The Color Wheel
Arc I, Childhood: Sunshine / Yellow
Synopsis: Takashi wonders why his teammate stares at him so much.
It starts from the very first day of the formation of his Genin team nearly a year ago.
His first teammate turns out to be a consummate Hyuuga down to the five-foot pole stuck up her ass, with a side helping of arrogance and an over-inflated ego to boot. For mere moments he mentally laments the fact that he is stuck with one of the founding clan children instead of someone less prominent, but he is observant enough to spot the pale, markless forehead the girl, Hikari, bears proudly.
Main branch Hyuuga, he thinks. That means our Jounin sensei can't be that bad. Thank Kami-sama for small favors.
His second teammate is a girl called Tenten, who he recognizes as one of the best taijutsu fighters in his year, if not the best, regardless of her orphan status. She is short and plain compared to the noble beauty of Hikari - to his own eyes she is rather mousy looking with those buns of hers - but he knows better than to underestimate her. He is one of many witnesses to the numerous schoolyard brawls during his Academy years, and in nearly every single one of them his now-teammate had come out on top with a ruthlessness that, at the time, surprised him.
Academy students, particularly civilian-born ones, were never known to have the viciousness needed to become shinobi. For a clan-less orphan to possess something so dark made Takashi both wary and fearful at first. Now, as a Genin, it makes him respectful.
It is obvious though, from the surprise and confusion registering on her face, that she does not recognize him at first. He isn't hurt by the fact. Despite his Academy performance placing him securely in the high-middle rankings of their class, he is easily forgettable with no special techniques or clan name to pull him into the spotlight; he prefers it this way.
What does catch him off guard is the way his new teammate's eyes are trained on his spiky blonde hair, and it makes him flush. The amber, wheat-colored strands stand out in the more common black and brown that most Konoha citizens possess, but like his relatives in the Lightening Country he has bright, bold hair that stands out against his olive, tanned skin. His mother enjoys likening it to ripened grain, but he prefers just calling it gold, because it sounds less girly that way.
The first few months, he shrugs off the frequent glances at his head as a fascination with the exotic color - after all, it is an uncommon color, in Konoha anyways. Regardless, it makes him slightly uncomfortable when he catches her doing it. She looks away quickly enough most of the time, but sometimes Tenten holds his questioning eyes with an unreadable expression. It is unnerving, and it secretly makes him ashamed that he is always the first to avert his eyes when she does this. His only comfort is the fact that she always murmurs a soft apology when he looks away, recognizing his discomfort.
He would be more creeped out if she wasn't so easy with her smiles, and the genuine warmth in her brown eyes reassure him... if only a little.
After half a year, he notices she stares at his hair less and less, but more and more at his face. He gets the weird feeling she is analyzing him, as if committing every stand of hair and facial tick to memory in case of the day she meets an impostor posing as him. He can feel her brown eyes boring into the back of his head, into his cheek, into his forehead.
And when he meets her eyes in moments of boldness and courage, she does not hold his gaze. Her eyes dart over his face, subtle enough that he does not notice it the first few times, but now it is glaringly obvious as he observes her. At first he thinks it is just him who has this rather... odd privilege, but he sees her do it to Hikari, and to Kushina-sensei as well.
It disproves one of his many theories - Kami-sama forbid if she has a crush on him, or is one of those stalker types - but the creepiness begins to fade, only that it is replaced with curiosity.
As the one year anniversary of their team formation approaches, one day he suddenly notices the analyzing, observing looks nearly cease to exist. Now, it is his turn to look at her... and he knows she knows, if the quirk of her lips each time is any indication. He tries to figure out what caused such a drastic change. Is it the missions the team takes? Her first kill? A loss of a loved one? The war?
He ponders upon it until he cannot take it any more, and so one day he asks her point blank.
"Why aren't you staring at me anymore?"
"... Excuse me?" She raises an eyebrow in amusement and surprise, and he flushes at the awkward wording of his question.
"I'm not... I... I don't like you or anything, okay?!" He winces at how much he trips over his own words as he stammers. "I... I mean, in that way... like-"
"Relax, Takashi." She flashes him that smile again, and the nervous tension drains out of his shoulders. "I know what you mean."
The blush doesn't leave his face, but he fidgets under Tenten's gaze as he says, "I... You used to watch me... a lot. Hikari and Kushina-sensei too. But now... you don't anymore. Almost never. So... I'm just wondering why."
He can't help but smile to himself when Tenten's cheeks redden and she looks to the ground, mulling over what to say in response. He takes the silence as a chance to watch her more closely, and inside he smirks. Heh. She's cute when she's embarrassed.
"I..." She swallows visibly, looking decidedly nervous, and it is his turn to raise the questioning eyebrow. "It's nothing."
He notes the way she subtly fiddles with the hem of her top, one of her few tells when she lies. "I wouldn't say that."
She sighs, and he is startled when he sees defeat and sorrow painted on her features. "Look, it's really... it's stupid, okay? It's kind of dumb, actually... I mean, it's just... well, you and Hikari and sensei, you remind me of some friends I... used to have."
He frowns. "... Used to have?"
She shrugs, smiling sadly. "They... they aren't here anymore."
"They moved out of the village? When we're in war?" He is confused. "But Konoha's laws state that no civilian nor shinobi can leave the confines of the village during wartime."
"They were gone a long time ago... before the war," comes Tenten's melancholy response.
"Because of the rumors, right?" he says knowingly. "Well, at least they're safe now, but they've got to come back someday, right? Konoha's the best hidden village in all the Elemental Countries... all we gotta do is win and they can come back, right?" He winces a little at his irrational logic, but Tenten doesn't seem to even notice.
Instead, her voice is hopeful and wistful as she replies. "... Yeah."
He smiles in relief, if anything happy to bring her out of her sadder memories, and decides to save figuring out the mystery that is his teammate for other days. "You want to come to my place for dinner? Kaa-san's making onigiri tonight."
This brings a slight smile out of her. "You and your onigiri. Let me guess: salmon?"
"No!" He puts on an affronted expression, making Tenten laugh. "Kaa-san's using umeboshi and negihama. She says I eat too much sake anyways."
His grumblings do the job of bringing a full smile out of his teammate, and as he walks next to her, he says, "So tell me about these friends of yours. What're they like?"
Tenten tilts her head up to face the sun, basking in the early evening glow. As she begins to speak, he is glad when her face relaxes and her steps seem to lighten. "Well... I guess I'll start with the leader of our little group. Y'see, there's this boy called Naruto, and he has sunshine hair that looks almost exactly like yours..."
"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." - Maya Angelou