He slips his hand in hers and he smiles happily at her. He’s happy and she’s happy, but I want nothing more than to melt into the floor and burn the very image from my mind.

I love the way he makes me laugh.

I love the way he slips in those little white lies because he’d rather not hurt my feelings.

I love the way he never forgets my birthday or any of the other holidays – including the one’s I’ve made up just so I can throw a party or get gifts.

I love the way he can reassure me even when I feel like the world is crashing around me.

I love his annoyingly messy hair, his squishy round body, and his ever caring warm smile.

I love him.

.

But he doesn’t love me.

Sometimes I want to hate him because of that.

.

I’m beautiful dammit!

.

Girls kill to look like me, from my flat smooth waist to my long lustrous blonde hair. Guys are supposed to be crawling over to fawn over me. I’m supposed to be the one who’s breaking hearts.

Not the one whose heart is breaking.

She hated fighting in a thunderstorm. The rain poured down hard obscuring her vision and blurring objects that should never be blurred. The lightning flashed brightly, momentarily blinding her from her surroundings. And quite possibly worst of all, the thunder roared loudly across the landscape blocking her hearing. It was like fighting with all your senses impaired.

On the positive side, the falling water cleaned her stinging cuts. No danger of an immediate infection.

Tenten stopped and tried hard to locate the position of the assailant.

How she wished she could just retreat. But this time she couldn’t. She could not just leave — her teammates were counting on her and she would not leave them out to dry.

Tenten cried out sharply as she felt a kunai embed deeply in her back. Turning abruptly she sent a barrage of weapons in the direction the kunai had been thrown. “Coward!” She cried. “Come out and face me!”

“Do I look stupid?” The trees whispered mockingly at her.

She pulled a scroll out, gripping it tightly in her hands, eyes darting around the landscape Where was he? She sense the next kunai coming and managed to move far enough to avoid any vital spots. The kunai instead dug into her upper arm. She pulled it out, wincing as she did so.

She had to do something soon or else she’d end up dead, and Lee and Neji could be next.

She pulled open the scroll, time to make her move. Blinking blearily through the heavy rain she bit down on her thumb.

Weapons spilled out from all around her, hitting each and every direction in a 360 degree radius. She smiled satisfactorily as she heard an audible cry of pain over the thunder. The enemy nin stared cruelly at her.

Tenten didn’t hesitate. Fishing her favorite blade from within her pants she made to drive it straight into his heart. A flash of lightning streaked as she brought it down momentarily blinding her. That momentary blindness was all the assailant needed to pull out his own weapon of choice and driving is straight into her. Tenten choked on her own blood, but didn’t halt her actions in digging the blade in further. “Die.” She sputtered blood dripping from her mouth.

“If I die. So do you.” He choked out. He dug his blade further in.

Tenten thought of Neji and Lee and Gai-sensei. She thought of her village and her friends and the life she’d led. Her lips curved up into a smile. “So be it.” She pushed her blade in all the way just as her opponent did the same. She felt overcome with dizziness and queasiness. The last thing she heard was a flash of thunder and she sunk to the ground.

Yeah, she really hated fighting in thunderstorms.

Maybe if she was lucky, she’d wake up to fight in a thunderstorm another day.

Tenten had always known she was a few screws short when it came to understanding the opposite sex. She just didn’t realize she was the only female among the group she regularly talked to, that was absolutely clueless.

“Have you two gone on a date yet?” Sakura had teased warmly.

“Tell me everything!” Ino had demanded. “Is he a good kisser?”

“Do you like him too?” Hinata had asked shyly.

“They tell me you have a boy gunning for you heart now.” Temari had said abruptly upon arriving in Konoha.

Even the elder kunoichi said the same. “You can do better.” Anko had muttered absently. “I mean, hell, he isn’t that good looking no matter what others say.”

“Does he make you happy?” Kurenai had asked in concerned. “Because that’s really the most important thing.”

“He’s a bit of an odd choice wouldn’t you think so?” Shizune had mentioned offhand.

“Are you two dating?” Tsunade has asked an eyebrow raised.

Tenten had answered all of them the same way. “What are you talking about?”

“You two flirting.” was the unanimous response.

Tenten had stared blankly ahead, utterly confused. “I was flirting? When? Wait, he was flirting with me?”

Needless to say, by the end of the day, Tenten felt very confused. What was the whole deal with flirting? How did one even know when they were flirting? She got different answers from everyone and only ended the day feeling annoyed and bothered.

He wasn’t flirting with her right?

Maybe it’s not that she was missing a few screws when it came to the opposite sex that made her miss the ‘flirting’. Maybe it was that all the other girls she knew had a few too many screws and imagined things that weren’t there.

After all, he couldn’t really have been flirting with her.

“This is just fantastic!” Tenten grumbled sarcastically as she followed after her silent teammate. “Why am I always the one who ends up with clothes so drenched and dirty that I can’t walk properly?”

“Because you’re the clumsy one.” Neji said stoically.

Tenten snorted. “Jerk.”

“I’m letting you in the compound so you can fix up, aren’t I?”

“It’s your fault I need fixing up.” She grumbled.

Neji scoffed. “I didn’t push you in the mud hole. You fell all on your own.”

“Oh, whatever, Hyuuga.”

Rolling his eyes, Neji pointed her in the direction of the shower. “Hinata or Hanabi will bring you something you could probably wear when you’re done. I’ll be in the kitchen. You remember where that is don’t you?”

Tenten’s eye twitched, remembering the escapade in which she got lost in they Hyuuga compound. Neji and Hinata had laughed at her for weeks. “I’ll manage.”

Neji smirked.

Sometimes, Tenten really wanted to smack that boy.

—

A while later, Tenten managed to find her way into the kitchen, admittedly that was after stumbling into some old lady’s room. Red-faced, Tenten had apologized and tried to hightail it out of there as fast as she could.

Neji was sitting comfortably at a stool chewing on an apple. “Why are you red?”

“N-No reason.”

“Who’d you walk in on?”

“Nobody!” Tenten lied.

Neji smirked. “You really aren’t very good at lying, you realize.”

Tenten glared at him. “Oh, fine. I walked in on some old lady.” She could feel herself blushing more furiously, “I don’t know what she was doing, and let me tell you, I do not want to find out.” She leant against the counter. “Where are my clothes?”

“Getting washed.”

“Where?”

“Laundry room.”

“Which would be?”

“You wouldn’t be able to find it.”

“You could tell me anyway.” She protested.

“I could.”

“Well?” She demanded.

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Well, what?”

“Where is it!?”

“In the east wing of the compound.”

Tenten groaned. “And where is that?”

“East.”

“Dammit, Neji!” She scolded in annoyance.

He snickered at her. Tossing his half eaten apple in the garbage, Neji stood up and headed out of the kitchen. “Come on. Just follow me.”

“You are an unbelievable jerk, Neji Hyuuga.” Tenten grumbled.

“It’s amazing how that doesn’t bother me.”

“Amazing isn’t the word I would use.” She muttered under her breath.

She followed after him through an amazing amount of long and confusing hallways and turns. How on earth did the Hyuuga ever make their way around the stupid compound? It was a wonder some of the kids didn’t get lost and die of starvation in one of the many rooms. She would have asked how that had never happened before, but all that she needed was a glance to recall why they never got lost — their stupid eyes.

Neji stopped abruptly before a door causing Tenten to smack right into him. “Jeez, give a warning, will ya?”

He didn’t reply just opened the door.

“Oh, damn.” Tenten breathed as she looked at the room. “Your laundry room is not supposed to look ritzy!”

Neji frowned. “It doesn’t.”

“Oh, trust me. It does.” The washing machines were shiny and seemed to call in tantalizing whispers for people to wash. The walls were a perfect pristine white. The clothes waiting to be washed were actually folded and, in Tenten’s eyes, appeared very clean. The ready clothes were folded and fluffy and looked so perfectly pretty lying on the polished oak tables. The windows had not one streak and the floor was spotless — not even a splash of water.

“It’s not.” Neji mumbled obviously confused.

“Stop by the orphanage sometime and you’ll see what I mean.” She headed forward then stopped abruptly. “Where exactly are my clothes?”

Neji headed in the opposite direction she had been walking towards, stopping in front of a machine. “Still washing.”

Tenten peered at the machine. “Oh, it’s just fine. Look, all the dirt is gone.”

“It’s still washing.” Neji repeated.

“Nah, it’s good.” Tenten pushed him aside and pulled it open before Neji could utter a word of protest. She shouldn’t have attempted it. As soon as she wrenched the door open a large stream of bubbles and cold water splashed over her.

Tenten sputtered. “Yeuck. I think I got soap in my mouth.” Tenten squeezed the water out of the shirt she was wearing. “Wow, that was cold. Guess, I should’ve listened to you.”

She shivered. “Do I have to put these clothes in the wash again? I mean, the ones that aren’t mine.” Tenten tried to stand up, but slid on the soap suds as she struggled up. She winced. “Oww.”

Noting Neji’s silence, she turned around. “Hey, what’s–” Tenten stared mouth agape at her teammate. Her usually composed teammate was drenched in cold water, hair stringy and clothes falling around him from the water’s weight. Soap suds dusted his chin, lips forehead, hair, and just about every other visible part of his body. He looked like a child who’d just realized that water created a big mess. His mouth was open just the slightest bit, his eyes blinking slowly, and his left eye twitching. Tenten couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

Neji’s eyes narrowed at her.

She stifled her laughter as best as she could. “Look, Neji, I’m really, really sorry.”

“Tenten-”

“I didn’t mean to!” She protested. Tenten edged away more than just a little frightened, “Oh, come on! It was an accident! You know I’m an idiot sometimes!”

Neji sighed. “Alright. It’s fine.” He wiped some of the suds off of himself.

Tenten huffed. “Look, don’t do that. I really am sorry! What do you want me to do?”

“It’s fine. You didn’t mean to.”

“Stop pretending it’s fine when you want to kick my ass.” She scolded.

“Tenten-”

“I could clean-no, wait, I’m no good at that. I could-”

“Tenten, relax. I forgive you.”

She frowned thinking it over. “I suppose I could-”

“Tenten!”

“Or maybe, I’ll-”

“Tenten!”

Tenten continued rattling off possible things she could do to make up for drenching him, not even noticing that his eye twitch had started again. In severe annoyance, Neji ambled over to one of the unoccupied washers and filled a bucket with freezing cold soapy water. Tenten, still preoccupied with thinking up ways to make it up to him, didn’t even notice he’d moved. Neji walked over to her and dumped the contents of the bucket on her head.

“HOLY SHIT!” Tenten screamed. She hopped up and jumped up and down periodically on one foot as if it would take away the freezing pin needles crawling up and down her skin. “DAMMIT, NEJI!”

“Are you happy now? We’re even.”

“N-N-not e-ev-even! Th-That was f-f-f-f-freezing!” She shivered. “B-b-besides, what I d-d-did was on ac-ac-acci-accident.”

“So was what I did.”

“L-Liar.” She accused.

“The bucket slipped.”

“Bullshit.”

Neji smirked.

“Wh-What?” She stuttered.

“The soap suds piled around your head make it look like you have devil horns.” His smirk grew more pronounced, “Quite fitting wouldn’t you say?”

“Oh, you’re just a h-horrible jerk.” She growled, somehow still feeling despite her irritation that this was one of the most warming bonding moments she’d ever had with Neji. “H-how you became my friend I’ll never know.”

“I know.”

She blinked. “Oh?”

“You’re like glue; you wouldn’t leave me alone and soon enough I got used to you.”

“You kept saying that I was w-weak! It was so unbelievably sexist. I had to p-p-pr-prove you wrong.”

“Then how come I still think you’re far too weak?”

“Oh, I abs-absolutely h-hate you.” She growled.

Neji rolled his eyes.

Tenten had never really ever told anyone why she became a shinobi. She never told anyone what had motivated her. Never bothered to truly discuss it. The reason she decided to become a shinobi had always been a well harbored secret that gave her motivation.

The reason she’d wanted to become a shinobi, was because of the tales she heard surround Tsunade. One of the legendary Sannin. As a little girl, Tenten gobbled up stories of the powerful kunoichi; from her younger exploits to those in her elder age. Tenten became so fascinated by her story she would dream of meeting her. She didn’t have imaginary friends like most children her age, instead she talked to an imaginary Tsunade who taught her secret ninja moves.

That’s all it took to really get her started. Once Tenten had delved into the woman’s life, she knew she’d never be able to come out again. In essence, she’d sold her soul to the trade. Because of that, Tenten worked hard to do everything and anything she possibly could to get into a proper ninja school. She trained, she studied, she even helped out more at the orphanage in hopes that they would grant her one favor.

In time, her hard work paid off. She went to school, she trained, she studied, she became a kunoichi and joined Team Gai. Through many mishaps and tribulations, Tenten managed to sufficiently become a kunoichi she’d be proud to meet Tsunade as. Way before it was reasonable for her to do so, Tenten was a kickass kunoichi. Not just a simpering twit. Not just a little girl. But a real bona fide shionbi. She was tough, she was strong, and she never let anyone say otherwise about her.

When she heard Tsunade was to become the next Hokage, Tenten was filled with inner jubilation. She would finally meet her idol!

When she met Tsunade, Tenten did her best to hide her disappointment. Sure, the Hokage was a fantastic woman. She was powerful, strong, and a damn good shinobi. She was skilled and eloquent. Everything Tenten expected her to be.

The problem was, to Tenten, it no longer seemed enough.

She was a gambler, a bit of an idiot at times, a risk-taker, a slight drunk. In essence, Tsunade was human. She was the very definition of a powerful human. Tenten had imagined her idol as subhuman. As perfection. As excellence. As everything and anything that a human girl should aspire to be.

Tsunade was amazing.

But Tenten could be better.

“Hokage-sama.” Tenten would always greet respectfully. “You called?”

She still owed Tsunade everything. Without her, Tenten would not be a shinobi. Without her, she might have ended up as a simpering civilian with nothing more on her mind than finding a husband. Tenten had found a goal and owed it all to Tsunade. But, she owed it to her dream — she owed it to her imaginary chats with Tsunade, to aim for the sky and nothing less.

Tsunade had been her idol.

Now, Tenten’s idol, was only excellence itself.

When she was just a little girl, she was often times baffled by how many of the girls her age seemed to be concerned with the opposite sex. The little female creatures would stare at the males, eyes wide, cheeks flushed, and dreams spinning in their minds. Tenten would look at the males and only see a bunch of boys that were much more fun to play games with than the girls. She was slower than all the rest of the girls her age to recognize the opposite sex, and it took her longer than most to find something even remotely interesting about them. There were occasions she was plagued with a rather annoying blush because a boy looked rather cute, but she could never find herself actually liking any boy. Even if they looked good, they didn’t seem worthy of her effort. She had more important goals to look to – like becoming a shinobi.

As she grew, the girls’ obsession with males didn’t seem to dwindle. They gained other interests, but their desire to find their love never quite faded or was never quite pushed to the background. It was a world of men and a world of women who loved talking about men. Sometimes it unnerved her. Mostly though, it just confused her.

It seemed more often than not, the entire basis of life seemed to be a giant race among the females. They all lined up behind the start line and chatted amiably about the goal to be obtained at the end of the race. They were cheerful, they were happy, they were friends. At least until two girls picked the same goal, then it seemed to break apart. All the girls were inevitably heading off in the same direction, but each one wanted someone different to hold (in most cases). Sometimes they got the prize they’d originally chased after, other times they did not. It was a simple race “Ready, steady, go!” and suddenly the girls shot off, wind beneath their feet trying to get that prize. She had been left behind covered in a cloud of dust, not really incited by the idea of wining the race. Or even beginning it. The girls would race and race in the beginning, but they go tired and they soon resorted to walking. Their search wasn’t so frenzied anymore. It was filled with the same zest, but far more patient, the further along they got. All throughout the curious game, she saw them win their prize, or have their prize taken, or the have the prize depart on its own, she saw them set their eyes one somebody else, and she saw them find a prize on accident. It was interesting to watch in it’s own, but not something she ever felt part of.

At least, not in the beginning.

She felt like someone had dumped a bag of sand on her when she wasn’t looking. A bag she really didn’t want to carry around. A soft kiss on her lips and whispered sweet nothings in the night followed her in Konoha. Nightly escapades that left her feeling more empty than pleased and created an embarrassing pale blush spreading on her face. In Suna, heavy laughter, playful touches, and demanding kisses occupied her spare time. Pleasant meetings that left her feeling more than just a little unsure and a nervous pleasant feeling to swim inside her gut.

She wasn’t anywhere near as pretty or flirty as the girls her age. She wasn’t the kind that looked for a guy, or had ever even participated in the race. She never tried to compliment or charm anyone. If anything she was far too blunt and much too honest. And yet she had these problems.

Ino looked at her with newfound interest when she found out, because of course, Konoha’s gossip queen had to find out. Tenten didn’t know if she should ask her to keep quiet or not. She didn’t know anything more. She told Ino the very same thing. Ino just smiled kindly and pecked her on the forehead. “You’ll know; a girl always knows.”

Ino must not have told anyone, because no one else approached her with questions, or looked at her any different. Tenten didn’t know how she would know. She didn’t know if she could know. Maybe she’d been born defective. Maybe, she didn’t know how to just know.

But when Tenten sits down alone, to think about it. She thinks she understands what Ino meant. Because when she was younger, she was always alone. As she grew up, she gained friends and teachers, but she still enjoyed being alone. A large piece of her preferred being alone. But now, now when she sits alone, when she thinks about her problems – current and passed – she doesn’t feel right. She can’t help that she really wants someone to be there.

Just one someone.

Maybe a girl always does know.

She’d never wanted a part of the race, but she’d been forced into it. Instead of attempting the race, Tenten just looked at other things — and she too found her prize on accident. Finally, one was worth the effort.

“Hey, crybaby,” Temari calls to him as she leans by the doorway, “how’re you feeling?”

“Like crap.” He answers honestly as he sits up from her bed.

“No need to get up.”

“The last time I talked to you when I was laying down you beat me up.”

“The last time you did that you weren’t already beat up.”

“I am not beat up.”

She rolls her eyes and walks over to the bed. “Quit being such a man.” She scolds taking a seat beside him. “You know, I expect the kind of stunt you pulled from Kankurou, but I never thought you would do it.”

The male shinobi had been sitting at the bar laughing uproariously at each other’s lewd jokes and stories. The bar in itself wasn’t a bad place; it was just those shinobi that were annoying Shikamaru. All their stores were quite demeaning to women and derogatory. It was disgusting. Kankurou just rolled his eyes; the others in their company told him to ignore them. Shikamaru tried his best, but they crossed the line.

“Hey! Hey!” They’d called out to Kankurou, “You’re that hot blonde’s brother right?”

Kankurou pointedly ignored them.

One of them walked over, “The one with all the nice curves.”

“I’d shut up about her before he decides to kick your ass.” Shikamaru muttered to them.

“Ne, ne,” the one by the table sniggered, “but she’s such a hot bitch.”

Shikamaru tensed, he noticed absently that Kankurou did as well.

“Of course, with that temper of hers who’d stick around her long enough to bang her, ey?”

Kankurou’s friend who’d told him to originally ignore them gave Kankurou a pointed glare – a warning not to lose his temper it seemed. “I won’t, okay?” Kankurou grumbled.

“Of course she’s more the girl you shove up against a wall and have your way with.” He laughed and his companions laughed along with him.

Shikamaru’s fingers curled around the bottle.

“Little slut will probably be on her knees begging for more.”

Shikamaru remembered getting up calmly and telling that asshole that he should take it back. He also remembered that instead he made some other disgusting comments. Then he recalled punching him. Over, and over, and over. He also remembered he got his quite a lot, the man’s buddies joining in to attempt to kick his ass, which unfortunately dragged Kankurou and his friends in the fight as well.

“Was I just supposed to let them talk about you that way?”

He didn’t remember how it ended seeing as how he was knocked out by a jackass who hit him over the head with a chair while he was busy with two of the other idiots.

“Yes.”

“Yes?” He asked in astonished disbelief.

“Yes.” She smiled, “As much as I love that you’re quite a decent man, many men are idiots. You just gotta learn to suck up their insults and let it go. Of course, if they try something then you kick their ass so they won’t be able to walk for five months.” She tucked her knees under herself. “Speaking of which, I hear he’s so badly fucked that he won’t be able to walk for seven months.”

“Good.”

“I never pegged you for the violent type, Shikamaru.”

“I never pegged you for the passive type, Temari.”

She shrugged. “You learn to deal with it as time goes by.”

“You shouldn’t have to.”

“The world sucks. There are lots of things that shouldn’t happen.”

She leant into him and he wrapped his arms around her. “They should’ve known better than to badmouth you in front of your fiancé.”

“What can I say? Men in Suna are pretty dim. That’s why I had to get myself one in Konoha.”

He smiled.

“You know, on the upside, you’re injuries weren’t for nothing. Kankurou has now decided that he approves of our union. Apparently beating up a jerk is enough for him to respect you.”

Shoe In – Fave Footwear Photo Brickfish

Hey, guys! the picture above is for a contest in which I’m trying to win money for college. If you could vote for the picture it would be much appreciated. Thanks!

The stupidest, or perhaps smartest, thing Gai-sensei had ever proposed to his team was one of his many ‘bonding’ exercises. His ‘bonding’ exercises tended to range from cooking to, oddly enough, playing a prank on the current Hokage. Of the all the exercises they conducted, the pranks never tended to end well. Neither Tenten, nor Neji, nor Lee, nor Gai, were any good at pulling a well orchestrated prank. it was usually either a lame prank or they got caught doing the prank at the worst possible time. Over time, Tenten and Neji became clever enough to find a way out of the training exercises, but in the beginning they were forced along.

One of his few successful exercises was rather impromptu and proposed back when his team was still undeniably at odds with each other. It had began with the end of a rather unorthodox training session in which Gai-sensei had them work on how long they could hold their breath while sparring using only taijutsu. Tenten lost almost immediately. On average she was okay in her taijutsu, combine that with holding her breath and it spelled disaster. Although, she was the best when Gai-sensei allowed them to use weapons while holding their breath; but without weapons she failed miserably. Lee lost about twenty seven times to Neji before finally winning one, though Tenten attributed the win to the fact that Neji was getting exhausted and Neji just didn’t hold the same resilience Lee did at that time.

Lee would eventually surpass Neji in taijutsu, but at the moment, Lee was still lacking in everything but heart.

“Can I go home now?” She had complained to Gai-sensei once Lee had finally bested Neji. “You know, since we’re done?”

“But we must train harder!” Lee protested.

Neji just sat there stoically.

It was at that interval that Gai-sensei seemed to find it appropriate to try to unite them closer as a team once again. Tenten had told him constantly to quit trying. She, Lee, and Neji were far too different to ever get along appropriately. But Gai was just as hard-headed as Lee – they both refused to ever give up on anything.

“I know what youthful exercise we can do!”

“Please no.” Tenten pleaded at the same time Neji sighed in aggravation.

“Let us play hopscotch, my young students!”

Tenten felt her eyebrow twitching. “Hopscotch?” Of all stupid things, Gai had picked hopscotch? She wondered yet again if someone had hit him too hard in the back of his head in a mission. He had to be mentally unwell in some retrospect.

“I have to–” Neji tried to wrangle out of it, but Gai-sensei hushed him with another long monologue on how hopscotch would surely light the inner fires of their youth.

Tenten had no reservations about telling her sensei to shut the hell up, but she’d long since realized that doing so only made his monologue longer. So rather, she picked herself up from the comfy spot on the floor and started digging a kunai into the grass so that the lines of the hopscotch squares were clearly evident by the brown lines of dirt through the brightly colored grass. “Fine. Let’s get it over with.” She interrupted, hoping this would, in effect, shut him up.

Neji hesitated. “I don’t know how.”

Tenten yawned. “How what?”

“How to play.”

It took her a few seconds to register the information, though seemingly it seemed she was the first to understand. Lee gaped at Neji in astonishment and Gai looked a cross between a child who’d just had his candy taken away and a child who couldn’t understand where his mother had gone when peekaboo was being played.

“How can you not know how to play?” She asked baffled. “Doesn’t every kid play hopscotch? Hell, I’m poor as dirt and have no parents, and I’ve played the game.”

He scowled. “Well, I’ve never played.”

She straightened, realizing that she may have inadvertently offended him. She blinked, “Look, I didn’t mean…It’s just…It’s weird okay? I didn’t expect that, especially from you.” Without as second thought, she took his hand in hers and dragged him over to the game she’d just dug into the grass. “Okay, look, there’s these squares.”

Lee seemed to have regained his composure and moved to stand beside her. “They are numbered.”

Tenten nodded. “Right. And the object of the game is really just to get through all the squares and back, but you have to hop through them.” She hopped through her design, “Just like this.” She showed him again coming back.

Lee picked up a pebble. “And you throw a rock to get to the right square. If you do no’t get it in or if it touches the line, you lose your turn.” Lee tossed the pebble in example.

“Also, if while you’re hopping on a single square your other foot touches the ground it’s a violation. Your turn is disregard and you go back to where you lst were. Same thing happens if you hop on a line.” Tenten showed him what she meant.

Neji frowned. “Well, it’s a pretty easy game for a ninja wouldn’t you say?”

Tenten analyzed her rudimentary design. “Now that you mention it…”

“What if we play on a mountain?” Lee suggested.

Tenten nodded. “Yeah…Oh! And instead of a pebble we use a kunai, but we also draw a target on each square where we have to get a bulls-eye or else have our turn skipped!”

“I know!” Gai interrupted, finally falling out of his revere, “We also separate the squares by 25feet!”

Neji’s eye started twitching. “How about between five and eight feet?”

Tenten nodded. “Yeah, five or eight sounds good.” Twenty-five was just ridiculous.

Thirty minutes later, they finished constructing their game of hopscotch on one of the steepest mountains in the village. Despite Tenten’s initial disinclinations to the game, she found herself having fun. “Hey! Cheater!” She accused, pointing her finger at Neji. “You toed the line!”

“I DID NOT!” He protested.

Tenten turned to Lee. “You be the judge. Did he or did he not?”

Lee shook his head. “Tenten, I did not see him touch the line.”

“Gah!” She protested bitterly. “You’re both in cahoots.”

“Who says ‘cahoots’ nowadays?” Neji smirked.

“Who says ‘nowadays’?” She shot back.

“Bitter.” He smirked.

“Cheater.” She snapped. “EP! STOP!” She yelled at Gai.

Gai froze, halting before going to the next jump. “What?”

“You cheated.” Neji explained.

“Exactly.” Tenten harrumphed.

“I did not cheat!” Gai protested.

“Lee?” Tenten inquired.

“Gai-sensei,” Lee said smiling, “you touched the line.”

“Ha-ha!” Tenten grinned. “Told ya!”

Neji rolled his eyes. “It’s about time one of your accusations proved to be true.”

“Hey,” She protested, sticking her tongue out at her teammate. “They were all true; this is just the first time I could get one of you pinned.”

“Sure.” Neji said. “Suure.”

Somehow, that rather strange game of hopscotch made friends out of strangers and teammates of outsiders. As friends, they would always be called the oddest bunch, but that day Tenten found, it really wasn’t so bad. Being friends with them was rather nice, because beneath their skin they were rather different. And it was special to be able to say that she was one of the few who could see it.

Also, it turned out that their modified version of the game of hopscotch became not only the most popular game among shinobi, but one of the only ‘fun’ training exercises that senseis could use to mold their students.

Hunh, they were starting trends. And all because Gai-sensei had another harebrained idea.

He gripped his head between a tossup of confusion, annoyance, maybe even delight.

“Stein…” She chuckled mercilessly, delighting in the spasms of his heart, in the confusion of his current state.

“Go away!”

She drew her fingers across his chin, “You don’t want me to…” She snickered. “You want to know. You want to know.” His body shuddered – with anticipation or fear she couldn’t be sure. “Give in, Stein. It’s so much fun if you do…”

“I won’t…I won’t…”

“It’s not so bad…Rather fun if you really think about it.” She pressed more firmly into him. “I love you.” She sang.

Then quickly, snap, shudder, snarl. She’s gone. Medusa is back inside the darkened room surrounded by her candles, her books, and her plans. She fingers the hair of the child she’s inhabiting and giggles lightly. “I’m waiting, Stein.” He fights the insanity rather well, but he can’t hold on to his sanity for too long.

Soon he’ll give in.

Soon.

She can wait.

She might not know how to love, but she certainly knows what she wants when she sees it. This is as close enough to love as she or Stein will ever let themselves feel.

Medusa looks calmly to the stars. He gets weaker every day, every day she can worm her way into his illusions, into his insanity. She wants him to be hers, and no matter how hard he fights it, it’s obvious – he wants to have her.

Murder is the most flattering form of flirtation – a dance of life, blood, and desire.

“Stein…” She cooed to the stars. “I’m waiting.” She smiles. “I’m waiting.”