Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form. The characters and setting used all belong to Masashi Kishimoto.
Painted Faces
by insert cliche
There's a makeup box hidden under the bed. All kunoichi have boxes like these, but the one under the bed is much more worn and well-used, especially when one considers the owner's age.
Tenten paints her face every night, and with every stroke of the makeup brush, she envies all of her fellow kunoichi. They're all too beautiful, so much so that added beauty will only detract from what was already there.
Tenten is not beautiful, and needs all the help she can get.
First comes the foundation. It is smeared all over her face, and she makes sure to cover every single scar and blemish on the too-tan skin. Her forehead is unnaturally pale compared to the rest of her face-she wears her forehead protector every day-and therefore it is even more important that her visage become a perfect porcelain canvas.
She wishes for light-colored skin, milky white and smooth. Everybody loves nobles, all pale and unearthly beautiful. Nobody even notices the working girls, skin darkened from perpetual sunlight. Workers were not meant to be cared about.
When the foundation is smooth and even, she starts applying blush. Too much will make her look fake, like a cheap wooden doll, while not enough will make her look too pale and ready to faint. One has to achieve the perfect balance, and Tenten never does.
This time, there's not enough.
She never blushes in real life, and wonders why. Hinata, Sakura, and Ino all have the ability to raise healthy flushes upon each of their faces, and the boys love them more for it. Hinata's bright red brings her teammates and Naruto flying to help her, Sakura's pink (which matches her hair) glow has all the boys blushing back, and Ino's nearly-there blush keeps everyone of all ages drooling and begging for more of her beauty.
The only time one of the boys noticed her was to insult her hair.
Eyeshadow and eyeliner come next. The shadows already present around her eyes are emphasized further, and black is penciled onto her eyelids. When she opens her eyes again, her brown eyes shine in the mess surrounding them, and the sudden brightness is not from happiness. It's from tears.
Hinata has huge, luminous eyes that are whiter than the moon, and all of the people around her fall in love with those eyes. They're pure, and captivating in their innocence. When Tenten looks at her own eyes in her cracked mirror, she can only think of how plain they are. Brown is everywhere, in the trees, the ground, the buildings, the rock. And not many people want to see what's around them all the time.
Lipstick is the last matter of business. Deep, dark red, so unlike the pale pink that Mother Nature gave her. It's striking, to say the least, but not pretty.
Not beautiful.
As an afterthought, Tenten twists her hair up and tries to hold it in place. Her hair, however, has a mind of its own and decides to slip, tangle, and do everything but stay put. The strands are coarse, stringy, dull, and plain dirt-brown. They are no inky waterfall upon her back, no sun-bright blond that blinds all, no feathery pink that looks like newly-bloomed flowers.
When she looks into the mirror again, she is crying.
No, she thinks. I can't cry. If I cry, then I'll ruin the makeup and not be beautiful anymore.
But even so, she wipes off the lovingly-applied face paints, tucks every brush and bottle back into its proper place.
I'll try again tomorrow.
Please review. Any and all reviews are highly appreciated.