Training was strenuous and daily. Every morning, she would wake up and meet Yugao at headquarters, and the pair would go to a prearranged spot for specific trainings. After a week of training with different weapons, Yugao was satisfied that Tenten's reputation did not precede her, and that she did indeed have an affinity for any weapon thrown at her.
Then, it was barefisted taijutsu in dozens of different forms - from the typical Konoha style of blunt blows and forceful maneuvers, to the Uzushio style of quick movements, almost like dancing, and the New-Age blend that had begun to come about as a restoration after Uzushiogakure's destruction. The newer style had more to do with quick, invisible blows, lacking the winding movements of Uzushio's style and adding more subtlety than Konoha's style. Tenten herself, after training with Gai-sensei, who had grown up before Uzushio's destruction, and Neji, whose clan relied on tradition, had a style that resembled the forwardness of Konoha's. Yugao warned her that there was a time and a place for each form, instructing her on other methods.
Tenten's time in Suna and Kiri had also opened her eyes - Suna's taijutsu was different from both Konoha and Uzushio's, because of the shifting sands beneath them, and required hard levels of leg movement, for speed in dodging, and upper body strength, also for dodging. It made sense, considering their defensive nature as a political body.
Kiri's style was rather... unexpected. Immovable force in defense, with slower reaction times, and a lot of stealth. In just a few weeks, Tenten had mastered other styles as well - from Kumo's twisting, dramatic movements, to Iwa's surprisingly dextrous hand-shoulder movements. She began to note similarities - Konoha's style was very similar to Suna's, and Uzushio's had very similar techniques and foot placement to Iwa. There were others too, less notable, or derivatives of other villages - Getsugakure, a small, quiet village that nobody really took note of, Kusagakure and Takigakure, who pretty much borrowed their styles from more prominent Hidden Villages.
That was the easy part.
She was then required to demonstrate her mastery of lightning, memorize several hand-seal heavy communication jutsus, and study protocol manuals - which Yugao then tested her on. It was constant, repetitive, boring, and took hours every single day, usually leaving her with hardly any chakra and a huge appetite.
She often stopped to visit Iruka-sensei now, at his house, a small place in a civilian district, with a neat yard trimmed with flowers and a decorative little fence. He made tea, and talked about the past - his past.
It was peaceful, those few hours. She often stayed too late, and he'd note her exhaustion, offering to cook for her - a job she had rarely done for herself. Naruto preferred ramen, and she ate whatever she could find. Iruka had asked her what her favorite food was, and then often cooked the dumplings for her, surprising her with his kindness. She got to know the man who had been her teacher, and felt regretful that she hadn't before. It was the one time she felt like a person, instead of a ninja tool. He told her stories about her family, talked about history, and music, and art - all things she hadn't really thought about before.
When Iruka had asked her what her favorite kind of music was, she had been stumped. He was startled by that, and asked her if she liked art, or reading, or writing.
The answer to all of those questions was an apologetic: "I... I'm not sure?"
He'd been stunned by her complete lack of knowledge, and set about educating her in a way she'd never imagined - showing her different genres of music like opera, contemporary artists, music with and without words, talking to her about the history of it and the social context. She was fascinated by the change in him, and how different he was from every other person she'd ever talked to.
Every other friend she'd had, or mentor, or comrade, had been solely interested in her development as a kunoichi. It seemed that it was all that mattered to them, too, so Tenten hadn't thought it so strange that being a shinobi was her entire life.
"Tell me, Tenten." Iruka had asked her one day, quite seriously, over a dinner where she was half asleep and her brain was numbed from trying to memorize a complicated handseal to communicate with an ANBU platoon. "Why did you enroll in the Academy?"
And exhausted, oblivious, and quite impudent, she had answered, a little confused: "What else is there?"
From then on out, he was a constant presence in her life, and she often found herself asleep in his guest bedroom. Since she carried most of her material belongings in scrolls, it wasn't really a problem anyway. He was like an older brother - only a few years older than her, and he embodied the sort of natural and genuine expression of... well, love, that she'd always wished she'd been able to hold as a role model to Naruto.
x
The night Tenten had mastered the final protocol handbook, Yugao nodded at her.
"Tonight will be your first mission. Come to the eastern gate at midnight. Pack for a few days."
So after a restless nap, Tenten dressed in her ANBU clothing, packing her new weapon along with the Jidanda and the Dako, in its own special scroll, and met Yugao at the gates, along with her new team.
There were several differences with ANBU missions that struck her immediately.
Yugao did not brief her or the other two. She was not introduced to them, except as 'Butterfly' and 'Moth'. She eyed them though, wondering if it was paranoia or if their chakra signatures really were familiar.
Another was length - Yugao had warned her to pack heavily. While Tenten's scrolls made that a simple task, she wondered how long she'd be gone. She hadn't been given a chance to warn anyone she would be gone - for a few days or a week, she didn't know. Likely Yugao did not know. They left at midnight and sped off through the eastern gates.
They stopped in two hour intervals, for half an hour each, which made her wonder what sort of mission it was. The easy travel speed and breaks meant it was not an emergency mission or anything of prime urgency. They each drank ten ounces of water in the half an hour, stretched, and waited for Yugao to give the signal that meant they would begin again.
Really, it was a leisurely pace compared to what Gai had put her through back in the genin days, and she enjoyed the silent company and the slowly-rising sun. As they got closer to the edge of Hi no Kuni, the enormous trees grew smaller and thinner, leaving larger gaps between them, opening up their view to stare at the gorgeous, blazing sky; colored with oranges and pinks that contrasted vividly with the blue-black of the nighttime sky above, fading into a lighter blue, tinged violet where it met the skyline.
At the edge of Fire country, just where it became beach, Yugao called them to stop.
"We will be making our way to Uzushiogakure." Her voice was muffled slightly by the mask, making it lower, less clear. Tenten strained forward slightly to hear better. "When we arrive, our job is to scout. Our objective is to find any shinobi hiding. Once we have cleared the area, we are to search for artifacts that may be of use to Konoha."
Tenten wondered if it was not kind of cold, ransacking a village that had been destroyed a decade ago, and what kind of objects would be considered useful. But she nodded along with the other two. Likely she would know. Or figure it out. This was no time for frivolousness.
ANBU was darker and even more no-nonsense than she'd thought. Kakashi had warned her one night, after a rare training session he'd actually bothered to supervise. Now that Sakura was a chuunin too, he wasn't really their instructor. In most group missions, he would tag along, if they weren't sent with another team or a squad specifically designed for that mission, but that wasn't the case. He'd mostly gone on missions with Sakura, lately.
The younger girl had fallen asleep, head in Tenten's lap, and she stroked it carefully, detangling the pink locks with her dirty fingers, massaging her head soothingly, inanely. Kakashi still stood, and they watched the sun go down together, silently.
"It was a genjutsu, wasn't it?"
"Hm?"
He didn't even turn towards her. He was likely still upset with her from the night she'd gotten drunk and complained his ear off, but it didn't matter. There was a strange spacing between them now. She knew him too well, and he knew her too well, and now they were both keeping their distance. Maybe because she was upset from his comments, maybe because she saw through her childish infatuation, but mostly because he was naturally reticent, and she was growing to adopt the same quiet habits around others.
"When I... I pulled down your mask."
He looked at her then, with his free eye, sizing her up, swallowing her whole. She kept her voice low, so Sakura did not stir, and continued her gentle fingering of the girl's knotty locks. There was no acknowledgement from him, only the same, steady gaze he always pierced her with. But it was a little different now. He was seeing Tenten.
"I'm sorry. It was wrong and immature of me, and I can't fathom why you've put up with me for so long."
It was a jest - sort of. A half-hearted attempt at a joke but mostly an awkward stab at an apology. Kakashi turned all the way towards her, and moved to pick up Sakura, who groaned in his arms before resolutely shutting her eyes once more, nestled against his chest and looking even smaller than usual in her sleep.
"She's not sleeping well." Kakashi noted. He was not trying to change the subject. Tenten knew his tactics well. He was just trying to space his answers, delay his responses. They walked to the edge of the training grounds, slowly, as the sky darkened.
"You should visit Gai more often. He's getting better."
Each statement was punctuated with a thoughtful click of his tongue against the roof of his mouth, nearly silent, almost unnoticeable.
"Tenten?"
She waited, enraptured by the way he enunciated her name. Her name - who she was.
Iruka had been right. Her name was Tenten - the same as the words she'd babbled when she'd been found, years and years ago. Tenten. Tenten. Tenten. She loved her name, the flow of it, the easy repetition and uniqueness of the sharp syllables that matched her personality just right
"Comrades don't hold grudges..." He said it with the strange finality that came with his articulate voice, his intonation so different from anyone else's she had ever spoken to. "And friends don't 'put up' with each other."
Tenten watched him, gratefully, but he did not respond, disappearing in a puff of smoke to take Sakura home.
In his strange, offhand way, it was forgiveness... and perhaps an apology.
Yugao interrupted Tenten's musings, the sand pooling between her toes and falling through her fingers as she held up handfuls and let them fall out, like an hourglass.
"Let's go."
Standing to attention, Butterfly and Moth moved into formation. They stepped delicately at first, onto the water. Tenten remembered a time when this would have been difficult, nigh on impossible. Now, it took the slightest bit of finesse until they were off running. The water was gray-green. In books the water always shone blue and clear. This was sandy and murky, and from the splashes that hit against her tight ANBU leggings, cold.
Tenten, like a surprising number of Konoha shinobi, did not know how to swim. Most of the bodies of water near Konoha were too small and shallow for any actual swimming practice, and trips to the coast for pleasure were few and far between. Hot springs were far too hot for any stroke practice, and public pools were mostly used by rich civilians. Once it became a necessity to handle oneself in water, chakra did the job well enough. It was rare for shinobi to drown, purely because of that. It did not take much to keep a fit body afloat, particularly with a little chakra in the right places. And as Tenten popped more and more of the limitors that affected her system, she found herself feeling more and more buoyant when she used chakra, a stark difference to the previous feeling of flattening out.
This would likely take longer than trekking over land - the waves were rough today, and while once they got a few feet out, it was far easier to step over them, it wasn't as fast-moving of a process as trekking over land or through trees, and sometimes a wave would break over their feet, breaking concentration or tripping them slightly. It was beautiful, really. Before travelling with Team Gai, she'd never seen the ocean. She and Lee, after an escort mission, had stared at it for hours, until Neji had grown impatient. It was one of the first times she hadn't really minded their shouts about 'youth' and 'beauty'.
There would be no shouting or tears on this mission.
The four shinobi traveled quickly, efficiently, matching Team Gai's bridled speed. Tenten did not know how long it was until they reached the shore, but Yugao called for a break, panting a little, and handed out soldier pills.
Of course. ANBU protocol dictated that outside of Fire Country, and especially outside Konoha, masks must be worn at all times. There was no way for them to eat real food. The slimness of their water flasks fit beneath, and the pills were just as easily popped in. The most ever shown was a flash of chin, perhaps the slightest glimpse of lower lip, discolored and chapped.
Most people seemed to hate soldier pills, but Tenten found she did not mind eating this one - it was sweet and chewy, with a gummy texture.
"Did the medic unit really manage to make gummy soldier pills?" Butterfly sniggered. "This is excellent. Fuckin' orange-flavored."
Tenten stared. Kotetsu was in ANBU?
Moth noticed her shocked expression at Kotetsu's voice, and nodded. Izumo. Like the pair was ever apart.
She supposed it made sense - their carefree attitudes and closeness to Tsunade made them perfect candidates for the same anonymous position as Tenten. Nobody would suspect Izumo and Kotetsu of being in ANBU. They had a firmly established reputation of being the quintessential village idiots. It was a huge joke, and one they were in on.
They remained for half an hour, Izumo and Kotetsu building a makeshift sand-sculpture that resembled... she struggled to keep her emotionless facade up when she saw that they'd molded it into a rather prehensile, cartoonish penis.
Yugao shook her head at them and kicked at it, to Kotetu's indignation. "C'mon. Time to go."
The group moved with an easy, mechanical grace. Every step was trained into them, every second calculated. It was why ANBU was the best of the best - while regular squads had to be organized by who could coordinate proper teamwork, ANBU could be interchangeable. It didn't matter who was who - only whose talents were most suited to the mission. Although she wondered, with a grin hidden behind her mask, if anybody had ever bothered to separate Izumo and Kotetsu since they were in the Academy. Their teamwork was legendary throughout the village - from their wild antics to their deadly precision in battle. They were like twins - perhaps better, because they chose to be together, and to hone their skills together.
Most romantic attachments were frowned upon as shinobi climbed up the ranks. But despite their obviously less-than-platonic relationship, they were never split up, always on the same page. It was a bit like the Inuzukas and their ninken, she supposed. A life pact - they were such a close team that they were not even a team - they were one person.
Tenten kept herself occupied with these thoughts for the rest of the journey - and she could sense that they had arrived even before they had stopped.
The island was fairly similar to Konoha in that it had many trees - but there were all sorts of different kinds of shrubberies, and the land was sandy in places, and hilly everywhere. It wasn't as green as she imagined - there were dozens of wildflowers breaking up the rest of the plants, and it was pleasant - pinks and purples and oranges, everywhere. Tropical was what came to mind. Gorgeous.
They were on no path, so it was the broken infrastructure that gave it away - and the remnants of chakra, still smoking, just barely-there, and only visible to her Byakugan. Tenten stared in awe. What could be so powerful? It had been years since the fall of the village, but still, residue remained.
"You're the most equipped for this. What areas have the highest concentration of chakra?"
Scanning the area, she checked, and pointed off three areas that seemed to have small cycles of chakra - and in a village of fuinjutsu, that could mean something was sealed.
Coordinates were easy - Tenten could calculate any target, trajectory, or distance in seconds. With the addition of her new eyes, it was even easier. They separated into three groups - Tenten and Yugao heading off alone.
It was small, and gorgeous. Tenten moved slowly, appreciating it.
While Suna had been harsh and Kiri had been chilly, this place was just the slightest bit more humid than Konoha's dry air, and with a warm breeze that swept up the hairs at her nape. It was enjoyable, despite the stickiness of the saltwater that remained against her skin.
She reached the seal easily.
It was a typical technique, really, the way the seal was pressed onto a flat object, and buried. Tenten had done that a few times, too. It had been done hurriedly, and though it was easy for her to recognize, she could not decipher what it was meant to hold.
It was a small stone, the size of her palm, round and smooth, one end flat, with the dark chakra markings of a seal, covered with sandy dirt, moist, with a few bugs underneath the spot she'd overturned. She weighed it - it was heavier than it should be for its mass. Not by too much - whatever was in it was small. She'd need time to figure out the release pattern of the seal, unfamiliar as it was. Hopping over to where Yugao was cluelessly searching, she assisted her.
Another small, thoroughly ignorable object - a small hunk of wood, the seal worn down, leaking chakra heavily. Tenten eyed it. It was a completely different form than the one she'd found - this one was meant to be found, or to leave a trail. She narrowed her eyes at Yugao. What was this mission really for? The interesting 'artifacts' Yugao wanted seemed to solely be seals. Was this about uncovering more fuinjutsu secrets, or about discovering lost jutsu from a village that hadn't survived?
They headed over to Izumo and Kotetsu, who had significantly more luck than Tenten - they had found three; a locket, buried in the dirt with a broken chain and a clasp that wouldn't unlock, probably part of the seal; a broken piece of glass that cut her the second she attempted to touch it with her skin; and a filthy ribbon with an unidentifiable color.
She stared at Yugao. They hadn't just traveled for hours for this, and no answers, had they? The entire process took just over an hour of searching. Was this what ANBU meant? Carrying out nameless missions that she wasn't privileged enough to be told about? She grit her teeth furiously, controlling her chakra from a wild spike of anger - Danzou had done this. She didn't even want this. This was bullshit and she was fucking sick of not being told anything. She wasn't just a tool - she was a kunoichi, the damn 'Weapons Mistress'. She was no tool because she was in fact, the entire fucking tool shed and armory.
"You carry them and take them to Head Quarters," Yugao told her. "Does there seem to be anything else of interest?"
"The markings on the walls, but they're too large to carry. We'd need a full squad and gear. Those would practically require an excavation."
She nodded. "As expected. Still, only five things is quite a small haul to return."
"Everything else has already been looted," she said hollowly. It reminded her of Naruto's reaction to her 'borrowing' of Momochi Zabuza's sword. She thought that perhaps she understood how he felt now. "If you wanted good shit, we should've sent out a squad ages ago."
Yugao's voice made it impossible to decipher her thoughts. "You are currently the only seals specialist in Konoha."
Tenten scowled beneath her mask and did not reply. So that was the game. She really was just another tool. She resolved to discuss her issues with Tsunade - or with Danzou, if need be.
The return home took longer. Tenten made sure to dawdle in the back, and noticed Izumo and Kotetsu's irritation. Likely they did not want to sleep on the ground. Tough shit for them, she figured.
Uzushio was much closer than Kiri - the island was just offshore the border of the Land of Fire, and she supposed it was pretty long just to run in one go. And since that was the case, they were not attacked - an attack on them within their borders would've been an outrageous call for outright war.
They made it back just before midnight, completing a twenty-four hour day. Tenten was exhausted - but she was also furious. They returned to ANBU HQ and filled out the missions report, quickly and neatly. Tenten chewed on another soldier pill, the only small ray of amusement on her cloudy mind.
Izumo pulled off his mask first, and sighed. "I fucking hate wearing these things. My face gets all sweaty."
Yugao followed suit, combing fingers through her long hair, the thick and wiry locks and strands getting tangled. "Whatever. Tenten - your job is to send these to Danzou's office."
Perfect. "Do I carry them to him or leave them in his mailbox?"
"Since it's your first mission, take them to him personally," Yugao decided, smiling softly, small shadows beneath her eyes. "You did well. Thank you for your help."
She felt a traitorous surge of affection towards Yugao - really, the woman was only doing her job. And she'd always been the soul of kindness to Tenten, and here she was, ready to smash heads. She paused - and nodded, taking off her mask. Kotetsu yawned loudly.
"Take it off man, we're about to leave." Izumo tried to grab it off Kotetsu's face, who pulled away nimbly.
"No way. I gotta go to the bathroom first. You can't see me like this. I got bags so big underneath my eyes that they could double as kunai holsters."
Yugao smiled at that. She wasn't a giggler or a chuckler. She didn't laugh very often at all, actually, but her soft smiles were as potent as one of Ino's sudden, shocked, yelping screeches that doubled as laughter.
Nodding, Tenten put her mask in the little locker she'd been assigned and scooted off towards Danzou's 'office'.
He wasn't really in charge of ANBU. He was in charge of ROOT, but that was top secret, and Tenten only knew about it because she was close to Tsunade, who let out a bit more than she should when drinking in the late afternoon. The real head of ANBU was the T&I unit. Morino Ibiki, the terrifying chuunin exam proctor, was one of the heads, and so was Anko, surprisingly, but recruitment was handled by some Yamanaka she didn't know, and the elders, with helpful recommendation from senseis and teammates.
The weight in her pack distracted her, and she felt annoyed once again - not at Yugao, or Kotetsu, or Izumo, or even at Danzou - but at the fact that this is what a typical shinobi was imagined to be by civilians who didn't know better - a ninja, creeping through the dark, stealing precious things and being nameless, assigned missions by a stony-cold leader. She didn't want this!
Treasonous thoughts sprouted in her mind, fed by the wet clouds that hovered over her. Did she even want to be a kunoichi? If this was the rest of her career, what was the point? In her youth, she'd been in love with the idea of Tsunade - a famous, gorgeous, deadly kunoichi with a reputation that could frighten away an enemy before she even moved to attack. Then she'd seen it - the cycle of poverty that often trapped civilians in ninja villages. Sure, they all lived well enough - the treasury protected them in peace times, of course, fattened up by the riches of war, but in the end, how useful was a fashion shop in a village that predominantly housed shinobi, who rarely wore civilian clothes anyway? What was the use of fine cuisine for men and women and everyone in between who popped soldier pills as often as their daily vitamins? She'd done it to protect Naruto too - while shinobi were reviled outside of the safe bubble of their Hidden Village home, within the walls of Konoha, it was an honorable calling, with an abundance of teachers and assistance from the government. So she'd done it, teaching Naruto little tricks she could actually manage, being a miserable failure of a student with terrible chakra control, helping fuel his dream of being Hokage, hoping that her status as an Academy student, then as a genin, would protect him.
But he'd done it on his own. His drive and feisty attitude had won more than a few hearts, and even civilians were beginning to lose some of their hostility. But Tenten, without him, was still a nobody, neither respected or hated.
She sighed, knocking on the office door, sending some chakra through it so the old man would recognize her. As skilled as he was reputed to be, she didn't trust a seventy year old man to be much more than a wobbling old grandpa on a cane.
The door swung open, and she immediately recalculated her opinion. He'd swung it open with push of his chakra, nearly tangible, that raised the hairs on her arms.
"Ahh. Uzumaki Tenten."
The bandages that covered half his face were neatly tied in place. She wondered if the wound was fresh, or healing, or if it was a fashion statement. Shinobi liked to wear some weird shit. She would never get over the strange fishnet fetish that everyone seemed to have. It wasn't protective at all. But she brushed away her nervous thoughts and nodded curtly to him. "Shimura-sama."
"Danzou, please. Sit down and discuss with me your first mission. Yugao is your mentor, correct? I chose her m'self, knowing that you two have some sort of relationship."
She narrowed her eyes. Did he keep tabs on everyone like that? She supposed it was for the best, but it kind of creeped her out.
"Hai, Danzou-sama. Thank you. The mission went well. Yugao instructed me to bring you these - it's what we found in Uzushio." She gently placed the objects on his desk, the dirt spreading on some of his scrolls and paperwork. She noticed he scowled at that.
He didn't make her nervous anymore. She noticed her hands shaking, probably from exhaustion, but she'd been too fired up with the adrenaline of running and the nutrients in the soldier pills to notice. She wasn't nervous either - probably still the adrenaline running through her. She hadn't eaten in over a day, but her chakra was spiked high and her muscles were warmed up and ready.
Absently, she was grateful again to Gai-sensei, and vowed to go visit him again. She hadn't been good about it lately. He deserved better. She was over her anger at his absence - now she just wanted to see him. She missed him - the old him, and who he was now. She loved him, not like a father, quite... maybe like an uncle, or a cousin, or even just an older friend who was kind and liked her fervently.
"Ah." He tutted beneath his teeth. "We do not have much to go by here. Is this all?"
"A few artifacts remained, but they weren't mobile. If you want them, you need to send out a full platoon."
"With you, I expect."
She was reminded of Yugao's comment. She was the only fuinjutsu expert in Konoha. What could she learn from that village? She yearned to investigate, but she wanted answers first. "Yes, Danzou-sama. I suppose my expertise is the reason you wanted me for ANBU?"
He sighed, pushing paperwork away and folded his fingers, staring at her directly. "You are correct. I required ANBU level shinobi for this mission, and you were not ANBU level. This is top secret, and cannot be trusted with the regular faction. Secret black-ops seemed the perfect choice. As far as your friends know, you are the same kunoichi as before, but to us, you are considered trustworthy. I admit..." he trailed off for a moment, and harrumphed, meeting her eyes with his revealed one directly. "I have analyzed your skills, as well as your position. I have come to see you as an obstacle."
What the hell? She narrowed her eyes, but a glare from him froze her. Defiant now, she scowled, wondering if the immobility she felt was a genjutsu, or her own fear. Perhaps the fear itself was a manifestation of a genjutsu. But it did not stop her from retorting, in the most disdainful tone she could muster: "What the hell are you talking about, Danzou?"
He noticed the dropped honorific, and chuckled at that, his face dark and brows drawn tightly together. "You see... after Hiruzen appointed the Yondaime Hokage, who died so quickly, he was forced to take up the reins of leadership once more. But he was a fool. I am sure, after the treatment you faced in the village for so many years, along with your jinchuuriki brother, you feel the same way."
She had indeed once held those doubtful thoughts, but hearing him say it aloud pissed her off. "You don't know shit, old man. I would die for this village, like any good shinobi."
"Would your heart be in it? Duty before honor, child." He chided her easily, seemingly unbothered by her rudeness. "You do your duty well, but you crave honor, like an idealist. This village has suffered under the reins of that idealism. We've lost countless peace treaties with Iwa for this reason - but the success of their military is astounding! We would do well to mimic their policies. But first Hiruzen, then Namikaze, and now Tsunade..." his lip curled in disgust. "This village is failing. Which is why I have taken it upon myself, in my superior judgment, to choose a successor for Hokage. After all, Tsunade does not want this position. She hates it, and her drunkenness is an embarrassment, and an international incident waiting to happen."
She bristled at this disrespect. His critique of her methods was not laced with the exasperated fondness of Shizune, or the lazy carelessness of Shikamaru, or the tired admiration of Sakura. He was... honestly, this man was an asshole. She thought of Hinata, and realized that the girl's conspiracy theories were not just conjecture of a paranoid, grieving young woman.
Danzou had a dark reputation. He had protected the village for over half a century, studied under two Hokages, been an advisor for years and years and years. But he had gone his own way often, overpowering the Sandaime's softer policies and personality, and she saw this ruthlessness. Duty before honor was a mantra he took seriously.
Moving the objects to the side, he leaned forward, his chakra spiking dangerously. "I originally chose Hyuuga Neji. He was a boy easy to mold - hurt by the betrayal of his family, insecure, but growing beneath the guidance of his once-estranged uncle. And the seal - his cursed mark made him an easy target - he was a boy used to being ordered, and would've recognized the need for my guidance. He could've been a gorgeous figurehead beneath the council."
Rage bubbled in her, and she tried to stop her killing intent, but he noticed immediately, and raised a brow.
"However, that was obviously made impossible when he died in... those extenuating circumstances with the Akatsuki attack... which was intended for Naruto." He was choosing his words carefully, but for what purpose, she did not know. To piss her off? She didn't recognize his motives. "And when we discovered your... rather faulty, at best, but miraculous in itself - new dojutsu, both myself and Hiashi were... quite interested in you. Particularly due to your relationship with the jinchuuriki, who holds the same foolish ideals as the past Kages, and Tsunade, who is actually considering recognizing your cousin as a potential candidate!" He snorted. "So my interest remains in you... and in Hyuuga Hanabi."
Tenten wondered what the hell a nine year old kid who was home-schooled had to do with this. And how exactly was it beneficial to rid the village of the jinchuuriki? Naruto, in an objective sense, held huge political weight as the kyuubi jinchuuriki. She seethed, not even bothering to hide her fury.
"She is the future heir the the Hyuuga clan. But instead, if she were to be chosen as successor... her delightful younger sister could be left as a gorgeous figurehead to the clan, easy to manipulate. She has such a sweet temperament, does she not?" He sneered. Tenten stifled the urge to punch him. "Therefore, you're left over. You have the Byakugan and the sealing skills I need. But when you turned down Hiashi's request for adoption... you disappointed me. You could do much."
He pulled out a sheet of paper, and she stared at it. It was old, bent a little, and marked with crayon in bright blue.
"I want to be a kunoichi because:" he read off. "This is your paper when you entered the Academy. All of these are saved and logged."
She stared at him. "That was from nearly ten years ago. It doesn't hold any relevance now." Why was she still having a conversation with this man instead of reporting him for senility and insanity?
"So your dream of being a kunoichi like Tsunade is gone? As a council member, you would be quite remarkable. An asset to us all. And you would be renown for your amazing acquisition of the Byakugan, as well as the revival of the Uzumaki clan and kekkei genkai."
She scowled. "What fucking kekkei genkai?"
"Don't you see it as a bit coincidental that you were named an Uzumaki, but told it was a fluke? Until it wasn't, at least. That your name is true? That nobody bothered to claim you, or tell you, or Naruto, for that matter, who you truly are?"
"Where are you going with this?" she demanded.
"You were meant from the beginning to be a buffer for Naruto. The child of heroes," he scoffed. "A bigheaded idealist and a hot-blooded foreign kunoichi jinchuuriki. After the destruction of Uzushio, most fuinjutsu techniques were lost. Do you think it is a coincidence that Gai showed you sealing? That as a child you were never sick, that you were able to master an S-ranked jutsu as just a genin? The ability to perform complicated fuinjutsu is related to the longevity so renown to the clan. While your ability to get up after being beat down is incomparable to your jinchuuriki relative's, you remain quite an excellent specimen."
"How is any of this related?" she interrupted. "What does fuinjutsu have to do with long lives?"
"The first jinchuuriki of all of the bijuu was created when Uzumaki Mito, a world-renown fuinjutsu specialist from Uzushio, sealed the beast within herself. She sealed all other creatures into other villages - it was a way to create a peace treaty when the Hidden Villages first became a reality."
"I really don't care about your patriotism." she answered, scowling, still angry at his commends about Naruto, Neji, and Hinata.
"The legend claims that the reason Uzumakis are the perfect hosts for kyuubi, as well as being so legendarily powerful, was because they discovered the possibility of sealing the chakra from the elements into them. Thus creating nature release."
"Bullshit." She rolled her eyes. Another folk tale. "I don't care about your stories. Tell me plainly what you want, so I can reject you."
"I want you to support the possibility of Hyuuga Hanabi becoming Hokage over Uzumaki Naruto, and for you to agree to adoption underneath the clan in order for training of your dojutsu. As a reward, you will be on her head council."
"So..." she said slowly. "You want me to go against the boy I consider a brother and the woman I consider a shishou in order to feed your ego? No. I guess I'm too much of a foolish idealist to agree to that."
His face darkened. "I was hoping... perhaps foolishly... that when you heard the truth, your inner pragmatism would allow you to see what should be. Perhaps not." he sighed. "I had heard you were becoming quite the deadly little shinobi... beneath the tutelage of some of Konoha's biggest names. I figured that you would be selfish enough to desire your dream's fruition."
"I guess not." She answered obnoxiously. "I don't want to have anything to do with you. I want out of ANBU. I never should have accepted in the first place. Bullying children into your little side project isn't the usual method, is it?"
He shook his head slowly, tutting, the wrinkled old hands covered with liver spots. "I suppose that I have revealed this to you, and you have continuously defied me, I must do what is best for the village - taking matters into my own, wiser, more capable hands, seems to be a trend in this foolish village. But... I will protect it. Konoha must flourish."
She gaped at him blankly. "What are you rambling about?"
He looked at her directly. "If I cannot convert you, I suppose killing you is the next best option."
A bark of a laugh escaped her. That was way too dramatic to be real. He couldn't mean it. "You can't be serious."
His face was impassive.
"Please." She scoffed at that, although the realization that he was utterly serious made her tremble. How had this escalated so quickly? "Do you know how many people would throw a collective fit if I was executed or found dead without reason?" It flattered her ego just the slightest bit to realize the truth of those words.
He shrugged. "I must do what is right for the village, as I have before. This place would have floundered long ago without my guidance."
Tenten disappeared, using the hiraishin to away, just as he reached for her.
He sighed. Of course it would not be easy. Impetuous brat.
"Come."
A ROOT agent appeared from the shadows, face pale and emotionless. He sighed again. He was growing too old for these games of cat-and-mouse.
"Alert Hiashi of the girl's rejection. Then find her, and kill her. If you are unsuccessful, I will do it myself. We don't want a repeat of what happened with Uchiha Shisui. And if you are caught by any regular forces..." he considered. "For this mission, you shall be Sai. Understand?"
"I am Sai, sir."
"Good. Now go. You have an hour. Day will break in a few hours, so make sure I don't have to do it myself. There's a council meeting in the morning."
"Yes sir. And the excuse?"
"I will handle that. Just try to make your damage as minimal as possible. The girl is unstable - she will probably suicide. Another repeat of the Uchiha Shisui incident. Stress." The boy nodded, his face bobbing up and down, once, then twice with assent. He recognized the cover story. "You were simply attempting to have her desist in her self-destructive actions when she attacked you."
The thin boy disappeared in an instant, and Danzou sighed. It would be cleaner with the girl gone anyway. Defiance in the ranks did not belong in his Konoha. The needs of the many outweighed the needs of the individual, and he would guarantee the safety of his village. And damn it all, now he'd be spending hours researching the seals on the objects -
He hissed.
She'd taken them with her.