Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Little Green Leaf ❯ Pinned ( Chapter 4 )

Temari walked into the living room and was surprised briefly to discover an annoyingly all too common sight. Kankuro sat in the center of the room, cross-legged on the floor, with a wrench between his teeth, screwing a bolt into Karasu. He was wearing his “comfortable clothes”, a black T-shirt with his personal crest emblazoned on the front and plain black pants, and no makeup. The locks of hair that did not fit into the pathetic little ponytail at the base of his neck hair hung in wild, unkempt light brown strands around his face. His attention was concentrated on re-attaching Karasu's head to his neck, his narrow eyes focusing intently on the mechanical nightmare before him. Pieces and parts of the puppet surrounded Kankuro, including an almost entirely emptied out toolbox, nuts and bolts, screws, sawdust, wood shavings, and unused pieces of lumber.

Temari shook her head irritably, stepping over the mess towards her younger brother, and set down a small white box near him.

“If you even think I'm cleaning this up, you have another thing coming,” she scolded him. Kankuro took the wrench out from between his teeth and responded with an agitated roll of his eyes, never looking at her.

“I can clean up my own mess, Temari.”

“Why don't you take all this to The Workshop?” She asked, crossing her arms. `The Workshop' had for a long time been the code for `Kankuro's room'. And it was little wonder why, as that was how he treated it. The maids had given up on that room years ago, and didn't even venture into its vicinity.

“No room,” he replied detachedly, trying to ignore her as he squinted his eyes at the tiny screw to make sure it was holding properly. Temari again rolled her eyes. His excuse was perfectly reasonable. She had seen that room. It was like a graveyard for failed mechanical experiments, broken dolls and scrap puppet parts. It was actually really creepy, and she didn't understand how he could sleep in there with all those wooden eyes and empty sockets staring at him all night. She decided that her brothers- both of them- were really very greatly disturbed.

She sighed, and returned to a more motherly-mode, a habit she had picked up in the absence of any real parental figure in their lives. It usually fell upon the oldest in such situations, and somebody had to take care of her brothers, had to keep what they had left of their family together. “Anyways, I brought you some dinner. Are you training again tonight?”

“Yeah,” he replied, now abandoning Karasu in favor of take-out. He grinned, opening the box, and began happily shoveling rice into his mouth. He hadn't even realized he was hungry `til the food was in front of him.

“You've been doing a lot of that lately,” she said slowly, raising an eyebrow at him. He had been leaving at the same time every night for about two weeks now, and he was a fool if he thought she didn't notice the consistency. The only inconstant thing was the times when he returned. Last night, he hadn't come back until early morning. She was not hard pressed to admit that curiosity was raging within her. She knew he WAS training at least, because lately he returned wearily with Karasu in pieces, covered in shuriken. But who was this mysterious training partner who had seemed to so encompass his attention? The Kankuro she knew didn't have nearly that kind of conviction, as his training regime was never so constant, but usually staggered depending on his mood. Somebody was whipping her brother into shape.

“Does your partner specialize in martial arts, or something?” she asked, beginning a curious interrogation. In response, Kankuro gave her a puzzled and sort of disturbed look, his mouth enclosed around his chopsticks. “…Why?” He finally asked.

“Because”, she started with a smirk, “They seem to be finally kicking your sorry ass into shape. You've lost weight.”

“What does THAT mean?!” He hollered in offense, half rising from his sitting position on the floor. Temari grinned at him.

“It means you're FAT. `Fatty, Fatty, Two By Four'!”

“Piss off, Temari!” He growled, turning his back to her in an attempt to ignore her, now angrily trying to finish his dinner in peace. She smirked at this pouty gesture. He was always so huffy. What a little brat.

“Anyways, whatever they're doing, it's working and I hope they keep doing it. You're starting to get toned up. Looks good on ya.”

He ignored her compliment, and she heard him mumble something about how he was never `fat'. He hoped that she would go away soon.

“They seem to be taking out a lot of aggression on Karasu,” she mused, still pressing the conversation, “They must be pretty good.”

“Feh!” Kankuro scoffed, half-turning to face her with a coy smirk. “It's hardly worth the effort to show up sometimes. All I get is a workout, she's the one training.”

“SHE, huh?” Temari gasped in delight. Kankuro's stomach turned as he realized the horror of his mistake.

“So what?!” He tried to erase his confession in a panic, but seeing his older sister's sadistic countenance, his face fell into his hands in humiliated defeat.

“A girl, huh?” Temari grinned maniacally, squatting down to meet Kankuro on the floor, “Who is it? Do I know her? Is she from around here? C'mon, you can tell me!”

“I don't have to tell you anything!” He snapped, a cold sweat beginning to mat his hair to his forehead, “So get lost! Yeah, she's a girl, so what! Doesn't automatically mean I like her or anything. She's just some kid I beat up!”

“But every night?” She continued torturously, a diabolical gleam in her eye, “I've never known you to be so constant about anything. Usually at midnight you're in bed, or creating something monstrous in The Workshop. You would drop everything, every night, to see this girl? Sounds suspicious to me! What do you think, Gaara?”

Kankuro's blood froze as he heard his younger brother reply, “It doesn't matter to me.” He spun his head around to see Gaara standing impatiently behind Temari. When did HE show up? Kankuro hadn't even noticed at all!

But to his relief, Gaara didn't seem to care one way or the other about Kankuro's affairs. He instead looked expectantly at Temari, awaiting something that the girl obviously could not quite seem to pinpoint as she raised a questioning eyebrow at her youngest brother. Finally realization struck her, and she gave him his dinner, which he ungraciously accepted and turned with it to leave. In the doorway, he stopped and without turning to face either of them, said slowly; “…But when he returns, he always does so…. cheerfully.”

With that he made his exit, and Temari once again turned to Kankuro, grinning devilishly, fueled by this new information.

“Cheerfully, eh, Kankuro?” She chirped, “So do you train and then make out, or make out and then train?”

“YOU DISGUST ME!” Kankuro shouted at the top of his lungs, then quickly scooping up a mostly repaired Karasu and a handful of random tools, he slung the dummy over his shoulder and stormed out of the house, slamming the door furiously. After he was gone, Temari burst into a fit of hysterical laughter. It was only when she noticed Gaara watching the door, his chopsticks raising noodles out of his take-out carton, did she stop.

“He left without his hat,” he noted with idle curiosity. Then, as if it were a passing thought, he turned his back on the door and proceeded towards his room. Temari's eyes drifted towards the window facing the street, as if hoping to see Kankuro outside. It was not something she would have noticed herself, being used to Kankuro's unmasked appearance, but it didn't occur to her until Gaara said it that for Kankuro, it was unusual for him to leave without his favorite hat, he was rarely seen without it around the Village Hidden in the Sand. She shrugged, figuring that she must have made him angry enough to forget all about it- which happened from time to time- and brushed it off, now concentrating on her own dinner in front of her. She was always forced to eat last.

Tenten had been an anxiety attack waiting to happen all day. And while at first she ignored it, even denied it, she was finally forced to admit to herself that she had been abnormally out of focus. She was still able to function on a normal level, concentrate on her training and later her chores; but she seemed more anxious than usual. And worst of all, that wasn't even what she would have considered the `abnormal' part. No- that honor was given to the source of her preoccupation, the burning question, which had been plaguing her mind all day; the revealing of the face behind the mask.

It was so bizarre to her, that a simple question asked in passing could turn to such an unruly distraction. When she had initially asked, she didn't even care about the answer; but since he seemed to seclusive about it, had to make such a big deal about it, she suddenly felt like he was revealing a great secret to her; one that almost nobody else knew.

She didn't know how true that was, but it was how she was beginning to feel. It was true that probably no one in Konoha ever saw his true face, as he wore the paint on missions and any time he spent in her hometown was undoubtedly for that purpose, but probably everyone in Hidden Sand had seen him in his casual wear. He didn't wear that ridiculous stuff to town, did he? But he was always wearing it when they met- was he wearing it all day, or did he put in on just for her?

These questions were boggling, both in the sense that she didn't know the answer and in the sense that she was even thinking about such stupid things. Why would she bother to waste a thought on Kankuro? He was an obstacle in her path…. At least, it began that way.

Tenten had to admit that her opinion of him had changed as they met every night for the past two weeks, and it was becoming harder and harder to be angry every time she saw him late at night, blocking her path like he usually did. While at first she found him to be arrogant, obtrusive, and totally uncaring; she eventually noticed that while his personality never changed, at the same time, none of those things were necessarily true. For all of her losses, he never killed her… and with the exception of their first encounter, never even left her with any irreversible damage. She only suffered cuts and bruises, falls and mild concussions, never anything serious or fatal. Whenever it came to that point, he always stopped and allowed her the time it always took her to admit defeat. Then he would simply let her go. He never even feared that she would fake a surrender and attack while his back was turned, and even though her honor was too strong for her to actually do that, what was so puzzling was that he seemed to trust her totally, right from the start. How can he have so much blind faith? He didn't know her, had never even seen her save once or twice before she stumbled across his path late one night.

Really, he wasn't even an enemy at all anymore- he was more like her training partner. The fight they had every night, the verbal abuse she received in regards to being “weak” and “unworthy”, they weren't said and done because he thought it was true, thought it was fun to break her spirit- if that were the case, he would have broken her body too- no, they were to toughen her up for her eventual fight with Temari, who undoubtedly would not be so merciful. He was training her body and her spirit so that she would be ready when she went against his sister. He was not opposing her- he was helping her.

And that was very confusing, all on its own.

Through all her jumbled thoughts that day, she did not forget her end of their strange little bargain. So, after she washed and combed her hair that night, instead of braiding it up like she usually did, she allowed her soft, tidy brown locks to fall gracefully around her shoulders and down her back. This actually sort of annoyed her, as she always preferred to put her hair up, especially before a fight- but a deal was a deal, and she was a woman of her words.

So she left that night with the wind whipping through her wild tresses, to the place between the leaves and the sand.

She arrived at their usual training spot to find that, as usual, she was either the first one there or her opponent was really very well hidden (the latter was usually the case). Suddenly feeling a little shy, or perhaps a little anxious, Tenten brushed her air-dried locks off her shoulder and announced herself in her usual way.

“I know you're here, and I know you can see me. Come on out, Kankuro! I upheld my end of the deal.” The last part was added with a slight nervous pitch to her voice. Fighting with her hair down was going to be cumbersome, so he'd better be damn good-looking under all that make-up. Or hideously deformed. SOMETHING interesting.

A low chuckle seemed to emanate from the trees. She gritted her teeth. Cocky bastard… he did that sometimes and it annoyed her every time.

“So you have!” She heard Kankuro say. “That's impressive- I was almost sure you'd forget.”

“We only spoke yesterday,” she replied cynically, “My memory is better than that. And speaking of which, as I recall, you owe me a show. Come on out and lets see your pretty face!” it just then occurred to her to wonder briefly if she should have considered the option of possibly thinking about bringing a disposable camera.

“Too hasty!” Came an amused little drawl. “In due time, Little Green Leaf. First… You have to find me!”

At that precise moment, Karasu shot out of the trees, barreling towards her. She flipped backwards out of its way, discharging a volley of silver shuriken at the puppet. Karasu dodged, but was struck unexpectedly by the black painted shuriken in the shadows of the silver ones. As it reeled back in surprise, Tenten pulled a series of wires, and the silver throwing stars abruptly changed direction, thunking into the back of the doll.

Shuriken, even that many of them, wouldn't stop him, she knew- but if they could distract for a moment, she could perform her coup de grace. As Karasu struggled with the wires and throwing stars, Tenten unfurled a large black Fuuma Shuriken, and sent it sailing in a graceful arc towards her opponent before giving him a chance to blink. It hit Karasu dead on, splitting the puppet like firewood. As the scraps of wood and sawdust began to hit the earth, they disappeared in a cloud of smoke, only to be replaced by a plain wooden branch.

“Kawarimi,” she spat as if it were a curse word, and turned around quickly to check behind her, but her loose hair swung into her face, temporarily blocking her vision. She flipped it out of her eyes just in time to be confronted by Karasu's hideous, unscathed presence.

He swung a poisoned dagger at her, which she quickly deflected with a kunai, but as she held her ground against that weapon, one of Karasu's arms swung forward to strike her. Tenten ducked, but was still sideswiped by him, and was knocked into a tree. She coughed once, startled, but had no time to collect herself as she rolled out of the way of his next attack, the dagger just barely missing her head as it slammed into the tree she had previously been leaning upon.

She turned aggressively towards Karasu, teeth bared, brows furrowed, holding two double bladed kunai in front of her protectively. Her eyes beckoned him to come and try again- she was ready.

Suddenly, to her great shock, she was struck from above- how was that possible? Karasu was standing right in front of her! As she painfully met the ground stomach first, still in amazement, she felt a weight pressed against her back, which swiftly pulled her Konoha forehead protector over her eyes and pinned her arms to the ground.

“Your problem is,” Kankuro began with an amused voice, “that you never remember that there's TWO of us.”

“Shit!” Tenten swore loudly, being unable to think of anything else to say and finding that cursing seemed to suit the situation perfectly. She struggled, but he was straddling her waist, pinning her arms down. Her headband was blinding her, her hair was splayed all over the place, and she was face down in the dirt.

What a sorry sight I must be, she thought dejectedly, beginning to cease her struggle.

“Good match, though,” he complimented her, though he didn't ease his grip. “You surprised me with all those shuriken. I just barely got Karasu out of there.”

“Oh, shut up,” she snapped. “I don't need that.”

“Don't be mad,” he grinned good-naturedly, making Tenten both at the same time feel a little better and also want to punch him in the teeth. If she could at LEAST get her arms to her face, she could move her forehead protector and see! “I think you're still doing MUCH better than the first few times we fought.”

“That means nothing if I still can't beat you,” she hissed at him, taking no obvious comfort in his words. She sighed slightly, her struggle completely given up on, and lay pitifully on the ground at Kankuro's mercy. He frowned. Was she depressed? That was a sort of surprise. She seemed like a very strong willed girl with nerves of steel…. Did she ever feel anything but aggression? But he supposed a person could only get defeated every night for so many nights in a row before it began to take its toll on them. Then, he thought suddenly of a way to get her spark back, and smiled.

“If it makes you feel better, I kept my promise,” he said, and she could read the smile in his voice. She began to struggle again, trying to flip over or move aside or something, but his pin remained firm.

“Well?!” She objected, becoming obviously irritated, “Are you going to let me see?”

“No, of course not,” he replied delightfully, “I told you, you had to find me, and you never did.”

“That's hardly fair!” Her struggle became more violent now, and he actually found that it took most of his force of will to keep her down at this point. “I didn't get much of a chance before you rained down on me!”

“Your fault for not keeping on your toes,” he casually replied with a smirk. She growled loudly.

“Then how do I know you even kept your promise?!” She demanded, irritated, humiliated, and still blindfolded, “I'm here with my hair in my eyes, blinding me while I try to fight, and now I'm on the ground EATING it, all for nothing?” Her raged fumed, “Prove to me you're a man of your word! Prove you're worth every night I've spent with you up until this point! Show me what I came to see!”

Then, exhausted from the fighting and struggling and yelling, she lay still, boiling in her anger, panting, and awaited his reply.

But once sentence in particular out of her little fit caught his attention. He couldn't help but to focus on those words.

Show me what I came to see!

What I came to see….

“What you came to see… huh?” He said quietly, mostly to himself. What she had come to see… she had come to see… him?

Not the way that had been seeing each other, separated by his mask, hiding his identity… she wanted to see… him. She came tonight, fought tonight, out of a desire to meet her mysterious training partner.

Temari was nowhere in the equation. Tonight, she fought for him. She wanted to meet him.

Kankuro smiled then, genuinely, warmly. Maybe he wanted to meet her, too.

“All right then,” he finally agreed, “I'll prove it.”

At those conceding words, Tenten's heart rate suddenly and unexpectedly sped up. But instead of releasing his hold on her, or even removing her blindfold, he raised one of her arms up over her head and brushed her fingers across his face.

“See?” He began, “Or rather, feel? No make-up. All smooth.”

Her face flushed brightly and became extremely warm all of a sudden. This was not how she expected him to prove it!

He then moved her hand to brush through his wily light brown hair. “And no hat, either,” he continued. “Just like you said. You see? I am a man of my word.”

She tried to concentrate but couldn't make the heat in her face subside, or the beating of her heart slow down. What was this? Why was he so touchy-feely the last couple of days? Why couldn't she seem to concentrate on anything but the texture of his skin and hair, the warmth of his weight pressed against her back?

“It… it's not the same!” She sputtered. “I need to SEE it!”

“I think I made my point,” he coyly replied. “I kept my promise. Two at once, in fact. I didn't wear the make-up, and proved it, and didn't let you see, since you never found me.”

“I never agreed to that!” She shouted.

“But it's the new arrangement,” he grinned. “So until you catch me, you don't get anything.”

She growled fiercely, considering his words. “Fine!” she finally submitted with a sharpness to her voice, “But you better not wear that hat or anything tomorrow, either, and give me a fair chance!”

“Or anything, huh? My, my!” He grinned, and laughed.

“THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!” She shouted, turning, if possible, even redder than before. “I mean you have to look that same tomorrow as you do tonight!”

“Fine, fine,” he drawled lowly, his voice soft yet mischievous. “I promise. Now, I have a mission in the morning, so I'm going home. Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow, Tenten!”

Then, unexpectedly, he reached forward and gently took up a lock of her hair. He combed his fingers through it softly, causing her to blush. Then the weight on her back lifted, and she heard the rusting of the trees, but by the time she flipped around and raised her forehead protector, he was already gone.

And once again, Tenten felt suddenly quite cold.

 

 

AN- what does everyone think of my fight scenes? None of my reviews really mention them, and I fret about those more than anything else in this story. Are they good? Plausible? Well writ? In fact, most of the reviews I DO get mostly consist of “I love/hate Tenten!” “Continue!” Or “Weird pairing! I like it!” Those are fine but don't tell me very much about my writing skills.

And now, for your pleasure or despair, another outtake or deleted scene by an anonymous (::cough::Hyuuga-Neji::cough::) Neji fan.

Neji was like just like um... standing around when sasuke walked by and challenged him to MORTAL KOMBAT!! Then Neji used 64 palm pushing massive quantities of chakra into Sasuke! So much it caused Sasuke to explode in a shower of blood and bones. FATALITY!! Then Tenten came by and Neji and Tenten fell in love and got married, with Rock Lee as the best man (because Neji figured Gai and Lee would trow a bitchin bachelor party and they did!) Maid of honor was...oh I dont know....Sakura. Neji took over the Hyuuga family after Hinata's and Hanabi's unfortunate demises at the hands of the Akatsuki. They lived happily ever after. (except for Sasuke, Hinata and Hanabi that is) Rock Lee lived across the street frequently challenging Neji yet never winning even to old age.

The End