fandomhigh | Ethics [Tuesday, January 6, 2nd period]

Anakin walked into his classroom precisely on time and gave the students assembled there an appraising glance as the door clicked shut behind him. If you were late, you weren't getting in. "I'm Master Skywalker," he said in a voice that was intended to carry, "this is Ethics, and we're going to skip the introductions--I'll figure out who you are--and move straight to our first discussion."

He paced around the room, cloak flaring out behind him, as he handed out the syllabus. "Today's topic," he said. "Self sacrifice: knowing the difference between saving people and being a pretentious twit."

"Any time I ask a a group of people what they would do to save someone they love, they all blither on about how they would set the world on fire, lie, cheat, steal, kill, die, et cetera, et cetera. I've been at this school too long to believe that half of you haven't already been put into this situation and I'm in no mood to hear adolescent ramblings about how wonderful you were or might hypothetically be. We're going to ground it in reality.

"Last summer there was a woman who was in charge of this school. She had been placed in power legitimately, was allowed to punish in accordance with that power, and began pushing the boundaries of her authority almost immediately. She called students to her office, punished them for slights genuine or imagined, and began escalating the severity and frequency of her punishments, going over the line into what was no longer acceptable."

Anakin crossed his arms over his chest, the scars across his face very evident in the light coming through the window. "It eventually took a team of highly qualified adults to take her out. Today's topic: when do you draw the line? When do you admit to yourself that a problem cannot be solved, that to sacrifice yourself isn't a statement, it's merely pointless? How long does it take for you to realize you can't fix everything by yourself?"

He would hear the replies and choose his TAs from there.

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Anakin smiled. "That's the first Jedi rule of combat," he said, sounding pleased.

"It should be common sense," She drawled. "But people are surprisingly lacking in that sometimes."

Most of the time.

"Most of the time," Anakin snorted. "Especially if they've gotten themselves into the problem to begin with."

Temari grinned briefly at that, looking away. "Then, I suppose the next question would be 'How far would you go to help someone who did that to themselves?'"

"And what would your answer be?" Anakin replied.

"Mine?" Temari took a breath to gather her thoughts. "I would say I would do what I could as long as it didn't interfere with the mission."

At least, she hoped so. This place was wrecking havoc on her priorities.

"And you?"

Anakin smiled. "I would say that the job of a Jedi is to get beings out of messes they've created for themselves."

"That wasn't an answer," Temari pointed out. "But I think that may be where your Jedi and shinobi differ."

Anakin had almost reached Obi-Wan levels of non-question answering.

"What do shinobi do, then?"

"At the core of our training? We're soldiers. I am the knife of my Kazekage, whom we trust to use with brutal precision should the need arise."

Anakin bit back a smile. That was certainly a familiar-sounding job description.

"Assassin?" he guessed. "At some points?"

"At times, I have been," She said, calm and composed. "It's not something we ask of the lower ranks, though. I've also been a guard and a spy. But they're not my strong suit."

"What is your strong suit?" Anakin asked.

"Diplomacy." The smirk made it clear that had been the last thing she'd ever wanted. "My fighting style is too long distance and destructive to be effective in an assassination."

"That was my partner's area of expertise," Anakin said. "He was the best the Order had ever had."

"I wouldn't say the same for myself," Temari said with a short bark of laughter. "Just that I've managed to be the most personable of my siblings."

"You work in family units, then?" he asked.

"We try to keep that to a minimum for tactical reasons, but in our case, it was the only one that would work."

There was the faintest spike of fear as memories of how things were before came forward. It was rather quickly shoved back down where it belonged.

Anakin noticed the change in emotions but didn't press it.

"Interesting," he said. "See me after class. I have something I'd like to discuss with you."

Temari nodded, maybe a little grateful for a chance to calm herself again.

Ethics [Tuesday, January 6, 2nd period]

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