Chapter 17

Tenten was still deep in thought when she left Genma's house when it started getting dark. The seal had helped take her mind off it a little bit, although not by much. She did have to wonder where he'd found the massive seal though, they'd only managed to decode a portion of it, and so far, it looked like some sort of weird storage seal except not.

She somehow ended up near the gates when they opened to show Naruto parading triumphantly in, two sannin following him. Jiraiya and Tsunade along with a third person who looked about Genma or Kakashi's age.

Tenten hadn't ever thought she'd actually get to meet the slug sannin, she had famously gone rouge from the village and swore never to return, but here she was. Tenten had idolized the woman when she was younger, and still admired her strength, even if she knew she couldn't follow in the slug sannin's footsteps as a medic.

"Tenten!" Naruto greeted her cheerfully and loudly. "Come to see us when we came in?"

"It was coincidence," She informed him. "Jiraiya, Tsunade," she inclined her head to the sannin respectfully. She smiled apologetically at the third person. "I'm afraid I don't know your name."

"Shizune," the woman replied, smiling politely. Tenten nodded, storing the name away.

"Alright! Let's get this over with!" Tsunade said, well, borderline shouted. "Come on squirt, if we're doing this you're going to be there to suffer too."

"Where are you going?" Tenten asked Shizune, who seemed the least crazy.

"Tsunade agreed to be the fifth Hokage," Shizune sighed quietly, clutching her tiny pig closer. It was a very cute tiny pig. "So we must inform the elders."

Tenten wasn't afraid to admit it took her a moment to come up with their names. Koharu, Homera, and Danzo. The unofficial council behind the Hokage. Tenten paused mentally. They were powerful, and had much influence in the village itself. She'd have to look into them as the 'dangerous people' Genma and Itachi had mentioned. "Makes sense. Want some reasonable company? I'm not doing anything else," Tenten offered.

"Please," Shizune sighed in relief. "I would certainly appreciate it if you could."

Tenten turned her head as a crow approached her and landed on her shoulder to hand her a note.

She took it, and snorted at the very shaky katakana vaguely reading 'dinner here or dinner out?' She assumed the crows were trying to ask if she would be eating dinner out in the village or if she'd cook.

"I'll get something from a restaurant," she told the crow. It bobbed its head, and flew off.

"What was that about?" Shizune asked, looking amused as they assumed a position behind the sannin and Naruto.

"The crows being concerned about my health," Tenten replied, huffing. "They've been even worse about it since I signed their contract."

"You have a contract with the crows?" Shizune asked, looking interested. "I can't say I've heard about that one, although isn't Itachi Uchiha rumored to be able to summon crows?"

"I wouldn't know," Tenten said after a moment. He was, he was signed to the same contract she had, but Shizune didn't need to know that. "I think I've heard that before."

"Maybe," Shizune agreed, looking at her askance. "Who's your sensei?"

"Maito Gai," Tenten admitted, smiling sheepishly. "I train under Genma a lot though. We share similar interests."

"Poisons?" Shizune guessed, a curious glint in her eyes.

"Seals," Tenten corrected. "Although I wouldn't be against picking up some poisons for my blades, that might be advisable since I'm probably in the bingo book now."

"Well, if you ever need a break from dumb boys," Shizune said, giggling slightly. "I'm always up to teach someone some poisons. What kind of fighter are you?"

Tenten paused. "Well, I suppose I'm mid to long range or close range, depending on what's needed."

Shizune raised an eyebrow at her. "What's that even mean?"

"I'm a weapons specialist that might have mastered Hiraishin," Tenten said sheepishly. (Oh no Jiraiya's in earshot. Oh no oh no) "Well, maybe not mastered, but I can do it. And place my own markers."

Jiraiya turned around slowly, walking backwards. "You what? How?"

"Well, Genma knew a variation of hiraishin, so we figured out how it worked with what he knew, then reverse engineered it," Tenten explained. "It took a while, but we got it done, and now we can both do it."

"On your own?" Jiraiya pressed.

"On our own, yeah," Tenten agreed. She summoned a hiraishin kunai from her hip seal, and tossed it to him. "Keep walking, I'll hiraishin up to you in a moment."

She let them all keep walking, and once they were almost out of eyeshot, she hiraishined right to the seal Jiraiya was holding.

She got four gobsmacked expressions. "What?!"

"That's like the Yellow Flash!" Naruto shouted, looking more excited than ever. "Like the fourth Hokage!"

"It is his jutsu," Tenten agreed.

"But you aren't yellow," Naruto continued. "More like a Silver Flash! Yeah! That sounds cool! Silver Flash!"

She had to admit it did sound cool.

"You actually did it," Jiraiya muttered, staring at the kunai he was still holding. "You actually can do Hiraishin."

"Yeah? It's what I said?" Tenten said, mildly confused.

"I think I'll be teaching you poisons," Shizune said after a long moment. "You might need it."

Tenten wasn't about to pass up a chance to learn some more, so she just nodded.

"Come by my new office in a few days kid," Tsunade barked at her. "Once things are settled in."

"Okay?" Tenten said, fairly bewildered.

"I'll find you later for a discussion with you and your teacher," Jiraiya told her firmly, handing her the kunai back. She just nodded, now thoroughly confused.

"You don't need me, do you Tsunade-sama?" Shizune said, in a tone that implied this wasn't really under Tsunade's control.

"Nope, have fun kid."

Shizune smiled at Tenten. "Why don't we get some dinner, I'm starving."

Tenten's stomach grumbled at her, and Tenten smiled sheepishly. "Looks like I am too. Anywhere in mind?"

They ended up at Ichiraku Ramen for some reason, not that Tenten was complaining, it was good food, and high in calories, good for refueling. The pig accompanied them, although it was sitting at Shizune's feet obediently, and had gotten a plate of scraps from the cook.

"When did you finish learning Hiraishin?" Shizune asked after they were both starting in on their second bowl of ramen.

Tenten tried to count the weeks back. "Not very long ago. I'm sorry I haven't been keeping track of the days. I did have it done by the Chuunin Exams third round. I used it then and in the invasion following it."

"You'll want to keep an eye on the next Suna bingo book then," Shizune sighed. "They'll put a warning out for you, even if they don't know who you are yet since you are a genin still."

"I'll see if I can find a copy," Tenten agreed, finishing off the last of her broth. "Why do you want to teach me poisons all of a sudden? Not that I mind."

"You're still young, and if you've shown Hiraishin where other nations could see, you're going to be targeted," Shizune explained, signaling for another bowl for both of them. "The more chance you have of killing anyone who tries to kill you, the higher your survival chances will be. Letting you learn poisons will help on missions and things. It'll help make sure you don't die too early."

Tenten stared at the new bowl. Right. Hiraishin was dangerous, the Fourth Hokage had slaughtered thousands of people in an instant during the last war, he had been a serious threat when he was alive. She had the chance to be an equally bad threat, of course they'd try and eliminate her before she got too powerful and hard to kill.

"With any luck, Gai and Genma and I can help keep you alive until you're powerful enough to stand on your own and keep yourself safe," Shizune said, stirring the ramen without really eating it. Tenten put a bite in her mouth on habit, not really tasting it any more.

"They're all going to be targeting me?" Tenten asked quietly. It was about to get a lot more dangerous for her teammates. She was suddenly glad Genma and Gai both agreed she had a high chance of making chuunin, which meant she didn't have to go out on missions with her teammates. She could, but she didn't need to. It'd let her dictate her own schedule a little bit too, squeeze in more training with other people when possible.

"Iwa especially," Shizune agreed. "They suffered the most because of Minato in the last war, they're going to be very keen on stopping a threat like that from popping up again."

"I'll just have to be careful," Tenten said, taking another bite. It tasted like sawdust, but she ate it anyway. "Very careful."

"We'll train you as much as possible as quickly as we can to get you up to A-rank at least," Shizune reassured her. "Poisons will help put people in the ground. Getting faster with hiraishin will also help. Learn more melee weapons too, just in case."

"I'm working on more of those," Tenten admitted. "I'd like to work on the tanto more next, I don't know anything besides the very basics."

"I'm sure we can find someone to train you," Shizune said, smiling. She put money on the counter. Even at a glance Tenten could tell it covered both of them. "Dinner on me, I have a feeling you'll need the energy for tomorrow."

She left before Tenten could protest, the little pig toddling after her.

Tenten drained her bowl, handing it back to the chef before getting up and leaving as well.

As she walked home she stared up at the stars and wondered how on earth the cards had managed to fall so that she had not only surpassed her teammates, a feat she previously hadn't thought she'd manage without far more time, but she had managed to draw the attention of both sannin and line up even more teaching for herself. An interesting day, that was for sure.

The crows greeted her when she got home, demanding pets and to know if she'd eaten. She reassured them she had, then got ready for bed and passed out.

———

She's doing her best.

~LeViAcKeRmMaN