Most of the time Shizuka was quite calm and collected. Hard tests or complicated exercises didn’t scare her even if she knew that she was certainly going to fail them. There would be time to work them out and in general, well… Some made her dirty, others hurt when they fell apart in her hands, but none had made her as nervous as the instructions she had gotten this morning during what she had assumed to be a normal work-out class. Taijutsu wasn’t her strongest side, and working out in a group could be a bother, but she would have gladly switched back to practising with her own class instead of getting a handful of first years to train.
How in the world was she supposed to train anyone?! She was still studying at the Academy for a reason!
Nervously looking through one of the handbooks she still had from her first two years, Shizuka frowned then sighed. She had no idea about what the kids already knew or didn’t. Molding chakra and forming hand seals were the first things regarding Ninjutsu that one was taught. So.. hopefully they knew some of that.
‘Hmm’, she hummed and closed the book in her lap. With students having different connections with different elements it would be hard to pick one jutsu to teach them. And if she was to pick more than one then a part of the group would be bored..- or! could it be that the instructors had thought things through? With small groups being formed they might have put the students with the same affinities together! Oh, please, let that be the case, she thought before putting away the book and heading out to deal with this ‘group’ she would soon be responsible for.
In the end there turned out to be three students that were assigned to her. She had the odd feeling of it being a team and her being the really inexperienced team leader. Perhaps that was exactly what it was. In either case she would have to work with what she had.
“Good morning, guys. My name is Senju Shizuka and today I’ll be guiding you through the formation of a jutsu we’ll choose together.” Smiling slightly she felt proud about having come up with them to be a part of the picking process. This way they could all agree on something all of them found interesting and wanted to be a part of!
The two boys and one girl each introduced themselves with quite some enthusiasm. It had Shizuka trying to remember if she too had been so excited to talk to a ‘senior’. Probably. In fact, she admitted to herself with no blushing (thankfully), she still was. Both Siu and Suika immediately called for admiration and respect in her opinion. Older kunoichi and shinobi who knew more and were able of things she had no grip of yet had always been, to an extent, those she had looked up to. It was odd to be put forward as an example, even if it was only for start-ups.
Sitting down on the ground, in the field of grass they had met, Shizuka motioned for the three to do the same. They did without hesitation which gave her a good feeling. Less nerves and more confidence; she was slowly starting to feel more at ease with this whole idea of ‘teaching’.
“First of all, I’ll have to know what element you guys are the closest with. I assume that you’ve all been through the basics of chakra molding?”
Nodding followed and Shizuka was pleased to see that all were aware of what she was referring at. One of the guys put up their hand, a gesture that confused Shizuka for a brief moment, but soon enough she recovered and encouraged him with a gentle nod to ask what he wanted to know. It turned out that all of them were familiar with Lightning, and she couldn’t help but feel like they had been specifically picked this way. Good! It made things less complicated for her.
“We’ll start with the very basics, I think that all of you have practiced aiming before. So hitting targets that aren’t too far away shouldn’t be a huge problem.” Pointing toward the empty space in the distance she channeled the necessary chakra for three large logs to come from beneath the ground. Standing not entirely straight they formed three targets with slightly different angles. It wasn’t as if she had thought about it, mostly the logs were used to pin down opponents, distract them, or form the base of a structure..
“Woah! That’s wood!” The guy from before gasped, eyes slightly wide. The others appeared to impressed as well, but kept their feelings a bit closer to themselves.
“Good observation!” she laughed, and the blush on his cheeks suggested embarrassment. Though, there was no need for that. She wasn’t mocking him.
“Now Kosuke,” hopefully she hadn’t messed up his name, but according to the way he looked up from his spot, she hadn’t. “which lightning jutsu would you want to try?”
And off they went.
**
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