Forked Shadows

Chapter 10

Raicho's first subject of interest was none other than dearest Tenten. In the Academy, she was first to approach Raicho and become close friends. Later, Sakura and Hinata came around to share homemade sweets, and finally, Ino said hello and became a fellow neighbor on the same street as Raicho.

The Chunin Exams weren't done yet. In fact, the finals wouldn't come until the end of the month. Numerous ninjas from different villages walked the streets. All training grounds scattered about Konoha were dominated by a team of Genin, two teams if the space was big enough. Whenever Raicho strolled through the marketplace, the majority of the place was filled with Genin teams.

So finding Tenten had to take some time.

"Rai-chan!" Raicho whirled around and looked up to see Tenten sitting on the ledge of a tree. Raicho glanced around to notice all kinds of weapons littering the tops of the tree trunks. Tenten must have been training in a closed environment. Tenten didn't pass the preliminaries, but Raicho was pleased to see her best friend still striving to become stronger. Her personal idol was Lady Tsunade, one of the great Sanin.

"Tenten!" Raicho opened her arms as the weapon-user came crashing towards her, and they fell to the forest floor. "How are you?"

"I'm a little disappointed I didn't pass, but hey, I'm not going to slack off! Losing means I have to work harder than ever to compete again in the next Chunin Exams!"

"It's alright. You'll definitely get it next time," Raicho encouraged her, as Tenten got off, pulling her up. "I'm so bored, want to go on a lunch date?"

"Oh good. I'm famished." Raicho beamed and watched her speedily retrieve all her weapons, sending them back to their proper places: scrolls.

"Shall we?" Tenten and Raicho raced to their favorite restaurant and ordered lunch at a small booth in the corner, perfect for spying on the rest of the people.

"So I heard you got into an apprenticeship program, congratulations," Tenten cheered, clasping her hands together with chopsticks jammed under her thumbs. "How is it?"

"It's, uh, a lot of work," Raicho sighed, letting her shoulders drop as a wane smile formed on her lips. "I need to get a lot of work done and I'm juggling classes and on-hands work to get everything done."

"Well, at least you have something to do," Tenten grumbled. "I haven't stopped training since the preliminaries. That Temari girl got me good, and I'm upset about that." Raicho looked concerned, reaching across the table to take Tenten's hands. Callouses and bruise marks littered her hands, her gloves worn and frayed.

"How about taking minor missions? See if anyone needs help?" Raicho offered. "It's good to let your anger out through training, but anger-impulse training can do long-term damage."

"Will you come with me?"

"Sure. I'd be happy to," Raicho smiled. "Uh, when? I have the next two days off." She leaned back against the cushioned booth seats, watching the waitress bring up their food.

"After lunch," Tenten mumbled, digging in eagerly. Raicho followed suit, picking up a pair of disposable chopsticks.

"Agreed."

After lunch, the girls headed to the weapon shop. "Since the Chunin Exam Finals are coming up, I asked a couple weeks ago if I could work here part time. Weapons in extensive and intensive training get blunt or break, so the shop will be pretty busy. Come on. Hey, Uncle!"