Memories Hurt

His teacher had reached out to him through a messenger bird asking him to stop by the school as soon as possible. Dracoso wondered what his old mentor wanted to see him for. He hoped his mother had not told him about how hard Dracoso had pushed himself within his first few missions. With a sigh, he headed out towards the school, deciding he would want to stop by sooner rather than later. The day was still early and many of the villagers were still yawning around him as he passed. Children ran ahead of him, some on their way to the same place as him. He missed the days of being in the classroom and practicing jutsus with the other students. Of course, because of his age and drive, he picked up a lot of the concepts more quickly, more often than not. 

As he was remembering back to his days at the academy, he noticed several of the kids playing out in the exercise area near the academy. It seemed odd as classes would have started by now and they should be diligently learning. He became even more confused when he saw a sign over his classroom door that read: Please play in the exercise area until the substitute calls you. With a slowly growing worry, Dracoso picked up his pace as he jogged towards the teacher's office.

By the time he reached the door, he was at a dead sprint and threw the door open harder than he meant to. His teacher spun around in his seat and smiled to Dracoso. "Well, you got here fast. I sent that bird only 5 minutes ago. That eager to see your old teacher?" The teacher smirked at him. Dracoso looked him in the eye and said, somewhat out of breath, "substitute.. phew... teacher... hah... hah... me?" The teacher chuckled and nodded as he stood up. "Your old class in fact. I need to head out and help a couple of merchants carrying some important cargo. I figured it would be good practice since you already used to tutor some of them."

Dracoso caught his breath after a few minutes of coughing and heavy breathing. He stood up and responded, "What am I supposed to teach them? I have been learning all kinds of jutsus and I don't want to overwhelm them." The teacher patted him on the shoulder as he stepped out of the room, talking over his shoulder, "I believe in you! Just teach them the four academy jutsus and, if they show promise, maybe something extra. Just remember, no fireballs or lightning strikes in the classroom."

Anxiety was bubbling up as he said, "What if I am not ready for it?" The teacher responded down the hallway, "Don't worry! I already put your name down on the mission as your teacher. You should be fine!" Dracoso remembered that he had asked his teacher to give him tasks to do, so his teacher would find a task and was allowed to downgrade it to homework. It also allowed him to sign Dracoso up for lower rank until Dracoso decided he wanted to revoke the privilege. This was a stark reminder that he would need to stop by and undo that as soon as possible. 

Dracoso accepted his fate and took in a deep breath. He walked to the classroom and went to open the door, until he saw the sign again. Right, need to get them inside first he thought to himself. He jogged over to the exercise area outside just in time to see a pair of kids making malformed clones. The kids looked up and waved to him happily. Some came running over and asked him how he had been. Dracoso chuckled and listened as they talked about how the academy had been while he was gone. Learning how to substitute themselves for logs or dolls. One boy even tried to substitute himself over a girl and got punched in the stomach for it.

As they finished up, they asked him why he was there. "Well, teacher asked me to take over and substitute myself in for him." The kids looked at him confused for a second, before smirks played across their lips. Dracoso raised an eyebrow and asked, "is it really that surprising?" The kids shook their heads, the smirks still showing. He shook his head, turning towards the academy, and motioned to them, "then let's get inside. I know a couple of you can benefit from some work on your clones and a few others-"

A ball of water smacked into the back of his head. He turned around quickly and looked from one student to the next, wondering who threw it. He raised an eyebrow again and gave a weary sigh, "ok, what is going on here? Don't tell me you are going to haze and old classmate?" The kids shook their head and one of the girls, a very sweet girl who had been friendly to Dracoso, ran up. "You told us that, in order to train well, we could use any jutsu we wanted on you for practice." 

Dracoso remembered the words coming back to him clearly. He had told them that early on in joining the academy in the hopes to show more confidence. A few had taken him up on his offer, but most were not much better at jutsus than he had been at the time. It had been some time since he last saw them, so who knows what they may have learned? He now realized the reason behind their smirks. They thought they could get one over on him and cause a ruckus. He stood up and grinned right back at them as he crossed his arms.

"Ok then, let's start with active practice then. I want you to each show me what you can do. If any of you can 'defeat' me, I will tell you about some of my recent stories and the jutsus I have learned," he said. The kids looked excited as they all ran up, starting to make handseals. Dracoso threw up his arms and said loudly, "Hold it! Hold it! This isn't a mass fight. Either you fight solo or in teams. No class versus the teacher madness!" The class groaned and split up. A few kids stepped away to stand on their own and started a line. Some of the students paired up or went together in groups of three or four. By the end of it, all thirty of the children were divided up.

Dracoso counted out in total that, with solo groups included, there were eleven groups. he decided to start with the solo groups, wanting to take on those with more bravado and work his way up to the bigger groups. The first student came running at Dracoso, throwing up a transformation as he turned into a small dog. Raised his arm to defend himself, only to seem to stop mid-motion. The took his opportunity to throw itself at him, aiming to bite into his arm. Dracoso slipped from his feint and, with the three handseals, placed a quick hand over the dog's face, feeding anesthesia to it. The dog came down on its feet and staggered a few steps before transforming back into the student. The student went to stand up and try another technique, only to have his fingers slip over each of the seals. Dracoso called the spar and said he could try again next time.

He handled each of them in kind as gently as he could. He used genjutsu butterflies and ventriloquism to throw off the other solo groups. The duos tried to circle him, to which he used his third eye to track them. One student even tried to use a jutsu at a level higher than they could do so safely and Dracoso delivered a quick throat chop to prevent it. When he reached the three-person teams, he realized that he was feeling a bit more tired. He threw up his damage reduction shield and cast his water senbon around himself in circles two or three times. The students backed off each time and decided, after a failed third attempt, to surrender.

Each group had their turn and struggled. They made valiant efforts, some even getting off substitutions or clone jutsus, only to find he had flickered behind them. When each group of students was defeated, they would join the earlier groups and cheer on those still taking on Dracoso. He realized as he showed them all these new jutsus, there were oohs and aahs and laughter that accompanied the grunts of frustration. Through the sweat and effort, he was also enjoying this. It felt like a fun way to showcase what he had learned and how far he had gotten.

But all fun must come to an end.

Only the 4-man groups remained. He had just dealt with the first group with a full mist servant jutsu. He simply wove through the illusions and tapped each student on the neck to show their defeat. The rest of the students were confused until he explained what had happened. The second group approached, and he let them get into any position they wanted. they placed three behind him and the last one stood in front of him, confident of his approach. Dracoso gave a nod as the signal to start. The three behind him charged forward, and he quickly threw up the four seals before spraying a sticky fluid out, knocking all three of the students back away from him and sticking them to the ground. he then turned back to the first student. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the last seal formed and realized it wasn't something safe.

He quickly lunged out of the way as a thin line of lightning left the student's hand, arching past him and hitting one of the kids stuck in the water. The electricity spread out and gave each a jolt before knocking them out. Dracoso panicked, yelling to the student who just cast the lightning to stay where he was. Dracoso then jumped over, looking for the point of initial impact. He found that it had connected with one of the children and severed part of their arm. The liquid kept it together and the only reason the student wasn't screaming was because he was out cold. 

The other children ran up and Dracoso held up a hand saying, "Stay back! I need to make sure I do this carefully." They watched him as he carefully made all five seals before placing his hand over the wound. The skin began to rapidly regrow, reconnecting the bone and tissue as he fed his chakra into the student. The wound closed over completely as a blacked scab fell off into the liquid. He checked each of them for any further harm and found that they had simply been stunned. With a relieved sigh, he stood up, letting the starch syrup return back into water, letting them settle to the ground.

The three students awoke slowly, gently carried away by the rest of the class. The one boy still stood out in the open, watching all that had happened. Dracoso looked over to see the student looking scared as he watched the rest of the students. He looked between his hands and back to the class as he stood by himself. Thoughts of all the things Dracoso had been told ran through his mind and he realized that he had be the one to deliver the lesson this time. He walked over to the boy and crouched down until he was standing alongside him, looking at the rest of the class.

"It is easier to take action, than it is to take it back," he started. The student looked at him with a combination of fear and curiosity. "You wanted to win, like a lot of ninja out there. Wanting to be strong and wanting to be effective in combat are two different things." He looked to the student and met his eye, "take this as a lesson, above anything else. You can learn anything you put your mind to. It is still up to you to decide how you apply it." The student nodded, still shaken. Dracoso wondered if that is what he looked like when he failed to save Fuku. He wanted to say more, but only one thing came to mind, "it is armor that lets you survive for a moment in combat and the weapon which lets you survive past your foe. Yet a weapon that is used without discrimination is one that truly holds no value to the one who wields it."

The student looked confused and turned to Dracoso. "What does that mean?" the boy asked. "If the only goal you have is to destroy your enemy, the way you do it doesn't matter. In turn, you simply turn yourself into a weapon and have no greater value than the act of destruction. Why destroy blindly when you can find purpose in your life?" Dracoso responded and stood, looking to the class.

The boy returned to the class, where many of them gave him reassuring pats on the back and head. The last group had become somber with the outcome of the last battle and lined up in front of him. Dracoso realized they were a bit down and decided to spice things up a bit. As he called for the fight to start, he made his four hand gestures and dropped down into the puddle of water left by the starch syrup jutsu. The four students jumped back in surprise as he disappeared. He slid through the water, popping up to quietly summon a part of water clones directly behind them. 

The two clones began to make hand seals as the children turned around in time to see them. The clones transformed into a twin set of the original teacher and looked at them angrily. Dracoso used ventriloquism on each clone, speaking through them in the same voice as their teacher. "How dare you all be so irresponsible! I thought you all understood that lightning and fire jutsus were dangerous!" The students all looked shocked for a moment before stopping and facing off against the teachers. Two of the girls in the group turn into snacks that lunged at the teachers' legs and bit down on them, dispelling the jutsu. The boy and third girl of the group quickly used surface walking to run over the water and began to look for Dracoso. He had slipped to the far end and cast the mist servant technique on each.

The students began to see him appear from all sides. Two began to attack the copies, but only found more appearing in response. The last two looked at each other and nodded before transforming into moles. Dracoso thought this was odd, but watched as they moved along the ground slowly, feeling for vibrations. he realized that they were ignoring the copies by feeling for weight. They nudged the two who were attacking and, moments later, all four were scrambling around blind on their stomachs, ignoring the copies. 

Dracoso took this as an opening and slid out of the water, moving towards them with surface walking. One touched the water, feeling a subtle shift. They squeaked loudly and three of the moles suddenly transformed. As the smoke cleared, three little boars, identical to those at home he knew, appeared in front of him. Dracoso hesitated for a moment, surprised by their sudden appearance. In that moment, the three boars jumped at him, transforming in midair to tackle him with their combined weight. he fell down with all three on top of him. 

As they landed, he realized that he had lost. They were all laughing as they got back up. The rest of the class gave off a cheer and came running over. Even the boy with lightning was smiling and happy to see the outcome. Dracoso stood up straight and nodded to the class, "a deal is a deal. I will tell you what I have been up to, as soon as we are inside." The class cheered again and followed him into the classroom. A teacher leading their class out to the exercise area saw Dracoso leading his students inside. One glance showed the soaked, dirty children with big grins across their faces. The teacher clicked her tongue and led her students past them.

Dracoso gave a shrug and opened the door into the classroom, taking down the sign. He made his way to the front and watched as the students filed into their seats. It felt awkward to sit where his teacher had been not too long ago. He shifted in his seat and began by outlining his Genin exam. Some students still remembered the disembodied legs he had made in the class and laughed at his clone's failed transformation. Each time he came to a part where he used jutsu or encountered a challenge, they sat with rapt attention on the edges of their seats. Each time he came to the parts about responsibility, such as pulling weeds or cleaning the statue, they waited for him to move on.

When he finally came to the story about dealing with the sand in the village, one of the students raised their hand. "Are missions normally like this? It sounds like you had to learn a lot of different jutsus to deal with them," she explained. Dracoso scratched his chin, trying to emulate his teacher. "Well, missions can be different for each person. Sometimes you find it will be quiet and simple to complete. Others may find additional challenges, I supposed. Anyone can go on the same mission and find that it is a different day and a different situation." The children took in every word, enjoying his stories and guidance alike.

By the end of the day, both Dracoso and the class were tired and wiped out. Dracoso sat in the teacher's office, awaiting his mentors return. The sun began to set as he felt a bit worried on whether his teacher would return that day. Night had fallen by the time the door slid open and a very worn looking teacher took the seat by the door. Dracoso waited for him to speak. After a few moments of silence, the mentor asked him how it went. As Dracoso outlined the days events, trying to downplay the lightning piece, the teacher stopped him here or there to ask questions. By the end of it, the teacher looked to him as if trying to penetrate his held with just his eyes.

"So, I already stopped by some of the families' homes to ask the children how the day went. I heard about the incident-" Dracoso felt his pulse rising, "-and how you handled it. I wouldn't have suggested doing sparring on your first try at teaching, but it seems to have turned out pretty well," the teacher ended. Dracoso breathed out in relief asked, "so you think I did a good job then?" The teacher nodded and simply said, "You did a good job. Even if you did knock a student out, impersonate me, and trapped your students to be electrified." Dracoso hung his head and then gave himself a shake. "Well, I enjoyed it. Maybe I will come back again," he said to the teacher, "And next time, it will be by my choice." 

The teacher simply chuckled and nodded, "sure. Next time, I will ask you ahead of time. Just don't let it go to your head. Being a teacher and being a substitute are two different beasts altogether." Dracoso nodded and took the words in before shaking his old teacher's hand. He left that day feeling a bit of confirmation in all the he was working towards.

{Exit}

D-Rank: Substitute Teacher

Reward: 2000 Ryo + 10 AP

WC Total: 3325 (rounded to 3300 for AP)
Stats Maxed: WC to AP = +66 AP

Jutsu Learned:
Rank B - Barrier: Canopy Method Formation - 1500
Rank B - Hiding with Camoflauge - 1500
Rank B - Bloodletting Technique - 975/1500 (325 WC added to the 650/1500 from the last post: Nature is Everywhere)

APPROVED

I realized that I mixed up my clan specialty between ninjutsu and sensory (my clan uses ninjutsu) so I wouldn't be able to learn the two B rank skills above. Can I instead swap them out for the similar costs of the two jutsu below?

B Rank - Water Prison - 1500
B Rank - Poison Mist - 1500

I have removed the jutsus from my character's sheet due to the lack of ability to use them at this time.

reapproved due to oversight ^^