Mission Details:

Kidou arrived at the army training ground, and he was greeted by the person-in-charge, the captain of this small ragtag group of samurais. He handed over the mission scroll to the captain for inspection, waiting patiently with a gentle smile on his face as the samurai captain unrolled the scroll and skimmed through its contents, his head nodding in satisfaction ever so often as he confirmed that the mission scroll was in fact genuine and that Kidou was in fact the man sent by Konoha to train their samurai in the more subtle arts to combat.

“You’re clear to go,” the samurai captain said, handing him back the scroll.

Kidou took the head of the scroll - the metal tip that was supposed to form the basis of the scroll when it was rolled up - from the captain, keeping a frown off his face at the fact the captain didn’t even bother to roll the scroll back up before handing it to him. As the captain gave him instructions on where to head and who to train, Kidou silently rolled the scroll up and placed it back underneath his white robe, before thanking the samurai captain and walking in the direction he was directed towards.

The small improvised samurai camp was located in one of the relatively more open, grassy fields in Konoha. It made sense, since ninja were the ones more likely to stick to hiding and subtlety, using the cover of the forest to rest themselves and prime themselves for enemy attacks, while samurai instead preferred the open areas where they were free to maneuver, and where any battle, one-on-one or otherwise, could be made as fair as it could be without any outside interference that the enemy couldn’t possibly have expected. Kidou made his way past the white tents, not paying the inhabitants too much mind even as the armored individuals all turned to stare at him as he walked past. Clearly they weren’t accustomed to the looks of a ninja walking around so freely, so relaxed, and without consideration for his safety amongst their kind. Of course, Kidou himself was fairly alert of any danger and was ready to sprint away if they showed the slightest signs of attacking, though he heavily doubted people who requested help would then attack the helper. It made little sense, especially since they were standing on land guarded by Konoha.

Kidou hoped the village wouldn’t be too fond of samurai making use of their mission system to lure ninja out to their deaths. He hoped, at least.

After passing roughly ten rows of tents, he arrived at an open battlefield. Too open for his liking, since it prevented him from actually and actively making use of his surroundings to get the upper hand against the enemy. Actively was the key word there, since Kidou himself would prefer to just lay back and react to his enemy’s whims, rather than move around on the battlefield luring his enemy into a trap. Yes, Kidou wasn’t the most active of ninja, but it didn’t normally hurt too much. Well, not yet, anyway, and Kidou did have the smarts to get serious when the situation deemed it so, so there was no woryy.

Well, not yet, anyway.

A small group of two samurai rushed up to him, their armor clanking against itself as they jogged to his location. Kidou paid them mind from the corner of his eye before realising that they were actually heading to him, rather than somewhere else, before turning to face them and regard them.

“Are you the ninja Konoha sent?” the one on the left asked, slightly out of breath.

“Yes,” he replied. “I take it you two are the duo that I’m supposed to be training for this small session?”

“Yes, we are,” the same man replied.

Well, they would need a lot of whipping into shape then, if a small run like that was enough to get them exhausted. And they weren’t even technically running; they were jogging. And here Kidou had been slightly apprehensive that the samurai would be in better shape than he was, given their supposedly rigid and rigorous training schedule. Well, maybe these two were just rookies, trainees, new recruits rather than the actual hardened samurai that they threw into battles, otherwise the safety of Konoha and the Land of Fire was greatly, greatly at stake.

You know, unless the other nations’ samurais were just as out of shape. Then it would just be a ninja battle. And those never got ugly.

“Okay, tell me where the two of you want to practice,” Kidou started, and the one on the left gave a small nod before walking off to a rather secluded part of the clearing, just by a group of trees.

Kidou noted the shadows on the ground. It was a few hours to noon so the sun was still not directly overhead. Kidou almost slapped himself for taking note of such a thing near automatically. He wasn’t here to fight. He wasn’t here to demonstrate jutsu. He was only here to whip up these samurai and teach them proper form and strategy, rather than the normal, more generic ones that nearly everyone was taught. There was no need to take note of shadows that were trademark of his family. None whatsoever.

That sword on the samurai’s hip looked awfully long though. Probably sharp, too, within the sheath.

They arrived underneath the tree, and Number One, the samurai who had been talking to him that Kidou just had to name for his own sake, stopped and looked at him earnestly.

“We can begin now.”

“And your friend?” Kidou asked, since the other samurai stood to the side with his arms folded, just watching the exchange.

Thankfully, however, his friend, who Kidou dubbed ‘Number Two’, replied in his stead. “I am his supervisor. I’m here to oversee his form. If this session goes well, we may be contracting your services - your services - to help teach the rest of the group. We can assure you the pay is fairly generous so I’ll advise you to try your best. Do not let us, or your village, down.”

“Well, you need to lighten up,” Kidou merely replied, before looking at Number One and ignoring the small ‘I’ll lighten up when these kids are trained’ comment thrown his way. He was quite sure he was included in the ‘kids’.

“So, when do we start?” Number One asked.

Kidou rolled his eyes. Sure, ask him to teach before giving him your name.

“Well, first of all, I would need to know what you want to learn. I can’t help you in swordplay, since I don’t own a sword, especially not the kind that samurai prefer. However, I do know some advanced taijutsu stances that you might be able to use. If you can add these to your fighting style, you might be able to get the upper hand against another samurai.”

“Let’s begin!” Number One said enthusiastically.

“Okay, so first…” And after that, Kidou and Number One just descended into a series of steps and formations, with Kidou correcting Number One on multiple occasions, either due to his less than acceptable stance, or because Number One just didn’t want to hold it long enough before translating into the next stance. It was a small variation of the stance that the Hyuga had used, based off what used to be the Gentle Fist’s main style. Of course, now, the Gentle Fist had evolved so much that the old style from before had been all but released to Konoha’s public. Of course, these were styles so old that they came from far before the founding of the villages, and was something that only a select few Nara who specialised in other clans had kept note of. It wasn’t effective if you weren’t a Hyuga, but that didn’t mean that it didn’t teach you the art of precise hitting, saving your strength until the moment of striking, and balance, among others. It was exactly these that Kidou was building on, and from the few looks he stole at Number Two, he could see that the supervisor himself was fairly pleased with what he was seeing, mind already whirling and thinking how he could incorporate this into a more samurai-based strategy.

“That will be enough for today,” Number Two finally said, as they closed for lunch. “That was splendid teaching, ninja. You managed to explain such steps precisely. Are you an Academy teacher by any chance?”

“No, but I have done my homework,” was the reply.

“Very well. I am pleased. We will be in touch. For now, you may return,” the samurai said from underneath his armour.

Kidou merely gave a small thank of gratitude before leaving.


WC: 1496

Completing a C-ranked mission: 1000/1000
Speed E-0 to E-1: 75/75
Endurance E-0 to E-2: 225/225
Perception E-0 to E-1: 75/75
Reaction Time E-0 to E-1: 75/75

Remaining WC: 46