The sun was low, beginning to sink further down behind the towers of Konoha as the light it provided dulled into late evening. Training was brutal, and her sensei seemed firm in keeping the difficulty pretty leveled where it was, if not making it a little worse as they continued to grow complacent with it.

"This is torture..." She murmured to herself, rubbing her hand down over her bicep that ached to the touch. "If we keep training like this, we won't have to worry about 'being prepared' for anything - sensei'll kill us before an enemy ever gets to us..." If that weren't bad enough, after a few more paces, she felt a tight pull inside her stomach, followed by the defeated rumbling of hunger. "Mmm..." She whined quietly to herself through pursed lips.

"Are you talking to yourself again?"

"GHH!" The young kunoichi snapped out of her hunger and fatigue-induced daze, stumbling ungracefully away with hands raised, "A-Ayumu!" She quickly addressed the golden haired girl, though after the initial fear, her gaze turned to skepticism, "Were you following me?"

Ayumu seemed amused by the question, a pleased smile on her face as she waved off the concern. "No no -...well, kind of!"

Suspicion encroaching, the caramel haired girl narrowed her eyes, "There's no sort of..."

"Mhm!" Ayumu quickly retorted, much like a stubborn child. She rocked back on her heels playfully, a teasing smile spreading across her face, "We were heading back to your place for a meal!"

The girl stopped immediately. That seemed fair. Nothing out of the ordinary there...except. "Eh... W-well hold on, Ayumu..." She began again, now more genuinely curious than outright investigative, "Did you say..." Her honey colored eye slowly shifted to look behind them, as Ayumu also seemed to be doing the same. A weak, nearly inconclusive little "...we..?" barely escaped her lips as she noticed the close-by and approaching forms of her dark haired teammate, Tama, and likewise sensei -the latter seeming a bit displeased.

"My apologies, Miss Kinomi, " The sensei spoke up, his eyebrow quirking with a bounce of annoyance, "has my training been too difficult for you?"

His diplomatic, yet sharp tone caused a violent shiver to course through her body, "Ahh! Food! That's what you're coming for, yes? It's on the house!" She smiled awkwardly, brows knitting tightly together as she attempted to lighten the mood with a stream of unsettled laughter.

"Free food!" Ayumu cheered, both fists quickly risen to the sky, overjoyed.

It didn't take long to arrive, and seated in the empty establishment, Kinomi began passing dishes expertly to the tabletop. This small restaurant was family-owned, a relatively popular place despite its size and current inability to expand due to limited space to build out. On her days off, she often helped work the place to keep the traffic flowing and ease some of the stress on her parents. The place was easy on the tab for shinobi, so it wasn't unusual to see the place bustling with genin, jounin and everything in between. At the moment, however, so late into the evening, the place was empty, having closed up for the day.

Kinomi, her parents having whipped up a little something for the squad, began serving her friends and sensei alike.

"This isn't too much, is it?" Tama spoke up, simply having a cup of tea whilst watching Ayumu recklessly dig in. "I'm sure we could have eaten elsewhere if it's an inconvenience to you."

"Oh not at all," Kinomi's mother spoke, fondly waving off the concerns, "I'm sure training was quite difficult, so it's really nothing for us to just make you a little to eat." The woman was warm, sharing her regards to the team in the form of a welcoming aura and reassuring smile.

Kinomi's cheeks lit pink ever-so-slightly, her honey colored eyes growing soft at the sound of her mother's clear fondness.

"Difficult training you say?" Her sensei spoke up just then, causing Kinomi's eyes to sink into a state of tension whilst a bead of sweat dripped down her cheek at the sudden need for clarification. She opened her mouth quickly to speak up, but unfortunately, her mother beat her to it.

"Oh.. Well, I don't know for certain, but Kinomi tells me it's always quite taxing..."

"Mom!" She interjected, looking pleadingly, then shifting a wary stare to her sensei at her side.

"Hah?" Her mother, was understandably confused, but it did nothing to procure mercy from the silver haired male, who responded collectedly with a mere, "Oh, really, now?"

"Oh w-"

"MOM!" Kinomi spoke up again, causing the woman to look quickly between the man and her daughter respectively a few times before assuming she understood the point of the stress.

"Oh, I see." She pressed the knuckle of her bent index finger against her lips, hiding her smile and muffling her quiet chuckles, "I'll leave you to your team." She must have been embarrassing her, speaking on how difficult training was for her and all. She waved her hand, gripping one of the emptied drink trays to her chest as she turned to leave them.

Unfortunately, the damage had been done, the caramel-brown haired girl slid into her seat, attempting to avoid eye contact with her sensei, but she could feel those soulless gray eyes peering uncomfortably into her!

"Your mom's nice," Ayumu spoke up, rice dotting messily around her mouth, "A really good cook too, mmm~!"

'As long as the conversation moves away from that training comment...' Kinomi internalized, taking a bite of the generous portions of meat encircling her plate, "Yeah. I think so too. Actually! I'll tell her you said that!"

"I think we should talk about the rigorous training session we had today," Tama abruptly spoke up, looking out the window as she did so, almost as if she were trying to hide that her expression that was certainly displaying her will to catch Kinomi up in some trouble.

"You!" Kinomi immediately spoke up, an angry tick mark popping up on her cheek.

"It has nothing to do with you. It's just important that we figure out what else we still need to cover."

"I'm not buying that excuse!" Kinomi huffed, pointing dramatically with heavy accusation at the window her teammate was facing, "I can see you laughing in your reflection, you liar!"

Clearly amused with the already wildly stress-induced mood of the scenario, the male casually waved the girl down, "Relax, you're being noisy." He was already satisfied with how much she had lost it trying to avoid getting in trouble, and he hardly had to say more than three sentences. It may have been a little mean, surely, but he wasn't above toying with his pupils a little.

"Mm..." Kinomi side-glanced the male as he spoke, then peered back to Tama, who now seemed to have moved on from her little 'laughing-to-self' state. Feeling satisfied with this, she sat back down, returning to her food.

"Haiki-sensei," Ayumu spoke up through a heavy muffle.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," He casually, yet somewhat disdainfully advised, raising a sliver of fish to his mouth.

"Mm!" Ayumu briskly wiped her mouth, gulping down the food she had been eating before trying again, "Haiki-sensei!" An exasperated fold became prominent beneath his eye as he nodded his head then, once, "Yes..?"

She pulled her leg up in the seat, folding it beneath her to sit on as she eagerly leaned forward, "Rumor has it you've been checking into missions for us, right?" Her fists bunched up eagerly under her chin, warm brown eyes seeming to sparkle while she practically bounced in place from sheer anticipation, "What is it, what is it, what is-"

"Easy, easy..." He urged, raising his hand to comb through the long strands of his straight, silver locks, "You've been taking missions for a full year already, but you still act as excited as a fresh genin."

"It doesn't matter!" Ayumu quickly chimed, "It wouldn't matter if I were a chunin, or a jonin! Each mission brings something totally new to explore, y'know?" Her shoulders raised, lips coiling up into a cat-like smile, "So what is it, what is it? D-rank again? Oh! Or a C-rank this time? Oooor... maybe you believe in us enough to take us on a B-rank this time!"

Haiki's brow raised subtly, a somewhat amused scoff escaping his lips, "Not a chance!"

The back and forth faded into obscurity as Kinomi began to explore her own thoughts. She bypassed the full table with her eyesight, looking to the large window to the side of their table, on the other side of Tama -who seemed to be half listening to Ayumu and Haiki's playing 20 questions, and looked briefly to her own reflection.

It was finally nightfall, the lights of some homes now clearly glowing, but also the ramen shop that was about an open street away. It was so small, sometimes she wondered how they stayed in business, but every now and then the place would be practically full, so maybe it was more frequency than occupancy...

She had never tried it herself, in fact, she had been pestered to by Ayumu who was constantly singing its praises. It did seem like a cozy little stand...

As her thoughts began to wander, and her gaze became a stare, she noticed something curious in the distance. A boy walking, hands tucked behind his head, and bright orange jumpsuit seeming to catch literally every ray of light on the roadway.

Her head shifted back slightly in surprise, brow furrowing, 'Hold on, I recognize that kid.'

She had seen him around a lot actually, and to be frank, she'd heard him around a lot too. People that came in and out of their little family restaurant would speak on him a lot, and usually the opinions seemed pretty mixed; either people seemed to think he was some sort of hopeless troublemaker, or... well no, usually it was that one. Regardless of what he was, she was certain she had never heard so many talk about some kid in her life, unless maybe one were to count all the things she had heard about some Sasuke guy.

It had never occurred to her to ask about him, but seeing as this was the first time she had ever really seen him, and he certainly didn't seem like some kind of walking disaster, she found herself a tad more curious.

"Kino-kinooo~..." Ayumu waved her hand in front of the dazed Kinomi's face, succeeding in effectively snapping the kunoichi from her short daydream, "Were you listening to any of that? You know Haiki-sensei hates repeating himself..."

"Huh?" She looked to the waving girl, then to the sensei in question, his look appearing patient, but hiding a somewhat bland disposition.

Ayumu folded her arms, "How could you not know? I just got finished completely forcing him to admit he had plans." Haiki quickly spoke up to interrut Ayumu's moment of bragging, "Letting it be known that I intended to tell you all anyhow."

"Tell us what?" Kinomi inquired once more, passing glances between everyone at the table, "Did we come to some sort of consensus on something..?"

"Yah," Ayumu turned her head, completely ignoring their sensei speaking up against her accomplishments, "Haiki-sensei says we're going to have a mission in a few days. Thaaaat's part of the reason he's been training us so hard the past few days."

"What's the other part?" Kiyomi hiked a brow somewhat suspiciously, passing a honey-eyed glance to the jonin across from her.

"He's not saying," Tama casually remarked, licking the last bit of sauce from her thumb, "Probably best that we don't know." Haiki always had some sort of scheme going on, and half of the fear always came from knowing it was coming.

"You're completely right," Kinomi added, shifting a gaze to Ayumu at her side, who she knew would cause an uproar.

"What are you saying!? You're not even the least bit curious!?"

"No." The two spoke up simultaneously, causing the golden haired girl to poke her lip out in displeasure. Now this was just no fun.

Seeing as she had basically been caught up, Kinomi stretched her tired arms up, yawning a she did so. Her stomach was full, and she was finally resting her body - that seemed like plenty a reason to feel as content as she did in that moment, and it seemed her team felt the same. Their plates were cleared, cups were empty, and it appeared like they enjoyed the meal so much that they were relaxing in their spots at the table. As she leaned back, she passed another glance out the window, catching sight of the boy stopping by the very ramen stand she had been looking at prior.

Figures the two things she was curious about went hand-in-hand.

"Mm..." She hummed in a combination of bliss from a pleasant meal, and curiosity floating around in her mind. 'He was wearing a headband - I imagine he's a new genin then?' This made her that much more interested. If that were true, they were comrades as well, then, right? 'No harm in checking around on a fellow ninja...' She rationalized.

'Maybe I'll ask about this Naruto boy...'

A/N: Hello! I'm trying to do a thing where I'll be writing a lot about character ships for Naruto (it was kind of like a challenge), so this is one of the canon x oc ships I'll be doing! This is kind of long, because the story will encompass a lot of the show, but I'm not sure if I'll go all the way into Shippuden yet. Most of the OCs that show up in this story are going to be a part of their own focused stories, so I just decided to put them all in the same universe roughly, since they can fit and coexist with each other!

Not all of them will be this long, and some will actually be really short. I'll probably be uploading some of those as I work on these, and you don't need to read one to understand the other. They're all stand alone, just with more of a focus on the character at hand.

Thank you for reading!

~ Two Leaf Clover