Perception of the Blind
When Tenten was young she had only one dream: to be strong. She wanted to smash mountains with her fists, shake rivers with her feet, and make all who stood before her tremble at her strength. She had a drawing of Tsunade on her wall, and every morning she would exercise in front of it.
Tsunade was as beautiful as she was fierce, a model ninja whilst remaining a woman. She could heal, and she could harm, all without breaking a sweat. She was, in young Tenten's eyes, perfection itself.
So Tenten grew her hair long and silky, then bound it to her head. She learnt to dance, and learnt to kill, and always tore her beautiful clothes. She joined her team and at first thought them to be nothing more than freaks but soon discovered that, although they were ugly, they were by far more powerful than her.
That was the first check on her path to perfection.
Still she persevered, taking on the more feminine art of knives and slight-of-hand, scrawling the few stats known about Tsunade next to her picture, training as hard as she could without sacrificing her appearance.
Then came the second check: Sakura.
Sakura was weak, not very pretty, and foolish. She was someone to be laughed at as she tried desperately to keep up with the monsters she called team-mates. She was easily overlooked, and even more easily mocked. A part of Tenten saw the resemblance between the two of them, and resented it.
She was destined for great things, and Sakura to fail. That was the way the world worked. That would only be fair. Tenten had worked hard all her life to be like Tsunade, and that was what would going to happen. Tenten dismissed Sakura from her mind, and went her own way.
The third check was Tsunade herself. When Tenten first saw Tsunade she forgot to breathe. Tsunade was blonde, beautiful and utterly devastating. She laughed and pouted and was real! For one brief moment, when she was making her acceptance speech, her eyes met Tenten's, and Tenten knew that this was what she had been working for, this was what she had always wanted: Tsunade.
She wanted to be Tsunade. She wanted to sit at her side and learn all her secrets, to be there for her in battle, to be the one she called when she needed assistance. She wanted to be her pupil, her protégé, her pet.
She wanted Tsunade.
But Tsunade was so powerful! It was almost overwhelming. How could Tenten approach a living legend?
So she chose not to. She decided to continue her training, and to display herself in front of Tsunade and hope, dream, wish, that one day Tsunade would turn her head, and see her. Want her. Need her. She would be as a lovely flower growing in an empty field, waiting for her master to come and pluck her.
But whilst she was displaying her petals, a weed uprooted itself and went in search of the gardener.
Sakura; weak, pathetic, lonely, ugly little Sakura, went and planted herself in front of Tsunade, demanded her attention and strength and affection, and received it.
Sakura was Tsunade's student. And she was good at it.
Tenten had to deliver a message to the Hokage once, and when she entered her office, there was Sakura: sitting at Tsunade's feet scribbling in a scroll, looking up at Tsunade with bright, inquisitive eyes, and Tsunade looking down with a stern face, slightly softened by almost loving indulgence.
They were the perfect picture of teacher and student, and it made Tenten sick to her stomach.
How had this happened? Tenten was the perfect kunoichi! She was pretty and lethal, well trained without losing her feminine charm. She stared at Sakura's rough haircut and slim, almost boyish figure, and did not understand.
Sakura has taken Tenten's dream, and proven herself more worthy of it than Tenten herself.
So now Tenten had a new dream: to defeat Sakura. Then, she swore to herself, then her idol would see her.
And then she would be Tsunade.