Chapter Text
Hidden Chapter: Hatake Kakashi
Like most girls, Tenten had a period of fangirling, so to speak.
Her obsession came in a package of gray hair, lazy eyes, and a dark blue mask.
Oh, and an obsession for Icha Icha Paradise.
i.
It all started during the Gaara Rescue Mission.
(She was impressed with his Mangekyou Sharingan.
And his leadership skills.
And his tolerance for Maito Gai.
Especially his tolerance for Maito Gai.)
ii.
She only told one person about it.
(Said person looked at her incredulously, wailed, and called her a traitor, how could you do that to Gai-sensei?!
Said person’s teammate and eternal rival, who heard the conversation by accident, was amused. That didn’t necessarily mean he was all too happy about it.
Said person’s sensei, who heard the conversation before he even reached the clearing—Lee’s wails were loud enough to disturb the squirrels in the immediate area—burst out crying, pumped his fist, and mourned the fact that the tally was now 51 to 50, in Kakashi’s favor.)
iii.
She was on her way to Team Gai’s training grounds when she spotted Kakashi in Team Seven’s spot, practicing a jutsu she was not familiar with. Mystified—and entranced—she was rooted on the spot, her eyes fixed on the jounin doing multiple hand seals amid a swirling cacophony of leaves and dust.
Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Naruto found her on the same spot ten minutes later.
“Tenten-san?”
“Oh, hey, Sakura, Naruto.”
“What are you doing here?” Sakura asked. “Isn’t Team Gai’s training ground a bit farther into the forest?”
“Aha!” Naruto suddenly yelled, pointing an accusing finger at Tenten. “You’re a spy! You’re spying on us so you can report to your team later!”
Sakura hit the Kyuubi vessel on the head with her knuckle.
Tenten chuckled. “Don’t worry,” she said, her eyes still glued to Kakashi, who was now balancing upside down, supported only by his left arm. “I didn’t come here to spy. My teammates won’t appreciate that anyway, stubborn lot that they are.”
“Then why are you here?”
And because Tenten was not educated in the proper way of fangirling (and stalking), she answered Sakura’s question as honestly as she could. “I’m watching Kakashi-san train. He sure is something, isn’t he?” And, as an afterthought, “I wonder how he looks under that mask. I’m guessing he’ll be pretty handsome.”
(Only when she realized she did not receive an answer did she turn to her companions, and found them staring at her with a dumbfounded expression on their faces.)
iv.
Their interactions have been few and in between, but Tenten cherished each one of them. After all, Kakashi proved to be a very intelligent person, and a good conversationalist, too.
There was just a pet peeve she had—his fixation on the Icha Icha Paradise series.
(“What is that book you’re always reading?” she asked him, suddenly popping from behind and peering over the little tome. Kakashi made no move to push her away. Taking it as a silent invitation, Tenten went ahead and read a few lines from the page he was currently on.
She finally understood what she was reading two paragraphs later. A bright crimson swept over her face, and on instinct, she grabbed the book and threw it far, far away.
Half a second later, a kunai zipped in the air, struck the book in the middle, splitting the pages into bits and pieces.
“Ah!” Kakashi blurted out, arm outstretched in shock, as if willing his book to return. “Tenten! That was my favorite in the series!”
“You’re disgusting!” the kunoichi screeched, watching as the poor volume, or what was left of it, dropped down the ground, its pages scattering with the wind.
“B-but,” Kakashi mourned the loss of his book. “I was just getting to the good part!”
“Good part my ass!” Tenten yelled, before she realized how wrong her last sentence sounded. It didn’t help that Kakashi appeared to be smirking underneath his mask.
Her blush increased a thousandfold.
“Perv!” the kunoichi screamed, throwing a dozen kunai and senbons—and a single battle axe—at the now-fleeing jounin.)
v.
“Kakashi-san?”
The ex-Anbu lifted his head from his book and regarded Tenten with lazy eyes. “Yo, Tenten. How are you?” Tenten did not fail to notice how the little book suddenly disappeared from view.
The kunoichi fought the urge to blush. She saw him sitting on a tree branch just outside the Academy, and on impulse, she stopped right below him and called out his name.
“Uhm, I have a question for you.”
It was a question that she had wanted to ask him for several weeks now, but could never find the courage to do so. But now that the opportunity was there, why not go ahead and grab it?
“Oh?” Kakashi asked. “Well, come on up here then.”
“Okay,” Tenten beamed, and then hopped up the branch and sat beside the jounin.
“What do you want to ask?”
“Well,” Tenten began, thinking of a proper way to say it, “why do you have the sharingan?” Kakashi’s face clouded a little, and Tenten feared she just said something offensive. “I’m sorry!” she stammered. “If it’s supposed to be a secret, then . . .”
“It was a gift,” Kakashi suddenly replied, visible eye smiling sadly, “from a friend.”
(That afternoon, all three boys of Team Gai noticed Tenten’s somber mood.
“What’s wrong, Tenten?” Lee asked, as he finished his seventy-fifth pushup. “Are you hurt somewhere?”
Tenten blinked. “Oh, no.”
“Then why do you look so sad?”
“Sad?” The kunoichi frowned. Did she look sad?
She turned to her sparring partner, and realized that he was examining her with silent, questioning eyes. Even Gai, who had arrived a few seconds earlier, noticed it.
“Is something bothering you, Tenten?” Gai asked, concern in his voice.
“No. It’s just that . . . I’m thinking of something.”
The three boys shot her with confused looks, but Tenten zoned out again. Truth be told, she was thinking about Kakashi’s story—of him and Obito and sweet little Rin. Or, to be more specific about it, she wondered how her team would fare out if they were forced in a similar situation. She was no medic nin and therefore cannot perform an eye operation on the spot like Rin did, and she could not imagine Neji telling her to transfer his byakugan to Lee anyway. That, and Lee would probably have no idea how to use the eye if he ever got it.
“Tenten.”
It was Neji this time. “W-what?”
“No matter what bothering you,” he slowly said, positioning himself in a meditation pose beneath Tenten’s favorite target board, “just do what you always do best. Throw kunai at the board,” he said, pointing at the panel above his head, “and you’re sure to feel better afterward.”
Tenten nodded, summoned a kunai, and threw it at the board. The weapon hit the bull’s eye, as expected. Only then did she realize that her spirits were indeed lifted, even for just a little bit.
She found that the Hyuuga had closed his eyes, already starting with his daily meditation. It still flattered her to no end that Neji could be so at ease with her throwing sharp, pointy stuff above his head. Like he trusted her with his life. Literally.
“Thanks, Neji.”)
vi.
Somewhere along the way, her obsession with Kakashi mellowed down to a fond admiration, coupled with a little bit of pseudo-sibling companionship.
(“I think I might have had a little fangirl crush on you before,” she confessed, as they walked side by side after one of their easier missions. The rest of their team—Gai and Lee and Sai—were walking behind them, apparently having a serious discussion on their own. It appeared as if the two Team Gai members were telling Sai the benefits of wearing the green spandex. The ex-Root seemed almost convinced.
Kakashi regarded her with an eye filled with humor. “Oh?” he chuckled. “Never pegged you as fangirl material.”
Tenten laughed along with him. “I don’t think I have the knack for it. I don’t squeal, I don’t stalk, and I don’t try to steal your personal belongings for my shrine.”
Kakashi guffawed.
Tenten grinned. “Well, it’s better this way, right?”
Kakashi shrugged. “I wouldn’t have minded, you know,” he answered in a low whisper. “I can even lend you some of the books from my collection, if you ask me nicely.”
It took Tenten a couple of seconds before she realized the joke, and when she did, Kakashi had already sprinted away, just in time to avoid the barrage of kunai she sent flying toward him.
vii.
In the end, she realized she did like it better that way.
(She even had the license to hide his stash of Icha Icha Paradise from time to time.)