Kumogatarui Dobustu
Hatake-sensei wanted her to be more forward and come straight to them? But how was she meant to judge what sort of people they were without observing them first... Unless that was the point of it, she shouldn't have to judge their character just yet? That wasn't good though, if they turned out to be bad people then she might not get along with them.
Meanwhile Takeshi was introducing himself whilst Kumoga pondered upon Hatake-sensei's question, it seemed as if no one had an answer for it though so she quietly chimed in, putting a hand forward to get their attention. "I think that maybe it would be a mixture of subjects, like testing knowledge as well as physical aptitude to see just how much each of us know and what we are capable of?... At least that's what I think." Kumoga suggested, glancing to Takeshi... He seemed oddly quiet for the rowdy shinobi she had assumed him to be. Maybe the first-look impressions weren't a good thing to go on.
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Niji Yakei - The Refeelzening
Niji would've jumped in surprise at Shinichi's arrival, but he was the only one she would've guessed to find her, as well as go through the effort to sneak up to her like he did... At least that was expected, his words on the other hand were from a ball-park so different to what she was used to from him, it made her quietly think about his words, how he must've done things he'd deeply regretted in the past if he were bringing it up whilst sounding so experienced with her dilemma.
It was even somewhat heart-warming to hear him saying that being her sensei for all this time had changed him for the good. "You're still the only one who'd sneak up to someone who's family tradition is to be a paranoid bodyguard, aren't you?" Niji replied with a raised brow before she put a pensive expression on, starting to really think about his words of encouragement. "It may sound somewhat childish and maybe radical in a way, but I don't want to have someone telling me who I should fight or who I should kill, because killing just because someone in a higher position tells me to is just hollow. If I kill someone or hunt someone down, I want to be able to say that I chose to do it, not that the Raikage handed a mission to you that said this person needs to die. I want to protect people and take lives only when I choose to or when there's no other choice. I'd be willing to even leave if only to achieve that type of goal, where it's all down to my choices and no one above saying it has to happen." Niji explained with a determined tone before crouching down and looking down the cliff-face.
"When I was clashing blades with that anti-shinobi guy who was trying to kill us here, as we fell we argued a bit about which of our sides was right, only when we hit the ground did we get to our conclusion and it hit me as hard as we hit the floor... All us Shinobi do really is conduct war and kill one another, some times civilians get caught in the collateral damage and lives that shouldn't have left us are lost. After that, when we were attacked near your little hideout, I knocked out some of the men we were fighting with, but I didn't kill anyone then. When you piled the bodies to burn them, I wanted to say something to get you to spare the ones I'd knocked out, but in that situation I couldn't bring myself to even try, sometimes I imagine that they woke up underneath the burning remains of their allies, unable to escape whilst slowly burnt to death." Niji was quieter than before now, maybe Shinichi couldn't see from where he was, but she was trying to fight back tears as she spoke with a voice just starting to crack with emotion.
"And the thoughts keep coming back to me! Sometimes I'll even be in their position whilst I'm dreaming, I don't even know how it feels, but the idea of being unable to escape and slowly burning alive... I still can't put it out of my mind, it kills me whenever I think that I could've asked you to spare the ones I'd knocked out, it wouldn't have mattered if you'd agreed or not, but if I'd at least asked I could've believed that I'd tried to help them... I've no idea if you understand how that feels, but for me it hurts and I don't know how to make such a pain go away.¬" For now she continued to stare down towards the base of the cliff, still on the verge of tears, she didn't know if he was going to respond in kind or not, perhaps he'd even scold her for all of this. She barely cared about that though, she was sure she deserved some scolding in the very least.