Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

You look at my name on the records, my registered name, and I know what you think. You think that my name was a play on my mother's maiden name 'Tenchi', and that I was named in her honor.

You think that I am a little Fire Country girl, with my roots in the land as far back as they can go. You think that the reason I wear clothes like this is because of the fashion that comes and goes, of wearing high-collared shirts from further west.

You think that the reason that I have no surname listed is because I was disowned, for whatever reason.

You think that I am just the poor daughter of two menial laborers, factory workers.

You are wrong.

My maternal grandfather was a nobleman from an empire far to the west, exiled during a time of war and upheaval, who traveled here, to Konohagakure, having become a spice merchant, to survive. He did not change his name; he was always considered something of an oddity by the villagers.

When he married, it was agreed that any children would bear the name of his wife rather than himself, so they would not fall to harm if he were discovered living here. My uncle, my mother's brother, traveled back to this empire when he was grown; I never knew him.

My sister's name was an old name from this part of the world, but my birth name was in fact one from the empire from which my grandfather originated: Lian. I was born Katsumi Lian. The name you know me by now is a pet name my grandfather bestowed upon me.

My grandfather—who passed when I was four—would tell me so many vivid tales of his land, stories that I remember to this day, despite the many years that have passed since his death. He would call me 'Tenten'; the name from 'Tian Tian', heaven in his language. The name stuck; I decided I liked it better. My grandfather always told me that I looked like his wife had when she was young.

No one living knows that my birth name is not Tenten; not Gai-sensei, not Iruka-sensei, not Lee or Neji, nor anyone else. And few know that I have any surname at all; I abandoned it years ago. Partly because of the pain it evoked, and partly because I want to go back to that place some day, that place my grandfather told me about.

I train solely with weapons because that is the way my ancestors fought; when I use fire jutsus, I think of the dragons grandfather Yuan spoke of in an old, rolling, accented voice, sending me off to sleep with fantastical dreams. I adopted the high-collared shirts and plain pants because they were the styles of dress in that far-off land. The way I wear my hair is the preferred style of that region. I look a foreigner, with slightly foreign-shaped eyes and a slightly foreign facial structure, and that was the desired intent.

I don't talk to my teammates about this; they don't know that I have a whole other life, a shadow life, a dream life, because it doesn't seem as wonderful when people know about it to degrade it. Neji, I think, might understand; he has a shadow life too. My tales would just go over Lee and Gai-sensei's heads. Again, Naruto would understand, but everyone else would just scoff and tell me to quit dreaming.

I still think about that place, that distant empire, when I sleep. I dream about that distant place where dragons fly and the Sons of Heaven reign, waiting for their earthen armies to wake up.

Because I'm going to go back there someday.