Continuing Ed. [Tutor]

[Shouyu Hoshi]

Today's wake was with the sunrise. The youth would stretch lightly still in bed, the covers lazily hanging off his lap almost falling to the floor. With a quick flick of his wrist, he snatched the blankets up and they were throw in the air above his bed. The blankets would catch the backdraft of his fan and float aimlessly to his bed almost neatly. He donned his regular set of clothes, to be dressed as a chuunin. He'd cover up on his anbu tattoo with a long sleeve jacket, collared with a special insignia on the back.

Hoshi was back at it, headed over to Ikko's residence to teach him today the basics of writing and pronunciation. He had some writing utensils and planned out a learning lesson. As he headed through the village he was sure to stop by and grab a big plate of dangos. He remembered the boy liked food, and maybe if he lost attention the rewarding of a snack would keep him on task today. He reviewed his notes of the previous lesson, Ikko was able to pick out words corresponding to pictures so he was already ahead of the game.

Today Hoshi had letters and basic words for him to go over. He thumbed through the last bit held in his binder as he approached the fixed door. Although, this time he was hesitant. Hoshi knocked on the door and immediately took a step to the right, placing his back against the wall. This was just in case the young Shinobi felt it necessary to greet him with a cascading wave of aqua force. Once he was greeted, however that happened, Hoshi would step away from the wall and reveal himself. He would smile widely upon The youth with his binder held ou in front him.

Wc 303

 

[Funai Ikko]

More reading...Ikko was pretty sure he liked the world better when he couldn't read or, more specifically, when other people did not especially care if he knew how to read. The familiar rapping on his door echoed through his room. It was Hoshi, no one else would A.) Bother him so early in the morning and B.) actually bother him. A pained groan left him as the boy hopped off his bed and made his way toward the door. He didn't necessarily hate reading and he did enjoy spending time with Hoshi, but there was just something about having to learn something that everyone expected him to already know that was...incredibly frustrating. Ikko was not stupid, he knew that, but he was ignorant and part of him wanted to use that ignorance as a badge of honor. Actually taking the time to learn to read proved that he needed to know how, which meant he was deficient. Actually admitting to flaws was a rather difficult process.

Ikko opened the door to Hoshi's face, this time not greeting Hoshi with an impromptu shower, but instead met his gaze with a deadpan stare that did little to hide Ikko's contempt for the situation.

"Hello, Ikko can't come to the door right now, can I take a message?"

Ikko, didn't shut the door in his face, like he honestly wanted to, but his levels of enthusiasm for his early morning education were rather notably low, both because of the aforementioned inferiority complex and because this would in no way prepare him for bear combat. The glare then shifted down to the binder and the deadpan stare looked more akin to dread. He definitely had no interest in having more visual aides he had to sift through. His eyes darted back up to Hoshi. He did not say anything, but the word "no" was very, very clearly glaring the Hyuuga in the face at the audacity of him suggesting he spend his morning with his nose in a book.

[335]

 

[Shouyu Hoshi]

Ikko answered the door rather unethusiastically, saying no one was home when he clearly answered the door. Hoshi laughed pretty hard and revealed a plate of delicious mouth watering dangos. He smiled and addressed Ikko calmly.

"Today we are going over writing, and sounding out words by learning all the consonants and vowels sounds. Pretty boring stuff so, I brought us some snacks, and I have surprise for you that you might like afterward."

Hoshi would allow himself into the house, offering a dangos while taking one himself. He ate the top round puff which was a sweet and tangy pink. It was slightly crunchy on the outside with a fluffy interior. Hoshi closed his eyes while he enjoyed the delicate various flavors. He'd take a seat again, reaching into his bag revealing a large theatre popcorn bucket, two frozen slush drinks with tapioca bubbles at the bottom which were rather chewy, a desert honey toast bricks which was basically a toasted bread topped with condensed milk, Nutella and assorted chopped fruits, all complimented by a scoop of ice cream.

Hoshi sat down the plate of dangos and revealed a box of garlic lemon pepper chicken wings. The food would definitely give off an aroma which would fill the air in the room quickly. Lastly, Hoshi pulled out the lesson plan which was stored on a USB thumb drive, which Hoshi plugged into audio device player. A bland voice rang out.

"Lesson one. Pronunciation. A makes the Ah sound at the beginning of a word. A also makes Aye sound, when after consonant such as B, in Bait...."

The voice would go through all the various sounds of short and long vowels, hard and soft consonants as well as defining them. The lady voice spoke rather slowly, and even had interactive questions for Ikko to answer.

Question 1.

"What sound does C make, at the beginning of a word?"

Answer: A "K" sound.

Question 2.

"What sound does y make, at the end of a word?"

Answer: An "eee" sound.

Question 3.

"What sound does G make at the beginning of the word?"

Answer: "Guh"

Hoshi would listen and chow down while he did. He'd offer the food to Ikko as well and listen to every answer he had giving him a thumbs up and thumbs down for every right or wrong answer.

[wc 393]

 

[Funai Ikko]

Oh no, food, Ikko's one weakness! Hoshi, for his part as a nefarious and sinister manipulator of Ikko's pure, innocent, hungry heart, made his way across the threshold of the boy's meager home and elicited a small grumble of discontent and a less small grumble of Ikko's stomach welcoming the addition of food to the festivities. The boy almost pounced as Hoshi set down the food that, apparently, were known as dangos. Ikko had never seen food like them before, but he could certainly smell them and unless this was another scheme of paramount evil, he imagined they tasted at least almost as good as they smelled. Ikko, his mouth now veritably stuffed to the brim with the treat nearly has his eyes pop out of his head as the other foods were rescued from Shouyu's pack. The foods themselves seemed to be rather doggedly attempting to discover whether or not Shinobi could get diabetes, but Ikko, being quite the child, rather noticeably seemed to not care about the "health" factor of his digestive tract. While Ikko was putting food away like he was stockpiling for the winter, Shouyu used his ample distraction to start the one thing that could put a damper on a meal, language arts.

Ikko, now having caught on to the wily plans of his arch-nemesis, plopped down on the bed as the audio recording cycled through its lesson. Audio recordings in general were a new phenomenon and, thankfully, Ikko tearing up a tool depot trying to find where the ghost was had conveniently happened off screen, but the boy was still visibly uncomfortable with disembodied voices. As as the lesson dragged on, his eyes went from defiant petulance to...well...bored petulance. His eyes glazed over somewhat as he stared aimlessly out the window, only barely paying attention as the machine belted out its questions.

"Well it makes a couple di..."

"K"

Ikko had picked up a chicken wing and casually tossed it at Shouyu, clearly even less enthusiastic now that the recording was bloody arguing with him.

"Here, have some more Khicken."

"What sound does y make, at the end of a word?"

"Again, there are a couple different sou..."

"eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"

"Well those rules are pretty gra..."

"What sound does G make at the beginning of the word?"

"Hoshi, I already answered that one, can we go fight a bear now?"


[397]

 

[Shouyu Hoshi]

The reluctant behavior from Ikko was rather amusing. Hoshi couldn’t help but sneak out light chuckles. Just as he expected, the boy gravitated toward the food and would indulge himself. Hoshi would of course take his own portion to fulfill his physical nourishment. The lesson shortly began and Ikko’s dazed demeanor turned even more sluggish. Throughout it all though, this would pay off. As the lesson progressed, Hoshi thumbed through a binder of papers. It was separated by dividers, color coded for whatever reason. Hoshi grimaced and laughed at some of the answers Ikko gave, alas, he’d give a response.

“Here you go Ikko.”

He handed over a document. It was a small paper, over it, in large letters it would read. ‘Mission.’ Hoshi would pronounce it with him once.

“Mish-shun”

He then pointed towards the dialogue at the bottom. It was a couple bullet points and a small summary of a few sentences. It was a D rank mission, it gave a location, ancient forest, and a description that read.

‘Rabid bear running wild! Please send someone to restrain the beast! Last seen by the river!’

Hoshi would then slide his hand over to the plate grabbing another dango. Slowly he ate the first round puff and gobbled it down slowly.

“Read to me what the mission is. And if you can do that, and write a simple response. You may take the mission.”

It was the mission he had been talking about for so long. To hunt, fight, and overcome a bear. Of course, Hoshi or someone else would have to accompany him, for he was just a student and needed at least a Genin to lead him in the mission. Hoshi slid the second dango down the guzzler and munched lightly to himself. The boy kept poised as he waited for the boy’s answer.

Wc 304

 

[Funai Ikko]

Ikko, still noticeably bored, took the piece of paper from Hoshi and, lethargically at first, read the first few lines. Then the fruits of their labor began to show as, with each word his mind processed, more and more light came to his eyes. The boy, ecstatic as he spoke the last word of the mission address, came damn near close to leaping off his bed and through the roof of his room. The boy grabbed the marker on his night stand and, with the sort of dramatic and energetic flourish of a child, wrote in large, bold letters across the face of the paper. He, ecstatically, flipped the paper around and nearly rammed the parchment straight in to Hoshi's face. Across the whole paper, emblazoned in big, bold, capital letters, were the words:

"I AM GOING TO GO SWIMMING AND WRASSLE A BEAR!"

Ikko then dropped the paper and vaulted again off his bed, grabbing the pack out of his closet containing his ninja tools and his "combat uniform, sprinting out the front door with an enthusiastic cheer of elation. The boy clearly didn't even wait for Hoshi to confirm that his written response was correct, or appropriate, or what he wanted, because in the boys mind he was finally getting to punch a bear and he wasn't letting a little thing like "Hoshi's permission" stop him. It was finally his time to shine. He nearly skipped down the hall toward the front door chanting something that sounded suspiciously like "WE'RE GOING TO FIGHT A BEAR, WE'RE GOING TO FIGHT A BEAR, NO ONE ELSE WOULD EVEN DARE WE'RE GOING TO FIGHT A BEAR" It was remarkable that he hadn't been stabbed yet.

wc: 284

 

[Shouyu Hoshi]

He took the papers from the boys hand and stared at it. For a moment Hoshi thought that Ikko would just throw the paper away like he did last time. Hoshi brought another dango to his mouth and indulged. He watched the reaction of the boy who was once bored, his eyes seemed to have lit up. Hoshi was mid munch when he noticed. He realized, maybe the words were beginning to make sense to him. Or he was just imagining the paper said what he wanted it to say. Hoshi shrugged and continued with his dango. He closed his eyes and leaned back, popping in the last one from the stick. It was so soothing and enjoyable. He truly loved savory sweet and decadent softness of the cake pop.

Hoshi felt a wind pass by him. He opened his eyes slowly, he saw Ikko dashing and the paper floating softly to the floor. He looked at it, blinked a few times while Ikko was grabbing his things. There was bold writing on it and Ikko was out the door in a jiffy. Hoshi read it slowly aloud and it made sense. He burst into laughter as he heard Ikko chant his song while making distance. Hoshi shook his head, grabbed another dango and rolled up the message. At least what Ikko said was true, and the kid truly was showing promise. Hoshi then dashed out to meet him and congratulate him.

"Hey Ikko-chan! I forgot tell you! After this you can apply for genin headband! Hey wait! We have to send the letter in first for you to accept the mission! Ikko-Saaaaaaan!!!!"

273

 

[Funai Ikko]

As Shouyu would tear around the corner and out of Ikko's dormitory, he would come face to face with a rather irate boy who had either not rushed out of there quite as quickly as it had seemed or, more plausibly, had covered the distance back with a notable rage induced furor. If looks could kill, the expression on little Ikko's face would be repeatedly slamming Shouyu's face off the walls like a adrenaline junkie's fever dream. Instead, however, a look of utmost incredulous fury replaced the head smashing it implied as he glared up at the older Shinobi, either ignorant or apathetic to just how little a threat he really posed to his senior. His lips parted and his maw widened as he wailed in protest at what was a complete and irredeemable insult to the very essence of righteousness.

"I CAN'T PUNCH A BEAR WITH A LETTER HOSHI! COULD YOU PUNCH A BEAR WITH A LETTER!? NO! BEARS AREN'T IN ROCK PAPER SCISSORS HOSHI, THAT'S NOT THE GAME WE'RE PLAYING. ALSO, WHY DOES PAPER BEAT ROCK ANYWAY? THAT MAKES NO SENSE, THERE IS NOT STRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO THE ROCK HOSHI, IT'S FINE, IT'S EVEN LESS CHILLY NOW. THAT'S WHY WE DON'T NEED A LETTER TO GO PUNCH A B..."

Ikko's momentum ground to a half when he processed the probably more important part of Shouyu's comment, the headband. Ikko, despite appearances, was not an idiot and understood the symbolic nature of the headband beyond being something that, well, protected your head. The headband meant, to a degree, that he belonged. Which...was an interesting sensation for a vagrant orphan. Ikko had never really belonged to anything before the monastery and for true belonging to be mentioned in such an offhanded way was, well, both strange and momentous for the small child. His expression slowly shifted from one of outraged anger to one of hopeful but defensive awe, almost like he couldn't really believe in something "good" happening to him. He paused and extended his arm, pointing at the headband that Hoshi carried on him.

"So, being Genin means I get to be like you, right? I get to be really part of Cloud? I'd really have a..."

He couldn't force out the word "home" or "family" or "purpose" or even "roof" as he stared up at Hoshi with eyes that seemed a little too large to be plausible and seemingly having forgotten about the bear, but as Hoshi should have definitely learned about Ikko by now, the boy could change his tone on a dime and even saying something that even sounded remotely like "bear" would instantly lose the boy's focus and ability to follow procedure as he would promptly head out and start punching anything remotely bear shaped.

"What do I need to do to be Genin?"

WC: 469

 

[Shouyu Hoshi]

He turned the corner to find Ikko. But the boy seemed distraught. The more words Hoshi relayed to him the more frustrated the boy seem. He continued yelling at Hoshi who responded with waving his hands side to side as if to say, 'not my fault.' Hoshi finally found time to speak and took initiative to mention the headband, which subsequently calmed the youth. Ikko appealed to the language as his facial expression portrayed. The boy pointed at Hoshi's head gear proposing personal questions of which he paused at. Hoshi took that time to respond and reassure the boy who seemed to have reached a mental impasse.

"Yes ikko-san. You will be a full fledged shinobi of the village. Which means you can partake on your own missions. Maybe one day you'll be assigned with me. Well, our home will look to you for protection, every time they see your headband, the hopes of the village will reflect off of it.The higher you climb our ranks, the more responsibility you will have. You will be destined to do great things after the academy hears about your feats."

Hoshi looked at the boy and hoped his words had encouraged him. Ikko who once had trouble finding his niche, and reading and writing, was now growing to be an astounding shinobi. His last question Hoshi laughed off and waved away.

"Don't worry about that. I'll take care of it for you."

WC 239

 

[Funai Ikko]

Ikko let out a triumphant laugh as Hoshi finished speaking and even seemed to bounce up and down in excitement at the prospect, both of having someone else take care of it for him AND of finally having a home. Ikko was an interesting child to be sure, what exactly was the correct response to such a thing is difficult to pin down normally, as the sentiments were deep, emotional, earthshaking...and not typically associated with jumping up and down like you were enduring a massive sugar rush, but if it wasn't clear by now, Ikko was not exactly a normal child. The boy backed himself up, finally managing to let some semblance of control wash over him as he focused on what was truly important, steeled himself for the true trial ahead. Everything they had spoken about was important to him, terribly so, he had wanted a place to belong, a purpose, a calling, a reason to get out of bed in the morning for quite some time...but all of it was paled in comparison to the one, true, destiny that lay before him.

"GREAT, SO WHEN DO WE GET TO GO PUNCH THE BEAR!?"

Priorities. The boy, grabbing on to Shouyu's wrists as he continued to jump in euphoria, was clearly ready, mentally if not necessarily physically, to get on with his first big mission to punch a bear in the nose and there was very little left that had any hope of containing him from pursuing that course of action and delaying him any longer than necessary was sure to cause undue amounts of property damage from the boys overactive rampages. In fact, the boys jumping and energy almost seemed to disturb the heating the building had in place as the longer the pair stood there, the colder the air seemed to get. Ikko was blissfully ignorant of the small drop in temperature, he was far too busy imagining himself dramatically entering from stage right and kicking the bear in the nose, but Hoshi would, or at the very least should, notice that the area around them was noticeably colder than it was a few moments ago. And then, in a flash as Ikko's feet hit the ground and stayed there, the temperature regulated, as if it was naught but the mind playing tricks as he spoke.

"Wait, where is the bear? That feels important."

WC: 397