Shuku had joined the rest of her classmates on the trail, on the ground, as the sun started to dip in the sky, turning to a molten orange as it sunk. The rest of the hike was fairly uneventful, other than Shima's obsessive fear of bugs and Rin's inhuman energy of course. Shuku had out her pen and started smoking again, much to Bon's displeasure. The vanilla scented vapor was being blown by the breeze directly into his face. He couldn't understand how Shuku could do something like that nearly constantly, but now, she seemed fairly uncomfortable and jumpy and was doing it to sooth her nerves.

Shuku could tell it was going to happen soon, very soon in fact. Not just her leave, but the prophecy. Her priestess powers were going off the hook, and the vanilla wasn't doing much to stop her from going into a trance and chanting the prophecy. At least it was a smaller, the bigger ones tended to be much harder to control. No amount of vanilla would get her out of that situation. In her one hand, she had her familiar vapor pen, and the other, one of her kunai. She moved her fingers at a blurring pace, creating an interesting spectacle. The knife moved in tune with her fingers, doing complicated maneuvers, which Rin watched with interest.

Eventually, the forest opened up into what was a clear camping ground area. The grass had been worn away, the trees had been cleared away in an almost perfect circle, and bits of circle chalk could be seen in the dry spots. The others collapsed onto the ground, covered in sweat and removing their backpacks with exhaustion. The instructors and Shuku were still standing, Shuku with her eyes squinted. Why did the sun have to be so bright? The only one who wasn't seriously exhausted was Rin, the teachers, and Shuku. The other student looked utterly worn out. Shuku skillfully twirled her knife and slipped it into its sheath in her hoods pocket in a single smooth movement. She still wore her hoodie, despite the heat, keeping all of her battle necessities in its pockets.

"This'll be our base camp. The boy's and I are going to start setting up the tents and start building a fire. While that's happening, Ms. Kirigakure and the girls re going to draw a magic circle around the perimeter and get dinner started." Glasses explained, and Shuku internally sighed. "Right! Let's get moving." Yukio said determinedly, finally taking off his coat, and Shuku followed his example.

Shuku emptied her jacket pockets into her pants pockets and the small pocket on her breast. Quickly, Shuku summoned Hebimaru, and slipped the papers, into the small pocket on her shirt. Shuku set the knife holsters on her left and right thighs, tightening them and slipping her Vapor pen into her back pocket. Shuku walked off towards Shura and and a white blur was tossed at her, so she caught it between the tips of her fingers, a piece of chalk. Shura walked up to her and handed her a bucket and a brush with the same infused material as the chalk, then a tool that was used to make circles, shaped like a compass(The math one, not the direction one.) Shuku blinked before looking up.

"Well, hop to it. A protection and repealing magic circle if you could, enough to keep out mid-level and high-level demons." Shura waved before walking over to start her part of the circle. Drawing a circle was much easier with paint and the tools than in her own blood, as Shuku was used to doing.

It took 15 minutes for Shuku to finish up her side of the circle. Shuku had done harder. Walking over to a tree just on the outside of the circle, and leaned up against it.

"You know, you're pretty good at magic circles and summoning. That serpent of your's is unusual for a summoning." Shuku, looked above her, towards the direction of the voice, and blinked.

"Hn." Was all Shuku responded plainly, not feeling like talking to Shura.

"Oh come on! You could at least thank me for the complement! What's 'Hn' mean anyway?!" Shura sneered with a laugh.

"It means leave me alone. I'm not in the mood." Shuku took out her vapor pen from her back pocket and smoked from it.

"Awww, why not? Serpent got your tongue?" Shura taunted, trying to get Shuku to talk to her. Shuku's eye twitched in annoyance.

"No, just... I have a bad feeling, something's going to happen, I'm sure of it." After that ominous statement, Shuku walked away, hand it her pant's pockets, eyes not betraying anything. Shura narrowed her eyes as the peculiar student left.

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*

As the sun started to set, Shuku managed to make her way over to the boys, watching in amusement as they struggled to get a fire started. Rin was rubbing two sticks together completely wrong. Bon was trying to get a broken lighter to work. Rin looked up and spotted Shuku, her vanilla scent drifting around her as smoke. His eyes lit up as he dropped the two sticks and bounced over to Shuku.

"Shuku!" He exclaimed and grabbed her wrist, and dragging her over to a pile of wood.

"What? I was enjoying doing nothing." Shuku asked with a yawn.

"Fire! Now!" Rin pointed at the pile of sticks and Ryuuji looked up, just in time to see Shuku deadpan before smirking mischievously.

"Sure thing!" Shuku responded chirpily.

In realization about what was most likely going to happen, Bon grabbed everything, except Rin, and moved out of the way. Shuku held up her vapor pen and Rin's face of excitement turned to one of horror as Shuku blew a concentrated amount of vanilla vapor onto the sticks, the lit it. This caused a miniature explosion. Sending a small amount of dust into puffs in the air, and the following boom. Like rabbits, everyone's head turned at the explosion, only to see a fire burning strongly filling the air with a faint vanilla scent that quickly burnt out, a smirking Shuku with a satisfied chuckle, and Rin with his face covered in soot from the sudden fire.

Shuku walked off still smirking and everyone went back to what they were doing beforehand as if nothing had happened.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

Shuku watched as Rin had taken over cooking from Izumo and Shiemi, to whip up something good. The only ones not generally surprised by Rin's expertise in cooking was Yukio. It was just a simple dish, but it was still very good.

"Wh-whoa! Man! This is unbelievable." Bon exclaimed his mouth full.

"If you ever wanted to switch sides, you'd make someone an awesome wife." Shima was in complete shook.

"You are really an amazing cook Okumura." Konekomaru complemented.

Shiemi also tried to complement Rin's cooking abilities but couldn't... cause her mouth was stuffed so full.

"Oh, thanks, guys!" Rin said, a hand behind his head and an obvious blush.

Yukio laughed, "Well, cooking is the only valuable skill my poor brother has."

"Hn" Shuku agreed, nodding.

"Shut it you four-eyed mole face." Rin threatened Glasses.

"Just face it Rin, you're cooking skills are something you can finally have bragging rights over." Shuku waved her fork around, before going back to eating, and Rin looked at Shuku, trying to find the complement in that statement.

Shuku sighed and set her half eaten plate down, and her eyes unfocused. It was warm being here with other people, and being able to have a normal conversation for once about something that wasn't death or power related. It was nice, and as much as Shuku hated it, it was going to have to end eventually, but damn did she wish it didn't.