Neji's brows were twitching and well Tenten was still fuming.
"WHO THE #$? DO YOU &?$ ARE #$#?"
"SHUT IT WOMAN! YOU HAVE BEEN YELLING FOR AT LEAST AN HOUR!"
"THAT'S BECAUSE I'M NOT DONE YET!"
"YOU ARE NOW BECAUSE I SAY SO!"
"NO!"
"YES!"
"NO!"
"YES!"
"NO!"
She inhaled deeply to calm down. 'This is going nowhere, anyway…'
Neji signed. 'She finally calmed down …'
"Well, Lord, I want to get away from here as soon as possible."
"No. I need you."
"Sorry?!? I didn't catch that!"
"I said I need you because I want you to pose as my fiancée. The elders want me to find a bride and you just pinned down the door so they think you are my 'new found love'. It's you or a drooling brat so you are going to pose as my fiancé."
"ARE YOU GONE CRAZY OR DID YOU JUST HIT YOUR HEAD SOMEWHERE!?"
"CAN YOU STOP YELLING FOR ONLY ONE SECOND!?"
"I'm not doing this."
She crossed her arms under her chest and huffed looking away.
"Fine! But then I will have to give you the plenty of people who want your head… The Lighting country, the Earth country, the …"
"Why you little…!" She swore resisting the urge to make him meet her fists.
"I'm not talking about the ANBU and the gangsters listed after you in the Bingo Book."
She eyed him carefully.
"Are you blackmailing me?"
He smirked and looked in her innocent/outraged hazel eyes.
"Seems like it and I want information on the Earth country."
"It's too much! I have to act as your fiancée for your liking and now you ask me to give you information on the Earth country? What will I win for doing all this?"
"What do you want?"
"To get away from here as soon as possible."
"I'm afraid it's not possible for the moment but when I will say so you can go away."
He gave her another smirk that she wanted to whip away from his face.
"Fine but here's my conditions: don't try anything funny on me, don't touch me, I want a bedroom ONLY for myself whatever your little old friends think about it, after the I-dump-you-and-disappear part I want that you never mention my true name ever again and I want to never hear of you again."
'So demanding…' He sweat dropped.
"I can agree to all of this and here's my others conditions: I want you to spar with me, to act like a woman, to convince other people that we are together and finally never EVER again order me around in front of other people."
She fumed. 'I will kick his butt.' He smirked. 'It was so easy…'
"Oh and before I forget… You will also spar with a Ninjutsu user, a Taijutsu user and a Genjutsu specialist to make the elders believe I evaluated you and declared you skilled and worth to be my bride."
"Anything else for your Highness?" She asked sarcastically.
"Yes I'm a little tense can you give a massage?"
SLAP!
He glared at her rubbing his burning cheek. 'This woman is…ARGH! WHO THE HELL DOES SHE THINK SHE IS?!?'
"Did you…"
She cut off his I'm-the-boss-here-did-you-forget speech.
"What? You said to act like a woman, ne? Deal with it."
There was an eye contest before she turned her head huffing. He smirked. 'I win…'
"LEE!"
There was a loud sound behind the door. 'Not again! Not a third door! God, help me!'
"Dynamic entry!"
The door was pinned down and a man with black hair, fuzzy brows and shining teeth entered in the nice guy pose.
"Hello my beautiful flower I will be the one to evaluate your youthful Taijutsu! I'm Rock Lee, the Green beast of Konoha and the World's greatest Taijutsu specialist!"
'Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, deep breath… DID THIS WEIRD GUY JUST CALL ME 'BEAUTIFUL FLOWER'?!?'
"What is your name, my beautiful flower of the morning?"
She couldn't find a way to tell him to stop yelling in her ears for her sake's and for God sake's too because she was sure he heard his voice. Neji elbowed her in the stomach. He didn't know her name so how come he was supposed to present her. She glared at the King from the corner of her eyes and smiled brightly at Lee.
"I'm Tenten, Lee. I'm really pleased to meet you."
"Such a beautiful name for such beautiful flower! I love your youth! Shall we behind the youthful exercises?"
"Yes. Bring her to the North gardens."
"Roger! If I can't be there in less than 5 minutes I will have to run 500 laps around Konoha."
He ran away leaving a traumatized woman and a Lord sweat dropping.
"I hate you."
He rolled his eyes as she tried to catch up with Lee.
"Guard! Ask for Lady Yamanaka and Lord Nara. I need them, now."
"Hai!"
The guard disappeared and Ino Yamanaka bowed her head in respect at Neji soon followed by Shikamaru Nara.
"I want you to…"
Meanwhile in the gardens
'This thing is going nowhere!' She signed and dodged a blow. 'He's not even taking me seriously!' She sent him a low kick and at the last moment she punched him in the face with her fists. Going back in her Taijutsu fighting stance she glanced at him.
"Take me seriously, Lee."
"Roger!"
He ran towards her. They kept sending each other punches and kicks without wounding seriously the other one. A blond lady with sea-blue eyes named as Ino walked towards them. 'Hum… Not as incompetent as Neji attempted to think…' A tall man with brown hair tied up in a high pony tail yawned lazily deep in thought. 'A too strong Taijutsu for an ordinary woman… I know she has the ANBU and probably all the countries on her heels but still… There's something wrong. It's far too troublesome to think about it now, later maybe after watching the clouds going by…'
"I'm Ino Yamanaka and I'm your evaluator for Genjutsu."
"I'm Tenten and kind of busy."
She dodged a kick with her own leg and attacked once more Lee.
"You can stop now. Lee, Neji wishes to talk to you."
They broke apart sweating and panting.
"You are a great opponent, Lee. We train tomorrow?"
"Of course, Tenten! Your flames of youth need to burn even more."
She smiled brightly. 'He's a weirdo but he's still nice.'
Lee ran off murmuring something about running 549 laps around Konoha for being late.
"Let's do this!"
"Yeah!"
She smiled cheerfully.
They did regular basic Genjutsu for almost 2 hours until Shikamaru stepped on lazily.
"I guess it's my turn. Troublesome… I'm Shikamaru Nara leader of the Nara clan. Anyway, I will be evaluating your Ninjutsu but first tell me if you have a bloodline limit."
"I don't have any." She lied.
"It's troublesome since I have one."
She smirked and picked up her leather coat from the ground. She had taken it out to spar with Lee. 'I just have to watch the shadows.'
"When you are ready, Lord!"
She looked at the ground waiting for him to do his first move.
"Shadow Imitation no jutsu!"
She backed off dodging the shadows. 'The Nara clan… It was a long time ago…' She bit her thumb and ran her blood on one of her scrolls. 2 katanas appeared and Shikamaru cursed with a 'troublesome' He wasn't good at all in close combat because of his jutsus. His Shadow Imitation required a certain distance between him and his opponent. 'Damn…' He took out 2 kunais just in time to block the katanas. After 1 hour, he bowed his head and walked away. It was too troublesome to continue since he knew most of her attacks.
"She's skilled."
"Hn."
"This is troublesome… She seemed to know the name of my clan and my abilities related to it. She didn't even blink once with my Shadow Imitation no jutsu and she was looking at the ground before I attacked. This is such a drag."
The lazy boy signed scratching the back of his head.
"Her power of youth is wonderful! I could barely touch her! Her flames of youth are still burning gracefully!"
"She doesn't possess any Genjutsu in particular. She just knows the basics. She doesn't have any interesting point here."
"Hn."
"Neji… Do you think we should…?"
"Watch over her and make sure she doesn't run away."
"Hai! But you don't want us to investigate about who she is?"
"No. It doesn't matter now but if I found something suspicious I will let you know. Dismissed."
"Troublesome."
"Roger!"
"Hai! I have some times before the shops close. Shika you come with me!"
'Such a drag… and troublesome… It's too troublesome to argue so I suppose I will just follow her like a cloud flying by, pushed by the breeze…'
They all disappeared in a pouf of smoke leaving Neji sighing at his papers work.
In the North Gardens
Tenten stayed for a while in the Gardens training with her weapons. She needed to clear her mind. Konoha… It was a long time since she had felt its breeze on her skin. For so long, she had been running away from here and now, due to fate or maybe just destiny she was here again, in this castle, trying not to remember much of it to not have to feel the pain anymore.
"Tenten…" A soft voice called her from behind.
She turned around putting her swords down and smiling cheerfully at Hinata.
"Hey Hinata! Do you want to spar?"
"I would like to but Brother requests your presence in the ballroom this evening. It's a ball in honor of your new engagement. He asked me to teach you how to act and I'm very sorry that my brother blackmailed you."
Her voice drained again in a low murmur.
"It's okay Hinata. Can you show me my room so I can get ready?"
She plastered a fake smile on her face and picked up her weapons lying all around her. 'Even if it's the last thing on Earth I want to do; nodding politely all the freaking night! Argh! This bastard! How come he's even related to Hinata? She's so nice!'
"Of course…" She answered silently.
Tenten followed the quiet woman in the castle. After a long succession of hallways all richly decorated in the same old style, they finally arrived in front a door in cherry wood. Hinata opened the door quietly and moved aside to let the Weapons Mistress entered.
The room was HUGE! 'Holy shit! It's bigger than my whole apartment in Suna! The King is an iced cube jerk but he's generous. I'll give him that…'
The beige bedroom was illuminated by the door-window which led to a balcony. The King size bed was thronging in the middle of the room with a pale green blanket fitting it neatly. She smiled cheerfully. She had always needed light and the sun here was calming her down. In Suna, it was the Moon but here… Everything was so different from before.
"A maid will bring you your dress for this evening. Shall we begin the lesson? If you don't mind of course…"
Tenten didn't hate Hinata at all but God! Her shyness was annoying in the end. 'Maybe she's just uncomfortable around me… What the hell did I do to be so intimating?' She smiled at her and sat down on the couch.
"I don't mind at all."
Hinata began to explain how to behave this night. Tenten, well, with all the respect due to Lady Hyuuga, wasn't listening at all. She already knew how to behave. She resisted the urge to yawn. It wouldn't be very polite though she wasn't already listening. A thought was whirling over and over in her head as she nodded absently at Hinata's last sentence. The dress… Tenten was frightened. One, because she hated girly things especially dress. How the hell are you suppose to defend yourself in a dress? The only good point here was that she had more places to hide her weapons. Two, because she didn't want to expose her left up shoulder blade for the simple good reason she couldn't. It wasn't very lady-like to have a tattoo. Sometimes, it disappeared but it was still there. In fact, the weapons mistress called it a tattoo to not remain guilty that's all. A tattoo never appears when you are mad, when you call for it or when you are about to use something related to your name (related to the mark if you prefer…) and disappears when you are not using it for a long time. She had tried to get rid of it a long time ago but it couldn't disappear. The best she could do was to seal it but again she didn't know how to. This mark wasn't like the others and couldn't be that easily washed away. Finally, she didn't want at all to act like a lady all the night it will remind her old memories she was certain of it and this fact will lead the damn design on her back to appear.
"… Well I think you know all. I will go now. My husband must be waiting for me."
Tenten faked a smile to hide her anxiety.
"Thanks a lot Hinata. Bye!"
She smiled hesitantly back and closed the door behind her quietly.
She collapsed against the comfortable mattress looking at the ceiling.
'Life sucks…'
'Well, well aren't we a little depressed?'
'Shut up you stupid inner self!'
'You realize you are insulting your own self?'
'No, really?' She replied sarcastically rolling her eyes.
'Hmmm. It's sad that we are back in this castle once more after all this time running away from it… I mean the last time we were happy to be here and she was here too!'
'Shut it!'
'Ohhh! Bad mood, ne, dear?'
'GO BACK IN YOUR HOLE!'
'Which one? The one you are calling your heart or the one where you tried to entomb all your memories?'
'JUST GO AWAY ALREADY!'
'Fine but I will be back now that we are here once more…'
Tenten hit the wall with her fists angrily ignoring the pain and the blood. She exhaled deeply closing her eyes. 'Calm down…' She moved away from the wall walking to the bathroom adjoining her bedroom.
Her blood melted with the water falling slowly down the sink. The weapons mistress did some hand signs and green chakra surrendered her right hand. She closed her eyes as the healing jutsu closed the bruises. She relaxed a bit. She wasn't a medic nin but she knew some healing techniques for small injuries.
Someone knocked at the door. She jumped a bit passing a tired hand on her face. She opened the door plastering a smile on her face. The maid smiled timidly and handed her a deep red dress. She bowed her head and walked away without a word. 'Strange… Am I that intimating?'
The chocolate hair woman shook her shoulders and closed the door. She took out her leather coat throwing it on her bed. There was a loud sound and the floor moved a bit as the mattress tried to resist at the shock. Tenten laughed sheepishly. 'I forgot the weapons in there…'
She yawned and put the dress on absently. She turned around and looked in the mirror. The woman cheered mentally. Her back was all covered. Even if it appeared in a bad moment nobody will ever know. The deep red dress was following gracefully each of her curves she had been hiding for so long.
'You look HOT! This cold heart bastard will drool over you!'
'I thought I said to leave! Besides, we are talking about the King of my ass. To drool is the last thing he will ever do.'
'Maybe but at least he's kind of HOT! You should consider having some fun.'
'YOU SICK BASTARD! LEAVE NOW!'
'Relax… Geesh! I was just telling some facts. Back later!'
Tenten rubbed her temples. 'I knew it was a bad idea to be here. Maybe, I can just leave now… This bastard is probably too busy in the ballroom.' She pushed her hair behind her ears and grabbed her leather coat. She opened the door to meet Ino in a long blue dress. 'Oh shit…'
