**Try not'a snack too much while reading, eh?
DISCLAIMER: This entire story is Copywrite. MINE. Got it? Naruto, however, is NOT. Neither, mind you, are the characters MINE. They all belong to Kishimoto and the Naruto franchise.
Summary: Tenten, daughter of the most important man in the nation, has run off to risk her life for the sake of adventure. With a new identity and a stiff-necked partner, Neji Hyuga, she'll learn that being a New York City cop isn't just about good stories. AU.
-x0x-
Fake It 'till You Make It:
Prologue:
The sound of hundreds of feet, accompanied only by the shouts of men, filled the air of one most potentially peaceful night. Of course, thing were never peaceful around her. She had a way of stirring stuff up. The regularly pale White House was flashing in a multicolour array: the late summer night's blue haze, the moon's beige glow, the yellow indoor and outdoor lights, and the red and blue lights from the police cars. Although at night it was usually quiet, silenced by the unheard creeping of the secret service roaming aimlessly through the freshly cut grass, this night was quite contrary.
She rested in a tree not too far from the house, having lost most of her stamina to the chase of burly guards. Even though her breath was as heavy as a mid-April rain-shower, she had to be deafly quiet. She was quite far away from the war-like chaos, but somehow her father's sonorous, bellowing voice still reached her. She rested her legs over the branch, preparing to jump to the ground. Yes, she had waited long enough. Readying her arms in case her legs couldn't handle the impact, she let air pluck her from the safe arms of the tree and found much rougher hands to embrace her, with the rushing of the ground. Pausing for a moment with one knee on the cold dirt, she glanced back at her father, commanding his men where to look for her. As if he could guess such a thing. She smirked for her dumbfounded father and stood up strait, looking towards the only direction she possibly wanted to see.
Her heart pounded in anticipation as she raced into the shadows, slowly making her way away from her father and towards the street. Glancing uneasily behind her to make certain there was no one following, she found little comfort in the fact that no one was in sight. Jumping over a few obstacles, she dashed around the corner, hustling along the empty road towards a small silver car parked and ready to go, all but in gear. She scampered to the car's side and opened the driver's door as briskly as she might have hoped without the corner tagging the close-by rubbish she'd parked beside. As quickly as she could, she peeled out of her temporary parking spot, leaving but a burnt rubber signature on the otherwise pristine roadside, and drove as far away from that place as she could.
Her well-earned driver's license calls her Tenten. The President's step daughter, who wouldn't dare take the name so easily recognizable as was his. According to her simplified, numeral birth date, she's twenty-six years old. And far too old to still walk the hallows of the oval office with a man she barely knows. For years, she'd been asking him if she could leave, if she could get a job herself, even vote. Of course, she'd never vote for him again; she knew well what his real platform was. But he was far too 'overprotective', the paper's might have read, to allow it; not to mention he needed the 'father figure' image for his campaign. It's all he had left after the 'faithful husband' angle was shot, a death shared all to well by her mother. Tenten wouldn't let politics be the death of her too. It wasn't the first time she'd ever tried to get away, but it was the first time she'd gotten this far. Rolling down the window to breath the skyline, she rubbed her brown, almost mahogany hair out of her face. She usually put in a long braid or twin buns, specifically for this reason, but tonight she felt her hair would have to mirror her own freedom. She shared a warm glance with the eyes of her rear-view mirror, the same light, golden brown as her own. On her face she always wore a crooked smirk that went well with her thin, rolling, excited eyebrows.
The building she had been searching for appeared in her line of view, between a law firm and an podiatrist's office. Tenten had been driving too long already, as she wasn't one to sit still for long. The sun had already come up and settled behind deep grey clouds, if not growling thunder-heads then masses of smog. The building seemed old, but no older than she remembered; it had a faded grey paint layered over some dried up deep green from the previous owners, with cracks in the foundation. It looked like a scar compared to the fresh pair linking arms with it. She parked her car in front of the place and stepped out, looking at the shop she knew so well. Well, perhaps not so well lately. Inhaling a deep breath, she entered, hearing a small bell ring above her when she pushed the door open.
"Aunt Kurenai?" She asked quietly as she glanced around the shop. There was no answer, except the settling of dust and easing of the waving bell. She waited a moment longer before asking the vacancy again, "Hello? Auntie, are you up yet?"
"Tenten , is that you?" She heard a reply, through two turns-worth of space down the hall towards the back stock room.
"Yeah, where are you?" She followed the direction of the voice through the cluttered shelves.
"Around back, dear, hurry over," Was the woman's reply. Tenten slipped around the relic cash register and into the low-roved back room. "What are you doing here, after so long, no doubt?"
The woman peeked her head up from behind a box balancing on two tiny hands, her dark hair waving over her ears as if following the few wisps of grey that she'd neglected to colour. Her face was stern but sincere, as Tenten might have expected after such an absence. She stood about as tall as Tenten, though she leaned back with the weight of cardboard and some kind of crumby merchandise. Her skin looked wrinkled but well worn, despite such often laughter. Tenten rushed over and helped her with the box, easily grasping it and placing it atop a small counter with a single chair but many drawers.
"Just out for a drive, you know. Forever." She watched her aunt's puzzled reaction. "That man won't be bothering me and my 'ungrateful attitude' any longer." She quoted in a low tone, with a smirk of some kind.
"That man is your father." Her aunt reminded her carefully.
"Step father, I'm not actually related to him." She spat, seeming somewhat more resentful, "And thank God."
"Nonetheless," She waved off Tenten's obvious disrespect as she sat in the chair behind the counter, "he's the closest thing to a parent you have. That's something."
"Actually I think I'd consider his secretary more of a parent than he was, but I suppose you're obliged to speak well of such prestige," She added, more sarcastically.
"It's not as if I like the guy any more than you do." She returned Tenten's earlier smile, "I just hide it better."
"I'd rather not talk about him." She said softly, resting her arms on a counter near her aunt, "I need a favour."
"A favour?" She repeated, "I don't know if I can get close enough to your Dad to slit his throat, but I can certainly try." She shrugged jokingly.
"Surely you're kidding," She stared blankly.
"I am. But don't call me Shirley," She laughed at the age-old pun, but Tenten only rolled her eyes and waited for her to finish. "As long as there's no homicide, I'm game."
"There could be some, but not on your part." She replied vaguely, interesting her aunt.
"I have to advise you against murder, Tenny," She said quickly, "And my knowledge of it would make me an accessory, and I am not about to-"
"Shut it Shirley," She laughed out, joking again. She inhaled slowly to start, "I want to be a cop."
"A... cop?" She asked, bewildered, "What on Earth would posses you to want that?" She was definitely startled by her niece's answer.
"Mom use to talk about her old times on the force, do you remember? It sounded just amazing, like a never-ending adventure," She rested her face on her hands and her elbows on the counter.
"Oh it ends pretty quick when you've got a bank robber with a Mac11 shooting at anyone who moves, and let me remind you it'd be your 'amazing' job to move to intercept him." She went on rambling, obviously never excited about the idea.
"Well, I'm going to need a fake ID to get away from Mr. President and I thought: why not a badge, too?" She continued, counting on her fingers.
"Do you ever listen? Besides, I'm not exactly in the fake ID business any more, remember? I retired after your mother died." She said on a sour note.
"Couldn't you just do one more, I mean it's family!" Tenten begged with a pouted lip, "And you can use mom's old badge to boot!"
"That's a tall order there babe, my hands aren't what they used to be, you know." She complained, but when she saw the look on her niece's face she knew that her mind was already made up, "And it depends on where you're planning on going; I'll need to do my research of course."
"Where else would I go than New York City," She stated firmly, more than influenced by the setting of her mother's tales, "The central crime city in all America!" That wasn't true at all. But from the stories, it sounded like it.
"Of course," She sighed, "I should have guessed. I suppose you've set your mind on this and looked at every other possibility a hundred times already?" She watched Tenten nod her head up and down so quickly she was sure she'd give herself whiplash, "Okay, all right already. I'll do it. Sheesh girl. I'll have it ready for you in two days, can you lay low that long?" She asked raising an eyebrow.
"I'll book the plane ticket right away." She grinned a wide, toothy smile.
"Plane ticket, how are you going to afford-" She was interrupted by her niece holding up a fan of bills. "A Cop who smuggles money from the President of the United States," She smiled and shook her head.
"I call it child support," She said in her defence, and her aunt laughed.
"Fine," She wasn't about to give her a speech on ethics while she cheated the government herself, "you can stay in the guest room upstairs." Kurenai gave in, flicking her wrist.
"Thank you!" She hugged her aunt tightly, perhaps too tightly as Kurenai stiffened awkwardly. Tenten thanked her again, bowing with palms together, then bounced upstairs, humming a tune.
"She'll come to regret her rush." She muttered to the dust bunnies, "That girl has no idea what she's in for." She shook her head in premonition as she began working on creating herself a new niece. Maybe this one will count her blessings.
-x0x-
Preview of Next Chapter:
"New partners? You two have only worked together for a few months!" He groaned, tired of hearing this from them, "You have to learn how to work with other people, despite your stupid issues."
"Neji'll never work well with others, Sir," Lee said, though he was right, he had to add, "I bet he was the kid who used to dunk other kid's heads in the sandbox."
"You like to try that again?" Neji eyed him with a low growl.
"Please, sir?" He changed the subject, luckily, "You know if you keep us together we'll probably just keep messing up." Lee negotiated.
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