Tenten

is one of the main supporting characters of the series. She is a chūnin-level kunoichi of Konohagakure and member of Team Guy.

Background
In the anime, where her background is expanded on, it is revealed that when she joined Team Guy, she shared with the others her goal to become like Tsunade, one of the Sannin. It was during this time of trial and failure at becoming a medical-nin, and more like Tsunade, that she discovered her talent for fūinjutsu and thus developed her unique fighting style. She has stopped dreaming of becoming like Tsunade, but still has not given up on becoming a legendary kunoichi in her own right.

Personality
Tenten strongly believes that female shinobi can be as strong as male shinobi. During the Chūnin Exams, Neji suggests that kunoichi aren't good at taijutsu, but Tenten reprimands him, explaining that girls are just as good as boys when it comes to taijutsu. Tenten's personal dream is to become as powerful and well noted female ninja as Tsunade. She can be quite fierce sometimes, especially with Lee, violently shaking him whenever he is left unconscious, Naruto also describes her personality as fierce and scary. Tenten also has shown a strong distaste for weakness or being overly dependent on other people. Despite this, she is not above showing a softer side when it comes to her team-mates. She holds great respect for her team-mate, Neji, and often helps him train.

Tenten has also shown a feminine side, giggling and commenting to herself that Sasuke is cute when he refused to state his age to Neji. She's observant, witty, analytical, intelligent, and perceptive. Tenten also has a naturally inquisitive nature and doesn't like to be kept out of things, as seen from her reactions toward Naruto and Lee in the anime. Unlike her team-mates, Tenten is more easy-going and doesn't enjoy having to run for whole days without a break. When Guy and Lee enthusiastically vowed to get to the Sunagakure in half a day, she and Neji reprimanded them, saying that it would take three days no matter what. Tenten enjoys days-off from missions so she can finally relax, and for obvious reasons, considering her team-mates. Tenten has comforted friends who are having a hard time, such as Ino, who cried when they decided on killing Sasuke. Kiba yelled at Ino, but Tenten defended her.

Appearance
Tenten has brown hair and brown eyes — both of which are depicted as being dark brown in the anime. She wears her hair in Chinese-style buns on either side of her head with short fringe-bangs falling over her forehead protector which she wears in the traditional manner. In Part I, Tenten wears a pink sleeveless blouse and dark green pants. Her appearance is a reference to the Chinese culture.

In the manga, during her first appearance her blouse was blue instead of pink which in later chapters, changed to her common Part I outfit. Her scrolls have also changed colour from red and yellow to green and yellow. During the Chūnin Exams, Tenten is seen wearing this dark blue blouse and red pants while helping Neji to train for the finals and also during Naruto and Neji's match. In the episode of the Konoha Annual Sports Festival, she is also seen wearing the same blue blouse, which is longer compared to the pink one.

In Part II, her outfit undergoes several changes: she now sports a long-sleeved white blouse with a high collar and red fastener and edges paired with similarly coloured, puffy pants that look like a hakama, with the exposed parts of her legs near the waist covered in bandages. The shuriken holster and the bandage on her right leg is removed and she wears brown fingerless gloves, with her forehead protector having switched to the same colour and her shinobi sandals having been replaced by black, open-toed sandals with low heels, and the shoes extend to the lower ankles; everything is still a reference to the Chinese culture. She holds a giant tool summoning scroll on her back that she uses when fighting.

During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Tenten wears the standard outfit of the alliance, and a Konoha flak jacket. She also wears a holster around her waist in which she carries two smaller scrolls in exchange for the giant one. She no longer wears gloves as well.

Abilities
While a weapons specialist, Tenten is also well-versed in unarmed melee combat. She is the fastest kunoichi of her age group, which is expected, considering her team-mates. She mostly uses her weapons to corner her enemies, supporting and covering her team, working in perfect synchronisation with Lee and Neji's attacks and as such, is a vital part of her team. According to the team, Tenten will never miss her target as she can hit 100/100 marks. She has great analytical skills and sees things others would generally miss, and is able to measure the perfect distance for attack or defence between herself and her opponent. In the anime, Tenten tried to perform the Mystical Palm Technique to become like Tsunade, but failed as the fish she tried to heal instantly died afterwards. However, she has general knowledge of treatments, as she helped Sakura, Ino and Hinata to take care of the wounded citizens of the Hachō Village.

Bukijutsu
Tenten is a weapons-user, specialising in mostly long-range attacks, thanks to her weapons, which she carries in a number of scrolls held in a holster on her waist in Part I. In Part II, she carries her weapons in a single big scroll with a couple of smaller scrolls. While her fighting method remains almost unseen in the manga, the anime dedicates more time to her, showing many of the weapons she carries around being used and even granting her named attacks.

In Part I, her arsenal is composed mostly of steel projectiles and her favoured method of attack is to throw her scrolls in the air in such a way as to cause them to spin above her, then jump between them and toss a myriad of weapons at her opponent in rapid succession, otherwise known as Twin Rising Dragons. She also uses strings to control and guide the direction of her weapons. Her weapons skills are so advanced that she was able to skilfully use and control an extremely unorthodox weapon just after receiving it.

In Part II, she is shown using a two-stage attack using explosive tags and a grenade full of kunai. Also, she uses more weapons than ever, she makes an improvement to her Twin Rising Dragons where she adds exploding tags to most of her weapons. Her most powerful technique is as Manipulated Tools: Heavenly Chain of Destruction where she unrolls her scroll and releases hundreds and varieties of weapons in a rain to pierce her enemies and/or their defences, which is mostly impossible to evade. Tenten can also summon more than just weapons as seen when she summoned a fireball against Guren, a fire dragon to fight against Sekiei's wolves trap, and a large metal dome that can protect her and her team-mates. Tenten's proficiency in sealing objects is such that she can store incredible volumes of items, even a ship.

During the Fourth Shinobi World War, she came into the possession of the Bashōsen left behind by Kinkaku and used it for a short while. She demonstrated great proficiency on using it, managing to destroy Kakuzu's lightning mask, and, in the anime, also his wind mask, but its high chakra consumption left her nearly dead, and was told by her comrade not to use it any more. The fact she can survive after using it is a testament of her decent chakra supply.

Chūnin Exam Arc
During the written exam, Tenten assisted Lee in gathering answers. Using strings to adjust hidden mirrors on the ceiling, Tenten allowed Lee to see his fellow ninja's answers and copy them without being caught. She was seen again during the second part of the exam in the Forest of Death with her team-mates. Their team decided to split up to find weaker teams to corner and take scrolls from. She and Neji met back up at the assigned destination, but became worried when Lee didn't return. She and Neji went looking for Lee and arrived in time to find an unconscious Lee and also witness Sasuke's brutal defeat of the sound genin. After this, Tenten was seen taking over watching an unconscious Lee for Ino, and then proceeded to wake him by violently shaking him.

Tenten was pitted against Temari during the preliminaries of the Chūnin Exams. Since their fight went unseen in the manga, the anime adaptation explained the circumstances that occurred. Tenten began the match by throwing a few of her weapons at Temari while keeping the best distance for offence and defence. The Third Hokage complimented Tenten's strategy, though Temari easily blew the weapons away with her fan. She was surprised that not one weapon reached Temari and tried a different approach. Temari explained the power of her fan and that once Tenten had seen all three moons the match would be over. Since nothing had even come close to hitting Temari, Tenten used one final technique that she was saving for the finals. The Twin Rising Dragons proved to be an impressive technique, but ultimately ineffective against Temari's fan. As Tenten ran out of weapons, she used strings to control the weapons and fling them once again back at Temari, in an attempt to surprise her. Temari however quickly used her fan to blast Tenten, along with her weapons and she hit the floor. Temari finally used her fan to trap Tenten in a cyclone and propel her into the air. As the cyclone dispersed and Tenten fell to the ground, Temari had Tenten land on her closed fan, knocking her unconscious. Even after she was declared the winner of the match, she threw Tenten off of the fan in attempt to have her land on the many weapons on the ground. However, Rock Lee jumped in to save Tenten before she hit the ground.

Before the finals began, Tenten helps Neji in his training to perfect his techniques. She was seen using her weapons to help Neji perfect his Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven technique. Later, she watched Neji's fight with Naruto in the finals, where she admired Neji's skills and praised Naruto's ability to defeat him.

Invasion of Konoha Arc
Tenten can be seen at the Third Hokage's funeral alongside the other villagers, mourning his death.

Search for Tsunade Arc
When Tsunade returns to Konoha for becoming the Fifth Hokage, Tenten can be seen when she went to Neji after his training. She tells him that Tsunade has returned and asks him to check it out with her, which Neji replied that he was not interested.

Pre-Shippūden Filler Arcs
In the anime, Tenten showed disgust for Ranmaru, a young cripple who could not take care of himself. She then saved his life by taking him to the Curry of Life shop. She brought the young boy out of his depression and convinced him to live and to stand on his own two feet. After this she made a formidable opponent for Raiga Kurosuki when she faced him in a one-on-one fight. Knowing that he used Lightning Release techniques she quickly deduced that her metal weapons would be a bad idea to use, and took on the missing-nin using her wooden based melee weapons. She appeared to gain the upper hand in the battle when she succeeded in disarming Raiga before he overwhelmed her with his techniques.

In Naruto episode 158, the Academy students were divided into teams of three and were assigned to a genin who would lead them on a mission against the other teams. Tenten was assigned to lead a team of three academy students. Her time with them was not covered much except that she was doing better than Naruto.

When she was sent on a mission to the Land of Birds, she smacked Naruto for faking his own death and claimed she was worried about him. While this was true, she showed anger toward Naruto and Neji for leaving her out of their plan.

During the Trap Master Arc, Tenten was shown to be a very keen observer, picking up on facts that others overlooked.

Later, Tenten was the only one of the Konoha 11 to be left out of the mission, and Tenten scolded Lee because of it. Lee explained that Tenten was away on another mission and so couldn't have come, though Tenten attacked him anyway, using the Dynamic Entry to defeat him.

Kazekage Rescue Arc
Team Guy is sent to assist Team 7 in rescuing Gaara. Along the way, the group encounters Akatsuki member Kisame Hoshigaki. Tenten tries to attack Kisame with a spiked kunai bomb, but he is able to avoid the explosion. Seeing that Neji, Lee, and Tenten are in the way, Kisame quickly creates three water clones that capture the three team members in a water prison, leaving the original Kisame to fight Guy one-on-one. Tenten reaches her limit the fastest, and is about to suffocate due to lack of oxygen in the small sphere of water. She was saved when Neji broke out of his own sphere and released Lee who took out the Kisame clone holding her captive.

After "Kisame" was defeated and Team Guy reaches the Akatsuki hideout, the team disperses to remove a number of seals in the surrounding area that are making entrance to the lair impossible. Although they succeed, they are each forced to fight exact copies of themselves, with the handicap of them tiring out, while the clones seems to have infinite energy. Lee realises that while each clone is as strong as themselves when it was created, they have no emotions and hence no drive to surpass their current limits. Realising this, they each pushed to surpass themselves and using a new stronger technique, each defeats their lookalike in time.

They make it back to the others just in time to corner Deidara. Deidara escapes by switching out with an exploding clone that nearly killed everyone before they were saved by the Kamui technique of Kakashi's Mangekyō Sharingan. After Gaara is rescued, Team Guy returns to Konoha with Team Kakashi.

Sai and Sasuke Arc
She appears in the anime at the very beginning of the arc. Tenten and her team just got back and is irritated by Guy and Lee's race.

Hidan and Kakuzu Arc
In the anime, Tenten attended Asuma Sarutobi's funeral.

Invasion of Pain Arc
When Pain's invasion of Konoha begins, Team Guy is away on a mission. The team decides to make stop before returning to the village, much to the relief of an exhausted Tenten. During this pit stop they notice a number of birds apparently escaping from the village. The team decides to hurry back to the village with Tenten not looking forward to more trouble. They rush to the village and find it to be in ruins. They find Hinata badly injured and after examining her, Tenten noted that her wounds were not fatal but she needed immediate medical attention. Later, she and the rest of the village celebrated Naruto's victory.

Konoha History Arc
While she and Neji were heading to a Konoha Weapons Lab to resupply their village's military strength, Tenten recapped her previous visit when she led Team Guy, with Naruto substituting for Rock Lee, on a similar mission to get weapons from Iō in the aftermath of the Invasion of Konoha. It was during that time that Tenten got to briefly use the Jidanda. Though Iō relieved her of the still developing weapon at the time, Tenten express hope that the Jidanda is finished so she can use it again.

Five Kage Summit Arc
When news reached Konoha of Sasuke's recent dealings with Akatsuki, Tenten and the rest of the Konoha 11 decided that they should personally kill Sasuke before he involves the village in a war. When Naruto insisted that dealing with Sasuke be left to him, Tenten got angry and told him that this should not be something he undertook on his own. Despite this, Naruto firmly stated that he would be the one to handle Sasuke, and that he'd tell them everything when the time came.

Shinobi World War Arc
When the Fourth Shinobi World War begins, she was placed in the First Division with Chōza Akimichi and Hiashi Hyūga. The First Division was sent to the border of the Land of Lightning to defend against an approaching portion of the White Zetsu Army. After Darui's initial assault on the approaching enemy forces, Tenten launched a barrage of projectile weapons at several of the opponents that had made landfall.

After the First Division defeated Kinkaku and Ginkaku, she found the lost Bashōsen on the chaotic battlefield. She was eventually drawn into battle with Kakuzu's lightning mask and destroys it with the Bashōsen. In the anime, she's also able to take down Kakuzu's wind mask. She was later seen on the ground, exhausted from using one of the Treasured Tools of the Sage of the Six Paths. A fellow Konoha shinobi healed her, and told her not to touch the fan again, or it might kill her. After being healed, she joined up with Team Asuma and aiding them in devising a strategy, though she despaired not being allowed to use the Bashōsen despite her proficiency with the Treasured Tool.

After being informed by Inoichi Yamanaka from HQ that Naruto and Killer B were fighting the "masked Madara" Tenten and the rest of the Konoha 11 rushed to their aid. As she ran, she worries about Guy and whether or not he was all-right and protecting Naruto. Allaying her fears, she noted that since Kakashi was there as well, everything would be fine. Later, Tenten arrived with her division which was announced by Darui, she stood alongside the remainder of the Allied Shinobi Forces as they prepared to face their opposition. Tenten later learns of Neji's death.

Naruto: Shippūden the Movie
Tenten only plays a small part appearing with some of the other Konoha shinobi protecting the village and not having a speaking part. She was seen being led by Kakashi and Guy in making a counter-attack against Mōryō and his stone soldiers to buy time for Naruto and Shion to defeat Mōryō.

Naruto Shippūden 3: Inheritors of the Will of Fire
Tenten was first seen with the rest of Konoha 11 eating barbecue to celebrate Naruto and Sai's recovery. After Naruto and Sai arrive, Naruto exclaims that Shikamaru is paying for everyone. She and the others quickly thank Shikamaru before he can protest. After Hiruko announced a fourth ninja war will occur, she was one of Konoha 11, except Naruto, assigned by Tsunade to secure the village. After Naruto and Sakura left the village, she and the others were ordered to go after them and bring them back. When they encountered them they all got ambushed by Ichi. Tenten released the others from Ichi's tentacles with some exploding kunai and they started to battle them while Naruto and Sakura went ahead. Neji told Shikamaru that Team Guy will handle the battle and sends the rest of the team after Naruto and Sakura. Tenten uses her weapons to distract Ichi while Neji and Lee prepare to use the Front Lotus: Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven. They succeed in defeating Ichi before San summons him and Ni to make a more powerful chimera.

She and her team-mates join back up with Team 8 and Team 10 and take over fighting the chimera for and exhausted Shikamaru, Sakura, and Sai. In the end when Hiruko revealed his true form to Naruto and Kakashi, she and the others all defeated his chimera together with Tenten landing the final blow with Twin Rising Dragons, covering the beast in exploding kunai and detonating them. She and the others praise Naruto for defeating Hiruko and witness the weird moment between Naruto and Kakashi because of his creepy smile after remembering Obito.

Naruto 5: Blood Prison
Tenten, along with the rest of the Konoha 11, Guy, Tsunade, Shizune, Kakashi, and Yamato, went to Hōzukijō to free Naruto. She and the others held off Satori while Naruto went into Sage Mode.

Naruto 6: Road to Ninja
In the alternate world, Tenten is not as proficient in handling weapons. Rather she is very clumsy and tends to injure herself as a result.

Trivia

 * "Ten", in Japanese means "heaven" or "heavenly" so in this case, it means "heavenly, heaven". "Tenten" can also mean, "little by little" in Japanese, "this and that", "here and there", or "dot". It is also a possibility that her name insinuates "Ten out of Ten," a reference to her marksmanship.
 * Tenten has slowly improved her ranking in the Naruto character popularity polls. She has placed 29th, 24th, and 22nd in the last three polls.
 * In an interview, Kishimoto said he preferred Tenten out of the four Konoha 11 girls because he liked her design.
 * Like the rest of her team, Tenten's character seems to draw inspiration from Chinese culture as seen from her attire and hairstyle, the Chinese style Chignon.
 * According to the databook(s):
 * Her hobby is fortune-telling.
 * Tenten would like to have a rematch with Temari, and she would also like to fight Tsunade's apprentice: Sakura Haruno.
 * Her favourite foods are Sesame dumplings and Chinese food, while her least favourite is pickled plums.
 * Tenten's favourite phrase is.
 * Tenten has completed 62 official missions in total: 28 D-rank, 23 C-rank, 3 B-rank, 7 A-rank, 1 S-rank.
 * Tenten loves to investigate.
 * Tenten and Neji have the same theme in the anime, but Tenten's has a slower beat. It is often used in flashbacks and emotional moments.
 * In original colour illustrations of the manga, Tenten's costume is blue. This is changed to pink in the anime and later manga images.
 * In the second ending of Naruto: Shippūden, Tenten only appears in episodes 27, 28, 29 and 30.
 * In the omake for episode 209, her name is written in Chinese: 天天.
 * Tenten is also a main character in the Naruto: Shippūden spin-off series, Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth, in which her appearance is more dominant than the Naruto: Shippūden. In this show, she performs punchlines, which is her running gag through out the series, and whacks Lee and Neji with a fan if the two explain or act in complete idiocy.
 * In the anime, Tenten's weapon skills are explained as a skill with space-time ninjutsu, with the Summoning Technique, despite having been explained she merely unseals the weapons, making her skills fūinjutsu.

Quotes

 * (To Neji about Ino and Sakura fighting) "It's not because they're girls you know, Neji. It's just that those two are using kid gloves. It doesn't matter if you're a man or woman in battle."
 * (To Naruto about Ranmaru) "I can't stand weak and indecisive people!"
 * (To Ranmaru) "I won't let that happen. No way you're not getting off that easy! The people you and Raiga killed, they all wanted to live but you didn't leave them that choice! You decided for them! Well you don't get to decide this time, ok?! You're gonna live and you're going to take some responsibility for all those people's lives you cut short!"
 * (To Naruto) "You're gonna fight Sasuke alone? And you think all of us are just gonna stand here and let you?!"
 * (To Naruto) "Three members of Team Guy specialise in close-contact battles so I often render aid from the distance. I don't mind providing back up, but I was hoping to find new ninja tools that would enable me to fight on the front lines."
 * (About Iō's weapons) "Amazing… The brilliance of the blade… the design. They're all beautiful! I want to take them all home!"
 * (To Might Guy) "I want to be a great and powerful ninja! To walk in the footsteps of the legendary kunoichi, Tsunade!"
 * (To herself) "I no longer wish to be like Lady Tsunade anymore. But I haven't given up my dream to become a legendary kunoichi."