Still thinking about what had happened yesterday, Yamato's plan had proven effective in revealing his students' true abilities.
There was still a lot to work on, starting with Ino, who had the most explosive personality of the three. Hinata was fine when it came to her personality, but she hadn't demonstrated her physical abilities during the test, so that was something they needed to pay attention to.
'You told me this was supposed to be a vacation, Kakashi-senpai...'
Looking down with a disappointed expression, Yamato sighed tiredly. He had been tricked by Kakashi, after all. In the end, Yamato had become a teacher.
'Asahi Toru, huh...'
Yamato remembered the moment he found Toru during the test. The way the boy moved and the Taijutsu he used were somewhat strange. It was as if he had modified an existing Taijutsu style himself.
'I should try to learn more about my students. That way, I can plan everything more effectively.'
He sighed. It had been two days since he was assigned to Team 11, but it felt like months had passed, possibly because he felt more stressed the longer he spent with his students.
"Looks like they're already arriving," he whispered.
In the distance, Toru was approaching.
"Good morning. Looks like you're early again," Yamato said with a faint smile.
"Good morning, Yamato-sensei," Toru said, bowing. "Ino and Hinata... It seems they haven't arrived yet..."
"We still have a little time before the agreed-upon hour. Let's wait until they arrive."
Yamato looked at the ground as he spoke. Until a few days ago, he had been a ninja in the ANBU organization, but now he had become a teacher because of Kakashi's trick.
In a way, it was something good for Yamato, since he could learn new things by being a teacher, while also teaching new things to the ninjas of the next generation. That way, the teachings of the old generation of ninjas would live on.
"I was thinking about yesterday, and you're very agile for a rookie. Did someone train you?" he asked.
Toru answered in a tired tone:
"By reading books and practicing with training dummies."
In those books, Toru had found information about Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Genjutsu belonging to the Asahi family. That was why his fighting style had confused Yamato, since Toru's Taijutsu was a mixture of several different Taijutsu styles.
"Just by reading books, huh..."
Yamato took a breath as he thought. He knew which family Toru came from, so it made sense that the Asahi boy had trained himself all this time.
"Good morning, Yamato-sensei, Toru-kun," Hinata said, bowing.
"Good morning..." Toru replied.
A faint smile appeared on Hinata's lips in response. After all, she was happy that Toru had managed to pass the test as well.
"All right, almost everyone is here. We're only missing Ino."
After those words, ten minutes passed. Everyone was waiting for Ino, but it seemed like she was never going to arrive.
"Looks like we'll be starting the mission without her," Yamato said.
"Wait!"
Running at full speed, Ino appeared along the dirt road.
"You're late. You should know that ninjas are supposed to be punctual," Yamato said. His expression was neutral, so he didn't seem angry.
"I'm sorry. Yesterday, while I was thinking about Sasuke, I accidentally broke my alarm clock."
"It's fine, but you need to be punctual. Otherwise, your team will suffer the consequences," Yamato said, making that strange face.
What was he trying to do? Scare them? To be honest, it was kind of embarrassing...
"I understand, sensei. It won't happen again."
—Somewhere in Konoha—
Yamato walked ahead of his students. They were currently heading to the place where they would receive their first mission.
"So, missions have different ranks depending on the ninja who will complete them," Ino commented.
Yamato nodded.
"That's right. For now, you'll receive basic missions, but as time goes on, the difficulty will increase."
Hinata raised her hand and asked:
"Yamato-sensei, what kind of missions will we have to do as rookie genin?"
"The most common missions are finding pets, running various errands, and searching for lost items. Normally, they're things anyone could do, but to make things easier, these kinds of missions are assigned to rookie genin."
Toru found that interesting. He said:
"So, if those missions are assigned to rookie ninjas, what kind of missions do the more experienced ninjas have to complete?"
"Hmm... The missions assigned to Chunin and Jounin are usually assassination jobs, hunting down criminals, and anything related to maintaining order in our village. That's why they're assigned to more experienced ninjas."
'So, at some point in my life as a ninja, I'll have to kill...'
Toru thought that, as a ninja, he had to be willing to take the life of anyone who tried to harm the village, but simply remembering the word death caused his bad memories to torment him.
He shook his head to clear those thoughts.
"We're almost there," Yamato said.
They were approaching that familiar place in the village. All they had to do was go inside, request the mission, and leave, but everyone's eyes turned toward the same place when the door in front of them opened.
Four people came out through the door, one adult and three children. Each of them had a different hair color.
"Senpai?" Yamato said, making his students look at him.
"Oh, hello," said Hatake Kakashi, one of the most well-known ninjas in the world.
Toru silently analyzed the man.
"How did the test go? Did everyone fail?" Kakashi asked.
"I followed your advice. I have to say, it turned out better than I expected."
"Ha ha... From what I can see, they all passed. That's amazing. And it looks like you have an interesting team," he said, looking at Toru.
"Who's he, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked, appearing beside his sensei.
"Oh, him? He's Yamato. He was my teammate when I worked at a certain place..." His voice was somewhat lazy. In fact, his entire demeanor was.
While Kakashi and Yamato stopped to talk for a while, away from their students, Ino and a certain pink-haired girl came face-to-face.
"Sakura..."
"Ino..."
The two glared at each other.
"Looks like you're on a really weird team, Ino," Sakura said with a victorious smile.
"And it looks like you're being ignored all the time, Sakura," Ino shot back, returning the same smile.
Their eyes met, and a strange spark seemed to connect them. However, that ended when Ino looked at the boy standing farther away from everyone else.
"Sasuke!"
Raising her hand, Ino approached Sasuke.
"Sasuke, how have you been?"
Sasuke remained silent, only to walk away from Ino a few seconds later, heading toward the exit.
"Where are you going, Sasuke?"
"Ha! Who was the one getting ignored, huh?" Sakura whispered into Ino's ear.
"You..."
While Sakura and Ino argued, Sasuke headed toward the exit. Along the way, his eyes met Toru's.
"Somehow, it seems like we're the same."
After saying that, Sasuke disappeared, leaving Toru staring down the hallway.
'We're not the same. We never will be,' Toru thought. He hadn't spoken to Sasuke in years, but now, for some reason, Sasuke had become bolder.
"Hello, Hinata," Naruto greeted her, to which Hinata simply returned the greeting.
"Hello, Naruto. It looks like our teams are similar."
"Hahaha, you're right. I thought Sasuke and Toru were the same."
"The same?"
"Yeah, something like that."
While Naruto and Hinata were talking, someone interrupted them.
"Naruto, Sakura, we have to go," Kakashi said, pulling out a strange book.
"We should hurry too." Saying goodbye to Kakashi, Yamato smiled. After all, he had gotten to talk with a friend he respected deeply.