2.1 The Final Student
It had long been supposed - with Yan Dooku a grown man of sixty, now - that Yoda had placed his years of teaching behind him.
Of course, as Master of the Order - soon to be Grandmaster, once his victim, er, successor was elected - Yoda was always kept busy. Despite this, however, he'd always made a point of remaining grounded to the Temple Younglings and future of the Order; he was a firm fixture in the Temple, the classrooms, the Archives - much to Master Nu’s consternation - and especially in the Creche.
The latter of which was, naturally, where he met Inoichi.
“I thought you said you were ‘beyond the years of Padawans’,” Mace squinted at Yoda, who was currently being towered over by the twelve-year-old next to him.
It was Yoda's favourite excuse as to why he always back-seat interfered with Dooku’s Padawans, after all - for such dignified figures, they should've known better than to bicker so loudly in the hallways. Yan Dooku’s aloof attitude was constantly being undermined by just how often Qui-Gon was seen trailing mud and animals through the hallways.
“Always moving, the future is,” Yoda replied, maddeningly smug. “Keen gaze, does young Inoichi have.”
The blonde next to him, Inoichi Yamanaka - twelve standard, the bastard child of an Alderaanian noble, who had been dropped off with the Temple Guard with only his name, as was the case for many of their Younglings - smiled in a way that was too knowing yet serene for a child.
“Master Yoda is Temple-bound for the most part,” Initiate- Padawan Yamanaka agreed, with more gall than most Senior Padawans when faced with the High Council, “and his schedule aligns nicely with my own career trajectory as well.”
Schedule? Career trajectory? Mace rubbed his forehead. Did they let Initiates swallow mission reports nowadays?
“An Archivist?” Master Nu asked, her eyes narrowed with suspicion but her Force-signature leaking optimism; Inoichi had rather high scores for his age group, according to his file. Maybe Jocasta wanted to steal him for her little team of researchers.
“Early days, it is,” Yoda demurred, those damned ears wiggling with amusement as he hobbled forwards and reclaimed his seat. Inoichi, bold as brass, followed after him to perch, like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth, on the step in front of his ‘New Master’s chair. “Begin, Inoichi must first, then follow, will his chosen path. The Will of the Force, it is. Listen, must we all.”
“Just so, Master,” Inoichi agreed, prim.
Mace already half-hated him.
“Does Dooku know?” Plo was the one brave enough to ask.
“Natural process, these things are,” Yoda said, which answered nothing.
At the same time, Inoichi hummed, glancing back to catch his Master’s eyes. “I doubt it, Master Koon. Master Dooku isn't in my social circle.”
Mace tried to imagine how the kriff this twelve-year-old was supposed to have anything to do with a man like Dooku before mentally recoiling with the remembrance that they were connected. They had Yoda in common.
Master Poof looked up from his paad with a squint. “Your records state you were banned from his Makashi class last semester?”
The words rang, like a death knell, in the room for a long beat.
Mace propped an elbow on the arm of his chair and rubbed his palm over the close stubble of his hair. He was going to be bald by thirty, he just knew it. “Why?”
Yoda tittered.
Inoichi tucked a smile behind his cuff. “Lively discussion.”
Oh, for the love of the Force-
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It was to the surprise of only those who didn't know them personally, that Inoichi and Yoda did very well together.
Yoda had always been a heavy-handed, demanding Master - he was old, no matter how active in his duties, and with that came the inevitable stubbornness - but Inoichi was just as crafty and personable a student.
There was a slyness to Inoichi that served him well when it came to reading into his Master’s cryptic lessons, a creativeness that endeared him to Yoda’s own mischievous tendencies, all underscored by a deep love of their culture that ensured that, whilst a chronic headache for those in their path, they were a resounding success. Yoda had spent all of his almost nine-hundred years of life devoted to the Order; that Inoichi had, from so young an age, devoted himself to protection and improvement of the Jedi within the Order… this was a cause that could unite them.
Padawanship had been an auspicious period for Inoichi, between his erratic timetable - being Temple-bound and so well connected via the Council meant he weaselled his way onto a frankly insane variety of courses - and shadowing Yoda in his day-to-day. They attended to the Senate with a frequency that dwindled as the years progressed - Mace had finally been elected as Master and they were now his beast to battle - and Inoichi began to take missions off-planet, only once or twice with his own Master.
For his own duties, Inoichi had worked with the Temple Guards, with the Seekers and other Master-Padawan pairs, and even - on one very memorable occasion - been dragged along with his lineage-brother Qui-Gon. This had also been a chance to meet and get to know Qui-Gon’s own student, Feemor, who was Inoichi’s age and by far the easiest to get along with out of the rest of Yoda’s ‘brood’, so to speak.
(The one mission with Dooku had gone so badly south that Dooku refused to speak to Inoichi ever again; that Komari had left the Order after a single conversation with her fellow blonde, who had asked a few rather telling questions, was neither here nor there.)
Knighthood saw Inoichi working with the Shadows, initially in the field but then later, with the guidance of Master Yaddle, slipping into supportive roles instead. He began to coordinate with the Temple Healers and Master Drallig, ensuring the mental and Force-centred wellbeing of the Order, petitioning that Darkness could be walked away from if one was only given the opportunity and things… developed from there.
By the time Inoichi was twenty-eight, despite not having taken on a Padawan - let alone raising one to Knighthood - he’d been awarded the status of Master for his work with telepathic healing and security.
There had always been a Master of Shadows and a Master of the Guard - Yaddle and Drallig, respectively - but now there was also a resident Master of the Mind.
And Yoda had been right, after all; Inoichi did have a very keen eye.