"Your teams will be announced in order. Team 1 is Anoza Sukoya, Zenoza Atiku, and Mitosu Asoka with Titsu Makuta as their jounin instructor. Team 2 ..." Our instructor from the academy says. Ignoring him I look at Sukoya who is two seats down from me and Atiku who is the row below. I wink at Sukoya who gives his trademark smile flattening his spiky hair with his hand. Atiku grins and coughs covering an exclamation.

Looking around I see several people either looking rejected or insanely happy as their teams get called. I look to see the man that was called to be our instructor. He had short black hair and deep green eyes. Taking in his green vest jacket with its many pockets and his long brown pants. My eyes settle on his katana.

Sukoya coughs and my attention rivets back to the instructor just in time for him to tell us to go eat lunch. Makuta-Sensei stands in front of me and my new teammates. "We will train after lunch. I suggest you get to know each other." he says then turns away. Heading outside Sukoya and Atiku fall in next to me.

I glance to see Atiku is wearing a black skin tight shirt and grey cargo pants. "Normal spot?" he says looking at me.

"Yeah, if you can catch up" I say then start off as we had just made it outside. Taking off running I hear Sukoya laugh and he starts running next to me. Winking at our old joke that we had used to make ourselves faster we take off running.

We get to our spot. Looking at our rooftop retreat I feel the wind start to pick up. Picking up some sand I pour it watching it blow away. Atiku and Sukoya both nod knowing that a sandstorm was coming. We eat our food quickly. Breaking out my ramen I smile.

Noticing that Atiku is staring at me I wipe my face thinking there is something on my face. Looking at my napkin I see nothing on it. "What is it?" I ask slightly annoyed. He runs his hand over his slicked back hair his grey eyes riveted on my lower face.

"Never seen the bottom your face. You're not Japanese." he says bluntly.

"You're just figuring that out." Sukoya says being a smart aleck.

"Sorry, it's just that after I um, lost someone important to me I've worn this. I still wonder if he ever got back home." I say a sad look in my eyes. They both put a hand on my shoulders.

Smiling at them both I stand up looking at the approaching storm. "Wonder what training is going to be?" I wonder out loud not wanting to talk about that anymore.

"We will see how long you can stand being in a sandstorm." Mukata-Sensei says as he appears behind my right shoulder. I jump forward startled.

"What can we use Sensei?" Sukoya says stifling a laugh. Shooting a glare his way I look at Mukata-Sensei.

He looks at me as I hide a smirk I had been doing this for two years and knew what we would need. "What is on you right now and your chakra? I suggest you talk to each other." he says then disappears in a flurry of sand.

Sukoya instantly turns to me. "How do we do your sand protection jutsu?" he asks. I look at them both and pull some cloth out of my belt pouch on my right hip. Motioning to Sukoya I wrap any of his skin that would show just in case he lost control of his chakra.

"This is a trust building exercise. She wants you guys to trust me enough that I can keep you safe and for me to trust you not to run at an important time. Finishing wrapping Atiku I tuck my mask tightly not even thinking to wrap my arms and hands.

I stand at an equal distance between Sukoya and Atiku. They look at me and know not to move. "You are going to focus your chakra in front of you and then combine it to the edges of everyone else. Like this." I say and show them how I did it.

Sukoya and Atiku get it right just as the storm rolls over us. The wind whips around us and the sand hits our chakra barrier hard. Feeling Sukoya and Atiku strengthen their respective parts of the barrier I concentrate hard I read the flow of the sand outside of the barrier. This wasn't going to be a very long storm.

We sit there for about an hour before all of the sudden Atiku loses control of his chakra. Shifting my barrier to protect Atiku and Sukoya I fell the sand bite into my unprotected arms and hands. Atiku corrects his chakra control and I revert back to protecting myself and connect my chakra with everyone else.

My arms and hands drip blood onto the sand. Feeling Sukoya look at me I grit my teeth not let the moan escape my lips. "Stay put. I'll be fine." I say through gritted teeth. Just as quickly as the storm started it ended. Sukoya runs over to me. Looking at my arms and hands I start to feel dizzy from loosing blood from my raw flesh.

Sukoya starts to clean my wounds with water and then bandages my right arm. Atiku helps him handing him more bandages as he needs them. "Take my head wrap off the sand itches." I say. He very carefully takes it off and I shake my long grey hair out.

Makuta-sensei appears behind us as they start to wrap my left arm. "So the one I thought might sacrifice her well being did. You correctly figured out that this was to see how well you work as a team. I have to say you did better than the rest of the teams. Two teams are all in the hospital and the others came in about two minutes after the exercise started." he said.

He takes a look at my unwrapped hand that is dripping blood on the sand. I move the sand around and try to hide how much blood was there. "I can still train. It is not that bad I won't even scar. It just hurts nothing I can't handle." I say quickly knowing the look he was giving me.

"You were covered everywhere else." he says. Nodding I hang my head trying not to blackout. He takes my hand from Sukoya and finishes wrapping it. "That's all for today. Be ready for training tomorrow." He says and disappears.

"I'm going home." Atiku says. Nodding I turn to Sukoya.

"Go home; your mom is probably worried." I say brooking no agreement. He just smiles and turns around letting the sand envelope him and then he is gone. I collapse then and fall asleep.