#ganon rambles

to me, tenten is a selfish person. she's bloodthirsty and kills for the love of the game. she doesn't believe in konoha or the will of fire or any of that bullshit and thinks anyone who does is a bit of an idiot who needs to wake up. why should she care about the village anyways? she was only here because after the 3rd shinobi war, orphans from other nations like her and lee, were brought in to be thrown into the academy and make a new generation of pawns after so many of konoha's own died at war. and it's not like she was treated well either, at the academy or at the orphanage she grew up in. there wasn't any reason to feel some sort of sacred duty to protect a village that she had no positive connections to. and yet, she enjoys serving, because the state allows and encourages what she loves doing most- fighting. and on missions, she was allowed to kill her enemies, allowed to slice and cut and stab and smash all she wanted. you can't do that as a civilian because it's considered murder, which is a bad thing, but killing enemies regardless of their motives or if they have families at home is not a bad thing to konoha, it's a good thing. but tenten knows it's a bad thing, and selfishly continues to do it anyways for her own pleasure. she's a lot different from her team, because she can slice someone's face open then go have curry and play games while the rest of her team sees that face in their nightmares for weeks. the rest of her team prefers less lethal methods, including neji who can stop someone's heart with one touch yet chooses to just knock them out instead.

she also lacks empathy for anyone outside her little circle. tenten cares about neji's pain cause neji is her best friend. but sasuke can explain his pain and tenten wouldn't care, she'd still try to kill him cause she simply just wants to fight and be the one who killed sasuke uchiha. and that's another trait of hers, she wants to be KNOWN for something. she wants people to fear and respect her like they do neji. it's frustrating that for some reason no matter how many heads she cuts off, "the byakugan user" is the one everyone's afraid of. even though the byakugan user isn't the one who's going to be taking their life.

she's also scary in a similar way to minato where you wouldn't expect a nice guy like that to be a demon on the battlefield. she goes home and watches movies, has some sweets, hangs out with her friends. she's really sweet to hinata (lee often asks why she's never this kind to him), and affectionate to neji. she doesnt have nightmares about the lives she's taken, they don't haunt her at all. it's like a hobby to her and it's really weird. the first time she killed two men as a genin, she enjoyed it. and she felt like there must be something wrong with her for that because gai told them that when they kill someone, they'll feel horrible. but she wanted to do it again and again for the rest of time. gai told her there was nothing wrong with her because everyone reacts differently, but secretly he was worried and did keep a close watch on her to make sure his little killer wouldn't become a danger to the village. she's silly like that.

neji's personality is drastically different from tenten's but they do share similar ideas that bring them together. like tenten, neji doesn't believe in konoha. konoha not only allowed but encouraged the existence of the curse mark and branch house oppression. konoha killed her father. when she exposed these secrets to the village during her match with naruto, konoha didn't care. and she knew why, she knew what they were thinking- "your father died for the village, the curse mark protects one of our village's strongest weapons". konoha has never cared about neji. yet neji continued to serve a village which never cared for her, not for selfish reasons like tenten but because neji has a pessimistic outlook. she knows that this world is militaristic and that choosing to resign and be shamed for life wouldn't change any of that. and because neji had been trained to be a pawn their entire life. they genuinely couldn't imagine a world where they weren't just doing mission after mission for no end goal. they were a tool first and human second. their job made up a major chunk of their personality, and without it they'd have trouble figuring out who they are.

unlike tenten, they can empathize with others' pain even if they aren't close with the person. however, they choose duty over feelings. neji would care about sasuke's pain and feel sorry for him, yet proceed to kill him because sasuke is a threat to konoha and is going to start a war. it's another reason why neji makes a good tool- they may empathize with the enemy, but they don't let that stop them from the mission. we also see in some fillers and a movie neji's strict attitude towards following orders, and only doing what the mission calls for and nothing more. this clashes with naruto and lee's personalities, and how they view being shinobi as an honorable position to help others and not just a job.

tenten's not the WORST exactly but definitely something. kids weren't her priority really, more like a "what the hell, sure" situation LOL she just thought it would be pretty awesome to have a mini her running around with knives and, with metal lee here, making things even between her, neji, and the now 3 green devils. she was going to raise a hater whose bullying would bring proud tears to her eyes! neji on the other hand always wanted kids, but swore not to until the branch family was free.

the thing about tenten is she lacks self awareness and didn't realize just how annoying, loud, and reckless a mini her would be - and even worse, there ended up being two 💀 she beefs with her kids like they're her own age. she throws kunai and shuriken at them to scare them into silence when they're fighting. she'll call them names like she does to rock lee and sticks her tongue out like she does to naruto. who cares if you're 6! grow up! she's not afraid to call them stupid and she generally just makes situations worse.

yet even though she's the meaner parent, she's also the cool one. when neji's gone it's ice cream for dinner and staying up past bedtime watching horror movies that neji would never let them see. letting them play with weapons and do target practice in the house. teaching them all the ways they can prank and scare people, and that if they jumpscare neji, she'll yelp and her byakugan will activate on reflex, so they do it over and over. she lets them cuss when neji's not around as long as it's not to her or eachother. she'll give them a sip of her beer when they beg for some.

neji is the sweeter, more nuturing mom who actually treats them like her children and not just mini tentens... while tenten works at her shop and goes on missions, neji stays at home and takes care of the girls. she finds a lot of peace and happiness in this life, similarly to hinata. being off-duty was really weird at first since all she knew her entire life was being a soldier, but after she got over her identity crisis, she realized she's a lot happier this way, and was content being a stay at home mom and teaching her children hyuga techniques. this was great for tenten too because she'd be able to continue being an active shinobi, which she had zero intention of stopping until she was dead. she invests a lot of time in her shop as well but sometimes a girl just gets the itch to see a bitch bleed!