[center][b]Daiken | Practicing[/b][/center]
After a short walk the two ninjas had arrived at the academy, or at least the old warehouse that served as an academy in Gobigakure. They entered the building together and were greeted by a score of young children and about as many others. The building was only one big room, with an upper floor you could reach by a few ladders placed along the walls. They didn't notice any creaking or strange shadows that would betray a participant above. Instead it seemed like everyone had gathered in the big room. At the other end they could see the village ninja leader, Hyuuga Hiroshi. He was the only one in the room facing the door, and gave the two chuunin a welcoming nod, but didn't stop talking to his students. Shou placed himself at the back of the crowd, taking care not to draw any attention away from the teacher.

"Old man!" Daiken greeted, loudly. "What's today's lecture on?"
Hiroshi paused, only for a second, and looked straight at the loud ninja. "As I was saying. Daiken. We will move out to the practice field shortly and do some sparring. The students will work on their kawarimi no jutsu". Then his voice softened somewhat "Those of you who are already famailiar with the technique, pleace watch and help them in any way possible."
Hiroshi walked over to the side, where a primitive black board was set up, and grabbed a piece of chalk. 
"We've been through this already, but just to be sure, I want to give you a quick recap of the technique you'll be working on." He started to draw and write on the board as he spoke. "When you're in battle every move you and your opponent makes can be an opening to strike, even the enemy's attack itself. That is where the replacement technique comes in. Right before you're about to be hit you must use the super fast movement that I've taught you to do three things. 
1. Fetch a nearby object that can take the hit instead of you. 
2. Preform a henge no jutsu on it, to make it look like you.
3. Find a place to hide. 
The technique's focus shouldn't be on getting out of the way of the attack, but finding a good hiding place. If this technique is done correctly you should be able to convince your opponent that you've been hit. When he let's his guard down, you can strike."

"Substitution, how boring," Daiken said. 
"Quiet, this is important for the students." Shou whispered back.
Hiroshi looked at him. "If you can dismiss it with such arrogance, perhaps you should come up here and show it to the students."
"I, uh..." Daiken was acutely aware of the stares on him. "No problem, I can do this easy."
He stepped forward, in front of the students. Hiroshi threw the chalk at him.
"Kawarimi no jutsu!" 
There was a poof. Daiken materialized immediately behind Hiroshi, who flicked him on the head.
Laughter. Daiken tried to melt into the floor. 
"See, students, in battle, we'd have lost a ninja," Hiroshi said, gravely. "This is why one should practice chakra control more often, instead of swinging a chain around all day." His stare was meaningful.
Shou was one of very few who managed to restrain their laughter when Daiken so utterly failed to excecute one of the most basic techniques in the ninja arsenal. Daiken rejoined him as a spectator and Hiroshi went into great length to explain exactly what the chuunin had done wrong and why it was wrong. Shou couldn't help but feel a little bit smug, he had mastered the kawarimi in the academy. Being a ninjutsu specialist, he practiced chakra control every day and could pull of a kawarimi in his sleep. Daiken was more of a taijutsu-guy, Shou was sure that his companion would rather take a punch to the face than rely on the element of surprise. 
"Hide behind sensei? Not even a student would've thought of that." He whispered, trying his best not to interrupt the lecture. 

"And now for a proper demonstration... Kobayashi-san, the chalk-piece right by your left foot, could you toss it over?" 
Shou bent down and picked up the small white cylinder and with a grin he threw it as hard as he could at his master. It hit the white-eyed old man straight in the throat and he staggered backwards and fell over, clutching his neck as if he was suffocating. Two older students rushed in to help him and everyone else turned to give Shou the evil eye, but all became utterly confused when Shou only returned a smile. 
Behind Shou, with his hand extended like the blade of a kunai stood the leader of Gobi, Hyuuga Hiroshi. A poof of white smoke and it was revealed that Shou's throw only had hit a leather ball the children used for playtime between lectures. It now featured a big white chalk mark. 
Hiroshi moved his extended hand across Shou's throat and with as much theatrical flare as he'd ever mustered Shou closed his eyes, tilted his head forward and made an incredibly unconvincing last "blergh".

A few minutes later everyone had left the building and was walking around the open area outside known as the training field. The students plit up into pairs and started to practice their replacement techniques. Most of the older participants was content with watching the children, but some took the opportunity to train.
"Kobayashi-san, Hayashimoto-san." It was the voice of their master, and as they turned around the white-eyed old man stood only a meter away. 
"It warms my heart to see my old students again. Thank you both for participating in my lecture. I find it is always best to entertain the children and teach them at the same time."
Shou bowed respectfully. "It is always good to revisit the basic techniques."
"I'll, uh," Daiken said, looking at his feet, "be sure to practice the kawarimi, old man."
Hyuuga Hiroshi eyed his old pupil thuroughly before speaking. "Make sure you do, why not take this opportunity to do so? The students are all set and you may practice as much as you want. I am sure Kobayashi-san would be willing to test you on this technique." Suddenly the old man's eyes darted across the field and stopped on a small group of children. "If you excuse me, a teacher's work is never done..." The old man bowed once again and then left. 

"So, you're going to throw knives at me until I can substitute properly?" Daiken asked. 
Shou thought about this for second while his eyes scanned the field. Then he hunched his shoulders and said "Yeah, sounds like a good idea."
They found an empty patch of the field and took their stances. Shou waited for a little while, hoping his companion would get impatient, before he threw his first kunai. He made it easy for Daiken and aimed for center-of-mass, all the big guy would have to do was the most basic replacement technique.
Daiken responded with honed reflexes. 
"Kawarimi no jutsu!" 
And indeed, the dagger thunked into a log. Shou blinked, and looked quickly around. 
There was a poof, and Daiken reappeared about half an inch next to the aforesaid log, looking quite confused. 
"I did that on purpose," he said, recovering admirably. "Next time will be proper. You've been warned."
"How about this, the point of the kawarimi is to confuse your opponent. So I'll just keep throwing daggers at you until you can fool me into thinking you're somewhere else. Deal?" Shou said and picked up a few new kunai. 

Daggers were thrown, and Daiken promptly failed to avoid them properly each time. Shou tried as hard as he could not to feel smug. He knew exactly why Daiken failed the technique over and over again. He kept shouting 'kawarimi no jutsu' every time he did it. But Shou was convinced that his friend would not learn unless he discovered this fault by himself and kept throwing dagger after dagger. This went on for a while, punctuated by not-even-fazed "This is nothing!" and "I'm just going easy on you, seriously!"
Finally, Shou ran out of daggers to throw and Daiken stopped, sweating and scowling. 
"Don't you think practising a single move over and over again is kinda boring? I sure think so. We should have something like an actual fight. It'll be more rewarding for both of us, I'd say. For me. Once I've beaten you." Daiken said.
Shou thought about it. He wasn't bored, but his throwing arm was getting tired and his am was getting worse. He needed something else to do for a while. Still, a proper fight with Daiken could be devastating, he wasn't one for holding back. 
"Alright!" Shou yelled back. "But we should probably move away from the kids, f we go all out they might get hurt".