Summary: Everyone has a story- that much is true. From the moment Tenten laid eyes on her teammates, she knew they were softies. It was only a matter of time until they all cracked.
Warning: In this story, I depicted Tenten as an immigrant, really taking into perspective of her not knowing Japanese, and her trying her best to assimilate, or get accustomed to Japanese Culture. I wanted to to depict her as a girl from another country based on the fact that she has little to no background in the anime/manga, and that her character design is of Chinese culture. Also i'd like to add that the rating may go up as I progress with the story later on.
I'm open to your opinions and possible concerns (if any) in order to grow as a writer!So without further Adieu, let's go! Enjoy!
Chapter One: The Beginning of Misconceptions
By: Nayihs
Lee was the obvious one. From the Academy days, he was bullied because he was different. Thick eye brows that stood out like bold print on newspapers, a speech pattern foreign to the village, and the fact that he attended the Ninja Academy and he couldn't perform any Ninjutsu was the most apparent of all. Tenten didn't have to speak fluent Japanese to understand that Lee didn't belong- but she didn't bully him about it.
Now, the Hyuuga was a different story. Tenten couldn't read him right off the bat, but she felt that he was hiding something. She wasn't swayed by how much of a genius he was (at least that's what she told herself), and she didn't swoon over his good looks. Even if he didn't talk much at all, only to give passive aggressive comebacks or beat someone up in the schoolyard- Tenten knew better than to take him too seriously. But if given the chance, she would have loved to knock him off his high horse, then again, she wouldn't have known what she was getting into. Neji was lost, and Lee was a troubled kid. Becoming involved with the two of them would be bad news for her.
So while Neji showed off his skills, and Lee tried showing off when he could- Tenten kept to herself. She didn't attract too much attention, studied on her own while helping out in her mom's shop, and eventually she graduated. The one thing she didn't think would happen was that she ended up placed on the same team of kids she tried to avoid.
Neji or Lee didn't even bat an eyelash at her presence. Instead Neji occupied himself loathing over his "fate" in the far right, and Lee was sitting on her right side, all antsy. Lee already seemed acquainted with their instructor. If Tenten didn't know any better, she would assume that the man in green spandex was Lee's relative.
"Yosh! As of today, you are all Genin, so tell me…why have you done it? What are your goals?" For a while, the air was thick, and the humidity of the Fire country wasn't helping. Tenten bounced her gaze between her new teammates, and her mentor. Gai mainly focused his attention to Lee, not really noticing her or Neji. Lee bit his lip nervously, not sure how he should respond just yet. Neji on the other hand was keeping his composure aloof with one arm propped up on the railing of the balcony Gai assembled them too.
Tenten felt she had to break the ice, so mustering up the courage she had- she decided to speak. "Oh pick me sensei!" Tenten hoped with all the Japanese she took in the short few months that her team would understand her clearly. She guessed they did when all eyes drifted towards her. Gai's eyes gently focused on her, a smile of approval from hearing her enthusiasm. "Yes, Tenten" The girl cringed slightly at her name pronunciation, but decided to ignore that detail and answer his foreboding question. "I.." Tenten started, trying to remember how to put together the proper conjugations while motioning with her hands what she wanted to say, "Want to…become the Tsunami" She tried. Gai winced at her statement while Lee and Neji tried their best not to give themselves away. At that moment, it was apparent to all of them that Tenten was unique. "You want to become a Tsunami?"
"I would also like to become a Tsunami" Neji spat back rhetorically, while Lee tried his best not to chuckle. Tenten's eyes teared up a bit, hearing the reaction of her team caused her more embarrassment than how the green spandex on her Sensei's body looked. She didn't notice the frown on Gai's face.
Tenten shook her head, her cheeks burning by the second. "Nono…uh a lady Tsunami?" They still didn't understand her. Tenten huffed, motioning more with her hands, particularly shaping breasts as she tried to get her point across. Tenten was not happy playing charades on her first outing with her new team, as they continued to chastise her.
It took a moment though when Gai pieced together what his student was trying to say, "oh, OH! You want to become like Lady Tsunade?" Tenten nodded vigorously, "Hai, Hai!" and then flexed the little muscle she had, "She very strong!"
Gai chuckled, he liked her enthusiasm. For someone whose not a native of Konoha, he admired that she found someone to look up too. It's hard for a kid who recently moved to get acquainted with unfamiliar things, not to mention the jokes that kept stringing along. That much, he'll give her credit- but the Japanese, he'll see to it that he works with her on it.
Moving onto the next, Gai inquired about Neji's goals, but was shortly denied the satisfaction of bonding with the returned gesture of, "I'd rather not say." Tenten snorted, thinking he was overly dramatic. Gai kept a mental note- he'll have to be extremely careful around that one. A prodigy, an aristocrat, but most importantly- moody. Gai will make sure to come back to him.
Then came for lee, when he finally pieced together his speech, he struck his hand in the air and made his declaration, "I WANT TO BECOME A SPLENDID NINJA"
Little did anyone know at the time what that declaration would put the entire team through.
After the first couple of days, Tenten wondered if she was really cut out to become a Ninja. The Academy wasn't so bad since all they did was cover the basics- but this…this was too much. It was the first time Tenten heard such a thing of waking up at 3 am to run laps around a training field, with no breakfast on her stomach- heck her mom didn't wake up that early to run inventory in the storage room for the store they ran.
"Tian-Tian" her mom whispered, cradling a baby boy in her arms as Tenten shuffled her shoes on lazily by the front door at the base of the stairs, "Where are you going at this hour? It's half past 2, get your butt back to bed!" Her baby brother squirmed as her mother rubbed his back and hummed a little lullaby that was failing to calm him down.
"Momma, I have training. I told you this the day before when I came home. " Tenten grumpily replied, huffing as she fixed her shirt button that was about to pop off from lack of adhesive. "I don't remember you telling me this, but I know I told you that you have to watch the shop today. I have to take Bo to the doctor this afternoon."
Tenten chewed her lip. What was she going to do? "But mom, I can't just not show up." She knew arguing back and forth with her mother so early in the morning wasn't going to resolve anything. But it wasn't like Tenten to just take a scolding without having a good reason to be scolded Just as her mother was about to say something in retort, her baby brother began wailing from a terrible gas pain, followed by a gagging burp and a handful of vomit projected down the stairs, landing remarkably on Tenten's head. Her mom had an exasperated look on her face, sighing deeply as Tenten gawked at the mess her brother made. "Clean up, and go to your training, I'll see you when you get home." On that note, her mom handed the baby to her older brother, whom woke up in the midst of the commotion. Saluting to her mother, she quickly made her way to get the mop from outside and cleaned up the stairs, then went back to the bathroom to redo her morning routine and finally made it out the door at a quarter to 4:00am.
She managed to arrive approximately 30 seconds after the meeting time. It's not that Tenten was strolling- She ran practically quarter way across town, and then caught a bus that took 10 minutes to arrive at the training field. Her mom preferred for them to live in a Chinese oriented neighborhood, and unfortunately, that was in the dense market area far from where her teammates lived. Neji lived the closest- being that his estate was only 1.5 miles away from their chosen spot. Lee lived 2 blocks away from his estate at his apartment complex, and then there was her-4 miles away from their designated spot.
Running towards where everyone already was, Tenten waved to them, dropping her bag by the tree stump where everyone else put their things, and bowed before Gai, "Good Morning".
Gai put his hands on his hips, "Drop and give me 50. You're late." Tenten blinked, as did Neji and Lee. "Go on, and same to both of you." That definitely caught their attention. Tenten opened her mouth to speak on her behalf, but was hushed by Gai, "Nope, don't want to hear it. And if you continue to argue with me, That'll be doubled to 100." Tenten swallowed her argument, took in a deep breath and dropped on her hands and feet.
Neji and Lee stood there watching her, but Gai cut them short, "I wasn't joking. Both of you, give me 50." Neji glared at his mentor, and lee did as he was told.
"NOW!" he barked at Neji. Neji shuffled his feet on the grass, and reluctantly dropped on his hands to join his team mate without a word, but continued to glare at their mentor.
Gai watched them struggle past the 35th push-up, and he began his speech. "What you're feeling now is just the beginning of everything that has to come. When I say 4 o'clock on the dot, I do not mean, 4:05, 4:03, 4:01, or even 4:00 and 30 seconds. As a ninja, timing is crucial and if you cannot comply to what has been set, how can you expect yourselves to complete a mission. Hell, how do you even expect to work together as a team when you guys can't even communicate well." That last statement, Tenten took personally.
Tenten panted. Sitting on her knees after she completed her 50th push-up, she stood up before Gai, "I am no Japanese. But I try. Why…" she paused, her hand motions stirring up the next words she tried to fix together, "Why blame me?" Gai blinked. Even with her broken Japanese, he felt a little disheartened. Neji sat crisscrossed on the plain, observing the scene between the two, after lee finished his set of 50 push-ups as well. This time they didn't find anything of what she is saying funny, in fact, it managed to strike a chord between them. The sun was just peaking over the Hokage Mountains when the first 20 minutes of their training started.
"I don't blame you entirely Tenten. But you cannot feel sorry for yourself. When I said communication is poor- I meant that as a team, you guys do not yet know how to rely on each other. Someone like you who is foreign to this village needs help, and I blame your teammates for not being considerate. "
It took a while longer for Tenten to digest what Gai said, and he spoke clearly on purpose so she can catch every word that he uttered. Neji sighed, shifting his weight on his left foot and stood impatiently, "Okay so what do you suggest we do? Teach her Japanese, perhaps take her on a tour around Konoha?"
"That is exactly what I expect you do to. As a team, we need to function in harmony. And with your attitude Hyuuga, how do you expect to become a Leader when you're constantly looking down on the others? A true leader leads by example, not disrespect his inferiors."
Neji opened his mouth, but closed it and reverted his eyes back to the ground. He guessed he was right- he has been acting out more lately, but he refused to admit it. His pearl eyes glanced over to his bun-haired teammate who focused her gaze on their instructor. He hadn't noticed earlier until now that there were various cuts on her forearm, healed- but there was a lot.
"Yosh!" Gai clapped his hands together once he felt that his trio had been knocked down a couple of pegs.
"Now that's been settled, how about some laps?"
Tenten and Neji simultaneously groaned while Lee kept his spirit up, "Hai Gai-Sensei!"
And with that Gai set them off at their started point, then set off his timer. Without another word, they sped off into the forest.
After 8 laps around the forest, 45 sit-ups, and 50 lunges later, Team Gai was pooped. For the first day of training, they've done a lot. Starting from 4am, took a break for breakfast around 7am, then back to training at 8am, Gai did not call it a day until two in the afternoon. Gai let them know that tomorrow he's going to assess them to see what their weaknesses and strengths are through sparring, and that today was just a warm up. Tenten kept a mental note all the time she was out training to be back home by at least 4pm. Her mother was pissed off this morning about her new morning routine, not to mention Tenten never said when she would be back.
She's gonna be in a heap of trouble…
"Excuse me" Neji called, tapping her shoulder while she was in the middle of packing her bag to catch the bus home. When she zipped her belongings back in, she turned around to face the boy she's been avoiding since day one in the Academy.
"Hai?" Tenten watched as the afternoon sun rest almost near the horizon, giving Neij's ivory orbs a humble glow. She didn't notice a blush creeping up on her cheeks, nor the heat that radiated from it.
Neji scratched the back of his neck, and huffed out a bit of hot air. When he started to speak, Tenten squinted trying to make out what he said. She picked up on a few words, but it wasn't enough to comprehend what he was trying to convey. Neji spoke too low, and too fast for her to understand, and possibly too formally- she couldn't quite tell at the moment.
She cleared her throat, catching his attention before he could say anymore, "Sorry, make short" motioning with her hands to shape a short bracket. Neji sighed, "Me…" he pointed to himself, Tenten followed better, nodding, "…You" Her eyebrow lifted, "Japanese lessons" Neji fixed his hands like sock puppets, with his four fingers and thumb working together to make belief people talking.
Tenten got the idea, nodding her head and a smile graced her lips, "Hai, Hai!..uh…when? Time?"
Neji thought for a moment. He considered his compound but right now wouldn't be a good time. Last night he got into an argument with another one of his relatives- a Main Branch member, and as always some elders had once again, intervened. Neji would prefer the privacy of his room to educate his teammate, but he didn't think that would happen. The first thing he had to do when he got home was once again, train. That's really all he does. With the little free time Neji had…well he didn't have free time.
"Your place?" Tenten hummed at the idea. The pro- Her mom would meet her new teammate and potential customer, hoping that her mom would be easier on her. Cons- Tenten worked part-time at the store, and possibly would have to babysit her cousin after her hours of mining the store was up. There might not even be that much of a chance to study. " Don't know" she replied, shrugging her shoulders.
"What do you mean you don't know? I can't take you to my place, so it'll have to be yours. Do you not want to be taught?" Neji was beside himself.
The girl took in a deep breath, and released the tension building up in her stomach. "I can not take time to study." Before Neji could intervene, she put a finger on his lips to hush him. "I help run shop. I work with mom and take care of…of….cousin. If want, walk me home- I show you."
"No. I'm not going to waste my time. Good luck on learning on your own." And with that, Neji huffed and treaded back the tree stump to collect his bag, and walked himself home without saying much of a goodbye to the rest of his team.
Tenten stood in the middle of the training field alone. Gai waved neji a goodbye and Lee glared at him when he didn't return the gesture back, and now she watched Neji walk away from them, long hair swishing left and right as he took a faster pace.
Tenten fixed her messenger bag over her shoulder, fixing the pin that kept the strap together, and observed Neji turn the corner. She huffed and went in the opposite direction.
"That boy is rude. "
