NejiTen Oneshots And Drabbles

Tempering Soul And Steel

Four. It is a number that signifies good luck in Konoha's culture, one that represents balance and fortune. Perhaps that is why the arrival of each new season is honored in her village. But for Tenten, it is not the coming of the seasons she respects half so much as the going of them.

Nature is a constant reminder that things do not last, that she must cherish what she has while she has it. It keeps her in reality, knowing that even though she may one day achieve a goal, she will no doubt lose its glory sooner or later.

Her team relates to the year with personality as well as preference. Neji, for example, is always most content during winter. He does not mind the cold. Tenten wonders if that is because he has so often dealt with iciness within his own family that he no longer feels it. The wintry world captures him, down to the very color of his eyes, and more than once she has watched him inwardly revel in a gentle snowfall. Most of all, she supposes that with the coming of the New Year during the winter, Neji attains a sense of new beginnings, of freedom. The kind of freedom he forever yearns for. He thinks no one notices his internal joy the same way he believes no one notices his constant pain.

Tenten has always noticed all of it.

Gai-sensei, in retrospect, finds personal delight in spring. This was never a huge surprise to her. His speeches and monologues about youth and its fires come to an unwanted climax when flowers bloom and rivers run again. The worst part is that he embellishes and adds notes on love and its splendor. Tenten wonders if this is why Maito Gai never managed to get married.

Lee, not much different from the teacher he strives to be like, practically embodies the spirit of summer. He is wild, often uncontrollable, and at times overheated – just like his favorite time of year. He sometimes cannot be seen during the sweltering days because his joy usually has him running laps through the woods to spread his "youthful determination." That, or because his trademark green mini-Gai costume makes him blend in with the healthy grass and renders him invisible.

As for Tenten, she is none of these. Winter gives her courage, spring gives her hope, and summer gives her energy, but these seasons do not bring the true soul out of her.

Autumn is the time for her. As emerald leaves morph into other gems – ruby, topaz, amber – she can feel the core of her responding. It moves her, this time that some people look upon as the world decaying around them. She is inspired by it.

And so today, in the moderate temperatures of late October, she chooses to work outside with fire and mallet. She comes out at dawn and eats a cool apple of bright scarlet while she witnesses the sun rising upon a world filled with color just waiting to burst out at the light approaching it. The earth is a wondrous thing when reduced to only those two elements; color and light. For Tenten, there is no other time better than those first breathtaking moments of a waking world, of existence opening itself.

When the sky changes from pale lavender to bright blue, there is enough light for her to begin working. She has a vision in her mind: a katana. It will be long, she knows, hammering a molten length of metal that glows from its time in her nearby fire. It is not meant for her but for someone gifted with more height. She thinks about saving it to present to Gai-sensei once she graduates to the level of Jounin, then dashes the idea away. Gai-sensei does not use swords and would see it only as a piece of art. He would hang it on the wall and look at it from time to time when he wanted to think of his "precious blossom!" And while this new weapon is bound to be a masterpiece indeed, it is destined for battle, not living room décor. On as perfect a day as this, with the fall air so full of promise, Tenten knows that this blade will know the taste and feel of blood. As will its wielder.