[Tutor] Dancing Shadow, Falling Leaf

[Uchiha Kouhei]

Left jab. Test their defenses and bait out their guard. Right hook. Swing around their block and discombobulate. Low kick. Strike somewhere else entirely and throw them off-balance.

As the training dummy teetered on its footing from the low kick, the brown-haired boy drew a kunai from behind his back and pounced. Using his body weight he knocked his inanimate victim to the floor while slamming the point of the blade down onto the dummy's wooden neck hard enough to create an audible 'thunk'. A simple series of strikes.

Uchiha Kouhei was beating the training dummy like it owed him money. He felt like his training in other areas was stalling. Learning jutsus, increasing his chakra control... Sometimes it felt he was getting no better at it despite the effort he was pouring in. Taijutsu provided a distraction that was both effective and productive. Learning to transfer from unarmed taijutsu into bukijutsu had its uses. Something about learning to deal with being caught off-guard, or not losing your cool when disarmed. Something like that.

Kouhei clenched his jaw as he wiggled the kunai a bit before finally managing to yank it free. It would've been a lethal wound on a human being, but the dummy just laid there silently. The nick in the wood wasn't much to look at, but the force of impact had provided the catharsis Kouhei had been looking for. It was one of the few true advantages of being a shinobi, or at least a student. Nobody looked at him strangely when he went out to the training yard to silently vent his frustrations on the unfortunate training equipment.

Keeping a straight face, Kouhei moved to set the dummy on its feet again. He twirled the kunai around his finger as he stepped back, thinking of what else there was to practice on his unyielding wooden opponent.

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[Sazuki Nao]

Nao was walking through the academy before he would head out towards the grounds. He had done his few lessons here in the academy already and was about to head home, that was when he saw a child practicing. He would keep his distance at first and just silently watch.
' Does he hold a grudge against that thing or something..?' were the first thoughts that went through his head. He almost just shrugged it off like the kid was just trying to blow off some steam. Yet it seemed to be a real training moment for him. ' Despite that being fatal... The way he is fighting he would have himself killed already ten times... Why is the youth so reckless these days.' He would finally get close to the child who had put the thing standing right on top. "Hai hai..." he said while clapping his hands softly to get his attention.

"From what I can see... You are trying something you have no idea off... So let's first start with; what are you trying to achieve on that dummy, just revenge?" He knew Uchiha was keen on having a vendetta over things. He knew that all too well from his past.

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[Uchiha Kouhei]

The Uchiha blinked and looked up when his attention was drawn. That he belonged to that ever-passionate, ever-stubborn clan was obvious. Not just in his choice of high-collar attire, but also in the clan's symbol proudly emblazoned on the back of his coat. And, of course, the annoyed sigh he tried very hard to hide. The senior ninja's behavior was irksome, accusing him of not knowing what he was doing.

Kouhei turned his head to look back at the dummy, ready to ask the other man to leave him be, when instead he did a double-take. The Uchiha hadn't recognized the man by face alone, but once the outfit processed in his mind, he realized who he was talking to. "Err. Assassination techniques? Sennin... san?" He clearly wasn't sure how to properly address someone of Nao's station, and settled for the most mild of suffixes while still using his title. "Why would I want revenge on a training dummy?" he continued, cocking his head in confusion. The remark didn't make a lot of sense to him. It hadn't quite registered as an unfair accusation because of his lineage.

After a few moments, the Uchiha found his composure again. His face seemed to slip back into that sour expression like it was natural. An Uchiha through and through. "Anyway, that's what I was doing. Assassination techniques, yes. I read about it in a scroll, using a regular brawl to conceal lethal intentions, then striking when the target is... Hm." He narrowed his eyes as he recounted the memory. It sounded a bit fantastical in retrospect, though he was sure the scroll in question had been genuine. Or was he getting his wires crossed with that book his cousin had lent him? His introspection and growing confusion about the legitimacy of the lesson quickly seemed to consume the brooding child. It was like he had forgotten Nao was even there, and had instead decided to glare holes into the dummy. At least he seemed to take his practice seriously.

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[Sazuki Nao]

"Kind of since you are going pure reckless mode on a dummy, if it were a real battle you most likely already had been dead. I get it. The dummy is an inmate object, doesn't move, doesn't blink, doesn't feel... Yet it still showcases your tiny thoughts progressed on the matter." He simply said as he shrugged, hearing why it would be revenge. "Who knows.. Something only you can answer." He said as simple as that.

'backstabbing rotten people as they always were I guess...' were his thoughts as he heard the little child was working on assassination techniques. "You do realize... assassination doesn't happen so bluntly as you do..?" He would say and walk closed in. "For starters, before going ham on a target dummy trying techniques, start from the basis. Footwork. The way you are standing now you cannot move freely." It was odd for him to show him how to stand in his mind, but every single thing would and could start from the ground up. "If you bend the front knee a bit, do not let the back knee stretch too far out. You can move more quickly and accuratly. Try to keep the balance centered and don't think the kunai as a weapon, but extention of the arm." He would say before trying to help him adjust to the correct stance.

"If you really wish to be lethal... Then you have to make sure you are nible on your feet and a sharp mind." He simply said and would smile innocent yet sinister. "But don't get me wrong, there are more ways then a simple kunai could kill anyone." He was a master of the herbal garden.. Ofcourse he knew more than one way, along... with the few missions he had done in the past with Anbu, he knew how to kill silently too. Along with his medical expertise, torture wasn't a problem etiher.

"Strifing for Anbu?" He questioned the male out of nowhere.

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[Uchiha Kouhei]

"Right. Footwork." Kouhei replied. He was trying not to be too cold to this guy. Despite the weird way this guy was acting, the advice sounded genuinely helpful. He tried his best to follow Nao's instructions, changing his stance as stated. Soon enough his footing, the foundation of how he would fight in the future, was already looking a fair bit better. "Hm." He didn't seem too impressed on the surface, but he could feel that it was, at the very least, an improvement. He didn't care much about how others felt about him, or the Uchiha. All he wanted was to grow as a shinobi. If that meant swallowing whatever reservations he felt to learn from this guy, so be it.

"Anbu? I dunno." he admitted with a shrug. "I can't say I've really considered branches too actively. Some of the other students dream of being Anbu or med-nin, but then clearly have no aptitude for it. A mednin who can't heal lets people die. An Anbu who can't be subtle gets his cover blown. Dreams like that are dangerous to yourself and others. I will apply my skills where the village needs them, not where I want them." It was pessimistic mindset for someone only a dozen summers old, but brutally practical at the same time.

"That said, a shinobi has to be prepared for everything. Ultimately, killing people is a core part of the shinobi's job. It's why we train all those juts, but sometimes a knife to the neck is the simplest answer to the problem. Need to know which end of the kunai to hold when that day comes." he replied. Perhaps it was unusual for a student to so openly retort against a sennin, but he was loath to get lectured on basic ideas like this as if he had never paid attention in a classroom.

[953/1500]
[3/5]

 

[Sazuki Nao]

Hearing how the other was thinking... left a bit of a bitter taste, yet he was puzzling about where this kid would go. "Hold there... Do you realize, that there is medical personnel out there? That do not have the chakra senses as we do? Do you know that some anbu are out there? Who does not have it? Yet they are all able to completely do their job fine? We are ninjas, not magicians, we are humans. not robots..." He would be frowning when he spoke those words.

"Dreams are not dangerous... they give you hope and let you move forwards. Otherwise, you keep on being stuck in the same old hole that you cannot dig out of..." Tilting his head he would try to search for something in his pocket. And... now he knew, he forgot his cigarettes in the classroom. He would grab those later.

"That said, a shinobi has to be prepared for everything. Ultimately, killing people is a core part of the shinobi's job. It's why we train all those Jutsu, but sometimes a knife to the neck is the simplest answer to the problem. Need to know which end of the kunai to hold when that day comes."

Nao's Nose would scrunch up and act like something had been laying dead overnight under a warmth lamp. Those words really reeked if you asked him. "Is it really..?" He asked the boy, his tune got a bit darker and he would cross his arms in front of him looking rather stern towards the child. "Are we really... purebred single-minded focussed on killing?" He asked the child but before he would even be able to answer he would continue on. Hoping to get through that thick, Uchiha, stupid skull of this child. "You are telling me, that medical ninjas are supposed to be killing as it's their core? It isn't to protect those around them? It isn't in an attempt to save their lives when they are wounded?" He paused for a single second. "It isn't a diplomatic's job, to speak things out. to try to negotiate with another part of a country? Another country all together?? It is their core to kill everything? To start wars?" He asked the child again and now only left a bit of room for him to answer.

"Don't get me wrong child, but you are nothing with that mindset. You would only get yourself killed faster than you could even say limbo. Not only... what are you... 82 years? You speak of the old war days when you weren't even a sperm cell my child. No... You live somewhere else than in a world of Shinobi." His eyes turned towards the dummy. He knew Uchiha were dark bitter and whatnot. But this one was twisted even though he couldn't do much with it.

"Are you even fit to be a shinobi with that mindset?"​

 

[Uchiha Kouhei]

Kouhei listened silently to Nao's answer, an inscrutable, blank expression on his face. Whatever effect Nao's response had on Kouhei, the boy wasn't letting it show. After Nao finished, Kouhei looked away, back at the dummy. His eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched. Realization, or mere frustration?

"Forgive the disrespect, sennin-san, but do you enjoy putting words in other people's mouths?" Kouhei then asked, his voice terse. Nao's words had certainly struck something, but it seemed to be a nerve rather than a chord. "If so, allow me to do the same. Do shinobi train with knives and swords because we think it's fun? Do you know how to kill someone with lightning or fire for some enlightened reason? Denying that we learn our arts for the sake of turning them on others because we have more duties than purely to fight for the village is... It's plain sophistry." Finally that frustration entered Kouhei's voice in earnest.

"Are you a pacifist, sennin-san? Have you never used your training to attack another person? We are healers, diplomats, protectors... But we're also soldiers. Are you trying to tell me we're not meant to kill, when I've spent the past three years learning how to do so?" It seemed like that Uchiha passion was getting stoked, for better or worse. He finally turned to Nao again, glaring daggers at the man.

"Don't stand there and... and lecture me about how things are. As if I haven't lost people to a shinobi's duty. My sister didn't die fighting for this village for you to pretend you're too good to do the same. If your advice means you're just going to insult me, insult her sacrifice, then--" Kouhei's voice was quivering by now. For a moment the child seemed to puff up as if he was about to get aggressive with the sennin. Yet before he could, his shoulders sagged and that anger left his eyes. It was like he deflated, the hand with the kunai now limply by his side. He couldn't even bear to look at Nao anymore, instead turning his eyes down to the dirt.

"Then I would ask you leave me alone, sennin-san."

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[4/5]

 

[Sazuki Nao]

"Weren't you the one to say: Ultimately, killing people is a core part of the shinobi's job.?" He said back towards the kids after all their words. "Is it really? Last time I checked that wasn't the case." he said shrugging and already knew the kid wasn't listening. "Do I fight with a kunai? No... Does my protogee fight with a kunai? No... Did we fight with 'lightning' Nope.. You are telling me... it is a core part, when it is not. It is up to you to what to do with it all."

"You are telling me this, telling me that. Yet you aren't the one who already had to stand face to face with death multiple times. Grow a pair; if you wish I can place you under the genjutsu to showcase what it was at the gates a few months ago. Showcase you what the smell, sight and feeling was there. Maybe then you will see and understand?" he questioned the kid and was already ready to rpove it.

"Then why don't you prove it to me you have what it takes." he said while attempting to walk away as the kid clearly didn't want him here. It was up to him if he passed or not at this point.

[topic left if not stopped]

 

[Uchiha Kouhei]

What a worthless conversation. It was all the Uchiha could think as Nao finished speaking. As if mednin weren't a part of the bloodshed that was part of the shinobi's life. Instead of killing, they simply allowed others to kill in their stead. To stand there and pretend it absolved him of sin, as if he was somehow innocent for being a medic instead of the hand holding the knife. It bordered on being sickening to the Uchiha. Despite his own earlier words, he knew enough to not join the medical branch now.

Prove it. If not for this man's position of authority, Kouhei would throw those words back in his face. He had nothing to prove to Nao. Only to his family, to the ones he cared to protect. And yet, the sennin's tone irked him to no end. Kouhei's memories had extinguished his anger before, leaving only the blackened grief he felt. Only moments later, and he already felt the ashes getting stoked again.

"Then why don't you?" Kouhei asked him with a defiant look in those green eyes. His glare drilled into Nao's back now that the mednin was walking away. Kouhei slipped the kunai back into its place. "Come on, then. Hit me with it, if you doubt me. I can't even use the Sharingan yet. No cheating to look through your genjutsu. I'll take everything you want to show me square on the jaw." he added. The weight of what he was accepting set in moments after he said it, and nervousness itched at the back of his mind - but he was too deep to back down now. He would be insulting his sister's memory if he took the challenge back. I'll make you eat those words, he thought to himself.

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