Naruto Primer Lost Chapter: Gai/Tenten
Individuality
Tenten's just the girl on the same team as Neji and Lee. That's all she will ever be known as. She has no significance to the plot or anything whatsoever, her only purpose is to be there so it's not some OTHER girl with equally less importance compared to other characters.
Gai's no dummy. That's something he noticed. He had worked hard to make Lee the great ninja he is today and made him so recognizable and memorable. As for Neji, that boy had more conflicts going with other characters as well as within himself that he didn't even REQUIRE Gai's help to become an individual. However, Tenten was different.
For a long time, Tenten went without caring. However, recently, as everyone else became a lot closer, Tenten felt as though she was just being pushed out of the group.
Gai wasn't about to let Kakashi's students do better than his. He had to do something for Tenten to make her flashier so that people would remember her upon seeing her!
"Tenten…" said Gai, coming over to Tenten as she threw some shuriken around. Lee and Neji were off… I don't know. Doing something important.
"Yes Gai?" said Tenten, looking up.
"Sit down." He instructed. Tenten shrugged and sat down as Gai sat down in front of her. She could tell she was about to get a serious talk. "I think it's important we work on your individuality."
"My individuality?" Tenten questioned.
"Yes!" said Gai. "Do you want to know why it's hard for you to make friends among the other young ninjas?"
"Why?" Tenten asked.
"Because you might as well be someone without a name!" said Gai. "We have to make you important! We have to make you SPECIAL! We have to give you a glow of youth that would outshine that of all the people in the whole village! We have to make you such an individual that everything will become different for everyone just from you entering the room!"
Tenten pondered that for a moment. She liked the sound of being a more influential being, but she didn't like the idea of having to change herself to do. But, obviously, if she was as unnoticed as she was just being herself then that obviously wasn't working.
"So what do I have to do?" Tenten said finally.
"I've noticed that you're not in love with anyone." Said Gai.
"How do you know?" Tenten demanded.
"Well, if you are, you're not making it obvious enough." Gai said. "You must be LOUDER about your affections! You must go directly up to the person you love and openly express your feelings!"
"Oh." Said Tenten. "Won't that just make me annoying?"
"No." said Gai flatly. "So tell me… who do you love?"
"I'm not telling!" said Tenten. "That's personal… like my weight!"
Gai sighed and shook his head. "This isn't going to work then." He said. "Not Sasuke, I hope."
"He's cute, but I don't love him!" said Tenten, sounding annoyed.
"Okay, good." Said Gai. "Because loving HIM would make you even less of an individual. And I hope you don't love anyone random like Kiba or Shino or Chouji."
"No!" said Tenten.
"I GET IT!!" yelled Gai. "YOU LOVE LEE!!"
"Shut up Gai!" Tenten yelled. "Leave me alone about my love life!!"
"Okay, okay." Said Gai, backing off. "No need to bite my head of."
"Well, when you're screaming something like that, anyone could get the wrong idea." Tenten said.
"But it MIGHT be the right idea!" Gai pointed out.
"But it's NOT." Tenten reminded him.
"Look, Tenten, if it's the right idea then that's exactly how you have to go about expressing it." Gai said as-a-matter-of-factly. "Besides, you would create a lot of controversy if you loved Lee because he's loves Sakura and Sakura loves Sasuke and Naruto loves Sakura and everyone in the world loves Sasuke except for the people who want to fight him."
"Sorry." Said Tenten with a shrug.
Then Gai looked like he was getting an epiphany. "I know who you love!!" he said finally. "NEJI!"
"Gai, stop it!" said Tenten. "I'm not going to tell you who I love even if you guess the right person!"
"Then it IS Neji, isn't it?!" demanded Gai, getting in Tenten's face.
Tenten pushed Gai away. "NO!" she said.
Gai nodded. "Right." He said sarcastically. "In that case, I have some pointers for you."
"Gai, I'm only thirteen!" said Tenten. "Any love you theorizing I'm experiencing right now is only my emotional newly teenaged self trying to get a grip on my hormones!"
"You can say that, but I don't believe it." said Gai stubbornly. "I think you need to become friends with Hinata and be MORALLY OPPOSED to the rejection that she experiences from Neji!"
"I AM morally opposed to that!" said Tenten.
"You DO love him!" said Gai.
"No, EVERYONE is morally opposed to what he does to her!" said Tenten.
Gai looked like he was going to say something but then his eyes widened and he slapped his cheeks dramatically. "O-M-G!!!!!!!11ONE TENTEN, YOU CAN'T LOVE ME, I'M YOUR TEACHER!!!"
"GAI, WHOEVER SAID I LOVED YOU?!" Tenten yelled as loudly as she could just to clear up any misunderstandings… in case any random passerby happened to be wandering by.
"You're right." Said Gai. "It's MUCH more plausible for you to be in love with NEJI!!"
"Gai." Said Tenten, standing up. "I can't have this conversation with you anymore."
"Why?" said Gai, looking hurt.
"Because all you're doing is screaming untrue things and embarrassing me." Said Tenten.
"All right, I'll stop screaming untrue things about you." Said Gai, rolling his eyes as if Tenten's request was completely unreasonable. Then Tenten looked over Gai's head to see Neji and Lee standing there trying to avoid eye contact while getting ready to start training.
"Oh my god!" gasped Tenten. "Gai, they were standing there the whole time!! They heard everything you said!!"
"You should go and confess your love!!" said Gai, pushing her forward.
"OH NOOOO!" Tenten shrieked as she ran away as fast as she could. Gai only chuckled warmly, glad that he had given Tenten some character development even though he hadn't really but he can easily be lead into believing that he did.