CH_6.39 (210)

CH_6.39 (210)

The mess hall was warmer than usual and everyone was eating slightly better-tasting food with smiles on their faces. The restriction on alcohol had been lifted Camp Banana welcomed the new arrivals who would replace their fallen numbers. People mingled with each other, exchanging names, stories, and information about their lives at and before Camp Banana.

There was a rowdiness present that was usually missing in the base. The monotonous clink of cutlery and hanging boredom were swept away as people opened up to each other. The night was young, and Camp Banana had enough stories and booze to keep it going early in the morning.

At a table in the mess hall, half of Team-9 sat with full plates of food. Daiki had his back to the table as he chatted with his friend Hajime from the neighboring table, Rikku was absorbed in her food, and Kameko gazed at the socializing crowds.

“Hey! Are you guys having fun?” Anko half-danced toward the table with Iori joined to her hip. Both had alcohol in their water canteens and looked as though they were having a merry time with their blushing cheeks and wide grins.

“Pace yourself,” Kameko warned them.

“Buzzkill,” Iori laughed and took a swig from her canteen.

Her hand was no longer fixed with a split; it had healed enough to be moved down to light bandaging for minimum support. She had already started physical therapy to regain function. There was still not knowing if Iori’s fingers would make a complete recovery, but she was no longer pessimistic and was taking it one day at a time.

“Where’s the workaholic?” asked Anko, looking around for the missing team member.

“Speaking of the devil.” Kameko pointed with her chin.

Takuma walked toward the mess hall in a fresh set of clothes with his hair wet. He looked like he had just taken a bath.

Anko frowned lightly. She asked, “Was he training?”

“That’s all he does these days,” Daiki looked away from his friend to answer Anko. “I thought you put him to it. I don’t want to question your methods, Anko, but I do believe that rest is just as important. I suggest that you decrease his load.”

“I did ask him to do things, but...” Anko gazed at Takuma, who broke into a jog to reach them as he entered the mess hall. She sparred with him once a day, but had stopped accompanying him for morning training—he had gotten a hang of it enough to do it alone.

“This is...so different. I was stopped and checked at the gate like a criminal when I first came here. There was no grand welcome for me,” Takuma said when he arrived.

“You arrived alone. At least you got a guide to show you around,” Kameko replied. “When we came here, we had to do a major clean up and set up the base. It felt like I was intruding on someone else’s place for weeks.—there were family photos on the walls and everything.”

“And I will never forget your lovely attempt to boot me from the team, Kameko. That was a wonderful welcome,” Takuma smiled when she scowled and walked past the table. “I’m hungry. The grub smells different today.”

“He’s not in a pleasant mood these days,” Daiki muttered as she gazed at Takuma, loading up his plate in the distance.

“Really? I think he’s always like that,” Kameko scoffed.

“Well, you two don’t get along spectacularly, Miss Kameko. I’ve lived with him long enough to see that he’s not like this normally.” Daiki looked at Anko. “He has been like that since the meeting with Toridasu and Shirakumo. Did something happen?”

“...Who knows,” Anko replied.

Maybe it was time for her to have a chat with him.

———

.

Takuma had come to appreciate the feeling of fatigue after a good day of sweating and hard training. It was a marker that he was going to have a nice and deep sleep at night—the best kind of sleep.

“You guys pulled out all the stops for today, eh, Kai?” Takuma chatted with one of the kitchen staff.

Kai laughed as he refilled the fried chicken tray. “The food tastes the same every day, Takuma. You’re the only one complaining about it.”

Takuma smiled. “Because the rest of them lost all hope that food could be good. See, I’m the newest, been here the shortest. I wasn’t defeated by you guys. But now, I’m not the newest, I have all these new folk, and I will lead them to All Blue. We will succeed. The food will become tastier than ever before!”

“All Blue?”

.

Takuma wrestled with his conflicting emotions as he processed the sight in front of him.

“Hello, my name’s Masumoto Shohei. I’m the new chunin leader of Team-3.” Bishop, or Masumoto, introduced himself along with his team. “We are looking forward to this joint exercise between the teams to be a great learning experience.”

The new shinobi had only arrived the day before yesterday, and Masumoto Bishop had set up a joint sparring exercise with Anko’s Team-9. It was surprising and almost alien, as no other team had ever asked for a joint exercise with Team-9 because of Anko. Other teams held joint exercises regularly, but Team-9 had not been part of any of them even once.

It made sense that a new chunin was the one to request it, given Anko’s past.

“The same goes for us,” Anko smiled.

Masumoto gazed at the team before asking Anko. “You’re missing one of your team. Is everything okay?”

“He should be here.” Anko glanced at Takuma. “Where is Daiki?”

Takuma said, “He should be on his way. Said he needed to go to the bathroom... Oh look, there he is.” Takuma pointed to Daiki running towards them.

“I apologize for being late. I hope I didn’t keep everyone waiting,” Daiki bowed to both Anko and Masumoto.

“Not at all,” Masumoto smiled.

“Don’t sweat it. Get in line,” Anko said to Daiki.

Daiki hurriedly stood beside Takuma and immediately whispered into his ear. “You were right. He’s doing it to make an impression on Toridasu.”

‘Knew it,’ thought Takuma, turning his unamused eyes to Masumoto.

Takuma was skeptical of the joint exercise offer. They hadn’t kept it a secret, and the entire base would technically know they were conducting a joint exercise. He was sure that after Masumoto got the gist of Anko’s past, he would rescind the offer and make some excuse, but he didn’t do that—so he asked Daiki to poke around to see if something was wrong.

And Takuma was right in his doubt.

Masumoto wasn’t doing the joint exercise for a ‘learning experience’—he was doing it so he could prove that he and his team were better than Anko and Team-9. Masumoto must’ve heard that Toridasu wasn’t the biggest fan of Anko and was trying to please him by trouncing Team-9 in the joint exercise as a ‘token offering’ to the overlord.

“Alright, let’s do it then,” Takuma said.

“What?” asked Daiki.

As both teams prepared, Takuma went to Anko and whispered what Daiki had gathered to her.

“Are you sure?” Anko asked.

Takuma nodded.

“Okay... and what do you want to do?” she asked.

“I think we might be able to make another move for that precursor mission,” Takuma said.

If Bishop was trying to trounce them, then he was opening himself to having the situation turned against him.

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