Chapter 2: Encounter
Five a.m. "Damn," thought Tenten, "I just cannot sleep. What on earth has kept my mind awake for so long? What is it, like three days since I've really slept? Oh, whatever. I'll just get up. Neji and I have an early training match anyway..." So, she wearily dragged herself out of the not-so-comfortable-anymore bed she had been sleeping - no lying - in, and looked around the bedroom.
It was relatively small compared to many flats in the city. With her extra income from missions, which, incidentally, hadn't been much lately, she could have bought a bigger flat, but she chose not to. This was her first and only home, and she just could not bring herself to sell it, even with the numerous, but small repairs that had to be done every month. The four room flat was decorated according to her personality of extravagance in some areas, such as scrolls and weapons placed in decorative holders throughout the rooms, and austerity, such as in the simple kitchen with only the basics in it.
The bedroom itself was on the simple side, with just a bed, nightstand, and dresser, but it still had touches of Tenten in it. For instance, the beautiful katana her team had given her for a birthday (she was too tired to recall which one) displayed on a holder that had been expertly nailed into the wall by her, or the Jounin vest hanging lazily of one of the knobs on the dresser. Yep, on her seventeenth birthday, Tenten had been given the vest as a sign of her growth from the Chuunin exams, and boy, was she proud of it. But she hadn't stopped at just being a Jounin. No, Tenten was accustomed to going above what was expected of her, mostly because of being on a team with a miracle and a prodigy. So she had even gone so far as to become the Weapons Expert of Konoha. In other words, a Special Jounin. Now, she helped young Genin who wanted a weapon chose one based on their strengths. And if there wasn't one that fit them, she would invent one. It was just one of her gifts, as Tsunade had put it when she appointed Tenten to the position.
Now, however, Tenten was not feeling bright and cheery as she usually did when she recalled that happy day, but tense and unsettled. Her window was unlatched. It wasn't open, but still. She couldn't remember opening it, and even if she did, she would have opened the window, not left it closed. Grabbing her kunai, four in each hand, she cautiously made her way around her house. She couldn't sense anyone, but her conscience, aided by her adrenaline, was screaming at her to stay as awake as humanly possible for the upcoming event. There was no one in any of the rooms she had checked so far, and all that was left to check now was the tiny, but effective L-shaped bathroom.
As she cautiously made her way around the bathroom, she still wasn't getting any physical reading as she usually would from someone's aura, so, ignoring her intuition, which was still screaming, she turned to face the mirror. Suddenly, she felt an overwhelming presence in the room, and saw him step up right behind her in the mirror. Before she could react, her senses still ringing and numb from feeling such a strong aura, the person from the reflection slammed her into the mirror, shattering it.
As Tenten, fueled by that incessant adrenaline, barely raised her aching head, which had somehow landed hard on the tile floor, she glimpsed her attacker through slightly blurred vision and falling shards of glass from the mirror. He was young, almost her age, maybe younger, with spiky, wind-swept, light brown hair that covered his left eye. To keep the rest of his Kakashi-reminiscent hair from falling into his eyes, a headband was tied around his forehead. He wore a sort of wide, light blue scarf around his neck like what the Sound Genin wear. The sleeves of his light powder blue, slightly-longer-than-waist-length, loosely fitting shirt were folded up once, making them three-fourths length. His faded-tan colored pants were folded up the same way, showing wrappings on both his legs that covered his bare feet. An insignia that bore resemblance to a dot with two circles surrounding it, one encircling the other was present in the upper left-hand of the front of the shirt.
After gathering and memorizing to the best of her ability the appearance of the teen before her, Tenten finally succumbed to the unconsciousness that was quickly depleting her waking seconds, the adrenaline gland finally running out of power. But not before hearing the attacker throw out a few last words.
"Well, well, you're not as strong as they said you would be..."
