The Truth Shall Be Told
A/N: I'm sure you're all just about ready to kill me. So I'll make this apology quick as to not provoke you guys any further! :P I am saddened by my own laziness and irresponsibility. I can only hope that you'll find it in your hearts to forgive me for the insanely late update! :D Yeah, lousy excuse, I know. ^^
Anyway, in this story, lady Tsunade is the current leader. And Sakura already knows chakra control so she has enormous strength but isn't Tsunade's apprentice. I'll be re-writing the chunin exams the way I want… of course I'll be keeping a few characters the same like Gaara. But I want Tenten to win her match in the chunin exams so she WILL! – Or maybe not! It all comes down to how evil I'm feeling.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters. The new plots (meaning the ones you don't recognise) belong to me, but anything Naruto related belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.
Chapter Seven
Written by 10ShizukaYuukiMistress10
When Tenten woke up the next morning, she couldn't help but smile. Sasuke would be helping her perfect her new technique! If she could master it, then she'd be unstoppable during the exams!
With a lazy yawn, she stretched and flexed her hands then got herself prepared for the day.
Now. Should she just go down to the Uchiha clan's private training grounds again, or would Sasuke expect her to meet him at her own training grounds?
Soft snoring could be heard from the wooden desk of the Yamanaka flower shop. Ino's blond head rested on the wooden desk, with her arms hanging over the edge lazily.
"Ohhhh, Saaaasuke-kun…" She drawled in her sleep. "That's riiiiiight, right there…" She murmured dreamily.
However, the blond kunoichi was rudely woken up when the door to the flower shop suddenly slammed open and a certain pinkette with killer-intent written all over her face stormed in.
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME, PIG? HOW COULD YOU SLEEP AT A TIME LIKE THIS?" Sakura roared into her now awake friend's ear.
"IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T HEARD, WE HAVE A CHUNIN EXAMINATION IN A MATTER OF WEEKS!"
"W-Wha…" Ino spluttered, still half-asleep. "S-Sasuke-kun?"
Sakura face-palmed. When her hand eventually slipped from her face, a devilish smile cracked over her face.
"Would you like me to rephrase that, pig?" Sakura asked, hammering her fist against her other hand tauntingly. "….Cause I'll have a lot of fun… TEARING ALL YOUR HAIR OUT!"
Sakura's open threat seemed to have woken Ino up fully, and brought her back to her senses.
"You… you wouldn't…." Ino gasped in horror, and clutched her hair protectively.
"I would." Sakura said slowly, a devilish smile creeping up onto her lips.
"Well if you do… then I'll – I'll dye your hair orange in your sleep!" Ino challenged, regaining some of her confidence. "Then I'll cut it so short that even Jiraiya will confuse you as a boy!"
A vein popped at the corner of Sakura's head. Ino and her lousy open threats. We'll see about that. We'll see about that.
"Cut it out, pig. I know you'd never do all those things. Anyway, guess what?"
"Huh?" Ino said, perking up from having saying how she'd shave Sakura's head bald and super glue a chicken-head wig on the poor girl. "What?"
"Well, you see…your rumours have become true, Ino. After my joint mission with Team Gai, I'm almost certain that Tenten and Sasuke are an item!"
"Should I be waiting for him at the Uchiha compound…?" Tenten wondered quietly as she sat on a stray tree-branch, just outside Team Gai's training grounds. Sasuke hadn't uttered a word to her the previous day about where to meet him for the next training session. She figured maybe he'd come and find her, so she waited patiently. Her chocolaty-brown gaze looking around absentmindedly. It was around a few hours after dawn and the sun was shining brightly above the trees.
No one appeared to be there yet, but she didn't want to hang around for too long – what if one of her teammates came down to train and found her waiting around here? How was she supposed to explain to them that she was spending her two days off, training with Uchiha Sasuke?
She sighed. 'How about that vacation then, ne?' Inner drawled lazily. For some reason, Inner's comments have begun to sound less taunting and more reasonable of late.
"I guess it's time to leave." Tenten muttered, now resounded to the new change of plans. It was time to launch operation Infiltrate the Uchiha compound and capture Uchiha Sasuke! She didn't care what type of obstacles she would face, Tenten was determined to begin training and master her Rising Twin Dragons technique prompt. Or maybe she was simply inpatient and needed to throw a kunai at something.
An evil smile broke out over her face, as she dropped down from the branch, and was about to 'poof' away, when a cold voice from behind her spoke.
"Tenten."
In response, the brunette yelped in surprise and spun around.
"N-Neji! Don't ever scare me like that again!"
Standing a few inches behind her, was none other than the strong, pearly-eyed Hyuga. He was standing so closer to her that she could hear his strong and steady breathing.
Neji was most likely there to train, and as early as always. It's not that she hadn't expected him to be there – Neji was as bad as Lee when it came to training – even though this was the second day of their supposed two-day off. It's just that it made more sense for him to be at his clan's compound, training with Hiashi-sama or something. Why come to your teams training grounds (so early) and without even a sparring partner?
"I thought I'd find you here, Tenten" He said to her, with a tone that made Tenten feel as if he had something big planned out for her. She stood correct for once.
"You have much explaining to do for me. Starting from our first encounter three days ago before Ino and Sakura dropped by and interrupted."
Oh boy. If only Tenten had only left a minute sooner – she wouldn't be tangled up in this current… dilemma.
'You're one unlucky girl, ne?" Inner teased smugly.
If she told Neji the truth… how would he react?
"U-Um, well…" She began shakily, not able to meet his gaze. "It's a long story, but if you must know;" She continued, hoping that the ground would open up and swallow her whole. "The rumours concerning me and Uchiha Sasuke were untrue." Tenten clarified, deciding to leave out the part where she confronted Sasuke and they came to an agreement about pretending to date in order to make it seem realistic when they pretended to break up. Scratch that because they called it off yesterday and decided against it. So she carried on from there. "But when I encountered Sasuke yesterday, we u-um…. Came to an agreement."
"Agreement?" Neji repeated with a dangerous tone. "What agreement?"
Tenten chuckled nervously, clearly anxious as she chose her next words carefully.
"Neji…. May I ask you for a favour?"
This seemed to catch the Hyuga prodigy off guard, but he nodded wearily anyway. "Very well…."
"Don't get angry."
Neji narrowed his eyes, wondering just what it was she was plotting behind his back.
The flustered brunette fidgeted under his cold gaze as she continued. "Here's the thing. I'm kinda training with Uchiha Sas –"
Tenten stopped in mid-sentence to look up at Neji quizzically. He wasn't even listening to her anymore. In fact, he wasn't even looking at her. He seemed… distracted.
The atmosphere around them had changed drastically, and suddenly, her teammate felt so…. distant.
Neji's cold expression hardened and he clenched his fists angrily.
'….Anger issues, ne?' Inner commented silkily.
"Wha…." Tenten began, but Neji didn't appear to even acknowledge her presence, or that she standing right in front of him anymore. He simply continued to glare at something far behind her.
"Turn around." He suddenly commanded in a bitter tone, one that sent shivers down her spine. She was about to willingly do so, when a new voice froze her to the spot.
"Tenten." The brunette gulped and took a brave glance out of the corner of her eye.
She gulped again.
"S-Sasuke… w-what are you doing here?" She stuttered, and immediately wished she'd just kept her mouth shut.
'Why else would he be here, ne?' Inner roared angrily through bared teeth.
Indeed, the newcomer was Sasuke. Onyx eyes glared out at them both, as he calmly approached.
Things were about to get really complicated. Dealing with Neji was enough, but now this? There was only so much a kunoichi could do! Sasuke's timing couldn't have been any worse.
"Uchiha." Neji acknowledged coldly.
"Hyuga." Sasuke murmured grudgingly as he came to a halt in front of them.
"Hn."
"Hn."
Sasuke suddenly turned to Tenten and gave her an unreadable expression before he spoke. "Have you informed Hyuga here, about your new training schedule?"
Tenten bit back the urge to wish that the ground would open up and swallow her whole. Again.
"…W-Well you see, I was just about to when …"
Tenten stopped to look up and see that they weren't listening to her. Again.
Instead, Neji had activated his byakugan and gotten into a stance, while Sasuke reacted to the offensive gesture by swiftly activating Sharingan.
"Leave. Now." Sasuke instructed her.
Tenten was more than happy to oblige, but what was the problem? Were the two rivals going to fight? Why so sudden? What about her training? And most importantly, who did he think he was, ordering her around?
"Hey, Neji… you wouldn't mind explaining to me just what is going on?" Tenten questioned the Hyuga with a raised eyebrow. "…because I'm really confused. Now that you know, I'm training with Sasuke today. So if you don't mind, could you give me back my sparring partner? I –"
"I'LL KILL HIM!" Neji spat angrily, thrusting Tenten aside as he began to charge at Sasuke. "How dare you manipulate Tenten into agreeing to train with you! That damn Sharingan! I bet you set her up in a genjutsu!"
It all happened so quickly, that Tenten didn't realise what had happened until her back collided with a nearby tree, and only then did she realise that this was the full force of Neji's strength.
Amazing, she noted, minus the fact that she was on the receiving end. For a few minutes, she closed her eyes and waited until her head stopped throbbing, before reopening her eyes. What just happened?
Wait.
Did Neji… push her away… with unnecessary force?
She shot the battling Hyuga a fierce glare – not that he noticed, and dusted herself off.
What was going on? Why were they fighting? Ugh! Rivalry!
"Fire style: Fireball jutsu!" She heard, along with "Eight Trigrams Sixty-four palms!"
Well, there was no way she had a chance of splitting them up and stopping the fight. She clearly wasn't wanted. And she'd been looking forward to trying out the Rising Twin Dragons technique all morning.
Oh well.
The brunette turned away and headed towards Konoha. Maybe she could find someone else to train with her?
As she idly stumbled through the village, Tenten tested out her options through her mind.
Neji and Sasuke were currently…. unavailable as you put it. And it was probably wise to leave them to their… business. Lee and her sensei had probably wondered off elsewhere to do something unquestionably insane. Sakura wasn't the person she'd consider as sparring material – she didn't want to accidently kill one of her friends. Naruto might make a decent opponent because of his multi shadow clone jutsu – that'd be great target practice (especially if the targets can move).
'You're really considering that baka, ne?'
Tenten had made up her mind. She really needed to master rising Twin Dragons. She was desperate.
So where would she find the blond knucklehead? Tenten didn't know Naruto well enough to know where he lived. But she knew one thing.
His weakness was ramen.
:: oOo ::
A few minutes later, Tenten was just approaching the Ichiraku ramen restaurant when she heard two familiar voices arguing from somewhere nearby. She strained her ears to try and pick out the voices more clearly and identify them.
That is, only to have both owners of the voices almost tackle her to the ground and yell in her ears.
"We figured we'd find you here!"
Tenten slowly turned her head around to face Ino and Sakura. She sweat dropped.
"Hey there, Tenten." Sakura greeted nervously. Tenten wondered why. Did they want to ask her something? If so, what?
And did they just so happen to conveniently stumble upon her?
"Well, you see…" Sakura began, her emerald-green eyes darting here and there.
"Just spit it out already, fore-head!" Ino scolded the pinkette. "I'm sure Tenten won't mind." Ino muttered.
Tenten raised an eyebrow.
"Okay. I'm just gonna come out clean and say it!" Sakura declared, more in more of a way to encourage herself than anyone else.
"The rumours… I'm sure you'll want to know just who it was responsible for starting them; they are about you of course. Well, you see… it was lady Tsunade. I know it's probably hard to believe, but it's true. I guess it was her because she gave Ino the idea to 'liven up the village' with some juicy gossip." Sakura shot Ino a quick glare before continuing.
"So Ino decided that Sasuke would have to be one of her victims, because she wanted revenge for when he turned her down…. for the eleventh TIME!" The pinkette shrieked. "GIVE IT A BREAK, PIG!"
Ino shrugged nonchalantly and waved a dismissive hand at her flustered friend. When Sakura calmed down, she turned back to Tenten who was wondering how it ended up as her being Ino's second victim.
"So after Ino had made up her mind that Sasuke would be centred in her rumour, there needed to be someone else too…. because Ino couldn't resist torturing only one person. And it so happened that, because you were the only other genin kunoichi that was in Konoha at the time that she would dare use, she decided to choose you." Sakura said with a tired sigh.
Tenten narrowed her eyes. "Um… is that it?"
"Well, duhhh!" Ino giggled. "And you've gotta admit, it was a genius setup!"
The brunette just shook her head. So Tsunade, the lady she'd idolised for so long, had been responsible all along?
"Well thanks for telling me all that, I think I'll be going now." Tenten tried to make a hasty step to the ramen stand, but to her dismay, was stopped.
"Not so fast!" Ino said sharply, effectively stopping the bun-haired kunoichi's movements. The look Ino was giving Tenten made her scared for her own well-being and extremely weary of the blond's capabilities… and her drastic mood swings.
"You should probably thank me for it, but I bet you just forgot. You did take advantage of the rumours and are now officially dating Sasuke-kun, after all, or at least that's what fore-head here tells me, but –"
Sakura suddenly clamped her hand over Ino's mouth then, in a bid to stop her friend from saying any more.
"What Ino means is…. is that…." Sakura gave up. Her cover was blown. After the joint mission with team Gai, the pinkette was certain that Ino's rumours had become true and informed her blond friend of this… only for it to backfire right now. What if it wasn't true? Would Tenten kill her?
"LET GO OF ME, FORE-HEAD!" Ino screeched, lurching forwards and out of Sakura's grasp. Tenten could only watch in horror.
All this drama so early in the morning? Really?
When Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno get into a fight, it's usually best to just back away slowly and pretend you were never there. But when it came to Tenten, she doses the exact opposite.
"Cut it out! Both of you!" The brunette yelled, but it was no use. She grimaced at how viciously they were trying to claw at each other's faces.
If she slipped away stealthily, they wouldn't notice. She just needed to go unnoticed. Tenten wanted to begin to launch this plan into action when something else caught her attention.
Scratch that, someone caught her attention.
Itachi Uchiha caught her attention.
The Anbu captain (since the age of 14), was walking on the other side of the wide dirt-path, and although his impassive gaze was centred ahead of him, she knew that he was aware of her presence.
Well, who wouldn't when you're standing right next two brawling and screeching kunoichi?
This was perfect.
Ino and Sakura were too preoccupied with fighting. Itachi was just there.
Tenten no longer needed Naruto to help her master Rising Twin Dragons.
Without her permission, her feet began to walk. In a matter of moments she was approaching the older Uchiha before she was right in front of him. Itachi stopped and raised an eyebrow at her. His deep onyx eyes bore into her eyes with intensity and only then did she begin to feel giddy.
He wasn't Anbu captain for nothing, after all.
"Itachi-san… m-may I ask you for a favour?" Tenten asked shyly.
Ino and Sakura had stopped their fighting to stare at Tenten and Itachi with disbelief. They gaped.
The older Uchiha's dark eyes remained impassive, but Tenten could spot the tinniest flicker of curiosity in them this time. And also… amusement?
"Of course, Tenten." He said, his eyes softening a touch.
"Please can you help me master Rising Twin Dragons?"
Itachi Uchiha had declined, of course. But really, what had she been expecting? He was a busy man, had other commitments elsewhere… what had she been thinking? Obviously he didn't have time to train some random genin kunoichi. Tenten was seriously considering going back to Naruto… but then again, maybe she could do it on her own?
The brunette brought out a kunai and made a shoot for the target dummy in front of her.
CHUNK!
After being rejected, she returned to her team's training grounds, only to find that it looked like it had been hit by a bomb multiple times. This was the destruction of the Byakugan and Sharingan combined. Scary.
But when she got there, Neji and Sasuke were nowhere to be seen. It had been completely deserted.
She only hoped they were at least still alive. Scratch that; she hoped their bodies were still intact.
The bun-haired kunoichi's thoughts were broken when she heard a twig snap to her far left, somewhere from the forest. When she looked, nothing was there.
It must have been her imagination, but did she see a shadow leaking through the trees? As she took a step towards the forest, a hand grabbed her wrist sharply.
Stunned, she let out a shrill scream, but stopped immediately.
Her eyes widened.
The other person met her gaze with a frown.
"What? I promised you I'd help you to master Rising Twin Dragons, didn't I?"
It was Sasuke. Apart from the occasional bruise and scratch, he looked perfectly… healthy.
For some reason, Tenten was unable to speak, or pull herself away from his gaze for that matter.
Those beautiful, crimson-red orbs with three dark tomoe, like swirls. They were so enchanting…
When Tenten remembered that this was not the right time to lapse in Day Dream Land, she shook off the thoughts. Right… now she was ready to give him a piece of her mind. Unfortunately, it came out as this:
"….N-Neji….Rivalry….Fighting….D-Dead….Injured….Hospital….Rising Twin Dragons….Rumours….Ino….Sakura….I-Itachi-san!"
Sasuke raised his eyebrow when the brunette uttered his brother's name, and her momentary absence of sanity. But of course, the young Uchiha wasn't about to show any mercy.
"Is that all? Now do you mind saying it in sentences?" Sasuke asked coldly.
"O-Oh… what I meant to say was you owe me some training, Uchiha."
The brunette's brown eyes brightened. Why? Because she could finally get to work on her ultimate technique.
And maybe she'd get to penetrate Sasuke's cold demeanour and get him to open up to her in the process?
