After having completed her rounds to her other students' living areas, Kyō headed back to the first that she had designated for an initial meeting - Nara, Shiō. The surgeon's training grounds next to her surgery were fairly well kept, but it was fairly easy for Kyō to simply stride in and do whatever she wanted. That was a point that she would need to bring up to the young woman - security was paramount in the dire situation that the village had found itself in. Kyō's being called upon was a sign that the strife was at such a level that it needed to be cut down, swiftly and brutally, and harmony needed to be restored urgently. In some ways, the presence of the Twin Sages was one of rebirth.

Kyō waited for a few minutes before Shiō stepped into the grounds, a few seconds early, and waited. Neither of them spoke a word until six thirty exactly, and then the silence was broken by the mutual call of:

"Hello."

Kyō smiled - her first student was precisely on time and had a sufficient level of respect for social conventions. People who talked out of place and out of time were prone to errant thoughts that could detract from their training - they were poorly equipped to deal with the rigours of a regimented training routine. Kyō would remove these weaknesses from her underlings by any means necessary, using physical force and psychological pressure tactics if it came down to it. There was no excuse for a lack of respect, especially not given the darker climate that had seemed to settle over the village over the prior few days.

"You're on time. Good. You display the proper respect for routine and social convention. Good. As I'm sure you know, my name is Kyō - I am one of the last few Senju, the Bamboo Sage, and I am your new Sensei. Forget everything about whatever assignments you had before, for they are no longer in any state of being meaningful. You're a Medical Ninja, which admittedly is not my specialty, but I will teach you the discipline and fine control necessary to progress in your studies... But first, I must measure how disciplined you currently are. I am going to create nine hundred and ninety nine sticks of bamboo, and then I will throw this stick:" - she gestured to the stick she was holding - " into the pile. You will find this stick for me. Go."

With that, Kyō stomped her right foot into the ground, creating a small forest of upright bamboo around the two of them in order to obscure Shiō's vision of both her and her Ouku no Ne, and then stomped again, cutting them all down while simultaneously throwing her stick into the huge mass that had been created. Each stick was identical in every way, and in truth, there was no easy way to discern between them. There were ways, but they were convoluted and complex. The purpose of the exercise was not necessarily to see if Shiō could find the Ouku no Ne, but to test other factors about her personality. What constituted as passing the test and failing the test were known only to Kyō.