Just like that, the month-long break from the Academy passed faster than I’d expected. Granted, I’d kept myself busy throughout, but the six weeks passed in what felt like the blink of an eye. Between meeting up with my friends, training, and work, I faced the end of the final week of my vacation and the last weekend before I had to return to the Academy for the third year in no time at all.

Even with the allowance of jutsu and lethal weaponry in sparring, I wasn’t too afraid of where I’d fall in the class pecking order. I’d consistently honed the skills available to me and had a few tricks up my sleeve for my more privileged classmates—everything else I’d take in stride and not stress myself to death over before it happened.

Distracting myself helped a lot with that and no task was as focus-consuming as cooking. In an environment as high-stress as a semi-popular restaurant, it meant working with the knowledge that six hungry customers sat waiting beyond the curtain to my right and that at least half a dozen were waiting outside.

For better or for worse, I couldn’t think of much else. The evening was relatively calm, but the work was as demanding as always. I was manning the kitchen alone after moving ingredients into our storeroom and walk-in freezer as well as a few other odd jobs around the restaurant.

My sweaty forehead itched beneath the plain black bandana fastened to my head. It smushed my wild blond hair down, only making the heat worse, and the space between me and the closed pots was almost unbearably warm.

I reached over to my right; two bowls of boiled eggs sat underneath the curtain-covered shutter, encased within their shells. The curtains fluttered faintly and sometimes burst open to reveal the six customers behind it. Because the kitchen was too hot for the shutter to be completely closed, two roughly cut curtains were the best we could do.

I froze halfway to the bowl as Teuchi’s booming voice rose over the muted bubbling of the pots below me.

“...I’ll get that to you in a second.” He opened the curtain covering the serving hatch. “Kiddo, I need two salts—also, where’s that miso and is the egg hard-boiled?”

Nodding, I dipped my hand into the bowl of hard-boiled eggs and peeled the shell, setting it atop a bowl of prepared ramen. He took the bowl, vanishing with a grin and some kind of joke that drew a round of laughter from the customers. I pulled the lid on the pot of noodles boiling right underneath me. The heat washed over my face and I could feel the individual beads of sweat pulsing on my face.

With the lid in my left hand and the noodle strainer in my right, I readied myself and plunged the strainer into the roaring pot. A clump of noodles settled into it and pulled the ladle further into the water. Adjusting my grip, I tossed the noodles to get the excess water out, plating it and did the same with a second bowl.

A hand settled on my left shoulder and another wrapped itself around my waist before I was dragged away.

“Ayame, what the hell are you doing?” Twisting my neck, I struggled to break out of her grip. “I’m busy! There’s an order of—”

“—two salts, I know. I’ve got you covered.” She stopped dragging me and instead turned me around. “Here you go.”

My three friends gathered around Ichiraku’s back entrance. “What’s this about? Guys, I’m working. I get paid for this; it’s not like I can just leave whenever.”

Hinata sighed and stepped back, allowing Choji and Shikamaru to enter and more or less drag me out of the restaurant by the arms—in my work attire no less. None of them seemed to want to respond to my questions and the afternoon breeze did little to cool me down as I struggled in their grip.

“This isn’t funny. Let me go. I won’t ask again.”

The two boys on either side of me didn’t say a word in reply and Hinata’s shoulder-length hair swayed in the wind as she walked a few metres ahead of us; she didn’t reply to me either but I clamped down on my rising irritation until they released me about five minutes away from Ichiraku’s.

“Right,” I yanked the sweaty bandana off my head and scrunched it tightly in my hand, “do you three have any idea what the hell you just did? There’s so much stuff to do. There’s the broth that I need to make and then the cleaning, and then dealing with the leftovers—I mean come on, are you serious!”

All three looked guilty for a moment and I stared incredulously at them. The silence let me think for a moment and Ayame’s involvement in it all slowly dawned on me. If she was in on their plot, it stood to reason that Teuchi was as well. My anger simmered down a little—at least they had the sense to make sure their plan didn’t mess anything up.

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I sighed. “What’s this stunt about?”

“Stunt?” Shikamaru frowned. “You know, work is all well and good but you take it too far.”

“Too far?”

Hinata and Choji winced, but didn’t disagree with him.

“Yeah, too far,” Shikamaru replied. “If you’re not working, you’re training. We can’t find you unless you go out looking for us!”

I glared and he glared back.

“You can’t find me because I’m busy. Not everyone is as lazy as you are.”

“Oh?” He jutted out his chin. “Then when did we last meet up?”

“...Like four days ago; on Monday.” I looked at Choji and Hinata. “Right?”

Choji shook his head sadly. “That was nearly two weeks ago.”

The words made me grimace… did half a month really pass without me noticing it? Rather, I didn’t understand how half a month could pass without me noticing it.

“See? You’re always putting your work and training over us. I bet that if we were to ask to train with you, we’d hang out every day.”

“Shikamaru, that’s enough,” said Hinata, but there was an uncertain quiver in her voice that I didn’t like.

He turned to her and shrugged. “Whatever. This was all you two’s idea anyway.”

I sat down on a nearby bench and threw the wrinkled bandana into my lap, dragging my hands over my face in exhaustion. Surely it wasn’t that bad. I’d made it a point to fit in time for them while keeping up my schedule. Though to be fair, I’d found myself so busy that I couldn’t remember what I did yesterday, let alone the week before.

So I posed the question to the two who hadn’t said anything. “What do you guys think, Choji, Hinata?”

“I… I dunno.” Choji shrugged. “I see you every day, but that’s because we run together. There’s also your sparring with Hinata but like Shikamaru said, it’s like… it’s like we don’t meet unless we can fit into your life.”

I mulled over his words for a few moments. They weren’t wrong, and my stomach twisted at that realisation. It was hard to balance my training and work and all the other things piling up around me—and inside my head. While I hadn’t intentionally taken afternoon shifts to avoid them… they weren’t exactly the first people I’d thought of when the opportunity arose.

It was the same with training—it came first because if it didn’t, I wouldn’t survive. That said, it wasn’t fair on them.

“...I’m sorry for avoiding you all. I didn’t mean to, but it happened.” Leaning back, I gestured at Hinata. “Since Ayame seemed to have known, I’m guessing you cleared this with Mr Teuchi too.”

“Yes,” said Hinata. “He was all for it. You tend to work pretty late when he doesn’t need as many hands around and he thought you were working too much anyway.”

“Am I?” I asked, mostly aiming the question at myself.

Choji nodded. “Yes, you are. Remember when you didn’t run with me for a week because of your training? Or after the dinner at my place where I didn’t see you for a few days because you wanted to finish an original ramen recipe.”

“...Yeah,” I cringed slightly as I replied. “Fine. You’re right. But you guys haven’t answered my question. What’s this stunt about? You drag me out of work and then what? What’s the endgame?”

Hinata grinned and pulled four tickets out of her pocket. “These.”

I took one and turned it horizontally with a frown. “The Life and Times of the Fourth Hokage. What is this, a play? Did you get one for each of us?”

She nodded.

“VIP tickets… not that I’m unhappy—but are you sure? At least let me pay you for mine. It must’ve been expensive.”

“My father bought the tickets,” she replied. “He said it was a reward for my hard work.”

“Then I hope you don’t mind if I take back the offer,” I grinned and turned the ticket over. “VIP Box 2, 7:30 PM… this Saturday—neat.”

“...So, are you coming?” Choji looked expectantly at me and, despite our argument, so did Shikamaru.

“Sure,” I said and stared directly at Shikamaru, “and for what it’s worth, I’ll try to make more time for you all. I didn’t realise it was getting so bad.”

“Or don’t. Ain’t my business either way,” he shrugged, but even then, he couldn’t hide the relief in his eyes.

Hinata twisted back to glare at him and he rolled his eyes, basically taunting her into lecturing him on manners and propriety. Choji sighed helplessly and gave them a wide berth, taking the odd glance whenever Shikamaru said something.

“I swear, this guy always puts his foot in his mouth.” I rose from the bench and tossed my bandana over my shoulder. “There any more burning heart-to-hearts or can they wait until tomorrow because I’ve got to get back to work.”

“About that,” said Choji. “Mr Teuchi says he doesn’t want to see you until Sunday.”

I froze mid-step. There was no way that they’d prevented me from going to work until next weekend, right? With school starting in a few days, I couldn’t put a shift in until the end of the week.

“...You guys did not just do that,” I frowned.

“It was Ayame, I swear,” said Choji, seeing the panic on my face.

“I’ll talk to her later, then.” Hinata and Shikamaru’s argument went undisturbed, so I put my hands on my hips and raised my voice. “Seeing that I can’t go back to work, what do you guys want to do for the rest of the afternoon?”

Their simultaneous smiles at my suggestion were almost enough to stop their argument… almost.