To Learn is To Serve

Da Missions:

Amidst the Fire Country's ethereal grasp, the Leaf Village nestled among the veils of time, a secret haven cloaked in whispers of rain and monumental trees. Nature's melancholy tears cascaded relentlessly from the heavens, dulling the senses with a pelting lull. Brown hair, soaked from the intrusive droplets of water swayed beneath a straw hat which served as little resistance from the weather. Ornate with tassels and torques, serving as temporary shields from the outside elements.

Thus, possibly leading onlookers of her physique to believe that the mistress adorned in pale hues could have possibly faced off in a battle with mother nature prior to trudging down the stone path she found herself currently on. Zarina peered through her make-shifted visor, allowing golden irises to gaze outwards upon the surroundings-draping, though the rain didn't make visibility ideal. She observed as the countless droplets draped the earth in a ceaseless symphony of pattering footsteps, a celestial orchestra marching across the rooftops of ancient-looking thatched houses.

Her ears tangled to pick up her steps as she walked further into the village, until no longer did the sound of the rain overpower her senses, assimilating to the white noise in a similar fashion that she imagined the villagers had. But she needed to get to the ninja academy and was still needed nonetheless, she wouldn't be able to attend her schedule if her body was not capable of performing at its peak. Even if it is just filling in for some teacher, it would be unbefitting of her to have to waive a mission like this due to her own mistakes in taking care of her body.

Balling up her fist in determination, the violert-eyed maiden gave herself a boastful cheering, seemingly filling herself with determination as she huffed out deeply, stilling her body and mind-- she really did not wish to fall under the weather, the climate around her was falling enough.

With a pep in her stride, Zarina made her way down a bustling street, a sharp left turn steering her into what is the main road, and up ahead is what she was looking for. The academy. Taking a quick glance around, she took note of her surroundings, tightening the grip on the rope which housed a small bag of her belongings, gently suspended over her shoulder and nestled to her side.

Finding herself inside the academy, her thoughts drifted back to the requirements of this so-called mission. Konohagakure has teachers, but they are scarce, and some tend not to like teaching the inspiring shinobi of the future. This is where she comes in…well, her and another. They are partaking in a conjoined classroom with a magnitude of students. Therefore, she is meeting up with this other substitute to plan a curriculum and teach the class that is about to happen in a couple hours.

Walking into the empty classroom, there were rows upon rows on which the students would be seated while at the front of the classroom sat a pair of desks. Placing her belongings and straw hat on the table, she picked up a stack of papers on what the students are currently learning. Much to her dismay, they’ve only recently started. They still had a lot to learn, so she might as well wait for her students to arrive.
"Welcome, welcome!" Zarina announced making eye contact with each and every student that was presented to her. "My name is Zarina Hyuga,” she said with a gleeful smile before waving her hand over towards the class.

“Unfortunately, your current teacher has come down with some serious health issues, but they are expected to recover. Therefore, we will be teaching you the rest of this semester's curriculum. Shall we get started?” Zarina said as she raised her eyebrow.

"As required by the Academy curriculum, we will start with the basics. Anybody know the three main types of jutsu?” The Hyuga asked. Of course, considering their current grades -which she researched before class- they all should know what they were, but it never hurts to ask.

“Yes! They are ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu,” the cheerful brunette known as Akira answered.

“Very good! And what is required to use these types of jutsu’s?” The brunette asked as she peered over her students. A few mumbled but others were uncertain before someone finally answered, “chakra!”

“Good…now that is where we will begin. For those that don’t know, chakra is basically a unique energy that exists within every living being. Similar to DNA, every person also has a different chakra signature that is unique to them. That being said, the chakra of people who come from the same family or clan tend to have some similarities that make them different to the other families/clans. By combining their chakra with their innate physical and spiritual energy, one can perform a jutsu.” Zarina said.

“Now that we’ve touched on chakra for a bit, it’s time to talk about the most common type of jutsu on the planet, ninjutsu. Ninjutsu is the art of manipulating the chakra, along with physical and spiritual energy, in order to perform a technique. Other than a mastery of chakra, the overwhelming majority of ninjutsu also requires hand seals. Needless to say, different ninjutsu require different kinds of hand seals.


The application of ninjutsu is practically limitless. As a matter of fact, if you can imagine the kind of effects that you want to achieve, then it is highly likely that you can create a ninjutsu for it. That is why ninjutsu can be used for something as simple as walking on top of water, to produce a giant ball of flame. Additionally, ninjutsu can also be used as a means to heal wounds by a medic ninja, or to look into someone’s mind by a sensor ninja.” Zarina said as she took in a breath as she continued to stare around the room.

“For example…,” she said as she performed a series of hand seals. Feeling her chakra surge through her veins a ball made out of fire formed from her hand and the bright light surged through air. Twirling it around her hand, she immediately distinguished the flame. “See. Any questions so far?” A series of shooked heads indicated her answer.

“Good. Grab a kunai and form a line, don’t throw until the person ahead of you has walked away. And no one moves towards the target at all.”

Nodding to herself, she stepped aside and watched them, finding she had to keep an eye on everyone at once - it was quickly getting to be exhausting to do so and still give feedback to the kid who was actually throwing.

Unsurprisingly, by the sixth student, it was getting out of hand. She was trying to keep kids in the back who were waiting a second turn from wrestling, while watching the ones in the middle who were waiting while holding semi-sharp objects, and still trying to correct the one rotating at the front. Then as more kids went, they started to try to steal kunai from kids who hadn’t even gone once yet, upsetting them.

“Stop it! Everyone gets equal turns, let everyone get their first throw in before I collect everything and you get a second round,” she snapped, dreading having to run this way and that around the training field to get the kunai, as almost all of them had missed the target. One actually took a chunk out of the target itself; she wasn’t sure how that had happened but bless that kid’s strength.

The promise of a second turn calmed the kids for a bit, but not nearly for long enough. Just as the last few kids were nearing their turn, something different flew towards the target.

“What was that?” she asked, and one of the kids who had already gone held up another shuriken. “Where did you even get that?”

“It was in the box,” the child said, shrugging.

There was a mad dash towards the box as the others looked to see if there were more, and Zarina stepped in to try to wrangle the box away, fearing for her life. She did get the box, but suspected anything else that had been in it was already removed and passed around as the children stepped back in line, acting innocent. It was suspicious, that was for certain.

Sighing, she ran a hand through her hair. “Fine, whatever, keep going,” she said to the student who was actually patiently waiting her turn at the front. As she watched, she had to admit that the shuriken had made it to the target, so either one kid had some actual aim, or those were easier for the kids to throw…

“Okay, nobody moves!” Zarina shouted a few moments later when everyone was finally done with a first throw. With all the commotion it had taken far longer than expected, she realized. “I’m going to collect everything; nobody will do anything until I get back.”

Figuring her instructions were straightforward enough, and assuming that all weapons had been thrown, she lightly jogged towards the target to start to collect stray kunai.

She quickly realized she had forgotten about the shuriken, as she heard the distinct thunk of one hitting the target.

Not wanting to dwell on the actual aim behind it, she focused on the direct disobedience of her orders.

“What did I say!” she bellowed, but to her horror, several kids stepped up at the same time to wobbily throw the dangerous items, as she figured they were sharper than the training kunai. “I thought I said not to move, that meant not throwing anything a-,” she snapped, but the kids began to release the weapons before she could finish her statement. “Fine! I’m collecting these and we’re all heading back inside, training time is over!”

She moved to grab a few more weapons as she felt she was a safe distance from the shurikens’ paths, figuring she’d leave the rest of the strays til later. But as she happened to bend down and take her eyes off the kids for one moment, she heard another projectile fly by her. Snapping up, she reached out and grabbed one kunai out of the air but winced as the tip of a shuriken landed in her left thigh. Their aim really was terrible, she realized.

The children gasped, and she heard one yell “stop!” Looking up, she felt her hair go gray at the sight in front of her. One child was running towards the target, while another one, the child who had wrestled the other one during her safety talk, released a kunai straight at the one running. Feeling extremely drained, Zarina moved to protect the running child and held her left arm up to block the kunai from hitting herself, sighing when the tip stuck to the edge of her rolled-up sleeve; a small mercy from the universe if there ever was one.

“Look, I told you I could do the fireball jutsu she taught us!” she heard from behind her and sighed wearily as an acrid smell hit her nose.

Zarina paused to consider her next action - yell at them, or just take out her katana and…

But before she could react, a very loud and very angry voice shouted at them for her.

“You are all going straight to detention!” Zaraki roared, running over to them, face filled with fury. “How dare you disobey instructions from your teacher! No, I do not want to hear anything,” she snapped as one child raised a hand. “Right now, you are a disgrace to this academy, acting so recklessly with weapons! And why is something on fire? Do I even want to know? What would the Hokage say? Head straight to your classroom and write a one-thousand-word essay on the importance of following directions, especially when it comes to weapons. Now!”

The class groaned and she glared at them, hands on her hips. “Make those two thousand words. And no more weapons training this week. Now go inside, not a word or a sound from anyone!”

Zarina watched as the children did just that, and as soon as they were out of sight, she sighed and sat on the ground, legs slightly stretched out in front of her.

Zaraki ran over, crouching down and knelt to the girl’s right. “I’m so sorry that happened, Zarina, that I wasn’t out here sooner! Are you okay?”

Zarina shook her head. “I’m hit, Zaraki! Wounded! I should go to the hospital, I should be relieved of duty, I should –”

Zaraki laughed. “I think you’re okay then, if you can complain this much.”

“I’m dying,” Zarina groaned again. “I should go home for the week…”

“I don’t even see any blood,” Zaraki told her. “You’re fine, other than probably a hefty headache from their antics.”

After a few moments, Zarina was inside and continued on with the lessons about speech about weaponry and the basics of medical ninjutsu. After an hour of giving the lecture of anatomy, physiology, application, and usage of the art, she was finally finished with the class. Saying goodbye to the class, she soon exited the classroom and the building altogether to head to home.

EXIT
TWC: 2210

Claiming:
+4,000 Ryo
+1,000 Ryo (Converting 20 AP (x 50 Ryo) -> 1,000 Ryo)
483 to 1,017/1500 to learn Space-Time Spec (Other Word Count Learned from Here)
1312/1312 to Imitation Black Hole (25% Off Due to Max Stat)
415/1312 to Imitation White Hole (25% Off Due to Max Stat)