Happy Tenten's birthday, everyone! The idea for Tenten days' prompts was to follow her across the different stages of her life. So, here we go; a bunch of snippets. :) Hope you enjoy it!

Pairings: Implied NejiTen and possible mention of all the other canon ships. I'm respecting canon for once. Lol.

Warning: offscreen character's death

-X-

Academy student

by Clementive

-X-

"Did you understand what I just told you, Tenten?" Lord Hokage said gently, his wrinkled face turned toward the window.

"Yes."

He followed her gaze, his hand trembling as he took his pipe out from his robes. Her face remained unmoved, lost to him. He exchanged a glance with his ANBU guard. They shifted uneasily. They had expected her to scream and cry. They had expected her hoarse and broken, carrying, dragging the pieces of herself as they explained the arrangements for the funeral. Her parents were chuunin, they served their village, they would dress in black, they said.

But she didn't bulge.

She didn't cry.

She craned her neck, ignoring them, still peering out the window where dusk crushed the last of the darkness. Birds chirped among the rustling leaves, none of them black. None of them bad omens.

She tested what he had called her on her tongue. Orphan. Vaguely, she knew it meant she was alone. Sighing, Lord Hokage straightened his back and whispered a brief order to his guard. The moment they approached the door, still throwing back worried glances at her, she opened her mouth to ask if now, she had more chance at becoming like Lady Tsunade, now that her parents were dead, now that she was clan less.

She closed her mouth. The door closed softly.

She was alone.

Still sitting, her legs kicked in a constant rhythm like flapping wings. Like rotten ones that formed beneath scabs on her back.

Nameless.

Clan less.

Wingless.

When they were gone, she slipped out of the house like her parents were still alive, crouching and silent. Like it was still a game. She reached the edge of the forest, the spot where the fence had a gaping hole, and she looked over her shoulder breathlessly. The wind gently pulled her loose hair back. Her parents' bedroom remained plunged in the darkness, devoid of shadows, devoid of life.

She threw one of her father's kunai in the wilderness, calling an indistinct name. Her throat constricted, her windpipe crushed, she shuddered. Clan less nameless wingless voiceless. Her new mantra. Face turned away from the forest, she threw a second one, calling another name, her eyes wide and desperate, staring hard at her parents' bedroom.

The day rose. Birds sang. Light pierced through the curtains, wildly stabbing at the empty room.

Her arm fell back to her side.

All that was left was her own name, and she wasn't sure she still wanted it. Clan less nameless wingless voiceless. Orphan. Orphan. Orphan.

Tenten.

She would be just Tenten from now on.

(Years later, when she evokes this memory, she only remembers the endless lines engraved on Lord Hokage's face and the curve of her hand as she released the first kunai in the forest. The memory unfolds in mute colourless images. She wonders about the name she had abandoned then. She wonders about belonging to no one.

And the birds.

She wonders about the birds which never stopped flying and singing when she had just fallen. The next thought is dangerous, always prowling the corners of her mind, always menacing to fall from a stranger's lips. It moulds so easily with her first memories of death. She struggles, uneasy, she fights tirelessly. She can't think of him now.

The boy who once looked at the birds.)

-X-

So, I have this headcanon about Tenten's last name... :3

Please take the time to let me know what you thought. :)