A seventeen year old Teten looked up at her ex-sensei with tears in her eyes, Neji placed a hand on her and Lee's shoulder. Tears were streaming from Lee's eyes as he looked at Gai.

Gai smiled at the three jonin. They've gone such a long way. They were no longer his team. No longer a failure with a dream, a girl that played with knives and an angry child prodigy.

" Three years will go by without you guys knowing it. It'll feel like I'd be back tomorow!" and like that Gai was away in a flash...


Gai Sensei comes back today

The twenty year old Tenten lazily rolled to her side, and blinked her tired eyes open.

Popping out at her were bold, pink letters that read: "!GAI SENSEI COMES BACK TODAY!"

Across the box '26th' on her calendar, Lee had kindly taken the courtesy to remind her that their old teacher- whom she teased for still calling their old teacher sensei- was coming back from a solo mission. She contemplated under her duvet whether she could actually be bothered to trek over to the gates. Lee would definitely be there asking to carry back his idol's bags, or offer to give him a foot rub. Neji would probably be there as well, she heard him mutter something about greeting Gai back because Lee made him promised. Well, she might as well.

Tenten got dressed and ran a comb through her chestnut hair before securing them into 2 buns on either side of her head. She sighed at herself in the mirror. Although thankful she had not got any premature wrinkles, she was staring at the face of her 17 year old self. She'd wanted Gai to see how much she'd grown since her Jonin graduation party.

Tenten began walking down the street; she'd never been walking around Konoha so early in the morning. She'd lived here all her life, she was sure her view on little Konoha won't be much different after a stroll in the morning. The shops had yet to be opened; it was silent but not creepy or derelict. It was so calm and peaceful. The dew glistened on the evergreen leave in the trees. Tenten supposed she had taken the beauty of this village, that she had lived here all her life, for granted.

The sight of familiar pink hair sprinting across the perfect street reminded her it was indeed Konoha she was waling in. Sakura held out both arms and hoisted Tenten over her head.

"Wha-? SAKURA! I NEED TO GO TO THE GATES NOW! LEE AND NEJI ARE THERE! PUT ME DOWN!" shouted Tenten, struggling to break free from Sakura's freakishly strong man-strength.

"Tenten, the Hokage needs to talk to you." Sakura whispered between pants.

"What? Why?" asked Tenten,

"She just told me to get someone from your old team to her now." Tenten didn't bother asking Sakura any other questions, she knew as much about this as Tenten did.

The Hokage's Tower came into view and Sakura gently put Tenten down. "Just go into her room, sorry, but I've gotta run. Bye." Sakura muttered, running off again,

"Yes, thank you." Tenten called after her. Tenten hunkered up the spiralling stairs. What the hell would Tsunade want with her so early in the morning? Did she even wake up at this time?

Her train of thoughts were cut off as her head collided with the double doors of Tsunade's office. Two ANBU opened the doors abruptly, and Tenten hed rushed first to the floor along with her slender body. She blushed furiously, and straightened up. She knew without having to take off their masks that the two ANBU were smirking at their boss.

Surprisingly Tsunade did not look up from the documents on her desk. She didn't even tug at the sleeve of the ANBU standing behind her, and ask him if he had seen that, pointing at Tenten- which she had done dozens of times before.

Dear God. She is definitely serious today Tenten thought.

The Hokage continued to stare hard at those documents as if they had the answer to her bad fortune in gambling.

"…Tenten." Tsunade called, eyes still fixated on the pieces of paper.

Tenten walked up to her desk.

Tsunade retrieved her hand from her side, and interlinked them.

Her head tilted up and her amber eyes met Tenten's deep brown ones.

Tenten face at least hadn't changed a bit since she was in Team Gai. Same oval face and brown hair pulled into 2 buns. She was still very cute and innocent looking. Tsunade felt a twinge of regret for calling Tenten into her office;

Damn, should've called in that cold Hyuuga kid. Tsunade told herself. Tenten looked at Tsunade tentively.

Tsunade took a gulp of air.

"Well…"she began…