Chapter 1: Fed Up

"speaking"

'thinking'

Summary: No one knows where Tenten lives, no one knows her parents, her surname, not even where she's actually from. No one suspected, she's not even from their world. She is Echizen Tenko, a senior at Seishun High Schol, known in their world as "The Kunoichi". She is the Samurai Nanjiro's niece and the Prince's cousin. Since she was seven she was a messenger between the two worlds, providing communication between the Hogake and a secret correspondent. She's fed up, though, with going back and forth, always lying. So she makes a choice. Konoha or Tokyo? She chooses Tokyo. She goes on one of her "every other week solo missions" and does not return for a month and a half. Tsunade, worried that she may need to find another loyal correspondent, sends a search and rescue team to get her back. Tenten's secrets are about to be revealed... And not just one.
Takes place after the Sanbi arc.

Disclaimer: GDC does not own either of Naruto or The Prince of Tennis series.

"Tsunade-sama, then I'll be going tonight?"

"Yes, and I expect your report as usual."

"Of course, Tsunade-sama."

"Be safe as always, Tenten."

"Arigato." There was something final to the tone.

Tenten strode out of the room, nodding to Shizune. She'd leave after her team's monthly dinner tonight. She smiled wistfully, glancing at every rock, tree, signpost...

"Tenten-san!"

"Our beautiful Konoha flower!"

Tenten couldn't help it- she laughed while running towards the men clad in spandex.

"Lee! Gai-sensei!" What better than to spend one's last day with one's favorite people?

"Hey Neji!"

And there he was, the man that she had fallen for, the one that despite her emotions remained indifferent, only acknowledging her as an exceptional training partner. But now even her position as that was threatened, as he gained more and more access to training with the Hyuuga Main House, leaving her with Lee and Gai every once in a while. It was people like him that she was willing to leave behind... the rebellious teenager she was at the moment. But not just because of him...

There was something sinister in Konoha, behind the Hokage, behind every good being. She wanted the safety of the world she was born in, the place she belonged to. Away from all this evil, the wolves in sheep's skin.

"Tenten." Tenten looked up from her thoughts to flash a 'good girl' smile at her sensei, who had pulled out a chair for her.

"Arigato!" She ordered her usual, wanting to enjoy her last meal.

At the table, Lee was excitedly talking of his mission in two days to escort a child to the capital city, where the daimyo lived. Gai would go with him, but Neji declined, saying: "I have a solo mission lasting about two weeks." Lee turned to her.

"Tenten-san! Would you come with us?"

Tenten laughed, not for mirth but because of his child-like joy. The innocence that not many people she knew possessed. "Gomen, Lee, but I also have a solo mission tomorrow. I can't go with you this time."

Lee looked as if about to pout, and Gai just said, "Then we shall find someone else to accompany us!"

At this Tenten stifled a giggle and smiled. Neji coughed, and she knew he had the same thoughts. No one sane, really, would accompany both Lee and Gai... except those that felt sorry for the escorted. Oh, unless it was Naruto, of course, because he had been taken in by that green spandex suit.

But enough about that... Naruto's name only brought in more reasons to leave forever.

All these years, and ever since learning that Naruto was a "host" from the Sandaime, Tenten never really forgave the village. Her uncle had the same idea when she told him, and so had the previous correspondent when she confronted him about the idea.

Using people in that way and then never fixing their thoughts... despicable.

Gai paid for their food, and the four walked, or in Lee's case ran, out of the restaurant.

"Well then Goodbye!" Gai yelled at them, and took off full speed, no doubt to run a hundred or so laps around the village... again. Lee took off after him, leaving Tenten and Neji in the dust. "SAYONARA!!!" Tenten shouted after them, to which the two waved back at her, mouthing sayings that she couldn't hear already.

"So," Tenten turned to look at the once too-stoic teenager. "Going home?"

"Yes."

The two walked towards the edge of town, where Neji currently stayed in the Hyuuga Main Branch Estate and Tenten rented a small flat.

'At these times it's nice, I guess, and he can be nice as well.' Tenten leaned back while walking, looking more at the stars than the road. 'Even the stars are different here' she thought, thinking of her planned escape. 'I'd miss this place, really. So should I really go?' A sudden feeling of doubt rose in her. This was not expected.

"Tenten."

"Huh?" She broke away from her thoughts. Neji stood in front of her, and they were at the gate of the estate. "Oh, yeah. Bye then, Neji."

"I'll expect you at training ground 17 when I get back."

"Of course Neji. Sayonara." And she turned to walk away towards her flat.

Neji cocked his head. Tenten usually just ran home after she said one goodbye, waving. Today she had been unusually quiet, even at the dinner table where she usually had arguments with their sensei.

Neji turned to the gate, shaking his head. Even he could be thinking too much at times. There could be nothing wrong. Even with that slight sense of finality...

Tenten locked the door, scanning her living space. One room, a small kitchen, a tiny bathroom. She rolled her eyes. There would be better accommodations waiting for her when she joined her family.

She took out her largest scroll, the one that was made so that even a house could be sealed inside. With a kunai she pricked her thumb, grazing a drop of blood over every item she needed to seal inside. Numerous small scrolls, extra weapons, countless kunais, and her most prized katana.

Her personal treasures went into a different storage. An ivory hair comb that Gai had given her, a green spandex suit she never wore, a chunin vest that she had grown tired of, their first genin team picture, their celebration of becoming chunin together... the first kunai she managed to penetrate Neji's kaiten with... a pair of white ribbons for her birthday... a teddy bear with lavender, pupil-less eyes....

Tenten shook her head; shaking out her doubts. All these went into a duffel bag, to be carried by hand. There were two things left that she had not packed.

One of them she picked up now.

A simple necklace, ornamented with a single pearl... a hollow pearl. Inside was a miniature picture of Team Gai, herself with three people she loved. She put it on.

The next was an object not from this world. No one would have recognized it; if one did there would be a problem. One from the Country of Lightning would think it was a snowshoe. It was a long object, a grip with an oval shape frame attached. That frame had inside numerous hard strings, crosshatching like something woven.

Tenten smiled at her very own tennis racquet. It was soon stored inside a large bag, which inside held three more of the same object.

Scroll strapped on in her normal fashion, duffel bag placed on her left, tennis bag on her right. She took up a brush and ink, swiftly drawing characters in kanji around herself and her objects, a perfect circle formed. The same circle with the same designs lay under a fine layer of dust in her very own room at home.

She sat down, meditative position. Rolling up her sleeves, she located a pair of tattoos, seals concealed by intricate designs. Butterflies. Fitting, for a person that flitted from one place to the next, never truly settling down.

Tsunade never suspected Tenten would have gone to a seal-master to inscribe one on her skin, but she was also a fool if she expected her correspondent to use the master seal each travel back and forth. That one could leave her anywhere in the whole of Kanto Region, Tenten had discovered after the first several jumps.

She now pricked her thumb once more, leaving a trail of blood from the butterfly on her right shoulder to the one on her left, then from each one to her temples. She closed her eyes and started to form hand seals.

Dog. Monkey. Rooster. Ram. Dragon. Horse. Snake. Rat. She lost track of the ones that came next; so used to forming the seals her hands had memorized the sequence instead of her brain computing it.

Then came the feeling of floating in space, and then the tremendous drop that got her heart at her throat every time. She never got afraid of heights after this...

She opened her eyes.

A four-poster bed instead of a futon, a desk piled with books not about weapons but instead studies for school, a closet filled with everyday casual clothes instead of battered battle or training clothing. And a person with brown hair leaning back on her swivel-chair.

Before she could open her mouth the person spoke, not opening his eyes. "Yo, Tenten."

"Uncle."

"Your shadow clone is waiting downstairs, but I think you should have a change of clothes before you come down yourself."

"Arigato."

"Tenten?" He was by the door.

"Hm?" She turned from dropping her three bags by on the bed.

"Are you sure about your cutting ties?"

"I'm sure, Uncle, just like you were."

'Dammit.' Her voice came out shaky. Her uncle didn't buy it.

"Of course... I'll be downstairs."

"Yeah."

Tenten made sure the curtains were closed, then shed her worn-out training clothes. Luckily she had taken a shower before meeting with Tsunade. She opened her rather large closet and smiled. Whoever the friends were that her shadow clone had made, were ones that really knew their fashion! Tenten chose a green tank-top and blue skinny jeans, adding a belt and pulling on some socks. She put studs in her ears as she opened her room door.

The familiar sight made her smile.

This was the house she longed for, the house she belonged to. The house of her guardian, her uncle. Tenten ran down the stairs.

"Ten!" There were six people around the dining table and she backtracked slightly to take in who. Her uncle, one. Her aunt, two. Her aunt's niece, three. Her cousin, four, and her adopted cousin, five. The sixth was none other than her own shadow clone.

"Yo!"

Her shadow clone got up, walked towards her. Both girls with twin buns raised their hands to form them into a cross-shape... "Dispel." They stated together, and one of them instantly disappeared, leaving a pile of clothing behind.

A flood of memories came into her head, and Tenten staggered. Her cousin grabbed her and forced her into her seat. "Thanks. Hey, you're not short anymore!"

"Yeah..." A teen with emerald-black hair grumbled at her mention of 'short'.

"So..." Her aunt started to say, "got all the information in yet?"

Tenten groaned. "It's six months' information... I'll probably have a migraine for a couple hours before I process them completely."

"Ha," One next to her laughed, "Serves you right for not listening to my idea of dispelling little at a time every time you visited."

"Urusai, Ryo..." Tenten groaned once more.

"Is there anything I can do?" She looked up into the worried eyes of Nanako, a woman her clone had come to be close friends with. They weren't blood related, but Nanako treated her like family. Although, the poor girl was still quite confused about how her aunt's family had a bizarre range of correspondents.

"Nah, I'll get over this."

"Nanako, why don't you go find a tylenol?" Her aunt, Rinko. The mother figure in her life... as her own mother had died in childbirth and her father... when he had visited Konoha and somehow gotten caught up in the Uchiha Clan Massacre.

"Ne, okaa-san, I'll call her friends to say she can't go to the movies tonight?"

"You go do that, Ryoma." Rinko's eyes turned sharply to the elder. "Ryoga, don't you do anything strange."

"Hai, hai, kaa-san!" Ryoga looked as if he wasn't listening at all until Rinko hit his arm.

Tenten laughed with her uncle, Nanjiro.

"Ready to maintain your position in the tennis world, Ten?"

Tenten looked her uncle straight in the eyes. "Ready."

Nanako came back with tylenol and a glass of water at this point, and Tenten took them. She had just swallowed when Ryoma came back the room, phone in hand.

"Ami wants to talk to you."

"Ami? Oh wait, oh!" Tenten laughed and held her arm out for the phone.

"Ten?" A suddenly familiar voice spoke to her. "Why can't you come?"

"Dunno why but I have a migraine..." Tenten gave a white lie, adding in a groan just for the sake of it.

"Well hope you get better, cuz we have to talk about this year's team tomorrow."

"Yeah, I know, Ami. Yukiko and Mei are with you?"

"Uh huh, should I tell them the same thing?"

"Yeah, tell them sorry. I'm definitely going tomorrow though."

"Of course, Ten, I've never met anyone as enthusiastic about Tennis than you!"

Tenten had to smile at that. "Call me the freak!"

Ami laughed. "You better get better by tomorrow night, Echizen Tenko, or Yukiko, Mei, and I'll go over and drag you to where we are!"

Tenten paused for a second. "Yeah! Have a good time!"

"Kay, bye!"

She hung up, happy yet a little disturbed. She turned to the waiting Nanjiro and Ryoma. Nanako, Rinko, and Ryoga had already gone up to their rooms to rest.

"Tenten. I'm asking you this seriously. Are you really ready to throw away all contact with your friends and acquaintances from the ninja world you have gotten used to?"

"I told you uncle, I am."

"Ten, I'm one that cut ties with another world, and there will be no more correspondents going to that world because I decided not to tell anyone. I left no trace of this world back there, but instead took training from that world to help myself and Ryoma here. I know there is at least a bit of doubt that you hold."

Tenten looked at Nanjiro. "Uncle, I'm about to do the same thing you did ten years ago. Don't give me ideas that can get me backtracking. I want to end this double life."

Nanjiro sighed, getting up from the table. "Alright, but don't blame me later if you suddenly want to go back. Remember, you have a month. You could change your mind during that time, although you think you won't."

"I assure you uncle, I wont. Now go get some rest. I want to talk to Ryoma."

Nanjiro trudged off to his room, saying, "Good night, Tenko."

"Tenko."

"Ryoma."

Ryoma grinned. "So, what do you say? Tomorrow morning at six, before breakfast?"

"Yeah, and ooh, my clone's done well."

"What, in grades or tennis?"

"My grades are fine. It's tennis that I'm talking about; get this, I'm captain!"

"You can probably work with Tezuka-buchou to upgrade the teams then."

"Tezuka... the guy who was in my maths class last year! Stoic, quiet... sounds a lot like Neji in a way."

"Neji?"

"Someone. So early tomorrow, huh?"

"Yeah! I get to play with you finally!"

"Wasn't my clone good enough?"

"I wanted to face off with the real you."

"Alright then! Let's see your skills."

Tenten smiled as she and her cousin climbed up the stairs, throwing comments at each other, joking as well. Now that she could fit into her space here, nothing could go wrong. Konoha would forget her. Just like what happened to her uncle Nanjiro ten years ago.

Oh only if she knew.

Gomen, gomen, for not updating my other only-one-chapter-so-far stories!!! But then I'm kinda at a writer's block if you noticed from the ones I have updated. Eh heh.....

But still.

Please review to tell me what you think!

This idea came up inside my head one time when I noticed that Tenten says "mada mada!" all the time while the Echizen family says all sorts of "mada mada dane." XD so then her it goes, my first crossover story!!!

My friends are gonna kill me now....

They want the others to be updated X3.

So I'll update a.s.a.p.!

Ja Ne!

GDC