Here it is, the second installment, and on Friday too. At least it's Friday here, thank goodness!
This story is expanding a lot more than I'd envisioned, but that's more for you to enjoy, no? The chapters are annoyingly short I'm sure, but I'm sticking to this form of delivery. Please, some feedback? I was a little put out at the response, but then again it is Naruto Yuri. Not exactly the biggest hitter in the game, so to speak.
My thanks to those who put the story on Alert, and for those who made this story a favourite though I don't really have any idea why. It's only an infant story, flailing around on the playroom floor of fanfiction.
Anywho, onwards. The next update is promised for Monday. Enjoy a little look at Tenten's character;
Tenten sighed as she dumped her grocery bags on the counter top.
"That Haruno girl is such an airhead."
She groaned, leaning heavily on the edge of the kitchen bench, a hand rubbing over her face and up through her hair. She ached all over from yesterdays training. Her abdomen was particularly sore after receiving a chakra loaded palm strike from her training partner.
He was serious, always so serious, but she knew he'd never really hurt her that badly. Even Neji Huuga needed someone to train with. Lee was training with Gai more often than not, and it was to be expected as the man was his mentor. He wasn't their sensei anymore though, and she and Neji took up less and less of his time. If she saw him nowadays it was briefly, usually waving her off on a mission, as he was want to do with his students, hoping to see them return, too. Her former sensei was a kind man, and her team mates were strong, capable ninja. Tenten sighed again, fumbling through the brown paper bags on the counter to find what she needed.
Before long all that could be heard in the apartment was the soft 'thock' of vegetables being sliced up on a wooden chopping board. The Bok Choy never saw it coming. It didn't take long at all for the weapons mistress to finish cutting up what she needed for short soup. After an hour or so of pottering about in her kitchenette, she sat down to enjoy her dinner. It was warm, and soothed her. Outside rain started to patter on the roof. Silence and the tapping of raindrops echoed off the walls, and Tenten felt solitude drape over her like a cloak. It had been raining a lot lately. It was almost as if the weather was reflecting the loneliness she felt, how she always sensed that something was missing. She had woken up this morning, feeling sleep deprived. Opening the fridge she found that she was out of most perishables, and desperately needed to restock. Walking down the busy street she saw smiling friends, doting lovers, parents and children, reminding her of what she did not have.
It was only the other day that she remembered seeing yet another family curling up into the comfort of one another, in a shared home, over a shared meal. She knew Sakura wasn't really an airhead, as much as she knew the look in the other Kunoichi's eyes as soon as she'd seen it. They seemed to melt with pity. She had turned away as casually as she could, as if she only happened to glance that way. She was glad that it was raining, so she could pretend that she wasn't crying. When she realized there was anyone around that she could fool, she only cried harder. The other woman was gifted, and surrounded by those wonderful things. 'I'm not hard done by though,' Tenten told herself. 'I've a roof over my head, money in my pocket and comrades when I need them.' She couldn't help but sigh once more, tears pricking her eyes. Rubbing at her face, she felt the coarse skin scratch at the softer skin of her visage.
Her hands were rough and calloused, and she had the dying breaths of so many stored in her mind. Death flew from her finger tips with such precision that it was scary to look in the mirror sometimes, and realize that she was that same person, that reaper. The warmth and soft pulsation that a living body gave off slipped away under the touch of so many extensions of her, shredding that life, cutting it to pieces.
Sakura was different to her. Her touch brought healing, new life, a second chance. To start again, how Tenten wanted her second chance. But she knew it wasn't possible. Rivulets of water tracked down the glass of her windowpanes.
"Mother, Father,"
She let the words taper off and ring in the muffled silence. What she wouldn't give, but it wouldn't do to dwell.
She rose swiftly, taking her bowl over to the sink, systematically washing it and placing on the rack to dry. Walking over to the book shelf in her adjoining dining room she let her eyes flick over the spines of the texts. Selecting a work on the perfection of defensive stances, she slid it out from between its fellows and took it to the futon that stood curtained off from the rest of the apartment. Flicking her lamp on Tenten tossed the book on her bed, and her clothes followed closely behind as she made her way to the only room in the little flat with a door that adjoined her bedroom. After a quick scalding shower she dried off and was soon tossing her dirty clothes in a hamper and slipping a simple shirt over her head. Snuggling beneath the covers and reading under the soft glow of her lamp whilst listening to the sound of rain overhead made Tenten feel somewhat content. And it was like this that she fell asleep, the book rolling from her grip and springing from her fingertips to the floor, a dream of deflecting that painful palm strike playing out in her head.
Let me know what you think. Until next time, dear readers.
OmniXx.
