The Land of Heaven
(A Heaven Country rewrite)
By: GoldenDragonClouds
Chapter 2: A Flashback and Introductions
Summary: Tenten is not the orphaned girl everyone thinks she is. She's actually from a prestigious clan, and hails from the legendary Ryogakure of the Land of Heaven. She ran away because her father wouldn't let her become a ninja, as was the clan rules with women. Now her best friend from Ryogakure has come to get her after eleven years, and she has no choice but to go back. What will her friends think? Will she reveal her secret at all? Takes place in Shippuden, before Jiraiya goes off and dies. NejiTen, ShikaTema.
Disclaimer: Don't own.
(Flashback)
Her father Tian-long gazed down at his children, her siblings, all assembled in from of him in the formal attire of the Dragon's Court. He then smiled at them, a rare sight to behold.
The six siblings stared at his feet, the lowering of gazes a sign of respect. They were waiting for him to speak, and so he did.
"My children. As you all know, the Tianying's Second, your aunt Tian-hua, is in charge of the old artifacts of our country. Every ten years she chooses a few that we want to duplicate, and give out as gifts. Here are ten duplicates, one of each of the ones she found." He gestured to the table in front of him. "You may choose one. Choose your gift wisely."
His eldest two squealed in delight, and Tian-long mentally frowned at them while nodding in approval at the younger ones, standing still with contemplative smiles on their faces.
"You will approach the table by birth order." He added, half because he wanted order, half because he wanted to see his children's reactions.
Tian-lai and Tian-lan grumbled, but Tian-tian smiled. None of her siblings, she knew, would choose her preference. It was a simple matter of Tianming, of Fate's loom.
Tian-xian, feeling all authoritative, stepped forth towards the table and scrutinized every which gift sharp eyes. She then strayed away from the three swords and instead focused on the other gifts. But there was one she lingered on, and that gift she chose. It was a beautiful brooch, shaped like a magnificent swan spreading its wings. It showed Tian-xian's nature exactly- beautiful, but conceited, caring only about her looks.
Their father frowned. So it won't be her, Tian-tian mused. She watched with interest as Tian-lai, Tian-xian's younger twin, stepped towards the table.
Tian-lai's choice was yet another brooch, a butterfly this time. It reflected her beauty that rivaled her twin's. Yet it also showed the fact that like a butterfly, Tian-lai never stayed long in one place, flitting from one decision to then next.
"I thought as much..." Her father was muttering. Only Tian-tian heard him, the others' attentions too intent on the gifts remaining.
Tian-lan, after a short gloating session with Tian-biao as the audience, stepped up to the table. She took the longest time, ultimately choosing a crystal statuette of a phoenix. The statuette was truly beautiful, but it as well reflected it's owner's personality.
She cared, of course, and those were the intricate details of the bird. However, she could not put her abilities into practical use, just like the statuette was useless but for decoration. So she would be, later in life, admired but never coveted for.
Tian-long smiled at his son Tian-biao, who stepped out boldly to take one sweeping look at the table. But the father's smile turned down with disappointment when Tian-biao strut forward to grab the largest and heaviest of the three swords, a triumphant smirk plastered on his face. His small nine-year-old form teetered from the weight of the sword but he brandished it nonetheless.
Tian-tian raged inwardly at the stupidity of her brother. Had he not been listening to his lessons? Had he really never heard of the legend of the Demon Sword? Although this was obviously only a copy, it was a copy of the sword most coveted, the one that was most fought for. This could only mean that someday the foolish prince would fall, as was the curse of the Demon sword. He had chosen the gift among ten that showed him best, after all. An arrogant prince that thought of strength and invincibility over all.
A glance at her father told her he was thinking the same thing. A stormy look flitted onto his face for a moment before he adopted that stoic look every Tianying in history seemed to be able to posses. No one else noticed this quick change. I am the best at reading stoic faces, Tian-tian told herself, even if I'm only five.
She then stood attention once more as her twin brother hesitantly approached the table. Tian-di scrutinized every gift and after much contemplation, he lifted one of the two elaborately embroidered scrolls on the tabletop. The writing on its exterior indicated that the scroll was on the history of the Land of Heaven.
The look on her father's face was one of approval. Nothing had changed except for a slight crinkling of eyes, yet Tian-tian knew that her father was smiling proudly on the inside. Tian-tian knew then and there that Tian-di, no matter what, would be named the true heir, many years later. All her father had to do now was to choose the second. But she was not going to let that happen to her.
It was her turn next, as the youngest. She gazed at the five left over items on the tabletop without great interest, much to the annoyance of her father, she knew. What was left were two swords, one scroll, a brooch and a statuette. She didn't even have to look, really, she decided, rolling her eyes and giving a small child's smirk.
The scroll. It was the scroll that drew her attention. It was written in her language, but the writing hinted that the content was not of her people, but of the five great hidden villages, and the history of shinobi in the many lands of this world. She picked it up, indicating her choice.
Tian-tian glanced at her father to see him frown slightly and smiled. She knew it. Whatever it took, she wasn't going to be held back here. Whatever it took, she was going to break the rules of the Tian clan to fufill her dream. Whatever it took, she would become a kunoichi. A proper one, like the legendary Tsunade. Not like the weak ones here in the Land of Heaven.
She would be a strong, independent person.
Not just a princess.
(Flashback over)
Tenten awoke to the sound of knocking and jumped up from her bed. She rubbed her eyes thoroughly, trying to hide traces of last night's late talks with Jin-cai. What had surprised her was the dream. She hadn't been having any dreams related to her childhood since she was eleven... There was the sharp rap on her door again. Tenten groaned. Only one person would ever knock like that.
"Coming!" She shouted, changing out of her pajamas into her usual garb. Her clothes had changed a lot over the years, she mused, and frowned as she thought of the traditional clothing back in the Land of Heaven. Those tight, long dresses of the upper class had been hard to move in and were not to her liking. Her clothes now did reflect her original country, yet not the clothes of the nobility. They were more like the ones peasants wore, for hard work.
She hastily pulled her hair into the usual buns and yanked opened the door to find a scowling Neji. She smiled at him.
"How long were you going to make me wait?" Neji demanded, and Tenten sighed.
"I have a guest and slept in. Sorry, Neji." Neji's slight scowl turned into a disapproving frown.
Tenten stepped back to allow him into her messy two-room-plus-kitchen-and-bathroom home, and he took the invitation to go sit at the table in the kitchen. Remnants of Jin-cai's breakfast littered the sink, and Tenten hastily cleared them away to pull out a kettle and set it on the stove. In her hurry, she poured more than enough water for three cups of tea into it.
She then sat down in front of him with a questioning gaze. "And so? What brings you here so early in the morning? We don't have morning practice today." Neji held up three mission scrolls, all three stamped with a clear A.
"A messenger came to the Hyuga compound to tell me to give these to you, Lee, and a Jin-cai?" Neji raised an eyebrow. "Is this Jin-cai your guest? Why is he staying with you?"
"She, is an old friend of mine. She's from a different village... I met her on a mission once, I think, in Tea Country?" Neji had thought Jin-cai was a boy? Wait until she heard about that! Tenten then noticed his face relaxing, and tensed herself. What was going on inside that large brain of his? As if on cue, Neji opened his mouth just to be cut off by a shout from the bathroom.
"Tenten!" Tenten flinched, and Neji looked moderately amused. He raised an eyebrow again.
"That'd be her." She bolted from the table to the bathroom door. "What do you need, Jin-cai?"
"Where are the towels? I can't find any!"
"They're all in the cabinet under the sink."
She listened for a creak, then a shutting of the cabinet. "Oh," came the cheerful response. Jin-cai yanked open the bathroom door and waltzed out, just to freeze at the sight of Neji at the kitchen table.
"Tenten, who's he? Your boyfriend?" She nonchalantly asked, going to the kitchen herself. She pulled up a chair between Tenten's and Neji's seats. Tenten rolled her eyes.
"No! Not like that! Neji's too cold for that kind of affection. Just joking, Neji," she added before Neji could get mad. "Neji's my teammate from my Genin team, Jin-cai. And one of my best friends." She grinned at him.
Jin-cai snorted. "You were always best with the stoic ones."
Tenten stuck her tongue out at her, and they both started laughing. Neji looked on, almost impassively. But Tenten could tell he was curious, curious as to what Jin-cai meant by "always." She decided to introduce them to each other.
"Anyway. Jin-cai, Hyuga Neji. Neji, Jin-cai. Neji's a jonin, the only one our age at that level. Well, from Konoha, anyway. Jin-cai's from..."
"Ryogakure. You don't believe me, fine. Tsunade'll explain in the meeting anyway." Jin-cai but in. She smirked when Tenten started.
"We have a meeting? When?"
"In around thirty minutes." Neji replied for her. Tenten let out a sigh of relief.
"And here I thought we were late." The kettle whistled, startling her once more. Tenten went to get the tea, concentrating on the task at hand and blocking out all sounds from behind her. "Tea's ready!" She said, straightening to deliver the three mugs of tea to the table. She then stopped, frowning. There was a silence between the furious Neji and a grinning Jin-cai.
Neji grabbed his tea with a scowl, his face smoothening out a bit as he started to sip the hot liquid. It only took a raised eyebrow from Jin-cai, however, to bring back that scowl on his face.
Tenten didn't even want to know what had gone on between the two. She sighed, however. This was not going to be pretty.
Half an hour later found them in the corridor outside of Tsunade's office with Lee, Temari, Shikamaru, Sakura, Sai, Yamato, and Naruto. Tenten winced at the sight of the orange-clad ninja, much to the curiosity of her foreign friends.
"So you made it on time," Temari drawled, trying to act normal after what happened last night. Tenten sighed.
"Yeah. And they," she pointed at Jin-cai and Neji, "were bickering the whole way here. I don't know what happened to make Neji hate Jin-cai so much. She's a nice person."
"Wait, she's the one from yesterday!" Sakura exclaimed, making Jin-cai turn around and wave.
"Hey, it's the pink-hair!" Tenten jabbed Jin-cai's arm.
"That wasn't very nice!" Jin-cai held up her hands in retaliation.
"I don't know her name!" Sakura laughed at that, choosing to introduce herself.
"I'm Haruno Sakura. You are?"
"Jin-cai, from the Land of Heaven."
"What, seriously?" Sakura exclaimed, eyes going wide. Jin-cai rolled her eyes.
"No, silly, I'm a wandering ninja who has nothing better to do than to lie to everyone I meet." She said with a completely straight face.
Sakura's face contorted in rage, and she opened her mouth to retaliate. At that moment, however, Shizune opened the office door and told the group that Tsunade was ready to meet them.
In less than five minutes, the office had descended into pandemonium.
"You really are from the Land of Heaven!"
"Why are we escorting a Princess? Shouldn't she be with the royal guard or something?"
"This... is so troublesome."
"But the legends were true?" They all turned to Jin-cai, who only smiled at them.
"Of course," she said, "We've been keeping quiet for so long, no wonder it seems like we're only a legend. Although, our country is as large as Fire Country. It was pretty difficult, but we're going on fine."
"Why did you come here then?" Sakura asked, curious.
"I already told you, our Tenkage is requesting that shinobi escort our princess back to our country- she traveled here some time ago and needs to go back." Jin-cai looked at Tsunade. "Are introductions in order? I do want to know who it is that is going to escort me and my princess."
"Why don't you go first?" The female Hokage guestured to her, and Jin-cai complied.
"As I already told you, I'm Tenten's friend from Ryogakure. I am one of the royal guard, like one of you pointed out that a princess should need just a few moments ago, so I'm the one that came here to request the mission from you. Anyway, nice to meet you."
Tsunade turned from Jin-cai to Shikamaru, nodding at him to speak.
"Nara Shikamaru. I'm a Chunin, and I'll look over the diplomatic talks in this mission. If they are any." Shikamaru turned to the person next to him, who happened to be Temari. "You next."
"I'm Temari of the Sand, Jonin. Obviously I'm from Sunagakure, but I'll be accompanying you on this mission because the Kazekage wants me to go." The introductions went on.
"Rock Lee! I am a Chunin of the most youthful Konohagakure! May I say that..." He was cut short by Tenten snapping in front of his face. Obviously she didn't want an embarrassment in front of Jin-cai.
"Hyuuga Neji. We've met." His short, terse, introduction made Tenten frown. What exactly had Jin-cai said to him? Neji was still obviously mad at her.
"Haruno Sakura. I'm a Chunin and a medic. Nice to meet you!" Sakura smiled pleasantly, and Jin-cai smiled back, nodding at the next person in the room.
"My name is Sai. Nice to meet you." Jin-cai raised an eyebrow at his false smile, noting his unusual clothing.
"Um... right. Sure. Next?"
"My name is Yamato, and I will be the leader of this mission." He smiled, and Jin-cai frowned.
"Rank?" She asked skeptically, and Naruto but in before Yamato could answer.
"He's an ex-ANBU!" Jin-cai raised an eyebrow at his outburst. Yamato groaned slightly.
"And who would you be?"
"Uzumaki Naruto, the next Hokage of Konoha!" Naruto exclaimed, flashing a smile at her.
Jin-cai froze, eyes growing wide. "You..." she whispered, turning a jerky head towards Tenten, and then at Tsunade. They both nodded back, Tenten more discretely. Jin-cai swallowed before exhibiting a pleasant smile on her face. Tenten could see that it was strained.
"And what rank would you be?"
"I'm ah... a Genin."
The strained smile turned into a relaxed smirk. "And you expect to become Hokage? Who were your teachers? Would they not be disappointed at you considering your current rank?"
Naruto instantly bristled at the comment, crouching into a battle stance. "I don't care whoever you are, but you're worse than Sai with insults." He launched a kunai at her.
"Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed, and Yamato instantly tried to retrieve the flying kunai with his wooden arm. His hand met thin air when the kunai stopped in front of Jin-cai's face to drop into her waiting hand.
The majority of the room blanched.
"What was... what the hell just happened?" Naruto asked cautiously.
"My bloodline. I am of the Jin clan, or in your language, Kin. We can control all types of metal, if trained." Jin-cai grinned evilly. "Which means I can do this."
The kunai flew out of her hands, blunt end first, straight at Naruto's headband. The force of the impact was strong enough to blow him into the wall, leaving an imprinted area of impact. The others laughed at Naruto's comical expression, loosening the tense atmosphere.
"Oops." Jin-cai grinned, sending Sakura into heaps of silent laughter.
"Yosh! Friend of Tenten! The power of youth flows within you! We shall commence and complete whatever dangerous mission it is that you requested with this flowing power!"
Jin-cai looked moderately alarmed at his sudden outburst.
"Um... yeah. Sure... Lee, was it? What's up with the green spandex?" She looked towards Tenten and Neji, knowing from a late night talk with Tenten that this was one of her other teammates.
"Lee, let's not right now. Jin-cai, I'll um... explain later. Or not. You don't want to hear it." Tenten and Neji both shuddered as she finished the statement.
"What else can you do?" Sakura asked, once she had finished coughing up the last of her laughs.
"Um, here, wait. I was supposed to give the Hokage this..." Jin-cai reached into her bag to rummage through the different scrolls inside. "Ah, here it is!"
She unfurled the scroll, unsealing what was inside with a dash of blood and a small "Kai!" It turned out to be a lump of metal of a gold sheen. "Just wait," she said before anyone could ask any questions, and pumped chakra into her hands until they glowed a soft blue.
She then took the metal lump into her hands, moving her fingers here and there and keeping it up until the sweat shone on her brow. She then let go, removing the blue haze from view and revealing a large clockwork bird on her palm. She held it out to Tsunade. "There you go. Our Tenkage wanted me to give this to you, for communicational purposes during the mission."
"So that thing is a..."
"Yes, a communication device. It doesn't fly far, but with a twin somewhere else the messages will be passed quickly. Simply open the hatch and place the paper or scroll inside of the bird to transport it to the other. Only those of our clan knows how to make these, and..." Jin-cai took a kunai to etch several characters onto the bird's head. "There. It'll only transport messages to the Tenkage's now."
"It looks a lot like the thing Chiyo-baasan used during our retrieval mission." Naruto said, looking at Sakura and Temari. They nodded, slowly, sadly. Yamato broke them out of their sentiments.
"What other notable bloodlines are there in Ryogakure?"
"Well, not in Ryogakure; five of our major clans rule over the five major districts of our country. And then there's the Tenkage who rules over everyone from Ryogakure. I'm from the Jin clan, as you already know, and the ability to control metal is our bloodline limit. Um... There's the Huo clan... I guess in your language it's Hi, or Ho, as in Hokage."
"So their name is Fire?" Sakura but in, raising her eyebrows.
"Yeah. It's cuz they use and manipulate fire...without any hand seals. If powerful enough they can emit fire from their fists and feet, if not, usually from their mouths. There's the Shui clan, Mizu, in your language. They can't emit water unless using seals like normal shinobi, but they can still control it, quickly and firmly, without the use of seals. There's the Tu clan... Tsuchi. I guess all of these clans are like the elemental countries' names. Well, we don't have a Dian, a lightning, in favor of Jin, metal. Anyway. Tu clan... dirt? No, more like Earth. Soil. Dirt, rock, and if strong enough, sand."
Jin-cai didn't notice the entire group shudder, having pulled herself deep into her mind to think of the different clans individually for explanations. Temari shook her head. She prayed those Tu clan members weren't as brutal as her brother once was. Jin-cai opened her mouth to continue.
"And then there's the Mu clan... wait, which do we not have that's replaced by Mu? Oh... oh. We don't have a Feng, a Kaze. Well, still. Mu clan... I actually don't know how to say this in the common shinobi speech... They control wood. And plants. Like you did with your arm." She pointed at Yamato.
Many of them stared at her, shocked. More Wood release users?
"Oh, and the Tenkage is always, always, always, from the Tian clan. And unless you are from the Tian clan, you don't know the full prowess of their bloodline limit." She smirked when they all faltered, having expected her to explain about the Tian clan's bloodline as well. "Their purpose is to keep the Land of Heaven from strife with the shinobi lands. And it's a Tian heiress we'll be escorting there."
Silence fell on the room. And then Shikamaru opened his mouth.
"A heiress? Not the?"
They all listened closely, knowing that what came next would be important.
"Oh, yeah. A heiress. There is no birthright, it's always the incumbent Tenkage who selects the next leader. Everyone gets an equal chance." She shrugged, indicating her indifference with the idea.
"So... the person we are escorting is a possible future Tenkage?" Sai asked suddenly, startling Naruto.
"Um... not really. She's been away too long to be considered a safe choice. She might, however, be chosen for the Tenkage's Second."
There were millions of questions the others wanted to ask, Tenten was sure. But she wouldn't let them do that. She opened her mouth to ask a question herself.
"Why was she away from the country?" Damn, that could go in a direction she didn't want. But she let it go anyway.
"She wanted to see the outside world. Tian clan women aren't permitted to become kunoichi. They learn their bloodline techniques, but even then only around half of them, nothing more and nothing less. She wanted to see a place where this rule didn't exist, I suppose." Jin-cai nodded at the others' sympathetic gazes.
"But... but... the power of youth should be..."
"Enough, Lee. It's been like that for more than a hundred years now." Jin-cai smiled at him. This only egged him on.
"Then we shall free them of this curse of fate! Just like Naruto did for our Neji!" Tenten and Sakura giggled at Neji's twitching.
"Um... glad you're getting into the mood, Lee. But our mission is tomorrow." Neji took the chance to ask the questions that had been bothering him.
"And our mission is to simply escort her back to Ryogakure?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Then why is this an A class mission than the usual B we save for the safety of a daimyo's son or daughter? And why are there so many shinobi needed in this mission? And not only that, an enemy ninja is revealing all the bloodlines of her country. Is this not suspicious?"
"Geez, Neji, it's 'cuz this person's a Princess!" Naruto exclaimed, and was about to continue when Jin-cai cut him off.
"No, um... Naruto. That's not the only reason I came to request a mission. You see..." she paused, turning to Tsunade. "Maybe it's better for you to explain this."
Tsunade nodded, taking the attention. "The escort is your cover mission, the one you will be paid for. Your real mission on the other hand... Is retrieval." She paused to look Naruto straight in the eye. "Sasuke has been spotted in the Land of Heaven. You are to bring him back alive."
Author Notes:
This was a hard chapter to rewrite.
Not only did I have to cut quite a few characters for the desired number of shinobi in the team, but I had to change around a lot of the dialogue. I also changed the purpose of their mission, so that they knew they were most likely going to meet Sasuke in Ryogakure. Prepared meetings are much easier to write. Yes, I am that lazy; I just admitted it here, there you go.
I feel thoroughly ashamed about the original Chapter 2 of Heaven Country. Jin-cai came off as such a... Mary Sue, so I apologized greatly to the person she was based off of. She waved me off, but I still feel I can only redeem myself by re-writing this entire thing, which I am doing. Speaking of which... I think I'll be cutting out most of the original chapter 3 to replace it with a more... intelligent story line. Original chapter 3 is too... idiotic.
Tenkage, with the kanji pronounced in Mandarin, is Tianying. Because of this I have changed a few of my OCs' names (particularly the names of Tenten's siblings) to make them sound different from this title.
In the future you will see Ryogakure referred to as Longyinli (龙隠里), Mandarin pronunciation. I tried to translate it to the best of my abilities... It still might be wrong.
The word "kai" has the same pronunciation in Japanese and Chinese, for those of you that have yet to know.
On the other hand, I laughed so hard when I discovered the pronunciation for Neji's kanji in Chinese, so much that I decided not to use any of their kanji names in the later chapters of this fiction as I had originally planned. Go look it up if you wish to know so much. Or just ask me in a review/PM. It's not that funny, by the way. I just laughed.
Again, just for clarification, I am not Chinese. Not far from it, but still, no. Mandarin is my third language and as I mentioned in the last chapter's Author's Note, I have not taken proper lessons in around a year. Big thank-you's to those who are fluent in Mandarin and take time to correct my mistakes!
Please review. Whether it be encouraging remarks, correction, criticism, ideas, or just a few words, one small review can brighten up an author's day. Most of the time, at least. It does cause us to write faster, I should think. I do need help on the rewrite of Chapter 3, however.
Ja Ne,
GDC