Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Little Green Leaf ❯ Disqualified ( Chapter 2 )

Kankuro aimed for the closest sturdy branch, and then finding a foothold he sprung off, aiming for the next available limb as he tore through the forest that surrounded Konoha. Even though he was from the country of Wind, he had always rather liked trees. There were far more hiding places available, which was important not only as a ninja, but as one who's best techniques required him to remain in the shadows as his weapon fought for him. Besides that, the desert was swelteringly hot in the day and frigidly cold in the night. He liked the cooler, consistent temperature of the forest. That was why Konoha had always been nice to visit, but he unfortunately never went there to enjoy it. He had only ever been there on missions. After all, if he did not have a passport, people there tended to get testy he noticed. They were all too paranoid, like he was ever going to go there to wreak havoc.

He would of course never reveal this secret to anyone, but Konoha was too nice for havoc. It really was. They did not seem to realize there how lucky they were to be constantly surrounded by trees.

Even if the ninjas from the Country of Fire WERE all crazy. He could name several off the top of his head.

After several hours of barreling through the maple and oak between the borders of the Village of Leaf and the Village of Sand, Kankuro still had no real purpose, and was not really going anywhere. He was not going to Konoha (that would raise too many questions) but he did not want to go home just now, either. He had just finished a mission with his brother and sister to annihilate some nobleman and his bodyguards, and was still wired up from the fight.

Besides that, he had gotten into another argument with Temari afterwards (she gets so angry and lashes out at everyone when she screws up.... Maybe if she watched where she was going, she would not have tripped over him?) and so he did not feel like going home just to have her bitch and moan all night. They got the mission done, after all. Anyway, nobody except Kankuro and Gaara were alive to remember her undignified fall tail over teakettle into the brush.

The beating he got from her afterwards, though, was very much worth the teasing she was never going to hear the end of, starting tomorrow.

It was beginning to get late, now. Approximately three hours after sunset. Taking into consideration the time of year and current time zone, that would have made it about.... midnight, or so? A proper time to consider going home. It was not a long distance away, since he had not been going in any real straight line the entire night. He sighed, disappointment obvious on his painted face, and changed his direction.

He stopped suddenly when he saw something flicker out of the corner of his eye. Years of ninja training kicked in, and with cat-like reflexes, he threw himself into the shadows of an old ash tree, and waited, and watched.

Silence. The forest was dark, and still. Was he wrong? It was easy to overreact. A forest creature of some kind could have scurried across a branch and startled him...

There, again- something was definitely moving. It seemed to be going cautiously, carefully- as if awaiting an ambush. Animals did not await ambushes. This was definitely another ninja. He set his teeth, his fist gripping the bandages that wrapped Karasu, ready to release them at a moment's notice...

Kankuro watched the shadow vigilantly through his squinted eyes, barely daring to breathe lest he should give away his position, if they did not already know. He did not know who they were or what they were doing here, and he certainly did not want to find out the hard way. They moved again- they were headed this way. They would probably pass right by him, possibly through the break in the canopy where the moonlight poured through. He would be able to see them.

He was right. The shadow stepped directly under the canopy and paused, looking around them. And, just as the mysterious stranger stepped into the moonlight, revealing itself at last, Kankuro had a revelation. Three days ago, at almost this exact same time, in nearly this exact same place, he had fought a little green leaf with brown pigtails curled into buns.

And, unless his eyes deceived him, here she was again. How remarkable.

Her hair re-tied, and a couple of bandages visible on the right side through her short-sleeved Chinese style blouse, she looked around tentatively, yet determinately.

He could not hold back his grin. Nor could he refrain from his urge to make her life a little more miserable.

Tenten warily eyed her surroundings. It was silent; still; and dark. But she would not be fooled. It was sort of silly for her to think that he would be here again, unless he came to this place every night at the same time. She had almost managed to convince herself that it was a coincidence not to be repeated, but she was not going to take any chances. If he was here, she would be ready for him this time. To lose to him twice consecutively would just be unbearably humiliating. If this fight HAD to be repeated, it would certainly not have the same results. Not this time. Not after her defeat had caused her to miss a mission with Lee and Neji due to her injury, even though she had argued that it was only slight and assured them she could still go. Not after the scolding she gave herself for being too narrow minded, too focused on one goal, to see other ranges of possibilities. She would never risk THAT again. It nearly cost her her life.

Somehow, miraculously.... Only NEARLY she was spared. But how?

Cautiously darting through the trees between the border of Hidden Leaf and Hidden Sand, she stopped briefly under a moonbeam, adjusting her eyes to the light to survey her surroundings. Even though she had sworn to be more careful, she had not forgotten her goal, and had every intention of attaining it. This time, Tenten would not fight Kankuro.... Tonight, she would certainly face Temari.

She leapt out of the moonlight, heading forward. She seemed to be in the clear... That annoying boy would not be expecting her to come back so soon. This time, she would surprise everyone.

Kankuro watched her as she dashed through the trees, looking around her carefully as if awaiting something. Evidently, she did not see him, or sense his presence at all. She really was a lousy ninja, but with an impressive recovery time, admittedly. That wound he gave her should have had her bed set for at least a week, especially after it took him three hours to get her to the hospital in her hometown; the patch-work job he did of bandaging her had been a temporary quick-fix. And yet here she was, jumping around after only three days. Konohagakure doctors must be quite talented... That must be it; a girl like that certainly could not be out after only three days on her own stamina. He made a mental note to do some research on the difference between the Wind Country and Fire Country hospitals. Apparently, the gap between them was considerable.

As she began to move away from him, he slowly began to follow; carefully, so as not to attract any attention to himself- he would hate to spoil this opportunity for an awesome entrance. He intended to take every advantage of a surprise attack. With stealth and speed, he dodged ahead of her, cutting off her path- the several hours he had spent in these woods would now prove advantageous, as he now knew the area quite well.

Unfortunately for Tenten, and despite all her best efforts, Kankuro had been training his stealth abilities for many years, outmatched by almost no one. A melee expert could not arguably compare. So she had no idea that he was even in these woods, let alone setting up the very ambush she was so careful to avoid. She did not know, in fact, until the very last minute, when all of a sudden Karasu came crashing down from above her, stopping just an inch in front of her face, and dangling there, eerily, on his chakra strings. Startled, Tenten let out a short scream and jumped back, discharging two kunai at the source of her shock protectively from each hand, gasping for breath. The enemy did not respond to her attack, despite being hit dead center; and just as she began to recognize that marionette, a low, drawling laugh emanated from the trees. She grimaced.

"Did I scare you?" Kankuro asked, smirking from his hiding spot with twisted pleasure as he watched the rage rise to her face.

"YOU!" Tenten shouted, looking furiously around her, "What are you doing here?!"

"Catching flies, apparently," he smiled. "You're back early. I expected you to return, but in only three days? That's downright impressive."

"So what, were you waiting for me?" Tenten scoffed, trying to locate her assailant. His voice seemed to be coming from the puppet dangling ominously in front of her. Damn, even after all her caution, she was still at his mercy! How had this happened? She concentrated on staying focused. Panicking would be the worst thing to do now.

"Are you so bored that you sit out here every night just to see who drops by?" she continued assuredly, then added with a self-righteous smirk "Or maybe, you're in LOVE with me."

"Don't say stupid things," his voice replied detachedly, "You're the farthest from my type."

"Oh?" She raised an eyebrow, "And is 'your type' made of WOOD?" she crossed her arms smugly, awaiting an outraged response.

"Naw," he replied coolly, without a trace of irritation. "My type has bigger breasts."

"WHY, YOU-... How DARE you!" Her face visibly reddened with humiliation and rage as she crossed her arms protectively over her chest, infuriated, turning every direction, trying desperately to locate him. The sound of his laughter surrounding her set her teeth on edge. She closed her eyes and began mentally counting to ten, trying to keep a level head. Obviously, he was trying to fluster her. It worked for a moment, but she would not be beaten by him. If he was forced to resort to such lowbrow and lewd comments, he must be intimidated by her. Still, it was embarrassing how horribly that had backfired.

"Come out here!" She demanded into the trees, tired of all this stupid banter. "Hiding is the most cowardly act!"

"So claim the brash," was his reply. "Hiding is the CLEVEREST act."

"So say the WEAK. I assume you're going to hold to your stupid condition," she spat menacingly, "And not let me pass. Is that correct?"

"Very much so," the voice from the puppet replied. "What kind of man would I be if I went back on my word?"

"Then let's get this over with!" She courageously demanded, "So that I can defeat you quickly and get on with it!"

"That's the attitude! You better be more of a challenge this time. I'm not dragging your sorry ass home again!"

For the briefest of moments, Tenten was caught off guard.

Again

"Come at me!" She quickly recovered and readied herself into a battle stance. Unfortunately, she would have to wait to attack until she could flush out his location. Otherwise, her weapons would go to waste on his doll.

"As you wish it!" The puppet replied gruesomely, lunging towards her with killing intent. Tenten weaved deftly to the side, maneuvering lithely behind it, trying to stay out of its path but at the same time watching to see if she could not find its chakra strings. If she could find them well enough, she could follow them to the puppet master's hideout….

As she dodged behind Karasu, it spun its mechanical head a full 180 degrees to face her with a grisly clicking sound, and the rest of its body followed suit, mirroring the head and changing its direction to sweep at her again, opening up its wrist to reveal a mean-looking dagger that shot from its mechanized scabbard like a switchblade. It slashed at her and she jumped out of the way, performing a swift hand seal as she did so. Suddenly, three more of her appeared beside her, and quickly the four of them spread out in different directions.

She knew these replications would be entirely useless in a fight, but they would at least confuse him, she hoped- after all, his puppet could only follow one at a time. Meanwhile, it would give her time to find Kankuro's whereabouts.

It seemed to work for a moment. Karasu paused, confused it seemed, and did not follow any of them. But Kankuro had seen this trick before. She was not the only one who thought she could confuse him in this manner. And he had a neat little countermeasure.

Behind each of her copies, there suddenly appeared Karasu, as Kankuro mimicked her technique, creating four bunshin clones of his marionette. Each one lashed forward, and as replication hit replication, both dissipated. Finally, there was only one real Tenten and one real Karasu.

Tenten grimaced, trying to formulate a new plan quickly as Karasu came forward again, weapons out. She held up a kunai to deflect its knife, and swiftly jammed a second kunai into its wrist as she held it in her block, hoping to disable the device and maybe break the weapon off. Karasu reeled back its newly dysfunctional wrist, and with two of its other three arms, struck Tenten hard in the side, sending her painfully into a tree.

It was at about that moment, as the blood began to seep through the bandages on her right arm, that Tenten realized her mistake in assuming she could win any fight without actually healing from the previous one first. Now her shoulder stung and bled, and that would probably get in her way. And worse yet, to her dismay, she was not the only one to notice.

“That's a nasty handicap you have there,” Kankuro's voice mocked her through his puppet's mouth. “Guess you're not as impressive as I thought. Challenging anybody with that wound? That's just stupid. If you really thought you'd fight my sister today, you should have been ready. Tisk, tisk.”

“Shut up!” She demanded, holding her bleeding shoulder. “It's fine. You'll see that I can still fight!”

“Well, I certainly hope so!” He replied with enthusiasm, “Because you haven't proven to be much of a challenge yet!”

“Then I'll just have to show you what I'm REALLY worth!” She proudly exclaimed, throwing two handfuls of shuriken at Karasu as she lunged forward. The puppet briefly fell back, its balance momentarily thrown off, and she speedily ducked behind it, racing past it directly towards Kankuro.

He was so arrogant, he had to stop and scold her for being stupid. But while he laughed at her, she was able to follow the chakra strings to his real hideout. Now, she could finally take both the puppet and the puppeteer out at once. As she ran forward, she unraveled a scroll, and began twirling it around it in a hypnotic fashion as she summoned her instruments.

Kankuro was a little surprised to see Tenten running right at him, having finally discovered his location. He quickly performed a few hand seals as she unraveled her scroll and began to summon her arsenal. She then fired her canons, letting fly with her kunai and shuriken and all other manner of weapons.

She assumed as much when she saw that the moment her weapons hit him, he disappeared in a cloud of smoke, to be replaced with a block of wood. So she attacked the surrounding area, hoping to strike him with a lucky shot, or if nothing else, discern his new location. She turned, throwing more weapons behind her where she had come from, being careful to watch for Karasu.

She realized it too late. Just as her scroll ran out of gifts to give her and fluttered harmlessly to the forest floor; Just as she heard the sound of the familiar puff of smoke, as the kawarimi block of wood Kankuro had previously used to disappear turned BACK into Kankuro; just as she realized that, to her horror, he had used a genjutsu illusion to make it APPEAR as though she had struck him with her weapons, and waited in the form of that block of wood until she ran out of weapons; he had already struck. She tried to turn quickly to defend herself from him, as he slashed a kunai upwards at her chest. She jumped back quickly before he could strike again, and readying herself atop a limb of a tree, she held two kunai defensively before her and faced him.

Kankuro stood before her, not bothering to hide this time. He was almost enragingly casual, in fact. But something seemed strange. She raised a curious eyebrow when it occurred to her that he was not really looking at her at all. Why was that? How could he be so confident that he did not even bother to face his enemy? His feeble attack had not cut her, although she had only barely managed to dodge-

Slowly, with dawning realization, a look of horror spread across her features. Tenten's face drained of all its color, and then quickly turned at least seventeen different shades of red.

She crossed her arms protectively over her chest as she realized the absolute crime he had committed. He had managed, probably on purpose, to cut the frog knots right off her blouse; and not only that, he had split her bra right open.

She balled her fists, her knuckles white. Words could not express her rage. But she was going to try to find a couple that came close.

“YOU SICK, DISGUSTING PERVERT!” She screamed at him at the top of her lungs, “THAT'S NO WAY TO FIGHT!”

“Fighting is exploiting your enemy's weakness,” he replied coolly, still not really facing her. “You can't get mad at me for doing just that.”

“OH, YES I CAN!”

“Do so, then. It doesn't change the fact. But now what?” He smirked, “Can you fight like that? I doubt you brought a spare with you. I'm sure you won't be able to concentrate, and throwing weapons with one hand over your chest would be a little awkward.”

“Don't think I'm beaten by something like this!” She hollered, still holding her blouse closed, “It may even prove to be an advantage, if I can succeed in distracting you!”

He rolled his eyes. “I wouldn't call that a distraction.”

More than anything else so far, that enraged her the most. But before she could voice her objection, he continued.

“Anyway, I doubt you have the guts to go very far like that. You have too much dignity, don't you? Think carefully now, Can you fight me seriously in that state? You were at a disadvantage to begin with, and now you won't be able to keep your head clear. You'll be too angry. And you can't beat me if you fight on emotion. You need to fight with your MIND.” He smirked menacingly at her. Tenten scowled, seething. The worst of it was he was right. She probably could not continue in this state. Her head was too full of rage. And besides that, he had managed to come that close to her skin while only barely trying. It was obvious that if he wanted too, he could have done much worse. The victor was clear. Her head lowered in shame. All these years... and she still wasn't worth much of anything. Something as ridiculous as this really was going to stop her. She tried to think of what any other female shinobi would have done in this situation. Sakura might have stopped, she was more female than she was ninja, but Ino probably would have kept fighting. Tenten tried to concentrate on her nindo. What would Tsunade have done?

Then she quickly decided that she didn't really want to think about what Tsunade would have done or the mental image would have been with her forever.

She raised her eyes to Kankuro, her hatred burning.

“You're disgusting,” she hissed lowly.

“I'm considerate,” he replied. “I didn't want to tear you up like last time. I only wanted to disable you so that you could go home by yourself and heal that wound like a good girl. You see? I didn't even make you bleed.” He grinned at her, making her want to punch him in the teeth.

“…If you ever… EVER think of doing something like this to me again…” She glared at him, her eyes filled with loathing. “I will MAKE you sorry.”

“Fair enough,” he replied detachedly. “I think you've learned your lesson. Besides, now you know how it works. Now admit that I've won, and go fix that shoulder of yours.”

Tenten was silent for a moment. She considered pulling out a few scrolls and performing the Rising Twin Star Dragon right at this very moment. He never would have expected it. Why didn't she ever bring a sewing kit with her? It doesn't take up much space, and she's been thinking about doing it for the longest time... even a safety pin would work…

“…Don't think I'm done yet!” She finally snapped at him. “This is a cheap win! You only get it by default. I'll be back tomorrow! And every day afterwards, if it takes me that long to defeat you!”

“In that case,” he replied lowly with an eerie smile, “I'll see you tomorrow.”

 

This chapter may have seemed immature and the fight scene might have sounded a bit out of character…. But do you know how hard it is to write the same friggin' fight scene fifty times in as many different ways? Lemme tell you about it. It's REALLY hard. Luckily, I've made best friends with thesaurus dot com. You know who I like? You know who I like? The guys who made that website. I apologize for Tenten's stupid loss. I needed this chapter to end with her not bleeding, if at all possible. She really doesn't deserve to be portrayed this way but this story is harder to write than you think,

And now here's something to entertain you. Outtakes, by an (anonymous) Neji fan. Funniest bit is he wrote this before he knew what I had planned for chapter 2. I guess everyone wants to see Tenten topless!

"That's more like it!" Kankuro grinned, whipping the bandages off Karasu in a flash, revealing his life sized marionette, "And the curtains rise!"

Tenten's shirt suddenly falls off revealing her massive breasts to all the world to see. And Neji's come in and kicks Kankuro's ass! and runs away with Tenten to ....I don't know Vegas to get married. They live happily ever after.

THE END!