Instructing the Youth. [M]

[Shinryu]

Teach Me, Teach Me!
Rank: C
Ninja needed: 1-3
Mission info: The village has re-established itself and the Academy Students are giving their teachers a very hard time. Wow them with stories of war and death and teach them a jutsu or two. The Kage would like this to be a weekly event to keep the moral up.
Special Info: Can be taken indefinitely.

2/5

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,420,true] DARKNESS... IMPRISONING ME! ALL THAT I SEE, ABSOLUTE HORROR...

It was not a week later that I found myself once again back at the academy in Kirigakure. The humble place which I had known as my own school was yet again to serve as a soapbox for my unique style of education, one that ran parallel to pretty much everything the instructors had likely taught them so far. I heard the clicking of my footsteps across the wooden floor as I approached the classroom. The same dull blue walls left little to the imagination. But imagination was not what I was here for. I was here to inspire, and to hone these tools; these arrows in the villages quiver, who would live to serve the greater glory of Kirigakure. And with that, I slid the door open, and stepped across the threshold, staring at pale faces which lit up with excitement and fear as I entered the room. "I told you I'd be back, didn't I?" There was a general cheer which the Academy instructors tried to halt, but I revelled in it a bit. Every ounce of fandom was a step up the ladder of invincibility. The more well known and well liked I was, the harder it would be for the Yakuza to get away with simply killing me. Every cheer and smile was a ticket to warding off my doom, and I cherished each and every one as a means of prolonging my life. As long as they knew who I was, it would make it all the harder for the Yakuza to make their move. Although, with the time that had passed, I was beginning to think that perhaps they had simply forgotten about me. It was a naive hope, a foolishly naive hope, but I would hope nonetheless. If I never had to deal with them again, it would be too soon. The children were bright eyed and bushy tailed, and seemed willing enough to learn, so I cracked my knuckles, and hefted the gourd I'd brought with me off of my back. I set it on the floor and stood there, smiling. I had thought about what to do for this next job for some time, wondering how I should go about teaching the children. The gourd, and our village's name, had given me a handy idea. "So... who wants to learn a Jutsu?" I dared to ask. I knew that many wouldn't be able to, but it would be fun to demonstrate and try to teach them anyway. And who knew? Perhaps we'd have a fair number of suiton users in the class amongst all of the various students I'd come to instruct. Only time would tell. made by renni

[Shinryu]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,420,true] DARKNESS... IMPRISONING ME! ALL THAT I SEE, ABSOLUTE HORROR...

The young ones strained in their seats. I could tell by their amazement that they wanted nothing more than to learn what it was that I had to teach them. Sadly I knew only a fraction of them would likely be able to do what I planned to show them, but even so, it would be a learning experience for everybody, and that made it worth it. I looked amongst the crowd, and stared at the excited children, eager to learn as I had been. It almost brought me back to memories of my days sitting in those same seats, watching demonstrations from other ninjas who had come to show off and teach us. But that was a different time... a time when things were far less fragile. "Who here knows what their chakra nature is?" I saw some nervous glances, and a few timid hands were raised. Among them was a famiiar mop of brown hair. Hee looked timid still, but a little more confident than last time. I smirked a little and pointed my finger at him. "You... Yama...shita was it? Tell me, what's your chakra nature?" The boy stammered a little, looking put on the spot, but I wanted to train that out of him if I could. It would do him no good to be timid in front of his peers. "Uum... I-I-It's... It's water... My whole family uses water jutsu." He stared at the ground blankly, and I nodded, fairly happy that a suiton user was in the group. He was just what I needed. "Good. You just made yourself my first volunteer. Get down here. I'm going to show you how to use a fun little jutsu." The boy blanched. He was shocked, and almost terrified. I cursed to myself. Of course he would be afraid of coming up here. I'd acted like a tyrant. Still, I had little patience. I didn't have much time, and this was something that would take a lot of instruction. "Look, kid. I haven't got all afternoon. I'm offering to teach you this first. If not you, then I'm sure there are other suiton users in the class. You wanna let them take that advantage from you?" It was an open challenge, in front of all of his classmates. It was a bit of a dick move, I'll admit, but the kid needed to man up and accept his responsibility. I was there to mentor these kids, and he would go nowhere if he didn't put some effort in and show some initiative. made by renni

[Shinryu]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,420,true] DARKNESS... IMPRISONING ME! ALL THAT I SEE, ABSOLUTE HORROR...

The room went silent. You could cut the tension in the air with a knife. The kid stood there, shivering, almost convulsing, as I had challenged him, but he took an unsteady step forward, and then another, and then I knew I had him. "How about a round of applause for the shy kid finally breaking out of his shell!" I said, smiling, as he made it down to the floor. His classmates joined in at my insistance, although the few suiton users in the crowd seemed upset that they hadn't been picked. More's the pity. They'd probably forget about it in a week, and if not, they'd come to learn why I'd chosen this one over them. He needed the help. That much was obvious just from watching him try to answer my questions. "Alright, Yamashita-san has volunteered to show you all how to do a fun new jutsu. Now, Yamashita. Do you know any Suiton jutsu?" I asked him plainly, encouragingly, hoping that he would know something so that things would be made easier. I was about to find out, though, that my job wasn't going to be as easy as I'd hoped. "Well... N-N-N-N-No... I-I dont... The kid looked about ready to cry. I had to act fast. "That's fine. Everyone has to start somewhere, and this is the perfect place to learn. And it's the perfect jutsu to learn, too. For you see, the jutsu I'm about to teach you all, has a very close tie with our homeland. It even shares the same name." I smiled, and stood in front of them, taking the time to make the necessary handseals, and emphasizing them, so that the students would be able to see them clearly. "Ninpo: Kirigakure no Jutsu!' Instantly a cloud of haze rose out of my gourd and filled the room obliquely. I shouted out to the class. "Fun, huh? You can cancel it too, like this." I made the appropriate handseals, and the water evaporated, sinking back into my gourd. I looked at the kids, who'd all just been trapped in a haze of mist. "The kirigakure no jutsu is a simple one, but effective. Once you spread a mist, it's hard for most people to see through it. Only people with very special jutsu are capable of piercing through the fog. It makes for a supreme tactical advantage." I lectured the children, but some of them seemed a bit bored. The suiton users in the class, howerver, were hooked on my every word. "The jutsu is actually really simple. You simply use chakra to manipulate a source of water, and split it apart to hang in thick, interweaving curtains. It's not difficult at all, really, and it's useful in plenty of occasions." I looked down to the boy who would be first to learn. "You ready, kid?" made by renni

[Shinryu]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,420,true] DARKNESS... IMPRISONING ME! ALL THAT I SEE, ABSOLUTE HORROR...

I put a hand on Kujiro's shoulder, stepping beside him. The gourd sat there, still full of water, its contents shifting slightly with the recent usage. Everyone seemed to be paying some kind of attention, as Yamashita looked at me and gulped. "Alright, this is easy, no sweat. The name of the game is manipulating the water, so that's what you have to focus on, okay? I showed you the three handseals, but don't worry to much about those. They're important, but you know those. It's more important that you focus your chakra on the water. It actually has to leave you, and mingle with the water in the gourd in order to make the mist." I was giving him, and the others, some basic instructions as to how the technique worked. I didn't think the kids would be able to figure it out without guidance, so I gave them that much, trying to explain the finer points of the jutsu to them, to take some of the burden of learning off of their shoulders. "Your chakra is basically reaching out like an arm, into the water. Realistically, you should be able to do this within the span of a second or so, but don't be worried about that right now, you'll have plenty of time later to work on speed. What I want you to do now, is to envision that arm reaching out from your body, and dipping into the gourd. Can you do that?" I asked Kujiro, who was sweating hard under the weight of the task before him. Maybe it was wrong of me to try and teach this jutsu to the academy students, but then again, it wasn't particularly difficult. The only challenging thing was the nature manipulation. And if the kid started to get that down at this early of an age, he might stand a chance yet. He made the three handseals, and closed his eyes, grunting. I couldn't tell what he was thinking, but I knew he was trying hard. His face was getting paler and paler. "Alright now Yamashita, this arm doesn't have to be big, you just need to get your chakra into the gourd. Don't push yourself too hard." He looked at me, biting his lip, before scaling back his grunting a little. Some of the colour rushed back to his face, and I could tell he was trying hard to extend that arm of chakra into the chamber. It was an uphill battle for him, but it looked like he was doing it, near as I could tell. Then again, it was hard to tell without being able to actually see his chakra. "Once you get it in there, everything else is easy. The handseals tell the chakra what to do, essentially. That particular combination means rise, spread, and divide, which is what the mist will do. It might start out small at first, depending on how much chakra you put into the mist, but with time you'll learn how to make it cover larger and larger areas. Yamashita let out one last groan, and a wisp of haze stirred from the gourd, forming a four foot by four foot ball of mist that hung in the air. made by renni

[Shinryu]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,420,true] DARKNESS... IMPRISONING ME! ALL THAT I SEE, ABSOLUTE HORROR...

I wasn't sure who started clapping first, as the applause seemed to come out of nowhere, but there was some light cheering, and a smattering of claps. I joined in of course, and smiled a bit. He'd been successful, at least to a degree, and that was worthy of praise. I put my hand on Kujiro's shoulder and looked down at the boy. "Good job, kid. You've got a ways to go yet, but you've learned a lot in the past few minutes. Work on building your chakra pool, and soon enough you'll be able to stretch this thing out a hundred meters wide." I felt a sense of pride in having taught the boy his first elemental jutsu, but really, he was lucky it had come to him so easily. Few were so gifted as to be able to perform such jutsu at such a young age. I stood back, and looked over the crowd again. Here they were, the next generation of defenders of Kirigakure, so eager and willing to learn. So awed and impressed, by me of all people. Even the Chuunin instructors seemed pleased by my performance. I had to be doing something right. I tapped an exhausted Kujiro on the shoulder, and sent him back to his seat before inviting the other suiton users up to try their hand at using the jutsu. They jumped at the chance, and rushed towards the front of the room. I told them to line up single file, and that they'd each get a turn to try their hand at it. I formed a few quick seals myself and a copy made of ice appeared beside me, overlooking the kids and making sure no one was butting in line. "Alright, alright. One at a time. You all know the drill." Things were going rather well. The ones who tried had mixed results of course, but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. I was feeling rather happy with my work thusfar, and could even say that I'd done myself proud. I had taught the children the village's namesake jutsu, and given some the ability and inspiration to learn even more jutsu, and to become stronger ninja. That was good enough for me. I watched the last suiton user make a haze that covered the room, and then dispell it, and felt a surge of pride. This was a purpose that I could get used to. A job that I found fulfilling and interesting. Perhaps when I made Chuunin, I could talk to the Mizukage about it more. made by renni

[Shinryu]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,420,true] DARKNESS... IMPRISONING ME! ALL THAT I SEE, ABSOLUTE HORROR...

The day was winding down to a close. The Suiton users were exhausted, the students had long since grown bored of the technique, and everyone was a bit mildly damp, which made sitting at a desk rather uncomfortable. I cracked my neck, letting out some tension, before acknowledging the class of now thoroughly dulled students. "Everyone who performed the Kirigakure no Jutsu did exceptionally well today, and you all deserve praise for your ability to manipulate suiton at this young age; however, keep in mind that knowing a jutsu is one thing and employing it effectively on the battlefield is another." I stared them all down with a fierce glare, and dictated with a harsh tone to my voice. "I have to leave now, but just because I am gone, doesn't mean you have an excuse to slack. I'm assigning you all homework for next week. Suiton users, your goal is to perfect the jutsu, and develop effective strategies to employ it in battle. Everybody else, your job is to come up with a strategy to beat the jutsu, and to counter any attacks launched in a similar manner." Perhaps I was a little out of line, giving them homework, but even so, I felt it would be good to give the kids a real tactical challenge, and to make them think for once. They would be ninja soon, and they were going to have to learn to think like ninja in order to stand a chance out there in the real world. I only hoped that they were ready for the brutal, grim reality of it all. I bowed and took my leave, waving as I went. "Oh, and make sure you train up, because you'll be practicing those strategies on each other. I'll be back next week!" I said with a snide smirk, and closed the door behind me. It had been a good day, on the whole. made by renni

[&._-exit]

[chiatsuki]

+ 60 million gagillion.