<span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: palatino;">There was someone outside, and though Midori did not even come close to almost running into him, she stepped to the side and dipped her head respectfully, "Excuse me, Hyuga Sir." she managed to say, before hurrying on her way. He'd had the same eyes as Hyuga Misaki and Hyuga Ibiki and also Hyuga Junji, so he was probably another relation. Hopefully, she did not guess wrong about his family name, but then again, he hardly even seemed to notice her anyway. Besides which, the man seemed very serious, so besides her brief words, she hustled on her way back towards Uncle Kanetaro's house.<br/><br/>Actually, running seemed like maybe a good idea: it wasn't far, and it seemed like Teacher was going to have them run a lot. It had been part of the test, and they had done it again today, so getting better at running would be good, wouldn't it? She was already not too bad at it, but not better than some of the other kids.<br/><br/>Yes. That seemed to be a good idea.<br/><br/>With a small nod to herself at her decision, Midori started off at a quick jog, then carefully increased her speed to a full-out run. This was more than she had done during the run at the Academy, because she had farther to go and did not need to pace herself. So it was as she ran full-tilt that she came upon Hyuga Ibiki and Misaki after just a bit of time, though they had started quite a bit ahead of her. Of course, her reflexes were pretty good, so she kept herself from running into either of them, and just sort of used her last few steps to slow back down with a sort of jarring stop.<br/><br/>"Uhm,, Hi Hyuga Ibiki and Hyuga Misaki. Sorry if I bothered you..." Now, for some reason, Midori felt sort of embarrassed, and quickly looked to make sure she hadn't kicked up any dirt after her abrupt stop. It didn't seem like she had, but now she didn't know what to do. To run past them would have been rude, but then stopping made it seem like she'd been rushing to catch up, which implied that she thought they were good enough acquaintances to walk home together, which... well, was also rude. And now she was stuck awkwardly trying to figure out if she should continue home or if she should walk with them until their paths would part.<br/><br/>That meant, though, that she had to figure out which would be right to do, which meant asking. Hyuga Misaki would probably be annoyed, but Midori was not sure how Hyuga Ibiki would respond, since he was mostly polite but not really emotional in any way, it was hard to tell how he might react to... well, anything, actually. But.. part of being an adult meant that she had to do things that made her worried and uncomfortable.<br/><br/>"Um... can I... can I maybe walk with you two until I have to turn to go to Uncle Kanetaro's house?" Because if she wanted to maybe make friends, she should sound like she wanted to spend time with them, right? There was really no other good way to phrase her words without upsetting someone, she thought. And it was true: she didn't want to be alone, really, but without being invited, it seemed weird to ask to tag along. Having friends would be nice, maybe; she hadn't really had friends before, so the small girl wasn't quite sure if she would like it or not, but it seemed like a good thing.<br/><br/>And, besides, she wasn't really in a hurry to get to Uncle Kanetaro's house anyway, because then she would just be there with Miss Jinmi, and she would have to figure out how not to upset her again with her only partially-eaten lunch. Actually, Midori found herself wishing she had someone to share it with, since that would solve that problem pretty well. But, last time she had tried to share, she'd upset Hyuga Misaki, and so she was pretty wary to offer to share with anyone else. It was probably something that wasn't normal to do, so she wouldn't any more...<br/><br/>____ ___ __ _<br/><br/>Noboru sighed to himself as he began working on his report on the first day and the starting base for the potential ninja. It was, really, somewhat premature, but knowing where the students started was important, and even he could see that through his annoyance. As predicted, the students from the major and minor clans had done very well, though only the Aburame and Hyuga children had their discipline really perfected. Of course, they did very well over all in every aspect, especially the physical training. All in all, though, they all had potential, even if many of the students had no experience and were quite rough.<br/><br/>Unfortunately, he hadn't been able to have final say in his class, so some he would have cut for one reason or another had made it through, but it seemed, when he spoke to the instructors, that that was pretty typical. Seemed that the new council was really looking for as many new recruits as possible, so the standards were lowered.<br/><br/>Typical.<br/><br/>Well, he supposed they would either shape up or be weeded out eventually...<br/><br/></span>