Chapter VI: The Academy
"I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me… All I ask is that you respect me as a human being."
– Jackie Robinson.
Six o'clock had always been too early for the day to start. But when you lived and worked in a ninja residing place, under the most powerful woman in the village, you didn't argue.
"Shizune. Shizune!"
The woman came rushing into the Hokage's office (two cups of tea in hand), only to come face to face with Tsunade herself. She looked distinctly lion-like, with golden, sleep-devoid eyes and her blonde hair disheveled like a mane around her.
"I just realized," Tsunade gasped, slapping a hand down on her desk and sending papers flying, "That I send Iruka on a mission."
"Um," replied Shizune as she set the tea down and collected the papers hurriedly. Tsunade really was a mess when she was tired and angry. "That happens, Lady Tsunade—he's a Chuunin after all—"
"I sent him on a mission, Shizune!" cried the Hokage, tugging on a fistful of her own hair. Shizune wondered for the umpteenth time if the woman was deranged. "A mission! And it's a Thursday."
"Yes, I know it's a Thursday," Shizune said gently. TonTon poked her snout into the room and waddled in. Shizune exchanged a restless glance with the pig. "Is there a problem with that, ma'am?"
"It's a school day!" Tsunade shrieked. "Who will watch the kids?"
Shizune blinked. "Oh…"
"Who are we going to send instead?! There's no one qualified! Agh!"
Tired of the outbursts, Shizune withdrew a tiny bottle of sake from her pocket, poured the contents into one of the mugs of tea, and shoved it into the Hokage's hands. Tsunade instantly calmed when she took a sip.
"Don't worry," Shizune said reassuringly, restacking the papers on the desk as Tsunade imbibed her tea/sake with an oddly vacant expression on her face. "I know just the people who will take care of everything."
Forty-five minutes later, Shizune stood with none other than Temari and Shikamaru at the doors to the Academy.
"Okay," Shizune instructed, "We're short teachers today, so it's going to be your job to educate the kids. Shikamaru, you know how to do this"—Shikamaru yawned in response—"And Temari-san, we beg your forgiveness for the short notice, but this will give you opportunity to, erm, get to know the village like your brother wanted you to."
Temari nodded politely. She had trained kids before, back in Suna—how different could it be in Konoha?
"Class starts in about fifteen minutes," said Shizune. She looked a bit frazzled. "You're in Iruka's classroom—your old one, Shikamaru—so hurry there. This is just for today, understood?"
"Yes," said the two new teachers in unison, and with the exchange of small goodbyes, Shikamaru and Temari turned away from Shizune and walked towards the classroom.
"What a pain," Shikamaru groaned as they turned a corner. Temari rolled her eyes.
"Don't treat the kids with that attitude," she snapped.
"Don't treat the kids with that attitude," he nodded. Temari scowled as they reached the classroom door.
"Don't worry," she said, "I'm not the best with kids—but I can handle them. I did in Suna, once."
"Once being the key word."
"Oh, shut up," she said as she walked into the room.
Children were scattered about the rising desks, jumping and laughing. Rosy-cheeked ten year olds toddled about, giggling and talking and eating candies. The second Shikamaru had stepped in behind Temari and shut the door, there was a loud chorus of high-pitched voices crying, "Shikamaru-sensei!"
Shikamaru rubbed the back of his neck in a slightly embarrassed way.
"Sit down," he replied, leaning against Iruka's abandoned desk. Obediently the children scrambled to their seats and sat up straight. Temari watched this with fascination—it was true, then, that the main difference between the Sand and the Leaf villages lay within their respect.
Temari had always experienced respect in Suna—because she was a member of the Kazekage's family. Because Gaara was her brother. Because she could kill you with a glance, and that didn't even include what she could do with her fan. The Sand's respect had always been centered around fear. It was the only kind of respect Temari had known, until she'd come to Konoha.
Because the Leaf's respect came out of something different, more wholesome and warm. It was so painfully obvious, as she watched Shikamaru conduct the class, that this respect was because every child in the room truly looked up to Shikamaru and liked him. He was lazy and boring and annoying and arrogant, but they all liked him.
How could the man she so loathed be so popular with these children? How were they different?
How was she different? And how could she be more like him?
"…And helping us out today is Temari-sensei. Since it was troublesome traveling all the way here to see you guys, we've got to be extra thankful to her today, okay?"
Snapping away from her own thoughts when Shikamaru said her name, Temari blinked for one moment of confusion. The children were watching her expectantly, and her mind went totally blank. Everything she and Shikamaru had agreed to do with the kids that day had evaporated—what was she supposed to say next?
"Hello," she said awkwardly. The children continued to stare.
Temari glanced helplessly at Shikamaru, who mimed something involving a fan and other weaponry.
"I—I'll be helping those of you who think you'd be interested in weaponry," said Temari hurriedly, getting the gist. She flipped her fan from her back and opened it swiftly, earning "Ooh's" and "Ahh's" from the children.
"We should get outside now," Shikamaru said suddenly, as though afraid that Temari might get carried away in the classroom while she had her fan out. She chuckled internally at the thought.
Once outside, Temari found herself in a small arena. Its walls were short; only about waist height, and there were straw and wood dummies were scattered every several yards. Broken weaponry littered the ground. It was clearly a training site for the academy students.
Temari took a deep breath and held her fan so that it was parallel to the ground. She leaped on it and spread her chakra evenly over it as she performed a select few hand seals, and with grace and ease, she flew over the children. With her fan out, she was in her element.
"Often ninja from the Sand use weaponry in their fighting," said Temari, landing on the opposite side of the group of kids and swishing her fan around delicately. A breeze that was no larger than one from a ceiling fan swept through the arena. "The key to a weapon is control—"
At that moment, voice much smaller and shriller shattered her speech.
"Aren't weapons a handicap?" it said. Temari stood stock still, glaring around at the bunch of kids. Who dared to question her skill?
It was a child about four feet high, with straw for hair and clear blue puddles for eyes. His eyebrows rose apathetically.
"A… a handicap," repeated Temari. And then, with venom, "No it's not a handicap."
"Could you fight someone without it?" said the boy, nodding to her fan. "Or do you just lean on it all the time?"
"Kohaku," a girl whispered behind him. Her tiny hand reached forward and grasped his shoulder, as if to pull him back to safety, but he shrugged her away.
"Could you?" Kohaku demanded.
"I could certainly blacken your eye without this fan, kid," Temari growled, and that was when Shikamaru stepped in front of her, as though sensing the loathing seep from her body.
"Stop being troublesome, both of you," he commanded. Temari retched silently at the authority in his voice, but the kid shot him an apologetic look.
"Sorry, sensei," said Kohaku. He glared back at Temari. "I was just wondering if all the Sand ninja were this dependent on their weapons."
Anger twisted on her face as Temari took a threatening step forward. Shikamaru threw a hand out over her shoulders to stop her from hurting the very daring child.
"Enough, Temari," he said. "Kids, your shuriken practice begins now. I don't want to hear another word from you, got it, Kohaku?"
Ashamedly, Kohaku nodded and waddled away with the rest of the kids to where the straw dummies were set up. As soon as they were out of earshot, Temari let a snarl rip from her lips.
"That kid is so dead—I swear—" Her fists clenched by her sides, but Shikamaru put two calming hands on her shoulders.
"Temari." It was a statement, smooth and solid. Dependable. "These are children. You can't expect them to be perfect. They don't really know what respect is yet."
"They show you respect," spat Temari, wiggling out of his grasp. "You handle them all so easily—but you're nothing special. I'm the one who's a guest, I'm the toughest kunoichi of the Sand, I'm the one who went through shit they'd never even dream of—but you, stupid, lazy, idiot Nara gets all the respect in the world and you don't even deserve it."
Something like comprehension molded in Shikamaru's face as he watched her. Temari stood her ground, her hand still balled, her frown still deep and etched into her skin. As the moment went on, she could hear a dull thunking from the shuriken practice in the near distance.
Shikamaru hit a nerve with his next statement.
"So you're jealous?"
Her fingertips wend numb. Jealous? How could she be jealous?
"I am not," she replied coolly, folding her arms.
Shikamaru took half a step closer to her. He frowned slightly.
"They show me respect because they know me. And I'm friendly," he added, pointing to her fan, which was still out and very threatening. "You have too much troublesome anger."
"Don't call me troublesome, Nara—" began Temari hotly, but Shikamaru cut her off.
"Look," he said flatly, and with impatience. "They don't even know you, Temari. They don't care if you are respected in Suna. To them, you're just another person."
Temari didn't speak. He gave her a painful look, and then turned around back to where the children were practicing.
She might have stood there for hours as she let Shikamaru's words float around in her mind. "Just another person"? Temari had never been just another person. She was always important in some way. These children, it seemed, had different ideas. They liked Shikamaru because he was kind and a good role model—not because of his status. But because of his personality.
Tch, Temari thought scathingly. His lazy, unenthusiastic ass was getting more attention than her hard working diligence? How on earth…?
But with a jolt of unprecedented affection, Temari realized just how fatherly Shikamaru looked as he crouched down beside a girl with bobbing pigtails. His expression was nourishing. She watched his long, calloused fingers lift a shuriken into the air and flung it off into the distance. It hit its mark. He turned back to the child and smiled in a simple, elegant way, with his eyes showing something pure—who knew that he could be so handsome?
For the rest of the day she watched Shikamaru, and only Shikamaru, noting carefully the respect he gave and took from the children. He was graceful in the way he weaved through their questions, answering delicately in terms their young minds would understand. He was gentle, and never rough or sarcastic—it was like he altered the way he behaved around them, for them. It was… respectful. And thoughtful. Things she never thought he could be.
Eventually Shikamaru dictated that it was time to pack up and go back inside, as class was about to end. The kids trumped victoriously back inside, followed slowly by Temari and Shikamaru.
"You're good with them," she mumbled, as she walked beside him.
"Thanks," he replied.
Respect for Shikamaru pumped from her veins. Temari found herself suddenly alike the kids in the most fundamental of ways: she looked up to him, if only for that brief moment, as he turned before entering the classroom to smile guiltily at her over his shoulder.
The classroom quieted as he held up his hands. They were powerful. Temari wondered what they felt like.
He said, "Who wants to be let out early?"
They cheered and whooped in enthusiasm. Shikamaru chuckled in that parental way.
"Okay—once everyone's in their seats and has everything packed up you can all leave."
The children scrambled to sit straight, packing loose papers in their bags. After a few minutes, Shikamaru said happily, "Alright, good job on shuriken practice today everybody—Kohaku, see me after class please—dismissed."
In the squabble of children with loud voices and stamping feet all trying to get to the door at once, one child extracted himself from the group, his blond head bowed. Shikamaru kneeled and muttered something to him. The boy nodded and then toddled his way to Temari instead.
He looked up at her. Wearily, but with wide, daring blue eyes. She liked them.
"I'm sorry for being rude today, Temari sensei." He offered her a bow. "It wasn't very respectful of me."
Temari could have reprimanded him. She could have told him off again and again. She could have made him feel fear—and perhaps, had she not seen Shikamaru with the kids today, she might have.
"It's okay," she forgave him.
A toothy smile crossed his face, only briefly, and then he turned and stomped out of the room with a final wave at the two of them.
The classroom was empty.
"Thanks, Nara," Temari said into the empty, chalkboard-scented silence.
"Anytime," he replied, and she followed him out of the building.
Uhm, kind of a filler chapter, heheh.
Anyways, don't hesitate to R&R (:
