A Naruto Fanfiction

I Know You Know That I Know

Aburame Shino and TenTen

Continuation of Waiting for an Invincible Summer

Rated M

This is for you Fanwoman and Rel!

The sharp nip TenTen felt on the back of her neck should have frightened her because of its sudden, unexpected appearance, but the accompanying inaudible buzz against her back and the drool inducing scent that made heat pool between her legs enticed TenTen to lean into her assailant instead of move away.

"Stand still."

The order was softly spoken, but was no less of a command than if it had been harshly demanded. TenTen didn't dare disobey for fear he'd disappear like some mythical creature that could only be seen if you were not looking. The grip she had on the sink in front of her was turning her fingers white and making her wrists ache, but it was the only way TenTen could keep herself from turning around.

Large, strong, callused hands started caressing at her shoulder blades before ghosting down her sides, skimming across her ribs under her breasts and then down to grip the points of her hips.

She wasn't allowed to move, but he had no such restriction. He leaned into her heavily forcing her to either take his weight or bend, and TenTen was trained to never bend.

Against her naked body, TenTen could fell the crisscrossed texture of his mesh shirt and the warm patches of skin between the spaces. Two sets of zippers, one for the overcoat and one for the undercoat, were trapped against her back, most likely leaving four tiny, rows of temporary teeth marks to go with the slightly more permanent ones he was leaving on her neck and shoulders.

TenTen groaned, the effort of obeying and staying still weighing on her. She felt him smile against her neck before sweeping his tongue along the shell of her ear. She wanted to scream at him, tell him exactly what kind of bastard he was for doing this to her.

'Yes', TenTen decided as he nudged her head to the side to give himself more room to touch her with mouth and teeth. She should make him sorry for teasing her this way before she threw him down and showed him how to get business done. But TenTen wouldn't risk it.

Every time TenTen had tried to become aggressive, he would simply vanish, leaving her more frustrated and pissed off than she could ever remember being. TenTen wasn't promiscuous by any stretch of the imagination, and unfortunately all of her sexual experience came from 'on the job' training, save her very first time, but damn it this... thing, whatever it was between them, for him, was driving her crazy and she wasn't sure how much more of it she could take.

When TenTen thought her sanity was surely gone, he flipped her around, tossed her up on the ice cold sink and proceeded to steal the very breath from behind her own teeth with that demon appendage most people would call a tongue. She hadn't been given leave to move, so with eyes tightly shut and hands being held down with his much larger ones against the porcelain, TenTen was forced to follow where he led. And right now she'd follow him straight into hell (where he obviously had come from to torture her) as long as he FINISHED it for once.

When finally she caved and whimpered, he forced her hands behind her back and used her superior height and leverage to pull her flush against him.

"Look at me."

Suddenly TenTen began to panic. She knew she shouldn't and everything in her tried to stop herself from following his command, but like every time before, she failed.

Looking up, TenTen had no trouble seeing his face, because there was no collar, hood, headband or glasses to obstruct her view. Nothing that would hide the fact that TenTen had no idea what color Shino's eyes were and therefore only empty space filled the void in her dream.

Sitting upright, TenTen screamed silently in frustration, and when that wasn't enough to release the pent up energy, she flipped herself over and screamed for real into the bedding. Feeling childish and not caring, TenTen thrashed her arms and legs in a display any rampaging two year old would be proud of.

TenTen kept it up for a few minutes cursing men in general and Aburame Shino in particular until she felt her stomach roll. She instantly froze, fearing what might happen if she moved too quickly, or at all. It took several slow, shallow breaths until TenTen felt that she could get up without puking.

The sickness had just started creeping into her morning routine two days ago. She had ignored it at first, not truly connecting it to her pregnancy until Temari had said something.

"It's the baby screwing with your hormones," the blonde woman had told her, grinning cheekily. "It's also why you keep having those naughty dreams."

"What does she know anyway?" TenTen complained, still faced down and muffled by the futon. "It's not like she's ever been pregnant."

While TenTen agreed that her morning sickness was due to the baby, she placed the blame of her sleepless nights squarely on Shino's impressively wide, hard, strong shoulders. Groaning at the direction her thoughts were once again heading, TenTen mustered the will and the strength to roll back over and stare at the ceiling.

Maybe Temari was right.

TenTen had never been plagued by sex dreams before. Sure she had her daydreams, what girl didn't, but to have full blown triple X rated scenes running through her head virtually every night? (And sometimes in broad daylight.)

And what was up with the orgasm interuptus? It wasn't like she didn't have first hand knowledge of what it was like, going off like a sky rocket with Shino inside her, holding her, telling her to cum when he himself could barely form the words.

TenTen groaned at the raunchiness of her own thoughts and threw an arm over her eyes. She had never been like this before. Maybe it was a good idea for the Hokage to send her on this solo mission to Suna. The way she was feeling now, TenTen wasn't sure if she would screw poor Shino unconscious or throw up all over him. The silliness of her thoughts tamed some of the intense arousal and made her smile despite the queasiness she felt creeping back in.

It wasn't too surprising to TenTen that she was dreaming about Shino. After all, not only had they had mind-blowing sex together, Shino had taken her completely by surprise, and TenTen wasn't easily surprised.

Before that night TenTen had always thought of Shino as a reserved, intelligent man that valued honesty and straightforwardness. Now she knew Shino to be a reserved, intelligent man that valued honesty, straightforwardness and that he could make every one of her toes curl backwards, and she STILL didn't know what he looked like beyond the swipe of pale skin she had uncovered between his glasses and his cock.

And, by the stars, he smelled so good! Even if she couldn't get her stomach to settle enough to sex him up, she could easily spend all day (and night) draped all over him just taking in his scent. It wasn't anything new, he had alway had that fragrance around him (if you were ever lucky enough to get that close), and she hadn't been the only one to notice. Ino could talk, at length, about how yummy it was. So yummy in fact 'it almost made the bug thing worth it'. Which TenTen had always thought was unfair.

She kinda liked the 'bug thing'. It was no different than Kiba's 'dog thing' or Choji's 'eating thing' and no less a part of Shino than Shikamaru's 'lazy thing'. Everyone had their 'thing'. TenTen didn't find it anymore off putting than Naruto and his Kyuubi. She had honesty never thought twice about it, until that night.

At one point during that night, TenTen had sworn that Shino had grown another set of hands. There had been an arm under her arm, and his other arm around the back of her hips, then, just when Shino had bent down to kiss her again, TenTen had felt a thousand fingertips racing up her spine. TenTen knew what a chakra enhanced touch felt like, she had a Hyuuga as a teammate after all, but nothing had ever felt like that before.

It was the sensation of being touched without actually feeling the pressure. Where Shino's hands had gripped, and where his mouth had tasted had been warm, almost hot on her skin, and where the kikkaichu had traveled, had been a cool electricity that had all her nerve endings on edge. It had been like a well choreographed dance; where the kikkaichu led, Shino had been close to follow, where the insects drew her nerves taught like a bow, Shino would come along and pluck the string setting her off.

How was she going to get through this pregnancy if all she could think about was getting her baby's father naked, under her and begging? Begging for what exactly, TenTen didn't know, but she'd think of something, damn it!

With that last thought, TenTen realized that without a doubt, Lady Tsunade's decision to send her away from the village with that made up mission of delivering a scroll was for the best, although TenTen had to admit her reasons were not the same as the Hokage's had been.

Lady Tsunade had feared that despite the contract binding them, the Aburame would be compelled to approach TenTen, and pressure her to not only to continue her pregnancy, but also to give up the child to them once it was born. TenTen had none of these worries, manly because to her it was a non-issue. She WAS going to carry the baby to term and she didn't find it all that unappealing for her child to be embraced into the Aburame Clan, after all, she had very little to offer her child other than herself.

With no family and no clan, TenTen feared that if anything happened to her, her child would be left all alone, as she had been. It was a reasonable fear as she was a kunoichi and planed on continuing her life as a shinobi for as long as she was able. The only thing that gave her pause was the possibility that allowing the life inside her to become a member of its father's clan would mean she would loose the child all together. It was something she planed to talk to Shino about, after the ridiculous mandatory two week 'reflection' period was over, assuming of course she would be able to talk to the man face to face without jumping him or swooning.

TenTen groaned yet again, this time in embarrassment. The last time she had attempted to talk to Shino, she had actually swooned like a school girl and only Lee's timely entry had saved her from herself. If it had not been for Lee and Neji, TenTen was sure she would have crawled right into Shino's jacket with him, if for no other reason than to surround herself in his scent.

"All right that's enough!" TenTen told herself flinging her arms to the side, trying to muster up all the 'beautiful' and 'youthful' determination that Gai-sensei had pounded into her head for over a decade. "I am going to get out of this bed, get ready, meet my team, and…"

TenTen covered her flushed face with both hands, "… and completely chicken out of telling them."

The weird thing was, TenTen wasn't embarrassed that she was pregnant, in fact, the reason she was embarrassed was because of how excited and girly she felt about the whole thing. Her, TenTen, the one that screamed about woman's rights and the equality of male and female shinobi, was daydreaming about bassinets and baby booties (when she wasn't thinking about getting Shino flat on his back that is).

In all honesty, TenTen never thought that she would become a mother. She spent all of her time on missions, training for missions, improving her skills; dating just didn't fit into that. Of course she could have always gone the artificial insemination route, but it felt so cold and impersonal to TenTen and it never really appealed to her sense of, well, destiny.

Unlike her teammate Neji, who viewed destiny as a chain to be bound to, or even a force to strive against, TenTen found fate to be more of a path in the woods that you didn't know you had been following. It was comforting for her to think that everything in life was meant to be, even the things that hurt.

TenTen sat up and wrapped her arms around her bent knees.

TenTen had to believe everything happened for a reason. Everything had to have a purpose, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant. There had to be a reason she was alive and her family was not.

She would never be like Naruto, Neji or Lee; overcoming every obstacle that life had to offer to become better, stronger, more than anyone believed possible. She wouldn't be remembered by those that never even knew her as someone with great power, unusual talents or as a doer of incredible deeds. She was a simple shinobi, and when she died her name would be placed on the stone as everyone else's would be, and when all the shinobi came to pay their respects to a fallen comrade. And if she was lucky, truly lucky, a few of them would linger back for a personal, private goodbye.

TenTen smiled and suppressed her giddy giggle by pressing her face into her knees.

She may be a simple shinobi, but it was that unremarkable life that had brought her the baby inside her. It was destiny that grouped her with Kiba and Shino. It was fate that sent Shino to her in that alley instead of Kiba that night, because if it had have been the other way around, TenTen was certain Shino wouldn't have allowed things to have continued as they had. And TenTen had to believe it was meant to be that the contraception jutsu (that all kunoichi were required to have before a mission of any type) failed, something that Lady Tsunade had never seen happen before.

Destiny wanted her to have this baby. A child of her own, someone that would, at least for a little while, be all hers, someone that would need her not because of what she was, but because of who she was. She wouldn't be exchangeable or interchangeable with anyone else. For the first time in her life TenTen felt what it must be like to be special.

"Oi, TenTen!"

Sitting up abruptly, TenTen rolled out of bed, and ran to her window before her teammate could bellow her name again.

"I'll be right down Lee," TenTen hissed back softly from her second story window, hoping against hope that Lee would take the hint and lower his volume.

"Then we shall wait for you, shall we not N…"

Before he could continue and most likely wake up all of TenTen's neighbors, Neji stuck a nerve in Lee's neck instantly silencing the green clad man. Once Lee figured out that he could no longer speak he began to 'yell' at Neji to which the Hyuuga only smiled.

"Hurry up, regrettably, that will not last long."

It only took minutes for TenTen to get ready, and before long, she was racing along the rooftops towards the training grounds and the place where old Team Gai were to met.

Gai-sensei had long since been relieved of the duty of watching over them, but by his own words; Lee, Neji and TenTen were more than students to the Jounin, they were family. They were not his first genin squad, but by far, they had been his most successful. Since that time, Maito Gai had returned to full-time Jounin work as newly appointed Jounin replaced him and were given genin squads of their own to train and look after.

It was rare that they were all in the village at the same time and free from assignments. Even now they were not truly 'free'. TenTen was scheduled to embark on her own mission this afternoon, Neji was a new ANBU and was in training behind closed doors most of the time, Lee and Gai-sensei had just come back from a mission the night before. At best they had three hours before they would separate, not knowing when they would be able to meet again.

As if they were still a unit that trained daily together, they landed in unison in one of their old favorite training spots at the base of a large rock formation at the juncture of the forest and the river. It had been ideal for varied terrain exercises, now it was an ideal picnic spot.

"There you are my students!" Gai exclaimed, throwing his arms wide but staying on the other side of the dark green blanket ladened with foodstuffs.

"Gai-sensei!"

It was a scene that repeated itself every time. No matter how long they had been apart (this time TenTen doubted that it had been more than 12 hours) her old sensei and Lee would embrace, tear-up and in most cases actually cry. Neji made his usual non-comital noise of exasperation and sat against the tree nearest the blanket, TenTen took her usual place on the blanket nearest the Hyuuga so that she could easily hand him a bowl of food.

The gushing and the greetings didn't last too long, and soon they were sitting back trading light stories of current missions, or at least the boys were, TenTen had yet to speak. So far only Neji had noticed her reluctance to participate, but then again it was Neji, and no one knew her as he did.

"So, TenTen, what is new in our most delightful kunoichi's life that has distracted her so from Lee's tale?" Maito Gai asked, his voice a little more reserved than was typical serving to quiet Lee without saying anything at all.

Ok, so maybe Gai-sensei knew her better than she liked to admit. The blushing started immediately, which only served to peak Lee's interest and Gai-sensei's attention, Neji remained as watchful as when they had started the picnic. Screwing up her courage, TenTen came right out and said it.

"I'm pregnant."

Lee just blinked at her as if he had no idea what 'I'm pregnant' meant, and TenTen could see the smile freeze on her old sensei's face. Neji, for his part, only tilted his head slightly in a pose TenTen recognized as a contemplative one.

Just as the silence was becoming painful, and TenTen's stomach started to churn with fear instead of baby hormones...

"Who's is it?"

"When's the wedding?"

"I've always liked the name Mochi."

"Can we book the Hokage Tower?"

"I want to be your Best Man!"

"When did it happen?"

"Neji!" Lee shouted, his voice now distinguishable from Gai-sensei as he stood front and center pointing a bandage wrapped finger at the Hyuuga. "I challenge you for the right to be Best Man!"

Now it was Neji's turn to blink in wonderment, before adopting a bored expression. "Lee, unless it has escaped your notice, TenTen is a woman. Women have Bride's Maids, not Best Men."

Lee pulled back momentarily, mulling over this information, but as predicable as the sun raising...

"Neji! I challenge you for the right to be TenTen's Most Beautiful Maid of Honor!"

TenTen blamed it on the pregnancy hormones, but at Lee's declaration she felt tears start to burn behind her eyes even as she was trying to hide her laughter behind her hand. The only thing that kept her from actually crying was the lock she had on Neji's indulgent half grin, that could have been mistaken for a smirk if she didn't know Neji the way she did.

"Then I have no choice but to concede to you, Rock Lee. For I can not fathom someone anymore worthy of the honor of being TenTen's bride's maid than you."

When the only voice that filled the clearing was Lee's jubilant cries of triumphant joy of besting his eternal rival, TenTen looked over her shoulder to find Gai-sensei strangely sedate. His eyes weren't sad really, or disappointed just... apologetic? Most likely he realized the conditions under which she had gotten with child

Gai-sensei's more diplomatic stoic acceptance of her pregnancy lasted all of thirty seconds before he had burst into tears. It was hard to understand what exactly he was blubbering about, but somewhere in all the crying and nose wiping TenTen had heard 'our precious flower has blossomed' and then something about pollen and bees.

The last bit made her think of Shino, which had started her blushing, then thinking of Shino had started her remembering the night their child had been conceived which ramped up her blush into a four alarm fire. Which, of course, was the precise moment when she realized that Neji was staring at her.

Not only was he staring at her, Neji was looking at her through his Byakugan. That typically didn't bother TenTen. Neji would often laps into using his bloodline limit as a way to distance himself from the Green Beasts of Konoha when they were particularly 'youthful' as they were today.

Lee was planing a wedding she didn't have the heart to tell him wouldn't be happening, and Gai was trying out dozens of 'strong, beautiful' names out loud for the baby. It wasn't until Neji spoke that TenTen realized that the Hyuuga prodigy had actually been staring inside of her.

"So it has to be either Inuzuka, Aburame, Uzumaki or Kakashi-sensei," he declared confidently.

TenTen was so stunned all she could do was gape at her ex-teammate.

"I don't know what you're talking about," TenTen tried to argue back, not even sounding convincing to herself.

Neji's eyes narrowed disapprovingly in their activated form before he continued.

"You are four, possibly seven, weeks along. You have been on a total of four missions during that time. Two with Lee and I, and I think we can safely assume that neither one of us is the father," Neji said, pausing to transfer his now normal gaze over to his spandex-ed rival who was currently debating the wisdom of using spring colors for a autumn wedding with himself.

"So that leaves the other four."

TenTen sputtered a bit, first because she was surprised Neji had narrowed it down so quickly, but also because she was bound by her contract not to reveal Shino as the father.

"How do you know I just didn't have a fling in between missions?" TenTen countered hoping to throw Neji off the scent.

Neji's eyes narrowed even farther, adding crossed arms to his glare, clearly taking her question as an affront to his intelligence.

"I know because there would be no reason to keep the father's identity a secret, which you are obviously trying to do," Neji told her logically.

"Well, maybe it was someone else on those missions," TenTen mumbled eluding to the possibility of it being a target.

TenTen looked away from her best friend in a vain attempt to keep him from reading her secret in her eyes.

"If it had have been a situation like that," Neji reasoned, his voice softening as he nudged her gaze back up to his with a finger to her chin, "you would have come to me first before telling them."

TenTen knew she was well and truly trapped. Neji simply knew her too well. It would only take a few well worded questions for the Hyuuga to discover who the father of her baby was. Even if she lied or didn't answer at all, Neji would use what wasn't said to decipher what he wanted to know.

"You know I can't tell you," TenTen reminded her old teammate.

"I know, but there are other ways to find out," Neji promised, tapping her nose playfully even if his tone was serious and his face grimly determined. "Although I do find it fascinating that you spoke with both Inuzuka and Aburame at the ANBU offices the other day."

"Neji!" TenTen had growled, warning him not to continue.

Neji backed off after that. Probably realizing that TenTen was going from being concerned he would find out about Shino and moving onto being ticked off that he still spied on her (though Neji claimed it was only looking out for her). Thankfully, the picnic ended soon after, because TenTen wasn't sure how much she could take of Lee's wedding plans, Gai-sensei's increasingly ridiculous baby names and Neji's penetrating stares.

The three men she had grown up with walked her to the gates to see her off. To her surprise, there were no teary goodbyes due to her 'delicate' condition. Well no more weepy than usual at any rate. If Lee's hug was a little tighter, and if Neji's hand on the small of her back lingered longer, TenTen wasn't going to call attention to it.

TenTen turned to give her customary final wave goodbye.

Over Neji's left shoulder, TenTen saw a flash of something in the shadows behind her former teammate. When she transfered her wave and smile to Lee and Gai-sensei, there was a nearly identical glimmer of twin pin-pricks of light. Hoisting her pack higher on her shoulder, another pair of glares showed briefly in the shadows by the gate when she passed through.

TenTen knew that none of the Aburame watching her were Shino, because of two very obvious reasons. One, none of the shaded glasses were the same size or shape as the Aburame heir; and two, if Shino had wanted to spy on her, TenTen would have never known about it. The very fact that she did know his clansmen were watching her meant that they wanted her to know they were there.

To TenTen at least part of the message was clear, "We know."

The rest of the message however was not so crystal.

TenTen knew enough about of the intricacies of clan politics through Neji to know that unless she was born to it, she would never catch all of the fine details. Were the Aburame threatening her, enticing her or simply seeing how she would react to their presence? It was impossible for her to tell. The best she could do was to be herself and never, EVER let her guard down, because if there is one hard and fast constant among the clans it was that everyone had an agenda whether malignant or benign.

TenTen consciously turned her back to the village, and to her observers. She may only be a Chuunin, but she had Hyuuga Neji and the Green Beasts of Konoha as training partners and more than just a few tricks up her wide sleeves. Knowing the Aburame were still watching, TenTen used an ANBU level jutsu to blink, untraceably out of sight; sending a little message of her own.

'Catch me if you can!'

I thrive on constructive criticism and cookies, not flames.

Kat