Thanks for all those reviews—11 reviews for 2 short chapters was some accomplishment for my first longer fiction. For the last chapter, the equal signs were missing, when Tenten wonders about Gai's smile, it should read "Awkward smile + Gai + private message + staring at me equals Go back to reading or get screw up." A smiliar case occurred several lines later.

The only part I own is the plot.


Untitled Tale

Chapter 3: Greetings, I am your-next-nightmare.


Tenten was getting tired, as her eyes glazed across the room sleepily, focusing on her bed. Half an hour of last minute polite conversation practice, and half an hour of memorizing the responsibility of a maid, equal, one whole hour of extra work before sun rise. If she was a hunter, this extra trash that she performed each morning for the past few days would have been excluded and replaced with an hour of sleep. Not that she hated waking up early—she used to wake up early when she was a hunter, but that was done voluntarily and that yielded a whole difference.

Plus, she didn't have to deal with Gai when she was a hunter.

"Come on Tenten! Next question!" He said with his ever so enthusiastic tone, as he took a small dance across the room. This is so unfair, why can't Mr. Hyper-with-thick-brow-aka-perfect-maid-trainer be the maid instead? "How do you respond if young master said 'Bring me some tea.'?"

Don't feel like it. No.

Go get your own. No.

Die, I am not your slave. ...Technically, she is now.

Screw off, I need an extra hour of sleep. Umm, suitable for the current situation, but no.

Get off your lazy ass and make your own stupid tea, jerk. …Nah, not like that would work for the oh-so-honored-young-master.

"…Understood. Sugar and crème?" Tenten answered weakly, her mind was distracted too much, her bed was haunting her. Stupid jack-ass polite conversation training…

"INCORRECT!" A loud voice boomed at Tenten's eardrum, forcing her to stop daydreaming. Gai, now tip-toed next to her head, was screeching and scowling at her wrong respond, "You forgot to add 'sir' afterwards! It is NOT polite to exclude the proper address after your respond, my dear! You can only address them with names when a, you knew them well and treat each other like friends, or b, when your status is equal to them! You, being the cute and full of spirit young maid here, can NEVER EVER address young master as equal! Now repeat 'sir' twenty times!"

Inane morning and insane trainer, what a match. "Sir sir sir sir sir sir sir sir sir sir sir sir sir sir sir sir sir sir sir sir sir sir sir si—"

"INCORRECT AGAIN! Being a maid requires precious calculations and good memories! You had repeated the word more than 20 times—23 times exact, you should be shameful! If you can't even finish this simple task, you are going to have trouble taking orders—and that is why we hired maids! You beautiful girls with excellent memories are expected to take orders word by word!"

You should have hired magicians and wizards instead, not me. What do I look like, the hell genius from the other side of the world!

"Yes, you are the wise one…sir." The words chunked out of Tenten's mouth as her mind decided to whether to stab Gai with her draggers (which are in her suitcase) or to push him out of the window. This is only the morning before her first assignment, and she felt like her self-control was running out quickly like waterfall.

"Ah, that's all better! See, when you do things correctly, they are usually easier in many cases!"

Well, unfortunately you made everything so difficult that it's almost impossible to do them correctly in the first place.

"Now we have less than one hour… time to get you dress! Chop chop!"

Roughly and harshly, she jerked the maid dress over her under dress. After tucking everything in place and scratching her fingers out of the tight uniform, she began to tie her apron around her wrist, which resulted in a loud gasping from Gai.

"AH! What do you think you are doing!" He seemed as if he was in panic and threw his arms above his hand in horror.

"Huh?" Tenten gave a questionable look as she looked at herself at the body length mirror—she didn't wear the dress up-side-down or inside-out, what the hell is the problem? Maybe he finally realized having his beautiful dress wore by me is a permanent mistake.

"You wore the apron inside-out, dear!" Gai yanked the apron from Tenten to show her, "See this snowy gray line? This is supposed to go inside—where people can't see! Okay? Now try it again! If you showed up like that in front of the young master, he is going to believe you are in deep illness and send you home!"

It would be better for both of us if I was sent home. Tenten once again picked up the apron, trying to distinguish the front and back using Gai's suggestion. To be honest, nobody would be able to figure out which is which—snowy white is the front, snowy white with an extra snowy gray line across is the back—what kind of different does that make, when they are both in snowy color? More importantly, who came up with such shitty design ANYWAY? Oh wait. Gai made this. That explained it.

"I should have known better." Tenten heaved a sigh as she flipped the apron front and back, searching for the negligible gray line.

After using a good amount of time, she finally discerned the front and back of her apron, and begun to tie it around. In return, she got another dreadful gasp from Gai.

"AH! You did it again!"

Not bothering to look at Gai, Tenten asked, "Did what?" Why the hell is it always her problem and her fault like done everything wrong? Nobody ever told her ANYTHING in here! He should be grateful that she is actually wearing this shit instead of watching it light up in flames, but hell no, he just had to GASP as if this is the end of the world…

"Your bow—it is crocked!" Gai exclaimed in terror as he untied it and retied it. "A bow—especially one at your wrist tells the others a lot about you! A bow could be the origin of beautiful tomorrow or damnation in future! If your bow is dirty, crocked or does not meet the satisfaction line of young master's, you would be viewed as a sallow, non-reliable girl to take orders! Whereas an unkempt bow will lead to many bad representations, a good bow will impress others, and eventually might …"

As if anything really would really matter after these two months.

After the third try, Tenten managed to get her entire outfit to look as tidy as possible. Now everything is good, right?

Wrong. For the third time in the morning, her "personal" trainer gasped. Should have pushed him out of the window while he was near.

"What?" Words were hissing out of annoyance. Three dreadful gasp in one single morning before sun rise is driving Tenten on the wall, and if Gai got the warning message, this better be the last comment on her outfit.

"No hassle, dear! It's just your hair."

"What's wrong with it?" In the past few days, she had been tying her hair in buns like she used to, and this became her only source of memory that reminds her of her former life. There is no way in hell she was going to do anything to it.

"…Let it down."

"What? Why?" Let down of her hair? Let go of her past? Gai better think of something quick before she starts to toss him random objects—random sharp objects…

"Your hair gave a more Chinese feeling while your uniform is definitely a Western style dress. You see, young master is very concern about…what do you call it? 'Matching correctly', yes. If you went in like this, he is going to…"

"…think I am ill and send me home, I think that's the whole reason I put my hair up." Mr. Young-master should go screw himself.

Although she was frustrated, she pulled out the pins that stabled her hair—but quickly pinned it back on, only letting several locks of hair fly under her bun. Tenten was determined, and she is not giving up on her past this easy. Once she was done dressing up, she waited for a while for the forth gasp to come around—but it never did. Good for Gai, now she doesn't worry about murdering her dearest trainer.

She was just ten minutes from her first task—waking young master Neji up at six.

---

Inhale…Exhale…Inhale…

Tenten stood in front of Neji's room as she took several deep breathe, there was still 5 more minutes until six o'clock kicks in, so she could relax a bit, so she supposed. The truth is, it is hard to relax in such a dense mansion, in fact, this whole mansion seem to fill with harshness as Tenten walked down to Neji's room.

Walking from the maid's dorm to Neji's room was not that long, yet it was long. The whole walk took less than five minute, but it felt like a whole year as she moved down the ally. There were other maids passing by, each of them seem to have different clothing with similar pattern—black and white, laces and bows. It was not the dresses that dragged Tenten's attention, but their face—they were all emotionless, blank as white paper.

She suddenly felt grateful that she was stuck with Gai instead some other people.

Oh wait, scratch that, this morning if far too memorable to be concern about.

Shaking thoughts away, she focused her gaze on the hallway clock. Gai said that Neji was picky, and she better be on time if she wants to make a good impression. Not that she really care about what good impressions is going to bring her, but certainly it's going to help her surviving the next two months.

Exactly 6 o'clock. She crashed the door, went in, and took a deep bow to show all the shitty respect for HER damn master.

"Good morning Nej—sir, it's time for your morning …routine?" She picked up her gaze from the ground and realized she was bowing to an empty bed.

Shit, must have entered the wrong room. Just before she turned and leave to search for the "young master's" room, a cold sneering tone stopped her.

She recalled this voice.

---

"…New maid?" The "young master" sounded puzzled, "By the way she responded, no wonder she needs training."

---

Him. The same damn bastard she heard behind the wall. Now she could actually meet this jerk, eye to eye.

"You were late." A figure with long dark chocolate colored dressed in plain white appeared in front of her. He had pearl eyes that seem as if he could see through everything, making Tenten shivered a little. His face was handsome and sharp—except his frown had masked it all. "Give me a reason."

"I came on time, sir." Tenten responded in the most polite way she could ever said, staring at the plush carpet that was ahead of her. For some reason, she felt dangerous against this boy, though he didn't look any older than she was. Is it because we are in different rank? "However you weren't in the room…"

"Maids don't talk back." Neji snapped, getting a little bit annoyed at Tenten's existence. "If you weren't late, then I wouldn't have been up already."

Tenten chose to remind quiet as his criticism sunk in. This doesn't look like a wining battle, and at this rate, he sounded like he could crush her now.

Not that his threading voice would scared her, she was just pissed. What the hell? This is her first time!

"You were late one minute. Do that again and I will not be tolerant." He said it as-a-matter-of-fact, face turned away.

What the hell does he think he is, the fucking god of this planet? One whole shitty minute damnnit! If only I was as high in rank as he is, I would have bashed his skull in half…in thirds…in fourths…

"What are you waiting for?"

"Eh—I mean, I don't quite understand what you needed…sir." She had to lower her gaze again, she is starting to hate all this—the reason why she is here, her morning training, him, having to give respect, him and his pickiness, her status, him, him, him

He looked at her for a while, puzzled and frustrated at the same time. "Who is your trainer?"

"Gai, sir."

"No surprise, your skills are far from excellent." Neji said without any emotion, as he shifted from her left to her right, "nevertheless, your ribbons on your hair are crocked."

Control yourself…don't bash his face in half…Control yourself…don't rip out his lungs…Control yourself… Control…

"I will let you go this time, but you better be ready tomorrow." He sent him one of his famous death glare, however her head was lowered and didn't see it. "…Do you know how to get to the kitchen? After waking the master up, maids were sent to serve breakfast."

He should be a maid, Mr. I-know-everything-about-maids-better-than-you-do.

"Uh, I do not know, sir."

"Clueless and useless." Neji said without looking, "Just return tomorrow, knowing what you would be expected…"

Control yourself… Control yourself… Control yourself… Don't kick him in his stomach…Control yourself…

"…and when will you be needed…"

Control yourself… Control yourself…Don't whack him in the skull… Control yourself…

"…If by tomorrow you are still below my standard expectation line…"

Control yourself… Don't kick his dick hard… CONTROL damnnit…

"…I would not be tolerant, do you understand?" He finished, waiting for her respond.

CONTROL YOURSELF EVEN IF THAT MEAN YOU MISSED AN OPPORTUNITY TO MURDER HIM RIGHT ON THIS SPOT…control…

"Yes sir, I am merciful upon your forgiveness…"

you low life bastard…

…sir." She finished, half scowling at him.

"It's your majesty or Neji-sir. Don't forget the name is the most significant part. You are dismissed." And with this, he walked out of his room to "fish" for some breakfast, this wasn't the first time he came across some air-head maids, but he was surprise that he controlled himself from further reactions.

---

After Neji exited, Tenten stomped her way back to the maid's dorm, discarding all of the awkward looks on others who passed by. This morning had far exceeded her standard patience, thanks to Neji, and right now all she needed now is rest.

Rest, rest well on her cold and empty bed, forget all of this rubbish and dream about her past again, and maybe punch somebody while she dream, especially somebody named Neji, if he ever accidentally slipped into her dreams. However, before permitting her soul to take a break, she needed to complete several task.

First thing off the list, kill Gai for letting her look like a total fool.

"Oh, Tenten! You only been there for ten minutes and you are off already! Such a record!" Gai was coming toward her way, having some sort of bread in his left arm.

Right on.

"Gai…how dare you MAKE ME GO THERE WITHOUT REALLY COMPLETELY YOUR hell-like TRAINING AND EXPECTED ME TO SERVE SOME goddamn HONORBLE MASTER WHILE NOT TELLING ME WHAT THE HECK AM I SUPPOSE TO DO IN THE FIRST PLACE!"

One sentence twenty complains, done.

Gai looked at her with full surprise, then slowly he grinned, "…you are the first one who didn't cry."

"Huh?" What did he say?

"Nothing that would matter, but if you wish to know what you were suppose to do, here is a list and some other good advice I offered." He pulled out a list—a really long list and handed it to Tenten as he finished his bread. "You dismissed already?"

"No, I just happen to wander around in this screwed up mansion enjoying a tour with Neji-sir." Okay enough of this garbage. Let the bed embrace! "So… should I go read this list over… in my room… by myself, sir?"

"How could you waste such a golden time for training? Now that you knew some facts about master Neji, you should train even harder to impress him and show him your best!"

So? Not like I care. The bed is far more important than him.

"Come, come! We will run toward the rising sun and start your forth day of training—how to make a master's bed with classy styles!" He said and dragged a horrified Tenten with him.

I swear, when I have my draggers with me, I swear I will pull out ALL of the insides of both Gai and bastard Neji.

---

Day two and day three of serving Neji went even more terrifying, as more insulting criticism poured out from his mouth.

"You were too early."

"The tea is too cold."

"You added too much crème for this."

"More sugar would be needed."

"The table is not ready in my expected standard."

"The bed is still messy."

"The water is not warm enough for shower."

"The water is too hot for bath"…

By the end of the forth day she served, she was too fed up with this crap. It seems like NOTHING please him—everything is always too warm or too cold, too nice or too messy, too sweet or too bitter. Tenten concluded that either Neji was acting as Mr. Picky, or he was just trying to piss her off. Either case, he needed to be bash in half.

This person was simply too sour for this world, how she pity him.

At midnight, Tenten was still wide awake, due to all the frustrations that had occurred. Her head was a volcano with lava that was 800 degrees inside, boiling and ready to go.

She wants to do well and certainly impress others, but so far she had done everything the opposite. She wants to act as herself, but she was forced to act as a hypocrite. She wants to take a break from all this work, but everyday was dragged up earlier for excessive absolute rubbish maid-training.

ABSOLUTE GARBAGE.

"Aghhhhh, I can't take this place and bastard any more!" Furiously, she opened her suitcase and took out several of dull pieces of wood and rocks, and skillfully started to sharpen them. "Weapon master" was no rumor as she earned her nickname with her famous skills of making weapons and operating them with her bare hands. Soon, the pieces of wood were filed into sharp needle-alike arrows that can slice through one's skin.

Part one complete. Now, a picture…

Using a darker piece of rock, she drew the face of Neji on a piece of rag with addition curse words to surround the design and nailed it to the wall. Upon finishing her masterpiece, she smirked inwardly.

Part two all good and ready to go.

After inhaling deeply of the cold night's air, she charged toward the picture. One slice, two slice, three slice. Without much trouble, the hopeless paper was wounded with muti-scratches crisp-crossed. Still unsatisfied, she punched the paper, ripped it off the wall and started tearing it as it slowly processed towards the bare wooden floor. Before it even reached the ground, the picture of hand-drawn bastard Neji was split into an amorphous phase, lying quietly along the ground.

Just then a shooting star dashed by, and Tenten made a wish by yelling at the open sky.

"I wish I NEVER have to deal with him AGAIN!"

Once coerced her anger out, Tenten climbed onto her bed and fast asleep with much satisfy. She believed she even grinned with victory as she dreamt about her past.

However, she forgot to check her room before performing her dreadful weapon skills, as a pair of snow white eyes observed her actions tonight…


Chapter 3 done and uploaded! Cheers :) Alas, such a pain in ass chapter though.

Don't get me wrong, I adore my fanfict, I probably like it more than any one of the fellow readers who are currently staring at your computers. I guess an author has to like their piece and continue writing.

But it's still pain in ass. I want the chapters to get lengthy, yet rich and juiced up with contents all the same time. It's hard, I have seen many others who tried to make the chapters long and max out the word count—but their fiction were horrific in plot that I have to quit during reading. Revisiting the two previous chapters, they were too short for comfort and the pacing was too fast. Did you readers realize that too?

I want to be indifferent, like some of other excellent writers, so I tried to detailed every single movement and remarks Tenten made towards her life as a maid. I want the pacing of the story to be longer, but not entirely dragging on forever as I am a fan of "getting straight to the point". I hope this chapter represents the goals I tried to complete.

Hope you guys enjoy reading Tenten's nightmare—maids certainly doesn't fit her well at all, and that was the whole point I tried to address in the first half of the fanfict.

But HO, I am not halfway done with my mid-terms yet. I just happened to sneak by and feed the hungry readers. Don't expect a new update soon.

I made Neji a jerk-head. Sorry about that, but it seems to fit him, no? He would change though…after a long time… I mean real long time… Naruto and Hinata would show up eventually, you'll see.

Oh, I drew some images of how Tenten would look like if you kept her bun yet let some of her hair down—it could be something like sailor moon? Go there to see what I have in mind: http/img. I want her maid's look to be complete different from her original look, this would aid the story later on. Maybe you people should vote on her hair style.

I wrote too much, ja.