A/N: This is an AU in which Sasuke actually returned to Konoha after defecting from Orochimaru and after the Fourth Shinobi War. I'll say he's about 20 years old here and a Jounin, while Tenten will be the same age (despite the fact that she's actually a year older in canon). Tenten will also be a Jounin level Kunoichi by now, so yeah.

Down By the River By. T.B

Tenten liked being alone...it gave her time to ponder things.

With no disturbances or another human's presence, she was allowed to observe the many nuances within the forest that surrounded her. What often seemed like a mundane jumble of foliage and dirt, seemed to have taken a different and all the more beautiful form under such peaceful scrutinization. Now that she was alone, she could observe all the overlooked aspects from the tiniest fleck of grainy dirt on the earthen floor beneath to the last drop of water flowing in the riverbeds collectively weaving in and out in graceful undulations - so mysterious it was in an intrinsic sort of way, yet soothing nonetheless. Coupled with how nice the sounds of fauna resonating throughout the forest sounded right now, Tenten was in complete nirvana. When was the last time she felt this way?

Cool, calm, at peace. Was this how it felt like? Those stories that Neji once told her when the topic of meditation somehow wiggled its way into their conversation all those years ago. It was not the interconnected feeling of zanshin he had described to her, that feeling of being highly aware of all of your surroundings, yet being able to connect the small fragments of vitality into one large piece, but - what? Something she couldn't quite comprehend enough to verbally describe, but enough to intuitively feel. Maybe he wasn't as useless as she thought he was...well, useless to her anyway.

With what little disturbance she had, being alone left a little room for some introspection even - to think about her day. Her really, really unfortunate day to put into perspective. One of which included an angsty Uchiha and egotistical Hyuga. But, those looming thoughts could be put aside for later. After all, why would she want to ruin her peace over mulling a few insignificant (she tried to convince herself of this) shinobi in her life? She turned her head to scan her surroundings. Just as she had expected, there was absolutely no presence within a mile of her radius. Good thing too, because what she was thinking of doing right about now would shame her in the future to no end had she been caught in the act.

She wanted to take a dip in the river - it was an innocent act in itself, right?

Aside from the niceties of a lack of human presence, Tenten was also allowed to actually unwind and let loose. She could leave her hair down to flow freely with the wind on its own accord and lay around in her bindings. Sure, her unique clothes and wound up hair were quintessential of her, but every once in a while, a girl needed to let her hair down from its tight buns and free herself from restraining clothes with the added bonus of taking a nice soak in the water. It was all a little act of catharsis really, no harm in that.

With that spontaneous thought in mind, the weapon's specialist decided to free herself of her bindings and bask in her glorious, au naturel form because who said it would be a good idea to walk around in wet underwear?

As she gradually sunk her body into the cool waters of the riverbed, letting it engulf entirely, she sighed dreamily to herself. Yup, being alone by yourself with all but the company of sunshine, trees and running water was refreshing to say the least. If only she could do this more often…

But unfortunately, she was a kunoichi and not just a mere kunoichi, but a kunoichi in Konohagakure no Sato - a village ironically enough, not so hidden in the leaves, but renowned throughout the Shinobi world in its entirety. And a place like Konoha never stayed hidden from the spotlight of unwanted marauders, political turmoil and clashing nations - it was a shame really.

No, she was not just a kunoichi from any other shinobi village, she cared to even pay attention to, no less to acknowledge. She was a kunoichi who lived a often fast-paced and strenuous lifestyle bred from one of the most infamous nin villages in all of the shinobi world. So with great empathy, one could understand that Tenten needed some time to relax - especially since a certain white-eyed Hyuuga with luscious locks that could put Ino to shame had found it in himself to go out of his way (which really wasn't, because he could care less of his indifferent actions towards his teammates) and spite Tenten earlier on the day.

Hyuga Neji or "byakugan baka" as she'd often refer to him, decided to take it upon himself to personally go out of his way (not really) today and ruin his brunette teammate's lovely day. Somehow, he thought it would be okay to ditch her during training on the pretense of her being "too weak and undeserving of his effort right now" just because she decided to slack off (only a little!) during training - and for his little boyfriend Uchiha Sasuke no less! Now that just hit a chord in her dignity… So, it was no wonder the girl was pissed off. To add insult to injury, Sasuke-teme (sure as hell was a bastard in her book), smirked at her all the while as she was casted off by her damn teammate like a useless toy from a brat who no longer deemed it interesting enough to play with right in the middle of the training grounds. And he knew for a fact she abhorred the Uchiha (with no plausible reason for such contempt on her part)!

If she hadn't been so exhausted at the time, she would've strangled the both of them and stuck one of her lovely little kunai's in their stupid kekkei genkai infused eyes. Scratch that, she didn't think they deserved to have her precious weapons in their unworthy eyes and taint them with their arrogant, snobbish blood. She would've impaled them with twigs and she sure as hell knew she possessed the capability of doing so!

But noo, she just had to let it go and let it eat her up the whole afternoon - to the point of engulfing her in whole. It reminded her of the time when she was a much younger, more inexperienced kunoichi - a genin even. It was when she was first added into a team roster, one of which was under the tutelage of a certain "Green Beast of Konoha", and when she had first met Neji. He was cold, indifferent and all the more angsty and had insulted her for being weak and simply cannon fodder. Her being her innocent and sweet childish self, brushed it off at the time, though she had been utterly devastated in hearing such insults. Then she went and let such anger simmering beneath her over the top validation seeking interior come to an explosive boil - which lead to a frenzied night of seething tears... And after all those years of never letting that traumatic event ever occur for the rest of her years as kunoichi -

Today was no different.

As she aged, her anger was not that of silent tears of catharsis. No, with age, her anger had transitioned from a more quiet outlet to a highly dangerous one. One that included thinking the worst of the worst to happen to said bane of her existence. Thoughts of torture, death and a whole lot of dark stuff. Who knew the sole kunoichi of Team Guy and sweet innocent weapon's specialist was a secret sadist?

So, with those disturbing thoughts of mutilating the two prodigies in her mind, Tenten sought to alleviate herself of these burdens and what better way to do so than in the tranquility of the forest grounds?

"I hope they've beaten each other to a pulp by now and I hope I stumble upon them lying weakened on the ground to beat them even more," she muttered to herself.

She realized the more she brooded about them, the more the simmering anger she tried so hard to repress within would come to a boil. Thus, she attempted to fully immerse her head into the waters as a means to cool off. As her brunette head reemerged after a good minute, a string of unintelligible slurs could be heard muttering from her mouth, something in the line of "stupid brat with a chicken's ass for a head" and "girlish man with your flowing hair and pigheaded bravado to boot."

Since it had been such a quiet atmosphere in the nearly desolate forest, the unintelligible muttering resonated quite loudly throughout the clearing, prompting a few birds to scatter out of the many trees that surrounded the riverbanks. At the sight, Tenten clamped her hands over her mouth in slight chagrin. Perhaps she was a bit too loud for her own good. The serenity of nature should be left untainted from human disturbance, and she sought to uphold this sanctity.

However, much to her disdain, she was not alone.

"I can hear you," a sudden voice appeared from the foliage with a very low timbre, so low, one can almost identify just who that voice belonged to in a matter of milliseconds.

Tenten's eyes narrowed dangerously at the sound of said voice. She began to turn her fully submerged body slowly towards the offending sound, and to the viewer, it would have looked as if she were merely turning her head around in the flowing waters of the riverbeds.

Upon meeting a pair of enigmatic onyx eyes, the ones she had come to loathe so much for the blatant arrogance they habitually held and regarded almost everyone in all of Konoha with, her suspicions were confirmed and her face immediately turned into a shade of red. Not from embarrassment, no, but from the reemerging anger that now boiled within her upon meeting the bane of her entire day. There in his arrogant, dark and shining glory dressed in a black long-sleeved, turtleneck shirt with the Uchiha clan symbol embroidered on the back and black trousers, Uchiha Sasuke stood, leaning on a tree with his arms crossed and an apathetic look etched across his Adonis-like features.

"Uchiha…" she growled as she continued to glower at his lean, perfectly in-tact frame. Much to her disdain, it would seem that he and the byakuugan baka didn't pummel each other to dust. What a shame.

"Hn," was all he replied as he too began to return the seething glare that the brown-eyed kunoichi sent his way, albeit with a little less fire than the one that burned within her amber orbs. His glare was that of an empty, customary glare that he would often wear due to the simple fact that he was naturally an asshole.

"What are you doing here?"

"Why should I tell you?" he questioned back as he arched an elegant brow, this only caused Tenten to fume by ten-fold. How dare he walk right in the middle of her sanctuary of peace and quiet all while she was naked and not even give her a simple justification! Tch, it's so like him to think he was above others that he didn't need to give any reasoning to his actions. Teme.

"Well, I was trying to enjoy the serenity of the forest, that is, until you decided to show up and bother me."

"I could say the same for you," was his offhanded reply as he decided to stare at his perfectly groomed nails, as if they were the most interesting thing in the world.

"Well, teme. I'm not decent, so I suggest you turn your stupid chicken's ass of head around and walk away," she spoke menacingly still throwing daggers with the glare that emitted from her eyes.

He continued to hold the same apathetic expression, unperturbed by her insults and murderous glare. "I don't feel like it," he said dismissively, still not regarding her with the respect she felt she deserved. Leave it to the Uchiha to be so arrogant.

However, this action in itself caused a vein in the side of the deadly kunoichi's forehead to tick. If she weren't in the nude, she would have jumped out of the water and bitchslapped that ghost of a smirk off his face with a chakra-gathered hand. As a matter of fact, her hand was itching to do so.

"I. Said. Leave. Now." she bit out as she began to grind her teeth in fury.

"Hn," was all he responded with as he began to amble regally towards the pile of clothes she had neatly folded on top of a rock right in front of the riverbeds.

"W-What are you doing?" she stammered warily, her emotions fluctuating from irritation to fright in the matter of seconds as he began to pick up her garments and study them with a ghost of a smirk.

"Hn."

"W-What… Put those down Uchiha!" she nearly shrieked in horror as he dangled a pair of her black lacy underwear in front of him, with his trademark indifferent expression still in place.

"Hn."

"Don't touch those!" she barked as he held her matching bra up to study it intently, still looking indifferent all the while.

"Or what?" he questioned as he arched his brow once more, still not looking at her. An imperceptible smirk pulled at the corner of his nearly immaculate lips.

She stared at him doe-eyed, frantically searching for the right threat to throw his way, but unfortunately it eluded her frenzied state at the moment. "I'll…I'll…" she stammered as she raked her wet, slicked-back brunette tresses in a futile search of the words to say.

"You'll what?" he prompted once more as he idly spun her lacy underwear around his long, pale finger.

"I-I swear Uchiha, if you don't put those down right this instant, I'll kill you," her eyes blazed as she finally found a grasp on her resolve threatening him with a dangerous growl lacing her every word. Thank Kami she finally had a feasible excuse to outright murder him, on the grounds of him being a pervert. It was enough of a justification, right?

Hell, Tsunade-sama would probably even agree to her reasoning, since she too had to deal with some of Jiraiya-san's perverse antics from time to time.

Speaking of perverse, this whole situation was just plain weird! How in the hell did she find herself in the presence of Konoha's resident traitor-turned-to-Orochimaru-defector who was studying her undergarments like they were the most interesting things in the world no less! She always figured that he'd be used to seeing womanly paraphernalia by now...What with the crowd he so happened to draw in wherever he decided to go (fangirls, more fangirls and fangirlsGALORE!)- even after his return from Orochimaru, he still held a fan base adamant on following him around and kissing the very ground he walked in, even being quick to the point of spreading their legs if he so happened to bat an eyelash. It was disgusting and it all but made Tenten loathe him even more.

"You'd have to get out of the water first to do that," he stated matter-of-factly, a visible smirk now gracing his handsome features.

Tenten's gaze shifted slowly down to her naked form, hidden beneath the running waters of the riverbed, the thought of having to emerge in the buff caused her face to pale. Sasuke eyed her as she did this and deduced that she knew just exactly what he was insinuating, his smirk widened ever-so-slightly at the sight. Silly girl.

But still, the words "brat" and "chicken's ass" did not bode too well for the Sharigan user, so only one strong objective resonated within his mind, uphold your dignity.

After all, it was his one prerogative to maintain the name of himself and his clan and not even a little brunette kunoichi would come out of the fires of his wrath unscathed. However, he was cool and he was calculative - another notable trait of the Uchiha clan. And he'd be damned if he allowed the kunoichi to see through his indifferent mechanism of defense.

"And it's not like you could kill me anyway, I'm stronger than you by a substantial margin. You wouldn't stand a chance," he said contemptuously as he inched closer to the riverbeds, underwear still in hand.

"What the hell did you just say?" Her eyes darkened significantly.

Still, Sasuke was unaffected by this. He simply continued to spin the underwear around his dexterous finger and was now bent low enough to look face-to-face with the seething kunoichi. He studied the slight twitch in her eye, but soon averted his gaze to the fist she had cocked back at him, readying to hit him square on the face. The Uchiha could already sense the dangerous amount of chakra that had been gathered in said fist. To this, a perfectly groomed eyebrow arched in amusement.

"Hit me and you'll have to get out of the water. You wouldn't want to expose yourself, would you?"

She gasped as she realized that she was slowly inching out of the water, nearly exposing her chest. The hand she had previously cocked back into a fist towards the Uchiha, had immediately been thrown over her chest as she huffed in indignation. His gaze flickered back from her flushed face to the glistening chest she was attempting to cover with her hands and then back to her face once more.

"Hn," was all he grunted as he straightened up and turned back to amble towards the rock that had her neatly folded clothes atop.

Tenten eyed him warily as she sunk lower into the water, mentally exhausted from the barrage of fluctuating emotions that the Uchiha unfortunately evoked with his simple presence. She closed her eyes and began to massage her temples, still formulating a viable idea as to how she could get out of the water without him seeing. There really wasn't any way she could do this sadly.

That is, until she saw him heading towards the general direction of exiting the forest grounds. His tall frame could be seen disappearing gradually through the trees, until he was no longer within her range. To this, Tenten nearly squealed in glee. Good riddance! Before she emerged from the waters however, she took another once-over around her surroundings to check if he was somehow still lurking behind the trees. Thankfully, he was not.

She stretched languidly as her naked body glistened in the wan sunlight that shone through the cracks of the many trees that stood above her and she idly began to squeeze the water out of her hair. A cool breeze blew through the air prompting goosebumps to erect from her skin and she wrapped her arms around herself whilst rubbing the sides of her waist. She turned towards the rock where she put her clothes only to be left shell shocked.

Her clothes were not there.

The only thing lay near the rocks were her beloved scrolls tucked neatly between the crevice of said rock and another. That damned Uchiha…

He took her clothes!

He took them right from under her nose when she decided to close her eyes for a quick minute. Even her hair ties were gone! That insufferable teme!

Her eyes still continued to search frantically for any piece of garment left to no avail, but suddenly an object she had not seen initially appeared before her. It was a note stuck by a kunai on the side of a tree. She quickly grabbed it and read the words hastily (how he had the time to scribble a note before he left, she did not know) 'Come find me if you want them back.'

An angry scream could be heard from the myriad trees as a flock of birds flew frantically out of the treetops in an attempt to escape the threatening noises while Sasuke leisurely strolled out of the forests with a pile of women's clothes in his grasp, he smirked at the glorious sounds.

Revenge was best served cold.

Author's Note: What do you guys think about this one? I kind of edited it because some of the sentences seemed a little to excessive and overall irrelevant, kind of inadvertently taking a detour from the gist of the story. My bad for the long, drawn out and unnecessary words from the original story haha! Aaand little OOC-ishness never hurt anybody, right? And I did feel like doing a little something funny for once. Please review, I love feedback!