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Taijin in Naruto
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It's the day of team assignments. Mariko scraped by, mostly on the strength of her perfect test scores. She's well aware that her disdain for attendance and doing homework has left her as firmly dead-last, though, behind even Shikamaru and Kiba.

But it's not like scores matter in the real world.

Iruka's been going through the team assignment list. Mariko doesn't pay any attention, until she hears her own name - "Team Seven will be Uzumaki Mariko, Uchiha Rian, and Dojone Taijin. Team Eight..."

(She... Doesn't know either of them, except by reputation.)

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Rian looks around, trying to visually identify her teammates when she hears their names called out. 

Iruka-sensei dismisses them for a quick lunch after finishing, telling them to be back in an hour to meet their jounin-sensei, so Rian stands and waits for everyone else to file out.

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Not as focused as usual due to his headache, Taijin nevertheless had paid careful attention to the names, opting to meet up with them after scribbling down the last of the notes he hadn't quite gotten to.

Ink on his wide hands as he came out, he was soon looking curiously around trying to identify his teammates. Stepping on Ino's foot in the process, but managing to avoid her ire directly as he ducked behind the nearest tree before she could turn to put him in her line of sight.

Still, it was less than pleasant hearing her go on about it, and he was soon more focused on staying away from that than finding his teammates in the crowd. Trying to patiently wait it out so he could refocus on meeting the others he was meant to work with.

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Rian finds him. 

"Dojone Taijin, right?" she asks, coming up to him. "Have you seen Mariko around?"

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"I'm here," she says, shouldering her way out of the crowd. "So. We doing this team lunch thing?"

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"Yeah. Let's get to it!" As much as Taijin had tried to regulate the volume of his speech, there he went shouting again- as if trying to reassure himself. It was just too false a smile, too forced of enthusiasm. And it showed in both his body language and his voice cracking.

Soon ready to follow the two girls as he remained close to Rian, feeling a bit more comfortable remaining near her right now versus Mariko.

Now more quietly noting their sheer height differences as he spotted a hawk being harassed by some smaller birds and it was forced to land just a few blocks away, the flight path leading him to be looking right at the top of Rian's head to the end of it.

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Rian's a good nine inches shorter than him, so it's rather easy to glance over her head. She has the awkward build of someone whose body is preparing very hard for a growth spurt but hasn't quite decided to take that leap yet. Her posture's relaxed and friendly, though a bit distant. She thinks she catches onto Taijin's - nervousness? Let's go with nervousness. But she's not sure.

"Does that little courtyard on top of the B building work?"

She wants to get along with her team. She's heard of teams that fall apart after they're promoted to chunin - her sister Emi's team was like that - and she doesn't want that for herself.

She's not too confident of her chances, what with Mariko being... Mariko.

Still, likely doesn't hurt to try.

"I'm glad to be on a team with you two," she says, hoping she won't have to provide reasons. "What do you think our sensei will be like?"

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"Works for me," Mariko says. She sounds bored, and she's pretty much already halfway to her own little world, turning over equations in her head. She's so close to getting her chakra chains that little bit more durable...

"And I have no clue." Probably a jerk. Most people are.

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"Sure." Voice cracking and being a tad too loud again, though less so. He wasn't exactly fond of heights, truth be told, what with so many of his Jutsu that weren't healing focused relying on contact with the ground.

But if they were to work as a team, he had to trust the girls to be able to protect him as well if need be. So he did his best to push past those emotions in interest of getting along with the two.

"So what other kind of interests do you have?" Figuring that'd be a decent conversation starter without bringing up anything too intense.

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"I like math. And seals. I'm currently working on Laplace transforms." She fights the urge to take out her notebook and start scribbling. She hates talking to people, though at least - Kaijin? Daijin? Maybe Taijin - hasn't insulted her yet. She can do a Laplace on paper well enough, but to use it in combat she needs to be able to hold it in her head, which. Well. It's not exactly a surprise combat-capable seal masters are so rare.

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"I like working with my sword. I'm also working on a fire technique, though I'm having trouble with wrapping my head around the scroll for it..." The only reason she'd been top of the class was that Konoha really, really heavily weights physical scores, and that a lot of her classmates were prone to slacking. Reading: not her forte. Unfortunately her sister's currently too busy to walk her through more than the basics, or provide the occasional sparring partner.

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"You two sure have it different... I'm mostly focusing on Earth Chakra techniques and continuing my medic-nin training. I've also considered signing a summoning scroll since I get along well with animals, but none of the existing scrolls appeal to me."

About to say more, when he heard a dog barking in distress and quickly realized they'd gotten stuck under the underpinning of a nearby building raised slightly off the ground. Tilting his head in momentary thought, he decided it'd be well worth the small amount of Chakra needed to knock away some of the wooden boards.

Out came the quite large fluffy canine once that was done, tail wagging rapidly enough to be a blur as Taijin patted her. "That's a lot better, isn't it. How'd you get stuck down there anyway...?" It made little sense to him as to why such a large dog would have been trying to squeeze under there.

But apparently she had other things to get to as she simply gave a few more barks before running off. Taijin getting one quick lick to the hand as she turned away.

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Rian and Mariko help with the dog, Mariko after being poked away from her thoughts.

"I can probably put these back so no one really notices..." Rian mutters, looking at the boards they removed. "I liked our first-aid classes, but haven't really had the time for proper training, though. And, yeah, it's also pretty hard to get a summons - my clan has a raven summons, a cat summons, and a hawk summons somewhere, though someone misplaced the scroll in the Warring States era. I've been trying to track it down, no luck so far. My sister says I can have the cat summons if I become a full genin and impress them."

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"Yeah, that'd probably be a good idea." Voice much more quiet now as he seemed to have relaxed around the two for the most part. Wouldn't want anyone getting the exact wrong idea, after all.

"I'm an only child... What's it even like having a sibling?" And there went his immense curiosity, blunt nature showing itself. At this point he'd heard some of the stories but also didn't want to immediately judge based off of them- and found it hard to believe someone could actually be as bad as some of the things he'd heard.

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Rian goes quiet. "She's... Probably not the best metric for typical sibling relationships." Emi'd saved her life the night of the Massacre. That doesn't stop her from being a general ass.

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"Maybe I shouldn't have brought it up, then." He admitted, now trying to avoid eye contact as he looked up as some of the surrounding buildings.

It was then a long, awkward silence followed as he wasn't sure how to continue the conversation without stepping on any toes.

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"It's okay. So, what do you like to do?" She's bothered, but... It's a familiar emotion. At least he didn't ask about her dead family, people've done that before.

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"Mostly spend time with animals, and read anything I can get my hands on... A lot of people don't seem to realize that second one." He admitted, amused tone to his voice.

"I don't know where that idea comes from either, though."

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"I'm not much of a reader, I'll admit, though I like history stories well enough."

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"I can find an interest in most written subjects? It's actually much easier to list the stuff I dislike there." He admitted. "And history is one of those subjects that I'm careful to make sure it's written as objectively as possible."

He'd been manipulated into believing some pretty wrong things during social interactions before, and he hadn't liked that feeling. Why would he allow the same of books and scrolls?

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"I don't mind if it's biased, I like reading all the different perspectives, but it is good to be able to sort out what actually happened. What about you, Mariko, do you like reading?"

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Mariko takes a moment to respond. "Hm? Oh, fine enough. History's boring, though, why should I care what someone else was doing?" Science, math, technique theory, those are more her things.

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