Chapter 7: CH 7
Yep, not a good month overall one could say.
The bell to the store rang, signifying a potential customer, "Hello, welcome to-."
As Tenten's eyes drifted to the door she saw the very same blonde kid that had beaten her teammate looking around her shop, "Hey!"
Naruto turned to face her curiously. Realization spread over his face, "Oh, hi there. Tenten right?"
As she looked at his inquisitive face she noted the scar sitting over his right eye, huh, that's new. She pointed out at him accusingly, "You're the kid that beat Neji!"
The tone of her voice stated it like he had committed some kind of crime. Naruto tilted his eyebrow, "My name is Naruto, and don't look so shocked. Was I supposed to let him win or something?"
Tenten was taken aback by his calm answer. She was conditioned from seeing him throughout the exams to expect a loud, hot-headed response, "It's not that, it's just that you really weren't expected to win then."
Damn idiot persona... It just had to wreck his standing in the eyes of the many. Oh well, he liked to be surprising anyway. Naruto sighed, "And that is why you have to learn to expect the worst in most cases, because then you can only be pleasantly surprised." Naruto remembered Danzo or other elder Ne operatives saying that to him a lot back in the day, then they would usually hit him or something... Stupid emotional conditioning.
Tenten noticed the scar over his eye and found herself curious, "How did you get that scar? Did you get it during the invasion?"
Naruto waved off her question, "It's a long story that I'm not even sure of and that you wouldn't believe if I told you. Don't worry about it. Do you sell shinobi clothes here?" She nodded and pointed over in the correct direction, Naruto thanked her and went on over. Tenten watched silently as he walked over to the clothing section of her store and rifled through the selection, apparently he was getting rid of that sense-offending jumpsuit on his back. He nodded as he pulled out a set of shirts and a few pairs of pants.
He went into a changing room and came out a moment later in a dark-blue muscle shirt and dark blue loose pants tied at the ankles with wraps. He set the extras on the counter and went back into the accessories section and grabbed some black bracers that wrapped around his forearm entirely. As he walked back to the counter he stopped as he came across the swords. He stared long and hard for a moment until he pulled down and ninjato and unsheathed it, looking it over and testing the balance before shrugging and walking back to the counter with a grin.