Laith, "Omg, I just found out I had Microsoft Word on my computer!"
Haldor, "I still don't know how she didn't know that..."
Laith, "Because my PC's like, idk, really old and stuff, I figured I didn't have it 'cause I didn't have any of the other office programs so this is like, a total major find."
Haldor, "I asked her if we were going to use that from now on."
Laith, "Nah, I'm more comfortable with WordPad, it's simpler."
Haldor, "Yup, just another day..."
Laith, "I also found this program where people dance at the bottom of the screen when music plays."
Yume no Chuugoku
(incorrect translation is incorrect! D8)
TenTen stumbled through the doorway, clutching at her upper left arm. She crashed through the small apartment and made her way to the sink, stubbing her toes against miscellaneous objects that she couldn't see in the dark. She let go of her arm and quickly turned the faucet to let the water run. She picked up a nearby dish rag and soaked it, she rung it out with the one hand and shrugged her jacket off as fast as she could.
The pain made her gasp slightly as the fabric hit the floor. She turned her head to see the wound, hoping that it wasn't worse than it felt. It was too dark to tell though, and she couldn't waste any more time since it was still bleeding. She pressed the wet cloth against her abrasion and bit at her lip, she was near tears.
Suddenly, a light flickered on, startling her. She turned around sharply, and her face fell even more at the sight of who had found her. Truthfully, she knew it was inevitable, but she was hoping to put off the disapproving stare of her then only friend.
"Wanna help me out instead of just standing there?" she asked. "I can use an extra hand, Lee."
Rock Lee, in all of his giant eyebrows and bowl haircut glory, sighed deeply while closing his eyes. It was a habit of his when keeping his temper down. It was also a sign to TenTen about the verbal lashing she was going to receive. When his eyes opened again, he approached her and gently took her unharmed arm into his grasp and led her to a chair where he pushed her down gently. TenTen kept applying pressure to the wound while he went about collecting items from the room that he would need to treat her.
"So..." TenTen began. "Where's your keeper?"
"Sleeping," he replied. "You are lucky that he is a deep sleeper, otherwise I would be in trouble as well."
"It means a lot to me, if that makes things better."
Lee set down his supplies on the surface next to her and batted her good hand away. He looked her over quickly, determining what he would have to clean up. There was her arm, that was obvious, it looked like a stab wound. One of her fingers was sticking out oddly, broken most likely. There was some bruising around her neck, signs of choking. Her lip was swollen, a corner of it was cut. There was a slight welt above her left eye and a blotch of red on her right cheek.
"Is there anything under your shirt that you are hiding from me?" he asked.
TenTen shook her head. The remaining hair that was still pulled away from her face fell out of their holdings, the small elastic bands that held fell away with little noise.
"Are you certain?" Lee pressed. "You are not just hiding them?"
"I'm sure," she stressed. She gestured to her arm. "This was the worst."
She hissed when the stinging power of disinfectant was applied to her arm. With careful strokes, Lee wiped away the blood, leaving behind a stab wound that was, thankfully, not as horrendous as either one of them had feared visible.
"You will still need stitches," he said. "This will not heal on it's own."
"I can get Mei to do it for me tomorrow," TenTen said. "Just give me what you can for now."
Lee narrowed his eyes. "You will not like it."
"That won't stop me from doing it."
Wordlessly, Lee took two of the holdings meant for wrap bandages and tourniquets. He showed them to TenTen, she nodded and clenched her teeth together, taking in a deep breath for preparation. As quickly as he could, he pushed in the metal piercing and brought the skin on either side of the wound together. He took some bandages and wrapped them around the appendage.
"How does that feel?" he asked.
"It hurts like hell," she answered, the back of her teeth gritted together. "But, it's not the worse I've dealt with, so I'm okay."
Lee looked at her seriously. "What were you doing?"
TenTen turned away from him. "It was... something like a small heist. A quick money fix, just enough to get us through a few months."
Lee sighed again. "TenTen-"
"I know, I know," she interrupted. "You don't like any of it, but what else can I do? No one'll hire a middle school drop out, and part-time sucks. I need to get money for my family, and enough of it to keep us out of the red zone."
"What do your parents think you are doing?"
She smiled ruefully. "They think my dad's been making more money."
"How did you pull that off."
"The right muscle can get anyone to add a few more numbers as long as they're not the ones providing the extra income. As long as I get it into the account before it's provided, neither one of them'll figure it out."
Lee moved over to the sink, ringing out the blood covered dish towel that TenTen had used the best he could. He damped it again when it was near clean and went back to her. He started to clean up her face.
"I wish you would not do things like this," he admitted. "I wish you would be a normal girl our age."
"I wish I could be in school more often too. But, can't always have what you wish for."
"How will you explain these marks to them?"
"I'll tell them I got into another fight on the playground."
"We don't have a playground."
"It's an expression, Lee."
Lee shook his head. "You can not keep doing this, TenTen, you are going to be thrown out of school if you keep missing so much of it. The teachers will question why you are always hurt eventually."
TenTen scoffed. "They don't care."
"There is always one that sticks their nose into their student's business."
"Sounds like you've been reading manga again," TenTen laughed.
Lee however, did not look amused. "I am being serious."
The amusement in TenTen's eyes died away. She nodded solemnly. "I know... Look, I'll stop.. once I know for sure that we'll be okay and I won't have to do any of this for awhile again. When I know that there's money we can keep safe and use later on when we need to, I'll go to school everyday and be a normal girl our age. Okay?"
"And what happens when your family is need of money again?"
"Then I'll start in on this all over again."
"I did not want to hear that answer."
"It's the only answer I can give you."
Lee picked up everything and went about putting them back where he got them. TenTen stood up from her chair and made her way over to her fallen jacket. She picked it up with her good arm and slipped it on to the best of her abilities, making sure not to disturb her bandages.
"That jacket is covered in blood," Lee pointed out.
"I know," she replied. "I'll get rid of it on my way out of the house tomorrow. I'll need to leave before either one of them gets up."
"Will you be at school tomorrow?"
TenTen hesitated in answering. She knew full well that he wasn't going to like what she would answer. "No. Not tomorrow."
"TenTen-"
"I can't go tomorrow. With this face, they'll ask something for sure. I'm gonna be with Mei all day, so I won't be getting into anymore trouble."
Again, he gave her that disapproving look that she didn't like.
"She's the most harmless person there," TenTen said. "And with this arm, there's no way I can do anything for awhile... Can you please not look at me that way?"
"It is just because I do not want something bad to happen to you," Lee told her. "You have been lucky so far in keeping out of real trouble, I do not want to wake up one day and find you too deep in any of this."
TenTen smiled again. "Don't worry so much, that's not gonna happen. It's not like I'm trying to get so involved in a gang, I'm just.. a bit of part-time help."
"Are you so sure?"
"Of course I am." She placed her hand over her heart. "The day I become involved in a gang for nothing but laughs will be the day I am no longer friends with you."
TenTen woke up to wet cheeks. A quick hand to her face told her that she had been crying in her sleep. The realization made her shoot up in her bed. She wiped her face clear of any traces of tears to the best of her ability without looking at her face, a small sniffle alerted her in the possibility of crying for real. She quickly made to choke back any sobs that might escape her throat. It had been years since she last cried, she wasn't very keen on breaking that record.
She took a deep breath and sat up in her bed. When it seemed like she was a lot more calm, she reached underneath her pillow and felt around for her cellphone. A quick flip and it was opened showing her the time. It was near five in the morning.
TenTen closed it and fell backwards. Somehow, she knew it was going to be a long day.
When Hinata had come around knocking on her door, it was thirty minutes until they had to leave for school. TenTen had attempted to fall back asleep, and after an hour or so of tossing and turning and trying to forget her dream/memory in general, she had done just that.
"Are you feeling okay?" Hinata asked.
TenTen rubbed at her eyes and nodded. "Just extra sleepy, I guess?" she replied in a groggy morning voice.
Hinata accepted the explanation and told her that breakfast was already done if she wanted to eat quickly before leaving. TenTen got out of bed as soon as the door closed and dressed in her uniform. She more or less rushed through her morning routine before shoving her books and everything else in her school bag and put on her slippers before leaving her room.
It wasn't until lunchtime that she was informed that she had forgotten to draw on her eyebrows.
"Why don't you just let them grow out already?" Haku asked. He even pointed his chopsticks towards her forehead as though that was going to emphasize his point.
TenTen shrugged. "Just got into the habit? Eh, sooner or later, I'll just get too lazy to shave 'em off and they'll come in."
"Yeah and that'll be around the same time where you give up on your appearance all together and won't bother to shape them or anything," Mitchi said.
The three of them stared at him oddly again. The second day in a row.
"What?"
"Didn't know you cared about how we look's all," Haku laughed.
Mitchi blushed. "I don't, I'm just saying. 'Cause don't girls usual worry about stuff like that when they're young, so it only makes sense that by the time she does get too lazy to shave them- Oh, whatever, I'm done with this subject."
"But it's so fun hearing what you've come to understand about us girls," Haku went on. "It's almost like you're becoming one."
"You're not a girl."
"But I'm pretty like one! Just ask the boys that confess!"
"I still really think it's wrong for you to let them get through the whole thing before telling them you're a boy," Hinata said.
"I still can't believe that not all of them by this point know you're a boy," Mitchi sighed.
"That's because the girls don't mind him acting the part so much, so they don't really gossip about it other than a few words every now and then," Hinata told him. "Even if some of them think he's still weird for dressing like a girl, he does treat them all in a way that makes them forget he's even a boy. I'm pretty sure that's what confuses the majority of the boys."
"Hina-chan!" Haku cried out exaggeratingly. "You're making me blush!"
Mitchi rolled his eyes and tilted his head in TenTen's direction. He noticed right away that something was amiss with her. What with her eyes focused on the small serving of rice in front of her and nibbling on chopsticks that no longer had any food.
"What's up with you?" he asked her.
TenTen glanced over at the other two, noting that both Hinata and Haku were completely in their own world with whatever they were now talking about. She shrugged. "Had a long night. Didn't really sleep all that great, it's not big deal."
Mitchi raised one of his eyebrows to show his curiosity, but said nothing else. He tucked into another bite of his lunch while TenTen went on with chewing on her utensils.
"You guys listening?" Haku demanded. "I wanna know what you think."
"Think about what?" Mitchi asked.
"You really think heroes speak eagle?" (1)
Mitchi blinked at him. "Don't you think you should be going over some real history right now? Test's next."
Haku narrowed his eyes at him. "Whatever, but I'm not the one that answered Josef Stalin when the question was about who Russia's current president was."
"Josef Stalin," Hinata began, "He was born with a name that I cannot pronounce but know how to spell, in Gori, Georgia. Succeeded Vladmir Lennin after his death in 1924 and ruled as Soviet Leader until his death in 1953."
"Very good, Hina-chan!" Haku praised. "Here! You get to have some of my pocky!"
"Don't treat her like a pet," Mitchi scolded.
Hinata tilted her head. "But I want some pocky."
Mitchi facepalmed and Haku beamed, thus lunch continued and TenTen was still not an active participant in any of the conversation.
Throughout the entire day, it was how she acted. For the most part, Hinata hadn't noticed, since it being their last day of school before the summer break, they were constantly taking final exams and the like. It was normal to be quiet and attentive to your work. Though it wasn't until the end of the day when Hinata had finished her test and looked over at TenTen and realized that she had long been done with her own. Usually when this happened, TenTen would throw a small paper ball at her and gesture for her to hurry up so they could pass notes. Hinata made her worry clear to her when the final bell rang.
"Nothing," TenTen assured with a practiced smile. "Really, that test wiped me out though. Seriously, could you believe how hard it was?"
"Well," Hinata said. "It was a final."
Their conversation was interrupted when Kiba intruded into their company. For once TenTen was glad to see him speak to Hinata, it gave her a chance to shake off the melancholy that she had felt since waking up for the first time that day and act normal.
It didn't work.
The dark cloud hung over her head for the remainder of the day, right to the place where they chose for a karaoke night to celebrate their freedom from school. She wouldn't let it show however, and forced herself to participate in the buzzing excitement of adventures soon to come. She joked and laughed as though she was having as much fun as everyone else, but anyone looking close enough would notice that her heart wasn't in it. Lucky for her, no one did, though when she considered it briefly, wasn't entirely sure how to feel about that.
At the moment, she lounged in the seat next to Neji, watching as Usagi took her turn. No one wanted to incur the girl's wrath and kept the irony of her being able to sing in Japanese only because of memory to themselves. A fact that she only made that much more obvious by choosing an anime song that she no doubt listened to constantly.
"Goodbye, even now I still don't understand," she sang. Most of the time, she sang off key, but as far as karaoke went, her voice was acceptable. "Goodbye, to what lies beyond the darkness as if calling to the utter darkness..."
When the song ended, she bowed and they cheered. She passed the mic to Naruto, it was his turn next.
"Totes thought you were going to choose something else," he said to her.
"I was so going to," she told him. "But I saw it there and I had to, y'know. Total in love with Ivan Braginski right now."
"I seriously question the pattern on which you crush on people," Sasuke commented right before she sat down next to him.
"Careful what you you say," she teased. "You might be next on that list."
"That's impossible. I haven't done anything so horrible for a punishment like that."
While she clobbered him with the song guide, Naruto jumped onto the table and called out for their attention.
"Someone better film this," he said. "I'm going to go Ryuuichi stage presence and everyone must see! Someone flicker the lights on and off!"
Haku was only too happy to participate in making the room look like a rave show and because Usagi was still beating up Sasuke, Hinata took out her cell phone and decided to record.
"The motion of imprisonment in a bed of glass, that is first broken a fumbling woman," he half shouted into the mic. "A solitary tail with a feather collection, it almost screams wanted innocence at night-"
"Eiri Yuki wrote this," Usagi muttered.
"We're all aware," Sasuke replied.
She pointed at Neji. "Bet he didn't."
Neji looked straight at the digit pointed directly in his face. "What?"
"You don't know that Eiri Yuki wrote this song," TenTen clarified for him. "And of course you don't, you're barely learning all of this now."
"I could have known that," Neji argued.
TenTen rolled her eyes. "I'm sure."
Neji studied her for a moment. His brows furrowed because not only did he realize that there was something off in her tone, it was that he knew her well enough already to know that there was something wrong in her tone. Clearly he had been spending too much time with her.
"Are you okay?" he asked over the whooping jeers to encourage the blonde and his antics.
TenTen stopped herself from doing just that and turned her head back to face Neji. "What?"
"I asked if you were okay," he repeated.
"Yeah," she blinked. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"I'm not sure." He studied her face for a moment of two more before continuing. "Something seems off with you."
Again TenTen blinked. She then laughed a little too dramatically. "The hell are you talking about? The only one who's ever off around here is you."
"That doesn't even remotely make sense."
"Doesn't have to, it's an insult."
Neji frowned, once again because he could realize that she was obviously hiding something and once again because he just plain realized it.
"TenTe-"
He was interrupted though as she played along with everyone else and cheered at Naruto's semi-embarrasing performance. He didn't get another chance to try again, TenTen stood up from her seat and made her way to the door.
"Where are you going?" Hinata asked while Naruto looked over his turn on her cell phone.
"Gonna try to find a vending machine," TenTen answered. "Don't really feel like drinking a whole lot tonight."
"Does that mean I don't have to be designated driver?" Mitchi asked.
Haku slapped the back of his head. "Yes, you still have too!" He lowered himself to his friends level. "Do you want to be in the car with her in front of the wheel again."
Mitchi didn't think twice when he answered no.
Haku straightened himself up and pulled at his blouse down. "That's what I thought. Okay! I wanna go again!" He pointed at Usagi. "You and me sing, yes?" He slapped the back of Mitchi's head again when the red head snorted. "Shut up, I'm trying."
Usagi smiled and nodded, she stood up from her seat and back up to the front. Another mic was handed to her and she pointed at the song booklet.
"Sing Magnet, yes?" Haku smiled and ignored the snickers coming from the red head. "You.. know?"
Usagi nodded and pointed at him. "Miku?"
Haku tilted his head in thought. "I sound better when I try not to hit high notes..."
"So don't sing in a high note," Mitchi called.
"You don't have to sing exactly like the singer," Hinata said.
"I know, but you get a better score if you do." Haku sighed when he payed his attention back to Usagi. He pointed at himself and nodded. "Miku."
"We should do Alice Human Sacrifice," Naruto said. "I call Kaito!"
"I'm Meiko," Haku claimed. "Hina-chan and Sasu-tan can be Rin and Len. Mitchi, you're Miku."
"I don't wanna be Miku," Mitchi fought. "You be Miku."
"I can't, I'm Meiko."
Mitchi looked at TenTen and actually pouted. "Please stay and be Miku."
TenTen just laughed. "I'm glad I stayed long enough to see that. Alright, I'll be back!"
"Be careful out there!" Hinata called out to her as the music started to play.
TenTen gave her a thumbs up and exited right at the beginning of the first line. The door closed behind her with a solid click, she leaned against it and sighed. Now she would have to bring something back from a vending machine. She should have just said that she was going to the bathroom.
TenTen shrugged to herself and leaned off of the panel. She stuck her hands in her pockets and made her way into the lobby and out the entrance.
She didn't want to stray too far, a few blocks and around should let her find something. She hunched her shoulders up and shoved her hands into her jacket pockets, making her way down a semi-crowded street in search of something to drink close by. Her odds of finding a machine close by were surprisingly against her. When it seemed to her as though she wouldn't come across any on the street she was on, she decided to cut through an alley way and try her luck on the other side.
TenTen heard the sound of spray paint and an aluminum can hitting the ground. She didn't really think anything of it, there was always some kid somewhere doing something that they shouldn't. Hell, she was one of those kids half of the time. Because of that, she trudged on through her shortcut, and found that she shouldn't have been lazy and just gone around the entire block like she had planned.
In the dead center of the alley way she came across the very bane of her existence.
The crunch of the gravel underneath TenTen's feet startled the other person, causing them to straighten out and face her. The little light they were provided with showed that in all of her green jacket glory stood the one person that TenTen had little if any love for now, Ichinose Aiko.
TenTen cringed internally, thinking that this was her punishment for using this person's name as an alias. The thought of what kind of punishment Hinata would receive for using the "-chan" endearment briefly crossed her mind.
"China Doll," Aiko muttered. She brushed the long strands of her black hair out of her face, showing off the dark rims of black around her eyes that were a trademark for her. "Heeeh, it is you. Lucky day..."
TenTen bit her lip and started to walk backwards. She pivoted quickly and speed walked right out the small enclosure. Aiko followed directly after.
"Hey!" she called out after TenTen. TenTen on the other hand, acted as though she hadn't heard her at all and continued to walk. "Hey! Don't ignore me, I'm just gonna follow you wherever."
TenTen growled slightly and turned around to face her. "The hell do you want?"
"Just wanted to talk," the other girl said with an innocent half shrug."
"I'm so sure."
"No, really," Aiko assured her. She then took a few steps forward and smiled slyly at her. "I picked up some info that you might like to hear."
TenTen blinked once before turning around and continued to walk. "Not interested."
"About that boy of yours you would never stop talking about," she called out.
TenTen stopped, her heart almost stopped. She had a sinking feeling that she knew exactly who Aiko would be talking about, and while the very notion of there being a tidbit of Lee being alive and well had been extinguished some time ago, it wouldn't be the truth if she didn't believe that maybe, one day...
TenTen turned around again and walked back towards the other a little ways. She tried to feign nonchalance. "Go on."
Aiko's smile grew. "Y'know, people did survive that quake, just no real way of getting news on who they were. Only family and people like that got calls on which people died and lived."
"Yeah, I know that," TenTen said impatiently.
"I know, I know. Anyway, this small bit of information stayed in the back of my mind. That and the stories you used to tell about when you were a kid, and who your friends were but you only had one best friend and all the things like that. It was so cute hearing you talk about your home."
TenTen was beginning to become frustrated. "Does this story have a point?"
Aiko fake pouted. "I'm getting there. So last week, I'm going along the outskirts of the city and when I'm at the gas station, I hear these people talking. The thing was, one of 'em was talking like you did when you first got here. Yeah, even though you still got a bit of that accent in you, you're startin' to talk like a real citizen.
"So I'm at my bike thinking, what's up with this creep, 'cause when I looked over to see which was speaking with that foreign twang, all I notice are these huge as fuck eyebrows."
TenTen swallowed hard, and the painful bubble of hope rose inside her chest.
"And it's what I was stuck on for the longest time," Aiko laughed, not noticing TenTen's dilemma. "But I guess that he needed those things to go along with the huge pair of eyes he got. Poor guy, feel kind of bad for him with looks like that. And that bowl on his head does not make things better."
"What do you want?" TenTen shouted at her. "You wouldn't be telling me any of this unless you wanted something from me!"
Aiko faked a hurt look. "I was just trying to give one of my friends some information on someone so important to her."
"We're not friends anymore," TenTen said. "We haven't been since you left me in a cell."
Aiko rolled her eyes. "It's your own fault for not being fast enough."
"You could have helped me."
"And get caught myself? No way. You had to learn things like that on your own if you wanted to get any better in the ranks, China Doll."
"Don't call me that!"
"I've always called you that. You know why?"
TenTen looked away. "I don't care."
Aiko closed off the remaining space between them until she was standing directly in front of TenTen. "It's to remind you where you're from. To remind you that even if you do hold citizenship here, you don't really belong here and you never will. Despite those friends you devote yourself to, everyone grows apart and you'll be left alone... Again."
TenTen had to bite her bottom lip again to keep it from trembling. She stopped her voice from cracking long enough to say, "Get on with it and tell me what you want from me."
Aiko sighed heavily and leaned back. "We've got a bit of a problem, you see. Makino still wants us to be taken seriously-"
"And you're still playing along long after you've graduated," TenTen interrupted. "Do you guys tell anyone how old you really are?"
It probably wasn't the best thing to say TenTen realized. The playful air around the other girl, despite the slight hostility in it, vanished instantly. Her eyes narrowed at the other girl and regarded her with little warmth.
"Listen, you little shit," Aiko said coldly. "I don't have to be telling you any of this and could have just kept knowing what I saw to myself so I could have a laugh at your own expense. I could have done that, and goddammit I would have if Makino didn't ask me if I knew what the hell you were up to because we need your help."
TenTen hesitated in replying. "Help with what?" she asked cautiously.
"That's all I'm telling you. You wanna know, you know where to find us. Your payment, is the information I have on where that boy is now." Aiko pulled her coat closer to her body and walked away.
TenTen was as still as a statue. It was only until her cell phone went off that she made any kind of move. It was Hinata, asking her if she was okay and then asking where she was. TenTen tried to laugh as lightly as she could, assuring that she was taking so long because she couldn't find a machine, unbelievable, right?
It was a short conversation, it lasted no more than two minutes. TenTen put her phone away and started her way back. The whole time she walked, she tried her best to forget the encounter that she had just been a part, and desperately hoped that none of this would make it into her subconscious when she went to bed.
Despite her best wishes, she dreamt again that night. Once more, it wasn't so much a dream as it was simply reliving a memory.
She was already in Japan by this time, her parents were already dead. Lee was already dead. The majority of her home town was dead. She had just found out the news.
TenTen stood outside, it was dark and raining hard. She wouldn't move. From a close by distance, she heard the sound of feet running in her direction, she didn't turn her head to make sure though. She couldn't bring herself to care. She didn't want someone to chase after her. She didn't want to hear the sound of someone possibly running to give her comfort. Her whole life she lived on and off of pity from others.
"TenTen-san!"
She felt a hand cling to her own. Slowly, she turned her head to view the intruder. It was Hinata.
Hinata was drenched from running after her in the rain, apparently the only one to do so. She was still in her school uniform, just like TenTen was, none of them had bothered to change when they were told that they were still waiting on news for her parents. They stayed in the sitting room with her host family, hoping and praying that her family would be alright.
TenTen had ran out the door when the confirmation of their decease came through. She didn't know to where, she just did, and now, Hinata had caught up to her.
TenTen wrenched her hand away, and turned her back. "Leave me alone."
The pitter patter of raindrops served to fill the silence between them. Hinata stared at the ground for a long while before snapping her head up forward and locking her gaze at the back of the head of the Chinese girl.
"It'll be okay," she said. "We'll stay by your side, you won't have to go through this alone."
TenTen's eyes narrowed at the sentiment Hinata was trying to bestow upon her. Her words created the opposite effect then they should have.
"Stay by my side?" she repeated in an off sounding mutter. "Do you know how much crap all of that is?"
Hinata flinched backwards, as though she had just been slapped or at least threatened as much.
"I get it," TenTen said, though more to herself than anyone else. "Always one struggle after another thrown right at me, and now..."
Hinata brought her fingers together, like she had many times before when she wasn't sure how to handle a situation.
"What the hell did I do any of this for?" she asked herself in her native tongue. "All this time... it was wasted!"
She kicked at a nearby trash bin and spilled it's contents inside. "What the hell am I supposed to do now? This was not how any of this was supposed to go, this is.. This is bullshit!"
She took her frustrations out on everything available to her. She hefted out glass bottles and threw them as far as she could. She kicked down as much of her surroundings as she could and stomped on them until there was no reason anymore. She even picked up split baseball bat and started attacking a nearby parked car, seemingly abandoned in a vacant lot.
It wasn't until TenTen broke through the windshield, that someone else made their way into their presence.
"China Doll, that you?"
Through squinted eyes, TenTen made out the silhouette of a slender figure with dark hair matted to her face from the rainfall. Ichinose Aiko strutted right for the pair, her infamous green jacket with the many stitch work sticking to her body and clinging to the clothes underneath. There was black smudges under her eyes from where her make-up had run, and her lipstick was fading away to a sick looking pink. She dragged a long pipe behind here.
"What're you doing here?" she asked.
TenTen didn't reply at first. She dropped the baseball bat, a sign of not wanting any conflict, though she made sure not to throw it far away in the off chance that she would need to swoop down and reclaim it.
"I could ask you the same thing," she responded.
Aiko laughed lightly. "I had come by to take care of that piece of crap car you were wailing on not long ago. Bastard who owns that needs to repay a favor I so generously granted him, and he's not doing anything on his part."
The older girl trailed around the metal frame, whistling in appreciation. "You did some nice work."
TenTen made no response, her face was as solemn as when she had first stopped running. Hinata on the other hand, watched their transaction worriedly.
"Wish you'd take up my offer," Aiko went on. "We need some more girls to run with us, and the more damage they can do the better. 'Specially with the raids."
TenTen's eyes brightened at the word. "Raids?" she questioned.
Aiko nodded. "Leader wants to make our gang official. We need money for that and we sure as hell ain't having a fundraiser."
TenTen studied her carefully before saying, "I know something about those."
Aiko gave her an amused smile. "Really now.."
"I did those all the time to get some quick money back home," she informed her. "There's nothing too hard about them, with the right people."
"You think we don't have the right people?"
"No, I don't."
Aiko's eyes narrowed. "Why not?"
TenTen answered without missing a beat. "You don't have me."
There was silence amongst them, again, the only sound to fill it was the rainfall. Aiko stared wide eyed at her, blinking a few times before throwing her head back and having a good laugh.
"That was actually good," she admitted. "So... You wanna join us."
Aiko extended her hand out for her to take into her own. TenTen approached her slowly, her action and words disturbing Hinata all the more and caused her to shake out of her petrified state.
Hinata hurried towards her, screaming out her name. TenTen didn't hear any of it. She pushed Hinata away, down onto the floor when the other girl had tried to latch onto her arm. She stared down at the fallen girl without much feeling, and then, she turned around and shook hands with her new friend and rival.
TenTen's vision changed. Bits and pieces flashed before her eyes after she had taken the other girl's hand.
She saw herself run down a crowded street with two other girls, running past one propaganda poster after another that she often saw in her childhood. She saw the scene where she met Lee for the first time in a classroom. She reheard the arguing coming from the next room, about who there was too little, and how no one wanted to take the blame.
She saw Mei again. Her fat moon shaped face and plump body, grabbing her hand and dragging her off to the back of the store to be dealt with for shoplifting. She saw herself meeting other's in a situation like hers, and how they banded together to solve that problem. Her sight then went to those many nights were she found herself stumbling into Lee's home, bloodied and beaten up from events gone astray and unable to find sanctuary anywhere else. All of them ended with her being taken care of by the boy himself, and always with a verbal lashing varying in harshness each time.
Briefly, she saw the scene where she was given a way out. She saw how it made them all happy to hear the good news, that she had been accepted to study abroad despite her schooling record. The last time she saw her parents alive, the last time she was able to hug her only true friend in the world.
All of that no longer existed for her to go back to, all of it was now just a memory for her. A tactless, teasing memory that held no regard for how she felt about them now.
TenTen bolted up in her bed, covered in a cold sweat. She was breathing heavily, her heart beat was erratic. She had to press a hand to her chest as some form of consolation to calm herself down. When that failed, she gripped at her blankets and started to take in deep steady breaths. It took a few minutes, but it helped her.
TenTen threw the blankets off of her and swung her legs over the side. With a heavy sigh, she doubled over and put her head into her hands. It took a lot longer for her to finally sit up and adjust her eyes to the darkness.
She ran a hand through her hair and moved her head in every direction, taking a good hard look at her surroundings. She was in a room granted to her through Hinata's generosity, and she had been living in it for more than a year already. Despite that, it was nearly as empty as when she had first came into it.
She never bothered to change the linen on the bed, there were no decorations on the wall. The desk was still bare, save for a few books and a notebook in a neat pile in the corner next to the lamp. The wastebasket was filled, and more or less proved to be the only evidence that there was anyone staying in the room. The books she owned and other items that weren't clothing related, she kept in the moving boxes she had come with. Since she had little, she had figured that there was no reason to bother unpacking them if it was easier for her to keep everything clean.
There was a creeping cold sensation settling in the pit of her stomach as she took all of it in. The more she studied everything, the more that feeling filled her. She even so bitterly noted that she hadn't even put up any kind of curtain over the window. Comparing her room to the other two girls in the house, TenTen felt that any moment she could stop existing, and there would be little to prove that she was even there in that house.
She then did something that she hadn't done in six years.
She cried.
(1) LOVE! Love, love, love, love, major totes awesome mad love for anyone who gets that reference!
Haldor, "So I was looking at the story alter stats-"
Laith, "Please don't..."
Haldor, "-And there's forty seven story alerts and close to fifty favorites... By calcuations, we should already be at... 294 reviews. Now, I understand that many of those alerts came after the first two or three chapters, but if I don't see forty-seven reviews for this chapter, I quit."
Laith, "-slaps him- No he won't. Because we don't do this for reviews. We do this because we like to... Well, I keep going because I feel like there are too many people reading to not finish this story otherwise I'd prolly drop it."
Haldor, "Hypocrite much?"
Laith, "It's not that, I just wanna work on all my other stuff now."
Haldor, "I've read your other stuff. miladyotaku's right, you are angsty."
Laith, "I am not."
Haldor, "You wrote the majority of this chapter."
Laith, " Whatever.. and stop going through my shit. Anyway, are you up to answering forty seven reviews weekly? 'Cause we can barely catch up with the ones we have now."
Haldor, "But we're getting the new computer on Thursday, we can totally do it."
Laith, "Tu me fais malade."
Haldor, "Je le peux parle aussi, betch."
Laith, "But not Russian."
Haldor, "Neither can you, you use google."
Laith, "... Shut up.."
Anonymous Replies :)
Neon Kiiroi: We were actually talking about Catherine the Great, well, Laith was talking about all the different Tsars that ruled in Russia and when she mentioned Catherine the Great, that's when I was all like, wasn't she the one that died 'cause she tried to have sex with a horse? And then it went weird from there and a text to KGB and ChaCha was involved and yeah... Two hours in a Subway, talking about someone having sex with a horse. DX
Next Week Preview
"So the purpose of all of this?"
"Uniting every crime family under one underground jurisdiction. Ever hear of price fixation?"
"Of course."
"Now, why is that illegal? Because when opposition ally themselves with one another for one common goal, it throws the balance off, and usually in their favor. We already know that the alleged good guys fight amongst themselves constantly, as long as we cooperate with one another, it makes their jobs that much harder and our lives that much easier."
"I understand that much, but I still fail to see the greater purpose other than filling your pocket with more money and an easier way of dealing with the police."
"While that is ideal, you are correct. There is a bigger purpose behind all of this, and it's purely political. Because of that, and you being an American citizen, you'll need to prove that you are completely trustworthy as far as this situation goes."
((Fuck the what? Politics? aslklksdjf;a! DX))
