Author Note: for this chapter you will notice I continued not attaching the honorifics to the ends of names except for –sama, senpai and sensei, becauseit just sounds weird without them.

Disclaimer: see pervious.

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It was about five or six in the afternoon when Anko-sensei finally signaled us to stop. We had been practicing in the northeast training yard outside the school since two fifteen; classes had ended early today so the Demo team could train and the other students could help with decorating and cleaning. Demo was Saturday morning starting at ten, but the foreign dignitaries would start filing in tomorrow at noon, and preparations were frantic, not just at the academy, but all over Konoha. Everything was going to be sparkling clean.

Banners and colorful lantern streams were going up all over Konoha and vendors were checking their wears and decorating their stalls, the entire city was festooned with artful arrangements of flowers and ribbons, as well as other signs of welcome. The personal touches of the Yamanaka family could be seen all over the city, their signature bouquets, wreaths, and impressive woven floral arches were everywhere and people still couldn't get enough of it. It was an amazing thing to be able to walk down street without seeing a delivery boy in the lime green jacket that meant he worked for the Yamanaka family, at least temporarily.

Demo in itself was really not meant to be a festival but it had quickly evolved into one over the years and no one protested. Our villages' merchants reaped impressive profits from the visiting families of the ninja in the kages' and daimyos' retinues and our city had a chance to show off its military strength as well as our favorable economic standing. Demo was something the entire populace benefited from and looked forward too.

And as a bonus, there wouldn't be any school tomorrow so students could help out with their families' businesses and give tours and directions to the ninja pouring in. No one really minded about helping out though, in fact they soaked up the frenzied atmosphere; we were all thrilled, it made us feel like we were really a part of the city—one big hysterically excited mob. There also wasn't any practice tomorrow so we got a day to rest before performing the whole thing. The electricity in the air was amazing and whole team was bated with nervous anticipation.

"We get an entire day to ourselves--finally!" Ryoku jumped up an down twice (though how he still had the energy to do so was beyond me) and Takashi pumped his fist in the air but Anko cut them off abruptly, "Not so fast, and this goes for everybody, I don't want you guys messing yourselves up by eating any crap tomorrow, that means nothing fried and greasy. And no getting drunk either, I don't need you with hangovers in the morning."

"But Anko-sensei," Buka cut in, "we can't drink."

"Oh you can't drink," Anko muttered to herself quietly, "you can't drink," and then her voice became audible for everybody, "Like hell you can't drink! I bet half of you will try and buy a shot of Tonbo liquor tomorrow, I know how you use your henges; but don't even think about it! If I catch anybody with anything stronger than draft beer tomorrow I will personally make sure that you are so traumatized you will never touch alcohol again, and I'll do that by having you spend Saturday evening with me." She grinned wickedly and stared at each one of us and we all shivered; no one even spoke again until we were sure she had gone through the building and left the Academy.

"I do not want to get on the wrong side of that." Hiroshi commented finally and the normal flow of conversation resumed.

The four of us, Hiroshi, Ryoku, Takashi, and me, were talking about what we were going to do tomorrow when Neji came over to talk to us. Yes, you read that sentence correctly, Neji actually took the initiative to walk toward somebody, not past somebody; and even more surprising, he was walking towards me… (ME).

"Tenten, I need to talk to you for a moment, I have a request" he said simply.

To which I, ever articulate, replied "um…sure…okay." I followed Neji out of earshot to the edge of the training yard where a little girl jumped down out of a tree to meet us.

"Tenten, this is my cousin Hanabi-sama, Hanabi-sama this is my classmate Tenten." Neji said by means of explanation.

I looked down, Hanabi was a tiny girl; she couldn't have been more than six or seven; she had straight black hair like Neji's and piercing white eyes that seemed to see every flaw in me—suddenly, I was a lot more self conscious. She inclined her head toward me slightly and I returned the bow a little uncertainly. "We have a favor to ask of you," Neji continued, "Hanabi-sama has learned seventy-three of the eighty-one northern style weapons forms but she has had trouble finding a suitable teacher for the remaining few. We were wondering if perhaps you could show her."

I visibly stiffened as I was flooded with memories of Hinata's weapon work form just a few days ago, the trepidation that precedes teaching her on Tuesdays also came back to me. Seventy three forms was an impressive count for someone her age but I had to wonder if she had truly mastered them or if she was just able to move through them. I had only finished perfecting my forms last year; this little girl might know the forms, but could she really perform them? I stared at Hanabi, she stared back and thrust her hands out toward me palms up.

"I am not my sister," she said frankly, "and I am not so inconsiderate as to ask you to teach me. I come to you because you are the best that I know and I ask you to show me the forms, whether I learn them or not is not your concern. Look at my hands, if you don't think I'm good enough or that I won't work."

Her hands were battle scared. She had the well worn marks of kunai thumb and small ruts over her knuckles from years of flipping senbon needles. The callus on her right pointer finger and the web between her finger and her thumb told me she had been practicing jian and the less significant build up on the left told me she also did spear and double swords. The palms of her hands alone told of a half dozen other weapons.

"Okay, I'll show you, I can't do it today, but I'll do it after Demo. Meet me in area thirty-three at four o'clock on Sunday." She bowed in reply to show that she accepted, but this time it wasn't a slight nod to an acquaintance. It was the bow of a student to a sensei though not a degree more.

"Thank you Tenten-sama, I will not forget you when the time is appropriate, you have done us a favor" she replied, and Neji bowed a moment too. It sounded so ominous I wasn't sure it was a good thing—but on the upside I had never seen Neji bow to anyone before except the teachers and that had to be the longest I had ever spoken to him.

It was a few more seconds before I remembered to panic about the commitment I'd just made, way to think ahead Tenten, I was going to be really sore on Sunday from Demo and the week of practice catching up with me in general. Why did I say Sunday?

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Author note: sorry I took so long to update this time, I have been obscenely busy with school but I'm finally on break now, so hopefully if you all review fast I can get a new chapter up before I have to go again! Five reviews plz.