endless_scrolls (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
endless_scrolls) wrote2006-10-08 07:10 pm
endless_scrolls) wrote2006-10-08 07:10 pm
Entry tags:
May: Phoenix
Title: Phoenix
Type: Fanfic
Fandom: Naruto
Theme: May - My hand on yours
Character(s): Tenten, Uchiha Sasuke
Pairing(s): SasuTen
Warning(s): None that I can think of
Disclaimer: I own nothing but these words.
Note: One of the first fight scenes I had ever written.
“What do you want?” he said coldly upon seeing me at his front door.
I had swore to myself that I would never step foot onto another clan compound ever again after my first and last visit to the Hyuuga mansion. The noble clan had treated me as nothing more than a servant, only showing me the mildest form of respect because I was Neji’s teammate. But here I was, on another clan compound willing to subject myself to more stares of disgust and scoffs at my low social status. But there would be none of that here. After all, there was only one surviving member of the Uchiha clan left, and I needed him.
“I wanted to ask for your help,” I replied bluntly, knowing that Sasuke would respond better if I went straight to the point.
He wasn’t intrigued by any means. It was more like he was amused at the fact that I was coming to him for help, no matter what form that aid would come in. Leaning against the door post with his arms crossed over his chest, the last remaining Uchiha in Konoha waited patiently for me to continue to explain myself as if he were actually taking my request into consideration.
“I want to train with you,” I simply explained, knowing that anything more elaborate would just be wasting both our times.
“What happened to your training with the Hyuuga?” Sasuke asked, lifting a well defined brow in inquiry.
“I can’t learn anything else from him,” I responded vaguely, feeling my patience growing thinner by the minute, “Now are you going to help me or not?”
He stood there and stared at me in a passive manner, scrutinizing every inch of my being. Finally he leaned off of the door post and opened the door wider to let me in. He closed the door with a soft click and started to walk deeper into the Uchiha compound, not even bothering to wait for me to follow.
“Come with me,” he said evenly over his shoulder, “We’ll see if you’re worthy.”
Taking a moment to glance at my dark surroundings, I moved to follow after the raven-haired shinobi towards the back of the house. Off to the side in the spacious back yard was a small temple and training compound where Sasuke proceeded to enter. I followed up to the grand doors and stopped for a moment, hesitant to enter such a sacred place without an invitation.
“Are you going to just stand there all night or are we going to do this?” came the Uchiha’s harsh and impatient tone.
Taking that as an invitation, I quietly stepped through the threshold and waited for my eyes to adjust to the dark shadows. When I could finally see the dark Uchiha in the dim lighting, took a glance around and found the walls decorated from the floor to the ceiling with weapons of every type and style imaginable. Averting my attention back to my potential teacher, I noticed a simple katana in his hands, the metal blade shining under the moonlight.
“Shall we begin?” Sasuke asked, my only warning to his sudden attack.
“What?” was all I managed to get out before I was forced to dodge his assault.
Reaching out and grabbing the nearest weapon available to me, I managed to stop the blade of the katana from slicing my head in two. The sais in my hand trembled under the force he was putting into the katana.
“Hm, quick reaction time,” the Uchiha noted, drawing back to prepare for another assault, “At least you learned something from training with Neji.”
And with that said, he charged at me again. The sound of metal clashing was usually a soothing sound for me. But this time was different fore I had something to prove. Not only were my credentials on the line, but also the chance to advance my skill. After training for so many years against the strong Hyuuga clan prodigy known as Neji, I found myself unchanged and unsatisfied with my progress. Neji would start his ANBU training with his squad soon and would have little time to deal with me. And so I was forced to seek other means of improving myself.
“You’re too distracted,” the dark-haired shinobi said to me, easily dodging my mediocre attacks, “Stop second-guessing yourself and just do it.”
He’s right, I agreed silently, Focus Tenten!
Tossing the sais away, I quickly snatched a long dagger for the weapons displayed along the walls. All the while, the dark-haired shinobi never paused, nearly catching me defenseless as I reached for the weapon. Finding the long knife easier to maneuver and parry with, the fight started to seem less one sided than before as I pushed my specialty for weapons to its limit.
“What is it that you want?” he asked in the middle of our spar.
“To become stronger,” I replied without hesitation.
“And what does that mean?” the Uchiha asked, never failing to block any of my blows, “What does it mean for you to be stronger?”
The question took me off guard, not knowing the answer myself. With my attention divided, Sasuke took the opportunity to yank the dagger out of my grasp, leaving me weaponless and defenseless once again. But before he could finish, I executed a flying summersault over his head, grabbing a well placed kunai knife along the way. The moment I landed on the ground, I tightened my grip on the kunai and charged forward towards my opponent.
Seeing my predictable move, the powerful leaf-nin easily evaded the sharp edge of my weapon. In one swift motion, he grabbed the hand holding the kunai and flipped me onto my back. As I stared up at my instructor in disbelief, he merely looked down at me, shaking his head with pity.
“I‘m not done,” I demanded, “I won’t give up that easily.”
“Then by all means pick up a weapon and attack me,” Sasuke commented with a smirk as he immediately moved into his fighting stance once again, “I need a good workout anyways.”
He gestured for me to take up any of the other weapons that surrounded us and waited patiently for me to choose. Picking out a sturdy looking katana for my own uses, I faced the Uchiha heir and took a similar defensive stance. This time taking the time to go through the proper sparring protocols, we nodded our heads to each other out of respect before charging towards each other. It was the hardest battle I had ever fought, but much to my dismay each strike that I made against him was easily blocked.
“If you ever expect to beat Neji in combat, you need to take another approach,” Sasuke explained, blocking a blow to the head, “The Bloodline of his clan specializes on close combat and you‘re weapon throwing isn‘t going to cut it.”
“This has nothing to do with Neji,” I said through clenched teeth as I scrapped the edge of my weapon against his, causing sparks to light the room.
I missed an opening and instantly cursed myself for losing my focus again. Slowly he pushed me back towards the wall, hoping to limit my movement by doing so. Becoming desperate, when he made another sweep at my legs I flipped back to avoid any injury. Landing on the wall, I quickly pushed myself off at a high speed towards my opponent. It was a risky maneuver because I couldn’t control it, but it was quick and unexpected…or so I thought.
“Now, you‘re just being reckless,” he gloated.
Unfortunately, Sasuke was anticipating it and merely side-stepped the attempt, elbowing me in the back to stop my momentum. The wind was knocked out of me when I landed on the ground and I was barely able to roll out of the way as Sasuke brought his katana down on me. I managed to bring my blade up to block as he swung at me again. But I wasn’t in a good position to do much else. With one final thrust of his sword I was weaponless and had the tip of his katana pressed firmly against my neck.
“You made your point,” I said sharply, hiding the dismay of my failure, “I lost.”
“Everyone loses,” Sasuke stated evenly, “It’s your job to take that and improve yourself.”
Wordlessly, he lowered his katana and reached out his hand to take mine. I looked at it curiously while he patiently waited for me to take it. Finally after a moment of hesitation, I placed my hand in his and allowed him to pull me to my feet. I moved to take my hand away when his grip tightened slightly, chilled from handling the cold steel of the katana. Curious at the young man’s strange actions, I looked up at his face in confusion.
“You have potential,” the Uchiha heir said simply, “You could be the greatest kunoichi the world has ever known, if you wanted to be.”
Though his statement was said in such a gentle tone that was so out of character for him, I knew there was more that he wanted to say. Uchiha Sasuke was not one known to be calm and considerate, especially when it came to one‘s skills as a ninja. Both his former teammates could attest to that. Realizing where the sentence was going, turned my head away to look at the ground.
“But you‘re training for the wrong reasons,” he continued with an unexpected point, “And that is what’s stopping you from advancing your skill.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, pretending to be oblivious to his observations.
“You can never expect to improve with someone else’s expectations,” the raven-haired outcast clarified, “Only you can improve your strengths and weaknesses.”
“…So, I’m guessing that’s a ‘no’ on training me,” I stated, my head hanging as my dreams were crushed.
I heard him sigh in frustration, followed by the metal buzz of him sheathing the katana before I felt his slender fingers against my skin. Taking hold of my chin, Sasuke moved me to face him and his watchful eyes, alight with the red glow of the Sharingan. They were so mesmerizing and intense that I couldn’t manage to look away even after he released my chin. My hand burned from the heat of his as the intensity of his spirit transferred into me. Then just as quickly, the moment was gone, his hand releasing mine and leaving it feeling cold as ice as it fell to my side.
“I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow morning,” Sasuke said to me as he walked away, “We’ll start on keeping that temper of yours in check.”
I was still standing in awe of what had occurred between us only moments before. But quickly pushing aside the many questions filling my head, I looked to his retreating back in realization of what he actually said. Uchiha Sasuke had agreed to train with me.
“After that, we’ll get to the real work,” he added over his shoulder.
Thought I couldn’t conceal the excitement that had risen within me, I was soon reminded of my easy defeat, the ashes of our battle littering the temple floor. It was disgraceful and I looked away in shame. Sasuke was right in saying that I was fighting for the wrong reasons. But the first step to relieving that flaw was already done, having helped me realize my one biggest flaw in mere hours. There was no telling what would happen after months of training.
For years I had worked at destroying my own potential, engulfed in my own flames of defeat. But like the phoenix I will rise out of the ashes again to claim the majesty and respect that is rightfully mine.
I’ll prove that I’m worthy, Sasuke, I vowed with conviction, First to myself, and then to all of you.
Type: Fanfic
Fandom: Naruto
Theme: May - My hand on yours
Character(s): Tenten, Uchiha Sasuke
Pairing(s): SasuTen
Warning(s): None that I can think of
Disclaimer: I own nothing but these words.
Note: One of the first fight scenes I had ever written.
“What do you want?” he said coldly upon seeing me at his front door.
I had swore to myself that I would never step foot onto another clan compound ever again after my first and last visit to the Hyuuga mansion. The noble clan had treated me as nothing more than a servant, only showing me the mildest form of respect because I was Neji’s teammate. But here I was, on another clan compound willing to subject myself to more stares of disgust and scoffs at my low social status. But there would be none of that here. After all, there was only one surviving member of the Uchiha clan left, and I needed him.
“I wanted to ask for your help,” I replied bluntly, knowing that Sasuke would respond better if I went straight to the point.
He wasn’t intrigued by any means. It was more like he was amused at the fact that I was coming to him for help, no matter what form that aid would come in. Leaning against the door post with his arms crossed over his chest, the last remaining Uchiha in Konoha waited patiently for me to continue to explain myself as if he were actually taking my request into consideration.
“I want to train with you,” I simply explained, knowing that anything more elaborate would just be wasting both our times.
“What happened to your training with the Hyuuga?” Sasuke asked, lifting a well defined brow in inquiry.
“I can’t learn anything else from him,” I responded vaguely, feeling my patience growing thinner by the minute, “Now are you going to help me or not?”
He stood there and stared at me in a passive manner, scrutinizing every inch of my being. Finally he leaned off of the door post and opened the door wider to let me in. He closed the door with a soft click and started to walk deeper into the Uchiha compound, not even bothering to wait for me to follow.
“Come with me,” he said evenly over his shoulder, “We’ll see if you’re worthy.”
Taking a moment to glance at my dark surroundings, I moved to follow after the raven-haired shinobi towards the back of the house. Off to the side in the spacious back yard was a small temple and training compound where Sasuke proceeded to enter. I followed up to the grand doors and stopped for a moment, hesitant to enter such a sacred place without an invitation.
“Are you going to just stand there all night or are we going to do this?” came the Uchiha’s harsh and impatient tone.
Taking that as an invitation, I quietly stepped through the threshold and waited for my eyes to adjust to the dark shadows. When I could finally see the dark Uchiha in the dim lighting, took a glance around and found the walls decorated from the floor to the ceiling with weapons of every type and style imaginable. Averting my attention back to my potential teacher, I noticed a simple katana in his hands, the metal blade shining under the moonlight.
“Shall we begin?” Sasuke asked, my only warning to his sudden attack.
“What?” was all I managed to get out before I was forced to dodge his assault.
Reaching out and grabbing the nearest weapon available to me, I managed to stop the blade of the katana from slicing my head in two. The sais in my hand trembled under the force he was putting into the katana.
“Hm, quick reaction time,” the Uchiha noted, drawing back to prepare for another assault, “At least you learned something from training with Neji.”
And with that said, he charged at me again. The sound of metal clashing was usually a soothing sound for me. But this time was different fore I had something to prove. Not only were my credentials on the line, but also the chance to advance my skill. After training for so many years against the strong Hyuuga clan prodigy known as Neji, I found myself unchanged and unsatisfied with my progress. Neji would start his ANBU training with his squad soon and would have little time to deal with me. And so I was forced to seek other means of improving myself.
“You’re too distracted,” the dark-haired shinobi said to me, easily dodging my mediocre attacks, “Stop second-guessing yourself and just do it.”
He’s right, I agreed silently, Focus Tenten!
Tossing the sais away, I quickly snatched a long dagger for the weapons displayed along the walls. All the while, the dark-haired shinobi never paused, nearly catching me defenseless as I reached for the weapon. Finding the long knife easier to maneuver and parry with, the fight started to seem less one sided than before as I pushed my specialty for weapons to its limit.
“What is it that you want?” he asked in the middle of our spar.
“To become stronger,” I replied without hesitation.
“And what does that mean?” the Uchiha asked, never failing to block any of my blows, “What does it mean for you to be stronger?”
The question took me off guard, not knowing the answer myself. With my attention divided, Sasuke took the opportunity to yank the dagger out of my grasp, leaving me weaponless and defenseless once again. But before he could finish, I executed a flying summersault over his head, grabbing a well placed kunai knife along the way. The moment I landed on the ground, I tightened my grip on the kunai and charged forward towards my opponent.
Seeing my predictable move, the powerful leaf-nin easily evaded the sharp edge of my weapon. In one swift motion, he grabbed the hand holding the kunai and flipped me onto my back. As I stared up at my instructor in disbelief, he merely looked down at me, shaking his head with pity.
“I‘m not done,” I demanded, “I won’t give up that easily.”
“Then by all means pick up a weapon and attack me,” Sasuke commented with a smirk as he immediately moved into his fighting stance once again, “I need a good workout anyways.”
He gestured for me to take up any of the other weapons that surrounded us and waited patiently for me to choose. Picking out a sturdy looking katana for my own uses, I faced the Uchiha heir and took a similar defensive stance. This time taking the time to go through the proper sparring protocols, we nodded our heads to each other out of respect before charging towards each other. It was the hardest battle I had ever fought, but much to my dismay each strike that I made against him was easily blocked.
“If you ever expect to beat Neji in combat, you need to take another approach,” Sasuke explained, blocking a blow to the head, “The Bloodline of his clan specializes on close combat and you‘re weapon throwing isn‘t going to cut it.”
“This has nothing to do with Neji,” I said through clenched teeth as I scrapped the edge of my weapon against his, causing sparks to light the room.
I missed an opening and instantly cursed myself for losing my focus again. Slowly he pushed me back towards the wall, hoping to limit my movement by doing so. Becoming desperate, when he made another sweep at my legs I flipped back to avoid any injury. Landing on the wall, I quickly pushed myself off at a high speed towards my opponent. It was a risky maneuver because I couldn’t control it, but it was quick and unexpected…or so I thought.
“Now, you‘re just being reckless,” he gloated.
Unfortunately, Sasuke was anticipating it and merely side-stepped the attempt, elbowing me in the back to stop my momentum. The wind was knocked out of me when I landed on the ground and I was barely able to roll out of the way as Sasuke brought his katana down on me. I managed to bring my blade up to block as he swung at me again. But I wasn’t in a good position to do much else. With one final thrust of his sword I was weaponless and had the tip of his katana pressed firmly against my neck.
“You made your point,” I said sharply, hiding the dismay of my failure, “I lost.”
“Everyone loses,” Sasuke stated evenly, “It’s your job to take that and improve yourself.”
Wordlessly, he lowered his katana and reached out his hand to take mine. I looked at it curiously while he patiently waited for me to take it. Finally after a moment of hesitation, I placed my hand in his and allowed him to pull me to my feet. I moved to take my hand away when his grip tightened slightly, chilled from handling the cold steel of the katana. Curious at the young man’s strange actions, I looked up at his face in confusion.
“You have potential,” the Uchiha heir said simply, “You could be the greatest kunoichi the world has ever known, if you wanted to be.”
Though his statement was said in such a gentle tone that was so out of character for him, I knew there was more that he wanted to say. Uchiha Sasuke was not one known to be calm and considerate, especially when it came to one‘s skills as a ninja. Both his former teammates could attest to that. Realizing where the sentence was going, turned my head away to look at the ground.
“But you‘re training for the wrong reasons,” he continued with an unexpected point, “And that is what’s stopping you from advancing your skill.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, pretending to be oblivious to his observations.
“You can never expect to improve with someone else’s expectations,” the raven-haired outcast clarified, “Only you can improve your strengths and weaknesses.”
“…So, I’m guessing that’s a ‘no’ on training me,” I stated, my head hanging as my dreams were crushed.
I heard him sigh in frustration, followed by the metal buzz of him sheathing the katana before I felt his slender fingers against my skin. Taking hold of my chin, Sasuke moved me to face him and his watchful eyes, alight with the red glow of the Sharingan. They were so mesmerizing and intense that I couldn’t manage to look away even after he released my chin. My hand burned from the heat of his as the intensity of his spirit transferred into me. Then just as quickly, the moment was gone, his hand releasing mine and leaving it feeling cold as ice as it fell to my side.
“I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow morning,” Sasuke said to me as he walked away, “We’ll start on keeping that temper of yours in check.”
I was still standing in awe of what had occurred between us only moments before. But quickly pushing aside the many questions filling my head, I looked to his retreating back in realization of what he actually said. Uchiha Sasuke had agreed to train with me.
“After that, we’ll get to the real work,” he added over his shoulder.
Thought I couldn’t conceal the excitement that had risen within me, I was soon reminded of my easy defeat, the ashes of our battle littering the temple floor. It was disgraceful and I looked away in shame. Sasuke was right in saying that I was fighting for the wrong reasons. But the first step to relieving that flaw was already done, having helped me realize my one biggest flaw in mere hours. There was no telling what would happen after months of training.
For years I had worked at destroying my own potential, engulfed in my own flames of defeat. But like the phoenix I will rise out of the ashes again to claim the majesty and respect that is rightfully mine.
I’ll prove that I’m worthy, Sasuke, I vowed with conviction, First to myself, and then to all of you.