Shiori eyed her teacher before eyeing the legend before her. She then turned her attention to the ladies who kept cooing at her for whatever reason may be.
"Is she your daughter, she's so adorable." One of the ladies, she had the weirdest hair colour ever which was dual coloured blue and red, cooed and stroked her hair. Shiori soothed her face into a blank mask and wondered how she was to react, was she supposed to blush and stutter? She settled on bowing and thanking, "Thank you for your compliment."
That made them squealed louder. "Such a polite kid, you're such a good parent, Katawara-kun."
"He's not my father," Shiori informed, much to her confusion, the girls adopted a flustered look, "Oh my, how wonderful, he's your brother isn't he. Such a dashing and responsible young man."
Shiori blanked, she ignored and ruffling of her hair. She turned back to her teacher only to find him being surrounded by ladies of all ages, "Sensei..."
"Maa..." Katawara patted her head, "Sorry, ladies, my sister and I must retire for the day. We have a Kong journey."
"Awh..." The girls whined but bid then farewell. Shiori merely stood stiff as a statue, igoring the salivating Sannin and chuckling teacher. Shiori perked up when she remembered something she wanted to ask her teacher, "Ne, sensei, can I take the Chunin Exam?"
Katawara-sensei looked down at Shiori and shooked his head, "Not this year."
"Why?"
"Because Chunin exams are held in Kumo this year." Shiori winced, yeah, she didn't think she wanted to see those bastards so soon. She then turned to Jiraya-san who had sat down and was working on something.
Katawara ruffled his student's hair again and said, "I'm going to be doing something for a while, stay here with Jiraya-sama alright?"
"Okay," Shiori nodded, Katawara-sensei then turned to Jiraya-san, "Jiraya-sama, I need to proceed with Code Three, is it alright for you to take care of Shiori-chan until I'm done."
Jiraya narrowed his eyes, "Code Three? In Mizukagure? What happened?"
Katawara-sensei grimaced, "Not entirely sure yet, I'm expected to infiltrate and act upon. Hokage-sama's orders."
"Alright, get going." Jiraya nodded before beckoning Shiori over, "Come here, brat."
Shiori walked over carefully and sat across the legend. She peered on the blank paper and displayed ink, "Ano... Jiraya-san, what are you doing?"
"Making a storage seal."
Shiori felt her heart thrum in surprise and anticipation, she gazed at the first stroke written on the paper with newfound interest, "Fuinjutsu... You're a seal master, Jiraya-san?"
Jiraya finished his strokes and the blank paper was filled with writings and formed a seal that Shiori have not began to comprehend as of yet. She looked at Jiraya who rubbed his head sheepishly, "Eh, I guess you can say that."
"Can you teach me?" Shiori couldn't stop herself from asking. How many people actually knew about Fuinjutsu, not to mention she was under the delusion that Uzumakis were the last of seal experts, clearly she was wrong. For shame, she could've asked her teacher if he knew any. She looked into the haunted eyes of the legend, he was regarding her with a more serious face than she has ever seen him adopt, "Why?"
Shiori thought, why indeed. Why had she wanted to learn, well, it was simple. Flashes of familiar faces went through her head, her twin, her mother, her father, her teacher, a woman with the same pink hair as her who she has never seen except in her dreams— "Because... Well, because I want to protect."
