Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and I am not making any money off of this page.
Author's Note: I'm considering taking Guy out of the character filter. On one hand, it helps to distinguish from the other Tenten stories out there, but on the other hand, Guyten is the focus of less than a third of these stories. Should I keep Guy in the character filter or not? You tell me.
Also, this story has a slight tie-in to "True Blue" which is another one of my Naruto fics. You don't have to read "True Blue" to understand this story, but it might be helpful. Also, this chapter references Chapter Three: Dreams and Chapter Four: Morals. If you haven't those, same thing.
This chapter is mainly Tenten-centric, with hints of Leeten.
Enjoy, and tell me what you think.
The hospital room was disturbingly quiet.
There were no monitors that Tenten could see. Obviously, that indicated that Lee was not in immediate danger. That was something, at least.
Weariness crept into her body as she sat down in the visitor's chair beside his bed. The mission had been simple, guarding the birthday party of an aristocrat's daughter was like a vacation after the rigors of the Chunin Exams. The aristocrat had specifically requested members of the Ryuuko Clan, and so her father had sent Tenten, her twin brothers, and one of their cousins on their way. But Tenten and her team had only just returned to Konoha after running back all day, and right now, she was exhausted.
Neji had always claimed that fate ruled life, that whatever occurred was predestined. He was a fatalist, but as Tenten looked at Lee's sleeping form, she wondered if he perhaps had a point. Lee was never again going to live the life of a ninja. It was as simple as that. Tenten could ask Mariko, her stepmother and Chief of Medicine of the Konoha Hospital, to call in a few favors, but there was only so much that could be done. When her spine had been broken, it had been a clean fracture, easy for a medical ninja to heal, and it had been treated quickly due to her relation to Mariko, who had status because of her position in the hospital. But Mariko had told her the bone in Lee's right arm and leg had been crushed, shattered to pieces. There wasn't much anyone could do to help.
Unless of course, that Tsunade woman of the Sannin returned to Konoha. More than a year had passed since Tenten had tried to con her team into believing that Tsunade was someone she admired and idolized. She had seen the name in a textbook, and later fabricated her dream while attempting to establish trust between her and the rest of the team. Guy-sensei hadn't bought it, she remembered, he had seen right through her lie. Tsunade may have been a legendary ninja, but Tenten did not want to be like her. Tsunade, a healer who was famous around the world for her doctoring abilities, had abandoned her own home village, and Tenten didn't respect people who fled when others were depending on them.
Tenten had given up on acting normal to gain her teammates' trust soon after that; she had realized that lying in an attempt to appear trustworthy was counterproductive.
But if this Tsunade returned, and her abilities were as powerful as the stories told, then she could help Lee. But Tenten knew that the chances of that happening were slim to none. She had to face reality and acknowledge that Lee's dream was gone, broken to pieces along with his body.
He wasn't the only one. Her good friend Ino, the unfortunate Hinata Hyuuga, and Kiba Inuzuka were out of the finals, and so was that one girl who she didn't know but Ino had disliked, Sakura Haruno. All had dreamed of going on to become Chunin, but like her, that dream would have to wait another half year.
Her dream . . . while it was still possible for her to become a Chunin, Tenten knew that the other part of her dream now would never come to pass. She had been determined to become a great ninja in her own right, without using her Clan's kekkei genkai. But she knew that wasn't possible anymore. She had fought only using weapons, and she had lost the fight. There was no shame in losing itself, but the thought that she wasn't strong enough with her weapons alone, but needed the kekkei genkai to be a competent ninja angered her. Ever since the day her father, Sojiro Ryuuko, had told Tenten that she was only a weapon for the Clan, weapons had fascinated her. And she had thought that maybe, just maybe, if she became a strong ninja without the bloodline jutsu, the Hi no Senshi, then she would be a person. Not a weapon, not anymore. And then she would finally be free of her father and the entire Clan. Free to live as she pleased, without caring about the ridiculous Clan etiquette or the damnable ceremonies.
The thought of working without her Clan's abilities had always been in the back of her mind, but she had waited until she was assigned to her Genin team to try the idea. Lee had inspired her; she knew his determination to brave the odds despite his predicament took courage. And so she had become Tenten the weapons master, never training with her bloodline in the company of her teammates, only practicing at home with her brothers. No one on her team had spoken to Tenten of her decision, possibly because either too busy with their own lives, they didn't care, or Tenten concluded, they just didn't know.
Tenten wasn't like Lee, Neji, or Guy-sensei. If she had a choice, she never would have become a ninja. But she didn't have choice, her father, far too obsessed with manipulating others, had already decided for her. And so she tried to be as strong of a ninja as possible without using her bloodline abilities. Doing otherwise would be giving into her Clan and becoming one of them.
But Tenten wasn't strong enough. Her father had shown her that. After she had arrived home from the hospital, she had been summoned to his study. He had then informed her that he had asked one of the proctors to fix the computer so she ended up with the worst match possible, someone who would be totally unaffected by her attacks. "Asked one of the proctors" probably meant that her father had bribed someone, but it didn't matter. This proved Tenten wrong and Sojiro right; she would need to use the Clan's jutsu to be a strong ninja. Sojiro had shown her how weak she actually was. If she wanted to protect those close to her, her team, Mariko, Ino and the rest of the families of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, then she would just have to use the Hi no Senshi. There was no other choice.
Tenten often used her tarot cards to attempt to predict where her life would take her. That was subscribing to fate, she supposed. But she knew that the cards only predicted possibilities, and that nothing was certain.
But now, Tenten knew she couldn't leave anything to chance any longer. If she had to accept the Hi no Senshi, then so be it. She would work hard and give her all. She had been weak once, but now she would train hard, and become a formidable ninja so dangerous that even her father would be wary.
Pins and needles stabbing her fingers pulled Tenten back into awareness, and she realized she was still clutching the bouquet of flowers she had brought for Lee. The cellophane crinkled as she carefully pulled the wrappings away from the flower stems, remembering Ino's words about the importance of giving cut flowers to a hospitalized person. Glancing at Lee's bedside table, she noticed a flower reposing in a colorful clay vase, and smiling slightly, added her own contribution. Her smiled vanished as she turned to look at her fallen friend.
Lee, his body, spirit and dream destroyed. She, coerced into finally accepting her Clan's ways. Hinata, beaten to the ground by her own cousin. Had Neji been right? Was this what became of those who tried to fight fate?
The words of her beloved sensei floated across her mind: I think that a person makes their own destiny through their choices and actions.
Guy-sensei, Tenten recalled, had told her that shortly before she had played up to his affectionate side in an attempt to win his approval. She grimaced at the memory; the psychology books she'd read all agreed that it was normal for a teenager to try to seek approval from teachers and other authority figures if their parents were distant, but she still was less than proud of that moment.
But Guy-sensei was right, Tenten decided. She had to make her own fate. And now that Lee was no longer a ninja, she would carry his spirit with her, and use it to help her fight.
Now, she would be strong enough for the both of them.
Ino's suggestions to Tenten of bringing Lee flowers seems like the time she tried to bring flowers to Sasuke in the hospital. Perhaps she suspects that her friend has a crush on Lee.