Naruto: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summer will end soon enough, and childhood as well. ~ George R.R. Martin

.

.

"So, is anyone coming?" Tenten asked, lifting herself up to sit on the table that dominated the meeting room I'd booked. Her legs swung off the edge, aimlessly. She'd agreed to help me with teaching in exchange for sitting in on the rest of the lessons, which was a total no-brainer.

I shuffled my notes, trying not to let the creeping anxiety get to me. "I thought they would?" I said uncertainly. "I'm sure I said the right place and time."

I hadn't exactly gone around telling everyone but … I'd told dad and a handful of people at RnD and they'd all assured me they'd pass the message on to anyone who was interested. And given how gung-ho dad and Kofuku had been, I'd thought someone would have been strong-armed into it at least.

"On the bright side," I added, trying to sound unconcerned. "If they don't that means we don't have to do it."

On second thought, I quite liked that. I could say oh I really tried, it was a pity no one showed up and then not actually have to do any work. Dad got to know I'd tried, I didn't actually have to teach anyone, everyone won. Well. No. Mostly I won.

I was okay with that.

Although that did put us back into square one on the 'have someone else around who knows what's going on' front.

I sighed.

There was a knock on the door. Tenten slipped off the desk and straightened, professionally, but it was just dad so… whatever.

"No one is here," I said, waving at the room to show him the lack of students.

He nodded and patted me on the head. "I booked a different room for you," he said. "Are these all your notes?"

"What's wrong with this one?" I protested. "I already got the whiteboard set up!" It was only a small one on a stand, but totally preferable to chalk on a blackboard and it didn't require me to wall climb just to reach the top.

He gave the whiteboard an experimental push, but the wheels squeaked and didn't want to move in the same direction, so he simply picked the whole thing up instead, carrying it out of the room.

"Dad!" I said, exasperated, grabbing my notes and tagging along after him. "Where are we going?"

It wasn't another room within the research block, that was for sure. I wasn't actually sure where we were going until I got outside and could feel the chakra emanating from the clan meeting house – technically also a shrine, but mostly in the sense that it was where clan events were held, ceremonies and things that needed space for all of us.

"Did you invite the whole clan?" I asked, incredulous, stopping in my tracks.

Dad kept moving, not even looking back over his shoulder at me. "You did say to invite anyone who was interested," he said, mildly. "A larger group gives you greater chance of finding someone with the skills you need, doesn't it?"

I huffed. He wasn't wrong. He probably hadn't actually required anyone to attend, though there might have been some heavy suggesting – probably on the basis that if no one turned up I was going to just blow this whole thing right off.

Which was exactly what I had been contemplating. Checkmate.

Inside it was clear to see that it wasn't the entire clan. Sembei-obaasan wasn't here, for one. Pretty much everyone else over the age of twelve was, though. Or ten. I was pretty sure I saw a few Academy students in the crowd.

Dad set down the whiteboard at the front of the room, then turned me by the shoulders so I was facing him. He took a thin strip of black fabric out of his pocket and secured it snugly around my throat, so that the microphone on it was unobscured. That he plugged into what was effectively a Walkman.

"Just hit record when you're ready to start," he advised.

I didn't even want to know what kind of strings he had pulled for this or why he'd decided it was necessary.

Critically, I eyed the mass of people grouped around the room, Tenten hovering just over my shoulder. I tried not to wilt at the combined weight of so many eyes resting on me.

"Okay," I said, relieved when my voice came out low and steady. "Everyone who is here to actually learn, front and centre. Everyone who is just here to be nosy… whatever." I couldn't get rid of them, so they'd just have to hang around the edges. The two academy students crept forward at the implicit invitation, though I really doubted that they were going to get much out of this.

I mean, they might. Even if I wasn't exactly a typical example, Tenten had clearly mastered at least one branch of sealing well enough to make her own storage seal.

I pressed 'record'.

"Welcome to Fuuinjutsu 101," I began and even the quiet murmurs of conversation died away. I tried to focus my eyes on the crowd and eventually settled them on mum and Shikamaru, who totally fell into the category 'just here to be nosy'. "People have been expressing an interest in learning about sealing, so this course is an attempt to impart as much theoretical knowledge to as many people as quickly as possible. We've got a lot to cover, so I'm going to try and get through it all as fast as I can. Class will be same-time-same-place every night for approximately an hour. It'll take us about four weeks to cover everything I have planned, assuming we have no setbacks. If I'm called out on a mission, Tenten will take over."

Tenten waved from beside me, before tucking her hands behind her back. This had to be way more awkward for her, standing here without even having anything to say.

"If Tenten isn't available," I continued. "Class will be suspended until one of us returns. If you can't attend, then notes will be available and Nara-sama has thoughtfully decided to tape them so there will also be an audio recording."

I hoped that was what he intended it for, anyway.

"Wait," someone called out, disrupting me. "You mean there's no test?"

"Please don't interrupt me," I said, as calmly as I could manage. "We're on a tight schedule. If you have questions, I'll answer them at the end. But no, the test is 'do I understand this' and it happens inside your head every minute. I can't decide for you if you understand what I'm teaching, I can only provide the information to you. I know that it's quite difficult to find information on sealing, so I've distilled as much of my own studies as possible." I paused. "If I'm honest, I expect there will only be two or three of you left by the time the course concludes."

I saw more than a few stubborn looks flash at that proclamation. Oops. That wasn't meant to be a challenge. Well. Whatever worked.

"Okay. So, we're going to start with an overview – what is sealing, what do we use it for and how does it work. From there we're going to briefly detour to discuss chakra and its fundamental properties because it's important to have a thorough understanding of what we're manipulating. Then we're going to look at the twelve most popular methods of sealing- "

I was cut off again. I couldn't even see who said it, this time, just the general location it came from. "Aren't you going to teach us how to make seals?"

I didn't appreciate that demanding tone.

"Good luck trying to make one without this," I said dryly. "There's a reason I'm starting with this. But actually, in answer to your question… no." For one, I didn't want to be responsible for this many people fucking around with seals, but I wasn't going to say that. "This is purely theoretical. If there's enough interest after the theory class is over, we'll put together a study group to collaborate. No one can stop you from attempting to experiment on your own but I feel it's important to inform you that using unconfirmed seals on people outside of combat situations is liable to get you into trouble. Check RnD for more information before you do."

Well, that should cover my ass in event of problems.

"And again, please don't interrupt me." I took a deep breath. "Where was I?"

By the time the hour was up, I was strangely exhausted. My throat was incredibly dry and I was glad I'd had my water canteen packed into hammerspace. The question and answer session went on longer than I'd really liked, with some good questions, some bad.

"I'm not actually a trained medical ninja," I said, answering one about why I wasn't covering them. "However, given how many we do have in the clan, I'm sure there's someone that has a greater understanding of how they work."

"Why barrier, storage and exploding seals?" Someone else wanted to know. I was pretty sure it was one of the research ladies. Ryosen? "Will you talk about your chakra measurement seals?"

"In passing," I said. "There are a lot of seals, even basic ones like light or sound creating ones, that I'll just be skimming over. If I wanted to do them in more detail, the course would just get longer and longer and we're all very busy people who can't afford that. I picked those three because they're basic building blocks for a ninja's arsenal, while also exemplifying very different types of seals. They're also very popular, so it's easy to find examples of them in different sealing methods to compare and contrast."

The third time I covered the same point, worded in a slightly different way, I decided we were done and wrapped it all up.

"Same time tomorrow!" I said, carefully turning off the recording device and unhooking it from my neck.

I thought I'd see maybe half of them, at a very optimistic guess. Heck, maybe the numbers would drop enough that I could go back to using the RnD meeting room.

I handed the recording off to dad.

"Good job," he said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. "That was well done."

The praise was nice but I still grumbled at him. "You didn't have to invite so many of them."

He tugged on a strand of my hair. "I didn't think you were just going to launch right into it," he said, voice terribly dry. "I thought you had some very clever method of testing to see who would be good at it or not."

I made a face. "It's called 'let them try and see if they fail'."

He huffed. "I am surprised you're willing to teach them all," he admitted. "Aren't you worried about information security?"

"Ah," I acknowledged. Ninja were pretty cagey about their techniques. "But it's a clan technique now. Information security is your problem."

I rose up on my tippy toes to kiss his cheek, then sauntered on past him.

Behind me, I heard Kofuku-oba's very dry voice. "Well, I'm glad it's not just me that has problems with her."

.

.

The sealing lessons seemed to go reasonably smoothly. True to my predictions, the class size dropped pretty dramatically when it turned out that it really was just all theory. There were more left than I'd thought – mostly the researchers, and I guessed that 'huge amounts of information' wasn't as off putting to them.

Kofuku-oba talked about getting the audio transcripts and my notes written up into a reference textbook, which I agreed to on the basis that less people would ask me questions if they had a way to go and look it up instead. My original sealing styles notebook got included into the bargain, because it really was more detailed than I was going into in the lectures.

Shortly afterwards Shikamaru was dispatched with Team 10 on a C-rank mission to escort a bunch of merchants. It was probably total overkill to send a team of Chunin and a Jounin but the point was to ease them back into taking missions and not to throw something sudden and challenging at them.

Shikamaru didn't seem totally thrilled to go, but when I asked, it seemed to be more about the timing than the mission itself - it was only supposed to be a week, but there was always the chance that it would extend or that mom would go into labour prematurely.

"I'm sure she would forgive you," I said, bracingly, patting him on the shoulder. "Maybe get some gifts while you're there, just in case."

He didn't seem too impressed with my idea of consolation.

I, myself, settled into a rhythm of training and studying, and only took short one day or overnighter missions when I started to get too bored and itchy. There were a couple of Intel pickups that were mostly straightforward and a handful of sensory squad missions – including a bizarre one for Anbu where a group in masks took me to an apparently random section of the Konoha wall and told me to describe the jutsu that had been used on it recently. They gave no indication of whether or not anything I told them was expected, or why, and whisked me back to the tower and left me standing blinking and bewildered in the sunshine.

I mean, stranger things had happened to me. But usually with some context.

I also managed to make it to a kunoichi meeting, which had been a while. It was nice.

Anko plopped down next to me on the grass, offering me dango. "I've been meaning to talk to you."

I took a skewer, automatically flicking through any possible reasons she could have. I … couldn't see much, if I was honest. "Sure," I agreed, neutrally. "How can I help?"

She waved the point of her skewer, as though to take in the meeting around us. "You intending on making this official? The kunoichi club."

I bit down and chewed slowly to cover the pause while I thought. "Not especially," I said, slowly. "It was originally just a way to catch up with friends. Then we kept making more."

She snorted. "Whatever the reason was, it's caught on," she said dismissively. "And it's reached a critical mass now – people are starting to take notice."

"I see," I said and the trouble was I did see. I just didn't want to.

"So," she went on, "if you don't have any plans on stepping up and making it official, then I want to."

"Why?" I asked, more curious than objecting.

Anko leant back, onto one elbow, legs stretching out in front of her. "I'm making a push for Jounin," she said in a tone that was layers of resignation trying and failing to cover a spark of pride. "Someone made Maito Gai think that I was stepping up my training, and when Gai thinks you're training more… apparently you are."

I moved away slightly as she tried to stab me in the thigh with her dango skewer.

"You're welcome," I said serenely. "So, this is your… innovation?" That wasn't really the right word for it.

The thing was, there wasn't really a test to become a Jounin. By that point, everyone either knew you were (or not).

Combat ability was a big part of it. You had to be strong. That was mostly measured by missions taken (and hearsay and bingo book evaluations probably) because by the time you reached that level no one really wanted to reveal their best techniques, certainly not to a crowd like in the Chunin exams. And it was really hard to host an out-and-out fight at Jounin level while ensuring no one actually got hurt.

But, these days, no one was really promoted on combat ability alone. Maybe in the war that had been the case but it wasn't enough anymore. Jounin weren't just one man wrecking balls – they were leaders.

Not just mission leaders but… leaders of the village. The people who looked at the systems in place and didn't just meet them but improved them. Who contributed to the village, not just through mission performance but by challenging it. By finding gaps in the workings and fixing them. Who stepped up and said 'you need a leader here – let me be it'.

It didn't mean you'd get promoted for it. But it put your name out there. Let the higher ups know that you were the kind of person they wanted in charge.

"Have you asked the others?" I asked. In some ways this group would probably be a perfect example of demonstrating leadership abilities. Or mentorship, anyway.

"They wanted to let their Chunin ranks settle in first," she said, flicking a look over my vest. "But since you're tearing up the ranks, I thought you might be considering it."

I shook my head. "No, you should go for it."

It wasn't that I was against making it official. It was just that, if I put myself in charge, then I would be responsible for it. There would be work associated with it – probably a lot, if I were honest. There would probably have to be rules and teaching plans and progress reports…

And honestly, I barely even made it to these meetings these days. Trying to run them would be a headache and a half.

Anko smiled, genuinely. "Neat. I mean, I was going to do it anyway. But I've heard what happens to people who get on your bad side."

I rolled my eyes at her. "Aoba has been telling stories."

"You bet your ass he has."