Konoha Academy

Well yes, it seems perfectly sensible that an actual shinobi of our village would carry a headband with a stylized leaf on it to represent her position, Rosie says to herself as she watches Gin unveil and display her headband. What interests me is that the headband is heavily reinforced enough to serve as a sort of armor. It has great symbolism, I think, wearing your village's symbol and that symbol is unable to be pierced by any weapon, although I wonder: why not extend this philosophy over the entire body, creating armor that preserves your life while being as light and flexible as that headband? Some part of me wishes that my parents had been ironsmiths instead of potters; to build your own defense with your own hands is as Budo as I could reasonably ask. After all, a shinobi builds her defense with her own hands as well, although she builds her defense out of her very self in addition. Now I need but learn the secret of putting my inborn power into my hand so that I can use it according to my wishes and at my luxury.

She halts her internal stream of thought so she can focus her attention on how Gin-sensei describes the exercise and where the energy of chakra begins before it can be sent out along the chakra veins and made useful. So the energies flow from the belly, the place in the body where food and water is taken in and made into energy to make the body strong and healthy. I begin to think that whoever this Sage of the Six Paths was, he was not so much supernaturally wise as incredibly cunning and insightful. He seems to have determined the natural places from which the energy of life emanate and of these, he saw that the place of digestion is the beginning of sustenance, the commencement of the daily cycle of keeping the body working, as eternal as the cycles of breath and of blood. As such, he divined that the commencement of the energies that make chakra is in this same place and since him, all shinobi build their chakra there before drawing upon it. Curious, also, that the place from which shinobi draw their power is the place where the shinobi is weakest, the place crowded with so many soft organs that a goodly blow might burst and destroy. Perhaps... perhaps this is the place to guard most against the craft of the Hyuga, since I can easily imagine that their blows directed against the very center of chakra would destroy it all in a single deadly gesture. She gives her head a minute shake at the realization. The more often I consider the potential of that harmless girl, the more I realize just how much strength that gentle countenance hides. Also, the more I realize how valuable it'll be to persuade her that I am a better friend and ally than rival because clearly, the conventional method of causing her to fear me will concentrate her thoughts on me and when she finds her strength and develops it, the first threat she'll address is the one that has hung over her since her first day of schooling. No, better that some other cruel and foolish child hurt her and, in time, be hurt by her. Besides... she's pleasant to look on and exudes a certain pleasantness as well.

Finally, her contemplation is interrupted by Gin explaining the exercise and then, before she can consider her teacher's words, she finds the leaf pressed to her forehead by some unknown power.; It feels like a totally ordinary leaf so... perhaps some minute amount of chakra causes it to keep to my forehead. Well, so long as its' there, time to see what I can do with it. She closes her eyes and raises her hands to the level of her closed eyes, pressing the palms flat against one another and then curling her middle and forefingers inwards, resting the tops of the last sections against one another, her elbows resting on the desk as before and her posture becoming almost unnaturally still.

The tension of the back exists, of the shoulder, of the neck, and of all those muscles. The will is that these will rest even as they stretch, and that they do not matter; all that matters is of the mind. The breath will move in and it will move out. It will nourish the body with air, and will move in, and will move out. The lungs do their work, they mean nothing more; all that matters is of the mind. The heart raps twice and rests, and raps twice and rests, and shall do this, nourishing the body with blood and the instrument of the mind with blood so that the mind may move freely where it is. It matters no more, for all that matters is of the mind. Her breathing assumes an almost mechanical regularity, going out at precisely two seconds, going in at precisely two more seconds, the rhythm not wavering as she cuts herself off from the involuntary motions of her body sustaining itself. The leaf... it is smooth along the edge. Its stem was cut with a blade that had a tiny imperfection on the lower edge of where it cut the leaf. The edge is smooth, but is interrupted at the tip by an imperfection that causes it to curl outwards just a tiny bit. The stem has two threads that were once of life, at its cut tip and at its cut base. The vein moves inwards from the stem, curling upwards, following a line a fingernail from the dying and curling tip. A branch goes to the right, and is slightly below another branch which goes to the left. Both have a branch the goes up and an even branch down, and splits into three points at their end. The next to branches up are even, but their branches tinier and more delicate. The final two branches form a three-point tip with the main vein. The leaf is yet green with life despite being dead and starving. Each formerly-nourished section is of five sides, integrated into a scale and a pattern, each tile of five sides and of a size that forms the leaf. The leaf is as the village symbol, the leaf like the rhododendron but more alive and less gleaming with a waxy covering.

As she focuses entirely on the leaf, concentrating on its every tiny feature, she feels the tingling sense of flow centering in her belly; in her focus, she ignores it, placing its reality at the back of her mind, noted but outside consideration for the moment. As her focus on the veins passes, however, she lets her mind admit the contemplation of energy as well, passively observing how it swells, and flows, how it waxes and wanes, how it flickers and flares and retreats like the flame of the match. By the time she's considering the waxy surface of a rhododendron leaf, she has prepared her mind to make the leap to its new task and like a person throwing a lever, the leaf ceases to be of any matter even as the building chakra absorbs her every thought. What an odd sensation, she thinks, considering the surging and rippling energy. It's like cupping my hands around a match, feeling one finger scorched and then the other, but the other is one that isn't at all in symmetry. This is... undisciplined energy, energy allowed to have its own head like a child's temper. The first consideration, thus, is to discipline it and make it obey my will and only my will. Not my emotion, which surges of its own accord, but my will alone. The only way to make it obey is to fold it in will from every direction at once, a sphere enclosing a sphere, and draw it inwards towards the center slowly and with care. Push the surges inwards, direct them to different places, make the mass remain in a stable sphere. Then spin it, and cause it to spin itself, making it infinitely stable like the gyroscope in motion. Only then might I draw it into its appointed paths.

Gin would observe that moments after the leaf is stuck to her brow, it would seem to very very slightly rigid as the entirely of Rosie's mental attention falls upon it at once. Her breathing remains regular, two seconds in and two seconds out, and nothing about her posture alters. It remains this way for a few minutes before she shifts her attention, and Gin would be able to tell immediately that she'd done so. Her breathing doubles in speed and everything about her becomes extremely tense and still, her mind locking  her physical body into place while it focuses wholly on the problem that Rosie wills it to solve. Perspiration would gather on her brow and her hair would dampen as the minutes go on, although her relaxed expression of concentration wouldn't alter in the least and her hands wouldn't change position either. Gin would be able to tell when Rosie has done whatever she's attempting to do, because the beads of sweat would disappear as if they're being pulled back into the skin, and her hair would become more dry, although it would start to dance slightly as if under the influence of a sudden and invisible breeze. All the tension of her "locked-up" body would vanish and go back to the posture of relaxation that she'd undertaken at the start of the exercise, all signs of exertion and weariness disappearing too. A small smile of triumph twitches at the edges of Rosie's cheeks but her eyes remain closed and her fingers remain at the fore in her pose of contemplation.

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Various student's here and there would appear to be confused the moment they took their attention from the leaf and processed what Gin had told them, but the intructions were clear enough. They just needed to concentrate on the leaf and ignore everything else. Now the only thing they needed to overcome is children's ADD. Which quite a few seemed to have trouble focusing on something for too long. It's not stating that they actually did have ADD, but just it's rather common for children to stay focused on something for too long.

Some would go the route of 'i'll just pretend to do this while waiting until time is over' some would try partway and eventually give up somewhere in between. There was a small handful that would actually focus on the task at hand. Overtime there was probably one or two that actually had fallen asleep while doing it; the nara being one of the few who actually fell asleep in the process off it.

Gin watched them all as they got started on their own pace. She would lean against her podium and just stand there watching them seeing the different looks that they made. Possibly hearing  few grunts here and there and some minor under the breath complaints about this being stupid and pointless. Her eyes did look at what Rosemarius was doing and she watched her well. Seeing her bodies reaction's and how it tensed up and eventually loosened, right down to even the sweat that was forming on her face.

Rosemarius seriously put in a lot of effort into even the most smallest of tasks.

At some point in between this exercise a low grumble could barely be heard and from the partially opened jacket of the Inuzuka a small dog's head would poke it's head out. It's fur a beautiful reddish brown color, ears that poked straight up and it's tips were colored white, even under it's mouth was white giving it the appearance that it was a beard. It also has a small tail with a white tip on it's end. It looked to the left and then to the right and then straight up at it's Master who was actually trying to focus on the leaf. This short amount of silence seemed to have bothered the pup and it climbed out of his Master's jacket and faced him before barking a few times.

This would definetly catches the attention of everyone, even Gin. Gin knew of the Inuzuka clan and their importance to having their animal's by their side, but usually they were more trained than that and wouldn't bark in the middle of class. Gin would look at Kirito who would be quite startled and focused his attention towards his dog and hugged him close to himself before looking at Gin who only gave glares in his direction. "I'm so sorry Sensei!" he quickly apologized, and the dog barked again and started wagging its tail. "Ah! Ranmaru, you know better than to bark in class." Kirito scolded the dog, who looked at him and his ears lowered some as if apologizing.

A couple students in the class laughed and a few others would just 'awww' at the dog. Gin would place her fingers to her head as she would collect her breathing so as not to get frustrated with the students. "So long as he doesn't do it again, you should know very well about the rules applying to animal's in the class room."

Kirito would nod his head. "Yes, Sensei. I know. I'm really sorry, I swear it won't happen again." Gin would nod her head. "That's fine, so long as he doesn't do it again." The rule was basically simply, ninja animals were allowed in class so long as they weren't disruptive, if they were constantly disruptive than the student needed to keep his partner home. Shinobi animals were treated just like shinobis as well and they would train alongside their masters, so it was vital to keep them together at all times to build that bond with one another. It was a rule that was made especially for the Inuzuka whose ties are to their dogs partners. Their clan revolves around training with their dog partner since an extremely young age and keep them together ever since to make that bond strong and unbreakable.

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The barking of the dog visibly startles Rosie out of her state of repose and she blinks before turning her head to look in the direction that the sound came from. Her eyes widen at the dog that appears to have come out of nowhere and is now sitting on the desk in front of a boy with distinctive red fang-like markings on his face and a somewhat feral cast to his features. Oh, someone from the Inuzuka clan, she notes in passing. I wonder why I didn't notice him before. The... animal clan, I think, the ones who form an unusually close bond with a ninja animal. It would explain why he was allowed to bring... oh, hell with it. PUPPY! A broad, happy smile would come over her face as she looks at Ranmaru, no more immune to cute things than any other teenage girl... and this dog, with his ears downturned and looking so apologetic towards his master, is quite cute. I know I'm grinning like a complete imbecile and probably drawing attention by letting my emotions come through and become easily visible, but all young animals are cute, and puppies are especially so. I guess it's lucky that it's not a kitten... kittens are my one weakness, what with that sweet little mew and fuzzy paws and soft fur and those little claws... oh, goodness, I'm turning into one of those empty teenage creatures I despise so much, aren't I? She heaves an audible sigh and visibly forces her expression back into a more composed and contemplative one, turning away from the very cute thing she very much wants to gush over, and settles back into her posture of focus. One of the numerous costs of striving to remain disciplined in the face of emotional pressure: you can't allow yourself to indulge in the urge to enjoy something as pleasant as a puppy or an adorable little kitten. Speaking of such, I very much need to get myself a cat when I graduate and am granted some level of independence along with the title of shinobi. Any pet is meant to have a soothing effect and I feel a strong affinity for cats. Always composed, always working at their own pace, exuding imperial displeasure when disturbed, able to transform at a moment from harmlessly complacent to a creature of claw and fang... precisely what I aspire to.

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So there were things that would break that stoic look on Rosemarius's face. Gin had noticed and only chuckled to herself. She was doing her best to keep her cool, it was only the first day, so she had to be a little easy on the students when they acted out, but as time would progress she would be stern and dish out punishment when necessary.  "Alright everyone, let's get back to your concentration." It would take the students a short while to get a control over themselves as many more than likely wanted to go over and pet the puppy. It was just a natural reaction really, least from how she saw it. Tiny cute things deserved petting, even Gin would admit to herself that she wanted to pet the puppy too.

She would rub the back of her head and watched the students one by one get back to what they were doing. Kirito merely chuckling to himself as he petting Ranmaru who laid on the desk and curled up. The two girls next to him were whispering stuff to him about his dog and he couldn't help but chuckle at it. A couple others here and there were a little pouty that they couldn't pet the puppy right now. Even Chizuha held this yearning look wanting to pet the puppy as well. She had a blush on her cheeks and looked around the room seeing how interested many others were as well. Her eyes had fallen upon Rosemarius and even took noticed that her stoic appearance had broken at the sight of the puppy. She would look back at her own desk and giggle lightly to herself before a pleasant smile kept plastered to her face before she went back to concentrating on the leaf.


Thing's would go well until the end of the exercise, once time was up Gin would speak up. "Alright everyone, that's enough. Now I don't wanna swarm you with too much information at least on the first day. I'd like for you all to be able to retain all that I had spoken about after all." time was going by quickly in this classroom. Thankfully the kid's weren't being problematic, there was minor hiccup's here and there, but it was nothing serious.

"There are a couple techniques that we will be practicing for the duration of this class until your graduation. Just some basic techniques that all Konoha shinobi should learn how to do without effort by the time they are able to graduate. "She lifted a single finger. "bunshin no jutsu." She lifted a second finger. "Kawarimi no jutsu, Kakuremino no jutsu." as the stating of the third technique she would raise a third finger. "Henge no jutsu, and the konoha shunshin no jutsu." she would raise a fourth and then a fifth finger.

Five techniques they would be constantly practicing over the course until graduation day. "These are rather important and you need to be able to perform at least three of the five or show an equivalent skill level that makes up for being incapable of performing such techniques. Though I hope none of you will have to resort to the alternative method of trying to graduate. It's not easy."

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A cloning illusion, body-switching, an invisibility illusion, the teleportation jutsu unique to the village and... Rosie frowns thoughtfully as Gin mentions the transformation jutsu ...and a technique that allows us to turn into another thing. Odd that a mix of utilitarian skills and deception is taught alongside a technique with such variability and power. I imagine that it's very much like feinting with a weapon and preserving your mobility but this transformation jutsu... it's interesting at the very least. She comes out of her stance of intense focus and contemplation, pausing to scribe down the names of the jutsu before she begins to tap her brush's handle tip against her desk lightly, her eyes distant. So many things I'd like to assume the properties of, and so many animals whose special traits would be worth borrowing. Certainly the cat, but also the dog, the wolf... she smiles slightly and unconsciously taps her finger against the strange markings on her face the fox. Claws, teeth, the sense of smell, the lithe and careful evasion of the foe and the swift unlooked-for attack. I think that this transformation jutsu will be worth concentrating on... when I've accomplished the other two. I wish to fight with sword and my own two hands, so to feign weakness when I'm not weak, strength when I'm not strong, being near when I am far and being far when I am near, and especially to prepare the situation so that I've already won when I begin to fight. The combination of the other four will certainly aid me in those things but the body substitution skill will make it easier to follow the admonition of the most basic text on strategy: hold out baits to entice your foe. Then feign disorder... and crush him. At the last thought, her face would assume an expression of malevolent pleasure, an expression that she banishes as quickly as she can. She then assumes her posture of focus on Gin, steepling her fingers, resting her elbows on the desk, and resting her chin on her upturned thumbs with her grave amethyst eyes tightly fixed on Gin-sensei.

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"I will teach you these techniques in order from the easiest of the techniques up to the hardest of the five techniques. At least for together I'll give you a quick run down of these techniques." She would walk to the chalk board and made a dividing line to separate from the thing's she had written earlier. She wrote out the techniques names and spaced them out so they each had a space in between them. The order she wrote them in is; Kakuremino no jutsu, Bunshin no jutsu, Kawarimi no jutsu, Konoha Shunshin no jutsu, and finally Henge no jutsu.

"Kakuremino no jutsu is the easiest of the five you will learn as it doesn't require any handseals to make and all it requires of you is fabric of some kind. With it you charge the cloth with your chakra and make it blend in with the background you are against. It's a quick and easy technique and usually those with untrained eyes will not be able to spot you." she explain and written in the space underneath the word Cloth

"Bunshin no jutsu is the next technique you all will learn. This technique allows for you to create intangible duplications of yourself. It's an extremely useful technique and can, if timed correctly, be extremely helpful even in the most dire of situations." Underneath it she write Ram, Snake, Tiger "These are the handseals that you need in order to perform this technique."

"Kawarimi no jutsu allows for a shinobi to replace themselves with something in the given area. Typically you would switch yourself with something like a log, a pot, a straw dummy, really anything that is in the area. This technique is especially important to remember and get a good handle on as you can strategically use this technique to surprise your opponent into believing that they have harmed you and give you an opening to counter attack them." Underneath that she wrote the name of the handseals for it; Tiger, Boar, Ox, Dog, and snake. "Be sure to remember the correct order in which the hand seals show themselves, or else your technique will fail."

She moved the chalk down and pointed at the fourth technique. "Konoha Shunshin no jutsu is a signature technique that represents out village. There are many variety of these techniques out there and each of the other villages have their own variation of it, but the resulting effect is still the same. This is a high speed movement technique, when performed correctly your chakra vitalises your body to withstand the effects of the extreme speed, and varying how far and how high your target location is the more chakra you would need to use in order to make it successful." The handseals she wrote underneath it is; Ram

"This last technique, the henge no jutsu, is the most difficult of the five techniques I will have you learn. It's a transformation technique that lets you take on the form of your intended target. While it is an easy technique to actually do, it's difficult in the respect that once you have your transformation activated, you have to keep up that illusion along with it. For example this technique would be used a lot on infiltration missions in order to take the appearance of an enemy shinobi in order to get behind enemy lines. There comes a lot of stress in that you have to be aware of who you are taking the appearance of. What is their name? What is their personality? and so on so that other people believe you are this person, because if not they will see right through your illusion. You can also transform yourself into objects as well so there is a lot of freedom in this technique. But the key importance with this technique is having the keen eye for detail of what it is you plan to transform into because if you do not get it right, then you will not fool anyone." Underneath that she wrote the seals for this technique; Dog, Boar, Ram

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Rosemarius breaks her posture of absolute concentration on Gin only for the time it takes her to record what the sensei is writing down on her scroll. So for the jutsu to work, you have to move your hands in the correct way at the correct time in the correct order... except when you don't, such as with the invisibility. The transformation is also... an illusion? Her face falls as Gin talks about having to maintain the illusion when transformed, although she restrains the reaction after a moment. So the technique is not nearly so powerful as I imagined, or even slightly as useful as I'd hoped. You're just pretending to have turned into a thing: you don't gain its attributes or powers or anything about it, you just pretend to have its shape. How very distressing. She paused her thoughts with the thoughtful frown that's becoming almost as common on her as her tightly-controlled features. But interesting too... the hand signs are critical. Their order is critical and accuracy is critical as well. I have full faith that Gin-sensei is teaching us something invaluable and vital but... WHY is it invaluable and vital? She raises her head and glances without moving it.m I think this is something useful to the whole class, even as an intellectual exercise, so even if it's a silly question, I think I should ask it.

She patiently waits until Gin has concluded explanation of the jutsus they are to learn and the basic elements of each and what's involved, and she times it for when she's certain the teacher isn't just pausing for breath before starting another sentence of instruction before she quietly raises her hand. "Gin-sensei, please forgive what is probably a silly and pointless question but, what is the purpose of these hand signs? I don't mean to question the need for learning them at all, but I'm curious about them. I reason that if they must be done precisely and in a very specific order, they're like a mathematical formula that will yield the wrong result if you use the wrong symbols. And yet, all of these are the channeling of chakra and chakra is mere energy, isn't it? It has no ability to know anything, much less whether a shinobi has moved her hands correctly or incorrectly. I reason that they could be like physical aids, helping a shinobi to shape their chakra correctly by taking some of the meditative steps out of the equation and yet, as you just said, the jutsus does not work at all if you don't those signs in that order every single time. So if they're not a channeling aid, and the chakra has no intelligence about it to tell the difference, what does make the hand signs so critical in making a jutsu?" She pauses before another thing occurs to her. "And since jutsus are developed at some point, does this mean that creating a jutsu is little more than randomly making hand signs until they produce the result you're looking for, since hand signs are the prerequisite for a correct and functional jutsu?" She blushes a little as she finishes the question. "I apologize for the long question and I beg your pardon if I'm wasting the time of the class or disrupting your lesson, Gin-sensei."

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After Gin had explained the techniques, she had come to notice that Rosemarius had raised her hand and Gin arched a brow at this and pointed towards her. "Yes, Rosemarius?" acknowledging that she was permitting for Rosemarius to ask her question. Even the others in class would look over at her. A few interested and a couple others merely rolling their eyes, not entirely fond of the 'intellectual' students, but it's much like any other class, some like to learn and some don't.

Gin would listen carefully to Rosemarius's question and consider how to answer her. The girl came out with some really good questions, and didn't seem like the type to just accept 'that's just how the world works'. You don't get these kind's of questions for a basic level class, especially on the first day, but here is Rosemarius asking such question's even on the first day. So the desire to learn is obvious and from the get go.

"I've yet to come across a question that is pointless, silly maybe, but pointless no." She would walk over to the podium and then gaze up at the ceiling a second as if forming her thoughts and then she would look back at the class. "That is quite the interesting perspective you have on chakra, though I will be honest with you, no one really knows exactly why the hand seals are required to learn these techniques. Chakra is a kind of energy yes, but it's also a specialized case. There have been reported cases of chakra holding sentience of some kind, though it could quite possibly be argued that such a thing is because the technique was designed in that way. It's hard to say for sure, but what we do know is the hand seals we do are a necessity, rarely do we come across techniques that don't require hand seals, and the shinobi's that do have few techniques that can be activated without the need of them, have been training those techniques for years!"

She crossed her arms underneath her chest at this point as she would continue. "The purpose of the seals is to help us channel our chakra to the precise amount and to the correct area the body would need for that particular jutsu, but just randomly doing hand seals will not get you results." She began to form the hand seals, slowly, so the students can see. The hand seals were the one needed for the clone technique. "If I just do the handseals for the bunshin no jutsu as you can see, nothing happens. That is because I wasn't moulding my chakra for it, so no one should worry about randomly firing off jutsus just by forming hand seals. As for the creation of techniques it's more or less that way. Trial and error on trying to get the results you want, much like anything else there is no one way of doing things. It is strange to say for certain because there have been jutsu's with long combination of handseals, for example the water dragon jutsu requires a combination of forty-four handseals in order to perform it correctly. You can imagine how that jutsu came about with someone just sitting around trying to string seal after seal, pouring in chakra whether too little or too much to get the result they wanted at the strength they needed it to be." Gin gave a light chuckle to herself at the thought of that jutsu creation process. "This also comes back towards your Yin and Yang chakra, especially your Yin chakra as that is the chakra that relates most to your creativity. Hand seals are what help you in channeling the correct amount of chakra you need for the technique and it helps you move your chakra to the parts of your body you need it to be, but without that creative aspect your jutsu will not form. Basically, you can sit around all day forming hand seals and pumping out your chakra, but if you don't know what you're chakra is going to create, all you will be doing is wasting your energy and tiring yourself out." Gin looked a little worried and then rubbed the back of her head. "I hope that gave you some sort of insight for your question. I wish I could give a better proper answer on it."

She looked at the rest of the class. "Alright, now we get into the more active part of the class where we are actually going to attempt to perform some of these techniques. Once we go through the five of these techniques, you will be free to leave class." she walked around the podium and opened the drawer and put the chalk back in it and closed the drawer again. "Let us start with the Kakuremino no jutsu." Gin squatted and opened a panel in the podium and pulled out three yards of fabric. "We will do this one at a time. First I'll show you how it's done and then we'll take turns going through attempting it. As you can see here, this is just regular fabric. Nothing special about it at all and as you can also see it doesn't match the wall here by the door." Gin would hold the fabric in both her hands now as she moved closer to the door. "Now when performing this technique you need to be aware of what you are hiding against, you need to be able to blend the fabric with it's surroundings or else you technique will be seen through. Once you know what it needs to look like you channel your chakra into the fabric, while keeping in your mind on the background you want it to blend with and!" she tossed the fabric at the door and the fabric covered the door completely and very quickly the door vanished from sight and the fabric actually blended perfectly with the wall making it appear as if there was never a door there to begin with. There was no wrinkle, nothing was out of place. You couldn't even tell that a sheet of fabric was there in the first place.

A couple students here and there stared in awe and some others gotten up out of their seats in order to see better. Gin always enjoyed the looks on kid's faces when they got to see techniques in action. It was highly amusing to her. "So who wants to try first?" she stated as she pulled the fabric from the wall and as she did the fabric returned to it's normal bland color.

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"Unless I spoke to a scholar who dedicated their life to obscure subjects, I doubt there's a better answer Gin-sensei," Rosemarius replies with a quick and respectful bow. "Thank you for entertaining my question." This would be why it's good to have lots of theories: if you throw enough kunai, you'll hit your target by pure chance if you keep throwing long enough. So hand signs work as a sort of focus... um, locus, a sort of mechanical valve that's formed by a certain pattern of hand movements in parallel with concentrating your chakra towards the jutsu you're trying to use. It's so... cold and elegant, like a pot that you form exactly right the first time you try and seems to be guiding you as you shape it. I think that this business of using chakra for distinct jutsu will be  one of the more pleasant things I work on during my training at this school. And the sure knowledge that extraordinary training allows a ninja to make jutsu without the signs gives me yet another thing to strive towards.

Rosie watches carefully in her attitude of intense focus as Gin talks about the invisibility jutsu and demonstrates the technique for all to see. See, now that's what I strive to become: so apt at jutsu that I can produce an illusion so perfect that unless someone knew it was an illusion, they'd be totally fooled. It may surprise Gin that the reserved girl is the first with her hand in the air. "With your permission, Gin-sensei, I'd like to make the first attempt," she says with a slightly nervous catch in her voice. She's well aware that going first meant that everyone would be watching and be especially attentive to her failure, which she's certain will accompany her attempt because doing something totally new on the first try without significant error is extremely difficult. But just this time, I can endure any kind of mockery. Leaping to be first, seizing the day and the chance, will create a pattern for my future training the way that awakening at first light and exercising does. And setting a pattern of eagerness to strive is worth any amount of ridicule that may come with it. Some prices need to be paid.

When Gin assents to her volunteering to go first, Rosemarius rises from her seat and politely waits for the student seated beside her to give way before she walks passed in a deliberate fashion, her heavy work boots loud against the floor, and goes to stand beside the teacher. She gives Gin a deep formal bow before accepting the cloth into her arms and walking over to the door. She closes her eyes and bows her head, grasping two corners of the cloth as she focuses. Two beats and pause, two beats and pause... a breath, two seconds and pause, and breath two seconds. The breath will fill the blood, will fill the heart, will fill the vein, will fuel the mind, and the mind will begin in motion. Once again, her breath assumes the two seconds in two seconds out pattern as she sets the pattern and dismisses it from her mind. Draw forth the energies and cause them to twirl, cause them to spin, cause the spin to give stability and control, cause the control to discipline the energies and permit them to follow the vessels like the flame follows the wick. As the flame follows the wick, the chakra follows the vessels, follows the will, the will disciplines and the mind makes. It is by the will I set my mind in motion. The eye acquires image, the image becomes the memory, the memory becomes the thoughts, the thoughts acquire speed, the speed surges over the object, the object becomes the image.

As the mantra follows through Rosie's mind, the cloth would go suddenly black. Light would flow through the fibers in a sort of stop-motion effect until it reaches the center and a stop-motion pattern of a flame traveling in a clockwise circle would appear between her hands on the cloth. The next pattern is flame burning along long wicks and this is replaced by the cloth turning the exact color of the wall. Rosie takes a step forward and lowers the bundle slightly before tossing it gently underhand, causing it to spool out and stick to the doorframe just as Gin's did. It remains this way for a few seconds before the doorway suddenly reappears--but it's not the same doorway. This doorway is built of two heavy beams holding a third at the top with heavy metal braces nailed in diagonal to the joints and a second set nailed inside the joint to give it the sort of extreme stability normally found in structures that need to bear extremely high weight. Through the doorway, Gin and any students who're at the right angle to see would be able to see a potter's wheel with a beautifully intricate vase, still of raw clay, sitting in the center. Off to the right of the wheel is a low heavy table with bizarrely exactly-cut blocks of wet clay ready for use, and what seems to be a very large skylight and window flood the room with clear natural light. The image is only there for a moment before it's washed out by a return of the fabric to the exact shade of the wall, wholly concealing its presence and the presence of the doorway. Rosie raises her head and opens her eyes, and looks honestly shocked at the results, furrowing her brow and tipping her head. "...how strange..." she mutters in a voice that would be just barely audible to Gin. "I was certain that my first attempt couldn't possibly be a success." She raises a hand and very tentatively, almost as if she's afraid that she'll receive a shock at any moment, she reaches out to touch the place where the fabric lays... and it promptly turns bland and falls to the ground, causing Rosie to jump back slightly at the motion.

{Word Count: 1015 | 13631}

The questions that Rosemarius posed are some great questions and it even got a few other students pondering as well. Some beginning to think about things they didn't think about before and others thinking about other things in ways they didn't think were possible. No one really made much of a people, probably a few hushed whispers, but nothing that could clearly be heard at least not by untrained ears.

After Gin's demonstration she had asked who wanted to be first. A few students went to raise their hands as well, but the one that beat them all was Rosemarius, which it did surprise her, partially because her initial impression of the girl was that she didn't want to bring attention to herself, but it didn't seem like this was the case that time. Gin, after a moment of surprise, would only smile and nod her head. "Sure, come on up." After handing the cloth to Rosemarius, Gin would step back and just watch. Some of the students that were either too far or too close to the wall would get up out their seats and move to a better spot to watch. Even Chizuha had stood up and moved about to get a better view of Rosemarius.

Gin, and everyone else, watched Rosemarius as she began to focus her thoughts and try to attempt the technique. Gin felt when Rosemarius's chakra began to move and enter into the cloth and it then turned black. Gin's brow came together slightly confused, but she continued to watch much like the other students who were watching with curiosity in their gaze. Gin kept a close eye and watched how the cloth changed according to the thoughts that flowed through Rosemarius's mind, it was interesting, but technically she did perform the technique correctly, the whole point of the technique was to make it change from it's cloth appearance to make it blend with the wall and in the ending result she did it. Though all the things that happened when the girl closed her eyes were unwanted 'side effects', but it was the fact that in the end she had accomplished the technique. Basing it off of Rosemarius's reaction at the end, Gin figured the girl's eyes were closed the entire time and Gin could only give a light chuckle, especially when Rosemarius jumped back slightly when the technique deactivated. "Well then Rosemarius, that was a pretty good first attempt, usually first timer's don't give a whole slideshow before performing the technique. The end result, however, was great."

A couple of the students that were standing and watching had clapped for Rosemarius, even Chizuha applauded her. Gin looked back and gave a light chuckle before looking at Rosemarius. "Good job." She would retrieve the cloth once more and look to the other students. "Alright, now who's next." after Rosemarius would return to her seat, or stand off to the side, whichever she preferred, Gin would continue until the entire class had gone through the technique. There were a couple that screwed up, the patterns were either incorrect, backwards, or you can tell it was a cloth against the wall. A couple others got it correctly on their first try, Chizuha Hyuga and Azuka Nara, and Amano Uchiha, Souta Yamanaka, has shown great control over their chakra and wasted no time into getting the technique done correctly.

After that had passed Gin would move onto the next technique. "Alright the next technique. The Bunshin no jutsu." Like before she demonstrated it by performing the hand seals at a speed the students can see and when she performed it the cloned seemed to have slide off of her and stood next to her. A perfect clone in appearance. "when you perform this technique after moulding your chakra, you need to think of yourself on your appearance and imagine your chakra leaving your body and creating that appearance. If you do it right, it would be near impossible to tell that this is nothing more than a mere clone."

Gin and her clone looked at each other and then the clone began to walk around the class. Gin herself would keep talking as the clone walked around the class. "There are a few noticeable thing's about the bunshin clone that you all would need to be aware of." She would give it a few moments and wonders if anyone noticed something about the clone. There was nothing wrong about it's appearance at all, it looks exactly like Gin. Though the only things that were off was the fact that when it made footsteps on the wooden floor, it didn't make any noise whatsoever, and it didn't cast a shadow. "I wonder if any of you all noticed it yet." These were very small details that was normally very easy to look especially when you don't know what exactly are you looking for and trying to find these tiny detail's even in battle would be even harder to notice immediately off the bat. "The bunshin clone doesn't cast a shadow, it doesn't disrupt the area with it's movement, so it's steps won't make any sounds, it won't kick up dirt, it won't crush grass and so on. The only other way to see through this technique would be if you had a special means of seeing chakra like with a dojutsu." Moments later Gin would dispel the technique and she would open it up to her students. "Much like before we're gonna take turns. So who wants to be up first?"

Word count: 923 | 13,247

A small shy smile started to climb Rosie's face as Gin started telling he that her first attempt was good, but it dropped abruptly as Gin mentioned the slide show. "S... s... slide show?" she practically squeaks, her eyes going wide and her cheeks turning red with embarrassment. Slide show? What does she mean 'slide show'? What did the cloth actually look like when I was channeling? "I..." she swallows and bows her head to Gin. "I apologize for my lacking performance, Gin-sensei. I'll work to be better at the technique next time, I promise." Her reaction seems more fitting for someone who'd actually failed to perform the technique rather than someone who did it correctly but with some interesting additional results. With her head still lowered to Gin, although not hanging her head like someone who's actually ashamed, she makes her way back to her seat, quietly slipping by the student to the right of where she was sitting. Even with her embaressed blush and her apology to Gin, however, she resumes her post of focused attention with her chin resting on the thumbs of her steepled palms and watches the other students attempt the technique. If someone looked at her, however, they could see that she was focused far more inward than outward, registering what she was seeing without really seeing it. What could Gin-sensei have meant by a 'slide show'? What even IS a 'slide show'? I'm almost afraid to find out because I'm sure it'll be even more embarrassing than it is when I don't know. At any rate, I clearly need to work on that jutsu and perfect it because the goal is to be able to do it the first time, rapidly, with a minimum of effort and no wasted movements. She smiles ruefully. Oh, and be able to do it with my eyes open.

Life and focused awareness returns to her eyes about the time that Chizuha begins the technique and her smile grows very slightly. What a fine thing it must be to be born with exceptional power over yourself and innate control over your chakra, she thinks as the Hyuga girl does it right the first time and with apparent ease. How nice it must be for your parents to have been aware of your power at the moment of your birth and raise you with the knowledge of that power and how to bend it to your need and will. I'll always be grateful that Mother and Father recognized my powers of intellect, dexterity, and steadfastness but it would have been nice if they'd had a way to know that their daughter would be shown to have this gift, and have pushed me in the direction of a teacher in jutsu as assiduously as they urged me towards literacy and dutiful obedience. I think I'd be an even better daughter to them and an even greater shinobi if I'd begun life with that. As she thinks, the children of Nara, Uchiha, and Yamanaka had also had their turn and showed just as much aptitude as Chizuha and after Souta finishes, Rosie grins a little. So I'll work ever harder to catch up to them and be a peer to them. I'll never have what they have, but I can certainly strive towards it and excel. And so what if I made a 'slide show'? I don't know what that is, and I have little cause to care. Why should I NOT attempt the next technique first as well? I can't look sillier than making a slide-show when I'm supposed to be imitating a wall and at the very least, I heard applause from Chizuha at my attempt so I'm already attaining one of my long-term goals even in my failure. Perfection, perfection in all things and especially myself... and it must begin at the start, even with a stumble. That is Budō, as the scroll told me, and it's a bar I will certainly reach and then vault.

Having rallied herself after her perceived shortcoming, Rosie is watching with extra focus and care as Gin shows them the hand-signs and instructs them in how to perform the clone jutsu. As before, when Gin asks for volunteers, she instantly raises her hand and seems actually pleased when Gin selects her. She slips around her seat-mate and goes to the front of the room so she has ample room to work with, but this time she faces the entire class and looks impassively to the left and then the right before assuming her stance of concentration, forehead bent forward to rest in the circle of thumb and forefingers, her eyes closed with her face frozen in composure and focus  The flow from regularizing her breathing to igniting her chakra to sending it out into the paths is ever so slightly easier this time and it is slightly sooner that Rosie straightens with her eyes still closed.

Ram. She pushes her hands slightly away from her face but at the level of her closed eyes, her hands collapsing into the handsign of the ram.
Snake. Her hands flow into the entwined fingers of the snake handsign as she moves them down so that her thumbs press against her breastbone and her head bows over the sign.
Tiger. She thrusts her hands upwards to be just barely in front of her face and as the movement is done, her fingers snap into the handsign of the tiger and the nails of her thumbs lightly touch her forehead.

All of this happens with the regularity of a metronome over three seconds, each count of a second marking the formation of the next handsign in the sequence and the sharp movement from away from her face, to pressed against her breastbone, to just in front of her face. And now remember your image in the mirror. Reach out to it as it reaches to you. Step into it and embrace, drawing it to yourself. There is nothing there. It is the image in the mirror but only in the mirror. See it step forth and be real without being real. It is you; you are it, the cycle is endless in that moment of unreal reality. To the student and teacher watching, a very faint outline of yellow-white light traces around Rosie and then the outline flows to her left and lingers for a moment before an exact duplicate of Rosemarius in the exact same stance is "painted in" and the outline vanishes. It would take a second to spot it, but the clone is not actually an exact clone. The odd markings Rosie has painted on her face are no longer amateurish but sharp and clean, and they are joined by another delicate marking in white that starts on the bridge of her nose right between her eyes and flows upwards, following the line just above her eyebrows to their ends and terminates with a red tip on the end of the white line. Another goes up from the same point and travels in parallel but slightly separated, ending in  the same way. The lines repeat twice more and then a line runs straight upwards from the bridge of her nose and disappears under her bangs. If one looks closer at her hands, they'd notice that the nails of her fingers are longer than they should be and seem to be trimmed so that they come to a point. With those differences, however, the clone breathes in perfect synchronization with Rosie for five breathes before both Rosie and her close open their eyes to look at the class passed the still-held sign of the tiger, and one more difference would be apparent: the clone's pupils are vertically elongated, only slightly but enough that Gin would be able to see it.

Rosie drops the sign and presses the tips of her fingers together and then rests the formation on her navel, imitated perfectly by the clone. Rosie then moves her eyes so she can see to her left, and the clone mirrors the act, and both smile that slight shy smile that Rosie does. Success! Both clone and Rosemarius then turn slightly in the direction of Gin and bow deeply to her. "Better, Gin-sensei?" she asks, the clone miming the action of speaking without actually making any sound.

{Word Count: 1392 | 15023}

Gin saw Rosemarius's reaction about the slideshow thing, but didn't think much of it. Seeing it as nothing more than a student being embarrassed about doing something they didn't want to do. Gin only watched her apologize and then return to her seat. Mentally Gin sighed at the apology, she didn't want to hear an apology, she did get good results in the end and that was all that mattered at the moment. She never expected for everyone to get everything done perfectly on the first try and for a first attempt Rosemarius actually did quite well and even got to show the flexibility of the technique pretty well, from here onward she can only get better, at least that's how Gin saw it. Even a slight pondering thought about how many students here would end up realizing the strength's of many of the so-called weaker techniques. Hopefully they'll come to understand it someday, though Gin would personally hope they would come to realize it before it's too late.

No matter, the lesson continued on as normal and they were on the cloning technique now. Rosemarius once again volunteered to go first. Gin would allow her to go first and she would move around to stand near the desks of the students, but also not in the way of the students either as everyone focused their attention onto Rosemarius who began to take a moment and go through her handseals and focusing her mind on each seal. Gin watched intently as Rosemarius did her thing, so long as they were in class it was alright to take their time on technique, but she was certain that Rosemarius was aware that she would need to speed it up later on during the year.

Upon first glance Rosemarius would have appeared to have made a perfect duplicate of herself. Many students in class didn't even notice the difference at first. Though a very small handful were aware of the difference, they didn't exactly see what the differences was. More so they had this feeling that something was different about it, but they couldn't exactly tell what it was specifically.

Gin looked at the clone and then at Rosemarius and she would smile. "Quite the attempt for a first try, Rosemarius. Good job." she would state. "It would take many to figure out the clone you made was a fake, though there differences that are there are small, the marking's and even the nails are different from the original, but other than that, i'm pretty sure you can fool many into thinking that was the real you, if they have never seen you before." she would give Rosemarius an applause and a couple of the students would applaud as well. Some of the students even felt slightly foolish at not noticing the differences before, but it was to be expected, Gin is a fully trained shinobi, while the students are not. Gin would be able to notice many minor details that most of the students would miss. Of course she had more notes, but figured it might make the girl embarassed if she said it, so she would keep it to herself and maybe tell her after class.

Gin would look towards the other students in class. "Rosemarius did a great display of the bunshin no jutsu, I want you all to emulate such efforts." She would look back to Rosemarius. "Great job, please return to your seat now." Once Rosemarius would head back to her seat, Gin would open it up to the rest of the students in class and much like before you would be able to witness a variety of skill level with the technique. Some failed horribly at making their clone that they just appeared like colorless mush, others made them too tall, to thin, to fat, not fat enough. There were some students that got it done correctly; Rosemarius was actually among the top five students that had the least differences in their bunshin's in the class. The other four were the same students from before.

After this was done, Gin would move to the next technique. "Alright, we're moving through these techniques pretty quickly and I'm seeing quite the variety of skill level. This is good, I hope you all can help each other out at some point during the year, would prove beneficial in the long run. Now onto the next jutsu." She would head behind the podium and dig through the draw for a moment before she pulled out a log and then brought it to the front of class and put it on the ground. "The Kawarimi no jutsu is a difficult technique to master, mainly due to the timing that needs to be done with it. The idea of it is when you are in the middle of battle and your opponent attacks you, you at the last moment switch yourself with something in the area, this last minute switching would make it appear as if you had been attacked and give you opportunity to count-attack your opponent." After placing the log on the ground Gin would take a few steps away and perform the handseals, and then suddenly Gin would disappear in a cloud of smoke and reappear in the spot where the log was, and where Gin use to be the log suddenly fell to the floor. "It should happen like that. Usually this is a technique that is prepared before hand as you would need to be aware of the object you plan to switch with. Then it's a matter of remembering where it was and allowing your chakra to envelop your whole body and think of yourself switching places with the target object." she looked at the students in class. "You don't have to worry much about anything going wrong as the technique only has a small distance of things in the immediate area, so don't think you can just suddenly switch yourself with something in another country. On top of that it's an either you do it or you don't kind of technique. What I mean by that is that if my intended target object is the log for example and as i'm thinking about it and when i'm about to pull of the technique and i end up thinking about something else, nothing would happen and I wouldn't switch with the log. I only would have ended up wasting my chakra." Gin would walk to the log, pick it up and then put it back where she had placed it before she herself did the kawarimi. "Whose up first?"

word count: 1,102 | 14,349

At Gin mentioning that there were actual differences between herself and the clone, Rosemarius turns her head to look at the clone and has her gesture mirrored precisely; both look immediately surprised. Curious... this jutsu appears to be extremely sensitive if your mental image of yourself, rather than the mental image of how you appear in a mirror, will be made manifest. She gives the clone a long look before it dissipates into thin air as her focus causes the flow of her chakra into the image to peter out. Her attitude as she returns to her seat this time seems overtly happy, and there is a smile on her face. You would think that seeing yourself in the way that you see yourself, right in front of your eyes, would be unsettling or unpleasant but I'm encouraged by it. I'd always wanted to know if the designs in my mind's eye would work out well if I was more skilled and they do. Eight lines settling over the brow with the ninth curving into the hairline is exactly the effect I'd imagined it would achieve. Paired with the cheek markings, it should prove to be pleasantly distinctive. The shaped nails and the slight elongation of the pupil... very strange-looking and yet it satisfies me. I can't imagine how I'll achieve the alteration of my eyes but I remember a passing reference to a form of taijutsu that imitates the features of the tiger's mauling claws but I don't member seeing the citation. Yet another library assignment for myself, I suppose, although they all excite me for what I might learn.

As she fully expected, the children associated with the major clans managed the exercise with an ease that almost conveyed a feeling of it being beneath them--almost. It's good that they restrain themselves and their pride, she thinks. They treat it seriously as they should, even the ones I'd consider potentially problematic for me personally. A long line of worthy shinobi in the blood certainly does tell. She also gave each of the other four a light clap, trying to convey appreciation without being too noisy while the next student in line was trying their best. When the exercise had concluded, her chin went back to resting on her thumbs in her familiar way of conveying focus, and actually focusing as well.

A body substitution jutsu, she notes as Gin demonstrates it. More useful than I can imagine, especially with the way I plan to conduct my fights. And yet I unfortunately know myself. Long experience has taught me that my mind works neither brilliantly nor quickly but very thoroughly... and thoroughness is the last virtue you would wish to have when rapid reactive action is needed. I know my hand signs are extremely ponderous and filled with flowery show rather than practical movement, and this is because a combination of position and correctness helps my muscles remember the signs themselves. Even when spinning the wheel, my motions were slow and deliberate and even ceremonial so why should it change when I get into school? But this vice could prove fatal for this jutsu since it requires an accurate impression of the place in space that an object occupies when you may not be able to see it. I know I've go first twice but this time... this time I think it'll require some degree of study, especially of the four others who've found the lessons simple thus far. As such, Rosie remains in her post of focus, watching as other students perform it, and especially paying attention to how the four handle it. Whenever the last of the four has completed theirs, Rosie volunteers to go next.

She walks up to draw roughly parallel with the log, her eyes swinging back and forth without her moving her head, taking in the layout of the room and especially where the log is positioned and where she will be taking position. She takes her place and assumes what by this time would be a familiar pose of introspective focus and concentration, resting her forehead in the formation of her fingers. Her head rises a second later, her eyes open but her expression vacant and the eyes themselves glassy and lifeless, open but not seeing as her entire concentration is in a completely different realm, one that has little to do with the physical. A moment after that, her hands slip into the first handsign, raising tiger somewhat but not nearly so much as before. With the next sign in the sequence, she does no re-positioning at all, nor with the next, nor the signs after it.

Tiger. The log is to my right, about a meter, laying on its side and resting slightly on a knot along its furthest end.
Boar. The bark is rough but the roughness is shallow and the heart of the wood light.
Ox. Shoulders set, feet rotated to the square, elbows outwards and fixed at my belly.
Dog. I am to the left of Gin-sensei's lectern, slightly ahead of its leading edge and close enough that I could reach out and touch.
Snake. The log is to the right of Gin-sensei's lectern, slightly at an angle to it, laying parallel to its trailing edge.
It is to the left of Gein-sensei's lectern, slightly ahead of its leading edge. I am to the right of Gin-sensei's my elbows parallel to its trailing edge.

She blinks.

In between the closing of her eyes and the opening again, she is where the log was and the log lays where she once stood. She stands there, looking oddly stunned, before she sways slightly and quite nearly falls to her knees, her eyes alive again but unfocused and glassy like someone who'd been struck hard enough in the head to be thoroughly addled. I feel like I just bashed my head against the crosspiece of the molding room. After a moment, she gathers herself and resumes her feet, the glassiness and vacant touches gone from her face. She says nothing but gives Gin a quick polite bow before walking back to her seat with slightly deliberate placement of her feet, like she wasn't confident of her balance at the moment. Clearly, I didn't do it correctly. But how? I know the signs were all correct and I was doing exactly as Gin-sensei instructed: I thought of myself switching places with the object. Her brow furrows. Or was there meant to be another step of thought in the sequence...?

{Word Count: 1088 | 16111}

For this technique it seems that Rosemarius didn't go first and Gin noticed this and made a thought to herself. Gin pondered that Rosemarius saw the difficulty in the technique and wanted to observe the technique first to get it worked out in her mind. Gin smirked lightly as she had eyed Rosemarius from the corner of her eyes. She would continue to watch the students that came up before Rosemarius.

Chizuha was the first one this time, she, like everyone else, had noticed that Rosemarius didn't go first this time and came under the assumption that the technique in question was going to be a challenging one. This is just generally speaking, of course a couple students here and their had their own private thoughts about the technique such as the Nara who really just wanted to go home by this point. It's a slight hassle when students come from families that have been shinobi's for generations so they end up learning things a lot quicker than the rest of the class or have been taught by their parents beforehand, so some students do arrive already with the knowledge that is taught in class.

Chizuha was also one of the students that came from a long generation of shinobis, the Hyuga clan specifically, famous for their insane chakra control and their byakugan. She had volunteered to go first for this time. Gin would permit for her to go first and Chizuha got up from her seat and moved to the front of the class. Her eyes would lock onto the log and she would take it into her mind it's position, it's placement within space and the distance between herself and the log. It all calculated quickly in her mind and she focused upon it. She stood a good five feet distance from the log's left.

Performing the handsigns at a normal speed, this easily shows that she is quite comfortable with making the handsigns, after accumulating her chakra within her and letting it flow around herself, Chizuha would switch places with the log in a poof. Chizuha looked to see that the log had hit the ground where she used to stand and she was now standing where the log once was.

She stood there for a moment as she was double checking that she did succeed at the technique, but also it was to give herself a moment to reorient herself, as suddenly being moved from one place to another in a blink of an eye was a little nauseating, especially since she wasn't exactly use to performing the technique, though she did a good job with not letting it externally show that she was bothered by the sudden switch.

Gin would eye her and smirk as she watched this. "Good job, Chizuha." After that moment Chizuha had gave a bow to gin and smiled. "Thank you, Sensei." she would then return to her seat and after she sat down, she had placed a hand on her stomach and rubbed it in a soothing manner. Much like other times when techniques had been performed students here and there would give light applauses whenever something happened successfully.

The next three that popped up was the Akimichi, who performed the technique, but complained about a stomach ache afterwards, a few students here and there laughed at the comment. Gin would only sigh as she just told the Akimichi to just sit down and relax a moment, if he needed too he was free to run off to the restroom at any given moment.

After the akimichi the two that followed was the Inuzuka, who actually failed at it due to the incorrect handsign usage, and it also showed that he accumulated too much chakra as he had shown external fatigue. He grumbled at some of the laughter, specifically the ones that came from the boys that sat next to the nara. Gin would just shake her head and get the students to stop laughing and corrected the Inuzuka on his handseals, though he couldn't perform the technique at that moment due to the big expenditure of chakra, Gin had advised him to just sit down for the moment and let his energy recover first before trying again.

Gin had then called upon one of the boy's who had been laughing at the Inuzuka, and they were quite startled when this happened and hesitantly came up to try the technique. Though it was partially due to how nervous he was, but he ended up messing up in a similar way to how the Inuzuka had done it. This had in turn caused the Inuzuka to laugh at him in return.

"Alright, alright boy's that's enough. We're here to learn and practice together, not to laugh at each other. Let's move on." she would say to get them to stop laughing. Now it was Rosemarius's turn and Gin would watch her carefully. Taking mental note the deep focused expression that Rosemarius made, it was interesting for Gin to see the different kinds of expression's made by different students, though Rosemarius's expression was quite interesting by far, almost as if it had an experienced shinobi's gaze to an extent.

After seeing her perform the technique, she noticed, much like everyone else, noticed her nearly falling to her knees. Gin arched a brow and just kept watching to see if this was a longer lasting effect or not, but it seemed that it wasn't. Students began to whisper among themselves as they watched Rosemarius move back to her seat. mostly what they were whispering about was their concerned about the technique, a few here and there making their own assumptions about what happened.

Gin would look at Rosemarius. "You did well, Rosemarius. If you are concerned about doing something wrong, you didn't do anything wrong. As I said if the technique were to fail, you wouldn't have switched in the first place. You just simply are use to suddenly switching like that. I'm sure the ones that went before you felt something similar, no matter how brave a face they put on. It happens." Gin stated as she would give Rosemarius a smile before she looked to the rest of the class. "Well we don't have all day, who is next?" eventually they got through the rest of the class. Varying skill ranges and a small few actually ran out the class room to head to the nearest bathroom to go throw up.

Gin would take a moment and she would open the windows in the class room to let the fresh air in to give everyone a chance to recover. She then walked to the front of the class and waited a moment until everyone was settled back in. "While I would love to give you all a rest, I still need to get through the last two techniques. The Konoha Shunshin and the henge no jutsu."

She would begin to explain. "The Konoha shunshin is a high-speed movement technique. There will be fatigue after this, since you guy's aren't exactly use to moving at such quick speeds, but the more you practice it the less of the fatigue you'll feel afterwards. After performing the hand signs for it, you surge your chakra through your muscles and over your body to prepare it entirely for the high-speed movement." She would perform the hand signs for it and in an instant, Gin disappeared with leaves fluttering down to the ground in her place.

Her voice would suddenly come from the back of the class as she held Ranmaru in her arms like a baby and was scratching at his belly. The dog's leg twitching to show that it was the right spot. "This technique can be used for short to long distances, but the longer the distance the more chakra you need to spend to cover it. It's still a physical technique as you are still physically moving from one place to another, unlike the jutsu you just did which can be considered a low level space time jutsu. So it is possible for someone to still track you through special means, but normally no one should be able to see where you've gone. To the normal untrained eyes, it would appear as it just did to you all when I performed it. The only reason this is the konoha shunshin is the fact that we konoha shinobi's leave behind leaves. Other villages have a technique which is pretty much what I just showed you, except that they leave behind other things, be it mist, sand, rocks, some don't even bother leaving things at all. It's really a matter of preference really. The only reason we teach this and leave the leaves behind is to show our pride in our village, but it's not a requirement to have that in there." Just by this alone Gin could have inspired multiple uses with such a technique as anything could possibly be left behind, such as bomb tags for example.

"I want you all to take a moment and relax yourselves. I know you've all spent a good amount of chakra, so I don't expect for everyone to perform this today, but if anyone of you would like to give it a try, feel free. Just move from the wall to in front of the window." The windows had been opened, but they open towards the outside like doors. "Just be careful not to trip over yourselves and fly out the window when you're trying to stop. On the bright side though, it is the first floor, so you don't have to worry about much except a couple bruises and scratches if you do. So who wants to give it a go?" Gin snickered as she walked over to the Inuzuka and gave him back his dog before she walked back over to the front of the class.

Word count: 1,652 | 16,001

Rosie gives Gin a small smile as the teacher reassures her that if she'd done it wrong, no switching at all would have happened. And yet, something was clearly not right. The others who suffered from the technique felt motion sickness based on holding their stomachs. Yet at the end of my movement, I was disorientated and my balance was off, which is a completely different problem than the others experienced, or at least seemed to experience. Oh well. No use speculating at this point since I ca't know for certain until I ask Gin-sensei directly and until I can, I must simply resolve to practice until I've cleared away the disorientation backlash from the technique. She then turns her attention to the explanation and next demonstration of a technique, specifically the high-speed movement technique. Her eyes widen somewhat as she watches  Gin seem to vanish in a flurry of leaves that weren't there before and then appear in the back of the room, holding the puppy and giving him a belly-scratch. Amazing! To move so quickly that the eye can't notice it is exactly one of my training goals. Of course I'd also like to have the capacity to track someone using such speed but I'm sure that's a very complicated matter, using chakra to accelerate the brain's power to see what the eyes can. After all, the eyes can certainly see every step of someone's movement but without the ability to perceive it with the brain and mind, you don't see what you're seeing, you just see what we saw just then.

As with the first two techniques, Rosie volunteers immediately upon Gin inviting the class to try it and as she slips around her desk-partner to go to the wall she's to start from, Gin could tell that the opportunity to try this jutsu actually excites her, at least to the degree that Rosemarius shows excitement. As with the body substitution jutsu, she assumes her pose of concentration briefly before opening her eyes with that vacant, glassy-eyed look to her face. Energy, like water, flowing down along the legs. Like water, settling into each fiber and around the bone, wrapping like a serpent, firm but harmless. Weaving with the blood, carrying away fatigue, carrying away pain, carrying away limits, carrying away the shinobi. Flowing up the neck, settling around the mind like a comforting blanket. Energy seeping into the eyes so they can see at high speed, into the humors so that balance is maintained, into the heart so it feeds the limbs, and into the lungs so they feed the heart. Soothing the throat against the rush, soothing the lips against friction, soothing the eyes against parching, soothing the joints against wear.

She takes a breath and her face becomes animate again, her eyes narrowing as if against expected wind as she moves her hands around with the palms facing one another. The thoughts acquire speed, and they are where I will be. And now for the feet to acquire speed as well, and make it real. She mashes her hands together in the handsign for the ram... and time stops. For anyone watching her, she disappears leaving leaves behind as Gin-seisei did but in her mind, everything around her is slow and gradual, motion drifting like it's moving through molasses, everything tied to ordinary speed and normal motion, and her in a moment where only she can move. She rises onto the balls of her feet as a practiced runner does, focusing on her destination, shutting everything else out of the tunnel and the path that leads from where she stands to where she has determined to go. And then she travels through that tunnel at a run, feeling normalcy pulling at her, tearing at her, gnawing at her stamina and sending flickers of pain along her legs as she takes each step, sinking deeper and deeper, until Rosie is in front of the window and the mental effect is gone, the only think left behind being Rosemarius leaning slightly against the wall looking winded. She winces and reaches down to rub over the taunt and fatigued muscles of her calf just below the back of her knee. She rises up on the balls of her feet again, stretching the muscle a little to stop it from locking up, before she starts back to her seat, making sure to plant with the ball and rise up a little to keep the muscles of her legs limber as she walks.

{Word Count: 754 | 16865}

Gin had taken notice of Rosemarius's excitement to go first. To which she had allowed. Other students, the more physical ones at least, seemed more excited about this kind of jutsu, probably because it was more up their alley than the typical ninjutsu stuff, which is fairly normal. Gin would stand by her podium as she would watch the girl come up and prepare herself.

Everyone watched as Rosemarius, to their eyes, would disappear much like Gin did earlier and then reappeared neared the window. Many had grin's on their faces and some were amazed at it. Just subtle thing's that Gin noticed cross everyone's faces. Seeing that Rosemarius succeeded, Gin would watch her with a smirk on her face. "Fantastic." she stated. "That was good work Rosemarius." She did notice that the girl had appeared winded, but this was expected results that she had warned of. and had rubbed her calves.

Rosemarius had returned to her seat and Gin would nod her head and look to the class. "Next?" A majority of the boys wanted their hand at this at first. Eventually they would go through the rest of the students with very few hiccups, a few of them here or there nearly fell out the window, but for the most part a good majority of the class got the hang of the technique pretty easily, but at the same time, many were really tired after this.

Gin would give them a moment to rest and catch their breath. "Alright everyone, we're onto the final technique for today and after this you're free to head home." She looked around the room wondering who should she pick for this next assignment. Her eyes fell upon Chizuha. "Chizuha, would you come up here to help with the next demonstration." Chizuha blinked and looked at Gin and she nodded her head.

Chizuha would come up and stand next to Gin. "Alright, Chizhuha stand here and face the class." Standing next to Chizuha, Gin would speak to the class. "The henge no jutsu, is the last thing we will cover today. This technique is considered the hardest of the five due to it's purpose rather than it's execution. The transformation technique is use mostly in when on spy-type missions. Having to keep in character and not break the illusion that you are trying to keep up while in the disguise of another." She would perform the seals necessary for the technique and in a poof, Gin's appearance would perfectly match that of Chizuha who was standing next to her, even Gin's cloths changed as well to match the clothes that Chizuha wore.

When Gin would speak, her voice was also different as well, sounding just like Chizuha's. "This technique can also alter one's voice as well, but that only happens if you actually heard the person speak before, if not then you will not be able to have your voice change as well." she would look towards Chizuha. "Please turn around in a full circle in place so we can show them that the technique matches front to back.

It was a little weird for Chizuha to see herself like this, especially when it's talking back to her, though she knew that it was Gin in disguise, it didn't change how weird it was. She would nod her head and in unison, both Chizuha and Gin would spin slowly in place so the students can see that the technique covers front to back. Once the spin was done, Gin would cancel the technique and she would tell Chizuha to go back to her seat. Chizuha did.

"So when performing the technique, you have to get the details right. You have to perfectly match everything, right down to the imperfections. So you have to have a good eye for this and be capable of holding that mental picture in your head. This also works for objects as well, so you can very well turn yourself into let's say a sword, you will retain the sword's edge and can be used like an actual sword, but the downside to that is that you'd have to expend even more chakra, to not only keep up the technique, but also to keep yourself from getting damaged. The even bigger downside to that is that every time you get hit in such a state not only do you receive the bodily damage, but it strikes at a mental level as well forcing you to lose your focus and drop the technique. So while object's can be done, it's highly suggested not to turn yourself into something that could be easily used as a weapon as that's only going to put you into a bad place."

She would cross her arms. "So with that said, let's get to practicing this, for your intended transformation target, I would like for you all to transform into me. So come up one at a time."

Word count: 823 | 16,824

Despite the fatigue pains in her legs, Rosemarius is smiling by the time she gets to her seat. It's just as I thought it would be, she thinks. It wasn't merely a change in my capacity to move but a complete transition to being in tune with that greater speed. A powerful jutsu indeed, and one that I'll prize above all others as I train. I wonder if the technique scales to natural ability, where a natural sprinter would be able to use the technique to move far more quickly than someone who is not. For my purposes and my benefit, I'll assume that it's tied to natural ability because that gives me even greater incentive to train myself towards that perfection of speed. It'll certainly tire me out more quickly but my experience is that the more you demand of your body, the more your body gives. Starting out by carrying four blocks of clay strengthens you faster than starting with two, and you soon find yourself carrying eight because the load becomes comfortable and satisfying.

She pulls herself from her contemplation so she can watch Gin and Chizuha demonstration the transformation technique, the one that permitted virtually perfect disguise if you knew the thing you planned to transform into well enough. Another jutsu where the greater your perfection, the greater your power, she notes with no small amount of satisfaction. And because of that, I have a unique opportunity and obligation to pause a moment and allow others to try first so I can more perfectly study Gin-sensei in all respects. When I have as much time as I need, there is no reason or excuse for failure; to fall short here cannot be permitted. And so she sits through several students' attempts at the technique, her gaze fixed almost unnervingly on Gin and largely ignoring the success or failure of the other students. She breaks from the pattern of ignoring when the students of certain clan bloodlines make their attempt, giving a polite clap or two for each even if they fall short, but her focus is very obviously remaining on Gin. Presently, her turn would come and she walks up to the front of the room, giving Gin a respectful dip of her head, before resting her head in the hollow of her steppled fingers to gather her chakra. The effect this time is somewhat different than before. Instead of briefly sweating and being rendered dry and composed by the focus, Rosie appears to blur ever so slightly as her chakra assumes the visual quality of heat shimmering. A bare moment after this effect manifests, she does the handsigns with no particular flair or drama, just quick, sharp, precise movements of her hands  to create the signs for the technique.

Taller than I by a small degree, hair wavy, braided, curled into a bun. Decorative chopsticks driven crossed to each other to hold the style. Blue eyes, moderate lashes, moderate brows, makeup applied in the manner of the professional, in small touches to enhance the features. Wears lipstick, a light rose. Smooth skin, slightly round cheeks, classic heart shape. Wearing the long-sleeve blue shirt of a confirmed shinobi with the red circle and black swirl on the sleeves. Blue pants, green flak jacket,  same symbol large on back. Many pockets in the vest, utilitarian, practical. Six and a third wraps of bandages around both ankles, blue shinobi sandals. Average musculature, no sign of  excess weight, average bust. Headband, leaf village insignia, no other visible ornamentation. The sight becomes the picture, becomes the target, becomes the form, because the technique, becomes the clay, becomes the target that is the picture the sight became. All of these elements of Gin's appearance run through her mind in the spaces between the formation of the three hand signs to perform the technique and just as Gin had, in a single instant, Rosemarius is replaced with Gin. The several minutes dedicated to unnervingly focused study appear to be very well-spent because the duplication appears perfect, right down to the minute imperfections and markings that naturally accumulate on the skin over the march of time. Rosie raises her head to look Gin directly in the eye, naturally being identical in height to her, before she steps back from Gin and gives her a full bow.

"I hope I can be guided well by you as the one instructed on my path to being a strong and fine kunoichi," she says with Gin's voice with the precise inflection and audible cheer that Gin had put into similar words when she and Rosie had been talking with one another just before the rest of the students arrived in the classroom. She straightens and then twists her left foot so the heel rests in the instep of the right, then uses the foot as a pivot to turn precisely ninety degrees to her left so Gin can inspect the duplication from one side. Another twist and pivot and Gin would see her back; another and she'd see her from the opposite side; all sides are as precise a duplication of Gin as the front view was. Finally, Rosie pivots herself back to face Gin and cancels the technique, giving Gin another deep bow, the tiny smile that she often does, and returns to her seat. That was certainly... an experience. It's highly unsettling, actually, the feeling of chakra flowing and creeping over your skin to maintain a very unnatural shape. I think I should prefer learning a way to localize the effect of the jutus because I'm certain that however necessary its perfection is to my advancement as a shinobi, I want nothing to do with a full-body version. Even pretending to be someone that I liked immediately upon meeting her, the awareness of being something I'm not was as much a physical sensation as a certainty of my mind. I desperately hope that the village won't call often upon me to do the work that that jutsu lends itself to...

{Word Count: 1006 | 17871}

Rosemarius didn't go first this time, and other students went before her. Though as Gin was watching the other students come up and try the technique. She felt Rosemarius's eyes on her like glue. It was honestly uncomfortable feeling to have someone so intently staring at you, but Gin kept her cool and just went on as if she wasn't being stared at so intently. Students would come and perform different skill levels of the technique. Some made the transformation too perfect where it was to being like a porcelain doll, to not even close and making Gin appear much smaller in height, or the wrong length of hair, sometimes even the wrong color.

Gin facepalmed at some of them, and some others she could help but laugh at because of how ridiculous they ended up making her look. Though there were a couple that had gotten it correct; the Nara, the Uchiha, the Hyuga, the Yamanaka, even the Akimichi had gotten the transformation technique pretty good as well.

It was finally Rosemarius's turn and Gin would watch her come up to give the technique a try. When Rosemarius finally transformed into Gin, Gin would blink and tilt her head some looking at the transformation. Eying it carefully and inspecting it. Gin blinked in surprise when she heard her ow voice come out of Rosemarius's transformation. For her first attempt and Rosemarius had gotten the technique down to a scary accurate degree. Gin was really impressed with this girl, maybe it was because she wasn't apart of the more famous clans of the village and yet she was showing great aptitude in her technique and knowledge making her seem on par with those clan members. There was even that chance that Rosemarius could possibly be even the top in her class, though it was much to soon to actually tell that for sure, but the skill she was showing on the first day was spelling out something great for the girl.

Gin would nod her head and smile as Rosemarius showed her all sides of the transformation. Rosemarius had given her a bow and then returned to her seat. "Great job, Rosemarius." Gin would say, and from there the next student came up and had their turn.

Eventually the class was all done and it was time to wrap up the class. "Alright everyone, you all did a great job today. We have quite a few of you all that showed great skill, and a couple of you all that need's to work a little harder on the technique, but for the first day, that was some great stuff and I see much potential for you all already. So before I let you all go, there is the matter of homework." Her eyes scanned the room to watch the reactions, she saw a couple students groaning silently at the thought of having homework on the first day. "It's quite simple really, you have yourselves three objectives; first practice your hand signs whenever you have free time, second practice your techniques for at least an hour, and last and i think this is important, though it's not an actual requirement, I'd like for you all to get to know at least one other person in this class. That's it for today everyone, great job and have yourselves a great day. You may all leave." She stated giving the class permission to leave.

Gin would walk behind her podium as the students were getting up one by one and leaving the classroom. Some leaving in groups, and some others leaving on their own. Gin would lift her gaze and look toward's Rosemarius. "Oh, Rosemarius, if you can, can you stay behind for a few minutes. I'd like to speak with you."

word count: 629 | 17,453

Rosie gives Gin a small smile as Gin praises her for getting the technique right. At least I did it well enough, even if the sensation of it unsettles me and is unpleasant. It's a good omen for the future: five basic techniques, each one of them done with enough aptitude that I've got something to build off of and improve on. I actually feel pretty accomplished, at least mostly keeping up with the already-trained students from the major clans of the village, and I hope this is a positive portent. Her reaction to the announcement of homework, even before Gin actually says what the homework is meant to be, is a look of visible eagerness and excitement, and when Gin explains what the homework is to be Rosemarius seems even more pleased than before. It's like that saying that if your profession is one that you love, you'll never need to work: long hours at the shop, doing pottery work, carrying clay and shaping it, has made constant work something of a pleasure for me and now I'm being required to do it as part of my education. Even better for me, we're actually required to make the acquaintance of at least one other classmate. She glances at Chizuha. Not that I'll have to agonize over the decision of who to acquaint myself with, of course. Truth be told, I think it'd be wise to be acquainted with all students from the major clans but it's probably best to moderate first and expand my efforts later.

That Gin wanted her to stay behind for a conversation was something Rosemarius had fully expected, which is made obvious by the fact that she makes no motion to leave when class is dismissed, and even unrolls the rough copy of the Budo passage that she was copying from before class began. When Gin speaks to her, she raises her head from her preparations and gives the teacher an unadulterated smile. "Of course I'll stay, Gin-sensei. What would you like to speak to me about?"

{Word Count: 342 | 18213}

"It's nothing too serious. Just a short quick conversation is all." She stated in response to Rosemarius and would await for all the other students to head out. When all the other students had finally left, gin would walk over and take a seat next to Rosemarius and she would look the girl over once and then look at the stuff she had out, the Budo passages that she had been copying earlier before class started.

There was a short pause as Gin was mentally attempting to figure how she should form her words. With her back pressed against the back of the seat, she would cross her left leg over her right and place her hands on her thighs as she looked at the chalkboard seeing all the writing she had done. "So tell me, how did your first day go? I'm rather curious." she asked. Her eyes shifting over to Rosemarius with a smile upon her face. "Was it any fun?"

She figured this means of starting out would be good, it wouldn't seem to eager to pry it and felt right as a nice and gentle approach to building a comfortable mood for the conversation. "I hope thing's didn't get too confusing."


Word count: 206 | 17,659

Rosemarius tilts her head slightly to a side as she looks at Gin, her features briefly contemplative. I know some of my thoughts on things today might sound a little unsettling and I really don't want to give Gin-sensei a bad impression. At the same time, she's my teacher and if there's a way she can help me that I wouldn't notice but she would, I need to be completely honest with her. She is, after all, a full shinobi and I think she can handle the odd thinking of a student. "The first day has been... satisfying," she replies after a moment. "I completed some techniques correctly, others with some flaws that I need to work out through training, but I was able to complete all of the ones I attempted. I've developed a way to draw upon my chakra through mental effort, although it's still a slow approach that wouldn't work out so well if I needed to use it in combat. I've gotten a feel for the level of skill of my fellow students, especially the students from prominent clans and bloodlines. I can foresee that with some effort on my part, those students who came to school already well-taught or at least well-practiced will be good sources of inspiration and a measuring stick instead of... problems." Her expression briefly clouds over at that. "Although I need to develop my information better because I don't yet know all the clans well enough to understand their inborn gifts. I only understand rumors about the Uchiha Clan, for example, and those rumors are so out there that they can't be right. It's never a good idea to make plans based on wrong information, so I need to fix that."

{Word Count: 290 | 18503}

Gin would smirk a little as she would bring her arms up onto the desk and rest her elbows on it while she cupped her own face in it while looking at the board and listening to Rosemarius. "Well that will be fixed up in due time. The clan's are quite amazing, and there's only so much information you can find on them in public records and even those are extremely vague." she stated as if speaking from experience. "For a first day's job you did surprisingly well." She shifted her head and looked at Rosemarius before removing her head from her own hands and lowering her hands to rest on the table interlaced with each other.

"I remember when I first started out in this academy." she gave a chuckle. "I was absolutely terrible." She kept a smile on her face as she looked towards her own hands. " I had so much trouble getting the technique down right, that my teachers thoughts I wouldn't be able to become a ninja." Her eyes shifted back to Rosemarius. "You certainly did a world better than I did when I first started out."

Word count: 192 | 17,851

Rosemarius smiles a little shyly at Gin. "I can only attribute it to good fortune of some kind," she says. "Maybe all of the steps to do it right, or at least nearly right, are intuitive for me. Maybe the visualization helps, or maybe the scroll I read and was struck by in the library inspired me in some way. I could very well be that I'm simply having an unusually good day and things that ought to be more difficult are just working out in my favor." She pauses. "But even if my doing so well is merely good fortune, I'm eager to work hard at it and get better. I need to be faster with the hand signs and faster with drawing my chakra; a mental progression involving spinning and pipes and centrifuges isn't going to serve me well in a fight. And really, that's the entire purpose of everything we learn here: becoming all the more skilled at fighting. It seems like chakra is a tool for that alone, rather than for something mundane like being a potter or a blacksmith. There seems to be Budō in all things, in everything that a person can become skilled at, but this infinitely malleable energy within is for the fight." Gin would be able to notice a touch of sadness in her tone and expression at the observation, an expression that lingers for a few moments through another pause before Rosemarius looks more directly at Gin. "I hope I don't sound rude at all, Gin-sensei, but why are you interested in how the class was for me? I'm only one of a lot of students and not even the most talented at the art and science of being a shinobi. I appreciate your kindness and that you are interested in how I'm doing and that you care but... I'm... not sure why you do."

{Word Count: 315 | 18818}

Gin rather enjoyed Rosemarius's humble reaction. Gin personally enjoyed people who were like this; brilliant, but not snobbish. Determined, but not arrogant. She listened to the girl speak and tilted her head as she was aware of the sad tone in her voice, Gin would gaze at her with a show of concern on her face as she would listen to what came afterwards, but Gin would give a gentle little laugh as she would lean back in the seat and look towards the chalk board. "That's an easy answer because you catch my interest." She spoke with no hesitation and continued. "Yes, there are indeed many others that, right now, are most talented than you are, but that means little when it comes to capturing my interest. It's not based upon how good you are, or how bad you are, but rather the potential I see within you. Many students in the class have a lot of potential to be great someday, no doubt about that, but there's something about you that speaks out to me. It tells me that there is something only you can do, and that thing that only you can do will be very important someday."

Gin would now sit straight and turn in her seat to face Rosemarius. "I believe that you will achieve great things."

word count: 222 | 18,073

Rosemarius' cheeks became very slightly rosy at Gin saying that she believes in her, believes that she will achieve great things. "I'd like to think that I will as well Gin-sensei," she says. "Until I realized that I had some connection to chakra, that it could be more of a tool for me than a trowel or a pottery wheel or kiln, I've been certain that I would achieve great things. Not great and grand things, certainly nothing that others would note or speak of widely, but things that would be great to me and to the people who really matter most." Her rosiness flares some as she gives a tiny and hasty shake of her head. "Not that the village isn't... doesn't matter or that other people don't matter but..." She stops herself letting out the rest of the breath and taking in another, giving herself space to reorder her slightly jumbled meaning. "I tended to be very hasty to work hard when I was small and didn't let myself do anything other than work hard, and I ignored my father's much older brother when he came to visit. I chose work over family in the hastiness and heedlessness of youth, but my father's brother was wise when he chastised me. Before he left, he asked me aside from my work and said only 'no success in the village or out of your home will replace success in your home and with your family'."

As she relates this tale, Rosemarius unconsciously smiles at the memory. "It took me years to be wise enough to realize that my uncle was a wise man and had wise words, but I believe him to be correct, Gin-sensei. And so before I realized that I could do great things with mastering myself and chakra, I determined that I would do great things in and among my family, and that if family were the only ones who talked about my great things and passed down stories of those great things for years, it would be more than enough. Having chakra just means that I have more family than I did before, because being able to use chakra for larger things means that great things that are larger can be achieved. But only so long as I practice this Budō in all things, which will be very hard work but... worthwhile work, I think." She smiles at Gin. "I hope that the great things I achieve, that the something you think only I can do, will justify your faith and my family's faith too."

{Word Count: 429 | 19247}