[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Sho had never been the type of person to keep things slow and at a measured pace. There was too much to do and too few hours in the day. He wasn't borderline hyperactive like Atagi nor was he thoughtless and careless like some people he could mention, but when he was given time to himself he always had to be doing something. Whether that was reading, studying, training, volunteering, whatever it was he went into it wholeheartedly.

That was part of why being blinded had been so damned frustrating. Although he doubted anyone would particularly celebrate the feeling of being rendered sightless, it was especially bad for Sho because he didn't have time to wait, to sit around and heal, to let things recover naturally on their own.

Between the clan election, his need to make up for the display at the Chuunin Exams, and his own ever-flowering powers, Sho couldn't let himself just sit in bed for weeks at a time. Especially with no actual prognosis about how long it would take his eyes to recover, there was no way that he would allow himself to just sit back and vegetate. Even if he couldn't be at his full potential, even if he wasn't able to leave the village, there were still things that he could do.

As such, when he had heard that the Academy was looking for guest speakers from the village who could help give advice and tutor the students, Sho had jumped at the chance.

...Metaphorically of course. Jumping right now was a definite health risk.

262 words | @n/a

SPOILER: Click to show

D-rank Mission: 1/10
Jutsus Used: None

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

The Kumogakure Academy was truly ancient, almost as ancient as the village itself. It had been founded around the start of the second Shinobi War, sixty or so years ago. At least, that was what Sho had been told when he was young, and he had no reason to disbelieve it.

The building was old-fashioned, clearly lacking much of the modern conveniences that people nowadays took for granted, Even then, that they did have had been retrofitted into the old building, looking as out of place as could be. Even so, the village had done its best with what limited materials they had.

Despite being as old as it was, the Academy was a place of great learning and great repute. Kumogakure wasn’t the strongest or most powerful of the villages, but there was a sense of duty in the people who served it. Communal duty, duty to the village, and duty to the kage, and that was all reflected in the school.

For the most part, it was maintained with a mirror sheen, the building’s age far from resulting in any dilapidation and the lessons to match. It was a school for the modern era, no matter how old the construction itself was.

216 words | @open

SPOILER: Click to show

D-Rank Mission 2/10
Jutsus Used None

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

That was why Shosuke had to be so careful about what he was doing here. To be invited to speak here was an honor, although it was one that most Genin and up were offered. It was proof that the village trusted you, that they vouchsafed your motives and believed you had something worth passing onto the students. Someone like Atagi would have no doubt been extended the same offer in Kusagakure, but he couldn’t help but feel Miroru wouldn’t have, even if she was older.

There was a sense of deep honor and respect in the building, and the same was expected of the people allowed to speak there. Or, at least, what passed for honor in a society as based on subterfuge and intelligence work as the Village system. Miroru, someone who openly flouted expectations and lied to people’s faces, would probably have been kept from speaking in case they misled or misinformed the children.

Though, if those were the requirements, one might just as well question what Shosuke was doing here. To most of them, he was just a doctor, not fit to talk about Shinobi duties. Even those that understood him and his motivations well enough might think that his injuries marked him out as a failure of a shinobi. Either way, he would have to be careful about how he presented himself.

230 words | @open

SPOILER: Click to show

D-Rank EXP 3/10
Jutsus Used None

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Though it had only been five or so years since he had last been here, everything about the place felt nostalgic. The smell of food cooking in the Academy cafeteria, the distant screech of disobedient, playful children and the walls covered in their various art projects to try and keep them interested and paying attention to the classes.

Though Sho was unable to see what was on the papers themselves, his blind sense allowed him to feel their presence, plastered across the hallway, no doubt bright and colorful if he only had the eyes to see it.

That was one of the strangest parts of living with his new disability. Though he had yet to master it in the way that Eri had described, he was still growing stronger every day. Strong enough that he could feel everything around him in the corridor. But even then, only the outlines, the physical structure of the objects around him.

Colour, texture, all those little things one would take for granted in one's every day life was all but lost to him, at least for now. It was a void, albeit a detailed one. It all added up to an odd experience, and one that made him feel a little nauseous when he wasn't careful.

212 words | @open

SPOILER: Click to show

D-Rank EXP 4/10
Jutsus Used None

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Shosuke, for his part, was dressed in clothes he had felt were appropriate for the opportunity. His shirt and trousers were nice and loose, just tight enough to avoid falling down but without adding any restrictiveness to his movements. Above them, he wore his lab-coat, that which he used to prove his legitimacy as a doctor for the village.

Though technically there was no need to wear it, it felt like a badge of office, as much as his forehead protector, which as per usual rested bound around his arm, long black cloth-band wrapped over and over again around the arm. He might no longer be a doctor technically, but it didn't mean he didn't care about medical ninjutsu. He was simply a field medic now.

Even so, as smart as he may look, it didn’t make his injuries any less obvious;. Bound around his face like a blindfold were several layers of medical bandages, his hair loosely falling over it as if it was an attempt to hide. Though there was no blood, the bandages were new and fresh, there was still a vague smell of medicine to him, his eye-drops smelling quite astringent and potent. He had even taken to wearing cologne just to try and mask some of the worst of it.

It hadn’t helped all that much.

222 words | @open

SPOILER: Click to show

D-Rank EXP 5/10
Jutsus Used None

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Whilst, emotionally, it felt like the corridor stretched on forever, in reality it couldn't last nearly that long. As such, he eventually found himself standing in front of the classroom door. From this close, Shosuke needed a moment to steady himself, feeling the bottom drop out of his stomach for just a moment.

Back in the hospital it had originally been bad. It felt like spiders were crawling over his skin, as if he was caught in some hellish genjutsu. There was too much sensation all at once, it was like he was being overwhelmed. Fortunately since then he'd gotten used to it to some degree, but there had always been some safe distance between himself and the sources of information. Now? They were all gathered in one place, all on the other side of the door.

They were, thankfully, sitting still for the most part. They were sitting in various states of boredom and disinterest, all facing forwards towards a larger chakra signature - he had to assume that was their teacher, and that they were briefing the kids about their guest speaker for the day. Though their words were muffled by the door, Shosuke assumed that the teacher was a guy.

Taking the moment to steady his breathing and prepare for what came next, he caught himself and knocked on the door before pushing it open.

Well, he thought with a moment of reluctancy, here goes nothing...

238 words | @open

SPOILER: Click to show

D-Rank EXP 6/10
Jutsus Used None

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

From the moment that Shosuke walked into the room, he could hear whisperings all around the classroom. Despite them being quiet, he could catch them nonetheless, and knew exactly what they were saying. They were pointing out that he looked "ugly", that he was deformed, disabled, that they didn't wanna learn from a cripple. It was cruel, the way that kids often were, but he couldn't entirely blame them.

After all, to be a Shinobi was to open oneself up to risk, to live alongside death and danger and acknowledge the possibility that one day there would be a mission you wouldn't come home from. Retiring from old age was one of the rarest things possible in this life, and his condition was making that all too real for kids who had never really thought about it before.

Nonetheless, Sho strode forwards confidently (or as confidently as he could force himself to appear) and took up a place behind the pedestal, looking up at the gathered students from behind his bandages.

"Thank you all for your attendance today - As I'm sure your Sensei has told you, my name is Shosuke. Doctor Yamamoto Shosuke, and I'm a field medic within the Shinobi Corps. I'm here to talk to you today about what it means to serve your village, as well as teach you some very medical techniques and first aid."

There was a pause, before he smiled softly. "You never know when it'll save your lives."

245 words | @open

SPOILER: Click to show

D-Rank EXP 7/10
Jutsus Used None

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Though at first there was a series of groans and disappointment from the audience, as Sho began speaking properly, the kids seemed to grow more quiet. He was unable to tell whether it was because they were listening and respecting what he had to say, or whether they were simply more and more aware that their sensei would absolutely kick their asses if they disrespected their senior.

"I want all of you to answer something - Why are you here?" Nobody spoke, nobody put their hand up, they were clearly all waiting for someone else to do so first. Typical kid behaviour, trying to avoid getting in trouble for giving the wrong answer by ensuring that someone else fell on that sword first.

"You don't need to say it out loud, you certainly don't need to tell me, but I want all of you to think about it. What makes you want to be a Shinobi? What makes you choose this life instead of, say, being a florist. Or a librarian? Or a doctor?

I know you're a little young for that question and most of you are here specifically cos your parents told you to be here, but I want you to know that you don't HAVE to be here. You don't HAVE to become a shinobi. I know I didn't, straight out of academy."

For the first time, admitting that didn't seem shameful. It was just a fact, something that he was telling as part of a larger story, a footnote in the beginning of a larger novel.

"That's right. Like all of you, I trained to be a Shinobi until I was 12. Then I graduated the Academy... but I took all of the skills and talents I learned within these walls and instead went and trained to become a Doctor. I joined the medical field, and I did good there. I helped a lot of people.

Which brings me to my next question: Can anyone guess why I came back?"

312 words | @open

SPOILER: Click to show

D-Rank EXP 8/10
Jutsus Used None

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Once again, the question was met with complete silence from the class. That was to be expected he supposed at this point.

"Tell you what; I'll give you the answer to that question before I leave. But for now... Who wants to learn how to bind a tourniquet?"

---

The rest of the class went off without a hitch. Despite the fact that Shosuke had never been the most social of people, he seemed to hold some sort of power over the kids. He was able to get them to follow his instructions. Fortunately the academy had plenty of dummies that were used for kunai target practice, so it took relatively little effort for them to drag them inside and use them to practice basic medical techniques.

Shosuke had been prepared from the moment that he walked into the room that almost none of these kids would go on to follow in his footsteps with medinin. He would be lucky if even one or two from this class did so, but that didn't mean that he couldn't teach them vital medical skills. One didn't need to be a doctor to bind a wound, or to learn CPR, or how to check for a pulse.

That said, if even only one of the kids in this class would go on to use what he was teaching them, he knew that it would be worth it.

220 words | @open

SPOILER: Click to show

D-Rank EXP 9/10
Jutsus Used None

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

By the end of the day, it seemed the kids had worn themselves out tying themselves into knots. Shosuke's stomach, for his part, had completely settled. Perhaps what Eri had said was right, the more that he used this ability the more used to it he would become until it was as natural to him as second sight.

Likewise, it seemed the kids had gotten used somewhat to taking orders and instruction from someone who clearly couldn't see what he was doing. The blind-vision had done some of the work of assuaging their concerns, and what he couldn't see with his new 'sight' was made up for by his projected aura of confidence and understanding. After all, he'd been working in this industry for over half a decade at this point, he had every right to be confident.

Finally, just before the school bell rang for the end of day, Shosuke stood once more before the kids and gave them what they had been waiting for - the answer to his earlier question.

"I promised earlier that I would answer my question as to why I came back. To put it simply? I came back because I knew that I could do more good here.

I was a good doctor. I was young, but I knew that if I applied myself for some time I could become one of the best. I might even take over as head doctor of the Kumogakure Hospital if I worked long and hard enough. But I knew that there was more good I could do in the corps.

If you learn nothing else from today's lesson? I want you to consider where you think you would do the most good. If you would do the most good here, be here. But if you think you could do better elsewhere, help more people, improve the village? Speak to your parents about it and go for it.

After all, I think its fair to say I'm proof you never know where you're going to end up."

328 words | @open

SPOILER: Click to show

D-rank EXP 10/10
Jutsus Used None