Academy Days: The Saga Begins!

[abileunaspada]

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.

Comments

[abileunaspada]

"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."

[not_thedragon]

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.

[abileunaspada]

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.

[not_thedragon]

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."

[abileunaspada]

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.

[not_thedragon]

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.

[abileunaspada]

"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.