He was early. Why shouldn't he be? He had nothing better to do. He had already gone over the bios of his students countless times. He had a pretty good idea of how he wanted to develop them individually, and as a team. Still, he would need confirmation in the form of some sort of test. He fiddled with the small rubber ball in his hand once more as he thought of how he would do this. In a motion practiced countless times, he tossed the ball against the bark of the tree, and caught it without having to look, repeating the process over and over. He had just arrived on his decision in a sort of 'duh' laced eureka moment when he heard footsteps approaching. He looked up from his hidden position, where he had planned to drop from his hidden spot in the tree when all of his students had gathered, giving them a fright, and looking super cool in the process.
Kids liked that stuff, right? They didn't want to be taught by some lamer, that was for sure. He couldn't see anyone through the branches at this point. Curses! He had picked this spot specifically because it was a less travelled area. How could he wow his students if a freaking crowd was watching? Of course, the same thing that would give him the advantage of surprise also stole away his vision ,so he couldn't see the one who was making life tough for him just yet. Oh well, he had other ways of seeing things. The need for such a tactic was eliminated, though, as the person stepped into a spot that he could see through the leaves. It was a girl, just a kid. Oh! He recognized her face from the student bio. Umeki , Marin. It looked like her from a distance, at least. Brown hair cut above the shoulders, a nervous look in her soft blue eyes that was akin to a kicked puppy, and the signature clothing of her clan, emblemized wrist wraps and all. It was definitely her. What was she doing here so early, though?
He shifted his position in perfect silence in order to get a closer look. She looked… Sad. Were those tears? Well, girls her age tended to be rather emotional, right? He supposed he'd better go see what was up. Well, there went the element of surprise. He slid down the tree silently.
She'd had to leave the house early. She just couldn't stand it. The fact that she would never be good enough for her dad was actually made worse by the fact that her mom loved and supported her no matter what. The two had gotten in a fight over the usual, and she left before they were done. Before she knew it she was crying. She took a seat and started wiping her eyes on her wrist wraps.
"What's the matter, kid?" The voice made her jump in surprise. She looked up to find the voice, her heart racing nervously. "Who- who're you" she asked, a little frazzled still. It wasn't every day that someone you didn't know just randomly started asking questions. He looked harmless enough, though. In fact, he looked insanely plain. Was she a village chuunin? He might even still be a genin, though at his age it would be a little pathetic. It was odd, though, that there was nothing at all unique about him, at least in appearance…. Did that make him unique in and of itself? He crouched to get at eye level, but seemed careful not to get uncomfortably close.
"Me? Just a concerned citizen's-all." She eyed him for a moment, and then sighed, turning a away a little. "It's nothing…"
"You sure you don't wanna talk about it? Sometimes it helps to just get things off your chest, y'know?" He really was just some harmless well-meaner, then… Normally she wouldn't say anything, but she was in a strange mood; maybe talking about it actually would help. "Well… I dunno. I feel… Useless. I try so hard, but I never get anywhere in my training. I just skate by, barely, while everyone else is getting so much better. I just feel like I don't belong. To top it all off, I barely got on a team; they had to pull some old guy out of retirement to teach us… I'm waiting to meet him and my team right now… I wish I'd gotten picked by Kanteki Sensei. I'm at least a little better than Nari, Pari, and Kari."
"I dunno. Maybe' you're better off than you think. I'm sure… whoever those girls you mentioned are will find out soon enough." The man had a solemn look on his face for a moment that confused the heck out of her. "what do you mean by that?"
The older man looked down to his soon to be student, considering her question for a moment. What did he mean? He'd better not talk about it. The girl would find out soon enough, he was sure of it. On the bright side, it didn't look like she knew who he was... Of course! They must have been told someone was being taken out of retirement to teach them, but they probably didn't expect someone to retire at his age, either. Heck, he was just barely 25 years old! She was still looking at him oddly. Subject change time!
"It's nothing. But listen, okay? Sometimes it takes a little bit to find your place in the world, but everyone has one; everyone has a role to play. I can tell you one thing, though. You made it this far, which means you do, in fact, belong here." She smiled a little. Just a little. It was a start. "Besides, you never know, your teacher could be quite the shinobi." She laughed a little. It hadn't been a joke… Well… At least he'd cheered her up.
"Well… I'm off to do… some ninja stuff. See ya around, kiddo. Oh, and if you are early, cause it is very early, why don't you get some last minute training in? You know most teachers like to test their students before hand, so you might wanna get warmed up. " He stood to his full height; it was time to leave for now. It turned out, he did have some things to research after all.
"Thank you, Mister… Hey wait, what's your name?" He disappeared into the trees before she'd finished asking.