I looked at the younger classes running through the drills from the roof of the academy while I nursed a bottle of water. A ruffle of silk and one of the kunoichi in training, a girl named Mari Asako, sat next to me doing the same.

Today has been a practical testing day, and for the first time in a while my class had gone through the morning test rotation, and that let me sit up here and watch the fights and examinations of the younger years. There were a dozen classes, but the two I was looking for had slots that were after ours. One was the group two years behind me, the rookie nine. That was still a few minutes off from starting, but the three that would one day form a team under Maito Gai were just finishing their warm-ups. Right now the future Team Gai’s class was out and about. The team members of Gai were the easiest to spot since the rookies hadn't shown up yet. Hyuuga Neji was going at a straw stuffed mannequin, his hands a blur. Not yet that legendary speed that is nearly invisible, but definitely fast and vicious, even now I could see the hate that was starting to build. It was easy, his stance, his aggression.

Seemed like such a cross to bear, I wish I could help but, unlike Naruto, I don't have the power of the mighty ‘Shounen Protagonist Friendship Punch!’. I dropped my focus, eyes roving over the long hair of the young Rock Lee, who was slowly going through a kata for taijutsu, though to my surprise he looked a tad unsteady on his feet.

And across from them, in a place with a suspiciously good view of Neji, but far enough away to give him personal space, Tenten was working on sharpening her kunai and a few swords. It was strange to see them. On one hand, I knew them, the strange dissonance between the young Toru and my older past life, telling me vague stories of them fighting odds, fate, and their sensei's influence… Except for Lee.

Lee would happily give into his sensei's influence.

I looked away, focusing on a senbon as it flipped through my hand, spinning and flicking it from finger to finger. It was light, and I had to keep my fingers closer than when I worked with pens or coins. I snapped my hands, sending the senbon rotating around my middle finger, sharp needle pointless than an inch from my skin.

“Why do you do that?”

The sudden question made me jump so hard I lost my grip on the senbon, sending it flicking up and over the ledge. My hand flashed out, a flicker of chakra through my fingers sticking to it long enough for me to get my grip. I sighed and then glanced over to see Asako, lips quirked in amusement. “Sorry, what are we talking about?”

She rolled her eyes and pointed to the senbon. “That. The hand thing. Whenever I see you, if you're not writing or training, you're doing something with your hands. I’ve seen coins, cards, kunai, shuriken, pens, senbon, and even knives in your hands. Why?”

I looked at her and considered. Asako was fairly popular but was one of the few girls in my class who I could see becoming a kunoichi. She was focused, if a bit prone to being sidetracked at times. It seems I was her current distraction.

“Tell you what, if you can see where this ten ryo coin goes I’ll tell you.” I challenged, hands flicking down, the senbon slipping from my fingers into a pouch on my leg, as I performed a drop of the ryo coin into my hand, from under the cuff of my shirt. I had her mark it with a scratch from a kunai, to prove it was the right coin, and then flicked my hands up and fingers apart, showing the coin held between the first and second fingers on my right hand. My left spread mirrored without the coin.

Asako looked intrigued and turned to face me, looking focused at the coin. I grinned and started slowly, the coin folding over my knuckles as I brought my hands together, manipulating the coin so it turned across my knuckles back and forth, one side to the other, once, twice, three, times, each run getting a faster and faster before tossing it up a few inches and clapping my hands over it. I rubbed my hands and then held my hands open, fingers once more held wide and holding a coin. The coin wasn’t a ten ryo though, now it was a slightly larger fifty ryo.

I looked at her slight expression of shock and grinned. “Now, where is the coin?”

She looked at my hands, to my face, particularly my shit-eating grin, then back to my hands.

“It’s up your sleeve!”

I grinned and shook my head. “Actually it’s not. Would you kindly check your left pocket.”

She put her hand in her pocket, and I savored the expression of confusion, and then astonishment, as she pulled the marked ten ryo coin out. “B-But Wha-?”

“Sorry, but you missed the trick. Try again?”

She scowled and agreed, shoving the coin back in my hands.

I grinned and repeated the trick, but this time when she looked in her pocket, I shook my head and pulled it from my pocket, showing her kunai mark. Specifically, I pulled it from the zipped up pocket on my knee that was in her sight the whole time. I placed the coin in her hand, and she looked at it, her expression in an absolutely hilarious look of confusion.

Her expression was absolutely priceless, even more so when I walked away, simply checking the see the rookies were coming out to play before leaving the roof.

I would look over their progress another day, wouldn’t do to draw suspicion.