So, I discovered that Ibiki's hair was also grey. Huh, I always thought it was brown for some reason.

"I'm gonna eat you," Reishi says with a straight face, and stuffs Itachi's baby foot in her mouth. He giggles, delighted. "Hey," she whines, "you're not supposed to have fun, cannibalism is a very serious matter."

"Shi!"

"Exactly," Reishi agrees, and nods solemnly.

Fugaku, sitting on the table nearby, sighs. "What are you teaching to my son," he asks in a flat, exasperated tone.

"I'm showing him the cruelties of the world early on, so he doesn't get depressed when he discovers them himself."

Fugaku looks at her with the tired stare of a man that hasn't slept or given a shit in ages and decides against commenting. He has long ago accepted that Reishi lacks the ability of being normal, so why bother. He shakes his head and turns his attention back to the book he was reading.

"Isn't it a little bit weird to be the head of the police force and come back home and read crime novels?" Reishi asks.

"No," comes Fugaku's curt answer. He won't admit it but he's a little bit defensive about his crime novels.

Reishi turns to look back at Itachi. "It is," she whispers.

"I can hear you."

"No he can't," she whispers again to Itachi, who laughs and grabs a strand of grey hair that has escaped from Reishi's ponytail.

"Fugaku your son is attacking me with his tiny baby hands," she complains.

Fugaku rises his head from the book to stare at them. "Get her, son," he deadpans.

"Wow, rude."

Reishi gently pries Itachi's hand from her hair and tucks the strand behind her ear. She can't believe it has already been a year and a half since the little meatball was born. Kids do grow up awfully fast. A few more months and she suspects the ankle-biter will be walking around the house on his own. She has already found him crawling behind her in more than one occasion, silently too, the creep.

"Don't you have to get ready?" asks Fugaku, who has closed his book and is looking at her with disapproval. He takes punctuality very seriously.

Reishi, who is very busy blowing a raspberry on Itachi's belly, looks up at him as Itachi laughs in the background. "Ready for what?" she asks with a confused face. Fugaku frowns and opens his mouth, ready to berate her. "Just kidding, just kidding. I'm on it." She interrupts him at the last second and gets up to go to her room. Itachi whines.

She hears Fugaku grumble as she runs upstairs to change her clothes, the last year of academy students graduated just a few days ago and she has been informed that today she will be meeting her new team.

Reishi is quite excited by this, though not as much about finally meeting a team as she is about being able to participate in more complex missions. For all her prior talk of wanting a peaceful civilian life, she has come to realize that after the incident with the Iwa shinobi a year ago and her newfound abilities, civilian life is quite boring.

Don't get her wrong, she doesn't suddenly want to participate in dangerous missions, but she does feel like something is missing.

She examines her attire in the mirror, nothing too flashy, but she finds comfort in the familiar colors of her clan, even though they amplify her resemblance to Ryouji.

Her things have already been packed in her pouch. Inside there's a ridiculous amount of senbon, all wrapped so they won't make a sound when she's moving, and the obligatory explosive tags plus two kunai that Fugaku insisted she should always keep with her just in case (even if she doesn't plan on using them).

She was surprised to learn that Fugaku would not be her sensei, but apparently there is a rule that prevents jōnin from personally taking part in the teaching of their own children. Reishi didn't thought she would fall into this category, for obvious reasons, but Fugaku's decision of taking her into his home changed her 'status', or so the higher ups must have thought.

She is sure that those stuck up Uchiha elders had something to do with this, wanting to prevent Fugaku from teaching her any more Uchiha techniques and trying to distance her from the clan. She understands that their priority is to keep the clan secrets under wraps, and her not having formalized her alliance to the Uchiha is an inconvenience, but she worries about her new teacher.

What if they aren't as patient and understanding as Fugaku? What if they are too strict? What if they are too lenient?

It all comes down to her routine being messed up, she can't stand that. Having to adapt to a new routine and not being able to predict and plan around some future inconveniences is very stressing for Reishi. She isn't a planning freak or anything, but she does like to know what to expect in her daily life. Is that too much to ask?

And now she has to adapt to a new schedule, with new people – people is a dangerous variant in her carefully structured view of the world around her and she can never be calm when she's around someone she hasn't figured out yet – that might or might not have been in her class. Great.

When she arrives to the restaurant marked as their reunion point – she feels like it's odd for their new teacher to have picked a restaurant for their first meeting, but she doesn't really know what's the norm in these situations – she sees that one of her future teammates is already there, waiting.

Shirakumo greets her with a formal bow – that she finds more annoying than anything. for some reason she has yet to understand. He just irks her, that's all. She even feels a little bad about it because, besides deciding on his own that they are rivals, he hasn't done anything to her; and that annoys her even more. It comes full circle.

Their other teammate is Ibiki, as they discover a few minutes later when he arrives to the meeting point. It's not that he's late, Shirakumo and Reishi just arrived too early.

It's a pleasant surprise that her teammates will be people she already knows, it simplifies the whole process. Their jōnin-sensei is still a mystery though, Reishi hopes he isn't as late as Kakashi used to be in the series, because she hasn't brought anything for reading during their wait.

Though Ibiki tries to strike a conversation two or three times, they are so tense that they barely grace him with monosyllabic answers, and he gives up soon.

"Well, at least you're not late," comes the drawling voice of a man behind them, startling the trio.

Reishi turns around to find a tall man – though everyone is taller than her so she isn't sure if her opinion counts in this matter – wearing the standard Konoha flack jacket, plain black trousers and a shirt. She can see mesh under the shirt and he has wrapped the lower part of his pants in bandages, like most shinobi do. His brown hair is tied in a high ponytail.

"Hey," greets the future jōnin commander in the uncomfortable silence. They all have ended up staring at him and he's beginning to feel creeped out. "You are team three... right?"

"Yes, sir," answers politely one of the kids in front of him. He has gray hair and good posture. Actually, now that Shikaku takes a good look they all seem to have grey hair, which is very funny. Did the teachers at the academy just group their students based on hair colors this year?

Shikaku claps his hands with a smile; relieved that this is, indeed, his team. And not just some children that look like his team and that he scared randomly on the street. "Perfect, perfect. Then let's go inside and start the introductions, shall we? My treat."

They follow him inside like little ducklings, and he sees the Akimichi waiter smile upon seeing them, calling his co-workers to see the new cute genin. Shikaku sighs, the Akimichi can be such gossips sometimes...

He weaves through the tables full of customers until he gets to a booth and signals them to sit, choosing for himself the seat with the best view of the room. The girl frowns for an instant and then it's gone; he suppresses the urge to chuckle, it seems like he took her spot.

"Very well then," he says once the waiter has taken their orders, "who would like to start?"

There is a silence in which the three genin look at each other, not knowing very well who should speak first, and then the polite boy apparently decides that it's not polite to keep their sensei waiting. "Sensei," he says rising a hand as if they were still on the classroom. It's kind of cute, Shikaku thinks, amused. "What would this introduction entail?"

Shikaku gives a lazy shrug. "Your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams for the future... It's the standard."

The boy nods. "My name is Hayama Shirakumo, I like training my kenjutsu, I dislike people who doesn't put effort in what they do, my hobby is..." Here he seems to falter a little, thinking. "My hobby is the blade, and my dream for the future is to be a reliable jōnin of Konoha."

Shikaku nods, he was aware of the Hayama clan descending from samurai, so it doesn't surprise him much. Then he turns his attention at the other two, waiting to see who will be next.

Shikaku perceives some movement from the girl, then the remaining boy gives a sudden jolt and frowns at her. She must have punted him under the table.

"My name is Morino Ibiki, I like knowledge, I dislike brats." Here he shoots a pointed look at the girl, who rolls her eyes. "One of my hobbies is people watching, and in the future I want to be a badass jōnin," he says. Shikaku chuckles and focuses his attention on the girl.

"Uh, right," she starts. "I'm Ikotsu Reishi, I like uh... mochis? I dislike a lot of things, my hobbie is reading and my dream for the future is..." She gets stuck for a moment, not knowing exactly what to say. The silence stretches as she frowns, thinking.

Shikaku laughs to diffuse the tension of her shoulders. "It's okay, you don't have to have your whole life planned just yet," he smiles, "you tell us when you're ready." Then he turns to regard the three of them. "I guess it's my turn now. I am Nara Shikaku, I like playing shogi, I dislike unnecessary effort, my hobby is stargazing, and in the future I will be the head of my clan."

The waiter comes back with their order and they dig in. Shikaku has been working all morning with the preparations for today and his future duties as a clan head, and he's starving.

"So what now?" asks Ibiki around a mouthful of beef. Reishi and Shirakumo grimace at their team-mate's table manners.

Shikaku quirks an eyebrow.

"Are we going to start doing missions? And if so, will we start this evening? Or tomorrow morning?" elaborates Shirakumo. Reishi stays quiet, waiting for an answer.

"Oh no, no missions until you pass the test," Shikaku says.

He isn't going to deny that actually watching the faces of the genin when you reveal the existence of an extra test is kind of funny, in a terrible, cruel way.

He does notice that the girl, rather than looking surprised, turns her attention back to her plate. Huh, weird. Had she known about the test beforehand? If he remembers correctly, she is under the Uchiha's clan head tutelage, but it's very unlikely that he has informed her of the test.

Shikaku sends this question to the back of his mind to be answered at another date.

"What?! Why did nobody told us that?!" Ibiki shouts, seeming torn between angry and frustrated.

Shikaku shrugs. "Tradition, I guess, I had to go through this as well."

"What will our test be then? And when will we take it?" asks Shirakumo in a business-like tone.

"We will meet tomorrow morning in front of the hokage tower at nine, don't be late. I'll explain what the test is about tomorrow." Shikaku looks around the table, expecting complains, but the boys seem to have taken it in stride (no use in complaining about something you can't change) and the girl is paying more attention to her plate than to the conversation. He is sure that she has been listening, but still, to be so unconcerned with the test... well, it's unusual.

The meal soon is over, but luckily he is able to see some of their team dynamic and, given that they pass the test, it doesn't seem like they will be an overly troublesome or loud team.

Shirakumo is a serious boy, down to earth and very polite, and he seems at ease with the other two, though Shikaku isn't very sure if he is friends with them or if he considers them acquaintances.

Ibiki is a tad more boisterous than the others, but there is a glint in his eyes that says that he is smarter than he lets on. His relationship with the girl is friendly, it's obvious that they tended to be close in the academy. Not best friends, but close. He seems to be able to draw her out of her shell, at least.

The girl is... odd. Like there's something wrong with her behaviour that he can't pinpoint. He had read over the analysis her psychiatrist provided because it came with the copy of the file, and he remembers some annotation referencing the apparent disparity between her mental and physical age, but he had thought it would be more subtle. Looking at her is like seeing a tiny adult. Like there's something inhabiting that body that isn't a child. It's wrong and somehow makes Shikaku feel uncomfortable.

Aside from that, they seem promising. If what their files say about them is accurate, their abilities seem to balance each other and they would be good for information gathering and stealth.

It had been a surprise to him to find out that Reishi's stats were only slightly above average. With all the fuss about her a year ago he had expected her to be like that Hatake kid when he had graduated, and yet it seems that the only unusual thing is her unnatural intelligence, everything else had been gained during the last year of training thanks to Fugaku's tutorship.

They finish their lunch and go their separate ways. Shikaku thanks the heavens that he hasn't gotten some over excited kids, that would have been troublesome. All in all he's quite satisfied with them and is already thinking about useful strategies that adapt to their fighting styles. If they pass the test tomorrow, that is.

The next morning Reishi arrives at the meeting point ten minutes earlier, Shirakumo is already there and so is Ibiki, who greets her by bumping his shoulder against her as soon as she lands beside him.

"Hey," he says.

Reishi gives Shirakumo a nod of acknowledgement and then turns to Ibiki. "Hey."

Ibiki changes his weight from one leg to the other in a tense silence before deciding to strike a conversation. "You nervous?"

"Nah," she shrugs, "whatever happens, happens."

Ibiki snorts. "You are a beacon of hope in these trying times. Maybe I'll frame your speech in my bedroom to look at it every morning."

Reishi decides not to comment on Ibiki's sarcasm, he gets like that whenever he's nervous and she doesn't want to make it worse by pointing it out. "How bad can a surprise test – that none of our teachers in the academy thought was important enough to mention – be?" she asks instead.

"Well, I'll let you know that not everyone passes the test," comes Shikaku's voice from behind them.

While Shirakumo and Ibiki are a little bit startled at his sudden appearance, Reishi felt his chakra signature arrive just a few seconds ago, stopping in a nearby roof. He must have been listening in to their conversation to make an entrance, the show off.

Reishi turns towards him almost sluggishly, giving him the unimpressed stare that everyone has told her looks like the dead eyes of a fish. He gives the impression of wanting to grimace for a millisecond.

"Anyways," he says pulling three small scrolls out of his pouch, "this test is in reality a B-rank mission."

"A mission?" This time, it's Reishi who interrupts his explanation, frowning. She isn't aware of tests being missions, less so high ranked ones.

"Yes, a mission," he drawls, she can almost hear the 'how troublesome' in the air. "There has been rumours of a member of one of the lesser noble families of the land of fire having sided with Kumo," he explains, "currently, we have three suspects, and they happen to be visiting Konoha. Your mission is to monitor them throughout the day and tell me if they do anything suspicious; you cannot be seen, as that would be considered a violation of their privacy and Konoha would have to respond to the daimyo. Being discovered by their bodyguards or even the nobles themselves will result in immediately failing the test."

"So," says Shirakumo, "this is a stealth mission, and we can only fail by being found out."

Shikaku nods. "Exactly."

The three of them take a scroll from Shikaku, going their separate ways once they know what their respective target is. Reishi is happy that she thought about packing ration bars, as the mission won't be finished until their targets leave the village tomorrow morning and she isn't supposed to leave her post.

Her target is the father of two sons – they are the ones Ibiki and Shirakumo will be monitoring –, a middle aged man with squinting eyes and wrinkled hands that he tends to rub in a cartoon-like fashion whenever he gets nervous.

She follows him and his two bodyguards, alternating between walking through the crowds and the rooftops, bored to death. She wonders if this is what Bear and the other ANBU that have to follow her around feel. They have done nothing but walk around like tourists all morning.

To be honest, she doesn't expect to find anything suspicious about this man. She doesn't even know how is Shikaku going to 'grade' this test. He has told them what would have to happen for them to fail, but he didn't say anything about what they would have to do to pass. It can't be as simple as just follow their target twenty-four hours without being found, because he and his bodyguards are nowhere the level of a ninja, and sneaking around them is obscenely easy.

It cannot be by finding out who's the mole either, because there is just one mole and even if they uncovered him, only one of them would pass.

Having gotten their scroll randomly, this would be very unfair. Not to mention that even in the event of getting the correct scroll, the decision of doing something suspicious is entirely up to the target, as they cannot interact with them in any ways, only observe. Ultimately, this would mean that who passes would be decided by luck rather than skill.

She decides that she doesn't actually care all that much, she wanted to get into the genin corps anyways, so passing or not is not something that worries her. True, Fugaku would probably be disappointed if she didn't at least try – and he would know if she didn't – so lazying around is out of the question. If she fails because of something out of her control though... well, who could blame her?

As long as she remains hidden, everything will be fine.

It's not until a little after midnight that this assumption is proven to be wrong.

Night falls, and the nobleman goes back to the room he is staying in during his visit, followed by his guards. While he dines, Reishi decides to follow his example and eat one of her ration bars. She is hidden in the space between the ceiling of the room and the roof of the building, making sure not to make any sound on the boards separating her from her target, when she absent-mindedly notes the chakra signature of the guards leave the room.

"I know you're there," comes the voice of the nobleman from under her, startling Reishi, "come down now, I've sent the guards away so don't worry."

Reishi weighs her options; on one hand she could just leave, then the nobleman would know that somebody was spying on him but not who, and he couldn't put the blame in the village. On the other hand, she could come down and ask him how he knew she was there, maybe even strike a conversation with him and possibly gather relevant information.

Whatever she chooses doesn't really matter, she has been spotted so she has already failed, Shikaku will know about this regardless of her staying or fleeing.

In the end, her curiosity wins and she moves one of the boards to jump down onto an empty part of the table he was dining in, staying in a crouched position. At least she can say that she knows how to make a dramatic entrance.

The man's eyes widen for a fraction of a second in surprise and then it's gone. Reishi stares him up and down, waiting for him to talk first. He smiles at her.

"My my, you must be very talented to be a ninja already at your age," he praises with a sickly sweet voice. "Now, why are you here, little one?"

Reishi almost frowns but schools her face into her usual blank stare, if he is capable of knowing he is being watched despite being a civilian, it's highly probable that he is the mole Shikaku was talking about and he knows why she's here. Knowing this, he's probably just asking to make sure that Konoha has found out and that Reishi isn't here for some other reason. She isn't about to give away information about her mission though, Fugaku taught her better.

"You don't know?" she asks, feigning confusion. It's better to let him reach his own conclusions, he'll tell her if he's guilty or not based on why he thinks she's here.

Her question seems to take him aback for a moment, but he clears his throat and composes himself, smirking. The smirk looks wrong on his face, and if his wrinkles tell the truth, he doesn't do it that often. "I bet your Hokage finally heard the rumours about me being a spy and sent you to investigate." He stares her down. "Aren't you a little young for such a mission though?"

"Are you saying that you're a spy?" she picks her words carefully, still trying to look like she isn't here because of that. He hasn't confirmed anything yet.

The man sighs mockingly. "Kids nowadays are always rushing, so impatient..." he mutters, Reishi stays silent, still crouched. He waits for a few moments, probably expecting her to say anything, finally he talks again. "Listen, girl, I have a proposition for you."

Reishi lifts an eyebrow, the only face expression she has made ever since they started the conversation, and straightens a bit her back while still crouched on the table (she doesn't know if she will have to bolt out of there and it's better to be prepared). He takes this as his cue to keep talking.

"You seem like a smart girl, and as you can see, I have many contacts and power that I could use to... ahem, give you a small incentive; to stay out of my business I mean."

"You mean bribery."

"Yes, see? I knew you were smart. Here's the deal: you will probably have to follow me around for a few weeks right?" Reishi doesn't bother correcting him, she was only going to be here until morning, and he would probably get assigned an ANBU from then on, but he doesn't need to know that. "So what we do is, you write in your report that you haven't seen anything suspicious, and I get you whatever it is that you want, deal?"

Reishi thinks about it for a moment, she isn't going to be assigned to him, but he doesn't know that. She could fake it, right? And in return she could ask him to give her a fake identity, fall under the radar and live her hermit dream somewhere in the mountains. She has no way of getting out of Konoha undetected tomorrow though, no excuse, and the problem stands that if she left tomorrow they would send someone for her. Then she wouldn't be able to fulfill her part of the deal, he wouldn't help her disappear and she would be fucked.

In the end, even if she wants to take the offer, she can't. Besides, she would have to be very ungrateful to leave after everything that the Uchiha have done for her, and she would miss Obito too, and little Itachi would probably cry his lungs out if she didn't came back home.

As a side note, it is a little suspicious to her that he decided to address her while still inside Konoha. Isn't it too risky to openly admit that you're a spy in the very heart of the village you're spying from? It smells fishy, if you ask her.

"I am afraid I cannot accept your offer," she says. She inadvertently changes her position on the table, so now instead of being prepared to flee, she is prepared to pounce. She doesn't want him escaping now that he has confirmed being the mole. Even if she has no interest in serving the village, it would be a pity to let him go after all the effort of following him all day.

The man also shifts, though his posture indicates that he's at ease and doesn't have the intention to run away any soon. How odd.

"Are you sure? I could give you tons of money. I could- I could even adopt you! Think about that, you would be a princess!"

"I already have a family, thank you."

"That's not what I've heard," he says with a sly smile, "didn't your mother kick you out?" He clicks his tongue disapprovingly and shakes his head with a mocking pained expression. "The Uchiha aren't your family, little girl, you were only the substitute for a child, but they have one of their own now don't they? How long until they forget all about you?"

Reishi had admittedly been asking herself that same question lately. Mikoto and Fugaku were being very nice to her ever since she came to live with them, but she still had feared that she was intruding. She has been living there over a year now, how long until they get tired of her invading their house? They aren't going to kick her out like Fuhaku did, but that's mostly because they are very polite and it would probably make them look bad as clan heads.

She would understand it though, she probably isn't the best influence to little Itachi, and instead of seeking out the company of 'decent members of the clan' she spends the time with the outcast. Not really the person you want your child to grow up with, right?

Hearing somebody else say it out loud solidifes her thoughts into a reality. Not that she wasn't looking into cheap apartments to leave as soon as possible anyways, but it still would hurt if they got tired of her.

A voice in the back of her head wonders how does this man posses such information and she latches onto the thought, desperate to think about anything else.

"Think about it," the man continues, "you would have everything you asked for and you could wear the prettiest dresses and have the most expensive toys. We would never kick you out, my wife has wanted a girl for some time now, you know? Though all we've had are boys," he says the last part jokingly, thinking that he has at least swayed her determination. However, dresses and toys are not things Reishi cares about, and she couldn't care less about having a new family. A normal little girl that has been shunned? He would be doing an amazing job of convincing that person. Reishi is not a little girl though.

"I'm not going anywhere," she says, and she can't avoid the note of dejection that contaminates her tone. She prepares to knock him out.

The man, who had been smiling previously, straightens. His face takes a more serious expression, almost solemn and proud, before smiling again, gentler this time.

"Congratulations, you passed the test."

She receives instructions to reunite with the rest of her team that same night, and she is the second one to arrive at the designed location. Shikaku is already there but there's no sign of Ibiki or Shirakumo.

Reishi is livid, sending them on a fake mission to see how they would react to bribery is one thing, but feeding their targets personal information is too much. Has Shikaku been analysing her for the occasion? How many time did it take him to find out about her insecurities regarding the Uchiha family? Had he known who his team would be beforehand or had he just prepared it all yesterday?

Independently of the answer, she can't help but feel violated somehow, naked. He shouldn't have known all that, at least not how she felt about it. Is she that transparent? Can everyone else see her fears on her face just like Shikaku did?

The man in question rises a hand in a pacifying gesture when he sees her walk up to him and she wants nothing more than to rip it apart from it's socket and slap him with it. He had no right. No fucking right.

"How dare you," she says in a calm tone that sounds to her like a stranger's voice. She shouldn't be addressing him calmly, she should be yelling and biting. This is a flagrant invasion of her privacy.

"Before you say anything, let me talk," he says, talking like he's trying to pacify a feral animal, and she might as well be. She distantly wonders if that's how he talks to the Nara deer, but the anger squashes the thought. "This test was not meant to hurt you in any way, okay? Just to, well, test you. The words were supposed to get to you to see how you would react, that's all."

Reishi waits for a second to see if he will add something, but he doesn't, he just stares at her as if expecting her to attack him or something. She would like to, to be honest, if she knew that this was a battle she could win. "That's all?" she asks, incredulous. "That's all? That doesn't give you the right to- to divulge personal information to strangers!"

"The men participating in this test are very professional and are shinobi of the Nara clan-"

"I don't care! That's not the point!" She is yelling now, feeling like she's about to explode. There is a tense silence in the air in which he just stares blankly at her, no doubt analysing her again. She hates it.

"You feel attacked," he states, finally. "You are used to keeping a wall up and when somebody sees through it you feel threatened."

Reishi keeps quiet, feeling her face flush red with embarrassment. He just hit the spot. There's nothing she can retort to that.

Shikaku lowers his eyes to the ground and sighs, scratching the back of his neck. She sees him open his mouth to say something, but he is interrupted by the arrival of Ibiki, shortly followed by Shirakumo. They don't seem bothered at all.

"You passed too, eh?" ssks Ibiki with a smirk, he seems to be in a very good mood. Reishi knows that he can tell that she's angry, the question is just to confirm that she isn't angry because she failed. She reassures him with a nod, she doesn't trust herself to talk right now, she needs to cool down.

Shirakumo gives her a small bow. "I see you finished before me again, congratulations."

He is probably talking again about their non-existent rivalry but she doesn't have the energy to direct her anger at him, compared to invading her inner thoughts, his obsession with besting her is a mere nuisance. It isn't that annoying anyways and he is very graceful about it so she guesses that it's harmless. She mutters a 'congratulations to you too' because she is pretty sure that he passed and lets it be, glad that she has managed not to snap at any of them.

Shikaku claps to grab their attention. "Very well, I see that you all managed to pass the test, does anyone want to share their thoughts on what it was supposed to be testing?"

Shirakumo rises his hand to talk and Shikaku nods to him as if granting him permission. "Our loyalty to the village," he states.

"That is part of it, yes. Ibiki?"

"How we react under stressful situations, such as being found out while spying on the enemy in their 'base of operations'."

Shikaku nods, then looks at Reishi, who frowns. "To see our reaction to the enemy showing knowledge they shouldn't have," she says, and the venom must be apparent in her voice because the two boys give her a quick glance of concern and surprise. Shikaku acts as if he hasn't noticed.

"Yes, that too. This team has been picked with the purpose of gathering information primarily, so infiltrating enemy territory will probably be the kind of mission that will be assigned to you the most once you all become chūnin. It is important that you show resilience to the enemy's taunts and bribery in case of being found." At this he risks a quick glance in Reishi's direction, as if making sure he drives the point home. "And that you are able to remain calm in such situation. I will analyse your behavior during the test as well as your stealth capabilities and we will go over your mistakes and how to correct them on Monday. Same hour and place as yesterday. Dismissed."

Shikaku leaves before Reishi has the time to jump him and she feels a growl of frustration grow in her throat. If he thinks that she will let this go with time he is very very wrong. She doesn't care if she gets punished for insubordination, if he is going to be her jōnin-sensei she needs to trust him, and she can't do that if he doesn't know how to respect basic boundaries.

She forces herself to appear normal to the boys while saying goodbye, though she is sure that Ibiki has already realized that she isn't very happy at the moment, and decides to take a walk before heading to the Uchiha compound. Shikaku had told them that morning that their parents – tutors in Reishi's case – would be informed of the duration of the test, so nobody is waiting for her anyways.

It's pretty late, past midnight, judging by the position of the moon. She wonders if Obito will be awake at this hour.