Ricochet

It came as a great relief to Ino's pride when Tenten, a little taken aback by her request, had quietly answered that she'd be willing to teach her. In an even voice the brunette had gone on to state the terms of the training: this was a one-time deal, and she was not to expect more. Ino was to meet Tenten on her portion of the Hyuuga training grounds an hour after sunrise. Tenten expected absolute dedication to this training session, and would not tolerate any less than her full attention and effort. There would be no rest breaks. And finally, this would be tanto training only; Ino was not to use her Shintenshin or any jutsu other than taijutsu. Those were the conditions, and if Ino didn't agree then she'd retract her offer.

Ino agreed.

The next morning found Yamanaka Ino with her hair carefully tucked into a large bun, wearing a cropped tank top with fishnet support underneath, and short black shorts. She clutched her weapon tightly in her right hand as she approached the Hyuuga compound, anxious for what laid ahead. Tenten came out to meet her dressed in an old, worn-out shirt and loose pants and dumped a staff, a tanto, and a katana on the ground before leading Ino a little further away from the house. There, she commanded Ino to do her forms, her kata. She wanted to study Ino's movements as she went through the patterned sequence of tanto movements taught to chuunins. Ino obeyed, and for three hours Tenten would stop her, correct her, and make her start over until Ino stopped moving in short, memorized steps and swings and began to blend her actions fluidly. And then she started timing her.

Six hours later, it was well into the morning and fast approaching noon when Tenten fetched the both of them some water and decided it was time to now move on to sparring. Hanabi had followed Tenten back from the house and took a seat in the near distance. Without so much as an introduction, Ino spared the fourteen year old a casual glance before once again giving her sensei-for-the-day her attention. Tenten slipped into a defensive taijutsu stance.

"The most basic thing you need to learn is how to defeat an unarmed opponent. If you can't gain the advantage with a tanto against a melee fighter, then you have no business carrying it. Come at me."

Ino swooped in for a broadside strike. Tenten deflected, catching Ino's forearm and shoving it away. In the same step, Ino tried for a slash at the brunette's back. Tenten easily dodged.

"You're keeping your feet too closely together. Always try to keep them shoulder-width apart, you'll have better balance. Try again."

The blonde went for a diagonal cut and Tenten caught the blade - smacked it, kind of - between her two perfectly straight palms and landed a fierce kick to Ino's middle, knocking her back and causing her to release her hold on her blade. Tenten frowned and tossed the weapon back to her.

"Never, EVER, let your opponent get ahold of your weapon. Your own blade should never be used against you, so to prevent that you should never let it out of your hands. For any reason."

Tenten motioned for her to try again. Ino charged in, and right as she was preparing to strike, Tenten switched from defense to offense. She swiveled and caught Ino first with an elbow to the ribs quickly followed by a knee to the face.

"Next lesson: even when you are on offense, you should be paying attention to your defense. Don't over-commit to the swing. Because you were anticipating landing a blow, you couldn't move quickly enough to block. You should know the holes in your defenses better than the enemy. Since there is no stance that adequately protects from all strikes, you'll just have to pay attention to where you're leaving yourself open."

Ino rubbed away the blood running under her nose.

She's fast.

It was a fact, one that Ino knew already, but knowing and seeing were two different things. Although she was supposedly the slowest member of Team Gai, always trailing behind Neji and Lee, Tenten was swift and had some of the quickest reflexes Ino had ever seen in a fellow chuunin. If Ino was going to win this, it wasn't going to be by being quicker than her or even by surprising her - Tenten seemed to be pretty good at reading her movements before she even completed them. Ino was going to have to either overpower her - which was unlikely, Tenten would probably dodge a blow that looked too strong to block - or outsmart her. That would be no easy feat without resorting to ninjutsu, but where there was a will, there was a way.

Ino charged forward, and Tenten did the same. Tenten aimed a kick for Ino's throat and the blonde blocked with her own leg, shin bone hitting shin bone, and sliced at Tenten's chest but got only air. Tenten tried for a grapple move and Ino struck her with the hilt of the tanto, only gaining a foot of space which Tenten quickly invaded again for a punch to the chest. Ino used her elbow to misguide the blow and, switching hands, managed to land a shallow cut on the brunette's neck. They stopped, both knowing that round had ended there. Tenten furrowed her brow.

"You're left handed?"

"Yes."

"Then why haven't you been using your left the whole time?"

"I was taught to use the tanto with my right."

The ex-kunoichi shook her head disapprovingly.

"Then practice both, become ambidextrious. It's better to have equal power on both arms than to have skill on one arm and power on the other. You're probably better suited to use kodachi though."

She said the last part almost off-handedly. The blonde was clearly not gifted in weapon mastery, and while it might help her a little to use something better crafted for her fighting style, ultimately it would make no difference. Besides, she'd only agreed to teach the girl tanto proficiency and the only reason she was even doing it was because you never know what could save your life. In this case, this untalented kunoichi might be all that stood between Neji and death one day, and Tenten would rather sacrifice her time now than to deny her and risk Ino's lack of skill making her a widow later. Ino wasn't the same type of kunoichi Tenten had been - they weren't cut from the same cloth per se - but Ino was now a common teammate of his and as essential as a right hand. If Ino was going to be Neji's right hand, Tenten wanted that hand strong. She walked over to where she'd dumped a small pile of weapons earlier and picked up the wooden staff.

"Allright, let's try it against and armed opponent now."

The two girls were well into their second phase of sparring when Hanabi spied her cousin watching from the back door. Eventually he wandered over and took a seat beside her while the two fought on, oblivious. In a voice barely above a whisper, he asked how things had looked so far. Hanabi never took her eyes off of the scene in front of them as she answered him.

"Tenten's skill and dexterity are far superior, but that girl is clever. She seems to get her advantages by quickly changing plans; she's got good battle intuition. And her movements have more power than Tenten's."

Neji's eyes followed each woman's movements and minutes passed without him uttering a word. Hanabi noted his chakra was eerily still. Then, almost out of the blue, he spoke.

"Tenten is a distance fighter. Ino is close-quarters."

"Yes."

He fell silent again. His statement had been accurate and they both knew what that meant; a close-range combatant hardly had a prayer against a distance fighter. Had Tenten been going all-out, Ino would be dead.

For the first time since he came out, Hanabi turned to look at her cousin, wondering what thoughts were floating through his head.

Neji watched as his wife had concluded that Ino could finally defend well enough against a staff, and switched to a tanto. He watched as on Tenten's first strike, she landed a nasty gash across Ino's upper thigh and he tried not to flinch. Ino was in over her head, trying to fight using the skill she was worst at against the person who was best at that very thing. It was foolish. If Tenten had decided to dual wield, Ino would have been finished before they even started. Why was she doing this? And why had she chosen Tenten, of all people? Why hadn't she come to him?

He remembered the first time he'd met Ino, at the chuunin exams. He'd mocked her weakness immediately and laughed at her, because that was all she had been worth at the time. She was so...petite, shorter than several of the girls her age and her features were so delicate that she very much looked like a doll rather than a shinobi. A golden-haired, blue eyed porcelain doll. Soon enough, he learned that this was a fact Ino was well aware of and took to its full advantage - she flaunted her appearence as proudly as a colorful bird. And god was she vain. But the doll-like kunoichi was also a warrior, and he had been fairly shocked the first time he really saw her scheme, sabotage, and distract on one of their first missions together. In time, he came to recognize and even respect her as a ninja.

But seeing her now in the midst of actual battle -in the very eye of danger - still pulled at his chivalry, demanded his protection. In spite of himself, he felt stressed as he watched her square off against Tenten, who he noted was a little slower than she used to be. Tenten, who couldn't be more opposite from her. He had rarely been concerned for Tenten's safety in battle, she was tough, she was quick, she was capable. Capable? Neji was slightly curious as to why that word had popped up in his mind. Capable. Sure, it did describe Tenten, she could handle herself well without too much need for cover. But Ino...didn't he feel she was capable as well? He had put his life in her hands several times already, hadn't that meant he believed in her even a little bit? And yet, against Tenten he couldn't help but feel that Ino was a fish out of water.

Neji watched as the two women charged at each other yet again, blades shining and slicked with blood.

His wife was fighting his partner, and he didn't know who he was rooting for.

They went six rounds before Tenten was satisfied with Ino's performance, and as she went to change weapons, Ino tended to the wound on her leg that was throbbing quite painfully. If she were being honest with herself, she was disappointed that she wasn't faring better than she was. Each round, Tenten came at her more fiercely, held less back, and Ino was barely able to fend her off. And goddamnit she was fast! It felt like the longer the training went on, the faster she was getting. Or maybe Ino was getting slower? She'd never had a training session before, of any kind, where she was denied rest breaks. There was sweat in her eyes, her muscles were screaming, two of her toes were broken, and she had various cuts and bruises ranging in severity all over. Hell, if this was how Tenten had grown up training, Ino was majorly impressed.

Hanabi watched as her cousin by law retrieved a katana from the grass, unsheathing it and tossing the cover aside. This round would be the last.

From what she had witnessed, the blonde had steadily improved as the day wore on, but Tenten was getting more and more serious while the girl seemed to be becoming more fatigued. The odds were heavily in the favor of the older girl, and the skin-baring kunoichi was going to go down in inescapable defeat.

She glanced at her cousin again. To a stranger he would look completely poker-faced, but Hanabi was just as much Hyuuga as he was, and she saw how his jaw clenched and lips thinned. He was nervous.

Tenten was silently furious at herself as she struggled to control her breathing. She'd trained much harder and longer in the past with Team Gai, this should have been a cakewalk by comparison. Why was she even breaking a sweat against this...this...barely-clothed novice? The more she fought her, the more she was amazed that Ino hadn't died on some mission long ago. But the more she fought her, the more she could tell that the Yamanaka was more than just a pretty face. Beyond baby blue eyes laid a mind that plotted and manipulated to gain the upperhand in battle. In the beginning, it had been easy to read her anticipated movements and act accordingly, but now it seemed Ino was on to her. She purposely positioned herself in ways to elicit specific reactions from Tenten, then changed her attack completely. She had turned Tenten's own strategy back on her, and while part of her admired her for devising that tactic, a larger part of her was PISSED.

Since Tenten had picked up the katana, Ino was back to losing. Badly. The weapon's mistress had a longer weapon, a longer reach, and Ino just couldn't break past her defenses to get close enough to cut. No matter how she looked at the situation, Ino was at a severe disadvantage. How could a tanto, a large knife, ever hope to conquer a katana, a sword? It was the equivalent of a housecat trying to fight a lion. There was no winning, there was just no way.

But what if...

Tenten charged at her. Ino remembered the last thing she had been taught about tantos, one of the things Tenten had warned strongly against, and smiled.

"If there are no other clear options, the tanto may be used as a projectile."

As she charged towards Ino, Tenten's faced slipped into confusion as she watched the girl smile and sheathe her blade. What could she possibly be thinking, sheathing her weapon in the middle of a battle? Didn't she know that was the stupidest thing she could possibly do? Was she not even trying anymore? Was this a surrender? Didn't she make it clear that a round isn't over until there's a draw or a simulated fatal move? What was she thinking?

But Tenten didn't have time question Ino's motives anymore. As soon as Tenten's katana was almost in striking distance - too close to dodge - Ino threw her sheathed tanto.

It flew straight, like a well-aimed kunai, and hit Tenten directly over the heart.

Too close to dodge.

Two pairs of white eyes watched in disbelief as the fair-haired kunoichi had very directly landed a fatal blow against her opponent, ending the match. She was still smiling, beaming, as Tenten stood rock still, her katana still poised to slash at Ino's neck. For several seconds, Tenten herself looked utterly flabberghasted.

And then her chakra flared.

Neji was floored when Ino had actually managed to figure out a way to win the match, but when he felt the strong surge of killing intent from his wife, the astonishment gave way to urgency. In a movement faster than he thought possible of himself, Neji was gripping Tenten's wrist. Hanabi worriedly stood up, looking back and forth between Ino, Neji, and Tenten.

"Tenten! Control yourself, you are letting your emotions interfere."

She felt pressure compressing strongly around her wrist and heard her husband's voice before she even noticed he was beside her. He had a hold on her joint so tight that if she struggled, it would surely break. His voice held an icy tone she hadn't heard him use in years, much less use against her. That was the voice he used to talk to Hinata in, in the times before he had changed his mindset, and a chill ran down her spine. She released the katana and it fell harmlessly to the ground. She could feel Hanabi and Ino staring at her, and she wouldn't meet their eyes. Neji slowly released her, his hand falling stiffly to his side. Tenten could feel him looking at her too; of the three she was sure he had the best idea of what almost happened. His searching eyes were the ones she wanted to avoid the most. For a few tense moments, nobody said anything.

A full minute later, Neji quietly told Ino the lesson was over.

Well into the night, Tenten bathed in the steaming water of their bathroom tub, wondering what had come over her. She had never felt that kind of hostility towards another Konoha shinobi before. She hadn't been thinking - scratch that, she had been thinking, but none of her thoughts had been clear-minded or civil. She had wanted to kill that girl, that much she couldn't deny. But the reasons for her rage were incoherent and irrational and it was starting to make her head hurt trying to figure it all out. Did she have a grudge against Ino? She hoped not. And for what, being pretty? The girl couldn't even figure out how to handle a large knife properly on her own, what was there to resent her for? Anger could be a complex thing, really.

Tenten stepped out of the bathtub and dried off, wrapping the towel around herself when she finished. When she opened the door and stepped into the hallway, Neji was passing by. She reached out, intending to kiss him and apologize for her unsightly behavior earlier.

He brushed her off.

A / N : I know you're going Tenten? Stronger than Ino? Wtf! but keep in mind here that Tenten is in her element and Ino's not allowed to use hers, so the playing field isn't too level. Lol, but you know that smile Ino gives Tenten is saying Ha! I got ya, bish!