Genma watched as the woman walked ahead of him towards the Hokage's tower putting her hands in her pockets. Her hair swished behind her back like the pendulum like a clock. It wasn't unlike the swaying motion of her hips which he was having a hard time not watching. He bit down harder on the toothpick sighing and cleared his throat.

"So, what's your name?" he asked taking a few steps to meet her stride. She glanced in his direction letting her eyes once him over idly; their magenta hue followed him.

"Jouki." She said finally looking back ahead. He noticed that she was wearing black fitted thigh length pants with a hip holster for a weapon that wasn't there, probably for a sword. Her stomach was bare and chest covered with a hooded sky blue vest that had soft fur lining the hood hanging at her back. Across her vest hung a leather holster for more weapons that weren't on her person. The only thing she carried was a kunai pouch, which was filled, at her side strapped to her waist. The bareness of her arms was inhibited by a few tattoos that traced her forearms in three ringed black circles.

"That's a different kind of name." he nodded smirking a bit.

"It's a boy's name. My father had a sense of humor." She noticed him smirking like most people did when they heard her name.

"Nothing wrong with that." He said as they neared the tower. He started to open the door for her but she beat him to it opening it for herself.

"I'm assuming this will be a form of interrogation? It's fine." She said seeing him make a face that she'd realized it wasn't going to just be a normal sit down and explain. "I get it. My village isn't trustworthy here." She shrugged and headed inside.

Genma walked Jouki into the interrogation unit cell and waited until Ibiki joined them eyeing her decisively. The old man wasn't really impressed with the girl and immediately put his hands roughly on the table she had recently taken a seat at. She looked up at him raising an eyebrow. Genma fought the urge to laugh; she wasn't impressed with the large man's intimidation tactics at all.

"Explain to me how we should trust you?" he asked in a gruff voice making eye contact with her.

"You can't." she said tilting her head to the side a few tiny strands of hair slipping from her ear spilling over her shoulder. "I'd love to sit here and play innocent but you can't. Nothing I say or do will make you trust me and my village has hurt yours before. So…" she sighed looking at the ceiling. "You can either lock me up here for the exams or you can let me be there for my gennin."

Her voice was very soft as she finished off that sentence. Genma had noticed from the beginning that she really did care for those kids. There was something about them that made her stronger in the set of her shoulders and her chin. When she spoke about being there for them she looked back down at Ibiki putting her right hand on the edge of the table.

"They matter to you don't they?" he asked. It was usually easiest to pick a center point to attack someone's psyche.

"My eldest student, Ataku, is sick." Normally people weren't this honest with Ibiki. They didn't try to intentionally give them something that he could hold against them. "He has a heart condition in which he needs breathing treatments at night and takes many medications at night." That got Genma's attention.

"And you put him in the chunnin exams!? Are you insane?" he said coming closer giving her a hard look.

"It's his only chance to get out of our village." She stated boldly looking up at Genma. "If he doesn't make chunnin he will never leave and he will be stuck there for the rest of his life working some miserable job under hateful people until the day he dies. His only out is to make chunnin." Ibiki had stood straighter crossing his arms over his chest.

"Fine." He sighed shaking his big head putting a hand on his hip adjusting the hem of his overcoat. "Go, make sure the kid makes it out alive. You have his medicines with you right?" she nodded standing up as well.

"Thank you. I promise when the exams are over we will leave your village." She smiled apologetically at Genma. "And I swear I won't make any more scenes like that!" her grin was infectious and he ended up giving in to smile as well.

The sun was already beginning to set when Jouki made it back out to the school yard to watch for her students. She was hoping to the clouds above that they passed at least the first portion or traveling here was really for nothing. Hotori was thick headed and would push forward as strong as he could but that didn't account for teamwork or brains. Ataku had to balance him and ground him back to the floor but he lacked in stamina. His breathing often gave out in bad situations and they were down a medical team member. There hadn't been enough to go around in their village and she'd been stuck with the leftover boys that hadn't fit on the other teams. She'd gotten them because no one else had wanted to attempt training them. She'd admit it had been one long hard journey to get them to even talk to one another or learn to work together but she had not spent all that time to see it wasted when they were this close. If they played their cards one or two at a time instead of folding their entire hand they could make it. Ataku could design a strategy to barrel them through by throwing Hotori headfirst while he planned from behind.

The door opened to the school building and the proctor for the exams, at least for this part, stepped out. Shikamaru looked exhausted and highly annoyed as Iruka filed out behind him bringing forward the children who had passed the first portion. Iruka was grinning as always patting some of the Konoha kids on the back as they came out. Surprisingly only three had failed; a team unit from the Sound. Jouki let out a long breath excited to see Ataku and Hotori leaving the building smiling. Hotori ran over pulling his cap on before jumping up hugging her. She laughed holding him and gave him a knuckle to the head.

"You passed!" she ruffled Ataku's hair as well. The elder boy rubbed his chest wheezing a little.

"No thanks to idiot boy. I had to think fast so he didn't get caught cheating." He snapped glaring only half mad at his partner. "But he saved me too." He smirked. "Made a distraction so those Sound nin got caught instead of me." He shrugged. Hotori stuck out his tongue punching Ataku in the arm.

"I'm pretty useful right!" he laughed as she rolled her eyes at the two.

"Do you need to a treatment?" she asked Ataku rubbing his back noticing his cheeks were red. He was having trouble breathing like he normally did when he got nervous. His heart would start beating faster and in turn he couldn't control his breathes.

"I'll be alright I just need some time." He whispered looking up. His eyes were exhausted and shaken the circles had deepened below his eyes. She sighed knowing that he'd probably panicked in there when he felt his heart giving out knowing that he couldn't get the medicine from her outside. The problem was she couldn't do anything for him if he wouldn't take the treatments. She knew that he wanted to be independent and to get rid of the medicines but that wasn't possible. There was nothing he wanted more than to live and to live on his own someday…his medical prognosis was death by age nineteen. She'd never ever shared that with him but in her heart it weighed heavily. She would do anything so this child could live like everyone else for as long as he could.

"Let's give it about an hour and then we'll do a treatment and get some food." She patted his shoulder putting Hotori on her shoulders to walk back to the inn they'd gotten a room at.

"Yeah yeah…ok sensei." He said yawning as Hotori put his chin on her head.

"How about some dumplings to celebrate passing the first test?"

"DUMPLINGS!" the smaller boy shouted throwing his fist in the air. Ataku smiled taking Jouki's hand as they walked.

"That sounds nice." He whispered rubbing at his eyes.