The Chunin Exam - 5

When Tenten had received two unknown weapons scrolls from Haku, she had been itching to test them out.

Later on that day, before attending the festival, she had decided to investigate what she had been given. The first scroll, upon inspection, had been a chain-scythe. Not much of a challenge, after all, she already owned one and could wield it with deadly expertise. However, much to her astonishment, he had given her another weapon that never in her life had she even imagined wielding.

It was labeled as a discontinued Leaf arsenal weapon and had probably not been used in ages. She had never seen one before, but she knew from past research exactly what it was. A zanbato.

Tenten suspected it had been taken from the arsenal without permission because even she was aware it was illegal for Leaf shinobi of trainee level to wield such a weapon. She wasn't about to rat Haku out for taking it, knowing it could get them both into trouble. Horse-slaying swords like these she knew were outlawed for many reasons.

One reason being that they often endangered the user with their massive recoil and lack of maneuverability, making them clumsy in battle. A second reason being that attacking an enemy and successfully landing a blow was nearly always a guaranteed kill.

'What goes on in his head that makes him think I can actually...use this?' She pondered, fearing where the notion came from.

She had to admit she loved it.

The blade itself was nearly as tall as she, not counting the length of the leather-bound hilt. It was new, or as far as Tenten could tell, unused. Perfectly balanced and unmarked, the blade shined in the morning sun and the tip curved upward at its end, reminiscent of the claw of some terrible predator.

It was art, pure and simple, and her most treasured sword so far.

The primary issue however was rather simple.

"Ugh!" Tenten tugged furiously at the hilt of the sword. It didn't budge the slightest, "Why do they- argh! Always have to- grr! Make them so huge?" She collapsed beside it, panting heavily.

Tenten had arrived at her training field first in order to try out her new favorite weapon. Unfortunately she found herself completely incapable of lifting it. It was ridiculous that a shinobi could be expected to lift one in the first place, let alone fight with something as preposterously heavy.

"I'm not giving up yet!" Rising to her feet again, Tenten took hold of the sword, stubborn determination written all over her face.

Focusing her chakra into her arms she heaved with a new, chakra-assisted strength. Her arms shook as the blade snuck a few inches from the ground...and a few more...until she held it nearly to waist-height. Her mouth was set in a firm line and she glared at her quaking, struggling limbs. Just lifting it was not chakra-economical. Mastering this weapon was going to take a very long time.

'I've never realized how...physically weak I am...' Tenten marveled, disgusted with her lack of strength, 'There's no way I can use this. I might as well hand it over to-'

"Hello Tenten!"

Startled, she lost control of her chakra, and once again bound by gravity the sword plummeted an agonizing three feet down, the dull side landing squarely on Lee's foot. He was still happy to see her and Tenten watched guiltily as his eyes began to water from the crushing agony that was her sword.

Frantic, Tenten used her full weight to pull back on the blasted weapon and managed to free Lee's wounded appendage. Howling, his foot came up, cradled like a wounded babe and he hopped around in a small circle to shake off the pain. He felt better in seconds.

Lee faced her, intrigued, "Tenten! My merciful teammate," She gave him an apologetic look, "What do you have there?"

She furrowed her brow as she looked to her frustrating yet delightful new addition to her arsenal, "This is it Lee. This right here," She patted the smooth face of the steel blade, "Is my limit. Oh! I'm really sorry about your foot Lee! This thing is stupidly heavy. It's not broken is it-?"

"I am perfectly fine!" He grinned at her, then turned his attention to the zanbato, "My! What a fantastic weapon, Tenten! Did Haku-kun give that to you?"

Tenten sighed in exasperation, "He sure did..."

Lee reached out and took the hilt of the sword from her inquisitively, to which she made no move to object. To her immense dissatisfaction, he lifted the damn thing with relative ease.

"So you are having difficulty wielding this sword?" Lee asked, wearing a thoughtful expression.

She nodded, completely miffed, "It's no good. I've got muscles alright, but I'm not Gai-sensei..." With a wail, she added, "Finally, when I get my hands on something truly amazing I can't even lift it!"

He gave her a quizzical look, "But you were holding it up before if I am not mistaken."

"No Lee. That was pure chakra and chakra alone doing that, and even then I was about to lose my grip!" Tenten's frustration was evident, "Sure I can swing that thing around for a while...but I'll deplete my chakra nearly three times as fast at any given rate."

Nodding, he took her problems into consideration, and then declared, "Then we must train your body to withstand such strain! With hard work and perseverance, I can help you build up your muscles until you can lift things many times heavier than this!"

Eyes wide, Tenten accepted the generous offer, "That...that would be great, Lee." She glanced down at the zanbato, "When should we get started?"

"There is no better time than the present!" Lee announced jubilantly and lowered the sword, "Here Tenten, try to lift it again."

She reached out and took the hilt from him. She tugged with a force all the way from the tips of her toes and had no success. Picking apart the problem in his head, Lee took hold of the hilt as well, assisting her. Incredibly, it was up.

She frowned, disliking the gap in their abilities.

"You said you could lift it with your chakra, yes?" Lee asked, forming ideas, "I think we should begin with that."

With a huff, Tenten forced more chakra into her arms, and felt some strain lessen from that and Lee's help. He nodded, smiling at the small progress.

"Good! Very good! Now we shall have a few warm-up swings, to accustom your arms to the stress," Lee was surprisingly helpful.

"Yeah...yeah I get where you're going with this," Tenten answered, bending her arms as Lee had and pulled back on the blade, "When did you become so knowledgeable about this sort of stuff, Lee?"

"When training in taijutsu, it is very important to be mindful of the limitations of one's body," Lee quoted Gai, "Physical strain like this, I believe, falls under the same category."

Tenten nodded, swinging the blade, and hoping that their grip on the hilt wouldn't fail and send the blade crashing back down to the ground again. It lasted for over ten minutes, Lee explaining the functions of the warm up, and Tenten feeling like her arms were on fire.

After a short while, Lee paused in their practice, leaving Tenten's chakra-high arms quivering.

"Now I feel you should slowly reduce the amount of chakra in your arms, so your muscles will-" He tried to put it as mildly as he could, "Adapt. Weaning yourself off of the use of chakra gradually should help I think."

"Adapt?" Tenten huffed, amused, "You mean let them get torn to pieces so they grow bigger."

"Yes."

She sighed, "Well...whatever works..."

Almost fearfully, Tenten focused on how much chakra she had built up, and with a reasonable hesitation, lessened it a tiny margin. The blade drooped and she felt her brain splash down into her stomach.

Lee looked expectant.

Her arms were shaking more violently, as they struggled to deal with the weight. Cringing, Tenten took a breath, "Okay Lee, I'm good now."

He nodded, not wanting to rush her.

Arms bent, the blade was pulled back, and Tenten felt the fire in her arms escalate. They swung the blade forward together, but Lee's strength alone was no longer enough to compensate her reduction of chakra.

She felt something in her forearms pop and she yelped in response, "Lee, I think that did it..."

"That is enough for now," He helped her lower the sword, "We'll give you a few minutes to rest and then we can begin training you in taijutsu!"

Tenten gave him a puzzled look, "How will that help me lift this thing? It's like trying to lift a cow..."

"Ah, but wielding a sword uses not just the strength of your upper body does it?" Gai's protégée pointed out, "You must be able to block and move while you fight, and taijutsu is the perfect conditioning for that!"

Tenten smiled, rubbing her arms at the idea, "Lee, I'm really impressed. I think I may be able to use that thing after all..."

"Your youthful spirit will make sure of it!" Lee laughed jovially, "I know you will be the finest of all weapons specialists in the Fire Country, Tenten! I have no doubts!"

She chuckled in response, still rubbing her agonized arms.

From the side of the field, Neji then came into view and was certainly not in the highest of spirits. Lee, however, was in the exact opposite state.

"Neji! My eternal rival! Today will be the day I shall defeat you!" Lee announced, predictably.

Without a word, Neji stalked past him and up to Tenten. Neither Lee or Tenten mentioned it, but the Hyuga prodigy looked like he had already been training for a while then, or rather, like he had been in some sort of fight. His arms were bruised and his face was contorted in something worse than his normal level of anger.

And with no change in inflection, "Tenten, are you ready?"

'Oh, I forgot...' She realized after a moment, 'I really should be training with Neji now. Maybe without this over-sized butcher's knife of mine...'

She turned to Lee who gave her an understanding look. Tenten frowned at that look. It was puzzling how they so easily surrendered to Neji's whim whenever it was expressed. He tended to have that effect on people.

"Actually Neji...I'm training with Lee today," Lee gave her an alarmed look, fearing they may incur the prodigy's wrath with such an idea, "He's helping me out with this thing," She gestured to the zanbato beside her, "I'll train with you in a little while if you like."

He was still processing the sentence that included 'training' and 'Lee' in it.

Oh no. She wounded his precious pride.

Losing interest, if there was any, he turned without saying anything and ventured to the side of the field for some hard-core meditation.

Tenten gulped, feeling that this foul mood they had witnessed was not by any means produced by them. Lee still appeared flabbergasted that she had the guts to turn her sparring partner down for a second time and without much protest from him either.

Shaking off the awkwardness, Tenten faced Lee again, "Well? Come on! I want to get started."

Right on schedule, Gai arrived in a spectacular display of swirling leaves and blossoms, distracting Lee, who immediately ran to him for the morning rant.

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

With a sigh, Tenten went over to them, wondering how she coped.

"Hello my youthful students!" Lately he had been favoring Tenten and Lee after their dance at the festival, "I see that you two are working together this morning?"

"Yes, Gai-sensei!" Lee was radiant.

"Splendid!"

Gai seemed to overlook the giant sword Tenten had summoned after seeing Neji quietly meditating a long ways off.

"Please, return to your hard work and cooperation!" Gai grinned down at them, earning a salute from Lee in response. Tenten nodded, trying to cling to whatever normalcy was left over.

Deep breaths and full concentration were not softening Neji's mood in the least. He didn't very much care that Tenten had arranged other plans; he would've only used her as an outlet for his frustrations, as usual.

Seeing a distant cousin attack him out of pure envy, and then to see him writhe on the ground helplessly at the mercy of the Caged Bird seal was not something he delighted in. He had watched its effects for too long, even with his own father before his death, and for an instant of blind rage, he may have even considered challenging Hiashi, but to what end?

He had reopened the tenketsu that his foolish relative had sealed, but the marks remained. Neji felt more humility from what he witnessed rather than how he was attacked.

"Neji, my prodigy, I see that you have decided not to train with your youthful teammates this morning?" Gai had quietly snuck up beside him, something he had noticed much earlier.

Neji kept his eyes closed and said nothing in reply.

Taking a stretch, Gai pressed the subject further, "Those injuries…I do not believe they were inflicted by either Lee or Tenten." Which was relatively obvious.

"I'd prefer not to discuss the matters of my clan." Neji pointed out dryly, ending the conversation. Hell would freeze over before he confided in Gai.

With a nod Gai left the Hyuga prodigy to meditate, and went ahead to investigate how Tenten had acquired such a massive zanbato.