Note: Thank you to everybody who reviewed, and here are five more drabbles in the lovely life of Tenten.
¤
Market
There are very, very few things Tenten loves more in life than shopping for new weapons.
Admittedly, it is something she doesn't do often. Her initial kunai and shuriken sets - sets that she still has - had been her mother's first, which had been passed down to her upon her entrance to the Academy. Gai-sensei had given Tenten her first pair of nunchaku, which are battered with age, weighted with lead, more lethal than almost any other weapon in her arsenal, and one of the ones she treasures most.
Her ball and chain, bo, and tri-sectional staff had been given similarly. At first, Tenten had been reluctant to accept so many of her sensei's weapons; it made her feel a little self-conscious about not exactly having money to buy her own. Gai-sensei had youthfully stamped out that sentiment, though, enthusiastically declaring that he was a taijutsu specialist first and foremost, and that he no longer had any use for these weapons, so they would be better suited for a weapons mistress like herself.
The men in her life have always known the easiest route to her heart. For her birthday, Neji always gifts her with practical weapons, to be used in summoning scrolls. Gai-sensei usually whips out another rare weapon from his personal arsenal and presents it to her with a huge grin, while Lee has the tendency to give her kunai and senbon painted an assortment of "youthful" colors.
(Her ANBU recruitment squad snickers the first time she pulls out her collection of deadly pink kunai in combat. Just for that, Tenten spares no mercy.)
Kankurou stuns her on their six-month anniversary by giving her a very elaborately crafted tessen. He explains, a blush staining his paint-less face, that it had belonged to his great-grandmother, who had been a legendary kunoichi of the Sand. It looks like every other harmless folding fan, with its stunning violet color and the golden dragon painted on it, but with a single, practiced flick of her wrist, it is transformed into an elegant bringer of death.
Tenten hugs him very hard and declares that he is one of the most amazing people she knows.
(Even years after their amicable and mutual breakup, the tessen is still one of Tenten's most prized possessions. When she isn't using it, she keeps it proudly displayed and spread near the entrance to her apartment.)
Tenten always knew that Genma wasn't the most…predictable…of people, and yet, when he presents her with a pair of finely designed sais as part of her wedding present; her jaw still drops at the sheer magnificence of the slender yet deadly three-pronged weapons. Solid silver all the way through, whittled through to a treacherously sharp point. The hilts are slender, with ornamental gold paint snaking all the way through them. At the points where hilt meets blade, two rubies are studded. They remind Tenten of dragons' eyes.
Between anniversaries, birthdays, and annual seasonal holidays, Tenten receives all the weapons she needs, from the people she loves.
The first time she has to go to the weapons' market in about ten years is because she requires a katana for her formal induction into ANBU.
Tenten goes to the blacksmith that traditionally makes ANBU weapons. She inhales the scent of fire, metal, and leather, until it clouds her senses, and then smiles at the sheer, wonderful familiarity of it.
It takes her a long time to detail exactly to the blacksmith what she expects of this weapon. She describes the kind of steel that she wants in the blade, how sharp she wants the point to be, how heavy the hilt is in proportion to the blade - in short, her dream weapon. The one that she will forge her future with.
It is a month before the katana is completed. Tenten is presented with it, along with her mask, at the formal induction. She is the ANBU Falcon now, but it is the katana that has her full attention.
The moment she draws the blade from the sheath that the Captain had arranged around her shoulders, Tenten marvels at how remarkable it is; everything about it. This weapon, she knows, is truly one of a kind, down to the twin dragons embroidered in red silk onto the hilt. Designed with her in mind.
The joy it brings her is without compare.
It took twenty-five years for her to achieve this. A lifetime of dedication; a way of life.
When Tenten feels the weight of her katana across her back, she feels truly fulfilled.
Technology
When Tenten was young, she tended to get bored very easily. Like most five-year-olds, she tended to be rather fidgety during long classes that didn't involve fun things like actual weapons practice.
Unlike most five-year-olds, she had a tendency to craft elaborate paper kunai and shuriken, and then throw said paper weapons around the room when her sensei's back was turned. All the while sporting a completely innocent smile.
Skills evolve with age, and by the age of fifteen, when Tenten is bored, she throws hundreds of bulls-eyes with various weapons, executes stunningly perfect patterns with bo, nunchaku, and tri-sectional staff, before optionally laying waste to the rotting trees of Konoha's forests with her ball and chain.
The years of making paper weapons have taken their toll on her, though. In addition to being Konoha's foremost weapons expert, she is also one of Konoha's most notable origami experts.
Tenten's apartment is decorated with colored paper animals of all sorts. Lee jokes that she has her own personal menagerie in the confines of her living room, although she specializes in swans and paper flowers.
For every birthday that Neji, Lee, or Gai-sensei go through, Tenten makes them an animal or flower of their choice to give to them along with her gift. Gai-sensei favors turtles; every year on the last day of December, she goes to her favorite origami shop and purchases the best kind of marbled green (or orange, or neon blue…) paper she can find. In less than half an hour, she has a perfect folded turtle, complete with carefully penciled smiley eyes and a big grin on the small turtle face.
Gai crows with glee every time he receives one. And brags about them at every jounin get-together he goes to.
Lee gets the first paper tiger that Tenten makes. It isn't out of deliberate intention; more accurately, Lee finds Tenten sitting among a small sea of orange tigers that have been declared less-than-perfect, banging her head against the edge of the table in frustration.
"They're ugly," she wails, shaking one specimen in front of Lee. "Look at it! It has a clubfoot, for goodness sake! It's the third one in a row!"
Lee gently takes the disabled tiger from his distressed teammate. "It is a noble and beautiful animal, Tenten!" He clasps the tiger to his chest, his eyes taking on a dreamy expression. "It is an inspiration! I will treasure it for as long as I live!"
Even after Tenten finally masters the art of making the perfect tiger, the first, imperfect, one is still Lee's favorite, proudly displayed on his dresser.
As a result of one twisted inside joke, Neji is the one with the extraordinary good fortune to receive hot pink paper cranes from Tenten every year. The color pains him and makes him feel more like a little girl than a very capable and very…not-little-girl-ish…shinobi.
Nevertheless, Neji strings each crane up whenever he receives them, so that his otherwise bare and austerely white room is adorned with a sea of pink paper cranes dangling about an inch away from his head.
The rest of the Hyuuga clan privately doubts his sanity. Neji likes lying in bed in the mornings and looking at the cranes drift around with the breeze.
Once, Tenten aspires to spread the joy of origami to Neji and Lee. The two of them end up sporting marvelous paper cuts, lying around on the sofa, moaning about their bad fortune, and how their pride will never be the same.
Tenten merely grins and tells them that they can think of this as her new kind of weapon.
Gift
Tenten's class graduates from the Academy on the first day of December. When she meets her teammates in a random clearing the day after, the sky is an ominous shade of gray, and it threatens rain.
By the time she and the two other genin she is paired with exchange slightly nervous glances and cautious 'hello's (the white-eyed boy simply grunts a very monosyllabic greeting, though, and Tenten frowns at him), the drizzle begins.
Tenten, Rock Lee, and Hyuuga Neji are left to sit together under an old oak tree, in silence, as the rain continues to pour around them.
At this point, Tenten thinks that it cannot get any worse.
Then, there is a sudden puff of smoke, and a green-spandex clad man appears in front of them, flashing an inappropriately gleeful grin and thumbs up, complete with impossibly bright, white teeth. In order to add to this charming picture, he appears to be standing astride a giant orange turtle.
At this point, Tenten realizes that she was very, very wrong. Things had just gotten worse. She despairs. An inauspicious beginning for their team by all accounts.
Thankfully, it doesn't take long for this notion to get shattered. Within two weeks, Tenten quickly learns all there is to know about her team. Gai-sensei is…quirky, but a strong and respectable shinobi, which is plain to see, even past the hideous outfit. Lee isn't exactly the most talented or normal of boys, but she supposes that he has a good heart. And Neji? Well, Neji is a genius, enough said. The emotional problems and maudlin view about fate must come with the title.
Tenten figures that she can live with these oddballs. They are lovable oddballs, after all, and things could have been much worse.
They spend Christmas together, at the insistence of Gai-sensei. When he invites all of them over to his house for dinner, Tenten accepts immediately. It'd just be another lonely holiday, otherwise, and, well, with her teammates and sensei, it is bound to be interesting.
Due to previous experience with her sensei's choice of favored colors and animals, Tenten is not surprised when she steps into Gai's blindingly green home. He has gone to the trouble of decorating red paper chains to string about the rooms - one which Neji appears to have gotten stuck in, apparently. The neon turtle-sitting-on-icicle lights do make her blink, though, but she smiles and tells Gai-sensei that the décor is lovely.
Lee and Gai-sensei have been working on dinner for the past few hours, and when Lee, wearing an outrageously orange apron and giant chef's cap, leaps out from the kitchen and proudly declares that dinner is ready to be consumed, Tenten can't help but giggle, even as she helps disentangle a very grumpy Neji from the red paper chain.
Halfway through dinner, Tenten realizes that this is probably the most unconventional Christmas she has ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Instead of sitting around a table (Gai-sensei explains, scratching his head sheepishly, that he had accidentally shattered it while practicing a few taijutsu techniques the previous night), they all curl on up on individual squishy couches and beanbags of all sorts on the living room, munching on Lee's admittedly delicious dinner, while loudly arguing the merits of weapon arts versus conventional taijutsu.
Sometime after they all finish eating, Neji discovers a bottle of eggnog in the refrigerator. Being a very sheltered young Hyuuga, he has no idea what it is, and ends up chugging the majority of the bottle before the effects kick in.
Lee, Tenten, and Gai-sensei can only stare when Neji staggers back into the living room, flushed, giggling, and loudly declaring the joys of the season.
The rest of the night passes by in a pleasurable enough fashion, spent trying to sober Neji, convincing Gai-sensei that he should not grow a beard under any circumstances, and opening presents.
It is a little past midnight when Tenten has finally worn herself out by dancing with Lee and a still slightly tipsy Neji. She collapses in Gai-sensei's favorite beanbag, takes one look at Neji and Lee dancing and Gai-sensei's furtive attempts to sneak out his camera, and smiles, looking up at the green, green ceiling.
It is the first time that she admits to herself that maybe, just maybe, this new team might just be the best gift she's ever been given.
Smile
One of the first things that Tenten notices about Neji is that the boy simply does not smile. At first, she chalks it up to shyness, but after they have spent two weeks together and he still has yet to exhibit even the simplest curving up of the lips, she finds herself worrying about his mental health.
Maybe it's just because she is a naturally happy person, or maybe she just has a twisted fascination with people who can find it within themselves to be unhappy when they obviously have so much to be happy for. Whatever the reason, Tenten ends up plotting, with none other than Konoha's newest Green Beast In Training, a dastardly scheme that, by its denouement, will end with Neji smiling.
It takes one mission, a dusty road, a lovely sunset, Lee trying on yellow spandex for size, and a swarm of baby kittens for their dastardly scheme to succeed as planned. A bit more troublesome than their original outline, yes, but as Team Gai sits at the side of the road as the sun sets, the dusky scent of winter jasmine lingering in the air, while the still yellow-clad Lee hums a cheerful but off-key tune, and the kittens meow and climb all over a positively grinning Neji, Tenten sighs and leans back against a tree, and thinks that it had all been rather worth it.
In this tradition, it is one of the least-quoted, but most solemn, duties of their team - to cheer up fellow members when that ever-present angst threatens to overwhelm. They discover quickly that Neji has a weakness for kittens, puppies, baby animals in general, and large ice cream cones. Lee loves picnics on top of grassy hills in order to unwind, followed by splashing around in nearby ponds and trying to ambush ducks underwater.
Unfortunately, Lee and Neji tend to be rather clueless on the rare occasions when Tenten is actually feeling under the weather.
Usually Neji is at a complete loss, and offers complete access to his clan's armory for the day. When this fails, he tries to make her a nice, calming cup of jasmine tea, or buys her a grape Popsicle from the ice cream man.
Lee composes youthful poetry, sings, and brings her baby ducklings from the pond to cheer her up, as well as random assorted flowers.
Usually, Tenten has no clue what to do with these things. She has worked her way through the Hyuuga armory twice, Neji's jasmine tea is frankly the most disgusting substance on the face of this earth, and grape really isn't her flavor. She supposes Lee's poetry and singing are quite nice, but all the "flower" metaphors tend to make her think perverted thoughts, and she doesn't really know how to explain away the vivid blush on her face as her spandex-clad teammate serenades her, sporting a completely innocent expression. And the ducklings? Well, the ducklings are ferocious little demons. Enough said.
Despite this, at the end of even the most depressing day, as Tenten sits with her teammates at her side, nursing a cup of jasmine tea, a half-eaten grape Popsicle, several pages of poetry that she supposes she could sell to Jiraiya-sama as creatively created erotica, and several red marks on her hands, courtesy ducklings, she can't help but smile.
Innocence
Shinobi lose a little of their innocence every day.
Tenten loses the first of it when she almost dies on her first mission. She will never again make the mistake of thinking that she, or anybody else, is invincible, and, foolish as it was, she misses that notion dearly.
A little more, when she holds her teammate's arm together on the field, praying that he won't die, as the result of a sick twist of fate.
She is completely, utterly shocked when she learns of the Sand's treachery. Sure, she believed that the shinobi of the Sand were vicious, cruel opponents, but…traitors? Her mind refuses to wrap around the idea of a peace treaty, so heedlessly shattered, until she sees the Sandaime's dead body.
That is the first time she learns that not every shinobi honors their word as closely as she and her compatriots do.
Both of her teammates almost die during their attempt to return Uchiha Sasuke back to Konoha. She remembers the cute black-haired boy from the chuunin exams. Traitor.
It slips away from her a little more every day, every time she almost loses somebody that she holds dear, every time she sees her hands slippery with the blood of the enemy, every time she leaves Konoha on a mission and wonders if this is the last time she will ever see her beloved home.
Every time she celebrates a birthday, she wonders offhandedly if she will live to see the next one.
Tenten writes her first will and testament at the age of fifteen.
This is a strange path she has chosen. Where she lives from day to day, simply glad to be alive, and her view of the world as she knew it was irrevocably shattered into a million pieces by the age of thirteen.
As an ANBU assassin, Tenten is the best of the best. She, like the rest of her comrades, like her grimly senbon-chewing husband, has a roughly fifty percent chance of surviving every mission she is sent on. Living from mission to mission, returning home to Lee and Neji, to the rest of her friends, to Genma, to hold them close and savor the precious little time she has left - this is her life. Attempting to cook a decent dinner with Genma one night; crouched on a branch with a kunai trained on an S-rank criminal the next. Living on the edge by all accounts.
Tenten wouldn't trade it for the world.
¤
Reviews appreciated!