Fight Song - Rachel Platten
Unraveling another scroll she unleashed a new flurry of weapons around the training field. It had been a long time since she had found the strength to come back here and train. But enough was enough and she refused to taint his memory any longer.
She was Tenten, and Tenten did not cower in the darkness looking to be saved.
No, Tenten fought.
Tenten did not hide in a corner and let the world beat her down.
No, Tenten overcame.
But how, a little voice inside her said, how was she supposed to overcome a hollow heart? How was she supposed to suppress that feeling that she could not breathe, that she was being crushed to death by the weight of his nonexistence. How was she supposed to train if she was lacking a training partner?
"No." She heard herself scream to the air. She refused to sulk anymore. It was time she took her life back. It was time she proved to her friends, but more to herself that she was alright. Starting right now she was going to be strong.
Lost in the pain of losing him, she had pushed all her other friends away. She had convinced herself that they could never understand the breadth of her pain. They had lost a teammate, a cousin, a comrade, a friend, but her, no she lost her best friend, her soulmate, her reason to live. No they could never understand, they still had each other, their hearts still beat whole within their chests.
For the past two years she had been living as a shell of her former self. For two years she had not been able to sleep. For two years every time she closed her eyes she would see him being impaled by the juubi's mokuton, sashiki no jutsu. For two years she pushed Gai-sensei's words out of her mind. For two years she had allowed herself to be so overcome by grief that she had forgotten those last words. For two years she's seen his ghost in everything she did, but refused to let him fill that gaping hole in her heart.
She had tried to rid herself of everything that reminded her of him that for two years she had just lived with the image of his death. When she had accidentally come across a photograph of them together, it was unsurprising to her that his smile would be the thing that gave her the strength to reclaim her life.
So here she stood now. In the very place that they had spent countless days together, breathing in his spirit, resurrecting her fighting spirit.
As she unsealed yet another scroll spraying its contents out so that they could join their brethren, she was suddenly caught off guard as their course was altered and they landed gently by her feet. Looking up, she half expected to see him there, the way he stood countless times after deflecting her attacks with his kaiten, but instead she was met by a pair of teal eyes and an opened tessen.
For two years she may have fallen in too deep. The depths of her despair knowing no bounds, but now she was back. She was back and ready to prove herself. She was back and now they could hear her fight song.