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Hanako was nearly finished with her food, but the question was posed about her relationship with her siblings after Arina had spoke about the various common herbs and spices used in cooking also having medicinal uses. The ivory haired girl looked to her friend with a neutral tone to her body language and nothing indicative of good or bad relationships with her family. "I would say that my relationship with my younger sister, Saki. is a normal one. Her duty to the clan is the same as mine, and as such she will be competition in the future. Not for birthright, but for in terms of who is stronger.", Hanako explained with a soft smile now gracing her lips as she thought about the day when her seven year old sister would be able to raise a hand to her in a fight. "as far as similarities or differences, time will tell. She is just of age now were she can begin training, but she is as ambitious as I was about becoming a kunoichi of the Mist. She has not shown the ability to manipulate her bones yet, but she might just be a late bloomer like grandfather was..He did not manifest the Dead Bone Pulse until around the age of twelve.", Hanako explained with a wide grin. It was undetermined as to whether the young Saki Kaguya would be a wielder of the Dead Bone Pulse kekkai genkai. Hanako was one of only a handful in the clan that was able to even manifest it, and even then she was just a beginner. The line from whence she came was still able to produce the most users, at least one per generation. Still, even a 'normal' member of the Kaguya family was still a fierce fighter and endured strict training paired with their insatiable love for combat which was bred into them over the generations. "I have no doubt that she will be strong, but should she try to challenge me in regard as to who is stronger, I will beat her within an inch of her life. I expect no less of a reaction and determined effort should I challenge another member of the family to a spar on the honor of who is stronger.", the young warrior kunoichi further explained. Hanako had an odd habit of sort of illustrating the words with her hands. It wasn't sign language so much as it was trying to add a visual to the explanation. "We love each other as a normal family I suppose, but the harsh training and the pain training is something I suppose most aren't subjected to in their life. From your point of view, we would likely seem abusive toward each other, but that is just the way we show our love. To let a member of the family be weak is to show a lack of care.", were the last words Hanako decided to speak on the matter before she returned to her lunch, trying to catch up with Arina as she didn't want to seem like she was not enjoying the cooking.

Bringing up her family had made Hanako think as she ate. Thoughts of what her mother would be doing this time of the day, and curiousity stirring about what sort of training Saki had started. She was of age when she would likely be doing the Ritual of the Falling Rain, a test that Hanako had to endure for three years before she had mastered it. The Ritual of Falling Rain was an endurance training exercise practiced by Hanako's immediate family and as far back as her great grand-parents. The exercise involved being punched, kicked, slapped, and other forms of hand to hand strikes being intercepted by the body without blocking, and growing accustomed to the pain. One had mastered the training when they could go on for an hour under abuse without crying. Not even a single tear could leave the eye. It was a demonstration of mastery over pain and being able to train the mind to tune out the reception of it so as to not allow it to cripple or weaken a member of the family in combat. The period during the practice when the recipient of the beating would cry would be called their 'rainy season', and eventually they would grow out of it. That is were the ritual got it's name.

Hanako then placed an empty container to the side so it could be retrieved before she took a drink of her water and sighed softly. It had been an enriching experience, learning about another person that was not instantly afraid of her, but instead showed kindness. "So what sort of training do you imagine you will go through with next?", Hanako asked with some interest. The question was posed not because she was being nosy, but possibly due to the fact that she had eaten so well, that even the lunch, as healthy as it was, had made her feel a little sluggish and ready to just relax a while more. Laziness was not in her usual habits, so if anything, it was just giving herself time to build up the will to force herself to get back to work. "I mean, I'm sure there are some minor missions or something we could take care of around the Village if you feel like taking on a job or two with me? I hope that doesn't sound to presumptuous? You know, that you'd want to work with me on a mission, that is.", the young Kaguya added before she poked her fingers together innocently. Arina could tell that she was likely nervous about that, but it was only due to the fact that Hanako had never really been the social type in the first place, and this was a big step forward for her.

"Missions? Yeah I'm down for some missions!" A cheerful voice with a matching smile peered out from behind a nearby tree of the two ladies whom were eating their lunch, maybe dinner. Who actually knew what time it was; Kaito didn't that was for certain. The stranger slowly gravitated closer to the ladies whom were holding a conversation with one another about missions or family or something of the other. He'd only caught the last couple words, but missions, man missions did sound like a swell time. The Akimichi chuckled pointing to Arina as she was flexing her sweet biceps muscles. "Somebody better call a veterinarian, because those puppies are siiiiick!.. Heh heh..." Dumb jokes were his favorite and sometimes he just couldn't resist the urge to drop said dumb jokes, obvious. Either way his real goal was to walk into this conversation with a laugh and not look like a weird dude sneaking up on two ladies in the middle of a secluded forest area.

"So yeah I'm looking for an errrr... Arina and Hanako? Did I pronounce those right?" The boy scratched his head just above where his headband sat. "Meh this things driving me crazy, still not really used to wearing this damn thing." Kaito was pretty weird about things touching his head, and the headband was no exception. Instead of untying the headband he'd drag it down from his forehead across his face and eventually let it drop around his neck like a necklace. "Whew-wee. That feels so much better!" Shaking his head he'd let his wild longer ish hair go crazy. He didn't really care how it sat, he enjoyed having his hair looking messy and wild. "Oh yeah right! I probably should have mentioned this when I strolled up. My names Kaito! We're teammates now!" The long cheesy smile now reached from ear to ear, at least his teeth were sparkly white!

From his back pocket he'd pull a scroll that was sealed shut by a mere piece of tape. The contents of the scroll were nothing more than showing his approval to the team, which he'd extend to his newly found teammates. "Yeah all the technical junk about me jumping in with you guys is in there if ya wanna take a peek at it." Kaito looked down to where the duo were just having their little picnic outing. "So uh... what's the odds you have any leftovers in there? I'm kind of getting hungry..." Although being oddly thin for an Akimichi, he still ate like the big fellas would. His stomach rumbled frighteningly loud, Kaito would make an awkward chuckle while rubbing his stomach afterwords. "You ever get that feeling where no matter how much you eat, you never feel full?..." That described his hunger in just a few words to say the least.

INDENTWith the sudden approach of a newcomer, the Kaguya kunoichi was quick to respond in a rather defensive manner or aggressive depending on how you wanted to look at the situation. That was always promising if the two of them were going to function as a team; readily prepared for combat whenever the situation arose. Arina was quite the opposite. She stood there rather confused and immobile. Using her logic to address the situation, the young girl doubted that this person who approached them would have had any ill intent. They were in the heart of their village which should be rather safe in comparison to other parts of the country. On top of that, there would be mass wide panic with intruders and even more if this was the beginning of an attack, there was little worry that the enemies would start with nobody genins just sitting around enjoying their mid-day meal. The boy referred to himself Kaito and claimed to be the newest addition to their team which was surprising considering that there had been no official statement as far as Arina had been aware. Hanako relaxed her attack; though, the Kaguya still seemed to be rigid in her body language regarding the newest addition to their company.

INDENTBecause of everything going on, it took Arina a few moments to realize that he had been mocking her pose when he had first walked upon the two girls. She quickly withdrew her arm allowing it to lay down perpendicular to her body. The young girl let a slightly irritated look escape her face before responding in kind, “Arina Orasakai.” She took a deep breath and held the air in her mouth for a few moments puffing her cheeks out before allowing the air to seep back out returning her face to normal. “It is nice to meet you,” the girl stated rather plainly before extending her arm out to retrieve the scroll that Kaito had offered previously to prove his claim. She carefully unrolled the scroll to reveal the contents within. She nodded her head thoughtfully while understanding… She did not understand why they would not have formally introduced the trio as a squad previously. “This makes no sense,” Arina withdrew one of her hands from the bottom of the scroll allowing it to quickly recoil back to the original form. She was usually not one to be so rough with paperwork and scrolls; this situation just frustrated her. For now, the decision had been made and the three of them would continue to be a squad even if they were still lacking some sort of command. Until they started to attain higher ranked missions, it should not be an issue.

INDENTTurning her attention back to the team and the continuity of what Kaito had been speaking, she blinked in surprise as he asked about their lunch and if there had been any leftovers. He also made a statement to which Arina could understand and relate with on a very personal level. Despite being such a small and fragile looking young girl, she seemed to live in a constant state of hunger. ‘Damn metabolism,’ she cursed quietly balling her palm into a fist to some unknown foreign power. While she made no attempt to respond to that particular statement, it did happen to replace the irritation on her face with a gentle smile. She was hesitant to really address Kaito at this particular moment but there was some common ground; perhaps this could work out in the end for the better. Arina crouched down looking through her sack very carefully. She was fully aware of everything that had been packed away this morning and there was something else that she had not pulled out during lunch. It was supposed to be an afternoon snack but with the ryo that they would gain from missions later… She could part with it.

INDENT“Catch,” the young girl gave him a moment to respond just like she had done previously with Hanako with the medicinal salve. After having gained his attention, she tossed him two various onigiri with differing ingredients. The girl had made so many various onigiri this morning for her mother and father that she decided to take a few of the leftovers for herself and Sora, who ended up not showing up. They were packed tightly between the same clinging plastic wrap that the girl had used previously on the roots of the herbs she had picked, “It is not much but that just means we will get to doing missions sooner, rather than later…”

INDENTSpeaking of the herbs, she collected the samples and gently placed them within whatever open space she could find within the confines of her strap bag. Arina would need to clean the entirety of this bag out and very soon. She kept filling the bag but never empting it felt like… It was getting quite over crowded. “You have a maximum of ten minutes before I leave you behind,” Arina stated matter-of-factly toward Kaito before setting herself down to work on focusing chakra into her palm. While they had a few moments, Arina did not want to get herself invested into training that it might inhibit her desire to move forward with missions, so she decided that working on the first steps of her jutsu would be a good way to kill some time while he finished eating.

INDENTArina could feel a somewhat burning sensation radiating from the essence of the chakra which she concentrated into her open palm. She could feel a few drips which perspired from her face and quickly poured down dripping onto the ground. This jutsu once it was finished would be a lifesaver; however finishing the training on her own was going to be difficult. While she could feel the appropriate properties radiating from within her chakra, the young girl would not be positive of the outcome or the efficacy of her jutsu if she did not eventually use it on a live subject. The subject would not necessarily have to be human but unfortunately, she just was not a fan of testing these kinds of theories on living creatures whether they would be human or not. Despite her efforts, the young girl had gotten quite engrossed in the task that lied before her which had caused her to not realize the time. Lucky for her, Hanako had obviously been paying attention making some offhand comment about Kaito eating and catching up. She looked up from her current location towards the similarly white haired kunoichi nodding her head silently in agreement. “It is nothing against you personally,” the young girl stated looking over towards the newfound member of their team. She gave him a small smile while taking her stand from the location where she had been sitting practicing her chakra control for the last ten minutes.

INDENTArina scooped up her shoulder bag and gently placed the sling over her shoulder. She stood there silently for a moment contemplating the difficulty she might have dependent on the mission with her shoulder bag inhibiting her movement. The young girl placed the bag back onto the ground near Kaito. “Could you just bring this along when you finish? If you decide not to show up, I will just come and pick it up from this area I suppose. Please… Be careful with the contents,” Arina gritted between her teeth. It was a difficult decision to make considering that she was such a careful person. She treated every object within very carefully, particularly the scrolls and borrowed objects from the library with extra care. While they were not exactly fragile items, the kunoichi would not be held responsible for any damages to the content.

INDENT“Alrighty,” the young girl turned on her heels and began to walk away from the location towards where the mission boards were located. “Are you ready?” Arina asked looking over towards the Kaguya kunoichi. She had seemed rather pumped about beginning missions a little earlier before the newcomer had approached them. The girl wanted to keep the conversation relaxed and vague as the two girls still were not very familiar with each other. Over time, they would surely come to know each other very well but until then, there was a proper time and place for more serious conversations like that. Right now, the two of them would need to stay focused. “I wonder what kinds of missions are available…,” Arina quietly muttered to herself. They should probably start with something easier and then work their way up the ladder. The young girl inhaled deeply before letting out an exasperated sigh as they approached the board. The walk was not a very long walk. “I think… we should start with something easier for now,” Arina looked towards her counterpart. She knew the Kaguya kunoichi was very goal oriented and rough around the edges from their initial meeting and honestly, she worried that the girl would want to jump right into the hard stuff. The young girl stifled a chuckle while looking at the board… Arina had a conversation with Sora prior that his first mission would probably be that scraggly cat who always ran away from his owner. It was to her amusement that a mission was available for this very task, “how about this one?” She grinned pointing towards the genin ranked runaway cat mission. It was that or probably some garbage pickup; however, the more interesting of the missions would definitely chasing that cat through the city until they were able to catch him and return him against their better instinct back to his clingy owner. “Oh,” the young girl mused, “the garbage pickup awards more ryo though…”

INDENTArina smiled awkwardly when the wild-haired Kaguya suggested trying to do both of the missions simultaneously. She was not even for sure that was within the rules of missions, let alone their own personal limitations and skills considering the runaway cat would certainly be on the move. The young girl would be happy to participate in both missions and many more; they would certainly have to be at separate occasions however. “I would…,” Arina began to say with a somewhat nervous quiver in her voice while avoiding eye contact. She felt somewhat bad for declining as the young girl could physically see how pumped Hanako was to begin missions, “but I am not even for sure we are allowed to take multiple missions in one setting.”

INDENT“We can start with the runaway and quickly finish, so we can continue to move through the list as diligently as possible. I am definitely for completing more missions for more recognition and ryo,” Arina tried to ramp up her tone to mimic the enthusiasm of Hanako. She looked around quickly to see if the newly found third member of their team had returned to them before they started. Noticing that he did not seem to be nearby, the young girl signed the mission board that their team had taken on the responsibility of capturing the runaway cat and reluctantly returning it to the overbearing owner.

INDENT“We should get some tech and then, probably separate through the city to look for the cat to cover more ground.” Arina stated matter-of-factly heading towards a nearby building which contained a decent amount of technology with which you could sign out much like a library book as long as you returned the gear by the end of the working day. There were special exceptions to this rule obviously but a genin ranked runaway cat mission would not require more than a day. The young girl nodded at a nearby male shinobi working behind the counter within the confines of the small building. ‘It must be a rather relaxed job just signing out gear,’ she thought to herself before looking down towards a form which would need to be filled out before being assigned the headset. She attempted to finely print all of the information as accurately and legible as possible before handing the form over and waiting for the young man to retrieve the specific gear that they were in need of.

INDENT“Did you have anywhere in mind where you wanted to look first? I think I am going to check out some of the local restaurants because their trash bins make a good place for free food dependent on how long the cat has been on the loose,” Arina smiled towards Hanako trying to get an idea of how her mind worked when it came to logically minded missions. Did she have a plan of action or did she just require that there was action? The young girl did not assume she was not capable of forethought; she just realized that as people shinobi were generally different and operated differently from one another.

INDENTAfter a few moments, the young man returned with the gear and promptly handed them across the desk. He handed one headset to each of the young women who stood before him and then returned to his post awaiting the next group of shinobi that would walk through that door to either pick up or return loaned equipment. Arina took a minute to slip the headset comfortably over her head and onto her ears. She wanted the grip to be firm but not uncomfortable; afterwards, she fumbled with the microphone trying to position it where it did not feel like a hindrance to movement or sighting abilities. “Testing, testing?” Arina said quietly before starting to move towards the door. “Does it sound bad? Can you hear me,” the young girl continued hoping that she did not sound horrific. These things reminded her of the home made movies that her father had made since he joined the family. The young girl always thought she sounded stupid in those, so why would this tech be any different?

INDENT“Either way,” Arina stated excitedly, “I think we are ready for this.”

INDENTArina nodded towards the Kaguya girl before taking her leave towards the portion of the city that they had discussed earlier while waiting on the equipment. The young woman was very familiar with this part of town being that food was a large hobby of hers: both cooking, as well as eating. "If I were a cat, what kind of preference would I have among the choices...," the young girl trailed off trying to mentally narrow her search options. She immediately discredited most sweet shops, as well as those shops which focused primarily on veggie based meal. There was nothing wrong with those choices as a human, however a cat was more likely to look for shops which sold fish or cooked meats. Having narrowed the pool of likely targets, the Mist kunoichi picked up a steady jog and eventually eased into a graceful, full speed run to weave through the open streets. The problem was that even if she found the cat, she would likely not be able to stealthily sneak up on the creature. The young girl surely hoped that her newfound team member would be better suited for this kind of work than herself. She would not always rely on the capabilities of her own teammates or at least, that was the eventual goal to be self sustaining; however in the mean time, it was not embarrassing to lean on your own team for their strengths. That was the initial point of being teamed up with others in the first place. The team composition was to be for optimal purposes based on each individual, their strength and weaknesses.

INDENTArina heard something through the headphones. Yup, they were working perfectly even with a little distance between them. It would appear that Hanako had not spotted the runaway cat yet and was looking for some sort of confirmation on her own end. "Nothing ye...," the girl trailed off before finishing due to some nearby rustling. She held her breath afraid to move but continued to tip toe forward. Once she reached the corner, the young girl pulled a mirror from her pocket to more easily see what was going on without giving away her own position. There it was... a wild cat which hadn't been properly groomed in days, maybe longer. He had piercing green eyes, as well as an orange coat which was probably gorgeous when properly taken care of. The older cat was tearing into the dead carcass of an unrecognizable type of fish. "Correction... The cat has been spotted and he is... oh, damn it!" Arina groaned when she realized that the cat must have noticed her there and quickly darted off. The young girl stood there dumbfounded for a moment before allowing the reality of the mission to catch up to her. 'Oh wait... I need to keep up and tail this guy,' she thought while using her legs to propel her forward straight into a sprint chasing after the feline. Arina jumped onto a box that had been trashed and upward onto a high setting trash can with her final destination being the rooftops above for an aerial view. "The offending cat is now on the run. He is headed towards...," the girl took a moment to determine a location which Hanako would be familiar with, "the ramen shop!"

INDENTArina hoped that the Kaguya kunoichi would be familiar with that marker because who didn't love ramen! The girl had not met a soul yet and hopefully, she never would because honestly not liking ramen should be a sin for real. More importantly, she really hoped her taijutsu counterpart was more appropriately trained for handling this pesky feline, otherwise the mission was possibly a moot point. The girl stopped on the roof of the shop next to the ramen shop and began to look around, "Where did the damn thing go?"

INDENTWhile Arina was still on the rooftops searching for the cat, her team member was down below capturing the animal in question. Hanako announced that she was going to make her move towards the animal with which she had obviously been able to locate. Meanwhile, Arina heard a few noises in a nearby alleyway and promptly jumped below following the sound to where the struggling cat was being manhandled by the Kaguya who looked confused at how to proceed now that they had finished the objective in question. After a few moments, the cat appeared to lose its previous spunk and had come to terms with his own fate. He almost seemed to enjoy the last bit of attention that he would receive which was not overbearing, maybe even uncomfortable looking at it from an outside perspective. She looked at the animal almost feeling bad for returning the creature but there wasn’t much of a choice in the matter and truth be told, Arina was not much of an animal person herself so it was not likely that she would try to take the animal into her own care. Shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly, she tried not to concentrate on anything other than which missions they would be completing once they had returned the creature back to its owner.

INDENT“Now what do we do with this thing?” the answer had seemed obvious to Arina but then again, she began to think about her new comrade. Given the information she had been able to acquire throughout their brief interactions, the young girl was already well aware that her desire for power and self improvement far outweighed her knowledge of environment… unless knowledge of the environment was necessary for the desire for power and self improvement. “We just return him to his owner,” the young kunoichi covered her mouth while letting out a slight giggle. She rested her pointer finger and thumb on her chin while trying to remember the address written on the board, “I do believe she lives nearby actually.” She used the terminology him but unaware of the gender of the animal, the term was being used in an all encompassing manner. Whenever she referred to someone or something unknown, the girl almost always instinctively relied on male pronouns. Unable to remember the address completely, the girl began to meander through the streets in the general direction of the household. She had watched several times as the scene unfolded before her very eyes before enrolling into the academy of course; the cat would slip out silently while the older woman opened the door to perform a menial task or sometimes struggling free from her grasp while she was enjoying the sun outside. All that reminiscing brought a smile to her face, she always used to find it amusing how the older woman seemed to fall for the same tricks every time and even more than that, the woman never seemed to realize that her treatment of the animal was more than half of the problem with why he always tried to escape in the first place.

INDENTFinally recognizing the household from her previous memories, the young girl approached the door lifting her palm into a fist lightly knocking just loud enough to hear without disturbing. “Just a moment,” you could hear in a frail, higher pitched voice along with some rumbling and a few crashing tumbles from the rather small building. It looked just large enough for the lady and cat to live comfortably with only a few physical belongings. Arina could not imagine a reality where this woman might have been married or had kids; perhaps it had been the lady and her cat for as long as they could remember. The door opened widely with the wrinkled, cheery face greeting the two young shinobi from the other side. “Oh,” she gasped in surprise holding her arms out instinctively for the poor creature that they were in the midst of returning, “You found him!” The older lady seemed very pleased to finally be seeing her pet after a few days apart. “Yes and if you ever need any further assistance in the future, do not be afraid to call on us again! We would be happy to help,” Arina piped up happily working on her customer satisfaction because the truth of the matter was that being a shinobi was basically a business. You had to treat the people with respect and keep them coming back for more… They were the ones who paid the bills after all! Who would want to get into the business if there weren’t some ryo to be made in the process of completing these missions, particularly the mundane ones such as this?

INDENTAfter the elderly woman retired back safely within the confines of her own home, Hanako turned her attention towards the young Orasakai medic questioning about the remainder of the evening. There certainly would not be enough time left in the day to complete another mission unfortunately; however, Arina hoped they could pick up the pace tomorrow and maybe even complete several missions before the day’s end. After a few moments, the Kaguya kunoichi offered that the two of them return to her residence for dinner, as well as the night. The young girl contemplated the offer for a few moments before coming to a decision. She did not see the harm and honestly, it would probably be a good experience to further learn about Hanako and her background. The two of them were going to be working as a team from now on and the better they understood each other, the easier that it should be to anticipate the other’s movements… in theory.

INDENT“That sounds great,” the young girl announced smiling brightly from ear to ear. “I would like to stop by my family home before just taking off. My mom would not mind my coming over but I like to keep her informed about these kinds of things,” Arina wondered what to do about her satchel which she had left with their newest teammate. Kaito, she remembered him calling himself. The guy had been taking his sweet team and while she could go back to the area where they had first met him, her instincts told her that he would not be there by now. She hoped that maybe he just saw how late it was getting by the time he finished and decided to forego the extra missions and work. The young girl could only hope that he had taken her satchel with him and was taking good care of everything contained inside. The more that she contemplated the possibilities of what had happened or what was going to happen… the more that the young woman started to anticipate the worst just based on the limited amounts of personality and behavior she had already witnessed from the goofing, not very serious, obvious slacker of a young man. ‘I will destroy him if anything happens to my scrolls or herbs,’ she fumed silently balling her palms into fists and holding them closely to her sides. The tint on the cheeks of Arina began to turn bright shades of red showing off her obvious frustration. The young girl only hoped that Hanako would not misinterpret any of the physical signs showing from her body at that very moment.

INDENT“We should probably return these pieces before the end of day,” Arina growled trying to distract herself from the grievous mistake that she had made earlier in the day. She walked at an accelerated pace obviously attempting to blow off some steam, though if the young girl were being honest with herself the extra effort was not assisting in the intended way. Unintentionally while walking, she had forgotten about her Kaguya counterpart trying to work the rage from her system. It was almost an embarrassing reaction because as far as the young girl knew tomorrow he could return the items unscathed. “Yeah,” Arina took quite a few deep breaths while slowing her pace. She was not for sure why she was reacting this way in the first place; maybe it was something in regards to his demeanor? She shook the thought from her head and made an abrupt stop bending over to rest her hands over her kneecaps continuing to breathe deeply. Once the kunoichi felt like she was regaining her composure, she stood vertically and allowed her gaze to dart around searching for the companion that may have been left behind. On a positive note, she realized that all of that huffing and puffing had ended up with her being right where they needed to be without even noticing the journey to.

INDENTLooking up towards Hanako, Arina muttered a ‘sorry’ in passing before opening the door for her companion allowing her to enter the establishment first. She followed behind closely and as it would appear, the young man must have been waiting on them to return their equipment because everything else looked ready to close up for the night. They wasted no time returning the necessary equipment, even though chances were that they would be back tomorrow morning before completing additional missions. The young girl nodded after returning the head piece and signing a piece of official paperwork before taking her leave of his presence. “Did you want to come with or did you want me to meet you at your house?” Arina questioned tilting her head to the side before taking a quick peek at the sun which was beginning to set in the distance. It could be beautiful sometimes but most of the time, the girl was too busy to notice; perhaps this was a sign for the future?