Author Note: Long belated posting, this is a peak into Tenten's daily life, more plot development next time, I swear!

Disclaimer: see previous…

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As the last class ended, I wiped off sweat on my sleeve and raced out of the training gym to grab my things from the locker room. The last period of the day just had to be taijutsu sparring to make my day complete. In the changing area, I ducked as another girl grabbed something from the shelf above me and dodged some random flying equipment before I made it out of the room.

Before Wednesday, obviously there was Tuesday, so lucky for me I had an entire other day to wallow in my inadequacy and bug people about attempting to learn something. Except, I happen to have to go to the library for two hours every Tuesday to help with peer tutoring. Why I do this, I don't know but it's just one of four extracurricular activities, so I didn't really have enough time to practice for Demo or try to piece the form together anyway.

To become a peer tutor you have to be recommended by your teachers and maintain scores within the top ten rankings in your class, so if you drop out of the program it's really noticeable and everybody knows why, or assumes they know. In addition, all the kids you help out have to maintain a grade of passing in the subjects you help them in and the teacher who recommends you has to evaluate your teaching. So guess who I was getting examined by every week. Anko-sensei. Then of course, there was the fact that one of my students was Hinata, Neji's cousin—who I really didn't want to go home and tell Neji how inept I was at teaching.

I sprinted down the hallway all the way to the other end of the campus, dragging along books, weapons and other school supplies. I happened to stuff everything in long handled mini-messenger bags so all the bags flew in different directions in my wake as I ran and I looked like a maniac trying to fly weighted kites indoors. Needless to say, I was definitely a hallway safety hazard to on coming traffic.

One of the first things anybody learns when they come to academy is the art of dodging Tenten on Tuesdays, (even if you're an instructor) and they learn it fast, because I will run you over if you don't flatten yourself against wall and you will get smacked by a passing bag if you don't jump out of the way into a neighboring hallway. The library is the furthest room from our usual taijutsu gym and the only safe thing about it is that the path from our gym to the library is pretty much a straight shot so pedestrians always have a means to get out of the way.

I got there in time, as always, but with only a couple minutes to spare. I dumped all my things on my usual chair, snatched my change of clothes and ducked into the restroom. In the two minutes I had before it started there wasn't time to shower so I just washed my face, dried myself off, threw on a fresh set of clothes and re-coiled my hair.

I always feel so conspicuous just after my last class, I feel like I sweat so much more than all the other kunoichi and everyone is staring at me. Some girls can get away with just doing the bare minimum and never sweat at all but I can't stand it. It's impossible for me not to try. I tell myself at the beginning of every sparring class not to over exert myself but it never works; I always end up sparring just as hard or harder the guys. It's just not fair, I mean Hana and Mameha work just as hard but they sweat half as much as me.

I took a look in the mirror and brushed a hair out of my face then left and slipped back into the library hopping that I looked somewhat more composed.

There were a few academy students gathered around my chair expectantly. I smiled and led them to the target area just outside the library to get them started on a warm up exercise for kunai throwing. They were all girls and only a year younger than me, Sakura, Ino, and Hinata. Ino didn't really need any help, it seemed she was mostly there to provide moral support for her friend Sakura. Sakura wasn't bad enough at any of her subjects to have to worry about passing, actually, she was doing fairly well, but she was always unconvinced of it. Finally, there was Hinata, her scholastic academics were fine and she was passing in all of her other classes but the girl could not handle weapons to save her life. I tried my best to be patient and gentle but no matter what I did Hinata would stutter nervously, avert her eyes from me and totally miss my corrections.

I got the nerve to ask Neji what to do about her once but he told me to leave her to flail and figure it out on her own and stared off into the distance coldly. He was probably wondering why I'd been recommended to the program if I didn't even know what I should be doing, but something about him had been so distant and so different, more than usual I mean. I couldn't have felt farther from him if a wall had gone up between us right there but there were so many things obscuring him from me already. Bringing myself back to the present I sighed and went to inspect Hinata's stances and footwork.

One hour and forty-six minutes to go and a lovely heaping of homework and Demo form practice after that—why can't the Hyuuga teach their kids weapons like all the other clans? You don't have to wait until they get to Academy, really.