Chapter 138

"Tou-san," Tenten tries, standing to meet her disappointed father. "We aren't in an optimum position to bargain. They know they don't have to trade with us, which means we have to do whatever we can to bring them to the table. If Naruto accepts the challenge, all I need to do is win, and we get Kubikiribōchō free and clear."

"You better," her father warns. "Because I have no intention of honoring such blatant theft, especially with that fucking demon!"

"I'll win," Tenten emphasizes with a hint of desperation. "You'll see. Guy-sensei believes we're ready for the Chūnin exams and I have a year over him. I think I can beat a genin a few months out of the Academy."

Dānyī turns to his daughter and for the first time ever, unleashes his killing intent on her, asking with seething hate, "can you kill him?"

Despite eying her father, a shaking Tenten takes a step back, voicing through the stunting fear, "I- Tou-san… I… hah… don't… need to kill him."

Seemingly satisfied, Dānyī lowers his long-unused killing spirit, stating, "this is your last week, Ten. All that time you spent investigating, did you happen to learn why he has Kubikiribōchō?"

Breathing a little easier, Tenten slowly answers, "no. The log for that day showed seven teams entering the Hokage tower but only six missions were logged for public record. Which of course doesn't make sense since all missions are logged, whether successful or not."

Looking out the window, Dānyī roughly replies, "that simply means something happened that we don't know about."

"If it did, it was more than likely because of Uchiha-kun," Tenten argues. "I know that Kakashi-sensei and Uchiha-kun left for some special training. If I had to guess, it has something to do with his eyes."

Turning to face her daughter, with hard eyes Dānyī rigidly asks, "then why does the demon brat have Kubikiribōchō?"

Feeling slightly crushed under the displeasure of her father's little eyes, Tenten weakly postulates, "the only thing I can think of that makes any sense is Uzumaki and Haku stole it, but without asking them, it's only a guess."

"We've struggled every day since the Kyūbi attack. Rather than stay, and put in the hard work it takes to rebuild our destroyed business from the ground up, she left. Your mother left because she'd rather live the easy life." Dānyī eyes her with such vitriol, Tenten wonders if he even sees his own daughter before him. Dānyī warns her, "don't do the easy thing and hesitate, Ten." His eyes are hard and she can't shake the feeling that he's suffering in some way because of her. "I don't care if you kill him, just don't hesitate for a second," he finishes.

"I- I won't," she replies earnestly and he leaves her to finish sharpening the boxes of the shuriken on her own. Alone with her thoughts, a placid Tenten doesn't think about her woes. It's because she's spent a year with her three impressive teammates, that she discovered her one true concern, and it had nothing to do with her mother, her father, and the business.

It wasn't her mother. Tenten had already spent a good amount of her youth shooting at targets thinking of the woman who birthed then left her. However, after learning of Neji's family, she eventually came to the conclusion that this woman who apparently looks like her, quite simply ran away with another man, and as callous as it may sound, the fact is, her mother wasn't coming back. After learning of Neji's family, Tenten couldn't help but ask herself, 'why dwell on a woman's who's not coming back?' The bun-haired brunette didn't need to consider more than that rationality to move on.

Tenten doesn't think about her father; not truly. Stress and anxiety in the body throws off her pinpoint accuracy, which she will not allow. While it's upsetting that he's so upset with her, she also knows everything will be alright after she wins Kubikiribōchō. So, since it's pointless to waste energy on useless, round-about what-if scenarios, she focuses on winning. Attaining that sword is the only solution she will give any thought to.

Tenten wasn't worried about the challenge either. Though she's very curious how he managed to gain the legendary weapon, Tenten doesn't spend much contemplation on Naruto-kun's skill level. He's a rookie genin and she's sparred dozens of times against Lee-kun, Neji, and Guy-sensei by this point. 'He's a close-range fighter who's probably never dealt with a long-range type before.' At least not a long range of her caliber.

As she sharpens the shurikens to perfection, she instead wonders, as she often does, about her place, not only within her team but within her village as well. It's the constant and reoccurring source of wonderment for her. Despite not having any ability in ninjutsu, Lee-kun knows exactly what his goal is and works harder than anyone she's ever seen to reach it. Though dour, Neji is simply a genius who obviously doesn't share her concerns. Even her sensei is a major threat. Tenten is so different from her team, from her village, it's often left her wondering if she's trying hard enough, or worse, if she's even good enough.

She'll never admit how childish her dreams of rescuing whole villages or kidnapped Daimyō with her impressing skills as a kunoichi are. It's not that she isn't confident in her ability, but she can't help but feel the reality of her skills don't align with her fantasy, and that very concern is always at the forefront of her mind. Every day, among her teammates, she can't help but wonder, 'am I good enough?' Kubikiribōchō can change that. Kubikiribōchō can change her. To be better—to be the best—is all she wants; for her team, village, father but more importantly, for herself. It's the very reason why she won't hesitate to beat Uzumaki-kun.

Emotionally, Kurenai is closer. Ino is behind her but following in the same direction.

Tenten has always struck me as a kunoichi in a similar position as Sakura(stronger teammates and wanting to be stronger), but I always liked her. She didn't seem bitter, or unkind, but she wants to be one of the strongest kunoichi in history, and I can admire that. Since we don't know much about her family and she never mentions them, I reasoned her need to prove herself might've come from her own personal drive, possibly an extension of a less than stellar home rather than a wonderful and stable home environment. Like someone who only has their job because nothing else fulfills them as much.

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