The next morning you pull one of the blank scrolls from your shelf and settle down on your apartment floor. The reminders of the hole you blew in your wallet are sitting carefully folded on the shelf in your closet, but you remain in the clothes you slept in as you carefully pick up the brush coated in black ink. You sink into the carpeted floor of your apartment as you begin the familiar routine, the brush expertly tracing the beginnings of a storage seal in your practiced hands, the strokes quick and clean.
The fuzzy feeling is back, like you're straining to look past what you're writing to see something deeper. It reminds you of how you felt when you first started practicing fuinjutsu. Learning to look past the seals being drawn, forcing your chakra to uphold the intent of the seal itself. The brush skims over the blank white of the hard-backed paper in front of you as you concentrate. Fuinjutsu was one of the first things you found that you were genuinely naturally talented at, the same with throwing, rather than something you had to forcibly claw your way up to a decent level with. When you had discovered it you had been overjoyed, finally something you were the best at, finally something you had a knack for.
You practiced throwing until your fingers bled through calluses, you practiced writing seals until your hands were so cramped you couldn't hold a brush, but you didn't care because they were
yours. Sitting here, making the familiar movements with your brush lets you pretend, just for a second, that it's like before again. Before the chunin exams started and everything got turned upside down. That you can show off this new scroll and Lee will be amazed and Neji will give you a slight smile, because even for a prodigy he can't use weapons like you can, and you'll feel that swell of pride in your chest but
you can't.
You can't because everything's insane now, Lee's destroying himself to try and prevent being crippled, you're in way over your head and Neji...Neji
won't talk to you. Neji's
never not talked to you. You may not be the best at saying what you mean, but you can listen, you
prefer to listen, but now he won't even let you do that. You didn't have a lot of friends. In some sense you still don't, Sakura and Ino are nice enough but they can't replace Neji and Lee.
No one can replace Neji and Lee.
A harsh snap shakes you from your revelry and you look down to find the ruins of the brush in your hand. You let out a sigh as you let the shards fall from your hand, careful to avoid any splinters. The fuzzy feeling is gone now, replaced with something else, but it isn't until the faint golden flow reflected on the white paper draws your eye to the half-finished seal that it clicks. The harsh lines of the seal, stark and angry and desperate, blur together into a picture in your mind. The intent behind what you've made all too clear now.
<To relive a happier time>
Gained Charm: Sagacious Reading of Intent
All around you the written word melts down when you look to reveal their hidden intent. Some were easy to guess, other's less so, you'll have to get rid of some of those books on your shelf at least. With a mental flick everything around you flows back to normal, but you can still feel it there, a slight weight on the back of your mind. Pride blooms inside you, but then you see the shattered remains of your brush in front of you and the accomplishment turns bittersweet in your mouth.
You glance out the window, at the sun still high in the sky and the streets of Konoha, and rise. Maybe some fresh air will help?
You hope it does.
*****
The streets of Konoha are filled with people, the markets and shops bustling with commerce attracted by the Chunin Exams. You only remember one previous Exam that was held here, but before it was much the same, though at the time you were young enough to care more about the street vendors giving away sweets and such to young kids far more than the Exams themselves. Now, however, as you push through the crowds your thoughts are elsewhere still.
You idly test out your new ability as you walk, causing the advertisements and merchants hawking wares to somehow become even more cynical. You stop every now and then when you find someone who truly needs, sacrificing some of your ryo to ease someone else's pain. It's the least you can do.
But that's not what you focus on either, no what consumes your thoughts as you wade through the sights and sounds of Konoha is the mess you've found yourself in. You're proud of what you've managed to accomplish for the Village. You even have a commendation from an ANBU officer to your face, but you're also scared. You're scared you're in over your head. Whatever happened last week was much bigger than you, bigger than any mission you've ever done, and involved a lot of very terrifying people. You're scared you haven't done enough, that despite your best effort you just weren't good enough. Hayate still died in front of you, taking whatever he was going to say, everything he had found, with him.
You're scared that despite your best efforts you won't be able to protect the people you care about from whatever's coming.
All these worries pile up on top of your existing worries, about the exam, about your friends, as you walk through the crowd of people. Weighing you down as you push through, noticing but not seeing the people around you until you slip up and collide with a person standing near the edge of the street. The impact jarring you from he melancholy thoughts hanging over you like a crowd.
"Watch where you're-..."
"Sorr-"
You both start talking at the same time, her admonishment mixing with your apology, until you notice the sandy blonde hair and the harsh, metallic lines of the fan. "Temari?"
She seems to have a similar realization at the same time, because her eyes narrow as they land on you, "You."
"Hey..." You muster a weak smile, the last time you saw her was in the hospital, the day after you saw her brother tear one of the other contestants to shreds and her instructor gut your exam proctor like a fish. In your haste to cover up how much you were freaking out at the time you accidentally declared her to be your arch-rival. "Good to see you out of the hospital!"
She grunts in response then turns fully to face you "What do you want?"
That makes you pause, you hadn't initially intended to even meet up with her, you just wanted to get out...to do something. Not that you were doing a very good job of that up until now. Hanging out with her might help you take your mind off things, for a little while at least, or it might not...but you don't have any other plans for today. Not unless wandering through Konoha slowly stressing yourself out counts as a plan.
So what do you want?
[ ] Suggest a sparring match.
[ ] Find some place to eat.
[ ] Just try and hang out with her in the market district, get to know her a bit better.
[ ] Write-in
Oops that took a little while longer than I anticipated. However, it's for a good cause, because I spend that time re-reading through the quest, and getting feedback on it from my friends to try and see what I'm doing well and what I'm not. Main takeaway was that up until now I've done a very poor job of actually presenting Tenten's internal narrative and characterization. She's just kind of there
, reacting to things in the immediate but nothing beyond that.
So I'm aiming to improve that obviously, so feel free to let me know how I did in this update, and other updates moving forward.
Oh yeah, and if I can use this quest as a vessel to pimp fanfics I think deserve to be read, I choose to pimp Necromancer, simply because it has one of the best Tenten's I've seen in any fanfic ever.
Also passed 100k views. Holy shit
.
