sunshineverse | Academy Days: The Saga Begins!

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Academy Days: The Saga Begins!

Who: Adela Milani (

abileunaspada) & OPEN
When: January 3rd-31st
Where: Konohagakure's Ninja Academy
Notes: Adela is one of the chuunin recruited to be a teacher's assistant for Iruka at the academy! At times it's rough, and at others it's fun, but to be a future Hokage one has to know how to address the youth of Konoha! And, well, give them proper reprimand for nearly burning the buildings down on a weekly basis.

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Adela didn't think she'd have such a hard job in assisting Iruka with his academy classes, but man was she ever exhausted! Between running around, teaching kids combat and stealth skills, breaking up spars that were going too far, dousing fires, testing kids meticulously, and dragging the kids who played hooky back to the classroom for extra lectures and hidden evasion exercises? She was exhausted. Even thinking up that list was hard work!

If Adela wasn't running around and helping Iruka however she could, she was taking one of the few breaks she could with a sigh, a bottled water, and a tune to hum to herself. It wasn't like she was the only aid he had, but that didn't stop the work from being any more tiring. At least on missions out of village she occasionally had the chance to rest!

But, maybe she was being too negative. A smile tugged at the teen's lips as she watched the kids, growing up into the next generation of protectors for the village in a relative era of peace. The future that she'd be protecting with all her might, along with every other shinobi there. Yeah... Times like this, it felt worth it. It felt like her goal was even more important then.

Not that she'd tell the kids that, between teaching them, praising them for good work and scolding them for giving less than their very best in their efforts. There was simply no time, but they didn't need to know the hard work of adults yet either. They were still kids, and they were still allowed the time to be young and carefree so far as she could see.

Yeah. This was way better than her days in Kiri. This was Konoha's Ninja Academy.

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He didn't startle, not exactly, but he tensed far more for that punch than remotely necessary in a safe environment -- easy to pass off as fresh out of a mission if she asked, which with any luck she wouldn't, but worthy of a sharp mental reminder to himself that the village wasn't a mission. Not technically. Not anything more than passing.

"I'll let her parents know what you've said," he repeated, mostly to cover the unreasonable response to a friendly movement. "They're due back at the end of the month, if all goes well.

"How long have you been at the Academy?" The question was a natural followup, he figured, given how she'd been talking as if she knew Fumiko and her antagonists rather well, or at least well enough to make suggestions about potential future teams.

"Since the start of the month, and I've heard a ton of stories from the teachers around too. It's reminding me of what we were like when we were in academy, actually," She couldn't help herself, she chuckled a little and shook her head, "Sorta... Reminding me of what's important, you know?"

Not quite three weeks, then, and Fumiko had proved tight-lipped and stubborn the first time he'd had to fetch her from the classroom after meeting with Iruka. He really would have to spend time trying to pry what was going on with the kid out of her, especially if her parents' missions ended up getting extended and they didn't return before the next fiery 'accident'. If he could somehow pass the duty on to Mikoto ...

But Mikoto had her hands full, or at least said she did, and Sasuke wasn't going to contradict his mother when he'd been away from home more often than not for half a year.

The lift of a question brought his attention back to Adela, one eyebrow lifting again at the look on her face. It was a clear invitation for a question in return (the strangeness of measuring what a reaction should be instead of what it wanted to be still present): "And that is?"

"That we teach the next generation and give them enough peace to let them be kids while they can. I guess that's why I can't get too mad that they were fighting in the first place, it's not fair if they're forced to become adults too early."

Something in her softened and she crossed her arms over the chest, both her seeing and unseeing eyes glancing to the door where she knew Fumiko was, "I think... That's part of what I like the best about Konoha. I'm actually really glad I decided to stay here this month, helping out with Iruka-Sensei."

Edited 2015-01-05 20:10 (UTC)

The Academy seemed to suit Adela, Sasuke thought, with the distant sort of satisfaction he felt when people he knew wound up in places that matched them. His mouth twisted just briefly, something wry in the amusement: if childhood and the uncomplicated way clan friction translated to the disagreements of children was what Adela valued about Konoha's shinobi training, what she'd told him on their last mission was probably true. Whoever had raised her likely hadn't wanted her in Kiri's training program.

But Konoha hadn't become one of the biggest villages through play, and even Fumiko might one day need to weigh the village that the Academy taught and the reality of what shinobi meant, and Sasuke wasn't sure -- wasn't sure if he was grateful for the delay of childhood and now. Wasn't sure he wanted to know how much he'd missed before this month alone, growing up in unquestioning security.

Kiri might have been easier, in some ways.

"They'll need to grow up sooner rather than later," was all he said out loud, turning in tandem just in time to see the top of Fumiko's head vanish from the window. (He'd need to talk to her about spying, too, apparently.) What Adela said last caught his notice, Sasuke tilting his head to look at her with the first real curiosity he'd shown since walking into the classroom. "Are you only here for a month?"

"I might request to stay longer than that, I'm really enjoying myself here even if it is hard work. But yeah, tentatively I'm done at the end of the month and will be back on the active roster. It's not good to let myself idle too long, anyway."

If this wasn't some stepping stone to a future Academy career, Sasuke wasn't sure why it would have occurred to anyone to volunteer to handle children that could stick to walls and light things on fire. But there were people who enjoyed that, he supposed (rather dubiously).

"I thought perhaps you were thinking of becoming a teacher," he commented, glancing around at all the evidence of undersized ninja: scorch marks, kunai nicks, what was almost definitely rude graffiti on some of the desks. "I imagine it's not common for someone to enjoy it as you seem to."

"Not in the long run. I like it here, but... It's not my end goal. I'm aiming a lot higher. Still, getting to know the people of the village more intimately is part of that end goal, at least to me. It's not all politics and becoming the strongest I can possibly be."

She stretched her arms above her head absently, not quite realizing that Sasuke might not know exactly what she was talking about. She hadn't exactly told everyone about her aspirations, after all.

Getting to know the people of the village more intimately? If he hadn't known better, it would have sounded like almost sinister, the notion of somehow ingratiating oneself with a ninja village through its children. But whatever her background was, he doubted Adela was running some secret cutthroat political game.

Though --

"Higher," he repeated carefully, not quite making it a question.

... Oh.

Going a little pink, Adela realized that she hadn't told Sasuke about it, and through some miracle Obito hadn't told him either. A sigh passed through her lips before she stood tall, unapologetic for what she was about to say to him.

"I want to become Konoha's Hokage."

It was, all told, good that he'd been practicing keeping his expressions in check for the past two weeks and a half, because even with the growing habit of maintaining a neutral expression, Sasuke stared blankly at her for a moment. There was no hint of joking in her expression or body language, and he wouldn't have expected such a joke from Adela in any case: she meant it.

A month ago, he might have been startled to find that her goal extended to absolute authority over a village she'd been thrown into when on the run from her own kin; half a year ago, he might have been pleasantly surprised to see ambition in a Konoha-nin so young. But now, with the memory fresh of what Obito had taught him about keeping the village safe -- the level beneath the surface that Sasuke had only scratched upon, and by accident at that --

When he'd sorted through the image burned into mind (Sharingan or not) of his Hokage cutting open the neck of a child and looked at Adela again, at ease within the walls of a classroom and talking about childhood not three minutes ago, the reaction that wanted out was, bizarrely, laughter.

Compose yourself, his Hokage had said. Are you going to be able to behave so that no one can tell something is wrong?

"That's interesting," he said, biting down everything but the mild interest of a friend, and a little nonsensical from the effort that control took: "And you're hoping that your students will be old enough to vote for you when Hokage-sama steps down?"

"Not quite. If I want them to approve of me, it should be because they know I'm right for the job, not because I pressured them into it as kids. I'm kind of keeping it quiet for that reason, even if Hokage-Sama seems to disagree with me not wanting to tell everyone."

Another sigh and she shook her head, looking to them, "It's a lot of leadership, to be looked up to like that... It's a lofty responsibility that can't afford mistakes or anything less than absolute loyalty to the village I call home. And, above all else, valuing its people."

A beat, and she looked out the window to the empty play area, where the children would often wait for their parents to come home, "It's not just the children I want to talk to, but I think it is worth it the most to protect and prepare them for the world ahead -- give them fulfilling goals so that the village can thrive and they can be healthy. We're lucky to be in a time of peace where we can afford to take our time with it, too -- I want to make that peace last as long as possible."

It had been a throwaway question, noise to fill the space while Sasuke regained control of what his breath wanted to do, but she answered with the utmost seriousness -- as if she'd really thought it through, knew that this was what she wanted to do. And a month ago, Sasuke wouldn't have questioned it; might even have thought the rationale reasonable enough, even if he had doubts about what actions she'd take if faced with her kin across a battlefield. The question then would have been loyalty, and now ...

Lofty wasn't the word he would have used to describe the responsibilities of being Hokage, not anymore. Preparing them for the world ahead wouldn't always mean protecting them, and the cost of protecting them wouldn't always be one that was easy to pay, and as for peace -- there was the faint edge of losing control at the edge of his breath again, and Sasuke yanked it back, glanced over at the tuft of dark hair still visible in the glass. Remembered what he was here for, and what normalcy was supposed to look like.

What price the peace, he thought, and carefully didn't say. There was the ever-growing web of information his team had been wading into these past weeks, strands of connection that stuck and clung to a conclusion he didn't want to draw, and there was here and now, someone he'd agreed to be a friend to, naive or not.

If the question then had been loyalty, the question now was what loyalty meant. But that wasn't a question he wished on Adela.

"It's a remarkable goal," he said, once the pause had dragged too long and he wasn't sure how to respond anymore. But if Obito knew, and Obito supported (or at least didn't actively discourage) the notion -- whatever Sasuke might think privately of his sensei's decisions about Adela, he didn't believe they were outright wrong. "I'm glad that Hokage-sama knows. He'll be able to advise you."

"Mm. He was the first one who encouraged it, and he's been helping me prepare for it in various ways. I don't think it'd be enough to guarantee anything, but I still appreciate his help with it."

Encouraged -- was that an impressive tactic to encourage devotion to Konoha, or was it a real bid for a Hokage would-be entirely unrelated to any of the previous patterns of succession?

"And the Academy is part of the preparation?" It sounded like Obito. It sounded like the Obito that Sasuke had known up until two weeks ago.

"It might've been his idea, but I'm all for it if I'm honest about it -- even if it's just for a little while, the reminder's important," Adela nodded absently, not meeting Sasuke's eye as she talked about it. There was something off about his tone, but she didn't say anything about it. For some reason, it felt like... Well, she couldn't put her finger on it. But it felt like Sasuke had mixed feelings about it, and... She wasn't sure she wanted to face that yet.

"... For Konoha, I need to be stronger now. Reminding myself of who I'm trying to protect seems like a good way to start."

It was a good move, probably, or as good as any to start. It was what they were taught, early on, protection of the village and the people that made it what it was; even the failed mentor program through which he'd met Adela in the first place had been an effort to drive that message home.

He wondered, abruptly, exactly how Kiri built loyalty. If at all -- perhaps that was why they'd run into such a large group of missing-nin last time. And it would explain Adela herself. But it would be doing her a disservice to address that to her directly, which left Sasuke floundering for a way to end the conversation or change the topic in any way that wasn't awkward.

"It's a good idea," he said, hesitating, and then latching onto the second-last thing she'd said: "Have you had time to train while you've been here? I expect you've been working on your bloodline jutsu."

"Occasionally. I've been working on my dota a lot more than I used to, and... It's kind of scary, how quickly I'm getting better with it," Adela just frowned, flexing her fingers as she looked them over one by one. Her use of chakra strings, and her chakra flow...

"I'm working mostly on my control. The less chakra I waste, the more I can do with the metal. And maybe... I'll finally be better than him, if I keep at it."

The words caused her to freeze before, once more, she sighed and shook her head, "Sorry, I... Forgot, you don't like talking about him."

At least it sounded like she hadn't done herself any permanent or major damage by avoiding her own bloodline jutsu, providing she could maintain the pace of progress. Sasuke hadn't run across the clan before now, and there hadn't been much in the library on Milani (at least not at his clearance level), so he didn't know what age she would normally have taken up training with it, but with any luck she'd make up for any time that might have been lost.

It was much easier thinking about her clan heritage from a practical standpoint than a political one. The conversation might have strayed into comfortable territory again, Sasuke running through some of the chakra-control exercises he'd gone through when first learning to better manage his reserves, but of course --

He stared, at first, but managed to stop short of saying: You were the one who ran away from talking about him. True, there had been other elements at play at that moment, but the topic had been filed away with a solid red flag over it in his mind. And now that he was thinking about it, if she meant to be Hokage -- but red flag.

"No, that's -- everyone needs a goal," he ended up saying, awkwardly trying to manage a way of working around the topic of the cousin without -- well, she couldn't exactly run away from the Academy and leave her students without supervision when the break ended, but the last thing he needed now was to get mired in a debate about whether her creepy cousin could be trusted. "I'm happy to spar with you if you want to test it on a real person again."

That was hopefully a logical change of subject from the Silver Terror.

It was a surprise, but it was a pleasant one. In spite of herself she smiled softly, her shoulders slumped just a little as she nodded to him, "Thanks, Senpai. I'd like that."

As long as they weren't experimenting with new weapons... Although, even then she had a feeling that she'd be able to handle it this time, with her altered training regimen.

He didn't expect either of them would be available soon, if Adela was keeping Academy hours and given the primary use of Sasuke's time these days, but he'd only seen that bloodline out of the corner of one eye while another was being poked at with highly unpleasant fingernails. The normal thing he'd have done in the past, before, would have been to ask for a spar.

And it felt more natural than anything else in the conversation, now that he'd asked.

"I'll look for you when you're free, then," he said, and then -- mouth twisting into something wry: "With any luck, you won't be injured this time."

In an instant she was pouting at him, a little pink as she huffed, "Oiy, I'm getting better..."

Jeez, Senpai.. He must have still looked down on her, and a part of her couldn't blame him. Not after what they'd been through. She... needed to prove to herself at least that she still deserved the rank of Chuunin. And move from there. That... That would be what she would do.

He hadn't meant to cast any aspersions on her skills so much as comment on their apparent terrible luck whenever both of them were involved in combat -- not even with each other, but seemingly just adjacent to one another. The insistence was better than fear of her own bloodline, though, and Sasuke's lip quirked despite himself.

"I'll expect a greater challenge." And a spar wouldn't hurt. He'd monopolized too much of Kakashi's time this month already, and if she was indeed training with her bloodline techniques, a spar with Adela promised something new and distracting.

For now, though, he could see from the corner of his eye that Fumiko was peering over the bottom of the glass in the door again, likely propped up on tiptoe.

"You'd better. And I think we've kept Fumiko-San waiting long enough, so you'd better get going. It... It was good to see you, Senpai," The words were almost hesitant as she put a smile back on, nodding towards him. It did still feel a little awkward, considering, but at least Sasuke seemed to be doing better since last time. It helped that his leg wasn't horribly injured anymore, too.

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Academy Days: The Saga Begins!

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