"Want a summary of what I've observed?" Asuka asked, crossing her arms and examining all of her students. Toshiro gave a curt nod, Harumi nodded eagerly, and Kasumi snorted, kicking her foot across the dirt. A stone chair rose out of the ground just behind Asuka. She raised an eyebrow but took the seat as Toshiro sat on Harumi's other side.

"We'll start with you," Asuka said, nodding to Toshiro, who immediately went ram-rod straight. Asuka could have sighed. Kasumi was right, he did need to loosen up… "You're good, no doubt about it. Those senbon of yours will be amazing one day."

Toshiro nodded sharply. "Thank you, sensei."

"Unfortunately, you're useless in close quarters."

He winced. "Right…"

Asuka shook her head. "We'll work on that. Long-distance is good an all, but you can't always fight that way. The moment you got pulled into a taijutsu fight with anyone who knew what they were doing you'd be dead. You're pretty acrobatic though, which is surprising to me."

Toshiro tilted his head. "Thank you, sensei."

"So are, come to think of it," Asuka added, flicking her eyes to Kasumi. "Where did you learn some of those movements?"

"The bandits I grew up with," Kasumi said with a casual shrug. "I can do a lot of weird stuff – one of those things is some fancy flips."

Asuka nodded. "We'll expand on that. As far as your kekkei genkai is concerned… yes, it's powerful, and it's undoubtedly your best weapon, but you will run out of chakra using it all the time, and you need to get used to fighting without it, if, for some reason, you're unable too."

"It doesn't really use that much chakra," Kasumi grumbled, but she was ignored.

"And you," Asuka said, turning to Harumi, who flinched and went red.

"Uh… yes, sensei?"

"You have talent," Asuka said, nodding approvingly. "The way you used your wind jutsu and fan to counter my poison was well done, but you could also do the reverse – use them in conjunction with poisons. You lack stamina and speed, however. I'll be working you on that and poisons quite a bit." And we have got to work on your confidence, she added silently.

Harumi glowed. "Thank you, sensei!"

Asuka nodded in response. She stood up and began pacing in front of her students. "Up until now your hands have been held every step of the way. You've been carefully walked through jutsu and theory step by step. That ends now. As I said, I'm not here to babysit you; I'm here to make sure you live long enough to be useful to the village. If you're not willing to do everything I ask and trust that I am going to make you better, then feel free to go visit the Hokage and tell him you're dropping from the program."

Asuka glanced to the side. Her abrupt change in topic and tone had her students back on their heels. Harumi's eyes were wide and nervous, but her hands were clenched into determined fists by her sides. Toshiro's face was carefully blank as he nodded his assent, but his eyes blazed with ambition. Kasumi was displaying a confident smirk, biting one edge of her lip and practically trembling with excitement.

"Good," Asuka nodded. "And now the real work begins."

Asuka looked down at her students, smirking in pleasure. The three of them were passed out in the ground in a shape roughly resembling a triangle, panting and drenched in sweat. She wasn't wasting any time. She'd set every one of them to work on what they'd performed the worst on in the most punishing way possible.

For Harumi, who lacked speed and stamina, she had the girl running laps around the field for nearly two hours before setting her next to a tree and telling to start punching it. She could stop once she'd knocked off three inches of wood. Harumi had looked at her with wide eyes, but she set her chin and started working while Asuka nodded approvingly.

Kasumi was almost unnaturally strong for a girl her age, even a kunoichi. Then again, she had to be, working with rock as much as she did. She moved well, but she wasn't terribly flexible. So Asuka outlined some stretches for her to do and set her loose, walking past every now and them to force her further into a stretch. Kasumi always grit her teeth and took it, even when her muscles protested painfully.

Toshiro was undoubtedly the most fun for her. His weakness was close-quarters combat, so Asuka simply took him aside and whaled on him for a while. His movements were quick but clumsy, and he was never completely confident when he switched from one move to the next. Asuka didn't take any pity on him, telling Kasumi and Harumi to stop what they were doing every now and then to throw something at him, that he was then supposed to block. Kasumi cheerfully flicked pebbles at him while Harumi half-heartedly chucked larger pieces of the tree she was trying to decimate.

Now Harumi was clutching her side, knuckles bloodied and scraped. Toshiro was groaning and covered in red marks that would be bruises by the end of the day. Kasumi lay bonelessly, wincing whenever she shifted as a result of strained muscles.

Asuka nodded, pleased. Not a one of them had ever complained or tried to disagree with her teaching methods. None of them had ever suggested the do something else or asked to take a break. They had worked until nearly three in the afternoon without stopping for lunch or so much as a bathroom break. Even now that she'd told them they could stop, they hadn't said anything against what she'd put them through.

Good. I hate whiners.

"Well done," Asuka said, crossing her arms over her chest. "You're free for today, but I want you to meet me in front of the Hokage faces at eight tomorrow. We're having our first mission."

"Cool," Kasumi said, unable to muster anything sassier than that.

"What're we doing?" Harumi wheezed.

"Never you mind," Asuka replied. "Just be there on time… and be ready for anything. We're done for the day."

With that she turned and made to walk away. Kasumi managed one last comment, calling out after him, "Off to poison people, sensei?"

Asuka didn't skip a beat. "Offering to be a test subject?" she replied, not stopping.

Toshiro grunted, heaving himself into a sitting position. "You shouldn't… disrespect Asuka-sensei like that."

He pulled up the sleeves of his shirt, revealing the metal contraptions around his wrists responsible for firing senbon and masses of red and purple flesh. He winced at the sight. Nearly his whole forearm was blue or would be before dinner. He lifted up the legs of his black pants and saw that they were in much the same state.

Harumi watched all of this, wincing in sympathy. Her hands and legs were throbbing and she'd be picking splinters out of her knuckles later, but at least she had some spots that weren't damaged. Toshiro would be a solid bruise for several days after all that Asuka had put him through.

"I'd heal some of those for you," Harumi offered apologetically, "but I don't have the strength."

Toshiro shook his head. "It's fine. It's the price of getting stronger." He shoved his pants legs back down, as if hiding them from sight meant they were no longer there.

Kasumi said, "I really might need a massage to be able to move in the morning."

Harumi spoke up again, "I can teach you some techniques to loosen your muscles that you can do yourself," she offered.

"Nah, I got it," Kasumi said. She smacked her palms to the ground and curled her fingers. The ground beneath her began to shake, little bits of it shooting up and back down. Kasumi sighed in relief as the rocks pounded into her muscles, loosening them a little. "Aw yeah, that's the stuff."

Toshiro hesitated. "That's really… weird."

"Hey, so are you, but I don't say anything about it."

Toshiro snorted, then stopped himself, looking over at her uncertainly. "Hey… Kasumi."

"Mmm, yeah?" Kasumi's eyes were lowered slightly as she began to relax. Now all she wanted was a nice nap, but that wouldn't be happening. She still had to go to work in a couple hours. She almost burst into tears at the thought of sprinting around Konoha with her muscles this sore, but then she forced herself to toughen up, scowling at herself as she shut her eyes.

Don't be a baby. You've got to do it, so quit whining!

"You threw senbon accurately," Toshiro began.

"Yeah," she replied slowly, opening one eye and squinting in his direction. "What about it?"

"Well, you can't see what you're aiming at."

Kasumi snorted. "No shit?"

Harumi gasped. Without thinking, she did exactly what Hotaru would have done to her if she said something like that. She leaned over and smacked Kasumi's calf, the only thing she could reach.

"Language!" she exclaimed, offended. Kasumi groaned at the hit.

"Why must you hurt me in this way?" she whimpered. Harumi's eyes widened.

"Ohmigosh, you're sore, and I just… oh Kasumi, I'm so sorry, I didn't think, I just-"

Kasumi scoffed and sat up, the ground beneath her going back to normal. "Calm down, I'm like a rock, ya know? Takes more than that to make a dent in me," she bragged. She raised a hand, pointing one finger at Toshiro. "Now, you… where were you going with that?"

"Ah, right. I wanted to know how you did it without seeing what you were aiming at."

Kasumi shrugged. "I don't know, I just kind of did. I knew where the target was so I threw."

Toshiro scowled, frustrated with how cavalier she seemed with something that was causing him fits. "You didn't calculate the wind speed or how Asuka was moving… Or do anything?"

Kasumi gave him a pointed stare. "Yeah, because I'm the kind of person that does a lot of thinking before they act. Nah, I just kind of felt it." She shrugged. "It's always worked for me. The more I think about it the more I psyche myself out about it, and then I screw up."

"I see," Toshiro muttered. Kasumi reached over and smacked him on the back heartily.

"Like I said," she announced, "you've gotta loosen up and stop over-thinking things!"

Toshiro winced and reached around, clutching at his back. "Ow," he muttered.

Kasumi opened her mouth, but was cut off when her stomach rumbled. She clutched at it, surprised.

Harumi chuckled, and even Toshiro cracked a slight smile. "I could eat," Harumi said cheerfully. "We can all have lunch together."

Toshiro nodded. "We all should eat, after all of that exercise."

"There's a place not far from here that I like," Harumi suggested. "Do you know Rangiku's?"

Toshiro nodded. "I've been there before."

"Never heard of it," Kasumi shrugged.

"You have to try their green tea ice cream," Harumi squealed, getting up eagerly. She grabbed Kasumi's hand and pulled her to her feet as well. "It's delicious!"

"I may try it," Kasumi said absently as Toshiro climbed to his feet. They took off from the training field, heading back into Konoha proper with Kasumi trailing behind as the other two led.

"You should both come over and meet my sister sometime," Harumi was saying as they walked. "She was talking last night about how she really wanted to meet you guys."

Kasumi's steps stuttered for just a second, not long enough for Toshiro or Harumi to notice.

"Your sister's a doctor, right?" she asked. Harumi nodded happily.

"Yeah. I'm her nurse, usually, but we don't really have anyone at the clinic right now, besides one shinobi who took a kanabo to the head on his last mission and is under observation."

Kasumi and Toshiro both winced in sympathy.

"Perhaps sometime," Toshiro allowed.

"I'd be really interested to meet your dad, too," Harumi pressed. "I hear he fought against the Nine-Tails, right? He must have some really interesting stories."

Toshiro's face immediately went on lockdown, expression blanking out. "Unfortunately, my father doesn't really appreciate visitors."

Harumi's eyes widened. "O-Oh. Sorry I… I guess that was rude of me. Sorry," she said again.

Toshiro resisted the urge to wince and explain that he really didn't want his team around his father too much. He knew Akio would have some choice words for both of them, and he'd probably have some very unflattering things to say about Toshiro himself. He shuddered at the very idea of Kasumi in a room with his father. Yes, his father and his team meeting was a situation he wanted to avoid for as long as possible.

"It's fine," he assured Harumi, but she still looked apologetic. Kasumi sufficiently broke the tension though, when she walked up and slung an arm around Toshiro's shoulders companionably.

"Daddy issues, huh?" she asked sympathetically. "You wanna join the club? Comes with a t-shirt."

Toshiro and Hasumi both gaped at her. Kasumi withdrew her arm, shifting uncomfortably.

"Just trying to diffuse the tension," she grumbled. "No need to stare at me like I'm a freak."

Toshiro and Harumi exchanged glances. Toshiro's eyes clearly said please let me correct her on that and Harumi's were responding with please don't start something.

"We're here!" Harumi chirped loudly, distracting Toshiro from the chance to poke from at Kasumi.

Rangiku's was a charming little restaurant. The entire back wall was a bar where a couple of civilians and shinobi lounged, nursing beers or cups of sake. The rest of the place was filled with chairs and booths. The floor was polished wood, and so were the tables, so that the whole place seemed to gleam. It was lit a little dimmer than normal to create a cozier atmosphere, and the walls displayed artwork from local Konoha artists. It had the atmosphere of a tea house but food ranging from burgers and ramen to steaks and salads.

They took a seat at one booth. Harumi slid in with Toshiro next to her and Kasumi sat across from them, curled into the corner against the wall. A waitress hustled over with a pad of paper ready.

"What can I get you all to drink?" she asked brightly.

"Green tea," Harumi requested.

"The same," Toshiro agreed.

Kasumi stared blankly at the wall across from her. "Just some water, thanks," she said in reply.

The waitress bustled off with their drink orders and Harumi examined her menu. Toshiro picked up his own and opened it in front of his face. They both scanned the pages before realizing that Kasumi was just sitting there, absently tracing her finger in random patterns in front of her.

"Did you already find what you want?" Harumi asked, surprised. Kasumi rolled her eyes and lifted up the menu, opening it in front of her.

"Yeah, I think the shabu-shabu looks good," Kasumi announced cheerfully.

Toshiro frowned slightly. "They don't serve-" His expression dropped. "Oh."

Kasumi waved a pointed hand in front of her eyes as she tossed the menu aside with a snort. "Yeah. Menus don't really help me. That's why I don't eat out a lot. It's really awkward having to ask your server to read the menu to you."

"I'll do it," Harumi offered immediately, and glanced back down at her own, reciting, "They have tempura – you liked Hotaru's, right? – and yakitori and chazuke and-"

"I got it. Don't worry, I'm not gonna order anything," Kasumi said, waving her off. Harumi's eyes widened slightly.

"But… earlier your stomach-"

"I'm not hungry," Kasumi said shortly. Toshiro snorted.

"Nonsense. We all just finished a really intense training session, you must be starving-"

Kasumi gave him a vicious glare. "Maybe you must be starving. I guess I'm just made of stronger stuff that you are, Stick, because I'm fine."

Toshiro glared right back. "Fine, far be it from me to worry about my teammate." That said, he buried his face into his menu. Harumi glanced to the side; she could see past the paper. Toshiro was scowling angrily at the page, face flushed with annoyance.

Personally, Harumi felt that he was justified. He had tried to look out for Kasumi and the girl had shut him down callously, giving him a tongue-lashing for his troubles. For the life of her though, Harumi couldn't figure out why Kasumi didn't want to eat. It was her stomach rumbling that got this whole trip started.

The waitress returned, placing their drinks in front of them. Kasumi took her drink and chugged it in one go, leaving them all staring at her in a mixture of awe and repulsion.

"Er, right, I'll get you a refill," the waitress said faintly. "Have you decided what you want to eat?"

"Yakitori," Toshiro said sharply, slapping his menu down on the table and giving Kasumi a filthy look. She was back to blankly facing the wall. The waitress flinched a little at his tone and scribbled down his order.

"And you?" she asked Harumi, who smiled at her apologetically, a little embarrassed by the behavior of her teammates but unwilling to say anything about it.

"I'll have the tempura," Harumi said politely.

"And you?" the waitress said, her smile faltering as she finished with Kasumi.

"Nothing," Kasumi said.

Toshiro blinked, surprised by her tone. It was bland and cool, utterly disinterested, and at the same time, utterly disdainful. It was the kind of voice you'd expect to hear from a Kage or a daimyo. Seeing as Kasumi was about as far from upper-class as you could get, it seemed incredibly out of place coming from her.

The waitress gathered their menus and quickly hustled off. Harumi couldn't blame her. Their table now rested under a metaphorical dark cloud. Kasumi was ignoring them both and examining the table like she could see it while Toshiro seemed to be trying to bore holes in her head with his gaze.

Harumi gave a weak smile, trying to lighten the mood. "So, first day of training!" she announced.

No response.

"What do you guys think of Asuka?" she tried again.

"Tough, but fair," Toshiro replied.

"She knows what she's doing," Kasumi grunted.

Harumi was encouraged by the response, terse as it was. She asked again, "So, do you guys want to do anything after this? We could go shopping or go to a movie…" She let her voice trail off.

Kasumi scoffed. "Movies are boring when you don't know what's going on," she muttered. "Besides, I have to go to work."

Toshiro raised an eyebrow, interested in spite of his recently-implemented plan to treat Kasumi like she ran over his puppy.

"You have a job?" he asked, surprised.

It wasn't common for shinobi to have jobs outside of their ninja duties. Most of their time at home was spent catching up with friends, writing mission reports, sometimes in recovery, even grieving if things went really bad. Besides that, pay from missions was normally enough that they didn't have to bother with any jobs.

This was particularly true of genin and chunin. They were still young and inexperienced. They tended to spend any extra free time training to become stronger. Jonin sometimes owned small businesses that were able to function without them while they were on missions. Older reserves usually rested on their laurels and drew pensions, hoping nothing bad enough would happen for them to called up, sometimes taking the odd escort mission when they got bored.

Kasumi's glare came back full force. "Yeah, Stick, I have a job. No need to be so surprised about it."

Toshiro's mouth twisted. "That wasn't what I- Oh forget it," he hissed.

Desperate to keep one of them from saying something they'd really regret, Harumi jumped in with, "What do you do, Kasumi?"

"I deliver messages for the council around Konoha," she said with a shrug. "They like knowing I'm not going to read their top-secret plans."

"That's really impressive," Harumi praised genuinely. Jobs for the council were considered to be very prestigious. To think that Kasumi had one, even if it was just as a messenger, was pretty interesting.

Kasumi shook her head. "Not really. Those old farts just like bossing people around."

Toshiro shook his head. "Are you incapable of respect?" he muttered under his breath. He hadn't intended for Kasumi to hear. Unfortunately for him, Kasumi's ears were always pricked and listening to her surroundings. She whipped around to him, eyes narrowed.

"No, actually, I'm not. But I have this weird thing where I only respect people who deserve it. If you've got something to say to me on the subject, think about it really hard… and then don't say it."

Toshiro smacked his hand down on the table, glaring thunderously.

"What is wrong with you?" he demanded.

"Guys, please, let's all try to get along," Harumi pleaded, thrusting out her arms between her squabbling teammates.

"What's wrong with me?" Kasumi demanded. "I don't think anything is, but you seem to feel everything is."

Toshiro's eyes turned to slits. "You were fine until we came in here," he noted. "What happened? Do you not like this place?"

Kasumi sucked in her cheeks. Harumi blinked when she saw that the girl was faintly flushing, pink highlighting her cheekbones. What in the Hokage's name could have embarrassed her?

"Place's fine," Kasumi grunted.

"Then what's wrong?!" Toshiro demanded in a tone that would stand for no dodging. His eyes widened when he saw Kasumi press closer into the corner almost unconsciously, shifting so that she leaned into it and away from him. Her back arched and her shoulders bowed in so that she pressed closer. It was an incredibly defensive gesture, especially considering her eyes were now staring blankly at a point out towards the middle of the restaurant. She was curling and uncurling her fingers absently in her lap.

It was an incredibly defensive shift in posture, and he was surprised he'd managed to bring Kasumi to it just by raising his voice. His eyes widened. Suddenly he felt a bit bad.

What if he'd been the one in a foul mood, say because of his father? He would immediately have gotten defensive just like Kasumi did, only he would have been blank and painfully polite instead of overly aggressive. It was a defense mechanism, he realized. There was clearly more to Kasumi than met the eye.

"Nothing," Kasumi murmured. "I just… didn't sleep well. Get crabby when I'm tired, that's all."

Toshiro opened his mouth, debating. He could continue the fight, could make some kind of scathing comment about not being able to tell the difference… but it would serve no purpose. He glanced sideways at Harumi, whose eyes were wide and concerned, flicking between the two of them. She met his gaze and shook her head desperately urging him not to say anything.

So he just scoffed, "No kidding," and settled back into the booth.

The waitress returned then, depositing Harumi and Toshiro's orders and Kasumi's second glass of water. Harumi eagerly broke apart her chopsticks and dug in, Toshiro doing the same. He took several bites when a loud rumbling sound echoed around the table again. He and Harumi looked around, before settling on Kasumi, who was blushing again and holding her stomach.

"Kasumi, really," Harumi said in concern. "You're hungry, you should eat! Starving yourself to prove you're tough won't do you any good."

"Not why I'm doing it," Kasumi grunted, crossing her arms. Her expression was dangerously close to pouting.

"I see," she said slowly. "And why are you doing it?"

"I don't have any cash on me, alright?" she burst out. "I can't pay for it." She glanced around the restaurant like she was trying to make sure no one had heard that.

Harumi chuckled slightly. "Kasumi, if that's all… I can't speak for Toshiro, but I don't mind paying for your meal if you don't have money on you. You don't even have to pay me back."

"We are a team," Toshiro said. "If you pass out from hunger, you're useless to us." That was a close as he was willing to come to offering to help her.

"I don't like charity," Kasumi grumbled. She raised her glass of water to her lips and chugged it down. "I think I'm just going to head to work guys… see you tomorrow." She jumped up from the table and beat a hasty retreat from the restaurant, leaving Toshiro and Harumi staring after her.

"Ridiculous girl," Toshiro grunted, and turned back to eating.

"She really is being a little silly about it," Harumi said uncertainly. She glanced at him sideways. "That looks really good, Toshiro, can I try some?"

"Certainly," he said, and pushed it closer to her. "It would be nicer with a little lemon, and it's a bit dry, but overall not bad."

Harumi blinked. "I didn't know you liked cooking, Toshiro!" she exclaimed. Toshiro shrugged, slightly self-conscious.

"My father doesn't like to cook, so I do it. I... don't mind it," he finished.

"Maybe you and Hotaru need to exchange recipes," Harumi smiled. "She likes cooking too."

Toshiro smiled slightly. "That… might be worth my time."

"Maybe when you and Kasumi finally meet her she'll show you how to make her tempura. It don't know what she puts in it, but it's really good!" Harumi praised. She took a bit of the chicken on Toshiro's plate and chewed thoughtfully. "You're right, it is a little dry, and some lemon would be nice. Huh, that's really interesting!"