Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine
Yugao, you're the best beta ever. Thanks so much for reading my stuff!
The year that she turned seven, Tenten started soccer.
The first day of practice, she got there early and stood surveying the field. Clumps of weeds merged with grass, the yellow faces of dandelions contrasting against the sharp green blades. At the far end, she could see a miniature goal with orange netting that the coach had set up. Her nose wrinkled. She wanted to play real soccer, with a real field that didn't have weeds and a real goal instead of a kids' one.
"Hey!" someone shouted behind her, and Tenten turned to face a boy with blond hair. "You're not on our team!"
"I'm new."
The boy scrunched up his eyes. "You're a girl."
Tenten heaved a sigh. "So?"
"Girls don't play sports," the boy said as if stating the obvious. "And they aren't allowed on the team."
Tenten smiled. She dropped the soccer ball she was holding to the ground with a soft thump and rested a foot on it. "Says who?"
During the first game of the year, the entire team watched open-mouthed as Tenten scored three consecutive goals. In the second game, they were matched against a team that seemed intent on elbowing as many people in the face as possible, and a referee who was apparently blind. Tenten, tired of being shoved all around the field, kicked the ball at the goalie so hard that when it hit his stomach, he fell over backwards into the goal.
Shikamaru, a lazy but admittedly good player, sighed from where he was sitting on the ground. "You know, a lot of girls can kick really hard…but you're the first one I've met that can aim."
Tenten grinned.
By the third game, Tenten was not only known as The Girl Who Played Sports, but also as The Girl Who Played Sports and Was Good at Them.
At the last match of the year, the blond boy, whose name she'd learned was Naruto, came up to her. He stood at the sidelines with a water bottle in hand and squinted across the field.
"See the guy over there?" he demanded suddenly. Tenten craned her neck.
"Him." Naruto pointed at one of the players. "That's Hyuga Neji."
"Oh." She watched as the player, Neji, jogged across the field, dribbling a ball. He had long dark hair and – white eyes. White eyes? Tenten blinked. Turning abruptly, he passed the ball to one of his teammates.
"His team won all their games last year, because of him."
"Is he good?"
Naruto rolled his eyes. "Duh."
"Better than Sasuke?"
This pulled Naruto up short. He thought for a moment, weighing Uchiha Sasuke, the best player on their team, with Hyuga White Eyes. "Eh…maybe..."
A few minutes later, the referee blew his whistle for the ball to be put into play, and Tenten had no more time to wonder about how good of a player Hyuga Neji was.
The game was fast and furious. Somewhere in the back of her seven-year-old-mind, Tenten grudgingly admitted that this team was a lot better than the other teams they'd played so far. Half time passed and still no one had taken a single shot on goal yet.
It was near the end of the game and she had just stolen the ball from one of the other team's defenders when Tenten suddenly realized there was nobody between her and the goal. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see two other players coming towards her, fast. She pulled back and her foot slammed into the ball, sending it spinning into space.
And then – he was there. She wasn't sure how he'd gotten there so fast, but when she looked up, he had moved in front of her. The ball bounced off his raised knee, ricocheting backwards. Tenten didn't wait for it to hit the ground. She started forwards, ready to kick it again, just as a shrill whistle echoed through the air.
Game over.
Tenten looked up at the player in front of her, the one who'd blocked her shot. Her eyes widened as she recognized who it was.
Neji smirked at her. "Nice try."
Then he turned and walked away, leaving her standing on the field. Tenten stared after him. She scuffed the ground with her foot as she spun around to face her teammates, kicking up a few blades of grass.
Show-off. Next time he wouldn't block her shot so easily. Next time she'd see him coming.
But still, she couldn't help grinning a little as she walked back to her team.
Hyuuga Neji, huh? Next time she'd show him.