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Run, run, as fast as you can,
you can't catch me...
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Hourglass
Chapter 4: fidus Achates
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The sun was up high in the sky, shining mercilessly upon the weary travelers. It was the third day after their departure and they were tottering along at a considerably slower pace than when they had started. Their goal was near and clearly within visible range.
There was a lone figure leaning against the village gates, swishing a senbon in his mouth with a lazy carelessness. It was a man, a jounin by his attire, with mousy brown hair and a blue bandana. He uncrossed his arms and buried his hands deep inside the pockets of his pants as he glanced uninterestedly at the arriving pair.
"We were wondering when we'd see you guys," he managed to drawl lazily through his senbon when they reached him.
The two sand shinobi frowned up at him as he made no movement to leave. They were impatient to get on with their business, the older man could tell. He looked up at the bright blue sky and sighed. And after all the waiting I did… che, the young aren't very fun these days, he thought wistfully. Pushing away from his comfortable perch, Genma Shiranui jerked his head towards the village.
"Well, come on. The Hokage's been waiting… the sooner this is over with, the better."
He turned and walked them through narrow dirt paths past vendors and villagers at a languid pace, fully aware that the other two wanted nothing more than to sprint to the Hokage's building. Genma heaved another sigh. There was a reason for this inconvenient tour… he wondered which of the two would notice first. They were only a few blocks away from their destination when one of them finally spoke.
"Is there something happening today?"
It was the girl. Huh, Genma smirked to himself, maybe girls are more observant after all…
He turned his head to glance at the blonde sand-nin walking beside him. She was frowning at him again, her eyes demanding immediate answers. Genma fought another urge to sigh.Really, no fun at all… Had I been so serious at that age?
"Well not today exactly, but yes, there is something happening," he said, offering a small half-shrug, "But you won't be getting answers from me. That's the Hokage's job."
The girl was now glaring at him and this time, Genma really did sigh. "Look, we're almost there anyway. You'll find out, okay?"
"Wait― does that mean you know what's going on with Tenten too?" the face-painted boy asked from behind him. Genma didn't have to look to know his two companions were regarding him suspiciously. He rolled his eyes. Seriously, kids today… wait… why do I sound so old?
"Who doesn't know?" he said offhandedly, shrugging again and pointedly ignoring the obvious exchanged glances the two younger ninjas shared.
"You mean to say that everyone in the village knows about it?" the girl asked sharply.
They were at the front door now, and Genma held it open for them with a lazy smile. "Did I say that? The heat must be getting to me…"
He bit back a smirk as the blonde girl walked past him after her brother and thought absently, My, my, if looks could kill…
The trio was midway up the stairs when a certain lazy shinobi and purple-clad blonde made their appearance at the top, just about ready to descend. When he caught sight of them, Shikamaru brought up a hand to rub the side of his neck.
"If you're up to see the Hokage, I'm afraid you're going to have to wait for the search party," he said with an underlying tone of irritation. It was clear to all that he had gone up to find an empty office. He made a sour face when he saw Temari regarding his close proximity to Ino with narrowed eyes. Said blonde beside him clutched his arm in a show of womanly possessiveness, glaring at the sand kunoichi while Shikamaru rolled his eyes. Women!
Genma and Kankuro watched the tense atmosphere between the three and shared an amused, curious glance with each other. Maybe I assumed too soon, Genma thought, folding his arms and smirking, they're not all stick-in-the-muds after all… This can actually get interesting.
"So what brings you up here, lazy-ass?" Temari asked, trying to sound casual and somewhat succeeding. She ignored completely the gorgeous blonde attached to his arm. "Please don't tell me you're actually working."
Shikamaru's shoulders drooped slightly. "Hey, give me a break…"
Not about to be left out of the conversation, Ino turned to her teammate-held-hostage and pressed her buxom chest tightly to the side of his arm. He tensed visibly; whether from Ino's provocativeness or from Temari's death glare or both.
"Come on, Shika, let's go already!" Ino whined, putting on a cute pout on her face that had the older kunoichi bristling. "We promised Choji that we'd meet him at the barbecue!"
"Yeah, yeah…" he said, determinedly ignoring the pleasant feel of the mounds of softness that was currently pressed up against him. He knew from experience that the situation would become unnecessarily more troublesome if he were to scold Ino and focused instead on making sure that the two blonde kunoichi before him were separated immediately while also formulating plans that would ensure the two never meet again in the near future. Shikamaru held up his free hand in goodbye, trying to bite back a scowl at his troublesome teammate's victorious grin. "We should go," he drawled, his eyes trained upon Temari's face. He realized that she was undoubtedly trying to kill Ino with the intensity of her glare. He heaved a long-suffering sigh and made a quick work of descending both Ino and himself down the stairs.
"Later, lazy-ass," the sandy blonde muttered in a strained voice.
The last thing Shikamaru heard before they were out of earshot was the mumblings of a confused Genma. "Wait a minute… I could have sworn I heard the Hokage say that those two were on a mission not due back in two weeks…"
Shikamaru quickened his pace out of the building, almost dragging Ino behind him for once.
"Shikaaa," she called from behind, "Slow down! Geez!"
He didn't slow his quick pace until they were directly in front of the local barbecue, and he stopped to turn and face her fully. Ino frowned and let his arm free, placing her hands on her curvaceous hips.
"Now what?" she snapped, though there was a guilty tone to her voice and a worried tint to her azure eyes. "Are you going to lecture me about earlier? If so, don't bother."
Shikamaru sighed heavily, burying his hands deep inside his pockets. "Why do you always get like that around her?"
Her answer was immediate. "I don't approve!" she growled angrily. "You can do so much better! I won't let you date anyone who is no better than me! …That is, if it's even possible to find anyone out there better than me." She flipped her long sunshiny blonde hair obnoxiously out of her face, suddenly smiling. "And besides," she added, her voice dripping honey, "You can't be mad at me, Shika… can you?"
Shikamaru tilted his head up at the sky, feeling a headache coming. It wasn't that he never got mad at her; on the contrary, there had been many times when he had lost his patience with Ino. It just wasn't worth the effort for him to outwardly show it and act upon it, so he always somehow ended up going along with whatever she wanted.
"Yay! I knew it!" the blonde squealed, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him fully on the lips. Shikamaru stumbled at the force of her hug but quickly righted himself, gripping his teammate tightly around the waist for balance. He broke away and scowled at her.
"Ino," he said warningly, stepping away. He and Choji had been subjected to Ino's random passion time and time again and they had both come to acknowledge the girl's ferocious possessiveness of them. Shikamaru knew that Ino's love extended only to a familial sense, but her overly familiar actions were greatly misleading to the eyes of an everyday observer. He needed to set their boundaries straight.
Ino frowned at his tone and sighed. "Okay, okay, don't get grouchy. Why don't I hook you up with this fantastic kunoichi I met on my last mission? She's just fab, and she has a pretty face! She's really something to look at. Well, she's not me, but she's almost as perfect! Honestly, you'll love her."
Shikamaru rubbed his temples, shutting his eyes in annoyance. Ino was the most troublesome person in his life, especially when she tried setting him up on blind dates with girls she had "pre-approved" for him. But then again, Shikamaru counted himself lucky that his only problem was one― or perhaps two― blonde kunoichi. He brought up a hand to rest it fondly atop her head, his mind grimly thinking upon a certain weapon's mistress and white-eyed prodigy. Yes, Shikamaru decided, he was lucky. He could have it much worse… much, much worse.
Some things in life were just too troublesome for words.
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"Come on, you've got this!"
The sound of three shuriken skidding on the ground, missing their target, and the unmistakable swish of airborne kunai reached his ears. Curious, Isago braved a peek through the Academy's archway and his face fell comically. Standing in the middle of the training grounds stood the Konoha recruit― Tenten, was that her name?― and below her, clothes pinned helplessly by five or six kunai on the ground, lay one of the genin. Isago racked his brains minutely for the girl's name. Was it Mitsuri or Matsuri?
He watched as the girl struggled to free herself while the older girl sighed in exasperation. "Matsuri, just because you see the weapons coming in front of you, it doesn't mean there aren't any from behind!"
"Y-yes, sensei…"
Isago's ears perked up at this. So, the girl has taken this… Tenten, was it?… as her new sensei? Interesting...
"Come on! Free yourself!"
"I-I can't! It's impo―"
"No, no, NO! What did I tell you?"
"Nothing's impossible!"
"That's right! So why are you still on the ground?"
"Waah! I'm sorry, sensei!"
"Come on! Where's your power of y―"
Isago watched as the energetic young woman's face seemed to drain of color. She stopped abruptly, looking disgusted with herself and her enthusiastic demeanor faded considerably.
"Nevermind, nevermind. Just keep trying."
"Yes, sensei!"
The scene was disheartening him; even though Konoha was now a close ally, Isago couldn't bear to see the sight of a Suna shinobi under the mercy of one of the Leaf. Both he and Tenten watched for a few more minutes as Matsuri struggled hopelessly to free herself before the older girl gave in and sighed, kneeling beside her student. She pulled out two kunai pinning Matsuri's sleeves and glared at her protégé.
"You better be able to do this now," she threatened darkly, almost doubling Matsuri's efforts to break free. Isago could not tell whether it was from fright or determination.
"Okay, here's the deal," Tenten began, getting to her feet and collecting the weapons scattered around the grounds. "If you can get yourself free in the next five minutes, I'll show you how to use another defensive weapon, similar to the johyo."
Matsuri's struggles ceased as she stared wide-eyed at her sensei. "R-reallly? There's another kind?"
"Of course! There are plenty!" enthused Tenten, placing her hands on her hips. "But only under these conditions: you've got to get free in the next five minutes and you've got to show me to a weapon's shop!"
Isago entertained the thought of helping the pinned girl quietly while her sensei's back was turned, when he detected a familiar presence standing right behind him. The hair on the back of his neck stood on alert and Isago turned humbly to his superior.
"Ah, Kazekage-sama," he muttered, bowing his head politely, "What brings you out here?"
"Isago," Gaara acknowledged in return, "I've been… curious."
"About the girl?"
Gaara nodded and both of them turned their eyes towards Tenten who was currently frowning down at her still-struggling student. She heaved a sigh and turned away from the sorry sight, only to stop dead when her eyes caught the two men standing outside the archway.
"Will you… go to my office and keep watch, like last time?" Gaara asked, though both of them knew it was a direct order. He kept his gaze fixed upon Tenten's and he could tell she was fighting the urge to look away first. Beside him, Isago nodded mutely and vanished with a hand sign.
"Um, Kazekage-sama, was there something you wanted?" Tenten called in the lulling silence. She took a few hesitant steps towards him, bringing Matsuri's attention to the new arrival. The younger girl's face brightened immediately and she called out, "Gaara-sensei!"
He acknowledged her with a tilt of his head and she blushed. This did not go unnoticed by Tenten, however, and she felt something akin to wry amusement. Well, well, she thought, fighting back a smirk, looks like even Gaara has his fangirls…
There was something dark behind the blue-green tint of his eyes, and Tenten's amusement faded as she grew somber. She could easily tell that there was something bothering him from years of experience of trying to read a certain quiet, obstinate teammate. He was looking at her directly with those eyes, and Tenten couldn't shake the feeling that it was something abouther that was bothering him so greatly. She clutched her hands in an attempt not to fidget around, her mind quickly calculating what she could have done to upset him. Was he displeased, perhaps, that she was training his ex-student? Did he have blossoming feelings for Matsuri and was just too stubborn to admit it? Then again, he had caught her failing miserably in her mission just three days ago, and later even caught her making faces at him… But why wait three days to confront her about her misdeeds?
He opened his mouth and she inwardly braced herself.
"We don't have a weapon shop in Suna."
Tenten's brows furrowed. What the hell? she thought, wanting to voice it out loud but restraining herself. She cleared her throat and decided to play along. "Why not?"
"All weapons are stored inside the Kazekage's building. If shinobi are in need of them, they simply have to ask."
Tenten sighed. "That's lame," she voiced out loud. Looks like I won't be adding on to my arsenal here after all...
Gaara studied her face for a moment, and gave her a small half-shrug. "You are free to look at them, if you'd like," he offered quietly.
To say that she was surprised would have been an understatement. "Oh!" she exclaimed, her eyebrows raising slightly, "Um, well, I'd love to… but…"
Tenten bit her lip, looking for an excuse. It wasn't that she didn't want to be alone with Gaara― it was just… Hell, alright, it was exactly because she didn't want to be alone with Gaara. Her eyes found Matsuri, who was lying frozen on the ground with a frown on her face. She had been watching the short exchange between the two silently.
"I'm in the middle of sparring with Matsuri… maybe later?" Tenten asked, not at all being subtle about her sorry excuse.
Gaara's eyes flickered briefly to the young girl, who blushed harder upon realizing her defeated state, and shook his head. "It seems to be over," he said, motioning to Matsuri. She struggled once more to free herself, embarrassed beyond belief. "Why not come now?"
Again, there was a command in his question and Tenten reluctantly gave in. "Okay… I guess…"
She then folded her arms, turning away from Gaara, and directed a hard stare at her pupil. "Matsuri, you have one minute left."
At this, the younger girl heaved a sigh of exhaustion and fell back against the earth. She shook her head vigorously, her lower lip trembling. "I… I can't do it…"
She was met with disappointed stares by her two sensei and felt the burning shame tinting her face red and stinging her eyes with hot tears. She avoided their gaze, laying completely still on the ground as Tenten kneeled beside her and began pulling out the kunai from her clothing one by one. Once the silent task was completed, Matsuri sat up, rubbing her wet eyes.
"You shouldn't have struggled against them for so long," Tenten murmured quietly, stowing the kunai in her back pocket while getting to her feet. She offered Matsuri a hand. "You should have thought about using ninjutsu to free yourself once you found out that you weren't physically strong enough to break free."
Matsuri took her sensei's hand and Tenten pulled the girl up to her feet effortlessly. "You should have done so when I freed your arms."
The girl bowed her head, trembling from head to toe. She fisted her hands tightly and whispered, "Y-yes, sensei… I promise to work harder."
Tenten raised an eyebrow. "What did you say?" she snapped, causing Matsuri to look up in surprise at the harshness of her tone. "I didn't quite catch that."
"I-I promise to work harder…?"
"What?"
"I promise to work harder, sensei!"
Tenten's face softened and she smiled. "Good! That's what I thought you said."
"It's getting late."
The low, quiet voice jolted the two girls into remembering the presence of the Kazekage. He was staring at them impassively, face devoid of any emotion. Tenten couldn't help but wonder how long it would take her to read his façade. She had become quite well-versed in the language of the ocular sense; there were just some things that could not be hidden completely. Acertain someone had taught her that― or rather, she had learned it herself through careful observations. The eyes always gave something away, and Tenten knew it well. There's a language in how often the eyes shift from one spot to another, the direction of the gaze, as well as the focus and intensity of it, the way it's directed towards another person, whether slanted upwards, downwards, or direct. Yes, the eyes always gave something away… but not as much as the tone of voice. Spoken words habitually and unavoidably implant the feelings of the speaker through the tone. Many meanings could be gathered by a spoken word― or syllable; perhaps something like "Hn" or similar― indicating feelings of anger, happiness, fear, sorrow, passion, confidence, nervousness, boredom, doubt… a never-ending list. Many other things about the voice could give away a perfectly assembled façade such as the voice inflection, delivery, sound, and energy… and not to mention, the matter of body-language: the twitch of a hand, the tilt of the head…
And after putting together everything Tenten knew about interpreting these mysterious silent beings with fangirls, Tenten could only come up with one logical conclusion: Gaara was trying to get rid of Matsuri.
But why would Gaara want to get rid of Matsuri?
He wants you all to himself, duhhh, an evil inner voice cooed. Tenten coughed loudly to mask her embarrassment at the wayward thought.
"Um, yes!" Matsuri hastened to say in response, blushing a pretty shade of pink and dusting off her clothing. "I should get going then…"
"Yes."
If possible, the girl seemed to turn a darker shade at the quiet response and smiled shyly. "It was nice seeing you again, Gaara-sensei… I missed you…"
As if unconsciously sensing something more behind those words, Gaara looked away and said nothing while the younger girl's smile brightened. She turned to Tenten, who was watching them with raised eyebrows.
"Tenten-sensei, I'll see you tomorrow! I'll work harder… I won't let you down!"
With a few final words of goodbye, Matsuri skipped away, leaving her two mentors in a rather uncomfortable silence.
Tenten wanted to joke about the younger girl's obvious affections for Gaara, but the words died in her throat when she remembered that he had staged Matsuri's departure in the first place. She looked at anywhere but him as she placed her hands behind her head, looking up at the sky casually.
"Well…" she began, trying to ignore his searching eyes, "I guess we should get going too…"
He swept past her without a word and wordlessly she followed. There were many questions she wanted to ask him, a few being 'What are you doing here?' and 'Don't you have stuff to do?' and 'Oho! Can't find anyone to play with now that your siblings are gone?' Tenten, however, kept her mouth wisely closed. The vibes she got from earlier, when she had concluded that there was something about her bothering the Kazekage, returned as she stared at his back. Was there something wrong?
"Um…"
Gaara stopped and turned at the sound of her hesitant voice. Tenten bit her lip as she too came to a halt.
"By any chance… did I do anything wrong?"
He looked slightly surprised by her question as his telltale eyes widened fractionally before returning to normal. He regarded her silently for a brief moment before shaking his head.
Tenten laughed nervously, scratching the back of her neck. "Oh… haha… that― that's good then…"
Gaara resumed walking and she followed after him, mentally berating herself. Why was she acting like a child expecting a reprimand?
They passed through the village outskirts, following the road winding into the busy streets with Tenten engaged in a full-blown mind-battle between her logic and her inner. She really needed to stop acting so strangely around Gaara. She was in the middle of debating her mental state against her emotional state when two rough, malicious voices filtered through her ears, interrupting her thoughts.
"Look at him," one man spat, hacking up phlegm crudely and spitting it into the ground before him. "Walking around like he owns the place…"
"Still can't believe that brat's been made the Kazekage," the man's companion agreed, his voice loud and carrying, "Really, Suna's going to the dogs these days…"
Tenten whipped her head around and spotted the men immediately. They were sitting on the ground on the other side of the street from where they stood, clutching bottles of sake and surrounded by empty ones. Clearly drunkards with nothing better to do. They leered at her provokingly when they caught her gaze. She narrowed her eyes at them dangerously, silently warning, Don't you dare, cowards… Not another word from your filthy mouths…
The message was not received.
"I still don't get why they stopped all those assassination missions," the first man continued, growling his displeasure. He was either stupid or plain oblivious to the glaring girl emitting death waves across the street from him. "If you ask me, they just didn't try hard enough."
These words triggered her fury, and before she knew it, Tenten found herself flinging a dozen kunai at the men with lighting speed and dead accurate aim. "WHAT DID YOU SAY YOU BASTARDS?" she yelled after her sharp projectiles.
The drunks had only a split second to voice their fear when a wall of sand shielded them from view. The weapons hit the solidified wall uselessly and scattered to the ground. Tenten gasped and turned to acknowledge the presence that was suddenly standing too close beside her.
The blue-green eyes were swirling with mixed emotions.
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't attack my people," Gaara said quietly, his voice trailing into silence. He was staring at her with disapproval and a little bit of surprise, but his tone with her was far from reprimanding.
Tenten's face grew red, both from embarrassment and anger. "Wh-? What!" she screeched defensively, balling her fists in rage, "How can you expect me to just stand here and watch when others are insulting a friend―!"
Her words seemed to freeze them both on the spot. She was only distinctly aware of the rustling sound of falling sand and the hurried footsteps of the two fleeing drunks. She had just spoken without thinking. Tenten couldn't bring herself to keep looking at Gaara and her eyes found the dirt path beneath her feet. She stared at the dirt intently, as if the dusty particles would reward her with the meaning of life if she stared long and hard enough. It was a bad habit of hers, to speak rashly when she was angry. Her bad moods and fits of rage seemed to be her downfall. But despite the welling shame and embarrassment she was currently feeling, Tenten couldn't bring herself to regret her impulsive action. The men's words stung her mind, and she was all but bristling again at the memory, at sheer injustice of it.
But did she consider Gaara a friend? Sure, she considered Kankuro and Temari her friends…
Wait a minute… Yeah, yeah! Tenten thought, feeling satisfied with her sudden rationalization. It's okay to include Gaara in the bunch. The sand siblings have always been familiar with the Konoha Eleven…
Unable to take the thickening silence any longer, Tenten coughed discreetly, still avoiding the gaze of one red-haired Kazekage. "I… I wasn't really aiming for anything vital…"
There was a small sound― a sort of throat-clearing noise― that finally made her look up. Her liquid chocolate eyes met his face and she stilled. There was a ghost of a smile on his lips and Tenten blinked, trying to clear her eyes to fix the unusual phenomenon. It didn't vanish.
"There will always be people against my rule," he murmured softly, his blue-green orbs bright, "but… thank you."
Tenten shifted uncomfortably, not knowing what to say. All her previous anger had gone to replace an awkward, bubbling sensation. Her face colored and she bit her lip.
"It really wasn't… um…" she trailed off cluelessly, not really knowing what she was trying to convey. But as they stood there, facing each other, Tenten could feel the atmosphere beginning to change. Whereas she shifted and fidgeted with him before in strange companionship, there now settled a vague sense of familiarity. A sort of peace.
They continued their trek to the Kazekage's building, for the first time walking side by side in a comfortable silence.
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Tsunade clutched her bottle of sake and drank from it heavily, watching as they closed the door to her office with disdain. Beside her, Shizune was watching with a disapproving purse of her lips but said nothing for once. The door snapped shut, and the Hokage's office vanished from view.
Temari and Kankuro were quiet as they walked down the hallways and descended the stairs, blinking in a stupefied silence once the setting sun of Konoha hit their eyes outside the building. Temari was still fuming over what she had learned, what she had heard…
Kankuro heaved a sigh, the noise sounding ear-shattering in the shared silence between them. He crossed his arms and turned to face his sister. "That carrier pigeon should reach Gaara in a few hours…"
Temari frowned. They had requested to borrow a messenger bird from the Hokage earlier to send to Gaara, but it was Kankuro who had written the message. "What did you write on it?"
"Just a warning," said Kankuro with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "I just wrote not to let Tenten out of the village… and that we'd explain more when we get there…"
"Kankuro."
He had just begun walking again but stopped at his sister's tone. He looked back wearily. "…Yeah?"
"Do you think… that… that maybe we should―?"
"No," he said at once, feeling strange to see his sister looking so unsure of herself. "This is Konoha's business. It's not any of ours, so we should stay out of it."
"Yeah, but… still!" she remarked, glaring at him. She placed her hands on her hips, looking so fierce that Kankuro had to stop himself from taking a step back. This was more like the sister he knew! "This whole thing is bullshit!"
Her brother frowned, but said nothing. He knew what he would do if he had been the one in charge… He would march straight to Tenten and tell her, dammit―
"So… do you want to take that room―?" he began. This time, Temari cut him off.
"No," she said, starting to walk. "Gaara would want to know this as soon as possible. We should set off now. There's no time for rest!"
"Okay, okay…"
They were silent for the entire walk, each taking their time while mulling over the things they'd heard from the Hokage. When they reached the village gates, Temari felt a flicker of chakra and she turned around sharply, her eyes narrowed. Her brother raised his eyebrows at her in question.
"There's someone watching us…" she said, her eyes searching the streets, the treetops, the rooftops―
There! They caught a flash of white eyes before it vanished in a cloud of smoke.
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He was seeing her in a new light all of a sudden... this girlish, squealing Tenten that was clutching the strange weapon close to her chest in a very indecent manner.
Gaara said nothing as he watched the wide-eyed girl run her hands over and over around the notches on the side of the blade in awed fascination. He was learning a lot about her today. It was a lot of progress on his part, much more than he had anticipated. So far, he had not gathered anything that was dark about her personality. Nothing about her indicated malice of any sort, which only fueled the mystery as to why she had been banished by her village in the first place. This girl, Tenten… he had been watching her closely since her arrival. He suddenly knew all these things about her, like how she had a habit of biting her lip when she was thinking or when she was nervous, how confident she was in her abilities, how her eyes twinkled with excitement whenever she sparred with Matsuri, how she scolded and praised at the same time, how she never voiced her pride in her blossoming student but she didn't have to because her face said it all… and how she was quick to anger at the face of injustice, how quick she was to defend others, how easily she made friends…
He felt her initial intimidation for him vanishing little by little every time they were together. Gaara found that he preferred the loose-tongued, angry Tenten to the shy, blushing and fidgeting one.
But right now… Right now she was…
"This has to be dream, because I seriously cannot be holding this right now," she exclaimed for what seemed like the twentieth time.
They were inside a dark room containing long tables filled with piled up weapons. Tenten had been wandering around in slight fascination, bypassing the standard kunai and shuriken and sai. Gaara had frowned when she had barely spared a glance at some of their most prized weapons, the kodachis and katanas and other valuable pieces of steel. Instead, she had stopped dead at the sight of the one mysterious weapon that no one in Sunagakure history had ever been able to identify.
"Please tell me I'm not dreaming," she moaned, looking about ready to sob over the short dagger she was fervently embracing. Gaara had a passing thought that her actions would have been much more appropriate had she been holding a loved one who had just returned from a dangerous long-term mission.
He made his way warily towards her, folding his arms. "You know what that is?"
She whirled around at the sound of his voice and her cheeks colored in a pale pink flush. It was obvious by her reaction that she had momentarily forgotten his presence. She cleared her throat and held out the weapon for him to see. "Yeah… I― Wait, don't you know?"
Gaara shook his head. "No. It has been in Suna for generations, but… "
There was an unspoken question in his eyes that Tenten understood and they both looked down at the object in her hands. "I'm not that surprised to hear that… although I am surprised to find this here."
She ran her fingers down the notches on the side of the blade and sighed, her eyes glazing over in memory. "I was in a mission in the Land of Earth, in this big village of commerce, collecting information with my team. I was disguised as a blacksmith's wife, looking to buy a weapon for my husband's twenty-fifth birthday…"
Tenten trailed off, her voice adopting a dream-like quality. For a moment, Gaara wondered whether he should shake her back into the present. But there was something about this memory that seemed to trigger some unidentified emotion in the girl, and he was curious despite himself.
"… but of course, I just really wanted to know about the Daimyo's rule," she continued, trance-like. She was completely reliving the mission in her head. "I was in this small, very dark store… in the poor, shambled district, where you're not supposed to walk alone at night… of course, these are the kind of places where you can easily buy information, you know?… Then suddenly there was this tall man with black hair and dark red eyes, standing beside me… inside the store… and he told me he knew a weapon made across the sea… from far, far away…"
Here, she paused for a very long time. There was a memory behind her glazed stare, one that seemed to have made a big impression on her. Just as Gaara was starting to believe that she would not continue, Tenten began once more.
"… A 'sword breaker' is what he called it… He said that he overheard my conversation with the shopkeeper, that he was sure it would impress my 'husband'… but that he wasn't sure if I'd ever find one… and then…"
Her hands began to tremble as the memory of what happened next seemed to overcome her. "―and then―"
"Tenten."
It was the first time she heard him say her name. It was this more than anything that brought her to her senses. She blinked, her head snapping up to look at him. Her dilated eyes found him in the dark room, shining brightly with something like fear. It took her a few seconds to gather her surroundings and Gaara could see the memory fading back into the dark recesses of her mind as a calm descended upon her being. She blinked again, her face immediately wiped blank of any other emotion.
Tenten swallowed, trying to look as normal as she could. "S-sorry… it… that mission didn't end well for me."
Gaara couldn't help himself. "Why?" he asked, watching her frown and bite her lip.
"It― it happened over a year ago, but… I just don't like remembering it," said Tenten, sighing heavily. "I was hurt pretty badly… and I was unconscious for two weeks. My team had to move slowly on the way back home, transferring me from one village hospital to another… I woke up two days after my team finally made it to Konoha with almost every bone broken in my body… it was a nightmare."
Tenten lowered her eyes to the floor, her voice sounding suddenly fragile. "For a while I thought that… I thought that I would never be able to walk down the path of a ninja ever again."
Gaara didn't know what to say. He was speechless, and he never had much experience with such conversations. Even so, he felt that he should say something. Something encouraging, perhaps. He was spared the effort as Tenten's eyes began to blaze. He was silently amazed with her inner strength as she suddenly glared at the weapon in her hands, a demeanor of fiery will etched on every plane of her face.
"In fact," Tenten began, her voice laced with dry amusement, "the only worthwhile thing I got from that stupid mission was the story I was told about the sword breaker, a tool that can be used to break a sword… I really want to try this out!"
She made a few parrying swipes with the short dagger and brought it up to her face for closer inspection. "You see these notches on the side of the blade? It's for catching the end of a sword. Supposedly, if you twist the sword breaker right, it should snap off your opponent's weapon! Neat, right?"
If not for the slightly haunted look lingering beneath the twinkle in her eyes, Gaara would have been fooled into thinking that she had made a complete recovery from the terrible memory, that she had the ability to forget so easily and move on like the past pain was nothing…
Gaara frowned at her, and Tenten's forced cheer dwindled into a grimace. She could read him so easily already, Gaara thought. He vaguely wondered how she could make sense of his silence.
"It's okay," she said in response to his underlying worry, a small smile gracing her face, "This story has a happy ending, you know. I trained my ass off day and night to get back into fighting shape. Eventually, after six months of hard work I was able to get back to my previous condition. Actually, it's only been four months since I was allowed back into active duty. Of course, I haven't had anything above a C-rank since then, but it's only a matter of time before the Hokage will let me go back to higher ranked missions… I mean after all, with all this ninja shortage and whatnot…"
Gaara stilled, his thoughts racing at the information he had just been given. He found it rather difficult to process in his mind. She had to train herself again for six months… And she just recently began doing missions again four months ago… Gaara quietly wondered how many missions she had done during the last four months.
"So… yeah…"
Her voice brought him back to the dark, dingy weapons storage room, and he looked at her in question. She was biting her lip again, and he noticed how her hands clutched the sword breaker tightly, as if afraid he would snatch it from her.
"I was wondering," she said, hesitating slightly, "…Can I borrow this?"
Her face was eager and excited and pleading all at once. She was practically emitting waves of desperation despite her casual display.
Gaara shook his head and her face fell. He fought the sudden urge to smile. "No… but you can keep it."
Her eyes grew wide with disbelief, but there was hope in her face. "Seriously?"
The stoic redhead nodded, unfolding his arms. "It's useless here… Nobody has touched it in years."
"You really mean it?" asked Tenten again, her voice unnaturally high-pitched. "Now I know I'm just dreaming!"
Gaara inwardly cringed, hoping that she wouldn't start that again. Warm brown orbs found his blue-greens, excitement and gratitude shining in the specks of light dancing in the chocolate hues. She was beaming up at him with such sincerity that he found the magnitude of her happiness gratifyingly humbling.
"Thank you, thank you so much Kazekage-sama!" she declared passionately, looking about ready to soar through the roof.
"Gaara."
Tenten's brows furrowed in bewilderment, and Gaara felt a warm contentment spread through him. Her joy was positively contagious. He stretched out a hand and opened his mouth to ease her confusion.
"Call me Gaara… friend."
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And so our story begins...
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End Chapter 4.