Title: Sharp Edges
A/N: Wow, this really puts Tenten in a good light (I hope). But she's total love so it's cool. I heart my kunoichis! Rock on, girls!
Sharp Edges
Tenten loved her weapons.
She really did, nobody doubted that. Kunai, shuriken, katana, kodachi, you name it, she's mastered it. Konoha had never seen such a skilled and precise weapons master in history. She made history. She was legendary. No kunoichi could beat her when she was in her zone. Get on the wrong side of her and the next morning, you'll be stuck to bed with three dozen kunai pierced through your PJs.
Everyone knew how she cherished every single kunai she aimed, treasured every senbon she threw and relished every shuriken that landed on her mark. How she loved to feel a sharp piece of metal in her hand, ready to throw it at her enemy, knowing that she'd hit her target dead on.
Everyone knew that.
But what they didn't know was that she feared them as well. See, Tenten didn't only love weapons, they were much more to her. She held them in high reverence, a great deal more than common. After all, to most, it was just a piece of forged metal. It was the shinobi's skill, the one that handled the weapon, which counted right? Of course. But to say that that was all weapons were, Tenten considered it the greatest sin, and the greatest mistake anyone could make.
Tenten prized each weapon so greatly, defended them so fiercely, one who knew her would also know to never say that a weapon was useless in front of her. Her knowledge and talent when it came to blades were matchless. She knew how to estimate the area, measure the angle, test the wind power, and how even the flawed ones could save a life. Some might say it became an obsession. An unreasonable one.
But Tenten knew better. She knew how dangerous a weapon could be. How anything, anything, could be turned into a weapon if wielded by the right person.
Deep inside her, Tenten, weapons master of Konoha, one who held blades in her hands more than anything else, knew something everyone else didn't. She knew she was afraid of them. The gleaming metal, the cool hilt, the sharp edge. It was dangerous, even to her practiced hands.
She started fresh and naïve, like any other genin. And when she held a kunai in her hand for the first time, she truly believed it to be her calling. Now, she used a katana, and she knew better.
It's funny how minor things in life can affect you so significantly, and sometimes, you don't even realize it right away. After all, who would suspect doing a simple, everyday household chore would manifest her fear and respect for these treacherous blades? It was only washing the dishes after dinner, like every other day.
Only, that day, she managed to cut her finger. She hadn't known that the plate was still soapy. It slipped from her fingers and onto the hard bottom of the sink. Sometimes, even a shinobi, when taken by surprise especially, can be too slow. She wasn't in time and the plate smashed into pieces. She was in time though, to accidentally grab the edge of the broken plate but the soapy dish just slid right through her fingers again.
She swore mentally; what kunoichi was clumsy enough to break dishes? It was really stupid of her, even if she was only a genin then. If this was how inept she was, she'd never make it to be like her idol, Tusnade-sama.
She stopped herself from being too hard on herself. Everyone makes mistakes once in a while. She would clear it up and apologize for it later.
Suddenly, she squealed. She looked at her left index finger, which she had just ran under the water again. She turned it up slowly to see a deep slit near the tip, which was oozing quite liberal amounts of blood for such a small wound.
Now, every ninja definitely has gone through injuries. And definitely much worse ones than a small slit on the finger. So why did she squeal? Well, firstly, she wasn't expecting an injury while washing dishes, and secondly, she never realized that a plate could be that dangerous.
She didn't know any medical jutsu so she settled for cleaning the wound with water before bandaging it. As she ran her left hand under the cooling water, she glanced at the broken plate below her hand.
A streak of blood, her blood, ran along the broken edge of the porcelain plate. There was a pool of diluted blood in the plate mixed with dish soap where the blood had dripped in before she had found out she was wounded. The blood was slowly turning transparent again as more water ran into the plate. Tenten bit her lip and endured the pain, even if it was less than what she usually felt during one of Gai-sensai's training regimes.
She started feeling a little dizzy; the wound was bleeding quite a lot, but she gritted her teeth and remained upright. She then walked over to the medicine box kept in one of the cabinets and took out the antiseptic. She smeared the solution over the cut, wincing slightly at the sharp pain and quickly started wrapping the bandage around it.
She really hadn't expected this. How could she have known? It was a common thing, washing dishes. How could she have gotten hurt? How could she have thought she was safe? How could she be not prepared for this? How?
It shocked her, how angry she was at herself. It was only a small cut. But she had really been stupid to think that injuries and training went together and never with anything else. She only then, realized how everyday activities posed danger, any sort of danger.
It scared her. Why should it, she asked herself. She didn't know, but it did. She'd never tell anyone, and she still hasn't, but she was also still afraid. Humans were fragile and not invulnerable. She had to get it drilled into her head; how easy it is to die at anytime.
Strangely, this was also what drove Tenten to master her manipulations over weapons. What made her hone her control over these sharp blades. What made her want to become stronger and stronger, so nothing, not even a broken plate could harm her anymore.
But who was she kidding? Anyone could get hurt. Even the Akatsuki weren't invincible. Even they could accidentally get hurt by a piece of glass or a sharp corner, get burnt or scalded by hot water.
During her first chunnin exam, she damn near got sliced by Temari's wind, and after that, her dangerous missions had led to far more serious wounds, like poisonous stabs and even nearly loosing an arm. Tenten still remembered the gory details of that day, her arm hanging off her shoulder with only a few entrails stopping it from completely being amputated. It had hurt so very badly and she almost past out. She remembered too, how Neji and Lee had gotten revenge for her by killing the enemy that had done that to her.
But even that was nothing compared to the fear and realization that had hit her when she cut her finger while washing dishes. It was something that would be embedded in her memory for as long as she breathed, as long as she lived.
She had to face it. No one was a hundred percent safe and no one would ever be. A broken plate can hurt as much as a kunai.
A/N: Inspired by a true story. Mine. -smiles sheepishly- I cut my little finger pretty deeply while doing the dishes the other day and got slight anemia. I was the only one with first aid knowledge in my family so they were more flustered than I was. I had to direct them to do this and get that while all the while soaking my finger in ice to numb the pain! Lol. But it really did remind me of how fragile lives are, and this really lame story was written.