Chapter 10

And the crows are here! I've been waiting for this for a while. ~LeViAcKeRmAnN

———

Tenten remembered the man's comment about finding the Uchiha's crows at the Naka river a few days after they got back. Neji and Lee had both managed to break each other's arms while sparring, so Tenten had quite a bit of time to herself. After dropping both of them off at the hospital anyway. It had been near the end of practice anyway, so Gai made them wait for her to do her cool off stretches, then she'd take them to the hospital.

So now here she was, sitting on the edge of the Naka cliff, scanning the sky and cliff face absently. She'd set out a few pieces of jerky a few feet away from her, and waited.

It didn't take long for a crow or two to find her and eat the jerky, then patiently wait for more. She tossed out some more, watching them catch it midair in amusement.

One spun around in a circle, so she tossed it some extra, which prompted the others into doing various tricks she couldn't tell if they'd been taught, or somehow picked up from dogs. Most of them were dog tricks, rolling over, playing dead, turning in a circle. Although she suspected the playing dead one was taught.

She ended up laughing at their impersonations of various things once she ran out of jerky, and they seemed delighted.

She stayed until it was dusk, and she had to get home for dinner, although promised to be back the next day, with more food.

The crows almost seemed to wave her off, cawing after her.

She was only mildly surprised to find one of them outside her door the next morning, she'd noticed one following her home the previous day, but the pencil in its mouth confused her. It tilted its head like it was asking permission to come inside, so she moved aside to allow it access.

It continued waiting, so Tenten blinked at it for a long moment, then decided to do what people apparently had to do with vampires, and invited the bird in. She didn't think the bird was a vampire, as that would be weird, but she was a shinobi. She dealt exclusively in weird.

The bird hopped right in after being invited, and settled in on her couch like it owned the place. In the end, she didn't have the time or the energy to deal with crows being weird, and as such left it alone while she made breakfast for herself, which consisted of heating up the Kare from the night before.

She ate quickly, eyeing the bird from the corner of her eye cautiously. Did it want paper or something?

She started bandaging her ankles, clipping the pin into one of her buns, and grabbing her weapons. When she was ready to go, she ultimately decided just to leave the crow here. She opened a window so it could leave when it wanted, and since the sky was clear, she didn't feel too bad doing it. It probably wouldn't rain, and even if it did, she could always dash back and close the window.

As she was leaving, the crow flew up and perched itself on her shoulder. They stared at each other for a while, and Tenten decided she was not in the mood to even care about strange things happening, and just went with it.

Neji and Lee were extremely confused when she came to practice with a crow on her shoulder, although Neji just huffed and turned away, probably muttering something about how crows were dirty animals, which was ridiculous, she could attest that the birds were very clean.

Lee, as was usual for him, decided to make a fuss about it.

"Tenten! What is the bird upon your shoulder!?"

Tenten glanced at it. "A crow. No, I don't know why it's on my shoulder, it just decided to stay there."

Gai arrived at that moment, with stellar timing as usual. "So long as it does not disrupt practice!" And that was Gai for you. He did not care if you were trying to reform your style, or trying out a new hairdo, as long as it didn't interrupt practice. It was admirable, his dedication to ensuring none of them interrupted practice. Except when they were injured, in which case everyone went to the hospital to support the injured person in question. It was kind of sweet though.

The crow squawked at the sight of him, flying off her shoulder and to a different tree. Tenten couldn't blame it, if she had never seen Gai before, she'd probably have that reaction too.

Gai stared after it for a moment, looking almost nostalgic, before he shook it off and it was like it had never happened. Glancing at her teammates, Tenten was pretty sure she was the only one who'd caught it. Interesting.

Training as usual was grueling, but at least no one went to the hospital this time. Right now, that was a successful day to Tenten. Not that every day wasn't successful when Gai was involved, but if there wasn't a hospital trip, it was extra good.

The crow followed her back to her apartment and waited patiently for her to change and shower. It hadn't moved from its spot sitting weirdly on the couch when she got out, so she assumed it was waiting patiently.

She grabbed an orange on her way out the door, she didn't really like oranges all that much, although she kept them around the house just in case Lee came over, because he adored them. Probably because they were orange. But who knew.

She honestly had no idea when exactly he started liking oranges so much, it just kind of...happened.

The crows at least were happy to see their missing buddy, greeting it enthusiastically and seeming to forget about her for a solid five minutes, which she used to peel the orange and break it up into pieces.

She had a sudden feeling that this was going to become a habit. Whether the feeling was meaning the crow following her around, or her coming to feed the crows treats, she didn't know.