Time class.

[CDF]

Hito stared dismally through the window. The small room was loaded with children. Some were bored, some were excited. Hito? Hito was absolutely dreading this moment. The classroom was absolutely full of children needing to be taught, but the one who was meant to do the teaching wasn’t here. The Jounin in charge of teaching had been called to an urgent mission.

Hito, being the way he was, wanted to help. So he asked how he could, hoping for involvement in this urgent mission. Instead, he became a substitute teacher. It’s not that Hito hated children or anything, he was glad he could help the village. The problem was the responsibility he held in his hands.

In this room, numerous children were waiting to be molded, their brains were fresh and clean, a blank slate for Hito to draw on. In one class, Hito could either inspire them, or corrupt them. He could be the cause of a great Suna ninja, or he could be the creator of the worst missing ninja.

With a sigh, Hito overcame his burden and opened the door into the class. He walked in silently and immediately moved to the board, not yet looking at any of the students. Hito took off his cloak and draped it over the chair before turning to the board and picking up a piece of chalk, briskly writing his name in fancy, yet legible handwriting.

Setting the chalk down, he twirled and looked at the class. “Good morning. I’m Ouji Hito and I am your substitute for the day.” Hito awaited the response. He expected either a wild yell of enjoyment or a sigh of boredom, maybe even something thrown at him.

Instead, the class burst into a muttering of whispers. The small heads turned to one another, they whispered, then they examined Hito, then they whispered again. Hito let them whisper for a moment before raising his hand patiently.

“Settle down now. Will someone tell me what you were last studying?” Another wave of murmurs went around the room as the kids continued their conversations from before. The whispering continued until finally, one of the students raised their hand.

“Yes?” Hito was midly curious at the attention that was on the boy with his hand raised. The whispering continued, but it was significantly lower.

“Is it true that the Ouji clan can stop time?” The class was silenced immediately, they all stared intently at Hito for his reaction.

Ah. Hito smirked slightly. It seemed that thanks to his grandfather and Hito’s exhibition at the chuunin exam, the Ouji clan had gained some fame throughout the village. Although Hito didn’t want people to misunderstand his clan’s powers, he knew that rumours like this were good. For his clans sake, and even indirectly the village’s sake, rumors like this were beneficial. It would boost the reputation of the Ouji, make them out to be strong shinobi. For the village, it will be good because it will put out a rumor that Suna has a secret weapon. A clan that can stop time.

Unfortunatly, Hito didn’t want to lie to fellow Suna soon-to-be ninja.

“Sort of. We can stop the time of an object, but we can’t stop time as a whole.” Hito replied, speaking warmly and patiently.

A quick wave of whispering once more erupted through the room, but it hushed down quickly as the student raised his hand once more.

“Go ahead.” Hito knew the question.

“What does that mean?”

Hito smiled and walked to the front of the teachers desk, leaning on it slightly as he picked up a pink eraser from the counter.

“See this eraser?” Hito bounced it up and down in his hand slowly, “ As an Ouji, as this eraser is bouncing in the air, I can stop it.” As he spoke, Ouji quickly shot out his other hand and caught the eraser between two fingers, holding it where he caught it. “I don’t stop it by touching it, I stop it by stopping the time inside of it. Time flows around it as usual, but the time inside of it is stopped. Nothing is changed. If I removed my Jutsu, this eraser would simply continue on the same exact path it was on before.” With that, Hito released his hand and let the eraser drop back into his other palm.

The kids were all staring now, except they all looked confuse.

Once more, the boy spoke for them.

“Can you show us?”

Hito stopped smirking and pursed his lips. Using his eyes now presented disadvantages. For one, his grandfather would scold him, he would say that the Ouji are not some sort of circus to perform upon other’s command. Also, there was also the fact that Ouji might be needed in combat later. If he used his eyes now and deactivated them, he wouldn’t be able to use them for 24 hours. Then again, there was an upside. Two, exactly. By demonstrating his power, Ouji would awe these children who would no doubt spread this story to their friends, who would spread it to their parents, who would spread it to their family. Spreading the Ouji reputation. The other upside was that this might somehow inspire these children into becoming stronger ninja. It would help both the Ouji and Suna.

Putting it that way, there was no way Ouji could refuse.

“Allright, here.” Hito tossed his eraser to the student. He caught it enthusiastically as he smiled at his stunned classmates that watched with anticipation.

“I want you to throw that eraser at me, as hard as you can.” Hito spoke to the boy with a bit of happiness in his voice, it sounded sort of taunting.

The boy was slightly stunned at first, but then he took it as a challenge.

“Allright, here I go.” With that, the boy wound up as hard as he could go before swinging his arm forward quickly, sending the eraser rocketing towards Hito’s forehead.

Hito smiled before quickly performing the necessary hand seals, staring intently at the eraser as he did so. Right before reaching his face, the eraser stopped.

The eraser didn’t drop, it simply stopped in mid air and stayed there.

There was a loud gasp throughout the class as they stared at the frozen eraser. With a smile, Hito pushed the eraser mildly, or tried to. The eraser didn’t budge.

“If you want to come up and try to move it, form an orderly line and come down.” They did. The students moved towards the front, rather quiet as they took turns coming up to the eraser. Some pushed, some pulled, one even hanged off of the eraser.

Surprisingly, Hito laughed. “Because its time is frozen, it can’t move and nothing can happen to it. You can’t cut it, you can’t burn it, you can’t write on it. Pretend there’s a protective casing on it that makes it so nothing can touch the actual eraser.” Hito stepped to the side as he pointed at the kid who had thrown the eraser at him. “You a good catcher?” The boy nodded curiously and walked up to Hito as Hito called him over. Hito pointed at the desk and patted it, indicating for the boy to stand on it. Which he did.

Now standing on the desk, the boy stood right in front of the eraser, his chest right where Hito’s head was before. “Now, if I release my Jutsu, it would be the same as if I had never done anything at all. The eraser will continue with what it was doing with no indication of anything having ever happened. You ready?” Hito spoke to the class before turning to the boy and asking him. The boy nodded and put his out in front of him, ready to catch. The tickers in his eyes moved slightly as Hito released the Jutsu.

The eraser rocketed forward and slammed into the boy’s hands. The class laughed as the boy was pushed back by his own throwing force. Hito quickly sent out a hand to stop him from falling, before giving his other hand to help him get down.

“That was awesome.”
The boy muttered and the class nodded in agreement. Hito laughed once more, “I’m glad you enjoyed it.” As if on cue, the bell sounded, ending the class. “It was nice meeting you kids, I hope you get to see me use my abilities once more, except next time, during a mission. When you’re all chuunin.” Hito smiled at the hopeful faces of the students who nodded towards him before walking out.

All in all, Hito felt accomplished with the day. Hopefully, the Ouji clan would have a bit of a reputation now.