Note: Thank you very much to all who reviewed. :) Five Ten-drabbles follow, including fun, and some interesting (but not in a bad way!) pairings.
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Completion
Even after gaining entry into ANBU at the age of twenty-five, young by all accounts, Tenten still feels like she has a long way to go.
It has been thirteen years since she graduated from the Academy; ten since she made chuunin and truly earned the right to call herself Konoha's weapons mistress, and five years since the jounin selection exam. She has come a long way from the little kid she had been more than a decade ago, and, accordingly, she is proud of that. Hell, in the meantime, she's even managed to get married. Something that she hadn't even begun to dream of, before the past one and a half years.
"When I look at things in terms of time and accomplishments," Tenten muses to Genma one night, as she unwinds her hair and begins to brush it out, "I've done a lot. But…"
"But?" Genma prompts, in the midst of polishing his katana.
Tenten turns around to face him, a rueful look on her face. "But I don't feel…fulfilled yet. You know what I mean?"
He holds out his arms, and she joins him on the bed, tucking her head comfortably against his chin. "Well, I remember the feeling, I suppose," he says.
Tenten looks up at him. "So, do you feel that you've completely accomplished your goals in life?"
Genma rotates the ever-present senbon thoughtfully. "Jounin, ANBU assassin and tracker, brief but successful stint as sensei to my own genin team, loyal shinobi to Konoha and our Godaime, as well as the field medic and accidental life-saver to countless numbers of comrades, if I do say so myself…as well as tamer of Konoha's legendary double-edged beauty. Yes, I think that I've lived my life thoroughly and well."
The last statement earns him a swat on the head with a pillow, despite the smile of said double-edged beauty.
Genma takes refuge behind a pillow of his own. "Easy, now. But don't stress about it, Ten – after all, I have had much, much more time on this earth to fulfill all my goals."
"Oh, don't start on that again," Tenten retorts, flopping back and crossing her arms. She gazes up at the ceiling. "I know it's stupid, but sometimes I worry that I…I don't know. I'll die without realizing some hidden potential, or without completing something that I'm meant to do in my life."
Genma snorts eloquently, mirroring her pose. "Mid-life crisis?"
"…I'm twenty-five."
"And you've been a shinobi for more than half your life. You've reached a point where you wonder if you can go any further."
Tenten blinks. "You're philosophical."
"I've had years to figure out this theory," he points out.
"True," she acknowledges.
They sigh in unison, before Genma wraps an arm around Tenten. "Don't worry. It'll pass. And you, of all people, shouldn't worry. You are an exceptional kunoichi, after all."
Tenten kisses him on the cheek, before turning off the lamp. "Thanks for the flattery, darling," she teases. "Night."
But she doesn't sleep, instead hovering in an odd state between exhaustion and deep thought for the next few hours, Genma's words flickering throughout her mind. You've reached a point where you wonder if you can go any further.
Her goal as a genin was to be a legendary kunoichi, just like Tsunade-sama. Realistically, now, she knows that, to some extent, that dream will never be fully realized. Tsunade-sama specialized in chakra control and medical jutsu, and Tenten's skills as a kunoichi are just about as far from that as it is possible to get. Her strengths lie in a completely different area.
Weaponry. Once, Gai-sensei had told her that if the village records were to believed, she was the first true weapons master in Konoha in several generations. The last recorded individual had been a male named Kohaku, back in the times of the Shodaime. She is the first weapons specialist to be admitted into ANBU, as well…
Tenten rolls over and pounds her pillow, frustrated. All that doesn't seem to matter, right now. If she was to die tomorrow, she would like to go out feeling like she had completed her path and purpose in life. And at this moment, she isn't quite sure that she has. What's left for her to do?
After flopping over on her back, she closes her eyes. Several disconcerting thoughts flit through her mind, and before long, she forces herself into a state of restless sleep.
Tenten sees her twenty-sixth birthday, almost exactly a year later, before her dreams are realized.
Shiranui Miyazaki has dark brown hair, her mother's eyes and her father's small nose. Genma has a tendency to waltz about with joy while cradling her, and during a rare quiet moment between the three of them, Tenten takes her oldest kunai out and very carefully hands it to her three-week-old baby girl as she lies in her crib.
Miyazaki curls her small fingers around the worn leather handle with difficulty, but somehow, the weapon remains balanced in her hand. Her tiny, curious face is reflected in the blade.
Tenten claps her hands, and Genma laughs delightedly.
After he puts the baby to sleep, Genma walks out to the balcony, to find Tenten sitting on the railing, displaying her usual lack of regard for perfectly serviceable lawn chairs. He links an arm around her waist, and pulls her in for a kiss. "Ten," he says, after a few minutes of silence. "Are you…content…now that we have her?"
Tenten nods against his shoulder. "It's hard to explain," she replies at last. "But, well, after seeing little Hizashi, and Maito, the tiniest edition of the Green Beast, I guess I just wanted a kid without realizing it. I just knew I wanted something, something indefinable, without knowing exactly what I was striving toward." She shrugs wryly. "I was never the most motherly type as a little girl. But somehow, I needed her."
Genma smiles. "You're doing just fine. And it's a nice feeling to know that we're raising one of Konoha's brightest and most promising future kunoichi."
Later that night, as she gets ready for bed, Shiranui Tenten looks around the room, and sees her ANBU mask and katana hung up above the bed. She sees her summoning scrolls, and the countless weapons, the shuriken, the kunai, the nunchaku, the bo, the tri-sectional staff, the tessen, the sais…the weapons that she has lived and almost died by, these past fourteen years.
She sees her baby daughter, sleeping peacefully in her crib. She sees her husband, untying his forehead protector for the night and laying it reverently by the bedside, before raising an eyebrow and holding out his hand to her.
For the first time in maybe her entire life, Tenten feels really, truly complete.
Clouds
Tenten has been known to relax by lying in dark meadows at night and finding the constellations of the zodiac flitting about each other, illuminated by the silvery light of their celestial glow. She finds it one of the best kinds of unwinding, and she is completely content with it.
Maybe it starts after her first chuunin exam, when she first encounters that lazy Nara Shikamaru, of the Rookie Nine's Team Ten. She can't fault his brilliant intellect, use of battle tactics, and strategy, but for the life of her, she simply cannot understand what the boy finds so enchanting about the daytime sky.
She brings it up in conversation with Ino and Sakura one day over lunch, and the two younger kunoichi both laugh. "It's the clouds," Ino explains, rolling her eyes. "He's absolutely obsessed with them. I don't see what's so damned fascinating about fluffy white things flying about in the sky, but there you go. That's Shikamaru for ya."
"He finds shapes in them," sighs Sakura. "Once, he ended up in the hospital for a head injury, and just as I was explaining how he had used his intended technique wrong, leading to the injury, he was just drifting off, staring at the clouds. After I hit him a couple of times he snapped out of it and showed me the cloud shaped…fluffy puppies."
Tenten blinks. "Well. Isn't that…interesting."
"I swear, he sees everything in the clouds," Ino says grumpily, spearing a piece of tomato. "Fluffy puppies, shuriken, deer, lions…sometimes I don't know whether he's more abstractly brilliant than all the rest of us know, or if he just hallucinates the lot of it."
They all laugh and move on to less ambiguous topics, such as how absolutely brilliant Hatake Kakashi must look without his mask on, but Tenten's interest is piqued.
After lunch, she decides to do some experimenting on her own. Taking her leave of Ino and Sakura, she takes off, heading toward the meadow on the other side of Konoha, where she's heard that Team Ten does their training.
Tenten has never been here before, but as she makes her way past the last tree and lands, lightly, in the meadow, her first thought is that this meadow beats theirs. It's more isolated, for one thing, and it isn't surrounded by forest as Team Gai's is. From where she stands, she has an unbroken view of long, swaying green grass, and the wildflowers that grow among them, studding the green with sudden bursts of pink, yellow, and blue color. There is a light breeze, and the air smells fresh and flowery. It is completely silent, save for the sound of wind through grass, and the echoes of faraway birdsong.
The weapons mistress can't help but sigh with envy.
After a few more minutes of wandering around aimlessly, enjoying the view, she decides to get right down to business. Tenten sits down awkwardly. "How does one go about watching clouds?" she asks herself.
"Simple," a voice above her comments dryly. "It's not really that hard. Just lie down on your back and lose yourself to nature."
Tenten looks up, blinking. Growing up in a shinobi village has accustomed her to voices popping up at the most unusual times and unlikeliest of places. Therefore, she isn't too surprised at the sight of none other than Nara Shikamaru, reclining lazily on a tree branch roughly ten feet above her head.
His eyes are closed again, and with the dappled sunlight shining against his dark green and black clothing, she can almost lose him in the canopy of leaves. "Pardon?"
One eye cracks open, as he peers down at her. "You're new to this, aren't you?"
Tenten draws herself up to her full height, feeling slightly ruffled without knowing why. "Yes, I prefer to—"
"Gaze at the stars by night and interpret fate in your free time, yes," Shikamaru cuts in. "Team Gai's astrologist."
The ruffled feeling is fading quickly into an almost flattered look. "Thank you."
With a deep sigh, Shikamaru flips down from the branch in a practiced, easy movement, landing on his feet with a lazy, catlike grace. He straightens, and Tenten notes with surprise that he is almost taller than she is. "Tenten." He nods toward the blue, blue sky, and her gaze follows his. "You'll find that cloud gazing, as it may be, is a lot less structured than what you are accustomed to viewing in the night sky."
"And that means…?"
Shikamaru yawns. "Let your imagination run unbridled." He strolls away from the tree cover, and Tenten follows curiously, keeping a small distance between herself and this interesting boy.
He comes to a stop in the center of the meadow, so that the sun shines down on them, and the sky seems to stretch into eternity from all directions. Which it does, she supposes.
Without further ado, Shikamaru collapses in a boneless heap.
Tenten almost shrieks in surprise, but keeps herself upright, peering down cautiously into his face. He seems all right…
Shikamaru cracks an eye open. "Well, what are you doing, woman?" he inquires grumpily. "The view's much better from down here."
Feeling a little bemused, but at home nevertheless, Tenten sits, and then eases herself down onto her back, so that she and Shikamaru are within touching distance of each other.
They lie in silence for a while, basking in the relaxing warmth of the sun, until a cloud passes over it, casting them in temporary shadow. "It looks remarkably like a giant bullfrog, that one," Shikamaru says at last.
Tenten looks at the misshapen cloud dubiously, but her expression softens into a smile as she notices the similarities.
The beginnings of an unlikely partnership, to be sure. But, even after years have passed, on certain sunny days, one might find the Godaime's head tactician skipping work in order to lie in the sun and muse about what an uncanny similarity a certain cloud bears to one Uchiha Itachi's head, as a member of Konoha's ANBU assassination squadron, her mask and katana set aside, giggles and points out more innocent and friendly cloud shapes.
Sky
Tenten's first experience battling a real Akatsuki missing-nin, as in, one that isn't the product of a well-placed substitution jutsu, ends up involving herself throwing giant spiked bombs at a rather insufferable blonde pretty boy who insists on flying about on his giant clay bird, gloating about the destruction he plans to unleash on them all.
Tenten despairs.
While she fights alongside her teammates, though, she can't help but feel jealous of that stupid Akatsuki, though – she would love to be able to fly about above the land on her very own bird. She would be able to do so many wonderful things—
Tenten dodges and rolls away from a clay bomb. Wonderful things that don't involve kidnapping Kazekages and trying to blow up innocent kunoichi, you blonde bastard!
The battle is over almost too soon after that, after the cloaked missing-nin attempts to turn himself into a human bomb, and Neji orders them all out of there.
As Tenten flees with the rest of her team and Team Kakashi, she reflects almost bitterly upon what a dreadful waste of talent Deidara of Akatsuki is. She thinks about coupling those clay-animation skills and ability to make live, flying animals, with her own weapons abilities, and has to restrain herself from sighing wistfully at what a wonderful combination and attack formation that could entail.
In the weeks after her return to Konoha, Tenten has several completely irrational dreams about flying around on the back of a clay bird.
It is a year after she makes jounin when she encounters Deidara again. He is as irritating during battle as ever, and this time, he is accompanied by an orange-masked idiot who reminds Tenten, almost incongruously, of a slightly skewed version of their own Uzumaki Naruto.
Somehow, their fight ends up turning one-on-one for a brief period of time. Tenten learns two new things about Deidara in this period of time.
Well, she supposes that she's always known that he is an immensely skilled fighter. If anything, his proficiency seems to have improved over the years.
It's a good thing hers has too, she reflects grimly, as she bends over backward to avoid the rain of senbon he flicks toward her.
Tenten learns the other thing about Deidara almost at the end of their battle. He has managed to overpower her, outmaneuvering her spiked bombs, and slamming her against the solid body of his giant clay bird. Tenten chokes and gasps with surprise at the suddenness and strength of the impact. She feels the bird's cool, clay body through the tear in the back of her shirt.
Deidara's face is an inch from her own. He could kill her right now if he so chooses. Instead, he raises an eyebrow. "Like my bird, pretty Leaf kunoichi? If circumstances were different, I might ask you if you wanted to take a fly with me."
It is then that Tenten learns that, among other things, Deidara is a bad flirt.
Her response is to punch him in the stomach. Hard. He topples back against the nearby tree, and Tenten strolls over to him. It is her turn to place her face an inch from his and flutter her eyelashes. "If circumstances were different, I might consider it."
Deidara is injured, his lovable idiot of a teammate is probably in a pinch with a few Konoha shinobi, considering Tobi's screams of anguish, and yet, he finds it in himself to smirk at the compliment from a pretty girl. "I'll wait for your answer when we meet again…Tenten."
Before Tenten can do much more than blink, Deidara gives a sharp whistle, before disappearing in a puff of smoke, taking his magnificent clay bird with him. From the nearby yells of frustration and a similar puff of smoke, she judges that Tobi has vanished as well.
Their mission has failed. Two Akatsuki members have slipped out of their grasp yet again. The jounin team finds their way back to their village, tread heavy with defeat.
Neji can't help but notice that his female teammate seems to be…smiling vaguely, despite their recent failure. Smiling vaguely at the sky. Fearing head trauma, he asks cautiously, "Tenten? What's wrong?"
Tenten shakes herself out of her reverie, instead directing the smile at him. "Nothing. Nothing at all."
Neji turns away, unconvinced. True enough, after about a minute or so, Tenten's gaze slips skyward again, and the vague smile returns. He shakes his head. Women.
Heaven
Contrary to popular belief, Team Gai doesn't spend all their spare time training together, in order to perfect their skills as one of the best, most finely honed killing units in all of Konoha.
No, they can fit that in during the average workday.
Despite their diverse array of interests, Neji, Lee, and Tenten all have something that they have in common, even in their off time. Neji likes perusing cookbooks in quiet seclusion, Lee is always searching for newer manuals on taijutsu skills, as well as an interesting book on mythology or two, and Tenten simply adores any good astronomy books.
There is only one place in the entire village that can accommodate their varied hobbies, and one day every week, the three of them retreat to Konoha's library. There is a small area right behind the astronomy shelves, with three squashy armchairs in varying states of dilapidation, a rickety old coffee table, and a hideous, moth-eaten red rug.
This is probably one of Tenten's favorite places in the world.
Neji takes the oldest and most battered armchair, curling up into a small ball in the center of it, while littering any available space on the chair with a formidable array of books on foreign cuisine. Lee usually sits on the one-armed chair beside him, although by the end of the evening, he generally ends up sprawled on the rug, eyes wide open and with a starry expression as he rereads some of his favorite myths. Tenten makes herself comfortable on the lumpy armchair – after all, she gets so absorbed in her reading that after a while, she forgets the odd cushioning of the chair.
During one such evening, Lee breaks the silence with a loud gasp. "Amazing! It cannot be so!" he exclaims.
Neji gives a pronounced start, his deep reverie about the proper baking of the perfect cheesecake interrupted. In irritation to the highly amused look that Tenten gives him, he flings the nearest cookbook at his teammate's head. "Shut up."
"But Neji!" Lee rolls up into a cross-legged position, pulling the heavy mythology volume into his lap. "I have unearthed an interesting fact about none other than somebody we hold very near and dear!"
Tenten giggles at the enthusiastic expression on his face, marking her page in the book of the Chinese zodiac. "Out with it, then."
"Tenten," Lee begins. "Do you know of any particular meanings for your name?"
"Here and there," Neji interrupts, looking up from the cheesecake instructions. "Obviously."
"Right," nods Tenten, looking slightly confused.
Lee flashes her a thumbs-up. "That is only a very…literal translation of it, Tenten! According to this volume right here, your name may be translated as gift falling from heaven." Lee beams, obviously proud of his information-gathering skills.
Tenten blinks, and blushes slightly. "Wow, Lee, I didn't know."
Neji chooses this moment to insert his opinion. "Falling from heaven? Her? Lee, I doubt you've ever seen her weapons attacks. There are few things less heavenly—"
Neji gets a book thrown at his head for his troubles.
Hell
Even though she glares at him until he apologizes, Tenten has to admit that there is some truth in that memorable statement of Neji's, even though she doesn't realize it until several years later.
She is going into an undercover mission, infiltrating a ball thrown by a suspected crime lord. Lee and Neji are to be her backup, waiting outside, ready to jump in if anything goes wrong, or if the opportunity to catch the lord red-handed arises.
"I really hate doing this, you know," Tenten grumbles, as Lee fastens the neck clasp of her blue Chinese-style gown. "It tries my impatient soul."
"Well," Neji points out, tightening his forehead protector in the full-length mirror, "you are far less suspicious than either one of us. The Hyuuga clan has always been known for its allegiance to Konoha, and Lee…well…Lee going to a formal party unattended. Not going to happen anytime soon."
Tenten can't help but snort, while Lee makes his misunderstood-puppy face. "Of course."
"There, Tenten," Lee announces, after delicately sticking a decorative ivory comb into her unbound hair. "You are ready! Team Gai, assemble!"
Neji comes to stand at her back, and Tenten looks at their unlikely reflection in the mirror – Neji in his austere-looking Hyuuga robes, Lee clad as usual in green spandex and vest, and herself, looking rather incongruous in her borrowed finery and carefully applied cosmetics.
As she watches, Lee strikes a thumbs-up and a blindingly bright grin. "Fighting formation!"
"…Which means Lee and I go outside, and you meet your escort outside," Neji supplies dryly. He pats Tenten on the shoulder. "Good luck, not that you'll need it."
Tenten smiles. "Thank you for your confidence."
When they are both gone, and she is left alone with her reflection, she leans close to the mirror, pressing her fingertips against her mirror image, feeling oddly curious and fascinated.
It is an odd feeling, looking at herself, and seeing somebody so very normal. The girl in the mirror looks so average, like you would see a million people just like her walking down the streets of the Fire Country.
Then you take a closer look, and you see a little more. Maybe she isn't so average. Her posture alone speaks volumes. She stands tall, even without the high heels, and carries her head high, proud. She looks like somebody with a lot of confidence and strength to spare.
Her eyes tell you the most – determined, stubborn, unwilling to back down without a fight.
If you are trained to see such things, you can see the years of disciplined training, the careful, deadly precision in every movement that comes with years of being a shinobi.
Those things are buried beyond the surface, though. Skin-deep, she could pass for being average. Not many people could hope to guess at the nature of the true person that lies beneath. That is hidden underneath the fine dress, the elaborate jewelry, the precisely applied makeup, and the long curtain of dark brown hair.
Tenten can't help a slight smile, her rouged lips tugging upward.
No wonder Tsunade only wants certain kinds of people on these kinds of missions.
Only a kunoichi can truly raise hell and look damn good while doing it.
("That's why you're the prize of the species," Genma teases her playfully, and Tenten swats at him, but smiles nevertheless.)
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Reviews appreciated!
(and the next chapter will be the final one.)