Tenten receives good news and bad news on her sixteenth birthday.
She receives the good news from Gai-taichou, who formally appoints her his successor.
"You are one of the finest warriors I've ever had the honor to train, Tenten," Gai says, his grin as wide as ever despite his broken legs. "The Senju army will soar to new heights under your leadership."
Unsurprisingly, she receives the bad news from Tobirama-ojii.
Tenten is, for lack of a better phrase, angry as fuck.
She does her best not to show it. Perhaps out of all her siblings, she is the worst at curbing the infamous Uzumaki temper they all inherited, but instinct tells her that drawing from that Senju composure will be more helpful in this situation.
"Do you understand?" she hears Tobirama saying.
Tsunade is looking at her over her sake dish, golden eyes carefully blank.
Tenten exhales, her nostrils flaring.
"I understand," she says, her teeth clenched. "And I refuse to let you send me away."
Tobirama narrows his eyes at her, pinning her with his best glare.
Unfazed, Tenten glares right back and tries not to fidget. Tsunade had bestowed the circlet upon her that morning, even tearing up because of Tenten's strong resemblance to Mito, and while Tenten understands that the circlet is an heirloom and an honor to receive, it sits awkwardly on her head, like it does not belong.
"An arranged marriage is hardly a matter of acceptance or refusal," Tobirama says. "It is your duty."
"Perhaps you're not caught up, ojii-san, but I've been promoted to taichou," Tenten says. "My duty is to train our warriors."
"Your duty is to do what the clan needs most from you," Tobirama snaps. "And when you turn eighteen, the clan needs you to marry Hatake Sukea."
Tenten raises her eyebrows.
"Who will train the men when I am gone?"
Tsunade sighs.
"Tenten," she says in warning.
"No, really," Tenten says. "Who will replace me when I'm gone?"
Tobirama's lips have flattened into a thin displeased line.
"You will choose your replacement," he says.
Truth be told, Lee is the most obvious choice. Lee, orphaned and clanless, had been brought to the Senju as a boy by Gai-taichou, and eventually managed to match Tenten in skill by virtue of his extraordinary work ethic.
For one horrifying moment, Tenten wonders if Gai knew she would be married off in two years, if it was his design to have Lee be the permanent replacement in the first place. After all, Gai had come to see Lee as his son.
No, she concludes calmly. Gai wouldn't do that to her. He was the one who allowed her near a kunai in the first place.
"Ah, so I'm allowed a choice there," Tenten says sardonically. "I suppose I should be grateful."
Before her temper makes her do something she'll regret, she spins on her heel and leaves the room, storming over to the training grounds. She throws kunai at the targets mindlessly, pretending each one is Tobirama's face.
"Nee-chan?"
Tenten sighs and turns around to look at her little sister who is all long pink hair and gangly coltish limbs. Idly, she wonders if Sakura will grow to be as tall as her and Tsunade. She certainly hopes so, for Sakura's sake; she already looks fragile enough with her pink hair and big green eyes.
The world will eat her alive if she doesn't show any teeth or claws anytime soon.
"What?" Tenten says bluntly.
Sakura looks at the targets and swallows visibly.
"Did Tobirama-ojii-san say something to upset you?" she says carefully.
"How did you know I was talking with Tobirama-ojii?"
Sakura blushes.
"I saw you —"
"No, you didn't," Tenten deadpans. "You knew. Did you help him plan it too?"
The next kunai splits the target in half with a loud crack. Sakura jumps.
"The Hatake are a warrior clan," she says feebly.
"So what?" Tenten snaps. "The Hatake don't respect women warriors. If they did, the Inuzuka would have formed an alliance with them by now." Another kunai, another broken target. "I'll be reduced to a walking womb and you know it."
"Sukea-sama is your age —"
"I met Sukea six years ago when kaa-san and I paid our respects to Yahiko. He's weak. Soft." Tenten laughs bitterly. "He spends too much time writing poetry and not enough time training. And he's supposed to be clan head one day? The Hatake clan is doomed."
"Writing poetry is hardly an offense, nee-chan," Sakura says reproachfully.
"Then you marry him," Tenten says bluntly.
She throws her last kunai and leaves without another word.
Dinner is tense but Tenten pays it no mind. She sits quietly, eats quietly, retreats to bed quietly.
Then in the dead of night, she sets the circlet down on the small table in her room.
She packs some clothes, her trusty kusari-fundo, as many kunai and senbon as she can fit on her person, and sneaks out of the estate, wincing as she knocks out several guards on the way — including Lee.
"Take care of our men, Lee-taichou," she whispers into his ear before she strikes the back of his head. She closes her eyes. "And tell Gai-taichou that I'm sorry."
After a two hour trek to the nearest village outside of Konoha, she pays for a room at a small unassuming inn. After setting her things down, she exhales shakily, takes her sharpest kunai, and slices her left hair bun off. Then her right.
She slices and slices until her hair is short enough for her to pass as a boy. A very pretty boy, but she's seen her fair share of Uchiha to know pretty boys exist in this world. Then she undresses and binds herself tighter, so tight she can hardly breath.
Her frame is slight, but her height is enough to convince the average civilian that she is a man, especially if she pitches her voice a little lower than normal. Over the next three months, she travels and takes on a few odd jobs, mostly shady little deals involving an assassination or two. She is good at what she does, and she earns more than enough to sustain a surprisingly lavish lifestyle.
It is comfortable but lonely. And for a moment, Tenten almost caves, almost believes she has punished her family enough, almost decides it is time to go home —
— until she hears the most underground of whispers about some rich old fart in Lightning Country who is willing to pay an eye-watering price for Kurosuki Raiga's head.
As far as she knows, no one has taken the job. No one is suicidal enough to go after one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist.
But then again, no one is as good as Tenten.
She hunts down the rumors until she finds herself face-to-face with the rich old fart. He only goes by A, and he looks at her like he is endlessly amused by her.
Tenten scowls; she is used to her employers underestimating her, but the laughter in his eyes is beyond insulting.
Not that it matters. She'll return with Raiga's head and she'll take this idiot's money faster than he can blink.
"And what of the swords?" she asks.
"The blades are yours to do with as you please," A says breezily. "Sell them, keep them — I don't care."
Tenten could cry. She had long fantasized about owning one of the legendary swords, and here was an opportunity to claim twin blades for herself — and to get paid for the privilege.
It takes her weeks to track down Raiga. Tenten almost dies fighting him.
But she doesn't.
She recalls the name of the twin blades hazily through the blood loss — Kiba , how fitting — as she shoves them in their sheath and fastens it around her waist. She has to travel slowly to avoid exacerbating her still bleeding wound, and given her cargo, she cannot stay in any respectable establishments, so she makes do with whatever seedy little inns don't mind the smell of a rotting head in a burlap sack.
By the time she gets back to A, the head is so badly decomposed that Tenten displays Kiba for A to prove that the head she brought once sat on Kurosuki Raiga's shoulders.
"Excellent," A says, his eyebrows raised high.
He hands over a fat sack of coins and Tenten almost buckles under the weight. She is weak from the journey, and she is certain her wound is infected.
"You could stay here, if you'd like," A says, wincing sympathetically.
Tenten scowls.
"I'm fine," she grunts out. "There's a very expensive inn with a gorgeous collection of hot springs calling my name."
"What did you say your name was again?" A asks.
Tenten thinks this is a hilarious question from someone who goes by A.
"Lee," she says.
It is a common enough name.
"Will you be staying long, Lee?"
"What's it to you?" Tenten asks.
A smiles.
"Once you recover, maybe you'd be interested in killing another Swordsman for me."
Tenten cannot help it; her eyes widen at the thought of claiming another legendary sword.
"I'll pay you double," A says enticingly.
Tenten nods, woozy.
"Give me a name," Tenten says.
Momochi Zabuza, she chants in her head as she drags herself all the way to the fancy inn and its hot springs. At least she doesn't have to track him down from scratch; A's intel claims Zabuza will be in Wave Country for at least the next four weeks.
The people at the front desk are not pleased to see her — not until she slams down enough coins to cover a two week stay. She manages to make it all the way up to the door of her room.
Then she passes out, collapsing into a bloodied, sweaty heap.
When she wakes, she is in the room, laying on the futon. She glances down and promptly panics when she sees that her bandages have been replaced with clean ones.
"Don't worry," a cool voice says to her left. "I preserved your modesty as best as I could."
Tenten turns her head, grimacing when she sees a boy meditating in the corner.
"Thanks," she says begrudgingly. "You didn't have to."
"Yes, I did," the boy says. "Your wound is infected. It was stupid of you not to change your bandages."
He looks young. Or at least, she thinks he looks young. It is hard to tell with the hood over his head and the shadows covering the upper half of his face.
Suddenly, it occurs to Tenten that this stranger called her stupid.
"Shut up," she grumbles. "I had other things to worry about." She narrows her eyes at him. "Do you want a reward or something? Take some coins. I don't care. Just leave."
A tiny smirk tilts the left side of the boy's lips upwards.
Tenten is quite sure it is the blood loss and the infection talking, but he has an awfully attractive mouth.
"I think you need that money more than I do," he says, amused. He gestures towards a small jar of ointment and clean bandages on the table. "The ointment should help with the infection. And remember to change your bandages."
He leaves, closing the door quietly.
Tenten sees him again some days later. He is eating breakfast by himself in the dining hall, his hood up. Tenten doesn't blame him; she is also wearing her hood up to shield her bare neck against the cold.
She thinks about ignoring him, but they are the only two people there. It would be obvious.
And all things considered, Tenten should really thank him. Properly this time, without telling him to shut up.
The ointment has done wonders. If she keeps recovering at this rate, she can begin hunting for Zabuza within three days.
"Thank you," she says when she reaches his table, bowing stiffly. "For your help. The ointment you gave me was very...good."
Tenten could kick herself. She couldn't think of a better word than 'good?'
The faintest hints of a smile appear on the lower half of his face.
"You're welcome," he says. Then he gestures to the chair to his left. "You can sit, if you'd like."
Tenten takes a moment to think. Then she sits.
Unless she's trying to buy something from them, get paid by them, or fuck them, she doesn't really talk to people.
And it has been so long since she's had a normal conversation.
Unexpectedly, Tenten finds herself thinking of Sakura. Her sister was an endless source of irritation for much of her life, but at least Sakura was fun to badger and tease. And Sakura could talk about anything under the sun.
Tenten has been away from home for at least nine months. She wonders if Sakura's grown any taller.
She glances down at the food placed in front of her by one of the innkeepers, blinking rapidly to stop the tears.
"What brings you to Kumo?" the boy asks, picking up a piece of herring and carefully putting it in his mouth.
Tenten shrugs.
"Work."
Even though she cannot see it, Tenten feels the boy raising his eyebrows at her.
"What kind of work makes a person sustain such strange-looking wounds?" he asks.
Tenten smiles wryly.
"The kind that pays handsomely." She narrows her eyes at him. "What about you? Why are you in Kumo?"
"Work," he deadpans. "And if I do my job well, I'll end up in better shape than you."
Tenten gapes at him.
"Are you implying that I ended up injured because I'm bad at what I do?" she says.
That little smirk tilts the corner of his mouth upwards again.
"No. But I can't help it if that's what you heard."
She really almost stabs him with her chopsticks. The only reason she doesn't is because it would be a shame to kill the first conversation partner she's had in months.
"I don't like you," Tenten says, scowling as she shoves a dumpling into her mouth.
The boy shrugs.
"The feeling is mutual."
Despite the words, they both smile. Tenten's heart suddenly skips a beat.
She finishes her breakfast quickly then leaves, but not before trying to get the last word: "If you don't like me, don't ask me to sit with you."
He replies, "And if you don't like me, don't sit with me when I offer."
Tenten rolls her eyes. Then she spends the rest of the day dropping money on useless distractions and cooing over the Kiba. The blades are still coated with her blood, and she is careful when cleaning them; the memory of their sharpness against her skin is enough to make her shudder.
And at night, Tenten thinks of the boy's smile, wonders how it would feel against her skin.
She sits with him for breakfast over the next four days.
After some playful sniping, Tenten finds out interesting bits and pieces about the boy. He is the same age as her. He has two younger sisters — although the way he hesitates before the word 'sisters' makes Tenten wonder if this is necessarily true. The older of the two sisters is the one who made the ointment he shared with Tenten. He loves both girls dearly, enough to want to match them with good, kind men.
Tenten suddenly recalls Sakura's words: Writing poetry is hardly an offense.
Poor Sakura. Too late, Tenten understands that Sakura and Tobirama certainly tried their best.
"Why can't they choose who they marry?" Tenten asks idly. "Your intentions are sweet and all —" she bullishly ignores the fact that she called him sweet and charges ahead, "but at the end of the day, your decision sets the course for the rest of their lives. And that's not fair."
The boy smirks again, but this time there is no humor behind it.
"It's not about fair or unfair," he says. "There are bigger forces to consider."
Tenten rolls her eyes. He almost sounds like Tobirama.
"I am so tired of men shuttling the women of their family around in the name of bigger forces."
For whatever reason, the boy's shoulders tighten.
"Some men don't have a choice either," he says. "With these marriages."
Tenten scowls.
"Right, but they're not the ones who have to carry some stranger's baby around for nine months then possibly die birthing it." Suddenly in a foul mood, Tenten slams her hands on the table and stands. "I have to go," she mumbles.
Tenten makes it to Wave Country with little difficulty but promptly leaves when she hears they are building something called The Great Naruto Bridge.
Tenten does not know what the fuck Naruto has been — or is — doing in Wave Country, of all places, but she does not intend on running into him. He is only a distant cousin through her grandmother's side of the family, but he has visited the Senju estate enough times to feel like a true cousin, and Tenten is not in the mood for an impromptu family reunion.
So she takes the next boat out. It goes to Fire Country, and a part of her feels nervous about returning after months of being away, but she'll be fine, she tells herself stubbornly. After all, she hasn't had to evade anyone so far; her family probably did the sensible thing and stopped looking for her when it was obvious she wasn't coming back.
Tenten wonders why she finds herself deeply hurt by that thought.
On her way back to Lightning Country, some benevolent act of providence has Tenten crossing paths with Momochi Zabuza. He makes for a fearsome opponent, certainly, but it seems something has drained him of his will to fight.
Tenten collects Kubikiribōchō and Zabuza's head with nothing but a scratch on her cheek. She returns to A with Zabuza's head still identifiable. He pays her double, as he promised.
"Are you sure you don't want to stay here? I would be more than happy to host you."
Tenten shakes her head.
"I'm quite partial to my little room at the inn," she says nonchalantly.
The room isn't little at all. It is a suite and it has its own private hot spring. Tenten cannot wait to get back.
"Fair enough," A says, his eyes gleaming. "Will you be staying long?"
Tenten side-eyes him.
"Let me guess: you'll pay triple for another Swordsman?" she says.
A smiles slyly.
"My scouts should be coming back with more intelligence on Hōzuki Mangetsu's whereabouts within two weeks, if you're interested."
Tenten is very interested indeed. And it would be nice to finally settle down for a while, even if it is for just two weeks. This will be the longest she has stayed in a single location, and it reminds her of how much she loathes long journeys.
She returns to the inn in great spirits. She even manages a bright smile for the boy with the hood when she passes him on the way down to the dining hall for dinner.
"You're back," he says, surprised.
Tenten beams even brighter. Absent-mindedly, she runs a hand through her clean wet hair and reminds herself it is time for a haircut.
"I am." She opens her cloak to reveal the heavy sack of coins attached to her hip. "You get dinner and I'll get the drinks. As many as we can down before we pass out."
Again, even though she cannot see his eyes, she can feel him looking at her with great amusement. Suddenly, she wonders if she has overstepped; they've never eaten dinner together, much less had a drink.
But then that little smirk radiates with such fondness that Tenten doesn't have to hear his quiet murmur of assent to know that he's in.
They are sloppy drunk within two hours. They have barely made a dent in Tenten's new pile of coins.
"I know so much about you," Tenten slurs. "But I don't even know your name."
He grins at her, all shiny white teeth. He has a dimple on his left cheek. She wants to kiss it.
"I don't know your name either," he says.
Tenten shrugs.
"Call me Lee."
The boy snorts.
"A false name," he says softly. "I will not give you my mine."
"Then give me another one," Tenten insists. "It's better than calling you the Boy with the Hood in my head."
He grins again. Tenten sways dangerously in her seat.
"You think about me?"
Tenten laughs.
"Don't fuck with me, Boy with the Hood. I fuck right back." She finishes her drink, eyeing him over her cup. "Why do you wear that hood all the time anyway? You don't look half-bad."
He really doesn't. Every now and then, the hood will slide back to reveal his sculpted cheekbones and nose, and Tenten can't possibly think of what he'd need to hide, unless it was a third eye in the middle of his forehead.
"I wear the hood for the same reason you gave me a false name," he says.
Tenten raises her eyebrows.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize your face would be so recognizable," she says, pouting when she remembers that her cup is empty.
"You have a recognizable name?" he asks.
Tenten shrugs. She has told him very little about herself. The most she ever mentioned was that she had a sister very close to her age.
"No," she lies. "But my family obviously knows my name and I don't want them to know where I am."
He nods.
"There are times when I wish I could disappear too," he says wistfully. "I know I have a duty to my cl — my family, but lately, that duty has felt more and more like a cage."
"Then leave," Tenten says cheerfully, pouring some more drink into her cup and then his.
"I can't just leave," he says.
"Yes you can." Tenten frowns. "You've never done a single selfish thing in your life, have you? Neither did I, until I left. Just think of it as redeeming all the times you could have been selfish but you chose not to."
He laughs.
"What would I even do if I left?" he says, amused.
Tenten shrugs.
"Anything you want. That's the beauty of it." She eyes the katana sheath around his hips. "Well, not anything. You'll probably have to slum it for a bit, but you could probably make some decent money as a hired blade. Assuming that the katana isn't for decoration, of course."
"I assure you, the katana is not for decoration at all." He takes a dainty little sip, and Tenten's heart does that stupid thing again where it skips a beat. "Although I've always preferred hand-to-hand combat."
Tenten snorts.
"I don't believe you. You look like you wouldn't so much as kill a firefly."
"You don't know what I look like."
"I could if you put your hood down," she says slyly.
He laughs.
"No."
"What if we go to my room and you can show me your face there?"
He stiffens.
"That would be inappropriate," he says, downing his drink in one gulp.
Tenten laughs, shaking her head.
"It's only inappropriate if you make it so," she says. Suddenly, she realizes — "Oh. You've never had sex?"
Suddenly, he blushes a bright red. Tenten begins giggling, and it quickly devolves into breathless, gasping laughter.
"Stop," he snarls, and the sudden danger in his voice is enough to ignite sparks of arousal deep within her.
"Relax," she says casually. "I'm not laughing at the fact that you're a virgin." He twitches at the word. "I'm laughing because I didn't think you'd be the blushing type." Tenten grins wide, leans close into his face and adds, "You're quite literally a blushing virgin."
From here, she can see the rest of his face. His eyes are closed, but from what she can see, he has very pretty eyelashes and even prettier eyebrows.
Tenten is shallow; she has always liked pretty people. And when pretty people allow her to get this close to their face, there is always one thing Tenten tries.
"Have you at least kissed someone?" she murmurs.
"No," he says coolly.
His voice feels so good this close to her ear.
"Do you want to find out what it's like?" she asks.
He answers by pressing his lips against hers. His lips are soft, and even though this is his first kiss, he meets her with such confidence that Tenten almost considers fucking him on the table.
But it would be such a shame for them to get kicked out of the inn, so she drags him up to her room instead. He pushes her against the door, suckling on her neck, and Tenten's knees almost buckle beneath her.
For a first-timer, he is surprisingly good.
A little too good.
"You're a liar," she manages through a moan. "This isn't your first time doing anything at all."
"It is," he says right in her ear before gently nipping on her earlobe. "I'm only doing what feels good."
The hood has fallen off his head, revealing long silky brown hair. Tenten almost whines; he is so unfairly pretty, and he is here in her room, working her with his mouth like he was made for her.
"Wait," he says suddenly against her neck. "Before we continue —"
"Don't worry, I'm taking herbs to prevent pregnancies and whatnot," she says, rolling her eyes.
"Great," he says, exasperated, "but before we continue, one of us has to be blindfolded."
She stills.
"Even if I do recognize you, I won't tell anyone who you are," she says.
"If you have to see my face, then you have to tell me your real name."
Well, when he puts it that way —
"What would make you feel better?" she asks. "Me or you?"
He hesitates before answering, "Both of us."
Tenten shrugs.
"Alright."
Fucking someone blindfolded doesn't feel like fucking. Touching is slower, more deliberate. Kissing feels like drowning and freefalling at the same time. She can feel every inch of him against her, inside her, around her.
And while he has shown himself to be extraordinarily intuitive around the human body, Tenten still thinks it is deathly unfair for him to be able to make her come five times within the span of an hour.
"I still think you're lying," she says sleepily.
Even though she hears him remove his blindfold, she keeps hers on if it means he will stay. He does. He hugs her to his torso and hums, his chest vibrating pleasantly beneath her body.
"Maybe you've been sleeping with people who aren't very good at sex," he says baldly.
Tenten laughs but she does not tell him that she is suddenly beginning to suspect the same.
From that point onwards, they sleep together every night and have breakfast every morning at dawn. Tenten is surprised; she doesn't usually fuck people more than two nights in a row, much less voluntarily seek out their company for any longer than that. But he is unbearably fun to speak with. And he has the most unexpected way of making her laugh —
Tenten grimaces at herself, shaking off the thoughts.
It appears that one dinner was a rarity; he is missing for most of the day and only returns to the inn well past dinner. Tenten does not think she is entitled to his comings and goings, but still, she cannot help her curiosity.
So she tracks him one morning after they eat breakfast together. She keeps her distance, following him until she sees him enter the gates of a stately property. Since breakfast, he has exchanged his usual hood for a hat with a dark veil around the rim, and the fabric of his clothes is the expensive kind.
Tenten remembers having to wear her finest robes for when she met Sukea. Had she known Tsunade and Jiraiya were setting up a betrothal, she would have worn her armor instead.
Her curiosity is replaced with a heavy emptiness when he emerges from the gates, an extraordinarily beautiful girl with icy blue eyes and blonde hair on his arm.
"Nee-chan? Is that you?"
Reflexively, Tenten grips the heavy hand that has fallen on her shoulder and twists the wrist, maneuvering the boy so that his back is against her chest and his hand is pinned between them. Against her hand, he squeals in pain, and Tenten almost tells him to shut the fuck up, except she sees the brightest blond hair in the world and realizes she is holding —
"Naruto?" she says in disbelief.
She drags them off into a discreet alleyway. Naruto is still whimpering.
"Shut the fuck up!" she hisses into his ear.
"You're hurting me!" he mumbles against her hand.
So she lets go of him, shoving him as she does.
"What are you doing?" she snarls.
To her dismay, Naruto has grown. A lot. He is marginally taller than her.
Only marginally.
"I've been looking for you for weeks. I should've known you'd cut your hair or something," Naruto says, wincing as he clutches his wrist. "Sakura-chan's worried."
Of course. Tenten is quite certain Naruto would jump off a cliff if Sakura asked.
"Just her, I see," Tenten says.
"We're all worried," Naruto adds.
"Well, you can stop," Tenten says flatly. "I'm clearly happy and healthy. Now get the fuck out of my sight."
Naruto looks at her beseechingly. Tenten grimaces; his eyes have always been so fucking bright. It's almost worse than looking at Sakura.
"Tsunade-baa-chan wants you to come home, but Sakura-chan said she couldn't force you to do anything. So I'm here instead."
"Here to what? Force me to go home?"
"No!" Naruto exclaims, frustrated. "I'm here to talk to you and make sure you're alright!"
"Right, so you can distract me for long enough while you get enough backup to incapacitate me and drag me back? No thanks."
Tenten turns on her heel to leave but stops when Naruto puts a hand on her shoulder again.
"Do you really not remember what happened to you when you did this a minute ago?" Tenten asks idly.
"Tenten-nee," Naruto says. He sounds different now. More serious. "I mean it. Sakura-chan misses you. She just wants to know that you're alright. And I promised I'd find out for her."
Naruto is a blockhead but he's not a liar.
Tenten sighs. Talking to Naruto is a much better alternative to watching her current bedfellow parading around with some gorgeous clan socialite.
"Fine," she growls. "Follow me."
She takes Naruto to a ramen stand. Maybe if he eats enough, he'll fall asleep right away and this can be over sooner rather than later.
"Sakura-chan said you'd try distracting me with food," Naruto complains as he inhales a second bowl.
"And yet you're still allowing it," Tenten says sardonically.
Naruto shrugs.
"It's good ramen. And you're paying for it."
Tenten scowls. She shouldn't have told him that.
"What were you doing in Wave Country?" she asks.
Naruto wipes his mouth with the back of his sleeve.
"Helping some locals," he says breezily. "How did you know I was in Wave Country?"
"I was there for work," Tenten says vaguely.
"What have you been doing?" Naruto asks nervously.
Tenten shakes her head.
"Nothing too exciting." She looks at him then says, "How's Sakura?"
Naruto beams.
"Sakura-chan's great! She's gotten so pretty — even prettier than before. She's beautiful."
"Yes, alright, I understand," Tenten says, rolling her eyes. "How's Lee? You remember Lee, don't you?"
"How could I forget Lee?" Naruto groans. "He's alright, I think. Haven't heard much about him." He side-eyes her from behind his bowl and says, "Sakura-chan says the Senju army misses you. They don't fight that great without you."
"Shut up," Tenten says. "Stop trying to get me to come home."
"I'm not," Naruto says, holding up his hands defensively. "It's true. Look."
He reaches into his robes and pulls out a scrunched up wad of scrolls. They are all letters from Sakura.
"What are you doing carrying these around with you?" Tenten asks disbelievingly, skimming through the letters.
"I knew you were going to ask what Sakura-chan was up to and I didn't want to forget anything," Naruto whines. Naruto's eyes widen. "Oh! She's betrothed now. To the Hatake clan heir. The one you were supposed to marry."
Tenten raises her eyebrows.
"That's unexpected."
"Not really," Naruto shrugs. " It was supposed to be her the whole time, you know. For that betrothal. But Tobirama-ojii insisted that you'd be a better fit for the Hatake clan." He grimaces. "She didn't talk to Tobirama-ojii for months after you disappeared."
Tenten frowns as she recalls her very last conversation with Sakura.
She wonders if she's been a horrible big sister.
With a shaky sigh, Tenten finishes the rest of her noodles.
"So when is she getting married?"
Tenten tries to imagine Sakura as a bride. She can't.
"When she turns eighteen," Naruto says, shamelessly ordering a third bowl. "She and Sukea haven't met yet, but they write to each other all the time. It sounds so boring."
Despite herself, Tenten laughs. Then the laughter stops when she thinks of another handsome boy betrothed to a beautiful young girl.
"I have to go," Tenten murmurs. "This was nice, Naruto."
He nods at her.
"I'm glad you're alright." He pauses and adds, "I'm in town for a few more days, if you want to catch up some more."
Tenten shrugs noncommittally. She throws some coins down, enough to cover their meals and for him to order more, if he chooses.
And she thinks of men supposedly not having much of a choice when it comes to arranged marriages.
No, Tenten thinks stubbornly. There is always a choice.
"If I asked you to run away with me, would you?" she asks her handsome boy that night. His cheek is flat against the fully healed wound on her abdomen, and the soft flutter of his eyelashes sparks the most pleasant tingling sensation along her skin.
"That would be nice," he says, kissing the scars he has memorized with his tongue.
"So do it," Tenten says. "Who cares what your clan thinks? If you don't marry whoever it is they want you to marry, they'll find someone else to do it for you."
His shoulders stiffen.
"I'm not from a clan."
"Maybe you were too drunk to remember, but you barely caught yourself from saying that you belonged to a clan the first night we slept together," Tenten says wryly. Still blindfolded, she carefully holds his face in her hands. "I know you want to. Just do it. The only thing clans have ever done is carry old generations of grudges and pain into the present."
"Why would I throw my life away for —"
He cuts himself off. Tenten frowns.
"For what?" she says. "For a girl you don't love? You're doing that anyway if you marry."
Surprisingly, it hurts to say all these words out loud. She tries not to think about it too hard.
"You won't even tell me your name," he says softly.
"My name isn't important," she says sharply. "If you wanted to hide your face from me for the rest of our lives, I'd let you." Too late, she understands that she has revealed too much. There is no point in posturing anymore. "But if it's so important for you to know, my real name is Tenten."
Silence. The longest silence in the world. Tenten chokes on it and wishes it would kill her.
"I can't," he says, barely audible.
Tenten laughs bitterly.
"No. It's not that you can't. It's that you won't."
"I have responsibilities —"
She sits up to push him away from her.
"Then go to your responsibilities," she snaps.
She hears him growl in frustration.
"Heed your own advice, Senju Tenten," he says coolly.
Tenten freezes. The only reason she does not kill him right then and there is because his hands are holding hers so tenderly and she cannot bear to let him go.
"Leave," she utters. "And don't come back."
So he lets go.
She takes her blindfold off and watches him dress. He keeps his back to her the entire time, and it is only when he walks to the door when she catches a glimpse of his profile before he puts the hood over his head.
"You are an anomaly, Senju Tenten. And by virtue of that, you are destined for greatness. Stop running away from it," he says.
And just like that, he is gone.
For the first time since she left home, Tenten cries. She crunches herself up into a tight little ball and sobs silently into the futon until she falls asleep.
She finds Naruto the next day. It is not hard; he is at the same ramen stand from yesterday, and he chokes when he sees her.
"Nee-chan," he says, coughing. "I didn't think I'd see you again."
She nods tersely.
"Look, I'm going to be leaving soon," she says. Then she fidgets with the hem of her travel cloak. "But tell Sakura I'm coming home. Not immediately," she is quick to specify when Naruto's eyes widen in obvious excitement. "I still have some things to do. But I'll be home. Maybe a little after her birthday. Or before. I'll try." She scowls. "Tell her to keep it to herself. And you keep it to yourself too. If anyone else finds out, I'll know it was you."
Naruto swallows visibly.
"Yes, nee-chan."
Some days later, she hunts down Hōzuki Mangetsu and adds Hiramekarei to her collection. A looks at her with some new respect as he hands over triple the amount he initially paid her for the first head she brought him.
"Got another name for me?" Tenten asks cheekily.
A smiles at her with a surprising degree of fondness.
"No," he says. "Not this time. You are free to go wherever you choose."
Tenten knows that. She has always known that.
And deep in her soul, she knows that no matter how far she strays, her heart will always choose home.
Tenten returns home the day before Sakura's fifteenth birthday. Her hair has grown out long enough to tie into two short pigtails. And when Sakura catapults herself into Tenten's arms after wrenching a wailing Lee away, Tenten holds her tight.
"You're home," Sakura says, sobbing.
"Just in time for your birthday," Tenten says, her eyes watery.
In Tsunade's study, Tenten stands tall before her mother and great-uncle before kneeling and bowing low, her forehead touching the floor.
"I'm sorry," Tenten says, her voice trembling. "You were right, Tobirama-ojii — I have a duty to this clan. Please, ojii-san, okaa-san, forgive me for running."
Tsunade looks at her, those golden eyes still furious.
"Stand," Tsunade says coldly.
Tenten rises, shaking.
Then Tsunade takes Tenten into her arms, silent tears streaming down her face.
"Don't you ever run away again," Tsunade says fiercely. "Do you hear me?"
"Yes, kaa-san."
"Or if you do, at least leave a note and tell us how long you'll be gone," Tobirama deadpans.
And Tenten sobs because whole-hearted acceptance from Tobirama is all she ever wanted.
Tsunade pulls away from her and reaches for a box. She opens it, revealing the circlet Tenten left on her table a year ago.
"This belongs to you," Tsunade says quietly.
"No," Tenten says suddenly. "I don't —" then she looks down, blinking tears out of her eyes. "Mito-obaa never would have run away. I don't deserve to wear it."
Tsunade nods faintly. Then in a rare display of affection, Tsunade kisses Tenten's forehead before letting her go.
To Tenten's surprise, her room is clean of dust. Even the futon has been freshly cleaned.
"Do you need anything else?"
She turns around to see Yamato for the first time since her return. Although the sobbing from Lee and Sakura and even Tsunade was nice, she appreciates Yamato's understated warmth all the same.
"No. Thank you, nii-san."
He nods.
"It's good to have you home," he says softly. "I can walk you to the dining room. We're having some of your favorites for lunch."
At such short notice?
"Did Naruto tell you I was coming back?" she says, crossing her arms.
Yamato laughs quietly.
"No. I saw you for myself," he says. Then he brandishes a little tube-like device in his hand. "Point it at the window then look into this end of it."
Tenten does. She gasps when she sees a guard's face up close.
"I think this is my favorite invention of yours, nii-san. It's like I'm right in front of him!" she says delightedly. She gets closer to the window, gleefully examining more guards and giggling when she sees Lee still wiping tears away.
"I looked for you every day, through rain and snow," Yamato says quietly. "And then I saw you this morning. At first, I wasn't sure because of your hair, but your walk is very distinctive. I knew it was you."
Tenten's smile wobbles.
"I missed you too, nii-san."
That night, Sakura carries her futon into Tenten's room so that they can talk until they fall asleep. Tenten allows for it, only because the way Sakura speaks tells Tenten that she won't be taking no for an answer.
When Sakura lays down, she presses her back into Tenten's arm.
"You coming home is more than I could have ever hoped for," Sakura sighs happily. "I was worried Naruto wouldn't be able to find you."
"What made you think to ask Naruto, of all people?" Tenten asks. "I know he'd do anything for you but he's not the brightest."
"He was the closest," Sakura says, flipping to lay on her back. "When I heard that the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist started showing up without their heads, I knew it had to be you."
Tenten almost preens at Sakura's confidence in her skills.
But then she thinks about it some more and says, "Hold on. How did you know I was in Kumo? None of those kills happened there."
Sakura stiffens then slowly sits up, her eyes calm. Tenten glares at her.
"Don't be mad, Tenten-nee," Sakura says.
"Don't tell me this was all a trap!" Tenten says in mild horror and disbelief.
"It wasn't," Sakura says firmly. "Tobirama-ojii's friend had a grudge against the Swordsmen for years. All we did was ask him to officially put a bounty on their heads. I knew you'd be the only one demented enough to actually do it and succeed, so I told Naruto to stay in Kumo and keep an eye out for you."
Tenten blinks, gobsmacked.
"I almost died, Sakura-chan!" she hisses.
"But you didn't. You're here, and now you have three of the swords in your collection, just like you've always dreamed of," Sakura says smugly. "You're welcome."
Tenten shakes her head, laughing incredulously.
(Privately, she thinks her collection is short four swords, but that is something she can continue working on.)
Suddenly, she grimaces and says, "I'm sorry. For that last conversation we had. Naruto told me the betrothal was all Tobirama-ojii's idea."
"You didn't know," Sakura whispers. "And I should have tried harder."
"You were a child, Sakura," Tenten says. "I don't care how much ojii-san favors you; at the end of the day, you're still his apprentice. He doesn't have to listen to you."
"Perhaps not. But he's been listening to me more recently," Sakura says, sounding very pleased with herself indeed.
Tenten laughs.
"So you mean he's not going to turn around and tell me that my betrothal to Sukea is back on track?" she says.
Sakura giggles.
"I made sure he couldn't. That's why I started writing to Sukea. It will be a lot harder if Tobirama-ojii gets resistance from both sides. Look!" Sakura pulls out a letter from under her futon. "I think Sukea really likes me," she says, giggling again.
Tenten reads the letter, her eyebrows rising high.
"This is disgusting," she says, her heart aching in her chest. "Eternal spring incarnate? Ugh. He hasn't even seen you yet."
"Oh stop, it's lovely and you know it," Sakura says, pouting.
Tenten drops the scroll the way one would dispose of a rodent's carcass.
"Thank you," Tenten says quietly. "For making sure. About Tobirama-ojii."
Sakura smiles wryly.
"Will you promise me something in return?"
"Anything," Tenten says without hesitation. "Anything you want."
Because it is the least she can do for Sakura who has taken great measures to look out for Tenten in her own way.
Sakura looks at her, a calculated gleam in her green eyes.
"Truthfully, I don't know what I want yet," Sakura says. "But I'll come back to you one day when I need you to do something for me."
The heavy weight of new respect sinking deep into her bones, Tenten looks back at Sakura and finally realizes her little sister is frightening enough without the added height after all.