Chapter Nine: Things Speed Up
Cleaning was getting really, really dull.
Especially now that Tenten had seen hints of something bigger beneath the surface. Only whatever it was seemed to not concern her at all. No dark strangers showed up on her doorstep with surprising revelations. No one declared the time of her destiny was at hand. She'd done some digging on the kids and asked around. But it appeared no one could tell her where they'd come from or why.
If you asked about them at the office, she was only told they were Leaf ninja from outside the village.
It just... kept going. The driving obsession which had driven her to the Uchiha Clan was gone now, and she had the feeling she was forgotten. Whatever it was that had put her in that position, that thing evidently had no more use for her. If anything, she now felt even less drive than before.
Classes continued, and Tenten practiced more and more. But she was beginning to think her destiny was to clean the streets for the rest of her life. And she was beginning to get very, very, sick of it.
"Tenten, did you hear?" asked Ino during lunch.
Oh yes, they were eating lunch together. Well, technically, Tenten and Ino were eating lunch together. Neji was eating lunch some feet to the right, by a pure coincidence, of course. Lee, on the other hand, had already eaten lunch and was out running. Lee was constantly pushing himself just a little bit more than everyone else like that.
"Hear what?" asked Tenten, not in a good mood.
"The entire Uchiha Clan has had to move out of their compound," said Ino. "Turns out there was a health inspection, and they had to completely leave.
"Sasuke has been in a bad mood ever since it happened."
"Where are they living now?" asked Tenten.
"All over, I think," said Ino. "Some moved out to the country on missions; others are renting apartments."
"Oh, wow, so they actually took my advice," said Tenten. Though she suspected that it had very little to do with her. It was becoming apparent that Tenten was the side character in someone else's story. Even worse, she wasn't even sure who it was.
"Your advice?" asked Ino. "Seriously?"
"Well, Neji saw there was a lot of lead paint all over the walls. I remembered reading that lead paint is bad for your health," said Tenten. "So I suggested they move out and ask the Hokage for help.
"I guess Lady Mikoto thought it was a good idea, so they sent a message.
"Then there were those copycats who tried to steal our business. Hey Neji, any word on them?" However, she trailed off as those three from before walked behind Neji up to a man in the street.
"Perhaps you should ask them yourself," said Neji.
"How did you..." Ino halted. "Oh right, eyes in the back of your head."
Hang on a second, that guy those three were talking to. He was one of Tenten's customers. Wolfing down the rest of her sandwich, Tenten raced up to them.
"Hey, what's going on here?" asked Tenten.
The leader, the pale one, looked up from where he was drawing. "Oh, you again.
"We are seeking employment as street cleaners with this fine fellow."
"Hang on a sec, we have an arrangement with this guy already," said Tenten.
"Oh yes, well, they offered to do the job for half the price you did," said the man.
"But that's not fair!" said Tenten.
"The invisible hand of the marketplace is said to be a cruel one," said the boy. "Or so I have read in my books." Then he moved up to another person. "Excuse me, would you like me to perform the same duty as these three incompetents in exchange for half the price?"
"Half the..." Tenten had had enough and threw a punch. However, as she did, the boy maneuvered out of the way, and she hardly resisted falling over. "Why you... ARG!"
"Your action is irrational," said Sai. "You stole our business; now we are doing the same to you. I have read somewhere that turnabout is fair play."
Tenten got up and stormed back to the academy. At the end of the day, she had to do her classes in the academy. And she worked after school. So if those three and others like him were poaching her clients after school.
"Where did all these kids come from?!" said Tenten. "And how did they manage to cover so much ground so fast?"
"Maybe there's some kind of conspiracy," said Ino.
"Ino, that seems unlikely," said Neji sharply. "It is more likely that we demonstrated the viability of this line of work. Then numerous other children decided to imitate."
"You don't sound very convinced," noted Ino.
"But they all have exactly the same expression!" said Tenten. "How did this happen overnight?"
"Well, why would someone want to start a conspiracy to clean streets?" asked Ino.
Neji seemed to consider it for a moment. "...It has given us an opportunity to observe a great deal while unnoticed."
"You think they're spying on people in the village?" asked Ino. "They're our age."
"I don't care if they are spying on us!" snapped Tenten. "They're trying to put me out of business! They ask a fraction of the price we do! It's like they don't even care about profits!"
"They probably don't," said Neji. "It is likely that they are simply looking for information. I have made a record of where each of those groups room. All of them share a small apartment with no furniture or adornments of any kind."
"What, have you been stalking them?" asked Ino.
"I have been observing them," said Neji, looking over at her.
Ino caught his gaze and hesitated. "Hey, don't look at me with those X-ray eyes! I've read about the Hyuga!"
At that moment, Sakura came into sight. "Hey, Ino!"
Ino looked up. "Oh, Sakura, there you are."
"Did you hear the news about Sasuke?" asked Sakura.
"We were just talking about it, girl," lied Ino. "So, where have you been?"
"I just found out that Sasuke has ended up in an apartment near Naruto," said Sakura.
"Geeze, that's pretty hard on him," said Ino. "Why couldn't the Uchiha get something better? Aren't they incredibly rich?"
"There aren't very many apartments, obviously," said Sakura. "I hear a lot of them are doubling up. They must be really taking Naruto seriously because they've been keeping a watch out."
"Huh, what do you mean by that?" asked Ino. "About there not being very many apartments."
"The Leaf Village does not have many immigrants," explained Sakura. "I mean, yeah, we get merchants. But they mostly do temporary housing. Most people who live here are either merchants or ninja. The exceptions are those who are useful to the village. Or who have temporary arrangements."
"I expect almost all the spare apartments have been taken by the Uchiha, then," said Neji.
"That's gotta be rough, right Sakura?" asked Ino.
"Rough?" asked Sakura. "Oh, yes, definitely. But don't you think we should do something?"
"Do what exactly?" asked Ino.
"Can we focus?!" said Tenten. "I'm trying to find a way to not have my business ruined by a bunch of faceless copycats!"
"How is that more important than Sasuke?" asked Sakura in honest bemusement.
Ino put her face in her hands. "...A little insensitive, Sakura?"
"The Abarame are going to send bugs to eat my kneecaps if I don't pay them off," said Tenten. "We've already had a lot of our clients back out. What do we do, Neji?"
Neji sighed. "The way I see it, we have three options. We can confront them, we can move to a different area of work, or we can try indirect tactics."
"So, work harder?" asked Tenten, not liking the idea. "That's not going to be enough. Nobody cares if a street is a little dirty, and being glad it's super clean isn't enough. Confronting them doesn't work, so let's do indirect tactics.
"We need something... more dramatic."
"Not again!" said Ino. "Naruto just finished splashing that entire area with paint! See!"
Tenten looked up and saw that Naruto had done that. It was right after the expressionless children had finished. They were now walking away, but Iruka-sensei had caught Naruto. Now Naruto was being forced to handle clean-up while the jerks from before were getting off scot-free.
"Huh, Naruto doesn't usually operate this close to the school," said Sakura. "And I thought he'd cut back on a lot of the stupid pranks."
"The timing seems a bit convenient," said Neji. "You have one brief scuffle with them, and he wrecks their business."
"What is wrong with those guys!" said Tenten. "The work they put in got destroyed seconds after they did a half-assed job! And now they're just walking away!
"They deserved to...
"That's it."
"Yeah, I gotta say, that's pretty low," said Ino. "You never did anything like that."
"These people seem only concerned with the letter of their contract," mused Neji. "We need only wait for them to discredit themselves, and business should return."
"I say we prove ourselves the better men through a bit of creativity," said Tenten, smiling. "Something that'll show what a bunch of terrible workers they are. Neji, I want you to get a list of street times wherever you can find them. I need documentation of when they operate; we're going to need precise timing.
"Write it all down after school. Right now, we need to go do some prep work."
"What are you going to do, break their kneecaps?" asked Ino in horror.
"No," said Tenten. "I'm just going to go talk to Naruto Uzumaki."
Ino stared. "...You're coldblooded, Tenten."
"Let's go, Neji," said Tenten, making her way over to where the paint is. "Um, excuse me, Mr. Do you need a hand?"
"Do I ever?" asked the man. "That brat, Naruto Uzumaki, completely painted over my house. And those faceless children sort of walked off without a glance back.
"How much?"
"Oh, this is on the house," said Tenten. "Let's just say I'm finishing the job they didn't finish."
"You can't do that, Tenten," said Iruka-sensei. "Naruto caused the problem; he has to fix it."
"Mr. do you care who fixes the problem?" asked Tenten.
"Not really," said the man. "Actually, I'd much rather you were supervising."
"...Fine," said Iruka. "But just this once."
That got Tenten a direct line to Naruto, who was painting while looking very miserable. Cleaning wasn't just a means of making money; it was also a good reason to hang out places for a long time. And also to talk to people.
Naruto himself looked very angry until Tenten approached him. His face brightened as soon as he saw her for reasons beyond her comprehension. "Oh, Tenten, you came here to help me?"
"I assure you, we have our own reasons," said Neji.
"Right, what Neji said," said Tenten.
Then she set to work organizing the cleaning. It was routine, boring, and not worth dwelling on. Though Naruto was better at following directions since last time.
"Anyway, Naruto, why did you paint so close to the school?" asked Tenten when she had him alone. "You must have known that Iruka-sensei would catch you."
"Well, those guys were stealing your business. I wasn't about to let them do that," said Naruto.
"Wait, you did this for me?" asked Tenten. Had he done this to avenge her? "Why? We... we hardly knew one another for like a few months."
"You were the only person to really acknowledge me, other than Iruka-sensei," said Naruto. "Most people talk to me like I'm an idiot at best, or like I'm a monster. Sakura thinks I'm annoying, even though she helps me. But you treated me like anyone else like everyone else treats eachother.
"And... it was what you told me about respecting Iruka-sensei. It made me realize that I hadn't been taking my classes as seriously as I should have. I'd always play hookie or screw around. But because of you, my grades have actually gone up. I started taking my classes seriously, and... I've learned so much."
"Oh, really," said Tenten, surprised she could make that kind of positive impression. She hated Naruto but had accidentally gotten a prize for basic decency. "I uh... well, I'm glad I made a favorable impression.
"Actually, Naruto, can I get a favor from you?"
"Yeah, sure, what is it?" asked Naruto.
"No, no, you don't promise to do something until you know you can do it and that you're willing to do it," said Tenten. "You have to keep expectations reasonable. Geeze, this is basic bargaining."
"Oh, sorry, I'll uh... what do you need help with?"
Tenten sighed. She felt a little guilty about using him like this, but he would like to be used anyway. "You remember the guys from before? Neji and I think those guys are up to no good. We caught them trying to get access to the Uchiha district.
"We think that they are only pretending to be interested in this work so they can spy on people. And they want to cut me out of business."
"But that's awful," said Naruto. "You need that money. I mean, I've got a stipend and stuff, but you have to work to maintain your position. You've got it way harder than I do."
Hang on, what?
The universal outcast was telling her that she had it much harder than him? It was true, obviously, but what was going on here. Was... Naruto literally the only person whop appreciated her right now? But she hated Naruto! Either way, it was of no present relevance. "Right, well, seeing as you like pulling pranks anyway, I was hoping you could help me out with one. How would you feel about using your pranks for the greater good?"
"Would I?!" asked Naruto.
And then Tenten told him the plan.
Soon the expressionless children would be crushed. Once they were run out, Tenten's business interests would be assured. Oh, and also, she might screw over whatever evil plan they were obviously doing behind the scenes. But who cared about that anyway?