"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 Kubikiribch 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 Chnin exams and I have a year over him. I think I can beat a genin a few months out of the Academy."
Dny 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, Dny 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 Kubikiribch?"
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, Dny 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 Dny rigidly asks, "then why does the demon brat have Kubikiribch?"
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."
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 Daimy 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?' Kubikiribch can change that. Kubikiribch can change her. To be betterto be the bestis 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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