Tenten; 7 Years Later

Age 20

-A Distraction-

So many things haunted me at night.

Things that most people wouldn't give a second thought, but to me, they stayed and clung onto me.

First of all, the things Neji had always told me from the very first time I was put on the same team as him.

You know, his endless shpeals about female ninjas. I was finally beginning to understand what he was saying.

Females really DIDN'T have any rights to be ninjas.

Not everyone can be a Tsunade…

Or a Yamanaka Ino…

The other thing I always thought about was…Lee…

I had never thought that…no.

I really needed to stop thinking about him. He's had the same girlfriend for years and I had no right to try to step between them anymore. I just had to let him be.

So this morning, I got up out of bed and got dressed just like every other morning.

I was all alone in my apartment.

I didn't live with my parents anymore.

I opened up my closet and looked at the chuunin vest hanging on the back of the door.

It was time to stop pretending to be a ninja.

I had originally wanted to be a great ninja, but then my motives switched to impressing Neji.

I guess I sort of lost track of myself after that.

Now I knew it was pointless.

So I shut the closet without taking it. From this day forth, I wasn't a ninja anymore.

In addition, I also had to forget about Lee.

I didn't eat breakfast.

I only went outside and decided to go for a walk. Was I supposed to tell someone about resigning? Or did it simply just HAPPEN?

Where was everyone?

Neji was away on a mission with Ino and Sasuke. I knew that much. But the three of them had been gone for almost a month and I guess I had begun to worry.

A search party or two had been sent out, but I figured it was pretty useless to look for them. At this point, they were either going to come back or they weren't.

But I knew they'd come back. After all, Neji and Sasuke aren't exactly pushovers.

Neither is Ino…

I guess it'll always be hard for me to see Ino as such a great ninja. I wanted to be there.

I wondered where Hinata and Sakura were?

I stopped in front of the Hyuuga complex.

Should I go to the door?

What if Neji was there?

He and I had never really patched things up.

Actually, now that I think about it, the last time I talked to him was over a year ago when he had discouraged Lee from continuing his training because he claimed that Lee was not getting any better as a ninja.

Since then, Lee has become a jounin.

And Neji?

Well, he's still a chuunin.

As much as I hated myself for it, I sort of liked that. Neji had finally been put in his place.

Maybe next time he'd think twice about ridiculing Lee. Or anyone for that matter.

That's when I saw Lee.

Should I call out to him?

Should I pretend I don't notice him?

Should I quickly dodge behind a corner until he passes by and then run off, avoiding him for the rest of my life?

Too late.

He saw me.

"Hey Tenten!" he said with a wave.

Last year, I had made a decision. I would not love Lee. I would forget about him.

I would leave him and his girlfriend alone. Since then, I've slowly been torn apart.

"Hi Lee." I said with a smile. The smile was not for friendly purposes, it was just because I got happy when I saw him.

But…there was nothing between us.

I did not love Lee.

"What's up?" said Lee, coming over to me.

"Not much right now." I said, trying to sound as casual as possible, continuing to smile.

What was I supposed to say?

Lee, I'm PINING over you!

Lee, PLEASE be my boyfriend!

Lee, I quit being a ninja!

No, he didn't need to hear that stuff.

So I just left it at that and continued to smile, waiting for him to fill in the silence.

"Well, it was nice talk to you." Said Lee, taking a step towards me.

My heart started pounding so I crossed my arms in attempt to muffle the sound a bit. Even though I knew, of course, that he definitely couldn't hear it no matter how loud it was.

I cleared my throat, also trying to drown out the sound.

"I'll talk to you later, I guess." I said even though I really didn't want him to leave. Ever.

Before I knew what he was doing, he reached out and hugged me. It's not like it was any sort of love hug or anything…

And it wasn't ME who initiated it!

He hugged me first…

But I kept my arms crossed to keep myself from clinging onto him so he couldn't leave.

He did leave, though. He walked away from me without another word.

I tried to keep myself from crying as I covered my face, in fear that someone might see me.

But who would care?

Lee had moved on.

I watched him as he ran over to Aburame Shino and started talking to him, unaffected by the conversation that had made me so emotional.

Why was I the only one who couldn't let go?

Then again, there were plenty of other people like me. Sakura couldn't let go of Sasuke while Naruto couldn't let go of Sakura.

How could I possibly go about alleviating all this unbearable pain? There was no one to talk to.

I needed to distract myself.

I went into a local coffee shop and searched for some guy… ANY guy who was there by himself.

There was an attractive young man sitting by the window reading a newspaper. I cleared my throat and sat down in the seat across from him.

"Hi," I said.

He looked up at me, then back to his newspaper, and then up again. He put his newspaper down.

"Hi." He said.

Sure, I could like this guy. I could like ANY guy. I just had to get over Lee.

"I'm Tenten." I said with a smile.

"I'm Nakiwa." He said. "Nakiwa Kare."

That's a mouthful…

"So…you here by yourself?" I asked.

He nodded, looking around with satisfaction.

What was I supposed to do now? I was so stupid for thinking that this would get me somewhere. I wasn't distracted from Lee, I just wanted him more now.

"Hey, you want to stick around?" Nakiwa asked.

"Oh, sure." I said, trying to stay happy.

"Let me buy you something." Said Nakiwa.

"Oh all right." I said.

I still wanted Lee.

Nakiwa stood up and walked up to the counter where he could order something. I felt bad now. How could I lead this man into believing I was interested in him when I had only come in to the shop to get my mind of another guy?

Then I reevaluated and decided that maybe he wouldn't care at all.

He came back and put a cup of coffee on the table.

"So how old are you?" I asked him, just trying to start a conversation.

"Eighteen." He answered.

Um…oh, I was older than him.

Then again, I'm older than Lee. But only by a couple of months.

"Me too." I lied. I didn't want him to feel uncomfortable by knowing I was actually twenty years old.

But why would that make him uncomfortable?

I guess I could try to make this work…

After all, Kare Tenten sounded much better than Rock Tenten.