"Gōketsu."
"Hagoromo." Hazō didn't bother bowing. 'Lord' Hagoromo did not deserve the respect at the best of times, and he'd kept Hazō waiting ten minutes in the Hagoromo manor's tea hall before deigning to join him. He was now pouring the tea into cups where one cup was directly in front of Hazō and the other was directly in front of himself, a full foot of distance between the two cups.
"So glad you could join us," Hagoromo said. He finished the pour and wiped the lip of the teaspout so that the last drop would not drip and stain the snow-white linen tablecloth.
"The Hokage commanded it," Hazō said, leaning forward quickly enough that he could take the cup from in front of Hagoromo while the older man's hands were busy with the teapot.
Hagoromo froze, glaring daggers at Hazō, then set the pot down delicately and lay his hands gently on his thighs, ignoring the remaining tea.
Hazō pretended, deliberately unconvincingly, to touch the cup to his lips, then set it down. "Delightful tea," he said, not making any effort to inject sincerity.
Oh, the shade! I love it! We should keep Lord Hag alive just for interactions like this! (okay, not really, but still, this was funny and cathartic!)
"Truly?" Hazō shook his head in regret. "I recognize that sealing is a difficult art—it requires intelligence, painstaking attention to detail, and creativity. I had not realized the Hagoromo were so short on these characteristics. Well, let me meet this Harumitsu. If I judge him competent, fine. If not...I'm hardly going to teach someone who I think might destroy reality through his stupidity or flutter-brained carelessness, now am I? We'll simply go back to the Hokage and explain that you have no capable students."
A vein in Hagoromo's temple was starting to throb. Hazō firmly squelched the resulting surge of delight.
[*snerk*]
[*breaks down into giggles*]
"Harumitsu is bright, attentive, and detail-minded. I feel certain you will have no difficulty instructing him."
"It gives me boundless pleasure to hear that you believe that. In the meantime, I gather you have two daughters? Perhaps one of them would make a good candidate. Most likely the younger one—younger minds do tend to learn more quickly."
"Perhaps, although adults are often less foolish and better able to ignore distractions."
Hazō's lips twitched. "I believe you'll find that no one who survives as a sealmaster for more than a week is either foolish or easily distracted. If either of your daughters is stupid, careless, or flutter-brained, I will have no trouble noticing that fact."
"Unfortunately, both of my daughters are occupied on matters of critical importance at the moment. Why don't you interview Harumitsu and we can proceed from there? I feel certain that he will satisfy the fair and unbiased investigation you will no doubt bring to the interview."
HAZ: "Now, now, you're being stupid. I won't be forced to unilaterally pick someone to train. Who's the sealmaster in the room?"
HAG: "We only have him as an option."
HAZ: "Do your daughters not fit the criteria?"
HAG: "I won't have you seducing them."
HAZ: "My, my,
someone has
so little faith in their own family. Is your bloodline
truly so weak?"
"Hello, Harumitsu," Hazō said, smiling in as friendly a fashion as he could manage. Whatever grievance Hazō had with the Hagoromo leadership, this boy did not deserve to be caught in it.
Okay, this? This I liked. This was the right way to go about this.
"You understand that you are here to be considered as my student in the art of sealcraft?" Hazō asked, ignoring the stutter completely. He found himself regretting once again that he was the one sitting here. Kagome-sensei would have been a far better teacher for this young man, but Asuma had ordered that the instruction take place in the Hagoromo estate, and there was no way under the heavens that Kagome-sensei could be here alone for ten minutes without destruction following in his wake. This was going to be a major drain on Hazō's time going forward, but there were no other Gōketsu sealsmiths with sufficient experience and knowledge to teach.
Still say we should've waited until we could adopt that one LGBTQ clanless sealmaster and have him
train someone. The Hag would've had a fit and it would've been
glorious.
"This is the part where I try to give you an entirely reasonable level of fear," Hazō said, offering a half-smile. "Please understand that you are not required to be my student. Knowing yourself and your own aptitudes and weaknesses is the most critical attribute for any ninja. If at any point you feel that you are not willing or able to pursue this course of study whole-heartedly, it is far better for you to say so than to try to gut it out. Gutting it out on something as dangerous as sealing is like trying to continue a mission when you aren't field-ready: All you're doing is endangering your teammates. You can bow out and there is nothing but honor in doing so. Repeat that back, please."
I like this. Hazou's outright warning the kid that "I'm not trying to bully or be cruel. I'm not using you as a patsy to get back at your Clan Head. I'm trying to give you enough information that you make an informed decision. These are
real things that have happened to
real sealmasters, often enough through
no true fault of their own."
Hazou is trying his damnedest to do right by this kid, and I like that.
Harumitsu glanced briefly at Lord Hagoromo, then swallowed nervously. "My L-Lords, it's obvious t-t-to everyone that there is a p-problem between our c-c-clans. Me being Lord Gōketsu's student might help to fix that problem, at least in a s-s-small way. Lord Gōketsu, you said that it was important that I know m-m-myself. I think I do, and I know the odds for genin survival. Instructors get imp-p-patient with m-m-me because of my s-s-stutter, and my eyes are w-weak; they're fine close up, like for reading or sparring, but I'm not going to s-s-survive a year in the f-f-field. I think sealing doesn't require distance vision, right?"
KID: "Here's the line that I was told to say."
KID: "But between us, I'm an annoying preteen with bad eyesight. I'm going to die soon if I stay on the active mission roster."
KID: "I'm also the bastard son of a ninja and a clanless/civilian woman. My life has no worth. Everyone tells me that, and I'm young enough to believe it."
HAZOU: "The Goketsu feel differently."
"Well done," Hazō said, nodding thoughtfully. A spike of anger went through him when Harumitsu brightened at the very minimal compliment. "All right, the next test is basic brushwork. A sealmaster must have clean writing, avoid splotches or misplaced ink, and must be able to repeat the same design precisely, over and over again." He unsealed a writing desk and supplies and passed them over to Harumitsu. "First, show me your basic handwriting. Write the Academy Creed for me."
[*Slams hand on table*]
I WANT THIS KID IN THE UPLIFT FAMILY!!
Harumitsu swallowed nervously. "M-My Lord...when I was t-told that I would be considered as y-your student, I t-t-t-tried to go find some books on s-seal theory, but they are all r-r-restricted. So I b-b-borrowed as many explosive t-tags and storage seals as I could and c-compared them all. They're all d-different depending on who m-m-made them, and each one was a little different than the others, but I noticed that the p-p-pressure seems really important. Anywhere that there was f-f-f-feathering, it was always as close to identical as I could see. Also, they were all clean copies with no t-t-touch-ups, so it was obvious that you can't fix a seal once you've d-d-drawn it. I feathered those seals wrong so I threw them out."
Showed initiative and insight. Not to mention he likely found a lot of Hazou and Kagome's own sealwork to compare --if nothing else, then because Hazou and Kagome churn out a small nation's worth of explosives on the daily and then hand them out like candy on Halloween. I like him.
Time ticked by slowly and Hazō fell into something of a meditative trance, studying his probable student without letting his mind fixate on any particular detail. When Hazō had asked, Kagome-sensei had been a fount of advice on the subject of teaching and how to select a student. How it was good to maintain identical conditions when practicing a given thing until mastery of the basics was achieved but also important to change something about the study conditions when changing topics, as different conditions provided 'hooks' that made it easy for the memory to distinguish between the different topics. About maintaining the right balance between praise so as to avoid causing despair or dislike of the teacher, but also sincerity so that the student didn't lose faith in the teacher's words or become complacent. About the value of different sensory modalities to aid in memorization and comprehension—speaking the words, providing them in written form, offering physical objects to be manipulated where feasible, and so on. It had been an intense conversation that made Hazō feel like his brain was too full.
[*sighs in future educator*]
I know the feeling.
The dance was essentially the same as a taijutsu kata, and every Academy student was expected to master those through watching. Harumitsu had no trouble with it, although Hazō did correct his foot position during one of the pelvic thrust segments. Harumitsu began again, but stumbled slightly and blushed beet red when one of the guards strangled a very quiet snort of amusement.
"Congratulations, fuckwit," Hazō said, his voice cold. "You just distracted a sealmaster during a critical safety procedure. The best outcome is that you killed one of your clanmates and deprived your clan of a sealmaster. Brilliant job. Get the fuck out and tell your Clan Head to find someone who isn't such an idiot to guard the rest of these meetings."
On one hand, probably just being paranoid and teaching Harumitsu these dances just in case. On the other hand, Kagome has a track record of being right far more often than he should be, especially about things that you would swear
couldn't possibly be right.
On the other-other hand, Harumitsu is a twelve year old who has been told his life is worthless because he was a clanless ninja, and then when he joined a clan, he was told his life was worthless because he was a bastard child. And the guard --however unintentionally --caused Harumitsu a great deal of embarrassment, and now anytime he does this totally necessary protective ritual, he'll remember being embarrassed (which might make him mess up).
Harumitsu didn't reply, focusing instead on repeating the motions he had been shown. This time he got it—not flawlessly, as he still needed more arc on the arm swings, but well enough.
Must be hard for Hazou-of-the-Iron-Nerve to see that normal people can't flawlessly recreate their successful actions each and every time. I know Hazou once mentioned his Iron Nerve created a distance between him and other people, that he felt like a robot/puppet on strings, and I can't help but wonder how this difference in qualia is going to impact Hazou in his capacity as an instructor.
Still, Hazou has an immense amount of empathy and compassion, so I think he'll manage to overcome it.
"Good," Hazō said, taking his seat again and gesturing for Harumitsu to do the same. "Last step in the process: learning new material. How much do you know about mathematics?"
Harumitsu looked stricken. "I'v-v-ve h-h-h-had the b-b-basic Academy m-m-m-mathem-matics, M-My Lord? I kn-n-now there's m-m-m-more b-b-ut I haven't s-s-seen it."
"Excellent, that means this this really will be new to you. What about astrology? Can you name the Thirteen Signs? Do you know the difference between jellicle and tosurent?"
Tears were gathering at the edge of Harumitsu's eyes. He shook his head mutely.
This boy needs all this hugs, all the positive feedback, and a mountain of Goketsu-style familial affection. Maybe he has some enemies we can drown?
Harumitsu took the folder and clutched it to his chest, his eyes very wide as he nodded like a bobble head. A moment later he realized that his nodding could be interpreted as inadequate respect, so he started bowing repeatedly and deeply.
Oh, kid. Eh, he'll learn. I want to train him.
Cute kid. Let's hope he survives.
Let's ensure it.
