Again, I enjoyed this too much to put it in Vicissitude.
Disclaimer: All characters are Kishimoto's.
The first thing I notice about her are her hands.
They are not like any girls' hands I've seen before. Hers are quick and deft, so familiar with the steel that is her fixation.
Her skin is not smooth like the women of the Hyuga. Hers is scarred, marked for each mistake and mission. I wonder if the rest of her body is like this as well.
Her determination is what I see secondly. She is obsessed with Lady Tsunade, possessed by the drive to embody the legendary kunoichi. But she is not Lady Tsunade. She is TenTen and she has a long way to go if she is going to attain her goal as the Hokage's protégé.
There are other things that draw me to her, bits of her character that point me to the core of her being. They are like shining stars in the midst of a black sky, a trail of touchstones that lead to the glowing moon.
But it is her lips that I come to observe last.
They are often pursed in training and in battle, patient and waiting for events to play out before her. It foretells her nature. She is an attentive soul, just as I am, though her flaw is acting without thinking.
Before, when I was more insufferable, her lips would press together in anger and her jaw would clench, a sign of annoyance. I did not understand then that it was a sign of care, not just irritation. She was concerned for me.
In the softer moments, her mouth is relaxed in an easy smile. This is the one that is mostly her. She is the peaceful second before the darkness lightens into dawn. She is the winding of a river, steady and persistent. She is the running of feet on the forest floor, the pursuer not the pursued. She is the sound of metal hitting the trunk of a tree, solid and true. She is the ache of muscles after a long day of training. She is that sweet whisper between dreaming and waking, comforting and there.
I blink and watch TenTen stretch from her nap under the oak in our training area. I smile, slightly bitter, because I know even my eyes will never see all of the things that make her who she is.
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