Jiro was not particularly pleased with the quip about his height. He was tall for his age; it wasn’t his fault he had been put on a team with older genin. He did not let it faze him, however. He’d been called much worse in his lifetime, and he was a ninja-in-training. Ninja do not usually have the luxury of pride, and Jiro had worked hard to remove it from himself.

He was much less pleased with the implication that he would not be of use to his team, and despite all the mental preparation he had put himself through, he almost objected then and there. Fortunately, his wits were not so frayed after his morning’s exertion that he let his instincts get the better of him. He contented himself with a brief, moderate scowl.

He was relieved to hear the call for ‘group huddle’ by Miyazaki. Jiro had been afraid his hypothetical team would be heavy on bravado and low on teamwork. Jiro was never one for bravado, in his opinion. It just didn’t suit him. He was about to recommend they go far away, where the teacher could not hear them or read their lips, when his recommendation was left stillborn in his throat as Mizuhima put voice to his recommendations. Jiro was starting to think he couldn’t have asked for a better team.

His two companions began their exodus, but Jiro dawdled for a moment. He didn’t think questions would get him any further. His teacher was being understandably tight-lipped regarding the exercise. Jiro had learned, however, that a refusal to answer questions was not a refusal to give out information, willingly or otherwise. That lesson had been reinforced a few times this morning, and Jiro would not soon forget it.

His test was simple. He found a stone on the ground, one the size of a small apple, and felt its balance. He wanted to spend the time and write an impromptu explosive seal on the front, but with each second, his teammates drifted further away.  Doing so would be bad experimental practice, anyways. Test for one variable at a time, the modify hypotheses. Jiro tossed the rock from his right hand to his left,  and threw it with some force at his new teacher’s smug-looking face.

*thud*

Jiro watched the rock fly directly into the nose of his teacher, obviously causing a meager amount of discomfort,  before watching it drop back to the dirt. Jiro was not sure what to make of that, honestly, but he was sure there was a lesson in there somewhere. A lesson, and perhaps a little revenge for the comments about his height. 

He’d never found a writer claiming ninja could not be petty, in all his years of scholarship.

Jiro joined his teammates far enough from his teacher to feel at least moderately comfortable. For all Jiro knew, the jonin had a whole host of sensory techniques trained on his new students at this very moment, and the hundred meters the trio had walked were pointless. For all Jiro knew, he was under a genjutsu right now and he was actually drowning in a river. Jiro tried to dispel any genjutsu. None being evidently dispelled, or even disrupted, he began to speak. He spoke in his normal cadence, though in a more hushed tone than usual. Caution was a habit, Jiro knew, and he would not let it slip for a moment, especially not in the presence of a jonin. Then again, he really could never know when a jonin was near him, not at his level of ability.

Jiro stopped himself before his paranoia ran away from him, and began to speak after his hairline pause.

“Hello, Ms. Mizushima, Mr. Miyazaki. I look forward to being a part of your team.” Introductions couldn’t hurt, and it never hurt to be polite. “I am Jiro Nakahara. I am 13 years old, but I will do my best to not fall behind the two of you. I enjoy reading and bird-watching.” That was probably sufficient for introductions, Jiro figured. “My areas of focus are long range attacks with Magnet Release ninjutsu, and sensory techniques. My weaknesses are in physical strength and melee combat. I hope we can work together and succeed here. I also have some knowledge of fuuinjutsu, though I am still a novice” He patted the scroll-bandoleer he wore across his chest and around his back. “I would be very satisfied if we could show our new teacher that we are all capable students.”

Jiro was tempted, so very tempted, to start pitching ideas. He felt like he could guess Mizushima’s abilities, and he knew enough of Miyazaki from rumor and mutual friend chains that he had already come up with a few. He scolded himself internally for his impatience. One should never start trying to solve a puzzle, if one can help it, but Jiro could justify skipping that step, in the interest of not keeping his obviously-impatient teacher. Jiro scolded himself for nearly committing a grave social faux-pas. He remained silent, not showing any of his disappointment in himself as he waited for his teammates to speak. While he waited, he wondered which of his creations to use first, picturing each in turn. A smile played at the corner of his mouth, just for a moment. He was even more excited than he had forseen.