A few days had passed since the orphanage mission, and it was officially the last day for the regular academy students, which means Kiara wouldn't have to work on homework for both the Academy and the cram school— which meant she didn't have to do any more Algebra 2 homework.

At the dismissal bell, Kiara couldn't help but grin as she got out of her seat and packed up her books. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up, seeing Bon standing next to her.

"Ready to head out?" He asked.

Kiara nodded, "We're seeing Paku off before we meet Teach at the train station, right?" She asked, looking from Bon to Shima and Konekomaru. The group had been notified a the day before about meeting up at the train station for some sort of training exercise before the official start of summer break.

Konekomaru nodded, "We should get out and meet up with the others before it's too late."

"Right."

With that, the four of them walked out of the classroom and through the hallway, Bon and Kiara hanging a bit behind Shima and Konekomaru. The two of them walked close to each other, their hands brushing up against each other a few times until Bon silently grabbed Kiara's hand.

Kiara's cheeks warmed up ever so slightly— it had only been a few days since they became a couple and each time they touched made Kiara's heart jump a little bit. She glanced up at Bon, who still had his usual neutral expression on his face. She held back a laugh as she looked in front of her at the backs of Konekomaru and Shima.

Once they stepped out of the building and moved off to the side to wait for Rin. Kiara and Bon let go of each other's hands— so far nobody has found out about the two of them dating, which kind of surprised Kiara, sure, they were kind of hiding the fact that they were dating, but they weren't being that secretive. She must of overestimated the observation skills of her classmates. After a bit of waiting, Kiara finally spotted Rin walking out of the building.

"Hey! Okumura!" She called out, getting Rin's attention. She watched as he walked down the steps and towards the group, looking around at all the leaving academy students.

"Wow, there are a lot of people leaving." Rin stated. "And a lot of cars, too."

"Well, it is the last day for regular academy students. They're all heading home for the break." Konekomaru said.

"Oh right. You three are from Kyoto, right? Man, that place sounds so cool!"

"What'd you mean, cool? It's just like any other town." Bon responded.

"Well, we don't even know if we get to go home yet." Shima stated.

"All right, I enjoy all this chit chat, but we have a friend to say bye too." Kiara said, gesturing over to where Izumo was talking to Paku.

"If you get the time, you should come home." Paku was saying as the group walked up to the two.

"If I get to, then yeah." Izumo said, her usual snarkyness gone for the moment.

"You're going home for the great, too, huh? Man, it's gonna be lonely here." Shima said.

"See you guys next semester." Paku said with a smile on her face.

"Have a good break." Rin said.

"If you ever get the urge to hear my voice, you can call me. Day or night." Shima said, a goofy grin on his face.

"You're such a moron." Paku laughed.

"Enjoy your summer, Paku. We'll try to make sure Izumo doesn't go on a rampage while your gone." Kiara joked.

Paku laughed a bit, "Thank you, Pheles. I appreciate it." Looking from Kiara to Izumo, who just huffed, but didn't say anything. "Well, I should really be going. Have a good summer you guys." She waved at them and started getting into the car that was waiting for her.

"Yeah, you too. We'll keep in touch, alright?" Izumo said.

Paku nodded, and with those parting words she shut the car door and the group watched as the car drove off.

"Well, I guess we should grab our things and meet teach at the train station." Kiara said, "Don't want to make him annoyed with us by being late."

Everyone nodded, and they all parted ways, each of them going to their dorms to finish up getting ready for the mission.

***

Kiara was standing at the train station beside all her classmates, waiting for Yukio to tell them what they were doing there.

"I now you are all excited for summer break." Yukio started, "Well, you'll have to hold that thought because for the next three days, you Exwires will be participating in a field drill at the academy's training camp in the forest. Of course, I'll be coming along and so will Miss Kirigakure."

"Yeah hoo." Shura said, raising her hand in the air.

"Now, the purpose of this drill is to determine whether or not you are ready to go out on missions. So, stay sharp."

"Right!" The class exclaimed.

After the small speech, everyone got onto the lightrail and headed down to the forest, where they would start their training camp. The rail trip wasn't long, and soon everyone was stepping off and standing in front of an expansive forest. Without wasting too much time, all of them walked away from the station and headed into the forest.

"Oh yeah!" Rin cheered, "This is gonna be rad! Like going on a picnic!"

"I can see us sitting around a campfire at night and learning folk dances." Shima said, a blush appearing on his cheeks.

"Shima, spider." Kiara said, spotting a spider on on Shima's shoulder. She watched him look to where she was pointing and a look of pure terror appearing on his face. A second later he started freaking out, trying to het the spider off of his shoulder by moving around frantically.

"Wow, I knew you were unnerved by bugs, but this kinda fear is almost sad to watch." Kiara stated, chuckling a bit.

"Kiara!" Shima pouted.

"We don't have time for fooling around. We have quite a ways of walking before we get to where we'll be setting up camp. Let's get a move on, everybody!" Yukio shouted.

"Yes sir!" The class responded, and started walking a bit faster.

After walking for a while, Kiara noticed that her classmates were all starting to drag, all of her classmates aside from her, and Rin, though they both had enhanced stamina. Shura and Yukio seemed to be doing just fine as well.

"During the day, the forest is peaceful. But at night it becomes a hotbed of lower level demon activity. We have to set up base camp before the sun goes down. Pick up the pause." Yukio scolded, noticing that everyone was starting to drag as well.

"Look at that guy, isn't he hot in that coat?" Bon asked from beside Kiara, sweat rolling down his forehead.

"You know, I wouldn't put it past teach to put ice packs in that coat." Kiara mused, "He just seems like the type to do that."

"You heard him! Get a move on!" Shura said from behind the group.

"Um, ma'am, where's you bag?" Shima said.

Shura pointed over at Rin, who had placed his hands under some running water. "Over there."

"It's so cold! Is it safe to drink?" He asked.

"Who knows, why don't you drink it and report back to us." Kiara said with amusement, earning a short glare from Yukio. She just rolled her eyes and turned her attention back towards the boys next to her.

"I get the feeling that Okumura's energy is Supernatural."

Kiara chuckled Oh, you don't know the half of it.

***

About a hour and a half later, the group had finally arrived at a large clearing in the forest. All around her, Kiara saw her classmates sitting on the ground as they recovered from the walk. Though she couldn't blame them, she was feeling slightly drained after the walk as well.

"Alright, the boys are going to start setting up the tents and building a fire, Miss Kirigakure and the girls are going to draw a magic circle around the perimeter and get dinner started. Right, let's get moving!" Yukio exclaimed. Looking at him, Kiara saw that he had removed his coat and was now somehow sparkling.

"He finally took his coat off." Bon said, looking at Yukio.

"So, he didn't have ice packs inside of it." Kiara muttered. "Damn, I was really hoping he was."

"Alright ladies, lets get working!" Shura shouted, getting Kiara's attention.

"Well, I'll see you. Good luck setting up the tent." Kiara said, walking over to where Izumo and Sheimi were going to start drawing out the magic circle.

Kiara, Izumo, and Sheimi soon had most of the magic circle marked on the ground when there was a sudden crash from closer to the middle of the clearing. Looking behind her, Kiara saw that one of the tents had collapsed.

"See, what'd I tell you?" Bon shouted angrily, looking down at Rin who had fallen on the ground and landed on top of the collapsed tent.

"How'd I know it was going to fall down?" Rin defended.

Kiara looked back to Bon, the two of them making brief eye contact and sharing a smile with each other before getting back to work.

"You three done yet?" Shura asked from where she was standing.

"We're almost finished!" Sheimi responded cheerfully.

The three of them finished just as the sun was going down. Walking over, Kiara noticed that all the tents were up and a fire had been built and lit. She internally groaned as she watched Shura sit down next to the fire.

"Alright, now you three start on dinner." Shura instructed.

"It would be nice if you helped a bit." Kiara said.

"I'm just here to supervise and help you kids if you get in dangerous situations. I'm not here to cook."

Kiara rolled her eyes. "Sure." With that, she walked over to where there were tables set up and started to chop some carrots. Back in the orphanage each kid helped out in the kitchen, so Kiara knew a thing or two about cooking.

Beside her, Izumo suddenly pulled back with a shout of pain. Looking over at her, Kiara saw her holding a knife and sucking on the tip of her finger, which Kiara assumed she had just accidentally cut. Looking over to Sheimi, Kiara saw that the blonde was looking at a box of curry powder with a clueless expression on her face.

Oh my god. Have these two ever cooked for themselves? Kiara asked herself, a look of disbelief on her face as she looked at the two.

"Alright. I can't take it anymore, give me that." Rin said, getting up from his spot near the fire and grabbing the knife from Izumo before he started to peel the potatoes that she had been trying to peel herself. Kiara and Rin continued cooking dinner, Izumo and Sheimi moving to near the fire when it became obvious that Kiara and Rin had all the coking under control.

Soon Rin and Kiara had finished up with the prep and both of them stood over the pot, glancing at each other before grabbing a spoon each and going in for a taste test. After a few seconds, they looked at each other and nodded. Kiara grabbed a few plates and put freshly cooked rice on them and handed them to Rin who poured some curry over the rice.

"Dinners ready!" Kaira called, "Get off your asses and get some grub!"

Once everyone had gotten a plate and sat down, Kiara and Rin grabbed plates of their own and joined everyone else around the fire.

"Thanks for the meal!" They all exclaimed before digging in.

"Woah! Man, this is unbelievable!" Bon exclaimed, a look of pure shock on his face.

"If you ever wanted to switch sides, you'd make someone an awesome wife, Rin." Shima said, shoveling the food in his mouth. "And Kiara, I never pegged you as one to cook. You know, if you ever need someone to cook for-"

"Sorry Shima, I'm going to have to turn down that offer." Kiara interrupted as she glanced towards Bon with an amused expression as he stared at his food in annoyance to avoid glaring at Shima.

"Damn." Shima muttered.

"You two are really amazing cooks!" Konekomaru said.

"It's really yummy!" Sheimi agreed.

"It's better than what you've made in the past, Rin." Yukio stated.

"Well, it's probably because Kiara helped me out. You know, food always tastes better when you have friends to cook with."

Friends. That right, we're friends. Kiara thought, looking around at the group around her. A smile made it's way to her face as she listened to them talk. I have friends.