[Peridot]

Muri grimaced as her disguise was seen through rather easily. She’d need to practice a bit more on her own free time. Rai’s greeting to the return of Mr. Haruno made her smirk  little in appreciation though, it was good to know she hadn’t been the only one sick of Mr. Pank and his horrible teaching methods. Giving Mr. Haruno a sheepish smile, Muri reversed the transformation and returned to her normal appearance once Mr. Pank had been thrown out of the door. “Bugger,” she exclaimed with mild disappointment, “I really thought that’d work. You’ve got a corker of an ear, teach.  She didn’t talk much at all yesterday.” The last was spoken in a grudgingly appreciative manner. Guessing that Mr. Haruno would want an explanation for her general craziness, Muri  put on a chagrined expression as she spoke, “I had a bit of a blue with ol’ Megaphone-teach and he went as mad as a cut snake and chucked me out of the Academy when I told him to pull his bloody head in and teach.  He’d tell me to rack off if I just lobbed in without a disguise.” Muri gave a shrug, “Yeah. So that’s that. Now that he’s choofed off and I’ve made a proper gallah of myself, any chance I could be a student again?” A realization occurred to the girl and she started with surprise, pointing an astonished finger at Mr. Haruno, “Oi, and whaddya mean ‘promoted’?  I thought ya got busted by the ANBU for not being a wowzer.”

[Peridot]

Muri glanced through the window as she flew past, noticing both Mr. Haruno and Mr. Pank in the classroom discussing something, although it was too muffled to hear through the window-glass. At least, the horrible teacher didn’t seem to be shouting anymore. Sweet! Well, if teach is back, I reckon I can stand to sit through class again. See what that extra credit was all about. Unfortunately, the student was still expelled from the school, and while that wouldn’t have been a problem if only Mr. Haruno was teaching the class, Mr. Pank was there too and would likely do his block if she came slinking back. It was impossible for the student to manage a smirk through her fiery beak, but she would have if she could. The plan was probably doomed to failure, but her rebellious spirit demanded that she try this.  After confirming that Haruso, Jane and the lame students unwilling to risk doing actual work had not returned to the classroom since yesterday, Muri flew to the school entrance and undid her transformation. A swirl of dark smoke surrounded her as she quickly attempted another normal transformation jutsu to take the form of one  of the absent students in the classroom.  While she didn’t think that Mr. Haruno would rat her out, Haruso and Jane’s departure with the demon made bothh of them poor choices in a disguise. I’ll have to choose one of the lame, cowardly wankers then… It would have been hard to remember their faces just off the top of her head, but luckily she had been practicing how to transform into one of them the other day, so it would be a little easier to attempt.  “Lucky!” Muri chimed before  performing the hand-signs and disappearing in another cloud of smoke.

“Eergh,” Muri muttered in frustration, “this body is not my bowl of rice. Heaps gross.” She had attempted to take the form of her training partner from the other day: the creepy and quiet Aburame girl.  Although she had no mirror or way of checking her own reflection, Muri hoped it would be good enough to pass. The girl tentatively prodded the eye-tubes and face grate before shuddering with disgust. With the transformation complete, Muri took the elevator to the the sixteenth floor and cautiously approached the door to her classroom. Alright, infiltration mission…START!  I’ve got to speak only a little, mumble a lot and be a creepy loser…shouldn’t be too hard, I reckon. Didn’t she have a speech impediment or something? Shit, well I’ll just not talk much and hope that slides by. The girl tentatively knocked on the classroom door gently, so gently that the noise might not have been heard. “…H-h-hello? …Sorry… I’m late,” she mumbled quietly and eased the classroom door open, keeping her head down in a manner that might be considered shy or contrite.

 

[Peridot]

A warm thermal spiraling over the ramen shop filled the small fiery bird with delight as the flight to the park became even easier with the additional lift. Muri soared over towards the empty-training ground area in Konoha to practice her abilities since Mr. Pank’s instructions hadn’t proved helpful. The grassy field had one or two sparse trees and wooden posts stuck in the ground for taijutsu practice. There was more than enough room for the more experienced ninjas training nearby. With a graceful dip, the recently expelled student gripped the top of the training post with her claws and perched as she thought up a good training plan for the next hour.  She folded wings comprised entirely of roiling flames carefully to avoid catching the whole post on fire. As  it was, her talons began to char the wood with small, dark marks. Since it was a beautiful day with a slight breeze Muri ultimately decided to practice her flying and aerial attacks. The bird-shaped flames took off, reaching a fairly high altitude before plummeting down at the training-post, talons outstretched. The sharp talons sunk into the wood, making small puncture marks and trapping the fiery bird. With an angry hiss, Muri flapped her wings vigorously and carefully extricated her talons before trying the maneuver again.

This time, as Muri dove at a high speed towards the training-post she made sure to follow the attack with a quick shifting of her wing-angle and some powerful flaps to merely deal slashing attacks across the flat top of the post and continue her flight pattern instead of getting stuck.  Three parallel but fairly deep grooves engraved into the charred wood appeared, prompting Muri to let out a cheerful hum of satisfaction as she climbed higher into the sky and wheeled around to practice the attack again.  After ten consecutively successful uses of that attack, Muri attempted the piercing dive again. It took more  energy than the simple gravity-assisted dive to hover in front of the post, dart in for a quick, kicking  jab with her talons before propelling herself backwards and hovering again but after several moments of trial-and-error, she finally had it down. At this point, the exterior of the post was turning a dark charcoal color and beginning to smolder.

She then switched to practicing the attack she had used the other day, flying quickly and brushing the target with some of her bodily flames. She skimmed the post with the bare touch of the tips of the frolicking tongues of fire making up her wing-feathers and circled around, watching as the post began to smoke and produce glowing embers in the struck area. Despite her best attempts to avoid igniting the post before she was finished, the wood was beginning to be in danger of potentially setting the whole field ablaze. Also, she was starting to get hungry from having only eaten a single roll of stale bread. She decided on one last training exercise before she would head back to the school in hopes of obtaining a lunch somehow.  Rising back up into the sky,  Muri dove straight towards the remains of the wooden-post with as much speed as she could muster before tilting slightly to circle around the cylindrical target with her wings folded. She was trying to see how fast and how tight of a turn she could make around the object without accidentally setting it on fire or crashing into it. The bird made ten tight circles around the target, once brushing it accidentally with her wings and creating more smoldering embers before learning how to tighten the turn even more with a roll instead of re-angling her wings.

At this discovery, Muri declared her private study session a success and  decided to check up on the school. Muri gave an exhilarated whoop of happiness and accomplishment as she pulled an Immmelman turn to redirect herself in the opposite direction. A few wing-beats later, and the student was close to the school. She carefully darted around the sixteenth floor window and peeked in as she flew by to check whether Mr. Pank was still in the classroom or whether Mr. Haruno had shown up yet and to access whether the students looked as though they had lunch yet while trying to draw as little attention as a small flaming bird could draw.

[Peridot]

Mr. Pank’s bellow resounded throughout the classroom, shaking the desks and tables with the force. Muri’s ballpoint pens all rolled away from the source of the noise as if in retreat and clattered against the floor of the classroom. The girl’s eyes widened and flashed with a smoldering, golden gaze as his words sunk in. She eased her chair backwards to give her more room to bend down and pick up the fallen pens and place them neatly back into her backpack. Her bangs fell across the front of her face, shadowing her expression, but anyone close enough would be able to see her hands tremble as they secured first her writing implements and then her textbook. “I see,” she responded in a flat, accent-less tone before standing back up and directing her gaze first at the class before focusing on Mr. Pank. “Alas, I have hoped to be a ninja my whole life, but if my hon-or-able teacher says nay, then it has all been for naught.” The girl lifted  a leg and placed a sneaker-covered shoe on the surface of her desk with a firm clatter. “To return home empty-handed and empty-minded would be too shameful to bear!” At this, the girl clutched the front of her shirt dramatically, expression full of anguish. “I would rather die than shame my clan, and so….” Muri shouldered her bookbag and gave the class an expressionless look, drawing her leg back so she could regain her full  height. “And so, I shall. With any luck, I shall see all of you wonderful people again in my next life.  Short-stuff, take care. I wish I could have known you better. If we ever meet again, I hope to be reborn as someone even more amazing. Farewell! I shall see you this savo.”  After her speech, Muri jumped out of the open window by her desk shouting, “DYNAMIC EXIT!”

As Muri jumped, she took a brief moment to reflect on all of the ways she messed up before promptly forming a few hand-signs and  putting a bit more chakra than usual into the jutsu, transforming into a small but fiery little bird. Using the momentum of the fall, the bird continued the sharp dive downward, angling its wings to try and veer quickly off onto an adjacent side of the building and out of sight from the edge of the window so no one would see her transformation. <i>I’m shit at genjutsu, but if I ever get it down, I wonder if I could make an illusionary dead body on the ground below. Bet THAT’D freak ol’ Megaphone out. Ahahahah!</i>  When she was on a different side of the building, Muri unfurled her wings, gaining lift and leveling out her altitude. Mr. Pank had mentioned that Mr. Haruno would be back later that afternoon, so she might as well get some REAL training done and practice some aerial maneuvers over at the park in the meantime. It would be good to practice against aerial opponents just in case. The fiery bird adjusted her flight to point in the direction of the village’s park.

[Peridot]

The golden-eyed student looked up from her glances at the textbook when she saw the teacher motioning at her with his pen in her peripheral vision. Muri gave Mr. Pank a clearly confused look, first trying to listen to his words and when that proved impossible, she tried in vain to lip-read what he was saying. Hopefully, the cool cross-transforming teacher would come back, but if not it might serve her well being able to lip-read. Unfortunately, he was a bit too far away and it was hard-going. She caught at least the beginnings of her name. Her head tilted to the side as a puzzled crease grew between her brow. “Huh? I can’t hear ya, for what’s it’s worth, megaphone-teach! Can ya please speak up a tad? It really does my head in when ya whisper like that.” The scrawny man jabbed his pen first in her direction and then to the door. She caught on to his demand but merely grinned toothily, folding her arms back over her head to cradle her neck in a cocky and slightly arrogant expression. “Yeah, megaphone-teach I’ve got a pen already. What, ya want me to start taking more notes or something? If ya want something, just say it.”  The girl leaned back in her chair slightly too far and it tilted uncomfortably back. With a startle, she grabbed the front of her desk and thrust all of her weight forward, just barely managing to keep from toppling over backwards. Muri grabbed the front of her shirt as her heart pounded at the near fall. She glanced back at Mr. Pank, a bit embarrassed that he had seen her blunder and curious about how he would respond to her near challenge.

[Peridot]

Muri heard the swearing before Rai walked into class just barely on time. Since he didn’t seem to be in the mood for socializing, she let him be in favor for listening to the loud outburst from the relatively new classmate. Ice huh? His clan name certainly explained the water manipulation powers he had been freely burning chakra to use. “You never told us your name either, soda pop!” Muri responded in an off-hand manner to the new student. “Mine’s Muri, by the way. Nice to see another foreigner in the class, what made ya choose Leaf?” At that moment, their teacher interrupted in his dreadfully loud voice, and the student made a loud squawk of outrage. “Strewth, ya fair dinkum about that, megaphone!?  How’re we supposed to learn taijutsu then, ya drongo? I could of chucked a sickie and just read this book for all the help you’re giving us.” She muttered something about “bloody muppet” before reluctantly flipping to the indicated pages to see if anything worthwhile was written in there. If not, then she’d try and sneak in some research about ninjutsu to see if there were other cool tidbits or tricks written in the textbook. Teach would be back soon,  she just had to wait out the day.

[Peridot]

Muri shot the student using chakra to turn his soda into a miniature fountain a look, regarding him with some interest and flashed him a thumbs-up for doing something cool: she hadn’t seen or at least didn’t recall seeing him in class yesterday but he seemed to be at least a more interesting bloke than the kids willing to risk being trapped in a burning school in order to beat the next level in their cellphone app. At this reminder, Muri turned off her cellphone so that it wouldn’t be a nuisance in class and opened the window to let in a gentle breeze into the classroom. She pulled out her textbook and quickly skimmed through the pages, trying to figure out how these lessons were structured, whether they were proceeding in any particular order and what would be the next lesson after taijutsu and presumably genjutsu were covered.

“Oi! Megaphone, have ya been drinkin tinnies? Feeling spiffed? ” Muri called out obnoxiously. If the teacher was drunk, that would certainly explain the chalk drawings as ugly as a box of blowflies. Her confidence in the teacher was reaching an all-time low. Hell, self-study might do her more good at this point. “Have a go, ya mug and show us some taijutsu! Those chalk scribbles are as useful as a parachute in a submarine!”

[Peridot]

Muri barged into class, having run up all sixteen floors  making a bit of a rowdy ruckus as she panted loudly to catcher her breath and slammed the door open and shut too enthusiastically before stomping over to the seat by the window. Her book bag was plopped down onto the seat next to her with a careless thud of cloth against wood and unzipped to fetch the school supplies she would need for the class. To her disappointment, the substitute teacher was still there, but she resolved to give the man a fair suck of the sav before she judged his teaching. Maybe he knew something heaps cool? The teacher bellowed something about playing bingo? Or did he mean the bounty-hunter book for ninja? Hell, were they going to be learning about rogue nin this class? Muri stifled a chortle when the man appeared to be having trouble even writing the word “taijutsu” up on the board. Was he a native? “Oi chalkie,  It’s Taijutsu, not Taijustu. Ya misspelled  it just a little right there,” she helpfully mentioned in a quieter voice than her normal after the fifth attempt.  The girl was happy that the old teacher was coming back for lunch. He had been a pretty decent bloke, and it would have been a shame to have him incarcerated or given some really dreadful punishment. Hopefully, all he got was a talking-to or something. Muri wasn’t super familiar with how the laws worked in Konoha.

[Peridot]

Muri woke up early, as usual, just a few moments before her cellphone went off and rang an alarm. The girl stumbled to her feet, searching for some clean clothes that didn’t look too wrinkled and eventually decided on wearing her black jumper again with a red and black striped T-shirt underneath, some dark jeans hiding her ankle-weights and comfortable dark tennis shoes just in case she had another thrilling day. There was no food remaining in her pantry, so the young academy student simply packed her bookbag and double-checked to make sure she had her apartment key and money with her before heading out of the empty apartment. On the way to the Academy, she stopped by the local supermarket and bought a piece of two day old bread to munch as her breakfast. There was still a little bit of time to burn before class started, so Muri decided to go and visit the Uchiha clan hosting her in Konoha before taking a quick jog around the town. It wouldn’t hurt to learn her paper route before her first day of work, and the fresh, cool breeze nipping at her face always invigorated her in the morning.

Arriving at the Uchiha residence, she hesitantly called out and announced her presence, prompting a low-ranking Uchiha member to open the door suspiciously at the loud little redhead standing outside so early in the morning. “Oi there,cuz!  I brought half the moolah I made last night,” she spoke carelessly, rummaging through her pants pockets to pull out the ryo coins making up of half of her wage and waving them in the Uchiha member’s direction. “Said I’d fork over half my wages for the rent, so here ya go, mate.” Muri forced them into the man’s hand. He looked at the meager amount of coin and came to the conclusion that while the money and effort put into repaying the clan was admirable, the lump sum of her wages was nothing to write home about. “How…prompt of you. We’ll simply expect a monthly payment. Don’t feel the need to come here everyday.” Muri gave the man a curious look before shrugging, “Good onya, mate.  That’ll make the paper job easier. Alright, as long as we’ve got it all nutted out. Hear any natter about last night? Our  rellie, the kid with both eye jutsus, he went and done a fair dinkum runner with a demon.” At that moment, the echoing tune of “Angry Birds” chimed from her jumper pocket so Muri grimaced . “Sorry about that, gotta run. Hooroo.” Without waiting for a response, she sped out onto the street to get some anonymous privacy and answered her phone.

Her father was on the phone and  torn between wanting to strangle Muri for not responding, setting the school on fire and generally causing mischief and expressing his worry for the far-off fledgling. After promising to write and be a bit more regular about phone calls, Muri finally negotiated her folks off the phone  and stowed the electronic device back in her jumper pocket. She then focused on her morning jog, preferring to listen to the sounds and bustle of her new home instead of plugging into some tunes on her phone. Once she had been jogging for about an hour, Muri deemed it quits and headed over to the Academy and her classroom if there was anything left after the fire.

[Peridot]

Muri nodded in response to Rai, “I’m off too. Hooroo.”  Finishing up her curry and dumping the box into the nearest recycling bin, Muri headed down the main street circling the Hokage’s office before hooking a left and taking a bustling sidewalk towards the Aburame clan residence.  The streets weren’t too packed as most people were hiding in their homes because of the recent ANBU mobilization, so she felt confident enough to switch her cellphone back on. Balancing both texting and navigating through the city, the girl flicked through the conversation and few texts she had missed from her sister:

> Tai,nin or genjustus? Which is best?
>Whichever you’re the best at. How is school?
>Pretty chill. Kid got all sliced up and died in the loo, now the school is in lock-down. The Mizukage and a demon showed up, taught us some things and took some students with him. I hope we get to eat lunch soon. L8er.
>What!? Seriously!? Are you okay?
>Hello?
>Are you still there? What’s going on?
>Muri??

Well, it seemed her sister, Kotori, was freaking out from her earlier text, so Muri decided to type in a response: “Hey, sorry. I got called to go on a ninja mission.”

Kotori’s response was quick, as if her sister had been hovering anxiously over the phone.” You can’t leave me hanging like that. I was really worried! I know you’re busy, but Mom and Dad want to have a talk with you tomorrow. >< How was the mission?”

Muri grimaced as she read, shifting her shoulder slightly to the side to narrowly avoid bumping  into a passerby before thumbing a reply. “Cool! I hid in the vents, and ran around nicking food. Then a weird monster showed up and nearly iced the dandyprat helping me. The ANBU had to patch him up cuz he was bleeding out everywhere. I set the monster on fire though, and the WHOLE building lit up like a marshmallow and now class is let out. Oh, and my teacher got arrested so we have a sub tomorrow.”
“… I am praying that you are lying right now. Stay safe.”  A sigh escaped Muri as she looked at that sad forlorn and rather short text for the amount and length of time Kotori must have spent typing, backspacing and then typing again.  A simple response was given,”No promises, things are crazy here but I won’t let myself die easily. BBL, my shift starts soon.” She flipped the phone closed and began to run down the street towards her part-time job. By putting on a burst of  speed, Muri reached the noodle restaurant at exactly 5:55 pm, five minutes before her 6 o’clock shift was due to start. The assistant manager Muri was assigned to gave the girl an approving nod to her punctuality even though her hair and general appearance was slightly disheveled from running to-and-fro all day and handed over a basic uniform consisting of a red polo shirt with black writing on the back and a simple baseball cap advertising the restaurant. As she changed into these clothes, Muri also strapped on some light ankle weights underneath her pant legs.

The general panic caused by ANBU mobilization and the discovery of the dead academy student discouraged many people from venturing outside of their houses to eat at Ichiraku, a prominent and well-off restaurant with only the highest standards in food,  serving all manner of noodles from tsukemen to ramen. This meant that plenty of calls for delivery were streaming in from the phone. After giving Muri a firm briefing of the rules and expectations of compliance to said rules, the assistant manager sent her off to a<span class=”apple-converted-space”> </span>home near the Hatake clan residence with an insulating metal box used to store the food and keep it warm during the delivery process. It was actually quite heavy and unwieldy and the bane of most food delivery employees, but to Muri it served as just another exercise weight. She glanced at the slip of paper detailing the address and then ran off down the road.

Of all the jobs she could have gotten, Muri was thankful for this one. It paid well for a part-time job due to the late shift and unlike a desk job, gave her a way of exploring and getting to know the unfamiliar city she was staying at and allowed her to get some training in as well.  She looked forward to the day when her bird form would be strong enough to carry the metal box. Not only would the quality of delivery improve but then she could have a good excuse to work on her wing muscles as well and practice flying with heavy loads. Until then, she contented herself with constantly running with intermitten sprints towards the apartment.  “One order of pork ramen, extra egg and one order of yakesoba, right?” Muri knocked on the door of the apartment, taking the warm meals out from the insulating box and handing them over while naming the price for the delivery. Pocketing the tip, Muri then headed back to Ichiraku to hand over the rest of the money and to go deliver her next dinner.  After several hours of running back and forth across the city with the weights and food in hand it was finally 9:30. Only thirty minutes remained until the end of her job when the phone rang. Apparently,  the Akimichi clan planned on having a late-night meal (possibly in addition to dinner) and ordered a copious amount of food: 3 bowls of shoyu ramen, 2  bowls of miso ramen, 4 tsukemen orders and 1  pot nabeyaki udon, all with extra noodles and a boiled egg.  Muri didn’t know what was more surprising, the amount that three very hungry Akimichi nin could eat or the fact that the assistant manager seemed to expect this order and had most of the food almost prepared. Since the insulating crate could only contain up to five orders at a time, Muri arrived huffing loudly toting a metal crate in each arm to the Akimichi residence. They welcomed her in, gave a decent tip for not having to make multiple trips and out of gratitude for the food before sending her back to the resturant.

That was her last order of the night, so  at 10:00, Muri collected her pay for the night, changed out of the polo shirt and downed the noodles, broth and vegetables from left-over bowls of Ichiraku customers before  heading to her apartment. The flat was small, but she was still thankful to have even found on in the bustling ninja village. The interior was sparse as she had yet to go shopping for any furniture or comforts and had no inclination to do so. There was a bathroom, a miniature kitchen, a bookshelf, a weight-rack, a closet, a desk and a bed with a night-stand by it, but that was about it. Since it was still only 10:30, Muri took a moment to attempt another Transformation Jutsu with the amount of chakra she managed to recover over the course of the ngiht. The transformation almost perfectly resembled her textbook, but the cover was the wrong color, and the pages remained flesh-toned. Muri released the jutus and then huffed, feeling thoroughly drained and ready for bed. After showering and changing into pajamas, she cozied up into her bed with the textbook, trying to trouble-shoot her troubles with the Transformation Jutsu  by brushing up on ninjutsu theory before simply leafing through the book and marveling at the brief descriptions of the different types of genin could learn before placing the book aside  on the nightstand, charging her phone and setting an alarm for the morning.

[Peridot]

Muri took a bite of her curry, fishing around to find the small chunks of chicken and vegetables within the sauce. Like she had predicted, it was delicious. Not the best food she had ever had, but her hunger still made it hit the spot. She was surprised when Rai leaned against her, but didn’t say anything in order to not make him suddenly self-conscious. “Yeah, that’d be right. I doubt the texting bludgers will listen to anyone, though. Had a helluva time herding them out of there.” She said this openly, unconcerned about possible eavesdroppers and even briefly sent a challenging glare at the other eating students to see if they’d object before turning back to her food. With Rai’s next words, she suddenly looked up from her food, dropping some grains of rice with her chopsticks. “Strewth, you’re right!  We was right there, too. Should’va asked him.” Maybe she’d go looking for Mr. Haruno depending on what sort of punishment the ANBU decided to give him.   “Course ya can,” she said in a conciliatory manner and narrowed her eyes at the substitute teacher approaching. Hell, if she had her full energy and chakra she could probably take him in a fight. “Check out weedy pigeon over there,” she said gesturing to their new teacher.   None of the others had paid any attention to what he said, and neither did she.

[Peridot]

Mr. Haruno’s words stuck with Muri as he spoke about the life of a true ninja, suggesting that dangerous missions were normal and expected of shinobi. It had only been her first day of school at the Hidden Leaf Village, and already she had almost died at least three times simply trying to get a lunch while the rest of  her classmates managed to profit from her and Rai’s efforts without ever putting their own lives at risk. If she continued to follow the path to becoming a ninja, then she could and should expect the rest of her future to be like this. Almost suffocating in a vent, getting stabbed by Rai, nearly getting clawed by the summon, almost falling to her death and of course navigating the fire she created, these experiences were the type she would have to come to expect if she wished to master the shinobi arts. A smile crept its way onto Muri’s face. This may have been one of the most chaotic days of her life, but this was the happiest she had been in a long time. The giddy feeling of  adrenaline gushing through her veins in response to all of the danger and the exhausted but satisfied after-glow of endorphins coursing throughout her body left the young student…happy.  If being a ninja meant she could expect more of this, then bring it on.

The ANBU arrived to arrest Mr. Haruno, much to her distress. “But, he didn’t start the fire, I did! ” She called hopelessly as the elite squad of ninjas left to take him away. The ANBU are lucky Mr. Haruno is willing to go, she thought to herself as they struggled to even get him to move. He left, leaving her and Rai in charge of their fellow students who had their hands on the bag of lunches and were passing them around to each other.  Rai seemed as exhausted as she was when he came wobbling over.

“Well.. Until the ANBU say it’s all good to come back in, might as well go ahead and bog in. Everyone got a lunch?”  With those words to the class, Muri found a nearby area of the curb to sit down on and began to eat her lunch. “Hey Lofty, pop a squat for a bit. Ya look dead on your feet.” Her gaze noted the slight waver in his step and his quiet voice with a bit of worry. He was only a kid, after-all.

[Peridot]

Muri nodded in response to Mr. Haruno, “‘I’m fine, just feel stuffed, ya know? And our classmates are right animals with all that pushing and shoving.” She shot a look at Rai, but to her surprise the wounds had already sealed and stopped bleeding.  He seemed alright, but those slash marks were a doozy. “You little ripper…you kept the lunches safe this whole time?” The expression on Muri’s face was positively ecstatic. They had completed their mission after all! The dull aches of hunger were clawing at her stomach, and the lack of chakra only served to make Muri even more tired. If hunger made the best seasoning, then this lunch would be delicious. “At this point, I’m so hungry I could eat a cardboard box.”  She noticed the burns Mr. Haruno sported and frowned slightly, “Are YOU alright, teach?” At least no one seemed to have died because of the fire, but knowing that she had unintentionally burned her own teacher preyed upon her mind.

[Peridot]

It didn’t seem like the students were going to ever leave the classroom, but the mention of food seemed to finally do the trick. Muri grinned deviously, the smile widening slightly when her classmates realized just what trouble they were in and really started to run about and panic. <i>Talk about lighting a fire under their asses…</i> The classmate who had been failing at his cellphone game bumped tripped in his haste to get away from the growing flames while Muri followed afterwards, more wary of the dangers of smoke inhalation than of the actual fire.  Once all of the students had managed to get out of the building, although many had scrapes and scratches and skinned knees where they had pushed and shoved each other to get out, Muri stopped paying attention to them to look for where Rai, Mr. Haruno or some adult ninja would be to give her some kind of an explanation for the craziness of the past hour or so.  She was unable to find Mr. Haruno, suggesting that he was still inside the building. Muri cast a worried look over the now evacuated school. Just how bad were the flames, anyhow?  “Oi,” she complained to everyone and no one in particular, “this place don’t have a fire-alarm?”

[Peridot]

The complaint from her classmates provoked an irritated click of the tongue accompanied with an eye-roll. Had they really not been able to hear the roars and growls from that dreadful summon beast? Muri reminded herself that she really did need to save these idiots and tried once more to convince them. “Yup. I set fire to the whole 9th floor like WOOSH!” To emphasize the intensity of the fire, Muri raised her arms above her head and flailed them in what she deemed to be a dramatic manner. ” So, anyway now we need to go down the back stairs. Mr. Haruno is having a go at putting out the fires, but this place might go up in smoke. Also, all of our lunches are out there so if ya want to eat….”