This is the result of an art trade with a talented friend from deviant art. She drew me kurenai, and I wrote a team gai love traingle. Well, it's getting there anyway.
And, as always, i don't own Naruto.
Please enjoy
Strings that Tie To You – Chapter 1: The Deal
She walked through the trees toward the village, rubbing her upper arms. Taking a page from Lee's rule book, she had decreed every time she missed her target she would do 200 pushups. She had only missed 3 times out of 100, but the pushups really added up, and now she was sore and tired and rethinking her plan.
"But if it'll help me get stronger…" she said to herself as she stretched her arms out over her head. She had to get better. Neji had just been promoted to jounin, and it would be harder than ever to impress him, get him to notice her, if not as a woman then at least as a ninja worthy of his acknowledgement, and someone he'd willingly want on his team. They had worked together for years, not because he had wanted to, but because they were assigned to. Now that he was a jounin the only way they'd work together is if he wanted to work with her. He had never really let her know how he felt about her fighting style or skills, or even how he felt about her as a person, so there was really no way of knowing if she'd ever work with him again.
"Why do I care so much?" She wondered aloud, frustrated with her infatuation towards the coldest man she'd ever met.
"Care about what Tenten-chan?" She looked over to see Lee sitting on a stump not 50 yards away from her. While it wasn't surprising to see Lee out in the forest alone training, it was unusual to see him sitting thoughtfully at any time.
"Oh, you know, about not taking the Jounin examination," she lied quickly, knowing Lee would easily believe it. He nodded sagely.
"I know what you mean. It's hard to not dwell on it a little, especially with Neji now a rank above us," he sounded more than just slightly bitter, but snapped out of it quickly, smiling brightly at her, "But no matter," he jumped up, "We'll train harder and catch up to him soon, right Tenten-chan?" She couldn't help but smile at his exuberant enthusiasm.
"Right Lee-san." She almost told him about her newly instated "rule", then thought better of it, just incase she wanted to change or do away with it. She didn't want him looking down on her, too. Instead she asked, "What are you doing out here by yourself, not training?" His large smile waned as his face fell downward.
"Sakura-chan rejected me again. I though we had made some real progress together, but," he fell back onto the stump, "it almost seems like she'll never give me a chance. Tenten frowned. As odd as her teammate was, she hated seeing him so dejected.
"The Lee I know has never given up. Come on, there's got to be some way to win her over. What does she like?" Lee looked at her with his wide eyes, a blank look on his face. She sighed, "You've been pursuing her for three years now and you don't know what she likes?" Lee's face fell again as his head drooped. Gah, he looked so pitiful sometimes, and Tenten had a soft heart when it came to her teammates.
"Listen, how about I help you. I'll go ask around, see what she's into, then let you know what I find out." Ridiculous happiness took over Lee's body.
"Really, Tenten-chan? You'd do that for me?"
"Sure."
"But how will I repay you?" He looked very pensive for a few seconds before slamming his right fist into his left palm, "I know! I'll train with you so you can be reunited with Neji-san!" Tenten's face got pink.
"How about we just work on passing the next jounin exam?" She countered, knowing it would be more obvious that she liked Neji if she flat-out denied wanting to be reunited with him. Lee smiled and jumped up off the stump, thrusting out a hand.
"Deal." They shook once, firmly, and then Tenten turned to leave.
"Hey! Where're you going?" She looked back at Lee and pointed toward the village, "I was going to go ask around about Sakura-san."
"Oh, that is so like you Tenten-chan, always thinking of others before yourself. But we must train now!" She gingerly touched her left upper arm and shook her head.
"No, I offered to help you first. We'll start training tomorrow."
"Well, do you mind if I train?" He asked so sincerely, like she would be offended if he trained while she wasn't due to his promise to help make her stronger. She wasn't sure if she should laugh at him or hug him, so she opted for smiling and nodding.
"Go ahead Lee, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Bye Tenten-chan!"
It wasn't until she got to the center of the village that she realized she didn't know where to begin finding things out about Sakura. She sat on an open bench near Ichiraku's to analyze what she herself knew about the pink-haired girl.
Her teammates were Sasuke and Naruto. Well, that was useless. Neither of them were around Konoha anymore, although it had been rumored that Naruto would be coming back soon. Still, she couldn't count on him for information.
Kakashi was her sensei. He should know a lot about her by now. She could go ask him, but she doubted he would take her seriously, since she was one of Gai's students.
The "Rookie Nine" as they had been lovingly dubbed, and had a good chance of being referred to for the rest of their lives, and probably longer, must know something about her likes and dislikes. She could hunt them down one by one.
She fell into the bench, head hanging over the back and arms out in an exasperated manner, as she realized she had just upped her workload by 6 times if she pursued her last option. But it was the best one she had come up with so far. And she really didn't need to talk to all of the "rookies" around, just enough to get as much information on Sakura as possible.
But, now she had to look at what she knew about the rest of the group to figure out where to find them. She sat upright again to get into her thinking pose, but her eye caught something much more helpful to her predicament. Kiba and Hinata were walking toward her, well, toward Ichiraku anyway, but their eyes were on her, probably due to her previously distressed pose. She raised a hand to greet them, and then noticed they were holding hands. Could they be on a date? Should she bother them while they're on a date? She knew she wouldn't really mind being bothered, as long as it was brief and not too troubling. She knew Hinata wouldn't mind, but Kiba was another story.
Her inner turmoil was all for naught though, as the adorable couple waved back and trotted over to where she was sitting.
"Hi Tenten-san, are you ok?" Hinata asked, referring to her previously collapsed position. Tenten smiled, "Yeah, just got a little flabbergasted for a awhile, but I figured things out. How are you, two." She added, a little sparkle in her eye. While she was a serious ninja, she was also a bit of a hopeless romantic. Hinata blushed a little and Kiba grinned.
"We were on our way to get some dinner.I'd ask if you want to come, but," he raised the hand that held Hinata's, "you know."
"Oh, yeah, I completely understand," she said, waving her right hand downcasually,"but, before you go, do you mind if I ask you something?It might sound weird..." Hinata and Kiba exchanged a look, then Kiba shrugged, "Sure. Lay it on us."
"What do you know about Sakura-chan? Like, what does she like, what doesn't she like, where does she hang out…" she lingered as she saw their puzzled expressions. Perhaps asking the rookies wasn't such a brilliant idea.
"Well, I know she likes perfume. Strong perfume. Normally with a flower fragrance, like Lilac or Lily." Kiba offered.
"And I know she works in the hospital with Tsunade-sama." Hinata added, "She's there a lot." Tenten clapped her hands together and jumped up.
"That's exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks you two," she bowed quickly, "and have fu-un," she said in a singsong voice as she winked and lightly jogged away, toward her apartment.That was enough information for today. She could find out some more tomorrow.
Yeah, pretty lame ending, but whatevs. I'll make up for it later.