WIP Oospie-Day
so i kept meaning to sharea WIP Wednesday but i've been a bit preoccupied this week fighting with the doctors office to get my extension letter for my medical leave. so this is a few days late and i didn't have time to make a fancy banner but here's a snippet from Honor Bound, featuring one of my fave subplots: Tenten's
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Honor Bound
“Your proposal is intriguing,” she said.
“Intriguing!?” cried Homura. “This is simply outrageous. We are a shinobi village, not a daycare center. The children are perfectly safe—”
“No disrespect meant, Mitokado-dono,” Tenten interupted, her tone suddenly cold, “but the children are not safe. Everyday, we hand weapons to children and ask them to risk their lives. My teammate, Rock Lee, nearly died in the Chuunin Exams our first year attending—and our sensei had us entered into the exam in our second year, unlike many other sensei who rushed their Genin teams into it. I watched children die in the war—”
“It was war! Of course some died! It's simply unavoidable!”
“No! It is not unavoidable!” Tenten shouted, anger overcoming her. She slammed her hands on the table before her, staring down the council. “Those children were placed directly into harms way when we handed them their hitai-ate. They weren't shinobi, they were children. This council and Suna's made them into soldiers, but they were still children. Most of them couldn't even mold their chakra properly yet!” Tenten felt tears in her eyes as the feelings she'd been holding in—resentment and guilt and anger—came rushing forth. She sucked in a breath, forcing herself to calm. She couldn't let her feelings rule her now. If she was going to make the council see reason, she had to show them the facts.
Silence stretched in the room as the echo of her anger died down and she found her center. Collecting her thoughts, she took from her pile one of the scrolls and unfurled it with practised ease.
“I have prepared, what I feel, is a simple plan—a way to change the way we do things. Instead of children starting at the academy at five years of age, they should start when they are thirteen—”
“Thirteen?!”
“Silence,” the Hokage snapped. “Continue.”
“They should start when they are thirteen years old. At the end of every year, there should be an evaluation wherein the students discuss their goals for the future. During this evaluation, they should be asked whether or not they want to continue training to become shinobi. As long as they wish to, they may continue, but any child who does not may return to a normal school program without shame or judgment. All those who see it through to graduation would be receiving their hitai-ate at the age of twenty.”
“Twen—”
“Homura,” Tsunade snapped, “if you cannot control your outbursts you may leave.”
“But Hokage—” Tsunade narrowed her eyes and Homura closed his mouth, glaring at the Hokage. She stared back, gaze unwavering. Finally, he dropped his gaze. “Forgive me, Tenten. Please continue.”
Tenten would never forgive him. Not any of the council for what they'd done to those children. Tonboko still had gruesome nightmares of losing her friends, still feared the forests at night. She did not smile the way she once had, instead she trained with a dilligance that went beyond obsessive, determined to fight the ghosts and monsters in her dreams, and to save the friends who were already gone. How could Tenten ever forgive them for the damage they'd done?
“Twenty is the age when we are considred adults,” Tenten went on. “The longer children are in the academy, then the better their survival rate will be. I have here,” she said, grabbing another scroll and stepping forward, “a statistical analysis based on research I was able to conduct in the last month. On average, a shinobi's lifespan is only about thirty-five years old. Most shinobi die in the field or go missing in action before the age of twenty-five. This applies to shinobi of all ranks, but especially Chuunin, though this may be due to the fact that most shinobi do not advance beyond Chuunin level.”
“Do you feel that this survival rate would increase with these changes you're suggesting?” Tsunade asked.
“Absolutely. Not only will those training to become shinobi have had more time to hone their skills, but they will also be more emotionally and mentally able to handle their missions. Of course, there is no way to completely avoid the mental and emotional toll this line of work has on a person, but I do believe that with these changes we would see a happier, healthier, and longer-lived shinobi which could only be better for the village.”
“And what of those already made Genin?” Koharu asked, speaking for the first time. She looked calmer than she had when Tenten had first begun to explain her proposal. She leaned forward, looking at Tenten intently.
“Those who are already Genin,” Tenten explained, “would be offered the choice. I do not believe they should remain Genin, but they have already seen so much. I think some of them will choose to give up their hitai-ate—permanently or temporarily—but I know there will be some who cannot. However, I do believe they should return to the Academy and graduate at the age of twenty. They could be given D-rank missions while still training, but anything more should be heavily considered. They are still children, and now they are children carrying a heavy trauma.”
Koharu nodded. “Interesting. You realise that such a thing will cause quite an uproar, don't you?”
“Yes, Utatane-dono. I have considered the potential backlash this proposal will receive. I believe the pros of moving forward far outweigh the cons.”
“And you are prepared to endure the ridicule and possible ostrisization from your fellow shinobi?”
“I have spoken with enough of my comrades to know that those closest to me support this intiative.” She pulled another scroll from her pile, passing it to the Hokage. “I have here a list of shinobi, from both Konoha and Suna, who agree with this plan.”
“This is a petition,” Tsunade noted.
“Yes, Hokage-sama. In the event that this council does not agree to pass this proposal, then I am prepared to take this to the next level. The petition has already reached enough signatures between our village and Suna's, granting that, should your council not see fit to move forward, I be heard by a council of the Great Nations and our allies.”
“You're well prepared,” Tsunade said, a hint of pride in her voice.
Tenten inclined her head. She had to be prepared for anything, she could not fail the children again.
“My concern,” Koharu said suddenly, looking over the scroll that detailed Tenten's proposal, “is that this will severely weaken Konoha's forces. We are already at a great disadvantage, you realise. We sustained a great number of losses during the war, not to mention the damage to the village and the strain on our resources housing Suna's people caused. If we do this, we would see our shinobi forces cut by at least a third, and we wouldn't see any growth in the numbers for years.”
“This is only the first step of my proposal,” Tenten said, and again another scroll was passed to the council. “The main objective is to ensure that children live happy and whole lives, not marred by war; that children are able to experience childhood and make the choice for themselves when they are ready to become shinobi. Eventually, as we move forward, the initiative would be presented to all shinobi villages, great and small.”
“And what if a village does not agree to this proposal?”
Tenten had been waiting for this question. “With the war at an end and our alliances at their strongest, there is no reason for this to be seen as damaging. If this is truly a time of peace, then this would not hurt the other nations. It is my belief that now is the most ideal time for this proposal to be put forth to all of the shinobi nations. Any nation who refuses would be seen as hostile, which would go against the alliances formed.”
Tsunade raised an eyebrow, glancing up from the scroll to pin Tenten with her gaze. “I take it you intend to use this pettion to propose such an amendment during a summit.”
“Yes, Hokage-sama.”
“Very well. All in favour of a secondary hearing on the matter of the Children's Protection Act?”
