"Smart! Sealing's one of the areas I'm behind in. I'll want to grab my sword if we're planning on sparring - getting a chance to practice against a live partner will be nice."

"Yeah, I haven't had much chance to spar with anyone for a while," and not at all outside of their combat classes, "though I haven't had any training with blades since the few times we used them in class. Definitely not my strong suit. I'll stick with taijutsu."

"I will too, then. My taijutsu could use some work honestly, I don't get many chances to spar either... And then I won't need to stop by my house."

She steps back and gestures towards the door. "Lead the way? I haven't ever been near the Uchiha compound before. I tend to stick around my apartment and the academy, usually."

"...what do you think of our new team? I've never heard of Sagami Mariko before today. And I've never really had much to do with Haruno. She's Ino's friend, isn't she?"

She starts walking. "I like our sensei. I haven't heard of her either, but that's not very surprising since I don't know many jounin. Sayuri seems friendly, though I don't really know her at all. You'd probably know better than me who's friends with who."

"Um, yeah. I've seen them together at recess. I think she has a lot of other friends too. She seems pretty popular."

Rian's unsure what to say next (she doesn't exactly have friends either), so she casts about for a topic as they walk. The compound's fairly close to the Academy - about twenty minutes - but too far for silence to feel anything but awkward. "...What do you think about the team?"

She thinks about the question for a few minutes before answering. Tentively allowing herself to be open and honest to her new teammate. If she wants to succeed and be a great ninja, she needs to learn to trust, she decides. And if what Mariko said was true, and the Hokage put the team together.... she trusts him.

"From what Sagami told us about herself, I'm really quite pleased. I have an interest in sealing," she mentions towards her pack and the scroll she mentioned before. "Learning from her could be really beneficial. And one doesn't become a jounin in Konoha without great skill..."

She continues on. "I'm a bit unsure about Haruno though. Especially with what happened before. I mean, I'm used to it and kind of expected it, but it's a bit disappointing. So I'm hoping that tonight goes well? I really want to be a part of this team and do the village proud."

"Mariko-sensei definitely sounds really smart! And Sayuri probably won't be a jerk in front of me, at least, now that she knows I disapprove." She shrugs. "Maybe she'll be nicer once she gets to know you better. Or we'll end up with a team that splits right after becoming chuunin. That'd be unfortunate, though."

"I don't even know why she doesn't like me. I've never even had a conversation with her before today," she makes a face, "it's a common thing though. A lot of the villagers have the same grudge. Or a lot of different grudges. I've never really gotten an answer, really."

She nods, "It happens, I supppse. But you hear stories about the type of lifelong friendship one gets from their original genin team. It sounds nice."

"People are - fickle, I guess. Even niceness doesn't mean much. They used to be - cold - towards my clan, then after everyone died it was like none of that had ever happened... I don't really understand people at all, so I don't know why anyone would just dislike you."

Shrug. "And  yeah, the sort of friendship they tell legends about sounds very nice. Splitting up also sounds like the sort of thing that would hold back advancement and - I can't afford that."

Then she laughs sheepishly. "Sorry for getting so deep on you all the sudden."

"It's okay, I kinda started it."

She hmms. "I suppose it's the nature of the village," she makes a face, "I mean, I love the village despite everything. But it has a lot of problems. What happened to your clan, though I don't know much about it, and the response to it... it should never have happened." She looks down suddenly, very aware of the unsteady ground the topic would bring, kinda wishing she'd never said anything.

"Yeah. ...Thank you for listening, though. It's - good to be able to talk to someone."

"It's a nice feeling. I'm really not used to it...unless it's the Hokage. But it's not really done to criticize the village in front of its leader. So I try to avoid it." She smiles.

Small smile back. "I get what you mean." 

She's quiet for a bit, then: "We're almost there."

They're drawn level with the compound's gates. It's eerily quiet here, the sounds of Konoha muffled by the trees. Rian doesn't go in, instead leading them along a side path into the woods around the Naka River. They arrive at the training ground soon enough. It's decent-sized, with small targets for kunai and shuriken scattered about; not all of them are at an angle to be reached from one point on the ground.

"I never knew this was here. Was it used by your clan?"

"Yeah, there're also two others like this. They're more convenient to the compound, but other people don't use them because they're small and far from everything."

"Convenient for you, I suppose." She walks around the space in consideration. "I like it. It's better than my apartment for sure. I'm sure my neighbours would agree too." 

"Yeah, I can imagine. So, thoughts on rules for sparring?"

"Well I've never had an unmoderated spar outside of the Academy. I suppose we could stick to the Academy standard? Though we don't have anyone to time us..."

"How about just number of unblocked hits? First to reach a certain number wins."

"That works. Five hits and limited to taijutsu?"

"Sounds good to me!" She positions herself to start the spar, and forms her right hand into the traditional seal of confrontation. "Begin on the count of three?"

Sora nods and gets into position. She eyes the position of Rian's feet and tries to remember what her fights at the Academy were like...over very quickly, she recalls.