Hatake✔️

44

I stop and catch my breath.

Tenzo stops and wheezes loudly.

Cato, another Anbu member, coughs and then starts barking orders again.

"Ah! No breaks this is endurance training." He yells.

"Then why am I the one with the heaviest pack?" I say under my breath.

Tenzo straightens his back and pats my arm, ushering me to continue forward.

"Man I'm over this." Tenzo says.

I look ahead at the others. I squint my eyes but I can only see so far.

Tiger got regrouped and I haven't seen him in over a week.

He even took his things in the barracks with him.

I catch Tenzo looking at me.

"What?!" I say.

"I'd thought you would be complaining more." He says.

I scoff at his comment.
"I know what endurance and perseverance are. They know it too that's why they gave me three damn packs worth of weight." I say shifting my strap on my shoulder.

"Want to know something?" Tenzo says.

"What." I reply.

"My pack is empty." He says and gives me a weak smile.

...

I start carving a piece of wood with my knife. Trying to keep myself occupied.

A few other members sit by me in the shade of a large tree.

One of them keeps glancing at me.

I frown.

He doesn't say much of anything the rest of the hour.

It's not until we walk back to the compound that I start to question my eyes.

I weave through the slow walkers and walk along side him.

"Bear?" I question.

His eyes refuse to look at me.

"It is. Isn't it?" I ask.

"Yes." He says quickly.

"Well it's nice to see you. You could've said hello to me." I say.

"I thought you'd not want to talk to me." He says.

"Hey that was some time ago. I know better now." I say.

"What unit are you in?" I ask.

"North now." He replies.

"I'm still in the west." I say.

"Where's Tiger?" He asks.

I frown.
"What do you mean?" I say.

"Where is he?" He says.

"He was transferred to the north almost a month ago." I reply.

He stops and causes the people behind us to bump into us. Then we earn a fair amount of swears as they pass us by.

"No he's not." Bear says.

"That's what they told me." I reply.

"No. What did Tiger say?" He asks.

"He never told me. He just left one day." I say.

"Why?" I add, feeling my stomach sinking.

"There's not been a transfer in the past six months. I would know if he was there. They... he didn't say anything?" He says again.