He would never let Tenten know, but her visits meant more to Kurai than she might have been able to imagine.

'Picture this,' he might have said, had he been a more honest soul. 'From the moment you become aware of your existence, you're alone and helpless. You are perfectly capable of thought, of pain and loneliness, yet no one can hear your voice, nor can they truly see your existence. You have no true, physical form. You can't touch the world around you, not really.

'When the world does become aware of you, they damn you without a second thought. They call you a monster, a demon, any horrid word they can think of. Then they decide they must get rid of you and take every chance they can. Meanwhile, the sole person in the world capable of actually interacting with you is terrified of you, therefore they hate you. So, they yell, and they call names, and they force you to the back of their mind. They pretend you don't exist. They try to kill you. All of this while the world continues to treat them like shit and you continue to feel every physical injury and every mental scar they take on.

'At this point in time, you realize you are now slowly becoming able to touch the world around you. To cause it as much pain as it's given you from the moment you came into formation. To pay it back for the terrible life it's given the sole person you've ever truly interacted with. They might hate you, but like a child towards their parent, you can't completely bring yourself to hate them in return. Not when you know them better than you know yourself.

'Just picture it.

'Would you punish the world?

'It's easy to understand why my kind are violent when you look at it through our eyes. But no one does that, do they?'

But, Kurai wasn't honest.

So he would sit with his back to the small door of his cell, only moving when he could hear others approach his cell from outside. He could tell the time of day by the shift change. Every three shifts, she would visit. Every three shifts, someone else would finally acknowledge him as something other than just a "monster." Someone would actually see him and speak to him.

He made sure to ensure she knew that he still hated her. He would make sure he, himself, knew this as well. Yet, he no longer refused to speak to her. Perhaps it was the barest hints of life in the edges of his mind that would stir when she spoke of past events. Or maybe it was the fact that when he wouldn't respond to her, she was content to entertain him with memories.

It passed the time, at least. He could grudgingly appreciate her for that much.

"Do you remember the first time our teams practiced together?"

Not really.

"Of course," he scoffed.

"Really?" Tenten questioned, resulting in Kurai rolling his eyes at the dark room before him. Honestly, how did she do that? It was as if she always knew when he was lying. It was strange-- she'd never been able to tell the same of Jun. "It's funny. Looking back, you wouldn't imagine that all of us would end up working together as great as we do now..."

________________________________________________

Tenten's initial reaction to hearing they would be holding a combined practice was to be excited. After all, she respected Miki, like she respected any strong kunoichi, and Kazue was her best friend. Despite their having being limited to hand-to-hand combat only-- as Miki wanted to take advantage of Gai's presence to improve her genin's skills-- Tenten been unable to think of a single reason why the practice would be a bad idea.

That was, until the practice actually began.

Not giving their students the chances to square off how they might have liked, as Tenten teaming up with Kazue and Noriaki with Lee would have most likely resulted in Neji skewering Jun, their senseis stuck Kazue with Neji and Tenten with Jun. Which meant Tenten, for the first time since they'd graduated the academy, was forced to stand face to face with the Kurama while he slacked off.

Typically, she was able to easily brush off his annoying mannerisms. After all, she preferred it to the brooding and rude individual he'd been when they first met. More often than not, it was Kazue or Noriaki that would rise to Jun's bait, and it was Tenten who would stand between them and defuse the situation. Honestly, that seemed to be her only duty when the six of them were around each other, given that Jun could rile even Neji up when he put in the effort, and in turn, Neji irritated Kazue with his sharp, scornful tongue given that anything he might have said back to Jun would have just rolled off. So, it made sense to pair them together.

However, her ability to withstand Jun's tendencies only existed when she wasn't being watched by one of the woman she looked up to. Miki happened to be one of the many kunoichi Tenten was striving to surpass-- which meant she did not want to look bad in front of her. Which was exactly what would happen if Jun didn't smarten up.

This was how they ended up with Tenten's temper seconds from snapping while Jun simply stood in front of her, yawning.

"Can I go home yet?"

"No," Tenten ground out between her teeth. "You can't go home after five minutes, Jun-kun."

He blinked, a lazy smile playing across his lips. "Five minutes? Damn. That's already four past my limit."

Tenten's irritation must have been obvious because he laughed, slinging both his hands behind his head in that usual manner of his. She took a deep breath, urging herself not to lose her temper. It was an attempt that failed when in that same second Jun dropped to ground, and laid back in the grass.

"I'm taking a break," he said. "I'd rather watch the clouds."

Her fingers curled into fists at her sides.

"Jun-kun, you can't jus--" she began.

"What?" he cut in, smirking. "Like I said, I'm already four minutes past my limit. You can't blame me for wanting a break, can you?"

"That's still only five minutes!" she snapped.

He cocked a brow. "And?"

The only thing that kept Tenten from swinging at his dumb head was the sight of Miki watching Kazue melting into one of her temperamental outbursts-- Neji having already managed to set the girl off-- with resignation and nothing else. That was not the expression Tenten wanted to see turned in her direction. She much preferred how Gai was enthusiastically talking with Noriaki and Lee about their skills. Well... sort of.

She didn't envy Noriaki's attempts to explain his disinterest in wearing the matching green jumpsuit Gai had produced at some point.

All of this in mind, she took yet another deep breath, attempting to decide how exactly she could go about motivating Jun's lazy ass. It took a moment, but she soon managed to recall that the few times she'd seen Jun work as he was supposed to happened to be when Miki got involved. So... perhaps...

"Miki-sensei!" she called out, drawing the red-head's attention. "Jun-kun insists that he could beat me in a fair fight," Jun began sputtering protests which she ignored, "do you mind if instead of practicing, Jun and I spar?"

Faint intrigue sparked in Miki's gaze as she glanced between where Tenten stood and where Jun was still sprawled out in the grass. Understanding appeared in her expression after a second, then amusement. She nodded.

"I wouldn't mind," she said, her expression turning wry as she inclined her head towards where Gai was now urging the boys into a competition. "It would seem you wouldn't be alone."

"What about us?" Kazue cut in, shooting Neji a sour look. "I'd love to beat his ass." Neji snorted and once again, Kazue looked like she might lunge at him. "What, you saying I can't?"

"I said nothing," Neji retorted.

"It was implied!"

Tenten simply shook her head. The way her best friend acted around Neji never ceased to amaze her. Kazue was typically quiet and rather strict about accomplishing what was asked of her. One would think that Kazue and Neji would get along-- but the two of them were constantly at odds. She understood why Kazue disliked Jun-- the hardworking rarely tolerated the lazy-- but when it came to Neji... well, it didn't make sense.

Miki shrugged. "I suppose all of you could spar instead of practice. It accomplishes the same in the long run."

Even Jun seemed interested, having pushed himself up into a sitting position.

"Can whomever wins be done for the day?" he questioned.

Miki eyed him for a moment before nodding.

"Alright! I'm in," Jun said.

Tenten rolled her eyes, but simply turned her full attention to Miki as the woman stepped over to discuss the matter with Gai. After a moment it was decided that Lee and Noriaki would spar first given they were already squared off, Neji and Kazue second, Jun and Tenten third. Tenten held little doubt their being last was in order to tie Jun to the practiced for as long as possible given there was a small chance he could win.

Very small, but it existed nevertheless.

Within moments of the declaration of the sparring order everyone had stepped to the side so Noriaki and Lee could begin. As one might expect, the two were rather evenly matched. While Lee's skills had steadily grown under Gai's teaching, it had only been a few months since they'd graduated. As such, Noriaki could still manage almost hold his own without pulling out his practice sword-- as he refused to budge on that, viewing it as unfair to the competition. Despite this, it still only took a good thirty minutes for Noriaki to get thrown hard enough that the adults declared Lee the winner.

Kazue practically ran to take Noriaki's place. Tenten covered her mouth with one hand, a rather broad grin hidden behind the gesture. She knew Kazue would not appreciate the look, but she couldn't help herself.

"Just watch," Kazue promised. "I'll shut that mouth of yours."

Kazue lost in a number of minutes.

Tenten resisted the urge to laugh at the rather indignant expression Kazue threw at Neji's back as he commented on her lack of talent and turned his back on the girl. Sure, the words themselves were harsh, but the look Kazue wore was more amusing than heart wrenching-- given that Kazue's face was flushed a bright, tomato red.

The girl had refused to go down at the first few strikes, instead twirling her limbs around Neji's in an attempt to trip him up. The two rivals had ended up with Kazue's back pressed to the earth, Neji's arm to her throat. A rather compromising position if one was being honest. It seemed that even if Neji was oblivious of the awkward edge to the position, Kazue was not. Hence Tenten's amusement.

Still, she said nothing on the matter, just offered Kazue a hand. The blonde scowled, but took Tenten's offering.

"Thanks," she muttered. "I swear, I'm going to beat his ass one day. Just watch."

With that, Kazue stalked to the edge of their little makeshift battlegrounds and dropped to a cross-legged position, bracing both of her arms over her chest. Tenten once again hid her amused grin. Kazue looked to be little more than a pouting child in that moment.

"Oh. It's our turn?"

Her attention was dragged away from Kazue, eyes settling on where Jun had perched himself in a tree to watch the sparring. As she looked on, he curled his legs around the branch beneath him and swung forward. This led to him hanging upside down before he released his legs, did a small flip, and landed firmly in the clearing before Tenten.

She rolled her eyes.

"Show off," Kazue called out.

Jun put his hands in the air, palms up. "Show off? I thought everyone could do that."

Kazue bristled and Tenten just shook her head, sliding into a ready position. Her fingers played the top of her weapons' pouch, eyes firmly settled on Jun. He hadn't moved-- looking as if he were about to hold a conversation with her instead of fight. It was frustrating, but expected.

"Ready?" Miki asked; they nodded. "Then, start!"

For a second, neither moved. Each watched the other, anticipating who would move first.

It was Tenten.

She sunk her fingers into the pouch, pulling out several shuriken and launching them towards Jun. He easily sidestepped the weapons-- something that came as no real surprise to Tenten. She might have been better with weapons than most of her classmates, but it'd been several months since graduation. No doubt Jun had become accustomed to dodging Miki's throws. The straightforward attack Tenten had just launched would look slow in comparison.

She still needed practice.

Jun's hands began shifting between signs. Tenten furrowed her brow as she backed off several paces, launching several more shuriken in his direction in an attempt to interrupt the jutsu. She wasn't well versed enough in genjutsu to know what sort of thing he was preparing to use-- but genjutsu it had to be. As long as she'd known Jun, that was all he could do. It was a feat that was surprising within itself-- despite having been labeled a genius in the area, when they'd first met he couldn't even spin a single illusion.

"Silent Illusion: Vine Dance."

The words stuck a cord with Tenten-- she faintly recalled seeing Jun use the genjutsu before. Still, this didn't stop the chakra from sweeping over her, nor did it stop the thick vines that suddenly erupted from the ground and began curling around her feet. She attempted to kick them off, cursing as that only caused the vines to grow stronger. A yelp escaped her lips when one of them firmly settled around her ankle-- a thorn on the vine having sunk into her skin.

Crimson trickled from the wound.

"Thorns?" she wondered aloud.

She'd seen him use the illusion before... but had there been thorns that time?

Before she could really consider it, she needed to get out of this genjutsu. Tenten racked her mind, attempting to pull up the solution they learned in class.

Press... press my fingers to my temple... yeah, that was it.

"Rele--"

The illusion shattered before she'd finished casting the release. The reason became obvious to her within seconds given that there was cold steel pressed to her throat.

"I win," Jun chirped.

Tenten simply stood there-- rather floored. She'd... lost? That quickly, too?

Jun dropped the kunai from her throat and spun around, offering a beaming smile to Miki. "That means I can leave, right?"

"I suppose so," Miki sighed.

Tenten turned to watch them, her fingers clasping her throat. Had Jun always been that strong? She racked her mind, attempting to pull up any examples from past practices or the academy. When they'd had contests of genjutsu Jun tended to rank towards the top. Academically, he'd always been the best. But when it came to sparring... Jun always lost. Always.

Jun hooked his hands behind his head and started away, snickering to himself. "A day off~"

"Don't worry about it," Kazue said. "That's gotta just be some bad luck. I mean, c'mon. You losing to Jun?"

Is it really? Tenten wondered.

"Yeah... I suppose so..."

"C'mon! Let's practice. I wanna kick Neji's ass before the day is out! Since Jun's gone that means we can be partners, right?" Kazue looked to Miki who nodded, prompting Kazue to stick her tongue out in Neji's direction. "Good riddance."

Tenten shook her head as she stepped over to join her friend, only pausing as a slight sting on her ankle drew her attention. Her eyes settled on the small trickle of crimson slipping beneath the straps of her sandals.

Blood...? But how?

_________________________

"I couldn't help but find Jun even more interesting than before after that happened," Tenten mused. "Not only did he beat me without breaking a sweat, but he even left a mysterious wound. I couldn't make heads or tails of it. I guess it makes sense, now, but back then... it was strange."

Kurai was silent for several seconds.

"I did that."

There was the sound of Tenten shifting about on the other side of the door. He turned his head, pressing his ear to the cold metal as if to better hear what she was doing.

"I figured," Tenten said. "It seems like something you would do. You hated me even back then, huh?"

Kurai pressed his hand to the door just below his chin. From the sound, her face must have been settled right on the other side of the barrier.

"Even then," he agreed.

"It's comforting to know that some things never change," Tenten joked.

Kurai fell silent for several moments. Never change?

"Kurai?" Tenten prompted.

He pushed away from the door. Within moments he'd come to his feet and begun across the room.

"I'm tired," he complained. "Go away. I'm done talking."

With that, he dropped face first into the bed. He closed his eyes, his mind searching for that single feeling in his head that he just couldn't seem to find.

No Jun.

Never, huh?