A light frown appeared on Ibiki's face as he continued to look at Midori's kitten. He immediately took note of the various scratches on her owner's hand, some of which looked more recent than others, as she continued to play with the animal. While he, perhaps erroneously,  expected that evading Sunako's claws would pose no particular difficulty, the boy didn't seem particularly enthused about petting her.<br/><br/>Animals were not allowed in the Hyuga household and neither of the twins had ever emotionally bonded with any. It was cute, of course, but as shinobi Ibiki had been trained to treat anything new and unknown with wariness, so he resisted the -- somewhat childish, he thought -- urge to fawn over the young cat.<br/><br/>"No," he replied as he combined his sleeves together, folding his hands reflexively. "I'm fine." Another moment passed in which he said nothing, his tendency to say no more than necessary -- almost a family trait, it seemed -- in stark contrast to Midori.  "I did not expect you to enter this academy when I saw you last. Our servant brought you home safely, I hope?"<br/><br/>It hadn't occurred to Ibiki before to ask himself that -- he had assumed that this was what had happened and inquired no further. The girl hadn't exactly intruded, after all, and their guard had likely only interfered because they had been talking. It wouldn't have been the first time that their rivals and enemies had used children as spies.<br/><br/>----<br/><br/>Misaki continued to worry away at her rice cracker and kept looking out of one of the windows with a carefully crafted casualness so as not to betray any interest she might have in the conversation going on a couple tables over.<br/><br/>When she wanted to sneak a glance out of the corner of her eye, her gaze settled on their teacher instead. Or the really young boy, the Aburame, whose presence made even her skin crawl. Tiny, obviously gifted and more than likely full of bugs bred inside him since birth. Compared to that even her cursed seal, as much as she hated everything it stood for and the pain it brought, seemed more like a blessing.<br/>