Team Gai Story Chapter 1: She Had Enough, a naruto fanfic

Disclaimer: All hail Kishimoto-sama, the creator of Naruto and co. true owner of this great series and the stories that spring from therein. And may be blessed by the powers that be, to create evermore, from the everlasting fountain that is the inspiration of youth!

In short, I don't own this series. Umm... duh?

Author's Note:

Team Gai is the greatest! And it's the strong bond they seem to share with each other that makes me think so. How did this strong bond come about?

In exploring the above question, this story came about. Although it's written in 3rd person, there's going to be a large concentration on Tenten... simply because since I'm a girl I can relate to her the best.

I'm also a NejiTen fan, but hopefully this story won't be so blatantly NejiTen that people who like other pairings won't be able to read it. The concentration will be on the friendship element.

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Tenten had had enough. Right then and there she hated Hyuuga Neji more than anybody else in the world.

And in a certain sense, she had a right to be angry.

Hadn't she risked her own life to help bring about Neji's ultimate success

in figuring out the forbidden Hyuuga techniques? Hadn't she sacrificed much of her time and energy...

experienced pain and even sacrificed parts of her own dream in order to help him achieve his goals?

And yet through it all, it was as if he didn't even notice.

Didn't notice, didn't care, and if she jumped off a cliff and he wouldn't even...

'What an arrogant bastard! I don't see what I ever saw in him!'

It all started early that morning.

Tenten had found out through the Konoha newspapers that Tsunade was was brought back to Konoha

by none other than Naruto... the village's number one loud-mouth baka.

Who would have thought, huh?

An event was to be held later that day, to celebrate Tsunade's return to Konoha. The newly appointed Hokage

was to give a speech, and select members of the audience were allowed to ask questions.

Afterwards there would be a party hosted to which there would be dancing, and a small feast.

This event was something special for the young kunoichi named Tenten. When she was barely five years old,

a lady, Aya-sama, was the care-taker responsible for Tenten's little group of orphans at the Konoha care center.

She loved to tell stories. Some of her best stories were about the legendary kunoichi of the Sannin, Tsunade,

who performed marvelous feats in battle and saved hundreds of lives with her medical ninjutsu.

If it had not been for those stories, Tenten would not be the same person she was...

and she would never have chosen to become a ninja.

Little girls often idolize. They have heroes that they put posters up of...

rock stars, famous athletes, political heroes... etc.

But many people have heroes. Many people have dreams. And then only some take these

and propel them to become who they are... what they are.

For Tenten, this occasion was a once-in-a-life-time dream come true.

She wanted more than anything, to share this moment of happiness with a friend.

But in that moment of silent misery she realized more than ever, that she had never really had any friends.

She was always too busy practicing targets to socialize. Other girls played tag during recess...

she hurled kunai. How happy could she be now with her 100 out of 100 target accuracy

when nobody even cared?

Why did she try befriending Neji in the first place? It would have been much easier with Lee,

who despite his fuzzy eyebrows had a friendly and easy going disposition.

Neji on the other hand, was as cold as ice. He never let anybody get close to him,

and half the time he acted as though he hated the world along with every person in it.

And thus he was a challenge, and he seemed like he really needed a friend, somebody he could rely on,

someone who would never let him down... and perhaps it had simply become a habit for Tenten

to always shoot for the hardest-to-reach targets.

Rejection was not something she was familiar with, because Tenten hardly ever asked anybody for anything.

It was this one time when she extended her hand to a person who she thought was a friend,

that she was completely ignored. It wasn't as if he was particularly rude about it.

He just said he wasn't interested in going.

But for Tenten this was the last straw. She didn't make a big deal out of it to him... she only left quietly.

But afterwards she ran, sulking, crying like a pathetic girl while leaning against a wall.

She should have been at the ceremony an hour ago. She was upset at herself, which only made her cry harder.

She hardly even knew why she was being so emotional about it. It was nothing really.

The rejection should have been something she expected.

Maybe it had something to do with those mood swings her female teachers said girls were prone to.

But regardless, it took a while for her to calm herself down and think about it logically. Afterwards,

she had decided that she was done making a big deal out of nothing. She sat up, brushed herself off

and decided that with or without Neji she was going to go to what was remaining of the ceremony and the party.

It was only after calming down, that she noticed where she was. Somehow out of pure coincidence

the alleyway she ran into was that of Konoha Hospital. This was where Lee was still recuperating

from the traumatic injury he had received during his battle against Gaara of the Sand.

She remembered that the last time she checked up on him, Lee was doing extremely well,

to the point where he was almost entirely healed. He still needed crutches, but other than that…

'I could ask Lee to go with me…'

Visiting the hospital room where he was staying, Tenten asked Lee if he wanted to go.

Srangely enough, Lee agreed right away with such gusto that he nearly fell off the hospital bed.

Tenten couldn't have been happier. She decided from then on that she would pay a bit more attention to Lee.

It was unfair of her to concentrate her efforts on only one team mate... even if that other team mate

had the harder shell to crack.

Tenten attempted to help Lee with his crutches, but who knew that Lee had recently challenged himself to be

'the fastest crutcher in Konoha'.

Thus it seems he didn't really need any help… except when he tripped about three quarter of the way there

and Tenten had to help him stand up again.

The ceremony was just about over when they arrived. But they were able to hear the last moments of Tsunade's speech.

It seemed ironic that these very words were just the ones that would make her cry again.

They were about dreams... and how every person in Konoha had their own dream.

Each individual, young and old had a dream they wished to achieve.

"And no matter how hard it is to live with the pain of trying... nevertheless if we never give up hope.

Maybe some day..."

And at this, she looked into the audience. She seemed to stare at a particular person in the crowd.

"Maybe someday dreams really will come true."

She was talking about Naruto, and his dreams of becoming the Hokage.

But for Tenten, the words resonated within her own soul.

In her earlier state of depression, she had thought of the idea of giving up.

Maybe she just wasn't cut out to be a kunoichi. Maybe she should try to be more like other girls

and concentrate on things other than weapons and training.

Now she felt ashamed that she even thought of such a thing.

'Real kunoichi never give up on their dreams,' she thought.

Her earlier heightened emotions were still there, and so without realizing it,

she shed a few tears. Lee must have noticed something, because at that moment

he tugged on Tenten's sleeve and pointed at somewhere in the crowd.

"Look, look Tenten! I think that's Neji! Look, over there!"

Neji..? Was he really there?

"That's impossible Lee. He told me he wasn't interested in coming."

"But I saw him! He was right over there!"

If Tenten had looked any sooner, she would have seen a flash of long hair in the crowd,

and a person dressed in Neji's clothes.

As it was, she missed that brief instance.

"It's okay Lee... you don't have to pretend. I know he's not here..."

Almost as an afterthought, Tenten added, "and I really think it's okay.

He's only pursuing his own dream... like I'm pursing mine... and you're pursing yours.

We should all do what we feel is best...

I only hope I didn't force you to come with me Lee... if you didn't really want to."

"No… I wanted to come. More than anyone here… She saved me, and my dream.

I would not be standing here without her..."

Tilting her head up, she looked at him. Tenten up till that point had not realized that she could relate to Lee in such a way.

Yet, watching Lee's solem but glassy-eyed expression of admiration at Tsunade-sama currently standing on the platform

answering various questions, she thought 'We have more in common than I thought'.

Losing the tension somewhat, he placed his hand on Tenten's shoulder.

"I also know that this is very important to you Tenten! And as a fellow team mate and friend... how could I not come!

You are right Tenten! We must all pursue our dreams with the dedication of youth! Yosh!"

She was touched. And for once, Tenten actually laughed at the strange yet familiar expression.

It was in that moment that she realized that perhaps she too had been taking someone for granted.

Just like Neji seemed to take her for granted, she had up to that point always taken Lee for granted.

She decided from then on that she would try harder not to do so. After all, if Lee considered her a friend,

the least she could do was consider him the same... even if she felt as though she didn't deserve it...

Author's Note:

See? Up to this point, the story could even be considered LeeTen. But the emphasis is on building friendship relationship,

as well as a coming-to-understanding aspect which will also be centralized in this fic.

Some of this stuff, like the idea of Tenten being an orphan, is just something that I've seen crop up in other fics left and right.

I thought it was interesting, so I took it a bit further and connected it to some things. Bleh, whatev. Posting next chapter right now.