A strange new life

Finally, she was getting missions again. Things had been strange ever since the attack. Sometimes in a week, Tenten completed one or two D-rank missions, others she had nothing to do.

Rock Lee’s injuries still prevented him from working. Neji was dealing with clan issues, and Gai sensei hadn’t been available for weeks, out on some dangerous mission or another. Tenten heard rumors and whispered words.

The situation with Kumogakure and Iwagakure was worse than ever. Skirmishes at the borders, entire teams missing. Was this why all the missions were inside the village now?

She made her way to training field three, still unsure why the meeting place was there.

She wasn’t the first to arrive, but thankfully, the jonin team leader hadn’t arrived yet. She glanced between Yamanaka Ino and Akimichi Choji. The chubby boy sat on the grass, eating chips. Ino was at the wooden dummy, training. Her movements were sluggish. Something Tenten recognized from her many days of seeing Rock Lee doing the same.

“Weight training?” she asked after approaching.

Ino stopped mid-punch. Sweat covered her face. She smiled. “Tenten!”

“Hello, Ino-chan,” Tenten waved, then dodged the sweaty hug. 

Choji snorted. 

“Hello too, Choji-kun.”

“Hi, Tenten,” Choji said before stuffing his mouth with more chips.

Choji still hadn’t fully recovered from his last mission. His cheeks were not as chubby as they had been.

“You guys know who is the jonin leading the team?” Tenten asked.

Ino shook her head. Choji shrugged.

There was nothing but to wait. If their new team leader was anything like the legendary Kakashi, the wait could be hours.

Ino returned to her training. Tenten looked on, full of curiosity, but didn’t ask for the reasons. It was strange the blonde girl was training so seriously, when the impression Tenten had was that Ino had always been more worried about her looks than being a shinobi, but it wasn’t Tenten’s business.

She opened the roll of scrolls in front of her, organizing the many weapons in her collection. She’d probably use them today. It was a tradition for the team leader to test their team.

Minutes dragged on until someone showed up.

Tenten looked from her collection to the girl walking into the training field. She wore different clothes this time and had the flak jacket on, but Tenten’s hair stood on end. She shuddered. The memory of that day in the forest, the bestial howling, the murderous trees, the dismembered bodies. It all came unbidden, strong, vivid. She remembered the other things, how this same girl almost killed Neji. She would have done it hadn’t the jonins stopped her.

“What are you doing here?” Tenten hissed. Before she even registered, she was standing, hands over weapons.

Ino stopped her training. Turned. Smiled. It was a full-blown smile, big and radiant. How could Ino smile like that?

“Hinata-chan!”

Even hearing the name sent shivers into Tenten’s body.

Choji just ate more chips. He was stuffing his mouth now like an obsession.

“Hi, guys,” Hinata said. Waved. Her voice was raspy. Wasn’t she mute?

Ino hugged Hinata, the latter not minding the sweat and grit and training mess.

“What are you doing here?” Tenten asked again. She pulled her hands away from the weapons. Best not give the wrong impression or escalate things. She wasn’t sure she could take the girl in a fight. Not if Hinata could defeat Neji that easily.

Hinata scratched her cheeks. “I’m your new team leader.”

“Yes!” Ino cheered, hugged Hinata again.

Choji’s eyes were wide. More food disappeared down his gullet.

Tenten opened her mouth. This couldn’t be happening. “Bullshit,” she called out.

Hinata walked closer, handed over a slip of paper. Tenten snapped it from her hands, read it. They were the hokage’s orders to meet her team at training field three. 

“Shit,” she cursed.

This was going to suck so badly. Tenten could feel it in her bones. Then came the words that made no sense at all. “I’m sorry,” she heard.

Tenten looked around. Hinata had released Ino and bowed.

“I know things were strange in the forest and the preliminaries. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

Tenten noticed she didn’t apologize for what she’d done. Tenten gritted her teeth, then sighed. Best to let it go. It wasn’t worth it. Even if she still felt angry at this girl for almost killing Neji. Was she angry because Neji was her friend and crush?

“Forget it,” Tenten said, looking away.

Hinata straightened up. Gave a shy smile.

“Follow,” she said and moved toward the open area of the training field.

Once there, she took two small bells from her pocket. “Let’s do a team exercise today,” she said, jingling the bells. “You’ll have to work together to take them from me.” She took out two seals that were too small to be one of the standard storage seals. From one, she popped an absurd amount of sweets.

It made no sense how such a small seal could store so many things. What were those? Tenten’s mind spiraled with ideas.

“Whoever gets the bell wins the prize.” She pointed at the two bells, the pastries, and the still unused seal. “But to make it more interesting,” Hinata said, some sweets displayed disappeared. “The longer you take to get the bells, the less you will have at the end.”

Ino gasped. “No!” She was the first to react. She rushed in, ready to pick the bell.

Then Hinata was behind Ino, holding a kunai to her neck. Ino first turned pale, then pink. Tenten hadn’t seen Hinata move.

“But there’s only two bells,” Choji complained.

“One of you won’t get sweets, then,” Hinata said like it explained everything.

She released Ino, who stepped back. “Well, start, then?” Hinata said.

The three genin looked at each other, then bolted away, leaving Hinata to defend her prize and bells. They’d need a strategy. Tenten wasn’t that interested in the sweets, even if they were famous. Who hadn’t heard about the mute girl and her pastries? Tenten even heard rumors that her “post-mission pastries” were the reason some clients requested her team. She didn’t believe it.

Tenten had, years ago, eaten one of those sweets when she was still at the academy. She had wandered off and joined, by mistake, a younger year class. That was when she saw Hinata for the first time: small, dark blue hair shaved and burnt on one side, strange black eyes. The younger girl had run up to Tenten, propped a board, and wrote on it. “Have a sweet!”

Unsure of what was happening, Tenten had taken one. Hinata hadn’t waited for a response. She ran inside the room and started giving sweets to the other kids, who were almost forming a line, waiting for their turn.

It had tasted good. Tenten wouldn’t lie. Even with all the recent distaste for Hinata, she remembered how good the “cupcake” was. It was a shame now she wasn’t interested in those anymore. Tenten would take the damn bell and prove she could best Hinata. Then, she would demand satisfaction for what she’d done to Neji.

If she got some sweets at the end, that would be just a bonus.