Assignment

"Everyone!"

Takuma-sensei at the front of the room, he had his class's attention in record time. He glanced at everyone's faces to draw out the moment. He probably looked forward to today as much as them. Renri simultaneously wanted to shrink into her chair or slide under the desk to disappear. Instead, she sat stiff and unmoving to keep from tapping or unraveling every thread in her sleeve.

The anticipation thick, he smiled as he announced, "I'm going to assign the teams," a little pause for excitement, a stern look to zip mouths, "then we will go over the assignment. After, the rest of class is to be spent in your groups, planning and familiarizing yourselves. Tomorrow morning we will head to the section of forest I reserved for the exercise."

Another round of chatter would have broken out, reveal of forest the first real clue he'd given, but an enthusiastic, unison yes from the class showed their interest. They wanted to know teams. She wanted to know if she could go solo. Given she already knew the answer to that, teambuilding the point, always the point, she whispered yes with resignation.

She wondered if there were permission slips for this sort of training. She really wondered who signed hers, because she doubted it was Orochimaru. She wanted a word with them.

The first names in the list had her hands balled into her sleeves, nails digging in. Sensei had lost his mind. Volatile didn't do his combinations justice.

"Renri-"

Her name called first dropped her stomach.

"- team leader."

Why? She wanted to argue, knew she made a face, but why would he do this to her?

"Daiki."

His name called caused his head to whip around "What?" The girl next to him snickered before whispering him his fate. Then Renri had his blank-faced attention.

"Mariko."

Death would be a mercy at this point.

Mariko stood, chair scraping as she glared Sensei down. He said nothing. Sparks flying, she slapped a hand down on her open textbook for emphasis. "No, I should be team leader!" Renri held back a sigh of relief. She'd gladly hand that over even if switching teams wasn't allowed. "I have better scores," Mariko reminded, that her first defense for everything. "I should be leader if you're going to make us work together."

Predictable.

Mariko hated Renri the moment she walked into class her first day. Quietly, mostly, with direct insults as rare punctuation and one physical altercation to date. Renri couldn't figure out why, but assumed it came down to Inada. Takuma meant to start something, placing them on the same team. The only way he could have made a worse team was sticking Izumi on it, Mariko just as prickly about the Uchiha- although Mariko didn't say a word about them with Izumi in earshot.

"Everyone needs a chance to act as leader." His dismissal had Mariko's hands in fists as she opened her mouth to- "Shinobi work in units," he reminded. "Teamwork is an integral part of being a ninja."

Mariko plopped back into her chair, a final glare shot at Sensei before that attention was all Renri's.

Would failing the assignment destroy her grade? And all the work that went into improving it? Add yet another year onto her graduation?

Yes. Yes, it would be absolutely catastrophic. Teacher posed the challenge outright. She had to.

Mariko wouldn't explicitly aim to make them fail. Her grade was on the line. She may lie and insult and brag but the truth was that her scores were at the top of the class from day one. She meticulously kept it that way. Even outside of taijutsu, Renri's average would never catch Mariko's after her stunt the first part of the year.

Daiki… Well, he was at least strong. Another sparring match mishap, he had almost launched Renri onto the roof after her failure to dodge.

With anyone else as the team captain, their team would be sure to pass. Most teams were balanced, skills complementary while the personalities clashed. The better question may be how Sensei intended to grade them.

"Go sit with your team captain," Sensei said following the final names.

Shuffle of chairs and belongings, whispers with laughs and complaints, Renri stiffened. Thud! Mariko smacked her books on the table. Renri thought for sure she'd be getting an 'accidental' shove. Sensei's threat towards Mariko's grade had probably scared her more than Izumi had, but… Mariko dropped her bag beside the chair before sitting. And glaring. "If I get a bad grade, you're dead. Got it?"

Renri nodded, holding back a reaction. That would only antagonize her. A verbal threat without arguing the hopeless argument of switching roles? Mariko was actually being reasonable.

Daiki sat down. He immediately turned in his chair to shout across the room for someone to throw his notebook to him. One of his friends chucked it. At him. Renri found a bit of hope in that not being a set up to hit her for the audacity of being team captain. Daiki rocked back in his chair, notebook set peacefully on the table as he grinned. "This is going to be my best grade of the semester."

The pleading look she had been aiming at Sensei fizzled. She could handle this. Probably. She had to.

"The details of the assignment," drew attention back to Sensei. "Two teams will be paired against each other. Team one will be given a scroll with a drop-off location. Team two is going to try to intercept team one before they reach that location. The task will need to be completed in two hours."

No further explanation how he planned to grade them, Renri fidgeted. Mariko huffed in agreement.

"The waiting groups will stay with me." Takuma-Sensei smiled at his additional layer of mystery to his grading. Was teaching boring? He was having too much fun with this mock mission. "The order will be as follows."

Given another thing to dread, her group would be the final of the day. She could feel the scowl Mariko gave her at the fact her entire day would be spent with her. Renri considered returning it.

"So, what's the plan, captain?"

It would be a very long day.

Renri dragged her feet, somewhere between excited for the day to be over and dreading tomorrow's arrival. Under the assumption she would need the energy for the test, she wouldn't be able to do any taxing training this afternoon.

Shifting her bag, she resigned herself to a few hours of throwing before returning home to read.

Scuffling feet, shouts, alarm, she peeked around the gate leading off academy grounds. Stomping feet, more yelling, she watched a few boys chasing something low to the ground. Her lips pressed together when one boy slipped to fall on his butt. Whatever it was, it continued racing forward, other boys in hot pursuit.

Dodging a stomp, her amusement tapered to horror. A little snake slithered between feet. Flick of its tongue, its head swiveled. And it continued its war path straight to her.

Run? Her foot edged the opposite direction. No. That would make it worse when she was inevitably caught.

A kick off the ground, she darted forward, low. She slid through dirt, between the boys. Her hand caught the snake. Another jump and she was on rooftops to run as far as she could from the academy.

The snake saw fit to wrap its body around her arm and squeeze and hiss. Whiny.

She scrambled to stop before she crashed into the culprit. Anko stood with her hands on her hips, sour look on her face. Renri released the snake before it disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"You know where Orochimaru-sama is?"

"No," Renri quickly answered.

Anko's frown deepened. She took a step forward to better intimidate Renri. She didn't need to. "You have no idea?" she pressed, leaning in too close.

"None."

"You lying?"

"No."

A tense moment of eye contact, and Anko blinked. She took a step back, throwing her arms up in defeat. "One moment, he's there, the next, he's disappeared! Honestly," Anko grumbled, arms crossed over her chest as she glared to the side, "where does he even go? I swear I've searched the whole village."

And Anko excelled at tracking, from what Renri understood. That little snake was one of many used for scent tracking. It'd locked onto her no issue.

Renri fiddled with her sleeve. Orochimaru did have a habit of disappearing without a trace. He had been oddly… absent… despite being in the village. Supposedly. She was at school most of the day. He could be in and out and she'd never know. She only knew her sleep schedule fragmented because he'd sometimes reappear well after midnight, that being her only chance to ask questions. He was forcing her to practice that sensory ability he taught her, too. He made no noise while entering the purposefully-squeaky front door, then silently hid away in the lab just on the periphery of her senses.

"Fine, then." Anko pouted before snatching Renri's wrist. "I guess my question can wait." A determined Anko couldn't find him? Anko dragged her a few steps before announcing, "We're going for snacks. There's a new bakery I haven't been to yet."

Renri let herself be pulled along. She knew better than to argue with Anko when she was already in a bad mood. That's when the kunai came out.

"Can I complain about class?" She could use Anko's response to her issues being a variant of 'kick their ass, then they won't mess with you.' She never would, but it sounded nice some days.

"We're going to eat and complain," Anko agreed before her eyes narrowed, voice lowered to conspire, "and then we're taking a lap around the village to find Orochimaru-sama."

Some sweets sounded great. The running Anko would put her through after? Not so great. She had enough issues outside her control from class. She would be finding a way out of running. She could do that much.