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Shino enjoyed wide-open spaces, lush green grass, clear blue skies, places where life thrived, so having to take the unprotected winding staircase into the fire breading blistering heat of Mount Konohagakure underground was his living nightmare.
But the tragic calls of those that had lost their home because of his friends foolish and reckless actions cried out to him slammed around in his brain like fireworks in the night sky, each one blinding and damaging in different ways.
He had to do something, even if it meant clinging onto the wall to try and avoid the fiery surroundings or the what would be a deathly fall into flames if he misstepped a single step, even if it meant he felt like his very existence was being burnt away from the outside in as if his flesh was being scorched from his bones.
Eventually making it down the stairs, Shino threw himself into the steel door to get away from the raw flames as quickly as possible.
Leaning against the door once inside, trying to catch his breath Shino already felt weak, the heat and lack of living things in his immediate area affecting his very life force.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?"
His head snapped up, having to swipe his long sleeve over his drenched forehead even to be able to see clearly; he only caught a vague outline of reds and oranges and blacks before the almost playful voice spoke again.
"Not many earth gods wander into my workshop can't take the heat you see."
If that was a general statement or one aimed at him because of his hunched over form haggard breathing and chapped damaged green-tinted skin, he wasn't sure, but he didn't doubt her words either way.
"Are you; Tenten?"
Shino didn't know what he would do if the goddess in front of him weren't the one in this flame surrounding terror he had just navigated.
"I am," Tenten, the confirmed fire goddess he was searching for, from her red-tinted unprotected from the heated skin and dark eyes, those same eyes skimming over his form before coming back to his face. "And who are you?"
Forcing himself to stand tall again even when everything in him wanted to sink further to the ground he answered. "I am; Shino."
"Well, hello, Shino," Tenten greeted, walking over to him, her very footprints causing steam on the metal floor that she stepped on. "As I said, you're brave to come here."
When she was only an arms reach from him; he had to take a few deep breaths at what felt like the temperature exploding at her mere presence.
"I can't wait to hear the reason."
Pushing himself from the door, Shino had to widen his stance to avoid crumpling to the ground at the heat, digging down deep for strength. He was there for a reason.
"You are; aware; of the flood that Naruto and Sasuke's recent; conflict; created?"
"Oh yes," she clicked her teeth in annoyance at that, making a small puff of fire leave her mouth. "We all heard about that."
"Many creatures lost their homes," Shino didn't bother to hide both the annoyance at his friends and the sorrow for those under his protection from his voice. "Even more; perished."
A softness entered her dark, previously taunting eyes even as she guarded herself by crossing her arms over her chest.
"Yes, I heard that too," even her voice softened a flicker of red flashing in her eyes at one of the many emotions the fire goddess could have been feeling at that moment. "Those two need to learn actions have consequences others usually end up cleaning up after their messes," she stretched out her neck, her eyes closing in a long blink before those dark as to when he first entered eyes fell back on him. "Can I assume that's something to do with why you're here?"
Nodding firmly, he confirmed. "It is."
She didn't verbally reply but did give him a look to tell him to come out with it.
"I need to replace the earth they ruined; I was told; you; could help; that you knew how to create land."
Tenten nodded, not attempting to be humble about having the power for such an impressive, significant feat. "I do."
Relief sparked in him at least his information was correct, and this was not a wasted trip. "Will you help me?"
Spinning on the spot, she took a few casual steps back further into her workshop, placing her hand on the large metal worktop in the centre of the room, and just like the floor, when she walked, steam wafted into the air from where her palm met the steal.
"My help isn't free you know. It takes a lot of magic and life to create earth, you know that."
"Anything," the earth god would do anything to make the echoes of those tortured souls leave his mind. "I will give; anything."
Tenten seemed to look him over, taking in his oversized coats and earthy coloured hair, and the many greens on his skin that could be seen before nodding once.
"I'll get to work then. You might want to sit before you fall over, there," the fire goddess motioned to a steel chair beside the worktop, to which he stumbled towards it nearly collapsing onto it. "Water," setting a bowl down beside him this time, she pointed at it. "Drink it."
The water was warm but the dehydrated earth god was hardly in a position to complain.
Tenten started gathering what he assumed were ingredients and tools for her type of magic from cupboards and shelves that lined the giant metal walls, bringing them to the large centre table she had sat him down at.
Bringing over more water to fill a giant steal barrel just off to the side of the workbench, she noticed Shino had all but downed the lukewarm water she had given him. She filled his bowl again with a smirk.
Hers would be a different type of magic than his, more potent, a more hard-hitting type of magic, one that goes off in a bang to create something staggering where his was small constant continuous, tiny flashes that slowly healed and guided.
Bringing over a bowl nearly half the size of the table, she set the hand on the metal of the work desk until it started to glow an ominous red, heated from merely being in contact with her when she had somehow decided it was heated enough, she set the bowl on top. She seemed to have truly begun with a knife slice through a substance that looked like overripe brown fruit but bled into the bowl a dark red colour like a living being.
In that giant metal box of heat and metal and lifelessness, there was nothing else to do except watch her work. There seemed to be nothing in her workshop apart from the tools she used or the fire that maintained her.
The fire goddess's skin was a delightful mix of oranges and reds; the two close but different colours folded over each other continuously like lava.
When she flicked out her fingers at the far corner on the worktop, her fingertips became entirely red, and a small controlled flame appeared. She ran her hand through it, heating her skin like mortals would heat iron in a furnace before picking up an ingredient and half boiling it before throwing it into the large bowl in front of her.
Eyes such a dark brown they were almost black Shino's were also brown but on the opposite side of the darkness spectrum.
They seemed to flash with colour at her heightened emotions when she became frustrated or glad Shino didn't think his eyes did that, but no one had ever looked at him long enough to comment if they did.
Hair the same as her eyes such a dark brown it was nearly black and tied up in two buns at the top of her head possibly to not impede on her work when she turned her head to gather or look for ingredients black smoke rose from them like an everlasting trail of where she was to where she was going.
Her clothes were black and short-sleeved, so her arms were free, but her legs were covered in a coal-like substance, which would make sense given she consumed fire to live and lived in the place she did.
Tenten's expressions fluctuated wildly while she worked, nose curling in disdain when something didn't seem to be going her way or a face splitting smirk when something went exactly as she suspected she was so open in ways that he was not, yet he lived in the open air. In contrast, she lived in this small workshop; he felt there was something to that thought, but even sitting and drinking down bowlfuls of water; the heat was still getting to him. He decided to ponder the thought in greater detail later.
As slowly as the sun rose, a smirk slid onto her face.
"Like what you see?"
He whipped his head down to look at the floor meaningless since he had already been caught looking her over, looking up again with the same speed when she openly scoffed.
"Oh, don't be like that."
"I did not mean to stare," the words came out, but he scared himself by not genuinely knowing if it was a whole truth. "You are simply; vastly; different to me," he elaborated honestly. "You intrigue me."
That only made her grin more, as she measured out a liquid this time adding that to the mixture. "Intrigued, huh?"
Without looking away from the giant metal bowl she was combining the ingredients in, she placed her right hand straight into the flames the fire goddess had created beside it earlier; it made his chest twist in second-hand agony, but Tenten sighed a content sigh she smiled in understanding when she caught what he assumed was his disgust on his face at her action.
"I love the feeling of the flames," Shino watched her fingers flex in the fire, and each wave of a finger made it feel like something was clawing up his throat. "The warmth it brings feeling the suns rays over my skin when I go up top with the other goddesses."
The fire goddess looked at him then another flash of red entered her black eyes. "It can't be compared."
Everything she described, he had felt himself that love and adoration in her voice he had when speaking to the living creatures of the world but not here not in this room among only metal and fire where no grass could hope to grow or rivers could possibly run.
"I can barely stand; to be in this room."
"Which forces me to ask," Tenten started in a genuinely interested tone returning both hands to the bowl steam rising from the hotter than normal hand. "Why are you so covered? I've never seen an earth god with so many clothes."
When Shino didn't answer right away, she glanced up at him.
"Do you not like living things on you?"
"Living things yes; insects; animals; birds," his muscles flexed, missing holding life in his hands even though it had only been a few hours at best. "The sun in large amounts; injures me," he cringed at the thought of the suns rays directly touching his green skin. "I must keep covered; if I am to survive."
"Sun is fire," she shrugged as if it was apparent, adding a dark blue liquid to the bowl that made a strange popping noise fill the air for a moment. "Guess that makes sense, but you must be extra sensitive to it must mean you're more connected to the earth than the others."
Her impressed tone made him look up, but she wasn't looking at him. Instead, she was concentrating on her work again.
"I do not know if there is any; basis; for that claim."
"None of those other earth gods came down here begging me to make the land for them."
That was true. Shino had discussed the idea with his father and several others, to ask for her help before venturing down into her workshop. Still, they had all claimed it was too dangerous but even with their warnings he couldn't ignore the suffering of those they were supposed to look after and so, against their advice, had made the trip alone.
"It's admirable means you care. It's rare. I like it."
He didn't know how to handle the adoration in her voice. That kind of affectionate tone had never been directed at him before.
"I did not; beg."
That only made her grin.
Pouring the purple glowing liquid Tenten had created into a single glass vile she took from a nearby shelve she placed a metal cap over it so when she shook up the container, none of the liquid escaped. When she quickly shifted the vile from left to right, Shino saw tiny sparks shoot around inside the glass.
"We're almost done."
Holding the vial up and at arm's length, the fire goddess shot him a smirk and, keeping eye contact, blew raw, powerful flames out of her mouth to engulf both the glass vial and her hand.
A few moments passed before a small blue and green contained explosion happened right where her hand was making Shino jump. A spark of fear shot through him for her safety, but she only beamed in triumph.
Slamming her hand into the deep water-filled barrel to her right after a few seconds where she seemed to be in pain by her scrunched up eyes and the colours of her skin dulling considerably for a long moment, she pulled her bare arm out of what would be boiling water by the steam rising from her intact skin her fist clenched tight as if holding something precious.
Tenten motioned to him to make his way over to her, which he did with timid, wary steps.
"Hold out your hand," when Shino didn't move, she grinned and held out her fist, fingers facing downwards. "I promise it's safe."
Trusting this fire goddess he had realistically only just met, he held out his cupped hands below her fist, and when she opened her palm and dropped its contents into his hands, he couldn't help his confused tone.
"A; seed?"
"I can put my work into any form I want," she grinned at his open confusion wiping her hands off each other, causing smoke to form. "Thought you might like that; place that where you need it, and you'll have your new land by nightfall."
Still looking at the magic that looked almost exactly like an acorn seed except for the changing colours on its surface, he asked. "What do you wish; for it?"
"Maybe I've just developed a soft spot for you and don't want anything," he raised his head just in time to see her expression soften again.
When Tenten laughed, another spark of fire escaped her mouth.
"I don't know what I want yet but believe me-" unlike the previous times her eyes changed colour, were only a streak of red lightened her dark orbs her entire vision swirled with oranges reds and yellows, and Shino felt like he was looking into the sun itself. "When I know, I will let you know."
Another playful grin appeared on her face, more smoke falling away from her when she tilted her head to the side.
"I can promise you that much, Shino."
His name felt different when she said it compared to anyone else. As it had some deeper meaning than simply a protector of the earth's living things, as if it had a darken intention, as if given a chance he could stay underground with her and together they could become more than ever possible apart, achieve more than any god and goddess team had ever accomplished before, they could create their own world and even if they were the only occupants it would still be better than the one they shared with everyone else because they were together and would be unstoppable.
"Thank you; Tenten."
Her hand floated up to hover over his cheek, and it was as if the heat in the room was tripled at just that motion. Shino suddenly couldn't breathe at all. It could have been the lack of clean air he had been living with for he didn't know how long, but it also could have been the smouldering look in her eyes pinning him to the metal-plated hard rock on which they stood.
When her hand fell away, he shakily took in small inhales that felt like daggers in his lungs.
"Go," she commanded with firmness to it, her voice somehow wrapped in a gentle tone that stupidly made him want to stay even though the only possible consequences for him would be suffocation and death. "Give those creatures their home back."
He left with another whispered thank you, forcing himself not to look back.
Making his way back up those winding nerve killing stairs, his thoughts stayed on the strange hypnotising goddess he had just met.
Watching her work, her type of creation magic was hypnotising so complex and different to his, her skin was the same, the same and yet in all ways opposite to his own; where he was green she was red; when Shino was living creatures she was metal and fire; where he was controlled and contained she was open and dangerous and powerful.
He suspected merely touching her would do irreparable damage to his body, and yet he couldn't help but wish he could hold her just once to feel her burning intensity on his fingertips before he became nothing but ash in her arms.
His fist enclosed around the seed Tenten had created for him.
It seemed as if the earth god was no better than a foolish mortal; he was drawn to what was wrong for him.