"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.
"I'm glad you like it. Shall we proceed? I have chosen your student. He is young, but—"
"Excuse me. I believe you meant to say that you have
proposed a student for my consideration? The Hokage did specify that the choice must be mutually agreed."
Hagoromo's lips thinned. "Harumitsu is the only viable choice."
"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.
"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."
Hazō let the pause hang in the air for just a moment. "Of course. You may send him in. Oh, and we should meet privately, so please feel free to return to your duties."
"Ah, I had not realized this was unclear to you: Obedience to the Hokage is a Clan Head's most important duty. As you pointed out earlier, the choice must be mutual. I shall remain for the interview so that I can offer my assistance."
"Ah, your assistance during an examination for potential competence as a sealing student. Yes, I'm sure that will be useful. Thank you for your suggestion."
Hagoromo nodded to one of the guards standing silently against the wall. The man slid back the inner door and spoke quietly to someone outside. Moments later presumably-Harumitsu knelt nervously before Hazō.
Hazō took a moment to study the young man who was probably going to be his student. Twelve, perhaps thirteen, clearly a new Academy graduate. Blond hair—unusual among the Hagoromo, and suggestive of him being a by-blow with an outclan mother, possibly civilian, or the child of a married-in ninja. Pale, thin, with long fingers that plucked nervously at the fabric of his pants. His eyes clearly were not the best, as he was squinting slightly even at a distance of a yard and a half.
"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.
"H-hello, Lord Gōketsu." The boy blushed beet red at his stuttered greeting.
"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.
"Y-y-yes, My Lord."
"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 can b-b-bow out and there is nothing but honor in d-doing so."
"Good. Now, let me tell you a few of the things that not only
can happen, but
have happened to very experienced sealmasters. Not even necessarily because they did anything wrong, merely because there was something they didn't know. First, let's talk about the relatively not-bad ones: The ones that simply killed the person in painful and disgusting ways, such as being turned inside out. This happened to one of Kagome-sensei's teachers, a man named Kubo..."
Hazō spent the next ten minutes relating a dozen stories of death, disfigurement, and painful body horror. From there he moved on to a few of the more esoteric failures that were known to have happened or for which there was evidence that they had
probably happened. He paid special attention to the ones that harmed not just the sealmaster but his loved ones or the area around them, taking pains to repeatedly point out that the training would be happening in the Hagoromo estate.
"Now," he said at last, "after hearing all that, are you still interested in becoming my student?"
Harumitsu's eyes flicked to those of Lord Hagoromo, sitting silently against the wall. He looked back to Hazō and nodded firmly. "Y-yes, My Lord."
"Why?"
Harumitsu paused, seriously considering the question. "P-p-permission to speak freely, My Lords?"
Hazō's eyebrows shot up but he nodded. "Of course. There can be nothing but free speech between master and student."
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?"
"Not often...or, at least, not in detail. If your vision is so bad, why are you a ninja?"
Harumitsu gulped and looked back and forth between the two Clan Heads again. "My Lord...I would p-p-prefer not to answer."
Hazō chewed on that one for a moment. "No, I'm sorry. I need an answer. Taking on a student is a huge risk. I'm not willing to have any pitfalls hidden on my route without knowing where they are. If you don't wish to answer, that's your right, but I will not be able to accept you as a student."
Harumitsu shifted uncomfortably and looked once more to his Clan Head. He must have gotten some signal to proceed because he turned back to Hazō and spoke carefully. "My f-f-father is a Hagoromo ninja, but my mother w-was not. My chakra system was t-too strong to
not have me inducted into the s-s-service of L-leaf. The choice was to r-r-recognize me and adopt me into the clan or to have me out there as a clanless ninja. The Hagoromo are honorable and always l-l-l-live up to their r-r-responsibilities, so of course they adopted me."
"I see." Hazō thought about that one for a moment. "All right. Two of the primary abilities a sealmaster requires are a good memory and the ability to absorb information quickly. Repeat back to me the stories I told you about sealing. Take your time, there's no rush. You aren't going to be criticized no matter what."
Harumitsu paused, thinking nervously, and then began reciting back what Hazō had told him. He didn't get every detail, he didn't get the order precisely correct, and he didn't mention two of the twenty-eight stories. Still, it was much better than Hazō had done at the start of his own training. The stutter made it difficult and strained slightly at Hazō's patience, but not enough to matter.
"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."
Harumitsu picked up the brush and went to work, bending close to the paper and focusing carefully with his tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth. Hazō waited, silent and patient, until the boy was done and nodded approvingly when Harumitsu took a moment to clean his brush and stow it neatly before passing over the paper. His writing was clean and smooth. Workmanlike, with no elegance and a bit of trouble with over- and underpressure here and there, but certainly good for his age.
"Well done again. Duplicate this design for me, three times. Again, take your time. Accuracy matters, speed doesn't." He passed over the foundational seal from Jiraiya's teaching progression.
Harumitsu studied the blank intently before even touching the brush. His hand moved slightly as he did, tracing out the imagined actions. Hazō waited patiently as the boy thought, and then went to work.
Time ticked by, the only sound in the room the faint swooshing of Harumitsu's brush against the paper and the occasional faint rustle of cloth as one of the guards shifted position slightly.
The seal blank was ridiculously easy, only one line, but it still required a degree of precision to produce. Harumitsu's first two attempts would have resulted in failure, but he crumpled them up and set them aside before starting over. His third attempt was valid, as was his fifth and sixth. He passed them to Hazō with shaking hands, his forehead visibly beaded with sweat.
Hazō studied the blanks carefully and found no flaw. The drawing wasn't precisely as he would have done it and it had imperfections, but it was good enough. "You discarded three of your attempts," he noted. "Why?"
"My Lord...you s-s-said that accuracy mattered. They w-weren't right. Not exactly, anyway."
"True, although these aren't exact copies either. Why did you feel that these were good enough but those weren't?"
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."
Huh.
"Technically these are seal
blanks," Hazō said. "It's only a seal after you've infused chakra into it. But yes, you're exactly correct. Try these. Two copies each, please. Once again, take all the time you need. There's no rush." He passed over the second and third seal blank in the progression. He hadn't actually intended to go past the second blank but now he was curious.
Harumitsu swallowed nervously but went to work.
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.
"H-here you are, M-My L-L-L-Lord."
Hazō took the designs from Harumitsu and went through them carefully. One of the blanks for the second seal looked good, the other was marginal. For the third seal one blank was marginal and the other would definitely have failed. That was still better than Hazō would have expected for someone with absolutely no instruction.
He let his hands, still holding the seals, drop into his lap so that he could study Harumitsu closely. The boy—only two years younger than Hazō in years but so vastly much so in experience—was struggling not to squirm.
"These are surprisingly good," Hazō said. "This one seems valid. These are marginal and this one would definitely have failed because the tail here is too short. See?" He held up the actual blank and the failed attempt. "Despite that, this is a lot better than I would have expected. You said that you have no instruction whatsoever?"
"N-n-no, M-My L-L-L-Lord."
"Hm." He thought for a moment, then nodded. "All right, next step: Basic gross motor skills. Stand up, please." Hazō rose to his own feet and took the first position of Kagome-sensei's 'May This Research Bunker Be Free of Interdimensional Horrors' dance. "There's no fundamental difference between learning an existing seal and researching a brand new seal. It's a matter of degree, not kind. There are a series of physical actions involved in preparing for any research project. This one is called the 'May This Research Bunker Be Free of Interdimensional Horrors' dance. Watch me, then try it yourself." He went through the routine twice, then gestured for Harumitsu to try.
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."
The guard blanched and looked over at Lord Hagoromo. "My Lord?"
"Go," Hagoromo commanded, his voice filled with barely-contained anger. "We will discuss this later."
The guard swallowed nervously and bowed to the floor before fleeing.
"Thanks, Hagoromo," Hazō said. "Got to admit, I expected you to argue that."
Lord Hagoromo, despite being seated against the wall of the room while Hazō was standing in the middle of it, looked down his patrician nose at the visiting Clan Head. "Do me the courtesy of recognizing that I'm neither deaf nor a moron, Gōketsu. I already knew that sealing was dangerous and I was listening while you were telling the boy about the risks."
Hazō chuckled. "Fair enough." He turned back to Harumitsu. "Okay, one more time. Watch your foot position. Remember: Slightly more than shoulder width on the thrusts."
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.
"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.
"Good, then the test won't be skewed." He pulled a fat folder out of a storage seal and held it out in both hands. "Here is some basic material on sealing research safety protocols, algebra, and star signs. Memorize all of the safety protocols and as much of the rest as you can between now and tomorrow night. I'll come back then and we'll go through it. I'm looking for rote memorization at this point. Bonus points if you understand the material and can apply it, but what I really want to see is that you're capable of swallowing a large amount of theoretical material quickly so that you have the basic facts available as you work to understand and apply it. Needing to look up factors in the reference material slows you down during development and you absolutely need to have the protocols completely assimilated before I'm letting you infuse anything. You'll know that you've learned them well enough when you start having dreams about them."
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.
Hazō chuckled. "That's enough. Off you go. Oh, and feel free to work with other people on this. I don't care
how you learn the material, I care
that you learn it."
Harumitsu nodded, then bowed himself out of the room.
Hazō turned back to Lord Hagoromo. "I admit, he's better than I expected you to give me. I'll leave you to it for now. After I've assessed him tomorrow we'll see; if he can't do the work then you'll need to find another candidate. Otherwise, I look forward to working with him." He hooked a thumb over his shoulder at the remaining guard. "Make sure that whatever guards you have tomorrow aren't giant fuckwits like that last one."
He turned and walked out.
Author's Note: You spent the whole day on this update. First you talked with Kagome about how to teach sealing, then you did the interview with Harumitsu, then you got the new ninja settled.
@Velorien has already responded regarding how all of that went.
XP AWARD: 3
Brevity XP: 1
"GM had fun" XP: 1
- +1 for scene: sealing interview
It is now about 10pm.
Vote time! What to do now?
Voting ends on Wednesday, December 2, 2020, at 12pm London time.
