“Nori! I am so sad we aren’t going to be team mates,” Miya exclaimed as soon as she saw her missing classmate slip in. His sleeveless faun colored deerskin poncho top was very distinctive. 

“I guess I lucked out. There are only three of you in the class so most teams won’t have a kunoichi this year,” Nori replied with a smile as he held out a small present.

The girl squealed with delight. “Is that for me?” 

“Yes! I have one for Oka and one for Ruri as well. I – …” 

Nori fell over as he was tackled by his overjoyed female classmate. He hugged her back. The other two girls were not around. He guessed they must have left while he was talking to Miya. The newly inducted genin pouted when it was time for his friend to leave. Things would have been way more fun if he had any of his closer friends on his team. Still as far as team mates were concerned Kao-kun and Keisuke were not too bad. Keisuke might be quiet but he was a pretty okay in class. Kao-kun on the other hand was hard working and really smart. Heck the kid was one whole year younger than all of them! 

He quickly found the other two members of his team. They were sitting in the same row but almost five chairs apart. His forehead protector can wait. There were more important things to do like getting Keisuke to talk or cheering Kaoru up. Nori stood sat on the table in between his two silent team mates. 

“I think our sensei might be setting up a test for us or something.” 

He shut up after that. No one was responding. He was secretly relieved when their former chunin sensei came to inform them about a special test. Finding a black cat didn’t seem that hard. Considering he had fish with him. There was simply no time to feed his usual furry friends on the way to school today because he overslept. The brown haired boy turned to look in the Kaguya’s direction when he heard Keisuke repeating the instruction in a very audible whisper. 

“Considering the time restriction of five minutes the cat must be somewhere close to the academy.”

The words barely left his mouth when Kaoru finally spoke for the first time that day, “That’s right, it’d take us at least five minutes just to get to places like the watchtower, the seven swordsmen compound or the harbor.”

“Should we split up and look?” 

Nori jumped slightly when Keisuke kicked the door open. The corners of his mouth quivered slightly as he attempted not to laugh at the other boy’s shock at seeing such a big clowder gathered at the door. Singing mostly to himself the Miura boy stepped pass the Kaguya and wadded among the sea of cats. He had been around many different cats before but something was off about some of them. Calmly the twelve year old reached behind and opened his backpack. He pulled out his lunchbox. The smell of the grilled fish made the cats gathered there meow frantically. 

Ignoring the few clawing at the legs of his black pants Nori began tossing pieces of fish meat as far as he can. Most of the normal cats remained in front of him begging for food while the “odd” ones seem to be darting for the morsels that he flung far away. One of the bolder ones leaped up and grabbed onto the hood of his poncho. The force almost made the poor genin stumble. He frowned. Now this one even seems to be emitting chakra. How was that possible?

“Hey!” 

Before he could even tilt his head far enough to look at the cat hanging from his back. The black feline leaped onto his head, grabbed the fish in its mouth and ran. Nori fell backwards onto the ground with a loud groan. The remains of his lunch box scattered everywhere. He quickly look up just in time to see the cat running off in the direction of the library. 

“Get that cat!” He yelled frantically. “It has the envelope.”