Showing off... er, Guiding the next gen

Mission details here

Breathing heavily, Sadame walked over to a stump of a tree and sat on it. She opened her water bottle and took a few gulps of the cold, refreshing water. With a satisfied sigh, she closed the bottle, and noticed three children walking towards her. It looked like her “students” had arrived. The Acacdemy had decided that shinobi would assist in the training of academy students by showing them a few things about being a ninja, answering some questions, and helping them understand their village better. Sadame felt a little nervous taking these youngsters; she didn’t want to look so goofy that they would disrespect her, yet at the same time, she did not want to look too tough or harsh and frighten them. She had to balance it somehow...

”You got this, Sadame...” she muttered to herself as she rose to her feet and walked over to meet the trio. As she opened her mouth to speak, one of them, a boy, asked: ”Are you Sadame-senpai?” She nodded and smiled. ”Yes. Pleased to meet...” Another student, a girl, cut in: ”She’s supposed to be Uchiha, and she doesn’t even have the clan crest. I’m sure she was stripped of it or something.”

The smile froze on Sadame’s face, and she felt a vein bulging on her temple. The urge to stretch forth her arms and throttle this little brat was growing, but she exerted a powerful level of self-control and resisted it. ”Well, kiddo, that is very incorrect. My reasons for not wearing the crest are mine and mine alone. Besides, I like people to underestimate me, just like you have.”

”Why would you want to do that?” the third member of the student team, another boy, questioned. Sadame chuckled and shrugged. ”Easy. People who underestimate me don’t get to see the blow coming, until it’s too late.” the boy frowned thoughtfully. ”Keep your trump card hidden until the right time, then strike without warning and don’t give them a chance to recover... something like that?” Sadame placed a hand on his head. ”You’re a bright kid, you know that?” He smiled, though not very much. ”People don’t appreciate that.” The other two students scoffed. Again, Sadame restrained the urge to jump on someone and... She took a deep breath and exhaled.

”Okay, everyone, sit down. We’re going to have a class here.”

The ‘bright kid’ nodded and sat, while the other two groaned. ”Class? No! That’s boring!”

“Yeah. Class is for...”

Sadame turned and looked at them, her expression sinister. ”Sit!”

They exchanged a glance, then obeyed silently. ”Good.I’m glad you’re sensible.” She knelt on the grassy earth, resting her bottom on her heels. ”Now, let’s start by divesting you of an incredibly outdated notion: a ninja doesn’t need to be smart to get by’. Tell me, any one of you, have you heard of the Intelligence Unit?”

The three of them shook their heads. ”I didn’t think so. They are a bunch of geezers who just sit around and come up with strategies.” That managed to extract a chuckle from the three of them. Sadame smiled indulgently. ”Yeah, that’s what it looks like. Quite frankly, they are anything but. The line between victory and defeat in any battle is not necessarily strength or speed; that works when you’re bullying someone. However, when you come up with someone just as powerful as you, or even more so, your ability to think strategically with determine whether you come out on top, or beneath a foot.” The two that seemed less cooperative did not look very convinced, so Sadame decided to try explaining with an illustration.

”Okay, check this out. You’re up against an opponent you know next to nothing about, who’s carrying a wrapped up bundle and you decide to attack first, before they can unwrap it. Now when you do, you successfully land a Leaf rising wind,you’re your opponent hardly even tries to counter it. What do you do next?”

”Easy,” the girl replied. ”Dancing leaf shadow follows, and then a Primary Lotus will end the match.”

Sadame grinned. ”Right? But what if that was exactly what your opponent wanted. What if he already had set up a contingency against that expected maneuver?”

The children exchanged glances, but did not reply. Sadame saw her words were sinking in, but they still were not sure how anybody would escape such an attack. ”What if what you kicked was a puppet, and the real ninja was hiding in the bundle? And when you launched the puppet into the air, and arranged yourself so close behind, what if the puppet’s limbs simply turned on you, and embraced you in a deadly, poisonous grasp?” Realization hit the less cooperative duo later than the other boy, but they were all awed when they considered it. ”Please, by all means, have your powerful, flashy, glorious techniques, but remember that an acute mind has the advantage. And that takes us to another type of strength. One of the things you must realize is that as a shinobi, you can never do everything, no matter how powerful you are. Rather, you find yourselves in groups, not so that you can boast about being the strongest in your group, or the leader, but rather, so that you can foster teamwork and cover each other’s weaknesses.”

Sadame continued with her exposition, describing the roles of various ninja abilities that were very important, even if they were not combat oriented. She then went on to reiterate the importance of team work, and how the Will of Fire connected everyone in Konoha as a sort of large extended family. ”So, you might want to be careful how you look down on that ‘weakling’,” Sadame concluded, ”That ‘weakling’ may just save your life.”

She was secretly pleased when all of them had questions for her, having gotten past the initial hostilities, and she tried to answer all their questions as well as she could. The four of them discussed about strategies, ninja tools, techniques and specialties till it was almost time for the academy to close for the day. ”Best be on your way, kids, and I hope you’ve learned something today.”

”Thank you, Sadame-senpai,” they chorused, as they ran off towards the academy. Sadame smiled and picked up her bottle. If she ever had a Genin team, would they be like that? She didn’t know whether to hope for or against it. So, she decided that when such a time came, if it ever did, she would handle it one step at a time. For the moment, the step that was before her was to increase in strength till she qualified to have a team.