Before I knew it, it was time to take Konohamaru back to his house. I only had to watch him until two o'clock.

We walked back to his place in comfortable chatter. And by that I mean he talked the whole way. I was never one for talking, unless I was around a big group of people, was nervous, or was by one of my close friends. And sometimes-even under those circumstances-I felt no need to talk at all. Silence was always welcome.

It didn't take long to reach Konohamaru's place. It was relatively close to the ramen shop. And the clock had just struck two when they reached the front door. After a rushed goodbye and then something about working on his substitution-which I happened to know they didn't teach the students at his age-Konohamaru was gone. I was left with the impression that he didn't have fun, and it made me worry. I'd never gotten a bad mission review before, and I knew how devastating one could be on my mission log, especially from the Hokage's grandson…

But there was nothing I could do now. I was not one for medaling.

I just had to hope that I did my job well.

The streets were nearly empty. I guess everyone was busy at this time of day; I'd never really had free time at the middle of the afternoon-that was training time. But now I had nothing to do-training by myself was a waste of time, practically. It was very boring.

I nearly ran into them before I saw them. There were three of them: a girl and two guys. I figured that the only one around my age was the red head-one of the guys.

One of the guys must've already been having a bad day-that was all I could figure. The one I ran into was tall-taller than me, even, and I prided myself on being roughly five and a half feet. But I figured that he was a few years older, too. Anyway, the guy had on a black outfit with a hood-which was pulled up over his head; brown hair poked through. He had on purple face paint and a big piece of something tied to his back. His beady eyes followed my every move. The hood of his suit had kitty ears. (I suppressed a giggle.)

The girl to his left was tall, too, and years older than me. Her blonde hair was pulled into four different ponytails. Her dark purple eyes rolled in their sockets, as if they'd already been through this whole mess today, if not recently. She had on a short purple dress and fishnet underneath it. A red ribbon tied a giant fan to her back.

The last figure-the red head boy that was close to my age-had this look in his eye…an odd look that I couldn't identify. His sea foam eyes had dark circles around them, as if he had never had a good night's sleep. He wore a black shirt and black pants, with fishnet underneath. A brown strap held the gourd on his back in place, and another white cloth was wrapped around his shoulders, weather to help support the gourd or simply for looks I did not know.

All three of them had the Hidden Sand Village symbol on their headbands; the girl wore hers around her neck, the brown haired boy on his hood, and the red head on his brown leather strap.

"Eh…sorry." I rubbed the back of my head and took a few steps back, away from the boy with brown hair-the one I had bumped into.

He cracked his knuckles. "You will be."

"Knock it off, Kankuro," the red haired one said, in a surprisingly emotionless voice. "You don't have to get into a fight with everyone you see."

"Look," the brown haired one-Kankuro, I presume-began, turning to the other boy, "those kids yesterday were just asking for it."

"Yes, but what did this girl do?"

Kankuro didn't reply.

"Look," I began, fiddling with my hands, "it was my fault and I wasn't watching where I was going. I'm sorry."

Kankuro ground his teeth together.

"Kankuro, just leave it." The blonde girl sighed and looked me over with a critical eye. I could almost hear her saying it's not worth it.

"Temari," Kankuro protested, "don't you go siding with Gaara!"

Temari grabbed his collar and pulled him close, scowling. I could just barely make out her words. "Do you want him to kill us?"

"This is totally my fault," I began, trying to back up again, "and I apologize. I don't see the need to make a big deal out of it. I should've been watching where I was going."

"Fine," Kankuro muttered. "But don't let it happen again."

"Arigato1," I muttered, bowing slightly, before turning to walk off.

I heard the three muttering behind me as I walked off, and one sentence stood out from all the others: "You better hope she doesn't have to fight me in the Chunin Exams."

A shiver ran down my spine. Would he really kill me over an accident? I really, really hoped not.

I continued my walk around the village, occasionally going into a shop and looking around. I never bought anything, though. I was pretty good at saving up my money, and when I finally had a lot I wasn't going to just blow it on something I really didn't care that much for.

Time passes a lot slower when you're bored.

1 Thank you, Japanese