Chapter 46

— Everything seems fine, but bring her back in six months, — I finally issued the verdict, stopping the technique. — You can take her now.

— Great, thanks, Ryo, — the Jonin nodded, easily lifting the kunoichi into his arms and heading towards his team's tent.

Stretching my shoulders and cracking my neck, I also decided to wind down and go to sleep. However, a rather quiet argument nearby caught my attention, prompting me to channel chakra to my ears.

—… I'm Takeshi, Sensei! — sighed the short boy with a brown headband and a potato-shaped nose wearily.

Judging by the resigned tone in his voice, he had said this more than once.

— Todoroki-kun, did you decide to change your name? What's the reason? — Okuno asked, almost indifferently, her gaze fixed on the dancing flames in the campfire.

The kunoichi sitting next to him, looking about a year older than her teammates and about the same age as me, nudged her companion with her elbow, causing him to stifle his objections.

— Just felt like it, but you can call me Todoroki, Sensei, — the Genin grumbled under his partner's intense gaze. — Well, goodnight, I'm going to sleep.

— Yes, it's time to rest, — the Jonin seemed to snap out of it, — don't stay up too late, everyone needs to get up early tomorrow.

She then retreated to her tent, followed by the girl, leaving the last member of the team sitting alone. After a moment of fighting off laziness, curiosity won out, and I got to my feet. Startled by my rather loud (exclusively for his peace of mind) approach, the light-haired boy looked up.

— Sensei has had a pathological streak of bad luck with assignments, — he responded to my silent nod towards the departing kunoichi and my raised eyebrow. — Todoroki-kun and I are her third replacement team, and from the second team, only Anzu-chan survived, so it's not surprising that Sensei is a bit…

I only grimly nodded in response and gave the boy an encouraging pat on the shoulder. Ha, "boy," he's only a couple of years younger in this world! But being under the supervision of a kunoichi who's starting to lose it… unlucky, what can I say?

— Hang in there, kid, being a shinobi isn't the most pleasant job for either nerves or mental health — among those who've lived to their thirties or participated in the war, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone without their own mental quirks, and that's in the best-case scenario.

— Even for you? — the Genin understood my metaphor.

— I'm one of the few who not only realized they had their own "quirks" and accepted it but also attempts with varying success to deal with them both in themselves and others, — I sadly told the inexperienced interlocutor. — The specialization of a medical shinobi demands it, but it only works with people you know. Others might even try to tear you to pieces just for trying to delve into their soul.

Hopeful at the beginning of my speech, the kid's enthusiasm deflated by the end.

— Why? — he asked.

— Who in their right mind wants to let Yamanaka into their head? It's something like that here too — it requires trust, which no veteran will grant to a complete stranger without reason. And even with reason, suspicion runs in our blood, — I explained, sitting down next to him. — By the way, I'm Ryo Nara.

— Toga Makumi, very pleased, — the boy introduced himself in return. — And what do you mean, like Yamanaka?

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