A/N: Hi, sorry, massive life issues stuff. I have loved all the death threats from my readers though, (so entertaining!)
Good news! Kishimoto-san didn't kill Neji or Choji, Woohoo! My fic is not AU quite yet! Looks like he's gonna go 'Z' soon in the manga so I'd better hurry up!
I have the flu; the typos here should be legendary.
Japanese fun: 'Sugoi!' means 'Awesome!' ; Bento is a Japanese lunch box, famous for its unique status among Japanese people in the care given to its attractive presentation.
Disclaimer: Alas, Naruto will never be mine
Chapter 20 – Teaching Children
Ino was running late very as she crammed a piece of toast in her mouth, put her dishes in the sink, and adjusted her weapons pouches for what seemed the zillionth time. She ran in the bathroom to double-check herself in the mirror and then came out again before going back into double-check double-checking. She searched her pouches one last time and moved her house keys from the shuriken holster to a scroll pouch. "That would be embarrassing," she thought as the image of tossing her keys at a target in front of her students today popped vividly into her mind. Facing the door, she spun around to spy the 'lump of her life' still curled in bed.
"Shikamaru get up! It's 8:30!"
A snore that sounded both impressive and fake came from his motionless form. Ino crossed her arms in annoyance, and tried again, "Listen, you've had off for four days now. Why don't you do something that doesn't involve a Go board!"
"Yes, dear," was the lump's plaintive and sleepy reply.
Ino grimaced. "If I have a sink full of dishes still when I get home, you're cooking dinner by yourself because I'll be eating at my house," she threatened.
The lump seemed wary now, but still motionless.
Ino sighed, she was only making herself later. "I'm leaving for work, Shikamaru," she informed him. A solitary arm emerged to flap a pathetic hand at her before collapsing back down.
Ino could only shake her head amazement, stifling a helpless laugh as she left his apartment. She locked the door to make sure no one would burglarize the place with him there and commented aloud, "Well, at least I don't have to wonder what he'll be like when were old together." She of course, didn't plan on getting old, but figured she better start saving up Shikamaru's money now for the inevitable plastic surgery and recuperative spa bills.
Thinking of Shikamaru as her "oji-san boyfriend" made her smile; he really did deserve the time off. The Hokage had run his team ragged the whole month before. Sakura was still recovering from her run with an S-class criminal and she knew that Hinata and Tenten were enjoying the chance to spend time with their loved ones as well.
"It's odd that so few missions are happening now," she thought to herself as she walked quickly down the street. Shikamaru had told her that the Hokage was preparing for some important trip up to the border with Lightning Country. She and the Raikage needed to resign some standing non-aggression pact between their two nations. He went on to explain to her it would take several days and Tsunade would return just before the Firenight Festival started. All the leaf shinobi needed to be on call to bolster the village's defenses as well provide an escort up to the meeting place.
Politics bored Ino. Her mind moved to other things as she passed the family store. There she caught a glimpse the little neko-kitty clock with a pendulum tail that her Mom kept above the cash register. The time on its silly face with the shifty eyes tail made her almost sit down in the street in shock.
"Soo na! 10 minutes to 9!" she exclaimed. Stomping her feet together as she gather her chakra she leapt up and deflecting lightly of walls and windowsills to gain the rooftops where she could dash along more quickly. Ino ran swiftly along springing over streets and through trees racing towards the academy.
She felt good as a light sheen of sweat build up on her face. "Having Shikamaru home is wonderfully," she thought, "but it sure does break my workout routine." If Ino didn't cram some training in between classes and her part time job at the flower shop she was sure she'd lose all her skills.
By the time she got to the training field she saw that she had nothing to worry about. Sasuke was there watching as her dozen or so students practicing their weapons in orderly fashion. Ino walked out onto the field as Sasuke strolled over to greet her. "Slow morning?" he said teasingly.
Ino gave him a grateful nod. "Thanks for staring my class. Shikamaru being off all week has really messed up my schedule."
She happily surveyed the children as they threw shuriken and kunai with focused abandon. Ino was proud of them and what they had accomplished this summer. In fact, she was sure that when regular classes started after the festival, they would all be able to keep with the other kids in the class their age.
The whistle of spinning metal mixed with the soft whisper of impacts on dry straw. The scarecrow dummies Sasuke had setup were already bristling with hits. Ino also couldn't help but note the uncanny resemblance of the straw dolls to a certain masked genin sensei.
"Well, that's one way to work out your issues," she said dryly as she watched the kids practice. Sasuke didn't respond, but the hint of an impish smile shaped his mouth.
They watched on for a bit, when Ino noted that a student on the end of the line was stalling. It was Kaede and she hadn't thrown a weapon in quite some time. Ino turned to go over to her when she saw that Sasuke was almost there. "He's already gotten them this far," she thought. She moved within earshot, but decided to stay back to let him handle it.
Sasuke walked up beside the little girl who always wore her curly hair in pigtails that looked like balls of caramel popcorn. She looked up at him with teary eyes and threw her hands behind back quickly. He knelt down so his face was level with hers and he could speak quietly without drawing the attention of the other children.
"What's wrong Kaeda-chan?" he asked as she blinked away the tears in embarrassment.
"Sasuke-sensei, I ..." she began her soft voice trailing off. Ino could barely hear but resisted creeping over. She was often reminded of a younger Hinata in way the girl spoke and acted.
Sasuke tried to look around her shoulder as the little girl twisted away. He looked her in the eyes and nodded to give Kaede the assurance that it was alright. She reluctantly put out her balled hands opening them to reveal blood both fresh and dried highlighting a series of cuts some deep along palms and fingers.
Sasuke took out a first aid kit and cleaned her up quickly wrapping the more serious cuts in small strips of bandage. The tears faded with his calm patience and when he was finished he looked at the shuriken holster strapped to her leg.
"Can I please see you holster, Kaede?" Sasuke asked.
She unstrapped it and handed it to him. Sasuke flipped open the flap to reveal neatly oiled shuriken set orderly rows along in it's the hard leather slots. Taking one out he placed it in the palm of his hand.
"When I was little," he began, "I always wanted to throw shuriken like my brother and because my hands were smaller then I would always cut myself when I tried to hold them the way he did."
Kaede listened intently as he talked, knowing now that he had the same problem she did. Ino listened intently too, but for other reasons. The mention of Sasuke's brother was even more taboo than Choji's waistline and Sasuke never volunteered information him.
"So one day," Sasuke continued, "he found me with my hands looking a lot like yours and said to me 'silly little brother your not big enough yet to throw them like that yet' and with that he showed me another way."
"Show me how Sasuke-sensei!" Kaede said eagerly.
Sasuke explained to Kaede the way using the shuriken's fingertip hole for throwing while Ino backed away. She was impressed once again with Iruka-sensei's genius in placing Sasuke in a teaching role here. The children with their honest and need for care and attention were really the perfect solution to Sasuke's difficulty with emotion and human contact.
Kaede was back to throwing with fervor that matched the roughest boys and after a few minutes more she whistled for a break. The student all plopping down in a circle the grass to drink from their water bottles while Ino began to discuss the finer point of the weaponry.
"Remember a kunai flies farther in a straight line, but a shuriken can be made to curve and turn in the air much easier," she instructed. "Each weapon cuts differently as well. A shuriken spins as its cuts...yes Ryoji a question," Ino interrupted herself looking at the boy who normally only raised his hand to go to the bathroom.
"Ino-sensei, what is the most difficult technique we have to do with weapons for the academy exam?"
Ino paused for a moment. It was a matter of choice as far as she could see. She looked at Sasuke as she searched for what to say.
Sasuke shrugged. He offered, "The eight-fold fan?"
Ino considered his suggestion for a moment. "I guess that's about right."
A chorus of voices from the children seated around them, "Can we see it!"
Sasuke smiled and turning walked a couple paces away to size up one of the straw targets. His hands disappeared into the belt pouch at his back to return bristling with kunai. He crossed his arms and then let the knives fly wide in a release. Eight kunai shot away to fan out in all directions then at the halfway point between the Sasuke and his target they magically seemed to curve back in toward the dummy to meet it with a staccato of hits.
"Uah, Sugoi !" the students yelled in amazement. Tsume, Kiba's little brother boasted, "See! Sasuke-nii is the best!" The boys all joined in agreement. However, one little girl, Kanae, face screwed up sudden in annoyance. Being the strongest girl in the class Mitarashi Kanae had her own personal agenda of women's liberation. She reminded Ino a lot of herself at that age.
"Ino-sensei?" said the piqued girl.
"Yes, Kanae-chan," Ino said.
"You can do that too right?" she asked fiercely.
The question brought a sudden hush to the raucous boys.
"Oh! I don't know if I can do that anymore," her young sensei fibbed, having some fun, "It looks really hard now!"
Ino walked past Sasuke who gave her a half-smile and rolled of his eyes as she passed him.
She flicked her hands into her own pouch, thinking once again she was glad she moved her house keys. She brought out eight kunai and performed the same motions as Sasuke had. Her kunai fanned out like his but at their approach to the target they came together early in a neat rotation together spiraling until they hit the target. The kunai studded the straw training dummies chest in a perfect circle and this time the girls erupted in cheers.
"Ino-sensei is amazing! See she can do anything Sasuke-nii-san can!" yelled Kanae at the boys who all had astonished looks on their faces.
Ino brushed a hair out her face as she basked a little in her students' admiration. She looked over stuck her tongue out at her competition. Sasuke gave a small shrug and keep his patented half-smile rolled his eyes again as if to say "whatever".
"Alright that's enough for today everyone back inside and start eating lunch." she told them. The children all scrambled off to run for food while she glanced back at the targets with a sigh. Sasuke's technique had in fact been better than hers. His kunai targeted the throat, eyes, armpit and other vital points on the dummy while hers had made a pretty and very avoidable circle. "I should probably point that out to them after lunch," she chided herself. When she looked back for her teaching assistant she saw he was halfway crossed the field going back to the teacher's lounge. She was about to call out for him to join them when she saw Naruto appeared beside suddenly him in a swirl of leaves. If Sasuke was surprised he didn't show it. What was even more strange was that all Naruto did was nod his head towards the back of the training field and then stroll over in that direction. Sasuke stared blankly at his back for bit before slowly following.
"That's odd," she thought. "They almost never talk to each other voluntarily." It wasn't that they didn't like each other, according to Sakura, it was supposedly much more complicated than that. "Of course, everything's more complicated when it comes to infamous former genin team number seven." she thought dismissively.
Ino walked back into the building as her class ate and carried on. Ignoring them she sat down to serenely enjoy her perfect handmade bento. She felt like a pool of calm in a maelstrom.
"Shikamaru doesn't realize how lucky he is." she thought with unabashed self-praise for her cooking.
Ino finished up and carefully cleaned out her lacquered lunch box, a lovely present from her daddy when she began teaching, and having tidied up called the class back to order.
"Ok, everyone," she said, "clean up and then get your note scrolls. We are going to talk about missions and teamwork today." There was a couple sheeshs and moans but the kids didn't protest too much. With the summer heat wearing on, the afternoons had become too steamy for real activity.
Seeing her students with pencils ready Ino started her lecture. "First I'm going to talk about ninja teams. Teams can be as small as three people or as big as twelve or fifteen ninja... Does anyone know how many people are on a genin team?" she asked.
The room became tense and the students who didn't have a clue as to the answer immediately broke eye contact with Ino alerting her to there lack of knowledge. She decided on being a little cruel.
"Ryoji."
The fidgety boy who was the best taijutsu fighter in her class looked as if Ino had goosed him when she called his name. He stalled pulling nervously at the spiked dog collar around his neck, a gift from his number one best friend, Tsume. "Poor Ryoji," Ino thought as she waited for the guessing to start, "When it comes to the intellectual side of being a ninja, you remind me of how Naruto was... well, at least he didn't turn out too bad."
"Ryoji-kun? Your answer?"
"Hai, Ino-sensei...eeto...3?"
"Baka!" yelled Kanae from the seat two rows behind him, "You're wrong it's four!"
Ino put her hands up to stop their snipping. "Actually you are both right! Genin teams start as three genin with a jounin assigned to oversee their first dozen or so missions. Most ninja would say it's technically four, but three is really what it is."
"Who leads the team after the jounin leaves, sensei?" asked Tsume with his puppy Goro snoozing peacefully on his head.
"Well, it depends," Ino told them, "Some things change, but most often a Chuunin is then assigned."
"Cause they're stronger, right?" said Ryoji emboldened by his rare correct response.
"Not necessarily Ryoji," Ino corrected, "A Chuunin could be physically weaker than some genin or even know less ninjutsu. A Chuunin is made a team leader because they are able to made tough decisions to complete the mission and always focused on keeping the team."
Ryoji looked unconvinced. "What kinda decisions? You find the bad ninja and you kick their butt, ne?"
The rest of the class seemed swayed by Ryoji's straightforward point of view and Ino realized she needed to be more persuasive. She opened her mouth to explain more, but was abruptly interrupted.
Sasuke stood towards the back the class by one of the open windows. Ino was positive he hadn't been there a second ago. Worse, she hadn't even sensed his presence approaching.
"Sometimes ninja are asked to do things they don't want to do," he said to the class sharply. There was a certain edge to his tone that made Ino feel uncomfortable.
"He's acting weird," she thought.
The class looked up at him, their hero, eager for his opinion. "Like what Sasuke-nii-san," asked Kaede in her small voice.
Sasuke looked away from them as he spoke. "A ninja must prepare for when he is asked to doing something that seems wrong to achieve the goal of completing their task... Let me ask you. Could any of you kill a family member or even your best friend to complete a mission?"
The class seemed to breathe in shock together. Ino felt herself do the same. This type of conversation wasn't appropriate for academy students on the verge of the genin exam, let alone for eight year olds.
Gulping in discomfort, Ryoji was the first to speak again. He asked, "Could you kill your best friend, Sasuke-nii?"
Sasuke turned back to them and the coldness of his reptilian-like stare froze them all unblinking. It was look that reminded Ino faintly of someone she had met a long time ago.
A peculiar sort of laugh came from Sasuke that shook his thin frame. "No," he said, "I couldn't... but someday soon I'll be able to change that."
Sasuke walked slowly towards the door and paused just before he exited with his back to Ino to whisper, "See you around Ino."
His departed marked the eruption of muffled tears on several faces. Ino realized she hadn't said a peep while Sasuke traumatized her kids. She became instantly furious and took a step towards the doorway. Once there she saw him walking away crossed the training field and opened her mouth to give me a piece of her mind. The memory of his face just now flashed through her mind and her voice wilted away to nothingness. A sinister fear gripped her like tendrils coiling in her chest.
"I'm terrified," she thought.
After a shiver passed threw her she watched him exit out the school yard gate. Ino leaned against the wall for support as she could barely just whisper the name of the person she had been reminded of before. In doing so, she put great emphasis on it's dark and tragic beginning.
"Uchiha... Sasuke."
TO BE CONTINUED
A/N: I'll write more soon! Promise! Beware! I'm melodramatic when ill.