Iruka steps to the front of the room and begins to read off team assignments.

Eventually: "Team Seven, consisting of Uzumaki Sora, Uchiha Rian, and Haruno Sayuri, under Sagami Mariko."

Sayuri smiles, very pleased. She'd worked very hard to graduate and it had all paid off! She turns to look at Rian and waves at her cheerfully.

Rian seems fairly neutral about the whole thing, but she does smile back slightly.

Iruka finishes reading off the team assignments, and shortly afterwards the jounin start arriving.

The third jounin there is a slightly short woman, who looks around the room, then calls out, "Team Seven? You're with me."

Sayuri stands out of her seat in the front row and smiles up at her new sensei. She doesn't recognise her, but that's not saying much. Sayuri hasn't met many ninja outside of her mother and the teachers at the Academy.

She itches to hug the woman, but practices her mothers discipline and keeps her arms clasped behind her. She stays silent and waits to be addressed before speaking.

Sora tentatively gets out of her seat and heads down the stairs towards the jounin. She stands beside Sayuri, but keeps a bit of distance. She's around the same height as Mariko and looks her in the eyes easily.

"You're Sagami Mariko?"

Rian, who's also in the front row, gets up, too, though she remains quiet.

"Yes. I'm your new jounin-sensei. Follow me, please." She gestures, then turns to leave, leading them up to the roof, where she leans against the railing. There's a low ledge across from her.

Suyuri follows dutifully and then sits down on the ledge before her.

...formality is maybe a good sign? It's better than the outright hostility she half expected. She doesn't really know what to make of the jounin, but she follows anyway.

When they arrive at the roof she sits down in front of the jounin, to the left of Sayuri- again giving her a wide berth. Nothing personal, but she learned her lesson the hard way.

Rian sits next to Sayuri, to her right.

"Why don't we all introduce ourselves? Just the standard introduction - name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, plans for the future. I can go first, then we'll go right to left."

"My name is Sagami Mariko. I like reading. I dislike certain politicians. My hobby is learning new jutsu. My plan for the future is to become a master of fuinjutsu."

She then nods to Rian. 

"My name is Uchiha Rian. I like... I liked our first aid classes. I dislike traitors. My hobby is training. My plan for the future... Is to become strong, I guess."

"My name is Sayuri! I also like reading!" She smiles wide at Mariko. "Um. I dislike disappointing my mother. My hobbies are cooking and meditating. My plan for the future is to be promoted to jounin and make my mother proud."

"I am Uzumaki Sora. I like the Hokage. I don't like...strawberries. My hobby is painting. My plan for the future is to be an ANBU. Second choice, a part of the Hokage's guard."

"All fine ambitions. It's good to meet all of you." A pause. "Now, I do have some news - there's a second genin exam, to determine who of the graduates actually becomes a genin. Those who fail either return to the Academy or enter the reserves. On average, around a third of teams pass. We'll be having the exam tomorrow morning, seven am sharp, at Training Ground Five. Questions?"

"Are we your first genin team?"

"Yes."

"Oh! Did you pick us yourself or were you assigned to us?"

"Assigned, though I did sign up for a team. The Hokage does take compatibility into account, though."

Sayuri deflates a little, but recovers quickly. "Thank you for answering my questions, Sagami-sensei!"

"You're welcome. Anyone else?"

"...do we need to bring anything tomorrow?"

"Good question; whatever you feel would be appropriate for a survival exercise."

She judges it unlikely that they would leave the village. So Sora can think of a few survival instruments that she can bring with the village environment in mind. She wonders what sort of tricks an aspiring Seal Master would have up their sleeve. Hm.  

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. And you?" She turns to Rian.

Who shakes her head. "No questions, sensei."

"Well, if that's everything, how about we dismiss and you all can go prepare?"

Sayuri jumps up in response and nods. "I'm going to go tell my mother and tell her all about you! She's going to be so impressed," she smiles at Mariko and turns to Rian. "Did you want to come have dinner with us? I'm making dinner tonight and I'm going to go all out!"

...she avoids looking at Sora.

Well it's not like she expected anything different.

She frowns. Day one, and they're already having teamwork issues. Joy.

"A team dinner sounds good! The three of us can get to know each other better, maybe coordinate for the test."

Sayuri squirms a bit, sneaks a peak at Mariko's frown and then looks over at Sora. "That sounds...good." Her mother was not going to like this.

But this is a happy day, Sayuri will make it through it, Uzumaki and all. She perks herself up and smiles widely. Happy!

"Yay! I'll make desert too."

Huh. She looks at Rian and stares at her. "...that sounds smart. We should do that, yes." She would feel bad about intruding when she's very obviously not wanted, but all she has at home is instant ramen. Not appetising at all. Plus getting to know her potential teammates is a good idea and avoiding it would be bad. Especially if she wants to advance in rank.

She looks over at Sayuri. "No strawberries?"

"Not even on the menu." See! She can do this.

Nice to know that willful obliviousness still hasn't let her down.

"What time should we be there?"

"Dinner will be ready at 6! I'm gonna go start preparing now!" And warn her mother of the upcoming Uzumaki. She spins and runs off towards the door.

Sora stares after Sayuri for a moment before turning to face Rian.

"....you didn't have to do that."

She avoids looking at Mariko.

"I kind of did. Her excluding you like that was - unfair. Especially since we're a team, now."

Team. She really liked the sound of that. "Thank you. It was a nice thing." And she's really not used to nice things.

"I really don't need thanks, but - you're welcome. So, see you in a few hours?"

Sora nods slowly. "Yeah. Are we supposed to bring anything? I've never been invited over to anyone's house for dinner before." She aims this question at their sensei too.

"...I'm actually not sure, I haven't been to someone's house since - when I was a little kid. I don't think so?" She turns to their sensei, too.

"Not really, no, especially not at your ages."

That's reassuring. She doesn't have enough left in her allowence to get something nice.

"Thank you." She shuffles nervously and edges towards the door. "I'm going to go do my daily training now. I'll see you tonight, Rian. And I look forward to tomorrow, sensei."

"See you both then; I have a lot of good feelings about this team, so I'm sure everything will go great!" And after Rian echoes her 'see you', she vanishes in a rather showy puff of smoke. 

"Well, I need to train, too, so I'll see you later. Unless you want to train together?"

Sora blinks at Mariko's sudden departure, but quickly turns back to the Uchiha.

"...I'd like that. Do you have a place? I usually just train in my apartment." Mostly to avoid all the hostility. "It wouldn't fit both of us though."

"There's a training ground at the clan compound I usually use. No one else goes there."

Sora smiles. "That sounds perfect. Do you need to go home and get your gear?"

She pats her waist pouch. "I like living up to my Uzumaki name and keep a scroll with gear on me at all times." She looks a little sheepish. "It probably seems a little silly since we're not even technically genin yet."

"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.

"One, two, three - go!" Rian jumps forward and to the right a bit, striking at Sora's left.

She's fast, and her movements are fluid and well-practiced, with a strength that belies her slight frame. She's no powerhouse, but that hardly matters when the only goal is landing hits.

Sora sees it coming but isn't quick enough to avoid the hit to her side. She takes the hit and uses the other girls momentum to pivot herself away.

"One to you!" She smiles slightly and then runs back at her with intent to land a hit at her unprotected back.

"Hah!" Rian twists and blocks the hit, but she's ever-so-slightly off balance and there's a gap in her guard around her stomach, if Sora's fast enough with her other hand. 

Sora sees the opening, but knows from experience that she won't be fast enough.

She tries another tactic instead and attempts to trick Rian into thinking she'll attack it anyway and then sweep her legs from under her when she's busy protecting her stomach.

That works! Rian catches herself and rolls back to her feet, recovering fairly quickly, but she's lost the initiative, and there's another opening while she's jumping up.

Sora takes that opening! But is maybe a bit too enthusiastic and completely leaves herself open.

"One for you!" Rian calls out when Sora hits her, even as she takes the opening, "And two for me!"

Sora laughs and then jumps backwards, attempting a small retreat. "You're fast!"

"Thanks! You're good, too. Usually I'd have won by now!" She pursues, striking at Sora's left again.

She flushes a bit at the compliment and then blocks her strike and attempts a counter strike to her chest.

Rian dodges to the side and grabs her by the wrist, then attempts to yank her off balance.

She succeeds! Sora is thrown a bit away and trips on her own legs. She laughs aloud and tries to recover quickly.

Rian jumps in, aiming for a blow while Sora's still getting to her feet. 

"That's three!" She then recovers and goes for Rian's legs again, hoping her balance is a bit off from the jump.

It is, but the same trick's not going to work on her twice. She twists out of the way, jumping back a bit and leaving herself partially open if Sora switches gears fast enough.

Nope! But she does attempt it.

And Rian blocks her, having regained her footing, then immediately presses the attack, trying to get through Sora's guard with a rapid-fire approach.

She's not prepared for it so she gets through easily.

"Four for me!" She's left an opening, though, that she doesn't seem to have noticed.

Sora's keen eyes see it and using her endurence to move past the blows, goes straight for it in an uncharacteristic show of speed.

"Two for you!" Sora's caught most of her blows, and her hands are starting to hurt, so she switches tracks, slowly down slightly then suddenly stepping closer, leaving herself open enough for a blow, before going to sweep Sora's legs out from under her (ideally timing it for whenever Sora takes the opening).

Sora takes the opening and gets completely blindsided by the sweeping kick. She lands on her back and just laughs.

Sora's hit lands - "Three for you!" - and Rian presses her advantage against Sora, aiming for the fifth hit. It's more of a tap than a proper blow, since Sora doesn't look like she'll be dodging or blocking well.

She gets her tap and Sora just giggles in response, having used the last of her effort in that last blow. "And the Uchiha keeps her winning streak!"

She laughs slightly and offers Sora a hand up. "I just train a lot, plus my clan has scrolls on jutsu - including taijutsu. We were... A bit, well, anal about documenting everything. And while I'm not the best at learning from scrolls, I can stumble along. Still, this was really fun. We should spar more! I think we'd both benefit a lot, I know I was leaving way more openings than I like to."

She takes the hand and stands. "Lucky! All the jutsu I've managed to get a hold of are either from the Acadamy library, or birthday presents from the Hokage. Last year he gave me a really great book on sealing." She dusts herself off and smiles.

"This was fun, thank you. I think I need to work on my reaction times, especially if I want to keep up with you."

"You can read through some of them, if you want. Maybe you'll get more out of them than I can, you're better at book smarts."

"I'd like that." She pauses for a moment. "I don't really have anything to over you in return though. You can have a look at my sealing book? Or I could show you how I made my weapon scroll?"

"Thank you for the offer, but I don't think it's an area that'll be advantageous for me to focus on - I'm not good enough at memorization and math. Well, I wouldn't mind a demonstration at some point - but it's not needed for access to the scrolls. It's - we're a team, and I'll be making the same offer to Sayuri." A pause. "Though I'd like it if you can help me learn some of the jutsu in the scrolls. I learn fastest being shown things, after all."

"I can do that. I'll go through a few and see how they level with my knowledge and do my best," She pauses for a moment, "I'll offer the same to Sayuri too. But it's still contingent on us passing the other test tomorrow. Did you know about that beforehand?"

"Nope. It was - a pretty big surprise. And a mean one, I don't see why they couldn't have told us earlier. Though I'm confident in this team, I think we'll pass fairly easily."

"Yeah, a little forewarning could have been nice... though I suppose a days notice is ample enough forewarning for ninjas." She smiles and continues, "I remember Haruno-" she corrects herself, "Sayuri, in the Academy. She's a hard worker and I think she'll be an asset to the team. I'm going to try my best to get along with her."

"That's really all you can do. A good bit of it's up to her."

"True. But regardless...." She leaves the rest of her words unsaid. "Do you want to do some target training? I have some shuriken in my scroll."

"Sure! I have my equipment pouch with me, for kunai."

Sora nods and takes out her scroll, then uses the unsealing technique to release her shuriken. She places the scroll back into her pouch.

She looks around. How many targets are there?

Eight easily visible, with a ninth barely visible behind a boulder - it would usually be in someone's blind spot if they were standing at the center of the other eight, though.

She goes and stands just to the right of the middle, and settles into the standard academy stance. "Do you want to take turns, or try to do it at once?

"Usually I try it all at once, but we can go with whatever way you prefer."

"All at once then."

"Are you going first, then?"

She smiles back at her, "Well since I'm already here."

Aaand she starts throwing, fast as she is able, until all of her shuriken are gone. She then looks at all of the targets and makes a face. She didn't do bad, but not very well either.

"I haven't had much practice with so many at once, and they're a bit further away than my usual targets." She frowns, "I shouldn't make excuses though."

"You did pretty decently; I was worse until I'd been at this a while. My turn?"

"Your turn. Want me to go collect my shuriken first?"

"Sure."

Sora does so quickly, glaring down at one in particular that missed alltogether and then steps out of the way.

Rian steps into the center, pulls out her kunai, then leaps. She tosses the knives in quick succession once she's at the apex of her small jump, angling them so that one throw bounces off another, to try and hit the target in the blind spot.

She lands in a crouch. All but one of the kunai hit the targets, most of them within an inch or three of the center. She only entirely missed the last target behind the boulder - the kunai is embedded in the ground next to the circular target's rim. 

She scowls slightly when she sees the miss, and silently goes to retrieve her kunai. 

Sora's kind of startled? And impressed. Aaand also kind of jealous. And another weird feeling that she doesn't have a name for. So many emotions. She's at a loss for words, so instead she goes and helps her collect them all.

"I've been practicing that long enough that I should be better. Not entirely sure what I'm doing wrong - though maybe sensei will be able to help."

She snaps out of her slight haze when Rian speaks. "You were mostly concerned about the one behind the boulder, right?"

"Yeah. That's the hardest one to get - and if I can manage it, this'll be a useful technique for hitting anyone not in my line of sight."

She steps forward to the centre and stares at the target, moving slightly side to side, accessing. Then she moves over to it, jumping over the boulder and looks at the distance between. Hm.

She jumps back over and walks back to Rian. "Do you mind going again? Maybe I'll see something."

"Sure." And she repeats the sequence. Her results are about the same on average. 

Sora watches closely, paying special attention to the trajectory of the last kunai and the position of Rian's body. Hmmm. She hops on the boulder and see where it landed, then looks back over to Rian.

"You're aiming is a bit off. And the timing. When you jump, if you want to reach the last target, you need to time it so you throw it at the highest peak of your jump and then you need a slightly shorter curve, since it's going a bit wide."

"Thanks. Let me try again." She collects the kunai, then tries to follow Sora's advice.

This time, the kunai thuds into the last target just within the rim. Rian beams when she checks it. "I still have a long way to go, but that was a lot better. Thank you for the help."

She smiles and blushes slightly. "I'm happy to help. It's a bit easier for me to figure this stuff out, though I have a lot of trouble actually following through and correcting it myself. My body just doesn't want to follow orders a lot of the time."

"With any luck, that'll come with practice."

"Thats the dream," she smiles and then moves to the centre, "better start now then!"

She throws her shuriken, doing slightly better than before, but all her throws are just slightly off and she only gets a few of them.

"What are you going to bring to the test tomorrow?" She asks as she goes and collects her shuriken.

Rian tries to figure out what Sora's doing wrong, but nope. Looks like she won't be returning that particular favor right away...

"I'm planning on bringing my sword and some shuriken and kunai, plus the standard survival training kit. Not sure what else to bring... It'll probably be a good idea to coordinate with Sayuri, too, so we can share supplies. Especially with your seals in the mix."

"I can make up scrolls for all of us. I'll need to go pick up some more ink and parchment though." She looks up at the sky to try and discern the time. "Maybe before dinner? I could make them up after we eat."

Her stomach growls. "Speaking of food!" She blushes. "I skipped breakfast, was too nervous. Do you want to get some food? I could make us some at my apartment, if you want."

"Food sounds nice. I haven't really had a proper lunch yet." It's maybe an hour past noon.

"I only really have the basics. Rice and some nice fish. Can't really afford much in the way of vegetables after I get the fish... totally worth it."

"Rice with fish sounds fine to me. Lead the way."

She seals away her shuriken, puts the scroll back in her pouch and the starts walking. They walk for quite a while, away from the nicer area around the Uchiha compound and further into a more densely populated area, full of bars, shops and slightly rundown apartments- as much as a military city of Konoha can be run down.

Rian might notice that the closer they get to their destination, the more the people in the streets seems to recognise Sora and glare at her. Mostly they tend to go out of their way to avoid them.

Eventually they come to a small apartment complex. "This is it." She goes up the stairs and walks over to the corner aparment. "It's probably a bit smaller than you're used too."

Rian follows. (And does notice. The dislike people hold for Sora is frankly baffling.) 

"It's fine." 

Her apartment is indeed small. The majority of it is one room, with a small fridge, small counter space with a rice cooker and what looks to be a portable stove. Beside that is a two seater table, with chairs. On the other side of the room is a tidy bed and a chest of drawers. There's also a door, which presumably leads to a bathroom.

Overall theres not much to it. Very clean though. Everything has its place.

Sora takes off her shoes at the door and places them neatly beside it. She then shuffles slightly, suddenly nervous.

"Ah. This is it."

"Cozy."

And it is, especially since Rian is more used to houses that are too big and empty.

"I'm just going to go wash my hands. I'll be back in a moment!"

And she slips through the only other door, and washing starts. A few minutes later, and a slight freak out, she comes back into the room and smiles at Rian.

"I haven't ever had anyone over before, I kinda don't know what to offer you? A drink while you wait, maybe?" 

"Just water's fine." 

"That I have!" She grabs two bottles from her small fridge and hands one to her. Then she starts preparing the food...in silence. She struggles to find something to say.

"Uh. You mentioned liking the first aid classes in the academy. Do you want to be a med-nin?"

Rian accepts the bottle and takes a few sips.

"Used to. Now I'm more focused on just getting stronger, and you have to be really good at medical ninjutsu to use it as a front-line fighter. I'll probably pick up some, since it's good to have, but it won't be my main thing."

"I tried some medical ninjutsu. I wasn't very good at it. I kept on adding too much chakra and it kept on exploding... the fish I mean. The fish I was practising on exploded." She looks down at the fish she is cooking and makes a face. "It was pretty gross."

"I can imagine! I haven't had a chance to try medical ninjutsu yet; usually that's something we'd learn as genin."

"The hospital had a sort of open day for people interested in picking it up. I was the youngest one there and everyone else were genin or above. But I think they didn't notice me or they were okay with it. Either way it ended badly for everyone, I smelled like fish guts for days," she laughs.

"I must have missed that, then."

"Lucky!" She laughs. "I would totally pick it up again if I was learning from someone great. Like Senju Tsunade or someone equally legendary... though maybe nobody else comes close to being as legendary as Tsunade is in the medical world."

"No one that I've heard of, at least."

"Who would you choose, out of anyone living or dead, to learn from?"

"Oh, wow, that's a tough question. Probably gonna have to go with Uchiha Izuna - he was Madara's younger brother. His style was close to mine, I think. Though I'm also tempted to say 'the Second Hokage.' What about you?"

"I think I'd choose Uzumaki Ashina. He was the leader of the Uzumaki Clan around the time Konoha was founded and he pretty much pioneered modern fūinjutsu. The other is, and okay this sounds kinda bad, but Orochimaru. I mean, I'd really like to learn all about his attempts at Immortality. But also...he's a missing-nin. So. Yeah. He's off the list."

"Well, Izuna opposed the idea of Konoha, so I doubt he'd be much in the way of a loyal nin. And we did say anyone; if we're not letting death stand in our way, what's a little thing like loyalty?" Said jokingly.

"What about Jiraiya? Isn't he a seal master?"

She laughs. "Have you read any of his books? They're kind of awful. I don't know if I could take him seriously."

"Can't say I have! I'll have to take your word for it."

"The Hokage gave me his first book, The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi. He said it belonged to the Fourth Hokage. Apparently he was a big fan. It's a very well loved book. Meaning it's practically falling apart."

"Aren't most of Jiraiya's books porn?"

"Yeah, I think so. I snuck a look at one of the Icha Icha books in the bookstore and it was really explicit. I'm sticking to the Gutsy novel. It's mostly terrible, but the main character is named Sora, so I'm partial to it. Still trash," she laughs.

"Not even a fun kind of trash? And it's cool that the character has the same name as you - what're the odds. Though I guess that might be part of why the Hokage gave it to you."

"...yeah, It's a fun kind of trash. I can lend it to you if you think you might enjoy it. Though like I said, my copy is falling apart. So it might be worthwhile getting a new copy if don't wanna deal with that. It might be out of print though." She nods. "Yeah, probably. Though when I bring it up he changes the subject, so I can't say for certain."

"I might see if the library has a copy, I don't think I'm going to bother buying it. And old people are weird, I don't know why he'd change the subject like that."

"He is super weird. I mean, what's so special about me that he singles me out so? I've had a meeting with him once a week for as long as I can remember. Does he meet with you?"

"Like, rarely? He used to check up on me once a month, now it's more like every three months."

Sora finishes cooking fish. She scoops the rice out of the cooker and into two bowls and places the fish on top. She sets one bowl in front of Rian and sits down with her own across from her.

"I know Tenten, she's a little older than us and also an orphan, she sees him about the same as you. He never gives me a straight answer when I ask."

"Weird. Especially that he won't just tell you why. Maybe you're secretly his love child?" 

Sora laughs. "Maybe! We look nothing alike, but it's definitely a theory."

"Good point! Hmm, who else could you be secretly the love child of..."

"Ooooooh! Maybe it's Jiraiya!"

"That'd explain the book!"

"It totally would! Maybe I should write him a letter and ask him to come sweep me away on a fantastic Father Daughter Adventure! He could teach me all his secrets." She breaks down in giggles.

"It'd be like something out of a novel!" She's also giggling.

"Hopefully not one of his though!"

"Hopefully!"

"I mean, I don't know him personally, but he seems like such a handful. I wonder how he'd be as a dad."

"I don't really know much about him. Possibly either insufferable or awesome."

"He was the Fourth Hokage's sensei, wasn't he?"

"Yeah. So he'd probably be great at teaching stuff, at least. And he must have been somewhat responsible to be entrusted with a genin team..."

"All evidence say yes. But that was a while ago and a lot has happened since then."

"That's why it'll have to be an adventure! It'd be a very boring novel if everything was predictable, after all."

"True! Hopefully I wouldn't have to fight any tailed beasts though, like in his book."

"That'd be rather rotten luck, wouldn't it? Though if the world was running on novel logic, you'd struggle before finally beating them with the Power of Friendship or something. So I could help!"

"Ah, the classic 'friendship no jutsu', that would be really exciting. Though the struggling part I'm not fond of. We should skip that and make sure we work together from the beggining!"

"Sounds like a good plan to me!"

"Hopefully we can make it a full team effort, with Sayuri too. I wonder how our new sensei would get along with Jiraiya. Do you think they know each other?"

"No clue. Jiraiya hasn't been in Konoha much for years, but they so both use seals, and Konoha doesn't have that many masters..."

"Maybe he taught her?

"...She's probably too young to have been on his genin team, but she could've been his apprentice at since point? I suppose we'll have to ask..."

"That's if we pass the test tommorrow, I suppose."

"Yeah. I'm pretty confident in us, though."

She smiles. "Me too."

"Do you have any other plans for the day?"

"I was just going to spend it training and reading, really."

"If you want to do it together, I could start reading through some of your scrolls? That way hopefully I can get a good grip on them sonner and start formulating how best to teach you. And you can continue on your normal training routine." 

"Sounds good to me."

"I'll just clean up and then we can head to your house, or would you rather going ahead and me going later?"

"I'm fine waiting. And I can help clean, if I wouldn't be getting in your way."

"I really just need to wash up our bowls and the fry pan. You can dry?"

"Sure."

And they do that.

"All done! Ready to go, do you need anything from the market or something?"

"No, I'm good."

And she leads the way back to the compound, this time taking Sora through the gates.

The compound is empty in a very eerie, profound way. Most of the buildings are starting to get a bit run down, though they've clearly been maintained at least some. Rian walks straight to a large house near-ish one edge, in the less dense part near the shrine, not looking around or noticeably reacting to anything. 

"The library's through here," she comments once they're inside. The room she leads Sora to probably used to be something else, from the way the shelves are arranged. There's a number of scrolls organized by difficulty and type, with another room stacked with boxes visible through an open door.

She's never been in the compound before and finds it appropriately creepy. She wonders why Rian would stay here, she very obviously has enough capital to live anywhere else in the village. Especially because of the horrible history assosiated with the place. Maybe the good memories outweigh the bad? Or some sort of clan pride that Sora has never experienced. She doesn't voice her thoughts though and follows silently.

When they come upon the library Sora is a bit stunned. "Oh wow. This is a lot. How long has this been in your family? Did you keep them someplace else previously?"

"Yeah. Took me a while to collect them, they're all from people's personal libraries. Just - scrolls everyone had collected over time."

Ah. Well that's a bit morbid, but also practical.

"Have you picked out any in particular you're intersted in? And would you mind me browsing a bit, I'll be sure to be careful. I had the whole spiel from the academy librarian about proper scroll handling etiquette." 

"I've been trying to figure out the Phoenix Flower Jutsu. The scroll's over there - " She indicates the proper section. "Thank you again for helping with this, it's been completely stumping me. I already have the Grand Fireball down, so it shouldn't be this hard, but here we are."

"It's no problem. I really kind of enjoy stuff like this. It gives me something to pick apart and excerises my brain in a really satisfying way." She picks out the appropriate scroll, sits down in a clear space on the ground, places a small peice of cloth onto the ground in front of her and places the scroll down carefully onto the cloth.

She looks up at Rian, a bit sheepish. "I kinda got into the habit of working on the ground, especially since I don't have a desk at my apartment. Do you mind?"

"Not at all! Do you need anything before I head out to train? Feel free to get anything from the kitchen - it's right down the hall from where we entered."

"Nope! I have everything I need, thank you!" She demonstartes this by pulling out a worn cheap looking notebook and a pencil. "Feel free to come poke me when you're finished, I tend to lose track of time when I'm studying."

"Will do! If you need me, I'll be at that same training ground we were at earlier."

She gets her shuriken and heads out with a 'see you', and spends her time working on her aim - mostly the kunai trick, but switching to shuriken when she gets a bit tired of that.

It's two hours later when she returns to her house, sweating but satisfied with herself. Sora's advice had helped a lot, and she'd made a small amount of progress.

"Hey Sora," she says as she walks into the library after getting some water. "It's a bit past four, so we should probably stay thinking about getting ready for dinner."

Rian will find Sora with her head in her notebook and surrounded by a bunch of different scrolls. If she looks closely she will see that a lot of them pertain to yin and yang chakra, and a bunch of different scrolls on different methods of combining them.

She starts a bit when Rian walks in, but she smiles at her. "You look pleased! Did you have a good training session?"

She looks down at all the scrolls and laughs a bit. "I may have got carried away a bit. Don't worry though, I took note of where I got everything, so just give me a moment to put everything away."

"It's fine! It's great to see someone getting use out of the library, rather than just me."

She puts everything away, and then packs up her notebook and cloth into her backpack. "The Phoenix Flower Jutsu was a little advanced for me. I haven't actually used any fire jutsu before, but your library is really extensive. I was able to get a good background in fire jutsu in general, you have a lot of fire based works, and I think I now have a basic understanding of the requirements. Hopefully this translates well to teaching! I'll still need a bit longer to learn though."

"You're almost certainly getting it faster than I would. I can try teaching you the Grand Fireball, it's the first fire jutsu most Uchiha learn, if you think that would help? And yeah, most Uchiha have a fire affinity."

"I think it would help a lot. That would be great."  She steps out of the library. "Did you want to split up now and meet at Sayuri's, or I can wait for you to get ready, then head past my house for me to change and then go there together?"

"We have enough time for the second one, I think."

"'kay." She stands awkwardly outside the library. "Uh. Where should I wait?"

"Just in the main room's fine. I won't be long, I'm not getting dressed up fancy or anything..."

She heads upstairs to her room and quickly puts away her supplies, then changes into a clean, not-sweaty version of her usual outfit - a dark blue, almost black shirt with the Uchiha fan on the back and white cargo pants.

"Ready," she says, coming back down the stairs. 

Pretty.

"Cool." And they head out. Sora purposefully ignores the creepiness of the compound and walks at a normal pace.

"I'm actually kind of nervous."

"About the dinner? Yeah, so am I. I wonder what Sayuri's mom is like..."

"I've seen her picking up Sayuri at the Academy. She's intense looking...but that's not saying much. She is a ninja."

"Eh, some are fairly unremarkable or silly looking. Especially the jounin. Still, hopefully she's nicer in person."

"Do you have any tips about etiquette? I assume you got some training growing up, living in a clan and everything."

"Some - I don't know how much you know, but I can summarize what got drilled into me..." And she summarizes, for various possible utensil combinations and meals. "I'm guessing they're not too traditional - my family was - but you never know..." The information isn't entirely complete, but unless Sayuri's mom is intentionally trying to trip them up it should be plenty.

By the time she's finished explaining they have arrived at her apartment.

"Thank you. I only really knew the basics from our Academy kunoichi classes. Which was a while ago."

She grabs some clothes from her warbrobe and goes into the bathroom. A few minutes later she comes out in a white tank top, black jacket and black three quater leggings. Her hair is brushed and there is now a small blue clip holding the hair out of her face. It matches her eyes.

"Is this okay?"

"Very much! You look nice."

She smiles at her and heads towards the door. "Uh. Do you know how to get there?"

"...Um. We can ask Iruka-sensei where she lives? That'd be mildly embarrassing but not as much as getting lost and running late."

"...do you also know where he lives?" She tries to surpress an amused smile 

"Yeah, I do. He should be home by now, what with school getting out early... C'mon, he's pretty near the Academy."

Sora follows Rian.

She explains the problem to Iruka once they get there (he's amused, but mostly hiding it), and he gives them Sayuri's address. Luckily, they can still get there in plenty of time, even without hurrying.

Sora stays silent and keeps a distance between herself and Iruka. She's vaguely uncomfortable.

"Thank you, sensei." She says as they leave.

"You're welcome, Sora. Both of you feel free to stop by anytime you need something, I'm here to help."

And they leave. "Have you been to see him often?"

"Not super much, though I needed some help with schoolwork at one point - I was having trouble remembering all the kanji we were learning, and struggling with math on top of that. He helped me figure out how to learn, which was nice."

"..that was really nice of him. Huh."

"I'm pretty sure he helps out anyone who asks. He's always been my favorite of our teachers - he just. Cares more, I guess."

"I can see that. I think he didn't much like me when he first started teaching us. But he never treated me any different from anyone else. He seems to have mellowed out a bit now though."

Small smile. "You're a hard person to dislike, once somebody gets to know you."

She blushes. "Most people don't get that far, I supppse."

"More fools them."

Sora is silent at this and eventually they arrive at a nice little house in a very respectable neighborhood.

"Are we early?"

Rian shrugs. "Not by much, I don't think."

Theres movement at the window and then the door opens and Sayuri runs out to greet them.

"Hi! Oh wow you two look really good! I like your hair clip, Sora. And it matches your shirt, Rian. That's so sweet." She jumps around on her feet with nervous energy. "My mama is really excited to meet you both. And I've made a lot of food, I hope you're hungry!"

"Thanks! I'm excited to meet your mom, too. And I'm definitely plenty hungry!"

This is a definite good first sign. "Me too. Did you have a good day since we last saw you?"

"Yup! I went to the market with Ino and we did a bunch of shopping. Mostly groceries for tonight, but also a couple of new clothes. I wanted to replace one of my shirts, I tore one of my old ones while training last week and instead of mending it mama let me pick out a new one as a graduation present. And we went by her families shop and picked out a floral arrangement, Ino knows how to pick the best flowers-"

She leads them into the house, and slips on her house slippers. "I also picked up some new slippers for you both to use when you visit!"

She follows Sayuri's lead. "Thank you again. You really didn't have to go to all this trouble..."

"We're a team now. This is what that looks like. Or at least that's what Ino's mum said. She's usually right about most things. So get used to it." She smiles wide.

"Maybe don't overwhelm them on day zero, dear heart." Sayuri's mum walks in from the kitchen, comes to stand by Sayuri's shoulder and places a hand on her ahoulder. "You have to ease them into it."

The tall woman looks down at the other two girls, accessing. "My name is Kasumi. That is what you will call me. Welcome to my home. Now introduce yourselves, please."

Rian swallows a comment, and says, "I'm Uchiha Rian. It's great to meet you, Kasumi. Thank you for having us in your home."

"...I'm Sora. You have a beautiful home."

"Uzumaki Sora and Uchiha Rian, it's a pleasure to meet you both. Dinner is around ten minutes off, please make youreself at home in the dining room while I make the finishing touches."

Uh. Her mother cooking? Noooooo. "Uh, mama, that's alright. I can do it!"

"No. Go with your teammates and show them around. I have it sorted."

Sayuri takes no for an answer and turns back to the other two girls. "It's right through here! I can show you our new television!"

"Okay! That sounds cool!" 

Sayuri smiles again and ushers them into the next room. Immediately she runs to the other side of the room and peaks through the doorway there. "Oh I wish she would have let me finish cooking," she whispers and turns back slightly to the other girls, "she's a horrible cook. She's going to ruin all my good work." She flushes slightly.

Sora blinks, a little stunned. "Uh," she looks over at Rian with wide eyes, "I'm sure it'll be fine?"

Yeah Rian is kinda baffled at Sayuri's dynamic with her mom.

'I don't have high standards' would probably not be a helpful comment, nor would 'she can't be that bad,' so - "I'm sure it'll be fine, too! So you were going to show us the TV?"

Sayuri bites her lip, looks back into the kitchen and then sighs and back off. "Yeah, I suppose. She only really needs to take things out of the oven and stir some things...it'll be fine."

She turns back to them and suddenly a smile is back on her face, a sudden shift. "Oh right! We got it last week, mama had to pay to get it specially imported from Lightning Country!"

"I don't think I've ever even seen a TV, at least not up close. And, wow, being a jounin must pay well."

"Mama works really hard. She's one of the best, people request her specifically and the village charges them a lot." 

"That's really cool. No wonder you want to make her proud."

"I'd like to be that strong someday."

"We can work on it together!" She goes and sits down on one of the couches. "So how did you go on the graduation test? I was worried for a bit because my clone looked really funny, I think her knees were backwards!"

"I accidentally make four instead of one. Mizuki thought I was showing off. It was completely not on purpose. He nearly failed me for it."

She hides a smile at Sayuri's story.

"Mizuki-sensei can be a jerk sometimes, huh? Anyways, I did fine - I got mostly full marks."

"Well four instead of one is better than nothing, he's just a bully." She smiles at Rian. "Congratulations, that makes you Rookie of the Year, right? I was aiming for it, but I let myself down in the taijutsu portion. I aced the the stealth and evasion test though."

"Got top marks for the written portion, above average in taijutsu and just average in stealth and evasion."

"I did - less well - on the written portion." Quick smile. "Definitely not my strong suit. Taijutsu and ninjutsu I aced, did pretty good on stealth and evasion. Even got extra credit during the ninjutsu part, when they ask you to show off any extra skills. Managed to make up for my written scores." Pause. "You know, we're a bit of a statistical anomaly. All girls, and all some of the best students - usually they balance the teams better."

"Yeah, really stacked the deck on this one. Do you think they have "plans" for us?"

"What sort of plans?" She asks, confused.

"Like, do you think they want us to be the next legendary team or something?"

"Well historically the ninja's that were in Team 7 have been... Well. The Sannin. Also, the Fourth Hokage. I think even that weirdo jounin Kakashi was in a Team 7."

"There have to have been more Team 7's than just those three, though, that we just haven't heard of. I mean, I can't see them skipping the number while assigning rookie teams, just for - sentimental reasons or whatever."

"Ohh! My dad was in a Team 7 after he graduated! He didn't nearly amount to Sannin or Hokage heights of talent. He was just kinda average."

"Naw. I suppose that's that theory cracked."

"Still, that they must have some kind of reason to put all of us on a team is a good idea. And I like the idea of being the next Sannin. We'll need to work on our teamwork, though."

"Isn't Orochimaru a Sannin?" She makes a face.

"We'll be better than him, obviously. Like Rian said, teamwork. And also not betraying the village and running off to become a missing-nin."

"Yes, without all that. We can become a new legend all our own, how about? No 'next Sannin,' just - the first Awesome Team of Awesomeness - okay that's terrible. I'm bad at names."

"Ohhh. How about.... The Magnificent 7." She hmms. "That kinda implies that there's seven of us though."

"Yeah, I've got nothing. It'll be a work in progress. I also doubt that the Sannin named themselves."

"Didn't they earn the name during the Second War? From one of their enemies."

"Ah! They did. Um." Her face scrunches up as she struggles to remember. "They survived this great battle... against this guy whose name I don't remember and for some reason my mind keeps flashing to a lizard?"

"Did they fight a giant lizard?!"

"Possibly a giant lizard summons?"

"Maaaaybe? Rumor has it that Orochimaru has a summoning contract with the King of the Snakes... but that doesn't make sense in context."

"Well, their enemy could've been a summoner. I don't really remember though... Wait, wasn't he a poison expert? Like, so good Tsunade couldn't manage an antidote?"

"Wow! I thought there wasn't anything Tsunade couldn't heal."

"Yes! It was that ninja with the poison breath! The Salamander. He was the leader of Amegakure at the time. He's the one that dubbed them the Sannin."

"Cool! It's kinda amazing how many legendary shinobi there've been throughout history, though only a few end up widely known... Like, I wonder what we're forgetting as a society?"

"What do you mean? Like if history has totally forgotten an entire village, or something?"

"Kind of? Also, like, lost jutsu, famous ninja from the Warring States period... I was big into that era as a kid, and we really know just about nothing about it. What life was like. The villages weren't even founded all that long ago, but all of our history is from when they've existed... I don't know, I just feel like there's stuff about the past we're missing."

"You like history?!" She nearly jumps up and down with excitement. "Me too! Nearly half my library is full of history books. They're mostly about the Konoha clans. Mama might have more in her library about the clans outside of the village. She likes doing a lot of Intel before missions. You can go read them if you like!"

"I'm not a big reader, but I like history just fine when it's told right. There's clan records - a few of them go back really far, you can come have a look at the stuff that isn't locked up if you want - but those are kinda dry, even if the underlying story is interesting. And, yeah, I think I'd like to look at the books for clans outside the village sometime - I agree with your mom that intel's important, and it sounds cool."

"Mama had to comission the village to be able to make copies of a lot of them! But I think once they were accepted she was able to share them with anyone- or probably just Konoha ninja. She did say I'm not allowed to take them outside the house. That's just because she doesn't want them to get ruined, maybe?"

"That makes sense. I'll ask her before looking, and I'll be super careful with them. Thank you for the offer! Both of you can also come by my place to look at jutsu scrolls, not just the history, if you'd like."

"I'd love that!" She smiles bright.

"Does your families written history not go back to the Warring States Era?"

"It goes past that, I'm not sure how far because the date system is irregular, but there's some stuff that's at least centuries old. But it's mostly boring things like old correspondence or records, not really stories. And there's some pretty wide gaps..."

"Maybe recording what was going on lapsed in importance when the fighting got particularly terrible, or the chronicler died and nobody picked it back up straight away?"

"I don't really know. Stuff gets more detailed for the recent things, though, which suggests that peacetime was helpful... There's just so much that never got written down. Some of the records have probably also been lost, and there's some I can't read that must fill in at least a few gaps... It's really frustrating."

"Are they encrypted or something?"

"Yeah, and there's a - thing sort of like a genjutsu, that hides some of the writing if you don't have an advanced enough Sharingan. Lets you keep two or three different records on the same page."

"The Sharingan is the Uchiha bloodline talent, right? I don't really know much about it, just that the Uchiha have it and it lets you copy jutsu..."

"It also makes seeing through genjutsu a lot easier, and - sort of slows down the world, and makes it make more sense. Angles are easier to estimate, targets are easier to hit, that sort of thing. There's three stages to the ordinary Sharingan, and it gets - better - with each. First stage alone is a big improvement though... And there's a stage beyond that, that only something like ten people have activated in recorded history, and I think a lot of what I want to know is locked with that."

"How do you progress through the stages?"

"Using it in combat, for the regular one."

"Were there any Konoha clans that were allied with the Uchiha during the times where the records get vague? Maybe they can fill in the blanks!"

"That's a good idea! I think the Hagoromo towards the end of it, for a bit. I'm not too sure on the rest... It doesn't help that I'm not, like, super good at kanji, there might be more mentions of other clans in the older records."

"Are they still around, the Hagoromo?"

"I'm not actually sure. I think they joined Konoha shortly after the Uchiha, but a lot of the early clans have died out... I don't think they'd have much though, especially not on what I'm mostly looking for, the alliance was pretty brief and I'm trying to reconstruct some clan secrets."

"I wonder what happens to all of a clans records when theres no one left."

"Maybe the Hokage gets them? He does have a lot of scrolls in his library. Sooo many."

"That'd make sense."

"I can ask him about it at our next meeting if you want?"

"Maybe wait until I've figured out more of the records? So I know what I'm looking for. Also as I advance my sharingan I'll be able to learn more."

"Why do you have a meeting with the Hokage? Didn't you have one the other day after Graduation?"

"I go to his office once a week for a check in."

"And I mean, I could always bring it up at one of my meetings with him. - He meets with the orphaned Academy students regularly. I think he'd still do it while we're genin, though he might not."

"He met with Tenten last week and she's a genin. She was the appointment after mine, so we passed each other on the steps."

"Yeah, makes sense that'd he'd want to know how we're settling in."

"Why do you meet with him so regularly?"

"Uh. I'm not sure. He's never really given me a clear answer as to why."

"That's so weird!"

Rian smiles a bit, remembering some of their theories. If Sora doesn't want to share, she won't, though.

Actually...

"It's been a while. I wonder if your mom's done cooking yet?"

....Sayuri jumps up and runs through the door to the kitchen. A moment later Rian and Sora can hear a loud groan of frustration coming from Sayuri.

She walks slowly back into the other room and holds out a small peice of paper to the other girls, the smell of something burning wafts through the open doorway.

"I knew this would happen! And then she ran away. This is so typical." She pouts. 

"Uh. What. Is something burning?"

What does the paper say?

Summoned for a mission. 500 ryou on countertop for dinner. Will send hawk with update. Xx

"...Wow. Um, what are we doing for food? I can help cook if we're eating in..."

Sora hides her amusement. "Me too, though I can't do anything fancy."

Sayuri sighs loudly.

"No it's fine." She walks over to the fridge and grabs a menu. "Mama orders out a lot, so we get a lot of discounts from restaurants."

She takes a deep breath and now she has a smile. "They give us free delivery too!"

She shows them the menu. "Pick whatever you like!"

Rian picks something that sounds good. Spicy with garlic sounds nice right about now.

Once everyone's got their orders in, she says, "So, Sayuri, what do you think the test tomorrow will be like? Did you get a chance to ask your mom about Mariko-sensei?"

"Ooh! Um. I did ask mama about her and she said that Mariko-sensei was the Fourth Hokage's genin teammate! So she's super good at seals and she has a really good mission completion ratio. I could tell mama was impressed with her being my sensei."

Sora laughs and looks to Rian. "So she does know Jiraiya then."

"I wonder if she'll be able to answer our questions about him? She sounds like a good sensei, at least."

"What'd you want to know about Jiraiya?"

"Well, he's one of the Sannin, and I'd like to know more about them in general."

(Like if Sora's secretly his love child. Which is a hilarious concept to Rian for some reason.)

"And we were hoping for him to take us on a fabulous team adventure."

"!!!That would be so much fun!!! We should definitely ask Mariko-sensei about meeting him."

"Definitely!" Giggle. "So, anyways, I wonder what sort of test sensei has in store for us? Maybe we should all brush up on our seals some..."

"Mama wouldn't give me any hints about the test. She did say that it was different for each jounin-sensei though, so maybe she just didn't know."

"I brought along some of my extra sealing scrolls if you wanna use them for tomorrow. I can make up some new ones if you wanna keep them too."

To Sora: "I think I will, thanks. I can bring more kunai and shuriken that way..."

Then: "You know, I don't really know what sorts of things you can even do with seals, beyond storage scrolls and sharingan-locked information."

"Oh a bunch of stuff. You can use them on yourself and other people. They can grant enhanced strength or speed, or make your senses really really good. Um. They can also restrict you from doing things, like make it so you can't tell people certain secrets. It's a really versatile field, I only really know a small amount."

"Wow, that's a lot! No wonder there's so few seal masters."

"It's really difficult but suuper interesting. I'm really glad we have Mariko as our sensei, especially since she was Jiraiya's student and the Fourth Hokage's teammate."

"Was the Fourth Hokage a fuinjutsu specialist too?"

"I think so. Didn't he help win the Third War with seals? Like with the Hiraishin."

"Yes. I don't think he created it himself though, I think I remember reading that it was the Second Hokage's technique? The Fourth did use it to win the war though, for sure."

"Cool! I haven't read much about the Third War. Mama gets sad whenever it's brought up."

"Yeah, I remember reading that the fighting was really terrible. We almost lost, probably would've without the Fourth."

"I wonder how the Fourth got a hold of the Hiraishin. Like, is it in the Hokage's library or did the Senju give it to him."

"Probably in the Hokage's library, I'd say, but I don't really know."

"Do you think we should show up early tomorrow and train together before the test? That way we can work together as a team!"

She might be laying it in a little thick here. Maybe as if she'd just had a big 'teamwork' lecture from someone...

"That sounds great! It'll be a good idea to get familiar with each others' styles, even if the test isn't combat-oriented."

"I still feel really unprepared. I'm very used to having a plan, or even the outline of a plan. I do not like surprises."

"It can't be that difficult! If it was... wouldn't we of had heard of a regular cycle of graduating ninja returning to the Academy after they failed?"

"Didn't Mariko-sensei say that only a third of teams pass? And I'm not sure why we haven't, actually... Maybe the remedial training is in another building?"

"I guess that makes sense? Ugh. This secrecy stuff is annoying."

Sayuri giggles. "We're ninja. Secrets are a part of our trade."

"Yeah, but this really isn't a consequential secret. There's no reason not to tell us, and plenty of reasons to."

"Maybe they want to see how we adapt to situations on short notice?"

"I suppose that is something we need to get used to."

"Ugh. Yeah. That does make sense."