Naruto - Golden Ticket

All her life, Tenten had always remained in the background. It was what she was good at, where she seemed to excel at doing for the majority of her younger days. Excellence garnered praise and recognition, failure with encouragement and sympathy. But being mediocre was just that: average and hardly a cause to draw any sort of attention. Which was, in a sense, ideal. After all, if there was one thing that all adolescents had in common, mutant or otherwise, it was the want and desire to blend in. To be normal and assimilated into society. And after discovering her mutant powers, staying out of the limelight and prying eyes was what she became most comfortable with.

Standing in the middle of the dining hall, Tenten had never felt so exposed.

All eyes seemed to be fixed on her as she stepped forward into the room, breathing in deeply to calm her anxiety. Morning classes had cone by quick enough and without trouble. Formal introductions had only been given in the first two of five classes, with the remaining two looking to be just as uneventful. The challenge, however, came from surviving until the end of the day. And as small and controlled as the classrooms were, it was all too easy for everyone to notice a new face walking around campus. There were ways around it though.

Evading contact and conversation was easy enough before and after classes. It had been late when they managed to finally assign her a room, and she had rose early enough to avoid dealing with her roommates just yet. The extended free time to converse and socialize during lunch, however, was a slight obstacle. That is, until she spotted a slightly more familiar face in the sea of strangers. Doing her best not to initiate eye contact, Tenten found herself moving towards what seemed to be a mostly empty table. Empty, that is, except for one person.

"Shino."

As if he could hear the soft murmur of her voice over the hustle and bustle of the hall, the young boy looked up from the table. He was still wearing those dark glasses he had the day before and so all that Tenten could read was her own nervousness reflected on the mirrored surfaces. It was clear that he was not exactly the social type if his lack of words and company were any indication. And on any other day, she might have viewed that has odd. But today, Tenten could understand the need for solitude. However, that did not mean that they could not be isolative together.

"Um... is this seat taken?"

For a moment, he continued to stare at her, no doubt weighing the positives and negatives of allowing Tenten to sit with him. And from her standpoint, he had every right to refuse. Or to simply remove himself from the equation all together. In a way, it might have been better if he did. Ever since her arrival to the Institute, she had been nothing but a nuisance and an annoyance to him, and it had not even been a full day since their initial meeting. She had been enough of a bother and a burden to him, the young girl decided. And in the same span of time it would have taken anyone else to consider even approaching him, she was already searching for an alternative seat. That plan, however, was instantly laid to waste as Shino shuffled his tray of food and various textbooks to one side of the table, looking back up at her expectantly after he was done.

"Uh... thanks," she managed to mumble out, albeit somewhat hesitantly as she sat down across from him, "Oh, by the way, I'm Te - "

"Tenten," he interrupted, finishing her less than formal introduction before she could, herself, "I know."

At that, she paused suddenly and somewhat abruptly. And not for the first time -- possibly not for the last -- Tenten found herself wondering if whether or not he really was a telepath after all. In a school filled to the bring with young mutants and endless potential, the chances were certainly possible. Oh the other hand, he could have simply heard the name from someone else. News always traveled fairly quickly at her last school, after all, and Tenten was sure it was the same -

"I heard Professor Sarutobi call you that."

"Oh... right," she murmured softly, mostly to herself while recalling the details of the previous day, "Right, you would've been close enough to hear..."

Unable to think of what else to say, the table fell into a stilled silence, all the while the dining hall continued to buzz with life and adolescence. Admittedly, while it was indeed a bit awkward, Tenten could not help but find a moment of odd comfort in it as well. There were no questions, no gentle prodding into a past she would prefer to forget, And no pressing need to make conversation. She was simply free to be herself and exist without interruption. And for the first time since she had arrived, Tenten felt safe, almost normal, something the young girl never thought she would ever feel again since discovering her powers. Still, despite the reprieve from twenty questions and the comfort that the quiet brought, that did not mean that she, herself, was not curious about him as well. And there had been one question, especially, that had been lingering at the back of the young girl's mind since their first meeting the previous evening.

"So..." she started softly despite the noise around them, "What's your golden ticket?"

It was a simple question, posed in between bites of her meal and pages of his studies -- an impressive and intimidating stack of books, she noted -- or so Tenten initially thought. The reference was fairly well-known, especially with a classic feature film to spread its popularity. But the way he was starring at her said otherwise, the blank gaze and confused quirk of his brow no doubt masked by the dark glass seated over the bridge of his nose.

"Willy Wonka? Charlie and the Chocolate... nevermind." Shaking the light of thought out of her head, Tenten considered taking a different approach. A more direct approach. It was far from the subtly she was hoping to utilize and hardly the conversation starter she had wanted to lead with. But sometimes, the girl was quick to discover, bluntness did well to save her from headaches and frustrations. "What I'm asking is what's your power?"

Wordlessly and with some level of determination, Tenten left the question hanging in the air as she watched for his reaction. Twice, now, she had wondered about it, not out of curiosity, but more of self-preservation. And it was not until now that the young girl felt the strong need to know, especially if she wanted to pursue a friendship with him. -- And she did. -- If he was, indeed, a telepath, then she would need to be more aware and guarded with the drifting in and out of her mind while she was around him. A person's mind was their sanctuary. Thoughts were personal and only meant to be known of the individual consciously chooses to voice them out loud. otherwise they could only be used against them.

The initial calm stillness of his body was only the first point of tension that she felt while the seconds ticked on by. And for a moment, just before he leaned back slowly in his chair, it seemed as if the entire world was frozen in time. All the commotion around them dulled into silence. Her breath seemed almost stolen from her lungs in anticipation while her mind wondered if it was simply too personal a question to ask. Whether it was or not, it was too late to take it back now. And then, when it seemed as if Shino would simply leave like he no doubt considered doing when she first approached him, he slowly stretched out his hand towards her. It was difficult to see at first, and Tenten was left wondering for a moment what it was that he was reaching for. But as her eyes trailed along the line of his fingers, there was no ignoring the way the spoon on her tray wobbled and moved on its own accord.

Well. That was certainly one way to answer her question.

So he's telekinetic. "Nice..."

Thoroughly impressed, she smiled gently at the sight before shifting her gaze back to him. Not a single muscle was out of place and the expression Shino wore was that of pure neutrality as he set the utensil back down with a soft clink of metal against wood. It almost seemed like there was no effort in his movements, no strain to summon the mental powers that were necessary to move the object. The dark glasses no doubt hid the concentration of his eyes, but even then, there was no sign of stress or struggle. No indication that he was, in any way, a novice at using his own abilities. He was in complete control, trained and focused like a well disciplined machine.

Was this the end result of attending the Institute, she found herself wondering.

A soft cough drew the young girl out of her thoughts and back into reality once more. Back to the young boy staring at her as if he were waiting for something. It wasn't until she saw the outer edge of his quirked brow peek from behind the frame of his glasses that it finally clicked. Shino was waiting for Tenten to reciprocate the sentiment. He was asking, in so many words -- none at all, actually -- what her powers were. And at that the realization, her smile brightened even more as she took up the same spoon he had been using only moments before between her fingers and calmly pressing it between both palms.

The young girl could feel her muscles tense at the initial summon and Tenten held her breath for a few seconds while she waited for her powers to begin working. It was hardly as perfect as his execution; far from it, really. But then again, Tenten never expected it to be so. She was still learning, after all, and it had only been her first day. Discussion about her powers had not even gone further than the reason why Asuma felt it necessary to admit her into the Institute. But she was determined to learn, if only to save others from the mistakes Tenten had already made. And it was then that she began feeling the metal shift and shape underneath her skin, slowly molding the utensil to her whims.

A few moments later -- she took a deep breath when it felt as if her lungs would burst from the anticipation -- Tenten was done, lifting her hand to reveal the product of her labor. What was once a simple spoon had been turned into a rather impressive looking figurine... of a ladybug.

"They're supposed to be good luck," Tenten said, feeling the need to explain herself as she carefully placed the molded figure onto the tabletop. And then she was eating the last bites of her meal and glancing quickly at her watch. "Oh! I should be going. I've got a life science class with a... Professor Wagner in a few minutes."

Shino gave a nod as she stood up. Whether it was out of habit, some ingrained sense of politeness, or another reason entirely it did not matter much. She would have been impressed with the first two, and perhaps a bit curiously interested with the third. But all the same, she could not help but note the way his gaze seemed to settle on the ladybug seated in front of him as she looked on with some small level of amusement. "You can keep it if you want. Call it gift."

"...Gift?"

"Yeah... for letting me sit with you," Her hand seemed to lift on its own accord, and before Tenten realized it, she was waving to the young man in departure. "I'll see you around, Shino."

And then she was gone, leaving Shino behind to watch her disappear behind a crowd of students who were also scrambling to their next classes. Once she was out of sight, the young man's gaze trailed back down the the object resting on the table in front of him. Carefully, he slid it across the table for a closer examination, finding the details rather impressive if not a bit rough around a few edges. All the while, he could not help but wonder how. How could she have known -- how could she have guessed -- that such an act would... could potentially endear her to him.

"Indeed... perhaps you will."