Finding A Mentor

Events of late had filled Shimiko with hope, fear, and a willingness to grow. The girl had had a heart to heart with her squad, cult den mother, and even her own mother. The recent events had put quite a bit of pressure on her and she needed someone to help her rise to the occasion. Shimiko walked into the Raikage Building, and headed towards the Raikage's Office. Many of the people who worked there knew who she was although some of them weren't aware that she was Nariko's student. The girl walked briskly, her normally pleasant smile was replaced with a far more serious expression. Today she was all business. Shimiko walked up to the Kage's secretary and asked to see the Raikage. She waited for permission to enter the woman's office. Even while Seigi was Raikage Shimiko knew better than to barge into his office without first clearing it with his secretary. She was wearing her typical clothes: a red mini-skirt, white shirt, blue tie, sneakers, and a trench coat.

The secretary on staff, a young timid blonde girl named Naomi that wanted to become a Kunoichi but didn't favor putting herself in danger in the fields, who'd been one of Calypso's assistants saw Shimiko enter into the building. Recognizing her as Seigi's little sister and one of the students of the Raikage, she smiled up at her. "You're Shimiko, right? The Raikage isn't in a meeting right now, if you'd like to go up." she said. "The door should actually be open, she's just sitting up there looking over some stuff."

To her credit, she was correct. Nariko was just sitting in her office looking over some of the blueprints that Natsuru had provided, about the ships and factories that she planned on building. She'd be a little preoccupied with them, so she wouldn't really pull away from them unless Shimiko said anything, but she'd offer a little bit of a wave.

"That's me" Shimiko replied in response to the interrogative. Naomi informed her that the Raikage was available. Shimiko thanked the woman and gently eased the door open so she could slide through. Nariko was studying some important Raikage stuff and Shimiko waved back in response suddenly embarrassed that she might have been interrupting something far more important. However instead of ducking back out she walked directly up to the Raikage and explained her situation. This was far too important to leave for another time.

"Raikage-sensei..." she started unsure of how to address the woman so she opted for a combination of the two. "I need your help with something..." There was no use hiding it anymore. Ryuko and Natsuru were stronger than her and if she wanted to stay true to her ninja way then she'd need to be honest with the one person that could help her achieve greatness. The girl shifted from her characteristically friendly tone and put on a more serious demeanor.

"I want to be like my brother Seigi, Raikge-sensei. He was a killer and he was good at it. By the time he was my age he was already earning a reputation for himself and I'm just....." a petty murderer preying on the weak and homeless she thought glumly. "...a nobody. I want to starting training. I mean really training, no more pussy footing around. Ryuko and Natsuru are already way ahead of me and now that I'm not in a coma I have a lot of catching up to do. Raikage-sensei I want more private lessons with you and I want you to help push me to another level. No matter what cost and no matter what you have to do. I must get better. "

Nariko glanced up from her papers as Shimiko started to talk, giving her the attention she deserved. Her wish seemed simple enough, but it would require much more one on one training. And not just a little bit here and there, but dedicated training. "I can help you with that, but the kind of training you're asking for isn't going to be easy. Luckily, Natsuru is going to be busy with some other things and Ryuko is fairly self sufficient in her own endeavors, so I can afford to do the one on one stuff, absolutely. I was going to send you on a mission with them soon enough, but I'll just pull you from it and we can start our training regimen."

She could understand her student's urge to train and get stronger. Sitting around and doing nothing would make anyone feel bad, especially if you were the younger sister of a former Kage, one much stronger than the current one. Nariko wasn't under any sort of impression that she'd be able to beat him in a one on one fight, so she couldn't promise that she could make Shimiko as strong as him, but she'd do what she could to get her as far as possible. "I can give you a week. A full week of individual training. I can either do it here at the training grounds, or I can take you on a mission myself, and let you do most of the heavy lifting. Which would you prefer?"

The Raikage felt bad about her neglect to properly train the girls, but they didn't really seem to need it. Here and there she would pay them a visit, but she wasn't as capable of being a sensei as she'd like, but she would never refuse them if they asked her for some training. She appreciated that for the most part they were able to take care of themselves, and was always available to them if need be.

Shimiko was curious by what Nariko meant when she said Natsuru was going to be busy with some other things and that Ryuko had her own endeavors. She knew a bit about her teammates but she guessed they had their own goals and methods of attaining them. She resolved to not focus on that but on her own development. Nariko had agreed to give her her dedicated training which was music to the Janshinist's ears. She gave Shimiko a choice of training or a mission. The girl considered for a moment and gave a bold response:

"Both"

Shimiko wasn't sure how Nariko would react. As Kage Nariko had a lot of other responsibilities and Shimiko knew it was wrong to be selfish. Nevertheless this wasn't just about her, it was about the future of her religion and the fate of her fellow worshippers. She had to be strong enough to protect them. To this effect she would push for as much time and attention from her sensei as possible.

"Okay, both then? I'm sure that can be arranged. I got a week I can give either way, so everything is going to bumped up a notch. Are you sure you can handle it?" It certainly would be tough. She wasn't about to go easy on the training, the best thing a shinobi could learn was how to not get hit, and if you did, to be able to get back up. She'd have to push her pretty hard to toughen her up, but that could easily be arranged.

The mission might be harder. She wasn't going to do it for her, so Shimiko needed to be able to do it on her own. And it wouldn't be a normal, low ranked mission, there would be danger to it. Nariko was only there to assure that she wasn't killed, but other than that, she'd need to do it on her own in order to push herself.

If she'd respond in the affirmative, then Nariko would nod. "We can start training whenever you'd like, but that'll be a couple of days at the Training Grounds. When you're ready after that, I'll take you on the mission. To save time getting to the mission destination, I'll do the moving, you'll ride on my back." With some of her tech, she could move quite fast after all. They'd make fantastic time.

Shimiko was relieved to hear that Nariko was down for both a training session and a mission. This would leave their timeframe quite crunched and Nariko asked if she could handle to which the girl gave a blunt "Yes Raikage-sensei". Nariko explained the itinerary for their training and mission plans. Shimiko was fully prepared for what was to come and nodded to indicate her understanding. "Thank you Raikage-sensei, it means a lot to me" she said. She had got what she had come for and so she gave a polite bow and assuming she was not stopped she turned to leave and walk out of the office.

Exit

Nariko smiled at Shimiko, then continued on with her work, mentally planning what sort of training and mission she needed to take her on. She was already supposed to be planning a team training session as is, so things just got a little more complicated.

-exit-