- Next up, Squad 9. Tenten, Rock Lee, and Hyuuga Neji. -
Voices from that day still echoed in her mind, the moment when all their lives had been joined into one, singular path. Iruka-sensei had explained it clear enough for everyone to understand. After becoming a Genin upon graduating from the Ninja Academy, they would be assigned to a three-man team led by a Jounin instructor. It was from then that each squad was to be trained and taught in the ways of the shinobi, slowly growing and learning effectively to better protect the village, both individually and as a team. Anxiously glancing around the training field as they waited for Gai-sensei to arrive, Tenten did not feel that they were much of a team.
They were never really friends during their Academy days, barely even classmates if one was to be truthful about the connections they had concerning each other. As all other teams, they were merely three newly appointed shinobis thrown together by a mix of statistics and chance in order to create an evenly balanced squad. But though they all shared the same ambition of becoming a loyal agent of the village, as Tenten soon found out, it was one of the only things they had on common.
“You’re holding it wrong,” came a smoothly deepened voice, breaking through the silence that had settled on the field.
With a dull thunk of the kunai as it embedded itself into the wood of the target, she paused in her idle practice to turn towards the owner of the voice in disdain. Hyuuga Neji. The top-ranked rookie of their graduating class. Born into one of the most prestigious families of Konoha and considered a genius among his peers, he had always held a superior attitude towards the other students. Even now as he sat quietly under the cool shade of a nearby tree, in the midst of his meditation, there was an arrogance in the way she had been addressed.
“…Excuse me?” the kunoichi questioned, raising a brow curiously with contained anger.
“The kunai,” the young prodigy clarified easily, never once opening his eyes to look at her, “You’re holding it wrong.”
“But she had the best accuracy in our class, Neji,” another voice chimed in, sounding ever cheerful in contrast, “I would think how she held a kunai would not matter.”
Following the sound, the young kunoichi found herself face to face with Rock Lee, someone who seemed to be on the receiving end of most teasing comments that had been exchanged while they were still studying in the Academy. Such cruelties from their peers was caused by the young boy’s lack of chakra use, forcing him to rely on his taijutsu. He was the relative opposite of the young Hyuuga, working hard to gain the few skills that he possessed. It was through his hard work and steady progression in the field of taijutsu that had allotted Lee the coveted status of Academy graduate and a spot on their mixed-matched squad.
A fleeting glance in the pale shinobi’s direction and Tenten was on her way towards the target to retrieve her weapons. She was anything but an ordinary kunoichi of the Hidden Leaf Village. Equipped with an extensive knowledge of any and all tools of the trade, coupled with a near-perfected accuracy, it was clear that she had a great potential to becoming a great agent of the village. But that sort of preparation had also isolated her from the others.
“It’s ok, Lee,” Tenten mumbled softly, raising a hand to stop him before he rushed even further to her aid, “Everyone is entitled to their opinions, even a pompous clan genius like him.”
And with that said, she continued her trek towards the target to retrieve the discarded weapon, not letting another thought of anything the Hyuuga said bother her. The newly-made kunoichi had enough experience in dealing with being underestimated or underappreciated for the simple fact that she was a girl. It was no secret that kunoichis were never taken as seriously as their male counterparts, the belief of gender roles still in play even after female shinobis had proven their worth time and time again. The taunts and teasing that Tenten received from the other students at the Academy had been bad enough. She refused to subject her self to it any further.
“Hn, a typical reaction, one I had expected to get from someone like you,” Neji commented off-handedly.
“And what is that supposed to mean?” Tenten snapped in return, having paused in front of the post where the straw target had been set up to whip around and glare at him.
“Tenten, please, calm down,” Lee pleaded, stepping in between the two when it was clear the girl was in no mood to deal with Neji’s snide comments.
If there was one thing that the girl hated most, it was being overestimated and underappreciated for her skills. She had worked diligently and hard in the Academy to be able to rank herself among one of the top students in the class, often times placing among the top five percentile. Normally a calm and collected individual, a few carelessly stated phrases in her direction would be enough to send the fiery kunoichi in training over the edge of her patience, something that seemed oblivious to Neji as he continued on with his criticism in the mist of his meditation.
“I have no time to explain simple things to you,” the Hyuuga responded with a light scoff, not at all taking notice of the kunoichi’s slowly burning disposition, “Figure it out on your own.”
A growl was all that was heard, followed by a pained grunt and a surprised yelp. Moments later found the three locked in a vicious but overall harmless battle, each having a different motive for continuing the three-way struggle for dominance. But while Tenten’s and Neji’s lingered around the realm of revenge, Lee’s thoughts were filled with the intent of keeping some level of peace among their squad. And so, it was with an enraged Tenten with fist full of Hyuuga’s hair in her grip, a frazzled Lee trying to desperately calm the girl down, and an annoyed Neji laying at the bottom of the dog pile of students that Maito Gai found his newly appointed students on the training field that day.
Thoroughly impressed by their youthfulness, he decided then and there that they would pass their team assessment, making the members of Squad 9 official agents of the Hidden Leaf Village.
- Your first mission as Genin will be to help carry groceries for Mrs. Suzume. -
Walking down the busy streets of Konoha, the kunoichi glanced around for her two teammates. She had arrived on the training grounds that morning to see a note left by their Jounin instructor tacked to a tree with a kunai. Normally the last to arrive on the scene because of the three of them, Tenten lived the farthest from the training grounds, she had assumed that the other two had already seen the note and had headed to the appointed spot without another thought. Knowing the amount of trouble they could get into when left alone together without anyone there to mediate things, the girl had made a mad rush to find them before Lee had a chance to challenge Neji once more.
"Are you sure this is the place, Lee?" a voice sounded over the din of the market place, a mixture of strained patience mingled with calm irritation that could only be Hyuuga Neji.
"That is what the note said, Neji," another answered in response, sounding much more enthusiastic and cheerful than the former as he spoke, "And if Gai-sensei wrote that, then this is indeed the place."
There was no mistaking the special sort of bickering of her teammates, mainly downplayed because Lee was too filled with unbridled excitement and Neji’s attitude was too polishly influenced by the Hyuuga upbringing to ever resort to small little squabbles. In any case, the two of them would usually sort out their differences in a challenge, more than likely issued by the young taijutsu user for which the clan prodigy would gladly accept. But before it could reach that point, Tenten decided to stop in, effectively stopping Lee from starting another contest in the middle of the village square.
“A bit early to be fighting already, isn‘t it?” the kunoichi called out, folding her arms over her stomach as she strolled across the road towards them.
“But Tenten, we were not fighting,” the now green-clad shinobi corrected, “It is simply just a matter of finding the correct place we were to meet our client.”
“Oh really?” the steel mistress inquired with a raised brow, “You could’ve fooled me.”
Early on, she had realized that the two of them would be involved in a lot of disagreements, especially where Lee was concerned. Always one to want to prove himself to his peers, the young shinobi would often challenge the other students at the Academy, even despite his chances of winning. Teaming him up alongside the prodigal genius of their class would only encourage daily matches between the two, something that their sensei seemed to have no problems with considering the number of challenges he would often place on a certain grey-haired shinobi.
“This is ridiculous,” she heard Neji grumble quietly under his breath, “If they thought it fit to request such service, the least they could do is arrive on time.”
“Eager to carry the woman’s groceries, are you?” the brunette questioned with a smirk as she turned to face him.
Turning towards her and seeing the slight upturn of her mouth, the young clan prodigy could only roll his eyes at the lightness in the kunoichi’s tone. After the confrontation during their first training session, the two had settled their differences, at least to the best of their abilities and especially after witnessing fully the sort of enthusiasm that Lee possessed. There were still moments where the Hyuuga’s very open opinions were a bit much for Tenten’s ever patient nerves to handle and times when her unorthodox tendencies would cause a tick in Neji‘s ivory eyes, but for the time being they were in a tolerable state of mind. Besides, resigning themselves as the more rational half of the squad gave them little choice of interacting with anyone else.
“The sooner we finish the mission, the sooner the degradation will end,” Neji finally responded to the girl’s teasing.
“I hate this as much as you do, but we’re Genin,” came Tenten’s sympathetic words, presenting him with the most logical explanation she could think of, “What did you expect, that we’d get a B-ranked mission right off the bat?”
“I expected something more dignified for a shinobi,” came the young prodigy’s acidic retort, stating what the both of them were thinking.
“Yeah, well, sorry Neji, but unfortunately we’re at the bottom of the barrel,” the kunoichi countered as she kicked up a cloud of dust with a lazy scuff of her sandals along the gravel road, “Nothing much for us to scrape up except for the leftovers.”
Though true as those words were, even she was having problems believing them, thinking that such things as carrying groceries were beneath that of a shinobi. As agents of the village, they would one day be charged to fight wars, commit assassinations, and gather information through dastardly means. The mere act of helping someone carry their things home from the store would do nothing to help them grow and learn as shinobis, though Tenten understood the need to maintain civilian support on the matter. Without cooperation from the people in the village, there would be no shinobis to rely on during wartime.
“It is our job to serve the village any way that we can, is it not?” Lee chimed in, having long forgotten the challenge he was about to issue to his fellow teammate, “So there is nothing to be ashamed of.”
“Lee has a point,” the weapon goddess agreed, “But what I don’t get is why would the person who made this request specifically asked for our squad.”
“Is it not obvious?” came the taijutsu’s ever cheerful response, “They have heard that we are the students of the great Maito Gai and wish for our excellent service.”
“But we’re just carrying groceries,” Tenten started to question further, “Why that would even ma - ”
“NEJI-KUN!” a loud, booming voice interrupted.
Startled by the high-pitched sound, the three of them all turned to stare down the street where there seemed to be a cloud of dust trailing behind an excited looking young lady as she rushed towards them…and straight to Neji’s side, knocking Lee down in the process. The instant that realization of who was standing before them settled in, Tenten could only roll her eyes at the familiar girl, one of their former classmates who dropped out of the Academy when it was discovered that the only reason she decided to join was to be near the Hyuuga prodigy. Unfortunately, she was not the only one who had been forced to do so that year, and if she was being truthful, the kunoichi would wager that it would not be the last time the Academy instructors would come across girls like that.
“Tatsu,” she mumbled with disdain to no one in particular, though Lee was unmistakably within earshot as she helped him up from the ground.
“This is not the proper use of shinobi assistance,” the taijutsu user added with a hint of concern for the abuse of their services.
“Yeah, well, it doesn’t look like Neji is enjoying this very much either,” Tenten pointed out as she glanced over to the suffering clan genius, “The poor guy looks miserable.”
“Should we not help him?” Lee inquired, looking on with great sympathy.
“I’m almost tempted not to just to get him back for all those snide comments,” the kunoichi replied jokingly with a chuckle, though she stopped shortly as soon as she caught a desperate look from Lee, “But I will because he‘s our teammate and we can’t just leave him like that.”
“So what should we do?” he questioned further.
But instead of replying, she simply pulled him into a close huddle, whispering her plan to him while the culprit was distracted by her own target. All the while, Neji looked on in horror as the young girl clung tightly to his arm, gushing over how handsome he looked and how kind it was for him to help her carry her groceries home. Never once did she let him point out the fact that he was only there because it had been and assignment or that the whole squad had been enlisted to help complete the mission.
Suddenly and without warning, Lee popped up behind the unsuspecting girl, throwing his arms around her in a big, tight hug while shouting exclamations of how glad it was to see her after so long and how she was doing, endless questions that would keep her distracted. And while her attention was divided, Tenten grabbed Neji by the collar and started dragging him down the street, away from his stalker-ish pursuer. Soon after there was a loud squeal of horror as Lee joined them in the mad dash through the streets of Konoha.
Later on when it came time to turn in their mission report, Maito Gai could only smile as he read through the documents and account of what happened. True, they may have failed their first mission, but at least they were learning to work together.
- You will not be entering into the Chuunin Exams this year. -
Anger mixed with confusion and disappointment was what greeted the elder green-clad shinobi when he had made the announcement to his squad. They had all worked hard to gain the exemplary skill level that the three of them possessed. It had been a blow to all of their egos to discover that they would not to be able to enter the Exams this time around, perhaps hers most of all.
“It’s because of me,” she muttered after Maito Gai had left them to challenge Hatake Kakashi once more, “He doesn’t think I’m ready.”
“Whatever reasons Gai-sensei has, I am sure it has nothing to do with you Tenten,” the miniature version of their instructor offered with a gentle squeeze of her shoulder.
“You’re just saying that to make me feel better,” the kunoichi responded with a light scoff, though she still gave him a small smile for his attempt to comfort her, “Thanks anyways, Lee.”
With little else to do, they separated into their own private and personal training exercises, focusing on the techniques and skills that made them stand out in the profession, catching the eye of their exuberant teacher. Taking her usual spot in the target area, surrounded by straw targets tacked into the tree trunks in a tight group, she effortlessly flung a few sharpened weapons with her usual accuracy.
“You’re still not holding the kunai right,” Neji commented, stepping out from behind one of the targets.
“Are you going to start that old subject up again?” the kunoichi snapped, in no particular mood to deal with him about her technique once more.
“I only point that out because I think you can do better,” the young Hyuuga replied to Lee’s previous comment, though it could have easily been a response to both statements made by either of his new teammates.
So unexpected was his response that it took a moment for Neji’s words to fully sink in. But once they finally registered in Tenten’s minds, all that could be read on her face was that of pure shock and curiosity. If there was one thing that she had learned about the young prodigy, it was that praise was something her pale-eyed teammate did not give out often, if at all, prompting the kunoichi to regard the shinobi with a bit of suspicion.
“And…how would you know…?” the kunoichi started to ask, a bit unsure of how to address the subject matter after such a comment from the usually quiet clan member.
“I can see it in you,” he replied simply, fixing her gaze with his colorless orbs, "It's in your eyes."
Slowly as she continued to keep her eyes locked with his, she saw the faint signs of his veins coiling to the surface, clear indications that his Byakuugan had been activated. She had no response for him, no way of knowing what the proper reaction to something like that would be. All that Tenten could concentrate on were his eyes, milky white in their pureness, devoid of color save fore the little tints of shadow that played along his features, unmarred by emotions.
“Being born without pupils has its benefits,” he continued on when all she gave him was silence.
“But…what about all that stuff you keep saying about fate and destiny never?” the girl questioned, confused about the contradictory things he was saying.
“…Just because I am bound by fate does not mean that you have to be,” was Neji’s simple response, turning his head to look up at the clear sky overhead.
“And Lee?” Tenten inquired further with a curious tilt of her head.
“If his goal to prove me wrong is the only motivation he has in bettering himself, then so be it,” the Hyuuga replied nonchalantly, giving a seemingly indifferent shrug of his shoulder.
“…Tch, they were right,” the kunoichi scoffed with a knowing smirk, “You are a genius.”
“Hn,” came the shinobi’s reply, sporting a faint smirk of his own, “Perhaps I am.”
