Oddity by KKephemeral

Chapter 25 - The Rise To Fame

My expectations of things to rapidly change once I became a chunnin only ended up in disappointment. The rank was nothing more than a decoration as far as things were considered. We were still running the courier missions to the border stations, Fujita was still being an ass, Tsuki sensei was still being as cold and distant with me as much as possible, and Roku was the only one talking to me in our team in a normal basis. All in all, it was the same as it was a month ago.

But, I would have been a fool to not notice the tension between Roku and my other teammates. There was something brewing in there. Tsuki sensei was being unbearably harsh on Roku on some occasions. Fujita too talked less and less to Roku as the month wore on. But, as a result, me and Roku were getting even more closer to each other. We were even beginning to hang out after practice and missions.

On the other hand, Fujita was currently the poster child for sensei. In his view, Fujita could do nothing wrong. He mostly trained Fujita with increased attention, Roku on some occasions, but I was mostly left alone to deal with my training myself. Roku mostly trained alongside me when Tsuki sensei was paying attention to Fujita.

During training, I pushed Roku to her limits most often than not. As a result, she was making rapid progress to the level she was beginning to give me a run for my money during Taijutsu spars. Her Taijutsu was improving at an alarming rate that even I was astounded by it. Not to mention Fujita and Tsuki sensei. The weird thing was, even though Tsuki sensei was unbearably harsh on Roku, he still readily acknowledged her progress and constantly praised her.

All in all, Tsuki sensei was a contradicting mess. Neither me nor Roku could make heads or tails where the man was concerned. Discussing about Tsuki sensei's contradicting actions and his obvious favoritism of Fujita was the most discussed topic between me and Roku whenever we were alone. But, never once we discussed the obvious elephant in the room – meaning Tsuki sensei's dislike of me.

Things settled into a boring monotony as we ran missions to the border stations, trained, and hung out with each other as months passed by. By the time the fourth month came around, even Fujita was beginning to grumble about the state of affairs.

Minato was back in the field after two months of rest. He and Kushina seemed to be more close to each other than before. Kushina was beginning to become more subdued in his presence. The few times I had gone to dinner in their house, Team Minato had been giving me a stink eye. But, I didn't mind it much. For my attention have always been with the couple. They seemed to be more content than I have ever seen them. The look Minato gives to Kushina whenever she wasn't looking was filled with love. And Kushina, for her part, always had a content smile on her face.

Apart from that, I was getting more hugs from Kushina ever since our hospital conversation. We didn't speak about it, but I could sense that Kushina was more at ease with me. Earlier, she was always hyperactive and more exuberant. These days, she was content to sit in silence besides Minato and me whenever it was possible.

The other thing that changed about my relationship with Kushina was her renewed focus on my fuinjutsu skills. These days, she began to grill me on fuinjutsu concepts and drill me through various seals I have mastered. She also began to teach me some new complicated seals. Unlike before, she was patient in her explanations and gave me time to soak up her vast fuinjutsu knowledge. She even joked that I was an honorary Uzumaki, which touched me beyond my expectations.

Apart from fuinjutsu lessons from Kushina whenever we had time available, I was mostly training with Roku to improve her Taijutsu and concentrating on increasing my Ninjutsu arsenal. I met with Harami and Anko a few times over the month, which mostly ended up in us getting dango together.

The influx of missions had been non-stop. Our team rarely had a few days off in continuation. We had run into a few skirmishes along the way. While there was nothing major that occurred during these skirmishes, it was nevertheless an eye-opening experience for us. The way in which we laughably disposed of enemy genin, let us know how advanced our team was compared to average genin. Even Tsuki sensei was mildly surprised with this the first time. Still, it was a great boost of confidence for us all as a team – however dysfunctional we may be.