Private The Dragon's Wisdom [Class]

[Ryuu Rei]

Cold, polished concrete met the soles of an almost sickly woman’s off-brand sport shoes. Not a sound echoed in her wake despite the desolate emptiness of the main hall of the Academy. A thin sheet of chakra covered the soles of her shoes. Reflex by this point. Years spent as a secret super weapon, then a spymaster, and now a rabid gardener…one learned to be quiet just simply by nature. Though these days the chakra socks came with another use, which was snapping the connection she had with the ground.

The ex-sennin shrugged up the long jacket that covered her business casual attire. Thick worn out leather torn from one of the many monsters that roamed the country with her bare hands. It had been fashioned years ago at a special request to take in her bulk; now it looked comically large. Trapped in the world she had been for three years had taken its toll, and even as she blazed a trail through the medical ranks…her weakness was clear. A strong gust of wind could knock her down. Technically, she was still supposed to be on bed rest. Yet ever a walking bad habit factory, the ex-sennin refused to sit still; as usual.

Her reasons to walk in to her old stomping grounds? Curiosity. Having finally given a chance to reduce her immediate medical studies, the kunoichi turned her attention back on the clan and everything that had happened in her three years away. As predicted, there was the usual - low head count on new members and zero adoptions since the last incident. At least, it was. Staring right at her was a new request for adoption that had been, just that day, denied. The girl in question was already exhibiting signs of lacking touch with their reality and the suspicions were as stupidly high as ever. With a grimace she preformed a jutsu right there that copied the paperwork without the denial, signed it herself, and gave it to the requesting family. They couldn’t let fear of a curse potentially bar a child from home. She, couldn’t.

Taking a left at the corridor entrance, the clan head slowly made her way down the old halls leading towards a set of classrooms meant for low-level jutsu or paper-only lectures. She had requested the middle three be coordinated off so that the leader of the Ryuu Clan could witness and take proper stock of their newest clan member. She had already heard down the grapevine the child had a preference for explosives not seen in some time. Immediately understanding the worry among the fools of her clan, she decided to keep to a 1-on-1 class for now. If Nozomi was indeed already taken to some craziness, of course Rei would need to set up measures to keep an extra eye out but, not before checking.

Poor kid could just be quirky.

[Class Open for Ryuu Nozomi]

 

[Ryuu Nozomi]

Nozomi felt it before she heard it. That faint shift in the air, like a subtle pricking along her skin that told her someone was there. Not just anyone, either. The quiet was too deliberate and too controlled. Whoever it was moved with the kind of stillness that came from years of making a choice to be unseen. The classroom where she sat smelled faintly of paper and dust. The uncertainty of why she was called to this place was troubling her still, was she to be held accountable for some act that she had committed or was this to be something benign, such as personalized instruction.

The light slanted across the worn wooden top of the desks, catching on scuff marks which told decade-old stories. Nozomi sat cross-legged in the center, hands resting lightly in her lap, trying to silence the urge to fidget. The hallway outside was silent enough that she could hear her own breathing fill the air around her.

The door slid open without the normal rush of sound, just a faint scrape of wood. Nozomi’s spine straightened automatically, eyes lifting to meet the figure in the doorway. The woman was taller than she’d expected, draped in a long leather jacket that hung loose on her thin frame. Not gaunt but not a picture of perfect health either. The jacket looked like it had once fit someone of much fuller muscular form. Light caught on her hair, and her eyes were sharp in a way that made Nozomi aware of every inch of herself.

The woman's gaze swept over Nozomi once, and in that single look the girl felt catalogued, measured, and weighed. Was this how others felt when she gave a similar gaze? The woman stepped into the room and closed the door, the quiet sound of it sealing them in. Nozomi watched her move... not the heavy-footed approach of most people, but a slow, deliberate path that took in the corners of the room. There was something about her presence that pressed against the edges of Nozomi’s senses.

She thought she saw the smallest flicker at the corner of the woman’s mouth, though it vanished too quickly to be sure. The silence that followed was long enough for Nozomi to hear the tick of the clock on the wall. She kept her breathing steady. Nozomi believed that she recognized this woman. Was this... Rei? The leader of the Ryuu clan?

A sense of fear but also fulfillment filled Nozomi in the moment, and even her chest expanded looking as if it were ready to explode.

The clock kept ticking, and the air in the room felt heavier than when she’d first sat down. Nozomi didn’t move, but she was acutely aware of the other woman’s posture, the slow measure of her presence. There was no conversation yet and this felt more and more like it was an assessment.

"Good Morning." She dared to break the silence and the words felt like porcelain shattering against a hard floor. She assumed this was meant to be a class or a training. Yet, it began to feel more like an interrogation and thoughts of the scenes she'd seen beneath the city flickered back into her memory. A nervous energy filled her core as she began to imagine how it might feel to have her fingernails peeled back by the woman standing before her.

Then, she tried her best to put such thoughts from her mind, yet the fear lingered.

WC: 573 [Marked for Training]