Stripped Free
-x-
Without her scrolls, without her weapons, Tenten is nothing.
-x-
She's merely Tenten, without an honorable clan to back her up or anything to tack on the end of her name. Tenten comes with nothing. So she struggles; for her pride, for her honor, for her titles.
Struggling is what she does best. Tenten will struggle like a caterpillar, waiting for her chance to be set free.
After all, there is no special move to be passed down to her. No certain talent her mother or father possessed before her either.
Most shinobi are not citizens, children of merchants or farmers. They are born from true warriors, fighting spirit embedded in their souls. They learn to hold a kunai before forming complete sentences.
Tenten is not one of them.
Her own parents are plain folk, the kind walking in the background. Mother pays the bills by being a barmaid; she was a pretty woman with big eyes and delicate features. Father works in the fields, day after day, night after night. When she thinks of them, all she can remember is silent bickering and sad eyes. They wanted more for her, more than a feeble life of farming or cheap work.
The first time Tenten holds a cooking knife; there is a glint in her eyes and a strange expression on her face. It was plain as daylight. They could see it in the way she held the knife. She could do something with her life, unlike them.
She lives in an apartment now, alone. The room is small, under a train station, and without a bathroom. But there are windows. Windows stretching across each wall, everywhere. It makes everything just a bit less bare. Plus, she likes the rumbling of the train as it runs by. The noise fills the apartment, and makes her walls shake. Pictures taped to the ceiling of her family seem to dance, as if they were talking. To her. It doesn't feel so isolated anymore.
They still send money every time they can make enough. In return, Tenten visits them (to tell them she is alive) and spends time in that lonely house. Chinese Dumplings, with pork and green onions, are still her favorite. And like always, she leaves an envelope with the exact amount of money on the counter when she departs.
She will make do with the money from missions and making weaponry. Her parents have already done so much.
Being with them only brings back the guilty envy that she isn't ninja spawn, no matter how much they try to support her hopes.
It is better if no one knew her last name.
She was invisible, really, in class. The teacher places her in the last row, right next to Lee and the other dead-lasts. You can't blame the instructor; Tenten has no knowledge of the arts. She can count, read, comprehending like a normal child, but she is nonetheless a farmer's daughter. So as the teacher drones on about some technique, she is having a battle with Lee. Using their perfectly sharpened pencils as swords under the table.
Lee is whispering animatedly to her, carelessly thwacking the wood. Her pencil slips and the tip of her pencil is digging against her own palm. Tenten doesn't remove the pressure.
And suddenly, it's just her and the pointed edge. The class has already gone eerie with silence.
She can hear Lee shouting as a bead of blood of drawn out, waving his limbs frantically. Somebody is telling her to move the pencil, but all she feels is sharpness.
Tenten wonders what it feels like holding metal instead.
Later, when the nurse is bandaging her up and cleaning out the dried blood, little Neji walks up and asks why. Tenten answers with a childish grin. She had liked it, the feeling of holding a weapon in her hands. He nods once before exiting the room with his chin held high.
The girl who was nobody proves this when they start target practice the next week. She is the first person to beat Hyuga in anything. The teacher moves her up several rows after the accuracy test. Sitting near Neji (who ignores her completely and glares with those eyes), Tenten realizes she misses her pencil battles with Lee.
Maybe, she thinks, she basically isn't made out to be someone special. Someone like the Hyuga genius.
After graduating the Academy, she finds herself again stuck with Neji and Lee. It is the start of something deadly, and possibly even a bit wonderful.
It is also the first time in a while that Tenten has laughed.
Gai-sensei immediately favors Lee. Tenten tries hardest, to get his approval, but Lee is clearly the apple. It makes her feel worthless again, deadweight despite his praising with her weapons performance.
Between Lee and Neji, she has nowhere to put her name in the stars.
She should know already she isn't worth mentioning.
Not when they could talk about Neji (the goddamn prodigy) or Lee (the boy who uses only taijutsu).
It's different though once her scrolls fly out; spiraling, circling, out in the open. All eyes (greens, black, browns, blues, whites) are on her, like she is indeed worthy of their attention. The sensation is like a drug, she feels so much like she is flying amid the weapons.
Unraveling above the fumy smoke; she dances the steps choreographed for years. Tenten is proud of her meticulous details. It has always been distance and timing. A single inch off and she can miss. A single second lost and she will lose momentum. A good thing she likes numbers.
Being airborne feels beautiful. ("It looks…beautiful." His tone is flat and begrudging, but the uncharacteristic word that escapes his lips makes her insanely happy. Even after she falls splat on the training grounds.)
But, when she is stripped of her kunai, of her scrolls, of her explosives, of her weapons, there isn't anything left to flaunt. Her hand-to-hand combat isn't the best, her chakra control is flimsy, and…
Tenten is just Tenten: An orphan on the streets, a child without a last name, a girl who dreams the impossible, another unremarkable face striving against others.
It is empty underneath the hundred percent accuracy.
Yet, because she is Tenten, she fills in the emptiness and fights back.
-x-
A/N~ My first Naruto FF. 8D I'm so proud of it. It's short, though… I just couldn't fill in the empty spots. Please review! Flames, fangirl!ing, and constructive criticism is all appreciated.
Oh. And, Tenten really deserves more attention…