Somewhere Other Than Here

Tenten

Tenten entered one of the many training grounds. She dropped her backpack, filled to the brim with scrolls, right infront of a wooden pool. It was chipped but it was newly put. As she unwrapped and unsealed one of her many scrolls, a long metal pole appeared in her hands. She threw away the empty seal scroll as she got into her pole staff stence.

It happened 4 years ago. My parents and I were walking in the streets at night. The stores were still open because there was a special event going on. Salesman were everywhere and the market was full of fresh food, metal work and fire stunts. It was beautiful how lively it was. Even the sky was filled with beautiful stars and lights. But I couldn't enjoy for much long as reality set in. I looked up to my parents and they were talking to eachother. None of them held my hand. They kept on talking and talking. I stopped and stared at the fresh fruits the market was selling and they kept on talking and walking, not even looking back and try to call me back. They didn't care about me. I was invisible to them. And soon enough, I was lost in the middle of the market, my parents out of sight. And when I was found later on, they didn't care. They never showed me love. I would always walk back home after school alone. I would study alone. Struggle alone.

Tenten kept on hitting the wooden pole with her metal pole staff. Using many techniques and calmly chaining them together to consecutively hit the wooden pole precisely and with hard hits to cause dents into it.

As I was wandering the filled streets all alone, I began to worry. Young me worried they completely forgot about me and went home. As tears started to fill my eyes, I started to run. A small crying girl, running in the middle of the street because she lost her parents. Everyone stared but went back to their sells or usual talk. My legs hurt, my lungs felt as if they were going to burst. My eyes felt dry as my tears made it difficult for me to see. I kept on frantically running and somehow arrived and fell straight into a dark alley. I got up and saw I scrapped my knee deeply, already beginning to bleed and dripping down my leg. It hurt, a lot. I started to cry more as I painfully touched my wound. I looked and saw nothing but garbage. I felt fear. I started to hyperventilate as I looked around frantically and I saw the dark alley I was in. But then, I saw something move. Someone move. I got and used the wall to lean on as my knee that still hurt. I began to walk towards the small and faint movement I saw. I kicked off all the trash bags everywhere and slowly dropped myself to my knees. I grabbed and threw away more trash bags, looking for the person that caused the small mouvement. And a small part of me wishes I didn't see what I saw.

Tenten clenched her teeth in anger. Gripping her staff tightly, her attacks became stronger but less coordinated. They caused damage to the wooden pole but her pole staff started to bend slightly and the paint slowly started to chip off. Her breathing became less concentrated.

"N-naruto?..."

I told myself as I found him there, hidden by garbage as his clothing were covered in blood. His eyes were closed as small glass shards were on his face. Some pierced his cheeks as dry blood covered his lips and chin. It reeked of bleach.  I covered my mouth to hold myself from vomiting at the smell and site. His chest was barely covered by the broken and ripped white shirt he was wearing. Stab wounds, cuts and burn marks were everywhere on his body. But the worst was his leg. A deep, long cut almost separate his leg in half. From his kness, through his calf and down to his ankle. It was still gushing with blood as I could see glass inside. I saw his bone there, out in the open. I screamed in fear. In shock. In terror as I stared at his broken, stabbed and tortured body. His blonde hair had dried blood on it, turning his hair colour into a dark brown. He was barely moving, only his chest slightly moving up and down as he faintly breathed. I was glad he was still alive but it didn't stop me from crying more. He was unconscious, probably used the last bit of strength he had to move as his signal for help. Ignoring my own small pain, I got up and quickly ran through the streets. Reaching the market, I grabbed and sneakly stole towels and cloths and new clothes for him. The merchant saw me stealing and screamed at me but I kept on running. I lost them or maybe they lost interest in me. It didn't matter and I didn't care as I arrived back in the alley. He was awake, his eyes still shut as I heard him groaning in pain. As I kneeled down, I saw something almost incredible. His leg cut was slowly healing. The muscles were like threads and re-attaching themselves again, bringing the leg back together. I stopped staring and began to wrapping his arms and cleaning all the dust and glass from his body and face. As I was doing all this, my hands covered in blood as I ran out of cloth and my towel went from white to a brownish red, he spoke to me. He told me he was fine. I would've screamed at him, I would've hit him for telling such a lie. But I'm not her. I'm not them. I told him the truth, I told him what I was feeling as I made sure the wraps were tight and wouldn't fall. His leg kept on healing and almost fully healed. As if he wasn't cut down to the bone. But the realization hit me again as I didn't know what to do. I didn't know where he lived and even if I knew, I wasn't strong enough to pick him up. And I couldn't ask for help. I would've been dragged away from him and he would receive an even worse beating than now. But it seemed he sensed my distress as he shakingly lifted his hand towards my face, eyes still closed and told me to go. I tried to speak but he shouted at me, telling me he was fine and I did enough. I started to cry again and I hesitantly stood back, looking down at him. He dropped his arm down and I saw a smile form on his face.

"Thank you" He told me.

Tenten screamed loudly as tears fell down her face as she kept on violently smashing her pole staff on the wooden pole. The metal pole staff drastically bent and broken as she kept on swinging it with her current technique. Pure brute force. As the pole staff snapped in half, she stopped and caught her breath. She wiped away her tears but they kept falling out. She threw the broken weapon on the ground as she fell down and held her face. She let everything loose. All her emotions and feelings out as she cried and drench her hands in her tears.

After that night, I saw him in a different way. How he always kept a smile as he hide his scars. How he also had a shine to him. A certain glow that made me smile. His smile was contagious but I knew it was fake. It was all to hide his pain but it still made me happy. It made want to keep going. "He goes through hell and still keeps a smile up, fake or not that's still effort". I always, always wanted to defend him. Every insult I wanted to talk back at them. Every hit, I wanted to hit them back. But I just couldn't. Because he was already doing it, but less violent and in a weird way, accepted what they said and did to him. I regret doing nothing. Just one word, one small action and he might've still be here.

I miss him already. Not even a day has passed and I miss him so much. But I believe he is happy now.

Is it selfish to ask if he misses me? She sat on the grass thinking as she wiped away her tears.