you know, i think tenten will also give them good luck charms for protection like how she gave her tsunade-sama one in sd.
she totally would, with her penchant for fortune telling, she’d handcraft three good luck/protection charms and give them to each of them.
I like to think she gives them to each of her team at different times.
Lee gets his first, after Tenten overhears him telling Gai-sensei about how he has almost lost hope in his dream to beat Neji.
“Perhaps just hard work isn’t enough,” he sobs to Gai-sensei as Tenten walks away, her heart heavy. She hands him a little good-luck charm at training the next day, a carved dragon, quietly telling him that he should never lose hope.
Neji may be a genius, but Lee is a genius of hard work, and she will protect his boundless hope until he achieves his dream. Perhaps it comes from a place of selfishness. After all, Tenten is no genius herself, and Lee’s hope is her hope too.
Or maybe it’s not selfishness, but relatability.
Whatever it is, Lee thanks her with a huge hug and many, many tears. Tenten protests loudly, but deep down, her heart swells.
He always keeps it in the hidden pocket of his jumpsuit, and never forgets to take the charm out before washing it. He shows it off with pride to everyone, much to Tenten's chagrin.
Gai-sensei receives his next, after both Tenten and Lee end up in the hospital after the Chunin Exams.
After Tenten is healed, she finds her sensei standing over a sleeping Lee, tears rolling down his face. He immediately puts on an act when Tenten walks in, but she knows what she saw, and it weighs on her.
The next day, when Gai-sensei pops into her physical therapy to check on her and offer some good old Gai-sensei encouragement (motivational shouting), Tenten pulls him aside. She hands him a small charm she’d made the previous night, a little wood turtle carved with the symbol for luck.
“Don’t worry sensei, the people you care about will always be okay!” She smiles brightly at him as she sets the charm in his hand. “It’s for protection—”
Gai-sensei’s thanks is also in the form of many, many tears and shouted declarations of his sweet lotus flower’s kindness and compassion. Tenten’s response, as usual, is loud and embarrassed protests, and a secret smile muffled in Gai-sensei’s broad shoulder as he hugs her tightly.
Gai keeps his charm in the safest pocket of his jounin vest, going as far as to ask Genma to give him a seal to make sure it never breaks or gets damaged. After all, his lotus gave it to him so he could protect her and her teammates, and he would rather die than let her down.
Neji is the last to receive his charm, after his fight with Naruto in the final round of the Chunin Exams. He sits in the hospital room and tells her about everything, his clan, his uncle apologizing to him, his restored faith in the future.
"I will change my clan," he insists to her. "I will better it, for all of the Hyuuga."
The next morning, through the rubble of a torn-apart and betrayed village, in the wake of the Sandaime Hokage's death, Tenten walks to the Hyuuga compound dressed in her mourning clothes and deposits a small carved phoenix charm in his hand.
"What's this for?" he asks, turning the charm over in his hand and studying it.
"Good fortune, protection." Unlike the rest of Team Gai, Tenten always keeps her stories to herself. For some reason, she finds the words tumbling out of her. "My mother used to make them for me. They were for protection and good luck."
Neji nods. He runs a thumb over the carved bird's wing. "Protecting what?"
"My hopes, my well-being, whatever it was she thought needed to be protected."
Neji finally looks up at her, understanding filtering through his gaze. Tenten turns around, ears burning. "Come on, let's go. They'll kill us if we're late to the funeral."
Neji stows his charm in the pockets of his clothes and jogs after her.
Several years later, when Lee surpasses everyone around him, his taijutsu a shining beacon of his hard work and dedication, he is ever aware of the wooden dragon in his pocket, the way his hope is a reflection of Tenten's. He vows to work harder, to prove to her that she can do it just like him.
He will protect her hope too.
On the battlefield facing down Madara Uchiha, Gai quickly moves the little turtle charm to the pocket over his heart. To protect the village, to protect his precious students, he can do anything.
"Eighth Gate of Death, release!"
As medics work to stabilize Neji in the emergency tents, they find a blood-soaked phoenix charm clutched in his hand.
His full recovery is nothing short of a miracle.
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one dumb little thing i wanna touch on that im curious why people do is when they age up the mop kids they always give ritsu like. a serious job. like a lawyer or some shit. and like dont get me wrong i think thats a good job for him, but i just feel like it doesnt embody the kinda revelation he has as a kid and like. the growth he experiences???
like ritsu is one of the smartest kids in the country. he does sports, hes on the student council, hes immensely popular, and girls think hes cute. but he's also miserable. like, objectively unhappy with where he's at because he's constantly reaching for the unattainable goal of having psychic powers (and finally bridging the impossible gap between him and his brother that hes been too scared to touch for all these years). he's seen as the model kid by everyone, but he hates being defined by this. he wants more than this--he wants to rebel.
so he does! he does something he knows is wrong and stupid because, well, he'd like to do something wrong and stupid right now to counteract all the good, normal things he's been doing his whole life. and then, through his compounding guilt at seeing what his rebellion is doing to others, he obtains the unobtainable: he gets psychic powers. his lifes goal is complete! and he's only like...13.
so, the question becomes: what does he want now? or, more accurately, what did he want truly?
he answers that whilst fighting shimazaki. he wanted that devotion to something; he wanted something he could strive for and dedicate himself wholeheartedly to. and now that he's obtained the psychic powers, he's no longer estranged from his brother. they're on equal playing fields (for the most part) and he doesn't have to be afraid anymore. so now? now he just wants to have fun!
so like. as much as i think ritsu continues to maintain his grades, extracurriculars, and whatnot, i doubt that is what he considers to be fun. i think he enjoys partaking in some good-humored mischief with sho and teru, or to just spend a day lounging with his brother. i think he allows himself to be more than just the model kid; he lets himself be himself.
which brings me back to what happens when he gets older.
frankly, i dont think ritsu goes to college.
at least, not right away. i think, for him, the world is still so young and new and bright and he wants to take it for all its worth now. i think he and sho travel the world a bit (sho doesn't go to college for a myriad of reasons, mainly boiling down to "fuck that we ball"), and when they return to japan ritsu just. chills! develops some hobbies. talks to friends. visits mob at his dorm and listens to him talk about his classes (rlly good fic ive read made mob a speech therapist and that works sooooo well so something like that maybe). goes home to see his parents and show them photos of his travels.
i think ritsu, for the first time in his life, lets himself just have fun. and i think he wouldn't be trying to tie himself down to any major work until he's had as much fun just being free.
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