Edit: wow that had some bad formatting errors when I copied it over. Should be fixed now!
Ch 1: Meet your new teacher!
A small city called Konoha buzzes with activity as a new school season starts. Once a hidden village of shinobi nestled with in the deep forests of the Land of Fire, Konoha has grown significantly, no longer a secret hideout for ninjas. Now it is a small city; filled with merchants, crafters, and the rest of the civilians settled at the center of the city about the Hokage's tower with the clan lands and training grounds surrounding the cliff side that brackets one edge of the city. Carved into the cliff side are the faces of the first four Hokages, leaders and legends that built and guided Konoha till today. The city looks small at first, a good sized collection of buildings at the base of the cliff side; but for miles around the lands are claimed and cultivated for a variety of purposes. Some are left wild with obstacle courses within them; training grounds for the shinobi. Some are clan lands; each clan has a plot of land where they live and work; lands dedicated to supplying the city with food, medicine, materials, and products that make up the majority of the goods sold within Konoha and exported as well. Most of these clans are Shinobi based; some, however, are civilian based.
Perched on top of the carved head of the first Hokage, an adult shinobi by the name of Konila sits and watches her village in the morning light. Tall and lean, her body is built for speed; the muscles strong but flexible. Her curves are gentle, she works out far too much for fat to stay and soften her muscles. She is dressed in comfortable clothes; dark blue cargo pants that end mid-calf, their pockets full of tools. On top is a pale blue hoodie, unzipped half way to reveal the mesh shirt underneath over a black tank top. A belt holds several pouches as well as two tantos and a Katana strapped to it completes her look. About her left thigh a band with a metal plate is tied; her heit-te denoting her as a shinobi of the leaf. While she is technically off duty, she still carries around enough of her gear just in case she is attacked; one can never be too prepared!
Konila has straight light brown hair tied into a pony tail, a few strands escaping to frame her face. Her skin is tanned from the many years of outdoors training and missions, pale scars tracing her limbs where she's been hit before. Her bright blue eyes are half lidded as she watches with a soft smile her town wake up. She is a jounin of Konoha, the vest that shows her rank is in her house; she almost never wears it, much preferring her warm hoodies.
Today was January 3, 997 since the death of the Sage and she was once again without a team to teach. Every year for the past 3 years she's put in a request to become a jounin sensei to train the newest batch of genins to graduate. She did love to teach… but because she was "too young" or "too crazy" or, as one of the civilian councilors had said once, "had no real skills," she was passed over again. She could honestly say some days she really hated the civilian side of the council and the large clans that had a seat upon the full council that kept blocking her. It wasn't that she was crazy or unskilled; she simply had no connections! Sure she was a bit scary on the field and did love to tease people… but Konila was good at what she did; infiltrations, spying, and sabotage. Sometimes assassinations; in out, quick and quiet. Other times she lived for months on end in other lands, gathering information and counterattacking or dealing with potential threats before they could come to hurt Konoha. As such her bingo book entry was short and pretty much empty of information on her; it only existed because she was publically jounin class. Since no one could really link her to anything, and most of her skills were not flashy other hidden villages did not have a lot to add to it. Her public missions that the civilians had access to did not show her real skill set; all they knew was that she was decent across the board, used blades with great skill and claimed mastery of stealth and traps. It showed nothing of her skills at silent killings, infiltrations, or her true mastery of Kenjustsu.
She was also clanless; her father was a merchant who'd moved to Konoha from the Land of Iron and married her mother, a simple chef at one of the Akimichi restaurants. Without a clan to back her requests up or showy skills to call attention to her, Konila was passed over for other Jounin senseis. One of which, she sighed, would definitely fail his team. One Kakashi Hatake never passed a team! But they kept giving him a team instead of her. She grumbled to herself as she stretched and headed down into town. I wonder if I can do something this year to get them to give me a team; she thought. Maybe take less assassination missions and take something that will land me in the spotlight? She thought but then sighed and shook her head; that was the way to pain and death!
Maybe if I volunteer at the academy… She stopped before grinning; that was a good idea! That way she could show she was a decent teacher as well as see potential students! And if I don't get a team I can always try grabbing an apprentice if I find one who wants to be good with a blade and wants to be a stealthy ninja instead of showy.
A plan made she changed paths towards the hokage's tower; time to ask permission! Surely they could use some help teaching kenjutsu or stealth right?
She was pleasantly surprised when the Hokage appeared enthusiastic about her request.
"Nee, Hokage sama, not to be rude but I wasn't expecting such a response." She said dryly. The old man in front of her was old; an age that most ninjas never saw much less remained in power! There was no denying he was weaker than he might have once been; but even now he was still a force to be feared. Even if he did have this grandfatherly act going on! He smirked and lit his pipe.
"There is a rather important class in their third year. Many clan heirs are within it as well as several highly skilled civilian children. Unfortunately the civilian council keeps trying to butt in and change the curriculum on me… And buying off some teachers to sabotage or favor certain children." He sighed grumpily at that. Konila could figure out who was being sabotaged and who was being favored. It was well known that the civilians hated and feared one orphan by the name of Naruto Uzamaki because of the demon sealed within him. Idiots if you asked her! Not to mention they wanted to make the shinobi clans in debt to them… or have some sort of leverage. They were a bunch of idiots who didn't realize that the academy had been changed for the better and gave all their children a higher chance at surviving!
"I've had to fire a few teaching assistants and that is leaving my teachers a bit stressed. If you would be willing to take over the stealth lessons until I can find a permanent teacher it would help. It'd be even more helpful if you became full time but alas, your skill set is still needed."
She nodded in acceptance. Assassins that didn't die or become broken were a rare thing. Saboteurs land infiltration specialist had as long if not shorter life expectancy. It was one reason they even bothered to put her in the bingo books despite have almost no intel... or maybe because of it.
"Can do. So I shall still be taking on missions while helping out?"
"Correct. I'll let them know you will be the main teacher for the survival and stealth lectures of the third years. They may ask you to aid in sparring lessons or teaching weaponry. Depends on how over whelmed they get." His eyes twinkled as he finished writing up her new orders and the paper work needed to move her off active duty to semi active. He handed the orders over and directed her to report to the Academy head for more information.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Konila found herself a bit nervous as she stood inside a large room inside the top floor of the academy. They'd called a teachers meeting to introduce her as well as figure out the new curriculum since she was coming in a day late.
"I believe you've all been updated on our new teacher?" A deep voice drawled out lazily from the man slouched at the front of the room. Matsura Nara was the head of the academy despite it being 'troublesome.' A scattering of murmurs acknowledgement swept from the crowd of chuunins eyeing her.
Matsura nodded to her, lazy eyes amused as she straightened and stepped forward.
"I am Konila Inola, jounin with specialties in infiltration, traps, and swords. I applied for a temporary position here at the academy to prove I can teach and maybe that will convince the council to approve me for a genin team." She smiled at the raised eyebrows. "I was told it was to be only for this year or until a proper full time lecture for the stealth and survival class could be found. Unfortunately, I am still semi active so every now and then I will need to be absent for missions."
A man with warm brown eyes and a scar across his nose smiled back as he stood to address. "I am Iruka Umino. Thank you for volunteering to help out. With the last round of … firings;" He paused with embarrassment for his fellow ex teachers. "It's been a bit of scrambling on our side. We could teach it, but we all have other classes during that time slot."
"Mizuki. I don't suppose you'd be up for some kenjutsu lessons on the side?" The man with a long whitish hair next to Iruka introduced himself as he asked his question.
"I don't mind. When is my class by the way? And is there a past lesson plan or shall I wing it?" Konila asked curiously. She didn't mind winging it, but if they had something in place already that would help guide her in what the kids were supposed to know it'd be a big help. She noticed approval in several other of the teacher's eyes.
Iruka held up a folder. "I have both last year's lesson plan and the few years before that. Your students have had a day with another teacher but luckily you've arrived soon enough there shouldn't be too much time left."
"As for times;" Matsura spoke up, "you have three classes of two hours each four days a week. They are at 8 am, 10 am, and 3pm. Fridays are reserved for lecture only classes, kounichi classes, and specialization lectures for students have shown aptitude that needs to be nurtured. Saturdays are test days as well as hands on lectures and mini missions that we will be calling on you to help in. Sundays are free days."
"That is... more intense than I expected." She was a bit surprised at the sheer amount of classes she had to teach. She knew that most teachers here did double duty in the afternoon at the missions desk and had expected more time off. Not that it mattered since she was going to be focusing this to prove she could teach and earn that genin team! "When are kenjutsu lessons?"
"They aren't." Mizuki replied. "Least not yet. We haven't had a kenjutsu specialist to teach."
"I guess that goes in Friday then?"
"I will announce an afternoon lecture after lunch then that all students years 3 or 4 may apply for then." Matsura wrote this down as he was talking. "I will need a lesson plan from you on that before Friday please."
"Hai." She responded eagerly as the conversation then turned to the next item on the list, supplies and the like. She watched and listened mostly. This was unknown territory... but one she thought she could use in future infiltration missions perhaps.
Konila was given a new respect for the chunnins who ran the academy and taught there. While she technically outranked them she felt that all the teachers ought to be upgraded to jounin based on simply surviving the hell that is young teenagers being taught lessons and somehow keeping them under control. She also had some preconceptions shattered she was ashamed to realize. Like many who had reached the jounin status, she believed that chuunins were weaker somehow. They may not have been as good as her in killing people or blowing things up or sneaking in... but they were all masters of their branch of knowledge and good enough to teach. Wasn't there a saying that to truly learn something you had to be able to teach it to another?
Her reception among the teachers was half wary and half gratitude. Wariness as she outranked them and no one liked another barging in and trying to take control; not that Konila had any intentions on doing so. She was merely filling in in hopes of grabbing a team in the future; maybe this graduating class, maybe the next one. The feeling of gratitude was because she was taking a load off their backs by being there full time (minus missions but those she figured would be rare and she'd kidnap a fellow jounin to fill in) as well as she was helping out and adding in new lecture materials. The fact she didn't lord it over them or treat them as lesser (even if she found herself unknowingly assuming things) helped her find an easy comrade in the coming days.
She was currently reading over her lesson plan one last time. She had a class of third years in an hour and was figuring out how to start. 2 hours ought to be long enough to get each class to run an obstacle course of traps to see how well they could sneak by or disarm them right?
She took a deep breath as she sensed the first students arriving for the first class. Time to see how well she could teach!
AN: Hopefully the huge time skip (about 13 years) doesn't throw you off!
Haven't decided if she gets one of the ones graduating this year (the year between Naruto's class and Lee's who she just missed getting a team on) or a team from Naruto's class. It'll be a nice amount of time/chapters before this cause I intend to have fun with her as a teacher!
I think I managed to get most of the japanese words correct. I intend to stick with english names for most things except names, titles, and the endings (kun-san-sensei-chan)
Thanks for reading~