Adopted: Book 1 Refracted Sand [REWRITING]

Adopted Ch. 32 Heed Warning or Advice

Suzume defeated a Genin in a sparring match.

She was finally in the sixth year's class.

Suzume strode unperturbed, straight backed, indifferent. She wasn't wearing her bulky, awkward backpack that could've fit its owner inside of it, no unnecessary weight was slowing her down. Her shoulder length hair was chopped off to her jaw, muscle began protruding on her arms, and any other soft features of hers were culled away.

Whispers hissed around them, heads turned at the passing of the two sisters. Temari was leading her to her homeroom class.

While they were marching through the school, Temari informed her since there were only two months left before graduation the whole school faculty were hesitant on promoting her so late in the year, but they couldn't deny her skill.

Suzume knew the subtext of her words: if she failed even once or cause any trouble, she was going to be expelled on the spot. This was a privilege, not a right.

"This is my classroom." Temari was stopped in front of a door whose tag was labeled 6-3. There was some muffled talking inside. "Before you go in," Temari was secured in front of the door like a grim gatekeeper, "I want to ask you something. What are you doing this for?"

The question surprised Suzume. It was unexpected, and for a frightening moment, she didn't know the answer. Why was she doing this?

One good look at Temari, at her sister, further reminded her of her brothers Gaara and Kankuro, and she remembered.

"I'm doing this to live."

When Temari and Suzume entered the classroom, all voices were paused and the screeching of chairs filled in the absence of sound followed by complete silence. The children were on their feet, chins up and at attention. She noticed Shiro right away, who was adamantly ignoring her.

"This is Suzume," Temari introduced. "She took the promotion exam and passed, obviously. Make her feel at home."

An uncomfortable shuffling scuttled through the class. Suzume wondered whether the last statement was supposed to be sarcasm.

"At ease." The students took their seats. Temari addressed Suzume now, "Sit in the empty seat beside Toru."

She followed her finger to find the boy with the scarf and he looked like he'd just downed an entire lemon, but he couldn't complain as she went to claim her seat. He pointedly slid his chair as far as possible from her.

Suzume took the chance to take in the class. The walls were obscured by complex diagrams and graphs or were awkwardly bare in some skips. Four portal holes lined the wall to her left and the door was to her right, Temari's desk and the chalkboard were up front and she was sitting in the middle of the last row in a total of five rows. The desks were on a pitched floor and, after a bit of maneuvering, Suzume found that the tabletops could be tilted up or down, allowing the user to adjust if need be.

There were only fifteen students in this room and from her knowledge, roughly the same amount occupied the other two classes. There was a huge imbalance in the male to female ratio which was 4:1.

There was also a separate building for people who were held back a year. The number of students overwhelmingly outnumbered the sixth years, some of them even exceeded the age of seventeen, still vying for the job of shinobi.

The sixth years weren't allowed to take notes. They were expected to memorize everything by eye and ear, one of the reasons why most sixth years drop out. It was a different environment compared to the one Suzume was in before— more competitive and serious.