Oddity

21

"Oi Senju Baka,"

A smile blossomed on my face the moment I heard Harami's voice. It was my first off-day ever since the team assignment. Ever since then, I have been far too busy to actually visit Harami.

"What brings your lazy ass here this early?" Harami asked with a bit of a smile.

I merely shrugged my shoulders and moved towards her. The deer she was petting was eyeing me warily. I stood a few feet from the duo and watched her pet the deer in the early morning sun. Somehow, that sight calmed me.

I had been mulling over Kushina's statement the whole night. While initially, I was angry at Tsuki sensei, as time passed, it dawned on me that maybe I might have been a little immature in my actions of not trying to call Fujita back.

Also, Tsuki sensei's words about me being too prideful for my own good seemed to echo in my head constantly. Combined with my previous mindset, it made me feel as if I may have overreacted when Tsuki sensei reprimanded me. I have to admit, it had been an awful feeling.

"When will you be done?" I asked her.

"Give me five minutes, then we will go get some dango."

"You do realize that it is awfully early to eat dango, right?"

"No, it is never early to get some dango," Harami stated sagely as if she was revealing a universal truth to me.

I smile at her. "The shop might have been opened yet," I cautioned her.

"We will see,"

Harami returned to feeding the deer, which looked ready to bolt any moment. I merely admired the scenery of Harami feeding a deer in the early morning, with lush green forest backdrop during the entire time and kept my distance away from the deer, lest I spooked it. In a couple of minutes, the deed was done and Harami let the deer race off with one last kiss to its forehead.

"So, how's your team?" she asked as we made our way back from the Nara forest.

"Don't ask me, it's horrible," I said in an exasperated tone, trying to keep the conversation light.

"Tch, troublesome."

Her trademark reply brought a smile to my face.

"How did you mess up this time?" Harami asked in a knowing tone.

"Who said it was me that messed up?" I asked a little defensively.

"If that isn't a red flag, I don't know what is," she said not looking at me.

"Tch…. It's nothing. I think I have been overreacting to stuff recently," I admitted, at last, seeing no way to dodge the question.

Silence lasted for a few minutes as we made our way out of the Nara compound. The streets were still not that active, owing to the fact that it was still early in the morning. However, there were still few people, both ninja and civilian, going about their business.

"So, how's your training going?" I asked trying to break the uncomfortable silence.

"It's good. My Shishou has introduced me to basic codes that are used by the village on non-sensitive information. After fifteen days of supervising me, he has assigned me to decode the information that is coming in. Considering that I have been dealing with mostly regular reports and routine checkups, nothing interesting has come up so far."