A/N: Just an idea I've been playing with for a while. I'll post a short chapter. If people like it, I'll continue a full story.

Note – due to injury, and education, I've been held back from updating Breathe: Of Flowers and Sand, and whatever else I started – I intend to keep writing them, I just need to get my actual life in order, you know, priorities.

But as each chapter of Breathe is like … 10 thousand words at least, and I don't have the attention span to start writing it, and it is midnight, I thought a simple short chapter to an idea I've been playing with for almost two years now was worth a write.

Enjoy. Or don't. :3 I suck at writing – and at summaries.

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Summary: TenTen's family history is sketchy. Hermione also is incredibly adept for a muggle born witch. The two girls also look a lot alike. They're the same age, and everything. Related?

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Sakura and Ino were caught between a mountain of books and thousands of loose leaf papers. The last few candles were close to burning out, and the girls had the tedious task of organizing the Hokage Tower library. Sakura decided to tackle the medical section – everything from textbooks to patient files, from secret medical scrolls and jutsus to whatever else was labeled medical in any shape way or form. The original sorting was a hectic process.

Ino, whose back was turned to Sakura, as she would occasionally lean back on the pinkette and moan that sleep was a physical requirement and something about Tsunade being too lazy to help out, with a few comments on how evil the woman truly was, was focused on reports of the civilians – everyone who has ever been born to, emigrated from or immigrated to Konoha – whether ninja or civil – whether clan or no clan, since the dawn of Konoha was kept with intense detail. Babies that died within the first few hours of birth, and odd cases of baby kidnapping – were all in a messed up pile of loose leaf papers and disorganized and misfiled manila folders.

The girls had come to an agreement. Once the last of their candle supply burns out, they'd turn in for the night – if any night was left to turn in for.

Four candles – maybe another half hour max of light.

"Nee, Ino?"

"Hm?" The blonde picked up a manila folder that had nothing written on it and a few pieces of paper inside, and began to inspect it.

The pinkette was silent. For a moment, Ino forgot her name had even been called as she read the first report.

Shinten Songetsu – Stillborn. The rest of the report was quite tedious and heartwrenching, so Ino put it aside and took furrowed her eyebrows, having come across a morbid section of her work. Dead babies.

"Sakura, you alive? What's up?"

"Oh yeah," she moved a large textbook with ease to a pile she arbitrarily made up for surgical purposes, and picked up a scroll, "Out of everyone in our year that graduated, that we're friends with, that we know and love, the only person we actually know nothing about is TenTen."

"What do you mean?" Ino tried to sound confused and interested at the conversation at hand while trying not to vomit at a baby murder case from 50 years ago.

"Well, Naruto and Sasuke, and me – my parents are known, although not a clan, they're both ninja. You, Shika, Chouji – famous clan triad for as long as Konoha can recall. Neji and Hinata are Hyuuga, we've even met Lee's father, the Akimichi, the Aburame, and then … TenTen – just TenTen."

Ino put another paper she was reading down for a second and attempted to look at her best friend and rival over her shoulder, though not much of an effort was truly made. After a moment of contemplation, she waited for Sakura to continue.

"She showed up a year in front of us. We never saw her parents, we never even found out what her last name was. In fact, I don't think her last name is even listed. She was just one day enrolled at the academy, and ended up in the circle. I love the girl, I just think she's shrouded in mystery."

Ino breathed loudly through her nose in a failed attempt to agree – her throat did not comply into actually putting a noise through, but in the silence of ruffled papers, Sakura understood.

"And I'm sure it bothers her, too. Not knowing who your parents are, where you came from, just kind of are – " Sakura let her sentence trail off.

Ino picked up another folder. She actually truly did want to respond but didn't have the strength to carry a conversation. A piece of paper slipped out. As Ino picked it up, she realized it was actually two sheets of paper, stapled together.

TenTen and Tatsu.

Twins.

The candlelight flickered as Ino's blue eyes widened.

TenTen was 2 minutes older. The picture of Tatsu showed a patch of curly brown hair. TenTen's parents were apparently murdered in a night raid of the village March 14th, when she was only five days old. TenTen, due to being slightly weak, was at the hospital that day. Her twin sister, Tatsu, was at home with the parents.

Tatsu's body was never found – presumed dead or kidnapped. TenTen was subsequently adopted. By the time she graduated the academy and became a full-fledged genin, she moved out of her adoptive parent's home.

The name of the adoptive parents were listed. Chunnin ninja in rank at the time of the report.

Ino dropped the report and blew out such a large amount of air, the candle closest to her almost died out.

"What?" Sakura threw another textbook in another arbitrary pile.

"TenTen has a sister." Ino's voice cracked, and after a moment of pure shock, slowly pushed the papers to the girl behind her.

Moments later, she heard Sakura choke on her own spit.

The rest of the details were pretty horrendous. The murderers were never caught. Tatsu was never found.

- x – x – x -

The sun rose cascading soft pinks and purples against a lightening blue sky. The bird chirped awakening Konoha's civilians with a graceful song. Some were up before the birds setting up their shops, while most were just beginning to poke their heads out of their windows, or exit their houses and apartments ready to head to work. Snow shoveling was one of the first signs of work on cold mornings as this one.

TenTen was among those who threw her window open and breathed in the chilled air, stretching and yawning almost happily. She quickly shut the window as a cold breeze tore through her limbs and chilled her room.

She loved mornings. It was her time to get herself together, read some scrolls, sharpen her weapons, do some exercises, shower, and have a beautiful well balanced breakfast.

Most of the time when people see TenTen, she had already spent way too much time around Lee and Gai-sensei that she was at her wit's end, and annoyed beyond all reason. Eye rolling, face palming, and visible flinching along with the sarcastic remarks and brooding glances in Lee's direction was what she was known for. Most of the time when in interaction with practically anyone else she was with Lee or Gai-sensei, or both, this is the only her anyone ever saw.

Sometimes, she would sneak off from the idiots and enjoy a quiet lunch with the girls, but these days, with rebuilding and missions to make up for money lost during the war, even those outings were sporadic at best.

Her mornings, however, no one could take from her, so smiling at the rising sun, TenTen went about her usual routine.

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"Should we tell her?"

Ino and Sakura had stolen away from the Hokage Tower for their morning coffee. They hoped the medic goddess wouldn't come to the tower to check on them in the next 45 minutes they had set aside to, well not organize another piece of paper.

Ino sipped her cappuccino and broke off a piece of muffin daintly, popping it into her mouth.

"Is it our place?"

Sakura sniffled and brought her cup of black coffee to her nose.

"Well, no, the only reason we know is because you accidentally came across this information."

"Yeah," Ino countered, "but if we found out Naruto had surviving relatives he knew nothing about, he'd kill us quite literally if he found out we kept it from him."

"With the exception that Naruto already knows his parents died. We don't know what TenTen remembers or what she's grown up believing happened. We could ruin her life. Think about what happened when Sasuke found out why Itachi decided to kill the clan – and then subsequently when he found out the whole truth of the matter. I think in the span of like what, a year and a half, Sasuke changed four sides, had four different targets in mind, and was hell-bent on revenge against half of the ninja world, until eventually he rejoined us – which still didn't stop him from having an all-out with Naruto and losing his hand."

Ino raised an eyebrow and mumbled, "Naruto lost his hand, too." Her voice was on the verge of pouting.

Sakura shot her a glare, "You get what I mean. Telling someone of what actually happened is only good if the person suspects something of the sort already, or the news would make them happy. But if it completely changes their preconception of the world, it can have disastrous effects."

Silence filled the coffee shop as the girls pondered their actions, and finished their coffees and muffin breakfasts. Ino took her wallet out to pay.

"So, we tell her or no?"

Sakura bit her lower lip, smiled at the waitress as they paid, and the girls bid their goodbyes.

The bell of the door rang out happily as the girl pushed the door open and exited back into a slightly more sunlit Konoha. More people now filled the streets, happily buzzing along.

"Let's ask Tsunade and Kakashi-sensei." Sakura finally responded as she snuggled her hat onto her head, and put her matching mittens on.

Ino nodded and the two girls vanished, roof-top jumping back to their assigned spots.

As they entered back into a now sun filled Konoha library in the Hokage Tower, an angry blonde haired woman was waiting for them.

Tsunade started yelling about not being allowed to leave a post until told they were off duty, and how this was breaking Ninja protocol at its lowest most basic level, and how two jounins should be fully aware of this, and something about her being pissed that they weren't just any jounin, they were HER underlings.

Sakura smiled weakly, and Ino pushed past haphazardly sorted books and manila envelopes to get what she needed. Neither girl said a word as Ino simply handed the paperwork to a pissed off ex-Hokage.

Tsuande snatched the paperwork and growled almost at the girls, who now standing side by side, waited for their shishou to read it.

The blonde's shoulders relaxed, then tensed again, and she bit her lip at her loss of words.

Finally, Sakura spoke up, "We went to clear our heads and see if we should do anything about it."

Tsunade nodded.

"Kakashi's office. Ten minutes."

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It must've been ten a.m. judging from the position of the slowly rising sun that was fully and gorgeously visible from the windows of the Hokage office.

The new Hokage yawned and sighed, and hated the moment he agreed to take over Tsuande's Hokage position. The bitch only gave it up because of the damn paperwork, he was sure. She conceded a little too quickly, if she gave up a fight at all to keep her position; which in retrospect, Kakashi is adamant the woman said nothing at all about it.

A knock on his door.

It was Sunday, who, what, why.

"Hokage-sama, Tsunade-sama, Sakura-san, and Ino-san are here to see you."

Furrowing his eyebrows, Kakashi told the young chunnin guarding his door to let them in.

Tsunade made a bee-line for her secret sake stash she secretly still kept in the Hokage office, while his old student and her best friend just smiled weakly. They looked worried, and Tsunade was behaving just a little bit more unprofessionally than usual.

Usually, the woman has some sort of greeting following her entrance.

"May I help you three?" The newly appointed Hokage stared at the ass of the older woman as she rummaged somewhere in the vicinity of his desk, then moved his eyes over the two younger girls.

Ino stepped forward and placed a manila folder on his desk. Top Secret, categorized under births, subcategorized as murder.

He looked at Ino questioningly then opened the folder.

The wall clock made audible ticking noises breaking the horrendous silence that fell upon the room. Tsunade had found her mislabeled bottle of sake and taken up to drinking most of it. Sakura had made herself useful and pushed a chair in the direction of the medic goddess.

After what seemed to be an eternity, Kakashi closed the folder.

"Assemble a team, but make sure a Byakugan user is on it. Use no one of the rookie 12. TenTen's routine is to not get disrupted at all. If Tatsu is alive, find her. Do not engage Tatsu upon finding her. We'll go from there."

Tsunade nodded, and the girls bowed in thank you. Kakashi picked up his perverted book as a signal that they were dismissed.

For what was possibly the first time in the world, a ninja of jounin rank or higher finally left using the goddamn door. The stifled gasps from the guards and the secretary were audible as they tried to contain their shock that someone exited using a door.

Most enter using the door, but almost no one ever exists that way.

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Hermione woke up from a nightmare, gasping. Covered in cold sweat, she sat in her bed eyes wide open attempting to adjust to stark darkness, and the only light coming from the moon through the crack in the drapes. It took her several gasps to recollect herself, and then she threw her duvet and slung her feet over the bed. Another couple of breaths and Hermione stumbled out of the room she shared with three other sixth year Gryffindor girls. Slowly, as to not wake them, she opened the door and cast a lumos spell before walking down the hallway of the girl's dormitory to the large bathroom at the end.

She stumbled inside and cast the lumos at the chandelier illuminating all the candles on it. Another stumble and she was at the sink. She dropped her wand on the brim of the sink. The wood clacked against the porcelain as it fell into place. The sink was wet - her wand now, too. Hermione turned the water on and threw the cold water onto her face in an attempt to dispel any lasting effects of sleep still clouding her mind. After a cold drink, she turned to look up at the mirror in front of her.

Damn dark brown curls fell down her face, strands stuck to her face with water. Dark bags under her eyes gave away that she barely got any REM sleep that night. She looked someone gave her a good beating.

Hermione bit her lower lip and pried her hair off her face, tying it up in a bun.

Damn that nightmare.

They were sporadic at best. She had them the most when she was still a child, and by the age of 9, they stopped all together.

But at 13 she had it again.

Then at 14.

A numerous amount when she was fifteen.

And now at sixteen. Again.

The same goddamn nightmare every time. A murder, a horrible, gruesome murder, the sound a child crying, the moon – so visible, so white, so daunting.

The voices she didn't understand. One sounded like a mother crying out to not take the child. The others shouting Merlin knows what back at her.

Blood curling screams and visible blood spatter, as if she had seen it – the murder of that woman.

A man, too. She could've sworn a man was also present.

The forest thereafter, but only as a blur.

Her parents always told her it was some movie she watched, that nothing like that ever happened to her, so Hermione did as Hermione would always do – she researched.

She watched every thriller, every horror movie that was ever made, from Hollywood to Japanese movies – not a single one had that EXACT plotline.

Last year, she could've sworn it was actually a memory, but she dared not check. What was more important, no one knew. Not Harry, not Ron, not her roommates. No one.

Recollecting herself, she accio-ed a towel and dried herself off. Weak hands held onto the wand as she with now more courage in her step, shuffled back into her room and into bed.

Morning would come soon. Dreamless potion would help. Maybe. Hopefully.

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SOOOOOOOO HOW WAS IT? Yeah, no? I don't know. Just an idea. It'd be cool.

This takes place obviously after the end of the manga, before the Last Movie – since Naruto is obviously like 19 there at least. Or 20.

Everything is as canon. Somewhere during sixth year. Remember that Naruto wins the battle on the morning of his 16th birthday – which is Oct. 10th. Add another approx. month for the Naruto vs. Sasuke fight, and another month or two of peace and rebuilding, we are in late January time wise of the Sixth year.

Meh, I don't expect much to come from this. :$