"To be completely honest, I never thought of a prize since I was utterly confident in my victory, I only came up with a nice little punishment." Inori declared, an innocent looking expression on her face as she twirled that beautiful long light blonde hair of hers.
*Staaaaaaaaareeeeee*
The three genin, even Shinka who was a Root operative, looked at her with a dead stare that seemed to exert physical pressure.
'As expected of that witch.' The aburame girl thought, Inori's behaviour vindicating all her ill thought about the jonin.
'Inori-sensei really can't be trusted . . . Even the jonin sensei is abnormal in this team. Am I just cursed with misfortune? Maybe you were in the right dad and I should change career paths.' Mei despondently regarded the heavens.
*Cough, cough*
The blonde made a few fake coughing sounds and prepared to speak up again.
"That said, I will take a request from each of you and it's reasonable, then I'll fulfill it as a reward." The jonin announced.
As half hearted and poorly planned it was, the reward could potentially be very good depending on how far Inori was willing to go for the requests.
She was after all, an elite jonin of a famous medium sized clan so she had access to loads of resources even a talented child of the Uchiha clan might not be able to get.
While Shiki and Mei thought about their requests, Shinka, once again breaking her usual behaviour pattern, took the initiative.
{I'll save my request for later.} She signed.
'No wonder she took no time to think.' Mei thought, adjusting her glasses before going back to deliberating what to request.
Shiki had a slightly different opinion though.
'These two definitely know each other, our dear Shinka-san might just not want to reveal the contents of her request to Mei and I.'
While the white haired boy came up with various conspiracies in his head, Mei came to a conclusion, in the end, as an utilitarian kunoichi, she decided to ask for a means to further her training.
Despite the sharingan's ability to copy jutsu, the Uchiha clan did not have many resources on elemental ninjutsu other than fire release. This was because of the training required to master the respective nature transformation before a copied jutsu can be used.
Most of the Uchiha focused on fire release and yin release which they usually had strong affinities for, with other elements being up to each individual member's discretion to train and find resources.
Mei already knew her secondary affinity after fire was water, somewhat of a rarity in the clan, so she was a bit tied up when it came to resources and the Uchiha clan did not want to ask the village for various reasons so . . .
"I'd like to ask for training materials for water release, from basic to advanced, as much as sensei can get." Mei declared her request.
"My, my! How greedy and ambitious!" Inori teased.
The Uchiha blushed, nervously adjusting her glasses.
But before she could take back her somewhat unreasonable request and downgrade to just basic materials-
"I'll see what I can do." Inori positively replied with a smile.
'I'm supposed to watch, evaluate and "guide" these kids but at the end of the day, my duty as a sensei to actually teach them remains. We'll see how much I can get away with.' The blonde thought to herself.
'I'm most curious about what he's going to ask though.' She expectantly looked towards Shiki.
"I want to learn sensory jutsu from you sensei." The boy finally declared.
"Just that?" Inori inquired, a puzzled look on her face and a perfectly executed cute tilt of the head..
'Secret assignments aside, I'm still your sensei, of course I will educate you, especially in areas I know well. Did this kid really think I wouldn't at least put in that much effort?' The blonde internally questioned.
"I mean sensei's personal sensory jutsu. The one sensei developed yourself." Shiki added.
The jonin showed realization.
Meanwhile, Mei and Shinka were flabbergasted that the boy just blatantly asked for a jonin's self-created secret jutsu. The village didn't require said jonin to reveal the workings of such jutsu, not even the jonin's own clan demanded it. In most cases.
Yet here was a shameless boy asking for such important secrets with an innocent face, just because his team had won a game against his jonin sensei.
Granted, the victory could be solely attributed to him since Inori had easily disabled the other two, leaving Shiki to set the trap, spring it and play the bait all by himself.
The two girls, even the usually disinterested Shinka, were curious about how their sensei would respond.
Would she scold him?
Would she lecture him?
Would she merely inform the request was overreaching?
Or would she surprisingly accept?
As they waited with baited breath, Inori finally responded with a question of her own.
"You do know what you're asking for right?" The jonin asked for confirmation.
"I do." The white haired boy replied.
No dodging or verbal maneuvering, a straight up shameless request. It was almost admirable.
"Tell you what, I'll teach you sensory jutsu from the basics and, depending on how you do as the lessons progress, I will teach you some of my signature sensory jutsu. How about that?" Inori proposed.
'This way I get an excuse to observe his training up close and force him to show off his talents, at least in this area, if he wants to learn my sensory jutsu.' The blonde thought.
As for learning her jutsu, if Shiki proved capable enough and loyal to the village, she did not at all mind passing them down, the only reason she had yet to do so, was because there was no sensor with the required talents to learn them.
On Shiki's end, he would be getting a lot closer to Inori and train with her a lot more than he originally intended, a possible problem when dealing with someone as perceptive as her.
In the end however, he believed Inori's expertise which would be passed down to him was worth the trade.
"Thank you very much sensei!" Shiki bowed his head in gratitude as per the customs.
"Mhm" Inori accepted with a smile.
The two girls, on the other end, were disappointed. Not only was there no drama, the result of the request was inconclusive.
Sure, Shiki might get to learn their sensei's secret skills but he also might not, it all depended on the blonde jonin's evaluation so in the end, the issue only felt postponed.
The fact that Shinka, the girl that literally postponed the matter by saving her reward for later when it was her turn, felt displeased about the resolution, was highly unreasonable.
Then again, reason only came to the fairer sex when it benefited them, a true privilege, one that Shiki used by means of being a rather cute child.
Beautiful and adorable things and people are inevitably liked and more privileged, it was an undeniable fact.
Sometimes that privilege can turn against, like a woman meeting misfortune by virtue of being too beautiful for her own good, or the preconceptions and expectations certain looks give to other people which might be completely absurd.
It is, however, an undeniable advantage in most cases.
The true master of this privilege and the skill of using it however, was Inori, and the blonde jonin was not planning on holding anything just because her targets were young.
But in such a way, the first day of the group as Team 6 had ended.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -