To say the least, Kura was excited. She had woken long before dawn that day, washing her face and hair and making sure her clothes were perfect. Not only that, she had made sure a smaller clone of her own outfit was carefully prepared and folded. Having tied it up with twine, she clutched it excitedly to her chest as she stood just outside the temple gates. They were great red archways, with worn sisters stationed throughout the winding, hilly path to the Chiba shrine. She had lived here all her life, raised with the sights, sounds, and functions of the shrine all around her. Wind swept the grass in slow, ambling waves, and the woman felt her small bit of joy rise ever higher as three figures appeared over the hill.
Kura was bouncing on her heels by the time they reached the stone steps leading up to the final gate, and she barely stopped before they got close enough to notice. A student! Her student! She took a few steps down to meet the approaching girl, and the two other adults that had to be her parents. They were a dark haired trio, the mother with a kind, round face and the father with a straight stature and slightly graying hair. The girl herself- oh, what was her name? Ga...Gao?...Gaku...Goku...Gakuto!- was also dark haired, with it pulled back into a sleek ponytail. Her eyes were calm, deep and dark as an old well, and she had a soft, rounded face like a doll's. Her rather delicate face contrasted with a somewhat stocky body, already firm from her academy training back home.
Her appearance was a little at odds with Kura's own, and she found herself amused by this. They would make a somewhat funny-looking pair. Where Kura was bright and warm- with slightly tanned skin, bright apple-red hair, and golden eyes- Gakuto was more subdued and had a certain coolness to her overall appearance that almost made the air around her feel a bit chillier. Kura's body was also much harder than her new students, laced with hard-earned muscle, though this would likely change as Gakuto grew. This all went without mentioning the mouth full of sharp teeth Kura sported, similar to many residents of Kirigakure to the west. The only thing they seemed to share was height, as Kura was only a few inches taller than her, and Kura was not a terribly tall woman. She supposed if she was around 163 centimeters….then Gakuto was maybe 150, give or take a few.
Kura bowed quickly, a bit too deeply, as they finally reached her. She beamed, offering the parcel of a maiden's uniform to the girl.
"Gakuto, it's so great to finally meet you. My name is Kura, but you can call me Kura-sensei if you like. Thank you so much for coming, I'm, ah, really excited to be taking you on as a student!" She said cheerily.
She was met with a slow blink, a cock of the head, and the girl taking the clothing from her as a nod.
"I know who you are." Gakuto said, in a prim, but still somewhat flat tone. The girl looked away from Kura almost immediately, taking more interest in the clothes she had been handed.
Kura's smile faltered slightly.
"She means to say, 'nice to meet you too Kura-sensei'...I'm sorry, we- erm...got a bit tired on the walk here." Her mother placed a hand on Gakuto's shoulder as she spoke, and suddenly Kura noticed the worn expression the woman wore. She was smiling, yes, but there was a weariness behind her eyes that told Kura that maybe, just maybe, it had been a little bit of a struggle to get this twelve-year-old girl out of bed and out to this temple at an ungodly hour such as dawn.
"Oh, of course, no need to worry!" Kura straightened herself and laughed, rubbing the back of her neck. "I totally understand, please, come into the Shrine. We prepared breakfast for you all. Guests are guests! Plus we want Gakuto to feel welcome here."
She was met with more worn smiles from the parents, and another slow, bored blink from Gakuto.
Perhaps Kura had jumped the shark on this one.
The second time Gakuto spoke to Kura, it was after they had seen her parents off. She had been quiet during the meal, but somewhat more polite at least. Still, she hadn't spoken directly to Kura since her initial words.
As the pair of adults vanished over the last hill on the horizon, Gakuto turned to Kura, still holding her new uniform in her arms. A faint breeze coming up the hill disturbed her slick ponytail, letting it wave through the air like whip.
"So, what is it you do, anyways?" The girl asked, looking down the the crisp white haori and red hakama that mirrored the garments Kura currently wore. The question was asked in the same flat tone, admittedly with little inflection. Gakuto didn't seem to be asking it out of spite, at least, despite her choice of words being fairly blunt.
Kura took a beat, blinking at her new student and cocking an eyebrow.
"Did they not..tell you? I mean, kiddo, I didn't think you'd be assigned here and not-"
"They did. But do I look like the kind of kid who listens all that well?"
"...admittedly, no, not really." Kura's response earned a bit of a wry smile from Gakuto. For Kura, that felt like a blessing. So this kid did have more than one expression. "But anyways, I guess you know I'll be training you to take over for me one day. What I do...well, what I do is I keep the Chiba Shrine and Konoha connected to one another. The two of us, we're exchanges. When I was a kid, I got sent to the same academy you graduated from to train. Then I returned here, to become a full fledged maiden. You'll be doing the same, yanno? Spending your basics-and-fundamentals-time at the academy to show your loyalty to Konoha, and now that you're a genin, I'm going to train you to jonin level here at the shrine. You'll be a little different from your peers, but I promise you, you'll probably end up stronger than any of them. A good portion of your old academy classmates will never reach jonin, but I'll make sure you will."
As Kura spoke, Gakuto nodded along in understanding. Then she posed her next question.
"So, like….you aren't going to shave my teeth down to be sharp like yours, are you? I mean, it looks cool but-"
Kura interrupted politely, by laughing loudly and uncontrollably in Gakuto's face.
"Oh my goddess no? No? Oh my-" The older woman cut herself off again in a wheeze, before coughing a few times and straightening back up. Gakuto looked on, unamused, as her teacher regained her already loose hold on composure.
"No, no, kiddo. I was born with these choppers. I'm the only one in the shrine that has them. Don't worry."
Gakuto crossed her arms, knitting her dark brows together and huffing. "Alright, alright. I get it. Can you just show me where I'm going to be sleeping?"
The next month or so of training went well, despite a few hitches. Kura had learned, with a bit of disappointment, that Gakuto had a water nature to her chakra, as opposed to Kura's earth. This meant Gakuto would be unable to imitate Kura's earth nature release techniques. Gakuto was fairly talented with taijutsu, though had nowhere near the devotion to it that Kura had. She could certainly battle unarmed, but she didn't possess Kura's monstrous brute strength in hand-to-hand combat either. Gakuto also possessed a great talent in a niche type of sensory jutsu, the Minami clan's technique of sensing chakra in the form of sound. This would make her an excellent tracker ninja, a human sonar machine.
If only Kura knew how to properly train a sensory ninja.
Kura had also reviewed summoning techniques with Gakuto, summoning her great bull Shujun. She had excitedly set Gakuto up to test her animal affinity...and Gakuto had successfully made her first summoning! Appearing from the usual puff of steam, accompanied by the usual surge of foreign chakra was….a small, wriggling serpent.
So maybe the past month of training hadn't gone so well. While Gakuto was talented, and Kura was still a fairly capable teacher, their skill sets opposed each other greatly. Kura was finding quickly that she shared little in common with her student concerning ability, and this troubled her. She worried that she wouldn't be able to properly teach Gakuto herself, as she was just too different. The training of a maiden was very personal, and the techniques Kura wanted to pass on were traditional for the maidens of Chiba shrine; taijutsu, earth techniques, and the summoning of the great bulls. Gakuto simply...didn't fit in well. Not to mention, the young girl had slowly had her interest wane in training. It was as if she sensed Kura's doubts, and responded accordingly with her own doubts about wanting to train with her.
Kura worked herself into a pacing frenzy over this many a night, and was currently doing so in one of the reading rooms of the shrine. This was something that Gakuto and Kura, thankfully did share an interest and skill in: the study and preservation of texts and artifacts. If anything, this was the most important duty of a maiden, and the fact that Gakuto showed interest in it comforted Kura a little bit. Today was a archive day, where she allowed Gakuto the study the history the shrine guarded.
Gakuto had a large scroll open, calmly reading the text, and asking Kura questions from time to time.
"Is the date here correct? Technically, this year hasn't occurred yet."
"Oh, that's because it uses a dating system from another continent. The date...hm, let me see-"
This continued for a few hours, with Gakuto reading, and Kura pacing, cleaning, and coming back to her reading table to answer questions. If Gakuto noted the troubled expression occupying her instructor's face, she didn't comment. Their routine finally broke down when Gakuto raised her head, blinked, and then quietly spoke.
"There's a new person outside." Gakuto fell quiet, tilting her head as if following a sound and listening carefully. Kura stopped to observe with interest. Gakuto's sensory jutsu was certainly interesting, even if Kura didn't share a similar skill. They had developed a training method for it, though it was minor. Gakuto carefully listened to each chakra signature on the Shrine's campus, and would alert her teacher when a new one entered. Gakuto found it entertaining at least, even if she was just a glorified doorbell most of the time.
"It's a pretty powerful signature, even if it's a shallow chakra pool." Gakuto scowled a little starting to stand. "What an annoying tone though. It sounds like...a bunch of screaming birds. Do you want to go meet them?"
Kura paused, and then nodded, dusting off her gloves and taking them off to stow in the waist of her hakama.
"Good read. Is it a lightning signature, maybe?" she replied, as Gakuto rose and began following her upstairs. As they walked the polished wooden floors back up to the entrance, Gakuto made a thoughtful noise. "Possibly, I'm not that good at sounding out natures yet. This one is so shrill though. It makes my ears hurt, almost."
Kura pursed her lips, looking at her student thoughtfully. "Shrill huh? Well, I guess we'll find out who's so shrill pretty soon."
As they stepped into the main courtyard, a section of gardens that dominated the space just beyond the front gates, their visitor became apparent. He was a tall, somewhat lanky man with a relaxed, slouched posture. His hands were in his pockets, and he turned his head to them as they came outside. Kura felt herself grin the moment she recognized a familiar shock of silver hair.
"Hatake! Hey!" She jogged over to meet him, hopping down the steps. Gakuto followed her at a slower pace and studied the man with interested but suspicious eyes.
The man raised a hand casually to greet Kura, seeming familiar with her. "Kura, hey. I was on this side of the village for once and decided to see if you were here." His single visible eye, a cool black or perhaps a dark grey in color, shifted from his apparent friend to the unfamiliar girl following her. "Ah, and I can see there have been some changes since I saw you last. Who's this?"
Kura felt her grin turn higher. It felt good to see him again, his calm aura always managed to soothe her nerves, even if he could be a little gloomy. "This is Gakuto, she's training under me now. Gakuto this is Kakas-"
Gakuto gave her signature slow blink in the middle of Kura's sentence. Kura's heart skipped. She knew that look, it was the look Gakuto gave right before she-
"Your chakra sounds really annoying."
...before she said exactly what was on her mind.
Kura's face looked somewhere between laughing and crying, but and Kakashi raised one silvery eyebrow. He nodded, and then looked back to Kura.
"You know, Guy has been trying to convince me to teach as well. But I have a feeling this generation of young shinobi may not be worth it. You sure you got a handle on this?"
Kura felt her face heat, and she opened her mouth to answer, but once again, Gakuto beat her to the punch.
"Excuse me? She has a handle on it! Of course she has a handle on it!" Kakashi and Kura both looked a little dumbfounded, staring at the girl. That was the last thing either of them had expected her to say. But despite their expressions, the girl continued.
"If you don't want to teach, great! I bet I'll turn out better than any student a...a loser like you could train!" Gakuto inhaled, and huffed, crossing her arms.
Kakashi blinked, and then nodded. Kura stared, her face the textbook image of "horrified, but flattered" if such a thing existed. Her expression worsened when Kakashi shrugged, and then spoke.
"That sounds like a challenge. You know, I'm not really competitive, especially against kids, but it's good to see some motivation in the youth these days. Guess I have no choice but to teach now, right Kura?" He chuckled lightly, seeming amused, before turning to leave. "Sorry, I can't stay much longer, as much as this shrine is full of prime reading real estate, I still have work to do."
Kakashi took a few steps, and then glanced back once more at a beet-red Kura and a fuming Gakuto.
He gave a closed eyed smile, and some parting words.
"Good luck, Kura."
Kura was still embarrassed about it, even several hours later as they ate dinner. Kura had a small cottage she lived in within the walls of the shrine, and she had gotten into the habit of cooking for both herself and Gakuto when she had the time. That night she had prepared pork cutlets, and Gakuto was indulging herself on them while her teacher sulked and scolded her all at once.
"I can't believe you said that to him! You can't speak to people that way, Gakuto! Agh…" Kura rubbed her hands down her face, staring sadly into her small bowl of soup. She took a pitiful sip, slouching her shoulders.
"I thought you'd be flattered. I was protecting your image from him and stuff." Gakuto, successfully ignoring the elder's disapproval, happily popped another piece of fried pork into her mouth.
Kura paused to consider that, and then sighed again. "I mean, kid, that's fair. But you insulted him first!" She rubbed her temples, and then glanced up. "...and I mean, I know I'm not really supposed to say this as your instructor and all, but I don't really feel like I...what did you say? Got a handle on it? He's kinda right, I haven't been that great of a-"
"Kura-sensei-" Kura stopped at Gakuto's words, and was taken aback when she saw the girl looking at her with a sad expression. "I know you've been trying. I've only known you like, a month, but...you try. That's what you do. I'll admit it was sort of….hard." Gakuto placed her chopsticks down, and folded her hands as she kept talking. "We're really different, and I know I'm probably not the best heir to your position. I can't even summon the bulls...or perform an earth release. But, I really want to be a great maiden, like you. I actually...really like the work we do here, at the shrine. Even if I'm going to have to do some of it differently than you and the others. It was just hard to see him doubt me, and you too."
Kura was, for the second time that day, absolutely shocked. Her eyes got wide, and her lips were a little parted in surprise. She had possessed all these doubts and troubles...but she realized she and Gakuto had never spoken about them.
"...aw, Gaaakutooo-" Kura's voice cracked a little, and Gakuto raised a hand. She knew what was coming.
"Kura-sensei, n-"
Too late. Kura had already lunged across the table, nearly knocking it over, and enveloped her student in a hug. It was tight and warm, and Gakuto was pretty sure she was going to have a fractured rib from it.
"I didn't know you still admired me! Gakuto, kiddo, I'm renewing our training with full force in the morning!" Kura spoke excitedly, and a bit too loudly, and she squeezed the other affectionately. "We're gonna work on your nature release, and maybe I'll call in some water-natured experts for you! I'm gonna make sure you win that bet with Kakashi!"
Kura pulled back, grasping Gakuto by the shoulders and flashing her a blinding grin of sharp teeth.
"You're right! You're gonna be stronger than any loser kid he trains, thanks to me! Don't even sweat it."
"I'm never being genuine again, I think you broke my spine-"