A/N: Woah woah WOAH!
I got over 100 reviews in less than ten chapters! Oh YEAH! Thanks to you all and I hope you like this next chapter. I need to warn you though:
Some of the Akatsuki will show up. And they aren't evil or baddies in any way.
Inuzuka Hana will also show up, and there will be drops of Ita/Hana
Neji might be a little OOC
"So, how do you think she will do?"
"Judging by these video feeds, pretty well."
"Yeah."
A pause.
"Hey sis?"
"Yes?"
"Why did you put a camera in the boys' locker room?"
A loud thwack, followed by a pained "OW!"
"None of your business. Now get out!"
There was a sign on the bulletin board just outside the main office, with a sign-up board pinned just beneath it.
Shinobi Tryouts
This Saturday beginning at 9:00 am
Meet on the Field. Lateness not Tolerated (includes instructors)
--Hyuuga Neji
"Finally, it's about time!" declared Tenten, grinning. Two weeks had passed since the dreaded first day, and all four girls had finally gotten comfortable with the school and their deception.
"How did Neji become captain?" asked Ino, wrinkling her nose as though she could not imagine a more distasteful idea. "Don't you need leadership qualities, like, oh I don't know, the ability to get along with others?"
"Maybe, but who else would take the job?" asked Sakura, "It's an enormous responsibility." Hinata nodded.
"H-hai. It takes up most of Neji nii-san's spare time." She agreed.
Tenten sighed, "It would be nice though if someone without a grudge against me could be captain." While Neji no longer was stalking her (having been persuaded that "Toyo" wouldn't hurt Hinata), Tenten still caught him eyeing her suspiciously at times. "It would make what we're doing so much easier. Ah well." She grabbed the pen dangling besides the clipboard and wrote her name in clear handwriting. Once done, she dropped the pen and turned to stare pointedly at the other three girls, who hadn't moved.
"Well? Aren't you going to sign up?" she demanded. Sakura fidgeted nervously with her book bag, while Hinata avoided Tenten's eyes. Neither girl wanted to make a scene.
Ino, however, had no such qualms.
"One problem: the lazy ass!"
"Oh come on, it's not like Shikamaru actually does anything to you!"
"Then how is it that I'll be seeing him and Chouji every weekend for the rest of the year!"
"You already told me!" When Tenten had picked up the phone a couple of nights ago, she had almost gone deaf from the shrieks and cries Ino was declaring. She had been forced to listen to a very detailed recounting of the following conversation:
FLASHBACK
"Hey Ino,"
"Yes, Daddy?"
"You know that boy you were complaining about, that Shikamaru fellow?"
"What about him?"
"Remember my old friend Nara Shikato?"
"Yeah, the guy who smoked and had a really nice wife?"
"Yes, remember their son?"
"Yeah, I hated him!"
"Well guess what?"
"What? Oh no…"
"Shikamaru is—"
"Don't say it Daddy!"
"Shikato's son is Shikamaru!"
"NO!"
"And I just got in contact with him and the Akimichi, and we agreed that we need to have a few reunions to catch up! Isn't that great? We haven't seen them in years!"
"…"
"Ino? Why are you shrieking into your pillow?"
END FLASHBACK
"Ino-pig? Technically, you brought that on yourself."
"I know that! So it is only natural that I avoid all situations that mean I have to be in a room with him." Despite the firmness of her voice, Ino seemed to shrink under the look Tenten was giving her.
"You don't have to talk to him or anything, just join the team!" Tenten had to work hard to keep the pleading in her voice sounding masculine. It wasn't easy. Men didn't plead in front of women. They groveled.
"How can I not talk to him?"
"He's always avoiding you! It's easy!"
"Nuh uh," disagreed Ino, "That's worse! It makes me want to talk to him!" Tenten had to concede that Ino had a point. There was just something irresistible about doing something because someone doesn't want you to do it.
"Come on, Ino! Do it for me?"
"I need one good reason."
"There are a lot of hot guys on the team." Offered Sakura, noting that Tenten had drawn a blank.
"Hah. You'll need to do better than that, Billboard Brow!"
"I'll let you pick out three stuffed animals from my collection." Ino considered the offer carefully.
"Even the boars?"
"Even the boars."
"Well, that would be nice. On second thought, maybe signing up won't be such a bad thing." That did the trick.
"Good." Tenten turned to Sakura, "What's your excuse?"
"He's antisocial and a jerk. Guess who."
"Hyuuga Neji?" joked Tenten, chuckling. She quickly shut up; however, at the look Sakura was giving her.
"Ha, ha. No. Uchiha Sasuke, the psychopath."
"I thought you said he stopped bothering you?" asked Hinata, blinking curiously.
"He has! Well, sort of." Sakura muttered quietly. In an even lower voice she added, "But he keeps staring at me, and acts like an arrogant ass if he catches me just glancing in his direction. It's creepy! And annoying."
"Sakura," the expression Tenten wore was dead serious. "You have the option of slapping his face off if you get angry. In case you haven't noticed, Neji has been stalking me, and if I try that, he'll knock out my teeth and leave me to pick them up!"
"I guess so, but I still don't wanna have more contact with him than necessary."
"Forehead girl, you have to do this! Just pound him with your super strength if he bothers you. Just don't touch his face, of course."
"Ino." Sakura made a great show of rolling her eyes. Tenten had to fight hard not to copy the gesture.
"Hey, just cause you don't like him, you can't deny that he's eye candy!" Sakura flushed red at the statement, while Hinata was wearing a rather odd expression on her face. Tenten actually did roll her eyes at this statement.
"Sakura, please?" begged Tenten, "At least try out."
"Sorry Tenten, but I really don't want to talk to him." Sakura made to turn and walk away, but Ino grabbed her by the shoulder before she could get further than a few steps.
"Forehead girl, if I can do this, so can you!" Tenten could detect the maniacal glint in Ino's blue eyes. "You will suffer what I will be forced to go through!"
"Not my fault you accept bribes, Ino-pig."
"Maybe you don't, but I know you accept blackmail." Ino smirked triumphantly at the look of utmost loathing on her best friend's face.
"You wouldn't." Ino's smirk widened
"I would, I've always wanted to use those photos for something." Tenten had a vague inkling about what they were talking about, and couldn't help but feel very sorry for Sakura, and very grateful that she hadn't known Ino very well during that time.
"Ugh, fine." Sakura cast a furtive glance at Ino, "Where are these pictures, just out of curiosity?"
"Somewhere you would never guess."
"Oh really?" Before Sakura could start anything, Tenten quickly intervened.
"Both of you just be quiet and sign the stupid board!"
Both girls stared patronizingly at her.
"Yeesh, someone is having personal PMS pains!" Nevertheless, Sakura and Ino both jostled for the pen and signed their names. Then, as one, all three of them turned on Hinata.
"I-I'll mess up somehow a-and embarrass m-myself." Hinata stammered out quickly, not waiting to be interrogated. "No th-thanks."
"Hinata!"
"I-I mean it. I won't do it."
"But Hinata, what about Naruto?" asked Sakura.
"Eh?" Hinata blushed prettily at the mention of her crush, "Wha-what about Naruto-kun?"
"Yeah! What about me?" Tenten, Sakura, and Ino all jumped at the sound of Naruto's voice, staring at the boy who had come up behind Hinata. Oblivious to both the stares and Hinata's sudden rigidness, he placed a hand on her shoulder and rested his chin on the crook of her neck, looking over her shoulder. "Hey Sakura-chan! Hinata-chan!"
"Naruto, what are you doing here?" asked Sakura, her eyes on Hinata, who didn't seem to be breathing.
"Are you here to sign up, Naruto?" asked Tenten, hoping the boy would let go. The blond boy nodded happily and withdrew his hand and chin from Hinata, who remained frozen, immobile.
"You guys signed up already?" he asked rhetorically, reading the list of names, "Hey—where's yours, Hinata-chan?" He turned to look at Hinata, who hadn't moved an inch, despite Ino's prodding.
"She doesn't want to." Tenten explained quickly, waving a hand in front of Hinata's face, hoping the girl would snap out of whatever stupor she was in quickly.
"Really? Why not?" He pouted appealingly at Hinata, coming right up in her face. "Why aren't you going to try out, Hinata-chan?" Hinata tried to speak, but she was so overwhelmed that she could only stammer.
"I-I j-just d-don't r-r-really w-wa—" Despite her situation, Hinata's stuttering was really too much, and Ino quickly took over the interrogation, forcing Naruto to look at her.
"She wants to be moral support, not an actual fighter." She explained airily, flapping her hand as though such information was insignificant. Tenten figured that Ino hoped Naruto would take it that way and drop the topic before Hinata suffocated.
Unfortunately, it didn't work.
"NANI!" He turned back to Hinata, " But why?"
He sounded so pathetic that it was almost funny. Hinata blushed and looked at her feet, mumbling incoherently. Naruto did not seem to hear her.
"Are you sure? Come on! It'll be fun! Besides, you never give up! And you promised me you would!! Plleeaasse?" He gave her puppy dog eyes. Not even Gaara would have been able to resist them.
"Ah, okay, I guess." Murmured Hinata quietly. She looked completely overwhelmed by Naruto's presence, as well as his smile, which at that moment could have rivaled Lee's. Without the ping, of course.
"Yes! Thanks Hinata, you won't regret it at all!" Without another word, Naruto scribbled his and Hinata's names on the board, gave Sakura a quick hug and bounded off, yelling for Sasuke (or to put in his words, "Teme you bastard!"). The girls were left standing there stupidly, staring at the bulletin board.
"Well," said Tenten, trying to break the silence, "I guess that's settled. We're all signed up." Ino gave her a look.
"Good. Come on, we need to get to the library." Sakura shifted her messenger bag so the strap was more comfortable on her shoulder, "And while we're at it, Hinata, we really need to teach you to stand up to brutal conditions."
"I-I already train with Neji nii-san." Ino and Sakura shook their heads and slung their arms over Hinata's shoulders, grinning like Cheshire cats.
"She's not talking about Shinobi, Hinata." Explained Ino, wagging her index finger, "She's talking about the brutal conditions of being in close contact with the member of the opposite sex you find most attractive." Hinata went a wonderful shade of magenta as Sakura and Ino cackled. Tenten only smiled.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" asked Tenten as the four girls began to head towards the Academy library, the other three managing to somehow walk while remaining linked together. "Neither of you seemed to have fared especially well in that area."
Sakura, who was closest, smacked Tenten upside the head. The brown-haired girl almost retaliated, but remembered in time that guys did not hit girls, no matter how much the girls deserved it. Judging by the smile on Sakura's face, she remembered it too. Tenten had to settle for shaking a fist at the girl instead.
"Ooh, big tough guy, aren't 'cha, Toyo-kun?"
Thankfully, there were no rules against chasing girls around the campus and into a fountain.
So Tenten took that alternate course of action.
Despite her excitement, Saturday came much too quickly for Tenten;s tastes. Tenten woke up at six, exactly three hours before the tryouts would begin. Annoyed, Tenten got out of bed, wondering why she could never sleep in when she had the opportunity. Biological clocks were a real pain.
Once she had gone through her morning routine, rather slowly (hey, she had two and a half hours to kill), Tenten changed into a boy, pulling on her PE uniform and a sweatband around her head. Grabbing a small, plain backpack, she stuffed in her cell phone, a cache of sharp (but duller than she would have liked) weapons, and a first aid kit. After her experience with the Kunoichi and watching Kankuro try out for the Shinobi, Tenten knew how brutal tryouts could get.
At eight-thirty Tenten left her apartment and drove over to the school, arriving with at least twenty minutes to warm up. To her surprise, Tenten discovered that at least twenty people had already arrived, mostly boys, all stretching and talking with one another. The boys trying for Chuunin were over on the left side of the field, while everyone else was on the right, trying out for Genin. The few girls who were trying out were on that side, including her friends. She made her way over to them.
"Oi," All three girls started and twisted around to look up at Tenten.
"Oh, it's you, Toyo-kun." Said Sakura, her wary expression turning into one of relief.
"Duh, who else could it be?" Tenten dropped her bag and plopped down besides her.
"Well, he has black hair—" began Ino, but Sakura clapped a hand over the blonde's mouth before she could continue.
"No one special." She said, a little too quickly, "But you've been imitating Neji a lot, did you know?"
Had Tenten not remembered to keep control of herself, she would have screamed a very girly scream. As it was, she managed to gag.
"Please tell me you're kidding."
"No, she's not. You have been talking like Neji nii-san." Hinata confirmed, stretching her arms up and over her head.
"I have?!" Ew ew eewwww!
"Not all the time," said Sakura quickly, "But sometimes you've been imitating a couple of the guys' mannerisms."
"And you haven't mentioned this to me why?"
"You have more than enough to worry about." Said Ino practically, "And it's not something you can consciously improve. Besides," she winked, "People say that you emulate those you admire."
"…I didn't have to hear that. Where is everybody, anyway?"
"Most of the guys are over on the Chuunin side, but the ice blocks are somewhere talking with the Akatsuki. No, wait, they're coming over here." Tenten turned to see the two familiar boys followed by seven unfamiliar young men and women Tenten had never seen before. Judging by the sudden whispers and excited glances from the other Shinobi hopefuls, Tenten guessed that they were the Akatsuki. Not to mention the slightly intimidating aura that surrounded them.
"ALL YOUTHFUL SHINOBI HOPEFULS PLEASE GATHER IN THE FIELD!"
Guess who.
Gai, holding a horn speaker, had somehow magically appeared on the field and began to cheerfully herd the hopefuls into a group in the center of the field. Tenten wanted to kick something. Hard.
Besides Gai, Kakashi had his nose in a book and seemed completely oblivious to the noise. Tenten, Sakura, and Ino had all unanimously decided that nothing could distract Kakashi from his books.
However, he wasn't deaf. "Gai, why do you have a horn speaker when you don't even need one?"
"BECAUSE IT GOES BY THE BOOK, OF COURSE!" Gai cheerfully poked the horn speaker right next to Kakashi's ear as he shouted. Everyone else on the field plugged their ears and grimaced comically.
"Gai, would you mind?" Neji was the only one who hadn't covered his ears. But when he turned his head, earplugs were visible.
"OF COURSE MY STUDENT!" Gai threw away the horn speaker (to everyone's relief) and exited to the side of the field, challenging Kakashi to some challenge or another. Neji rolled his eyes and turned to the chittering crowd, who immediately became silent.
"I already know why everyone's here, so this will be brief. After our endurance and strength tests, you will divide into two groups. Everyone trying out for Chuunin will go over to that side and split into four groups. Deidara, Kisame, Pein, and Sasori will be your opponents and will judge how well you do in ability and improvisation. Genins will go to the right and will be tested by myself, Gai, Kakashi, and Itachi. All girls trying out will be tested by Anko, Konan, and Inuzuka Hana."
Neji pointed to each one in turn. All of the Akatsuki boys nodded apathetically. The blue-haired Konan, on the other hand, smirked as she glanced over the girls, and Hana grinned wolfishly at them and yanked on Itachi's ponytail. The older Sasuke-version didn't protest, but seemed rather resigned to the action. Glancing over at Kiba, Tenten noted that the boy was seething quietly, hackles raised.
"You are free to leave if you can't handle the strain. For our first tests, you will be doing an endurance run…"
Two hours later, Tenten was dead exhausted and questioning her own sanity.
You just had to choose the school with a screwy captain and insane teachers. Smooth, Tenten, real smooth.
First, Neji put all of them to a mile endurance run, which everyone had to make in less than nine minutes, with five minutes and six minutes as the desired goals for boys and girls respectively. And as 'motivation', Anko ran with them, outstripping everyone except the fastest boys.
After a fifteen minute cooling period, Neji put the boys to push ups, sit ups, and other painful activities for at least an hour, while the girls did flexibility tests under the supervision of Anko, Hana, and Konan. Tenten half-wished that she was with them, as the girls' raucous pep talks were much easier to bear than a critical Neji. He was especially harsh with his criticisms of Tenten, almost always watching her closely; even when she thought he was looking away. It was disturbing enough to make Tenten wonder if Neji really did have eyes in the back of his head.
Once the exercises were done, there was yet another break before the real test began. Tenten joined the Genin wannabes and they watched their fellows go up against Neji, Itachi, Gai, and Kakashi. It wasn't very interesting, considering that most Genin were knocked flat on their backs in less than a minute. But some Genin wannabes, like Shikamaru and Chouji (who Tenten couldn't figure out why they were trying out for Genin, considering they made the team as Chuunin last year), were able to last for a longer period of time. In fact, Shikamaru almost defeated Kakashi, which had definitely been interesting.
Finally, it was Tenten's turn.
"Katana, you're up." Called Kakashi. Tenten stood up from the bleachers and walked onto the field. She turned to look at her opponent and stifled a groan. Of course her wonderful luck would ensure that she would go up against the Hyuuga.
"Alright you two! Toyo-kun, good luck! Go!" Gai stepped back as the match began.
Neji immediately disappeared. Tenten looked around wildly, her brain not catching up with her movements. She only realized he was coming towards her from the left about a split second before Neji swung his fist in her face. She ducked, and swung her right leg up and around so that it connected with his back, sending him plowing into the ground.
Or at least, that was what the move was supposed to do. Unfortunately, Neji evaded her foot and grabbed her ankle with one hand, the other flying to her neck and forcing her on the ground on her back.
"Is that all you have?" he asked, annoyed. Tenten treated him to a feral smile.
"Not even close." Tenten slammed her other leg into the side of Neji's face, forcing him to let go of her neck. She flipped back up into a standing position and was quickly engaged in a taijutsu dance with Neji. He moved so fast that it took all of Tenten's strength to dodge the blows.
Damn, I wish I could use my weapons! Unfortunately, weapons were strictly against the rules for both Shinobi and Kunoichi, except in demonstrations.
Ugh, just pin him down and get it over with! Shouted the voice in her head.
Tenten back flipped out of the taijutsu dance and hurtled herself at Neji, successfully punching him in the abdomen. Much to her annoyance, there was still no emotion on the Hyuuga's face.
This lack of concentration caused her to falter, and Neji quickly took advantage of the pause. Once again, Tenten found herself staring up at the Hyuuga's face.
"End of match!" called Kakashi. Neji stood up and offered a hand to Tenten, who took it after a moment's pause.
"Good job, Katana." He said, surprising her. As Tenten walked back to the bleachers, past Itachi, she noticed that he was scrutinizing her carefully. But it was only for a moment, as his attention was diverted by Hana jumping onto his back, arms around his neck, asking about the "scrawny bits of freshmen", and tugging on his ponytail. Nevertheless, Tenten kept a wary eye on the elder Uchiha for the rest of the tryouts.
She didn't notice Gai thoughtfully watching her, an unusually serious expression on his face.
Once everyone had been tested, Neji gathered all of the Shinobi hopefuls into the center of the field.
"You all did reasonably well," he told them, "But to any of you who make the team; expect these exercises every time we have practice and expect to use up most of your spare time with sparring and getting better. Results will be posted by Wednesday. All of you are dismissed." The crowd dispersed. Tenten went looking for her three friends, and soon found them talking animatedly with Inuzuka Hana.
"It's nice to meet both of you in person," Tenten heard the brunette say as she came closer, "Hinata-chan talks about you a lot."
"Really?" Ino asked, "I find that hard to imagine. Normally it takes everything we have to get her to say even one word." She nudged Hinata, who only shrugged and smiled.
"Shame your friend Tenten doesn't come here. I would've liked to meet her." Tenten mentally did a double take.
"Well, she didn't really have the money to come, so she stayed at Suna." Explained Sakura, not a single facial expression giving away the lie, "But you would like her." She caught sight of Tenten, "Ah! Toyo-kun! Get over here!" Hana looked up and over to Tenten, who for a moment had the distinct, uncomfortable impression that the woman was looking through her.
Then Hana smiled Kiba's smile, and Tenten's mind was instantly eased.
"You're Katana, aren't you? Kiba-kun's told me about you, and I saw your fight with Neji. Very commendable."
"Thank you."
"And that goes for you girls as well. You three are definitely going to make it." A frown appeared on her pretty face, "But I'm not sure about the rest of the girls who tried out. They acted too frou-frou about the whole thing, in my opinion."
"I'll say," agreed Konan, coming up from behind Hana, besides the boy with orange hair and piercings called Pein. "Hana, everyone's heading to the Ichiraku's. Would you like to come with us?"
"Depends. Who's paying?"
"Deidara lost a bet with Sasori, he's paying." Konan smirked, amused.
"Sure, I'll come. But first I need to talk to Itachi, he's my ride."
"Fine. But hurry, all right?"
"Gotcha. Later Hinata-chan, Sakura-chan, Ino-chan, Toyo-kun!" Hana ran off to where Itachi was talking to Neji.
"By the way, good luck." Konan addressed all of them, but her eyes lingered on Tenten, sending a chill through her spine. She couldn't help but feel grateful when Pein put a hand on Konan's back and steered her away from them.
"Well, they certainly are an odd couple," remarked Ino as soon as said couple was out of earshot, "The classy girl and the bad boy."
"Sounds awfully clichéd to me." Said Sakura.
"Clichés, my dear, run this world. Don't you agree, Hinata?"
"Not really…it seems too abstract a concept for me to grasp. After all…." The conversation continued, but Tenten heard none of it. All she knew was that the small sphere of apprehension had curled in her stomach, and it had nothing to do with how she did at the tryouts.
Wednesday finally came.
Tenten pushed through the ridiculously huge crowd looking at the list of who made it, and with a feeling of dread, scanned the list of Genin. She found Sakura's, Ino's, and Hinata's names, but not hers. She felt her heart sink. All of that effort, and for nothing.
Besides her, Shikamaru took one look at the results sheet and groaned.
"Looks like you, Chouji, and I got the short end of the stick, Toyo. We made Chuunin instead." Tenten's mood went from depressed to very, very surprised.
"Eh?!" Tenten hadn't even looked at the list for Chuunin and now she did, scanning it carefully. Sure enough, 'Katana, Toyo' was just under 'Inuzuka, Kiba' and above 'Nara, Shikamaru'. Tenten's mood went from relieved to complete delight.
I got in! I got in! I got iiiinnnnn!!!!!
"Unfortunately, Shikamaru, the wannabe Chuunin turned out to be very lacking this year." Came Neji's smug voice from behind Tenten, "And everyone knew you were slacking, so there you are. And by the way, Katana,"
"Yeah?" Tenten turned to face him, unsure whether she should be wary of him or grinning at him for letting her on the team.
"When we start practice, you'll be sparring with me and Lee from now on. Got it?" Tenten was silent for a full minute as she processed the information.
"Why?"
"You have a style that fit with our respective styles, it will make things easier."
"Ah, got it." Why is he staring at me like that??!!
Thankfully for Tenten, a loud "WE MADE IT HINATA-CHAN" diverted Neji's attention to Naruto, who was jumping up and down and hugging Hinata so tightly that she looked ready to pass out.
"Class starts soon. Now if you would please excuse me," Neji brushed past Tenten, cracking his knuckles. Tenten took his not-advice and headed to class, ignoring the urge to watch the fireworks.
For the rest of the day, Tenten was in a state of complete ecstasy. Even the horror of slicing up a dead pig fetus couldn't hurt her mood. All she could think of was that her goal was halfway complete.
During PE, the boys of the Shinobi team congratulated her, as did Anko and the girls. So when Gai called her to stay in the gym, she assumed that he wanted to talk to her about the Shinobi team.
"Toyo-kun?"
"Yes, Gai-sensei?" Tenten felt a little fear crawl in her stomach at the look Gai was giving her.
"Why is it that you are not Toyo-kun?"
The fear turned icy cold. "W-What are you talking about?" Damn the stutter!
"Tenten, what on Earth are you doing here? And like this too?"
Crap, he knows!
A/N: Cliff hanger, I know. Sorry, but I planned the cliff-hanger in advance, and it seemed a good place to stop.
Sorry for the late update, school's on my case lately. I barely have time to breathe. So expect the next chapter to be late (it's the carnival scene) because so much is going on. But I'll do my best.
Please review. I really didn't like this chapter, did you?