A/N: Before you start reading - I previously published this story as a NejiTen fic. However, after some more writing, I decided the male lead character I was writing about was more a 'Sasuke' than a 'Neji', and since the SasuTen pairing is also one I find extremely sexy (inhuman squeal), I decided... why not?
Prologue
3rd December, MCM45 – Lingnan, Chi'ne
It never snowed here in Lingnan, but something about its winters made it no less bearable. The cold seeped into your bones and numbed your joints, and no matter how many layers you put on, it would just feel as if you had trapped the cold inside your body instead of keeping it out. However, Tenten supposed this was better than the summers, which were long, and involved unforgiving heat, even in the night time. Today, the sun was bright, but the sky was a filthy grey. As Tenten made her way down a main market street, some stalls were already half closed. Nearby, their owners stood with their heads down, huddling into their thick coats and carefully counting the day's income, occasionally swatting a mosquito or a fly out of their faces. The streets were near empty, as the night food market had not started yet. Here in Lingnan, a small village situated on the south-eastern boarder of the country of Chi'ne, twilight was always a quiet affair.
Tenten sucked in a deep, cold breath of air which stung her nose and lungs with its dryness. She was now close to her destination. The area could be seen from afar. It was a huge expanse walled off with a fence hastily made with uneven pieces of scrap wood and bamboo. Tenten knew she was not supposed to be here because her mother had warned her many times before that the huoshi mines was no place for little girls like her – but she missed her father. In fact, she had not seen him in days and it seemed he had no intention of coming home anytime soon, although he had specifically promised her that he would be in time for her seventh birthday. So, if he was not coming home to her, she'd go to him.
The entrance was a gaping and wide open gate, with no guards, so Tenten slipped in easily. Her little feet left a trail of tiny clouds of risen dirt and dust as they hit the loose soil which had evidently been overturned many times before. Huoshi mines were a new addition to the village. Word has it that a few years ago, when Lingnan was still a humble, heavily agricultural town, one of the local farmers found one of his sheep choking while grazing. After some pushing and a lot of heaving, the sheep spat out a single, multi-coloured crystal no bigger than the tip of a thumb. It was a strange but beautiful object, certainly not anything anyone had ever seen before. After that, Lingnan became a mine village overnight.
The truth was nobody really knew who had started this, or which had been the initial discovery. All they knew was that once the first few stones were exposed, word began to spread like wildfire. Soon, envoys from the royal Chi'ne palace arrived at the village and took over the command work of the farming and mining of these new gems. Locals like Tenten's own father, who was originally a weapons master and seller, were "mass employed" to do the labour, but the profits had now become the country's profit. The royal family even gave names to these stones – huoshi, 'fire stones' they called them. Tenten did not really understand why they would call them that. These stones came in all shapes, sizes and colours. They were just as much 'water stones' or 'golden stones' as they were 'fire stones', but apparently, the Empress Dowager Renfu, the Emporers own mother, had eyes only for the red ones, and so if she wanted them to be called fire stones, then they were fire stones.
Tenten was careful not to slip into any of the numerous gigantic craters which sunk into the earth around her. These were the huoshi mines, stretching one after another across fields into the distance, each with a diameter of at least half a mile. She could see men, and occasionally, some women too, scattered across them like ants, their shovels clank clank clunking as they hit the soil in a steady rhythm. She had been here just once before, a few weeks ago, with her mother, to bring her father his winter coat. She could still remember exactly which cavern it was her father had been working on – this was one of the things she knew was special about her, because the adults always praised her about it. Tenten had an incredible sense of direction and map memory; which was perhaps somehow a by-product of the target training her parents liked to give her with their famous handmade kunais and shurikens. Her parents owned and ran (for now, it was just her mother) the only weapons shop in town, and they were famous for it because they were ex-agents for the royal Chi'ne family before they retired when Tenten's mother became pregnant.
"Pa!" Tenten shouts delightfully as she catches a glimpse of what looks like her father.
He turns at the familiar voice, and Tenten sees his face has become severely tanned. In fact, it is copper – brown from the old sun, with a hint of pinkish red from the new burns. His arms and legs are dirty – the dust standing out as pale against his darkened skin. The ends of his utility jacket and worn out jeans are rolled up, despite the cold. His face is happy for a split-second, before it falls to become stern.
"Tenten, what are you doing here?" He asks.
She pouts.
"This place is dangerous for children. Does your Ma know you're here?"
She shakes her head.
They are silent for a moment, before she says in a tiny voice:
"I just wanted to come see you, Pa. You haven't been home for days."
His face softens, as a hint of a smile gleams from his eyes.
"I know, I'm sorry, Tenten. It's just that they found a new hotspot a few days ago, and we haven't been able to stop."
She shuffles her feet against the loose soil.
"I don't like these fire stones…" she says. Her father hushes her.
"Don't say that here."
"When will Pa be home…?"She looks up at him.
He smiles and pats her on the head.
"I'll come home to see you and Ma very soon. Tomorrow night, perhaps, if all things go as planned."
Tenten sniffles in the cold air and nods.
"Ok." She says.
He takes off his jacket and pulls it onto her. It is much too large, so he rolls up the sleeves for her.
"It's cold, Pa." She says.
"I don't need it. We don't want you getting ill now, do we? Your Ma will have a fit."
"No…" she whispers softly.
He sighs at his daughter.
Suddenly, there is a twinkle in his eyes as he kneels down and faces her.
"I wasn't going to give you this until I got home, but…"
He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a few, tiny, colourful fire stones.
"Pa!" she squeaks.
"Shhh," he hushes her. "I thought you didn't like them, eh?" He teases. She giggles sheepishly.
"Now don't tell anyone about these, keep it safe in your pocket and go straight home; and do me a favor, will you?"
"What is it?" she asks, stuffing the tiny prize into her pocket.
"Save one for your Ma for me. Ok?"
She nods happily before receiving a final pat on the head.
As Tenten turns to leave, a sudden rumbling like thunder, echoes across the sky, and her father grabs hold of her arm to stop her. Slowly, the people around them hear it too. They drop their tools and begin to search the skies for the source. The noise becomes louder and louder; and then tiny black dots slide into view. They grow until they are no longer dots, and the noise becomes deafening.
Tenten presses herself against her father's legs and trembles at the large helicopters screaming above them in the sky.
"Pa, Pa! What's going on?" she cries, but her father cannot hear her over the noise. People around them begin to scream and shout in confusion because they know; from the photographs they have seen and footages on the news, even though they do not know why.
Tenten's father suddenly picks her up and begins to run. She cries, because she is uncomfortable - her body is being thrown in all directions as they are both pushed and shoved by the scramble of people moving in all directions. They hear it; the first drop of a bomb hitting one of the mines furthest away, and a dreaded feeling strikes them in the guts, leaving them out of breath.
The noises are getting closer, and soon, people are moving in one direction like current. Tenten and her father are pushed along with them. Scattered pieces of objects fly at their faces as they feel the heat against their backs and see each other's horrified faces light up; bursting flames reflecting in their eyes; they hear it above them; they hear the high pitch noise of it dropping…
Tenten watches over her father's shoulder as the flames rush towards them and she knows it is about to swallow them both.
In one second, millions are evaporated from the face of the earth.
A/N - Songs of the chapter: 'The Living Sculptures of Pemberley' for the first part, 'Snape to Malfoy Manor' for the second! Muahahaha.