So it's been two-ish years since I last updated, and for that I feel incredibly ashamed of myself.
Some pre-chapter notes! Naruto is finally over, and I have to say, it has been an incredible run for Masashi Kishimoto. But, there is now a spin-off series called Naruto Gaiden! What do you think of it?
Also, all the previous chapters have been revamped, there are some major changes (such as, the Ino-Tenten situation), or just editing to make the story make more sense. I highly recommend going back and reading them before moving on to this chapter.
And last but not least, lots of loving love to FruitySmell, videogamenerd101, miakasango, marionne345, and Ichigo-chan for reviewing, and all the beautiful readers and favouriters out there.
Gaara scoffed. "Love," he spat out, "is for children." And it was true, in his eyes - only children, the pure, untainted souls that they are, believed in unconditional love. Gaara wasn't a naive child anymore. He had abandoned the thought and notion of falling in love a long, long time ago. His hand drifted to the kanji tattoo etched into his forehead - love. It was a constant reminder of the one thing who couldn't - wouldn't - fall into. "And that's how long we've been friends for. I don't have many companions, Sasuke, and I sure as hell don't want to lose my closest one either."
His words had their desired effect, as Sasuke didn't probe into the matter any further. The raven-haired boy leaned back in his seat and pushed his bowl towards Gaara. "So, about this tomato soup."
They smirked at each other, and swapped plates. If all Gaara had to do to keep his friendship intact was eat tomatoes, then so be it.
He glanced across the table at the brunette, hoping to catch her attention, but she was chatting happily with the Hyuga boy, as if enraptured by his presence.
When was the last time she looked at him with eyes that starry? Her demeanour around him had always been like that of a close friend, always respectful and grateful for how he changed her life. Honestly, he was scared. Scared of what chaos would be brought to him if he fell for the girl, so he was content with just being a friend - companion, even. It was safe.
But was it too safe, if all it took to weaken their bond was a stuck-up snob from Konoha?
Gaara sighed, and slurped up the contents of the soup. His throat tightened at the taste as he struggled to swallow the meal with as much dignity as he could muster, earning a few strange looks from his teammates. What on earth?His eyes, widened, darted to Sasuke, who was merrily wolfing down a slab of steak. The Uchiha caught his gaze and grinned before finishing off his food.
"Seal it with a kiss, Lovey darling?"
Gaara rolled his eyes, gulping down the nearby cup of water.
"Maggot."
Training was harder the next day, and Tenten couldn't help but wonder what the organisers were going to throw at them. The day started off simply enough - routine warm ups, and a five hundred lap sprint with a much-too-energetic Gai - but the moment they stepped into Kakashi's lesson, all hell broke loose.
Apparently, Kakashi's idea of a "light training session" was ten or so sparring matches for a good hour, within which time he individually assessed the people in her group - "assessed" meaning dropping them into an obstacle course with flaming hoops and free-flying rocks. Or, at least, that was what Gaara told her.
After her match with Lee, which was frankly more of an overly-energetic series of punches and flying kicks, Tenten walked into the enormous obstacle room to find exactly what Gaara had described: bare walls, sandy floor, several large trapdoors and openings in the wall (presumably where the dangerous, swinging obstacles were held), and a bored-looking instructor leaning against the wall on the other side of the room.
"Tonton, was it?" She rolled her eyes, and corrected him. "Whatever. When I say 'Go', you need to run to where I'm standing without getting a single scratch on your body. There are no limitations in this course, so you can use all you've got to complete it. If you succeed unscathed, you may go. If you don't, we'll keep at it until you do. You ready, Tintin?"
He didn't wait for an answer, and immediately said "GO!" before disappearing in a puff of white smoke. At once, large boulders began rolling around the room and bouncing off the walls, whilst huge rings of fire swung from side to side. A section of the floor had sunk downwards to reveal piranha-infested waters, her only way across being a thin beam of wood. As if that wasn't hard enough, the exact place she was meant to reach was barricaded with a wall of spikes, and who knew what else would be thrown at her once she got there. She vaguely remembered Gaara telling her that "it was a piece of cake".
Taking a deep breath, she recalled all the years of training she'd spent honing her skills to perfection, and focused on sensing the metals around her. The chains connecting the rings of fire to the ceiling were metal, as were the rings themselves. She could make do with that.
A surge of energy rushed through her as she flicked her wrists downwards and sent the rings flying off the ceiling and towards her. Clenching her fists, Tenten compressed the large hoops into smaller ones and flattened them. The flames were extinguished as she created several whirling blades in the air around her. Fashioning the remaining chain into a pointed spear, Tenten charged forward, crushing and cutting flying rocks and boulders with the blades.
The piranha pool loomed closer and closer as Tenten approached it, deadly fish circling the water down below. Let's go fishing, she thought as bunches of piranhas were joined together by the makeshift spear. It seemed to be an easy route from that point on, but as Tenten stepped onto the rickety platform, several huge metal anvils swung back and forth ahead of her. Or, at least, she assumed they were metal until she tried to manipulate them. But there was something wrong with the way they responded - instead of the usual soft humming she felt when metals replied to her call, there was...nothing.
Confused, Tenten brought her hands together, feeling the familiar rush of joy as her body's components hardened into cold steel. The transformation was complete; as far as Tenten was aware, nothing could pierce or even leave a scratch on her armour. But still, there was always a risk, and if her armour did fail her, there'd be no telling whether she'd end up in pieces or not.
Rushing forward, Tenten's feet nimbly flew across the wood as she calculated her next move. Jumping across the anvils was always an option, and it seem plausible for her until Kakashi's bored voice echoed throughout the hall.
"Toto! This is looking a little too easy for you!" Tenten breathed out a curse word - something bad was going to happen. "I'm thinking...a little lighting, and...probably some bears. Hungry, untamed, ferocious bears" His voice fizzled out as Tenten groaned. Bears? Lighting? Metals conduct electricity!
"Are you even allowed to cage wild bears? That's hardly ethical!" she shouted into thin air. There was no time to ponder and sulk, however, as a sleuth of angry bears were growling and thundering through the arena towards her. She made a move to leap onto the anvil in front of her, but stopped in her tracks when lightning struck and broke the anvils free from their ceiling bindings. This caused them to crash into the pool below, threatening to destroy the wooden plank.
Tenten hurriedly ran across the rest of it, stumbling when the floor suddenly smashed together, completely erasing any evidence of there being a pool present. That only meant one thing - the bears could easily get to her, and she needed to reach the finish line before she became ursidae lunch.
Tenten could outrun every boy in her year level by metres, and Sasuke by a hair fibre. But lightning was faster, and so were the bears, in her fatigued state. She ran for it anyway, heart leaping into her throat as the finish line grew closer and closer. The spikes were easy to overcome, as she moved them out of her way with a flick of her wrist. It was only until lightning bolt,so bright it was blinding, hit the spot right in front of her that she realised it was definitely a bad move to keep the armour on.
She dismantled it immediately, missing the sense of security it brought her. Looking up, Tenten grinned. The finish line was so close she could taste it. If she could just speed up a littl-
Whoa. At first, it felt like a string was tugging at her, increasing in urgency as her desire to move faster increased. She thought it was Kakashi pulling a joke on her, until she remembered that she (and the rabid bears) was the only one in the arena. Tenten freaked out, and closed her eyes as the insistent tugging became stronger, zipping her forwards and onto the finish line. She opened her eyes.
"Well," Kakashi stood in front of her with a mildly amused expression, "your hair's looking dreadful, but...pass!"
Grumbling down the hallway, Tenten sleepily found her dorm door and was in the process of opening it when she saw a certain Hyuga about to enter his room as well. Too tired to talk, she gave him a slight glare, which he returned, and trudged into her room.
Kakashi was officially Captain Crazy. Sure, she'd trained through harsher conditions back in Suna, but even then bears didn't flounder around in heavy lightning. She turned on the hot water before stepping into the shower cubicle. Then there was the incident at the end. Was there something - or someone - controlling her every move without her knowing it? Or, was it just a figment of her imagination? Definitely not, she couldn't have imagined that - the sudden pull felt much too tangible and real to be her imagination. As much as she hated admitting it, that scared her immensely.
Sighing, Tenten tilted her head back and let the water pour over her body, soothing her aching muscles and calming her mind. It was only Day 2 of training in Konoha and her body was already strained to the point of exhaustion. The strange climate was getting to her. In Suna, the air was drier, the sun hotter, and there was sand blowing around in everybody's faces. That was how she trained, and she was good at it. Hell, good weather meant a small windstorm at best. But here in Konoha, everything was moderately sunny, with blooming plants and crisp breezes. The people here were much more pleasant, untroubled by a lack of food and resources. They were soft.
Then again, she was the one who was barely coping with Konoha's weather.
Stepping out of the shower, Tenten grabbed her towel from the rack and wrapped it around her body, leaving her hair out to dry. Maybe it was a matter of what she did to grow accustomed to the climate, and staying in a luxury suite definitely wouldn't do her any good.
"What's up, grumpy?" Tenten shrieked and flung her door's handle at the perpetrator's head. It was caught in mid-air by none other than Sasuke Uchiha, who seemed unfazed by the fact that he was standing in a girl's dorm. "Doorknob to the head? That's old news."
Tenten scoffed. "So is sneaking into a girl's room. Why are you here anyway?" Sasuke frowned, calmly inserting the handle back into Tenten's door frame and leaned against the wall. She hurriedly pulled an oversized t-shirt over her head and let the towel drop down.
"It's about the cape." Her playful smirk quickly disappeared and was replaced by a grim line.
"Well, you certainly have my attention now. What about it?"
"Don't you think it's too big of a coincidence that the Akatsuki cloak just happened to be there when you were? And conveniently placed inside a crate with the Hyuga symbol on another box? Doesn't it seem a little random to you?"
"Where are you going with this?"
"What if, for some wild reason, someone's after you? What if it's an omen?"
Tenten paused for thought. It did seem awfully convenient that the crate was right underneath a lamp, and that little effort was needed to open it. Who would leave it there, anyway? Why the an alleyway and not in some secret room inside an abandoned warehouse?
"I guess...But what can we conclude from this? What if it's just a cloak that someone put there as a prank? We don't know anything about its circumstances, Sasuke, maybe it is a coincidence. Just focus on the Tournament and we can go home. I hate this place, it's so damn humid here."
Sasuke's sour expression reminded her of their younger days together, when he constantly moped about his brother's superior abilities, and the extraordinary expectations that came with them. That never stopped him from being an uptight smart-ass, but their friendship was strange. She was lonely, and family-less, he had a family, but was lonely in every other sense of the word.
She gently patted his face, and smiled softly. "Suke, we'll be fine, you're worrying too much. What's the worst that could happen?"
A loud shriek came from the door way, causing the duo to turn their heads to the source. Hinata Hyuga herself, clad in a long, navy-blue dress, was blushing from head to toe.
"I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to interrupt! I just thought Tenten was alone, but I never- S-sorry!"
It was then that Tenten noticed her lack of pants, her manly, oversized t-shirt, and an awkward-looking Uchiha standing dangerously close to her. Oops.
Haha, woah what. Tenten loses control? O:
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
-misspandalily