Tenten knew she'd called into the Hokage's office to give 'My True Love' time to set up her final day's presents, but she didn't know that was the only reason she'd been called in. A cursory examination of her toe later, she was waved off, with a bit of teasing. "Now, be fair to them, and let them explain before you crush their heart..."

Tenten wondered when her relationship status had become a joke to the Hokage, and for the life of her, she couldn't even remember when she'd become of notice to her. Maybe it was true that Naruto was the Hokage's long lost grandson. That would explain so much about their relationship, especially if Jiraiya was Naruto's grandfather, but then why would he be the blonde's godfather? Maybe she was missing something here...

Instead of letting it bother her, she decided to take the most direct route home, which oddly enough was lined with banners supporting her. Okay, that was just her imagination, but what she saw certainly didn't make her want to hurry home. Naruto was walking along with a girl dressed up in very expensive winter clothing, and, if she was right, it was the princess of the land of Snow, trying to be casual.

"I don't know Koyuki-chan... This guy in red sounds kinda creepy, I mean slipping down chimneys and leaving gifts for little kids... and then there's the whole seeing you when you're sleeping thing..." Naruto stated loud enough for her to hear from down the street.

The princess laughed brightly as they rounded a corner. "Naruto-kun, he's supposed to ensure that the children are behaving, and gives them gifts as rewards once a year. It's perfectly innocent."

For some reason, Tenten felt her heart sinking down into her stomach, and on top of that there was a burning desire to hunt down the princess and use her for target practice. Instead of succumbing to her instincts, and starting an international incident, the weapons mistress continued on her way home. To her surprise, all the likely suspects for her secret Santa were out today. Sakura and Ino were walking down the street looking in the stores, apparently looking for some furniture or something. Kiba was walking with Akamaru, hard to miss them what with Akamaru being the size of a large carriage. Shikamaru and Chouji were walking into the all-you-can-eat Korean-BBQ restaurant which she suddenly felt bad for. Finally was a woman that set Tenten's blood boiling, her biggest competition for Naruto's heart was walking away from her home in a new looking coat. However, the main reason she suddenly felt the need to tear her to shreds was that Hinata was wearing a new necklace, twelve tiny diamonds forming a familiar spiral with its silver settings.

It would seem that Naruto had spent a good amount on the Hyuuga heiress, and that tore her up inside. Getting away from the girl she'd previously thought of more as a little sister than any of the others, which made it a lot easier to want to get away from her instead of trying to kill the girl.

She couldn't understand it, not once, but twice she'd wanted to kill a girl just for having a connection to Naruto that she didn't have. She couldn't figure out why she felt like she was forgetting someone, but couldn't think of who. As she passed the electronics store that Ino and Sakura had walked past, pointing to something inside, she blinked as she saw a news report from the Land of Snow, about Koyuki's press conference.

The corner said it was live, but Koyuki, the princess couldn't possibly be there and here with Naruto, could she? Shaking her head she turned down the road to her apartment, she wrote it off as being a previously recorded news report, and just went on her way.

Opening her door, she figured out why she felt that she was missing someone. She was. There was Shino, standing at her stove cooking something that smelled suspiciously like sesame dumplings. The dummy was standing next to him, as though watching him cook.

The bug user turned around with a steaming pot of dumplings and soup, watching her stare at him. After a moment he spoke, breaking the silence between the two. "You seem disappointed..."

Tenten blinked before looking away with a slight blush. Was she disappointed? After all, Shino wasn't that bad of a guy, and he'd been so nice to her, hadn't he?

"I'm sorry Shino... it's just..." Tenten started before Shino cut her off while setting down the pot.

"I'm not who you love," Shino stated calmly, as though he'd known all along. "The gifts weren't to buy your love, I knew that you couldn't be bought like that. I just wanted to give you Christmas in a big way..."

"Thank you Shino-san..." Tenten said quietly, when something rang hollow in her ears. There were no bugs here, every Aburame buzzed softly thanks to their hive. Slipping a special set of kunai out of her sleeve, she smiled and walked over. Half a moment later, 'Shino' was pinned to the wall by a net with kunai at each corner. "Now, tell me who you really are."

'Shino' let out a sigh before hanging his head. "I knew I couldn't pull bug-boy off right, but he's the only one I could convince to let me pull this prank..." Shino answered in a rather familiar voice. "I am 'My True Love' Tenten-chan... I wanted to find out if you really did like me..."

"I see... I suppose I saw you outside... didn't I?"

"Yes, you did," 'Shino' answered, before being surrounded by a plume of smoke. In place of the bug user, Naruto stood on the floor, free of the netting. "Sorry I tricked you Tenten-chan..."

The weapon-mistress stalked over to the blonde prankster, murder in her eyes. After getting there, she smacked him upside the back of his head. As he cried out in pain, she leaned in and captured his lips with her own. "Just had to make sure..."

"This is going to be a painful relationship, isn't it?"

Tenten smiled and looked over at the dozen dumplings sitting there waiting for her, letting Naruto sweat a moment. Walking away, she twirled a kunai on one of her fingers while humming a wordless tune. "After lunch, we're going to... talk about your other girlfriends..."

The tone of her voice caused Naruto to shudder in terror, this was going to be a weird relationship.