Chapter Two: Damned if you Do
Neji swerved and ducked away as Lee surged toward him. Tenten watched as they exchanged punches and kicks. They were striking and moving against one another. Neji was always perfect in his movements. He used the bare minimum of necessary force as Lee surged around with feral strikes.
"Hiyaa!" cried Lee.
An upwards kick nearly connected with Neji, only to be ducked at the last minute. Tenten had watched this kind of match for years, and it had become routine. Looking down at her notes, she checked the reports on her weapons. She'd been buying her gear for the coming graduation.
At this point, Tenten was nearly certain she would graduate.
Her grades were good, very good, though not perfect like Neji. Rock Lee was very good in taijutsu, though he hadn't made any progress in ninjutsu and genjutsu. That was what worried Tenten.
"Hmm, that's a better attack than I expected," said Neji.
"You haven't seen anything yet!" said Lee.
"On the contrary, I have," said Neji.
And then Neji found the hold in Lee's defense and floored him easily. It was a common occurrence for Neji; he always won. At everything, actually.
"How do you always do that anyway?" asked Tenten.
"Do what?" asked Neji.
"Find the exact right place to knock someone out," said Tenten.
"Practice," said Neji. "When one focuses on observing events without emotion, one can perceive weaknesses. For instance, Lee, your attack was too aggressive, and you lost your ability to defend.
"You really should pace yourself if you want these confrontations to be at all fair."
Both Lee and Neji bowed, though Neji did it as a reluctant formality. Everything was a reluctant formality for the guy. These days he'd grown his hair out longer and wore bandages on his arms.
"As always, you are a formidable opponent," said Lee. "I shall hope to be on a team with you when we graduate, Neji."
"Be prepared for disappointment," said Neji.
Typical Neji. He never sugarcoated anything. It was his flaw and his virtue.
"What? What do you mean?" asked Rock Lee.
"You have never once been able to do ninjutsu or genjutsu of any kind," said Neji. "Despite performing the movements perfectly, they are beyond you. That leaves only weaponry and taijutsu.
"Even if you scored perfectly in both, you would not have enough to make a passing grade. It is mathematically impossible."
"Then I shall work hard enough to break through the restrictions of math!" said Lee.
"Lee, you can't break math. It's just math," said Tenten, admitting that Neji had a point. "You either get it right, or you don't."
"Then I shall train daily to get it right," said Rock Lee.
Yup, that was typical Lee. Tenten would have found the answer annoying, but she'd seen him in action.
"The graduation test was yesterday, Lee," said Neji with a sigh. "We're literally waiting for the results. By next week, you'll see that I was right. Destiny is impossible to change; you cannot escape your fate as a failure, and free will is a lie."
There he went again with the whole destiny spiel.
Neji had gotten increasingly irritable over the past few weeks. And that was after getting more of an edge over the last year. Tenten and Lee had asked him about it, but Neji never talked about home. So Tenten decided to change the subject.
"I just hope I didn't botch it," said Tenten.
"I see," said Lee. "What do you intend to do, Tenten? If you do not make it?"
"Oh, I'm planning on hitting the library," said Tenten. "I've been reading a book on great female Kunoichi."
"I imagine it's a concise list of medical ninja," said Neji.
Tenten laughed at. "Nice line, but no, it's not.
"I mean, I know Tsunade was a legendary medic, but there were other great ninjas who were girls."
"Such as?" asked Neji.
Tenten paused. "Um... well, there was Mito Uzumaki, the First Jinchuuriki of the Nine-tailed Fox. She married Hashirama and... um... well, she was a great ninja."
"By which you mean the Nine-tails was the Great Ninja. Mito was the vessel by which its power was unleashed," noted Neji. "Jinchuuriki don't count."
"Why not?" asked Rock Lee.
"They don't have to train to access immense power," said Neji. "They instantly gain immense power by losing control of their emotions. No effort was expended on their part to earn that power. Thus they deserve no respect for using it."
"You have a Byakugan," said Tenten.
"Yes, but I had to train obsessively to learn to use it," said Neji. "And I am still working on mastering it.
"You only deserve credit for things which were a challenge to achieve. And really, what kind of challenge could the wife of Hashirama Senju ever have? A man so overpowered that the entire world created the Ninja Village system just to keep him in check."
"What happened to Mito anyway?" asked Lee.
"Oh, she handed her power over to a relative, Kushina Uzumaki, and-" began Tenten.
"Instantly became powerless?" asked Neji.
"She was incredibly old at the time!" said Tenten. "You can't blame her for that!"
"So is Sarutobi Hiruzen and no one dares cross him," noted Neji.
Tenten sighed and drew out the book she'd been reading, "Hold on a moment.
"Well, what about Kushina Uzumaki! She was a great ninja who... um... married the Fourth Hokage and died when the Nine-tails attacked."
"And what were some of her accomplishments?" asked Neji.
"Erm... she managed to cut off bits of her hair to help the Fourth Hokage save her," said Tenten. "And she beat up a bunch of people who bullied her. I mean, the book doesn't seem to say much about her missions..."
"This book seems more focused on who the kunoichi married than what they did," noted Rock Lee.
"Well, obviously because that is the important part," said Neji. "Why do you think girls are allowed on ninja teams in the first place?"
"Because Lady Tsunade proved they could fight just as well as guys," said Tenten.
"No, because of homosexuality," said Neji. "Because the trauma of war was creating a culture of men with no female contact. They spent years away from home, in high-stress situations, with their only company men. When they did meet with women, they had nothing in common and usually had to spend a lot of money on them.
"Wives became little more than a status symbol at best. Entire clans went extinct over the course of a few generations. Why do you think the Senju clan disappeared?
"Because a mysterious shinobi systematically hunted their children down? No, it was because there weren't very many Senju children in the first place. So the Second Hokage, Tobirama, allowed female shinobi to join the battlefield in support roles. After that, the stress-induced orgies resulted in pregnancies and weddings."
"Okay, but Lady Tsunade proved women could be great ninja," said Tenten. "I mean, she was one of the most important Shinobi of her day. She, Orochimaru, and Jiraiya, the Toad Sage, leveled entire armies.
"And she was constantly in a combat role."
"Be that as it may," said Neji. "The reason why women were allowed to fight had nothing to do with the village regarding them as useful—quite the opposite.
"Why are you reading such a book if it provides no real information anyway?"
"It's the only one I could find, okay!" said Tenten, in a pretty bad move. "The others are kiddy books or locked up. My only other option would be looking at mission records!"
Neji, however, had a thoughtful expression. "This Kushina, is she of any relation to Naruto?"
"Yeah, he's probably her son," said Tenten. "I mean, Naruto is eleven, and the Nine-tails attacked eleven years ago. And he has a stipend of money that lets him pay for any and all expenses. And his name is Uzumaki, and there aren't any other Uzumaki's around town here. Nobody I've talked to has ever met one other than Kushina.
"I talked to a few people who remembered her, and they didn't know of any relatives.
"It seemed pretty obvious if you thought about it."
"Well then, why is he an outcast in the village?" asked Rock Lee.
"I dunno, maybe he's the Nine-tailed Fox," said Tenten with a shrug. It wasn't important, just one more thing Naruto had been handed. Nothing new about that. She wasn't bitter.
"You mean he is the Leaf's Jinchuuriki?" asked Neji. "That seems rational. It would explain how he finds the energy to pull so many useless pranks."
"He hasn't actually pulled that many lately, Neji," noted Tenten. "I heard from Ino his grades went up a bit. Though I guess since he has no one to train with, it's pretty hard for him to keep up with the others in his class." And then Tenten had an idea. A horrible, wonderful, awful idea. "Oh, and Neji, I'm really sorry you're going to have to take time off."
"Time off?" asked Neji.
"To help Naruto improve his grades?" asked Tenten. This was totally worth putting aside her vendetta for a bit. Especially if it meant getting back at Neji for those earlier remarks.
"What are you babbling about, Tenten?" asked Neji. "Why would I waste any of my time propping up that failure?"
"Well, Naruto Uzumaki is the son of a Hokage and of the Uzumaki Clan member," said Ino. "So he is more or less royalty. His bloodlines clearly outrank that of a member of the Hyuga Branch Clan and Lee and me.
"His destiny is way better than our destiny. And you've always said that people can't change their destiny.
"So if he falls out of the academy, you will have to admit that you were wrong about something. And you will never do that."
Neji halted as he saw the trap he was in. His eyes gazed around him for a long time as he contemplated a means of escape and found none. Finally, he pointed at her. "...There will be a reckoning for this, Tenten.
"Do you have any advice?"
"Huh, why would I have any advice?" asked Tenten.
"He is your friend, Tenten," said Neji.
"I'm not his keeper, Neji," said Tenten. "Figure it out yourself."
"Did you tell him about your suspicions?" asked Rock Lee.
"Of course not!" said Tenten. "Naruto gets enough handed to him as it is; he doesn't need more. I'm doing this for my amusement, not to help him."
"...As you wish," said Neji, walking off.
"...I did not get the impression that you had such anger against Naruto, Tenten," said Rock Lee. He seemed concerned.
"Well, why wouldn't I have it?" asked Tenten, putting the book down. "He has a cool bloodline, lots of chakras, probably a kekkei Genki. The Hokage is paying his rent for free while I have to work just to scrape by. And he's doing stupid stuff to get attention. He gets to eat out at restaurants every day, and he's Iruka-sensei's favorite!
"What is there to like?"
"Are you jealous?" asked Rock Lee.
"I am not jealous!" said Tenten. "It's just that everything that is his is rightfully mine! I work hard to achieve things he gets handed with no effort!"
"But would you have worked so hard if you had been handed them?" asked Rock Lee.
Tenten paused. "...No, I mean...
"If he had to work to get the things he's been handed, I wouldn't have a problem with him, okay. Look, I know it's not rational, but...
"I guess I kind of envy him.
"Can we changed the subject?"
"If that is what you desire," said Rock Lee.
Tenten, however, found herself scrambling to find something to speak about. "So, remember the myth of the Ten-tales? The legends say the tailed beasts all used to be one huge one? But the Sage of Six Paths defeated it and separated into many different pieces.
"And those became the tailed beasts."
"I have heard that story, Tenten," said Rock Lee. "But I do not see how any creature could be so powerful."
"Well, I did some more reading," said Tenten. "Supposedly, the Ten-tales was created out of something called the God Tree. Or maybe it was birthed from the God Trees death. Or Kaguya turned into the Ten-tails after merging with the God Tree.
"Or some people say it was creating in retribution for mankind's sins.
"Either way, that Ten-tails has got to have been pretty powerful, huh? I mean, imagine a Jinchuuriki with that kind of power. Think about what I could do with that kind of power?"
"And what would you do with that kind of power?" asked a voice.
Tenten glanced up and saw Might Guy making his entrance. The confident, slightly goofy-looking man was smirking as he stood in place.
"Guy-sensei, there you are!" said Rock Lee.
"Guy-sensei? You're here again?" asked Tenten. Guy had been in now and then to give Lee pointers, and Tenten had gotten some pretty good help from him.
"Yes, I am. I thought I'd come to check on my favorite academy trainees," said Guy-sensei. "Where's Neji?"
"Um, I put him in a position where he could either give up on to his elitist attitude or be nice to someone else," said Tenten. "He chose the latter while swearing revenge."
"Well, that sounds like Neji," said Guy.
"Indeed it does, Guy-sensei," said Rock Lee.
"But tell me, Tenten, what is your answer to my question?" asked Guy-sensei.
Tenten considered the question. "What if I had the power of the Ten-tails? It doesn't matter; even if I found it, the thing would eat me alive."
"That's no way to dream, Tenten," said Guy-sensei. "Imagine that you had the power of the Ten-tails in your hand right now. What would you do with it?"
"Well, I'd totally use it to wipe out all the bandits and outlaws in the Land of Fire," said Tenten thoughtfully.
"And then?" asked Guy-sensei.
"Well then, I'd go out and pay back the Cloud Village for what they did to Neji's father," said Tenten. "A war with them is gonna happen sooner or later. And they've always been saber-rattling. So we'd thrash them and make an example of them."
"And what would you do next?" asked Guy-sensei.
Tenten thought about who would be next on her hit list. "I'd get rid of Yagura in the Mist Village next. I hear he's a really brutal dictator who has committed all kinds of atrocities. After killing him, we could set someone more reasonable on the throne."
"Now you're dreaming. So what then?" asked Guy-sensei.
Tenten had kind of expected Guy-sensei to chide her at this point. "Well, as long as we're on the road of world domination. I guess I'd conquer the Stone and Sand Villages. Then I'd depose the Feudal Lords and establish my dominions. Then I'd spread my power to conquer everyone else."
"And once you've conquered all the Hidden Villages and united the entire world under your rule. What would you do?" asked Guy-sensei.
Well, what would there be left to do at that point? "...Well, I guess I'd use my powers to help people and make the world a better place. Build orphanages, feed the hungry, or something like that."
"Now that last part is a worthy goal, Tenten," said Guy-sensei, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"I guess..." said Tenten. Though it seemed like kind of a lame ending.
"So only one last question," said Guy-sensei. "Why do you need to conquer the world to build orphanages and help people?"
Tenten paused. "Well... um, I guess I don't."
"Exactly!" said Guy-sensei. "So, you don't need the Ten-tails to be great at all. What you really desire is to help people and be a splendid ninja who does their part. Seeking ultimate power is just a distraction that will take you away from your true goal!"
Tenten mentally imagined herself laying waste to entire civilizations while laughing maniacally. Later she imagined herself on a throne with her choice of men and women chained to her side. "...It's a pretty cool distraction, though."
"That it is," said Guy-sensei. "That's why it is a distraction. Anyway, I'm off to do three thousand laps around the village while standing on my fingers. Wish me luck!"
"You are the greatest Guy-sensei! I cannot wait to train with you!" said Rock Lee.
Guy-sensei's expression darkened a bit. "Actually, on that note, Lee, I have some unfortunate news. Depending on how things work out, you may end up with someone else as a sensei. You see, your inseparable bond with the friends you made has school has made it, so you will be with them if you graduate!
"And the Hokage himself has an interest in placing you with some jonin who is quite possibly stronger than I am."
"I'll bet I wouldn't have to put up with this stuff if I could level mountains with a flick of my wrist," said Tenten. Mentally she imagined forcing Neji onto a bed and making him loosen up for once in his life. Maybe have Ino there. As long as she was experimenting with every debauchery imaginable.
"But would you choose not to put up with it?" asked Guy-sensei.
Tenten sighed as she came to the mental image of drinking herself into oblivion in an empty room. She felt very down, all of a sudden like she was the only person in the entire universe. "...I'm heading home to get to sleep early. Tomorrow is going to be a long day."
Tenten headed out.
She just hoped Neji wasn't having too much trouble with Naruto. Putting the two of them together had seemed funny, at first. Now though, she just wasn't feeling it anymore. It, and the entire world, all seemed meaningless now.
Tenten would feel better in the morning.