Wow, it's been so long…
Chapter 10
Tenten clenched her fist angrily as she said that. "Grr…that isn't very nice…." she thought quietly to herself. Neji looked at her strangely. "And you are…" his question trailing off.
Tenten smiled a forced smile and answered "Nittayama Tenten. Guess the guy next to me shouted too loudly." To avoid suspicion, Tatsuta had decided she was to make a surname for herself, as she had no surname of her own.
Neji eyed her with suspicion, though his face remained as emotionless as she had always remembered it to be. "Did I say something wrong? Did I do anything wrong?"she asked herself quietly.
After awhile though, they all kinda "broke the ice" and started chatting with each other, occasionally leaving to get some snacks and drinks. Only Neji seemed as stoic as ever, giving, only occasionally, some of his one-word answers.
This time, the pissed-off brunette came walking into the room, her face still creased into a frown. "I am Kazate Ayumi, your examiner for this part of the exam. Follow me." she said, and turned around as swiftly as she came, her cape trailing behind her. Everyone quickly emptied the room anxiously.
She stopped nearby at a giant maze. "Your objective is to find the five hitai-ates of the kage-powers, Fire, Wind, Water, Earth and Lightning hidden there in the maze. I will warn you now, though, that there are only enough for all of you that 20 shall fail. We have placed sensors on the items, when you have collected one, smear blood over the symbol. The exam ends when all hitai-ates have been collected. If, for example, a person has only two collected while another with three, the former will have to give up his hitai-ates for the latter. It is the same if one person has one and another four. The former will have to give his items up."
She was about to walk to the gate when she turned around and said that, they were to return to the starting point when they saw10 eagles in the sky, as that signaled the end of the exam.
"3, 2, 1, GO!" and whoosh, all the ninjas rushed in like there was no tomorrow.
Tenten had been wandering around for several hours, but to no avail. She was getting rather panicky. She noticed that her sandals were rather loose and bent down to tighten it. It was just as she was lowering her upper body that she saw a sparkle in the bush in ront of her. She suddenly got very excited and reached her hand through, and it came out with….the Sunagakure hitai-ate! Happily, she bit her thumb and smeared the crimson drops on the symbol. It glowed for a while, then the symbol slowly faded away, as if to tell her it was recognized as hers. She left the blank metal plate in her pocket and continued on.
15 hours into the exam, the sky was pitch black, and Tenten had three blank plates with her in her pocket, namely the Sunagakure, the Kirigakure and the Iwagakure hitai-ates.
She had found a small cave, and decided to rest there for a while.
Sitting there, she starting thinking about Konoha, about her home, about her team…Slowly, surely, tiny pearls went rolling down her porcelain face…She sat there, dazed, not caring much about the surroundings. If any enemy were to see her like that, she would most certainly have been attacked.
When she finally realized her vulnerability to open attack, she wiped her tears away and stood up. "A ninja must not show his emotions under any circumstances" she repeated to herself several times.
She looked up to the night sky, thinking about how dazzling the stars looked, when she thought she saw a shimmer in the branch of the nearby oak-tree. Using her chakra, she walked up the trunk effortlessly. To her surprise, there were two plates there! However, when she turned them over, one of them revealed to be useless to her…it was a Kirigakure hitai-ate. Fortunately, she was able to smear blood around the Kumogakure symbol, for that was the latter plate. She waited for the symbol to grow fainter before storing it away.
She knew she had enough plates to pass, but she wanted to continue searching for the Konohagakure plate, as perhaps she would have an added bonus or something…
This may not be a good place to end this story, but I have, like 2 other new fics to work on…Both of them are the same pairing, NejiTen, as really the plots fit only the both of them and actually no one else. If you actually happen to protest, then I shall ask you several questions.
Q: Is there actually anyone who would even DARE/BOTHER to betray Konoha other than Neji? If so, please let me know…
Q;Is there really, out of the 4 Konoha kunoichis, someone stronger than Tenten? If so please let me know…