Disclaimer: I don't own Assassination Classroom. Assassination Classroom is owned by Yusei Matsui and Shueisha.
It was about a year after Sakura began studying under Nagisa when she learned about his fighting skills. Impressed and finding another reason to admire him, Sakura spent a month bugging and begging him to teach her how to fight. Nagisa finally gave in when she promised to only use what she learned for the protection of herself and others. But he didn't know how to fight without elements of assassination. So he reached out to Karasuma. The two talked about how he could teach her, and they came up with a plan.
Sakura didn't get to learn until she was done with Middle School. This gave Nagisa time to figure out how, when, and what to teach to her, and for him to refine pure martial art skills and apply them to his own fighting-style under the tutelage of Karasuma.
Finally, the time came for Sakura to begin learning. She was excited, especially as Nagisa told her he would take her to a forest in China during the summer break for training. She looked forward to a summer of training to learn different techniques and stances. Or so she thought.
Instead of learning different punches and kicks like she thought, Nagisa had her perform chores. Chores! Chopping wood, drawing water, cleaning the cabin, searching for food, tending to the garden. On top of that, she had to keep studying the entire time. What foods to eat, how to see if the water is safe, and regular school stuff. It was fun at first, when she thought that martial arts would come later and since it was being taught by Nagisa. But she started getting more and more impatient. Until one day…
"Nagisa!" Sakura stormed into the room after another hour of drawing and carrying buckets of water. The teacher-in-training looked up from his seat on the floor as he strummed his guitar.
"Yes Sakura?"
"Nagisa, I thought we came here to learn martial arts! This isn't teaching me anything!" the pinkette complained as she stomped in front of Nagisa. She glared down at him with a pout.
"I am teaching you, Sakura. This is important stuff." Nagisa said.
"None of this stuff is going to be important in a fight!" Sakura argued. "This is wasting our time!"
"..." Nagisa studied his student with a thoughtful look on his face. He set his guitar to the side and got up. He put a hand on her shoulder and led her out. He brought her out to the back of the cabin, where Sakura noticed several large planks of wood. They looked to be around 6 meters long, 20 centimeters wide, and 8 centimeters thick.
"What are those for?" Sakura was puzzled.
"A little game we'll be playing." Nagisa said. He cut off her protest with a raised hand. "If you win, I'll teach you 'proper' techniques and fighting tactics right away."
"Oh. Okay. So how do we play?" Sakura asked her teacher.
"Take one of these boards." Nagisa said as he dragged one over to Sakura. The girl let out an oomph as the heavy wood almost toppled her over. Nagisa pointed at a small path through the forest.
"Through the forest, there's a small field of jasmine blossoms." he said. Sakura looked at the forest.
"Okay?"
"Carry the wood over there and pick some of the flowers. Bring them back while still carrying the wood so I can make some tea. If you can do that, I'll concede defeat, and you'll start 'real' martial arts training." Nagisa said. Sakura gave Nagisa a disgruntled look.
"But this wood is so heavy!" she protested. Nagisa held up a small axe and strapped it to Sakura's belt.
"You can use this to chop the wood to make it lighter. But come back with at least half of the wood." he instructed. Sakura was disgruntled, but she nodded.
'At least I have something that can make this easier.' she thought as she began dragging the wood along her path. Nagisa watched her until she disappeared into the shadows of the forest before walking back inside. He came out a little bit later with rope slung around his torso before leaping into the forest.
-Line Break-
"Haah… Haah… Ergh." Sakura grunted and groaned as she staggered down the path. She growled before pushing the plank off of her shoulder. It fell onto the ground with a loud sound.
"Dammit, it's so heavy!" she yelled into the air. She sat down next to the plank, panting as she glared at the wood. She glanced down at the axe at her waist.
"Well, he said I was allowed to take off half." Sakura said. She took the axe and began chopping the wood. The forest was silent, filled only with the sound of Sakura breaking off a chunk of the wood. She let out a breath as she wiped her forehead and looked at the wood. She had cut off about half a meter of wood.
"That should be good. Take off too much and he'll think I'm a wimp." she said. She picked up the wood and set it on her shoulder. She frowned at the still heavy weight, but continued on her path since it wasn't as heavy as before.
'This is much better. I'll be learning in no time flat!' she grinned to herself. It was an hour later that her grin turned into a frown.
'Did this thing get heavier?' she thought as she set the wood down again. She chopped off another half meter or so. This continued. Sakura would walk for a portion of time, only to stop and chop off bit by bit of the wood as she got tired, until it was only half of its original length.
'Damn, I chopped off so much.' Sakura grimaced as she looked at the much smaller wood. She looked it over again, before sighing and picking it up. This time she was able to carry it on her shoulder, instead of having to drag it along.
'Well, at least it's lighter now. I'll show Nagisa that I'm not a wimp in my training.' Sakura thought as she continued. She blinked before rubbing her eyes. The pinkette grinned. In the distance, she saw a small hill covered in white flowers.
"Finally!" she cheered. She sped up, hurrying to the jasmine blossoms growing on the hill. But her walk came to a stop, and she looked in dismay. Between her and the hill was a large crack in the ground. It was a ravine, and it was a wide one. She peered down the edge and grimaced at the sight of the bottom. Far, far down. She guessed that there was a chance she wouldn't die from the fall, but she would break a lot of bones.
"Dammit. How am I supposed to get across?" Sakura groaned as she placed her wood down, noticing how it was shorter than the ravine. She looked left and right, trying to see where it started and ended. The sides were smooth, so climbing wasn't an option. And there wasn't a bridge. Sakura hummed to herself as she thought.
"Hm… what if I…" she gazed at the wood. She grinned.
"I'll use this to vault over!" She said. She grabbed the wood and carried it back a couple of steps. She took a breath to prepare herself.
"Okay. Here I go!" she said as she began to charge towards the ravine. As she got closer, she jammed the plank into the ground near the edge. Suddenly, the ground gave out. Sakura screamed as she stumbled and fell. Fortunately, she was far enough to avoid falling in. Unfortunately, the plank slipped from her grip, and fell down. She watched helplessly as the plank fell into the deep ravine.
"... Dammit. Dammit!" Sakura yelled in frustration and punched the ground. She got up and whirled around, marching back down the path. In the trees nearby, Nagisa sighed in relief. His heart nearly gave out when Sakura tried to vault the ravine and almost fell. He loosened his vice grip on the rope and began to make his way back to the cabin, sneaking through the trees.
-Line Break-
After about three hours of walking with aching knees and a tired body, Sakura finally made it back to the cabin. She sighed at the sight of the wooden house. Nagisa, having made his way back much quicker than Sakura, was sitting at the front. He stood up and quickly hurried over to her. He began looking her over, noticing damage that he didn't before.
"Sakura! You're covered in dirt, and your hands look like they were scraped!" he fussed over her. He held her face and studied it before giving her a hug and ushering her inside.
"Nagisa, did you know about the ravine there?" Sakura questioned her teacher as he wrapped her hands and helped her change out of her dirty clothes. He tossed the clothes into a basket nearby before nodding.
"Yeah, I did. I noticed it when I was exploring the forest the first week we were here." he said. Sakura frowned.
"That's not fair! This entire 'game' was rigged!" she accused.
"No it wasn't." Nagisa said.
"You knew that ravine was there! I couldn't cross it!" Sakura said.
"Did you chop the wood?" Nagisa asked. Sakura stopped.
"Huh?"
"Did you chop the wood?" Nagisa repeated.
"Yeah, but why-"
"If you didn't chop the wood, you would've been able to use it as a bridge." Nagisa said. Sakura's eyes widened.
"I measured the ravine. It's 5.8 meters wide. You could've easily used your 6 meter plank as a bridge. It was long enough, wide enough, and thick enough. But since you chopped the wood, your wood wasn't long enough. You couldn't cross." Nagisa said. Sakura frowned and looked at the ground in thought. Nagisa walked in front of Sakura and gave her a stern look, one that she met before looking back down.
"When you try to ease your burden, you either do it the right way, or the wrong way. Simply getting rid of some of it is the wrong way. It left you in a bad spot. Sometimes, you have to carry your burden for a long time. You have to stay vigilant." he said. Sakura didn't say anything.
"There will be times when the work and stuff you do seems to be useless and troublesome. They feel like they're only there to drag you down. But there will also be times where the work you did will help you overcome a large obstacle, and things will truly become easier. Ease and rewards only come from true hard work. And that will make it feel all the more pleasant." Nagisa continued.
"This was all one big lesson?" Sakura realized.
"That's right. You might think that what I'm teaching you has nothing to do with fighting, but trust me. This is going to help you." Nagisa said. Sakura pouted, but nodded.
"Alright Nagisa. I'll trust you." she said. Nagisa smiled.
"Thanks Sakura." he said. The younger girl gave her teacher a hug, one that he returned.
"Now come on. I have food waiting for us." Nagisa said.
"No jasmine tea?"
"I think chamomile tea is better for sore muscles." Nagisa said as he led her out. Sakura's pride was wounded, knowing that she played right into Nagisa's hands. But she did trust Nagisa. And she made a silent vow to do things the proper way from then on. Her pride will have to take second place in her list of priorities, and she decided to spend the evening just relaxing before another day of hard work. It was going to be annoying, and frustrating, but she couldn't hate Nagisa no matter what he did.
It helped that she loved Nagisa's cooking and his tea.
A small side-series where Sakura will receive life lessons from Nagisa, and grow under his guidance. Hopefully this attempt at a philosophy fic will help other people too. As per the usual, leave a review! Azure out!