"I am not doing this."

"Come on, man. She's been practicing for two days."

"Oh wow, two whole days."

Koichi shoved Utakata's shoulder lightly, not so subtly pushing him in the direction of the Sealing Stone. "Just lay down like a big boy. She's not going to hurt you."

Utakata's glare was so sharp that Rei silently thanked whoever was listening that it wasn't pointed at her. "Keep it up and I might actually kill you."

"Alright, boys." Niko Sensei stepped between the two of them and faced Utakata. His chest heaved with a deep breath, and he set his hands on Utakata's shoulders. "You know why you were selected for this?"

"I know why you told me I was selected." Brushing Niko Sensei's hands down, Utakata finally pinned Rei with his golden eyes. She froze at the contact, and the chakra tickling her fingers nearly numbed her entire hand. "Because I have the most experience of the 'young Shinobi,' and my mind will bounce back from injury more easily than an adult's. Yeah, I got that. I'm still not doing it."

The other Shinobi congregating by the stairs were beginning to mumble amongst themselves at the conflict. This was the first time that Rei had seen most of them, though Kohana had quietly pointed out each person as they'd entered the chamber. They were council members of the foundation, and they were here to witness what she could do. No pressure.

"You're such a baby." Koichi hopped up on the Sealing Stone, making his mother cry out softly in horror, though Rei suspected that it was more at the thought of someone jumping on the stone than at the idea that it was her son up there. "I'll do it. I trust my teammate."

Headmaster Iwa rubbed his forehead like he was getting a migraine. He was doing that more and more frequently these days. "Koichi, your father would have my head if I let you be a test subject."

Crossing his arms, Koichi sat forward, tensed. "So I'm more important than Utakata? I can't be risked? Is that what you're saying?" He smirked.

"To me?" Headmaster Iwa's voice was strained, but he matched Koichi's snark. "No. But to your father, who outranks me? Yes, I'm sure you are more important. You're your father's precious boy."

Koichi's leer morphed into a snarl and he hopped down. "Just get on the stupid rock."

Utakata turned his eyes from Niko Sensei to Headmaster Iwa and sighed. "You both owe me big."

As Kohana and Niko Sensei strapped Utakata's wrists and ankles down to the Sealing Stone, Headmaster Iwa turned to the council members. "The restraints are for both Reimi and Utakata's protection. Sometimes during Sealing rituals, the subject loses control of their extremities, and they have been known to injure the caster. Jolting can also cause the caster to lose focus, which is critical in a Sealing ritual, and is also why I encourage all of you to hold your questions and comments for when the Jutsu has been completed."

Most of the council members nodded in understanding, but several stared blankly. Kohana had explained earlier that a few weren't Shinobi at all, but that they were nobles from the capital of the Land of Water. They were the few who funded most of the operation to bring down the Mizukage.

Koichi had taken his place by Rei's side, and she leaned near to him to whisper, "Why is the council here? I'm not doing anything that your mom couldn't do."

"Something about rating your potential. That's what Mom said." Koichi shrugged, his shoulders almost meeting his ears. "You're the first one they've met with the potential to kickstart everything."

Rei wasn't sure she'd heard that correctly. "What does that mean?"

"Well, it's not like there are a lot of Bloodline Limits still around, after all. You're probably the only one they've ever met." A quiet clang of metal came from the Sealing Stone as Utakata tested his restraints and confirmed that he couldn't escape.

"What are you talking about?" Rei asked, begging Koichi with her eyes to answer quickly.

"What?" Koichi looked genuinely puzzled, and then Headmaster Iwa was motioning Rei forward. Her mind whirled, fighting against her single focus of the task ahead as she was led to the stone. Standing beside Utakata's right shoulder, she met his eyes again and hoped that she looked confident. But it didn't matter how she looked. As composed as her teammate was on the stone, his eyes wavered from side to side quickly, just short of frantic, and he was beginning to breathe more rapidly.

"Reimi Taira is our most promising new recruit," the Headmaster said for the benefit of the council. "She was rescued from the Academy six months ago when we discovered that she possessed what we can only assume is an extinct kekkei genkai. This information is included in the restrictions of your respective Curse Marks, so bear in mind that if you attempt to discuss Rei's condition with anyone outside of the foundation, you will suffer the consequences." He paused for a moment to glance at Rei, but she couldn't pay him any attention.

Utakata was breathing so hard now that Rei could hear the harshness of the air as it entered and exited his lungs. He was showing the same kind of symptoms that Niko Sensei had on their first mission, when he'd had a panic attack and had slept for almost an entire day afterward. Rei wasn't exactly sure what a panic attack felt like, but she knew panic. She knew terror. He shouldn't be feeling that way.

While Headmaster Iwa kept talking about whatever he felt was important, Rei reached out and brushed Utakata's hair off of his forehead. His face was as pale and ghastly as a sky awaiting a thunderstorm. Rei could almost see his heart pounding through the thin fabric of his shirt. She drew in a deep breath and closed her eyes, searching her mind for the wall she'd built. She'd gotten very good at keeping it out of her immediate range; she'd accidentally breached it twice a few months ago, and she didn't intend to draw anyone's chakra away unintentionally ever again.

There you are. Upon finding the wall, she went through her list of requirements that would allow the barrier to open. She'd been able to shorten her list three times now, and Kohana assured her that it wouldn't be long before she'd be able to call and dismiss her ability at will, without needing to wall it away. Unfortunately, that day was not today, and it took several nerve-wracking seconds for her to sift through the correct information before the wall allowed a small stream of chakra to drift into her reach.

The moment that her special chakra met the invisible wisps above Utakata's head, it grabbed on and drew it back into Rei's body. Utakata's chakra was cool and felt carbonated, little bubbles tickling her veins as they ascended into her core. Slowly, slowly. The bubbles almost halted completely, but she pulled them forward consciously, holding her breath.

Utakata's heartbeat was slowing back to a more normal rate, and his chest was beginning to rise and fall with ease instead of straining under dread.

The wall began cracking, forcing more of Rei's own chakra through. Her chakra grabbed furiously at any foreign energy it could find, and she felt a sudden onslaught of unfamiliar mental flavors. Before she could lose her grip on her teammate, she slammed the barrier back into place and snapped her eyes open.

All talking in the darkened room had ceased, and all eyes were on her. The light thrown by the torches flickered aggressively over every face, and a variety of expressions twisted visages that she was already unaccustomed to.

Headmaster Iwa's voice cut through her fog. "Did you see it, Taji?"

A middle-aged bald man with a thin salt-and-pepper beard nodded and crossed his arms over his bulky chest. "I did. You spoke the truth."

Looking back to Rei, Headmaster Iwa inclined his head. "Rei, please proceed with the Sealing."

If she hesitated, she'd get distracted, and she would fail. Utakata stared straight up at the ceiling vacantly and a thin line of panic wove into Rei's chakra. She hoped she hadn't broken him. With a deep, cleansing breath, she placed a palm over each of her teammate's eyes, and she felt his eyelashes flutter for a moment.

Quickly, but carefully.

She knew the incantation by heart. She repeated it hundreds of times over the last few days. She knew how to combine different energies to get the desired result. She'd been taught well.

But she was still terrified.

Her lips moved silently as she worked through the chakra combinations, weaving them together seamlessly before moving the energy into her fingertips and forcing it through Utakata's eyes as gently as she knew how.

She could feel the self-imposed barriers in his own mind, and guiding her strain of chakra through another person's mind was strange beyond compare. If she really tried, she could probably access some of his memories. She could feel where they were stored: behind shimmery walls of something that gave off an aura of a water-like energy. She had no idea how she knew what was behind those barriers; she just knew.

Here. There was a spot for mental Sealings resting just behind the eyes, in the dead center of a person's head, Kohana had said. Rei would know it when she saw it. And there it was. A strange column of energy was in the exact center of Utakata's mind, and Rei could sense the already existing residual energy from his Curse Mark. Without hesitation, she wrapped her chakra around the column and muttered the required phrases.

By the final few words, she could feel her chakra leeching out of her and ingraining itself into Utakata's psyche. It was done. All that was left to do was retreat and hope that they both came out of the process intact.

When Rei lifted her hands from Utakata's eyes, the silence that had overtaken the Sealing Chamber was broken.

"Sit him up!"

"Did it work?"

"Wow, I can't believe we've got a kekkei genkai among us."

There it was again. As Kohana and Niko Sensei started undoing Utakata's restraints, Rei looked to Koichi and blinked. There were two of him, then there were three, then two again. Then everything went dark for half a second. "Woah, there." Koichi was at her side immediately, one arm on her waist and the other guiding her hand over his head and around his shoulders. "Looks like you might have overdone it."

For a moment, no one was looking at her. Koichi guided her to the wall and slid her into a sitting position. She leaned her head on the hard stone, feeling the tiniest tingle of the wall's chakra against her scalp. "What… happened… to the people… with kekkei genkai?"

"Just breathe for a few minutes," Koichi said, kneeling in front of her. "You might pass out."

It was good advice. Her vision blacked over again and a ball of nausea rolled up her throat for a moment before retreating.

"Utakata," Headmaster Iwa said loudly and clearly, obviously as some sort of show. Rei peeked her eyes open. "Say 'mashed potatoes.'"

Utakata was sitting up on the stone, his hand pressed to his temple lightly, but he narrowed his eyes at the Headmaster now. "What?"

"Say 'mashed potatoes.'"

"Why?"

The council members started to mumble again and Koichi snapped, "Just say it!"

Utakata sighed, exasperated, then said "M—"

Before the word could be formed, Utakata's entire body seized, and he fell back on the Sealing Stone, rigid as a statue. Everyone in the room except for Rei suddenly made some kind of small movement. Some touched their foreheads and others looked around as if they'd heard a voice they couldn't place. Then their eyes all moved back to Utakata.

"Well," Headmaster Iwa said, smiling broadly. Rei supposed his headache was gone. "I'd say that was a success."