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Chapter no.28 Tenten and Naruto
🕑 Added 2024-05-01 19:02:35 +0000 UTCTenten had always wanted a cute little kouhai.
There was the appeal to picking up a junior that she could buy sweets, pet, pamper and have him/her help her sharpen her weapons with a big loving smile.
Perhaps it came with the fact that she had been the 'nee-chan' of the orphanage she had grown up in, not in the motherly, caregiver sense, but in the tomboyish, 'you mess with me, you enjoy the taste of sand' manner.
Her somewhat crass manner and a slight tendency for violence had probably what had inspired her obsession with blades and weapons of all sorts, and it of course helped that she thought playing with dolls was the most ridiculous thing in the freaking world.
She still remembered the first doll she had been given, considering the fact that she had given it an extensive surgical process by retrofitting the hands with sewing needles and the legs with scissors.
Of course, the other girls had not appreciated the beauty of Princess Scissorhands, abbreviated to, Si-hime, the scissor-handed, needle-legged princess doll. Then, she had not understood why the matron had been so appalled, Si-hime was far more useful that way to help in cutting and sewing together what little clothes they had possessed as of then.
When she found out that she was being adopted by a ninja, she was excited, and her excitement went over the roof when she found out her adopted dad was a blacksmith and her adopted mom was a kunoichi.
The first few years were fun; she could still remember a memory where her dad had replaced Si-hime and all the other stuff she had with rounded dull things.
She could still remember how she argued with her parents about the dull things.
It is too round on the top.
It needs to be pointy.
Round is not scary.
Pointy is scary.
This will put a smile on the faces of the enemy ( Boys in her class )
Her parents laughed at her; she, in her anger, had told them, "I hate you."
It was the tantrum of a child, and she regretted saying it because, in the next week, her mom was KIA on a mission.
She could still remember how her dad gave her Si-hime back.
What did you say that time?
'Round is not scary.
Pointy is scary.
Get ready to learn all the pointy, scary things in the world. I am going to make them all not scary.'
From then on, she began training to be a weapon specialist.
Maybe it was the regret of the last fight she had with her mother, or maybe it was her father's actions to start teaching her about weapons to train her to be strong.
All in all, Tenten never got over her love and somewhat obsession with pointy things. Regardless, the weapons enthusiast wanted someone who was also equally passionate and shared a love of the sharp and pointy.
Of course, this was somewhat of an idealistic wish that she would sigh and ponder, than something that she ever saw coming into fruition.
Right up until the moment that she had found Uzumaki Naruto and taken him under her wing.
Except, well, Uzumaki Naruto was not the cute little kouhai she wanted, but quite possibly the one she needed.
"COME BACK HERE YOU!"
Assuming she did not kill him first.
"I'M SORRY!"
"HELLO SORRY, I'M TENTEN - GET READY TO EAT POINTY METAL!"
As it had turned out, she really wanted to find out if she had been a little bit too enthusiastic in seeing his display, and then she wondered if it was mere, simple, dumb luck that had saved her career as a kunoichi from coming to a terrible end.
So of course, she had needed to confirm that hypothesis by re-creating the scenario and seeing if indeed, Uzumaki Naruto could curve and redirect shuriken with a headbutt.
Of course, this time around she had tossed rubber shuriken at him, because attempting to use the real ones could most possibly end in disaster.
The results had been outstanding.
Seven out of ten times, Uzumaki Naruto had successfully pulled off a ricocheting magic tricks with the shuriken that were thrown at him, and seven out of ten was a very promising result.
So then, it came her own turn to practice and see how to pull off the same tricks, and she had asked him to stand and toss the rubber shuriken and kunai at her.
She had closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, and then steeled her gaze as he said he was going to launch, only to open her eyes and see a rubber chicken flying through the air.
She was not kidding.
A. Rubber. Chicken.
With its beak out in front, its wings spread to the sides like an eagle.
She had been so stunned at the sight of the flying avian toy, she could not react when it had smacked beak first into her eye and sent her tumbling to the ground.
Chicken - 1, Tenten - 0.
Of course, Naruto's cacophonous laughter had merely added insult to the injury, which led to her current situation of her chasing the blond around the field while unloading the full wrath of her weaponry.
Was it overkill?
Maybe.
But you try explaining to Maito Gai, Rock Lee and Hyuga Neji that the reason you now had a large black eye was because an academy student clocked you in the face with a rubber chicken.
She grinned as she caught a hold of the fleeing blonde's legs with her kusarigama, the chain tying neatly across his left ankle, as she jerked the chain back and proceeded to quite literally reel him in as though she was a fisherwoman on a croaky old boat in the middle of a vast lake.
"Well, look what we've got! The catch of the day, the famous orange flopper."
She grinned as she watched him futilely scrape his nails against the grass in an attempt to escape. Eventually he just stopped bothering and let himself be dragged, until he came to stop directly beside her foot, and she gave him her 'kindest' grin.
"Uh... you know, I kind of feel really bad for fishes right now."
She rose an eyebrow.
"Just for fishes?"
"Ah, no no no! I mean, yes, I mean - well, you know what I mean, but I kinda also don't know what I mean -"
"If you were any more eloquent I'd need a dictionary."
He gave a sheepish grin.
"Uh... that black eye goes really well with your hair-ttebayo?"
"I'm not taking fashion compliments from someone who thinks wearing orange clothing is fashion ."
She sighed as she shook her head, paying little heed to his chant about how orange was the best.
And he was a fashion icon.
The sun had barely peaked over the horizon, due to both of them arriving bright and early for the training.
Dressed in her training clothes that was more or less a refitted martial arts gi, rather than her normal attire, she really shuddered when Naruto showed up, fully clad in his orange clothing.
Speaking of which, how in the world did a rubber chicken have enough force to give her a black eye?
For Kami's sakes, the only thing that was capable of doing that was one of Rock Lee's punches or kicks, but of course, Lee was a 'gentleman' at heart, and his attacks never aimed for her face.
Must be because of that unnatural strength he has.
"Wait, why in the world do you even have a rubber chicken in the first place?"
Naruto had stopped listing off the vague uses and benefits of the color orange in civilian fashion to stop and gave her a stare.
"Oh yeah! That! I was just trying to see fate will answer my question!"
She blinked.
"What?"
Was this providence?
Was the Neji; fate-douche, a cute douche, but a douche nonetheless, onto something when he kept insisting that there was a divine will in place for each and every being?
She shook her head, kami forbid Neji was right.
"Why?"
"Because I want to see if I can get some trap master skills by using unconventional things as traps and stuff."
"You want to become a trap master meaning you want to become a shinobi that uses traps to fight?"
He gave an enthusiastic series of nods.
"I don't see that working out well for you at all."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
She pinched his cheek, dragging it, only to blink as she realized that the whisker marks felt like grooves in his skin, and as he gave an incoherent grumble.
"What I'm saying chicken-man is that you look more like someone fit for flashy ninjutsu or taijutsu."
She grinned.
"Though mostly ninjutsu, because you need to grow about a dozen a couple of more inches to make sure your opponents don't lose sight of you in a taijutsu brawl, chibi."
"Oi! I'm not short!"
"And the Hokage is a young bachelor with women vying for his attention."
Naruto frowned, he opened his mouth for a second as if to say something, but then changed his mind and closed it as he grinned.
"I don't think jiji would find that funny."
She shrugged.
"His inability to see the comedic value doesn't mean it's true."
Naruto gave another wide grin.
"Well it was true... once upon a time. It's not like Hokage-jiji was born old."
Tenten sighed.
"You're missing the point. Being an Ensnarement Specialist is something that takes time, dedication and planning. If you want to plant a trap for your enemy, you are working on the assumption that you know where your enemy is, how he will react, and a plethora of different uncertain variables that will contribute to the success of your traps. And that is almost never the case in a battle."
"Ensnarement Specialist? Awesome! I didn't know there was already a title for it dattebayo! I am going add to the list."
"List?"
"Yeah, if I am going to become the best, I need to have some kind of skills in Taijutsu, Ninjutsu -"
Her left eye twitched slightly.
"First of all, the term ensnarement specialist doesn't exist... I just made that up on the spot, and I think you're still missing the point -"
"Huh? No, no I get it!"
She gave him a flat look.
"Really now?"
He placed a finger on his chin.
"Say, I'm on a super-secret mission to guard the greatest bowl of Ramen in the world, but then, shinobi from the hidden village of noodle broth, are trying to steal it. If all I've got is my traps and stuff with me, I need to know which road they'll use to try and get the ramen, how many of them they are, and whether my traps can stop them all and keep the ramen safe all at the same time! Cause if I don't know all of it, my traps could fail to even catch them and they'll get away with the ramen-ttebayo!"
She blinked.
"That's... one way of explaining it. But yes, you need foreknowledge if you intend to succeed as a shinobi using traps. If you work on a team that has a Hyuga, a sensor or a tracker of any sort, you'd have that aspect mostly covered, but even then, there exists the possibilities of the traps failing, or of them missing your targets all together."
Successful trapping of opponents was something she knew about because she had dabbled a bit on it earlier, utilizing things such as bear traps and paper bomb mines. Even with Neji's Byakugan telling her where the opponents were coming from in order for them to plant down her traps, it had still not done much good. Their opponent had attempted to flank them, missing her traps completely and going all the way around to attack them from behind. Any attempt she had made to lure them towards the traps had only succeeded, until they realized they were traps there, and then proceeded to avoid it like the plague, making most of her work pointless.
Sensors and ninjutsu experts were also the bane of all trap settings, because your opponents either sense the traps miles away or simply barrel through it with ninjutsu.
"So should I remove it from this list ? What do you think I should do?"
Tenten turned her gaze back to the boy, his two brilliant blue orbs looking bright and eager as he playfully tossed a rubber chicken in his hands.
"Me?"
"Well yeah, you're the expert." He rubbed the back of his head, "Should I still try and get an... uh, Ensnarement Specialist Feat ? Or... well, should I... you know?"
Tenten scratched her head as she glanced around the area. It was strange for someone to come for her for advice on specializations, as Lee had never done it, Neji would never do it, and Gai did not need to do it. Still, she stared around her team's training ground as she contemplated a way to make Naruto's goals of utilizing traps become more effective.
Training ground nine was nothing special.
There was a small pond, numerous trees, and a kicking post that had been abused to hell and back by the furious feet of Lee. The training grounds were somewhat large, as expected from Konoha, and it was filled with the luscious green trees and a thick forest covering.
She turned her attention to the several bull's-eyes and stationary targets that she had also abused to hell and back by puncturing them with as many shuriken and kunai as she could.
All of them hit the center though, now having extraordinary aim, although it had not always been the case, and once upon a time she couldn't even toss a rolled up paper ball into a basket three feet in front of her.
"Uh... hello? Tenten, you still there?"
