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After the Fourth Great Shinobi World War ended, the world was experiencing a time of peace. The villages for once were able to live in relative harmony with one another as they rebuilt, and for once, all seemed to be well. The kage were able to live peaceful lives and soon began retiring, passing on the baton to the next generations. That is until an unknown virus infects the northern coast. The first to fall is the once powerful Raikage, Ay. While many thought this virus was a simple mutation of what may have well been the flu, no one would ever think of the destruction it would cause. Especially when it infected a certain Uzumaki Naruto.
With his death came the malice; with the malice came the destruction; with the destruction came the shinobi' revolt; and with the revolt came the sacrifices. The Bijuu became filled with malice that they sought to destroy the world. Shinobi sought a way to fight them and once again capture each of the Bijuu. Time passed, and a plan was devised. The Jinchuuriki would be sacrificed for the greater good of the world, and with the deaths of nine individuals, an uneasy peace began.
As time continued, the villages began to truly restructure. In a peace that would last 80 years after the downfall of the Bijuu, the world would see the creation of a great many things. Technology was beginning to take root and before long the blossoms that grew from the tree of the advanced mind would bear fruit. A many great things came to be. A railroad between the vast many nations. Mechanical limbs to replace lost ones. Radios that could reach between villages. Everything seemed to be becoming less reliant on the shinobi. Only the need for them never truly vanished. As with the growth of time, also continued the growth of malice.
Kazuko didn't know if she would ever get used to being blind. Adjusting had been easier than she expected; the sensory abilities she already possessed helped her 'see' and actions etched into her muscle memory weren't any different. But still... She would never see the blue sky, or the faces of her comrades, ever again.
It would be different if she had been born without sight; then she wouldn't know what she was missing. But the painfully vivid full-color memories of her village and its people almost haunted her, taunting her with a bright brilliance that would never again exist to her outside of her mind.
The redhead didn't hold a grudge against the man who'd done it. Sure, he maybe should have been more careful, verified his target before attacking... But he hadn't intended to blind her. He had merely been trying to do his job. How could she fault him for that? Most would, but Kazuko wasn't that type of person; what happened, happened, and usually, it did so for a reason. She just hadn't found the reason for this yet.
Perhaps most unfortunately, the loss of her sight had made it impossible for her to continue doing her job as a gate guard. It was hard to do anything involving paperwork without the ability to read it, after all. She felt lost; she'd probably never be able to be part of the general chuunin task force, she couldn't be a proctor, couldn't guard the gate or do paperwork... Her ability to be a shinobi, period, was so severely limited because she couldn't see. At the moment, she couldn't even practice her art, fuuinjutsu... Because generally, one needed to be able to see seals in order to learn how to draw them.
There was no way Kazuko was just going to give up and quit being a shinobi, though. This life was the only one she knew, and she'd be damned if she let a little thing like this get her so down she wouldn't even try to keep living it. So, on the suggestion of the Kazekage, she was visiting the Shinobi Academy today, to see if she would be able to find a place there.
If she couldn't, she didn't know what she would do next.
Last Edit: Dec 1, 2014 4:18:34 GMT by Anzai Kazuko
Absolute silence. Perhaps the calmest thing in the entire world. The only noises heard were the ticking of the clock, marking the passing of each agonizing second. There were also the tapping of pencils. Not a single voice was heard in that classroom. No wandering eyes, no passing of notes. what could possibly have made the students be so quiet?
Test day. It was always test day. The one day of the week that students dreaded coming to school for. A day to be spent in silence, to evaluate all of their hard work and dedication to study. The teacher, meanwhile, had his face buried in a book. Chair leaned back on its hind legs, feet resting on the desk with only his ankles to support him. He wasn't even reading, just pretending to look busy. One of the first lessons of a shinobi was to preform actions stealthfully. If these kids could cheat, yet do it without getting caught, there'd be no reason to punish them. The only other noise was the movement of a wheel. On the left of the teacher's desk, a rather large cage had been set up. Inside was the laziest prairie dog known to man. The teacher's pet, Rayne.
The final ticks were upon them. Pencils had stopped, eyes were glaring at the clock like those of a hawk. The last tick seemed to last an eternity.. until the bell finally rung. The test was over. It was free-period. The students lept from their desks and stampeeded out the door, leaving the teacher and his pet remaining all alone.
Not a single word was spoken until they all left the room. The door being left wide open, but it didn't seem to bother him much.
"Remember when we were like that? Always eager to get out of here." Came a low voice. The chair leaned forward, and the teacher rose to his feet. "Might as well see how the little brats did."
The ringing of the bell that signified the end of class seemed a hundred times louder than it had been when she walked these halls as a student. Only by ducking into a side corridor did Kazuko manage to avoid the stampede of overexcited children already starting to run off the energy they had accumulated by sitting behind a desk all day.
When the echoing of footsteps silenced, Kazuko reentered the main hallway, seeking out a vaguely familiar chakra signature. She remembered sitting next to the boy it belonged to all those years ago. Heh, look at her sounding like some old timer, when really it had been, what, six years? since her own time at the academy had come to an end. Not really that long at all, if one was looking at the big picture.
Hovering in the doorway to the classroom where the familiar chakra signature was, Kazuko spoke. "Subeta-san?"
Last Edit: Dec 1, 2014 21:24:27 GMT by Anzai Kazuko
It was true. It had only been roughly six years since their time at the academy had come to an end. In those years, however, many events had befallen the village.. and they as individuals. As Tenma walked around the room, collecting the papers of those little kiddys, he paused for a few moments when Rayne chittered.
Visitors? At this time? How curious. Collecting the last of the papers, he made his way back to his desk. Sitting down just as a rather familiar head peaked into the room. That voice reaching his ears. How many years had it been since he'd seen her? They weren't squadmates, but they saw one another in the general day-to-day. "Anzai-san! How have you been? It's been ages since we've seen one another. What brings you to the academy?" He noticed a.. slight oddity about the girl. He knew that she had sustained an injury to her left eye when they were younger, but.. why were both her eyes covered? By her headband no less.
"Is everything alright, Kazuko?" His voice dropped. Less of a calm, joy-filled tone and one of a more serious nature.
She drifted further into the room, stopping beside what she judged to be the enclosure for Subeta-san's prairie dog. Kazuko couldn't remember the creature's name, but she knew they were practically inseparable. The redhead was facing as directly towards the teacher as she could, but she was probably off a little... Still getting used to having to rely on sensing chakra to know where people were.
"Ah, I had a little... 'accident' on a mission," she informed him quietly, a bittersweet smile twisting her lips. "Lost my other eye for my troubles. I'm blind."
The silence hung heavy for a few moments before the chuunin spoke again. "I can't do my duty as a gate guard anymore, but I'm not giving up on being a shinobi. I just have to find the right place." And if her luck took a turn for the better, perhaps she would find it in the shinobi academy.
The movements of the girl seemed aged.. exerted. Like she had to put more energy into them than any normal person. Something wasn't right, but Tenma couldn't quite put his finger on it. It was a perk of being a teacher, he'd venture to guess. Watching out for his students lead him to develop a rather keen eye. She seemed to be facing towards him, but not quite. That headband was blocking her sight, clearly. What could it mean?
It was then, in his train of thought, that she told him the reason. Like a deer in the headlights, he lost grip on the pencil he was holding. Dropping it to the floor with a silence-shattering noise. It all made sense. Her off-balance movements. The way her voice twisted and cracked, as if in pain. He could only imagine what troubles she was having.
"If I remember correctly, you were always good with sensory abilities." The boy spoke finally, after several moments in silence. He couldn't find words, or pin together thoughts to try to calm her down. Rayne, meanwhile, was looking back and forth between the two of them. Loudly chewing on the cage door to try to get it open.
"Perhaps you can assist me in the classroom. You may remember that I'm terrible with fuinjutsu."
The clattering of the pencil on the ground startled her. Any time before this, it wouldn’t have, but now that she couldn’t see it falling? Pencils didn’t have chakra for her to detect. A lot of things didn’t, in fact. So while yes, her sensory abilities were quite useful, it was nothing like having sight. Even just one eye was better than blindness.
“Yeah. Kind of had to be, to compensate,” she replied to his statement. “And it helps, a lot, bein’ able to detect chakra. At least I’m not runnin’ into people on the street and stuff, y’know. But only living things have chakra to detect.” Living things, and things infused with chakra. She’d been thinking about trying to get a hold of some special scrolls and ink that had been made with chakra so she could still ‘see’ to write seals. Whether it would work or not was a complete mystery, but it was worth trying, right?
“It makes me feel like an infant, almost,” she admitted quietly. “Like I’m helpless. I’ve been eating cold noodles and delivery food for a week. Probably gettin’ gyped on that, since I can’t see what bills I’m handing over to the delivery boy. I can barely navigate my own apartment, let alone anywhere else. It’s.. crazy. I don’t know if I’ll ever manage to get used to it.”
Kazuko considered his suggestion for a moment; she had come here hoping to find a place where she’d fit in and still be able to help. “It’d be nice if you had a place for me; I’d love to help out with the kids.” Upon becoming a chuunin, she had considered applying to teach at the academy, but there were a lot of prospective teachers for a relatively low amount of open positions, and there’d been almost nobody eager to take on a gate guard position. So she’d done the latter instead of trying to force her way through a ton of competition for a highly-sought position. And being a gate guard hadn’t been bad; she’d grown to enjoy it, after a while. It was just the right pace for her. Or it had been, anyway. “I can still show off things like taijutsu forms and whatnot. I’m blind, but I still have all my skills… I need to relearn how to use ‘em. Just as able to do that here as anywhere else.”
All throughout Tenma's life, he'd been courtious when it came to listening to the issues of those around him. Never before had his attention been so focused on one person as it was right now. His long time friend and collegue was spilling her heart, showing just how vulnerable she was feeling due to the lack of sight. She could hardly look after herself. How was he supposed to respond? Either way he could think of would just turn out to be an insult in disguise. Tenma couldn't bring himself to ever say anything rude or mean to a collegue. He wasn't that sort of guy.
As he became lost in thought. Engrosed with Kazuko's story.. he didn't notice that the door to Rayne's cage had been unlocked. The crafty little bastard was always escaping the cage. Eventually he plopped his furry butt down on Tenma's head and began nibbling on a small piece of lettuce.
"You're kind of depressing, you know that?" Came a voice. A high pitched, rather squeaky voice.. but it was there. The irritation imbeded in the words were about as subtle as an elephant in a ninja tools store. In fact, the fact that it lacked subtlety seemed to make Tenma angry.
"Rayne! That was rude! Apologize." Why was Tenma claiming the Prairie Dog spoke? Surely he was just a pet, right? So much for their own subtleties.
"She's a Shinobi, just like us. We all have our place. Just because you lost your sight doesn't mean you're useless!" The voice seemed adamant and stubborn. Unwilling to change its mind. It was then that Tenma seemed to remember something, and his hand slammed down on the desk as he remembered.
"Come to think of it, Kazuko.. I could help you learn to find your way around. I'm rather terrible at it..." he was cut off mid sentence by the high pitched voice going 'Absolutely shit' before the boy just growled. "Shut up, Rayne.. as I was saying.. there's a Sensory style that my family's developed. I can't use it myself.. but perhaps I could teach you?"
The prairie dog's squeaky voice surprised her; she'd thought that the creature was just a pet. Well, you learn something new every day, don't you? Kazuko cocked her head to the side, face tilted upwards toward the animal. "When did I say that I was useless? I recall saying something quite to the contrary." Rayne's rudeness didn't bother her in the least; it would take a lot more than that to ruffle her feathers.
His hand slammed down on the desk, and she flinched. The chuunin wasn't entirely sure what had made the sound, only that it was loud and quite startling. Any time before now, and that wouldn't have made her move at all; but without being able to see the source of the noise, she was a little more jittery.
"Are you sure? I mean, are you allowed to teach your family's style to someone that's not related?" Kazuko wasn't part of a clan herself, but she knew a lot of them were really uppity about just who learned their special techniques and whatnot.
Instead of providing a snappy, witty and somewhat obnoxious reply back to the girl, Rayne simply continued to stuff his face with the lettuce. Cheeks puffed out like he was some kind of fish. The crunching of the leaf was loud, but easily ignored. Seeing how Rayne seemed content with just that single comment, Tenma chuckled. His left arm raising up to scratch idly at the rodent's belly.
"Ignore Rayne.." he'd begin to explain. Returning his attention to the girl in front of him. "He's always been the impatient one. Always quick to knock me out of any depressive funk I was in.." the boy, once again, trailed off as his mind wandered. She had questioned whether or not he'd be allowed to teach his family's technique. Would he get in trouble? He wondered if the elders would think badly of him. It didn't take long to come up with the answer, however.
Tenma's face shifted into one of complete happiness. Smiling without a single care in the world. His state of mind was easily reflected in his voice, which also lacked not a shred of doubt. "Sure! As long as it helps someone I care about, they don't care what I do. Besides, they owe me for coming up with the solution to the village's food shortage. I'd love to teach you, Kazuko." Tenma was an interesting boy to say the least. Although he was a ninja, he seemed to have no interest in war or combat in general.
The prairie dog was silent, munching his lettuce. A part of her wished she had a companion like him; just someone to keep her company, make her feel better when she was down... Soft and fuzzy. You know. The important things.
A grateful smile spread across her face when he spoke again. "In that case, I'd love to learn it.. sensei~" Her voice had a teasing tone to it; she'd always found it kind of cute how the chuunin could almost pass as one of the students he taught. At least, he could if he hadn't magically grown four or six inches in the several weeks it had been since the last time she had actually seen him.
No, sadly the boy hadn't magically grown since the last time they had seen one another. He had always been picked on for being on the short size. Viscious things came in small packages, as he always used to say. Then again, in those days he was referring more to Rayne than himself. The little rodent always got him in trouble. Running off to places he shouldn't be, stealing things easily pinchable.. and biting anyone who made fun of them. Tenma wondered what exactly went through Rayne's head on a daily basis. Sure, they had been friends for years.. but his partner was a quiet one.
Although the teasing tone was easily caught, it was still new for Tenma to hear it from a friend. So, with the grace of a thousand crickets.. his face errupted into a rather bright blush. He counted himself lucky that Kazuko couldn't see it, but soon stopped that thought. Stumbling out of his seat, he made his way over to Kazuko and extended his hand to her. He moved slowly, so she could keep tabs on where he was. "You don't have to call me that, Kazuko. Tenma's just fine."
She reached out to take his hand and overextended, smacking him in the abdomen with her outstretched hand. Her face was now approximately the same shade as her hair. "Sorry." She adjusted and, this time, took his warm hand in her own. Her own was slightly clammy; hopefully, he wouldn't notice.
"Right. Tenma." Kazuko wasn't really one for formalities anyway.
His mind practically shut down when her hand smacked him in the abdomen. He had forgotten for just a moment that she couldn't see. He shouldn't have expected her to get used to it already. Of course her movements would be odd. Their faces were about the same shade now. Both of them embarrassed for different reasons. With their hands together finally, Tenma gently tugged her along behind him. He was intent to lead her to the outer gates. He wasn't allowed to practice his jutsu inside the village walls, and he figured it was better safe than sorry.
Along the way, Tenma couldn't get his mind off of Kazuko. They had known one another for years, and he always thought she was rather attractive. No! Bad Tenma! If he was going to teach her his family's style, and even more so work with her in the academy, he needed to keep a clear head. Rayne seemed to be enjoying the destruction in Tenma's mental state, since he was chittering rather loudly on his head. Something only Tenma would be able to pick up as laughter. Damn that little fuzz ball.
As they left the academy behind, Tenma glanced over his shoulder towards Kazuko. There was one thing he needed to confirm before they went farther. "Just a heads up. It might be a little difficult to learn. It's a Doton sensory technique. I know that you don't have the correct affinity, but that shouldn't be much of an issue. Is that alright?"
Kazuko was more focused on not tripping or running into anything to be thinking about all that much. She knew Tenma wasn't going to just let her walk into things but she wouldn't always have someone else to help her out, so she had to get used to doing it herself.
At least he wasn't treating her any differently, really. Sure, maybe the hand holding was a little unnecessary, but the redhead was absolutely not going to complain about that. Hopefully he wasn't watching her face redden further at that particular thought.
Her head turned in his direction when he spoke again. "Eh, I'm always up for a challenge. Shouldn't be a problem. And if it is, I'll just have to work harder. No big deal."
