Time had passed since the official registration of the genin squads. As per regulation, the young rookies were now able to carry out missions, though the majority of them seemed to amount to village tasks, quested out by people in need of a little extra assistance. Typically for young budding shinobi, the ideal mission range was restricted to D rank, especially this early into their careers, but it seemed some ninja got to be an exception to the rule.

"He said they were off on a C-rank," Eri casually replied, walking down the streets of Konoha with her teammates in tow. "That was a little while ago, though."

"I wonder what they had to do," Momo offered up. She folded her arms, lifting her head thoughtfully while seeming to study the sky as if it held the answer to her question. Finding a better source, she turned her head to Tatsuo instead, who appeared more prepared to respond.

"Well, C-rank missions are usually only C-rank because you have to leave the village," he offered merely a shrug, "I doubt that there will be anything substantial that sets it apart save for that. Maybe an escort mission, or a delivery."

"But they're outside the village perimeter," Momo's brows knit curiously, "do you think it'll be dangerous?"

"Oh yes, absolutely," Tatsuo sarcastically began, "they may run into a terrifying stray puppy."

"Awwhuuu," Disappointment rang out from her tone, as a pout formed, "I wanna run into a stray puppy or something, to be honest." She kicked a loose pebble with the tip of her foot, "It sounds like they're doing real missions."

Eri's head perked up, her hands settled against her hips as she exchanged her gaze between her two fellow genin, "We're doing real missions too, though!"

A little floating question mark eased above the head of the darker-complected girl, one eye narrowing suspiciously, "Planting flowers?"

"Ah-ah," Eri waggled her finger, "'shop beautification'."

Tatsuo tucked his hands beneath his back, hand gripping his opposite wrist as he leaned down ever-so-slightly to offer his two cents and assess his team's expressions when he did so, "And walking the dogs? Was that a real mission?"

Eri's head rose once more, having to peer up to both of her teammates - Momo who was only a little taller, and to Tatsuo who practically towered over them both, "Hey, those dogs were adorable."

"Yeah!" Momo supplemented, "I'd want a dog, but there's no way my dad would let me."

Ah yes, Eri was entirely familiar with that little problem. In fact, knowing so many people from the academy served her with the opportunity to understand the vastly different versions of home life that existed. This went double for Momo, who'd come from a completely different land entirely. "You know..." She trailed, carefully and deliberately while not wanting to step on any toes -even if she knew it didn't bug Momo at all-, "how... did you get out of the house today?"

"Mmmm..." She coiled her fingers into her thick, curly locks, lips twisting contemplatively throughout her momentary pause. "I told him I had no choice, that I had to come for our training, or I couldn't be a ninja."

Tatsuo's brow quirked, "That worked?"

Momo shrugged lightly, shoving her hands into the depths of her pockets, "he didn't really ask any questions."

"Hummmm," Eri breathed out a downtrodden sigh, leaning forward as her hands pressed in against her own hips, "You'd think if he was so worried, he'd be a little suspicious about something like that."

"Well..." Another shrug rolled off of the dark haired girl's shoulders. "Being a ninja brings in money, so it's okay. He'll let me train so that I can be rich," It seemed no one had informed him that the best word to describe an active shinobi would probably more so be 'comfortable' rather than rich exactly, and sometimes even that was a stretch. Regardless, Momo twisted her head to look back at them, a face of eerie calm overtaking her as she spoke contrasting words, "Plus it might embarrass him if I die on his watch."

"Oh my," Tatsuo blankly uttered, somewhat drowned out by the 'whisper-shout' of Eri that scolded, "Don't say something like that..!"

Once again, Momo offered only an idle shrug, her lips stretching out into a comical '3' face as she shrugged even more dramatically now, "T's true thouuuugh."

Eri's fingers pressed against her own forehead, working around the center to relieve the start of a headache she could feel coming on. Momo was so casual, making jokes of such terrible situations. She knew it was all in fun, and for her, it could be classified as coping in some ways, but sometimes it was so outright shocking. "You're insane," She merely put, ,causing the curly haired kunoichi to tilt her head, a smile growing on her face accompanied by the soft beginnings of a chuckle.

"I don't understand how you can be so comfortable making jokes about that," Tatsuo had been bewildered by the girl for a time, but it became more and more clear over time that that was just how she operated. She was blunt, earnest, and sometimes a little too honest, some would say, but in situations regarding herself that was far more true. It only grew to make more sense that she and Eri were friends, the latter tempered her.

"I dunno. It's normal," she casually replied.

As the team continued to walk and discuss things, ranging from future plans to the results of their training, they found themselves growing distracted by the approach of one previously mentioned Sasuke Uchiha. As observant as he was, Tatsuo seemed to be the first to speak up, raising his finger towards the direction of his lime green sights, "Oh, that's him now, isn't it? So their squad is back?"

The two girls shifted their gaze, Eri catching sight of him immediately, while Momo seemed to look everywhere except in the right direction.

"Where?"

Eri reached up, taking Momo's head and focusing it in the right direction, only for the girl to simply speak an enlightened, "a h."

"He's walking with a purpose," Momo continued as her head was released, prompting the others to take a second look and notice. The raven haired boy really did seem to be cutting foot traffic, and there was no doubt that he was heading directly towards them, forcing the few of them to stop in place to wait for him.

Without a moment wasted nor a movement out of place, the Uchiha briskly seized Eri's wrist, not roughly or harshly, but just with an affirmative grip. "I'm borrowing this," He put simply, forcing the cat girl's brows to knit and eyes to narrow.

He didn't have to refer to her in third person - well, no, beyond that, he didn't have to refer to her as 'this'-

"But it's ours," Momo spoke up, prompting Eri's gaze to now flatten even further.

Sasuke froze in his mid-turn, peering back to her team. It was sudden, so he could understand them not agreeing so willingly nor abruptly, but this couldn't wait until whenever; it had to be done in a timely manner. "I'll bring it back."

'it. it. it.' Why were they all referring to her as 'it'? Her pocket swelled with air once more, and though sensing her comical displeasure would probably prompt some to be intimidated into stopping, everyone currently present knew much better than to be intimidated by this huffy kitten.

"Make sure you bring it back in the condition that you found it," Tatsuo put simply, a smile on his face that as serene as it seemed, harbored all the fixings of a taunting, teasing demeanor, built solely to work her nerves a little more.

Eri's mouth opened for a moment to spazz.

"No promises."

That comment from Sasuke, however, as he dragged her away, left her now staring back towards her teammates with utter confusion, reading through her face as if to say 'I don't know what's happening, send help'.

Tatsuo folded his arms across his chest, tilting his head as she was tagged along and humming quietly in thought to himself, "Should we be worried?"

"Nah," Momo kept right on walking, "She'll be fine~!"

Now able to walk after Sasuke as he pulled her along, the girl let her brown eyes wandered the part of the village they moved towards. As terrible as it may have seemed, she had lived in this village her whole life, and sometimes she still managed to lose her bearings. She peeked up ahead, though with Sasuke keeping affront her and pulling her along, she couldn't sneak a peek at his expression, though she could feel that perhaps he was... excited?

It wasn't after some time that she was aware of where they were headed; the trees and overgrowth of grass and foliage gave it away. When they reached a winding path within thickets though, she was absolutely certain. He had found this spot while taking a walk one evening, and from that point on, after seeing that it was seldom occupied by anyone other than himself, he appointed it as his personal training grounds. Every now and then he would drag her out to train or act as his sparring partner, but it usually was pre-planned or when he pulled a little trick to convince her, never so spur of the moment and without warning.

As they approached the centermost part of the field, it seemed she was finally given the opportunity to be informed on what was happening.

"You were right," he put simply, and for once, it didn't sound like it burned his tongue to say.

"Whoa whoa, hold on," Eri raised her hands from the log she sat upon, narrowing her eyes into suspicious slits at the abrupt admittance. "Did you just say I'm right?" She drew back, "Okay, so where's the real Sasuke."

"Funny," he sarcastically dragged, turning to now support himself with his back idly leaned against the trunk of a free, "but I'm serious."

"Okay so," She trailed, leaning back forward to drop her chin into her hands, "what was I right about exactly?"

His mind traced back to the mission he'd just returned from. He thought strongly on those memories that came vividly into his mind like video, everything from their first run-in with Zabuza to their final battle on the bridge. Every point of impact with those senbon needles seemed to tingle in response to these fresh scenes, but that was no surprise. He had been thinking about it consistently, but not just from the perspective of a victim.

"You know there are people that can keep up with you, Sasuke. You're not just in a league of your own."

He thought of the comment she'd made to check his cockiness in the past, and steeped in his tension, he could feel excitement rear itself from the thoughts of the boy in the mask.

"There are people out there that are stronger than me," he looked at his own hands, surging with an eager pulse of adrenaline that radiated in his palms when he clenched his fists tightly. "I've seen them first hand, and with more coming, no doubt." That's right. It wasn't just Haku from the Land of Waves, but the boy from earlier that day; Gaara of the Desert, he called himself.

A subtle, masked smile took to Eri's face, her cheek resting against her palm in quiet peace. "You seem excited. I guess you've got a fire lit under you now, huh?"

More than ever, though rather than saying that, he simply let a subconscious grin faintly shift across his lips. "I have to be better."

"Is that why you called me out here? To train?" She was sure that was the case, so imagine her surprise when his gaze turned to her, though seeming to exude a sense of purpose not appropriately labeled by her question.

"The chunin exams," he said instead, lowering his hands to cross over his chest. He rocked his foot behind him, the grip of his sandals scraping against the bark until the traction hooked them in place against a few pieces of protruding wood, "You already know all about it, don't you?"

"Um..." Her hands dropped from her lap to awkward rub her hands against the surface of the log instead. Her somewhat sharp nails dug and hooked against the bark, her gaze shifting elsewhere. "Well, yeah..."

"And you're participating?" He could tell that she was specifically looking to avoid further questioning, but it only made this follow-up more necessary.

"Mmm..." She had thought about that for some time. It was easy to see that between him being informed, and him questioning her this way, that he had already been offered the chance to register, and his mind was most certainly made up. She, on the other hand, she knew that Momo would probably feel more comfortable participating alongside someone else, and so she felt she should give it a shot. Personally, though, she wasn't quite sure.

Despite the way she and Sasuke ran in tandem against each other, the grand spectrum of competition actually wasn't her favorite. It put pressure on her, and constantly made her worry that maybe she wouldn't be good enough, or that she would wind up letting her teammates down. That thought put a pressure on her shoulders that she wasn't sure how to deal with. It was also true, that it was less solely about competition, and more about just trying to graduate to the next rank of ninja, but maybe she wasn't quite ready for that either. Maybe she needed a little more time to really experience what being a genin was really about.

She was torn in theory, but despite her worries, she had pretty much made her mind up. She would participate, simply because if she didn't, there was a chance her teammates would be dragged down by opting to pass on it along with her.

"I'm..." She nodded, a forced smile on her face and flimsy constitution in her conviction, "I'm going to participate, yeah."

As he figured.

"Then we need to talk," he abruptly spoke up. He was aware that she likely already knew what this was about. It wasn't the first time they would be having this conversation, and judging by the way she deflated by his sentiment, she was all ready for what was to come. He watched her angle away from him and fidget awkwardly, and while he took no pleasure in watching her become so uncomfortable, it was just a necessary evil.

"You can't hold back anymore," he wasted no time getting right into it, "I've seen what's out there now. Hesitation isn't going to do you any good unless you're looking to die."

She flinched from his brash tone, but as much as she wanted to argue, she couldn't. He was right. He was far from the only one that had given her a whole speech about restricting herself against an enemy. "I know, but... it's not that easy. Deciding one day that you're going to stop holding back doesn't mean it'll just happen. I'm just not built for that sort of thing."

Excuses, excuses, that's all he would accept calling them.

The Yoshida clan, to which Eri belonged, was living proof of that lie. They were a union clan, formed from the marriage of a noble clan and a warrior clan, and in the process, bearing reputation of both. Though they were first known for their union, and second for their numbers, the fame of their clan soon came from their displays of monstrous physical strength. Breaking the grounds, and uprooting trees were simple feats, among those that many members of the family scoffed at as 'child's play'.

He came to know this well, and yet, the youngest offspring to the main family was little Eri, a skittish kitten that would prefer to play keep-away than engage in close-quarters fighting where her strengths lied.

Her reasoning for such a glaring lapse in strategy?

"I don't want to hurt anyone that bad," she murmured.

Her own softness.

"Look, if it's you or them, you have to make a choice," he reasoned, pushing off from the tree with his foot and making his way over to her perch.

"But that makes it so hard," she huffed quietly in defiant persistence, "They're just ninja trying to do their job, just like me. They're not evil, you know..."

He would have loved to beg to differ, and would love to so callously inform her that sometimes evil was your enemy. Maybe it would have made more sense to recycle his sentiment from a couple of weeks back, and tell her once more that no one -this time on the battlefield- would repay her kindness with kindness, but he knew her reservations. They had hardly changed since they were young. He knew there would come a time when the world of shinobi would grasp her with its unkind hands and leave her as jaded as he often felt. He only had lingering twinge of hope that maybe he could drive the message into her now, so when that day came, she would be ready for it, unlike him.

Maybe the thought of her changing so drastically for the worst just challenged him to prevent that.

For now, however, seeing her sorry state, he took her up by the hands, pulling her roughly to her feet, "Come on, you're training with me then." He changed the subject just that simply, knowing there was very little needed to cause a dramatic shift in her mood. "I've got something I've been waiting to show you anyway."

"Training," she drawled. She was supposed to be on break today, so training wasn't exactly top priority, but he merely quirked a brow to her.

"Do you wanna see or not?"

"Fiiiine, but you owe me."

Like usual, it was no surprise. He'd just give some half-assed promise to take her shopping or something. After all, it didn't take much to appease her.

A/N: *Breathes in Irony*. This chapter is just a wee bit of build up and some unanswered beginnings. I'm still debating how far in I'm going to do the chunin exams. Like, I know that for Eri's development as a character it's quite necessary that the Written Exam be included, but I'm debating on adding the Forest of Death. It's more of a pivotal moment for Momo and maybe Tatsuo than it really is Eri.

Still! That's a wee bit of a ways off! We'll figure it out. I'm glad you see you guys seem to like this story! Thanks so much for the comments/reviews, follows, and favs! I really appreciate it! I hope you keep enjoying as we march through this building emotional rollercoaster together!