls the string back and lets it fly. Tries two more times.

It's worse.

He veers too far to the left and the right. She looks balefully at the target. Shikamaru's missed it completely and embedded her arrow three trees over. He actually feels ashamed at his lack of skills.

Tenten pouts at seeing such bad marksmanship. He feels her judgement rolling off like a heat wave, scalding his face. Shikamaru grimaces, feeling humbled by his lack of ability before a mortal. Finally. He kind of wonders if this is what Artemis wanted him to feel.

"It's been a while," he states.

"It's like you've never handled a weapon," she mutters.

"What?" he smiles and gets why Kurenai chose her.

She's practically a smaller copy. Equally as much of a smartass, just a lot more patient. Something about her being armed to the teeth is absolutely adorable.

"Nothing," she says brightly, running off to yank her arrows out of bark.

"We'll try this tomorrow," she yells, noting the brightening sky.

Ayame sits up in bed and rubs her eye.

"How are you up so early?" she asks as the last word is dissolved by a yawn.

"Figuring something out," Tenten mutters as she stares down the line of her arm and pointed finger.

"Are you still mad at the oracle?"

Tenten smiles.

"Don't shoot the kid." Ayame warns her.

"I won't," Tenten promises. "But it's a lot of extra work."

"What is?"

"Tutoring."

Ayame grimaces.

Working with an untalented student doesn't sound like fun.

Tenten is a capable teacher, but she wonders what the learning curve is for divine beings. She just hopes whoever it is can keep up with her.

"How bad is it?"

Tenten bites her lip. She doesn't want to badmouth him, but —

"The worst aim I've ever seen."

Ayame doesn't push further. She knows the fate mortals of nosing into divine matters where they're not wanted. Being turned into a monster or inanimate object doesn't sound like fun.

"Come on, we have work to do," she bumps into Tenten's shoulder lightly. "Those sheep aren't going to herd themselves."

Tenten picks up her bow, trying to figure out how to explain aiming. Ayame looks at her strangely when she picks up a twig. Pretending it's an arrow, she pulls back the string.

"Inhale," Ayame reminds her.

She breathes, ignoring the sheep's bleating and pretends to let it fly, followed by a soft exhale.

"That's the first thing you told me to do," Ayame reminds her.

"Oh yeah," she says gently. Posture, breathing, handling the bow correctly — these little things affect the outcome. Artemis didn't teach her these things, merely blessing her with the ability to understand it better than her teacher, a shepherdess who carved her a bow to fit her smaller hands. The woman was the first to notice her skill and went hunting to make an offering the goddess. Eventually, she taught Ayame and a few dozen girls who didn't seem to pick it up at first.

"The basics," Tenten mutters.