Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto


I tap my foot as I wait, leaning back against the seat — beside me Takumi wiggles impatiently, sighing heavily as he tilts his head back and stares up at the ceiling.

The clock ticks forward indefinitely, and it feels like an eternity passes before the examination door opens and Souta steps out, his hands behind his back.

Takumi sits up straight as he approaches, and before either of us can ask Souta grins, holding up the headband in front of him — and Takumi laughs, all but launching himself over the table in his excitement.

"We did it!" He exclaims. "We all passed — we're all ninja now!"

Souta laughs, and Takeo-sensei exits the examination room a moment later, a rare smile crossing his face as he sees the three of us. Everyone else has left — with Souta and I being the last two people to do the exam, Takumi was the only one who stayed after everyone else finished.

"Congratulations, you three," Takeo-sensei offers, and my friends grin back at him. "You've all done a good job."

"Heh." Takumi nudges me as I make my way to his side. "Thanks, Takeo-sensei — hey, do you know who the teams are gonna be yet? Can you tell us?"

Takeo-sensei shakes his head. "I don't; you'll just have to wait until next week to find out, Takumi-kun." He moves to the podium to adjust the papers he's holding. "Don't forget to head to the registration offices before then to get your papers sorted," he reminds us. "Try not to leave it until too late."

"We won't," I reassure, "thank you, Takeo-sensei. I've been in your care," I offer, bowing my head a bit in respect.

We barely make it outside the academy before Takumi is laughing again. His headband is already tied to his forehead, and he adjusts it before nodding. "We should go out to eat to celebrate," he states. "Let's go to your house and eat gyudon, Nagicchi!"

"I didn't ask Genma if we could," I reply, before shrugging. "Then again, I don't think we had anything planned … wanna come buy the ingredients with me?"

Takumi nods, and Souta pauses to tie his headband around his neck. "When are you guys going to file your papers?" he asks. "Takeo-sensei did say it's a bad idea to wait."

"Right," I agree. "I was thinking tomorrow … what about you?"

Souta nods. "Me too. Takumi?"

"Eh …" he shrugs. "I dunno. Whenever, I guess?" I punch him in the shoulder, and he jumps. "Hey!"

"You gotta file those before we come back for our team assignments," I say sternly. "Come with Souta and me tomorrow."

He sighs, but reluctantly agrees after a moment of silence.

We return to my apartment after buying the ingredients for gyudon; Genma isn't back yet, so I simply put the ingredients away in the fridge before turning to look at Takumi and Souta. They're lounging on the couch, and I bring over water for us before taking my own seat.

"Sooo," Takumi starts, "what time is your brother gonna be home at?"

I shrug. "Later? He's been pretty busy lately."

We fall into silence, and it stretches on for a good half a minute before Souta finally breaks it with, "Wanna play shiritori?"

We shrug. "Sure," I agree. "I'll start?"

Both of them nod. "Ringo," I begin.

"Gokudou." Evil.

"Doubutsu." Animal.

"Tsunade." Mooring Rope.

"Detarame." I pause, giving Souta an incredulous look that he grins sheepishly at.

Takumi continues, "Megumi." Blessing.

"Mizu." Water.

"Zuboshi." Bullseye.

"Shigatsu." April.

"Tsubasa." Wing.

"Satsumaimo." Sweet potato.

"Mori." Forest.

Needless to say, our game goes on for awhile longer — with Souta throwing out some words that I'm surprised he even knows and Takumi managing to pull out of spots that I don't even think I could've — before Souta finally stumbles and blurts out "meron" and loses.

Genma gets home a while later, after we've cycled through a few other games, and I wave at him as he enters, getting to my feet so I can meet him at the genkan.

"I know I didn't ask first, but I bought stuff for gyudon." I pause. "Sorry. Is it OK?"

Genma's eyes flicker to my forehead, before his face lights up with a grin. "As long as you help."

"Souta was gonna, actually," I reply. "Remember? You said yesterday you'd teach him."

"Ah; I did, didn't I?" he offers the boys a friendly wave before returning his attention to me. "Sure; why not. Celebration dinner, right?"

I grin. "Yup."

Takumi and I stay in the living room while Genma and Souta move into the kitchen to begin cooking, and I listen idly to their conversation while also doing my best to hold one with Takumi.

"I forgot to ask you earlier," he starts, after awhile of mindless conversation between the two of us, "but what was your score on the bukijutsu and taijutsu portion?"

I hum. "Combined?"

"Separate."

"Uh … a two on taijutsu and two on bukijutsu. Why?" I ask.

Takumi grins, his eyes lighting up. "I got a two point five on bukijutsu," he states. "I beat you!"

"You beat my genjutsu, too," I mumble. "I only got a one on that. I wonder what our other scores were?"

Takumi shrugs, fiddling with his headband. "We could probably ask whoever our sensei ends up being."

"Or check it ourselves," I reply. "Once we get our IDs, we can look at our records whenever."

Souta comes back out a minute later, patting me on the shoulder to get my attention. "Genma wants to see you," he tells me and I nod, getting to my feet.

"What is it?" I ask him as I enter the kitchen. "Do you need help or something?"

Genma shakes his head. "No — I thought I'd let you serve yourself," he tells me, "since everything is ready. I want you to take as much as you think you can finish."

I grimace, my stomach churning uncomfortably at the thought. "Why?"

"You have a small appetite," he replies. "So you know how much you're capable of eating — and I don't want to give you anymore than that. You need to get used to finishing your food."

I agree with a sigh, grabbing one of the smaller bowls out of the cupboard — and after everyone's serving has been put together we all settle down at the table and eat.

For the first time in years I finish my food — or most of it, that is. There's a bit of rice leftover in the bowl, and I have to force myself to keep going when everyone else finishes eating; there's an awful, terrifying and nagging thought of 'Stop looking at me' but I manage to keep myself from saying it.

The feeling of being watched makes me feel sick, and I force myself to continue as quickly as I can despite the fact that my willingness to finish has all but evaporated. Genma offers me a small smile as I place my bowl in the sink.

"Do you want me to do the dishes?" I offer, but he shakes his head.

"Just have fun tonight," he replies. "You've just graduated, after all. The easy days are over now."

I pause. "Genin only do D-rank missions when they start, though."

"True, but D-ranks aren't very stimulating." He pats my shoulder, giving me a slight push towards the living room. "Now go hang out with your friends; have fun."


"Once again, I'd like to congratulate you all," Takeo-sensei begins, "as of today you are all fully fledged ninja, ready to serve the village. You will be put into squads of three and assigned a jonin sensei who you will from now on be carrying out missions under."

Takumi leans back, leaning his head into his hands as Takeo-sensei starts naming off the teams. "I'm still convinced we're gonna be a team," he whispers to us. "There's no way they'd split us up. Never."

"They want to create balanced teams," I whisper back. "Either that, or a specialized team. So you better hope we fall into one of those two categories."

"Team two — Aizawa Hideki, Kobayashi Tadashi, and Matsumoto Minako."

I wince. Poor Minako; if their jonin-sensei decides to test them on teamwork, I'm not honestly convinced they'll pass.

"Team three — Akiyama Takumi, Shiranui Nagisa, and Yamaguchi Souta."

I blink, and that's apparently long enough for the assignments to register in Takumi's brain, because he laughs happily, sending a smug grin towards me. "See? I told you!"

Souta grins as well, and I can't help the one that forms on my own face. "Well," I muse, "I didn't say it was impossible."

Although Takumi's grades aren't the best, they're definitely not the worst; and considering that Souta and I both came out in the top ten of our class, it means that we're likely going to be expected to specialize in something, because our team right now isn't exactly balanced.

What that something is, I don't know — I can only hope it's not too … bad. Specialized teams tend to last the longest, unless it's a combat team — in which they're better off hoping to god they survive.

I run over our scores, or at least the ones I know, and immediately am able to rule that out. If anything, team two would be a better choice for a frontal-assault team; Hideki's taijutsu and ninjutsu scores are relatively high, Tadashi can take hits, and Minako will likely be slotted as the team medic.

" … And that's it for the teams," Takeo-sensei finishes. "There will be no switching, so don't bother asking. You will be introduced to your jonin-sensei after lunch, so please return before twelve."

Souta hums. "I wonder who our sensei is gonna be? Nagisa, did your brother say anything about who it could be?"

"Nope." I draw the word out, leaning my cheek into my palm. "I just hope to god it isn't one of his friends …"

Takumi scoffs. "I bet it isn't," he replies flippantly. "Wouldn't that be, uh … like … a whatchamacallit?"

"A what?"

He flushes in embarrassment. "You know! It's when you can't do something because you know them and could be biased."

"Oh — you mean a conflict of interest?" Souta guesses, and Takumi nods.

"Yeah! That!"

I roll my eyes, shaking my head at the both of them. "No one worries about that, Takumi. Besides, it's not like they're my friends."

We head out to the courtyard to eat lunch, basking in the warmth from the sun as we munch on our bentos, idly talking about the team placements.

"So I was thinking," I begin, "team two. You think they'll be a frontal-assault squad? I can't see them failing Hideki out. His nin and taijutsu are too high."

Takumi nods. "Of course they're not gonna fail the asshole out. But what about team seven?" He offers. "I can't see them going anywhere. Setsuna, Hisato, and Daichi aren't really good at anything."

"Hey," Souta scolds, "that's pretty mean, Takumi. Hisato got better written scores than you."

"But Daichi and Setsuna didn't." Takumi yawns, slapping the lid back onto his bento after finishing the last bits of rice. "C'mon, don't you think it's obvious? They put the worse ones together so that they're less likely to pass."

"And then get slotted into the Genin Corps," I finish, offering the other half of my bento to the boy. He takes it without question. "Then who do you think are gonna pass?"

Takumi hums. "Well, definitely us," he starts. "Team two as well. Maybe Kana's team?"

"I think Eisuke's team will make it," Souta argues. "Or … wait, Eisuke is on Kana's team, isn't he?"

Takumi frowns. "Is he? I don't remember."

I nod. "He is. Eisuke, Kana, and Kenta. Team nine," I recite. "As long as we pass, I don't really care who else does."

"Aw, that's so mean Nagisa," Takumi whines. "It'd suck if us and that asshole Hideki's team were the only ones to become Genin; think of how boring it'd be!"

Souta doesn't say anything, but I can tell he agrees with Takumi. I just shrug.

We return to our class after awhile longer, and a glance at the clock shows that there's still about ten minutes until twelve. Not everyone has returned back, yet; either that, or they've been picked up early.

The three of us settle into another game of shiritori as we wait. I notice that most of the teams have already gravitated together, forming their own little groups; some of them are talking, while others are just ignoring each other and socializing with their friends on another team. I send a silent thank you to whoever put the teams together — I don't know what I'd have done if I got placed into a team with anyone else from my class.

The classroom door cracks open practically the second the clock hits twelve, and a woman steps through, her eyes roaming the classroom. Her blonde hair is drawn into a bun on the top of her head, and she's dressed in standard jonin wear. "Team three?" She calls out, and I glance up.

"Here," I call back, raising my hand slightly. I follow Takumi and Souta out of the bench, and the woman looks us all over before nodding.

"Meet me at training ground sixteen in twenty minutes — and try not to be late," she requests, before heading right back out the classroom. She's gone by the time we step into the hallway and I sigh.

"Well, this'll be fun," I say dryly. "And before you ask, Takumi, no; I don't know who she is."

Takumi pouts, crossing his arms over his chest. "I wasn't gonna ask you that," he shoots back. "I was just gonna ask if you knew where that training ground is."

I pause. "Um … no, I don't," I mumble.

"She only gave us twenty minutes," Souta points out, "so it has to be somewhere we can find easily, right?"

I shrug. "Maybe … the administration building probably has a map."


"You made it." The voice comes from above us, and I turn to look at it. The woman from earlier is seated upon one of the tree branches, and she drops down in front of us, nodding to herself. "Good — you're capable of listening to directions."

Takumi shifts in place. "You're our sensei, right?" he asks. "Are you gonna introduce yourself or something?"

A brief, small smile comes to her face before it's quickly replaced by her previous impassive expression. "Or something," she confirms.

Takumi frowns, and Souta quickly steps forward, raising his hand slightly as he speaks. "Um — so, sensei, what is your name then?"

She turns her gaze to him. "My name is Yamanaka Madoka. There's no need for us to do team introduction this early," she tells us, before making a motion with her hand at us. We all share a look before following after her.

Madoka leads us to an area with training posts set up and motions for us to stand across from her.

"As I stated earlier, my name is Yamanaka Madoka and I'll be your jonin sensei. My job is to mold you into proper ninja — I will teach and prepare you as necessary." Her blue eyes scan the three of us, and instinctively I straighten up my posture. "Beginning now, you are my students."

Takumi crosses his arms over his chest. "Sensei, don't you want to know about us though? Like our names and stuff?"

Madoka-sensei gives him an unreadable look. "Fine then," she replies, "give me your names."

Takumi blinks. "Uh—uh, OK … well, I'm Akiyama Takumi. I like—"

"No," she interrupts, "I just want your names. Proper introductions can wait."

Takumi fumes, but thankfully keeps his temper under control. Madoka turns her gaze to Souta, who unclenches his hands from the tight fists they'd been clenched into. "I-I'm Yamaguchi Souta," he says softly, and it's obvious he's intimidated. I wince.

I've only been around Madoka-sensei for a total of maybe a minute now, but it's already become clear to me that showing weakness around her isn't the best idea. The way her eyes roam us, like we're some kind of specimen to be examined— it's … unsettling. The fact that she's a Yamanaka makes it even more unsettling — I know what that clan is capable of doing.

Reading through people's mind, controlling their actions … someone with those abilities isn't someone I want looking at me too carefully.

There's too much for me to hide, too much at risk — and I clench my hands into fists until I feel my nails biting into the skin of my palms.

"And you?"

I breathe out slowly. Keep calm, Nagisa. Keep calm.

"Shiranui Nagisa," I say simply, making sure to keep my posture straight and stance comfortable. Don't show weakness, don't show fear, don't show discomfort.

This has to be a test.

… Right?

"Takumi, Souta, and Nagisa," she repeats, the names rolling off her tongue smoothly. "Very well. We will begin the test, now."

"Test?" Takumi repeats. "But we already passed a test." He points at his headband, as if it's proof of what he's saying. "See? We have the headband and everything. And since our scores were all good, you can't fail us." He pauses. "Right?"

"The graduation test just judges whether you have the potential to become a ninja," Madoka explains. "This test determines whether you stay on a squad, get shipped off to the Genin Corps, or sent back to the academy."

Souts's eyes widen. "Back to the academy? But why?"

"Just because you can pull off basic jutsu and pass a simple exam doesn't mean you're cut out to be a ninja," she chastises. "There's much more to it."

"So what's our test, then?" I ask, and thankfully my voice doesn't shake with the nerves that are rolling right under my skin. "If it's gonna test teamwork then we'll pass it for sure; we're friends, after all."

Madoka's expression doesn't change. Instead, she removes three scrolls from her waist pouch and hands them off to us. "Your job is to complete the tasks written in those scrolls and return to this training field by the end of the day. If you do, you'll pass; simple as that."

I unravel the scroll and frown. Only a location is written on it; I turn to Souta and Takumi and see similar looks on their faces.

"Sensei," Takumi begins, "there's only a name written here."

"Yes," Madoka replies. "There are two other scrolls as well, Takumi. I'll leave you three to it; there will be no outside assistance from me during this test."

The three of us huddle up together, showing each other our scrolls; while mine has a location, Takumi's has a name and Souta's a single word, written in hiragana — akeru.

"Um … sensei?" Souta starts tentatively. "Which akeru is this?"

Madoka smiles slightly. "Well, you'll have to figure that out yourself. Now, the clock is ticking — remember, you only have until five tonight."

Souta winces, stiffening up slightly, and I pat his shoulder reassuringly. "It's fine; we'll figure it out," I soothe. "Maybe the location will help us figure it out."

Akeru — it could mean open, begin, end, or empty. Definitely not one of the worst homophones to be given, but still a bit difficult to figure out without any context clues or kanji. She could've given us shi, in which we'd have better luck finding a needle in a haystack than figuring out which shi she meant.

"So the location is … um … I don't recognize this address," Takumi mumbles. "Let's see …"

Souta glances at my scroll as well. "I think it's by the orphanage; I recognize the name, though …" he hesitates for a moment. "Well, it's … we're going to stand out if we go there."

"Please don't tell me it's a strip club?" I mumble. "That's the last place I want to go."

Souta shakes his head. "No … I think it's a bar."

"Well, we gotta hurry up and do this so we can pass!" Takumi cries out. "Madoka-sensei—wait, where'd she go?"

I turn and see that Madoka is nowhere to be seen, leaving us alone on the training field; but I'm almost positive she's watching from somewhere. It wouldn't be a test otherwise.

"Souta, do you think you can lead us to the place?"

He nods, and we all hurry after him. On the way there, we discuss our various options and ways of approaching the situation; in the end, we come up with four routes we can take. One main one, and three in case that first one fails.

It takes a bit of searching, but eventually we do find the building and, as Souta said, it is in fact a bar. Considering we're genin now we're technically allowed to go in and drink, but it's pretty much an unspoken rule that it's not a place for children.

Still, it's not like we have much of a choice.

"If we're supposed to find someone in there, it's probably better if we don't go in … like this," I say. "We should henge into someone older."

"Plus, we don't all need to go in, do we?" Souta adds. "One or two of us can go in while the other stays out here to watch. You know, in case we have to get out quickly or something?"

I nod. "Yeah, true. Who's going?"

"Well … Takumi has the highest ninjutsu score of all of us," Souta points out. "And I'm tied with you for second, Nagisa. So I guess I'll stay out here — or at least, I'll stay in the background. Just in case."

Takumi crosses his arms over his chest. "What are we even going to be doing in there, anyways? All we have is a word."

"We just have to work with it," I respond. "Maybe it's a clue or something."

We step into the nearby alleyway and form our respective henge; while Takumi and Souta go for what appears to just be a slightly older version of themselves, I go for something more bland — but Takumi just shakes his head at me when he sees it.

"You look like a totally different person now," he states. "Like … completely! Why'd you make your hair black?"

"It's better to not look like yourself if you're pretending to be someone else," I point out. "You two are kinda obvious about it; don't you remember Takeo-sensei's lesson on infiltration?"

Takumi frowns. "We aren't infiltrating though, we're just—" then he cuts himself off. "Ah … we're information gathering, aren't we?"

I nod. "That's what I thought, too."

"So if we're gathering intel," Souta begins, "we need to be discrete about it … so maybe it's better if Takumi stays in the back and Nagisa and I go in?"

"Hey — are you saying I'm not discrete?" Takumi accuses. "I can totally be discrete!"

Souta shakes his head. "Nuh-uh — remember the exercises we did in the academy? You barely passed them because you were too obvious about it!"

"But that was then!"

"Guys … does it matter who does what?" I ask. "We need to use our strengths to our advantage; Takumi, you have the highest genjutsu score of all of us … although we don't know any real useful genjutsu other than cloaking ones, those can really help to make us more inconspicuous."

Takumi sputters, struggling to find an argument, but in the end he gives up, relenting. "Fine … I get it. You and Souta get to actually do the cool stuff while I have to support."

"Like I said; play to our strengths."

With that figured out we head into the bar, flashing our headbands to the bouncer. Thanks to our henged appearances he doesn't even bat an eye at us — considering it's the middle of the day there's no real reason for him to suspect anything.

The bar is mostly empty this time of day, and I begin to scan the crowd for anyone who could fit the name we were given; meanwhile, I feel Takumi cast the cloaking genjutsu we were taught in the academy. It's a version of the Kakuremino no Jutsu we learned in the very beginning of the academy, except rather than using cloth or other nearby items to hide it instead uses a simple genjutsu.

It's one of the only two genjutsu we're even taught in the academy, and of course Takumi was the one in our group of friends who picked it up almost instantly.

There's a single man seated at the bar, and I exchange a look with Souta; he returns it, and the two of us make our way over to the man.

"Hey there," I offer, resisting the urge to wince at how my voice sounds henged. It brings back a flash of memories that I'd thought I forgotten about ages ago. "What are you doing alone at this time?"

The man looks up in surprise. "Uh …" he stumbles for an answer, and while he's not quite drunk it's obvious he's a bit tipsy. "What do you two need?"

"The bar is pretty empty at this time of day; what're you doing here by yourself?" I continue, as if he didn't even speak.

Souta slides into the seat beside the man, his henge not even stuttering despite his obvious nerves. "We're looking for someone; do you think you can help us out?"

"W-Why me?" The man stutters, as he calls for another refill on his glass. His hands tremble uneasily. "It can't be so important you'll track someone down to a bar and ask."

"Hey—don't get defensive," I reply, taking a seat on the opposite stool so that he's effectively blocked in by the two of us. "We're just looking, alright? So help us out."

The refill is set down in front of him, and he eyes it warily, as if we've poisoned it, before taking a long drink and setting it back down. "Fine," he offers back. "What are you looking for?"

Souta and I share a look. "A friend of ours was supposed to be leaving today," I begin, the lie rolling off my tongue. "We … haven't been able to find him since yesterday, and the last time we saw him was with you. His apartment was empty this morning."

The man's eyes widen slightly. "Ikuo-san?" He blurts out, and Souta blinks in surprise, taken aback by the sudden exclamation. Thankfully, the man's eyes are focused on me, and I smooth my emotions out, nodding. I wasn't expecting our first plan to actually work; we had four, set up, just in case the previous ones didn't work out—it's just our luck that he latched onto the first one we thought up.

"Yeah. So have you seen him?"

Suddenly he won't meet our eyes, and there's a flash of chakra at my back. I glance over my shoulder, and see Takumi making a motion with his hands; it takes me barely a second to realize he's signing a message to us.

'Unknown entering' it relays, and I sign back at him behind my back, turning my attention back to Souta and the man; Souta has taken over the questioning, and I meet his eyes.

I release a bit of chakra, and the man nearly chokes on his drink. "Hey … so we never got your name, actually," I start, when there's a lapse in the conversation between him and Souta. "What is it?"

He sputters something out that I don't catch. Thankfully, Souta does.

"Akira-san," Souta says, "we really need your cooperation … after all, if we don't find Ikuo-san, then you'll be cast for treason as well."

I jerk at that word, and so does Akira. "T-Treason?" he sputters. "Wait, what're you talking about—?"

"Ikuo-san is wanted for treason," Souta lies, and I'm surprised by how convincing it sounds. This isn't something the three of us discussed at all. "You were the last person to see him, and since he's gone missing … it really doesn't look good on you."

I nod, quickly falling into the lie as well. "If you didn't know, of course, then this can be cleared up quickly … without a trip to T&I. But if you keep pretending to not know anything, then we can't help you."

Akira is sweating bullets. A twinge of victory comes to life inside of me; I'm not sure if this is what we were supposed to do, but it doesn't feel wrong or off.

And, considering the reaction we're getting, it's obvious this guy is guilty of something.

Akeru … who would've thought our first guess would be the right one?

It only takes another minute before he's spilling his guts to us—and I look over my shoulder at Takumi, offering him a single thumbs up, before the confession is interrupted by a hand on both mine and Souta's shoulders.

Madoka-sensei's voice rings clear through the room, and I jerk when the man between Souta and I disappears in a puff of smoke. "Well," she begins, "that was quick. I'm surprised you got it so quickly."

"A-A clone?" Souta stammers. "Madoka-sensei?"

She looks at Takumi, whose genjutsu has wilted by now. "The three of you, meet be back at training ground sixteen immediately. I won't be kept waiting."

And then she's gone, and the three of us exchange a single look.

"I … hope that's a good sign," Souta mumbles, as we leave the bar, our henges still in tact. We wait until we've reached the alleyway before releasing them. "I didn't even notice Madoka-sensei come in—when did she come in?"

Takumi takes the lead of our group. "I think it was the unknown I told Nagisa about," he replies. "That's the only person who came in. But the old guy was a clone the whole time?"

I nod. "Probably Madoka-sensei's clone. She's the one administering this test … even if it was weirder than I expected it to be," I mumble the last part. "I bet she was in the bar the whole time, though. I think the unknown was just a normal person coming in."

"Huh … I really didn't notice," Souta says with a sigh. "I didn't pay enough attention."

"Well," I muse, "it was Takumi's job to keep watch. After all, he was just staying back—hey!" I barely avoid a punch to the shoulder, and Takumi offers me a glare.

"It was all our job," he shoots back. "If we're a team, we gotta all watch out for each other. It's not just my job, Nagicchi."

I frown. "But we gave team assignments, so it kinda was your job."

Takumi groans. "Ugh … whatever! We passed, right? Madoka-sensei seemed pleased, I think. So that's all that matters."

"We probably passed," I agree. Souta nods as well.


Madoka-sensei looks at us all for a long moment, and we squirm under her gaze, before she finally tells us, "Congratulations — you three pass."

"Like we would ever fail," Takumi says proudly, as if he wasn't freaking out the entire walk here. "We're too great for that! Right guys?"

Souta grins. "We did a good job, right sensei? We figured it out!"

Madoka nods. "For your first time, you did well. Considering your young ages, you did especially well."

"Hey, we're ninja now," Takume butts in. "So don't call us young! Age doesn't matter when you're us."

"However," she continues, as if Takumi didn't even speak, and Takumi goes silent. "There's a lot you three need to work on. If you haven't figured it out yet, your team has been created as an espionage-infiltration specialty group." She gives us a moment to process these words before continuing, "I've been assigned as your teacher due to specializing in this field; I expect a lot from you three."

Souta nods. "Sensei, we'll do our best; so please teach us." He bows respectfully, and I follow suit; after a moment, Takumi bows as well, albeit less low than Souta and I. "We promise to do our best!"

"Yeah—we'll be a great team!" Takumi exclaims. "We did awesome this time, right Madoka-sensei? You said it yourself!"

She sighs. "Takumi … yes. You three did well. But there were numerous mistakes that were made as well. There's a lot to work on."

And then, she walks us through the things we did wrong, and I'm taken aback by how many small mistakes that we made. When we went in, it felt like we had it all covered; that we'd gotten everything correct, but apparently not.

"You approached the situation far too carelessly," she finishes. "In time, you'll learn to do better; but until then, we'll continue training, and working through the skill necessary to properly infiltrate and gather information."

I stretch my arms behind my back and ask, "Sensei, does that mean our training will be focused on this kind of stuff?"

"No," she replies. "You three need to improve your taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu. Infiltration is not just about being sneaky. Ideally, you'll never have to be in a situation where it's necessary to engage in combat; but the world doesn't function like that. Sometimes, no matter how good you are, combat cannot be avoided."

"We'll do exercises that will teach you how to infiltrate properly, but for now, they'll be taking the back burner. It's simply the end goal you're all working towards."

There's a brief silence, and Takumi finally breaks it with, "So … sensei, now can we do team introductions? After all, we passed, right? We're your team now!"

Madoka smiles slightly. "Very well. We might as well."


A/N: I'll be honest ... I hate this chapter so much I don't even want to look at it any longer. I couldn't think of a test for the team that would fit what I wanted, so this one I came up with feels really awkward and weird. That's why this chapter took so long to write, actually; I was just pouring over possible tests for the three of them that would do what I wanted for it to.

I don't know if it worked, honestly.

Let me know what you think of this chapter! I love hearing from you guys, and all the feedback I've received has helped me a lot with writing. I've been going through some tough times, so hearing feedback from all of you really helps me get through those times.

Thanks for reading!