Ch288. Teams 1

"Are you sure about this?" Shikaku looked from behind his Hokage desk at the calm Tsunade who sat on one of his sofas for guests, sipping tea.

"Yes. Why? Do you have any complaints?" Tsunade asked him in a tone that clearly said it wouldn't matter even if he had any but... she was willing to listen if he wanted to reason with her.

Shikaku could only inwardly sigh at the antics of this insufferable woman. Honestly, this was becoming a recurrent theme. It didn't happen all that often but when Tsunade wanted something, Tsunade got it. What really irked him though was that she always came up with some demand when he least expected it.

Like now, for example. Tsunade pushing her way into the formation of the new genin teams was something Shikaku never expected to happen. It was his responsibility as the Hokage to set them up based on information from the academy teachers and Tsunade should have no interest in it... yet, here they were.

"How to say this..." Shikaku looked at the sheet with the teams, a small frown forming on his lips as he skipped all of the unimportant cannon fodder ones that posed no problems, "Let's start with Team Seven. Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Hinata Hyuuga, led by Kakashi Hatake with Anko Mitarashi being co-teacher." He stated, moving his gaze onto Tsunade before deadpanning, "Now that's blatant favoritism."

Yoshino, his wife and secretary, who dutifully sat opposite Tsunade on the guest sofas and was refilling her teacup could only wryly smile while inwardly agreeing with her husband's assessment. That team, it was as if Tsunade said screw it and threw the best prospects from the year into one team. That was just not done. Ever.

Giving them Hatake Kakashi as their teacher on top of that? Yoshino could already see the headache her husband will have to go through in the next few days due to the complaints of other clan heads, advisors, influential figures, etc.

But the real problem...

"Why don't you just make that team and give them to be trained under Mitarashi-san?" Yoshino voiced her opinion.

Normally, she would be instantly silenced. After all, she was just a secretary. Then again, being also Hokage's wife had its perks. From time to time, Yoshino intervened with a question or a suggestion and Tsunade was glad for that. She knew that Shikaku, despite his immense intellect, had a bad tendency to seek the least troublesome way in order to accomplish his goals. Unfortunately, the least troublesome didn't always equal the best.

"She can't do that." Shikaku answered Yoshino's question. "Anko is not on the active roster of Konoha forces and even if she was there, she never achieved Jonin status before she became the Senju representative, which kinda both pushed her proverbial influence to the highest places while also putting a complete stopper into the advancement of her career as a kunoichi."

"And since she never returned to the active roster, she is still just a chunin." Tsunade added.

"Couldn't you just... I don't know? Disregard the rules for this instance?" Yoshino tried to be helpful and gave a suggestion based on the facts she possessed.

Tsunade smiled, "I could... but I won't."

She was Daimyo. What she said, went. It would only take one signature to put Team Seven under Anko's tutelage. Doing so would create some unnecessary minor problems Tsunade simply didn't feel like facing.

"We all know about Kakashi's approach." Tsunade said, making Yoshino dryly chuckle while Shikaku sighed in exasperation when he remembered that Kakashi dropped five teams so far without even considering them. The dude could preach about the lack of teamwork all he wanted but Shikaku simply didn't buy that bullshit. Expecting three kids put together on a team to have passable teamwork without any practice was just ridiculous.

Shikaku knew that Kakashi was simply pissed he was dismissed from ANBU so he was currently sulking... for years. It was just one more instance of Sarutobi's foolishness coming to bite the next Hokage in the ass.

"He won't teach the kids a shit if they don't pass his secret personal evaluation. And only God knows what that pervert's criteria for passing actually are. Considering this team will be forced onto him because of the last loyal Uchiha... I don't think Kakashi will like it." Tsunade continued.

She knew that for Kakashi to train his genin team properly, he would have to take a liking to them. In case that didn't happen, though... his genin team would be left to fend for themselves no matter how much the white-haired moron preached about friendship and camaraderie.

It wasn't even that the guy was incompetent. On the contrary, Kakashi was... incredible trainer. When he was still in ANBU, he was one of the best ANBU trainers in Konoha. He was the guy who trained newbies up to the ANBU standards and during his 'reign' the Konoha ANBU was in its golden age.

The problem was... Kakashi was too used to training competent and experienced ninjas. He expected them to desire to better themselves and put in appropriate effort without him butting in. He was used to just giving directions, not personally guiding them. And it worked. For ANBU.

But genin teams were different. A jonin sensei has to motivate his pupils to actually desire advancement. And even then, he has to make sure the focus and direction of his pupils are on the right track because a simple desire to improve coupled with 'moronic' training was not effective. If Might Guy did just push-ups the whole day, he would not become the best taijutsu practitioner in Konoha. The guy might seem stupid but he had a lot of knowledge in body improvement through training, diets, and various other ways. Just exercising simply won't cut it in the ninja world.

In this aspect, Kakashi lacked. He just couldn't care less if his pupils were motivated. Worse yet, even if they had enough motivation, he would never hold their hand and guide them in the correct direction to make the most of said motivation.

He wasn't really doing it intentionally though. The man had his issues and... he simply judged others based on himself. Which honestly did not work considering he was a rare type of genius. Holding freshly graduated genins to his standards was just stupidity.

"As such, you want to insert Anko into the team so they get at least some training." Shikaku nodded in understanding. "But the problem is still here. People will see that as blatant favoritism and come to complain to me." He whined.

Tsunade and Yoshino just rolled their eyes at him, "Then tell them she is there to take care of Naruto. The kid is Uzumaki, a relative to Senju. Having a Senju look after him should be normal. Even if Anko is only an honorary one." Tsunade shrugged.

Hearing her reasoning, Shikaku started to ponder... "Yes, that could work. It will still be troublesome to explain but... yeah." He mumbled to himself, unhappy that the troublesome blonde in front of him wasn't persuaded to drop her idea. Well, at least she was willing to compromise.