Taibakaze sat very comfortably on my shoulder.  After the contract signing only a few hours ago, Taibakaze and I spent some down time getting to know each other, and to make our bond stronger.  

The little Kamaitachi was a truly sight to behold.  Normally, weasels are some variation of brown, black, or white.  But not my familiar.  Taibakaze was pure white, with a light grey strip running down his spine.  The strip extended up onto his head, between both his ears and eyes, and ended in the shape of an arrow right at his nose.  His eyes were a light grey, seeming to almost blend in with the white sclera surrounding the light irises. 

During the time we've spent so far, I've learned a lot about my little partner's mannerisms.  Taibakaze was easily excitable, and interested in almost everything around him.  But at the same time, he felt that he was often a nuisance to his family, since he wasn't able to go back to the summon realm.  One of his siblings had previously always taken turns to stay in the human realm with him, so that the little weasel would be protected.

Honestly, in the first half hour, it was a challenge to try to communicate with each other.  Taibakaze wasn't able to speak like the other Kamaitachi.  However, we managed to rectify that situation.  Since we were bonded through our chakra, that meant that we were easily able to connect our energies to each other.  By focusing our chakra into our brains, we were somehow able to form some kind of mental communication.  It was kind of trippy.

There were some other things that we discussed, like food preferences and some of our funnier adventures from when we were younger.  I told him about some of the pranks that Naruto and I pulled on the village, and Taibakaze recalled how he had once tricked his siblings into believing  that there was a magical berry that would turn you fur bright pink.  We laughed at those silly stories. 

By the time we were done, it was nearing dusk, and if we didn't get back to the house soon, Yugi-sensei might send out the twins to look for me.

Which is what brings us to Taibakaze riding comfortably on my shoulder as I carefully made my way back through the woods that were nearby the house. 

The sounds of the woods around us grew as the creatures of the night woke up from their day-long slumber.  As relaxing and beautiful as the night seemed to be to me, the little sickle weasel on my shoulder had different feelings.  The sharp claws dug into my shoulder and a wave of anxiety stormed through the mammal's chakra.

I made a hushing sound under my breath, and reached up the comfort my familiar.  I used my pointer and middle finger, and ran them along the strip down his spine.  Taibakaze bristled for a moment before relaxing into my fingers.  Thinking of something, I decided to try something.  I tugged a minimal amount of chakra and sent it gently pulsing through the fingers that were running along his spine.  Our chakra mixed, and Taibakaze relaxed further.

"Hey.  You are gonna be just fine.  Remember, we have each other to look out for now.  You aren't alone anymore."  He purred and tickled my ear with his moist nose.  I chuckled and continued walking.

As we approached the house, I heard several voices, calling out my name.

"Utagawa!"

"Toshihiko!"

"Utaga- wait, who's Toshihiko?"

"Your teammate, dumbass!"

The bantering between the twins at the end before I emerged from the bushes made me chuckle.

"Geez, Yusuke.  You don't even know my given name?"

Two strawberry blondes spun around at my voice.  Yusuke threw his hand in the air as a greeting.

"Yo!  There you are!  We were start to get worried and-"  He cut off abruptly when he spotted the little creature on my shoulder.  "What the heck is that thing?!"

I glanced at my familiar.  "This is Taibakaze.  He is a Kamaitachi."

Ayana gazed at me.  "Where did you find him?"

I smirked a little at the question.  "One of his siblings attacked me while I was training in a nearby clearing."  The two genin tensed at my statement.  I continued talking.  "One thing lead to another, and I ended up with a summoning contract and a familiar."

Despite the omission of many details, I got my point across when I mentioned signing a contract.  The twins rushed towards me, making Taibakaze squeak from alarm.  Yusuke patted my left, vacant, shoulder, and Ayana gave me a soft hug.

They pulled away from me with matching grins.  "Congrats, Toshihiko!"

I grinned back.  "Thanks!"  The trembling coming from my familiar caught my attention, aided slightly by the wary and curious nudge of his chakra.  I snapped the fingers on my left hand.  "I almost forgot!  Taibakaze, these are my teammates, Yumoto Yusuke and Yumoto Ayana.  They are twins."  The Kamaitachi raise one of his front paws and gave them a shy little wave.

The bashfulness of the motion made Ayana coo at the little guy.  "He's adorable!"  She paused for a moment.  "Wait, why is he here?  I find it hard to believe that you would have need to summon him and keep him here for no good reason."  She narrowed her eyes at me.  "Are you being cruel?"

I shook my head with a small smile.  "Not at all.  Taibakaze isn't about to travel between the human realm and the summon realm, because he was born here in the human realm.  The only way that he could ever go to the summon realm would be if a human that he is bonded to as a familiar were to travel there.  So, I asked if we could be bonded.  So, this little sickle weasel is now my trusted familiar."  I tilted my head to the side and gave them a closed-eye grin.  "Neat, right?"

Yusuke offered me a high five.  "It's wicked!"

Ayana shook her head at our antics and started to walk towards the house.  "If you guys are done being boys, I suggest that we head in to eat dinner.  Team Seven has already eaten, and Tsunami-san made sure to leave some left-overs so that we wouldn't starve."

Yusuke and I glanced at each other and followed the kunoichi into the house.  We entered the dining room, and sat down around the table.  Ayana came out from the kitchen with three bowls of what looked like some kind of stew with noodles, vegetables, and meat.  She placed the bowls on the table and sat down with us.

"Itadaikimasu!"

We each picked up our chop sticks and dug into the stew.  It was delicious.  The tiny rumble of a stomach vibrated against my collar-bone, and I chuckled.  Digging out a piece of meat from the stew, I blew on it to cool it down a little bit.  Then, I offered the piece of meat to the carnivore on my shoulder. 

Taibakaze chirped happily and sat up on my shoulder, balancing easily.  He gently grasped the piece of meat in his little paws and pulled it out from the grasp of my chop sticks.  He nibbled on the morsel, seeming to savor the taste.  A wave of contentment rippled through the chakra bond, and I chuckled at the Kamaitachi's happiness.

We all finished our stew, with me giving Taibakaze a chunk of meat every time he finished a piece.  Taking our dishes to the sink in the kitchen, we washed the dishes and put them on the drying rack with the rest of the dishes from the day.

Tired now that our stomachs were full of food, we all headed up to the room we shared.  Upon entering, we saw that Yugi-sensei was sitting up, waiting for us.

He looked us all over from where he sat, and offered us a huge grin.

"I'm very proud of you all by your accomplishments today.  One of you completed the long-term assignment, and all of you have made excellent progress on the short-term assignment.  Go ahead and compare notes about all that you guys have done so far for your short-term assignment.  Tomorrow, I want you all to help each other out with your training."  He paused to let the instructions sink in.

"But, sensei, we all have different goals.  How can we help each other when we aren't even working on the same things?"

Yugi-sensei grinned.  "That's an excellent question.  The point of training together, even if you all are focusing on different elements, is that you can point of thing to each other that you can't see yourselves.  For instance, if one of you noticed that a teammate is using more chakra than is really needed, that could be pointed out."  He glanced at me when he said this.  "This is your assignment for tomorrow.  Share your goals, and help each other become more efficient during training."  He offered us his fist.  "Good luck."

We all glanced at each other before turning back to our young sensei.  One by one, our fists met with Yugi-sensei's fist to form a make-shift circle.  Taibakaze crawled down my arm to add in his little paw of a fist, as well, which made us chuckle at his desire to be a part of this team.

Judging by the reception the he received, I knew that my little Kamaitachi familiar was going to fit in perfectly with my team.