Standing idly by, as Kakashi gave his students the specifics of their training for the day; Harata's mind wandered back to her encounter with Kurenai earlier.
Why had she gotten so emotional over nothing? She had been racking her brain over this ever since she broke down in front of Kakashi too.
"This isn't good. Trivial matters like this shouldn't be of any concern to me. The end goal is leaving as soon as possible." she reminded herself, as she watched the young shinobi start their lesson.
"No reason to harp on it." she rallied herself, as she walked off to a more secluded area to train in private.
Once she reached a spot where she was certain she wouldn't be disturbing them, Harata closed her eyes, attempting to focus on her training.
Envisioning an artificial battle scenario; she could see and hear troops marching, blades clanking against each other, and her comrades storming the battlefield right beside her.
Drowning out all other distractions, the young warrior began to calculate her movements like she was cutting through hordes of enemy units.
Too invested in her own training session to notice how long she'd been gone, Harata gradually thrusted herself further into the simulated war she had imagined.
Even though the fight wasn't real, it was enough to get her mind off of the mundane thoughts that plagued her previously.
"man she's really goin at it!" came Naruto's hushed voice suddenly, as he hid in a nearby bush along with Sasuke and Sakura.
"Naruto be quiet or she'll hear us!" Sakura whispered in a scolding manner.
"oh, whoops my bad, heh heh!" Naruto whispered back apologetically.
"How'd she get injured back then if she can fight that well?" Sasuke muttered, genuinely curious.
"I dunno. Maybe she got distracted cause she had to fart." Naruto suggested, Sasuke shooting him a disgusted look of annoyance.
"That's so gross! And girls don't fart!" Sakura yelled quietly.
"wait seriously?! Chicks don't fart?" Naruto questioned innocently.
"Of course they do. Girls are human too. It's a normal bodily function." Sasuke corrected.
"ohhh I get it now! Hey Sakura do you ever get gassy then?" Naruto asked, as Sakura got angrier by the second.
"Why would you ask a girl that?! It's just weird! Besides, we should really get back to our lesson before Sensei Kakashi finds out." the flustered young kunoichi retorted.
"fat chance! He's way too busy readin that girly manga or whatever it is." Naruto whispered sheepishly, failing to notice the horrified looks slowly forming on Sasuke and Sakura's faces.
"Naruto shut up you idiot!" Sasuke whispered, trying to warn his mischievous teammate of their teacher's presence.
"huh? Whatcha actin like such a baby for?" Naruto jeered, making his teammate give him another dirty look.
"Screw this..." Sasuke thought with a look of fear as he finally slipped out of the bush.
"Sen- " Sakura started, but was pulled out of the bush by her collar stealthily, Kakashi putting a finger to his masked face signaling her to remain silent.
Nodding in compliance, the two genin could only watch helplessly, knowing of their teammate's impending doom.
Still snickering to himself, Naruto was completely oblivious to the fact that Kakashi was standing right behind him.
"ya gotta admit...that was pretty funny right guys? Guys? ...Sakura?...Sasuke? ...where'd you- " Naruto broke off, slowly turning around to see his mildly annoyed teacher standing before him.
"K-K-Kakashi sensei??!!! Haha h-hey! How's it goin?" Naruto squeaked nervously, as Kakashi put his hand on Naruto's shoulder, and smiled brightly at the young shinobi.
"ha...ha...y-yeah Kakashi sensei?" the boy responded, starting to sweat.
"crap..maybe he heard the joke about him readin girly manga. he's probably pissed about that!" Naruto thought, attempting to determine what his teacher was going to do next.
"Naruto, dear student of mine. Why are you over here slacking off? I put a lot of effort into this lesson plan you know..." Kakashi said sweetly, with an obvious underlying hint of malice that Naruto picked up on.
"s-s-slacking o-off? M-me? N-never! S-see I was just- on my way back from the b-bathroom!" the terrified genin stuttered.
"Oh? Were you now? My mistake then..." Kakashi pretended, the now trembling boy none the wiser.
"y-yeah! Th-that's all! Heh heh...s-see I'm headin back right no- " Naruto was cut off by Kakashi.
"ONE THOUSAND YEARS OF DEATH!" was all Naruto heard, then...the pain came next, and last came the gargled noise of unholy gas mixing with his breakfast from this morning.
As Naruto was sent flying while screaming in pain from Kakashi's lethal technique, he started feeling the familiar sensation of needing to empty the contents of his stomach badly.
"u-uh oh...I don't feel so...TOILET! I NEED A TOILET STAT!!!" the panicked young shinobi hollered in a frenzy, holding his butt as he ran to a nearby public restroom.
The sound of Naruto hollering jolted Harata from her mental simulation, as she stopped abruptly and looked around in confusion.
"What the hell was that?! A dying animal or something?!!" she wondered aloud with a baffled expression.
"Guess so." the bewildered young woman reassured herself, as she decided to just continue on with her training.
"What were they all hiding in there for anyway?" Kakashi pondered, as he turned his attention back to Sasuke and Sakura.
"Now as for you two. No lunch break until you finish your training for the day. You can fill Naruto in on that when he returns from his bout with the bathroom." Kakashi said firmly, as Sasuke and Sakura nodded in agreement.
"Good. I'm glad we understand each other now." Kakashi finished, sending his remaining students back to their training.
"Sensei Kakashi..." Sakura called out.
"...Yes?" he replied hesitantly, all ready to go back to reading, until Sakura asked him a question.
"That older girl...how'd she get hurt so bad?" Sakura inquired.
"Older girl?" Kakashi mirrored back, a bit lost as to who the young kunoichi was referring to at first.
"Yeah, her name was Harata I think." Sakura tried again.
"Sorry, who?" Kakashi answered, half listening.
"The woman that's been coming with us on missions." Sasuke eventually spoke up too.
"Oh. What about her?" Kakashi replied.
"D-didn't he hear what I just asked him? I swear he purposely ignores me sometimes!" Sakura shouted angrily in her head.
Calming down, Sakura attempted to get a response from her teacher once more.
"Well, we were watching her fight just now...and...she's pretty good...so...how'd she get hurt back at the fishing village if she's so skilled at combat?" Sakura repeated, going more in depth this time.
Now that he thought about it...he wasn't entirely sure himself.
After witnessing the way she handled a grown man twice her size, and seeing her train by herself, Kakashi was positive she'd be alright defending the villagers back then.
"I don't know honestly. You'd have to ask her yourself." he countered, making Sakura sigh in defeat.
"Okay, I just figured maybe she told you why. Nevermind then." the inquisitive young girl added, then returned to training.
"Odd. I hadn't thought of that at the time because I was worried about her recovering from the paralysis. Worth interrogating her about later I suppose." the silver haired jonin mulled over before returning to his book.
"I'm sure she had her reasons." he said to himself quietly, as Naruto returned two hours later, with a relieved grin on his face.
"ahhh much better. Maybe I should ease up on the ramen...Naaaah!" the young boy joked with a carefree attitude, as Kakashi shifted his gaze toward Naruto casually.
"Oh Naruto, so good of you to rejoin us all. I trust you'll feel like completing your lesson now?" he asked in a semi threatening tone, making the blonde boy freeze.
"u-uh yeeeeah...g-gonna get right on it Kakashi sensei...heh!" Naruto promised, as he scurried off and accidentally bumped into Sasuke's back, who turned around and glared at him.
"Watch where you're going idiot." Sasuke chastised, Naruto not paying him any attention, just trying to get as far away from Kakashi as possible.
Realizing Naruto ignored him, Sasuke sucked his teeth and continued on with his business, muttering something unintelligible under his breath, as Sakura tried to inch closer to him unnoticed.
"Maybe I can cheer Sasuke up a li- " her thoughts interrupted by Kakashi catching sight of what she was doing, and telling her to focus on her training instead.
"Crap! How'd he- geez! I'll never get to spend any time with Sasuke at this rate..." she worried subconsciously.
Sighing and keeping an eye on his students intermittently, it dawned on Kakashi that he may have forgotten about something, but he was too busy to give it much more thought.
Back in the secluded area Harata snuck off to, she had finally. finished her training session.
Pushing what she considered unnecessary thoughts and feelings aside, her mind felt clear again.
It was a lot easier to function when her head wasn't clouded with doubt. Simply feeling refreshed enough to tackle the dilemma she was in anew, was so exhilarating to her.
"Alright. First things first. I'll ask Hatake San if I can go back to the inn. But I need to regain his trust somehow. That's the hard part..." she plotted, trying to think of what the best course of action would be.
Frustrated that she couldn't come up with anything; Harata cursed and looked up at the sky longingly.
"I guess, I don't need to think of what to do straight away. I could wait just a little more..." she trailed off, her mind wandering to something that put her troubled soul at peace briefly.
"Wonder what everyone's doing right now..." she thought to herself, unaware that the warm weather, gentle breeze, and serene atmosphere had begun to lull her into a calm slumber.