Yoshito had started unpacking his things and looking inside the package he had received prior from class. Just at that moment, a slip of paper escaped his pocket. He stopped, and then looked to the ground to see what he had dropped. It was a picture of Yoshito at the age of ten and the rest of his family. This had been given to him by his father as part of a birthday gift. Since then, he had just carried it around. It's become second nature at this point. It wasn't that it necessarily made him feel warm or any sense of nostalgia, but it made him think. He wondered what they were up to right now. Perhaps the usual. In the middle of picking up this photograph, Yoshito had noticed his new roommate Hanzõ slip out of the room. Strange. Silent as could be, he whisked himself out of the doorway without a word spoken. He was neither worried nor surprised, it's not like he would tell someone when he was leaving either. Something about this one made the atmosphere very eerie. Nonetheless, he got up and turned towards a window sill with a clear glass pane that displayed the outside like the frame of a picture. Although it looked like a scene chopped directly out a perfect art piece, it wasn't quite worth the effort right now. At the moment, all the young one wanted to do was lay down. Yoshito turned around and just as he was about to fall into the bed, a stranger approached from within the room. This stranger was a lady, young, with a pale complexion and heavy makeup, slightly taller than Yoshito, but much older in comparison. Or so it seemed. As he turned with a forlorn expression ready to ask who she was, a violent burst of an armed man came rushing through the doorway next, and before the boy knew it, he had a sword being held against his throat. It was clear a threat was to ensue within Yoshito's dorm room. This was a lot more of an inconvenience than anything else. What a drag this was. What could be worse than this? More guards of course. And then they started to enter. More of them.

Time felt like it was moving slowly, despite Yohsito's heart which was beating at a rapid pace. He dug his heel into the ground convulsively and waited without a word being said. It would be stupid to fight back at this point, given the situation anyway. For the time being he would be obedient, and keep his mouth shut.

“[i]Poor boy, you do not know who you truly are do you?[/i]” said the new dorm invader. It was hard to tell what emotion this odd ball was feeling. This was a woman Yoshito had never seen before. Just as she said this, there was a silent command given to the same guard before Yoshito. It was there he thought for sure he dead, but to his surprise, the guard lowered his weapon and proceeded back against the wall in a surrounding formation with the rest of her goons. The woman seemed paranoid.

"Okihika Hanzõ, though, I am sure you knew at least that much already." Hanzõ was standing in front of her. The conversing was casual, and Yoshito's heart sunk, but he couldn't help but feel the need to snicker. It's as if he could've seen this one coming.

“[i]We are being followed.[/i]” the lady stated, and almost instantly Yoshito's vision began to narrow. It was a smog clouding his brain and all he saw was the darkness. The boy had blacked out, and could not recall anything afterwards.
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[b][u]The following day...[/u][/b]

Yoshito slept with one eye open that night. His third eye. Not at one point did he wake up that night, but the young one did learn to be aware of his surroundings. If he didn't enjoy sleep this much, he wouldn't have got any of it at all. Hanzõ never did return that night. It was an image he couldn't erase from his head. They were standing together and speaking amongst themselves. It was blatantly obvious she had come searching for him. Why else did Hanzõ feel the need to explain himself?

"[i]I am Okihika Hanzõ, the student of Pain. You'll do well to remember that Lady Kazumi, for I am sure that we'll meet again. After all, you can't resist me.[/i]" it was all a puzzle waiting to be solved. Yoshito did not know why this happened, nor why Hanzõ was a target, or rather a [i]choice[/i]; the best kind that strange lady could have picked. It stuck with him, but did not scare him in the slightest. This would be interesting like a plot unfolding. Telling somebody what he saw would most likely end up in disbelief, besides, Yoshito decided it was not yet the right time to do so. He continued trying to piece this together as he made his way to the river in the nearby forest of the academy. The headmaster notified everyone after class that we would be participating in a mission of sorts. Some kind of field trip he supposed. Yoshito didn't exactly have the ambition to assist the civilians within a bandit infested village, but that's what the mission called for. He had to learn the ropes at some place or another. The boy arrived through a dense shrubbery that opened up into a clearing through the complex branches and twigs above to where the headmaster had everyone rendezvous in a comfortable manner, seeing he was the third one to make an appearance. Not much attention was given to the two other females who also happened to be his classmates. It seemed one was interacting, but the other didn't care as much to bat an eye. In fact, she looked asleep.

"[color=#7A7777]Hello, Headmaster.[/color]" the greeting was solemn and to the point. Yoshito bowed respectfully to the headmaster before turning to the river in front of him. He looked upon his reflection in the water and scuffed his sandals against the soil beneath his feet. It was nice to think the bandits in the village nearby could be made short work of, but at the moment, he wasn't so sure. [i][color=#7A7777]Be confident, yet cautious.[/color][/i] Yoshito was sure the group would be able to pull it off.