Tenten sighed as she tromped her way through the snow from the training ranges. Once again, Gai-sensei had taken Lee off to work on Taijutsu, and Neji had insisted on studying some super-top-secret-not-pervy-in-any-way-ultra-high-level-Hyuuga-clan scrolls. And that was just how he phrased it while turning a shade of red that she would have once sworn only Hinata could reach.

And thus it was another day of freezing her buns off, and numbing her fingers against cold metal. It barely even registered that it was only just getting to be dawn of Christmas day, a curious holiday that had infiltrated into their society from foreign traders. Most ninjas saw it as a signal from on high to relax and take off, but not Team Gai. Not that Tenten minded, after all she wouldn't have celebrated it. Why should she when she was always alone at the end of the day, in her apartment. Hurray for the orphan, huh?

It was only her and her weapons. In fact she remembered getting her very first kunai from the kunoichi that had helped run the orphanage. She had told her the tale of Tsunade the female Sannin and how she was superior to all males in any possible way, and how men should be subjugated to the whims of all women everywhere. It was about this time that the other woman told her to stop talking or else she'd be sleeping on the couch. Even now Tenten wasn't quite sure why that was such an efficient threat, but she had some suspicions.

Right now she just wanted to take a hot shower, and have a nap before night training. And so she walked into her apartment, sidestepping a few traps when she found something amiss. She didn't remember leaving a training dummy sitting on her couch with a cup of water in hand, and a kunai through its chest.

Edging closer to the dummy, she searched it carefully for dangerous tricks. The only thing she could find that was suspicious about it was the card dangling down from the ring of the kunai.

"Merry Christmas Tenten-chan," the card read, "You know not who I am yet, but I hope you'll enjoy these twelve days of Christmas. My True Love."

Tenten glared at the note silently for a few minutes, before speaking the first word to come to mind. "What?"