Downsides

On this fine morning, as the pain happily hammered away at his head and pushed into his eyes like hot coals - Cole wished they would just pop out of their sockets already and spare him the agony - Cole ultimately learned a valuable lesson. His power had limits. Not soft limits, he could push and pull - more of a suggestion really - not yet, but hard limits. Limits he had overshot and paid the price for. Namely, an inquisitive kunoichi callled Tenten and the rambunctious, lionhearted boy wonder Naruto.

Cole hadn't even begun seriously making plans and already they were derailing like a runaway train.

Dissuading either of the two ninjas-in-training was a fool's errand. Tenten was boring holes through his skull and Naruto was doing his best in making a scene. The boy wouldn't stop peppering him with: Are-you-alright's and Do-you-need-help's. Cole wanted to feel bothered by the two, he seriously wished, but honestly, it was endearing. Unlike the remaining clientel, that either whispered between themselves or offered a token of assistance in the form of half-stands and raised arms. Eh, he couldn't fault them.

"Really, I'm fine. Everything's alright.", Cole stood from his chair - at least attempted to. His balance was all wrong and some asshole had shifted the room by thirty degrees and spaghettified his legs.

Two pairs of arms came up to catch him at the shoulders and Cole sank bonelessly between Naruto and Tenten. "Yeah, alright. Feeling mighty fine, I'm sure.", Tenten chid and Naruto chimed in. "Uhm, uhh, Sir... No, uhh, M-Mister! I really don't think you are alright. You are bleeding. Your eyes are bleeding."

That statement took the wind out of his sails and Cole let himself get carried back onto his seat.

"Thanks. I really appreciate it.", he murmured.

Tenten was upon him with a handkerchief, dabbing around his eyes. She looked at Naruto, shyly watching the procedures. "Could you help me? Uhm...", startled by attention not of the spiteful sort the boy shrinked back. The unasked question hung in the air until it clicked. "Ah! I'm Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki." he said sheepishly before adding: "Future Hokage!"

Cole smiled despite the pain and Tenten just huffed in amusement.

"Ah, that Naruto. The one that scribbled all over the Hokage Rock.", the boy in question flushed and Cole almost burst out laughing. "I'm Tenten. Now help me keep his eyes open."

The two teenagers carefully worked around his eyes and cleaned the rivulets of blood from his face. It was a humiliating, if also humbling experience to Cole. A grown adult pampered by kids. Were it not for rationality prevailing he would stand, on his own shaky legs and leave the establishment, like the manly man he was, even if it would invariably result in him faceplanting.

He endured the ordeal and thanked Ms.Konji, drawn my the commotion, when she lent them a clean towel, with the warning words: "Don't want the lad bleeding all over our furniture."

Cole was thankful, to ninjas and innkeeper alike, but the two teens weren't finished with him yet.

Tenten bend forward and held up her hands. "How many fingers am I showing?"

Naruto breathed and Tenten shot him a glare. "Don't you dare answer Naruto..."

"Pfft!", finally Cole broke into a fit of laughter. The pain cemented with his shaking gasps but the absurdity and antics were too much for him. One day in and he had nearly blinded himself and drawn the attention of two prominent characters, his actions were tantamount to tearing the timeline into pieces. If that didn't call for belly-aching laughter, what did?

Naruto looked concerned and Tenten just rolled her eyes. "Eight. You are holding out eight fingers.", Cole wheezed inbetween breaths.

Tenten nodded. "And now?"

"Three. One with the left, two with the right. I'm Cole by the way. Cole Marin, but you can just call me Cole."

"Tenten, as you must have heard. Just Tenten.", she moved around him again, her hands placed against his temples. "May I? I might not look the part, but I was a medical-nin in training.", she practically preened towards the end. To Cole she didn't look like anything but a lithe and athletic young woman. Before she continued she pointed at the boy ninja. "And this bratty loudmouth is Naruto," she leaned in, all conspiratorial and with a massive grin. "A real troublemaker from what I've heard."

"H-Hey! I'm no brat! And I'm not a loudmouth! I'm not a troublemaker either!", Naruto aired his indignation loudly.

"See? Case in point." Tenten giggled and Cole chuckled along. These two were a blast.

Donning the seriousness of someone in her profession, the kunoichi picked up where she left off. "I can't help with whatever injury caused this, but I can maybe locate it." she explained to him. "It will feel funny at first."

All of a sudden her hands were alight in mint green, the chakra wound around her like flickering flames. Cole's first reaction was bewilderment, followed by recoiling, his second reaction was remembering his interrogation, the third was using 'Insight' on reflex.

Cole scrapped with his chair back against the wall at the same time an ember of pain and heat crackled in his eyes. 'Insight' faded impotently but the pangs only grew worse.

He ignored the hurt in the young kunoichi's eyes, Tenten's hands tightly wring around one another, and as much as he pitied her, Cole had worse problems. Uncertanties around his body and how it would react to chakra were abound in his head. The Anbu had tried something on him, now he realised it must have been an interrogation jutsu. To make him more compliant, force answers out against his will. But it didn't work, neither did the chakra draining jutsu afterwards. Then he was let go, because either they thought his chakra tank was incredibly minuscle, or they had the necessary neurons to recognise him for what he was. A man without chakra. A man that should rightfully not exist. A man that came from a completely unknown country. What the fuck else did he tell them?! How stupid was he?!

"I'm so sorry, Tenten, Naruto, and thank you very much. But I have to go.", Cole hurried past the startled ninjas, even stumbling. His heart was beating hard and loud. His taste was gone and his tongue was dry. He was sweating, panicking.

Halfway through the dining room, eyes fixated on the entrance, he saw three men. One regal Hiruzen Sarutobi, one lax Kakashi Hatake, one nervous Iruka Umino, and surely an antire cadre of Anbu moving like shadows.

Inside the establishment no one breathed, a pin dropping would have been the equivalent to a MOAB. Naruto was oblivious, as was his modus operandi.

"Old man, what are you doing here?"

Cole didn't even need to turn around to feel Tenten glowering down at the young boy.

(A shorter chapter. Hope you guys like it and leave a comment.

I'm still on the fence on whether or not I should use the first or third person narrator. What do you people think?

Tenten was done dirty in the series, absolutely shafted in both Naruto and Naruto Shippuden. We will definetely see more of her because I absolutely love her weaponsmaster persona. Now I only need to figure out if she is an orphan or just born into a commoner family....)