Private Unique Tactics [Private Tutor]

[Oshiro Saki]

Hyuuga Shigekagu
Med-nin/Academy Teacher iNPC
Age: 25
Height: 6'1"
​

Sitting on a bench near the outskirts of the old-growth forest never held good memories for Shige, but it also happened to be one of the best places to host this little class he'd been handling for the last several years. And it was a good class, something that students needed to know, something that he felt students strongly benefitted from. The world is an ever-changing place, and if the next generation doesn't change with it, doesn't keep up with it, they're destined for failure, for death, in the brutal life that shinobi and kunoichi lead. This was simply unacceptable. As a medical ninja, Shige vowed to save as many lives as he possibly could. Be it through surgery, medical jutsu, or even something as simple as a lesson. If he could better prepare upcoming genin for the harsh reality they'll be facing in their coming years, and perhaps save even one person that way, everything will have been worth it. He spun his beanie around on his finger as a nervous sort of a habit for a few minutes. Funny, how after two years of teaching this class he still wasn't sure that he had the ability to do so. Anyone could teach this course, really, so why him? Why did he deserve the pay? There were plenty of other people who needed the money more than he did, and yet he had been requested. And so he taught. How long would it be before someone realized he wasn't needed? How long would it be before Maru, that weird old fox, would hire a new teacher, one who didn't have any other prior commitments to any other branches? Shige sometimes expected it to happen any day. And yet he was still here. He pulled his beanie over his mess of brown hair, leaning against the back of the bench and taking a breath. Calming himself down. Closing his eyes and reassuring himself that this was his job, that he belonged, that he was exactly where he needed to be. White eyes opened, instinctively scanning the area for anyone who was walking towards him, particularly anyone who looked liked an academy student. His conscience drifted towards the paper he had with the name of the student who had signed up for this independent tutoring session, Nanami Hideaki. They had been given instruction to meet Shige just outside the forest, near the public areas, so it shouldn't be too hard to find at all... but maybe Shige could have been a little more specific. This was the first time teaching it outside of a classroom setting, but he figured that this would be more conducive to the actual lesson. What kind of student was this person like? Shige honestly couldn't wait to find out.

[Post 1/5]
[WC: 458/1,500]

 

[Nanami]

Nanami's morning was well spent. She was up early, before the sun and worked through her routine. A morning meditation followed by simple kata to shake off sleep. A simple breakfast served for the early risers then she'd take care of chores, clean up her dormitory space, get dressed properly. Life in Kumogakure had settled into something resembling peace. The chaos of her early days had all but settled now. She was nearing the end of her time as an Academy Student and approaching life as a Genin. It wouldn't be long now. She treasured quiet days like these where she could steal her time by waking up early enough to enjoy herself. She was in no great hurry to move on, and eager to soak up all she could from the academy and this relative peace of hers.

So settled into her pattern was she that it was several minutes into reading a book in an abandoned nook of the tower in Torre Celeste that she realized that the nagging sense of forgetting something was indeed the tutoring session she had signed up for today.

She hurled the book away with a start, leapt from her perch and slid down alongside onyx stonework and tumbled as she hit the ground into a roll and soon after into a sprint as she rushed her way alongside the rising sun towards the Ancient Forest.

She wouldn't be too late, she decided, but more than she ever cared to. She certainly didn't want to go through the effort of taking extra lessons like this only to earn herself a reputation as unreliable. A simple mistake but simple mistakes could easily wind up being the most costly. She picked up her pace.

Unique Tactics, she wasn't really sure what that even implied but it had caught her eye. Truthfully, any excuse which got her personal one on one training with academy staff wasn't something she'd turn down. She was driven, even if she didn't feel she was all that naturally capable.

She rounded the edge of the forest soon enough, pulled up to its massive trees and scanned the likely suspect. She met the gaze of one Shigekagu, a Hyuuga and a complete stranger to her. She didn't slow down when she entered the line of sight. She kept up her dead sprint until she neared, slowly only to prevent herself from running into her teacher and immediately pulled herself into a kneeling position, head bowed low. A simple tradition for students who were late to class albeit it usually at a dojo.

"I am sorry for my lateness," she said calmly in a practiced formal tone between deep breaths to steady her heart rate. All in all, she wasn't sure if she was even all that late, but better safe than sorry. She stayed silent until further addressed and didn't lookup.

[Post 1/5]
[WC: 479]

 

[Oshiro Saki]

Hyuuga Shigekagu
Med-nin/Academy Teacher iNPC
Age: 25
Height: 6'1"
​

For a normal Hyuuga, there are much fewer things that surprise you, given the ability to see most everything that occurs in every direction around you, and considering Shige's Byakugan were always active, even fewer things surprised him. He saw Nanami sprinting her heart out in his general direction long before she saw him, long before she knew exactly where she was running. He cracked a bit of a smile at how hard she was running to get to the class. It reminded him a bit of himself when he was in the academy and trying his damnedest to pass the most basic of classes... or to get to them on time, at least. It was kind of heartwarming, actually. A Hyuuga is caught off-guard significantly less than other shinobi, and yet he hadn't been expecting her seemingly sincerest of apologies for the fact that she was late, nor had he even realized she was late. "Are you late?" Shige asked, looking down at a pocket watch produced from inside his shirt. "Ah well. No worries, no need to bow at all. Let's get the party going, yea? My name is Hyuuga Shigekagu, but you can call me... whatever you want, really. Shige, Shigs, Kagu, anything goes. Just not professor or teacher or anything like that, you'll make me feel old," he said, replacing his pocket watch. "Anyway... yea, welcome to Unique Tactics, Nanami, the first one-on-one session I've actually ever had for this class," and he held out his fist for a bump and gave a friendly smile. "Normally, this class has a lot of lecturing involved, but I don't think that's really how you're gonna effectively learn anything if that's what this session is. I'm kind of using this as an experiment for future classes to see if I want to change the curriculum for the coming years... so bear with me, if ya would." Shige cleared his throat of some phlegm and scratched the back of his head for a couple of seconds while he tried to figure out exactly where he wanted to go with his next few sentences. "Well, for this class, I'm going to need to get to know you a little better. Bit of who I am though, first. I was, once upon a time, a jounin in the main branch before I transferred into the medical branch to help with surgeries and whatnot, and because I wanna help others more than hurt them, and as a shinobi there aren't a lot of opportunities to do that. But uh... yea. Anyway. Tell me about yourself, Nanami. Tell me about your passions and your goals for the future, if you have any. Where do you see yourself going, and how do you plan on getting there?"

[Post 2/5]
[WC: 917/1,500]

 

[Nanami]

Nanami's breath returned to her, the beads of sweat dried, cooled, and chilled her albeit it slightly. She rose her head from the ground and climbed to her feet as ordered and gave another polite bow during the introduction. She had a feeling that her teacher wasn't exactly hung up on complex formalities and demanded the utmost respect, not terribly uncommon for some of the more unorthodox and interesting instructors in the Academy but this level of casual address caused an eyebrow to raise. Hm, well he didn't look all that old, she decided, maybe this was more common with the younger academy staff?

"Ah, what about uh," she hesitated for a moment. A casual first name nickname felt way too personal! "...is teach okay?" she attempted.

She straightened up when he introduced the class premise to her. What stuck out was that this was the first one-on-one of this class? She felt, well, kind of lucky? It remained to be seen how good Shigekagu was as a teacher, she'd had her fair share of run-ins with low-effort or unhelpful instructors in the past.

"Of course," she replied without missing a beat. "I'm happy to help." She smiled inspite of herself and relaxed. She figured this was probably someone she didn't have to keep up airs around. "I think that makes sense, don't really need to lecture if it's just me here, I guess?"

The introduction made her feel grown-up, it wasn't every day, or really any day, that an instructor both told her about themselves and seemed all that interested in her answer. But that didn't change the fact that she was at a loss about how to answer.

"W-well, uhm," she hesitated for a second. She wasn't really the shy type but the question stopped her, what could she say? She began after a short pause, "My name is Hideaki, Nanami. I've been at the Academy basically my entire life. I like to read, I kind of like to study. I really like fighting too, erm, sorry." She had likely both created a lot of work herself for the medical staff of Kumogakure. That was accurate for passions at least, she really liked those peaceful moments to herself, but there was just something about a fight that set her blood on fire. As for goals? That's where she was stopped. "I guess I don't really know what I want the future to hold, I want to make sure that I get strong, I wanna be the strongest but I other than making sure that I'm safe I'm not sure what for."

[Post 2/5]
[WC: 905/1500]

 

[Oshiro Saki]

Hyuuga Shigekagu
Med-nin/Academy Teacher iNPC
Age: 25
Height: 6'1"
​

"Yea, teach'll work just fine," he said, letting out a slight chuckle. What a funny student, feeling the need to apologize for everything. "No need to be sorry at all. There's nothing wrong with having a desire to fight. That's just... nature, y'know? We're shinobi. If you never fight as a student, you're not going to know what to do when it actually matters. There's a balance you have to find between action and restraint, between fighting and peace. I think the world operates somewhere in between those two points, and you've gotta find for yourself where it is." Shige took in a slow breath, let it out, and looked off to the side towards the forest, towards someplace distant. Someplace in his past. "It's good that you have a desire to be better than you are now, the best you can be. With the world we live in, if you aren't constantly improving yourself, you're falling behind, and that's a dangerous place to be if you're fighting. One bad fight could be your last, y'know? It happens. A lot, actually." Shige sniffed, scratched his head through his beanie, adjusted his posture. He met Nanami's eyes, despite the fact that he could see her face perfectly fine without actually looking in her direction. "I'm sure you've had some exposure to how strange and unique some shinobi and kunoichi are, but I can guarantee you that you don't know the half of it yet. That fact is that if you ever once underestimate someone you're fighting against, you could very well be dead by the next time you breathe. It seems like everyone's got a gimmick of some kind, and you've gotta figure out what that gimmick is. There are shinobi who can trap you in a nightmare world if you make eye contact with them. There are people who can practically teleport because they move so fast, people with demons inside them, people who can shoot fatal beams of light out of their fingertips, people who can rip the blood out of your body." He paused. Shige hated the fact that this was a conversation he was having, but he was also pretty sure that this isn't the first time Nanami had heard a talk like this, either. It had been many years since he'd bee a student at the academy, and he wasn't sure how much it had changed. It didn't hurt to be sure, though. She needed to hear this. "The world is scary, and you need to be just as scary. I assume by this point you've learned about elemental affinities, right? Application is everything. What kind of chakra do you have, and how do you apply that unique part of yourself to how you fight? Here... let me give you an example," and Shige pulled a couple of kunai out of a pouch on his thigh. "If you look over to the trees, you'll see one of them has a wooden target on it." Without looking away from Nanami, he flicked his arm out and released the knife. It flew straight to the target, nearly 20 meters away, and landed directly in the center of the board. "I'm sure you could tell, cause it's not a huge secret, that I am a Hyuuga. That said, my Byakugan are always active. I can't turn them off," and he cleared his throat. "Hitting someone who doesn't think you're looking at them," he started, in reference to the fact that he hadn't turned his head, "is a level 1 application for what I have. It's basic. It's not special. A level 2 application might be..." and he threw another kunai in the direction of the woods, until it clanged with something loud, something unseen, something metallic just past the tree line. Another target, metal this time. "Might be attacking someone who doesn't even know you know they're there. Someone hidden. But neither of these are what I hope you will take away from this class. I want you to go beyond levels one and two. The Hyuuga clan is infamous for their fighting style, the Gentle Fist. The ancient Hyuugans took something relatively straightforward--being able to see the chakra networks of people--and applied it, no, created an entirely new fighting style that's impossible to learn without it." Shige sighed. He really hated lecturing, and hadn't even intended to, and yet here he was. Lecturing. Maybe this courses needed it after all; it seemed impossible to avoid, now that he was thinking about it. Maybe this was a course best saved for higher ranks, after all. it was a tough ask, hoping for academy students, who were just kids, to grasp things like elemental affinities, mixing chakras, and learning to fight by using everything at your disposal to their advantage in ways they probably wouldn't think of for a while. "This is the level of application I want you to get to, I don't expect you to get it fully right now. This is something that's gonna take years of practice under people older than you, older than me. It's something that I'm still learning. But I do want you to start thinking about it, and if you go about your training regiments with the thought process of this higher level of application, then I think this class will have been a success. Does that make sense?"

[Post 3/5]
[WC: 1810/1,500]

 

[Nanami]

"Alright, teach it is," she grinned.

She scratched her chin but wasn't super convinced. She knew that conflict was just a part of their way of life and maybe it was a good thing that she took to it so well but it hadn't won her a lot of friends in the Academy. The second point, of finding that balance was also tricky, she felt like she was caught somewhere between the two, pulled towards the extremes of two halves. "That's the way I look at it. If I don't get tough, then no matter what my ambitions are, I won't get a chance to realize them if I die because I wasn't strong enough to even survive let alone achieve them."

She met his gaze firmly and nodded. She had some inkling of the strengths of other Shinobi. Academy Students from various families had already begun to exhibit their weird and rare gifts. Figuring out how to beat them usually came after her second, third, fifth, or maybe the tenth fight. Which she took pride in, but realized that ultimately that meant she just would have died if they were enemies. Kumogakure wasn't the only village with shinobi who had weird powers.

Her gaze lowered to her feet. A chill ran down her spine, how was she supposed to survive then?

She didn't linger on the thought, but turned her attention back to her teacher with a nod, and watched the impressive throw. So this was the power of the Hyuuga? She had heard of it but never seen it for herself. "Wow!" she said sincerely. She leaned around him briefly, staring at the side of his head and towards the target. The second throw was even more impressive and won a short bout of applause from her when the distant metallic thunk was heard.

She focused on the idea behind the lesson. Levels of application, that as the Shinobi developed their weird gifts would develop with them, someone like Tenko's power would grow and develop as they got stronger. That it was important to not only learn how to use them properly but come up with more interesting and unique ways to apply them. She nodded firmly, "It does make sense." But there was one problem. "Well..."

"I guess, what I'm trying to understand is that someone like me doesn't really have any family tricks or secrets that I know of. The only thing I've found I'm good at using is, well," she paused for a moment and raised her hands, calloused knuckles and all, and made a fist, "These."

She released her fists and shrugged, looking up at Shigekagu, not expectantly but hopeful. "I mean, I know how to use my chakra, I've even begun learning some actual techniques beyond the ones I'll need to graduate from the Academy. But, what's level one to someone," weak, "Like me?" He was right, they lived in a world full of such incredible and gifted individuals, how could she keep up?

[Post 3/5]
[WC: 1401/1500]

 

[Oshiro Saki]

Hyuuga Shigekagu
Med-nin/Academy Teacher iNPC
Age: 25
Height: 6'1"
​

In those moments, Shigekagu felt such an overwhelming amount of compassion and understanding for this student before him, who so evidently suffered from the same feelings of doubt and self-consciousness, the worry that kept him awake at night, the fear that gripped his chest when he was asked to do something new. Maybe they weren't quite the same, in the way that everyone was different to some extent, but he could see it plainly on her face: she did not feel like she was on par. On some level, it was a nice change of pace. More often than not, the students that Shige taught were arrogant, full of themselves, and didn't have the faintest clue of how the real world actually worked. Point out how much further they needed to grow and develop and they would stick their chin in the air and pretend it wasn't that big of a deal. Explain the intricacies of more advanted techniques and most kids seemed to act like they knew it all already. Seeing Nanami's doubt, her insecurity, was something of a relief to him. It meant that she had a realistic understanding of her current place. "I understand your worry. Worry--or, I call it despair--isn't a bad thing! The important part is not to dwell on it. Without despair, we can't ever have hope. They're two sides of the same coin. You can't have one without the other. So yes, the overwhelming truth is that there are skilled people, more skilled than you or I..." and he smiled. "But an even more powerful truth is that you yourself will be one of those skilled people in due time. That sense of dread can be an incredible tool you use to drive yourself to be better. It doesn't matter if you only fight with your fists. You will become strong!" Shige rose from the bench, and put his hand on Nanami's shoulder, smile still beaming. "I know it. Follow me over to the tree over there," he said, walking to the tree line without waiting to make sure she was coming. Shige stopped at the tree with the wooden target nailed to it, kunai still sticking out of the circular bullseye in the center, and fiddled with the blade until it finally came unstuck. "A level one application for a student might still be learning how to properly throw a knife, to be honest. Maybe a level 2 application is something like... applying poison to them before a mission," he said, after a bit of thought. "And these are both important things! Just because they are a lower level of application than I hope you learn to achieve doesn't mean that they don't have their place, in their time. But maybe they'res something more there. So! This is what I want you to do," he exclaimed, clapping his hands together, knife handle preventing any real noise. He looked up high into the trees. "I want you to think of a higher application for a kunai, but I want you to do it while figuring out how to use your current abilities to get this one down..." shige explained, throwing it about 5 meters up a neighboring tree, where it stuck firmly, "...from that tree right there. The twist is that you can't move from where you're standing right now." He smiled at Nanami. "I want you to use what you have access to right now, in the moment, to solve a problem with that, the restriction I've given you, would normally be impossible. Apply what you know, and I know you can do it."

[Post 4/5]

[WC: X/1,500]

 

[Nanami]

Nanami regarded Shigekagu seriously for a moment before letting out a giggle and smile. She couldn't help it, he was so...serious. It wasn't that it wasn't serious it was just, well, for her, this was just every day, she'd come to Academy years ago, acknowledging that she was less than most everyone else here wasn't a big deal. "Thank you," she said sincerely, brightening up.

Despite how common it was to her his words cheered her. He was right, after all. For what reason did she wake up before the sun rose? When she stole moments to read, what books were she reading? Strategy, fighting style, techniques, anything that might give her an edge. She trained harder than nearly everyone in the Academy and even she had to admit that she was noticing the difference. Someone like her could be better than someone with all the gifts in the world if she didn't give up. She might not be the strongest but she didn't need to be so...accepting of it all. If all she had was her fists, she'd be the best damn Shinobi at using them. "I'll make even my weakness my strengths then!" she declared.

She followed Shige as he rose up, only a few feet behind curiously examining what he was about to show her. The description in terms of levels made more sense now, she figured it applied to anything. If level one was waking up in the morning to eat some oatmeal before training, level two might be adding honey to it! She smiled brightly at her own little twisting of the idea and otherwise paid close attention.

"So, it's about coming up with more effective and more complex ways to use the things you have, but not getting rid of the simple stuff because there could be a time or situation where it could be a big help?" she asked to confirm her understanding.

With that out of the way she was given her assignment, a single Kunai fifteen feet away stuck in a tree. She had to obtain which woulda been a sinch if she could move. For a moment she looked at him uncertainly, and then to the Kunai and nodded, her brow furrowing as she went into thought.

Step one, she decided, what do I have? Well, she might have had some tools if she remembered she had the class. That complicated things a bit. So, clothes. Check. So just her and herself huhn? She started to brainstorm.

She could...ask him to get it for her? Her thin pressed lips broke into a smile at the thought. It had a kind of appeal but no, she ultimately decided. If she honestly couldn't think of anything then she'd consider it. She wanted to take this seriously.

She could knock the Kunai out of the tree, that was easy enough, but then it'd just fall and while it'd be much closer it wouldn't be a success, so she had to somehow get it back to her.

Hm, if only she had some kind of tools, even a Kunai or...

She opened her eyes and looked around, a small rock nearby, she could use that, if nothing else, right?

Two ideas formed. She mulled over them for a moment, then went with her gut. She exhaled sharp and allowed the Chakra to flow, placing her hands together as she mentally went over the signs in her head and then began to perform them with admirable albeit not quite perfect precision. She had trouble quieting her nerves but stayed steady enough to focus her Chakra into the technique. "Wind Slash," she whispered as she raised her right hand above her head, a sudden rush of sharp wind collected around. With one firm flick of her arm, she directed the force outward from her fingertip. The wind whipped about from the near-invisible force.

Shigekagu would notice it before Nanami did, it was a good effort but her technique was a little bit off, the wind impacted narrowly against the Kunai and loosened it but didn't knock it free.

She exhaled sharp, deflated and wilted but only for a moment. Despair would lead to hope right? "One...one second, I've got this," she promised as she looked with a sudden fierce determination to her teacher and back to the Kunai.

Again. She'd do it once more and it'd be fine. She kept the plan in her mind, level one was getting that technique right, she'd have to go beyond that, to the plan.

She collected herself, seemed calmer than before on her first attempted and repeated the effort. A little more precise, a little more sure of herself.

"Wind...SLASH!" she bellowed, a little unnecessarily for a more serious scenario but perhaps fitting here. The wind fired off again this time surer. Nanami didn't watch it go, she was moving on the second step, the 'level two' of the effort.

She clasped her hands together and began to perform the more complex set of seals. Her energy flowed out and into the ground around her. She swept her foot in front of her as the ground shivered and shook, albeit it only slightly. She clasped her hands together as the technique execution completed and the energy collected oozed forth.

A sudden abrupt albeit it relatively subdued flow of mud began to flow towards the pair from the base of the tree as the Kunai itself, struck with a second force of wind was pulled free and fell to the ground beginning to flow in the small muddy river, triumphantly, towards her.

It went like that slowly for several moments before stopping short, several feet away. She sagged and let our a weary laugh. "Aw...come on..." she complained under her breath before beginning to stretch and lean out, trying to grasp it without moving from her spot. She struggled for a minute or so, Kunai just out of reach of her fingers before a final push caused her to topple, seizing the Kunai but falling from her spot and into the mud.

"...Well!..." she declared, turning to face her teacher with a sheepish look and a half forced smile. "...Almost got it without moving."

[Post 4/5]
[WC: X/1500]

 

[Oshiro Saki]

Hyuuga Shigekagu
Med-nin/Academy Teacher iNPC
Age: 25
Height: 6'1"
​

A stiff breeze blew through the class area, gently pushing some of Shige's loose hair into his face and briefly causing the mildest bit of annoyance while he brushed what hair he had outside of his beanie back over his shoulder. Why didn't he just cut it in the first place? Or keep it tied back? What was the point of complaining about it, or being annoyed by it, if he never did anything to alleviate the problem? This slight deviation of his thought process occupied the majority of his focus for a bit of time while Nanami took a moment to think about how she was going to go about solving the problem at hand. To be perfectly honest, Shige didn't expect her to be able to. Perhaps he was underestimating her, or perhaps it was just an overall lack of understanding her as a person. He wasn't sure exactly how far along she was in the academy, or rather, how experienced she was in her physical ability to manipulate her chakra. He was already mentally preparing himself for a potentially necessary pep talk, should the occasion arise where she couldn't come up with a solution. He would go on about skill development, and how it was okay that she wasn't able to get it down. He would pat her shoulders and explain that it was the change in mindset he hoped she adopted as she moves forward that was important, not her success in this arbitrary task right now. That she did her best. But Nanami did not give up. She threw some hand signs and muttered something to herself that was just outside of what Shige could understand, and a stronger gust of wind than before launched out from the student, blowing the hair that Shige had just fixed back into his face. He could tell that though the wind was focused, though it was an effective jutsu, it did little but nudge the kunai from its resting place. Still. The kunai had moved. "Wind chakra," Shige said, nodding his head ever so slightly. Thirty seconds and an even stronger wing gust later, and the kunai was on the floor. Shige continued to nod approvingly. "But how do you plan on retrieving it?" Shige had expected many things from Nanami if she managed to succeed. Perhaps she had ninja wire and a way of looping it to the kunai. Perhaps she'd create something and make a long hook--Shige had seen sime similar things before. Maybe she'd make a clone and have the clone go retrieve it for her. But one thing that Shige DIDN'T expect was the ground to start moving the knife towards nanami for her. In fact, it caught Shige so off guard when the jutsu started to actually work that he began laughing a deep, hearty, bellowing laugh. He laughed so hard that he had a difficult time laughing harder when Nanami ended up falling into the mud created by her own jutsu. He laughed for a good bit while Nanami apologized for the fact that she'd, technically, failed. "Nanami," she said, wiping tears from his eyes, "That was the funniest thing I think I've seen in a while! I'm surprised you're grasping two different chakra types so early, but maybe you're a little more grounded in earth jutsu, yea?" and he laughed even harder at his own terrible joke. "But really, Nanami, that was clever. I'm real proud of you, man. Don't worry about answering the other kunai question, just lemme... just lemme get it together." Shige took a few seconds to let out some more breathy chuckles before finally composing himself and looking her in the muddy face again. "You did well, I'm sorry for laughing. But, seems like you get the gist of it. This class is a lot more theoretical than it is practical, so... that's really all there is to it. As of right now, you're free to go and get yourself cleaned up, unless you want more scenarios to practice. But, if you go about your training from here on out thinking about application of everything--even little jutsus like what you just used--you will no doubt become great. Nanami, I'll see you around."

[Post 5/5]

[WC: X/1,500]
[Topic Left unless Stopped]

 

[Nanami]

Nanami broke into a loud boisterous laugh alongside Shigekagu for several long moments. It was ridiculous right, her here sitting in the mud she made in a nearly successful attempt to grab the kunai. She looked silly, maybe it was the fact that she was still just sitting there, kunai tight in her grasp and not moving.

She felt tears begin the sting her eyes as the laughter subsided and began to shield her face as the tears broke along with a bright smile. She did her best to conceal it, "T-thank you, teach." She didn't know why she was crying suddenly, she was happy! She felt good, elated. She didn't feel like she messed up, she felt like she did well, she even felt like she got the lesson. She wasn't even bothered that she was being laughed at either.

She pulled herself to her feet and shook the mud off her hands as Shigekagu began to make his way away and placed her hands down at her side and bowed. Her tears pooled at the tip of her nose and dropped to the muddy ground below. She had been struggling to feel like she was ready for so long, Shigekagu may not have intended to do so but he gave her the means to look forward. She could look past all the trials, all the struggles in her time at the Academy and really believe like she had a chance at a future as a Shinobi.

A thought struck her as Shigekagu began to walk away.

"Ah! Teach wait!" she said as she rose up and hurried over to him. She dried her tears on her sleeve and held up the Kunai. "I almost forgot to return this to you."

[Post 5/5]
[WC: x/1500]