Hello again, everybody. I'm going to take advantage of this little note bubble to explain the rating of my story. TYLE is rated M because much, much later on in the story, there will be some things happening that don't fit in the T rating. There will also be some language, and violence. Please have patience with me--I promise to do my best to please.
One last note: If anybody has any ideas for the story they would like to see me use, don't be afraid to show them to me.
Ahem...On with the fic!
.xXx. Angel .xXx.
Chapter Two: No. Effin'. Way.
.xXx. Omnicient POV .xXx.
Tenten's jaw practically hit the floor in shock when the last word exited her mother's mouth--she was stunned into complete silence, and all she could do was sit there with her torso twisted to face her mom, small hands balled into frozen fists. Her exotic hazel eyes bored into Hisana's with horrified, disbelieving increduality.
That didn't last very long.
Her mouth snapped shut as shock quickly boiled into outrage. Her hands, already bunched into fists, started white-knuckling. And her eyes went from incredulous to stormy and terrifying.
Her voice snapped out like a whip when she opened her mouth to speak. "When the he--ugh. When did you decide this?"
She watched Hisana squirm like a worm on a hook as she waited for an answer, and this time she understood the reason for the guilty light in the green eyes.
"We decided about two weeks ago, when Mrs. Inuzuka showed us a pamphlet for the school when we were at her house. We thought it was a good idea, and she sounded so convincing when she told us what a good establishment it was."
Tenten looked down at her arms in fury, and was surprised not to see any bubbles underneath moving the skin. Why? Her blood was boiling. Why the hell would Kiba's mom get her parents to go for something like this if her own kid wasn't even attending the school!? And why hadn't they told her earlier?! Brief images of homicidal and very illegal acts flashed in front of her eyes. She forced them back down, along with the fury-induced lump in her throat, and spoke again, struggling to control the anger in her voice.
"So you're saying that this has something to do with education....and a man?" Some of the increduality was quickly rising from the dead.
Hisana twisted herself in her seat to face her daughter, and her own small hands balled into fists as she concentrated her energy into getting Tenten to see her side of the situation.
"It has everything to do with those two things, Tenny. This school is for the gifted--which you are. It will give you the excellent education you need to pursue any future you want. And to be honest, love, you're getting to be a bit too old to be without any marital prospects. Since Konoha Academy houses the incredibly talented, you'll be able to find plenty of good choices there. You'll be able to find someone who will give you're family name a good reputation, as well as take care of you and support you well in life, later on. Let's face it, dear; the boys at Konoha High are nice, but I don't think any of them are what you're looking for."
A million thoughts were whizzing through Tenten's head as her eyes fluttered shut and she pinched the bridge of her nose to keep from yelling. How did her mother know what she was looking for in a partner? Oh, that's right--she didn't. Because she had never mentioned anything like that before to her family. And since when did they get to decide to rip her out of the lifestyle she was perfectly happy with whenever they wanted, and just throw her into some random school where she didn't know anybody?! Didn't they realize what they were doing by making her go through with this? Her education would be disrupted from the switching of schools. She was in the midst of finishing several papers and projects she had to hand in for credits in her classes, which she needed if she wanted to graduate from anywhere. And of course, there were her friends. The simple fact of the matter was that she would rather rip her own lungs out than leave them, wether it was of her own choice or induced forcibly. The very thought of doing so now made her lungs contract in something close to hyperventilation, and sour bile rise in the back of her throat.
Tenten didn't say any of these things outloud. She simply continued to pinch her nose between her thumb and forefinger as her eyes snapped open into a glare, which she directed at her mother's beautiful face. One more second of silence, and then she released her nose, cleared her throat out, and opened her mouth to speak.
Her voice was quiet, and yet her mother winced like Tenten had slapped her.
"Why would you do this to me?"
Hisana reached one hand out to place it on Tenten's cheek, and Tenten let her. She stared critically at her mother, assessing the absolute sincerety in her eyes as she got the answer to her question.
"We only want the very best for you, Tenten. It's because we love you. We want to see you have the happiest, fullest future you can have."
Tenten could only sigh in answer to that, and Hisana lowered her hand from her face as she watched her daughter in concern. She decidedly made up her mind to take one last shot at reassuring her.
"I'm sure that this will be a good thing in the end, Tenten. Just wait and see."
Tenten shot up abruptly from her father's chair, putting distance between her and her mother. A bunch of the former heat in her voice returned like lightning as she replied sarcastically and bitingly.
"I really wouldn't count on that if I were you, Mom. But thanks anyway. If it's okay with you, I have a phonecall to make now. Seeya." She rolled her eyes as she gave her mother a dismissive salute and then marched out of the room without looking back.
She marched all the way down they're long hallway and to the right, into they're kitchen. The Shinata kitchen looked like something taken straight out of Green Gables in the middle of an Indian Summer. An old, wooden door with latticed sides served as a way out of the house, and it had an old wooden porch with an overhang roof just past it's threshold. Everything in this room was soft green and white paint, pale wood, big windows, an homey appliances. Through the huge windows that were semi-covered by frothy white curtains, you got an excellent view of a beautifully kept yard. In it was the garden that Tadase had planted for his wife when they moved there after their marriage. The entire room was beautiful and old and it seemed to breathe with the magic of the past.
Tenten ignored all of that. She was simply too mad to appreciate it. She stomped right up to where the old white cordless phone was mounted to the wall, reached up, and yanked it off of the hook. She used one sharp, slender finger to furiously punch in the numbers she would need, showing the phone the lack of mercy that she had withheld for her mother. She wrenched the phone up to her ear, and then used her free hand to tear back the bangs hanging in her eyes. She let out a huge sigh that sounded more like a snarl as she waited. After another moment, someone picked up the phone on the other line. It was the right someone.
"Inuzuka Kiba, Inuzuka Veterinary Clinic. How may I help y--"
Her voice was dark and very don't-mess-with-me. "Kiba. It's Tenten. Get your furry ass to my house, now. Before I come and get you."
Click.
Tenten slammed the poor phone back in it's cradle, and folded her arms over chest. She let out another long sigh, and this one sounded like an actual approximation. Her best friend would be at her front door in ten minutes. All she had to do until then was breathe.
That was when she abruptly remembered her other friends that would be there in about fifteen minutes now. No doubt Ino would be picking Sakura up right now in the new white Porsche her grandpa had given her for earning her liscense. Crap. Mega Crap.
Tenten went streaking as fast as she could back through the hall and up the stairs, muttering "crap, crap crap!" to herself as she went. She ran through the upstairs hallway back to her room, jumping right over Akusho when he came crawling out of his room with a toy truck. She went soaring through the air and then landed expertly on the balls of her feet, taking off again before her little brother could say a word. She finally made it to her room, and she shut the door behind her as she took another leap across the room for the bed. As soon as her body hit the soft covers, she started rummaging around for the object of her search--her purse. After a few seconds, her fingers closed around the fabric of said purse, and she triumphantly pulled it out from the comforters. Plunging her hand into the bag, she closed her hand around the true object she was seeking--her phone.
She had Ino on speed dial, so she hit a button and then held the black phone to her ear, waiting for the chattiest, most phone-obsessed friend she possessed to pick up her damn phone.
She got what she wanted on the second ring. Ino's loud, catty voice filled the reciever and Tenten's ear.
"Yo, Mojo. It's Ino. What can I do for ya??"
Tenten practically yelled into the phone in response. "INO, YOU DUMBASS! It's ME, Tenten!! And we have A PROBLEM! Get your ass over here, NOW. Kiba will be here in five, and we are LEAVING when you get here. So HURRY up!!"
Ino's voice was high in protest when she responded. "Aw, c'mon Ten! You called Kiba? He's a GUY! This ruins our plans!" She started grumbling.
Tenten was long past the point where she was gonna take any crap. "It's important. Get down here, now."
"Ugh. You know you're so--"
"I'll see you in five," Tenten cut her off darkly, and then hung up.
Kiba got there before the girls did. He came driving up in his enormous forest green pick-up truck, stopping in the middle of her huge driveway, which was a patch of dirt and gravel shaped like a circle wrapping around the front and side of her house. He cut the ignition, swung open the door, and sprung lighty down from his seat to the ground. He drove a monster of a truck, so it was quite the distance for someone Tenten's size. Slamming his door shut, Kiba started walking to the house, concern knitting his dark brows together and pulling his full mouth into a frown. Tenten pulled on some flip-flops and then ran out to meet him, purse and phone still in hand. As soon as they met eachother, Tenten had to crane her neck up to look at his face, and he had to look almost all the way down. A recent growthspurt had left Kiba at a gangly six foot two, and then a random burst of non-steroidal muscle growth had filled out his arms, legs and torso. In his T-shirt, jeans, and tan workboots, he looked like a giant converging with a pixie.
And at the moment, the pixie was defenitely the scarier of the two.
Kiba's voice was demanding as he put his huge hands on his hips and looked skeptically at her blazing expression. "Alright Tenten, I'm here, and I had to leave Akamaru with Reitsa. What's going on?"
Before she could answer, Ino came tearing up the road and into the driveway in her Porsche, throwing gravel everywhere as she did so. Judging by the look in her blue eyes when she and Sakura jumped out of the car, some major roadrage had been involved in the journey to get there in time.
Tenten ran to the girls and attacked them in a hug at the exact instant they attacked her. Wordlessly, they all turned and started walking towards Tenten's black pick-up, which was parked to the side. Tenten stopped to dig her keys out of her purse, and throw them to Kiba, who had started to follow them. "You're driving, Kiba," she called out as he expertly snatched the keys out of the air. "We're riding in the cab. Take us to the guy's houses, and when we have everyone, take us out to the old baseball field. I'll explain everything there."
Rounding up the guys was easy. First they went uptown and picked up Shikamaru from the Nara household, who agreed to come as long as he could sleep up front on the way there instead of in the cab. He hadn't been able to sleep for the last couple of nights because he had been writinga deadline essay for Friday, and he hadn't caught up on his sleep yet. The girls ran up to the house to get him, ushered him into the passenger seat up front with Kiba, and then hopped back into the truck bed. Kiba was ordered to step on it, and they went flying through the streets into the downtown slums to Naruto's apartment. Naruto was sitting on his bed in some black boxers, sharpening his Ketsu knives when Tenten and Sakura barged in on him. It only took about a minute's convincing before he threw on some jeans, shoes, an orange t-shirt and a black jacket, and left with the girls. They took a raincheck on the stairs back out of his apartment--they jumped right off of his balcony like the ninjas they were, and then ran back to Tenten's truck. Naruto didn't want to waste any time, so he threw each of the girls into the cab and then lithely hoisted himself inside. Ino was the only one to complain about this, because while the other girls landed lightly on they're feet with no difficulty, she was "caught offguard" and landed on her face.
They're last stop was Sasuke's house, but it was obvious that no one was home as soon as they drove up into the driveway. Ino whipped her phone out at the speed of light, and did some intense three-way speed dialing that Tenten could only roll her eyes at. In about three minutes, Ino stopped screeching into her cellular device and snapped it shut, sliding it into her shorts pocket with a smug grin on her face.
"Anko-sensei said that she saw Sasuke out practicing in Training Ground number four not even ten minutes ago. Let's roll."
Sasuke looked surprised and confused to see all of his best friends rolling up. "What are you guys doing here?"
Tenten's "No-Crap" mood hadn't lightened. "We'll explain when we get to where we're going. Now get your butt in here NOW, Uchiha!!"
Needless to say, Sasuke was jumping into the truck bed in record time, muttering under his breath as he went.
Kiba got them to their destination in no time, pulling into the old parking lot across the fence from the field rosters. Everyone's eyes raked over the scene in front of them with familiar affection. The old ball park served as just that--a diamond, and a park. Rolling, grassy hills flanked by tall, willowy trees made excellent walking paths, and out to the northeast there was a large, open pit of sand with rusty old playground equipment. The diamonds were settled directly in front of them, stretching out to the west, and the food concession stand was out in the south corner, along with the fountains and bathrooms that the players used to change. A few people played a stress-free game of ball on one of the diamonds, and a few went walking through the hilly paths. The playground was empty. This ball park, although still in business, was so old that not many people went there anymore.
It was perfect.
They went walking immediatley to the playground, and set about positioning themselves on the rusty equipment so they could talk. Kiba borrowed Sakura's phone and told his sister Reitsa to let Akamaru out to follow him here, now that he didn't have to worry about fitting his horse-sized dog in the truck.
Tenten was full of sorrow and reluctance as she climbed up to the top of the rusty, wind-bent fireman pole to sit there. She didn't want to tell her friends what was coming next, and the time had come all too quickly. There was no more stalling. She had their full attention, and she was going to have to tell them the truth. Swallowing the re-appearing bile from earlier, she cleared her throat and began.
"Guys, I have something to tell all of you--something bad. Well, okay. Bad is an understatement. This sucks."
Naruto's big blue eyes narrowed as he looked up at her from where he was sitting on the ground. "Just tell us, Ten. What is it? Sheesh. It's not like its Ammagedin or anything."
Tenten had to swallow again at the sound of his overly confident and impatient voice. I wish he was right.
She tried again. "I just had a talk with my mom, a bit before I called you guys. She started saying all these things about how I was a grown-up now, and I had all these talents and potential....."
Her voice was swimming with tears by the end of her sentence, and she had to grit her teeth together and ball her hands into fists as all of her friends looked worriedly at her.
Kiba spoke up from his place on the old twirly slide. "What's so bad about that, Tenten? If you're mom is saying all these great things about you.....shouldn't you be happy?"
The breath wooshed audibly out of her lungs, and she sagged on the old rusty pole in defeat and anger. She couldn't do this--she didn't want to. She didn't want to tell them the truth. She couldn't.
But she had to.
Taking an enormous breath of air and un-clenching her teeth, Tenten let everything out in a woosh of air.
"My parents have decided to send me to a new school. It's called the Konaha Academy Of Excellence or something and they want me to go there to get a good education and some other stuff." She winced at the mention of "other stuff", but kept on going. "They got the idea when Kiba's mom showed them a pamphlet of the place and they decided it would be the best thing to do for me. I only have this week with you guys, and then I'm gonna be living there all week long, cuz' it's a boarding school. I'm never gonna see Shinobi High again." The last of her lungful of air came out with those words, and when she inhaled again, it was half a sob.
For one moment, everyone was shocked into silence, with stunned expressions on their faces. A warm wind blew, and the dying sunlight set fiery tints to their hair and rosy glows to their skin. Tenten thought she would die from having to watch them like that.
And then, at the exact same moment, each and every one of her friends busted out into laughter.
Many emotions rippled through Tenten in that moment, the most dominant being shock. The second most dominant was anger, and that was followed closely by hurt.
"What the hell are you guys laughing about?? Don't you understand what this means?!"
Naruto was grinning as he jumped up to where she was sitting and wrapped his strong arms around her in a bone-crushing hug. "Aw, Ten," he crowed as Tenten groaned in protest at his crushing embrace. "That's really all you were upset about? This makes things so much easier." He started laughing again. 'I think this has made my day."
Tenten abruptly shoved him off of the pole and into the sand below, and when she yelled down at him, her voice was stung. "Thanks a lot, Naruto! I never knew you felt that way about our friendship!"
Shikamaru sighed, and spoke for the first time since he had climbed into the front of the truck. "Tenten, Naruto is an idiot. He's not saying that he'll be happy without you. He's trying to explain that this isn't the crisis you think it is."
Kiba chimed in with a broad grin. "In fact, it's just the opposite."
Sakura stood up from her spot in the sand to look up at her friend, and when she spoke, her voice was devious. "It was part of the plan."
Tenten's jaw dropped, and she was too shocked to be angry anymore. "What are you guys talking about?" she asked in a gasp.
Kiba's grin impossibly widened as he stood up on the slide he was perched on, spreading his arms out wide in grandeur. "Allow me to explain."
His voice boomed and his dark brown eyes glowed with pleasure and triumph as he commenced.
"I happen to have the smoothest mom on the planet. You see, Tsunade decided a while ago that Shinobi High wasn't gonna cut it for us--she wanted us in a higher class of education, because we where some of her most prized students. Our parents all picked the Konoha Academy Of Excellence, and told us we would be going there after march break. At first, we were all really upset; we knew that you were the only one in our group who's parents weren't making you go. But then we made a plan." His eyes glinted mischeiveously as he continued. "We decided that we were going to, er--influence your parent's decisions on where you were going to school after the break. We knew we would need some authorative help, and my mom said she was up for it. All we had to do was use one of the pamphlets we had gotten from the school, and she talked your parents into it." He folded his arms over his chest and his grin turned smug. "It was a piece of cake."
Tenten was fairly sure that her brain was about to explode in her skull. Her mind was reeling, and her mouth was still hanging open. Impossibly, she snapped it back shut, and just sat there for a moment, not even remembering to breathe. Too many things were occuring to her at once.
She didn't have to leave her friends--because they were coming with her. To this new school. And she wouldn't have to go alone now. And Kiba's mom was the coolest person on earth. And......
Her hackles started to raise in indignation as the last realization dawn on her. And they had never told her! they had let her sweat all this time, when they could have told her weeks ago!!!
She slipped down from the pole and hopped onto the slide as sleekly as a deer, and her grace never faltered as she jumped right onto Kiba, knocking them both into the sand below.
Before he could recover, she sat on him and closed her hands around either side of his neck. She started to ring, shakinh her hands and thus his head up and down a little with each syllable.
"You never told me, you baka!! You could have told me anywhere along the way this entire time, and you didn't! Why the hell did you do this to me?"
Kiba did his best to reply while the air was strangled out of him. "Didn't...want to give you.....false hope...can't...breathe...Tenten!"
The look on his face was more than she could take. She collapsed into laughter, rolling off of him and onto her back in the sand, clutching at her sides and crying her eyeliner off. She was so relieved, she couldn't stop. Everything was going to be fine. She had all of her best friends with her, and they didn't have to say good-bye. Everything would be okay. She felt as if she could fly.
Her friends let her laugh, all of them sporting huge, happy grins and affectionate eyes as they watched. When she finally tired herself out and had to stop to replenish her air, Kiba got back up off of the ground, brushed himself off, and offered her his hand to help her up as well.
Quiet now, she let him hoist her up, and then she turned towards the rest of her friends, who were still smiling and watching her. She asked them a serious question.
'Why did you guys try so hard to take me with you?"
Naruto snorted and rolled his eyes at her. 'Don't be stupid, Tenten. What kind of friends would we be if we left you at Shinobi alone?" He answered his own question. "The kind that I throw into wells."
Sasuke's voice was quiet but sincere as he shared his input and spoke for the first time. "We didn't want to go without you."
Tenten's heart filled, and for a moment she felt like crying again. But this time, they were tears of joy and gratitude. She hadn't done a single thing to deserve the kind of friends she had.
She made her voice booming and cheerful as she announced "well boys, you can survive one night on my basement floor. Who's coming for the sleep over??"
Four large hands went shooting into the air a second later.
Tenten smiled, and wordlessly started walking towards her truck, with her girls right behind her. The spring was back in her step, and she enjoyed the sunset on her skin and the wind on her face. This time, she was driving.
Okay, like I promised, it was longer. Sorry about the OOC stuff--like I said, 99.83% of the time, they'll be In Character. You'll see. I'm trying to decide wether Sasuke lives by himself, or with Itachi.....any opinions? Let me know. I also want you're opinions on the future pairings once the people get into the academy.
Reviews?? Just hit the big button. And I'll love you forever. Seriously. ^^
.....Okay. I just creeped myself out.
Anyway. Until Next Time,
.xXx. Angel .xXx.