She snickers. "And we already have enough twins to go around!"

"Exactly."

"I think being a genin's gonna be fun."

"Here's hoping."

She laughs.

And, the next morning, Hisame's there bright and early, as energetic as usual.

Elieyha is neither bright nor early, though not late.

And Chihiro is there, of course.

And Sesshi arrives after they all do.

"Good morning, team."

"Morning, sensei!"

"Good morning."

Elieyha grunts in a fashion that conveys that while the time of day is indeed morning, there is very little about it that can be said to be 'good'.

"I've arranged your test with some of the Inuzuka dogs."

"There are thirty puppies loose in the woods. Your job is to capture them and return them to the kennels - without harming a single one. You pass if all thirty are in the kennels at noon. You fail if any are injured, or if noon passes with any puppy uncaught. You are also not allowed to harm the other Inuzuka dogs or clan members, of course. It is currently exactly seven in the morning."

"You can start now."

And she body flickers away.

Elieyha groans.

"How well did you guys do in tracking?"

"Acceptably."

"Not my primary skill."

"I'm better at humans than animals. But the non-puppy Inuzuka might be willing to help - sensei didn't say we had to do this ourselves..."

"I suppose there'd be no harm in asking."

"Except insofar as that potentially wastes time."

"I can split off from you two, and scout the kennels while I'm at it - one of the Inuzuka likes me, anyways, and might be more willing to help than standard."

"Seems efficient. Come find us out in the woods or we'll meet at the kennels in half an hour?"

"Sure!"

Right. Off to hunt some puppies, then. She understands puppies are quite excitable. Hopefully they're too energetic to be stealthy.

Well, there's certainly something crashing through the undergrowth over there.

Great. She sends a stream of sand to scoop it up. Gently.