Sable is going to pay close attention to both of them, since her girls have such strong opinions about them both.

Mizuki-sensei is a plain-looking chuunin with light hair and a tired expression.

He instructs the class, as they arrive, to pair off, then asks for a volunteer to help him demonstrate the kata they'll be learning today.

Sakura would love to pair up with Sasuke, but even if he hadn't already had a partner when she arrived, he'd still be way above her skill level for taijutsu.

She winds up partnered with a girl she shares a few classes with, and waits alongside her for the rest of the class to arrive and for Mizuki-sensei to start his demonstration.

The rest of the class slowly arrives, and Mizuki-sensei calls up his volunteer: a taller girl with her black hair in two buns, who Sakura has seen in a few of her other classes, though she doesn't remember her name.

"Today you'll be learning the First Defensive Striking Kata. Many more advanced taijutsu kata build off of it, so pay close attention: even those of you with clan taijutsu styles will benefit from practicing this."

Mizuki-sensei speaks quietly to his volunteer, who nods mutely and takes up a fighting stance.

"You all already know how to perform basic strikes, so this kata exists to teach you to defend against and return those strikes.
Tenten here is going to attack me with the strikes we were practicing last week, and I'm going to parry, redirect, and return them. We'll do it quickly first, then demonstrate more slowly after."

As he is speaking, Tenten suddenly throws a rapid strike directly toward his face. Mizuki bats her hand aside easily with one hand, pushes it further away with the back of his other wrist, and strikes back directly at her face, stopping about an inch away from hitting her.

Mizuki and his volunteer return to their previous positions, and the teacher continues his lecture.

"As you can see, while a straight punch provides the least surface area to block, it's still far from impossible to protect against.

Every defense in this kata is designed to continue into an attack: blocking and waiting is a great way to end up overwhelmed and stuck on the defense."

Tenten attacks again with her other hand, and this time Mizuki-sensei parries in the opposite direction, mirroring his previous movements and ending with his fist again an inch from Tenten's face.

"Redirecting and parrying is even more effective when chakra is in play: blocking head-on means taking the force of your opponent's attack to some part of your body, and likely pitting your strength directly against theirs.

Redirecting, on the other hand, means attacking the weakest part of their attack with the strongest part of your defense."

Tenten's next attack is initially parried in a similar manner to her first, but Mizuki then follows through by stepping to the side, grabbing her wrist with his other hand as he pulls his first back, and delivering a light-but-direct palm strike to her elbow.

Tenten briefly looks shaken, but quickly recovers.

"If I was using even my full unaugmented strength for that strike, her arm would have been broken.

Remember, practice the correct motions, but never use your full force against a classmate: that's what training dummies and Earth Clones are for."

Mizuki continues demonstrating techniques for several minutes, then demonstrates them all again more slowly.

He then sends Tenten back to her partner and instructs the students to begin taking turns practicing the techniques.

He walks from student to student, sporadically giving encouragement, correcting posture, and ensuring nobody injures their partner.

That...

Mizuki-sensei seems... harsh but fair? But. Something's giving her weird vibes.

She makes a mental note to keep an eye on this guy. Fucky vibes aren't really much evidence, but paying attention doesn't cost her much.

Regardless, taijutsu is cool. She pays very close attention to the demonstrations and Sakura's practice, and helps correct Sakura's motions when she can.

Sakura has a great time practicing taijutsu, despite it being one of her weaker ninja skills. If Sable keeps helping her like this, she might even end up good at it!

Mizuki-sensei briefly compliments her improvement at one point, and the flood of pride it fills her with is strong enough to get her through the rest of the class without even noticing her burgeoning exhaustion.

As class ends, Sakura bows to her partner and quickly cleans up before rushing out, eager to meet up with her new friends.

Oooh yay, it's helping! It likes helping.

And it's looking forward to meeting up as well! Also, that exhaustion can kindly fuck off. Lactic acid, nommed; energy, restored; muscle microtears, repaired.

The rapidly-energized kunoichi-to-be happily hurries out to the academy entrance, hoping to catch her friends as they leave.

Hinata is a little nervous. She hasn't really done a Thing With Friends before.

She hasn't really had friends before.

And one of them is even Naruto-sama.

But here she is, waiting for Naruto-sama and Haruno-san to arrive. Showing a little of her nerves on her face as she can.

Gods, she's so cute.

Good taste, honestly.

What?

…What!?

…Okay, nevermind, not important right now.

Shaking away her confusion, Sakura waves to her friend.

"Hey Hinata! How was class?"

"Ah!" Hinata waves back. That's the correct thing to do, yes. "Hello, Haruno-san. It went well. I believe I am making acceptable progress."

"You were really good in agility training, so I'm sure you're doing great!

Have you seen Naruto? I don't have any other classes with him, and he… left pretty fast after lunch."

Hinata looks down at her hands for a moment, cheeks flushing ever so faintly. "I d-don't share my l-last class with him, but h-he seemed to be doing a little b-better after he got to cl-class. A little."

Unreasonably cute. She just admitted to using her bloodline to spy across campus and she's too cute for words.

It's getting increasingly difficult to stay on task with all this going on in her head, but Sakura can pull through!

"Well that's something. Hopefully we can cheer him up with the shopping plan."

Sable will try to be slightly less of a distraction.