Spear & Shield

Spear & Shield
Chapter 15

Yasu learned a few things about Tenten during their dinner at Ichiraku. 

First of all, Tenten was not as weird as she originally thought.

A kindhearted, idealistic (albeit mislead), teenage girl? Yes. A weirdo, stranger-obsessed, stalker? Not really.

She learned her hobbies included cleaning her overwhelmingly large arsenal of weapons, and fortune-telling. Her favorite colors were pink and green, but not when they were paired together. She was an orphan and considered her team her family. And while she wasn't what Yasu would call totally normal, she wasn't a total weirdo, either.

Although, it was safe to say at this point that Yasu actually quite liked the weird ones. So perhaps her standard for “weirdo” was a bit off-kilter.

“One hundred percent hit rate?" Yasu echoed, forcing herself to swallow a mouthful of noodles, "That’s amazing!”

Tenten blushed, mixing the remnants of the noodles at the bottom of her bowl, “Thank you.” 

“My marksmanship was always below average.”

“What’s your specialty, then?”

Yasu paused, her eyes sliding over to Tenten. “You know you’re not supposed to ask that, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s impolite,” Yasu explained. “Ninja code. If you don’t know someone’s specialty, you never ask them directly.”

Tenten’s brow furrowed, “I don’t get it. That’s not part of the ninja code we learned in the Academy.”

Yasu suppressed the urge to laugh at the novice, “It’s an unspoken rule. Once you get out on the field more, you’ll understand how it works.”

Of course, Tenten bristled at her intonation, “What's the big deal? It’s just a question!”

“Shinobi don’t go about giving up all their secrets," she explained, "If you don’t know about someone’s technique and skills, it means they’re either keeping them a secret or they’re so mediocre, no one’s cared enough to notice.”

“Oh,” Tenten turned back to her nearly-empty bowl, “I mean, when you put it like that…”

Yasu shrugged, offering the girl a small smile, “Don’t get me wrong, ninja code is dumb. But it’s just the way things are…” after a pause she added, “Usually, you would learn these things from your jounin-sensei. But I don’t think Gai-sensei uses it at all, so it makes sense he’s never explained it to you.”

“He’s a good teacher,” Tenten sighed, slumping forward against the counter, “But social nuances aren’t his thing.”

“You can say that again,” Yasu grinned.

The two shared a chuckle and the line between uncomfortable strangers and kindred spirits finally dissolved completely. 

Yasu smiled kindly down to her companion, “It’s endurance, by the way.”

“Huh?”

“Endurance would be my specialty. If I have one, that is.”

“Oooh,” Tenten drawled, a cat-like grin stretching across her face, “Is that why Gai-sensei likes training with you?”

Yasu pursed her lips. “I think so, yes,” she snapped her chopsticks thoughtfully, “We could probably spar for days on end before one of us gets tired. We haven't tried yet, though.”

“This makes so much sense!” Tenten declared, widening her double-edged smile, “It's just like our test.”

Yasu gave her a perplexed stare, mouth overflowing with noodles. 

“Our genin test! He made us fight him. If we gave up at any point, he would have failed us. But we kept going as a team and passed.”

Slowly at first, then all at once, Yasu connected the dots.

Turns out she had been digging her own grave all along.

Would Gai have given up on her if she had conceded? Would he have left her alone if she had just thrown the fight? What actually drew him to her? Was it her technique or had he simply been impressed by her tenacity?  And why hadn’t she just given up in the first place?! Would that have made him go away...?

The thought was too much to bare. “...So, you said you saw good health in Lee’s future. That’s good!” she squeaked, her voice jutting up a few pitches as she quickly changed the subject.

Tenten noticed her companion's suddenly unsettled demeanor, but politely ignored it. “I hope so… But Gai-sensei’s fortune was much more interesting,” she slyly turned the conversation back to their original confrontation.

The two kunoichi shared a beleaguered look, each hoping the other would just give up and give in already. 

“Let me guess,” Yasu slurrped, “Love?”

Of course it was love. Almost every fortune ever told predicted love. In fact, the whole point of fortune telling was to prepare oneself for falling in love. But Yasu was never the type to care about such things, especially when it came to funny old wives tales about tea leaves and palm lines. She was waiting for a fortune telling method that could accurately predict sales at the grocery store. 

"He talks about you, you know."

"Yeah, I figured. He talks about you three a lot, too."

This made Tenten smile, which made Yasu smile too. Right up until Tenten said, "After we found out love was in his future, you could say we put two and two together."

"You and Lee thought this up?"

"Neji was there, too."

"Wow. What are the chances of three young geniuses all being wrong?"

"Hey!" Tenten huffed, secretly pleased Yasu had included her as a "genius." Normally just Neji got the recognition, maybe Lee if he was lucky… Tenten hardly ever. 

"So who's idea was it to follow me around?"

"... That might have been mine."

There was something in the way she said it, looking like a kicked puppy. It finally burst poor Yasu's little heart, and she found herself laughing at the poor girl. 

"Next time," she chuckled with a wink, "We'll work on your tracking skills."

Tenten learned a few things about Yasu during their dinner at Ichiraku’s.

First of all, Yasu was nice.

Awkward, socially stilted, and a little weird? Sure. But she was nice.

Yasu had never actually gotten angry at Tenten for following her around while she was shopping. Instead, she gave Tenten a free meal and good company, even offering to do their shopping together next time. Tenten appreciated the level of maturity Yasu carried herself with, because wasn’t something Tenten was used to. It was refreshing. She never considered herself one to be won over easily, but Tenten found herself liking Ushi Yasu.

As they parted ways, Tenten found herself leaving Yasu with one final thought.

‘At least Gai-sensei isn’t dating some weirdo.’