# Chapter 6: Thoughts
Tenten walked the evening streets of Konoha at an easy pace, the refreshing breeze lifting the short strands of her chestnut hair. The thoughtful look on her face refused to go away. She passed shop after shop, their owners calling out to her with cheerful invitations to buy this or that, but her mind was somewhere else entirely.
Somewhere completely removed from reality.
*What happened to Lee?*
That was the question she kept turning over.
She didn't fully understand why she was curious about him in the first place. But for some reason, it stung — the fact that the usually cheerful thick-browed boy had simply stopped being that person overnight. He'd even greeted her with that goofy smile right outside the academy this morning, like nothing had changed, like it was any other day, but…
Only now did Tenten realize that the smile hadn't been real. He'd worn it like a mask and nothing more.
*Lee got stronger. Colder. And when people finally acknowledged him, he turned them away and shut everyone out. But before… all Lee ever did was look for recognition. For friendship. He wanted it so badly from the people around him. And they all mocked him, laughed at him, and I… I was just cold to him this whole time. I ignored him.*
She kept turning the thought over, but she was honest enough with herself to admit that the others weren't the only ones at fault. She was part of it too.
It was becoming clear that Tenten, as a person, wasn't particularly bad. Quite the opposite — in her private thoughts she was far kinder and more tender than she ever let on in real life. She was genuinely worried about someone who was essentially a stranger to her. So much so that she suddenly, actually, stopped in the middle of the crowded road — and then visibly flushed and shook her head with firm denial, trying to shake the thoughts loose.
*I'm thinking about Lee way too much… Don't tell me I've fallen… for him? For this thick-browed, big-eyed— No. No, absolutely not. That's impossible.*
Fortunately, Tenten found herself a perfectly reasonable explanation almost immediately, which she murmured under her breath in a quiet, mumbling voice:
"I'm just a soft-hearted future kunoichi of the Hidden Leaf. That's all."
Nearby, children chased each other through a courtyard with little sticks held like weapons, shouting that they were ninja with kunai. Tenten's eyes drifted toward them. She found them sweet and a little heartbreaking at the same time, because at twelve years old she already understood perfectly well that not all shinobi were noble warriors from storybooks. Most were cold-blooded killers on a leash held by Daimyo.
But then, who was she compared to a Daimyo? The answer was obvious.
Without strength, without rank, without some exceptional ability, you were nobody to the people who mattered. Tenten lacked the naivety typical of children her age, and she knew this, accepted it calmly — because she'd never known any other path.
*That's exactly why I want to become as legendary and great a kunoichi as Tsunade of the Senju clan.*
She made the declaration inside her head, clenching her small fist. Enormous ambitions, as always.
Then a restaurant caught her eye. The sign above it advertised ramen. Modest in size, unremarkable from the outside. Her stomach chose that moment to growl, betraying her completely. But more importantly — squinting through the entrance — she spotted the very person whose existence had been occupying the majority of her thoughts for the past hour.
Rock Lee. In the flesh. And he was genuinely smiling.
He was sitting next to a cheerful blond boy with whisker marks on his cheeks, wearing a ridiculous orange jumpsuit.
Tenten saw nothing particularly wrong with having dinner here, so she pushed through the hanging curtain at the entrance — and immediately locked eyes with Lee. The awkward atmosphere settled over her like a fog.
The blond, for his part, didn't care at all. He was blazing through bowl after bowl with single-minded dedication, completely ignoring the person who had just appeared in the doorway. Even the normally composed Rock had stopped moving his chopsticks.
"Hey. You came to eat before training, right? Join us, Tenten."
The thick-browed boy said it warmly, just as a plump old man in a white cook's hat appeared behind the counter with a fatherly smile. After an invitation like that, the chestnut-haired girl really had no grounds to refuse — not when Lee was being this polite, so entirely unlike the version of himself who had stood in that sparring ring and said what he'd said after winning.
"S-sure, hi…" She shook off her shyness and made her order with quiet composure, settling onto the stool beside Lee and the blond stranger. "A medium portion, please."
"Tenten, this is Naruto Uzumaki — I just met him recently. Naruto," Rock added, his voice going stern at the end, "this girl is Tenten, my classmate, and you — you non-stop freeloader who keeps eating on my money, you whisker-faced, stripe-cheeked glutton — you are going to finally greet her properly."
He punctuated this by driving an elbow into the side of the so-called Naruto, who nearly toppled off his stool and choked on his noodles from the unexpected jab.
"Huh?! Oh, right! I'm Naruto Uzumaki! Future Hokage, just so you know!" the grimy blond declared at full volume, wiping the grease from his face with his sleeve rather than the napkins sitting right beside him.
"Nice to meet you," Tenten said with a sigh.
But she'd caught something valuable in that small exchange.
*So Lee is treating him to a meal, even though they just met? Hah. Are the changes in him really so terrible? Lee is the same kind-hearted person he always was…*
That realization settled it for her, once and for all. She convinced herself her worrying had been for nothing.
Lee, for his part, wasn't rude to her at all. He talked to her easily, without any friction.
Why? Because Tenten wasn't a bad person. She just had that excess of pride common to many girls her age — nothing more than that. Beyond it, she pleased Rock simply by the fact that, according to the original Lee's memories, she had never once picked on him or laughed at him during his most vulnerable moments, when he had been weaker than almost anyone.
So unlike the others, Rock was genuinely willing to acknowledge her. He'd be glad to be friends with her, even — if she was open to it. And they were fated to work together on Guy-sensei's team anyway.
As for Naruto, Lee had met him entirely by chance — possibly by fate — and had found an easy connection with him over a shared meal. It was worth explaining how that had actually come about.
After his regular evening run through Konoha, Rock had felt the familiar pull of hunger and understood it was time to refuel. That brought him to Ichiraku Ramen — a truly excellent little restaurant, which residents had spoken of in terms that made the noodles sound nearly divine, at prices that were anything but.
As absurd as it sounded, the rumors had been completely true.
And on top of that, one of the internet's oldest jokes about the series had proven itself factually accurate: Naruto Uzumaki's natural habitat was, in fact, Ichiraku Ramen.
*At least the 20,000 ryō from the system's reward after my first exercise means I don't have to worry about the Fourth Hokage's noodle-starved son cleaning me out entirely today…*
The bleak thought drifted through Lee's mind as he caught, out of the corner of his ear, Naruto whispering to the smiling old man behind the counter about another large bowl. Ramen was excellent for quick energy recovery, and it wasn't expensive. Those were its main virtues.
"Don't you think you're eating a little too much, Naruto?" Rock said, shaking his head and twirling a long strand of noodles into a spiral with his chopsticks before guiding it into his mouth.
"Yeah! I get that, but I want to get strong, and strong people need to eat a lot — all the time! Especially with the sacred power of ramen helping them, dattebayo! My sensei at the academy told me so!" Naruto announced in a booming, triumphant voice, thumping his fist against his chest with a wide grin.
"Alright, that's actually a reasonable answer, so I'll let it go this time." Lee didn't press further. He laughed it off and smiled his easy smile, going back to his meal and deciding there was no point interrogating the blond about his appetite.
*He's a Jinchuriki, after all. Eating a lot is probably genuinely good for him.*
After savoring a few more bites of ramen, he quickly found a suitable topic to open with the quietly uncomfortable Tenten, whose noodles kept slipping out from between her chopsticks in her self-conscious grip.
"Tenten, you fought well in today's practical session — I really liked watching it. And your shuriken and kunai throwing is only just slightly below the Byakugan users from the Hyuga clan, which is genuinely worth praising."
"Thank you for saying that, Lee. But…" She sighed, a touch of gloom creeping into it. "Compared to you, my Taijutsu level turned out to be, well… rock bottom. I can admit that."
In saying it, she showed she was willing to set her pride aside when it counted and face her own weaknesses honestly.
"You'll get there! The Power of Youth is with you, Tenten!"
Rock said it firmly, throwing out a thumbs-up and a blinding smile of the wholesome-hero variety — which was so completely unlike the serious, righteous Lee that had presided over the sparring ring that afternoon. Completely atypical in every way.
And honestly? Tenten felt considerably better after those words. She thought it over and realized there was really no rush at twelve years old. There were so many more training sessions ahead of her, so many more chances to grow stronger. Sooner or later, she would absolutely bloom into her full potential — like a bud finally opening, scattering its pollen across the world.