No School Like the Old School[P, Ren]

A white haired girl had raised her hand to answer the question. It was a simple response without any depth or thought behind it whatsoever. Of course the teacher would give the girl a one out of ten. To be strong and fight for your village? If that was really all that the role of a shinobi was then it would be a very meaningless life indeed. 

Jayce glanced around the classroom quickly, looking to see if any of the other students would attempt an answer. When it was obvious that no one would, he raised his hand. Someone had to give an answer or this lesson would never get anywhere. If the white haired shinobi called on the boy to answer, which he probably would, Jayce would stand at his desk and do his best to give an accurate description of his own view on the role of a shinobi.

"The role of a shinobi encompasses many things. Yes, one does need to be strong and fight for their village, but it's more than that. Shinobi are given missions to be performed on a daily basis. These missions are usually requests from smaller villages without shinobi of their own, sometimes from a single person or group. By completing the missions the village is paid compensation which stabilizes the economy and if done well, the clients advertise the village to expand it's mission base. Being strong is what is needed to do that. However that doesn't just mean power. It means strength of character and mind as well. A shinobi has to be able to take orders, make split second decisions, gather and analyze information and eventually be able to lead teams of other shinobi. With both power and strength of character shinobi are able to defend their villages from possible threats and strengthen it's overall stability. That is the role of a shinobi."

It was a little long-winded, and he wasn't sure if that was the answer that the instructor was looking for, but it was what he felt was true. After giving his explanation, the Uzumaki would sit back down and listen to what the instructor had to say.

TWC: 2,349

Shadowfax had woken up late that day, having returned from a training expedition by herself, where she met a unique figure named Dol Havard; a lumbering giant Genin pretty well known throughout the village. She was surprised by the satisfaction of his company. Though, it was time to learn in a classroom setting instead of the physical training setting. Shadowfax was dressed in the academy uniform of Kirigakure, with cloth and linen bandages wrapped around her hands, wrists, elbows, knees, thighs and calfs. It seemed she had either been badly beaten, or was extremely dedicated to her training. Knowing however that showing up late was unacceptable, she was dreading what she was about to do. As she walked down the halls, her attention focusing on the simple electrical lighting lining the tops of the hallway, the sound of her singular echoing footsteps started a chain of anxiety. 

Her hands started to sweat a bit and became clammy. She knew this was a bad sign, as wobbly and shaky knees were another sign of being anxious. And they normally followed right after the sweats. Hopefully her courage could overwhelm this feeling of shame. As she slid the door open, she could hear the ending words of the lesson, the sound of the door meeting its frame causing the heads of the majority of the class to snap toward Shadowfax. Her legs started to shake, forgetting entirely about all of the students in the class room, instead just focusing on the scolding the teacher may give her if she were late. Which was the case. "That is the role of a shinobi..." The sound came from the northwestern part of the room. Curiously, she peered at the boy responsible for speaking. His hair was red, and quite long for being a boy. He would sit back down, and the grandiose ending she had heard, it seemed like he had given a pretty good speech. She realized then that she was either interrupting the boy, or interrupting the teacher. Either way, she might have been screwed.

Shadowfax would walk forward toward the teacher, her head hanging low, forcing her legs to move forward step by step. She would speak quietly, but loud enough for the teacher and probably one or two of the students near the desk. "Shadowfax.. Reporting in.. My apologies for being late." Her body was frail, almost broken. This would be reflected in any combat scenario for the time being, as she had been pretty weak physically. All she had was survivalist abilities, intelligence and an understanding that she was deserving of a higher cause. This is the idea that drove her to succession, and caused her to get up from the alley in the middle of the night and begin training. This is what allows her to carry on after years of abuse and traumatic experiences as an orphan on the streets, having inhabited multiple islands throughout Shimagakure, all resulting in failed attempts to establish a solid identity. Shadowfax, though only nine years old, wanted to know who she was; and she didn't know anything yet.

Ren listened to jace's words, a calm expression on his face as he evaluated the boy's answer. It was starting off better than the last answer, but it was still far from correct; just as the boy finished and Ren was about to deliver his evaluation of the boy's answer the door slid open; a small white haired girl walking into the room, interrupting the class and introducing herself. 

Ren glanced the girl up and down before replying "Ahh Shadowfax, Yes I thought we were one person short. Feel free to take a set wherever you like... But first! Perhaps you can tell us what the role of a shinobi is; We've had a few answers, but none of them have truely answered the root of the question, perhaps you can give us a better answer." Ren said, gesturing for the girl to take the stage, so to speak.

The red haired boy was a little taken aback by the new entry to the class. A young white haired girl by the name of Shadowfax. She had shown up incredibly late for the lesson, not really giving any sort of excuse. Instead of lecturing her like Jayce thought would happen, the instructor simply told the girl to take a seat wherever she liked. But first she needed to answer the question that apparently Jayce hadn't even answered correctly. That stung the boy's pride a bit, though he didn't let that show. If he wasn't able to answer it correctly then he knew none of the other students would be able to, let alone the one who didn't even care enough to make it to class on time. His smug expression could be taken as the arrogance and condescendence that it was. The pencil in his right hand continued to twirl between his fingers as he waited to hear Shadowfax's answer.

TWC: 2,510

Shadowfax would look around the room. All eyes on her. Even the proctor was eyeing her up and down. She was unsure of what to do. Emotionally and physically frozen, she stood, stagnant. Her legs wavering. Mustering the courage necessary, she took a deep breath - exclaiming her opinion of what the role of a shinobi was. "The role of a shinobi is to protect their country at any cost. The role of a shinobi is to protect their team at any cost. The role of a shinobi is to complete the mission at any cost. The role of a shinobi is to do what is necessary and obligatory of them in an attempt to establish order in a world consumed by the cunning shadows of chaos and discord." She was unsure if this was the answer the proctor would have been looking for. But, for Shadowfax, this was the epitome of what a shinobi represented. They were the driving force, the back bone, of every village. Without them being there to establish the identity of an army, either visually enticing or hidden in the background, nothing would ever get done.

(OOC: Sorry for the delay guys, after tomorrow I should be back to posting regularly)
Ren smiled at the Girl when she answered his question, unlike earlier this wasn't a smile to comfort but rather one of genuine pleasant surprise. "My, well Shadowfax I must say thats almost exactly right, nine out of ten. Now then take a seat child." Ren said gesturing for the girl to take her seat. Once the girl had taken her place Ren went back to lecturing the rest of the class. "As our late addition said, the role of a shinobi is to protect their country at any cost and to protect their team at any cost, nothing is secondary to that. What you must all remember is that if you walk this path you become tools to protect this village, whether that means at the cost of your life, or the lives of those you love; but even if you are tools, that doesn't mean we expect you to become cold unthinking individuals. Your role is going to be to obey orders, but sometimes you'll need to decide when your orders are out of date, to begin with should you walk this path your team leader will be the one to make those decisions for you, but you should all watch and learn from their examples." Ren said, waiting for a moment to see if there were any questions from the class.

Assuming there weren't any Ren would continue on with his lesson, he made a mental note of course to teach shadowfax what she'd missed at the end of class... along with give her a short lecture on arriving on time in future. "Now that you all understand the path that you are choosing to walk, I'll give you one more chance to leave this room." once again if no one left Ren would continue. "Very well, now we shall continue our lesson, each of you now have displayed the skills to utilise your own chakra, but now we shall focus on the next step..." Ren paused, waiting for a moment to see if anyone could guess what he was talking about, "Next we'll focus on sensing the chakra of those around you. First of all I want you all to close your eyes, and begin emptying your mind, focus simply on your breathing, a breath in..." Ren paused, watching as his students followed his words "And a breath out... breathing in... and out. Follow breathing like this until you have nothing else in your mind but the simple repetition of your breathing." Ren stood still, watching the class do this for a solid five minutes before continuing, "Now I want you all to shift your focus from your breathing and shift it down to your core, feel the chakra burning there, feel it flowing through your body, and take note of how it feels, how it flows through you. For some of you it may smell a particular way, for others it may leave a taste in your mouth. Whichever of your senses are effected by your chakra the most, I want you to focus on those senses specifically" As he spoke Ren began suppressing his own chakra so that it did not overwhelm the chakra of others in the room. "Now I want you to expand those senses, focus not on just yourself, but the rest of the room, take note of what is similar in the room around you, and what is different."

It seemed that the new arrival was pretty smart. She had been able to answer the instructor's question almost to the letter, apparently. Jayce was pretty far off from the answer that was being looked for. Protect the country and the village at any cost. The young Uzumaki thought that was such a give in it couldn't have possibly been part of the answer. He was wrong. He didn't like being wrong, this somewhat arrogant teenager. Still, it impressed him that another student was able to answer correctly. 

After a brief summary and further explanation of what a shinobi's role truly was, the teacher asked once more for anyone not thinking they were suitable to leave the classroom. No one did. At least they were all determined, if not incredibly bright. Jayce still continued that compartmentalizing he was doing where he multi tasked to read and memorize everyone's chakra signature around him, differentiating each one and keeping a close eye on them. He now had a new signature to add to his memory, that of young Shadowfax. 

Coincidentally enough, the class' next lesson seemed to be on the very skill Jayce was using. Chakra sensory. As the instructor spoke about breathing in and out Jayce did as he was told, assuming it was more of an order than an option. He skipped over the bits he already knew, seeing as he had basically been teaching himself how to do this for the entire lesson up to this point. He sensed a sudden change in the professor's chakra. It diminished significantly once the class had been told to test it out themselves. Perhaps the white haired shinobi was able to suppress their chakra. That would certainly be a useful skill, one that Jayce planned on learning as soon as possible. 

The last instruction he had received was to take not of similar and dissimilar things to himself in the room. There wasn't much that was different at this point. Most of the kids seemed to have less potent chakra than he did, but they were all generally on the same level. The only thing different was how potent the teacher's chakra had been before being suppressed. Now it had completely vanished, which just felt...odd...knowing there was a shinobi there but no chakra. He wondered if maybe that was the point? If it was, how many of the other students would actually be able to notice...

Shadowfax had seemingly impressed her newfound sensei with her explanation of what a shinobi's true role is in the ninja world. She would look around the room and find a seat comfortable enough to fit her small frame. She was surrounded by an entire plot of young academics from short to tall to fat to tiny. It was amusing actually, finally being able to see the cultural demographics of Kirigakure's Shimagakure populace. This was the up and coming blooming generation of ninja who would take the world over once all of the oldies had finally croaked. Not many of them seemed too bright.. But who was Shadowfax to judge? The only person that really caught the interest of Shadowfax was the exceedingly long red-haired male sitting in the front of the room. He had been the student speaking prior to her entry to the classroom. It was obvious he may be a little more exceptionally talented than the majority of students here. Shadowfax, herself, included.

The sensei would instruct the room to begin preparations on studying a technique called Chakra Sensory. For Shadowfax, her chakra capabilities were odd in the sense that while focusing, her signature acted similarly to how echolocation in bats grants them insight on the world around them despite being blind, and allows them to have an extension of their senses, enabling the detection of other shinobi in the area. It was a technique Shadowfax was familiar with, but had never personally attempted herself. Minutes passed, nothing was happening. She persisted, thinking deeply and focusing her chakra as effectively as she could. She took deep breaths as the sensei had mentioned. Finally, it clicked. Her core started burning. Shadowfax would brace, and flare the signature outward, allowing it to consume the entirety of the room. She could finally feel the fluctuations in chakra levels now being expended around the room. And because everyone had likely been using this technique at the same time, there were varying power levels all around the classroom. It was unlike anything she had ever felt. She would turn her focus to the sensei.


Shadowfax was stumped. What kind of mysticism had the sensei employed that rendered his signature from being sensed? Was it some kind of spiritualistic suppression technique meant to counter sensory? A tool that blocked signatures from escaping or being read? She was unsure what to make of it. It was obvious that this man was the right one for the job however, as she had considered the reasoning behind him hiding his own signature was likely to keep from overwhelming the students in the room. He was considerate. That was necessary. She liked him already. Shadowfax would close her eyes, folding her hands and maintaining a steady stream of concentration, channeling the chakra inside of her and flaring it outward every few seconds or so; taking in the reverberations, mentally interpreting them and studying each signature in its unique likeness. In time, she would become familiar with each signature individually, and be capable of separating each one depending on the ninja who bore it. Wonderful. It seemed she had began to master its usage. Maybe at some point in the future she could use this to her advantage. For now, she had to focus on completing the class to the best of her abilities.

Ren stood there watching as his students attempted the technique, as much as he wanted to help them, unlike the prior techniques this was not something that could be taught with example or intervention, all Ren could do was to stand here and offer advice and answers for anyone who needed them. A few students put their hands up to ask a question. Some struggled with the focus needed to practice the technique, one such boy turning to one of his friends, snickering and nudging them in an attempt at distraction. Reaching his hand out Ren released a bolt of force that collided with the boy's desk with a loud thunk, leaving a dent in the wood. "If your struggling with the focus for this technique then perhaps some more practice with basic meditation is in order, but no matter how much you struggle with something I will not tolerate you dragging others down." Ren said with a stern voice followed by a disdainful sniff before he answered a few basic questions that some of the students had asked.

Glancing at the clock Ren spoke up again, "Well that seems to be all the time we have for today, good work everyone, I expect you all to practice what I've taught you and have it ready by the time of your next lesson where we'll be putting those skills to practical use" Ren said with a gesture for everyone to leave. As the students started to stand and file out Ren spoke up again, "Oh right, Jayce and Shadowfax if you two could be so kind as to stay behind." Ren would say waiting for the class to empty before speaking again. "Now then first of all Shadowfax I don;t expect you to make being late a habit, I'll let it slide this one time, but in future don;t let it happen again." Ren would say before turning to Jayce, "Now Jayce I dont want you to be disheartened that you didn't get everything perfect in that class, from what I've seen your one of the most talented students I've had, but you mustn't let that go to your head; Talent is nothing without effort, determination, and practice. Now if you dont have anywhere to be I have some time to give the two of you some one on one tutoring." Ren said to the two of them.

Assuming an affirmative from them Ren would quickly give Shadowfax a rundown of the techniques and class lessons that she had missed, before turning to Jayce whilst she practiced the techniques. "Now then Jace, there are two things I wish to show you, first of all..." Ren said, pulling out a few scroll's from his desk and walking over to the boy. Unraveling the scroll to reveal a blank surface Ren placed his hand upon it and inscribed a basic Fuinjutsu lock on the paper, before placing a second blank scroll in place for the boy. You'll find on here a basic seal used to seal doors, locks ect. If you examine it closely I've made it so that you should be able to find the flaws in it and break it rather easily, that should be some good practice for you." Glancing over to Shadowfax Ren would speak up. "Once your done there Shadowfax... I'm just going to call you shadow from now on, no offence but your name is a bit of a mouthful. Anyway, once your done there Shadow, it may be worth joining Jayce over here and helping him. It will be a good learning experience for the both of you." Ren would say before turning to leave the two of them. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm afraid I have a meeting to get to. Feel free to drop by my office any time though. As he was leaving almost as an after thought Ren turned back to the pair "Oh right, if your interested in some extra credit theres a room next door with some wounded animals, and some personal writings of mine explaining how to heal them, feel free to use it to practice some medical techniques." Ren said before giving the two of them a nod and leaving the room with a smile.On his way to his next meeting Ren stopped by the library and made a point to pick up a few texts on elemental nature since he felt that part of his lecture had been lacking.

Once the day was over Ren returned to his private offices, a theory weighing on his mind as some of the theories that he had spent the day teaching were beginning to click in his mind, like tiny pieces of a puzzle all coming together to form a greater picture. Returning to his lab ren began sketching out Wave after wave of complex sealing patterns, of course it would take quite a while for him to actually identify the various flaws and issues with his current theory, but this was a big step, now all he needed to do was to condense everything into one sealing array, something that would probably need him to fold space time and condense the size of the seal. After that Ren would need to get some more medical knowledge to properly implement the technique and even then Ren wasn't sure if this would work or turn out to be a dead end...


TWC: 3281 towards Living Weapon Creation (3281/7500) using 25% discount
3281 words towards Teaching The next Generation The other WC completed in a Parallel thread
Permission given from aki to train the tech while its on temporary unaproval without the ability to use it.
1 thread towards bloodline discovery

Having already pretty much mastered the art of sensing chakra, since it was a fairly simple thing, Jayce decided to do his own sort of training while the students practiced what the teacher had told them to do. It had intrigued him how their sensei had managed to effectively make his chakra signature disappear. It was a useful skill that the boy thought would be great to have handy. Continuing to allow his newfound sensory skills to roam the classroom and keep tabs on the individuals, the young Uzumaki had begun trying to forcefully drop his own chakra levels. He managed to pick up his own chakra signature as he was sensing for the others which provided him with a good gauge as to his progress. 

Jayce quickly found this to be more difficult than it was to sense the chakra of the others surrounding him. In fact it was actually requiring most of his focus this time around to be able to do anything at all. Hopefully that would change, but for now it was what it was. After quite a few minutes of struggling, he managed to diminish his chakra by about half according to what he was sensing. It wasn't what he had hoped for, but it was a good start. He could actually feel beads of sweat beginning to form on his forehead. He stopped for a moment to let himself rest; the strain was more than he had expected. When he felt ready to continue, he went right back at it. This time he took it slow and, much to his pleasure, he found it was a bit easier to suppress his own chakra. It slowly began to diminish until it was erased entirely. Jayce noticed more than a few looks of confusion when his signature had disappeared. The other students had noticed it as well, causing the Uzumaki to smirk. Just then there was a loud noise and he felt the instructor's chakra flare for a second before going back to nothingness. One of the other students had been being disruptive and reprimanded in kind. Children.

It wasn't long after that before the teacher had announced that they had run out of time and class was over, instructing the students to practice what they had learned for their next lesson. Jayce casually rose from his seat and began to walk toward the door when he heard his name being called and the teacher had asked him and Shadowfax to stay behind. When all the other students had left, their sensei had addressed Shadowfax first about her tardiness explaining that he would let it slide this time but she had better not do it often. Then he turned to Jayce. He expected some kind of lecture, but what he got was the opposite. The teacher had told him not to allow himself to be disheartened by not getting everything perfect and even went so far as to say that Jayce was one of the most talented students he had taught. Of course there were some words about training and effort, but the boy already knew that from his years with his parents before they were killed. 

"Yes sensei. Thank you. I'll do my best to practice and live up to your expectations." the boy said in response. After that the instructor had said that he had some spare time for some one on one tutoring for both Shadowfax and Jayce if they didn't have anything else to do. "Yes, thank you. That would be much appreciated." Assuming Shadowfax also agreed, the teacher would began by giving her a summary of everything she had missed of the day's lesson before turning back to Jayce. He placed an open scroll out on the desk and formed a seal on it, explaining that it was a simple seal used to lock doors and other things. Listening closely, Jayce gave the new instruction all of his attention. It was explained to him that the seal had purposefully been created to allow him to find the flaws in it and break the seal easily. It would certainly be good practice for the boy. It had been quite some time since he had done any fuinjutsu research let alone practical use. 

Stepping up to examine the scroll, the instructor announced that he had a meeting to get to and would be leaving. Just before he had exited the room, though, he turned and mentioned another practice room next door filled with wounded animals and instructions on how to heal them if the two students wished to practice medical arts. Considering it was one of the two things Jayce had an interest in, he immediately decided that he would go over to do just that when he had finished here. For now he returned his attention to the seal in front of him. Out of all the seals he had seen in his research with his father, he could tell that this was very basic and crudely made. Of course the crudeness was probably intentional seeing as Jayce doubted an instructor would have such shoddy workmanship on placing an actual seal. 

He spent about half an hour studying and memorizing every detail of the seal, searing it into his mind, before deciding to attempt to break it. Placing his palm over the center of the seal, he focused on using his chakra to work its way into each one of the seal's weak points in turn, causing them to 'unlock'. It was a little more strenuous than he had thought and took almost ten minutes by the time he was finished, but he managed to break through the seal somehow. Next he decided to try and replace the seal that he had just broken. He already had the formula memorized and, thanks to the teacher's quick instruction, knew what the seal was meant to do. That was all the information he really need. Now it was just practical use he needed to attempt. Focusing himself, Jayce placed his palm over the scroll once more and focused on forming his chakra into the shape the seal had taken before he had broken it. Once again it took him almost ten minutes before he was finished. It was time well spent. The seal was identical to the one that the instructor had placed before. The redhaired teen couldn't help but smile at his success. 

Deciding not to wait for Shadowfax, the boy exited the room and made his way over to the next one where the injured animals lay waiting to be healed. There was a scroll hanging next to each pedestal where the animals where. Choosing one at random, Jayce made his way over to one with an injured fox. The scroll hanging next to it indeed did contain everything he needed to know in order to heal the poor animal. It seemed to only have a sprained foreleg, a minor injury at best. After taking a few minutes to study the information on the scroll, Jayce placed both of his hands an inch above the fox's injured leg and began to perform the healing process. A green aura formed around his hands as the healing chakra worked its way in and around the sprained leg. It was such a minor injury that Jayce managed to fully heal the poor creature in roughly five minutes. The healing itself wasn't very strenuous for him, but Jayce was beginning to feel the toll using all of that chakra today had taken on him. He had practiced enough for today. Overall the red haired boy thought that his first day of lessons at Kirigakure's ninja academy had been quite eventful, considering how much he had managed to learn.  He had managed to take away quite a bit more than he had expected to from his teacher. He wondered if there was more that the instructor knew about fuinjutsu that Jayce could learn from him. That was a question for another day.
So, the young Uzumaki tiredly made his way home.
[exit]
TWC: 4,260
claiming:
1,000/1,000 for Chakra Sensory
2,000/2,000 for Chakra Suppression
250/250 for Clone Jutsu
250/250 for Transformation jutsu
250/250 for Fuinjutsu Lock E rank
250/250 for Fuinjutsu Breaking E rank
250/250 for Basic Medical Ninjutsu E rank
All except Suppression at 50% for Ren teaching them
21 stats