Thanks for the response. Good to know there's some of you still out there. :)
Disclaimer: M.K. owns all familiar characters/places besides Karin, who belongs to Tite Kubo.
All Tsunade felt on her shoulders was failure.
Since childhood, she had been pruned and groomed for the position of queen. It was her birthright. And for many years, it had been her dream.
But not anymore.
Throughout the course of her reign as queen, Tsunade had endured far too much. Her family had all but died out, due to the Year of Illness that had taken so many lives decades ago. Her one truest companion had been murdered unjustly. Growing up in the times that she had, her position as queen forbade her to marry. She had no family. Her only constant assurance was Jiraiya.
Tsunade looked out the window of her carriage, reflecting.
Many people said it was not easy being in a position of power, and that assessment was true. But even with that label of difficulty, it was still unfathomable to comprehend by those that were not in that position.
In the first year of her reign as queen, Tsunade singlehandedly managed to alienate most, if not all, other countries surrounding her own. Trade suffered and the isolation of the Fire Country was palpable.
In her second year, Tsunade signed a lengthy trade agreement with the Wind and Stone countries, hoping to gain some revenue. Two years followed of general prosperity, and other countries made trade treaties with the Fire.
In her seventh year, tensions became strained with the Stone and Frost countries, both who were united in trade. Then a war followed that drained Tsunade's funds, energy, and resources.
And now she was standing at the cusp of another altercation.
Tsunade knew her choices, and she knew what would be considered a bad choice in the eyes of others.
But it did not matter what they thought was a bad choice. She was queen. She was trying to keep trade going, trying to rebuild. If Shimogakure was taken, what would stop anyone—not just A—from overrunning her entire trade system? Prices would be heightened until Tsunade had no more money to pay for the cost of keeping trade running. People would suffer. Tribute would eventually have to be paid. And then her country would fall to the dogs that so eagerly waited at the foot of the table.
"People love to just look at your failures, don't they, Jiraiya?" Tsunade commented with a bitter smile.
Jiraiya frowned, concerned.
Tsunade glanced back out the window.
She would not let A have Shimogakure without a fight.
She could not.
-o-
It was his wedding day.
Neji saw himself standing at the altar of the great hall of the biggest church in Queen's City. Dozens of people were gathered in the audience, all watching, all waiting.
The doors at the end of the hall opened, and Ino stepped forward, bathed in white, more perfect than any man's vision of a wife.
She arrived at the altar, shielded by her veil, but even it was not enough to mask her small, demure smile.
Neji guessed at the emotion he was feeling. It wasn't happiness, but something akin to . . . acceptance?
Neji turned back to the priest, trying to focus on the words he was saying about marriage and the like. But he couldn't stop his mind from wandering.
Distractedly, he looked over his shoulder to scan the crowd at his back. Whatever he was looking for was not there.
The vows and ring exchange was unmemorable in Neji's mind, and before he could fully grasp what was happening, Ino stood next to him as his wife.
As they grasped hands and began their first procession as husband and wife, it occurred to Neji what was missing.
TenTen wasn't there. She was not there at all.
Neji opened his eyes from sleep, instantly awake. He stared at the opening of his tent, trying to digest the feeling of loss he'd awoken to.
A second later, a messenger appeared in the tent opening.
"Sorry to wake you, sir, but the queen has returned."
Neji sat up, shifting into focus.
"Yes?" he prompted.
"She has requested General Kakashi and yourself in General Guy's tent as soon as possible," answered the messenger.
"I'll be there in a moment," Neji replied, standing from his bed.
The messenger nodded and retreated, leaving Neji alone to get ready.
He quickly pulled on warmer clothes and his boots, leaving his tent only a moment behind the messenger.
Neji was the last to arrive in Guy's tent. Tsunade was sitting comfortably behind Guy's desk when he entered. Jiraiya was speaking to Kakashi and Guy in a low murmur.
Tsunade noted Neji's entrance and beckoned him forward. Once he stood before her, Tsunade said, "Tell me what you think will come of this, Neji."
Neji gazed at her, noting the lackluster color of her usually vibrant brown eyes. Now they seemed just frozen over. Without hope.
"Of the altercation with King A?"
Tsunade nodded.
Neji thought, wondering if he needed to be an encourager or a realist in this conversation. From what he could determine, encouragement would probably be best. . . But he couldn't bring himself to lie.
"I think it will be disastrous if we move forward. We don't have the numbers we need to carry out an assault like this, in this kind of terrain, at this time of the year."
Tsunade stared up at him.
"Where is TenTen?" she inquired after a long pause.
Neji blinked.
"She was starting her lessons in Shimogakure today. She's probably already in town."
"What would she say, if I had asked her the same question?"
Neji sighed, again faced with the choice to lie or not. TenTen, always getting in the way of things.
"She would tell you to do what you thought was right."
Tsunade considered this, her face serious.
When she glanced over at Jiraiya, all three men were staring at she and Neji, eavesdropping.
"Forgive me for not asking your opinions, Guy, Kakashi," Tsunade apologized tiredly. "But Neji is the only one in this room who would not lie to me, no matter the consequences."
She glanced at him, gratefulness in the small nod she gave him.
"I am going to proceed with the defense of our border and the town of Shimogakure." She looked each of them in the eye for a long second. "As your queen, I apologize for everything this means and for all of the consequences that will result from this choice."
With that final word, she stood from her chair and swept out of Guy's tent, never to return to the battlefield she had ordained.
-o-
TenTen surveyed Shimogakure's square with a critical eye.
She had been up since before dawn, rousing her grumpy charges in the process, to prepare for the day's activities.
Since her first inception of the idea to have a self-defense and education workshop in Shimogakure, TenTen had been in close communication with Kaede, the inn manager, on the best way to approach it. TenTen hadn't had to gain permission from anyone necessarily, since she was exploiting no establishment. However, Kaede had been quick to point out that TenTen would likely come across trouble.
TenTen was not really fazed by this news. She had dealt with far more difficult circumstances.
Her plan for the day was to do self-defense in the early part of the afternoon, and cover basic reading and an hour or so before dark. Permitting the cease-fire continued, TenTen would be having regular classes.
Kaede had honored her promise to inform the women residents. Ten minutes before midday, TenTen counted fifteen gathered, of various ages.
Currently, her charges were chatting with the small group, answering questions as they came, and eagerly asking their own.
TenTen smiled slightly.
A hand gripped her shoulder, and TenTen turned to see Kaede.
"Thank you so much for what you've done for me," TenTen said, hugging the older woman.
Kaede laughed a little.
"It was a pleasure to serve the country's first woman soldier. I'm sorry more did not show up. It's still a weekday, and business is still going."
TenTen nodded understandably.
"It's no matter. The few that did show up is more than enough," TenTen assured. "Will you be staying to join us?"
Kaede laughed again.
"I wish I could, but I should get back to the inn. Please stop by afterwards though, and let me know how things went."
With a final squeeze of TenTen's arm, Kaede started back towards her business.
TenTen inhaled deeply, feeling the sharpness of the winter air bite her throat on the way down to her lungs.
She almost laughed at herself. Six months ago, she would have been struck dumb at this spectacle she had organized.
Amused, she strode forward and introduced herself to her temporary pupils.
In the first hour, it was evident that the group of women that had assembled had no idea how to defend themselves in the slightest. Their joints were unused to the angles TenTen pushed them into, their muscles weak in defensive positions.
But their progress was encouraging—they were all quick learners.
Moegi, Matsuri, and Karin walked around correcting and helping by themselves, while Hibari and Futaba stayed with TenTen, learning themselves.
Near the end of the second hour, an audience began gathering.
It was Futaba who alerted TenTen.
"Ito-sensei, why are all those men watching?"
TenTen followed Futaba's line of sight to a group of around five or six men standing next to the door of a pub, watching.
"Futaba, go with Moegi," TenTen said, turning her attention to the men.
She stared them down, her arms crossed. Finally, the group seemed to get the message, and went into the pub, sending her darting glances.
Sighing, TenTen turned back to the assemblage of women.
Her troubles were not yet over.
A half hour before they moved on to teaching the alphabet, a girl came running out of a bakery across the square. Her eyes were wild, but she easily disappeared in the throng of women.
Moments later, a man with burly arms and a red face walked out.
He strode purposefully across the square and into the group of women, upsetting the lines and exercises.
TenTen stepped into his path, furious.
"Sir, I cannot have you disrupting this practice."
He glared down at her, his gaze blistering.
"Soldier whore, get out of my way. I'm retrieving my daughter."
TenTen's face colored instantly, and she set her stance.
"She's free to participate in these practices if she wants. I won't allow you to take her away if she wants to be here."
The man pushed TenTen out of the way and resumed his search for his daughter.
"Sir, you just assaulted a soldier of the queen's army," TenTen spat, following after him. "I could have you arrested."
The baker swung around to face her.
"Arrest? Me?" he said.
"Your daughter has the freedom to learn self-defense."
The baker turned and located his daughter.
TenTen laid a hand on his arm to redirect his attention, but when the man turned, he punched her directly in the eye.
TenTen sprawled on the ground, taken completely off guard. Her charges hurried to help her up.
The man retrieved his daughter and seized her by the arm. He spat at TenTen's feet as he dragged the girl back across the square.
TenTen was having trouble focusing. Pain was all she could feel, sprouting from her eye socket and throbbing in her head.
She felt dizzy and managed to put her head between her knees.
"Ito-sensei, are you alright?" Moegi questioned, anxiety creeping into her voice.
TenTen did not feel well enough to answer until after a few moments.
"Go get me some snow, Moegi."
Moegi rushed off to do just that, and Matsuri took her place crouched by her teacher's side.
"That was so unfair," the girl said. "He didn't fight fair."
TenTen made no reply. She felt her eye already beginning to swell shut.
Moegi reappeared with the snow, and TenTen gingerly placed it on the eye. She clamped her mouth shut, determined not to cry out from the pain.
"Should we take you back to camp, Ito-sensei?"
"No," TenTen said. "Are the other girls still here?"
There was a small pause, before Karin eventually answered, "They all ran away after that man hit you."
TenTen sighed roughly.
"Great," she muttered.
After another minute of collecting herself, TenTen permitted her charges to help her to her feet. Her head spun nastily.
"Can you take me to the inn towards the western gate? I have a friend there," TenTen said.
Her charges assented and slowly led their teacher to Kaede's inn.
Once inside the inn, Kaede descended upon them, shocked and apologetic.
"I'm so sorry, TenTen-san. I never thought this would happen."
TenTen waved off her girls as she sat down, still holding the snow to her eye.
"It's nothing," TenTen sighed.
She fixed her one good eye on her charges.
"Right, I have a task for you all. I want you to go and check in on the girls that ran away. But don't go to the baker. When you're finished, come back here and we'll head back to camp."
"Are you sure you'll be alright?" Karin asked, glancing at Kaede.
"I'll be fine."
With this assurance, Karin led the other girls out of the inn to begin their small quest.
TenTen watched them go, sinking back into her chair as the door shut behind them.
"This was a disaster," TenTen said, disappointed.
Kaede pressed a glass into her hand. When TenTen sipped it, her body warmed up a little.
"What happened?" the woman asked, sitting across from her.
"This baker came out looking for his daughter and I tried to get him to leave her be."
Kaede hummed.
"Yes, he is notorious in this town for his preference to solve matters with his fist."
"He hits that little girl. I know it."
Kaede did not respond.
TenTen fixed a single eye on her.
"No one does anything about it?'
"What happens in the baker's house is his affair, not everyone else's."
TenTen sat up straighter.
"But that's wrong. If he's harming that little girl—" She shook her head. "I would take her as my own child if I had to, to get her away from him."
Kaede tilted her head in consideration.
"You have an interesting spirit, TenTen-san."
TenTen shifted the snow on her injured eye.
"What does that mean?"
"Not many people would willingly take on a child they did not know, that was not their own, just to spare them some pain."
TenTen shrugged.
"That girl's life is more precious than my reputation," she replied simply.
TenTen sipped more of the drink Kaede had provided her, relishing the warmth spreading through her limbs.
"I feel like I only know a little about you, TenTen-san."
TenTen chuckled.
"My life isn't all that interesting, honestly."
Kaede scoffed.
"I don't believe that for a second," she answered.
TenTen leaned back again in her chair, compliant.
She imparted her childhood as a leather-maker's only child, and how she had grown up. Kaede listened intently as TenTen related all of the details of her life, including her service in the army as a male, her acquaintance and friendship with Neji, and her time in prison. TenTen ended her story with the events of the border and Shimogakure.
"I'm certain you don't need me to relate the rest," TenTen said.
"No," Kaede said, smiling. "Thank you, for telling me."
"You're not getting off that easy," TenTen informed. "I know even less about you than you did me."
Kaede shifted in her chair, looking down at the table.
"My story is not as interesting as yours, I'm afraid."
TenTen shook her head in dismissal.
"Everyone's story is important," she affirmed, finally beginning to feel some relief from the pain.
Kaede mulled this over for a few moments, taking her time to begin.
"I grew up in the Lightning Country. My parents were merchants. Glassblowers, by trade. My life was spent helping them in their business and helping to raise my brothers and sisters.
"When I was eighteen, I met the man who changed my life. He was a foreigner, from a prestigious family. But he was so unlike anyone I had ever met. He rode the wind, rather than let it push him around. He wandered into the market one morning. I was manning the booth, because my mother was at home sick. He walked right up to me, and did nothing but try and get my name. But I wouldn't let him have it. . . I don't remember why—if it was because he frightened me by his persistence or if I liked him. At any rate, he vowed that he would come back every day until I gave him my name. And he did."
Kaede stopped and sighed heavily.
"Am I boring you yet?" she asked TenTen.
The brunette shook her head no, her face serious.
"Well, after about a week, I finally gave in and told him my name. He wanted to spend time with me, but my parents were very strict, and wary of outsiders. But . . . he intrigued me, so I met him in secret every day for three weeks. He was only there for that long, and at the end of the time, well . . . it broke my heart.
"Several weeks later, I discovered that I was pregnant, with his child. I told my parents. They were furious. I sent him a letter, telling him. Everything kind of fell to pieces after that."
"What happened?" TenTen asked, voice quiet.
"His family threatened me. They forbid us from getting married, or even seeing each other. I had two choices: raise the baby by myself and never tell anyone who his father was, or give him up to his family."
TenTen felt her heart thrumming in her chest. Was this—?
"And what did you choose?" she asked breathlessly.
Kaede stared at TenTen, tears starting to gather in her eyes.
"Neither. I miscarried the baby."
TenTen's chest deflated with disappointment.
"Oh," she murmured, feeling distant. "I'm so sorry."
Kaede sniffed, and brushed away the moisture from her eyes.
"It's alright. We both went back to our normal lives. I never saw him again. It was for the best. It was fate."
TenTen digested Kaede's story, lost in thought. A moment later, the door to the inn opened and the girls returned to retrieve their teacher.
TenTen stood, thanking Kaede for her hospitality and confidence, and allowed herself to be led out.
TenTen only half-listened to the chatter of the girls on the way back to camp, her hand tightly clasped by Futaba.
Her thoughts tickled with the new information she had gained. Kaede's story was so close to Neji's mother's. . . Well, except for the biggest detail of all. Neji was very much alive, whereas Kaede's child was not.
TenTen sighed, dissatisfied.
At the crossroads of the camp, TenTen left her girls at their tent, assuring them that she was perfectly fine.
She walked slowly to Neji's tent, picking her way across the ground as best she could with just one eye in the dark.
When she entered, his back was to her as he leaned over his desk, looking at something.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
Neji turned around, his face serious and alert.
"Where have you been?" he said, tone sharp and disapproving.
TenTen stared at him.
"It's Friday. . . I told you that I was going to hold those classes in Shimogakure. . . You approved it," TenTen reminded, confused.
Neji looked at the ground, shaking his head.
"I remember. I should have remembered that earlier. I could have sent a messenger for you."
"What's wrong? What's happened?"
Neji sighed.
"Tsunade came back this morning. We're going through with the border dispute, starting tomorrow morning."
TenTen nodded, her face drawn in acceptance.
"You're working on battle plans?"
"Yes."
Neji stared at her.
"What's on your eye? Is that snow?"
TenTen sheepishly removed the tightly packed ball of ice.
From Neji's tightened mouth and look of concern, TenTen wondered how bad her eye looked.
"Did someone hit you?" he inquired, guiding her to a seat.
"How can you tell?"
Neji treated her to an unamused glare.
"What happened?"
TenTen sighed and gave him the quick details.
Neji's face grew darker by each word.
"We could have him arrested, you know."
"It wouldn't make any difference," TenTen replied tiredly.
Neji sat down across from her, staring at her injury.
"So many girls came too," TenTen said wistfully. "I just wish they would have stayed the rest of the time."
"Did you really expect them to?" Neji asked. "After what that man did? They probably all know him. Don't you realize the vulnerable position you've put them in?"
TenTen raised an eyebrow.
"They came voluntarily, Neji."
"Of course they did," Neji said. "Did you seriously expect them not to come? You're famous, throughout the country for what you did. Even if they didn't want the lessons, they would have come regardless, just to see you and meet you. But your agenda put them in danger."
"Agenda?" TenTen questioned.
Neji released a sigh.
"You can't force change, TenTen. It's not going to happen overnight."
"I know that," she said indignantly. "I'm not forcing anything on anyone."
Neji looked at her, before carefully responding, "No, not on purpose."
TenTen glared.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing. I just think you had unrealistic expectations about these lessons. Shimogakure isn't Queen's City. They have a different culture here, with different needs and a different lifestyle. You can't expect to come in here and change everything with just a few visits. There's too much history and preconceptions to be dealt with."
TenTen was silent, fuming.
Neji stood and disappeared outside for a moment. He returned with a small pack of snow, which he wrapped in a cloth. He presented it to TenTen, who reluctantly placed it back on her eye.
"Will you go see Sakura about your injury?"
TenTen scoffed.
"It hardly needs attention."
"Your eye is swollen shut, TenTen."
TenTen looked annoyed.
"It doesn't even hurt anymore," she claimed.
Neji raised his eyebrows and pressed a finger to the ball of snow. TenTen took a sharp intake of breath, wincing. She swatted Neji away.
"Fine. I'll go in the morning."
She stood, glancing at the battle plans on her way towards the tent opening.
"Do I still retain my position as an archer?" she asked.
"Can you shoot straight with only one eye functional?" Neji retorted.
TenTen smiled in answer and slipped out.
-o-
Hiashi looked down at his folded hands, pensive.
The information that had been gathered was thorough, if not disappointing in content.
From what the patriarch understood, few were privy to the information he had gathered in the past couple of days. But now he knew, and soon everyone else would as well.
Hiashi rose from his chair and crossed to the door. One of his assistants was milling around outside; Hiashi called him over.
"Please notify the Yamanakas that I wish to speak to them and their daughter, please."
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