Love is Kind
Tenten perceives much of the world around her, despite the loss of one of her senses. She has always been perceptive, something that Neji has always lacked. For some reason, Neji decides today – of all days – is the time to be perceptive.
“That fresh cut looks tended to,” he says to her, as soon as she walks in the back entrance to the temple.
“What cut?” she asks, knowing exactly which cut he’s referring to.
“Tenten,” he says sternly.
“Neji,” she replies back, mock sternness apparent.
“Fine,” he says. “Don’t tell me.”
She hears him shift and knows he’s crossed his arms, something he’s done since they were kids.
“I still have no idea what you’re talking about,” she says, giving her closest friend a sweet smile.
He groans loudly as she walks right past him.
“Does this have anything to do with wherever you keep disappearing?” He asks, the sound of his footsteps letting Tenten know he’s following her.
“Aren’t you supposed to be guarding the door?” She asks, deflecting his question.
“You’re deflecting,” he says.
“And you’re abandoning your post,” she says.
“This conversation isn’t over,” he says, receding footsteps announcing his journey back to his post.
“Oh but it is,” Tenten mumbles under her breath.
She made a promise to Temari, and there is no way Tenten would break her trust. Even though Temari herself doesn’t even know that Tenten knows her Truth. She wouldn’t tell anyone about Temari, not even Neji – especially not Neji.
Tenten isn’t a person to hold grudges, even when it would be reasonable to do so. She forgives Neji for what transpired 4 years ago, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t learn from what happened. She knows now the dangers of loving freely and openly, of loving the way she loves. Because of this, Tenten is even more determined to keep this new love safe.
As she walks through the temple, making her way to the kitchen, thoughts of Hinata bombard her. The memory of her first love still stings, but the loss doesn’t feel as fresh. She remembers laying in the grass of the Hyuuga estate with Hinata beside her, both of their eyes watching the clouds above and Tenten lazily twirling a long, black strand of Hinata’s hair between her fingers. She remembers sneaking away together to steal kisses between the dark haired girl’s meetings. She remembers shirking her duties in order to spend all afternoon searching for flowers to create a bouquet the color of Hinata’s eyes. She remembers. She will always remember.
And yet, she has forgotten. She has forgotten the way Hinata would smell after she would help her bathe. She has forgotten the feeling of their skin touching in the middle of the night, when Hinata would crawl into Tenten’s servant bed after a nightmare. She has forgotten the feeling of Hinata’s hair between her fingers when she would braid it elaborately in preparation for Hyuuga family engagements.
“Tenten! Where have you been?” Sakura’s voice pulls Tenten from her ruminations as she enters the kitchen.
“Who cares where she’s been?” Ino responds. Tenten hears the sound of a person being hit followed by Sakura’s grunt, “We are just glad you’re here now. We need all the help we can get preparing for the feast.”
“The feast?” Tenten asks.
“The assistant to the High Priestess came in here a little bit ago to announce we would be hosting a neighboring village’s soldiers tonight since they will be passing through,” Sakura explains.
“It would have been nice to get more notice…” Ino grumbles.
“Beggars can’t be choosers,” Sakura snaps.
“Who’s begging?” Ino quips.
Tenten hears another hit land, followed this time by Ino’s grunt. She smiles to herself. Those two were always bickering.
“How can I help?” she asks.
“Dishes,” the two girls respond in unison.
Tenten nods and then makes her way over to the large water basin in the corner. She feels her way around the basin, fingers gently brushing the surrounding dishes.
“Is this every dish in the temple?” She asks with a small laugh.
“Almost,” Karui says, her rapid footsteps approaching. Dishes clink letting Tenten know more have been added, “now it’s every dish in the temple.”
Tenten sighs and starts working, resigned to the fact her fingers will be prunes soon enough.
*****
One night hosting dinner for the soldiers turned into five which soon enough turned into what the High Priestess is calling an “extended stay.” A bit of a misnomer since men aren’t allowed to actually stay in the Temple of Tsunade – not even the soldiers who are bound to the temple like Neji. Soldiers of Tsunade and male visitors alike all are forced to camp at least 200 paces from the temple, as was declared by the goddess herself.
Or whatever horseshit the High Priestess is always quoting. Who really knows if it was said by a goddess? Tenten isn’t a true believer. In fact, most of the girls who are bound to the temple aren’t since the Temple of Tsunade is more often used as a place to send wayward daughters than as an actual holy place.
Despite this, Tenten still finds herself praying to the goddess of healing, loss, and luck more often than she would like to admit. One who doesn’t know her well would likely think Tenten prays to Tsunade for healing, seeing her blindness as the curse it often feels like. Someone who knows her well – someone like Neji – would likely think she prays to Tsunade for help navigating loss, one that she still feels keenly. And yet, more often than not, Tenten finds herself praying to Tsunade for luck.
Luck is what allows her to keep seeing Temari. Because other than luck, what force could have brought them together? Tenten is certain of so little these days, but she knows in her heart that she wants to be near Temari as much as she possibly can. And so, she prays for some more lucky chances.
Her next lucky chance comes after a whole moon phase, but as Sakura said, beggars can’t be choosers. Years could pass and Tenten would still want to visit Temari the first chance she got. Before she leaves, Tenten tries to find Neji to ask if he has any extra pasteli. She goes to the back entrance where he’s usually stationed, but she slows down when she hears him… laughing?
Neji hardly ever laughs like this. Tenten slowly creeps forward to hear better, realization dawning on her when she remembers the last time she heard him laughing like this – when a certain boy with a bowl cut kept flexing for him when they were all still living on the Hyuuga estate. Oh gods, Tenten thinks. Neji’s flirting.
“How long have you been a soldier?” A new voice asks.
“Nearly 5 years,” Neji answers, a slight giggle following.
Tenten stifles a groan.
“You’re a lot more experienced than I am,” the other soldier says.
“I don’t know about that, Sasuke,” Neji titters. He titters.
“I love the way you say my name,” Sasuke says, his voice husky.
Tenten hears the sound of two bodies coming together, and she knows she needs to stop this before it goes any further. At least long enough for her to make her sweet escape.
“Neji?” She calls as she starts walking towards them.
She hears them pull apart quickly, punctuated by a curse from Sasuke.
“Tenten?” Neji responds, voice shaky with surprise and something she did not want to put a name to.
“Do you have any pasteli you want to share with me?” She asks.
Sasuke makes an indignant noise, and she smiles before adding in an exaggerated tone for extra impact.
“Your dearest and closest friend?”
“You are so strange sometimes,” Neji says, but she hears him shift and sort through fabric. “Here.”
“Thank you dear friend,” she says, opening her hand to receive the candy, feeling two pieces gently set on her palm. “As you were.”
She smiles as she pushes past the two boys and out the back entrance.
“Is she blind?” Sasuke whispers.
“Yes,” Neji whispers back, “so you don’t have to worry. She didn’t see anything.”
Tenten walks her typical route deep into the forest to where Temari lives. She reaches her hands out, feeling along the trees as she goes. She knows she’s getting close when she reaches what she thinks of as the Sound Wall – what she’s been calling the part of the forest where all sounds of life cut out. No more chirping crickets or singing birds. No more frantically fleeing rabbits or swiftly following foxes. Nothing.
But that isn’t true because Tenten has heard the snakes. The snakes that she is certain she only hears when Temari is near. Even them, though, she’s only heard a couple times. The first time was when she encountered Temari who had refused to reveal herself, even going so far as to run away. The second time was when she actually interacted with Temari for the first time, hearing the snakes as she approached the other girl’s clearing. Since then, the snakes have been rather quiet, but Tenten could swear she sometimes heard the sounds of tongues flicking and serpentine movement seemingly from around Temari’s head.
Tenten isn’t stupid. She knows what this means. After all, she has heard the stories of what lives in the forest beyond the temple enough over the past 5 years. It isn’t that she didn’t believe those stories – it’s that she didn’t believe they were the whole truth. Something about the stories of a man-hating monster that lives alone in the forest, turning all living creatures to stone had always seemed a little incomplete to Tenten. Why did the monster hate all men? That seemed like the question no one was willing to answer. Between the statues of fearful men she remembered littering the town circle as a girl to the statue of the “Surprised Maiden” that stays near the front entrance of the temple that she’s run her hands along the face of as a woman, she always thought there was more to the story.
This is just one of the many things running through her mind as she approaches Temari’s clearing. Her feet feel the grooves of the path that she made and she takes a deep breath, feeling her heart race at the prospect of being with the other girl again. Just before she calls out, she hears the faint hissing of snakes followed by what sounds like Temari talking.
“I’d really appreciate it if you quit trying to give me advice,” she says, her voice sharper than Tenten’s ever heard it before.
The snakes hiss in disagreement. Tenten is taken aback by recognizing the disagreement in the hissing.
“I am being careful,” Temari says, annoyance clear.
The snakes hiss again, one snake louder than all the rest.
“You know, in 200 years I can’t believe I’ve never tried cutting one of you off to see what happens…” Temari’s voice trails off before she adds in an amused tone. “I wonder if you’d grow back.”
The snakes hiss in what sounds to Tenten like an apology. One snake in particular seeming especially regretful.
“That’s what I thought,” Temari says, smugly.
Tenten can’t help but smile. She knows she should probably be freaking out over the fact that her latest love interest is a 200 year old that lives alone in the forest because she turns living creatures to stone, but you know what? That didn’t seem to be a big deal to Tenten right now because had Temari turned her to stone? No, no she had not. The bigger deal to Tenten was that this was the first person she had been genuinely interested in since Hinata. She wasn’t going to squander this chance just because the other person maybe wasn’t a person after all.
“I’m back!” Tenten calls as she steps into the clearing. “I brought more pasteli.”
She hears Temari make a little shocked noise before fabric flutters signifying movement.
“Tenten!” Temari says. “I’ve missed you.”
Another shocked little noise leaves Temari, almost as if she didn’t mean to say those words.
“I’ve missed you too, Temari,” Tenten says.
At these words, a pleasant sigh escapes Temari as she closes the gap between them. Her warm hand finds Tenten’s arm, guiding her towards the center of the clearing. Tenten normally hates when people grab her to guide her without using their words, but with Temari, there was an innate trust there. It felt calming… comforting.
“Do you want to try some of the things I’ve grown?” Temari asks after showing Tenten to a short, wooden stool based on its feel.
“Of course! Anything you want to show me,” Tenten says excitedly.
She hears Temari rustle around, likely putting things together to create a spread for them.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t come sooner,” she says.
“Did someone get sick again?” Temari asks, her back facing Tenten judging by the echo of her voice.
“No, not this time… We are hosting soldiers from a nearby village, so there’s been lots to do.” she says.
At this, she hears Temari still before moving slowly.
“The temple is hosting soldiers?” Temari asks, now facing Tenten. Her voice sounding dangerously nonchalant.
“They aren’t able to actually stay in the temple as per custom,” Tenten explains. “But yes, they are taking all their meals with us for an ‘extended stay’ as the High Priestess calls it.”
“Interesting,” Temari says. “I thought the custom was that men weren’t allowed in the temple at all.”
“As long as I’ve known, the custom is that men aren’t allowed to sleep in the temple but can visit for short periods of time – a few hours at most,” Tenten explains further.
Something about Temari’s tone makes Tenten feel like this custom may have once been different. Temari makes a hmmm noise.
“They’ll be gone soon,” Temari says, a definitive note leaving no room for argument.
And yet, Tenten finds room.
“How do you know?” she asks.
The other girl chuckles slightly in a way that both frightens and excites Tenten.
“Trust me,” Temari says. “They just will.”
Tenten doesn’t ask any follow up questions, trusting the situation to… resolve itself.
“Presenting…. My garden’s delights!” Temari says, the lightness in her voice a stark contrast to seconds prior.
Tenten claps, even though she can’t see anything.
“What’s on it?” She asks, still clapping.
“Oh right,” Temari says, a bit sheepishly upon realizing her mistake. “My tomatoes, some berries I’ve gathered, and a few different dried nuts I had from years past.”
“Here’s the pasteli,” she says, handing the couple pieces to her.
Temari takes it from her hand and she can hear it being added to the tray.
“Let’s eat,” Temari says.
After eating until they were both full, the two girls sit together underneath the afternoon sun. Tenten knows she needs to get back to the temple, but she wants to relish in these last few moments with Temari since she didn’t know when they would be able to see each other next. A comfortable silence stretches between them after a long conversation on the best way to eat a tomato. Tenten yearns to break the silence by bringing up something that she has thought about every day since they last saw each other.
“You like to look at pretty girls too?” She says softly.
She hears Temari stir in her seat slightly.
“A pretty girl,” she says, matching Tenten’s softness. “Yes.”
Tenten feels her face heat up, and she knows she’s flushing red.
“I wish I could look at you,” Tenten says, wanting her sight back now more than ever.
“I’m glad you can’t,” Temari says, instantly. Sadly.
“Don’t say that,” she says, reaching a hand towards Temari’s face.
She gently cups her cheek, and Temari lays a hand over Tenten’s before slowly pulling it into her lap.
“You don’t understand,” Temari says.
Tenten is pretty sure she understands, but she wants Temari to spell it out for her.
“You could try explaining it,” she offers.
Temari sighs deeply and then says, “Not today, but soon.”
Soon, Tenten thinks to herself. She can live with soon.