Starring:
Meimei (as Yoko), Risu, Misayo, Ichiyo, Minako
Date: November 17, 2010
Summary:
A basic exercise of shuriken throwing and a writing assignment turns into a conflict of personalities, when Misayo decides to speed up the class a bit.
""M-E-D-I-C" Spells "Bully""
Training Fields - Sunagakure
"There will be homework today, but how easy it is for you will depend quite a bit on how much you pay attention and how well you do during our exercises today," Yoko begins, as she and the rest of her class are assembled out in the training fields of Sunagakure's Ninja Academy. Lined up are a series of target dummies, and there is a box of training ninja tools situated near where the hooded woman stands in front of the class.
"Part of today will be shuriken throwing practice, but we'll also do some other conditioning exercises, and so forth. On top of that, however… I am going to ask for you to write down your thoughts regarding possible occupations you might use your ninja skills in in the future. You should have your note pad and your pencils, as well as the main handbook that has a listing of some of the many shinobi occupations. What you write about ultimately does not need to be from the book, or even something known to exist. But it should be something you have an interest in."
She looks towards Risu briefly, her gaze hidden behind her goggles. They've been working on the reading and writing but she knows it may take awhile longer for even an assignment like this to be 'easy'. "If you would rather not write for whatever reason, I or a classmate can do the writing for you, just so long as you have a paper to turn in by the end of the class. Any questions?"
Risu listens to the teacher's instructions on what the class is going to do today. She flushes slightly as she gets a glance, even if the teacher's eyes are hidden behind the goggles. She distracts herself by peeking at the ninja tools then looking to the target dummies. She tilts her head then grins a bit at the idea of getting to throw things at the targets. Otherwise though, for now, she waits for more direct orders, not starting until the teacher tells the group what they are doing first. She's trying not to draw too much attention to herself if she can help it, it seems. Usually she's staying towards the back of the class and avoiding talking during class as much as she can. She might even seem a bit shy because of it.
"I will not write for anyone. They should not be so lazy."
…Did anyone even ASK her to!? Regardless, Harada Misayo loudly places her noncompliance with the teacher's offer of a classmate's aid out there in the open. She holds her book by it's spine, mostly side-ways at a thirty or so degree angle, tilting her head to read it rather than turning the book to make it easier to read. A notebook and her standard-issue ninja-pencil are clenched in the other hand as she holds her materials out before her, as if she were working on an invisible desk. It only takes a moment for her eyes to light up from their usual deadpan stare, before she tosses the handbook over her shoulder, landing on the ground with a loud *THWAP*.
Her pencil flies across the notebook, and in neat, tiny writing, she scribbles her name in the upper right corner of the page. 'Harada Misayo'. Across the rest of the page is a word scrawled in big, block letters: 'M E D I C'. The notebook is promptly turned around and then thrust out with both arms with the writing facing outwards, towards Instructor Yoko.
"Hmph! I am the first one finished. This should reflect extra credit. I want to get to the throwing of sharp things now." At the mention of the 'throwing of sharp things', the blonde-haired girl cuts a sly, evil-intent-filled look to the side, towards a boy about her size, but perhaps a year younger. He scowls back at her, through a black eye, before crossing his arms and pointedly looking away.
Ichiyo looks crestfallen. Homework is never fun. Granted, this bit might not be so bad to him. He can let his creativity shine. Ichiyo thumbs at the pages in his hand as well as the pencil in the other. He looks like he's ready to start, but instead looks at the box of ninja tools. His mind flies along thinking of anything that would improve them. But comes up with slingshots and atle-atles, not the best but it works. He scribbles something down on the paper quickly and folds the paper pad closed. Stuffing it into a pocket, he starts looking around, as if searching for something within his line of vision, but can't find anything. Instead, he unslings his shoulder pack and starts rooting around for something.
Minako had some instruction in reading prior to being orphaned… Three years ago. Three years of no reading or further teaching has left her in only barely better circumstances than Risu. Of course, if anyone were to ask her, she would insist that Seals are >like< writing, and since she understands Seals (or some simple ones anyway), she obviously can read! …But that does not translate into being able to comprehend most of what's in her ninja handbook. Still, she makes a valiant show of lifting the book, opening it to the section she recognizes more based on page number than heading, and pretends to be disinterested instead of baffled. She can understand some of the words, sure. But… 'Jikuukan Ninjutsu'? 'Bunshinjutsu'? 'Juinjutsu'!? She knows 'jutsu' and that's about it. When she reaches the section on ninja professions, with pictures for some of the occupations to show garments, or some other aspect of a given ninja type, she tries to comprehend more of what she's reading.
"Hmm…" Peering at the words with her crimson eyes, Minako glances to the side, at Risu, and just goes, 'Hmm' again. Is Risu understanding any of this? They weren't told to begin writing yet, so the red-head has awhile longer to stall… But ultimately she decides she can't fake it once the assignment is given out.
"Hibiki, what if we don't >want< to be any ninja profession?" she asks without raising her hand. Well, Yoko did ask if there were any questions. Ichiyo's fidgeting nearby makes her turn a frown on him, as though he were attempting to drown her out. And he's probably not even that noisy. But finally she decides to help him find whatever he's looking for after she gets an answer.
Yoko looks towards Misayo first. She accepts the held-out notebook. "Good job. First to complete the assignment before I said to start. Five points to Slyther—Err… Harada. However, you mistreated your school materials, so you are also going to be penalized. Five points from Harada. However, since you were so quick to finish, there's not much point in making you sit around and wait for everyone else. Why don't you do a lap around the fields?"
Next, the begoggled teacher focuses on Ichiyo and his rustling, but before she can say anything, Minako speaks up. The disrespectful leaving-off of an honorific is ignored. "…Well, like I said, it doesn't have to be anything in the book. It could be something you've heard of before. Or something entirely new. It's where your interests lie. This isn't a permanent decision, mind you. Just… Write down what you think would be interesting at the moment. Or you can tell me if you like, and I'll write it down."
Finally she looks towards Ichiyo and his continued searching. "Did you leave your books at home, Koga?"
"…Oh, and if you're ready to start now, you may begin. Those with more questions can come talk to me."
Risu pulls out the handbook with the names of various ninja jobs and the like. She slowly leafs through it, trying to mouth out some of the easier words. She isn't very good at this but she's trying. She seems hesitant to run up to Yoko for help, instead struggling along on her own. She steals a glance at the self prounounced MEDIC wannabe. At least that was a word Risu was able to figure out, well, after a bit that is. She frowns and doesn't seem to get the anger she seems to feel from the other Blonde haired girl. Still, she mostly focuses on her own work, trying to find something. She gets to a page about scouts and pauses, looking at the picture of the ninja scout and trying to mouth through some of the words on that page.
Risu watches out of the corner of her eye to see when Yoko is free though, waiting, wanting to be last to ask questions it seems, just in case others may have questions before her. Risu goes back to reading a bit, holding the book in one hand and moving her finger under the words with the other as she mouths her way through them.
"Ha-ra-da." Misayo's correction is automatic, almost at the same time as Yoko corrects herself! "I have mistreated nothing. The book will be fine on the ground. Are you now punishing me for getting my work done early?
Propping her wrists up on her hips, the blonde-haired student's face scrunches up into a scowl. "Then you must be promoting laziness, the arch-enemy of hard work, neh! Will you be doing this every time someone works ahead? I remember when completing assignments in a satisfactory and timely manner was a good thing! I am thinking you are upset I would not allow you to give me substandard eraser. Or maybe you hate the hard work. The people who know what they want from life? This is not a good thing."
Half-folding her arms in front of her, the young ninja aspiree grabs her elbow with one hand, shaking a finger up and down as she continues unabated. "A shinobi does not wait for her enemy to say 'begin'. She fixes what needs the fixing once she knows what needs fixing. I have done this. There is a favorite that you are having that you would have rather finished first, neh! Give me back my notebook and I will wait for them to be first, then. Favoritism is not a good thing."
A glance towards Minako as she half-fake-reads. "You may have been right in your telling of the grown people."
Ichiyo looks up seeing the red haired girl come over to help. "Oh, hi!" he says in a whisper giving a genuine smile but keeping his voice low. But he's still noticed and looks over at Yoko with a scared look on his face, "Um…sorry, Yoko-sensei. I'm done with the assignment too, I guess. But I was looking for a long metal pipe in my shoulder bag. I know I put it in here when I left ojiisan's shop…" he holds out his shoulder bag which is full of, well…junk. A few books, but mostly packed with gears, wheels, random bits of metal, and a few bits of random things. Nothing gross, but there should be a the thing he needs, somewhere.
Muttering a bit, Minako considers giving a speech about how she doesn't even want to be here in the first place, and is being forced to attend, and how she would rather leave this place forever and go looking for her parents, and so on and so forth. But then she thinks over what Yoko just said, and nods to herself. "Anything, huh… Even something I make up myself?" She nods again, and then turns her attention on Ichiyo, since he is sitting right near her. "I'll look for your pipe if you write my assignment. You're already done with yours, right?" She doesn't wait for confirmation and instead hands over her notebook and pencil and stats digging through the shoulder bag. "Alright, just put this down on the paper. 'Sealing Jutsu ninja.' 'Sword ninja.' And then finally, 'Tracker ninja.' Got all that?" She turns her attention back on Ichiyo as she grabs something that feels like a pipe and tries to pull it out of the bag.
Minako glances towards Misayo, not wanting to get caught in whatever is coming her way, but still deciding to stick up for the blonde girl. "Hey, she didn't know she was supposed to wait for the signal to start. Punishing her with physical labor is unreasonable!" She scowls at Yoko.
Meimei sighs. Babysitting. That's what this amounts to. But she is also expected to teach kids values and life skills and so on. She's practically a parent! 'And I volunteered for this?' she wonders. "Fine. From now on, if I am waiting on others to ask questions before we begin, that is an indication it is not yet time to begin. You'll have plenty of time to learn what ninja do and don't do in the future, Harada. Patience can often times be a lot more valuable to a ninja than speed. One member of a team who attacks before her team mates are ready for an ambush could cost the entire team their lives. Preconceived notions of what is and is not 'ninja' should probably be ditched at this point."
She turns her focus on Ichiyo and Minako's interaction, and then starts to focus on Risu when the protest about 'punishing with physical labor' goes up. Despite rolling her eyes not being visible behind her goggles, she does it anyway. "You're all going to be doing laps in a moment anyway, I figured since she was so keen to work ahead maybe she could get started ahead of the rest of you. I'm not punishing anyone. Now if you're done grabbing Ichiyo's pipe for him, can you hand over his notebook since he said it was done already?"
Risu watches this all, and frowns a bit. Everyone is arguing and… what is going on? This… she looks very confused. Everyone is acting… well, silly. Risu isn't very much about the silly it appears. Still, she says nothing, keeping quiet as if the mere act of speaking might draw undue attention from such strongly vocal people as Misayo. Instead Risu tries to keep reading the page on ninja scouts, working her way through it as best as she can. She clearly is going to need help on writing things down, but for now she works on the next page, a page about Genjutsu. She's watching the others, even as she reads her book, splitting her attention. Doesn't pay to be unaware of one's surroundings after all, never know when something bad might happen.
"Oh, we can not throw the stars if we are tired!" Naturally there's a protest. Two guesses who it came from, but everyone probably already knows the bandana-wearing blonde kunoichi-in-training was the one who spouted it. A moment later she's snapping her fingers, and people can almost see the lightbulb clicking on over her head. "Hmph! You are dangling the fun exercises in front of us while you make us do the unexciting ones! Clever, clever ploy. To throw the sharp things we have to do the boring, tiring things. Hai, hai, I see, I see."
"Hup, hup!" The amber-eyed preteen claps her hands together twice, as if trying to command the attention of the group. "There must be hurrying if we are to get to the good part! Slow, too slow!" Several quick steps of her sandaled feet bring her near her first victim: Risu. Immediately, Misayo is snatching for her notebook and pencil. "What you want to be? Speak up! Medic. Yes? Yes!" And soon enough, if not prevented, the word 'M E D I C' is scrawled across the other girl's page.
"NEXT! You!" And regardless of success, she's moving on down the line of undecided kids. "Yes, YOU! Choice? Medic? No? Yes! Medic! You? Medic! You? Nani!? Swords? Spell it. Em ee dee aye see, got it! NO PROTESTS, we go quick!"
Ichiyo looks surprised and says, "Yeah…I am." and he gets the notebook. He quickly opens it up and says, "Hold on, hold on." Between the suddenness of Minako giving him the paper and pencil and grabbing the shoulder pack to look through it for the pipe, it's not easy to write. He says, "Hey that's…" he scribbles sealing jutsu down quickly, "…ah…" he goes back to writing. "Tracking wha…yah!" as the pipe is pulled out. He does get all three written down, more or less, and the pipe is out. With only a few items dropping out of the pack. He grabs the book and cog that fell out, and slips them back in the pile. He smiles and hands the paper and pencil back with a slight blush, "There you go…" and takes back the pipe. "Ah, there you are, you silly thing." He looks over at Yoko and smiles, pulling the notebook from a pocket. It's not very big…note pad is more like it. On it is the simple words, 'Gears, seals, basics (tools)'. Then just stares at Misayo, agast and a little anoyed clearly on his face. "Hey, kid…stop it." he says, pointing the pipe at the girl.
Minako nods towards Ichiyo and smiles, taking back her notebook. But when Misayo hops up and starts snatching for books, the red-head's smile turns into a look of outrage. She leaps up too and says, "Hey! You can argue with the adults however much you want, but don't be trying to bully others!" She quickly moves closer to where Misayo and Risu are, even as Misayo >may< have already proceeded down the line. A glance is given to Risu to make sure she's okay, and then she scowls at Misayo. "If you want to be a Medic, good for you. But no one else has to be one just so you can get to throwing stuff faster!"
Meimei takes a moment to rub her forehead at Misayo's additional protesting. "Do you really think an enemy is going to wait for you to be rested before fighting you? Being able to throw a shuriken accurately, even while tired, is the point of the exercising. That and building up endurance. I told you at the very beginning that we were going to be doing conditioning exercises. And—Hey!" She breaks off as Misayo grabs for Risu's book. Minako is already up and acting before she can do anything, however. Which is good, because if she had had to act things might have gotten a bit ugly.
Even so, regardless of if Misayo halts or not, Yoko is suddenly striding forward, not using any 'ninja speed' or the like, just walking forward quickly. She then grabs for Misayo's shoulder and NOW she is using 'ninja speed' as she attempts to just smack the girl upside the head with one hand. Pretty common disciplinary measure, really. And totally legal if it's not abused. "Harada! Your behavior is unacceptable! In addition to detention you are now going to go back to the classroom and sit by yourself until the rest of us are done! And if I have to escort you there, I'll make sure to give you a nice long list of assignments to do since you're so eager to 'work ahead'."
Risu let go of her book and pencil when Misayo yanked it from her hands. She backed up, looking, well, horrified as the other girl writes in her book. She looks unsure what to do as others come to her aid. She backs up, seeming a tad, well, stunned someone would do this to her class materials. She stares at Misayo, blinking a bit, her eyes locked on the other blonde girl, and if someone was very perceptive they might notice something unnerving about that look from Risu…. something feral. Misayo seems more focused on going from book to book and hurrying so likely misses this look completely but others may pick up on it. There's a general feeling of something rising from Risu, but… that is sort of muted when Minako and Yoko come over to address issues.
"Oh, I said no protests! I am trying to complete it, not stop it. You have to learn to listen when someone is talking to you." Harada Misayo spares Ichiyo a glance as she gets into a minor wrestling match with a boy over control of his notebook, her pencil perilously close to branding him as a 'medic' for all time. "You must learn to respect your elders!"
"I am- hnnnnnnngh -hurrying not bullying! Be indecisive later! The instructor said as- Ow." The blonde-haired preteen rubs at the back of her head, thus releasing the book she was currently grabbing for. The surly kunoichi-in-training frowns up at the older woman, likely rubbing her offended cranium more out of response for the insult than actual pain. Or maybe she was just making sure her bright red head-cover was still in place. "Hmph! I did not want to play with the darts with children!"
With her hands behind her head, Misayo begins the march back towards the classroom, chin tilted at a proud angle, doing her best to look bored. She's muttering the entire way, like a cantankerous old grouch trapped in a preteen girl's body, so as she leaves every third word or so can be picked up as 'trying to', 'never helping another', and 'much too short'.
Yoko frowns and makes sure to watch Misayo all the way back to the class room. She twitches a bit at being called so-small-she-can't-even-be-seen-with-a-microscope, but decides to let it slide. Focusing back on Risu and Minako, she says, "You can be seated now, Uzumaki. Risu, if you could bring your notebook over here and I'll help you erase what was written down. And don't worry about Harada. I'll make sure she knows not to take other people's things again…" Another glance is given to the retreating back of the blonde with the red bandana, but then she just shakes her head. "Enough drama for one day. Wrap up your assignment, and if you need extra time, such will be provided to you before the end of class. We'll do a single lap around the fields, and then move on to shuriken throwing."
Minako stares incredulously at the blonde girl as she denies she is bullying. She clenches her small hands into fists of fury and is about to start punching when the teacher steps in. She feels the impulse to step back as Yoko smacks Misayo, but does not actually do so. When the bully is dismissed back to the classroom, and the red-head is told to sit down back down, she mutters and goes back to her seat next to Ichiyo. Picking up her notebook, she hands it over, along with Ichiyo's, to the purple-haired woman.
"Seems like nothing has changed from the street after all…" she grumbles to herself. "Still people pushing others around because they want something and have the strength to take it. This sucks."
Risu has not said a word this whole time, from begining to end, but at least she nods to Yoko, and goes to pick up her notebook. She brings it over to the teacher so that the word MEDIC can be erased and maybe something better can be put in. Or at least something of her choice. Risu is a blonde too, but after today, she's pondering changing her hair color. Something about that other girl clearly rubs Risu wrong at this poing but… all she does for now, is let the look fade and follow orders. She glances at Minako and does mouth the words 'thank you' to her, as she heads to the teacher, at least acknowledging the assistance the other student provided to her after all.