Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Strikes of Illumination ❯ It's Been Five Days ( Chapter 2 )

Toboe LoneWolf: And lo, Toboe LoneWolf reveath the love that is AU…and crack. This was part of the Ten for Ten challenge at the Nejiten LJ community, where we had ten themes and we had to do…something for them. Theme one: It's Been Five Days. …I have no idea of how I came to this AU idea, but I did, and here it is. Please let me indulge in my love for all that is AU, medieval times, and sharp pointy objects.

 

It's Been Five Days
Summary: No matter what, she will become a knight of Konoha.

 

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It's been five days.

 

Five days since she went in there. Five days in the chamber of trials. Five days to prove that she is worthy. Five days.

 

He can't help but worry. He smiles wryly at the sudden role reversal; but then again the woman was never one to stay within the proper confines of her station. No matter that it had never happened before, no matter if she would always automatically be viewed weak by her peers, no matter if some people would jeer or look strangely or stare at the woman who decided at the age of five that she would be become Konohagurake's first woman knight.

 

She might have been able to fool the rest of her year-group as being the young lad named "Tenten," but she could not fool the eyes of a Hyuuga. This Neji Hyuuga, to be exact.

 

"You're a girl."

 

She'd stared at him as he said her secret without emotion. Flat against the stone cool walls she stared into the renowned eyes of the Hyuuga family, trapped between his arm and a marble column in a deserted palace hall.

 

"Yeah? So what?" Her hands clenched into fists. "You have something against that?"

 

He blinked.

 

"Well, you're not gonna stop me. I'm going to be a knight, and I'm going to wield a sword better than all of you, and I don't care if I'm a girl or not 'cause nobody's going to stop me, not even a Hyuuga!"

 

Neji's face flickered to the left as Tenten glared at him. A girl? As a knight? The idea was preposterous. Never in all of Konohagurake's history had a woman ever been knighted.

 

Then again, never had a branch family member become a true member of the nobility either. A knight was all Neji could aspire for, and perhaps, just perhaps, a chance to rise even higher.

 

Neji removed his hand, turning his back. "Fine. I won't stop you."

 

He was going to walk to his rooms when a hand tugged on his tunic.

 

"Really?"

 

He stopped. "No."

 

No, it had never been his intention. He had been simply…intrigued. And perhaps…a bit rebellious, like her.

 

A shy face with messy brown bangs appeared from his side. A small smile grew as she faced the taller boy. "Can we practice together, then?"

 

He shifts slightly, betraying his concern as he waits outside forbidding metal doors. Tenten had managed to keep her secret through all her years of training, from first year page to squire.

 

Her secret had been revealed in the field of battle, from a chest wound that showed all too obviously to her opponent, to the comrades next to her, and to the medics that she was, in fact, a woman.

 

(Needless to say, the opponent had not lasted very long after Tenten's secret had been revealed. Neji had learned from long hours in practice that Tenten was never, ever, ever without a weapon.)

 

There'd been much shouting and debate and heated discussion afterwards. Should she be given the death penalty, should she excommunicated, should she be stripped of rank and forced into a convent, should she be allowed to continue…

 

It'd been the king, in fact, that had ended the quarrels.

 

"Silence."

 

The frenzied debate stilled at the single word. Sarutobi looked severely at the court.

 

"What is this? Death for a warrior proven in battle, not even knighted yet? Excommunication for the mere matter of gender?" The king slammed a fist into the armchair of his throne. "May I remind you that we are at war! We cannot afford to lose even one child who is willing to fight for his country!"

 

Neji's heart rose. Then…?

 

King Sarutobi continued. "I will not hear anymore of anything that would prevent Konohagurake's most famed weapons master from being allowed to pick up arms and defend her country. No, not even if she is, in fact, a woman."

 

Neji could hear the muttering. Insane. Impossible. He glanced at Tenten kneeling beside him. They were all kneeling in the center of the count, they and all her year-mates, along with the teachers she had apparently deceived (although Neji had suspicions that this was not necessarily the case.) They were to be judged alongside her, for apparently "allowing themselves to be deceived." As for Tenten, she was in the front, alone, with her head was properly bowed, even as everything she represented was anything but proper.

 

"And she will become a knight of Konohagurake!" Sarutobi's voice rose. "She will become the first ever woman knight of Konohagurake! She will take the tests as planned in six months time, and she will prove to all of Konohagurake that she is worthy of bearing a shield with the heralds of Konoha!"

 

Only then had Tenten's head rose, and Neji could see her sparkling eyes as she was given sanction from the king himself that she would indeed become a knight of Konoha.

 

And so six months passed, and Tenten was allowed into the chamber of trials just like the rest of her year-group had before her.

 

One by one, they'd gone through the gauntlet, proving their sword and shield and their honor to the code of chivalry. A ruthless test, several days long, where one would enter as squire and leave as a knight in all but name, save for the official proclamation by the king.

 

Neji had been the first to enter. Tenten was the last.

 

It had been Tenten's turn to wait as he had entered the trials. Now it was his.

 

Five days. He's waiting for her to come out with that same tired grin he'd see at the end of an exhausting spar between the two of them. He's waiting for her to walk out of there with a thumbs-up and Sir Gai will cry tears of joy and Lee, who's standing right next to him, will join in. He's waiting for her to push aside those metal doors and say, "Heya, Neji. I'm a knight now," as if it were nothing. He waiting for her to come out and prove to the world that yes, women can become knights too, and Sarutobi will allow girls into the page rank next year. He's waiting, so they can stand by each other as a sword touches upon their shoulders and they hear the words, "Rise, sir knight."

 

The metal doors creak open, and everyone looks up.

 

A half-stumble as tired legs push just a little bit further. And then she emerges, with tired grin and a shaky thumbs-up, but it's there, just like Neji knew it would. And Sir Gai cries buckets and Lee is jumping up and down because they'd all made it, finally. And she turns to look at him and Neji finally smiles, because she's done it.

 

Tenten grins even wider. "Heya, Neji. I'm a knight now."