Coming of age: The beginning

Mysterious neighbor

After Hadou dropped Shika off at the house, she and Fuyumi ate a light dinner together. She wasn't all that hungry after eating the parfait though.

She told Fuyumi all about her first day and the scare she'd had with Mr. Aizawa.

She also beamed about the delicious food they served in the cafeteria at UA, and Fuyumi drank it all in with a smile. She was so happy for Shika.

After a while, Shika headed up to her room to call her friends back in Konoha. Only a few of them were available though. Naruto, Tenten, Neji and Sai were all out on missions so their phones had been turned off.

It was a rule now so that they didn't have any distractions. However, she did get to talk to Sakura, Kiba, Lee and Shino.

They were all pretty excited to talk to her too. Especially Sakura and Lee. Well, Lee was always excited, but that was one of the things she missed about him the most. She spent over an hour and a half catching up with everyone and telling them all about Musutafu and her first day at UA.

Kiba was mostly interested in hearing about girls and Shika's opinion on their hotness on a scale of one to ten. That went on for a while. Sakura wanted to know when she'd be coming back home and when they could come visit, and Lee just cried in joy from her blossoming youth.

Hearing their voices and laughing together with her friends again made her homesick and very happy, but as much fun as it was catching up with everyone, it was getting late so she had to say her goodbyes eventually. The day had been long and she still needed to take a bath.

0000~

After cleaning herself and washing her hair, Shika took her time soaking her tired body in the hot water. It felt so good to her sore muscles that she didn't want to get out. It was only the first day of school, but she'd grown a bit soft in Konoha after deciding that becoming a ninja wasn't for her. She'd stopped traing as much and lounged around the house a lot.

But now that she's at UA in the hero program it was back to business as usual. Shika sighed as she gave the hot water surrounding her a little splash. She really wanted to soak longer, but knew she had to get to bed soon. Otherwise she wouldn't want to get up for school tomorrow. Mornings had never really been her thing.

She also had to keep in mind that her new friends were coming to pick her up in the morning. And just the thought made her smile. Mirio, Tamaki and Hadou weren't the most popular kids and they were all a little weird in their own ways, but Shika felt extremely lucky to have met them.

They were kind and more than accepting, and kind of reminded her a lot of her friends back home. She definitely hoped that she'd get to introduce them someday.

00000~

Shika was laying in her bed underneath the covers when a small chime cut through the silence of the room. She'd almost fallen asleep at that point so there was a small bit of irritation as she reached for her phone.

She squinted against the offending light as she turned it on. There was a notification there telling her that she had one unread message. She clicked on it and smiled when she saw Mirio's name.

"Hey, sorry I couldn't be there to walk you home. Promised Tamaki I'd go with him to therapy today. Then we ran into some super nasty thugs trying to rob a store on our way back. It was kinda messy, but Tamaki and I did pretty well I think. So no need to worry about us! Anyway, sleep tight Sunshine. Goodnight"

Shika found herself smiling into the artificial light of the phone, reading Mirio's message over and over. How could someone be so sweet and caring? She wasn't even his girlfriend!