The Briefest of Normality

By: Junsui Kegasu

A/N: Happy birthday, Ebby! I brainstormed this for quite a bit, but I'm thinking that I like this…

Disclaimer: I own not the characters, nor the crack that is this pairing - Merci, merci.

It was not often that Ten Ten found herself acting like… well, a normal girl. She had grown up playing rough with the boys and had always found softer, girlish things a waste of her time. It certainly did not help that the rest of her team was made up of boys, either, and she occasionally noticed that sometimes she acted a bit like Lee and other times a bit like Neji. It all depended on her mood. But when she did find herself acting like a "normal girl", she often decided she really was not acting as such.

Most "normal girls" had a tendency to compare themselves to the belle of Konoha, Ino, and on that rare occasion, Ten Ten was really no different. Other girls compared their curves, waste lines, hips, skin tones, legs, or their weight to Ino, and that was where Ten Ten blew slightly off course. The thing she compared with Ino (in privacy, of course, for there was no need to be so ostentatious) was her hair. Ten Ten did not like to say that she envied the younger girl's luscious, bright locks, but she did like to say she admired them.

It got worse, some would say, from there. Ten Ten sometimes thought she might admire Ino's hair a bit too much, because then often she found herself admiring other parts of her, too. She did not envy them, for she knew that even if her waste was tinier, her own would be stronger, and if her thighs touched when she walked, it was all muscle. No, she admired the fluid way Ino moved, those hips swaying hypnotically and tantalizingly.

That "normal girl" part of Ten Ten always felt a little hurt when she realized that those hips were not ever swaying for her. They were swaying for one person and one person only, and in her own, completely justified opinion, that person might as well have been a girl. No names were even needed at this point, never had they ever been. Tragedy seemed to bring out the best in him, while it had smothered anything good in Neji. Ten Ten did not hate Sasuke. She was not even envious of him. It was just a simple fact of life that he was the only person Ino was flaunting to. It would never be anyone else – especially her.

Although, though it was not often Ten Ten acted like a "normal girl", it did seem to be often that she really wished it were her those hips were swaying for. She had once, in a fit of desperation, wished she was Sasuke, but that had been one time. Whenever she was completely alone, whether she was acting normal or not, she always fantasized. Ten Ten was a daydreamer, even if her personality did not betray it. She fantasized about the simple things like holding Ino's hand and walking through a crowd of the boys, or even a first kiss.

They were things she knew she should not ever think about, that they were wrong, but Ten Ten had always been some kind of a rebel. Playing with the boys when she was younger had actually started it. She had even pulled a few pranks with them back in those days (although, nothing of the kind that Naruto would pull, though she was quite often tempted to). Now, she tried to act normal around Ino, even if she was not feeling so. She was not overly flirtatious, but she was not going to be shy about a single thing she ever did.

Perhaps, she decided silently, she really was a "normal girl" but just showed it in different ways than most. Maybe at the next Hanabi festival, she'd wear her hair down and make it look pretty and lustrous, too, just like Ino's. Then the girl would, perhaps, notice her during a depressing rejection from Sasuke. Ten Ten knew she was being foolish, considering that it would certainly be impractical to go to the Hanabi festival looking any prettier than she normally did without having to explain a reason or make up one. But there was always hope.

Or, maybe, because Ino liked Sasuke so much for his profound skill in the ninja way, she could impress her with her deadly accuracy. Maybe Ino would ask for help with her own kunai throwing, and it could escalate from there into something pure and blissful. They would start out many days by throwing a few knives, and then giving up on it altogether, just sitting down and holding hands. And Ino would whisper that she loved her in her ear and Ten Ten would say it back. That would be her happily ever after.

Oh, how Ten Ten could imagine it! She could almost taste the words, though they only resonated so sweetly in her mind. She could so picture the conversation of how they would confess…

"Hey, Ten Ten…"

It sounded so real in her mind so she smiled, eyes closed and ears waiting to hear more in her head.

"Ten Ten…"

Yes, and then it would follow with an –

"Hey, wake up! We need to get back to the stadium!"

Startled, Ten Ten opened her eyes, more than shocked and embarrassed to see Ino standing in front of her, hands on those seductive hips and face bent down. She must've still been dreaming. Yes, she was dreaming and any moment, Ino would press closer and –

"What are you doing? Come on or we'll fail – again."

Or she would be telling her to get back to the exam. But Ten Ten, nearly floating off behind her as they walked back to the stadium, could always – would always – hope.

Fin.