Disclaimer: I own no Naruto. Just me.
Summary: A preview into the childhood of Tenten. How she lived with an abusive father, a beaten mother, and her beloved brother, Haku.
She has always had a fascination about blood.
The rich color, the unique texture, the metallic flavor…it was always there in her life.
Her first experience with blood was when she was five and her father was mad. And raving drunk too. He came into the house after being gone for many hours in the day. Her mother would meekly ask about his day and all he did was glare in return. The horrible piercing glare full of hate and spite. Her mother would stop talking and she bowed her head.
Then out of nowhere her father would come towards her mother with angry strides as he came and hit his wife. Fist after fist came raining down to the woman as she begged with her drunken husband. She came into the middle of her parent's fighting.
"Stop it otosan! Stop it!" she pleaded. She banged her little fists at her father's knees. Her mother was staring with horror at her little brunette daughter. "Leave 'kassan alone!" she cried once again. Her father didn't even think as he hit his youngest child into a wall.
"So ya wanna play tough, eh?" Her father would come closer with menacing steps and she would scramble up and run out of the room to hide. "You can't hide from me! I'll find ya!" His steps came faster as she ran out the door and into the woods.
It was snowing in the Land of Water as usual in the wintertime. The snow kept flying into her face as she found a hole in a tree and hid. Sometimes she would hide for hours until her older brother came and made her come out. He only came after their father was passed out after beating his wife and sometime his own son.
She doesn't remember when she closed her eyes. Maybe it was from the snow coming in the hole or the sheer stress of whenever her father came home every night. All she remembers is that her older brother would come and look at her with his pretty chocolate eyes and tell her it was okay to come out and that it was almost midnight.
"Haku-niisan, I'm scared," She would confess quietly every time he found her. He would be rubbing his palms together, trying to bring heat back to his numb fingers. He always looks at her with a little smile. It never went to his eyes though.
"It's okay Ten-imouto. It will end someday, right?" He always said. Then he would grab her cold hand and bring her back to the hellhole they called home. Only after she was safely in her room did he let go of her had, tuck her into bed and say goodnight that she noticed there was blood on her hand. She stared at it while she was racking her five-year old brain to remember when she bled on her hand. After a while she knew that it was her seven-year old brother's blood.
She impulsively licked her palm. It tasted bitter. It tasted like slow poison. It tasted like inevitable death.
She shuddered. She hoped that she would never see blood again. But she knew it would always be there. Always.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
She was eight now, and already she wished she were dead.
After dealing with her father abusing his wife and children nightly, she felt that she should just let him kill her. Haku-niisan kept taking her out of the house whenever their father came home. He gave her hope for another day.
It was spring now, yet it still looked like it was winter. The trees, if there were any, still had no leaves and there was a chill that the wind brought. The only good thing was that flowers started to bloom and their father had to stay out longer for his job.
"Haku-niisan look! A bunny!" She whispered excitedly. The white rabbit was nibbling on the sweet grass. Her tangled brown hair was tickling her face as a gust of wind came. She looked at her brother and saw that he was staring at the rabbit with fascination.
His chocolate colored eyes were intent on seeing every movement the bunny did. His mid-shoulder length hair was blowing in the breeze as it was confined into a ponytail.
"Isn't it pretty?" She asked, once again looking at her older brother. Her faded pink yukata was rippling in the breeze with her brother's clothing one as the bunny stood up. The rabbit looked at the two of them and sprinted out of the area.
"It was very pretty," Haku said whimsically. He adjusted his large shirt and fixed his pants while he redid his sister's hair bun. "Come on. We have to be home for lunch." He said. He lightly pulled on her arm.
"Okay. Hey niisan, do you think we can come back and see if the bunny comes back?" She asked hopefully. She glanced at him with her honey colored gaze. "Pretty please?"
"Maybe." He replied. They traveled to their house and Tenten went towards her room to deposit the white daises she had picked for her beloved brother. She walked to the doorway of the kitchen when she heard a crashing noise. She looked cautiously into the room and saw her father towering over Haku.
"Ha-" She started but stopped at the intensity of Haku's glare. He shook his head slightly and moved his head to the right, indicating that she should leave the house before their father sees them.
Tenten nodded her head and mouthed, 'I love you. See you soon,' before she quietly dashed outside and ran into the newly fallen snow. It seemed like while she was inside it had started snowing. The snow was coming down in large snowflakes as she ran full speed into town.
Their house was a mile from civilization but she ran on her short legs. 'Haku-niisan could take care of himself. He was safe as long as he got out of there. He was two years older than her but twice as smart. He would be safe,' she kept telling herself. This became her mantra while she was sitting, all huddled up in a corner of an abandoned ally.
'He will be safe.' She told herself as the snow had come down heavier and covered her body. She put her head between her knees and waited for him.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
She had waited for hours. Or what felt like hours. Tenten stood up and shook herself of the snow that had collected on her clothing. If Haku-niisan hadn't found her now, maybe he was still looking.
She gazed at the snow and found that she must have stayed there for a while, because there was almost four inches of new snow while she was resting. She walked around the town that was the Land of Water. No Haku.
She stumbled across one of her father's coworkers and looked at him. "Excuse me but, um, do you know why my father came home early?" She gave him a look of questioning and added as an afterthought, "Please?"
"Yer pops? We we'r done with them buildin'. The boss man said we'r allowed to come home. Why lil' girl?" He said with his gruff voice. He was staring at her suspiciously.
"Just curious. Thanks mister." Tenten said politely as she quickly bowed and ran back home. She went slower then she did running out of there but still quick. She stopped and looked to the front of her house.
It was a pincushion.
The house was covered in large icicles. Tenten carefully entered inside and stopped dead cold. There were bodies of some of the people Tenten's father worked with and her father himself. She was frozen in place as she stared at the icicles that went through the men. Icicles…
She rushed into the house and ran through out the rooms. "Mama! Haku-nii! Where are you?" Tenten yelled. She ran into the living room and found her mother's body hunched over, while leaning on the wall.
"Mama…?" She shook her mother's shoulder and her whole body fell over. She pupil-less eyes staring at nothing. Tenten screamed. She stood up quickly and ran into the other rooms.
"Niisan! Niisan!" She yelled. Tenten went through the remaining rooms and found her strands of her brother's hair on the floor. "Oh, niisan…" She whispered as tears went down her face. She looked around the room from her view from the floor. There were broken pottery and a smashed up crate. She also saw the blood adorning the wall.
She grabbed the remaining hair off the floor and held it in her fist. Tenten was fully crying now, sobs racking her little body.
"Niisan…" She whimpered. After gathering herself back together, she stood up, prayed for her mother's and Haku's soul and then went around in the house looking for useful items that she could leave with. She went in her parent's room and found some yen. She pocketed that.
She then went in her parent's room and found a pair of getas that were her mother's. They were too big but they would have to do.
She went and packed up some of her warm clothing and placed it in a canvas bag. Tenten went outside from the back of the house, wiped away her freezing tears and left her house, never looking back.
Never thinking of the dead bodies. Never thinking of the horrible memories. Never thinking of the childhood she lost. She was just an orphan who had lost her beloved brother and her reason of living. She was just an eight year old who grew up too fast.
So now she left towards a hidden village that was the opposite of the Kirigakure, Village Hidden in Mist, and of the Land of Water.
She was going to Konohagakure, the Village Hidden Among Leaves. She was going to the Land of Fire.
AN. Okay…this is a little ansty but too bad. I am the authoress! Fear me!
I have always thought, ever since I saw Tenten and Haku, that they were siblings. Come on! They have the same hair color-ish, their hairstyles have buns in them, and according to the statistics, they weight almost the same and are almost the same height. Also, they have a fetish for weapons. Like sebon needles.
Coincidence? I think not. Okay in my head it is...
So, review, give me creative criticism, tell me where the typos are etc.
Advice is allowed and greatly appreciated. Flames are for the campfire where I roast marshmallows. Yum.