[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/v6D6nMm.png[/img][/center][hr][hr] [INDENT][sup][COLOR=gray][b]TIME:[/b] [i]Present Day - Early Morning[/i] | [b]LOCATION:[/b] [i]Ninja Academy[/i], [i]BBQ Restaurant[/i] | [b]INTERACTION:[/b][@Schadenfreude][@j8cob][@Syn][/COLOR][/sup][/INDENT] Sadako lacked the happy family to congratulate her during the period before the graduation ceremony and, although it was welcomed, the congratulations from her peers in the orphanage was hardly the same. Expecting any type of congratulations from her superiors was too much to ask for and she had not expected any, yet still felt dissatsfied and saddened when she didn't receive any, despite expecting it. "Becoming a genin is the bare minimum," they'd told her instead. They were right, every orphan was expected to pass the graduation exam with at least decent marks, and though she exceeded even that, it wasn't like they were going to treat her nicely just because she was a genin. It [b]did[/b] mean they were going to say goodbye to her. She hadn't been adopted -- most orphans in the shinobi employment program were not even allowed to be adopted -- and could now provide herself with a living wage. The rent for her new apartment was paid before she even graduated and, before she knew it, she'd moved in. This new routine of taking care of herself would get some getting used to and, during the period before her graduation, she'd often forget simple things like having dinner. It was this kind of freedom that was so hard fought for others but still felt strange to her. With nobody watching, she could do what she wanted, and nobody would chastise her for it. It was no surprise that she did pretty much whatever she wanted -- staying up late, eating bad food, and shirking off on her training. Then came the graduation... The homeroom teacher made sure to drill into their heads the procedures for the ceremony. [i]Stand up straight! Look at lady Kaguya-sama! Hold your head high, even if it rains! Do not put on the headband before you're allowed to![/i] Then they went over the positions they'd be standing in at least a dozen times, with Sadako being stood between a random kid and Kasumi. Someone she'd barely known, outside of seeing him at the academy once or twice -- well, closer to 'every day,' but it felt like it was only once or twice. Unlike Sadako, who tried desperately to talk to people and become friends with them, only to retreat after making herself paranoid with the idea that her 'friends' didn't like her, Kasumi simply seemed to accept that he didn't belong and stayed on his own. That was her impression -- and damn, it was [b]so cool[/b]. Secretly she wished she could be like him, someone who doesn't care and just does whatever he felt like. When Yogensha appeared, Sadako swallowed some of her saliva, the presence of the leader suddenly seeming like a much bigger deal than she'd initially thought. Sure, she was not one of the five great kage but... surely, she was just as powerful. Right? Nobody really seemed to know, and those who did kept their mouths shut, mumbling something about 'great power' and 'awesome technique.' To Sadako, that seemed like things someone would say when they were just trying to shrug off a question, but still.. for them to say something like that, she must've been pretty powerful. Yogensha's words seemed inspiring but took a rather drastic turn as she instilled in them the supposed wisdom that decisions they took, and mistakes they made, would now not impact their grade, but their life, or lack thereof. That was a prospect Sadako had often thought about but, in all honesty, it had never felt as serious as it did now. Never the less, Yogensha was right. [i]She's.. right. Being a shinobi is about sacrifice. I'll sacrifice myself so the innocent don't have to![/i] she thought to herself, her eyes lighting up temporarily as she was swooped up in an idealistic and perhaps slightly naïve way of thinking. But, for someone who had sought an identity for so long, who had sought for acceptance and to be acknowledged.. wasn't that the single goal worth striving for? To serve a greater goal to protect others, no matter the cost? [i]Sacrifice?[/i] While she was sunk in thought, the shinobi handing out headbands stepped by. Without realizing it, Sadako had forgotten to raise her hand for him to place the headband into, so with a strong and firm grip he reached forward, giving her a stern 'hmph' as he did so, grabbing her hand and pulling it forward. He pushed the headband into her hand, and only then did Sadako realize what happened. She felt like apologizing, but they'd been told specifically not to talk, so she just bowed her head ever so slightly. [i]The weight..[/i] she thought, slowly moving the headband up and down, [i].. so incredible.[/i] Yogensha had continued, and finally gave them the order to put on the headband. And although there was nobody there to watch her, no clan members or other family, she felt a sense of pride surge through her. [i]I'm a genin now, a real shinobi,[/i] she whispered to herself in her mind, her hands raising up and tying the headband behind her head. [i]How cool![/i] With the teams being made known, she was slightly happy about the team composition -- that lasted about two seconds, before it dawned on her. [i]Oh no,[/i] she thought, [i].. I'm in the team with Kasumi and Asashio! They're both so cool -- what if they think I'm some loser! I.. I bet I was placed on this team out of pity![/i] As nobody around her could know what she was thinking, it just looked like she was having a slight existential crisis, which was strange given the otherwise joyous occasion. Well, in truth, she was partially right -- Asashio and Kasumi both shared a trait, namely that they didn't seem to give a shit what anyone else thought and were both equally powerful in their own right. Besides that, whether it was true or not, they appeared like they had a certain degree of self-confidence, something that Sadako found [i]incredibly[/i] cool. And, well, she was kind of the opposite of that. [hr] The morning after the ceremony, Sadako rolled over, prepared to grab another four hours of sleep now that she didn't have some old-head instructor kicking her out of bed at 8AM sharp. But, rather than grabbing another four hours of sleep, she grabbed a mysterious scroll that had been placed there by a mysterious person. It took her a few seconds to open her eyes, desperately trying to ignore whatever was in bed with her, but when it started poking her in the face whenever she moved and prevented her from getting comfortable, she was kind of forced to deal with it. When she did open her eyes, she'd have jumped backwards at least five meters, but because there was a wall on the other side of her bed, she backed up into the wall, bonking her head against it violently, letting out a yelp of pain. [color=steelblue][b]“Aiaiaiai...”[/b][/color] she groaned, grabbing the back of her head. Who even placed that scroll there without her noticing? Who even got in like that! Was it a bomb?! Maybe when she opened it, a fire jutsu would come out and blow her up! Her mind went paranoid almost immediately, before she calmed herself. [color=steelblue][b]“Sadako!”[/b][/color] she chastised herself, [color=steelblue][b]“you're a genin now! Act like a soldier!”[/b][/color] And so, in true trooper spirit, she carefully lifted the scroll and slowly, very very slowly, opened the scroll. No fire jutsu came out, nothing happened, it was just a very sweetly worded note. [color=steelblue][b]“My sweet genin...”[/b][/color] she proclaimed to herself, reading the entire note out loud to herself while she sat up straight, crossing her legs. She gently rubbed her hurt head with one hand while holding the note with the other, and when she was done reading it, she stared at it in slight disbelief. [color=steelblue][b]“Sensei...”[/b][/color] she slowly said out loud, [color=steelblue][b]“why are you bothering us with this a week before the appointment... Why are you sneaking into our houses to scare us like that... Why don't you just come to our houses and knock on the door...”[/b][/color] All of these things would've been better said when she actually, you know, visited her sensei, but it seemed she was sleep-deprived and once she'd tossed the scroll away into a corner, she let herself fall back into bed, pulling the sheets over her head and continuing her rest. [hr] And because she'd thrown the scroll away, she'd completely forgotten about the meeting until she was already supposed to have left. Jumping out of bed, she grabbed whatever clothes were nearby and rushed into the bathroom, pulling her top over her head while furiously looking through her bathroom equipment looking for a toothbrush. [color=steelblue][b]“GOT IT!”[/b][/color] she proclaimed, holding up a pink toothbrush before squirting at least half a tube onto the toothbrush, her other hand occupied with pulling on her pants. While furiously brushing her teeth, she used her other hand to comb her hair, and then finally jumped out of the bathroom, pulling on her sandals, and almost breaking the door open with sheer force as she rushed outside. Refusing to use the stairs in such a hurry, she jumped over the balcony rail and landed on her feet in the muddy patch of dirt in front of the appartments, splashing up mud on her just recently cleaned sandals. [color=steelblue][b]“Yatta! Let's go!”[/b][/color] she yelled to herself, before taking off in a sprint, almost running over a nearby civilian. She arrived about ten minutes after Kasumi had -- but she was only at the academy grounds at that point. She didn't realize it yet, but she was pretty much guaranteed to be late, and to make matters worse, she'd not managed to avoid the rain. As the skies opened up and began unleashing their tears, Kasumi looked around the grounds for her team. [i]They already left, didn't they?[/i] she told herself, slightly disappointed with herself. But, out of the corner of her eyes, she saw some of the academy students playing around with what appeared to be a tiny, tiny orange crane bird -- origami, not live. [color=steelblue][b]“Wait a minute...”[/b][/color] she said, rushing over to the kids. [color=steelblue][b]“Hey-hey! Did you guys see some other birds like that?”[/b][/color] she asked them, but the kids all shook their head. [i][color=gray][b]“No, but we did see some older kid walking around looking at the ground, as if he was following a trail! He went that way!”[/b][/color][/i] they all said in unison, pointing at a street. [color=steelblue][b]“Thank youuuuuuu!”[/b][/color] she yelled, already running off. Koko-sensei might've hidden the origami birds well to protect them against the rain, but even the hidden birds couldn't withstand ten minutes of downpour and so, Sadako basically had to trail around, looking for any hints as to where her team had gone. These would be either droopy half-unfurled orange papers or Kasumi's footprints. After a while of trailing around she was honestly about to give up, her trailing around only taking her past the BBQ place her team was sitting at a few times -- they must've watched her walk by at least twice, if not more. She'd been clearly to engrossed by looking for random footprints to look up, otherwise she would've easily spotted her team through the window, and instead, she only wasted about ten minutes of running through the rain before looking up and seeing them. But, when she finally did, she sheepishly waved at them through the window before going inside, her hair clinging to her face. This problem she amended easily by shaking her head a few times before dragging her hand through her hair. Approaching the table her team was sitting at, she waved again, this time managing to utter out some form of greeting. [color=steelblue][b]“Hey-yo! Sorry for being late, sensei, I uhhh.. the rain, you see?”[/b][/color] she said, offering some form of apology in the process, before placing herself down in the bench, taking up whatever space was left. [i]Jeez, they probably already think I'm a loser..[/i] she thought, glancing at Asashio and Kasumi, and though most genin would likely become friendly rivals with their teammates, Sadako would probably take more to them as her rival-idol. After listening to Koko-sensei ramble on for a few seconds, she tossed a scroll, which Asashio promptly took a hold of, opening it. Sadako leaned in, perhaps slightly too close, leaning against Asashio's shoulder slightly with her own. [color=steelblue][b]“Ohh, cool. I've never been to an 'onsen.' Asashio-chan, have you been?”[/b][/color] she asked, trying to make some sort of conversation but, in the process, likely sounding somewhat over-eager to become friends. Right, Kasumi and Asashio were both [i]super-[/i]cool in her eyes, but they also both seemed like people who... didn't really care that much about making friends. Seems like Sadako had forgotten about that. [color=steelblue][b]“O-oh, I'm Sakamachi Sadako, by the way. I hope we'll make a good team!”[/b][/color] she then hurriedly continued, realizing she hadn't even introduced herself. While her introduction seemed over-eager once again, her smile seemed genuine, as she quite literally beamed at both Kasumi and Asashio. Although she'd introduced herself, Kasumi seemed more interested in interrogating their new sensei, and while she didn't really understand why he asked his specific question, Sadako did turn to Koko-sensei to hear her answer -- if she had one. If she'd take too long to answer, however, Sadako would simply laugh sheepishly, clearly not a genuine laugh, before asking her own question. [color=steelblue][b]“K-Kasumi is just joking, Iyokan-sensei. M-my question is... uhh.. n-nevermind!”[/b][/color] She interrupted herself, smiling slightly as if there was nothing going on, but really, there were plenty of questions racing through her head. [i]My question is... can we do this? Are we good enough? Am [b]I[/b] good enough?[/i]