Language Barrier [I don't know what you're saying.]

[gladdecease]

Title: Language Barrier
Challenge: in another world (naruto100)
Word Count: 107

--

Tenten is her parents' pride and joy. Their youngest child, their only daughter. And what an amazing child, wouldn't you agree? Just look at her accomplishments.

Able to fluently speak the language of the Fire Country as fluently as her native tongue. To hit ten out of ten bullseye on a dartboard.

Able to use chakra. To become a ninja.

Able to forget a culture she once called her own. To forget the enslavement that killed her brothers and ruined her sisters. To forget a language she once knew by heart.

The day she can no longer speak to them will be their happiest.

--

Comments

[kanoi-trace.livejournal.com]

That's so sad. It wrenches my heart T_T It's good though.

[gladdecease]

I'm glad you liked it. I've seen a lot of Tenten=immigrant fic, and wondered why her family would have come to the Leaf. And the idea that they would want to forget their past led me to this.

[starstruck2.livejournal.com]

Ohh, that is so sad...but perfect. <3

[gladdecease]

Thanks! I'm really pleased with how this came out myself.

[heyharvard.livejournal.com]

I rather like the idea of Ten Ten (with family!) as an immigrant into the Fire Country. It's a background that gives her more depth than I've ever seen. The idea that the parents want to forget is nicely complex. It makes me sad, too, because then she can't really know her parents, and cannot know something about herself :'(

[gladdecease]

The idea of Tenten being an immigrant is certainly fandom-common, from what I've seen. But there's always the question of why she/her family left her home country. Immigration into a "melting pot" country (which I tend to think Fire Country is, because of the variety of people and the comparably homogeneous people of Rain), is usually a search for a better life. In this case, Tenten's parents don't want her to know about that part of herself, because it's not very nice to think about.

Personally, I think it's unfair to not give Tenten that choice, but parents tend to make judgments for their children without taking the child's opinion into the matter.

...okay, kind of long-winded of me. But I'm really glad you liked it. :D