Dinner passes with ease. Iruka's stories fill my heart with much needed warmth just as Yukiko's cooking seems to soothe my soul. Surprisingly, Kakashi has been quietly reserved. Perhaps it's because he's trying to get on Yukiko's good side. It's nearly 8:30 before Iruka begins to wrap up the evening.
"Thank you for the meal, Yukiko. It's getting a little late and unfortunately Mei and I still have some things to take care of upstairs."
"It was no trouble at all dear. Thanks for keeping my old bones company."
Kakashi begins to clear away the dishes. Not wanting to seem lazy or ungrateful, I help gather the rest and follow him around the counter to the sink.
"I'll wash if you dry." We make quick work of it, sinking into a steady rhythm with each other. Just a few minutes later, Kakashi places the last plate into its proper cabinet as Iruka and I slip out shoes back on at the door.
"Thank you so much for having me," I say as the older woman folds me into her embrace once more.
"You're welcome anytime. Don't feel like you can only come when one of these two is here." I nod and situate my mask upon my face again. The walls I've built around myself over the years may be coming down, but it's a slow dismantling process. Once outside, Yukiko bids the three of us a final goodnight and retreats back behind her door. I stifle a yawn. I guess I didn't realize how tired a good, home-cooked meal would make me.
"I know it's late, but if you want to discuss it, I have some information for you about the graduation exam." Any weariness suddenly vanished, leaving me highly alert.
"I'm definitely not too tired for that," I say as I take the stairs two at a time. Iruka chuckles and follows me upstairs and into the apartment. I remove my shoes and settle into the couch before reaching up for my mask. A shock of silver hair floods my peripherals as the couch dips beside me, causing me to hesitate.
"What are you doing?" My fingers twitch as I remove my mask. He's seen my face anyway, but it's still difficult to do without the imposition of rules. Kakashi evidently doesn't feel it necessary to remove his own mask.
"Thought I could be of some assistance." He stretches his arms over the back of the couch as Iruka reenters the room with a small stack of papers. I pinch the bridge of my nose, willing the headache forming to dispel. How is there more paperwork?
Clearly reading my face, he drops the papers at the kitchen counter and laughs. "These aren't for you, don't worry. I just need to finish grading these while we talk."
"Or," Kakashi quips. "You could work on those and I can go over the exam dates and training schedule you briefed me on earlier."
As if just realizing he were here, Iruka jumps a little at the sound of Kakashi's voice. "When did you get here? Nevermind. That'll work, thanks." He shifts in his seat and turns his full attention to grading.
I lean into the side of the couch to put some space between us. Evidently his manners were left downstairs. "So, what's the news?"
"Iruka has arranged for a mutual friend of ours to proctor your exam next Friday. His name is Genma Shiranui." That's just under two weeks away. "I take it you've looked at the materials for the written exam?"
"Yes, the only section I'm unfamiliar with is the shinobi rules."
"If that's it, you'll pass the written with flying colors. Only a handful of questions cover the shinobi rules and they relate more to grammar and spelling than anything." That's a relief. I won't have to kill my braincells trying to memorize all of those.
"Have you read over the practical portion of the exam?"
"I didn't get any material for it," I say.
"It's pretty straight forward. You'll have to display an ability to perform basic jutsus and skills in both close-range and long-range combatives."
"Is there like a list?" Jutsus shouldn't be a problem, but combatives may be my downfall.
"I'm sure Iruka can draw one up for you. Jutsus almost always include transformation, shadow clones, and releasing a weak genjutsu." I'll have to practice releasing. I can sometimes pick up on a genjutsu, but I've never found myself trapped in one.
"And combatives?" His eye twinkles.
"Worried about the combatives portion? Weren't you ready to fight me in the street this afternoon?" His teasing tone prevents my defensive anger from bubbling up.
"Ready, yes. Would I have been successful? Probably not." He hums in agreement. "I've trained and my reflexes are generally pretty quick, but I've always done my best to avoid a fight when I was on the road."
"Well, it's a good thing we'll have the next two weeks to train. You'll need to be able to demonstrate long-range accuracy with kunai as well as strong offensive and defensive tactics in hand-to-hand combat against your proctor."
I lean forward and rest my chin on my hands, elbows propped on my knees. Assuming this Genma Shiranui is a chūnin or higher, I've got little chance of winning a fight against him. Not to mention my accuracy and strength when it comes to throwing kunai is absolute shit. Guess it's a good thing we have time to train before I take this. Wait...
"We have time to train?" He avoids my gaze.
"Lucky for you, my team is non-deployable right now, so I'm stuck in the village for the time being. I'll be overseeing your training."
This is either going to be really good or really, really bad. On one hand, I'll be training with an elite shinobi which is going to help me out in the long run. On the other hand, our tentative acquaintanceship is sailing on turbulent waters. And it's Kakashi Hatake. He may not have outright threatened me earlier, but I doubt I'm treading on more than thin ice in his book.
"We'll go over this some more tomorrow. Meet me at the Academy tomorrow at 8am and we can begin your evaluation." I pay him no attention as he stands and exits the apartment, too lost in thought about the situation at hand. It's nearly 10pm now. Iruka is still powering through grading. The way he's hunched over surely hurts his back and I can see him chewing absentmindedly on the end of his pen as he reads. Standing, I clear my throat hoping to remind him of my presence. No reaction. Deciding to chance my luck, I slide into the seat next to him.
"You know it's almost 10." He jumps knocking some papers off the top of his stack and across the counter. "You've been at this for over an hour."
"Ah, right. Thank's for interrupting me. I only have a few left now." I nod. "Are you headed to bed?"
"Yeah. I'm definitely going to need to sleep some of that news off."
"Right, sorry about that. I didn't realize you had already met Kakashi and on the wrong foot at that or I would've arranged for someone else to help you prepare. I'd do it myself, but I can't really be there all that often with school in session." I figured as much. Still, it's nice that he went through the trouble for me.
"I understand and I do appreciate it. It's just going to be a bit of an adjustment, that's all." I stand and stretch, satisfied with the cracking of my joints. "I'll see you in the morning," I say as I leave him to finish his work. My nightly routine is quick and I find myself comfortably in bed in a matter of minutes. Sleep welcomes me the instant my head hits the pillow.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Forcing my eyes open, I fumble around for the silence on my watch. It blearily reads 7:00am. Time to get dressed.
20 minutes later, I am dressed, caffeinated, and full of nerves for the day ahead of me. Iruka's clothing from the other night are folded neatly on the counter next to me. Speak of the devil, there he is flitting haphazardly around the room.
"Your flak jacket is right here." I know this has to be what he's after since we forgot about it yesterday.
"Thank goodness," he says relieved. "You won't believe how annoying everyone was yesterday. The kids wouldn't quit asking me where my jacket was and I could barely get a word in!"
I chuckle. It must have been amusing seeing someone so normally put together a little off-kilter. "Problem solved then."
"Oh no, I'm sure they'll have something to say about my newly resurfaced jacket," he groans. He quirks an eyebrow at me, suddenly taking in my appearance. "What are you doing up so early?"
"I normally don't sleep as late as I did yesterday, but I'm supposed to meet Kakashi at the Academy at 8:00. I figured I could walk over with you."
"Oh sure, let's get going then."
The walk to the Academy is shorter than I expected. We arrive at Iruka's classroom at precisely 7:40 thanks to his steady and quick pace.
"You know, Kakashi is habitually late to like everything. Last night was an exception."
"Why would he ask me to meet him this early then?"
"Who knows. You can wait for him here, but the kids will probably bug you."
"And option two would be?" I ask sheepishly.
He smiles. "Go and try to find Kakashi yourself."
Let's see. Sit here and impede Iruka's teaching with children badgering me for who knows how long or wander aimlessly around the village with no idea where a certain nin might be. Option two, here I come. "I think I'll go look for Kakashi. Sorry, but I'd rather not interrupt your class two days in a row," I say referencing his lack of complete uniform yesterday. "Any idea where I should look?"
"Not really. You could always start in the jōnin standby station next door, though. If nothing else someone may be able to help you look for him."
With that I set off on my search. It doesn't take long for me to backtrack my way through the maze of halls, outside, and across the street to the doors of the jōnin standby station. Within moments, a shinobi slowly materializes in front of me.
"Who are you?" he asks. "You're not a jōnin and I've never seen you around here before, so what's your business here?"
Keeping my eyes forward, I slowly reach for my sponsorship paper in my left pocket. He carefully follows my movements as I pull the paper out and hold it out toward him.
"My name is Mei. I am being sponsored by Iruka Umino and I was directed by him to look for Kakashi Hatake here." Recognition flashes in his eyes.
"Ah, my bad. I knew who you were, just not what you look like. The name's Genma Shiranui."
Kakashi's voice rings through my head. Iruka has arranged for a mutual friend of ours to proctor your exam next Friday. His name is Genma Shiranui. Go figure I'd run into him first thing this morning. I take a moment to commit his appearance to my memory. Honey brown hair tucked under a blue bandana, presumably his personal touch to the standard Leaf shinobi headband. Eyes the color of crushed cinnamon. A senbon clicks between relatively straight teeth. How the hell this guys keeps his teeth straight while chewing on a metal needle is beyond me. Satisfied my papers match my story, he passes it back to me.
"You're proctoring my exam next Friday."
"That I am. Why are you looking for Kakashi? I figured Iruka would've had you holed up over some lesson plans of his studying for this exam." He folds his arms over his chest and relaxes against the wall.
"Kakashi was supposed to meet me about 15 minutes ago to give me a diagnostic practical and training."
"Ha, I haven't seen Kakashi out and about before 9:00am in years. On top of that, he's always late." He smirks, clearly amused.
"Iruka mentioned that this morning. Any idea where I can find him this early?" It's not even 8:30 and I'm already exasperated by this.
"Nah, but I'm off duty right now so we can go ahead and head over to the training grounds he'd take you to." He starts walking before I have the chance to agree. Sighing resolutely, I job a bit to catch up to him.
"Thanks for agreeing to proctor me, by the way."
He shrugs his shoulders. "I owed Iruka a favor. Just don't fail," he says while winking at me. We walk in silence until we reach the training grounds. I don't notice anything in particular that would distinguish this patch of grass as a training ground other than three random wooden posts. The large stone monument several meters away also makes me assume this is anything but a training site. Peering my eyes, I can make out a long slab of writing on the face of the stone. Genma interrupts my train of thought.
"So what's your story anyway?" He takes a seat in the ground, back against the middle pillar.
"Lady Hokage didn't tell you?" Kakashi implied that all the upper level ninja were informed of my situation.
"Not specifics, just that you were a relatively unknown shinobi starting the immigration process under Iruka's sponsorship and to keep our eyes peeled." Skillful leadership on her part, trusting Iruka while creating a backup plan in the event things turned sour. "I don't see what all the fuss was about. Not to be rude, but you don't seem all that intimidating."
"You don't know my abilities," I counter. "For all you know, I could be a highly skilled assassin trained in the art of infiltration."
"You're not the type. Infiltration requires you to blend and wearing a mask only puts a target on your back in the hidden villages."
"Got me," I sigh. It's nearing 9:30am. "I appreciate your help so far, but you don't have to wait around with me."
"I do actually." The corner of his lip pulls up in a smirk. "After all, someone has to make sure you're not a highly skill assassin."
Guess I should've seen this coming. Iruka did warn me that I wouldn't be allowed to be left alone all that often and keeping my sponsorship papers on hand is vital to the little independence I have. I take a seat with my back to the pillar to the right of Genma. Nothing to do but wait I guess.