Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Little Green Leaf ❯ Postponed ( Chapter 5 )

Ah, thank you to everyone who has taken the time thus far to give me a constructive critique of this story, particularly Acheeka who more or less tore it up and put it back together again for me, heh. I promise I do take your suggestions into account when I begin chapters, and some of you I think will be seeing some of your helpful thoughts come into play this chapter or at the very least, soon after this one. I have a basic guideline I'm following with this, but the rest I make up as I go. But, Ash, where did it say that the sand siblings aren't biologically brothers and sister? There's more evidence that they are than they aren't. Gaara's mother is dead, true, but he's also the youngest. (And she looks just like Temari.) I don't think anyone would bother “saying” that they're Gaara's sibling. Besides, Temari and Kankuro are in Gaara's flashback to his childhood.

Note- Slight changes have been made to chapters 1, 2 and 3, upon reevaluation of the dialogue. See? I take advice.

 

 

“Don't stop,” Rock Lee reminded the exhausted girl laying in the grass, the both of them panting volubly as they tried to catch their breath, “Don't stop moving. It's bad for your muscles. Come on, get up.” He reached out his hand to help Tenten up, which she grudgingly accepted, and it took most of the strength the two of them had left to pull her back on her feet. He began to walk, slowly, and she followed.

“Let me sit down, for just a second…” she protested tiredly, but Lee shook his head.

“You're supposed to walk it off, you know I've told you this before.” Lee smiled affectionately at Tenten, as sweat streaked visibly down both their weary faces. “Good workout.”

She smiled lightly in response. “It was. I'm glad we got to do this. You and Neji were gone for so long, I actually had to seek out another training partner.” She laughed a little and held an aching muscle in her side. A nap was in order before she went anywhere tonight.

“I'm sorry, Tenten,” Lee apologized. “I wish you could have come with us on that mission, but your shoulder-“

“I know,” she interrupted, “It was my fault for being reckless. I would have liked to go with you, too, but Neji would have KILLED me if I endangered the mission by being a liability,” she laughed with a bit of a roll in her eyes. “I still managed to keep up with my training while you were away.”

“You certainly have!” Lee replied enthusiastically, “You're almost entirely different since when we left. It's amazing. Who have you been training with?”

“Oh…” she began a little distantly, “Just someone I met recently. I don't think you know them. I just met them around the time you left.”

Lee thought about this for a moment, and the two of them walked around the training grounds in silence for a little while as they gave their bodies a chance to cool down from their strenuous sparring exercise. He had just remembered something as she spoke, something he had not had the opportunity to question her on before, but he certainly seemed to have plenty of time now, and he'd been worried about it for several weeks since he and Neji were forced to leave without her.

“Tenten,” Lee began slowly, “The night I brought you to the hospital, you had a stab wound in your shoulder that had absorbed some poison. I didn't get a chance to ask you while you were healing before Neji and I left…”

Tenten silently sucked in her breath, already knowing the question that would be following, but having no answer that she wanted to give to him.

“…But who was it that did that to you?”

She stopped walking, and stared silently at the ground as she contemplated her reply. What would be the least incriminating response? He didn't know of her grudge against Temari, didn't know that she intended to challenge a rematch… didn't know that she'd been meeting the very person who denied her the mission she was supposed to have been on with Lee and Neji every night since they left.

Lee stopped and looked at her, calmly, patiently. Tenten smiled lightly at her friend, glancing up at him. Even when she had been cruel to him, he was always so understanding and caring with her. He worried over her so much when she was brought to the hospital over two weeks ago, and tried to reschedule the mission until she was well, but Neji would hear none of it, and so they were forced to replace her. Tenten had argued that she could go, but Gai Sensei insisted that she remain bed set until she had fully recovered.

Nonetheless, after they left, Tenten had gone off that night to face Temari again. Even if they would not let her go with them, she had no intention of staying home, and needed a good fight now to ease her anger not only about losing to Kankuro, but about losing her mission as well. It turned out that hadn't been a very good idea either, when she later had to return home by sneaking into her room by way of her window so she didn't have to explain to her family why she was out with that stab wound, and why her bra was split open.

She raised her eyes to Lee confidently. He was too nice to be lied to. “It was my new training partner,” she finally replied to his question. “Things got a little out of hand.”

“Really?” He seemed to accept that, “Was he the same person that brought you to me, unconscious?”

A look of shock quickly spread across her face. “Did you see him?” She suddenly gushed, “Was it him that did that?”

Lee seemed to be taken aback by her abrupt outburst, and stammered “I… I didn't really see him, I only heard his voice. He dropped you off half bandaged, and left. I didn't recognize him… Who is he?”

“Was it him?…” Tenten retreated to her own thoughts, ignoring Lee's question. That first night, when Karasu had stabbed her with that poison tipped dagger, Tenten had lost consciousness and never learned who it was that had saved her. She didn't think Kankuro would bother to take the time, not only to fix her up but to bring her home as well.

“You say you didn't see him at all?” She turned inquisitively to Lee, a look of curiosity burning in her eyes.

“I didn't,” he replied, obviously confused, “He hid in the shadows of the trees.”

“What did his voice sound like? What did he say?”

Rock Lee tried to think back to that night, when the mysterious figure dropped Tenten's comatose body into his arms from the branches. He struggled to remember the conversation they had briefly engaged in before he was forced to rush Tenten to the hospital, though he was also intensely curious why this was so important to her. Did she not know what happened to her that not? How could she not expect a new training partner to take her home if he did too much damage?

“It was a while ago, I'm afraid I don't recall very clearly…” he began, concentrating hard, “But I believe his voice was sort of… cynical, if that's any description. As for what he said, it was something like `Is this yours?' and then he dropped you into my arms. He would not respond to my inquiring who he was, but instead said `She'll tell you, when she wakes up…' or… something to that effect…. and then mentioned that you had absorbed some poison. Tenten, who is this person? He seemed to know me, or at least that I knew you. If you train with him, why would he treat you like he didn't care about you?”

The look on Tenten's face was a million miles away. She was silent for a moment, and Rock Lee could have been standing next to her or not.

“No,” she began dreamily, possibly more to herself than to him, “The question is, why would he act like he did care?”

This obviously puzzled Lee. “I'm afraid I don't understand.”

Tenten finally returned to Earth, and looked at him carefully. She then smiled brightly, as if trying to wash away his concerns by doing so.

“Don't worry about it. It won't happen again.” She then began to walk again, and Lee followed. Tenten was very suddenly in an abnormally good mood.

“Well,” she smiled at him, “I think I've cooled off now, what do you think?”

Lee grinned, narrowing his eyes. “Shall we have a rematch?”

“Don't go so easy on me this time!” She drew her body into a fighting stance.

Who's going easy? Rock Lee thought lightly, with slight amusement. She was not quite up to his skill level yet, but she was closer than she had ever been since he surpassed her years before. She was different now, somehow. During his absence, something had not only succeeded in making her stronger, but happier as well, it seemed. She had renewed strength and determination. He wondered if all these changes had the same cause. But he was glad for her.

He charged forward, ready to strike.

And so once again, Tenten found herself three hours away from the country of fire at ungodly hours of the night, looking for a boy who was undoubtedly hiding from her so that she could fight him. Not a normal relationship by any means, but who needs normal? This was much more fun.

Her conversation with Rock Lee earlier that day had brought a new revelation forth. When she discovered the possibility that Kankuro may have saved her that first night, after being the one to defeat her, she found that her reaction to this was surprisingly pleased. She was happy that he would bother to help her in her time of need- even back when he didn't know her, back when she was an annoying stranger whom he could have easily killed without a second thought. But he went out of his way to spare her life. And while she had no proof, she could tell from the description who it was. You don't spend over two weeks straight with a person without beginning to understand a few things about them.

This was an all new level on her opinion of him. In fact, she found that tonight, she couldn't wait to see him. She was going to ask him the truth- was it he who brought her home? She was sure he wouldn't give her a straight answer, he had to answer questions like that in riddles, but she was sure she could decipher it. And she was just as sure that she was right about the answer. Why else would he have never asked how she got home that night?

She smiled a little to herself and took in a deep breath. Lots would be answered tonight. She would see him, the real him, under the paint he hid behind, and ask what had happened that night.

And then, she would thank him.

Not just for saving her, but for everything. For helping her train, under whatever pretences. For coming every night and holding to his promise. At first she hated him for it, but now, she understood. Under all that sarcasm, he was really very kind to her. And she had been nothing but awful. Tonight, whoever won their match, he deserved to be told that she valued her time with him, and that she would like to view him as a friend.

A few small butterflies began to flit around in her stomach. Somehow, the prospect of telling Kankuro she didn't dislike him was more nerve racking than any fight.

Tonight, though, as she stood under the dark shade of the trees in their usual training ground, she found herself waiting an abnormally long amount of time for him. She was beginning to feel rather uncomfortable, standing out here in the middle of the woods at night all by herself. She couldn't figure out what was taking so long.

Fifteen minutes passed. She was beginning to like him less and less with each passing minute. How long did he expect her to wait?

Twenty minutes. She could think of a few reasons why he wouldn't be here, and she didn't know which one to hold to. Maybe he decided that she had trained enough, and this was a way of telling her to proceed on to the next area? Or maybe it was a test, and he wanted to see if she would try to sneak past, to move on towards the Wind Country and challenge Temari- and then he would ambush her when she least expected it. Or maybe… he was just plain bored with her?

A knot in her stomach tightened at that last thought. Go figure, she thought, the day I decide I don't hate him, he decides he hates me.

Twenty-five minutes. Should she proceed to the Sand Village, or go back to the Leaf Village? It was strange, for weeks she had been hoping this would happen so that she could slip past him and go on to face Temari like she had originally planned, but now that it actually did happen, she had no idea what to do.

And she was still torn, when she suddenly remembered something.

Last night, after their fight… didn't Kankuro say he had a mission for today?

Tenten sighed, and with a small laugh, slumped against a tree trunk and sat down. He did say that. That was probably why he was so late. And furthermore, she would be unable to go challenge Temari anyways, because undoubtedly they were both on the same mission. That explained it.

Still, it would have been polite to tell her if this mission was going to take a few days, so she could have stayed home. Letting her stand out here by herself all night was really rude.

He must not have thought very much of her, after all.

“Ten more minutes,” she said aloud to break up the silence. “I'll give him ten more minutes, and if he's still not here, I'm going home.”

It was at that very moment that a kunai suddenly hit the tree she was leaning against, a mere inch from her head. Tenten quickly flipped herself upright and threw a senbon at the direction the kunai had come from, and watched it disappear into the darkness.

“You waited for me!” Kankuro's jubilant voice was heard, “I'm flattered. I was almost sure you'd get bored and leave.”

“I have more conviction than that,” she smirked. “I don't just give up. What the hell kept you, though?”

“I told you,” The hair on Tenten's neck rose as she realized the source of his voice was now directly behind her, “I had a mission.”

She leapt forward and quickly spun around to face him, readying another volley of shuriken. But instead of discharging them, she found herself completely frozen in shock.

She had no idea who this person standing so casually before her, with his hands in his pockets, even was.

He had wild light brown hair that hung messily over his sharp, slanted eyes, and a somewhat prominent nose. And then he grinned at her, and her heart rate increased quite a bit.

“K- …Kankuro?…” she asked hesitantly, still trying to recognize him, shock obvious on her face. She didn't know what she had expected when this night came, but somehow the last thing she expected to think had been `handsome'. That came as a total surprise.

“I'm glad you waited,” he smiled at her, and she found herself blushing furiously. He took a step towards her, and she took a step back.

“W-well… I… wasn't doing anything else tonight….” Why was she so flustered all of a sudden? Why couldn't she tear her eyes away from that face? Shouldn't this be like any other night?

He took a few more slow, casual steps forward, and she took a few smaller ones back.

“I thought you wanted to fight me first, before I got my prize,” she stated, finally starting to collect herself.

“Ooh, I like being referred to as a `prize',” he grinned at her, totally ignoring the rest of what she had said. “Say it again.”

“No! What? What are you… I mean, aren't we going to fight?” He was still advancing on her, and for some reason she just could not keep it together. He did not even seem like he had any intention of fighting at all- Karasu was nowhere to be seen, and his expression now was sort of mischievous and carefree. He looked like he had some other intention, in fact, and given that the basis of their relationship was fighting, anything else apparently made her nervous. He took another step forward, and caught up to her. He was now within an arms reach of Tenten, and she couldn't help but to stare, dumbstruck. What about him was suddenly so distracting?

He leaned in close, a coy smile on his lips. He slowly raised his hand, and brought it gently towards Tenten's face, reaching up to her forehead. Her cheeks grew redder as he pointed a finger at her hitai-ate, and pressing on the metal lightly, his coy smile grew into a delighted grin.

“You lose.”

Suddenly and unexpectedly, Tenten was grabbed from behind by a pair of wooden arms, and pulled back forcefully. She let out a short scream as her back hit something, the arms let go, and suddenly it was extremely dark. She began to thrash around, trying to stand up, but her head hit something, as did her arms. To her horror, she realized she had been pulled into some kind of wooden barrel or crate. She began violently pounding on the sides, cursing furiously, trying to break free. From outside, she heard Kankuro laugh.

“You got too close to Kuroari. Now you've learned something new.”

“What is this?!” She shouted, searching now for a lid or a door or some kind of opening.

“It's my other weapon, Kuroari,” he grinned lowly. “Didn't I ever tell you? I have two. Of course, you can't really see him now, but his design is really quite clever, if I do say so myself.”

“This is bullshit!” She roared at him “What kind of trickery was that?! I- I didn't even know we started yet!”

“Of course we did. I threw a kunai, and you threw a senbon. The fight began.” He leaned against his puppet, and could feel her moving around inside. “But it doesn't matter now. You lose. It's so easy to kill someone once they're in Kuroari's reaches.” He began to laugh lowly, when suddenly the blade of a dagger shot out of one of the slots cut into the wood, just barely missing his leg. He jumped quickly out of the way, surprised. “Careful!” he said, startled, “Blades usually go INTO those slots, not come out of them.”

“Not when I'm in here!” She replied testily, “Have you met me?” The blade pulled back in to suddenly shoot out of a different slot. She was so angry at him, and at herself right now- how could she let herself be so distracted by his stupid, ugly face well enough for him to lead her into a trap?! That must have been a real ego boost for that asshole. There had to be some way out of here- it was cramped, dark, and reeked of blood. She could not take much more.

“Unfair!” she shouted, “I didn't know you had TWO puppets!”

“But you knew I had one at least,” he replied, “And you still fell into my trap. In fact, you're lucky I brought Kuroari. If that had been Karasu, you'd be dead.”

“I'm not going home after THIS shitty fight, I demand a rematch! I waited almost half an hour for you, you son of a bitch!”

For a moment, there was no reply. She quieted in order to hear him, still simmering in her fury. Suddenly, a door swung open on Kuroari's chest, and Tenten wasted no time scrambling out. She was about to holler at Kankuro some more, when she saw him sitting down on a fallen tree trunk, watching her calmly and unthreateningly. She raised a curious eyebrow.

“You're right,” he began, “That was a shitty fight. I pulled a cheap trick.”

Tenten stared at him in silent astonishment, mouth slightly agape.

“…What?” Was all she found she could think of to say.

“I said, you're right,” he smirked. “Does that amaze you?”

“Not amazed that I'm right,” she replied, “But that you would admit it. Are you ill?”

“Yeah,” he looked at her distantly, “I think I am.”

She gave him a curious and slightly concerned look. “Is something bothering you?”

He motioned for her to come over to him, which she did unthinkingly, and leaned against a tree near him, keeping one eye out for the creepy barrel shaped puppet behind her, which she could now fully see and still didn't trust.

“I promise I won't attack you,” he laughed a little when he saw her glance anxiously at Kuroari. “So stop expecting me to trick you.”

“Well I did fall for this earlier, I'll be damned if it's going to happen again,” she replied incredulously. He didn't reply, and Tenten found herself suddenly filled with curious concern. No smart-ass remarks on how easily she fell for it? No comments on how his new toy could crush her? Nothing?

“….Are you okay?” she asked, and stepped towards him cautiously.

“I'm alright,” he replied, and she found that without the paint, it was so much easier to read his emotions. “I just didn't feel like fighting today, is all.”

“You didn't? Then… why did you come?”

“Because you were expecting me to, of course,” he smiled, and once again she found herself dumbstruck by that smile. “So I pulled a cheap trick to get out of it. I bet you hate me for that, don't you?”

While normally it would have been very simple for her to reply with a `yes', today for some reason, as he looked at her with that dumb smile and those cat-like eyes, with his whole face as she had asked him to do, she found that she couldn't seem to convince herself to say it. After a moment of awkward silence, she sighed, and took a seat next to him on the fallen log.

“How did your mission go?” She asked.

“I killed some people,” He replied, with almost no emotion. She somehow found that a little disturbing.

“I suppose you have to, it's kill or be killed, that's a ninja's life.” She wasn't necessarily trying to be comforting, just stating a fact. He nodded.

“We have another mission tomorrow,” he started, “It will extend for six days. On the sixth night, can I expect to meet you here?” He looked at her very seriously. She nodded resolutely, though secretly inside her gut, she was a little disappointed at the prospect of not seeing him for the next six nights.

“Of course. That's the arrangement. I have to meet you here, if I ever plan on defeating you,” she smiled coyly at him, and as he looked at her there, with those cute little buns, his heart sped up just a bit. He decided that he rather liked that smile.

“You're wearing your hair up,” he commented. “That's not fair.”

“How so?” she asked, raising her hands to her hair. “You already saw that. We didn't make arrangements for you to see it twice.”

“If I have to look the same as yesterday, so do you,” he replied, and without any hesitation, proceeded to scoot over to her and undo the bindings in her hair. Tenten blushed.

“What do you think you're doing?” She asked, but at the same time, made no move to stop him- in fact, she may have leaned her head towards him, just a little. His fingers were quick and nimble as he untied the braids and clipped out the barrettes- but she imagined that should come as no surprise to her. He was a puppeteer, after all, and they would have to have fast hands. As he began to unravel the second braid, something occurred to her. After a moment to build up her courage, she finally began, not wanting to waste this opportunity.

“Kankuro,” she began, a little nervously, “You never did ask how it was that I got home- the first night we fought and you knocked me out.”

She felt his hands stop for a moment and begin to loosen their grip, and then quickly went back to work unwinding her braid.

“Didn't I?” he asked. “Well, I'm an insensitive bastard, aren't I?”

“Yes, but that aside,” she heard him laugh a little at that, “Answer me truthfully. Did you bring me to Rock Lee that night?”

He finished taking out her braids then, and slowly he brushed his fingers through her dark hair. It was long and thick, a little wavy from being braided while damp, and surprisingly soft. And it still rather smelled like polished steel and shampoo, he noted. But then, she probably wasn't the type of girl to smell like flowers. Her cheeks flushed as he combed his fingers through her hair, and she made no indications that he should stop, as she awaited his answer.

Finally, he untied the knot on her forehead protector and slipped it off, then backed away from her. “I couldn't very well just leave you there.”

So it was finally confirmed. A smile lit up her face. The stupid jerk really did have a heart. She smiled warmly at him, and now it was he who found himself a little astounded. He still didn't really know what had possessed him to take her all the way to Konoha that night, but it occurred to him that maybe the reason was that so someday he could see this smile on her face, this radiant smile, which confused and terrified him, and was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. She had never smiled at him like this before. He decided that he liked this smile, too.

“In that case,” she began, a light tint in her cheeks, “I think I should thank you.”

“You don't…. have to do that,” he began, and turned away, a little embarrassed.

“Not just for helping me that first night,” she continued, “But for every night, for the past two and a half weeks. You've held you your promise, even though you didn't have to, even though you had nothing to gain from it… and I've gotten much stronger because of it.” She scooted a little closer to him, and a heat spread across his face and down his neck, and his eyes were suddenly glued to this girl. Neither of them were wearing their forehead protectors… and they weren't fighting… so tonight, it was suddenly very clear that when they weren't being ninjas, they were just a boy and a girl.

“So,” she smiled, her small mouth suddenly looking so very attractive, “Thank you.”

And Kankuro found himself fighting off the strangest urge to do something totally unexpected and completely unnecessary. He always knew she was pretty, but never before did she seem so alluring. She seemed to be taunting him, with those captivating olive green eyes and that long lustrous hair and those moist, fascinating lips; which she seemed to be unconsciously licking, darting her little pink tongue out across her mouth and quickly drawing it back in… and he discovered, as he licked his own lips and his heart pounded and his cheeks flushed, that he was leaning in, just a little bit, as if she was drawing him to her by some unexplained force, and by that same strange force his lips were parting ever so slightly, and he just kept getting closer and closer until he could almost feel her breath on his skin, and if he kept going at this rate things would soon be very different between them. It took all the force of will he had to pull away and look in the entirely opposite direction, as he waited for his heart to slow and the heat to subside and that bizarre compulsion to pass.

“Don't mention it,” was all he could think of to say. “It was… my pleasure.” He half turned to grin at her.

Tenten stared at her hands folded neatly in her lap, waiting for her own heart to slow. Kankuro had just gotten very close- unnervingly close. And she hadn't done a thing to stop him. In fact, she didn't seem to have anything going at all in her head during that moment. All she could seem to concentrate on was how very close he kept getting and how very handsome he suddenly seemed and how very interesting his lips were. She blushed, and pulled her hair in front of her face like a curtain, as if trying to shield herself from him so that he couldn't see her embarrassment. Things would have been very different between them if that had happened. It was probably in both of their best interests to pretend it never got that far.

“So,” she started, standing up from the log, “Six days, then?”

“Yeah,” he replied, watching her stand with curious apprehension, “Six.”

“I wish you luck on your mission, then.” She smiled at him. “Try to come back alive, okay?”

“You aren't leaving, are you?” There was a tone in his voice that caught her attention, and grounded her to that spot.

“Well,” she began, “If you have a mission tomorrow, you should probably be preparing for it, right?”

“I will,” he smirked in that coy, familiar way. “Tomorrow. But that has nothing to do with now.”

While she could have and probably should have argued with him that he should be more responsible towards his mission and his other teammates, at the same time he was making this excuse so that he could spend more time with her. And, truth be told, she didn't really want to go home anyways. She rather liked the idea of staying here, just a little bit longer.

She smirked at him, and crossed her arms over her chest. “So, then,” she began, “If we aren't going to fight, what are we going to do?”

“Well, most normal human beings have conversations with their friends,” he replied with a smile.

“Is that what friends do?” She mused. “Then perhaps, as friends, that's what we should do, too.” She sat back down on the fallen tree casually and looked at him. “So! What do you want to talk about?”

“How about we start with your last name?”

“How about we start with yours?”