Hey all! This one shot is a side fic to "Not Just Rivals" dedicated to ILOVEANIME123 because she was a winner in my contest. When you said to surprise you, I hope this fits what you hoped for ;D

So guys, check out ILOVEANIME123. They're cool people.

Wordcount: (not counting A/N's)1,184

Sakura and Tenten were spending a relaxing Saturday evening together in their dorm room painting their nails and flipping through magazines. Examining her green nail polish, Sakura looked for any smudges or stuck on lint. "Ne, ne, Ten-chan, why don't you have any classes with me? Aren't we in the same year?"

The brown eyed girl looked up from painting light green dots on her already dry robin's egg blue polish. "I would be, but I've already got my GED. When Tsunade-sama realized I had no family to stay with here in Konoha, she pulled some strings. So I get to stay in a dorm here at Sarutobi's so long as I help out in the nurse's office. Sometimes I even take over when Shizune-sempai is absent and cannot find another replacement." She continued decorating her nails calmly, unaware of a pair of emerald eyes watching her.

"Tenten-sempai is so cool," the pink haired girl thought, "she's already done with highschool and she's my age, maybe only a year older. She's even got enough medical background to take the place of the school nurse and studies under Tsunade-sama. Wow... she's pretty, too. I wish I could be like her, a cool, beautiful, girl genius."

"Tenpai," (1) Sakura spoke again, "how far along are you into medical school?"

"I have an Associate's Degree in Nursing and I'm working on my Bachelor's degree. When I finish that this year, I'll be able to apply for my RN license after my seventeenth birthday," The brunette smiled, not looking up from her nails.

Sakura blushed. Tenten wasn't just a genius, she was a medical prodigy! Almost a nurse at only sixteen. "Wow... that's amazing! It makes me want to be like you," she said in awe.

It was then that Tenten's brown orbs locked on the pinkette. "Like me?" She repeated, "oh, no. It's a lot of work and really stressful. I don't think I would have been able to get my GED so young if I had a life. I had nothing to do but study so I threw my whole life into learning and academics and preparing to get through with school early. The only other thing I had time for was my job, swimming, and music."

"Really? What was it like, Tenpai? Why didn't you enjoy life? You were only a kid."

The older girl was silent for a moment. Sakura almost apologized when Tenten began to speak, "my mom and I lived in a women's shelter from the time I was six. My mom... she was a martial artist and always wanted to own her own dojang. I felt like I was a burden to her, like I was the only thing keeping her from realizing her dream.

"So I asked her how to become independent and take care of myself. I remember her telling me, 'Ten-chan don't be so silly, I like taking care of you' and she would poke my nose, 'without you for target practice I would be lonely and without a training partner.' But I could see the sadness hidden in her smile. Eventually a school counselor told me that if I could get good enough grades, I could skip grades and maybe even apply for a scholarship to attend a good boarding school and graduate high school early. So, at seven years old I decided to be a genius. I made my mom help me practice reading and math and even got a library card.

"I did my best to find out what I would need to know to pass and skip grades. I ended up skipping second, third, and fourth grades. I was in fifth grade when I was six. I studied as hard as I could and after fifth grade I found out about getting a GED. I immediately began looking up what I would need to know to pass the test to get my GED. I studied and studied all the time. The only thing I did was study and swim.

So after sixth grade my mom let me start taking classes to get my GED instead of going to highschool. It was the hardest thing I've ever done, I think I just barely passed that test when I took it, but I spent the summer after sixth grade and the whole year after studying for it. I finally got my GED when I was thirteen and immediately started med school right after. College is different, you live on campus and have classes a few times a week.

"About this time my mom finally managed to open a martial arts school and she let me work there. I cleaned up after hours and on weekends until I caught Tsunade-shishou's attention. I had fallen asleep studying when she told me, 'Aren't you a little young to have a book like that? It's late for someone like you to be out like this.'

I didn't know who she was, being only fourteen at the time. So I said, 'look, lady, this is my text book, so I'm perfectly the right age for it! Isn't it a little late for senior citizens to be out and about?'"

Sakura gasped, "you didn't talk to Tsunade-sama like that!"

"Oh, I did," Tenten nodded seriously, "she smacked me for it, too."

"Ouch!" A fourteen year old Tenten yelped, shielding her head with her hands. "This is child abuse, old lady!"

"Ha!" Tsunade scoffed at the teenager before her, "it's discipline for a snot nosed brat." Her golden eyes narrowed.

The young Tenten glared right back. "I'm not a brat! I'm gonna be a nurse!"

"Just a nurse?" The blonde eyed the younger girl.

"I'll be a doctor later if I want to. Plus, nurses are tougher. They tell the whiny patients to shut up and give them their shots anyway!" Tenten declared, "the doctors just prescribe medicines, tell the patients what they should do, and deal with the knocked out ones to do surgery."

Tsunade chuckled, "I like you, kid. How old are you?"

"I'm fourteen!" The brunette said determinedly, daring Tsunade with her eyes to laugh at her age.

The blonde woman instantly stopped laughing. "Huh, well good thing I was looking for another apprentice. Tell you what, I'll have my first apprentice, Shizune, train you up real good and then when you're old enough, I'll take you on. Here," she gave the wide eyed child her card with her cell number scribbled on the back. "Talk to your mom and call me. We'll arrange something."

"Wow," Sakura gasped, looking at the older girl with awe, "you're awesome!"

"Hey, now, don't turn into a fangirl or a groupie on me now," Tenten chided playfully, "when I get rich and famous I'm gonna want a friend who's independant and can think for herself. Whaddya say?"

Friend? Somehow, hearing the bun haired girl call her a friend hurt, pushing it to the furthest corner of her mind, the pinkette grinned, "sure! Friends forever," she held out her pinky.

"Cool," Tenten grinned, linking pinkies with Sakura, wondering, what was that hurt expression on her face?

1) "Tenpai" is a contraction. It's short for Tenten-senpai or Ten-senpai

Hope you all enjoyed ;)