A/N: Puppet idea stolen from a reader. You know who you are ;)
It had been around three weeks, and Hanara was finally getting the hang of this 'teaching' thing. The kids were nice, although Yui and Akane rarely payed attention. She honestly looked forward to going to school. Iruka-sensei was also a lot more understandable now.
Today started out like any other day. Hanara woke up, took a shower, ate breakfast, and went to school with some paper puppets of the five Hokage in hand. She was going to try something new today and act out the stories with them. Hopefully, Akane would focus. After spending so much time with Shikamaru, she knew Yui was a lost cause.
As the students walked in the class, an alarm went off. The pattern indicated that anyone with a Chunin rank or higher was to report to the Hokage immediately.
"Everyone, review the notes you took yesterday," Shikamaru said, dragging himself out of his chair.
"Uh... Haru! You're in charge of the class!" Hanara exclaimed as she ran out of the room.
All the Chunin and Jonin in the village (basically, about forty people) assembled in front of Lady Tsunade.
"Sasuke Uchiha has got past his guard," Tsunade informed them shortly, "He should still be in the village. I want you all to look for him."
"Yes, Lady Hokage," the Chunin and Jonin chorused.
"Go!"
They all left in different directions.
Hanara turned on her Byakugan.
'Now, if I were trying to sneak out of the village knowing that people were going to come after me soon, where would I go? Somewhere no one expects me to... Oh! The main gate! Under a Transformation maybe...? Let's check there first.'
Once the main gate was within Hanara's range, she searched for Sasuke, but couldn't find him anywhere.
'Maybe he wanted to get to the Rice Paddies quickly and went to the North Entrance instead...'
She switched directions and found him a few minutes later.
'If he notices me, everything will get complicated. My best bet is chakra threads.'
Hanara, who had been training with her threads a lot after the last Sasuke fiasco, wrapped her threads around him, although he was struggling against them.
"Hanara," he growled, "Let me go."
"I'm afraid I have to bring you back to Lady Hokage," she said pleasantly.
"Let me go!" he repeated, "I'm not going back! Not after they treated me like some kind of criminal."
"Well, you acted like one, so we treated you like one. You're going back whether you like it or not."
Ignoring the rest of Sasuke's protests, Hanara ran back to the Hokage's Office.
'Huh, I should be a retrieval specialist, if that's a thing. I'm good at this!'
"Lady Hokage, here he is," Hanara said, pulling Sasuke in front of her.
"You may release him, Hanara," she told her.
Sasuke dashed towards the door, but an ANBU stopped him.
"Sasuke, we gave you a chance to redeem yourself, but it seems like I cannot redeem you," Tsunade sighed, "We will put you in jail. Badger, arrest him."
"Yes, Lady Tsunade."
Badger tied up Sasuke's arms and led him away- most likely to the Leaf Strict Correctional Facility.
"Thank you, Hanara. You may go back to your class." Tsunade told her, smiling.
"Uh, Lady Tsunade... Shikamaru?"
"I will send him there shortly," Tsunade informed her.
"Right. Thank you."
Hanara ran down to her Academy classroom, finding it completely empty, save for Haru Aburame sitting in his seat, Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon talking to each other, and Yui, who was fast asleep on her desk.
"Haru?" she asked softly, "Where is everyone else?"
"I-I told them not to, but they didn't listen," he stuttered.
"To what? What did they do?" she prompted.
"They all went to the playground," he sighed, "They wouldn't listen to me. They heard the alarm and said that they'd be back before you were and no one would know."
Hanara pinched the bridge of her nose, "Right. Well, you guys stay here and I'll be back."
'Byakugan,' she thought, activating her kekkei genkai.
Sure enough, they were all running around the Academy playground.
Hanara made it there in less than a minute and silently observed them for a few seconds before creating seven chakra threads and wrapping them around all seven children, halting their movements.
"Now, you're all going to follow me to the class, sit down, and then we're going to have a nice talk, got it?" she asked, shooting them a smile and releasing the threads.
They didn't move.
"Come on."
They slowly formed a line behind her and followed her to their classroom.
"Sit down," Hanara snapped.
The seven children hastily sat back into their seats.
"So, what made you think running out of a classroom was a good idea when a village-wide summon for anyone Chunin and above was happening?" Hanara asked.
"Sensei- I- We didn't-" Hanabi started
Hanara interrupted her, "Exactly. You didn't think. What if there was a criminal running loose in the village? What if the criminal saw all of you and thought, 'I can hold these children hostage?' What then, huh? This group has so many clan children, and even an heir. The Leaf Village would be in a tough position. You're lucky that all of us took care of the issue before it became a problem! If I couldn't find you all, what would happen? You can be sure your parents will hear about this."
"What a drag..." Shikamaru groaned, walking inside the classroom, "What happened?"
"These- These children thought leaving the classroom and going to the playground was a good idea when there was a village-wide summon for all Chunin and Jonin," Hanara sighed, "We can take care of that later. Now, we better start with class. Another history lesson, so take out your notebooks."
"Today, we'll be continuing our lesson on the Third Shinobi War," Shikamaru drawled, "And Hana-sensei will act out some scenes while I say them with her puppets."
Hanara nodded, "Right. So, what do you guys remember from our previous lesson?"
A few hands were raised.
"Hanabi?"
"Well... it was the last Great War, and it happened over ten years ago. There was a decline of power between all the Five Great Nations, and they had lots of border skirmishes. The battles... escalated until it turned into a war." she said, looking at her notes for some of it, "It became a war of something that no one had tried to do before- a war to reduce the other countries' power. But, since no one had that much battle-strength to begin with, lots of children that should have still been in the Academy became Genin and were fighting in the war. But that makes no sense! Didn't you tell us that Lord Hashirama and Madara created the village so that children wouldn't have to fight anymore?"
"That's true," Hanara agreed, "But, sometimes, what you want to happen, doesn't."
"Uh... right," Shikamaru started, scratching the back of his neck, "When the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, was nineteen years old, he ran into some ninja from the Hidden Cloud Village. He fought Ay and Bee, but none of them had those titles at the time."
Hanara made her paper puppets of Minato, Ay, and Bee act out a battle.
"Around that time is when the Third Raikage died and when Ay took up the title of the Fourth Raikage. During this time, the Village Hidden in the Sand had many inner disputes. One of its greatest criminals, Sasori of the Red Sand, also went rouge and the Third Kazekage disappeared mysteriously, causing the Fourth Kazekage to take up his hat. Here in the Leaf, though, life was still going on normally."
Hanara used a few children puppets to show children going to the Academy.
"The war started shortly after that, and it is said that the Uchiha clan was one of its greatest contributors. One of the main Uchihas that fought was the clan's last head, Fugaku Uchiha. One of the Leaf's largest enemies was the Hidden Rock Village, and they fought on the Hidden Grass Village's land, because the Hidden Grass Village was trying to take all the land on the border of the Land of Fire. Soon after, Minato Namikaze and his team, which comprised two Chunin and another Jonin, were asked to destroy Kannabi Bridge, so they could shorten the Rock's supply line. They needed Minato on the front lines, so he left the other Jonin in charge. The Rock kidnapped one of the Chunin, and the other two came to her aid, but lost the life of another Chunin. Later on, the two remaining members of the team and Lord Minato destroyed Kannabi Bridge, turning the war in the Leaf's favour," Shikamaru said, reading off his notes.
Somehow, Hanara kept up with his reading speed, acting out nearly everything that was said.
"Any questions on that?" Hanara asked.
"If that mission was so important, shouldn't have Lord Fourth stayed with his team?" Hiroto Yamamoto asked.
"If he wasn't there, other people on the front lines would have been killed," Hanara said, "Besides, no one was expecting the Rock ninjas to kidnap a Chunin."
"What does 'aid' mean?" Mori asked.
"It means 'to help'," Shikamaru drawled.
"Why would..."
At the end of the school day, Hanara kept all the students except for Konohamaru, Moegi, Udon, Yui, and Haru, inside. Once the aforementioned students and their parents were gone, she closed the classroom door, leaving Shikamaru to take care of the class.
She opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a civilian mother, "Excuse me, but you have no right to block us from picking up our children. Please go back to your classroom."
Hanara smiled tightly, "Actually, as their teacher, I have every right. If you have any problems with me teaching them, please take it up to Lady Hokage, but I can assure you that I am a fully capable Chunin. Now, if that is all, please let me speak to you about what all of your children did today."
There was a moment of silence, and Hanara took that as an invitation to begin.
"I assume that you all heard the village-wide summon for anyone Chunin or above?"
There were a few nods.
"Because of that, I and the other teacher had to leave everyone in this class unsupervised. We specifically told them to stay in this classroom and review their notes until we came back and even left Haru Aburame in charge. Once we left, all of your children ignored the fact that there was a village-wide summon, ignored the fact that their teachers gave them specific instructions, ignored the fact that Haru was trying to stop them, and headed off to the playground, leaving the class empty save for Konohamaru, Yui, Moegi, Udon, and Haru. When I came back, I saw five students in the class instead of twelve. What was I supposed to think? If Haru hadn't told me where they'd gone, your children still might be missing! Which is why I need you to do your job as parents and teach them to be more responsible. It's good that they can think for themselves, but they need to think logically. They ne-"
"But Akane-"
"Hanabi would never-"
"Kane is a bit-"
"It doesn't change the fact that they did and all of you need to face the consequences with them," Hanara said firmly, "You need to teach them responsibility and how to be logical thinkers, which I'm sure you can do. Now you may go in and pick up your children, Ms. Takahashi."
Hanara opened the door, and the parents walked inside.
'I'm glad there weren't too many objections. This day was so exhausting.'
