The Panda and the Mouse

The night was dark and sinister. Tenten wasn't a silly little girl. She wasn't afraid of the dark- but there was something she didn't quite like about the stillness.

It was too quiet.

She shrugged off the feeling of unease. After all, Neji had said most of the teams should be sleeping at this time—perhaps the creatures were sleeping too? Well, then that meant this part of the exam would go quicker than she'd expected.

Tenten crouched low on her tree limb, pulling back the branches. She saw two tall people, one was a boy who was wearing a stupid black jumpsuit with cat ears poking on either side of his head, and the other was some girl with a dress. How impractical, Tenten almost scoffed. Some kunoichi just didn't dress practically at all. They were both leaning against a rock, and their breathing patterns were quite easy to discern that they were, indeed, asleep.

She was about to crawl forwards, look through their pack and steal the scroll required, until panda eyes just ran in front of her.

She yelped and jumped back on her tree branch at the eyes… that now belonged to a boy, were on her.

"You should be asleep!" She hissed, one from fright, and the other at her stupid luck. Well, this boy was short and silly looking.

He looked like he was wearing make-up. A girl who wore a dress, a boy who thought he was batman and another who was shorter than her and wore make-up? Tenten was sure even Lee could take these people on.

"I don't sleep."

Tenten snorted. "Yeah, and I've got the Sharingukan. Everybody sleeps, you retard. I'm not a rookie."

"I'm going to kill you."

She frowned, wondering who this stupid boy was. Did he really think she was that silly? "This area's been rigged with traps, lay one finger on me and you can say bye-bye to your team mates."

"They're not team mates. They're my siblings. And I don't care."

Tenten looked like she'd been slapped at this unexpected response. "You're going to fail the exam then."

"Make me look like I care."

Tenten groaned. Now she got it. Ugh… as if one PMS-ing Hyuuga wasn't enough, she'd met another emotionally challenged boy.

"Look, just go to sleep, panda-boy."

It was Gaara's turn to be stunned. "…What's a panda?"

Tenten actually laughed, but quietly so that it was only heard by Gaara. Gaara raised an eyebrow, which was quite a feat since he had none. He was actually a bit astonished that she had managed to stay alive for so long and had the audacity to laugh at him.

"Where are you from?" She shook her head, amusement still dancing in her eyes. She took out a kunai and began scratching on the tree bark. Gaara's attention was riveted on the bark, watching a bear-like animal be drawn.

"How is that like me?" He said tartly, a little insulted. Kankuro was the fat one.

"Look closer, don't look at the big picture. Here," she pointed to the panda's face. "His eyes have dark circles, like yours."

Gaara was still unconvinced. "He looks more like you. But you're more of a mouse than a… pan-dah."

He didn't like the word 'pan-dah'. It was too cutesie. Gaara didn't do cute.

The girl frowned. "I'm not a mouse!"

"Yeah, you are." Gaara's eyes bored holes at her face. He was pointedly looking at her hairstyle. She narrowed her eyes even further.

Shukakau was getting restless. He was shouting at Gaara on the inside. Gaara was surprised as well- why was he actually talking to this mindless, stupid girl. Why wasn't she scared of his 'panda eyes'? She must be really stupid.

"I'm going to kill you like the little mouse you are…" Gaara's voice deepened, almost hissing as his panda eyes looked like mere slits and sand started reaching for Tenten's throat.

Tenten sighed. Her time was up with this boy. It was strange; she'd rather enjoyed his naïve outlook on life and how he took everything at face value.

"Sorry, my team mate's going to be so mad if I die since he doesn't like failing. He's probably going to rant about fate… ugh… gotta go… see ya, Panda-Boy." she jammed her fingers together, and she'd substituted herself into a log.

Gaara stared at the drawing of the panda, his hand still outstretched.

"I'm not a Pan-Dah…" he muttered, scoffing.

Gaara had a new game now. Nobody had ever wanted to play with him… but at least… he could play with her. It had become a game of crushing the mouse.