While the Moon Expedition Team was having a so-called "friendly exchange" with Toneri, the survival exercises of the Konoha Academy classes were also coming to an end.
"Found you, Anko-sensei."
Karin pointed toward the bush where Anko was hiding. With her confirmation, Naruto and Sasuke immediately moved to flank her from both sides.
The Uzumaki bloodline was really too troublesome.
Anko felt like crying. No matter where she tried to hide, Karin would always find her thanks to her ridiculously powerful sensory abilities.
There was simply nowhere to run.
"Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!"
Anko thrust her arm forward, and several snakes shot out from her sleeve, coiling toward Sasuke and Naruto.
Caught off guard, Sasuke was instantly bound tight.
Naruto, on the other hand, was missed completely.
"Huh?"
Feeling her snakes strike only air, Anko tilted her head in confusion.
When she landed, she immediately called off the exercise.
"Alright, that's enough for today."
She had already seen enough of their teamwork and coordination. There was no need to drag things out any further.
"Eh? That's it?"
Naruto popped his head out from somewhere Anko hadn't expected.
"This brat..."
Anko froze for a moment, then had a suspicion.
...
Elsewhere, Hyūga Iroha had also finished his group's exercise and was now chatting with his students to build rapport.
Temari seemed rather reserved, Kankurō was his usual brash self, and Gaara stayed silent.
"As your sensei, I don't have many secret techniques to teach you, but when it comes to small tricks useful to a ninja, I do know a few."
Facing the trio, Hyūga Iroha suddenly unleashed a strike toward a distant training dummy.
"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!"
The invisible blow landed squarely on the dummy's crotch, blasting up a cloud of dust and fragments.
"Did you see what happened?"
Iroha turned around and asked the three of them.
"Hmm, I got it, sensei. You're telling us not to hold back during battle, right?"
Kankurō raised his hand confidently.
Temari had no words. Gaara looked thoughtful.
Seeing that the other two weren't inclined to answer, Iroha didn't mind. He explained directly,
"Strike where the enemy must protect. Especially against male ninja—such a blow, even for the bravest of warriors, will provoke an instinctive reaction to guard themselves."
Hiss... that actually made sense?
The three exchanged glances, suddenly realizing that this teacher wasn't nearly as gentle as he looked.
Then, they remembered Yashamaru, who had been gone from home for several days and had only just returned yesterday.
When he heard that they had been assigned under Hyūga Iroha, the complicated look on his face made more sense now.
"Oh, right. Kankurō, you studied puppet techniques in Sunagakure, didn't you? Here—this scroll was entrusted to me by the Fifth before his departure. It contains most of the puppet arts known to Sunagakure."
Feeling that their bond had improved, Iroha decided it was time to hand over the items Takeshi had given him.
"There are also three puppets stored inside—Crow, Black Ant, and Salamander."
Kankurō, who had already been shocked that his sensei could produce Sunagakure's secret techniques, was utterly stunned when he heard the names of those three puppets.
He had seen them as a child—creations of the greatest puppet master, Sasori of the Red Sand. After Sasori defected, these puppets had been locked away by Sunagakure's higher-ups as their most powerful puppet weapons, never given to front-line puppet users.
How in the world had Konoha gotten hold of them?
"Temari, this is a Wind Release scroll and the Giant Folding Fan. The Fifth asked me to pass them on to you."
"And Gaara, there's a secret technique in here that will suit you well."
Each of the three siblings from Sunagakure received a weapon or technique perfectly suited to them.
They had long heard rumors that Sunagakure had no real autonomy left when dealing with Konoha—but to see it firsthand like this made it real.
Now, they fully believed it: Sunagakure had truly become subordinate to Konoha.
The slightly older Temari was filled with mixed feelings. Yet, thinking of how her father had died at the hands of the current Kazekage, and considering that Konoha's living conditions were far better than their own sand-blasted wasteland of a home, she finally buried her emotions deep down.
From today onward, they would live as people of Konoha—and, if they must die, they would die as people of Konoha.
Though, ideally, not die at all.
"Thank you, sensei." x3
With Temari taking the lead, the other two followed her example, bowing in gratitude to Hyūga Iroha.
"Good. Since from today you're officially my subordinates, as your teacher, I should do something to celebrate. Let's go have some barbecue!"
Having so easily won over the trio, Iroha was in high spirits. Pumping his fist in the air, he prepared to lead them off to the Akimichi clan's famous barbecue restaurant.
A similar idea was brewing in the mind of Sarutobi Asuma.
He didn't quite understand why Takeshi had specifically insisted that he become the supervising jōnin for the new generation of the Ino–Shika–Chō trio.
But rather than overthinking it, he decided simply to fulfill his duty earnestly.
After building rapport with his three students, he too brought them to the same barbecue restaurant.
Naturally, they ran right into Hyūga Iroha's group.
"Asuma?"
"Iroha?"
The moment their eyes met, one of them silently cursed his luck, while the other could barely hide his delight.
Sarutobi Asuma: Crap... looks like I'm paying for a big feast again.
Hyūga Iroha: Perfect. Finally found a sucker willing to foot the bill!