Tsubaki's POV

I just watch the twins as they talk with Tenten and Lee about something.

A chill goes over the village and I just keep walking as the twins stop, terrified.

"What was that?" Tenten whispers.

"If I had to guess, Daichi just told Tsubaki's father what she said." Hiroto whispers.

"Are you guys coming? Or am I just gonna leave you here?" I ask the five and Neji continues walking.

Hiroto and Hiroko look at each other and they catch up quickly along with Tenten and Lee.

We get to a training ground and I spar with Neji, it ends as a draw because Sensei and Guy get here.

"Tsubaki, you should be resting." Sensei scolds me.

I pout slightly as Guy talks to Neji.

"Adorable." Hiroko whispers. "Sensei, Tsubaki is working off some steam. Her Father, sort of, yeah." Hiroko says to him.

Sensei stiffens slightly and I shrug.

"I'm fine now." I say and the twins relax in relief.

"Tsubaki." Neji says and leaves with his team.

I watch him, slightly confused but I nod.

"Let's go get ramen now." Sensei says to us with a smirk.

The twins cheer and I watch them, slightly amused.

We head to Ichiraku's and we get Ramen.

"I challenge you!" Hiroto says to me.

I look at him. "To?" I ask him.

"An eating contest." Hiroto says to me.

"Ok." I say and Sensei orders a lot more ramen.

Me and Hiroto have an eating contest and I win, with 10 bowls while he could only eat 4.

"You glutton." Hiroko says to me.

"How can you eat that much?" Ayame asks me surprised.

I shrug slightly.

"Ok, I'll walk you guys back home." Sensei says to us.

These three walk me back to my house and I see Father waiting out front.

"Oh no." Hiroto whispers and Hiroko nods in agreement.

"On second thought, Tsubaki, you should stay with the twins tonight." Sensei says to me.

I shake my head. "No, I said I was gonna deal with the consequences of me telling my father I wasn't gonna go home earlier." I say and Sensei looks concerned.

I walk up to the house and Father looks down at me. "Tsubaki." Father says to me.

"Father." I greet back and I go inside.

Father follows me in and we head to the training room where he lectures me for talking back, and respect.

Once he's finished, he looks at me to see I'm staring at the floor.

"Tsubaki, do you understand what I'm saying?" Father asks me.

I let out a quiet shaky breath. "Yes Father." I say to him.

"Will you be doing this again?" Father asks me.

I shake my head. "I don't know Father." I say to him.

Father sighs. "Your dismissed." Father says to me.

I get up and I leave.

I head to my room and I sit on my bed, willing myself not to cry.

The Day of the Funeral

I change into my black Yukata and the door to the house is knocked on.

I go open it to see Hinata's team. "Hinata! Your team is here!" I call.

She gets here after a moment, changed as well. "I-I'll see you la-later Tsubaki." Hinata says to me and leaves with them.

I go an brush through my hair, leaving it down instead of tied like normal.

"Tsubaki." Father says at my door as I put my village headband on around my neck.

"Yes Father?" I ask him.

"Be home tonight." Father says and leaves.

I sigh quietly and I shake my head, pulling myself together.

I head to the door and I put on my sandals.

I head to the funeral and the twins are crying.

I look at the two and I walk over slowly, not sure how to respond to this.

The twins see me and they glomp me, sobbing.

I just pet their heads as they cry.

Once the funeral is over, the twins and I sit down at the park, the both of them sniffing and trying not to cry anymore.

I just look towards the ground and I keep my hands on my lap.

"Tsubaki, are you ok?" Hiroko asks after a moment.

I hum quietly. "I'm ok." I say and the twins hug me.

I just wait until they're done and once that happens, I pull my knees up to my chest and we wait for Sensei to get here.

He gets here after a few minutes and looks concerned since we're all very quiet, unlike usual.

"Come on you three, your usually more lively." Sensei tries.

"Its hard to do that today Sensei." Hiroko says to him.

I just hum quietly.

In a few days, the twins have bounced back to normal and I'm just a bit more quiet than normal.

The twins chatter their nonsense again as usual as we walk through town, Sensei finally decides to join us, but only for a minute.

"You three are off today, so do whatever you want." Sensei says and then looks in the direction of the river and disappears.

The twins look at me as I look at the direction of the river, fairly confused.

"Ok, then, let's go get ramen!" Hiroto cheers.

"Ok." I say and the twins cheer and we go get ramen and then we sit in the park.

"Why don't we go train?" Hiroko asks.

Hiroto nods and the two look at me and I nod.

We head to the training ground and we train for a bit.

I read my medical nin-jutsu book as the twins spar with their nin-jutsu.

I finish this book and I put it on the ground. I get up and the twins grin at me.

"Come on Tsubaki! Lets go!" Hiroto cheers as I walk over to them.

I nod. "Ok." I say and the two grin and I watch them as we head back into town.

Hiroko keeps an eye on me and I look back, slightly confused.

He grins and replies to Hiroto.

"Tsubaki, we'll see you later ok?" Hiroko asks me.

I nod. "Ok." I say to him.

"We gotta help mom with the afternoon chores." Hiroto says with a grin.

I nod and the two leave.

I head to the hospital and I ask to continue my lessons in medical nin-jutsu.

We continue and I manage to bring back the fish correctly.

"Good job Tsubaki." The doctor says to me.

I nod in thanks. "What's the next step?" I ask him.

"You should take a break." The doctor says to me.

"Please tell me the next step. I'm fine to keep going." I say and the Doctor nods.

We keep going and by the time the door is knocked on, I'm able to heal cuts and bruises really well.

The door slides open and there stands Sensei. "Tsubaki?" Sensei asks surprised as I heal a cut.

"Good afternoon Sensei." I say once I finish.

Sensei nods and looks at the doctor. "Please come take a look at Kakashi." He says to the doctor who nods.

"Check out the next few medical books at the library or buy them Tsubaki." The Doctor says to me and I nod.

He leaves and me and the patient look at each other confused. "Anywhere else?" I ask him.

"Nope, all healed, thanks Doctor Tsubaki!" He says playfully.

I nod and he goes to check himself out while I head to the book store.

I have volumes 1 through 5, I need 6 and up.

I find the books after a few minutes and I get 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.

I pay for them and I head to the park where I sit down and I start to read.

I don't realize someone sat beside me till my concentration breaks from headache.

I look up to see Neji there and I feel surprised. "Hello?" I try.

"I've been sitting here for an hour." Neji says to me.

I look back at the page and I close the book. "Sorry about that, just trying to further my medical Nin-Jutsu." I say and Neji nods.

"Your team is always around you, where are they?" Neji asks confused.

I look up to see the position of the sun. "Probably eating dinner with their Mother. They left me earlier to do afternoon chores." I say to Neji who nods.

"Your father invited me to dinner, he sent me to bring you home before 7." Neji says to me.

I sigh quietly as I look at the book on my lap. "Alright." I say and I put the book in the bag and I get up. "I guess I should make the dinner then, any preference?" I ask Neji who shakes his head. "I'll ask Father then what he wants." I say and Neji nods.

We walk back to the compound and I set my books down in my room before I change into black leggings and a black long sleeve.

I tie my hair back and I walk to the training room and I knock.

"Come in." Father says on the other side of the door.

I open the door and I walk in. "What would you like for dinner Father?" I ask him.

"It doesn't particularly matter." Father says to me and I nod.

I dismiss myself and I head to the kitchen.

Hanabi watches as I make curry for dinner.

"Make it sweet." Hanabi says at my elbow.

"As you wish." I say to her amused and I make the sauce sweet instead of the normal spicing I'd usually use.

I plate the food and Hanabi helps me carry out the plates since I forbid Hinata from helping me until she fully recovers.

Hanabi drops one of the plates and I save it with my foot.

I breath out a sigh of relief. "Hanabi, put the plate your holding onto the table and very carefully set this plate in front of my seat." I say to her as she almost panics.

"Ok." She says to me and puts the plate down and takes the one off my foot and sets it in front of my seat.

I set Neji's plate down as Hanabi goes to grab the chopsticks. "Be careful!" I call as I hear her trip.

I take the plate off my head and set it at Hinata's seat and I put Father's plate down last.

I set the rest of the table and I go back to the kitchen where I make Onigiri as well while Hanabi marvels at the skill.

I make a few plates of them and I have Hanabi very carefully set them on the table in the dinning room.

I then make Dango for dessert and we set those out as well.

"All that's left is the tea, right?" Hanabi asks me.

I nod. "Yeah, I think I'll just steep some traditional green tea." I say and Hanabi nods.

We head to the kitchen where I boil water in a kettle until it whistles.

I pull it off the burner and I put it on a coaster where I put the tea leaves in at the top.

"Can I carry the pot?" Hanabi asks me.

I shake my head. "With your clumsy streak today, you might get burned." I say and Hanabi nods. "What you can do, is grab that wood coaster and 5 cups and take them to the dining room, while I finish steeping the tea." I say and Hanabi nods.

"Will do, but, I can't reach the cups." Hanabi says to me.

"Take the wood coaster first and put in the center of the table." I say and Hanabi nods.

She takes the coaster and I pull out the cups.

She comes back and takes the cups.

I finish with the tea and I pull out the leaves.

I take the kettle to the dining room and I pour the tea into each cup at about three quarters full.

I set the kettle down and Hanabi looks at the set up amazed.

"Your amazing at this Tsubaki!" Hanabi says shocked.

I smile and I pet her head. "Go get ready for dinner real quick and bring Hinata in, don't drag her though." I say to Hanabi.

She nods. "Will do." Hanabi says to me and she leaves.

I head to the back yard where I see Father and Neji talking. "Dinner is ready." I say to them.

"Good, what did you make?" Father asks me.

"The Hors D'oeuvres is Onigiri, the main course is Sweet Curry with grilled pork and bamboo shoots, and the dessert is Dango with the option of syrup. The berverage is Green Tea." I say to him.

"You made all of that?" Neji asks surprised.

I nod. "Hanabi helped me set the table, so it should look nice in there as well." I continue.

Father gets up and Neji follows in suit. "I assume Hanabi and Hinata are already waiting?" Father asks me.

I nod. "Yes sir." I say to him.

"Well we shouldn't keep them waiting then." Father says and I let them go first and I follow them in.

We head to the dining room and we see Hanabi and Hinata waiting behind their seats.

I take my spot and Neji takes his and Father goes to the head of the table.

"Sit." Father says to us and we sit down.

We all say thanks and I eat quietly next to Hinata who also eats quietly.

Father talks to Neji.

"So Neji, you should come over tomorrow and spar with Hanabi or Tsubaki, you could teach them something." Father says to Neji.

I continue eating.

"I would prefer to spar with Lady Tsubaki, I wouldn't want to over power Lady Hanabi and accidentally hurt her. My team tells me I get too rough with my Gentle Fist techniques." Neji says to Father who nods.

"Hanabi will watch then." Father says to him. "You have tomorrow off from training, right Tsubaki?" Father asks me.

I look up at him. "I have tomorrow off." I say and Father nods.

I finish my curry and so does Hinata.

We eat our share of the onigiri and then our Dango.

"May I be excused?" Hinata asks quietly.

"Your excused." Father says to her and she leaves.

I finish my dango and I finish my tea.

I pick up the empty plates and I take them to the kitchen where I wash them and put them away.

I head back and I serve more tea and Hanabi can't finish her curry.

"I don't want it to go to waste, can you finish it Tsubaki?" Hanabi asks me.

I sit down and I finish her curry for her. "Ok, you could have just had me store this for you to eat for lunch tomorrow. But I'll do that for your onigiri and Dango." I say and Hanabi nods.

"Thank you." Hanabi says to me.

"Your welcome." I say and I pick up her plate of onigiri and dango and I take out more empty plates to the kitchen.

I store her food in a bento for tomorrow and I put it in the fridge.

I wash the plates and I put them away.

I head back and Father and Neji are done eating.

I take their plates to the kitchen and I wash those as well, putting them away.

I head back and I clean up the table as Hanabi carries the empty cooled down kettle to the kitchen.

I hear a clatter and I slowly sigh. "Are you ok Hanabi?" I call.

"I'm fine!" She calls back.

I finish cleaning the table up and I head to the kitchen where I wash the kettle and I put it away for later use.

"Dinner was delicious Tsubaki. Can you teach me how to cook?" Hanabi asks me.

I dry my hands and I kneel in front of her. "Maybe once you grow out of the current clumsy stage." I say and Hanabi nods.

"I'll do that quickly then!" Hanabi says to me and I watch her amused and she leaves the kitchen.

I clean up the kitchen efficiently and I pull my sleeves down.

I head to the dining room where Father and Neji are talking. "Did you want anything else Father?" I ask him.

Father thinks on that for a moment. "No, your dismissed for the night Tsubaki." Father says to me.

I nod. "Then have a good evening Father, Neji." I say and I go and I bathe and I change into my pajamas.

I sit at my desk and I turn the small lamp light on and I continue to read in my medical nin-jutsu book.
-