>>5890054You blink. Slowly. You rise to go eat some meatbread. You manage to clear the distance and start eating some. Katsuro is there now, taking his turn on the food. “You don’t have anything to worry about with him.” He says, giving your group an assessing glance.
“What?”
“I said, you don’t have anything to worry about with him.”
“I heard what you said, I just don’t know what you mean.”
“I mean he plays for the opposite team.”
“What team?”
“I mean, they’re all on the same team over there.” He says, gesturing towards Naoki, Akimitsu, and Masami. “You’re the only one of that group who’s on mine.”
You can’t help but frown. “I’m definitely on their team. It’s like the one thing I’m pretty sure about.”
He shrugs, “There’s more than one kind of team, dude.”
“Huh?”
“Whatever man. Good meatbread!”
“Yeah, the recipe came to me in a dream. Where’d you learn to play the shamisen?”
“Oh, I just read in a magazine that women like guys who can play music, like, a year ago. Had my parents buy me one as soon as I heard that, and I’m a fast learner when I’m motivated.”
“What does your family do? I never asked.”
“Civilians. We own a corner store. You didn’t know that?”
“No, dude.”
“Yeah. After class I would pretty often just go work at the counter. It’s a small, slow little place so I’d just sit there and read magazines.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me this? I would’ve checked it out.”
He frowns. “You wouldn’t get it, but there’s a stigma about becoming a ninja if you don’t have a parent who’s one, and that’s why I don’t go around yelling about it. A lot of ninja just assume you must have shitty breeding and no talent. My grandma was an Aburame kunoichi though. Retired early and got soft-exiled from the clan when she married my grandpa. It’s a whole thing.”
“Katsuro, you do not seem like Aburame material AT ALL. And I’ve never heard anyone say stuff like that until now, especially not anyone I respect.”
“Only 25%, dude!” He says, laughing. “I’m just saying. Times are changing, but there are plenty of people in the village who are still really stuck in their ways. You got shit for being the son of Kiri-nin too, right? And there’s that Naruto kid who gets shit for, like, NO reason.”
“Who the fuck is Naruto?”
“Dude, he’s some kid who’s starting the academy this following year, I don’t know. I heard about it from Juro-Sensei when I was visiting last week, apparently, he’s controversial from just being alive. By the way, Juro-Sensei is going to quit being a chunin-sensei.”
“He is?”
“Yeah, he doesn’t want to commit to another four years with a new team, not after the Uchiha thing. He can’t do missions anymore either, so he’s probably just going to join one of the slower support teams, like doing classified admin work. That or retire outright.”
