As the last of the students filed out of the classroom and the final goodbyes were said for the day, Iruka let out a sigh of satisfaction and set to erasing the blackboard. Gone were the characters he'd scrawled in his crabby handwriting, down went the diagrams and figures he'd drawn. All of it cleared in a murky white swipe to set a clean slate for the next lesson to come.

Behind him, the doors slid open yet again.

"I'm here, Iruka-sensei," a young voice pierced the silence not too long after. "I hope I'm not too late..."

"No, not at all," he reassured, and turned to the intruder with a pleasant smile. "Have a seat, Sacora."

"'Bright my heart shall burn,
Brighter than my pyre;
For somewhere deep within me,
Burns the Will of Fire.'"

"Very good! You've done much better with the hiragana reading today, and your written copy looks great. Once we finish this, I'll teach you katakana – which is another syllabary we use to write foreign words – and soon I think we can brush up on how much kanji you know."

Sacora beamed happily at Iruka as she basked in his praise. "Thank you, sensei."

He reached over and carefully teared at the perforated paper of her notebook. "I'll take this, if you don't mind"–for he intended to use it as an example of good penmanship for the younger students–"and you can go ahead and copy down the next poem."

She hummed a happy tune as she opened the poetry book to the appropriate page and picked up her pencil to copy down the first character.

He supposed a fair amount of speed in her progress was to be exptected, as she was mostly literate already, but he was pleased at times with how quickly she grasped the hiragana syllabary. Any initial confusion between similar characters was cleared relatively soon, and her knack for creative assonance was discovered when he found the short poems she penned in between her lines of penmanship practice.

Overall, an exceptional literary student, he evaluated of her as he tucked the paper away. Honestly, the most trouble she's had was getting used to the pencil. It had been a bit of a hassle showing her the proper way to hold one, and she still retained some over-handedness from using brushes, but she took to the utensil nonetheless and delighted in the fact that it had an end that could erase her mistakes on the spot.

Suddenly, Iruka caught her raising her hand from the corner of his eye. "Yes?"

"I noticed, sensei, that there's a common theme in many of the poems you give me."

"Oh? How so?"

"This 'Will of Fire'," she said. "I thought it was just a metaphor, but it seems to be more important. You mentioned it before, too, when you told me about shinobi. What is it, exactly?"

"Ah, the Will of Fire..." Iruka rested his hands atop his papers and noted, cheerily, the abundant afternoon sunlight warming up the room. "It's a philosophy founded from the beginning of Konoha. Its basic principle is that the village is like a large family that every Konoha shinobi should strive to cherish and protect."

Her eyes grew thoughtful as she slowed a bit in her writing. "Cherish and protect..."

"A little something I like to ask the younger students," Iruka went on, "is if they have any loved ones they want to protect. Family, friends, a pet, even...if they say yes, then I tell them that that is the Will of Fire manifesting, right there. There is no one too small or weak to feel the Will in their hearts. Plenty of people think it's reserved for shinobi only, but I believe that everyone is capable of feeling it, as long as they have that desire to protect."

A contemplative silence enveloped them as she ruminated on his words. He could see the inquisitive cogs turning in her head, the thoughts furrowing her brow as her hand slowed to a stop.

"Father always told me that greatness comes from success," she said at last. "He wanted us to grow from 'simple flames to great wildfires'. And at school we recite the 'March to Civilization' for the Fire Lord's victory in conquering the nations; the Will of Fire sounds...different."

So that's the sort of culture she comes from...It seemed hard to believe that both of theirs shared almost the same name. "Fire can do more than burn," Iruka pointed out.

She pursed her lips and continued writing from where she stopped. "Sensei," she piped up again, "what if the people you want to protect are gone?"

His eyes softened. "That's always tough," he sympathized. "I lost my parents at a young age. It was really difficult at first to think of anything beyond that pain, and I would try to push it down by making others laugh...but as I grew older, I realized I was never alone. There were people willing to reach out to me; I only had to ask." He remembered, fondly, that day the Lord Third had reached out to him. "Under the Will of Fire, no one, as long as they are part of the village, is left out or alone – the family will always be there for them, and in return, they will be there for the family."

"I see..." Her wrist turned with the completion of a round character, and her pencil tip flicked gently off the paper. She looked up at him and smiled. "That sounds nice."

Sacora paced about the schoolyard, one hand holding open a paperback book, the other waving in lazy motions as she ambled about. The breeze blew gently at her back and birds overhead peppered the air with occasional chatter, painting a picture of a perfectly relaxing day.

"Hard at work, I see?"

She jolted and looked up from the book. "Oh, hello, Mr. Teiji!"

The old man's face crinkled into an amused smile. "And a good afternoon to you too, Sacora." His head cocked to one side. "School has been over for a while. Why haven't you gone home yet?"

"I'm waiting for some friends to pick me up," she explained. "They should be coming soon." She squinted behind him to get a better look at some shapes moving down the path. "Oh, I think that's them."

He looked behind him and chuckled. "To be young again! Well, you kids have fun. Take care."

"Take care, Mr. Teiji," she returned, and watched him hobble away with a sheepish sense of relief. I was almost afraid he'd ask more questions...She wondered if he remembered how he had mistaken her for a genin at first. Perhaps he had forgotten; it seemed likely, given his age.

"Yo! Still studying?" Kiba called out to her when he and his team finally approached.

Sacora stuffed the book away into a little bag Kurenai had given her. "Not anymore. I was just reading for fun."

"Oh, ew."

"H-how was your lesson today?" Hinata inquired as they walked out of the yard.

"It was good. Iruka-sensei liked my handwriting," she boasted.

"Ooh, handwriting!" Kiba rolled his eyes. "How exciting."

"Good handwriting is a virtue," Sacora argued. "You should see my calligraphy sometime; it got top marks back at the Royal Academy."

"If that's the case, Kiba's the least virtuous of us all," Shino remarked.

Sacora giggled at that, much to Kiba's chagrin. "Whatever," he huffed. "Good handwriting's not that important to a ninja, anyways."

"Then I hope to never rely on a written message from you during a mission," Shino rejoined.

This elicited a displeased scowl from the young Inuzuka. But rather than argue the point, Kiba's pout soon turned into a smirk. "Speaking of missions, we've got something to really boast about this time. Sensei got us a C-rank!"

Sacora knew enough about missions now to understand a C was a step above the regular grind for Team Eight, no thanks to Kiba's constant complaining. "Oh! What will you be doing?"

"It's not as exciting as he makes it out to be," Shino assured her. "It's a simple escort mission; we'll be helping an elderly woman travel back to her home village. To go there and back takes within a day, until dusk at most if we leave first thing in the morning. The road we'll take is also very quiet."

"It's our first out of the village!" Kiba exclaimed. "Who knows? Maybe we'll get to see some bandit action."

Shino raised a skeptical brow. "That close to Konoha? I don't think so."

Sacora fiddled a bit with the strap of her bag as the implication set in. "So...I guess I won't be going with you..."

"Oh yeah, you aren't," Kiba realized. "Sucks, huh?"

You could try to be a little nicer about it, she complained inwardly. She was sure Kurenai-sensei had something arranged for her in their absence, but it bothered her more than a little that she was deadweight to them most of the time. Her reading lessons with Iruka were a refreshing change, but that was all they were; reading. She had not done any firebending since meeting Team Seven, and when she asked Iruka about potentially learning chakra techniques, his answer was not positive.

"I'm afraid that's not something we can help you with right now," he had said to her. "It'd have to be approved by the Hokage, and admission to the Academy requires proof of citizenship. I'll keep it in mind, though."

It's never going to happen, isn't it? she guessed. At least, not from him...

"Kurenai-sensei said you would be with Asuma-sensei's team while we're gone," Hinata mentioned, breaking her out of those thoughts.

"Hmm..." Sacora had seen them once or twice since the village tour during joint training sessions with Team Eight, and it seemed from those encounters that Kurenai was close in particular with Asuma. He seemed a cheery man thus far, more personable than Kakashi at least. "I'll see you all when you get back, then," she said with a shrug. "Good luck on the mission. And be safe," she added. "Especially if there might be bandits..."

"They better be the ones watching out," Kiba declared, "'cuz when me and Akamaru are done with 'em, they'll wish they never crossed Team Eight!"

Sacora cleared her throat. "Akamaru and I."

"Aw, shut up!"

"Glad you could make it, Sacora," Asuma-sensei smiled. "You came at just the right time!"

Ino dragged a hand down her face and groaned. "Sensei, can you...not? This is the least exciting mission ever."

"Can we use that cat to finish it for us?" Choji whined.

Sacora looked uncertainly from genin to genin. "D-rank missions sound so dull. Is it really worth hiring a genin team to do something like chase rats out of an attic?"

Asuma shrugged. "Enjoy it while you can, kids; before you know it, you'll be lucky to snatch up a mission before another colleague does." He clapped his hands on Choji and Shikamaru's shoulders. "Let's get to it, and if you finish up in time, I'll take you to Ichiraku's for lunch."

"What a drag," Shikamaru mumbled.

The house they arrived at seemed the perfect nesting place for pests such as the rats they were hired to chase; old, dingy, and in sore need of repairs. The owner was a nonchalant woman to whom the house belonged in name thanks to a deceased relative, and who tossed them the keys with as much care as an old shoe; "Have it done before my buyer comes around," she said before marching off to the marketplace.

"You're going up there first," Ino decided as she pushed past Choji to enter the house.

"Whaaat?" he groaned. "Why can't Shikamaru do it? And why can't you?"

"I'm not going up some musty attic without knowing what's up there!" she exclaimed. "What if there's a lot of rat poop?"

"Let's just get the traps first," Shikamaru suggested. "She said they were in some closet down the hall."

Sacora stood off to the side as they went about their business. Asuma deemed the genin capable of completing the mission on their own and had gone off somewhere alone. When it came time to enter the attic, Shikamaru pulled down on the retractable stairs and released a cloud of dust upon his and his teammates' heads. Some coughing and one angry commotion later, Ino pushed Choji imperiously at the stairs.

"Hey!" he snapped, but clambered up the stairs anyway. Shikamaru followed, traps in hand, while Ino trailed behind only after both boys had gone up.

"It's so dark! Isn't there a light switch?" Ino asked after emerging into the musty space.

Shikamaru shook his head as he felt along the wall. "Can't find any." His foot bumped against a wooden box in the dark, and almost immediately, a little squeak pierced the air as a fat fuzzy shape scuttled across the floor.

Ino shrieked and nearly toppled into some boxes herself as she jumped back. "Ew-ew-ew-ew-eeeewwwww! Get it away from me!"

Shikamaru grimaced against the pitch of her voice and stumbled towards what seemed to be light cracking through closed shutters. He forced them open and took a deep breath of the fresh air that spilled through. "Okay guys, we've got some light here. Let's set up the traps around the corners, and Ino, try not to be so loud."

Choji pouted as he picked up a trap. "This is going to take forever," he lamented. "Isn't there some way to catch them faster?"

"What, are you hungry already?" Ino retorted.

"Yuck, why would I eat rats!?"

"Guys," Shikamaru interrupted in exasperation. "Seriously."

Ino sighed. "But Choji's not wrong. Who knows how many there are in here? Instead of hiring us, these people should've gotten cats!" A moving shadow darted across the periphery of her vision, causing her to scream again. "Even their shadows are gross!" Then, it clicked with her; "Wait...Shikamaru, I have an idea."

"Shadow Possession?" he guessed. "But it's still too dark."

"Not if we ask her to help..." Ino gestured pointedly at the attic stairs with her head.

"Hm, that could work. What's her name again...Sacora!" Shikamaru called down the stairs.

Her face peeked up from below a moment later. "Yes?"

"Come on up, we need you for something."

She climbed up the old stairs and peered at the genin confusedly. "What is it?"

"We need you to use your fire to generate light," Shikamaru explained. "I'll tell you where to stand. Ino, Choji, you guys get empty boxes ready to catch the rats. Make sure they have lids and no holes."

"Okaaay...but why do I need to–"

"Just do as I say."

They scrambled to follow his instructions, and when they were in position, Shikamaru put his hands together in a quick series of signs. "All right...now!"

Sacora lit up a palm as Shikamaru simultaneously kicked at a box, provoking a scurry of tiny feet as several rats darted out. "Move left," he commanded, and Sacora angled her fire accordingly; the shadows at his feet lengthened and stuck fast to the rats', and he manipulated them into Ino's box. "Now behind me, and make it bright!"

"Wah!" Sacora canceled her flames briefly as she almost tipped over a box in shock. "Magic shadows? What can't you ninjas do!?"

"Are you going to help out, or not?" Shikamaru shot back.

The next few minutes were filled with stomping feet and startled squeaks as they rushed around the attic. What started as a miserable task soon became a fast-paced game, with Ino goading Choji on to catch more rats and beat her record, and Sacora and Shikamaru twisting about to get as much surface area for his shadows as possible. When there appeared to be no more rats to catch, all four fell to their bottoms to catch their breaths. Despite the grime, Ino's face was split into a triumphant grin.

"Told you," she panted at Shikamaru.

He rolled his eyes. "All right, fine. It was a brilliant idea," he relented dryly.

"And...?"

"...And you thought of it first."

She smirked and flipped her hair haughtily. "Of course." Remembering Sacora, she turned to the tired firebender slumped next to Shikamaru. "Hey, thanks for the help. You did great!"

Sacora looked up sheepishly and smiled back. "Oh...you're welcome."

Just then, footsteps echoed from below the house. "Is everything all right?" Asuma called up to them. "I heard a lot of noise up there."

Ino crawled up and bent over the opening. "Hey sensei," she called back, "you owe us ramen now!" Slipping feet first onto the stairs, she pointed at the boxes. "You boys can bring those rats down; Sacora and I will wait for you downstairs." She waved for the other girl to follow and they both disappeared from the attic faster than Choji could protest.

Shikamaru looked back at the squeaking boxes and sighed. "What a drag..."

Lunch was a lively affair, even if Asuma had to pay a bit more than usual to accommodate their guest, and team morale was high when they went to turn in the mission early; but as the day deepened, one thing was becoming glaringly clear.

"Huh," Ino blinked. "It's getting pretty late. Wasn't Team Eight supposed to be back sooner?"

Asuma chewed on his cigarette in thought. "Kurenai's probably run into some delay on the road. Happens all the time."

But Sacora looked up worriedly at the sky, which had already grown dark. "I'm sorry for keeping everyone behind..."

"Hey, stop apologizing!" Ino chided. "It's not your fault. How about this: you come over to my house for the night? Even if Kurenai-sensei's team does come back, at least you'll have somewhere to stay in the meantime."

Sacora nodded readily, aware of the tired looks on Shikamaru and Choji's faces.

Wasting no time, Ino grabbed onto Sacora's wrist. "Let's go pick up your stuff. You got a key?"

"She left it to me this morning," Sacora said.

Shikamaru stretched his legs with a lazy sigh. "Welp. I'm going home, then. See you in the morning, sensei."

As Choji followed suit, Asuma released a puff of smoke into the warm night air. "You kids get home safely. We've got plenty of training to cover tomorrow."

"We will, sensei!" Ino returned over her shoulder. "Come on," she giggled to Sacora. "It's been forever since I had a friend sleep over!"

Sacora blushed. "A friend? Me?"

Ino shrugged. "I mean...what else are you at this point?"

She chattered nonstop all the way to Kurenai's apartment about all the sorts of fun that were usually involved in sleepovers. The concept was strange to Sacora, but interesting; and suddenly, it felt like walking alongside Chuni all over again. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if Kurenai-sensei doesn't make it back yet, she thought as she now listened to Ino talk about flowers.

They finally reached the apartment, and Sacora slid the key into the lock. After the door creaked open, she made to enter, when Ino held out a hand for her to stay put.

She jolted, taken aback by the gesture. "What's wrong?" Sacora asked.

Ino's eyes were no longer cheerful. "There's someone in there."

"Wh-what!?"

Ino signaled for silence and moved her away from the door. The apartment was dark and quiet, bearing no sign of another presence; but then Ino's gaze fixed on one of the window curtains across the room. Without missing a beat, she reached into her shuriken pouch and threw a sharp star at the curtain. The fabric rippled as a dark shape materialized from behind it, and a kunai knife flew out at the two girls a heartbeat later.

Ino pushed Sacora out of the way. "I knew it!" She grabbed a kunai from her own holster and made the hand signs to summon a clone. "Run and get help!"

Her feet obeyed the command while the rest of her struggled to register the situation. Sacora didn't realize how tightly clenched her fists were until she found herself almost barreling down the metal stairs. Heart pumping, she stopped midway, suddenly frozen by shame. I can't just leave Ino alone! But what could she do? If the ninja up there was stronger than them both...

In what seemed a moment of blankness, she noticed some villagers ambling about in the street below – and several of them were wearing flak jackets.

She ran back up the stairs, hoping she wasn't too late. Her heart leapt to her mouth when Ino was nowhere to be seen, but the blonde haired girl reappeared a moment later when she was thrown from the apartment and roughly hit the railing.

Her assailant stepped out from the door and into the wan light. He stalked towards Ino, his face concealed by a cloth mask and his hand gripping a long dagger. Sacora dispelled her anxieties with a deep breath and cupped her hands around her mouth.

"Hey! You!"

The masked shinobi whipped his head around and raced down the corridor towards her. She held her fists ready, gathering chi to direct into a large flow, before shouting over the banister:

"Fire!"

A burst of flame erupting in a large plume over the railing followed her cry. Shocked gasps and yells echoed from below, and the villagers' silhouettes grew in numbers as people flocked to the apartment complex. Sacora held it for several more seconds before releasing the fire to see where the shinobi had gone, and turned to find him paused no less than three feet away from her.

She tensed, fists raised, not knowing whether to fight or flee. The shinobi's hardened eyes stared at her for what felt like an eternity, the light reflecting off his forehead protector in a menacing gleam; but rather than continue his charge, he dashed off the railing and seemingly vanished into the night.

A man in a flak jacket leapt over the banister shortly after, snapping her back into reality. "S-sensei!" she stuttered, forgetting Asuma's name in that split second. She ran up to him and Ino, where she shakily knelt beside the injured girl.

"Are you girls okay?" Asuma practically barked. "What happened?"

"Th-there was someone," Sacora stuttered, "and he attacked us..."

Ino winced as she attempted to sit up. "It was a ninja," she ground out. "He was waiting in Kurenai-sensei's apartment."

Two more flak jacketed men jumped up into the corridor behind them. "Where's the fire?" one of them asked urgently.

Asuma looked about the apartments, but everything was otherwise calm. His eyes fell on Sacora, whereupon he gave a knowing nod. "There's no fire, but there's been a break-in. Come on," he told the girls, and wrapped his arm about Ino's shoulder to help her up. "See if you can track down a runaway ninja," he said to the men, "and get someone to investigate number three-six-one."

Sacora watched the men jump away and looked up at Asuma. "Will Kurenai-sensei..."

He shook his head. "Don't worry about that now. All that matters is you both are safe."

Considering what could have happened to Ino, Sacora was inclined to agree. Still, she watched her back as they went down the stairs, and couldn't shake off the haunting feeling that she had come within a hair's breadth of deadly disaster.

It felt as though the rest of the night would be filled giving statements at the police station. Sacora and Asuma were seated in the lobby after the endless questions, waiting for the paperwork to be filled out, when the doors burst open to admit a frantic kunoichi.

"Kurenai-sensei!" Sacora cried, and leapt up from her chair. She intercepted Kurenai's path with a sudden hug, to which the crimson-eyed jonin responded with reassuring pats.

"I came as soon as I heard," Kurenai said to Asuma. "We got lost on the way to our escort destination and it took us forever to find the road again...was anyone hurt?"

Asuma shook his head. "Not seriously, anyway. Minor cuts and bruises on Ino; they let her home with her parents just ten minutes go." He rose from his seat and gestured questioningly to a corner of the room. "Can we, um, talk for a sec?"

Kurenai nodded and urged Sacora to return to her seat. Once the firebender was out of the way, she paced towards Asuma and crossed her arms. "I'm listening."

"The ninja that attacked them was an Ame-nin, according to Ino," he divulged in a low voice. "The barrier team isn't sure of how he passed undetected. They traced him out of the village, but his trail ran cold. The police couldn't establish a mode of entry at your place and suspect he used a window since the door had been locked, but apparently, he didn't touch anything else."

Kurenai's brows furrowed deeper with every word. "I'll check on that to be sure. But it seems more like he was lying in wait..."

"The question is, for who?"

Kurenai glanced briefly at Sacora from the corner of her eye. "A Rain ninja sounds like an assassination attempt. It's possible I got on someone's bad side during one of my missions...but a Rain ninja also sounds like a cover to divert motive."

Asuma crossed his arms. "So it could have been her."

"Staying on the down-low, hiring from a village known for a certain skill, waiting until it seemed she would be unsupervised–" Kurenai narrowed her eyes. "Even if they didn't succeed, that cult could still bet on us investigating the wrong lead. And now that I think about it, my team's delay must have something to do with it as well."

Asuma's jaw clenched at the thought. "I'll inform the Hokage and look into your client's background," he proposed. "In the meantime, you shouldn't take any missions leading out of the village for a while; for both your team and Sacora's sake."

She nodded, accepting the stipulations with a weary sigh. "I hope to god that I'm wrong," she murmured as she ran a hand over her face, and looked over her shoulder at Sacora again. "She was only lucky today because Ino is a sensor type."

"Conversely, Ino made it out okay thanks to her quick thinking," Asuma interjected, and related to Kurenai how he had been alerted to the conflict. "So she's not completely helpless. Tell her when you can that Ino and I...we owe her one."

"Really, now?" For the first time since she heard the news, Kurenai smiled. "Thanks, I will."

Sacora read and reread the same line of hiragana for what felt like fifteen times, before giving up with a sigh and flipping the book closed against her lap. Though the training ground was particularly serene this morning, she didn't have it in her to focus.

Then something wet and cold pushed against her hand, startling her. Finding it none other than Akamaru's nose, she instantly relaxed and scratched him behind the ears.

"You didn't need that book anyway," Kiba interjected as he plopped to the ground beside them.

Sacora shrugged. "I guess."

Akamaru continued to happily receive her scratches, until, at a signal from Kiba, he suddenly jumped and started chasing his own tail.

She fought the urge to giggle, but failed at doing so when it came out as a full laugh. "Akamaru! What are you doing?"

The little dog let out a yip and ran around for three more circles, then flopped to the ground with as much grace as a fish and exposed his furry belly. When he wasn't immediately rewarded with belly rubs, he let out a confused whine, to which she responded with more laughs and finally, a rub.

Kurenai watched them with a faint smile on her lips. Tensions still ran after the incident, and Kurenai couldn't blame her. If the poor girl had ever been overwhelmed before, she probably felt more so now. We could both use a breather to get it off our minds..."You've all done a good job thus far," she said suddenly. "There's a Market Day going on right now; how about we end early and go for some dango? My treat."

"Oh, that would be nice," Hinata gushed. "Th-thank you, sensei!"

"About time!" Kiba exclaimed. "You never spoil us like Asuma-sensei does with his team."

"And you see how well that works for him," Shino put in.

Kurenai chuckled. "Then consider yourselves lucky. What about you, Sacora?" she asked, turning to the firebender. "Have you had dango yet?"

Sacora shook her head. "I've never tried it."

"Dude. You will love it. Seriously," Kiba promised.

Market Day in the village encompassed a majority of the marketplace and some of the square, filled with vendors and shop owners alike clamoring for business with special wares or discount prices. Sacora didn't think she ever needed to squeeze between people to make her way around the village before, and she had already thought Konoha to be more populous than the Caldera City.

The smells in particular were downright appetizing. Savory and sweet, they wafted along the streets from the sizzling grills or frying pans of the food vendors. Sacora's stomach was already growling when Kurenai stopped at a dango stand, and she gratefully accepted the skewer of pink, white, and green-colored balls that was handed her.

Kiba had already downed one ball and shared half of the second with Akamaru by the time she started nibbling on hers. The balls were soft and chewy, tasting thickly of rice with a hint of sweetness from the sprinkled sugar and flavoring in each of the different colors.

"D-do you like it?" Hinata asked expectantly.

Sacora nodded. "The pink is my favorite."

"It's sakura-flavored," Shino informed her. "As in, the pink flower."

"Hey, let's check out that stand!" Kiba interrupted them, but had already moved on ahead without waiting for any of them to say yes.

"Don't just run off on your own like that!" Shino chided as he, Hinata, and Sacora rushed to catch up with him.

He was thankfully hard to miss with the bright white Akamaru perched atop his head. Still, Sacora could already imagine the argument between him and Shino once they caught up.

"Sacora!" a different voice suddenly called out.

She turned in the direction of her name and stopped running when she saw the friendly face of Mr. Teiji. "Oh, Mr. Teiji! Hello."

He was standing at a stall that specialized in selling tea, though Sacora could not see anyone working behind it at the moment. "I see you're enjoying Market Day with your friends," he remarked with a chuckle. "Here, have some tea with your dango–" He gestured at the cups laid out on the stand. "They just poured samples of a special tea from the mountains, so it's still hot."

She glanced around and found Team Eight back together, ogling wares two stalls down. "Oh...I'd love to, but..."

"Just grab a cup," he coaxed with a smile. "It's free, after all."

"Well...okay." She came up to the stand and picked up a cup with her free hand. The first sip carried hints of flowers and fruit as it slid smoothly down her throat, radiating pleasant warmth that spread to her limbs. "Oh, it's very good."

"Indeed! I'm thinking of buying several tins myself."

Seeing as she still had plenty of it left, she took another sip, closing her eyes to savor the brew's herbal fragrance; and it certainly was a fine fragrance, so fine her fingers loosened numbly around the cup, and her consciousness faded away into darkness.

Notes

For students who used brushes and ink, sandstone and pumice could have erased small mistakes, which of course is not as convenient as a pencil + eraser. Also, I looked it up and a Chinese person would indeed have some trouble reading kanji; while they would be able to understand the gist of the character, they might not grasp the detail or how the words fit together in the sentence.

The "March to Civlization" is an oath written and commissioned by Fire Lord Sozin at the beginning of the war that is taught to children in schools, per the Avatar Wiki.