Chapter 12: First Night Home

Okarina soon found that her memories of home may have been exaggerated a bit over time. Much to her chagrin, her room was much smaller than she remembered.

As she looked around the room, she sighed. "Sure is small…" she mumbled.

"Hmm…what, don't you like it?"

Okarina jumped and turned around. Kenji was leaning against her door frame, smiling.

"I decorated it just like you used to have it…but I guess you grew out of all this stuff." He said, lifting one of her stuffed animals off of her shelf. "Maybe I should just trash this old stuff and let you decorate yourself." He turned to walk off, her stuffed wolf in his hand.

"Hey! Don't do that!" she yelled, as she pulled her wolf from his hand and hugged it to her chest. "I haven't grown out of my things yet." He smiled at her and pulled her into a hug.

"I still think of you as that little 6 year old. It's hard for me to see you grown up like this." He let out a loud sigh.

"I'm not that grown up."

"Eh…well, you are still pretty short…I guess you didn't grow THAT much." He looked down at her as she jutted out her lower lip.

"I'm not that short either…" she said, grumbling.

Kenji thought for a second, then quickly flipped Okarina upside down. She struggled to turn back over, but eventually gave up when she realized Kenji wasn't going to let go. She sighed and reached her hands to the floor.

"Just like when we were kids, huh?" she wondered as he slowly loosened his grip, leaving Okarina in a handstand. She pushed off the ground and did a quick flip, however as her feet came into contact with the ground, she tripped over a shirt she'd left on the floor. In less than a second, she'd fallen to the ground and hit her head off the wall.

Kenji helped her to her feet, laughing.

"Just like when we were kids." He said. "You're as graceful as always."

Okarina sighed, blushing. She'd always been a klutz, and she'd always embarrassed herself. It wasn't fair, she thought, that she'd be the only member of the Miyaga household who couldn't go a week without a slip up.

She folded her arms across her chest, her lower lip jutting out.

"No need to pout." He laughed, throwing her over his shoulder. "Come on, you're having dinner."

"I'm not hungry." She said trying to pry his arm off her so she could go back to her room.

"Kei and I are taking you to see the Hokage first thing tomorrow to discuss your testing. You're gonna need your strength if you intend on passing." Kenji said as he walked through the house, finally dropping her into a chair at the dining room table.

A few moments later, Kei walked out with three plates, he set one down in front of Kenji and Okarina and then sat as far from her as possible with his own plate.

Okarina looked down at her plate and poked her food cautiously with her fork.

"What is it?" she asked, still inspecting the gooey mess.

"Just something Kei and I came up with a few years ago. It's chicken, rice and veggies with a sesame sauce. It's not the best, but I made it, so you better like it." Kenji joked.

Okarina watched as her brothers ate their food hungrily and she sighed. After living in a house full of girls for so long, especially a house run by her aunt, anything less than perfect manners disturbed her to some level.

'Guess I'll just have to get used to this.' She thought as she took a bite of the food. Her eyes opened wide and she struggled to swallow it.

"So, do you like it?" Kenji asked.

"Yeah…" she lied, quickly taking another bite. "It's great!"

'It's awful!' her taste buds screamed. However, she kept shoveling the food into her mouth. Kenji smiled. She wasn't going to insult him after he'd spent so much time preparing it. She just couldn't be rude to him.

"Really?" he asked, quizzically.

Okarina took an extra large bite to prove her point, and her eyes started to water.

Kenji laughed. "Even I think it sucks, you don't have to eat it if you don't like it."

'Oh thank goodness!' Okarina thought as she spit the food out as fast as possible.

She ran to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of orange juice, chugging it.

"Oh that's better." She said as she made her way back to her seat.

Kenji burst out laughing, and Kei just stared at her.

"Wow, I didn't think she'd eat that much of it." Kenji said, between chuckles, looking at her nearly empty plate. "Even you refused to touch it when I first started making it." He looked over at Kei, who smiled slightly.

"Yes, well everything you cook is rather horrible, so I guess I began to like it out of necessity." He responded.

Okarina pushed the plate away from her. "How about I cook from now on." She said, hopefully.

Her brothers quit laughing at her and just stared at their little sister. There was an awkward silence as she looked at her brothers' shocked faces.

Suddenly Kenji spoke up, "You can cook!?"

"Yeah…I cooked all the time with Auntie...it's not that hard…"

Her brothers' expressions still hadn't changed.

Okarina opened her mouth to speak, "So is that a…"

"YES!" screamed Kenji.

Okarina thought for a second and stood up. "So what do you guys want, I'll pick it up from the store tomorrow?"

"Gyoza! Oh…and Udon…and tempura…and miso soup…and…"

"Kenji!" screamed Kei, "Don't be a pig." With that he got up and left, pushing his way past Okarina. He looked back at her, "I don't care what it is, so long as you don't screw it up."

Okarina's fists clenched. "Fine!" she turned back to Kenji. "I'll make it all, but you're paying for it." She put her hand out in front of his face. "Cash. Now."

Kenji sighed and pulled his wallet out of his pocket. Okarina quickly grabbed it out of his hand and took out the cash. She handed the empty wallet back and ran upstairs. "Oh yeah, and the change is mine! It's a service charge!" she screamed as she shut the door behind her to get ready for bed, leaving Kenji without cash and in charge of the dishes.