Kazuki ended up being right about our arrival time. 

It was dark outside. 

We would've gotten here a little sooner, but we stopped to eat since we haven't eaten since this morning.

"I think that's the house," Ginji pointed towards a small cabin.

I felt nervous for some reason but had to fight through it. I knocked on the door and we heard some shuffling, then the door creaked open.

A woman with strawberry blonde hair and icy blue eyes answered the door. 

"You three must be Miyako's students," She spoke. "Come in,"

We walked inside the cabin. 

It was pretty nice on the inside and the fireplace gave it a welcoming feel.

"I'm Hanako," She smiled at us. "I'm Miyako's friend,"

"I'm Kaori," I introduced. "And these are my teammates, Kazuki and Ginji,"

"Nice to meet you guys," She replied. "Do you guys have the scroll?"

I nodded and reached inside my pouch to grab it. I handed it to her and she just put it on her dining table. She didn't even open it.

"Aren't you gonna open it?" Kazuki asked her.

Hanako shook her head. "No? I don't think I need to,"

"But Miyako-Sensei told us that there was a message inside, so we thought it was important," Ginji spoke up.

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, she just told you that because she's dramatic. There wasn't any message inside. If that was the case, she would've had one of my coyotes go after it,"

We exchanged glances with each other once she mentioned coyotes and she smirked a bit. 

"Sora and Kiyo gave you guys trouble, didn't they?" She chuckled.

"Wait, so those coyotes were yours?!" Ginji exclaimed with surprise.

"One of them bit me," I said and held my arm up.

She walked over to her kitchen and then opened up a drawer. She came back with a first aid kit and motioned for me to sit at the table with her, so I did.

She started patching it up.

"That must've been the wild coyote that wanders around here," She spoke. "The two I have wouldn't hurt a fly unless there was an actual threat. I trained them a long time ago,"

I nodded. "I see. Are they your summoning?"

"They used to be," She replied. "But I left all that behind a long time ago. They're just my pets now,"

I looked at her curiously as she cleaned the wound and wrapped it in bandages. Just who was she?

Two coyotes came out of the hallway and one of them ran towards the scroll and took off with it again. 

"Sora! Put that down!" She said sternly.

The coyote sheepishly walked over and dropped it in front of her foot.

Well, that certainly tells me which coyote took the scroll from me.

"There, just get that checked when you return to your village to be sure there's no diseases or something," Hanako said.

The door opened and saw it was Miyako. She walked in and looked surprised to see us here already.

"Wow, I wasn't expecting you three until tomorrow," She said and took the seat next to Hanako.

Kazuki and Ginji joined us at the table. 

Kazuki shrugged at her. "I have a pretty good sense of direction. I found a shortcut after further examining the map,"

Miyako gave him an approving nod. "Good job, Kazuki. I'm impressed that you were able to find a quicker way here,"

"So how else did the test go?" She asked.

We hesitantly looked at each other, remembering how she would send us back if someone were to steal the scroll.

"Uh...we ran into some...problems, but we resolved them and now we're here," I answered carefully.

She rose an eyebrow.

"What kind of problems?"

Ginji was giving me a look and Kazuki looked worried.

I didn't respond and she sighed.

"I already know,"

We all looked at her. She started to scold us.

"I had my brother watch over you three to see how it was going," She shook her head. "Kazuki, I'll admit that you did well, but you shouldn't have run off on your teammates like that. Not communicating where you're going could cost the entire mission or even your lives,"

Kazuki didn't reply.

Ginji and I got nervous when she walked over to us and sharpened her gaze. 

"And you two!" She scolded, hitting us both over the head. "Arguing, blaming each other, and then splitting up? That idiotic stunt could've gotten you both killed in the real world. Why the hell did you two think it was okay to split up when Kazuki and the scroll went missing?!"

Ginji and I both held our throbbing heads and sheepishly looked down. There was no excuse to cover our actions. 

"And then continuing to argue even after the scroll and your teammate was found? You need to get along in order for this to work. I guess I'm just gonna have to send you three back to the academy until you learn what teamwork means,"

The three of us widened our eyes and looked at her.

"We brought the scroll back in one piece and unopened!" Kazuki exclaimed.

She shrugged. "Sorry Kazuki, it's unfortunate that two of your teammates had to ruin it for everyone else,"

I felt my anger starting to flare up once again when Kazuki started to look down with disappointment.

I didn't want to be sent back, but I especially didn't want to ruin it for Kazuki. He didn't really do anything wrong. I suddenly forgot how I was intimidated by Miyako and stood up from my chair.

"Okay, I understand Ginji and me, but Kazuki? He didn't do anything wrong!" I raised my voice. "Sure, he ran off without us, but he didn't do anything else! He kept us together, got us out of that forest, and even got the scroll back for us!"

Miyako didn't say anything, but her green eyes stared into mine sharply.

"You saw yourself that we didn't get here with ease. We had to fight off a boar and some coyotes to get here. I got injured getting here. I didn't get here just to be sent back to the academy, but if you're going to send anyone back, let it be me. I'm the one who let my emotions get the best of me and I'm the one who let the scroll get stolen,"

"And I'm the one who took my frustrations out on Kaori," Ginji added hesitantly. "So don't fail him just because Kaori and I didn't see eye-to-eye!"

Miyako started to smirk.

Ginji and I exchanged glances and then looked back at her.

"So you two do have a backbone after all," She chuckled. "I like your attitude, Kaori. I'll let you three pass then, but you really need to work on your teamwork before I let you guys take on any higher-ranked missions. Not getting along and miscommunication can cost the entire mission, and even your lives,"

There was hidden emotion in her eyes when she said that last part.

We were too surprised by the sudden change to even respond.

Hanako snorted. "Always so dramatic, Miyako. You never intended to fail them in the first place,"

"Yeah, yeah," Miyako-Sensei rolled her eyes. "Keep quiet, Hanako,"

"So, we're genin now?" I asked.

She nodded. "Yes, but this is just the first step to becoming a ninja. We'll start our first mission tomorrow morning,"

Hanako stood up from her chair and then picked the scroll up off the ground, putting it back on the table. "It's getting late, do you guys want to stay over?"

Miyako nodded. "Yeah, that would be fine. They were supposed to come tomorrow anyway,"

Hanako nodded. "Very well. I'll set up the guest bedrooms and get started on dinner,"

She walked down the hallway with her coyotes following her closely. 

"I don't want to pry Sensei, but how do you know Hanako?" I asked.

"She was an old teammate of mine back in the day, so we've known each other for years," Miyako replied.

"So she was a ninja before? Why does she live out here?" Kazuki asked.

"She was exiled from the village a long time ago."

I didn't want to ask what she did to get exiled, but I still couldn't help but wonder what she did. Just who was Hanako exactly?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I changed a few things after this long hiatus. Miyako is their sensei instead of Rentaro and Kazuki is supposed to be Miyako before the change. Their sensei is sort of based off of Kukaku Shiba from Bleach lol