A/N: This is the second in the Jewels series. If you want more, go read Charm Bracelet, which was the first.
I do not own Naruto. All credit goes to Masashi Kishimoto.
She watches her father hammer, the metal glowing over the coals. Her papa makes knives and stars that shine, but he won't let her play with them. He lets her play with the broken dull ones, though, so she doesn't mind.
Her papa adores her, and tells her tales of princes, princesses, war, death and love. Every time there is a princess, he names her Tenten. He tells her that her heads is destined for a crown. They are too poor for a real one, so he makes her daisy circlets and places them lopsidedly on her infant head.
One day, something is different. There are roars outsides, gnashing teeth. Bloody men stumble past. Tails whip through the air as growls rock the earth. One of these tails crushes her shack.
She sits outside and waits for papa to emerge from the wreck, but he never does.
Tenten is lying on a bed. Her eyes flicker open, but she shuts them quickly: the light is too bright, and hurts her eyes.
She hears someone come into the room. It's a woman, more than likely the matron. She hears a second voice as well: a man. It's probably the doctor.
"How bad is it?" she hears the matron say.
The doctor sighs. "She sprained her leg, fractured her wrist and broke a rib bone or two.
"Oh, no. Poor girl..."
"They should really be more careful on the climbing bars...What's her name?"
"Tenten. She's four, no mother, father died in the Kyuubi's attack. No allergies to speak of. Strong enough, eats well."
"Heavenly heaven, huh? A name fit for a princess."
"The only princess we have in Konoha is a gambling alcoholic mess."
Tenten recognizes that word. Princesses wear crowns. She struggles to speak. "Princess..?"
The matron chuckles-a dry sound, with no humour.
"No princesses here, Tenten-chan. We're short on tiaras."
"Now, Tenten-we're going to need to straighten out your arm and leg. It'll be very painful, so we're going to put you under. Is that okay?"
She nods weakly. She's learned not to say no to adults.
She feels something sharp being pressed into her arm, and quickly falls asleep.
Tenten sits on her rusty bed. She has a room to herself, because she doesn't get on well with the other girls. She wishes she could share a room with Lee, but they won't let her.
Lee is her only friend in this orphanage. The other girls are silly and, well, girly. The boys won't play with her, because she apparently has cooties. Whatever. She doesn't need them anyway.
There is one boy who looks like he'd love to be friends with anyone, even her. That's Naruto. He's outside now. She can see his small sad face out the window, curled up forlornly in a deserted corner of the playground.
Though he's only five, everyone is scared of him. That's why he wasn't punished properly when he put thumbtacks on the matron's seat. Other kids would be deprived of dinner, and made to stay inside during break. Naruto, however, got a scared glare – par for the course- and that's it. They leave him alone.
They even leave him alone during the night, when he sometimes has nightmare. Every child can hear his wretched screams. She wonders why no one helps him-when she has nightmares the assistants come to her, and soothe her screams.
She shakes her head, trying to clear the thoughts out. She picks up the worn book beside her. It's a book of fairytales, lavishly illustrated. She loves these pictures, of princesses with sparkling crowns and flowing hair. The evil witch, calking madly while she is hunched over her simmering cauldron, a wart on the tip of her nose. The prince, astride a snow-white horse, singing an ode to the princess's beauty.
She supposes that it's a strange thing for her to read. She, the tomboy Tenten, reading a book about princesses? They're right though. She only reads these because they remind her of her father.
Tenten looks out the window again, and can see the kids filing in. Dinner. She can hear the cooks yelling for the kids upstairs to come down.
She sighs, tosses her book onto the bed, and runs from the room.
"Coming!"
Tenten runs. She and her classmates are racing around the field. The teachers say that it's a good way to build up stamina and strength. She just thinks that they're not bothered to teach properly.
She and Lee are at the back of the group. She could be at the front, but Tenten is most definitely not going to leave Lee behind.
He's exhausted, because he stayed up all night practising taijutsu. She's getting worried about him.
Lee puts on a burst of speed, and she's caught unexpected. She runs up to him, but he stumbles and falls. She's far ahead now, and tries to run back. However, her path is blocked.
The boy looks down at her. His eyes are milky white, and his skin a shade darker. His long dark hair whips about him.
Neji Hyuuga. The princess himself.
She tries to push past him, but he blocks her.
"You're not going to help that weakling."
"Let me past!" She glares at him with furious eyes, but he doesn't flinch.
The whole class are watching them. She wonders why the teachers don't stop this, but maybe they could do with a bit of entertainment.
" Hmph. He's not going to get anywhere, ever. It is fated."
"Leave Lee alone!"
"Oh, so now he needs a girl to fight his battles?" He sneers down at her.
That's the last straw. "Lee is much stronger than you, Princess Hyuuga."
The class catches their breath. She's done it now. Neji Hyuuga won't forget an insult like that.
"You..." For once, the prodigy is speechless.
"Oh, I went there." She smirks up at him.
This feels good.
"You..!"
"What's wrong, Princess. Missing your crown? It'd go nicely with your hair, I have to admit."
He flies at her. She's caught by surprise, but she manages to block him. Tenten, at the tender age of ten, is well able to put up a fight.
She throws a punch at his face, and she almost hits him, but he dodges. He kicks his leg, and she falls onto the ground. Not to be outdone, she hooks her foot around his ankle, and he comes crashing to the ground.
His face is twisted with fury. He rolls over, and pins her to the ground beneath him. She knees him in the stomach, and his grip weakens. She wriggles out from beneath him, and clambers onto his back.
They grapple on the ground like this for a while. She can hear the adrenaline rushing through her head, and she can hear Neji's muffled gasps of pain. She can hear the class roaring "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!" and Lee yelling "NO, TENTEN!"
Eventually, the teachers decide to pull them apart. He kicks to get free, and she struggles in the teacher's arms. He yells at her, and she spits in his face.
They drag her away, and she can see Lee's tear-streaked face. She feels bad for causing him stress, but no one will badmouth Lee in her presence. No one.
Not even Princess Hyuuga.
Tenten looks at the woman before her. Her eyes are black, coal black. Her face is streaked with red, contrasting with the ivory white of her skin. A silver crown is twisted into her ebony black hair, hair matted with blood.
Her blood. Lee's blood. Neji's blood.
They have fallen to the ground beside Tenten. This war has exhausted them, and they barely saw the woman sneak up behind them. However, Tenten did. She defended them. Now, she will stand against this woman.
"I am the Morrigan, and I have come to collect my harvest!" The woman's eyes are intense, like a madman's. "Your comrade's blood! Your blood, all mine! I will tear out your eyeballs, and rip off your limbs! I will eat your heart!" The woman's eyes are rolling, and pools of spit form at the corners of her mouth. "For I am the Morrigan, and this war is mine!"
Tenten is not impressed. This madwoman thinks that she'll die here, just another statistic. Not going to happen.
The woman is stronger than she looks. She has the unpredictability of the truly insane. She'll have to hope to end it in one move. Might as well make it a cool one.
She pulls out a scroll, unfurls it, and begins to chant under her breath. Using the blood that stains her clothes, she begins to draw symbols on the scroll.
She feels the scroll pulsing in her hands. It is ready now. This, her ultimate attack.
"VERMILION BIRD: SUZAKU!"
She can see the woman's surprise, clearly etched on her face, as she is borne up into the air by the huge flaming bird. The feeling of power she gains from this technique is immense. The strength of the bird's fire is comparable to that of Susanoo's, of the Uchiha.
She only needs one attack.
"STAR!"
A huge, five pointed star of fire surrounds the woman. It begins to revolve, quicker and quicker, the flames growing larger and hotter. The screams of the woman end soon.
She sails down to earth, and begins to feel the effects of the technique. She's going to have to go back to the medical tent.
Her teammates are standing now, leaning on each other for support. Neji's eyes are wide, and Lee's jaw hasn't pulled itself back up yet.
Tenten would like nothing more right now than to collapse. However, she has something she wants to do something first.
So, instead of letting herself be dragged to the medical unit, she stumbles towards the woman's charred corpse. The sight of the body does not disturb her; she has seen much worse.
Something glitters on the body's head. Tenten reaches out her hand, and wrenches the thing from the woman's skull, and examines it.
A crown. She can see now that it is cheap, of a material that is somehow fire proof. She'll have to research that.
A crown. Finally, she holds a crown in her hands.
"Tenten!" She looks back over her shoulder. Lee is limping towards her, Neji in tow.
"What was that?" Neji looks suitably confused. Score. She wanted to keep that particular technique hidden, just to surprise them even more.
"Just something I found in some old scrolls. It's very powerful, but it drains me like crazy."
"Powerful? That thing looked ready to set fire to the whole battlefield!" Lee's eyes are sparkling somewhat. He does this whenever big explosive fiery things are involved.
She grins. "Thanks, Lee."
Neji clears his throat. "Now, onto a more pressing question: why on earth are you holding that thing?"
Tenten looks down at the blacked crown in her hands. Neji's question makes sense. Why is she holding this thing?
She knows the answer, but refuses to acknowledge it. This is a crown, the thing her father waxed poetic about, the thing she had been aspiring to for as long as she can remember.
Why?
Her father wanted one for her, so she could be a princess. A princess.
"Tenten?"
She looks into her friends eyes. They remind her: why does she need a crown to be princess when these two boys, her boys, regard her as one?"
It is that line of thought that runs through her head as she snaps the crown in half.
Lee and Neji look, yet again, surprised. That's becoming a recurring thing these days. Oh well.
"Come on. We're going to die soon if we just stand here chatting."
"Yes sir!" Lee snaps into a salute.
"Let's go." Neji smiles slightly.
Tenten, at the age of sixteen, is almost dead. She's covered in blood, most of it not her own. She will never wear a crown, and she will never sit on a throne.
However, she is happy. And that's more than anyone, especially Tenten herself, could ever ask for.
Thanks for reading, and please review!~Gryfo